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.
And we all need to seek the Lord every day and in all things. This should be obvious people, but it’s not. We’re stubborn people and want to do things for ourselves, but occasionally, we get into something that we can’t handle. That’s when we realize we need a greater power or strength than ourselves. We often have to be knocked down before we will ever look up.
ILL.- I know a father in IL who has two daughters and both have small children, but one daughter abuses drugs. And she just can’t seem to stop. And she’s a big headache to her dad who keeps trying to bail her out of trouble, if and when he can.
In fact, this girl was picked up and put in jail on Dec. 23rd for possession and use of drugs. What do you do in a situation like that? I don’t know exactly but I have a pretty good idea.
Her dad said that Christmas was awful and his parents who are in their 80‘s are heartsick over this granddaughter.
I’ve known this father for about 10 years and he was a member of the church where I preached. But he hasn’t been going to church on a regular basis for many years, probably 6 years or more. We have kept in touch via email and whenever he tells me about this problem/prodigal daughter who is a mother of two small children I always point him to the Lord and tell him that I will pray for him.
All I know is this family keeps having trouble and I’m convinced that only as we seek the Lord constantly, fervently, and daily will we ever be able to overcome life’s difficulties and see good days.
Matthew 6:33 “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness....”
If we would put the Lord’s kingdom first in our lives many of our problems would be cured and we would see good days. What’s the Lord’s kingdom? His church. And church is not always a priority to many people. It’s like, “I’ll come if I have the time or I don’t have something else to do.”
ILL.- My older brother used to be that way. I remember him telling me many years ago when he was probably in his 30‘s that going to more than one church service was for old people who didn’t have anything else to do. But now that he’s 68 years old church has become more of a priority to him.
In fact, Larry and his wife, Sharon, toured the Holy land last year for nearly two weeks in Israel and they were even baptized in the Jordan River. Apparently, many people do this even if they’ve been baptized previously. They say it’s quite a spiritual experience for them.
WELL, PRAISE THE LORD! Any time we do anything that leads us to a closer walk with the Lord is good!
Isn’t a shame that we often wait until we’re senior citizens before we realize how important the things of God are? Seek first the kingdom of God AND HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
John 5:30 “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.”
If Jesus sought only to please His Father what should we do? And when you seek to please God how can you go wrong?
Our divine GPS says that we must seek the Lord always and in all things in order to see good days.
II. FOLLOW THE LORD
We need to follow the Lord in life, that is, in the way He lived out His life on earth. What did He do that we should do?
I Peter 2:21-22 “To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps."
Our divine GPS says we should follow in His steps. If we truly believe Him and believe in Him then we should do our best to follow in His steps. We should follow Him in His devotion and service. How devoted was Christ to His Father?
Mark 1:35 “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed.”
Jesus rose early so he could get away from people and spend time in prayer, talking to His heavenly Father. We need to do the same.
But it’s hard to spend time in prayer when the kids are running through the house, playing, or the TV is blaring. So how do you get away to spend some private time with the Lord in prayer? You do it either early or late. And I personally prefer preparing FOR my day rather than FOLLOWING my day in prayer.
- Someone said that prayer should be the key of the morning and the bolt at night.
- Hem in the day with prayer and it will be less likely to ravel out before night.
- He stands best who kneels most. (or lives the best)
Matthew 14:23 “After he had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone.” We need to get alone in prayer.
Luke 5:15-16 “Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.”
Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. Why did Jesus do this? It must have been the pressures or the stress of the day or the stress of dealing with people.
Someone said, “When it’s hardest to pray, we ought to pray hardest.” Because of life’s difficulties we need to pray.
Luke 6:12 “One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God.” Have you ever done this? How can we not spend more time in prayer when we consider Jesus own example?
We should follow His example in seeking the lost.
Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost."
The main reason that Jesus left heaven for earth was to save us. He bore our sins in His body on the tree. He became sin for us. Obviously, we can’t do this for people, but we can point them to Him who can save them! And that’s the way we can follow in His steps. We need and must point people to Christ!
