November 23rd, 2022

Here is Holy

Sermon by: Harrison Chokka
Summarized by: Kelsey Bodnar

Do you know who you are and what your purpose is? These are questions many of us are trying to answer every single day. We turn to our jobs, our relationships, and our situations to answer these questions. But what if I told you that’s not the answer to that question? What if there is a greater answer? 

This week’s message is what Pastor Harrison likes to call a God Gap. We finished our Untangling Emotions series last week and next week we will start our year-end series. This message is bridging the gap. 

It’s interesting how on two different days of the week, our church can look different. On a Sunday, it’s bumping with people, the coffee is flowing and Pastor Harrison is bringing the word (c'mon somebody)! But if you were to come and visit on a Wednesday, it would be a different experience. Do you ever feel like a different person during the week than someone else on a Sunday? At work we may be one way and than a completely different person at church. We tend to have different versions of ourselves depending on the environment we are in. Beneath every persona we put on is a question many of us are asking ourselves: Who are we?

When we really boil it down, one of the reasons we struggle with identity is that a lot of us don’t know who we are. If we don’t know who we are, we begin to ask the next question: What is my purpose? If we don’t know who we are, we don't know why we were created or why we exist. A lot of us get the answers from places or people, and we’re taking advice from people who also don’t know who they are or why they are here. If we don’t know who we are as people, every season will be empty and extremely tiring. 

Colossians 3:15
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.

Something rules our hearts. There is always something competing for our hearts. The things that rule our hearts will dominate how we live our life. We cannot rule our own hearts, because of how our hearts were designed, for affection and direction. We’re designed to attach to something outside of ourselves, and we’re constantly searching for things to attach ourselves to. We may be attached to places, people, and situations that are not bringing us any satisfaction. Our design reveals our destiny. 

The feeling of wanting something more is not to be ignored, but rather explored. We live in a post-Christian culture and when Christianity isn’t the majority, the way people think won’t line up biblically. The solutions that are presented to us are are no longer through a Christian lens. The longing of our hearts is not temporal but eternal. An eternal heart will long for eternal solutions. 

Ecclesiastes 3:11
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.

The eternal heart goes with us wherever we go. We live in a world of “surface solutions”, where we move to the next thing when we aren’t satisfied. A new degree, a bigger house, a  new spouse, you name it. Culture gives us endless questions, but very few answers. Especially to the big questions of who we are and what our purpose is. But we do have a solution, and that is Jesus. Jesus is the answer to every single longing in our hearts.

Colossians 3:4 
When Christ, who is in your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. 

The solution is to invite Jesus in and make him the Lord of my life. We need to make him the main thing, not just something. God is continually calling us to go deeper with him. Something will happen when we give Jesus everything.

Colossians 3:16
Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts.

There is a huge disconnect between where we are and where God wants us to be. The only way we can be where God wants us to be is to say: I can’t get there but God bridges the gap. Jesus was and is better. We follow Jesus one step at a time. Watch what begins to happen when we don’t compartmentalize our lives. No matter where we go, it’s a holy place. Who I am depends on whose I am. We need confidence in God, not ourselves. ​

Colossians 3:17
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.