Ed Young Blog

We begin to get frustrated but decide we will try aisle four.  Aisle four is relationships.  Oh, boy.  Love is in the air.  Every sight and every sound.  So we begin to date and then we mate.  Then we have children.  It is great and fine and wonderful.  Yet, we are still empty.  We have all these relationships in our lives but there is still a crater in the cart.  And now and then during the Christmas season we will go to a service like this and we will push our cart dangerously close to baby Jesus.  We will look at baby Jesus but we don’t want to slow down too much because we will realize how empty we are.  We look and think about Him and now and then some of us will pick up the Christ child.  There is always room for a baby in the cart.  We put the Christ child in the cart.  We love having baby Jesus in the cart because He is harmless that way.  He is just a baby.  And we can push Him around and still have the white knuckle grip.  We can say, “Jesus you are so sweet, so kind, so nice.”  We don’t want Jesus to grow up because then we are going to have to come to terms with the sin in our lives.  We might have to realize some relationship is not right.  We might have to come clean in a certain area.  We will have to start telling the truth to others.

We are all dressed up in our Christmas Eve attire.  Everyone here looks great.  Most of us match, in fact.  If our wives dressed us, we do.  In a real sense, if we could see the real you, some of you are exhausted.  The rubber on your cart is burned off.  You still have that white knuckle grip on the cart of your life and life has knocked you down to one knee.  You are hammered.  You are stresses.  You are guild-ridden.  You are depressed.  You are empty.  You have gone through a marriage or two, a job or two, a house or two.  And you are wondering on the Christmas Eve if there is something else out there.  You are shopping for a Savior.

admin Ed Young

The second reason is, when I exhibit this kind of attitude, it makes an indelible impression on other people’s lives for the cause of Christ.  Let me stop here and have a pastoral word with those here who know Christ personally.  If you are a seeker, listen, but I am talking to Christians right now.  If you know Christ, you love Him.  And there are those moments maybe during worship, maybe during a bible study, maybe during a prayer session when you feel the power of God in a supernatural way and you think to yourself that you would love for your neighbor to experience God like that.  You would love for your relatives, this person or that person to experience that.  You want to share with them.  And some of you lie awake at night thinking how you can communicate Christ with others.  Jesus says, exhibit a supernatural, satisfying, second mile, non-revengeful type attitude.  That is what Jesus says.

You know when Jesus was being whipped before He was hung on the cross, He didn’t curse the people doing it.  When He was being tortured, when they were hammering and pounding the nails through His hands and His feet, He didn’t fight back.  He could have just winked at the heavenly hosts and they could have gotten Him out of it and made repayment for all of the trash those individuals were doing to our Savior.  But He didn’t do it.  You know what He said while He was hanging there suspended between heaven and earth?  Jesus said these words.  “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”  And then right before He died He said, “It is finished.”  The Bible says a hardened Roman, Clint Eastwood type, soldier, heard those words, saw this non-revengeful attitude and he hit the dirt and said, “Surely, this must be the Son of God.”  He didn’t read a theology book.  He didn’t go to a Bible conference.  He saw this attitude portrayed.  I ask you, who is your Roman soldier?  Who is checking you out?  Who is watching your attitude?  Who is watching your response?  “Is this person really going to do what he says, or is he going to be a hypocrite?   Will he show some other-worldly love?  Will he model what Christ said?”  Who is your Roman soldier?  You can mark someone for life when you exhibit this attitude.

