Good morning my brothers and sisters, my Christian friends and all the members of The Church Ministries, we welcome all visitors and all return Christians that are hungry for the word of God, to form a more perfect alliance and fellowship for the body of Christ. We are all preparing the bride for the return of our Lord Jesus, as we all know the bride is the church, or the gathering to keep it as close to the early church without the divisions of the world and the traditions of men. We welcome all those who are being led by the Holy Spirit, and all who show an interest for the love of God and Christ. The doors are open from the church office in Hawaii to all places and groups that are spread all over the world. We ask for a special blessing for everyone that shares this Sunday service. We all welcome you to a simple bible based gathering to have fellowship with our Lord Jesus Christ, to learn more about having a relationship and friendship with the Lord. As in Luke 9:23 we are to put aside any selfish ambition to shoulder our crosses daily, and follow Jesus. We also know that this action includes suffering and hardship for ourselves. In addition we need the leading of the Holy Spirit to open our ears and eyes to all the edification and spiritual happenings that are experienced here today. We are to shoulder our crosses to the place of crucifixion and we are to die to this world, and regain a new life in Christ, and to be emotionally involved with our Lord Jesus. We are also to forget about all our past achievements and accomplishments, which just seem to get in the way of our main purpose, and come open as a child, without carrying worldly excess baggage to have a better relationship to Christ. "The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash--along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant--dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ - God's righteousness. I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it." (Phil. 3:7-11 MES) Yes my brothers and sisters our main objective is to know Christ, intimately with love and familiarity.
Dear Heavenly Father, Thank You for all the sufferings, thank-You for all the loneliness, thank-you for all the burdens and hardships that may have come across any of our paths. Thank You for all the love and compassion You have given us. Thank You for supplying all our needs. Father, we know you have a plan for each and every one of us and even though at times we don’t understand what we are going through everything has a meaning. Many of us just forget that You have a plan for each and everyone of us, please forgive us of our questions, our murmurings and maybe to some a bit of loosing our faith, we should never have a doubt, never be in any sort of confusion, that is only the evil one trying to tap on our door. We know you always have a plan that turns out for good. (Rom. 8:28) If you know how many hairs are on each of our heads you must also know each of our destinies. Plus we must bow down to you for all the planning and setting up our lives while we were still in the womb. Father, help us to stay on the path that You originally prepared for us, please don’t let the sins of the world change our lives of helping and serving others. Help us to stay on that narrow road that leads to life, and keep us open for every leading, every turn, every description, and decision we make to be Your choice for us. If we get altered along the way, Father, please keep us on the straight and narrow. We understand You gave us all free will to choose, but Father some of our choices can bring us into a world of destruction. We want to be Your servants and we want to follow every direction to the letter, just like the Israelites followed each and every precise direction for the building of the temple in the wilderness Ex. 25-27. You were so precise so many thousands of years ago, please continue with our lives, we all want to be what you originally planed for us. Now that you know each one of our hearts we want to just worship You and be close to You. You are our God, You have put up with our murmuring and complaining and we have not even given You enough thankfulness. We have not given You always our quality time to share our lives with You. We want You to be always welcome in each and every part in our lives. We make mistakes; some of us are not praying and talking enough to grow with You. You are our God and we are Your children and we want so much to make you happy that you made us. I know You must feel at times deeply hurt the way the people have ignored you and there are some that don’t give You the credit for their accomplishments and everything they own. Help us to be more like Jesus, help us to exercise our spirits so we can communicate better with You. We don’t want to be lukewarm for you Father; we want to be on fire for you. We bow down and kneel to You Father in all greatness and power and give glory to You. Grant us Your angels to be all around this service wherever it shall be read, heard or preached and please Lord have the Holy Spirit anoint all that hear and see these words spoken today, so they can feel the presence of Yourself upon them, so they feel the warmth and the spiritual tears so their ears and eyes will be open to Your word and Your Love. In Jesus Name, Amen.
But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Phil. 3: 7-11 KJV
To know Christ should be our ultimate goal. Not any worldly things our media has been pounding into our minds, we all must look at ourselves and ask are we putting anything first before our beloved Jesus? So today we need to reverse our priorities, if we are looking at our new car or our big house, or how well our jobs have been, or thinking about our careers or our clothing if any of these things put a block on our relationship with Jesus we must reformulate our minds. We don’t want the door shut on us at the last moment before we enter into heaven, and have Jesus say to us I never new you.
