Sunday Morning Service, 5/15/11

Songs

• God Of Wonders
• Great In Power
• Forever
• Hallelujah We Will Sing
• All To You
• You Are Worthy Of My Praise
• [The Power Of Praise]
• When The Praises Go Up

Message: The Sacrifice of Fools

– Pastor Ulysse

This morning, we’re going to talk about the sacrifice of fools. Though I know we all know what sacrifice is, I went to the dictionary anyway.

sacrifice

The act of making an offering unto God.

A giving up of something cherished or desired.

A loss that is incurred or suffered for a greater reward.

In baseball, it is a hit by which the batter is put out, but the base runner is advanced.

We are instructed by the Bible to present our bodies a living sacrifice.

Sacrifice is reasonable; it is honorable. Everything in life requires sacrifice. But this morning I want to point out to you that there are sacrifices of fools. It depends on whether the person doing the sacrifice is wise or foolish. The Bible says that it is better to obey than to sacrifice. If we sacrifice without obeying, then it is a sacrifice of fools.

You have to know God to please God. For that matter, you have to know anybody to please them. If you don’t know them, you may think that you are helping and pleasing that person, when actually you are doing the opposite. It is better to know God than to offer a burnt offering.

I don’t think there are fools in this room, but we must be careful that we don’t offer a sacrifice in vain.

Hopefully, there isn’t any fool in here, but how much time do we spend on knowing God? I told you that we should balance the time we pray, and the time we read. You can be spending time fasting and praying, but if praying is talking to God, do you ever take the time for God to talk to you? If you spend all your time talking to God, but no time letting God talk to you, then it’s a one-way communication. Actually, God has more things to tell you than you have to tell God. So we must balance our communication. It is the will of God that we do things in their proper time and place.

The sacrifice of fools is marked by formalism and ritual. It is something that you do over and over, so that you think you are sacrificing when actually you are not. It is something that is done outwardly, but not inwardly. God is pleased by our inward zeal, not by our outward form or appearance.

When Saul went to war, he was not supposed to bring back anything, but he brought back animals to offer sacrifices to God. And he made excuse, saying “They aren’t for me, God; they’re for you.” We should not think that God would be pleased by offering a million unspotted lambs, when he only wanted one.

The sons of Eli offered sacrifices to God, and they got burned. The Bible teaches that man would come to God with their lips, while their hearts are far from him. Their worship is in vain.

[…]

I read about a police officer who was chasing after someone, and the person decided to stop and be nice and stop at red lights, and yield to pedestrians. But that didn’t help his case. If we don’t obey the first time, then regardless of what we sacrifice, it is the sacrifice of fools. We only have one lifetime to make it right. After death, there is judgment. We only have one shot at it.

There are some warnings we can take from Colossians chapter two:

It’s not saying that what we do is not good, that there isn’t any good in it. It’s just that, before God, it doesn’t make any difference. We should spend our energy on the things that really matter.

Our main scripture comes from the book of Ecclesiastes. As you know, this book was written by the wisest man. Not only that, but this book was written after he ran away from God, and then came back. After all the pleasures of life, he concluded, “All is vanity.” I think we can trust him, because he did it all. He experienced all of life, even backsliding, and he concluded that it is all vanity.

“Keep thy foot” means “be careful.” The problem with the sacrifice of fools is that fools don’t know that they are doing it wrong. So he is saying, “Be careful; watch your step. Be more ready to hear.”

While I’m talking, I want to be careful; I want to keep my words short. I want to watch my mouth. Last Sunday I got in a little trouble because I said some things about the ladies, so I want to watch my mouth.

This is a powerful scripture. If you didn’t think you could offer the sacrifice of fools, I want you to think twice. The sacrifice of fools has a lot to do with using our tongue in the house of God. He advises not to be quick to say anything before God. It’s like Jesus said to the disciples, “If any man will follow after me, let him deny himself.”

It’s strictly voluntary. No pressure. But if any man will follow, let him deny himself.

Paul wrote in a letter that he had the power to compel, but he did not use it. He didn’t force it. Like Jesus, he wanted people to follow voluntarily.

When the young man said, “I will follow you, but first let me bury my father,” and Jesus said, “Let the dead bury their dead.”

I made a vow one day to God, and I regretted it. That was the first big vow that I made. I almost signed up for twenty years in the Navy at once. Fortunately, they did not have a twenty-year contract. Then after I got saved, I said “God, you know what? I am glad that I did not sign up for twenty years. I am going to serve you and preach your word and do whatever it takes to share the gospel.” And when the time came for me to go back home, God would not let me forget the vow I made. And I said, “Come on, God.” Because I wanted to stay now. Sometimes you don’t know what to read, so my habit is to open the Bible with my eyes closed and put my finger down.” And the scripture that my finger fell on was about sacrifice. So I said, “Thank you, God.”

Peter was quicker than anyone. He said, “Lord, I will never deny you.” And he meant that. But when the time came, he said, “I don’t know him.” He let his mouth cause him to sin.

Don’t put your signature under anything that has to do with God, since you don’t have to. You say, then you sign it again, and then you pay.

You don’t have to, but once you do, you don’t have a choice. Anything that has to do with God, and it should be in anything you say. Some of you say, “What about marriage vows.” If you say, “Yes, I do” then I guess you are bound for life. That’s why it is so important to make sure that you do it right the first time. Being a pastor, you hear people say “Pastor, I think I married the wrong person.” So I say to them, “Bring me the contract.” And when they bring me the contract, I ask, “Is the name here the name of the person you married?” And when they say “Yes,” I say, “Then you didn’t marry the wrong person.”

In Acts 5, this couple say everybody giving things, so they felt they had to promise “We will do this also.”

Before you sold it, it was yours. After you sold it, the money was still yours. And we just read that it would not be sin if you decide not to. Don’t offer the sacrifice of fools. Just do what you possibly can. God desires loyalty.

There many, many examples of fools, but I am just using a few so that we can look at ourselves and decide whether there any fools among us. I know that you promise things, just because you believe that things will work out a certain way, and then you feel like a liar when they don’t.

This fellow in Judges chapter 11 went to war. God is not doing something just because we made a promise. God won’t bless us because we make a promise. Actually, God is laughing at us, because we’re lying when we say we’ll do this or that. Peter said, “I will die for you,” and Jesus was saying, “Yeah, sure. You’ll die for me.”

What a fool! And I say that looking at myself, because I have made so many promises like that.

Hey, God did his part.

When the fools make vows, or say stuff like that, they don’t think anything. They bypasses the brain and go directly to the mouth, to the tongue.

I don’t mean that if you vow such a vow, you should kill whoever comes out of your door. I don’t want you to take it this far. I think he was foolish twice, here. He said it, and he did it, too.

It’s not the same for the son of Saul. Saul made a crazy vow, but the people stood up to him and said, “He’s not going to die.” But Jephthah’s daughter just said, “Give me a month more of my life, and then I’ll die.”

No one has to vow. I would day, “Don’t vow.” Don’t. Just say, “Lord, you know what I can do. Help me to do your work.” And then keep your words.

Now, people make honest mistakes. Maybe we say things that we didn’t really evaluate; we didn’t study; we didn’t know all the pieces; we didn’t know the whole thing. But you say it. It says,”Suffer not thy mouth to cause thy flesh to sin.” You can not say to the angel, the messenger of God, “I made a mistake. I know that I said I would offer so many sheep and goats, but I did not know that my wife, my daughter, my son, …” No. You opened up your mouth and you said it.

When I vowed to make a career in the Navy, I didn’t understand what I was saying. But by the time my enlistment was over, I felt more mature in God. I couldn’t say, “But God, I didn’t know what I was saying; you didn’t take it seriously, did you?” I was married at sixteen years of age.

I used to be a fool, and I am trying my best not to multiply my foolishness. But you need prayer. You need to be careful when you come to the house of God. Every New Year, we make big promises to ourselves, right? Don’t do it. Just set every project before the Lord and say, “I place this before you. I am going to do my best to do this project, but I need your help. I am going to take it one day at a time until I get to heaven.”

I think that’s what we need. But don’t offer the sacrifice of fools.

Wednesday Evening Bible Study, 5/11/11

Songs

• All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name
• Forever
• Mighty To Save
• How Can I Keep From Singing
• Declare Your Name
• Your Grace Is Enough

Speaking In Tongues, Part 1

– Pastor Paine

We’re going to read where the apostle Paul writes to the church in Corinth about tongues. Maybe you grow up like me, and you grew up never hearing about speaking in tongues in a spiritual context. The church in Corinth used tongues quite frequently in their church services. That’s praying in a heavenly language that is not known to man. The first time I prayed in tongues, it scared me. Some of you are scared by me even talking about it. But what I get out of this writing from Paul is that the church in Corinth had got it out of context. They were wearing it as a badge of honor. They prided themselves on speaking in tongues more than the church down the street.

Some churches teach that if you don’t speak in tongues, you don’t have the Holy Ghost and you’re not going to heaven. I don’t understand that from the scriptures.

If you have a question on this topic of tongues, write it down. I’m going to continue on this topic a week from now. Give your question to an usher between now and Sunday, and I will address those questions in the study a week from tonight.

Remember in chapter 13, he talked about charity. That’s something we should pursue. Now he’s going to talk about the importance of prophesying in the church.

The purpose of tongues isn’t so that we hear people speaking in tongues. For those of you who haven’t heard it, it’s just like hearing someone speaking in a foreign language. We’ve all had that experience, haven’t we? Parents with teenage children?

Sometimes when someone speaks in tongues, there is an interpretation. If it’s real, it’s an awesome thing. What you understand is the interpretation of the tongues, or the prophesy that comes as a result of it.

For the purpose of this teaching, I think it’s important that you understand the word “edify” means “to charge or build up.” I think of it like charging a battery. When you go to someone and compliment them, it edifies them; it charges them up. It builds you up; it charges you to speak in tongues. But when there is an interpretation, it edifies the whole church. If someone comes to preach in a foreign language, they bring an interpreter with them. It’s just like that.

This gift is for everyone; it’s available. “But how come I haven’t spoken in tongues?” I don’t know, but it’s available to you.

Remember what I said at the beginning? Paul was teaching the church at Corinth for what reason? They had got it out of order. They needed their priorities straightened out. So he’s explaining.

Every instrument has a sound that it’s supposed to give. It’s not just noise. And that’s what tongues is. It’s not just noise; it needs to be understood. Now, if you’re speaking in tongues and you’re all by yourself, that doesn’t need an interpretation, because it edifies you. And God knows. You’re communicating in prayer to God, not the person next to you.

