Story of attempting High Dive at YMCA
Sometimes it seems that the challenges that lay in front of us
seem so overwhelming and I don’t know about you but I don’t have that natural courage DNA where you just step right out there all the time.
But I do think life has a strange way of putting us on this certain course of action where our only option is to move forward or crawl backwards.
I wander how many of us have found ourselves paralyzed
We hear and read these great stories of human courage and heroism and then we find ourselves in this moment of opportunity and we are paralyzed w/ fear and self-doubt.
Sometimes we think people who live extraordinary lives are made of a different material than us, but the truth of the matter is we’re all made of the same material - it’s what we do with that material that matters.
If our birth is like the sunrise and our death like the sunset, then in-between we’re all just chasing daylight. And one of the characteristics of a person who seizes the power of every moment, who unleashes their full potential of their life
is that they have an ‘Advance Mentality’
They Go until they get a No
and no matter how much self-doubt... fear... or how overwhelmed they are by the obstacles and circumstances,
they still move forward and jump!
This is where Jonathan was, standing on the diving board
1 Sam. 14:6-13
If you’re reading this story with just simple objectivity you’re thinking these guys are insane, what do you mean let them see you?! That’s not really a good idea.
Let’s not do that - let’s attack while their asleep, or drunk, or less motivated - let’s do everything we can to leverage our advantage, let’s use some sort of military strategy.
But not Jonathan - let’s move out of the invisible into the visible, let’s go to the point of no return.
B/c if we’re really going to seize this moment we need to get to a place where only God can see us thru.
And then he adds to the insanity by saying, “If they say stay where you are, then we’ll stay here and die like men.
But if they say, “Come up to us” then that will be sign to us that the Lord has delivered them into out hands.
And that’s what happens - go out - they see- they call them up - and Jon says there it is man, there it is, that’s what we’ve been looking for.
You’re thinking the A.B. must think he’s nuts but not at all -
Jon has this ‘Advance Mentality’ to move forward -
He says, if were called UP into the danger.
You move forward unless God tells you to stop.
You advance unless God tells you to wait.
There are certain things that you do not not need permission to do them. You’ve already been commissioned to do them. There are certain things you do not need a calling to do. You’ve already been commanded to do them.
What are some of those things? (groups)
Much of our religious language has been focused on the don’ts rather than the do’s. In the same way we act as if the primary word from God is stop when it’s actually GO.
By the way, what’s the 1st word of the Great Comm.
Too many divine opportunities are lost b/c we keep waiting for a word when the word has already been given.
For Jon wait was the kiss of death, and come was the sign of God. Wait made much more sense & took much less effort.
Come implied increased effort and danger. Which leads to an important question, ‘What kind of sign are u looking 4?’
Jon was moving forward in alignment w/ the purpose of God, and the challenge to advance was the affirmation of God’s hand and blessing. He wasn’t sitting around waiting for a sign. He moved forward in everything he knew to do.
Remember a couple of weeks ago we talked about, ‘most of the time FAITH is moving forward in what we already know”
remember school dances - getting turned down, or asking for girls phone # and being told no - remember all those times you’ve been turned down or told NO?
I think alot of us have this ‘Spiritual Muscle Memory’ of failures, and disappointments, humiliations, and rejections of the GIANT NO’s of life... and when we enter into this relationship w/ Christ and we try to put all the pieces back together of what our lives are supposed to look like and what it means to follow Christ -
we think God is up there monitoring us saying, NO, NO, NO
But He’s really saying, GO - I want you to move forward.
It’s not about permission, it’s about our mission.
Once you have a mission, you don’t need permission, b/c you have a mandate. God has it built in.
It’s an included upgrade. (ei by the Lord...)
Jon was a taunting Phill. warrior. The only sign he needed was that God’s will be done, and he was in position to do it.
What would happen if we changed our way of thinking?
If we heard the 1st word in the Great Comm., GO, as all the permission we needed to do the will of God.
How would life be different if we worked from a giant YES, rather than a giant NO?
Every Christ follower has the prime directive of representing HIM on this earth. We are all called to be witnesses. We are all commissioned to make disciples. We are given the assignment of serving. We are all commanded to love not only God, but our neighbors as ourselves. (not about, mission)
Ever been stuck in traffic? Maybe in a hurry, running late. There’s just one car in front of you and the light. You’re watching the light with this amazing intensity waiting for it to change from red to green - it seems to take forever, but it does and you let your foot off the brake and are ready to punch the gas when you notice the car in front of you is
totally unaware that she has permission to go.
