The Great Adventure Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: February 26, 2010

Date Preached: February 7, 2010

Where Preached: Oak Park (AM)

Sermon Details:

Sermon Series: Series on the Holy Spirit – The Great Adventure!!

Sermon Title: The Great Adventure! Part 1 of 6

Sermon Text: John 14:12 [ESV], various others

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…”

Introduction:

How ‘bout that video? There’s a great message in what Steven Curtis Chapman is singing about in that video. Have you ever thought about your walk with Christ as a Great Adventure? To many people who have professed Christ as Savior, we find ourselves NOT on adventure with God but ‘captured’ by cages of our own making.

The cages of fear, failure, responsibility, routine, assumptions and guilt hem in the believer to where he or she cannot live the life God has called them to live. Now in our passage of Scripture this morning, we find Jesus issuing a very STRONG statement about what is expected of believers that follow Him… Far too often we overlook this verse and don’t take it to heart.

After all, when we read this passage of Scripture, it boggles our mind because we think to ourselves, “How can I do greater things than Jesus?” Now I don’t know about you, but doing ‘greater’ things than Jesus sounds very dangerous and scary to me… how does it sound to YOU?

What we know of Jesus is that He cleared the temple; He held the religious leaders of His day accountable for their actions; He looked beyond boundaries and reached out to those who society rejected; Jesus was willing to touch and be touched by those with terrible diseases and Jesus reached out to all that society had deemed unworthy of God’s love.

Now when we read this, I want us to first understand what Jesus was NOT speaking about when He said that you would do greater things than He did. I believe that what He was speaking about here was not the miracles He had performed, but it was all about way Jesus had went about His ministry and service… I believe what Jesus was getting at here was the courage He had revealed in the face of adversity AND also in the way that He was able to influence those around Him.

Basically what Jesus is saying here is that we can have more than a “Jesus Like” influence on the world around us. I believe what He was saying here was that thru HIM we will be able to do great and mighty things for the kingdom!

Jesus being the omniscient being He is, knew of the technological advances to come and how we would be able to do FAR more in spreading the gospel than He ever could walking from place to place in Palestine.

But what we have to fully understand is that when Jesus ministered to this world… He did so with a courage and bravery that many believe only He could have… but here in this passage… in HIS own words, He is saying that we are called to live a life that is brave and just as courageous and great things are going to happen!

So preacher just what does that mean for us as believers? Let me ask you something this morning, “When you think about the Christian life, what is it you think about?”

Do you think about bravery and courage in the face of evil? Do you think about living out our walk in spite of any and all resistance to God? Do we think about ADVENTURE and DANGER in our service to God? I truly believe there are precious few believers today that live their lives in such a way. Let me tell you about one such believer…better yet, let me show you! [show Hamas video here]

SON OF HAMAS LEADER TURNS TO CHRIST – Fox News Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htwnXODfHuU&feature=related

In this video we learned about Mosab Hassan Yousef, who we now know as Joseph. This young man is serving Christ with great courage in the face of tremendous pressure and the threat of violence and even death! But he serves God, openly and does not apologize for his faith. Now that is what I would call a Great Adventure with Christ… how about you? Is your walk a Great Adventure?

OR are you like SO many professing Christians today that are worried more about following human authority and tradition than they are in serving the One they claim as Savior?

We have to ask ourselves the question,

“Do we believe that the Christian life is about serving a God whose boundaries are LIMITLESS?” OR

“Is our Christian life more about staying within certain pre-prescribed boundaries and limits set by human tradition and couched in spiritual speak?”