Tag: Shipwreack

 

Believe also in Me

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John 14: 1: Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

 

There was once a tightrope walker who was crossing Niagara Falls. After he had held the crowds spellbound with his daring act, he asked, How many of you believe I could cross the tightrope again, this time Blindfolded and pushing a wheelbarrow with someone riding in it.

The crowds applauded.

They were sure he could do it. But then he said, Who will volunteer to ride the wheelbarrow?

There was a vast silence.

The audience had just been reminded of the vital difference between belief and trust! It’s one thing to believe that the wheelbarrow would make it safety across the Falls. It’s quite another thing to put your own life on the line.

Total Trust is putting one foot forward and walking with both eyes closed

 

Faith is like thread

 

One peace all by its self can not do much, but each time Faith is used it becomes stronger Until that thread becomes a rope, a life line to Jesus

 

Faith still trusts God even when things don’t work out the way we want them to.

 

It’s easy to trust God when life is going smoothly. The real test of faith comes when our prayers seem unanswered.

 

The Lord would have you trust in his love and mercy amid clouds and darkness as well as in the sunshine.

 

KNOWING GOD RESULTS IN TRUSTING GOD.

IF YOU DON’T KNOW HIM, YOU WON’T TRUST HIM.

IF YOU DON’T TRUST HIM, IT IS BECAUSE YOU DON’T KNOW HIM.

 

Let us Pray!

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Several years ago some visitors to the US Mint in Philadelphia listened to a worker in the foundry area. The man said that if you first dip your hand into a bucket of water, a small ladle of molten metal could be poured over the palm of your hand and it would not burn you. The worker said, “Do you believe that?” Well, they all believed that. “Who would like to try it?” A man stood there and said: “Not me!” “I’ll take your word for it.” The workman turned to the man’s wife, and said: “Perhaps you would like to try it?” She said, “Certainly.” She put her hand in the bucket of water and calmly held it out while the hot metal was poured over her hand. And it didn’t hurt. I don’t think she held that molten metal very long. Now, don’t go try this. Both the husband and the wife believed. Was there a difference in their belief? Only the wife trusted completely. You may say she was a fool for doing that. If you trust Jesus completely you’re not a fool. That’s the type of trust that it going to take to be saved. That’s the type of belief that it take to be saved.

You’ve got to completely trust your life to Him and totally believe in Him; His perfect life will be accounted to you in place of your imperfect life. You will be saved by His blood. Jesus’ righteousness will be freely given to everybody who really and truly believe in Jesus. We are saved not by works but by faith, belief, and trust. This is called grace. That is called the good news.

 

John 14:

1: Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

2: In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

3: And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

 

It is one thing to Believe something is going to happen, but quite another thing to totally put you Truth and Faith ahead of you belief and see it fulfillment

 

AFTER A FEW OF THE USUAL SABBATH EVENING HYMNS, THE CHURCH’S PASTOR  SLOWLY STOOD UP, WALKED OVER TO THE PULPIT AND, BEFORE HE GAVE HIS SERMON FOR THE EVENING, HE BRIEFLY INTRODUCED A GUEST MINISTER WHO WAS IN THE SERVICE THAT EVENING.

IN THE INTRODUCTION, THE PASTOR TOLD THE CONGREGATION THAT THE GUEST MINISTER WAS ONE OF HIS DEAREST CHILDHOOD FRIENDS AND THAT HE WANTED HIM TO HAVE A FEW MOMENTS TO GREET THE CHURCH AND SHARE WHATEVER HE FELT WOULD BE APPROPRIATE FOR THE SERVICE. WITH THAT, AN ELDERLY MAN STEPPED UP TO THE PULPIT AND BEGAN TO SPEAK.’

A FATHER, HIS SON, AND A FRIEND OF HIS SON WERE SAILING OFF THE PACIFIC COAST,’ HE BEGAN. ‘WHEN A FAST APPROACHING STORM BLOCKED ANY ATTEMPT TO GET BACK TO THE SHORE. ‘THE WAVES WERE SO HIGH, THAT EVEN THOUGH THE FATHER WAS AN EXPERIENCED SAILOR, HE COULD NOT KEEP THE BOAT UPRIGHT AND THE THREE WERE SWEPT INTO THE OCEAN AS THE BOAT CAPSIZED.’

