Pastor James Thomas
House of Judah Ministries
Jan.27th 2008
Don’t stop telling the story
Deuteronomy 7:1-4
2 And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:
3 Neither shalt thou make marriages with them; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son.
4 For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly.
I.If one were not a praying person
A.One could look at the situations surrounding us and pose the question
B.Has God forgotten his people has he left us to be at the mercy of the enemy
C.Hurricane Katrina kills thousands – 911 kills hundreds—Tsunami-226,000 The Iraq war
D.Church leaders under attack, by an unrighteous government who has no God on their mind and the saints of God not coming to their defense
E.Babies being stolen and massacred with no end in sight
F.Children killing children with no remorse and no conscious
G.School shooting after School shooting and still finding more guns
H.Violence at and all time high
I.The body of Christ under attack saints struggling churches struggling it seems as though the wells have dried up and the enemy is running rampart on the earth.
Habakkuk asked the question in Habakkuk 1:2 O LORD, how long shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear! Even cry out unto thee of violence, and thou wilt not save!
The prophet asked a merciful God how long must his people suffer how long would sin prevail.
II.Someone who does not belong to a church but believes in God asked me 2 questions
a.He made a statement that it seemed as though God had unleashed Satan against the earth
b.The second statement he made was that with everything going on with the church Pastors being investigated how do you know who to trust.
III.The Church has lost its position and authority and respect
a.The reality of the situation is that church of today lacks the spiritual strength of the church of yesterday
b.The power and authority of the church has been diminished
Paul warn us he says
2 Tim 4:3-4
For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;
4 And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
Paul was saying a time is coming
a.when people are not going to want to hear the gospel
b.When the gospel will be perverted to fit whatever situation you want it to fit
c.The bible says homosexuality is an abomination so what does man do we sanction same sex marriages call them civil unions and throw a slap in God’s face
d.We complain about coming to church spending to much time at church then wonder why our children don’t want to come to church
e.We have become self indulgent, self satisfying, self motivated, and self serving. We have become a nation of it’s all about me. How does this benefit me and how does that help me.
f.People at church not doing what we want we don’t participate then hate on the ones who are trying to do something positive.
g.Sitting in church mad at ourselves
h.Disgusted with everybody else no joy no reason to be happy sitting there with bulldog jaws and wandering why no one wants to be bothered with us
Churches have become worried about being popular more than we are about saving people’s souls.
Psalms 1:1-2
Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
The church is trying to hard, to be like the world. We have become influenced by whatever we see on TV. We have become a generation of Oprah Winfrey, Dr. Phil, Ellen, Montel, and reality show junkies. Every one of them examples of broken marriages homosexuality dysfunctional families and this is who advises America. Our children are being raised by some of the foulest mouths on T.V. Show like South Park, King of the Hill, and Family guy adult cartoons being watched by our children. Every rap group and entertainer with a naked girl in his video and yet ashamed to claim Christ in front of their peers. Then we wonder how we got in this situation. These are the council of the ungodly. The word of God tells us we need to discipline our children but we want to change that part of the bible to because we didn’t like being disciplined and we are still mad at father and mother for getting on us. Solomon the wisest man in the bible says in proverbs 29:15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame. He goes on to say in proverbs 22:15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him. But of course we disagree with God on how to raise our children then we wonder how come they won’t listen…Why they feel like they can say whatever they want to whom ever they want. If you can’t respect your mother and father you surely cannot respect anyone else. This is why we have school shootings and police shootings because no one else is going to baby your child like mother is going to. It is our job to teach our youth to respect themselves and others. We were not taught to respect elders who we thought we right we were taught to respect all elders.
