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Good morning, everyone. And I’m glad blessed that each one of you are here. So if you’d open your Bibles along with me, we’re in numbers. Chapter nine, starting with first one numbers nine, starting with first one. And pastor Frank Jr. will be here to preach the second service, but he’s going to just slip in and preach and slip out. He doesn’t want anyone to pick up what he has. He’s, he’s kinda sick has like a real bad cold or something. And so anyway, I want to mention that on the 28th, we have a sign of sheet, a February it’s going to be it’s going to be a Friday night. We’re planning on having a time where people can come and ask questions about scripture, we can discuss it. It’s not going to be me preaching but it’s going to be discussion. And maybe we’ll have it downstairs in the fellowship hall. You can bring something to share if you’d like. But we have a sign of sheet we need to know if anyone’s interested in so if you are Please sign up out there. And also we have the women are going to be doing their selection right for Secret Service, Secret Service. Maybe they are for secret sisters, between services. So if you can go downstairs and and ladies and grab a name out that would be much appreciated. And I think that’s it. So we have Father, we come before you in Jesus name and we thank You for Your Word and your word is so true. And it truly is a lamp unto our feet. And it’s a guide to our path. And I ask Heavenly Father that as we break open your word this morning, that it would come to us in all of its power, and all of its glory. And really, really reveal to us things that we need to know things that we need to learn because our greatest desires orders to serve you and to be your witnesses everywhere we go. And your word is such a gift. So as we break it open together, may your Holy Spirit be present to give us an understanding I asked in Jesus name, Amen. And Amen. You know, when I was working on the teaching and putting it together, I was thinking, what is the greatest sin in the world? What’s the greatest sin? You know what it is rejecting Jesus, because the consequences are eternal. That’s the greatest thing that there is. And we have to understand that sometimes as believers, we wish that we could just be in some isolated place and just do nothing but worship the Lord. Like last night. You ever noticed it there are so many things like YouTube or TV that can be used for good or for bad. You know what I mean? You can turn the TV on, you can watch past stuff you can turn on watch good stuff. And so via we actually a couple years ago, we got a smart TV because we’re not and Anyway, we got the Smart TV, and you can do YouTube on it, and how awesome it was last night to just type in your favorite, you know, pray songs, your favorite hymns, and they pop up. And you can listen to them. And you’re sitting there and thinking, Man, I don’t want to leave this place. But you know what the reality is, we have to, you know why God called us to live. And so we have responsibilities, we have to sleep, you’re going to get really sick, you have to go to work, you won’t have anything to eat. You know what I’m saying? So, there are things that we’ve got to do in life. And when we do those things in life, it puts us in the midst of the world. But that’s not a bad thing. Because we’re supposed to be a witness in the world. So anything we do, everywhere we go, our heart should be How can I share Christ and brothers and sisters oftentimes sharing Christ isn’t walking up to someone and saying, Are you saved your You’re going to hell, you know, that’s not a good way to share Christ. You know, the best way to share Christ is to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your mind with all of your soul with all of your strength, and people will see something.
I have found that people don’t care what you think, unless they ask. And there’s so many times that you might have those opportunities. And I’m sharing this because I think it’s something that was mentioned in our prayer time before church. Sometimes I think that, that we get discouraged, because we have to live life, you know, and there’s so many things in this life that can pull us out of kilter, or that we, you know, and we fall, right. I mean, we are human vessels. And that’s the reason that we need to have our feet washed all the time, because we do fall. And so we have to understand as we dig into this portion of Scripture, we’re going to be tired About the second time that they celebrated the Passover. Now, God gave the children of Israel certain holidays, certain ordinances that they were to celebrate and to follow. And the reason for every single one of them was to remind them of him to point to him. And everything the Lord gives us as a church, whether it be communion, whether it be our worship services coming together, whether it be our personal prayer time and Bible study, it’s all pointing us to him, and helping us to realize who the Creator is. You know, when I was sharing with you the greatest rejection, you know, the greatest sin is rejecting Christ. The thing we have to realize that once a person ceases to live, they take their last breath. Their choice has been made, and it’s solidified. Because we have to realize to be absent from the body is either to be present with the Lord or to be separated from him and So our responsibility is to encourage people because, you know, there’s so many people out there that they think, well, I don’t think this life is, is it was not but this, I think maybe we go to Nirvana. Or maybe we go to here we go to this happy place. No, no. There’s either heaven or there’s hell. There are no in between places. And people say, well, we’re just a bunch of, you know, evolutionary, you know, production that’s been put together that gives us human life. That’s all there is. No, it’s not.
