Winning is everything

How many of you in here actually play sports?
What sports are represented?

How many of you like to win?
What does it feel like to win?
How many of you like to lose?

We like to win don’t we? It is an amazing feeling when you can push yourself to the limits and accomplish something.

Winning takes place on all fronts, athletics, school, home, and spiritually as well.

And this morning I want you to walk away with the main point:
WINNING IS EVERYTHING.

We are told by Paul. That if you are going to be the man or woman that God wants you to be, you have to be a winner.

If you have your bibles turn to:
1 Corinthians 9:24-27
24Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.
25Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. 26Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. 27No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others; I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

Most of us in here get this passage. In one way or another we apply that to our lives. Probably most of us in here have applied it to our respective sports because we want to be the best in that sport.

But how many of us daily apply it to our walk with God?
God has a course laid out for us.

Matthew 7:13-14
13"Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

So we all know that in this life. We have a course. God has something for each and every one of us to do here. According to the text, it is a small path. Not many people will be on the same path as us.

Jeremiah 29:11 tells us:
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord , "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God has it all planned out for us. He has something that is right for each and every one of us. God wants us to succeed.
He wants us to accomplish the thing that he has set out before us.

But sometimes we get in the way. Whether it is because of arrogance or pride, whatever it is it blocks us from the provision and blessing that God has for us.

We need to rely on God wholeheartedly here on earth.
Proverbs 3:5-6 says:
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Does that mean that if we trust in the Lord with everything that it will be easy? No way. It is a daily battle. It is the battle or competition if you will that builds into exactly what God wants us to be.

There will be trials in this battle there will be persecution.

The bible tells us that in
2 Timothy 3:12
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

But the good thing is we know that already. We know what we’re up against. We just need to train and prepare ourselves everyday.

We need to take on the challenge like James, in James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Our coach and biggest fan, God, is training us to be the person (athlete if you will) for Him, in this battle.
What a privilege!
What an honor!

But what are we doing?
Are we training like we should?
Is anything besides winning even an option for us?

Those are questions you must answer.
If you’re on the side of the cross, you’re on the right team. I have read the book and know who wins. But what are we doing for our friends and family? Are we taking a winning mentality into battle on a daily basis? If not, we need to start praying for that area of our lives.

What happens if you’re that person that says, “Brian I try to do great things but I always fail.” Or “I try to do stuff for God but it never works out.”
God sees your heart. He sees you are doing your best for Him.
Remember what god wants from us?

God wants us to be all about him.
What are the two greatest commandments?
Love God
Love others more than ourselves.

We win when we do this daily.
Let’s be about winning. Let’s be about winning at home, at school and in life.

Let’s take this challenge head on, because as Paul said and we know:
WINNING IS EVERYTHING!

"The only adequate answer to an aggressively pagan world is for Christians to recover the New Testament power of spiritual aggression."
-Karl Barth

Have you considered...

Job?
His life has some amazing attributes. He was abandoned by all his friends and those close to him. But what did he do? He took the high road! In everything, his attitude and words. AMAZING!
Have you ever had a rough day? week? year? how did you handle it? Read Job it could change your life.
Love truth. defend truth, and truth will set you free.
PEaCe to all
B

What do you reflect.....?

How many of you have a:
Cell phone?
MySpace?
Car?
Boyfriend or girlfriend?
Good relationship with your parents?
Good relationship with God?

How many of you think about your relationship with God when:
Your on your cell phone?
On My Space?
In your car?
With your bf or gf?
With your parents?

What are cell phones all about?
Why is MySpace generally all about?

Generally all the stuff in our lives (cell phones, cars, MySpace) and the stuff we do (tanning, how we spend our money, where we spend our time) is all about us.
It is generally the mindset of taking care of number 1.
Me, mine, myself mentality.

The average Christian goes to church one time a week. (and in all actuality they probably open their bibles less than that.) But they go to church.

Why do we go to church?
Pick up chicks?
Cause we have to?

We don’t do it to be noticed in our new dress, we don’t do it for attention to ourselves, we need to come for God. We do it all for Him.

