← ArchiveLife-Money-JoySunday, September 25, 2016DateSeptember 25, 2016Speaker—Text—Passages in this sermon2 Timothy 46:492 Timothy 4:66:53Philippians 226:24TranscriptMachine transcribed. Click any line to jump there.0:00Thank you. Thank you.0:30Thank you. This week we are in part two of our new sermon series on grace-anomics.1:00Economics is the study of the production, consumption, and then administering of financial matters. Yet we are called as God's people, for those of us who follow Him, who seek Him, to press deeper than what we see superficially in the world around us, than to press into God's1:29grace. And so grace-anomics is then the consumption He produces, He gives grace, we consume it, and then we administer it, we pass it to others. We share His grace. So last week we laid the foundation in part one of God's grace, and we saw in the parable of the menas, you might know it in Matthew as a parable of the talents, that twofold spiritually in our lives, this is how we understand our stuff, our wealth and our time and our treasure,1:58that one, God owns everything. How much does God own? Everything. We need to say that constantly in our lives, because we're greedy people who live in a greedy world. And because God creates and then owns everything, we are then held accountable by the way that we use what is the Lord's. So this week we're looking at time. God, how can we use our time for your glory and for your honor?2:25Michael Altshuler said it this way, the bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot. The bad news is time flies. The good news is you're the pilot. I would say, well, that's not necessarily biblical. We'll press deeper than that. But it's a quirky folk saying to help us understand our time. A study in Britain recently actually said it this way, studying the average age of the average2:53English person, they calculated that it is 79.5 years. Let me just say this. Is anyone older than 79.5 here this morning? Just raise your hand. Really? I would make you stand up, but I'm not going to do that. If you're younger than 70 and you have a question about life, just turn around and look at these hands. These are the people you ask. Right? Let me just, I thank God for his faithfulness and his promises fulfilled in your lives,3:23by the way. And thank God that we see lives well lived. This is what that study shows us about time. 79 and a half years. This is equivalent of 954 months, 29,037 days, or 696,882 hours. The average person will live. On average, the average English person, and we're close, will sleep 318 months.3:52So if you are past that 79.5 year mark, you've slept over 300 months in your life. You will work 128 months of your life, assuming that you have started work when you're 19 and you work to 65 and you're still not living in your parents' basement. And I say that as not diamonding, it's my generation.4:25The average person eats five meals per day. Now, I read that and said, I want to move to Britain. I want to move to London. Okay, and so in London, they would, you would spend about six years of your life eating. And I'm thinking, I can, I can do that. The average person spends four hours doing housework. Now, wives, you don't have to comment on that, right? That's an average. Four years doing housework, and the average person will spend roughly one year of your life4:55looking for lost possessions. Looking for lost possessions. We lost two fly swatters in our home this weekend. They just disappeared. I mean, there's really only, well, there's several things you can do with a fly swatter when you have toddlers. But generally, we swap flies with them. And they just disappeared, and we found them this morning, actually.5:24So we spent, we probably spent 30 minutes this weekend looking for a fly swatter, because we live in the land of the flies. I don't know why at our house. But why do I give you this information? This is why, because we spend a lot of time doing things. Often in our life, we spend things that are productive. Sleeping is productive. You need rest. Actually, biblically, you are commanded to rest. If you say, well, I just don't rest well, then you're living a sinful life. God commands us to rest and worship.5:54Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy. Shabbat actually means to rest. So if you are never resting, you are not resting in the will of God. We also do things that are unproductive. For me, I stand in line at the grocery store a lot. And it never fails. I have been cursed. I don't know by who or when. But I have been cursed that I will always choose the line with the person who leaves their checkbook in the car, with the person that has 30 coupons and drops them on the floor, or with the person at the self-checkout line that they have nothing but produce6:25and have to individually type every single pen. I mean, that's my life. If you get behind me at the store, find another line. That I am unproductive when I stand in line. And yet God calls us to be productive in our time and the way that we live. So we're going to look this morning at 2 Timothy chapter 4. 