"Building a Church Through Outreach"
This is the Day the Lord has Made!
ELCOG 7/15/07
Text: Psalm 118:24
This morning I want to encourage your life with a word to help you live in this season of refreshing. I recently received Max Lucado’s book Every Day Deserves a Chance. (This book is in the church library) As I began to read this book I discovered a great lesson for all of us. Every day deserves a chance to be great. Have you ever had a day where everything was wonderful? You wake up and the coffee is just right, the sky is blue, the sun is shinning and the wind is blowing with the right amount of coolness. It is going to be a great day and then all of a sudden on your way to work, right in the middle of you whistling your favorite tune you spill your now luke-warm coffee on your shirt. All of a sudden everything seems to fall apart. You are now driving trying to clean the dress shirt and you are angry at how stupid you are…..all you can think about is the spilt coffee. The sun is still shinning, the breeze is still blowing, but all you can think about is the coffee stain.
You can bet in life that there will be many coffee spills. The traffic will snarl. Airports will close. Friends will forget. Spouses will complain. There will be slow lines at Wal-mart. The attendant will not turn on the gas pump at the station. Your unemployment check didn’t come in. Your bank sent a notice of insufficient funds.
And what about the real bad days? The days that you never get out of the hospital bed, the cemetery dirt is still fresh, the pink slip is still folded in your pocket, the other side of the bed is still empty and the divorce papers were just signed. Who has a good day on these types of days?
Most of us don’t. But couldn’t we try? Even these days deserve a change to be great. Every day deserves a chance to be a good day.
Psa. 118:24
24 This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Look at that first word…. "This" This is the day the lord has made. The day with the spilt coffee, the day with the flat tire and even the day with the long hospital stay or funeral arrangements. This is still His day.
Perhaps holidays are the days of the Lord. Christmas is a great day! Weddings are great days. That is a day the lord has made! Easter Sunday…. Super-sale Saturdays… vacation days. All of these are days the Lord has made. But should "this" day?
After-all this day includes divorce days, funeral days, surgery days, sentencing days, tax days. But yet, "this is the day the Lord has made" God made even this day. Let us remember that the day we live in; whether it is cloudy or sunny, full of sadness or full of joy it’s still His day!
God is still in control of your day. He still orders your steps and guides your way. Take a look at your day and change your thought pattern. Stop looking at the coffee stain and notice that God made this day. You are blessed because God created this day and we should rejoice in it!
Oh no! Another easy word to stumble across; "IN".
We like to rejoice after. We will be glad and rejoice after the day is done. Or we will be glad to get through the day. But the scripture says to rejoice IN the day.
*Paul rejoiced in prison.
*David wrote psalms in the wilderness.
*Jonah prayed in the belly of a fish.
*Paul & Silas sang and worshiped in jail.
*Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego remained faithful in the fiery
furnace.
*John saw heaven in his exile.
*Jesus prayed in the garden of pain.
Let us rejoice in our day and be glad in it!
So imagine what would happen if you gave the worst day a chance to be good. You choose not to drink, work or worry it away but give it a fair chance. That means that you trust more. Stress less. Amplify gratitude. Mute grumbling. Then before you know it the day will be over and you will have had a good day. Then the next day comes and you give it a chance and you make it through and it’s good. Then another one and another one passes and before long a month has passed then a quarter and then a year. All made up of days that you have given a chance to be good.
Let me give you a couple of things to keep in mind, as outline in Max Lucado’s book.
1. You no longer have yesterday. It slipped away as you slept. Yesterday is gone. You can not get it back or change it. It is history and it has been recorded. The clock will not run backwards nor will the calendar turn its page backwards. You no longer have yesterday so get over it! Stop living in the guilt of yesterday. Stop allowing yesterdays mistakes to ruin this day. "Old things have passed away". "Joy came with the morning". Some of you must get over yesterday and rejoice in today.
2. You do not yet have tomorrow. You can not accelerate the time to go faster. You can’t spend tomorrow’s money, celebrate tomorrow’s success or lived tomorrow today. You only have today. This is the day the lord has made.
Live in "this" day. Don’t heavy today with yesterdays regret and don’t ruin today with tomorrow’s troubles. Rejoice in "This" day.
I know that we feel guilt of every side. I know that we all allow yesterday and tomorrow to mess up today. "This is the day the Lord has made". What about today? We must learn to rejoice in today!
How can we do that? Well, here are three things from scripture:
1. Saturate your day in His grace.
Luke 23:43
43And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Today, is a day of grace. We will cover the thief on the cross tonight. We will see how God gave us grace to survive the day. Today is covered in God’s grace.
2 Cor. 12:9
9And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
2. Entrust your day to His oversight.
Luke 11:3
3Give us day by day our daily bread.
Remember that God is still in control. He has your need for today already supplied. He has your table spread in the middle of your battle.
Psa. 23:5
5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Today, trust God with your troubles. Today allow God to have your worries and your fears. Today, rejoice because God is still God!
3. Accept his direction.
Luke 9:23
23And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Allow god to direct your steps today. Allow God to help make your decisions today. He is with you. He loves you. Allow Him to direct you. He sees the pot holes before you hit them. He knows the storm before it hits. Allow him to direct you.
Grace, Oversight, Direction.
G-O-D
Fill your day with God. Give this day a chance and watch out for the coffee stains. This Is the Day that the Lord has made. Rejoice and be glad in it!