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Oct 15

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Takin’ Life To The X-Treme


We love to talk about the economy, don’t we, from interest rates to job rates, from Greenspan to C-span, from bear markets to bull markets.  We talk about the economy, because we love to talk about money.  Let’s think about that picture of money, of the economy, because I am going to talk to you about the economy in this talk. I am going to talk about an economy in a different genre.  I want to talk to you about God’s economy.  I want to specifically hone in on one thing that causes us a lot of problems.  In fact, if you are a Christian, this could lead to your spiritual bankruptcy. This problem I am referring to can really mess you up.  It can put you into a faith funk.  If you are not a believer, this can still keep you in a holding pattern from ever making a faith step to establish a personal relationship with Christ.  What am I talking about?  I am talking about pain and suffering in the economy of God.

What do you do with pain and suffering.  Now and then, on the bottom of letters, we will see these two letters, P.S.  Usually the P.S. in a letter has some stuff that is pretty important, like a little funny word, a comment, or I love you, or whatever.  Instead of saying pain and suffering throughout the message, most of the time, I will refer to pain and suffering as P.S.  So when I say P.S., that’s pain and suffering.  You get it?  P.S. is pain and suffering.  I didn’t say PMS.  I said P&S.

Teaching on the Trinity

Aug 1

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Sadly, we have not received any teaching on the Trinity.  As a result, Christians have suffered.  But, we are going to change that course with this series. This series is going to revolutionize how we live our lives.

1 Corinthians 1:20,25 say, “Where is the wise man?  Where is the scholar?  Where is the philosopher of this age?  Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?  … For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.”

We must worship God as he has revealed himself to us, and not just in ways that we, in our finiteness, can understand.

The first time I saw her, she had on an orange dress.  I got her phone number and called her. Several months later, we began to date, if you can call it that.  I am talking about my wife, Lisa.  It was about twenty-seven years ago. Can you believe that? Twenty-seven years ago I fell in love with her. The more I understand her, the more my love has grown for her, and the greater our intimacy and communication have grown.  It’s been a great thing.

That’s been my prayer for you over the last several weeks as I prepared for this series.  It’s been my prayer that all of us fall passionately and madly in love with the Trinity.  People say, “I love God’s grace.  I love God’s mercy.  I love the church.  I love the Bible.”  But, you never hear anyone say, “I love the Trinity.”  We should, it’s my prayer that we fall madly in love with the Trinity. It’s my prayer that we understand the Trinity in a deeper and wider realm. It’s my prayer that we understand the personality of God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, because that is what it truly means to Tri-God.

I don’t want you just to blend into the scenery, I want you to stand up and become a difference maker. Let’s jump right into the first decision we face.  Presents vs Your Presence.  Gifts vs time.  Trinkets vs moments.  It is so easy for us, fathers, to fall into this trap, to do the presents thing.

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We exist for God

Jul 17

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God doesn’t exist for us.  We exist for God. The greatest thing we can do is to know God and to realize that it is all about God.  That’s why I said several weeks ago that salvation is outside of ourselves.  We are in rubble trouble.  We can’t build anything to reach God.  God has built everything to reach us through the Trinity.  It’s by God’s grace, mercy and power that everything happens.  So, God is at the center of the Gospel.  We must have alignment.

So, the Trinity refines our relationship with God.  It aligns our understanding of the Gospel.  Number three — it defines the uniqueness of Christianity. It defines the uniqueness of Christianity.  You can throw every major world religion into one four-dimensional box — height, length, width and time.  Christianity, though, blows the doors off the box, because of the Trinity.

Whenever you hear someone say, “You know, all religions are pretty much the same,” do you know what these people are telling you? They are saying, “I am ignorant and I have never studied the world religions.”  Whenever you hear someone say that, just remember that they are advertising their ignorance, because it’s true.  They have never studied the religions, because the Trinity is so unique, and it’s so one-of-a-kind, that there is nothing even close to it in the other major world religions.

Einstein said he thought that there are something like eleven different dimensions.  Some people think there might be 14 different dimensions.  We only operate in four dimensions — only four.  Next weekend, To show you the uniqueness of the Trinity and how the Trinity is just about Christianity. I am going to show you how Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism, and other -isms have a whacked view of the Trinity.  That’s next weekend.  That’s important for us because we need to understand who we are in Christ and who we are as Christians, so that we will not fall prey to people who have a whacked view of the foundation of our faith.