2 Timothy chapter 4, verse 6.6:53If you have your Bibles with you, please turn to 2 Timothy. And my prayer is this for us. What would it look like if every single person here, myself included, dedicated every single second for the glory of God? That if we said, Lord, I know I'm going to spend 300 months sleeping, but I'm going to do so in your name. So when I rest, I rest for the glory of God. And Lord, if I stand in line at the supermarket,7:21I will stand in line for your namesake. And so Lord, if I am standing in line with someone else, I will ask them about their faith. I will share the hope that is within me. Lord, may we live every second for the glory of God. And we see a man in Paul here in 2 Timothy writing to a young pastor, Timothy, and he writes this way. For I have already been poured out like a drink offering,7:47knowing that the time of my departure is at hands. He says, I have fought the good fight. I have run the race. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me on that day.8:15And not to me only, but also to all who have loved his appearing. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Let's pray. Father, we are people, men and women, who stand before you this morning. And Lord, we cry out that we want to dedicate our time to our Savior. Lord, we live in a time and in a world that vies for our attention.8:46And Lord, we do things in our life that are just unproductive at best. Lord, wasteful at worst. So Father, may today be the last day that we live a selfish life. Lord, may today be the last day where I live for me. And we live and dedicate every second to you, knowing that you are the one who created time, and knowing you are the one who gives us our time,9:15and knowing that you are the one who can redeem our time. So Father, we ask that you redeem us by the precious shed blood of the Lamb. Lord, we dedicate our life to you this morning. And I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Well, how can we dedicate our time? How can we redeem our time to the Lord? Well, the first is this, and this is the question that's asked in God's word. Verse 6,9:45Verse 6, For I am already being poured out as a drink offering. So my question to you is this, are you willing to sacrifice? We cannot redeem our time. We cannot live a life that honors God if we are not willing to sacrifice. Look what Paul says here in verse 6. For I am already being poured out. And that's the imagery of a libation offering, a drink offering that comes from numbers. What they would do sometimes, they would have a glass container, no, not glass, a clay container,10:15and to pour out to the Lord on the altar with the burnt offering, they would have to break the jar, and they would pour out the entire contents. And so you see what Paul is picturing for us. He's saying, Lord, my entire life is being poured out. Now, for Paul, literally he's being poured out for the Lord here. For Paul, he's already once gone before Nero. And he's expecting a second hearing because he appeals to Caesar, and he says,10:45I have done nothing wrong. I am not a rebel rouser. I'm not causing dissension. I'm not trying to usurp the authority of Rome. Bring me before Caesar because I am a Roman citizen. And Paul knows that the next step after his second hearing with Nero is death. And he knows because he's a Roman citizen, his death is not going to be crucifixion on the cross. For a Roman citizen that is pronounced to die, their death is decapitation. And so literally,11:15I believe that Paul is envisioning the moment where he is going to be beheaded for Christ. And he is saying, God, I am pouring out my life for you. And what Paul begs of us and what God's word begs of you this morning is, are you willing to sacrifice in your life? Are you willing to sacrifice? This is what Jesus calls us to. Jesus says that whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves,11:44take up their cross and follow me. That is sacrificial language. What does the cross mean for Jesus? It meant death. What does the cross mean for us? It means life. Because of death, without sacrifice, there is no life in Jesus Christ. And so how dare us say to God, Lord, I will sit in any pew that you want me to, as long as it's air conditioned and padded.12:14Lord, I'll sit in any place in this church, as long as it's my pew. And I dare someone else to sit in my spot because we're about to have a holy fight. That I fought the good fight we talked about, it's going down this morning. Lord, I'll do anything as long as it's within 10 feet. God, I'll do anything as long as it's comfortable. And Jesus shouts at us and Paul shouts at us. We are giving everything for the sake of the gospel.12:42And what is asked of us this morning, are you willing to sacrifice for Jesus Christ? Are you willing to sacrifice for the one who sacrificed for you? Jesus uses sacrificial language. And so