May 12, 2010 Great Promises 13

No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him.
Salvation Wednesday, Salvation Wednesday... Time for our mid-week prayers for Salvation. Folks, when I am asked what kind of preacher I am, and I am sure people are talking denomination, my answer is, I am a Salvation Preacher. Truthfully, I think too much time is spent on the denomination part of pastoring and not enough on the word of God and Salvation. When God called me and put me into the ministry as a pastor, he did not send me to school, he sent me to the senior communities in the most part and instructed me to get the word out. When I look at all who are readers on this line I find we have a lot of denominations that are represented and find that most all feel like I do, the bottom line is we all need to be working for one common goal, Salvation through our Lord Jesus, which is, according to my Bible, the only Salvation we will ever have. I am thrilled this year to be able to teach and preach on my birthday. This coming Sunday, and what better subject to have God give you on your birthday is about being Born Again... Hey, you are welcome at The Bridges.

Prayers beside Salvation today for trash guys and girls. These faithful men and women who hang out on the back of those big trucks and pick up our trash and recycled stuff week after week are great. Think about them folks, pray for them, and today pray for ours as I put out a stack of stuff today. Even in the dead of winter they made each trip and when you get a day off during the week please note that the trash might get picked up a day late, but they must pick it up. God bless our sanitary engineers of the streets and neighborhoods. If you think they are not important, try letting your trash sit for a few weeks... not pretty. On a side note, when I was a kid we had separate garbage collectors, ones who picked up food waste, it was picked up for free by a hog farmer and he fed the hogs and sold them. No cost to the cities, but all we could not feed the pigs the waste off our tables. I once had a job with them. God paid 50 cents an hour and all I could eat...

Great Promises 13: 1 John 3:9 - No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the child of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (NIV)

Are you starting to see why I say that those two words, "Born Again" can scare people? I want you to take a real close look at the scripture that God gave to me today, in fact I am going to put it down again... Here we go, please read it over and over again if you need to... I had to.

1 John 3:9 - No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (NIV)

Is it really saying what it reads... Yes of course it is. In my words, no one who is Born Again will keep on sinning. What does it really, really mean, you mean we are not born again if we ever sin again in our lives?Pastors and teachers of the Bible will be quick to tell you that we are all sinners and Jesus took our sins to the cross and He did, but have we stopped sinning? Then pastors and teachers will say, well, we are all going to sin again. Yes, I get caught up in that, for we are sinners by nature, I think. Folks, here is how it is and I guess I need to confess this so you know where I am coming from... I have done this, have you, but I have not done it for years... You are about to do something and you know out and out it is wrong and it is a sin, so before you do it, you ask God to forgive you for what you are about to do. That is so wrong, folks, so wrong, for this is where we need to repent. Maybe you need a complete lifestyle adjustment to get away from this sin. Maybe you tell God you are sorry but go ahead and do it anyway. Wrong, we need to REPENT... Are we going to slip up once in a while, yes, I am sure it will happen but I am sure we should not take our slip-ups so lightly. After all. sin is sin is sin...

When we come to God, truly come to God and stop playing church, did I really say stop playing church? When we really come to God we need to put our trash at His feet (Trash = Sins), and we need to repent, we need to clean our house, meaning our body, mind and soul, of trash by repenting, and yes, some house cleaning of your structure that you live in might be needed also. This scripture tells us and again I am putting down the scripture as it is so important.

1 John 3:9 - No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him; he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God. 10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (NIV)

NO ONE WHO IS BORN OF GOD WILL CONTINUE TO SIN... So folks, we need to look into that mirror and look at the face we wash each morning and ask this question of ourselves. Have I really been born again or am I messing with it, am I playing church? Has your life changed when you were born again? If it did not, then you really need to look deep into yourself and ask yourself and God this question... Am I really saved? Oh, we pastors like to dress it up and say pray this today and you will be saved. Oh, folks, and yes I do it, but it is just the very first step, a baby step, one tiny step toward salvation. Then the hard part, we must STOP SINNING. We have asked God into our hearts and lives and we must start living like it. Folks, those non-believers sometimes look at one who calls themselves Christians and will say if I must live like that, I don't want to be a Christian. And they are not talking about clean living but talking about what they see some SO CALLED Christians doing.

You cannot go on sinning once you are born again, and it might mean you need to make serious lifestyle changes that begin by giving some things up. It might mean you must stop going to the coffee break room at work to get away for the gossip, and I mean just hearing it can be as bad as passing it on, unless you speak up and tell others to stop it. Did you hear about the boss today, do you know what he did last night? You might hear. Are you willing to say, I don't want to hear, let's talk about something else and not somebody else unless it is kind and good. That takes in the last part of the scripture that reads, Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother, (also meaning sister).

Brothers and sisters, I am calling you this day to look deep into that mirror, give yourself an examination and ask this question... Am I really born again? I think I am, but darn it, I want to be sure of it. I want to know I am going to heaven, I do not want to be turned away at the gate.
I want us (us=you and me) to understand fully that this is not a joke, this is serious stuff. We (we=you and me) need to stop playing church, again we need to STOP PLAYING CHURCH and we need to act like children of God if we are truly born again, Born Again, BORN AGAIN. Don't let the words scare you, brothers and sisters, let the lack of action to be Born Again scare you and may it scare the SIN out of you. I hope this message does this today, for I am sure God is not just pointing this message at any or all of you, but telling me the same thing... REPENT, REPENT, FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS NEAR... come forth, my brothers and sisters, and be WASHED IN THE BLOOD OF JESUS AND give up sins... Repent, for Jesus is coming back, and you can count on it... What you need to really count on is this... ARE YOU READY IF IT HAPPENS TODAY?????

Dear Father in Heaven, I want to look You in the face today and say, I am really looking deep into my own heart... Have I fully come to You, or am I playing games or playing church, as I called it in the message? Forgive me today and all who ask and Lord bless them and help us and we need this help, help us to repent... In Jesus Name, I pray. Amen.

Was I hard on us today, maybe, but once in a while we really need it, in fact we need it more often than I write about it. Go forth now sharing your blessings, and if you want to share this message, feel free. You will be blessed by God if you do or if you don't, for your blessings come from Him... Love ya, Pastor Dan.

Carry The Light Ministries
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Mechanicsburg, Pa. 17050
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