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ineed2change

The Hokey Pokey

By Ed Young

September 6, 2015

“To change” means “to make the form, nature, content, future course, etc., of something different from what it is.” God wants us all to experience His kind of change, because that is the kind of change that brings about the greatest purpose and potential in our lives. But the questions we all ask are, “How can I change?” and “What do I need to change?”

In this message, Pastor Ed Young unpacks a key verse of Scripture. This lesson, when we apply to our daily lives, not only shows us what to change, but also how to implement the kind of change that will get us going in the right direction. Sometimes, it’s just about putting our whole selves into the right thing!

Transcripts:

<video of Justin Gould’s life story>

The family is the cornerstone of who we are.  More than any other force it shapes our attitude, our hopes, our ambitions, and our values. 

Justin: I was born and raised in Houston, Texas.  I was two years old and my mom and dad got divorced.  Dad wasn’t around in the picture at all.  Growing up in my household we had a single mom of 3 kids.  It was organized chaos.  She got married, had twin sisters, and my mom and her husband at the time were married for several years.  During that time we started going to a church down in the Houston area.  Eight years old, the preacher was up there and was like, hey, if you want to ask Jesus into your life you can say this right here.  So I did that.  I got baptized and probably about six months later my mom and her husband at the time got divorced and that was pretty much the end of our church history.  My mom just continued to find herself in these relationships with these different guys.  There’d be a boyfriend for a few weeks.  He would move in and then he would move out.  And then another guy would move in and then they’d get married and she’d divorced.  And just kind of this cycle of relationship after relationship after relationship.  And I remember there was one time my mom was dating a guy.  They ended up breaking up and it messed her up so bad that I get a phone call from somebody saying, hey, your mom’s going to the hospital.  My mom swallows who-knows-how-many Tylenol, like basically tries to kill herself. 

Really all along with these different relationships, these guys that would move in and move out, I got really jaded.  I didn’t have a clue what a healthy marriage looked like, much less a Godly marriage.  That didn’t even make sense to me. 

Sixteen years old, fast-forward through junior high, through high school.  I dropped out of high school for about a year.  I didn’t really do anything.  I woke up one day, I was 17 years old, and I just started thinking to myself there’s got to be more to my life than this.  When I started going to a junior college my dad and I reconnected.

Dad: It was a shock.  I mean, you get a phone call and there’s this man on the telephone and it’s your son.  The last time you saw him he was this tall.  There’s no way to explain it.

Justin: So I show up at my dad’s house and I realize I’ve got a 10-year-old brother that I had no clue was even around.  He was the little brother I didn’t have growing up and all of a sudden we were, like, inseparable.  We spent weekends together, week days together, week nights together.  We just spent a lot, a lot of time together.  It really just continued through college.  So I was working, going through college.  There was a guy down the hallway named Joe and I kinda heard Joe talking to some guys and telling him that his parents were gonna buy him a house.

Joe: Oddly enough we had an extra room come available in our house.  We said, “Hey man, we’ve got an extra room.  You wanna move in with us?”

Justin:  It was like, “Yes, absolutely.  I’m in!”  So I moved in with Joe and then I find out that Joe’s going to Fellowship and he starts inviting me.

Joe:  Week after week we were telling Justin, “Man, this is not your normal church.  It’s a great experience.”  And time after time and time we would invite him. 

Justin:  And I’d tell him, “Listen, I’m good.  I’m OK.  I don’t need to go to church right now.”  I ended up graduating college down the road and I was actually working for my little brother’s mom.  Now at this point he’s probably 15-16 years old and it’s Beth, my little brother’s mom, calling me up.  And she is absolutely hysterical.  I was like, “What is going on right now?”  And my little brother had struggled in school with his grades and some behavior things, just I think normal teenage things.  And she tells me that Brandon had committed suicide. 

Just even thinking about it right now, being thankful for those years that we had together….. um… yeah. 

I remember the weeks and even months after that being really mad at God.  I remember thinking to myself, God you could have stopped this and you didn’t.  And my friend, Joe, my college roommate, Joe, just continued to be there, support and encourage.  He just continued to invite me to the church.  And at this point in my life I was like, you know what?  The last thing that I need to do is go to church.  I’m gonna go drink.  I may go do that.  I may go party like a rock star.  I may feel bad tomorrow physically but I’m gonna forget about what’s going on right now.  So I did that for months.  For months and months.  I’d drive home from work just drunk sometimes.  And I remember thinking to myself I had to get out of there because what I was doing was not working for me.  I realized at that point in my life that I needed a change.  Joe continued to invite me to Fellowship.

Joe:  Week after week we were telling Justin, man this is not your normal church.  And we just kept bragging over and over about the music and Ed and the message.  Time after time and time we would invite him.

Justin: At that point in my life, knowing that something needed to change, I remember thinking to myself, maybe I’ll go to Fellowship Church tomorrow.  Sunday morning, about 9:00 my dad calls me.  He goes, “Hey son, what are you doing?”  I said, “I’m about to go to church.”  He said, “You’re about to do what?”  I said, “I’m about to go to church.”  He goes, “Why in the heck are you going to church?  Like, do you want to come make some money?”  And I told my dad these exact words.  I said, “Dad, as much as I need money right now I need to go to church more.”

Dad:  It shocked me because he wasn’t a church person at that particular point in time but something in his mind told him that this is where he needed to go rather than to go to work and pick up some money where he could go drinking and party again.  That night he needed to go to church.   And from the day he walked in that door till now it changed his life.

Justin:  I’ll never forget walking in here.  It was like the people were so friendly.  The service starts and now it’s like, you’ve got this light show going on.  You’ve got this music that I can connect with.  And then Pastor Ed takes the stage and probably for the first time in my life I was able to listen to a message that was applicable and relevant to exactly where I was.  Towards the end of the message Pastor Ed was just giving people an opportunity to respond to Jesus, to accept him, you know invite him into your life.  I remember him saying, “You know, you’ve tried everything your way.  And if you’re honest, it’s not working.”

Ed:  I mean, you’ve tried everything else.  You’re a risk taker, right?  Try this, try that.  Why not try Jesus Christ?  Because the only time we’re assured of is now.  Is now.

Justin:  And that was me.  I was at a point where again, my way wasn’t working and I knew it.  And so I prayed that prayer with Pastor Ed, recommitted my life to Christ, and from that day forward tried to live my life as best I could in a way that would please God.

I get a phone call one day from a guy that I’d met here at the church.  He’d become a friend of mine and he just asked me if I could be a trainer for one of our camps.  And I had the time to take off so I said sure.  I went out there to Allaso and during that time I remember feeling like God was trying to move me somewhere.  So I come back from Allaso Ranch and I was approached by somebody on staff.  And they asked me the question, “Hey Justin, have you ever thought about coming on staff at the church?”  And I remember praying, “God, I don’t care where you want me, just show me where you want me.”  I’m now a pastor at Fellowship Church.  Jesus said, “I’ve come that you may have life and have it to the full.”  And I remember hearing Pastor Ed talk about, listen, if God could show you the plan that he has for your life right now it would blow your mind.  I mean, I’ve met amazing friends here.  I met my wife at our church. 

Jennifer:  He was talking to someone recently and he was telling them, man, I’m so nervous to get married!  And I said, “You never told me that.  Why are you nervous to get married.”  And he said well because all he’s ever seen are marriages that have failed and haven’t worked out.  So he said, “I was nervous to do things God’s way and step into something that was unknown territory.”

Justin:  I think as I look back to that moment of being scared to ask Jennifer to marry me to where we are right now.  It’s cool to think about, you know, just what Jesus can do in our lives and in our marriage.

Jennifer:  I’m so thankful for him that I have him to talk to and go to.  I couldn’t ask for a better husband, somebody that just loves me unconditionally.  He sees exactly all the things and all the mess-ups in my life and he still loves me.  And it really is a true picture of how Jesus loves us.

Justin:  As I think about my family my kids’ lives will be different because of Fellowship Church and what Jesus is gonna do in their life.  There is not a question in my mind.  I’m a better man, I’m a better father, I’m a better husband, I’m a better pastor because of Jesus, because of Pastor Ed and Lisa, and because of Fellowship Church. 

<end of video>

Welcome to Fellowship!  I’m Ed, I’m pastor of fellowship, and I’m broadcasting from our incredibly magnificent campus in the Magic City, Miami, Florida.  So if you find yourself at Grapevine, Dallas, Allaso Ranch, Fort Worth, Keller/Southlake, Allen, London, Fellowshiplive.com.  We have people watching from the UK, from Asia, from the Middle East, welcome to Fellowship.

Now next weekend you don’t want to miss it.  I’m beginning a brand new series called Quarterback.  Tony Room, you’ve heard of him, the quarterback of America’s team they call the Cowboys, will be talking and it’s gonna be really cool.  The next week, Troy Aikman.  Hall of Famer, probably the best analyst in the game today, Super Bowl winner, etc.  Then, Ryan Tannehill from the Miami Dolphins will be our guest!  It’s gonna be fun.  It’s gonna be fun.

You remember back in the day when roller skating was popular?  Remember that?  You would roller skate and hopefully you’d try to find someone that you kind of liked.  A ubiquitous manager would come on the loudspeaker, “Couples only.  Couples only.”  And you would take the hand, guys, of that cute girl and your hand would sweat.  And you were, like, worried.  You’d try to look real cool.  Then the guy would say, “OK, everyone make a big circle in the middle of the rink.  Put your right foot in, put your right foot out, put your right foot in, and you shake it all about.  You do the Hokey Pokey and you turn yourself around.  That’s what it’s all about!”  You remember that?  Yeah.  I love that song.

When it comes to today’s subject matter, change, I think a lot of us think that’s the way it is.  I think when it comes to change, especially when we think about God changing our lives.  We sort of do that same little dance.  I’ll put my right foot in, I’ll put my right foot out, I’ll put my right foot in and I’ll shake it all about.  God, I’ll do the Hokey Pokey, I’ll turn myself around, wow!  That’s what change is all about!

