Summer Devotionals - wk 1

Our Summer Sermon Series and Summer Bible Reading Plan will walk together through some of the foundational practices and invitations of the Christian life: following Jesus, loving our neighbor, forgiveness, generosity, prayer, peace, community, gratitude, and more. This isn’t about adding more pressure or more “religious homework” to your life. It’s about creating just enough space for Jesus to meet us in the middle of our everyday lives.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hello, friends. This summer, our back to basics Bible reading plan is not an invitation for you to do more. It's an invitation for you to do what matters most. A few scriptures each week, a few minutes each day, just enough to let a little bit of Jesus into parts of your life that perhaps he'd been absent in. This week, it's follow me. Those are the words that Jesus says to Peter and to Andrew, to James and John, and they immediately follow him. I was cleaning out our garage this week. Um I built a shed, or I guess to be more accurate, I assembled a shed. And we're cleaning out our garage and all these bins and totes, things that have been buried forever. And I'm finding all of these things that I had hung on to, things that I didn't need any longer, but just hadn't gotten rid of, hadn't really dealt with. I wonder sometimes if we do that in our own lives, we get so used to the routine and the normal that the idea of putting things aside, even things that we don't need anymore, seems scary to us. That's what's so remarkable about this story. Jesus passes along the Sea of Galilee. This is Mark 1. He sees Simon and Andrew, and eventually James and John, and all he says to them is, follow me. And if you know the story, they left it all. The nets, the boats, James and John, their father, and they followed Jesus. Somehow those two words changed everything for them, and it should do the same for us. We're called the follow Jesus. And that means putting to death sometimes things that we need to put to death, putting aside some things that we need to put aside. And I wonder right now, what might you need to leave behind this week to follow Jesus fully? To allow Jesus to do something in your life unexpected and perhaps to help him clean out that closet or garage area of your life that you've been hoarding stuff that you don't need. Our hope this summer, as you journey through this series with us, is that you can reflect on the good news offered in Christ. And that, like Andrew and Peter and James and John, that you could follow Jesus and leave behind everything, even if it feels uncomfortable, trusting in the future that Christ offers us. So, I'll ask you this every week. When it comes to these readings, what did you notice? What is God inviting you into? And what's one small step you can take this week? Remember, we are not trying to do more. We're trying to do what matters most. Jesus is already walking with you. The journey should feel lighter than it did yesterday, and it should feel even lighter tomorrow. Love and peace, friends.