Opening Weekend - Jeremiah 29:11 BREAKAWAY SATURDAY


It currently holds the record for the greatest ever opening weekend.  It beats out Iron Man 3 by $33 million and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows Part 2 by over $40 million.  What could it be, It is none other than The Avengers, with an opening weekend box office take of over $207 million.
However, not all “successful” movies have great opening weekends.  In fact, the top two all-time income producing movies, both of which beat The Avengers in the money brought in over the course of their release, had very poor opening weekends.  The #1 all-time grossing movie was Avatar, bringing in a lifetime income of just over $760 million dollars compared to The Avengers $623 million, however, Avatar’s opening weekend was a disappointing $77 million.  Also ahead of The Avengers in lifetime box office income would be Titanic, with a lifetime box office take of almost $659 million dollars.  Its opening weekend receipts?  Less than $29 million.
This is your “Opening Weekend.”  This week has been your production week, but as I said last night, it is time for us to decide whether to release the film to the world, or set it on the shelf.  While we have had great fun producing this movie, as we go off the set and into the world, some of us may be going back home with a little fear or nervousness of how those back home will receive the changes made in us.
There’s good reason.  As we go home on fire for God, some places are going to receive us excitedly.  Some of our churches, family, and friends are going to welcome us home filled with the same joy we have as we leave.  Ready to join with us, and feature us, as we are released to the world.  We’re all set to have an amazing “Opening Weekend.”
However, that will not be the case for all of us.  Some of us will be returning home to the same family crises we left behind to come here, or even to families who don’t share our love for Jesus.  Some of us will be going home to friends who laugh at whatever changes may have occurred in our lives, telling us we’ve only been gone for a week, we can’t be that different, or they accuses us of being “stuck-up” or “judgmental” if we won’t participate in some of the life-hurting activities we did before we arrived.  Sadly, there may even be some churches who receive us back, and we go in all excited about Jesus, talking to the church about some new idea we may have for our youth group or a mission project for the church as a whole, only to have them try to put out the fire, saying “we’re not ready for that here,” and continue on with life as usual.  The reality is that some of us may have the Avatar and Titanic kind of opening weekend—we may go home full of joy and excitement and soon be filled with disappointment and frustration.
That’s when we need to remember our identity, we’re “Children of the King.”  That’s when we need to remember Christ’s final words from Matthew that we heard last night, “Remember, I am with you always, even til the end of the age.  I will never leave you.”
When we encounter those things that try to quench the joy Christ has filled us with, when things happen that make us question whether it was a good idea to let God direct our lives, then we need to know these words from the prophet Jeremiah:  “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.”
God is saying to us, “Don’t get caught up in a disappointing response to the release of your life to those around you.  Trust me, go ahead and let me continue directing, because while you can’t see it, I know the plans for you…and those plans are not the trouble you face at home, not the unpopular response of the “cool crowd,” not the dampening spirit of those who are not on fire for Jesus.  The plans I have for you, my child,” God says, “are plans to strengthen you, plans to benefit you…my plans for you are a future filled with hope, with good things, with blessings, with success.”
My friends, let that joy, let that truth, hold fast to each of us, as we let God direct not only our lives at Breakaway, but our lives for all the years to come.

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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