Sunday, December 22, 2013
Monday, November 25, 2013
Thanksgiving Feast 2013
We had a great time stuffing ourselves with amazing food cooked by Josh & Emma and their hard-working team! The best part was seeing our high schoolers and middle schoolers spend time getting to know each other better!
You can find the rest of the photos here:
Captain's Coming!
Everyone had a BLAST at 5th & 6th Grade Pizza and Games yesterday. Keeping a straight face is hard when you're having so much fun!
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Youth@Hope Instagram Scavenger Hunt 2013
It might not have been the original plan, but we had a blast!
Friday, November 22, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
"PANIC!" 11.3.13
Last week I mentioned that when you get "old" like me, you realize that there are things you are good at and things that you are not good at. Obviously, not only am I not good at plants but I also need to go back to elementary school science class to be reminded that plants take in carbon dioxide and not oxygen.
Anyway, one of the other things I have pretty much completely given up on is being "aware" of popular culture. I used to really try to keep up with music, television, movies and social media because it's kind of my job as a youth worker to know what's “cool” and what's "not". But I just don't have the energy in my life or the room in my brain to gather and store this information anymore! And to tell you the truth, it all just annoys me anyway, so I'm totally okay with being clueless.
The thing I hate most about our culture right now is "viral" anything. I could go on a rant for hours about how much I hate viral blog posts, videos, memes and just "fads" in general.
But there's one thing that annoys me in particular. It's been SO popular and everywhere you turn someone has changed the words and created their own version of it. I've seen six billion different versions on Facebook, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and phone cases. I've even seen Upper Merion shirts with a version of this on it!
My question for you tonight is: Do you actually know where this came from? I honestly, for like a year now, just assumed it was from some reality TV show or something. I actually thought it had something to do with the show "Jersey Shore" (I told you I'm clueless!). Anyway, in case you're as clueless as me, I'll fill you in:
This graphic was originally a "motivational" poster that was created in 1939 by the British government as World War Two was breaking out. Basically, the idea was that in the event of an attack from Hitler's forces on Great Britain's soil, seeing these posters would help people understand that widespread panic would only create chaos and make an attack that much worse. Instead, they should make every effort to "Keep Calm and Carry On".
This is night one of our series on COURAGE. It's pretty ironic that I am standing up here talking to you about this because the courage factor in my life is about zero on most days.
But one thing I do know a whole lot about is FEAR. God has brought me on a crazy, ridiculous journey over the past 8 years or so when it comes to fear in my life. So you could say I've been working on this message since around fall of 2005 and I'm honored to share with you tonight some of what God has taught me.
If you were to Google the list of top fears that the majority of people experience, you would get all sorts of different combinations of the following: spiders, snakes, the dark, heights, and public speaking.
But in reality, those are NOT the things we fear most. No matter how tough we think or say we are, we ALL have fears that run much deeper than bugs or unexplained noises in our houses late at night. And we deal with these fears on a daily basis. When you really stop to think about it, we all make tons of choices every day that are based on fear. Why do you do your homework? Why do you drive (close to) the speed limit?
Here are the TRUE top five things I believe we fear as humans:
Rejection
Loss
Failure
Pain
The Unknown
All of these things are really scary to us (whether we want to admit it or not) and when one or more of these things presents itself as a very real possibility in our near future, we fear. And when we fear, we REACT.
We're going to go way back in time to the book of Exodus, the second book of the Bible. If you were here a few weeks ago, we talked about a guy named Abraham who was given a promise by God that he would be the father of a "great nation". Well, a few hundred years and many generations later, this family had multiplied hugely and this promise was absolutely coming true.
The bad news was that in that time, they had also become slaves in a place called Egypt and were under the rule of a brutal Pharaoh, who feared the loss of his power to this group of people that was multiplying in numbers and therefore, in their own power.
But God raised up another guy named Moses to take on Pharaoh and convince him to free the people. It worked and after 400 years they were finally FREE and this massive nation of hundreds of thousands of people walked on foot out of Egypt.
We're going to pick up the story in Exodus 14:5-9:
When word reached the king of Egypt that the Israelites had fled, Pharaoh and his officials changed their minds. "What have we done, letting all those Israelite slaves get away?” they asked. So Pharaoh harnessed his chariot and called up his troops. He took with him 600 of Egypt’s best chariots, along with the rest of the chariots of Egypt, each with its commander. The Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, so he chased after the people of Israel, who had left with fists raised in defiance. The Egyptians chased after them with all the forces in Pharaoh’s army—all his horses and chariots, his charioteers, and his troops. The Egyptians caught up with the people of Israel as they were camped beside the shore near Pi-hahiroth, across from Baal-zephon.
That "shore" that they were camped along is important to note. The Israelites had left Egypt and were now backed up against the Red Sea, with Pharoah's armies on their way. I would say that fear in this moment would have been an understatement!
Tonight we're going to look at the REACTION that the fear the Israelites experienced in that moment caused, because it is really similar to how we react to fears in our own lives today.
As humans we have a few basic reactions to fear. Sometimes our automatic reaction is to FIGHT. Some of the Israelites may have wanted to fight, but given that they had just been in slavery for multiple generations, you can guess that at this point they didn't have many trained warriors or large stashes of weapons. Fighting back at this point against the powerful forces of Pharaoh was not an option.
Sometimes our reaction is to HIDE or RUN. The Israelites might have liked to hide, but it's really hard to hide hundreds of thousands of people. And running or fleeing wasn't really an option either, because they were backed up against the Red Sea.
So here's how they DID react.
Verse 10: "As Pharaoh approached, the people of Israel looked up and panicked when they saw the Egyptians overtaking them."
When fear stares us in the face, we tend to PANIC. The basic definition of panic is: an overwhelming sensation of fear that causes a person or a group of people to stop thinking rationally and logically. When you panic, your heart rate goes up and you start seeing in your head all of the "What if's" and you can literally lose your mind. In our house we call this a "freak-out". And what happens when you freak out is that you often go to extremes.