THE OLD MAN HESITATED FOR A MOMENT, MAKING EYE CONTACT WITH TWO TEENAGERS WHO WERE, FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THE SERVICE BEGAN, LOOKING SOMEWHAT INTERESTED IN HIS STORY.

ShipwreckTHE AGED MINISTER CONTINUED WITH HIS STORY,’GRABBING A RESCUE LINE, THE FATHER HAD TO MAKE THE MOST EXCRUCIATING DECISION OF HIS LIFE: TO WHICH BOY WOULD HE THROW THE OTHER END OF THE LIFE LINE.

‘HE ONLY HAD SECONDS TO MAKE THE DECISION. ‘THE FATHER KNEW THAT HIS SON WAS A CHRISTIAN AND HE, ALSO, KNEW THAT HIS SON’S FRIEND WAS NOT.

‘THE AGONY OF HIS DECISION COULD NOT BE MATCHED BY THE TORRENT OF WAVES. ‘AS THE FATHER YELLED OUT, “I LOVE YOU, SON!”  HE THREW OUT THE LIFE LINE TO HIS SON’S FRIEND.  ‘BY THE TIME THE FATHER HAD PULLED THE FRIEND BACK TO THE CAPSIZED BOAT, HIS SON HAD DISAPPEARED BENEATH THE RAGING SWELLS INTO THE BLACK OF NIGHT.  HIS BODY WAS NEVER RECOVERED.’

BY THIS TIME, THE TWO TEENAGERS WERE SITTING UP STRAIGHT IN THE PEW,
ANXIOUSLY WAITING FOR THE NEXT WORDS TO COME OUT OF THE OLD MINISTER’S MOUTH.

‘THE FATHER,’ HE CONTINUED, ‘KNEW HIS SON WOULD STEP INTO ETERNITY WITH JESUS AND HE COULD NOT BEAR THE THOUGHT OF HIS SON’S FRIEND STEPPING INTO AN ETERNITY WITHOUT JESUS…

THEREFORE, HE SACRIFICED HIS SON TO SAVE THE SON’S FRIEND.

‘HOW GREAT IS THE LOVE OF GOD THAT HE SHOULD DO THE SAME FOR US. OUR HEAVENLY FATHER SACRIFICED HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON THAT WE COULD BE SAVED.

I URGE YOU TO ACCEPT HIS OFFER TO RESCUE YOU AND TAKE A HOLD OF THE LIFE LINE HE IS THROWING OUT TO YOU IN THIS SERVICE.’

WITH THAT, THE OLD MAN TURNED AND SAT BACK DOWN IN HIS CHAIR AS SILENCE FILLED THE ROOM.

THE PASTOR AGAIN WALKED SLOWLY TO THE PULPIT AND DELIVERED A BRIEF SERMON WITH AN INVITATION AT THE END. HOWEVER, NO ONE RESPONDED TO THE APPEAL. WITHIN MINUTES AFTER THE SERVICE ENDED, THE TWO TEENAGERS WERE AT THE OLD MAN’S SIDE.

‘THAT WAS A NICE STORY,’ POLITELY STATED ONE OF THEM,’BUT I DON’T THINK IT WAS VERY REALISTIC FOR A FATHER TO GIVE UP HIS ONLY SON’S LIFE IN HOPES THAT THE OTHER BOY WOULD BECOME A CHRISTIAN.’

‘WELL, YOU’VE GOT A POINT THERE,’ THE OLD MAN REPLIED, GLANCING DOWN AT HIS WORN BIBLE. A BIG SMILE BROADENED HIS NARROW FACE. HE ONCE AGAIN LOOKED UP AT THE BOYS AND SAID, ‘IT SURE ISN’T VERY REALISTIC, IS IT? BUT, I’M STANDING HERE TODAY TO TELL YOU THAT STORY GIVES ME A GLIMPSE OF WHAT IT MUST HAVE BEEN LIKE FOR GOD TO GIVE UP HIS SON FOR ME.

 

YOU SEE… ‘I WAS THAT FATHER AND YOUR PASTOR IS MY SON’S FRIEND.’

