Proclaiming Christ in P.C. World
If I were to ask you today to tell me about yourself...to tell me what your favorite things to do were and what made you happy...
Would you be able to do it quickly… And give me a response immediately, or would you have to think about it for awhile..because maybe you hadn't thought about
what truly makes you happy...for a while.
It’s a sad fact of life today, but there are a lot of unhappy people out there in this world..
We should be…happy
Living in the year 2015…
All the modern gadgets we have…
All the medications we have available to us...
All the things that we have that our parents never had or never dreamed of having...
But you see all those things… Are man-made things
And those things bring happiness for a while…but at best are only temporary
Psalms 43:5 NLT
Why am I discouraged? Why is my heart so sad? I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again--my Savior and my God!
You see David… By all accounts most people would consider him to have had it all.
By all accounts he had about as an exciting life that was humanly possible..
He Slew Giants, conquered Kingdoms and nations, had riches, was an accomplished
Musician... He Was Blessed!
But we read here that he was discouraged and sad, however he knew the remedy.
He gave us great advice...when he said
"I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again--my Savior and my God!"
There is truly nothing to be discouraged about in this life that we live, if He is part of it!
And that’s the key...to the worlds despair
Maybe they've never heard, forgotten, or have just chosen
To not make Him a part of their life...
But a relationship with God through His amazing Son Jesus is still the key
To happiness in a persons life..
You may not realize it..but you are only one of the cast members..
JESUS has to have the lead role,
the starring part and be your main focus, to experience real and lasting happiness and contentment..
Oh sure things happen...and the scrip may have an occasional
Rewrite now and then...but there is not one thing in any of our lives
that can’t be overcome with the Lord’s help.
*He is an overcoming,
*death defying,
*problem solving,
*grace giving,
*all forgiving,
*Amazingly Awesome Good God!
And all those things fall short and are an understatement...
In the description of our Lord and Savior!!!
As Christians, we of all people should be happy about our lot in life..
And if we're not..why aren't we?
We should be ecstatic!, we have been forgiven of all our sins..
Past, present and future and made an heir..
A brother or sister of Jesus..
A child of the most high God!!
With the same things at our disposal..that Jesus has at His disposal...
Only by the precious grace, Gods gift of Jesus...that He sent to us, oh so long ago.
It makes you wonder, Why in the world aren’t more people able to get their hands around this,
Life giving, Life changing message, Jesus has given to whosoever will believe!
A message, that was so important for God to get to us, that He was willing to sacrifice and give up, His one and only Son, so we could have it!
Only the blood of Jesus was able to overcome and conquer the sin of the world!
Everything that we have, every benefit we enjoy, everything good that’s ever happened in our lives, we owe to the selfless act of Jesus.
THANK YOU JESUS!! Can you give Him an Amen this morning?
We don’t fight for victory today, but we fight from His Victory and Praise the Lord, He was Victorious!
And we must remember that when were in the struggle
Jesus has already been there, defeated that struggle and been victorious for us...
in and over every situation we will ever encounter.
With all of the technological advancements that keep coming about in the world,
we often think , about how much better we have it today, then our parents had it, so long ago.
Yet we find, we still face many of the same things they encountered back then, like discouragement, loneliness and fear.
The same old bag of tricks, the accuser was using back then, he is still using today, thing is, he has a lot more streams of media available to him now.
Twitter, Facebook, the Internet...everything we have..he has
Whoever thought it would be seen around the world… A Christian
beheaded on national TV or video...because of their beliefs????
Or multiple Christians shot for not renouncing Christ???
Discouragement Defined; to make somebody less optimistic: to make somebody feel less motivated, confident, or optimistic.
Discouragement in the world today, is probably almost at an all time high.
So many still out of work, so many have lost their homes,
so many people numb from the continual brainwashing..
the world and the accuser has done to them.
The answer to all the worlds problems, of course, seems obvious to me, how about you?
God has made promise after promise to His Children and to all who will listen, and there is not one promise that He has not kept...
He is the Promise Keeper
Promises like the one found in Jerm.29:11 NKJ
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
The answer is right there for the whole world to see, its always been there
and continues to be there!
You would think, that people would be flocking to God, but their not,
You would think with all the violence happening in the world, the world would be crying out for the peace that only God can offer and give, but their not!
Christians all over this land are saying, “we need a revival”, and their right,
The whole world needs a revival...and to get back to God!
The problem is, nobody wants to give their all, to see it happen.
Oh..there are plenty of people who will pray like saints on Sunday...