If you don’t have the right sound, then nobody knows what it’s for. We know what “taps” is, and we know what “reveille” is, and we know what it’s for.

It’s not going to make any difference. It won’t help anybody.

We won’t understand each other. We’ll be barbaric, as if we were just making grunting sounds at each other.

He’s telling them, “Look, this has to be a blessing, or else it’s for nothing.” It’s not a badge of honor. It has to have meaning. It’s got to matter. Unless it’s just personal between you and God, and then the scriptures say that it edifies you.

I don’t know how that happens, but it does. How many have had that experience, of speaking in tongues? It builds you up; it edifies you.

Remember again why Paul wrote this. One of the great mistakes that we make when we read the scriptures is that we forget the context of it. Paul was writing to a church that had got tongues out of order. There’s nothing wrong with tongues, but there was something wrong with the way they were using it.

Let’s not take the scriptures out of context, and argue with each other. And let’s not ignore it just because it’s a challenging topic.

What was Paul’s position on tongues? Good or bad?

Those two scriptures could be taken to contradict each other, if taken out of context. He’s saying, “If I come to church and show off with my tongues, it doesn’t help; it hurts.

I love that verse. “In malice, be ye children.” Have you ever seen children forgive? My brothers and I would poke each other in the eye, and minutes later we’d forgive and be the best of friends. I don’t know how that works, but it works, as children.

Tongues are for a sign. Done properly, the unbeliever comes to church, and hears tongues, and thinks, “Wow! Something wonderful is happening.”

Now, the church, the body of believers, is strengthened by prophesy.

You remember that in the second chapter of Acts? People thought they were crazy, or drunken.

Isn’t that the testimony that we want to have?

There’s that word “edifying” again. Let it bless the church.

He’s saying, “The whole church ought not to be praying in tongues all at once.”

So, you may be praying at your seat, and praying in tongues, but you’re not speaking in a voice that is intended for everyone else to hear. Right now, my voice is intended for everyone to hear. But if we’re all praising at our seats, and one is praising in tongues, that’s what it means. It’s not like you’re having a conversation with yourself.

Some people wonder, “How do I know whether there’s going to be an interpreter?” I’m praying, and I feel the unction of the Holy Ghost. “HEY! IS THERE AN INTERPRETER IN THE HOUSE?” Many of you have heard me pray with you, and sometimes I

I heard a couple women speaking tonight. I did; I heard it. But Paul is speaking of authority here. He did write,

Women have a place in the church. Jesus sent Mary and Mary to tell his message to the disciples. And I don’t believe it’s because they were the only ones available. Women do have a place in the church, but there is an order to things.

Isn’t it interesting that in a chapter where he speaks to a church who had gotten tongues out of order, he wraps it all up by saying, “Forbid not to speak in tongues.”

If there’s a spiritual gift out there, I’m inviting you to seek it. Not everybody will have it, but in a healthy body, it’s available to every one of us. And we want this to be a healthy body, amen?

I know that I will go to heaven with a lot of things I don’t know about the scriptures. If there were two books, one of things that I know and another of things I don’t know, the second book would be the bigger, by far.

Sunday Morning Service, 5/8/11

Songs

• Awakening
• Christ Is Risen
• Love The Lord
• Our God
• Let God Arise
• Keep On Making A Way
• We Fall Down

Intro

Good morning everyone! To all the mothers in the house, we’d like to wish a happy Mother’s Day to you. Maybe your mother is not here to celebrate with you, or maybe she’s passed on. Or maybe you’re a new mother, and this is a new experience for you. So we all come here with different attitudes and emotions, but I’d like to ask all of you to strip away all of the distractions and lay them at the feet of Jesus. We have an audience of one this morning, and that audience is God. If we sing badly, God still loves it, so we can sing out loudly. We need to offer all we have this morning.

Mother’s Day Song

– Holly Santiago

As we looked for a long to accurately reflect God’s spirit on this mother’s day, we looked at Proverbs 31, which talks about a virtuous woman. Nowhere in that scripture does it talk about her outward appearance. It talks about how her husband treats her, and how she treats her husband. It talks about her worth, and her clothing choice, and many other things. If you struggle with your self-esteem, I pray that you hear the words of this song, and know that God made you beautiful.

• Beautiful For Me

Message: Listen To Your Mother

– Pastor Paine

I’ve got to speak to some of you who have mothers who you haven’t spoken to. Call her. Write her. Don’t put it off. And if that relationship is broken, then take that step.

I’d like to ask a couple of people to come up and share a testimony.

– Jeremy Thompson

As some of you may not know, I was adopted when I was two. My mother and I have always had a great relationship. I’ve been able to talk to her freely and openly, and we love each other. In case you were wondering, I am going to call her later.

– Ricardo McPherson

There’s a lot of things I can share about my mom. One of the things is the manners and respect she taught to me when I was growing up. She taught me to say “excuse me” and “thank you” and “please” and things like that. Another thing she taught me was communication. If you don’t call your mom, you what’s going to happen, don’t you? She’ll say “Why didn’t you call me?” and make you feel like a little kid again. I’m not telling you what to do, but if you don’t call her, you’ll get it. So call her.

– Jhana Phillips

As you get older, you realize just how fragile any adult can be. My mother went through a lot of hard things when I was younger, but she never showed it, and she always had a smile on her face. As I get older, I realize how much she did for me.

– Pastor Ulysse

Good morning. The team for Hope4Haiti is organizing a trip. This will be a regular once-a-year trip. They will be leaving on the eighteenth. They have a translator, Bill Presher. It will be a good, exciting trip, and I’m glad to be a part of that.

It is said that we should never forget the first drop of rain that caused the crop to grow. When you drink a glass of water, you should stop and think of where it came from. Maybe you think it came from a gallon. But if you go a little deeper, it came from the market, and the market got it from somewhere, and it came from a spring.

Standing here so looking so handsome, we sometimes forget where we come from. But your mother carried you for nine months, and she raised you. I definitely appreciate my own mother. You know what? I am the baby of eight, and she has been with me for quite some time now. She will be going back with us on the eighteenth to stay.

(Speaking in French to his mother)

I appreciate you all, and I want to say that I love you, and all mom’s here.

(Pastor Ulysse’s mother speaking…)

She says she wants to sing for you.

(Pastor Ulysse and his mother sing together in French.)

The title of the message today is, “Listen to your Mother.” I was praying about this message, and I found a story on the Internet, and it’s from an article that Erma Bombeck wrote. She tells the story of when God was creating mother. On the day that he was doing that, he had worked overhead. It was a long, hard day.

And the angel said to him, “Lord, you sure are spending a lot of time on this thing.”

And the Lord said, “Have you read the specs on this order?

• She has to be completely washable, but not plastic;

• Have 180 movable parts… all replaceable;

• Run on black coffee and leftovers;

• Have a lap that disappears when she stands up;

• A kiss that can cure anything from a broken leg to a disappointed love affair;

• And six pairs of hands.”

The angel shook her head slowly and said, “Six pairs of hands… no way.”

“It’s not the hands that are causing me problems,” said the Lord. “It’s the three pairs of eyes that mothers have to have.”

“That’s on the standard model?” asked the angel.

The Lord nodded. “One pair that sees through closed doors when she asks, ‘What are you kids doing in there?’ when she already knows. Another here in the back of her head that sees what she shouldn’t but what she has to know, and of course the ones here in front that can look at a child when he goofs up and say, ‘I understand and I love you’ without so much as uttering a word.”

“Lord,” said the angel, touching His sleeve gently, “Go to bed. Tomorrow…”

“I can’t,” said the Lord, “I’m so close to creating something so close to myself. Already I have one who heals herself when she is sick… can feed a family of six on one pound of hamburger… and can get a nine-year-old to stand under a shower.”

The angel circled the model of a mother very slowly. “It’s too soft,” she sighed.

“But she’s tough!” said the Lord excitedly. “You cannot imagine what this mother can do or endure.”

“Can it think?”

“Not only can it think, but it can reason and compromise,” said the Creator.

Finally, the angel bent over and ran her finger across the cheek. ‘There’s a leak,” she pronounced. “I told You You were trying to push too much into this model.”

“It’s not a leak,” said the Lord. “It’s a tear.”

“What’s it for?”

“It’s for joy, sadness, disappointment, pain, loneliness, and pride.”

Some of you are celebrating your very first Happy Mother’s Day. Some of you have grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and maybe great-great-grandchildren. Some of you have recently lost a mother, and you’re experiencing your first Mother’s day without her. Maybe some of you have never had a good relationship with a mother. I’ve heard some pretty sad stories about mothers; stories that could break your heart; mothers that didn’t seem to want their children. Maybe that’s your story today.

Well, you’re surrounded by mothers who can love you. My wife Debbie and I got a call from a lady in Illinois who was a teenager when she moved into our house for a few days that turned into a month. She called to say, “Thank you, and happy Mother’s Day.” Debbie was a little upset because she had just put her makeup on, and she said “Now I’ve got to start over.”

Let’s look in Matthew 20 at the mother of Zebedee’s children. She had an audience with Christ, and in essence, she said “I want you to do something for my sons.” Imagine a woman having an audience with Christ, and that’s all she asked for. Maybe you would think, “That’s not really the right request.” Look at it from her perspective. She knew who she was talking to. And the only thing she asked was, “Bless my sons. Let them have a walk that you would bless; a life that you could use.” Many of us have mothers who would have prayed that prayer. Maybe that’s why you are here today.

This is the setting of the first public miracle that Jesus would do. Perhaps you’ve heard this story. They were at a wedding, and they had a need. They ran out of wine. So how does this need get met? There is a mother in this story; she’s the mother of Jesus. And she said:

If you’ve read this story, you might know that Jesus had just said something to his mother that you might take exception to. In fact, if Joseph were there, he might have said, “Don’t talk to your mother that way.” But his mother’s wisdom was fully displayed when she chose not to make an issue of it. She just turned to the servants and said, “Whatever he says, do it.”

A mother’s love is great; a mother’s love is pure.

This mother is blessed and praised. And God has blessed us with examples of his love and wisdom and priorities in mothers. Some of us here today; we’re still looking for how that relationship would unfold in our lives.

When I was a young boy, something happened in our home. I like this story particularly, because I’m the hero in this story. My brother and I were fighting about who would get the glass of water that was on the counter. So while they were fighting, I just climbed up on the counter and got another glass and filled it with water and ended the argument. My mother came in and said

She said, “Peter, you are a peacemaker.” And she gave me a hug, and an identity that day.

