Our name | Mission | Vision | Leaders Ministries | Schedule | Directions | Contact Home   Gateway Church gathers for worship Sundays at 10:30 a.m. Location: 6425 Jefferson Rd. (Hwy. 129) in Athens, Georgia. For directions, click here. Ministry of the Word: Recent sermons Our quarterly e-magazine Gateway Today For the Gateway family Pastor Jerry's Weekly E-Mail A GATEWAY SERMON SUMMARY AUDIO Life: An adventure to live Jerry Varnado, pastor Gateway Church, Athens GA May 1, 2005 Main Scripture text: Romans 8:28-31. In his book, Wild at Heart, John Eldredge writes this: "Life is not a problem to solve, but an adventure to live. Let's face it, most of us are problem-solver-type people. One way we solve problems is by trying to prevent them from occurring through planning. Don't get me wrong. Planning and preparation are good, but we lose something when we plan and prepare too much. Life doesn't always work out the way we planned -- and if we've allowed our plans too much space in our lives, we get anxious, worried, angry or depressed. This also applies to your spiritual life. How many of you can say that God always responds, answers prayer, and acts just the way you figured or planned? Listen to what Oswald Chambers says in My Utmost For His Highest: "Our natural inclination is to be so precise -- trying always to forecast accurately what will happen next -- that we look upon uncertainty as a bad thing." Uncertainty is a fact of life -- and if we always see it as a bad thing, we'll go through life all stressed out. Let's think of life not as a problem to solve, but as an adventure to live! The dictionary says "adventure" is "an undertaking or enterprise of a hazardous or questionable nature." In other words adventure is fraught with uncertainty! Down deep all of us desire adventure, but we're afraid of it, because it's fraught with uncertainty. Let me quote again from Oswald Chambers: "Certainty is the mark of the commonsense life -- gracious uncertainty is the mark of the spiritual life." "Gracious uncertainty" means that although we may be uncertain about the circumstances tomorrow will bring, we are absolutely certain about God. We may not certain about the next step but we can be certain that God will take that step with us. This is the essence of "abandonment to God," of full surrender to His will and purpose. If we surrender to Him, we'll find that life is full of glorious surprises. We'll begin to look with expectation to what God will do next. We won't know just how God will come, but we can be certain that He will come. Friends, we face uncertainty in this hour. We don't yet know how we will get the money to pay the debt on this new building. We don't know how God will come into this situation. But we know Him in whom we have believed and we can be confident that He is able -- and that He will come! Supporting texts: James 4:13-14 | Isaiah 55:8-9 | Isaiah 40:28 | Proverbs 3:5 A mp3 audio file of this sermon is here (20:00). (Download to a PC by right clicking on the link and choosing "Save Target As." Mac users: click, hold, and choose "Download Link to Disk." Depending on your connection speed, the file may take several minutes to download.) At the end of this sermon, Pastor Jerry instructs the congregation to re-gather at the new church building for a victory prayer. A mp3 audio file of that prayer is here (2:30). An audio tape of the sermon summarized above is available free of charge (U.S. requests only). Request a tape by calling or writing the Gateway Church office. Please specify tape number 050501a: Life: An Adventure to Live. © 2005 Gerald R. Varnado To the Gateway Church home page How to contact us