2 MINUTE WARNING

It is not an accident that the very word that I give you today is the word that I need to hear.

I heard this song today on the radio and it spoke to the depths of my soul…..I pray that God would use it to speak to you as well….this very day.

I am sure that Zacheus recognized his “lack of stature”.  Yes, he was short, but that is not what I am referring to…..

I think Zacheus recognized that he was short in the very thing he could not be…..HE WAS SHORT of the calling that God had put over his life.

• Instead of a giver….he was a taker.
• Instead of getting to give…..he was only giving so that he could get.
• Instead of being the man who was showing others God’s love……he was misrepresenting the only friend he had ever known.

Luke 19 Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. 3He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd.  4So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.  5When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” 6So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.  7All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”  8But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything,I will pay back four times the amount.”  9Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham.  10For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

The Son of Man came to seek and save the lost.

Wow….that’s me.

That’s Me!

And that’s you.

You can offer something to God that He can use….

Agreement.

You can AGREE.

There will never be a greater offer.

The Son of Man is offering to disregard your short….

He is offering to come to your house.

He is has already chosen to seek you.

But to save you….you must AGREE.

And when you do…..you can begin a great inheritance.

No Matter What

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPGY4zAhT_o

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

I woke up this morning with a song on my heart……..and perhaps this is the most important part of knowing our place with God……

Because when we put ourselves in “place of worship”…..we truly approach a mindset of knowing where we stand with the Father.

Psalm 148 1 Praise the LORD.  Praise the LORD from the heavens, praise him in the heights above.

2 Praise him, all his angels, praise him, all his heavenly hosts.  3 Praise him, sun and moon,

praise him, all you shining stars.  4 Praise him, you highest heavens and you waters above the skies.

5 Let them praise the name of the LORD, for he commanded and they were created.

If there is ONE PLACE I could encourage you to live…..it is in a state of worship….Remembering your place before the Lord:

Mercy Me says it pretty well.  Enjoy this song and think about some of these lyrics:

The moment that Hope was born…and guilt was pardoned once and for all….

All of creation…sing with me now….

Lift up your voice and lay your burden down….

All of creation…sing with me now….

Fill up the heavens let His glory resound….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7bD02ZmTqk

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

All of us will have to answer about what we believe:

Are the codes that are written in the DNA of living things written by noone……OR someone?

Did our universe come to be (Space, Time, AND Matter ALL had a beginning) from nothing……OR something?

Do our lives on this earth have no meaning…..OR do they have purpose?

I do not believe that we are accidents….I do not believe that we are here by random process.

I believe that we are here by the hand of God.

Isaiah 40 21 Do you not know?  Have you not heard?  Has it not been told you from the beginning?  Have you not understood since the earth was founded?  22 He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers.  He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in.

23 He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing.  24 No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

Our lives on earth will be short.

Will we choose convenience……or will we choose purpose?

Will we choose false peace……or will we choose to be at war for the Kingdom?

Will we choose self preservation……or will we fight for the preservation of the gospel?

Our God has written us a love letter.

That letter described Him, in detail, and foretold of His coming.

That letter offers us a hope that can not be attained by an other means.

And it is for all who would dare be born into His Kingdom.

Jesus Christ of Nazareth hung on a cross so that we might, on this day,

CHOOSE HIM

He Is Enough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wN-fspKg1Q

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

George Washington was the target of Indian snipers in the Seven Years War at the battle of Monongahela.  He had two horses shot out from underneath him and after the battle they found 4 bullets in his coat….the Indian Chief prophesied that he would be the “Father of a Great Empire”.

And here we are…..July 4, 2018…..

Living in the “land of the free….and the home of the brave”

Living out the call that Jesus so freely offered some 2000 years ago.

John 8 36 So if the son sets you free you will be free indeed.

We have many problems that we will be called to face as we move forward in this politically charged time…….

But let us not forget that we are a nation founded on this incredible principle:

The Son has set us free….and we are free indeed!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5YOCbiRWXY

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

One of my favorite verses in the Bible is in Job…..after experiencing incredible persecution and trauma…..Job responds like a champion:

Job 1 20 At this, Job got up and tore his robe and shaved his head. Then he fell to the ground in worship 21 and said:  “Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart.  The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised.”

It is easy to live for God when life is easy.

