I got some good responses, and some minor heckling tonight at the Comcast Arena. I was so glad that the Holy Bible banner gals could be there. It was a pleasure hearing them preach.
Here's the message I gave to the motorcycle race fans at Comcast Arena:
Hi Friends... My name is Keith and I'm a born-again Christian, and I'd like to share a few thoughts with you while you wait.
You know, more than once, I've had people tell me, “GET A JOB” when I've stood up to speak like this. That’s fair, I understand, but I actually do have a job. I’m a software engineer for an international company. As a software engineer, one of my responsibilities is to provide customer support for the software applications I and my team have developed. A while back, I was online helping an Australian engineer who uses our software, with some issues he’d been struggling with. I probably spent an hour getting him back on track. When I was all done, he was extremely grateful, and he thanked me profusely. Then he said something I’d never heard before. He said "Your Blood's Worth Bottling". "What does that mean? I thought to myself" Well, he explained that’s a major compliment. If an Australian says, "mate your blood's worth bottling", he’s saying you've been of great assistance to him. In other words you've done something of great value for him. I want to tell you about someone whose blood literally is worth bottling, but first, Think about just how valuable this stuff that’s coursing through our veins really is. The Bible says, “The life is in the blood.”, and it is literally life to us. If we were to lose but 40% of our blood volume, we’d be dead.
So I say all this to reminder us all that we will all die someday, whether it be from blood loss, or old age. We all have an expiration date. And yet, we all have the will to live, and we cling to life for good reason; Because we know that while there’s still breath in our lungs, and our heart's beating, and there's blood flowing through our veins, we know life is good and death is bad. I mean think about it, if you hear of someone who wants to die, or someone who is obsessed with death, I'll bet you think that person has some emotional problems or psychological issues. Let me just tell you, you were created for life. You were designed and built to live. Death is not your friend and it was never your intended destiny. The grave is not the goal line and the funeral is not the finish line. The Bible says you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You were created by God, in His image and likeness (and no God is not a 6’ tall bald man, God is Spirit). You are not the product of evolution. You were created by God, in his image and you were purpose-built. Just as these motorcycles that you're going in here to watch tonight are built specifically to go on the ice, you were built for a specific purpose too. Yes, part of that purpose is to live life and enjoy it (which could include going to the motorcycle ice races), but more importantly, you were created to live in relationship with God; in close contact with Him, in intimate, loving union with your Maker. Or to put it another way, you were created to be friends with God.
But the Bible says, we are separated from God because of our sin, and because we're separated from God, we're separated from eternal life, because in Him is life… The soul that sins shall die, it says, and the wages of sin is death… In fact the Bible goes so far as saying that we are enemies with God, in our minds through wicked works. So we all have an appointment with death, and after that, we have an appointment with God, to give an account of our lives. The standard by which we will be judged is righteousness. And everything will be laid open and bare before Him with whom we have to give an account. It says God will render to every man according to his deeds, so lets do a quick review of our deeds and see how we'll do on that day.
The Law…
The Gospel…
The New Life…
The Conclusion of the matter is this...
Ecclesiastes 12:13 ... Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
What does God command? Acts 17:30 says, God commands all men everywhere to repent. And 1 John 3:23 says And this is his commandment, That we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus Christ, and love one another...
Psalm 103:11-14 For as high as heaven is above the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities them that fear him. For he knows our frame; he remembers that we are dust.
