Its your turn…...No its Not...Well then...Whose turn is it?
Ephesians 2:7-10 MSG.
7-10 Now God has us where he wants us, with all the time in this world and the next to shower grace and kindness upon us in Christ Jesus. Saving is all his idea, and all his work. All we do is trust him enough to let him do it. It’s God’s gift from start to finish! We don’t play the major role. If we did, we’d probably go around bragging that we’d done the whole thing! No, we neither make nor save ourselves. God does both the making and saving. He creates each of us by Christ Jesus to join him in the work he does, the good work he has gotten ready for us to do, work we had better be doing.
How many people in the world I wonder, have ever gotten caught playing around, on company time?
Or doing something else, when they should have been working by their boss?,
I think in the back of everyone’s mind, their is always the thinking, what’s the hurry?
There will always be plenty of time for labor and to get things done,
And its always kind of funny to, because somehow they always try to act like they have been working, no matter what they were caught doing.
Always so much to do, with so little time to do it in!
2 Corinthians 6:1-2 NASB
1. And working together with Him, we also urge you not to receive the grace of God in vain—
2. for He says,
“At the acceptable time I listened to you,
And on the day of salvation I helped you.”
Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—
The Lord our God, is looking for men and women of all ages, who will step up and answer the call He has put out,
to help Him save a lost and dieing generation from going to Hell.
People who are willing to get involved in telling others, the greatest story ever told,
To sound the alarm, to help build His Kingdom and help change someone’s life forever.
ILL. The late great Greek slave and fabler, Aesop (620 B.C. - 550 B.C.), in "Aesop’s Fables" - tales used to teach moral lessons
the story is told of a group of mice who lived in a barn and Life was wonderful, except for a sneaky cat.
Hardly a day went by without a poor mouse being chased or even eaten by the cat. Finally, the head mouse called for a meeting.
"Ladies and gentlemen, youngsters and baby mice," he said. "The time is now come to resolve our problems with the cat.
Does anyone have any solutions?" The mice were abuzz with ideas and suggestions; but, none seemed to solve the problem.
Then, a young mouse got up, took the floor, and said boldly, "Let’s hang a bell around the cat’s neck.
That way, whenever the cat is near, we’ll hear the ringing and can safely hide." The crowd applauded loudly as the young mouse took his seat.
Once the applause had died down, an elderly mouse rose to his feet and said, "Our young friend’s plan is simple yet ingenious.
Once the bell is on the cat, we’ll all live safely. But I have one brief question to put to you all; ’Which one of you will volunteer to bell the cat?’"
That is always the question, isn’t it? Who is willing to do the hard, dirty, perhaps even dangerous work that needs to be done? Who is willing to bell the cat?
It seems now a days, no one wants to be committed to any one, or anything, to many me’s in the world and not enough we’s!
This is what God says about it;
“At the acceptable time I listened to you,
And on the day of salvation I helped you.”
Behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation”—
Its like He says Your my child, I Love you, I’ve heard you, I’ve helped you and now its time to help me, help someone else!
Its your turn…...its Not My Turn…...Well, Its Some bodies Turn, to tell someone about Jesus and His gift of salvation!
Everyone wants everything handed to them on a silver platter, everyone wants to reap the benefits, but few are willing to actually work for them.
Ill. The population of the United States is about 304 million, 76.5% profess if you ask them, to be Christians.
Using math, that makes that there are, approximately 232,560,000 Christians.
That’s a lot of people, then tell me, why do our church’s all across the country, have so few in attendance in them this morning?
Well what about the mega church’s?
What about them?, even their numbers don’t reflect,
The 76.5% that claim to be Christians in their town.
We weren’t created to just sit around once our own salvation is secure,
If we do, we totally ignore the last thing Jesus told us to do, before His ascension to be with His Father in Heaven.
Our assignment hasn’t changed, The Great Commission, is still the Great Commission isn’t it?
To go into the most udder parts of the earth and tell everyone about the Gospel,
So that they can avoid the wrath of Hell and have Eternal Life instead!
Everyone wants everything handed to them on a silver platter, everyone wants to reap the benefits, but few are willing to actually work for them.
Ill. A man is traveling down a long dirt road, when he meets a guru along the way,
The man ask the guru, which way is success?
The bearded man didn’t say a word, he just pointed to a place off in the distance,
The man was so excited, by the prospect of finding quick and easy success, so he rushed off to where he thought it was.
Suddenly, there was a loud Splat!!
Eventually, the man limped back battered and bruised,
assuming that surely he must have misinterpreted the message, as to where success was to be found.