"The Kingdom of Heaven can be illustrated by the story of ten bridesmaids who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. The five who were foolish took no oil for their lamps, but the other five were wise enough to take along extra oil. When the bridegroom was delayed, they all lay down and slept. At midnight they were roused by the shout, `Look, the bridegroom is coming! Come out and welcome him!' "All the bridesmaids got up and prepared their lamps. Then the five foolish ones asked the others, `Please give us some of your oil because our lamps are going out.' But the others replied, `We don't have enough for all of us. Go to a shop and buy some for yourselves.' "But while they were gone to buy oil, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was locked. Later, when the other five bridesmaids returned, they stood outside, calling, `Sir, open the door for us!' But he called back, `I don't know you!' "So stay awake and be prepared, because you do not know the day or hour of my return. Matt. 25: 1-12 NIV
Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. Matt. 7:13-14 NASB
"Beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravaging wolves. You'll recognize them by their fruit. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes or figs from thistles? In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a bad tree produces bad fruit. A good tree can't produce bad fruit; neither can a bad tree produce good fruit. Every tree that doesn't produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. So you'll recognize them by their fruit. "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord!' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but [only] the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, 'Lord, Lord, didn't we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name? 'Then I will announce to them, 'I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers! Matt. 7: 15-23 HCSB
There is just a few scriptures that say I never knew you, I know I would not want Jesus looking at me and telling me that, would anyone of you? So we have to build our relationship to Christ so that He does no us, if He knows us and we are His friends then we will know He will not shut the door on us. That doesn’t mean we can go out and sin, remember He said you lawbreakers and in other translations it reads you who practice lawlessness, so just having a relationship is just not enough, don’t get me wrong it is our major theme for today, but we still have to continue to be choice Christians, not taken in by the wolves in sheep’s clothing or producing bad fruit. There is a lot to the kingdom of Heaven, we don’t want to be separated in the dragnet and cast away along with the bad fish, so my brothers and sisters we have to be conscious of all these values. Just saying the sinners prayer is not your complete ticket with all the stamps on it and the proper punches of holes. Plus the fact the sinners prayer is not listed anywhere in the bible.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Rom. 10:9 KJV
When the relationship between man and Christ is established our thinking also changes, and we become to have the mind of Christ.
This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man's judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. 1Cor. 2:13-16 NIV
So by a relationship between man and Christ is established our thinking changes, so we have formulated a bond of togetherness and Love, a bond that cannot be broken, unless we loose our sincerity, don’t forget we have the evil one in the woods waiting like a crouched lion seeking to devour us.
Be self controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1Pet. 5:8 NIV
So we Christians have our work cut out for us, and I know right now at this moment the Lord is preparing warriors for the second coming of Christ. Many Christians all over the globe are going through great amounts of sufferings and all kinds of misfortunes as a test and refinement to make us more of a welcoming bride of Christ. There are so many that are going through compounded afflictions in order to make us more like Christ. When Christ returns He doesn’t want to see the world as it has been going. So rest easy my brothers and sisters you are not alone, this is all apart of God’s divine plan, don’t think that you may be loosing it or God is not listening to your prayers, He is probably more being you are the chosen ones for this return. We also have to be the ones that minister to the ones that start going through these intense trials, somebody has to be there for them that have gone through it to understand and help these other Christians go through the battles that await them. Rest easy God will not give you more than you can handle. My prayers are out there with you all. We all know the world is coming to the end and let us turn to scripture;
But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. 2Tim 3:1-5 NIV
You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, sufferings–what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is Godbreathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2Tim. 3:10-17 NIV
Jesus wants to be welcomed by His friends and so to speak His relatives or relations who have not conformed to the world.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. For through the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think; but to think so as to have sound judgment, as God has allotted to each a measure of faith. Rom. 12:2-3 NASB
Plus now we also must consider Luke 18:8 there is no other scripture like it, we have to look at percentages there are many in this world today without any faith at all. Some and many are still worshiping other types of gods, statues and even pastors of other churches, they are all missing the mark there is so much today with all the division of denominations, liberalism and selfism, and the list goes on
I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? Luke 18:8 KJV
We can not look at this scripture and see that there will not be any, but the percentage may be so low according to the vast amount of people that live on this earth, it would be safe to say that most of the elect will have faith but to what degree? Some theologians say upon His return will Christendom still be looking for Him? So many things are changing in this world of ours, look what they are doing to the Ten Commandments. We all must be on our guard, we could be walking with the spirit and all of a sudden a bitter thought could arise and we would be excluded from the count. Also if any of us are not waiting like many of us are and some my be hit with a surprise a fear might come over them and they would be classified with Rev. 21:8
But the (fearful), and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. Rev. 21:8 KJV
Plus as the years of Christianity has been unfolding we have to admit that the word of truth has been compromised and slightly altered, so any denomination can be carrying a faith of an altered foundation.
