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2 MINUTE WARNING

WITH DOUG JOHNSON

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457 The Cost Of Admission

I love reading this verse.  It is challenging to our culture in 2024 in so many ways:

Luke 16 1 Jesus told his disciples: “There was a rich man whose manager was accused of wasting his possessions. 2 So he called him in and asked him, ‘What is this I hear about you? Give an account of your management, because you cannot be manager any longer.’

3 “The manager said to himself, ‘What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to beg— 4 I know what I’ll do so that, when I lose my job here, people will welcome me into their houses.’

5 “So he called in each one of his master’s debtors. He asked the first, ‘How much do you owe my master?’

6 ” ‘Eight hundred gallons of olive oil,’ he replied.
“The manager told him, ‘Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it four hundred.’

7 “Then he asked the second, ‘And how much do you owe?’
” ‘A thousand bushels of wheat,’ he replied.
“He told him, ‘Take your bill and make it eight hundred.’

8 “The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. 9 I tell you, use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves, so that when it is gone, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

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. 15 He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God’s sight.

Many people view heaven and wonder:  “What is the cost of admission?”

What is the cost of admission?

We are short on our accounts and when the payment is due we will not have enough to pay it.

And then there is Jesus.  He shows up and cancels the debt for us and our entrance goes from impossible to certain.

This is a message to the believer and the unbeliever.

It is easy for a follower to say that “I have been doing this for years and because of that, I am going to the front of the line.”

It is easy for a newcomer to say, “I am not worthy.”  Or “I will go to the back of the line because I am not good enough.”

But this is not what Jesus says:

He says:  Welcome.  Enjoy your promotion.  Welcome to the family.

When we are in we are in.  And we are in because Jesus decided to pay the price of admission.

This message is not a good one to the individual who can buy everything or influence everything or overpower everything.  There will be no money great enough, no influence great enough, and certainly nothing powerful enough to push our God around.

I mean:  He owns the cattle on a thousand hills.

He equips shepherd boys with rocks to take down giants.

He shuts the mouths of lions.

And He will certainly stand in front of an army and be undaunted.

The concept of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah ruling over us excites me as much as it humbles me.

And He did, unequivocally, pay the price for our admission … and yours.

So when you sit in worship today … THANK HIM for that.

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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451 Recover What The Enemy Has Stolen

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.

It didn’t take David very long to lose the support of people.  The very people that he had rescued were turning on him discussing executing him!  This, to me, is unfathomable and yet it makes perfect sense.  People want all of it.  We are never satisfied with what we have … we always want more.  And, we probably don’t see it until we have been on the side where David sat in this verse.

Thank God … this is not the end of David’s story, or ours.

Our God is on an eternal quest to Recover What The Enemy Has Stolen.

And He has done so from the beginning, and on our behalf.

But how can this be done?  How can you make a covenant when someone continually and consistently breaks it?

God knows.

In Genesis 15, God makes a covenant with a sleeping Abram.  And why not?  You can not “cut a covenant” when the person that you cut it with can not and will not meet up to his end of the bargain.  So God cut a blood covenant with man through the only One strong enough to keep it.

God cut His blood covenant with man through Jesus.

And Jesus lived up to His end of the deal by dying on His end of the deal.

By His blood we are healed.

By His life we have life.

By His resurrection we can have eternal life.

By His perfection we can be sons … and daughters.

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.  (John 3:16)

The enemy will always try to steal from us.  Sometimes he will win the battle.  Most of the time, he will lose.  And He can not win the war.  The battle belongs to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

And it is on Him that I stake my life.

He … is MORE than enough.

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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448 How Can It Be?

Many might question Jesus choice for disciples.

But His choice to spread the gospel was even more radical.

Could Jesus have planned to have a demon possessed crazy (blog 447) and a town prostitute (this blog, 448) to take His good news to the world?

The fact that they did, the fact that the gospel even survived, and the fact that He predicted His death and resurrection say that it was much deeper than we could even surmise.

In the middle of daytime heat, in a place “inconvenient” to where the disciples might have chosen to go, Jesus began changing the world.

And his methods were radical.

As the disciples attempted to steer Him in the wrong direction, He told them:

John 4 32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

Our pursuit of Jesus often includes are thoughts as to what He is and who He is.

But who He is runs contrary to all that we sometimes think.

We think that His conversation with the woman at the well was necessary for Him to save “them”.  But what we can not fathom was that it was necessary to save us.

WE are the broken ones.  ALL of us.

John 4 39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers.

The gospel of Jesus has the ability to enrage the rich, the privileged, the well-behaved, and the reliable.  And this is because in our very narrow vision of who we are, we believe that we are somehow worthy.

But the reality is that we are not worthy.

The reality is that He has made us worthy.

In reality, we are no different than the woman or even the crazy man from the graveyard.  

We are so in need of His everlasting grace.

Without it, we are sitting ducks for Hell.

Growing up, my beautiful daughter Jenna would listen to Lauren Daigle.  I grew to love her music because Jenna did.  And her words in this song could not be more true.

Thank You, Jesus.  How Can It Be?

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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