admin Ed Young

In many marriages, both are working, come home, take care of their kids, go out to eat or cook a meal, help with the homework, go through all that.   Then many men make the grave error of sitting in front of the giant television and watching TV, channel-surfing for about two hours and then saying, “Okay, honey, let’s go upstairs and have another night of ho-hum sex”. Get the TV out of the bedroom and present yourself at your best for your spouse. So, if you have a constant diet of no without an excuse or without an appointment, men or women, your marriage could be suffering.  I would guarantee you there is sin in the marriage, specifically sexual sin, because your husband has rights over your body, and wives, you have rights over your husband’s body. It’s very, very important.  There are so many temptations.  We should so satisfy our mates sexually that we would be crazy to even contemplate or think about another party. Most psychologists say the underlying cause for divorce is the frequency issue. It sure is quiet. That’s the third ingredient. When you put these ingredients in the bowl and you begin to mix the recipe, I want you to take the bowl and put the bowl on an oven because once you’ve put it on an oven, which is The Foundation Of The Bible and Jesus Christ, He will turn the heat up and the physical dimension of your relationship will sizzle! It will sizzle! God wants it to sizzle. If it’s not sizzling, you put it in His hands. The control is with Him and you will see how to use this gift and how to give glory to God in every part of your body.

admin Ed Young

That brings us now to the H letter.  H stands for the word hear.  If I’m going to build a self-esteem, I’ve got to hear their messages.  James 1:19 says, “Everyone should be quick to listen.”  We’re quick to speak, but are we quick to listen?  That means to concentrate.  Quick to listen.  I’ve got hear people’s messages.  When they talk to me, I’ve got to take it in.

Don’t you hate it when you’re talking to someone and they’re always looking to improve their conversational lie?  Like in golf, you know, you have a bad lie and you say, “Well, that’s no good, I’ll kick it somewhere else.”  I talk to people sometimes: “Ed, how are you doing? . . . Oh, yeah, I enjoyed it.”  They’re off to someone else and you were right in the middle of a conversation.  Or, I call them the pounce people.  You’re talking, you’re explaining something, and you have a little break, a little silence, and they pounce in the middle of the conversation, “But did you know what happened to me?  I did this, I did that, and this is me and this is that.”  They won’t let you talk.  They’re destroying someone’s self-esteem.  Do you watch a person’s body language?  Are you really hearing them?  Are you really listening to them?

Teenagers were asked in a poll, what do they think about when they see their parents?  Over 90% said they see a giant Mick Jagger mouth.  Always, “You’re no good.  You need to do better.”  They said they wish they could see a giant Dumbo-size ear.  Parents, if you listen to your children when they’re young, it’s a self-esteem foundation, and when they’re old, they’ll still talk to you.  You listen. Become a good listener.  When someone messes up in the marketplace, people managers, listen to them.  Sit them down and say, where did it go wrong?  Did I explain myself?”  Go along those lines.  There are some times, though, when you have to terminate someone.  That happens.  For self-esteem purposes, if they’re in the wrong line of work, you’ve got say, “I think it would be better for you to do this.”  Hear.  Hear, and listen.

admin Ed Young

Paul is saying that anything is permissible for him but that he won’t be mastered by anything.  Foundational truth number one is that food needs to be healthful.  He is saying that this is an issue of freedom.  Right off the bat we need to understand that this is not about chicken fried steak vs. tofu.  This is about helping our bodies be everything that God wants them to be.

I Corinthians 6:19.  “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have received from God.”  Foundational truth number two is that, for you and I in the context of a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, our bodies are the houses of the Holy Spirit.

Now given that, let’s attack these four facets.  I Corinthians 6:19-20.  “You are not your own.  You were bought by a price.”  The first facet is that you and I have to identify the ownership of the house.  What that means is that we have to come clean before a holy, transcendent God and say that we do not belong to ourselves.  I recognize that I am not in control and I relinquish ownership to you.  You are the one who gave me this body.  You are the one who created me with a purpose and therefore I give everything that I am and everything that I ever will be over to You.  It is the issue of control.

Psychiatrists tell us that control is actually at the root of the vast majority of all eating disorders.  It is not so much about what our bodies look like visually.  But it is a person’s desperate attempt to assert control over a life when he or she feels out of control.

I want to read some questions to you real quickly.  Please do not answer yes or no, raise your hand or shout Amen.  Do you look forward to events primarily because of the food that will be there?  Do you constantly think about food?  Do you eat when you are mad, bored or stressed?

admin Ed Young

I’m going to tell you something.   After we conclude our session today,  I believe that we will know what true love is all about.  We are in this series called CHARACTER.TOUR.  We have been touring great characters in the Bible who exemplify great character.  As we look up close and personal at Hosea’s life, we are going to see someone who understood what it meant to truly love someone.

Put yourself in Hosea’s sandals.  Hosea was married to one of the most beautiful people in the land.  The girl had to be gorgeous.  With a name like Gomer,  she had to be hot.  Suddenly , and without warning, Gomer spins on her heels and she leaves.  She bolts.

We are going to find out something through this story.  Whenever you run away from God, whenever you cruise away from God, you end up running right into God.  We have all run from God in different areas and different ways in our lives.  We have all been unfaithful to him.  We have all committed spiritual adultery.  Hosea did.  And in our lives, we do as well.  But when we run from God, we run right into God.  We think we are being so independent, so autonomous, and so post-modern; yet, we face God head on.

The Bible describes what is going on in Gomer’s life right before she left.  Hosea 2:5, “For she said (this is Gomer talking), ‘I will go after my lovers who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’”

When we run from God, we run right into God.  God is a God of pursuit.  He woos us.  He loves us.  That is how crazy God is about you.

One of my good friends is the point man for the Houston swat team.

admin Ed Young

I can’t explain how it happens, but it happens.  So you have got a 100 percent deal going on.  The Good Shepherd says, here is My plan, here is My path, here is My agenda for you.  Admit, submit, obey and pray.

A while back I wanted to come up with something that I could get my hands around regarding this whole path thing.  I want to share with you my path principle.  The Good Shepherd wants to guide and lead you and me into paths of righteousness and here are four things that we have to do in order to stay with the Shepherd.  This is an acrostic.  P stands for persevere.  I love the word persevere because the word severe is in the word persevere.  Things are going to get severe as we track along the path that Christ has for us.  It is going to get tough.  And look what the Bible says.  Romans 15:4.  “Through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope.”  What is perseverance?  It simply means blasting through barriers.  Are you at a barrier?  Are you facing a marital barrier?  Are you facing a financial barrier?  Are you facing a career barrier?  You need perseverance.  When you add perseverance, God will give you supernatural strength and grace to blast through the barrier and to continue to track with the Good Shepherd.

A stands for attitude.  Philippians 2:5.  “Have this attitude in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus.”  You see it is our attitude not our aptitude that determines our altitude.  And the picture here is a shepherd leading his flock slowly through the valleys to the mountaintop.  So it is our attitude not our aptitude that determines our altitude.  Now what kind of attitude did Christ have?  Was it self-centered?  Was it ego-driven?  No.  It was other-centered.  It was service-driven.  It was generosity.  It was supernatural.  And that is the kind of attitude that me must have as part of His flock.

admin Ed Young

Don’t ever sit there and say that you are not like a sheep, that you would never go over that cliff, that you would never fall into that lifestyle, that you would never be addicted to that aspect of rebellion.  Don’t say it.  We, like sheep, have gone astray; each of us has turned our own way.  And we have got to recognize the simple reality, and the profound one, that God owns us and that we are the objects of His affection.

The second reason that I am obliged to recognize His ownership is because I have been purchased with an incredible price.  Jesus was called the Lamb of God.  Jesus spilled His blood for your sins and mine.  He caused the iniquities of us all to fall upon Him.  He did that just because of His love, just because we matter to Him.  And He has now afforded us the opportunity to become a part of his flock, to be connected to His family.  And the moment we simply say, “God, I have been going my own way.  God, I am astray.  God, I am by myself.  God, I am doing life without a shepherd.”  The moment we admit that and turn and bow the knee and ask Christ to be our shepherd, to receive what He did for us a couple of thousand years ago, then we have a personal relationship with the Lord.  So, God has every right to demand that we recognize His ownership.  That is how much we matter to Him.

