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Hillside United Methodist Church

05/29/2022 Church service

周日礼拜

Take Back Your Life

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Take Back Your Life

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Take Back Your Life
Matthew 16:21-28

“What will you do with your one precious, wild life?”

“your one precious, wild life” 

This speaks to me of freedom and joy and even a few surprises along the way

Part of the impact of a really good movie comes from the twists and turns and the element of surprise

-      just when you think you have the story figured out – BAM!

“Cool - I didn’t see THAT coming!”

One of the most memorable quotes to me comes from Jacob Marley – talking to Ebenezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol.

You remember – he appeared to Ebenezer as a ghost.

“I wear the chain I forged in life,"
"I made it link by link and yard by yard; I girded it on of my own free will, and of my own free will I wore it.”

We love the thought of a life of freedom, love and happy surprises, but how can we live freely if we are bound by chains?

Chains?

Some chains are heavy and burdensome – and we would keep them hidden from the eys of other people.

Some chains are velvet covered, or gold-plated, and look like nice jewelry

These can be chains of addiction
Chains of selfishness
Chains of shame. Peer pressure. Conformity.

Chains of… pleasing others?

How about chains of our own limited thinking?

Do you ever fight for your right to be right?

Isaiah 55:9: “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

If we want to take back our lives – we have to take off our chains.

Isaiah 1:19 - If you are willing and obedient, You shall eat the good of the land

Sometimes being obedient to God may not make sense to those around you

Ron Carpenter: Jesus did not walk according to His own will. He walked in accordance with the will of the Father! If He hadn’t, we wouldn’t be standing here today—saved, whole, and delivered from the power of sin.

On the other hand, we have to ask ourselves if we live our lives the same way.

Oftentimes, it’s not that we’re fighting a devil, but rather we are dealing with the consequences of saying “yes” to our will and “no” to God’s!

Today, instead of trying to rebuke the devil, take a look at your own decisions. If you’re tired of dealing with a negative harvest, deny your own will and say “yes” to God’s!   

Don’t over-spiritualize things. Oftentimes what you’re dealing with is not a devil, but just the harvest of you disobeying God! Instead of fighting against God, just yield and say “yes”!

Where we invest our time and our hearts – is where we invest our lives

Remember: Our life is a seed – and it needs to be planted and nurtured properly

Psalm 92:13 - Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.

If we are committed – if we truly invest our lives in God’s House – we will grow strong roots and will be better able to weather the storms of life

We all know the cliché about people who never join a church. They seem to wear it as a badge of honor.

Instead of a tree planted by the waters – they are more like a tumbling tumbleweed.

Jesus described the seed on the rocky ground – “the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.” 

We were designed – created – for community and for service.
It takes commitment and faithfulness. It starts with a decision.

Within God’s House we find room to learn, to grow, to give, to share

-      to become more than we can become if we are not planted

If we want to take back our lives, we have to remember seedtime and harvest

…and not judge our harvest by overnight results

Remember the bamboo tree

My Chinese teacher tells me I need to be as patient with myself (while I am learning) as I expect her to be toward me

If we want to take back our lives we have to recognize what we need to keep – and what we need to let go of

The sculptor Michelangelo said that when he looked at a block of marble he saw a form inside waiting to get out, and all he did was to chip away everything that was not a part of that form.

"We are all sculptors, working at various forms, moulding and chiseling thought."

Do you want to take back your life?

Find what you are committed to – and then, as much as possible, chip away everything that stands in the way of your mission.

If we don’t do this, we are just making things more complicated – we are adding to our struggles – making it harder to grow and flourish.

“I wear the chain I forged in life,"

Stop blaming the devil for that old self we think we have to hold on to.

Are we struggling in a mess we created ourselves?

Eph 2:10: For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

“God made us new people so that we would spend our lives doing the good things he had already planned for us to do.”

The irony is, to truly take back our lives, it means we give them to God.

There may be gifts in you that have been dormant all this time, but if you will stay planted, they will rise form the soil in God’s proper timing.

Remember the bamboo tree

It must stay planted – and receive the proper care – waiting for the due season

Our lives are a seed

For each of is – there are those things which we are called to do

Bringing our unique gifts and talents together as the Body of Christ

To all of you who do what you do so we as a church can do what we do together, Thank You.

Gal 6:9 - And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.

On this Memorial Day weekend, we remember our freedom was won by those who willingly gave their lives – they paid the ultimate price so that we could have this freedom to hear this message today

You and I must be willing to die to some old ideas – some selfish objectives – some worn-out limitations

We need to open-hearted embrace our higher calling – our greater purpose

We need to take back our lives for Christ’s sake – for the sake of the cross

As Paul said, “for the sake of his body, which is the church.”

Isaiah 50:7 - Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a stone, determined to do his will. And I know that I will not be put to shame.

02/27/2022  03/06/2022 03/13/2022  03/20/2022  03/27/2022  04/03/2022 

 04/10/2022 04/17/2022 04/24/2022 05/01/2022  05/08/2022  05/15/2022

05/22/2022

Hillside United Methodist Church
3739 US 80
Phenix City  AL  36870
United States
Pastor: Mike J Koger

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