It Is Time For A Fill-Up

February 1st. 2004

Let us pray

Welcome......

God has been good to us? Has God done anything that makes you feel like

shouting?....elaborate...

Today is the first Sunday of Black History Month, and we are calling to remembrance what we have gone through over 350 years of history. Through out the Bi-ble, God continually called His people to times of remembering, times of recalling, and times of reflecting His moving in their lives. The month

of February has been set aside and used as Black History Month. As we celebrate, let’s not forget the goodness of God, and how God has brought us a

mighty long way........elaborate...I believe we all can say, God has brought us a mighty long way...

As we call to memory what we have gone through, let’s remind ourselves once again, what is our theme for this year; which is, Glorifying God. In

everything we do, everything we say, we are called upon to glorify God. Our key verse for the year is taken from Matthew 5 verse 16, Let say this verse

together, "Let your light so shine before men........" Each week we have a

verse of the week to memorize, and our verse for this week is taken from Matthew 6 verse 33, and is found on page 3 of your bulletin, let’s say this

verse together. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God................"We are called upon to seek God’s Kingdom first........

Our objective for this year is to improve our spiritual growth and personal growth and development. Last Sunday our topic was, It is time to grow up.

Last Sunday we said that there are people today who just like to remain young or just like to be babies, and just do not want to grow up. They like to

be babies all the time, just to eat, play, and sleep, and have nothing to worry about. I do trust over the past week that you have grown a bit, and that you

can say that you are growing up......

Today our topic will be, It is time for a fill-up. It is time for us to say to God and mean what we say, Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up, Lord! Come and

quench the thirsting of my soul; Bread of heaven, feed me till I want no more - Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!.............elaborate...

Please turn with me to page 9 of your bulletin or in your Bibles to 1 Peter 1 verses 13 through 21. Let’s all stand and read together. Please tell someone,

Je-sus can fill you up.Just supposed the men were downstairs preparing a fellowship meal for our

black history month. As you sit in church you smell that sweet aroma of fried chicken, colored greens and black eye peas. While you are trying to worship,

and not thinking about downstairs, three men walked into the sanctuary, one is hungry; one is thirsty, and one is tired. As these three men take their seats

in the pew, and as they smell that aroma from downstairs, what do you think they would do?.......I believe the one who is hungry would find a way to get

downstairs, because there is a sweet aroma in the air, and there has to be some food downstairs. The one who is thirsty would also find a way to leave,

because if there is food downstairs there should be water too. The one who is tired would make the pew his bed, because he wants to sleep. All three men

would try to find a way to satisfy their need.

If you came here today hungry and thirsty for the things of God; tired for the way that you have been living, you are in the right place, because today your

needs can be filled. The Bible says in Matthew 5 verse 6, Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst......Verses 13 through 17 of our text is a call to holiness; verses 18 through 19

is telling us that there is a cost or a price for redemption; and verses 20 and 21 talks about God’s foreordained plan.

As we consider our topic for today, It is time for a fill-up; have you ever found yourself driving, and you know that you are in need of gas, you are

driving on fumes; and you just keep putting it off until it is too late? Being stranded is not a nice feeling.......

It is quite possible that you are here today, and your spiritual gas gauge is saying empty, and it is time to stop and get refueled. Maybe you have been

running on empty for a long time; you know that you need a fill-up, but you have been putting it off. You have been living on your past experiences, but it