The Cause - Distractions

(Acts 11:21) “The Lord’s hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord.”   Never confuse activity for significance or impact.   Title of Message: The Cause Distractions   The Cause Distractions: 1.    Unchecked Priorities   Unchecked priorities can lead us to a surviving mentality and keep us from a thriving reality.      (Ephesians 5:15-16) “Be very careful, then, how you live--not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.”   (Luke 21:34) “Be careful, or your hearts will be weighed down with dissipation, drunkenness and the anxieties of life, and that day will close on you unexpectedly like a trap.”   2.    Unreasonable Faith   (Hebrews 11:1) (NLT) Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.   (Luke 16:10) (NLT) If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones.   3.    Underestimating God’s Power   MIRACLE GAP   (John 5:1-7) (NLT) Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish holy days. Inside the city, near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda, with five covered porches. Crowds of sick people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the porches. One of the men lying there had been sick for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him and knew he had been ill for a long time, he asked him, “Would you like to get well?”  “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have no one to put me into the pool when the water bubbles up. Someone else always gets there ahead of me.”   (John 5:8-9) (NLT) Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat, and walk!” Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up his sleeping mat and began walking! (2 Corinthians 12:9) But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.   How to Eliminate the Distractions:   1.    See   (Isaiah 43:19) See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland. 2.    Move   (Psalm 37:23) The LORD directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.   3.    Trust (Psalm 37:3) (NLT) Trust in the LORD and do good. Then you will live safely in the land and prosper. (Proverbs 3:5-6) (NLT) Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.