The title of the sermon is "The Path:Part One - The Authoritative Word". I enjoyed the set-up and relational stories, although this one ran a little longer than others I have listened too. He eventually got into scripture, and it was 2 Timothy 3:14-17 and 2 Timothy 4:1-3. He started talking about reading the Bible, and the excuses people come up with. He focused on one in particular. It was the "I don't have enough time to read the Bible" excuse. He said anyone who uses this excuse is lying, because that person has the same amount of time as everyone else. That was not groundbreaking to me, but the next part was.
He next stated that for some reason, we as a culture do not realize that we are all not going to live to see 70, 80, or 90. We don't know it, but our respective preacher will end up doing at least one funeral of a member of our congregation each year. He said when you think of people like Luther, they preached like they knew there time on Earth was short. I then thought of another preacher, the prince of preachers, C.H. Spurgeon. He preached to over 10 million people in his life time and according to Wikipedia, no other author has more material in print. He died at the age of 57.
My heart broke here. I immediately began to think of all the things I had done in my life, everything little thing I had dedicated my time to that did not bring honor or glory to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Saviour. What did it matter that I had read the Harry Potter books 7 times each, that I could tell you stats of the Braves, Bulldogs, or Falcons, that I had been in JROTC for four years in high school, that I had played baseball, basketball, wrestling, and football growing up, or that I had played many, many video games. Everything that I had done felt like it did not matter, for Jesus was not praised in these things.
I talked to Grace about this, and she listened and then very politely let me get back to chewing on this new revelation. As I continued to get really down on my whole existence, the Holy Spirit really started to move in my heart. God was like, "Hey, remember, I am sovereign." That is when I knew, that all along, God had a path for me. I knew that the omniscient God of the universe had planned these things out for me, for without them I would not have married Grace, gone to Avalon church, get in Chris Reinig's small group because I knew him from high school, come to serve the Lord in an amazing youth group, feel the call to minister to college students, and then get recommended this life changing sermon by Matt Chandler. I suddenly had peace because I realized what I had been telling people for months...God is in control.
I have finally been able to put Psalm 46:10 into my heart "Be still, and know that I am God". Now please pray with me that my life will change to always bring honor and glory to Him.
