Psalms 90;2- So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.
INTRO
This past weekend was an emotional one. Actually the whole month of March is a pretty hard month for me personally. As most of you know I am from the city of Chicago and Chicago can be a very dangerous place. Each year the city tops the charts in crime and murder rates. Chicago is heavily active in gang violence, drug dealing, organized crime, theft and robbery. I was personally involved in all these for 10 long years. I lived a fast paced, dangerous, violent, kill or be killed lifestyle. I was involved in gang violence, and addicted to 4 different hard drugs. I was a liar, a murderer and a thief.
In the city of Chicago during the months of March and April the weather begins to warm up and springs comes forth. Unfortunately with warm weather and spring season approaching comes the time when gang violence, and organized crime becomes more and more active. During the month of March alone over 10 years I have lost a handful of cousins, and at least 50 plus friends, and fellow gang members.
and so normally we would visit the grave sites and tombstones of those that have lost. Millions of people each month visit the graveyards and remember and reminisce of those who have gone on before us. Many of you have put flowers on your loved ones graves and have reminisced a little on how life was like when they were still alive.
The cemetery can actually be a very interesting place. Sometimes you can find out a lot about a person from their tombstone. If you were to walk through a graveyard you would see several of the grave sites decorated lavishly with lights, flowers, and pictures and all kinds of little nick knacks. It can be obvious to us that some of the people who were buried were sports fans, while some enjoyed hinting or fishing, and others had certain hobbies. Some people were known by many and some not so many. Looking at old tombstones, can at times give you a glimpse of what that person was like when they were alive. but when in comes right down to it each persons life comes down to two dates and a hyphen, the day you are born, the day you die and the hyphen that separates those two dates. The hyphen in the middle represents the life in between the two dates. This little hyphen is supposed to represent a lifetime.
If you think about it in this lifetime there are many things we will absolutely no control over. We don't get to decide who our parents are, when were born, or the culture we are born into. We don't get to decide the dates on our tombstones.( if you decide to commit suicide then I guess you can choose one of those dates.) but other than that we don't know when our time on this earth will be up. It can be today, tomorrow, next week or next year. Hopefully for all of us here today it will be years and decades from now. But really no one knows but God, and if there is one thing we do have control over and that is how we are going to live out our lives. How are we going to live our our hyphens? Ask yourself when my time is done and at the end of my life how would my loved one, how would my family and friends describe my hyphen.
The title of today's message is " Describe My Hyphen'
That's what I want to share with you this morning. One of the saddest reality of today generation and the generations before is that many people are now dead and diseased and the rest of the world would describe their hyphen as not the best life that someone should live. At their funerals and life celebrations we can say the nicest things about them and how they were loved and now will be missed, and yet in the back of their minds there is the feeling of disappointment and regret that they didn't live their life up to their fullest potential.
More closer than that there are millions of people who are alive right now, millions of people who still have time on this earth that have the same feeling of disappointment and regret that they have not lived the life they really wanted to live. That they haven't lived the best life they could have lived and now before their death date, before their hyphen is complete, before their time is done they would describe their own lives as a waste of time and potential.
I don't know about you but I made a decision 8 years ago that I don't want to wast any more time. At the young age of 22 as I looked back on my life as a young man I had nothing to show for it. If my life would have ended then and there I would be in that same pool of millions who wasted their lives, whose hyphen would be described as not the best life to lookup to and relive. and that when I made the best decision of my life . To accept the Lord Jesus Christ into my life into my heart and I allowed him to change who I was and the way I lived. I began a relationship I began this walk with the one whose time is unlimited. I began to have a personal and intimate relationship with the one true living God. and since then, going on 8 years now. I am proud of the life I have lived in Christ. I have had my ups and my down, I've had my seasons on the mountain top and my seasons in the valley low. Regardless of good or bad conditions the last 8 years of my life have been the best years I have ever lived and I know there is more in store. I know that God has a special plan for my life and he has one for your life as well.
Jeremiah 29;11- For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for welfare and not for calamity but to give you a future and a hope.
Johua 3;5- sanctify yourselves today for tomorrow I will do wonders among you.
That's the hyphen that God has for our lives. He has an abundant life for us in Jesus Christ and through his church and through his body. The wonders that God has planed for our lives are to evangelize and disciple the hurting people of the world with the message hope and plan of Jesus Christ. These wonders that God wants to fulfill for us is to plant church's, recovery home, and training centers in strategic cities around the world. The wonders are not for us to live ordinary and mediocre lives but they are for us to live by radical faith, to live by radical prayer, for us to impact our generation and our families and hurting people of the world.
But more close than that I believe the greatest plan and wonder that God has for our lives s that in Jeremiah 29;12-14
Jeremiah 29;12- and when you call upon me and pray I will listen to you. V13- You will seek me and find me and when you search for me with all your heart V14- I will be found by you declares the Lord and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from the nations from all the places where you were driven to, and I will bring you back from exile.
