Live Delivered

God spoke to Moses from a burning bush that was not consumed by the fire.  He parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites could escape the Egyptians.  He brought water from a rock for the thirsty Israelites while they were in the desert.  He stopped the waters of the Jordan River so that the Israelites could cross on dry land.  Mary had the baby Jesus, but she was a virgin.  Jesus turned water into wine.  Hearing these stories for as long as I can remember, I grew up looking for a great God to appear in great and unimaginable ways.  I bet that for much of my life I missed God’s presence because I was watching for the impossible.  But now I know that the secret to the great starts with the small.

1 Kings 19:11-13 captures an account of God revealing Himself to the prophet Elijah.  The scripture says this: “Then God said, go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.  And behold the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind.”  Elijah was looking for the Lord, and he was told where to find Him.  Elijah arrived at that place looking for something great because he had something great going on in his life at the time.  An evil person was determined to kill him, so he was looking for something greater than his circumstance.  When he heard the wind and saw its destruction, Elijah was sure God was there.  But He was not.  Like Elijah, we have a lot of stuff going on all around us today.  There is a lot of noise, and a great wind strong enough to change the course of our lives blows all around us.  But God is not in the wind, nor is He in the difficult circumstances we create in our lives. We must look to find Him elsewhere.

Scripture continues: “And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire.”  If the wind was not enough, Elijah had to endure the shaking and rumbling of the foundation of the earth right under his feet and the fire that comes with that.  Surely, he thought, God would be there.  But again, the Lord was not in the earthquake or the fire.  We may find ourselves on shaky ground.  We may find our foundation unsure, our sources of stability falling away, and everything around us consumed by unquenchable fire.  Then we look more intently for the Lord because we know He can match rumblings for rumblings and fire with hotter fire.

So, we believe, when the things around us and under us and over us begin to shake and burn, it must mean the Lord is there.  But He is not.  God does not rock our shaky foundations with more instability, nor does He fight our fires with more fire.  He will wait for us to stop weakening our foundations and throwing fuel on the flames of our lives.  If you are looking for God to avenge a wrong done to you, perhaps you should stop looking.  God’s ways are not our ways.

After the wind, after the earthquake, and after the fire, there was “a still small voice.”  Scripture continues: “So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave.  Suddenly a voice came to him and spoke. ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’”  Elijah answered that he had always been zealous for the things of the Lord, and although he was not perfect, he was still looking for Him and had not turned to other gods.  So, what about you and me?  Sometimes the difficulties we face seem to be so big that we start looking for God in a big way.  But the secret to the big often starts with the small.  God will not shout at you, nor will He handcuff your enemies.  A small rudder is used to turn a large ship.  So it is with God.  In the middle of our chaos, He comes to us with a still small voice to see whether we will quiet ourselves so that we can hear what He is asking us.

So, quiet down your life.  You may not be able to remove yourself from a current circumstance straight away, but that should not keep you from hearing the Lord’s voice clearly just where you are.  He speaks to us in a still small voice, so we must learn to hear the quiet that is always present in the middle of our storms.  The miracle of hearing Him does not just come to us in the form of things that are impossible; it comes also in the improbable things that happen in our lives because we learn to listen for His voice in the calm of our lives.  If you allow Him to teach you how to listen for Him, He will teach you how to hear Him from wherever you are.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

One day Peter asks Jesus how many times he must forgive a person who sins against him.  “Up to seven times?” he asks.  Peter wasn’t looking for a way to forgive; he was looking for a way to limit forgiveness.  I have often asked myself what the worst thing is anyone has ever done to me that would make me feel like I could never forgive them.  I am grateful that I have found there is really no trespass of any sorts against me that is so great that I would not forgive.  I know how messed up I am, and I know how much I may offend others, giving me a need for their forgiveness, so I live towards others in a way that I want to be forgiving of anything and everything because others must live with me and my own shortcomings.