There is a third reason why God wants us to recognize His ownership.  It is because He continually lays His life out for us.  Now I am not talking about salvation.  That work was finished on the cross.  I am talking about the Lord, Himself, interceding for us, guiding us, caring for us, helping us in times of trouble.  That is the good shepherd.  That is how much He cares about all of us.

admin Ed Young

But here is the problem with it. Over time, seeds of rebellion are sown and the people that work for you begin to feel like mindless robots. They no longer use their creativity or initiative to do their work. They stop thinking for themselves and instead, become mindless robots. They become afraid of taking any risks or making any mistakes, so they do just enough to stay under the radar. Once this happens, their self-confidence has been destroyed.

I played for a high school basketball coach in Houston who had the big gun, intimidation mentality. During practice, he was a great coach, very controlled and calm. But when game time came around, he transformed into “terror coach!” If we made one mistake, missed one shot, or botched one pass, he would yank us out of the game without hesitation. Then, after he calmed down a little, he would look down the bench and say, “Are you ready to get in there and play the right way?”

Playing under those conditions was no fun – the whole team was intimidated rather than motivated. Our self-esteem on the court was nil. After the first few games, our team was even nervous during warm-ups! We were wide eyed and trembling all the time. Too many children today are walking around the same way. Companies exist where all the employees have that “deer in the headlights” look. Basically, their self-esteem is so low that they were afraid to make any moves on their own.

We cannot treat people that way if we have any hope of instilling a healthy self-esteem in their lives. There are times when criticism is necessary; there are times when discipline must be applied. But it must be done carefully. Consider God’s word to us in Ephesians 4:29, “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.”

When we confront and criticize, we are also constructing and building. We are building self-esteem in others. First Corinthians 13:4 says, “Love looks for a way of being constructive” (Phillips). Do you look for that way to be constructive? Do you give criticism carefully?

admin Ed Young

Every time Christ points to the Old Covenant, he sets a higher standard. He raises the bar under the New Covenant of grace. We see this especially in Matthew 5:17-20.

The law said, “Don’t murder.” Christ comes along, though and says, “Don’t even get angry.” The New Covenant holds us to a higher standard.

The law says, “Don’t commit adultery.” But Christ says, “Don’t even look lustfully at a woman.” Again, it’s a higher standard.

The level of righteousness that grace demands goes much further than the law demands. People will sometimes say, “I don’t tithe because I’m not under law. I’m under grace.”

I say, “Great! That means you should be giving a lot more than 10%, because the righteousness of grace always exceeds the righteousness of law.”

Think about how our perspective of tithing will change when we begin to see the local church as a visible manifestation of God’s love. Christ has gone away for a season. And I believe he is saying to us, “While I’m away, I want each of you to take care of my bride. Bring the tithe into the storehouse.”

Do you remember the Skittles story I told you about? When I shared that for the first time in our church, I got a letter a few days later with an empty package of Skittles in it. And inside the empty package of Skittles was a check for $80,000! Attached to the package was a note that simply said, “Dear Ed, Here are some of our Skittles that we want to bring back to God.”

Now, that doesn’t happen all the time. What that couple did was an amazing act of faith on their part. They recognized that the local church is the heartbeat of God. They recognized that they needed to step out and give to his church. They understood that God had given them a pile of Skittles and that they had a responsibility to bring some back. For that couple, it wasn’t all about what they had done, what they had accumulated or what they possessed. They knew that the pile of Skittles in their life wasn’t about them at all. It was all about God.

They were part of the 21-percenters that I mentioned earlier in the chapter, because they did something that only about 21% of the church does: they tithed. Statistically, about 79% of those who attend church on a regular basis do not tithe to the church; they do not give ten percent of their income and gain back to God’s work. Do you want to be a 79-percenter living outside the zone? Or do you want to be a 21-percenter, living inside the zone of God’s tangible and intangible favor? The choice is yours.

As we segue into other aspects of money management throughout the rest of the book, don’t forget what comes first. Put God first, remember the tithe, and the rest of it will fall into place. Materialism, greed, envy, debt, and every other money issue hinges on this critical issue of bringing first to God what is his. When you do that, and only when you do that, will you be able to get the rest of your financial house in order.

admin Ed Young