III. The church of today is nothing like the church of yesterday we have forgotten where we have come from
One of the strongest points of the Jewish culture is preserving their history thru stories
a.those stories were passed down from generation to generation and recorded
b.That is how they kept up with their history by telling it to their children
A Jewish male when he turns 13 has A Bar Mitzvah which means (son of commandment or man of duty) at this Bar Mitzvah he must lead worship and read from the torah then. He must expound on the scriptures. As a child he is expected to know who his God is and what his God has done and teach from the bible at 13. In the third verse of the 7th Chapter of Deuteronomy God charges the people of Israel to guard their children not to let them intermarry not to let them become involved with the other children’s tribes because they will turn them away from God and to other God’s other Idols. We have a charge to protect our babies I heard someone say that our children walk too much. They play too much in church they chew gum they don’t respect the house of God. The reality of the situation is that the church of today is nothing like the church of Yesterday. There was a time when there was a moaning bench in the church and those women stayed on that moaning bench until someone got a breakthrough. Those old ladies they prayed and they moaned they moaned and they prayed until someone got healed. They were not the most educated not the most sophisticated but they knew how to touch God. They knew how to get answer from God there was power in the church. They had that James Bond purse you know the one that had everything in it. They had Vaseline if your lips got dry or your face got ashy. They had a napkin for your gum because you were not I repeat not going to chew gum during service. They knew when you got through with it you had no where to put it but under a bench. They had a big comb that you would see if you acted up in church and it wasn’t for combing hair. There was no foolishness allowed in church.
They did not allow walking under any circumstances. Every parent had their child next to them in a seat and it was quiet until the message was finished because everyone understood the preacher was giving a word from God and no one wanted to miss their word. Ushers who looked like the police and those deacons were the hardest praying deacons you ever heard it seemed like when they prayed God would move.
Now we look at the mothers and roll our eyes Lord have mercy now we look at the deacons and talk about them and call them old fashion. Now the ushers direct you to a seat and we sit somewhere else oh Lord.We have become so sophisticated so intelligent so smart until
now we couldn’t identify God if he was sitting in the sanctuary That’s why God said 4 for they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly. Lord it’s dangerous yeah to be on the bad side of God.It’s a dangerous place to be in when the lord has turned his back against you yeah. But am reminded of a time when In Joshua 4:21 God instruct Joshua to place twelve stones in The Jordan. The message of these twelve stones were a reminder that God had delivered his people in a time of trouble he had brought them across the river Jordan. God said let your children know that it was God who delivered you across this river on dry land. I want to tell somebody this morning don’t stop telling the story of how somebody yeah some mother on the mother board prayed for you.
Those old sisters’ yeah those old sisters would pray and pray until a change came. In all that white would go down on bended knees and pray and pray yeah until they would see something happen.They would stay there calling on the name of the Lord until the got an answer. Some deacon on the deacon board would get down on bended knees and prayed to a holy God for your soul. Don’t stop telling the story of how those old mothers would get together and tell you what it meant to be a women and a mother. Somebody here this morning knows that somebody prayed for you. I’m so glad this morning yeah that somebody had me on their mind. Lord have mercy on me. I‘m so glad, that when I did not know how to pray or what to pray that somebody prayed for me. I’m so glad my mother told me who Jesus was and is and how he could cleanse me and wash my sins away.
She said son there is a man who will be by your side when I can’t be there. That when you are sick there is healing in the name of Jesus. When you are down there is joy in the name of Jesus. That when you are uncertain about the direction your life has taken that Jesus would be a light to a darkened path. That if you could call on Jesus, Pain would turn to joy. When I can’t be there she said there is a man who will give you joy in the midst of sorrow. Don’t stop telling the story of how Jesus turned water into wine. Don’t stop telling the story of how Jesus gave sight to the blind. Don’t stop telling the story of how Jesus took two barley loaves of bread and five fish and fed five thousand. How out on Calvary that he took my sins and your sins and set us free. That while he hung on the cross he cried out father forgive them for they know not what they do. Then he hung his head in the locks of his shoulders and gave up the ghost. That early Sunday morning he got up with all power in his hands. Power over life and death. Power over sickness. Power over the enemy. Power to save and give life.
