Good Evening, my dear brothers and sisters. As we start this first full week in our new year, God has pointed out to me how much we Christians can get done if we would just work together on things. I want to think about this as we move forward with the message this week. Today please pray for Ray Orner Sr. who has had a stroke. Please keep praying for our son Matthew Lehman. Matthew remains in the Holy Spirit Hospital. One thing we should try to do each day as we pray is always give honor and glory to God for the things He has done, including forgiving each of us of our sins when we ask in faith. You will also notice a change in the structure of the messages. Starting with an opening to you, folks, then scripture, then the body of the message, then prayer, and closing.
Romans 12:4 - Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. 7 If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; 8 if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully. (NIV)
Let me start with our bodies. We have bodies made of many parts. As you and I both know, when all the parts are working and pulling together, we feel pretty good. But when one part or another starts slowing down, or could for today let me call it slacking off, then the rest of the parts must pick up the load to carry it. When some parts start to slack off, in some cases the other parts pick up the load without much trouble, but there are other parts in our body that when they slack off, then we get into trouble in a hurry, because the rest of the parts in our body have trouble carrying the load. When more than one part starts to slack off, the harder it is to get the rest of our body to carry the load.
Today Dolores and I went to two different doctors, one was our podiatrist, yes, the foot doctor, if you please. Have you ever noticed that when your feet are hurting you can hurt all over? Once you get those feet fixed up, and we call that happy feet, then you feel a lot better. While I am going to address you as Christians, we also see this same type of thing in our own country. Brothers and sisters, dare I say that we have more people riding in the cart than pulling it. While we have many people that because of parts of their bodies shutting down that we NEED TO TAKE CARE OF, for that is what God wants us to do, we have many people riding in the cart that indeed are able-bodied folks who could be out pulling or pushing the cart, which would take the load off the rest of those who are pulling and pushing. God has given each of us different gifts, and again I am not talking the gifts the Bible talks about right now. Rush Limbaugh tells is like this, "talent on loan from GOD!" In our country it takes many leaders, and we see that leaders is listed in our Bible in Romans 12:8. If it is leadership, let him govern diligently! Leaders are not just in Washington, DC, but all around this country. We have leaders in government, in private business, in religion, in our churches, in all we do, we have leaders. None might be more important than the leaders that lead our sanitation departments. Now let me put it to you this way, all leaders need to work together under God. In other words, we need to let God lead in all we do, and we need to do it according to His will and not ours. Each day we need, regardless of what part, or what earthly gift has been given to us, we need to, and you can quote me on this, "we need to check in with the Leader." "We need to check in with the one and only man who is in charge, our Lord Jesus."
But as you all know who have been working wherever you work, most workers think they can do the leader's job better than the leader. Am I correct so far? People think they can just bypass the boss, so to speak, and go out on their own. Folks, when your leader is the same leader as I have, our Lord Jesus, that just does not work. And here is my proof on that statement. We have thrown our leader, Jesus Christ, out of Washington, DC, and I ask you this day, how is that working out? We have thrown our leader, Jesus Christ, out of our State Houses and our local governments, so let me ask you this. How is that working out? We have tossed our leader Jesus Christ out of our public schools, and let me ask all of you this. How is that working out? In our area today, a brand new school was opened. It has some stained glass windows, it has a really big cross on the roof, and they have invited our Lord Jesus in. Yes, it is the New Bishop McDevitt High School, a school that once was called Catholic High School in Harrisburg. Now they have invited inour leader (I am not Catholic but I have the same leader). Watch this new school grow because they will let Jesus lead. Brothers and sisters, regardless what you do or did for a living, if we looked at our leader, Jesus Christ, and started the day each day with Him, the day went better. Think about it, it may not be perfect, but it went better. So each morning, maybe we should look at it as a business meeting and start out talking to our leader about what we might do for Him that day and about His helping us to get it done. Brothers and sisters, when we think we are better than the leader, then we get into trouble. If you on your job think you are better than the boss, and a lot of people do, you better watch out, you might be out on the streets saying, I could have done it better. That leader still had their paycheck, what happened to yours?
Now let me get back to our bodies again, and when one or more of the parts of our bodies stops working. Let's say that we twisted our leg or ankle, and we try and get the same job done. Yesterday if you were watching the Washington Redskins play some football you saw the quarterback get hurt, and regardless of how much he pushed to play, without his one leg working properly, the rest of his tired body could not pick up the slack. When your foot hurts, it is hard to walk. When you lose the power in one of your hands, you miss that, and the other must pick up the slack. When your brain gets a fever, it makes it very hard for the rest of your body to work, and folks, if that "waste system" shuts down, it can get really rough. Maybe that is why we need to take good care of those "sanitation workers" for when the trash or rubbish gathers at the street's edge, things go downhill fast. Tomorrow using the same scriptures and adding some more we are going to look at those gifts that God has given or lent to us. And do you know this, if we listen to God's will for us when it comes to gifts, we might find that over the years those gifts change. I want you to think about that. I also want you to think about what gift or gifts you might have had on the work force and how it fit in working with others. Remember, we do not all have the same gifts. We have a young lady on this line that in their family they have a very, very, very large dairy farm. On that farm they have many workers, and those workers each have jobs that need done. When one workers slacks off, others must cover for them. But those workers on the farm are just the start of getting the milk to us. How many others do you think get their hands on that milk before you set it out for Santa? (I just had to put that in.) Think about it. I was a leader in school transportation at Central Dauphin School District, a middle-level leader, so to speak. I reported to a gentleman named Guy Green who was the business manager, and he reported to someone else and so it went. But let me tell you that the toughest job that I had to cover was the school bus driver, for they had a talent that really was needed. It would have been easier to replace me as a leader than a really good bus driver who really cared about the children they transported. Where were you in the chain that God has set up? And do you really let our real leader lead? Even if you are now retired from drawing a paycheck, you should never retire from working for our real leader, Jesus Christ. Tomorrow we look at those gifts and we see how they fit into our daily living for our leader. We do all agree that Jesus Christ is our leader, right? Anyone who does not think that, well, I need to have a one-on-one with you.
Dear Father in Heaven, thanks for the many gifts and the many, many talents that have been lent to me and to all of us over the years. Thanks for all You do, and Lord, as we look at each day, we want to walk it with You, we want to work it for and with You, we want to carry out Your commands that You have laid out for us. Please today, place Your healing hand on Ray Orner, and please place Your healing hand on Matthew also. Thanks for this line, and thanks for watching over it, all glory and honor to You this day. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen.
Now brothers and sisters, please count all those blessings, and brothers and sisters, as we look at our gifts this week, you will find there are not many people in this land of ours that Jesus trusted to us that cannot do something. You will see! One of those things all of us can do is, and yes, I am going to say it, we can all share our blessings that God gave to us.
Love ya, Pastor Dan.
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