Self Examination (with video)

Sermon Video

https://youtu.be/0pDoOa425TI




Every day we are following the way of Jesus more or the way of Jesus less. 

Let us pray.

I spent three days in a convention center in Washington D.C. in prayer.  We ate meals and then prayed.  We slept and then prayed.  We worshiped and then prayed.  I was attending a prayer event for the organization International Justice Mission, a group that works to end human trafficking across the globe.  Each year they host these prayer events and people come from all over the world and unite their voices and their spirits in prayer for three entire days.  Now, I’m a pastor and that has always been my career so you would think praying is as easy as breathing for me.  But three days is a long time.  The format of the event was that there were different prayer rooms and each room was set aside for a different concern or need.  On your name tag you were assigned to different prayer rooms throughout the event.  A presenter would share the needs and explain to you what the struggles of that issue were and then the participants would sit in the room and pray, generally for about an hour at a time.  It was one of the most powerful events I have ever been a part of. One of my friends who had been there before shared with me as a precaution — This event will be amazing, but not how you think.  

Listen.   There is a voice that will lead the way.  

Jenn was leading a group of students on an outward bound trip on the Holy Cross Mountain in Eagle, Colorado.  In order to lead the trip she had undergone extensive back country training, wilderness survival certifications and had led trips across the globe for youth. She was an expert.  Much of the outward bound way of going through the wilderness is off trail.  It allows for a more rugged experience and for more space for solitude.  The group had been hiking for days and they were at an elevation of about 13,000 feet, carrying heavy packs and generally weary.  As they traversed the mountain the terrain became so steep that they were simply slipping downward as they tried to go forward.  Jenn and her co leader instructed the students to take off their heavy packs,  go up ahead and make their way down to a lake to refill their water bottles and take a rest. The  leaders would bring the packs down to them since they were aware that it could become dangerous on such a steep path.  The teens went ahead and made their way down the steep terrain to the water.  Except one.  

John saw a lookout point and decided to separate from the group, ignoring the voice of the leader to go out on his own and get a good view.  

Listen.  There is a voice that will lead the way.  

Luke 4 tells us that Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness and while he was there he was tested by the devil.  The devil first said to Jesus, if you are the son of man, turn this stone into bread.

Jesus responded… Humans do not live by bread alone, but by every word of god

Again, the devil tested Jesus taking Jesus up to a high mountain and showing him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.  He said to Jesus if you worship me, I will give you all of this.

Jesus responded “Get behind me Satan, it is written “you shall worship the lord your God and serve him only.

Again, the devil tested Jesus by taking him to the highest point on the roof of the temple and inciting him to jump off to see if angels would protect him.  And Jesus responded, “Do not put the lord your God to the test.”

Three challenges. Three tests.  Three temptations. And each time Jesus was faithful.  We are led into this season of lent not to be tested to see if we are good enough christians, not to see if we are able to look our greatest weakness in the eye and stand true to our God. 

We are led into the season of lent to examine our hearts, to pay attention to where we put our energy, to strengthen our listening ears and to draw near to God.  

We will spend these forty days of lent exploring different spiritual disciplines that will mold us and shape us to be more like Jesus.  The spiritual discipline we focus on today is the discipline of self examination. 

Can we take a deep and honest look at our lives and acknowledge the ways in which we are far from the life Jesus calls us to live? Can we examine our ways of living to see if we are following Jesus?

In the book of Amos, God uses the image of a plumb line to teach the people.   A plumb line is a piece of string that has a weight at the end of it.  By the laws of gravity, the line will always hang straight and be at right angles to the object it stands next to.  In Amos, God tells the prophet to hold a plumb line against a wall that had been built straight.  Over time the wall had began to crumble and no longer stood straight.  The revelation for the prophet was that The wall had changed with the pressures of the world and of weather and of time, but the plumb line remains unchanged.  

Jesus is the plumb line by which we must examine ourselves.  Even if our faith was strong and sure at one time, the struggles of life, the pressures of the world, the storms that come against us, have weakened us and in lent we have the opportunity to align ourselves again with the standard, the way of life that is Jesus.  

Throughout time, Christians have used three major biblical texts as guides for self examination.  The first one is the Ten Commandments.  In Exodus 20, God sets aside these ten laws as guides for the people.  Mark down Exodus 20 as a a possibility for your journey of self examination.  Read the ten commandments daily this week and listen for ways in which you find yourself straying from God’s desire for your life.  Do you find yourself jealous of what others have? Can you make it through a day without telling a single, even little, lie? Have you honored sabbath time in your life?