I think it is important for us to remember the reason we are all here (on this planet)…is for God. It is for us to be open to His leading and His direction.
The focus lately in my view has shifted where church and Christianity is more of a “me first” mentality. Where we show up to be noticed in our new dress, or to bring attention to ourselves in some way.

And in doing that we miss the whole point of being Christian. We miss the one who can help; we miss out on a lot because we focus on ourselves.

So what am I trying to say…. “Get over yourself”

I want you to know I am not picking on any one person. I am not singling you out in any way, but…. Some of you will be convicted with some of the stuff that is said. Some of you may feel it is directed right at you, that is a God thing. And if he speaks to you through this and to your heart, ACT on IT! Change. Modify your behavior to be God’s instrument.

Basically how the “normal” human being acts is one of selfishness. It is all about “me”.
From friends we have just because they think we’re cool and build us up.
Maybe it is ways we act to get attention for ourselves. (whether it is good attention or bad, I don’t think it matters these days as long as your name is known for something.)

This all about me mentality is funny. It is funny because for the majority of us we say we love God and follow His ways.

Romans 12:10 says:
10Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves.
How many of us act that way on a regular basis? Not many. Generally the mentality is honor myself and everyone else can take care of themselves. That is sad.

Ephesians 4:2 says:
2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Hebrews 10:24 says:
24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.
We are ok with the Hebrews quote as long as we add the ending that we remain above them in stature and importance.
24And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. “and let us remain more popular, better off and above them..”

A lot of times we are more like Cain, than Abel.
1 John 3:11 describes this for us:
11This is the message you heard from the beginning: We should love one another. 12Do not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own actions were evil and his brother's were righteous. 13Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. 14We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. 15Anyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life in him.

We don’t like to put others above ourselves because that makes us vulnerable. We don’t want anyone in front of us because that means we have to depend on someone other than ourselves, and that is scary.
It is for that same reason we suppress God even below us in importance, because that requires faith and trust.

A school teacher lost her life savings in a business scheme that had been elaborately explained by a swindler. When her investment disappeared and her dream was shattered, she went to the Better Business Bureau. "Why on earth didn't you come to us first?" the official asked. "Didn't you know about the Better Business Bureau?" "Oh, yes," said the lady sadly. "I've always known about you. But I didn't come because I was afraid you'd tell me not to do it." The folly of human nature is that even though we know where the answers lie--God's Word--we don't turn there for fear of what it will say.
Jerry Lambert.

We know what we’re supposed to do. We know how we’re supposed to live but we don’t for fear of what that would mean to us.

Instead we think it is good to stand out for the wrong reasons….just because we need that attention.
For example:
Who can make the biggest disruption to get the most attention
(Whether that is at school, or at church. )
Who can be the biggest rebel (anyone ever wanted to be a rebel? You know have the bad boy or bad girl connotation?)
some examples of this:
§ “Yeah me and my boyfriend went all the way.”
End result: “Yeah my boyfriend just used me and we broke up.” or
“I’m pregnant”
Both end results are apart from what God wants for your life. Both miss the mark.
Both are results of selfish motives.
Both end in pain and anguish

How about:
§ “I snuck out of my house and went to that party.”
End result: “yeah, I got drunk and I’m really not sure what I did last night”
“well I got in trouble when I got back and my parents found out”
Both results end in broken trust. When you disobey your parents or an adult for

selfish reasons, trust is broken. Once trust is broken the one who has broken the trust

has the responsibility to rebuild it.

How about:
§ “Yeah well my MySpace is trashier than yours.”
End result: “people keep calling me trashy”
“weird guys keep hitting on me on MySpace”
The results are because of your actions. You act trashy; sooner or later you’ll be called trash. If you don’t want to attract flies, quit acting like trash.

Some people are under the misconception that hey can act one way around church and another away from it. You can. You can if you have no real relationship with Christ.

Some people talk to me one way, whether that’s in person or on MySpace, and then use different language around others or even on their MySpace. You can. You can if you’re fake. You can if you don’t have a clue what God expects or wants with your life.

Revelation 3:15-17
15I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.

