Be Like Mike?

Okay, so the title is Be Like Mike. Be like Mike. Perhaps you remember that phrase. It's a catchphrase from a TV commercial. Remember it? Where it was Michael Jordan. The iconic one. Not Mikey, not Michael Jackson, but Michael Jordan. It's an iconic TV commercial that was selling Gatorade, if I remember right. It made you, as it made so many young people, think about Michael Jordan and his greatness. Maybe I could be like that. In fact, we have a video clip that for those of you who forget what 1984 or 1985 sounded like. We'll see if we can play that now. I think you have that.

It was so popular that Michael Jordan became the iconic figure for basketball. Sometimes some people say he stayed there ever since. But Michael Jordan, in his days playing basketball, he played for what, 16, 17 years? Anybody have any idea how much the NBA paid him?

Well, it's interesting that LeBron James just signed a contract as one of the highest paid basketball players in the NBA today for a one-year contract for like $52 million. Can you imagine? Michael Jordan played for 16 years, called the greatest ever played. In all the 16 years, they paid him $90 million. $90 million. But you can't feel bad for Mike, because Michael Jordan signed a contract with Nike for the shoes. And the shoes were the most popular things you could think of at the time. So Nike signed him at the peak of his career. Also, we're going to make jerseys, going to make shorts, made socks, made everything with MJ on it, or his number.

And the agreement was Michael Jordan got 5% of the gross. He still gets 5% of the gross. They still sell Michael Jordan basketball shoes. Nike alone has paid him, since he signed that contract, $1.3 billion. And he made $90 million playing basketball. He made mine $30 billion. Gatorade and the other companies, along with did another half a billion dollars. They have paid Michael Jordan. So you can't feel too bad for Mike.

But a lot of young guys wanted to be like Michael Jordan. They would, you see the jerseys they would wear. And if I still go to Caribbean countries, they still have 23 jerseys on of the bulls and so forth that Jordan played in.

And I think it's funny because I remember back in the old days, 1973, 1974, if you were like us in Tennessee, there were only three channels, ABC, NBC, and CBS. There was only one NBA game on every Sunday. That's all. There wasn't a variety of games. There wasn't ESPN. You know, you would see the agony of defeat come on and so forth. A wide world of sports. But at that time, Michael, it wasn't Michael Jordan. It was Dr. J. And I remember our coach chewing this guy out who was on our team because he stopped the practice because we were doing practice.

We were getting ready for a game and we were going one-on-one and two-three zone, man-to-man. And so here, this guy got the ball about free throw line, took two steps, and then started just jumping up in the air to do this and laid it up so pretty, like Dr. J. kind of had that thing there. Coach Stavio, don't tell me I didn't see it.

Dr. J. must have been on TV yesterday. He said, but you're not Dr. J. So next time you lay the ball up against the backboard and do a lap. And so I remember that because this guy goes, I felt like Dr. J. when we got in the locker room. Well, I want to think about that today because I don't want us to be like Mike. Scripture has told us we need to be like Christ.

But usually we're going to find out we come a little short on that. And sometimes it can get frustrating, but we're still to continue. To be like Christ. I'd like to go to one verse today. One verse with incredible insight, impact. One verse to give us maybe amazing spiritual perception. Perhaps it could even be eye-opening for us as we look at things and have this understanding.

So if you will, go with me to Ezekiel 14 and verse 14. I don't have a lot of scriptures today. But I think this would be interesting because God setting us up with Ezekiel and says, guess what? When hard times come, no matter where you're at, no matter what those hard times are, and there could be some really hard times, it boils down to this.

He said, no, these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, what? In the country, in the problems, right in the middle of it. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness, says the Lord God. What does that say to you? I know what it says to me because I look at those three men, you might even say the trinity of righteous men who were walking, talking billboards of their day.

Pretty righteous men, pretty impressive. And what would it be like for you to find out, and I'm sure they will find out, that in the Word of God, He chose you as one of those three men to put up before everybody because that's what they were. He puts them up before everyone and says, even if they were to come to you, they could only save themselves.

Impactful message to us. I mean, think about Noah. Peter in 2 Peter calls him the preacher of righteousness. Right? Just man who walked with God and he was obedient. What else do we know about Noah? Because these three men are put before us. Anybody? Impressive? Anything? No? Saw it through? Yes? Yes?

Yes, told about rain coming, nobody repented. Yes. Quite a few impressive things that this man, they know of did. What's unique to me is I couldn't find anybody else that did what he did. He was a first-time daddy at 500 years old. 500 years old. And he was a first-time daddy that we know of. Different? What about a builder? I built my first house. I was, oh, where are we? 30? 28? I was 20? 30? I think I was 30. In our first house, I built, I built was 1,544 square foot. Now houses are built what? 2,000, 3,000, 5,000 square foot. Couldn't imagine built it. Jeff, you built house. What was your first house? How big was it? About 2,300 square foot. About 2,300 square foot. Yes. You kind of want, if you're going to have somebody build you a nice house, you kind of want them to have experience, right? Can you imagine Noah? His first building project he completed when he was 600 years old. And did you know that that building project was 96,000 square foot? Pretty impressive that God would hand you a hammer and say, here you go, build me a 96,000 square foot yacht. And he did it. So these were unique individuals. He also lived to be 950 years old. He liked a nice glass of wine or two or three. We know that. But he was a righteous man. So God gives us these things to look at, the uniqueness. And you won't find many people like Noah in Scripture. Then you have Daniel. Daniel, major prophet, not one of the miners, important guy. Just as David was teaching a little bit about him. But he was obedient, bold, said, but I had to sit and think about this this week as I was going through my notes. Because he may have been the first lion whisperer. But they say that the angels came down and closed the mouths of the lion. There he was thrown into the lion's den. But Daniel had been around long enough. He knew the pit that they threw you in. He knew they didn't feed these lions very much. They kept them pretty hungry. And that he knew, I'm sure he had seen people being thrown in there before. And what did the lions do? Matter of fact, the ones that caused him to be thrown in, what happened to them? They were thrown in and they never even hit the ground. The lions attacked them, ate them. So here, Daniel, who's older at this time too, can you imagine that gate being opened up and they tossed him in there? How would you be?

Makes you wonder if, because he was human, he did have faith. But he had to spend a night with those lions. You wonder if he said, good kitty, good kitty. I think I would, oh yeah, here we go, oh you good boy, good boy, good boy, good boy. Amazing, amazing individual. What about Job? What did God say? Well, he says in Job 1.1, he was that he was blameless, upright, feared God, shunned evil. This is God talking about him. Pretty impressive individual. As I think about the Bible study the other night that wasn't brought up is, where was, where did Job live? Us? Where was us? Edom? So Job lived in Edom and he was a righteous man. Eliphaz, the oldest son of Esau, was, as most commentaries believe, one of his three good friends. Where was Job from? Where did he get his righteousness? He ever thought about that? I mean, he's not in Canaan. He's over in Edom. And yet, God puts him up here.

Was he a descendant of Esau?

Makes you think, because he's interesting guys. Now, what I'd like to do today in the time I have left, if you're in Ezekiel 14, I'd like you to go there with me and we're going to read some verses, only verses from this chapter. Because I want you to think about those three guys. I want you to think about God talking to Ezekiel. And you might even pretend he's talking to you, because he might be. Let's go there. Ezekiel 14, we're going to go to verse 12 from New King James Version. The word of the Lord came to me saying, Son of man, when a land sins against me, when a land sins against me by persistent and faithfulness.

Anyone come to your mind?

I will stretch out my hand against it. I will cut off its supply of bread. Ooh, that means I can't even go to Publix with a wheelbarrow of money and buy me some bread. Send famine on it and cut off man and beast from it. Some slaughter talking about here. Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness. Thus says the Lord God.

And then he goes on, If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they empty it, empty it, my margin has in the middle there, believe it of children. Means they're just eating children, just eating people up. And because it did happen before. It did happen in Israel. Remember? When the Assyrians came in and overtook them, and then sent them off to different lands, and then they decided, well, we'll bring some captives in, put them in this land. And then the lions started eating them up. They finally, after eating and eating and eating, they're going, what do we do? They had to go to a holy man to find out what's going on. How can we keep people in this land? Now being eaten up, and the holy man told them. Had something to do with the worship of God and the disrespect. Sound like any country you know today? Let's go on. Verse 16. Even though these three were in it, as I live, says the Lord, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, only they would be delivered, and the land would be desolate. So here's a scenario that he's talking about. Let's go down. Verse 17. Or, here's another case, another scenario might happen. Or if I bring a sword on that land and say, sword, go through the land, and I cut off man and beast from it, which means mass slaughter. Even though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but only themselves would be delivered. Let's go down to one more. Verse 19. Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my fury on it in blood and cut off from it man and beast, could it happen? Hmm. This is some scary scenarios that he's throwing out here. Even though, verse 20, Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, says the Lord, they would neither deliver neither son nor daughter. What's that saying to you?

Let's finish this up. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness. Verse 21. For thus says the Lord God, how much more it shall be when I send my four severe judgments on Jerusalem. See, Jerusalem wasn't conquered yet. Ezekiel was a street preacher and he was hearing these things, and God was trying to have him preach and say, this is coming to you, Judah, Jerusalem, because it's already happened in Israel.

Did they listen? No! They didn't listen. They had Jeremiah preaching and other people preaching. Didn't listen. They didn't need God. They had other gods they could worship. They had other things they could do. So how much more it shall be when I send four severe judgments on Jerusalem. The sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence to cut off man and beast from it. So this is something that did happen in the past. Could it happen today to us? Wait a minute. Aren't we a godly nation? Wait a minute. We print on our coins in God we trust. Coins in God we trust.

We have churches all up and down the road. Matter of fact, this one, 27th, has a lot of churches.

Would God allow that to happen?

Hmm. This week, when you have time, I'd like you to look at this message. And I'd like for you on your own time to turn to Revelation 6 and verse 8.

Because on Revelation 6 and verse 8, it talks about the fifth seal being open. The fifth seal, which happens before the fifth seal, which is the Great Tribulation, which is martyrdom, these very events that I read here are going to take place. In our time, we lived long enough, and they're going to come because we lived long enough. And they're going to come before the Tribulation, before the martyrdom of the saints, which means what? The saints are going to see this. They're going to have to experience it.

