Dear Father in Heaven: I love You very, very much. Please forgive me of my sins and help me repent and each and every day come nearer and nearer to You. Dear Father, our prayer requests have not changed since yesterday, so Dear Lord, I refer You back to them. Today, Lord, is a day we call Salvation Wednesday, so I ask that You would help we who are born again to seek out the lost and the drifting and bring them to Your feet to be restored and saved. Lord, please help me now with the message, for I cannot do it without You. Then, Lord, help me get it dispatched. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.
Good evening, my dear brothers and sisters. Please look back at yesterday's message for the prayer list. I did not receive any new requests today. Remember it is Wednesday and we call it Salvation Wednesday, a day we pray for the lost and pray for we who are "born again" to work to bring in the lost to be saved. We need to remember that while we can and should be working the fields of harvest for Jesus, Jesus is the only one who can save that lost soul. God is good. As I am typing, God is watering my tomatoes, which by the way, I picked my first ripe tomato two days ago. That was just five weeks after they were planted by Mr. Green Thumb, Grant Crockett, and taken care of by our Lord God and eaten by yours truly. I indeed want to get right to the message today on Restoration, so let me have at it.
Salvation Wednesday: June 25, 2014, Restoration (Day Two)
Psalm 23:3 - He restores my soul, He guides me to the paths of righteousness, for His name's sake. (NIV)
Psalm 80:3 - Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us that we may be saved. (NIV)
Brothers and sisters, yesterday I was telling you about being a "motor head" and about having vehicles, some of which I helped restore, although I never did what one would call a "full restoration." I referred to my friend Tom's '57 Chevrolet and how he restored it. I also talked about vehicles and parade cars which pretty much looked great on the outside but otherwise have been untouched.
As I sort of compare those vehicles being restored to we people, let me start on that. Let's say:
We have a vehicle that is running but maybe never even gets washed. Would you believe we have people like that? They go on day after day after day and don't even take time to wash up, take a bath or put on some smell good stuff.
Then we have vehicles that are running well, maybe have a few dings and bangs on them, but they are washed up and really still look pretty good, it might even be the family work vehicle. Let's compare that to a person who works hard, gets some bangs and cuts and a few black and blue spots, but when done working they take that shower, brush up that hair and put on some nice clothes. Looking good on the outside, anyway.
Now let's talk about that car, that while in the course of restoration has the engine and running gear pulled and cleaned, the fluids changed and even rebuilt as needed. Compare that person to one who has been to their doctor who told them what they need to do to keep on moving. Maybe they need some fluid changed, and the doctor has told them it is time to be drinking a lot of water and it gets to flushing out your system. And of course back in my days of youth, I was given some cod liver oil once a week to have that good "cleaning out."
I want to run one more comparison today and that would be that good old work truck, or car, or even a bus, that still works hard, really hard, on the outside, but on the inside the engine is worn. It is really working hard, but in the end, all that work, and the vehicle will just end up in the junkyard as no one really took it to be restored. Let me compare that to someone who works really hard all their lives, they might even work around their church, they would help people, but never really got restored by our Lord Jesus, they did not get to know Him one on one. This person is heading to hell, for we must know Jesus, not just know of Him.
Now along comes a few to the rescue. Recently, just within the last two weeks, a call was received at my former service station, which my son Keith still owns and operates. It seems someone is working to restore our very first service truck, a 1951 Ford half/ton. It still had the Lehman logo on the doors as it was resting in a junkyard someplace. This truck if all goes well is going to get to, well, be born again. But for that truck to get what is needed, the person or persons need to know what they are doing. Sometimes it is necessary to haul that truck or vehicle to a few different locations for different kinds of work. You know, like the body and paint shop and the seat cover shop. As for me restoring a truck, well, I painted that one that was in the junkyard, but when it came to rebuilding the engines, it was my late brother who would help me.
Then as we look at that person who worked hard but was heading to hell due to the fact that you "cannot" work your way into heaven, along comes a "born again" Christian or two who will take this hard-working person under their care and see that they find out about our Lord Jesus. In short, they are trying to rescue that person from the gates of hell. This might even be a team of people, like, say, Dave, Duane, and Neil, who over the years have helped lead many people to the feet of Jesus, or helped keep them on track. Another team might have been Doug, Tim, Pastor Larry, and I mention these teams of men, for indeed they all had and have a hand in keeping me on track. All of us need help in our Christian walk. Even we who are "Born Again" need to be picked up and talked to once in awhile to stay on track with our Christian walk. And I got a lot of my fire power from those gospel singers, I really did. They have been a great help and of course there are others.
Now all of this is going to come together by Friday, so please stay with me. For now I am going to take a look at Psalm 23 again.
Psalm 23:2 - He makes me lie down in green pastures, He leads me beside quiet waters. (NIV)
The green pastures will be my bedroom, and the quiet waters will be my bed (water bed). No, I do not have a water bed, unless one of my doggies whizz in it.
Now go forth and share your blessings. Love ya. Please pass on the love.
Pastor Dan
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