The Israelites had a pretty good reason to panic - their greatest fear was chasing them down and they had no where to run. So they lost their minds and went to an extreme place. After being freed from 400 years of slavery, they said this in verses 11 and 12:
They cried out to the Lord, and they said to Moses, "Why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? Weren’t there enough graves for us in Egypt? What have you done to us? Why did you make us leave Egypt? Didn’t we tell you this would happen while we were still in Egypt? We said, ‘Leave us alone! Let us be slaves to the Egyptians. It’s better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!'"
For the Israelites this "panic" looked like:
1. Questioning (“Why is this happening to us?”)
2. Blaming (“You did this to us!”)
3. Irrational Thinking (“We'd rather be slaves than have to trust God in a scary situation!”)
We generally don't hit all of these extremes in our everyday life, but we DO panic. We might not run around screaming and shouting, but we DO see something happen or hear about something that has happened or is going to happen and somehow, something we hold on to is threatened. And we lose our minds. We have to go tell someone or tweet about it or find someone or something to make us feel better right away. A lot of times we make extreme decisions in those moments. Unfortunately, lots of times those decisions, made in a moment of irrational thinking, are extremely bad decisions that have major consequences in our lives. It's panic that leads us to fight, hide, or run away. It's panic that leads us to obsessively try to control a situation or manipulate people. It's panic that causes us to say things that hurt others - things that we can't take back.
Verse 13: "But Moses told the people, 'Don’t be afraid. Just stand still and watch the Lord rescue you today. The Egyptians you see today will never be seen again. The Lord himself will fight for you. Just stay calm.'"
When you first read this verse, you might think, "Okay, God is telling them (through Moses) to stop running around." To just literally stand still. But really what He was saying was deeper than "stop physically moving", it was more like "Shut up!" He was telling them to stop the irrational complaining and whining - to calm the inner freak out that was causing the mass hysteria. He was asking and commanding them to still their hearts and their minds.
One of the reasons this poster has become so popular is because of how simple but bold the message is. When the British government designed the poster, the idea was that it was supposed to be a message from the King of England to the people as a clear reminder of the authority of the throne, that they could "keep calm" because they could TRUST in the decisions that were being made for them. That's why they put the crown symbol on top. The hope was that seeing that symbol would hopefully remind the people of who was "in control" and motivate them to stay calm.
When Moses told the Israelites to "stand still" and "stay calm" He didn't just tell them TO stop, He told them WHY to stop. They didn't HAVE to panic because God was in control and He had all the power in the universe to fight FOR them.
Psalm 46:10 says "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
The phrase for "be still" in this verse actually means to "let go" or "release". The root of panic and fear is a false assumption that you actually have control. The root of fear is a false belief that these five things are something you have control over:
Rejection
Loss
Failure
Pain or Discomfort
The Unknown
Some of you have met my niece, Aleah, who is six years old. One Sunday when we were in Vermont, we were with Aleah at church. At First Baptist, they say “The Lord’s Prayer” out loud together every Sunday. They say it in the more “traditional” way, so it’s “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed by Thy Name, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done”. During the service that day, I was standing next to Aleah and I was listening to her say all the words - it was so adorable! And then as it went along, I heard her say he’s like “Hallowed by Thy Name, MY Kingdom come, MY will be done.”
The biggest reason we panic and fear is because things aren't going the way that WE want them to or the way WE planned for them to: "MY Kingdom is not coming – or at least I’m afraid that it won’t."
Psalm 46:10 tells us that if we want to stop the cycle of panic and fear, we have to LET GO and RELEASE that control that we think we have. And we do that by doing what the second part of this verse says - we know that He is God.
The number one way to stop the panic, the number one way to overcome ANY fear in your life is WORSHIP. Every time you worship, through songs or just through your words or thoughts, you know and understand just a little bit more what it means that He is GOD. And the more you start to understand what that means, the more you understand that panicking, even though it comes so naturally to us, is completely pointless.
The beginning of this chapter of Psalms starts off by saying in verse 1: "God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." Ever-present. Always here. Verse 7 calls God "the LORD Almighty" or the "Commander of the heavenly armies". There is a dimension and an entire alternate reality that literally surrounds us - it's not up outside this planet in outer space billions of miles away. God, in ALL of His power is EVER-PRESENT. If you have made the choice in your life to receive Christ and start a true relationship with Him, the God of the universe, the commander of angel armies has GOT YOUR BACK AND YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO FEAR.
Exodus 14:15: "Then the Lord said to Moses, 'Why are you crying out to me? Tell the people to get moving!'"
GET MOVING? Kind of funny that His first instruction to them was to "be still" but at the very same time He told them to "get moving". Of course at first that might have sounded like a ridiculous thing to do. Where were they supposed to get moving to? They had no where to go!
In verse 16 God said to Moses, "'Pick up your staff and raise your hand over the sea. Divide the water so the Israelites can walk through the middle of the sea on dry ground.'"
And they did.
But this is the part that really gets me. Exodus 14:17-18:
"And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they will charge in after the Israelites. My great glory will be displayed through Pharaoh and his troops, his chariots, and his charioteers. When my glory is displayed through them, all Egypt will see my glory and know that I am the Lord!”
The greatest consequence of fear in our lives is not that we might panic and cause a worse problem by making a mistake or hurting someone. The greatest consequence of fear in our lives is that God might present us with an opportunity and we might be so focused on ourselves and so paralyzed by our fears that we might miss out on a chance to walk forward in obedience and bring Him glory. THAT is what is at stake.
The consequence is not that God won't be glorified. Psalm 46:10 says, "I WILL be exalted among the nations, I WILL be exalted in the earth.” He doesn't need you to glorify Him, but He does WANT to show up in your life in a big way.
