salvation – Where the Dutch Ovens Roam

A lady that was blind and her seeing eye dog, were on a plane flight that they take frequently. This time there was a layover and the pilot who knew the blind woman well asked her if she would like to stretch her legs. She told him that she was fine, but her dog might like to stretch his legs. The pilot took the seeing eye dog on a little walk in the terminal while they waited to reboard the plane.  He also had sunglasses on.  The passengers saw this and began to try to switch flights and airlines. This is a true story. The pilot was misunderstood and misjudged.

Have you ever had a time in your life when you felt misunderstood and misjudged?  How did that feel to you?

For the first seven grades of my education, I moved every two months because my dad built telephone and electric lines and we moved our trailer home wherever dad needed to be.  His whole crew moved together.  I was the new girl in a lot of schools.  It is hard to be the new girl so much.  Girls already have their friend groups.  We looked very strange to most of them as we moved to town in a caravan and settled in trailer parks until we moved on again.  Many times, we were called gypsies.  I felt misunderstood many times.  

David was misunderstood by his older brother.  1 Samuel 17:26-28

Hannah was misunderstood by the High Priest Eli 1 Samuel 1:13

Jesus was misunderstood by many Matt. 12:24, Luke 5:20-25, 

Jobs friends said that surely, he has sinned.  He must have had trouble.  Surely, he has done wrong.  Their conclusion is that God sends calamity on the wicked only.  Once again God was misunderstood.  

Job 42:7 After the Lord had spoken these words to Job, the Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite; “My anger burns against you and against your two friends, for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.”  

Many times, we have misunderstood God!  Many times, His actions have taken us by surprise.  But then He is God and He created even us.  And He said HIs creation is good!  He continues to love us even when we misunderstand.  His mercies are still for us when we think the worst of Him.  This we can know… God is good all the time and all the time God is good!!

I do not know anyone else who would send His son to die on the cross because of my sin so that I could be set free.  God is good all the time and all the time God is good.

We can take the mercy of God and we can use His mercy for the foundation of our life.  

CHRISTIANITY is to glorify the mercy of God in Christ.  We exist to display God’s mercy!

Build your life on the mercies of God.  Our lives need to be built on something and rooted in something.  Build and root your life on the mercies of God.  

Mercy here implies not only forgiveness for the guilty, but especially tenderhearted compassion for the helpless and desperate.  See if you hear both in Romans 5:6-8.

For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  For one will scarcely die for the righteous person – though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die – but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  

Did you hear both sides of mercy? One side is we were weak and helpless, and the other side is we were sinners and guilty.  Have you saturated your life with that?  Have the mercies of God in saving you sunk to the center and core of your life, so that you are living from a deep spring of humble, brokenhearted happiness in the God of mercy?

While we were in Iowa, we attended a testimony night at a church for their Celebrate Recovery ministry.  Everyone there gets up and says “Hi, my name is Pam.  I am a faithful follower of God and I deal with _________.”  The testimonies of some of these individuals are so powerful.  God has rescued them from so very much.  God has set them free from addictions, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual sin, and many other sins.  God has delivered them from the trauma they have experienced in their lives.  These captives have been set free.  And you see it in their hearts and their lives.  They love Jesus in a big way because He’s delivered them in a big way!  They do not misunderstand Jesus.  They really know Him.  They have a real relationship with Him and His mercy, firsthand.  

Scriptures on Mercy

2 Pet. 3:9 Matt 5:7

2 Sam 24:14 Matt. 9:13

Col. 3:13 Ps. 23:6

1 John 1:9 Ps. 25:6

James 2:13 Ps 86:5

Micah 6:8 Lam 3:22-23

Titus 3:5 Heb 4:16

1 Pet. 1:3

My Pap-paw was a nice man until he drank alcohol and then he would be mean to his family and people around him. He would hop on a freight train and disappear for weeks. His depression haunted him around every corner and emptiness filled his heart. Three men kept inviting him to the local church, but he would not go. Finally, he did go to a revival meeting there and he gave his life to Jesus, and he found what his life was missing. He never touched another drop of alcohol. He told me when I was 10 that the most crucial decision that I could ever make would be to give my life to Jesus. So that is exactly what I did.

I received Jesus as my Savior and began to live my life for Him. About twenty years ago I gave my son some wrong advice and I could not forgive myself for this. I have asked God to forgive me, and He has but forgiving myself was another story. I am supposed to be a Christian and make right decisions. The Lord showed me that by not forgiving myself when He had that I was making His sacrifice on the Cross worth nothing. I have had to forgive myself.

Maybe you are like me, and you have a relationship with Jesus, but you have failed to understand His mercy to forgive you and others?

John 14:6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Acts 4:12 And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.  

1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.  

Matt. 16:26 For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

No matter your age, no matter your story, no matter your history, God loves you unconditionally and His desire is for you to come to KNOW him.  

