NO EXCUSES

How often is your life as a follower of Jesus stymied by your excuses?

I find myself often buying into my belief that I can’t __________________ (fill in the blank) because I don’t have what it takes.

I have a feeling that if you are on this journey of following Jesus, then this has or is a battle in your life as well. We are good at telling ourselves that we can’t and we have forgotten somewhere along the line of our salvation, that THE FACT THAT WE CAN’T IS THE WHOLE POINT!

We can’t save ourselves. We can’t live up to the glorious standard of God’s holiness. We can’t do life on our own. We can’t know our purpose in life apart from Him. On our own, we are hopeless. That is the point of salvation! That is the point of following Jesus. Somewhere along the line we were convicted by the Holy Spirit and we chose to give up all of our “I can’ts” to Jesus.

So let me remind you today, IF YOU ARE IN CHRIST, then your purpose is forever linked to Him and His ability to do “immeasurably more than you could ask or think.” (Ephesians 3:20)

John Maxwell said “You can go from failure to success, but you can’t go from excuses to success!”

I heard that quote and it got me thinking about these excuses I constantly make in regard to my life’s purpose of impacting the Kingdom of God. Success for the kingdom of God is directly tied to me and you. God has CHOSEN to use people to accomplish HIs mission. Because of His plan to use us, there is NO EXCUSE we can give that is good enough.

I want to encourage you today to remember, as a Christ-follower, your purpose is to impact the world where you are for God. Live on purpose where God has placed you. NO EXCUSES.

Will you fail? YEP. It will happen. Failure is part of life, but – guess what – FAILURE IS ALSO A KEY TO SUCCESS.

Peter wasn’t afraid of failure was he? He often failed. But he kept trying. He kept speaking. He kept moving forward. He had a mission. He didn’t let his failure trap him and keep him from trying something else. Even when he denied Jesus, he bounced back and was used mightily by God.

We are human like Peter. Some of the things we do are going to fail.

In the church that I serve, one of our staff idioms is “FIRE THE CANNON.” This simple phrase comes from a business idea that a company used to learn how to fail forward. Whenever they would try something that did not work, they would trash the idea and “fire the cannon” celebrating the failure. They had found one more thing that did not work. They would not do again, but they now knew to spend their time and energy on something new.

This photo hangs on our office wall as a reminder

We have adopted that philosophy in ministry. We will plan and pray and try things that we pray will work to impact the kingdom. Many times they do. Sometimes they don’t. When they don’t, we celebrate it as a failure and learning process and we never do it again. We fire the cannon.

So learn how to “fire the cannon” in your spiritual walk. Learn how to “fail forward.” Don’t get frustrated when you feel like you aren’t making progress and whatever you do, DON’T MAKE EXCUSES why you can’t do anything else. Your purpose is to make an impact. Your purpose is to look like Jesus more and more. Your purpose is to be a witness to the world of His greatness and saving power and life-transforming goodness! Your message is “death to life” only found in Jesus.

LIVE ON PURPOSE and remember now that you are in Christ the qualification for your purpose to be lived out does not rest on you.

Hebrews 13:20-22 “Now may the God of peace – WHO BROUGHT UP FROM THE DEAD OUR LORD JESUS, the Great Shepherd of the sheep, AND RATIFIED AN ETERNAL COVENANT WITH HIS BLOOD – may He EQUIP YOU WITH ALL YOU NEED for doing His will. May he produce in you, through the power of Jesus Christ.”

These verses tell me that God is qualified to do what I could never do so that I can do what I am called to do!

How could I make excuses when my God is the One who gave victory over death and created a way for sinners to be saved, forgiven and alive?

How can I make excuses, when my equipment needed to live my calling and purpose comes from that God?

I pray that I will do whatever it takes to impact the kingdom of God by living the mission He has given me. I pray that you do too.

LIVE YOUR PURPOSE – NO EXCUSES!