So my purpose of my message today is that salvation is between you and God alone. You and God alone. It's 1 Peter 4 verse 18 says, barely. One says, scarcely is a righteous man saved. Ow!

But what is a show about three righteous men that we know? They would be saved because of their righteousness. Shouldn't that propel us to say, how do I line up?

Even to the point that we would not be afraid to say to God, to tell Satan, have you considered my servant? Satan? Clive? Now, I've really had a hard time ever praying that, that I could say, God, do that. Because if you read what Job went through, I'm not sure I'm that righteous.

Even though we do sometimes pick Job apart.

Should we be one of three that God could put up to the will? We're called just like these three men were.

See, you cannot wish or will anyone to salvation. That's what this says. Not your mate. Not your father. Not your mother. Not your brother. Not your sister. Not your son. Not your daughter. Not your granddaughter. Not your grandson. It's not in your power. What is in your power? You. You. You. And your righteousness. That's what these scriptures are showing us. They're pointing us to what we need to do. And that amazing because so many of us want to tell other people what they need to be doing. Ah, Rick Shady would listen to me.

Hmm. What do we need to be doing? Because none of us, even though we feel responsibilities for our families, we're not responsible for their salvation. Only they are. And what is the most important thing? Now we, in the past, we'd always use in the church that, well, we're, you know, all of our family and scriptures say, you know, it's sanctified, set apart, you know, because of this and that. But that's not for salvation. This is about salvation. This is what we are called to dig into. This is what we're called to have. Salvation. This is what we're called to be able to help other people, to show other people, to teach other people, to tell other people. But it's up to them, isn't it?

It's in Philippians 2 and verse 12. I don't think I gave you that scripture. But I hope many of you will remember that. Because you know it. Because we've said it. But how many of us take it seriously every day? Work out your own salvation. How's that, Tracy, with what? Fear and trembling.

David was talking about fear and talking about these things. This is what we need to fear. Tremble. Mm-hmm. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That means I can't work out Mary's salvation. I can't work out my nephew's. I can't do any of that. The only one I can do is me. Now, is that like, well, I'm just going to take care of myself? Is that a selfish way of looking at it? No! That's what God wants. Wants me to do. There may be a place I can help other people. I remember Fred Keller's. You two back remember this one too, because he would always say. The greatest gift you can ever give your wife is to help her to be in God's kingdom. It's the greatest gift, not a new car, even though you might like a Rolls-Royce. No! Greatest gift is to help her. The greatest gift she can give you is help you.

But all you can do is help. Should we be helping? Absolutely. Should we be helping each other in this room? Absolutely. That's part of what we're doing. I don't know whether many of you remember. Back in the 60s, there was a group, remember 50s and 60s. There was a group called the Kingston Trio. Anybody ever remember the Kingston Trio? Yes? Okay. You remember any of their songs?

Hang down your head, Tom. Yes. They were my number one. They had quite a few number ones. But they had this song that I remember my father had, and that's a little 45. You remember how they used to do it, and you put that in. And it was called the Reverend Mr. Black by the Kingston Trio. And it told a story about a preacher. And he said, no one can do it for you, a line from the song, as he was talking about salvation. No one else can do it for you, as this preacher would say. It's worth listening to if you Google it sometime. Jonathan, do you know where the name came from, the Kingston Trio? Have any clue? Clive? Very good. You are absolutely correct. Do you remember back when they asked them, they said, where did you get the name since it's just three college guys? They got together, and they said, when we started out together, we couldn't get many places to play. But Harry Belafonte had some Calypso music. And he said, when we listened to him talk, he talked about his favorite town was to go to Kingston. And we just said, why don't we start singing some Calypso and various songs of that? And that's how they actually got started singing. And that's how they took their name. There. Just throw that. That has nothing to do with the sermon. Other than if you listen to the song, no one can do it for you. And I think that's so profound for each and every one of us. We are to be like Christ, not like Mike. But we must be us. See, be like Christ, but be you. There's a reason God called you. The DNA, every one of us is different. Fingerprints are different. Eye prints are different. Every single one of us. And isn't that amazing that God has eight billion people? We just crossed the eight billion mark the last few weeks. Eight billion people, and none of us have the same DNA, the same fingerprint, the same anything. How does He do that? And then of all the people who have ever lived, which I believe there's 30 to 40 billion people, none of them had it. You would think God would at least slip up once and make somebody. Even twins do not have the same complete DNA, fingerprints, identical twins. A lot of things are correct. Why? Why did God do that?

Because He can. And He did. And He likes us being individuals. We're not an assembly line. Project. He wants us. That's why it's so important that this righteousness that we strive for, it's unique to us because God is so fascinating that He says, I want that one. I want that one. And I want that one. Now! Later? Boy, when it's easier. But I want them now. And I want them now. He picked three back then. He's picked most people in this room today, if not all. And He says, I want you now.

There is nobody like you, and God ordained it. What a blessing. And if I can use another sports analogy. I can only say one thing. The ball is in your court.