It’s always a joy to be able to come to the Lord’s house. What a blessing, we had 18 kids to ride the bus this morning through the bus ministry with 2 of those being first time riders.
Pastor preached some really good messages today. This morning he preached out of Luke 16:19-31 on “Would Somebody go Testify.” The rich man in verse 19 had it all. There was nothing he wanted that he could not have. The poor man in verses 20-21 had nothing, he was poor. In these three verses we went from the best to the worst. Being rich or poor does not determine where we go when we die. The rich man wanted Abraham to send Lazarus back to his people because he knew Lazarus had been speaking the truth to him while he was alive. The rich man wanted him to testify that fancy living is not good enough. Just because we have money, it doesn’t mean we are going to heaven when we die. Just because we are prosperous on this earth does not mean God’s hand of blessing is on our life. But just as being rich does not get us into heaven, being poor does not get us into heaven either. The poor man (Lazarus) went to heaven because he had God in his heart. The rich man wanted Lazarus to testify that faithful words that are not received is not good enough. Just because we hear the Word of God, or we can repeat some of the verses from the Word of God does not mean we are heaven bound. If we reject the Word of God we will spend eternity in hell. The Word of God will not return void upon its hearers. It is nothing new for the Word of God to be rejected. Just because we do not believe the Word of God does not mean it is not real. The third thing that the rich man wanted Lazarus to testify about was that hell is real. The rich man did not believe it all his life until he died. We can believe there is no hell, but one second after we die we will believe in hell. Hell was made for God rejecters. It was made for the devil and his angels. We can die form a church pew and go to hell. Lastly, the rich man wanted Lazarus to testify that a family without God will not go to heaven either. Our beckoning call should be to go tell our brother and/or sister the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we get discouraged about doing our work for the Lord, we should think of the verse that says “go tell my brother.” We are telling someone’s brother or sister about the gospel that someone could be praying for. A person that is going to hell is bankrupt. Who in hell wants you to hear the message of salvation again? Are you saved? Have you ever accept Jesus Christ into your heart? If you haven’t, today is the day of salvation. You can be saved today. Don’t delay because you are not promised your next breath.
Tonight Pastor preached on “Living a Life of Blessing” out of Genesis 21:1-6. Isaac lived a life of blessings, but so can we as well. He lived a life of blessing because he had a family that had a foundation. Today there is a foundation of a church where we can come and freely worship the Lord. He had a foundation of a family that served God. His family was faithful to God all of their life. We need to get a vision of what the foundation of our life ought to be. We should desire to leave a foundation behind for others. His family also was not scared to fight – Gen. 14. His family was willing to fight for his family. Our parents have fought to keep things straight and right. We need to be willing to stand up for what is right. We should fight for someone as long as they are living right. We need to fight for our family, for our children, for our spouses. Isaac also had a family that was filled with faith – Gen. 21. They had a strong faith that God would still give them a child at their old age. They never lost faith in God, and they always trust Him with their lives. Isaac also had a family that was filled with sacrifices – Gen. 22:7-8. Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son at God’s command to prove how much he loved God and how much he trusted God with his life and with the life of his son. Imagine the faith and trust that Isaac had to have in his dad. We should be thankful for the heritage that is being left behind by our parents and others that have gone on before us. We should listen to the godly advice of our parents. Isaac’s family also was a family that had fences. Abraham set boundaries for his family. He set boundaries for who his son was going to marry. As parents we should build fences around our family. Put the fences up to keep the world out. Lastly, Isaac’s family was a family that had a heritage. Isaac was given all that Abraham had. We need to leave behind something that our kids would want. Are we leaving behind a life of blessing for others to see? Are we leaving behind anything worth others looking?
April 1st, which is Easter Sunday, we will be having baptism after the evening service. We are looking forward to that time. We have several young people that need to be baptized. Pictures will be placed on the website sometime after the service. Just keep looking for them.
Hope you are enjoying the new website and the new design that we have going. Hopefully it is user friendly to you. We are still working on getting some things back up on the website. Thank you for your patience.