Worship

As Sunday morning arrived we were all excited to head out to church in the Land Cruser.  What a joyful group of people to go off to church in Honduras on a bright and beautiful Sunday morning.  We arrived with our little church family on top of that hill of Colonia Undias greeting us with lots of hugs and happy to see us as we were happy to see them.  Pastor Matty, Meida and Pastor Carlos planned out the order of worship as everyone found their place in church to worship and praise the Lord.  Joanne was asked to come to front of the church and read Psalm 113 as the congregation read along with her one verse at a time.  The Hondurans read the same verse as well in unison.  Pastor Carlos came forward to welcome everyone in the Lord's house today, the children first and then the North Americans and then the adults of the church.

Next came a very special part of the worship service which is the praise and worship service.  The entire church sang a hymn of Praise to God.  The North Americans were asked to come forward as they led by Zach sand "Because He Lives" in English and Zach sang the chorus in Spanish.  The Hondurans joined in with them as they sang.  Two different languages praising the Lord in one accord.  Pastor Matty sang a solo of one of the verses as well.  This little team had a lot of talent up on that stage this morning.  Pastor Carlos' wife lead some more praise and worship hymns while the congregation joined in with her.

Pastor Matty came forward with the help of our translator Meida to share in God's message.  He thanked the congregation for having his team here this week going with them to evangelize in their community.  He thanked them for all their hard work in preparing for this week so they could work along side this amazing and gifted church family.  Pastor Matty said he was humbled and with much humility to be able to stand in this pulpit today and grateful to God for this opportunity.  Pastor Matty shared this is his second visit to Honduras.  He has learned endurance, faith and trust in the Lord while being here both years.  I will take what I learn here in Honduras back to my church in the United States.  We all have the same God and the same jobs within our church families. Today Pastor Matty shared he is going to talk about the "Importance of the Church".  The scripture is our of Matthew 16:18-19.  "Look into Your Hand" is the focus of the message today.  Elders were asked what do you love about your church by Pastor Matty.  Some answers he received was church is important, we serve together was another answer, share what we love about the church for our generation and generations to come.  In Exodus 4 God called Moses to Pharaoh to say "let my people go."  They were enslaved .  Moses was brought up for this job.  Moses explained to God how he could not speak with clear words and he gave God other excuses of why he did not qualify to go do this for God.  In the middle of all God's excuses God asked Moses what was in his hand?  Moses shared a staff.  God told Moses to throw down the staff.  What happened to the staff once Moses threw the staff on the ground?  It turned into a snake. God gave Moses directions on what to do with his staff.  Moses was obedient to God's direct command.  Moses obeyed God because of his faith and trust in God.  Supernatural occurrence turned into a snake.  Moses picked up the snake and the snake turned back into the staff.  Moses went out on faith and trust in God when he picked up that snake.  This was a big step of faith in Moses.  The power of God is to follow the plan God has for us.  There is work to be done and God had a plan for His people to move into the Promise Land.  Remember the foundation of the people is found only in faith and trust in God.  The people are the church.  We don't have a plan for God because God already has a plan for us.  We only need to be faithful, trust in God and be obedient.  Many were asked who is Jesus.  Some answered, "He is John the Baptist, others answered he is Jeremiah".  Jesus said, "Who do you say that I am?'  Peter said, " You are Christ Jesus."  This was a statement of truth in Jesus.  Jesus called Peter blessed because Peter was fortunate in knowing who Jesus was. Now Peter has a job to do for Jesus.  Out of verse 18 it says a stone of faith foundation of gospel is faith which is Jesus the cornerstone.  Our faith is how the church is built.  Jesus desire is for the church to continue to build the church.  When you are building a project to add people to the kingdom of God is to encourage one another to have this faith in Jesus Christ.  We need to be careful with God's plan. Because it is God's plan and not our plan.  God's church is not our church.  Unless the Lord builds the house the labor is in vain.  This is not a building so to speak but the people are the church and we need to build the kingdom of God through the people of the church.  Look at your hand there is victory in Jesus when a clear plan of God's Word is carried out of the walls of this building.  We spend many days living our lives for the Lord.  It is not easy serving our Lord and the church. It will be difficult when you live by the Word of God.  But there is Victory in Jesus Christ.  Gates of Hell will not prevail the power of Jesus Christ who rose after the third day.  In our hands we have Victory in Jesus.  We live for God is where we put our faith.  The Plan of God, The Victory of God and the Resurrection of God through his Son Jesus Christ is where we put our faith and trust in God.  The Holy Spirit is our advocate which dwells within us as the temples of God.  Who has overcome the world?  Those who have faith and trust through the power of the Holy Spirit through the blood of Jesus Christ who died and arose on the third day.  When the Holy Spirit lives within us daily we will live out our lives differently.  Out of Philippians God who works in us to do what He wants us to do.  In verse 19 it says there is only one way into the kingdom of God.  JESUS!!!!  He gave us the keys to the gospel and we go out and share the gospel to others so they can hear and receive the eternal gift which is JESUS.  We need to have JOY in the fact we are called children of God, we have received an inheritance which is eternal life.  Go out and share this with others so they will receive this same gift of eternal life.

Pastor Carlos then came forward after Pastor Matty closed in prayer to challenge the church to look and see what is in their hands and to see if they have the keys to eternal life.  At this time the floor was open for the Hondurans to share their testimony if they would care to.  Domingo Sanchez, age 87 came forward and thanked the North Americans for coming and sharing in this ministry this week.  How blessed his church family was to be able to go out and share the gospel in their neighborhood with lost and hurting people.  

At the end of the service we were dismissed once again with lots of hugs and thank you from our beautiful church family in Colonia Unidas.