The second text that Christians have used over time for self examination is The Beatitudes. Mark down Matthew 5 as a place to go for self examination.  Am I acting with mercy?  Am I being a peacemaker?  Do i actually hunger and thirst for righteousness?

And lastly,  The fruits of the spirit.  Turn to Galatians 5 and make that your mantra for the week.  Am I full of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control?

The bible itself presents for us a simple and honest examination of our lives and easy, accessible guidelines that can hold us accountable and draw our lives once again closer to Jesus.

I encourage you to choose today as you leave this place to pick one of these guides and choose someone with whom you will be accountable.  Perhaps you tell a friend or a spouse…  Let’s commit to reading Galatians 5  every day this week and then check in with each other.   Perhaps in self examination you will find that God is calling you to line up your rushed life with God’s call for patience or that your focus on self control has been lacking.   

Maybe you have a friend you can call every day this week and talk through the beatitudes with.   Through that, maybe God will reveal to you that you have not been a peacemaker, but instead have been combative.  Maybe you simply commit to reading one of the texts out loud each morning and by reciting the ten commandments, you hear God speaking to you about taking the lord’s name in vain.  

Self examination allows us to realign ourselves with Jesus.  It allows us to notice that we have strayed in small and in large ways.  It reminds us that there is a way to live that is full of life and hope and of salvation and that way is the way of Jesus. 

When I sat in that prayer room in Washington DC, I had nowhere else to be.  I had committed myself to being there for three days in prayer.  I had no meals to prepare, no to do list to complete, nobody depending on me.  And yet, as I tried to give God all of my attention, I could feel myself being pulled.  I could feel the temptation, the test.  I had committed to prayer and yet, I had an incredible urge to reach into my bag and grab my phone.  I had the urge to quietly leave the room and go to the book shop. I had the desire to be busy, to be productive.   I had to remember that God set this time aside for me to pray.  And if I ever felt that there was a tempter, that was probably the most real time for me.   It’s not that I have never experienced temptation, but in that moment, it was as if there was a literal force, a competing voice pulling me away from God’s presence. 

Listen.  There is a voice that will lead the way.  

As John enjoyed his moment alone at the lookout, with all of the other kids down by the water his leader Jenn carried packs down the steep decline and dislodged a large rock, the size of a microwave.  The rock tumbled down the mountain and landed directly on John’s ankle.  Had he been by the water, had his listened, he would not have been in harm’s way.  

The purpose the self examination, the purpose of spiritual discipline is not to add another task to our lives.  It is not to cram in one more thing.  It is not to puff up our Christian identity.  It is to train us to listen to the voice of God.  It is to teach us to hear and feel God calling us and aligning us and pulling us into closer relationship with him, closer to the standard that is Jesus.    It is to help us identify the voice of the tempter that tells us to go our own way.  The voice of the tempter that tells us we don’t have time for Jesus, that we are too busy, too important, the voice of the tempter that promises the abundance of what the world offers that will never bring peace.  Will never bring hope.  Will never bring true and lasting joy.  

Listen.  There is a voice that will lead the way.    

I left the prayer event three days later, having spent hours petitioning God for the release of captives.  I prayed on behalf of victims and children.  However, my friend was right.  The event was life changing because when I set aside the time to do what god invited me to do, I was changed.  I was convicted.  I was aware of the many voices that I give attention and weight to and how often those voices are not the voice of God.  

Listen. There is a voice that will lead the way.

John however, had to spend a night with tourniquets, the loss of a lot of blood, and a lot of prayer until he could be medically evacuated by helicopter the next day to have the bottom half of his leg amputated.  

Throughout this season and every season we will find that so often we want to go our own way. We give in to our selfish desires and our worldly cares and make a million excuses of why we can’t find time to listen for God’s voice.  But friends, our decisions have consequences and they have rewards.  

The reward is not that we are granted and easy and blameless life.  The reward is that we get to walk through this journey lined up with Jesus, side by side with our savior, filling our ears and our days with good news and great joy.

For every day we are following the way of Jesus more or the way of Jesus less.  

Offered as a part of worship at Grace Presbyterian Church, March 2019