2 MINUTE WARNING

533 Find Your Freedom

As we celebrate Martin Luther King Day, we need to get back to “having a dream”, and run away from “being a victim”. MLK’s dad knew this when he changed from calling him Michael Junior and began calling him Martin Luther. And Martin did not disappoint the legacy that his father bestowed upon him.

And so today, in the spirit of this idea, I tell you:

Find Your Freedom

God tells us:

Ephesians 2 ¹⁰ For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

God’s workmanship!

What a privilege it is to be God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus. And for 2026, He is challenging us to find our good works—the works that God has prepared us to do!

I pray that we would all, simply, do that.

Nehemiah did that. Broken, and enslaved, Nehemiah found a way to the top of the servant pool—cupbearer to the King. And from the way these verses read, he must have truly poured God’s love out on a King who was over him.

How did this happen?

I have a theory on how this happened and I am convicted to share that this morning:

#1. Nehemiah Repented. He didn’t play the victim. He didn’t blame someone else. He didn’t think of all the people who wronged him. He repented.

Nehemiah 1 ⁵ Then I said: “O Lord , God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and obey his commands, ⁶ let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s house, have committed against you.

#1. Nehemiah Prayed. He cried out to the living God and begged for help.

Nehemiah 1 ¹¹ O Lord, let your ear be attentive to the prayer of this your servant and to the prayer of your servants who delight in revering your name. Give your servant success today by granting him favor in the presence of this man.” I was cupbearer to the king.

#3. Nehemiah Acted In Faith. He did not cower down. He did not view the situation through man’s lenses. He acted in Faith and did what God lead him to do.

Nehemiah 2 ² so the king asked me, “Why does your face look so sad when you are not ill? This can be nothing but sadness of heart.” I was very much afraid, ³ but I said to the king, “May the king live forever! Why should my face not look sad when the city where my fathers are buried lies in ruins, and its gates have been destroyed by fire?” ⁴ The king said to me, “What is it you want?” Then I prayed to the God of heaven, ⁵ and I answered the king, “If it pleases the king and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my fathers are buried so that I can rebuild it.” … ⁷ I also said to him, “If it pleases the king, may I have letters to the governors of Trans-Euphrates, so that they will provide me safe-conduct until I arrive in Judah? ⁸ And may I have a letter to Asaph, keeper of the king’s forest, so he will give me timber to make beams for the gates of the citadel by the temple and for the city wall and for the residence I will occupy?” And because the gracious hand of my God was upon me, the king granted my requests.

When Nehemiah went to Jerusalem and began his project, it took him 52 days to do the impossible. And this, too, is worth exploring and reading about and asking God about. But, today, we will focus on the simple idea that God has a plan for all of us to walk out. It is a plan that we would do well to follow and a plan that revolves around us KNOWING that we are the creation of Jesus—that we are God’s Workmanship and that He wants us to do His good works.

The old testament gives us incredible pictures of Nehemiah, Esther, Moses, and Joseph— all believers going before people who have all the power and asking them to do what God is leading them to do … all risk their lives. All face punishment or even death for what they are doing. And all have to take a leap of faith.

What is this for you?

Ephesians 2 ¹⁰ For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Much like Nehemiah, it probably isn’t something that will make your life “better” in the carnal sense, but rather something that requires a “leap of faith” to do the works that God has prepared in advance for you to do.

Find Your Freedom.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

January 19, 2026 0

532 Planting And Uprooting Part 2

As I prayed on Christmas Day, I asked God to do a new thing in me that was ABOLUTELY SPECIFIC to my daily life.

This is rooted in a scripture that my daughter gave me on Christmas day:

Jeremiah 1 ⁹ Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth. ¹⁰ See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.”

Continuing in the theme that I began on Christmas Day, I would like to make reference to Romans 12.

Romans 12 ¹ Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God–this is your spiritual act of worship. ² Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is–his good, pleasing and perfect will. ³ For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

In this verse, Paul gives a powerful word. And as I listened to an incredible speaker yesterday I wrote and listened to these verbs:

Present Yourself

DO NOT Conform

Be Transformed

Think In Humility

She encouraged us to:

Be Transformed That We Might Hear The Word Of God
Continually Surrender
Be Renewed Daily

As I read and pray this morning, I can’t help but think of a very important story about eggs, carrots, and coffee.

