Friday, December 19, 2014

Hope- will you be perfect

Opening song: Jesus Saves (340)
Scripture reading: math 24:13
Topic: Hope- PERFECTION 3
Closing song; Hold fast till I come (600)




The promise
Of all the promises in the bible the one that seems to sum them all up, is that the Lord is coming for his people. It is the hope of the ages.

So often we hear the Coming of Christ presented in a fearful way, that he is coming to destroy the wicked, and with his coming there will be dreadful events….but I say to you…yes he is coming, and there may be some terror associated with that…but focus on this...He is coming to destroy sin and the grievous, wearisome, horrifying, loathsome effects of sin, But even greater than that,….. But even greater than that….He is coming to get his redeemed from the earth.

Unless you are one of those who has made a league with the Devil….This should be fabulous news!

We, especially thos we who find themselves in church today, should rejoice because he is coming to take US from this sad, dreary, sin cursed Earth, and take us to a place where there is peace evermore.

Doesn't this make you feel happy?

Well for those of us who are keeping his commandments and who are exercising faith towards his promises. (Rev14:12) this is ecstatic news this should make you want to jump from your seat and shout Hallelujah!!!!!

Just imagine….

No more bills, no more aches/pains, no more stress, no more sadness, no more suffering, no more death, no more Sin!!!!!!

It seems some of you are still not happy!

Why is this?

Is it that you don’t count yourself worthy?
The sad truth is, that we often come to church to have someone shout from the pulpit insults that further beat up our already battered emotions.

This should not be the case
Some of you might be saying, but I have sinned, as such, I am a sinner and I am un worthy.

Ok…so we know we are guilty…after all Adam was our father.

We don’t need to be degraded and put down any further.

These thoughts are not good thoughts, and I dare to add that they are from Lucifer from himself

So that I am not misunderstood...I’m not saying we are not sinners… this declaration is true. If you or me do not first come to the consciousness that we are sinners neither of us can be saved; for Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost i.e. sinners. Luke19:10

So it is good to recognize that you are a sinner, however confessing this fact is only half of the function of the law.

The other aspect is to recognize your need for a Savior.

The sinner needs a savior.  ..and that is what the Lord wants to do....The Lord is not seeking your destruction, but He is seeking your redemption.

Read with me

Jeremiah 29:11   For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.


God loves us “so” much
I can just imagine Him looking to the Earth with longing eyes, anxiously awaiting the time to run off so He can be once again united with His church, with no dark glass in between.

Can’t you see it?

Just as the Father of the prodigal looked out each day for his way fairing son….as soon as you turn to God, he has His outstretched arms wide open in an expectant hug, to welcome His child.

God really, really really loves you….

There is no greater love in heaven or in Earth, such as the love that God has set upon you…

The bible doesn’t say God loved us (john3:16)

It says God so loved us...this love was so vast that only the adverb “so” could be used to describe it….

Picture a child trying to describe how much he loves His Mommy.

He can only so I love you “So” much…An immense feeling that only an infinite word could really harness the extent of the love felt.

Jesus Is in the saving business
As a result, the only thing that God wants to do is save us.

He paid the greatest price….He made you then He paid more, abundantly more, than we are worth. To Ensure that He could get us.

Picture a man wanting a particular gift for his wife at an auction, when the bid started out at $0.50 cents. The man’s first bid is $1 billion. (with a B)

If you know anything about auctions usually the starting value tells you how much a thing is worth, it also tells you just where the auctioneer expects the bid to end.

God silenced all bids, because he paid abundantly above more than we were worth…just so that He would be sure to get us.

More Good news
The good news is that Jesus saves, and He is willing to take you just where you are. He won’t leave you that way but he will take you just as you are, with all your faults. So won’t you come to Him.

So for all of you, who think you need to clean up yourself, before you re-activate your prayer life.

I say to you, stop forming the fool and go to the master problem solver, the master healer, the master psychologist.

There is nothing to big, too small, or something that you have done, that God is tired of you coming to Him.

The song writer says…”whom have I earth beside thee…whom in Heaven but thee…




Come to Him….lets us Pray..

