Unchecked Boxes – Sermon – Pastor Laura Gaffin & Courteney Verhelst

I am a list maker by nature. I love when there is some sense of order in the chaos of life. I love to follow the rules and live my life in the way I think it’s “supposed to go”- go to school, get a job, fall in love, get married, buy a house and a dog and have 2 beautiful children. Check, check, check! But, then there are also check marks that appear on a list that we never thought we would have to make. Rejections from schools or jobs, sickness, depression, anxiety, living through a pandemic; check, check, check… That list could go on and on. It will look different for every one of us, and most of the time there is nothing we can do to control or prevent those things from happening.

Much like my father, I tend to get rather flustered and frustrated when things don’t go the way that I had planned them to. My mom often joked in our house growing up that when a plan needed to change that we would need to give my dad enough time and space to process that change, and I have genetically inherited that trait. Much to my surprise, if I am honest, if I am not careful at keeping my eye focused on God during my day, little bumps in the road can really throw me off. However, God, in His grace, always has beautiful ways of gently guiding me back, often through the lens of my children’s point of view. My children are much more prone to ‘go with the flow’ and be curious and open minded about the world around them. They trust that as their mom, I have good things in store for them for their day. They are often unaware of bumps in the road and simply trust and walk along with me.

Wouldn’t it be beautiful if we were all able to see life through the eyes of a child? Well, I strongly believe that that is how God wants us to live our lives. He is our good Father who has great things in store for us when we trust in His plans and choose to walk alongside Him.

Proverbs 16:9 says,

“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”

The book of Proverbs is often described as a book of wisdom literature, along with Job and Ecclesiastes. These books help give insight to ways in which we should live our lives. God is so gracious to give us specific guides and paths to follow when we are willing to listen and join in life with Him. While some of us may be list makers and rule followers, and others not so much, we all need the reminder that while we can make lists and plans (none of which are bad), it is when we are willing to give God our lives that He is the one who ultimately guides our footsteps. He walks with us every step of the way, even in ways that we wouldn’t think that life would go. But we need to invite Him in to walk alongside us.

Sometimes, because of those many check marks that we never thought we would check, God provides us with even greater plans and gifts in our lives. Like meeting new people, having more time to spend with family, discovering new, and often overlooked, callings and life paths, new strengths and passions, and even a closer relationship with our Father.

Learn to meditate on God’s words

When we take a closer look at our scripture verses 97-102, David talks about following God’s laws and meditating on them daily. Through this meditation he explains how he has become even wiser than his enemies. God, through His grace, has given us this same opportunity. God gave us His words to read, pray over, and meditate on daily. He has given us clear instructions to follow. His path and His plans; to give our lives to Him and allow Him to guide our plans. He has also given us the gift of the Holy Spirit to work within us and help draw us closer to Him.

When we try to focus on our own checklists and plans, we can often get frustrated and discouraged when life doesn’t go the way that WE want it to. But as Pastor Dave mentioned in his sermon a few weeks ago, God is never late; we may not like the speed He is going, but He promises us in Romans 12:2 that His plans are always good and pleasing and perfect when we follow Him instead of the ways of the world (or our own paths).

The sweetness of God’s word’s

In verses 103 & 104 David goes into the sweetness of God’s word. He describes them as being sweeter than honey. The more that He focuses on Gods words and teachings, and the more he consumes them, the clearer the path to following God becomes. It is through God’s sweet words that David says he is able to hate every wrong path. The more that we consume of God’s words, and the more time we spend with God and meditate on His goodness, the more clearly, we will begin to see the path for our lives.

When we look to the sweetness of God in our lives, we can begin to see the beautiful ways that He is constantly moving in it. God provides us with sweet reminders of His presence in our lives.

I love to journal, and as you can see, I have quite a collection in front of me today. These journals are all filled with sweet reminders of the ways God has moved in my life, and also, reminders of when life wasn’t going as smoothly as I thought it should. When I go back and read those journals, whether through good times or bad, I am able to see the ways that God remained the same, and how His goodness was always with me. While my life’s plans may have changed, His plans and His presence in my life never has. Psalm 23:6 says,

“Surely your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.”

