“Examine and Return”
Sermon Title: Examine and Return
Scripture: Lamentations 3:40 ESV
Introduction
When was the last time you spent at least 30 minutes reflecting on your life? When was the last time you reflected on your actions and reactions, on the stories you believed, the shame you carry, on the time to listen closely to God’s word and how it intersects with seasons of your life, and discernment of God’s will for your life? It is wise to take time to reflect to make adjustments for our future, but many of us have difficulty doing so, especially when it comes to God’s will and His word. We live in a fast-paced society, so reflection is not a common practice when we are caught up in the frenzy and busyness of life. Reflection causes us to slow ourselves down, but many of us believe that slowing down leads to trouble and chaos in our lives. The irony is that we try to save ourselves by keeping up the pace, but this is what actually causes havoc in and around our lives. The deeper truth is that it is not a fast pace that we keep up but a violent pace. This violent pace causes violence against ourselves, others, and our relationship with God.
God invites us to a life of examination, a life of reflection to look inwards and look around us to see where we stand before the Lord. Nouwen once said, "We would do well to spend 50% of our lives reflecting on the other 50% that's lived." This quote points out that we do not take enough time to reflect on our lives. Through the book of Lamentations, God offers us a life that is more reflective and contemplative.
Message – “Let us test and examine our ways, and return to the Lord.” (Lamentations 3:40)
· God invites us to be intentional about how we examine and reflect upon our lives because reflection is our means of returning to the Lord when we drift away from Him while living our lives.
· Jeremiah writes Lamentations to God’s people in exile who were living whatever way they wanted. They were exiled for their sins and although judgement was upon them, God still had a word of hope for them. In their suffering and pain, God reassured them of a future and a new hope, but they needed to examine and test their ways and return back to the Lord. We examine and test ourselves and ask: “where am I consistent and inconsistent with God?”
Reflection
Two paths of reflection are available to us: to reflect regrettably or reflect redemptively. We can reflect with great regret in our minds or we can reflect with a sense of God's redemption working through us.
· Reflecting regrettably makes us dwell on our past mistakes and pains. We dwell on the things we’ve said and done to others that we wish we had not done. We dwell on the decisions we made that caused us pain and regret. Reflecting redemptively calls on the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit that helps to remind us that God continues to be active and present in our life and He continues to speak to us even when we make mistakes, sin against God, and are wandering in spiritual exile.
4 Truths of Redemptive Reflection
1. We begin reflecting with the mindset that God is always active in our lives.
· There is never a moment in our lives when God is not active and present. We look back to see how God has been active and present, NOT to see how God has been absent. He is never absent, but sometimes we don’t have the eyes to see Him.
2. We recognize that God knows how to bring good out of our past.
· We have all made bad mistakes and decisions. We have all said and done things we shouldn’t have whether we realize it or not. Yet, God can bring goo out of our failures. Good can bring good from our sins (not that this justifies our sins). We serve a creative God who works good in all things for the sake of those who love Him (Romans 8:28).
3. We must understand that there are lessons God wants us to learn.
· God wants us to learn them because God wants to offer us a new way forward. Pain comes to us in two forms: divine pain or dumb pain. Divine pain comes to us when God allows us to go through certain situations for the sake of maturity, revelation, and the molding of our character – there is always a divine plan. Dumb pain is the pain we bring down upon ourselves due to our own sinful and self-driven ways. God does not want us to go through the same pains again, so we must pay attention to the lessons God wants us to learn.
4. We must understand that there's a new future available for us if we would learn to discern the Spirit's activity in our lives.
· God’s words to us are, "test and examine your ways and return back to me." In other words, discern how the Holy Spirit is active and moving in your life, so that you can return to the Lord and enjoy a new future available to you.
Instructions for The Examine (keeping the four truths in mind) This is about locating yourself spiritually, just like how we look at the map in the shopping mall and begin by locating the red dot that says, “you are here.” There are four movements to the Examine: (1) Look Back; (2) Look through; (3) Look forward; (4) Look around. (This is a short 10 mins exercise; please take at least 30mins to an hour to do it fully)
1) Look Back (focus on one or two questions for 2-3 mins): Look over the past 6 months to a year. Reflect on these questions: Where have I been spiritually in my life with God? What significant changes have come my way? When have I been most stressed? Where am I now (spiritually in my life with God)?
2) Look Through (2 or 3 mins to identify any patterns, connections or themes that have characterized the past 6 months to 1 year): Summarize your past year in a sentence or two. Are there any patterns, such as stress, anger, depression, etc. What do you want to highlight in this season of your life? What do you think God wants you to know in this season of your life?
3) Look Forward (2 or 3 mins): Where do you sense God leading you forward? What do you sense your soul needs in the season? What are your hopes and dreams for this coming year? Paint a picture of the kind of life you envision over the next 6 months? Where do you sense God leading you forward?
4) Look Around (3 or 4 mins) What community support do you need in this season of your life? Who are the people you need to invite to walk alongside you? This can be a small group, a ministry team that you're involved with, your pastor or a spiritual director, maybe a therapist, a trusted friend, etc. How can others best support you?
Share your reflections with others in your community support.
Conclusion
At this time, I want to ask the worship team to come forward. Let's all stand to sing to our Lord on this last Sunday of 2023. In this year of 2023, we might have become less sensitive to the ways of God and drifted away from Him, but our God has been gracious, faithful, and merciful to us, even when we have been faithless. He has never stopped loving us and He has given us hope. Our gracious loving merciful God calls us to move forward with Him in the year of 2024. May we place our trust in the faithfulness of God because He will continue to remain faithful in this new year ahead of us.
Reflection
You may be in spiritual exile whether you realize it or not. The Lord invites you to come back home to Him by reflecting and examining and testing your ways. Please take the time to go through the 4 movements of the Examine. Spend some more time (at least 30 mins) going through each movement and share with your Life Group.