I am right there with you.  I also want to challenge, motivate and stimulate you to be a better father, better than just normal, just average.

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The Bible Is A Book Of Promises by Pastor Ed Young

Jun 22

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The Bible is a book of promises.  If you understand the promises of God, you can understand virtually every verse of Scripture in the Bible.  God has promises for us to claim.  Oftentimes, I talk to people who are clueless about the promises of God.  That’s why I’m doing this series called, “Clueless.”

Others, though, are clueless because they think they’re clued in to the promises of God; but in reality, they’re clued in to fantasy land stuff.  They walk around and say, “Well, God has promised me health and wealth and a pain-free life.”

He look at them and say, “What are you smoking?  Where’s that in Scripture?”

It’s critical that we understand and know the promises of God.  Because if we don’t, one day we’re going to get to heaven and inherit the big kahuna with streets of gold, mansions, etc., etc., and Ed Young is afraid that God will look at many and say, “I had all of this for you, all of this real currency for you to tap into, but you didn’t know who you were, or whose you were, or what you had.  You didn’t realize it.”

I don’t want that to happen.  That’s why we need to understand the promises of God.  The Bible is all about the promises of God.  Pastor Ed Young states that the promises of God are foundational.  So, picture in your mind’s eye a stool. And on one leg you’ve got knowledge.  On another leg, you’ve got belief.  On another leg, you’ve got action. I’m talking about A-C-T-I-O-N. Do that with me.  A-C-T-I-O-N.  We can do better than that.  A-C-T-I-O-N (with claps).  Thank you!  I knew that last one would really get it!

When it comes to the promises of God, I’ve got to know them.  Do you know them?  Are you clueless, or are you clued in?  Most of us are clueless, let’s face it.

Then we’ve got to believe them.  “Okay, I believe, God, in your promises.  I believe them.  I know them.  I believe them.”

The ark is a picture of salvation.  God, by His grace extended a very own, stamped, invitation, engraced invitation, to our man, Noah.

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Placing the Holy Spirit Inside in our Lives by Pastor Ed Young

Jun 11

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If you were tough and cool, you would pick the one with the shortest fuse and light it.  You had to get rid of it quickly because if you didn’t it could blow your finger off or burn you.  A lot of us have short fuses, don’t we?   We just kind of blow up.  We have a quick boiling point.  We have a microwave tempter.  We lose patience like that.

God says that He is in the business of placing the Holy Spirit inside of our lives if we will let Him.  And He will teach us some things while we go through these tests to build patience.  I want to briefly show you as we cruise through scripture what we can do to increase our patience as we cooperate with the Holy Spirit of God.

Here is what the Holy Spirit of God does.  First, as He takes us through these situations, He will allow us to learn a new look.  We will learn how to look.  Did you hear how I emphasized the I words?  Interruption.  Inconveniences.  Irritations.  That is the problem with our impatience.  We are focused on ourselves.  We think about old number one.  We become meistic.  My schedule.  My agenda.  My feelings.  My finances.  My commitment.  We become meistic.  We are looking at ourselves.  We focus on I.  When we are focused on the big I, we don’t really have eyes to see the way God wants us to see.  And if we cooperate with the Holy Spirit of God, let me tell you what He will do.  He will softly take our head in His hands and turn it off of I, of me, of what makes me look good, feel good and turn it to God.  He will turn my eyes to God.

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Sense of Peace and Tranquility by Pastor Ed Young

May 20

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Now if you talk to narrow gaters, you find they possess a curious sense of peace and  tranquility that passes all understanding. I have had so many board roaders look and me and say, “Ed, chill out.  Let your hair down, man.  Do you realize how good it is over here?  Just cool out.  Please, Ed, please.”  The board roaders mean well but they don’t know what is really happening.  They don’t know what is inevitable.  It could happen suddenly, it could happen gradually, but it always happens to the broad roaders.

Now I want to talk about two contrasting results that Jesus talked about.  One result is destruction, for those on the broad road.  The other result is life, for those on the narrow road.  You see, the broad roaders get surprised.  I call this the reverse surprise of the two different roads.  On the broad road you are just having a good time.  You say that everybody gets high.  But after awhile the highs can become addictive on the broad road.  Then you sing, everybody gets low.  On the broad road the lows can lead to depression.

