April 14, 2010 Jesus and His Disciples 3

And with that He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit."

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters, a little fog this morning, and now the sun is breaking through that fog and it is beautiful. Today is Wednesday, Salvation Wednesday on this line, and the day we pray for the unsaved and for God to use us to bring them to His feet to be saved. Folks, we cannot save a soul, but we can tell people, even promise them, that if they take Jesus as their Savior and do this in faith, and then work for Him that they will be saved. You can make them that promise because God made it to us. Remember, there is more to it than just going to the altar in a church and saying forgive me Lord. You must do it in faith, not in the high of the moment and then you really need to talk to the pastors of that church or other believers and find out what you do next. YOU NEED TO FOLLOW UP ON this, the first step of Salvation.

Remember "Baby Allie" that we have prayed and prayed for? Well she has a website and I just received it today from her dad and mother. I have not visited it yet. Here is just how I received it...

Hey Dan, I am finally getting around to providing the link to Ali's care page, it was created on care pages .com. go to www.carepages.com register on the site and when you are prompted enter the name Alisandra Orner, this should get you access to her page.Bev keeps it updated on a regular basis. Jim Orner

Jesus and His Disciples 3: John 20:22 - And with that He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit" 23 "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." (NIV)

Remember, folks, we are in the shoes of the disciples today, and more than likely there are not just 11 of us but many other disciples also. Here we find the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit by breathing on us. Do you remember how Jesus received the Holy Spirit?

Luke 3:22 - And the Holy Spirit descended on Him in bodily form like a dove. And a voice came from Heaven: "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased." (NIV)

Now I want to go back to the beginning and connect a little bit of that breathing on us. Does it sound like something you remember? Do you remember how God formed Adam?

Genesis 2:7 - The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and BREATHED into his nostrils the BREATH of life and the man became a living being. (NIV)

So now we find Jesus breathing on the disciples and telling them "Receive the Holy Spirit." So let's fast forward a bit, and we know that Jesus left the comforter, the Holy Spirit, with us, but how do we receive it? We receive the Holy Spirit when we are born again, and I am not talking here about the gift of speaking in tongues, I am talking about receiving the Holy Spirit when we are baptized in the Holy Spirit by receiving Christ as our Savior, yes, when we are born again. I hope this is coming through to you loud and clear. Sometimes I have a little trouble putting it into words as I sit and follow what Jesus plants on my mind. Did you notice that man received life with the breath of God, and He also received the Holy Spirit by the breath of Jesus? I love this, never looked at it like this before.

Now you think I am getting you confused, let's look at that next part of our scripture of today.

Luke 20:23 23 - "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven." (NIV)

This is tough, and I am running late this morning because I am doing research in the Bible and weighing each word, again, God gave me a tough one today. Let's look at this part of our Lord's prayer, the prayer Jesus taught us to pray... "Forgive us our sins "debts, trespasses", as we forgive those who sin "debts, trespasses" against us". For us to be forgiven of our sins, we first must forgive others who have done us wrong. See the big words in this are AS WE FORGIVE OTHERS.

God does not forgive people sins because we do, but He does forgive our sins as we forgive others and since that goes for everyone in the world, it ties together. Am I making it clear? If someone comes to you and asks for you to forgive them and you do not, then they are not forgiven by us, and folks that is on us. The other person has done their job. If we go to someone and say, please forgive me and they don't and we ask them from the bottom of our hearts, not just made words, then that is on them. See, God sorts all of this out, that is why He is God and He knows each one of our hearts. Note on this one that God does not say, If you forgive them, I will also forgive them because you forgave them. Maybe this helps clear it more. If someone asks us to forgive them, and we forgive them, God forgives them also of the sin they did against us. But let's say that we don't forgive them, well first of all, then we are in trouble with God on that one, because we need to forgive as we want to be forgiven, again the Lord's prayer. But if we don't forgive them, then they need to go to God and talk to Him. God, I went to so and so and asked to be forgiven, but they would not forgive me, so I ask you to forgive me and intercede with them... And God will sort it all out. Are you glad you are not God? Gosh, you think we have hard work!

You know there are times when things are hard to explain and we just need to have faith in God and know He understands our hearts. Maybe today is one of those days where you are going to say, I think I know what this old pastor is talking about, but I am sure God knows and will sort it all out. Tomorrow we will take a look at Thomas as we talk more on Jesus and His Disciples.

Dear Lord, please open minds for this message, I am not sure I got it right for you today. But Lord, I sure did try. Lord, thanks for taking care of Baby Allie and thanks for all you do for those on this line. Thanks for blessing the food pantry and all who bring in and all who receive. Lord, help us this day lead the unsaved to Your feet, and Lord, let us renew now. Lord, forgive me of my sins, and Lord, help me repent and walk daily with You and to work with and for You. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.

Go forth now and share your blessings... Love ya, Pastor Dan.