So what do we do? Well first of all we suck it up. We decide what we want and what we believe. Then we look at some Biblical examples of people who were not about themselves but were open to God’s direction:

God uses the people we would least expect.
12 disciple’s à ordinary people but they followed Jesus, wholeheartedly.
David à youngest of his family and smallest in size. He was called a man after God’s own heart.
Gideon à least of his people, smallest tribe, smallest family in size and stature. Was a great leader and warrior for God.

None of them looked for themselves. All of them sought God in all they did. They weren’t in the relationship for selfish reasons.

As Christian’s we’re not suppose to pull attention to ourselves. We’re supposed to direct attention to God. We are merely called to be mirrors. And we all are mirrors.

But what does your life reflect?

2 Corinthians 5:17
17Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

The first blog.
In light of events that have transpired in recent days i thought long and hard about what my first offering would be. Well here it is. I once taught this to a group of teens, of whom i love very much. I thought it was very appropriate for me right now.
We will all have pain and suffering in our lives due to the words and deeds of others.
So in those moments, in those low times, what should our response be?
What should we do?
We should "Build a Bridge"

You’ve heard of the Panama Canal. But long before there was a Panama Canal there was a Panama Railroad. A case could be made that it was the most difficult railroad built anywhere at any time. Built in 1850 at the height of the California gold rush, it was the first ocean-to ocean railroad, its completion predating the Union Pacific by fourteen years.
Mile for mile it also appears to have cost more in dollars and human life than any railroad ever built…
The surveys made by its builders produced important geographic revelations that had direct bearing on the decision to build the Panama Canal along the same route...
Still, the simple fact that it was built remains the overriding wonder, given the astonishing difficulties that had to be overcome and the means at hand in the 1850’s. Present day engineers who had experience in jungle construction wonder how in the world it was ever managed…
It is almost inconceivable…that the railroad survey—just the survey—could have been made by a comparative handful of men who had no proper equipment for topographic reconnaissance (no helicopters, no aerial photography), no modern machines, nor the least understanding of the causes of malaria or yellow fever.
There was no such thing as an insect repellent, no bulldozers, no chain saws, no canned goods, not one reliable map…
The original line was five foot, or broad, gauge, and it was built as hurriedly and cheaply as circumstances would allow…. Still, this one little stretch of track took nearly five years to build and cost $8 million, which averages out to a little less than ten miles a year and an unheard-of $168,000 per mile.
Part of the construction problem can be appreciated in a single statistic. In those forty-seven and a half miles it was necessary to build 170 bridges of more than twelve feet each in length.
David McCullough, Brave Companions (New York: Touchstone, 1992), 90.

The people who worked on the Panama Railroad built 170 bridges why?
- To get where they needed to be.

They faced a lot of struggles and had to go over a lot of difficult areas to get where they needed to be.
They faced a lot of opposition, from lack of proper equipment to the environment they had to work in. But the pressed on and got where they needed to be.
Does anyone know where we need to be as Christians?
We need to be unified with others and with Christ.

Romans 15:5-6
5May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, 6so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

A lot of times in our walk we aren’t unified but we are divisive.
Why would we as everyday people ever need to build a bridge?

You are human.
I am human.
I am pretty sure everyone reading this is human. And if you are human, I guarantee you are going to mess something up.
You are going to let someone down, you are going to hurt someone’s feelings, and you are going to say or do something that is not very wise.
The fact of the matter is we are all human and make mistakes.
Some more, some less, but we all do it.
At one point or another you have let someone down.
Your parents, your friends, your co-workers, God.
We all do it. We fail.
Sometimes we learn.
And if we don’t learn then we fail again in exactly the same way.
For those that learn we get to fail in new ways.

We have all screwed up.
When we mess up people get hurt and we need to seek their forgiveness. We need to turn from what we did and seek the other person’s forgiveness.
We need to go to that person and start repairing that relationship. Start building a bridge back where it used to be.

A couple married for 15 years began having more than usual disagreements. They wanted to make their marriage work and agreed on an idea the wife had.
For one month they planned to drop a slip in a "Fault" box.
The boxes would provide a place to let the other know about daily irritations.
The wife was diligent in her efforts and approach: "leaving the jelly top off the jar," "wet towels on the shower floor," "dirty socks not in hamper," on and on until the end of the month.