It is easy to spout out scripture in times where it convicts us.

It is easy to worship when we have it easy and when all the things that we desire line up just the way that we want them to……

But life is not always easy.

A more poignant reality for all of us is that we live in a culture that has forgotten the Lord…..and when tragedy hits, our focus goes from ignoring Him to blaming Him…..

So today I encourage all of us……

Remember Your Place

We have an opportunity in front of us……and that is the chance to get ourselves, and all we love, into heaven.

He has created us to have eternal peace and hope and relationship.

He has created us to be free from the binds of Satan, and sin, and death.

He has created us to obey….to actually follow all the things that He has given us with the covering of Christ.

He has created us to worship….to actually raise our hands to heaven and cry out in worship.  To give Him His place above all things.

He has created us to forgive….to clothe ourselves with Jesus and to let go of all the baggage that can actually bring us to our knees and cripple us.

He has created us to serve….to love others.  To give our time, talents and money that others might come to know Him.  And to do what Jesus said would make us great.  “Who wants to be great among you?….must be a servant….for the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to offer His life as a ransom for many.”  Mark 10

He created us to REMEMBER OUR PLACE

He created us to Be Who He Has Called Us To Be

And in doing just that we begin to LIVE…..

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Solomon wrote an incredible book….and it is a book that is as applicable in 2018 as it was the day that he wrote it…….

I think it could be called “meaning of life book”…….

He goes and he tries everything……

Partying….

Hooking Up With Women….

Getting Rich….

Popularity….

Being A Genius….

Power….

Solomon tries to FILL his life with all that he can gain…..and he finds his life EMPTY.

So where am I going with this?

Here is where I am going:

• Someone has already TRIED to destroy their life by trying to find it.
• Someone has already TRIED to find the meaning of life.
• Someone has already TRIED to store up a bunch of treasures only to discover they are poor.
• Someone has already TRIED to find love by having a “perverted tryout” with the “best” there was to offer.
• Someone has already TRIED to do all that man is STILL trying to do……..

And at the end of ALL that……that someone said that their life was EMPTY……and then…..after spiritual reflection…….they said this:

Ecclesiastes 12 13 Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.

God has given us an amazing document.  Men died that we can read it today.  It gives us the greatest advice that we could ever find.

And all we have to do is read it.

Fear God And Keep His Commandments…

For THIS……Is The Whole Duty Of Man

Could it truly be this simple?

You decide…..

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

“Your Belief Is Everything”

As those words came out of my mouth to my football team I had an immediate check in the spirit…..a moment where I felt I heard God saying:  THAT is your answer.

I had always pondered “why is our belief so important?” …… and in some senses I still understand why I did not understand …….

But the game of football has taught me so much about life …. And God has used it to teach me so many things.

Get up.

Be tough.

Be unselfish.

Celebrate the successes of your teammates.

And so on…..

But the one that I want to address today has to do with belief…..In football:

• If I am the 2 deep safety and I do not believe that the corner will funnel and do his job then I will open too wide and offer the inside cut to the receiver.
• If I am the end and I do not believe the the linebacker will fill, I can lose my contain and let the back outside.
• If I am the safety and I do not believe that my teammates will stop the run….then I might take unnecessary chances that offer up much worse outcomes then the ones I am trying to prevent.
• If I am the QB and I get drilled in the blind side because the tackle does not block….I might lose my belief that he will block and make terrible decisions with the ball because I don’t believe that the line will protect me.

And so on……

I think this idea is summed up in this verse:

James 1 6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.

There are two things I want to touch on here today.

• When others let us down, we must decide whether we have the belief…the faith….to be back in the game.  Forgiveness is a part of this. Faith is a part of this. Our will is a part of this. It is simply a matter of our will controlling our mind…..it is our will telling our mind to restore….to believe….to dream again.  It is okay to dream again. It is okay to ask the Lord to restore your hope. It is okay for you to will yourself back to faith.  Because FAITH and BELIEF will give you a new hope.

• God will never let us down.  Our fallen world will always oppose us.  People’s bad choices (including our own) will always be able to affect us.  And the enemy will always look to steal, kill, and destroy us. In the temporary, death will eventually get to us……but in the eternal—God wins…… and  He’s got ALL WHO WOULD CALL ON HIM AND RECEIVE HIS FREE GIFT.

