Let My Heart Be Broken
This week, Lead Pastor Dan Nold explained what it means to be broken in the ways God desires. God is looking for people who will sit down and weep for their neighborhoods, weep for the brokenness and care deeply for the broken. God is looking for people who will see their community through His eyes, both the reality and the potential.
Here are some ways we can apprentice Jesus this week in the areas of Christ, community, and calling.
Going deeper with Christ
You may have sensed during the sermon that there is an opportunity for you to grow in intimacy with Christ. Here are some simple ways to do so.
STEP ONE: Watch the video above. Lead Pastor Dan Nold talks about the rewards of fasting and the prerequisite of fasting: hunger. The God-caused cry in our heart to be satisfied: to be loved, to find purpose, to be happy. Are you hungry? What are you hungry for?
STEP TWO: Lean into this teaching by planning to participate in this next season of fasting and prayer. Dan suggests several ways to fast: social media, rising early to pray, a fast from sports, or sex. Of course, in the Bible, fasting mostly involves food. Decide how you will participate, and then tell someone (your friend, your spouse, your life group, etc.) about it. Consider also asking someone to do it with you! In addition, there are other resources posted here that can help you learn more about fasting.
SUGGESTION: If you are fasting and you own a smart phone, there are many ways that technology can help! If you decide to reduce or eliminate your time on technology, many phones now have ways to limit your daily screen time, or block certain apps altogether. If you decide to fast from food, there are apps designed to facilitate fasting (e.g. Zero or Simple) that can keep you motivated!
Going deeper with community
As you listened to the sermon and your heart, you may have felt like there was an opportunity for you to grow in vulnerability with those around you. Here are some simple ways to move forward with just that.
STEP ONE: Watch the video above and learn more about the deepest longings of the human heart. Fasting is the spiritual practice that helps us clarify our deepest longings and motivations. When we have unexamined hunger— for love, for connection, for significance— it can affect our relationships in unexpected ways.
STEP TWO: Lean into this principle by first acknowledging your emptiness, and then looking at a few important relationships in your life. Are there people in your life, whether friends or coworkers or children or spouse, who you are looking to fill your hungers in ways that they can never fulfill? Or have you neglected important relationships because your longings for other things have distracted you?
Take action to deepen your relationships. You may have to apologize for bringing to bear on someone an expectation that they could never fulfill. You might decide to finally commit to a date night with your spouse. Or you might talk to a trusted friend about how anger is getting the best of you. Even small steps can shift the entire landscape of relationships, so take courage and take action!
Going deeper with your calling
As you listened to the sermon, you might have found yourself thinking about your neighbors, and how God can move in your own Front Yard Mission.
(Front Yard Mission is our commitment as a church to reach our neighbors with the life transforming power of the Gospel.)
This week’s track is designed to challenge you to grow in holy discontent. We will see God move in surprising ways when we allow our hearts to be broken for people and places, and then follow Jesus there!
Text FYM to 814-228-5007 and choose Unfinished:Holy Discontent from the prompts.