Extreme Living In Your Work

Extreme Living At Your Work

Extreme Living – part 3

IF – you have your bible please TURN to Isaiah chapter 6…

In the year that King Uzziah died…

OKAY - let’s pause there for a moment… BECAUSE - there is a reason for Isaiah recording those 7 words… AND – we will miss that reason if we just read right over them. YOU SEE – Uzziah had been King in Judah for 52 years. He had been THE leader of God’s people since the time he was 16 years old. THINK ABOUT IT - most of the people in Judah had only known him as their king and he was a good king… SO – this was a time of doubt, a time of sorrow and a time for uncertainty in the nation of Judah…

QUESTION – what do God’s people need to know, what do they need to understand when they are going through times of hardship and uncertainty ANSWER – they need that even in the darkest and most uncertain times God is STILL seated on His throne.

In the year that King Uzziah died… I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."

At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."

Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"

Prayer…

TODAY – is week 3 in our message series EXTREME living… AND – as we begin I want to remind you once again of our definition of Extreme. Extreme; ‘existing in a very high degree, going to great lengths, exceeding the ordinary, the usual or the expected…’ The apostle Paul writes these words from a prison cell to the church in Philippi;

“Above all else, you must live in a way that brings honor to the good news about Christ. Then, whether I visit you or not, I will hear that all of you think alike. I will know that you are working together and that you are struggling side by side to get others to believe the good news.”

CIRCLE - you must live in a way that brings honor to the good news about Christ…

YOU KNOW - I think that if Paul were here today he might word it this way… “Above all else you must LIVE EXTREME (you must exceed, the usual, ordinary and expected – in your church, home, work, walk & purity)… so that people will be so blown away by how you live that they will believe the good news and turn to God.”

NOW – I’m pretty confident that most of us here today SEE this truth (that we must live EXTREME)… BUT – the question I want to ask is… “Are you SEIZED by it.” SURE – you see… BUT – has this truth seized you, has it taken you captive, has overwhelmed and moved you to action? FRIENDS – have you been seized by the truth THAT our EXTREME God who sent His EXTREME Son to die in such an EXTREME way calls us… needs us, to LIVE EXTREME for Him?

Question are YOU… (and remember extreme living starts with you)… ARE - you living extreme at church, at Central…

• Is your service extreme?

• Is your hunger for the word extreme?

• Is your effort for unity extreme?

• Is your prayer life extreme?

• Is your giving extreme? “Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need.”

ARE YOU – seized by the truth that God calls you to LIVE EXTREME in His church? AND - are YOU living Extreme at home? (we talked about this last week)

Are YOU Practicing…

• Living patiently

• Being kind

• Being selfless

• Forgiving

• Believing IN… AND…

• Never quitting in YOUR home

GUYS – did you DO any thing different this week in your home - then you did the week before? (were you – more patient, more kind, less selfish? Did you take any practical step towards being more loving in your home?