Message

Americans don’t like to wait, we want what we want now, instantly. We don’t like to wait in lines, we don’t like to wait in traffic. We buy our foods frozen and pop it into the microwave, instant dinner. We used to have to wait for a certain TV show to be on the air, but now you can download it instantly on the internet. Email too slow for you, use instant messaging. Instant coffee, instant oatmeal, instant credit and the list goes on. Young couples want the affluence of their parents instantly and so they buy it on credit and eventually the bill comes due. Some things are better prepared from scratch, some things take time. When you insist on having everything instant, what happens when something just doesn’t come instantly?

Life is not a ten second 100 yard dash, life is an eighty year marathon. The elements that make for a good marathon runner also make for a winner in the race of life. God wants you to be a winner in the race of life, but not everyone will win. In fact, the Bible tells us that there are more losers than winners in the race of life. NIV Hebrews 12:1-2 Let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus. You have a race marked out for your life by God. God wants you to finish that race to be a winner, just as Jesus was. However, just as a winning marathon runner is not produced instantly, so a winner in the race of life is not produced instantly. A winner in God’s race of life must grow to maturity.

Today I’m going to talk about “Investing In Growth For Life.” To be a winner, you must invest yourself in spiritual growth for life. You can invest yourself in a lot of different ways, but only by investing God’s way will you end up a winner. A lot of people invest themselves in the wrong things and end up being losers in the race of life. But when you invest in growth God’s way, you become more and more like the all-time champion, Jesus Christ. You learn from Him about the race of life, you practice His training habits, you have the same attitudes that He had. Make Jesus your hero, your model, your example and finish life a winner. Invest your life to become like Jesus and you’ll be a winner. So what should you invest your life in?

To hear more about this topic, listen to my August 20, 2006 message entitled Investing In Growth For Life

Today my message is entitled “Overcoming Your Temptations.” Jesus had temptations, I have temptations, you have temptations. Temptations are part of life, you can’t get away from them. Temptations come in all sorts of sizes and flavors. The traditional seven deadly sins are: pride, envy; anger, laziness, greed, gluttony and lust. Those cover a lot of our temptations.

Temptations come at us in an instant. We often don’t take time to think things through, we just react and give into temptation. Someone says something sharp to us and we speak back in anger. We compare our house to the neighbors and envy theirs. We come home from a hard day at work and turn into a couch potato, giving in to laziness. There’s a Veggie Tales movie in which temptation is represented by chocolate bunnies. In this case, the temptation was gluttony. One chocolate bunny was not wrong but eating chocolate bunnies for 30 minutes was.

What is the chocolate bunny in your life? Something that appears good, something that is pleasurable to give into, yet in the end it will make you sick. People get addicted to the chocolate bunnies they are offered in their lives. I’m convinced that most of the sins in our lives are things that we are addicted to. They’re not one offs, they are habits that we have developed habits of going after our own chocolate bunnies. Some chocolate bunnies are OK in moderation, others are wrong no matter the dose.

What are the chocolate bunnies the temptations in your life that you can’t seem to overcome? This morning I want to talk about overcoming your temptations, learning how to say “No” to your chocolate bunnies and walk free. NIV 2 Timothy 2:22 Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. The evil desires of youth don’t just remain in youth but they are there with us all our lives. You will never outgrow temptation. In order for God to use you, you have to have a pure heart, a heart that overcomes temptation. In order to see God, you have to be an overcomer of temptation. In order to overcome temptation, you need to work with God to change your life. Whatever temptation you’re battling in your life, here are the keys to overcoming.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my August 13, 2006 message entitled Overcoming Your Temptations

Currently we’re in a message series called “Growing In Life’s Journey.” God uses a number of tools to help each person grow during their lives. God has a plan and purpose for your life and the only way that you’re going to accomplish that purpose is for you to continue to grow. Growth is a lifelong process, it takes work, you’ve got to stick with it, but the results will last forever. People who are growing are people who are learning to love and serve God and others. People who don’t want to change are stuck in the rut of life, not a great place to be.

Last week I talked about how God uses trouble to bring about positive change in our lives. Today my message is entitled “The Purpose of Temptation.” God uses temptation as a tool to help you grow. God doesn’t tempt anyone, but He able to use temptation as a means to bring about growth in our lives. Most people think of temptation as some sort of opportunity to do something wrong. That’s true, but it is more helpful to think of temptation as a choice. When you are tempted you have a choice to either give in to the temptation or to reject the temptation.

