Ghosted 2

Game

In which country was Lego invented? Sweden or Denmark? Denmark

Which planet is closer to the sun, Uranus or Saturn? Saturn

Which is the capital of Canada, Toronto or Ottawa? Ottawa

Which city has more inhabitants, Paris or Moscow? Moscow

Which is longer, 3 inches or 7.5 centimeters? Inches

Do you dream in deep sleep or REM sleep? Rem sleep

In Malta, do they drive on the left or right side of the road? Left

Which planet is known as the Red Planet? Mars or Earth? Mars

Who painted the Mona Lisa? Leonardo da Vinci or Thomas Eddison? Leonardo da Vinci

Which ocean is the largest? Atlantic Ocean or Pacific Ocean? Pacific Ocean

Which element has the chemical symbol O? Obsidion or Oxygen? Oxygen

Who wrote “Romeo and Juliet”? William Shackleford or William Shakespeare? William Shakespeare

Which animal is known for its black and white stripes? The Brazilian tucan or a Zebra? Zebra

What is the smallest prime number? 1 or 2? 1

Which country is famous for the Eiffel Tower? France or Paris? France

Who invented the telephone? Alexander Graham Bell or Alexander the Great? Alexander Graham Bell

Which vitamin is known as the “sunshine vitamin”? Vitamin A or Vitamin D? Vitamin D

What is the largest mammal in the world? Blue Whale or Elephant? Blue Whale

Which organ pumps blood throughout the body? Kidneys or Heart? Heart

What is the hardest natural substance on Earth? Diamond or Steel? Diamond

Which artist is famous for cutting off his own ear? Vincent van Gogh or Edger Allen Poe? Vincent van Gogh

Which gas do plants absorb from the atmosphere? Oxygen or Carbon Dioxide? Oxygen

Who was the first president of the United States? Thomas Jefferson or George Washington? George Washinton

What is the boiling point of water in Celsius? 100°C or 212 degree F? 100C

Who is the author of “Harry Potter”? J.K. Rowling or J.K. Brawling? JK Rowling

Which planet is closest to the sun? Mercury or Venus? Mercury

Which country is known for the Great Wall? Russia or China? China

What is the largest continent by land area? Asia or North America? Asia

Who was the first man to walk on the moon? Neil DeGrasse Tyson or Neil Armstrong? Neil Armstrong

Which animal is known as the “King of the Jungle”? Cheetah or Lion? Lion

Which metal is used to make coins in most countries? Gold or Copper? Copper

Which sport is known as “the beautiful game”? Soccer or Baseball? Soccer

Which part of the plant conducts photosynthesis? Chloroplasts or Leaves? Leaves

Announcements

1 - Serve @ Trunk or Treat

On Saturday, October 26th join us at our REVO North campus for our trunk or treat event. This event is a lot of fun, but it is really a great way for us to serve our church and our community.

The church needs your help to make this even a big success. To sign up for a serve role, follow the Trunk or treat link on our social media, or talk to your students leader.

2 - REVO Students Spooktacular

On Wednesday, October 30th from 6:00 - 8:00 all of our campuses are going to UNITE at Walkertown for one of the best events of the year. Join us for our spooktacular as we are going to have a coffee truck, bonfire, hayride, costume contest, worship, and a discussion on the importance of community in our lives.

Costume contest: Come dressed up to win a prize in 1 of 5 categories: Best duo costume, best group costume, best male costume, best female costume, best overall costume.

3 - YouTube Content

We know it has been a while, but our Youtube channel is back with some brand new content! On Monday, October 14th at 7PM we will be uploading Episode 1 to our first ever season of content. The fall season that we are revealing will be focused all about our personal relationships with God and others.

We will upload every other week, and think this is a great way for you to grow deeper in your faith, and be able to engage with content that is sharable to people around you who may need it!

Here is the goal with the Youtube channel - We want you to own this phrase: “Watch it and share it.” Watch it for yourself, and share it to someone who needs it.

Intro

This series is all about ghosting

You know when you message someone and they message you back, and then all of a sudden they stop messaging you back — ghosting!

Don’t lie, you’ve done this before!

More specifically though we are talking about how we ghost God

So often we feel like God is far from us

We don’t feel His presence and we start to feel like God abandoned us

When in reality God never leaves us, He is never far from us, He is always close and with us —

We ghost God, God never ghosts us

We are always the ones that are far away from God

Bill Engvall example

There’s an old comic I used to watch as a kid — his name was Bill Engvall

His big thing was the joke “Here’s your sign” where he would point out how some people, we’ll call them less intelligent people, should have to walk around with a sign saying it

For example: I was in the park...flying a kite and a guy walks up and says "You flying a kite?"..."Nope, we're fishing for birds." Here's your sign!