Don’t forget about the wheat and the tares that have been planted right along side of each other, so when you have people planted by the devil sharing the same air, water and food of course some of the healthy wheat will be slightly changed. That is why our relationship with Jesus must be one of righteousness and love. It is very hard to break a bond of true love. Everyone knows that when you are truly in love with someone no matter what they do in a relationship, a sin, a mistake, a selfish action or thought, a burst of anger it is almost impossible to break that Love or bond of the relationship. Now that we brought up marriages why so much divorce? In this world now there is a major focus on money, the very thing Jesus told us to stay away from. Plus the marriages are not using the picture of the triangle with the husband on the right and the woman at the left at the base of the triangle, and then we have Christ at the top of the triangle and as the marriage goes on the two the husband and wife slowly rise to the top heading for Christ in togetherness, He is not only at the top of the triangle he is also located in the middle, so as the man and the woman rise up together through time they become closer and closer to Christ because He is the head and at the same time they themselves are moving closer and closer as the higher they go up the triangle, so after time as the husband and wife climb up they not only get closer with Christ as the head and top, eventually when they get to the top they all become one. A very simple explanation of sharing a marriage with the aid of our Lord Jesus Christ, if everyone looked at this analogy and lived it I don’t think there would not be many breakups, but in this world of watching the news the TV and the newspaper each tends to walk in different directions, and that is always possible, plus we have not even considered the evil one and his agents causing all kinds of havoc between friends, family and children. We know as your upward climb the adversary is going to cause all kinds of dissolutions, building different fantasies for each, and making them both think well the grass is greener on the other side, you have made a covenant and you have Jesus Christ at the helm, so if you just walk in the fruit of the spirit and focus your eyes on Jesus most of there problems would not arise, remember what Hitler would say divide and conquer and if he can break up families then he can break the unity and the power of togetherness, Still Relationships take work and commitment and love and caring with the element of compassion, so we all have to summit to one another and let the love and the group headed by Christ take the form of grace and truth, so they both have to share their inner feelings and not hide things from one another, sharing what is in your heart and being truthful and with our Lord and the Holy Spirit directing the paths and words, we can look forward to a healthy marriage with happy children and there children will look at the finished example and learn from that to, so now you have built a bond of love and togetherness that cannot be broken.
We all have to admit that no actions of discipline, standing on the laws of God, self help or any sort of religious study can make us the “sinner” right standing with God. We are always going to miss the mark, but righteousness comes from God. We can only gain righteousness and be in a good standing with God, through trusting and knowing Christ. So when we have the love relationship with Jesus God throws away our sin and shortcomings and replaces it with His righteousness.
So you see we are looking at an exchange program normally in this world when two people exchange something or do a trade the elements involved are usually about equal value. But in this divine exchange, we are the ones on the benefit factor; we are exchanging our sin which is not anything anyone would like to keep. So when we come to the truth, and we learn love and trust and understanding in Christ, He takes our sin and makes us right with God. So all the sins of the world were laid on Jesus Christ at the cross at Calvary. Then His righteousness is given to us when we have accepted Christ as our personal Savior. What an exchange my brothers and sisters! He suffered tremendously and died and took our sins, everything we have ever done wrong all our mistakes all our dirt, our filth, and covered them up and erased them, and then gives us His righteousness. What an intense action. God trades His righteousness for our sins. I don’t know why any individual could just jump for joy and love God and Christ for this great gift of life. The only times I saw reactions like of true reality is back in the early 70’s with the Jesus freaks and the flower people they were so excited and they walked the streets in droves and any tourist center for what ever part of the season, in what ever part of the state they were all there, preaching and talking about the Love of God and what Jesus Christ has done for them and trying to share with anyone they came in contact with. I wonder to myself what happened, what changed, did these Jesus freaks become more contemporary, and where did they all go? I know most of them flooded into California and that was the last I heard of the movement. With this awesome gift, how can anyone not want to learn more and become closer to God? We are to preach Christ and Him crucified and tell the world of this good news. I wish the whole world could share today’s service; we would defiantly have some great breakthrough for saving souls.
