In many things in life, you have to pick sides.

In sports around here we typically pick Auburn or Alabama. When you play games, it’s Red or Blue team.

You’ve seen the “I’m an Apple, I’m a PC” ads, right? These ads are geared towards convincing you that Apples are better than PCs. They’re trying to get you to pick their side when choosing what type of computer to buy. And if you are going to buy a computer, at some point you will have to choose a side.

When picking sides, typically you look at the benefits of choosing one over the other. In the Apple/PC debate you choose based on which one you’re most familiar with, or which one is the easiest to get technical support for, or runs the programs you need. In deciding Red or Blue you look to see who has the highest score, or has the fewer teammates to try and balance things out. In choosing Auburn over Alabama — well, that one’s not always completely rational.

Just like these companies and teams which have run nation-wide campaigns trying to convince you that they have the better product, that they are the one who deserve your time, money, and devotion, that given what the other side offers you’d be better off choosing them, God and Satan have been campaigning for our souls! Each tries to convince us that they have the better offer for us.

We have to make a choice:

Luke 16:13: “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”

In choosing whether or not to serve God, we can consider His power:

Genesis 1:1 tells us that God created the Heavens and the Earth. I think we often miss the full meaning of this: In creating the universe, He defined the very way our universe works — he defined things like physics — and then set them in motion. And He did it by just speaking. We have scientists that have spent billions of dollars building machines like the Large Hadron Collider to try and figure out how just a tiny part of the universe works. But God already knows how it all works because He created it.

He saved His chosen people by delivering the 10 plagues upon Egypt and by parting the Red Sea.

And he gave everyone in the world a chance for salvation by sending His son, Jesus. A man who performed so many miracles that John says in chapter 21, verse 25 — the very last verse of his book — “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen.”

But let me just list a few:

He had full control of the weather and the sea — He was able to calm it simply by speaking. He walked on water, He healed the sick, He raised people from the dead, and even came back from the dead Himself.

Even beyond the power and support and comfort that God provides Himself, He has also given a more earthly, physical support system to all Christians: the church. We are to strive to help each other by bearing one another’s burdens. Galatians 6:2. We are to comfort and edify (build up, encourage) each other. As well as recognize accomplishments and good works. 1 Thessalonians 5:11-14.

Now Satan on the other hand, offers earthly pleasure, albeit temporary. Hebrews 11:25 But that pleasure comes at a price. Not only will it often have earthly consequences, but it will have an eternal consequence as well. Satan lies and tempts and is described as “a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” 1 Peter 5:8. He doesn’t care about you, he only seeks to drag you down with him.

He has no real power, however, only the power we let him have. Matthew 8 starting in verse 28 shows us a confrontation between Jesus and demons that have possessed two men. There was no contest. The moment they saw Him they acknowledged His power.

James 2:19 says that demons believe and tremble.

In the face of God, Satan is nothing.

Knowing all this, wouldn’t you want the supreme creator of the universe on your side? When life throws trouble at you — and it will, no matter what — wouldn’t you want the best possible guide helping you through it?

I know that most of us here are Christians and understand this already. My goal tonight is to give you a renewed sense of hope because of the power on our side. Much like the book of Revelation, I want you to understand that no matter what happens to us here and now — as long as we are faithful — we will be victorious. Like Paul notes in Romans 8:31 “If God is for us, who can be against us?”

The flipside to all of this is that if you are not a faithful Christian, you are on the side that’s against God. God has drawn a line that needs to be crossed. That line is sin, and everyone has been on the wrong side of the line at some point or another. Romans 3:23

God has provided a way to take care of sin. To go back across that line of sin and join the winning side. For the unfaithful Christian, you only need to confess your sins and repent — to turn away from the sin in your life. 2 Cor. 7:9-10. Refuse to let Satan determine which side you’re on. If you’re struggling, prayer and study of God’s word will make it easier to resist temptation in the future.

For those of you who haven’t yet chosen a side, the reality is you let Satan choose you. You’ve done nothing to ally yourself with God, so you belong to Satan because you’re on the wrong side of sin. In order to come to God’s side, you have to make a choice to do something .

First hear God’s word, Romans 10:17, which you have heard both in your bible class and by what I’ve spoken tonight. If you believe what you’ve heard, then let that belief become action by obeying God in repentance of sin Acts 3:19 and confession of His name Romans 10:9-10. Then, you must come into contact with the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ through baptism. 1 Peter 3:21. Finally, a faithful life of service to God is required. Being a Christian isn’t just a single moment in time, but a continual growth in Christ.

If salvation is what you desire — if you want to be on God’s side more than anything else in the world — His invitation to cross the line is always open, but now is the only time we are guaranteed.

1 Kings 19:11-13

“Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
So it was, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out.”

In order to hear a whisper — especially in a noisy environment — you have to get close to it and concentrate, and even remove the other sounds that are competing with it. On the other hand, a shout can be heard from quite a distance, and is heard whether or not we desire to listen to it.

God’s Word is a small, still voice. It’s a quiet, delicate whisper, not a shout. God doesn’t force his message on us, instead He expects us to focus and concentrate on it. Unfortunately when seeking God, we are often distracted by the noise and flash of our daily lives. We get so caught up in the business of being busy, that we forget to stop and listen to that still small voice by spending time with God in prayer and studying his Word.

I myself am guilty of letting other things distract me from studying on a daily basis. This weighs on my heart as I’ve urged people from this pulpit to study and don’t do it myself as often as I should.

Studying the Word daily is a great thing, an awesome concept, but until we actually do it, it just remains a concept. It remains something vague that we’ll “get around to” — like setting the clock on the VCR, or changing light bulbs around the house.

In order to make it real, we need to devise a plan, and apply this plan to our lives.

Christina and I know first hand how beneficial a plan can become in getting things done. When we first started talking about getting married, we decided that we would wait five years before we started having children. This was so that we could get to know each other better, and become financially stable. This July will be five years and we are just now starting to get out of debt.

Financial stability was just a grandiose concept to us that never got any application. Then last year my sister introduced us to Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and we learned how to plan our finances. Having that plan enabled us to turn this concept, idea, what have you into a concrete application with results.

Lets make a plan and turn the concept of studying the Word into a concrete application.

With this in mind, I’m going to borrow from what I’ve learned while doing my finances. The most important thing we learned was the zero balance money budget where you account for every dollar you earn and spend in a month so you’ll know where all of your money is going.

Borrowing from this, I’ve created what I call the Zero Balance Time Budget, and it works the same way, you account for the time you earn –which by the way is the same for everyone, 1440 minutes per day– and allot it to the different activities in your life, making sure you account for every minute so that you’ll have 0 at the end. This will help us direct how we spend our time. Ephesians 5:15-16 says: “Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.”

On the sheet I’ve created, I’ve put down some of the basics that most people will have, and you’ll notice that Bible Study is first. We want to be like the Macedonians in 2 Corinthians 8, giving first to the Lord. I’ve also got several blanks here for you to fill in for you to customize to suit your needs.

I’ve also provided on the back a schedule to help plan things a little better. I’d like for you to take a sheet and go home and have a time budget meeting with your family. Try starting out with giving 15 minutes of uninterrupted personal time to God in the morning, then plan for another 15 minutes in the evening with the family together. When you do this, turn off your cell phones, your TVs, remove everything that could possibly distract you or drown out that quiet, delicate whisper.

And just to be clear, the idea behind this isn’t to section God off from the rest of your daily life. He is to be included in everything we do.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 reads: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
“And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

The intent of this time budget is to allow you time to give 100% of your attention to God and the study of His Word.

As you grow in study, you’ll find that you’ll want to give more time to God. Don’t hesitate to revisit your time budget and add to it. The 30 minutes a day is just a starting point. We can never give enough of our time and energy, or money, or anything to repay God’s gift to us.

By the way, since all this is a rather new idea, I’d appreciate any suggestions for improvement to my forms and such. I want this to be as useful as possible.

One other thing that we learned was to have an accountability partner. To have someone that will hold us to what we need to do. My sister is ours, and we are hers. God’s design of the church gives us our own accountability partners: each other.

James 5:16 “Confess your trespasses (or sins) to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

Christians, if you haven’t been studying God’s word regularly, and you know that this is something that you should be doing, do something to change that tonight. James tells us, “Therefore to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin.” I come to you tonight confessing that I need to study more regularly, and I need your help, encouragement and prayers that I’m able to start this and stay strong in doing it. Do you need the same?

If you are not a Christian yet, and you believe in God, then salvation is still just a concept, an idea. Fortunately God has a plan for you to help it become a concrete application with results in your life. His plan is this:

First you must repent of your sins, turn away from that old life that separates you from God. Luke 13:3 and Acts 2:38.

Confess His name. Matthew 10:32-33

And finally obtain forgiveness through baptism for the remission of your sins. Acts 2:38.

There was TV show in the late 70′s and early 80′s that some of you may be familiar with called Mork and Mindy. Robin Williams played an alien named Mork from the planet Ork that had come to earth to study human kind. In an attempt to make him different from everyone else, the writers of the show decided that he would do silly things like greet people with “Nanu Nanu,” or drink with his finger, or sit on his head. He even aged backwards. His race hatched from an egg as old men and women, and as they grew older, they became young children.

Oddly enough we as Christians have a common thread with that strange alien from Ork.

First, even though he lived in an apartment on earth, and spent time around human beings, Mork was undoubtedly, alien. Everything he did was strange to those around him. Even when he tried to blend in, he stood out.

Like him, we are a peculiar, or special people. 1 Peter 2:9, and Titus 2:14.

We show this peculiarity in the way we live our every day lives. We show it when we stop to say a prayer for our food before we eat. Or when we choose to go to church fellowships instead of work parties or school events. We also show it when we turn to the Bible for our business or household decisions, and when we choose to first give to the Lord, and then spend on ourselves. We show it in the way we treat our brethren, and in the way we treat those in the world.

We are strange, special, and peculiar people, not just for the sake of being different, but because seeking the Lord first in everything will make us different.

Marriage is often used as a direct comparison to becoming a Child of God. Ever since I’ve been married I see this correlation almost every day. When I was single, anytime I was asked by my friends if I wanted do this or that or go somewhere with them I would give an answer based on my own schedule, wants, or needs. Now that I am married, however, my answer has changed a bit. I consider not just my own schedule, wants or needs but my wife’s as well, and if I’m uncertain as to what any one of those are, my answer quickly becomes “Let me check with my wife.”

Now anyone that’s married understands this, but those that are single often respond with confusion, and sometimes even derision, making remarks about pants wearing and the like. When we become Christians, our first priority is to God, and we are to consider His schedule, His wants, and His needs above our own. Hopefully we’ve studied the Bible regularly enough to know these things by heart, and won’t have to “Check with Him” except in the most extreme cases. Because we seek Him first, we will appear strange to those who do not know Him, just like I appear strange to my single friends when I choose to consider my wife first.

The Bible also uses words like holy, and sanctified to describe us. These words all mean set apart. We often speak about how sin separates man from God. When we are baptized and become his children, God removes our sin “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalm 103:12) and we are no longer separated from God. What I think we fail to realize is that now sin doesn’t just separate man from God, sin separates man from us as well.

We must remember, however, that this only makes us different, not better. We still have temptations and trials just like everyone else, but more is expected of us as we have committed ourselves wholly to the Lord.

Second, we too age backwards.

When we become Christians we are born again, babes in Christ, washed clean of our sins, pure and holy. But we’re still old men. We still have the same weaknesses, the same temptations, and the same trials that we had before we were baptized. Now it is compounded because, as I said before, more is expected of us. We are expected to resist temptation and press on through trials, using them to grow stronger in our faith.

As Christians we are to grow younger. Jesus in Matthew 18 tells us: “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Just like the children of the planet Ork who had to learn how to walk and talk even though they were born fully grown, so must we also learn again how to walk and talk.

We must learn to walk in His footsteps.

(1 John1:7) says that “We must walk in the light as he is in the light” and Ephesians 5:8-10 says that we must “Walk as children of light (for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness, and truth), finding out what is acceptable to the Lord.”

Learning to walk again will be perilous, we will stumble and fall, skin our knees, bump our noses, but God will always be there to pick us up, dust us off, and even hold our hand as we try out our new legs.

We also must learn to speak as Christians, not just to others, but to God as well.

Paul tells Timothy in 2 Tim 2:15 to “Study to show thyself approved” and in 2 Tim 4:2: “Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.”

We cannot learn how to talk as a Christian without studying the Bible, and we cannot grow closer to God unless we “pray without ceasing” 1 Thes. 5:17.

We learn how to walk and talk as Christians, not only through study but also through example as well. Titus 2 tells us that the older men and women, those who have already become as children, are to teach the younger.

In a couple of days we’ll be changing our calendars and teaching ourselves to write 2010 instead of 2009. We’ll be starting a New Year.

Representative of this time of year is an image of an old man being replaced by a young baby. It comes with people making resolutions to improve themselves. All of this is the world’s feeble attempt to feel some sort of renewal, some sort of chance to start over.

This is but a shadow, a pale imitation of what Christians have.

As Christians we’ve all experienced the joy of a true new beginning. God has taken us and replaced our old man of sin with a newly born child of God. We have had that second chance that so many in the world seek. However, we often stumble and unfortunately can become unfaithful as we are learning to walk in His footsteps. The good thing is, it’s simple to get back up. All we have to do is reach up to Him in repentance and he will lift us up and set us on the right path again.

Those that aren’t Christians have the same opportunity we’ve taken advantage of. However, if you are looking for that second chance in any other place but God, you will not find it. Jesus said in John 14:6 “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Repentance (2 Cor. 7:10), confession (Romans 10:10), and baptism for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38) are the only things standing in your way of becoming a Child of God. There is no better time to do that than right now. We are not guaranteed that 2010 will come. We are not guaranteed that tomorrow will come. Now is the only time that we have.

Just about every year around this time you can read in the news about wildfires raging, posing a dangerous threat to cities and towns. Fortunately, we have highly trained men and women we call firefighters that come in and work tirelessly to stop these fires. One of the main methods they use is what they call a controlled burn. They start a fire that can be managed, to stop the one that cannot.

I. This shows us that fire has a dual nature – it can be beneficial, or it can be destructive.

A. When controlled, fire is an awesome thing:

A. It keeps us warm!

· I’m sure that even during our two days of winter here in Alabama that we can appreciate the roaring fire in the fireplace.

B. We cook our food with it:

· I’ll take a good, medium-well steak over cold sushi / raw fish any day.

C. We use it to make electricity:

· The International Energy Agency states that nearly 80% of the world’s power comes from burning oil, gas, and coal.

D. We also use it to purify and harden metals so we can build better things with them:

· Buildings, cars, computers, all this would be impossible without the hardening and purifying power of fire.

· And back in the days when swords were used instead of guns, they’d take a piece of metal and heat it up so that it softens, shape it, plunge it in water, then reheat it, fold it over, and reshape it. Sometimes they’d do this multiple times, each time strengthening the metal. This would make for a very strong sword that could hold a cutting edge throughout battle.

B. But uncontrolled, fire is a powerfully destructive force.

I’m pretty sure we all know — or know of — someone that has had their house burned down. Everything they own, scrapbooks, photographs, clothes — gone — destroyed in a matter of minutes. Sometimes, even loved ones are lost to fire. One of the leading causes of house fires is the fireplace itself. Why is this? The fire gets out of control. It escapes the boundaries we’ve put it in, usually when we grow lax in watching over it.

II. The Bible also shows us the duality of fire.

A. Fire is used as punishment

Leviticus 10:1&2: Then Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, each took his censer and put fire in it, put incense on it, and offered profane fire before the LORD, which He had not commanded them. So fire went out from the LORD and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.
 

The most well known punishment fire is used in is of course, Hell. Revelation tells us of a lake of fire, Chapter 20 starting at verse 11:

Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire.

B. God also uses fire in beneficial ways:

A. Exodus 13:21 tells us that God used a pillar of fire at night to guide the Israelites to Canaan.

B. Yearly sacrifices were one of the requirements in the covenant with Israel. And as I read before, God commanded them to use specific fire to burn the sacrifice and incense required, so fire was needed in order to keep the covenant with God.

C. And a figurative fire is used to test us, to strengthen us:

1 Peter 1:6-9 says: “In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith—the salvation of your souls.

Like the sword was heated and shaped and reshaped, we are too through the trials and temptations we endure. When we succeed in resisting temptation, we become stronger, better. But we cannot do that without God’s help.

III. We have a fire inside us. And like the examples above, this fire can be an awesome power. But when it is misdirected, when left alone to rage uncontrolled like the forest fire, when it is improperly contained, it destroys lives, and most importantly, it destroys souls.

A. Two great examples in the Bible of the fire inside a person being misdirected are the Apostles Peter and Paul:

1. In the Gospel accounts, when Jesus was at Gethsemane, Peter drew his sword and took a swing at one of the men coming to arrest Jesus, cutting off Malchus’ ear. Peter was READY to fight for Jesus. He was on FIRE and no one was going to take his teacher! But what did Jesus do? He stopped him, picked up the ear and put it back on. Obviously Peter’s intentions, however noble, were painfully misdirected, but Jesus was there to set him back on the right path.

Peter ended up preaching the first sermon on Pentecost, guiding many lost souls to salvation.

2. The book of Acts tells us of the Apostle Paul, who — when he was still called Saul — hunted Christians down, imprisoned them, and persecuted them, all in the Lord’s name. After Jesus appeared to him at Damascus and he was baptized into the Church he was a changed man. Acts chapter 9, particularly verses 10 through 22. And through Divine Inspiration his writings have shaped the Lord’s church, giving us guidelines of how to be faithful Christians.

A. These examples show that God has the power to take the fire in our hearts and do things that no one can imagine with it.

The problem is that we cannot control this fire, only God can. Oh we can try, and often we think we have it under our thumb, but really we are deceiving ourselves. We must give God control over our fire, over our passion, over our desires in life, and only once we do will we find salvation.

Christians, I’m sure we all remember well that day when we came up out of the watery grave of baptism. We were on fire for God! We had made our decision and we were committed! There was nothing in the world more important to us at that moment than serving Him.

I’d like us to take a good look at ourselves right now, comparing how we are now, to how we were then. Let’s be as objective as we possibly can and ask ourselves: Have we let work, or school, or dating, or friends redirect our fire away from God? Do we desire spending time with the world more than we desire spending it with our spiritual brothers and sisters? Would we rather go to a ballgame, a party, a work event than to a devotional, a fellowship, or even just generally spending time with other members here? If we don’t want to spend time with each other on Earth, why would we want to spend time with each other in Heaven?

Or maybe we’ve grown complacent, happy to sit in our pew once or twice a week, thinking that we’ve checked off a box on our to do list and by doing so, we’ve done all we need to do as Christians?

If this is how we are now then we are dangerously close to destruction. For lack of a better phrase, we’re playing with fire, and we will get burned.

The good thing is, we have a choice in the matter! God has given us a way to come back to Him, to put our fire back in His hands so that He can once again direct our lives.

We start doing this by making that conscious decision to give God that control again. Then we need to repent of our sins, because yes, if we’ve let something get between us and God, even if it’s something as simple as complacency, we have sinned and we need to turn away from it.

Every minute we have is an opportunity to return to Him, so take this time, right now to make it right with God. If you need prayers, help, or anything, let us know. I know that the Elders, as shepherds of this congregation desire nothing more than to know that their flock is fully under God’s control, and they will do whatever is necessary to help. And I’m sure the same goes for the Deacons, and every Brother and Sister in here.

For those of you in the audience who are not Christians, you’ve heard the word of God, not only tonight but I’m sure many times before. So the question I’d like to put before you, is do you believe what you’ve heard?

Do you believe that Jesus is the Son of God?

Do you believe that you have sin in your life? Romans 3:23 says that all have sinned. If you do believe these things, then you know that the only way to get rid of sin is through Jesus himself. In John 14:6 Jesus says “…I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

If you believe all this, then I have just one more question: What are you waiting for???? We aren’t guaranteed tomorrow, all we have is NOW.

If you believe come tonight and confess his name. Matthew 10:32 says: “Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven.”

Then repent of your sins. Acts 17:30 This is more than just apologizing for what you done, it’s taking a complete 180 away from the sins in your life and dedicating yourself to God. It’s refusing to let your sins control you anymore. This is probably the hardest part, but thankfully, He will not tempt us more than we are able to bear, I Corinthians 10:13, and through Christ all things are possible. Philippians 4:13. So resisting temptation, while it seems an insurmountable task, with God we can do it!

Then all that’s left is to be baptized into Christ for the remission of your sins, Acts 2:38, so you can live the rest of your life faithfully, free from sin, giving God control over the fire in your heart.

I know the walk alone up to the front pew can be pretty intimidating. Don’t let that be the reason that keeps you from this decision. If that is the reason, just raise your hand and we’ll come to you – we’ll embrace you knowing that you are ready to take this wonderful and EXTREMELY important step. The important thing is that you make that decision tonight, RIGHT NOW. So please do so as we sing this song.