Great opportunities do not come without challenges. Often, the greater the opportunity, the greater the challenge will become. If it were always easy, people would be walking into something new all the time, and you would never hear anyone complain about never getting a break. Preparing now to meet those challenges will keep you from being surprised and give you courage to overcome each one. Here are 4 of the biggest obstacles that come with every opportunity. 1. Sacrifice. •If people only did the same things that have always been done, we would still be living in caves and using leaves for clothes. •Great advancements come when someone is willing to sacrifice, because they are passionate about what was possible. •Whether it is time, energy, money, fame, or popularity, as you set your priorities you will have to sacrifice certain things to make the most out of any great opportunity. 2. Knowledge. •Many times the full potential of an opportunity is never realized because the people involved simply didn't know enough. •That fact has kept many people from trying to accomplish great things. •As you undertake any great opportunity, there will be times when you feel like you just don't know enough, but that doesn't mean that you are not the right person for the job. •Make the choice now to study and surround yourself with wise people and you will succeed where others have failed, even if you don't always immediately know the answer. 3. Distraction. •There is so much going on in the world, culture, society, so many things that try to grab and keep your attention. •If you don't choose to stay focused, you will get tripped up by one of the biggest obstacles to opportunity. •Those who can maintain their focus and see vision through to reality are the people who will be able to seize the opportunity and make the most of it. 4. Fear. •The single biggest obstacle to success of any kind is fear. •Fear will cause you to freeze and question if you really can do anything at all. •Fear can make you say "what if" instead of "why not." •If you allow yourself to look at opportunity through eyes of fear you will watch each opportunity pass you by and miss the great rewards of making a stand. •God does not want you to reach out of fear; He wants you to enjoy all the blessings of moving past that obstacle and making the most out of your opportunities. 2 Timothy 1:7 (NLT) "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline."
Then Jesus told this story to some who had great confidence
in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else: [10] "Two men went
to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax
collector. [11] The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: 'I thank
you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don't cheat, I don't
sin, and I don't commit adultery. I'm certainly not like that tax collector!
[12] I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.' [13] "But
the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to
heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, 'O God, be
merciful to me, for I am a sinner.' [14] I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee,
returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be
humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted."
The attitude of
the Pharisee.
•God I
belong here.
•God I
thank you that I'm so much better than the rest of the world.
•God I'm so
glad that you chose me, called me, destined me for greatness and you bypassed
so many others.
Or the attitude
of the despised tax collector.
•God be
merciful to me.
•Forgive
me.
•I don't
always live life right.
•I'm not
perfect.
•There are
times I am so selfish God, change me, shape my thinking, rearrange my life.
2. Attitude of
gratitude or an attitude of entitlement?
•People
live in a attitude of entitlement rather than gratitude.
•Entitlement
says you owe me, gratitude says you owe me nothing.
•Entitlement
says what will you give me, gratitude says what can I give?
•Entitlement
says give that to me now, where gratitude says I'm so thankful for what I have
now, what I am now, and God what you are doing in me in the now.
3. Attitude will
determine your altitude in every situation.
•Attitude
will make or break your future, your perspective on life, in life, and all
through life.
•I've seen
people give up on life, give up on people, give up on themselves, and worst of
all give up on God.
•God never
promised ease, never promised abundance, never promised that hard work would
not be a part of our every day, and never promised us simple solutions to our
every problem.
Acts 2:46-47, NLT "They worshiped together at the
Temple each day, met in homes for the Lord's Supper, and shared their meals
with great joy and generosity--all the while praising God and enjoying the
goodwill of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their fellowship
those who were being saved."
1.They worshipped together.
1.We have to worship in unison, we have
to come together in a plan, a strategy that will change ourselves, culture,
society, and everyone who would connect themselves.
2.You have to choose to worship God and
go all out to Him.
3.Forget bystanders, forget the Devil,
forget society, ,forget shallow relationships, forget anyone that would try to
keep you from worshipping Him and worship!
4.They prayed for each other and deeply
cared about the well being of their community and those entering their
community.
2.Shared with joy and generosity.
1.What?
2.They shared their food with what?
3.Joy and generosity.
3.Continually thanking God and enjoying
the goodwill of all the people.
1.goodwill-Friendly, helpful, or
cooperative feelings or attitude.
2.Thanking God is an action.
1.You have to speak it, act it out,
declare it, and live in it with a sincerity about you.
