The summer of 2003 marked the 50th anniversary of the first successful climb of Mt. Everest on May 29, 1953, conquered by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay. Mt. Everest is the highest point on earth towering 29,053 feet above sea level. Prior to that climb, other climbers had failed to reach the summit, some losing their lives in the process. But despite the risk, many people have attempted to climb the mountain. It represents a challenge and in the anniversary year hundreds of people reached the summit using modern equipment and techniques. However, it still took courage because there was risk involved.

There are challenges that each of us face in our own lives. Some of these challenges are things that we choose to take on, just as people made a choice to climb Everest. Other challenges come into our lives uninvited. Suddenly there appears in our lives a challenge that looks like Mt. Everest. How do you face challenges in your life that stretch you to the limit? Do you run from them? Do you get discouraged? Or are you inspired by the challenge?

Some people would say that our response to challenges is determined by our personality, but I don’t think that’s true. Our response to challenges in our lives is determined by our relationship with God. We are currently in a message series called “Growing In God.” Growth involves change, growth involves challenges, growth involves facing mountains in our lives that seem unclimbable. Some people get discouraged, they give up, they stay stuck in the status quo, afraid to do anything different in their lives, afraid to step out into the unknown.

However, people who are believers, people who truly walk with God are bold as they face challenges with courage. NLT Proverbs 28:1 The wicked run away when no one is chasing them, but the godly are as bold as lions. Lions are bold, they are courageous, they run toward challenges and so do the godly. The wicked on the other hand, those who do not trust their lives to God, are fearful and cowardly, running away from challenges.

God wants you to be courageous. He wants to encourage you this morning to face the challenges you have in your life, the mountains that seem insurmountable. I’ve entitled today’s message “Receiving God’s Encouragement.” God wants to teach you to be an overcomer in every challenge that He allows into your life. And He is there to give you the encouragement that you need to scale the peaks of life. NLT Isaiah 57:15 The high and lofty one who inhabits eternity, the Holy One, says this: “I refresh the humble and give new courage to those with repentant hearts.”

Maybe you don’t feel very courageous today, maybe you would just like to run and bury your head in the sand and hope all the challenges in your life go away. God wants to encourage you this day. He wants you to give you something you didn’t have when you started to read this message. To receive God’s encouragement, you’ve got to be willing to change. As listen to this message, think about the biggest challenge in your life and ask God to give you new courage to face it.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my November 27, 2005 message entitled Receiving God’s Encouragement

This week the entire nation is going to celebrate Thanksgiving. The funny thing about it is that actually very little giving of thanks to God will get done. We all get so busy preparing, cooking, entertaining, watching football and eating that about the only thanksgiving will be a short prayer before the big meal. We can easily miss the whole point of the holiday, giving thanks to God for what He’s done in our lives. In fact, Thanksgiving can serve as a reminder to us to be thankful the whole year round.

Complaining comes easier than being thankful for all of us. I’ve learned that when I complain a lot, I don’t feel so good, but when I am thankful, my spirits are lifted. I believe that as we each look to God’s Word this Thanksgiving, He can help change each of us into a more thankful person.

So how can we make this Thanksgiving different? It begins with realizing that everything you are and everything you own comes from God. Without God you would have nothing, in fact you wouldn’t even exist. NCV 1 Chron. 29:16 Everything has come from You; everything belongs to You. Everything comes from God, everything belongs to God. NLT John 17:7 Everything I have is a gift from You. So when we ask ourselves the question “What can we be thankful for?” we really have to thank God for everything good that is in our lives.

We can thank God for our health, our homes, our families, our jobs and that is well and good, but some people are struggling in those areas. Many people struggle with health problems, some have lost a job or are having work difficulties, others may be having family struggles. So this morning, I want us to focus on four things that every believer can be thankful for no matter what their circumstance in life. If you’re not yet a believer, these are four things that you can enter into as you begin a relationship with God. Things may be going great in your life or you may be struggling through the worst season of your life, yet you can be thankful for these four things.

When you express your thanks to God, you are pleasing Him because God tells us NCV Eph. 5:20 Always give thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Giving thanks is not just for Thanksgiving, giving thanks is to be a year-round lifestyle.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my November 20, 2005 message entitled Learning To Be Thankful

A man had a pet snake and he purchased a mouse to use as food for it. He dropped the unsuspecting mouse into the snake’s glass cage where the snake was sleeping on a bed of sawdust. This tiny mouse had a serious problem on his hands, he was in great danger of being swallowed alive. The mouse had to come up with a brilliant plan. What could he do?

