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WORDS THAT CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE

“YES”

ED YOUNG

NOVEMBER 9, 1997

It’s just a little word, one that rolls off our tongues dozens of times a day.  In our commitment free culture, though, we basically have neutered this word, stripped it, gutted it and hollowed it out.  The word I am referring to is the word, yes.  Yes is a word of affirmation, agreement and acknowledgment.  It is a word of decision and commitment.  But sadly, in our litigation littered world, we have to be very careful when we say this word.  There are such huge implications of using this tiny word that it takes clauses and clusters of attorneys just to protect us.

I think that since the dawn of human history but especially since the word yes has been birthed into our personal vocabulary, we have all struggled with its use.  That is why Jesus said in Matthew 5:37, “Let your yes be yes.”  In other words, say it and stick by it.  This word has the ability and power to change your life.  Let your yes be yes.

I am in a series of talks called “Words That Can Change Your Life”.  Last week it was, I love you.  Today it is yes.  That kind of sounds like a country-western song, doesn’t it?  “Last week I loved you, today its yes……twang, twang, twang.”  Anyway, yes can transform or deform any life here.  Most of us are far too familiar with the scar tissue of saying an inappropriate yes.  A lot of us have said yes to the wrong things at the wrong time and in the wrong way.  The Bible is packed full of people who said yes to the wrong things at the wrong time.

Cain said yes to the jolt of jealousy, which led to the first homicide.  Moses said yes to that tug of anger, which thwarted his Promised Land pursuits.  Esau said yes to the seductive call of selfishness, which resulted in him selling his own birthright for a bowl of gumbo.  Who can forget Samson’s yes to the destructive relational patterns with Delilah?  And King David’s yes to the lure of lust caused him to never be what God wanted him to be as a leader, as a man and a father.  We can say yes to the wrong things at the wrong times.

We can also say yes in the wrong ways.  We are pros in saying those empty yeses, for instance, that yes when we don’t really mean it.  “Oh, yeah, I’ll be there”.  We have no intention of showing up, but we say yes anyway.  We love to articulate those empty, non-committal, hollowed out, gutted out, neutered yeses.  Let your yes be yes.

I have got to ask you.  Is your yes a yes?  You see we serve a word-keeping God, a God who says something and stands behind it, a God who says yes and backs it up.  And God simply says to you and to me to say yes to what He has said yes to.  In other words we are to say yes to the right things, at the right time and in the right way.  And if we say yes to what God says yes to, that is saying yes to God’s priorities.  I love the word priority because prior is part of the word.  There is no use debating or speculating what your priorities should or should not be.  They were set forth prior to your birth.  Before you were even a gleam in your father’s eye on a cold winter’s night, your priorities were set in stone.  Before your mom even dealt with morning sickness during the first trimester, your priorities were set.  God has said yes to certain areas of your life and my life and He wants us simply to agree with Him.  He wants us to say yes, too.

Now some of you are saying that that is tough to do, that you don’t have the power within yourself, the strength, the intestinal fortitude to carry it out.  Well, let me tell you how good God is.  The moment we establish a personal relationship with Christ, and many here have made that commitment, He places the person of the Holy Spirit in the depth of our being.  The Holy Spirit is committed, in fact it is His priority, to get us to say yes to what God says yes to.   And that is exciting.  So Christianity is not a solo sport, we have got some cosmic help.  If you are a Christ-follower, you know what I am talking about.  If you are not, listen because the moment you bow the knee and become a Christ-follower, you will feel this presence within your life.

During the few moments that remain, I want us to talk about four yesses, four big time yesses that God wants us to say.  First, He wants us to say yes to developing a deep and dynamic relationship with Him.  It is impossible to develop a great connection with Christ off the cuff, on the fly or on the run.  We have got to be systematic.  We have got to be intentional.  It takes discipline.  We have got to say yes the day before we actually meet with God.  You see, God wants me to meet with Him every day.  He wants you to meet with Him everyday.  He has an agenda especially for me and especially for you.  And if we don’t meet with Him, talk to Him, pray to Him, study His word, we are going to miss out on the abundant and adventurous life that we wants us to live.

I think that Jesus said it best in Matthew 6:33.  “Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added to you.”  So if I am going to truly soar in my relationship with God, I have got to spend quality moments with Him.  I don’t know about you but when I miss two or three days of spending time with God, I experience a kind of free fall into the abyss of rebellion.  I’m surprised at my depravity.  Maybe you are not like me, but quite frankly, I don’t see how you survive in your relationship with God if you don’t meet with Him regularly and systematically.  Now I don’t decide to meet with God when I wake up.  I don’t say, “Well, OK, I’m up and today I am going to meet with God.  Sometime I am going to meet with God.  When it works out with my schedule, when everything is A-OK, then I will meet with God.”  I have got to say yes the night before.  That is a disciplined yes.  “Yes, I am going to wake up a little bit earlier, yes I will bring my journal, yes I will begin to write down my prayers to Him.”  Now if you are kind of new to studying the Bible or prayer, we have a class especially designed for you.  We teach it once a month.  It is called Starting Point.  It is led by Pastor Owen Goff.  It teaches you how to read the Bible, how to communicate with Christ.  And if you want a more in-depth study on prayer, get the tapes “Praying For Keeps”, a sermon series which I did about a year ago.  Learning more of these subjects will serve you well.  You will see a deep and dynamic relationship begin to develop with the God of the universe.  What an awesome thing to realize.  God is saying yes every day to meeting with you and meeting with me.  The question is, are we going to keep this appointment or are we going to say, “Yeah, God, I’ll be there.”  even if we don’t mean it.

We also have to be committed to that which is most near and dear to the heart of God.  If we are going to get to know Him, we have got to be committed; we have got to say yes to the church.  Why should we say yes to the church?  What are the benefits of the church?  Here are just a couple of quick ones.  The church enables me to join a community of fellow strugglers who can assist me and come along side me during the trials and troubles of life.  I don’t know how I could have survived over the last seven years without many of you who have helped me, assisted me, encouraged me and challenged me through difficult times.  Yes, you have been there for the good times too, but also for the tough moments.  There is nothing like it.  And if you don’t have this built into your life, I don’t know how you will “do life”.   I really, really don’t.

Thursday, I called a young couple in our church who were walking through a terrible tragedy.  I talked to the husband.  His voice was breaking but the first words that he said to me were, “Ed, I cannot tell you how much our friends who we have met in the Fellowship have helped us.   They prayed for us, have come here to the hospital to see us.  It has been unbelievable.”  That is what I am talking about.  Is your yes a true yes?

One of the biggest frustrations that we as a leadership team deal with here at our church is trying to build the church and develop programs around people who say yes but don’t really back it up.  People say “Yes, I will help in the Nursery.”  “Yes, I will help with traffic control.”  “Yes, I will get involved with the athletic ministry.”  “Yes, I will become a part of the home teams.”  “Yes, I will participate in a bible class.”  “Yes, I will really get engaged in Women’s Ministry.”  But rarely do they stand beside and behind the yesses.  Usually there are empty chairs, empty spots, forms filled out but no one showing up.  We have got to let our yes be yes.

Another benefit of being a part of the church is that it enables you and me to build a base of faith that will serve us now and help and encourage generations to come.  It is sort of like an anchor.  It anchors you and your family and you can build on it in the future.  Show me a great family and more often then not, way back there generations ago you had someone who was really involved in a local church.  Have you said yes to really committing to the church?

I know with the winter approaching and on rainy days it is so nice just to lie in the rack, wake up late and not make it to church.  You may say to yourself that missing church will give you more time to spend with your family.  Also, you may say you will be able to watch all the pre-game shows of the football contests.  But don’t buy into that.  Be here when we have services.  Something supernatural takes place when we open God’s word en masse.  Something supernatural takes place when we sing to Him.  Something supernatural takes place when we come together as brothers and sisters in Christ.  Don’t miss it.  Build your life around it and it will serve you well.

Another benefit of the church is that we can be a part of something that will last forever.  We can be a part of something that will be here when we are gone.  We can be a part of helping fragmented families, troubled teens and clueless children.  We can help.  Too many of us get involved in building mountains of nothingness.  We think that it is really something until the years roll by and we look back and realize that we have spent all of our time on nothingness.  We are talking about building stuff in the lives of people.  Education is not the answer.  Some of the most educated people I know are some of the wackiest I know.  Legislation is not the answer.  Look at Washington, DC.  Only transformation is it.  I sincerely believe that the church is the hope of the world.  Have you said yes to Christ and yes to the church?

