Pastor’s Message June 22, 2014

The first thing we read is God, who is rich in mercy. Meaning God has a lot of it. When we think of someone who is rich we think they are probably stingy. And to a some extent that is true. However, with God the more He gives his mercy the more He wants to extend mercy. He has a well so deep in mercy it cannot be fathomed. Unfathomable means it cannot be measured.

So why is it that man runs from God. God is merciful and will extend mercy (even when we are dead in our sins.) The scripture here means we are so caught up in a lifestyle of sin that we cannot break free. We are dead (lifeless) to seeking deliverance from sin.

Illustration- Wild Kingdom- Water Buffalo attacked by Lionesses. He fights till the Lioness has him by the throat. Then he lays there lifeless in the death grip.

Many people today are lifeless in a death grip because Satan has them by the throat. They are in a situation which they think is impossible to break. Nothing can be done. They’re in too deep.

But God’s Mercy is deep, deeper than your sin. Deeper than your situation. Deeper than the debt you owe. Deeper than the power of those who have a grip on you. Deeper than your history. Deeper than all of mans power and ingenuity. God’s Mercy is Rich!

“He has raised us up together, and made us to sit together in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus.”

Don’t miss this. Together!!! We were raised up together. No one who is delivered who does it on their own. God provides others for us to be raised up with. We are a church, a people, who are raised to be together, walk together, and sit together with Jesus Christ. The church of Jesus Christ is not a place where religious people go, but a relationship with other Christians who have been bound together by the process of being raised from the pit to a new life. Church is not a privilege, but a necessity to walk with Christ. God put us together in Christ, not alone. You need the Church. You need the fellowship. You cannot walk it alone. And the local church fellowship such as Cedar Fork is the means for us to be together in Christ.

“That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

Indulge me a moment! God wants for all of Glory to see what He can do. We say yeah to that, but don’t really understand that. God wants to show what he has done in our lives, but he can only do that by showing where we came from.

Illustration- In Acts 3:2-10 we read the story of a lame beggar who would beg at the gate Beautiful. There everyone knew him for he had been there for years. No one thought there would be anything else come from the man. But one day Peter and John came out of the gate and responded to the man who was begging them for alms. “Silver and Gold have I none, but what I have I give to the: rise up and walk.” and the lame man stood and began to shout and praise the Lord.. The people began to ask, “Is the man who has been lame all these years at this gate?” You see for it to be the miracle it was, they had to reflect on this mans past.

It is amazing to me to hear Christians say, “I don’t like to give a testimony, my life was so bad.” But the only way for God to receive the glory there has to be a testimony The further you are away from God the greater the miracle. When they brought the lame man to Jesus, after Jesus healed the man, he said, “Take up you bed and walk.” Let all those who know you see the bed that held you down so that will know from whence you came.

God is constantly using our dark places, our dead places as His way of showing his Mercy and His Power. Your deliverance is to be shared as it is the way people are pointed to God. We are together people of God through Christ to share his Mercy daily.

Illustration- Don Babin in 1985 at Maple Baptist Church gave his testimony. He was a true hippie of the 1970’s. He wore the butterfly shirts, had a afro hair do and was into free love and drugs in Texas. Don would go to abandoned buildings and close off the windows with sheets putting mattresses on the floors. For days they would shoot up drugs, not knowing if it were day or night. – One day during one of his drug marathons he woke up and saw his best friend sitting on the toilet with a syringe in his hand motionless. Don called his name but he didn’t answer. He was dead. Don had provided the drugs so it was his fault. He had killed his best friend. He ran and ran completely out of his mind. When he ran into an old friend who met him and smiled and called out, ” Don what a great day this is.” smiling from ear to ear. Don said, “I knew he had some kind of new drug and I needed it right now.” Turns out the new drug was Jesus. His old friend took him a few days later to a revival in a Baptist Church. There Don gave his life to Christ. God got a hold of Don and he was completely transformed. He gave up drugs, free love, and the hippie lifestyle for a life as a disciple of Jesus. Soon Don went back to school and later became a minister. This testimony was given in our church in Conway, South Carolina on a Thursday night. Many teens came to Christ through his testimony that night. Several years later I had Don preach a week long Youth Crusade in Columbia, SC where I was serving as pastor. On Thursday night again he gave his testimony and over 200 accepted Christ as their Savior. We had the church and the gym filled with students through closed circuit TV.

God likes to take the darkest circumstances and bring his light to it. Then he likes to use that testimony after some time of spiritual maturing for his kingdom to draw men together in Christ. What’s your story?