Hi everyone... excited this week to share with you my wife Corrie's notes from her Mother's Day sermon on May 8th. She did a fantastic job sharing the heart of the Father with us. Enjoy!
Precious, Chosen and Beloved
Opening
*Perfection personality –Monica Syndrome
I have always been one to want things just the way I want it. I would even go back behind people and fix
something that I felt they didn’t do correctly in my eyes (i.e. sweeping the
floor, cleaning the bathroom, folding laundry).
When Adam and I first got married I wanted everything in place, the bed
had to be made, the decorative towels in the bathroom couldn’t be used, the
house had to be vacuumed ALL THE TIME and my floors had to be mopped. A nightmare right? Does this sound familiar
to anyone else in this room?
I think that these tendencies stemmed from me wanting to feel in
control, because so much of my teenage years I was out of control. I just
wanted to be a perfect daughter and wife, because that is what the world told
me I needed to be.
Ok, Corrie why are you talking to us about wanting to be a
perfectionist and what does this have to do with Mother’s Day? Everything!
So I bet you are wondering if I am still that way today? I can say that I still have some of these
tendencies, but I really believe over the last couple of years God has been
teaching me what it means to “Let it Go” (with 5 kids its kind of hard not to,
lol) and be his daughter who is moving from perfection to precious. What does
this precious perfection look like? I hope that over the next 20 minutes or so
we can unpack what the answer to this question is.
God really is working through this with me by using my kids. My two older girls are not what we would call
“neat” or “tidy”. They are very free
spirited and creative (which I love), however their room…oh their room. Lets just say I have different expectations
than they do when it comes to keeping their room clean. Everyday, this is a
training ground for me and I am really having to learn that what I deem as
clean is not always the same in the eyes of the beholder. Their room is perfect to them, they love
every thing that makes it comfortable even if that means stinky clothes stuffed
in corners, toys under beds and a 1,000 stuffed animals to sleep with.
Why is this training ground for me you ask? Because just like God, he
sees everything he created as perfect and precious, I need to see my daughters
in all of their messiness as perfect and much loved daughters of the King AND I
need to remember that my response as a mother must reflect that I am also a
much loved daughter of the King.
Prayer
Questions...
So how do we move from
the perfection mindset to the precious mindset?
So many times in life all we want is perfection. We want the perfect job, we want the perfect
marriage, we want the perfect kids, we want the perfect house with the perfect
school for the kids, and for us women we always want the perfect pair of shoes.
We want to be what the world tells us to be… because if we aren’t we are
failures. However, I believe that before we can be truly content with our life
situations we need to understand our identity as a daughter/son of the King. Can
we trust God to be in control of our situations?
You belong to God, you are his precious daughter/son and he has chosen
you for a purpose. And because we belong to God his plans and purposes for our
lives don’t always look like our western ideals.
So where is your identity? Are you looking at the world to tell you who
are on a daily basis or are you looking at the one who created you to tell you
how much you are worth and how precious you are?
What would it look like if we all found belonging in a God who tells us
WHO we are WHOSE we are and not in how the world labels us?
Can you believe and trust that God is making all things right around
you, even if it doesn’t seem like it all the time? Can you trust that He is
making you into who you are suppose to be?
The BIBLE...
has a lot to say on this subject we are going to look at
today...
Let’s take a look at what
Peter says:
1 Peter 2:9-10
9 But you are
not like that, for you are a chosen
people. You are royal priests, a
holy nation, God’s very own possession. As a result, you can show others
the goodness of God, for he called you out of the darkness into his wonderful
light.
10 “Once you had
no identity as a people;
now
you are God’s people.
Once you
received no mercy;
now
you have received God’s mercy.
1.We are chosen and royal priests, HOLY and God’s
very own possession and because of this we can show others the goodness of
God’s character through our response to them.
Verse 9: In Old
testament times, people did not approach God directly. A priest acted as the “go between” God and
the sinful people. But with Christ’s victory on the cross, that pattern changed
and we can now approach him without fear (Hebrews 4:16)
16 So let us come boldly to the
throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find
grace to help us when we need it most. When we are united with Christ as
members of His body, we join in the priestly work of reconciling God and
people.
Peter does a really good job paralleling our journey as Christians to
the journey that the Children of Israel made from Egypt, through the dessert
and finally into the Promise Land. (Isaiah 43) We know just by reading the Old Testament the Israelites were fickle in
their journey to the Promise Land, always complaining that they never had
enough and always wanting Moses to fix things. They wanted their journey to be
perfect, without bumps or problems. But
even through their complaining God chose them, called them out of Egypt, cared
for them in the dessert and loved them. And just like them He calls us too
because we are also His chosen.
2. We have a new identity as people, because of the
completion of the cross.
Verse 10: Talks about
our new identity and how we have become God’s people. People often base their
identity off of their accomplishments, their job, successes, wealth or knowledge.
However, your value comes from being one of God’s children, not from what you
can achieve. *You have worth and value because
of what God does, not because of what you do.
I thought it would be
fun to look up the word identity in the dictionary and here is what Webster’s
says: The set of behavioral or personal characteristics by
which an individual is recognizable as a member of a group.
So we
are now recognized by the Fathers completion on the cross…a group of
royal priests, a holy nation and God’s own chosen people.
