JR. Forasteros - February 1, 2015
Why God Speaks
When confronted with the possibility that God is speaking to us, many of us are afraid. We’re convinced God’s call on our life is at odds with what we want for ourselves. Others are apathetic – we’re not convinced God is able to achieve the plans God has for us anyway, so what’s the point? We see in the person of Jesus that God is speaking to us to give us true life, to restore us to our true selves and to transform us into agents of healing in the world.
From Series: "Is This On?"
Ask most people if God speaks to them and they'll wonder if you're crazy. Most people think God only speaks to the very religious or the not-quite sane. But what if God is speaking to everyone? What if - because Jesus has come - God's voice is all around us, in our every day lives? How can we hear God's voice? What does God sound like? What is God saying? In this series, we'll learn how to hear the God who is speaking to all of us.
Sermon Manuscript Discussion Guide Guide to Spiritual Practices
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When I was in fifth grade, I got to do a book report with my crush, Becky (it was a big deal). We chose to do a book I had found on Ancient Egypt – specifically mummification. I had long been fascinated with mummies, and we went all-out for our book report. We gathered foods that vaguely resembled the various organs the Egyptians removed during the mummification process and actually acted out the process for the class. (We got an A+++ if you must know.)
Mummification is a process by which a human body is dried out and preserved, along with vital organs. Egyptians were mummified because of their views of the afterlife – they believed they would get to live forever with everything buried with them. It’s why the Pharaohs built elaborate tombs and were buried with fabulous wealth, their families, servants, and even horses and cats.
Of course, we know today that didn’t happen.
Instead, the Pharaohs’ tombs were robbed century after century to the point that archaeologists today have found only a small fraction of the fabulous wealth they were buried with.
The Egyptians’ beliefs about the end of the world shaped how they lived. Because they believed they could take their possessions with them, they developed a culture where the very powerful took advantage of those below them, all to get more wealth, more status, more power – and then it was all locked in a tomb with them. Their picture of the afterlife created injustice.
We’re going to talk about afterlife – specifically, what the Bible says about the end of all things and what’s in store for US and how that shapes how we live today.
Take a poll of Jesus people and you’ll not be surprised that there’s a pretty common picture of afterlife that emerges: Once we die, if we’re good, we go to Heaven. We live in Heaven (which is up there somewhere), and at some point, God is going to come and get everyone else who’s still down here and take us all away to live up in Heaven forever.
This picture of the End isn’t at all what the Bible says will happen. Quite the opposite, in fact. Let’s talk about resurrection – not only Jesus’, but our own resurrection at the end of time. Let’s talk about our bodies and the earth and the God who will not give up even an inch of ground to sin and death.
