16% Approval Rating Series

-Henry Blackaby authored a great book years ago called “Experiencing God.” And in his book he says:

“God’s invitation for you to work with Him always leads to a crisis of belief that requires faith in action.” Henry Blackaby

-I first came across that saying, “the crisis of belief” 12 years ago when we left our church and our home to start Adventure.

-We believed God was calling us here. We obeyed when we packed up and moved. But we had that crisis of belief!

-I liked where I was. I was doing good where I was. I was comfortable where I was. That call to McMinnville was scary.

-Even after we came there were many days where I struggled to have faith that God had called us and would see us through.

-Did I really believe what God says or not?

-When God is calling us…we have that crisis and then…

-OUR ACTIONS REVEAL WHAT WE REALLY THINK ABOUT GOD.

-In the 1950s the Governor of Massachusetts was a man named Christian Herter.

-He was running for reelection and was out hustling for votes.

-He had spent all morning campaigning and dropped by a church picnic having eaten nothing all day.

-He got a plate and got in line, and a nice church lady put a piece of chicken on his plate and turned to the next person in line.

-"Excuse me," the Governor said, "do you mind if I have another piece of chicken?"

-"Sorry," the woman told him. "I'm supposed to give one piece of chicken to each person."

-"But I'm starving," the governor said. Couldn’t I have just 1 more?

-“Sorry," she said. "Only one per person."

-The Governor, "Do you know who I am?" he said. "I am the governor of this state."

-And she said, "Do you know who I am?" "I'm the lady in charge of the chicken. Move along, mister."

-He may have been governor, but that lady was in charge.

-Who’s really in charge of our lives?

-We can say “God” right on cue. We can call Jesus our “Lord.”

-But our actions always speak louder than our words.

-When God calls us to act, we often experience that crisis of belief

-In that moment we have to decide what we really believe about God.

-Am I going with God, or staying right where I am?

-The 12 spies were divided.

30 But Caleb tried to quiet the people as they stood before Moses. “Let’s go at once to take the land,” he said. “We can certainly conquer it!”

-Caleb had confidence in what God had said. He had no reservations about following God…his faith & actions matched up

31 But the other men who had explored the land with him disagreed. “We can’t go up against them! They are stronger than we are!” 32 So they spread this bad report about the land among the Israelites: “The land we traveled through and explored will devour anyone who goes to live there. All the people we saw were huge. 33 We even saw giants there, the descendants of Anak. Next to them we felt like grasshoppers, and that’s what they thought, too!”

-10 of 12 men were read to follow God: that’s a 16% AR