My Sermon Recap: Love's Greatest Hits Week Five


"You Can’t Hurry Love"


• First we sat in 60 seconds of silence

• Point out what we just experienced. How did it feel?

• Thoughts of, “What’s going on, what’s happening, why isn’t something happening, who’s in charge, did someone mess up? When is this going to end, this is awkward, this is weird”

• What happens when our 60 seconds of silence turns to 6 months? 6 months without a job, trying to sell a home, trying to have a child, waiting for test results.

• Or maybe the wait if for God to do something in someone else’s life? How many of us have prayed for a family member or friend to give their life to God? Or for someone we love to “wise up” and stop making foolish decisions? Sometimes those times of waiting are even harder.

• It’s incredibly difficult. We feel like our life is on pause.

• It bothers us to wait in silly ways too: restaurant – 15 min is longer, does the pager work? See other people sitting down. Or a Dr. office with bad tv and old magazines. Nothing to do but wait. We get mad because we have to wait longer than we expected.

• Waiting affects us all. Everyone here is either just coming out of a long wait, you are waiting, or you will be waiting.

• When we are in those moments of waiting it seems like everything else is happening for everyone else but us. It feels like an eternity

• We pray harder, work harder, and do whatever else we can to hurry God along in our wait.

• Let’s look at Abraham and Sarah (Gen. 12)

• God tells him to pack up and head out. No idea where he’s going or really what God has in mind. We just know he did it. (Heb. 11:8-9)

• As they traveled they had to wonder “Are we there yet?” They didn’t even know where “there” was. Doubt had to have been heavy on their hearts.

• God finally revels His plans: 1) give you land 2) make a great nation

• Problem: Sarah and Abraham are old

• Sarah decides to hurry God’s plan (Gen 16)

• This happened 10 years after they had settled. We get upset when God doesn’t come through in 10 min.

• The longer we’re in this waiting period the more tempted we are to speed things up. It’s in those times that we move ahead with choices that were not part of God’s plan. All because we were tired of waiting.

• We get to a point in life where we tell God, “It’s not that I don’t believe you or trust you but I’ve come up with a really good plan here.

• We wouldn't go see our dentist needing a root canal and take his/her tools and try to do the procedure ourselves becasue we don't feel like waiting our turn.

• That’s crazy but that’s what we do with God

• What happens is we get to point where the thing we are hoping for becomes the thing we are hoping in.

• We cross that line. God says we should put our hope in Him. Not in our circumstances or plans but to wait.

• Sarah and Abraham chose to hope IN a son.

• A mess was made that we’re still feeling the ramifications of today

• God stayed true to His plan. He gave them a son. On His terms. In His time.

• If you’re waiting this morning maybe you need to hear that God has not forgotten you. He’s not left you out to wander around for the rest of your life. He has a plan and he is in control. He just asks us to wait.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My "Crazy Love" Small Group Discussion Questions

Image
I've had the opportunity to lead several small groups based of the Francis Chan book "Crazy Love". The discussion questions that come with the DVD study leaves a lot to be desired. So through my own personal questions and questions from other "Crazy Love" resources online I've been able to develope a more indepth study of the book. Below are the questions I have used for all 10 chapters of the book study. Feel free to use them as you'd like. Chapter 1: Stop Praying Stop and think about the last prayer you voiced. How did you begin? Our Father? Dear Lord? Jesus? What word or phrase did you use to start the prayer? Now, take a minute and consider the prayer you prayed before that prayer. How did you begin? Same word or phrase? Different? Sorta different or radically different? If you begin all your prayers in much the same way, ask yourself why. Read these words from G. K. Chesterton: A child kicks its legs rhythmically through excess, not absence, ...
Read more

Her Story: Does Satan really exist? Many United Methodists see evil as more subtle.

After spending much of my full time ministry life in the United Methodist Church, I found this article very interesting. It's written by Mary Jacobs and she nails the fact that most UMCers are scared to death to mention the "S" word (Satan) or the "D" word (Devil). Jesus stood up to him. Plenty of Christians talk about him. And some blame all sorts of evil on him. But likely you won’t hear his name tossed around much in a United Methodist Church. Could it be... Satan? “For the most part, you don’t hear mainline Protestants talking about Satan, the devil or the demonic,” said Jaime Clark-Soles, associate professor of New Testament at Perkins School of Theology. “I think we’ve handed that kind of language over to the fundamentalists.” Though Methodism founder John Wesley talked about Satan in his sermons, the United Methodist Church has no official doctrine on the devil or the demonic. Few Methodist ministers in the U.S., it seems, preach about Satan as a personal...
Read more

My Office Quotes: "Job Fair"

Michael Scott: Come here. [talking about Pam] I would never say this to her face, but she is a wonderful person and a gifted artist. Oscar: What? Why wouldn't you say that to her face? Pam Beesly: Michael. Do you remember you specifically told me to bring one sheet of paper. You said it only takes one sheet to make a difference. I said, 'are you sure Michael?' And you said, 'Pam! Pam! Pam!' And then you sneezed in my tea and then you said, 'don't worry it's just allergies.' Do you remember that? Michael Scott: Yeah, I'm trying to lure these kids into my booth. But, uhh, kids are very weary of being lured, these days. Thank you Dateline. Michael Scott: Yeah kiss her. Kiss her good. Andy: Short cut! Short cut! [goes flying out of a golf cart] I fell in the sand trap. Michael Scott: Today I am headed over to the job fair at Valleyview high school to find some new interns. Get some fresh blood. Um, euthanize this place. Andy: Hit about twelve...
Read more