4.A healthy Christian community
attracts people to Christ.
1.Like a moth to a flame.
2.Like kids to candy.
3.Like a magnet to metal.
1.The church's zeal at this time for
worship and concerned love was contagious.
2.A healthy, loving church will grow in
numbers.
4.What are you doing to make your
church your student ministry the kind of place that will attract others to
Christ?
1.We each have to ask the question in
and of ourselves what am I doing or not doing to grow myself, grow others, and
grow the global church by reaching others for the cause of Christ?
1.We can each make excuses, we can each
choose to be connected or disconnected, we can each choose what our attitude
will reflect but ultimately it's the world that suffers.
2.It's our family that suffers, it's
our peers that suffer, heaven suffers, and it will eventually make us suffer.
1.In these verses we have the history
of the truly primitive church, the first days of it; its state of infancy and
the state of its greatest innocence.
2.These Christians kept close to the
plans and purposes of God, overflowed in respect, reverence, devotion for God;
for Christianity.
1.God continues to remind me that He is
able.
2.He continues to remind me that He is
able to do the impossible.
1.God spread the good news of Jesus
Christ sacrifice to a world without cell phones, Internet, Facebook, twitter,
and email.
2.God did it without speakers, flyers,
concerts, conference, guest cards, electricity, planes, trains or automobiles.
3.He used His Spirit.
1.Maybe we should rethink our strategy,
plans, programming, and structure.
3.These Christians were part of a
regenerating grace.
1.God refuses to close heavens mercy,
refuses to close heavens grace so that all may come to know Him.
2.God "so loved the world, John 3:16" not God so hated us, not God is
so displeased with us, not God can't wait to catch you doing something wrong
but God "so loved" us that
His Son chose to trade His perfect existence for our imperfect one.
4.Christ's attitude was of
overwhelming, confusing difference to culture, society, religion and law than
that of any other king since the beginning of time. Exuding character,
compassion, forgiveness, humility, servitude and vision.
Acts 4:32-33 (NLT) "All the believers were united in
heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they
shared everything they had. [33] The apostles testified powerfully to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and God's great blessing was upon them all."
1.God's great blessing was upon them
all.
1.God's great favor and protection was
upon them all.
Philippians 2:4 (NLT)
"Don't look out only for your own interests, but take
an interest in others, too."
We have been in a
series where we are discussing Greek Mythological gods and how no matter how
powerful or gifted they are that they all have a fault.
Despite what you've
been told, despite any disappointments you might have encountered, despite what
culture, society, or the media might have tried to show you our God is
faultless.
Illustrate here: clash of the Titans Video
Titans are a race
of godlike giants who were considered to be the personifications of the forces
of nature.
They were
immortal giants of incredible strength and stamina they were overthrown by a
race of younger gods, the Olympians, in the "War of the Titans."
Gaea
Greek earth
goddess and mother of the Titans.
Uranus
Uranus is the sky
god and first ruler.
Cronus
The offspring of
Cronus and Rhea were first of the Olympians. To insure his safety Cronus ate
each of the children as they were born. This worked until Rhea, unhappy at the
loss of her children, tricked Cronus into swallowing a rock, instead of Zeus.
When he grew up Zeus would revolt against Cronus and the other Titans, defeat
them, and banish them to Tartarus in the underworld.
Rhea
Rhea was the wife
of Cronus and she tricked Cronus into swallowing a rock, saving her son Zeus.
Oceanus
Oceanus is the
unending stream of water encircling the world. Together with his wife Tethys
produced the rivers and the three thousand ocean nymphs.
Tethys
Titan goddess of
fresh water. Tethys is the wife of Oceanus.
Hyperion
Hyperion is the
Titan of light, an early sun god. He married his sister Theia. Their children
Helius (the sun), Selene (the moon), and Eos (the dawn).
Mnemosyne
Titan of memory
and the mother of Muses.
Themis
Titan of justice
and order.
Iapetus
Titan of
mortality.
Coeus
Titan of
Intelligence.
Crius
Titan of
astrology.
Phoebe
Titan of the
Moon. Virgin huntress.
Thea
Titan goddess of
sight.
Prometheus
Prometheus was
the wisest Titan. His name means "forethought" and he was able to
foretell the future. He tricked Zeus into allowing man to keep the best part of
the animals sacrificed to the gods and to give the gods the worst parts, then
he stole fire from heaven giving it to humankind.
