Opportunity is knocking!
Illus. By Russell Brownworth
Selfishness is a personal thing. This is the self-contained life lived without Christ. That’s the attitude that hears a sermon and thinks, Wow, the preacher really told ‘em that time.
A preacher once had a member who was like that. He always had the same comment after the sermon, You sure told ‘em today, Preacher! This dear fellow was the most faithful member, always attending every time the church doors were open. But, somehow he always seemed to think the sermon was for everyone else, and not for him.
The pastor prepared a sermon to speak to the issue. And One day the pastor’s opportunity came in the form of a terrible snowstorm. Nobody showed up except for – you guessed it – Brother you Told ‘EM was the only member of the congregation, to show up that day.
The pastor hauled out his sermon and pulled every trigger available. Hellfire and brimstone, you name it he preached it. And At the end of the two-man worship hour, guess what was heard going out the door?
Preacher, if they’d-a-been here you sure woulda’ told ‘em this time!
I want you to take a good look around this morning. And as you look around I want you think about what you see. Does what you see affect you? We have a beautiful facility don't we? Does the empty seat next to you move you with compassion for the lost, as the song says? It should!
It's sad to say, but the church has lost its objective to win the lost. The church is not this beautiful building we are sitting in this morning, no..."we are." And "we" represents every Christian not giving their all to share the cause of Christ! Because every church in the world, has far to many empty seats in them this morning!
The truth shall set you free, the truth also hurts sometimes doesn't it?
The truth is, if we are willing to admit it, we all could be doing more to lift up the name of Jesus.
TBS (the Bible says) if we are willing to do our part, He will do His! And men and women will still be drawn to Him and will come to Christ and come to know Him, if we are willing to lift Him up!
Everywhere all over the world this morning there are people who are not in church! Those people are our brothers and our sisters, our children and our friends!
Those people unless we tell them about the love of Christ, they may never hear the greatest story ever told!
For whatever reason they choose not to frequent the church on a regular occasion and some choose not to frequent church at all.
Some say I can find God out in the woods, or down on the river.
First and foremost, it’s a well kept secret, but I want to let you know, “God is not Lost!”
But if you were to look for Him, you wouldn’t have to go out in the woods, or on the river to find Him.
For you see, TBS.(the bible says) “He’s as close as the mention of His Name,
Proverbs 18:24 NKJ.
24. A man who has friends must himself be friendly, “But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.”
Prov. 18:24 MSG.
Friends come and friends go,
but a true friend sticks by you like family.
Psalm 139:7-10NKJ.
7. Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8. If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
9. If I take the wings of the morning,
And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10. Even there Your hand shall lead me,
And Your right hand shall hold me.
Everywhere you look, There God is. There's no getting away from Him! Because as soon as you think you have gotten away from Him, you'll discover He's arrived at the exact same place, only He got there before you got there!
He's omnipresent, which means He's everywhere all the time!
He’s right here, right now, you don’t have to go any farther than the whisper
of your voice to Find Him. He’s ready to act on our behalf in a moments notice,
always ready to be attentive to our every need.
All of humanity, though they've been lead to believe otherwise, needs someone who knows and encourages us, also who will comfort us and build us up!
Where in the world we find someone who is willing to do that??
Is there anyone who really knows us?
Is there anyone who really understands us?
Is there anyone who really cares?
The answer is a resounding “Yes!” God does! God is willing!!
One of the most comforting hymns written of all time is; "no one ever cared for me like Jesus!"
God knows everything there is to know about you, and even after knowing all that there is to know, He still loves you and wants to take care of you! That right there friends, is so far beyond amazing! Amen??
David, was continually amazed that God was so intimately involved in all the circumstances of his life! And we should be equally amazed, by the involvement God wants and has in all our lives as well!
Today, after all this time, God hasn’t changed. He still wants to be intimately involved in all of our lives,
The thing is, most people including most Christians, are happy with just a casual acquaintance with God! For far too many Christians, an introduction of God at their house would be He's an old friend of mine, but don't worry He's only here for the weekend.
Most are happy with just a salvation experience with Him, and the attitude “okay now that we have that done, see ya in heaven someday”
All believers know of God, but far to few ever really get to know God personal and up close!
When we consider how God is so involved in our lives and how His Marvelous Grace has been extended towards us, through His Son’s selfless act of giving on the cross. Thank You Jesus!!
