The Excuses We Give God

I actually gave this sermon in Nashville a couple months ago, and when I was preparing for it, I started to do some research into actual excuses kids give teachers for not getting their homework done. And I went through, found a number of websites where teachers wrote down, and I collected what I thought were the most ingenious excuses. I didn't do my history homework because I don't believe in dwelling in the past. I like this one. I didn't want the other kids in the class to look bad, so I didn't do my homework. Our furnace broke. We had to burn my homework to keep ourselves from freezing. Here's one that's going to work for the CIA someday. I'm not at liberty to say why. Now, this kid's got an imagination. It was destroyed in a freak accident involving a hippo, a toaster, and a bag of frozen peas. You don't want to know the details.

My mom accidentally used it as a dryer sheet. And the one that they hear the most, we had homework. But this is the kid that's going to be a politician someday. I spent the night at a rally supporting higher pay for hard-working teachers. It was amazing how creative. They'd put that much work in doing their homework. It had been a great homework, but they can come up with. It's an excuse, though. An excuse is when we don't have a valid reason because we either did something or didn't do something. And we don't want to take personal responsibility, so we make up an invalid reason for why we did something or didn't do something. An excuse has no validity. We know that when we hear one. It's amazing how much we can deceive ourselves into giving an excuse that everybody else says, that's not real, that's not valid. But we feel it is.

We try to convince ourselves that our excuses are valid. And it's actually a great work of self-deception we can do. My excuse is valid because we have all kinds of reasons.

But excuses keep us from enjoying life. They keep us from having good marriages. They keep us from teaching our children. They keep us from doing good at our job. But we also can have excuses that keep us away from having a good relationship with God. What excuses are we willing to give God? Because we do it all the time. What excuses? They're not valid reasons, but we have an excuse for why we did or didn't do something and we give it to God. And then we struggle with our relationship with God. Are you doing that? You know, the Holy Days are coming up and this should be a rejuvenation time for us. Trumpets and Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles, the last great day. This should be, if we zero in on those spiritual reasons, but if we're also not careful, it just becomes a big physical sort of ritual we do. Or the Feast of Tabernacles is nothing more than a vacation. Oh, we've heard it all before. What excuses do we have for not doing what God wants to do in our lives?

So we live as half Christians. God doesn't accept half Christians.

If we live as half Christians, sooner or later, God will force us to decide whether to become complete Christians so He can abide in us or be no Christian at all. You can't live as a half Christian, but we do it. I mean, we all have to admit we do it from time to time. We live as half Christians. God doesn't accept that. He just doesn't accept it. So what we're going to look at today are some excuses that we have that we come up with. The first one was told by explained by Jesus in a parable. So let's go to Luke 14. Luke chapter 14. I have to admit, this is one of the sermons that when I prepared and gave it in Nashville a couple months ago, I got real uncomfortable because I started thinking, wait a minute, I'm writing down things I do. It just comes a little because we subtly make excuses. They're not valid, but you know, they give us a reason why we didn't have to do it and we're still not going to do it.

Luke 14 verse 15. Jesus is sitting, this is a very interesting setting here, he's sitting at a table eating a meal with a group of people. So it's a big social event. And he had just given them a parable about when you come to big social events, don't try to be the center of attention. Serve others, love others, don't try to exalt yourself. And one man, and you can just imagine, he's sitting there shaking his head. That is a very good parable. He says, verse 15, or Luke writes, now on one of those who sat at the table with him heard these things, he said to him, blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. There was, oh yes, because he talks about the resurrection in this passage. This is probably a Pharisee because they believed in the resurrection. And he said, you could just see him shaking his head. Wow, what a powerful parable. Blessed are those who are going to be in the resurrection in the kingdom of God. Yes, I'll be there right there with you.

