Uncertain But Not Alone
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So, I’m trying to get you to see that in this journey called faith, what we explain as strategy we experience as surrender. Why is that important for our lesson today? In case you don’t know what God is calling you to do next, and you think that because you don’t know the next step, that means God is not in it. That’s not true. Everything God is ever in feels uncertain.
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Look at Genesis 28:10. The Bible says that Jacob set out for Harran. Verse 11 says, “When he reached a certain place…” Everybody say, “A certain place.” Now, isn’t that ironic that the Bible calls it a certain place and Jacob’s life has never been more uncertain? How many of you feel like, “I’m in an uncertain place right now in my life”? Come on. “I’m uncertain about who to talk to. I’m uncertain about who to trust.
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I’m uncertain if I’m in the right job. I’m uncertain if I’m at the right school. I’m uncertain if I have what it takes. I’m uncertain whether God is calling me to step out of the boat or stay in the boat. I’m uncertain about whether God wants me to quit because this is not him or he wants me to persevere because it is.
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I hear you talk about how you can tell you’re in God’s will when the Enemy attacks, but I’m not so sure if it’s an attack from the Enemy or if it’s actually a bad decision I made that I need to go back and remake. I’m uncertain.” Raise your hand again. “I’m in an uncertain place.” Now tell your neighbor, “Don’t feel bad. I don’t know either.” When we started the church, one of the books they told us to read was pretty good.
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It was about building your church with strategy. They gave me the book, and I liked most of it, but there was one part… I couldn’t stand this part, and I did not adhere to it. It said that when you bring people into discipleship in your church, it’s like taking them around the bases at a baseball game. When you go to base one, it looks like this, and this is what discipleship looks like with first base.
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Then you take them to second, and then this is what the second stage looks like, and to third base, and to home plate, and then you get them all home, and they’re all discipled. I read that, and I wanted that, and I would like that, because that would be cool if it was that clear, not only for me as a pastor but for me as a person. See, your walk with God goes like this.
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You do this, and then you do that, and then you do that, and then you’re home, but home is called heaven, and you have to die to go there. So now, as long as we’re on this earth… I’ve found that life is more like dirt and less like a diamond on a baseball field. It’s more dirt, less diamond, because my spiritual journey (I don’t know about yours) has not looked like step, step, step, home.
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My spiritual journey, if I’m really telling you the truth… I could explain it that way. “I took step one. I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. I took step two. I was baptized in his name. I took step three. I began to share my faith with others. I took step four, and now I am a wonderful, beautiful child of God with absolutely no blemish and no flaw.” But the fact of the matter is that God formed me, and I’m flawed, that I am following Jesus flawed.
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So, it has not looked like this, and there have not always been base coaches telling me it’s safe to come. It has looked more like… (I should draw this for you, but you’ll get the picture.) All of the base path people, teach me how you know so clearly what to do next. Teach me how you know so certainly what God is calling you to do right now, because most of my discipleship has been through making the wrong decision, repenting, learning, trusting, and growing.
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