A Vision Begins With A Prayer. – 01/07/2024

The words of Nehemiah the son of Hachaliah. And it came to pass in the month Chisleu, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace, that Hanani, one of my brethren, came, he and certain men of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, which were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. And they said unto me, The remnant that are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach: the wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and the gates thereof are burned with fire. And it came to pass, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days, and fasted, and prayed before the God of heaven, and said, I beseech thee, O LORD God of heaven, the great and terrible God, that keepeth covenant and mercy for them that love him and observe his commandments: let thine ear now be attentive, and thine eyes open, that thou mayest hear the prayer of thy servant, which I pray before thee now, day and night, for the children of Israel thy servants, and confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against thee: both I and my father’s house have sinned. We have dealt very corruptly against thee, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the judgments, which thou commandedst thy servant Moses. Remember, I beseech thee, the word that thou commandedst thy servant Moses, saying, If ye transgress, I will scatter you abroad among the nations: but if ye turn unto me, and keep my commandments, and do them; though there were of you cast out unto the uttermost part of the heaven, yet will I gather them from thence, and will bring them unto the place that I have chosen to set my name there. Now these are thy servants and thy people, whom thou hast redeemed by thy great power, and by thy strong hand. O Lord, I beseech thee, let now thine ear be attentive to the prayer of thy servant, and to the prayer of thy servants, who desire to fear thy name: and prosper, I pray thee, thy servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man. For I was the king’s cupbearer.

Nehemiah 1: 1-11

A vision Begins With A Prayer.

A vision begins with a prayer

1. When Nehemiah heard about Jerusalem.
2. What could he do?
3. Nehemiah did two things.

He Prayed.

1. This is the first thing we should do.
2. He talked to God.
3. He waited on God, we are on God time table not ours.

He Planned.

1. He started planning on his next move.
2. We need to plan out the things ahead of us,
3. The cost.
4. Man power, do we have the strength to finish it.
5. Look at the resources
6. Put your plan in “Action”

God is using your circumstance.

1. As a child of God, He needs to direct our paths.
2. Do you have a concern for the lost, and dyeing souls?
3. Do you want to see our church to Grow?.
4. What can you do to jhelp our church grow?

Five Keys to a Happy New Year – 01/14/2024

Verse 7: But what things were not gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

– Philippines 3: 7,12,14

A Dissatisfaction:

1. When we get bored with church.
2. Our prayer life
3. Stop serving in Church
4. A Devotion: Are you Devoted to worship?

Verse 14: “this one thing I do.”

He was like Mary “Like 10:42”

1. Are you like Martha?
2. Some time we have to many irons in the fire.
3. A Direction: Do you know where you are headed.

Verse 13: “Forgetting those things which are behind.”

unsaved are controlled by their past.

1. The word “forget” does not mean a failure to remember.
2. A Determination: Nothing can distract you.

Verse 14: “I press”

Paul is saying he was putting all his effort in his Christian life.

1. Paul said” I must finish the race which is before me.”
2. A Discipline life”

Verse 15,16 “Let us therefore, as many be perfect, be thus mined; And if in any thing ye be other-wise mined the same thing, Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.”

There must be discipline in a Christian life.

1. A Christian must have a strong prayer life.

Christmas Eve Service – 12/24/2023

If You Do Only One Thing……

Colossians 4: 2   “Continue in Prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving.”

Reason #1  Devote Yourselves to Prayer

1.     The word devote is also translated as” to adhere to, to persist in, or to busy one’s self with
2.     By praying we will keep our minds on Jesus

Reason #2   Why should we pray?

1. Because it is our duty as Christians.
2. 1 Thessalonians 5: 17 Tell us to “pray without ceasing.”
3. Because we are promised that God hears.
4. ”The righteous cry, and the Lord heareth, and delivereth them out of all their troubles
5. Because we need to hear from God.

Reason #3   Because we need help to overcome our own will.

1. When Jesus prayed in the garden he said, not my will but thine.
2. That’s why we pray, so that his will gets done instead of ours.

Reason #4   We pray because we need help for what lies ahead of us.

1. It might be: Surgery, a job change, some of us are facing some major choices ahead of us.
2. In psalms says show me thy ways, O Lord teach me thy paths…

Reason #5   Because unbroken communion with God is possible.

1. When I give a Bible to someone, I always write in it: “this Bible will keep you from, and sin will keep you from this Bible.”
2. It is us that breaks the communion from God, not Him from us.

New Years Eve Service – 12/31/2023

Christmas, the next day

¹¹ And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense and myrrh.

¹² And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.

– Matthew 2: 11,12

A person can never be the same after having a child;

1. when a baby is born;
2. people come to see the baby

Mary and Joseph;

2. Their lives were change
3. They had to move;

Mary and Joseph raised Jesus;

3. They nurtured their relationship with Jesus;
4. You grow as a child grows;

Mary kept the saying of Jesus in her heart

Luke 2;19

1. Her life and ours have been change;
2. Has your life changed