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Time’s A-Wastin’

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time because the days are evil.  Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.  And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit,  addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (Ephesians 5:15-21 ESV)

Do you find yourself discouraged at work? Deflated or distracted in life? When we don’t understand what God’s will is in our every day, it’s so easy to lose sight and to waste time.

We waste time by palliating ourselves with screens or other distractions. Hours binge-watching seasons of television or scrolling through feeds of social media melt hours away so effortlessly. At work, we might feel like we’ve done our job, but we might walk away from the day feeling unfulfilled or unsure if we gave 100%.

Paul says it like this to the Ephesians in verses 15 through 17, “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of this Lord is.” (emphasis added)

When we understand why God has us doing what we’re doing or being where we are, we become energized with a sense of mission and purpose.

We are to spend our time investigating, praying, searching to see what God is up to in our work, in our relationships, in our children, church, friends and communities.

We can ask ourselves:

What are You up to here with this person, group or workplace?

What would Jesus want me to do with this person or place?

What would bring God the most glory and respect in this situation?

And when we continue to ask these questions or look for God’s desires in our everyday lives, we should be responding to Him, “I get it, I understand.”

Remember the Wheel of Spiritual Formation we learned about last week?

These spiritual disciplines help us develop a new “sight.” A desire to look for God’s will in situations and the courage to execute it.

So when we don’t live with this mission to understand God’s will in mind, time becomes something we use. A thing we consume for our own benefit.

That’s why Paul says to “look carefully then how you walk.”

Time is not something to be killed, wasted, or squandered.

Time is a gift. 

Time is God’s possession. 

Time is holy.

“Now what was the first holy object in the history of the world? Was it a mountain? Was it an altar? The mythical mind would expect after heaven and earth have been established, God would create a holy place—a holy mountain or a holy spring—whereupon a sanctuary is to be established. Yet it seems as if to the Bible it is holiness in time, the Sabbath, which comes first. When history began, there was only one holiness in the world, holiness in time.” — Abraham J. Heschel, The Sabbath

There is an illustration for parents called, “One Marble At A Time,” that illustrates time this way: Imagine if you were to take out a marble each week for the 18 years of your child’s life.

“Marbles displayed in the container is a visual reminder to keep playing for keeps. Because, when you see how much time you have left, you tend to do more with the time you have now.” (An excerpt from the website, TheParentCue.org)

Are you looking to understand what God is up to with your child at this stage of life?

Are you making the best use of time with your children?

“Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit.” (Ephesians 5:17-18)

When we live for ourselves it’s ultimately unfulfilling, it’s boring—hence we have to pack it with more activities, hangouts, and distractions. We become foolish and occupy ourselves with addictive activities to ignore the pain of lacking a sense of mission in life.

When we are bored or stressed, we try to escape. Being “drunk with wine” can mean other things than actual wine. It is escapism. It’s the way we fill or kill our time.

Boredom tempts us to walk away from being ourselves, being a person after the will of God.

And a boring, purposeless life leads to binging.

Binge-watching entire seasons of TV shows on Netflix. Normal.
Spending four thousand dollars on a trip to Europe. Normal.
Training hours a week to maintain our looks. Normal.
Joining a fantasy sports league and tracking it like a Wall Street trader. Normal.
Devoting your life to serving Jesus. Extreme, probably unhealthy.

— Jon Tyson

Screen time = Wine

We spend so much time with our eyes glued onto the screens, even in the early years of our child’s lives when it is filled with hours of feeding or late-nights. Those hours that were meant to help us bond with our children have become opportunities to fill with more screen time.

A teacher commented on a discussion about social media and “every single one of the students said their parents spend more time on social media than they do talking to their child.”
In the interview, a student said, “I don’t like the phone because my [parents] are on their phone every day… I hate their phone and I wish they never had them.”

“Boredom is the root of all evil—the despairing refusal to be oneself.” – Soren Kierkegaard

Instead, we are called to be filled with the Spirit. Instead of escaping through different wines or distractions, we are called to be engaged with God’s mission.

We can seek God’s Will today because our past is forgiven and our future is secure.

“And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. “(Ephesians 5:19-21)

How do we start living out engaged and purpose-driven lives for God?