So lets re-visit the
question about where your identity lies?
Are you placing to much value of things of this world and what people
think of you and not relying on what the Father is longing to tell you? The
Father longs to remind you that you belong to Him, you are his precious
daughter or son and he has chosen you for a purpose.
Graham Cooke writes
in his book “Living in Dependency and Wonder”
“The Bible is full of
such commands to live and walk as the Beloved of Christ. No where is this more
apparent that in the book of 1 John. “Behold what
manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children
of God.”
"We must behold this
love in order for it to become a reality in our lives. To not fully accept this
love is to reject it, a sin that grieves the Holy Spirit greatly. We grieve Him when we do not see what God
wants to be for us. It’s not about
performance or perfection – He doesn’t only provide and care for us when we see
His contribution. He is there, even
then. But God wants to step into the
middle of our failures and show us His plan and love, so that we can live in
confidence knowing that His love is so deep it covers everything. We should look in the mirror every morning
and know, “I am the beloved of God. I have seen the beloved and it is me. God
loves me.”
ACTION
So where do we go from here?
I truly believe that YES, we are completely changed when the
realization of the cross intersects our lives.
I also, believe that you have to learn and grow in the new identity that
you receive at that intersection.
There has to be a
paradigm shift in our thinking. From old
to new. Our old thinking might tell us that things in our life have to look a
certain way. I mentioned earlier that we
have to the perfect job, with the perfect family, in the perfect neighborhood
to name a few. We strive for perfection by the worlds standard and if we don’t
we are failures. However, when we carry
the personal characteristics of Christ (Identity), our thinking shifts. We begin to discover what God’s purpose for
our lives might be. Some of us might be
called to be missionaries, some might be called to live radical lifestyles for
the gospel, some might be called right where they are at, but whatever it is
God is calling you to do you are called and chosen.
As a mom I want to live in the place of being his Beloved, not the worlds
perfectionist. I want my response to my
husband and my family to be from a place of BEING not out of a place of
striving. I don’t want my reality to determine my response, because then I am
not living from a place of being his chosen daughter with a purpose. This has
to be a learned characteristic and the HS wants to partner with you in this
journey.
So how do we do this?
1.
Live in a place of rest – a relief or freedom, especially from anything that
wearies, troubles, or disturbs
No I don’t mean sleep, I mean rest
People all the time ask me how I manage
so many things all at once and do it with such peace and ease, its because I
try to operate out of a place of rest. And when I try to operate out of a different
place, I have a different outcome and it usually does not have the right
response attached to it.
2.
Learn to abide - to
remain; continue; stay
We must learn to enjoy abiding. I know
as a parent my kids don’t like to stay in one place they are always going
different directions. As a parents when they stop and just sit, we breath a
sigh of relief and our thankful. So just like our kids we need to learn to sit,
breath and learn to stay in consistent communion with the Father. If we are
already in Christ, then our actions will flow out of the place of abiding in
Him. The Holy Spirit comes and reminds us that we are living the life of a much
loved child of the Father. His chosen, His beloved.
3.
Learn simplicity– freedom
from complexity, intricacy, or division into parts
Why do we make things difficult? Are we
not his chosen people, his beloved’s? This is the God that parted the Red Sea
for easy passage, right? He made it simple for the Israelites that day so why
won’t he make it simple for us in our times of need?
4.
Live in wonder and worship: to be filled with admiration, amazement, or
awe; marvel
God himself is full of wonder when He
looks at his creation (Genesis
1, And God saw that it was good) All creation responds and lives in the same
wonder about God, so as his chosen and beloved we need to immerse ourselves in
the same wonder. Allow yourself to day
dream about him, ask Him to show you more of himself to you and worship
Him. He desires that to connect with his
creation. When you do this more of his character is released into your life,
which then transforms you from desiring the worlds perfection to gaining the
heart of the Father for the world.
Graham Cooke writes: “My goal, as a dad, is to show my children that
God is a million times better than I. He is more generous and extravagant than
any of us can imagine. I want to model to them the Father heart of God, because
what we think about God is the single most important thing in our lives.”
Back to the story of the girls..
There are so many times I have failed to respond with the heart of the
Father towards them. I know that I have
failed many times in that area, but I also know that God redeems those moments
with my girls. The reason I know that is
because the Father’s heart for me always responds with extravagant love and
gentleness. He is always pursuing, always reminding me whose I am and who I
am. I ALWAYS want to point my kids back
to Him. That is my purpose…that was my
moms purpose.
My mom always pointed me back to the Father and his heart for me. She knew my value in the kingdom before I
ever did. She saw what I couldn’t see
and she always believed in me. So much so she gave me a name that means “Vessel
of God”.
There was brief moment (I say brief, but to my parents I am sure that
it seemed like an eternity) in my high school years were I was anti God, anti
church, and anti faith. I was a troubled
teen who was stubborn and rebellious.
However, my mom always responded with the Fathers heart towards me even
I responded poorly to her. (TELL THE CAR ON THE SIDE OF THE ROAD STORY) She
always reminded of me Whose I was and Who I was. The Father was the single most important thing
in her life. She understood the meaning
of living beyond the worlds expectations and living with heavenly expectancy.
So what would the world look like if we all lived out of a place of
modeling the Fathers heart…a perfect heart, that calls us precious, chosen and
loved?