God was PHYSICALLY leading the Israelites with a pillar of cloud and fire as they fled and traveled away from Egypt. He’s God, He had a map! Don’t you think He knew exactly what He was doing pointing them right into what would have looked to anyone else like a dead end? He absolutely had a plan to show His glory to them by rescuing them and to show His glory to the Egyptians by defeating them.
Just like this verse says that He displayed His glory THROUGH the Egyptians - the very thing the Israelites were so afraid of - He wants to use whatever your fear is to bring glory to Himself and show Himself to you in HUGE ways!
No matter who you are, there is some amount of fear in your life and there will always be. Situations that cause us to fear are a guarantee in this world. But panic is not. Every time you sense the freak-out coming, you have the choice to acknowledge God's presence instead - to choose to worship Him instead. Because the same God who had the power to make billions of gallons water stand up like a wall, is the same God who surrounds you right now. NOTHING in your life is too hard for Him. NOTHING is out of His control. NOTHING.
A couple of weeks ago, a whole bunch of us went on the Breakaway middle school retreat. On Saturday night we were just about ready to start “club” which is kind of like we’re doing right now, only with 300 middle schoolers. Anyway, 10 minutes before club was supposed to start, the power went out all across the camp. There was a generator that kicked in, but it only gave power to certain places and the club room was not one of them. The kids were freaking out because they didn’t know what was going on - the lights kept going out in the buildings they were in and it was starting to get really windy. There was definitely tons of panic! There was panic among all of the youth leaders and the retreat leadership as they tried to figure out how to rearrange the schedule. And the worship team, tech team and I (because I was speaking that night) were trying to figure out how to work with the small amount of power we had.
At one point I ran down to my room to grab my laptop and on my way back, I was looking up at the sky as the storm was moving in. We had been singing a song called “Whom Shall I Fear” (God of Angel Armies) all weekend and as I was looking at the sky I was just overwhelmed with a sense of peace. I was 100% confident in that moment that the WHOLE camp was surrounded with angel armies and that God was going to get tons of glory from this situation!
And He did – the power came back on in the club room at 8:30 - the exact time we had planned to start. The energy for worship in that room that night was out of this world and kids hearts were open to hear the gospel message and several kids accepted Christ into their lives that night.
My challenge to you tonight is to really take some time and talk with God about the fear and panic levels in your life. Think and pray about what it is that you REALLY fear. And then I challenge you to let it go, to release it to God by worshipping Him. He is your strength, He is your refuge, He is your ever-present help in times of trouble!
Make It Real For You
1) Which of the top five TRUE fears is the biggest in your life? Why? What part of “MY kingdom” are you most afraid of losing or having to let go of?
Rejection
Loss
Failure
Pain or Discomfort
The "Unknown"
2) What are some ways you have had a “PANIC” reaction to fear?
3) Read Psalm 46. What are some reasons you have NOT to panic?
"Sunflowers" 10.27.13
A couple weeks ago, I took our two youngest girls to library "Storytime". At "Storytime" the kids sing songs, hear stories and every once in a while, do a "special activity" together. This particular day, the special activity was planting seeds.
So, after the stories and songs were over, the Storytime teacher put a folded up table in the middle of the floor and gave each child a little paper cup filled with dirt. As she went to get the seeds to give out, I looked over at Anna and realize that she was chewing. So I'm thinking, "Hmmmm that's weird. I don't remember giving her any food...?" Then I looked closer and realized that there was dirt all around the outside of her mouth. Soon after that, she started making a "What in the world did you feed me?" face and I'm like "My child just ate dirt." (The poor kid! She's two years old and we just sat her at a TABLE and then handed her a CUP of something! How was she not supposed to think it was food?).
Anyway, all the other moms were looking at me with their polite mom smiles, but you know they were thinking, "I'm so glad that wasn't my kid!". If she wasn't my third kid, I would have probably run over there and tried to get the dirt out of her mouth, but instead I just laughed and motioned to her to wipe her mouth on her sleeve - which she did, except she used her sister's sleeve instead. Awesome.
As believers in Jesus one of our greatest joys and thrills is when we see someone else meet Jesus and accept Him into their lives. It's amazing. But many times after that happens, we just throw all this "stuff" at them and expect them to know what to do with it. And time after time those people, even those who have known Jesus for a while, stumble. They get tripped up in life and the ways of this world and they screw up. Sometimes they just take a nibble of the dirt and sometimes they shove a whole handful of mess down their own throats. And we don't know how to react or what we should do and unfortunately, we end up doing what we've been talking about in this series - we JUDGE them.
This is the third and final week of our judging series. The first week, Tim talked about WHY we judge and how the biggest reason we judge is that we don't truly know a person's story. Every person has a story, every story matters to God and therefore every story should matter to me! Last week Pastor George was here and he talked being "Pirate Christians" who seek out the "NONS" - whoever they are - and instead of judging them, welcome them into God's family.
As we close out this series, we're going to visit the book of Galatians. But first I need to give you a little bit of background. This letter is from a guy named Paul, who traveled around and started and worked with lots of different churches. It was written to a group of churches in an area called "Galatia". The reason Paul wrote this letter is really important to understand. The key verses are found in chapter 2, verse 16: "We know that a person is made right with God BY FAITH in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law" and chapter 3, verse 26: "For you are all children of God THROUGH FAITH in Christ Jesus."
We are saved when we believe, we are saved because of that faith we choose to have in Jesus. This is the message of the gospel - the message Paul was had preached to the Galatians in the first place. But false teachers had infiltrated the Galatian churches and were convincing the believers there that if you REALLY wanted to be saved, you actually had to follow certain laws and rules.
Paul wrote this letter to the churches to clear things up and to communicate the pure truth of the gospel message. After doing this, He went on to explain that yes, your life should and will change after you receive Christ into your life, BUT that change comes through the Holy Spirit working in our lives, NOT by human effort to follow rules and laws.
