Fearful Or Fearless

2021 Fearful or Fearless

I am humbled and honored to bring my 16th annual report and sermon to the great people of Rosedale. We have been through a lot together and we have been each other’s strength as we serve the Lord together.

Greeting

Can you believe it? That we sit here with so many changes going on in our life that we need a scorecard to determine how we will keep tract of everything.

What was the normal may never be the normal again and the new normal may be fresh out of God’s playbook for each and every one of us.

I like that thought- something new out of God’s playbook for our lives!

I would have never thought that I would be sitting here doing my report with an oxygen bottle in case I need it. That as a church move to the new church year and we would have to discuss some things that we took for granted a year ago.

Covid-19 has changed our lives. It has changed how we think and it has forced each one of us to adapt quickly to things that are beyond our control.

Becky and I can stand here today like many others and say that we have survived Covid-19 and bought the tee shirt.

It has changed every part of my life.

It has changed my thinking , it has left me devastated with the loss of my mother and almost left my kids without a father, grandfather.

God has shown us that it is no longer easy to be a people of faith and allow our relationship with Him to be casual.

There was nothing casual about serving God in 2021.

We have seen that to be a Christian is more than saying that you believe in God- because the devil believes that-it is our personal faith put under attack and your personal faith being stretched.

Life has become precious and nothing can be taken for granted.

You thought I was emotional before, I have gotten worse.

I want to Share a moment of my journey in the hospital/ how that some were fearful and some were fearless of the Covid-19 that I had, and then we will talk about the two-

They brought my food to my room on take out trays and set on my stand and left.

Brought me plenty of water as needed but tried to do multiple things at one time so they would not have to keep suiting up.

The night time was the scariest time because in the night the darknest tries to rule our minds.

It is where my mind had me being alone instead of the being with the Lord

Satan is vicious but he is not victorious.

He (devil) will keep us distracted by the night so that we cannot see the light and the joy that is coming.

I found myself asking God to do for me what I could not possible do for myself.

On the other side of the room door was my way home and that door seemed like it would never open for me again to go back to what was my normal and kept me to what is now the new normal.

Covid-19 with double pneumonia and Covid-19 with an immune deficiency takes the disease to a new level and quickly was more than I had the strength or ability to stop.

There were aids that were fearful. They feared the disease and they feared me because I had it.

The doctors and nurses were the fearless ones.

They were the ones that stepped between me and the virus and was doing everything they could to make my stay and my healing possible.

The difference was who they were putting their trust in.

Take all precautions and do what is right and needed or do what was absolutely necessarily and live in fear that you would be the next victim.

Fearful or Fearless- (If I had to title the message)

To the people that believe that this virus was a hoax, you have to be blind to the fact that to some it affects more than others and for those who have gone through it and fought for their lives, to say that there is something wrong with their faith is one step from blasphemy.

This has us standing on one truth- That we need to look to the Lord as the author and finisher of our faith- that when we have done all that we know to do to be smart and to look at scriptures and to show the love of Christ that at some point we will have to trust God for the unseen, unknown, and to do the impossible.

Believing gets harderas our options become fewer. Let me say that again, Believing gets harder as options become fewer.