Then Jesus says to him, his answer, you think, he's probably thinking, Jesus, this itinerant rabbi is going to look at him and say, yes, son, you get it. But instead, he answers with another parable. He said to him, a certain man gave a great supper and invited many and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, come for all things are now ready. But they will all with one accord begin to make excuses. He said, I'm going to invite people to my kingdom who aren't going to be there. And they'll have reasons, reasons that seem real good, that they will have to stand before God and say, this is my reason. And God will have to say, well, respond with, that's not a reason. It's an excuse. See, you bring the excuse paper to, you know, the teacher, and you've made up an excuse, kids do that. And the teacher says, I know that's not true. Or, I tell you what, I'm going to call your mom. Oh, no, don't do that.

They know that it's not real. It's an excuse. And the first said to him, I bought a piece of ground and I must go and see it. I ask that you have me excused. Have me excused from becoming a child of God and a disciple of Jesus Christ. I want an excuse from that because, you know, I've got some property and I've got some work to do. And, you know, when you look at this, you can say, wow, what a dedicated man. What a strong work ethic. I mean, there's lots of reasons why he would think this excuse is okay because I'm doing the right thing here. I'm doing the right thing.

But think what Jesus is saying is being offered to this person.

And he's looking at the things he owns and says, well, taking care of those things right now is more important. Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen. I'm going to test them. I ask you to have me excused. Now, if you buy new oxen, you have to train them on how to plow the field. This is a, you know, back at this time, this is an intricate and difficult process. I have to do that. If I don't train them, you know, I've just wasted a whole lot of money. So I just need an excuse to go work on my farm a little longer. Maybe later. Maybe later I'll take your call to come to the supper. So another said, I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come. That seems like a really good excuse. Hey, I'm newly married. You know, I'm going to go to honeymoon. And I'm supposed to spend a whole year, according to the law in the Old Testament, I'm supposed to spend a whole year taking care of my wife before I take on any endeavors. You know, you couldn't even draft a person into the army if they were married for less than a year. You know, I'll spend a whole year taking care of your wife, learning how to be together married. So, you know, I'm just newly married. I can't come follow you around with these other 12 guys. You know, I got to stay home and take care of my wife. He would have what seems like a very biblical reason for his excuse.

But the real question is, what excuse is acceptable to God when God says, I am taking you out of this world to be my child? What excuse do we give to say, no. What excuse are we willing to give?

What he says next is a little disconcerting. No, it's a lot disconcerting. Verse 21, so that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, remember, the whole point here is they're being called to the supper being given by God. That's the parable. So the master here is God. He said to his servant, go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind. Go pick the people nobody wants. Go pick the people that everybody thinks is worthless and bring them here to me. Then the master said to the servant, go out to the highways and hedges. Oh, because he did and there still wasn't enough people for what he wanted. So he says, go get more. Go to the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled. So I say to you that none of those men who are invited shall taste my supper.

You could be invited and give enough excuses that God says, okay, you can't come.

Now that should be a little disconcerting. We can be invited and give God enough excuses, he finally says. After all I've done, you won't come. Okay, you can't come.

Excuses are a dangerous thing and we all do them. So let's look at a handful of excuses that we can use quite often. And we give them, remember who you're giving them to. You're giving them to God.

The first one is, you just don't know my background.

Now every one of us have scars, emotional issues, because of the way we've been treated or sins we've committed or just what we've gone through in life. All of us have different DNA which creates different personalities which creates problems, right? I mean every person carries something with them.

Everybody does. And maybe you were abused. Maybe you were out of work for a long period of time and got rejected over and over and over again. Maybe you've been judged and ridiculed by others even in the church.

Because it happens, right? As I always say, a congregation is a messy thing.

It is. It's a messy thing. The world is a mess. You either live in the mess with God or live in the mess without God. To be in a congregation means to live in a mess with God. That's what it means. Because he abides in all of us.

So it's so important. If he abides in all of us, how dare we hate each other? How dare we?

But it's messy. Yeah.

If you just do my background, and we can dwell on our background so much, we forget that when God calls us, he says, I don't care anymore what your background is. But God, if you just knew me, I used to sell drugs. Well, you've repented of that. I don't care anymore. We're going to use you in a different way. And God begins to work with us and change us and make us into children. And we hold on to the hurts of the past, the sins of the past.