I WOULD RATHER LIVE MY LIFE AS IF THERE IS A GOD AND DIE TO FIND OUT
THERE ISN’T, THAN LIVE MY LIFE AS IF THERE ISN’T AND DIE TO FIND OUT THERE IS.

Several years ago two ships collided. It happened far out in the calm quiet Atlantic Ocean on a dark foggy night. The smaller ship with two hundred and six people on board sank within thirty minutes. Immediately the larger ship put out life boats to retrieve the passengers who were floating in the calm sea.

 

Only thirty four were found!? They were all picked up and saved. At first it seemed a great mystery why a hundred seventy two people were lost and so few were saved. The problem was not a lack of life jackets or life boats.

 

**  I don’t know if any of you have ever been in a collision, things happen so fast that you don’t always get time to think about them or think about what to do. You just do them.

 

I was once on a ship that had a collision with another ship many years ago. We too did not have time to think, We knew that our ship was going down and we needed to get off and off fast. So when the Captain gave the order to abandon ship that is what we did, with in fifteen minutes the ship sunk, but all of our lives were saved, only because everyone followed the Captains orders.

 

But there was a different problem here on this ship, the people heard the Captain order, but many did not want to go when the call to abandon ship was giving. Why?

 

What in this world would keep you on a sinking Ship? The order is giving get off, Abandon ship and save your life. What’s keeping you from getting in the lifeboat?

 

Later it was found that the primary reason so few were saved was that most if not all of them had busied themselves during those last thirty minutes in seizing their gold and silver and securing it to their clothes or belting it around their waist.

 

They were weighted down and unable to remain afloat until the rescue boats could reach them. They lost both their life and their money. They were Jeopardized by greed.

 

What hinders you today from giving Christ your all?

 

Cast off the carnal things that weigh you down. Many of good Christians are like a waterlogged raft, they are just barely afloat. They have soaked up so much worldliness and are so absorbed with little sinful traits that it is almost impossible for them to be towed into the heavenly harbor.

 

Luke 16:13 “No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.”

 

Sorry: but you can’t have your pie and eat it too. No heart can mature two crops at the same time. We must decide which is more important.

 

Immerse yourself in Jesus. Lighten your load of temporal doodads. Give Jesus your total heart and sole and stop living your life in a world that is dying because the temporal reward looks great.

 

Just remember the word temporal means just that.   “temporary, brief, short lived”.

 

When an immigrant comes to America, before He or She can become a citizen they must renounce all commitments and allegiance to their former homeland and pledge one hundred percent allegiance to America. Then and only then will the U.S. Government grant citizenship.

 

That’s the way it is with Jesus. When you accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, you renounce Satan completely. You can’t “split time” by serving Satan part-time and Christ part-time.

 

For a Christian there can be no moonlighting with the world.

 

It is impossible to have one foot in the world and one foot in the church. Very quickly you would have to do the splits because the path of the church and the world are zeroing in at two very different destinations. One is eternal Life the other is eternal destruction.

 

Like a boat leaving the dock, you can’t have one foot on the boat and one foot on the dock for very long or you will end up in the drink.

 

An individual who divides his heart between God and the world will eventually be wholehearted for the world and fainthearted for God! You can’t dine at the Devils table on Friday and at the Lord’s table on Sabbath. You can’t sing “All The Way” in the pew and swear at the fax machine at work.

 

Luke 14:33: In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

 

We must be willing to give up everything. You can’t hold onto the world and its knickknacks with all your strength and equally hold onto Jesus.

 

You can’t get your high from Jesus on Sabbath and get your “High” from drugs on Saturday night.

 

Brown-nosing with Satan when you are with the crowd and pretending at church makes you a hypocrite!

 

1 Thessalonians 5:23: May God Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Jesus wants us one hundred percent, Completely, Totally, All or nothing

 

I remember as a boy in Honduras we drove across the country to visit some friends, I reckon we hadn’t gone a stone’s throw before we came to a vacant lot. The problem was that it had not been empty long, just a few days before a family had lived there in a home. My Uncle said, “Boy, they moved out fast and took everything!” The clothes-line was gone, the mail box, and even the dog house was gone they were out of there completely. I said man it looks like they took the very dirt.

 

Then I came here to the US and found out that when people here move out they take the Very light bulbs out before leaving.

 

Look what Paul said, I can do all things through Christ who strength me.