We worship. And worship.

We worship with others, and we worship by ourselves.

We GATHER: “addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” Start your week with Worship with God’s House (Sunday).

We practice SPIRITUAL FORMATION: “singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.” Start your day singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.

“Worship does not satisfy our hunger for God; it whets our appetite.”
— Eugene Peterson

We worship because it makes us hungry for God. It makes us want to look for His will every day. It gets us out of our boredom and into an awareness of God because our appetite begins to stir for Him.

Worship gets us filled with the Spirit, so we crave more of Him.

You can listen to the sermon Time’s A-Wastin’ from the Ephesians series that inspired this post here. 

All images and materials are copyright protected and are the property of EKKO Church unless otherwise noted and credited to their maker. Please do not copy or distribute without permission.

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Training Wheels No Mo

“… He handed out gifts of apostle, prophet, evangelist, and pastor-teacher to train Christians in skilled servant work, working within Christ’s body, the church, until we’re all moving rhythmically and easily with each other, efficient and graceful in response to God’s Son, fully mature adults, fully developed within and without, fully alive like Christ. No prolonged infancies among us, please. We’ll not tolerate babes in the woods, small children who are an easy mark for impostors. God wants us to grow up, to know the whole truth and tell it in love—like Christ in everything. We take our lead from Christ, who is the source of everything we do.” (Ephesians 4:11-15 MSG)

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul is telling us to grow up.

All of us.

As Christians, we are sometimes marked by weakness, ignorance, lack of discipline and are driven by hunger (our flesh and desires). We often can’t handle process, pain, patience or discipline.

How do we know that we’re still infants in the Lord?

Do you still believe that if you get the right person or the right things, you’ll be satisfied? Do sins still bring you pleasure than deep grief? (Perhaps you’re regrettable, but not repentant).

Do you still believe you can do all things by yourself? Or do you believe helping others is a waste of time and money?

Is the gospel still small, and not worth sharing? Do you find that you compartmentalize your faith?

Or, do we try to skate by with our talents, not building our character with disciplines and power?

We are like babies, and we need to grow up.

God wants us to grow up. (Eph. 4:15)

We need to get rid of our training wheels.

Alain De Botton writes, “To have made any progress will mean looking back on who we were last year with a degree of embarrassment.” Are you able to look back and think, “How could I have thought I needed God any less?” “How could I have not been deeply grieved by my apparent sin?”

So how do we begin to mature?

Nancy Duarte writes in her book, Illuminate, that any kind of growth starts with a leap, an attempt. And as you leap and make attempts, that’s how skills are attained. It takes courage, determination, and discipline. And eventually, you’ll achieve a new level of maturity of skill after many tries.

For example, Pastor Bryan recounts that he used to have difficulty hearing God and praying in the Spirit. So his leader pushed him to pray 2-3 hours a day in tongues. Through the discipline of following his mentor’s direction, he had to be okay with being a novice. He had to keep attempting and trusting that as he practiced, God would teach Pastor Bryan to listen for His voice.

If you find that you have become comfortable, it’s time to take a leap again. We must try to go deeper, longer, higher and take a leap of faith by trying it again on a new, sometimes scarier levels.

What is God inviting you into?

Now, you’re getting ready to jump, but what are you supposed to attempt?

“The single most obvious trait of those who profess Christ but do not grow into Christlikeness is their refusal to take the reasonable and time-tested measures for spiritual growth.”

— Dallas Willard

Our calling in life is to become like Christ.

That means we are invited to attempt, attain, and achieve disciplines that shape us into Christlikeness. We can learn the time-tested habits and disciplines as seen from the Wheel of Faith adapted from the Spiritual Formation Workbook by Smith & Graybeal.

These are disciplines modeled after the life of Christ: Devotion to God, Virtue in thought, word and action, Empowerment by the Spirit, Compassion toward all people, the Proclamation of the good news, and Harmony between faith and work.

Now, these six spokes of Jesus’ life gave way for six respective traditions in the church: The Contemplate, The Holiness, The Charismatic, The Social Justice, The Evangelical, and The Incarnational Traditions.

