513 - Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve

Leaving Laodicea

We’re Running Out of Time

There comes a time in everyone’s life, at least everyone who accomplishes something of value, when they quit making excuses and commit to an ideal greater than themselves. We see this in sports, in the financial arena, and in the life of faith. Almost all of our spiritual heroes sacrificed their comfort and security for something they could not see, for some ideal beyond themselves that only their faith could grasp. And their life was defined by the very moment they stepped out in faith, regardless of the outcome. We see this in the summary of the life of Able, Enoch, Noah, and Abraham in Hebrews 11.

These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth – Hebrews 11:13.

These men, charter members of the Hebrews 11 Roll Call of Faith, all died holding fast to the promise, to the ideal they committed their lives to by faith. Dire circumstances didn’t sway them. Neither did pain, suffering, disappointment, or betrayal. And their unwavering trust and commitment to the Lord and His Word is why they are so highly revered as champions of our faith.

Yet in each one of their lives, there came a point where they went “all in” and everything in their life changed from that moment forward. Their priorities were re-aligned. Their definition of success re-defined. Their motivation for life was no longer in themselves and their happiness, but in Him who called them. They found themselves, like Paul, “forgetting those things which are behind and racing forward to those things which are ahead” they “press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13-14).

I know what many of you may be thinking right now.

“Ok, but that was them. What about me? Do I have what it takes to make the same commitment they did? And if so, when do I go about doing that? When should I make that commitment? Does something have to happen to me first? Do I have to reach some sort of spiritual zenith before I give my all to Christ? Or is this something I can do today, right now? Or should I wait until tomorrow? Or maybe next year? Or whenever I think I’m ready?”

But the time is now. Not tomorrow or next week. But now.

Or Maybe, We’ve Already Run Out of Time

It is time for each of us to no longer be a hearer of God’s Word but to do what it says.

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was – James 1:22-24.

It is time to move beyond hearing and knowing, to becoming and obeying His Word. After all, Jesus did not die to give us spiritual knowledge, but to transform us and make us new.

There comes a time in each person’s life when they say, “Enough is enough!” With everyone we admire, they came to a point of no return, no compromise, no backing down. For them, it was all or nothing, no matter the cost, “come what may.” And it is time for you and me to do the same.

It is time for each of us to come to a point when we take our faith seriously enough to face what all of us will soon face, whether we’re ready or not. And it is time for us to get ready to meet our King and live like we truly believe He is coming.

Are you ready?

To download the slides for this message, click – HERE

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