Hi, Pastor Bob here. Welcome back to the Men of Valor podcast. The verse for today is from the book of Revelation, chapter 3 verse 1, and it states. “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.”

So, the big Super Bowl game is over - and following up from the last podcast, were there any events that impacted you or your life? If not, I pray the Holy Spirit will reveal something today that will. One thing that interested me was the number of spectators that could attend the game was limited to 25,000 people. But the 55,000 capacity stadium looked packed! So what's the story behind that? I found out they actually sold 30,000 cardboard cutouts of people for $100 each. You can have your face printed on a lifeless cardboard cutout, and they would sit you in a seat just like you were there! That way, the stadium looked full, and perhaps your friends could see you sitting at the big game if the camera quickly scanned your area. Wow! Super Bowl bragging rights without all the travel hassle!

"We were created in God's image to do God's work, which will exalt Him when we do His work!"

What I was convicted of though - and perhaps you will also be - is how many times in my life did I go to church because it was Sunday, and I gave God the same honor as if I just hung a lifeless cardboard cutout of me in my seat? I would read and hear scriptures about - “Go! Make disciples of all men!” “Go! Get out of the boat!” “Go! Move in faith, the harvest is plentiful!” “Go, because the laborers are few!” - and the messages bounced off of me just like they would a lifeless cardboard cutout.

We were created in God's image to do God's work, which will exalt Him when we do His work! We're not created to just sit and talk about it and never do the work - I mean, going back to the football analogy - no one goes to the game to watch the team huddle! I've never heard fans go, “Man, did you see how excited and organized they were when they huddled up? Then the way they broke out of the huddle was amazing! And then they went to the line of scrimmage, got in the playing position, and when the quarterback got under the center, the entire team stood up, went back, and re-huddled, and they just kept doing that for 30 minutes. Then they had halftime, and then they did it for another 30 minutes.” “That's ridiculous!” you say.

"That lifeless old cutout person now cannot contain himself from sharing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, because his heart was transformed!"

But here's the question: how many plays or scriptures over the years have we heard called and explained in sermons, and then we break as a team by leaving the church and never run a play all week that we just heard about? And then we return next Sunday and here another play call, and then we leave that service! And then we come back and huddle up again next Sunday, and then the next Sunday after that - week after week, month after month, and unfortunately in many cases year after year. But praise God! Through His grace and His mercy, sometimes He takes us lifeless cardboard people and breathes new life into once-dead figures as Christ enters the person. First Corinthians says: “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come.” That lifeless old cutout person now cannot contain himself from sharing the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, because his heart was transformed! His life testifies that it is no longer I who live, but Christ that lives in me. He starts loving people as Christ continues to soften his heart. He sees people completely different: he sees them as lives destined to spend eternity in hell unless they truly get to know Jesus Christ, the bread of life, as Lord and Savior.

"...now he's compelled to help others also be fed with that bread - that is a transformation that only God can do!"

He also finds that suddenly, all the scripture or plays that he listened to in the past, they become alive! There is so much fresh excitement in his life about the things of God, that even he finds it amazing! And, a heart of thankfulness continues to grow in that person. He now sees himself as the beggar who was once begging for bread: someone fed him with that bread, and now he's compelled to help others also be fed with that bread - that is a transformation that only God can do!

Thank You, Father, for Your grace and Your mercy. I pray You continue to transform us every day to become imitators of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. What an amazing God we serve! God bless you all!