Good morning. Well, I have to say that it is great to be back from spending the week in Maytown, Kentucky, which is located in Floyd County. We did a variety of work, and with the heat, it didn’t matter what it was that you were doing, it was a hot and exhausting week. As I stood on top of a roof laying shingles, I would have been willing to come back and work in the hay any day.
(SHARE SOME GOOD STORIES?)
Well, now that we are back, I would like to share with you one of the things that we saw in action, and in our devotional time this week. During the week, we were asked to make Christ the center of our lives.
Allow me to read for you portions of Colossians 2:9-15. In that passage it says, “…you have been given fullness in Christ…when you were dead tin your sins and in your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all of our sins,…He took them away nailing them to the cross.”
(DO THE CUP THING)
These cups represent our lives, and this knife represents the sin that is in our lives.
Sometimes, we have small sins, the sins that make just small impacts in our lives. (MAKE SMALL CUTS IN CUP 1)
Then, there are times that the sin we commit makes a huge impact in our lives. In fact, there are those sins that really cut a hole in our lives. (MAKE NICE HOLE IN CUP 2)
And finally, there are those things that we do, that seem to completely rip us apart. These are the sins that are most evident in our lives, because it is obvious that something is missing. (CUT OFF THE BOTTOM OF CUP 3)
Then, as a result of the sin in our lives, and the fact that we do not have Christ as the center of our lives, we begin to try and fix ourselves. In essence, we try and put a Band-Aid on the wounds. (PUT BAND-AID ON CUP 2) But the problem is that, we are never able to fix ourselves.
And so we try and fill ourselves with the things of this world in order to make the wounds go away. We fill ourselves with our jobs, our friends, money, possessions, relationships, drugs, alcohol, and the list goes on of the things that we try and fill ourselves with. But you know what?
(POUR WATER INTO THE FIRST 3 CUPS) Even when we do that, we are still wounded. We are still losing out on things. We are not enjoying a full life.
But what we need to realize is that we need to begin to make Christ the center of our lives. We need to be filled by Christ, and not our own things. (PUT CUPS THAT SAY CHRIST INSIDE EACH OF THE OTHER CUPS)
And then, when Jesus is the center of our lives, we are able to be completely full. (BEGIN TO POUR WATER INTO THE CUPS)
In fact, our cup will run over, when Christ is at the center of our lives. In John 10:10, Jesus says that “I have come so that you may have life, and have it to the fullest.” If you want to be alive and full, then you need to make Christ the center of your life.
But if you notice, we will still have some scares from the decisions that have been made in our lives, but we can be alive and full once again when Christ is at the center of our lives.
Now as we begin to wrap things up this morning, allow me to share one last illustration that I gained this week on the mission trip. For the first couple days of the trip, I was working in a house, and I was assigned to do some casing around the doors and windows. Now, that is an easy job. All you have to do is cut 45 degree angles, and then put it together and everything is good.
However, that is how it is done in a level, even, and perfect house. But guess what? That was not the case with this particular house. The house I was working on, had uneven doors, the house itself was not level, and there was not enough room to use a normal casing board. So it required a lot of cutting and piecing it together.
Now, when we were done putting the casing together, let me just say that it was far from perfect. It took several attempts, made me very frustrated, and it was still not perfect. There were huge cracks in between the boards, and they did not come together correctly. And that is why I am thankful for one thing that has been created. And that one thing is caulking. Whoever created caulking, that man was a genius.
Anyway, it wasn’t until we filled the cracks with the caulking and added the paint that the door looked perfect.
And when I think about that, the caulking in the door represents Jesus in our lives. We are each far from perfect. We are uneven, we are sinful, and we have some major gaps in our lives. And it isn’t until we allow Christ to come and fill those gaps that we can begin to look the way that God desires.
It is only through Christ that we are acceptable to God.
So, in closing this morning, the mission trip was a great experience. We were able to go and serve others, serve God, and be strengthened ourselves. And if I can give you all a take away from our trip it would be this. Allow yourself to be filled with Christ, and make Him the center of your lives.
Let’s Pray!
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