First Church of God in Harvey
New Year’s Sunday - January 4th, 2009
Let’s just shake hands with each one, wishing that person a happy New Year....
This is the day, the first Sunday of the New Year 2009, which the Lord hath made, we will rejoice and be glad in it. This is a year we have never seen before, but on this day we can rejoice and be glad in it. Many of us have gone through our dangers, our toils and our
snares, but on this day we can rejoice and be glad in it Many of us did not know we would make it through 2008, but here we are on this day, the first Sunday of 2009, and so we can rejoice and be glad in it. . For some of us, the doctors might have shaken their heads, not sure if we were going to make it, but here we are on the first Sunday of 2009
and so we can rejoice and be glad in it. I call upon every child of God here today to magnify the Lord with me, praise the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together......take time to praise the Lord.
On New Year’s Eve on my way to our Watch Night Service we were listening to the Moody Station, and the pastor talked about justice, grace and mercy. He made it clear that justice is when we get what we deserve; grace is when we get what we did not deserve, and mercy is when we did not get what we deserve. We all should be thankful today, for
God’s justice; God’s grace and God’s mercy. Mercy....when we did not get what we desrve, was gerat; and grace..when we get what we did not deserve, that grace was free; Pardon, we were wretched and blind, there was multiplied to me; There my burdened soul, my sin sick soul found liberty,,,,where? at Calvary.
On this first Sunday of the New Year 2009, let’s just stand and take the time to talk together....let’s all pray....
Last Sunday we talked about letting go. We said the apostle Paul was dis-satisfued with the present; he was forgetting the past, and he was stretching forth to the mark. We were told to forget our past failures. We were told if God in his grace and mercy has forgiven us of all our past sins, then we too should forget it, and just thank God for his forgiveness, and move forward.
Today, this first Sunday of the year 2009, we will be using as our topic, Stand up for Jesus. Please turn with me in your Bibles, in the King James Version, to Matthew 28 verses 19 and 20, and let us all stand and read together. Please ask someone this question,
Are you going to stand up for Jesus?
We had a beautiful service here last Wedbesday night at our Watch Night service, and I want to thank all those who were able to attend. Many of you were not able to attend, but we had a glorious time here as we worshipped the Lord.
Last year our theme was, Say it in love, and we will be using the same theme again this
year, Say it in love. Once again I am going to ask every member of this church, of God’s
church, to start or continue saying everything in love. I am asking everyone to strart
treating their brother and sister in a loving way. I am asking everyone to start caring about
the needs of others, and helping as much as you can. Our theme verse is Ephesiams 4 verse 29, Let no co-rupt communication proceed out of your mouth; or let no unwholesome words ever pass your lips; or never let any foul word pass your lips,
but that which is good to the use of edifying or building up, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. Before we say anything abiut anyone, let’s make sre we think
about what we are going to say, and say it in love.
Each year, christians and non-christians make resolutions as to what they intend to
achieve that year. Some might say, I will start coming to Sunday School, and I will be
there on time; or I will start coming to prayer meeting and Bible Class on a more
consistent basis. or I will start reading through the bible, or I will be more loving to my
husband, my wife, my children and my friends. Here at the church, starting today, Sunday
School will be starting promptly each Sunday at 9:30 am, and morning sercvice at 11:00
am, and we are asking everyone to be here on time. A recent article listed the "five most
popular resolutions made most every year. The 5th was to take up a new hobby, the 4th
was to make more money, the third most popular resolution was to improve re-la-tion-
ships, the 2nd was to stop smoking, and the most popular New Years resolution, you
guessed it, losing weight."
During the Christmas season it is quite possible many of us might have over-indulged
ourselves in the things we did eat, and so we are now making resolutions to change our
habits and our way of life. "A new year gives us an opportunity to start fresh and better
ourselves." Everything is fine from January 1 through 15, but come the moiddle of
January "we somehow forgot our resolutions and go back to our old ways."
So today, January 4th, 2009 here is the New Year’s Resolution I am going to encourage
the members of The First Church of God in Harvey to make. Let us stand up for Jesus,
and resolve to share the good news of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with others. Jesus
said in Matyhew 28 verses 19 & 20, from the NIV, "Therefore go and make disciples of
all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Spitit. and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am
with you always, to the very end of the age."
If I should ask you today, do you love the Lord, I believe most of you would say, yes
pastor we love the Lord. If I should ask you, do you really and truly love the Lord,
someone might start to wonder why did the pastor have to ask two times if we love the
Lord. If I shouild ask you the third time if you love the Lord, somebody would start to get
mad, he doesn’t trust us, because he has asked us three times, I mean three times if we
love the Lord. When you and I truly love someone we like to talk about the one we love.
