The Bee Sting

For me, a pastor, every Sunday morning is like a Super Bowl, over and over, 52 times a year.  No pressure huh?

I spend all week, praying and preparing for my responsibilities as pastor of an amazing community church. 

So today, I am all fired up, prepared to follow God’s lead. 

I get to church and the first thing I notice is, a small hole in the upholstery in one of our new chairs.  So I packed it to our storage shed until I can get it fixed. 

As I walk up to the storage shed, a “bald faced hornet” attacked and stung me below my left eye.  I am partially allergic to bee stings and my face started swelling up.  I noticed my eye starting to swell shut so I went home and took a couple Benadryl.   

If anything will destroy your focus and take off the edge, it is Benadryl.  Granted, the swelling stopped and the pain subsided, but I became so sleepy, putting one foot in front of the other was a chore. 

So when it came time for me to stand up and preach, I was so loopy on Benadryl that everything was a blur.

In fact, I couldn’t quote Scripture or complete a thought.  After a few minutes into the sermon, God reminded me of 2 Corinthians 9-10:

“Each time he said, “My grace is all you need.

My power works best in weakness.”
So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses,
so that the power of Christ can work through me.
 That’s why I take pleasure in my weaknesses,
and in the insults, hardships, persecutions,
 and troubles that I suffer for Christ.
For when I am weak, then I am strong”

I am sure is was apparent to God’s Saints today that I was struggling, but they were gracious and God was able to work ~ in spite of my efforts. 

On Sunday mornings, God DRAWS people to our church building.  He DRAWS them so He can address whatever need they have.  Some need encouragement, some need comfort, some need healing, some need correction, the needs cover a wide spectrum but one thing is sure, every person that is humble and honest before God, will come away blessed. 

“Come close to God,
and God will come close to you.
Wash your hands, you sinners;
purify your hearts,
for your loyalty is divided
between God and the world.”
James 4:8

And for clarification, God blesses people, in spite of my efforts, not because of my efforts.  And today was a wonderful example of God touching lives and DRAWING people closer to Him.

I am praying for you…. Pastor Shane

GVCC sermon Ephesians part 2

Garden Valley Community Church Pastor Shane Moffitt            May 13^th 2012

“Where Do I Fit In?” series

Ephesians ~ part 2 ~ 1:4-14
“KNOW Who You Are In Christ?

1:3 “Praise be to the God and Father of our

        Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
        in the Heavenly realms with every
        spiritual blessing in Christ”
·        “has blessed” ~ past tense
·        READ: 2 Peter 1:3 & James 1:17
·        “heavenly realms” are the invisible spiritual realities of our life now                  Colossians 3 & Ephesians 2:6
·        WHY?  Ephesians 3:10

7 Blessings God has for Believers

·        OUR PAST: God chose  (verses 4-6)
·        OUR PRESENT: Redemption (6-11)
·        OUR FUTURE: Inheritance  (12-14)

1)    FATHER verses 3-4:
He chose us  before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in His sight

·  Question: Do you have “free will” or does “God choose”
 2 Timothy 1:9 & 2 Thessalonians 2:13

·        Coin Illustration:  God is sovereign (John 15:16; 6:44)              

& Man has free will (Romans 10:13; John 6:37).                            

Two sides of one truth.

·        God has mysteries in His Word ~
to remind us of His greatness
Deuteronomy 29:29 Isaiah 55:8
·        The only way to understood this, is in the mind of God

WHY is this IMPORTANT? 

·        KNOW that God chose you KNOW you are of great value
·        HOLY:     position not practice ~  Colossians 2:10
·        BLAMELESS: practice should match your position before God

2)    FATHER verse 5: He adopted us as sons through His son Jesus
·        RESULT of God choosing you
·        John 14:1-4 ~ access to Father

NEXT WEEK:
3)      JESUS verse 6-7: We have redemption and forgiveness
4)      JESUS verses 8-9: He made known the mystery of His wisdom
5)      JESUS verse 11-12: We were chosen to be living examples to bring praise and                     
glory to God
6)      JESUS verse 13: We heard the….gospel of salvation
7)   HOLY SPIRIT verse 13b-14:  We were marked in Him with a seal,                   
 the promised Holy Spirit

God's Good Stuff

The Bible often calls "God's Good Stuff" -- BLESSINGS.

Today we use the word, "Blessing" to describe the prayer we say before eating.
We use the word, "Blessing" to describe.... well, nothing. Today we seldom use the word.
So I paraphrased the word BLESSING into "God's Good Stuff".

Fact #1: God is not the cosmic kill-joy.

Fact #2 God is not looking for excuses to withhold good from you.

Fact #3: God is good -- in every situation -- always working to bring about the best in every situation.

So why is it, that we so often "miss out" on God's good stuff?

Moses is our sermon illustration for this . (Exodus 4:10-17)

But Moses pleaded with the LORD, “O Lord, I’m not very good with words. I never have been, and I’m not now, even though you have spoken to me. I get tongue-tied, and my words get tangled.”

Then the LORD asked Moses, “Who makes a person’s mouth? Who decides whether people speak or do not speak, hear or do not hear, see or do not see? Is it not I, the LORD? Now go! I will be with you as you speak, and I will instruct you in what to say.”

But Moses again pleaded, “Lord, please! Send anyone else.”

Then the LORD became angry with Moses. “All right,” he said. “What about your brother, Aaron the Levite? I know he speaks well. And look! He is on his way to meet you now. He will be delighted to see you. Talk to him, and put the words in his mouth. I will be with both of you as you speak, and I will instruct you both in what to do.

Aaron will be your spokesman to the people. He will be your mouthpiece, and you will stand in the place of God for him, telling him what to say."

Our spiritual take-away from this is, "If you allow FEAR to hold you back from OBEYING God, He will find someone else to do the job and get the good stuff".

One of the most amazing verses in the Bible is found in Ester 4:14:
"If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?”

Get this, Queen Esther was born to save the Hebrew nation from destruction.

God carefully trained her and placed her as Queen so she would have influence over the King.

But when it was crunch time, she had a choice, she could obey God and get a part of the "good stuff" or she could be controlled by FEAR and let someone else take her place.

And if you notice in the Ester 4:14 verse, that if she refuses to step up and obey God's plan, then not only will God use someone else, but she and her family will die. No pressure.

So your spiritual challenge tonight is, "What does God want you to do?"

There are some things you can count on.
#1. God will demand that you leave your comfort zone.
#2. God will demand that you sacrifice something that you value.
#3. God's purpose will benefit OTHERS (not yourself).
#4. There will be a time when you will feel that God abandoned you.
#5. You will come out of the experience with a better understanding of WHO God is, WHO you are in God's eyes and will experience a deeper love for God because of the experience.