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A Blessing from God by Pastor Ed Young

May 17

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Now we have got a lot of people in this auditorium right now who are on the broad and wide road.  And you are singing at the top of your lungs.The narrow road is different.   The narrow road has those moral guardrails.  The narrow road has highway patrolmen everywhere.  The narrow road tells us that we have got to live by the authority of the Bible.  The narrow road says that we have got to watch and think about what we are doing in front of others.

Narrow roaders are people who hang out with their spouse until death.  Narrow roaders are people who understand that word is a gift from God and they work hard because they know they are working for the Lord Himself.  Narrow gaters are people who know that their finances are a blessing from God and they give generously to the church and to those in need.

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God is going to Kind of Change by Pastor Ed Young

May 14

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Some of you think that God is going to kind of change His mind on that day of reckoning.  Some of you think that God is just going to nod and wink and wave everyone through.  Or do you believe that on that final day God is going to say, “You know you have sinned against Me.  You have turned your back on me.

You just do whatever feels good.  You say to everybody that this is the way to do it, that you love what you are doing.  You are singing Sheryl Crow’s song, “Every day is a winding road.  I get a little bit closer.  Every day is a faded sign.  I get a little bit closer to feeling fine.  Everybody gets high.  Everybody gets low.  These are the days when anything goes.”  That’s the theme song.

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Going to be the Ultimate by Pastor Ed Young

May 7

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And then, during the starting line ups on television games, I’d try to get to the end of the line so the camera could see me clapping for them.  It was pitiful.  But Lisa went to every single game and sat right behind me, staring at my back the whole game.

Rodney, though, my wild friend, was a prophet.  Because one day he said, “You know what? I’ve got a good name for you—the Reverend!  You act like a Reverend.”

So everybody on the team started calling me the Reverend.  The Rev.  He was a prophet, wasn’t he?

So, at the end of my freshman year there was an NBA player who came down to practice with us and played. He was really nice to me and gave me a lot of confidence and I began to improve. That summer I was able to play with a bunch of NBA players from Houston and I gained more confidence. And in my sophomore year I won a starting position for the game against Auburn.  I was starting and I thought, “Man, this is it! I’m starting as a sophomore. Our team is top 25 team. This is incredible!”

I remember calling my parents and saying, “Mom and Dad, I’m starting at this game!  This is going to be the ultimate.”

And I’ll never forget it. The announcer at the game said, “Starting at guard, number 12 from Houston, Texas; 6’2, 172 lbs.—Ed Young!” I walked out on the court and I thought to myself, “This is it? I’m standing here in short shorts (this was the 80’s) with tube socks, trying to put a leather ball through an iron ring.  So, this is my life.  Wow, this is it?”  It’s like God was saying to me, “There’s something more.”

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Large Levels of Loneliness by Pastor Ed Young

May 2

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700 people lived in our dorm. Only 3 out of 700 went to church. And my teammates were like, “Man, what’s wrong with you?  Why don’t you smoke the weed with us?  Why don’t you do the dope with us?  We have all these hooker’s on the road and you don’t even have sex with them.   You don’t even have sex with Lisa. What’s wrong with you!?”

Day in and day out I felt large levels of loneliness. I went through depression because it was just falling apart for me.

Yet, by God’s grace and power, he gave me the ability to remain strong.  But every day before practice, I remember I’d get there early; I’d get all taped up and get my uniform on and I would go up this staircase to this little window overlooking our gym where we’d practice and I would say, “God, I give basketball. I give this whole thing to you.  I am in Sodom and Gomorrah.  I don’t know why I’m in this hell hole. Use me, God, in any way possible.”  I had to pray that over and over and over again every single day.

I met a guy on my team named Rodney.  Rodney was the wildest guy on the team.  He was a phenomenal athlete. Everybody was scared to death of him, and the coach would always put me with him on road trips.  Rodney and I had a couple of discussions about my life and about Christianity, but nothing in depth. He was like talking to a brick wall.

My freshman year I sat on the bench pretty much the whole year.  We’d play on ESPN or some other national television show and my mom would call and say, “Honey, I saw you. You’re hair looked great on the bench.”

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