This is life. This is not a rehearsal. This is it. If you are waiting
to be happy, you better get started, because we are running out of time.
Now if you want to go to heaven, you can get there. Just give your life
to Jesus. But there are an awful lot of people going to heaven, that are
going to heaven miserable. RIGHT.
Now there are a lot of people who have forgotten that we can be happy on
this life journey if we want to be. Now Jesus said something very
clearly, & last week we gave it to you in John 10:10 & it says this; "The
thief cometh not, but for to steal, & to kill, & to destroy; [Jesus said]
I am come that they might have life, & that they might have it more
abundantly."
You see, before coming here I lived just west of Indianapolis, the home
of the Indianapolis Colts. Everyone talks about the Colts there. I like
to know, do you think the Colts will make it to the Super Bowl. If you
have not heard of the Super Bowl, then you might say that it is the best
of the best in professional football.
In 1958, they had these 2 teams playing each other called the New York
Giants & the Baltimore Colts. The Baltimore Colts. I wonder who they
were. Now in 1958 the Baltimore Colts were coached by, (Now you ladies
just bare on thru this, I know you don't give a HOLY HOOT about what I'm
saying right now, but just sort of hang in there if you would. The
menjust love it, I can just hear them, boy, that's my kind of guy.
Talkin' about football.) Now these Baltimore Colts had a team comprised
of a bunch of rejects. They were coached in those years by a man called
Weeb Eubank.
Now they were not expected to win because the news reports put out on this
team called the Colts, who made it to what then was called the National
Championship Game, even before they had a Super Bowl. What they said
was, these rejects had no chance against a high power, high talented,
high priced, young team of the New York Giants. The Colts were made up
of men who were considered Over the Hill. FINISHED!
Now at half-time, as expected, these Colts were being trounced by these
New York Giants. It was going as predicted. At half-time this coach of
the Colts, this Weeb Eubank was trying to find the words to get his team
fired up & in a winning attitude. Sometimes that's harder to do in life,
isn't it. RIGHT!
Now Weeb comes into the locker room at half-time with his team trailing.
There heads were down & it was going like the newspapers predicted.
DEFEAT for the rejects of professional football. He stopped in front of
one player, trying to find the words to get his team back into the game,
& be a winner & believe in themselves.
He said to a man by the name of Big Daddy Lipscomb, the big, 300 lb.
over-the-hill offensive tackle. He said, "Big Daddy, they say you're too
big, too fat, too old, too slow, & you're finished & you're
over-the-hill. You're a reject. But he said, I believe in you."
He stopped again in front of another player whose head was down & patted
him on the head & said, "Look up." It was none other than the great
Raymond Berry. Great Wide Receiver of years gone by.
He said, "Raymond they are saying about the same thing about you & it
didn't cost me very much to get you, but he said, I believe you are still
a champion & that's why I wanted you on my team.
You may not be quite as fast, you may not be quite as quick, you may not
be what you were when you were a young man & they may have put you on
waivers, but I took you when nobody else would take you because I BELIEVE
IN YOU.
Do you know what one of the biggest problems we have in the Body of Christ
today is people who do not believe in themselves. Too many times there
are too many preachers who beat everybody over the head. I want you to
know today that what you need is not a good beatin'. Nor me either. I
like it a little bit better when somebody walks up to me & says, "I
BELIEVE IN YOU. You can make it. You have value. You're somebody."
I want to tell everybody here today that there is somebody else who
believes in you that is a lot more important than I will ever be----&
that is Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God.
HE---BELIEVES----IN---YOU.
Weeb stopped in front of another one, & another one, & another one, &
another one. And finally he stops in front of one who had his head down
& he taps him on the head like this [tap yourself on head] & told him to
look up at him. And this is what he said--he said, "Do you know what is
different about you, than all these other players? All these other
players at least had a chance to play on another team. You never did.
No team would have you.
It is bad enough that all these other players that I picked up on waivers,
that they think, or at least some of them do, that they are over the
hill. But at least they all had their golden days, their glory days and
they played on other great teams---but you're different than all the
rest, because no team would have you.
I picked you up when you were playing $25 a week sand lot football. They
said you were too small, you weren't bright enough, but Johnny Unitus,
I believe in you. He said, "Now get out there you Rejects, & show them
you are a champion.