Well, I could do that if you just knew my background, you know I can't. And we believe our past is greater than God. If we use that as an excuse, that's what we're telling God. You're not strong enough and big enough and smart enough and powerful enough and righteous enough to overcome my background.

If you knew my parents, you would know why I'm an alcoholic. And God says, no, no, I am your parent. Oh, no, no, no. Sorry. And we literally believe. No, I don't believe that. Then what are you telling God? What do we tell God when we say our background is too much for you to deal with? Either we don't believe He has the power. It's an excuse, see? I don't believe He has the power, but He can't with me. Why? It's an excuse. We're giving Him an excuse. God chose you in spite of your sins, in spite of your past, in spite of the problems you're having now.

He still chose you. That's why you're here. That's why I believe you're here, because you believe that. So therefore, none of that's too big for Him. And He just keeps saying, forget that, because I'm taking you someplace. I'm taking you someplace. There's a man who thought his past was just God couldn't work with his past. Judges 6. You know the story of Gideon. We're going to hit the highlights of this story, because it's a fascinating story. Because when you read this, this applies to every one of us.

Now, we may not be called to do the great things of Gideon. Few people are. But we are called to become the children of God and disciples of Jesus Christ. That's what we're called to be. What else do we want to be? Oh, if I could just be great like Gideon, or if I could just have this or that or the other. Well, God didn't call us to be Gideon or Paul, or any of the great men and women of the Bible, Abraham, Sarah.

He called us to be who we are in our time, in our lifetimes. We start here in verse 11. Now the angel of the Lord came and sat under this tree, and Gideon's off working here, and he calls out to him. And the angel of the Lord, verse 12, appeared to him and said to him, The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor. I'm not sure this isn't sarcasm, okay?

You mighty warrior, you brave man, I am here for you. And Gideon said to him, Oh my Lord, if the Lord is with us, then why has this happened to us? And where are all his miracles, which our fathers told us about saying? Did not the Lord bring us up from Egypt? But now the Lord has forsaken us and delivered us into the hands of the Midianites. They were living as slaves. And the Midianites controlled the valleys. They'd driven all the Israelites up into the hills and the mountains. And the reason why, the Midianites had a mechanized army with chariots. You can't get chariots up into the mountains.

So they're living up in the mountains trying to grow food and sneak down in the valleys and steal whatever food they can and get back up, you know, and grow food and try to survive. They don't have a trained army. The Midianites are hardened soldiers. And he says, and of course we know when you read through the passage, God was punishing them. He said, I'm not protecting you anymore. You won't follow me.

So he goes to Gideon and he says, Oh, you man of valor. And Gideon says, why is God forsaken us? He knows this is an angel. Why has God forsaken us? Then the Lord turned to him, by the way, this is the angel of the Lord here. This is the one who became Jesus Christ.

And the Lord turned to him and said, Go in this go, in this might of yours, and you shall save Israel from the hands of the Midianites. Have I not sent you? Oh, no, no, I picked you. You're the mighty man that's going to bring down the Midianite army. That guy's a farmer. You know, this isn't some special forces op, right?

I'll trade my army and I'll go out. No, no, this is a farmer. Then he said to verse 15, so Gideon says to the Lord, the angel of the Lord, Oh, my Lord, how can I save Israel? Indeed, my clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least of my father's house. And the Lord said to him, Surely I will be with you, and you shall defeat the Midianites as one man.

And so what Gideon does next is shows the great man of valor. He says, Well, can I have like some kind of sign that you're going to do this? And so the rest of this chapter is him asking God for signs. Do this, and then, okay, we'll do this, and then I'll know.

But understand, I can't do this. I'm a Manassite. I'm not. I'm not of Judah. And beside, you know, there's the tribe of Manasseh, and there's the clans inside of Manasseh, and there's the families inside of Manasseh, and mine is considered the smallest, weakest, most unimportant in the entire tribe. So why would you pick me? I don't have the background for this.

So why would you pick me?