You know, in the years, I’ve been a pastor a long time, I probably have have done over 100 hundred 2530. I don’t know, funeral services. And I like to come home going services because most of the services I do are for believers, and they’ve gone home for the ones left behind. And one of the things that always gets me and you know, maybe you might think this is a little ghoulish or whatever. But as I look at it at the body line in the casket, and I realized, that’s not that person, because who we are, is really immaterial. who we are is our personality, right? You know, our faith, our love, everything about us is is gone. When you see that dead body they were Where did it go? Because our body isn’t who we are. When you look at it at a body and in a casket, for instance, this reminder of the one we love, but you know, that’s not the person that we love, you know, they’re not there. And so if we are in material is because we’re body, soul and spirit bodies, the only part of this material, soul and spirit is immaterial, then it can’t die. We can’t die, because it’s in your soul in nature and understanding that you have self identity. In other words, you don’t sit here in church, or wherever you might be, work and sit think maybe some people do, but you don’t normally sit down and think, who am I? Where am I? What is this? You know exactly who you are, you know yourself by name. You know why you’re there, you know what you’re doing, you have complete self identity that’s never lost. You’re not going to get to heaven, and be like, wow, you know, and wonder who I am and who these people are. The Scripture says, that will know ourselves self identity, and will know others. You know, we’re not going to get to heaven and see one another in that great chorus before the throne and say, well, you look familiar to me. We’re going to know who we are, and our worship of the Lord. And so the whole point that I’m trying to get at is when you see ordinances like the Passover, it’s a reminder of all that God has promised us. So in Numbers chapter nine, starting with first one now the Lord spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai in the first month, The second year after they had come out of the land of Egypt, so they just been out of the land of Egypt, two years. Because are actually one year at this point, because they celebrated Passover, what just before they left, right? They before they left, and now they’re celebrating their second Passover, Passover saints. But the children of Israel keep the Passover at his appointed time. There was a time that they were celebrated on the 14th day of the month at twilight, you shall keep it at its appointed time. According to all the rights and ceremonies you shall keep it. So Moses told the children of Israel that they should keep the Passover, and they kept the Passover on the 14th day of the first month. That is the month of Nissan in the in the Hebrew calendar. It’s our March, April. And that’s the reason that we have that time period that we celebrate the resurrection and what people call Easter. That’s the time we celebrate your resurrection. Because, remember, it was just before the Passover that Jesus was crucified. It was actually believe it or not, when we get to that we’ll talk about it. It wasn’t on a Friday. It was on a Wednesday he was crucified Wednesday evening. Because he was three days and three nights in the balance of the earth before he rose.
