I Need It! Duped?
Ok, I have missed a couple “It’s Monday” entries. Let me get you caught up real quick and then go into Sunday’s sermon. The pastors at Flatland Church have started a new series of sermons called “Garage Sale” based on Ephesians 4-5. The platform of our church now has the facade of a three car garage on it and our band is now a true garage band. Our church is great! Summary of the series so far: last week pastor preached on the fact that we have too much junk and went over what some of that junk is. We collect a lot of stuff in our lives that gunk up the works and slow our spiritual growth down. This week, we saw that we are duped into thinking we need all that junk. Lets look at what Pastor Bart had to say about that and what our response should be.
Highlights of sermon first:
Eph. 4:17-19, 4:22, and 5:13-14
“We have been duped into thinking we need all the junk in our lives.” “Wake UP!” “Not only did Jesus pay for our sins but he also wants to change us by His Spirit (a paraphrase).” “Be Enlightened!”
Main Point 1: We have been duped by deceitful desires (Eph. 4:22)
Abraham Mazlo’s Needs – Satisfaction, Safety, Love, Respect, Meaning/Worth. We are duped into thinking that the fastest way to meet our needs is the right way.
Main Point 2: We have been duped by deceitful outcomes
You know its junk if its gratification lasts only a short time.
Main Point 3: We have been duped by deceitful examples
We can follow people who are bad examples ( partners with them ), or we can follow and actually be good examples. Not everyone has loads of junk in their life. If we can get rid of all the junk in our spiritual lives, we can be great examples to others.
Our Response (my response)
We first have to recognize that we are carrying junk that needs to be dumped. Our pastors at Flatland encouraged us to write down the junk we are carrying with us and turn it over to God. Recognizing that we are carrying junk is so important.
The junk we need to get rid of as seen in Ephesians 4-5 include: anger, bitterness, falsehood, gossip, greed, obscenities, addictions, and immorality.
Pastor said something that hit me as very important, especially so we can respond well. We need to be able to match up the junk with the needs that we are trying to meet with that junk. For example, if we carry a lot of anger around with us, we need to see how carrying that anger is somehow trying to meet a need in our lives, be it self-worth, safety, respect or whatever. Once we are able to see how we are trying to meet a need with what really is an inappropriate response, we can eliminate the junk and find appropriate ways of meeting those needs.
We have to remember first and foremost, Christ wants to meet our needs Himself. He can fill our deepest, emptiest, hole of a need. It may not be ( most likely will not be ) the easiest or fastest way of meeting that need but once we allow Christ to touch our lives and meet those needs, no matter how long or difficult it is to allow Him to do so, we will find gratification that is eternal (this goes back to an earlier sermon… Jesus is living water and eternal bread that satisfies forever).
Being a good example to others of not having a lot of junk hanging around our lives to me is an important way to meet one or more of those needs… self-worth and respect. I want to be a good example of a Christian life and having a lot of junk clutter up my life certainly ruins the ability to have those needs met.
I plan on looking very closely this week at those areas that are junked up in my life, see if I can match them up with what need I am attempting to meet with that junk, and turn them over to God. I look forward to Pastor’s next two sermons where he is going to lead us through how to have a great Garage Sale!