As I read this verse I had a visual of a sea turtle fighting to get out to sea…..getting tossed and blown around by the wind and the waves and the surf.  His little body having to fight for all that he has just to GET into the water…….. And, no matter what he does…..the waves will sometimes determine his destiny.

Let’s not live in that realm as believers.

Let’s WILL ourselves to have faith and belief.  Our Will To Believe can literally change the destiny of our day, or week, our outcomes…….and without our DECISION, or CHOICE, to believe—-we are like a turtle getting tossed around like a rag doll.

Let’s Believe and Not Doubt

Because our God…..He did just that….and He did it right up to His dying breath on that cross.

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

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Coach J

One of my favorite stories in the Word of God involves a woman who was caught in adultery and about to be stoned……..until Jesus shows up in the temple courts and challenges the angry mob to have the man without sin cast the first stone……..

John 8  9At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. 10Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”  11“No one, sir,” she said.  “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”  

Love it.  And yet….I had to ask, how does someone:  Go now and leave your life of sin ?

How does a person leave their life of sin?  I am 100% positive that this woman absolutely sinned again……

We tend to read scripture like we do a Disney story…..one that might end:  And they lived happily ever after …..

And yet, that is not at all the world that we live in.

It is the tension of scripture…..

It is the fact that By His Stripes We Are Healed AND If We Claim To Be Without Sin We Deceive Ourselves And The Truth Is Not In Us …..  It is the fact that He said It Is Finished AND We Are Being Made Holy.  

How can we be without sin and full of sin at the same time?

How can we be paid in full and not yet there at the same time?

How can we be perfected and yet imperfect at the same time?

It is the answer no unbeliever wants to hear:  Jesus.

Jesus Christ.

It is why we make such a big deal out of Him and the world constantly tries to downplay Him.

You can pray…..just don’t mention Jesus

And so on…..

And yet, He told the church of Laodicea that He was about to “spit them out of His mouth” because they were neither cold nor hot.

The gospel is clear……He is clear.

We must be born again into a new kingdom…..where we are totally dependent upon Him and given the opportunity to realign in the areas where we are not.

When we decide to follow Him…..we must understand daily that our we now live in a world:

• Where we have nothing without Him.
• Where we have sinful actions, but forgiveness by Him.
• Where we have perfection….because of Him.

Let’s put it this way:  You and Jesus have a 2 man team that is undefeated, unblemished, and unbreakable…………….But if you take Him off of your team——you won’t even be allowed to play the game.

Now…..

RESPOND

Pray & Thank Him & Recommit To Being His

Go And Tell Someone About Him

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

From a porch on top of the city, David became tempted to do the unthinkable.

He betrayed his own soldier.

He committed adultery.

He then tried to cover it up with murder.

And David paid a great price that forever changed his worldly destiny.

It is the classic story of a man who was God’s own turning and running in the wrong direction……..

The walk back can be long and difficult……but we can always do it.

One of the greatest lies from the pits of Hell is:  “It is too late to go back now…..”  And that’s because when we say it we almost always do something else to cover up the lie that covered up the other lie that covered up the other lie……

But the gospel was never meant to cover up the lie……

In God’s world–and it is HIS world–things are meant to be brought into the light.

Satan would have you cover it up.  He would have you conceal it and leave it unrevealed…..and what he shows you as enticing he would love to condemn later.  Satan’s talent is in thought life……it is to hide and then accuse in the hiding place……

What freedom the gospel brings!  Instead of getting beat down in the dark—we get to proclaim our weakness out in the open…..and the freedom that follows is incredible.

David found this freedom…….

Psalm 51 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,

and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

11 Do not cast me from your presence

or take your Holy Spirit from me.

12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation

and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.

There are times we need to just enjoy the Lord’s gifts over our lives….to live in the freedom that He gives us….to not walk in guilt and shame and condemnation.….And there are times we just need to repent and start over–to confess and shine the light on our brokenness.

THAT is the gospel.  That is what Jesus offered and offers—

It is the right to become children of God born again into what Jesus has offered…..and all we have to do is RECEIVE HIM.

So if you need an overhaul today….ask Him to renew your spirit…to create in you a pure heart…to keep you in His presence….

RECEIVE HIM….He is the prize

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Know anyone who might like these?  Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J