Eighteen months ago I had a spiritually intensive conversation with a man in a Mexican restaurant nearby.  Over our meal I challenged him about Christ and the church.  He looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, “Ed, I want to say yes to the Lord and yes to the Fellowship.”  I talked to him about what his commitment meant and the benefits of the church that I just shared with you.  Eighteen months have passed.  And this guy is nowhere to be found.  I’ll call him John.  A couple of weeks ago I saw John at a gym where I work out.  I walked up to him and said, “John, how is it going?”  He answered, “Oh, its going pretty well.”  I said, “John, do you remember the conversation that we had eighteen months ago?  Remember your commitment to Christ and the church?”  He said, “Yes.”  I asked, “What is the deal?  Where are you?  John, you were talking about your struggles in marriage, parenting hurdles and career pressures.  Yet, you are nowhere to be found.  It is not going to come together for you until you stand behind your yes to Christ and your yes to the church.”  As I walked off do you know what the last words he said to me were?  “Ed, I have got to go out of town for a couple of weeks, but yes, I’m going to start coming.  Yes, I am going to start doing what I know God wants me to do in my marriage, with my children and in my career.”  I’ve not seen him and it breaks my heart.  Let your yes be yes.  Say yes to developing a deep and dynamic relationship with God.

Secondly, we have to say yes, a resounding yes, to the most strategic relationships in our lives.  Let’s talk about marriage.  We have got to say yes to our mate through thick and thin, through sickness and health through poverty and wealth.  We have got to say yes.  I am tired of people giving God and others this line.  “Well, I said yes years ago in the church, but I didn’t really mean it.  I was kind of coerced and forced to say it.”  Well, don’t throw that weak junk up to yourself, to others and to God.  You are lying.  Tell the truth about your condition.  You backed out on the commitment.  Your yes was not a yes.  God will forgive you.  God will restore you.  But it is time to say yes and do life right.  And when God brings that special someone into your life, say yes and stick with it.  I know I have got to say yes regularly and routinely to a date night at least once a week with Lisa.  I need to say yes to a once-a-year trip when just the two of us get away together.  I have got to say yes to developing a deep relationship spiritually that goes beneath the surface.  I have got to say yes to resolving conflicts and handling them that day.  I have got to say yes and the Holy Spirit helps me.  He elbows me sometimes.

Last week I said some hurtful things to Lisa in front of our four children.  I was in the wrong.  I was selfish.  I said some things that I should not have said.  When I said them, I knew I was wrong but it kind of felt good to say them.  After awhile, the Holy Spirit began to let me know that I had messed up in front of the children and in front of the most important woman in my life.  He urged me to say yes to settling the conflict.

I said to myself, “Well, I’ll do so.   Once the kids go to bed, I’ll settle the score with Lisa.”  But I felt Him saying, “Ed, you said the hurtful things in front of the kids, apologize to her in front of them.”  Then I though about the fact that the twins are three, my son, five and my oldest daughter, eleven.  But I felt nudge and when I couldn’t stand it any more, I said, “Lisa, I am sorry.  I was totally wrong and I want to apologize to you Laurie, to you Landra, to you EJ, and to you Lee Beth.  I said a hurtful thing to your Mom and I was wrong.  These words were tough to say but I am glad that I said them.  Because I sincerely believe that words like this mark our children more then anything that we could ever tell them or more than anything that we could ever give them.  They saw commitment.  They saw conflict resolution.  They saw love.  And they saw life lived on the rugged plains of reality.

Now don’t sit there an say, “Oh, I bet he is just a perfect husband.  He is a pastor.”  No, I am a fellow struggler like you.  But I will tell you one thing.  I have improved in this area by the grace of God, and because I spend time with Him daily, and am sensitive to the elbowing of the Holy Spirit.   Are you saying yes to your spouse?  Are you saying yes to your kids?  How about it parents?  Are you most concerned about setting sale records at work, and being a five handicap golfer or are you saying that you will spend quality time with your family and that you will show them that your yes means yes.

I read a while ago that the toughest problems children have to deal with are broken promises from their parents.  “Someday I will take you fishing.”  “Someday we will go outside and throw a football around.”  “Someday I will take you camping.”  Let your yes be yes.

People ask me a lot about my background, specifically about my parents.  They may know that my middle brother, Ben, 34, is a pastor of the largest singles area in any church in the country and the only guy with a nationally syndicated Christian talk show just for singles.  They may know that my youngest brother, Cliff, is the lead singer in one of the up and coming Christian alternative bands.  Then they meet me and say that my parents did great with two out of three.  Kidding.  They ask  what our parents did that influenced the three of us to end up in Christian work.  Sometimes the questioner takes out a pen or pencil for the purpose of recording the great wisdom.  But is it very simple.  My parents said a couple of important yeses and they stood behind them.  They said yes to developing a deep and dynamic relationship with God.  That was their top priority.  Secondly, they said yes to us.  We were right behind their relationship.  I knew it was God first, their marriage next and that we came in third.  It meant the world to my brothers and I.  I have found out that if we say yes to everything, that we become over-committed, over-scheduled and over-stimulated and we will blow a gasket.  We have got to say a couple of calculated yeses in some of these areas that we are talking about today and then what God will do is just staggering.

Thirdly, we have got to say yes to reaching our marketplace potential.  Work is a gift from God.  We were created in the image of a God who works and we have a desire for work and work is good.  Work is not sin.  Work is not judgment.  Adam and Eve worked before sin came into the picture.  They did yard work in the garden.  Well the Bible comes along and says this in Colossians 3:23.  “Whatever you do, do your work heartily as for the Lord rather than men.”  In other words, whatever you do in the marketplace, do it for God.  We have people who are part of this church who throw passes, others perform surgeries, others close deals, others install air conditioning units, others preach sermons, others sell medical supplies, others teach students.  Whatever you do, do your work as for the Lord.

Are you setting the morality standards around the office?  Are you leading out in working diligently?  Are you truly concerned about the people you rub elbows with daily?  Do you share Christ when He gives you the opportunity to do so?  I know how it is.  After you have worked in a job for awhile, you know how to get by with the least work possible.  You know how to perform those subtle forms of self-promotion in front of your superior.  You know how to involve yourself in office chatter to kind of tear apart the boss.  Is your yes a true yes in the market place?  Are you the one leading out to the best of your ability on any given project?  Do you say yes to working for God in the project?  Say yes to reaching your marketplace potential.  God rewards diligent workers.

Fourthly, we have got to say yes to mindful money management.  Our money matters to God.  Now some of you are thinking that you don’t make that much, that you don’t have to worry about money management.  At the end of the month, there is nothing left.  So who cares, you’ll just spend it, it’s gone, no worry.  If you make a little bit you should be more strategic and more intentional and more mindful of money management.  The Bible says that our giving patterns, our saving patterns and our spending patterns should be acts of worship to God.

Now others here have been blessed financially.  You have so many resources that you don’t worry about money management.  You buy what you want to.  You travel where you want to.  Money is just kind of flowing for you.  You also have to be intentional and mindful about your money.  We have to steward our resources very, very carefully.  The Bible says that we should say yes to what God says yes to financially speaking.  The priorities concerning money are threefold.  First, we are to make money to give.  Second, we are to make money to save.  Third, we are to make money to spend.  But we reverse that, don’t we?  We first make it to spend, then we make it to save and if we have enough left over, we kind of tip God now and then.

Let’s talk about giving because God wants the purposes of this church to move out and to become what He wants them to be.  The only way it will happen is when people who love Him given generously to kingdom causes, to the local church.

Last week Lisa and I were doing one of our date nights and I had forgotten to go to the bank.  I had no cash.  I knew that our eleven year old, Lee Beth, had some cash in her wallet.  I said, “Lee Beth, we are going to the movies and it starts at five.  Can I please borrow some money from you?  I need about $30.”  Do you know what she told me?  She said, “Dad, I don’t like to lend money.”  I said, “Lee Beth, please, I did not have time to go to the bank.  I need the money.”  She said, “Dad…”  But then reluctantly she walked into her room and got her wallet, which she had hidden well.  She began to count the money.  She asked again if I couldn’t get to the bank.  But I told her I couldn’t and that I would pay her back really quickly.  She gave it to me.  Actually I had to kind of pull it from her grasp.  LeeBeth didn’t understand two basic things.  First, if I wanted to, I am strong enough to take the wallet from her and all the money in it.  Secondly, she didn’t understand that I was the one who gave her the money in the first place.

Then I thought about how we treat our Heavenly Father.  God says that He wants us to give some money, that He will bless us for it.  But we say no to God, that we don’t lend money.  We tell Him that we have made it, we can spend it, and we can save it.  It is ours.  Who are you trying to kid?  If God wanted to, He could take it all at once.  We fail to understand that.  We also, like LeeBeth, don’t understand that God is the one who gave it to us anyway.  All we are doing is giving back what is His.  Have you said yes to giving?  I have heard a lot of people say that they will say yes to giving when the deal comes through, when everything is A-OK, next year when they begin to really make it.

How about saving?  If you want to read a great book on money management, read the book of Proverbs.  We are to save our money.  Our saving goal should be at least 10% of what we make in order to get our money working for us.  I meet people all the time who say that one day they will start saving.  One day.

Then I meet others who say that they are going to quit their drive-by spending.  Have you been by Grapevine Mills Mall yet?  I walked in there the other day.  It was incredible.  It is not an outlet mall.  Let me tell you that.  The whole place is calling for you to spend.  The stores are saying spend money…..spend money…..spend money.  A lot of us are overextended and we are drowning in the seas of debt.  We float with interest on this credit card and that credit card.  Credit cards make poor flotation devices, don’t they?  Start now.  Say, “God, I will say yes to mindful, strategic money management.”  Say yes to what God says yes to.  Let your yes be yes.

