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Hours To Live

Pt. 3 Clutch Student Ministries Pastor Jordan Biel 08.23.’06

RECAP You have 24 hours in each day to live – make it count!

Col 4:5 “Live wisely among those who are not Christians, and make the most of every opportunity...” NLT

3 Guys who made their life count and seized every moment God gave them:

1. Gideon Judges 6:12-17 / 36-40

2. Jonathan 1 Samuel 14:10-12

3. Samuel 1 Samuel 2:21 / 26 / Chapter 3 and on

As you grow up in the presence of the Lord – it distinguishes you from others and you’ll stand out in a crowd.

-David looked crazy going out to fight the Philistine giant

-Gideon looked crazy fighting thousands with only 300

-Johnathan looked crazy advancing against all odds

-Samuel looked crazy as he spoke on behalf of God

All of these guys made their 24 hours count. How?

1. They took the time to know God and be in His presence

2. They trusted Him to come through for them, and

3. They cared more about God’s opinion than men’s.

Dr. John Hurston is a man who made his life count, he planted many churches, led many people to Christ, but probably the most influencial thing he did was mentor Dr. Cho.

Dr. Cho, in Seoul Korea, has a church of more than 1,000,000. people all connected in an extensive cell group network! And they’re planting churches all over!

Dr. John Hurston who mentored Dr. Cho writes in his book Divine Desperation, “even from a distance, I could see that the Spirit had rewarded Cho for being diligent in prayer.” (pg.s 179 & 218)

Your time in prayer – your time in God’s presence sets you apart for great things in His name! Whatever dream God’s given you, it will only happen if you give it back to God in prayer.

Tonight we’re going to look at 2 stories of a few more guys that seized the moment God gave them and their lives were changed forever.

PRAYER>

Read the story of Joshua & Caleb in Numbers 13 – 14:25.

God commanded Moses to send out 12 spies into the land that God had promised them to Abraham– hence it being called “the Promised Land.” Moses obeyed. (Moses was also a man who made his life count!)

All were given the same command by their leader Moses.

“Go… and see what the land is like… Don’t be afraid…”

Remember, when God sends you, He always says, “I am with you.”

All the men saw the same land filled with the same people.

But, 10 of the men had a negative report and 2 – Josh and Caleb had a positive report.

10 of them said, “Yeah, the land’s great, there’s a Super-Wallmart on every corner, a Mall every 15 miles, but everybody there is so strong and they’re giants! And our long-time enemies the Amalekites and all the other “ites” are everywhere! There’s no way we could possibly go in and take that land!”

Then Caleb spoke up. He’s like, “come-on let’s go. Let’s go get the land God promised us. God won’t promise us something he won’t give us!.”

You see God has promised things to you in your life, maybe He’s put a dream inside of you but, do you understand that there is a part that you have to play? You’ve got to be willing to trust God to give you that promise even when things don’t look good.

If God’s promised you “I will give you your school this year. Your friends will be saved.” But then in the first week of school, they tell you that you can’t read your Bible in study hall, you may feel defeated. You may want to just give God a “negative report.”

“Well God, I thought I could be a light in the dark world of my school, but I’m not allowed.”

OR, you could give a positive report despite the difficulty, “God, I know that you’ve promised me that my friends are going to come to know you. So Lord, I pray you would give me favor with my teachers like you gave favor to Samuel. I pray that they would lighten up and that too would see You love in me and they too would get saved…”

What is your confession – what is your report in times of trouble?

Is it negative or positive? I guarantee that if you go into school this year with an intent to see your friends come to youth, get saved, etc., you will have trouble.

When Jesus sent out His twelve disciples with power to change the world, He said…

“In this world you will have trouble… because of Me.” – Jesus

What is your report? Is it, “we felt like grasshoppers, little, tiny, weak, puny, hopping, insects.” “We thought, ‘at any moment, they could just, well, step on us. And we’d be dead!” Another guy says,

“We didn’t even feel like men!” A big guy in the back says “yeah.”

What is your report? Is it, “well, I’m not like “holy” enough to do a Bible – Drop, I’ve only been saved like a year.” “I’m technically still a “baby-Christian” like Paul said.”

OR, When God gives you a promise, and then you face opposition (which you will) you can say like Josh and Caleb “Come on, let’s go! God said He would do it and never lies & He’s gonna be with us all

the way!”

Notice the way, the majority report – the 10 guys who were negative – affected the rest of the people.

Num 14:1-4 “Then all the people began weeping aloud, and they carried on all night. 2 Their voices rose in a great chorus of complaint against Moses and Aaron. "We wish we had died in Egypt," they wailed, "or even here in the wilderness, 3 rather than be taken into this country ahead of us.

(The giants are going to squash us with their giant feet!!! We’re all gonna die and if we’re kept alive we will become slaves. Let's get out of here and return to Egypt! RUN SAVE YOURSELF!!!”

Just because 10 out of 12 of them had a negative report – all the people of Israel started to believe them, complain and reject the promise God had given them. This is the same people that God had miraculously delivered from Egypt! GOD spilt a sea in half for them to walk across, then killed their Egyptian enemies with the same water!

They had seen God do that, feed them with bread from Heaven, water from a rock, and all these miracles and at the brink of their destiny, they decided to forget what God had done in the past and believe the report of men rather than the promise of God!

The way you live your life – for God or not – affects the people around you. Are you leading people to Christ or away from Christ?

Are you leading people towards their destiny in God or away from it with your hipocrosy?

If you had a “csmspace,” would it be very different than your “myspace.” I hope not!

So what happened? God got ticked off at their doubt and rebellion!

Moses and Aaron prayed and interceded and because they did, God did not kill the people! Prayer does matter. They stood in the gap – they said God, “they’re stupid, please ignore their complaints and don’t’ kill them!”

God honored their prayer and didn’t kill them, but He still did NOT allow the 10 and all those that followed to enter the promised land!

After wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, coming to the promised land, they turned back in fear and only Josh and Caleb, Moses and Aaron and those that believed God went into the promised land and received the great things God had for them!

Why did Caleb and Josh, Moses and Aaron and others receive the promise God had for them?

Because they were perfect “church-goers”? NOPE

Moses had a problem with anger and a low self-esteem.

Aaron and the other guys had their failures just like everybody else in the world, but they choose to get God’s forgiveness and move on – and most of all THEY CHOOSE TO BELIEVE GOD – they choose to take Him at His Word.

It also says that Caleb had a different spirit. He had a different opinion of God – He believed God for anything.

I believe this youth group has a different spirit.

Tech Team: Play song “If You Say Go” Tk 6. on CD then play “Invitacion Fountain” Tk 1.

(play those back and forth during our altar time, please)