Luke 5:17
Last week we talked about the Faith Process, this week we will be talking about the fact that Faith expects.
Why is generation conference different? Why isn't every week at Revolution Church just like Gen Con? Does God just like big crowds, he can't come when there are fewer than two thousand people? Does he only come with cool lighting and smoke, or only with Australians?
I'm not talking about the thrills or chill of getting away, going to a new place, staying up far too late. People can go around chasing exciting spiritual thrills, people will go from conference to conference, chasing after an emotional spiritual high. I'm not talking about the emotion, I'm talking about the encounter with God.
Christians shouldn't be chasing the emotional experience, but the actual encounter with God. Now, a lot of time the encounter with God can lead to an emotional display. But the goal shouldn't be emotion, God should be the goal. Just because everyone else is expressing a particular emotion, and you aren't it doesn't mean that you aren't encounter God. Now, that doesn't mean that God won't sometimes call us to emotion. He could be calling us to get down on our knees, and if that is the call refusing it could lead to you missing an encounter with God. What we dishonor moves away from us.
Hebrews 11:1
Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen.
Faith expects. Faith gives us assurance about things we cannot see. It was by faith that Cain brought a more acceptable offering than Able. Without Faith it is impossible to please God, anyone who wants to come to him, must believe that God exists, and that he rewards those that sincerely seek him. There are things that God wants to do in your life that you currently cannot see. When God calls us to do some things, we won't understand why he is calling us to it, it may not be obvious to us. But through Faith, we can have assurance of the plans that God has for us, even though we cannot yet see it.
Right now, in Schoharie, it can be hard to see what God's plan for this area is. But God has a plan for us, and he is planning on using the youth in this ministry to minster to this area. Everyone of you is a leader, everyone of you is called to be a leader. You are all called to be real leaders, you are all called to be small group leaders, youth leaders, leaders leaders, not the pretend everybody feel good leaders. Because if God is going to do what he wants to do in this church in this region, you will be the most mature the most knowledgeable Christians in the ministry. If God does what he wants to do, we will all be needed to pray over someone, to minster to someone. We live in a culture an era of people not knowing God, this generation did not go to church as a kid, they don't have a knowledge of Christ. As much as we may not think we have a lot of knowledge, you have a large amount of knowledge compared to those that are going to come into our ministry. This is hard vision to see, but Faith is the assurance that this is true.
The five friends went to Jesus because they were confident that God was going to heal their friend, they expected God to heal him. If they hadn't been certain, it would not have been worth the work unless they were entirely certain of it. Faith is action with Expectation, you must both put in the work, but you must also believe that you are going to receive something. If you have action without expectation, that is religion. Expectation without action, is dead. (James 2:17 “Faith without works is dead”)
The difference between Generation Conference and Revolution Church is that at Generation Conference there are people coming with expectation. Expecting that there will be great worship, and that there will be great speakers. We need to come each we expecting to encounter God. How would coming with expectation change your approach, how would that change how you worship. If you know that you would hear the best message, would you take some notes? If God was going to come during worship, how would it change how you worshiped, how you pressed in. What do you expect God to do in your school? Do you expect people to be saved, do you expect addicts to recover?
God meets us our level of expectation. If you come expecting nothing, God will meet you with nothing, if you come expecting everything, God will meet you with everything. On occasion God will come in and meet you, even when you are expecting nothing. But those are rare and miraculous.
James 1:5
“If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.”
This isn't just talking about wisdom, if we come to God and ask, for him to work in our school, he will give generously. If your expectation meets God desire, the supernatural will happen. Now our expectation a lot of the time is way lower than God's desire. In the story of the five friends, their expectation met God's desire, in because of that a supernatural miracle occurred. How do we raise our expectation? We must spend time with God, we have to get in his presence, when we start seeing enough of God, enough of his desire, what he wants to do, not just your own doubt, your expectations will be raised. Your expectation will meet Gods desire when you see enough of him to fully expect the great things he wants to do.
We need to have great expectations for our lives, we need to seek to increase our faith, we need to ask God that he would increase our faith. That we would be able to see the things that he wants us to do, that we would begin to enter into his presence, and that our expectation would rise. That we would come expecting something greater, expecting to experience who he is, and expecting that he would move in us. There is so much that God wants to do, but our expectation falls below his desire, so we need to move towards an increase of faith, so that the supernatural will occur.
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