Anybody ever had car fever besides me? The car salesman's can smell car-fever. They have a car-fever thermometer! They just don't tell you that it’s rectal! It's 'edom, 'edom, 'edom!
They put the payments off for 45 days, so it has time to wear off; then the first payment comes due, and you look in your garage, and you're like: I'm paying how much for this; and it's going down how fast in value? That was beans!
The impulse buyer, who just has to put it on a credit card... We buy things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people we don't like!
I have a friend who's still paying for a beer he bought in 2001! He went through this season, he'd got partying a lot, and he's stupid, so he'd go out and say: everything's on me! He's still paying for that on his credit card – beans!
That person who just has to tell you all the news about 'x' person; so if you're going to be spiritual, you could pray about it. After they get it off their chest, after you've listened to it, you feel dirty, and it's just beans.
The church member who just can't resist the urge to be critical about their pastor - beans. The person who just has to be negative and critical about their husband - beans. The person who has to withdraw, and be mean to their wife - beans.
Amnon convinced himself he loved Tamar so much, that he said he became sick, and he thought he would die without her. She wouldn't have anything to do with him – but since he was so convinced that he'd die without having her, he raped her. After he raped her, he hated her more than he loved her - beans. Trading everything you can be, for a bowl of beans.
Luke 9:23, this is Jesus talking, and this sentence makes perfect sense without one word – “then He said to them, if anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. That sentence makes more sense without ‘daily’, but Jesus adds the word daily.
Today there's a paragraph written about your life, and you're the author; and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day. What Jesus wants us to avoid is this: getting to 75 years old, looking back on our life, and realising my life could have been so much more; but I allowed my life to be defined by a series of urges.
We can live our life from urge to urge, and it'll be defined by this thing - which is just beans; or we can take up our cross daily, and remind ourselves every day that there's a destiny that God wants us to fulfil, such a higher purpose in my life - that my life doesn't have to be defined by the bowl. It can be defined by the birthright.
You serve a God who believes in you more than you believe in Him.
You have a God who has a birthright for you; and if you've given your life to the bowl up to this moment, He's willing to forgive you, give you a clean slate and go forth. There's a birthright for you. You can live as though there's a higher purpose.
To live as though there's no higher purpose than your urges, is profaning God's destiny for you. Say NO to the bowl, and enter into the birthright.I promise you this: If you eat what's in the bowl, at the end of the day, it's just beans.
Closing PrayerIs there anybody here today that hasn’t made a decision to follow Jesus Christ?
My life has been defined from urge to urge. I'm at a point in my life where I realise how meaningless that is, and I want my life to matter. I need to start that journey, by crossing the line, and accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord; and accepting Him I want to be in His plan. That is the best way to live.