You would think everyone would make a beeline to the church and want to have an intimate relationship with God and not hold anything back from Him at all.
But there’s this little thing called “a will” that keeps most people from experiencing all that God has to offer. He will meet us with the same commitment level of intensity, we come expecting from Him, every time we come!
But I must tell you that's an incorrect statement! Because whatever our commitment level is, His level of commitment is always consistently more towards us than ours could ever be towards Him!! He has an unending commitment level towards His children!
How do we portray our relationship with God to others. Is it in such away that they want what we have? I know sometimes the flesh makes it hard, but It should be!
Because if we could show them what it was like to have a real relationship with Him, through His Son Jesus, They would be amazed everyday by the awesome display of kindness and concern He has in all of our lives.
What they know is, bits and pieces about religion! Because someone has probably preached religion at them before about it!
Religion can sometimes be ugly. Because religion is mans attempt to reach God. And we know what happens when men attempt things don't we? Competition creeps in and the song comes to mind. I can do anything better than you can do, no you can't yes I can, no you can't yes I can, yes I can yes I can yes I can!!!
What all Christians should be doing is telling them how amazing it is to have a relationship with Him through Jesus His Son!
Not by persuasion, but by our actions and our personal relationship and walk we have ourselves. Everyone knows the old adage a picture is worth 1000 words!
Our objective is to help someone realize even a small portion of what God’s Amazing Grace can do for them. If we sow the seed, God will do his part and the results will be amazing!
Amaaaazing things and opportunities start to happen, when a person starts to say “Yes” to the things of God!
TBS. Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
If I ascend into heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there.
Some people spend there entire life running from God, some just for a season,
Some are running from God this morning and what He wants to do, in and through their lives, and their sitting in church’s all over the Country and the world for that matter.
They know all the lingo, they are even what most would consider active in the church.
But the truth is, they have been on the edge of a real relationship with God forever it seems!
They have been to the alter many, many times. But have never made the total commitment of all in!
You see, they have no problem laying down their will at the alter,
They just forget the most important thing to do, “leave it there!”
When Jesus called the disciples to become fishers of men what did they do?
Matthew 4:18-25 MSG
18-20 Walking along the beach of Lake Galilee, Jesus saw two brothers: Simon (later called Peter) and Andrew. They were fishing, throwing their nets into the lake. It was their regular work. Jesus said to them, “Come with me. I’ll make a new kind of fisherman out of you. I’ll show you how to catch men and women instead of perch and bass.” They didn’t ask questions, but simply dropped their nets and followed.
21-22 A short distance down the beach they came upon another pair of brothers, James and John, Zebedee’s sons. These two were sitting in a boat with their father, Zebedee, mending their fishnets. Jesus made the same offer to them, and they were just as quick to follow, abandoning boat and father.
23-25 From there he went all over Galilee. He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God’s kingdom was his theme—that beginning right now they were under God’s government, a good government! He also healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their bad lives. Word got around the entire Roman province of Syria. People brought anybody with an ailment, whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus healed them, one and all. More and more people came, the momentum gathering. Besides those from Galilee, crowds came from the “Ten Towns” across the lake, others up from Jerusalem and Judea, still others from across the Jordan.
What did they do when Jesus called them? They dropped what they were doing and they followed Him! What they dropped was, their old way of life and they stepped into the new one that Jesus had for them! Right? They at that very moment we're all in!!
What happened when they did what He asked them to do? They caught fish didn't they? People came to Christ, there were conversions of faith, there were healings from everything under the sun and then some!
I don’t know if I’m capable of something like that,
That’s exactly what the accuser wants you to think at any given time.
But let me tell you, you are capable of doing exactly what those fishermen did, everyday of the week, 8 days a week! When you rely on what God wants, instead of what you want and what He is capable of instead of what you are capable of!!!
It doesn’t matter how you look, whether your young or old, what your background is, or what experience you have!
Were those boys Bible scholars? Were those boys college graduates? Were those boys Preachers? Were they Sunday school teachers?
They weren't any of those things, but I'll tell you what they were! They were committed, they were devoted, they were called out of obscurity just like every Christian was when they were called to the salvation that Jesus offered and they accepted!
Don't ever think you can't because you can, because He has given you overcoming capabilities!!