The world is a powerful place. And our daily walk demands that we are in constant pursuit of Jesus if we want to be effective and truly make a difference. Much like boiling water on eggs, the word can harden us on the inside. Much like boiling water on carrots, the world can soften us on the outside. But the believer who is transformed by surrendering daily? The believer who is transformed by surrendering daily changes the world much like coffee—the boiling water changes the entire atmosphere around that person, enhancing the aroma, transforming the coffee itself, and creating a situation where others are drawn to the very item in the boiling water.

As we Plant and Uproot, I am convicted that God wants to do this by acting in accordance with Romans 12.

He wants us to begin a new crop while removing weeds.

Only God can do these things in us while still loving us for who we are.

The heart of the Father NEVER changes our personality.

He NEVER makes us into something different than what we are.

He NEVER looks on us and says—we must get rid of this trait.

He takes what we are, who we are, and how we are and He radically transforms us into a miracle.

And He can do it each and every day … so Surrender, Be Transformed, and Present.

And if you don’t succeed? Repent and try it all again. Thank You Jesus.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

January 6, 2026 1

531 Planting And Uprooting Part 1

As I prayed on Christmas Day, I asked God to do a new thing in me that was ABOLUTELY SPECIFIC to my daily life and struggles. And today, I find myself asking for even more.

This is rooted in a scripture that my daughter gave me on Christmas day:

I am asking God to Plant, and to Uproot, SPECIFIC things in my life, and I would encourage you to do the same. I have no idea if this verse was meant to specifically call out what we are talking about today … but today I am convicted to talk about these two ideas specific to our individual walks … and I am convicted that those who will allow God to do this in their lives will be blessed by God’s hand—so here goes.

We are not perfect. We are perfect in Christ but not perfect on our own accord—even after we receive Him, and to think that we are is to sin greatly.

God is calling us to be better.

He is calling us to mature.

He is calling us to change.

And He is calling us to reinvent ourselves.

He is calling us to Hebrews 10:14.

Hebrews 10 ¹⁴ because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Jeremiah spends 24 chapters in his book warning Israel about the enemy from the North. He warns them about the injustice that is living in the community. He warns about a judgment that is coming. And also gives a message of hope.

These warnings should be heeded today:

Our enemy to the north is no longer Babylon—it is Satan.

Our warning is to be humble and listen—and recognize that we can be deceived.

Our hope is Jesus.

As you cry out to God today, and as you enter into the new year, be aware of this.

God wants us to be aware of our enemy.

God wants us to be humble and to listen.

And God wants us to put our hope in Jesus.

For me, there are specific things that He has called me to Plant and to Uproot.

For you? I would bet He has much the same.

Go to your knees and find out.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

December 28, 2025 0

530 Salt And Light Part 3

When Jesus spoke to the world, He made the most incredible offer … “that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

He offered us eternity.

And when He offered us eternity—He offered ALL of us eternity.

And then He said this:

Matthew 16 ¹³ “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. ¹⁵ Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

As I sit in awe of God this lovely morning, I can’t help but think of how much I have reflected on this verse and the following verse in Isaiah chapter 61. And I am amazed at the God of all creation. Not at the idea of the sunset or the movement of the oceans. Not at the beautiful skies that greet us as we wake up or the incredible mountains to the west. Not the singing of the birds or the unmatched loyalty of a mother’s love. I am amazed at the decision … the decision to be “God with us”. Our God is many things, but today He is Immanuel. He is the God who walked these dusty roads, interacted with these people, and worked these long days in the heat.

He did not take the easy road or make any excuses.

He did not exalt Himself or gain power or forget what the common man would walk through.

He lived the life of a servant.

And His first sermon told us a few things:

Isaiah 61 ¹ The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me …

… to bind up the brokenhearted,

… to proclaim freedom for the captives

… from darkness for the prisoners,

… ² … to comfort all who mourn,

… ³ … to bestow on them a crown of beauty

And how would his people respond?

Isaiah 61 ⁴ They will rebuild … and restore the places long devastated;

… they will renew …

⁶ … You will feed on the wealth of nations, and in their riches you will boast.

We are Salt … and Light.

