Hillsong Conference Notes -Session 4

John Maxwell 07/07
Running with the Giants: Noah and Esther

Heb 12:1
Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us

If we were to bring out some Biblical characters from the great cloud of witnesses, and let them run one lap with us, what would they say to us?
[Please note that John was sharing from his book  "Running with the Giants"]

Noah: what would he say to us if he were to run alongside us?

One person can make a difference.

Everyone is creatd with a desire for significance - that their life would count in the annals of history. You can be significant because one person can make a difference. Noah saved his whole family. They were not saved because they were righteous themselves, but because Noah was.

Success is when the people who know you the most love and respect you the most. Something is wrong when the whole world likes you better than your own family.

When you make a difference, there is a compounding, never ending influence and legacy that lasts beyond your lifetime. You can make a difference no matter how old you are. Noah was ~600 years old. God is never through with you till you are dead!

Don't be afraid of standing out from the crowd.

Difference-makers make a difference BECAUSE they are different. They are willing to take a risk for God and look silly.

Obey God even if you don't understand.

Charles Spurgeon said, "If we cannot trace His hand, we can always trust His heart." God is looking for people who are righteous and love Him.

Esther:

You have a place, a calling, a role for you. For a period of time, even when you are God's child, you can feel out of place.

As a girl, Esther must have felt out of place. She had no normal family of her own like many of her friends would have had. When she entered the world of royalty, she must have felt decidely out of place in all her finery, pomp, ceremony and richness.

John calls this time of feeling displaced 'the dry season: the season when you are still finding your place, your skill set, your destiny.' Be patient: God has a plan bigger than a one-day thought for you. HE will place you just as He placed Esther 'for such a time as this'.

At that moment, when you find yourself in that place God had prepared, you will rise to it, you will become courageous like Esther was so that she could say 'if I perish, I perish'. Your dry season is only for a time. Be patient and allow God to prepare you for that role, that time.