Just Go for It! What are you Waiting For?-103a
INTRODUCTION
So what do I mean when I say?-
JUST GO FOR IT! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
1. Go For it-What is: IT ?
Sell out for Jesus and be radically saved
(Nothing to lose and everything to gain)
Are you a shrinker or a preserver? -where do you find yourself as I read this portion of the Bible
Hebrews 10:35-39 (ESV)
35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward.
36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised.
37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay;
38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
I would like to share the amazing testimony about my dad. There are some of you who know the story of how my Dad passed and some that don’t. It was an Awesome God thing and I give him all the glory.
Here is what happened:
My Dad, Ken Ashcroft was an awesome dad. He wanted to die in his apartment. He absolutely did not want to go to a nursing home. I understand that this is the wish of most.
He was the one who led me to the Lord when I was eighteen. Who knows what would have happened to my life if he hadn’t prayed for me. My parents were divorced and I went and visited him after high school. My life would change that summer of 1976, and God would not only save me but would call me into the ministry. I am forever grateful for his Spiritual touch and all the help and love he showed me and my family during his life.
For the last couple few years; he used a walker and managed to get around in his apartment. About a month ago, he began to really struggle. He asked if he could pray for God to take him home. I felt this was God’s will. So Ginelle, my wife, Dad, and I prayed for God to take him home.
The next day the Veteran’s Clinic called and said, “Ken you are dying; your kidneys are shutting down.” They didn’t want to tell him over the phone but he was unable to come over due to his health; so they did.
He was kind of stunned when I walked into the apartment. He had just gotten off the phone. I told him Dad “This is good news.” “You want to go home to heaven to be with the Lord and they just told you that you are going there.”
So his biggest wish was to die in his apartment; at home. So Ginelle, who is a nurse and me became his caretakers many times a day for a month. It was a labor of love. I have no regrets.
This weekend there was a great decline. Dad stood up and fainted and fell. Many other negative things were going on, also. We knew he would have to go to a Nursing Home on Monday. It just wasn’t safe for him anymore. Even with us being over there several times a day; we worked and just couldn’t give him the around the clock care that he would now need.
Someone had suggested that we have hospice for back-up support. I prayed and God spoke to my heart “Knute Nelson Hospice.” I had no relationship with these people. God knew what he was doing. There is a song from years ago called “Angels Among Us.” They were literally the fulfilment of that. They were awesome. I saw my wife with her heart full of Jesus love combined with her nursing skills. It was amazing.
So Saturday night we left Dad’s apartment about 6:30 pm. We knew Monday he would have to go to a care facility. We prayed together. I prayed “God just take him home.” Grant him his wish.” My sister called him at 6:50 pm; as she does every night and talked briefly with him. We came back at 9:30 pm. Ginelle said to me outside of his door “You know someday you’ll open this door and he will be gone.” We opened the door and he was gone. We called the Hospice nurse and I asked her how long she thought he would have lived when she saw him earlier. I said 1 to 3 weeks as a guess. She said one week. She was very surprised that when she had checked his vitals earlier that day they were fine. Death came fast.
So my Dad was able to get his wish from the Lord. He beat the nursing home by 36 hours and was able to die in his apartment; his home. I believe that God quickened his death and sent a couple of big angels to escort him to heaven. Now he is able to walk and do whatever he wants to do.
I will miss him; but he did leave a forwarding address which some day I will see him there. I just wanted to share this with you and say, “GOD IS SO AMAZING AND SO FAITHFUL.”
One sweet thing that happened just this last week was my step-daughter Amber and our youngest grandchild Laura went downstairs at the apartment building to check my Dad’s mail. We have just forwarded it to our house; but wanted to see if there was any still there. There wasn’t. So when they got back up my wife Ginelle asked Laura “so did Grandpa Ken get any mail. She responded, “No here already got his mail.” I thought this was so sweet and profound.”
So why am I telling you this story? It is a tender picture of God’s mercy and love. It also demonstrates something else. Ginelle and I went for it.
2. This story I just told is an example of just going for it
Most Christians would have just prayed for the best and hoped something would happen. It’s not like we are special or anthing. We are just like you. There may be one difference. What is that?
We really believed when we prayed and commanded that it would actually happen. I think most people just pray and leave it in God’s hand. Here is what he showed me. That is hope not faith. Hope is like turning your key on to start your car. But you don’t just sit there and wait for something to happen; no it’s pedal to the medal.
I really don’t think most people when they pray really at a heart’s level believe that it will happen. How do I know that? I don’t have to be there when you plant your garden; just when the plants show up and then I can tell what you planted? Look at the results people are getting. For 29 years, I was one of those who never received or rarely received. Now I pretty much get results all the time. Why? Because I am doing it according to the Bible. I am not taking no for an answer.
3. So what stops people from just going for it?
I have to believe with most people they just don’t want to go through the training. For instance to grow in the knowledge of Divine Healing and to be able to operate in it; it may take you 6 months or 2 years. Most people won’t invest that kind of time; especially if they see it with some skeptics or not as important. I am telling you it is God’s will.
LET ME JUST BE BLUNT: YOU CAN’T MINOR IN DIVINE HEALING AND MAJOR IN OTHER THINGS AND REALLY HOPE TO HAVE A VICTORIOUS LIFE.
For example; if you spend your time just mainly watching TV; that in in self can harm your belief system. I am talking about if you are taking in hundreds of cold/flu and medicines for everything 100's of times in a day. You will be affected. This is affect your belief system and you will think this is normal and you will struggle to believe. Why do you think Jesus told a man not to go back to where he was from after he was healed. This was a place that was known for unbelief and they would have unconvinced him and he would have lost his healing. These small things are like little foxes that spoil the vineyard. They matter!
1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (ESV)
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.
25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.
27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
4. So you are ready to just go for it; what can stop you?
Hebrews 12:1-3 (ESV)
1 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
· It’s Sin=Things you know are not God approved and you are playing with them.
· It’s Weights-Like wasting time; I have heard people say as I am sure you have when you ask them “Hey what are you doing? “I’m just killing time” THE BIBLE SAYS TO REDEEM MAKE THE MOST OF IT NOT WASTE IT.
*****God will take you and break you and make you. Let him be the potter to your clay.
CONCLUSION
I am asking the question again that I started with:
WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?
· It’s time to just go for it!
· Will you procrastinate or will you take up this challenge?
· When I am done tonight if you are serious and want this?
· Talk to Jesus and tell him I’m sorry for living my life too much for just me a few others; I want it all Lord; I want my life to please you. I want to just Go for it!!!!