We’ll talk about that again. And Twilight in the wilderness of Sinai, according to all that the Lord commanded Moses, so the children of Israel did. Now listen to the to this. Now there are certain men who were defiled by human corpse. Remember, we talked about that a few weeks ago, if you touch a corpse, you had to go through a cleansing process and so forth. Because everything that was written in the past was symbolic of how Jesus how we would relate to Jesus under the new covenant and the dead, we need to move from death to life. So they so they could not keep the Passover on that day, in other words, a specified day. They came before Moses and Aaron that day. And those men said to him to Moses, we became defiled by human corpse. Why are we kept from presenting the offering of the Lord at the appointed time? This is the Passover lamb among the children of Israel. And Moses said to them, stand still, that I may hear what the Lord would command concerning you. You know, it’s interesting. Moses didn’t say, Well, here’s what I think, you know, so often we do that, well, here’s what I think. Moses said, Let me hear what the Lord says, Let me hear from the Lord what he would have us do. And this is first nine. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, speak to the children of Israel, if any one of you or your posterity is unclean because of a corpse, or as far away on a journey, he may still keep the Lord’s Passover and the 14th day of the second month, which should be like our that’s the Hebrew month and that is actually April May, and that time for the second month and Twilight they may keep it. They shall eat with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, and they shall leave none until morning. Listen to this, nor break one of its bones. Well, what’s the big deal about not breaking one of its bones? That was an ordinance of God, that when the Passover lamb was sacrificed, not one of his bones can be broken. Now that should bring something to memory for all of us as believers. Remember when Jesus was dying on the cross? And then he did he died, he gave up the ghost. And they came around because they wanted to make sure that you know, all the victims in the cross were dead and would die quickly. And so they came in they broke their leg bones because that kind of get girlish or anything but the thing with crucifixion is you actually die of asphyxiation. Because when you’re hanging on the cross, it stretches out your diaphragm. And so in order to breathe, you have to push up with your legs and take a breath. So when they broke their legs, they they couldn’t push up. And so they would die of a situation. But when they came to Jesus, they said, Well, he’s already dead. And some of you might have wondered about this. So they poked a spear in suicide, and it says blood and water came out. When a person dies, you actually have a whole I won’t get into all the details. But anyway, it would cause what would be blood and water coming out so they knew he was dead. Therefore, they didn’t break his legs. And if you want to turn quickly with me to john chapter 19, and go to verse 36, the gospel of john chapter 19 and verse 36 1936. For these things, were Done, that the scripture would be XSL not one, his his bones shall be broken. And again another scripture says, they shall look on him whom they have pierced, 22nd son. You see how Jesus completely fulfills the prophecy in the scripture? He was the Passover lamb. He was the Lamb of God, who came to take away the sin of the world. And therefore, he fulfilled all the law. Jesus did not come to abolish the law. Scripture tells us what to do, but to sell it to fulfill it. And so all the law was facilitate him even being the Passover lamb not having a bone broken. The two thieves their bones were broken, not his. God is so in charge. It’s absolutely amazing verse 13.
But demand who is clean and is not an achievement on a journey and ceases to keep the Passover, that same person she’ll be cut off from among the people, because he did not bring the offering of the Lord at its appointed time that man shall bear his sin. In other words, if you don’t have any excuse, to do what God commanded you to do to celebrate the Passover in this case, but to do it God commanded you to do, you don’t have any excuse, you’re bearing your own sin. First 14, and if a stranger dwells among you, non Jew, and would keep the Lord’s Passover, he must do so according to the rights of the Passover and according to a ceremony, you shall have no other ordinance, both the stranger and the native of the land. And of course, what that speaks to us is the fact that Christianity, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ is for everybody. Wherever you come from any part of the world, whatever ethnic group, whatever it makes no difference anywhere, is forging But the thing is, when we participate in Jesus Christ, we’re become we become one body. We’re no longer