January 5, 2011 Salvation Message

For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is in your heart you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.
Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. It is Wednesday and that means it is Salvation Wednesday on this line. The day we feature in our prayers, prayers for the unsaved, and also that we who are saved will do what our Good Lord wants us to do and that is to help bring in the harvest.

Today I am going to take a break from the trip, so to speak, and talk to you about Salvation, for I feel Jesus is working at my heart and mind telling me that it is time to, on this Salvation Wednesday, to really talk about Salvation.

Salvation Message: John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (NIV)

John 14:6 - Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (NIV)

Romans 10:9/10 - That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord" and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is in your heart you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (NIV)

A free gift for you!! Yes, a free gift for us has been left for us even before we were born!! It was on the cross at Calvary where Jesus died for us, the blood of That One and Only one who loves us very, very much even if we do not love Him or even know who He is, let alone KNOW HIM in your heart. Jesus did so many things for us, so many, I mean this man gave us so many gifts along the way, but the best gift of all, which is free to all of us, cost Jesus His life.

But we need to do so much more than just say, "I love You, Jesus", and I am not saying we should not say that, indeed, we should tell Jesus each and everyday of our lives that we love Him. But saying we love Jesus or saying we love someone else is sometimes very easy to say. Each time we talk to our children we tell them we love them, each time I talk to dear friends I tell them I love them. But telling someone, say a friend, or your kids or your parents is one thing, but proving your love for them is so much different than just saying it.

If we really and truly love someone and I am not talking here about sex and "love making", I am talking true love, you really do need to, well as some might say, "PROVE IT". So how does one prove his love for another? Well, for starters, you do all you can to help that person, and you live to show them that love. You help them, and for we parents that love coming from our kids can be just checking in and letting us know that all is ok. Hi mom, hi dad, how are you? We are doing good, all is well, just wanted to check in. You can show your love for others by helping them, or even sharing your blessings with them, and folks, sometimes we show our love for others who we don't even know. Before this past Christmas, we had people show their love to us by supporting the food pantry, but they were not just showing their love for us, they were also showing their love for those folks who need help of food, who they don't even know. So how do we show our love for Jesus? Oh, did I just mention that, we help feed the hungry, for Jesus said, "when I was hungry you gave me something to eat."

I watched people come to our home, to our food pantry on packing day and on the day we had the main distribution of our food right before Christmas, and I saw these people working together with people they did not know, so to help other people they did not know, and why, because of their love for Jesus. So if we are truly saved one of the ways we can really tell it is our willingness to share our blessings, by helping people we don't even know. For again Jesus said: "when I was hungry you gave me something to eat." "When I was naked you gave me something to wear."

One of the things I found out that is the more you really work for Jesus, the more you really get down and get into working hard for Jesus, the more you love doing it. Jesus told us that we should "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation" (Mark 16:15). Let's face it, folks, we cannot all go to foreign lands to sing and preach, we cannot all go to foreign lands to feed the hungry, but when Jesus told us to go into all the world we must remember that our very own neighborhood, and the cities in which we live or live nearby are all found inside "all the world".

So, friends, let me just tell you a few ways today that you can get started on really showing your love for Jesus, and when you truly show your love for Jesus, you are indeed showing your love for others, for you just cannot really love Jesus and not love others... and that's the fact, Jack!!

Ok, let's pray about this and then look at some steps you should do. First let's get rid of our sins and there is but one way to do that, let's give them over to God.

Dear Father in Heaven, I first want to tell you, Lord. I am unworthy of even asking for this, but Jesus did die for me and for others and I want to start this day proving my love for Jesus as He first showed His love for me. So Lord, please forgive me of my sins, and then, Lord, help me to repent from my sins and then, Dear Lord, help me love You that much that I will go forth working those fields for You, and love You, by showing my love for others. Help me with it, Lord, for I am just a sinner needing cleaned again. Thanks, Jesus, for always being there for me, even when I have not been there with You. I love You, Jesus, I really do. And I pray today in Your name. Oh, and Lord, please heal all those who have been on our prayer lists... and as You heal them, Lord, start with their hearts and go from there. In the name of Jesus, I pray... Amen.

Now, folks, here are a few pointers in coming to Christ and showing your love for Him.

Confess Your sins over to Christ:
REPENT, yes I made that big as that is very, very important.
Walk away from sin and those places that have trapped you into sin in the past.
Walk forward as for instructions in the Bible... Obey the commandments is a good place to start.
Make Jesus the head of your house.
Make Jesus the head of your life.
Love Jesus more than all others.
Work for the Lord, from Dawn till Setting Sun, and yes, you can work for King Jesus as you work for man, you really, really can.
And of course you know this one is coming... SHARE YOUR BLESSINGS.
And folks, I can really say this today, I really can... I love Jesus and I will tell everyone I love Him, I will shout it out, and I am not ashamed to do just that... I also love all of you, so when I say at the end, "Love ya", it is really my way of saying just this... I really, really do love you...

Love ya, Pastor Dan.

PS. Dolores is in the Carlisle Hospital, room 307....