Really God….Wow (1 of 2)
Series: Really, God? Wow
Craig Smith
Habakkuk 1:1-11
Introduction Happy New Year! Before we dive into our new series for the new year, I wanted to take a couple of minutes to celebrate some things. I know that 2021 was a difficult year in a lot of ways, but God did a lot of amazing things in 2021 and I think it would be a mistake to go into the new year without celebrating some of what God did last year: [Prayer of thanks and seeking God’s blessing on our mission in 2022] So I’ve got a question for you: what questions do you have for God? I mean, imagine Jesus just showed up today, grabbed a stool and a microphone and said, ‘‘ok, shoot.’’ What would you ask him. You might even take a moment right now to jot down a couple of questions you have. There’s a couple of reasons I encourage you to do that. The first one is that if we don’t ask the questions we have, we won’t get the answers we need. The second one is that asking God our questions is a way of growing our faith. That might surprise some of you to hear me say. I’m surprised by how many people are surprised by it...but I get it. A lot of us grew up in faith environments where asking questions wasn’t encouraged. Asking questions might have even been dis-couraged. You might have grown up in a family or in a church where asking questions about God - or at least some of the hard questions - was seen as the opposite of having faith. And maybe the only answer you got to your questions was, ‘‘you just have to have faith!’’ And you were like, ‘‘that’s what I’m trying to do!’’ And if that was the faith environment you grew up with, it might be really surprising to hear me say that asking God our questions is a way of growing our faith. But the Bible is filled with stories of people who asked God their questions - including some very intense, hard questions - and finding that asking those questions led to growth in their faith. And let me be clear, that’s not because God always gives eas ...
Series: Really, God? Wow
Craig Smith
Habakkuk 1:1-11
Introduction Happy New Year! Before we dive into our new series for the new year, I wanted to take a couple of minutes to celebrate some things. I know that 2021 was a difficult year in a lot of ways, but God did a lot of amazing things in 2021 and I think it would be a mistake to go into the new year without celebrating some of what God did last year: [Prayer of thanks and seeking God’s blessing on our mission in 2022] So I’ve got a question for you: what questions do you have for God? I mean, imagine Jesus just showed up today, grabbed a stool and a microphone and said, ‘‘ok, shoot.’’ What would you ask him. You might even take a moment right now to jot down a couple of questions you have. There’s a couple of reasons I encourage you to do that. The first one is that if we don’t ask the questions we have, we won’t get the answers we need. The second one is that asking God our questions is a way of growing our faith. That might surprise some of you to hear me say. I’m surprised by how many people are surprised by it...but I get it. A lot of us grew up in faith environments where asking questions wasn’t encouraged. Asking questions might have even been dis-couraged. You might have grown up in a family or in a church where asking questions about God - or at least some of the hard questions - was seen as the opposite of having faith. And maybe the only answer you got to your questions was, ‘‘you just have to have faith!’’ And you were like, ‘‘that’s what I’m trying to do!’’ And if that was the faith environment you grew up with, it might be really surprising to hear me say that asking God our questions is a way of growing our faith. But the Bible is filled with stories of people who asked God their questions - including some very intense, hard questions - and finding that asking those questions led to growth in their faith. And let me be clear, that’s not because God always gives eas ...
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