This Sunday morning, we begin a 3-week series entitled, “LIVE LIKE YOU WERE DYING.” This sermon series is based on the award-winning country/western song by Tim McGraw by the same name. His song was written in response to his father’s death. Taken in a bigger context, it is really for all of us to think about how we should be living life more fully….. and the things that hold us back from doing just that! He states three ways in which he has learned to live more fully.
These three phrases become our sermon topics for the next 3 weeks, beginning today.
#1: And I LOVED Deeper
#2: And I SPOKE Sweeter
#3: And I GAVE FORGIVENESS I’d Been Denying
As we look at each of these challenges from a biblical perspective, we see that they are exactly ways in which we, as Christians, should be living on a daily basis. All of us want to love deeper- both with friends and enemies, but particularly with God! Loving is not always a natural response on our part to situations in our lives…and to the people who cause them! If God truly is LOVE…. maybe we can grow deeper in our love for and with Him. Let’s explore some ways together!
Words can build up or destroy. Who among us hasn’t let something slip out of our mouths that we wish we could take back? Is it a personality fault to speak negative or destructive words…or is speaking Sweeter a skill we can develop as Children of God? We’ll see this week.
Concluding this series is the concept of giving forgiveness to others. Not just forgiveness to random people, but to those from whom we have been denying it. There is someone in all of our lives who has hurt us deeply. Some of us have been hurt by several people. Do we forgive and forget? Can we really forget? And if we can’t forget it….can we ever really forgive it? Let’s work together to leave the pain of the past behind us so that we can move on…. free from our own resentments.