For this Zeus
punished Prometheus by having him chained to a rock with an eagle tearing at
his liver. He was to be left there for all eternity or until he agreed to
disclose to Zeus which of Zeus children would try to replace him. He was
eventually rescued by Hercules without giving in to Zeus.
Epimetheus
Epimetheus was a
stupid Titan, father of excuses, whose name means "afterthought." He
also accepted the gift of Pandora(box filled with all evils) from Zeus, which
lead to the introduction of evil into the world.
Atlas
Unlike his
brothers Prometheus and Epimetheus, Atlas fought with the other Titans
supporting Cronus against Zeus. Due to Cronus's advance age Atlas lead the
Titan's in battle. As a result he was singled out by Zeus for a special
punishment and made to hold up the world on his back.
Metis
Metis was the
Titaness of the forth day and the planet Mercury. She presided over all wisdom
and knowledge.
Dione
Titan goddess of
the oracle of Dodona in Thesprotia, and the mother of Aphrodite by Zeus. Her
name is simply the feminine form of Zeus.
Myth-false belief or idea.
•There are
myths all around us.
•There are
false ideas, religions, half-truths trying to destroy mankind that have come
straight from the mouth of the Devil whose whole mindset, career, and existence
is to destroy.
•We have to
know truth.
•We have to
engage in truth.
•When our
lives disengage from truth we live just like hell itself in the fact that we
try to engage those false ideas, religions, and half-truths into our lives
therefore into culture, society, even the church.
"Look beneath the surface so you can judge correctly.” (John 7:24 NLT)
1.Many people have a surface
relationship with God.
1.They simply see the things He has
done for others, they have heard of the things He has done for others, or they
somewhere witnessed God moving.
2.There is no depth to their
relationship where they actually "know Him."
Know-be absolutely certain or sure about
something, have personal experience of.
•To
"know" Him.
•Not just
His healing, not just His provision, not just His power, nor His gifts, but
Him.
John 7:27NLT "But how could he be? For we know where this man comes from. When the
Messiah comes, He will simply appear; no one will know where he comes from.”
2. Another
surface account.
•Jesus is
just gonna appear right?
•Is that
what the bible says?
•Did it say
this or did it say that? I'm confused.
•People get
confused about God when they only have a surface relationship with Him and
truly don't know Him.
•Why should
I read the bible for myself when I have someone else tell me what it says,
cause that's only surface relationship!
•You should
know Him.
•Not just
know about Him.
Illustrate here: guacamole or a type of weird
looking food that when you actually taste it or engage in it, you love! Or
something deceptive from the outside looks great, try it and it's horrible.
•Surface-the
outside part or upper most layer of something.
•Many
people never get any deeper in their God relationship than the surface.
•Surface
relationship says, "God please do what I want, when I want, your my genie
in a bottle, your my wish list giver, you give me stuff, you give me things,
you are just here to give, give, give.
•God no
matter how much I disappoint you, no matter how much I ignore you, no matter
how much I try my very best to dodge your house, your word, your worship, or
service to others you should do what I say when I say it.
•Surface
relationship is mainly about what everyone sees but not what God sees.
•I go to
church, I'm good when everyone is looking, I do all the right things, and make
all the right decisions when it counts but inside your as evil, deceptive, and
conniving as the Devil.
•When no
one is looking your mind goes to places that it should never go, when no one is
looking you make different decisions with your heart, your actions are shameful
not faultless.
1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT) "But the Lord said to Samuel,
"Don't judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The
Lord doesn't see things the way you see them. People judge by outward
appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
•God does
not work for you!
•He is not
employed by you, He is not salaried by you, He..is..God!
•Faultless
God means I can trust Him, I can confide in Him, I can rely on Him, I can
expect Him to never fail me, I can expect Him to lead and instruct me.
•Faultless
means free from defect or error.
Jude 1:24 (NLT) "Now all glory to God, who is able to
keep you from falling away and will bring you with great joy into His glorious
presence without a single fault."
John 17:3, NLT "And this is the way to have eternal
life--to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to
earth."
How do we get
eternal life? Jesus tells us clearly here--by knowing God the Father himself
through his Son, Jesus Christ.
Eternal life
requires entering into a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ.
•When we
admit our sin and turn away from it, Christ's love lives in us by the Holy
Spirit.