foreigners at that point, we are one we’re part of the body of Christ. But even as foreigners coming in, we’re obliged to carry out the commands of God. It’s not one group of commands for another one group group of commands for this group. One of the things that I’m not trying to bash anything or just making a point, but there’s a term that they use in Catholicism, when they evangelize different parts of the world. When they evangelize different parts of the world. They actually will bring in some of their pagan culture just to make the people comfortable. When I was in Brazil, I was there in a short short term mission trip. I was teaching at a seminary there, and we went into Manal on our day off, that’s the capital of Brazil. And we went in to this huge Roman can Catholic Cathedral. And they had what we would call a bookstore, right? We went in there and was run by nuns. And they actually sold potions, and all different things for doing witchcraft. There’s like, absolutely amazing. And it’s just like a different holidays and birthdays, they would bring gifts to the grave. And they’d be sitting all around the graves there. But for you and I as believers, there’s not one set of rules for this group and one set of rules for that group. As we become Christians, were all obliged to the Word of God and to his ordinances. You can’t celebrate Christianity this way or that way. And that’s one of the reasons we have to be so careful with so many of these movements that come to the church. They’re not of God. Some of you Well, some of you might not, but I used to. Anyway, like there was a movement that came to the church some years ago, called Laughter I don’t know if you’ve heard of it. And what it is, is the pastor would be up there speaking, then all of a sudden someone in the church would start laughing and another person would start laughing in the whole church be on the ground rolling and laughing. The pastor say, Well, I guess the Holy Spirit’s here. Well, you know what, that’s not of God. the very purpose and reason we come to church, according to the Word of God, is to study the Word of God. Together. Yes, the reason we come together. And so we have to realize there’s no different set of rules for this group or for that group. It’s the same for all of us. Now, we know that Passover was not to be one time celebration, but it was to be a celebration each year to remind the children of Israel of what Yahweh what the Lord had done for them. The Passover reminded the Jews have God’s redemptive power to bring him from death to Life, to bring it from slavery to freedom. And so even in the wilderness, they were to remember what God had done for for them. And, you know, in a spiritual way for you and I as believers, we’re in the wilderness. We’re in the wilderness of this world of this life. And I think so often we realize it is a wilderness. This is not our home country. This is a wilderness. And we have to remember that God has brought us from death to life. He’s brought us from slavery to freedom. Before we were born again, before we committed our lives to Jesus Christ, you and I were slaves to sin in this world. I’m not saying we never fall to sin, but we’re not slaves to it any longer. We’ve been set free through Jesus Christ. And so we have to remember that what what are the ordinances that we have to remember what we have communion
you know, Jesus said, as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, do it in remembrance of me. remembrance of all I’ve done for you. I brought you from death to life. I brought you from slavery to freedom. We have the word of God study to show yourself approved work and correctly handling the word of truth needing not be ashamed, study the Word. It’s, it’s there every day, you can just open it anytime you want. fellowship coming to church, do not forsake the gathering of yourself together, some have grown in the customer doing, doing and all the more as you see that day approaching, and the purpose is to encourage one another in the Lord. So God has given us things as well, in order to be a constant reminder, we have been freed from the slavery of this world and of our own flesh, and we have been brought into the wondrous Kingdom of his light. We’re free. We’re free indeed. Scripture tells us in Christ Jesus. You know, communion, I think is probably one of the most beautiful things that we share together. Because it’s such a reminder of everything that we were sinners and Jesus died to free us from sin. That reminds us that Jesus not only said that he would share the community with us with His disciples in this in this world, but we’re to celebrate it as a remembrance of what he’s done, that he even gives a greater promise. He’s gonna celebrate communion with us in heaven. Can you imagine that? And let me share with you what Jesus was saying to His disciples in Matthew, if you take notes, Chapter 26 and verse 2926 29. If Matthew and Jesus said, I tell you, I