LISTEN TO THE MUSIC SERMON SERIES

WIPE OUT

ED YOUNG

OCTOBER 12, 1997

Ever since I can remember I have always enjoyed playing the drums.  However, I stopped playing about age 11 due to my involvement in athletics.  When I was playing, though, my favorite song was by the Sufaris entitled Wipeout.  Now Wipeout is a drum driven song that depicts a surfer wiping out on a big wave.  It is a pretty cool song.

Today I am in a series called Listen To The Music.  Over the last several weeks I have been paralleling some of the top Biblical characters with some of the top songs that we have grown up with.  So in keeping with today’s theme and due to the encouragement of Stan Durham, our Music and Media Pastor, and because I am a big ham, I am going to join the band in playing Wipeout.  This is the theme of today’s message.

RENDITION

Our band is so good it can make anybody sound OK.  Today we are talking about wipeout.  I was thinking this past week that whether you surf or ski or rollerblade or skateboard, it is inevitable that you are going to wipeout.  Sometimes the wipeouts are pretty cool like when you fall off the board and you kind of roll around and you are OK.  It kind of makes people laugh and gives you an adrenaline rush.  Wipeouts recreationally can be fun.  They can also be bad.  We all know people who get seriously injured.  Some actually lose their lives in a wipeout situation.

Not only do we wipeout recreationally, we also wipeout vocationally.  Now sometimes those wipeouts are good like when we wipe out a nonproductive business strategy.  However, marketplace wipeouts can be negative.  For example, you are trying to work a big deal with money invested in it and at the last minute it goes south and you end up in the red, financially speaking, that is not a good and fun vocational wipeout.

We also wipeout relationally.  Sometimes we wipeout for good like when a destructive dating relationship is tabled.  At other times the wipeouts can be bad like when you receive a Dear John letter or find that your special someone is with another special someone.  Those wipeouts hurt.  You can feel those drum sticks kind of playing Wipeout on your head.  Wipeouts.  Some are good and some are bad.

Listen very carefully.  Our God is a God who plays Wipeout.  Sometimes His wipeouts make us laugh and sing like when He wipes out our sins and our stumblings and our foul-ups and forgives us.  Those are great wipeouts from God.  Other times, though, God’s wipeouts don’t make us laugh or sing or dance.  Some are more or less hard to swallow like when He wipes out people and even nations because of their rebellion.  Now the question begs to be answered.  How can a caring God play Wipeout?  How can a God who loves human beings take certain human beings out?  Well today we are going to look at a man from the pages of the Bible named Lot.  Lot experienced God’s upbeat and downbeat of Wipeout.  You can’t talk about the love and grace and the mercy of God without talking about the condemnation and the judgment and the anger of God.  God is perfectly balanced.  And today we are going to see that balance because every time, every single time, God plays Wipeout, He always provides a way out.  And I love God for that.  I really, really do.

Lot had a very impressive resume.  Genesis 13 gives us the account of his life.  Lot had a tragic beginning, his father passed away.  However, Abraham, his uncle, stepped in and brought up the boy.  Abraham is a wealthy entrepreneur mentioned throughout scripture.  Abraham was the father of the Hebrew nation and Lot learned everything from him.  Lot learned how to do business from him.  He learned how to relate to people from him.  He learned how to handle stress from him.  He learned how to talk to God from Abraham.  Lot had it going on.  He was on a roll.  He was wealthy because he was on Abraham’s gravy train.

One day when Abraham was 75 years old, God tapped him on the shoulder and said, “Abraham, I want you to go and move to a new land.”  Abraham left with all of his companies and flocks and herds and livestock and Lot was right there with him.  When you have got a couple of Fortune 500 companies on the move, it is inevitable that you are going to have some personality problems and some conflicts.  Lot’s employees and Abraham’s employees began to argue.  Now before the attorneys were brought in, Abraham does something that is really good.  This is a quick application for what many of us are going to deal with over the next couple of weeks.

Let me explain.  The holidays are on the horizon.  Family conflicts may be on the horizon.  When we rub shoulders with that brother, that sister, that father, that stepparent, we sometimes get ready to rumble.  We are going to have some problems.  Abraham saw the family conflict brewing and here is what he does.  He shows us how to handle problems in the family.  First of all, notice that Abraham takes the initiative.  He goes to Lot and says, “Let’s stop the quarrelling.  Let’s quit this.  We are too young.  Our lives are before us.  Let’s just calm down.”  Take the initiative when family conflict arises.

Secondly, Abraham gave Lot first choice.  And we are to give others in our family first choice.  Abraham put family peace above his personal gain.  Abraham should have had first choice.  After all, Abraham was the older of the two; he was the source of the wealth.  He was the leader.  He was God’s man.  Yet the Bible says that he stepped back and gave first choice to Lot.  You see it was time for them to part ways.  Their companies were too big.  Their interests were too vast.   Abraham said, “If you go this way, I’ll go that way.  If you go that way, I will go this way.”

Lot looked.  One way was an ugly way, a way that kind of looked like west Texas.  I have never been to west Texas but I hear it is not that pretty.  Then Lot looked in the other direction.  The area looked like the Garden of Eden, like the Virgin Islands or something.  The elk were bulging, the trout were leaping, the sun was shining.  But in the distance were the evil cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Now take a wild guess regarding what Lot did.  Where do you think that he chose to live?  You guessed it.  The bulging elk, the leaping trout, the shining sun.  The Bible says that he moved toward the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  And Abraham took west Texas, which is now Canaan.  Lot didn’t realize it but Lot faced something that we all face in life.  Lot faced a DMD.  A DMD is a defining moment decision.  I am talking about a turning point.  I am talking about a fork in the road.  And all of us can look back on our lives and see those DMDs that we faced.  Some are facing them right now.  Some of us have made poor DMDs and we are trying to recover from our problems.

The Bible says in Genesis 13:11, “So Lot chose for himself the whole plain of the Jordan and set out toward the east.”  Amazingly, Lot didn’t give any high fives to Abraham or say, “Thanks, uncle.”  He didn’t pray any prayers.  He didn’t have any forethought whatsoever.  He just decided where he wanted to go because it looked good to him and would be good for his company.

What do you do when you face a DMD?  What do you do when you face a Lot-type decision?  You have got to remember two things.  Number one.  You have got to remember to downplay the upside while playing up the downside.  We have got to do that.  Usually the negative consequences are more negative once we get there and the positive consequences are not as positive as we believed.  Lot should have run down the road a little and thought about the implications of his decision.  He should have thought about how he was going to wreck and ruin his family, how it would cause him to live in the midst of sin, how it would cause him to compromise, how it would really mess him up.  Yet Lot was thinking so much of lining his pockets with money, so much about the beautiful land, about his herds multiplying and being a really major playing along the lines of Abraham that he left and moved toward Sodom and Gomorrah.  The Bible says in Genesis 13:13, “Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord.”  Lot knew this, but he moved toward Sodom.

What are you moving toward right now?  Are you moving toward that flirtatious relationship at work?  Are you moving toward a deceptive deal in business that would make you some more money?  What are you moving toward?  It is just a matter of time until  you end up doing and living what you are moving toward.  Then you will begin to hear and feel those drumbeats of Wipeout.

Well, the question that remains to be answered is this.  How do we downplay the upside while playing up the downside?  How do we do that?  We do it through building altars and building Bboards.  If you study the life of Abraham in the Bible, every time he faced a DMD he built an altar.  Every time.  He got God’s take on the situation.  He talked to God before he acted.  And we see in this text that when Lot made a DMD, he never talked to God.  He never got God’s take on it.  He just went out and acted.  Are you building altars?  Before you take that job, build an altar.  Before you walk down the wedding runner, build an altar.  Before you do business with a certain group, build an altar.  The Bible says, build altars, build altars, build altars.  God wants our decision-making batting average to go sky high.  And it can, if we build altars.

But it can’t stop there.  We also have to build Boards.  Think about any successful company.  They usually have a Board of people who help the point person, whether it be a man or a woman, in his or her decision-making ability.  And, quite frankly, I thank the Board of this church for helping me make decisions.  If I were doing the autonomous thing, I would have gotten off track from what God wanted for this church a long time ago.  But because I have a Board around me, they can help me with my blind spots.  They help me to see angles and avenues that I wouldn’t even see.  Companies do it.  Churches do it.  How about you?  If you had to, could you go home this afternoon and pick up the phone and call a personal Board of Trustees meeting for your life?  Could you?

For the last eight years, I have had a personal Board of Trustees.  I am not talking about the church now, but about a personal deal.  They have helped me so much.  I run every major decision by them, every major purchase, every major fork in the road.  It helps.  Find some people who love you for who you are.  Find some people that you have a natural affinity with.  Find some people who will speak the truth to you in love and seek their counsel.  Lot had Abraham.  What a mentor!  What an influencer!  What a difference maker!  He could have asked Abraham for his advice.  And I am sure Abraham had some great lieutenants around him.  Lot could have gotten involved with them, but he didn’t.  And he messed up.  And he ended up experiencing the upbeat and the downbeat of Wipeout.

