Tuesday Oct. 4, 2011 Promises 2

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. TRUST in God and also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am."

Good Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. WAIT A MINUTE, WAIT A MINUTE, something is peaking into my window. Oh my goodness, it is SUNSHINE. Wow, it really is the Sun and it is bright. Well, it is Tuesday and the day we pray for a cure for diseases. Pray that either God takes them away and wipes them out, or causes talent on loan to people who can invent things that will rid our world of those diseases. Over the years many of the dreaded diseases that would wipe out thousands, even millions of lives have been stopped by God's hand giving people knowledge to have a product that would stop those things.

Promises: Day 2: John 14:1 - "Do not let your hearts be troubled. TRUST in God and also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many rooms, if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am." (NIV)

This promise is fresh on my mind this morning as I used it just last evening in a memorial service for Blanche. This is a really great promise, and if you look you will find more than on promise in this scripture. Let's take a real close look at it... The first thing I see is Jesus and this is the words of our Lord Jesus being quoted. "Do not let your hearts be troubled." Jesus is telling us not to worry, not to fret, for He will take care of things. I will touch on this more when I talk about the promises He makes where He tells us He will carry our troubles and burdens. He tells us to "trust in God and also in Him." And we should do that, our full trust, not just once in a while but each day, everyday and all day long and we need to trust in Him even for that rest we get at night. And boy, did I get rested last night. I do not sleep good, but last night, five hours straight. I did not even get up to have a hot dog which I often do during the night. Nothing like a hot dog with mustard and onion and a diet Pepsi at 2.00 AM for a snack. But let's get back again to this scripture.

Jesus talks about His Father's house. Here is what He tells us. "In my Father's house are many rooms," a mansion, we call it, and it is referred to many times, and I would tell you right now, the house with many rooms DOES NOT have a wet basement. So you folks who have that wet basement problem all too often will find it nice to know you will not need a "sump pump" when you get to heaven. Jesus is telling us about the Mansion, and His Father's house has many rooms, ROOM FOR ALL of us who know and love Jesus and when we pass from this earth, we get to move into the mansion and with whom? With Jesus, yes, Jesus, and we will be roomies, table mates for meals. I watch as people from all walks of life come and live at the Bridges, a big big house with many rooms and apartments. These folks meet new folks and make new friends. Do you remember this one from Bible School? "Make new friends and keep the old, one is silver and the other Gold."

Anyway, these folks get put around a table, maybe six or eight people, and they learn about each other. This of course, what would it be like if there was one more at your table and it was Jesus. WOW. I can picture it, Jesus would you please pass the turkey, and a slice of bread. I don't know about you, but in my mind I can picture this. Breakfast with Jesus. Sure does sound better than breakfast with Santa. Ok, let me move on...

Jesus promised this. " I am going there to prepare a place for you." Just think about it, with all the folks, millions and millions of them, Jesus is going and preparing a place for me, and for you. Regardless of how big heaven will be, Jesus has time for each of us. And we better have time for Jesus now, so we are sure we will make the cut. And when I say He has time for each of us, we must remember that this is personal, it is between Jesus and each of us, one on one. As a pastor I cannot make a spot for anyone in Heaven, that is up to Jesus. We pastors and other workers for God can lead people to Jesus but we cannot save a soul, it is up to Jesus, between you and Him.

Let's look at another part of the scripture, and maybe the very best part. Listen up, brothers and sisters. Look at this and this is Jesus talking... "And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me, that you also may be where I am." Brothers and sisters, I want to point this out... HERE IT IS, very simple to read and understand. JESUS IS COMING BACK TO GET US. If we pass before He comes for us all at once, He will receive us one at a time, for the scripture tells us to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But look again, look again at this great, great promise. Of all the promises that Jesus made that is recorded in this one scripture, this to me is the greatest and to make it short and to the point and put it in words Jesus gave me this morning... BE ALERT, FOR JESUS IS COMING BACK, HE IS COMING BACK, I SAID HE IS COMING BACK AND THAT IS A PROMISE, NOT FROM ME BUT FROM JESUS... May I calm down just a tad, for my heart is pumping right now and I am excited, why? Jesus is coming back.

Dear Father in Heaven, I am ready, Father, for when You send Jesus back, but until that time, please help me each day to repent of my sins and to work hard for You telling others this good news that Jesus is coming back. Please honor our prayer requests according to Your will for all those people, and please, Lord, clear Baby Boy Noah of cancer. And Lord, thanks for this line, I pray it grows and grows, please anoint the words in the messages and ship them where You want them to go, to the corners of the earth is fine with me... Thanks again, Lord, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.

Now go forth sharing your blessings and enjoying the promises of God... and knowing this, I love ya, and I really, really mean that folks, I love all of you. Pastor Dan.