Happy Birthday, Calvary Temple
Would all of those who attended in the little church, please stand for a moment.
We would like to thank everyone for their faithfulness to the Lord and His Work, as we celebrate 18 yrs of ministry, here this morning.
We would also like to acknowledge, the ones who are no longer with us and have went on to their eternal reward.
*Our beloved founder and pastor, J.L. Schaffer, his impact and faithfulness continue to still be felt here in the church,
And are a great legacy and testament as to the way, he lived his life.
*Jack Curbox, Brooks Curbox, Mary Schwier, Ralph and Evelyn Hughes, Dave Fletcher, Roger Capper, Jim Wentz, Glyn Mcmasters, Mary Stack, Les Westberg and most recently Shirley McMasters.
All who helped touch many lives for the Kingdom and were touched in return and have been rewarded for their effort, by none other than Jesus, Himself!
I Wouldn’t Take Nothing For My Journey Now! Seemed like a very appropriate statement to make this morning
And My oh my, what a journey its been, from the moment we first walked on the property, Gods presence has met us every time!
So many things have happened, so many doors God has opened to us throughout the years,
so many people that we’ve come to know and love along the way.
Miracle after miracle we have witnessed in our midst and God has been faithful to us, every step of the way.
TBS. in Isaiah 43:19 NKJ
19. Behold, I will do a new thing,
Now it shall spring forth;
Shall you not know it?
I will even make a road in the wilderness
And rivers in the desert.
There certainly have been numerous times that God has made a road through the wilderness and a river through the desert for us.
For starters,
*Pastor Schaffer, Bought the property for $50,000.00 with no money down, no paper work, no credit check, no collateral,
only a handshake and a desire to see people come to know the Lord and their lives to be changed.
That was the very first miracle, our first river in the desert, of many that the Lord would provide.
$500 a month, pastor told us and we were thinking, that’s not to bad of a deal, we can do that.
And then he said, and a, oh by the way, we need to raise $10,000.00 as our first balloon payment in six months,
followed by a $10,000.00 balloon payment each year and every year after that, until it was paid for.
12 people came to the very first service and every time we have had a need since then, it has came in without fail. Praise God!
God never let us down one time, in fact we paid off the property in 3 ½ years, almost 2 yrs. ahead of time.
* Blessed with Mowing since the beginning, ever since Tim and I spent 19 hours, mowing the yard the first time, with a push mower and a 30 inch snapper in faith,
God has provided the machine and the man every time since then and even the fuel, at no charge! Praise God!
* Always have been Blessed with Giving people that wanted to do something for the Lord
* Started building program with 20, $1 seeds from the pastor, he said go and multiply it,
Mark 4:8 NKJ
But other seed fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced: some thirty fold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”
1 Corinthians 3:6 NKJ
I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase.
Pastor had done his part and he left the rest up to God and my oh my, what a faithful God we serve!
This story, still amazes me, no matter how many times that I tell it, or hear it!
One year later, the planted seed resulted in $100,000.00, thats right, a $100,000.00 offering!
(We stopped the service to count it, everyone kept giving until we reached the Goal)
others gave later too, when they were told of the story, everyone wanted to be a part of something so incredible,
Never underestimate the God of endless Possibilities! Praise God!
* Another time we needed $30,000 during the building program, it came in, in cash just at the right time.
He’s never early, He’s never late, always right on time!!
* Another time we needed $10,000.00 for a building need on a Monday, it came in Sunday’s offering and the need wasn’t even mentioned. Praise God!!
* Every step of the way, God continually said to us; “I will make a way, where there seems to be no way” To trust Him!
I remind you of these events this morning, not to brag on mans efforts,
But to brag on Gods amazing ability and results, He delivered and continues to deliver to the needs of His people and to His Work at Hand!
You see, these miracles are no different, then the miracles we read about in the bible,
Except for the fact, we lived them and they have been and still are to others a faith building experience and a great testimony
Calvary Temple and everyone of your lives, are books and chapters of what God’s Amazing Grace is all about!
What a fantastic God we serve, Praise the Lord for what He has DONE!
Time after time He made a road through the wilderness.
