2 MINUTE WARNING

To say that I have asked God:  “Where are you?”, on numerous occasions, is an understatement.

My question is usually selfish, and shortsighted, and definitely shallow.

Because God is right where He should be … 100% of the time.

And the times, in my life, where He has proven that, are uncountable.

Again and again, He has shown me EXACTLY where He is.

And, really, the question should be for Him to ask me:  “Where are you?”  I am the one who disappears, and hides, and doubts, and questions, and does everything else that creates this chasm of distance between Him … and me.

Jeremiah 29 ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”

Some translations use the term “welfare” for this verse.

Peace and prosperity also works.

Welfare works.

Blessing works.

And it also works to substitute words in for city.

Let’s try a little word substitution:

• Seek the WELFARE of the PERSON YOU ARE WITH …
• Seek the BLESSING of the COMPANY WHERE YOU WORK …
• Seek the PEACE AND PROSPERITY of the CITY …
• Seek the GOOD of the SPOUSE YOU HAVE MARRIED …

I could go on and on. 

And the reality is simple.

God shows up when we give it away.

Maybe that is money.

Maybe it is time.

Maybe it is a talent or blessing that we have.

He works, in mighty ways, when we give away something for someone else.  When we, for one moment, drop our selfish desires and cravings, and give something away that meant a lot to us.

He shows up.

And He always gives us MORE than what we give.

ALWAYS.

I think that is what draws me to this very simple Kari Jobe and Cody Carnes song.  When we are praying and worshiping God and singing blessing over someone else, there is something that God does … in us.

Be blessed today … and may His favor be upon you …

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

There is absolutely no reason to get angry at Jesus.

Yes, He cleared out the temple at the passover.

Yes, He said “get behind me Satan” in reference to the actions of Peter.

Yes, He told His own brother, “for you, any time is right”.  In other words, “it makes no difference when you do something”.

Yes, He said “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword”.

And of course, this:

Luke 16  ¹⁰ “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.  ¹¹ So if you have not been trustworthy in handling worldly wealth, who will trust you with true riches?  ¹² And if you have not been trustworthy with someone else’s property, who will give you property of your own?  ¹³ “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”  ¹⁴ The Pharisees, who loved money, heard all this and were sneering at Jesus.

Who is Jesus to you?

The perception that is sometimes portrayed is sometimes soft, and accommodating, and flexible … or the perception is sometimes what we see above … that He is “not inclusive”, that He is “not a loving god”, or that He has created a human race that He intends to send to Hell.

But as I sat on the river yesterday and watched as the sun begin to peek over the mountain, I simply thought:  “There is absolutely no reason to get angry at Jesus.”

What has He done? …

He has offered us a choice.

And it is a simple one.

We can choose our own path and tell Him to leave us.

OR

We can Surrender.  Give up our plans.  Give up our desire to do as we please.  Give up our perceptions of right and wrong, our offenses with others, and our own view … and adopt His.

I choose the latter.  And, to be honest, it is a selfish choice.  When I surrender, I am giving up something far less than what I gain.  I have seen what I want … in every aspect of my life I have seen it, and it isn’t pretty.  I mean … I am ugly to the core.  I am greedy.  I am selfish.  I am angry, and unforgiving, and full of lust.  The pain I carry, willingly, is the very thing that I, when left to my own devices, inflict upon others.

I mean come on!  What am I going to do with a bag of money as my God?  It simply can not fill my insatiable desire to get more.

And what am I going to do if EVERYTHING I wanted always was at my disposal.  What would I do if I always got my way?

And what if everything I laid my hands on worked perfectly?  Even now, I can turn to arrogant so quickly that I do not even like the man that I see in the mirror.

So I surrender.

And yes …

• That means that I surrender to what I think is right and wrong and look to God through prayer and conviction, the Bible, and other God-chasing people to define that.
• That means that I choose to give.  Time.  Talent.  Money.  For the Kingdom of God.
• That means that sex is not an activity, that purpose is given to us as created beings, and that confusion and insecurity are part of the enemy’s plan to dismantle our future.

But the up side is what He gives.

He stands in the gap between me … and eternal damnation.

He loves me in my weakness–when I do none of what I purpose to do … and forgives me for falling short.

He watches over me.  And keeps me.  And gives me life.

And when I surrender to this life … He stands in waiting.  For He, has created a place for me.

And so this day, I say:

Your Praise Will … Ever Be On My Lips

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

As I stood at the fifty yard line at Cheyenne South High School, a light rain turned into a violent hail.  Grape sized hail was pummeling everyone … and players, coaches, and fans began to run for shelter.

For me, it was a moment.

I walked and took the moment in, I reflected on the judgment of God.

Would God reign hail on us?  And how big would it be?  And is that where He is as He gazes on us?  I can not say.

But reflecting on Him this morning, I have to say:  He is so merciful.  To me, to our families, to even to our enemies.  He is merciful, and full of grace, and quick to forgive.  He sent His son to pay the debt and crossed out our transgressions.

