Chasing Daylight - Initiative - 'Just Do Something'

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We continue together remembering that if our birth is like the sunrise, and our death like the sunset,
then in-between were all just chasing daylight.
“As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.” John 9:4

Everyday our lives are full of opportunity even when they appear just mundane and ordinary and incidental. Some people it seems can squeeze alot more out of a moment than the rest of us - what is it that defines the difference between a person who seems to seize the power of every moment and the person who lives unaware of each
moments potential, right here, right now?

We’ve been following the story of King Saul and his son Jonathan - tell 1 Sam. 14

So the difference between these 2 ind. at least at this moment was that one of them just took initiative.
Not that Saul had done anything wrong or evil...
Have you ever faced this kind of moment - a moment filled w/ opportunity and yet you let it slip away? Have you ever known you should have gone to the right, but instead you went left? Has it ever been in your power to do good, I mean right here and now, facing us day to day, not somewhere else, but you chose instead to do nothing? You didn’t chose to do evil, you just chose not to get involved - chose to be neutral, a non-participant, chose to do nothing?
(last week in depth, read in online)
(hurr. rita - left wed.)
Many people have defined holiness through what we can separate ourselves from rather than what we can give
ourselves to. and..,
a great tragedy in life is not so much the sins we commit, but the life we fail to live - make bad choices
We cannot follow God in neutral, (cant coast with God)
God has created you to so something, to do good and doing this requires initiative.

Offer MasterCard Gas Card -
(after taking Card - This is the way life plays out - life is filled w/ extraordinary moments waiting to be taken but alot of us sit there going, “is it me, should I go, that would require me getting out of my seat, stepping in front of others, becoming visible instead of invisible, going public” then the moment someone else goes, you say, “Oh I should have done it,
I was just about to go”
Life is divided by those who sit passively and hope something good will happen to them and those who recognize
and live w/ a sense of urgency and pro-activity and
understand that God created us to ACT - to step out.)

GET OFF THE BENCH

Some many people watch life from the sidelines.
remember the jr. high dance, watching others dance, rehearsing to ourselves how we would invite someone to dance,
but not actually say anything... it happens in sports,
talent just wasting away.. might even be in the game the game but position themselves not to make the big shot or the big catch and so on...
I have a suspicion that there are far more sideliners than we could ever imagine. Not God’s plan.
“The plan was that they would be with him, and he would send them out...” Mark 3:14

People who look as if they’re in the game, but are really just watching from up close. This certainly happens w/in the church but unfortunately even more so when we leave the building - think about this, not just here, but for God’s church in general: How many believers, followers of Christ consider God’s work a personal responsibility? So many say, isn’t the minister and his staff the ones who are supposed to care for & about others? Isn’t a missionary someone who leaves here and goes overseas somewhere? So...
Where does that leave us?
How would life be different if we understood that everyone that God calls to Himself He puts in the game?
To follow Jesus is to move w/ God. When you become a part of God’s movement, you are a missionary.

Every missionary has a mission

This mission gives us both intentionality and purpose.
We have no minutes to waste - we are required to seize every divine moment. We are all called.

Sometimes however we live vicariously thru others. Instead of being life voyagers, we become life voyeurs.
So when someone near us seizes a divine moment it stirs something w/in us... b/c...
Seizing your divine moment is not simply about opportunity;
at the core it’s about essence. It’s about the kind of life you live as a result of the person you are becoming.(repeat that?)

The challenges you are willing to face will rise in proportion to the character you’re willing to develop (see how ties in ch)

With godly character comes godly passion

With the depth of godly character comes an intensity of godly passion. It is in this process of transformation that we find the fuel to engage w/ confidence the opp. placed b4 us.
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Rom. 12:2

How? getting close to God - in His Word, in prayer...
When we draw near to God, He infuses passion - He works thru human desires
“Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the
desires of your heart.” Psalm 37:4
Sidebar here - I have heard people say before, I do not have a passion for that! It could be w/in the church or outside of it - “I don’t have a passion for children’s min.” I’d ask, “How do you know” - “I just don’t have one” - have you ever spent any time in the children’s ministry before? Have you ever helped out at a 1st grade Christmas party at a school b4? How do you know?

In order to develop a passion you have to get involved!!!

Only after you’ve participated in childrens min. or something w/ other children will you really know if you’re passionate about it. Just do something! He infuses passion.
A person who lives w/out passion is someone who is literally apathetic. When we delight in God, we become anything but apathetic. In fact we become intensely passionate.
These desires of our hearts are born out of the heart of God.
The more you love God the more deeply you care about life. and others.

As we draw close to God we will begin to identify the needs - it is God’s heart at work w/in us. At some point we need to become a part of the solution, This is Gods call to us.
However the sideliners response to taking initiative and getting involved is quite often, “Oh no... not me... I just felt it was important to point out the need.”
We can find ourselves with so much time to watch life go by that we have this great view of all the problems which inspires us to point out what’s wrong.

God is calling us to take initiative, just do something
it’s the Jonathan Factor -
(Dead Poets Society clip)
The mantra of carpe diem captures us all. We must seize the day b/c w/in each day there are God given opp. waiting to unfold, & every 24hr. period is full of divine moments.

When we begin to take initiative, when we begin to do the good that we see needs to be done we find ourselves growing in passion. When we commit to ‘just do something’
we move in the right direction.
Once we’re moving in a direction that is aligned w/ the
character of God, we find God’s personal mission for our lives begins to come into focus.

You know alot of those who are on the sidelines are hoping that someone will pick them, “pick me... pick me...”
Here’s a wonderful thing about Jesus, He’s already picked you, He has chosen you.
What I love about Jesus is that Jesus is the name of God in His pro-activity - you wanna know who Jesus is? Jesus is God in action toward you and every human being. God has taken initiative. ( Christ out of eternity into humanity)