History records that on that day in 1958, for the World Championship of
Professional Football, that the Baltimore Colts, screamed as they ran out
of that room....."WE..ARE ..NOT..NOBODIES..WE ARE STILL SOMEBODY...WE ARE
STILL CHAMPIONS...FOR YOU SEE, A CHAMPION...IS A CHAMPION....FROM WITHIN.
AND IF YOU ARE A CHAMPION FROM WITHIN, AUTOMATICALLY, YOU ARE GOING TO
BE A CHAMPION FROM WITHOUT.
They went out that day & they trounced the New York Giants & the next day
the headlines read, "The Rejects of Professional Football are World
Champions."
One day you & I felt like a reject & an outcast & a nobody ....We were on
the scrap heap, we were on the garbage pile. We weren't even worth
recycling. Nobody thought we had any value.
But there was One man whose name is above every name & at that name every
knee is going to bow & every tongue is going to confess & I speak of
Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God & when everybody else passed us
by, Jesus came & said, "You're somebody...You have value.. ..I'll take
you....I'll pick you up off of the scrap heap, I'll take you out of the
losing column & I'm going to make a winner out of you.
Welcome, ladies & gentlemen to life, but it is not a life of mere
existence, the life of which I speak today is a life that is filled with
the glory & the power & the victorious promises of the King of Kings &
the Lord of Lords & that's thru Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Point #1 I want to make this morning, If you really want to enjoy the
journey.....STOP WORRYING! BE HAPPY. Worry is a sure fire way to die
early. Guaranteed.... Worry is not only a good way to die early
guaranteed, worry is a sure way to be miserable on your way till you do
die early. RIGHT!
This is not a funeral.
I know people who worry when there is nothing wrong. I know people who
worry when everything is going good. Listen to this line & write it down
& remember it. "If you wait to be happy,....you will wait forever."
Jesus put it this way, "Life consisteth not in the abundance of the
things we possess."
We know right away that possessions have nothing to do with
happiness....RIGHT? AMEN.... It has nothing to do with it. Happiness
is not what you have accumulated to make you happy, because pretty soon
all of your little toys will get old-- --Your little gadgets will get
boring....
If I could just get a new house, or If I could just have that house on the
hillside.....I'd hear angels sing. Way up there where the air is clear.
I would be happy & all my worries would be gone....IF...
Then you get that thing, thinking that's it, there's nothing wrong with
it, but you think that's the answer. RIGHT! Going to take care of all
your worries & frustrations. But pretty soon you get tired of that one
& you think....What I need is a .....
Then you get that thing & after a while it wears out.....Well, what I need
is a .......... So you go out & you buy yourself a ............ This
is what I really need.
But that's not what I really want. If I could just get ..... That's the
way people think. This is the way people look at life. All my worries
would be gone----like that was going to take care of it, if I can just
get this .....RIGHT!
Then after you have most of these things & you still worry, you look at
your body & say, "Just look at my body." You get into shape, you start
running...& you read all these articles about "thin is in" & you work &
you get your body in shape. Don't worry, I'm going to get young again.
Then, after you are in shape & you look in the mirror & you think, "I need
a face lift."
But the whole point is, that we think that if we run here & we run there
& we get all these things & we take care of all our wants, that it means
we won't have any WORRIES. It will take care of our worries, its going
to take care of all of our problems & WE ARE GOING TO BE HAPPY. But WE
KNOW BETTER, DON'T WE?
That's not what buys happiness. That's not what gives fulfillment...That's
not what gives contentment...If you are going to enjoy the journey, you
better link up with the One that gives the happiness. Happiness is not
the product of what you can surround yourself with.
Happiness comes not only from a state of mind, but from a state of being.
Happiness is knowing that Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, lives
within my heart. That's what brings happiness! So cut out all that
worrying, it is going to kill you.
Point #2 I want to make here this morning is this, QUIT LIVING FOR THE
APPLAUSE OF MEN & START LIVING FOR THE APPROVAL OF GOD! More simply put,
Live to Please God.
How many want more than anything else to please God? Put your hands up.
Put it up & say, "Lord, I want to please you." You know there is nothing
in this world more frustrating, putting you more into bondage, than
living with your mind constantly upon the opinions of men & women around
you. That's bondage.
I would pray today that God would deliver each of us from the opinions of
men..... "Well, what do they think about me." ..... "Well, what's
everybody going to think." .....
"I mean, what will he think." "Well I want to, but what will they
think." ..... You can't live that way. And do you know what, there are
too many people, right inside the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
live to please others.
If you are living for the approval of men, you're going to live the most
horrible, miserable existence that one can ever live. Do you know why?
Because that is one of the greatest signs of insecurity.
Do you know that you might as well face the fact that you are unique. And
God probably threw the mold away when he made you. Did you know that?
I wasn't saying that in a negative way----You know, He kind of likes you
the way you are. He likes the way you look, he likes you, because that's
the way He made you. So get use to it.
So you don't have to live wondering what somebody else thinks in the
church.
I'll tell you something else. It is important that we realize, that if
we will seek to please God, we are going to be happy. Because the only
way our lives can be truly happy is to be in a right relationship with
Jesus Christ.
And when you get in the right relationship with Jesus Christ.....You will
be in the right relationship with your thinking, you'll be in a right
relationship with your fellowman. You'll be in a right relationship with
everybody, when you are in a right relationship with God. SEEK GOD'S
APPROVAL & NOT MAN'S APPLAUSE.
Point #3 is, GET GOING WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING GOD'S WAY. The crowd
that we hang out with here, on this earth, in this present time, is going
to determine your happiness now.
We need to reconsider the Scripture that says, "be not unequally yoke
together." We have always used it to apply in the marriage. I believe
we should also apply it to our lives. They tell us that water finds its
own level. That's a fact.
It has been said that, "If it looks like a duck, & it walks like a duck
& it has feet like a duck..it must be a duck." Would that be correct?
The old timers use to put it this way...."Tell me who you run with....&
I'll tell you what you are." Do you believe that? That's a fact.
Someone else said, "If you run with a skunk, long enough, ......You cannot
help but soon take on the odor of a skunk." Do you believe that? I
believe that, I'm not going to go find out, but I believe that. I accept
that.
One of the worse mistakes you can make is to hang out with people who are
not going the direction you are going. Someone said, "I'm going to do
that & I'm going to bring them up to my level." Its never worked.
They'll pull you down to your level.
Jesus said, "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself & take
up his cross & follow me." How come it is that people want to see how
close they can live to the world. The people you associate with & the
people you run with does more to tell about your life than anything.
It means that you approve of their life style. It means you like their
life style. It means you like their life. It means you prefer their
life. You don't hang out with somebody you don't like. You don't hang
out with people that you don't like their ways. It tells something about
our spiritual condition.
This may not be popular, but it will go a long way in your having a happy
life---Get with people that will encourage you in the Lord. Get with
people that will lift you up. Get with people that will begin to be your
prayer partner & your prayer buddy & begin to walk the life God wants us
to walk.
It is a lot easier to be happy if you have someone who comes along with
you in your walk with God that encourages you, instead of trying to
discourage you & have you go back to the old life style.
Instead of us seeing how close we can live to the edge, let us see how far
we can get from the world & how close we can get to God. [repeat] My
goal for the remainder of 1991 is to see how close I can draw to God.
I want to walk with Him. I want to talk with Him. I want to speak to
Him, I want to be on intimate terms with Him. I want to be able to rise
up in the morning & feel His presence. And retire at night with His
glory around me.
Ladies & Gentlemen, I want to be able to say that the Most Important thing
is to please God.
Do you know who you are in God? Do you? You know that you belong to God.
You know that you have value & you know that you're important. That you
believe that if you were the only person on earth that was not born again
& that's what it took to get you born again...God our heavenly Father
would still give His Son Jesus Christ, that you might have life & have
it more abundantly.
So don't you let anybody make you feel bad about yourself .....because
your heavenly Father does not feel bad about you. Accept yourself.
Believe in yourself. And don't let anybody put you on some kind of a
guilt trip. You are important. You belong to God.
So get your head up & don't you dare let anybody get you down. If someone
wants to take a swipe at you, turn around & love them to death. If you
want to get rid of them----LOVE THEM. That will drive them bananas. If
you want to make someone who is mad at you madder, be nice to them. It
will impact their life in a positive way for Christ.
Make character your goal. Then your life will be in line with God, & then
you will really enjoy the journey, because you have "Faith Enough For The
Journey."
Heavenly Father thank for Your Word this morning, thank you for the Word
of the Living God, the Most High God, the Holy God, the Great I AM.
Thank you for Jesus, for without Him, none of us could be happy, but with
Him, we all can be happy. Gives us our Father, Faith enough for the
Journey. We pray in Jesus Name.
