And right before my senior year, my father walks in says, “Ed, Ben, JoBeth, we’re moving to Houston”. Well, I lived in South Carolina at the time, a thousand and three miles away from Houston, Texas and I’ll never forget driving with my parents that long journey to Houston, thinking, “Oh, it’s over, my love, Lisa, is back there at that high school”. One of those guys flirting with her. I began to cry. I was upset. There was no doubt about it. I had elevated Lisa, a person, to the number one priority in my life. And God gave me a wake-up call. And that was a crisis because God gives us a crisis too in the Christian’s life. He said, “Pastor Ed Young, not a person, not a possession, not a pleasure, should ever take top priority. That position is only for me because when I’m in that position, that’s when your life is going to click.   It’s going to cruise”. Because Satan wants all of us here to snooze, but God wants us to cruise like a Lamborghini. So don’t ever sit back and say, “Well, the Christian life will make me into some kind of spiritual snoozer or just kind of calm me down”. Just the opposite is true. If you know the resurrection power, you’re talking about excitement, adventure, challenge, fun! You’re gonna be in on it! If your life is very predictable, blase, I want to tell you, you’re not living personally with Jesus like He wants you to. So God gives us a crisis even in a Christian’s life. But then also, He’ll use another Christian, like He does with the non-Christian. He’ll put something in your life to say, “This is what I want you to do”.

A couple of years ago, God placed a gentleman in my life. His name was Ortis Gideon. He died recently of a heart attack.. .one of my spiritual mentors. And God miraculously brought us together and God used him in my life to wake me up to what it means to pray and what it means to really get into God’s Word. Before that you know, I was kind of floating around, going through he motions. I’d been to seminary, I was a pastor. But this man challenged me and I say, “God, I thank you for that wake-up call in my life”. Ed Young asks, can I be your wake-up call this morning? Could the person seated beside you be your wake-up call? Could Al Densen be your wake-up call? Could Russ Kidwell be your wake-up call? Could the choir be your wake-up call? God will use anything, anything to get our attention because God painfully perfects who He royally elects.   He does and He’ll use everything to say “I want you to know”.

So before the service, we meet together and they say, “After the solo, the organ will play softly and you walk up to the pulpit, take your Bible with you and you begin to pray”.

It is a one order.  Kids.  Now, children are a gift from God.  He have done whole series on this subject.  IT’S APPARENT was a six-week series I did on child rearing.  This year I am going to do another series just on the value and beauty of children.  But, kids can and will bust up your sex.  You know what KIDS stands for?  Keeping Intimacy at a Distance Successfully.  That is why I encourage couples to have a regular date night.  I encourage you to have certain bed times for the children and certain areas of the house that are off limits during certain hours.

The sex builder is get on board the B52.  B stands for a break.  52 stands for 52 weeks out of the year.  Husbands and wives, I challenge you to take two breaks a year just for the two of you.  Go away a night or two twice a year, every six months.  Go away for romance.  Go away for intimacy.  Go away for sex.  “Ed, you just don’t know our finances.  We can’t afford that.”

It is better to pay the price now, take out a loan if you have to, than to end up relationally bankrupt later on down the road.  Ed Young Blog states that you don’t want to neglect the B52 and one day have the B52 carpet bomb your covenant.  Take them.  It is worth it.  It will reap huge benefits in your marriage.

Number seven is sharing sacred stuff.  Do not share those tidbits regarding what goes on in the bedroom with your golfing buddies, your tennis gal pals, with the person next to you at work.  Don’t go there.  Hebrews 13:4.  “Let marriage be held in honor among all and let the marriage bed be undefiled.” Ed Young Ministries states that if you want to talk to a Christian counselor, cool, but no one else.  If you blab this stuff it will take away trust from your spouse and it can fan the flames of adultery.

And you will get raises and you will be able to climb the corporate ladder and you will be able to really be someone.”  The marketplace screams for our attention.

Yet, sometimes I meet people around the Dallas/Ft. Worth area and they will say, “Yes, I am a Christian.”  I’ll say, “Really?  That’s great.”  Then I will say, “Where do you go to church?  Where are you serving?  Where are you involved?”

They will respond, “Well, um, you know, I’m single and I am kind of floating around.  They have beautiful girls at Fellowship Church and I’ll go there some.  I’ll sometimes go over there and listen to that preacher and then I’ll go to this other church sometimes because I like the music over there.”

Then I will say, “Wait a minute.  If you are not hooked into a local church, you are disobeying thirty commands right up front in the New Testament.”

Now, all of us are going to get sick one day.  I’m going to be sick one day.  I’m going to call on you.  You are going to be sick one day.

Look at James 5:14 again, “Is anyone among you sick?”  He should do what?  “He should call the elders of the church.”  He, the sick man, the sick woman, has the ball in their court.  They should call for the spiritual leadership of the church, for the elders of the church.  This implies church membership.  I’ll say it once again, church membership is commanded, I believe, in Scripture.  The Apostle Paul, when he was in Damascus, hooked up with a church in Damascus.  When Paul was in Jerusalem, he hooked up with a church in J-town.

What if I told you this, “I don’t know if you realize it or not, but I play in the National Hockey League.”  What if I said that?  Your next question would be, “What team?”  I would said, “No, you don’t get it.  I don’t play for a team.  I just play in the National Hockey League.”  You would say, “Ed, if you play for the National Hockey League, then you have got to play for a team.  You have got to be on a roster.”

Then I thought about how we treat our Heavenly Father.  God says that He wants us to give some money, that He will bless us for it.  But we say no to God, that we don’t lend money.  We tell Him that we have made it, we can spend it, and we can save it.  It is ours.  Who are you trying to kid?  If God wanted to, He could take it all at once.

We fail to understand that.  We also, like LeeBeth, don’t understand that God is the one who gave it to us anyway.  All we are doing is giving back what is His.  Have you said yes to giving?

I have heard a lot of people say that they will say yes to giving when the deal comes through, when everything is A-OK, next year when they begin to really make it.