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2 MINUTE WARNING

WITH DOUG JOHNSON

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487 Be … Then What?

The Bible calls all of us as believers to many things.

And one of them is to be:  Above Reproach

As we read below:

1 Timothy 3 1 Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?) 6 He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil. 7 He must also have a good reputation with outsiders, so that he will not fall into disgrace and into the devil’s trap.

There are many things in this verse that we must read:

Faithful

Temperate

Self-Controlled

Respectable

Hospitable

Able To Teach

Not Given To Drunkenness

Not Violent But Gentle

Not Quarrelsome

Not A Lover Of Money

Must Manage His Family Well

Must Have A Good Reputation

Now, if you are A Recent Convert … what I have to say now is not for you.  You are to seek God, and pray, and learn His word, and meet with other SOLID BELIEVERS, and grow in your faith.

But most of us … we grow out of that … and now it is time to step up and do the very thing that that verse above requires.  It is time for us to walk into the calling that God has for us.  As a coach, I would say:  “Get Your Butt Going!”

  1.  You Are Called To Greater Things

Do not underestimate your influence, do not downplay it, and do not lazily disregard it.  Walk into your calling!

1 Peter 2 9 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.

  1.  This Is Not An Optional Mandate

He calls us to ministry.  It is not our job to “regulate” the pastor.  We are not to sit in the back pew and say “he needs to do this and this and this …”  Nonsense.  We are to stand up and lead.  Start your ministry today, or at least tomorrow or Monday or have a plan.  And aim big!  The world is full of the lost.

Matthew 28 18 But the man who had received the one talent went off, dug a hole in the ground and hid his master’s money. 

19 “After a long time the master of those servants returned and settled accounts with them. 

24 “Then the man who had received the one talent came. ‘Master,’ he said, ‘I knew that you are a hard man, harvesting where you have not sown and gathering where you have not scattered seed. 25 So I was afraid and went out and hid your talent in the ground. See, here is what belongs to you.’ 26 “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? 27 Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest. 28 ” ‘Take the talent from him and give it to the one who has the ten talents. 29 For everyone who has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken from him. 30 And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

  1.  The Gold Standard

Follow the playbook in your ministry.  The playbook is written in your Bible.  And Jesus … He is the Gold Standard.

Proverbs 17 3 The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the heart. 

So yes,

Be Above Reproach

Be:

Faithful

Temperate

Self-Controlled

Respectable

Hospitable

Able To Teach

Not Given To Drunkenness

Not Violent But Gentle

Not Quarrelsome

Not A Lover Of Money

Must Manage His Family Well

But then what?

Get Your Butt Going!!

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

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483 The Bible Is Not A Boot

As I drove home from a meeting with an incredible man today, I was convicted in my car and I believe God put this thought on my heart:  

“The Bible IS NOT a boot.”

Amen.

The Bible should never be used to kick someone, to hurt someone, to drive a point home.

It is NOT OUR PLACE.

I am saved by the grace of a God who loves me too much to let me die in the midst of my sin … and my sin is great.

Thankfully I say to you … “My God is not done with me yet!”

Wow, that feels so good to say:

“My God is NOT DONE with me yet!”

In a world of darkness and evil and falling short, I am the greatest of these … the pride, and unforgiveness, and impurity, and vengeance, and hard-heartedness that can well up in me is beyond description.  And it is destructive.  And yet, I can find it, and identify it, in me.  In God’s love letter written to all of us, for this day, on January 28, 2025, Paul said it best:

1 Timothy 1 15 Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. 16 But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life. 17 Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.

The Bible Is NOT A Boot.

Because if it were, I would be getting kicked in the face right now by a God who could kick me a good distance.  But that is not His way.  And as I meditate on that verse above today, I am so grateful.  For I am “the Chief of sinners” and I would be happy to argue with Paul about it.

And chances are … you are “the Chief of sinners” too.

And so what does God tell us to do?

How are we to introduce others to Jesus?

How can we properly communicate this gospel?

