LETS EXPLORE LETS DANCE LETS WALK LETS EAT

LET’S EXPLORE LET’S DANCE LET’S WALK LET’S EAT

Let’s Explore Ron Proper - 9 -23 -18

I. Why can’t I see what others see? 2 Corinthians 4: 3 -4 MSG If our Message is obscure to anyone, it’s not because we’re holding back in any way. No, it’s because these other people are looking or going the wrong way and refuse to give it serious attention. All they have eyes for is the fashionable god of darkness. They think he can give them what they want, and that they won’t have to bother believing a Truth they can’t see. They’re stone-blind to the dayspring brightness of the Message that shines with Christ, who gives us the best picture of God we’ll ever get.

I. Why can’t I see what others see? Galatians 3: 2 -4 MSG Let me put this question to you: How did your new life begin? Was it by working your heads off to please God? Or was it by responding to God’s Message to you? Are you going to continue this craziness? For only crazy people would think they could complete by their own efforts what was begun by God. If you weren’t smart enough or strong enough to begin it, how do you suppose you could perfect it? Did you go through this whole painful learning process for nothing? It is not yet a total loss, but it certainly will be if you keep this up!

I. Why can’t I see what others see? Matthew 22: 37 -40 MSG Jesus said, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence. ’ This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself. ’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them. ”

II. Where are we headed? Galatians 3: 5 -6 MSG Answer this question: Does the God who lavishly provides you with his own presence, his Holy Spirit, working things in your lives you could never do for yourselves, does he do these things because of your strenuous moral striving or because you trust him to do them in you? Don’t these things happen among you just as they happened with Abraham? He believed God, and that act of belief was turned into a life that was right with God.

II. Where are we headed? Philippians 4: 8 -9 MSG Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

III. Letting go of our past 1 Kings 19: 19 -21 NLT 19 So Elijah went and found Elisha son of Shaphat plowing a field. There were twelve teams of oxen in the field, and Elisha was plowing with the twelfth team. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak across his shoulders and then walked away. 20 Elisha left the oxen standing there, ran after Elijah, and said to him, “First let me go and kiss my father and mother good-bye, and then I will go with you!” Elijah replied, “Go on back, but think about what I have done to you. ” 21 So Elisha returned to his oxen and slaughtered them. He used the wood from the plow to build a fire to roast their flesh. He passed around the meat to the townspeople, and they all ate. Then he went with Elijah as his assistant.

III. Letting go of our past 1 Corinthians 13: 11 NLT 11 When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. If you are not where you want to be, why do you keep choosing to stay where you are? - Erwin Mc. Manus, “The Last Arrow”

III. Letting go of our past “The biggest block to our surrender is not our appetites and wayward desires but our addiction to running our own lives. ” - Gary Thomas, Seeking the Face of God

IV. There's been a change of plans - Moses - Hebrews 11: 27 NLT 27 It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.

IV. There's been a change of plans - Abraham Genesis 15: 6 NLT 6 And Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord counted him as righteous because of his faith. - Hebrews 11: 8 -10, 13 NLT 8 It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without knowing where he was going. 9 And even when he reached the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner, living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. 10 Abraham was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city designed and built by God. … 13 All these people died still believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised, but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were foreigners and nomads here on earth. -

IV. There's been a change of plans - Joseph and Mary - Matthew 1: 20 NLT 20 As he considered this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. “Joseph, son of David, ” the angel said, “do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit.

IV. There's been a change of plans - Jesus - 1 Peter 3: 18 AMP 18 For indeed Christ died for sins once for all, the Just and Righteous for the unjust and unrighteous [the Innocent for the guilty] so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the Spirit;

V. Process to the promise "Thinking you can live in the promise without the process is not living in your destiny, it is living in a fantasy. "

V. Process to the promise Abraham – received the promise at 75 but Isaac wasn’t born until he was 100 (a 25 year process) Joseph favorite son, sold as a slave, wrongfully accused and thrown in prison only later become to be a ruler in Egypt and able to save his people from famine. (24 yrs, 11 as a slave, 2 in prison, 11 more before saving his family) David – shepherd boy secretly anointed as king but sent back to the fields only to later play music in the palace, promoted to lead armies, get chased by the royal army because the king is jealous, flees for his life to the enemy and yet later to be established as king of Israel. (a 32 year process)

V. Process to the promise “Living for God means I reject the inferior things that give temporary satisfaction because only the kingdom of God satisfies. ” Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God “It is never okay to live short of the miraculous. ” Bill Johnson, Face to Face with God

V. Process to the promise Hebrews 11: 32 -38 MSG I could go on and on, but I’ve run out of time. There are so many more—Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel, the prophets. . Through acts of faith, they toppled kingdoms, made justice work, took the promises for themselves. They were protected from lions, fires, and sword thrusts, turned disadvantage to advantage, won battles, routed alien armies. Women received their loved ones back from the dead. There were those who, under torture, refused to give in and go free, preferring something better: resurrection.

V. Process to the promise Hebrews 11: 32 -38 MSG Others braved abuse and whips, and, yes, chains and dungeons. We have stories of those who were stoned, sawed in two, murdered in cold blood; stories of vagrants wandering the earth in animal skins, homeless, friendless, powerless—the world didn’t deserve them!—making their way as best they could on the cruel edges of the world. Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.

V. Process to the promise Revelation 19: 11 MSG 11 Then I saw Heaven open wide—and oh! a white horse and its Rider. The Rider, named Faithful and True, judges and makes war in pure righteousness. Revelation 19: 9 NLT 9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb. ” And he added, “These are true words that come from God. ”

V. Process to the promise Billy Graham "Some day you will read or hear that Billy Graham is dead. Don't you believe a word of it. I shall be more alive than I am now. I will just have changed my address. I will have gone into the presence of God. “ "I'm counting totally and completely on the Lord Jesus Christ, and not on Billy Graham. I'm not going to Heaven because I've read the Bible, nor because I've preached to a lot of people. I'm going to Heaven because of what Christ did. "

Let’s Explore It All Starts with Salvation • Admit that you are unable to stop sinning on your own • Believe that Jesus is the only way to achieve eternal life (that starts NOW) • Ask Jesus to save you from yourself and save you out of your sins • Accept Him as Lord of your life (stop trying to run it your own way)

Next Week Let's Sit on the Porch