The scariest monsters are those that come from within!

JR. Forasteros - January 5, 2014

Red Sea

Ordinary Phenomenon

How many times have you wrestled with doubt? With the frustration of not having all the answers? Then you hear a story from the Bible - like the parting of the Red Sea - and think, "That must have been nice. If I could see something like that, I'd never doubt." The problem is, according to those same stories, the Big Events don't actually shape anyone's faith. There's something more going on, something small and steady. Something beyond the big events.

From Series: "Ordinary Phenomenon"

How many times have you heard about one of those spectacular events in the Old Testament and thought, "It must be nice!" If only I had seen the Red Sea part, or Elijah's showdown on Mt. Carmel. Then it'd be so easy to trust God! But apparently that's not true. We see again and again that the big events aren't what transform us into God's people. Rather, we find God in the ordinary phenomena we see every day. Join us in January as we explore these Big Events to find what God was calling his people to then - and now: an ordinary, every day relationship that's nothing short of phenomenal.

Sermon Manuscript     Discussion Guide

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Of all the monsters we’re looking at in this series, the Werewolf is the most ambivalent. Culturally, we like werewolves, we’re interested in them, but we don’t want to get TOO interested. They’re not as sexy as vampires. Ghosts are scary. Zombies are cool. But Werewolves? It’s almost as if we don’t quite know what to do with them.

Well, that’s not quite true. It’s that werewolves are just… more… dangerous. There’s an edge to them that other monsters don’t quite have.

Werewolves are humans who occasionally transform into wolves or wolf-like monsters. The wolf is terrifying, unpredictable and uncontrollable. Once the person transforms, once the monster comes out, there’s no telling who or what is going to be hurt. Usually the transformation is brought on by the full moon, though some more modern incarnations like the Twilight wolves and the Incredible Hulk are triggered by anger.

The Werewolf is a person who has this monster, a beast, a Wolf living inside them.

They know it’s dangerous. And most of the time, they’ve got it under control. They have ordered their lives in such a way that the Wolf can’t get out. They’ve built a cage for the monster with structure, with rules and discipline.

But inevitably, in every story, the Wolf breaks out. The monster hurts people around them, destroys their lives. So afterwards, the person tries to put things back together, apologizes for the damage the monster has done and starts rebuilding the cage, hoping to make it strong enough next time. They make new rules. Stricter schedules.

But we know they can never make the cage strong enough to hold the monster. The Wolf will always find a way out.

How do we overcome the Wolf Within? Join us Sunday as we find out!

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