Sermon Preview: Prized Possesions

This last week, as Hurricane Isaac prepared to make landfall, Louisiana was getting ready. Storms aren’t new to us and anyone who lives on the coast certainly has a routine they go through as they prepare to live home. I know I have talked to Meredith’s Dad before, since her family lives South of Houston in Clear Lake about what he does.

I was thinking about what I would do if Meredith and I had to evacuate. What would I take with me? Certainly Meredith and Emma, our feisty 12 lb dachshund would go...but what besides that? I asked other’s the question on Facebook and heard many of the same things. Pictures, treasured possessions, memories.

People choose to take what reminds them of past life, items that keep the past in the present.

But the wonderful thing about Christ, he cares not about past...but possibilities.

Here the words of the Apostle James, who church tradition tells us was the half brother of our Lord Jesus Christ

James 1:17-18

New Living Translation (NLT)

¹⁷ Whatever is good and perfect comes down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow. ¹⁸ He chose to give birth to us by giving us his true word. And we, out of all creation, became his prized possession.

²² But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. ²³ For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. ²⁴ You see yourself, walk away, and forget what you look like. ²⁵ But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t forget what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it.

God wants us to be perfect in holy love so he can set us up for a certain purpose. He wants to change our hearts and lives, to get us set up in a perfect environment so we can thrive for ourselves and for the lives of others.

We are a first offering to the world. Pointing towards the eternal goodness of God. Healed and then sent off. An example of what he wants to do for the whole world.

He isn’t focusing on memories of his prized possessions but on the possibilities of his prized possessions.