Still, you may ask, how can anyone be so sure they can forgive anything or anyone?  Well, I have learned that it is easier to have a forgiving spirit than it is to forgive as an act towards others.  I try not to take the things people do towards me personally.  Scripture gives us the ultimate example of what it means to have a forgiving Spirit.  In Luke 23:34 Jesus is on the cross about to die.  He says to God, “Father forgive them, for they do not know what they do.”  Sometimes that personal person in me wonders why He didn’t say, “Father give them a taste of their own medicine”.

So, how is it that Jesus could not only forgive the people who killed Him, but He also could ask God our Father to forgive them as well?  Well, just as Jesus doesn’t just love us—He is love, I believe Jesus doesn’t take things personally.  He doesn’t just forgive; He is the Spirit of forgiveness.  So then, how can you and I live in a forgiving way in a world where people do things that hurt us, harm us, or cause us pain, sometimes intentionally?  Well, I believe we can best do that when we come to ask the Father for a Spirit of forgiveness which will keep us from taking personal the things people do to us.

I know just the thought of forgiving others for the harms they do to us can be difficult for us to even think about, especially when people do things to us over and again.  But forgiving frees us while unforgiving binds us.  When we are free we can move on, but when we are bound we will fight on.  So, if you want to be free to live above the stuff that binds others, ask the Lord to help you learn to never take personal attacks on you personally.  You will know that you have a Spirit of forgiveness when you :

• Learn to never take personal the things people do towards you—if you don’t take things personal then you won’t respond to others as if you are wounded by their acts;
• Learn to never be offended by the things people do towards you—if you are not offended then you will not be revengeful;
• Learn to use forgiveness to heal things that are broken—if you learn to heal you won’t further break things that need restoration;
• Learn to live as if you are a child—if you live as a child then God your Father will be there to protect and care for you;
• Learn that God has made you more perfect than you can imagine—if you remember God made you to be perfect, you will not allow the things people do toward you to reveal the small imperfections that God is still working to help you to overcome.

I don’t know what the most unforgivable thing is anyone has ever done towards you, but forgive that thing and person anyway.  We are called to forgive, never to avenge.   Learn never to take things personally, but instead make all things personal to God.  No matter what others may say or do towards you, always remember that you are a child of God and that He will fight the battles you face if you get out of the way and allow Him to do so.

Like Jesus, let’s learn to ask God first to forgive others more than we fight with others because forgiveness is healing and restoring and freeing.  Forgiveness frees you from the binding actions others place on you.  Ask the Lord to give you a forgiving Spirit and others will know that you live in the power and Love of the Lord.  When you learn not to take things personal, the Lord can make personal to Himself all the things that happen in your life.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Did you know that God’s mind is always on you?  Does that surprise you at all?  What does that mean to you?  And do you understand what it means to cast your cares upon Him?  I know that many of us find it difficult to let go of things that are trying to get hold of us, especially when circumstances demand our constant and immediate attention.  Many of us find ourselves in difficult and complex situations that make it is hard to see how the Lord will help us through, especially when we see that so many things must change for us.  

Still, whether we understand these things or not, scripture encourages us to give our cares over to Him. Nothing we face is so big that He does not have His eyes trained on it for us.  We can believe that about Him.  Scripture encourages us in 1 Peter 5:6-7, saying, “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”  Have you ever cared about something or someone so deeply that your mind was always on them?  God would not tell us to cast our cares on Him if He did not intend to have you and all that you care about on His mind daily.

Jesus tells us that not even the life of a little sparrow escapes the eyes and goodness of God.  How much more then will He want to care for you and me?  If His eyes are on the sparrows, then surely His heart is on us.  At some time in your life you have probably had someone tell you to “mind your own business.”  I would like to share a few things that will help you put yourself into the position where God minds your business for you.  How great would that be?

First, learn to live a submissive life instead of a contrary life.  God resists us when we live as if we can handle things on our own.  If you live like you control all that happens in your life, He will stand by and let you have charge over all aspects of your life.  A submissive life is a humble life, and a humble life is the kind of life God rewards with the power of His grace.  If you want God to mind your business for you, then give Him all the things that make up your cares of life and let Him care for them.  Humble yourself under God’s hand, and He will lift you out of your circumstances and your burdens.

