Youth Congress Thursday Night; Brent Keating

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Thursday Night
Brent Keating
“When You See More, You Experience More.”

He talked about a Maui vacation he went on with his wife. A friend of his had given him a book called “Maui Exposed”. It was a behind the scenes look at Maui, giving tourists ideas, maps and adventures not given to normal tourists. So he and his wife and friends started up this mountain and they saw where the tourists had all parked their cars and were looking at a waterfall in the distance. The book stated if they stayed on this road you would get an up close look at this beauty. So they continued through a very detailed map and found themselves just feet away from this waterfall. They went the extra distance and because they were willing to take the time and follow the map they experienced beauty and sites up close instead of long ways away.

When you see a picture it brings to mind a word. If I showed you the picture of a desk, a locker, and a backpack it would make you think of what? School, right? If I showed you the picture of an apple, an orange and a peach what would you think of? Food or fruit. And if I showed a picture of a steeple, and altar, and Bible it would make you think of church. Every picture you see if going to get some response out of you one way or the other.

When we think of our lives it really breaks down into two parts; the spiritual and the secular. The spiritual side we have prayer, church, worship, Bible reading things of that nature. And on the secular side we have school, jobs, and friends. The two rarely ever mix or do we see God in our secular lives? Is God going unnoticed too much in our everyday lives? Am I cool with my dual set up? Is He with my everyday choices? When I leave church do I leave Him there? God is not church present God is omnipresent meaning He’s everywhere. We should be reminded of His majesty everywhere we look. The sun (the perfect distance from the earth so we won‘t freeze or burn), the moon, the stars (He numbers the stars and He knows your name). It’s like the Maui vacation, if we take this a little further and spend the time looking around for the beauty that He created.

When we see a tree just think God made that tree (out of nothing). When’s the last time you created something out of nothing? And not just that tree but the thousand of different kinds of trees. He could have stopped at just one. He is the Creator. In Genesis after He created something He stood back and said “It is good”. Who are we to now say it’s not good or just walk by and ignore it? Nature is a whisper to us of the genius of God. We need to wake up from the materialism that has bound us for so long. When he was in Maui, he wasn’t driving just any type of car. He had a convertible with the top down, because if he was going to experience the majesty and the splendor around him he didn’t want to miss anything. When you inside a car you have a roof, windows, blind spots, it limits your view. If you pop the top your free to experience more. We cannot afford to go through life with the top up.

Romans 1: 19-20 N.I.V. states “19since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.”

If you read Job 38-41 (read me) God shows up and explains it all to Job. Then Job realizes in 42:5 “My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” God popped Job’s top in those 4 chapters. When he looked around he saw everything God had made. When you enter into some one’s house what is usually on the floor? A welcome matt. The Bible says I will enter His gates with thanksgiving and into His court with praise. It doesn’t say walk in sit down wait for the first song. When I enter in I should be thanking Him and praising Him. Not just in church but we need to mobilize our welcome matt. So anywhere we go, what ever we’re doing we can be thanking and praising God, because John 1:3 “All things were made by him;”

Posted on October 18th, 2007 by Cameron
Filed under: General