I am not a big fan of social networking sites like myspace.  We have decided as a family that although the rest of the known world may be using this communications tool, we would just stay away from it altogether.  Well, I came to find out the other day that my daughter decided she would break the family code and get herself a myspace account.  Only she was going to out smart her dad and put it under the code name, “sexi sagitarius.”  YOUR KIDDING ME, RIGHT?  SHE’S 15 YEARS OLD, AINT NOTHIN ABOUT HER SEXY!!!  Sorry, I got off on a tangent. Well some mess went down at the school and they called me and said, “Mr. Davis, do you know that your daughter has a myspace page?”  You can imagine how happy I was to find out the great news!

I have been studying the book of Ezekiel.  In chapter 33 God is talking to Ezekiel who is a prophet to God’s people, and in verse 31 God says to Ezekiel, “they sit before you as My people, and they hear your words, but they do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their hearts pursue their own gain.” How appropriate is that?  I so believe in the Sovereignty of God that He knew that I would be dealing with this issue at this time and had that word to help encourage me.  What an awesome God we serve! 

Now to the main point.  I have been trying to teach my daughter that she should stop being such a shade tree, because she will always get caught.  She hasn’t quite learned the lesson yet.  The bible is extremely clear on this issue.  Numbers 32:23 you can be sure that your sin will find you out.  It may not be today, or tomorrow or next week.  But our sin will always find us out.  And in the end it will always cost us more than we are willing to pay.  I’m quite sure if you asked my daughter was the two years of myspace usage worth the tremendous price she paid in consequences for it, that she would say it was not worth it.

If you have been following the news lately you would have seen the awesome rescue of Captain Richard Phillips by the U.S. Navy.  Captain Phillips was captured by Somali Pirates and was being held ransom.  The details of how Captain Phillips was captured are fuzzy, but what isn’t fuzzy is how the Navy Seals lured in the pirates and with 3 simultaneous shots killed all of them.  The officers testified that something drew the pirates attention which caused them to stand up and stick their heads out of the ship that they were in.  The officers then fired and killed each of them with one shot a piece.  Which by the way is the seals motto, “one shot, one kill.”

I was thinking this morning about pirates and how they try to steal things all the time.  They aren’t much different than our enemies as Christians.  Our enemies, the devil, world and the flesh are always trying to steal from us as well.  They want to steal our joy, passion and our zeal for the Lord.  They want to capture us and hold us hostage, so that we will live lives full of disappointment, discouragement and dispair.

John 10:10 says, the devil comes to kill, steal and destroy.  But Jesus goes on to say, “I have come that you have life and have it more abundantly.  I write this to remind us that God wants us to live lives of freedom, not bondange.  Today there are many folks I meet that are just living.  They feel trapped in the same ole place, day after day, year after year.  Where is the fun in that?  God wants you and I to live lives full of joy. (John 17:13)

So how are you and I going to live abundant lives?  Oswald Chambers says, “It is definitely a crime for a Christian to be weak in God’s strength.”  What does he mean?  The bible tells us that we can do all things through Christ who is our strength. (Phillipians 4:13)  Many of us quote this verse then neglect to live it out.  If you and I are going to live joyfully abundant lives, we must learn to tap into the power that is available to us through the Holy Spirit.  2 Timothy 1:7 says God has given us a spirit of power.  But many folks never tap into the power that is at our disposal.

Three things I want you to take away from this: 1. Lets beware of the pirates out there trying to destroy us.  2. We must go into strict spiritual training so we can gain freedom from our enemies.  3. Please, if you are not already, start to live the abundant life that God has promised to us who believe.

This week my girls finished their standardized testing for the state.  Last night at the dinner table I asked them how the testing went.  The baby gave me her usual, “good” and my oldest daughter Dominique says, “they were good, oh except science.”  As we talked more she continues with, “I just guessed on most of that test.”  You can imagine how happy I was to hear that news.  She then says to me, “dad, don’t freak out, these tests don’t even count.”  Who can understand the mind of a teenager?  In order not to “freak out!” I decided to leave it alone and pick my battles wisely.

This morning however, I was reading the Word of God in Luke 19.  Jesus gives a parable about ten minas given to ten workers.  At the end of the parable Jesus says (v.27) But bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, and slay them before me.  Wow!  That is powerful.  Your saying “ok Don what is your point.”  My point is this, I think many of us treat life like my daughter did that SAT test.  We buy into the lie that our actions don’t even count.  We tend to think that God will somehow grade on a curve.  We believe that certain tests that come into our lives don’t even matter at all.  We rationalize our behaviors by saying, “God knows me, He understands the way that I am.” 

In 1999 I was introduced to a scripture that changed my life.  Matthew 7:21 Not everyone who says to me, “Lord, Lord,”  shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my Father in heaven.  The guy who read me that scripture then asked me a very straight forward question.  He said, “Don are you doing the will of God?”

That is the question I want to leave you with today.  Are you doing the will of God?  Becasue if you are not, then God considers you and enemy and Luke told us what happens to the enemies of God.  Lets get to a Holy Notha Level when it comes to our walk with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  And stop making excuses for our poor choices and bad behavior patterns.  Lets be honest with ourselves and God and call our issues what they really are, sin that lives in us.