When I was nineteen I bought a Bible and started reading in the gospel of Matthew and found that scripture and thought, “Wow! That is so cool! Jesus is quoting my mother!”

In this next scripture, Easter has taken place; Christ is risen. The disciples aren’t sure exactly what to do. Christ had told them that they couldn’t understand, not in the context of the day. They were scattered and doubting. They knew they had a calling on their life, but it wasn’t crystal-clear.

Do you have the picture? Here’s the grave where they laid Christ, and it wasn’t a grave like we have today; it was a cave. And the stone that they used to seal it was like a large wheel. It was the door, and had been rolled away, and the angels sat at the door. And those who had been set there to keep watch were frightened.

He didn’t say “fear not” to the keepers; he knew they would be afraid anyway.

And these women do exactly what they were told to do. And it wasn’t just for them; it was for us. The angels said, “Go quickly and tell everyone that the Lord is coming with a great commission.”

Fear and great joy. If that’s all we knew about these women, we might think they were weak. But what were they doing? Exactly what they were told. What were they doing? Going to tell the disciples. What were they feeling? Fear and great joy. I think these women were very brave; braver than the soldiers.

Mary and Mary were with the other women, but here we find them at the sepulcher of the tomb, perhaps without sleep. And Jesus meets them and tells them to tell the brethren what to do. Women, mothers, don’t take it so personally when men doubt you. They doubted Jesus, too.

These ladies had an incredible mission, and they carried it out perfectly. Mothers have been blessed and they have been blessings throughout the ages. But every day is God’s day. Today we stop and acknowledge mothers. One day out of three hundred and sixty-five. Is that too much? I think not.

But this is the day that the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

I want to ask you some questions:

• What are you doing with the message that Christ gave you?

Maybe you’re here today with a lifelong experience with Jesus. Today the message for you is, “Stay strong; stay the course; don’t give up.”

Maybe some of you, like me, didn’t grow up in church. You’re just now starting to understand who Christ is. Maybe this is your first understanding that you can have a personal relationship with this risen savior. Maybe you had a mother who prayed for you, and maybe you didn’t. But we all have to do what these women did. When he speaks; when he tells you what to do, do it.

Let us take this Mother’s Day and say, “I am going to hear the message and draw close to the one who breathed into me the breath of life.”

I am coming to you with the message that these women brought: “Listen to Jesus. Do what he tells you to do.”

Men’s Fellowship Bible Study, 5/6/11

– Paul Rudolph

Are You Deceived?

What does it mean to be deceived?

• If you’re deceived, you don’t know you’re deceived, because you’re deceived.

• When you’re on a path that you think you’re not.

• When you’re one place and you

• What is not real

• Believing in a fallacy

deceive

To lead into error; to cause to believe what is false, or disbelieve what is true; to impose upon; to mislead; to cheat; to disappoint; to delude; to ensnare.

That’s really what we’re going to talk about tonight. As I was thinking and praying, I realized that everybody is deceived at some point. Unless you know everything, there are probably some things that you believe that aren’t true. You will never know that you’re deceived, because in your own mind, you’re on the right track.

The apostle Paul was doing just that; skipping along, thinking he was doing the will of God. Are we better than the apostle Paul? I think so, because we have his example, and we can learn from his mistakes.

Let’s start with scriptures.

In general, being a man, the way that man goes isn’t the right way. There is a way that seemeth right. It may not be sin, but being deceived has all different levels. The longer you stay saved, the more you’ll learn that you didn’t know as a young Christian. The guy sitting next to you isn’t where you’re at. He might do things that if I did that, God would fry my bacon so hard that I wouldn’t be able to sleep for a week. That doesn’t make him less of a Christian; he’s just at a different stage of the game.

How many people ride a bicycle in here?

> (About a dozen hands)

How many people ride a bicycle every day?

> (Only one hand)

Not everyone rides at the same pace. If you ride a fifty-pound bicycle like I do, you probably won’t be able to keep up with the guy riding a two-pound bike that costs more than my car.

So we all run at a different pace. But if you see your brother overtaken in a fault, then correct him.

How do we know? It’s not like the cop sitting by the side of the road with a speed gun, telling you that you’re going too fast. Like I was talking to the guy earlier, “I could never do that; my butt would be on fire from conviction of the Holy Ghost.” But not everyone has that same conviction. If you’re deceived, ‘cause you don’t know you’re deceived… What is it? The better choice is a distraction from the best choice. Stretching the truth can be a “good” choice. But there’s nobody, no judge that will punish you on this earth. And once you die, that’s it. You can’t change it. If you seek and pray and study and work at being the best Christian you can… And I mean work. It’s a continuing press towards the mark of the high calling. Because if you don’t, you’ll stray off the mark, and you won’t know it.

Don’t get off I-95 in Philadelphia if you don’t have GPS. It isn’t like here, where you have another on-ramp on the other side of the road. You can spend hours, if you get off at the wrong exit, trying to get yourself turned back around. That’s kind of what being a Christian is like. You get turned around; you’re in the dark. If you’re not doing the will of God, you’re in the dark, right?

Believing something that is false, or not believing something that is true.

Whatsoever things are true; think on these things.

We see that all the time; people on the radio think they know what they’re talking about. We’ve got to be seeking and praying and studying, looking for the guidance from God. As long as you’re deceived, you won’t know it. If you’re close-minded about something (well, that would never happen)

> I was working the base with a young brother who had been coming out for two weeks. I was happy and excited to work with him. He was ready to run. And he said, “Let’s get some breakfast at the galley.” I was thinking, “What? We never do that.” The galley was one of those places that we just didn’t go. Finally, to pacify the brother, we went to the galley to get something to eat. He probably didn’t have any money for McDonald’s. So we met three or four different guys at the galley who wanted to come to church. And all the way out of the galley, I’m kicking myself. “You dummy! You should have listened to that brother a lot earlier.”

> I was stationed in Maine by myself. I had flash cards. Every time I got a letter from the brethren about the services, I would make up flash cards with the scripture on one side and the book, chapter, and verse on the other. And I hit a lull where I had about 200 scriptures down pat, but I was getting more scriptures in than I could learn. A still, small, voice said, “Why don’t you get a candy bar?” I didn’t want a candy bar. I had scriptures to memorize. Then it came again: “Why don’t you get a candy bar?” So finally, I went. And I went to where the candy machines are, and there was this guy sitting there, just crying. He wasn’t even trying to hide it. And people were just walking by. So I talked with him, and calmed him down, and started a friendship. And all the way back to my room, I was kicking myself again.

There is always a way, if you pray.

What you sow, you’ll reap. Everyone knows that. How many have ever planted a garden?

> (Lots of hands)

How many have planted crops?

> (Only a few hands)

What you put in the ground, will grow. But if you don’t weed it, and fertilize it, and water it… I had one of those Topsy-turvy tomato things, and I had to water it twice a day in the summer. But it’s all of what you put into it that you get out of it. You can go happy-go-lucky along the wrong path, thinking it’s right, or you can put the effort into making sure. But one day, you’ll wind up in the middle of the dark, wondering how you’re going to get back on track.

There is something called “set and drift” when you’re navigating a ship in the Navy. The North Pole is not magnetic north. I don’t know if you knew that. And if you don’t set the difference when you need to, and check it, then you’re going to wind up a long way away from where you wanted to go. And then you’ll have to give an account.

You don’t give an account for me. You encourage me, and you have to give an account for that, but if I don’t take it, if I don’t enjoy it, if I don’t follow it, if I don’t read my scriptures, if I don’t pray, then what’s that to you? I’m looking out for Numero Uno. I’ve got to get my own soul to heaven. Don’t worry about the guy next to you. Your butt may be on fire because of what he’s doing. So? Maybe I’ll say something. Or maybe I’ll pray, “God, help my brother.”

> I was a relatively new Christian, two years saved. I finally got to go to my first ship. I was tickled pink to be part of the real navy. We go on deployment, and I bought a brand-new wristwatch. It had a feature that you could make it ring every so many seconds, or on the hour. At first, I set it every thirty minutes. Then I thought, “Well, that’s probably not enough.” So I set that thing, for my whole deployment, to chime every twenty minutes. And my buddy said, “Why does that thing keep beeping?” I said, “That’s to keep me from killing somebody.” And every time it chimed, I had a short prayer. Nothing long or exuberant; just “Lord, bless this brother.” Then it got to the point where it was annoying, and the prayer wasn’t heartfelt, so I turned it off. But twenty minutes later, I was praying. And then, I realized that my prayer was slacking off. I realized, “Wow, I haven’t prayed for maybe an hour or two.”

Nobody taught me in a Bible study, “You’ve got to buy a watch and set it to ring every twenty minutes to remind you to pray.” But being a Christian is like laying cement. You start out with the foundation.

The Bible doesn’t specifically say how to not be deceived. It tells you to seek and pray and study and read, but no specifics. It says, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.” But it does say a lot of things that you’re going to do if you are deceived.

I have a whole list of scriptures I didn’t have time to get to, because I told too many sea-stories. The Bible says that all nations will be deceived.

And from the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.

Wednesday Evening Service, 5/4/11

Songs

• Praise Song
• Power Of Praise
• When The Praises Go Up
• Majestic
• Better Is One Day
• Your Grace Is Enough

Message: Be Not Weary

Before I start the message, I’d like to ask you to think about something. Have you ever had a reaction to something that happened, and then been surprised at your reaction? Have you ever thought, “I never though I’d have that reaction.”

A short time after they passed a law limiting all highway speed limits to 55 miles per hour, I was driving along just like I always did, and a policeman pulled me over and gave me a ticket. About a week later, I was driving along the same road, doing the same thing, and another policeman pulled me over. The officer asked, “May I see your driver’s license?” And I said, “No.” So he asked, “Why not?” And I said, “Because some guy in an outfit just like yours took it from me last week.”

You can imagine that the conversation was not going in the right direction. The date was December 22nd. He said, “May I see your slip of paper?” Then, “May I see your registration?” I handed them over and said, “How would you like to be doing something useful, instead of bothering people who are trying to get from one place to another at a reasonable speed?” He said, “How would you like to spend Christmas in jail?” I paused for a moment, and said, “Officer, it occurs to me that I have badly mis-handled this situation, and I would welcome the opportunity to start over.”

What would cause a person to react so poorly? What would cause a person who normally responds in a responsible and Christian fashion to react so poorly on that day?