will not drink this fruit of the vine. He was doing communion with them. From now on until that day, when I drink it a new with you in my father’s Kingdom Wow. I mean, do you realize that there is going to be a day and and i think sooner than we might think with everything that’s going on, there’s going to be a day that Jesus Christ is going to call us out of this world. You know, apparently the rapture this the rap toast, and that means to actually means to harpoon. So in other words, we’re not going to be standing around and the trumpet sounds and we’re thinking, I don’t know maybe I want to go right now maybe I don’t when that trumpet sounds, fam your gun the Lord’s gonna take you up to meet him in the air. And then when we meet him in the air, whenever it when the whole family’s together, he’s taken us to heaven. And guess who’s going to be leading communion? It’s not going to be me. It’s not going to be Billy Graham. It’s not going to be David. You know, it’s not going to be Paul. It’s not going to be Peter. It’s not going to be anyone but Jesus Christ. And I can’t even imagine. We’re sitting there. I don’t know how it’s going to be. And those wounded hands, because remember, john said, I saw a lamb as if he had been slaughtered. So he’s still going to carry the marks of his love for us. And those hands are going to administer communion to each one of us personally. Wow. That’s absolutely amazing to me. You know, our God is so wonderful, loving and compassionate that he makes provision for Iran is called confession and repentance. It’d be wonderful, wouldn’t it be? If when you’re born again saved filled with the Holy Spirit that all of a sudden, you you, you’ve never committed in another sin. Wouldn’t that be great? But I guarantee you you have and you Do and you will. And that’s why the gift of confession and repentance is so wonderful. You know my favorite first first john one nine because I need it the most. If we confess our sins, He’s faithful and just to forgive us and purify us from all unrighteousness. But there’s a conditional conjunction if we need to confess our sin, the sin we have to understand, oftentimes pride prevents us from confessing our sins. And oftentimes pride prevents us from seeing our sin. Well, this really isn’t sin. Why are we saying that because we want to keep doing it. Well, I think the Lord understands this. Now according to the Word of God, we have to understand is he the center, it’s not sin. You know, years ago, you have you guys have no idea who I was talking about. And there was a man who came to our church and was a he was someone who has delivered from heroin and he came to church and really got on fire for the Lord. And I hadn’t seen him for a few years. And he said to me said, you know, Pastor Frank, he said, here’s what the Lord showed me. If I stay clean all week, and I work hard all week, then it’s okay if I use in the weekend he was making excuses for his sin. You know what? Let’s be honest. Our flesh likes to sin. You know, this is Super Bowl Sunday, you know, which I like watching game is fun. But we think of Super Bowl Sunday, at least for me, I’m not thinking of, of the 49 years and chase playing because neither one of them are my team. I don’t care who wins. But you know, what I think of is to Taco dip. And the winnings and the ice cream and all you know what I mean? All those kinds of things? Well, yes, purely flesh. So, in our flesh, we desire and understand not all those things are Wrong. God has given us everything for what? Our pleasure. But the interesting thing is you can take something that’s good and turn it into sin. You know what I’m saying? Like I said, with YouTube, we can you can get on there and watch hymns. And you know, your favorite Christian artists sing. Or you can watch other vile stuff. There it is. God has given us everything for a good pleasure, but we have to understand and be able to distinguish between the profane and the righteous. You know, there’s nothing wrong with me having taco dip and you know, all the wings and all the wonderful things that come Super Bowl Sunday. But if I’m sitting here in the couch, and I’m going well, the end of the day, that’s probably went a little bit too far. And Which I probably will so I’m already confessing of it. Because he does forgive us. So wonderful thing to know, we are judged under grace, not the law. Therefore, if a man is found unclean through no fault of his own, the Lord provides another day to celebrate. And if you felt the same yesterday, you’ve got a new day. His mercies are new How often? Every morning, you’ve got a new day. You know? It’s so easy, because it’s Satan. Satan loves to remind us of how unworthy we are, doesn’t he? Well, look at how you were yesterday. look at things you did. You’re not worthy. You’re you’re not worthy to be a Christian. Yeah, I know I’m not. And Lord, I confess and I repent of my sin. Forgive me, Jesus. Let me have a new day with you.
