Welcome to First Christian Church.  I’m glad your weekend plans included time with God and us as we conclude our current message series, Wasted Opportunities.

In this series we have been reminded that followers of Jesus Christ need to make the most of every opportunity.  Every day the creator God gifts us 24 hours to use and gives us the freedom to use it anyway we choose.

The New Testament letter writer named Paul suggests in his letter to followers of Jesus in Galatia to not use that freedom as an excuse to live under the power of sin. Instead we should serve one another in love.  I might also suggest that we use our freedom to move from self-centered living to Christ-centered living because that kind of living and attitude compels us to care about others too, specifically those still living far from God.

From one of the more famous stories of the Old Testament of the Bible we will look at a story of a man that God asked to partner with Him in showing compassion to people that this man wasn’t very fond of.  His reluctance and resistance to God’s promptings created a lot of unnecessary chaos and turmoil for himself and those around him.

His story is one of a Wasted Opportunity to appreciate the fact the creator cares about us even when we don’t care about Him. God wants those devoted to following Him to get the word out that He is a God of love, mercy, grace, and compassion. He desires to pour out His love, mercy, grace, and compassion to those that turn to Him in repentance and belief.

It’s my hope that our time together this weekend will remind all of us that there are many people living far from God that He cares about and wants us to care about too, even people we aren’t fond of.  I hope we will make the purposeful decision to not be like the main character in our story and not run away from the things that God calls us to.  That we will move with God so we won’t live with the regret of Wasted Opportunities.

Pastor Randy