Sunday, December 6, 2009 - Northeast & Northwest Regions

 

Communion -- David Massey
Be there in the moment
Luke 22:41  prayer on Mt. Olives
We can't fix it, be present

 

Ron Drabot
Please consider donating Wal-Mart gift cards for people who need them in the church
At Halton Sundays through January 3
1)  Would you consider yourself to be a successful Christian?
we think of success as worldly.  Has it been a spiritually successful life?
2)  How would you define spiritual success?
How does God define it?   (audience participation)
-- fruit - making changes, having impact
-- perseverance
-- in the light
-- act justly (Micah)
-- being persecuted because not conformed to the world
-- please God by having faith

 

Right now -- do you consider yourself spiritually successful?

 

it requires risk
Howard Schulz 1987  bought a small chain of restaurants for $4 million;  on 6/6/92 Nasdeq closed, now worth $273 million -- bought the Starbucks chain
Singing group -- guitar sound on the way out, according to DECA -- Beatles succeeded anyway
Boy cut from his high school basketball team, went home and cried -- Michael Jordan
Man fired from the newspaper - no imagination, no new ideas -- Walt Disney did ok for himself later in life
College man told to drop out - not cutting it,  Thomas Edison

 

In life, anyone who has not failed, has not lived
no spiritual success unless you are willing to take a risk
Want to fail so you can be your best for God
we will fail no matter if a Christian or not, better to fail while striving to do God's will
Eph 5:15-16
Make the most of every opportunity because the days are evil
-- Give it your all
-- opportunities you are waiting for and those you weren't, they come at you every single day
-- obpurtu -- opportunity, Latin phrase, before modern harbors, ships had to wait for high tide; the moment in time when the tide would turn.   If the ship missed that moment, they missed the opportunity

 

We want to have the best spiritual year of our lives in 2010

 

Matt 25:14-30  parable of the talents
5, 2,1 talents given
vs. 19+ master came back
to be happy, use what God has given you, step out and take a risk
vs. 24  we blame others when we fail
someone's else's fault
he didn't lose anything, he didn't spend it on the world or gamble it, he just kept it and gave it back
"you wicked, lazy servant"  called that because he was unwilling to take a risk
he would not make the most of every opportunity
**your conviction of missing out must become greater then your fear of messing up **
the Lord knows we're going to make mistakes
He is looking for faith, he is wanting us to trust him
Faith is trusting God and obeying him no matter what the consequences are
What are you risking this morning?
What are you burying and hiding that God gave you?
Am I building up God's kingdom or my kingdom?
religion --sanitized and organized
simplify your life and it becomes dramatized
if I am the 2 talent person, I don't have to be the 5 talent person

 

Ron has been reading  In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day:  How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars by Mark Batterson
"success is doing the best that you can with what you have where you are at"
If we're not shooting for that, we're missing opportunities
What do Esther, Nehemiah, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and Peter have in common?   They all took a risk
Esther broke the law to defend the Jews, risked her life
Nehemiah went before the king to help his people
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego would not bow down to any image
God can save us if he wants
God is calling us to obey, they went into the furnace.   They were fired up Christians.

 

Peter & John were told to shut up or lose their lives.  They watched all the apostles die by taking risks, including Peter.
Look around at each other in church - why doesn't so and so have bigger dreams? Those who are not disciples, you are guilty of the 1 talent man, missing an opportunity to obey God.   Time to get baptized.

 

Those who are disciples, God is giving you opportunities every day to love people.   Not to look after number one.  
Hard to be spiritual through challenges. 
God is calling you, too.  It's the hot line, we need to pick it up.   Respond to what he's asking you to do.

 

Sinking is better than sitting to be successful.
Matt 14:25   Jesus walks on the water
his apostles were freaking out
Peter stepped out on faith
God let him walk on water
2 types of people:
creators - people who walk on water
criticizers - people who criticize those who sink

 

Hell begins the day that God grants you the vision to see all that you could have done, should have done, and would have done, but did not do.
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German author, scientist and statesman

 

Two Cornell Psychologists, published in 1994, studied the effect of regret in the short run and long term.    When focused on the past week, subjects were rather evenly split between those who most regretted their actions (53%) and those who most regretted their failures to act. Looking back over their lives to that point, however, a substantial majority of the subjects (84%) reported greater regret for what they failed to do.

 

You're a sinner just like us, quit pretending you're not.
You know if you are not obeying  God. 
Zach 4:10  do not despise your small beginnings
Movie -- "What About Bob?"    take baby steps
Luke 16  those who can be entrusted with small things
Judges 3:31  Shamgar  
1 verse in the whole Bible -- he struck down 600 Philistines, he used an oxgoad, a stick to move oxen - he had no sword, shield, armor
with the little that he had, he saved Israel

 

All I've got is a stick, the Charlie Brown of the church
We’ll start killing some Philistines

 

are you ready, church, to have the best year of your life? 
he needs more of us to say "me too"

 

Jer 46:17  Pharaoh was a loud noise because he missed his opportunity