Living Life Like A Festival - 2 - Keeping The Dream Alive

This week we are continuing our living life like a festival series, and we are going to be thinking about “keeping the dream alive”. Looking at how we can look to God with expectancy, trusting him in all situations and living a life that is full on for him.

As we start looking at expectations we are going to start with a game. Around the room are a number of photos. All of the photos except four are real photos, can you work out which ones are faked

First we are going to think about what it means to live a life filled with expectancy, a life where we are expecting God to do great things in our lives. We see a great example of this in Joshua.

So here we see the Israelites are outside the city of Jericho, a fortified city with strong walls, and impenetrable gates. God had promised the people of Israel that they would conquer the city… All they had to be successful in this was to walk around the outside of the city and make a noise.

I might not be a military strategist but walking around in circles seems like a crazy way to try and invade a fortified city. If you were trying to break down the walls you would have thought that a catapult or battering ram would have been a better choice.

However, walking in circles was the instruction from God, and walking in circles is what the people of Israel did. They did this, for seven days in a row because they were expectant that God was able and would keep his promise to his people.

This trust and expectancy is impressive. After all for the first six days that they marched around nothing happened, the walls remained standing and the city was as impenetrable as ever.

It wasn’t until the very end once the people had completed their task that God delivered what he had promised all along.

Just think if the people had lost hope on day 5… if they said “I am just wasting my time going around in circles… I’m going home there must be something better to do…” they would have never seen the great things that God had promised fulfilled.

We all have things in our life where like the Israelites we know what we want to happen, but we don’t feel in control of how it will turn out. It might be exams, family situations or something completely different.

Whatever your big thing, your “fortress” is write it in the middle of your sheet.

Knowing about our “fortresses” is a start and turning to God in prayer is also an important step. However as we have seen what is also key is a continued committed belief in the situation and expectancy that God will bring what is best for us.

Maintaining expectation is about more than just asking, and then forgetting it is about keeping our fortress in the centre of our communication with God and in our action.

I challenge you over the next week to spend five minutes each day this week to pray about your fortress, to help you do this you could even set a reminder each day in your diary.

One thing that you can always expect after going to a festival, holiday or spending time being active is to be tired. We all have days when we feel tired, but we are encouraged that even when we are bleary-eyed and struggling to get out of bed that God is ready to give us strength, which we can read in Isaiah 40 : 28 - 31.

How do you find the motivation to get up in the morning when you are tired and just want to roll over and spend a few more hours in bed?

Does this passage give you any inspiration to look at mornings with a different perspective?

Relying on God is essential for us to live our lives like a festival, it is not something that we will be able to keep up in our own strength, it is just too exhausting! This is a good thing because in Isaiah God tells us that “I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

The key thing is that we need to trust God to provide us with the strength when we need it, and not just rely on our own strength and ability to get us through.

Say God gives us strength and ability so that we can be an active part of his kingdom, sharing the word of his love with the whole world. In Acts 1 : 8 it says ”you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."

Here we see that God clearly has plans for us to tell people about him both locally (Jerusalem), nationally (Judea and Samaria) and globally. In pairs or small groups talk about practical ways that we as a youth could share God’s love with our community.

So today we have seen the value of expectantly trusting in God, that he will give us strength to keep on going (even when we are feeling tired). We also have seen that we have been given this strength to enable us to share his love with other people.

Let’s close in prayer:

Lord Jesus,

We thank you that you are a mighty God that is able work in all situations when we choose to trust you.

We bring to you the fortresses that are in our lives, and as you to work within these situations so that they can burst open with the potential that you have in store.

We thank you that you strengthen us, even when we feel tired, and that we can always rely on you.

We thank you that you have chosen us to share your love with our community.

Amen