Near the end of his letter, the last two verses of chapter 5, Paul talks about the real-life consequences of this false teaching in the church. Galatians 5:25-26 "Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another."
This version of this verse actually splits it up into three separate things, but it would be better seen as a chain reaction process. As believers we are growing and we can see how the Spirit has worked in our lives. But every once in a while, a little bit of pride sneaks in and we start taking the credit for how “good” we are now. We become "conceited" and starting to spiritually "show off". This, in turn, "provokes" others and we turn our faith into some sort of contest.
And the result of a contest is that there are always winners and losers. From one side, the result is jealousy - "I'll never be a good Christian like that!" From the other side, the result is judging - "Why can't she just get it together and start really living for Jesus? I've been able to do it just fine!" or "Why can't he just stop that sin and live a holy life like me?"
After stating the danger, Paul moves on in chapter 6 to give the remedy for this problem. This is the practical part where he says, "Now that I've told you the truth and cleared this up, this is what life in the church should look like."
Galatians 6:1-10: "Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important. Pay careful attention to your own work, for then you will get the satisfaction of a job well done, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. For we are each responsible for our own conduct. Those who are taught the word of God should provide for their teachers, sharing all good things with them. Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant. Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith."
Have you have ever been responsible for the care of a plant? One of the things that you realize as you get "old" like me is that there are things you're good at and things you're not - and I am NOT good at plants. I'm not exaggerating when I say that if a plant is left in my care for longer than a day or so, it will die. I cannot will myself to remember to water it and then when I do remember, I feel so bad that I overwater it and drown it. I think plants just like fall over and die when they see me coming at this point!
Unfortunately for me, Jesus, Paul and many other writers in the Bible just loved to use planting, gardening and farming analogies and illustrations in their writing! This is one of those passages.
The key verse for this message is verse 9: "So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up." The end result of a church - a group of believers - is a harvest of blessing. Meaning lots and lots and lots of people coming to know Jesus and lots and lots and lots of people growing closer to Him. That's the goal, that's the harvest!
So, even though I can't grow a plant to safe my life, I do really love flowers because I like to take pictures of them. One of my favorites is the sunflower. I just love how they are so huge and tall and bright. I know this sounds a little silly, but I want you to think right now of our youth group being full of sunflowers. A harvest of sunflowers.
Paul starts off this section talking about those unfortunate believers, which is ALL of us at some point or another, who purposely or inadvertently have shoved some dirt in their mouth. They've screwed up and made a mistake that has hurt them or someone else.
So he says this: "Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path."
In our world today and in this church and this Community, we call this ACCOUNTABILITY, which just means holding each other as believers to the commitment we have made to following Jesus with our lives. It means doing life with someone and then, when you see them being "overcome by sin", helping them back onto the right path.
Accountability can actually be seen as a form of judging, but this kind of judging is GOOD and necessary to the harvest. If we want to reap the harvest, Paul says, it starts here.
We're going to start at the bottom of the sunflower with the roots. Plants need roots to hold them up and hold them in the ground when wind, rain or some other outside force tries to knock them over. The taller and wider the plant, the deeper and wider the roots need to be in order to hold it down.
Accountability must be rooted in LOVE. It's so tempting and so easy to see another believer trip up and go straight to our friends and gossip about it. You know, out of our "concern" for that person. But that's not concern. That's not love. That's provoking. That's contest. This verse implies that we should GO TO them, not discuss it with five other people first to make sure they all agree with us.
If you see another believer (and you are sure they are a believer) being overcome by sin, you must choose to go to them face to face - THAT is love. And you've gotta throw aside any motive in your heart to make them feel bad or for you to be the one who is "right". You have to go to them because you truly care about them. The roots, the LOVE, must be deep enough and wide enough to withstand the winds and the storms.
If you do the research on sunflowers, one of the things you will learn is that the healthier and better cultivated the soil is, the deeper and wider the roots will grow.
The soil for accountability is RELATIONSHIP. Ideally, this is a one-on-one relationship where both people have agreed to hold each other accountable. IF you don't know someone's story, IF you are not invested in a friendship with this person, even if you say you have all the love in the world, that love will only be shallow. Verse 2 says, "Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ." If you want to help this sunflower grow, you have put the TIME and ENERGY in to getting to know this person and their story. Even if it's hard. Even if it's messy. Even if it's a burden.
Moving up the sunflower, we get to HOW this works. Just like all plants, sunflowers need water, air and sunlight to grow. And just like I have learned in my plant care (or lack thereof) experiences, too much of a good thing can actually be a bad thing.
"You who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path."
Gently. Humbly.
Sharing each other's burdens means that instead of: "You're doing this wrong and you need to change", it's more like: "How can I help you?". If a sunflower is struggling or not growing properly, one of the things a gardener might do is temporarily tie a piece of wood or bamboo to the sunflower to hold it up.
Share each other's burdens. "How can I help?"
Verse 3 continues, "If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important." Are you willing to be that piece of bamboo for someone? Are you willing to be that friend who holds them up when they are struggling? Even if it's hard. Even if it's awkward. Even if it requires more strength than you think you have.
Sunflowers are known for their tendency to face the sun. As a sunflower grows, it learns to point itself in the direction where it receives the most light during the day. It learns this - it's a process. But how awesome is that image of a harvest of sunflowers with their faces pointed to the light? A harvest of believers learning to keep their eyes on Jesus. THAT is the goal!
Your goal as a gardener is not to create a perfect, blemish-free, strong plant. There are too many outside forces that aren't in your control. Your goal is simply to put it in a good location, give it what it needs to grow, and give it extra support if necessary. Your goal as a friend and accountability partner is not to create a perfect, spotless, version of your friend that lives up to your standards. Your goal is to welcome them and keep them in a good place. And then gently restore them and be someone they can lean on so that they will turn their face to the Son - to Jesus, because He is the true source of life!
