Sermon Central
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"Ready-Break"
Contributed by Steve Malone on Apr 15, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: TODAY – I want to talk about a dream… AND – it’s not a dream about; Model T’s, air planes, financial security - or the Super Bowl – it’s a dream about the church….
“Ready – Break!”
If you have your bibles I want to read several passages of Scripture that will kind of serve as a foundation for our study today…
The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you. "I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you." So Abram left, as the LORD had told him…”
The LORD said to Moses, "Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders." So at the LORD’s command Moses sent them out from the Desert of Paran. All of them were leaders of the Israelites….They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. They gave Moses this account: "We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan." Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, "We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it." But the men who had gone up with him said, "We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are." And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, "The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. We saw the Nephilim there. We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them." Numbers 13:1,2, 26-33
“Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the miraculous signs he had performed on the sick. Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. The Jewish Passover Feast was near. When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"
He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do. Philip answered him, "Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!" Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, "Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?" Jesus said, "Have the people sit down." There was plenty of grass in that place, and the men sat down, about five thousand of them. Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish. When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.” John 6:1-13
[Prayer - Lord you are an awesome and powerful God. You love your people. You care for your people. You challenge your people to believe in you and in your power. You call them to live a life of adventure, of reckless abandon for you.
And Lord you are the same today as you were then – you never change.
Help us to see Lord that as your people, as your church – that your desire for us is far greater than our personal care and comfort – you desire a life of conquest and adventure that blesses the nations and brings honor to you. Father fire up your children today – change us – move us by your spirits power..]
Later on today in San Diego – football players from Tampa Bay and Oakland will put on their pads & uniforms, walk into a packed stadium, and before much of the world, not only to play a football game, but to fulfill, to live a dream. A dream to play in and win the Super Bowl.