We are the hope of nations and the hope of the broken.

We are the ones who are to carry the banner of Jesus.

We are the blessed family of the risen king.

“For God so loved the world that He

gave His one and only Son”

Reflect on these things on this Christmas day.

Your life is redeemed.

Your weaknesses are forgotten … buried.

Your shame is covered.

Your honor is given.

Your life is … important.

I love these videos … because they beam with excitement, and life, and absolute passion and love of life and the God who so freely gave it to us.

Be blessed today.

And by all means let your light shine like a city on a hill so that all can see!

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

December 25, 2025 0

529 Salt And Light Part 2

When Jesus spoke to the world, He made the most incredible offer … “that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

He offered us eternity.

And when He offered us eternity—He offered ALL of us eternity.

And then He said this:

At the heart of this is the simplest of messages:

Illuminate

Brighten

Give Hope

Give Opportunity

How can we truly do this? How can we truly be in the world but not of the world? This challenge is almost impossible.

And yet, the God who did the impossible is asking that of us.

Jesus went to His execution sight and carried the very tool that they would use for His demise.

He was abandoned by His troop of loyal followers.

The men who put Him to death mocked Him and gambled over His clothing.

And at His end, He uttered the phrase, “it is paid in full”.

As we approach Christmas … We are celebrating His life and His death and, most importantly, His victory over death that we might live.

In this song, I can not get over the line:

When All Was Lost He Crossed Eternity

The King Of Life Was On The Move

His death on the cross was not just a passive “I surrender” move. It was a power play to gain control of the entire universe. And He played His cards without hesitation.

As we move towards Christmas, let us remember:

He paid an unpayable debt … for us
He defeated an unbeatable enemy … for us
He has prepared us a table of food … for us
He has adopted the world as sons and daughters … for us
He has set up a Royal Priesthood … for us

These are not small miracles. They are miracles on top of miracles on top of miracles.

And our response to this is to stand on the highest hill … to proclaim:

“For God so loved the world that He

gave His one and only Son”

Because … In Him–we have life.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

December 11, 2025 0

528 Salt And Light Part 1

When Jesus spoke to the world, He made the most incredible offer … “that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life”.

He offered us eternity.

And when He offered us eternity—He offered ALL of us eternity.

And then He said this:

At the heart of this is the simplest of messages:

Stand Up

Distinguish Yourself

Share The Treasure With Others

It is a simple message really.

And yet … in a broken world … it is almost impossible.

The Gospel, in its purest form, TRANSFORMS.

It changes the very atmosphere.

At a Broncos game on January 3, 2016, Peyton Manning jogged onto the field at Mile High Stadium. I did not see him enter the game—but I didn’t need to—the stadium literally came to life to the point where I asked “what is going on?” You could feel the entire crowd in a “dead” stadium “come to life”.

And this transformation is nothing compared to what Jesus can do.

His offer is to save us.

And then for us to make sure that everyone else hears the offer.

We are to TRANSFORM.

We are to let His light shine.

We are to make sure that the world hears this incredible message.

“For God so loved the world that He

gave His one and only Son”

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

December 9, 2025 0

527 Wanting From Man

Many of our hopes and dreams are rooted in something good, they truly are, but they aren’t rooted in something that has life.

We seek first the kingdom, but the kingdom that we live in has nothing for us … nothing that can fill us … nothing that will bring us life.

And so it brings us to Solomon, who strongly professed that “life is meaningless”. And he did so after winning at all the things that many of us strive to acquire.

MEANINGLESS

I love the gospel, because you can always start out with the truth but find your way onto the Greater Truth. And the Greater Truth is this:

We need to spend less time Wanting From Man and ALL of our time Needing From God. Because Needing From God gives us ALL THAT WE COULD HOPE FOR while Wanting From Man leaves us with MEANINGLESS.

As I pondered this this morning, I asked the question, “What does God think of me? What does He truly believe about me?”

And here are just a few of those things:

He SO LOVES ME. John 3:16 says that He LOVES ME SO MUCH that He traded His son for me.
He rejoices over me. Zephaniah 3 says that He is so happy about me that the heavens rejoice with singing.
He has adopted me as His son. (Ephesians 1).
He has paid off my unpayable debt. (John 19:30).
I am royalty. (1 Peter 2:9).
He renews His love for me every morning. (Lamentations 3).
He has prepared “a place” for me. And this place is better than any place that I could even fathom. (John 14:3).
I am MORE than a conqueror. (Romans 8:37).

