Ride the Elephant

Sarah Ban Breathnach is an author who writes about being grateful in life and living life with passion. She tells of a business trip she accompanied her husband on to the beach, where she and her daughter enjoyed the mornings while he attended workshops. One afternoon it was announced that there would be elephant rides for the children in the hotel parking lot. Her daughter, Katie, was delirious with excitement. Sarah told her, “Life is always full of wonderful surprises if we’re open to them. Some mornings you get up not knowing what will happen, and you get to ride an elephant that day!” When they arrived back home after the vacation, there was an invitation for Sarah to join a group of other journalists on a trip to Ireland. She was tired of traveling, and she was not a spontaneous person and didn’t like doing things on the spur of the moment, so she called them to say she would probably not go. Her husband, overhearing her, said, “So, you’re not going to go and ride the elephant?” She smiled at her husband and called them back to say she would go.

God will give us a life full of wonderful surprises if we will be open to them

Sher’s healing in Toronto

Video - Testimony (Bill Johnson Courage)

Point: Living passionately involves pressure and risk. I mean, what if you fall off the elephant? What if the numbers are not a phone #? What if nothing happens when I go forward?

A writer named Ambrose Redmoon wrote: Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.

Jesus probably experienced fear of the pain of crucifixion

Fear of man is the most crippling to the Christian

Pilot crucified Jesus out of fear of man & Peter denied him 3 times.

You might be afraid of all kinds of things, but if one of your kids were in danger, you’d be fearless.

A true story of a Mother’s Sacrifice during a China Earthquake. After the Earthquake had subsided, when the rescuers reached the ruins of a young woman’s house, they saw her dead body through the cracks. But her pose was somehow strange that she knelt on her knees like a person was worshiping; her body was leaning forward, and her two hands were supported by an object. The collapsed house had crashed upon her back and her head. With great difficulty, the leader of the rescue team put his hand through a narrow gap on the wall to reach the woman’s body. He was hoping that this woman could be still alive. However, the cold and stiff body told him that she had passed away for sure. He and the rest of the team left the house and were going to search the next collapsed building. For some reason, the team leader was driven by a compelling force to go back to the ruined house of the dead woman. Again, he knelt down and pushed his had through the narrow cracks to search the little space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement,” A child! There is a child! “ The whole team worked together; carefully removing the piles of ruined objects around the dead woman. There was a 3 month old little boy wrapped in a flowery blanket under his mother’s dead body. Obviously, the woman had made an ultimate sacrifice for saving her son. When her house was falling, she used her body to make a cover to protect her son. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up. The medical doctor came quickly to exam the little boy. After he opened the blanket, he saw a cell phone inside the blanket. There was a text message on the screen. It said,” If you survive, you must remember that I love you.” This cell phone was passed around from one hand to another with everyone reading the message weaping ”

With so many difficulties, the leader of the rescue team put his hand through a narrow gap on the wall to reach the woman’s body. He was hoping that this woman could be still alive. However, the cold and stiff body told him that she had passed away for sure. He and the rest of the team left this house and were going to search the next collapsed building. For some reasons, the team leader was driven by a compelling force to go back to the ruin house of the dead woman. Again, he knelt down and used his had through the narrow cracks to search the little space under the dead body. Suddenly, he screamed with excitement,” A child! There is a child! “

The whole team worked together; carefully they removed the piles of ruined objects around the dead woman. There was a 3 months old little boy wrapped in a flowery blanket under his mother’s dead body. Obviously, the woman had made an ultimate sacrifice for saving her son. When her house was falling, she used her body to make a cover to protect her son. The little boy was still sleeping peacefully when the team leader picked him up.

The medical doctor came quickly to exam the little boy. After he opened the blanket, he saw a cell phone inside the blanket. There was a text message on the screen. It said,” If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” This cell phone was passing around from one hand to another. Every body that read the message wept. ” If you can survive, you must remember that I love you.” Such is the mother’s love for her child!!

Peter and John “enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

Proverbs 3:5–6 NIV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

Trusting God involves stretching beyond our current understanding and experience

Get beyond our own understanding

Ananias call to go to Saul

In our understanding and experience of God

In our commission to impact this world with His kingdom

It depends heavily on our grasp of God’s love and His faithfulness toward us

Psalm 34:4 NKJV

I sought the Lord, and He heard me, And delivered me from all my fears.

Don’t you want to live believing that God is bigger than whatever you’re afraid of?

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He will make our paths straight - easy, manageable

You have to make a decision to stop letting fear win

Stop holding on to your blanket of insecurity and anxiety. Show up with everything God has given you, and join the battle against whatever opposes the redeeming work of God in this world.

Proverbs 3:1–2 NIV

My son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you peace and prosperity.

The plea of God to NOT forget His Words (law), are an indication that we ARE prone to forget

Prov 3:1-

Living a moral upright life promotes a longer life; not abusing your body, not living a dangerous lifestyle. (Natalee Holloway - Aruba)

God’s desire is for you to live in abundant peace and provision

James 1:25 NIV

But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.

We are to continue in the word

Man who went to Christian school, “knew what the Bibles says” and didn’t need read or listen. (pornography, trouble hold a job, financial problems, etc)

Proverbs 3:3 NIV

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

Prov

What are the two commands Jesus gave that all the law hangs on? Love God, Love Man

Dogtags - considered to be the most secure place to wear them,

They wrote on tablets as a permanent record or reminder

“Love never fails”;

“nothing can separate us from God’s love”

Faithfulness - Maintaining faith or allegiance; reliability, dependable

Video testimony of son being restored to his dad.

God’s dependable love to act on their behalf

The dad obviously loved his son and received the word of prophecy

Proverbs 3:4 NIV

Then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man.

Billy Graham - Changed preaching from an emphasis on hell and judgement in 50’s to the love of God in mid 60’s.

Faithful in his message bearing great fruit, sometimes absent from family

Faithful in his message bearing great fruit,

Consequences from often being absent from family

Doesn’t mean you will never be persecuted or troubled - High public approval rating

Proverbs 3:5–6 NIV

Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.

It depends heavily on our grasp of God’s love and faithfulness

straight - easy, manageable

Take yourself less seriously and God more seriously!

Verse: “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fear ().

Point: Living passionately involves a lot of pressure and risk. I mean, what if you fall off the elephant? A writer named Ambrose Redmoon wrote: Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear. You might be afraid of all kinds of things, but if one of your kids were in danger, you’d be fearless. Also, don’t you want to live believing that God is bigger than whatever you’re afraid of? You have to make a decision to stop letting fear win: stop holding on to your blanket of insecurity and anxiety. Show up with everything God has given you, and join the battle against whatever opposes the redeeming work of God in this world. Take yourself less seriously and God more seriously!