• You had a bad day?

No, that wasn’t it.

• You just didn’t agree with what was going on?

• You were hungry?

Yeah, my blood sugar could have been low.

• You were on some bad medication?

No, I think I was just… weary.

Now that you’ve heard the story and laughed a little bit at my expense, have you ever reacted spiritually in a way that you thought you’d never react? What happened? Did a wire come undone?

I want to talk to you about being not weary in well-doing. Jesus knew what would happen, and he endured it anyway. He even prayed in the garden, saying:

But the only way was that the savior would give his blood, willingly, for our sins. The perfect and blameless one dying for those who deserve blame.

There is a battle out there, and it affects our attitude. It makes us weary. It can get us down. And if we’re not careful, it will make us … I don’t want to say it. When I was a child, we called that “the S-word”. You just don’t say it.

But if we’re not careful, we’ll get weary, and lose track of where the line is between my will and thy will.

Saints, we have to get good at saying “Nevertheless, not my will but thy will be done.”

I reflect a lot on that time I got pulled over. I think, “What would make me so frustrated with the rules that I would act that way?” Does anybody remember when the Federal Government passed the law that mandated 55 miles-per-hour across the country? I remember that day. I had that little Dodge Duster. I was going about eighty. I thought that was a good idea. I saw the police car pull up behind me, and I thought, “I’m not pulling my foot off the gas until he makes me.” What would cause me to be that far off-center?

Sometimes we’re making those kinds of mistakes spiritually, and we don’t even know it. Sometimes we don’t have someone to call us on it.

So we celebrated Easter, and the death and resurrection of Christ. But is Christ alive in us in a way that people see Christ in us? Or do they not see any difference.

The Bible says that we are a city set on a hill. The purpose of us being alive is so that others would see Christ in us. It says to let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and go to your church. Right?

I hope I hear people shouting me down on that.

We’re not supposed to get the credit for our good works. It’s for the glory of God. So the devil comes and tries to steal our joy and make us weary in well-doing, to cloud our judgement on where the line is between “my will” and “thy will”.

In your day-to-day life, what are the battles and challenges and struggles?

• Trying not to curse people out.
• Wrath, anger, strife.
• Pride

• Road rage

  I know there’s a lot of you who wouldn’t get in a car with me now, after what I told you. You know this lady right here? She’s my mother-in-law. She said to my wife lately, “What’s up with Pete lately? He’s driving like a Grandpa.”

• Monotony, blah.

Are these real battles for Christians? Sure they are.

Before I start reading the list of the works of the list, I want to say that some of them are obvious. But some of them are so subtle that we can embrace them right in the middle of Bible study. Are you with me, in what I’m saying?

Adultery

Unlawful sex, as a married person. Fornication

Unlawful ses, as an unmarried person. Uncleanness

Being impure. The Bible says Laciviousness

Filthy wantonness. The devil wants us to want that which is not godly, that which is worldly. I’m old enough to remember TV shows like Dick Van Dyke, and Mary Tyler Moore, like Father Knows Best. If they showed a married couple going to bed at night, they showed two separate beds. Wow, has television changed! Some of you would say, “That’s an old-fashioned message, Pastor.” Maybe God is old-fashioned. What are some old-fashioned values?

• Chivalry
• Integrity
• Modesty
• Character
• Gentlemen
• Courtesy
• Servitude
• Honor
• Honesty
• Discipline

• Friendliness

  Those are some good, old-fashioned qualities, aren’t they? I think if Jesus walked the face of the earth, we might be surprised at what he’d look like.

Idolatry

Worship of idols. (I love that car!) It can happen. It can sneak up on you. I’m not going to get too specific, but I’ll ask if you’ve ever let something get between you and God. I’m not going to ask what it is. Uh-huh. If you’re not too careful, that can be an idol. It doesn’t have to be a statue. Sometimes idolatry can be in our garage, or on our television, or in our schedule. Have you ever had to put something away? Have you ever had to leave something alone? Maybe even a hobby. You had to put things in their place, so to speak. I have. One day I took the television out of our living room and put it in the garage for a while. And it wasn’t because there was something wrong on it; it was because I was spending too much time watching it, and I had to get my priorities right. If we’re honest, we’ll find that we’ve all slipped and got our priorities wrong, got our schedule out-of-whack. Witchcraft\ Sorcery\ Wrath

Sometimes wrath is visible, and sometimes it is invisible. I think we can all imagine that visible wrath. But what does invisible wrath look like? The Greek root-word, in this context, means “boiling agitation of feelings.” I’ve been angry at times and didn’t know why. Why do certain things make me angry? Why do we have wrath about certain things?

• I find it a rule in my own life that the things that bother me the most are the faults that I share. And maybe it’s because I inwardly rationalize, “I’m working on it; what’s your problem?”

  When you have that “boiling agitation” in your life, do you pray about it? Do you ask God, “Why does that upset me so much? Why does it make me so angry?”

  Somebody asked me, “How do I know if I’m doing good as a Christian? What can I use as a measuring-stick?” I told that person, “Read in the book of Galatians starting at verse 19 to the end of the chapter. See how many things you’re doing that you shouldn’t, and how many things you’re not doing that you should.” The person came back and said, “Wow!”

  We’re looking at qualities that we need to eliminate from our life. I believe that when we come to God, there are some negative qualities that God just takes from us. And I believe that others, we’ll just have to fight until we die. Strife

Contention or unrest. Strife will destroy any group that’s trying to do anything. And yet, the Devil tries to just drop those seeds of strife in our life every day. I started out this message by saying that I fight the same battles that you fight. But if we’re not careful, we’ll all make spiritual mistakes that can affect other people. And the Bible says that it’s better to have a millstone cast around our neck than to offend one of these little ones. Envyings

Some people are naturally more jealous than others. If you get angry when somebody else gets something that you want, and it’s not the only one… For example, when my wife Debbie and I were walking in a mall with Heather and Holly in strollers, we passed by a lady sitting on a bench, and she looked at us with great anger. I wondered what was the problem. We went by a second time, and it was worse. And the third time, it was way worse. So I asked her, “Have my wife and I done something to offend you?” She said, “I have wanted a child my whole life, and you have two!” My heart broke for this lady, but I didn’t have her children. So if you feel that way about something, there’s others like it. If someone got a new Cadillac, they’re still making Cadillacs. You’re thinking with deficit thinking. The devil has tricked you into thinking that somebody’s got your blessing. Murders\ Drunkness\ Revellings\

rioting.

And then after fourteen things he lists, he says “and such like.” So by the way, if it’s not one of these fourteen, anything else that’s not pleasing to God, don’t do that, either.

Now listen to Galatians 6, which immediately follows:

Brothers, if you see a man overtaken in a fault, that’s your chance to bless them, minister to them, guide them, direct them, restore them in the spirit of meekness.

This is the power of the body of Christ. We get a chance to minister to each other. Debbie has a quote hanging up that says,

> A friend is someone who knows your faults and loves you anyway.

She has another one that says,

> A friend hears the song of your heart, and when you forget it, sings it back to you.

I wonder how Peter felt when he found himself cursing in the town square, denying that he knew the Lord. He was one of those who walked closest to the Lord, and at one time said that he would never deny him. Perhaps it was that very boast that made him do it.

Sunday Morning Service, 5/1/11

Songs

• He That Dwelleth
• All The Earth Will Sing Your Praises
• High And Lifted Up
• Rejoice
• O Glorious Day
• Light The Fire Again
• Holy Is The Lord
• Jesus Messiah

Message: A Second Touch

– Pastor Hubert Ulysse

We all have been touched by the Word of God. It’s been a great experience for all of us. For some, it was last week. For some of us, it’s been years. But I think that we all need a second touch. For some of us, we need more than a second; we need infinite touches.

Go with me and read a story about Jesus:

So he touched the man’s eyes, and then he asked the man, “What do you see? Are you all right?

He saw, but he did not see right. Imagine seeing a man walking, but as a tree. If you saw men like trees, you would probably try to treat them as trees. In Haiti, you would want to cut them down to cook your food.

I don’t know how you were touched, but in many areas of your lives, we may need at least a second touch. What is it that would be common to all of us? I thought about the tongue. The Bible says that if a man can tame his tongue, he is a perfect man. Let me pause and ask the perfect men and women in this congregation to stand up. There’s not too many of us. It’s me…

> (As Pastor Ulysse looks around, all the ushers are crouching down.)

So this scripture is for all of us. We at least need a touch to see men clearly, to speak words that would edify and please God. For that to happen, we need a second touch.

When you call an ambulance for someone who is down, the first thing they check for is vital signs – signs of life. Our tongue is a vital sign. Anybody can check our tongue and say, “Hm… That person is spiritually alive.” Or they can check our tongue and say, “Hm… that person is dead, or nearly dead.” The tongue is a visible indication of what is inside.

As a parent, I want my kids to speak to me. I want to know what is going on. I find ways to ask questions that they can’t answer yes or no, but they have to explain what is going on. You should ask the same kind of questions of your brothers and sisters, so you could know what is going on. By the tongue, by the speech, you can know what is inside. The tongue reveals the heart.

I don’t want to speak of the tongue as just an organ. But the tongue is like communication. An average man speaks sixteen thousand words a day. I’m sure that for women, it is even more.

> (groans and scattered laughter)

I’m sorry. I grew up with twelve women, and I have five in the house. I know what I’m talking about.

If we cannot tame the tongue, we speak so many words a day that we need to be touched. And the Bible says that we cannot tame the tongue. Only Christ can do that.

I have also read that in our lifetime, we will influence one hundred and sixty seven people. Imagine what damage, or what good you can do. If everyone you influence can also influence that many, your influence is very, very important.

Of course we focus on the tongue and on words, but our communication is more than that. They say that only seven percent of our communication is the essence, or the words you choose. But thirty-eight percent is in the tonal quality, or how you say them. If I say (with a sigh), “Yeah, I’m in church again,” you know that I’m not very happy about it. But if I say it with excitement, “Yeah! I’m in church again!”, you know I’m excited to be here. And also five percent of our communication is our looks. Even in church, a look can say more than just a handshake.

The Bible says that is not what enters in, but what comes out of a man’s mouth, that defiles a man.

We read in Matthew 15 that Jesus’ disciples were being chastised by the elders for not washing their hands before they eat. And Jesus answered them, saying:

Hypocrites. Naturally, like I just said, whatever came out of the mouth comes from the heart. There is that connection. But we may argue that sometimes what comes out of the mouth is not true. You may lie. You may say good things out of a bad heart, and you may say bad things out of a good heart. When you don’t tell the truth, when you fake it, that’s called being a hypocrite. So with their mouths, with their lips they honor God, but the connection is not made.

