2 MINUTE WARNING

LIFE is meant to be lived.  And it is meant to be lived with great passion and joy.  I think all of us would say that.  I mean what good is it to just get up each day and go through the motions?

I think all of us face this reality each and every day……and there is a battle being waged on how we can do just that…..

You see, where I live, we have legalized marijuana.  And while we can go back and forth on legal and political issues, I am going to argue in the arena of the spiritual and say:  Just because something is legal doesn’t make it what we need to do.

You see, we live in a society where we have a pill, or a cure, for everything.  Even in the medical field we sometimes try to stop the symptoms and leave out the root of the problem.

I urge you:  Don’t Do It.

Solomon gave us this message 3000 years ago in Ecclesiastes 2:

10 I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;

I refused my heart no pleasure.

My heart took delight in all my work,

and this was the reward for all my labor.

11 Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done

and what I had toiled to achieve,

everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind;

nothing was gained under the sun.

And it is the same today.  If we truly “deny ourselves nothing” and chase after all that we could ever have…..it won’t solve the problem or be the cure for the issue.

And that’s because the we don’t get to have the answers, we get to have the Answer.

And that Answer is Jesus.

Don’t take a pill….say a prayer

Don’t numb the pain…cry

Don’t avoid the work…grind it out

Don’t duck out on the problem and run away…fix it

The Lord came down here to give His life to be with us…..and when I get mad and say:

“Why don’t you come down here and feel what it is like to be on this earth?”

“Why don’t you go through this pain so you know what it feels like?”

“Why don’t you come and FIX THIS?”

I am here to testify today–that in the person of Jesus:  

He Did.  He Has.  And He Will.

I pray that He will come and help you deal with all that burdens you……because the harder things are…..the more that we truly need to have Him……

So cry out and ask for help…….He’s Got You.

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

Saul’s Conversion:  Acts 9
¹Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest ²and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. ³As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. ⁴He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
⁵“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
⁶“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

I was thinking about this today as I drove home from our basketball game….and it still amazes me.

This man, Paul, is a Roman citizen.  He is educated in the greatest situation with the most reputable religious scholar.  He is honored and revered by the Jews and yet has nothing to fear from the Roman iron fist because of his citizenship.  He is rich, he is liked, he is respected, he is literally “LIVING THE DREAM”.

And on his way in to tell others that they are wrong…..He comes to the realization that he is the one who is, in fact, wrong.  How does he find out?  He has an encounter with Jesus.

So what does he do?  He throws everything he has IN THE TRASH and becomes a follower of what he calls “The Way”…..a follower of:  Jesus.

This is all the testimony I need to hear!  This guy who wrote so many New Testament Books gives up everything so that he can be:

Beaten

Imprisoned

Shipwrecked

Stoned

Mocked

Ridiculed

This must have been an INCREDIBLE ENCOUNTER!!  I want that ENCOUNTER!

So Lord….come meet with me today….come meet with me and change my heart that I would consider all other things, well, trash, compared to what I can receive from you.

Change me and transform me.  Let Your Spirit convict me and revive me.  Make me one of your servants.

For You, and You alone, Jesus, hold the keys to eternal life.

Amen.  Amen.  And Amen.

Zephaniah 3:17    ¹⁷ The LORD your God is with you,
he is mighty to save.
He will take great delight in you,
he will quiet you with his love,
he will rejoice over you with singing.”

Our nature is to have the wrong mindset–and our enemy loves to keep us walking in that.  I often find myself angry or mad at the wrong things….when I really should be realigning my thoughts to the Lord.

Remember what is in His Book and begin to apply it today as you walk through the day.

1.  He is FOR you.
2. He is quick to forgive to redeem and to restore.
3. He not only wants to save you AND others….He DELIGHTS in you AND others!
4. He rejoices over your successes and cries with you in your pains.

What if we walked out our days knowing that we were loved in this way by the King of the universe?

May He bless your day.  May He bring hope to your areas where you have no hope.  May He bring joy to your successes.  May He bring peace to your areas of strife.

Let His victory reign over your life!  And remember—-in Jesus—-we are citizens of heaven…..

1 Samuel 30:6  David was greatly distressed because the men were talking of stoning him;  each one was bitter in spirit because of his sons and daughters.  But David found strength in the LORD his God.

David makes a dramatic comeback thanks to his faith.  He gathers a group, pursues the enemy, transforms an enemy soldier, fights a battle, and brings back the plunder which he demands to be SHARED BY ALL.  He then goes to the elders and honors them over his great move of courage.  He honors THEM!  When we look at this story without God’s grace over it it is hard to swallow…..but it is God’s grace that fills David with the strength to do what he did–and he knows it!

Life is not easy, and we must remember a few things if we are to find the Lord working in us and through us.

• LOYALTY Is Not Relative

You can not claim to be a loyal person if you don’t stick around in the hard times.  Loyalty is REVEALED when someone is down.  It doesn’t run away, it doesn’t judge, and it doesn’t throw someone who fails under the bus.  We must understand that we simply can not throw someone away when they fail–otherwise, we can not claim to be loyal.

• VICTORY Is Not Individual

You’re not better, you’re blessed.  I always like to say this to individuals and teams who have experienced success.  You’re not better, you’re blessed.  Think about it.  There is no reason to get a big head when things go your way, because you must realize that they will not always be in your favor.  It is very important to humbly receive victory and compliments and favor by giving credit and gratitude and loyalty to those around you who have helped–and maybe even some who didn’t.

• LEADERSHIP Is Not Easy

The world is full of alignments between people who are too afraid to walk into something alone.  I saw a picture of the two little girls who grab hands as they walk together into a new place or a new situation.  We all need the help of someone else (at least we think we do) to face the new day.  But David had no choice.  He had no one but the Lord.  What a tough thing it must have been to sit in that place with not only no friends, but with men who claimed to be friends who decided to turn on you.  We must all face up to the reality that we will ALL be in that situation sooner or later.  And we must realize that if we are going to do ANYTHING worthwhile with the life that we are given, we must sometimes walk alone.  It is not okay to follow along and do the wrong thing.  And history has proven, again and again, that there is great power of evil that can well up within large throngs of people…..people who have the courage to walk alone have proven time and again to have great eternal impact.