Mapping Out The New Year Series

INTRO.- Have you ever had a bad day? Well, of course. Who hasn’t? But what about a really bad day? Here’s one that tops many I’ve heard.

ILL.- The following is seen in a Florida newspaper: A man was working on his motorcycle on his patio and his wife was in the house in the kitchen. The man was racing the engine on the motorcycle and somehow, the motorcycle slipped into gear. The man, still holding the handlebars, was dragged through a glass patio door and along with the motorcycle dumped onto the floor inside the house.

The wife, hearing the crash, ran into the dining room, and found her husband laying on the floor, cut and bleeding, the motorcycle laying next to him and the patio door shattered.

The wife ran to the phone and summoned an ambulance.

Because they lived on a fairly large hill, the wife went down the several flights of long steps to the street to direct the paramedics to her husband. After the ambulance arrived and transported the husband to the hospital, the wife up-rights the motorcycle and pushed it outside.

Seeing that gas had spilled on the floor, the wife obtained some papers towels, blotted up the gasoline, and threw the towels in the toilet.

The husband was treated at the hospital and was released to come home. After arriving home, he looked at the shattered patio door and the damage done to his motorcycle. He became despondent, went into the bathroom, sat on the toilet and smoked a cigarette. After finishing the cigarette, he flipped it between his legs into the toilet bowl while still seated.

The wife, who was in the kitchen, heard a loud explosion and her husband screaming. She ran into the bathroom and found her husband lying on the floor. His trousers had been blown away and he was suffering burns on the buttocks, the back of his legs and his groin. The wife again ran to the phone and called for an ambulance.

The same ambulance crew was dispatched and the wife met them at the street. The paramedics loaded the husband on the stretcher and began carrying him to the street. While they were going down the stairs to the street accompanied by the wife, one of the paramedics asked the wife how the husband had burned himself. She told them and the paramedics started laughing so hard, one of them tipped the stretcher and dumped the husband out. He fell down the remaining steps and broke his arm.

DID YOU EVER HAVE A DAY LIKE THAT? Have mercy!

I Peter 3:10 For, "Whoever would love life and see good days must..."

Whoever would see good days. Wouldn’t you like to see many good days, instead of bad days? Who wouldn’t? And I think there’s a way to see many good days in life.

ILL.- It was the October 12th through the 19th that Elaine and I decided to take a long road trip and go visit her brother in Charlotte, NC, and then drive an additional five hours to Mechanicsville, VA, to visit my daughter and her family. For the most part everything went well. Of course, we had a GPS in our car to show us the way. We did pretty well most of the time, however, in driving to Mechanicsville, VA, we had to go through, in and around Richmond, VA, and I was hoping that the GPS wouldn’t fail me during that time.

Earlier on our trip it said that it had no satellite connection. That meant it couldn’t tell us anything, where to go or where to turn. But fortunately, that GPS didn’t fail us while driving through Richmond and I was very thankful because we had many quick turns to make to get where we wanted to go.

Don’t you wish some kind of divine GPS for your life? A divine guidance system that would help you to make all the right decisions in life?

Today, we need to plan ahead. Someone said if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. We need to plan out our lives so as to make right turns and decisions and not go off course. We need map out a plan for the new year so that we will see many good days.

PROP.- The scripture is our divine GPS for mapping our lives in order to experience many good days. What does this divine GPS tell us to do?

1- Seek the Lord

2- Follow the Lord

3- Trust the Lord

I. SEEK THE LORD

Isaiah 55:6 “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.”

Seek the Lord while He may be found. Will there ever be a time when we can’t find Him? That’s possible, because He’s calling the shots. I know that right now anybody can still seek Him and find Him. The door is open for now.