I want to preach to you for a few moments this morning on the subject of the power of a made up mind. The power of a made up mind.
Job was so phenomenally, materially blessed that it was mind bogging and it was astonishing. The scripture says clearly he was the wealthiest man in the east. In the whole eastern region of the world, no one had more wealth than this man named Job. He was blessed with material things, but he was also blessed beyond the material, with great spiritual blessings.
True greatness is not predicated in upon what we possess. Jesus says that a man life does not that consist in the abundance of things that he possess(Lk.12:15). But true greatness is determined by the things that you possess in your heart, you possess in your spirit, you possess in your soul. Job did not wake up one day and find himself overwhelmed with material blessing and spiritual blessing. Job according to the scripture, at a young age looked at life and made some critical decisions. He recognized that there are two pathways that you can take in life. He recognized that even before Christ ever lived and told the message. That he told that there were 2 paths.
There was the broad way. The broad path and many there be that go that way that leads to destruction, Jesus told. Then there is the narrow way and few there are that find that path. In other words, if you are going to go to heaven, you cannot go the path that most that people take in life. The broad path is filled with the masses and the majority of people that are on their way to destruction and the scripture said that it’s the narrow way that will get you to heaven. We think everybody is going to heaven. That is not what Jesus told. Jesus told most people will not go to heaven. If you just want to be normal, you would go to hell because just the normal person is going to go to hell. It is an elite group that will find the narrow path. That will walk the narrow path. That will make it into eternal life according to the teaching of Jesus. So if you want to be like everybody else, you are on the broad path. And Job looked at this and he comprehended it at a young age. He grasped it. He understood that the repercussion of good and bad decisions.
I was thinking about this. There were 2 things that determine what we become in life.
· Our decisions
· Our response to God
You see your free moral age, God will let you choose. God will let you decide how you will live. He is not going to force Himself, His spirit, and His words on you. His will will not be forced on you.
God says, “Your decisions and your choices are up to you.” You can choose to serve God or not serve God. Nobody can make you do it. But you need to understand while we have the power to make our choices; our choices have the power to make us and your choices are going to make your life. And you better choose wisely. This is what Job learned. This is what Job got a hold of. He understood Ecclesiastes 12: 1
“Remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of trouble come and the years approach when you will say, "I find no pleasure in them"—
Ecclesiastes 12:1 (NIV)
Before you get old before you get out of life. Before the burns of life come you. When you are young, when you are strong, sharp in your mind, remember your creator. Make a decision to serve God. To honor God. To do what is right in His eyes. Job got it at a young age; I’m going to serve God. At a young age I’m going to do right.
You know when you are 18 and under, time just drags. I remember when I was 13 or 12; I couldn’t wait to be 13. I remember when I was 11 I want to be 13. When people would ask you how old are you, I’m 12 going on 13. And then finally I hit 15. And if I remember 15 I couldn’t wait to be 16. Hurry up 16. Hurry up! I’ll get my drive-license, 16. And then its 18 I will be free! I can do what I want to do. My mama can tell me to sit down but that don’t mean I’m going to sit down. You will if you have the right mama.
But you know when you get to 18. Let me show you a funny thing about life. It’s dragging time. Finally, finally you are 18. As soon as you hit 18, it’s like everything goes into overdrive. And after 18 you wake up. My god I’m 25! I’m almost 30! My god, I never thought I’d be 30. If you think that was fast. 40. Me 40?! I can’t be 40. Now I’m 48. I’m freaking. I’m coming up on 50. I’m nervous. I can’t be 50! This can’t happen. Jesus has got to come. Something has got to happen. Not me. I’m too cool to be 50.
Before 18, it drags. After 18 is hoof! It’s like a blur. And one we have got to understand is you’re laying the groundwork for your future right now. How are you responding to God? Because the only thing that determines how your life would turn out is the decisions you make and how you respond to God.
I was thinking about, I shouldn’t have the life that I have. That somewhere, I know I’m not qualified. I’m not educated and if. I’m not gifted. I shouldn’t be doing what I’m doing and have a life that I’m having that somewhere at a young age I could take you back to the places.
At a young age of a teenager, I made some decisions that have guided my whole life. I made a decision; when I get married, I’m going to be a virgin. I remember when I made the decision. Just a young teenager, that 13 years of age. Service God touch me and I will not, I planned it, I mean it, I will not. I was thinking about heaven and the decisions then and then my responses to God, so important. My responses to God at a young age have governed my whole life. When others didn’t respond and God would touch me, I would respond. I could just hear something and it moved me and not respond to it. I had something in me that made me respond to God. I wanted to do right. I wanted to be right. I wanted to honor him. I wanted to be more, do more, become more as I would hear the word. The two things I would make choices, I would decide to cleave to good and abhor the evil and I would decide to respond to God through worship.
If I remember my friends and stuff they work but something in me made me respond. Tears would stream down my face and I finally reach the point when I don’t care. None of them go for God. Something in me has got to respond to God. And I made my choices and my choices made me.
Do what is right! Do what is right and you’ve got a hold on. Turn to your neighbors and do what is right. Say it again, do what is right!
You’re making choices and your choices will make you. Your responses to God will make you.
Ok, let’s break it down. Here we are, end of the service at a free chapel. The music is already over; the sermon is half way over. The benediction will be prayed in a few minutes and you’ll leave here. Have you responded to God?
At the end of the service, the most important part of the church service is not the music. It’s important but it’s not the most important. The most important is not the preaching, it’s important but it’s not the most important, the most important part of the service. It’s how you respond to God when he touches your heart. Do you have no response? Do you just follow the sign? Do you just harden up? Do you just say, “I don’t care”? It is that, that God watches, you may not remember what I preached 5 months from now but God will remember your response to what I preached 5 months from now. He will remember the things you lay on the offerings. Say I’ll never pick it up. He will remember the services where you were so moved that you will let your tears stream down your face. He will remember the services when you were so shaken that you had to walk from your sit to the altar. It’s our responses that God watches. And I’m convinced in heaven there is a spotlight that the Holy Spirit has. In every service it may seem like the spotlight is on the preacher. Maybe it is for a while when he is preaching the holy word of God. But inevitably, in every church there comes a moment when the Holy Spirit takes the spotlight of heaven and he shifts it off of the stage and it goes to you heart and it says, “How will you respond?”
Here is the thing I want you to see now, Job at a young age started making incredibly wise choices. I’m going to stay away from the evil. I’m going to cleave to the good. I’m going to honor you God. I’m going to serve you. I mean it. I made a decision. I’ve got the power of a made up mind. I’ll plan it. I’ll plan it now while I’m strong while everything is good. I’m a multimillionaire. I’m blessed. Look at me. I’m making some decisions when I’m on top of the world. Because verse 1:6 said, “there came a day….”
There will always come a day when the decisions we make the responses we have to God will be tested when you make those decisions in the church service. The spirit of God moves. God, oh I promise, I vow I’ll love You, I will do it, I will serve You. There comes a day when Satan say let’s test it. And there came a day… there will always come a day.
This one I would like to say to the young people while your mind is young, while you don’t have the weight of the world on your shoulders. Your biggest burden in life is what picture you are going to put on your Facebook, that’s the biggest. What is your next twitter going to be? That is you biggest concern. Should I wear my skinny jeans or should I wear my leather heels or flats but there’s coming a day when you going to have car payments, house payments, insurance. Oh god! Crying babies, this and that. Somebody is sick. Somebody, oh no! What …?! aaahhh,, ooohh, aaahhh, aahhhh,
But you are making choices now that would determine what happens when your day comes.
I want to quickly tell you a story and I want you to stay with me. All of this is going to come together.
There is a guy named Carlos Hancock that I want to introduce you to. Back in 1965, he won the sharp shooting contest in the marines. He was a marine. Only in the marines that all branches of service nobody could outshoot him. He could shoot with his scope-riffle for over a mile and hit the bull’s eye an amazing, amazing marksman.
Carlos was commissioned by the marines during the Vietnam War. There was with the North Vietnamese army an assassin, a marksman that was killing some of our top generals and military people killing a lot of our soldiers. And our intelligence told us it was one sharpshooter that the Vietcom had that was killing these people. They identified him and identified the area that he was in. They sent Carlos in to take him out. So now you’ve got the stalker stalking the stalker. There in full fatigue and he gets out in the jungle and he gets on the scene and on the trail of this Vietcom marksman. Then he becomes aware through different ways that they trained him to know that the marksman knows he is in his jungle and now they are stalking each other and one day he just saw a litter glitter. Way out hundreds of yard across the field. He just saw a little glitter in the sunlight. He immediately swung his riffle around and put his cross hair where he saw that glitter. Sure enough he saw something. Even though he couldn’t really make it out he pulled the trigger and this is proven fact. When they got the body of that Vietcom, the bullet of Carlos had gone through the telescope of that man’s riffle and hit him in the eye.
In other words the only thing that saved Carlos’ life is he pulled the trigger first. It means the other guy was looking at him.
Sometimes, when you understand that the enemy has his cross hairs on you. And you as Christians should have your cross hairs on him. The only thing that would preserve your life is if you pull the trigger first. That is why services like, this are so important. You have to decide now what you would do in temptation. Now what you would do when everything is saying do it. The flesh is saying do it. The body is crying do it, your desires are crying do it but you make decisions here. That determines what you do. There are plans for that moment.
I want to finish the story about Carlos. He has become much decorated. He saved so many lives in doing what he did as a sharpshooter in Vietnam. They said for his last assignment, he was set to retire but he could have retired. They came to him and said, “We have one more, you don’t have to do this. We have some others that we could send but not as good as you. And it’s a suicide mission if we send them because nobody has a fighting chance to do it but you. There is a general in the North Vietnam army that we need you to take out, Carlos. But we warn you it is in an enemy territory. We are going to take down the delta on a ship or boat, drop you off on a jungle by yourself in the enemy territory. You will have to live off of the land and you will have to get to a field, and there is a field that is 2000 yards from one end to the other, and there is a small ditch with a 5 inch indention. You can get in that ditch and set your riffle and our intelligence tells us that if you will wait and that general will come out of his bunker and come out and stretches at a certain time in the day.”
He put on his full camouflage. Got in to that jungle then came to that ditch. He crawls out there at snail pace. He said, after three days of crawling in that field, three nights no sleep, no food. He said the only water that he would drink; his tongue would get so swollen that he would take the cap of this canteen and drink enough to keep himself alive. Bugs, fire ants eating his body, he could not move, he could not have any movement. The field was being patrolled constantly. He was crawling, crawling through this field. And he was trying to get into this ditch. He stood out for three days and three nights no food. His body was spent. He was exhausted. His mind went crazy, his body went crazy. He began to have panic attack. And he said as he laid there and the enemy was all around him. He could hear them walking around. Then his mind said, “You have lost your mind! You can’t do this! You have got to get out of here!” But he said the thing that enabled him to go on the other 200 yards and get in that ditch and set up his riffle. And sure enough, that general walked out and stretched and when he did he took him out. Then what took him four days to get into, it took him four hours to get out of. And he made it back and he received medals and retired with great honor. But he said, “the thing that when I couldn’t get any further.” When my body said, “I won’t get any further”. When my mind said you can’t do it, he said I said to myself, “I made up my mind when I took this assignment, when I planned it that I would do it. And I’m not going to change now that I don’t feel good about it and I’m tired and I’m spent and my mind is breaking down. Oh man! I feel like quitting. I made up my mind before I ever got on the battle field that I would complete this mission!”
That’s what I’m preaching about this morning.
Hey Job, where is your cattle now? Where is your gold now? Where is your silver now? What are you going to do? You lost everything, you are sick Job. We heard about his wife and everybody makes her a villain but she was hurting too. He has lost 10 of his children in just one day. And when he said, “Curse God and die, “I don’t think he was a bad person. He was a human. His wealth was gone, his kids were dead. “God has forsaken us Job, curse God and die!” But Job said, “Wait a minute! I made a decision way back there. I made up my mind and now my body, my mind, and my circumstances are saying, “Give up its not working. Throw in the towel. Just quit.” “I can’t do it,” Coz I planned it. I know his trial, I knew it would come. And I know my redeemer lives.
This can live in you. You can if you make up your mind and if you respond to God because in the service what he knows your trials are coming, he will try to touch you. When he knows somebody is going to stick something in your face He will try to touch you and how you respond to God will release the blessing of God! But if you don’t respond to God, you will fall for that sin. This is not a game right here. What we are doing right now is not playing church. It’s whether or not people will not get to heaven or hell. It’s whether or not marriages will make it. It’s whether not families will be together one year from now. I know about trials because I planned it
I’m through preaching. And now we are at the most important part of the service. Your response. Because God has got a plan. I was not like some of you. When I would hear a message and it pierced me in the heart, I couldn't tears would fall down my face even if I was sitting with my buddies. If something would mess with me. I couldn’t just… I couldn’t do it. Your response to God determines what your life will become.
You can’t give up now, you have got to have the power of a made up mind. You see the bible lets us know that He has not given us that spirit of fear that makes us want to draw back and say “I can’t do it.” As a matter of fact, we are none of those Hebrews(10:39) saying that draw back. I believe God is speaking to you today. Put your hands together and applaud that you made a step of faith, don’t drawback. This is a message in season through your life.
Maybe you have not really made up your mind to follow the Lord Jesus Christ, but today as you have watched this program. You hear his voice and His spirit drawing in. Why don’t you just pray this prayer? I’m telling you that’s why we are here. We have no other reasons to be on TV except for people like you who are ready for a change in your life. We believe this program is a <kingdom connection>. Meaning that God wants to touch you today and bring you into the kingdom and turn your life around for the good.
Pray this prayer;
Lord Jesus, I receive You today as my savior. Thank you for the blood that You shared and I received Your grace.
In Jesus name, Amen and Amen!
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