So he tells him, okay, you got some signs. He says, okay, I want you to go off and tear down this big statue of Baal. And so he sneaks out in the middle of the night with a few men. Not in the daylight. He sneaks out, you know, this man he made of valor, and he tears down the statue, and then runs back up into the hills. Well, now the Midianites are really mad. These terrorists have come in and hit their, you know, their temple. That's how they would see it.

And so Gideon's up in the hills, and God says, gather an army. So he starts to gather an army.

Verse 2 of chapter 7. And the Lord said to Gideon, the people who are with you are too many.

Too many. Nah, too many.

It's not fair to the Midianites here. Now, I want you to understand, later we find out the Midianite army numbered 135,000, and Gideon had 32,000 men. And God says, oh, no, this force is way too big. Well, they're only outnumbered about 10 to 1.

Now, when you think about hand-to-hand combat, I mean, with swords and shields and air, you know, this is close quarter combat. And you have 135,000 hardened soldiers. They knew how to fight, and they knew how to kill, and you have a bunch of farmers. Well, outnumbered 10 to 1, you're going to lose. I'm sorry, it's 4 to 1. 4 to 1. They're outnumbered 4 to 1. So, 4 to 1, you're going to lose. Even if you're well-trained, you're going to lose.

It's just too many. And God's answer is, you know, because Gideon's way too small. Well, there's not enough. I'm not well-trained. I can't lead these people. This won't work. And God says, yeah, you're right. It's not fair to the Midianites. So, he cuts his group down, so he ends up with about 10,000 men. So, now they're outnumbered about 13, 13 and a half to 1. And Gideon's like, what are we going to do now? And he says, oh, this just isn't fair. He cuts his army down to 300.

Now they're outnumbered about 450 to 1, if I can do my math right.

450 to 1, and God says, it's still not fair, but that's okay, because we're going to go kill them all anyways. I'm going to kill them all.

There's no way this makes sense. And you know what? God did kill them.

When Gideon and the Israelites had to go into the battle, all they were fighting was men who were absolutely panicked, had dropped their weapons, were running away, and they slaughtered them, because God had already killed enough of them. Well, they killed each other. He confused them so much, they killed each other. Now, when we say our background, which is his argument, isn't enough, we're forgetting who's fighting the battle. Now, we have to go into battle with all of its stress and anxiety, right? But who's actually fighting it?

We have to let go of the concept that somehow, if I just had more abilities or more resources, then I could really serve God. Gideon did not have the abilities or the resources to do this. He had none of it, and all God did was keep taking away his resources.

I can't imagine walking out with 300 men and looking over that camp that must have stretched out for miles with chariots and horses and camels. And you're looking at that, and you're looking around at 300 men and thinking, we're all going to die today.

But God will take care of us. He told us to go. If we die, at least we die doing what God said.

You and I can't say if I had a better education or a better husband or a better wife or a better job or if God would just let me hit the lottery, then I could do what God wants.

He doesn't give us that excuse. That is a meaningless excuse to God.

Oh, I can't do that.

We have to... Is that an excuse? You see, he wasn't interested in Gideon's background. Oh, you mighty man of valor. You know what we all know Gideon about when you read? What a man! What a guy of valor! What a... What a leader of men!

That's not what he started out as.

That's what God made him into.

And a lot of times we can't get over the past because it's become our identity.

The way we've been hurt is who we are. The way people have treated us is who we are. The things that have happened to us is who we are. But the fact that we didn't do well in school becomes who we are. Not what God can do with us. Who we are is defined by not God, but by ourselves. And it becomes an excuse. It becomes an absolute excuse.

God doesn't want our excuses. He wants to say, look what I can do if you'll just let me do it.

A second excuse is I just don't have the time.

This is tough in our society because when we tend to work ourselves so much, that we're too exhausted, and then what do we do with the other time? We have so much entertainment, we can just get locked in entertainment. You can just get locked in entertainment because it's the way of calming our brains down from what we do all the time.

I just don't have enough time to do what I'm supposed to do.

Now, none of us have everything. None of us have all the time, right? But how many times are our marriages not doing what God wants to happen in our marriages? Because we won't take the time. How many times are our children not learning what God wants them to learn because we don't have the time? How much time are we not spending in Bible study and prayer because we just don't have the time?