In Luke 24, an Angel asked Mary Magdalene and the other women who entered Jesus’ tomb “why do you look for the living among the dead?” and I often have to ask myself the same question. Why am I looking for confirmation, affirmation, or encouragement from a spirit who wants to steal, kill, and destroy? And, truly, most of the time that is what we seek. The reality is that God has something greater for us—and He actually will propel us to be better than what we seek to be by feeding an insatiable appetite.

Walking into Syria, Paul realized what he was … a broken man who had everything the world had to offer. His pursuit of education, popularity, privilege … they had filled his carnal desires and emptied out his very soul. And so he made a great decision, he pursued, and filled, his need for God.

The risen Savior has something for us … and it is better than anything that we could ever want.

So don’t spend your time trying to get filled up in the world and then going to God questioning why it isn’t working … Get filled by the Spirit … then go into the world.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

November 29, 2025 0

526 The Alpha Male

“Even If He Doesn’t” … When three men stood before certain death they uttered this response.

And the “He” that they referred to was the Alpha Male … the TRUE Alpha Male. The self proclaimed Alpha AND Omega. The one TRUE God.

Daniel 3 ¹⁶ Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. ¹⁷ If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. ¹⁸ But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”

3 men.

A blazing furnace.

A threat.

An easy way out.

And yet, they chose to stand.

And The Alpha Male? Without Him, we have a wonderful Christmas story. We have bulletin boards filled with a nice idea of our perception of the gospel. And we have peace at a Sunday morning service. But with him? We have EVERYTHING. And this EVERYTHING is the VERY THING that we seek but can never attain without Him. We have the hope of nations. We have Hope … And a Future. We have protection … and someone who truly has our back. Without Him … we have NOTHING. But with Him? We have the greatest gift on planet earth.

Obviously the Alpha Male that I am referring to … is Jesus.

As I sing All Hail King Jesus … I am so convicted of this. And for this reason I can’t stop listening to it, singing with it, raising my hands to heaven as I worship Him in the midst of it.

Jesus stared in the face of the bleakest situation in the history of the world. And He gave all that He had that we might have life.

We must never, ever, ever, forget this.

Because Jesus, as He hung on that cross, chose not to forget you.

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

As you play this song this morning—I encourage you to play it and contemplate the lyrics … so convicting. Take a moment this day to worship … and to cry out in Spirit and Truth.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

November 24, 2025 0

525 I Know The Answer

Our life changes when we can say these four words:

I Know The Answer

It is a simple phrase really.

But it is powerful to the core.

John 1 ⁴⁸ “How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

In one powerful moment, Nathanael discovered who he was.

And not too long after that, a rejected and broken woman who was despised by an entire town converted it … and she did so by saying: “come and meet the man who told me everything I ever knew.”

Both of these found the answer. And both of them could say:

I Know The Answer

This is not a cliche.

It is not a line that will get you through the next hour, or shift, or week.

It is a lifestyle.

And just as many would profess to have a lifestyle that they want all of us to adopt, or accept, or even worship, this lifestyle will actually bring life … and peace … and joy … and hope.

David was despised for dancing before the Lord … but he knew the Answer.

John the Baptist was shunned by most men, but he did not care because he knew the Answer.

Paul changed teams in the middle of a winning streak. He went from the worldly winning team to the worldly losing team–because on a trip into Syria he met the Answer.

Peter talked, and bragged, and jockeyed for position, and made promises that he couldn’t keep. But then he became an unstoppable force in never backing down. Why? Because he had found the Answer.

And so it happened. And it happens today. The world has no understanding or description or comprehension of the radical life changes that certainly happen to people that find the Answer.

As you listen to this song today, ask God to change your heart.

Find … the Answer.

Because something powerful happens when you can say …

I Know The Answer

In The Name of the Father and the

Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Know anyone who might like these? Encourage them to jump on to 2minutewarning.blog and hit the FOLLOW button!!!

Coach J

November 6, 2025 0

WITH DOUG JOHNSON