“The history of the Church has been marked by movements, a word used to describe how God’s Spirit has moved upon (God’s people) with a particular mission. Usually, such a movement emphasized one of the six areas… often called the Six Traditions…” (Smith & Graybeal).

These traditions are expressed as disciplines in our lives.

The Contemplate Tradition is expressed as a Prayer-filled Life. In the 4th Century, men and women fled city life and found cloisters and monasteries where they emphasized the importance of solitude, meditation, and prayer. This is a discipline focuses on our intimacy with God, allows us to abide in loving fellowship with Him and draws us into daily attention with God.

If you want to grow in this area of your life, try spending 10-minutes in your quiet time with God conversing with Him and listening for His voice. You can also look out for Selah Advance offered in the Fall at EKKO every year.

The Holiness Tradition focuses on the need for Christians to overcome sinful habits. In the early 18th Century, The Wesleyans developed the Methodist movement and the church once again took sin seriously. This is expressed through a Virtuous Life.

Do you want to grow in virtue? Meet with your Red Pen holders and get into the habit of confession and repentance and having editors in your life.

The Charismatic Tradition came from the new outbreak of the Holy Spirit during the 17th century in the lives of men and women called the Quakers. The Holy Spirit had an active role and propelled them into evangelism, missions, and social concern. This is an example of the Spirit-Empowered Life, where we have a desire and the discipline of allowing the Spirit to work in and through us.

Do you want to practice listening and responding to the Spirit? Start by coming and praying with our Intercessors before service every Sunday. (Email Pastor Isaac at Isaac@ekkochurch.com), pray with those serving on the first Sunday of each month at Pre-Service Kavannah, or get in the habit of praying with us as a body during Abide Sunday.

The Social Justice Tradition was started by St. Francis of Assisi in the late 12th century when he and a group of his followers abandoned their former lives to go about the Italian countryside caring for the sick, poor, and lame. Countless men and women followed his lead. This is an example of the social justice movement and a Compassionate Life.

You can grow in this area of your life by signing up to be a Safe Family through our Mary and Joseph Initiative or by becoming a rEcess volunteer.

The Evangelical Tradition was sparked by Martin Luther in the 16th century. He and others proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ after discovering its message freshly in the Bible. They shared the message of hope and victory through sermons, mission, efforts and personal witnessing. This is a Word-centered Life that is expressed by the desire and discipline of sharing the good news to others in word and deed.

Want to grow in this area? Read the ESV Study Bible or “Nudge” by Leonard Sweet.

The Incarnational Tradition started with Nikolaus Ludwig von Zinzendorf when he allowed those of the persecuted Moravian Church to build a village on his estate. They experienced a powerful outpouring of the Holy Spirit after Zinzendorf led them in daily Bible studies. The Moravians learned to joyfully serve God in the midst of baking, teaching, weaving and raising families. This is an example of the Incarnational movement and is shown in our lives when God manifests Himself in His creation. A Sacramental Life is one marked by serving God, praying, and evangelizing to others, even in the midst of mundane activities.

Grow in the Incarnational Tradition by asking God how to serve Him in your day-to-day. Allow Him to speak to you and ask Him to help you view your work, study, and relationships through His eyes. You can also read from Pastor Bryan’s blog about work, The Grind, here. Or check out these resources from the Theology of Work.

Look at the wheel again, and see your own strengths and emphases as a Christian. How uneven are your spokes?

What are the disciplines you need to grow in?

On the left, you can see Pastor Bryan’s wheel. What do you need to practice more of to balance out your wheel so you can ride smoothly?

“We should not only want to be merciful, kind, unassuming, and patient persons, we are also to make plans to become so.”

— Dallas Willard

In order for us to grow, to become disciplined, to mature… we have to plan.

Have you planned and promised to serve at rEcess or provide a home for Safe Families? Make time in your calendar. Have you planned out your finances in order to tithe and be financially disciplined and mature enough to upkeep this house? Make plans to budget. Has your Ekklesia planned to offer time or volunteer on outreaches? Plan to be there and show up.

Make time to attend, practice, with the Church and by yourself.

Every healthy strong wheel has a hub, and the spokes are rooted in the same one.

At the center is Jesus Christ Himself.

When we go deeper into our lives, at the heart of our hearts… at the root of our motivations and drive, there should be only one thing at the center: Jesus.

