Sunday_Service

Good morning everyone from Hawaii and all my brothers and sisters throughout this world. I never thought I would be preaching sermons to the world. I only expected a small Church somewhere down the street. We still want to build the mission/church in downtown Hilo when I am feeling better. I have been receiving letters from all over the world for me to come to there land and preach or help out with their individual Churches and Ministries, maybe that is another reason why Satan has put this affliction on me, but I hope I still have the strength today just to complete this sermon.

Dear Heavenly Father, We are and want to lay all things aside, the pride of life, anger, fear, and any type of un-forgiveness. We do not want to be lukewarm. We are on fire for you O Lord. We want to please you, we want to love you, and above all worship you in Spirit and Truth. Lord you know our hearts, you know how we truly feel, and how we show our love to others, our lives are focused on you. We stand for your word and we thank you for all the blessings you have showered upon us all. We pray that you rule our hearts and our directions; and to promote unity among us by love. We thank you that you saved all of mankind through your son Jesus. We praise you Jesus. We praise you Father for sending your Son to earth and through his suffering, death, and resurrection you have given us life and the ability to talk, pray and worship you. Please send your Holy Spirit to us all, please baptize us all in the Spirit of truth, all who here and listen and read this message today or any day Lord. We need all of you Lord, we cannot be complete without you. Please forgive us all of these past week’s sins, and hold on to us Lord. Please guide us today with what you want hear, and is pleasing and loving to You. We open ourselves to you Father, In Jesus Name. Amen

How we treat others is a great lever of maintaining the peace and love toward one another, our model here is giving a cup of cold water to a child, knowing very well this child can not return the favor that is why the statement is used, unselfish service to another that is why the light in my office burns every night with the prayer work I can do to reach out to the world with the light touch of heart and to comfort the suffering the lonely and the heavy burdened. It is our Christian duty to help one another, probably that is why we pastors are attacked the most, by the devil. He doesn’t want a man to reach out with the word of God mixed with the teachings of Christ and to comfort the few with hope. That is probably why the mission has taken so long to be built or even getting a building rented, to help the ones that truly need the help, and maybe in the ones that are sleeping in the park have more knowledge than most. Like last week I was explaining about the traveling and the knowledge that I have picked up. When you have to live on the streets you gain a little more knowledge than most then if you were just punching a clock everyday then going home and flopping in front of the TV, eat dinner and sleep in a normal bed. These people have to put up with where are they going to put there things and to keep them safe and to figure out were there next meal will be coming from, In our society today most people think today the homeless are just a bunch of wine drinkers or drug addicts, most of the time that is not the case each and every person has there own story of what has happened to each and every one of them. And most of the stories are relatively horrifying, I know I worked in a mission for quite a while, and even within the mission the actions of the staff was not likely to give a man a drink of water in the middle of the afternoon when we were closed at the time, There was a day man came in sweating and he really did need a glass of water. He looked like he was going to keel over, but I ended up giving him some water anyway. That day I do remember well, how anyone could refuse a man in that condition a glass of water.

What Jesus here did he used the Old Testament in Hosea 6:6 and he later spoke almost the same words in Matt. 12: 7 God is more interested in the person’s loyalty of the heart then ongoing ceremonial of outside rituals. You see those who think that they are too good, these are the type that can’t be saved, that is why Jesus would say the sinners and the prostitutes will enter into the kingdom of heaven before the Pharisees. The Pharisees were not righteous, they just thought they were. And by thinking that you are righteous you are worse off than a man that agrees that he is a sinner. The point that should be made here is that God has already judged our sacrifices and without mercy, our sacrifices are completely worthless. We do have to admit to ourselves that we don’t have all the answers, and that we should always leave our hearts open to the knowledge of the truth, but if you think you know everything already, you are not open or ready to learn or listen to anything. The call of the gospel is a call to repentance, a call to change our minds, and change our attitudes and the way we think. If we as children of God were not sinners, Christ would not have to come upon this earth, and serve as the great physician and then go through the suffering and death and treatment that He had to perform in order to save our souls from sin and death. That is why we praise His name, and Love Him.