Yes, but they were the disciples and they had Jesus personally as their teacher! Are you kidding? They don't have anything thing on you!
You have a equal if not greater footing of opportunity then the disciples did!
John 14:12-14The Message (MSG)
11-14 “Believe me: I am in my Father and my Father is in me. If you can’t believe that, believe what you see—these works. The person who trusts me will not only do what I’m doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do that I’ve been doing. You can count on it. From now on, whatever you request along the lines of who I am and what I am doing, I’ll do it. That’s how the Father will be seen for who he is in the Son. I mean it. Whatever you request in this way, I’ll do.
I think it's time that Christians start to reevaluated the request that they're making of God to do in their situations and the life that they're leading and living for him!
King David just like every other person who has walked this earth, made a lot of mistakes. But in the end was known as a man after God's own heart!
Why? Because he never lost sight of the plans that God had for him!
Ps. 139: 16 NKJ.
16. Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.”
Just like David realized, you have to realize, God has a plan for you,
He has had a plan for you since before you were born and let me tell you, it is a well thought out plan
It has never been “a wing it type plan”, but a well thought out, a carefully crafted one, planed in the greatest of detail.
Anytime the accuser ever tries to tell you different you simply remind him of what the Word of God says on the subject!
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.
That’s why the enemy fights so hard, to do whatever he can (by condemning you) to keep you from ever realizing or getting a hold of God’s Plans for your life!!
It may be a new idea to you, that God really does have Plans for your life. But He does!
That’s right plans, big plans, and God would love for everyone of them to come about in your life, if He didn’t, He wouldn’t have wasted the time and energy making them in the first place!!
But who am I? someone is being condemned right now by the accuser thinking that.
I'll tell you who you are, you are a child of the most high God, you are fearfully and wonderfully made the Bible says! You are one of his greatest creations made in his own image! You are loved by the creator of the universe, you are somebody special!
Romans 8:1-3 NKJ.
1. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
You have been set free! Isn't what you have so generously been given, worth sharing with someone else who doesn't know the truth that will set them free??
What can I do you say? What can't you do is what you should say! God has fearfully and wonderfully equipped you to be a conqueror, to do the impossible and you can make a difference right where you are!
And when you are willing to step out with God, He can help the impossible become reality when you do!!
Illus.
• Sunday School teacher Edward Kimball helped lead Dwight L. Moody to Christ;
• J. Wilbur Chapman attended a Dwight L. Moody evangelistic meeting in Chicago in the 1870’s and received personal counseling and an assurance of his salvation from Mr. Moody. He later became a friend and coworker of DL Moody, hiring a former baseball star named Billy Sunday as an advance man for him;
• Billy Sunday held an evangelistic campaign in Charlotte in 1924 and a men’s prayer and fellowship group, originally known as the Billy Sunday Layman’s Evangelistic Club and later renamed as Charlotte Businessmen’s Club (CBMC), grew out of those meetings It was this group that invited Mordecai Ham to Charlotte to hold evangelistic meetings in 1934;
• Mordecai Ham preached a sermon where a 16 year-old young man now known as Billy Graham went forward and received Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Savior;
• And, Billy Graham has preached to hundreds of millions of people all over the world and seen literally millions won to Christ.
See the lineage of salvation that continues to radiate today from the faithfulness of one humble, quiet man witnessing to a shoe salesman?
See the impact that even a quiet life who decided to become all in for the cause of Jesus Christ can have on the world around them?
Its time we all realized, we are all capable of so much more than what we are doing to further the cause of Christ! Because we are, with Gods help we truly are!
He has promised He would be with us always! Everywhere we go, He’s not far away, He’s right there with us every step of the way! Giving us the words to say, showing us the way to go, the roads to take.
Why not trust Him today, to take you to the next level in your relationship with Him.
To have Him, help you to be all that He wants you to be and to help others to realize the same life changing experience that you enjoy.
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
I have decided to follow Jesus;
No turning back, no turning back.
Do you receive it today?
Reach out and take hold of what God wants to do in your life,
And get ready to be amazed by what God is going to do through you, for His Kingdom!
God is ready to help you write the next chapter in your life, “Look what the Lord has Done” I encourage you to seize the moment and grab hold of the opportunity that awaits you!
Opportunity is knocking on the door of your heart, won't you answer the door while there's still time to make the difference you have been called to make!
Amen, Lets Pray!
