How would your life impact others?
Most of the time when we think about the future, we view it as, "How is this going to affect me?"
We aren't given the gift of life to ONLY enjoy it ourselves, but to impact others.
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| Bucket List |
Some would start living out their bucket list.
When I started thinking about it, I thought, would I do all of the things I ever wanted to do?
Or would I go find people and help them live out the life THEY desire to live?
Perspective
I had the chance once to meet with Bill Bright, the founder of Campus Crusades for Christ.
I asked him to tell me how Campus Crusades works.
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| Bill Bright Founder Campus Crusade For Christ 1921-2003 |
He said, "I tell our staff that at the end of every day we need to be broke. I want to leave everything on the table because I don't know what day will be the LAST day."
It put life into perspective for me to realize that at the end of everyday I should have given it my everything. That I should have looked for every opportunity and I should find appointments everyday that would be life-changing for other people.
This week, everyday, commit to look for opportunities to add value to other people's lives.
Our greatest opportunities we have are to worship the Lord and add value to other people's lives.
CHOOSE TO TRULY LIVE!
Some of us spend our whole life accumulating.
When I was growing up, my Mom bought a sofa and chair for the living room. We were not allowed to SIT on it. Then why did we get it? We got it to look at. You don't sit on it. During that era some would put plastic on their furniture and you would sit on it and your legs would stick...
I look back on my life and realize I didn't LIVE a lot of my life. I existed.
I lived in a defensive posture trying not to die. The goal at the end of life is not to arrive there safely!
I lived in a defensive posture trying not to die. The goal at the end of life is not to arrive there safely!
We are called to live the
Abundant Life.
Jesus put together a rag tag group of people to represent him. They were not well read or respected. They decided they had a higher purpose in life than the way they were living it. (Luke 10)
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13
In Luke 10:17, the disciples realized 'even the demons submit to us'. They realized they had been given power. Jesus said, "Do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven." Jesus pointed them here and now to eternity.
Live your life recognizing that Jesus
has taken care of your future.
In Hebrews 9, it says we all die. That's not a revelation!
The question is, will every one of us LIVE?
Most live their lives trying to just "make it". God has more for you than to just make it. We have been sold this idea of survival...
You were not called to survive. You were called to thrive.
This is a revelation that seems selfish. No! You are being a reflection of the Father. We see the glory of God on this earth and Satan convinces us that we are called to "get by".
Life was meant to be lived joyfully, then we get encumbered with the requirements of society and we lose our ability to really imagine.
As a kid you had a tremendous imagination. You would tape toilet paper rolls together and create a saber. You parents thought it was cute. But in YOUR mind you had a WEAPON!!! You could SEE it.
You were living life and then you had to go to school and teachers started raining on your parade.
It's called the real world. It's very cold.
I bought into that for a long time...
...and then I got saved.
I began to read the bible and I began to see that God had this fabulous life that he wanted us to live.
FIGHTS
I grew up fighting.
Walking to school, I had to pass "fight corner".
You had to be bad or you had to be fast.
I was neither.
I learned to survive.
I learned diplomacy.
I was expected to fight and fight for my life.
I learned to fight and that I didn't like it.
I didn't like pain.
I grew up with the mentality that I had to fight the rest of my life.
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Without realizing that Jesus
already fought and won the battle
and he got the victory.
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Throughout the bible we see fights that don't belong to us. Look at Jehoshaphat and Judah is getting ready to be destroyed. God does funky things all throughout the bible.
God said, "Put the singers up front as you scale the mountain!"
In MY neighborhood that will get you beat up twice!
So Jehoshaphat put them out in front and what happened? The enemies that were going to destroy them started destroying each other.
For Jericho, they were told, "March around the city and play and sing."
Are you kidding me????
Can you imagine walking around playing the tambourine and singing?
Can you imagine what the macho men were thinking?
What happens? They march around, God fights the fight, the walls collapse and it's a done deal.
Sometimes we fight fights with people that we would be better off just to shut up. How many know that when someone says nothing it can be scary?
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The healthy person doesn't torture others, it's the tortured that turn into torturers.
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You KNOW what you are against, what are you FOR?
Fight less for your rights.
In America, it's amazing how much we are against, many don't even realize what we are for! Find out what you are FOR.
I figured out that I was for:
- Loving all people
- I became FOR the peace of God that passes all understanding
- I found myself being for joy
- I found myself wanting to add value to others instead of standing against them
- I found myself believing in people that didn't believe in me
It's simply a choice.
You might deal with hateful people all day.
Don't let who THEY are...become YOU.
Just because they are hateful to you doesn't mean you have to be hateful to them. Just because someone doesn't like you doesn't mean you don't have to like them.
It's amazing - - if you can find out what you are for instead of what you are against.
If you are against something,
there is a good chance you will fight.
If you aren't against anything,
there is a good chance you won't fight.
But you say we need to fight?
Most victories are won with love.
The victory over sin was won with love.
It wasn't won because Jesus was against sin,
but because he was FOR us.
By dying FOR us, sin had to submit
to the power of God that is in our lives.
He came FOR us.
He didn't come because of sin,
He came because of YOU and ME.
He was FOR us.
What do you stand for?
Who do you stand for?
How do you stand for it?
Victory in life should not be the goal, Obedience should be.
If I had one year to live, I decided the following:
To make sure I don't fight the wrong fights.
I would try to look at everything in a different light. I would realize that if someone wanted to hurt me that it really wasn't me that they wanted to hurt.
People are often hurting themselves...and if I could see that, I don't have to fight that fight. If someone attacks me verbally, the reality is that they don't like them. It's not me they don't like, I just happen to be a preacher. I'm an easy target.
We preach hope, life and love. If someone isn't living hope, life and love then they get angry that I preach it. They want it, but their pride stands between them and acquiring it.
I used to be one of those people. I hated the church and people in the church.
In Africa awhile back, I had a stopover in Dubai. I was in the desert and I met with an Egyptian Muslim who was living there. You might ask how that went? It went fine. I wasn't looking for a fight, I was looking for a conversation. Rather than judge him, I thought I would talk with him.
I asked him to tell me about Egypt because my wife has always wanted to go there. He said it's rough there right now. I asked him to tell me what the problem is? He told me that his people have memorized, but not learned.
Many in the body of Christ have memorized God's word, but have not been able to apply God's word.
I decided I would not memorize beyond what I had learned. So I realized I needed to learn God's word.
JUDGE LESS, IMAGINE MORE
I decided I would judge less and imagine more.
When I was a kid I would build cars out of leaves in the Fall. In our minds it was a real car. I have to tell you that I'm a car guy. Women aren't my problem, cars are. I started racing when I was 16 and I think going to heaven in a fast car would be phenomenal.
I got an opportunity to drive a NASCAR going 150 miles an hour at the Dallas Motor Speedway. I felt closer to Jesus than I've ever felt in my life. It was the greatest religious experience of my life. I wasn't looking for police officers like I usually am.
At one point, I wondered what it would be like to hit the wall going this fast... I wondered what it would feel like and if I would live. I don't have a fear of death. In my mind, I thought, I've gotten to go this fast, but I've yet to experience an accident!
Isn't that what NASCAR is all about? You want to see accidents! That's why we go to hockey games...not for the game, for the fights!
God is able to do more than we can think or imagine according to the powers at work in us. Ephesians 3:20
God really wants us to have an imagination. Most of the time, because of our fallen nature, we imagine the worst instead of imagining the best.
I am going to imagine how GREAT you are. How GREAT other people are. How incredible God made you. If I can give birth to a dream, I've added value to your life. We speak to what we see, not what can be. God spoke to what can be beyond what he can see. Because all he saw in the natural was a fallen nature. He saw what we could be and He declared it.
Do you declare what is or what could be?
Jesus constantly spoke words that irritated religious people.
The book of Revelation was written for us to imagine...walls full of gems, translucent pearl streets...
Jesus didn't say, I'm going to heaven and I will prepare shacks for you.
He said, in John 14, in my Father's house are many mansions.
My imagination runs wild and puts Walt Disney to shame.
Walt Disney said that if his board agreed with his idea, that his idea wasn't big enough.
I like people who dream the impossible!
TAKE MORE RISKS
3. Take more risks.Most people measure what they will or won't do based on risk.
Sometimes you just have to take a risk.
How come you think the devil kept replaying the twin towers getting hit by an airplane to create images in your mind that would keep you from doing things that you would want to do.
He is a master of creating images in our minds that would prevent us from living the life that Jesus wants us to live.
When you were a kid, you had so much fun!
Some of you will face incredible pressures tomorrow. Some of you have major adversity and obstacles in your life that you just don't see any way that God can do something for you.
He is the same yesterday, today and forever, he is a God of miracles.
On our darkest and worst day, there is still hope because He is still God.
LAUGH
The bible says laughter is good medicine and sometimes we just don't laugh enough. We just aren't free enough to say I'm just going to laugh otherwise I'm going to cry.
Sometimes you just need to laugh.
It's important that we laugh.
Neural imaging shows that as we age, the center of cognitive gravity tends to shift from the imaginative right brain to the logical left brain. This neurological tendency presents a grave spiritual danger.
DANGER DANGER DANGER
At some point, most of us:
- stop living out of imagination and start living out of memory
- instead of creating the future, we start repeating the past
- instead of living by faith, we live by logic, instead of going after our dreams
Why is this a danger? Without faith, it's impossible to please God.
I never want to die looking back and saying, "I wish I had'of".
My last days, I want to say, I'm sure glad I did what I did.
Live your life in such a way that you're saying I'm sure glad I did this.
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