"So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up. Therefore, whenever we have the opportunity, we should do good to everyone—especially to those in the family of faith."
Having an accountability partner may be one of the most important things you can ever be involved in that will help you grow in your faith. I don't know about you, but I want someone to judge me! I want someone who knows me well enough and cares about me enough to be willing to look at my life and have the guts to tell me face to face when I'm screwing up!
Here are a few really practical tips on this:
1) MAKE IT FORMAL
This doesn't just happen. You have to ask for it! You can't just assume that your best friend is going to just "become" this for you. Your best friend may be perfect, but you still need to ask. You've gotta make it formal! And you may even need to be "set up" with someone through Tim or I. That's okay, it may seem weird but you just don't know what God can do!
2) MAKE IT LEVEL
Your accountability partner needs to be a believer who has accepted Christ and who is your age-ish. It's great to have a deeper relationship with a youth leader, parent or other adult mentor, but this accountability thing needs to be someone who is a peer to you because it needs to be a two-way street. And it should be obvious that if you want someone to hold you accountable to your relationship with Christ that they also need to have a relationship with Christ.
3) MAKE A COMMITMENT
It's not like a marriage where once you find someone, you're signed on for life. But it does need to be a one-on-one or very small group thing. You might have other people who speak into your life, but an accountability partner is someone you have made a commitment to spending time with. And a commitment means that even if it's hard or even if you're going through a rough time, you are still responsible for reaching out to and checking in with this person.
4) MAKE IT REAL
It's just flat out not gonna work if you don't actually open up and share about your life. It's not about sharing your entire life story and every detail of your deepest darkest sins, but it is about allowing someone to really know you. And in order for that to happen, you've gotta be open and honest about what's going on in your life.
5) MAKE IT WHAT YOU MAKE IT
Schedules get busy and life gets hectic! It's not about becoming best friends and then doing everything together - it can be as simple as a text at a certain time each night that says "How was your day?". Or maybe you share a verse that you're memorizing or you learn some verses together. It can look however you agree to make it look.
In the end, it's all about those roots of love and the humility that's required to say - "I can't do this alone and I need more than just coming here and hearing some nice inspirational words every Sunday. I need someone to know me. I need someone to notice the dirt on my face and challenge me and maybe even be the sleeve I wipe my mess onto. I need someone to be committed to me. I need someone to point me toward the Son."
BREAKAWAY 2013 Saturday Night 10.12.13
Our theme this weekend is "Follow Me" and last night Scott started out by talking about how sometimes we think we can just kind of "follow" Jesus like we would follow Him on Twitter. I like Twitter, I follow a few people and it's fun to check it every once in a while. But Twitter's got nothing on Instagram!
If you don't know Instagram, I'll give you a little crash course. Instagram is a lot like Twitter and similar to Facebook, but it's all pictures. I love photography and, therefore, I LOVE Instagram! Just like Twitter, you join Instagram and then you can "Follow" people and see their pictures and they can "Follow" you and see yours.
The BEST thing about Instagram is that even if you're not the best photographer or you don't have the latest greatest 42-megapixel phone, Instagram makes your pictures look REALLY GOOD! You can choose from all these cool filters and effects and they make it super easy.
So, if I was to show someone who wasn't actually on Instagram my photos, they might think, "Wow! You're such a great photographer!" But what they don't know is that underneath those beautiful, seemingly "perfect" shots are just some boring old cell phone pictures. Instagrammed photos are NOT always what they seem!
I want you to think about this idea tonight: Things aren't always what they seem.
In the book of John in the Bible, Jesus says seven "I AM" statements. Tonight we're going to talk about two of them.
"Therefore Jesus said again, 'Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.'" John 10:7 & 9
Scott was saying this morning that since most of us have not grown up around sheep, this whole picture Jesus uses about sheep is a little "out there" to us.
BUT one thing we can actually relate to is this idea of a gate. How many of you have ever seen a fence? How many of you have ever seen a fence of some sort with a gate? Gates are everywhere! We see gates on houses or property, gates to airplanes, gates that you have to go through to get into a stadium to see your favorite team play (E-A-G-L-E-S!).
Those are all different "kinds" of gates, but they all have one thing in common. Gates keep people out who don't belong in that area. And only those who meet certain requirements - with some sort of ticket or key or permission - are allowed "IN".
So when Jesus says that HE is the gate and whoever ENTERS through that gate will be saved, He's saying the goal is to come IN here, to come through and be saved. Being saved just means having personal relationship with God now and eternal life with Him in Heaven. So whoever enters through the gate will have that.
And just like all gates, there's a requirement to get IN through this gate.
The problem is that it SEEMS to many people in our world, and it might even SEEM to you, that the requirement to meet or the "ticket" to get in is that you must get yourself together and start following all the rules and being a really good person. Then you can be a Christian, then you can be "IN".
But, like I said before: Things aren't always what they seem.
I grew up going to church EVERY Sunday. I'm not exaggerating - I had a whole chain of "perfect attendance" award pins. I was a Bible trivia champion and on top of all that I was just a really good kid. I can list for you the one time each year from Kindergarten through 8th grade that I got in trouble or even got spoken to in school. Like in Kindergarten when someone spilled their juice on my sandwich and my teacher yelled at me, or in 4th grade when I put an assignment in the wrong place on my teacher's desk. I remember those moments because it really was that traumatizing for me to be spoken to because I worked really hard to be really good.
And I thought that was how God worked, too. I thought that because I went to church, knew lots about the Bible, and followed the rules, that I was already "IN" through that gate.
But one night when I was 16, I was sitting around a campfire at the camp I worked at and I heard for the first time that being saved - having that true relationship with God now and eternal life with Him in heaven - was not just something that "happened" by "default" to people who went to church and did good things. I learned that I could truly and for sure enter through that gate right then by praying and asking Jesus to come into my life. And so of course I did that that night. August 10, 1994 was the night I entered through the gate and started a true relationship with God. That decision that night literally changed my life forever!
