"And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows." (1 Thessalonians 3:12, NLT). I've been reflecting recently on being at Laurentian for several "seconds". Having been here for over a year, we've shared our second Thanksgiving, our second Remembrance Day, our second Christmas. And I believe, by God's grace, we're not where we were when we began. I believe our love is growing for one another and for those in our community who need the love of Christ. I think perhaps most of all how Chrissy and I's love for you has grown. Just a short time ago you were all strangers to us, and now we count you as friends. But there's a funny thing about love. You can never get too much, or have too much to give. Just before Christmas, I walked through the Poinsettia isle at Walmart. You could tell that they had been very picked over and not watered. They were wilted and dry. When you moved some of them they almost fell apart. At one time, they were healthy and beautiful, but they couldn't just depend on past waterings, they needed watering today. It is my prayer for you and myself that our love would continue to grow and overflow. Growing love is moved to action to share that love with others. But growing love doesn't happen in a vacuum. Are you putting yourself in places where you receive Godly waterings? Private Bible reading and prayer, a commitment to being with His people, reaching out to others with practical acts of kindness, sharing what Christ has done for you. These things, done with a heart for knowing God rather than just duty or obligation, create fertile ground for love to grow and overflow.
Sermon Recap: God's Chisel (make sure to watch the video above from the Skit Guys).
Key Verse from Sunday:
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!"
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NIV)
For Christ to do the "needed new" in our lives, we have to let Him chisel off the
"hold-us-back old".
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."
Romans 7:15, NIV
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!..."
Romans 7:25a, NIV
________[insert your name]_______ Is God’s Original Masterpiece.
Question for Reflection
What do you need God to chisel off in your life to make a new year new?
I welcome your feedback.
-Pastor Jason