Adventuring Through the Bible
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What are some of your favorite Bible stories? David and Goliath? Daniel and the Lions Den? Moses and the Red Sea? Jericho’s walls falling down? Jonah and the whale?
Whats the theme of many of these stories. Each character goes on an Adventure while following Jesus
What is an Adventure?
an adventure is an experience which is filled with uncertainty but also excitement. Its traveling and exploring new places, and its learning new things, its exploring courageously.
Thats what God has called you all to do. To be Adventurers! Its in your name and your identity. God wants you to follow him but in doing so Adventure through the places he sends you. While I am talking to our young ones, I am also talking to every person gathered today. The blue print tucked away in the pages of Scripture.
Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.
The next verse says, let all you do, be done in Love.
We’re going to break down this text a little bit as we go, but
Before we go further, lets take a moment to pray.
To our Adventurers this morning, have you ever been afraid?
When I was your age I attended supper camp for. We called it Adventure Camp at Camp Alamisco down in Alabama. It was my first time really staying anywhere without my parents. I had so much fun that week. I made so many new friends. However in the middle of the week, there was this really bad storm outside. We could hear the thunder clapping and lightning. Then we heard a siren going off, it was telling us to take shelter, Apparently a funnel cloud had been spotted. Do you know what a funnel cloud means? It means a tornado. Now something you should know. As just a little kid, somehow I had seen a movie I probably should never have seen. It was the movie Twister, a movie about tornados. That movie had me scared to death of tornados. The camp staff brought all the campers down to the designated emergency area. Apparently the safest place in the whole camp for tornados was, the kitchen in the cafeteria. Yes we walked into a room to be safe from a terribly windy storm into a room full of hanging knives and cooking utensils…Not sure what they were thinking there. I thought we were recreating the movie I should have never seen.
I remember sitting next to one of my friends and all of us were trying to be brave. I knew I was trying not to cry in fear, but then one of my friends began to cry as the storm grew louder. Something told me, “be brave, be brave, be brave, be brave.” Now I wouldn’t say I felt brave in that moment, but I remember telling the terrified 7 year old next me, in my bravest 8 year old voice. “It’s going to be okay.”
And you know what, we were all okay. We were spared from the scary storm.
Here is the reality, when God tells us to be brave, and He does many times throughout scripture. He is not telling us to be brave all by ourselves.
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
It’s like this. Do you feel scared when you are riding in a car with your parents driving? Somehow we have made driving 65-70 Miles per hour down a road lose the thrill. It’s not because driving isn’t dangerous, its because generally most people who own a drivers liscense are proficient at driving. You trust your moms and Dad behind the wheel mostly. And parents you are having to build that trust handing over the keys to your teenagers.
Kids isn’t it comforting right now, that your parents are driving, atleast for now? i don’t know how safe you would feel knowing that your friend is behind the wheel. When our parents are driving we don’t have to fear, we’re braves even when its raining out.
In the Bible there was a time when God’s people were traveling away from the world most of the people had ever known. They were walking away from slavery and oppression. God performed miracles through his servant Moses. He had parted a giant sea for them to walk through, He had fed them Manna, heavenly bread when they were starving. During the days walking in the desert, He had led them with a stunning cloud and at night with a pillar of fire. God given them food and water to drink and had thus far vanquished all of their enemies.
The text we read earlier, started with “be watchful.”
I lived in a wooded area, when I go out in my back yard with our little Elizabeth, I tell her to keep looking at the ground to make sure there are no snakes or spiders. I want her to be watchful and mindful of her surroundings for danger. Do you know what I also want her to be watchful of, her daddy and mommy. I want her to see we are with her at every step.
God says be watchful, but his people were missing that God was with them at every turn, every new place, every obstacle, and every danger. See God had been leading his people out of slavery and into a land which was promised to them. However when they got their a few selected scouts from the people went and saw what the land was like. Most of those scouts came back and reported they had seen giants and strong armies, groups of people who could destroy them. They saw the danger but only 2 Caleb and Joshua saw the fruits of what God had been leading them to the whole time. They believed this wasn’t a time to be afraid but to be brave, knowing that God would be with them.
Adventurers, God is calling you to stand firm, in your faith and in your bravery. I don’t care if its as terrifying as a tornado, a snake, or a spider. If God is with us, who or what can stand against us?
Be watchful of course. But be faithful. Have the same faith in God that he will protect that we have in our parents are driving they are going to take you where they say they will take you.
My friends when we learn this bravery, we can have the power to be heroic. Not the sense exalting ourselves above others, but so that we can be like Jesus and help others be brave in scary moments in their lives. One thing that is constant in the Bible, as you open it and read the stories of adventure. The people we have deemed heroes in the Bible were generally not heroic because of their physical features, their large muscles. It was because of their faith in God and obedience to Him. It was also from their abilities to learn from their mistakes and most importantly love the way God wanted them to.
Jesus is the model of love I desire each of us as Adventurers, as Pathfinders, as ACA students, as youth, as young adults, and as elders and Pastors. Everything Jesus did, whether in reforming and reproaching, or in uplifting and leading, he always did in love. One of my favorite examples of love is Jesus always having the energy for those who his disciples didn’t see as worth his time. Whether it was the sick, the hurting, tax collectors or otherwise, but especially the children.
When the disciples wanted to filter who would see their master, the kids were the first they thought could wait. What does Jesus say?
but Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”
Jesus was teaching his disciples something. You think you are helping me, by keeping sick away, samaritans away, the gentiles away, the tax collectors away. You think you are helping me by shooing the children away, especially the ones who needed healing.
Jesus reminded them to have love in their hearts and carry out the matters that were important to Him.
Let all that you do be done in love.
Thats the whole point. Thats the point of Adventuring through the scriptures. God wants you to be brave and to have faith and not with the motivation of conquering, but so that we might learn from the heroes in the Bible to love others the way He loved us, the way he loved children, and those who were hurting.
So Adventurers,
What have we learned?
Be watchful, both of dangers but also of the God who is with us
Stand firm in your faith in God!
Be braves knowing God is with us always
Be Strong, knowing with God you can withstand anything
Let all you do be done in Love.
Lets pray.
