March 5, 2010 Worries and Burdens

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be BURDENED again by a yoke of slavery.

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters welcome to a beautiful Friday, another day that our Good Lord has entrusted to us. Please use it for God and use it wisely. Today is the day that we pray for all those who are workers in the fields of Harvest for our Lord Jesus. As we pray today for workers I am asking your prayers for Carry The Light Ministries partner, Pamela Bower. Pam was told yesterday she has breast cancer. On Good Friday of this year Pam will have stood beside me for sixteen years singing the gospel, mostly at retirement and nursing homes. We are trusting God for total healing from the cancer as He also has healed me. New listings on the prayer list for the Sanders family as Ruth (resident of The Bridges) went home to Jesus. Her husband William is in the hospital recovering from a broken hip. Also pray for Gary Wu from Orlando, Florida, who has had to close his business (Orlando Bus sales) due to pain throughout his entire body. Prayers also for "Spike" and the Michaud as they change gears in their business. Please also take time to look back at our prayer requests of the last few days.

Worries and Burdens 5: Galatians 5:1 - It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (NIV)

Galatians 6:2 - Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (NIV)

Ok, let's get started. It seems we just cannot get through a day without more burdens or things to worry about being added to our lives. Even as I am writing on worries and burdens and even today as we are going at the end of the message bundle them up in prayer and give them to Jesus. Even as we do all these things the worries and burdens just seem to grow and grow. Telling people not to worry and have all of us, yes me also, to give them to God is hard, for if it is one thing that we all seem to want to do, even if we say we don't, we hang on to these things. If I were to ask all of you who have children, do you worry about your children? You would all answer yes, and those with young children still in school, if you think the worries end when they get older and move out of the family home to start their own home, if you think the worries end, no they can get worse. So all of us must try and lean more on our Lord Jesus and as we see today and I want to point it out, we need to LEAN ON EACH OTHER.

Yesterday I was overwhelmed as I came out of a hospital after being with a family telling a family member in the hospital that their spouse had just passed away. Even though all were expecting this and even praying for God to end the pain and suffering and take this wonderful lady of God home, it was tough. This was by my count the 15th death at the community I pastor since January. So I called my good friend and brother in Christ, Tom Mozer, and we talked for a while. Later the same day I called him again to tell him about Pam. Now I know that he and his wife will pray for us as will you folks on the line. So today I wanted to show you in the Bible that we are to carry each others burdens and one way to help carry them is to listen. (Something that I need to learn more about.) Then together we can dump them, ok, give them over to the Lord. Recently after telling folks about our son Matthew and his struggles in life I have had more and more hugs from people saying, we have gone through this in our family, or we are going through this now. And do you know what a big hug means when you have a heavy burden...

I have people on this line that I have concerns about even though I have never met them. They have such a heavy load, bad health, no money, house payments behind. Brothers and sisters, as we help carry each other's burdens and learn together to give them over to God, it is the real meaning of Loving your neighbor. True love for your neighbors, beside your house or across the world, is to help them when things are down. Some people, and some of those who even say they are Christians, and I am not the judge of them about their standing with Christ, but some people do not want to hear about others saying I have enough of my own. I want you to try something for me... I want you to take a table, one you can get your hands around, and then lay 100 pounds of something on top. Then try and lift it... Then get someone to help you... see which way works the best. You will struggle when trying to lift a heavy load alone, and when you share the load, with a friend and with God, the load gets lighter. Again I mentioned my friend Tom for he and I work on antique buses together. Before we start all of us at the bus museum pray about the events we are going to do. Tom and I do the same when we go to our storage location to work. Bus batteries are very heavy and if we try, and I have, to lift them into the bus alone, it is really hard, but when Tom and I lift them together it does get lighter, most often I really share my burdens and give him the "heavy end".

Do you see what I am saying, ok, hear what I am saying. If we share the Lord with friends and with God, our load gets lighter and our worries and burdens are must easier to deal with. Amen.

Now let's go to prayer, let's bundle up those burdens and worries and unload them on Jesus. Please pray for all those on our lists on your own for today we need this prayer. Remember as you pray this prayer, it is an "I" prayer, as we are even though going to God, through Jesus as a group, we are asking not just as a group but one on one, which is the only way we can get saved. Make it personal now, folks... let's go.

Dear Father in Heaven, we, I, come to You today through Your Son, Jesus, and we lay our, my, burdens and worries at Your feet. Lord we are, I am, heavy burdened, worries that seem to not end. So today we, I, come to You asking again through our Lord Jesus, this in very simple terms... Please carry the load for us... help us, help me... and we, I, will surely give you the glory. In the name of Jesus, we, I, pray today. AMEN.

Now go free of those burdens, try not to pick them up, and remember as God helps us, we also need to help others and we can surely do some of that by sharing our blessings. love ya, Pastor Dan.

Carry The Light Ministries
16 Dewalt Drive
Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17050
Phones Home 717 691 8200 Cell 717 991 0754
icarrythelight4God@msn.com