That's why right now here on this ranch we have people from all across the nations. God is gathering some good for nothing, low life, murderers and drug addicts from all over the world here to one place. God has brought the director of this Ranch from Chicago. Even our staff on site, Bro William for Pomona CA, Bro Sean Banyon from Las Vegas and Philly, Bro Mike L from New York, Bro Omar from San Diego, Bro Bryan from Hawaii. God is gathering up a people from all parts of the nation. We have men and woman from L.A, Riverside, Victorville, Barstow, Dallas Texas, Portland, Indio, San Bernardino, Arizona, Phoenix, Eagle Rock, Chicago, Europe, Mexico, and the list continues. Some body better give God some praise, He has a great and might plan and vision for our lives. He has in his mind the best hyphen that we could ever live.
and now here today, we have an opportunity to live our a moment of that hyphen. We have the opportunity to live out eh beginning of His plans for us in Jeremiah 29;13-14. That we can call upon him and pray and He will listen. Right now we have a special season to seek and find Him. Your time here at the Ranch is your time to seek him with all your heart with no distraction and the bible says that He will be found by us. This is the best gift to us. Tho we were sinner He still loved us. In our sin and in our selfish lives, Christ's heart and mind was on us when he was nailed to that cross. and because he has risen from the grave, because He lives we have now have the great gift of getting to know and contact the one true living God.
BODY
When we seek him we can find 3 things that will allow us to live our best life now. 3 things that will allow us to live the best life that we could live. If we seek Him with all our hearts right now we can experience the greatest hyphen that anyone can live. that when our time is done we have hear the words good and faithful servant.
1) Special Connection that Glorifies God.
The definition of Glorify is " to describe or represent someone or something as admirable, good and great." Some synonyms for glorify is to exalt, elevate, promote, praise, celebrate, honor, applaud and or glamorize.
For example some can say that a video of footballs players or people fighting on the street or in school glorifies violence. In most churches the general idea is that music is used to glorify God. However the way we glorify God is not solely in our worship, not just on how much we are giving, or the attitude, or actions toward or about God.
The way we glorify God best in from our connection with Him. When you and I are connected, when you and I become intimate with God the Father and Jesus Christ, an attitude of worship and grateful and generous giving is a bi-product. When you are connected to the vine you will bear fruit. Our attitudes and actions are just the fruits of what we are connected to.
That's why Jesus says ' I am the vine and you are the branches. Abide in me and I in you and you will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing.
Its the connection that we have in prayer is what causes us to become passionate about the plans and vision He has for our lives. The connection that is between the Father and the Son is the pattern for the kind of connection we are to have with Jesus. If we look back at the life of Jesus and the connection he had with the Father, we can see that Jesus was wrapped up in and mastered by the Father. He was obsessed with the Father and the Father's will. He was about His father business, and you cant be about your father business without being connected to the father.
His whole life, all his energy, everything He did and everywhere He went, and everything He said glorified God and it came from the connection and direction from the father and the father's will. Jesus was committed, devoted and loyal. I believe he understood that the connection to the father and the plans that God the father had is the best hyphen to live out.
Guess what my friend, God the father wants us to be wrapped up, mastered by, obsessed, committed and devoted and loyal and empowered by Jesus and His will. As Jesus's whole heart beat for the father, so your whole heart will beat for Christ. As Jesus had one driving passion, He has one high priority and one special connection wit the father, so your going to have one driving passion, one high priority and one special connection with Jesus Christ and its that connection that will represent, reflect and glorify God in your life.
In John 17 as Jesus was getting ready for his death on the cross, as he prays for himself and his disciples he utters one of the most greatest truths of all time.
John 17 1- Father the hour has come; glorify your son, that the son may glorify you. V2- Even as you gave all authority over all flesh, that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life. V3- This is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true living God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Eternal life doesn't start when you die and go to heaven, it starts here and now while you are still within your hyphen.
John 17;21- That they may all be one; even as you , Father are in me an I in you, that they also be in us. so that the world may believe that you have sent me. V22- The glory witch you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one just as we are one
What a powerful prayer Jesus spoke. What does this mean? this means that when we seek him with all of our hearts this is what we find. this is the result that we may know the one true living God. The problem is not if God will let us find him the challenge is will we seek him with all our hearts. To many times we try to seek God with a half heart or only for the benefits of ourselves. To many times we seek Gods hand rather than his presence, to many times we seek God for a blessing rather than his heart and mind.
I believe we have some God chasers here this morning. I believe God is raising up some prayer warriors, I believe God is revealing himself to us and we can see a genuine change and transformation in our lives here and now why because our founders and or pastor and the leaders of this ministry have kept the principle of seeking God with all of our hearts, all of our mind and all our strength and in doing so we find a special connection that glorifies God.
2) A Character that is Gospel Fashioned.
this is the second thing we can find when we seek him with all our hearts. I remember at one particular funeral of on of my high school friends. His nickname was Assassin. He was named this not so much because he was a killer and murderer, but because he can kill you with laughter. It is sad that he died of a gunshot to the head at the age of 17, but man was he the funniest person we met. Everyone wanted to be around him just because of this. and at the funeral one of his cousin began to share how he was a christian or catholic christian and that he got baptized when he 8 and how he believed in God and now he is in heaven.
when I heard that I was surprised and shocked, like whaaaaaaaaaaaaa this guy believed in Jesus.. no way Jose... I've known this guy for 5 or 6 years now and I would have never guessed that he was a believer, even if he told me himself I wouldn't believe it. not by the way he living. we were getting high together, every weekend we were getting drunk, going to parties, pulling mission, drive by after drive by, one hateful evil act after another, our lives were the farthest from a life that claimed Christianity.
The sad reality and challenge of today's church and generation of believer is this very same thing. We claim to believe and we claim to be Christian and we claim to the truth of the bible and yet our character and our conduct and our conversation display something else. People will never accept the gospel we claim to be true if our characters show a dead Christ.
Thankfully we have leaders her at this ranch and within our ministry and within Christianity around the world, we have men and woman who seek God with all their hearts, and not only does a connection that glorify God but we can see how they found the truth of the bible and His word and it sanctified them and it changed them and their character and conduct. now we look at them and we don't see normal men and woman of God but we see men and woman who display the image of Jesus Christ and the power of his Word.
again if we look to Jesus prayer in John 17
John 17;16- They are not of this world, even as i am not of this world. V17 sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. V18- as you sent me in the world, i also have sent them in the world. V19- for their sake I sanctify myself that they themselves also me by sanctified in truth.
when we look a the life of Jesus Christ not only did he display a connection that glorified God but what made Jesus and his disciples powerful men that did wonders was their character and testimony. Jesus didn't talk the talk he waked the walked too.
and that is the type of life God has for our lives. Part of the abundant life is not just having a connection and intimacy and fellowship with Christ, but to be changed in him. To be sanctified to be purified to be made new and transformed by his Word. That is why within the life flow and phases we have here are now being applied across the world is because it places a high priority and value on His word and it His word that can change the drug addict that can change the prostitute and the gang member into trust worthy, faithful and fruitful men and woman of God.
The gospel and the bible shouldn't be any normal book to read. This gospel should not be a story we tell over and over again, but this gospel this Word of God should be fashioned into our character, fashioned and intertwined and embedded into our daily walk and conduct and conversation.
When you seek His Word with all your heart, the power of this gospel the power of Jesus, the resurrecting power becomes evident in our desires, motives, attitudes and characters. That's why Paul says to live is Christ and to die is gain.
If you and I are going to live out our best life that we can live, if we are going to live out our hyphen its going to take for us to be gospel fashioned. for us to be sanctified in his Word, in the connection of God and the Holy Spirit and when we do we find ourselves doing the wonders of God. The greatest wonder is this that at the end of our lives or loved ones can describe our hyphen as men and woman who not only knew his Word but our character and walk displayed the power of His word.
3) A Cause to be People Loving
the third thing we can find is a passion to reach and love people. Jesus tells his disciples to go into all the nations and make other disciples, and to love them as I have loved you. Jesus didn't change and transform the Apostle Paul's life so that Paul can be a trophy on the wall. No he sanctified and called him to reach the gentiles.
When you have this special connection with Jesus, not only will your character change, but your heart will be filled with a genuine love for people. The same love that caused Jesus to step down from heaven and come into the lowest place, and take our sins and get beat for our transgressions, and wounded for our sake is the same love that drives and directs our lives.
when there is a genuine connection wit God the father and the gospel begins to change your life, we will find ourselves with a love for people. An unconditional and undying love. An overwhelming love of God he has for the hurting mother whose been hurt time and time again by men. A love and a concern for the lonely son who was molested by his father, for the confused little girl who is now turned off to men completely and has eyes for other woman. A passion for that angry young man who doesn't feel loved by his parent because they to busy with their jobs.
this is not a human love I'm talking about a supernatural love a sacrificial love, a love that will cause us to take the same steps as Christ, and be willing to suffer. To go through some pain, willing to go into the darkest places no one else wants to go. I'm talking abut a love so strong that we ca go into a land of wolves as sheep with our arms open wide lifted up saying hit me with your best shot
this is the love that runs through our history of believers and in the history of our ministry. A love that caused many pastor and many missionaries and leaders to go through seasons of suffering, seasons of head aches where they gave everything up and gladly sacrificed because people are worth it
this is the type of life that God has for our lives here and now. and at the end of our lives our loved ones can describe our hyphens as men and women who were God Glorifying, Gospel Fashioned and People Loving. This is the abundant life that Jesus has for our lives and its the best hyphen we can ever live out.
