Price Tags
It is because of the price tags that we perceive, decide or embrace that we do everything. This is the main summation of Les' 2nd sermon. So the main question is, what are your prices tags next year. What do you feel like you need to guard? What are you putting the highest price tag on
Also any other discussion on the sermon is completely welcomed
daniel
posted by Daniel Simmons at
9:54 AM
14 Comments:
my heart... it's not for sale.... it belongs to Christ. I gotta stop giving it away for less than it's worth.
June 21, 2010 at 11:39 PM
My relationship with the Lord and thus my time alone with the Lord deserves the highest price tag in my life and is something I definitely need to guard next year when it will be tempting and easy to get involved in too many activities and hanging out with people. I often leave my phone on when I have time with the Lord and end up answering it and putting whoever calls or whatever reason they are calling above my time and relationship with the Lord. So kind of like how he talked about not answering the phone when talking to his wife, I want to start not answering the phone when I'm with the Lord at least as one part of putting my time with God first. My sister and parents get the higher price tags in my life too and then my close friends and protecting my relationships and quality time with them.
June 22, 2010 at 9:10 PM
My sabbaths. Not that I shouldn't spend time with the Lord every day, but He set those days apart. I want to put a much higher price on intentionally setting work aside and dedicating my sabbath days to Him. What's better than a date day with God?
June 23, 2010 at 12:18 PM
First of all, I really enjoyed the quote that was used in the sermon-->
"Working too hard is bad for the Spirit. Many jobs lead to the hardening of the heart as well as the suffering of the spirit and the loss of intelligence."
And so, with that in mind, I know what things in my life hold the highest price tags, but my biggest challenge for next year will be honoring those things. Even though I 'say' that the Lord and my family and my relationships have the highest price tags, I don't always act in a way that supports that.
I desire to know how and when to say 'no' to staying busy so that I can stay with the Lord. I do not want to live so quickly that I am hasty in leaving the King's presence.
June 28, 2010 at 11:15 AM
It's hard for me to say no. I love people's good ideas and I love to be a part of making them happen. And I love MY dreams and being a part of making THEM happen. But my ultimate dream is to know the Lord, to be in continuous conversation with Him, to be used by Him (and to be in a place of rest with Him.)
There's a moment when I have to put a higher price tag on my sanity, peace, (and blood pressure) in order to attain that goal - that means saying no to being a part of really good ideas, even my own. Now THAT'S hard. Dreams are great, I love inovation and entrepreneurship, but there's a time for it, and there's a time to let God make it happen.
Can anyone say "dying to self?"
June 28, 2010 at 1:17 PM
The one thing that was on my heart throughout this sermon was spending time with the Lord. My prayer for me and for all of us is that we will put Him first always this year. I have a feeling that if we really do that, He'll make everything else work and we'll be blessed more than we can imagine.
June 28, 2010 at 5:39 PM
To be perfectly honest, spending alone time with the Lord definitely does not have the highest price tag in my life and I would be kidding myself if I said it was even in the top three. That frustrates me. I don't want to live like God is an asset or a removable accessory to my life- He gave me life, I gave him mine and now I need to stop acting as though my time were mine to waste on lesser loves. He obviously put the highest price tag on being with me, now I need to do the same.
I don't know about what other things will have the higher price tags in my life next year but I think the less I spend, so to speak, on my own self-promotion/self-preservation in the name of productivity the more I will have to spend on what God deems worthy.
June 28, 2010 at 7:01 PM
Also, I've been waiting for a post about the "Unmasking Martha's Heart" sermon to comment but I guess I'll just go ahead and share my thoughts here.
This one was far and away the best one of the series and I listened to it twice because it just spoke a lot to me. The main thought that I had about Martha, and this could be completely wrong, was that she didn't believe that she herself was enough for Jesus. It's like she couldn't believe that just spending time with her would be satisfying enough for him so she had to supplement it with services. This goes back to what Les said about how heart transplant patients have a hard time coming to terms with the fact that someone had to die that they might live and that we, who think the same thing on a spiritual level, think ourselves so unworthy of this gift of a new heart/grace/forgiveness/presence of Jesus that we have to compensate for what must be an unfair trade, as far as Jesus is concerned, by doing and producing.