The thing that really hit me hard during that time of my life was this verse:
"We are constant sinners; how can people like us be saved? We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind." Isaiah 64:5b-6
How many of you have ever gotten really dirty? Like really dirty? Anyone ever gotten totally covered in mud or been in a really big food fight or jumped or fallen or gotten pushed (yes, this happened to me) into a disgusting goose-poop filled pond? YUCK! When you get that dirty, you try to clean yourself up and three days later you are still finding dirt like in your ear lobes and between your toes - it's just nasty!
This verse tells us that every single person - not even the most moral, good, rule-following person in the whole world is actually "GOOD". And it's not just like we have a little sin here and a little sin there. This verse says that we are INFECTED with sin. It's not just like the mud you got all over you at that rainy soccer practice that you can just wash off, this sin is deep and it's infected us, it's inside of us.
I thought my whole life that I was "good", not just that I was a good person, but that I was "IN" with God BECAUSE I was being good and doing the right things. Don't get me wrong, it was great that I was doing those things and being a good person, but the problem was that I thought that was the requirement, I thought that was my "ticket" to get in. It was like I was walking up to the gate with my pile of good deeds and showing them to God, but all I was actually doing was taking a rag, wiping some of the dirt off me and handing it to Him. "They are nothing but filthy rags."
One of the things Scott mentioned this morning about sheep is that they are dirty and have no way of cleaning themselves.
Unlike most of you, I did grow up - not having my own sheep - but I did spend quite a bit of time around sheep. I grew up in a state called Vermont, about 7 hours north of here and what Scott said is totally true! Sheep are really dirty!
I used my Vermont connections this week and actually have here to show you some REAL sheep's wool. Scott said this morning that this stuff is like literally a magnet for dirt and dust and pieces of hay and leaves and poop. Gross!
So now that I'm a mom, it really bothers me that in every kids book we read about sheep, they look all perfect and bright white and fluffy and you just want to pick one up and snuggle with it. And if you never grew up around a farm or just spent any time around REAL sheep, you might actually think sheep looked like this!
A lot of people, and maybe this is even true of you, think that if you want "IN" with God, you have to be one of those perfect sheep. So many of us think we're already in because we try really hard to do what's right and we put on our church clothes and our church smiles and do lots of good things and, just like my Instagram pictures, we make ourselves look really good.
For some of you, it's the opposite, though. Some of us look around at someone like Scott on stage or your youth pastor or some other kids in your youth group and you think, "I could never be like that. I'm too bad and I've made too many mistakes!" Or maybe you just don't even care because you know it would be close to impossible for you to live up to that. So you come to stuff like this because it's fun and you think, "Well, that's all nice and good - all that Jesus stuff - but it doesn't really apply to me because I'll never be 'good enough' to be 'IN'."
And if you keep believing that, that Jesus is kind of "out of our reach", eventually you'll probably just walk away from Him altogether. Just like Moses, as Scott told us about him last night, he screwed up big time and he took off because it SEEMED to him that God was surely done with a murderer like him.
BUT PRAISE GOD that things aren't always what they SEEM!
The REALITY is that no matter how "good" or how "bad" or how "somewhere in the middle of the two" you are, The Great "I AM", the God of the universe is pursuing you. He wants to have that true relationship with you from this point on and for eternity.
The REALITY is that just like sheep, we can't clean ourselves. No matter how hard you try to clean your "wool", you can't do it. No matter how hard you try to earn or make it look like you've earned a place in Heaven or a relationship with God, it's not possible.
The REALITY is that when God sees you, no matter where you are on that good/bad spectrum, He sees the dirty wool. You were born infected and dirty.
But the most amazing and crazy REALITY of all is this:
Isaiah 1:18 says:
“Come now, let’s settle this,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool."
The REALITY is that we can go from this dirty wool to this pure white wool not by trying really hard to make it look clean, but simply by allowing God to do it for us. The gate to a true relationship with God here on earth and eternity in heaven with Him is not ANYTHING else except Jesus Himself!
Jesus was God on earth as a person. He was born, He grew up, He showed us what God is like. He spoke powerful words about God, He did crazy miracles to prove that He was God, but He also died. He was killed. He was executed like a criminal, on an execution device called a cross, but His death was not failure. His death was very much the exact reason He came.
Before His death, Jesus said this, the second "I AM" statement we're talking about tonight. John 10:11 says, “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep." It was all part of the plan. We're the sheep - we're defenseless and dirty - but He is the Shepherd. And by willingly and literally laying down His life, by dying, HE made us white as snow - white as pure, clean wool.
"For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood." Romans 3:23-24
The sin inside of you is deeper and darker than you will ever know and no matter how you a hard you try to clean it you will never even make a dent. But the passionate and pursuing love that God has for you runs infinitely deeper than the deepest of all that sin.
You can't fix it, BUT GOD CAN. When you choose to receive Jesus into your life, you meet the requirement at 100% because He is the requirement. He Himself is the gate. When we have Him in our lives, God DECLARES that in His eyes the dirty wool is gone and when He looks at us, He just sees perfect, clean wool. We don't automatically become perfect and stop sinning, but when God looks at us from that point on, He sees Jesus in us!
“Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, I will make them as white as wool."
Maybe you have already done that. Just like I was talking about on me on August 10, 1994. If you have already made this decision, you don't have to make it again!
But maybe you need a reminder that you are IN because of Jesus and not because you are doing lots of good things. Maybe you need a reminder that no matter how much you've screwed up since then, God still and will always see you like this pure, clean wool!
Maybe this is the first time you're hearing or really "getting" this. Maybe you've even grown up going to church like me and you just thought you were "IN" and inside the gate because you were doing the right things or because your family is "Christian".
The verse we read in Isaiah 1 says, "Come now, let's settle this". Let's get this straight right now! If this is you, why not make right now the moment you settle this once and for all with God. Stop "Instagram editing" the picture of your life and handing Him your pile of good deeds and get real with Him!