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  

If you are still unconvinced, read this story in Luke 15:1-7. Jesus would leave 99 others and go looking for you. That is how important you are to Him. Jesus will ford every stream and climb every mountain just to find His one lost sheep, but He will not make you receive Him.  It is a free gift, but you must accept it.  

NOW is the time to receive Jesus as your Savior.  It is a FREE gift.  All you must do is receive it.  And here is the road to take to receive that salvation.

Roman Road

Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Romans 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 

Romans 10:9 If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Prayer for salvation:

Dear Lord, 

I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for your forgiveness.  I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son. I believe that He died for my sin and that you raised Him to life again.  I want to trust Him as my Savior and follow Him as Lord, from this day forward.  Guide me Lord and help me to do your will.  I pray this in Jesus’ name.  Amen

We can afford to be wrong about saying we are going to a certain city, but we cannot be wrong about going to heaven.  Once you have prayed and received Jesus as your Savior, here are some scriptures to help you to know that you can have assurance.

Assurance of salvation:

1 John 5:12-13

John 5:24

Romans 8:16

Hebrews 7:25

John 10:29

John 6:47

Romans 8:38-39

We do devotions on SOWER assignments every morning at 7:30. We all take turns leading these devotions. This morning the farmer felt led to share his testimony in song.

But first he had an important story to tell. He heard it at church Sunday. There was a guy who went ice fishing in Minnesota. He got all set up, cut a nice hole in the ice and caught nothing! Not one thing. He noticed that the guy close to him was catching a lot of fish. After awhile he decided to ask this guy what his secret was. The man told him, “hmm, mmm, mmm!” He said, “I’m sorry but I didn’t understand a word you said.” The good fisherman answered him just the same. He just had to know the secret so he asked him one more time. The good fisherman spit out something from his mouth into his hand and said, “the secret is keeping the worms warm.”

In 1868 Elizabeth Clephane of Scotland wrote a poem. In 1874 Ira Sankey, who was Dwight Moody’s song leader saw this poem in a newspaper in Scotland as they were conducting revival services in the area. Ira thought the words of the poem were powerful and cut the poem from the newspaper. A few days later after Dwight Moody finished a strong message on the Good Shepherd, he said to Ira, “Mr. Sankey, I believe you have a song to close the service tonight.” Ira couldn’t think of anything but that poem, but it had no music. The Lord gave him the music right on the spot and he sang the words of the poem.

The farmer sang this song, which he sees as his testimony.

1 There were ninety and nine that safely lay in the shelter of the fold,
but one was out on the hills away, far off from the gates of gold,
away on the mountains wild and bare, away from the tender Shepherd’s care,
away from the tender Shepherd’s care.

2 “Lord, thou hast here thy ninety and nine: are they not enough for thee?”
But the Shepherd made answer, “This of mine has wandered away from me,
and although the road be rough and steep, I go to the desert to find my sheep;
I go to the desert to find my sheep.”

3 But none of the ransomed ever knew how deep were the waters crossed,
nor how dark was the night that the Lord passed through, ere he found his sheep that was lost.
Out in the desert he heard its cry, sick and helpless and ready to die,
sick and helpless and ready to die.

4 And all through the mountains, thunder-riven, and up from the rocky steep,
there rose a glad cry to the gate of heaven, “Rejoice! I have found my sheep!”
And the angels echoed around the throne, “Rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own;
rejoice, for the Lord brings back his own.

The farmer said, “It’s not about how good I am or how bad I’ve failed. It’s all about Jesus.

Then I shared about the scriptures we read this morning.
Mark 12:32 so the scribe said to him, well said teacher, you have spoken the truth. For there is one God, and there is no other, but he.
Verse 34 now Jesus saw that he answered wisely. He said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.
What was he missing to be a part of the kingdom of God? He was missing Jesus. Jesus as the son of God and not just a teacher.

There are four stops on the Romans Road.
Stop # 1: “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Stop # 2: “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23).
Stop # 3: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us”(Romans 5:8).

Here’s a multiple-choice question: How good do you have to be to go to heaven?
A) Pretty good
B) Really Good
C) Better than Uncle Joe
D) Perfect
The answer is D. If you want to go to heaven, you have to be perfect. And I don’t mean “sort of” perfect, “mostly” perfect, or 80% perfect. Being 80% perfect is like being 80% pregnant. Either you’re pregnant or you’re not. Either you’re perfect or you’re not.

Stop # 4 is part of our passage for today–Romans 10:9-10.
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved (vv. 9-10).

God made it simple; I want to make it available. Maybe you are religious, you probably are, you have probably gone to church before, but the question is, “Do you know Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord?” Here is a prayer that can help you express your faith: “Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and I ask for your forgiveness. I believe that Jesus Christ is your Son. I believe that he died on the cross for my sin and that you raised him to life. I want to trust Him as my Savior and follow him as Lord, from this day forward. Guide my life and help me to do your will. I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Tag: salvation

Misunderstood

The Ninety and Nine