Now, we have to understand too though Grace is never an excuse for sin. But it’s another chance to overcome sin. Because some people, I mean, it’s hard for us to understand, but there are some people who believe, well, I can go and do this. And I can go and do that because I’m under grace. Well, you don’t understand grace. Grace is not pre excuse for you to go and do whatever you want. Grace is confession and repentance. When you did what you shouldn’t be doing, it gives you another chance. And that’s what I love about grace. You know, there are things that we deal with in life over and over again, and I know I’ve shared this with you so many times, but I used to smoke two packs of cigarettes a day, and it was one of those weird things. I didn’t start smoking until I got out of the army. That’s kind of weird. I smoked for nine years. And after we got saved, I knew I shouldn’t be smoking because it’s not good for the body. And I used to tell people jokingly, as the Easy to quit smoking. I quit every Monday. And that was the truth. Every Monday, I’m not gonna smoke sin by Wednesday or so. But there was one day, there was that one time that I spoke to the Lord and I heard the Lord’s voice to me too. And I said, I’m never going to smoke again. And I didn’t. But I tried over and over and over. I mean, can you imagine what a horrible parent you’d be if you wanted to teach your your child to hit a baseball, and you threw the ball to them and they swung and missed and they said, you are out? You’re no good. I’m never gonna work with you. Again. Get out of here. Take your bet and bond go in the house. I’m done with you. USA. What a horrible parent. But what does the parents say? Okay, let’s do it. Again. No, swings a little higher. No, have a better stance. No, make sure your bad is even better. And then finally, the little kid goes up and hits the ball and Smile comes on two boys face at a girl’s face and they’re so happy I hit the ball, they run the first base. Because you were patient with them. They kept swinging. They kept trying. They listened to your instructions and finally, pop, they hit the ball. That’s how God’s grace is with us. He’s saying, Come on, you can do it. You can overcome this sin, swinging this, you can overcome swinging this. And the Lord says, Look at my word here, listen to my instructions there, do this and do that. This finally pop, we hit the ball, and we have victory over an area of sin in our life. That’s the God we serve. So Grace is for the purpose of having victory, not an excuse to sin. Understand that. So we have to understand, if we refuse to repent, we’re going to receive the consequences of our sins. For instance, with the dead body, it’s one thing to have come in contact with a dead body, but you don’t hang around with the dead body, in relationship to sin for us, in Acts chapter 26, verse 18 x 2618. It says this, open their eyes in order to turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me. What an amazing verses scripture. The important point was and is, those who are unclean, didn’t try to hide their sin. They came to Moses said, we’re unclean. The Lord knows anyway, doesn’t he? He knows everything. So the most important thing we can do is set aside our pride to say, Lord, I’m unclean. I mean, how hard is it? Sometimes it admits in someone you love someone, you know, maybe a good friend, spouse, family member, you know, whatever it says, you know? I don’t think that’s right. Well, yeah, it is. It’s okay for me. It’s pride.
To be able to say, yeah, you know what, you’re right. That’s wrong. I was wrong. And it says, weakness we all deal with. Because we can’t hide our sins from the Lord. In Numbers. We’ll be getting to this and probably a couple months. Number 3223. It says, but if you do not do so is talking about confessing and repents. Then take note, you have sinned against the Lord, listen to this, and be sure your sin will find you out. It’s always better to confess tend to be caught in a lie. It really is. And notice mode is Moses did not make the decision. on his own, but he went to the Lord, for the Lord to give him the answer. And he was, in a sense, a mediator between the people in God and we have to realize that for you and I, we have a mediator. There’s one mediator between God a man, the man who, Christ Jesus, we have a mediator, Jesus Christ. And so we can go to him and say, Lord, speak to us, Lord, show us. Well, how do we speak to the Lord? And how does the Lord speak to us prayer in the word. I know he speaks in other ways as well. Sometimes he speaks to our heart, but the primary way the Lord speaks to us is through His Word. You know, you go to the Lord in prayer, and you say, Lord, here I am, sinner. I’m dealing with this word, I’m dealing with that, God help me with this. And we take all of our burdens to him, you know, all of our griefs to Him in prayer, and then he answers as sometimes literally in our heart Answers us. And so often as we read his word, he answers us and speaks to us. You know, such an amazing thing. Some of the old hymns have a history behind it that, you know, many of us don’t even know about. And I want to share with you, him. And just what a What a beautiful in Port Hope, Ontario, Canada, and this is back in the late 1800s. A couple of businessmen were standing on a street corner, and they saw this little guy walking by with a sign his hand smile on his face, and he was humming hymns, you know, as he walked by, and the one wealthy man said to the other, he said, Well, he said that man sure seems to be happy in his work, what he’s called to do. He said, I think I’ll