 

Isaiah 29:13: God says, “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me

 

We sing songs like “I’ll go where you want me to go Dear Lord… I’ll do what you want me to do…

 

But don’t ask me to sing in the choir or play the hand bells, or teach in the little kid’s department or help with VacationBibleSchool or sit on a committee. I just want to sit among the saints. I don’t want to be involved to much, I just don’t have the time!”

 

God’s yardstick is total devotion or none at all. We modern Christians come to the celestial check out lane and when we reach the cash register we say,

 

“I would like to buy about three dollars worth of God please.

 

  • I don’t want enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep.
  • I don’t want enough to make me love people I don’t like.
  • I want gladness but not transformation.
  • I want the warmth of the womb, but not the new birth.
  • I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack.
  • I want a sprinkling but not an immersion.
  • I want a taste of God but not a total meal.
  • I want to sample Jesus but not be over involved.
  • I want to do God’s will as long as it doesn’t interfere with what I am doing.

 

David eventually became a man after God’s heart by going all the way with total commitment.

 

Psalms 119:2 David says: Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart.

 

Those who seek him with all their heart!

 

I’ve had a lot of people come and say, I just can’t get victory over sin. I’m trying to be a good Christian and I just can’t do it. How do I get strength to live the Christian life?”

( Stop Trying )

 

I’ll tell you how to get Christian strength. You seek it with all your heart. You’re going to get what you’re really seeking.” If you go at it with all your heart you will find it.

God is there waiting, reaching out to take your hand.

 

Pray and when you finish praying pray somemore. Jesus is not tired of hearing your pray, or your request, he is willing to do what every it take to help you, he proved it by dying for you on the Cross.

 

Revelations:3: 14: And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God; 15: I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. 16: So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.

 

God wants your heart, the whole heart, and nothing but the whole heart. He wants all of you or he doesn’t want you at all. Lock, stock, and barrel commitment is what God is looking for in His people in these last days.

 

Unless you love Him totally, you do not love Him at all. There is no such thing as lukewarm commitment. If you don’t crown Him Lord of All, you really do not crown Him at All.

 

Notice that our heavenly Father does not expect what He is not willing to give. Does God give totally? Does He? Yes, He does.

 

Does He give half-way? Do we have a part time daddy? Our awesome God gives totally! The bible is full of examples of how God give totally.

 

Let’s look and see!

 

Luke 8:48: And He said unto her, “Daughter, be of good comfort: thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace.” (NIV)

 

 

Does God heal us half-way? No. He heals us all the way. Her faith had made her whole. She was not healed half- way she was healed completely by her faith in the one who could give healing.

 

When Jesus died on the cross, He totally paid for all my sins. His forgiveness is absolute. God’s healing power is unbounded. When we all get to heaven, we will be given access to the immeasurable universe.

 

He’s not going to say,

“Well, I’ll just give you a little bit of heaven.

I’ll give you just a touch of it.” No!

Does He give us just a sample of heaven? No!

He gives us the whole thing. It’s ours completely, all of it!

 

We will be able to fly. We don’t need to have reservations. We just go to all these other worlds. Every corner of the universe is yours to explore. He doesn’t hold back. Total freedom to go and come, to observe all that He has created.

 

We can obtain a knowledge that exhaustively takes in the alpha to the omega of the universe. We can fly at more than the speed of light and picnic in a far off corner of the universe. We have unlimited access.

 

But to completely experience the joys of heaven then, you need to be totally committed to Jesus Christ today. Without that total commitment you won’t be there.

 

Now you could say, “Well, I attend church on Sabbath morning. I’m here. I’m sitting in the pew. But when I go home, I don’t dress like I dressed here. In fact I put on some of the world, you know. I start acting like the world. Swear words occasionally come out. That’s not total commitment is it. When you are total committed you are committed 24hr a day.

 

Let’s suppose you are going to get Married but before getting Married you’re soon to be tell you

I’ll be true to you ninety nine percent of the time.” That would be pretty good, wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t that be great? “Ninety nine percent of the time I’ll be true to you. I will.” How many of you would accept that? And yet we expect God to accept that, don’t we?

 

What does the Scriptures say we need to do:

Ephesians 6:11. Put on the partial armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.

