Pastor Jon Burgess
December 29, 2019 - W1952

Making Room for Traditions

Making Room

Pastor Jon Burgess

December 28 & 29, 2019

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Traditions are not just something for Christmas. It’s actually something that God wants us to hold on to. Traditions have gotten a bum rap; but what I’ve come to know over the years is that traditions can actually feed our relationship with the Lord and keep us on track with Him. I love the tradition in church when we all gather together, celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of another. If you’re like me, you grew up in a Pentecostal charismatic tradition, and it doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about traditional mainline denomination or a church like ours, everybody has traditions, even if they don’t call them traditions.

Christmas certainly is filled with life-giving traditions that my parents passed on to me, that Cyndi and I are passing on to our boys.  I’m sure that everyone has their own traditions on Christmas morning, but ours involve lots of food! We love to read the Jesus story right after we wake up, drink a cup of hot cocoa, eat cinnamon rolls, and just sit in our pajamas all day! A funny tradition of the Burgess bunch is that we actually stuff our stockings with lots and lots of food. Once we’re done opening our presents under the tree, there’s no letdown like, “Oh, it’s all over,” because there’s more in our stockings and we're ripping into all this food—I totally love it!  

Traditions are not a bad thing as long as they are life-giving.  If a tradition replaces a relationship, trash it; but if it reinforces a relationship, hold onto it! Here’s what the apostle Paul says about traditions: 

2 Thessalonians 2:14-15 RSV says: ”¹⁴ To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁵ So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught by us, either by word of mouth or by letter.”

Replacing a relationship that takes attention away from the very thing that we’re supposed to be spending time on, that tradition needs to be left in 2019!  Traditions that will keep us on track and actually strengthen and reinforce our relationships going into 2020 (a brand-new year, a brand-new decade) are the ones we want to hold on to! So, instead of buying presents, we’re going to be present for each other; instead of wrapping gifts, we’re going to wrap somebody in a hug, right? The traditions of shopping for and giving presents at Christmastime are not what most people want—they actually want us—and we get this beautiful idea of how traditions can undergird what God has called us to do!  

My desire (at the ending this year and going into the next year) is to let God know that “He will have all of me!” If this is also your desire, then, let’s look at how we can use traditions to put Him first in our lives. There are two traditions at this time of year that I would like to walk us through that will, hopefully, help us to reinforce our relationships and to guide us into all that God’s called us to do. The first starts with this principle: 

1.  WHAT’S FIRST DETERMINES WHAT’S NEXT 

So, if Christ is first, guess who determines what’s next? He does! So, if anything other than Christ is in first position, first priority, first attention, first affection in our lives, then that will drive our decision-making process into the New Year. This is how Jesus puts it in…

Matthew 6:31-34 NIV says: “³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things (All what things? All the things we worry about) and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

This is one of the best promises in Scripture: That if we put Him first, He will take care of all the other things that we worry about!  Jesus is saying don’t worry about tomorrow, I will take care of you! But instead of putting Jesus in first position, we’re already stressing about tomorrow because we want to make tomorrow better; and we make resolutions, setting ourselves up for failure!  When we put our worries and fears in first position, we will miss out on the most important thing—our relationship with our Savior!  

All our failures and the things that have been dogging us through 2019 are threatening to chase us into 2020; and Jesus is saying, “No, no, no! I want to flip it. I want to change your thinking. Seek me first—my kingdom and my righteousness! Put me as the primary focus of your life, and I will help you with all the other things.” 

So how do we do that? Well, one way is to make goals instead of resolutions—resolutions tend to be very general and nonspecific; and it’s easier to not actually accomplish them. But if you and I can actually accomplish specific, actionable goals, then it becomes more effective. You may be saying, “That sounds really good, Pastor Jon, but how do we do that?”