Here are a few thoughts:

The Bible is a Message Of Reconciliation:

2 Corinthians 5 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 

20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 

The Bible is a message of love:

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.

The Bible is a message of our need to have a Savior:

Romans 8 1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 

The Bible is a lot of things.

It is a book of instruction.

It is a book of wisdom.

It is a book of history.

It is a book of LOVE and GRACE and FORGIVENESS …

It is a book about Jesus.

There are a lot of ways to describe it.

But one thing that it is not:  The Bible Is NOT A Boot

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

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453 The Open Door

What a Word God put on my heart on Friday.  

God is for us.

I know that this is a simple phrase, but with God it is an amazing thing.

Revelation 3 8 … See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name.

God knows our deeds.  But He has given us an offer.  “Whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”  The message that is trying to take over is that Jesus allows us to think and do whatever we want.  Nothing could be a bigger lie.

The Truth is:  God offers us a way out from our sin by Loving Him, by being Born Again, by Surrendering to Him.

The devil doesn’t want us to do that so he has gone open season on standards.  While we will never meet the standard I will say this:  Everyone I know who ATTACKS Standards and the way people think has not surrendered to God.  They would know better.  He is the Lion from the Tribe of Judah and He is the one who tore up the temple.

And so I go back to the above verse.  He knows our deeds.  Even so, He has placed before us an Open Door that no one can shut.  You should choose to walk through it.  And when you do, you get three things.

  1.  He Knows You.  Revelation 3 8 I know your deeds. Even though you are broken and full of hideous sin—He accepts you.  The one who KNOWS YOU BEST is the one who LOVES YOU MOST.
  2.  He Calls You To Overcome.  Revelation 3 21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne.  He isn’t asking us to overcome, He is COMMANDING us to overcome.  Stand up, Be accountable, and walk out the call.
  3.  You are a son or a daughter.  Galatians 3 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir.  This is the greatest deal that you will ever get.  BECAUSE Jesus died and paid for your sin, you get to be a son or daughter of the King.  All the rights.  All the privileges.  All the blessings.  You will never get a better deal than this.

God has placed before you:

An open door  …  And no one can shut it.

Stand up and walk through it.

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

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452 Stand Up To The Angry Mob

How did a homeless itinerant preacher change world history?

He stood up to an angry mob.

He had followers that were willing to stand up to an angry mob.  And He also had people in that angry mob “change teams”.

I am not often drawn to read about the stoning of Stephen.  But Stephen is quite a story.  While on trial, he calls out the very men who are accusing him:

Acts 7 51 “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers: You always resist the Holy Spirit! 

52 Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute? They even killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One. And now you have betrayed and murdered him— 53 you who have received the law that was put into effect through angels but have not obeyed it.”

Stephen called the leaders Stubborn, Unfaithful, Disloyal, and Disobedient.

Not long after that, he was dead on the ground and his soul was enroute to heaven.

This is hard to read … and probably even harder to interpret.

What are we, as people, to do with this?

My answer, today, is I don’t know.

But here is what I do know at this small moment in time:

  • I know that Stephen stood up to an angry mob.
  • I know that one of the men in that mob who responded in anger had a RADICAL transformation, repented, and ended up writing books in the New Testament and advancing the gospel.  (Paul)
  • I know that because of this domino affect we are reading this Bible that we have today.
  • I know that we have moments in our lives that we might also be surrounded by an angry mob that calls for, and pushes people to, the very injustice that God has come to save us from.

Don’t buy it and don’t bow to it.

The God we serve died under this so that we would not have to be punished eternally by it.

And thank God for His grace.

John 3:16  “For God SO LOVED the world that He sent His ONE AND ONLY SON that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

So I finish with this:

Angry mobs are fueled and influenced by Satan himself.

So ……. 

Stand Up To The Angry Mob.

Don’t bow down to their philosophy or join them in their judgment.

Do not adopt their philosophies or entertain their temptations.

And do not judge others that they might be pointing the finger at.

They have no more right to judge than you do.

Judgment and Justice and Revenge … 

They belong to God … not man.

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

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