And then forget all about the urgency on Monday!!
There to busy, they don’t want to, they have other plans, they say there are others who are more qualified for the task...
As long as that line of thinking rules the world...revival will remain elusive!
The Bible tells us of an example of someone like that, someone who thought their agenda was more important than God’s.
Jonah 1:1-3 NKJ
1. Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying,
2. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.”
3. But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa, and found a ship going to Tarshish; so he paid the fare, and went down into it, to go with them to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD.
Everyone remember WWJD. What would Jesus do?
Not what Jonah did, that’s for sure!
There are a lot of selfish Jonah’s in this world...
each will give you a endless lists of reasons, as to why
they shouldn’t be the one to give there all for Jesus...
And just like Jonah, they’ve been slapped around plenty of times
by circumstances and wrong decisions,
who hasn’t? thing is, at least Jonah learned from his ordeal!
They fail to ever see what a difference, they can make
in countless numbers of lives, if they will get and stay involved...
Oh, God will get someone else, who me? What could I possibly do?
I’m just one person... I can’t do everything you know.
With thinking like that a person will never do anything
With their life for the Kingdom of God
Speaking up for Christianity is not the politically correct thing to do…
I mean after all haven't you seen what happens to people when they
Stand up for the cause of Christ...their ridiculed, their made fun of...
Their not cool..
I’ll tell you what’s not cool, someone going hell is not cool!
Lord forbid, one day someone is being condemned to hell and they ask you
why you didn’t tell them about Jesus and you tell them..
it wasn’t the politically correct or cool thing to do!
Jonah, finally came to his senses, and what amazing results God was able to accomplish through him, once he became a willing vessel!
The bible is full of stories about what God, is able to do with a willing vessel, each of them ending with victory in the last chapter! Praise God!
Jonah found out exactly, with God in the mix, what one person was capable of!
This is after the storm at sea and they threw him overboard and he was swallowed by the great fish until he finally came to his senses...
Jonah 3:1-5 NKJ
1. Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying,
2. “Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and preach to it the message that I tell you.”
3. So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the word of the LORD. Now Nineveh was an exceedingly great city, a three-day journey in extent.
4. And Jonah began to enter the city on the first day’s walk. Then he cried out and said, “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown!”
5. So the people of Nineveh believed God, proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest to the least of them.
Nineveh was a big city… And because of one person's faithfulness...
God reached that city, without the Internet, without social media
He reached that city with one thing...a willing vessel
And what did the people do because of one persons faithfulness?, “they believed”,
What did they do?, “they believed”
What will your neighborhood do, because of your faithfulness? The same thing!
Jonah 3:10 NKJ
Then God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said He would bring upon them, and He did not do it
We have a tendency to make things harder than what they are..
Jesus already did the hardest part...so we wouldn't have to
He willingly laid down His life and conquered sin and death..
once and for all!
From the beginning..He gave us His Very Best..He Gave us His All!
All we have to do, is to lift up the name of Jesus, we have the easy part to do...
What part do we have? The easy part..that's right
Its not like we have to run a marathon in one day, TBS. to run the race our whole entire lives
But the key to the results is...we have to run..We must do something
If we will just do something..we can count on God to do the rest... Amen??
The results of one mans obedience, teamed up with God ability, was and is amazing,
can you imagine what God could do, if we were all to get involved, what the results would be!
1 Corinthians 3:5-6 NKJ
5. Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one?
6. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
But how do I plant? and how do I water?
Is that the best you can come up with?
Here's the answer:
By doing like Jonah did...you must tell others about the Gospel
You must help spread the word...
But I wouldn't know what to say..or feel comfortable saying it
Is there anything to hard for God?
Psalms 81:10 NKJ
10 I am the Lord your God,
Who brought you out of the land of Egypt;
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
What God is saying here is…
I'm God..is there nothing too hard for me…
Wasn't I able to bring you out a life of sin and offer you forgiveness and eternal life?
Don't you think that what I've done for you...
if you will trust me and let me speak through you… That I can give you the words and change someone else's life too!
I promise you, just like Jonah...if you are only willing
there is a Nineveh encounter waiting just for you to arrive at..
He Helped change thousands of lives and so can you!
Time is so short, bible prophecy is happening every day, right in front of our eyes on the news.
The only thing that matters in this world, is what we do for Jesus,
Let us pray..Lord Where would you have me to go, and when He tells you...
Always be willing to go and proclaim the name of Christ!
Do you believe He can this morning?
then receive that blessing and share it with someone else!
Amen?
Let’s pray
