Psalm 115:5-8.  Think about these nameless, faceless gods and goddesses.   “They have mouths but they cannot speak, eyes but they cannot see.  They have ears but they cannot hear, noses but they cannot smell.  They have hands but they cannot feel, feet but they cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats.  Those who make them will be like them and so will all who trust in them.”  I love the mentality and the rational of God.   As what he teaches us, that is the kind of God we serve, a God of love and a God who wants to save us from all this polytheism.

Well, now the implication.  We will do a few screen passes and then we will be through.  How can this affect my life?  How can I take this first commandment and make it real?  I want to give you three things that we need to do in order to prioritize God as God beginning now in January 1999.

Number one.  Accept God’s review of you.  Near the end of the year a lot of companies and organizations do a review.  The employees will meet with their managers, or presidents, or CEOs, or boards or whatever.  They will go through your good points and the bad points and things on which you can improve.  It is a good thing to do.  Evaluation.  Well, God has done a review of you and you and you and you.  And we need to accept this review.  The Bible says, that we have all messed up, that we are mistake laden, that we are sin-driven human beings. Also mentioned that we fall miserably short of God’s standard of goodness.  Some people walk around saying, “Well I keep the Ten Commandments.  I live by the Ten Commandments.  Yeah, I might break them now and then but they are my guideline.  That is enough for me.”  Well the Ten Commandments are great.  They are phenomenal.  But the Ten Commandments will not get you where you want to go.  They will not give you the peace that surpasses all understanding.

Remember that I said earlier that the children of Israel were in slavery.  What happened to them?  God emancipated them.

Because this man was connected with God, because he listened to God, God gave him this character quality we so desperately need and yearn for, endurance.

We probably have some eels here hearing my voice right now.  Else are freaky because they are fearful.  Just one false move and you could be found out.  Leans against you, lawsuits against you, creditors converging on you, lying here, lying there, stop the nonsense, I beg you.  Get real.  Get some help.

Let’s change to something else that is a little bit lighter, okay?  This next fish is a very common fish, just a minnow.  We all know minnows, those martyrs.  Those people who say, “I’m just a benign baitfish swallowed up by this world.  No one works like me. No one has the pain that I have.  No one carries the mantel that I have.”  Martyrs are always talking down, always priding themselves in their pity.  They are poor delegators.  They don’t want any help.  They are just a little minnow.  Just a martyr.  We have male martyrs and female martyrs.

Here are some fish facts.  Don’t get sucked in.  Martyrs kick up a serious wake and if you follow too closely to a martyr, you can sucked into it and you will begin to pity yourself and them too.  You’ll be saying things like, “Life is terrible.  You better watch out or the world will eat you up.”

Here are some other fish facts of advice.  I like this.  Make the minnow, or the martyr, just laugh. The Bible says laughter is good.  If you know a martyr at the office or around your family, throw a joke in.  They need that more than anyone.  Just do something crazy or something.  I know some martyrs and I just kind of joke them around, the Three Stooges thing.

Our small group ministry is called Home Teams.  We have Connection Classes, parenting classes, single parent home teams, single home teams.

If you want to rent a movie, go to Blockbuster and rent one, specifically.  For that matter, why even have cable television?  I’m just asking.  Now, don’t leave here and say, “Ed told me to throw away my television.  I can’t believe it!”  No, I’m not saying that.  That’s between you and God.  I’m not you.  You’re not me.  Why even watch television that much?  On the weekends, I’m emotionally spent.  I’m vulnerable.  Physically, I feel good.  Spiritually I feel great.  But emotionally, I’m down.  So, I have made a covenant with my eyes.  I don’t channel surf on Saturday nights or Sunday evenings, because I know my vulnerabilities.   I know what is out there.  So, I don’t pick up the remote.

What about the Internet.  Do you purchase software to block all the stuff that is on there?  How about relationships that squeeze those trigger points to move you into lustful situations?  Job said, “I made a covenant with my eyes.”  We need to “mobil-eyes”.

One more — we need to “real-eyes” this whole process.

The Escape Plan

Let me give you some cool things right here.  1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation (none) has seized you (put your name in there — Ed, Lisa, Bill, Kathy, Gary, whatever) except what is common to man.  And God is faithful (even when we are faithless, isn’t that incredible?); He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.  But when you are tempted (when, so you know it’s going to happen), he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”

Every time you’ve got this process happening, God always accompanies it with a way of escape.  I thank God for that.

We can never say, “That was too strong.  The bull was too great.  I just could not say no.”

That is a bunch of bunk.  There is always, the Bible says, a way of escape.

In Psalm 139:15, the Bible says that God knows our frame.

But because of your generosity, and I am talking to the core people here, we have pretty much paid for the whole deal just by taking two offerings.

Tell me, Mark, about your children.  Tell me their ages, etc.  Talk to me about them.

Mark:  Joshua is fourteen, just turned fourteen this past month.  Jacob is nine and a half now.  But they’re great kids, actively involved in sports and their school programs and doing well.  They simply enjoy life.  They all understand that Lou Gehrig’s is a terminal disease.  They do understand the finality of it all and it remains to be seen ultimately how they are going to take the final aspects of it.  They seem to have a pretty good grasp on it.

Joshua:  We talk to her.  We tell her about what we did at school or how we did at our baseball game or what the Rangers game was like, or Stars game.  Since she can’t really talk, she smiles.  Sometimes we tell her a story and she laughs.

Jacob:  I walk in there everyday after school and tell her what I did.  When I come home, I have so much stories to tell, me and my brother, just sit there for hours telling.

Mark:  We have from the Fellowship Church, the Home Teams group that we participated with, have gotten together, and there are several women within that organization, within that Home Team group, that come and read to Pam for about an hour a day each day.  Pam can’t respond back to them, but she can smile and acknowledge their presence.  She knows that they are there.  Her mental faculties are all still there, so she understands that they are reading to her.  She enjoys their visits.  It’s just a time for her to interact in her own way.

Instead of grading a 70 paper as -3, she would call it a +7.  I like that.  Here is your homework, Dads.  Say, “I will encourage my child and my family one time a day for the next week.”