Then, learn to learn from life and the things that happen around you.  God cannot help you with your business when you refuse to learn from your business.  There are people around you who are smarter than you are about some things; learn from them.  There are people who do some things better than you do; learn from them.  There are people who discipline themselves to live in ways that are better than you do; learn from them.  If you are too hard hearted and stiff necked to learn from the things that are happening around you, it is unlikely you will learn from the soft gentle ways God uses to help you.  Pride keeps you from learning because pride keeps you trying to be more than you are.  Pride keeps you from being all you can be.  Failure happens when pride prevents the learning needed for you to be successful.  Learn to be a learner in life and God will be your teacher.

Finally, if you want God to mind your business, give Him all the things that you care about.  Throw your cares into His arms and then fill your arms with the things of His life.  By filling your arms with His things, you will not have a way to pull back the things you give away to Him.  He tells us to take His yoke upon ourselves, so let’s do that.  Throw your cares of life on His wagon and then yoke yourself to Him and learn to pull the burden He gives you.  He promises that His burden is lighter than the burden of your own cares.  Go to Him and swap out your cares for yourself with His cares for you.  When you learn to care about what He cares about, you will discover how much He has been caring for you all along.

If you want God to mind your business, cast your cares on Him and let Him teach you how to view your cares through the lens of His power rather than through the weaknesses of your own strengths.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Tell me.  How many of you, when you are in a hurry, will get to the elevator and press the button, but while you wait for it to arrive you decide to take the stairs instead?  The elevator just does not arrive fast enough for many of us.  So, we exhaust ourselves by taking the stairs only to realize when we get to our floor the elevator has made it there just ahead of us.  If we do not think we need the Lord’s help with a thing, it is not likely we would think to wait on Him.  We can take the stairs using our own strength.  The elevator will always arrive on time, but our impatience can make it seem like it is delayed.

I want to encourage you to be one to wait on the Lord for everything.  Psalms 27:14 encourages us with this simple message, “Wait on the Lord; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart:  Wait, I say, on the Lord!”  If you learn to wait on Him for everything you do and all that you want to do, then He add to you natural strength, His Spiritual strength to make things happen.

We don’t know for certain, but the belief is that it took Noah at least 75 years to build the ark that would later save his family from the great flood.  Abraham had to wait till he was almost 100 years old before he became father to his only son Isaac.  Joseph spent several years in an Egyptian prison for something he did not do before he was released and made second in command in Egypt.  The Israelites were captive in Egypt for over 400 years before God brought them out by Moses.  It can take an Oyster over a year or more to produce a pearl.  

You might say Noah took such a long time to build the ark so that other people would have time to learn to love God.  You might say Abraham had to wait as long as he did because he had to learn to be a great father.  You might say Joseph spent time in prison so he could learn to wait on the Lord for everything.  You might say it took over 400 years to secure the release of the Israelites because they had to grow in numbers that would rival their enemies who were already in the promised land.  And you might say the oyster takes as long as it does to produce that pearl because the oyster must learn to live with a difficulty that will not go away.  When you learn to wait, the Lord will be there to help you endure and get through your greatest difficulties.

We are very impatient people today.  We do not want to wait for much, but we want much to change in our lives each day. We are challenged to wait in two simple ways.  We must learn to wait for something good to happen in our lives, or we must learn to wait for something difficult to stop happening in our lives.  Waiting comes down to those two simple things.  The challenge for each of us is to learn to wait on the Lord so that we do not lean upon our own strength to get us through.

What should you do while you are waiting on the Lord?

• Don’t make things harder for Him to work on your behalf.  If you are waiting on the Lord to change the heart of someone you care about, wait for Him to change your heart instead.  A change in you which might be the thing needed to change the heart of someone else.
• Don’t expect to get something for yourself without changing something about yourself.  Often times the miracle you are waiting on is the miracle you allow the Lord to do by changing something in you.
• Don’t complain about where you are while you wait for things to change.  Your attitude is an indication of whether you are waiting faithfully on Him or whether you are faithfully frustrated with Him.

What is the Lord doing while you are waiting for Him?  Noah probably asked this question many times!

