How Big is your Frying Pan

Exodus 3:1-12  One day while Moses was taking care of the sheep and goats of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian, he led the flock across the desert and came to Sinai, the holy mountain.  (2)  There the angel of the LORD appeared to him as a flame coming from the middle of a bush. Moses saw that the bush was on fire but that it was not burning up. (3)  "This is strange," he thought. "Why isn't the bush burning up? I will go closer and see."  (4)  When the LORD saw that Moses was coming closer, he called to him from the middle of the bush and said, "Moses! Moses!" He answered, "Yes, here I am." (5)  God said, "Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, because you are standing on holy ground.  (6)  I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." So Moses covered his face, because he was afraid to look at God.  (7)  Then the LORD said, "I have seen how cruelly my people are being treated in Egypt; I have heard them cry out to be rescued from their slave drivers. I know all about their sufferings,  (8)  and so I have come down to rescue them from the Egyptians and to bring them out of Egypt to a spacious land, one which is rich and fertile and in which the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites now live.  (9)  I have indeed heard the cry of my people, and I see how the Egyptians are oppressing them.  (10)  Now I am sending you to the king of Egypt so that you can lead my people out of his country."  (11)  But Moses said to God, "I am nobody. How can I go to the king and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"  (12)  God answered, "I will be with you.

Matthew 5:13-16  "You are like salt for the whole human race. But if salt loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it salty again. It has become worthless, so it is thrown out and people trample on it. (14)  "You are like light for the whole world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid.  (15)  No one lights a lamp and puts it under a bowl; instead it is put on the lampstand, where it gives light for everyone in the house.  (16)  In the same way your light must shine before people, so that they will see the good things you do and praise your Father in heaven.

‍How Big is your Frying Pan

April 18 2021

May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of our hearts, be acceptable in your

sight O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. Amen

I think wherever we are we at times get a sense of,

or an awareness,

a eureka moment where you begin to think outside the square.

And Moses has this kind of moment

and he has a sense that his life

is more than herding sheep and goats

and I think he has this tension going on inside him

and the conclusion he comes to is that

he is more than this.

Just like you and me. Because this is about you and me

and unless we take the story of God’s call on Moses out of the past

it can’t speak to us on the level God would have it speak to us.

For Moses this new awareness of what is life is all about

is a good idea

but it’s not for him.

It’s for someone else.

And I want to introduce this today and build

on it over the next weeks

because I believe that it’s true of you

that within your lives

there has been a dream, there is a dream.

I call them God given dreams because

they have a sense of the divine about them.

And when you have them

there is this crisis point in your life

whatever your age,

where you have to decide

between the dream

and the mediocre.

Between that which perpetuates the same old same old

or that which is a kind of quantum leap

and you’re thinking above and beyond your

peers.

Most of the time we settle for the same old same old

but dare I say

not you. You don’t want to settle for the same old same old.

Because if you did, you wouldn’t be here

you wouldn’t be part of a faith community

because a faith community

connects you with God

and that’s scary because

the Divine will always lift you out of and beyond the mediocre.

And if as a church, we can get beyond

the songs we like

and the way we should worship,

and be still enough you will undoubtedly discover the Divine

and your life will be possessed with a divine restlessness.

So I say – you are never part of a congregation by accident.

You are not here today by accident

you had to be here.

But just remember,  it’s always dangerous to be part of a congregation

because you don’t know what God has in store for you

but know this whatever God has in store for you,

it will help people who are hurting

and it will glorify God.

And you will be a blessing and be blessed – even more than you are now.

So church is a dangerous place.

And by the way, if you ever think you’ve escaped God,

you can’t!

He has gone into your wilderness to find you

and He found you in His cross

and said

I love you

and he is picking you up and carrying you home

even at this moment.

You are His beloved.

So Moses – a divine calling on his life

and his response

I’m nobody.

That’s the first lie we tell ourselves to often.

I’m nobody.

You are not a nobody Moses – you are the beloved child of God.

I grew up in the church

and somewhere round the age of 17

I had this amazing sense of revelation

that God was love

and that in Him there was no darkness

and we must have been reading this at youth group

but for me

I remember as I walked home this night

the enormity of what that meant broke upon me.

An enormity

of the love of God

beyond my comprehension

vast in an all inclusive love.

While my peer group were living in fear of hell

and my leaders were trying to make me aware of

the anger and wrath of God

I was in another world.

A world that was called into being through agape love

unconditional

never giving up

always patience and kind and

always faithful.

A love that would ever pursue me even into death

because I was His beloved.

So while my peers were wallowing in my opinion,

in the gutter of legalism

and rules and regulations

getting off on intricate head knowledge

I felt I was soaring on eagle’s wings

in a universe where in the end God’s love wins.

So I wasn’t popular.

I should add that while I sensed what was the divine love of God

it alas, was not how I lived.

I was often angry and rebellious

and lost – that was my twisted human nature,

and yet always aware of the pursuing, ‘hound of heaven’

hot on my heels.

But even at that age I began to dream of a Church that was

a gathering of men and women

and teens and children

who were surrendering to this Divine love

that would never let them go.

A people infused with this divine love

who were as outrageously generous as God.

A community of people

that exuded joy

and gentleness and kindness and humility

and whose aroma would flood out into the community

in transforming beauty

a people of the resurrection.

Not people who were holier than anyone else

not people who felt they had a right to judge

not people who demanded an entrance exam

before you were acceptable to God

Rather a people who were none of these things

but were men and women who

had been drowning in the storms of life

men and women

who knew they were no better than anyone else

but who had experienced the Grace of God

a Grace which says

I love you

because you need to be loved.

And who knew the power of love to heal

and so chose to be such a love in the community.

A church – when it gathers together – it would be hard to stop the laughter and the

joy.  Amen? That was and is my dream.

And then when such dreams come

we begin to see Divine possibilities.

And even the scars in our lives are turned to stars.

So the Divine encounter happens

and a dream awakens in your mind.

Maybe a dream for your own life

that will be world changing. Why not?

Maybe a dream for this church.

Is it possible to have the best ministry to parents and young children

in the country?

Is it possible?

Of course it is.

Is it possible to have the most helpful and encouraging children ministry in the

country?

Is it possible?

Of course it is.

Is it possible that you have a personal God given dream

that is calling you out of mediocrity to greatness

because you will help people who are hurting

and God will be glorified?

Of course, that possibility will ever come to your mind.

The danger is that like Moses you will say

I will say

that’s a great idea God

but I’m nobody

this is far too big for me!

There is a man fishing and every fish he catches he measures

and if it’s over 12 inches

he throws it back in the water

12 inches he keeps it.

A man watching him says, I’m intrigued.

Why do you throw all the fish over twelves inches back into the water.

The fisherman says, that’s simple.

My frying pan is only 12 inches.

How big is your frying pan?

What is it in your life

in my life

that limits us so that we say

It’s impossible I can’t do that?

Maybe it’s time you got a frying pan as big as God’s

so that when the God given dreams come

you have the space within to

say: If God has placed a dream within me

it must be possible.

You will be a blessing

and God will bless you.

Let us Pray

Now unto God the Father, God the Son and God, the holy Spirit, be all the honour and

glory, world without end. Amen

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