All Saints Day, November 1, 2018

Do you remember the show, "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?"  I don't remember ever watching it, to be honest with you.  But I certainly remember the title of the show.  Who wants to be a millionaire?  We all do, don't we?   Within the last few weeks, there were a whole lot of folks that were asking the question:  Who wants to be a BILLIONAIRE?!?!?  With 1.6 Billion on the line in the Mega Millions Lottery, there were a whole lot of folks dreaming of becoming a billionaire.  I mean don't we all dream of being a millionaire?  Haven't all of us day-dreamed of becoming a millionaire?  I mean as a millionaire, we could pay off all our bills.  We could live where we wanted to live.  We could travel anywhere we wanted to travel . . . . buy anything we wanted to buy . . . . never have to work again.  Come on, haven't we all had a daydream or two about being a millionaire?

Probably, truth be known, we dream of being all kinds of things, don't we?  We dream of being professional sports stars.  We dream of making it big on the stage.  We dream of making it big in Hollywood.  We dream of all kinds of things, don't we?  Who wants to be a rock star?  Who wants to be a sports star?  Who wants to be a movie star?  But I have one question to ask that perhaps you have never heard asked before:  Who wants to be a Saint?  No, I am not talking about the "New Orleans Saints" of the NFL.  I am talking about a "Saint of God."  Who wants to be a Saint?  Do you want to be a Saint?  I know that I do and I am sure that you do too.  But in order to become a saint, we have to begin the work right here and right now.  We have to begin giving our heart to God.  A lot of people envision Heaven a whole lot of different ways.  But basically Heaven is God's home.  Heaven is where God is.  And Heaven is being in the presence of God.  Thus, why not be in His presence right now?  Why not spend time with God right now?  So many people are too busy to spend time with God.  We are not against God, mind you.  It's just that we are so busy.  We have jobs to go to . . . and we have homes to take care of . . . and we have children to raise . . . and we have to go shop  . . .   and etc, etc, etc.   We come up with all kinds of excuses as to why we don't spend time with God.  Until we need Him, of course.  But we have to make time for God here and now if we want to spend eternity with Him in Heaven.  "Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours." (I Corinthians 1:2)   We are called to be saints but we have to respond.  We respond not only with what we say but with how we act . . . how we live . . . how we love . . . .  Who wants to be a Saint?