Essay --

Good Morning. As we start off today, I have a question and you can answer it by a show of hands. How many people in this room have ever started a project that you knew you probably wouldn’t ever finish? I mean, maybe you thought to yourself, this would be really great and I should do it, but in the back of your mind, if you were being honest with yourself, you knew that you probably weren’t going to see it through to completion? So only three people out of four hundred? (Pause, laugh) There we go†¦ ok, good, I’m not alone. Over half of you have started a project that you had no intention on finishing. Me too. When my daughter was born, I got into the common practice of reading her a book before bedtime. We read and read every night. And I realized something. Many of these children’s books are just not very good. After a few months of reading to my daughter I went into my bedroom and said to my wife. â€Å"That’s it†¦ seriously.. I’m writing a children’s book!† See had heard this kind of bravado from me before. But this time I wasn’t joking around, in fact, the next day, I pulled out my laptop, in an effort to make bedtime a better experience for every dad in the world and I started writing. At the end of a blistering 2 hour writing session I had typed three pages about a courageous carrot facing his fears. I saved the file and promised myself I would complete it the next day. My daughter is now nine years old and I’m still working on completing that fourth page. There is good news for all of us that raised our hands though. And that good news is this: God finishes everything that he starts. Today, we start a brand new sermon series called Be The Church and the text for today is located in Acts 18:1-11. When I think about being the c... ... am here to announce that he can. He does. Believe it. Last night I received a text message at 2:13am. Now, I always hesitate before I look at the phone when I receive anything after midnight. It’s typically never good. It was from my aunt. We were raised in the same home and she is now 48 and she has never believed. Just about everyday of my life for the last 15 years I have prayed for her. That the Lord would fill her with the Holy Spirit, that she would discover Him. Let me read you the text that I received.. â€Å"Chris, thank you for always praying for me. I woke up in the middle of the night and just submitted to Jesus. I want to live my life for Him. Thank you. Love, Jan.† I know I’m not the only one in the room that has been praying for a loved one for a long time. Keep being the church, keep praying and remember that God always finishes what he starts. Amen.