 

Is that what it says? “Put on the whole armor of God.” Partial of anything may not be sufficient to keep you safe.

 

The young David was able to slay Goliath because the giant did not use the whole armor. Where did that little stone find its mark? It sank into his forehead.

 

Where was his shield that came over his face, or his helmet? Where was the shield that his shield-bearer should have had? They were missing.

 

He was not wearing one, he did not feel the need to put it on, after all Davit was just a little small boy, not very big at all, what could he do to a Giant like Goliath

 

Goliath didn’t have the whole armor and so he died, you cannot become a Christian today without the whole armor of God or you too will die.

 

One little loophole was all it took for David’s stone to transform the mammoth monster into a dead dwarf.

 

Don’t ever think satin is not taking aim! He wants nothing more then to keep you from a total commitment to Jesus. Satin does not care if you have a 70%, 80%, 90% or even a 99% commitment to Jesus. He just wants to keep you from having a 100% commitment

 

There is no such thing as half-and-half unless you get it at Wal-Mart. In Christ there is a hundred percent or nothing.

 

STOEY: A Hog and Chicken sets a good example.

 

Visualize a chicken and a pig vacationing together. They travel for many miles and many hours. Finally they get hungry. The sharp-eyed chicken spots a restaurant. Approaching the door, they read a sign which says, “Ham and Eggs: Our Specialty!” “Hold it!” oinked the pig. “What’s the matter?” clucked the chicken. “Plenty,” said the hog. “All they want from you is a little compromise. They are asking me for total commitment!” That’s exactly what God wants.

 

How do you have a great marriage? You are totally committed to it. These are marriages that last seventy-five years, those people are committed to it. Commitment! That’s what we need to pray for.

 

When a little trouble comes to a great marriage, when both of them are committed to it, they’re going to stick with it. They’re not going to run.

 

Mark 8:3436  Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?”

 

A few years ago a super fast concord jet was zooming off the runway in Paris, France, with its load of passengers. Everything was going fine. Do you realize that the pilot of a jet aircraft comes to a point of no return on that runway.

 

It gets going so fast that you cross a line where you have to decide to “fly or stop”. Once you cross that line you have no choice but to fly or to crash. The pilot of that fast jet came to that line. It seems that when he came to that point, a tire blew out and large chunks crashed into the fuel tank. The plane took off in a fireball and crashed in an explosion.

 

Unfortunately, churches are filled with many members who have never left the ground. They have been sitting on a spiritual runway for years and years gunning their spiritual engines but they never really reaching the point of total commitment, that line that you must cross as a Christian or you are not going to make it.

 

You cannot stay on the runway and reach heaven at the same time. You’ve got to get committed and get off, take off.

 

Philippians 3:7,8. But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ. Praise God for Paul! That’s beautiful!

 

What is man’s greatest possession? I would submit to you that man’s greatest possession is a relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s the greatest thing you can have all else is rubbish.

 

Mother letting Jesus take the wheelJesus wants you totally: Hook, Line, and Sinker and that is another Sermon.

 

Do you want Him with all your might? Just pray this little prayer: “Dear God, you be the needle and I’ll be the thread. You go first and I’ll follow wherever you may lead.” That’s what thread does.

 

 

***In the beginning of this sermon I ask you a question!***

 

What in this world would keep you on a sinking Ship? The order is giving get off, Abandon ship and save your life. What is keeping you from getting into the gates of Heaven?

 

An old song goes like this: “I Surrender.. how much? All.” Yielding totally to Jesus. Another song says – “All The Way My Savior Leads me!” Are you willing to go all the way with Jesus?

 

The ship is sinking and there is not much time left, what are you going to do! The longer you wait the lest chance you miget have.

I pray that today you will give Jesus a chance, a chance to save you from a sinking world. Jesus said in Matthew:11:28: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

In Noah time only he and his family were saved God was giving a warning to the people of Noah’s time for 120 years, telling them the ship was sinking. Get into the safety of God provision but no one believed what the man of God was preaching. The same is with our World today, God has done all he can do to save you, but the choice is your.

I pray that God will be with you as you decide today if you are staying on board this sinking ship or if you are following the command to get off this sinking World and into the hands of a God that loves you.

 

God Bless

Elder Tim McNab

 

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