| The Sermon that I gave today. Enjoy.
Jesus take the wheel sings a young country star. A mainstream cultural phenomenon, an American Idol singing about Jesus and bringing the word of God into the lives of those who might not otherwise hear it. God in an unexpected place. God going undercover in pop culture. God is everywhere we look, He is in each and every moment that fills our lives. Pop culture especially. God is everywhere we look, even in mainstream films. Films that the general public, Christian or not are going to see. Family films are an especially good place to find the word of God. Let’s take a look at the very Christian message that appears in the immensely popular family film, Finding Nemo. As our clip begins, Nemo and his father have just been re-united after a long journey to find Nemo that his father set off on with a friend Dory. Just when they think the trouble’s over, a curveball is thrown their way.
FINDING NEMO CLIP HERE
“Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming”. There will always be dark times in our life. We need to face them and even when we think we can’t go on, we must. We need to just keep swimming and trust that God will be there swimming right along beside us. That can be tough in a lot of situations, but hope can’t be given up. Think about the fish in the film clip we just saw. This was clearly not the happiest moment of their lives. They were facing almost certain death, and they kept swimming, trusting it would work. By pressing onward, they got through some of their darkest times. God will be there to see us through in our darkest times. The dark times that are sent to test our faith are some of the scariest in our lives, but during them, our faith and trust in God must be its strongest. When we find ourselves stuck in our own personal nets, a net that can be so destructive to our lives, we need to just keep swimming, no matter how tiring it gets. God is there. As much as it may seem like He isn’t, He’s there. No matter what it is your swimming through or from, God is there. Even if it’s our past that we’re swimming from, don’t give up, keep swimming.
When we focus on our past we get caught up completely in the past and it doesn’t allow us to focus on our lives now and our present relationship with God. This point gets made throughout a Broadway show, that even in its 10th year on Broadway, is still ahead of its time. Recently made into a film, Rent brings us this:
RENT FINALE CLIP HERE
Forget regret, or life is yours to miss. No other road, no other way, no day but today. This is the central theme of Rent, and it should be very similar to the central theme of our relationship with God. We all make mistakes in our lives. We all slip up. None of us is perfect, no matter how much we want to believe that we are. When we make a mistake or slip up in our lives, we can’t let regret bring us down. We can’t focus on our past. We can’t regret, we must repent. Repent our sins to the Lord our God. Don’t regret, repent. One more time, don’t regret, repent. When we repent, it is the first step to getting closer to God. There is no other way to live our lives then in a mood of repentance of our sins. If we focus to much on our past, and regretting our actions, that draws our focus and us away from God. This then may cause us to miss God sending us our calling. If we don’t repent as soon as we realize our mistakes, then we are wasting time here on Earth. Every second of every day is time given to us on this Earth. It is all a gift from God. No other way is there for us to extend our time here on this planet than by the grace of God. There is no future, there is no past, thank God this moment’s not the last. Thank God this moment isn’t our last. For every breath that we draw must be used to further our lives. Every moment we spend focusing on our past is a moment we can’t use to praise God and do His work. When we look at the disciples, who did Jesus spend time with? Who was given the word of God to preach to all the nations? People with some of the worst backgrounds one can think of. And yet, they didn’t focus on their past, they looked to the future. They looked to the next minute thinking, “How can I serve God now?”
Jesus and His disciples also didn’t turn their back on popular culture. They embraced it and used it to their advantage. They took advantage of it, and used it to further the good news, to further the word of God. For unless we use popular culture to our advantage, there is no way to reach the masses. We need to use the language that everyone else is using. We need to tell our message and the Good News within messages and stories that the masses will hear. For if we don’t, we’re preaching to those who already know the Good News. All of us are set forth on this Earth to preach the Good News to all who surround us and to all of the corners of the Earth. Why do you think missionaries live within the culture of communities as they attempt to spread the word of God? If they didn’t, people would shut off right away. And that’s one thing we need to make sure that we as Christians don’t do to some of the more controversial elements of pop culture. If we look closely, then we can use popular culture as a jumping off point. We can embrace pop culture as a point to begin a conversation with our friend who doesn’t attend church and isn’t saved, as a point to begin a conversation about the message and the word of the Lord in the element of pop culture. Today we’ve seen God in a couple of places that could easily have been shut off to. We saw the Lord in dance, a place that until not to long ago people were wary about it as a form of expression, and we’ve seen the Lord in film. The next time you watch a film, see if you can find the Lord. I bet you can. Now, I will admit, that there are some things in film that aren’t exactly good wholesome Christian values, but if we shut off to something because of one element, and don’t give it a chance, and don’t attempt to look at it all as a positive thing, then we’re the ones losing out. We’re the ones not taking the chance. We’re the ones that aren’t taking advantage of the day. For who knows, this moment could be the last. There is no other road, no other way, no day but today.
AMEN |
