First Baptist Church
February 3, 2002
"Anchors Away!"
Colossians 3:12-17
It is rare that Debbie and I get to watch a movie or a program that we like. Our time to watch something on television occurs at about 10:30. There are not many spiritual things you can take out of some of the movies Joshua and Zachary watch. I mean Robin Hood is about making the ends justify the means — stealing from the rich to give to the poor is noble, but honestly, it is not very ethical.
Of course, watching construction movies is not overly spiritual either. Yet, as I was watching "There Goes a Bulldozer" movie, something in that movie made me think of something spiritual. I want to show you a very short clip and you tell me what you get out of it.
You know what I got out of that little clip — something that has restarted or revitalized my spiritual life — something I have forgotten. It was a reminder that my foundation must be dug deep into the rock, into the foundation of my faith. If I don’t, then everything I do will eventually fall apart.
If I build my foundation with the assumption that my possessions will get me through tough times, they won’t. Maybe my money will, but that will collapse. Or maybe my book collection, or my job status, or my . . . You see, whatever I am counting on to get me through tough times, which I took to symbolize earthquakes in the movie clip, must be grounded in Christ.
Let me tell you about the first three days of my week —
On Monday morning I came to church ready to get a start on the week, I walked to the kitchen and saw two bags of garbage which had been ripped open by animals. Garbage was all over the street and church property. I was not happy. That is not the way I anticipate starting my week.
On Tuesday morning after Joshua went to school, Debbie wanted to shake off our comforter. So, Debbie and I went outside and Zachary stood at the screen door to watch. What we didn’t know is that Zachary can lock the screen door — and he did. We didn’t know it until we tried to open the door. Can you imagine what we looked like to him as he stared at us trying to get him to unlock the door that he didn’t understand he had locked in the first place. We didn’t have the garage door opener in the car, and that wouldn’t have worked because we lock the basement door so Zachary won’t go down on his own. I thought I would have to break the screen door, however, the window in the kitchen was not locked, and I climbed on a chair, stood on the railing to the deck and jimmied open the window and crawled through. We have now resolved that situation.
Early Wednesday morning, Zachary woke up at 2:49, but who’s counting. I rocked him for 7 minutes, laid him down and he woke up. He laid in bed and fell asleep, when I adjusted his blanket, because I am such a caring dad, he woke up. He fell asleep again, and I peeked at him to make sure and the floor creaked, he woke up. I sat on the floor again, he fell asleep, and finally I left, but in leaving the door handle made a noise, and he woke up. Finally, I got into bed and he woke up again. I grabbed my pillow and just camped out on the floor and finally got to bed at 4:15 AM. He was up and ready for a day of fun at 6:58.
It seemed that each morning was getting off to a lousy start. Of course, what I do about it, is all up to me. I could allow each of those instances to get me really growling and have a terrible week, or I could have known that I was anchored in Jesus. Now those aren’t catastrophic events. But those are enough little things, that when added up seem to throw a collective knock out punch.
So what are we to do in life? You know, we had Alex and Cale baptized this morning. It was an exciting time, I know there were tears of joy at two new members of the church and more importantly, two people who are excited about Jesus. And maybe that helped you to become a little more tearful and excited about God. But the question that confronts us and bombards us, is what happens tomorrow when Alex and Cale are at school and someone is bugging them. How will they react? How will you react when someone cuts you off, or steals your idea for a job and they get all the credit? How will you react when someone does not give you what you want? You see, today we are in church and that is good, but tomorrow, we won’t be in this building, we’ll be in a different world, so how will you react when life gets thrown at you?
I want to read you a note I recently got from someone, "when a person receives Christ, gets baptized and joins a church, they are full of fire and passion and then after a little while the "honeymoon" is over and the fire and passion subside, people seem to fall into a rut. They go to church, give some money, maybe change their ways to be more pleasing to Christ but only to a point. The fire and passion have gone, the excitement of receiving Christ is gone. So I guess the question is, how do people keep the fire and passion going, not become discouraged and just "plod along" in their Christian lives?
Isn’t that a profound question? I can answer that question very easily, but the process of accomplishing what we should be doing is the difficult part.