Jesus’ disciples didn’t understand what he meant, so he explained:

Our tongue is the means by which sin has its way with us.

David prayed in Psalms:

David said, “I want a guard before my mouth. I want my lips to be watched over. I don’t want to just open the door.”

We talked one time about fasting from words. Once in a while, you need to try that. “In this subject, for this day and hour, I am going to fast from talking.” You will be amazed how much more spiritual you will become. If you are talking, you do not think, because by the time you think, the words are already out. This is what happens if you do not practice thinking first. So David said, “I want a guard. I want the doors of my lips to be watched over.”

Practice it. You’ll like it. I love the French way of doing it. They’re changing their politics right now, but the French are known for this. When there are two cases before them, they turn to one and say, “You are right, because of this and this…” And they turn to the other and say, “You are right, because of this and this…” And at the end, they don’t say anything. Sometimes you do have to say something. But when you do, be mindful of this:

Even when you have to speak, don’t try to be the first one to speak. Just because your words are few doesn’t mean your tongue is tame. You will still offend, whether you speak five thousand words, or ten thousand, or whatever.

Our spirituality can be tested by our tongue.

If you are around someone who doesn’t go to church, you can definitely tell by their tongue. There was an article in the news about a lady who was tailgating someone. She was really in a hurry, but the man in front of her wasn’t. So he stopped for a yellow light. The lady was expecting to cross the intersection after him, so she was mad. She started banging on her horn and she rolled down the window and shouted and cursed at this man. Then someone came to her window to talk to her. It was a police officer. He asked her, “Will you please step out of the car, Ma’am?” So she got out of the car nicely, and he took her to his car, and called for backup, and took her to the station, and took her fingerprints, and a statement, and finally let her go. She didn’t understand why they had picked her up in the first place, so the officer explained: “Well, I saw the bumper stickers on the car saying “Christian on board”, and “Praise the Lord”, and then I heard the way you were talking, and I thought, “Surely this woman has stolen someone else’s car.”

Your personality is known by your tongue.

Whatever you do should come out of your heart. So as long as it doesn’t, you are deceiving your own heart. Your words should definitely say what is in your heart. That’s why, if you cannot say the truth, you should not say anything. There is a saying, “I love my enemy who tells me the truth, more than my friends who will not.” What you really feel, you should be able to express. And if you don’t, you deceive your own heart, because you make your mouth to say what your heart is not saying.

You know what happened to the man who came to David and said that he killed Saul, when he did not. He paid for it. So whether you are deceiving your own heart or not, you will pay for it. You will be judged by every word that proceeded out of your mouth.

There is what is called the “prisoner’s dilemma.” You know when the police officer takes two to be interrogated, they question them separately. They are looking for the truth. The dilemma of the prisoner is this: If both confess, they will be free or have a very light sentence. But if one tells the truth and the other lies, the one who tells the lie will go free while the other will have a heavy sentence. So the prisoner says, “I would confess, but what if my partner lies? I will go to jail for a long time.”

Don’t you think it would be better if you were in the habit of telling the truth all the time?

When you are rebelling against a government, and they are after you, you may arrange in advance what you are going to say in case you get caught. So two men agree that they will never be in a cemetery. So each promises that if he gets caught, he will say that the other is in the cemetery. But when one of them got caught, the other reasoned, “Surely he will be pressured to tell the truth, and he will tell them that I will not be in the cemetery.” So he went to the cemetery.

The most vital thing that can happen to any of us is that we tell the truth. James encourages the church to be more willing to hear than to speak. He also said, “Not too many of you should run into this profession, because you will offend many. Many will not tell you the truth, and you will know them as hypocrites.” If you tell me nice things, will you also tell me the bad things, if they are the truth? We have to have people we can trust, who will tell us the truth. There are some people who only look for the negative, and we have to pay attention to that, too. That’s where wisdom comes in, and we have to learn to listen more than to talk.

If you’re from the South, you have a southern accent. Wherever I go, people say, “You have an accent. Where are you from?” I am an American, but at the same time, I am not. I was born and raised elsewhere. Do you know there is a story that Peter tried to hide himself by disguising his accent?

She wasn’t really sure, but she was suspicious. It wasn’t a strong accusation; she just mentioned it.

So it was simple. Peter just said, “Nah, I don’t know what you are talking about.”

That’s two witnesses. It’s getting more serious, now. And Peter took it very seriously. He denied it, but this time with an oath.

This was more than just, “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

“We have proof. Your speech tells everything about you; it betrays you. Your speech is a proof.”

So Peter began to curse and to swear.

The more you deny something, the deeper you go. First he denied it, and then when proof came, he began to curse and swear, but he just could not win.

That’s why I really like this scripture, talking about the perfect woman:

We need a second touch. It’s not anything you can I can do. It’s even worse when you don’t know it, because no man can tame the tongue. We walk around with this dangerous weapon, and if we are not aware of it, the next thing you know we will have blood on us. Jesus touched us, but trust me. You don’t want to see men as trees. You want to see clearly. You don’t want to deceive your own heart. We need that second touch. I hope you will think about it, and seek after it, because whether we realize it or not, we all need a second touch. God bless you.

Easter Sunday Service, 4/24/11

Songs

• I'm Amazed
• The Glory Of It All
• That's Why We Praise Him
• Christ Is Risen
• Bless The Lord
• My Chains Are Gone
• Lead Me To The Cross

Message

– Pastor Thomas

Last night I was praying and meditating on the service and asking God, “Is this really what we’re supposed to do?” I got sick from nerves. I couldn’t sleep. I was up all night long. I realize how important today is. I realize that throughout history, there have been others who said that they were God, reincarnated, miraculously born, resurrected. I studied about Noah’s sons. One of them, Nimrod, built the tower of Babel. When he died, his wife Samara claimed that he was a god, and that her illegitimate son was Nimrod reborn. When her son died, she had to think of something else. So later in history, Samara became Samaria, and the reborn Nimrod became the god Baal.

What is different between what we have and any of the other ancient religions? It’s real. Jesus lived and died and was seen by hundreds of thousands of people. It’s real; it’s fact; it’s not mythology. We worship a God that is not some hope, some dream, some nebulous thing. We worship a God that is so real. He’s right here, right now. If you reach out, he’s there to comfort your heart.

There’s a story about a man who was dying, and his daughter went to the pastor and said, “I want my dad to have a relationship with God before he dies.” The pastor talked to him, and God gave him a space of repentance, and he came out to church and got better for a while, then he got sick again and died. When his daughter found him, he was lying half out of bed, with his head on the chair that sat beside the bed. She said to the pastor, “I don’t understand what happened.” And the pastor said, “You always wanted your father to have a relationship with Jesus. Before he died, he laid his head on Jesus’ lap.”

Wherever you are, God wants to have that personal relationship with you.

Number one, they couldn’t understand what was happening; they did not believe. They had been travelling with Jesus for years, but they didn’t really have his words ingrained in their hearts and minds.

John Maxwell tells of buying a blazer from Nordstrom’s. He took it home and it didn’t really match what he bought it for. And when he wore it, it was a lint-magnet. So we wore it for about six months, and every time he saw it he remembered Nordstrom’s unconditional return policy. So he finally decided to take it back and see if they really mean it. A year and a half after he bought it, he took it back. You’ve got to have a lot of self-confidence to do that. But he had his story all ready, about the wrong color, and the lint, and everything. After he told his story to the store clerk, this big guy with a handlebar mustache just looked at him and shook his head and said, “What took you so long? Let’s find you a sports jacket you can use.” So he walked out of there with a sports jacket that cost $75 more than he paid for the old one, a year and a half earlier.

My Mom worked for a store like that once. This guy in the beginning of winter bought an electric blanket, and used it to heat the engine of his car. Every night he put it over his engine and turned it on, so that every morning he would be able to start his car. And guess what? It shorted out. So he took it back, and they exchanged it.

I know someone who bought something to use it for a project, and then took it back after the project was done. These stores make these promises, and some people take them at their literal word. But most of us treat them like God’s promises. We don’t take them at their word. We have something that we bought with a guarantee, and we’d like to take it back, but we just put it in the closet.

God has made a promise to us of eternal life. I wonder how many times he has said to us, “What has taken you so long?”

We hear promises on TV all the time, don’t we? We see this guy who is all buff and they say all you have to do is take a pill. Yeah, right. That pill won’t get you that body; there’s a whole lot of work that they don’t show.

This morning, I want to talk about three empty things that are full of promise.

1. The empty cross.
2. The empty grave.
3. The empty burial clothes.

The cross couldn’t contain him; the grave couldn’t hold him, and the burial clothes couldn’t bind him. We come in here and wear a symbol of God’s promise around our necks, but we never consider hot much that empty cross means.

The Empty Cross

If we could close our eyes and think of Jerusalem two thousand years ago, there is a hill just outside the city with evidence of crosses. Those crosses stood as a beacon of warning by the Romans, saying “Don’t mess with us.” There were times that the Romans killed so many people that for miles and miles, there was just cross after cross.

On the cross we have here today, you’ll see the crown of thorns that they used to drive thorns into Jesus’ head. The blood on the cross-member and down the post isn’t real; it’s stage bloods.

The soldier came to the cross the next day to break his legs, because usually they don’t die that fast. …

They made up a lie to cover up the truth about the resurrection of Jesus Christ, but Jesus really did die on that cross. There never really was any doubt.

We live in such a cold society; it’s so immune. It used to be when someone was killed for whatever reason, everyone stood back and kept a respectful distance. But now they run up and want to know all the gruesome details. They’ve been captivated by television and video games. When I went to Vietnam, it was hard for me to cope with death in that measure. By the time I came back, it didn’t even phase me.

When they took Jesus down, it was obvious to everyone that Jesus was dead. So they wrapped him up and took him to the tomb.

What is the promise of the empty cross? What has God given us with this piece of wood? This is the promise of redemption for our sins. In that Jesus died on that cross, our sins are remitted. Every one of us are sinners. If Jesus would have opened the book of life, beside our name it would have said, “Condemned. Guilty.” But after we accept the death of Jesus Christ, God transfers our sin to the account of Jesus Christ, and next to our name is written “Forgiven.” The empty cross teaches us, that:

Jesus is the only one who has lived an absolutely sinless life and sacrificed it for the world. We give a medal to those who risk their lives in combat. It’s called the Medal of Honor. Most of those who receive that medal can’t stand to receive it, because they’re dead.

