The Jesus Creed - Starting Over

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.  

I hope you have been saying this, praying this and thinking about this Jesus Creed during the past week.  If you weren’t here last week, we learned that this is the creed that shaped Jesus’ heart and life and this is the creed that gave direction to Jesus’ teaching, ministry and really everything he did.  Jesus learned this creed at home where he saw it lived out in his parents but he also learned it from the scriptures through a process of daily repetition and memorization.  The Shema (the first part of this creed) was to be recited every morning and evening and written on the door posts of homes and placed in boxes that went on people’s foreheads so that the message would go with them wherever they went.  We gave out business cards last week with the Jesus Creed on it with the hope that you might place it in a location where you would see it often and that every time you see it you would say it.

As I have been thinking about this creed and saying it over and over again I have come to realize that I fall short of loving God with all I have and all I am and I fall short of really loving my neighbor as myself.  I get short tempered with God, with people I know and people I don’t know like the stranger driving too slow in front of me.  I fail to give as much as I could to those in need because I am afraid I might not have enough left over for me at the end of the day.  There are still times I don’t love God more than TV and more than my own pride and self-will, so I continue to do what I want to do in my way.  I still don’t want to let go of those who have offended me or my self-centered ways.  All week as I have been seeing and saying the Jesus Creed I have found myself falling short and missing the mark of the kind of love God wants us to have and the kind of love I want to have.  

One of the things that happens as we focus on the Jesus Creed is that it does force us to face our own sin.  The words sin literally means to miss the mark and if the mark is to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and to love others as we love ourselves, then my guess is that most of us fall short.  But the good news is that God allows us to start over.

In golf it is called a mulligan.  A mulligan is getting an extra stroke after you hit a really bad shot and that stroke doesn’t count in your final score.  It’s a do over, it’s a new beginning, it’s starting over again and God is all about giving us this fresh start.  God will give us a mulligan but only if we will admit we made a really bad shot and missed the mark of love.  God will give us a new beginning if we will just be honest, tell the truth and confess that we have failed and fallen short.  The Bible says that when we confess our sin God is faithful to forgive.  When we are humble, God will lift us up.  When we repent or turn from our sin, God gives us a new beginning.  We get to start over again.

During the time of Jesus, this new beginning was the message of Jesus’ cousin – John.  John was known as a prophet and the job of a prophet was to point out the sins of the people so those sins could be confronted and confessed.  Prophets would tell people how God wanted them to live which usually made clear just how off the mark the people were.  Prophets forced people to tell the truth about their lives but then offered them a way to start over again and we see this in John.

John didn’t just point out the sin of the people, he offered them a new beginning.  John not only called people to repent and turn away from sin but he was known as John the Baptist because he baptized people and baptism was the symbol of starting over.

John preached out in the wilderness so when people went to listen to him they were taken to the banks of the Jordan River.  When they got there, John would point out the truth of peoples’ lives and force them to confront the reality of their sin.  John told people that they were not loving God with all the heart, soul, mind and strength and they were not loving their neighbor as themselves.  John was brutally honest.  When the religious leaders came to him he said, “Prove by the way you live that you have really turned from your sins and turned to God.”  (Matthew 3:8)

In other words, John was saying, show me!  Show me how you love God in all that you do.  Show me how you love your neighbor as yourself.  Show me that you put God first in everything.  The truth was that the people were not putting God first and loving God and others and they knew this.  John pointed out their sin and forced them to tell the truth.  While it made people uncomfortable – truth telling was important because it was the necessary step to starting over.  We can’t start over until we are able to tell the truth about how we are living and maybe how we are failing.

How many of us could prove by the way we live that we love God completely and love others fully?  Can we honestly say that every thought, word and action is an expression of our love for God and that we have done everything we can to love our neighbor as ourselves.  Are we giving all we can to those in need across the Caribbean?  Are we forgiving our spouses and friends?  Are we putting God first in all things?  The Jesus Creed forces us to take an honest look at ourselves and tell the truth and for all of us the truth is that at times we have failed and missed the mark.  It is important for us to tell this truth because it is only in being honest that we are able to start over again.  John forced people to confront their sin but then he offered them a new beginning through baptism.

