Series: Know God?
Sermon: No Chance!
ICE BREAKER: Would you rather be able to predict ONE BIG THING correctly at some point in your life, but be wrong about all other predictions - OR, be able to always predict small, insignificant things, but never predict BIG meaningful things correctly?
REVIEW:
In week 5 of our "KNOW GOD" series, we looked to the Old Testament and the prophecies that Jesus fulfilled. Scholars have determined that Jesus fulfilling just 8 prophecies from hundreds of years before his birth would be odds of 1 in 100,000,000,000,000,000!!!
Predicting the future seems like an impossible task. Rarely does our lives work out exactly the way we assumed it would. When we honestly look back across our own predictions, we are wrong far more often than we are right.
Does the future excite you or make you anxious?
What causes your feelings about your future?
For the Old Testament prophets to have predicted 8 prophecies correctly would have been a miracle; However, the life of Jesus fulfills - not 8 - but 300 prophecies throughout the course of His time on earth! Some of these prophecies are specified TO THE DAY across 400+ years of time!
Prophecy is a way of affirming the legitimacy of the claims the prophet made from God, AND the legitimacy of the Messiah that all the prophecies were about. They work as a seal of affirmation for those who are open to believing in Jesus. As we have seen in this series, there are legitimate reasons to have faith in the God of the Bible and the prophetic tradition bolsters those claims.
APPLY:
The future makes us nervous! The main reason for our anxiety is that we do not know what the future holds. However, Jesus came to change that. While you may not know what comes next in your job, or when you are going to meet your spouse, or whether or not your illness is going to be healed - you can know what comes at the end of your life.
The same way the prophets of old were looking forward and putting their hope in the first coming of Jesus, we have been told to look forward and put our hope in His return!
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
"For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.”
At MetaChurch, we believe in living with a Pilgrim's Perspective. This means we are always looking ahead and living with the end in mind. IF we can practice this, it will bring unbelievable peace to our life! We know how the story ends. The same One who fulfilled 300+ prophecies during His life has given us a new promise - if we believe in Him, He will come back for us!
HERE IS THIS WEEK'S APPLICATION QUESTION:
What is ONE WAY you will try living with a Pilgrim's Perspective?
This means living every day with a focus on the promise that Jesus holds your future and has secured it for you!
Those who live with the end in mind have the best shot an unlocking the Purpose God has placed inside of them.
PRAY:
Ask God to calm your nerves about any future anxieties. Try practicing a Pilgrim's Perspective each morning through a pray of affirmation:
"Jesus I believe you are the one who holds my future. I trust that you have a plan and a home for me in eternity. I lay my worries an anxieties at your feet and trust you with them. Give me strength and help me in my unbelief. Amen"
