Life Is a Glory, Not a Grind: Start and You Will Go Places

Sermon outline

Faith is seen in action, so start, stretch yourself and live with enthusiasm, because life is a glory, not a grind, and more is coming your way.

1. Start and you will go places

   When you decide to pursue life's best, God is with you. Fix your dream so clearly in your mind and spirit that you can see it: write it on cards, put it on your mirror, car or desk, meditate on it, and refuse any counsel or suggestion that contradicts what you have decided. He is not denying the facts in the news, but believers relate to something above the facts, the truth, and Jesus is the truth.

   Illustration: He types out words God gives him in prayer and sticks them on his wall with masking tape, such as 'spilling over, flowing over', which he plans to preach on at New Year. He also advises skipping the house of the relative who only ever talks about what they don't have.

   “We think about the truth that overrides the facts.”

   • Matthew 28:20
   • John 14:6

2. Faith that can be seen

   He went from being poor to having everything because he met Jesus and put His Word into practice, including tithes and offerings, and God watches over His Word to perform it. A storm may arise, but you are going to the other side; Peter walked on water when Jesus said 'come', and when he sank Jesus lifted him up, because He is the God of the second and third chance. The friends who tore open a roof to lower a crippled man showed their faith by their actions, and a man was healed as he stretched out his hand.

   Illustration: The house was jammed and hot, but the friends didn't wait for a more convenient day: they climbed onto a roof that wasn't even theirs and tore it open, and Jesus saw their faith.

   “Heaven has never been reached by the person who does not act.”

   • Malachi 3:10
   • Jeremiah 1:12
   • 2 Chronicles 16:9
   • Mark 4:35
   • Matthew 14:28-31
   • Mark 2:1-5
   • Mark 3:5

3. Cast your love

   Even salvation takes action: you leave your seat, walk forward and confess Jesus as Lord, and inside an eternal transaction takes place. God has shed His love abroad in your heart, so stop holding back and give yourself away, even praying for and blessing your enemies, though he admits that part makes him shudder a little.

   Illustration: A bell is not a bell till you ring it, a song is not a song till you sing it, and love is not love till you give it away.

   “Love is not love till you give it away.”

   • Romans 10:9
   • Romans 5:5
   • Matthew 5:44

4. Expand and stretch yourself

   He wants to teach soberly so people can walk intelligently in the kingdom, not be so spiritual that they are of no earthly good. Be people of action: feed the hungry and help the needy, but do it in secret with the right heart, without advertising it, and your Father will reward you. Jesus was not a philosopher or a promoter of religious doctrine but a man of action, and God is the energiser within you.

   Illustration: He quotes Theodore Roosevelt on the credit belonging to the one in the arena, and D. L. Moody: 'I like the way I'm doing things more than the way you are talking about them.' He tells of a man who knew the Bible well but gave his tithes to the poor, and asked him which part of taking the tithe to the house of God he didn't understand.

   “Some people are so spiritual that they are of no earthly good.”

   • Matthew 6:4
   • Matthew 6:17-18
   • John 14:6
   • Philippians 2:13
   • Ephesians 3:16
   • 2 Corinthians 6:2

5. You have a covenant with God

   Relatives may envy you and wonder how you got your house and car, but you are blessed because you have a covenant with God, as Abraham did, and God made Abraham very rich. We serve a God who owns everything and does not go belly up.

   Illustration: He jokes about relatives who drove past his new house uninvited just to look, and suggests a sign at the end of the road: 'Here lives a man blessed or a woman blessed by God. Please ask him how or why.'

   “God's got your back.”

   • Genesis 13:2

6. Energise with enthusiasm

   Today is a new beginning being seeded in you: you will have challenges, but the greater the challenge, the greater the victory. When David faced a new challenge he remembered the victories God had already given him; remember what God has brought you through, and never forget where you came from, because remembering makes you thankful.

   Illustration: The other soldiers thought Goliath was too big to fight; David thought he was too big to miss. As a boy his family mended their shoes with Bostik because they couldn't buy new ones, and he saved for two or three years from three rand a weekend, delivering the Daily News, to buy a bicycle.

   “The greater the challenge, the greater the victory.”

   • 1 Samuel 17:34-37
   • 1 Samuel 17:49
   • Revelation 12:11

7. Life is a glory, not a grind

   He sums up the series: believe in your value, dare to desire to reach higher, believe in God's wealth, dream a better way of life, decide on a goal, commit yourself to action and fight against every obstacle until you win. Smile and pay your bills, because higher bills mean God can trust you with more, and as money goes out, more comes in.

   “Life is a glory, not a grind.”