Keep the Main Thing

October 23rd, 1994. All Saints’ Sunday at Vision of Glory Lutheran Church. This message from Pastor Leland Evenson is titled “Take a Load off Your Heart.” Drawing from David’s famous prayer in 1 Chronicles 29:10-19, Pastor Lee identifies four qualities that mark those who truly impact others for Christ. Four things that show up in the lives of the saints—those who’ve gone before us and left an undeniable mark on the world.

Pastor Lee opens with a remarkable story about an expectant mother who had to have complete bed rest for the last 10 weeks of her pregnancy. What Pastor Lee marveled at, was she also had complete God rest. Pastor Lee tells us that if we know Jesus, we have His life within us. And in order to carry that life and for that life to come forth in us, we need to learn what this woman had learned. We need complete God rest. Pastor Lee uses three words to outline change: the Position, the Prescription,

Titled “I Need a Change.” Pastor Lee tells us that we are all very good at taking inventory of other people. Living our lives looking for someone else or something else to blame. Always looking outward instead of inward. Found in the Gospel Lesson, Pastor Lee explains that John the Baptist preached one message: repentance. Pastor Lee explores what real repentance looks like. Real change. Fundamental change. Change that starts on the inside.

In today’s sermon, Pastor Lee continues a series he started on prayer. In this message he uses the letter R from the word prayer to teach us, that R can stand for Relationships. Emphasizing that is where the power lies. Prayer isn’t a puzzle to solve. It’s not a transaction or a technique. It’s a relationship—communion with a Father who knows us, hears us, and cares about every part of our lives. That is where the power is.

Pastor Lee opens with one of his most famous stories. In that story there is a single line that captures what Pastor Lee sees as the tragedy of the church. We’re afraid to follow the Lion of Judah into the future. Instead, we want to go back to see where He’s been. We have turned our churches into museums. We see God’s faithfulness only in history. On this Reformation Sunday, Pastor Lee calls us back to the basics, giving us the three essentials that Luther discovered, and that the church desper