A temptation is like coming to a fork in the road. You can go down the right fork or the left fork. One path will lead you further away from God, the path where you give into temptation. But the other path will lead you closer to God, the path where you refuse temptation. Even the most heinous of crimes began way back when someone made a wrong choice and gave into temptation. One wrong choice follows another and the final destination will be tragic. Let’s watch a clip of an interview with David Berkowitz otherwise known of Son of Sam who was a serial killer in New York. See how his wrong choices to get involved in the occult had disastrous consequences. David Berkowitz went down the wrong path when faced with temptation. God wants you to make the right choice.

NCV James 1:12 When people are tempted and still continue strong, they should be happy. After they have proved their faith, God will reward them with life forever. God wants you to pass the test of temptation. He has a purpose in allowing temptation to come into your life. Don’t be misled into thinking that your temptations aren’t dangerous, that your little sins aren’t giving anyone any problems. This morning think about your biggest area of weakness, your biggest area of temptation and let God show you his purpose in it.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my August 6, 2006 message entitled The Purpose Of Temptation

Currently we’re in a message series called “Growing In Life’s Journey.” God wants you to grow in every dimension of your life, growth involves change. Growth and change are good things that will make your life better. However, we tend to resist change. We don’t want to change, we just want our circumstances to change. God doesn’t work that way. He’s more interested in changing you than changing your circumstances.

The other day one of my children was preparing something for us to eat. They asked Carol if she had any more garlic. She said no, but she thought we had enough. Our child said she need more so Carol checked what she was doing. The recipe had called for one teaspoon of garlic as seasoning but our child had interpreted it as one cup of garlic. That was just a bit too much, so the dish was ruined. We could have prayed that God would remove the excess garlic from the dish but I doubt if He would have granted our request. The answer was not in getting God to change our trouble but in teaching our children to grow in their understanding of measurements. Too often people pray for God to remove the garlic or troubles in their life when God wants to teach them and change them through the trouble.

Today my message is entitled “Don’t Waste Your Troubles.” My title assumes you are going to have troubles in your life, everybody does. Sometimes you go through a period where everything is easy sailing but don’t get complacent, because eventually you will encounter storms. Storms or troubles are meant to make you stronger.NIV 1 Peter 4:12 Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.

Trials and troubles are part of God’s plan for your life. God doesn’t cause them but He allows them to come into our lives. Most people just want to get through the troubles or storms, but God has a purpose in everything that He allows into your life. Troubles are meant to bring about change in your life, they are the pressures that God uses to shape us. Troubles are meant to draw you closer to God, to help you to depend on Him more than on yourself. Troubles are meant to teach you lessons from God and to help you grow. None of this happens automatically.

My title “Don’t Waste Your Troubles” also assumes that you can waste your troubles. You can go through all kinds of troubles and not change, not grow, not learn anything. That’s a wasted trouble. So how can you make the most of the troubles that you face in your life?

To hear more about this topic, listen to my July 30, 2006 message entitled Don’t Waste Your Troubles

Currently, we’re in a message series called “Growing In Life’s Journey.” Whenever you want change in your life, whenever you want to do something new, you need to grow. As a believer, God has put the desire in your heart to grow. If you are not yet a believer this morning, God has put a desire in your heart to grow. Growth and change are a normal healthy part of life.

In order to grow you need three things. You need knowledge, an understanding of what you need to do in order to change or grow. For example, if you want to change careers and get into a new career with more opportunity for advancement, you need new knowledge, so you go back to school. The second thing that you need is the desire or will to make changes in your life. If you don’t have the desire to learn and apply new knowledge, it won’t do you any good. The third thing that you need is the power to bring about the change in your life. God is your power source.

Today I’m going to talk about one of the most important elements of bringing about change in your life. My message this morning is entitled “Discovering The Growth Manual.” God has provided a roadmap for change and growth in your life. It’s a growth manual for life. It has parts that are easy enough for a child to understand and other parts that even advanced scholars have yet to decipher. God’s growth manual to bring about positive change in your life is the Bible.

The Bible calls itself God’s Word, it is God’s instructions to every person who will learn. The Bible is God’s roadmap for growth in your life. I’ve got a lot of areas in my life that need to grow. How about you? NLT Matthew 4:4 People need more than bread for their life; they must feed on every word of God. What do your children need to grow? It is essential for them to eat physical food. The same is true spiritually, you must feed on every word of God written down in the pages of the Bible in order to grow spiritually.

Today most people don’t read the Bible regularly, most people have never studied the Bible in school and are ignorant of the most important of all books. NLT John 8:31 Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you keep obeying my teachings.” A true believer, a true disciple of Jesus Christ is someone who understands the teaching of God’s Word and obeys it. That person will grow in their life to become more like their teacher Jesus. So today let’s look at how you can discover God’s growth manual, the Bible.

To hear more about this topic, listen to my July 16, 2006 message entitled Discovering The Growth Manual