Welcome Back! Let us sing unto the Lord and be blessed by His presence in this place! (Music; He Has Made Me Glad, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, Blessed Assurance, How Great Thou Art) Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name. (Psalm 100:4, KJV) This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24, KJV) Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning. (Lamentations 3:23, NLT) Blessed Assurance: 1 John 3:19-24, English Standard Version 19 By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; 20 for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. 21 Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him, because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him. 23 And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another, just as he has commanded us. 24 Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God,[a] and God[b] in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us. 9All nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee, O Lord; and shall glorify thy name. 10For thou art great, and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone. (Psalm 86, 9-10, KJV) Thanks be to God for the gift of His Eternal and Living Word Introduction: I’m a daughter, wife, mom, who has always loved God, committed my life officially to Him around the age of ten, and baptized with my mom on Mother’s Day within a year. I am a licensed and ordained minister who wears many hats to support the ministry work that I do. My ministry work, before lockdown, included teaching Sunday school and kids clubs to children of all ages, camp counsellor, bus driver, Scripture distribution, workshops and speaking presentations, helping those in need, and sharing the Lord with our local youth in detention. I keep a portion of Matthew 25 as an essential part of my to-do list: 37Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? 38When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 39Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? 40And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (KJV) I have been attending here for a year, truly love the warm and friendly welcome, here. Bible studies time has been a true blessing as well, looking forward to returning to that.
This hospitality is Scripturally based, with many references including : Acts 2: 42And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles. 44And all that believed were together, and had all things common; 45And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. 46And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, 47Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved. (KJV) All of this is well and good, usually.
The pandemic has made this a little more tricky. How can we go out into all the world when we’re barely allowed out of our homes? Hopefully everyone here has telephone or internet service available. Hopefully everyone has been able to connect with someone to encourage them and to be encouraged. God reassures us and strengthens us, Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.” (Deuteronomy 31:6, NKJV) May we continue to stay connected. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. (Romans 8:28, KJV)
Even a pandemic can work for good. Pre-pandemic, we know that there were people living in isolation, loneliness, and despair. Covid has brought to our attention the need to work more diligently to reach out to more people, whether part of our church family, or beyond. Let us not forget the one out of the 99: How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray? (Matthew 18:12, KJV) Another blessing within this House is the outreach that is happening here. We have some wonderfully dedicated people who reach out through the pregnancy center, key Bible clubs, our neighbours, and more. The pandemic has caused us to rethink how we do these ministries and others. God has given us inspiration, motivation, and even direction on how to continue His work: We know that God wants all saved The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. (2 Peter 3:9, NIV) We know that nothing is impossible: 25When his disciples heard it, they were exceedingly amazed, saying, Who then can be saved? 26But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (Matthew 19, KJV) We also know not to give up: And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. (Galatians 6:9, KJV) Keeping all these things in mind, we certainly know that we have more work to do in the day ahead. More people are broken than ever before. More people will be searching for hope now, than ever before. Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; (Matthew 9:37, KJV) But we are here! Are we ready; “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.” (Isaiah 6:8, KJV) Do we have a hope to share? But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: (1 Peter 3:15, KJV) If you have not yet found that Hope that is in Christ Jesus, please speak to any of the leadership team here, today. 30And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? 31And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. 32And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. 33And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway. 34And when he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them, and rejoiced, believing in God with all his house. (Acts 16: 30-34, KJV) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (Ephesians 2:8, KJV) 14Later He appeared to the eleven as they sat at the table; and He rebuked their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they did not believe those who had seen Him after He had risen. 15And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16 , NKJV) I find that verse 14 often gets left out when 15 and 16 are quoted, which is unfortunate. We do not need to be fully trained to share the Gospel. Jesus had trained his disciples for three years, what seems like full-time, 24/7 training. Yet, they still had enough unbelief and hardened hearts for Jesus to scold them about it. He had prepared them, but they seemed rather unprepared. There’s a quote that I love, God doesn’t call the qualified, He qualifies the called, and even better sometimes,
Noah was a drunk
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Jacob was a liar
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused
Moses had a stuttering problem
Gideon was afraid
Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
Rahab was a prostitute
Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
David had an affair and was a murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah ran from God
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
Peter denied Christ
The Disciples fell asleep while praying
Martha worried about everything
The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious
Timothy had an ulcer..AND
Lazarus was dead!
