“Be Saved, Stay Saved, and See
Others Saved” By Bob Heirtzler August 15th,
2010 A
few weeks ago, when I
found out that the theme of the month was “Living with purpose,” I
started to
think and pray about what is living with a purpose? What
does it mean to me? And this came to my
mind: “Be Saved,
Stay Saved and See
Others Saved.” God
reminded me about my
first fish: In
April 1971, I was 10
years old, and I was bugging my dad that I wanted to go fishing. He kept telling me to wait. I didn’t understand that
he was trying to
teach me to wait until the sun was right.
See, there was a large pool, and there was a small
waterfall that fed
the pool. In the
afternoon, the forest
was dark, not much light penetrated the thick trees of the forest. The only part that the sun
was shining on was
right were the waterfall went into the pool; it was very clear water. Dad told me to cast above
the waterfall and
let the bait drop into the pool, my first cast was perfect: The worm fell into the
water and out of the
darkness the Brook Trout swam into the light and took the bait, and I
caught it
on my first cast. God
reminded me that He is
that bright marvelous light that drew me
into the light; He called me out of the darkness into his marvelous
light…. 1
Peter 2:9
…
who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous
light: This
was the point of
time that I can remember that God was dealing with me.
I joined the Sunday School, the choir, in
search of God… I felt empty. When
I was
18 years old, I asked God a question one night: “God, is there more to
life
than getting married, having kids and then dying?”
God did answer the prayer ten months later…
That brings me to my message: Three
Points I am going to go over are 1.
To Be Saved.
2.
To Stay Saved. 3.
To See Other Saved. Be
saved…. Being Saved
– Baptism in Jesus
name!! Luke
24:45-48
…repentance
and remission of sins … beginning
at Mark
16:16
He that believeth
and is baptized
shall be saved… Matthew
28:18-20
… baptizing them in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost…
Notice
that the word
“name” in that scripture is singular:
One name. My
father believed that
there were three Gods. I
told him over
the phone that there was only one.
I
asked my dad. Are
you a father? Are
you a Son? Do you
have a Spirit? Are
you a Husband Cousin, Uncle, Brother,
Pratt Whitney employee?
He said “Yes”
and then I asked how many dads do I have?
“One.” These
Scriptures tell me that, if I believe and
get baptized, I’ll be saved, and also that the first message
will be
taught in Jerusalem….
Acts
2:5
And
there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out
of every nation under heaven. Acts
2:14
…Ye
men of Judaea, and all ye
that dwell at So
they were in Acts
2:37-47 …
Repent,
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the
remission
of sins…
And this message wasn’t just for
that day. It’s
still true for us,
today. God answered
my prayers in October,
1979. LIVING
WITH A PURPOSE – what is our purpose?
Two weeks ago, Parrish shared
about there
are many things that people can do that are noble,
edifying, and structurally sound. Things that are approved by
society,
appreciated by folks all around, things that will be remembered for
years, and
some things that people write books about. We all know who
discovered
electricity, who invented the light bulb, who was our first president,
people
that we consider heroes: World War I, World War II; heroes in
sports,
people who write songs that we just can’t get enough of.
There are
the people who invented penicillin or the vaccine for polio or
smallpox, people
who save lives. If that’s all you have then the reward you
get is that of
breaking records, saving lives, or starting a nation, and that’s great
for this
life. You might make the history books, or even get a statue over your
tombstone. God gave
those people the ability to do those
things. Please
don’t get me wrong,
saints, the Bible says that all good and perfect gifts come from God (James
1:17),
so,
if a person isn’t faithful with the talents that God has put in their
lives,
then God will hold them accountable for that. After all, to
him that
knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is sin (James
4:17).
But, if we allow our purpose to be solely about things of
this life then
that’s all the reward we get.
God
us given us the ability
to do great things, but people are not acknowledging that God or giving
thanks
to God for what he has done for us…… Living
with a purpose…… What is the purpose of these
people? We have
people in this church
who are contractors, highway maintainers, truck drivers, letter
carriers,
kindergarten teachers, chefs, accountants…
But that’s not their main purpose. Stay
Saved - LIVING WITH
A PURPOSE – what is our purpose? I
don’t want to be a Casual Christians – the
world is filled with this kind already.
When I was a kid, I used to see people singing in
church on Sunday
morning that I knew had been out drinking on Friday night. My dad called them,
“showboats.” Isaiah
4:1
…only
let us be called by thy name, to take away our
reproach. We
will eat our own
bread, wear our apparel, only let us be called by thy name. We want to do
our own thing, but say that we
are Christian. We
want to dip into the
things of this world and still be called a Christian.
Didn’t Jesus say, “I never knew you?” (Matthew
25:34-46) Acts
5:1-10 …
thou
hast not lied unto men, but unto God… God
if you will help me
with my test, my car, whatever it is that we need right then… I will
serve you,
I will give my heart to you, I will, I will …… Then God does, and we
forget our
promises that we made until the next time we are in a bind. Holding back what they
told God that they
wanted to do! Many
people that they are
doing something for God, to everyone all around them, even to the
leaders and elders
of the church. There
are just show
boats!! Parrish
mentioned how we act
sometimes when people of authority come around we wear a different face. We know when to raise our
hands, but
sometimes we’re just exercising. Real
Christians
Paul
was taking to the Church of Galatians. God
wants us to produce fruits – George talked
about this Galatians
5:1, 7-8
…Ye
did run
well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth? … Galatians
5: 16-26
…Walk
in
the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh...
they
which do such things shall not inherit the We need to produce the Fruits of the Spirit in our lives…. 2
Timothy 4:1-5
…make
full
proof of thy ministry. 1
Peter 3:15 …be
ready always to give
an answer to every man that asketh you … Remember
this: Where were
you when God sent someone to share
the Word of God with you? Are
you
praying for doors to be open to share the Word of God?
If so, God will send people to cross your
path: at work, in
stores, at parks, in restaurants
… I ask God daily – God open a door for me to share today!! Who do You want me to
share with, what would
you like for me to share… Maybe
it’s
just a simple “Hello”
Can someone walk up and pluck a Fruit
of the Spirit from your life to help them?
George
gave us some homework last week:
He
told
us to read these five Scriptures.
I’ve
read them every day this past week. Psalms
23:1 The
LORD is my shepherd;
I shall not want. Psalms
37:25
…yet
have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed
begging bread. Matthew
7:7-11
…how
much
more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that
ask
him? He
won’t
always give you what you want, but he’ll give you what you need. I didn’t like vegetables
when I was a kid, I
would have rather eaten cake, but the vegetables were what I needed. Philippians
4:19
But
my God shall supply all your need according to his
riches in glory by Christ Jesus. 1
Peter 5:6-7
…Casting
all your care upon him; for he careth for you. Also: Ecclesiastes 12:13 … Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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