Aren’t we interested in taking people with us to heaven? Our kids and grandkids and others? If so, we must point them to Christ as best we can and whenever we can.
I personally don’t want to wait until I’m on my deathbed to say some things to my kids, like, “Honey, you need the Lord. You need to seek the Lord always in life. He alone will save and give you the promise of eternal life.” Too late could be too late. We need to point them to Christ early and often.
Acts 10:38 “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.” We should follow Christ in doing good.
ILL.- Quadriplegic, Joni Eareckson writes a daily devotion which I get via email. And sometimes I pass it along to you. Last week she wrote about “What makes God Happy.” And surely, this is something that we all should want to do?! Amen?
She wrote: We make God happy when we showcase Jesus in our lives. We make God happy when we reflect to those around us, as well as to the heavenly hosts, any attribute, any character quality of Jesus. When, by God’s grace, we remain patient, resist temptation, offer a smile, bless a child, sit silent, meet a need, sing a hymn, repeat a scripture, praise the Father, give the gospel, work faithfully, feed the starving, help a neighbor, we are making God happy.
Our divine GPS says to follow in His steps. And when we do, we’ll be blessed and see good days.
III. TRUST THE LORD
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.”
Our divine GPS says we should trust the Lord for everything. We should trust Him for our salvation. Are you worried? You shouldn’t be. If you are worried then it’s because you’re either looking at your sin or your own goodness and neither look is a good thing.
You can’t save yourself so don’t even consider your own goodness or good deeds as something that will impress God. It won’t. We won’t. And at the same, stop concentrating on your sins and start looking at the One who bore your sins in His body on the tree!
He alone is the Savior! It’s all a matter of who He is and what He did for us and we must learn to trust Him fully! If we don’t get in the door by His grace, there will be no getting in the door of heaven at all!
Our divine GPS says we must trust Him for provision in life. He’s done pretty good thus far, has He not? We have what we need and much more!
ILL.- I talked to someone recently who has an interesting testimony. In some ways, it’s downright shocking. The lady is one of the activity directors at the Craighead Nursing Center where our Miss Billie resides. This activity director was once a drug addict. It’s obvious now, however, that she’s a Christian. She is quick to speak of the Lord Jesus. And she said that after many years of drug addiction she is finally on the road to recovery.
I asked her how she was able to overcome and she said she entered a Christian based recovery center and that’s also how she found Jesus.
Here’s something that you won’t hear every day. She told me that she came from a very wealthy family in MASS, very wealthy, she said. She told me that she always had whatever she wanted, but she believed that the Lord wanted her to give more to His cause. So what did she do? She told me that she contacted her Jewish stockbroker and sold every bit of stock she had and then gave the money away. And that’s not the end of the story.
She said she never knew what it was to live from paycheck to paycheck but she does now. She believes that the Lord wanted her to experience this in life in order to surrender her life fully to the Lord.
How is she living? The Lord has provided the job that she now has and even a second job in order to make it. She fully believes that the Lord has and will provide for her. SHE IS WALKING BY FAITH. How’s that for a testimony to Christ?
Our divine GPS says we must trust the Lord in life when it comes to material provision and everything else. And the more we learn to trust Him, the more we’ll see good days.
CONCLUSION----------------------------
Remember the old song, “Happy Days Are Here Again”? That original song came out in 1929 and is best remembered as the campaign song for Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR) successful 1932 Presidential campaign.
Happy days are here again,
The skies above are clear again
Let us sing a song of cheer again --
Happy days are here again
And the thought of the song sounds great, doesn’t it? And many people may well think, “Ah ha, it’s a new year and happy days are here again.” And I say, “Oh really? Are you sure about that?”
Brothers and sisters, there is only one way for us to see happy days again in life, in this life, and that’s in a relationship with Jesus Christ.
Only as we week Him in all things, and follow in His steps, and trust in Him will we see many good days, many happy days.