the words that are asked of us and the question that's begged of us now is this, are you sacrificing? Or have you sacrificed lately?13:11And for many of us, we have to go back a long time when we say, Lord, have I actually sacrificed? Because often, we don't want to sacrifice. We just want to give until it gets to the point where we might think about sacrificing. We say, Lord, I'll serve you, but I don't really want to step to the point that it hurts. Oh Lord, I'll serve you where I'm comfortable. Oh Lord, I just don't want to go there. Lord, I'll help this neighbor,13:40but I shouldn't want to help that one because Lord, you, you and you alone know what they do in that house. And God says, but I died for them just as I died for you and I sacrificed for you. So are you willing to sacrifice for others? Are you willing to redeem the time for others? Are we willing to sacrifice? God's word promises us this, that there is no sacrifice for the Lord that will go unnoticed14:10or unrewarded. And this is a man in Paul that is dying for his faith that looks at us and says, there is no sacrifice, even death that will not go unrewarded or unseen by our heavenly father. And we say, well, how can that be? How can we get rewards if we die? Because the great rewards are not temporary. Great rewards are eternal. Paul says, I have finally received14:38the crown of righteousness that I believe is reserved for me and all who believe. Thank God, I want to be one of those all. Are you sacrificing? I read a history, a historical biography of a man from Yale named William Borden, not the milk man, but he was a rich young, he was a rich, then I guess he'd be a millennial in his early 20s.15:07He graduated from Yale. He inherited millions of dollars. He had what we would say, what the world would say, he had the whole life before him and he had the whole world at his disposal, at his hands. And you know what he did? He gave every penny to missions and he said, I'm going to be a Yale-educated undergrad, Harvard graduate degree,15:37millionaire heir in 1900. I'm going to go to China and give it all away. And so he spent months in Egypt training to go to China and before he went to China he contracted meningitis and died four months later. and we say, man, what a wasted life. And this is what's on his tombstone. I want you to listen to this. The tombstone of William Borden16:06who passed away at age 25, sacrificed everything for the kingdom. This is his tombstone. Apart from faith in Christ, there is no explanation for such a life. His tombstone reads, apart from Jesus Christ, there is no explanation for such a life. He said, well, he wasted his Yale education. He wasted his Harvard education. He died. No one knew of him.16:38He gave everything away. He could have stayed here and given millions to the Lord. He could have done such a great work and he said, no, I'm going to sacrifice it all. And the only explanation we have is this, that Jesus Christ empowered him to serve and to sacrifice. Are you willing to sacrifice? If you say, well, I'm not willing to sacrifice today, do you truly have faith in Jesus? And that's not what I say.17:07That's what Jesus would say to you. He says, deny yourself. Take up your cross. Follow me. Redeem the time, Lord. How can we do that? Are you willing to sacrifice? Secondly, are you willing to live with urgency? Verse six, are you willing to live with urgency? I am already being poured out as a drink offering and I know that the time of my departure is at hand. We had several hands raised17:37that said we are older than 80. Which means we have a lot of hands that were not raised, that are a lot younger than 80. And here is the lie that we consume. The lie that we consume is if our life expectancy is 79 and I'm 40, I have a long way to go. And the sad reality, especially youth, and I'm going to count myself as one of you guys, I'm younger than 50. I'm younger than 40.18:07The sad reality is many of us, I'll give you a football analogy, we think we're living in the first quarter. The reality is as Christians we need to be in our two-minute offense. We need to be in the hurry up. We need to live with urgency. If anyone knows the frailty of life, if anyone knows the sacrifice that's what's been given, if anyone knows the gravity of eternal matters, it should be18:36those who follow Jesus. And many of us are wasting time because we're not living with urgency because we think, because we've listened to the lie that we have many days in front of us. We think, you know what, I've only slept 100 months, I have 200 more to go, that's what the pastor said this morning. And yet, we do not know when that day, as Paul says in verse 8, when that day will come. And the Lord says,19:07Josh, today is a day you give accounts. Josh, why were you living in the first quarter? You didn't realize it was in the first, the fourth, did you? You didn't realize there's only 30 seconds left. We must be people who live with urgency. I had this illustration