August 20, 2010 Calming Life's Storms 5

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 go to the corners of all the earth and tell the Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ Morning, to you, my dear brothers and sisters. You say you have been laid off from your job and you have been looking and looking for that job. Listen, why not go to work for God for a while, till He comes and opens another door for you on the work front, and He surely will do just that. God has commanded us to go to work in the fields of Harvest for Him (Mark 16:15). Did you think that God just might want you to step back from that great paying job and take something with less pay and less stress so that you might just have more time for Him? And for some of you who are sitting at home just waiting for someone to knock on your door to give you that job, why not go out and knock on doors for God? Do some "free work" in the name of the Lord helping others. You should not be surprised that when you really love our Lord, He works a lot through others who love Him. In other words some Christians really follow that scripture that I mentioned early this week that we need to carry each others burdens.

Galatians 6:2 - Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. (NIV)
Today is Friday and the day we pray for all who work for our Lord Jesus, not just pastors, but all who work, meaning those road guys who sing for the Lord, those who study hard many hours just to be a Sunday School Teacher, those who help the Lord by feeding others, and cleaning churches and I could go on and on. Brothers and sisters, on this one we need to be praying for each other for indeed we all should be working in the fields of Harvest for Jesus. These fields have no age limits, we need to work from dawn to setting sun... AND SOMEONE SAID, Amen.

Calming Life's Storms 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)

Our Lord Jesus went to the cross to set us free of our sins, our burdens, and in life a lot of our storms are caused by our very own sins. Our burdens are often caused by our sins, and our sins of the past seem to come around and haunt us and haunt us. Folks, we have become in America slaves to sin, not all of us, mind you, but a lot and it is easy to get caught up in it. We have seen people of many church groups, who are taught as Jesus has taught us that abortion is murder, but still we see those elected officials and others who support abortion. We all have seen the line up for men to marry men and women to marry women and it is against God's will for men to be with men and women with women (think sex on this, not a good game of golf). This is a sin and our country and many in it want to give in. We have seen Jesus taken out of our schools and we have seen most of our schools fail. We have seen other places where Jesus has been removed or tried to be removed and we have seen them fail, and no bigger place than in our own government. Folks, if you have not looked, our government is failing. And a lot of us, me included in this one, has even failed in the past, our very own families. Yes I did that and I have told all of you that in the past...

All week we have talked about life's storms and about calming them, and again I say most of our storms have come from our own sins. Other of our storms of life have come from the death or loss of loved ones, and folks, you really need our good Lord to handle this. And for parents who have lost children, if that does not test our love for our Lord nothing else would. I just cannot even begin to think about what those folks have gone through, and I sure can't think of how they would have gotten through it without Jesus. I am sure people who lost a child, or loved ones and even parents never really forget it, but I do know the best way to handle it is to come nearer and nearer to God, who, by the way, gave His Son for us. I could go on and on about all the things we have already talked about this week...

As for the storms of life caused by the loss of loved ones, we need to always remember the good things we had in the short times we had these loved ones. And if we had a few bad days we need to put them behind us.

But the SLAVERY caused by our sins, we need to get over, give over to God and stand firm in our Lord Jesus and never again become a slave to our sins of the past or become a slave to new sins that we might be tempted to do. Cast over your sins today, get out of bondage and being a slave to sin and come on board with our Lord Jesus. I am telling you that no one, no one, I said no one will ever do for you what our Lord Jesus has done for you. While many have been willing to lay down their lives for us or even did lay down their lives for us, no one has come to this earth to do just that. No one has lived on this earth and done all of these things... been born to a virgin mother, raised to live a spotless life, set examples of how to live, give us laws and orders of just how to live and what to do with our lives. Then die for us in a fashion that no one would want to go through. Then went on to be risen from the dead, and go on to be with our Father in Heaven and become the Judge of our lives when it comes to getting into heaven. Not everyone will make it into heaven, in fact our Lord tells us the road is narrow. The rewards, folks, will be heavenly. Today as our Father waits for us in Heaven we have the Holy Spirit that is with us, our Lord Jesus is with us through the power of the Holy Spirit and He today wants to carry our burdens forever and ever. The choice is yours today, give them over, give over the burdens caused by sin fully to Him, and the other storms that are not caused by sin and yes there are many of those also, we need to give them over to God also and have His help to carry them. HAVE FAITH, MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS... I made a mistake the other day when I said a statement, here it is correct. Prayer is the key to heaven, but FAITH unlocks the door... HAVE FAITH, for in a few short years, if we follow Jesus, we will be with Him and all of life's storms will be calmed forever... SOMEONE PLEASE, PLEASE SHOUT AMEN... Do it so loud that everyone in your house hears you, you can even startle the dog, but today Shout for God, not for me, but for God... AMEN.

Dear Lord, here are my burdens, I don't want them anymore, here they are, I have looked them over and now they are Yours to clear from my past and present. I have Faith in this and I never want to be a slave to my sins again... in the name of Jesus, Amen.

Now go forth preaching and teaching, singing and shouting the word of our Lord, and sharing those blessings that came from Him... Love ya, Pastor Dan.