• He is trying to order your steps in Him rather than in the world.  Make it easy for Him and stop wondering about chasing your own paths to nowhere.
• He is trying to work His miracle in you so that others can see His favor upon you.  If you are determined to do it by yourself, it is not likely He will be able to do more than what you do for yourself.
• He is waiting to see if you will wait to see.  The Lord cannot deliver you from your challenge if you are going to take the stairs to another level of your challenge.

Learn how to deny your urge to try to be successful at everything that you do and wait on Him to help you do what you cannot do.  Our circumstances do not determine the speed at which the Lord responds to our needs. Our patience to wait in those needs is what determines how quickly the Lord helps us.  Learn to always be heard by the Lord by being silent before everyone.  Then the Lord will speak for you and others will hear about you.  Learn to take your impatience to the doorstep of the elevator of patience.  Press the button and then wait on the Lord to deliver you through your circumstance.  Wait on the Lord; He will come in time to deliver you.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

My message today has more relevant meaning because we will celebrate Memorial Day tomorrow.  This is a day that we honor military personnel who died in the service of our country. More specifically, it honors those who have died because of wounds they sustained during a battle.  So Memorial Day is the way we remind ourselves and our country to remember to honor those who died protecting our way of life.  I imagine without this day set aside as it is, we would probably live our lives forgetting the cost that has been paid so that we can live the lives we have.

Like Memorial Day, God did many things and continues to do things that would be a reminder to us to remember Who He is and how He works in our behalf to make sure we have an abundant life with Him.  In Joshua 4:3-6, scripture says, “Take for yourselves twelve stones from here, out of the midst of the Jordan, from the place where the priests feet stood firm…that this may be a sign among you when your children ask in time to come saying, ‘What do these stones mean to you?’  Then you shall answer them that the waters of the Jordan were held back before the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, when it crossed over the Jordan.”

At that time, the Israelites were a fragile people, but God made a way for them to cross over the Jordan river on dry land.  On our own we are a fragile people today.  We need reminders so that we can remember the things that are most important to us.  God knew this would be a challenge for us.  So, the twelve stones became reminders to the Israelites to remember the day that the Lord made a way for them to cross the Jordan and enter the Promised Land for the first time.  God wants us to remember the things that will help us learn to live in ways that will give us more abundant lives.  But worldly views have confused us, causing us to remember the things that we should not want to be reminded of.  For example:

• God says to remind yourself to remember that Jesus died for you and me so that we may have eternal life, but our world view says remember that no one can care about your life more than you can, so we reject any reminders of what Jesus means to us.

• God says to remind yourself to remember that all life is a gift of God, but our world view says remember that life is the product of a man and a woman, so you should reject any reminders that life comes from anything higher than two humans.

• God says to remind yourself to remember to love one another just as Christ loves you, but our world view says remember that the last person you loved hurt you, so you should reject any reminders that you should love others unconditionally.

• God says to remind yourself to remember that God wants to be a part of all your life, but our world view says remember that God created you to think and act on your own, so you don’t need any reminders that tell you to submit to anything or anyone that keeps you from exercising your free will.

• God says to remind yourself to remember that you should choose the life that will lead to eternal life in heaven with God, but our world view says remember that heaven and hell are not proven to exist, so we reject reminders that there can be anything beyond life but death.

• God says to remind yourself to remember to seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and all things on earth will be provided to you, but our world view says remember good things comes only to those who work harder than the next person, so we reject reminders to pursue anything other than what we believe is best for us today, seeking only things we can achieve through our own hard work.

• God says to remind yourself to remember to honor your mother and your father which is the first commandment with a promise (long life), but our world view says remember we do not have to honor or respect anyone or anything that has not itself honored or respected us, so we reject reminders to do otherwise.

So, as this is a season of reminders, let us remind ourselves to remember that God says that in all our ways that we should acknowledge Him, and He will direct our paths.   When God is directing our steps and our thinking, we will not be misled by a majority thinking that our world views are the best views to have.   In doing this that we have the opportunity in Christ to live a life that is fully delivered from the world view way of living that is all around us today.  So, let’s create some memorial stones in our hearts today, stones that will remind us to remember that God is for our good and never for our harm, despite our world view which might suggest otherwise.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Why are you and I here today?  Jesus knew why He was here.  He said in John 10:10, “The thief does not come except to steal and to kill and to destroy.  I have come that they have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.”  Then in John 19:30, He said, “It is Finished”.

Three Words.  Three little words spoken to God and to us by Jesus Himself just before He gave up His life on the cross.  It is finished!  These are not words of defeat or hopelessness.  No, these are words of life.  By these three simple words Jesus secured life everlasting and the promise of an abundant life here on earth for you and me.

Jesus came to fulfill the purpose of life God ordained for you and for me.  This is what He means by saying, “I came that they may have life.”  That was His purpose, His meaning, and the reason He came.  Jesus finished fulfilling a Purpose of Life that He had for us—everlasting life.  So, from the cross, He is saying to God, “It’s finished.  My purpose is over.  I’ve finished the work needed so that We can have a relationship with all those who will want it.”

So, what about you and me?  I ask again, why are we here today?  What is your individual Purpose of life?  I don’t believe we can ever know our purpose of life if we believe we were meant to simply live because we were born; or to do because we must live; or to die because it’s the end of living.  When we live this way, we can never really say, “It is finished” because there will always be another thing for us to do right after we finish the thing that we did last.

But doing lots of stuff is not the abundant life Jesus spoke of.  Abundance comes to us when we discover and accept our purpose of life.  It is through purpose of life that we can change many of the circumstances of our lives that keep us from the abundance Jesus promised us.  So, “It is finished” are three words you and I ought to come to speak, but not as if we are completing a job or task, and not as if we are walking away from something that we couldn’t change.  Jesus wasn’t speaking with an attitude of defeat, and neither should we.  His was an attitude of victory.

So, if you and I find and live our Purpose of life, we will never speak about our circumstances with an attitude of defeat or hopelessness.  On the contrary, with Purpose we would be speaking with attitudes of joy and fulfillment, no matter our circumstance.  You and I must come to a place in our natural lives where we give up us our natural inclinations so that the Spirit of the Lord can have His way with us.  We must come to the point of Purposeful obedience in our natural lives where each of us says to the Lord, “My struggle with being me is finished.”

When we do this, a life of purpose will be born in each of us.  So, what does it mean to be finished?  It means we no longer struggle against God with our natural selves.  It means we come to behold our lives the way He beholds them.  To be finished means to see the death of your old self and the birth of your new self in a moment with a Purpose of life.  Living without purpose is empty living.  Jesus promised abundant life.  Purpose helps you come to live the abundant life right here and right now.  The more things you choose to finish in your natural life, the greater things you can have in spiritual abundance.  So, wake up to the promise of that abundant life and say to your life of living by your own strength, “It is finished.”  Live a delivered Life.  Love you.

At the beginning of the book of Joshua, God spoke told Joshua a lot of things that must have seemed unbelievable.  The Israelites had wandered in the desert for forty years and now they were poised to cross over the Jordan into the land God had promised Abraham many years earlier.  But not everything going forward would be easy.  They would have to conquer many people of the land who had lived there for many of the 400 plus years that the Israelites had been in Egypt and the desert.  This would be a big challenge for them, the biggest of their lives.

Speaking in Joshua 1:6, God encourages Joshua to “Be strong and of good courage, for to this people you shall divide as an inheritance the land which I swore to their fathers to give them.  Only be strong and very courageous.”  I don’t know about you but after over 400 years of challenges, I believe I would have trembled in my knees at the prospects now of having to do something I had never before done nor been trained to do.  I would have been afraid.  I would have been discouraged.

But now I know there is something greater than my fear.  Tough things are a part of life, but we serve a God who will help us through the tough things to find the great things that await us.  When God is in your tough stuff, you can be certain He plans to bring you through to something greater.  You may not see or know His plan for you as clearly as Joshua did, but knowing or not knowing His plan doesn’t mean His plan for you is not there and sure.  As with Joshua He simply asks that you don’t decide when things are over for you because He holds the key to the beginning and the end of all things.

So today I want to encourage you by helping you find the courage of life to “be strong and of good courage” (God’s way of saying it), because where there is good courage, many of life’s challenges cannot stand against us.  

How do we find this good courage?  First, we must learn to deal with fear.  Fear is a thief.  It is not the opposite of faith; fear is the absence of faith.  Fear is your inner weaknesses telling you to believe everything your mind tells you to see.  Fear says, “Seeing is believing.”  Faith says, “Believing is what you have not seen yet.”  Joshua saw what was ahead of him and the Israelites, but He believed what God said.  Fear wants to make you get off track from what God has planned for you.  Don’t listen to your fear.  Conquer fear with faith and belief in the Word of God.

Next, learn to keep yourself from discouragement.  To be discouraged is to remove courage from your life and your circumstance.  Like fear, discouragement arises from the sense of “seeing is believing.”  The devil wants you to believe everything you see so he can make you discouraged about what you want but can’t see.  So, learn to keep discouragement out of your life.  Where there is fear, there is belief is something not real.  Where there is belief in something not real, there is discouragement in wanting what is real yet unseen.

Finally, learn to be encouraged.  Encouragement is learning how live with a faithful expectation that what you cannot see is the land where all your promises of life can be had.  The devil wants you to forget what you should remember about believing what God says, and he wants you to remember what you should forget about your circumstances.  So, he hates it when you start adding encouragement to your life because it is God’s way of saying to him, “It’s all over for you!”  So, learn to live a life filled with encouragement and you will never be discouraged for long when the tough times come your way.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you. 

Let me start by acknowledging that I have often struggled with the message for today.  I have had many occasions when the words I spoke did not always match my actions.  Now, don’t be alarmed.  I suppose many of us have struggled with this character challenge before.  The book of James tells us, when speaking about how unruly and uncontrollable the tongue is, that the tongue is a mean thing.  James asks rhetorically, “Can a spring bring forth both fresh water and bitter water from the same opening?”  We all know this is not possible.  The point is that we have to fight to match up the things we say with the things we do.  For me, when I came to my senses, the answer is simple: speak less than what comes to my mind and do more from my heart, then the character of my actions will reflect the character of my heart.  But still, we often find it easier to say things than to do those same things.

Why?  Because you and I are not God.  We are imperfect and sinful.  Yet, God demonstrates to us, and the book of James tells us, that what we do should match what we say, and those two should match who we are.  Now, we don’t have to be perfect at this because we cannot be. But we should always be working towards being better than we are at heart.  Psalms 119:68 says, “You are good, and You do good.”  David is speaking of God here.  He is saying, “God You are good and because You are good, You do good things.  And You do good things because You are good because you are God”.  God shows us how the character of what we do should match the character of who we are.

Still, you might say but you have done so much wrong that you cannot see how you can possibly change who you are.  But then that is the point of this message; we should be careful not to think that the things we do are the best indication of who we are.  If you take a piece of food that is not yours and give it to a child who is starving are you a thief or an angel? There is more to this, and here is what that is.  Clearly the character of our acts must stand on their own.  What we do is what we do.  But the character of who we are can reshape the character of how we view the things we do.

How is this so?  Well, I know that a criminal did it so it must be possible for you and me to do it.  Scripture says two men who were criminals, thieves to be exact, were crucified along with Jesus.  One of them, in the agony of being crucified, repented of his wrongs and defended Jesus.  He asked Jesus to remember him when Jesus came into His kingdom.  Jesus responded to this man by saying, “Today you will be with Me in paradise.”  Being a thief is what earned this man the cross; a repentant heart and belief in Jesus is what got him to paradise.  Still, was he a criminal or was he a believer?  Could he be both at the same time?

RW Emerson is quoted to have said, “Sow a thought and you reap an action; sow an act and you reap a habit; sow a habit and you reap a character; sow a character and you reap a destiny.” I believe this thinking does not quite describe you, me, and other people of faith.  Clearly what we do in life will follow what we think in life, so it seems to me that our thoughts must come from a character of life that exists before we act.  In a moment, this criminal changed the makeup of his character and so it was reflected in the character of the most amazing act of his life: the act of belief in Christ.  The habit doesn’t reveal the character of the believer.  The character of the believer shapes and defines the character of their acts and habits.  We should all want this for ourselves.

You and I are indeed imperfect and so we are like one of those two criminals.  There is one who isn’t repentant about anything and is set on living apart from God.  And the other who in knowing that he is apart from God tries to find his way back to a place with God.  We are all made to be like God in the ways that we have the control to become.  But we fail, so at best we want our acts to speak of the character we want others to believe for us, and at worst we want our acts to disguise our real character from the sight of others.

But the scripture is true; just as it is not possible for a spring to bring forth both fresh water and bitter water at the same time, it is not possible for the things we do to fully and accurately reveal the character of who we are.  So, if you want your character to be truly revealed in your acts, and you want your acts to be a true representation of your character, do these things:

• Love others quickly and lavishly and others will see the character of the love that you are;
• Speak less and others will see the character of the listener you are;
• Do less and others will see the character of how you inspire action with no action;
• Start your life journey on the inside and others will see the character of that journey in what goes on outside;
• Speak more good about others and others will see the character of the selflessness found in you and;
• Serve the Lord and His interests in others and others will see the character of His interests in you.

When you learn to do all things in these ways, you will be one whose character is seen in the things you do, and the things you do will be done because of the character of person you are.  God, You first make us better so that we will do better, and we will do better because You first make us better.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

Two little boys wanted a pony for Christmas.  They ran downstairs on Christmas morning hoping to find that pony.  But all they found was a Christmas tree with piles of manure around it.  The older boy cried, “No pony!  Christmas is ruined!”  The younger boy ran to the barn to get a shovel.  When he returned, he started shoveling away, saying, “With all this manure, there has to be a pony in here someplace.”  I want to talk to you today about how to hang on to what you desire of the Lord especially when there is a lot of stuff piling up around you.

The two boys in this story had very different views of the circumstances on that Christmas morning; they had desires for the same thing, but circumstances caused them to see things very differently.  Psalm 27:4 says, “One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple.”  In many ways we are like these boys.  Often the circumstances of our lives are so challenging that we fail to see the One Thing about Life that matters the most.  Where do we live with our desires?

Now, you may say, “But circumstances are real, so how can we pretend they do not exist?”  I am not suggesting we ignore our circumstances at all.  I am saying that as believers we must learn to see through our circumstances to find the Lord’s provision for our desires.  We can learn something from each of those two boys.  We can learn to not miss out on our blessings because we see all that is bad—all that is not what we want—in our circumstances.  Or we can be willing to put our faith and hope to work a little and shovel away some of the things that surround our circumstances so that we can find what the Lord has given us.

Often, we are unwilling, either knowingly or unknowingly, to see that even as we tell the Lord what we desire, we may have to look for that to come in ways that are not what we expect.  The One Thing sure to move the Lord to respond to our prayers is when we pray a prayer of faith that is based on patience and encouragement.

We see this also in our scripture.  David asked the Lord for “One Thing.” His circumstances at the time were grave as he had enemies coming at him from every direction, and he had people close to him who would undermine him at any opportunity.  He could have said, “I need a lot from you right now, Lord.”  But instead, he said, “The One Thing I desire from you is to live in Your house.”  In a way David is saying it doesn’t matter what his circumstances are, he wants to live those out in the house of the Lord.  What about you and me?  Where do we live out the circumstances of our lives?

The world that we live in right now is a little crazy, and it becomes even more so daily.  We cry out for unity, but we bring division by the way we live and the things we do.  We say we want a pony for Christmas, but we do not want to deal with the manure and the straw and the work that comes with owning a pony.  As a nation, we do not really want a relationship with the Lord, and we do not know how to have the relationship we believe we want with each other.  Our scripture today is saying to us that even in a world that is lost within in its self-made needs, the believer can still have their desires met when we remember the One Thing that matters most.  No matter what is happening around us, we must live dependent on and in the presence of the Lord.

So, like that kid who shoveled the manure away looking for that pony, let’s look at the Word today and learn to shovel away at the needs we have that grow each day and learn to live by a single desire that is sure to be found underneath all our wants.  Here is the One Thing that is always true for us.  The Lord is our light in all the darkness we will face; let’s not look for that light in any other place.  The Lord is the strength of our life; let’s not have any other thing that we believe we can draw strength from.  The Lord is the place where we may live when we are in a time of trouble; let’s learn to bring our troubles to Him rather than learn to live in the wrong places.  And in those times when we may feel like we will faint and lose all hope, let’s remember to believe that we will see the goodness of the Lord while we yet live, no matter our circumstances.

The One Thing that matters most and will surely encourage you to live life to the fullest is to learn to wait on the Lord and to be of good courage because He will strengthen your heart.  If you do this, you will find a shovel somewhere in your life that is exactly right for shoveling away some of the mess hiding what the Lord has given you.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.

After Jesus was raised from death, but before He ascended to heaven, He was seen by His disciples and many other people over the next 30 days.  On one occasion two people walking along the road to a city called Emmaus were joined along the way by Jesus, but the travelers did not recognize Him.  As they walked, Jesus talked to them about the scriptures and all that was written about Himself.  At some point the travelers finally recognized that it was Jesus who had walked and talked with them just before He disappeared from their sight.  They said to one another, “Did not our hearts burn within us while He opened the scriptures to us?”

My message today is on the experience of how we can know when God touches our hearts.  In 1 Samuel 10:26 scripture says, “And Saul also went home to Gibeah; and valiant men went with him, who hearts God had touched.”  God’s ways are not our ways so He can touch anyone at any time He wants for any reason He wants.  He can touch us in response to our prayers for ourselves.  And guess what?  He can touch us in response to someone else’s prayers and needs.  I want to talk to you about how we can know that He has touched our heart even if we were not seeking a touch of God in that way.

First, when God touches your heart, you are likely to do something out of the ordinary for you but extraordinary for others because you respond to His presence.  God touched the hearts of those valiant men so that some valiant things of God would happen around King Saul.  God’s touch can cause some people to use their strength in ways mightier than what others can face on their own.  They will serve people who need strength and the sense of victory in their lives.

When God touches the heart of a person, that person will become humble under the strength and service of God for the benefit of someone else.  When God touches the heart of a humble person, that person will be strengthened to a place of valiant acts beyond what he or she could have ever imagined.  When God touches our hearts, we will go with the people God is directing, and we will carry with us a sense of valiant strength, determination, courage, confidence and favor that will be present in all we are.

When God touches your heart, He will make you to stop talking so much, and you will start listening more than you ever have.  In a way, He makes you act because you have first listened, instead of talking and acting but hardly listening at all.  This disposition of listening and learning is the state of the heart that makes us think our hearts are burning inside of us.  And in a way, the heart is burning.  It is on fire to hear more, to take in more, and ready to be transformed more by what it has never experienced.

When God touches your heart, people learn to see your heart before they hear your words.  When God touches your heart, He enables you to live from what is in your heart more than by what is before your eyes.  If you learn to live this way, you will find God in all that you see because you will see with the eyes of your heart, the place where God lives and abides in you.

When God touches your heart, He makes you to live in joyful expectation of having what you have never asked for but now you know that you have need of it.  If you have lived a life independent of God, when He touches your heart, you realize that He is the key to your life and all life, so you live in joyful understanding of His presence.  In the places where God is present, miraculous things will happen all around, over and over again.

When God touches your heart, you wake up each day a changed person because God’s touch is life changing, never ending, and always transforming.  You will approach every new day as if you are a new person because God’s touch of the heart kills something old and brings to life something new in each of us.  You cannot remain the same as you were before God touched your heart.  When He touches your heart, He deposits something of Himself into you, something that you were missing.  You can recognize more of His ways because you have more of His presence in your life.  When God touches your heart, you begin to touch the hearts of others in ways that you never did before.  To some of us, He may seem to disappear from the things we see, but this is only so that He can appear right in the heart of who we are and who we should be for Him.  Live a Delivered Life.  Love you.