April 19, 2020
Morning Service

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Lam. 3:22-24 The unfailing love of the Lord never ends!  By His mercies we have been kept from the complete destruction.  Great is His faithfulness; His mercies begin afresh each day.  I say to myself; “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him.”

            Change is something we often resist and dread, but change is a vital part of life.  Time waits for no man, it just keeps going and it brings change with it.  I am sure each of us think of our age and find it very confusing how we got to this point in life already.  I can remember when I considered 30 to be old and now 25 years later my perspective has changed drastically.  Though in my mind I am the same person, I look in the mirror and at the circumstances that surround me as see that things have changed.

  In these times of following the “stay at home” order to slow the spread of Covid-19, the change in our lives may have been welcome at first as all of us needed to slow down the pace of our lives.  Though there are things like our church services that we greatly miss, there are many things that we have not been able to do that we have survived without.  Sports, browsing through the mall, and even our kid’s many activities that kept us on the go have gone away, but yet we are still surviving.  My hope is that your perspective towards many things of life have changed through this experience.  I hope the truly important things in life have come clearly into view for you through this time of being “sheltered” at home.

            But now after doing this for a few weeks, it seems we are stuck in our own version of the movie “Groundhog day” in which the same day repeats over and over.  We now seem to be longing for a return to the way things were before; a change back from the change.  Even for those of us still working things are not the same.  We are forced to always careful to stay our distance and always be on guard of staying safe.  It becomes hard to truly relax knowing that this pandemic is not going away tomorrow or even next week; things have changed and may never fully return to life as we were experiencing.

    One thing Jeremiah reminds us of in this scripture is that there is no change in our Lord.  His love, faithfulness and mercies will never end nor change and in fact there are made fresh every morning.  Every day we should get up in anticipation of what the Lord is going to do today.  “The Lord is my inheritance; therefore, I will hope in Him.”  No matter what challenges face us that day, the Lord who does not change will be right there by my side.  The world we know and feel comfortable in may change, but not our Lord. The writer of Hebrew assures us of this point as he writes:

Heb. 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

        In this time of constant change know that Jesus does not change.  His Words of truth do not change with each generation or with each crisis they remain the same always.  He is the firm, unmovable foundation that we can stand on during these changing and challenging times.  His love, faithfulness, and mercy never change even when our circumstances change.  He is the same when times are good and when times are challenging.  Learn to embrace that fact in this time where we don’t know what tomorrow holds.  In our ever changing world, learn to trust in our unchanging Lord.

 

            In the beautiful love story we just celebrated of the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord, the disciples had a major change come into their lives.  Their mentor, leader, and teacher is preparing them to continue their lives and ministry without Him.  This is not a path anyone of them would have chosen, but it is a necessary one that they must embrace as we also need to do as we go down a path none of us would have chosen.  It was not easy at first, they did not really know what their “new normal” would look like.  Peter tried to make the “new normal” look like the “old normal.”

 

Joh 21:1-3 After these things Jesus showed Himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and in this way He showed Himself: (2) Simon Peter, Thomas called the Twin, Nathanael of Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples were together.  (3)  Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We are going with you also." They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing.

            Peter returned to what he knew best and that was fishing.  Aren’t we the same way.  In this time of change or uncertainty we all tend to hold on to and revert back to our old ways that we are most comfortable with.  We resist change because we want to stay in our comfort zone.  In this time where we have all shifted down a gear or two we must be careful.  Idleness is the devil’s workshop can be a very true saying if we are not putting God first in our lives.  I felt we as a church, a unified family of believers, we were riding a wave of momentum when this pandemic hit us.  I saw many in our Fellowship growing in the Lord and looking for ways to put their faith into action.  It is very important in this time of change you put a priority on growing your faith; so when this is over and we do return and begin another “new normal” we bring with us an even greater enthusiasm for the Lord than when this began.  God has a plan for each of us through this time; don’t endure the pain without the gain.  Draw close to Him and He will draw close to you.  Redeem this time and use it for growth.  Listen as Jesus whispers in your ear as He is showing things about yourself and about Himself; listen to Him.  I remind you of this from our studies in the Colossian letter.

 

Col 2:6-10 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, (7) rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.  (8)  Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  (9)  For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; (10) and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.

            Let your roots grow down into Him and draw the nourishment you need to grow stronger in your faith and gain knowledge of Him.  He is the One thing in our life that does not change and we are complete (lacking nothing) in Him alone.  This pandemic is a challenge for all of us to “own our faith.”  We sometimes can get caught up following Jesus as part of a group that we forget that each of us will be held accountable for the choices we are making as we attempt to “walk in Him.”  In closing and to emphasize the point of owning your faith, I would like to return to the disciples going fishing.

 

Read John 21:4-23

 

            This is such a beautiful story of redemption for Peter, but it is also a call for each of us to be obedient in answering Jesus’ call to “Follow Me.”  Each of us have our own journey to walk and we need to be determined to follow no matter what others are doing or if our circumstances drastically change. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but we know our Lord does not change.  We must keep this in mind that it really is this simple; accept that He is leading and I am following.  Jesus openly told Peter what his future held, but we are not given that vision.  Choose to follow faithfully using this time in our lives to flourish and grow in Him.  It would be very easy to fall into a rut and allow some of our “old normal” to creep back in to our lives, but be on guard to not let that happen.  Use this time to get a clear vision of who you are and draw closer to the One you are following; own your faith.  In your connecting with others ask them what the Lord is showing them through this and then share your experience back to them.  This is a great opportunity to share what God is showing you as well as learn from others experience as well.  This will help us to embrace this “new normal” instead of fighting against it.

 

Heavenly Father we thank and praise You that You never change nor does Your love, faithfulness and mercy towards us ever change.  Please help us to grow in this season and clear our vision of who we are and who You are.