2 Hours and 40 Minutes Away from Your Vision
Habukuk 2: 1 - 4
Are you growing?
How many of you can see further today than you could see yesterday?
There is no doubt that all of us in this room couldn’t and wouldn’t be in this room today if it were not for the grace and mercy of God.
When I got involved in ministry, many people said to me, “what are you doing? Do you want to be poor? Are you ready to change your life? Can you be a good example to others? Is it worth it?
Well I can tell you today that it is worth it. Over the last few years I have learned not so much to live by the knowledge in my mind, but by the love in my heart. That transition has helped me grow my faith, create the vision that the Lord has for me in my life, and more than anything stay on the path to which I was called. I’m happier than I’ve ever been, I’m loving people more and more each day, and I truly believe, that by the power the Lord Jesus has given me, there is nothing I can’t ask for that I can’t have, there is nothing I can want that Jesus can’t provide, and there is no mountain that comes in my way that I can move. Why, because my faith is growing, my vision is sure, and my joy is everlasting.
Let me share with you that there is no business, no job, no network marketing promise greater than the opportunity to be chosen by God to assist in changing peoples lives. The wonderful thing about being a Pastor is I get the chance to help people elevate their dreams, elevate their vision, elevate their lifestyles and their character. All through the teaching from the bible, and as I continue to help others build on their lives, I get to see my own life be enhanced and improved as well. And the one thing I love about that is its not about Pastor Kenric, its about Jesus, and what Jesus can do with other people. Its about how He can change their lives and make their dreams come true. Its about how he could raise them to living at a different level, not just faithfully, and joyfully but spiritually. That’s why I stand in this room this morning excited to share the Insprational Word of God with you and hopefully introduce to those of you who need it into the family of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Welcome to the best day, the first day of the rest of your life. It’s going to be exciting. Today we are going to discuss a change, a lifestyle change. A change that promises good things an good days ahead. I can remember when I was elevated to the Vice President of my company, Red’s Market in Orlando Florida. I was so empowered. I could do almost anything, I would eat out at the best restaurants. Sometimes the bill would be more than I would spend on my monthly mortgage. I could go out and buy the best suits. Suits that cost more than all my bills put together. Now I’m not bragging or being boastful, I don’t have that job anymore, and I’m not doing those things now, but yet, because I have sight and because I have a vision, I can see God getting ready to restore me, to bless me again, and give me back everything that the devil stole from me. This time is going to be better. Better because my knowledge has increased, my love for others has been enhanced an improved. And my spirituality, my faith has grown tremendously. So the new me gets another chance. And this time I will recognize who I am in Christ, I’ll be able to look beyond the hills, and know difference between me the one who’s blessed and Him the one who blesses!
You see I have big goals, big dreams and a big vision. God wants you too, to have big goals, big dreams and big visions. He doesn’t want to see us get into a routine. Doing the same old things everyday, becoming stagnant in our growth and in our opportunities.
I can remember when I was Arizona State University, I had a good friend named Chuck Hopkins. Chuck loved the Lord and would round up guys through the week to make sure we would go to church on Sundays. He would tell us, “Look I’m going to come by at 6:30 in the morning. We are going to round up some guys, eat breakfast and go to church.” Well my response was, “No we are not.” You see I was a big football fan, and I liked to watch the games on Sunday. Now that I don’t live at home and my parents and grandmother don’t force me to go to church anymore, I’m going to enjoy my new freedom. Well, he ignored me. At 6:30 in the morning I heard a knock on my dorm room door. (Knock, knock, knock) We would go to church and he would sing loud, as loud as he could and say to us, “Sing loud, they love it when you sing loud!” We would laugh at him and tease him and talk about him. And the more we did, the more he enjoyed it. He would laugh with us and take all the comments on his chest, and when we were all finished one day he turned to me and smiled and said, “Kenny, you know why I do this every week, I want to change my life, I want to change your life and I want to be an instrumental part of changing lives for others. The only way I can ever be effective with change, is through Jesus Christ.” Well that statement hit me like a ton of bricks, it set a light off in my head that day. It did! You see he helped me get my faith activated, he helped me get my spirituality going, helped me start to see where success came from. You see the Lord puts people in your life to help develop you, train you, guide you and lead you. But I was resisting, and that resistance often led to the other side of wrong development, wrong training, and wrong guidance. But every week God Blessed me to have Chuck keep working on me, it allowed Jesus to enhance and improve me.
Well at the age of 22 years old, on a Friday night in October Chuck went out to pick up his brother and some friends for the USC vs. Arizona State game that weekend. On his way home from the airport, a car made an illegal left turn, hit Chuck’s car on the drivers side and killed my buddy that night. Naturally I was crushed, one of my best friends gone, just like that. Well it put my life in a spiritual rut for awhile. You know what a spiritual rut is right, it’s a grave with the ends kicked out. That’s exactly what it is. And I can tell you right now if you want to know if you’re in a spiritual rut, I can tell you three ways you know you’re in a spiritual rut:
1. If you have let something or someone stop you from going to church, you’re in a spiritual rut.
2. If you have not picked up a bible and read it in a while, you’re in a spiritual rut.
3. If you have not prayed to the Lord, thanked the Lord, or prayed and have’nt taken the time to pray for someone or something else not tied to yourself, you’re in a spiritual rut.
You see we get into the rat race and back and forth everyday trying to get it right. Trying to keep our focus, trying to see the way, but we can’t do it alone. Not without the help and love of Jesus. The help and love should be translated more towards the grace and mercy of Jesus.
After being in a rut for a while, a few years, and remembering my friend, I realized that I was ready to change. You see I was a slave to Satan. For almost three years I had let him steal my faith, steal my love and steal my joy. Well, I was not going to be slave to the devil anymore, I was going to earn my freedom through the love of Jesus Christ. I decided I was going to change and I thought what would happen in my life if I really got serious about God, about the Bible, about Jesus.
There is 168 hours in a week. You see I was going to school, 15 hours a week, working 40 hours a week, sleeping at least another 40 hours a week and having a good time messing around not doing all wrong but definitely not doing all right either for 72 hours a week. With only 1 hour left, I will tell you that it seemed that short, I would battle with the Lord, and with the words of my late friend, “I want to change my life, I want to change your life and I want to be an instrumental part of changing lives for others. The only way I can ever be effective with change, is through Jesus Christ.”
So one night I went home, and I started writing down some goals. I said, “Lord, I want to grow. I want to see further today than I could see yesterday.” And I heard God’s voice say to me, “Kenny, welcome to your best day, the first day of the rest of your life.” Each and everyday, I try to live the best day, because it might be the last day of the rest of my life. I try to make sure I don’t spend 12 hour days at work, I try to make sure I don’t spend 12 hours of the day asleep. But I do try and make sure I spend a good portion of my day with my family and 2 hours and 40 minutes of my day with the Lord. If you aren’t giving at least 2 hours and 40 minutes a day to Lord, you are a slave of the devil.
So back the sermon, I wanted to get serious so I started writing down some goals. I think goal setting is one of the most critical things you can do in your life. You have to set some goals. Proverbs 28:19 reads, “A man without a vision will surely perish…” Helen Keller, who was blind and deaf has a famous quote that says, “Better to be blind than to have sight and no vision,” I see people everyday who have sight and no vision. No vision for the future, no vision for God or God’s plan in there lives.
And I said, “I want vision, I wanted my freedom, I was going to die trying. I wanted to be able to walk away from the wiles of the devil and get serious about living right, doing right and being right.
So, I started working really hard, and found out this was not going to be easy. I found out quickly this was not going to be a free lunch, its not going to be easy. Anyone who told you that it is not hard to grow spiritually isn’t telling the truth, it’s not hard, just like anything else its just persistent activity. And so I decided I had to change, but if things were going to change, if things were going to get better then Kenric had to get better. If you want things to change, you have to change, if you want things to get better, you have to get better. Don’t continue living a life of insanity. A life of insanity is living the same way, doing the same things day in and day out and expecting the same results. You must change, you must decide to make something different of your life, you must begin to be something in your life. A life committed to Jesus Christ indeed makes you different and aides you to do and be the thing in your life.
I live with many mottos in my life; and you should develop mottos in your life to. You should wake up and say some things that will help you get going everyday. They can be some attitudes, philosophies, scriptures, or affirmations, to help you improve.
So I wake up every morning and I say these things 5 times every morning and 5 times every night:
1. I will represent Christ today, better than I did yesterday
2. Whoever I see, whoever I talk to, I’m going to make them smile today.
3. I will be today what others won’t so I can live tomorrow like others can’t.
4. I will love my wife so much more today, that it won’t even compare to how much I loved her yesterday.
People will see me driving down the street, praising the Lord with my hands in the air, kickin’ out mottos callin’ me an idiot. I don’t care, I will do whatever I can, whatever I have to, to get these things entrenched in my head and working through my heart. I’ll put in my full 2 hours and 40 minutes to the Lord, because I figure it like this, If I give 10 to 12 hours to my work, to my employees, to my customers, I’d better be able to give 10% of my time to the Lord. You see the time I give honor to God is going to get me farther and take me further than anything else out there. You want to be happy, you want to be financially successful, you want to be healthy, you want to be blessed goin’ in and blessed comin’ out. I’ll tell you real simply how to get it. 2 hours 40 minutes God time.
You use that time to build up yourself and even more so to build up others. You tell people about God in small towns, and big towns, in hotels and motels, in living rooms and dens, in parking lots and coffee shops, on the dance floor and in sports bars, tell people just like you for the next 6 months and share the opportunity and hope with them that can be delivered for a life in Christ. Find someone who has a want, has a hurt, has a need, find someone who has a cry for help, invite them to our church, let’s get them a bible, share our testimonies and love with them and help them build their faith.
If you came to church today, you came to church because you were looking for something, or you wouldn’t be listening. Everything is not perfect outside those doors, or you wouldn’t be here. You have that hope, you have that want and you have that desire to enhance and improve your relationship with Christ. You’re the type of people that I look for. Warriors. People who are sick and tired of all the sick and tired. People who will fight and continue to fight for a good, right life. Is it easy? No. Is it hard? Not really. For the next 6 months schedule Jesus in 2 hours and 40 minutes and see how much your life changes. Persisting and Persisting for 6 months. Don’t do it part time, do it full time. 2 hours and 40 minutes.
By doing this I’ve found I can’t walk 5 ft. without saying something or telling someone about Christ.
A few weeks ago I went out and started passing out post cards to invite people to church. I would knock on the door, (knock, knock, knock) there often times there was no one there. Sometimes I’d hear people creep up to the door and not answer it or say anything, probably because they thought I was trying to sell them something or they were afraid. You see, the devil has given a spirit of fear so strong, that people cannot even see love when it’s standing right in front of their face. So to all those empty doors and silent stares, I would walk with confidence saying, “When people see me they will not fear me, because God hasn’t given me a Spirit of fear, but he has cast upon me a Spirit of Love and Power and a Sound Mind.” So I’d walk to the next house being persistent. Working out my 2 hours and 40 minutes.
People are going to drive you into church or drive you out of church. The biggest problem we have is once we get them here, and we start to call a church home, how are we as Christ’s examples going to be the one’s that don’t drive them out the most? By talking to them and not talking about them, by praying for them instead of telling people their all about their problems, by moving forward with them instead of trying to move ahead of them. Often, even as Christians we try to prove how great we are instead of how grateful we are. No one’s relationship with Christ is greater than another’s. We’re all sinners, we’re all flesh, and we’re all fighting to make ourselves and others around us better. Let’s not be the ones to bring people down, but one’s known and recognized to lift people up.
You’ll find in your 2 hours and 40 minutes of God time a day, you will find everything about you, your life and your lifestyle improve. You won’t have to be cash rich, you can be spirit rich. Don’t wait to put this plan into action. You see we are use to putting things off. We say I’m gonna start that 2 hours and 40 minutes next week, and next week turns into next month, and next month to next year. That’s the way we are isn’t it? But you see I’m not going to do that, I’m going to keep on, being persistent, giving God 10% of my time. And when you see me rising up, having better things, doing better things, those of you here today are going to know the secret to my reward. Persistence, commitment, 2 hours and 40 minutes a day.
For many years I put Christ off in my life, I thought I could do it without Him, and even when I thought I was doing well serving him, I would often find myself going backwards.
You see opportunity only waits only so long until its passed on to those who are ready. You hear all the time people say, “Yeah! Well good things always come unto those who wait.” You’re right. But only those things left over to those who hustle. Don’t get out hustled to your commitment to a life in Jesus Christ. You see Chuck had me, I got out-hustled. And that allowed me to see his passing into Heaven as my opportunity to get myself on track and redeem myself. God took him home but gave me a second chance.
It is said that the wealthiest people in life are those who are quick to make a decision and slow to turn back. But most of us will live in mediocrity and poverty because we are slow to make a decision and quick to turn back. Set yourself some goals, where do you want to be? Where do you want to go? You’ve got to plan your sight to reach your vision. Do you want to be a Christian? Do you want everlasting life? Do you want to go to Heaven?
You have to ask yourself in this life, “Am I doing all I can to make my life everything that God says it should be?” This life train we’re on is not slowing down, it waits on no one. You gotta set some goals, and plant some seeds to your vision. That what God tells us in Habukuk 2. Write your goals down plain on tablets. God tells us here to write them down plain tablets, plain and simple, nothing fancy and elaborate.
Have you got your goals written down? Or do you just think things are going to happen? Do you think you’re going to get lucky? There is now such thing as luck, here is my acronym on luck; labor under correct knowledge. Get lucky on purpose, I call it get blessed. Give God 2 hours and 40 minutes each day. Make every day a new year and decide every year is going to get better and better. That makes every day in every year a day you make better and better. In every way everyday I’m going to get better. And you will, you will.
You see by me telling you that giving God 2 hours and 40 minutes a day will make your life better, it doesn’t help you. You have to do it and do it yourself. You have to decide that you are going to do it. You have to decide that I am going to improve and enhance my relationship with Christ. I’m not going to let another day go by without, praying, talking to, telling someone about, singing, praising, sharing, and giving myself into God. Add it all up in various ways and make the 2 hours 40 minutes work for you.
And set some clearly well defined goals to reach the vision God has for you.
How do you do the 2 hour 40 minute plan, How do you reach the vision God has for you?
1. Have a whatever it takes attitude.
2. Develop a do it now attitude…Don’t delay.
3. Ask yourself Why not to build urgency in your life.
Once you do that you can help yourself and help others. Leader of one, leader of many, if I can’t lead one, I can’t lead any.
The one is you, the one is the man in the mirror you. If I can’t lead one, I can’t lead the masses.
Here’s one for you:
If you had a magic carpet
That can wisp you through the air
To health, wealth and happiness
If you only told it where
Would you let it take you
To where you where you’ve never been before
Or would you buy some drapes to match it
And use it on the floor.
You have that magic carpet, will you grab it, will you take it, it’s the Holy Word. The problem is we often leave it on the floor, walk all over it. Will you walk on it another day? Will you walk on it and buy those drapes to match it.
So I close and ask you this question:
Can an egg fly?
Yes
If it breaks out its shell and uses the wings that the creator giveth, it truly can fly. You see we all have wings that are rusty, that are dormant, that have never been used. Let’s use our wings and fly. Use your wings and dream your dreams. Take 2 hours and 40 minutes a day and give it to God, and watch this become the greatest year of your life.
