Are You Spiritually Ashamed? Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: March 11, 2010

Date Preached: March 14, 2010

Where Preached: Oak Park (AM)

Sermon Details:

Sermon Series: The Great Adventure – Rediscovering the Adventure

Sermon Title: Are You Spiritually Ashamed? Part 6 of 6

Sermon Text: John 14:12; Jonah 1:1-3; Josh 14:10b-12

Introduction:

In John 14:12 Jesus challenges believers to a great and mighty task as He says that we will be doing things greater than He did in His ministry here on earth… and for many of us, this is terrifying.

Today marks the final sermon in this series, but for the past five weeks we have been tracking the Holy Spirit… we have been looking how we as believers can discover the Great Adventure of serving God! We have been challenged by Jesus Himself with what He said in: John 14:12 [ESV]

12"Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do…

We have looked at how serving God was not something that we can put into a box, or a neat little package. We saw how the Holy Spirit’s calling on our lives is not something we can reason with or fully understand because God’s thoughts are above our thoughts… His ways are above our ways…

We have seen how we tend to place our human and worldly ‘responsibilities’ ahead of serving God, when God demands that we serve Him first! In Matt 6 Jesus tells those who follow Him:

Matt 6:32-33 [ESV]

32 For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you…

“These things” referred to the everyday necessities of life, and Jesus understands that we need these things and that there are ‘responsibilities’ that we must fulfill in life, but when we place ‘these things’ above serving God…above ‘chasing the Holy Spirit’ we are not being obedient to Christ in His call to seek God FIRST and then God is going to help you take care of ‘these things’

We also saw how we tend to put ourselves in a box when we serve God… You have heard how many try to put God in a box, but we are just as guilty of putting ourselves in a box and limiting ourselves in our service to God when we become slaves to the routine and RUTs that we allow to dominate our lives!

Are you allowing yourself to be swallowed up in routine and missing out on what God has for your life… missing out on the Abundant Life that Jesus has promised!

Then we took a look at how we jump to conclusions and make assumptions that lead us down paths that God does NOT want us to go, and we find ourselves FAR from where God desires…

Our trust and faith in God has to be firm, and we must believe that when God tells us He is going to deliver… HE WILL! Scripture tells us that Abraham TRUSTED God, and believed that God was going to deliver! Are you willing to trust God, even when you can’t see it… even when you can’t understand what He is doing or where He is leading you?

Finally last week we looked at how we all fall into the cage of insecurity from time to time. We question our salvation, we doubt our belief… we find ourselves thinking that God cannot use us because we have failed Him! But we learned that ALL people have failed God, and we looked at Peter and the example he is for us today…

He failed God on a monumental level… deserted Jesus in His time of need after pledging his loyalty… denied Jesus when confronted in public and finally we find Peter departed from his walk with Jesus by going back to his former lifestyle… he went back to fishing!

But we learned that Jesus came to Peter and offered forgiveness and complete reconciliation… complete restoration to Peter! Peter was overwhelmed by the love of Jesus, and when we see Peter next, he is resolute in knowing that he is forgiven and God has called him… and we know that Peter did many great and wonderful things for the church…

Was Peter perfect from then on? NO! Not by a long shot, but the important thing is that although Peter was not perfect… He was changed! He understood forgiveness and God’s love, and began to share that with those around him. What about you? Have you found yourself thinking that God cannot use you because you have failed Him in some way? God can and will forgive and restore to you walk in His light…