After dinner, at the end of the month, they exchanged boxes. The husband reflected on what he had done wrong.
Then the wife opened her box and began reading. They were all the same, the message on each slip was, "I love you!"

Let’s face it. As faulty as we are in these human bodies, every time you turn around, you are going to have to build another bridge. Bridges cost. They cost money and time.
But it is worth the time and the effort if we want to live the abundant life that God has for us on this Earth.
Think about it…when someone wrongs you or you are the one that wronged someone, think of the emotions that can result:

Anger - doesn’t benefit us at all. In fact it can make the situation only worse not better
Stress - doesn’t help much. Makes us feel like we want to throw up, but that is about it. All we have to
show for stress is what we ate earlier and an ulcer.
Worry – Who of us by worrying adds a single day to their lives? (that almost sounds biblical)
Anxiety – Get you some gray hair early. Be anxious for nothing.

All those emotions that come do us really no good.
We need to move on, we need to move forward, we need to build a bridge and get over it.
You might say well I would get over it easier if they would just say they are sorry. Well the cold hard facts are that there are people in this world who refuse to say they’re sorry.

They never admit to any wrong doing, nor will they probably ever. What do you do with people like that?
You pray for them first. You pray that God would open their eyes. Then you move on, move forward, you build a bridge and get over it.

So a couple of hints for you when it comes to forgiveness:
- First of all if you are a God-fearing person. Seek forgiveness when you screw-up.

Make steps to rebuild the relationship you hurt by your wrongdoing.

We talk about changing the world, but no one wants to change themselves.

We have to be willing to do a little work to be where God wants us to be. Our sinful self needs a little discipline and we need to mature. We need to change ourselves.

- Secondly, if you have been wronged, talk to the person and point out how they hurt you. They may not even know they did anything wrong.
If they repent then forgive them and rebuild that relationship.

Luke 17:3-4
"If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. 4If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, 'I repent,' forgive him."

Mark Twain said, “Forgiveness is the fragrance that the flower leaves on the heel of the one who crushed it.”

Andy Stanley said, “If you are a Christian, you are not expected to treat others the way you’ve been treated by others; you have been called to treat people the way you have been treated by your Father in heaven. You don’t forgive because the other person deserves it; you forgive because you have been forgiven.”

If the person that hurt you doesn’t repent…build a bridge, forgive them anyway and move on.
o Make sure not to put yourself in that situation again. Don’t set yourself up to re-enact the pain and anguish you went through again.

Our example in building this bridge is Christ….He was a carpenter (knew a little about building)

If our greatest need had been information, God would have sent us an educator; If our greatest need had been technology, God would have sent us a scientist; If our greatest need had been money, God would have sent us an economist; If our greatest need had been pleasure, God would have sent us an entertainer; But our greatest need was forgiveness, so God sent us a Savior.

We’re told in
Philippians 2:5
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus

So we need to have a Christ-like attitude in all that we do, especially when it comes to forgiveness.

Psalm 103:12
as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
Think about that. That’s pretty far. How often do we bring up stuff that we should have moved past?

Matthew 18:21-22
21Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?"
22Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Christ was mocked, spit on and crucified, and His words were “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”
He built that bridge for us.

He forgave us when we didn’t even deserve it.
Kind of humbling isn’t it.
Forgiveness takes work. Forgiveness takes effort.

We will have to build many bridges in our lifetime. Similar to the Panama Railroad. Not sure how many you will have to build. Bridges cost time and money, but in the end people will be amazed at your life and your example. People will be amazed at your passion in pursuing God and the Unity in Him. All the while living a life with your attitude and behavior that points others straight to Christ.

So let’s all have the spirit of unity that was spoken of in Romans 15. And if something gets in the way, let’s all just “Build a Bridge and get over it.”

Welcome to my blogger

Hello all in response to highly technical computer savvy (insert big words here) happenings, I have now decided to begin posting on this blogger page rather than on my myspace page. So feel free to drop me a line, let me know what's going on or post random pictures/messages. Much love

B