The world today seems like such an uncertain place. There is so much happening and so much coming at us so quickly that it’s hard to catch our bearings. I feel like more and more today, more than ever, more than in the last five years or 10 years or 20 years, even after 9-11, there’s a strange atmosphere in the world.
So many of us are living with abject fear, fear of what might be.
The tariffs wreaking havoc on the economy, what’s going to happen to my job, what’s going to happen to my finances, what about all of these other chaotic things that are causing pain or hurt in my marriage or in my family relationships?
What does the future hold?
What does it look like for me?
Artificial intelligence, is my job going to be gone in five or 10 years? What is the future?
Am I wasting my time on an education?
Have all the things that I’ve done to this point in my life gotten me anywhere?
So many people are planning to plan, for planning’s sake, without taking into account that there is a bigger, more important thing at play.
You know, I often am reminded that in the time of the disciples with Jesus, they too felt a lot of uncertainty. They had the Christ, the Messiah, with them. They were in constant disbelief. They had a wrong spirit.
They dealt with pride. They dealt with trying to plan constantly for something that was unplannable for them.
How could they possibly know the events that were about to come?
You know, it’s true for you and me as well. We have a story that’s unfolding in our lives. We were not called to a spirit of fear and timidity, but one of strength, power, and discipline. We often forget that little word, discipline.
The spiritual journey, the Christian journey, is one of discipline. Do you pray? Not for just a few moments here and there. Have you ever prayed for half an hour, an hour, or for a couple of hours even? How about reading your scripture? Not just to know it, but to discern it.
Do you have a certain level of spiritual intelligence? Do you have the spiritual maturity to discern the world around you and what’s happening in your marriage, with your friends, with your job, with the people around you? Do you have that sense of spiritual intelligence to help you go deeper in knowing God and walking with God and trusting God by faith?
See, so much of life, all of life, 90% of what happens to us is spiritual, but it’s all predicated on faith. When we don’t truly have faith in God, then everything that we don’t have faith in him for becomes a worry. It becomes an anxiety. It becomes a concern.
We’re planning for retirement, but in one full swoop, all of that could go away.
Everybody’s so busy planning for tomorrow, they’re not living in faith today, because God is the author and the perfecter of our faith.
He knows the beginning from the end. What do we have to fear? What is the worst thing that can happen to you and me as a Christian? Is the worst thing that can happen that someone takes our life? That they imprison us? That they kill us? That they strip us of any perceived wealth that we may or may not have? That everything is taken from you?
Job experienced that. Job had it all taken from him, because Job understood that there were things that he couldn’t see with his own eyes, and how true that was.
How true in our lives that we need to be developing that kind of relationship with God.
See, a relationship is two-way. It’s not one. A relationship isn’t me coming and asking God to give me what I need when I’m hurting or when I want something from him. A relationship isn’t an Indian giver. A relationship is predicated on communication, intent, heart, love, forgiveness, mercy, compassion, kindness, gentleness, and self-control. These are the things that are the fruits of the Spirit that remind us that in Christ all things are possible. That we have a world that we can only see with our eyes, but what about the one we can’t see?
What about the world of angels and demons or the throne room of heaven itself that both Isaiah talks about in chapter 6, Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, or John in Revelation chapter 4? There is an entire creation beyond our eyes. There’s an influence exerted upon us that, though we experience it, we can’t see it.
We can’t explain it most time. We certainly can’t justify many things, but it’s real. Do you have the discernment to understand the things that are real from the things that are an illusion? Because the things that are illusions are the things that are driving most of us.
The illusion that the government will provide for you. It’s the government that will protect you. It’s the government that will ensure your prosperity.
Brothers and sisters, we were never guaranteed these things. St. Paul reminded us that we should be longing for Jesus. We should be longing for the resurrection. We should be longing to experience his sufferings and to conform to his death, because it’s in that that we experience life, and we get life, and we’re given life abundantly.
See, life is worship. It’s acknowledging God. It’s walking in repentance every single day. The only thing that makes us truly different from the angels and the animals is that every day you and I get the privilege to experience God new, and to repent, and to be with him, to know him, and to know the beauty of his grace, and his mercy, and his compassion. Anything else falls woefully short.
We are asked in Matthew 6 by Jesus, Why do you worry about your life? He says later in verse 33, Seek first the kingdom of heaven and his righteousness, then all these things will be given unto you. For your heavenly Father knows what you need. We spend more time focusing on what we want than what we need.
