We ended with a Celebration of Communion remembering what God has done for us through His Son, our Lord Jesus. I wanted to give some sort of guide by which we could begin to measure what being ALL IN looks like at JIBC. The only part I want to mention today relates to our reaching out and making a difference. How can you be salt and light in your family, neighborhood and community? How can you make a difference across the street, across the river or across the ocean? I want to encourage you to leverage the influence that you have.
Check out the story of Moses in Exodus 3. God asked Moses to go back to Egypt, confront Pharaoh and lead the Children of Israel to the Promised Land. “Let my people go” was to be the message
from Moses. Understandably fearful, Moses questioned God on several fronts. God asked Moses, “What is that in your hand?” It was his shepherd’s staff. God used that plain and simple staff to send a powerful message. So, what is that in your hand, in your ability, in your wheelhouse? The ability to talk wallpaper off a wall; a passion for a sport; the ability to listen to the broken stories of people you don’t even know; the ability to make money or the wisdom of how to budget it. On and on and on we could go. I am praying that we will allow God to use what He Himself has placed into our hands and abilities. Leverage your influence on boards, in civic organizations, on your teams. Make a difference.
The most important event in the Old Testament is the Passover and the Exodus. Of course, Moses is the one God used to make it happen. But before Moses, there was a big sister, Miriam, who carefully watched over baby Moses as he floated down the Nile River to be intercepted by Pharaoh’s daughter. But before Moses and before Miriam, there was a midwife who rescued Moses from an aborted life. Ordered by Pharaoh to murder all the Hebrew boys born at this time, this heroic midwife refused. She delivered the Hebrew boy who was later named Moses. She leveraged her influence, her skill and ability. Eternity will count her as one of the greatest missionaries ever…who may have felt like she was just doing her job.
All in …All Jesus…All the Time. God did it, God gets the glory. He chose to do it through men and women who leveraged their influence to join Him in His work to reach, redeem and restore a lost and broken world.
Pastor Tom
Our next teaching series will be the Old Testament book of Jonah! It is hard to keep a good man down!