 Repeat after me

“Father release me from my doubts, my fears, from that sin which that easily besets/overwhelms me, and let me claim and experience the power, the freedom that is found in Jesus Christ. Amen

Tis so sweet trust in Jesus (524)

Sin shall not have dominion over me because the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

You provide the reckoning and God will do the rest. God is bigger than sin, and He can do it, if you let Him.

Wont’t you trust Him today?

Occasionally my son or daughter steps out of line and I am forced to use corporal punishment……but after a while they come back to me and say “forgive me daddy!”

How can I turn away from that? How can I not forgive them?

In the same way we need to call upon God…recognize we have sinned, but never cease from calling upon his name. Even in our times of chastisement, we must be like Job. Though he slay me yet will I trust Him job13:15

Even when He chastises you, it because He loves you. Rev3:19

Call upon Him
Now if we don't call upon the Lord, we cannot be saved...

Ps  18:3   I will call upon the LORD, [who is worthy] to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. 

God has invited us to join his church Heb. 12:22-24

  12:22   But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, 
  12:23   To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, 
  12:24   And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than [that of] Abel. 

Understand, that all this is done out of love.

The company is already big…so it’s not because God is trying to make up numbers, but it is done because He loves us.


Regardless of what-you-may-think-you-are-worth, the Lord thinks you are worth far, far more.

The church
You know the church is commonly referred to as a woman, a virtuous woman.

So do tell, what is the worth of a virtuous woman?

Proverbs 31:10   Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price [is] far above rubies. 

Q: Who is a virtuous woman you ask?
A: A woman that displays “high moral standards.”   Need I say more?

Do not all of us display high moral standards; or said another way are we not all striving towards the mark of perfection?

Then why must we count ourselves unworthy?

Maybe it is not the question of worthiness that boggles your mind, but the question of “can I be saved?”

In my opinion, this is one of the easier questions?

Why yes! you can be saved! As long as you have not blasphemed the name of the Holy Ghost (Matth12:32) you can and will be saved.

Being saved from sin, is something we can be sure of....

As a matter of fact, Matthew quotes Jesus in saying that as long as you persevere to the end, you will be saved.

 Read with me

Math 24:13

We know that we will be saved, because Jesus cannot lie. If Jesus says so I believe it and that settles it. Jesus is God, and when there was no light He said, let there be light and it stood fast.

All he had to do was speak...and it happened....now He has spoken that you...not might be...but you shall...it is a certainty....you shall be saved....if you endure to the end

So question

 If Jesus tells me that I will be saved, if I endure to the end, what power is there in heaven or in Earth to prevent me from being saved?

The only way I should be lost is if I don’t…..

Say it with me “ persevere till the end.”

 So I will persevere until the end, because I want to be saved!!!

Do you want to be. Saved?

Then persevere

If for no other reason, persevere because the sacrifice of Jesus is sufficient to cover your sins!

Your bill has been paid; and paid abundantly above more than it could have ever cost.

In Jamaica we say...we will pay you and give you change........this was what was done for us.

Christ paid abundantly more than we could ever ask or think...so the bill is paid.

Another question
So now that I know that the bill is paid in full.... how do I persevere until the end?

Do I persevere by:-

  1. Giving up my Christina walk?
  2. Ceasing to do right?
  3. Ceasing to believe in His promises of deliverance?
  4. Dis-connecting myself from God?
  5. Do I stop reading his word, and praying?
  6. Do I live as I please and then on the Sabbath come and say Lord forgive me?
  7. Do I become weary in well-doing?
  8. Do I not allow the Holy Spirit to be the vehicle that drives me until the end?

You know what it means to persevere; so do it!

How am I saved?
You see the problem with our salvation is not God, but us. We often complicate the matter of salvation, when it needs no complication. Today after I have explained salvation to you, I’ll hope you will finally understand just how easy it is to be saved.

Are you ready for the explanation?

You are saved by grace through faith. (EPH2:8)

That is it.

Grace is the saving agent….the person upon whom merit is bestowed….

How do we get the Merit.

God and will bestow this credit upon whom He will…..

God can and will save who will allow Him to save them....

The good thing about that is we already know the heart that God has.John3:16

Not willing that any…any Any…any should perish….....He is going to save as much as He can

Although there is nothing you can do to warrant being saved…….you must first believe that you can be saved before it is even remotely possible for God to save you.

You just have to provide the reckoning, and God will do the rest.

After all it is God who started this saving business in the first place.

Think with me.

After Adam had sinned, was there anything that He could do to redeem himself?

Q. Well was there?

Q. Could Adam have done somethimg that would have justified his disobedience?

A. There was nothing!

Here is the truth………God …I say again God had to do something…… so Adam could be saved. 

In the very same way, we are condemned sinners, and unless we allow God to save us, we cannot be saved. I repeat for emphasis, unless we allow God to save us, we simply cannot be saved.

No amount of right doing can save us.

To illustrate this, think of a surgeon whowhile  in med school makes an error that caused the death of the patient on the operating table. Yes the hospital was sued and yes the surgeon never made that error again. As a matter of fact he went on to save hundreds of lives by the surgeries he performed.

Does the lawsuit or the lives saved bring back the person who died?

In the same way, right doing cannot pay for sin.

What is the wages of Sin? Rom 6:23

In order that the sinner does not die, He must accept Christ’s life and death as their own.

We must not only express a faith in Jesus, but we should have the faith of Jesus?

What do I mean by the Faith of Jesus?

Of no greater place was the faith of Jesus demonstrated than in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross. When the only thing he had to carry him through was the Words which were spoken to him during his ministry by the father.

If we are to be numbered among the redeemed then this is the faith that we must display. Standing squarely on the word of God…and it alone

Man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God matt4:4

Read with me
Psalm 22 and 23

These two psalms reflect the mindset which Christ had while He was on the cross.

Take note of the change in disposition of Christ while he hung on the cross…

He changed from: My God why has though forsaken me

To: I know that in God’s house will I abide for ever

What is faith you ask?

1.    It is the  Substance=present assurance, surety-Evidence=proof
2.       Faith=connected with hope
3.       Faith= moves you to act
4.       Faith=allows you to see that which is invisible
5.       Faith=makes the impossible possible
6.       Faith=is always rewarded



 You see Jesus knew these things about faith, and every other patriarch which we find in the scriptures. So we too must know and demonstrate this faith. If it is that we are to please God.

Heb. 11:6-pleased God


What do you believe?
Again I say, provide the reckoning and God will do the rest. He will work it out for you.

But you must believe that He can.

In case you’re doubting it…..I’m telling you that He can save you….He has saved others like you before a he can do it again.

You might be saying:

I have family problems – Give it to Jesus

I have debts– Give it to Jesus

I have disease– Give it to Jesus

I have an addiction– Give it to Jesus
.
But I say to you if your troubles have caused you to stop looking to Christ for the answer. You have missed the point.

These problems like the law, are the very things that are supposed to be urging you to Christ.

That you have looked in the other direction, you are doing the exact opposite of what they were intended to do.

Come to Jesus…It is not too late.

Appeal
Can you sit here today, knowing all this and not cry out unto God for forgiveness, and cry out unto God for heal you unbelief.

We understand there are troubles, but all these are just for a short while. Endure your cross and crown of righteousness you will wear.

Heb10:37


Math 24:13…word of God says it will happen, and he is the word of God….you shall be saved….if you endure

His grace is sufficient---no sin too big…just repent and come. He will take you

Don’t give up on God…He has not given up on you


Let us pray – Renewing our hope

1 Thes. 5:17   Pray without ceasing.

  James 5:13   Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 
  5:14   Is any sick among you? let him call for the elders of the church; and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord: 
  5:15   And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up; and if he have committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. 
  5:16   Confess [your] faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. 

Romans 8:26   Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. 

Luke 21:36   Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man. 

  Mark 11:24   Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive [them], and ye shall have [them]. 

  24:20   But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day:

  26:41   Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed [is] willing, but the flesh [is] weak.

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