This person, continued, "It’s easy to say call on Jesus, read your Bible or pray but how do you get people to become passionate about it?" It seems like we all start the race out well, but then we start to falter, we don’t have the self control to continue and maybe that’s the answer, we lack discipline and self control."
I would say self-control and discipline are HUGE, HUGE ingredients. But they are not the only ones. And if we want to change who we are, so that we become more Christ-like, we must be willing to reconsider a couple of key points in our lives.
To do that, let’s look at the scripture from Colossians 3. I love this scripture, which incidentally, was read and our wedding. Now picture the image Paul gives us — "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."
I want you to focus on 2 phrases from Paul. Both are very, very similar. The first states, "clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience." The 2nd phrase is "over all these virtues clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect unity."
Do you get the image? Clothe yourselves. The word to "clothe" in Greek is the same word that means to get dressed. In other words, when we get dressed in the morning, are you, along with putting on your clothes for the day, dressing yourself with these virtues.
You see I believe one of the greatest problems we have as Christians, is we assume that now that we’re a Christian, we no longer have to ask Christ to be in our life. After all, He is already there. But while Christ is in us, are we in Him? Are we opening ourselves up to following Him when He calls us, or are we missing the mark, and not knowing when He calls us?
It is amazing what prompts us to rethink our spiritual life, but it was that goofy movie, "There Goes a Bulldozer." It reminded me that I am not grounding myself in Christ every morning. I wake up grumpy and sometimes I let her sleep. Actually, Debbie has a book for women with that title, I am supposed to be grumpy — which I am. After that realization Monday morning before coming to church, my friend Tim called and we were talking about that, and it kind of caught him off-guard too. We pray, we read the Bible, but are we clothing ourselves with Jesus every morning?
I believe that our passion for life will begin to change when we clothe ourselves with the Spirit of God. We will become more loving, because we will consciously be seeking His Spirit for our spirit. I know every night when I go home, I know it takes 5 minutes and I can be barking at Joshua or Zachary. It’s not that I had a bad day, it’s just that I have been doing church work, and now I am in a new environment and I need to reclothe myself with His love, with His kindness, compassion, gentleness, humility and patience. But above all that, I need to put on His love. It’s not my love, it must always be the love of Christ that I put on, because my love will become angry too quickly.
As we seek to change our ways, as we seek to become new creations in 2002 — you know my Chicago Cubs motto, ala Ernie Banks, "Created anew in 2002!" That is where I am at. It’s where we all need to be at. Created anew, and you know what it feels good. I feel that overall, my mood is better, why because I am being more conscious of my attitude. I’m more aware of how I am reacting to various situations. I believe it is all because I am seeking a renewed foundation in Jesus. You know the parable in Matthew 7:24 about the two people, one who builds his home on the sand and when that storm of life comes -- the wind and the rain, it knocks over the house. Why? Because they built their lives upon a foundation that was not secure. But Jesus tells us the person who builds their home, their life in the solid rock, Jesus, they will be secure, so that when the storms of life come their way, they will be able to withstand them.
I feel like I have been pretty simplistic today, but I want you to try it, in fact as you leave this morning, we have little cards with the scripture from Colossians 3 for you to take home, to place in your mirror in your bedroom or in the bathroom. Take it home, commit to memorizing the scripture and every morning remember it. It is more important to clothe yourselves with God’s virtues, especially love, than it is to get dressed, but don’t forget your clothes either.
But don’t just recite that scripture so that you lose its meaning, but meditate on it, understand what Paul is getting at, so that when you wake up, when you are driving to work or school, when you have to enter a difficult meeting or tense situation, you will be ready to say that to yourself, so that you are grounded and reminded where your foundation is. . . it is in Jesus, your constant companion.
I’ve said it before. This is going to be a year of excitement, one month is gone and February will start a new way of our doing our meetings for our boards and we’re going to have fun. Yes, we will, because we’re going to throw out the rules books, and live in those meetings like we’re supposed to. We will base those meetings in prayer, in love and in sharing our lives and mission for this church. It’s going to be exciting. So stay tuned.
As you leave this morning, and give a few dollars to the Souper Bowl for St. John’s Breadline, pick up one of those scripture cards, and I believe you will be so much better equipped to regain a little of that passion that maybe has slipped away.