Instead of looking forward, she is fixed on her own image in the rearview mirror. Remember what you were thinking?
(Don’t say that out loud) ‘Move lady, you waiting for me to turn green?’ ‘It doesn’t get any greener than this’
Do you ever wander if that’s what God is thinking about us sometimes?
B/c sometimes we waste precious time, precious moments, extraordinary opportunities b/c we keep waiting for God to invite us when He has already made it quite clear to GO.
In the whole description of this battle, there’s got to be one verse that’s so important, so critical there’s no way it could be omitted from the scriptures.
I know sometimes this Book seems really big, but if you think about it, if this is the primary document of God’s conversation w/ humanity it’s really small - so every line, every verse,
every space, every word would be so important.
So then you have v.13 - one of the most profound and insightful verses in all the bible -
“Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet”
That’s really helpful, aren’t you glad God took space up to tell us that? You know b/c w/out that I would’ve imagined Jon
climbed up using his upper lip.
“Jonathan climbed up, using his hands and feet”
Thank you Samuel, that was very important -
or well maybe it is?
When we want to move forward and allow God to use us in extraordinary ways we expect God to sorta be the wind beneath our wings - the only problem is, we don’t have wings. So it just becomes a wind beneath.
See what we don’t realize many times is what God is really wanting us to do is to start climbing w/ our hands and feet.
The life God calls us to doesn’t just happen magically, that God calls us to advance, and sometimes it’s a painful, difficult struggle of climbing upward.
To move to that place where God can do His greatest work
in and thru our lives.
What signs are you looking for?
I think quite often we look for the easiest sign - you know
This must be a sign b/c it’s more money, this must be a sign b/c she said YES, it’s gotta be God’s will b/c this is the path that’s working the easiest.
And yet sometimes that’s the very path God wants us to walk away from - He wants us to choose the path that makes us climb up with our hands and feet - it can be difficult, and challenging, and hard, and some suffering, and maybe
sacrifice. Have you ever gone thru a difficult trial or tragedy, or some sort of misfortune in life and come out of it on the other side just amazed and in AWE of how incredible, and loving and merciful God really is.
Jonathan’s sign came in the midst of action.
We’ve got it all mixed up. We think our signs that God is w/ us is that we’ve got safety. So we sit around and wait.
I think alot of us have a ‘retreat mentality’
Think about it - how far away are you from people who may need you tomorrow? What is the relational distance between you and your co-workers or family or friends?
What if we took on an ‘Advance mentality’ in relationship to our relationships? It’s not about trying to shove Jesus down people’s throat or preaching to them all the time.
It’s just about caring about people enough that whether they believe in God or not you would be in close proximity for the moments they need someone - and that someone would be you.
And if we are there to love and to serve and to help, then maybe, just maybe that might be the best proof of God in their life.
What would happen if all of us in here took on an ‘Advance mentality’ in every arena of our lives and understood that God was saying, GO rather than NO.
Have you ever read Is. 6 - it’s a conversation between God and Is., but it’s even bigger than that - it’s a convo between God and humanity:
“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said,
"Here am I. Send me!" Is. 6:8
Alot of us keep hoping or thinking God might pick us (like Amer. Idol or something) when God has already invited us.
You may be here today and all your life you’ve heard NO
and if you’re gonna listen to everyone around you you’re gonna think you have no capacity to accomplish anything extraordinary - that’s why it’d be better to listen to GOD.
Even though He’s the One that sees us in our worst moments, He’s the One that sees us in our most greedy, self-centered, Self-indulgent moments. He’s the One that sees us in our most broken, shattered, devastated moments, He’s the One that sees us in our most sinful and destructive moments. He’s also the One who sees us with all the capacity within each of us. And He knows how to nurture that, and grow it, and unleash it!
Maybe you’re tired of waiting to be picked and it’s time to volunteer.
God sees us when everyone else overlooks us, and everyone else under-estimates our God given capacity, God never does. He chooses us, on top of that, He makes this blanket call, “Who will go for us” and God is waiting for us to say,
“Ahhh, Me, if You would take me as a volunteer, I’d love to be a part of something much bigger than me.”
God wants us to take on an, ‘Advance mentality’
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