The Divine Crash

I spent a week at a youth camp outside of Philadelphia.  It was an awesome experience and the next few posts will be my recordings and notes from that camp.  You can check out the camp website here, and my podcasts on iTunes here.  Don’t forget, my notes are just that, they may not make sense to you but listen to the audio, which you can find at the end of the notes.

Welcome to Highland!  I am BT Gilligan and I can’t wait to see what this week holds. introduce self and family. mention about making a point by any means necessary.

This weeks theme is “safe in his arms” based on a song by Phil Wickam

I want to spend our week talking about what it looks like to be safe in his arms.

Because, sometimes we hear messages that say “Jesus loves you, you are safe in his arms.” or “Jesus loves you, and it will all be okay.”

and then we look around and we see a whole world that is just falling apart.   We see our own world that is just falling apart.

Some of you know exactly what I am talking about.

Some of you have come here with all sorts of things falling apart in your world.

Some of you are hurting so much.

Some of you have experienced, divorce, disease, loneliness, pain, and suffering.

Some of you have been through so much that you can’t even put it into words.

And then you hear the phrase “You are safe in his arms.” and it makes you want to puke.

And you hear “God will work out all the details” and you simply want to punch that person in the face because you can’t figure out how God could work everything out because those things are so messed up.

Sometimes all that pain and confusion and hurt is so bad you don’t know what to do and yet you know you have to do something so you run straight for affection from your boyfriend or girlfriend  or you reach for a bottle and drink or pills and swallow or a knife and cut.  Not to die but just to feel something other than the pain of all the things we have seen.

If that is you, then you are in good company this week.  You are in the company of people around you who care for you and want to spend time with you. you are among a great cloud of witnesses that are watching and cheering you on.

You are also in the company of millions of have gone before you.  This week you will hear the stories of some of them.

Moses was one of those people, in the Bible there was a man named Moses.  He lived about 5000 years ago.

When he was born there was a law that all baby boys were to be killed. and his mother couldn’t handle that so she abandoned him in a wicker basket and put him in the river.

He was found by a woman who looked nothing like him and she felt sorry for him.  She got Moses’ mom to raise him and she was paid for it.  Moses’ mom was the first recipient of welfare from the government.  Moses was raised by his mother and the only mention of his father is his name, Amram and is only mentioned in two sentences and never actually part of the story of Moses.  His father was not part of his life.

When Moses is older he is given back to the princess who found him and he becomes a royal.  He sees an Egyptian beating one of his relatives and kills him, buries him in and the sand and then runs away to avoid the consequences.

As he runs away he ends up collapsing near a well and when some women are in trouble he fights off the bad guys.

None of this sounds very “safe in his arms” does it?

None of it sounds fun, safe, or easy.

- Abandoned a birth

- Raised on government money

- Father wasn’t involved in his life

- Killed someone and tried to cover it up

- Tired and thirsty at a well ends up in a fight over 7 beautiful women.

Not the way I would picture being safe right?

but look what happens next.

The father of the women gives him some food

Then he marries one of those women.

Then he gets a good job taking care of those sheep.

And then…He meets up with a burning bush.

this bush was God speaking to him!

God says that he has seen the suffering of his people. God has heard their cries and God cannot take it any longer. Exodus 3;17 literally means I have felt my people’s pain. what hurts you hurts god too.

God says to moses “I have come down to rescue my people and bring them to a land flowing with milk and honey.”

Milk and Honey may sound gross to us but to slaves in Egypt it was a symbol of success, power, and prosperity.

If what happened to Moses in the past hadn’t happened then he wouldn’t have been in front of a burning bush. if he hadn’t been abandoned, raised on welfare and ran to avoid his consequences then none of this would have happened.

God orchestrated all the events of Moses’ life to bring him face to face with that burning bush.  Moses’ life is forever changed, but if not for his past he wouldn’t have seen the burning bush.  Moses’ had to be abandoned or he would have been killed and none of this would have happened. Moses had to be found by the princess or he wouldn’t have existed.

Sometimes what happens in the past is horrible but if not for those actions we would not be where we are today.

Sometimes we need those hard and horrible things to happen so that we can be where we need to be today.

Right now, in this moment, God has planned for this moment to happen.  God has brought you here to change you.  You may not feel safe in his arms right now but this week can be your burning bush where everything changes.

My wife has a story about that is like when this week becomes a burning bush.

so then, during this week may you find that god has you exactly where you need to and you really are safe in the arms of god.

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Sermon, Youth Ministry by RevBT