God is Going to Interrupt Your Plans - to Do Even Greater Things Through You!

In the book of Mark, Jesus was interrupted 35 times. People asked Jesus to come teach, to heal the sick, to cast out demons and raise the dead. He said, “Yes.” Jesus had discovered that God’s frequent interruptions weren’t interruptions at all. They were God’s opportunities. They were God’s plan for his life. The same is true of you and I. We need to learn how to live like Jesus: to live letting God interrupt our lives.


 Jesus was interrupted during meals, while teaching crowds, while walking down the road, even when he was trying to just get away from the crowds and spend time with God. People crowded him, grabbed his clothes (Mark 5:27-28) and invaded his personal space. Two Blind men even burst into the house where he was, apparently uninvited (Matthew 9). Jesus healed them. Four men tore up the roof of a house to lower a sick man down so Jesus could heal him. (Mark 2) Imagine the dust and debris falling on Jesus, as they ripped up the roof above his head. That was outrageous. But Jesus didn’t get upset. He healed the man. 

Jesus’ didn’t just patiently endure all of this, a fake smile pasted on his face. He genuinely felt the pain of the people. He had compassion on them. He felt God’s love for them and He loved them by serving them.
 
00:00 Jesus lived an Interruptible Life
1:36 God Used Homeless People to Teach me to Be More Interruptible
5:15 God Wants to Be Part of Our Daily Lives (scriptures)
7:11 Interruption is God’s Invitation 
9:14 Activation

*God Highlighted Homeless People to Teach Me to Be More Interruptible
I tell stories of how God taught me to be more interruptible by highlighting homeless people everywhere I went last summer and fall. 
These people were assignments for me. Holy Spirit kept pointing them out. I learned to immediately respond.
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*God wants to be a big part of our lives – every day. He has specific plans for us. He has works prepared for us to do – things that were planned long before we were born. Ephesians 2:10 GNT, Psalm 37:23 NKJV, Proverbs 16:1 ESV, Proverbs 19:21 EXB, Proverbs 20:24 NIV, Jeremiah 10:23

The highest life, the most rewarding life we could possibly live is the life God planned and prepared for us. Our role is to live interruptible lives, completing God’s assignments and living the lives God planned for us to live. 

As Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote in” Life Together”:
 “We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God." 

**Interruption is God’s Invitation 
*to come closer to God, to know his heart for people.
*to overcome evil with good. You and I can’t overcome all the evil in the world, but we can stop for the one person in front of us. We can make a difference in their life. We can love and care for them the way Jesus would.
*Interruption is God’s invitation for you to be transformed to become like Jesus. –A life lived for Christ is a self-less life. It is a life dedicated to others. God’s interrupts us to transform us into new people. (see Romans 12:2)
*It’s an invitation to open your eyes to see as God sees. You will develop fresh awareness of people, problems, and God – his power, his love, and his faithfulness.
*to hear God and immediately obey God. Developing a habit of immediate obedience is a powerful thing. 
*to learn to love – it is through serving that we learn the true meaning of love. Matthew 23:11 NIV:  The greatest among you will be your servant.
*to learn humility. Living interruptible will empower you to “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves,” Philippians 2:3 NIV
*an invitation to the Joy of loving and serving others. Such joy!!
Ecclesiastes 9:7 NASB 
Activation- Learn to embrace God’s interruptions and to create margin (time, energy, and resources) for God to interrupt you.