Sermon Central
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Bright Hope For Dark Days, Pt. 1
Contributed by Dave Kinney on Aug 3, 2008 (message contributor)
Summary: I probably don’t have to convince you that these are dark days, but my hardest challenge is to convince all of us that theses are still the brightest days! When was the last time you sensed that you were the brightest spot in someone’s darkest place? This
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For 4 weeks we will be looking at the topic, “Bright Hope In Dark Days” and how we must be looking for the best way to be the brightest person in some else’s darkest place. I probably don’t have to convince you that these are dark days, but my hardest challenge is to convince all of us that theses are still the brightest days! When was the last time you sensed that you were the brightest spot in someone’s darkest place?
Video
Today in California, we have 4 types of people that need the most hope:
• Sorrow Ridden
• Addiction Driven
• Grief Stricken
• Dream Broken
Seated right next to you may be one of these individuals!
Which type best describes your past? Stop looking all righteous and pious - we’ve all been one or more of those described – and don’t forget that! Thank God for His grace and mercy!
Ephesians 5:8 “For you were once in darkness, but now are light in the Lord.”
2 Samuel 22:29 “The Lord turns my darkness into light.”
Most churches in California today are more a museum of tradition than a mosaic of transformation! A museum is a portrait of yesterdays buried on display while a mosaic is a portrait of brokenness beautifully on display. And all made possible because of light!
And that’s what FBC is all about and that is what every church in California should be all about!
Folks, there’s a wake up call ringing right now for California, and so far I think it’s gone unanswered! Is it possible that we’re asleep?
There’s a great story behind the birth of America – it was April 1775 and the British were coming! They came into Boston Harbor then the British got into small boats and their army crossed the Charles River and tried to attack Concord and Lexington. Everyone was asleep that early morning except for one – Paul Revere, he was awake and he knew what to do. He got on his horse and galloped from village to village crying out, “The British are coming, the British are coming!”
Candles were lit immediately in the windows of each house and the men put on their clothes and grabbed their muskets, these men were ready in a minute!
Those men went out ready to defend their homes, family and their new nation! Paul Revere sent out a message, a wake up call for all to hear and respond to! But there’s another war going on, an invisible war – and someone today needs to be a modern day Paul Revere, crying out to all Christians in California – “Wake Up!”
The enemy is upon us and we need to hear the alarm!
It is recorded in one Biography of Paul Revere, from his dairy that on April day in 1775, that he had just read the words of the Apostle Paul in Romans 13:11-14 when he got the word that the “British are coming!”
Read Romans 13:11-12
The reason it’s so important for us to wake up in California is because it’s later than we think! The alarm has already sounded!
In our state right now, I don’t know what song describes us best, “I feel the earth move under my feat”, or “Burn baby burn!”
Church, we have a California Crisis before us!
1. There is Anarchy In California.
“Anarchy” = no law, but also confusion and disorder - Webster’s Dictionary
• U.S. first marriages divorce rate: 53.7%
• California first marriages divorce rate: 60.8%
• U.S. second marriage divorce rate: 75.1%
• California second marriages divorce rate: 80.8%
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• An estimated 1 million young Californians had a sexually transmitted disease in 2005, including 1 in every 4 young people in Los Angeles County. -CDC
• “1 out of every 4 California adults had not graduated from high school."
-California Dropout Research Project, August 2007 Study
Sacramento Bee, July 18, 2008 "California is failing our next generation as the doors shut for our young people to have a shot at a good quality of life. There is a sense of hopelessness with most youth in California."
In Redding California last year there was an attempted school shooting that Police stopped the morning the teen was going to kill 6 students including his girlfriend and 1 teacher. After being arrested, listen to what James Boyle only 17 said, “I worship Satan and find a thrill from it. At one moment I was a broken idiot and the next I was in complete control by Satan. I know he is real.”
Satanism is fast becoming the religion of choice for a lot of California teens. And one tool Satan is using is a popular national skating magazine that is published in San Francisco California. The magazine “Thrasher” is the #1 magazine among teen age skaters in America and Europe.
