The only thing that gets me through the mounds of laundry that seem to accumulate in my laundry room is listening to sermons online. My favorite source is www.northpoint.org. Most recently I have been listening to an amazing sermon series called "Your Move" from Andy Stanley about decision making. I am a big fan of Andy's teaching style, but this particular series has been so relevant and applicable. I actually stopped doing laundry this afternoon (what a sacrifice!) to take notes.
The main thing I took from my listening today is to be leery of the world's advice to 'follow your heart.' In many regards, this common teaching is contrary to Scripture. In Jeremiah 17:9 we are told: The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?
We get our hearts set on all kinds of things--many of which are not in our best interest. Andy's encouragement was to examine your heart and ask: Am I being completely honest with myself? Why do I really want to do this?
I also was struck by his reminder that as parents, our story is part of our children's story. You don't get to decide what happens to you, but you do get to decide how you will respond. Live your story (even when it is tough) in a God honoring way so you can always look the people you love in the eye and tell your story. Make decisions that are consistent with the story you want to tell...because some day this (whatever 'this' happens to be at the moment) will be nothing more than a story we tell.
Think about what life would look like with that perspective!
Note: It got complicated trying to determine which of my notes were exact quotes and which were paraphrased...the thought process definitely originated with Andy's sermons.
Think about what life would look like with that perspective!
Note: It got complicated trying to determine which of my notes were exact quotes and which were paraphrased...the thought process definitely originated with Andy's sermons.
6 comments:
Awesome...found myself reading it out loud to Brant.
Something to think about today...thanks Jen.
Wow, what timing for this. Thank you for this link. I'm always telling my girls in my high school girls SS class to never listen to the world's advice to follow your heart. It's contradictory to God's Word and will lead to destruction.
I need this sermon series! Thanks so much!
Right on! The Disney theme seems to be Follow Your Heart, but that is contrary to scripture. I have to tell my little princess to follow Jesus, not her heart.
-linda
I was just thinking the same thing as the previous commenter . . . this theme is SO prevalent in movies, TV programs and books for children and tweens. (And I'm getting that primarily from the commercials and ads for them, so it's probably much worse in the shows/books themselves!!) I'm glad there are other parents out there who see this for what it is, and that Andy Stanley is sharing the message.
Nancy
It's funny that you should mention Andy Stanley and this sermon series -- I recently started listening to sermons on my mp3 player as I fall asleep at night, and I was impacted by this series as well! I agree, his questions are definitely thought-provoking. (Actually, I usually end up missing the ends of sermons because I've drifted off to sleep before they're over. No doubt it would benefit me to go back and hear these again in their entirety!) :-)
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