have him come in and cut firewood for me for the winner. And the other man said, Why know that man and he will not go firewood, he only cuts firewood for the destitute. And those that are absolutely inflicted with paralysis or some kind of handicap or they can’t do it themselves. Those are the only people he cuts wood for. Well, that man was Joseph scrivens. And a lot of people don’t understand don’t know the story of Joseph scrivens. I’m going to share it with you. Joseph Scriven was the son of a captain in the British Royal Marines, that would be a full colonel in our ranking. His father was not only a high ranking officer in the Royal Marines, but his father was a wealthy man. He came from a very well to do family and Joseph was born in Ireland in 1819, Joseph Scriven, and after receiving his university degree from Trinity College in London, he quickly established himself as a teacher is it Professor And he fell in love and he made plans, plans to settle in his hometown. And then he fell in love with this woman and they were madly in love, and they made plans to settle right there in his hometown where he could keep teaching. Then tragedy struck the day before his scheduled wedding, his fiance drowned and overcome with grief. Scriven left Ireland and to start a new life in Canada. And he established a home in Rice Lake where he met and fell in love with Elsa rice. Her parents were the ones grandparents were the ones that settled at the community. Just weeks before she was to become Joseph scrivens bride, she suddenly grew sick in a matter of weeks, and Elsa died. A shatter Scriven turn to the only thing that had angered him during his life, his faith through prayer and Bible study, he found not just solace, but he found a mission. The 25 year old scrivens took a vow of poverty. So all of his earthly possessions he was part of the Plymouth brethren. There were a very fundamental Bible believing church and vow to give his life to the physically handicapped and financially destitute. 10 years later, scribbly receive war word that his mother had become very ill. And the man who had taken a vow of poverty, poverty did not have the funds to go home to help care for his mother. So heartsick and feeling the need to reach out to her, he wrote to her a poem. And this poem that he wrote, was so moving that some of his friends took it to a publisher, and it became popular 20 years later, with Dr. Moody he used that that was basically the same him That he saying it all of his revival meetings. And the sad thing is that Joseph Scriven never actually saw his him become popular because he drowned in the lake in Canada. So, you think about this and you say, wow, there’s a man who really had a life filled with tragedy. Someone that was two women both died before the wedding. He never married, loves his mother. His father had died when he was much younger. And he wasn’t able to go and care for her and she died. So then he wrote this, you know, from his heart to his mother, and he never got to see the popularity of it. Dr. Moody used it in all his revival meetings. Well, this is what Joseph’s Scriven wrote what a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and Greece to bear and what a pretty privilege to carry everything, everything to God in prayer. Oh what peace we often forfeit? Oh what needless pain we bear? All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Have we trials and temptations? Is there trouble anywhere? We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer. Can we find a friend so faithful? Who will all our sorrows share? Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer. So often life is so troubling and difficult. But the pace that we can find is taking it to the Lord in prayer. And how much needless pain do we bear? Because we don’t take it to the Lord in prayer just as the song says is King David wrote in some 138 and verse two, you have magnified your word, above all your name. He’s given us His word, his word, his word, how amazing. And then proverbs three, six, it says, In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. If we go to the Lord, if we go to his word, he can direct our paths he can. He’s just so awesome. And in verse 14 of this portion, we find that even strangers were encouraged to believe and to celebrate the Lord’s table. Likewise, there is no one cut out no one who’s cut out from the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ, no one. That’s why we should share our faith with everyone. You know, in our community, you come across people that are obviously Islam, you know, they were the burkas and things like that. Everyone deserves to hear the message of salvation, anyone to be saved. So we shouldn’t Never allow our heart to stand away from anyone. And in Acts, chapter 221, it says, and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. Anyone, anyone, you might be the instrument of salvation, for countless numbers of people you might not even know about. Maybe your testimony has already led people to the Lord and you don’t even know about it. What a friend we have in Jesus, be in prayer, brothers and sisters, be in the word and be led by God and walk by grace. walk by faith, not by sight.
Father, we come before you in Jesus name and how thankful we are. So very thankful, Lord, for your love and for your word. And I pray that we would take to heart everything that we looked at this morning and use it to help us become more like you. Now Father, we ask all these things in Jesus name amen, and amen. God bless you my brothers and sisters.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai