HOW TO HANDLE OPPORTUNITY

Praise God!

Protocol has already been established and I am mindful that you all are concerned about my health and well-being tonight; So, I will do my best to ease your worries. Brothers and Sisters, I could have been dead and sleeping in my grave, But God! He spared me, let me live on, and I'm standing here tonight because of His goodness, His mercy, and His Grace. In the words Dr Patrick D. Ross: ”We serve a great God, who does great things, and who deserves great praise”. Come on praise him tonight!

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BE GRATEFUL

There are just a few things that I need to say tonight on the subject of Opportunity. The first thing is that I am grateful to the Lord for every opportunity He has ever given me. And I believe that gratitude ought to be the mindset of each of us in this room tonight. The fact of the matter is that life itself is an opportunity. So many people bemoan their situation feeling as if they would be so much better off if they were born in different circumstances. But I've learned to be grateful because I realize, (first of all), that He didn't have to let me live! And so, I thank him for my life.

The writer of the book of Ecclesiastes says it like this: the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favor to men of skill; but time and chance happened to them all (9:11). I believe that the writer is trying to tell us that God provides Opportunity even when we don’t meet all the criteria. So, we ought to be ever mindful to be thankful for every opportunity because He didn’t have to favor us.

DON’T WASTE IT

Since God is in the business of providing opportunities, the worst thing we could possibly do is to “Waste It”. In his book entitled “Be Responsible”, Dr. Warren W. Weirsbe helps us. He says....

Be Responsible 5. Jeroboam: Wasted Opportunity

God offered Jeroboam a priceless opportunity to build the kingdom of Israel for the glory of God, but he wasted it. Instead of looking back to David and imitating his leadership, and looking up to the Lord for help, Jeroboam let his ego take over and did things his own way. He invented his own religion to make it easy for the people to disobey the Lord. He abandoned the divine authority of God’s Word and appointed priests who were unspiritual and unqualified. God sent him signs and messages, but he refused to submit. “The sins of Jeroboam” are mentioned over twenty times in Scripture.

The division of the Jewish nation was a tragedy, but if both Rehoboam and Jeroboam had listened to the Lord, they could have rescued both kingdoms from ruin. Once opportunity is lost, it won’t be repeated. Each opportunity is a test of the vision and values of the people in charge. The Lord gave Jeroboam a sure promise (11:29–40), but the king wouldn’t take it seriously and trust God to fulfill it. Opportunity doesn’t shout, it whispers, and our ears must be attentive. Opportunity knocks, it doesn’t kick down the door, and we had better be alert to open the door. The American poet John Greenleaf Whittier wrote

For of all sad words of tongue or pen,

The saddest are these: “It might have been!”

To ignore God-given opportunity is to waste the past, jeopardize the future, and frustrate the present.

Can I give this an application here? Whenever we allow the focus of the opportunity be on ourselves we Waste IT.

USE IT TO DO GOOD

That’s what the Apostle Paul said: see

Galatians 6:10 NASB95

So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith.

Doing good to all men is the Christian’s theme: “I’m going to treat everybody right”. Jesus told his disciples (present company included) that doing good is essential because it would cause men to glorify our Father in heaven. David in the Psalms says that although we contend with evil and ungodly men, we are to “trust in the Lord and do good”.

Paul says “don’t lose heart doing good”, doing good will pay off in due season so don’t grow weary, make the most of every opportunity to do good to all people… And especially those who are of the household of faith. That should be so easy to do.

But, the sad reality is that on too many occasions the members of the household of faith are using every opportunity to do dirt to one another, to malign and discredit one another, to hurt and harm one another. Paul said:

Galatians 5:15 NASB95

But if you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.

Might I suggest that we reject of this unproductive behavior and get back to the place where we take every opportunity to encourage and edify one another in Jesus Name. Let’s do it right now! Take your neighbor by the hand, look them in the eyes and say: I need you and you need me…we’re all a part of God’s Body. Stand with me and agree with me, we’re all a part of Christ’s body. It is His will that every need be supplied…you are important to me and I need you to survive.

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Might I suggest that we repent of this unproductive behavior and get back to the place