One Purpose
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Leaving on a High Note
Leaving on a High Note
As we are leaving this retreat today I want to ask yall what is the best thing that happened this weekend?
as we leave toady I want to give you one more thing to take with you as we leave this camp.
We have talked about some really important things,
that we together make up the church and that is the one group of people that God loves
that this God who loves us is our prioity, there is no one Above him and no one beside him.
that even when we have messed up that God loves us so deeply that he would chase our hearts.
Today I want to tell you that there is One more thing about God,
that is that he gives us this mission and it makes up our one purpose here on earth. We are going to be talking about how God has given us one purpose after he left and this purpose is our mission as we live our life.
We know two things, that Jesus died and resurrected for us, that we could be free of sin and also have eternal life with him. That we no long have to worry about death, but can live a life of joy knowing that God is what comes next for us.
We also need to know that Jesus will come back again, that he did not peace out and never prepare to come back but that there will be a time where he returns to establish his kingdom, and create the new heaven and new earth, a reclamation of the garden of Eden.
However we live in this time between the death and resurrection and the second coming where we must follow Jesus’ last words to his disciples in the book of Acts,
Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
He said to them: “It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
After he said this, he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.
They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.
“Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.”
See the disciples where there ready when the Lord would return to heaven however this passage shows us not the sorrow that was Jesus returning to heaven but rather tells us something else.
See the the way this passage was written did not show to the reader that this was a sad event, rather that their was a purpose to the event.
When jesus heads to hevean the disciples are looking up into the sky and wondering where he went.
“is that a bird, a plane… oh theres Jesus”
However an angel standing behind them has now asked them, what are you doing?
are you cloud watching?
are you star gazing in the middle of the day?
they tell him do not worry about waiting for Jesus to come back, becuase he will and it will be just like how he left.
I want to tell you something, if you are new to a relationship with Jesus or you have been doing this for a while, We are not supposed to stand still and wait for his return.
Now I want yall to hear me right, I say stand still and wait.
scripture tells us many time that we need to be ready for his return, we know that we must be perpared for his return, waiting anxiously for Jesus’ seconad coming.
However here we see that the disciples are asked why are you just looking into heaven?
They say this becuase there is so many other things that they are to do, even in that day alone.
See the disciples are not to stand looking into heaven for Jesus righteous return, altough how much better that would be.
See Jesus comissions his people and he says to them, Go out into the world
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”
His final words are a comissioning to his disciples.
A comissioning is like a word of encouragement or a blessing to complete a mission.
So Jesus here is sending his disciples out with a blessing that his disciples will be his witness.
Power of Witness?
do you guys know the power of a witness?
So if someone has a hidden talent I want to know and we are going to play a quick game to show the power of a witness.
Have participate go outside the room with someone and do the hidden talent.
have them come back in and have the witness tell the story
have the room vote on if the talent is real
See that is the power of a witness,
However the more witnesses to something increases the potential of the message.
We want to share the truth about who Jesus is as a witness, becuase we each have seen his work in the world through these ways:
Scirpture
He is always revealing himself through scripture, we want to tell others what we have read about in scirpture, that Jesus offers both freedom of sins and the gift of eternal life.
Our lifes
if you have had a profound experience with Jesus in your life, you would be a first hand witness. tell others of the experience that you have had with Jesus in your own persoanl life.
How has Jesus effected your life?
lastly is how have you seen God in the world
it’s clear that God still moves in the world today, we can see it and hear it when others witness to him.
We get to pass on stories about others relationship with Jesus.
This is awesome! I do this all the time, I get to speak to others about you guys, that your faith and how you grow in it has impact into other peoples lives, God is working in the lives around me and I am exctied to witness that and share how I witness that.
So, as we perpare to leave this reatreat we must follow through with the comission that Jesus gave us, that we would not stand and look up to heaven waiting for his return but rather to witness to the world around us about what we learned here about God.
So this week as you return to normal, away from a awesome retreat, I want to encourage you to tell people about what happened this weekend, tell them you canoed, tell them you dropped a egg off a balcony, tell them how you encoutered Jesus.
Give them the full story, be a witness to Jesus.
That is where it starts, nobody wakes up and sudden is able to convert the masses of people and grow a church instantly. It is by being a witness to how God is present in the world and through scripture that we see how others come to Christ.
I promise I do not ask you too big of asks, but today I ask something huge, will you be a witness to Jesus?
Peter as a bad example.
Or are you gonna be like the disciple Peter who kinda screwed up. Lets read a bit about that.
See Jesus told our friend peter that he would deny every knowing him for his own gains.
Peter being the Rock that we know, obviously said that would be impossible, that he would never deny know Jesus.
However lets read how he does it 3 times
Then seizing him, they led him away and took him into the house of the high priest. Peter followed at a distance.
And when some there had kindled a fire in the middle of the courtyard and had sat down together, Peter sat down with them.
A servant girl saw him seated there in the firelight. She looked closely at him and said, “This man was with him.”
But he denied it. “Woman, I don’t know him,” he said.
A little later someone else saw him and said, “You also are one of them.” “Man, I am not!” Peter replied.
About an hour later another asserted, “Certainly this fellow was with him, for he is a Galilean.”
Peter replied, “Man, I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Just as he was speaking, the rooster crowed.
The Lord turned and looked straight at Peter. Then Peter remembered the word the Lord had spoken to him: “Before the rooster crows today, you will disown me three times.”
And he went outside and wept bitterly.
See Peter denys Jesus 3 times, all he had to do was admit that he was traveling with Jesus, he was not asked if he was Jesus’ right hand man or and other question other then if he was a traveller with Jesus.
Peter denys Jesus, just for knowing him.
Don’t be a peter, what we can learn from him is that even the littlest of questions about our realationship with God should be trueful.
Do not hind away Jesus,
let your light shine (this little light of mine)
Even if the smallest of things points towards the connection between you and Christ do not hide it.
Rather this week and as you continue your faith I want you to be a witness,
Just as Jesus commissions his disciples to head out into the world I want to do that same thing for you all, lets pray
(With the payment he received for his wickedness, Judas bought a field; there he fell headlong, his body burst open and all his intestines spilled out.
