GOD IS DOING A NEW THING: You are an important part of God’s plan! 6-4-23

GOD IS DOING A NEW THING: You are an important part of God’s plan! 6-4-23

 

INTRODUCTION

 

God is doing a new thing!

Do we have the faith to do the new thing?

Are we ready to try a new thing and possibly fail/succeed? 

Whose church is it anyway?

 

Graduation commencement addresses can be amazing or amazingly awful.

 

Woody Allen in addressing a Harvard graduation said, "You have entered a crossroads of life. Down one road is despondency and despair.  Down the other road is total annihilation."

 

I want to share with you what I would say to young people who have just finished high school and beginning life.

 

I.  YOU ARE SPECIAL

 

In the opening pages of his autobiography, An American Life, Ronald Reagan writes, “I was raised to believe that God had a plan for everyone and that seemingly random twists of fate are all a part of His plan.

 

My mother - a small woman with auburn hair and a sense of optimism that ran as deep as the cosmos - told me that everything in life happened for a purpose. She said all things were part of God’s plan, even the most disheartening setbacks, and in the end, everything worked out for the best. If something went wrong, she said, you didn’t let it get you down: You stepped away from it, stepped over it, and moved on. Later on, she added, something good will happen and you’ll find yourself thinking - "If I hadn’t had that problem back then, then this better thing that did happen would’nt have happened to me."

 

After I lost the job at Montgomery Ward, I left home again in search of work. Although I didn’t know it then, I was beginning a journey that would take me a long way from Dixon and fulfill all my dreams and then some.

 

My mother, as usual, was right.”

                              An American Life by Ronald Reagan

 

               A.  You were created for this moment.

 

“He sent back this answer: “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?””

                              Esther 4:13-14 NIV

 

               B.  You were uniquely designed for this moment.

 

“For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”

                              Psalms 139:13-14 NIV

 

Aug. 13, 2020 (UPI) -- A 95-year-old California man known to neighbors as "Bicycle Bob" was treated to a celebration after he logged his 100,000th mile of cycling… he took up cycling when he retired in the 1990s and has been logging his miles ever since.

 

Mettauer logged his 100,000th mile Tuesday and was treated to a celebration by friends and neighbors at Casa Grande Senior Mobile Estates in Santa Maria.

 

Mettauer said he rides his bike 9 miles every day, regardless of the weather.

 

The cycling enthusiast said he plans to take a few days to rest after reaching the 100,000 mile mark, but he has no plans to quit his hobby.

 

The truth is, every person is special for a lot of reasons. I have often been impressed with the depth of each person I have had the privilege of knowing. Some can do crafts, art, music, athletics, writing, reading, gardening.  Everyone is special at something.

 

"The essence of our effort to see that every child has a chance must be to assure each an equal opportunity, not to become equal, but to become different -- to realize whatever unique potential of body, mind and spirit he or she possesses."

                              John Martin Fischer, Professor of Philosophy at UC Riverside

 

II. YOU ARE IMPORTANT

 

Seeing the value?

 

An artist took a paint brush and painted a picture in two colors.

He called the picture ’BLUE AND GRAY."

The artist listened to a critic that couldn’t even paint and threw the picture in a corner and it gathered dust many years.

One day someone saw the picture and offered to buy "BLUE AND GRAY."

Today this painting is considered a masterpiece and hangs in a museum.

The picture had a new name, you know it . . . "Whistler’s Mother."

Many copies have been made and sold.

What a pessimist saw as worthless, and optimist saw as valuable?

What made the difference between a dust catcher and a work of art?

Seeing the value?

 

               A.  You have important work to do.

 

How you are busy is not as important as why you are busy. The bee is praised. The mosquito is swatted.

                          Traditional 

 

“For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

                             Ephesians 2:10 NIV

 

               B.  You have been built for this.

 

“Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”

                              Isaiah 64:8 NIV

 

One day a young girl came home from school in tears because she had been given only a small part in the class play, and one of her friends had gotten a leading role. After her mother dried her tears, she wisely took off her watch and put it in the little girl’s hand. She asked the girl what parts of the watch she could see. The little girl said she could see a gold case, a watchband, a face with numbers and two hands. Her mother then opened the back of the watch and showed her all the tiny working parts. Her mother said, "This watch would be useless without every part – even the ones you can hardly see."

                              David Owens, from a sermon, "One Head, One Body, Many Parts" 7/16/08

 

               C.  You have everything you need to succeed.

 

“His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”

                             2 Peter 1:3 NIV

 

III.  YOU ARE ESSENTIAL

 

            A.  Nobody can be you.

 

“Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands.”

                              Psalms 119:73 NIV

 

               B.  You are crucial to God’s plan.

 

“My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.”

                              Psalms 139:15-16 NIV

 

               C.  God needs you.

 

“Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”

                             1 Peter 4:10 NIV

 

“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.”

                             1 Corinthians 12:27 NIV

 

There was a frog that absolutely knew his destiny was to turn in to a handsome young prince. But for confirmation, he decided to visit a fortuneteller. The fortuneteller brought the frog in and gazed into her crystal ball. She said, “Oh, I see something. You are going to meet a beautiful young woman.”

 

The frog gets very antsy, “Yes, I knew it. I’m going to become a prince.”

The fortuneteller continues, “From the moment she sets eyes on you she will have an insatiable desire to know all about you. She will be compelled to get close to you--you’ll fascinate her."

 

The frog is very excited. He asks, “Where am I? At a singles club?”

 

The fortuneteller answers, “No, Biology class.”

 

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

                              Jeremiah 29:13 NIV

 

CONCLUSION

 

You are special.  You are important.  You are essential.

 

INVITATION

 

It is our custom to offer an "invitation" following the preaching of the Word.  You may want to follow Jesus.  You may want to proclaim your faith.  You may want to repent (stop doing ungodly things and start doing Godly things).  Perhaps you want to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.  Possibly, if you have already responded to God’s call in these ways, you would like to become a member of Kenwood Church.  If you have been moved by the Holy Spirit to make a decision in your life, you can come forward now.  If you would like, I would be honored to speak with you following the service about what God is doing in your life.