This Is Serious Business

To Pastor McClung…..Reverend Brown……Officers of the Church…..Members……Guest… friends….I thank you for this opportunity….to share the Good News with you. As I began to prepare for this sermon…..my first sermon….I naturally began to feel some nerves. I got right down scared….But It didn’t make any sense….In the world….in my day job….I speak to people all of the time….and have given many briefing and presentations. But then it hit me….and I was comforted by God’s grace and a story of a young man. This young man was carrying his cross and he went to God and said this cross is too heavy for me to carry. And God told him to go to the other room and put it down and select another cross to carry. Well…the young man looked, and looked….and looked and finally found a little tiny cross. So he took that cross and went back to God. And God asked him if he had found another cross that he could carry…and he said yes….I found this small….tiny cross…..and the Lord looked at him and said…Son that’s the same cross you came in here with. You know the lord never puts more on you than you can handle….

A men…A men…In the midst he’ll be there. Its GOOD….to be in the house of the Lord. I can’t think of a better place….to be….than here…praising Our God. A men. Its SOMETHING about praising God…that gets me all excited…..like a little boy…on the first day of school. He can’t wait to put on those new clothes and show out. That’s how I am come Sunday morning. I just can’t wait to put on my suit…and come to praise God. *** I JUST GET EXCITED…..and you ought to be excited. If the person NEXT to you isn’t excited…then something wrong. You ought to….we all ought to be excited……My God’s the same God that woke you UP….this morning……CLOTHED in your right mind….you ought to be excited. He’s the SAME GOD who put food on your table…clothes on your back and a roof over your head….you ought to be excited….Listen to me now…..He’s the same God that sent Moses to see Pharoah… and Noah to build an Ark….you ought to be excited….He’s the same God that PROTECTS YOU from harm and heals you when your sick….you ought to be excited…He’s the same God. The same God of yesterday, today, and tommorrow. Ahhhhh…I just get excited. We can get excited for the Betty Wright or Puff Daddy concert…we need to get excietd for God. Tell your neighbor……Get excited….I’m excited this morning. My God. A men… Ya know….people get excited and serious about some of the wildest things.

I have heard and seen on TV how folks will camp out for days…in order to see a concert. Now to me….that doesn’t make any sense..its not like its football or something. Now that’s something we can get serious about…..we like our football…don’t we. You may be for Alabama State, Tuskegee, A&M, Bama, Auburn, or Troy State. It doesn’t matter. It’s the same…we take it seriously. If you are an Alabama Fan….you like two teams each week. Alabama and whoever is playing Auburn.

Now as I started to get all rilled up for the football season this year….it struck me how there are other things worth getting serious about. Things that if we have an casual attitude about some things…..it will get us into big trouble. For example, someone who is packing a parachute can’t afford to do a sloppy job. The young man or woman…who puts on that parachute….doesn’t think twice…about the chute opening….they simply step out of the plane in Faith…..that the parachute will open. But even more importantly, far more importantly, we need to be serious about our relationship with God. I often believe that we…..us church folk…..we christians…..that one of our biggest problems….is that we take ourselves too seriously, but don’t take God seriously enough. We didn’t like that one did we?….I’m talking about myself too…..I’ll say it again…..

I often believe… that our biggest problem….is that we take ourselves too seriously…..and don’t tak God seriously enuff. Brothers and Sisters in Christ…..Being a Christian is serious business…it’s a 24 hour job…take a break and Satan is there to keep you company.

The scripture or main text this morning is found in Genesis Chap 11: verses 1 - 9….we find the title of today’s message is….Getting Serious About God. (wait a bit and then say starting with verse 1)

1 And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.

2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

3 And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.