TOPIC: Celebration, Spiritual Growth
REFERENCES:  Mark 1:35-39
SERIES: It's Party Time, Part 2

SERMON SUMMARY
Radio conversation between a U.S. naval ship and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland:
Canadians: Please divert your course 15 degrees south to avoid a collision.
Americans: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees north to avoid a collision.
Canadians: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision.
Americans: This is the captain of a U.S. Navy ship. I say again, divert your course.
Canadians: No, I say again, you divert your course.
Americans: This is the Aircraft carrier USS Lincoln, the second largest ship in the United States' Atlantic Fleet. We're accompanied by three destroyers, three cruisers, and numerous support vessels. I demand that you change your course 15 degrees north. I say again, that's one five degrees north, or counter measures will be undertaken to ensure the safety of this ship.
Canadians: This is a lighthouse. Your call.

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It seems that too many people today are on a course in life that they're convinced is the right course. But what they have forgotten or not noticed along the way is that they have traveled so far outside the path that God would have for them that they have become disconnected; the cord has been pulled out from the power source and they have not noticed it and they’re headed for a crash.

Preachers will usually preach on this topic by urging everyone to cut way back on their schedule and pray three or four hours a day. The result is that some church members feel guilty because they know they've never spent three or four hours a month in prayer let alone every day and further - they know they're never going to do that. Seems to me that the least we can do in church is not pretend. Seems to me the least we can do in church is to be honest and not pretend and cause unnecessary guilt.

What disconnects us from God is being busy where we have no business being busy. It's not busyness per se that disconnects us, it's the dysfunctional response to the tyranny of the urgent. It's living under the misconception that we can solve everyone's problem, that we can get involved in everyone's business. That we have to be the messiah that Jesus never was... whole churches fall prey to this. Pastors and other leaders in the church are notorious for accepting the mantle of dysfunctional care giving. Pretending to be someone who actually needs to be on call 24/7 as the only counselor, the only teacher, the only preacher, the only decision-maker.

Jesus led a busy life and stayed connected to God. But He didn't heal everyone, teach everyone or respond to everyone's call. Staying connected to God is for busy people who can tell important things from urgent things, who understand the difference between the work God has given them and the work they have created in a people pleasing ego feeding frenzy.

In this sermon, Gordon talks about two very basic principles that can help us to get and stay connected to God. Listen to this sermon to find out what those principles are.

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