He therefore repeated his question to the guru, which way is success, who in turn again pointed silently in the same direction as he did before.
The man obediently walked off, this time not quite so fast, once again towards success,
This time the sound from the Splat!! Was deafening, and even though it took much longer,
The man crawled back to where the guru was, bloody, broken, tattered and extremely irate.
“I ask you which way is success,” he screamed at the guru, “I followed your direction, and all I got was Splatted each time!”
Now tell me this time, no more pointing, Answer me! Finally the guru spoke and said; success is there, just past the Splat”
The man would have reached his desired goal of success, if he would have just pressed on through the trials,
Success can be found, through perseverance in life, but the ultimate success in life, can only found at the feet of Jesus!
1st Peter 1:18-21 MSG.
18-21 Your life is a journey you must travel with a deep consciousness of God. It cost God plenty to get you out of that dead-end, empty-headed life you grew up in. He paid with Christ’s sacred blood, you know. He died like an unblemished, sacrificial lamb. And this was no afterthought. Even though it has only lately— at the end of the ages— become public knowledge, God always knew he was going to do this for you. It’s because of this sacrificed Messiah, whom God then raised from the dead and glorified, that you trust God, that you know you have a future in God.
And isn’t that future, as it says in Jerm. 29:11 NASB
11. For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
12. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13. You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
Isn’t that something that’s worth sharing with your fellow man?
TBS. “the harvest is ripe, but the laborers are few”
Calamities happen around the world, earthquakes, floods, hurricanes,
What is it going to take, to get people on fire for God?
The more you see things happen, it seems that it should be drawing us closer to God, but the farther away society gets from Him.
I read a statistic that said 155k people die everyday, I wonder how many were Christians?
For the ones who died yesterday who were not, there is no hope!
Who will tell those who still have an opportunity to come to Christ today, before tomorrow comes?
Isaiah 6:8 NKJ
8. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
“Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?”
Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
God has truly given to each of us, so much more than we deserve;
*forgiveness, our salvation
*His grace, mercy and favor
*our health and healing promises
*every benefit, everything He has made available to Jesus, He has given to us!
1st John 4:15-17 NKJ
15. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him, and he in God.
16. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.
17. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world.
But I ask you, are we? Are we like Jesus, because He was all about spreading the gospel message!
Yes, God has truly given us so much to be thankful for, and all He wants in return, all He ask is,
That we help Him give away, what He has already given to us,
2 Corinthians 6:1-5? MSG.
1-5. Companions as we are in this work with you, we beg you, please don’t squander one bit of this marvelous life God has given us. God reminds us,
I heard your call in the nick of time;
The day you needed me, I was there to help.
Well, now is the right time to listen, the day to be helped. Don’t put it off; don’t frustrate God’s work by showing up late, throwing a question mark over everything we’re doing. Our work as God’s servants gets validated— or not— in the details. People are watching us as we stay at our post,
Its been said many times, all that matters in this life we have been given, is what we do for the Lord.
You don’t realize it so much, when your younger, but the older you get,
The more you understand the meaning behind, “our life is but a vapor”
that’s why the older we get, the faster life seems to go and the more important it is,
To be doing the Lords work, instead of, only being consumed with what’s only going on, in our own life.
James 4:4-6MSG.
4-6 You’re cheating on God. If all you want is your own way, flirting with the world every chance you get, you end up enemies of God and His way. And do you suppose God doesn’t care? The proverb has it that “He’s a fiercely jealous lover.” And what He gives in love is far better than anything else you’ll find. It’s common knowledge that “God goes against the willful proud; God gives grace to the willing humble.”
Its your turn…...its Not My Turn…...Well whose turn, is it?
its all of our turn, to tell someone about the best thing that ever happened to us!
Our relationship that we have with Jesus Christ and how He forgave us and has changed all of our lives.
Won’t you join me and make a vow to help the Lord to do the same for someone else, that He has already done for you today?
Their never going to know what you have, until you do, until you tell them, what He has done in your life.
that’s what’s going to win souls, that’s what’s going to fill the seat next to you, in church’s all over the world.
And the results, we don’t have to worry about the results,
TBS. this about Jesus, if we lift Him up, all men will be drawn to Him! He will take care of the results!
1st Corinthians 3:6-8 NKJ
6. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
7. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.
8. Now he who plants and he who waters are one, and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.
Seed time and harvest, whether we plant or we water, there will be an increase.
Every farmer knows with the right amount of seed and water, there will be a huge harvest.
Lets all do our part and help the Lord harvest souls for the Kingdom
Amen? Amen, tell someone about Jesus this week and start preparing for the harvest that’s coming, when you do!
