2 MINUTE WARNING

As I was driving to school this morning … this song came on.

And I couldn’t help but raise my hands to the heavens to rejoice.

God is so so so Good.

I am a sitting duck for Hell.  An all star sinner with so many shortcomings and so much wrong that I sometimes don’t know where to start.

And yet … I am free to step forward in worship.  I am free to cry out for help.  I am free to ask him “why”?  And I am free to be his prodigal son—broken, starving, and out of money.

And there He is.

Our lives are so short.

Our pursuits are so often futile.

Our dreams are sometimes more important than they should be or so misguided.

And yet … He cares.

Raise your hands up and rejoice.

The God of the universe tore the veil, paid the fine, and took a trip to the pits of Hell so that He could stomp on the devil’s head … for you … and for me.

And that, my friends, is all we need to know.

Romans 5 ⁶ You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. ⁸ But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

I am sure that transonic buffeting prevented us from breaking the sound barrier. In the world of jets, this is a technical term for the shaking that takes place as a jet approaches the speed of sound.

Certainly, this phenomena turned many pilots away from “going for it”.

In life it is no different, and we have a great description of it in scripture:

When Jesus was about to walk into His ministry, He was taken into the wilderness.

Matthew 4 ³ The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

No food.

No water.

And the voice of evil calling out all He knew to be true.

“If you are the Son of God” …

How dare him.

How dare him take my best friend out into the wilderness to treat Him as such.

But this is the story of Christ.

His willingness, His offer … His amazing desire to make us right caused Him to leave all that was comfortable in order that we might have life.

Today, on May 13, I ask you the question:

Who Are You?

Because the answer to this question is going to be challenged and attacked by the devil himself.

Are you about to do something amazing?

Or start something new?

Or be the difference in a community?

Are you in celebration mode as you have accomplished something great?

Because all of these put you in great position to be challenged by Transonic Buffeting

You see, God has a plan.

But Satan also has one.  And in some perverted act of spiritual influence he would love to shake you out of moving forward into your destiny.  And he will do anything he can to accomplish it.

As you think about your future, I want you to think about such things. Because the enemy wants to challenge you as you move forward.  And these are things you should think about:

• he will attack you in your weakness
• he will attack you in your strength
• he will attack you when your flesh is weak
• he will attack you when you are down
• And, more than anything else, we need to acknowledge that Jesus told Peter how dangerous he truly was … and that he has come to steal, kill, and destroy

Knowing this is important.

And knowing what Jesus did is vital.

He knew who He was.

He knew the Word and answered every challenge with scripture.

He knew what the truth was and was quick to identify half truths.

And He was courageous enough to walk forward in faith.

So today, is a great day to ask the question:

Who Are You?

Because if you know who you are in Jesus … 

Satan will not win the battle you are facing … and the shaking will stop as you move forward into your destiny.

I wish it were this easy … but the reality is that tomorrow … he will try to shake something else.

Fight well my friend.

And bring Jesus with you.

You will need Him.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

One version of the Bible tells us that we are “MORE than conquerors”, that we are a Royal Priesthood, that “we will be blessed when we go in and blessed when we go out” …

Another part of the Bible tells us that we are born into sin, that there is no one worthy, and that “we all like sheep have gone astray” …

And so which one is right?

It is “the tension of scripture” as I once heard Kris Vallotton describe it.  Opposing ideas that don’t seem to blend together … they don’t work.

The idea of combining Excellence and Grace is not just difficult–it is IMPOSSIBLE.

And our enemy wants nothing more.  Because if he can attack us in our failure, he can then convince us that we never measure up and that anything is permissible.  He can get us to go back and forth between trying to be perfect and not trying at all.

From my perspective, this is the great spiritual death roll, and much like a crocodile, it rolls us from never measuring up to “why try?” … and we live in the prison of death and failure and hopelessness.

In that, my friends, there is NO HOPE.

Enter Jesus.

Colossians 2 ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

On the cross on Calvary, He intervened.  He ensured that we could actually be excellent and be forgiven in our mistakes.  He changed the rules of the game completely.

He made is so that we could actually play … and win.

Think about it.

He did the impossible so that, for you, all things are possible.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

If I am to be honest, I spend much of my time building a house in the wrong city.  I rise and toil.  I pursue and work.  I make every effort to make sure that all of my ducks are in a row.