There is something else we should do when we face a DMD.  We need to remember this.  Selfish decisions usually lead to destruction whereas unselfish decisions usually lead to life.  How then do we make unselfish decisions because those are the kind of decisions that God wants us to make?

One of my favorite things to do during football season is to listen to sport talk show.  Do you ever do that?  Talk about entertaining.  At times I have laughed so hard that I have almost wrecked my truck.  Great entertainment.  What is so amazing is that in Dallas, Texas you have people who think that they know more about football than the professional coaches and the players, the college coaches and the players and the high school coaches and the players.  They will call up and talk.  They love to talk about defense.  Defense!  “Well, I think the Cowboys need to delay a linebacker for this.  And Deion is just not doing it.  I can tell.  He wore his sweatband on his right arm instead of his left arm which is not working.”  “The University of Texas is just terrible this year.  Listen, if I was the coach I would change the whole defensive strategy.  The tackles are just not doing it.”  It goes on and on and on.  I love it.  It is hilarious.  It is great entertainment.  Wonderful.

I want to share with you a defensive strategy that will assist you in making unselfish decisions.  This is a defensive strategy that you have never heard of before.  It is called the 234 strategy.  Maybe a coach is saying, 234.  I never heard of that one.  Well before you get out your pen and begin to draw plays, I am talking about Philippians 2:3-4.  Because those verses give us the defense that will help us make these unselfish decisions.  Here is what it says.  “Do nothing out of selfish ambition….”  In other words, make no decisions, no choice, no fork-in-the-road move out of selfish ambition.  “…or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves.  Each of you should look not only to your own interests but also to the interests of others.”  Lot didn’t think about his family.  Lot didn’t think about the temptation.  Lot just thought about himself.  A selfish decision.  I have made a bunch of selfish decisions in my life.  Usually when I make them, I experience more pain than pleasure.  Some of you are nodding your heads.  You know what I am talking about.

Here is what happened.  Lot made a horrible mistake, a selfish decision.  He reasoned to himself that he could protect his family from Sodom and Gomorrah, that he could build a wall around his company.  He thought that he could take care of things that he was the strong guy.  Well, let me tell you something.  There are certain people, there are certain places and there are certain groups that you cannot hang around because the temptations are too great.  They are too great.   The Bible says that God, who was going to play Wipeout on Sodom and Gomorrah provided a way out.  Anytime God plays Wipeout; He always provides a way out.  When God was going to wipe the world out with the Noachian flood, He provided a way out with Noah and his family.  When God was going to play Wipeout on the wicked city of Nineveh, He provided a way out. Jonah’s preaching against sin and rebellion caused the people of Nineveh to repent and He spared them.  When God was going to wipe out the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, he provided a way out for those who followed Him.  When God plays Wipeout one day on the world, He has already provided a way out.  2,000 years ago He sent His son to die on the cross for our sins.  Every time God plays wipeout, He always provides a way out.

Let’s look at God’s way out.  God sent some angels to talk to Abraham.  His angels began to converse with Abraham and tell him that God will play Wipeout on Sodom and Gomorrah, that He had the sticks in His hands and that He is already behind the drum kit.  But Abraham asks God to wait because there are some righteous people there.  He began to plead with God.  He asked God to spare the cities if there were ten good people, ten followers of Him found there.  You know what God says?  “I will hold off, if there are ten to be found.”  The closer that I get to Christ, the more I am awed by His mercy and awed by His judgment.  Sadly there were not even ten righteous people in these two cities.

The angels, though, now leave and go to Lot.  God always provides a way out.  The angels walk into the city of Sodom.  Remember earlier we learned from Genesis 13 that Lot had moved toward Sodom.  Now in Genesis 18 and 19, Lot is in Sodom.  Lot was living in Sodom.  But also, Sodom was living in Lot.  He was at the city gates, meaning that he was an official, probably the mayor, of this wicked city.  When the angels walked up to him, Lot does not recognize them as angels.  The Bible says that there are angels here among us.  The Bible says that we have entertained angels without even knowing it.  No, they don’t have wings or halos.  They come in the form of different people.  I have done a whole series on angels called What In The Heavens Is Going On?  It has a lot about angels.  Are they real?  Where are they?  What are their functions?  Etc.  When the angels walked up to Lot, he was Mr. Hospitality and invited them over to his house to stay with him.  You know why Lot did that?  The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were so wicked that Lot knew that these men would be raped if they stayed somewhere else.  This is a tough message to deliver.  These are some hard words that we are going to have to deal with.  So the angels went to Lot’s house.

Let me stop here and give you something else to remember.  When you hear the distant drumbeats of Wipeout, remember that bad company corrupts good character more than good character influences bad company.  (I Corinthians15:33)  Did you hear that?  Bad company corrupts good character more than good character influences bad company.  The Bible says, do not be misled.  And every time you read that phrase, it means simply, do not be misled.  It means a lot of people are misled.  Whether you are seven or forty-seven, do not be misled.  The Bible here is referring to close personal continual associations with people.  Obviously we know a lot of people with bad character but our best and closest contacts have to be those who are Christ followers.  If they are not, we will end up like Lot, inside Sodom.  Who are your friends?  Who are the people you are intimate with, that you share your heart with?  Do they have good character or bad character.  Some are saying that their bad character friends are not going to influence them.  Oh, really?  Oh, really?

Well, the angels were hanging out in Lot’s house and it was time for bed.  The Bible said that the men of the city surrounded Lot’s house and began to say vile and vulgar things about the men.  They asked Lot to send the angels out so that they could have sex with the angels.  And to show you how far Lot had gone; you know what he told the men of the city?  “Hey, brothers.”  Brothers.  Brothers.  Lot called these people brothers.  “Hey, brothers, I have got two daughters who are virgins.  Go ahead and take them.”  Lot, what has happened to you?  You bit the bait.  You made a poor DMD.

Now fathers, I want you to imagine giving your daughters to a group of sex-crazed men for them to rape.  Are you ready for that?  The Bible says categorically, unequivocally, irrevocably that homosexuality is committing cosmic treason before God.  The Bible says that committing adultery is committing cosmic treason before God.  The Bible says that committing fornication, sex outside of marriage, is committing cosmic treason before God.  Our position toward those I just mentioned is exactly what the Bible says.  We want to build bridges to them, to the homosexual, to the adulterer, to the fornicator but also we are going to draw a line in the sand.  They are welcome here and we love them but we don’t like the sin in their lives.  We are not very far away from Sodom and Gomorrah right now in 1997 in the USA.  Billy Graham’s wife, Ruth Graham, said this.  “If God does not judge America, then He is going to have to apologize to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.”  I believe that.  I really, really do.

But miraculously, the angels being stronger than men, kept the men away.  The Bible says that they were smitten with blindness.  Then the angels told Lot that God was playing Wipeout and that he had better take his family and leave.  You know what Lot said?  “Just a second, let me warn my future sons-in-law.”  But sadly these men just looked at Lot and laughed.  “You, a follower of God, with your lifestyle.  Give me a break.”  Then the Bible says that Lot waited until dawn to leave.  The Bible says that he hesitated because he had a vested interest in Sodom.  Sodom had made him a lot of money and he was big man on campus there.  He hesitated.  Then the angels said run up to the mountains and he responded that he was in poor cardiovascular shape.  Then the angels said not to look back and Lot’s wife turned and looked back and she became a pillar of salt.

Archeologists tell us that there is an advanced civilization buried under the southern region of the Dead Sea.  Most feel it is the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.  I actually swam in the Dead Sea.  If you ever go to Israel, the Dead Sea is a wild place.  You can swim out 500 yards and you can’t sink.  There is so much salt in the water.  You just float around.  We saw some unusual objects on the shore and the tour guide told us that they were pillars of salt.  Pretty unbelievable, isn’t it.

Remember something else, though, when we hear the distant drum beats of Wipeout.  This is something that I really want you to consider and pray about.  We have got to understand that it is easier to make a fast break than a slow motion move.  Genesis 19:16.  Lot hesitated.  Genesis 19:26.  Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.  Some of you are thinking that you have a relationship that is not honoring God.  You are hesitating doing anything about it right now.  You believe that you can slowly get out of it instead of making a fast break.  Some of you are thinking that you have a situation at work that is not honoring God and that you will just slowly back away from.  Who are you trying to kid?  You have got to make and take a fast break.

A friend of mine left a six figure salary and made a fast break because the temptations were too great where he was employed.  God isn’t telling everybody to do that.  But this is what we are saying today.  The great thing about God is, every time He plays Wipeout, He always provides a way out.  What do you need to break off?  What do you need to leave?  What do you need to turn your back on without hesitating, without looking back and longing for it?

I think that all of us due to this strong message know what we should do.  Whether you are a Christian or a seeker.  We all know what we should do.  Now, let’s do it.  Let’s take Jesus to heart when He said, “Remember the story of Lot.  Remember Lot’s wife. Remember.  Remember.  Remember.”

