What's Your Story

Announcements

Welcome to YFC Online

Wild Week

Quaker Cupboard - OPEN

Know of anyone who has a need?

Taking each week one at a time

Lot of Information

Is it really that serious?

Truth: We know very little about it

Avoiding the spread is most important

We’ll get into the faith side of all this in a bit.

Questions for Josh

What were your first thoughts/feelings about creating space in your day to meet with Jesus when the Sacred Pause series started?

How have you been using the Sacred Pause guide/app (if using the app)?

Tell what’s been your experience since you started/how has your relationship with God deepened/what have you been hearing from him/what is he inviting you into?

Talk a bit about the connection between the series and what’s happening in your life group (without breaking confidences).

Introduction

Story of Jesus meets ours - one of interruptions

Mark 4:18–21 ESV

And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word, but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful. But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?

Mark 10:46–52 ESV

And they came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” And they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take heart. Get up; he is calling you.” And throwing off his cloak, he sprang up and came to Jesus. And Jesus said to him, “What do you want me to do for you?” And the blind man said to him, “Rabbi, let me recover my sight.” And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way.

Matthew 4:18–21 ESV

While walking by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon (who is called Peter) and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. And he said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Immediately they left their nets and followed him. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in the boat with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them.

The 12 disciples that followed Jesus were all "interrupted" individually from their different occupations and lifestyles and brought together by Jesus to fulfill a common goal.

Matthew: An Introduction and Commentary ii. The Call of Four Disciples (4:18–22)

20. The ready response of the fishermen here and in v. 22 indicates the authority of Jesus’ summons. It was not their first meeting (John 1:35–42; cf. Luke 5:3), but it was the first time Jesus had demanded their literally leaving home to join him in his itinerant ministry. It did not involve disposing of home and property or a severing of family ties (e.g. 8:14; John 21:3), but it would bring a complete disruption of their normal way of life (cf. 19:27–29).

21–22. James and John were partners with the other two (Luke 5:10), and John may have been one of those who had already met Jesus by the Jordan (the unnamed disciple of John 1:35–40). By adding immediately and mentioning the abandonment of the boat and their father separately (cf. Mark 1:20) Matthew emphasizes the extent and the readiness of their renunciation.

David, minding his own business taking care of sheep - Giant slayer and king

David, minding his own business taking care of sheep - Giant slayer and king

David, minding his own business taking care of sheep - Giant slayer and king

) and his very call from God and confirmation by Samuel was rejected by the current king of Israel, Saul, who sought to take his life.  By embracing God’s interruption David was driven into the wilderness to live like a vagabond and was forced to act like a crazed madman drooling saliva in the presence of his own enemies

).  And for a time, it seemed God’s interruption only produced pain and suffering in David’s life.

By embracing God’s interruption David was driven into the wilderness to live like a vagabond and was forced to act like a crazed madman drooling saliva in the presence of his own enemies ().  And for a time, it seemed God’s interruption only produced pain and suffering in David’s life.

But we know the rest of the story, don’t we?

We know King David was called a “man after God’s own heart” () and we also know the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, traced His earthly lineage through King David ().  We also know of the blessed promise given David that his throne would be established forever ().

Such are the blessings of an interrupted life.

Are you interested? Would you like your life to be interrupted like David’s?

Paul

Mary

The 12 disciples that followed Jesus were all "interrupted" individually from their different occupations and lifestyles and brought together by Jesus to fulfill a common goal.

Galatians 1:

God’s Image

Adam and Eve

What have you done with that image?

Walk through that image and mirroring it; our attitudes, behavior, etc and Jesus’

When Jesus interrupts my life: let God clarify the image in which I have been made

In sacred pause, reflect on how that image has gotten skewed/misconstrued

David

One day Israel no longer wanted God to be their King but instead wanted to be like all the other nations and have a king like they had ().  So they rejected God and chose for themselves a man who looked the part of a king— a man of outward strong stature, a man with handsome features, an attractive man, a movie star type of man.  They chose Saul to be their king: “Long live the king!” ().  But what they didn’t know was that the “Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but God looks at the heart” ().

What an incredible interruption.

But we know the rest of the story, don’t we?

We know King David was called a “man after God’s own heart” () and we also know the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, traced His earthly lineage through King David ().  We also know of the blessed promise given David that his throne would be established forever ().

Such are the blessings of an interrupted life.

Are you interested? Would you like your life to be interrupted like David’s?

Paul

-25).

God spoke to him from a blinding light and said, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”  To which Saul responded in awe and fear, “Who are you, Lord?”  And the One who interrupted his life said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” ().

From that point on Saul, or Paul as we know him today, was a changed man.  He spent the rest of his life living for something and Someone greater than himself.  Nearing the time of his death, Paul summed up his life by saying, “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith” ().  He was determined to know nothing but “Jesus Christ and Him crucified” ().  And this man, this ordinary man with an interrupted life, was given revelations of the Lord God that simply boggle the mind. He was taken up into Paradise, the third heaven, and “heard inexpressible words which are not lawful for a man to utter” ().

Such are the blessings of an interrupted life.

Again, are you interested? Would you like God to interrupt your life like He did Paul’s?

Mary

I’m reminded of a young, teenage woman who was approached by a godly man who greatly desired to take her as his wife.  She was a good daughter to her father and she was faithful to her Lord.  She was chaste, a virgin, modest in her dress, righteous in her conduct— she was literally everything a young woman should strive to be and the kind of daughter every father hopes and prays for.  A man named Joseph, well known in their town, respectable and God-fearing, had come and paid the bride price for her and was patiently dreaming of the day when he would be able to return and take her to be with him as his cherished, beloved bride.  But this young woman’s life was about to be interrupted by a vision from the angel Gabriel, the messenger of the Lord.

One day, as Mary was going about her duties, God interrupted her life.  An angel came to her and said, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” ().  Mary was more than a little surprised.  She was greatly troubled and probably in shock.  The angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God.  And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus” ().

Mary, seeing the natural impossibility of this, said, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?”  And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (-25).

What Will You Do With Your Interruption?

And now please understand this: When God chooses to interrupt a life, we always have a choice.  We can choose to accept His interruption and all that goes with it, good or bad.  Or, we can choose to reject His interruption and walk away.  “Thanks for the offer God, but I think I’ll pass this time.  Check back with me later.”  God never forces His will on anyone.  He offers us the blessing of His interruption and the choice to obey and accept or to reject and walk away is always in our own hands. It’s our call, our decision.

With her future dark and uncertain, with no hope of Joseph or her parents or anyone for that matter believing her incredible story, with no means of physical support for her and her new child, and with the ever-looming danger and threat of her death by stoning, Mary nevertheless said in bold, courageous faith, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word” ().

And the world has never been the same.

So what about you?  Are you praying for God to interrupt your life?  Or, has God already tried to interrupt your life and you rejected His invitation?  The greatest blessing a Christian can ever experience is God’s divine interruption into one’s life.  God’s interruption means He wants to speak new truth to us, to lead us in a new direction, to infuse new purpose and meaning into our very lives.  It’s a profound blessing, a gift of grace.

God’s interruption means we’re not forgotten, we’re not forsaken, we’re not simply an afterthought or a footnote in the pages of His glorious dealings with mankind.  But God’s interruption means He has chosen you, and me, to do something specifically designed by Him and for Him.

Don’t be afraid of His divine interruptions.  Do not fear them.  But pray for them, ask for them, long for them, beg for them.