Dr. Ed Young - Who's Your Coach?

Watch
Audio
Donate
Go to Store

We've been talking about something, and a little coach came on our screen week before last and told us something. You remember? And so many people ask, "Well, what is a life coach"? I wanted to ask, "Where have you been"? There are over 150,000 of them in the world. There, there are all kind of life coaches everywhere, so I thought we might a go back and just define, what is a life coach? Look at the definition: "A personalized helper who will partner with you in designing your future". Life coach. Somebody who will partner with you in designing your future, by the way, I want you to take what I'm saying personal. Would you do that?

People go, "Eh, eh..." No, no, no. This is just for you! Nobody else! We were just sitting down together. You were there, and I was here, and you say, "Alright! I'm going to speak just with you! Don't let it bounce off! Don't stiff arm me"! So we come to the point, if anybody is semi-honest, and semi-candid and in any way wants to move on up in life, you and I need a life coach! Now, we got a lot of coaches running around, a lot of life coaches. Uh, Tony Robbins is a life coach. Made over $30 million dollars last year. Hhm....pretty good! Dryer is a life coach. Written a lot of books-some good books, some good material, absolutely. Dr. Phil is a life coach! You'd better bring your big wallet! He's a life coach...

Talked to a lady recently that Dali Lama has coached her. Ow, my goodness, gracious! Whooo! You must have big bucks! And she did.... So there are all kind of life coaches. You know, the leader of every religion, every denomi, every religion-they, they're, they're life coaches. They'll tell you, this is how you live, this is what you do... all kind of books running around. Some under the Christian banner; some under the secular banner; some under the New Age banner; some under the Buddhist banner, some under, all the banner-Lot of coaches-lot of coaches running around, and we need a life coach. Now let's say you're an atheist, and you decided, "Well, I need a life coach too. Who's it gonna be"?

Well, if you're an atheist, let's say that you could find someone who was prior to history. Other words, someone who had a life prior to the dawn of time. And let's say this same person lived in history, and this same person now lives outside of history. In other words, they are infinite. They are eternal. Would that person make a good life coach? You see, they would see everything-past, present, future, in timelessness... Wouldn't that be a terrific person to sit down with you and leave out all the God, Christ, salvation stuff for a moment. If you're an atheist, wouldn't that be a super individual sit down and mentor you, or mentor me? Do you think you and I would make better decisions about life if we lived 200 years in the future and we could look back on the present?

Boy, we'd have a whole new perspective, wouldn't we? Everything we thinks important may be silly; everything we think is silly may be important. It could turn our whole lives around, could it not? If we had an eternal, infinite perspective! Boy, to find a life coach like that would really be something, wouldn't it? That's somebody I'd want to coach me. That's somebody, if you had a scintilla of intelligence, you'd want to coach you. Now, we say, "Well, what does it take? I want to enter into a pact, a P.A.C.T. with a life coach". So we ask the question, "What would you and I look for in a life coach"?

First of all, I think we'd look for power. We would look for somebody who was powerful. They had gravitas. They had meaning. They had demonstrated their power; somebody who is powerful. Then I'd look for somebody that's authentic, wouldn't you? Nobody that's playing games, that's phony, that's exploiting you or exploiting me as their coach. They're authentic. They're real. And I think I'd want somebody who's caring. They care about me. They're interested in me. I'm important to them, not only what I might do for their team, but even when I'm off side, and when I'm holding, when I break training, they still care about me. Boy, I'd want a life coach like that, wouldn't you? I'd want a life coach who's a teacher, who, who really knows how to teach, and what they teach is absolutely the perfect curriculum for me.

Isn't that it folks? Can, you have a lot of subsets of this, but that's it. You want to enter into a pact with somebody who is a powerful, authentic, caring teacher, right? Wouldn't that be great? And then you've got to flip it over. You gotta ask the question, "Well, where do you find such a person"? I want to read to you a passage that most of us are familiar with, but I'm gonna sort of emphasize some words... If I could, I'd stand up on those words and shout them, but I'm going to emphasize them... Mark Chapter 10, Verse 17 following: And Jesus was setting out on a journey. A man ran up to Him and knelt before Him and asked Him, "Good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life"? And Jesus said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone".

Jesus saying, "Do you recognize Me as divine, as the Messiah"? See? "No one's good but God alone..." See, He's said, "You know who you're talking with? With Whom you are speaking? You know the commandments," said Jesus. "Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and mother..." and this rich prodigy, leader, young-he said to Jesus, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth, up to this present day". Whewww! Man! What a guy! "Looking at him," Verse 21, "Jesus felt a love for him and said to him, 'One thing you lack...'" and the guy said, "Hey, I lack only one thing! That's pretty good! I mean, I'm gonna join up! I mean, this is something"! "One thing you lack-go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in Heaven, and come follow Me".

And at these words, he, this rich, prestigious, wonderfully gifted, moral young man said, "he was saddened and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property". And the word "grieving" there is a picture of a woman in labor, delivering a child. That kind of pain. He went away grieving because he owned a lot of stuff. Hhm... "And Jesus said, 'How hard it is for those who are wealthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.' The disciples were amazed at His word". You see, in that day, like some people today, wealth is a mark of God's blessing, is a mark of somebody who is superior; it's a mark of someone who's got it all together...