GROWING THROUGH THE MOTIONS SERIES

MOUNTAIN OF MATURITY

ED YOUNG

AUGUST 24, 1997

I had a lot of misconceptions about climbing.  I thought that I could do it with ease.  I am in decent shape.  I am relatively strong.  But I have got to tell you something.  I was surprised at what it took to climb.  And in today’s session we are talking about climbing and not some wall at a local sporting goods store.  We are talking about climbing a mountain called maturity.

Now a lot of us have some misconceptions about this mountain, too.  We say that we are in pretty good shape, that we can climb it with ease.  I am relatively strong.  But, I have got to tell you, this mountain will surprise you because it is much more demanding, more difficult than you think.  Before we get into the how-tos of climbing the mountain of maturity, I want to share with you some misconceptions about spiritual maturity.

Remember, I am not talking about chronological maturity.  Chronological maturity might be defined as that Winabego-driving, golf-thriving, hair-thinning, Elvis-spinning, money-saving, grandbaby-raving mentality that advertises its maturity.  We are not talking about that.  We are talking about spiritual maturity.  So turn to your neighbor and say that we are talking about spiritual maturity.

The first misconception goes like this.  Maturing spiritually is our prerogative.  We think that it is our option, that we can choose to either climb or not to climb.  That line of thinking is false.  God has worked overtime, He has made it obvious that we should grow and develop and move on from infancy to adolescence and from adolescence to maturity.  The Bible says in Hebrews 6:1 that we are to go on to maturity.

You saw me in the video at REI with old Kit.  Kit had everything for me.  He had the ropes.  He had the climbing shoes.  He had the chalk for my hands.  He was telling me what to do.  And God has given us the Holy Spirit who tugs at our heartstrings.  He has given us the Bible that supports us.  He has given us brothers and sisters in Christ who are together in the local church to challenge us and applaud us as we climb and mature along this spiritual continuum.  God, Himself, is waiting for large collections of Kingdom climbers to make it to the top.  To make it more relevant, God is waiting for you.  He is waiting for you to climb like you have never climbed before because He has a great agenda for your life and my life.  He wants to use us for His redemptive purposes around the world.  We are a part of God’s plan, of His focus.  And God can only use you and me fully if we hit the wall and begin to climb the mountain of maturity.

The second misconception is that everyone climbs, everyone matures at the same rate.  Well, that is a joke.  Kit is an expert climber.  I had never climbed before.  Kit could climb five times as fast as I could ever climb.  People mature physically at different rates.  I knew people who began shaving in the sixth grade.  Others of us were late bloomers.  Spiritually speaking, we have to understand how we are wired up.  We are wired up differently.  We have to own that, to understand that and to thank God for that.  Then we have to understand how we grow.  We grow in different ways.  We climb in different ways, using different techniques.  The Bible says in Philippians 2:12, “Work out your own salvation….”  It doesn’t say work for, it says we are to work out what God through His grace has worked in.  Once Christ has infiltrated our lives, we are to work out our “…salvation with fear and trembling.”

Some of us learn better by reading.  We have got a lot of readers here.  If you learn best by reading, lift your hand.  Some of you eat books for lunch, don’t you?  Go to a Christian bookstore and buy Packer, Tozier and Lewis and just feed on them.  You might grow faster as you read.  Others of us like to listen.  We like tapes.  We are tape monsters, we feed on tapes.  Others of us would rather sing.  And we write music and sing songs of worship to God.  Still others want to write poetry to God.  Find out how you best grow.  Thank God for it.  Test the waters and begin to climb.  Just hit the wall.

There is another misconception about climbing.  We say to ourselves that climbing the mountain of maturity is easy, effortless and intuitive.  It just happens.  We just mature.  That is ludicrous.  It doesn’t just happen.  It is not easy, effortless and intuitive.  It will take every ounce of strength that we have.  It is the most difficult thing that I know in this life, growing closer to God.

Now why is it difficult?  It is difficult because the evil one, I am talking about Satan himself, will do everything in his power to impede our progress.  He will throw rocks at us.  He will try to cut the ropes.  He will step on our fingers and toes.  The evil one hates for us to grow.  And if you feel resistance as you begin to feed on God’s word, thank God for it.  That means you are doing something right.

A couple of nights ago my wife and I were sitting at our kitchen table with some dear friends having some coffee.  It was about 10:00pm.  We were watching our four cats.  We have so many cats that I have forgotten some of their names.  We have the cats because of our snake problem.  That is a whole other story.  Anyway, the largest cat Oreo was lounging about five feet away from his bowl.  We saw something that occurs frequently at our home.  We saw a big raccoon emerge from the shadows and begin to lumber toward the food bowl.  You don’t want to mess with a raccoon.  A raccoon can hurt you.  Well, he got about two feet away from the food bowl.  To my shock and amazement Oreo turned, leaped on the raccoon, clawed at it and caused it to turn with his tail between his legs and disappear.  We never realized before that we were the proud owners of an attack cat.  I was tempted to call the Discovery channel.  Our friends were going ballistic, they couldn’t believe it.  It happened again.  This time a bigger raccoon came around the side of the house toward the food.  Oreo had perched himself on the windowsill and when the raccoon got near the food, Oreo leapt from the sill and again scared the coon off.  We got tired of the raccoon show and moved the party into the den.  About thirty minutes later we heard a big ruckus.  We go outside to see what was occurring.  The raccoons had gotten smart.  Three of them had approached the food in unison.  Oreo was poised over to one side obviously thinking that three were too many to attack at once.

Spiritual growth is a lot like that little story.  We are kind of like the raccoons.  We move toward spiritual food and spiritual nourishment.  We will call the cat, Satan, and that is not a difficult parallel, is it?  Now I am just teasing.  I love cats.  I saw some cat lovers hiss at me.  If you know me well, I love animals.  No letters and cards, please.  Anyway, Satan is like the cat.  He will jump on us.  He will come from different places, using different methodologies.  But what did the raccoons do?  They bunched together, didn’t they?  And if we bunch together with brothers and sisters in Christ, in the local church, in a small group ministry, Satan is going to stay away.  He is going to sit back with his paws crossed knowing that he would have a tough time getting to us.

Another reason it is difficult to grow is because spiritual climbing is kind of a unique activity.  It is kind of odd, isn’t it, to mature spiritually?  It would be easy to mature spiritually if everybody at work was maturing spiritually.  But everybody at work is into golf and tennis and parties.  Few people are really committed to climbing the mountain of maturity.  That is one of the reasons that it is difficult.

The final reason is the DLP principle.  The DLP principle keeps a lot of people off the mountain.  It keeps us standing there watching others climb, others rappel, others fall, others get bruised knees and sunburned shoulders.  D stands for discipline.  Listen very carefully.  Discipline can be defined as delayed gratification, doing the difficult things first.  It is impossible to be a mature believer if you don’t have spiritual discipline in your life.  You cannot develop an awesome relationship with the living God by skimming and hydroplaning and talking to Him on the fly.  You have got to be regimented.  You have got to be disciplined.  We serve a God of order.  We serve a God of discipline.  He expects us to be disciplined as we get to know Him.

The L stands for loyalty.  Talk to mature people.  Mature people are loyal.  They hang in the relationship.  Even though there is a relational sticking point, they hang in there and crash through quitting points.  They break down barriers.  They hang in the local church when the going gets tough.  They hang in the vocation when things seem insurmountable.  Mature people are loyal.  They trust others.  They trust leaders.  We serve a loyal God.  Have you ever just taken a step back to consider how loyal God is to you and me?  I think about the number of times that I have disappointed God in my life.  And he is still loyal to me.  He still loves me.  I am the crown of God’s creation.  If God hadn’t made Ed Young, there would be a hole in history, a gap in His creative order.  And the same is true of you.  And that is how loyal our God is to us.  And he expects us to be loyal to others and to institutions and especially to the local church.

P stands for purity.  We are to live a pure and holy lifestyle before God.  You know a lot of people don’t talk about holiness and purity any more.  The Bible does, though.  We don’t have to be holy and pure because of arbitrary rules that God sets up to limit and stifle us and keep us from having a good time.  That is not God’s agenda.  We are to be holy and pure because we serve a holy and pure God.  It is an act of spiritual worship.  Also, it influences other people.  When I began to mature, to hit the wall and began to climb, people watch what I eat and what I don’t eat.  They watch what I drink and what I don’t drink, what I drive and what I don’t drive, where I live, where I don’t live, etc.  Regarding all those things, people are watching me.  What did you mean by that?  Why did you go there?  Why didn’t you go there?  Some of you may be saying that is because I am a pastor.  Well, yes, maybe more people might see me in that light but let me tell you something.  If you are on the wall, if you are climbing the mountain of maturity, people are watching you.  And you have no idea that they are checking you out.  They are watching you because they want to see if Christianity is for real.  You have a sphere of influence that I will never have.  You will have contacts that I will never have.  I have contacts that you will never have.  We are to live out an authentic life of maturity toward Christ before these other people.  And if we live out a pure and holy lifestyle, live out loyalty, live out discipline, it will snap the heads of unbelievers.  They will want some of what you have that they don’t have.  Some misconceptions about climbing the mountain of maturity.

