Introduction to Lifestyle Worship

During the next several weeks, Mission To Children is going to present one of the most important series of messages that you will hear in your entire lifetime.   It may not be one of the best series you’ll ever hear, since I’ll be the principal teacher and there are many speakers who are more polished than I.  Nonetheless, this will be one of the most important, one of the most significant, series we’ve ever presented and that you’ll ever hear.

During the coming weeks, we’re going to present you with a way of living your life that brings all the scattered parts of your life into alignment.  Putting all these barely controlled elements and out-of-control elements into personal alignment will lead you to fulfillment that you may not have thought possible.  You’ll move forward from now to the end of your life with one compass heading, rather than experiencing the frustration and anxiety of trying to head 7 or 8 directions at the same time.

This sounds presumptuous, and I’m fully aware of that.  Still, I can assure you that if you live your life this way – whether you live 70 more days or 70 more years – when you get to the end of your life, you’ll look back on the time from now to that day with feelings that fewer than one in a thousand can enjoy.  Rather than being overcome with regret, you’ll be overcome with joy, peace, satisfaction and fulfillment.

Now I know that sounds like a lofty, unrealistic thing to say.  If someone were selling snake oil to you and to me, and made such statements, I’d be very skeptical.  The reason I can make these statements with such confidence is because they’re not based on the works of man; they’re based on the works of God.

As an introduction, I’d like to tell you a true story.  I’ll change the names of the people involved, but the events are true.

Let’s begin with these thoughts from Psalm 1, verses 1-3: 
Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he meditates day and night.  He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.

Winter can be tough on trees. Sometimes--especially in deep winter--a tree can be so barren and forsaken-looking that there seems no hope that it will ever recover its earlier health, beauty and fruitfulness.

Yet it survives, in defiance of its harsh and bleak surroundings. How? Encased by its coarse, disreputable bark is a slow-moving, energizing flow of nourishment, which enables that tree not only to endure but also to flourish again in its season.

Have you ever felt that bitter cold, penetrating chill?  There was a time when a young man named Charles had his turn at being one of those trees that are ravaged by winter.

It began the day after Easter. As Charles drove to his office that morning, he noticed the effect April was having on their homey midwestern town. "It won't be long now," Charles thought to himself, "until spring awakens the landscape and transforms this barren, cold, slushy mess into grassy, warm, dry ground.”

"Hurray!" Charles thought to himself with glee. "Store the snow shovel!  I have a reprieve from taking 10 minutes to bundle up for a 30-second walk from the house to the car."  Having grown up on the balmy coast of Florida, Charles welcomed spring each midwestern year almost as if it were the Second Coming. 

It sobered him momentarily to realize that what he was witnessing in nature resembled the seasons of his own life. The past six years had been tough.

They began when Charles left a secure college faculty position to pursue a demanding doctoral program in a new field of study. It required not only a change of focus, but also a change of location, so Kay and Charles sold their house and moved their two children up into the northeast corner of the country. 

When we resume this true story tomorrow, you’ll find out what happened to them up there, and you’ll see why those verses in Psalm 1 became so important to Charles and his young wife.

© 2007 John Garmo. If you would be interested in using this article, please contact us at Info@MissionToChildren.org.