The Apostle Paul gave up everything to know Christ and His resurrection power. The resurrection power of our Lord Jesus Christ is the most powerful focus known to man. We just did a sermon on just that a few weeks ago. The Apostle Paul was some type of a man; I hope someday God would just let me think the thoughts he had so deep within him. But all this knowledge and forethought is all available to each and every one of us. We have to take the time out to know Christ, but what else on this earth could possibly be more important? Some would have other visions, why would anyone want to waste any time not to know our Jesus. Unless they are set in there routine and some are stuck with harder burdens and harder ways of life then some. There is some working two to three jobs without a car, some people live their whole lives never owning a car. Me I have had only 4 and I’ll be 51 and one car I had for three weeks, so basically I had only three, but I am content. I wish my windows could roll down, that would be a great blessing especially living in Hawaii. So my brothers and sisters we are to pray for all these Christians out there with heavy loads of work, living from week to week, and if something goes wrong with lets say there transportation it might send a family back for months, because something like that is not included in the family budget. Many families have many children and to raise a child today is unbelievable. And in turn both parents have to work and they are both are tired when they get home, they can’t spend time with there children and that is the beginning of the kids staying out all night and getting involved with the wrong group of kids, and some get in trouble and there could be a whole paycheck down the drain just for legal help, we are not even going to go into clothing and food, don’t forget I have seen and heard many stories as a pastor. After our service today I request an unspoken prayer for all the families that are struggling just to put food on the table for their children. I wish I was healthy enough to visit these homes once a week to aid with the family and have a short bible study on Jesus and the power of God through prayer. We need some of these families to know Christ too, and maybe we can get a handful of men or disciples just to visit here and there once a week to these Christian homes that are suffering so, and educate them with the care and compassion of the Love of God, and once they know what to pray for we can all pray together, God doesn’t want good people to suffer, so if this church here in Hilo can do anything we will, this cannot go on forever, my God is a good and loving God, so if this other church has a chance to let me teach a sermon on Thursday or Saturday to the many families that live downtown, and then go into the back and make them a care package with all different types of food we are on our way for the vision I have, and I waited so long to see if it will be accomplished.
And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Phil. 4:19 NASB
And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed; 2Cor. 9:8 NASB
Boy we have so much to do and now we have a place to do it and I am excited, that finally we can help these people. I have realized that God is still working on me to better me and I still must Praise Him for it. We all have gone through similar experiences and I know that God loves us and maybe that is why I am under so much and so many attacks, there are so many people to help out there in this town of Hilo, and this pastor friend of mine told me the other day, if the evil one can keep me down then all these people will not eat, plus there children, and we can serve all this up so they can even learn the fellowship of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ all at the same time.
We need to make the first request toward our loving God through prayer; we need to come boldly before the throne of grace in pure sincerity of heart toward the love and relationships of God Himself and His Son Jesus.
This service that you perform is not only supplying the needs of God's people but is also overflowing in many expressions of thanks to God. Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else. And in their prayers for you their hearts will go out to you, because of the surpassing grace God has given you. Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift! 2Cor. 9:12-15 NIV
In this world there are many pleasure seekers, and many who go looking just to have a good time, some think about others, some just think about themselves. We have Christians that don’t want to be part of the world but we must exist to help others and to spread the good news of Jesus Christ to this same world. We are number one to trust in our savior the Lord Jesus and Love Him and talk with Him and have a relation ship with Him. We simple Christians can obtain that same power that raised Him from the dead. Don’t you think that this is awesome to find life through death that is why Gal.2:20 is so important.
"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Gal. 2:20 NASB
We have to be dead to this world and all of its lusts and sins. In other words once we have experienced or shared in the crucifixion all that sin in our old lives is gone, this way we enter into a different form living for God and God through the Holy Spirit leads us in a spiritual life walking in newness and righteousness. You see God doesn’t see the person of sin you once were, He sees somewhat of Jesus in us and covering us. Doesn’t everyone want to have that feeling? Instead of being wrapped up in all kinds of schedules and times and dates, worries and all forms of stress, plus the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and that boastful pride of life. But the thing is now we are all dead to the world and alive in Christ. There is no reason to be embarrassed, or shy, or nervous in front of people we are dead to the world and alive in Christ. What a beautiful invitation why doesn’t everyone want to love one another and care for one another and carry the righteousness of God all at the same time, and to know that you have a new life ahead, this is why the resurrection gives us Christ’s power to live in victory for Him.
Dear Father, this is for the unspoken prayer I said I was going to leave for the poor, that someday we all can help each other and build a relationship with Jesus together, plus this will be my closing prayer for all who shared this sermon today. Father please help us and be with us the rest of this week and please help us to know Christ even better and to teach others about Your Son. We love You so much Father, and we love You Jesus, and we love You Holy Spirit, In Jesus Name we all pray, Amen and amen.
