November 15, 2009 – Consecration Sunday
Rev. Jeffrey L. Phillips, pastor
2 Corinthians 13:5
Read verse together again.
Socrates, 5th Cent. BCE, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”
“Examine yourselves to see if you are living in the faith. Test yourselves.”
Do you do that?
Do you look within?
Self-scrutiny, taking stock. Self-scrutiny. Church requires this kind of homework.
Not looking at others, but yourself (“Standin’ In the Need of Prayer”)
When you do, what’s there?
Heart: where the really important stuff is – that which directs our living
Secrets of the human heart
love for life, gratitude, concern for others, love for God, joy, tenderness
but also anger, fear, resentment, regret, grief, hurt, bitterness
It’s all there. Humans are complicated.
Human nature neither good nor bad, but redeemable.
Every saint has some sinner.
Every sinner has some saint. Robert Duvall, “The Apostle”
If we are created in the image of God, can anyone be completely evil?
Read verse again together.
“Do you not realize that Jesus Christ is in you?” Powerful!
A lot of us don’t feel very good about ourselves sometimes.
But if Jesus Christ is in us, we’ve got a great ally at work for good within us.
Do you realize that since Jesus Christ is alive in you, you are loved, you are OK, you are accepted?
1 John 4:18: “Perfect love casts out all fear.”
But do we realize it?
Back to living the examined life – not philosophically (Socrates), but spiritually.
I am the spiritual leader of this congregation, but I cannot live the examined life for you.
Only you can examine your own inner spiritual life, your heart.
Pastor like a doctor.
How is your heart? What’s in there? Do you realize that Jesus is in you?
How often do you consider these things? How often do you pray? Read scripture?
I’m prescribing spiritual self-assessment – not your behavior, but what motivates your behavior?
How does your interior life relate to your work, home life, community, church participation, giving, pledging, serving?
At the end of the day, the spiritual life isn’t just self-examination; it’s making a commitment.
Devotion
Consecration
Choosing to live for Jesus Christ who died and rose for you, and lives in you.
Facing all that stuff that is in you, and letting Christ deal with it – heal the hurts, forgive the past, unleash the joy.
All the stuff in our hearts – the good and the bad – belongs to Jesus. And he’s right there, wanting to deal with it, if you just let him.
Baptism – claimed for Christ on the inside and outside.
Baptism – forgiven of sin.
The battles are not all fought, but the war is won. Baptism says that in the end, God wins. Sin is no more, whether we define sin as personal or social.
Sin isn’t just what we do or fail to do. It starts inside – fear, worry, inadequacy, resentment, hatred, desire for more stuff - all the emotional baggage we’ve haven’t dealt with.
Consecrate it all to God today. The good and the bad. Let God deal with it; we can’t deal with it alone.
“Surrender to the Higher Power.”
Let God’s love in like a baptismal wave, flooding in your heart.
“Perfect love casts out all fear.”
As you consecrate your pledges and offerings today, let it be a symbolic giving of your entire life to Christ at work in you.
Let it be a commitment to live for him and him alone – starting with the inside.
A commitment to let Christ’s peace rule in your heart.
To let Christ’s love cast out all fear.
To live his peace and love in your home, work, church, community.
“Examine yourselves to see if you are living in the faith.”
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