Find your big rocks: They represent what is most important to you, such as, The Lord God, marriage, or family rock.  The other big rocks represent your health, friendships, and relationships.  These are things that only you can do.  In Pastor Wayne Cordeiro’s book, The Divine Mentor, he encourages us to find the things that only you can do—your five percent! Eighty percent of what we do, anyone can do. Fifteen percent of what we do someone with some training can do. But five percent of what we do, only you can do! You can’t delegate this to anyone else! We all have the same capacity.  It doesn't matter how long or short you have known Jesus, we all have 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, the same amount of time.  There will be a cap on how much time we all have; we are all working with limitations—the same limitations.

The things that are the most important, the things that I believe we will stand before Christ one day and be accountable for (the big rocks, our five percent) is our relationship with God, family, friends, and those The Lord puts in front of us.  He will not hold us accountable for how many followers we have on Instagram—that stuff will not matter in the scope of eternity. What will matter is that we put Him first. The God rock must be the foundation for everything that you and I do. 

2. TO GO FARTHER FOR THE LORD, I MUST GO DEEPER WITH THE LORD 

I've seen some believers topple in 2019, because they tried to go farther for the Lord without first going deeper.  I don't want that to happen to you and me.  I don't want us to get so overwhelmed with the 80 and the 15 percent, that we don't have any depth.  A puddle faith will not work for what you and I will be facing—we must have deep, deep wells, and Jesus makes this point in… 

Matthew 8:18-22 NIV says: “¹⁸When Jesus saw the crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side of the lake. ¹⁹Then a teacher of the law came to him and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  ²⁰Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  ²¹Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”  ²²But Jesus told him,  “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” 

Why is Jesus being so rude? He’s seeing their heart. You see, a lot of us put Jesus on our to-do list instead of putting our to-do list in Jesus. See, they have the stuff that they want to do; they want to go farther with God, but they’re not willing to put Him first. They’re not willing to go deeper, and Jesus is calling them to make a commitment to follow Him. 

The truth is that in the Christian life, a lot of people say, “I’m a follower of Christ,” but they aren’t actually repeating any of Jesus’ lifestyle. They come to church, know the words on the wall, but they’re not living His life because following Jesus requires discipline. 

You want to go deeper? That sounds very vague and romantic; but really, it’s a daily decision to obey God’s disciplines. It’s a decision to say, “I’m not going with what I feel like doing. I’m going to make sure that Jesus is at the foundation of everything I’m doing in my day. If this is my day, I’ve got to make sure I’m going deeper with Him first, before I do anything else.”  

1 Peter 2:21 NIV says: “To this you were called (our personal calling, our 5%) because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”

We all have the same amount of time, so how do we put God first? Go deeper, DEPR:

Devotions – Daily feeding on His Bread/Word. If you miss 1 or 2 days, just get back to it. Don’t quit; you wouldn’t quit eating if you missed a meal!

Exercise – My body is the temple of Holy Spirit. I must take care of it so I would be able to keep up with everything God is asking me to do in 2020--start small, start now!

Prayer/Planning – We make our plans; but God directs our steps—a divine partnership with God!

Reading/Recreation – Called the Sabbath, a command to rest one whole day a week to spend time with God, reading His word, and enjoying His creation.

These six things are simply an opportunity to put the Lord first. If you’re already tired and the New Year hasn’t even started yet, start with R, recreation or reading.  Find time to get alone with God; go on a hike; sit on a beach; or stare at the stars. Read His Word. Exercise and take care of your body.  Dive into daily devotions.  Plan to be disciplined and pray incessantly.  These things will feed your soul and invite the Lord into a place of sovereignty.  You will find that your shallow faith will grow deeper; your vision grows clearer; your relationship grows stronger because now you’re inviting God, not on your to-do list, but your to-do list is in God. And that changes everything! 

DISCUSSION/STUDY QUESTIONS:  

1. What is the one thing that you want Jesus to do for you in the new year?
2. What traditions are you keeping that enriches your life? 
3. What traditions are you giving up that don’t enrich your life?
4. What goals will you set for the new year that will involve putting God first?
5. How will you go deeper and be more present n your relationship with God this year?