Now I know that some are sitting back saying that what I am talking about is impossible.  Discipline, loyalty, purity are impossible goals.  But you see God can make it possible.  God majors in people like you and me.   He majors in people who fall and mess up, have bruised knees and sunburned shoulders trying to climb the mountain of maturity.  He knows that we are going to mess up.  That is why we have been talking about Simon Peter throughout this series.  Study the life of Simon Peter.  We can see him in infancy, then move from that to adolescence, then blast forth into maturity and begin to climb the mountain of maturity.  I love Simon Peter.  I can identify with him because he messed up and so do I, and so can you.  If God can do it through him, God can do it through you and through me.

Now let’s change gears and talk about the good stuff.  Let’s talk about the how-tos.  How do we climb the mountain of maturity?  What do we do?  First, we need to become engaged in lifelong kingdom work.  That’s right.  If we want to get serious about hitting the wall, we have got to become engaged in lifelong kingdom work.  In Matthew 4, Jesus was walking along the shores of the Sea of Galilee.  He saw a man named Simon Peter along with his brother.  They were casting their nets.  Jesus said, “Come and follow me and I will make you fishers of men.”  Matthew 4:19.  Christ was saying that they were in the fish business but that they could get in the people business through Him.  He told them that they could have a relationship with God through Him.  These two guys followed Jesus.  They changed from the fish business to the people business.  Jesus said later on that the people business would frustrate them but that the people business is worth it.  Jesus said that on the best day of the fish business you could lay your head on the pillow at night and know that you transferred a couple of hundred fish from sea to land.  But Jesus said that on the best day of the people business you will lay your head on the pillow at night and you will know that you were involved in helping to transfer a human being from hell to heaven, from confusion to hope, from despair to deliverance.  Jesus said that there is nothing like the difference-making people business.  Get into it.  Jesus is not telling you to leave your fish business.  He is saying that you can still hang in the fish business but you had better get involved in the people business if you want to know what it means to climb the mountain of maturity.

Now and then I will have infants and adolescents come up to me and say that they feel something is missing in their walk with God and they wonder what it is.  I ask them if they are in the people business, engaged in lifelong kingdom work.  Then I ask them to give me the names of people they have shared with over the last six months, of people they are mentoring, of people they are helping.

Are you in the fish business or the people business?  Now a lot of us say that we are in the fish business.  We think that we are just one haul away.  We will close a deal and get ten thousand or hundreds of thousands of fish and believe that that will give us fulfillment.  But we are still empty.  Then some here will actually make a deal in which we will haul in millions of fish.  We then expect wind in our sails but that doesn’t happen.  The only thing that will do it for you is when you get involved in lifelong kingdom work.

How?  Where?  How?  By using your unique talents.  Where?  The venue is the local church.  If your heart does not beat fast for the local church, there is no way that you can really mature in your faith.  The church is called the bride of Christ.  We are to be committed to the local church.  After our 11:15 service, I am going to teach a Newcomer’s Class.  We will give many of you an opportunity to join our church.  If you are being fed here, if you are meeting people here, if you feel that God is leading you here, we would love to have you.  Welcome to the Fellowship of Las Colinas.  But, our church is not for everybody.  If this church is not for you, that’s great because there are many fantastic churches within a fifteen-mile radius of us.  Make sure that you get involved in a church.  Join the church.  Stay committed to the church and watch what God does as you climb the mountain of maturity.

When God asked me one day, “Ed, what were you committed enough to join?”  I don’t want to have to respond that I was committed enough to join a fly-fishing club, a basketball team and a fraternity.  All those things are fine but I want to be able to answer that I was committed enough to join the most important entity to Him – the church.

The second way to mature is by maintaining a teachable and humble attitude.  Do you have a teachable spirit?  You see when I climbed, I had a teachable spirit.  I didn’t know anything about climbing.  Kit did.  I said, “Teach me, man, I don’t know anything.”  The funny thing about it is that I thought Kit would give me a long dissertation on climbing.  I thought he would give me the history of climbing, the etymology of the word climb, wisdom on the climbing shoe and lots of other stuff.  He talked to me only fifteen minutes explaining the process and then said, “OK, Ed, hit the wall.”  I said, “Already?”  He replied, “I’ll catch you if you fall.”  Information is paramount.  Information is a priority if we are going to grow and mature but we have got to just hit the wall.  We have to begin climbing.  And while we are climbing, we get information and we apply that information.  Growing up, I kind of rubbed shoulders with people who really knew the Bible.  I knew some people who had memorized vast sections of scripture.  They could quote Calvin and Luther and Aquinas like they had lunch with them yesterday.  I believed that these
people were certainly mature because they knew a lot about God’s word.  And many of them were spiritually mature but some of them knew a lot about God’s word but they didn’t know God.  We can have our craniums full to the brim with data, facts and figures.  We can even memorize the maps in the back of the Bible and still miss God.  We have got to know doctrine.  We have got to understand theology.  We also have to apply it.  Do you have a teachable spirit?  Or do you think that you have arrived on top of the mountain and that no one can teach you anything?  Have you got God in a theological box or a denominational box or your own little box?  Every box I have tried to put God into, He has gotten out of, every single one.

Old Simon Peter tried to do the same thing.  Simon Peter thought that Christianity was a Jewish thing.  And one day he was praying and you know what God said?  God said, “Hey, Simon Peter, it is not a Jewish thing, it is a people thing.”  And God challenged Simon Peter to go to the house of a non-Jew, a Roman power player named Cornelius.  And Simon Peter led Cornelius and his entire household to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ and they were all baptized that day.  They were the first non-Jew believers.  Christianity is for everybody.  Well Simon Peter thought that he had God in a box.  But God will get out of every single box that you try to put him into.  A teachable spirit.

You know, oftentimes as Christians we like to criticize others churches or other ministries.  If you criticize another church or another ministry, be very, very careful.  Because if another church or ministry is Biblically driven and Biblically based, we better not criticize.  Oftentimes we criticize the style.  When their substance is right but their style is different we think that they are kind of out to lunch.  God gives us the opportunity, ladies and gentlemen, to choose our style.  As long as something is Biblically driven we have the option with the style thing.

A couple of weeks ago Lisa and I worshipped in a church and had a great worship experience.  The service lasted 3 ½ hours.  The style that they used would not be the style that I would ever use.  But, it was a wonderful experience and I applaud what that church is doing here in our area.  Totally different than our church but they are Biblically driven.

But let me rush to say this.  There are a lot of false teachers out there.  If you are asking yourself what a false teacher is, all you have to do is turn on the television.  There are a bunch of them right there, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.  Not all TV preachers are false teachers, but there are a bunch of them.  If you have any questions about a preacher or teacher, filter them through a mature Christian.  Ask one of the pastors on our staff.  We would be happy to talk to you.

Speaking of false teachers, our three year old, Landra, walked up to Lisa this past Thursday with an ice cream sandwich.  She said, “Mommy, can I eat the ice cream sandwich?”  Lisa said, “Landra, no.  We are going to eat dinner in about 15 minutes.”  One more time Landra asked the same question and Lisa replied with the same answer.  Then Landra said, “Mommy, Jesus made the ice cream sandwich and He told me to eat it now.”  Now we all laugh at that.  But if you hear a false teacher saying that Jesus told them that they are to eat an ice cream sandwich now, watch out.  There are a lot of people like that out there.  So be very, very careful.

But along with a teachable spirit you need a spirit of humility.  What is spiritual maturity?  Is spiritual maturity coming to church with a Beaver Cleaver, Mike Brady type mentality, a perfect marriage, perfect kids and no problems?  You smile and talk about non-consequential things and you put up a false image and pretend that everything is A-OK.  You are a Larry Las Colinas or Mark and Mary Metroplex and you have got it going on.  Spiritual maturity is not propping up some image, some false and phony image.  I believe that spiritual maturity is admitting your foul-ups.  It is when you come to a problem in the marriage and you seek Christian counseling.  It is when you have problems with your teenagers, you get help.  It is when you are talking to another brother or sister in a small group here and you reveal what you are struggling with.  That is spiritual maturity.  Having a humble spirit before God.

Spiritual maturity is not looking at others when they sin and saying, “That would never happen to me.  I can’t believe what they did.”  That is not spiritual maturity.  Spiritual maturity is saying, “By the grace of God, I am disciplined, I am loyal, I am sure.  It is by the grace of God only.”  That is spiritual maturity.

Let’s talk about the third and final way to climb the mountain of maturity.  This one, I believe, is the one that will grow you and grow me faster than either of the other two I have talked about.  We have got to learn the purpose of suffering.  Part of God’s will is for us to suffer.  No, we don’t serve a masochistic God.  God allows suffering to mold us and to shape us and to grow us.  The Bible says in Romans 5:3, “We are to rejoice in our sufferings because suffering produces perseverance…”  You see suffering is pregnant!  It “…produces perseverance, character and hope.”  Triplets!  Did you know that Stan Durham, our Pastor of Music and Media, is expecting triplets?  Anyway that is a whole other story.  It is unbelievable.  We have twins and now Stan will have triplets.  Anyway, suffering produces these three things.  Have you suffered?  And what has suffering done?  Well as you begin to climb the mountain of maturity, you are going to suffer.  I suffered a little bit.  I am still sore from my outing the other day.  You are going to suffer.

