Good afternoon, my dear brothers and sisters. Wow, what bright thing we can see in the sky today, brothers and sisters, that would be the sun. While the sun, like The Son, shines down on us daily, for a long time now the sun has been clouded over with fog and overcast skies. Dare for right now I call it dirt and junk. Each day the Son shines down onus, but some days we cannot see The Son as our lives are covered over with dirt and junk!! Once we get our lives clear and free of the dirt and junk of this world, then we can see our Lord Jesus, The Son clearly. Today I ask you, how much worldly dirt and junk are you carrying with you each day? Time to clean up, folks. No better time than on Salvation Friday. Yes, it is Salvation Friday on this line. Prayer requests today for Burt and Patsy Emig, also for Barbara Paulus. Prayers for Dave who has cancer and also for Shirl Piro who needs the touch of healing in her life also. Another prayer request for healing from cancer. Pray for Andrew Horn. Now let me get to the message, "Preach What You Practice." (No, I have that right.)
Luke 8:21 - Jesus replied, "My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice." (NIV)
You who have been on the line with me for a long time know that I refer to you as my brothers and sisters. Why? Because we are brothers and sisters if we indeed believe in God and put what we hear about Him into practice. It matters not to me what your race or color is or where you go to church or what that church affiliation is, what matters to me is that you are saved and working for Jesus. In fact, one of the real beauties of this line is I have no idea what most of you look like, but I do know this, you must be beautiful, for you, like me, are made in the image of God, and He did not make anyone ugly. I am happy with what I see when I look into the mirror and you should be also. So let me ask you today, are you a brother or sister to Jesus? Are you a son or daughter of God The Father? Jesus does not ask much of us, He wants us to live a life repenting of our sins, He wants us to share our blessings and love all people and He wants us to love Him above all others and above all else. And He wants us to tell others The Good News of Jesus. And yes, He wants us to pull our weight here on earth, meaning working to help all others, working to earn a living ... doing our share.
For this, He feeds us, He supplies our clothes, doing this through the hands of others. He supplies the air we breathe, He provides us housing, He really takes care of us. He really does, He really wants us to be family. Come on, brothers and sisters, He just wants us to love Him enough to listen to His word and His messages and put them to work. I know many people who are faithful at going to church, yes, they give God an hour or an hour and a half on Sunday and do nothing else. And they share their blessings like this --------------- and this --------------- and sometimes some more of this ----------------------.
One fine day at the money mint (where the presses are flying right now) a 20 dollar bill was sitting on the line ready to go out into the world. Beside the 20 was a 1 dollar bill. They got to be friends. It was some ten years later and they were sitting on the shredding line. And it went like this ... Hey, 20, my old friend, 20, how are you doing? I am fine, 1, it is good to see you. Hey, 20, said 1, where have you been all these years? Wow, I have been to Atlantic City, Ocean City, I have been to the West Coast, to Hollywood, I have been to Vegas, and I have been on boat cruises, I have been all over the world and exchanged and sent back. What about you, 1, where have you been? And 1 answered ... church, church, church, church ...
Folks, while the joke is just that, a joke, how many people, go to church, put in a buck, maybe sing a song, raise a hand, sleep during the message, and then go home and forget about Jesus until the next week? A lot more people than you would think! The other week a man passed out in the back row of his church, the ambulance was called, and the ambulance crew carried out six men who were asleep before they got the one who passed out. Folks, again, I ask you to think about some things like this. Take your Bible to work and on a break, read it, maybe a good time to get together with a few work brothers and sisters and do a daily devotion thing, oh, and yes, you may use what I write if you choose, you can even blog if you wish. What I am getting at is we need to really get nearer and nearer to Jesus and we need to hook up with our "brothers and sisters" in Christ ... Again, listen to these words ...
"Where is your faith?"
Luke 8:25 - "Where is your faith?" Jesus asked His disciples. (NIV)
I am not just asking you that question today, but I am quoting Jesus as He asked that same question of His disciples.
Luke 8:22 - One day Jesus said to His disciples, "Let's go over to the other side of the lake." So they got into a boat and set out. 23 As they sailed, He fell asleep. A squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped, and they were in great danger. 24 The disciples went and woke Him, saying "Master, Master, we're going to drown!" He got up and rebuked the wind and the raging waters; the storm subsided, and all was calm. 25 Where is your faith?" He asked His disciples. (NIV)
Now even after traveling with Jesus for some time they must have had questions about Him or did not have full faith in Him at that point. In amazement they were asking one another, who is this? He not just heals the sick, He also has control over the storms ... YES, HE DOES ... and may I just add here this statement ... "How often do we have so little faith that we are scared when the storms pass?"
We need to learn to take safety steps, but we need to have faith that our Lord Jesus is in control and He will protect us according to His will for us. And brothers and sisters, if we do have faith in Jesus we should never be afraid of His will for us. Oh, you are thinking, that is easy for Pastor Dan to say, but it is not always that easy, and you are right in thinking that. I have faith that God is going to protect us, still when a heavy storm or storms are in the area, I start to pace. We have on several occasions taken all of our pets to the basement of the house to ride out a storm. And there have been times when the storm went past so fast that we did not have time to worry about it.
But let me get off the weather related storms in our life, for indeed most all of the storms in our life are those that are not weather related. How many people right now have storms of "no job" or your house payment, your car payment, your credit card payment and maybe even your wife are all two months late? Did you catch that one? While the lateness of your wife should be a joyful thing as you go expecting a child, it might just be another worry if you do not have a job. Folks, we need to have faith, and a lot of it. Think of this, our Lord has promised to supply all of our needs, but we need to have faith to receive this blessing, and sometimes this faith requires us to step out in that faith. You have heard me quote Pamela Bower many times on her saying "we need to put feet on our prayers." Folks, let me add a quote of my own today when I tell you this ... "We need to put feet on our faith." Prayer and faith go hand in hand. As we talk to our Lord Jesus, we need to have faith that He will hear our prayers and answer them, for it is faith that gets them to Him, and brothers and sisters, our Lord Jesus will answer your prayers. HOWEVER, sometimes our prayers are not answered the way we want them to be answered. Sometimes you might be putting your faith in the wrong place. Think about that, do you put your faith in Jesus or are you putting your faith in man? How many people right now are putting faith in a man who just happens to be president of the United States? I want you all to know and understand that our President is not God, not now, not ever. If you are waiting for Washington to cut you a check or pay down your house payment, you are placing your faith in the wrong place.
It is time, my friends, to put our faith in God. In doing that, we might need to take a step back before we go forward. We might need to give up a lot of our earthly wants and toys. Jesus has promised to supply our needs, but our needs not include three big screen TV's, cell phones for all in the family, two new cars, and Friday and Saturday night out on the town each week, etc. It might mean we clean out the cupboards and eat the food that is there that we overlook ... Might be time to eat some Spam, which is Ham, spelled with a SP. Drive a used Chevrolet instead of a new Caddy. But folks, do not give up the faith, for our Lord Jesus will calm your storms in life. Let me sum this up. Most all of the storms in our lives are self-caused. While I am sure I will hear about that statement, I will repeat it. "Most all of the storms in our lives are self-caused." Still, our Lord Jesus will help you calm them, He will work with You to get you out of the mess. Let's go to our Lord Jesus now in faith and give our storms, our worries, our burdens over to Him. Then after that, let's start putting some feet on the prayers and the faith and work with God as He calms the storms. Trust me, no, Trust God, this will work.
Dear Father in Heaven, we turn this day over to You to guide us and protect us and to take care of us according to Your will for us. Please look over our prayer requests and honor them again according to Your will for us. Please help us to bring to Your feet the unsaved so that their soul might be saved. Help us, dear Lord, on this line and through the food pantry You have entrusted to us, to feed both the "Body and the Soul." In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
Now go forth, sharing your blessings and preaching what you practice. Preach about that love you have for Jesus and that He has for you. Now that is sharing your blessings.
Love ya, Pastor Dan.
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