* He even caused a fortune 500 company (Walmart) to spend tens of millions of dollars, so the church wouldn’t have to spend a dime. (mound system septic field would have been 75 to 80 thousand add. $)
* He also provided 200 plus loads of good fill dirt for our retention area at the costs of “free of charge,” which would have been 30 to 40 thousand $.
* How about getting 35K worth of interior doors for 10K
If we were to tell of, every miracle in the building program, we wouldn’t have enough time, but needless to say God has been good to us,
We have not only seen material blessings here in our midst, but many physical blessings and miracles as well.
Patty Willoughby is a miracle in every sense of the word, a 12 year heart transplant survivor, that hasn’t missed a days work in 11 1/2.
Tom McIntyre is a walking miracle, survived 2 heart attacks, a stroke, open heart surgery
And a new mitro valve in his heart, and was back mowing the lawn six months later!
Dave Fletcher was Healed of a heart attack and went fishing the next morning, right over there!
and there are many others that have received a miracle as well, I know I have many times.
We have all been touched at one time or another by the Healing Power of God,
And He continues to move and bless in our services in amazing ways, God is so good.
All these stories I’ve shared with you today, have all been part of an amazing journey.
It seems so in the world today, that nobody really wants to go on the journey,
Everyone just seems to feel entitled to the end result, they just want to show up at the destination and never go through the struggle.
What they don’t realize is, without a journey, there really is no way to reach your destination!
On every journey, there are four dredded words that whoever is in charge of the journey, be it a father, mother, teacher, troop leader,
or The Lord Himself concerning the children of Israel on their way to the promised land,
Never really care to hear And those words are, “are we there yet”?
The journey is what makes reaching the destination memorable,
thousands of years later and were still talking about the journey to the promised land, still learning lessons from it!
Because every one of us is on a journey to the promised land of eternal life,
enjoy the journey, what you are experiencing all along the way, is commonly referred to as, “the good old days” Amen?
There were a lot of Kings in the Bible, so many of them we can’t even remember their names,
But mention the name of King David and everyone remembers what a journey he had, all the ups and downs
But in the end, what they remember the most was, the man after God’s own Heart,
Because he put his blood, sweat and tears and his “immense love for the Lord” into it
and had an amazing journey all along the way, to becoming the one of the Greatest King’s of Israel.
Their have been many presidents of our great country, name them all, while some can, most people can’t.
But everybody knows the name of Ronald Reagan, because he had such an interesting and amazing journey
in becoming one of the greatest presidents in our country’s history.
If we would have just started out the church with this beautiful building, it wouldn’t mean as much to us as it does,
And it wouldn’t have required much faith either,
you see all along the journey, our faith grows and matures the more we depend on God in our walk with Him, to get us to our destination!
All these things we’ve talked about today, has all been part of the Journey to where we are right now,
God has never let us down, He’s been faithful and Continues to tell us through His Prophetic Words,
Of all the things that are yet to come our way, if we continue to be faithful and keep lifting up the name of His Son Jesus,
The name above all other names.
That’s why I can stand here and tell you with confidence this morning,
that at Calvary Temple, the best is still yet to come,
1 Corinthians 9:23-25 MSG.
19-23. Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: religious, nonreligious, meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, the defeated, the demoralized— whoever, I didn’t take on their way of life. I kept my bearings in Christ— but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. I did all this because of the Message. I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!
24-25. You’ve all been to the stadium and seen the athletes race. Everyone runs; one wins. Run to win. All good athletes train hard. They do it for a gold medal that tarnishes and fades. You’re after one that’s gold eternally.
God is still looking for men and women, who will be found faithful to the calling, to get involved with the task at hand,
Telling everyone about the Gospel, the Life Changing Grace Message Jesus willingly gave up His Life for on the cross,
so they could be saved from the gates of hell and spend eternity in Heaven with Him!
You’ve heard it said many times, the only thing that truly matters in this life we have been given, is what we do for the Kingdom of Heaven.
Everything else, will fade away, but what we do for the Lord, is eternal and will last forever!
One day we will all turn around and look at the journey, and if the Lord is and has been in charge of the destination,
we will be able to just marvel and say, “Look what the Lord has Done, I certainly wouldn’t take nothing for my journey now”!
Praise God, Lets pray!
