Build to last - Mark Cerfonteyn

The Rock - Paarl

(Read Jeremiah 12:1-6) The same God who spoke to Jeremiah is speaking to us today. And He is challenging us saying, “don’t get stuck”. (Jeremiah 29:11) We know God wants us to keep moving forward!

The Israelites prayed to God to save them from Egypt and he heard them and saved them. When they were faced with a sea in front of them and an army behind them (Exodus 14:13-20) God made a way for them to cross over safely. And when they were in the desert, God provided for his people everyday and yet they still complained and wanted to go back to being slaves.

They wanted everything to go back to the way it was but for everything to have changed. But it is impossible for everything to change while also having everything stay the same.

God went on to show them the promised land, yet there were many who doubted because they knew that is was impossible in their own strength. Actually it never had anything to do with their ability but only about God’s ability.

Q: In our everyday lives, what does it look like to trust in God’s ability and not your own?

But for the Israelites, even after seeing all the miracles they had seen, they still got stuck between where they had come from and the promise that was ahead of them. God doesn’t want us to get stuck the same way again. He wants you to move forward.

Q: What are some things in your life or from your past that you refuse to allow to hold you back from the plans and purposes God has for you?

Here are a few points to keep ourselves from getting stuck and keep moving forward with God:

1️⃣ Ask the question: What do you want?

(Read John 5:1-9) In this story of Jesus healing a man at the pool of Bethesda, we are reminded that we have to want to change. We have to verbalise and understand what we want to change in our lives.

2️⃣ Your world will change.

Often we don’t want the change, but just like the man who Jesus healed we have to want the change and then move forward in that change.

3️⃣ You need to trust God in the process.

We can only get the end result if we follow the instructions. We cannot bypass the the confrontation that comes with change.

4️⃣ We need to believe it

We need to believe that God is able to do what he has promised to do! He was faithful then and he is faithful now.