Good evening. What I would like to do tonight is share with you what myself and my youth group learned as we spent a week at Summer In The Son. The theme for this year’s Summer In The Son was Fuel. It was a call for everyone to get fueled up again.
Well throughout the week we had that theme Fuel, and we were encouraged to go back and do our part in the church and in the community. Each day there was a separate theme, and there would be two guys that would preach during the day concerning that day’s theme. What I wanted to do this evening is give you sort of a crash course in what we learned during the week.
When we arrived on Sunday there was no theme, but the speaker started the week with a key verse for the week’s theme. If you will turn with me to John 10:7-10 and especially verse 10 we can see the theme of the week. Here in John 10:7-10 John writes, “1”
Here in this passage we see Jesus calling himself the gate. Back in this time, the shepherds were the gates that kept the sheep cornered in an area for the night. The shepherd would lie down in the open area, and in order for the sheep to get out, they would have to cross over the shepherd or the gate. If a thief would come to still or to kill the sheep it would have to go through this gate. So here we see that Jesus is saying that he is the only way in, and the only way out. If you remember the passage of John 14:6, Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
But as we look at the purpose of the week, the theme verse would have been verse 10 where it says, “1”
This week was a call to get fueled up and to get full once again.
As we went into Monday we found that the theme for that day was Running On Empty. For this idea we looked at John 6:35. In John 6:35 it says, “2”
In order to be fueled, we need to go to the source of the fuel. Here in this passage we see that we need to go to Jesus for the fuel. He is our pump. You see, Christ has this fuel that He desires to give to us, and it is a fuel that causes us to never be hungry or thirsty again. Now this is not a physical hunger and a physical thirst, it is a spiritual sense. Well as we listened to Rick Cooper that day, he gave us 3 reasons why we might be empty.
# 1 is that You have stopped going to the pump. In order to be fueled up, you must go to the pump on a regular basis. What are some ways that we as Christians can go to the pump on a regular basis?
When it comes to church, or personal study time, or your own prayer time, whatever it is, you have to be in constant fueling in order to keep from becoming empty.
# 2 reason why you might be on empty is that you are filling up on the wrong stuff. Is what you are filling up on the right things, are they from God, or are they the wrong things that may come from man? Can anyone give me some examples of good things to fill up on and some wrong things to fill up on?
There was a guy that decided he was going to make a documentary called Super Size Me. In this documentary this man was going to eat nothing but McDonalds for 30 days. If he was asked to Super Size his meal, he had to say yes. The purpose was to see what would happen if he went on a McDonalds diet.
In the beginning his doctors said that he would be okay, and that the only thing that would change would be meaningless. After about a week of the diet, his doctors were begging him to stop. At the end of the 30 days, his cholesterol was horrible, he was experiencing heart problems, and he had gained around 30 pounds. You see, this man was filling up on the wrong things.
Are we filling up on the wrong things? Do we seek riches, fame, popularity, retirement? What is it that we are filling up on? Is it the television, our vacations, what are we using to fill us up? A key to not being empty is to fill up on the right things.
# 3 would be that you have lost sight of the fact that you are running on empty. Perhaps you feel that things are going okay, you have become complacent in you Christianity and you don’t realize that you are on empty. I think that all of us need to look at our lives, examine our hearts, and see if we are running on empty and then do something about that.
Now, once we come to the realization that we are on empty there are 2 things to do, in order that we might begin filling up. First we need to evaluate our growth. How can we do that?
I have seen many parents that keep a growth chart of their children to see how they are growing in height. As Christians, we too can evaluate our growth. We can do evaluations to see if we are trying to grow, and then be encouraged as we will hopefully see that we are.
The second thing that we can do is keep score. Have a score card of sorts. When you do something that is good or that causes you to fill up, mark it down, when you do something that is not helping you to grow mark it down as well. Keep track of these things. Possibly just having something that you can see will help you to start filling up more often. This can also serve as a great way to evaluate your growth.
Now, the siphon is a great example of filling up. When it comes to real life, siphoning someone’s gas is probably illegal, but when it comes to spiritual matters it is not. When you siphon though what do you do? You siphon gas from a higher source to a lower one. When we siphon spiritually, we need to be siphoning or filling up from the church and from God. We need to fill up with the right thing, from the right source.
On Tuesday we had a theme of Octane, what’s in you? For this we looked at Genesis 39:1-23. Does anyone know off hand what that passage is about?
In this passage of scripture we see Potiphar’s wife attempting to get Joseph to sleep with her. As good as this may have seemed to Joseph he declined. No one would have ever known, but Joseph still said no. You see, Joseph was on a high Octane fuel.
When it comes to gas you have 3 octane levels. The octane in the gas is what keeps the engine from knocking. When you gas up, you see that there is an 87, 89, and a 93 Octane level. Studies have been done, and they have found that there is very little difference in what happens with these different octane levels. In fact the study said that most cars will run just as good on the cheep stuff as they will on the expensive gas. However, when it comes to the Octane level of a Christian there is a difference. There is a huge difference in an 87 octane Christian and a 93 octane Christian.
You see if Joseph was an 87 octane Christian he would have fallen to Potiphar’s wife, given in and slept with her, knowing that no one would ever find out. But, as you read through the text you see that he didn’t do it. You see, Joseph was a 93 octane Christian, even though he would never be caught he knew that that was not what God wanted for him. In verses 10-12 we see Joseph’s response, he ran. In verse 10-12 it says, “3”
Joseph was a 93 octane Christian because a 93 octane Christian flees from danger.
Some of you may know who AC Green is. He was a star basketball player with the Lakers for many years, and won many championships with some of the best players in Lakers history. AC Green is the Cal Ripken of basketball. AC Green had the accomplishment of over 1,000 consecutive games played. However, despite this accomplishment, that is not the best one in his eyes. When he was with the Lakers, they were winning, and women were lined up wanting to sleep with them after every game.
The biggest accomplishment for him was the fact that he never slept with anyone until he was married in his upper 30’s. He would constantly turn down women, wanting to be a 93 octane Christian.
Another incident happened in the last years of AC Green’s career. It was when he was with the Phoenix Suns. They were playing the New York Knicks, when JR Reed was in a scuffle with AC Green. They were battling for a rebound when JR Reed intentionally elbowed AC Green in the mouth. He hit him so hard that it knocked out the front teeth of AC Green. But the incredible thing was what AC Green did next. He bent over, picked up his teeth, and walked away.
If someone had intentionally done that to me, I would have been tempted to knock their teeth out too. But AC Green was a 93 Octane Christian. He fled the situation.
87 octane gas is also known as the cheep gas. What is it referred to as? (regular) But 93 octane gasoline is more expensive and it is call what? (premium)
So what do you want to run on? Do you want to be a regular Christian or do you want to be a premium one? Do you want to be a 93 octane Christian?
As we moved on through the week we came to Wednesday’s theme of Fill’er Up. What we were asked is if we were a PTP’er for the Lord? Does anyone know what a PTP’er is?
Many of you may know Dick Vital the announcer for some NCAA basketball games and other sports. Well Dickey Vital coined this phrase, “Prime Time Player.” Dick Vital would use this phrase to describe players like Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, the really good players when the heat is on.
In I Corinthians 9:24 we find a PTP’ers attitude. Here in I Corinthians 9:24 it says, “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” You see, a PTP’er runs in a way to win the prize. Can you think of any PTP’ers from the Bible?
We see a couple of PTP’ers in the Bible that we will look briefly at this evening. In Daniel chapter 6 we see that Daniel still worships God in the way that he always did, even though it was made illegal during his time. As a result he was put in the lion’s den, but God protected His Prime Time Player.
Also in Genesis chapter 22 we see Abraham tested and told to kill his son. He was a PTP’er and was going to do what he was told to do by God no matter what. Again God stopped it and protected his Prime Time Player.
So how do you become a PTP’er? Well, you have to have a game plan. Here are 3 things to remember. First, Be ready for battle. The bulls use to be a very dominate team. At one point they had Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Denis Rodman. Despite the fact that the Bulls won several championships, they were not that good of an offensive team. They were however a great defensive team.
Let’s look at Ephesians 6:13-17 and we see about being defensive. Here in Ephesians 6:13-17 it says, “4”
Look at all of those things that have a purpose of defending yourself. So, the first step in the game plan is to be ready for battle.
The second thing is to Protect your feet. How can we protect our feet?
In Judges 16 we read about Samson and Delilah. You remember the story, Delilah was bought out to tell the enemy how to defeat Samson. However, Samson continued to return to the same situation. He did not do a good job of protecting his feet. In Matthew 6:13 it says, “and lead us not into temptation.” That was a prayer from Jesus about protecting our feet.
A very rich man was wanting to have someone to turn his estate over to. His daughter was close to the age to be married off and so he decided to give his daughter’s hand away in marriage. So, he gathered 20 of the most eligible bachelors and brought them to his home. He gathered them outside next to his pool and said to them, “the man who swims across this pool full of snakes, eels, and crocodiles can have either my land and money, my oil supplies, or my daughter’s hand in marriage.”
At that one man went into the water and against all odds swam to the other side dodging and swerving past the snakes and the eels and the crocodiles and arriving safely to the other side. The man went to him and congratulated him. “What is it that you want? Do you want my land and my money?” he asked. “No,” came the response. “Well, is it my oil supply that you would like?” And again the young man replied, “No.” “Okay, is it my daughter’s hand that you would like?” To the father’s amazement he again said, “No.”
“Well, what is it that you want then?” With that the young man replied, “All I want is the name of the man that pushed me in!”
You see, this man did not protect his feet. He was too close to the danger, and allowed himself to be pushed in.
And the third thing is to Use your sword. We see that in the Ephesians passage that we read earlier. Always keep the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God with you. Who all have seen the movie Anaconda? If you don’t know, the Anaconda is the largest snake in the world, capable of swallowing a human. The Peace Core has developed a 9 step process to survive an Anaconda attack. Would you like to hear them? Step 1, do not run. Step 2, do not get nervous. Step 3, lay down on your back. Step 4, put your arms above your head. Step 5, the snake will begin sucking on you toes. Step 6, the Anaconda will begin moving up your legs. Step 7, do not get nervous. Step 8, lunge your knife between your legs and through the snakes head. Step 9, never forget your knife.
The Peace Core says that the 9th and most important step to surviving an Anaconda attack is to not forget your knife. The same is true for Christians, we can not forget our swords. We have to keep the Bible in our minds and in our hearts so that we are ready for battle.
You see, dusty Bibles often point to dirty lives.
On Thursday our theme was Leaving the station. Would you please turn with me to Matthew 25:31-46. Here in Matthew 25:31-46 it says, “5” “MARK MOORE PAGE”
It’s all about what we are doing for the community around us, the way that we are ministering to them. Mother Theresa once said that, “Small things done with great love will save the world.” So a question for you to answer this morning is, are you a consumer, or a contributor? You see, a consumer, relies on the minister to do the ministry, to grow the church, to invite your friends and co-workers. In contrast, a contributor realizes that they have to do that stuff. They are the ones that have to contribute to the church. So, are you a consumer, who simply comes and gets filled and relies on the minister to do all of the work, or are you a contributor, who does their part to see the church witness to others? Are you leaving the station?
As we came to a close to the week, Friday’s theme was The rubber meets the road. Turn with me if you would to Philippians 3:4-11. Here in Philippians 3:4-11 Paul writes, “6”
What a message, Paul considered all of these things that would have brought him so much as rubbish, trash. In the Message Bible the heading for this section is titled, To know Him personally. That is what it is all about. In Isaiah 64:6 it says, “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags, we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.”
Our righteous acts are like filthy rags. Being faithful to church, having great attendance, having accountability, even serving others, all of these things do not equal a relationship with Jesus Christ. These things help to build that relationship, but they do not make it. So, do you have the credentials to meet your maker? The main credential is that you have a relationship with His Son Jesus Christ.
When Andrew Jackson was president there was a very interesting event that happened. During his time as president a man by the name of George Wilson committed a crime and a person was killed. George Wilson was given the death penalty. At that time many petitioned Andrew Jackson to give this man a presidential pardon. Jackson finally fell to the pressure and granted that man a full presidential pardon.
However, when George Wilson received the pardon, he declined it. While turning down the pardon he took the official paper and tore it into pieces. What would they do now? They asked if it was possible to turn down a presidential pardon, but that had never been heard of. Finally a judge made a ruling that if one turns down a pardon, then the sentence must be carried out. Because George Wilson turned down Andrew Jackson’s pardon, he was put to death.
You see, a pardon is no good unless it is accepted by the recipient. God looks at us, and knows about all of the sin, but he sent His Son to die on the cross as a pardon for our sins, so that we could live with Him for eternity. But if we do not accept that pardon, then it does no good. The rubber meets the road when it comes to accepting what Jesus has to offer us. It isn’t a pardon unless it is accepted. So tell me, will you get fueled up this evening and become the 93 Octane PTP’er Christian that Jesus wants you to be? |
