Who wants Jesus to do things for you?  I for one want Jesus to do things for me. I want my life to be absolutely exciting.  I want all that Jesus wants to give me (and Jesus wants to give you so much more than you can imagine).  That is what we are looking for, that will make Jesus real to me and relevant to those around me.

The problem is for most who say they believe in Jesus they don’t see that in their lives, but they want. I think it comes down to where we choose to be.

Jesus is saying come here. He is motioning us to come over where He is.  To go where He is going. Jesus is saying I want to lead you to something awesome.  But for most of us, we go Jesus, no you come over here.  You do what I want you to do what I think is awesome.

Jesus knows you better than yourself, but we don’t want to go with Him, we want Jesus to go with us.  I don’t know about you, but I have no idea what is going to happen in the next week let alone the next 10 minutes, but Jesus does.

Why don’t we go to where Jesus is, when He says come here.  It is our of our comfort zone.  We are comfortable where we are so Jesus just join us here.  But what if where you are is not the best place for you?  Jesus says I want to take you to the best places so you have an absolutely exciting life.

Another reason we don’t always go with Jesus is because we are afraid. We see what is going on and go, I don’t think so Jesus.  We dig our heels in the ground or even take a step backwards. Here is the thing, when Jesus asks you to come over here you have to realize something very important.  That if Jesus says to come, you will get there.  Jesus will never ask you to come over here knowing that you can’t make it. 

If you want to really have the amazing life we read about in the Bible we have to be willing to come when Jesus calls.  Allow Jesus to lead us to the glory, because He actually knows the way.  Once we get used to doing it, Jesus won’t have to ask us to come anymore, we will just go wherever He is without Him asking because we will find out life just gets better and better when we stay right beside Jesus.

When Jesus says come here, and then we do, even when everything inside of us says no, is when you enter into the fun life that Jesus always wanted you to have.

Yes you can still ask Jesus to come to where you are, and He will because He loves you.  However your life will not be the exciting life you want it to be, because you are leading the relationship and you don’t see all that is possible.  Jesus sees so much more for you, that you can’t see and Jesus can’t wait to show you how amazing this relationship can be. 

So when Jesus says come here, take a chance and go see why Jesus wants you to come here. If Jesus asks you to come here, there is something great He has in store for you!

 Remember Jesus loves you, I love you, and you are awesome!

Have you ever been taken for granted? Have you ever felt that someone has taken advantage of your friendship or relationship? I am sure that everyone has had that moment in their life. It doesn’t feel great. Then when that person comes to us and needs something, we are not sure if we really want to jump to help them.

Now, let us put the shoe on the other foot. Have you have taken someone for granted or taken advantage of someone? Sometimes we do that without even knowing it, and we wonder why that person reacts to us the way they do, and we wonder why they are not so nice or are not willing to help us anymore.

We are in an awesome relationship with Jesus. That word, relationship, is so key, it's not a religion. We have to realize that, but even more, we have to realize that we are in an awesome relationship with Jesus.

Here is how awesome it is. We take Jesus for granted all the time. We always want Him to do things for us in our lives. Yet, how often do we put Jesus’ needs in front of our own? Do we talk to Jesus as much as we talk to our friends? How often do we choose to do something for ourselves instead of for Jesus. How often do we complain to Jesus about why He is apparently, in our opinion, not doing something for us. If you think over your life, and are honest, you should be like wow, I haven’t been that great of a partner in this relationship.

Now here is the awesome part. Jesus never walks away from the relationship. When we do talk to Him, Jesus never makes it awkward. Jesus still is willing to show up in our lives and do things even when we have put Him on the back burner, and even when we have complained about Him.

That is the definition of an Awesome relationship.

I have two points:

First, we need to not take our relationship with Jesus for granted. It should humble us every day to realize that Jesus has no reason to be in a relationship with us, but yet He still desires to have one with us. We do many things where Jesus should just walk away, and yet He never does, and never has any intention to do so.

Second, what if we were more awesome in our relationship towards Jesus. How much better things could be for us! James 4:8 states, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."  We have the choice of how close we want this relationship to be, or how distant. Think about how amazing our earthly relationships are when we choose to be close. Now imagine, how good our relationship with Jesus can be if we choose to get closer and closer and closer all the days of our life.

You want to have an amazing life with Jesus, well, Jesus is ready to give it to you. He just wants to know how amazing you want it to be, and if you really appreciate Him. When we choose to do and show this, watch what Jesus will do, because...

Remember Jesus loves you; I love you, and you are awesome!

We live in a world where everything seems to be compromised, especially our values. People begin to consider and believe what was wrong may not be wrong anymore. Just look at the Olympics this year. And the world makes even less sense and causes chaos. God never wanted that and gave us principles that we can stand on found in His Word.

Principles are the things we stand on, that make us who we are. Principles cannot change, or then they are not principles. Many times, we compromise those principles in order to placate someone, or to not ruffle feathers so we all get along. The problem is we think we are doing good for that person or people but in reality we are leading them to destruction by not standing on our principles.

When we fail to hold to our principles, we let the devil win and people are on the road to hell.

Many will say, well, what about this situation, or they are your family, or that stand will cost you a job or a business deal. If you have real principles, you are willing to stand on, there will be times it will be tough, and it may seem to cost you. But we must stand by our principles, people’s eternal destination depends on it, especially the one’s we care very much about.

Standing by your principles may seem to cost you, because of how people will react. People may even be nasty toward you, leave you, and call you intolerant. The thing is in the end God is very intolerant of sin, and there is only one to get into heaven. When we compromise our values, we make a mockery of the Gospel even worse than what we saw at the Olympics.

God is looking for principled men and women to make a stand with. And when God makes a stand with you, things will turn out amazing, Romans 8:28. But for this verse to be true we must decide to take a stand.

The question is where do we find those principles to stand on? I find my principles in the Word of God. Jesus stood firm, took a lot of heat, and still does, but His principles have stood the test of time.

We live in a world that is searching for real principles that will hold them up. Remember there are more people searching for something real to hold on, than people on TV, in music, politics, sports etc. who are trying to say the principles found in God’s Word are irrelevant. To get you to hold on to something else. A question must then be asked, why is the world more chaotic than ever before? It is because their principles don’t stand when put to the test because they are not backed up by the all-powerful God who just happens to love you so very much!!

We need to stand for our principles no matter the circumstance. If we don’t, we betray the very people we love. For example, if a family member is doing something that is wrong, you have a choice to stand by your principles or to say I will loosen up so that I don’t lose that person. Many make the second choice, because we think by giving a little here will leave the door open for the future. When in reality you are saying to them, it is OK to compromise your principles a dangerous lesson to teach, and one that is being taught way too often in the world.

Yes, it is tough to practice, “Principles are only principles if you stand by them no matter what.” But it is important if we are to lead our country, and more importantly the ones we love to an eternal destination in heaven. That is what it is all about. Nothing else really matters. If you get along down here but your loved ones don’t make it to heaven, then it is all for not.

We need to stand on our principles because when the world around those we love is shaken, they will look to the person who is not shaken.

Psalm 16:8 I have set the Lord always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved.

“Principles are only principles if you stand by them no matter what.” Hold to this and in the end, Jesus will be sure you are not moved!

Remember Jesus loves you; I love you, and you are awesome!