Three Touchdown Lead

How often have you seen it? Your team is sitting on a three-touchdown lead. Victory is all but certain, but then the team begins to coast. The lead evaporates... Business is booming and sales are out the roof. "We've got this!" But carelessness creeps in. Competition heats up. Sales plummet… Things are good at home and on the job. Everybody's happy, right? But relationships begin to take a back burner, communication becomes strained, and paradise is lost.

"The good life" isn't easy, is it? It demands attention. It needs work. It requires sacrifice. It takes commitment. Woe to those who take it lightly. They will soon lose it.

The prophet Amos described "the good life" of Zion and Samaria (symbolic for the people of God). They enjoyed:

Luxury and leisure

Food and entertainment

Hobbies and health

But what else did the prophet say to the people of God? "Woe to those who are at ease... who feel secure." In other words, "If you don't take care of what you have, you'll lose it all."

In Luke 12, Jesus told a story about a rich fool who said, "Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; relax, eat, drink, be merry" (v. 19). God's response? "Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" (v. 20)

Do you have a three-touchdown lead? Are you "at ease in Zion"? Do you "feel secure on the mountain"? Thank God, but ask yourself, "What would Amos say? And what about Jesus?"