"Jesus ain't got nothing to do with it"

As my name was called, I walked up from the back of the room, stepped forward and accepted my Sales Manager of The Year Award, the presenter asked me to say a few words, as everyone sat down, I quickly cleared my throat and said " As I look back to the tremendous year that we had in 1999, I can't help but thank the 40 sales reps that made this year happen, their hard work and dedication was truly a difference maker! I also want to thank my supervisor team that put up with all of the long hours and stressful days ensuring that we hit our sales goals, but most of all I would like to thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who has poured out his favor and blessing and without him none of this would be possible"

Before I could utter another word, a clearly intoxicated man sitting in the front row, looked at me, laughed, stood up and said: "Man, Jesus ain't got nothing to do with you winning this award, you just got lucky and had a good year!" and proceeded to laugh hysterically at his own comment.

Being pretty quick on my feet and being called out in front of several hundred  people I calmly and confidently said..."I guess you all now know, who this year's runner-up is, glad he's not taking it personally." The 500 people in attendance roared and the guy was totally destroyed. Thank you Lord for a great come back, LOL.

Can I tell you that the day you become a Christian and invite Jesus into your life as your lord and savior everything has to do with him! The non-christian world cannot understand that, without the Holy Spirit present in their lives they are literally incapable of understanding why everything should be about Jesus.

As a Christian, I have a biblical worldview which means that I view everything through the lens of what scripture has to say... How I treat people, How I live, How I give, How I raise my Children, My life's purpose and destiny, everything.

As a Christian, God has a unique and special call on each one of our lives. He has a plan, purpose and destiny that he created uniquely for each one of us before we even existed. God does not make mistakes, he did not make a mistake in creating you and he did not make a mistake in placing you in the environment where you currently find yourself!

Your environment is your ministry, God has placed you where he needs you, your family, coworkers, friends, relatives and acquaintances are members of your church and God has called you to minister to them on a regular basis. 

When your ministry with those individuals is finished God will move you or them on to different pastures. The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 3:1 "For everything there is a season and time for every matter under Heaven". This includes People coming in and out of our lives.

Our goal as Christans should be to leave people better than when we found them, to shower them with the love and compassion of Jesus Christ and to be a living, breathing example of that love in this world. 

How do we do that? 

Here are 3 tips to help get you started...

1. You have to be living a victorious life in Christ, if you are not, all of your focus will be on yourself and you will be incapable of ministering to your flock.All of your time will be spent on your problems and issues, you will have nothing left for anyone else. How do you live a victorious life? Its actually easy, You make God #1 in your life and build a daily relationship with him through spending time in the Bible,  Prayer, Thanksgiving(Having an attitude of gratitude is vital-be thankful for what you have) and Worship. God should be the first and last person you speak with every day. When you spend quality time daily with God your whole life will change for the better. When you live a victorious life, people will take notice and will gravitate toward you.
2. You have to be bold. It's not easy to speak with non-Christians about Jesus. It was not easy to Get up in front of those 500 people and proclaim the goodness of Jesus Christ. Let your life be your witness and testimonial, if your doing it right, people will come to you and want to emulate what you have. That will open the door for you to share the reason for your hope, the reason why your faith doesn't waiver, why you are generous. God will see to that. Here is a tip... even the most hardcore non christian people out there will allow you to pray for them during a difficult time, the next time one of your flock says... my daughter is sick, I am struggling in sales, I need to find a new job, the radiator in my car went out and I don't have the money for it, offer to pray with them for a solution and if you feel led by Lord-help them meet their need!
3. Be generous with your time, energy and money. God's people aren't penny pinchers when it comes to helping those in need. God gives us abundance for the sole purpose of being able to bless others. If someone in your flock has a need, nothing says the "Love of Jesus" more than a check or your time to help meet the needs of others. Generosity opens doors and gets the attention of God. Let me share with you a story that perfectly illustrates my point...

For as long as I could remember, I have always wanted a luxury car, I actually used to prayer that one day God would bless me enough to be able to buy a really nice car. At the same time for the last 20 years I had a company car with fuel, insurance and maintenance paid for. I thanked God daily for that company car and over time I stopped praying for a luxury car because I thought desiring a luxury car when God provided a free car was ungodly. 

Last year, I happen to be talking with a guy I work with and he was telling me about his 17 year old son who just received his driver's license and his birthday was coming up and he really believed his dad was going to buy him a car. Problem was his mother had been in and out of the hospital ran up numerous medical bills, plus they have 5 children and they could not afford to buy him a car and they were struggling so-there would be no car for the boy. His dad was broken up about it and was feeling like a failure that he could not buy his own son a car. I offered to pray for him and we asked God for a solution to this situation. 

 A week later I was at my desk reviewing our fleet inventory and we had this vehicle (a Dodge Charger) that was going up for disposal. It was a General Manager vehicle that had reached its corporate of 120,000 mile life span, still ran good but policy was clear, it had to be disposed of. This usally involves putting it out to bid for local dealers. The dad also saw this list and called me and asked if he could bid on the car and buy it for his son. A perk that we offer to our associates. I said "sure, can you afford it and he laughed and said "no". Later that night, I couldn't sleep and kept thinking about this dad and his son, being the father of 3 children I totally understood where he was coming from-he wanted in the worst way to be a hero to his son and buy that car for his birthday. I couldn't let it go so I prayed and asked the lord if we should buy that car for this dad, 10 minutes later my wife woke up, and told me to buy that car, so the next day I bought them the car, the dad hid it until the birthday party and his son "wigged out"he was so excited. He couldn't thank us enough- I was very clear that it was God who blessed him not us.

In true God fashion, this not the end of the story, about 3 months later I received a promotion at work and as part of that promotion, I was able to buy a BMW 7 Series luxury car that is paid for from my monthly car allowance. 

We cannot out give God, when we blessed that dad and bought him that car God responded to our faith and blessed us. Much more important than me being able to drive a luxury car was the witness and testimony to that dad about the love of Jesus Christ. 

One day, we will all stand before God and will have to give account of what we did while we lived on earth. We are called the be the "Salt and light" of this world.

 Friends, there are people littered throughout your life today, that need your witness, they need your generosity, they need your encouragement, they need to see the Jesus that you love and serve. Please make it a priority to share that love with someone today, that is what our lord asks of us!