And the reality is that this means nothing.

What I really need is PEACE.  We Need PEACE.

And we must constantly seek peace.  Not the peace that comes from treaties or comradery.  Not the peace that avoids conflict at the expense of character.  And not the peace that is fueled by emotions.

Peace With God.

Romans 5 ¹ Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,  ² through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.  ³ Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;  ⁴ perseverance, character; and character, hope.  ⁵ And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.  

Aside from Jesus … there is no peace.

Sure, we can brag about our good deeds, we can proclaim all of our great accomplishments, and we can build an empire.

But none of those will give us anything in the Kingdom.

We have peace with God ONLY with Jesus.

Solomon knew this as he wrote to “fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man … “

Paul knew it when he declared himself the “chief of sinners”

Peter knew it when he stood before Jesus in absolute failure and had to declare his love of Jesus … even though he had TOTALLY FAILED HIM.

And then there is us.  We have nothing as we stand before God.  Nothing.  All we can do is fall before Him and ask for Jesus … and in that, we have peace.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

The Internet of God is an amazing thing.

Unless you are a person.

John 13 ³⁷ Peter asked, “Lord, why can’t I follow you now? I will lay down my life for you.”

Matthew 26 ³³ Peter replied, “Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.”

Matthew 26 ³⁵ But Peter declared, “Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you.” And all the other disciples said the same.

John 18 ¹⁰ Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)

Written for all to see, Peter made promise after promise after promise to Jesus.  Finding fish, he believed.  Finding faith, he spoke.  Finding that he could be REAL with Jesus, He RESPONDED.

What a hero.  Not a hero with an H but a hero with h.

Our Hero, Jesus, opened up a door that we can walk through.

And Peter, in spite of his failure, chose to be a hero and walk through that door.  But he (Peter) had to realize something.  He had to realize that he (Peter) was nothing without He (Jesus).

And that’s just it:

Jesus = Everything

Peter + Jesus = Everything

Peter = Nothing

These are three equations that we must learn today.

Because, like Peter, we are all simply men, and women, who make empty promises, brag, and, literally, do NOTHING.

But with Jesus?  We can change the world.

Walk … Into Your Calling.

In The Name of the Father and the 

Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Coach J

As we live a life of comfort and pleasure, let us consider these things:

I have often wondered why Jesus went where He went, why He did what He did, and how He chose who He would talk to …

And as I reflected upon this last week, I became very convicted on one thing:

Often, Jesus showed up looking for a fight.

The original title of this blog was going to be “Walking Into The Storm” but, today, it is called:

An Enemy You Can Not Defeat

And you would do well to listen to this.  Because Jesus wasn’t looking to just fight, He was looking to fight the enemies that would eventually defeat you had He not dealt with them.

And so He takes His disciples to Caesarea Philippi … “The Gates Of Hell” … in order to tell them that Peter, the coward, would advance upon it … and defeat it.

How frustrating it must be for the enemy to realize that the weakest of human flesh would conquer him … and yet, that is what the plan is.

Matthew 16 ¹³ When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?”

¹⁴ They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

¹⁵ “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”

¹⁶ Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

¹⁷ Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but by my Father in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. ¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” ²⁰ Then he ordered his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Messiah.

“And on this rock I will build my church”

With Jesus, we become amazing.  And yet, without Him, we are bound for the pits of Hell.

This is not a new word.

It is not something that we should take lightly.

And it isn’t something that we should be hiding from the world.

It is the hope of nations.

When Chuck Colson said “I meet millions who tell me that they feel demoralized by the decay around us. Where is the hope? The hope that each of us have is not in who governs us, or what laws are passed, or what great things that we do as a nation. Our hope is in the power of God working through the hearts of people, and that’s where our hope is in this country; that’s where our hope is in life.” this is exactly what he was talking about.  

And as we worship Jesus, let’s remember His life.  When He was powerless, He went and tore up the temple, He went and defended the lady who was to be stoned, He went to meet the Samaritan reject, and He went to confront the devil at the Gates of Hell.  And then He did it in the spiritual, which would have to be ALL THE MORE TERRIFYING.  And He did it so that you could have victory over “An Enemy You Can Not Defeat”

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