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This keeps me growing - Sandy
Sermon Summary
Sandy encourages us to live our spiritual journey as a continuous, sometimes bumpy, process of abiding in God’s love through practices like journaling, community, and remembering who we are in Christ, so that we grow in love and faithfulness each day.
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A voice draws a line from a simple morning image—a sunflower turning toward the sun—to a theology of spiritual formation rooted in memory, practice, and love. The narrative insists that growth is not a one-off conversion but a wilderness journey: an in-between season where identity, community, and obedience are formed. Journaling and other concrete practices (Sabbath, reciting scripture, communal rhythms) serve as means of remembering who God is, who God’s people are, and what God is making them into. These practices do not earn God’s affection; rather, grace supplies the power to engage in disciplined effort. The life of faith is portrayed as active participation—reciting the Shema, celebrating festivals, shaping calendars—to keep the heart focused on God and others.
Scripture anchors the argument: the Exodus narrative maps the trajectory from slavery to promised land as an image of rescue, formation, and destiny. John 15 reframes the goal as abiding in love—living in the location of God’s affection so that joy may be complete and love for neighbour flows naturally. Community appears both as the setting where love is practised and the mirror that reveals pride, envy, and hidden desires; honesty within community and the habit of writing truthfully about inner life become instruments of repentance and restoration. Testimonies about journaling show it exposing distortions, cultivating gratitude, and preserving highlights that otherwise vanish into discouragement.
A robust pastoral theology emerges: God has given all that is needed for life and godliness—promises, practices, and community—and believers are called to “make every effort” to support faith. Spiritual disciplines are framed practically: choose two to four habits suited to one’s season, embed them in daily rhythms, and let them shape calendars and conversations. The final invitation is reflective: do believers truly believe that love for others springs only after experiencing God’s love? The urgency is pastoral and practical—practice remembering, practice abiding, and practice loving—so that the pilgrim journey toward fullness becomes a lived apprenticeship in divine love.
Key Takeaways
- 1. Be like the sunflower:
Keeping gaze fixed on the true source simplifies spiritual life: distraction fragments devotion and produces anxiety; a fixed orientation cultivates coherence of heart and purpose. The discipline of fixity—through prayer, scripture, or a daily habit—rewires attention so that temptations lose their novelty and grace becomes visible in ordinary moments. This is not moralism but a training of perception to see God’s presence in the small and the ordinary.
- 2. Wilderness forms identity and community:
The in-between of the wilderness is where a people learn who they are: freed from an old system, learning covenantal habits, and forming mutual dependence. Hard seasons disclose idols, shape desires, and teach obedience that a single conversion cannot produce. Treat the wilderness as a classroom where memory practices and shared rituals teach a new way of living together.
- 3. Grace empowers steady effort:
Grace is not opposed to work; it is the strength by which faithful effort becomes possible without turning into performance. Spiritual disciplines are means of enjoying God’s love, not bargaining chips to obtain it; effort shapes character when sustained by the Spirit. Choose practices that fit the season and let grace multiply the return on faithful investments.
- 4. Abide in love, practice community:
Abiding is about location—making home in God’s love so love becomes the grammar of action toward others. Community both reveals selfishness and offers repentance, forgiveness, and growth; honest practices like journaling surface illusions and invite healing. Love learned in solitude must be tested and deepened in relationships where mercy is practised.
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