The location John chose for his preaching and baptisms was significant.  John didn’t pick just any river or body of water to baptize people, John called people to the Jordan River because it was at the Jordan that God gave his people a new beginning.  After God led his people out of slavery in Egypt they had a 40 year trip through the wilderness into the Promised Land.  It was a long a difficult journey that led the people all the way to the east side of the Jordan River and then at the right moment, God led the people across the Jordan.  This was Israel’s new beginning.  They were starting over in the land God was giving them.

The journey Israel made to the Jordan River was filled with failure and people missing the mark.  They didn’t live out their love for God because they were constantly wanting to go back to Egypt or worshipping the idols they saw in the people around them.  They also weren’t loving each other the way God wanted them to, but at the Jordan, God let the people start over as they crossed through the waters.  So when John the Baptist called people to a new beginning, it wasn’t just to be washed clean of their sin, it was to start life and faith over again.  Many people believe that John preached on the east side of the Jordan where people would go to listen and repent and then John would baptized them in the river and then send them across the Jordan to live their new life.  While we aren’t being called out to the Jordan or literally being baptized or going through a river, God still offers us a new beginning

When we get honest about our lives and our sin and tell the truth to God and at times to others – God helps us start over.  Jesus offered this new beginning to several people when they were willing to get honest about their own lives.  One man was Zacchaeus who had spent his life cheating people at work.  Zacchaeus was a tax collector who had collected more than he should so he could gain wealth.  Zacchaeus used his position and power to promote himself and didn’t have much love for God or anyone else, but then he met Jesus who said, Zacchaeus I want to eat at your house.  At lunch, Zacchaeus was confronted by the love of God and told the truth about his life.  He confessed his sin and made a new beginning.  Luke 19:8-9

Zacchaeus got to start over and when we tell the truth about our finances or our greed or our misuse of position and power, we get a new beginning too.    All of us.  Jesus gave everyone who was willing to be honest about their lives the ability to start over again.  That Jesus offers this new beginning to all people is made clear to us from the day that Jesus asked a lone Samaritan woman, at a well during the heat of the day, if he could have some water.

That Jesus even spoke to this woman was a shock because a man wouldn’t ask a woman for help and a Jew would never speak to a Samaritan and yet here was a Jewish man asking a Samaritan woman for help.  Jesus was at work extending love with the hope of helping this woman be honest and start over.  John 4:16-19.

God’s love leads to us to the truth about ourselves and forces us to see that we miss the mark.  But once there, once we confess our sin, God always offers us a new beginning, forgiveness.  This woman was offered living water, she was one of the first people given the news that Jesus was the Messiah and he offered her grace and forgiveness which allowed her to begin a new life.  She was starting over.

As the Jesus Creed begins to shape our hearts and minds it points out our failures – but then it offers us a new beginning.  If like Zacchaeus our finances haven’t lined up with the will of God and we have been constantly seeking more for ourselves at the expense of others – God offers us a new beginning.  If like the Samaritan woman we have been living a life where all we care about his own pleasure and having all of our own personal needs met – God meets us and says, let’s start over.

While the Jesus Creed might shine a light into our lives and reveal all the ways that we fail to love God and others, it is God’s love that lets us start over again.  God’s love forgives us. God’s love wipes the slate clean and then gives us the strength and peace we need to live life according to God’s call to love.  If we confess our sin – God is faithful to forgive.  If we tell the truth about ourselves – God says to us, come with me and together let’s start over.


Next Steps
The Jesus Creed – Starting Over

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength, and love your neighbor as yourself.  ~The Jesus Creed

1. Where have you missed the mark in loving God this week?  Where have you missed the mark in loving others this week?


2. The love of God calls us to tell the truth about ourselves.  What truth do you need to tell about your
• Finances
• Possessions
• Use of Power and Position
• Use of Time


3. Be honest and pray this prayer of confession this week.
Most merciful God, I confess that I have sinned against you in thought, word, and deed, by what I have done, and by what I have left undone. I have not loved you with my whole heart and I have not loved my neighbor as myself. I are truly sorry and I humbly repent. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, have mercy and forgive me so that I might be able to start over again in love today. It is in your name I pray.  Amen


4. How can you start over this week and
• Love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.
• Love your neighbor as yourself.


5.  How can you love God and others with your finances, possessions, power, position and time?

The Jesus Creed - Love God, Love Others

This summer we spent several weeks exploring the Apostles’ Creed because it is a universally accepted outline of our Christian faith.  The Apostle’s Creed shapes what we believe about God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit and it gives us direction on things like forgiveness, how we live together as a church and what we believe about life after death.  While the Apostles’ Creed outlines what we believe, it is not a single guiding principle –which is another definition of a creed.  A creed can also be a short principle or saying that gives shape and direction to everything we do.  Some people might say that they live by the creed, family first and they do everything they can to make their family a priority.  When I was growing up we had this creed on our refrigerator:

This creed told me every day that my life had meaning and value and that I needed to make the most of it.

Not all creeds that people live by are good ones.  In the 1987 movie Wall Street, Gordon Gekko lived by this creed – Greed is good and the reality is that there are still many people today who live by this creed and they do everything they can to get everything they can.
Many creeds come to us from movies and they are the phrases that drive the characters and shape the heroes.  Here is a creed from one such hero.

With great power comes great responsibility,  This is a creed we all should live by because in our world today we are the ones who have been given great power and we need to use it wisely, responsibly and for God’s purpose and glory.  There are creeds all around us.  What are the creeds by which you live?  What creeds guide you at home or work or school or as part of a sports team or volunteer organization?

In high school one of my first leadership positions was in my youth group where I was the person responsible for organizing all the transportation for our group trips and I had to make sure that every facility we used was clean when we were done.  The creed I made our group live by was this: we will leave every place cleaner than how we found it.  I made sure every camp or church we stayed at or any room we used in our church on a Sunday night was cleaner than how we found it.  I’ll be honest, this is still a creed I try to live by today.  I’ll wipe down counters in public restrooms or pick up trash on the floor in the store because the creed is to leave every place cleaner than how I found it.

Creeds shape our thoughts which shape our actions.  In time, creeds shape our hearts and lives which means that the creeds we choose to believe, trust, listen to and follow are important.  Jesus had a creed by which he lived and this creed shaped everything in his life.  The creed shaped Jesus’ teaching and prayers, his movements and actions and it slowly shaped all the people around him.  This creed reveals to us what Jesus believed was the most important thing in life and the only thing we should give ourselves to.  The creed is revealed when a man approached Jesus and asked him which of all the commandments God had given was the greatest.
Mark 12:28-31

Jesus begins his answer by quoting what every faithful Jewish person knew was the greatest commandment of all.  Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.  Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all our soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  This statement comes from Deuteronomy 6:4 and was given at the time of the 10 commandments and this one command to love God was so important that it was taught to children at a very young age.  This law was to be repeated by everyone in the morning and evening every day and it was to be written out and placed in little boxes on people’s foreheads and their door posts so they would remember it and live it every moment of every day.  The phrase became known as the Shema, which means hear, the first word of the command.  This was the greatest commandment, the one that tops all others and the one that in some sense guided everything else that God said and did and taught.  All of the Torah, or God’s law, was based on this command to love.

But when Jesus was asked about the greatest command, he didn’t stop with the Shema, he added to it another verse that the people would have known; it comes from the second half of Leviticus 19:18 – Love your neighbor as yourself.  Jesus adds these 5 words to the Shema and gives us the creed by which he lives, what Scot McKnight has called The Jesus Creed.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength and love your neighbor as yourself.  

This was the creed that gave shape to everything Jesus did.  Jesus loved God fully, always being willing to submit himself to God’s will, always lifting up God’s name and always teaching God’s truth and Jesus always loved his neighbor.  Jesus reached out to the rich and poor, young and old, Jew and Gentile, powerful and powerless, men and women, and people of all ethnic backgrounds.  He loved all people and he taught those who followed him to love all people.  

While Jesus gets the creed from God’s word, it was also a creed he saw lived out at home.  We will talk more about them next week, but think about what Jesus witnessed in his mother Mary and his father Joseph.  Mary truly loved God with all her heart and soul and strength.  It was Mary who said, Luke 1:46 -  My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoiced in God my Savior.  Mary loved God with all her heart and soul and mind and strength, she loved God enough to surrender herself fully to God’s plan and be used by God.

Joseph loved his neighbor as himself.  Think of what Joseph was asked to do when he found out that his fiancé Mary was pregnant.  He wasn’t to have her shamed or put to death and he was not to divorce her publically or privately, he was to love her and take her to be his wife and raise the child as his own.  He was to love her.  So in his parents Jesus saw this creed lived out which helped him make it his own.  This is important for us to understand because children will embrace the creeds they see in their parents and families.  While our words and actions play a big part in how children’s hearts and minds and lives are shaped, what we do has to live up with what we say.  Jesus embraced what he saw in his parents and mixed that with what he learned about his Heavenly Father in the scriptures and together those words and actions formed the creed by which he lived.

Our children are looking at us today to see how we live.  Do our actions match up with our words?  It doesn’t matter what we are saying; what are we doing?  How are we living?  If we want our children to love God – are we truly loving God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength?  Are we making the worship of God a priority, are we loving God with all that we have and all that we are?

And are we truly loving our neighbor as ourselves?  Are we extending grace and forgiveness to those who have hurt us?  Are we being gracious and generous to those in need?  What kind of response are our children seeing us make when it comes to our neighbors in Florida, Texas and the Caribbean?  What do our children see and hear from us as we talk about and address the social and political situation of our day?  Jesus embraced a creed he didn’t just hear but saw and so we need to make sure that the Jesus Creed isn’t just something we say but something we practice for the sake of our children and grandchildren.

The creed that Jesus gave to the teacher of the law wasn’t something that he just made up or pulled out of the air, this was truly the one guiding principle of his life.  This was what Jesus recited every morning and evening and this shaped Jesus’ own prayers.  We know this because we see the creed expressed in the prayer Jesus gave us to pray.

In his book, The Jesus Creed, Scot McKnight points out that the Lord’s Prayer is based on an ancient Jewish prayer called the Kaddish, but just as Jesus added to the Shema, he also added to the Kaddish.  The Kaddish goes like this:

Magnified and sanctified be His great name in the world He created according to His will. 
May He establish His Kingdom during your life and during your days,
and during the life of all the house of Israel,
speedily and in the near future.  Amen.

Do you see the similarities of this well-established prayer to the prayer Jesus gave his followers?  Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name sounds very much like – magnified and sanctified be your name.

And Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven sounds very much like – May he establish His kingdom during your life and during your days.  So the first part of Jesus prayer mirrors the Kaddish, but then just as Jesus added something to the Shema, Jesus adds to the Kaddish.  And here is what Jesus adds:  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.  Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.

What Jesus added to the Kaddish is exactly what he added to the Shema, a call to love others.  In the Lord’s Prayer, the call to love others is spelled out in asking God to give us all food – which implies that we help make sure others are able to eat.  There is a call to love others as we forgive and as we ask God to deliver all of us from evil and into the fullness of life.  The prayer Jesus prays and the prayer he teaches us to pray comes from the Kaddish which is a call to love God but then he adds to the prayer some specifics on what it means to love others.