I wish… I wish it was that simple, but it’s not.  Change – I’m talking about significant change, supernatural change – change is tough.  It’s difficult.  Walking with Jesus is not easy.  It’s adventuresome, it’s exciting.  I call it a brutiful life.  There’s a brutal side to it and a beautiful side to it.  As Justin said in the video we’re hardwired, we’re designed to live by God’s way.  If we try to live our way it’ll work for a while but basically it’s like we’re on an elevator, descending, when we do it our way.  We don’t realize it but we push the down button.  The music is playing, elevator music.  We’re looking at ourselves in the mirror, maybe flexing or fixing our hair.  We have no idea when we go our way that we’re descending.  The elevator, though, will hit bottom.  Change begins when we put down the shovel.  Change begins when we say, God, I can’t change.  I believe you are all about change.  So on one hand God doesn’t change.  Yet when he comes inside of our lives, when he redecorates our lives, he changes us from the inside, out.  But we have to invite him in from the outside, on the inside.  He redecorates, he just re-orchestrates our entire lives.

Do you like to watch those shows on television?  The fixer-uppers?  The flipping houses, they’re doing this and doing that.  Every single couple when they see their new house, their new bathroom or bedroom… “Oh my gosh!”  It should be called Oh My Gosh!  Oh my gosh!  And it doesn’t cost that much on television.  It looks easy on television. Yeah, there’s some drama but that’s basically it.

Lisa and I have had the opportunity to redecorate and reorder and change some houses over the years.  There are several things I’ve learned.  #1 – It costs a heck of a lot more than they tell you.  Yeah, I can see you even at the other campuses.  Yeah, you’re right.  It costs more and it takes longer and it’s messy.  It’s not easy.

I become a Christian by making a trust step.  God, you’re God and I’m not.  God, you’re sovereign, I’m not.  I come to a point in my life where I realize like we saw in the video, you know what?  My way doesn’t work.  God, I’m gonna try your way.  I trust you.

You might be saying, “Ed, I don’t have enough faith to make that trust step.”  Jesus said even if you can muster up the faith of a mustard seed, Christ… I, Jesus said, will come into your life, redecorate and reorder your life.  We’re in the Christian life by taking a step.  The Bible says we’re adopted into the family of God.  And one of the cool things about the word ‘adoption’ is in the Biblical context an adopted child could not be disowned.  A biological one could be disowned.  So in the New Testament when it talks about what happens when we become Christians it says that we are adopted.  We’re born again.

Well as a little baby what do we want to do?  Well, we have this desire to walk.  As a little baby, what do our parents want us to do?  Take that first step!  You know, we’re videoing everything and we’re watching it and one step!  Whoa.  Another step… boom!  We fall on our butt.  Maybe some more steps one day… whoomp!  We hit some furniture.  A little boo-boo.  Wise parents help, they entice, we coach our kids.  Our kids begin to walk and then they begin to skip and then they begin to run and we’re like… we’ve done our job!

That’s what I love about Fellowship.  We have a lot of mature believers, a lot of spiritual parents who helped those walk.  Babies are being born again into the family of God.  The first step, the second step, and we’re helping them.  There’s some bumps and some bruises.  That’s the change process.

What is change?  Change is becoming different. What is change?  Write this down.  Change is an accumulation of choices.  That’s what change is.  Everyone should have a message map.  Have your message map ready.  You were given a message map when you walked in.  You’ve got some blanks.  Three big, monstrous blanks.  And the blanks are saying, “Fill me in!  Fill me in!  Please fill me in!  Please fill me in!”  so take out some writing instrument and write this phrase down.  Change (in the margin) is an accumulation of choices.  But here is the phrase that pays.  My perspective (that’s the first blank) and priorities determine my purpose.  My perspective and my priorities determine my purpose.  You want change?  You want lasting change?  I do.  What do you need to change in your life?  It could be an anger problem.  It could be a hurtful habit.  It could be a drug issue, could be an alcohol issue, could be a lust issue.  Who knows what it is?  I don’t know.  Some of you are thinking I want to change my spouse.  No, think about you.  Think about your perspective, think about your priorities, and think about the purpose.  That’s what we’re gonna talk about.  That’s where lasting change comes into being.  We take that first step, we’re followers of Christ.  It’s not just – “put your right foot in…”  No.  It’s more than that.  It’s more than that.

The Bible says in the book of Proverbs, chapter 3, verses 5-6.  It gives us the recipe for change.  It says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart.”  Say that with me.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart.  So even if you can muster up just mustard seed faith that’s all the faith you need for Jesus to infiltrate your life.  And I’m a pastor.  Certain times I have more faith than others.  That’s just the way it is.  “Well, I want certainty, man!”  You’re never gonna have certainty.  With certainty there’s no faith.  You’ve got to have some uncertainty in your life.  We’re not certain about anything.  How do we know our heart will beat its next beat?  How do we know we’ll breathe?  How do we know we’ll make it home?  I mean nothing is certain.   God says trust me.  Trust me!  So trust in the Lord with all of your heart.  With the totality of who you are.

“Wait a minute, Ed.  Do I have to check my intellect at the door?  Do I have to dumb down to become a believer?”  No, no, no, no.  Rest your intellect on the intellect of God.  God, you’re God.  I’m not.  God wants us to use our minds.  He wants us to think.  Yet God’s ways are higher than our ways.  It’s like Google Earth.  You know, I’ve lived in a lot of places.  When I was a kid I lived in Canton, North Carolina, in the Smoky Mountains right near Asheville.  You might have heard of Asheville.  I lived on a street called Poplar Street.  And a while back, about a month ago, I got on Google Earth and I typed in my address and I saw the house where I learned how to ride a bike in the driveway.  I could see that.  I learned how to shoot a layup.  I got stung by a bunch of bees and almost lost my life.  I was like, whoa!  I’m back on Poplar Street in Canton, North Carolina!  Then I zoomed out.  You’ve done this before.  There’s little Canton, population 6,423.  Boom!  North Carolina.  Boom!  America.  Then the world!  Perspective!  Whoa.  When I live by my perspective I’m just cruising around Poplar Street, seeing where I got stung by some bees.  I learned how to shoot a layup and I learned how to ride a bike.  That’s about the knowledge I have.  Yet, when I say, God, I trust you.  All of a sudden I zoom out and look at my perspective!  Wow.  My perspective on marriage, my perspective on dating, my perspective on friendships, my perspective with my emotions, my perspective with my habits.  My perspective is changed.

Now there’s a parallel verse because trust in the Lord is all about change.  Because when I trust in the Lord I’m saying I don’t trust myself.  I can’t change.  God, you’re all about change.  And sometimes we have to pray the prayer, “trust in the Lord,” every second.  Yet Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform.”  In other words, do not let the world change you into its mold. That’s what it means in its original language.  “But be transformed.”  Be changed.  The word transformed is from the word metamorphosis.  “By the renewing of your… of your… of your…. Of your… mind!”  Yeah!  The brain is the battlefield.  The brainlefield.  It’s all about the brain.

So if I think right, I’ll feel right.  If I feel right I’m gonna act right.  If I think wrong I’ll feel wrong.  If I feel wrong, I’ll act wrong.  I trust God, I’m gonna do what he wants me to do.  I’ll have a unique perspective.  I’ll be able to recognize priorities and follow his purpose.  If I don’t – wow.  I’ll have a limited perspective.  My priorities will just be what’s out there, wherever, whatever.  I’ll just kind of go with my heart, which sounds so sexy but it’s so stupid.  And then I’ll never discover the purpose God has for my life.  Trust in the Lord with all of your heart.

“Well, that’s what everyone says, Ed.  Go with your heart!”  In that relationship – go with your heart.  With that job opportunity – go with your heart.  That’s stupid!  If I went with my heart all the time I’d be all messed up.  I’ve tried that before.  It doesn’t work.  So don’t trust your heart, trust God with your heart.  Trust God with your heart!  Because God will speak to you through his word.  His priorities are already written down. His will for you, his purpose for your life and mine is already in black and white!  We just need to live it out, man!  Gotta just walk it out.

When I change, when God changes my life, there’s gonna be conflict.  Most of us resist change because of the resistance.  We change.  God change my life.  I can’t change, God.  You change my life.  There’s gonna be conflict.  And if we stay with the change, if we diesel through conflict there’s gonna be growth.  Change, conflict, growth.  It’s called the spin cycle of the purpose of God.  Make any change, any God-driven change, it’ll happen.

Well the text continues.  It says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart…” then it says a negative.  So it starts with a positive, trust in the Lord with all your heart.  Here’s the negative: “…and lean not on your own understanding.”  If I have my own understanding I’m gonna be led by pride, my program, my plan.  I’m gonna do what I’m gonna do, God.  Remember, when we do that the elevator is gonna hit the bottom.  So it’s time to push the emergency stop button.  It’s time to put the shovel down and say, “God, my way doesn’t work.  I trust that your way works.  I’m not gonna lean on my intellect, that’s just carnal confidence.  I’m gonna lean on Spirit-led Godfidence.  I trust in you.”  Lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways… in ALL your ways (that’s priorities, man… or woman) acknowledge him.”  This word acknowledge in the Hebrew is pronounced yada.  Say yada with me.  You’re speaking Hebrew!  It means to know.  To know.  In all my ways acknowledge God, to know God, and he will keep my paths straight.  This perspective will give me the discernment to see God’s priorities for my life.

