They were given to me by one of our founding members years ago.  I have these on my desk and they always remind me that it is by grace I am saved, something I do not deserve.  They remind me that it was my sins that crucified my Lord.  On my best day, I don’t deserve what He did for me.  Nails.

Something else is this journal.  I have been journaling my prayers since I have been 18 years of age.  Every time I see these journals stacked up in my library, I think about the faithfulness of God.  God has spoken to me, He has answered my prayers.  I have walked with Him and expressed my questions to Him, my needs to Him.  He has taken care of me when I thought my faith was very, very weak.  This represents prayer.

This is a picture that Owen Goff blew up for me.  I have this in my office.  It is a picture taken from the air of the church during a weekend service.  Every time I walk by this picture I think about the privilege God has given me just to be a part of something this great.  This church is a God thing.

Blood was spewing everywhere.  Here is what he said.  “You can’t blame him for that!”  Boom.  Bit him again.  “You can’t blame him for that!  Oh, he is just gorgeous.”  Wow.  I would like to hang out with that guy for a couple of days.  But the Crocodile Hunter stops short.  He loves nature, he has appreciation of it.  But he stops short.  He doesn’t realize the fact that nature reflects God.  We should never worship nature.  We should never bow down to it.  That is pantheism.  That is saying that God is confined by nature.  No, nature points us to God.  Take a regular nature walk during your 110 hours of worship.

Number two.  Secure some symbols of significance that point you to express your love to God.  I brought some from my office which do that in my life.  These are replicas of the nails that were used to fasten Christ’s body to the cross.

Well, I hope this message has made you keenly aware of your 110 hours of worship.  God has placed a lot of stuff in your path and mine to point us to worship.  What is the take home?  Let me share two quick bank shots with you.  Number one.  Make sure that you regularly take a nature walk of worship with God.  Make sure that you are keenly aware 110 hours a week that you are involved in worship.  A rainbow, for example, represents the fact that God is a covenant keeping God.  A fish should remind us that Jesus called us to be fishers of men, to share Christ with others.  You can go on and on and on.

Have you ever watched the Crocodile Hunter?  I love the Crocodile Hunter.  This guy really knows nature.  One day he was crawling in a hole looking for some snakes.  “What gorgeous snakes,” he said.  He put his face right up to the snake and it bit him.

Seek God first. Love him first. Because when we do that, we’re not going to use God. He’ll use us. When we do that, we’re not going to reverse God, he’ll reverse us. We do that, we’re not going to sling God over our shoulder. He’ll sling us over his shoulder and carry us. When we do that, we’re going to hit on all cylinders. When we do that, we can’t tie him up. God will untie us. It’s all for the glory of God.

Next time, I can’t get into this now because I’ll go for about 40 more minutes; next time, I’m going to answer three questions about the glory of God, about being clothed in Christ. Here’s the first one: how can you eat a steak for the glory of God? I’m going to answer that question next week. Number two: you think I’m kidding you. How can you shop for the glory of God? Ladies are going, “Agh, girl, I’ll be here for that.” Here’s the third one: how can you make love to your spouse for the glory of God? We’ll have standing room only next week!

[Ed leads in closing prayer]

Take just a couple of moments and turn around and get the names of three people around you right quick.  Just say, “Hi,” give them your name, then get their names.

Now what if I ask you to recite those three names you just heard?  Some of you could do it right quick; others would go, “Man, I cannot remember those names.”

That’s a whip isn’t it—to meet someone and then a second later you can’t come up with their names.  That’s crazy.

Names are unique.  Names set us apart.  What if we didn’t have names?  I thought about that.  What if we didn’t have names.  Instead of saying, “Bill,” we’d say, “Hey, short bald guy who lives down the street.”

Also, I would say record your stuff.  Record your junk.  Record those lies.  Take a journal and just write out some of those things.  “You’re too fat; you’re not smart enough; you’re too slow, you’re this, you’re that, you’re that, you’re this.”

And then write God’s corresponding truth over the lie, over that phrase that you’ve been carrying around and turning over and over on the rotisserie grill of your mind.

Well, here are five things, very quickly, that God says about me.  Five things that He says about me.  They, me, He.

#1 – I’m acceptable.  Those of us who are Christians have accepted Christ. But have you ever realized that God has accepted you?

Romans 15: 7, “…accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.”

2 Corinthians 5:21, “He made Him (that’s Jesus) who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him.”

Now that’s some stout stuff right there.  A lot of you are walking around and you’re really wondering about your acceptance.  You’re wondering about your value.  Maybe someone said something to you and you don’t feel you are accepted.

Well, I’ve got some incredible news for you today.  You are accepted!  God has accepted you.  Let me give you a brief illustration here.

(Ed asks for two volunteers from the audience.)

Tell me your name.   Demi?  Tell me your name.  Vickie? Okay.  Demi and Vickie, stand up for a second.  I never like to embarrass anyone here. Turn around, Demi and Vickie.

Let’s say, just for a second, I’m God the father.  Just for example.  Demi, you’re Demi. Demi is Demi. Am I going too fast?  Vickie is Jesus. So Demi is Demi, Vickie is Jesus, and Ed is God the father.

The consequences of adultery. It always hurts innocent by-standers. Don’t’ say, “Well, it will not affect my kids. It will not affect my family. It will not affect my job.”

Just read about the life of David. The sword never left his house. Why? Because he took a dive off of the ledge and the edge of faithfulness and he jumped into unfaithfulness. He slept in the wrong bed.

What happened to him? Amnon, one of David’s sons, raped his own half-sister, Tamar. Another of David’s son, Absolom, killed Amnon. Then Absolom tried to usurp his father from the throne and was killed in the process. David and Bathsheba’s first child died. And ultimately, David’s kingdom was split.

David and Bathsheba had another child named Solomon, who ended up being the wealthiest man who has ever walked on planet earth. Solomon had one problem. What was his problem? Women, immorality. Where did he learn that? Do you see the generational sin? Do you see the generational tendency there? It’s amazing. David was facing the consequences of sin.

Last time I gave you this scenario. What if I jumped in my truck and robbed a bank? The cops would get me and throw me in prison. [Ed sings] “Bad boys, bad boys! Whatcha gonna do? Whatcha gonna do when they come for you?” I’d be locked up in Huntsville. What if I hit my knees and said, “Lord, forgive me. Lord, forgive me, have mercy on me. I’m so sorry. I was out of mind when I robbed the bank!” Would God forgive me? No doubt. Just like that [Ed snaps]. But he’s not going to break me out of prison. We face the consequences of sin. Some of the time? No! All of the time. David faced it.

Number two is the fact that those four people dropped out right before the game. That’s crazy.  Then the fact that was talking to a Jewish guy while eating a bratwurst—about Jesus! That is really nutty.  God intersected our lives and I was in the right place at the right time, and so was Bruce.  It was a God thing.

How do you become a follower of Jesus?  That is a good question.  How do you do that?  Basically, because there many here in this situation and there are many here like Bruce; basically, there are certain paths you can take to become a Christian.

The first plan or track is the performance track.  Let’s say, for example, that some wealthy baseball owners got together and decided to form a new honoring system.  Not the hall of fame, but the hall of perfection.  Let’s say that these owners said that if someone could play perfect baseball for ten years, then this group would give the player and his family a billion dollars.  Let’s say that every major leaguer and his iguana began to work out and diet and do what you had to do to get into the hall of perfection. Their loved ones would look at them and say, “Give it up. Chill, relax. You are not going to do it.”

There is not a perfect player in the major leagues.  They have all committed errors; they have all struck out, grounded out, or flied out.  No one is perfect.  It is a pipe dream, it is ridiculous. And who would be able to do that?  Love would motivate us to tell them, “Give it up; you are not going to make it.”

Scripture says that we are not perfect.  If we bat a thousand at the moral plate every time up; if we play flawless life baseball, then we can get to heaven.

Well, maybe you don’t handle anger like a snow storm. Maybe you handle anger like a tornado.  All of a sudden, boom!  You’re a tornado.  A tornado strikes out of no where. Then you look back, and the wake of a tornado is utterly devastating.  Man, I’m sorry, honey, I didn’t mean to do that.  Will you forgive me?  Well, yeah, we will but look what you’ve done.  The hair trigger temper.  All of a sudden I just go off on you, man, whoa!  Do you handle anger that way?  It’s difficult to live with someone that way.    I think about Cain and Abel.  Cain, the Bible says, was angry at Abel.  And if you read Genesis Chapter 4 Cain committed the first homicide; he was jealous and envious of Abel, his other brother, and no, they weren’t playing ping pong, he killed him.  Do you handle anger like a tornado?  That’s, that’s a pretty good, pretty good thought.

How about a thunder storm?  A thunder storm’s coming.  That ominous black cloud.  Lighting.  Thunder.  Rain.  Call the ambulance you whine and moan.  You’re the victim.  (Ed gesturing crying like pity)  Poor pitiful you.  A lot of people handle anger that way.  Always wearing a tuxedo because you’re going to a black tie pity party.  (audience laughter)  I think about Jonah.  I don’t have time to get into the whole thing with Jonah but basically, Jonah preached this amazing sermon to a bunch of people he did not like, the Ninevehites, he was a racist.  God came down and, and did amazing work through Jonah.  Half a million people repented and turned to the Lord, I’m talking about the Ninevehites who were negative and they became positive because of their encounter with God.  And then after that, after this revival, Jonah has a pity party.

So let’s see what Scripture says about why we get into debt.  Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters…” That’s the truth, isn’t it? “Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

Why do we get into debt?  Well, money rules us.  Just like we heard in the song, for the love of money.  Think about a big continuum.  Let’s say on one side of the continuum you have people who are in debt. And maybe you’re there and you’re saying, “Ed, that is me.  I am behind the door of debt, and it feels like I will never get out! Mommy, Daddy, help me help me!”

That’s on one end of the continuum. On the other end of the continuum let’s say you have someone who is out of debt, but is a control freak in the financial realm.  They are watching every penny. They are not enjoying the blessings of God.  They over‑manage their money.

So you have some who don’t manage it at all, they don’t know where it went.  You have others who are so freaky that you can’t do one thing without them going on tilt financially.  So you can be in debt and money is your master; or you can be out of debt and money is your master.  The deal is living in the zone.  That’s why I wrote a book several years about this, “In the Zone.”  I don’t have time to get into it, but I encourage you to pick it up because it is about how to enjoy life, how to live in the sweet spot of God’s success, especially in the financial domain.

But let’s go back to the question I just talked about:  Why are we behind the door of debt?  Well there are several reasons. And these reasons are unpacked in Proverbs 21:20.  Here is what the Good News says in Proverbs 21:20, “Stupid people spend their money as fast as they get it.”  (I sure wish the Bible was direct.)

Female:  A week later—it was on February 8th, at 6:45 p.m.—we had a beautiful baby girl. She passed away during delivery, but we got to hold her for as long as we wanted. We named her Hialeah. We don’t know what to tell people besides it was the best and worst day of our lives. We look back now and we’re like, wow, God reached down and said, “I want Drew and Denise to go through this situation. I think they’re strong enough to handle this.” And God’s timing is so perfect because if that had happened before we got involved in Fellowship and before we had met these incredible people we wouldn’t be telling the same story.

I let go. I gave up control and that was the big moment when I finally decided to step over that line and just give up that control and not try to worry about everything myself. It is so comforting to have God to turn to, to be able to put those worries and concerns on him, to know that he will come up with the right solution. I don’t have to try to control it. He’s in charge.

Male:  You know the benefits of trusting God, it has restored my marriage. It has restored my relationship with my kids. They love me. I have just really been blessed. I’m about to celebrate ten years of sobriety. This church has impacted my life beyond anything that I could imagine and almost beyond anything I can describe to you.

Male:  I’m walking where I need to be walking and trusting God in what I need to be trusting him. I’ve got really nothing to worry about. And I’m going to go through trials and I’m going to go through situations, but God has placed those before me knowing that if I rely on him, there’s a better outcome than I could have ever imagined.