At the Hereford Cathedral in England, the architect wanted to show this in a grand and illustrious way. When you walk into the cathedral, you find at the heart of it is a large crown suspended from the ceiling.

At the center of this beautiful cathedral is the Crown of Thorns. He is at our center, at the altar, at the center of our hearts.

The artist says that at first glance, the crown looks like a royal crown, but when you look closely, it’s also the crown of thorns.

There was a cost for Jesus, but for the joy set before Him, He endured the cross.

Our focus has to be Jesus Christ, our King. He must become the center of our lives,

towering above all things,

filling up every corner of our lives.

Pray this with us this week:

Heavenly Father, show me the ways I am stunted,

the areas where I need to grow.

Holy Spirit, help me to go beyond this desire to grow

and give me the power to exercise the disciplines. 

Jesus, be in the center,

I will take my lead from You. 

I commit today to plan,

for You are the hub of everything I do.

I will find You in the center of my being.

for I want to be more like You.

You can listen to the sermon Training Wheels No Mo from the Ephesians series that inspired this post here. 

You can get the Spiritual Formation Workbook here.
For more insight on taking leap and risks, read Nancy Duarte’s book, Illuminate.

All images and materials are copyright protected and are the property of EKKO Church unless otherwise noted and credited to their maker. Please do not copy or distribute without permission.

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Resurrection People

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:1-7 ESV) 

Before Christ, we may have looked alive on the outside but inwardly, we were dead and rotting. We were zombies!

But Paul reminds us that because Jesus died and resurrected for our sins, we were actually raised up with him. Paul writes that we were “made alive together with Christ” and we get to experience the glory of the resurrection. We are constantly in the process of resurrecting!

But many of us unwittingly revert back to our “zombie” nature, our old selves, because resurrection life isn’t necessarily automatic — it takes the daily intervention from the Holy Spirit!

So we either end up a ravenous zombie or a religious one.

If you are a ravenous zombie, you live out the desires of the flesh. Not simply sins of lust, but sins that exhibit control over our conduct or self-indulgence.

You know you’re a ravenous zombie if you’re: Jealous, Boastful, Lying, Angry, Greedy or Ruthless. You become hardened to God’s voice and to His presence.

“And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless.” (Romans 1:28-31)

A religious zombie is one who lacks gratitude and doesn’t remember their own resurrection story. They try to live out their holy lives with their own human efforts.

You know you’re a religious zombie if you’re: Bitter, Judgmental, Burnt Out, Competitive, Comparing and Frustrated. You begin to see the commandments of God as burdensome and a way to compare yourself with others.

“The scribes and the Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat, so do and observe whatever they tell you, but not the works they do. For they preach, but do not practice. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to move them with their finger. They do all their deeds to be seen by others. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness… So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” (Matthew 23:2-4, 27-28)

So how do we stop living as ravenous or religious zombies? How do we live as Resurrection People?

“… to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.”

— Ephesians 4:22-24

We have to first, put off our old self. We must make a conscious effort to deconstruct the lives we used to live. Ask God to give you eyes to see what is still part of your old nature.

We must be renewed in the spirit of our minds. We must ask for ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to us, to become attentive to His voice and intentions. Listen for His voice. What is He speaking to you about?

We have to put on the new self, by practicing the ways of Jesus and obeying His commands. What are His commands? Read the Word to get to know our Savior.

And as we practice being resurrection people, we’ll find the disciplines of God to be life-giving, We will become people who drink from streams of living water. We will resemble Jesus more and more in moments of stress or frustration.

Pray with us this week:

You lifted me from the grave. 

You traded my heart of stone for a heart of flesh. 

So I’ll keep taking off the old layers that run deep, 

and I’ll keep putting on the new self that You have given me. 

Each morning, renew my mind. 

Restore me. I want to look more and more like You. 

Amen.

You can listen to the sermon Resurrection People from the Ephesians series that inspired this post here. 

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Blessed to Bless

We watch through screens in our palms as water desecrates trees and streets, leveling homes and lifting cars; natural disasters rendering communities homeless overnight. Our own windows still intact as we putter from place to place. We hear of young women who must travel miles on end just for a drink of dirty water, while we ourselves are able to take quick steps to the nearest faucet in our own homes. We hear stories of those who must whisper the gospel in secret and hide their Bibles for fear of death or discrimination, while we are able to share freely our praise and worship to God.

