Good Friday 4/18/14 He Died for Us!

Dear Father in Heaven:  I love You.  Thanks for dying for me!!  Thanks for going to the cross to forgive me and all others, giving us a chance to be free. Lord, I pray that all people come to You.  I pray that I will be able to work for You more and more.  Lord, thanks for a great service today.  Thanks for sending help, and thanks for having faith in me to work for You.  Now, Lord, please help me with the daily message.  And then please help me get it dispatched.  In Jesus' name, I give thanks and ask my prayers.  Amen.

Hi, brothers and sisters.  Thanks for covering us with prayers for our concert.  All honor and glory to God, it went well.  We will talk more about the service in the future.  Right now I want to get to the Good Friday message.

Good Friday:  April 18, 2014, He Died for Us!

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.  17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.  (NIV)

Once again I tell you that I cannot type all the scripture needed to teach these lessons.  You need to get your Bibles out and read them, and maybe you do.  I typed out a few scriptures for today, this Good Friday.  I do want you to remember that Jesus is alive today and is in Heaven with God The Father.  With that said, I used the scriptures from John 3:16/17.

God sent Jesus, His one and only Son not just to die, and not to condemn, but to save the world.  Now I know we are sinners and I know how much I sin and Jesus came to take on the sin of the world.  That, brothers and sisters, is a lot to place on any one person, and Jesus and only Jesus, the one and only one without sin, took on our sin.  I want you to think of that heavy load.  Think about the load that is on you when you sin.  How heavy is the load?  I am talking mostly mental weight here, folks.  While not all have come to Jesus, He welcomes everyone and He trusts us who are saved to get the word out.  Are you doing your share of getting the word out?

Luke 23:34 - Jesus said, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing."  And they divided up his clothes by casting lots.  (NIV)

Each day I pray and when I pray I ask God to forgive me of my sins.  I ask Our Heavenly Father, in the Name of Jesus, to be forgiven, and I was.  Was there a time when people were forgiven without asking?  Yes, and the scripture above shows me that.  In Luke 23:34 we find Jesus asking His Father in Heaven, who is our Father in Heaven, to forgive all those who were putting Him to death.  He did this for those who were involved in putting Him to death, all of them, the way I see it.  He said, "Father, forgive them."  And brothers and sisters, I am sure that Father God was listening to His Son.  When we pass from this earth and we get to heaven, I am sure we are going to be surprised by some who are there, and more than likely surprised about who might not be there.

You know we must be "Born Again," and we just cannot work our way into heaven.  However, once we come to Jesus, we must work for Him.  As you all know, I pastor The Bridges of Bent Creek and Dolores is our minister of music.  When I stand before our flock at The Bridges and tell them about working for Jesus, I always take time to tell them that even at their age, and by the way, we are also at that age, they can work for Jesus just by spreading His love to others and laying seeds for them to become saved.  They can also show their signs of the love of Jesus by welcoming new residents into their family.  You see, living at a retirement home, be it no care, some care, or full care, those people become family to one another.  At The Bridges like other retirement homes, staff will greet people, and at The Bridges they do a great job of this, but those moving in become family to each other, new brothers and sisters.  I watch with tears in my eyes as ones who still walk will push others in wheelchairs to come to church.  Anyway, I drifted from my subject a tad, but what I am telling all of you, you must work for Jesus once you are saved.  Just going to church and helping in the kitchen does not always cut it.  Of course Jesus is that final Judge.  No Judge Judy, or Judge Alex, or Judge Joe Brown, etc., for the Judge we all will stand before will be JUDGE JESUS!  Let me move on.

Luke 23:42 - Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."  43 Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."  (NIV)

This scripture is about the two criminals that were on the cross beside Jesus.  As Jesus hung on the cross and the people were gathered cheering on the MURDER of our Lord Jesus, there were two criminals, one on His right and one on His left.  Now Jesus was taken apart by one of them, but the other rebuked him (the other criminal) and said "Don't you fear God, since you are under the same sentence?  We are punished, for we are getting what our deeds deserve.  But this man has done nothing wrong."  And it was after that he said to Jesus, "Remember me when you come into your kingdom."  (Luke 23:39-42) (NIV)

Now I love this next part.  Jesus told that criminal, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."  Now this tells me that on that same day, on the same day as Jesus died on the cross, He escorted that one criminal  home to heaven.  I can picture this in my mind, Jesus going to His Father with the criminal and saying something like this.  Father, please take care of this man, his sins have been forgiven.  Now again I say that Jesus asked His Father to forgive them all for they did not know what they were doing, but what about that second criminal?  He was warned by the one who stood up for Jesus, so did he make it to heaven?  I am not sure, so we will find out when we get there.

Now folks, please go forth and share your many blessings.  Love ya.  And please share my love with others, and yes, that would also be sharing the love of Jesus.

Pastor Dan