The question is, just how much do we talk about Jesus? When a young girl or a young
boy, and sometimes a old man and a old woman falls in love, all they do is talk about the
one they love. Some of them can’t eat, can’t sleep, because they are madly in love, and
they want the world to hear it that they are in love.
People around us want to know that we are in love with Jesus, and we have to stand up
for Jesus and declare to our friends, our co-workers, our family members what Jesus
really means to us. Some might think we are crazy, but we still have to stand up for Jesus,
and declare what Jesus means to us. Some might think we are filled with new wine, like
they thought about the apostles on the Day of Pentecost, but we still have to declare what
Jesus means to us. Some might thing we are stramge and peculiar, but we still have to
stand and declare what Jesus means to us. When we are standing up for Jesus, it does not
matter what people think, because it is not about you and about me, but it is all about
Jesus..
One of the problems the world is having with many who say they are christians is the lack
of sincerity. There are many who are using the ministry as a means of what they can gain,
and the world is shaking their heads wondering what is going on? In order to stand up for
Jesus, we have to be sincere about our faith in Jesus Christ. We have know about the one
we believe in. The songwriter caught the vision and penned these lines from Paul’s
writing in 2 Timothy 2 verse 12,, But "I know (there is no doubt about it, there is no
guessing on my part,) I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him against that day."
On this first Sunday of this New Year 2009, I trust we all are sincere in everything we do
for the Lord, because people are being tuned out from the gospel because of phony
christians. That word phony means not genuine, not real. It looks real, but it’s not real. I
was told that in the banking business they don’t have to know what a phony dollar bill
looks like, all they have to know is what the real dollar bill looks like, so when that phony
bill comes they will know it is phony.
God is calling for genuine christinas to stand up for Jesus, and to go into the world and
share the good news with those who are lost. God is calling for genuuine christians to
stand up for Jesus, and speak out against sin. God is calling for genuine christians to stand
up for Jesus, and to preach and teach the word in season and out of season. God is calling
for genuine christians to stand up for Jesus, and to "reprove, rebuke, exhort with all
longsuffering and doctrine." God is calling for genuine christians to stand up for Jesus
and continue in the path of holiness. Lest we forget, God’s church is still a church that is
holy. The apostle Paul writing about the church, the sanctification of the church, writes in
Ephesians 5 verse 27, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not
having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without
blemish. Out in the world people can live anyway they want to live, but in God’s church
the way of living is a way of holiness. In the church today, we don’t want to talk too much
about holiness. Some might say it doesn’t take all that, but that is not true, it does take all
that. and the word of God says, be ye holy for I am holy.
I want somebody to know today that God’s church is alive and well. Everyone who is
saved is a part of God’s church. A few weeks ago I had a dream, it seems it was right here
at Harvey, and I was in the foyer looking in, and in my dream I saw a packed crowd
praising God. I believe something good is about to happen. I believe something good is
on its way. I believe God wants us all to come clean before him. I believe God wants us
to stop our complaining and stand up for Jesus. I believe God wants us to get on the
phone, and instead of talking about the daily soap opera , start talking about the Lord.
On this first Sunday of this New year 2009, I call upon the church to stand up for Jesus,
and share the good news. A major problem that is creeping into the church is that
temptation of covering up, being deceptive, acting pious, and pretending to be holy.
Always seeing the speck in my brother’s eye, when there is a log in our own eyes. The
world is watching you, and the world is watching me, so let us stand up for Jesus, and be
real.
As a christian do you cover things up, or do you stand up for Jesus when the world is
laughing at you? I read an article where Reader’s Digest carried a story "about a woman
who traveled fifty miles to visit a friend. When she went to the car to go home, she
discovered she had locked the keys in the car. She didn’t know what else to do, so she
telephoned her husband long distance.. He was exasperated with her or he was very angry
with her, but he said, You just stay there and I’ll drive out and bring my keys to you. The
woman went back to her car and found that actually one of the back doors was open. She
raced back into the house and telephoned her husband, but he had already left.
Now before I finish, let me pause and ask a question. If that had happened to you, what
would you do? by the way it did not say that she was a christian." Her friend asked her
what she was going to do when her husband arrives, because he is going to be mad when
he finds out he came out here for no reason. Do you know what she said? "I’m going to
do what any red-blooded American wife would do." And she went out and locked the
door and slammed it shut! Was that the right thing to do? (Someone has said, oh what
tangled web we weave, when we practice to deceive.)
In order to stand up for Jesus, and effectively share the good news,. we have to get rid of
deceptions. I can hear somebody saying, pastor Thompson we don’t do that.. Well, it is
now tax time for us in America, so let me paint a picture for your consideration. You are
at H&R Block filing your 2008 Income Taxes, and the interviewer is asking you a series
of questions, and you are answering yes, no and so on. Then suddenly he asked the
question, how much did you give for charitable contributions last year; and you said to
him, what did you say? Just a warning, before you file your tax this year, please make
sure you know the answer to that question, and if in doubt, please see Brother Hayes in
the Trustee’s Office.
So often we try to cover up our imperfections. I was married on October 30th, and
October 31st is called Halloween Day. On Halloween night, kids and their parents will go
out wearing masks, in which their true identity is not known. Sometimes in the church we
get accustom "to putting on masks that make others think we are better than we really
are." We many times try to hide behind a mask in which people are not sure who we are,
but in order to stand up for Jesus, and be a witness for our Lord, we have to take off that
mask, and let people see the real you and the real me. It is alright to tell someone that you
too were lost in sin. It is alright to tell someone that you were sinking deep in sin. It is
alright to tell someone that you were going down the path of destruction. It is alright to
tell someone that one day you heard about the love of Jesus, how Jesus could love
someone like you. That the word you heard was so marvelous and wonderful, and that
loving word lifted you out of that life of sin. That loving word changed you, and now you
are new born again. It is alright to stand up for Jesus, and share the good news with those
who are lost. It is time for christains to stop being secret disciples. It is time for christians
to speak about the one whom they say they love. It is time for christians to stop making
excuses as to why they can’t do this or can’t do that for the Lord, for when you and I think
about the love of Jesus, and what he has done for you and for me, our souls should cry out
hallelujah, and we should thank God for saving us. Oh glory to God. There is no time to
play church, but there is time to stand up for Jesus........
On this first Sunday in the year of our Lord 2009, if we intend to influence Harvey for
Christ or the city in which we live, or the place that we work "we need to be honest with
ourselves, and honest with the world, and openly admit we are no better than anybody
else," but we are only existing because of the grace and mercy of the Lord. We could be
out there on drugs, not because we are better than anybody else, but we are here, because
of the mercy and grace of the Lord, so stand up for Jesus, and be a witness for the Lord.
We could be out there on skid row, not because we are better than anybody else, but we
are here because of the mercy and grace of the Lord, so stand up for Jesus and be a
witness for the Lord. We could be in prison serving time, not because we are better than
anybody else, but we are here beacsue of the mercy and grace of the Lord, so stand up for
Jesus and be a witness for our Lord.
Today you and I might think we are somebody, we might think we have arrived, we might
think we made it on our own, but let us never forget, that God demonstartes his love for
us, that while we were in our sins, while we were living a lifre contary to God, the bible
says Christ died for us. Even before we were born, God was thinking about you, and
about me, and allowed his son to die for our sins, so let’s stand up for Jesus and be a
witness for our Lord. Everyone who is saved here today has a story to tell. Everyone
whose life has been changed can tell how the Lord saved them, you have a testimony, so
stand up for Jesus, and be a witness for the Lord.
As you stand up for Jesus, as you be a witness for the Lord, do so with a cheerful heart.
Be excited about the Lord. If you are not excited about the Lord, if there is no joy deep
down on the inside, then it will be difficult to be a witness for the Lord. When there is joy
on the inside, it is going to radiate on the outside. There is an old chorus we used to sing
that goes something like this, It’s bubbling, it’s bubbling, it’s bubbling in my soul.
There’s singing and shouting since Jesus made me whole. Some folks could not
underestand it, but I could not hold my peace. It’s bubbling, bubblig, bubbling, it’s
bubbling in my soul. Is love of Jesus bubbling on the inside? Are you ready to go and
share the good news with someone? Are you excited about the Lord?
In order to see people won to the Lord, we will have to take the time and pray for them.
Sometimes we talk too much, and sometimes we might say the wrong thing. Don’t get me
wrong, it is alright to talk to people about their soul. It is alright to verbally witness for
the Lord, but here is something I would like every child of God to do.
1. Think of one person you would like to see give their heart to the Lord. It might be your
husband, your wife; your son, your daughter, a co-worker a friend etc.
2. For the next three months, without saying anything to that person about the Lord unless
the Holy Spirit says so, just start praying for them. (You may choose more than one
person to pray for.)
3. After three months, as the Holy Spirit leads after you have earnestly prayed for them,
then allow the Holy Spirit to lead you to speak to them.....
4. Don’t be surprised of what God is going to do; and the church will be waiting to hear
what God has done....
Saints of God at Harvey, on this first Sunday in the year 2009, let’s resolve in our hearts
to stand up for Jesus and be a witness for our Lord. As we close, if you are willing to
stand up for Jesus, and be a witness for our Lord, as we all stand, I am going to ask you to
come and make that committment to the Lord.
If you don’t know the Loord...........
Closing song/prayer