A self –righteous man does not need or realize he has a need for salvation, but an admitted sinner does. Matthew was not a well liked man, neither by the Jews or the Pharisees, you see with Christ he can call most of the sinners and give them mercy, and pardon many great sins, a good publican was almost unheard of, that is why there was hatred to this particular office. . With God, through Christ, there is mercy to pardon the greatest sins, and grace to change the greatest sinners, and make them holy. A faithful, fair-dealing publican was rare. And because the Jews had a particular hatred to an office which came up with such this terrible name. The thing is Christ called this publican to follow him.

Our Lord set up a series of sacrifices in order for the people to flourish. He wanted His people to make these particular sacrifices not because the sacrifices pleased Him at all. God adapted this system or covenant so in this whole process they would realize and recognize there own sin. And also to lean toward the proper life they should have lead, toward loving and understanding God Himself. They performed these sacrifices but forgot the whole reason and base behind them, and why they were offering these sacrifices in the first place. So in all essence they were disobeying God and didn’t realize what they were doing. So Jeremiah tried to tell the people that they should have complete obedience, and that was a major requirement in all there lives, just by doing all these religious rituals turns out to be of no purpose at all. All of the sacrifices were not rejected by God, the ones who showed true obedience and repentance with commitment and loyalty those pleased our God. To put it in plain English, sacrifices are only suitable when they are accompanied by sincere repentance and joyful obedience.

In the book of Micah he describes our Lord to the fullest, Our God Hates sin , but then again loves the sinner. We have realized that Gods judgment was upon Judah and Israel. It seems in this book there were many sins within both nations and they were very overpowering. In the passage before this, God is trying to explain His faithfulness and teaching but now Israel have forgotten the covenant and the settlement, and they turned away from God. So in 6:6-8 people are trying in all different ways to please God, but they are forgetting to just be true to the Lord, and walk with the Lord in purity, with love mercy, obedience and repentance. How hard is that, even for this day and age, even though time goes by more and more rebellion is considered? So we are right back to the same sequence to care and to have mercy for others with humility of mind. Look at my self, I have lost all my strength, lost what I look like physically, after intense training for 23 years, it is all gone, plus the fact I can not where my teeth, I cannot chew, and I have to walk around in public like this a frail human being, all skin and bones, and I can’t smile, talk about humility I am living in it everyday, I even look very sick on top of it all, because I am. But I know the Lord will bring me out of this, or I meet Him up in heaven. My devotion to others and to Him are there, the prayer responses still go out and the Sunday sermons still get preached, I may not be able to do much otherwise, but I am being taught a great lesson in faith, and my obedience is still with my Lord. To help as many people as I can, and to loose all self, so I don’t have any teeth, so I am a frail human being, Jesus was pretty frail, so I can only look to the future, we can’t look back. So every thought that we have we have to continue our walk with the Lord with obedience and pure trust, we must continue on the same road knowing that we are sinners, as we place our total dependence on Him the redeemer the God of the universe, and rely on His covering, and as we wait for His ultimate grace to us, the humble in heart, waiting patiently, and enduring till the end. Praise be to God!

In the days of King David people came from all locations to make sacrifices of all different types of animals in the Tabernacle. They came from a far places some it would take days or even weeks for there journey on there donkeys camels and horses, with all kinds of supplies and some bring their own prize animals along with then to be sacrificed. Even King David expressed his values and thoughts at this time. He was a great King, he knew people, and he knew how to judge there hearts too. And he even would say why are you sacrificing if you don’t have the true meaning lying deep down within your hearts. Basically it is like going to church, well everyone else is going, so I will go too, but missing the point and also missing the mark, in other words playing church, or back in their day playing sacrifice. We again have our own rituals in our churches, we should be devoted to prayer, worship, singing, fellowship, sharing views of the word of God and the Love of God, what Jesus has done in our lives this past week, and how the holy spirit guided us here and there with blessings of helping others , not talking about the ball game and who is divorcing who and who is fooling around with this person or that person, being a busy body is still sin, especially when you come to worship the God of the heavens and the earth and His son who gave up so much for each and every one of us. In church we are to gather together in unity and peace with bonds of friendship, not clicks, only talking or socializing with select groups and some of the ones that really need the help and friendship and fellowship are left out and hurt even more, standing in a crowd of a thousand people and still feeling totally alone. I know I have been there. I have cried on my way to some churches, because they just didn’t have that spiritual essence of what we all need at times. Everyone needs someone to talk to, or to spill your guts out to, a kind heart, that you can just feel good around. What has happened to our churches? Before and after service we are all in the same congregation, breaking of bread together, sharing the blood of Christ together, praying in groups for people, gathering around the ones that got saved that day, and minister to them to go further in the light of God. Our children are being educated with different teachers, maybe bible studies between services, and special care from a select group in the nursery, for the little ones, these children are our future. All of this must be done for all the right reasons, paying our tithes, and to truly worship and to give back to our God the love of thankfulness, and asking for forgiveness. Here again sacrifice, and obedience.

