“Blessed Be Your Name”
By General Pastor Peter F. Paine
January 16th,
2011
Click here to download printable sermon
notes in pdf format.
I thought
the
name of this message was, “A Vision For Victory,” but, during the
singing this
morning, I realized that I had been mistaken; the title of today’s
message is,
“Blessed Be Your Name.” When
God blesses
us, we need to let people know. “When
the darkness closes in…” when it’s a struggle just to smile, “…still I
will
say, blessed be Your name.” Jesus
is
alive and well and very capable. Don’t
think of Him as a God that was, He is the God that is.
John
6:1
…Jesus went over the sea
of Galilee, which is the sea of Tiberias.
The sea of
Galilee is like a lake, compared to the ocean.
You can see across it.
John
6:2
…a great multitude
followed him, because they saw his miracles…
They
followed Him because they saw the miracles which He did on those that
were
diseased. See,
Jesus was living what He
taught in Matthew 5:16: “Let your light so shine…”
This has to do with our testimony; how we
live, how we react. Are
you falsely
accused? blessed be Your name. Fallen
among false brethren? blessed be your name.
Who was it that fell amongst false
brethren? Apostle Paul did.
Paul was
beaten and imprisoned, and suffered many things, but he didn’t let that
stop
him.
John
6:3-5
…Jesus then lifted up his
eyes, and saw a great company
come unto him…
Jesus
was going to sit with His disciples, but the multitude came. Sometimes your co-workers
come to you, or
your friends come to you, or needy strangers come to you, and we think,
“Oh no,
there are problems to be solved?” instead of saying, “Oh, God, I thank
you that
I know you. You
see, I am real clear
that I used to be lost. I
wasn’t born
saved. I have been
on death row; I have
been privileged to spend the last few minutes of people’s lives before
they
were executed for their crimes. I
am
thankful that I didn’t have to go to death row before I saw that I
needed
Jesus. Some of you
are excited to be
able to share a testimony; some of you are happy to be saved, but don’t
want to
see so many needy people around you.
You
may have the story about the man that was walking along and saw a
homeless man,
and prayed, “God, please send someone to help this poor man,” and,
being the
kind of man he was, he heard God reply, “I did.
I sent you.”
John
6:5
…Whence shall
we buy bread, that these may eat?
Now,
here the Lord is asking a question that He already knows the answer to.
John
6:6
And this he said to prove
him: for he himself knew what he would do.
It
says that He asked the question to prove him.
Jesus knew that those that were with Him needed to
learn something. Watch
now, He can make a way when there is no
way. Sometimes we
make excuses for not
being a blessing. Some
of you feel that
I’m picking on you. Why
would I want to
pick on you? I
don’t like finding fault
unless it might help us draw closer to God.
So let me find a little more fault.
John
6:7
…Two hundred pennyworth
of bread is not sufficient for them…
In
Numbers
chapter 13, how many spies were there? twelve. And how many brought back
an evil report?
ten. How many
brought back a good
report? two. So
most of the spies said
that they were not able to do what God sent them there to do… God’s got something for
you and me to
do. Feed them some
bread. Unless you
want to do like it says in James
2:16, and tell them, “Be ye warmed and filled, and go to the
church around
the corner.”
John
6:8-9
There is a lad here, which
hath five barley loaves, and two small fishes…
Aren’t
we great advisors to the Lord? He
asked
how are we going to do this, and Philip tells Him that two hundred
pennyworth
of bread is not enough, and Andrew says, there is a lad here with five
loaves
and two small fishes.
John
6:10-11 …when
he had given thanks,
he distributed to the disciples, and the disciples to them…
By a show
of hands, how many people here would say that you are disciples? So God has something for
you to do. What He
has given to you, He wants you to
distribute to other people, as they have need.
John
6:12
…Gather
up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost.
Clean up is
part of our job, too.
John
6:13
…filled twelve baskets
with the fragments…
Now, I
can’t help but wonder why they had twelve baskets with them. But, of course, the point
is, is Jesus able
to provide? God is able to provide.
Romans
8:18 …not
worthy to be compared with
the glory which
shall be revealed in us.
Think
for a moment about the most beautiful place you have ever seen. Got it? well, Heaven blows
that away. It is
not worthy to be compared to what you
will experience after you hear, “Well done, thou good and faithful
servant.”
Romans
8:28 …all
things work together for
good…
What
percentage of things? all things.
Remember that every day.
We are
the called according to His purpose.
There
are going to be things that we don’t like, but it all works together
for good.
Acts
3:1-11
…Silver and gold have I
none; but such as I have give I thee…
Outside
the Temple,
at
the hour of prayer, that’s probably a good place to ask for money. It’s possible that Peter
and John had money
for an offering, but that money was already set aside, so when Peter
told that
lame man, “Silver and gold have I none…” he may have simply meant that
all the
money he had was already accounted for.
I just point that out because some people may think
it strange that they
would be going to the Temple
without an offering. The
point is,
though, that, even though Peter and John didn’t have anything physical
with
them to meet this man’s physical needs, God worked through them and met
his
needs anyway. “Every
blessing you pour
out I’ll turn back to praise.”
We’ve
got to get this attitude of praise, whether it feels good or not,
whether it
makes sense or not. Doing
the right
thing doesn’t make you a hero; you’re a human being for doing the right
thing. We’ve got to
let our light so
shine, and have a vision for victory.
Jeremiah
29:11-12 …thoughts
of peace, and not
of evil, to give you an expected end…
So many times we think that God
won’t listen to us, that He doesn’t care.
He promised us that He does care.
Do what’s right.
You’re best
effort isn’t good enough. This
is a
depressed time of history, but God still wants to bless us. These are challenging
times, but I have never
been more encouraged in my life.
Sermon
notes by Pete Shepherd
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