40/40 8 The Season of See What Happens

A while ago I found myself saying a certain phrase whenever I was talking about my current position and my future plans.  I would talk about what I am doing and then throw in the words "We'll see what happens."  It was usually a casual throw away line, but I soon realized that this was an attitude which I have adopted about life, ministry, whatever.

I have spent my life making plans and quazi-determining what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be, or at least beginning on some paths that that seemed right only to find myself not progressing as far down that path as I had previously anticipated.  I am not sure when it happened but I surrendered my will to that of God.  I figured His plan was the best plan and anything that I would have thought would have led me nowhere or into places I did not need to be.  Recently people have asked me what my plans were for ministry and how I was going to progress on the campus of Widener.  I kept saying I was going to try some things and see what happens.  Or I laid out my ideas and my plans and would end up with the statement "We'll see what happens."
This phrase sparked an idea.  Why not turn this into a ministry motto, a mission statement of sorts?

This is what I came up with:  Try God with the simple things He has asked us to do and see what happens.
I launched a sermon series that tackled these things.  Now let me set this straight there is no complicated theological premise in this statement.  It is simply a matter of taking the principles that God set forth and doing the things that we all know we should do, but committing ourselves fully and completely to doing these things.  They are simple, but for those who need lists here's one

1.   Read you Bible! See What happens-  Commit yourself to reading through the Word of God and see how much God will show you and how interconnected the Bible actually is. God is looking for people who will Read the Bible and have the Audacity to do what it says!
2.  Pray! See What Happens--It is my contention that prayer is the lifeline of the believer.  Without prayer we cannot hope to have any power in our Christian walk. Why Pray? What could happen? Well here are a couple of subpoints:
• We  grow closer to God:  Christianity is about a relationship. A relationship is built on communication.  The more we pray the more we talk with God the more we get to know Him. 
• We grow more like God:  This is the concept of the longer you hang out with someone the more similar you two become.  You start to talk alike, act alike, and dress alike.  Not sure why it just happens.  So spend time with God and become like Him.
• Things happen:  Connecting to God taps into the power of God.  Prayer produces power to heal, preach, praise, and affect change in the world around them.
• People get saved:  We start talking to God about our friends, We start talking to our friends about God.  God starts talking to them.
3. Praise! See what happens--When things are going well--Praise God.  When things are going OK--Praise God.  This is easy enough.  When things are going perfectly horrible--Praise God!  This ain't easy.  Paul and Silas did this when they were in prison and God rocked the house and people got saved.  They were not praising God because they were in jail.  They praised God while they were in jail.
4. Preach! See What Happens--Start talking about Christ.  Tell your friends the Gospel.  Talk to your friends about the God that you have told about them.  What?  If they never hear they will never know.

These are just the basic premises, but if we can get these things down then God has promised that He will do things that will shock and amaze us.  He will do some great things that will show His greatness throughout the world and give us the honor of participating with Him.  Do these simple things and
SEE WHAT HAPPENS!!!

Shalom
Hair the Theolobster

PS> Check out these sermons at  http://www.thefoundrychurch.org/  or http://www.youtube.com/foundrychurchtv