We need to recognize Jesus Christ as savior, not just with words, but with our lives being surrendered to Christ.

That’s why the Bible says:

When he cried out, “It is finished,” the price was paid. There’s an angel with a pen who will cross out “Guilty” and write “Forgiven” next to our names. That gives me goose-bumps. Imagine being in prison, falsely accused. The warden calls everyone together and gives a speech about you being found innocent after all, and tells you that you’re free to go. Then afterwards, you just get back in line with the other inmates, because that’s the only life you’ve ever known.

God has forgiven you. Why don’t you get up out of your sinful life and accept the promise of that empty cross.

The Empty Tomb

The second empty cross deals with the tomb. We have a picture of a place called the Garden Tomb in Israel. It’s one of those places where they say “Jesus was buried here.” He probably wasn’t, but it’s just like the place that he was buried. When you go in, there’s a sign that says, “He is not here.”

When Mary and Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, they really didn’t have time to prepare, because from sundown to sundown was their Sabbath.

At the entrance to the tomb was a channel about a foot wide. But the Bible says that they sealed it. I don’t know whether they cemented it or plastered it, but they sealed it. But these women loved their master so much, that they took what they needed and went there anyway. When they got there, the guards were laying down as dead men, and the stone was rolled away. An angel was there, and said:

And then that angel invited those ladies to come in. That empty tomb gives us the same promise, that we will be able to rise from the grave and have eternal life. The grave won’t be able to hold us.

The Bible says that God created us guys out of the dust of the earth. Ladies, you’re more precious, for he took a rib out of our side and made you. That’s why they call us guys “dirtbags.” The Bible says we will return to the dust from whence we came. What’s going to be resurrected isn’t the body that you have sitting there in that chair. I don’t know if there’s going to be nationalities and races and overweight people in heaven; I don’t care; I just want to be there.

That empty tomb gives us the promise that when Christ comes home and the trumpet blows, we will be changed. The amazing thing isn’t that Christ died; it’s that he rose again and lived. That sealed stone couldn’t hold him.

For those ladies, that stone was a problem. They were worried about it. But when they arrived, the angel was sitting on it. What problems do you worry about? God just sits on our problems. Why don’t we enjoy the time we’ve got right now? Amen? We don’t know what tomorrow is going to hold, but we do know who holds tomorrow. We’ve got to learn to trust him enough to realize that the empty grave is a promise that we can use today to live our lives in victory and comfort.

Burial Clothes

I don’t know if you were ever robbed, but the church has been, a couple of times. They just run in, grab something, and run out. They don’t care about the mess they leave behind, or how much they break in the process. They claimed the disciples of Jesus stole his body. Do you think that they were going to run past the guards, grab the body and unwrap it? It would have been a snatch-and-grab. So the empty grave-clothes prove that the body of Jesus wasn’t stolen; it was risen. And the empty clothes just dropped to the ground and lay there.

The world binds to us troubles, cares, and worries. It prohibits us from living a spiritually powerful life. Boris Karloff in the mummy movies was bound up; he couldn’t walk. He couldn’t move his hands.

Satan tries to bind us with the cares of the world, prohibiting us from living victorious. Worry is a spiritual killer. When they told me I had cancer … what does Satan throw in there? All the “what if’s”. I told Bruce, “If anything happens to me, I have some paperwork in this drawer.” Nobody knew what would happen, because there was this huge growth. But I said to God, “Whatever happens, happens.” After the first surgery, they had to go back in again. My daughter said I was like a Pez dispenser. Then they said I’d have to go through radiotherapy. But worrying didn’t make it any better. Church, you alone can control the peace that God puts in your life. God wants to have a personal communion with you. He wants to embrace you. After he was resurrected, he sat down and communed with his disciples. He talked with them; he ate with them; he healed with them. And Jesus wants to do all of those things with you today.

Not bad for a dead guy. Have you ever seen one of those old Western pictures where they put the dead guy in a coffin and propped it up in town for everyone to look at? There wasn’t any television, so people would just go to town and look at who got shot last week.

They didn’t put the body of Jesus out on display; he walked up to them and ministered to them. Jesus wants to take away your troubles and cares and wash them away at the foot of the cross. Jesus wants to know that sin is not binding you.

Somebody give me a famous football player.

> **

How many of them have knocked on your door and come in and supped with you? But Jesus will. If you will just open that door, he’ll come in and have a relationship with you. What an awesome God! Easter is more than just candy and fancy clothes and colorful stuff. I put a brief history of Easter on our website. One of the stories was about the Easter bunny. Why do they have Easter egg rolling? It symbolizes the rolling away of the cross from the grave. There are some crazy stories out there. And unfortunately, that’s what people are thinking of.

As for me, I can’t wait for Jesus to come and return, for he is alive.

As the women went to that grave, they had no idea what would transpire. They could see from a distance the empty cross. They had their concerns about the tomb. But when they got there, they saw the empty grave and the empty burial clothes.

We’re on a journey, and you might not know everything that will happen on that journey. You have a knowledge of what Jesus has said to you, as he touched and ministered to you. I remember all those hotel rooms where we used to gather and pray, and angels used to minister to us. Angels used to minister to us in cars, and it used to glow. You just wanted to fall on your knees on the floorboards. We serve a living God. Get out of the rut of religion; get out of the rut of going to church. The cross, the grave, the burial clothes are full of promise.

Are you going to take Jesus at his word? Or are you going to sit there with a stained life that doesn’t match what you want, that attracts all kinds of empty stuff, and wish you could trade it in?

Today, if you’re never acted on the promises of Easter, God is standing there and saying, “what has taken you so long?” Don’t wait another day. Today is the day of your salvation.

Good Friday Service, 4/22/11

Songs

• Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing
• I Will Follow
• Our God
• Declare Your Name
• You Are Worthy Of My Praise
• Everlasting God
• Worthy Is The Lamb
• How He Loves
• We Fall Down

Message:

– Pastor Thomas

My wife says I like the History Channel too much. They had a program that showed rescue swimmers learning how to “buddy-breathe”. They were in really deep water, and the instructor was trying to get them to realize what it would be like, in the middle of the ocean, in a storm, trying to rescue somebody. But despite the training, they all say that there’s nothing like the first day you have to deal with a real situation.

Have you ever experienced something for the first time, and you were trained for it, but the training was nothing like the real thing?

There was also the prophecy in Psalms:

And then from Zechariah:

Christ at the age of twelve went to Jerusalem with his family for the Passover, and when they couldn’t find him on the return-home trip, they searched and found him in the midst of doctors, discussing the law, asking and answering their questions. He knew the law; he knew what would transpire, even at the age of twelve. He lived his life, and started his ministry as a young man, and just before he died, we read:

What transpired right after that, that Matthew didn’t write about, but John did:

When Jesus was looking at his disciples, when he broke the bread, he knew exactly what would transpire. He knew that he would be beaten and crucified on the cross, a spear cast into his side. He knew all that when he gave bread to the one who would betray him, and the one who would deny him, and to the other ten who would run and hide to protect themselves. Then after he broke the bread with them, he got down on his hands and knees, because you can’t was someone’s feet while standing up. Jesus got down on his hands and knees and washed the feet of traitors, deniers, and cowards. Why did he lower himself to do that? Knowing what kind of people these were, knowing what they would do, why would he serve them? Jesus knew what they would do, but he loved them in spite of it.

How many times have you said, “Well! See if I ever do anything for you again!” We’ve all said it from time to time, and meant it at the time. But Jesus served as our example of forgiveness for sins, and how to serve one another.

There are those who don’t want to be around us when we’re making tough stands for the gospel. Every one of us has played one of those parts at one time or another, so we need to minister to one another and stop judging one another. We need to look at our spiritual reasons for coming to church. I don’t come here because I’m the pastor; I do this because I’ve fallen in love with the Lord and I want to do what he calls me to do. He calls me to serve you.

What part do you play? Do you come because you’re an usher, or a singer, or whatever part you play, or do you come here because God has called you to serve?

Jesus understood all this, but I’m sure that when they chained him to that post and started beating him, he didn’t think, “I was prepared for this.”

Regardless of how anyone treats us, we are still called to serve, on our hands and knees if need be, and minister to them.

You know that after Jesus did all this, they went over to the valley of Kidron and stood over the grove of olive trees, and heard the sermon recorded in John 14 and 15. I want to break down this message that Jesus gave:

He just told his disciples, “I’m going to go on this journey. I’m going to prepare a place for you.” If you can imagine not understanding what he’s talking, they were probably thinking, “Let us go for you. We’ll go and prepare everything and tell you when it’s done.”

Jesus goes on to describe that all he did, it wasn’t him that did it; it was God in him that did it. And if you had seen Jesus in what he did, you would have seen the Father. He was reinforcing who he is: God in the flesh. Not a prophet, like the Muslims say, or an imaginary person, like some of the atheists say. He was God in the flesh.

He goes on to tell them about the Holy spirit, but he starts off by saying:

There are those who say we should not get caught up in legalism, and I agree wholeheartedly. But there are some very clear directions that God has given us to walk in his path.

If you want to get our announcements, you can go to our website and sign up for them. But God wasn’t asking them to sign up for anything. He was asking, “Are you keeping my commandments? Do you love me? Are you keeping your body as a temple of the Holy Ghost?”

Listen to the next question:

How is it that Jesus will manifest himself to his people, and not to others? Why do I go to my home at night? Why do you go to yours? Why don’t you just go to somebody else’s house and say, “Hey, what’s for dinner?” You go to your own house because that’s the place you have prepared for yourself. Church, we are prepared to receive the Lord. He is not going to the house of a stranger.

Then he goes on to talk about the comforter.

When Jesus was preparing his disciples for what would happen, he tells them, “Look at what I’ve gone through. The path to go where I’m going is to love one another. And I’ll give you a comforter to help you along the way.”

The next chapter starts off by telling us what Jesus expects us to do.

He goes on in verse eight:

If you love the Lord; if you are the indwelling place of the Holy Spirit, then you are going to bear. What kind of fruit? Not ten o’clock Sunday morning. That isn’t fruit. You are to bring forth profitable things for the Lord. The story in Isaiah tells about gathering the stones, and using them to build a path and a tower, and planting a vine, and building a wine press in expectation of the fruit that those vine branches would bear. God has prepared you with the best he has to give, and now he is expecting a harvest. The harvest is going to be the result of your testimony; it’s going to be you going out to win souls for Christ. Jesus healed the ten lepers and one came back; don’t grumble because you shared with a couple of people and nobody did anything.