I wrote a book, I highly recommend it, called Kid CEO.  People would tell me, wow, Ed!  That concept of the book is revolutionary in my family.  It’s revolutionary in my marriage!  And I’m like, I appreciate it.  I’m just writing what God says about it.  I’m just ripping off God.  Well here’s what’s so unique about it.  Our world says (our world’s intellect) it’s about the kids.  That’s what the world says when it comes to families.  Kids-kids-kids-kids first.  Sounds sexy.  It’s not what the Bible says.  You will not find anywhere in the Bible where God says it’s about the kids.  It’s not in there.  Obviously we would give our lives for our kids.  The Bible says, though, it’s about the marriage.  It tells us to love our spouse like Jesus loves us.  It never says that about parents loving their kids that way.  So in other words if you want to become a great parent it starts with marriage.  Keeping your marriage (this is not easy), keeping your marriage as the top priority in the family unit.  So goes the marriage, so goes the kids.  Kid CEO.  Spouses stay, kids leave.

Here’s what happens.  We revolve our lives around our kids, we turn our backs on our spouses, and all of a sudden they graduate from high school.  We look over at our spouse.  Who in the heck are you?  God’s way works.  You’re gonna have to fight for that date night!  You’re gonna have to fight to put the kids down not when they’re ready, when you’re ready!  It’ll change your life.  God’s way.

How about tithing?  Are you kidding me, God?  Ten percent is yours?  What?  That doesn’t seem right!  Intellectually, financially… what?  God says, “trust me.”  God even says, “Test me.”  Thirty-three years ago Lisa and I began doing this.  Our biggest investment, I’ll say it, is at Fellowship Church.  When we were barely getting by it was our biggest investment.  And now we do well, it’s our biggest investment.  God’s way works!  I still, like… we give more than 10% now.  What?  10?  What am I doing?  I trust you, God.  I trust you, God!  See, God’s ways are unique.  I had no idea that God would take me and take so many of you places that he’s taken us.  It’s because of the purpose of God.  It’s because of his perspective and his priorities.

Think about church.  I mean, church is the body of Christ.  It’s the heartbeat of who Jesus is.  And Scripture says about the church, for example, in Matthew 16:18 it says, “And I tell you (he’s talking to Simon Peter) on this rock (I just happen to have a rock) I’ll build my church.”  Matthew 7:24, you’ll see it in your outline, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who builds his house on the (say it with me) rock.”  On the rock.  Jesus is the rock.  The body of Christ is the church.  And we have this opportunity to be a part of the church.

Here’s something you could put on social media.  I wrote this down.  I hope you follow me on social media.  If you don’t, start doing it.  I don’t need any more followers, I got a bunch of those, but it does tell you about my life and what Fellowship Church is about so, you know.  Here’s one. I love this.  “Seven days without church makes one weak.”  It’s convicting.  How about this?  “Many services, many changes.  Few services, few changes.”  Hmm.  “People who don’t go to church don’t hear about what happens to people who don’t go to church.”

My perspective:  I trust you, God.  My priorities: In all your ways, in all your ways, acknowledge him.  God you’re God.  I’m not.  You’re sovereign.  I’m not.  And then my purpose:  He will direct your path.  How awesome is that?  God said, I have a purpose for you.  Justin and Jennifer talked about it.  I mean if we could see God’s purpose we’d fall flat on our face.  Once again, it’s just that amazing.  But it’s about the rock.  The rock.

This is your life.  You’re a container.  I’m a container.  You know what the Bible says?  The Bible says that I’m a container, you’re a container, for the Holy Spirit of God.  Everybody is.  we make the choice as far as what we’re gonna fill it up with.  Now some of us just fill it up with sand.  This is South Beach sand.  Sorry to those folks in Dallas, Fort Worth.  South Beach sand.  Woo-hoo!  It’s not sand from some lake or pond or some reservoir.  No, no, no.  South Beach sand!  Well this sand represents – the grains of sand – every decision that we’ll ever make.  Think about the decisions.  Because change is simply the accumulation of decisions and we’re just an accumulation, the net effect, of all of our choices.  Sand.  Hmm..  I just live by my perspective.  I’ll choose my own priorities.  I know what’s best for me.  I’m gonna pick out my own path and my own purpose.  It’s not gonna get you where you want to go.  Because people who go their own way end up facing an outcome they were trying to avoid in the first place.

See, I’ll just add Jesus. It’s kind of an add-on.  Doesn’t fit.  It doesn’t fit.  Hmm.  I’m a container.  Lord, I need to change. I give it all to you.  I trust you, Jesus. I trust the rock.  I’m not gonna build my house on the sand, on the rock.  I receive you.  I open the lid of my life.  Come into my life.  It’s the best decision you’ll ever make.

Well I made that decision.  Now what?  I made that choice.  Now what?  Well let me do some CrossFit for you.  Hernia!  The sand fits!  If I put the rock in first.  All of the decisions come off of the rock.  That’s change.  That’s change!

Put your whole self in, take your whole self out.  Put your new self in and shake it all about.  You do the Hokey Pokey and God will turn your life around.  That’s what change is all about!

As our heads are bowed and eyes are closed, Father thank you for this series.  Thank you for change.

[Ed closes in prayer.]

The Book of Revelation

“The Timeline of the End of Times”

By Ed Young

April 17, 2016

The book of Revelation is mysterious. Perhaps no more confusing topic in it exists that the end times. People ask questions like: What will the end look like? What will happen? Are we in the midst of that end now?

In this message, Pastor Ed Young breaks down the biblical timeline of the end times. As we discover where things will fall and what will occur, however, we discover God’s truth that those who are Christ followers have a sense of hope, purpose, and direction today.

Transcript

The book of Revelation is a very compelling yet confusing book.  If someone says, oh I understand Revelation, you’re talking to someone who doesn’t. Because it’s mysterious, it’s factual, yet it’s very allegorical, very symbolic, and it’s hard to know exactly what’s going to take place.  That’s why I’ve been doing sort of a panoramic photograph of the book.

I love the panoramic feature on my phone, yet it’s sad to say I rarely use it and it’s difficult when you scroll through pictures to actually appreciate a panoramic view.  But I still like saying, oh yeah, I’ve got the panoramic feature on my phone.  And most people do.  When it comes to the book of Revelation it’s critical that those of us who are believers, and I know we have others who are not believers, but it’s critical for those of us who are believers to understand the fact.  I’ve been talking about this a lot, we win, that’s huge.  The book of Revelation talks about that.  And #2, that we will get blessed when we study the book of Revelation.  It doesn’t say when we understand it.  The Bible says when we study it, when we read it.

As I alluded to in one of the sessions, I took theology in seminary from a gentleman by the name of Dr. L. Russ Bush.  And Dr. Bush talked about the theology, the beauty of children’s books.  He used children’s books because children’s books usually end “and they lived happily ever after.”  They usually end with that sort of ending.  And Dr. Bush said we’re made for that ending.  We’re made, every one is made, to live happily ever after.

You know those batteries, Eveready? I love those things.  I like that name.  Eveready.  Are you ready for everlasting life?  All of us are gonna live, the Bible says, every single person will exist either in one of two places.  Either we’ll live together forever with Jesus or we’ll live apart from Jesus.  With Jesus is a place called Heaven, apart from Jesus is a place called Hell.

Invariably people always say, well I have problems with God.  How can a good God hurl man to Hell?  God doesn’t hurl or slam-dunk anyone to Hell.  We make that choice.  As we’ve learned through the book of Revelation, Hell was not designed for man.  Hell was designed for the devil and the demons.  So if someone goes to Hell, sadly because our church is so massive and we have so many people watching, so many people involved, I’m sure some of you will end up going to Hell, but you’ll go against God’s agenda.  But because of the fact that we have a choice, God says to you and he says to me at the end of the life, at the end of our existence, Hey, you know what?  You wanted to keep distance from me on planet Earth and you did that.  You did a good job.  You will have that in eternity, Hell.  So Hell is real.  Hell is real.

People ask me sometimes, do you believe in Hell?  Hell, yes, I believe in Hell.  Because Hell is a real place.  Do I know exactly what Hell is gonna be like?  No, but it’s away from the presence of God.  I heard someone say one time Hell is a place where you can do anything and everything you’ve always wanted to do … alone.  The Bible calls it a place of weeping and gnashing of teeth, that’s utter remorse, that’s forever.  Talk about eveready, forever you’re just… RRRR! You had an opportunity to give your life to Christ but you blew it!  You let intellect get in the way.  You let philosophy get in the way.  You let your own sovereignty and you missed it.

It’s like you’re playing golf and you’re on the 18^th and you know if you make this putt you’re going to win a couple of hundred dollars because you and your golfing buddies gamble a little bit on the golf course.  And you push it to the right, you go, aaaahhhahhhaa!  Like that.  Or maybe you’re fishing, which is a Biblical sport, and you set the hook on a big bass and he jumps out of the water and you’re like, oh it’s a personal best!  It’s a 13-pounder!  And he shakes the buckethead and the worm just dribbles out of his mouth.  Mmmmmm!  You know?  Or you go, I’m gonna invest in that, so you put some money in that. Oh, it’s slam dunk!  And your friends go, I’m telling you, you’ll make a lot of money.  And the stock goes… <down sound effect>  that’s gnashing of teeth.  That’s gnashing of teeth.  But this is a forever feeling of gnashing of teeth, of weeping.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God has set eternity in our hearts.  Have you ever wondered why we like all these movies?  And of course we like movies that have a good ending and they lived happily ever after.  We like books that have a good ending.  How many times have you (I’ve done this), I’ve been watching a movie, it’s so intense, I will sometimes fast forward and watch the end and go, whooo!  Or if I’m reading a book I’ll do the same thing.  Whoa!  You know, you like that.  But when something does not have a good ending it’s like, mmm!  It just kind of sets me off.  So God wants all of us to live happily ever after and ever after is a long, long time.