This past week I took an informal poll.  I talked to a number of people who I know who are spiritually mature and I asked them this question.  “Tell me when did you grow the most, what season in your life did you grow the most?”  You know what they said?  “When we lost a child.”  “When I went through that divorce.”  “When I got knifed in the back by that so-called friend.”  “When I felt so alone for the first time in my life being away from home in a foreign city.”  That is when I grew the most, during times of suffering.  You know what Jesus said?  He said, “Take up your cross and follow Me.”  He didn’t say, take up My cross.  He wasn’t talking about a piece of wood with a string tied in the middle.  He said to take up your own cross and follow Him.  What is your cross?  Your cross could be a physical handicap.  Your cross could be a challenge that you face at work every single day.  Your cross could be a mate who is totally unfair to you most days of the week.  That could be your cross.  That could be your suffering.  Take up your cross and follow Him and realize that God is using your cross and my cross to build real stuff into us.

During times of suffering we are going to have doubts.  We are going to get angry at God.  We are going to question God.  And God welcomes our anger.  He welcomes our doubts.  He welcomes our questions.  You have got to hold onto Him.  I have gone through a season of suffering recently beginning with the sudden death of Lisa’s father six months ago.  Several other hard things have transpired and it has been very, very difficult for me recently.  I have suffered in different ways.  But I am here to tell you that due to the fact of my questioning God, due to the fact of my raising doubts, due to the fact of my asking God for direction, due to the fact that I have held onto God during this time, I have grown more, spiritually speaking, over the last six months than I have in my entire life.  In the midst of suffering, believe it or not, I can thank God for it although it has not been fun.  How about you?  Are you ready to hit the wall?  Are you ready to climb the mountain of maturity?  Are you ready?  God is ready.  He is willing.  He is able.  He can do it.  He will hold the ropes.  He will catch you when you fall.  He will give you the chalk.  He will coach you.  He will encourage you and you and you and me, as we all climb the mountain, the mountain of spiritual maturity.

STATE OF THE UNION

CHECKMATE$ – FINANCIAL HARMONY

ED YOUNG

APRIL 20, 1997

This past week Americans have talked more about finances than any other week of the year.  Why?  Because April 15 is that dreaded day when our tax returns are due.  For some reason, most of us are apprehensive about stripping before our government.  What if I could arrange for all of us to strip before this church?  What if I could show on the screen behind me, family by family, couple by couple, single adult by single adult, every check written, every item purchased, every investment made in 1996.  How would you feel about doing that?  Any volunteers?  Most of us would be horrified in disclosing such personal information.  Why?  What’s the big deal?  It is just money.  The big deal is simply this.  Our money reveals a lot about who we are.  If we could see where we have spent our money in 1996, we could tell a lot about ourselves.  We could tell if we are frugal, disciplined or extravagant.  We could discover if we really enjoy recreation in this area.  We could discover how important our cars, our clothes and our homes are to us.  We could also find out how we feel about God, couldn’t we?  We could find out if we worship God with lip service only or with the resources from our lives.

Money management.  Financial self-disclosure.  The Bible says that when two people get married, they become one flesh.  I believe that they become one spiritually, physically, relationally and also financially.  In other words, they become checkmates.  That is God’s design for your marriage and my marriage.  And when you have two self-centered sinners merging together, you have got some tension, don’t you?  Last week we talked about conflict in marriage and this week we are still going to talk about conflict in marriage, but specifically in the area of finances.  There is pressure around money.

George Gallop estimates that 56% of all divorces occur due to money matters.  Time magazine recently stated that the number one conflict in marriage has to do with arguments over dollars and cents.  We are so serious about money management, and especially as it relates to marriage, that we have dedicated an entire weekend where we talk about what the Bible says regarding money.  For far too long the church has only emphasized one aspect of money management – the tithe.  You go to church after church and they talk about giving money to the church, giving money to a building program, the first 10%.  And that is important.  I will talk about that subject briefly, but the churches miss God’s overall genius and His thought process on money management.  God, that’s right, our loving God wants to have some serious input into your finances and my finances.  But for some strange reason we like to compartmentalize our lives, don’t we?  We say that we will trust God in the spiritual domain but we will keep our financial affairs ourselves.  We say we made the money, it is our money and we will do with it as we please.  We give God our relationships, our prayer life but we keep the money to ourselves.  But God says no.  God says that He wants to have a say so in our finances.  Why?  Does God want to tyrannize and  paralyze our plans for our money?   No.  God wants to keep you and me from financial fallout and He wants us to experience financial freedom.  So having said that, I want us to look today at Proverbs because the book of Proverbs gives us God’s plan, God’s agenda for financial freedom.  So whether you make billions, millions, thousands, or hundreds this message is for you.  You have got to have a plan.  I have got to have a plan.  And the plan I am going to share with you is the plan called, the give, give, live plan.  Look at your outlines at the first verse.  Proverbs 21:5, “The plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.”  The Bible says that the plans of the diligent lead to profit as surely as haste leads to poverty.  I would agree with that, wouldn’t you?

Fill in the first line with the word Give.  Give God 10%.  When I am paid and when you are paid, the first thing that we are to do is write a check out to a local house of worship.  We are to give the first fruits of our income to the Lord.  Proverbs 3:9-10.  “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the leftovers of all of your crops…..”   Let me read that again.  “Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all of your crops….”  Not some, all.  People ask me sometimes, “Ed, I am really wondering about this.  Should I tithe on the net or the gross?”   And I say, “Well, let me ask you a question.  Do you want God to bless the net or the gross?  It is your choice.”  “Honor the Lord with  your wealth, with the first fruits of all of your crops; then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will brim over with new wine.”  God says that if you give a minimum worship offering to Him,  that would be 10%, that He will take care of you.  He will supernaturally intervene in your finances.  If you don’t, if you withhold what is rightfully His, you are on your own financially speaking.

Why should we give to God.  Three quick reasons.  First, when we give it is a reminder of the past.  I am remembering that God made me, He fashioned me, He gave me the ability to earn money and I am thanking Him for that.  It is also a reminder of the present, that I am daily dependent upon Him, His mercy, His grace and His guidance.  It is also a gift for the future, that I am allowing God by giving to Him to supernaturally come in and intervene in my money management.  God says to give the first 10% to Him.  Lisa and I have been doing this for the last 15 years of our marriage and God has richly blessed our lives.  Never give due to coercion, never give because you are feeling forced to give.  Give out of joy and out of love and out of gratitude to God.  Give 10% to God.

The second give.  Give 10% to yourself.  I give God 10%, then I give 10% to myself.  Save 10%.  That is giving it to yourself.  And put this 10% in some sort of investment, a conservative investment that will make money for you, an interest-bearing account.  We move on to Proverbs 13:11.  “…he who gathers money little by little makes it grow.”  Little by little, we make it grow.  The book of Proverbs also talks about the ant.  We have no problem seeing ants around here, living as we do in Texas.  Fire ants are all around us.  Fire ants work.  They store stuff all the time.  And this is the picture of someone who saves money.  Saving money is different than spending money.  Let me illustrate.  If you walk in, ladies, and say, “Honey, I saved $100 on this coat, how do you like it?”  That is not saving money.  Saving money would be if the store put $100 in this interest-bearing account.  Saving money is keeping money close to you, like in your wallet or in your purse.  It is not allowing the money to leave you.  So technically, you are not saving money when you buy that boat, men, even though you say that you have saved $2,000.  He who gathers money little by little makes it grow.  So give God 10% and put 10% in a savings account and everything is going well.  Here is what happens.  Here is the result of saving money.  First I learn to live on a margin.  I am living on 80%.  Secondly, I learn commitment.  This is a value that God wants us to live by.  The world says to save money for security.  God says to save money for stewardship.

I also save money because it has a great payoff.  There are some financial benefits.  Look at the screen behind me.  Let’s say, for example, you are 20 years of age and you make $20,000 a year.  Let’s say, hypothetically, that you make $20,000 a year for 20 years.  Your boss never gives you one raise for 20 years.  Let’s say that you hear this message and you apply the give, give, live formula and you give 10% to the local church.  Over the next 20 years, you will have given $40,000 to the local church.  OK.  You have done that.  You write the first check to God.  Everything is fine.  Now, you write a second check to yourself.  You put it in an interest-bearing account.  Let’s just say that you make 8% on your money for 20 years.  How much money do you think you will have in this little nestegg after 20 years?  Whisper it to your neighbor.  I’ll tell you $98,845.82.  You are talking about a big nestegg.  That nestegg is so big a bird can’t sit on it.         OK, now let’s say that you are 30 years of age and making $50,000 a year for 20 years.  Again the boss says, no raise.  Let’s say that you say, “That’s cool.”, and you give 10% to God.  Look what happens.  You have given $100,000 to God’s work over 20 years.  How much money do you think you will have in your interest-bearing account at 8%?  You will have $247,114.50.   I direct you back to this verse.  He who gathers money little by little makes it grow.  Next slide.  Now you are 40 years old and you are knocking down $100,000 a year.  You tithe and here is what you give to the local church.  $200,000.  Your interest bearing account will have $330,659.54.  There is a payoff.  There is a serious payoff!  Give, give and the third one is live.  We live on the rest.

