Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: Before you sit down, just let some folks around you know that you're glad that they're here today.
Speaker 1: Amen, amen.
Speaker 1: It is a good day to be in the house of God, amen.
Speaker 1: So good to see everybody here, glad to see some faces I haven't seen in a while.
Speaker 1: It's always good when family comes together.
Speaker 1: Amen, amen.
Speaker 1: And that's one of the things that I love about Connect Church is, even when we're not able to be here every Sunday, when we do show up, we're family and that's a good thing.
Speaker 1: Well, I want to welcome everyone to day number 16.
Speaker 1: We're getting closer.
Speaker 1: Day number 16 of our church is 21 days of prayer and fasting.
Speaker 1: Now I pray, everything is going well and even if you didn't start on the first day of the year, I mean, you know that's okay.
Speaker 1: It's okay Wherever you are, that's where you are and we're glad for that.
Speaker 1: And you may be like I haven't started at all.
Speaker 1: Well, that's okay too, because today is a great day for you to be able to start and just do come along with doing what we are already have started doing.
Speaker 1: Amen, you know it's not about a legal.
Speaker 1: I've got to do this 21 days.
Speaker 1: It has to be these particular 21 days.
Speaker 1: No.
Speaker 1: Prayer and fasting is a time when we set aside our time and focus on God and, regardless of where you are in this, god knows, he knows our hearts, he knows what we have need of, and I think it's awesome that we have the ability to start off the year this way, because it kind of sets the tone for the rest of the year.
Speaker 1: I like to think of it like this and understand I have absolutely zero musical ability.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm man enough to say that.
Speaker 1: Stephen knows it's okay.
Speaker 1: Okay, I intentionally make sure Josh doesn't pay attention to me when he's up here drumming and I'm up here clapping off beat.
Speaker 1: Okay, because if he looks at me, I'm going to throw him off.
Speaker 1: That's why, if you see me clapping a lot of times, I'm clapping real fast because I'm thinking one of these has got to be right.
Speaker 1: Just being honest, but if we were getting ready to play in a concert that was going to be seen all over the world, would you tune your instrument before the concert or after?
Speaker 1: Doesn't do any good to tune the instrument afterwards.
Speaker 1: So that's why, when we're starting out the year with prayer and fasting, we're tuning our instrument and we are wanting to make the most of 2022.
Speaker 1: Is there anybody here hoping that 2022 just really stinks?
Speaker 1: Looky there, nobody.
Speaker 1: That's a good thing.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 1: So that's all I have to say about the fasting for right now, but I want to ask another question how are we doing on Pastor Stephen's challenge of 17?
Speaker 1: Three of us?
Speaker 1: The challenge of 17 is simple Five minutes a day in prayer, five minutes a day just giving God praise whether that's with music or just singing praises, whatever that looks like to you and then five minutes of reading God's word.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I know that's only 15.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we've got two more minutes in here, or two more things.
Speaker 1: The first is doing one random act of kindness every single day for someone.
Speaker 1: Okay, we can all do that, and then invite at least one person to church.
Speaker 1: And guess what, even if they tell you, no, it's okay, because we're still doing our job of inviting.
Speaker 1: That's our job.
Speaker 1: Now, if God tells you to put somebody in the headlock and drag them to church, first of all make sure that's God, otherwise they're going to police, are going to show up and you're going to get dragged away somewhere else, and that would be a bad day.
Speaker 1: Okay, so let's just do our best every day to be the best that we can be for God.
Speaker 1: Amen, that's the bottom line.
Speaker 1: So now, moving on to what I feel like God has laid on my heart this morning, I want to share a message with you that I have titled Prefer Six little letters P-R-E-F-E-R, and I also want to give a little bit of a disclaimer.
Speaker 1: This morning, there may be part of this message, or several parts of this message, that might step on your toes.
Speaker 1: There may be a couple of parts in this message that may actually kick you in the shin in this message that may actually kick you in the shin.
Speaker 1: But just understand, the harder I stomp, the more I kick, the bigger I smile, because my toes have already been stomped on, my shins have already been kicked, and I just want to share some things that God is teaching me with you, amen.
Speaker 1: So, to start off, I want to give a definition for prefer.
Speaker 1: When we look up prefer in the dictionary, it is defined this way to like better or best, okay, to give priority to, to choose, select or pick, or one of my favorites, to single out.
Speaker 1: This definition is going to be very important as we go through the rest of this morning.
Speaker 1: I want to give it to you one more time.
Speaker 1: The definition is to like better or best, to give priority to, to choose, select, pick or single out.
Speaker 1: Now, today's key verse that we're going to be bouncing off of is going to be found in the New Testament, particularly the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 30.
Speaker 1: Now, deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Bible, up close to the front.
Speaker 1: It's one of the books of the law.
Speaker 1: It was written by Moses, and Moses had a lot to say to the children of Israel, and I believe that what he said to the children of Israel back then is very applicable to what we need to hear today.
Speaker 1: So chapter 30, verse 19, says this Today I have given you a choice between life and death, between blessings and curses.
Speaker 1: Now I call on heaven and earth to witness the choice you make, oh, that you would choose life so that you and your descendants might live.
Speaker 1: There's a lot there, father, as we go through this morning.
Speaker 1: Father, let my words be your words and Father, even if I don't speak the right words, let the right words be heard anyway.
Speaker 1: Father, help me to get out of the way so that your word can come forth.
Speaker 1: And Father, just give us all ears to hear what your spirit would say to each and every one of us today.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Choices, choices, choices.
Speaker 1: What is your preference?
Speaker 1: What are you going to choose today?
Speaker 1: Do you want paper sacks or plastic bags?
Speaker 1: Do you want hot tea or iced tea?
Speaker 1: Do you want vanilla ice cream or chocolate ice cream or any other flavor of ice creams?
Speaker 1: I don't want to limit us on ice cream.
Speaker 1: I don't want to be that guy.
Speaker 1: So ice cream is always a good choice as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 1: And at the end of the day, will somebody please just make a choice on where we're going to go eat today?
Speaker 1: It sounds, it sounds so easy.
Speaker 1: How many of y'all have ever had a discussion where you want to go eat?
Speaker 1: I don't care.
Speaker 1: Where you want to eat, it doesn't matter.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm going to tell you it matters.
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you it matters.
Speaker 1: It does matter, because I learned this early on in my dating relationship with my wife.
Speaker 1: We were going to school at TJC and we were off at lunch at the same time and I was wanting to treat her.
Speaker 1: I said, well, where do you want to go?
Speaker 1: I don't care.
Speaker 1: No, seriously, where do you want to go eat.
Speaker 1: You tell me, and that's where we're going to go, I don't care, you don't care.
Speaker 1: No, I don't care.
Speaker 1: Okay, so we drove right across the street to Derwiener Schnitzel For those of you who have not had the opportunity to enjoy the delicacies of footlong hot dogs, that was their specialty hot dogs.
Speaker 1: And as I pulled up into the parking lot there and I said, all right, we ready to go in, I noticed a tear starting coming down her aisle and I realized she just lied to me.
Speaker 1: Obviously, it does matter where we go eat.
Speaker 1: So and what you may not have just heard her say was I picked the one place that I knew she didn't like.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because I was wanting a response of where do you want to eat?
Speaker 1: Just make a choice.
Speaker 1: And so many times God today is telling us quit thinking about every little thing and just make a choice.
Speaker 1: Better move on here other than making the choice to follow Jesus Christ and to make him Lord of your life.
Speaker 1: One of the biggest choices you're ever going to make in your life is am I going to get married?
Speaker 1: And if I am going to get married, whom am I going to get married to?
Speaker 1: How many of y'all know that that's a very big choice.
Speaker 1: That's not a choice that you just go nah, they'll do.
Speaker 1: No, please don't do that, okay, because then if we have a whole lot of people that do that, then in just a short amount of time, pastor Steve and and miss Jesse are going to have a whole lot of counseling sessions set up and you're going to make their job really, really hard.
Speaker 1: So it's important if we do choose to marry, who are we going to marry Now?
Speaker 1: I think that everyone knows that the marriage relationship is a complex relationship.
Speaker 1: Would you agree?
Speaker 1: And if you're not sure, if the marriage relationship is a complex relationship, it's because you're not married yet, because most of the time, how many of you know, opposites attract, and when opposites start spending a lot of time together, there tends to be a lot of rubbing and disagreements I'm not going to say arguments, but maybe some loud, vocal discussions.
Speaker 1: And things may not always be peaches and cream.
Speaker 1: There may be a few bumps along the way.
Speaker 1: For things to work, there has to be good communication, amen.
Speaker 1: For things to work, there has to be a give and take from both sides and ultimately, preferably Jesus needs to be right in the center of the marriage, because even with Jesus in the center of the marriage, there's still going to be some friction sometimes.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's just going to happen.
Speaker 1: That's just the way life works.
Speaker 1: And now, if you've ever been to a wedding, you may have heard something that sounds something like this I now take you to be my lawfully wedded wife.
Speaker 1: I promise to love you in good times and in bad.
Speaker 1: I promise to take care of you in sickness and in health.
Speaker 1: I will honor you all the days of my life, preferring you above all others.
Speaker 1: Okay Now, I've been at weddings where they didn't say in sickness and in health.
Speaker 1: I've been in weddings where they didn't say a lot of this stuff, and I heard someone ask the groom say well, hey, what do you think?
Speaker 1: He said I think everything's good and be good as long as you don't get sick, or as long as this doesn't happen.
Speaker 1: See, it's a choice.
Speaker 1: We all have choices to make.
Speaker 1: It's a choice.
Speaker 1: We all have choices to make.
Speaker 1: Prefer you above all others.
Speaker 1: When Pamela and I got married, she told me that it was no longer appropriate for me to have a girlfriend.
Speaker 1: How narrow-minded, right?
Speaker 1: But that was one of the stipulations If we were getting married, she was the only one.
Speaker 1: And guess what?
Speaker 1: She is the only one.
Speaker 1: And here's the thing I read in the Bible all these different folks that had a bunch of wives Okay, every single one of them also had a bunch of wives.
Speaker 1: Okay, every single one of them also had a bunch of problems.
Speaker 1: Okay, does that mean it's the woman's fault?
Speaker 1: Absolutely not, because if it had been one woman married to different men, there would still have been a bunch of problems.
Speaker 1: Okay, the marriage relationship is one man with one woman.
Speaker 1: Okay, and that's more than I can handle.
Speaker 1: Okay, you know, I tell people all the time everybody has a cross to bear.
Speaker 1: I just happened to be Pamela's, so she puts up with me and I'm very grateful for that.
Speaker 1: But building a true, strong, committed relationship is not about ease.
Speaker 1: How many of you know that?
Speaker 1: It's not about convenience, because walking day in and day out with someone is very often not easy.
Speaker 1: It is very often not convenient, often not convenient, but that's okay.
Speaker 1: It takes work.
Speaker 1: It takes give and take and a willingness to work through conflict.
Speaker 1: We have to work through the conflict.
Speaker 1: And for gentlemen, I'm just going to give you a little bit of advice here.
Speaker 1: There is a verse in the Bible that says something to the effect it is better to be on the rooftop in the middle of a hailstorm than live in a house with a quarrelsome woman.
Speaker 1: Now that can be flipped the woman can be up on the roof in the hailstorm and the man can be quarrelsome.
Speaker 1: Okay, point is, if you're in the middle of an argument, don't break that verse out.
Speaker 1: It will not go well with you.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's not going to have that calming effect.
Speaker 1: Just saying that that was free, that wasn't even in my notes.
Speaker 1: But in my relationship with Pamela I must choose daily whether I'm going to think about me, me, me, or am I going to think about us?
Speaker 1: It's not about what's right for me, but what's right for us, and sometimes I choose right, other times not so much.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because I can tend to be a very stingy person, a very me first person, if I'm not careful.
Speaker 1: Some times back, billy Graham and his wife were being interviewed and the interviewer asked Mrs Graham, what was it like to be married to Billy?
Speaker 1: And she had all these glowing things to say about her husband and that was awesome.
Speaker 1: And then the interviewer asked well, did you ever think about divorce?
Speaker 1: Mrs Graham sat.
Speaker 1: She thought for a minute she goes.
Speaker 1: Divorce, no Murder, yes, yes.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because from time to time there is conflict.
Speaker 1: Now, in a relationship with friends and family, we also have to choose how much time we spend with them.
Speaker 1: How many of you know that?
Speaker 1: Okay, some friends in some family, being around them, build us up.
Speaker 1: Some of the friends or people we call friends in some of our family have a tendency, sometimes, maybe a lot of time, to wear us down.
Speaker 1: Okay, we've all got that.
Speaker 1: Nobody's immune from that.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing Are you allowing friendship and extended family to interfere with the marriage relationship?
Speaker 1: That's something we have to think about.
Speaker 1: Where's the priority going to be?
Speaker 1: And if you have that relationship with a friend or family member that is always trying to separate you from what God has for you, whether they realize that's what they're doing or not, how many of you know it might be time to have a tough conversation?
Speaker 1: The reason they call it tough love is because some of the conversations we have to have with others can be tough.
Speaker 1: They can be hurtful.
Speaker 1: There is a chance someone could be offended.
Speaker 1: Can you imagine that in the day and time that we live in, somebody could be offended by something that we said, regardless if it was true or not, anybody ever seen that?
Speaker 1: Yep, now this might mean that you might not be able to spend as much time with some of the negative attitudes and the negative influences that some of the friends or family bring to the table.
Speaker 1: Now, does that mean we do away with those friends, do away with those family members?
Speaker 1: Maybe that sounds kind of harsh, doesn't it?
Speaker 1: But there may be times that, instead of spending time with them, we spend time praying for them.
Speaker 1: There may be times that we need to pray for us in our interactions with them, because how many of you know my brother, my sister?
Speaker 1: They're not responsible for my actions and reactions.
Speaker 1: Sometimes I just need to be the bigger person and not let myself get involved with some of their drama or be very sensitive to what the Holy Spirit is telling me and speak this little bit and shut up, or just start out with shut up, because there are times that I just need to keep my mouth shut, and how many of you know that sometimes that doesn't happen?
Speaker 1: You know, but we just have to be sensitive and there are times that, at least for a season, we may have to say bye to some folks, and that can be hard, especially when this individual is a lifelong friend or is a family member that you know needs help.
Speaker 1: But until they're ready to receive the help, they're not going to receive it.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's just a fact.
Speaker 1: Moses said choose blessings or curses.
Speaker 1: Now that seems like an easy choice, but I want you to remember that our enemy, the devil, is very, very good at dressing up curses to look like blessings.
Speaker 1: The Bible calls him an imitator of light.
Speaker 1: What that means in a business standpoint is he makes the outdoor window look very, very inviting.
Speaker 1: Because you're like man, if the outdoor window looks this good, how awesome must this store be inside?
Speaker 1: And then, when you get inside and the door closes behind you, you realize real quick uh-oh, I done made a mistake.
Speaker 1: The devil wants us to think that your choices will have zero ill consequences.
Speaker 1: The devil may say something along the lines of it's okay, god knows what you're going through right now.
Speaker 1: It's okay.
Speaker 1: It's okay, god understands.
Speaker 1: It's no big deal.
Speaker 1: And let me explain this to you just real quick in case you don't know or maybe you've forgotten.
Speaker 1: Anytime you hear the voice of the devil, he is always lying to you.
Speaker 1: The Bible calls him the father of lies.
Speaker 1: There is no truth in him.
Speaker 1: If there's no truth in him, anything coming out of him has got to be a lie.
Speaker 1: It's got to be a setup.
Speaker 1: So be on guard for that.
Speaker 1: The devil wants us to think there's no consequence.
Speaker 1: How many of you know, there's consequences for every choice.
Speaker 1: We make Good choices, good consequences, bad choices, bad consequences.
Speaker 1: And it's up to us.
Speaker 1: What are we going to choose?
Speaker 1: What are we going to prefer?
Speaker 1: I want you to think about a large banquet table for just a minute.
Speaker 1: I know we're in the middle of a fast.
Speaker 1: Please bear with me, but whether that's a wedding feast, whether that's a Thanksgiving feast, whether that's a Thanksgiving feast, whether that's a 4th of July, let's just have a good time with our family, family reunion, kind of thing.
Speaker 1: I want you to think about the table that would be set out.
Speaker 1: Let's just for a minute pretend that cost is absolutely no problem.
Speaker 1: Everything that you want is already paid for.
Speaker 1: All you have to do is decide to choose what you want on the table.
Speaker 1: Is it going to be steak?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be some kind of exotic something?
Speaker 1: What are we going to choose?
Speaker 1: All kinds of choices.
Speaker 1: Is it going to be a taco bar?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be a sushi bar?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be lined with the favorite Italian dishes?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be pizzas?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be burgers?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be pizzas?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be burgers?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be a huge table or tables of desserts?
Speaker 1: And just for the sake of argument, let's just go ahead and say that everything that is going to be made is going to be made with the freshest of ingredients and is going to be cooked to the absolute optimal level that you personally enjoy.
Speaker 1: That is the table of blessing that God wants to give us.
Speaker 1: That sounds like a good deal to me.
Speaker 1: Okay, for the sake of argument, we're going to put that table over here on this side of the room today, and everybody on this side of the room said amen.
Speaker 1: Okay, you guys over here.
Speaker 1: Now we're going to look at the table of curses.
Speaker 1: This is what our enemy is going to prepare for us, and today we're going to think about some of the specialties that come from our enemy's roadkill cafe.
Speaker 1: So let's just take a look at some of the delicacies our enemy wants to put out for us.
Speaker 1: Maybe he wants to set out a rack of raccoon.
Speaker 1: Maybe a slab of lab?
Speaker 1: Okay, this is going to get worse.
Speaker 1: Maybe poodles and noodles.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that sound scrumptious?
Speaker 1: Maybe a possum pot pie?
Speaker 1: Okay, maybe a smidgen of pigeon.
Speaker 1: Maybe some snake and bake?
Speaker 1: Everybody loves a good casserole, right?
Speaker 1: Maybe it's?
Speaker 1: It's that skunk splat soup with that special aroma.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the flat cat cakes.
Speaker 1: Maybe it's the out of luck duck.
Speaker 1: Everybody loves bacon, right?
Speaker 1: How about some of that centerline bovine?
Speaker 1: Okay, maybe it's the rigor mortis tortoise.
Speaker 1: Maybe a smear of deer, or maybe it's just the Monday night special?
Speaker 1: Guess this mess.
Speaker 1: And if you can guess what it is, it's yours free.
Speaker 1: And, as always, there is never, ever any extra charge for a little fur or a little gravel mixed in.
Speaker 1: Now, that is the table that is set out over here, the table of curses.
Speaker 1: Sorry, guys, let's be honest.
Speaker 1: If it were that simple blessings and curses how many of you know that's an easy choice?
Speaker 1: That's an easy choice.
Speaker 1: Now, as entertaining as that is, the choice between blessing and curses should be obvious.
Speaker 1: And I've just got to say this God only wants the best for us.
Speaker 1: God's not going to lay out the snake and bake.
Speaker 1: He's not going to lay out fur and gravel mixed in with His food.
Speaker 1: That's not going to happen.
Speaker 1: God wants us to really and truly live our best life.
Speaker 1: That's what he wants for us.
Speaker 1: God wants us to choose Him.
Speaker 1: God wants us to prefer Him.
Speaker 1: He wants us to choose or prefer his way of doing life.
Speaker 1: And when we do that, good things happen.
Speaker 1: Amen, good things happen when I look over in the book of Joshua, chapter 24, verses 14 through 15, it says this so fear the Lord and serve Him wholeheartedly.
Speaker 1: Put away forever the idols your ancestors worshipped when they lived beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt.
Speaker 1: Serve the Lord alone.
Speaker 1: But, uh-oh, but if you refuse to serve the Lord, then choose this day whom you will serve.
Speaker 1: Would you prefer the gods of your ancestors, the ones that they serve beyond their Euphrates, or will it be the gods of the Amorites in whose land you now live?
Speaker 1: But then Joshua makes a very bold statement and says but as for me and my family, as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.
Speaker 1: Bottom line we all have a choice to make.
Speaker 1: I have to choose for me who I'm going to serve.
Speaker 1: My wife has to choose for her who she is going to serve.
Speaker 1: My kids have to choose for themselves who they are going to serve.
Speaker 1: I cannot force my kids to serve God.
Speaker 1: I can put them in a position that they're going to hear the word of God.
Speaker 1: I can put them in a position that they are going to know the difference between good choices and bad choices, but ultimately it is their choice.
Speaker 1: What do they prefer?
Speaker 1: We all have a choice to make.
Speaker 1: Amen, amen.
Speaker 1: Joshua is telling, not asking the people of Israel to make a choice.
Speaker 1: He's telling them to get off the fence.
Speaker 1: He is basically saying figure out who you are going to worship and go in 100%.
Speaker 1: Okay, you may want to pick your feet up here for this next bit, or it's not going to matter.
Speaker 1: It may kick you in the shin, so you're not really safe either way.
Speaker 1: Today it may sound something like this Quit playing church.
Speaker 1: Quit playing church.
Speaker 1: Quit playing out in the world all month long doing anything and everything that your little heart desires, and then show up on one Sunday morning out of the month just to make sure your fire insurance is still up to date.
Speaker 1: Come on, are we playing church or when we leave here?
Speaker 1: Is there absolutely no difference that anybody on the street can see between us and anyone else they meet.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you this If I were going to put you on trial today for being a Christian, just think back the last two weeks If, unknowing to you, I had someone following you around with a camera videoing everything that you did, everything that you said and even everything that you thought.
Speaker 1: If I were to come into a court of law and lay that evidence down, do I have enough evidence to convict you of being a Christian?
Speaker 1: Evidence to convict you of being a Christian, or would there be overwhelming evidence that you're just another sinner?
Speaker 1: I had to ask myself that same question, not real sure that I have a solid answer, sadly enough.
Speaker 1: Choices, preferences what are we going to do?
Speaker 1: There's a problem when we make the attempt to play church.
Speaker 1: In the book of Revelation, chapter 3, verses 15 and 16, and this is the Apostle John writing in a letter to the church of Laodicea I know your works that you are neither hot nor cold, or cold nor hot.
Speaker 1: I would wish you were cold or hot.
Speaker 1: So then, because you are lukewarm and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.
Speaker 1: Doesn't that bring warm, fuzzy feelings to your heart.
Speaker 1: Ooh, I get to be vomited up.
Speaker 1: No, that's just nasty Any way you look at it.
Speaker 1: That's nasty, now lukewarm.
Speaker 1: That's playing church, hello.
Speaker 1: And how many of you know, if we plant weeds, guess what's going to grow Weeds?
Speaker 1: Got to be careful what we're planting.
Speaker 1: We live in a day and time when we need to make a serious decision when it comes to the things of God are we in or are we out?
Speaker 1: I've got a good friend of mine named Alex Reyes.
Speaker 1: He was a buddy of mine when I was going to church at Church on the Rock in Quitman many years ago.
Speaker 1: We had the awesome privilege of going on several mission trips together where we were helping to build churches.
Speaker 1: Anytime he saw me on a Sunday morning, without fail, he would come up and ask one question, three little words Are you in, are you in?
Speaker 1: The first time he asked, I responded with the question in for what I mean valid question.
Speaker 1: But his response has stuck with me some 30 years.
Speaker 1: If you have to ask whether or not you're in, you're not in.
Speaker 1: Alex and I, like I said, we had the opportunity to go on several different mission trips together.
Speaker 1: Those were some of the most awesome trips I've ever been on.
Speaker 1: They weren't vacations, it wasn't about me, it was about God.
Speaker 1: It was about doing something for somebody else that they couldn't do for themselves.
Speaker 1: That's a pretty cool thing to do, and it was the people that we were with that made the trips memorable.
Speaker 1: We were helping to build a church for people that I didn't know, and we were building a church that they couldn't afford to build.
Speaker 1: Our churches had.
Speaker 1: A couple of us had partnered together to send money and laborers to a place that desperately needed a church home, a physical building for people to come in and meet and hear the Word of God preached to them.
Speaker 1: And we went and we did just that.
Speaker 1: So anytime someone asks me if I'm in, my answer is simple yes, yes, I am.
Speaker 1: I want to be in, I want to be a part of what God is doing.
Speaker 1: I don't want it to be about me, I want it to be about Him.
Speaker 1: When I think of those trips to Mexico, or the trip that I was so blessed to get to go down to Honduras with Charlie and Judy Mills, my in-laws and I didn't know Danny was going to be here today.
Speaker 1: Danny, thank you, thank you, thank you for setting up that trip to Honduras all those years ago, for setting up that trip to Honduras all those years ago.
Speaker 1: It was during that time that I had the opportunity to go in and help teach some children's leaders in a small church of 25,000 members, how to do street evangelism.
Speaker 1: How to do street evangelism Myself and Judy and Charlie.
Speaker 1: We went in dressed as clowns.
Speaker 1: Now, when I say dressed as clowns, I mean everything that implies Bright hair, big hats, bright colored clothes, red nose, big shoes, clowns and we were showing people how to use simple illusions, how to use the things around us to share the love of God with people on the street.
Speaker 1: It was a pretty cool time.
Speaker 1: And what's so funny about that trip to Honduras, about the trips to Mexico?
Speaker 1: I was under the illusion that I was going there to bless somebody else who really needed the blessing.
Speaker 1: You talk about arrogant, pious thinking.
Speaker 1: That's where I was.
Speaker 1: But when I went and got my eyes off of me and put my eyes on somebody else, incredible, incredible things happened.
Speaker 1: The focus was on serving others and every time I went and thought I was going to be the one doing the blessing, I was the one receiving the blessing.
Speaker 1: Why?
Speaker 1: Because that's just how God works.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: We were able to share the love of Christ with people that we didn't know, and we were the ones that ended up blessed as just part of that.
Speaker 1: Now, as I said earlier, I can be an extremely selfish person, but if I'll quit looking at me, put my eyes on God.
Speaker 1: But if I'll quit looking at me, put my eyes on God, awesome opportunities begin to present themselves.
Speaker 1: So often we walk around with our heads down, looking at the ground, instead of looking up at where God wants us to go.
Speaker 1: We need to learn the art of putting God first.
Speaker 1: How many of you know that's the very first of God's Ten Commandments have no other gods before me.
Speaker 1: If no other god is before him, that means he's first.
Speaker 1: Amen, amen.
Speaker 1: And I'm just going to say this just as a side note you have not truly lived until you have walked through a bus terminal, a very busy bus terminal, in another country, dressed as a clown, dressed as a clown, and where we happened to be there in Honduras.
Speaker 1: Most of their police were military, which means they had automatic weapons that they were standing around in the bus terminal with.
Speaker 1: And here we come, bouncing through what's up, and they're looking at me like, hmm, I think I'm going to shoot somebody today, but it was the clown suit, the big red nose, the bright orange hair, the big cat in the hat style tiger print hat that drew some attention.
Speaker 1: But it was when we had the opportunity to share the love of made.
Speaker 1: That's where the difference was made.
Speaker 1: When we were there in Honduras, we did several of the outreaches.
Speaker 1: Part of what Danny does is he goes into regions and he teaches people how to use puppets, how to use storyboards or what we used to call the old felt boards, how to be a mime or a clown, and all of this to work together to share the love of Jesus to people on the street.
Speaker 1: I don't remember how many people were in attendance there in Honduras.
Speaker 1: I know that there were several hundred people there children's, workers from all around the area.
Speaker 1: One of the things that was going on, like I said, was the felt boards.
Speaker 1: We had a huge stack when I say stack, I mean like three foot tall, laid flat stack of big pieces of cardboard that we were cutting into specific sizes to be able to use as felt boards.
Speaker 1: At the time I was working for Brookshire's.
Speaker 1: I was a stalker.
Speaker 1: God used the abilities that I used every day at work for his glory, because part of what I was doing was cutting straight lines for these boards.
Speaker 1: Never wastes an opportunity Never.
Speaker 1: When we were going down to Mexico the first trip, we went down and we went in a van we called Old Blue.
Speaker 1: We called her Old Blue because she was old.
Speaker 1: The dash in between where the driver and passenger seat was worn almost completely off, it had big indention in it.
Speaker 1: We always joked around saying, yeah, that indention is there because we've had to lay hands on this thing so many times and pray that we were going to get to where we were going.
Speaker 1: And we took that and we went down and we built churches and we built churches.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying all this stuff about what we've done and where we've been is a way of saying, oh, look at me.
Speaker 1: I'm simply saying when God asks you the question, are you in?
Speaker 1: And you say yes, he will open the door to opportunities to minister that you would never, ever have otherwise.
Speaker 1: And for me the scary thing is if I had told God no any one of those times that I've had the opportunity to go, I look at so many things I would have missed out on To see the glow on somebody's face out on the street who has been miserable, beat up, beat down, that whenever they stop and watch a clown or a puppet or someone share the love of Jesus, and that light bulb go on and their life, you know, is forever changed and you had a part of that.
Speaker 1: There's no amount of money you can put on that and the cool thing is we don't know how many people that received Christ right there.
Speaker 1: I remember one deal that we did there in Honduras.
Speaker 1: We had a pretty big gathering of people.
Speaker 1: We had nearly 100 people that one evening give their heart to Christ for the very first time.
Speaker 1: There's no way any of us know how many people they went and told and how many people they went and told, and how many people they went and told and it was because a group of people said yes.
Speaker 1: We said yes, we said yes.
Speaker 1: But how many of you know you don't have to go outside the country to share the love of Jesus.
Speaker 1: You may just have to walk across the street.
Speaker 1: You may be able to stay in your backyard and just talk to somebody over a fence.
Speaker 1: It may be as simple as just sharing with somebody at the dinner table where you work.
Speaker 1: There are going to be opportunities that God puts in our life and I'm grateful for everyone I've said yes to.
Speaker 1: I've been talking with Pastor Stephen, I've got a couple of connections that we may be able to do.
Speaker 1: Some more of this Excuse me Boots on the ground, hands to theplow, kind of opportunities.
Speaker 1: Now, I'm sorry to say, most of these opportunities, at least right now, are going to involve just the men as far as the ones going.
Speaker 1: It doesn't mean the women can't participate, because we need participation from everybody.
Speaker 1: Even if you can't go, can you help somebody else go.
Speaker 1: Even if financially you can't help somebody else go, can you pray for those that are going, we can all play a part and we can all have a part in God doing something awesome for somebody else that they can't do for themselves.
Speaker 1: So if doing any kind of mission work is something that you're interested in, stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Hopefully in the next month or two we'll have some more information for you there.
Speaker 1: So today we've talked about what it means to prefer or to choose, and I want to close with this thought from God's Word and this is coming from King Solomon, whom the Bible says was the wisest man that ever lived, and it's found in the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter 10, verse 2.
Speaker 1: It says this A wise person chooses the right road.
Speaker 1: A fool takes the wrong one.
Speaker 1: Lord, help us to choose right.
Speaker 1: Help us to choose wisely.
Speaker 1: Father, I just thank you for everyone that has been here today.
Speaker 1: Father, if there's anything that I have said this morning that wasn't of you, let it be quickly forgotten, father, but everything that was of you, let it go down deep in our spirits.
Speaker 1: Father, help us to say yes to you, even when it may be scary.
Speaker 1: Father, we know that we're not going alone, that we're going with you.
Speaker 1: And, father, we just thank you for being at work in and through our lives today.
Speaker 1: As we go forth today, father, just help us to be the men and the women that you have called us to be.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, and everyone said Amen.