Part 4: Unlock Your Potential
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Spiritual Momentum Builders
Pathway – People – Priorities – Potential
“What is potential ? It is your unused strengths. Your hidden talents. Your untapped abilities. Your dormant talents. Your capped capabilities.
There is a great wealth of potential within you!
But you must decide if you will deprive the world or bless the world with those gifts that are locked away inside you.If you decide that you do want to move to that next level in your growth, the next step is to understand how God has the power for unlocking your potential.”
-Pastor Rick Warren
“Do one thing every day that scares you.”
-Eleanor Roosevelt
“I am always doing things I can’t do— that’s how I get to do them.”
-Pablo Picasso
“Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark, professionals built the Titanic.”
-Unknown
Prophet Potential
Jeremiah – Jonah – Moses
Jeremiah…No Experience Necessary
The word of the Lord came to me, saying,“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you,
before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
“Alas, Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I do not know how to speak; I am too young.”
But the Lord said to me, “Do not say, ‘I am too young.’
Jeremiah 1:4-9
Jonah…Breaking Down Barriers
But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity.
But the Lord replied, “Is it right for you to be angry?”
Jonah 4:1-4
Moses…Never Too Late To Make A Dfference
The Lord said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey…and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them. So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” Exodus 3:7-10
But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”
And God said, “I will be with you.” Exodus 3:11-12
From Excuses…
Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?”
Moses said to the Lord, “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”
But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.”
…To Extraordinary
Since then, no prophet has risen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face, who did all those signs and wonders the Lord sent him to do in Egypt—to Pharaoh and to all his officials and to his whole land. For no one has ever shown the mighty power or performed the awesome deeds that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. Deuteronomy 34:10-12
My Potential:
I can do all things through him who gives me strength.
Philippians 4:13
Part 3: Set Your Priorities
Sunday, January 24, 2016
Spiritual Momentum Builders
Pathway – People – Priorities
Fit God First
Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Matthew 6:33
[Big Rocks Illustration]
Act Now
Jesus said to another man, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” Jesus said to him, “Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
Luke 9:59-60
Surrender More
“He must become greater, I must become less.”
-John the Baptist from John 3:30
Priorities for Spiritual Momentum
Fit God First – Act Now – Surrender More
Part 2: Gather Your People
Sunday, January 17, 2016
Momentum:
The strength or force that allows something to continue or to grow
stronger or faster as time passes.
Spiritual Pathways:
Creation – Intellectual – Service – Worship – Activist – Contemplative – Relational
Buddy System…Best Dynamic Duos!
3 Reasons We Need One Another
Support – Involve – Persevere
Support One Another: Moses with Aaron & Hur
As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning, but whenever he lowered his hands, the Amalekites were winning. When Moses’ hands grew tired, they took a stone and put it under him and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held his hands up—one on one side, one on the other—so that his hands remained steady till sunset. Exodus 17:11
Keep Each Other Involved: Paul & Barnabas
Then Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul, and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch. Acts 1:25-26
Persevere Together: Jesus & The Disciples
Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.”
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” Matthew 26:38-40
Who’s Your Buddy?
As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.
Proverbs 27:17
Part 1: Find Your Pathway
Sunday, January 10, 2016
Momentum:
The strength or force that allows something to continue or to grow
stronger or faster as time passes.
“God wants to be fully present with each of us. But because he made us to be different from one another, we are not identical in the activities and practices that will help us connect with him.”
– John Ortberg, God is Closer Than You Think
Why else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each differently?
– C.S. Lewis
Spiritual Pathways
The context or setting for which you most naturally sense God’s presence, most effectively experience spiritual growth, most clearly hear God’s voice.
Finding Your Pathway: How do you best experience God’s presence?
Creation – Intellectual – Service – Worship – Activist – Contemplative – Relational
Intellectual
…learning more about God and spiritual matters through study, discussion, & reflection.
“Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long.”
Psalm 119:97
Relational
…experiencing trusted, Godly relationships in your life.
“Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another.”
Hebrews 10:25
Creation
…being out in nature soaking up God’s handiwork.
“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge…Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.
Psalm 19:1-4
Worship
…expressing your heart to God through praise and adoration.
“David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the LORD with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouts and the sound of trumpets.”
2 Samuel 6:14-15
Activist
…defending a cause or standing up to an injustice.
“Zeal for your house will consume me.”
John 2:13-17
Service
…doing hands-on tasks to help others.
“I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”
Matthew 25:40
Contemplative
…spending large blocks of uninterrupted time alone.
“But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
Luke 5:16
Join the Symphony!
“If all experienced God in the same way and returned him an identical worship, the song of the Church triumphant would have no symphony, it would be like an orchestra in which all the instruments
played the same note.” – C.S. Lewis
Challenge & Caution to Finding Your Pathway
Challenge: Don’t Wait to Get On YOUR PATH!!
Caution: Don’t Avoid the Other Paths