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SPEAKING IN THE LIGHT WITH PASTOR RUDY MARCH 17 2021

How would you finish this sentence: “There Is None Like ???” If I were to get you to be brutally honest with me, what would you say are the things that keep you moving forward? Who or what are you sincerely in love with? And what if I added, we are going to confirm your answer based upon the evidence that it can be backed up by the daily decisions you make? We are what we worship. God knows where He really charts on the Billboard Top 40 of your life? Don’t be singing that you love Him more than anything on Sunday especially if your behavior whistles a different tune come Monday!

Biblical faith should always be a demonstration of God’s power coming through loud and clear as we live our life stories. It is not about people using God for their own intentions and inventions to be blessed and successful. It must be rooted in the truth that I surrender my will so that God’s will can be accomplished in and through me. If we long to see Spiritual fruit on our branches, we best be sure that our every move is rooted deeply in who the Lord really is. Let’s stop telling everybody how much we are doing for God, unless our actions are producing examples of activity that justify that we have definitely been with God. It’s not: Jesus, come for a ride with me. It’s: Jesus take my steering wheel from now until eternity!

The Scriptures clearly spell out God’s greatest commandment for us and it has nothing to do with how we think, but how we love. The brain must submit to the heart for it is there that the engine room of humanity can be discovered. Love the Lord your God first and foremost. Love Jesus above all other loves. Seek Heaven even as you reside on earth. It has got to be vertically secured if we are going to impact our culture horizontally. This means we must surrender our pride and put it aside so the spotlight stays on the Lord! We finally discover true peace and purpose when we forget about ourselves, concentrate on Jesus and do everything we do to worship Him. If what you are doing can’t be entitled an act of devotion to God, then stop doing it immediately.

Sometimes people can say that they are about following Jesus no matter whatever, but then something happens that exposes the fact that it is easier to preach sermons than to live them. Remember when Peter made his awesome declaration on the night Jesus was betrayed? Unfortunately, Peter’s real dedication was founded in saving his own skin, rather than laying it all on the line for the Lord.

I know too many Believers who want God to elevate them and their ministry. They want to write bestselling books and go on sold-out speaking tours. They long to serve at the mega churches and have others elevate them rather than the One from whom all blessings really flow. How can I be like Chris Tomlin? How can I have my songs recognized like Lauren Daigle? How can I have a church like Steven Furtick? How can I be as famous as Rick Warren? By the way, if you haven’t come to this conclusion already, none of these questions are valid. I want to, I need to be more like Jesus. Is that true of you?

 Let me tell you a true story. On October 20th, A Convair CV-240 departed the airport at Greenville, South Carolina at 4:02 p.m. after being filled with 400 gallons of 100-octane, low-lead fuel. The Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd, was headed for Baton Rouge, Louisiana for their next concert. They never got there. At least not all of them. It was an instant death for pilots McCreary and Gray, and band members Cassie Gaines, Steve Gaines and Ronnie Van Zant. The assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick was also done in a moment. All six were killed on impact. Six others were injured, including Powell and Pyle: band members Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson, and Gary Rossington, as well as security manager Gene Odom. In a look back at the incident in 2017, Rolling Stone magazine reported the other 14 survivors “endured shattered bones, torn flesh, lengthy hospitalizations and grueling rehabilitations.”

A guy named Lenny LeBlanc was almost on that plane. Lenny LeBlanc and Pete Carr were promised seats, but that bond was broken and this time for the best. Some people would give anything for a recording contract with one of the world’s largest and most influential music labels. LeBlanc and Carr had a top ten record with the song, “Falling” in 1978. Lenny LeBlanc gave up his recording contract, his money, his possessions and his fame and fortune so that he could truly have everything.

Months later after that fatal plane tragedy, Lenny got a call from a close friend who lived in Florida. “He was a big-time drug smuggler,” says Lenny. “He called me late one night and said, ‘Lenny, I got saved. I’m going to heaven, and I want you to be there with me. Are you saved?’ This friend was like an older brother to Lenny, so what he said carried weight. I thought, ‘Oh man, this is great. Now that I’m successful and have all this stuff going for me, he starts talking about God.’ I had no idea what ‘saved’ even meant. That friend sent Lenny a Bible and he started reading, and God started revealing Himself to me. God started unveiling to Lenny how much he didn’t own and how he too needed a Savior. Lenny says, “God’s love melted my heart. I started crying out to God for forgiveness, and I become born again right there in my house.” Lenny’s friends suggested that he might be losing his mind. “They thought I was nuts, that I was going off on some religious tangent, but I’d found the Lord.”

At that time, Lenny was signed to Capitol Records as a solo artist and had one record left on his contract. As he sat down to write songs for that record, praise and worship, not pop lyrics, fell from his lips. “Every time I’d write a song, by the time I got to the chorus it would be about what Jesus had done in my heart. I called my manager in Los Angeles and said, “Do you think they’d let me out of my record deal?” He thought I was completely bananas!” Crazy or not, Capitol Records agreed to put Lenny in suspension of his contract—he couldn’t record for another label unless they bought out his contract. This was unlikely, since Christian music was still a relatively small industry in 1981. Few Christian record labels could afford to buy Lenny away from Capitol.

Forced into an early retirement from the music industry, Lenny—a talented craftsman as well as musician, began making stained glass. Often he’d get a job creating a window for a church, and the church would ask him to give his testimony to the youth group, sing a song during the Sunday morning service or give a Saturday night concert. At the same time, Lenny was still writing. But now his songs were no longer about worldly matters. They were about the things of God. By the time Lenny had written more than a dozen Christian songs,  God began to open new doors. Lenny soon met many of the key figures in Christian music, including Michelle Pillar, who recorded three of his tunes. Two years after he left Capitol Records, Capitol realized that no one was willing to purchase Lenny’s contract. They let him out of the agreement. Now Lenny recorded his own albums, but this time for Jesus. Lenny used his life an instrument for others to see Jesus. One of Lenny LeBlanc’s first worship song was, “There is None Like You.” The second line of this composition says, “No one else can touch my heart like You do.” That’s where God wants to heal us first. If we can get the priorities straight in our souls and we learn to love the Lord first, then we have got it right for all eternity. No person, nothing, no amount of money, no fame, no number of social media followers, nothing temporary could complete us like Jesus. I do not care what you put up against a vibrant faith in God, it will never hold up. So, let’s go back to my first question. How will you answer, “There is None Like Who?” Your answer determines your destiny.