Many, many times I've had someone say, I'm going to start keeping the Sabbath and coming to the church as soon as I retire because then I'll have the time because I need the money.

I'll have the time to do this when? I'll have the time to do this when this happens or that happens. And we have these timelines, and God's timeline is I called you now. The time is now. You don't have a choice when you're called. Everything else is an excuse. Everything else we give is an excuse. And believe me, I'm good at excuses. I give plenty of them to God.

They never work.

They never work.

Because God has said, no, it's me that's called you. How dare you give me an excuse?

Unfortunately, he's very merciful with us.

Like the teacher, you know, I'll just call your mom. God's like, okay, that's an excuse.

I'm going to show you as an excuse, and he'll do something in our lives. Matthew 13.

We know this parable by heart. Matthew 13.

But it's in here to be recited over and over and over again so that we don't have excuses.

Matthew 13.

Remember, given a parable in the first part of this, of Matthew chapter 13, Jesus gave a parable about someone sowing seed. And the seeds grew up differently. And of course, the disciples wanted to know, what does that mean? You give these parables, we understand, because they lived in an agricultural society, we understand the purpose, but we don't understand the spiritual meaning of it. And in verse 18, he says, Therefore, hear the parable of the sower. When anyone hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. And this is he who receives the seed by the wayside. There was seed thrown out, and yet there was no root to it.

And so it did not grow. But he who received the seed on stone he places. This is he who receives the word and immediately receives it with joy.

Yet he himself has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles.

In other words, the one person just seems like, Oh wow, that's interesting.

I think this is from God. But then just doesn't care. It doesn't make any changes. This person is excited. This person is, Yes, I understand what God is doing, and I understand what the Bible means. But then it gets hard to do this.

And they have excuses. They have reasons why they're not going to do it. They have reasons why not to get baptized. They have reasons why not to go to the Feast of Tabernacles. They have reasons why not to tithe, not to do this, not to do that. They have reasons why to commit adultery, reasons why to steal, reasons why to hate your brother, reasons why to get divorced.

And there's a lot of reasons people get divorced, even in a church that are excuses before God. They just are.

He says, Now he received the seed among the thorns, he who hears the word, and the cares of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. Excuses again. The excuses are, Man, I got a good job. Man, this is the way I succeed. This is the way I can really have everything. The house, the car, the clothes, the money. I can have all this stuff. I just have to compromise, be a little bit unethical, lie once in a while.

But God would understand. God would understand because he wants me to be successful.

But he received the seed on the good ground, is he who hears the word and understands it, and indeed bears fruit and produces, some 100-fold, some 60, and some 30.

What excuses can you give God?

God, I would have spent more time in a relationship with you, but you know, I had a chance to move up into a half a million dollar house. Not too many of us have that chance, but some do.

Oh, we can just bring that down to anything. I had a chance to move up into a nicer car. I have a chance to do this. I have a chance to get a raise.

I know you gave me those children to raise and teach about your way, but my career was too important.

It was interesting. New survey I read the other day showed the number one reason for divorce now.

It's changed. It's totally different than what it's been for, you know, I don't know, a couple generations of them doing these kinds of surveys. The number one reason divorce now is arguments and fighting over whose career gets the most emphasis.

Number one reason. The children aren't anything to do with. It's whose career, who has to give the most to take care of the kids, and who gets their career to be number one. Number one reason for divorce.

I know you wanted me to create a solid marriage, but with so many streaming channels and so many good football games, I didn't have time to create that marriage.

See, we can have these exact same excuses, but we they're so emotional or they're what we want to do in the moment that we miss what we're actually doing.

Jesus said that we have to put the kingdom of God in His righteousness first. Those are our priorities. Everything else comes second. He meant that when He said it. When we don't do that, we're just giving Him excuses.

That's how we're doing. We're just giving Him excuses.

We all have to take time off. We all have to manage our time. God doesn't expect us to entertain ourselves to death. He doesn't expect us to work ourselves to death. But when we let God control the priority of our time, you know what He's going to give us?