We spend more time focusing on what we don’t have, and what we’re pursuing, only for so many people on their deathbed to realize that all of the things that they pursued in their life were vanity. It was purposeless.
Are you discipled? Are you discipling?
Are you truly in the body of Christ? Are you experiencing him, not just through the sacraments, through the church, but also are you experiencing him in your daily life? Have you learned to see beyond what is visible to what is invisible? The very heart of the first sentence of the Nicene Creed.
There is a whole world out there that you can’t see, but it sure does impact you, and you sure do impact it. Is it time to stop seeing everything with your eyes and start trying to see things through God’s eyes? Is it time to ask God to give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and hearts to understand that we may be healed and restored? That’s Isaiah 6.10, by the way.
Do we focus on the things that truly make a difference, so that the end of our lives, yeah, great, you did all that planning, you had money in retirement, but now it’s time to go meet your creator.
Are you ready for that moment?
Did you live your life in such a way that when Jesus meets you face to face for the first time, when you truly see him for the first time, will he say, well done, my faithful servant? Or will he say to you, I didn’t know you. Depart from me.
Yeah, there will be people who think there are Christians who believe that they had been walking with God or believe that they were saved by faith through grace, which the theology of it’s true. St. Paul reminds us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that that’s true, but there’s so much more to our faith than that. It’s not just that you are healed, you are healed by his workmanship, created for good works in Christ Jesus.
Did you live your faith out in your life?
These are the questions he’ll be asking.
These are the things that you’ll be confronted with. This is how we see the invisible through our faith, through the actions that we live, by understanding where did that thought come from in my mind? Where did that thing happen? Or what was the result of that thing that happened? Where did that come from?
There is a whole other world being exerted upon you. Is that world coming from good, from God, or is it coming from Satan and demons?
I think you know that answer.
Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. That is what this life is all about. This is the purpose of living, that we might represent God through the light of the church to the world, by how we live, by how we show the hands through our lives.
We are his hands and feet. We are his eyes and ears. We are his heart and his tears to the world. We are the light of God in a world of darkness. Is that you? Are you the darkness, or are you the light? How you answer that question will answer the question of how Jesus will experience you on that day when he either says, good and faithful servant, or he says, depart from me, for I never knew you. That choice is yours.
God will not force Himself upon you.
Brothers and sisters, if this is a moment in your life where you’re confronted with hopelessness and despair, come to Jesus.
Come to the church.
Come to the fullness of the faith. Experience what it means to carry one another’s burdens and fulfill the law of Christ. Experience what it means to have joy in the face of tribulation and long-suffering, to cast all your cares upon him because he cares for you, to truly walk with him, and to know him.
Not to know about him. Knowing about him is meaningless. The demons know about him. Matter of fact, the demons even know him. They shudder at his presence or his name. It’s not enough to know because love isn’t found in knowledge.
Love is found in commitment.
Are you committed to Christ?
Do you understand the role that the church plays in your relationship with Jesus, that you cannot be outside of the church and be in Christ? That is impossible, for the church is his body, and to not be in his body is to not be in him.
So I ask you, brothers and sisters, are you ready?
Are you ready to give up all the worries and the fears of this world for something bigger, for something greater, for something much more joyous?
Start seeing your life as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, for this is your spiritual act of worship. You are a spiritual creature. You have a body, but you are also spiritual, and within that spiritualness, within that state, your spiritual act of worship to God is how you live and experience him. It’s so important to understand these fundamental principles, right?
It’s really, really, really important to understand that your life is an act of worship.
Worship is not what I get from God. So many of us have this idea that we go to worship. We don’t go to worship. We give to worship. We give. We don’t go, we give.
Going implies I’m going to get something. Worship is not what I give. Worship is what I bring.
It’s what I give to God.
Much like the Magi on that special day when they showed up and gave these precious gifts to baby Jesus. Our life is a spiritual sacrifice. It’s a spiritual act of worship, moment by moment, day by day. Is your life a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to him?
Are your actions, your behavior, your thoughts, is your affections for him a sweet aroma?
If not, then you risk being that person that he says, depart from me, for I never knew you.
Today can be the day that changes everything.
I pray it be in your life.
Father Don
Pastor, Holy Trinity Church