He said in Isaiah, “I planted the best. How come you have become worthless?” God doesn’t always put us in the midst of the best people, but do you realize that you weren’t always that nice, either? You were ugly, you were smelly, you were dirty, spiritually. Some, physically. God sent us out to minister to you. Are you the messenger that God has for somebody else? How much difference could it make to the future of the world? They say that there is a sphere of two hundred people that reaches around the world. You know two hundred people, and each of those know two hundred, and mathematically, it reaches around the world.

There was a gem show last week in Virginia Beach that I really wanted to go to. I remember another gem show where an amateur gemologist went to the ten-dollar table and saw a rough stone in the bin. He said, “You’re going to sell this for ten bucks?” The guy said, “Yeah, it’s the last day; give me five.” So the guy paid five dollars for a stone that turned out to be worth over a million dollars.

Do you really know what you have in Jesus? Do you really see the value that lies in somebody else’s life? We’ve got to stop looking at the flesh and start looking at what Jesus sees in the heart of man.

Then he says that you are going to be hated and despised. He says, “They hated and crucified me. What do you think will happen to you?” So first he tell us to bring forth fruit, and then he says we’ll be hated for it. And he starts of chapter sixteen by saying:

Don’t be offended when these things happen to you. You should expect them.

Is that not what the apostle Paul was doing, while he was still named Saul?

God has told us, church. It’s just as valid today as it was when Jesus told his disciples, standing in the garden across from Jerusalem. When you stand in that garden, you see the wall of what now is the dome of the rock, but then it was the temple. Jesus was telling them, “It’s going to start with my crucifixion, and you’re going to deny me and run away, but I’ll love you anyway. And I’m going to go and prepare a place for you, and expect you to bear fruit. But I’ll also expect you to love one another. And people will hate you and persecute you, but I’ll still expect you to bear fruit.

Jesus still tells this to us today. Someone may come against you because of your faith. We don’t know exactly what will happen, but we know that God has prepared us. And if we are living in the spirit and not reacting according to the flesh, we’ll be ready. How often do we react according to the flesh? But live your life spiritually, because all of this will someday go away. Don’t let what life gives you hinder you from getting what God has for you. We’ve got to go through what we go through before we get home. Let’s make sure we receive the harvest. Let us not worry or fret, but let us love one another and keep God’s commandments. And let us do all that God has required of us. Let us love one another.

Wednesday Evening Bible Study, 4/20/11

Songs

• Awakening
• How Can I Keep From Singing

Exploring Joseph’s Story

Part 14: Today’s Decision is Tomorrow’s Destiny

– Pastor Ulysse

Last time we left with Jacob. He had met with the two sons of Joseph. And now we see him in his last days. He said,

He is about to tell them what would happen to them. Would you like to know what would happen to you? Especially if you knew you were not right? Everybody wanted to be there; it was like the reading of a will.

I underestimated this chapter; we will have to come back to it as a series by itself. Everything I read in this chapter, I see in the church today, as we are also the children of Abraham by faith. Every one of us tonight should find something in this chapter; we all belong to one of those tribes. Now it is said, (I don’t know if it is true or not; I would have to ask Jim), that you don’t teach old dogs new tricks.

> No, you can.

I am glad, because Jacob knew their character, and most of what he was saying was based on their character. I know my children. I will not pronounce their blessing right now, but I will not be surprised at what they will become.

It is also said that if you have habits that you don’t fix before forty, after forty you will have them for life. So Jacob being with them for so long, he figured “Well, they are not going to change any more; that’s it.” But some of you are still young, spiritually. Some of you can change.

Jacob told them by looking back at his children’s lives. That’s why we say, “Today’s decision is tomorrow’s destiny. There is a time when we have to change course, when we have to stop, when we have to accelerate, or whatever. But we can not go on without paying attention to our behavior, because it will affect us for the rest of our lives.

I can tell you that I have a better future right now because I look back and see my mistakes; and I work with caution right now, so I do not make those mistakes. I expect a better future, because I will not repeat the mistakes of the past. Unfortunately, if you are young, you look to the future, because you do not have any past to look back on. That’s why you should have older people around you, so you can benefit from their experience.

Jacob started with Reuben the eldest, and finished with Benjamin the youngest, but he didn’t exactly go by age. He went in order by their respective mothers. I think he did that because that was easiest for him to remember.

So whenever he started with each one, he started with the main character that one had. As we read, I want you to look and decide to which tribe you belong.

Unstable as water. That was his quality; that was his character.

He could not control his emotion. He was up and down, up and down. We need to control our emotion, because it will affect our life. You have to have self-control. Reuben was unstable, but he was talented. He was strong and so forth, but he did not have the blessing, although he was the firstborn. You can see that he was unstable by remembering how he proposed to his father that he kill his sons if he failed to bring Benjamin back. He was unstable because he was double-minded.

Some people are unstable because they have too many choices. I like having only one or two suits and only one or two shoes, because it makes my choices easier.

Reuben was unstable, and he did not have the respect of his brothers. He was the first, but he did not act like it. When they were about to sell Joseph, he told them not to, but they did not listen to him. They went and sold Joseph behind his back. If they had respect for him, then they would have said, “Well, Reuben said no, so we will not.”

When I was in Haiti, I lent my clothes to a senator. We were friends, but when this man was at home, he had no respect. At work, he was a great man, but at home, his wife and children gave him no respect. He came to me one day and said, “Pastor, I need to talk to you. Nobody at my house respects me. What do you do to get respect from your family?” I don’t know. You have to earn it. You have to respect yourself first. If you have to ask for respect, then you haven’t earned it.

Stability comes from oneness of mind. Have focus, and you will be stable.

I think they caught an animal’s legs, and they killed a man, and you know the story; they went and revenged their sister. But their quality is self-will. They don’t listen to anyone. They think of something, and it sounds good, and they went and did it. And you know that when they revenged their sister, they put everyone in trouble. They had a strong bond of brotherhood, which you would think to be a good thing, but when they went together to make trouble, it was a bad thing. So Jacob said that he would separate them.

Levi at the end became a priest, and that was because he changed. He was the only one to stand and come back; so he earned that. It was a privilege, and God’s grace was still there. We should not be discouraged because a blessing or a cursing is upon us. There is always a chance. Of course, Jacob is saying, “These are the final words. There isn’t anything you can do about it; this is the path you chose, and this is the path where you will end.” What if you have a bad habit or whatever and you say, “I am over forty; no one can teach an old dog new tricks.” No, there is always a chance. Whatever major things I have in my life, I see it, but I cannot do anything about it. But it helped me, because I am not surprised. I am expecting it; I say “Where is it?” I am ready for it to be behind me. Jacob said, “There is nothing you can do; that’s it.” But God can still change things.

Judah’s name meant “praise”. Isn’t that great? So some of us are unstable; some of us are self-willed; but some of us give praise. Judah was the one to gain the birthright. So birth order does not determine the blessing. If you are firstborn but you are unstable, uncontrollable, or self-willed, then you will lose it. Judah proved his character and stability when he gave his speech in front of Joseph. The Bible says “show yourself approved,” whether you are the firstborn or the last.

Jesus taught his disciples not in a classroom, but by letting them follow him. This is how we prove ourselves, by doing what Jesus did, or what our parents did, or what our teachers did.

This is the gift of caring. His job was to care. Being a haven, he was a safe place to be. So it was a port, a safe place, a consoling place, a comforting place, a refuge. He was like a lighthouse. Some of us have this character. We may not be the praised one, or the unstable one, or the self-willed one, but we may be the safe one.

Issachar was the lazy one. Unfortunately, spiritually, some of us are from this tribe.

I’m not sure you can understand this more than I can, because I grew up with donkeys. They can be walking along just fine, and the next thing you know, they drop down with their loads, and they will not get up. You can beat them and shake them and shout at them, but they will not get up. When you are buying a donkey, you have to find out whether the people are selling them because they have this bad habit. When the donkey is down, they still have this load. So they are strong, but lazy. This is those of us who only want the easy path. You are searching for whatever is easier.

You become the servant when you could become the master. I know some people who will not take responsibility because they want time. They want to go home and have it easy. So this is the tribe of Issachar.

Now you have Dan, of whom it was said that he would be the judge of his people. But when you look at it, it does not sound like a positive thing.

That’s not good. This is what you would call a “backbiter.” This is like slandering. This is like being judged, but not according to facts, not according to knowledge. It is not righteous judgment. We know for sure that he is one who will be like a serpent and make the rider fall backward. That is not a good way to fall. Falling forward is better. And he stopped right there and said,

He realized, “My time is come. I’m going for real.” This is the first time that salvation is mentioned in the Bible, and Jacob saw glory in it. He is telling them what will take place, but as for him, he sees a much better place.

And he says of Gad, “You are the overcomer.” Some of us will be overcomer. We will always find things to humble us, but we will overcome them at the last. You know that the Bible says that all those who will live righteous shall suffer persecution, but if you are of the tribe of Gad, you will overcome.

He says that Asher shall be fat of bread. You know that it is said there are not many rich among us. You read about the national debt being something like 400 trillion dollars, but there are less than 300 million people, so why don’t they just give each of us one million? Do you think that will be good for the country?

So Asher was rich, and wherever you have givers, you also have takers. Remember when David prayed, “Let me be neither rich nor poor.” I think it is good that they don’t give each of us one million. Some of us would not go to work. So Asher was the one who was materially blessed, and he blessed others.

These are the joyful Christians. They always have a smile for you, and they stand fast in the liberty of God. There is nothing so bad that they could not give you good words. They are free. Being free, you feel free, and you have nothing hindering you. That’s Naphtali.

Of course, Joseph has been blessed, like Psalms 1:1. His branches are so blessed that people come by and take the fruit of them. And the other quality is that he does not retaliate. God held him from showing his human nature. He had his human nature, but he held back. That’s what happens, if we can. There is a saying in Creole about Thermos Christians. You fill up a Thermos with hot water, and it stays hot. But you can also fill it with cold water, and it stays cold. Some Christians are in church and they are nice, but if you see them outside of church, they are somebody else. But Joseph demonstrated his true transformed nature; he truly became that new creature, and so he received the blessing.

Benjamin was a tough fighter. Both Sauls came from him.

So this is the character of the children of Israel. I hope and pray that you can get something out of it, and put yourself spiritually with one of the sons of Israel. Remember it says,

Everybody got blessed. Think about what kind of blessing you would get, and what kind of blessing you would want to have.

Finally, Jacob told them about his death and where he wanted to be buried. I want you to look with me at what he said about his burial site:

That’s where he wanted to be buried. Doesn’t that say anything to you? Remember where he got Leah from? He was tricked. That wasn’t fair to him. He wasn’t happy about it. He spent so many years for the beautiful one, and they gave him the ugly one. The Bible says that, not me. The Bible says you couldn’t even look at her straight. So he had to work seven more years for Rachel. But now this man is about to die, and he asked to be buried by Leah, instead of Rachel. I know us guys have been tricked. The ladies get us by words or however. I don’t remember how I was tricked, but once you are trapped, that’s it. Because God can turn things out. The option is there, “Because I was tricked, I can get a divorce.” But not so. Jacob made a wise choice, because at the end, Judah came from Leah, and Jesus came from Judah. If you have a marriage, stay in it, regardless of how it got started. It’s like having a child. It is not an accident. I thought about how I was conceived, and I was an accident, but I wasn’t an accident.

I want you to think about how you can maximize your abilities so you can maximize your fruits. This will change the rest of your life. There may come a time when you will hear “Well done,” or else… We want to control our behavior. If we want to get Joseph’s blessing, then we know what we must do. If we want to have Judah’s blessing, then we know what we must do. There is a difference between engaging yourself and just participating. Try to engage. Take initiative.

There is a verse in John:

I would like to have that gift, to be free to preach or whatever. We need to abide in God’s word.

This is a great chapter; I hope you will go back to it and get what I cannot explain. If you spend time in it, you will think, “Oh, my goodness. What if I were one of them?” And if you are the wrong one, then you still have a chance, because God’s grace is there until you die. But be aware of what tribe you belong to.

Sunday Morning Service, 4/17/11

Songs

• Hosanna
• O Praise Him
• How Great Is Our God
• Mighty To Save
• Your Grace Is Enough
• Hosanna Forever

The Triumphal Entry

– Pastor Paine

It’s Palm Sunday; we’re just one week from Easter, and it’s an exciting time to be in church, amen? I’d like to spend some time today looking at the scriptures of how Christ spent his last days on earth. He spent that time with his disciples, with those who seek him, with those who loved him. As we begin this walk, Jesus is approaching Jerusalem and he foretells his death. He is speaking to those he spent the most time with.

Imagine you are there with Christ, and you’re saying, “This is it! This is what we’ve all looked forward to.” They didn’t know what Christ knew.

So Christ speaks to his disciples; he tells him what is about to happen. It’s been written, but their understanding has not been opened yet. It had to be said, but the understanding would not yet come.

Sometimes we just don’t understand the present moment we’re in, the here-and-now, the why of what’s happening. We’re like Paul with his thorn in the flesh. Paul knew he had a thorn; he sought the Lord not once, but three times. Paul knew God was able, so three times he came to the Lord and said, “Remove this thorn that is in my flesh.” Sometimes the understanding doesn’t come in the hour we want it. Paul got his answer in due time, and it wasn’t late; it was right on time. One of the questions I want to ask God when I get to heaven is, “Did you answer Paul the first and second time, and did he just not hear it?”

Back in Luke, the disciples understood the blessings that were about to come, but they didn’t understand the suffering. Matthew Henry wrote, “They had read the Old Testament many times, but they were so intent on those prophecies that spoke of his glory, that they overlooked those that spoke of his suffering.”

Maybe that’s good. Have you ever looked back on a trial or tribulation in your life and said, “I’m glad I didn’t see that coming. I would have left town. I would not have stood for it. I would have stayed home sick.” But we realize in the months and years to come that it happened exactly like God wanted it.

Can you picture the blind man? It doesn’t sound like every other day of the week. The blind man can’t see, but he knows something is different. He says, “I know something is different; tell me what it is?”

Somehow this blind man knew, and he cried out, “Have mercy on me.” This blind man knew exactly what he needed, and he knew who could give it.

And they which went before rebuked him, So he sat there quietly.

> (No!)

No? I think it was altogether in decency and in order that he cried out. But somebody didn’t. “Jesus is coming. You’re just a poor, blind beggar. Have some respect.”

What happened? “And Jesus stood.” He stopped.

Jesus stopped the procession. You think that some of those who told the blind man to be quiet were saying, “Yeah, you’re gonna get it now!”

Do you think that Jesus had to ask this question? But the man had to answer it.

That was the most pressing issue in his life at the moment.

And in a few months…

> (scattered laughter)

Some of you are cheating. You looked at the scripture.

And I imagine that some of those who rebuked him said, “Well, I didn’t really mean to be quiet, I meant…”

Some of you have a need that you haven’t cried out. I need your help. Would you help me?

> Yes!

I want everybody in this section to look at everybody in this section and say, “Somebody has a need but they haven’t cried out!”

> Somebody has a need, but they haven’t cried out!

I want everybody in this section to look at everybody in this section and say, “Somebody has a need but they haven’t cried out!”

> Somebody has a need, but they haven’t cried out!

Now, I want everybody in this section to look at everybody in this section and say, “Somebody has a need but they haven’t cried out!”

> Somebody has a need, but they haven’t cried out!

Now, I want everybody in this section to look at everybody in this section and say, “Somebody has a need but they haven’t cried out!”

> Somebody has a need, but they haven’t cried out!

Do you have a need? I have a need. Put your hand up if you have a need.

> (Every hand raised)

Something happened a few years ago. I had a message; I had a joke; I was ready for rave reviews. We got to the song before the message; we sang that song for an hour. We had an altar call; people prayed and spoke in tongues; people got blessed. Somebody said the preacher didn’t preach, but oh, yes he did! God was the preacher that day, and he just blessed.

Do you have a need? Who would be so bold to shout out, “God bless me?”

> God bless me!

Say it with me: God bless me!

> God bless me!

God, I have a need!

> God, I have a need.

So what will you do when you say, “Lord, I have a need?” Some of you will say, “I need a healing in my heart.” Somebody will say, “I need a healing in my lungs.” Somebody will say, “I need a wife. I need this empty hole in my life to be filled.” Debbie, you worked in a bank. Who else has worked in a bank? Did they teach you anything about recognizing counterfeit bills? They teach you, don’t they? I think that at my age, at some time I held in my hand a counterfeit bill. But I suspect it’s possible that at sometime in my life, I had a counterfeit bill pass through my hands. Do you think that’s possible?

If we’re not careful, we’ll get some counterfeit communication, and we won’t know it’s counterfeit. This blind man received some counterfeit communication. He was blind, but he knew who could give him sight.

Saints, if you have a need, don’t let anyone stand in the way of your blessing. If you have a need, cry out to God. You don’t have to be a loud-mouth like me, but in your own way, you need to cry out. Maybe you’ll be like the apostle Paul, and God will say, “You think that’s what you need, but it’s not.” My dad said to me once, “Peter, you think that’s what you need, but what you really need is a good, old-fashioned whipping.”

The blind man received what he asked for because he had faith. Perhaps he had heard stories of others who had been healed. Perhaps he had heard the scriptures foretelling of one who could heal. But what he also had, was a sense of urgency. He wasn’t willing to wait for his blessings; he wanted them now. Somebody here needs a sense of urgency. I know that patience is a virtue, but God wants you to be blessed. There are lots of times that I cried out to God with a sense of urgency and God told me I was wrong. God said, “Go this way, not that way.” But this sense of urgency is not a bad thing.

I want to read another story of a man with a sense of urgency, but this was not for eyesight; this was for salvation.

“And when Jesus came to the place,” did Zacchaeus hold up a billboard, or shout? No. Some people wonder, “If I don’t shout, will Jesus notice me?” You may have to climb a Sycamore tree, but if you have a sense of urgency, Jesus will notice.

Can’t they give Jesus a break? You know what? Christians, you’ll be misunderstood. You’ll reach out to a sinner, and someone will misunderstand you. Jesus reached out to a man who, by today’s standards, was a sinner. Some people said, “I think we ought to go tell Jesus who he is.” I think Jesus already knew.

Zacchaeus was a man of great wealth, and he had heard of Jesus.

Zacchaeus was diligently seeking the Lord. So I’m asking you today, are you diligently seeking him? I’m not asking you if you came to church on Sunday. I can see that you did. Coming to church on Sunday doesn’t mean you’re diligently seeking the Lord. Avoiding all the wrong things and doing the right things doesn’t mean you’re diligently seeking the Lord. Making your pastor proud of you doesn’t mean you’re diligently seeking the Lord. What does diligently seeking the Lord mean?

> With all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

I’m going to ask a specific question. Has any parent ever had the thought, the experience, that you had lost your toddler child? Any parent? About five or six.

I thought I had lost our son Adam one day. I was diligently seeking my son. Can I tell you that nothing would stand in my way? Not a policeman; not a brick wall. For those five or six minutes, nothing could stop me. And I want to tell you, no harm was done; no foul. He had got in the car with his grandpa, and he thought we knew, but we didn’t.

How are you seeking the Lord? “Well, if he comes by today…” You know, I didn’t sit in my office and say, “Has anyone seen Adam?”

The message today is, if you haven’t diligently sought the Lord, and you have a need, then you need to diligently seek him.

Somebody here today needs a blessing, and this message is about Jesus finding you, and you finding Jesus.

Let’s move on to the parable of the pounds, the parable of the talents. God wants us to multiply the talents that he has given us.

God wants us to occupy until he comes.

He teaches us that a day will come when we ill give account.

In verse 17, you’re done.

In verse 27, you’re done.

God loves us, but that love is not without consequences. God expects us to do something with what he gave us. God tells us of the man who took his talent and put it in a napkin. Was God pleased with that?

> No!

I pulled into the driveway this week, and saw my neighbor going out to get the mail. We waved at each other, and the Holy Spirit pricked my heart to go and talk to him. I looked at my watch and tried to ignore it, but the Holy Spirit said, “Go and talk to him.” We had a very spiritual conversation. And as I walked away, I said, “Lord, help me to not resist. I don’t want you to have to tell me twice, and I don’t want you to have to tell somebody else.”

Saints, Jesus was willing to suffer for you. Are you willing to diligently seek for him? Cry out to God. Draw nigh to him, and he will what?

Jesus is come. We know that we’re looking in history, and we know what will happen in the days ahead. But I’m saying to you, cry out to Jesus. Diligently seek him, and receive the blessing he has for you.