He quickly set about covering up the snake with sawdust chips until it was completely buried. The mouse couldn’t see the snake anymore and he sat back thinking that he had solved the problem. However, we all know the mouse’s problem was not solved. Eventually the snake would wake up and that would be the end of the mouse. The solution to the mouse’s problem came from outside the cage. The man took pity on the poor mouse reached in and removed him from the snake’s cage.

People can be like that mouse, trying ever so hard to cover up the wrong things in their lives. Trying to do good things so that others and even God will not see the sin in their lives. Yet when you try to cover over your sin with your own good actions, it really isn’t gone. Just like that snake, sin will eventually get you. Only by the grace of God can you be saved from the deadly peril of sin in your life.

Grace is undeserved favor, it is mercy that we don’t expect or deserve. Grace is the hand of God reaching down, removing you from deadly danger and bringing you into a relationship with God. Grace is God’s gift to you. NIV Eph. 2:8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith–and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God– Every person needs God’s grace, because every person has the deadly serpent of sin in their lives. Not one person is exempt. Grace is God’s gift to us. Grace is for every person. Grace restores us to our relationship with God. Grace is needed to keep us daily walking with God. I’ve called today’s message “Growing In God’s Grace” to answer the question, “How can we continually live in God’s grace?”

To hear more about this topic, listen to my November 13, 2005 message entitled Growing In God’s Grace

Erik Weihenmayer is blind, yet on May 25, 2001, he reached the peak of Mt. Everest. Erik suffered from a degenerative eye disease, he lost his sight when he was 13, but that didn’t stop him. Ninety percent of climbers never make it to the top of Mt Everest, 165 have died trying since 1953, yet Erik succeeded. One of the main reasons Erik made it is that he listened well. He listened to the little bell tied to the back of the climber in front of him, so he would know what direction to go. He listened to the voice of teammates who would shout back to him, “Death fall two feet to your right!” so he would know what direction not to go. He listened to the sound of his pick jabbing the ice, so he would know whether the ice was safe to cross. When we take a perilous journey, listening well can make all the difference.

Life is a perilous journey. You and I need to listen well and we need to listen to the right source. We need to listen well to the guidance of God through the Bible to make it to our destination. Today we’re going to talk about “Following God’s Guidance.” How can a book written by men dead for at least 2000 years be relevant to your life in the year 2006? How can stories of an ancient middle eastern nation of long ago have any usefulness in your modern life today? We deal with issues like: Should I try to change jobs or not? How should I handle my finances? Should I go back to school for more training? How can I raise my children to avoid the problems of today’s decadent culture? The list could go on and on.

The Bible doesn’t deal with the issues I have to make daily decisions about, or does it? How can the Bible actually help me make decisions in life? How can God’s Word provide guidance for my life? NLT 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing God wants us to do. God can guide us through His Word, because: (1) God is the same today as He was when the Bible was written, He hasn’t changed; (2) Sin is the same today as when the Bible was written, it hasn’t changed; (3) Man is the same today as when the Bible was written, people haven’t changed; and (4) Basic issues of life we face today are the same fundamental issues people have always faced. So today I want to answer the question “How can God guide our lives?”

To hear more about this topic, listen to my November 6, 2005 message entitled Following God’s Guidance

Today we start a new message series called “Growing In God.” Our spiritual lives are often likened to plants in the Bible. A plant needs certain essential ingredients to grow. It needs good soil, the proper nutrients, water and sun. So too, a believer or a person seeking to know more about God needs certain essential elements to grow spiritually in God. In this series, we’ll be focusing on some of these essential things that we need to understand and apply in our lives so that we can live the kind of lives God created us to live.

One of the essential things that we need in our lives is the proper guidance so that we can make good decisions. Proper guidance in necessary in many aspects of life. On April 13, 1970, the flight of Apollo 13 was bound for the moon. However, without warning, there was an onboard explosion in an oxygen tank which crippled the spacecraft. The return trajectory was altered and now the spacecraft would miss the earth. The astronauts would be doomed unless something could be done. Commander Jim Lovell could not rely on the computers to help because there wasn’t enough battery power. So he had to visually keep planet earth in the crosshairs of the spacecraft window as he corrected the trajectory with a manual burn of the engine. The procedure worked and the astronauts returned home safely. All because Lovell kept his eye on the fixed reference point of planet earth.

Our journey through life must also be lived by keeping our eye on a fixed reference point. There is only one fixed reference point and that is God’s Word the Bible. TEV Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to guide me and a light for my path. When we keep our eyes on God’s Word, we will be guided by it in our journey through life. We will reach our destination of fulfilling God’s purpose for our lives here and in eternity with God in heaven. If you choose any other reference point, you will go off course with your life, you will be off target with God and you will be headed for destruction.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my October 30, 2005 message entitled Enjoying God’s Word