Man I used to love Him!

His tag line: “Here’s your sign”

Well think about us ghosting God this way:

“I feel like God is just really far away from me, like maybe he’s mad at me and is staying far away from me.” … “Have you prayed?” … “No why would I?” Here’s your sign!

Listen I’m not a professional comedian, but this is the sad reality

We feel like God is so far from us sometimes when in reality we are the ones not pulling up to speak to God

So today I want to talk about how prayer can connect you back to God, and then give you an example of what my prayer life looks like

Because we don’t want to be the person walking around with the sign saying “i refuse to talk to God and claim He’s far from me”

Jesus’ example

To show how prayer re-aligns us to God I want to look at Jesus’ example

The goal is for us to see Jesus’ example and model it so we are inline with God

Jesus made it a point to always take time away and connect with God

1 Thessalonians 5:17 ESV

17 pray without ceasing,

We know this verse, but few modeled it like Jesus — and gave us concrete examples

Before His ministry started

Before His ministry started

Mark 1:12 ESV

12 The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness.

We see in Mark 1:12 that Jesus before any of his ministry started was led by the Spirit into the wilderness

He went away to seek the Father and the Bible tells us that He spends 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness with the Father before He is tempted by Satan, and before His ministry starts!

So if we want to stay aligned with God we need to be like Jesus

We must pray before big decisions

Before you make a big decision, choose what school you’re going to, what job, is he/she the one, should I buy this car/laptop/house/etc. we need to

We need to bathe everything we are about to do in prayer

To keep his priorities right

Jesus prayed to keep His priorities right

Luke 5:15–16 ESV

15 But now even more the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. 16 But he would withdraw to desolate places and pray.

With the news spreading fast that Jesus could heal obviously there was a lot of people that wanted to be around Jesus

They wanted to prop him up and celebrate him, but for all the wrong reasons

Not because he was Jesus the son of God, but because he was Jesus miracle worker

He was Jesus fix my health problem

So Jesus fled and prayed to the Lord — he fled to keep his priorities right, not chasing worldly fame, but God’s glory

If we want to be connected with the Lord and stop ghosting Him this is a practice that we need to get in the habit of doing

We must pray to keep our priorities right

We must flee from the fame that the world is providing for us

Flee when the world is trying to get us to do things that will make us “famous” or celebrated and instead seek the Lord

We need to be like Jesus only seeking “fame” in the eyes of God — only seeking God’s glory

During the hard times

Another time we see Jesus seek the Lord in prayer is

Jesus prayed during the hard times

Mark 14:32 ESV

32 And they went to a place called Gethsemane. And he said to his disciples, “Sit here while I pray.”

This was during the end of Jesus’ ministry

The end was near and the cross was looming and Jesus was going through it retreated to pray

We see that He led his disciples to Gethsemane, took Peter James and John farther in the garden and then prayed

Pouring out His guts to the point where He is sweating blood over the agony that He was facing

This needs to be the same thing for us

We must pray during the hard times

Just like Jesus we need to seek the Lord in the hard times in our life

Often this is when we ghost God the most — when things get bad we believe the lie that we need to pull ourselves up by the boot straps and just do better

I like how Charles Spurgeon said it:

When you feel disinclined to pray, let it be a sign to you that prayer is doubly necessary! Pray for prayer!

The Sealed Hand-A Winter Sermon, Volume 58, Sermon #3289 - Job 37:7

Charles Spurgeon

When we feel far from the Lord we must be like Jesus and retreat and pray

Conclusion + Transition

We must follow Jesus’ example if we are going to re-align ourselves with Lord

If we want to stop ghosting God we must:

Pray before the big things

Pray to keep our priorities in line

Pray during the hard times of life

If we do these things we will stay in line with God and stop ghosting Him

But this isn’t the end of the message

There is always a verse that strikes me:

Luke 11:1 ESV

1 Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”

This verse challenges me for two reasons (and this isn’t the message, just a side message lol)

It’s one of the only thing the Disciples asked Jesus how to do - showing the importance of doing it, and doing it well

Jesus didn’t just model prayer, he also taught it

That got me thinking: you guys are kind of like my disciples

I have been modeling prayer (not perfectly all the time), but you guys haven’t seen it

I have taught many times about the importance of prayer, but have I taught you how to pray?

So here is how Jamie prays: