E X C E L L E N T L I V I N G

God bless you all!

This past Thanksgiving weekend has been great for me and my family! And I hope its the same for each of you!

I talked with the congregation this morning about "Excellent Living" and pray those who received His message will allow God to work through each one of you! As for those who missed today's message, you missed out a great lesson because it applies to me, too! Oh, how I love God's Word! It is sweet to my soul!

Life is a series of choices. God gave each of us the ability to make our own decisions. If you're going to live a life of excellence for God, then you've got to concentrate on making wise, godly choices that bring honor to the name of Jesus and not shame or disappointment. 2 Timothy 2:20-21 says, "In a great house there are not only vessels of gold or silver, but also of wood and clay; some for honor and some for dishonor. If a man therefore purge himself, he shall be a vessel unto honor, made holy and useful for the master's service and prepared for every good work."

1 Corinthians 11:28, "Let each man examine himself..." tells us to CONSTANTLY evaluate your life and make sure that you're NOT making decisions and choices that are hindering your walk with the Lord... Every major decision you face, you should ask yourself the question, "What would Jesus do in this situation?" "How would He respond?" "What type of attitude would He have?" Every place you go, especially when you're not real sure you should go there, you should ask yourself, "Would I be comfortable bringing the Lord Jesus Christ with me into this place?". After all, He lives on the inside of you. If the church gathers together in His Name, Jesus is there with you! But if we, instead of gathering together, decide to stay home for a very personal reason (I mean inexcusable reasons), then you ought to feel uncomfortable sitting at home knowing Jesus isn't happy with you.

I hate to say this, but you probably agree that's the generation we're living in right now! We've lost our sense of value and unless we go back to the foundational principles in God's Word, we're never going to really know what the truth is. In 2 Corinthians 4:4, "Satan blinds the minds of those who believe not." If you're going to live a life of excellence before God, you're going to have to base every decision you make on God's Word! Do I hear an, "Amen!"?

A couple of things I talked to the Lord's church are these:

1. SNOOZE BUTTON: See that God speaks to every single one of His children through His Word. He wants to guide you and help you make the right choices throughout life. But many times, we don't recognize how He speaks and we feel that uneasiness that we begin to push it down and ignore it. When you wake up in the wee morning hours of the night to the alarm, we push the snooze button ignoring the reminders to wake up. We push God's goodness down so much, it becomes so common and so routine we can't even hear Him anymore.

2. A OBEDIENT PERSON LIVES A LIFE OF EXCELLENCE FOR GOD: See that every person here, every person listening, has the ability and you have the opportunity to live a life of excellence for God.

3. THE SPIRITUAL DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE: I honestly want to tell you this. Too many people today are "Sunday Christians". They think a church as a social gathering, deaf club. They come in churches with their Bibles and notebook and they, you know, shout in all the right places, they sing the loudest, they say "Amen!" at the right places. But you know what? Monday is a different story. They're two-faced, just like the Devil. They talk the talk, but they don't walk the walk.

Friends, if you're not grounded in God's Word. If you don't know who you are in Christ. If you are not sober and vigilant and serious about your relationship to God, unfortunately, you're not going to have a chance. And that's the truth. There's no way you're going to be able to live an overcoming, victorious Christian life. But the good news is that God is alive and has been since the Beginning! God is looking for someone who won't compromise, someone that won't live like the rest of the world. God is looking for people who is full of integrity and hey, you can hide from me and the rest of us but you can't from God!

Alas, I told a story about a man and a woman involved in a car accident. Of course, every story has its ending. For those who missed today's celebration of the Lord's Day, you missed not only the story but the experience. The experience of a commitment toward "Excellent Living!"