But His power to judge consumed me in that moment.

Today, I think about what God has told us about life, our trials, and what God has planned for us and for everyone else.

Jesus says in John 16 that “in this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.”

In 1 Samuel 30, we read that David experiences a defeat.  And in response to an undefeated streak coming to an end, those close to him celebrate him by speaking of stoning him.

The enemies of God will always stand up and rant and declare that they will destroy those who love Him.  They will puff up their chests and sting, or even injure, those who stand in His honor.

But they are like a small hailstorm in comparison to flood.

And they will never conquer what God has in store for us.

Daniel was perhaps the wisest man in the Bible.  And, as a biblical lover and not a biblical scholar, I am sure others could argue for Solomon or Paul or even Abraham.

But Daniel knew some things.

And those things that he knew connected with John as he was marooned to Patmos.

Daniel 7 ¹¹ “Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire.¹² (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.)

¹³ “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.¹⁴ He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.

Daniel described some events very similar to those of John in Revelation.  They both shared in their visions and expressions from God.  They don’t make much sense to me, and yet they are crystal clear.

The boastful horn is destroyed.

One like a son of man came into the presence of the Ancient of Days.

His dominion is everlasting.

Do not fear the hail storm.

Do not fret over the threats of the enemy.

Do not even fret over your shortcomings, or those of the people around you.

Rather, stand in awe of the God who can drop elephant-sized hail.

Stand in awe of the God who has created you with a purpose for all of your days.

Stand in awe of the God who loves you too much to let you fall through the cracks.

For He, and He alone, holds the keys to eternal life.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

God has a plan to give us something beyond what we can comprehend.

It isn’t a ritual.

It isn’t a guilt-based response.

It isn’t a list of things that we must accomplish.

It is a ticket to freedom that we cannot explain until we experience it.

It is the gift of being “born again” and to walking into a new identity.  Jesus talked about it in John 3.

John 3 ³ In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

The gospel message is simple:

God loves us in spite of our rejection of Him.

God gives His son for us.

We return to Him by receiving Him.

Being born again is not about “doing something”.  It is about taking off the baggage of the world and surrendering to God Almighty.

It is about coming to the realization that we are chasing the wrong prizes for the wrong reasons.

It is about becoming free of measuring up.

John 3  ¹⁶ “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

Jesus loves us so much.  And not because of what we have done.  He loves us because we belong to Him.

For most, this is not enough.  It makes no sense because how can someone who has DONE nothing be given the ultimate GIFT?  But that’s just it.  It is a gift.

Ezekiel 36  ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.

Romans 8 ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers,³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

My Independence Day this year came on the banks of Lake Powell.

It was orchestrated and ordained by a God who loves me (and you) too much to let us just fall through the cracks.

It was orchestrated by a God who faced off with Satan and took a punch on our behalf.

It was orchestrated by a God who loves us so much that He gives us a gift to open so that we can choose Him and reject the world.

It was orchestrated by my Father … the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

And it is received by any person who decides that we don’t have to stand and burn in Hell when we can kneel and live in paradise.

Our surrender feeds us better than a trip to Maui, or a sunset, or any beautiful item that the world has to offer.

To Seth … and Steve … and Jaron … and Aiden … and Jordan … and Abrielle … and Justine … and Peabo … and to anyone else who would dare surrender to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Counselor, the Redeemer, and the King:  Hallelujah.

And to anyone who wants to be baptized as an initial act or as an act of recommitment … Call me:  720-448-2628.

I will meet you … at McIntosh … at the ocean … at the tub … or anywhere else.

Surrendering to Jesus is the greatest decision that you could ever make.

Don’t miss it.

All my love.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

As I sat at the table at Ziggi’s today with my beautiful daughter Jenna, we unsuccessfully dealt with a wobbly table.  No matter how much paper or propping we did, the table rocked back and forth in a very irritating fashion.

I pondered why the designer did not use THREE legs on that table.  The Three Point Postulate in geometry guarantees that three non collinear points always form a plane.  In terms of the table, if it had three legs it would never wobble.

I told my daughter that 3+1 did not make the table better.

And, in fact, 3+1 doesn’t make our faith better either.

ALL you need is God.

A Father who has a plan for our lives.

A Son who has saved us.

And a Spirit who will counsel us.

As Paul tells us in his second letter to Corinth, the three He has given us is all that we need.

2 Corinthians 13 ¹⁴ May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

We don’t need more than that.  And, in fact, when we try to add to that, we often lose sight of the fact that we can cloud our own perfect vision of the very One who can save us.

So as you walk out your day, as you make your plans, as you move forward with all the things that you set out to do … reel it in.

Reel it in … and surrender.

Because God doesn’t need a fourth input.  He needs you (and me!) to surrender to His good, pleasing, and perfect will (Romans 12:2).

Thank God for God.

Be blessed today.

