Good Morning, it is so good to be home again.
I enjoy my time spent at seminars and spiritual retreats because I always get ideas and pointers on how to be more effective at my vocation.
Last week was simply awesome. I heard some real down home, handclapping, foot stomping, get out in the isle and dance preaching.
The praise and worship time is something the Renaissance Hotel in Nashville, TN will remember for a mighty long time.
Imagine close to 300 Pastors filled with the Holy Spirit praising God in the same room at the same time. The Hammond Organ was on fire and I think the organist must have had 4 hands and feet because I don’t see how one man could make the kind of music he played with just two of each.
I stand before you today filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.
I stand before you today excited about the new year ahead of us and I am ready to get back to work.
I stand before you today, recommitted, rejuvenated and rededicated to serving God with all that is within me for as long as I am able.
How about you? Are you ready to roll up your sleeves and get to work for Jesus?
While I was attending the convocation I made two vows.
First of all, I am going to stop talking about retirement and trying to figure out where Gloria and I are going to live after retirement. I will retire when God says so. And as far as where we will live, we’ll leave that up to God also.
Secondly, I am going to preach God’s word as he gives it to me and let the chips fall where they may.
I refuse to water down the Gospel in the bible to make it more appetizing .
One of the topics that came up at the convocation was how far too many pastors are compromising God’s Word because they don’t want to offend the member with the big purse.
There are actually some pastors being held hostage by large contributors in the church who threaten to leave the congregation if they don’t get their way.
Now, I don’t intentionally plan to offend anyone but if there is something in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that you find offensive or something that bothers you then you need to take that issue up with the author, I am merely the messenger.
“I was glad when they said unto me, let us go into the house of the Lord.”
It is in God’s house where we find peace, comfort, strength,
in God’s house we get to fellowship with other believers and we renew our strength together.
The author in Hebrews 10 says: “Let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of His coming back again is drawing near.”
We have gathered here in God’s house today because we love the Lord!
We have gathered here today because we need to see if there is any word from the Lord that might help us get through the next week!
These days and times are hard, and they are getting harder.
Take a moment to think about yesterday.
Do you remember what it was like?
Can you recall the range of emotions you experienced?
Did you get angry, enthusiastic, discouraged, or tired?
Were you frustrated? Happy? Lonely? Excited? Worried? Scared? Overwhelmed?
Did you feel guilty?
Did you feel Inadequate?
Were you grieving over a loss?
Did you end the day with regrets over words said or left unsaid?
Did you long to reach out to someone in love?
Were you criticized or ignored?
It is rarely that we will stop and think about the amazing range of human emotions that we experience every single day.
How do we cope with everything that is going on inside of us?
How do you deal with life when life throws you a curve that threatens to destroy you both physically and mentally?
Some times we can’t. sometimes life gets to be too much and we succumb and throw in the towel. We holler ‘I give up! I can’t take anymore!
God new this about us and I believe that is why he inspired the writings in the Book of Psalms.
I don’t care what you are going through or will go through there is a passage in the Psalms that will life you up out of the darkness into the marvelous light!
God knew we would need something to turn to when the road gets rough and hills get high!
I came here today to tell you about three things I believe are necessary if we want to get the most and best out of life.
Three things that will enable you to begin celebrating life and appreciating it for the wonderful gift it is.
The first thing is GRATITUDE!
Gratitude. We just sang Psalm 118:24: “This is the day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it.”
Each day we wake us we need to wake up with the attitude that we are entering a brand new day given to us as a gift from God and no matter what happens we need to be grateful for the gift.
If you read through the Psalms you will notice that the Psalmist didn’t just praise God when things were going well.
They praised him in the valleys of life as well.
An attitude of gratitude is necessary if we want to celebrate life and not just meander through life.
Have you ever heard the expression, “Some people feel the rain while others just get wet?”
What that means is that some people face life head on. They celebrate life and view everything that happens to them as an opportunity to give glory to God.
When faced with obstacles and challenges they plow right into them and regardless of the outcome they come out ready for the next thing. They feel the rain when it comes down and thank God for it.
On the other hand you have those that see life as a one obstacle after another and their outlook toward life is one of pessimism.
You know the kind of people I’m talking about.
You give them a dozen roses and they cannot see the beauty in rose for complaining about the thorns.
On a beautiful sunny day you say,
My what a beautiful day and they say, “Yes, if only it wasn’t so hot.”
You give them a beautiful church and a warm sanctuary where they can worship in warmth and comfort and they complain that the sermon was too long, the music too loud, and offerings, too many.
They can take any positive and turn it into a negative .
When it rains they don’t feel the rain, they simply get wet. Let me give you an example.
Two salesmen arrive in one of the third world countries. They both sell shoes for a living.
The first man discovers that no one wears shoes and he sends a telegram back to the home office saying, Arrived early this morning. No one in this country wears shoes. Will be returning home tomorrow.
The other salesman also sent a telegram. His merely said, “Arrived today, Found that no one here has any shoes, Send more shoes.”
One man celebrated the fact that no one wore shoes and saw it as an opportunity for sales. An opportunity to be successful at what he does.
The other man saw the same thing but he took it as defeat.
If you live long enough there are two things you can be sure of. 1. One day you will die.
The other certainty in life is that life will dump things on you that you do not expect, don’t know how to deal with,
Things that will drain all of your hope right out of you.
And the only way to get through this life is to develop and attitude of gratitude.
We have to wake up each morning saying as we just sang, “This is the day the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it.”
Some people have chosen to surrender and throw in the towel because of some catastrophic event that happened to them.
Maybe they lost their job,
Maybe a relationship went sour,
Maybe their daughter became pregnant,
or their son started using drugs.
Maybe they found out their husband or wife was homosexual,
maybe someone else got the raise they though they were going to get… Maybe –maybe—maybe..
Whatever happened it is no reason to throw in the towel and give up on life!!!
Let me tell you about a man who has ever reason to give up on life if there is a good reason.
First of all, he was diagnosed as having Attention Deficit Disorder.
Second, He had a condition which the doctors call Abnormal dominance which is a condition in the brain causes both sides of a person’s brain to try and act at the same time. Most people use one side of their brain or the other. Both sides of Our individual’s brain tries to operate at the same time creates problems when it comes to learning and living.
Thirdly, he was told by the same specialist that he was border line dyslectic.
Because of all this he had no confidence in himself whatsoever,
his self esteem was at an all time low and his opinion was he would never be anything because this is what others told him all of his life.
Please don’t let others define who you are or what you can become.
God has built each of us with a certain amount of potential inside of us to live a good and useful Christian life—but we will only see this potential in action if we surrender to God and follow the plan he has laid out for us.
Gratitude. This is the day the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad in it.
What about you?
Do you feel the rain God sends to quench the thirst of the plants?
To replenish our lakes and rivers?
To make the grass green,
Or do you simply complain that the rain is keeping you from your golf game.
An attitude of gratitude is most essential if we want to move through this life with a positive outlook.
I know I told you I was going to tell you 3 things necessary if we want to celebrate life and I am, but the other two will come next week.