That's really it- we think that in this trade of Jesus's death for our hearts, Jesus got the short end of the stick. It's almost like we think that somehow we cheated poor Jesus into a bad deal and now we have to add to our worth in order to make it a fair exchange. And this whole "adding to our worth" business becomes almost a form of self-inflicted punishment which just says that what Jesus experienced on the cross was not enough to cover our sin and yet it was too high a price for him to pay for what he got in return: a relationship with a confused, selfish, failure of a human being. So we produce, we serve...that's how we make it up to him. Ridiculous.
At least that's how I feel.
June 28, 2010 at 7:15 PM
A really high price tag I have for next year is on intimate relationships. Coming back to intern in a ministry I was involved in then did leadership for allows me to realize what I did and didn't do and I think I can say that I really want to have discipleship & small group relationships that are very intentional. I would rather have a smaller number of girls I spent solid time with than spread myself thin.
Time with the Lord has a price tag even higher than that and I know the morning time is the best and most productive time for me. I heard a sermon once about your enemy being your snooze button and it is for me. I'll have to fight for those two price tags to continue to say not for sale now and into next year but it will be worth it.
June 28, 2010 at 8:00 PM
Before you even posted this topic, Daniel, I made a note in my journal to revisit this sermon once our interning year officially begins because I believe I won't fully understand what I'll have to put price tags on until we really dive into the year.
Judging from what I've experience this summer while working at summer camp & from priorities I set for myself and later broke while I was in college, these are the areas I need to more intentionally place "not for sale" on before this year even begins:
1. Time with God. Whether it's my daily time of intimacy through prayer and studying or making time to get away from busyness to assess my growth/relationship with God, I will struggle with keeping the "not for sale" tag here if I'm not careful. I tend to let too much time with friends and laziness get in the way of my time with God.
2. My family. I tend to get so caught up in what's going on in MY life and what I am doing in the name of ministry that I neglect my relationships with my family. God really, REALLY convicted me of this while I listened to the first few sermons of this series (especially this sermon though).
June 28, 2010 at 10:17 PM
I want to guard and protect the boundaries the Lord has placed in my life. Knowing that his boundaries for me are to protect me and keep me in a place of rest and overflow. Where my heart is completely filled with Him and ready to pour out to others around me. To be so full, I know I also have to guard my time with the Lord...He is the only one that can fill me up and I must live by His Spirit because I can really do nothing apart from Him. I want to DAILY guard my time with Him, and let it be the focus and beginning of my every day.
June 30, 2010 at 10:41 AM
After listening to this sermon, I put up two signs over my desk, one said, "not for sale, time with Jesus Christ" the other, "not for sale, time with Kristen." I cant cut Jesus short and when things arise, which they will everyday. I cant trade in my time with Him for something much cheaper. I'm reminded of the small merchant from Aladdin whose trying to sell worthless junk because on the Sega video game he would appear randomly on every level and quickly set up his marketplace tent in front of your path. I feel like a similar merchant comes to us everyday, bartering with us to trade in our time with Jesus for something less. Also, with Kristen and I preparing to enter into marriage, a similar priority is placed on our time too, hence the second sign over my desk
June 30, 2010 at 12:39 PM
Price Tag #1
Forming genuine friendships (NOT projects) in the Spanish speaking community of Athens. Interning can get busy and tiring from what I have heard, and I do not want to get lost from my purpose this year in that busyness. I am here to continue building relationships in the community, to share the gospel in those relationships and to encourage my student leaders to do the same. I know it won't be easy, but please God help me keep my focus.
Price Tag #2
To Be Genuine.
To be genuine I have to be in communion with my Father and His Spirit in me so that i'll have anything of real value to offer to girls i'll disciple, my fellow interns and my Hispanic friends. It is when I am not in communion with the Spirit that I stop being genuine. Instead of speaking from an experiential knowledge of God and being sensitive to the Holy Spirit, I start babbling about things I've heard about or read about. I don't want to lean on what I heard in a sermon or heard another intern talking about, I want to speak in confidence and power. I know this will be an easy place for me to slip up when I am surrounded by people seeking hard after God because it is way easier to get them to answer my questions than to wrestle with God over the things I don't understand. To be genuine I can't compromise the time I need to spend wrestling with God.
And yes, family is Price Tag #3
June 30, 2010 at 5:42 PM
I need to guard my time and the highest price tag for me right now is time, in particular time spent with Jesus and Amelia. I need to use my time more wisely.
July 21, 2010 at 11:54 PM
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home