Maybe you know you've been on the outside of the gate. Maybe you just have never heard this before and something is just stirring up inside of you that says, "I want that! I know that God is pursuing me and I want to go through that gate, I want Jesus to be in my life!"
Or maybe you just didn't think it was ever going to be possible that RIGHT NOW, even though you know the sin in your life is real, that YOU, even YOU, in all of your dirt and your mess, could be "IN".
If you are ready to make Jesus REAL in your life, you can settle things up with God right now and truly walk through that gate freely. If you can feel God tugging on your heart right now, talk to Him!
"God, I know that You love me and You are pursuing me. I fully admit to You that I have sin in my life and no matter how hard I try, I'll never make myself clean. Jesus, I believe in You pray that You would come into my life right now. I pray that You would make me completely clean in Your eyes. Thank you for being such a GOOD shepherd. Thank you for saving me. Amen."
"Believing IN God vs. Believing God" 10.6.13
"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." Romans 4:18-21
Tonight we're going to talk about a guy in the Bible named Abraham. His name is a little confusing because he was originally called Abram and then God changed his name to Abraham, so the earlier verses refer to him as Abram and the later ones as Abraham, I'm just going to use Abraham throughout this message because it's easier.
In order for us to really understand Abraham's story, we need to time travel a little, well, actually a lot - like 4,000 years. We need to go back to see what the world Abraham lived in was like.
The first thing we need to know about Abraham's world is that the people, for the most part (the men at least) lived in a clan or "nation" with their families. One man might break off and start a new clan, but it's not like our world where we grow up and move wherever your job or career takes you. You stayed with your family group. You lived together, moved together, supported each other with your resources and and grew in numbers in order to protect your people from warring clans.
The second thing you need to know is that, in this time and culture, each clan had a male leader and then after this male leader's death, his firstborn son, also known as the HEIR, would take over that role as leader. Having a "firstborn son" was an extremely important thing!
We're going to pick up with Abraham's story in Genesis 12.
The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” Genesis 12:1-3
So, this was one of those man-leaves-family-group-to-start-another-clan times. And it was not a small deal. Not like, "Hey, Mom and Dad, I'm gonna move out now and go start a family of my own." He was leaving all those things that we talked about - the land he had known, the support of his people, the resources and wealth they had attained, the protection and power they had in numbers. God told him to leave it all and go start over again and that was a really big deal. A really scary big deal.
But God didn't just tell him to go without making a promise to him first: "I WILL make you into a GREAT nation."
There was a slight problem with this promise, though. And we read more about it a couple chapters later.
Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.” But Abram replied, “O Sovereign Lord, what good are all your blessings when I don’t even have a son? Since you’ve given me no children, Eliezer of Damascus, a servant in my household, will inherit all my wealth. You have given me no descendants of my own, so one of my servants will be my heir.” Then the Lord said to him, “No, your servant will not be your heir, for you will have a son of your own who will be your heir.” Then the Lord took Abram outside and said to him, “Look up into the sky and count the stars if you can. That’s how many descendants you will have!” And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith." Genesis 15:1-6
The promise of God to Abraham was that his family would become a great nation and that his descendants would be as many as the stars. But in order to become a nation or even have descendants at all, Abraham needed to have children! Specifically, he needed to have a first born son to be his heir.
The problem, as we read, was that Sarah, Abraham's wife was not able to have children. Ten years had passed after God had revealed this promise to Abraham for the first time. In TEN years nothing had happened. And they were getting old. Like your grandparents or even your great-grandparents kind of old. Like 85ish years old.
Another thing you need to know about the culture of Abraham's time was that having an heir and having children to grow your clan was SO important that if a wife could not bear a child for her husband, it was completely acceptable and normal for her to find someone else who could do the job for her. And then this child would be considered hers and become the heir.
So, Genesis 16:1-2 tells us how this goes down:
Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had not been able to bear children for him. But she had an Egyptian servant named Hagar. So Sarai said to Abram, 'The Lord has prevented me from having children. Go and sleep with my servant. Perhaps I can have children through her.' And Abram agreed with Sarai’s proposal.
It just made sense. God had made this promise, but after ten years some doubt had started to sneak in. They still believed God's promise to them, but since it wasn't happening, they thought that maybe THEY were doing something wrong. Maybe God was just waiting for them to do what was normal and accepted at the time. So they did it. But all they ended up doing was putting a world-sized border around an out-of-this-world God.
When God made His promise to Abraham, He made him look up at the sky - at the millions of stars he could see (because he didn't live in a world of city and suburban smog and street lights!). He made Abraham look outside the earth - outside of this world - because His promises are not of this world. But when God didn't seem to be coming through, Abraham and Sarah turned their eyes back to this world for a solution.
It might have been a good, common sense, culturally normal idea, but God didn't honor it. That son, Ishmael, was not the heir, because God had a much bigger plan and He didn't need worldly common sense to make it happen!
For the past couple of weeks, we have been talking about doubt and the struggle that it sometimes is to believe that God even exists. But tonight I'm talking about an even bigger struggle. If you are a follower of Jesus in this room tonight, this is actually the biggest way we doubt God.
Most of us are pretty well sold on the fact that God exists and Jesus is alive. But there is a big difference between believing IN God and BELIEVING God.
Last weekend a few of us went on the first Breakaway Retreat and on Saturday night, we got the chance to ride the Giant Swing. How many of you were around and went on Breakaway in your middle school years? How many of you rode the Giant Swing? I have stood at the bottom of that swing for hours of my life taking pictures and video of people screaming their heads off. But this time I was the one doing it. And I screamed. A LOT. You can ask Tim and Josh because they were on either side of me.
Here's the deal: I could stand there and look at that swing and say I believe IN it. I can believe that it exists. I can believe that it looks like this fun, amazing free-falling thrill. I can believe that it's safe and that I'm not going to die or be seriously injured doing it.
