Navigating Life

Today, we concluded our series on “Navigating Life: Doing Life God’s Way!” We believe it was an important series; we certainly hope that it was helpful for the hrist followers in our congregations!

We don’t always collaborate on our sermon series, but this series grew out of a conversation we had while traveling to Tennessee on Christmas morning to visit my family. We think this series was important because we believe that we will either do life God’s way (intentionally) or we will simply drift through life. And there are few things more sad than someone who drifts through life, lost at sea!

Using sailing imagery, we began the series with “Setting the Course.” Asking “Where are you headed?” we looked at John 14.1-6.

Joleen said, “Let’s journey with Jesus,” and Randy focused on trust saying, “It takes trust to do life with God!” Randy challenged listeners to think about the areas of their lives where they need totrust God, and then to release those areas to God.

Our second message was a lot of fun. We talked about “GPS” and asked, “How will you get to where you’re going?” But instead of talking about a Global Positioning System, but God’s Positioning System. Taking our cue from Deuteronomy 6.4-9, Joleen said, “Let’s journey with Scripture, a prayerful approach wherethe Holy Spirit speaks through the Words.” She challenged listeners to consider places where they could put Scripture so that it would be afrequent reminder of God. Randy’s message was, “When we make God thecenter of our lives we are more equipped to do life God’s way!” Randy encouraged listeners to develop their own, unique navigational system incorporating the spiritual disciplines, particularly prayer and Scripture.We divided the next two messages in the series.

Joleen took “Expect Delays,” asking, “What will you do when you encounter obstacles?” Randy took “The Crew” which asked the question, “Who are you traveling with?”After preaching those messages in our respective congregations, we traded places and shared the same messages with each other’s congregations the following week.

Joleen, after reading Matthew 8.23-27 noted that, “Storms will come, but Jesus is in the boat, so you’llweather the storm with a little faith.” Randy’s message, coming from Romans 12.1-8, stated that, “It takes a crew to complete a mission!” Randy challenged listeners to begin asking God what their function in the church might be, and to also begin asking others who know them to help them discover their role and gifting in the church.

We wrapped up the series today with a message on “Course Corrections.” We looked at James 1.1-18 and asked, “What do you do when you get off course?” Joleen suggested that listeners “Admit, ask forgiveness, and adjustonce again to Jesus’ path.” She stated that up until we make a commitment, we should ask, “Is this God’s will?” but that once we makethe commitment, we should affirm, “This is God’s will! Life is a discernment process where we are always open to hear God’s voice.

In Randy’s final message, he said, “When you get off course, return!” The inherent meaning behind the word “repent” is “return.” We must return to God and to what God has called us to be. “Ask God to search your heart for areas where you have gone off course,” Randy challenged listeners, “and ask God for wisdom and help to get back oncourse.”We hope that, by God’s grace, you will be able to follow Jesus more effectively from now on as you seek to navigate life and do life God’sway!

Feel free to ask questions or post comments at the end of this post!

4 thoughts on “Navigating Life”

  1. I like the sermon idea and summary. Great ideas and thoughts. Can you email me the sermon manuscripts and/or outlines? I would like to add them to my collection.

    Reply
  2. I’ll check to see what I have, Randy. I’m not really writing manuscripts anymore so my notes on file are somewhat limited. Still I’ll try to send you what I have.

    Thanks for the comment!

    Reply
  3. Hi, loved your idea and would like to follow a similar series. Any chance of having a copy of your notes? It would be really appreciated. Thanks for your time.

    Reply
  4. Hi Mark. Thanks for commenting. We’ll check to see if we have any other notes. Joleen may have some notes; I’m not generating/keeping a lot of notes these days. If we find any, we’ll email them to you.

    Reply

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