Eternity. When we now learn to use our time the way God wants us to use it, and that means, yes, having fun, that means, I mean, it doesn't mean that we're boring people who just work or just study the Bible all the time. I've known people who their three-hour-a-day Bible study was an excuse to hate other people. That did them no good at all. I mean, I actually know a person who did that. I studied the Bible three hours a day every day and would just like, someone would call him, you know, I'm really have some means, you know, someone in the church, could you help me? No, I'm in the middle of my Bible study. I can't help you. Blonk. Now much that Bible study was doing them? Not much.

Let God control your time and He'll give us eternity.

Another reason, you know, I once again, I only wrote these down because of things I do. Okay, maybe I'm the only one here does this.

If you always understood how I had to deal with my boss, my wife, my parents, my pastor, the people, my congregation, my neighbors, my career, my financial situation, you would understand why I am just the way I am. And God says those are excuses, absolute excuses. So if you're thinking, if God would just give me the perfect pastor, I wouldn't have these problems, I'm always sent you. I remember the first time I was, I was first time, I hadn't been a minister very long, I'm 28 years old, and a woman comes up to me and says, I need to be anointed by you, but my son is your age. And I feel really uncomfortable about it. And I looked at her and I had no idea what to say. So I said, I'm all God sent you. And she looked at me and said, oh, well then you better anoint me. And she and I were good friends after that, but I'm sorry, this is all you get, right?

This congregation is what you get, because God brought you here. And it's enough, according to him, of we just had 300 people. Well, God will add as he sees fit. And we're supposed to help in that effort by being lights to the world. That's something I'm going to be working on here to cover here soon too. The obligation every member has to be a light of the world. It's, it's a command. It's not a hide. You can't hide it under a bushel. We're not allowed to. So we can't use this. You know, I would have only obeyed and kept the Sabbath, but you didn't know the company I worked for. They wouldn't let me do it. I would have loved my brother if you'd just give me a nicer congregation. I would not have given it adultery if I had a better wife. I would not have, I had been more honest if you would have given me a better job. You know, after a while you realize what we're doing is blaming God. Our excuses get so out of line that we blame God for it. We blame God.

And then we're really in trouble. Our excuse is to blame Him. I know I've said this before. This was years and years ago. A man told me he was in prison. He said, you know, I blame God for why I'm in here because if I would have been at him, I would have never sinned.

But I was born in a world where everybody became sinners, so it's God's fault I'm a sinner.

I said, how do you repent from that? Instead of repenting, you go to God and say, this is your fault. If I would have been at him, I'd have never sinned and you never gave me a chance.

That's an absolute denial of reality because you're not at him. I mean, that borders on some serious mental problems. You should see the letters he wrote to the home office. Oh, this is back in worldwide days, but the letters they got from, uh, that wasn't united. A home office from me, from that guy in prison. I'm the lowest. You know, I need to be kicked out of the ministry. I'm a liar. I'm a this, I'm a that. You know, I'm not a true Christian because I wouldn't come visiting anymore. As long as you say, I repent, I'll come visit you. I won't come and have you attack God. I won't come there anymore and have you attack God. You know, in the sermon at, you talked about Matthew 25. You know, what's interesting in that Matthew 25, what did they do? Well, let's go look there because that one verse I want to look at.

You say, wow, this is a negative sermon. It's so corrective. Actually, that's not what it is. It's Gideon finding out that 300 men are enough. That's what it is.

It's finding out God is enough. Christ is enough.

The Holy Spirit that God gives us is enough.

If we just will submit and do our part. We have a part to play and we have to do it. But what He gives us is enough because we have to center it on Him. Matthew 25. And it says in verse 31, He talks about Him coming. I just wanted to pick out...