See? Same thing in that day, only more so. The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answered and said to them, "Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God; for it's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven". And they were more astonished. And they said to Him, "Then who in the world can be saved"? Jesus said, "With people, it is impossible, but with God, all things are possible with God". How in the world?

Now we've heard this Verse explained away, like the eye of the needle, and I think all of that is isogesis; it's not exegesis. Let's just deal with it the way Jesus, I think, meant it. How in the world could a camel-the largest animal they knew in Israel, go through the eye of a needle? Well, I guess you could take that camel, chop him up. I guess you could boil him, and boil him, and boil him, and boil him until he'd be totally with fire, and boiling, and treatment, and beating-the camel would be totally liquefied. Okay? Then you'd take a needle, eye, and I guess you could eventually pour that camel through it! Pretty good task, isn't it? Even with all our modern methodology of liquefying a camel, to pour a whole camel, liquefied through the eye of a needle? Jesus said it's that tough for somebody who has a lot of property, a lot of stuff to get to Heaven. Why is that?

You see, the more stuff we have, the more time it takes to look after our stuff, to tend to our stuff. Our stuff has to have priority, or we might lose some of our stuff, or our, our stuff may drop in value. Our stuff may be taken away from us. So it's a matter of priority. And so we see here, this rich young man looked at Jesus and he said, "He's got something I want..." but he had everything. He didn't know exactly what Jesus had; he wanted to be on His team. And Jesus said, "Here's the requirements to be on my team. Here's what you have to do: sell out!" Sell out...

So we see what he was looking for in a coach. Jesus had all that. You read Matthew 1 all the way through to Matthew 10-man, you'll run into the power of Jesus! Man, the lame walked. The dead brought back to life. Oh! Here's somebody who's deaf and dumb... Now they can speak and they can hear. Here's somebody else who was demon-possessed, epileptic. Now they're healed, and the power was being manifested everywhere. Read Mark 1 all the way through this... Man, this rich, prestigious young man, he saw power, did he not? Man, that's who I want to coach me, somebody has that kind of power. I want into a pact with him... And he saw all these characteristics. Jesus was authentic. Read the first part just to Mark.

You see shining through, a light, a glow, an authenticity that can't be faked. Ah, He was authentic. He was caring. He reached out to a child. They said, "Get those children out of here"! Jesus said, "Unless you become like that child, give the children highest priority..." He looked at women... In that day, women were just possessions. Take or leave them. Use them! Throw them away! Kick them out! Jesus lofted the female. Man, He was caring. This rich guy had never seen anything like that. He was caring. Oh, and he was a teacher. He listened to His words, strange words. Remember what Jesus taught? You don't figure out with common sense. No, no. He said the first shall be last, the last shall be first. He said those at the bottom, they'll come to the top. Those who are the top, they go to the bottom, and this rich young guy, he'd never heard... This is astounding! His words! He said, "Man, I'm gonna follow Him"!

And then we have to flip it over. We have to say, "Well, well what does a life coach look for in someone who's on his team"? By the way, there's a dance going on between players and coaches. It starts in high school. Here's somebody who's tremendously gifted. All the schools say, "We want him..." The dance starts, and he decides to go with this college. Signing day, he signs up with this college. He pays collegiate football. He's good enough that the pros want him to play on Sunday. Then it switches around. Then there's draft day. And they go through all the drafts, and then if you're selected, man, you're put on a team; or if you weren't drafted, you can go prove yourself, and, and maybe be a part of an NFL team, and the contract is signed.

And now it's the team who drafts the player, not as in high school, that the player decides to go with this coach and this team. And it's a continual kind of dancing going on. You got a team coach, a coached team, and we'll see who will win! And this is in life. We are looking for a coach, and the coach is looking for players on his team. And you have a pact we entered in, and we asked the question, "Wh, what..." you know, "What, what kind of player is the coach looking for"? Ohhh...somebody who has potential. That's the "P," potential. Potential... And by the way, all of us have potential. And by the way, as a footnote, everybody's been drafted, you see... Eh, this is what I bel... therefore, I'm more Armenian than I am Calvinist, if you want to get theological on me. You get it? Armenians say, "Man, I decided," you know, "for Jesus". Calvinists say, "Oh, no, no! You were picked before the foundation of the world". I say, "No, whosoever will may come". This is sort of a part of this. That's a footnote...

What does a coach look for? Potential! That's important. We all have potential, do we not? What else does a coach look for? Somebody who is actualized, somebody who's got some passion, some zip to them. Doesn't mean it's expressed as an extroverted personality, or an introverted personality. I've seen extroverts that had a lot in the showroom not in the stock case, and I've seen a lot of people had a lot in the stock, stock room, and nothing in the show case. I mean, it could be introvert, extrovert, but somebody who, who's got some passion. They, they're actualized. They, they want to see their life get on target.

