Our name | Mission | Vision | Leaders Ministries | Schedule | Directions | Contact Home   Gateway Church gathers for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Location: 6425 Jefferson Rd. (Hwy. 129) in Athens, Georgia. For directions, click here. Ministry of the Word: Recent sermons Our quarterly e-magazine Gateway Today For the Gateway family Pastor Jerry's Weekly E-Mail A GATEWAY SERMON SUMMARY AUDIO Invitation to a crisis (third in the series, 'Experiencing God') Jerry Varnado, pastor Gateway Church, Athens GA February 20, 2005 We're talking about the "Seven Realities of Experiencing God" as detailed in the Experiencing God Bible study by Henry Blackaby and Claude King. The first reality is that God is always at work around us. The second is that He desires and pursues a love relationship with each of us. Once that relationship is established we come to reality three: God invites us to join Him in His work. This is a two-level invitation. The first is a general invitation issued to all Christians. The call to salvation is a call to be on a mission. We are not just called to believe in Jesus, but also to be a part of his church. All four gospels and Acts relate Jesus giving instructions to believers to spread the good news about what God has done. We are represent Jesus and His interests in this world everywhere we go, whatever we may be doing. The second level is specific: As we grow in our love relationship God will begin inviting us to join Him in Kingdom activities. The possibilities here are endless. Most often it is something as small and simple as encouraging someone, but it can be as big and complicated as a building project, changing jobs or becoming a missionary. This brings us to reality four: God speaks to His people, which I covered in the first sermon in this series. When God speaks, we are faced with reality five: God's invitation leads to a crisis of belief (or faith). Here is an important point Henry Blackaby emphasizes: When God speaks He reveals what he has already determined to do. God is not asking, "Will you do this for me?" Rather He is saying, "I'm going to this, will you join me?" Jesus said, "[A]ll things are possible with God." This text becomes our crisis of belief. Do we really believe these words of Jesus? He is saying that no matter how seemingly impossible the task, if God has truly spoken to us, we can do it because it is really His work. Please understand that faith isn't the opposite of logic and reason. Often, faith and logic work side by side. At times, God requires us to figure things out for ourselves. But there are also times when we must let our faith lead us where logic cannot go. God sometimes invites to join Him is doing things that are impossible from our human perspective. Even mature believers never outgrow the experience of being scared half to death at the assignments God gives them. Why does God call us to these "impossible" tasks? Four reasons: 1) So we learn to trust Him; 2) To demonstrate His power; 3) To show His glory to the world; 4) To draw us closer to Him. Supporting texts: 2 Corinthians 5:18-19 | Acts 1:7-8 | Matthew 28:18-20 | Acts 8:26-40 | Acts 16:6-10 | Hebrews 11:6 | Mark 10:27 A mp3 audio file of this sermon is here (27:00). (Download to a PC by right clicking on the link and choosing "Save Target As." Mac users: click, hold, and choose "Download Link to Disk." Depending on your connection speed, the file may take several minutes to download.) An audio tape of this sermon is available free of charge (U.S. requests only). NOTE: Due to a technical glitch, approximately the first three minutes of this sermon is missing from the recording. Request a tape by calling or writing the Gateway Church office. Please specify tape number 050220a: Invitation to a Crisis. © 2005 Gerald R. Varnado To the Gateway Church home page How to contact us