So the question that the book of Revelation answers, and we’ve done this song The Revelation Song.  And in Revelation Song it talks about what is and what is and what is to come.  Well, that’s straight from the book of Revelation and that outlines the book of Revelation.  Chapter 1, chapter 2 and 3, and chapter 4 and following.  So what is to come is chapter 4 and following.  So I want to give you what most scholars, most people that have walked with God for a long time, I want to give you a basic timeline for the end of time.  God has set eternity in our hearts, this is what, generally speaking, panoramic, you know shot of what it’s going to look like.  This is not definitive.  I mean there are some subtleties that some people would debate but again, I’m hitting the high points that people would go, all right, yeah.  That’s in the book of Revelation.  Here’s how it plays out.  Remember, though, Revelation is like a forest.  It can mess you up, there’s so many trees.  Don’t get so caught up in looking at the trees – Oh, there’s a Sequoia tree.  Oh, there’s a pine tree, there’s a dogwood.  Don’t get so focused in on the trees that you miss the forest.  That’s what people do.  That’s how they get jacked up when they study Revelation.  Remember Revelation is about the end.  It’s supposed to be mysterious, yet there are a lot of applications.  Let’s talk about some of the things, and you’ll notice this on your outline.

The first thing I’m going to talk to you about is the rapture of the church.  The rapture of the church.  Now the Scripture talks about this.  Let me jump over a little bit to another book, 1 Thessalonians 4, another book that deals with eschatology, the study of last things, verses 16 and 18.  It says, “For the Lord himself will come down from Heaven with a loud command.”  It’s gonna be loud.  Not quiet, a loud command.  “With the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, <trumpet sound effect>  and the dead in Christ will rise first.”  Why will the dead in Christ rise first?  They need a six-foot head start.  “After that we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds.”  Where you see the word clouds there, write the word glory.  Any time the Bible uses the word clouds, referring to Jesus, it’s talking about glory.  “… in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air (it’s gonna be crazy, isn’t it?) we will be with him forever.  Therefore encourage each other with these words.”

This is not a doggie downer study.  Revelation isn’t like, oh no!  All this mayhem and madness, no!  It should be an encouragement.  It should be like, whoa!  And it’s not just about informing you, I want God, and he’s gonna do it and he’s doing it now, to conform you into the image of Christ.  When will the rapture take place?  In other words, the twinkling of an eye, the Bible says.  And that was measured by some scientist or some physicist or whatever, it’s 1/1,000 of a second.  Boom!  We’re outta here. The instantaneous snatching away of those of us in Christ.  So those of us who are believers, one day, boom!  We’re outta here, jack.  Conversations will end in mid-sentence.  There will be big triple-7s flying, the pilot will look over at the copilot and all he will see is a seat.  A mother will walk into the nursery to pick up the newborn, the newborn will be gone.  A board room will be half full.  People will go from here to there, from here to there.

And what’s gonna be funny is to see everyone on planet Earth try to explain what’s happened.  It will be absolutely hilarious!  All of the blogs and all of the posts and all of the Snapchats and all of the talking heads <babbling sounds> but they will not understand the rapture of the church.  Then you have the 7-year tribulation.  Three and a half years of peace, three and a half years of craziness. The antichrist will emerge.  And people will say, well, maybe it’s one of the presidents.  No, no disrespect.  They’re not smart enough, good looking enough, or articulate enough to be the antichrist.  I don’t believe that.  But someone’s going to rise up, one world government, one world currency.  We’ll have the mark of the beast, some sort of a chip.  Already I have chips in my animals and you can track them and it’s scary how we’re tracked by everybody from the IRS to the NSA to whoever, whatever.  It’s nuts.  So we’re right there.  All that’s going to be taking place.

Then at the end of seven years, Jesus will come back with all of us, and when he comes back with all of us you’ve got the giant war.  You’ve got Armageddon.  It will happen in the valley of Megiddo, and I’ve been right there.  I’ve seen it.  Napoleon called this battle site the most natural battle site in the world.  Blood will run three feet deep.  It’s gonna be just absolutely epic.  It’s going to be mayhem, crazy.

And then, of course, you have the 1,000-year reign, new Heaven and new Earth, then Satan is finally thrown into the fire.  We all say Hell, yes.  He’s going to Hell. That’s where he belongs and that is the name of that.  So that’s a basic timeline.

You’ve got people, different theologians, a lot of bright people.  Some are pre-millenialists, others are post-millenialists, others are pan-millenialists, it all will pan out in the end.  Other are pre-trib, post-trib, amillenialists.  Don’t worry about it!  The good news is we win.  The good news is He’s coming back, and I believe that we will be out of here before all this happens.  But you can imagine, you remove God, you remove the church from the world, oh yeah.  Utter and complete mayhem.

So what will happen?  Basically here’s what’s gonna happen.  Things that have been out of place will be back in place.  All of us have a certain place for things.  Even though some of us are a messy, there’s a book called Are You A Messy?  And some people are messy, and that’s OK.  But you know, even if you’re a messy things still, I mean you still want to have a certain place for things.  Even messies have places for things, even though they’re messy.

Some people are obsessive compulsive and they like everything, you know, all the shirts and shoes and everything in order.  But we know that certain things, right, have their place in life.  I believe again that desire was given to us by God.  So when this happens things will be back in place.  The church will be back where it should be, the bride of Christ, right?  The devil will be where he should be, boom, in Hell.  And Jesus will be on the throne, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  That’s something that we need to see.

But I don’t know, as I look around the world today I see so much and so many things that point to the rapture of the church.  I really do.  I think about, like, drug usage.  Drug arrests are up like over 400% since 1970.  Drugs!  You think about sexual promiscuity, 20 million new cases of sexually-transmitted diseases are reported each and every year.  Out-of-wedlock births, deaths from SU… deaths from SUVs!  Hahahaha!  That’s probably true, too!  Deaths from STDs.  It’s unbelievable, it really, really is.  Then you think about the political climate.  I mean, who are you gonna vote for?  Some of us are like, would I rather get shot or stabbed?  You know?  So a theft (thank you) occurs every 14.6 seconds.  Increased violence, you have all these people running around, all these people from ISIS and Al Qaeda and doing this and that and they’re all about murder, all about this, and yet the Muslim leaders will not even come up and denounce them?  I mean, evil is rampant in our world today. And our own leaders, they just kind of let it happen.  They just let it go.  So the end times, I believe, are definitely approaching.  As we look we see the stage is set for a charismatic world leader.  The stage is set for a one-world religion, one currency.  The stage is set for the mark of the beast.

So here are some things, because of this, that I need to apply and take home from this.  So I’ve got the rapture, I mean rapture?  OK, what does that mean to me?  I’ve got the tribulation.  OK, what does that mean to me?  I’ve got the second coming of Jesus.  I’ve got the 1000 years, and then I’ve got the final judgment.  Well what does that mean to me?  Well, several things. It should lead to hope.  We want hope in this world.

We have hope in Christ.  Because we have our eternities secure we have hope in Christ, and the Bible tells you and me that even those of us who are Christ-followers will be judged.  Now I’m not talking about Heaven or Hell.  If you’re a believer you’re going to Heaven, but the Bible does say we will be held accountable regarding what we did with the opportunities, with the avenues, with the abilities that God has given us.  So there will be tears in Heaven.  When we are judged everything in our lives will be laid bare.  It’s like they will be on these giant screens.  Every thought, every act of anger, every moment of greed, materialist, envy, lust, everything will be right there in front of the brilliant blaze of God’s glory.

So that should motivate you and me to go, wow!  I mean, we’re not perfect, but wow!  What am I doing with my talent?  What am I doing with my resources?  What am I doing with my ability?  God will look at some and go, you had such a leadership gift but you squandered it!  Man, I gave you so many opportunities to make money yet you spent it on yourself and this and that.  And here Fellowship was doing this and growing and building and you didn’t step up?  What?  What?  Here, your neighbor was lost and on their way to Hell and I put you with them.  I had your paths intersect.  What did you do with it?  Yes, it should cause an urgency, right?  It should cause us to do that.  And then to also realize this when we think about this timeline, those without Jesus will go to Hell.

Now the Bible says that every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.  What does that mean?  Well, the last scene that those who are away from God will have before they go to Hell is that of Jesus on his throne, but then it’ll be too late.  No deal making, no second chance, no wheeling and dealing, no my bad, no “well, I got all my philosophical questions answered,”  “Oh, I believed my biology teacher at A&M or the University of Miami”… too late!  It’s too late.  That’s why urgency.

But Christians, we should be the most positive, energetic, hopeful people around.  So this should lead to hope.

#2 – It should help us see the temporal versus the eternal.  Obviously matter matters.  We’re here and we’re in and around this temporal place.  And yes, one day there’s going to be a new Heaven and a new Earth and all that, yet we should have one eye on the temporal and the other eye on the eternal.

It’s like I said the other day.  Did you guys see the National Championship?  Unbelievable!  One of the best games I’ve ever seen in my life!  The guy that scored and the guy that passed the pass to the guy that scored, they did a brilliant job of clock management.  All the way down to the end, the time was melting off.  He flipped the pass over to the guy, the guy shot it and when the ball was in the air, literally when it went through the net, game was over.  Perfect time management!  Clock management.  That is what we have to have.  The clock is ticking.  The time is melting.  Don’t so concentrate on the clock that you forget to play.  Still take your shot, still do your stuff.  So we need to think about that.  We need to think about, OK, when I face God, and I’m talking to believers now, when he judges me… and I love how people say, “Don’t judge me, man!”  We can’t judge anyone.  We’re not God.  People say that because they don’t like their stuff being confronted, their sin being pointed out.  It has nothing to do with judgment, they’re just convicted.  Don’t judge me.

So we need to think about the judgment seat of God, how we have this time of accountability, this time before God, so we need to do the best with what God has given us.  And look at what God has given us, amazing, amazing.  So the temporal versus the eternal.  Everybody is gonna live forever, that’s why we want to take as many people possible with us to Heaven, at Fellowship Church.

#3 – I want to challenge you in this series should make me challenged, this timeline should make everyone really have the energy to pray for others.  We should pray for believers, and also we should pray for those people who don’t know Christ personally.  Pray those high risk prayers.  In our prayer journals we should have names all the time of people that we see who don’t know the Lord.  When God puts someone on your heart, pray for them.  When you see someone, pray for them.  And as you pray for them, situations, opportunities will happen.  And we pray because, I mean, the clock is melting down.