Verse 34, He says, the King will come and say, come, be blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom, prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave me food. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me. And the very important thing here is verse 37. Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you a stranger and take you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick, or in prison, or come to you? And we know the answer is, you do this to the least of my little ones, you do it to me. What's important here is they didn't even know they were doing it. That's what's important. There weren't any time for excuses. This is the way they are. The way they are. They care for others. And it's not just people in the church. We can't save the world, but the opportunity to help somebody for an hour is worth it. The opportunity to give somebody something, a word, an encouragement. Yesterday, and you don't know where it comes, a package was being delivered at our house. I went out to get it from the guy. I thought I'll save him from walking in. And this guy, this giant, stepped out. I mean, I'm literally looking up at him and had a little bit of an accent. I said, where are you from? He said, Nigeria. He said, Nigeria? Yeah, he said, when did you come here? He said, in the 90s. He said, but you know, I come here and I go back home and they're ruled by a tyrant. They have no power. And people say to me, where'd you get your power from? He said, from being in America, because everybody there has power, to be your own person. He says, but I fear what's happening to this country, because of what's being allowed, the morality of it. And I said, I agree with you. And I know the culture, so it didn't startle me, but I thought it was funny. He walks right up to me, leans his face down and says, God is unhappy. I think everybody else will be walking backwards, because it's just the culture. They get real close to you when they have something important to say. And I said, and he's going to take care of it. And I thought, for one moment, he and I had a little bit of, God has to fix this. I don't know what church he goes to. It doesn't matter. When he's walking away, I heard on my hand, he said, good talking to you, my friend. And he just smiled and shook my hand, gripping, you know, just until he's going to rip my arm off. And, you know, I'm going to grip my hand and shook my hand. And God, and wrote away. And just in that moment, I went back in and said, I don't know who he was. I don't know anything about him. But every human being needs some belief that God is going to do something someday. And for one moment, we shared that. That's okay. That's good. We shared it for one moment. Some giant guy from Nigeria that almost ripped my arm off. I'll probably never see him again in this life. I hope I do someday. I hope I do someday.

How many times have I walked past that opportunity? A thousand. I'm learning not to. Never walk away from that opportunity. God's going to take care of this big smile. Stuck out my hand.

And he realized in that moment, God did something. I don't know what he's going to do with it.

We miss those things all the time.

With our excuses. Oh, he doesn't know anything. He's probably not converted. He's just the delivery man. For whatever excuse we give. And that doesn't mean anything. It means nothing. That moment with another human being is what God wants. And he wants it from us.

One last. I know I'm supposed to serve others, but I have no talents or abilities. Now we're back to Gideon. I can't do this. I don't even, you know, I'm a farmer. Oh, you mighty man of valor. I just, that's hilarious the way he introduced, oh, you mighty man of valor. Me? You know, there's nobody else around. Who are you talking to?

That's why the parable of the talents, which we cover so many times, is so important.

You can't say to God, I would have served you if you would have given me more talents.

And God says, you mean my talent isn't enough?

I would have helped out if you would have just given me more, you know, I get a bit more, you know, if you'd have just let me get up and give sermonettes, I would have served more.

Maybe God has things for all of us to do. All of us to do.

Last year at the feast, the little boy comes up to me and says, I watch you on television all the time.

Can I have your autograph?

I said, son, they put monkeys on television. It's not that big a deal. We just tell people the truth. So you know what he did? Every day he'd walk up to me and say, can I have your autograph? Oh, I know. And every day he came up and we had this little joke between us.

I did tell you about how my neighbor kids found out I was on TV, didn't you? Did I tell you that?

Everybody gets their 15 minutes of fame, all right?

Kim's away. I'll just, I was about done anyway, so next to two, three minutes, one week in a difference. Kim's away and I'm by myself and I lock myself out of the house. And I go, every door's locked, every window's locked, and I realize on the second story, there's a window with an air conditioning unit. So if I get up there, all I have to do is pull it up, pull, it's a vent, so it's not a heavy unit, push it out and crawl through.