27But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29so that no one may boast before him.
(1 Corinthians 1:27-29 , NIV)
So, for those of you who are already living actively for God, please be encouraged! The day will come when you hear His voice, “His lord said unto him, Well done, good and faithful servant; thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.” (Matthew 25:23, KJV) For those who love Jesus, but don’t know where to start, try saying a prayer! But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. (Matthew 6:33, KJV) And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (John 14:13, KJV) Next, share your joy! Your story is your testimony, your truth, and no one can take it away from you. Don’t be afraid nor ashamed, Jesus has conquered our fears and our shame, when we allow Him to. And they have defeated him (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb and by their testimony. And they did not love their lives so much that they were afraid to die. (Revelation 12:11, NLT) And jump on a plane and fly to a third-world nation, right? Not necessarily. Last I checked, there was a survey done and it’s estimated that only 3% of our population is born again. That’s not a very good spiritual survival rate. As mentioned before, God wants none to perish. The harvest is ready, here! There’s much to do! Who do you want to reach? What stands in your way? Why do people leave their churches? Another survey reveals: 1. They got out of the habit. 2. They left after they graduated from high school. 3. They decided they didn’t like the institutional church. 4. They were hurt at the church. 5. They say they couldn’t find a church to meet their needs. 6. They had a need and felt the church didn’t meet it. 7. They never felt connected in the church. 8. They did not give to the church. (not necessarily financial, but not seeing the ability to be part of something bigger) 9. They left when their pastor left. 10. They moved and never went back to church. These are important points, not only for those who already attend church, but also for understanding those who have left or even those who have never attended. It’s hard to imagine anyone who’s never been to church, at least for me, but we need to remember that we are now two generations since public school students have heard The Lord’s Prayer or any Biblical studies within their schools. I also found a list of 10 Godly Character Traits Overcome Negative Character Traits. What we need to remember from this is that there are enough Christians with the negative traits to leave people feeling like it’s all of us. 1. Genuine vs Hypocritical 2. Love vs Selfishness 3. Honor vs Disrespect 4. Generosity vs Covetous 5. Humility vs Pride 6. Purity vs Perversion 7. Encouragers vs Despisers 8. Loyalty vs Traitors 9. Gratitude vs Entitlement 10. Faith vs Deceit They will know we are Christians by our… hypocrisy, selfishness, disrespect, greed, pride, perversion?!, spite, treachery, entitlement, and deceit? How terrible. Thankfully, I don’t feel this list is exceptionally true, here. Again, it may be more of understanding what people believe because they’ve been wounded by someone within a church. Some people think that God’s not real. Perhaps there was even a time when they prayed that God would save a dying loved one or protect them from danger. Whether or not God is real is one issue, even with more than half the world’s population believing in at least one deity. Whether or not Jesus is real is another issue, and again, most of the world’s population believes he at least was real at one time. The biggest issue that divides one belief from another is whether or not Jesus is God. So, who does believe in Jesus being divine, anyway? According to not just the Bible, but other historical texts, it’s angels, demons, believers, skeptics, the dead, God Himself, and me, at the very least who believe. I’ve had a friend question Jesus’ divinity, saying that our Bible translates John 1:1 wrong. Even if that one verse was translated wrong, (which it’s not), almost the entire rest of the Bible points to Jesus being the redemption of humanity. There can not be any mistake! But Truth and Love, patience and understanding, gentleness and respect; these are part of God’s recipe for winning the lost.
I know many of you here are very true believers in Christ. Many of you have a wonderful gift of hospitality, as well as other beautiful gifts and talents. I am thankful for you. I pray for you, that you may find the leader that you are searching for. I do have a sense of “preaching to the choir” here, though I hope to have encouraged you, to have blessed you, to acknowledge your work for the Lord. Perhaps you’ve learned some new little tidbit of information to add to your Heavenly toolbox. Perhaps God has used my words to inspire something new or different in your life. May He be glorified and His kingdom multiplied through this church family in the days ahead. May we remember to continue praying for each other and encouraging one another. We know there are harder days ahead, either because of the pandemic, or due to our human frailty, or even as we get closer to the end of this age. Thank you for your time and your love. In closing, 24The LORD bless you, and keep you; 25The LORD cause His face to shine on you, And be gracious to you; 26The LORD lift up His face to you, And give you peace.’ (Numbers 6:24-26, NASB)