And the last thing that I want to suggest is that I pray that this changes your life and mine and changes the course of Fellowship Church.  It should be about change.  Information is great but this is about transformation.  We do all of this because everybody is living in eternity.  We do all of this because Heaven is real and Hell is real.  That’s why we do what we do.  And that’s why we have such an urgency.  Jesus is coming back!  Things that are out of place will be put back in place.  We’ll live forever and ever, but remember.  What you’re doing now affects your forever.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

Push Me, Pull Me

“On the Fence”

August 21, 2016

By Ed Young

ILLUS: A mom looked at her daughter’s best friend and noticed an Asian tattoo on her back. And the girl said, “Well, yes. It’s brand new. But please don’t tell my parents.” The mom said, “I’m not going to tell your parents. But I’ve got to ask you. What does this Asian symbol mean on your back?” The girl replied, “Honesty.”

Push me, pull me. The back and forth life. It’s so popular these days. We’re convicted about not being convicted. On one hand we want a great marriage, but we’re not really willing to do the hard yards of the date night, of those conversations, of the forgiveness work, of the marriage counseling that needs to take place. Push me, pull me. “I want a great family and great kids who love God and who are obedient.” Yet, you come to church once every six weeks, now and then. You kind of do what you have to do. You don’t really want to do the tough stuff of drawing lines in the sand and dealing with discipline on the family front.

You’re a single parent and you’re say, “Hey,” as you look at your teenage daughter. “Remain pure until you get married.” Yet, you have numerous sexual liaisons in front of your kids, and they see how you live your life.

It’s a life of duplicity. It’s saying one thing and doing another. It’s being double-minded.

“God, I want you to bless my finances. I want just to do that and to be generous.” Yet, you don’t tithe and you don’t bring what is God’s to his House.

It’s amazing, isn’t it? One foot in, one foot out.

ILLUS: I had this idea for this sermon several months ago. I was speaking at a venue and back in the green room there was an NFL all-pro with his girlfriend. And I had met them before, and we talked a little bit. Then they left the green room and I was talking to a gentlemen who knows them and I said, “How are they doing?” He said, “Oh, it’s typical.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Well, this guy is just riding the fence. One foot in the NFL lifestyle – the weed, the women, the parties; and one foot in the church.” I thought, “I’m going to a series on that, because that is a popular way to live.”

The Bible talks a lot about being double-minded; the dangers of being double-minded. In fact, God would rather you live like hell and follow the devil than have one foot in the church and one foot out. Remember the book of Revelation when we studied that? We talked about the church of Laodicea. They were lukewarm, push me pull me people. One foot in, one foot out. What did God say? “You make me sick. You make me want to throw up. You make me want to vomit.”

I love how our God wants to save us energy and time. I love how our God wants us and demands us and coaches us and cheers us on to live the single-minded life. It’s throughout Scripture. You see, he knows the angst; he knows the stress that’s going to be involved in the double-minded life.

But I’ve got to be honest. I have that struggle and so do you. Push me, pull me. That double-mindedness. One foot in the church, one foot in the world. It’s tough. It’s not easy. This is a very difficult subject to tackle.

If you do decide to live the double-minded life – and I know many of you are. If you do decide to do that, here’s what’s going to happen. You’re going to have a tendency to fill your life with toxic relationships. I can give you case and point biblically, and also case in point relationally. You will have, as you look in the rearview mirror of your life, a lot of relational wreckage if you say, “I’m going to live the double-minded life.” Moreover, if you live the double-minded life, you’re going to lack energy. You’re going to be worn slap out. Because it’s tough to have one foot in and one foot out.

What’s the mantra these days when someone says, “Hi! How are you doing?” We say, “I’m busy.” Busy, busy, busy…

What are we saying? We’re saying, “I’m double-minded. I’m scurrying around here and there. I’m double-minded.”

Living the single-minded life, and God wants us to do that, clears a lot of that confusion. But being double-minded will mess up your relationships. Being double-minded will wear you out. Being double-minded will keep you from the legacy, from the indelible imprint that God wants you to have in this one and only life.

Life comes at us at warp speed. It seems like just yesterday I was in high school or college. Just yesterday Lisa and I were married. Just yesterday we had our first kid. And now? Marriages and I’m older and my hair has turned white. It’s unbelievable.

So God knows this is going to happen. And we only live, what, if we eat healthy and work out some; if we have decent genetics we’ll live 77-80-85 years. That’s nothing compared to the backstop of eternity. And God says, “Here, I want you to live the single-minded life.”

T.S. How do we live the single-minded life? I want to talk to all of us who struggle with that duplicity, to all of us who struggle with that push me, pull me. The classic text that deals with this is 1 Kings 18, back in the Old Testament. And this is just the epitome of the double-minded life versus the single-minded life.

I do want you to understand one thing about the single-minded life. And I believe everyone here wants to live the single-minded life, and God says it’s the only way to live. Here’s the first thing I want you to understand. The single-minded life will single you out. When I live the single-minded life, I will be singled out.

School is happening now. A lot of people are back in school. Some start school tomorrow. If you say, “I’m going to live the single-minded life,” I don’t care if you’re in 4^th grade or the 9^th grade or a sophomore in some college. For that matter I don’t care if you’re a businessman or business woman; it doesn’t matter if you’re a homemaker. Whatever you do, if you say, “I’m going to live the single-minded life,” you’re going to be singled out. People will know it. It will snap the heads of those around you.

By God’s grace I’ve lived the single-minded life. Not perfectly. I’m fallen and fallible just like you. However, by God’s grace I’ve lived the single-minded life after I became a believer. I was singled out. I remember it vividly. It started, really, in junior high school. I was singled out in high school. I was singled out in college. I wasn’t always a part of the popular crowd. I didn’t get invited to all of the parties. I didn’t have all the dates. I don’t look back and go, “Wow! I wish I’d lived the double-indeed life. Man I missed something. I missed that cocaine. I missed the weed. I missed the women. I really missed out!” No, I don’t. I’m glad I have lived the single-minded life. I would not be where I am today if I’d lived the double-minded life.

SO I want to talk to young people. Don’t screw your life up! Don’t do the double-minded thing. And parents, we’ve got to lead out in this issue. We’ve got to show our kids that single-minded life Is the way to go. And kids, even if your parents aren’t living it, live it! It’s the only way to live.

Elijah – the e-train – was single-minded. This guy was in a situation that was completely and totally cray-cray. God’s people were supposed to follow Him. And they’d had some really good runs. They’d followed the Lord and seen God do some really amazing things. However, leadership, leadership, leadership.

They had a leader. King Ahab. And King Ahab was double-minded and he made a horrible “I Do” decision. He married a pit viper straight from hell named Jezebel. Don’t ever name your daughter Jezebel, straight from hell. And check this out. She was so influential, a beautiful girl, so strong, poor Ahab was so hen-pecked and dominated, so emasculated Jezebel led God’s people into Baal worship. Idolatry. Are you kidding me? Baal.

What is Baal worship? They were building shrines and building all of these idols. Baal worship is basically the worship of power, possessions, and pleasure. God’s people were like, “Ok. I’ll straddle the fence on this. Yes, Jehovah is God and he’s done amazing things. But I like that Baal worship. I mean when I go to church for Baal worship there are orgies, there are temple prostitutes, materialism, all this stuff. So I’m just going to straddle the fence. I’m just going to sit the fence. This is the way to live!”

Well Elijah tells Ahab and Jezebel, ‘You know what guys? Because of your rebellion; because of your pathetic leadership, it’s not going to rain for 42 months.”

So they were in a drought. Cattle keeling over. Lakes were dried up. You couldn’t even launch your pontoon at Sneaky Pete’s Marina. It was a bad situation. Sorry, Miami, that was a local joke here on Lake Grapevine. If you don’t know Lake Grapevine you didn’t get that.

Anyway, it was a bad situation. So, we have this epic battle, this meeting when Ahab and Elijah go toe-to-toe.

ILLUS: When I was playing basketball at FSU, and I talk about his a lot because it was very significant in my life, I was the only Christian on our team. Oh, I was singled out! Are you kidding me? Travelling around the nation with a bunch of hellions. My freshman year, they made fun of me, abused me, this and that. Yet, the next year, my sophomore year, something strange happened. I felt the pivot. They began to ask me about situations. They began to talk to me about their problems. One even said, “You know, there’s something different about your life.” Single-mindedness.

So I’m not going to lie to you up here. I’m not going to say it’s the easy life. The Christian life is called, in the Bible, a war, a race, a wrestling match. You see, we’re warriors. We’re not to be double-minded. As I look back on my life, it is worth it.

So that’s going to happen. It’ll happen to you in every slice of life. So you might want to ask yourself, “Who are my friends? And who are my enemies?” You’re known by your friends and your enemies. And when I say enemies I don’t mean people who are starting some negative blog or who are Twitter trolls abusing you. I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about people who don’t include you. That’s a good thing.

Elijah meets with Ahab and says, “Hey, Ahab, you’re the problem here. You’re the reason why this drought is taking place.” But here’s what Ahab did. He did what I love to do when I’m confronted. He pointed the finger of blame. He pointed the finger to this person, that person.

That’s what I do. When I’m convicted, let’s just be totally candid here; when the Holy Spirit gets up in your grill, what do you do? “Lord, I’m wrong. I’m a sinner”? No. What do we say? “It’s your fault. It’s my father’s fault. It’s this situation. It’s my boss. It’s my manager. My diapers were put on too tight and my nursery was painted the wrong color. Whatever it is, it’s the pastor’s fault, the principal’s fault!”

We love to blame. That’s what Ahab did. You know what Ahab said? Here’s this guy living in sin, who took the entire nation away into Baal worship because of a wrong “I Do” decision, and he’s blaming the e-train, Elijah, for what’s happening. That is absolutely hilarious, isn’t it?

The Bible says in 1 Kings 18:16, “So Obadiah…”

I want to drill down a little bit on Obadiah. Obadiah was a believer as well. The devil, when you’re living a single=minded life, wants to tell you, “You’re the only one. There’s no other believers around. There’s no other difference makers around. You’re the only one.”

I lived in a dorm that had a lot of people at FSU. I was on full scholarship, we had maid service, food, there was even a full bar at the bottom floor in our athletic dorm. That’s a whole other story. No wonder we got in trouble with the NCAA! Anyway, only three people in the entire dorm went to church, and I was one of those three.

Now I’ve kept up with a number of people that didn’t’ go to church. And I look back in their lives, if they’re still living, and it’s been train wreck after train wreck. Something’s different! See, this single-minded life works. God’s way works! And I’ve yet to meet a person who has said, “You know what? I’m living for the Lord and my life is jacked up.” Please show me that person if you know them. I’ve never met him.

So Elijah, his squad was stout. He had Obadiah. If you read this story more and more there were several thousand people who were believers. Yet, Jezebel was killing believers left and right.

So here’s what he said. I’ll give you the quick Cliff’s notes. Elijah gets up in Ahab’s face and says, “Ok. Let’s just have a challenge. Let’s have a royal rumble. Baal against Jehovah. You and Jezebel’s god against my God. I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll go to your home field, Mount Carmel. That’s right. That’s Baal worship’s home field. And we’ll play you guys. I’ll tell you what. You go ahead and be on the receiving team. You build an altar for Baal, then you pray. And you say, ‘Baal, answer by fire.’ If Baal answers by fire, Baal wins. But, if Jehovah God, if the Lord answers by fire at the altar I build, we win.”

And Ahab is like, “I’ll take that deal all night, all the way to the bank.”

So that’s what happened. Single-mindedness singles you out. But notice this. Single-mindedness sends a message.  Because when this deal happened, what do you think happened?  Ahab sent a message out to the entire nation.  I’ve been to Mount Carmel, 17,042 feet high.  I’ve been right there numerous times as I’ve traveled to the Middle East.  It is an epic spot, a beautiful spot.  The acoustics are ridiculous so that’s where the whole thing went down.  1 Kings 18:20, “So Ahab sent a message among all the sons of Israel and brought the prophets together at Mount Carmel.” 850 prophets of Baal.

And here’s the deal, write it down.  Tweet of the Day.  Baal will put you in jail.  Baal will incarcerate you.  Because see, Baal worship is, in effect, right here.  Baal worship is in effect in Miami.  Baal worship is in effect in Europe because we have many watching from Europe on our online campus.  Baal worship, power, are you kidding me?  Possessions, pleasure, oh yeah!  Some are like, on this is so barbaric I can’t believe this.  I mean, Baal worship, who would be that crazy?  Who would be that overt?  Just look around.  All these prophets of Baal.

And Asherah, was the female counterpart of Baal.  There were 850 of these prophets and they wore these gold medallions that would embarrass any rapper, and these medallions reflected the sun because that was part of it, too.  This fertility and nature and all of this craziness.  So they had this showdown at Baal Field.  That was good, yeah!  At Baal Field. So they built their alter, the prophets of Baal.  Jezebel was right there, giving them Hell.  Poor Ahab, “What do you want, honey?”  I mean totally dominated, emasculated.  All these prophets build the alter and they start freaking out, man.  Doing all of this stuff, dancing, praying for fire, cutting themselves.  For nine hours they did this.  Are you ready for that?  And Elijah, he’s just watching them.  And this is very interesting.  Do you know trash-talking was invented in the Bible?  Elijah starts trash-talking to Ahab, Jezebel, and the prophets of Baal!

All right, before I tell you what he said, because he said some stuff that was pretty graphic.  He didn’t curse but he said some stuff.  To me it was funny.  You might not think so, but let me read 1 Kings 18:21.  “Elijah challenged the people.”  So here he is at Baal Field, he takes the mike, “People of Israel (echo Israel, Israel, Israel), this is Elijah (Elijah, Elijah),” and he just says this, “’How long are you going to sit on the fence?  If God is the real God, follow him.  If it’s Baal, follow him.  Make up your minds.’  Nobody said a word.  Nobody made a move!”  These are God’s chosen people!  Double-mindedness, back and forth, push me, pull me.  If you could read the Hebrew, the picture behind this text is so beautiful.

ILLUS: Lisa and I love Mexican food, I love it.  Best Mexican food I’ve ever had is right here in Taos, man.  I love it.  A couple days ago we were out at this little Mexican restaurant and it was cool enough (it was a miracle) where we could eat outside.  So we were eating the chips, I was really… I love chips and hot sauce.  I was like a shark with my eyes rolling back in my head.  And I noticed all of these birds flying around.  Birds are smart.  They have, I know, little pea brains but I’m telling you this is going to happen.  Remember this.  When you go to Heaven we’re going to find out that birds are a lot smarter than we thought.  I think animals are smarter than we think anyway.  That’s a whole ‘nother message.  These birds, and I watched it, Lisa and I were just dying laughing, when someone sitting outside would turn their head these birds would swoop down, boom!  Steal a chip, they’re gone.  And then we watched them hop from ledge to ledge keeping the others away from the chips.  One flew straight at me and I happened to look and it veered off and got another chip from another table.  These birds, I just loved watching them.

The picture behind this verse is a bird hopping from one perch to another, from one twig to another, never settling, never saying here is who I am.  I’m choosing this way, just hopping from here to there to there to here.  Huh.  How long will you waver?  I want to ask you the same thing, between two opinions?

Seriously, how long are you going to sit on the fence?  As I look at this text, until we know what the problem is we’ll not be able to solve the problem.  And those who are double-minded, look at our culture.  What do they do?  They just concentrate on the consequences, they never get to the problem, because they don’t know the problem. They don’t, and that’s the double-minded life.  You’ll never understand the issue if you live the double-minded life.

So single-mindedness singles you out, #1.  #2 – Single-mindedness sends a message.  What message are you sending with your life?  People are looking at you, they’re looking at me.  And also, single-mindedness creates margin. It simplifies our life.  Look at the prophets of Hell, of Baal.  Worn slap out, nine hours, dancing and cutting themselves and screaming and praying.  “Baal, answer us!  Baal, answer us!”  Worn out.  You want to be worn out?  Live the double-minded life.  Worn out.

ILLUS: About a decade ago I had dinner with a multibillionaire, and during the dinner at his home the butlers and everybody, the whole thing, I just really (because I had known this guy for a while), I really felt led to kind of look at him and say choose this day who you’re going to serve.  Stop riding the fence.  I just felt to do it.  I knew it was a God thing so I started having this conversation with him.  Heavily involved in Baal worship, this guy.  Super powerful, he began to weep, dropped his head. The guy was in a mess and he began to describe his life.   He went through a long time in his life, “power, answer me!  Power, I’ve got this position!  I’ve been written up in this magazine!  These thousands of people work for me!  Power, answer me!  Answer me!”  Silence.  “Possessions, money, answer me!  Maybe another hundred million will do it.  Maybe another yacht will do it.  Maybe another house will do it.  Answer me!  Answer me!”  Nothing.  “Maybe pleasure is it.  Another high-priced call girl, another orgy, another porn star, yeah, that’ll do it!  Another conquest!  Yeah, sex is the answer, that will do it!”

Let me tell you something big boy, you’re never going to have the power this guy had. Never.  You’re never going to have the money, the bank, he had.  You’re never going to have the women he had, and his life is totally screwed up.  He is a double-minded man.  He is a Baal worshipper and Baal can’t answer!  What are you doing?  You’re trying to get your little-g god to answer big-G God concerns?  It’s not working and you know it’s not working!

When are you going to be man enough to stand up and say, “God, you’re God.  I’m going to follow you.  I’m not going to screw my life up any more.  I’m going to be the kind of husband, I’m going to be the kind of father, I’m going to be the kind of businessman, I’m going to be the kind of life change that you desire.”  When?  When?

Baal doesn’t work!  You get the Baal out, you’ll get the hell out!  When are we going to do that?  So that’s what’s in the cards for you. I mean, there might be one person to make billions, could be here.  I doubt it, could be.  You might be written up in all these major business magazines, I doubt it.  You’re not going to have sex with the most beautiful people in the world, I doubt it.  And look where it led him.  The guy’s a disaster.  Double-minded.  See, God wants to save us from that!

So the double-minded life, wow.  It’s not going to work.  Single-mindedness creates margin, because you know what the E-train did?  E-train makes an alter and while he’s making this alter he’s talking trash to the Baalites.  You know what he’s telling them?  “Hey, where is your god?  I think your god is sitting on the toilet.” That’s what it says in the original language.  That’s trash talking.  He makes an alter.  They spend nine hours trying to get fire.  Silence.  He throws up a little prayer, after he has drenched his alter three times!  He throws up a little prayer and what do you think happens?  Well, let’s just read it.

I Kings 18:38-39, “Then the fire of the Lord fell.”  The god who can’t burn wet wood is no good.  The fire fell.  And the fire in the Bible represents the power, the purity, and the presence of God.  “And burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the soil.”  The god who can’t burn wet wood is no good.  “And also licked up the water in the trench.  When all the people saw this they fell prostrate and cried, ‘The Lord, he is God, the Lord he is God.’”  Oh now… woo!  What a life change!  What a 180!  What repentance!  The Lord, he is God.  The Lord, he is God.  Single-mindedness demands a decision.

So #1 – Single-mindedness singles you out.  #2 – Single-mindedness sends a message.  #3 – Single-mindedness creates margin.  #4 – Single-mindedness demands a decision.  How long are you going to sit on the fence?  How long are you going to straddle the fence?  How long are you going to pursue the push me, pull me life?

