Tuesday 3/31/15 The Empty Church (2)

Dear Father in Heaven: What a beautiful day You have provided for us. Thanks for taking care of us while we were on the road today. Father, please help us as we ready for Good Friday services. Thanks for bringing Tom and his missionary team back home safe. Please help me this day with the message and then to get it dispatched. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.

Brothers and sisters, the events of Holy Week move fast. Let me get right to the message. Hey, did I tell you that I love you? Well, brothers and sisters, I am telling you now. The Empty Church:

Tuesday: March 31, 2015: The Empty Church (Day Two)

Mark 11:20 - In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. 21 Peter remembered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!" 22 "Have faith in God," Jesus answered. 23 "I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. 24 Therefore I tell you whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in Heaven may forgive you your sins." (NIV)

Brothers and sisters, looking back at that fig tree, the one that did not have fruit on it, you will recall that Jesus cursed it and said to the tree "may no one ever eat fruit from you again." Brothers and sisters, look at this as a warning of what could  happen to you on judgment day. Beware, brothers and sisters, if the fruit that you bear or show as how you live, if you are not bearing good fruit, you also will be judged as the way the fig tree was. Yes, the story of the Fig Tree is a warning for all of us to bear good fruit in all we do. Now we add in the statement "have faith in God." We must have faith in God in all we do.

As we look at the next scripture I want you to really look deep into it. What Jesus is saying is we must have faith. All throughout scripture we see Jesus talking about having faith. And brothers and sisters, our love for Jesus, being a Christian is "Faith-Based," and that is a fact. Here we see Jesus telling His disciples about faith, and we need to really learn this as fact. I want to go to

Mark 11:24 - "Therefore I tell you whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in Heaven may forgive you your sins." (NIV)

Here we find Jesus telling US that whatever we ask for in prayer, and we have faith we will receive it, it will be ours. But we need to remember we must be in good standing with God. Yes, we must, yes, we must. Think about it and look at this, which is also in the Lord's Prayer. "If you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in Heaven may forgive you your sins." Hey brothers and sisters, do not yell at me, I am the messenger and telling you like it is in the Bible. We so often pray for things, and they might not be in God's will for us, and remember God knows what is best for us. Another thing I want to tell everyone and that means me also. God will show us more favor if we would stay in good graces with Him. In other words we need to get serious about repenting of our sins. Tomorrow, April 1st, and it is also Salvation Wednesday on this line. Please do not walk away from God and then say it was just an April Fools joke. When we look around this world, I think we need to get really serious about being "Born Again." What do you think? Tomorrow, more on Holy Week. Pastors, get ready for those C and E people, get fired up for Jesus.

Now go forth and share your blessings. Love ya. Please share the love.

Pastor Dan