Break Out of Our Comfort Zones—Part 2

Would you be excited if God said to you, “I have a dream I want you to share in”?

I’m sure that sounds good! And I don’t want to discourage you. But this chapter underscores that those who accept God’s invitation to dream His dreams usually have to break out of what I would call their “comfort zones.” Such an invitation is extended to Thespia, a young actress in the book Tales of the Resistance. She is “the most beautiful player of all.”

The Dagoda of the Enchanter loomed in the middle of Enchanted City, so that none would forget the watching eye of the fire wizard. Close by, and a happier place was the Palace of Players. Here the people of the city, filled with weariness and heartsickness, came and forgot for a time their griefs and fears and pains.

Thespia stood in the wings of the stage brushing her long and luxuriant hair. She was the most beautiful of all the players and even now she could hear the house chanting her name. “Thespia! We want Thespia!” Many suitors sought her hand, but she turned them all away.

“Flowers from the Dagoda!” the assistant stage manager called. Thespia yawned and instructed that the gift be delivered to her suite in the Palace.

“Four minutes! Four minutes!” the callboy warned. Thespia straightened her gown and took one last look in the mirror.

Through a crack in the thick velvet curtain, she could see that the theater was full. It was almost time for the play to begin. Poor ones. Poor, poor ones. Forget for a while, then home again only to remember your empty half-lives. She whispered this hollow blessing over them. “See you t’night,” the lead actor shouted as he hurried to take his position. “QUIET!” warned the stage director.

“But … ” Thespia wanted to protest to the actor; then she shrugged her shoulders and turned to wait for that always-thrill, the curtains rising and the stage filling with the sudden radiance of spotlights, then the sonorous voices of trained players. She particularly loved tonight’s play. The Return of the King had been banned for years, but recently several very old myth cycles had been restored to the Palace repertoire.

We need a king—Thespia quickly looked around as though the stagehands could read her innermost mind. Treason, this thinking; she knew it. Careful, or the most beautiful player of all could play a final role tied to a stake at Burning Place. The first rule all children of Enchanted City learned after branding was:

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A KING.
DEATH TO PRETENDERS!

Senseless! she thought, and looked around again. If there’s no such thing as a king, why such a fuss? The placards, the lectures, the propaganda songs—“ … no king, no king, the Enchanter’s the thi-ng.” Silence would have helped her to forget, but each protest made her wish all the more: If only there really were a king!

———————————————

Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

Share and Enjoy

Keep Track of God’s Involvement in the Every Day—Part 16

READINGS – Part 5

On the Saturday before the crucial congregational meetings, John Maxwell and his 100 prayer partners went out to what they believed would be the future site of Skyline Wesleyan Church. The more they prayed, the more they began getting a strange feeling, first individually, then in groups. After unimaginable agonizing, they began to admit to each other that collectively they were hearing God say, “This is not your site!”

At the congregational meeting the next evening, John rehearsed the process they had gone through to decide to purchase the property. It had seemed right from the business point of view, from the financial point of view, from the church management point of view, and from advice they had received from many sources. But one thing could outweigh all those positive indications—the word from the Lord received through earnest and effective prayer.

Even though Maxwell knew that many would be disappointed, he had built up enough faith in the hand of God working in his life and the life of .the church through his prayer partners that he became bold. He recommended that Skyline Wesleyan Church withdraw the offer for the property. He also assured the congregation that if God was really telling them not to buy this property, it was because He had something much better in store for them. How much better no one could have imagined at the time!

The search process began once again. They located a beautiful 80-acre property and asked the owners twice if they would sell, but they were turned down both times. The prayer partners and others continued to pray. Soon a financial crunch came and the owners seemed more disposed to sell.

Skyline made a very low bid of $1.8 million for the 80 acres, and the owners by then were in such a tight situation they reluctantly said they would sell. But the owners insisted on some fine print: If Skyline could not get the land zoned for a church, they would agree not to sell the land but would return the land and also pay the owners interest on the amount Skyline had spent.

The church, cognizant of the risk, closed the deal only to find out through an independent appraiser that the true value of the land was $4.5 million. Skyline Church had taken an even greater risk than they thought!

The church was also forced to buy three times the number of shares of water rights than necessary, and they paid $120,000 for them. But drought set in on Southern California, the value of the water rights soared, and the owners begged them to sell two-thirds of the rights back. By that time the two-thirds were worth $250,000 and as part of the deal, the church persuaded the former owners to rescind the clause that they would have to give back the property if it were not zoned for their use. So God gave them the property for the price they had offered with no fine print, along with an extra $130,000!

But that is not all. They had the “80-acres” surveyed and found that the land was really 110 acres! Then the Water District needed 10 acres on the low part of the land and offered to trade 30 acres at the top, right where John Maxwell had envisioned the parking lot, for the 10. They now had 130 acres. Finally they were offered $4 million for a stretch of industrially-zoned land, which they did not need for the church anyway.

Skyline Wesleyan now has a lovely church site, probably worth more than $10 million, for which they ended up not paying a thing!

This was all because of prayer. Through prayer, the pastor’s prayer partners had heard God say, “No.” Their spiritual maturity caused them to be bold enough to follow what they knew would be an unpopular course of action. Once they followed, they began hearing a series of yeses from God that carried them, their pastors, the church board, and the congregation over the threshold and into the greatest era of Skyline Wesleyan’s history.

_________________________________
Prayer Shield, C. Peter Wagner, Regal, pages 21-23.

———————————————

Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?

Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?

David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.

We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.

For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.

You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.

Share and Enjoy