“Oh man, but Elijah, this guy is the prophet of God.  What do I have in common with him?”

James 5:17, “He was a man just like you and me.”  He just had that relationship with the supernatural God.  Do you want to miss out on miracles?  Do you want to miss out on God moving?  Live a double-minded life.  Oh yeah.

Jesus one day was talking and he said in John 10:9, let’s read it together, 1-2-3, “I am the gate.”  Let me stop there.  The – definite article.  Not like a gate, not like a way, I am the gate.  Let’s keep reading, “whoever enters through me will be saved.  They will come in and out and find pasture.”  Three things:  Jesus is the gate.  When we open the doors of our lives and invite Christ in, when he comes in well be saved, we’ll be safe, and we’ll be satisfied.

ILLUS: I was at the grocery store recently, I don’t go all the time but I was there.  I watched people walk up to those electronic doors from all different walks of life.  <door sound effects>  The door never said, “No, sorry, you can’t enter.”  If they had faith enough to walk toward it, it would open.

This is the gate.  That’s right, this is the gate.  Jesus is not going to push me or pull me into the kingdom, but if we enter through this gate we’ll enter through the gates of Heaven.  Have you opened the door of your life to Jesus?  There’s a single gate, single-mindedness.  Have you opened the door of your life to Jesus?  He wants to meet you right where you are.  The double-mindedness, the chicanery, the duplicity, the push me, pull me, he wants to meet you right where you are.  Invite Jesus to come in, because when you receive the sinless sovereign, singular Savior he will save you.  You’ll have eternal safety, and you’ll know what satisfaction is all about.  Let’s pray.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]

Hop, Skip, and a Jump
“The Art of Skipping”
February 25, 2017
By Ed Young

When it comes to the life God wants us to experience, one of the most crucial aspects is something we naturally do as kids but stop doing as adults. It’s all about skipping! What does skipping have to do with life? In this message, Pastor Ed Young looks back at the account of Moses and Jethro in the Old Testament and shows us how the art of skipping is something that will take us all to the next level!

Transcripts

INTRO: I love to skip.  It’s really a great workout because what’s amazing is as kids we do it naturally but as adults we stop skipping.  Today I’m going to argue that children of God, you and me, should not stop skipping.  I’m going to talk about the art of skipping.  I’m going to talk about how important it is to make a hop, a skip, and a jump.  A hop, boom, a skip, and a jump.  Whoo!  Wears me out.

I was thinking about that because it’s so, so vital in our culture today as we live our lives to skip things.  When you skip you’re in the air just for a while and when you’re in the air you have a unique perspective.  You can see things you normally wouldn’t see.  Then you hit the ground and when you land the trick is you don’t stay on the ground too long because you’re skipping, right?  You’re skipping.  The same is true with hop and the same is true with a jump.  We’re always skipping, we’re always skipping, we’re always – if we’re doing what I believe God wants us to do – skipping.  We need to understand that we skip the superfluous and land on the significant.  Because when we land on the significant our lives will be magnificent.  So if you want to understand what your priorities are, they’re already written down in Scripture, in the Bible.  If you’re not a follower of Christ, if you want to read the best book ever penned on priorities, read this.  And I always say, and sometimes people do the pushback, I always say if you’re praying about what your priorities should be that’s really a dumb prayer.  I mean, you’re wasting your time, you’re wasting God’s time.  Because the priorities have already been set forth for all of us. Prioritizing your life is about skipping.

I love to think about the children of Israel because back in the Old Testament you’ve probably heard of the account before, the Israelites had been slaves in Egyptian bondage for hundreds of years.  It was a very difficult plight, it was a difficult situation that they found themselves in.  God picked someone to lead out, someone to be the head skipper, because he is going to understand the importance of skipping.  His name was Moses, and you’ve probably heard of Moses before.  Moses walked into Pharaoh’s office, the man of Egypt, the leader of Egypt, and basically said, “Let my people go.”  And he said no.  Then God rained 10 plagues on the Egyptians and these plagues pounded the people.  Because of that and because of an act of God and many supernatural things the children of Israel were free.  They were emancipated.  I want you to think in your mind 2 million Israelites following Moses.  Two million people, and this is the context of the whole situation, the context of skipping.  Two million people who have just been freed up, they’re following Moses.  And God does this stuff like parting the Red Sea, feeding them from Heaven, providing water from a rock, just crazy, crazy stuff.  A cloud guided them in the day, fire by night, and these people complained.

Isn’t that just how we are?  We love to complain.  We love to murmur.  We love to go negative.  God had given them a great vision, yet these people were like vision vandals.  Any time someone has a cool idea usually or let’s take this hill or let’s do this or that or let’s make that change, what happens?  Well, I’m not sure we can do that.  We’ve never done that before.  And that’s where I’ve always sat.  And we’ve always had things like that around our family.  Yeah, we’ve always related as a husband and wife in that manner.  Well, we complain.  We do the pushback.

I don’t know how Moses took it.  I really don’t because in Exodus 17, the Israelites, after seeing all of these supernatural acts of God, the Israelites faced the Amalekites.  Now just bear with me during this history lesson.  The Amalekites, they were some bad people.  I mean nasty people.  They were horrible, demonic, they were the offspring of Esau, if you do your research.  They attacked the Israelites and the Israelites basically opened up a can on the Amalekites.  Where do you think Moses was?

OK now think just for a second.  Moses started out with the people, then he got in front of the people, then he got above the people.  He was on this mountain watching the battle play out.  His hands were lifted.  Aaron and Hur, his armor bearers, were holding his hands in the air.  As long as his hands were in the air the Israelites were opening a can.  The moment his hand began to fall, the Amalekites were winning.  So these people helped him.  They put rocks to keep his hands in the air.  The Israelites defeated the Amalekites.  Moses was above the people, on another level.

So to think about skipping he should have stayed on that level, but when you skip you have to leap, but then you land.  He landed back with the people.  He should have continued to be with them for a little while, in front of them for a little while, above them for a little while.  But what happened?  He began to get stuck in the superfluous.  He began to get caught in the mud and the mire.  And it’s really stunning, it’s really hard to believe a guy like Moses, such a leader, such a difference-maker, such a skipper in many ways, all of a sudden he gets caught.

I don’t care if you’re a homemaker.  I don’t care if you’re a CEO.  I don’t care if you’re a coach or a teacher or a lawyer or a surgeon.  I don’t care if you’re a student, we can make that same mistake.  God is a God (we’re going to find out) of delegation.  God delegated leadership to Moses.  He has delegated leadership and influence to you.  You might say to yourself, I’m not doing hardly a thing.  I mean, what I’m doing doesn’t really matter.  Am I really impacting anyone?  The answer is a resounding yes if you’re a follower of Christ.  Yes, yes, yes.

Think about the essence of God.  Think about God’s personality.  There’s delegation within the personality of God.  God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, that’s the Trinity.  God the Father delegated the salvation of the world to God the Son.  God the Son delegated counsel, comfort, and conviction to God the Holy Spirit.  They’re equal in form, unique in function.  You’ve got delegation in the very heart and soul of God.  Moreover, you have delegation, as I just alluded to, in our lives.

Then you’ve got delegation, or you could even say skipping, in the only institution that’s analogous to God’s relationship to his people, that of marriage.  And I don’t want to step on any toes or make anybody freak out but there’s delegation in marriage.  Husbands delegate to their wives.  Wives delegate to their husbands.  One is not more important than the other.  One is not superior, one is not inferior.  They’re equal in form, unique in function.  This plays out in the church, plays out in companies, plays out in parenting.    What is parenting?  Parenting is skipping.  It’s landing on certain things, leaping over others.  It’s priorities, it’s delegation.  Delegation.

Moses, I can’t even believe this, Moses was stuck in the depths of a delegation frustration.  The guy couldn’t move, he couldn’t get out.  Because when he skipped off of that mountain, after that massive victory, he got stuck.  Now think about this.  Go back to the children of Israel.  They are camped at the base of Mount Sinai.  The 10 Commandments haven’t been given yet.  They’re resting.  It’s almost like, wow.  It’s crazy what’s happened.  Everybody’s looking back going whoa!  Whoa, man. God is so good.  God is so good.  God is so good.  So we find Moses in a tent.

Now tents back then, to give you a history lesson, were made of goat or camel’s fur, literally animal skins were the floor.  Moses had the big house on the cul de sac.

And the Bible says that his father-in-law came to visit.  It’s kind of interesting when your father-in-law, those of us who are married, comes to visit.  Is it not?  I mean, your father-in-law, the in-laws are here.  That adds some pressure.  Don’t act like it doesn’t.  I know, I know, I know.  Things are different when the in-laws show up.

So Jethro, don’t you love that name?  Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, Jethro was the priest of Midian.  He was a pagan priest and Moses spent 40 years – think about this guys – four decades working, toiling in the desert for Jethro.  So they had this relationship.  So Jethro shows up with the family and he’d already heard about all these amazing things that God had done.

So he is in the process, I believe, of giving his life to the Lord.  Because he began to go, “Whoa!  Moses, this is just amazing what God is doing!  God is truly the one and true God.”   The Bible says when Moses saw him he bowed to him and kissed him.  I’m not saying we do that when we see our in-laws, but that’s what Moses did.

And then I think it says something very profound.  It says that Moses shared with him everything God had been doing.  And the Bible says “the good things that God had done and was doing.”

Who do you have in your life that you can share the good things of what God is doing?  That list can’t be long.  We can’t advertise that.  We can’t post about that.  We can’t go on Instagram or Snapchat or Instagram Live or Facebook or all the other social media mediums and just tell everybody these intimate details.  We do, though, have to have some people in our lives that we can share with regarding what God has done. The reason Fellowship Church grows smaller as it grows larger is that very reason.  That’s why if you’re not involved in a small group, if you’re not serving somewhere, you’re missing out.  Because the greatest relationships that you can imagine are for you right here at Fellowship Church.  Whether you’re here or at one of our many locations and you indeed can share with the Jethros that you meet.

And you know what I love about Jethro, too?  He applauded Moses.  He could have easily been jealous.  You know, sometimes we all struggle (I know I do) with envy and jealousy.  Someone will do something great or someone will get a windfall or someone will have this opportunity and we go, wow.  You know, might as well be me!  Jealousy, envy.  I love Jethro because Jethro celebrated Mo!  Jethro celebrated Mo, and because he celebrated Mo he gave Mo the momentum that he needed.  Moses’ momentum stopped in the desert.  It stopped at the base of Mount Sinai.  He had this momentum from God.  Everything was going well.   He was in the flow.  Suddenly, though, when he jumped off that mountain after the Amalekites got jammed by the Israelites, he stopped his mo.  We’ve got to have momentum.  The people in our lives, the Jethros in our lives, will give us momentum.  And Jethro said, “Moses, this is amazing what God is doing.  Good for you!  Great for you!”  It’s so important that we have friends that aren’t sad over our successes, that aren’t a fan of our failures (which many people are) but it’s important to have friends that celebrate.

Pretty much everybody can empathize.  Something bad happens, “Oh, I’m so sorry.  Man that’s terrible!  Oh no!” That’s easy.  And sometimes we think she sympathized with me.  He empathized with me.  That means they must be the right they.  No.  The right they will always have something to say when you do something great.  When God uses you in a wonderful way.  Who really celebrates with you?  That is the right they.  That’s the right they.

That’s why I love this 12-step group called Celebrate Recovery.  I like that we’re celebrating the recovery, whether it be with substance abuse, whether it be with a hurtful habit or whatever it is, we should celebrate one another.  Learn to celebrate.

ILLUS: At the C3 Conference, Pastor J. Don George was one of our guests and J. Don George for 27 years has been one of Fellowship’s biggest cheerleaders.  He’s pastored one of the biggest churches anywhere right here in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, yet he’s always, always celebrated what God has done at Fellowship Church.  So as I was thinking and praying about who do I invite to Fellowship?  I thought about J. Don George.  He’s 80 years old.  Well, people who have a lot of experience, we’re going to find out, give the best advice.  Let me say that again and I’m going to talk about that next time.  People that have been there, people that have a lot of skins on the wall, give the best advice.

So we’re going to find out that Moses not only receives the celebration of Jethro, but also – and I love this – he receives the critique of Jethro as well.  And you know Moses had it going on if he’s receiving critique from his father-in-law.  Wow.  Wow.  So you see how everything is happening.  You see the relationship between Moses and Jethro.  You see it developing after decades.  God using Moses in a magnificent way.  He’s just skipping and he’s leading 2 million Israelites to the Promised Land.  These people, I’m just going to be flat out and totally honest with you, they were some of the whiniest, most negative, in a lot of ways pitiful group of people imaginable.  I mean, these people were trolls.  They were haters.  One little thing didn’t go their way.  In fact, before this whole scenario happened they thought about stoning Moses.  And I’m not talking about <inhale> this.  I’m talking about killing him, killing him just because they didn’t have enough water, just because they got tired of bread, manna from Heaven, just because they got tired of quail burgers, just because it was too hot.  And they even began to say, “Oh, I wish we were back in slavery!”

So what happens?  Whenever you’re a skipper you’re going to have people that attack you.  You’re going to have people that don’t celebrate, people that hate.  And Moses went through this.  So Jethro and Moses, they greet each other.  They have this time of worship.  Moses tells Jethro, “Hey, here is what God has been doing.”  Jethro says, “Yay, God!”

I believe Jethro has a transformational experience with the Lord.  They spend the night in this beautiful tent.  They wake up the next morning and here is where everything goes cra-cray.  Because you would think, oh, Moses, he was on top of the mountain leading, watching his boys take out the Amalekites.  Surely he wouldn’t get stuck in the mire and the mud of the mundane.  Surely he wouldn’t miss doing what God had called him to do. Surely he wouldn’t get off track.  Surely he wouldn’t read the comments section online.  Surely he wouldn’t respond to all the critics.  Surely he wouldn’t say, “Well, I want people to like me.”  Moses?  Come on, Moses.  You’re a leader.  You’re going to do that?  Now in Exodus 18:13, the next day after being reunited with his father-in-law, after giving his father-in-law the bro-hug and the bro-kiss, “The next day Moses too his seat to serve as judge for the people and they stood around him from morning til night.”  That is so sad.  Because Moses, let’s say it again, was sucked into the superfluous.  Messed up in the mundane, trying to be the man for all situations, a temptation that all of us have.

Again, you’re a homemaker.  Think about the mom.  You’re like, this doesn’t relate to me.  Are you kidding me?  You’re a leader.  You’re an influencer.  And maybe, mom, you’re not skipping enough.  Because a lot of moms say, like Arnold, “Get to the choppa!”  You are <helicopter sound effect> helicoptering your kids.  <helicopter>  Not really delegating to them, not giving them responsibility, not giving them some freedom, some rope to go, OK.  Do what God has called you to do.  Because the goal of parenting is teaching and training your kids to leave, to individuate.  Now I understand once a parent, always a parent.  But I’m going to challenge you in this series, moms, to think about what do you skip?  What do you land on?  What do you leap over?  Because skipping takes rhythm.  Skipping takes focus.  Skipping takes muscle.  Skipping is about cardio.  Are you skipping?

Moses wasn’t skipping.  Moses, how about some leader-skip, brother?  No leader-skip, no leader-skip.  And then in Exodus 18:14, “His father-in-law, Jethro, when he saw what Moses was doing…”  You know what Moses was doing?  He plopped his rear – and you know you’re not doing what God wants you to do when you’re sitting around all day.  Verse 13, he was just sitting there, people lined up, people waiting in line to do what?  To tell Moses their complaints, to speak whinese to him, to complain to him, to tell him this or that, to tell him what was wrong with the situation, to complain about the food, the weather, whatever!  They were just complaining, complaining, complaining, complaining, complaining.

And then Jethro looks at Moses and goes, “What you’re doing isn’t good.” We might say, “What?!”  or we might say, “Moses, what you’re doing is stupid!”  It was that strong.

Jethro is like, “You are the leader of 2 million people and now you have sunk into the superfluous to such a degree that you’re sitting on your butt all day, listening to all this crapola?  All this junk?  All this drama?  You’re wasting time, Mo!  You’ve ruined the momentum!”

And these two questions, these are critical questions that Jethro just lobs to Moses.  I love them, and these questions are simple yet they are so, so profound.  Because leadership, I’m talking about in marriage, leadership, I’m talking about on the team, in church, leadership in any venue is taking people not where they want to go, but where they need to go.  And what was Moses doing?  Moses was subjecting himself to all of the wants and the whims and the whiners of these people.  Pathetic, Moses!

But look, God always brings someone into our lives when we’re screwing up, isn’t that true?  Always, always, always, there’s somebody there.  There’s a Jethro, and it’s my prayer that this series will be a <whoom!> a jolt of Jethro to you.  Skip over the superfluous and land on the significant.  Only do what only you can do, and here are the questions to ask yourself.  Here’s what Jethro asked Moses.  “What are you doing?”  Basically he says, “What is this you’re doing for the people?”  Ask yourself that question every day.   What am I doing?  Now again, if you’re not a believer listen up, but this is really specifically for believers, and also for those who are not yet Christ-followers.  Just what are you doing?  What is the meaning of life?  What is it that you do?  What is it that you do?  What?  Critical question.

Then the next question, “Why do you alone sit as judge?”  Why?  You’re by yourself?  Christianity is not a solo sport.  That’s why we’re to be a part of the body of Christ.  What are you doing?  Why are you doing it?  So simple, so basic, so rudimentary.  Yet for a long time in the leadership scheme that God has called me to at Fellowship we’ve asked ourselves questions like that.  I’ve asked myself that question.  Ed, what are you doing, man?  What are you doing?  Why are you doing it?  Scary questions.  There are over 2,400 questions in the Bible and so many of us don’t ask enough questions.

Why?  #1 – pride.  Pride.  If I ask a question that means I don’t know it all.  And I’m talking especially to the testosterone crowd here.  I can’t ask a question because I’m the man!  And then right behind that, fear.  Oh man, I’m fearful to ask that because if I ask that, that might mean I’ve got to change something in my life.  So we go around silent, missing the beauty and the power of the question.  Because when I ask a question I’m always seeking knowledge.  And most of us are just two to three questions away from a breakthrough.  Let me say that again.  We’re two to three questions away from a breakthrough.  Ask questions.  You can always learn, no matter who you’re talking to, about just asking them questions.

ILLUS: I know a lot about fishing.  I don’t know everything but I know a lot.  I’ve never talked to an angler who has out-dumbed me.  I always out-dumb anglers.  Why?  Am I being deceptive?  No. I’m not going to brag about my knowledge.   I tell myself, “Ed, shut up!  You might learn something from someone that fishes with a cane pole in a little river as opposed to fly-fishing for tarpon!”  So don’t act like, oh, I can’t learn from him.  I can’t learn from her.  Oh, we can learn from everyone.  Ask yourself in your prayer life.  God, what am I doing?  Why am I doing this?  I think these questions are so liberating, so penetrating.  You’re in a marriage?  Ask people who have more experience than you, who you respect, questions.  You’re in a parenting dilemma?  Ask people your age and others, people who have gone through similar circumstances.  I’ve got to ask you a question.  Whatever it is, ask the right people the right questions to get the right answers.

Now next time – I’ve got to stop now – we are going to find out what happens when we seriously start skipping.  And we’re going to find out the finer points of skipping.  So I want you just to think about this and to pray about this and to say, Lord, I’m ready to skip.  I’m ready to skip, to skip over – wow, I was up high on that one – the superfluous and land on the significant.  Let’s do it.

[Ed leads in closing prayer.]