Changing Lives Series

“Changing Lives”

The Life – part 3

Today is week three – in our sermon series called, “The Life…” A message series that has (and I’m not kidding) has the very real potential of radically changing; not just your life – but also the lives of those in your home; and the life, direction, success and influence for Christ of this church…

LISTEN – IF, you think that we are doing pretty good now as a church… We ain’t seen nothing yet!! BECAUSE – when you & you & you & you and I, really start to live, ‘The Life’… Our God will move WITH power AND His will, will be done in this place, like we have never seen before… AND – we will benefit from this awesome promise in God’s Word.

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him…” 2 Cor 9:16

IN WEEK ONE – we said that what you do with your life matters… UNDERSTAND - what you do with the years between your birth and your death, what you do with your dash (and listen all of our dashes are getting a little shorter) Matters…

What I do with my life matters? (repeat, tell the person sitting next to you)

QUESTION – Why does it matter? FIRST - because – your life, is a gift from God (every breathe, every heart beat is a gift – and understand your new life in Christ, is a pretty incredible gift as well…) SECOND - WHAT you do with your life matters? Because one day (as Jesus taught in Matthew 25 in the parable of the talents) one day God is coming back to settle accounts with everyone – with you and with me… And when he does he has no intention of settling for mediocrity, and He will accept no excuse for burying the life that he so graciously gave us...

THIRD - WHAT you do with your life matters? Because God is also returning to reward us….One day you will hear the applause of heaven given for you….

NOW – I think most of us know that what we do with our life matters. I really don’t think I told you anything new when I said that God wants you to live your dash well, that he wants you to live a life that pleases him….

BUT – we all know from personal experience that having this knowledge does not as we saw last week keep us from being stuck in borderland…

LISTEN – simply knowing that we are to live the life that God has called us to live – does not keep us from getting stuck, does not keep us from stalling out, does not keep us from setting up camp and pitching our tents in that barren but often crowed place between;

q where we were and where we should be

q between where God brought us from, to where he wants to take us to

q between our redemption and our sanctification

q between the old life and the new life;

(Look at the drawing in your outline – UNDRSTAND - when the blood of God’s Son saved and rescued you from your sin and from hopelessness – when you stepped over from being lost to being found – God did not intend for you to never take another step ever again…)

LISTEN - Many believers are stuck in borderland and like we said last Sunday…

when we’ve been struggling with the same old sin for years.

when we keep holding on to the same old wrong and negative attitudes

when we keep talking about the things we need to change and the things we need to start doing for the Lord, but we never do them – we are stuck;

when year after year we keep saying, “It is time for me to step up to the plate,” – BUT we never make the trip from the on deck circle to the batters box.

When the awesome truths that we hear and sing about within these walls fail to carry us throughout the week…. We are stuck

When our best days of serving God & His church, when our fire for the kingdom burned so much brighter years ago – we are stuck…

And when true joy, hope and peace, when God’s presence and His power continually elude us we are stuck… we‘ve stalled, we’ve pitched our tents in borderland…

QUESTION – do you remember the illustration that I closed with last week….

(My car stuck at Daytona…)

The Bad News – “We’re Stuck”

THIS MORNING - I want to tell you some good news, some great news and some bad news…

AND – we’ll begin with the bad news… We’re stuck… All of us… me, you, the person sitting next to you… all of us are not where and who we should be… UNDERSTAND – every single person in this room, in varying degrees has fallen short of where God wants to take them…