Look at Proverbs 27:23.  “Be sure to know the condition of your flocks, give careful attention to your herds.”  Now, I doubt seriously that very many of us have flocks.  I have a flock of kids, but no livestock.  Maybe some of you do.  Here, though, Proverbs is referring to your finances.  That was how they measured financial resources back in Biblical times.  And by the way, Proverbs was penned by a man named Solomon.  Solomon was the wealthiest man who ever walked this planet.  He was a brilliant gentlemen.  One day, we will do a series on the life of Solomon.  I call Solomon God’s solo man.  He had everything going for him but then he just got off into never never land and his life was never the same.  Anyway, he says, be sure to know the condition of your flocks and to give careful attention to your herds.  Know what you own, know what you owe, know where your money is going.  You have got to have a plan, Solomon says.  And look back at this outline, give, give, live.  If I give to God that is a gift of faith.  I am investing in things of faith.  If I give to myself, it is an investment in the future.  And if I live on the rest, that 80%, I am financially free.  Just free and there is nothing like that.  If every man, woman, child said that they were going to obey this principle and live by this plan for the rest of their existence, then I could say, “Let’s all go home and just relax and enjoy this beautiful day.”  Wouldn’t it be fun to do that?  I wish it were that easy but it is not.  What happens to us?  We have a difficult time staying with this plan.  Do you know why?  Because most of us have this budget busting urge to splurge.  These are powerful urges and I wish I could tell you as your pastor that I am above and beyond these urges but I am not.  I have financial weaknesses here and there.

You know I wish the Bible were a straightforward book.  I say that facetiously.  Look at Proverbs 21:20.  “…stupid people spend their money as fast as they get it.”  You talk about getting in your face.  Stupid people spend their money as fast as they get it.  I want to show you six ways to totally blow holes in your budget, to totally ruin and wreck God’s give, give, live plan.  I call these six stupid spenders.  And maybe you will see yourself in one of these.  The first stupid spender is the blue light special spender.  Growing up in Columbia, South Carolina, the largest store for miles around was K-Mart.  I loved K-Mart and I still do.  I have fond memories of myself as a boy shopping in their sporting goods department for my fishing stuff.  The manager’s voice would come over the intercom, “Attention K-Mart shoppers, attention K-Mart shoppers.  We have got a blue light special on blenders.  A blue light special on blenders.”  And that blue light would be reflecting all over the store.  And suddenly from the four corners of K-Mart, frenzied females would come pushing their carts at Nascar speed and they would start impulsively buying these blenders.  I knew, even as a kid, that most of these people didn’t need the blenders.  They were just caught up in impulse buying.  Buy, buy, buy, buy, buy.  Have you ever impulse shopped?  I have.  The University of Southern California says that 9 out of 10 Americans shop impulsively.

Why do we do this?   We do it because of the media monster that looms large.  Advertisements, for the most part, only talk about one aspect of the truth.  The thrill of new threads, the shine of that new car.  The sensation of acquisition.  Do you know what I am talking about?  And we buy into this and believe this and we don’t think about the reality of the product.  We don’t think about payment books as thick as this Bible right here.  We don’t think about all the money it will take to pay for this item we just impulsively bought.  Another reason that we have a tough time with our spending is due to those plastic piranhas, those credit cards.  If you would, please take out a credit card from your wallet and just hold it up.  Credit cards are really interesting because they come in an array of colors.  Our names are engraved on them.  They tell us how long we have been a part of the club.  And for some reason we don’t think that plastic money is real money.  Flash them around for a second.  See, aren’t they pretty?  And when we pay with credit cards it is kind of a painless thing.  The sales clerk just takes it and runs it through a computer, gives it back to us and we sign it and thank her for her help.  We think that everything is A-OK until we walk out to the mailbox.  We get the bill and have a financial chill.  Are you a budget-busting blue light spender?

The second stupid spender is someone that I call a vacuum spender.  I am talking about that Rainbow vacuum spender.  You see there is a vacuum in your life because you have an unmet need.  And because of your unmet need, you buy things.  You buy new clothes, a new car.  You travel to a new vacation destination.  The problem is that when the clothes get wrinkled and the car gets dings on the door, you still have the unmet need that you are dealing with, that lonliness, that emptiness.  The vacuum spender is a sad person.  Usually it is a vicious cycle of dealing with the feelings and then trying to mask them and cover them by buying things.  If you are a vacuum spender, talk to a trusted friend about it.  Seek some counseling from a pastor or a Christian counselor and it will serve you well.

The third stupid spender is the in-your-face spender.  This revenge, in-your-face spender is kind of funny.  Let me give you an example.  Let’s say that a gentleman is driving ‘85 Cutlass.  He has driven this car for a long, long time.  The car is ugly.  I am talking about U G L Y.  And one day he happens to pass by a BMW dealership and sees a beautiful foreign car and decides that he is going to get revenge on the Cutlass.  He decides to buy a BMW at once and have it go right in the face of the Cutlass.  And he signs up for the BMW.  The payments are going to last for five years.  But he thinks that he got revenge on the Cutlass.  He lived a pretty frugal life but then one day he just freaked out.

Then we have the recreational spender.  That is the fourth spender.  The recreational spender is someone who has free time and they decide that since they have free time they will just go to the mall.  They go to NorthPark, Irving Mall, Vista Ridge.  They have time to shop and so will go and spend some money.  If you have that much time, please come by our church office.  We have so very many tasks for you to get involved in.  Then you will be able to use your gifts and abilities in the ministry.  Recreational spenders.

Another spender, the fifth, is the image spender.  I know that we don’t have any image spenders here in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area, do we?  You have to buy a certain watch because your peers wear that watch.  You have got to have your yard landscaped like your neighbors.  The list goes on and on.  But the moment you get that watch, the moment you landscape the yard,  someone else has something better and nicer and newer.  It is a formula for frustration.  You will never get up to the Jones.  You see a lot of us are too worried about status.  I define the word status as keeping stats on us.  God doesn’t do that and you shouldn’t do it either.  God wants you to be content.  That is being peaceful and joyful at where you are.  It is not being lethargic or laid back.  It is being goal oriented and visionary.  Just say, “God, I thank you for where I am right now.  If I remain in this state for the rest of my life, I praise You and I love You.”

The sixth stupid spender is the special interest spender.  This is the person who stays by the budget for the most part.  But then the person has a weakness.  It could be antiques.  It could be hunting.  It could be even fly fishing.  You just blow the budget when you are around these certain items.  You are pretty conservative and all of a sudden when you see something that your really like, whoom, you are on it.

Do you see yourself in any of these?  I see myself in some of them.  Well here is the remedy for stupid spenders.  The remedy is to live by the give, give, live plan.  Now I want to give you some practical steps to jot down on how to do that.

1. Make your finances a joint decision, please.  Don’t keep your spouse in the dark.  Don’t pull the wool over their eyes and say, “OK, I am going to take care of the finances and I am not going to show you what is going on financially speaking.”  That is wrong.  That is a sin.  You need to fully disclose where you are financially with your husband or your wife.  Do that.  If you don’t do it, you are really messing up.  You are going to cause some problems and tension in your marriage.
2. Set some goals.  Set some goals in spending.  Set some goals in saving.  Set some goals in giving.  Set goals financially.
3. Pray about your finances.  Sit down with your spouse and say, “Honey, let’s pray about this.”  Pray a prayer like this.  “God you have given us everything.  And we want to become good stewards of your money.  We are here just to manage it for awhile.  Help us and show us what to do Biblically speaking in our finances. “
4. Learn as much as you can about Biblical money management.  You know, for years Christian financial consultants have been talking about the 10,10,80 plan.  Give 10 to God, give 10 to yourself and live on the rest.  We are very serious about money management here at the Fellowship of Las Colinas.  We teach, regularly, a financial freedom seminar.  Our next one will be on April 29 at 7pm in Room 700.  It will be taught by our Business Administration Pastor.  We will provide you with many helpful facts and money management techniques.  For example, if you are having trouble with credit cards, you have two options.  Either cut them up or pay them off every month.  That is just one example.  We want you to become a great money manager.  But don’t leave this service and say that the goal is for you to become financially free.  Yes, it is a goal but it is not the ultimate goal.  If you think that is the ultimate goal, you have missed it.  Financial freedom is a goal, but the ultimate goal is having the time, the energy and being out of bondage financially so that you can better love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, strength, body and you can better love your neighbor as yourself.  We want to get financially free so that we can use our gifts to better serve God.

So how about it?  How about it?  Become checkmates.  Become one financially speaking and God will free you up to be used by Him in a way that can revolutionize your generation.