Somebody who has potential, somebody who is actualized, and the "C" stands for somebody who's coachable! Man, you got to be coachable, and we'll talk about that in the future. And there are coachable moments in everybody's life. Coachable moments... Remember the man who was there by the pool of Bethesda? John 5? He'd been there 38 years, waiting for the water to be stirred so he'd be healed? And Jesus went up there and asked him the coldest question that you could ask, or even the most relevant question. He says, "Do you want to get well? Do you want to be healed"? He'd been there 38 years! He'd made a living out of being sick, by being afflicted.

See, but he was at a coachable, teachable moment. "Do you want to be healed"? The woman caught in the act of adultery-they were gonna stone her, and Jesus said, "Hey, any of you guys without sin, just fire away! Throw those rocks..." and they looked around, and Jesus was writing on the ground. We don't know what He was writing. He may have been writing some name, rank, and serial numbers of those guys who had those stones and said, "Hey..." oww, and they dropped their stones and they walked away, and Jesus said, "No one condemns you"? She said, "No one, Lord..." He says, "Neither do I condemn you..." Teachable moment... "You go and sin no more," see? Teachable moment.

Now Jesus was being crucified. Preparation there, the beating, crown of thorns. The shame. What did Jesus say? Not a word! Read it. He didn't say a word. Why? It wasn't a teachable moment. Peter denied Jesus three times, there prior to the crucifixion. After the crucifixion, he's by the lake. Three questions were asked of him. Three denials, three affirmations. "Do you agape love Me"? twice... Finally, "Do you phileo love Me?" just as a friend...

Peter saw where he was. That was a teachable moment. There are teachable moments in your life and my life. Maybe mountain tops or valleys; maybe sickness, maybe in health-boy, it gets our attention. There is a teachable moment. That's when we're coachable! Coachable... So, coach looks for potential-somebody act, actualized, somebody who is coachable, and somebody who is totally committed. Whoa! Time out! Wait a minute! Go back to our rich, gifted young man. What did he lack? One thing. But he kept six Commandments perfectly from his childhood-all the relationships that deal in the parallel-person to person. He'd been perfect; but he'd broken the first Commandment.

Ladies and gentlemen, all the Commandments stand on the first Commandment. "Thou Shalt Have No Other God's Before Me". God demands that He be Number One, and everything stands on that, and Jesus, the life coach of this young man potentially said, "Hey, you lack one thing: You've got something ahead of God. It's your stuff"! Doesn't mean everybody is to sell everything, but anything that you put in the place of, or ahead of God, that will keep you from letting Jesus Christ coach your life. Coach your life...

You see, this rich guy, this young guy, he was big, and he wanted to get bigger. He had everything the world offered, but he saw in Jesus that which something that he needed, and Jesus said, "You haven't sold out; you lack this one thing. You gotta take care of this in your life before you can follow Me..." and he didn't understand a basic Biblical principle. Listen carefully: If you want to get bigger, you have to get smaller. Only way you can get bigger is to get smaller, and that's what Jesus was saying. You have to get smaller. This thing that's blocking you from being a follower, get rid of that. Get smaller. Let life be simpler. All your properties compounding your life, you can't follow unless you totally, totally give Him everything.

You say well, God wanted to save the world and call the world back to Himself. What would He do? He would demonstrate His power, omnipotence! He would demonstrate His presence-omniscience! He, He would demonstrate His attributes, the world would say, "Whoooaahh! That is God"! What did God do? Luke 2 says, "You'll find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger..." You mean something that puny as a little bitty babe of common peasant people-you mean that's what God's gonna...? You know... See, the principle, if you want to get bigger, you have to get smaller. You see it everywhere.

Remember how the first computers... Have you read about the first computer? First computer came out, it covered a whole warehouse! Ha! It was humongous! Only two or three people could operate it. It was slow, it was clumsy, but it was a computer. And now look at computers, little micro-computers. They're more powerful than, than that gigantic computers, and they're getting smaller and smaller where they'll have more and more power, right? Telephones! Smaller and smaller... John Hagelin quantum physicists, recent Electra made an astounding statement. He said, "The smallest, smallest unit in the known universe..." Get that... "The smallest unit in the known universe is more powerful, it has more energy than the billions of galaxies and the millions of suns in the solar system". Did you get that? Smallest unit! More energy than the whole shootin' match of creation! Whoo! Those quantum physicists are way ahead of the game, aren't they?

You see, in order to get bigger, we have to get smaller, a Biblical principal. Which had you rather have? Two hundred and twenty-three committees to change the world, or the Apostle Paul? Hhm? Which one? Which had you rather have, the Apostle John or ten books of regulations and rules and strategies as to how this world could be turned over to the Lord? Which one you'd rather have? Just one little guy, or all those rule books? To put it another way, which had you rather, have, a whole army, military trained of Goliaths, or one David? Which one would you rather have? Hmm? You see, this rich young peacock hadn't figured it out. He thought, "Man, I'm big now with all that I have, all my possessions. I'm young and I'm moral. Man, I've got it all..." and Jesus said to him, "No, if you're going to let me coach you up, you're going to get small, and as you get small, then in God's economy, you'll become big, big..."