Luke 10:25 - On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" 26 "What is written in the Law?" He replied. "How do you read it?" 27 He answered, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and, Love your neighbor as yourself." 28 "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." (NIV)
Good Monday Morning, my dear brothers and sisters. Praise be to God for He is good. Last week I was led by the Lord to write about Salvation all week long, and on Sunday my message at the Bridges was based on the same thing I wrote about. I confess I do not do this often enough. There is no more important subject than that of Salvation through Jesus. There is no more important job for a pastor, a missionary, a gospel singer or anyone out on the road taking the message, the good news message to the world than the good news about Salvation through Jesus. I have prayed about this and talked it over with God and I am going to try and have each message, or group of messages, head to Salvation, we might even move Salvation Wednesday to Salvation Friday. This week we are going to talk about working for Jesus, and when do you retire from that work? When are you too old to work for Jesus or too worn out to work for Him? I hope I can answer some of those questions this week. And who is asking these questions? Me, most of the time. I am going to start the week's lessons with the Parable of the Good Samaritan. This parable will answer a lot of questions.
Okay, prayer lists for today. Remember, on Mondays we pray for our veterans, our military, our police, firefighters, and all those who work to keep us safe and healthy. Also, we pray for our leaders. Please pray for our president and all other leaders, and pray first for their souls. Please keep praying for Burt and Patsy Emig, pray for the Saylor family, for Grant Crocket as he gets ready for some shots in his shoulders and neck to help with pain. We need to pray for Barbara and Vicki. And please keep praying for our son Matthew as we still do not know where he is. We went up to Sonshine Ministries where Matthew was living, and they have not seen or heard from him. We just give it to God and trust God is taking care of him. Again, as we did last week, we are going to open with a prayer for God to clean us, and then close with prayer again. You do know it is okay to pray more than once each day, right?
Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for another day, and thanks for taking care of us. Please watch over us and clean us again. Lord, help us to repent, for we know that your Kingdom is near. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
Helping Others: How far would you go to help others? Do you help others other than your family? Do you expect compensation for helping others? When do you retire fully from all work including helping others? Even if you receive help from others, should you be also helping others? Have you heard the story of the Good Samaritan? Does it still happen in these times?
Yes, I have opened with a lot of questions today. Let's look at some of them. Question one. How far would you go to help others? You are on your own on this one, please answer it from your heart.
Question two. Do you help others other than your family? Again, you must answer this one.
Question three. Do you expect compensation (pay) for helping others? Wow, same answer, you must answer this one on your own.
Question four. When do you retire fully from all work including helping others? Let me help you with this one. Helping others, if you are doing it for God, you should NEVER retire from working for God!!
Question five. If you receive help from others, should you also be helping others? Hey, let me help you again. Each day this guy I know signs off his message by saying this. "Go forth and share your blessings." So that should give you the answer, you should share the blessings you receive, even if it is coming in from help you need or your family needs. Brothers and sisters, if you receive food help from a food pantry and you do not like what you received, please share it with others or take it back. We find that some people THROW IT IN DUMPSTERS!! That, my friends, is not sharing your blessings.
Last but not least on the questions today. Have you heard the story of the Good Samaritan? If not, you will between today and tomorrow. Does it happen today? Listen to this and you tell me.
Two weeks ago on Monday morning, Dolores and I had doctors appointments in Harrisburg, PA, a trip of about 10 miles from our home. Since the doctors appointments are in a building that requires a long walk for us, we take a wheelchair and Dolores rides and I push, and that works well, she gets the lift and I get to use the chair as a walker. On the way to the doctors, our truck decided it did not want to run and just quit out on Interstate 81. Yes, the motor just stopped! I was in the center lane and worked my way to the shoulder and I was right at an off-ramp so I drifted the truck up the ramp on the shoulder as far as I could go. It was 7:30 AM and our appointments were at 8:00 AM. The truck we were in we just purchased about two weeks before that. So what do we do, well first we prayed and then we put some "feet on the prayers." ("Feet on your prayers", a quote by Pam Bower made years ago.) Dolores got on her cell phone and called the doctor's office and told them we would be late. I first called one of our kids to see if he might be in the area. He was not. I called the car dealer, Sutliff Cadillac, and talked to their service man, as I said, we just purchased the truck, it was ten yeas old and did not have a warranty. I asked them if they had a service car that might come and get us and run us to Harrisburg. God is good, and had one of their cars just two miles away. So they headed him our way. As I said, God is good, so I talked to God some more and got the wheelchair out of the back of the truck and Dolores got in it and I started to push her up the shoulder of the ramp off of Route 81. We had plans to meet the service car on the street that intersects the Interstate. Now comes the story of the Good Samaritan. Dolores is in the wheelchair and I am pushing and it is uphill. Car after car came up that ramp, and one by one they just passed on by, a lot of them talking on the phone and/or drinking coffee. Then a lady in a SUV stopped on the ramp and asked if she could help. Yes, there is a good Samaritan out there, and just as we started to talk to her, the service car arrived and we thanked her for stopping. Then we got into the car and they took us to the doctor. And God had it all worked out, we were not even late. When done, we called our son Keith who came and took us home. Now our son runs a garage, but since I had just purchased the truck we sent it back to the dealer, and even though there was no warranty, they picked up the tab.
Brothers and sisters, that story is a fact, it is not made up or enhanced, God worked it all out. Now my questions for you today ...
What would you have done if you were in our shoes, just prayed and then did nothing else? Some people think that prayers sometimes work that way. Yes, I know people who say they are looking for a job, and we should pray for them, but when I tell them that the food store is looking for workers, or the burger joint is looking for workers, they are not interested as it does not pay as much as the hobo check (unemployment check). In other words, they are not putting feet on their prayers. Dear God, I need a job, and they expect God to say to them ... Tomorrow report to Washington, DC, you are going to be president! That is not the way prayer works. We pray for God's help and then we help God help us and help others.
Now the big question as we wrap up today.
What would you do if you saw some old looking guy pushing a lady in a wheelchair along the highway? Would you just pass by on the other side of the street? If you were on the other side of the street and could not get across this busy road, would you circle around and help them? Would you call 911 and report what you saw? Believe it or not, lots of people drove past. I wonder, how many people would have stopped to help if it was a 25 year-old lady with blonde hair along the ramp?
Tomorrow the parable of the Good Samaritan from Bible, and it might surprise you who all passed by. Folks, we must be careful and use good judgment when you stop and help someone, so you pray about that also.
Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for the message of the day, and thanks for working out all the details when our truck bit the dust on the highway. Praise be to You, dear Lord. Please, dear Lord, look over our requests and act on them according to Your will and not ours. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Now go forth and share your blessings ... Love ya, Pastor Dan.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment