Worship Service

God gave us a day of worship and praise unto Him after two days out in the field.  The team was ready for a day of Sabbath Rest.  The service started out with some amazing praise hymns led by  Pastor Alberto on the electric keyboard.  This music definitely got us prepared for worshiping our Lord. After the hymns of praise Blanca opened up the service in a Word of Prayer.  Leah was asked to help with the reading of God's Word out of Proverbs 10:1-18.  Job well done Leah. After scripture reading there was more praise and worship through some beautiful hymns.  The North American had a couple of praise hymns as well.  The last one they sang the entire church joined in clapping with the North Americans.  Once they got through singing half of them left to go to Sunday School with about 100 children. 

Pastor Joey and Meida stepped up to bring the message from God's Word. The scripture is coming from Mark 5:13-16.  Pastor Joey shared how a lot of our visits this week resulting in a lot of excuses why your community is not in church.  It is the very same way back home in the states.  But as Christians we are suppose to be the salt of the earth.  Salt back in Jesus' day and today is a very important mineral.  Salt has many uses, it perserves meats, keeps things from going bad and from rotting.  Jesus taught is disciples that the world is decaying and it needs salt. Followers of Christ should preserve themselves and the world they live in.  If we were to remove Christians we would live in a very dangerous place.  Our world needs our Christian influence to help prevent all the corruption in our world.  Number two reason for salt is it brings seasoning to our food.  Our world would be bland without the Christians in this world sharing the good news.  People can only have true peace and joy in Jesus Christ.  Not anything in this world can ever bring us complete joy and peace.  Only the blood of Jesus Christ can ever do that for us. Your church as well as my church back home can offer a hurting world this joy and peace.  The only way we can do this for our dark world is through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Our life, our testimony should be hopeful, even in the bad times.  Jesus is always there with us in the good and bad.  How does our testimony radiate our faith in Jesus Christ in the bad times as well as the good times.  Number three salt brings thirst.  Salty food makes us thirsty.  Christians in the world and others should be thirsty for the joy of Jesus.  The unbelievers out there should be jealous and ask why are you so joyful all the time, even during an unforeseen circumstance. Other examples of salt is salt should make contact.  Salt on your shelf in your kitchens will not do any good.  It has to be used.  We need to get out into the world and give out this beautiful salt of Jesus Christ.  Just a little bit of salt make a huge difference.

Also when you don't use your salt  become inactive in your local church or quit reading the Word or have time along with your Heavenly Father who loose the saltiness of the Word of Jesus.  When you loose contact with others in the faith you loose your faith.  Be very careful what you watch on tv or your smart phones this can also pollute your heart and mind.  

There is another thought: light of the world.  We live in a sinful world and darkness is corruption.  A dark place can be very frightening to someone who is afraid of the dark.  Also a dark place is a good place to hide your sins. We hide from the light of Jesus which reveals who we truly are.  Again one others meet you they should want to come to church with you and hear about this Jesus who brings light into a dark world.  Church family we all need to reflect the light of Jesus .  Light repels the darkness.  Christians allow themselves to be the light of the world.  They will remove dishonesty and reveal immorality.  The light in the darkness gives us a sign of hope.  We need to speak truth to one another. Example is a lighthouse will warn you in time of danger.  We need to be that lighthouse in the lives of our fellow Christian friends so they will not fall into the trap of this dark world. Just remember the moon is not always full.  It has to work to become full each night,  We need to prepare daily to be this light in a dark world.  We as believers need to walk the walk and talk the talk of Jesus Christ. We as Christians need to live out the light of Jesus in love to all people  We can bless others and also glorify God with our daily lives.  We need to live out our faith boldly and not secretly.  Share our faith in Jesus Christ with others.  My question to all of us today sitting here are we having an influence in our community, homes and churches.  Please do not dare to be different, we need to be different and radical for Jesus Christ.  We need to be the salt and light of this world. Finally, Pastor Joey shared, "Lord use me today."

This sermon today was from a dear lady we built a home for eight years ago who confessed she had not been in church simply because she could not walk.  Pastor Joey and his team one day visited this sweet salt and light lady of her community named Rheana. She shared her story with them about her health concerns.  They prayed over her and her inability to walk with any strength at all.  On Sunday morning for the first time in a very long time God gave her the strength to make it to church and she had to walk quiet a ways to get there.  First of all she gave God all the praise and honor and glory.  Lastly she shared she gave thanks to the team who prayed over her days prior because all the medicines she had tried did not make her feel as good as she does know and she gives God praise for the prayers the team did over her life earlier in the week.  All Rheana needed was some hope and encouragement through prayer.  So the salt and light showed up at Rheana's that day and to God be the glory!!!!

"You are the salt of the earth."

Matthew 5:14-16