January 13, 2010: The Journey 27

Then the devil took Him to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple.

Good Morning, and welcome to Salvation Wednesday. We are to have a warm spell here at the Southern Location of the North Pole today. It is to go all the way up to freezing! Ah, that global warming!

Today is Wednesday and that means it is the day we pray for the unsaved and for Jesus to use us to bring in the lost to Him to be saved. Also starting today I am going to list individuals who have been sent to us at the end after the closing. We have now partnered up with Glenvale Church of God and will be receiving their prayer requests. While they will post with full details I will be just posting names and a short reason for prayers. Most of you will not know the people in the requests, but as always, we pray and pray and pray in faith for them.

A short note about our food pantry. Yesterday we opened up at noon for a couple of hours and we had seven families come for food, and again they received a lot of it. Keep praying for our food pantry and for the people who come. Yesterday a lot of them were here at the same time and we formed a big prayer circle and prayed together. Folks, soul saving, pointing people to Jesus is the bottom line of Carry The Light Ministries, the food pantry is but one tool of the ministry. It is as important to feed the soul as it is to feed the body, in fact dare I say it is more important.

The Journey 27: Matthew 4:5 - Then the devil took Him (Jesus) to the holy city and had Him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 "If you are the Son of God," He said, "throw yourself down. For it is written: 'He will command His angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone." (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, here we find Jesus being led by the devil. And the devil led Jesus to the highest point of the temple and told Him to jump. Can you just hear him? Jump, Jesus, jump, the angels will catch You, Your Father in Heaven will not let anything happen to You. Folks, as Christians, we are to walk in the footsteps of Jesus, we are to try our very best to live like Jesus day to day. However I am going to tell you today, for I believe this is what Jesus wants me to tell you, this is one place that Jesus does NOT want us to walk in His footsteps. Often I will ask you to put your feet in the shoes of people in the Bible, but not today. First I am never going to ask you to put your feet in the shoes of Satan, and again, I believe that this is one place where Jesus does not want us to follow His lead. Now, He does want us to learn the lessons of the examples of avoiding the temptations of Satan.

Folks, if we set out to follow Satan, thinking we are strong enough to handle it, we are wrong. It is hard enough to avoid the temptations of sin, some put there by the devil and the others we find all on our own. So think about it, do you think you are strong enough to run around with evil doers and not get into the troubles they do? Let me just make some examples, you are a person who has problems with drinking and would drink daily, maybe not getting stone drunk each day but going to those bars after work each day and spending up that paycheck. Then you see the light, you go to rehab and start going to the AA meetings and group meetings and you are doing good. Then a couple of your old drinking "friends"(?) say to you, "come on and stop with us at the bar today, come and shoot some pool." So you go, and maybe that first day you drink a soda, but then you go the next day and the next day and soon you tell the bartender to give you a beer and a shot. Or maybe you have a so-called friend who knows you are on the wagon and buys you a beer and puts it in front of you. Come on, you can handle one, that friend tells you, and you drink one and then another and soon you are back doing the same thing. DON'T LET ANYONE TEMPT YOU. We are not strong like Jesus, if we already know we have a problem, why would we put ourselves back in that position.?

Do you think a person who just got freed from taking street drugs could carry them around in his pocket after going clean and not use them? Folks, when we have a problem, we need to be hanging out with people who do not have those problems.

Folks, at one time I went to weight watchers, in fact I did a lot of meetings, and while I was going to those meetings I would do good, but let me tell you that when I thought I could go into the Burger King and order a Whopper and not get back into the Whopper habit, I was wrong. Soon after I did it once I would leave from a weight watchers meeting, go right across the strip mall and go to that Burger King window and order three Whoppers and I could wolf them all down without help and I would not blame that on the devil, that was just this old guy pigging out.

Folks, come back with me tomorrow and find out how Jesus handled the temptations of the devil and what Jesus said to him. Then Friday we will do a wrap on this fasting and temptations. Let's pray.

Dear Father in Heaven, How wonderful You are. Please this day protect us from evil ones and from us doing evil on our own. Lord forgive me for the times that I might have been acting in the devil's shoes years ago and leading others the wrong way. Lord, use us now to seek out the lost, and help to bring them to Your feet. I pray that all on the line are saved already, but today I ask that You touch each one of them and humble them if they are not. In fact, humble us all and help us all to do Your work. Lord, I pray today for all those on the lists at the end of this message and ask Your hand upon them. And bless those families that came for food, and make it grow for them. Thanks for trusting us to work for You. In the name of Jesus, Amen.

Now go forth in the name of Jesus, following in His footsteps and His examples except for the one I talked about today. Trust Jesus and stay away from evil, and by all means share your blessings. Love ya, dan.

Carry The Light Ministries
16 Dewalt Drive
Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17050
717 691 8200 Home
717 991 0754 Cell

Please pray for
Harvey Brown (liver)
Rick Hudson (looking for a gospel singing job)
Hank Ettel (Job)
Mark Bradshaw (Job)
Skip Shoemaker (ongoing)
Dave Cernugle (heart and crippling arthritis)
Pastor Tony (blackouts)
Pastors Charles (stroke)
Jerry Sweigard (heart)
Juanita Gassiot (broken leg)
Allison Speck age 19 (very, very serous surgery today for tumors to be removed)
Kayloni Chupick age 5 (very serious flu like symptoms and she was unresponsive, now at Geisinger Hospital and the outcome was said to be bleak)
Artie and also
Matthew (Reasons withheld)