As a faith community based in the West, we are blessed beyond measure, and we are also arguably the wealthiest Christians in the history of the world. At times, in the face of such hopelessness and despair in our world, it can be paralyzing.

The question is why have we been so blessed and what do we do with it?

We can draw from God’s promise to Abraham for some insight:

“… I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.”

God is inviting Abraham into a dance, where God promises to supply the blessing, and Abraham will be a blessing. It was never about preserving or profiting from his blessings—it was always about being a vessel to share God’s goodness to the rest of the world.  

As Christ-followers, we are woven like threads into the tapestry of the history of saints and believers who come after Abraham. We are among sands that God asks Abraham to count as his blessings. We are the stars in the night sky.

And when God tells Abraham, “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you,” we not only are inheritors of this blessing, but we too are invited into this dance.

As Tim Keller writes, “Mercy is commanded, but it must not be the response to a command, it is an overflowing generosity as a response to the mercy of God which we received.” We don’t have to be overwhelmed with helplessness when we face the hardships of the world, because, like Abraham, God empowers us to respond to His mercy.

He is the one who blesses us to bless the world around us.

To be a blessing is to respond out of the overflow of God’s goodness.

Expressions of Blessings

As we step into our tenth year, we step in with a new expression of how we plan to bless the world through our church. Currently, at Ekko, we have three primary expressions to serve and love the community around us. The first is our Mary and Joseph Initiative, where we host and serve vulnerable children and families in our communities in partnership with Olive Crest. Second, we serve through our Special Abilities Ministry, where we provide respite care for families with children with special needs. This takes the form of rEcess, a once-a-month free respite program for families and with Ekko Buddies on Sundays, which creates the space for a child with special needs to experience God at church with a Buddy. And third, our Ekklesia Home Groups have been partnering with local nonprofits in order to serve and bless their respective regional neighborhoods.

And now, as we prepare to celebrate God’s faithfulness to our tribe at our ten year anniversary, we are introducing our fourth expression to bless others: the Missions and Outreach Fund.

Because our church has been so faithful in giving tithes and offerings, we have the opportunity to begin a rhythm of giving corporately. Following Paul’s words to the church in Corinth:

“You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion…”

— 2 Corinthians 9:11

As a body, we can give to help the communities made desolate from natural disasters, we can financially partner with organizations to implement life-changing and community-altering measures. We can mobilize missionaries and evangelists to share the Gospel where we ourselves cannot go.

This expression will allow us to implement change on a greater scale as a body moving as one.

And like Abraham, we are financially and spiritually enriched so that we can bless and be generous on every occasion. The manner in which we will be giving corporately will address three facets of need: to provide relief, revival, and reform.

Relief is about providing immediate financial and material aid for basic necessities or providing Sabbath rest (i.e. shelter, food, water, medicine…etc.)

Revival pertains to the preaching of the Gospel through equipping and supporting campus ministries, church ministries and other forms of evangelism.

Reform will cover systemic change bent toward Kingdom values and fuel efforts to initiate long-term generational change.

Paralleling the model that Jesus calls us to share the Good News to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth, we are participating in change locally, regionally, nationally and globally.

So what does this mean for us as members of Ekko?

This means a portion of everyone’s tithes and offerings will be contributed to our Missions and Outreach Fund to participate in any of the three R’s above. Each time we give, the body will be informed of which organization and which need it addresses.

This also means that we will have opportunities throughout the year to give as a body and in faith for special occasions or specific needs. There will also be openings to serve and go on mission trips to give our time and energy.

We began by giving to relief efforts for Hurricane Florence and Tsunami and Hurricane in Indonesia through the nonprofit Global Giving. We gave toward relief, revival and reform to Express Eden located in Mozambique (A church meeting the needs of the community, physically, spiritually, emotionally).

We partnered with Union Rescue Mission (Homelessness) and Pathways of Hope (Homelessness & transitional Housing) to provide relief and reform for those without homes in our communities. And to Olive Crest and 99 Balloons to fund relief for these organizations that focus on at-risk children and parents in need and children with special abilities.

