Sunday Recap @ da Chapel
Pastor Joshua Goodin
Romans 13:11-14 (NRSV)
“Now is the Time”
*Time is what you want the most, but you’re the worst steward of it. You operate and move as if you have so much more time left. There are some people that are believers in Christ but don’t believe that Christ is coming back. Anytime you sit around saying I’ll do it tomorrow, I’ll take care of it later, what’s the hurry, I just don’t feel like it, you’re not believing he’s coming back. You have to be better stewards over the time you have. Have you spent more time with God since the pandemic began? Have you prayed more, spent time in devotion with God, the study of his word, asking God what is it that I’m supposed to be doing with the time he has given you? Don’t waste your time waking up every day, going through the same routine feeling unfulfilled every day of your life. There’s something on the inside of you that people need to experience and encounter, but you’re so comfortable where you are you don’t want to move out of your comfort zone. The lives that should be touched by what God has placed on the inside of you, you keep burying it, because you’re afraid of how people are going to respond to you. You’re born with a purpose on purpose, but you ignore your purpose. You can’t think God’s going to give you until the end of the year to start doing what you’re supposed to do, you can’t think you have another 30 days to stay where you are. The same grace and mercy you received last year, although it has not run out or diminished, you may not get it this year. There are some things that God has spared you from in the past that he’s not going to keep sparing us from in the future. You can’t keep living like you’ve been living and expect God to get you out of the same jams.
*Respect those that have authority over you and learn how to pray for those that have authority over you. There’s a difference between authority in the world and authority in the church. Those in government handle worldly business, those in the church handle spiritual business.
*Love one another. It’s not easy loving people that get on your nerves. When you love others, you are fulfilling the law. Nowhere in the bible does it say that love is easy, but you want it to be an easy process. On a scale of 1-10, what grade would you get for how easy or hard it is to love you? You complain about how hard it is to love other people, but never think about how hard it is for God to keep loving you. It’s not easy to love someone when they cause you pain, every day you fall short and make mistakes, but God still loves you. You have to change your perspective on love, so you’ll stop complaining about how you have to love other people. If you start looking at love from God’s perspective, it will change your feelings and the easiness that comes with loving other people. God calls you to love people, turn the other cheek, forgive those who have done wrong to you so that you can be forgiven. That’s walking in your Christlike nature. You need to be more loving, and you might receive more love in return.
*Be honest and real and admit there are things in your life you need to get right before the Lord calls you home. Some relationships you need to repair and things you need to fix, so when you leave here you leave free. You live scared because you don’t want to go over, you’re always full because you don’t position yourself where you can be used. You need God to put you in positions so you can use what he put on the inside of you. Sometimes you have to get out of your place of comfortability. Sometimes your blessing is tied to a new connection. Now is the time, do something different. Think about how you are stewarding your time and be better managers of your self-care. You’re stressing and worrying about everyone else’s problems not realizing how it’s wearing on you. There are some things you can’t fix, no matter how much you pray about it. Stop trying to solve problems that you have not been called and anointed to solve.