Sermon Central
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Seizing The Moment For God.
Contributed by John Gullick on Sep 14, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: A sermon that uses Matthew chapter 14 to look at how Jesus seizes opportunities in a incident in his life and suggests how we can do the same.
Seize the moment.
Trite saying for a crazy world or biblical principle?
Conduct yourselves with wisdom toward outsiders, making the most of the opportunity. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned, as it were, with salt, so that you may know how you should respond to each person.
September 11th 2001 will go down in History as a day of terror a day of shock and a day when the innocence of the world was damaged forever.
It was a moment when some Muslim men seized the moment to murder and maim innocent people. They made a deliberate choice and were prepared to face the consequences.
About 2000 years earlier a man called Jesus Christ seized the moment when he was arrested in Jerusalem to change the world forever for good.
Jesus mindful of this moment in a garden called
Gethsemene, realised the awesome moment this was in his life.
He prayed for God’s strength to take him through the few intense hours that were to follow and he prayed about a possible plan B.
Luke chapter 22; 42 "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." 43 An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. 44 And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.
When there was no plan B presenting Jesus Seized the moment and changed the known world forever.
Throughout history since many men and woman have seized the moment for God and grown the Kingdom of God on earth.
The reason we have enjoyed a reasonably secure century and a half of history in this nation is becauswe our society was founded on a Christian style of government.
In the past Christian men and woman have seized the moment to attempt to build a Christian based society.
Current moves threaten to plunge the world into a new dark age of moral decline and brutal dictatorships.
We live on a precipice of history and the future will ultimately depend on brave Christian men and woman who seize the moment for God.
Little acts of bravery in the Christian faith produce great growth and fruit.
You know we need to seize the moment and act straight away the way God wants us too in situations.
In the following reading we notice that Jesus seizes the moment three times.
Three times we hear the word immediately in this passage.
MT 14:22 Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowd. 23 After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat was already a considerable distance from land, buffeted by the waves because the wind was against it.
MT 14:25 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, walking on the lake. 26 When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. "It’s a ghost," they said, and cried out in fear.
MT 14:27 But Jesus immediately said to them: "Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid."
MT 14:28 "Lord, if it’s you," Peter replied, "tell me to come to you on the water."
MT 14:29 "Come," he said.
Then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, "Lord, save me!"
MT 14:31 Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. "You of little faith," he said, "why did you doubt?"
MT 14:32 And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. 33 Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of God."
In this great passage we learn three situations in life where we need to seize the moment that God has put before us.
This morning I would like to encourage you to consider these three seize the moment opportunities that God will surely give you:-
The first moment that Jesus seizes in this reading is the opportunity to spend time with God.
We live in a high pace world – Jesus did too!
He has had a frenetic day and he chooses to take the time to be alone with God.
He seizes the moment.
The scripture says.
Be still and know that I am God.
We need to learn to prioritise our time with God.
What do we do first?
Check in with God or check our answer machine and our emails.
Thomas Carlyle once said:- “The final question which each one of us is compelled to answer is, “Wilt thou be a hero or a coward?” This question constantly confronts us in one form or another. Faith is always confronted with a choice.