That is why the Lord is not pleased with a lot of Church Ceremonies. Love and obedience is the only way of pleasing the Lord. God is Spirit. We just cannot go off and play church every Sunday. and forget about the purity of the love of God and why we are there to give our God Glory which is far more then the sacrifice of getting up early, getting the children together making sure everyone is dressed up in a certain mystic of beauty and proper attire, Do our children know why we enter into these buildings and why we are there. We are there for the celebration of our heart and obedience with hope prayers and worship with communication and thanksgiving of our God of the universe who has made us and given everything we have today. It is a day set apart to give back what God has given to us. We can do all things for others and be part of the church be in the choir, be in the praise team, but we are all making sacrifices, extra practice extra days, hours of going over music, but the obedience, love, and devotion has to be there. We cannot just go there to stand on the stage with the guitar and say look at me. I know I sat next to a man for almost a year with the same attitude; he was not there to worship, he wanted to stand right there in front with his shining new guitar and make his music so loud that every Sunday the Music Minister had to tell him to turn it down. He was there for himself. So our King Saul became rebellious and stubborn just like my friend the guitar player. God finally put his foot down and took away his Kingdom just like my friend, someone would put a plant in front of him and he would get up and leave. What people do not realize like the story here is like an act of rebellion, Like the story here could be one of the most serious sins of all, as you live in rebellion with God you cannot expect anything from The Lord. You are closing the door to his infinite Grace and forgiveness.

God wants us to have a broken spirit so we can call to him for repair and his teaching and his love. At times I wonder why my heart is broken day after day, but this leads us to our knees to worship and pray to the Father and to open ourselves to the flow of our infinite God to repair which is broken. We have to be constantly repenting of our sins, yes I am suffering but we have to make that turn around to God and worship with Thanksgiving, forgetting the past that brought us the broken heart and spirit in the first place. We cannot please God with anything as far as good intentions; our communication has to remain open. Yes at times I do get upset of the treatment of these doctors, but I lay it down. Now the tears are rolling down my face. I am getting brutally attacked, now with confusion, not to go on even with what I am writing. Now my sins are somewhat of sorrow and the loss of weight and the strength of making it to complete this sermon. We have to ask constantly for the forgiveness of our sins,( fear is sin.) I myself am wondering what will happen, and I know I am a broken man, but maybe there are other reasons for my illness. God only knows that each week it gets harder and harder, and I get weaker and weaker, but I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me. Phil. 4:13