So this creed shaped Jesus prayers because it shaped his heart and it shaped his heart because he made an ongoing focus of his life.  This creed became the rhythm of Jesus’ life because it was read and prayed and repeated multiple times a day.  The way that Jesus and others in his day were formed spiritually was that they read the word of God many times during the day.  The Shema was to be recited in the morning and evening.  It was to be written on the door posts of the home so people would think of it and recite it as they would go out into the world and then return home.  The creed was to be placed in boxes that would be tied to the forehead so that the message would go with them everywhere and remind them of how they needed to live their lives.

One way we can begin to start making the Jesus Creed our creed is by memorizing it and reciting and praying it multiple times a day.  That is why we have given you the cards with the creed printed out.  I want to challenge you to put this creed in a place where you will see it multiple times a day and then every time you see it – say it.  Put it on your bathroom mirror so in the morning or evening you will see it and say it.  Put it on the fridge so every time you get something to eat you will see it and say it.  Put in on the visor of your car so every time you get in and get out you will see it and say it.

This constant repetition is what shapes our hearts, guides our thoughts and gives direction to our decisions and actions.  We need this constant repetition because #1 we forget so easily and #2 we are daily bombarded by messages that tell us not to love God but ourselves and not to love our neighbors but ourselves.  To break that cycle we need to interject another message.  We can be shaped by this message, this Jesus Creed, if we read it and pray it multiple times a day.  This is how Jesus’ heart was formed.  He said this multiple times a day and he saw it lived out in his family and it became the creed for his life.  I want to invite over these next 6 weeks to make this creed, the Jesus Creed, the foundation and the focus of your life.


Next Steps
The Jesus Creed – What is the Jesus Creed?

1. Identify some of the creeds that have shaped your life.
• What creeds did you learn as a child?
• In sports?
• At work?
• At home?
• As part of your faith?

2. Read where the Jesus Creed comes from.
• Love the Lord your God. Deuteronomy 6:4-9
• Love your neighbor as yourself. Leviticus 19:18
• Jesus shares the creed. Mark 12:28-34

3.  This week, how can you love God with ALL your
• Heart
• Soul
• Mind
• Strength

4.  What can you do this week to love your neighbor?
• What neighbor are you struggling to love?
• Pray the Jesus Creed and then look for a changed heart and an opportunity to love this person.

5.  God told on the people of Israel to recite the Shema every morning and evening.  This kind of repetition helps shape our hearts, minds and lives.  Place your Jesus Creed card in a place where you will see it daily (bedroom, bathroom, car, fridge)
• Say the Jesus Creed out loud twice a day.
• Say the Jesus Creed together as a family at meal time.
• Say the Jesus Creed for the next 40 days.

When God Speaks - People Move

There is an interesting phenomena that we see throughout the Bible.  When God speaks – people move.  When God speaks to individuals or to groups of people there is a call for them to move or respond and act in some way.  Last week David mentioned Noah and as we all know, when God spoke – Noah moved.  He started work on an ark.  He moved into the forest to collect timber.  He moved his schedule around to make time for boat building and when the rains came he moved from his house to the ark and set sail on the waters.  God spoke and Noah moved.

About 10 generations later, God spoke to a man named Abram.   Abram and his wife Sarai were living with Abram’s father and his nephew Lot and they were all faithful and prosperous right where they were, and then one day, God spoke.  Genesis 12:1-9

When God spoke there was a call for Abram to leave his home and extended family and all that was comfortable and secure and move into the great unknown – a land God would show him.  Abram doesn’t have a map or any kind of clear directions, just a call to get moving, but with this call to move comes a promised blessing.  God will bless Abram and God will bless the world through him if and when he moves.  So Abram moves into the unknown and when he settles in the land God shows him God is there with another promised blessing.  Not only will Abram be blessed in this new land and be a blessing but he will also have children.  Abram and Sarai are childless and we are told that Sarai is barren and so there really is no hope of having children but a child is now what God promises.  The blessing God has for Abram is offspring, children, more specifically a son.

So when God speaks – Abram moves.  He leaves something behind, enters a period of uncertainty and then is blessed by God.  And it is this movement that we see again and in again when God speaks and people move.  When people move they leave something behind, enter a period of uncertainty and then are blessed by God.

Noah had to leave the comfort of his life behind – enter a period of uncertainty as he took on this immense task of building an ark and then he was blessed when the rain stopped and the rainbow appeared.  From a burning bush God spoke to Moses and there was a call to move.  Moses had to leave behind the comfort of his home and life as a shepherd to step into the uncertainty of returning to Egypt to try and rally God’s people and convince the Pharaoh to let the people go.  In time Moses experienced a blessing as the people not only left Egypt but eventually came to the very edge of the Promised Land.

David heard God speak through the Prophet Samuel who told him that God had anointed him to be the King.  For David this meant leaving the comfort of his life and family to enter the world of political leadership and military expeditions.  David lived through years of uncertainty and fear, literally running for his life at times, until he finally experienced the blessing of being the King and working to establish Israel as a strong and mighty nation.

Even Jesus heard the voice of God and moved.  Coming up out of the waters of baptism Jesus heard the voice of God say, this is my son whom I love.  And then immediately Jesus moved into the desert where for 40 days he faced a period of uncertainty.  For 40 days Jesus was tempted by Satan and with each temptation Jesus had to wrestle with whether or not he would be faithful to God or give in to his own selfish desires.

Would Jesus turn stones to bread to satisfy his own hunger?  Would Jesus perform a spectacular miracle to draw people to himself and receive the worldwide fame he deserved?  Would Jesus give in to greed and the desire for wealth and glory that we all wrestle with at times?  There were 40 days of uncertainty for Jesus after God spoke and he moved – but then came the blessing.  Jesus experienced the blessing of God here as he brought the kingdom of God and all its power into this world and eventually Jesus experienced the blessing of victory over sin and death and the glory of God the Father.

Every time God speaks – people move.  When Jesus spoke as the son of God – people moved.  The disciples dropped their nets, left behind their secure business and entered into the unknown world of fishing for men and women with Jesus.  The disciples then experienced the fullness of life and the blessing of the Holy Spirit.

And in case you think that God only speaks to men and leaders, Jesus spoke to a woman in need who also moved and found life.  She had been caught in the act of adultery and when Jesus spoke God’s words of grace and forgiveness there was a call to move from what was known and secure in her life into an uncertain future in order to receive the blessing of God.  John 8:1-11

Go now and leave your life of sin.  God speaks and this woman moves.  Even though the life she is living is not ultimately good or fulfilling for her, it was known and comfortable.  Sometimes what God calls us to leave behind is a life of sin that we have grown comfortable with but is not ultimately fulfilling.  This woman leaves behind her old life and moves into the uncertainty of what life will be like now.  She has been forgiven by Jesus but what will her family and friends say?  What will her community say?  There is uncertainty at the beginning of her move and a great unknown for her as she moves forward, but then comes the promise of new life.  God speaks and she moves.

So we find this movement in scripture, God speaks and people move.  The question I hope you are asking is this, Does God still speak today? Does God still speak and do people still move or is this movement of speaking and moving confined to the bible?  And if God does speak, will he speak to me?  There will be many people today who will tell you that absolutely God still speaks and if we will open our hearts and minds to this possibility we will hear him.  

I have shared before that when I was in college I went through a period of uncertainty about my future.  I didn’t know what to do or where to go and I prayed for God to speak to me in a dream because a friend said that God did that.  Joel 2:28-29.

I wanted God to speak to me in a dream so I prayed for this to happen and several months late, God spoke.  In a loud, clear voice I heard in a dream someone shout out 2 Timothy 2:2.  What’s funny is that they didn’t shout out what that verse said, they just shouted out the reference, I had to go look it up, so I did and this is what I read…
The things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.

At first this made no sense to me, but I kept reading it over and over again and then God brought it to life and it told me that I needed to move – back to college.  I needed to entrust to those I knew at MS what I had heard and seen and so I left my job and the security of my parents’ home and when back to the uncertainty of MSU where I didn’t have a clear academic direction.  I went with anxiety and a little bit of fear but in time was blessed as God used me in mission and ministry with IVCF and then God blessed me again by helping me finish my degree.  God spoke and I moved.  I left behind what was comfortable, entered a period of uncertainty and then experienced the blessing of God.  

About 10 years ago I heard God speak again.  I was very comfortable as the pastor of St. Paul’s Church in Lewisburg and was not looking to leave.  I loved what I was doing and had a great group of friends and the church was doing very well.  And then I was asked to just consider coming to Bellefonte.  I’ll be honest.  At first I said no.  I wasn’t interested because I loved where I was and what I was doing.  I had to give an answer in 2 days and so I prayed and told God I needed to once again hear Him speak because I knew what I wanted but I really wanted to do what God wanted.

I started working on my sermon for that Sunday which was on the beatitudes and I read this from the Message, You’re blessed when you feel you’ve lost what is most dear to you. Only then can you be embraced by the One most dear to you.  And in that moment I heard God speak.  As loud and clear as ever, I heard God say – move.  What was most dear to me was my job, my friends and the ministry I was involved in at the church.  What was most dear to me was the life I had there and God was calling me to leave that behind for the uncertainty of a new church.  God spoke and I had to make the decision of whether or not I was going to move.  I did.  I left behind so much that I loved to step into the uncertainty of a new church and over the past 10 years I have been blessed.

So I do believe that God still speaks and when God speaks – people move or I should say we are given the opportunity to move.  The choice is always ours.  Abram, Moses, David, Peter and the woman caught in adultery were all given the opportunity to move, at some point they had to take that step of faith and leave something behind and enter a period of uncertainty.  God speaks and God invites us to experience the fullness of life he offers but we have to be willing to take that step out of what is known and comfortable and move.

If we will take this step of faith, we will receive a blessing and let me say - this is why God speaks.  God speaks in order to move us into the fullness of life.  God speaks in order to deepen and develop our faith.  God speaks because God always has more for us and wants more from us and so invites us to get moving.  While movement is not easy – it leads to life and if we don’t move we will die.  If we aren’t growing we are dying.  If we aren’t moving we are growing still and cold.  Movement is important because when God calls us to leave what is comfortable to enter into a period of uncertainty it stretches our faith and causes us to trust God more.  It makes us stronger.

Let’s go back to Abram; stepping out into the land God was going to show him forced Abram to walk by faith and not by sight.  He had to constantly turn to God for direction and assurance.  He had to learn to trust God for what was needed that day and then the next day and listen for God’s voice.  Abram grew in his faith during that movement and even if there had been no blessing of children, the deeper faith and trust in God would have been blessing enough.

So God still speaks and gives us the opportunity to move and if we will move we will be blessed.  If we will move we will experience deeper faith, greater trust and more abundant life.  God still speaks and God is speaking to you and me today.  God speaks through His word, God speaks through His people, God speaks through His creation, and God speaks through His spirit in moments of silence and yes even in dreams.  God still speaks and when he does he invites us to move.

What is God saying to you today?
How and where is God calling you to move?
What blessing does God have for you today? 

Listen for God this week and when he speaks – move.   



Next Steps
When God Speaks – People Move

1. Read the stories of God speaking and people moving.
• Abram – Genesis 12:1-9
• Moses – Exodus 3 – 4
• Jesus – Matthew 4:1-11
• The Disciples – Mark 1:16-20
• The Woman – John 8:1-11


2. Allow God to speak to you this week.  Write down what you hear God saying
• Through God’s word – read the Bible
• Through God’s people – join a small group
• Through God’s creation – take a walk
• Through God’s spirt – pray and listen


3. How and where is God calling you to move?
• What needs to be left behind?
• What uncertainty will you enter into?
• Who can move with you?


4. How has God blessed you in past moves?


5. What blessing will come with this move?


6. Abram was blessed and was a blessing.  Find one way to be a blessing to someone this week.