2 Corinthians 13 ¹⁴ May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

As my wife read this verse to me this morning, I was reminded of a song by Third Day that I used to play and sing many years back.

Psalm 24 

¹ The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,

    the world, and all who live in it;

² for he founded it upon the seas

    and established it upon the waters.

³ Who may ascend the hill of the Lord?

    Who may stand in his holy place?

⁴ He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

    who does not lift up his soul to an idol

    or swear by what is false.

⁵ He will receive blessing from the Lord

    and vindication from God his Savior.

⁶ Such is the generation of those who seek him,

    who seek your face, O God of Jacob.

Selah

⁷ Lift up your heads, O you gates;

    be lifted up, you ancient doors,

    that the King of glory may come in.

⁸ Who is this King of glory?

    The Lord strong and mighty,

    the Lord mighty in battle.

⁹ Lift up your heads, O you gates;

    lift them up, you ancient doors,

    that the King of glory may come in.

¹⁰ Who is he, this King of glory? The LORD Almighty – he is the King of glory.

And this is just it.

Who is this King of Glory?

As we ate lunch today I told my kids … either there was a conspiracy in Jerusalem where an enormous group of misguided people crossed generations and cultures and time to fabricate a story … or a man named Jesus was crucified and rose from the dead.

Jesus of Nazareth is ALL OVER the Old Testament.  And the story of His life was written hundreds or even thousands of years before He came to be on earth.

As John said:  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

And then John, and MANY OTHERS, go on to declare Jesus as this God.

And so I ask you:  Who is this King of Glory?

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

Never has the group mentality been more important.

The Union protects the worker.

The Legal Team protects the CEO.

The Political Party protects the politician.

Our ability to network and join with others is vital to our success.

But let us not be strengthened … or threatened … by this myth of “strength in numbers”.

We will stand before the throne of God AS AN INDIVIDUAL, and our group will not be there.

They will neither have the power to strengthen, or bully.

They will not be able to push a small compromise.

They will not be able to use a judge, or a bag of money, or a powerful ally to push an agenda.

Just the opposite.

The individuals of each of those groups will stand in judgment without anyone standing on their behalf. 

Alone.

Revelation 20 ¹¹ Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. Earth and sky fled from his presence, and there was no place for them.¹² And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged according to what they had done as recorded in the books.¹³ The sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead that were in them, and each person was judged according to what he had done.¹⁴ Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.¹⁵ If anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Do not be afraid of powerful entities.

Do not be influenced by them.

Do not back down to doing the right thing.

Our fear should be of God … and God alone.

It is Him who holds the keys to eternal life and the power in His hands.

It is He who showed up on a cross 2000 years ago and called out the devil and all of his demons so that they could win their battle to contain Him … yet lose the war of condemning you.

He is the One who said “it is finished” and stood on the threshold of death to represent you.

And it is He who paid the price for your sins that you might never be condemned again.

So don’t fear the Union.  Don’t fear the Political Party.  Don’t fear the CEO, or the company.

Fear the Lord.

He is the only One who can save you.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

The disciples could be reprimanded for many things … but we have to admire their response to God’s call.

In fact, their response to Jesus’ call is an incredible act of faith.

Matthew 4 ²⁰ At once they left their nets and followed him.

I love those two words:  At once

At once they left their nets and followed Him.

There is power in immediate obedience.  And Peter and Andrew were quick to obey.  They followed Jesus with passion and loyalty and without hesitation.

Matthew 4 ¹⁸ As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.  ¹⁹ “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”  ²⁰ At once they left their nets and followed him.

As I read this verse today, I am motivated.  Jesus called us to “go” …

     In Luke 9:60 He says to “go and preach the Kingdom”.

     In Mark 16:15 He says to “go and preach the gospel”.

     In John 5 He says to “go and sin no more”.

Peter and Andrew were the exact people that Jesus needed, and it was because they listened to the word “go”.

What is your “go” word today or for the upcoming season?

What is God calling you to do?

As I sit in worship this morning, I have to enjoy this song.  I enjoy this song because I am weak, yet He is strong.  Going into any situation without God, we are sitting ducks for hell.  But with Him?

With Him, we can GO.

So … find Him and GO.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

God stands up for us.

In the midst of true accusations from the enemy, He stands in the gap.

And He declares our transgressions as “paid in full”.

Lamentations 3 ²² Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail.  ²³ They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.

Never get tired of this concept.

Because this is the rocket fuel that propels us to get up and walk in His grace.

Jesus walked an incredible path.  

• He never shied away from conflict … but He never fought in battles that were useless to the Kingdom of God.
• He was quick to forgive … but never missed an opportunity to correct, and redirect, His misguided disciples.
• He was completely apolitical … but His message unaltered by climate and unfaltering in the face of being persecuted.

Governments … and Wealth … and Political Power … will alter our society greatly.  They have and they always will.  But God …

God will not be changed … He will not be altered … He will not be moved in a direction where He is not going.

And don’t you be either.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J