April 16, 2023
Morning Service

Psalms 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.

 

Pro 16:9 A man's heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.

            I hope to use these two scriptures today to challenge you moving forward in your spiritual life.  For me the “Passion Week” was a very emotional time as we walked with Jesus through a roller coaster of emotions culminating with His resurrection.  As we realize exactly what Jesus endured for us and the gift His suffering and death gives us, it opens our eyes to just how much God does love us.  It is easy to see that during the Easter season, but often when it is over we tend to return back to our routine of busy schedules and seem to forget what we just saw.  The same things happened to the disciples.  Once Jesus was not with them constantly and they were on their own they did not immediately go out and begin their ministries.  What did they do?  They went fishing!

 

John 21:2-3 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.

            Aren’t we just like them?  We are unsure of where God is leading us, we return to the things that we know; our comfort zone.  There is nothing wrong at all with fishing, but after an emotional Easter celebration shouldn’t we be seeking for a new direction that God may be leading us to.  It is very easy for us this week to fall right back into our routine of focusing on work, school, and all the many activities we have in our lives.  We went fishing, like the disciples.  We returned to what we know rather than let what we saw over Easter change us in some small way or in radical fashion.  We seem to forget all we saw during that Passion Week by Monday morning and just move on like it never happened.  The emotion of Easter will only last a short time if we don’t let the Holy Spirit begin His work to change us along our journey to meet Jesus.  James explains it like this:

 

Jas 1:22-25 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.  (23)  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; (24) for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.  (25)  But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.

            Isn’t that clear and easy to understand.  It is also difficult to implement into our busy lives.  We know we should be reading, praying, and attending more but that means we have to make changes.  God is calling you to a closer walk with Him and He is doing that through His Word (the mirror in this story).  He is showing us the things we should be prioritizing in our lives and the things that need to be moved into second or third place.  If we don’t listen and act upon it, we are like the one looking in the mirror and seeing our hair is a mess and we walk away without doing a thing.  Is it like that for you?  Does God speak to you through the message on Sunday or Wednesday, a song, or a scripture and make it clear you need to make a change in your life and yet you choose to ignore Him?  It may that we just don’t take the time to let the Holy Spirit move us to action; we are just too busy to stop and listen to God’s voice.  This returns to our scripture from the Proverbs:

 

Pro 16:9 A man's heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.

            God can direct your steps, only if He owns your heart.  Your heart represents what motivates you to do what you do.  Your heart guides the choices you make in your day to day life.  If your heart desire for happiness for yourself exceeds your desire to be faithful to God, then you will choose things that make you happy.  If your heart’s greatest desire is to be successful and attain material things, then your heart will choose to put work above everything else, both God and your family.  Even good things can fall into this category.  What if you want your kids or spouse to be successful and happy and you choose to place your main efforts towards that?  It is still the same issue, something else owns your heart beside Jesus.  Jesus said it this way as He describes our greatest desire as our “treasure.”

 

Mat 6:19-21 "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; (20) but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.  (21)  For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

            Where is your treasure this morning?  What is your heart’s single most desire in this world?  If you are experiencing anxiety, unrest and even chaos in your life there is a very good chance that your treasure is not in heaven.  When our priorities are focused correctly God will grant to us a peace that passes all understanding (Phil 4:7) and a contentment that comes only from being complete in Him (Col. 2:10). He is the One that can satisfy our most inner desires. Again Jesus makes this very easy for us as He spells it out very clearly how our priority list should look in Matthew:

 

Mat 6:31-34 "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  (32)  For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.  (33)  But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.  (34)  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

            Jesus is instructing us to put Him first and then “all these things shall be added to you.”  In other words, “Trust Me enough to follow in obedience, and I will take care of everything else.”  How is that for calming your spirit and easing your stress.  Jesus promises to take care of those who faithfully follow by putting Him and His commands as the single most important priority in our lives.  That may be easy to understand, but it is difficult to implement.  We are our own worst enemy often as we face some kind of trouble and our first thought is “I can work this out.”  Our first thought is to be “I must tell Jesus and see where He is leading me through this valley.”  Or it may just be the busyness of life that draws our attention away from the real solution to our problems; we are too busy to invest our time with Him.  When we truly meet Jesus we are changed and all things are made new.

 

2Co 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.

            There are changes (for the better) that will occur in our lives ifwe allow the Spirit to work in our lives.  We have to make it a priority in our life that when Jesus speaks to us through the Word (our spiritual mirror) that something needs changed, we act upon it.  We do not want to be a forgetful hearer, but we want to receive that Word with joy and choose to line up with it know God will bless us for it.  Notice in our first scripture for Psalms how that reads:

 

Psalms 37:23 The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD, And He delights in his way.

            Notice that the He is capitalized and the his is not.  That means God delights in our way when we are walking according to His orders.  When we seek Him first and put Him first in our lives, He delights in us!  He is our biggest fan!  He delights in knowing you have given your heart to Him and desire to serve Him faithfully.  He rejoices when trials come your way that you run to Him for help.  He desires a close intimate relationship with you and loves it when you desire the same with Him.

            Don’t allow Easter to be a passing moment in your life.  Make it to be a changing point in which you begin to seek God first in all things and make Him the treasure of your heart.  Do something with what He has shown you.  Establish your steps to be walking in the direction the Lord is leading you.  Know that in every curve we encounter in our lives we can look back and know; “There was Jesus!”

 

Heavenly Father, grant us a strong memory of all that You have done for us.  Make each of us a yielded vessel of clay that You can mold in the manner You have chosen.