Amazing Time of Worship

The team gathered together to worship with Colonia Williams. This evangelism team has been door to door and done VBS for five days now they come together to worship in one accord.  There was one small opportunity.  We started out having the children in the sanctuary and as the church started filling up there was thirty five plus adults coming to worship this morning.  So Pastor Ramon, Pastor Wayne and Mike went  back to the Sunday School classrooms to assess which would be the best way to go with so many adults as well as so many children.  We were blessed with three amazing translators all will, praise God.  So they divided the children into the two classrooms and the adults stayed in church. So the choir was practicing for worship and we found out Gorge, one of the translators is a member of the mother church.  So he was up there in the choir practicing as well.  Media and Pastor Ramon did the final details of the morning to prepare for an amazing worship service in the name of Jesus.

We started worship with singing "How Great Thou Art".  Afterwards many more songs were song in the name of Jesus.  Ginger assisted Pastor Ramon in the reading of Psalm 133.  Pastor Ramon welcomed everyone to church this glorious day and thanked his North American brothers and sisters for coming to serve beside them in the bringing the lost to Christ in Colonia Williams.  Pastor Ramon shared his person testimony. Pastor Ramon after sharing his testimony said let's sing "Victory in Jesus"  because I have Victory in Jesus he shared.

Pastor Wayne approached the pulpit along side of Carlos to bring God's Word out of Romans 12. Pastor Wayne thanked them for an amazing week serving the Lord.  How kind everyone was to us and took great care of as we shared the gospel of Jesus Christ. Pastor Wayne's title to his sermon was "Right Relationship Brings On Right Living'.

What does God want out of us?  He wants us to sacrifice unto death.  God wants to rise up in us to live our lives through you and me.  He wants us to demonstrate Jesus to a lost and dying world. We need to be the hands and feet of Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives within our hearts.  We must be a clean vessel. When God saves our soul through the blood of His Son Jesus Christ He will wash us clean so He can use us to serve HIM.  Our God is a Sovereign God.  He does not need us.  God is the Way the Truth and the Life.  God does not need our opinion. God already knows all the details.

In verse 2 Pastor Wayne says "how do we do this?" 

We must be transformed by the renewing of the mind.  We must be changed and if the changes does not take place in our lives then we do not know Jesus Christ.  In order to be in the image of Christ we must be in the Word daily, get control of our lives,  if we are not careful flesh with follow but with the Holy Spririt we can be renew day by day.  Our relationship with Jesus Christ starts in our minds.  We need to change the way we think. This place is not our home anymore if we are believers in Jesus Christ.  Heaven is my residence. 

In verses 3 through 16 it talks about relationships with other believers. We need to be honest with ourselves and don't think of ourselves as too highly than others.  Pride can get in the way of our image of Jesus Christ.  Also do not think lowly of yourselves and use the gifts God has given you to further His Kingdom.  Do not waste our talents and gifts.  The church needs to be in unity with one another.  We need to be in right relationship with one another.  When I hurt the whole body hurts.  In verse 6 it talks about the many different parts of the body of unity.  If it is to prophesize then we need to go prophesize, it if is to serve, if you are to lead then be a leader and it takes all of these and more to make a church be unified.  They are all important. Pastor Wayne shared how every person this week right down to the ladies cooking for the Hondurans is so important.  God used all your gifts in this church this week to help us do what God had called us to do bring the lost to Christ.

If we do verses one and two our gifts unto the Lord will happen.  Evaluate yourselves today to see what God has for you to do for His Kingdom.  In verses 9-16  it talks about putting on a show,  being a hypocrite.  you have to put total trust in the Lord.  We need to be about the business of serving HIM, not ourselves.  If Jesus came to this earth to serve and not be served who are we to think we have to be served.

You do not need to be more concerned about your own needs but put others above yourselves.  Jesus had the miracle of the five thousand, the tragedies of many storms where people lost everything and we as North Carolina Baptist Men have fed over thousands of families in North America.   We do not need to be lazy unto the Lord.  We need to be concerned  about the lost souls.  We need to get off the pews and go and make disciples of all nations.  God loves us in spite of us. We need to hate the sin but love the sinners.  We need to continue to pray and show hospitality to all who we meet.  We do not need to show hospitality just to our friends but even to our enemies.  We need to be of the same mind, unified in Christ Jesus. 

Love is the main thing.  The greatest commandment is Jesus replied: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'
  This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Matthew 22:37-39.

So who is our neighbor?  The one who is in need. We need to minister in accordance of their needs, whether it is spiritual, physical, word of encouragement and also be able to correct them in love when they fall away from the Way, the Truth and the Life.  God cares for us all and wants our minds to change according to His Word.  How will folks meet Jesus if we do not take Jesus to them?   Jesus needs to be in our daily lives.  Others need to see Jesus when they see us. We need to be on the meat of the Word, not the breast milk of a baby.  We need to feed on the Word daily if not we will always be on baby food as a Christian.  We need to be bold Christians.  Philippians 4:13 states "We can do all things through Jesus Christ who gives me the strength."  When we get to Heaven there will not be any excuses of what we did not to while here on this temporarily journey.  In Matthew 18 how many times do I forgive God?  Seven times seven Jesus said.  What if God did not forgive us?  If we cannot find peace in Jesus we cannot find peace with man.  We need to get on our knees daily and seek His forgiveness daily.  We need to have the right relationships with our enemies.  This is easier said than done. How do we make friends out of enemies?  Through the love of Jesus Christ.  We cannot love others only through the love of Jesus. We need to overcome evil with all good. We need to have a right relationship with God, a right relationship with fellow Christians, and we need to have a right relationship with our enemies.  Right relationships brings about right living. 

We need to be different.  We do not need to be apart of this world.  We need to become a new creature in Christ Jesus.  An example is one of God's own creations, the cocoon transforms into a lovely butterfly.  We need to be a new creation in Christ Jesus  If you do not have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ today or you need to be transformed please get with your pastor and make all things right in the name of Jesus. Tomorrow may be too late.

Thank you Pastor Wayne for a most inspiring message led by the Holy Spirt through you.

While this was taking place the rest of the team, Meida and Gorge did Sunday School with the children. This was such a humbling time in the house of the Lord. But the most humbling of all was when Pastor Ramon asked the team members in worship to come forward so they could pray over each one of them individually.  Pastor Ramon laid hands all of them and prayed for each of their families, the church and their travels back to their families.

We were in a revival this week, To God be the glory.

AMEN