But until I actually step up on that platform, get buckled in, and do it, do I really BELIEVE those things?
I can stand around and look at God and think He's pretty awesome and hear from other people who also believe that He's awesome, but if I'm not actually doing what He says, do I really BELIEVE Him?
Back in Genesis 15:6, right after God promised Abraham that his descendants were going to be as numerous as the stars, it says this, "And Abram BELIEVED the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith."
Just like Abraham, we all have these high moments where it's easy to say that we BELIEVE God. It all seems so real in that moment. We really do trust Him and believe that He's going to do amazing things in our lives!
But when time passes and the doubts start creeping in, our trust starts to fade. And we start looking around at the common sense the world is offering us, which all really does seem to "make sense". And so we do what we think or what the world thinks is best. Like Abraham and Sarah, we end up putting a world-sized border on an out-of-this-world God.
For example...
"Having sex outside of marriage is fine as long as you're being safe, God can't expect people in this day and age to wait until they are married!" BORDER.
"I know I shouldn't be dating this guy because he's not a believer, but if I break up with him then he'll feel rejected and then he might never meet Jesus!" BORDER.
"She is way too far gone to ever become a Christian. There's no point in inviting her to come." BORDER.
"I can't forgive that person - what they did to me can't be forgiven" BORDER.
"My family is a lost cause. Things will never get better." BORDER.
"I know I should find an older Christian to mentor me, but I'm not sure I really need one. And what if I pick somebody and then I don't like them?" BORDER.
"I would love to be in a small group, but I can't be in one with THAT person." BORDER.
"I don't need to go to church on Sunday mornings because I really don't get anything out of it anyway." BORDER.
"I can't talk to that person about Jesus because I don't know enough - they will think I'm weird and start hating me". BORDER.
"You can't truly worship God with a song like that!" BORDER.
"You can't stand up there and give a message to high schoolers and just start reading from the Bible without a powerful opening story!" BORDER.
That last one was your clue - Don't think I'm standing up here judging you, what I just read was a list of things that have came out of my mouth at one point or another, some more recent than others. In every single one of those situations, I put a world-sized border on a God who CANNOT be contained by the ways of this world. God's power is not limited to the ways that things work here on earth.
Then the Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Will I really have a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord?" Genesis 18:13-14
Is ANYTHING too hard for The Lord? The answer is NO.
One of the biggest ways we can learn to truly believe God is not by figuring out a list of rules and then trying to do, do, do. We learn to believe God by understanding and then living a life based on the PROMISES of God.
Galatians 3:29 says, "And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you." God's promise to Abraham belongs to YOU. If you have received Christ into your life and made a decision to follow Him, God has promises for YOU.
This book is filled with promises from God for His people. I'm going to try to sum a few of them up for you, but know right now that I can't even begin to do justice to what God has for you when you trust in Him.
The ways of God are not of this world and neither are the promises of God, so they can't be explained in human logic and when you hear them they will probably automatically cause you to doubt. But that's why they are the promises of GOD and not the promises of this world!
So here they are, some of the promises of God for YOU:
Peace with God for now and eternity
Romans 5:1 "We have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us."
Isaiah 53:5 "But he was pierced for our transgressions,he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed."
Romans 8:1 "Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
Presence
Matthew 28:20 "Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Isaiah 41:10 "So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God."
Plan and a purpose
Philippians 1:6 "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus."
Provision to meet our needs
Philippians 4:19 "And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus."
Power through the Holy Spirit
Ephesians 1:18-20 "I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms."
Protection
2 Thessalonians 3:3 "But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one."
Psalm 121:7-8 "The Lord will keep you from all harm—he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore."
If you have received Jesus into your life, all of those things are for YOU. They are not just pretty, happy, nice things Christians say, they are real raw truth, 100% guaranteed from the very mouth of of a very big, very powerful, very real God.
"Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him." Genesis 21:2
13 years later, Sarah did have a son. The promise WAS fulfilled EXACTLY the way God had intended.
Abraham's family did become a great nation - the Israelites - who we read about through the entire first part of the Bible. And then from them, another descendant of Abraham was born into this world - Jesus. The true fulfillment of the promise that all nations - all of us would be BLESSED through him - was that they would be blessed with a way to be saved and have a relationship with God and an eternity in Heaven through Him.
Ephesians 3:20 says, "Now to him who is ABLE to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us"
God is not just able to do what we ask, He is able to do MORE than we ask.
He is not just able to do more than we ask, He is able to do more than ALL we ask.
He is not just able to do more than all we ask, He is able to do more than all we ask or IMAGINE.
He is not just able to do more than all we ask or imagine, He is able to do IMMEASURABLY more than all we ask or imagine!
We believe in a BIG God who can literally do ANYTHING. And every time we choose not to trust, every time we choose the "common sense", every time we choose the borders, we make a very big God that much smaller in our hearts and minds. But every time we do trust and we do obey, even if it doesn't make sense or seems ridiculous, our God-image grows exponentially. And the bigger you see God to be, the more your eyes will be opened to what He can and what He IS doing!
I'm going to end exactly the way I started. Because just as important as the fact that God is ABLE is the fact that God is GOOD. Even though Abraham and Sarah allowed the ways of this world to cause them to put borders on their trust, in the end, it didn't matter because God is GOOD. Their failures could never overcome His power and His goodness. And even in our greatest weakness, and our greatest doubt, He is still SO good to us. Abraham is remembered 2,000 years later in the New Testament like this:
"Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, 'So shall your offspring be.' Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised." Romans 4:18-21
Make It Real For You
1) List three "There's no way..." situations or people in your life.
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2) What “common sense” world-based solution are you or are you tempted to take in your life right now?
3) Circle the promise of God that you want to really “LIVE” in your life right now. Underline the one that seems the hardest to believe.
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