God is pursuing me, and He is pursuing you. He wants us to join Him and rest with Him. He wants us to be a part of His Kingdom plan to share His message with the world; that is the ultimate goal and should be the number one thing on our life’s checklist. It is a check mark that will remain unchecked until we reach that finish line and meet God face to face. That doesn’t make it any less important. If anything, it is a good way to refocus and get back onto the path of life that God has planned for us. We can picture these sweet reminders, and God’s goodness following us. It is like when we are driving a car and leading someone else to a destination, we must constantly check our rearview mirror to make sure they are still following us on the right path. This is much like our lives, when we need to look back and be reminded how God has been moving and following with us all along

His words light our path

David goes into saying that God’s word is lamp for his feet and a light for his path. God is that same lamp for us today. In a world that appears so dark, God is our light and our guide, our ever-present help in times of trouble. When we focus on His light and His path, we are able to become aware of what is wrong and of the ways that are not in line with His path. The world and the enemy tries so hard to shift our focus onto the darkness of this world, therefore, we need to fight daily to remain focused on God’s light. We have so many things that tend to pull us away, like the ease of following the ways of the world, what is popular, time-consuming tasks like scrolling social media, anything that takes our focus from God and onto ourselves. We often compare ourselves to others and the way they are living their lives. It can consume our thoughts and make us lose focus on where we have been called to walk.

There is a beautiful quote by Hosanna Wong, who said:

“We will not rebuild our cities and restore our communities if we’re comparing what is in front of us to what is in front of someone else. Critiquing how someone else is building, instead of looking at what God has given us to build, is the surefire way to guarantee that nothing gets built at all. The Enemy hopes we’re too distracted by what other people have and what other people are doing to discover the beauty and power of who we are, what we have, and what God has called us to do.”

Our paths for our lives will all look different and unique. The pace of our life will follow with what God has planned for us when we choose to walk closely with the Lord, and this may not necessarily be how we have planned for it to go. We may want to compare our life’s “checklists” with those around us, wondering why someone else might seem to be more put together, or be following God in ways we wish that we could. It’s when we get stuck comparing what is going on around us to what is going on in front of us, that we begin to lose focus on our guide, we begin to grow weary, and may even feel like giving up. When we compare our journey with others, we lose sight on what really matters; that is bringing people to the Father, showing people the Kingdom of God.

I would encourage you today, or throughout the week, to make a list or 2. First, make a list of the things that you want in your life and the plans that you have and give those to God. Fully surrender them to Him and be willing to let Him move and shift through them. Then, when you are ready, ask Him for His guidance. Pray that your plans would line up with His plans and be ready for Him to possibly move in ways you had never planned for. In full transparency, me, standing up here again, sharing another message with all of you, was never a part of my own plan for my life. But when I surrendered my plans, I see that God has been moving in some pretty special ways that only He could.

Second, make a list of the ways that God has been present in your life. Put it somewhere important that you can see it whenever you need a reminder that God is still good and still working in your life, maybe even add it to a journal or book so that you can continue to add to it as God adds beautiful reminders to your life.

Finally, make a list of people that you can be an encouragement to. Remind them of the ways that God is moving in their life; because sometimes, when we are walking through storms of life or difficult seasons, we need the reminder that God is still there and that He will never leave us.

Check those boxes, plan your courses, gather everything you need. The journey is long and often lonely. What is out there for me? We plan our lives, and strive to find them, leaning on the world for speed; get there faster, work much harder, words are whispered by our enemy. But God’s plan is simple. The path is narrow. He has all the strength we need. He guides our footsteps and plants assistance, cheering us on as we need. Our focus upon our Father; He will help us win this race. Communication never ending, He’s the one who keeps our pace.

The journey is long and often lonely, storms may come to hide our way, but when our focus is on our Father, He will gently guide us through our day. This journey is never easy, we may feel like giving up, but our Saviour, in His mercy, provides sweet friends who have our back. We journey together hand in hand, walking to reach the finish line. On this journey, never slowing, now working together to follow our guide. The Lord is faithful to watch our footsteps, from us he will never hide. When we start to feel worn and weary, He will lead us to our rest. He walks beside us and talks beside us until we reach the other side. There, forever, we will worship, singing praises to our King. When we rest upon His shoulder forever His praises we will sing.