And I get out my short little ladder and realize I can even begin. So I get up there, so I go to the neighbor and I say, can I borrow your ladder? I walk in the door, the woman opens up and she says, we've been watching you on television. Oh, okay. Well, great. Let's make this really weird and uncomfortable. Can I borrow your ladder? I've locked myself out of the house. And so she says, sure, let me get my husband. Hey, we watch you on television. Great. Great. Can I borrow your ladder? So we get the ladder and he looks at me and he says, you want me to crawl up there and do that? And I said, no, I'll do it. And I crawl to the top, I open it up and I push out the vent. And then I realized it's too deep. I just can't crawl through. You know, it's too deep for me to crawl through and get to the floor. So in my great wisdom, I sit down backwards, holding onto them. And I think I'll just sort of go over and ease myself down onto the floor. And I'm leaning back, leaning back, and all of a sudden, the two kids come around the house and saying, Mr. Gary, Mr. Gary, we'll watch you on television. And at that moment, I fell through the window. My feet are sticking up. I'm like a turtle on his back. I can't turn over. My feet are out the window. I'm laying on the floor. So I finally sort of crawl around and get up. And I look outside and there's the mom and the dad and the two kids. They're literally standing down there doing this.

Their mouths are just staring up the window and I said, thanks, I'm okay. And they just pick up. The kids have never, they used to run over and say, Mr. Gary, Mr. Gary, all the time. That was like, they just sort of wave at me like, you're sort of strange. Anyways, there you go. That's what it means to be on television.

And I hear this all the time. I heard it this weekend. We watch you on TV. You're so small.

I hear it all the time. Three women came from Mexico, all speaking in Spanish. I'm standing looking at them and we'll find out what I'm saying. We've been talking about this and they've chosen me to tell you this. I said, what? We watch you on television every week. You're so short.

We didn't know in person. You were so short. Everybody thinks everybody on TV is real big. You're so short. I said, yep, that's it. That's me. If you want to talk to the tall one, go see and talk to Mr. McNeely. He's bigger than me.

Of course, they're really surprised because Steve Myers is smaller than me. So they're always shocked at him, too. But anyways, how did I get... Oh, abilities. We think, well, if I can do this or I can do this, I can serve God. We all have windows of opportunity. Don't come in time. I'm not on television anymore. That window of opportunity is gone. That doesn't mean I'm no longer a servant of God. It's just I had an opportunity. Everyone of you have opportunities, and God gives them, takes them away. And sometimes we're good at it, and sometimes we're not.

The more important thing is he does it. He does it.

You can't... We can't use... Because I can tell you something. I had no ability to go on television.

And talk to millions of people. I didn't have that. I do. I mean, I've done it.

It's not because I was born with some innate ability. I just had an opportunity, and we just... God, you have to make this work.

And sooner or later, God will bring on somebody better. When he wants that expanded, he'll get the people who can do that, and he'll do it through them. You see what I mean?

Those two witnesses, that's going to be amazing.

That's just not a couple million people.

We can't say, because none of us have the abilities to do, we weren't called because of our abilities.

We were called to have God work in us.

I just didn't have enough opportunities. In that parable, remember the man who got the one talent said, you didn't give me a lot, so I didn't do anything with it. God doesn't accept the excuse, you didn't give me a lot. God said, I gave you what I wanted you to have, so I could do my work. That's what God says. When we say, nah, you didn't give me enough, what are we doing to God? It's an excuse. We all struggle with our inadequacies and our time restraints, balancing priorities, our relationships. But the core of our lives has to be this priority that says, yes, Lord, what do you want me to do? Personal life, congregational life, and the life you and I spend, you know, trying to be a witness by falling through a window. You know, it's as we try to be a witness for Jesus Christ.

Are there excuses that are keeping you from growing as a child of God?

Here's a little thing you can do if you wonder if you have excuses. Next time you're going to tell God, I can't, or give an excuse for something you've done wrong, write it down. Write the excuse down. Word for word, this is why. Then get on your knees and see if you can pray it to him or not. It's amazing how quickly the excuse fades away when you write it down, read it yourself, and then get on your knees and say, oh, I'm going to, wait a minute, I can't tell God this. Let the excuse be seen for what it is. It's an excuse. And then always remember, the reason God doesn't want our excuses, because God is telling us all the time, I can do this if you will let me. That's what he's telling you every day in your life. He's saying, I could do this. I won't make you, so you have to participate. But I can do this if you will let me.