As Keller wrote, generosity is a response to the mercy we have received from God. May God move us and deepen our awareness of who He is and the price He paid for us. May He show us His blessings, so that we may be inspired to give out of the overflow.

If you have any questions, please reach out to our Outreach Director, Sung Kim. (sung@ekkochurch.com)

Join us for our Ten Year Anniversary! We will be celebrating God’s faithfulness and dinner will be provided! Invite your family and friends: RSVP here. 

If you’d like to read more, please check out Ministries of Mercy by Tim Keller.

Safe Families for Children is a unique family preservation program that collaborates with local churches and volunteers to support children and parents navigating difficult circumstances such as unemployment, homelessness, hospitalization, and addiction. It is a positive alternative to the child state welfare system and allows parents to arrange for their children to stay with a host family while they work through the issues that led to instability without the fear of losing custody. The program’s goal is to reunite children with their parents in a home that is healthy and stable.

rEcess is a free, monthly respite program offered to serve families with children with special needs. It allows parents to experience Sabbath rest while trained volunteers watch and play with their children in a kind and safe environment.

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Cheer Up

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1:15-23 ESV)

Remember when we talked about our identity as sons and daughters in the sermon, New Story, a few weeks ago? In Christ, we are Blessed, Adopted, Redeemed, Forgiven, Inheritors and Sealed with the Holy Spirit. And, on top of that, God invites us into His peace! In light of this truth, we are able to be the most loving, trusting, forgiving, humble and peace-filled individuals.

But despite this reality, most Christians are often the ones who are most easily worried, annoyed and irritated; described often as too serious and too self-absorbed.

Seriousness can also be described as heaviness: a sign of worrying and not fully trusting God and His Word. While being self-absorbed keeps us from enjoying God, His provision and His life. The unintended result of our seriousness and self-absorption is unattractive fruit.  When we are called to help others “taste and see that the Lord is good” (Psalm 34:8), we often display an image of rotting fruit.

So why do we fret? What is the root of our worry?

We believe in the resurrection of Jesus and His eventual return, but we often forget the Reign of Christ. Meaning, we often forget that Jesus reigns in the past, present, and future.

Question of the Day: “What would your life look like if you not only believed in the resurrection but in the reign of Christ?”

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.” (John 14:27 ESV)

Julian of Norwich describes God like this:

“Completely relaxed and courteous, He (God) was Himself the happiness and peace of his dear friends, His beautiful face radiating measureless love like a marvelous symphony.”

When we trust and know that Christ reigns, we can stop fretting. We can be completely relaxed and in His peace.

So, let’s cheer up.

Because of God, because of all the great things He has done and is doing, we can be thankful. The question shouldn’t be, “What are you going through?” but rather, “What are you thankful for?”

When we go through hardships, we have the opportunity to stay in thanksgiving and praise. “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not quench the Spirit.” (1 Thess. 5:16-19 NIV).

Next, let’s stop beating ourselves up and instead, let’s encourage ourselves in the Lord. Let’s cheer in.

“…Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

— Matthew 11:28-30 MSG

Finally, let’s cheer out. When we fret, stay serious and self-absorbed, we are so preoccupied with our own selves, that we aren’t able to think of others with Christ’s love.

Trust God’s leadership in you, and stop self-critiquing your “performance.” Learn to laugh at yourself. Ethel Barrymore says it like this, “You grow up the day you have the first real laugh at yourself.”

In the Gospel of John, Jesus says to be of good cheer: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33 NKJV)

Let’s trust in the Lord. He has not only resurrected and defeated death, but He also reigns now and forevermore. Let’s live in peace and be of good cheer.

Pray this prayer with us:

King Jesus, You defeated Death,

So I will rejoice in Your victory. 

King Jesus, You reign now and forevermore, 

So I will wear garments of praise and a smile on my lips. 

King Jesus, You will return again, 

So I will rest in Your promises.

—

King Jesus, there is joy in Your presence,

So I will go where You lead me, 

and I will stay where You are. 

Amen.

You can listen to the sermon Cheer Up from the Ephesians series that inspired this post here.Â