Aiming for a Bull 2004

Aiming for a Bull’s-eye; NV 1/04/04 a.m. (p.m. 1/06/08)

OS: It's a new year - Time to look back, and time to look ahead. That's what January's all about. It's Two-Faced Month! January is named after the mythological Roman god Janus, who had two faces--one to look into the past and one to look into the future.

It is a mistake to be always turning back to recover the past. The law for Christian living is not backward, but forward; not for experiences that lie behind, but for doing the will of God, which is always ahead and beckoning us to follow. Leave the things that are behind, and reach forward to those that are before, for on each new height to which we attain, there are the appropriate joys that befit the new experience. Don't fret because life's joys are fled. There are more in front. Look up, press forward, the best is yet to be!: F. B. Meyer in Our Daily Walk. Christianity Today, Vol. 40, no. 1.

I.       New Year’s resolutions?

A.     Percentage of Americans who keep their New Year's resolution for one month: 55. Who keep it for six months: 40. Who keep it for two years: 19.

B.     What are you aiming at this year? (Analogy - Bow and Arrow)

                       1.       There are a lot of factors involved in hitting the target. Whether you are shooting a bow and arrow or trying to accomplish something in life.

                       2.       There are factors involved which will determine whether or not you will have success or fail. – Our lesson this morning will be about those factors.

                       3.       Apply our lesson both as an individual and as a congregation.

II.    As a church we are aiming at becoming more and more the church that God wants us to be. (not me, but God)

A.     We have a big couple of years before us.

B.     Our business is about people – We as people want to know Jesus Christ better, Grow to be more like Him, and Show Him to other people so they can do the same. Then the church is successful in accomplishing the mission that God has laid before us.

                       1.       People mission – Love God, and Love People.

                       2.       Not – hold services, or keep things the same, etc.

III. So, what are the factors involved in being successful as a person and as a church. What are the factors involved that stand between success and failure when faced with a tremendous challenge?

A.     We are going to do a walk through of several passages of scripture that will provide these factors.

B.     Today could be the greatest life-changing moment of your life if you open your heart to what God has to say through these events.

TS] Everything we will consider has one thing in common – Tremendous challenge to be accomplished.

I.       Here are some real life events where God’s people where faced with some real challenges:

A.     The Exodus (Moses vs. Pharaoh)

                       1.       Exodus 3:7-10

                       2.       Exodus 5:1-2

                       3.       Exodus 12:31-32

                       4.       The odds are always for you when God is on your side.

B.     The Failure to enter the promise land.

                       1.       Numbers 13:1-2

                       2.       Numbers 12:26-33

                       3.        We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.” (13:33)

                       4.       When you are on a mission from God there are no impossibilities.

C.     David and Goliath

                       1.       1 Samuel 17:8-11

                       2.       1 Samuel 17:32-37

                       3.       There is no fear when there is faith in God.

D.     Peter walking on the Water

                       1.       Matthew 14:25-31

                       2.       The right focus will produce the right future.

II.    What are the factors involved that stand between success and failure when faced with a tremendous challenge?

A.     There is a fear factor involved in every challenge before you.

                       1.       10 of 12 spies had a problem with fear.

                       2.       David could not imagine fear. Saul and his army had been defeated by the fear of Goliath for forty days.

                       3.       Peter fearlessly got out of the boat and walked on water, but then lost focus.

B.     There is a focus factor involved in every challenge before you.

                       1.       10 of the 12 spies lost focus – they saw the enemy through their own eyes rather than God’s.

                       2.       Peter began to focus on the wind and the waves and lost sight of Jesus and began to sink.

C.     There is a faith factor involved in every challenge before you.

                       1.       It took a lot of faith for Moses to go before Pharaoh and say, “let my people go.”

                       2.       It was a lack of faith that resulted in failure to take the promise land the first go round and the Israelites ended up spending 40 years marching around the dessert because of their unbelief.

                       3.       It was faith that sent the shepherd boy David to fearlessly face the giant fighting man Goliath that resulted in a great success.

                       4.       It was faith that allowed Peter to walk on water. And it was a lack of faith that made him sink.

III. Close with a few questions.

A.     As a church – What new height needs to be climbed?

                       1.       What are we afraid of? (change, failure,)

                       2.       Have we lost our focus? (People business – Mission – “My Church” – God wants all men to be saved…”)

                       3.       If we lose our focus we will lose our faith.

B.     As an individual – What new height do you need to climb this year?

                       1.       What are you afraid of? (ridicule from others? Change? Failure?)

                       2.       Where is your focus?

                       3.       Do you really trust God with your life? – Nothing is impossible with God.