This week our youth leader, Amanda Mackie, was our speaker. Below is the introduction to her sermon.
There have been many seasons in my life in which I have felt like God has given me a “theme” verse. A verse/passage of Scripture that He uses to speak to my heart over and over again. A verse that will challenge my heart, that will reveal places of brokenness that He desires to heal, places where He desires to reshape my character so that it is in line with His character. Usually, I cannot seem to move on from these verses for quite some time and when I look back I am able to see how God, in His kindness, takes me through the verse in such a way that allows my heart to not be overwhelmed. Which means that these verses usually come when I am at a place where my anxieties and fears are fighting to gain control and I feel like I am in the ocean and the waves just keep coming and knocking me down over and over and I cannot get up.
Four years ago I was baptized by Abie and Melissa in Anna’s pool. During that moment Abie shared about how when I came to Burlington that I put my hands on the plow and did not look back and that his prayer for me was and would continue to be that I would keep both hands firmly on the plow and not let anything keep me from Him. This prayer comes from Luke 9 which says “‘Still another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say goodbye to my family.’ Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’”
I did not fully understand this verse at first or the difficulties that would follow as I continued to keep both hands firmly on the plow. My heart felt the weightiness of that prayer when Abie spoke it to me at my baptism. But I did not fully understand it, so my first response was excitement and the idea of keeping my hands on the plow and just the thought of just plowing through whatever was put in front of me seemed like an awesome adventure that I could handle and I thought even if it was hard, I could still do it with a smile one my face because I was doing what God called me to do. I am sure you can all relate to my feelings when you are about to enter a new season whether it is the start of a new ministry for you, the start of that new job that you had been waiting so long for, getting married, having kids, or maybe you are getting ready to start college. These are all exciting moments in our lives and even though we have some fears or anxieties they tend to be kept down by our excitement.
But what happens when we cannot or do not want to smile? What happens when there is pain? What happens when the excitement fades? And our knuckles turn white from how tight we are holding onto the plow? The plow that we were so sure that God told us to grab on to. The plow though is not a season or a particular thing. It is Jesus. It is when we totally dedicate our lives to Him, it is not a half-hearted commitment. It is not us picking and choosing which Scriptures we will follow or what places in our heart we will allow God to change. We have to learn to accept the cross along with our crown. And in counting the cost we must be willing to abandoned everything else, which includes the things that have given us comfort and security. And we do this without looking back because when we put our focus on Jesus, we cannot allow anything else to distract us from following Him.