Here again in this passage we have to really study on these words. God is furious. People at that time were really wealthy and they were not helping the poor and needy. They were flaunting their own riches and not sharing what should have been done to help the poor. You see, we are right back to the beginning, not worshipping in truth and what we are taught. People again are just going through the gestures, only going along with everyone else, putting on a show, and God realizes that He is hating there festivals and assembly’s. Again we see the game of it all. We are to share what we have and come to Our Lord with true offerings, not just a show of an offering, without being in spirit and in truth with true love to God and His people, with true repentance and full worship from the heart it is all so meaningless. So here in Amos, God is mad he doesn’t want to listen to them or even to hear them. Not even their songs of praise. Here we are again looking at the church of today, we are out for conversations and gossiping, forgetting the reason why we are here. The reason we are hear, in church is to worship God of the universe. Church is not a social club and yet some do go to this day to meet friends and love ones. They are forgetting the whole reason why they are their. That is why God is so furious then with Israel. It makes you think about how God feels about the Churches today, with so many divisions sects, and different beliefs, and now we have so many cult groups actually changing the word of God. Some are rewriting their own Bible and not even believing that Jesus Christ is The Son Of God. In the same sense how can God be pleased with false teachings and false worship? He does not even want a lukewarm Church. He wants a Church that is on fire for his love and worship. Would you listen to a group of Hippocrates singing songs to you when they do not believe? God wants us all to come to repentance open our hearts to Him and worship in spirit and in truth, care for all our poor, and holds together rich or poor to be as one, with one accord, to empty all transgressions, sins, and prejudice. God wants us to become as one as The Father and Jesus are one, and we can approach God as one.

That is why Christ, when he came into the world, said, "You did not want animal sacrifices and grain offerings. But you have given me a body so that I may obey you.

No, you were not pleased with animals burned on the altar or with other offerings for sin.

Then I said, `Look, I have come to do your will, O God--

just as it is written about me in the Scriptures.' "Christ said, "You did not want animal sacrifices or grain offerings or animals burned on the altar or other offerings for sin, nor were you pleased with them" (though they are required by the law of Moses). Then he added, "Look, I have come to do your will." He cancels the first covenant in order to establish the second. And what God wants is for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.

Under the old covenant, the priest stands before the altar day after day, offering sacrifices that can never take away sins. But our High Priest offered himself to God as one sacrifice for sins, good for all time. Then he sat down at the place of highest honor at God's right hand. There he waits until his enemies are humbled as a footstool under his feet. For by that one offering he perfected forever all those whom he is making holy. Heb.10:5-13 NLT

"I am sick of your sacrifices," says the LORD. "Don't bring me any more burnt offerings! I don't want the fat from your rams or other animals. I don't want to see the blood from your offerings of bulls and rams and goats. Why do you keep parading through my courts with your worthless sacrifices? The incense you bring me is a stench in my nostrils! Your celebrations of the new moon and the Sabbath day, and your special days for fasting--even your most pious meetings--are all sinful and false. I want nothing more to do with them. I hate all your festivals and sacrifices. I cannot stand the sight of them! From now on, when you lift up your hands in prayer, I will refuse to look. Even though you offer many prayers, I will not listen. For your hands are covered with the blood of your innocent victims. Wash yourselves and be clean! Let me no longer see your evil deeds. Give up your wicked ways. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the orphan. Fight for the rights of widows. Isa. 1:11-17 NLT

All religious assemblies can help all others identify with our Lord. To get to know Him better, and to form a bond and a walking relationship with Him through proper teaching, Here again our Lord tells us he doesn’t want our sacrifices, He wants us to be merciful, and to carry the load for others, and to have love and devotion towards our brothers and sisters. If a person’s heart is not right with God, no assembly will benefit anyone of us. God didn’t want the Israelites rituals He wanted what was deep within there hearts. It comes down to the same sequence of events, why do we worship, and what is the intent of our sacrifices and offerings when the heart of the man is empty? We must fully understand our Lord, and the reasons behind the blood. The Blood is the atonement, the covering of sin. But the covering can blow away when there is no meaning behind it all. It all comes down to the same thing obedience and love toward our God. We have to turn around from our sins, and go in a different direction to fully know Him. Otherwise all the sacrifices in the world will not change a thing.

O’ Mighty God at the close of this service we need you to guide us this rest of the week. We need to be held by You and Jesus, forgive us for our sins, and our forgetfulness. Please heal all the ones that need your healing, please answer our prayers for the sick, and the hurting, and all the emails that have come into the church this week, and for next week, and all the ones that are suffering all different troubles, from all different aspects, of this world. All we want to do is to love You, and Jesus, the Holy Spirit and all of the human race. We hold our prayers in your hands, and we will persevere, and keep climbing to be the race you want us to be. Please stay with us close, there is so much suffering my God. Please bring us your peace, grace, love, and joy. Please here our prayers. In the powerful Name of Jesus, Amen and Amen.