prepared long before this weekend. I warned my wife. I let her read it. My wife is a Bayou bingle. She would wear that proudly.19:37that proudly. And much to her chagrin and many of her friends in the Bayou, they have a team that struggles with time management. I promise I had this prepared before the weekend. My sermon, it was finished on Wednesday. And I, we have been married 10 years now. And for every year that we've been married and every year that we've been together, she has been frustrated because they win or lose20:06or lose in the last seconds. And they often win in the last second when it should not come down to that. And the reason they struggle the most is not because it's at the last second. The reason they struggle the most is because it seems as if the time nor the coach has any sense of urgency. And that was proved true again this weekend. That's all I'll say about it. Now I would say this, I don't really struggle20:36with that because we normally don't have the chance to win at the end of my team. But how much more so should we live with urgency as believers? And many of us will live last week as if we and everyone else in our life had three more quarters to go. And yet Paul reminds us, he says, the time of my departure is at hand.21:05Believers, we are living in the final minutes. And if I am wrong and you have three quarters to go, how great a time will it be when God looks at us and says, Josh, well done, my good and faithful servant because you lived with urgency your entire life. And we can say, Lord, I didn't know when my time was done, but I knew every breath that you gave,21:35I would give it for you. Lord, help us live with urgency. You might be here today and you're the one that raised your hand. And he said, well, I'm over 80. So I know I don't have 80 years to live. Is it too late? It is never too late to serve the king. It is never too late. We're in Alabama, so here's another football illustration because that's the time of the year22:04that we live in. In 2013 in the Iron Bowl, these crimson football people kicked a field goal with one second remaining. And they kicked it to the other team that was blue and orange. The ones that call themselves the Eagles. And yet they're the Tigers. Questions I'll ask22:37the Lord one day. And he's, the blue team said, you know what? There's one second left, but let's just, you know, let's just have a guy, we call it snowbirding. We're going to let him just stay in the end zone. Let him hang out. He can't block the field goal, but he's just going to hang out at the end zone. And with one second left, the crimson team kicked the football. And it was so far away23:06it came up short. And there was zero seconds on the clock. And these, the blue team caught the ball. And with no time on the clock, the guy started running for whatever reason. And he kept running. And I know, I see tears coming in some of your eyes right now. I watched it again this morning. He kept running. And they won the game with no time left.23:36Now why do I bring up that painful memory and some for you that's a joyous occasion? Because it reminds me of this. If that is true in a game, how much more true is it in life that Lord, if we have one second. Lord, I am 85. I know I only have two seconds or one that we will say, Lord, if you give me one more second, I'm going to live with urgency. I'm going to share24:06my faith. And I will be ready to give a testimony of the hope that is within me. God, help me redeem the time. God, let me sacrifice. God, may I live with urgency. Lord, I don't know how much time. But Lord, I will live every second for you. May that be our commitment in our heart this morning. For I am already being poured out as a drink offering. And the time of my departure is at hand.24:35And then Paul says this, I have fought the good fight. So to redeem the time in our life to say, God, we want to be good stewards of our time. God, we want to live with this grace anomics that I'm preaching about, that your word commands us to. God, we don't want to be like everyone else. God, I want to sacrifice. God, I want to live with urgency. And third, God, I want to fight. So my question is, are you25:04are you in the fight? Are you in the fight? Verse 7, Paul says, I have fought the good fight. Paul was a man that knew he was in a fight and he knew how to fight and he knew that when he fought, the Lord was on his side. I love that. We have a lot of fighters in the Bible. We have little people that slay giants. We have the Israelites that said,25:34that said, you know what, we're going to conquer this Red Sea because the Lord is going to part the Red Sea. We have a Savior that told the wind and the waves when they were trying to consume the disciples, I told you be quiet and the sea was calm and we have a Savior that won the fight against our sin and he said, you know what, death, you know how I'm going to defeat you? I'm going to die not because I have26:03to, not because I deserve to, but I'm going to die on the cross and death, I'm going to put an end to you once and for all. And Paul was a man that knew what and who to fight. The word fight in Greek is agon, a contest of runners and charioteers. In Philippians 2, Paul calls Epaphroditus his friend, he calls him his fellow soldier. In Ephesians, Paul, the same writer26:32in 2 Timothy, he challenged us to put on the full armor of God that we may be able to quench the fiery darts of the enemy party. Paul says we need to wake up. We need to fight. Some of us have not only come in here lackadaisical with no urgency in our life, but we came thinking we are in a land of peace. Oh, and we are sadly, sadly mistaken. Paul says27:03Paul says I have fought the good fight and some of you are thinking what fight? What fight? I thought Jesus said that we're not supposed to fight. We're supposed to turn the other cheek. We're supposed to love everyone. That's not fighting language. But read Revelation. When we see the world coming together at the battle of Armageddon, the mountain of Armageddon, some of you might know it27:33as Armageddon, that when the entire world comes to fight, one man comes on a white horse and the entire world says, just kidding. We give up because when the true king comes to the fight, every fighter says, we have no chance. We are to be soldiers for Christ. What does that look like?28:02We need to wake up and see that we are in a spiritual war, that the war has been won, but the battle is ongoing. You see, in wartime, we ask different questions than we do in peacetime. And regrettably, my generation, our generations, this group, our generations, have grown up that there have been wars in the world, but we've never really experienced war. In actuality,28:32In actuality, anyone that didn't raise their hand earlier in the service, that's younger than the 79 and a half. We truly don't know how to sacrifice because many of us haven't seen war. We've heard of it, we've heard stories, but we have never truly experienced it ourself. So what happens when we're in a war? In war two, at Northwestern University in Chicago, an entire basketball, a girls basketball team was stopped for over 3029:01minutes because one basketball player lost her bobby pin and both teams and the referee spent 30 minutes looking for that bobby pin. You know why they looked for that? Because metal was so precious. They sacrificed 30 minutes of that game to say we are going to look for that to help with the war efforts. That's what a wartime mentality does. A wartime mentality makes us ask the questions, what can I do to help the29:31cause of the war? And Christians we should be asking the question, Lord what can I do to help the cause of the kingdom, to help the cause of the war? Oh that we would be a church, men and women who would stand up and say I am ready to fight. Sometimes our four year old comes home and he sings a song and there's irony in this song because he goes to30:01we care at this church and they do not allow weapons. because he brought a foam sword one day and it was confiscated. He says, sorry Eli, I know you're a preacher's kid but you can't bring a toy sword. And then a couple weeks he comes home singing this song and let me see if I can remember the words. I will never march in the infantry, ride in the cavalry, shoot the30:30shoot the earth, because I'm in the Lord's army. And I said, we can't teach him that. He can't bring a sword, you're teaching him how to shoot a gun. But then I began to think this, we need to teach our children that there is a battle and they need to see their parents and their grandparents and their church live with urgency and live as people who say we are in31:00a war. Because the Bible says we are in a war. Our war is not with flesh and blood but with angels and principalities that we are to put on the armor of God. The helmet, the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth that we may be able to quench the darts. That is war language that we need to wake up. And hey, we need to wake up and teach our younger generations that there is31:29a war. Because the sad reality of many of us is we're spoiling our kids to death. We don't let them struggle. We don't. We don't let our kids lose at anything. So when our kids lose at Candyland, they pout. And the father in me says, well you know what, I don't want him to pout so maybe I should let him lose. Maybe I should let him win. Let him just let him win his whole life. And maybe he'll never be disappointed. Maybe he'll32:00Maybe he'll never see struggle. But the Christ follower in me says, you know, I need to see, I need to show him what it means to struggle. And I need him to see what it means to lose sometimes. That way he will realize that when he sins, that there is a battle. And when we sin, there is a wage to be paid. And that wage is death and destruction. And I cannot protect him from that. As much as I love my son, I cannot save32:29cannot save him. I wish I could protect him from his sin. I cannot. And we have spoiled our generations to death. We have spoiled our churches to death. One, because we are not willing to sacrifice. And two, we are not willing to accept the war. And we have been people who ask the wrong questions. We have been people who lose bobby pins and say, you know what, we'll get another one. Well, you know what, I32:59know we've wasted that, but it doesn't matter, there's more. And yet we are not people that say, Lord, I'm willing to sacrifice some time to give it to you. Lord, I'm willing to fight. And Lord, I'm willing to fight for my family, and I'm willing to fight for my neighbor. Lord, you know they're heathens. You know they're aggressive. Lord, to me they seem like giants. But Lord, I'm willing to fight if you call me to fight for them. Because Lord, I know that when I was a rebel against you, you fought for me.33:29And Lord, I know that I am worth the fight. We live in a war. Wake up. Are you willing to fight? If you say, Pastor, I just am not willing to, we need to ask, Lord, do I have faith? Because God's word commands us. Are you willing to sacrifice? Are you willing to live with urgency? Are you willing to fight? And lastly, this, Paul says, verse eight, verse33:58eight, verse seven, he says, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day, on that day, to redeem our time for the sake of the gospel. We must be people who live with perspective. We live with perspective. Paul says, verse seven, I have finished the34:27finished the race. I have finished the race. How can we know that we have finished the race unless we know about the race? Perspective. Sometimes we don't fight because we don't know there's a fight. Sometimes we don't run because we don't know there's a race to run. And Paul says that we are to have perspective because he knows I have finished my34:56finished my course. The word course, dromos, refers to a race course, the path of the present day athletic fields. The word finish is this teleos, the same word that Jesus uses when he says, tetelestai, it is finished. Paul again is saying here, it is finished. How can he know that unless he has perspective? Unless he has eternal perspective. Do you have perspective this morning? Because unless we35:27have eternal perspective, sacrificing today doesn't make sense. Unless we have eternal perspective, the idea that, Lord, I have been poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand, that doesn't make sense unless we have eternal perspective. The thought that I have finished the race doesn't make sense unless35:55there's something after the race. Unless we can say, Lord, I will finish strong. And when I finish, Lord, I know that I will be in the arms of my Savior. And Lord, my prayer is I will hear the beautiful phrase, well done, my good and faithful runner. You have fought the good fight. You have run a good36:24race. Oh, Bethel, you have finished strong. You have redeemed your time. You have served well. Good job. And may we all hear that one day. Oh, that is my prayer for our life, that we will hear that. One writer once said that five minutes after I die, I will know exactly36:54know exactly then how I should have lived. Five minutes after I die, I will have known exactly how I should have lived. And you say, well, I don't know how to serve. Pastor, I get it. you're telling me to serve. You're telling me to live. I don't know how and I don't know where to serve. So I ask you, are you redeeming the time? Every Sunday morning we have 75 to37:23100 kids here in this place. and they are back there somewhere and every single one of them need people to love them. And you know, there are people that are serving right now that they're not serving because they love kids. Believe me, some of them are serving only because they love the Lord. And the37:52And the truth of that is this, when we love the Lord, we will learn how to serve and love kids. And if you say, well, I'm not a kid's person, God doesn't ask you that question. That's a selfish question. A selfish question is, Lord, I am not. A Christ-centered gospel-focused question is, Lord, what will you call me to do? We have kids every week that need someone to love them. Will you love them for the sake of Jesus? Every38:23Every Wednesday night we have 75 kids in Awana that need people to love them. Every Sunday morning, every Wednesday night we have this thing we call the movement. And our youth move people in different ways. But they need people that would love them and show them what it means to model godliness. And you say, well, I'm not cool, they won't listen to me. Here's the reality, you're not cool enough for them to listen to you. Because you're38:54Because you're never going to be cool enough for them. Because they don't realize it, but I'm a cool person. But even that, I'm not cool enough. But they will realize one day, you know what, so and so, they were 80 years old and I didn't know it then, but they love Christ. And they served. And they were just there for me. And they couldn't tweet or they didn't Facebook or39:24Facebook or they didn't post on Instagram and they didn't even have a phone. But they loved me and it made a difference. Every week we have mouths that are hungry in this church that need someone to prepare food to love them. Will you help those that are hungry? Every week we have people that come through these doors and they need biblical, solid, God focused counseling. Some of them don't even need39:53counseling, they just need someone to pray. Will you serve? We have a community that is dying to see the church serve and love them. And it would be a tragedy for us to one day go home and God say, Josh, why did you stop halfway? I know you were tired, but if you just kept running, I would give you40:23strength. Because that was the point I was going to ask you to sacrifice and it's at the point where we sacrifice where the Lord says, okay, I'm glad you're finally trusting in me. Now I'll carry you. October 1st, three miles down the road in Moody, at a festival, we're going to set up a booth and it's not going to be a, hey, we're Bethel, we're awesome, it's going to be, hey, we know Jesus Christ and he is awesome and we're40:52going to make great his name. And we are going to pray for you and we are going to love you and if you have breath and you can stand and you say, I will serve, we have sign-up sheets right outside, sign up. And all you have to do is this, and my prayer is that people will bring people, God will bring people to us that we can love for the sake of Jesus. My prayer is that God would give us a chance to serve and to serve well, that41:22we would sacrifice. Because if you're like me, doing something on a Saturday is a sacrifice. Because we have soccer and we have football and for us and our family, Saturdays are me days. We're just being honest. But there are days where I need to say, Lord, how foolish of me to take a me day and to say, Lord, I'm going to give Saturday to you. And Lord, if you want 30 seconds or41:51if you want an hour, it's yours. But Lord, I want to serve with urgency and with sacrifice. And Lord, I want to fight. Lord, I'm going to fight for my family in prayer. I'm going to fight for your glory, for your honor. I'm going to fight for this world. I'm going to fight for their souls. Because they're worth it. Because Jesus Christ died for them. And may we be people that say, Lord, give us perspective that we42:19will finish well and that we will finish strong. I'm going to ask you to do something this morning. If you would say, Lord, I'm going to sacrifice. I don't know what I can give, but I know I can give my time. I'll do that. I'm just going to ask where you sit or during the invitation. If you would just come forward and kneel at the altar and say, Lord, all I have is yours. And Lord, if you take nothing, all I42:48have is yours. And Lord, if you take everything, and all my tombstone is, the only solution and the answer to my life is Jesus Christ. It is yours. Would you be willing to pray that this morning? God, everything I have, every second in my life from this day forward is yours. Lord, I don't know what that looks like, but I'm going to live it with urgency. I'm going to sacrifice for your kingdom. During our time of43:19invitation, if that's you, would you just spend some time with the Lord? Maybe you're here and you say, well, I don't even trust in Jesus yet. I'm not in the fight. I'm not in the race, and I'm, I don't really know about Jesus. Let me just say this about the Jesus that God's word teaches us. The Bible says that God so loved you that he gave his only son. It didn't say he had43:50a million sons and he gave one of them. It said he gave his only son. That if you believe you will have eternal life. And you say, well, pastor, that's it? That doesn't sound fair. It's not. It's not fair on your end and it's not fair on his end because I deserve the wrath of God. I deserve the judgment of God. I deserve eternity away from God. And God said, I will send my son to give you life if you will admit that you are a sinner, if you will44:19believe Jesus is everything he says he is and did everything he said he did. And then if you will put action to your obedience, if you will confess him as Lord. So I'm going to ask you if you have never put your trust in Jesus, maybe today is that day that you say, Lord, I need you. Lord, I'm not in the fight, but I want to be because I've been beaten up. God, I've been in a fight and it's not the right fight and I'm worn, I'm whooped and I'm struggling. And I know Jesus is44:50the answer. If you need forgiveness of your sins, it is only found in Christ. And if you wonder, well, what happens when I die, I want you to know that in Christ, there is life and life more abundance. I'm going to call our praise team up and sing a song of invitation. Let's bow our heads and pray. Father, Father,45:28Father, I'll be right back.← Previous in Life-Money-JoySunday, September 18, 2016
