"Jesus Saves" By Brother Parrish Lee August 3rd,
2014
You
may be seated, saints. Giving honor to
God, Who is the head of my life, and the lives of us, here today. Giving honor to that Savior, that Creator,
that mighty, all-powerful, all-loving, all-kind, omnipotent, ever-present,
always knowing how to forgive what we do, that God Who has never let us
down. Giving honor to You, our Lord
Jesus. Giving honor to all of those who
have gone on before us, to those who the Word reports of what they did and
those that the Word does not report what they did, those that were with them
and laboring and helping that they might see that the Word of God might go
forth. Giving honor to those who have
gone before us in this ministry. From
our founding pastor, he and his family, what they did, our general pastor, who
holds the reigns now, and all those who have come after them, and their time of
anointing and allowing God to use them, seeing ministry go forth. Lastly, but not leastly, of course, giving
honor to all of y’all, who prepare your hearts and come before the Lord, and
say, “God, this is what I choose to do on Sunday, that You might fill me, give
to me that which I need. Take out of me
that which I do not need, and put into me that which I do need, that I may be
better.” Amen. It’s
an honor and a privilege to be here today.
For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Parrish Lee. Andy Giebler, he and myself, we are the
fellowship leaders up here. More
accurately, we help lead the fellowship up here. We actually have a lot of leaders, here. Let’s face it, God is moving in so many
lives. If it were left up to just two
people, we wouldn’t be anywhere. The
magnificence of God is moving all through all the lives that we touch. We have just come from the month of July, and
that was the time of encouragement, and our prayer is as we go into the month
of August, we will continue to be encouraged, we will continue to encourage
others. Our
scripture for the month, this month being the month of sound doctrine: 2 Timothy 3:16-17 All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works. That
is going to be our theme for the month:
Sound Doctrine. But, our
scripture for today: John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh
profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they
are life. If
you could bow your heads for just a word of prayer. Lord, we thank You for Your goodness, and
Your kindness, and Your mercy. Lord, You
have daily loaded us with benefits, but, if You were to give us nothing else,
we come to thank You just for being God of all that there is, for there truly
is none like You. We esteem You, we
extol You, and we worship You, Almighty God.
Thank You for this wonderful time of praise and worship and fellowship
this morning and we ask for a blessing and anointing and empowerment of the
reading and the going-over of Your Word this morning, that it would do, as it
says in the Book of Isaiah, that it would not return unto You void, but surely
accomplish that to which You sent it.
So, Lord, we do come, and we present ourselves to You. This we claim and pray in Jesus’ name. And everyone said, amen. Amen. The
reason that we go over sound doctrine this much, is because some time ago, Andy
Giebler and myself, we were talking with our general pastor, and we were
talking about the needs of the congregation.
Our pastor said, “You know, I think you really need to talk about sound
doctrine a couple of times a year. That
it never leaves—that we all understand that we need to rehearse, to remind
ourselves about sound doctrine.” He
said, “This should enable everybody to be blessed and encouraged and ministered
to, ministered to, helped effectively in their ministry and in their lives,
because, once you have sound doctrine, it is a proper foundation for everything
else that comes along. Our hope is that,
not only that are we benefitted by it, but that the messages so, as it says, in
that same book, 2 Timothy 3, at the end of verse 17, it says, “that the man of
God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.” Speaking
of benefitted by, we, of course, have taken out, in May we were able to take
out time and we were able to focus on Women’s Day. We were able to, in June, we had a time where
we had Men’s Day. In July we talked
about encouragement; a time for encouraging ourselves and others. In August, at the end of this month, we are
going to have Youth Sunday, and we want to make that a practice to do that
every year. Them going to school, and
preparing for the school year, and all the things that they are going to be
battling, and coming upon them, that they would be able to handle everything in
a Christian way. It wasn’t so long ago
that many of us were—well, some of us, it was a while ago—but, we were youth
ourselves. We’re beholding—many of us
weren’t Christians then, but, if we were, it would have been tertiary to go
through some of those things. I heard
from some of the young people that it’s worse now—I was telling him about when
I was coming up through, and he said it’s worse now than it was back then, and
they expressed, “Hey, you know what? We’re going to be stronger, but we still
need help; we still need prayer.” So, at
the end of this month, we’re going to have youth Sunday. Next Sunday, we are taking out time to honor
the sanctity of marriage. We’re going to
have our married couples, this’ll be a time that they will be able to come up
and pray and have themselves anointed—not so much for the family, that’s later
on in the month—but, specifically on that union of marriage, and that is the
focus. That is sound doctrine; I don’t
need to repeat that, Andy covered that extremely well as an intro, I’m
sure. So, I’m looking forward to
that. That will go on into September, and
September, of course, is going to be our time of sanctification, followed by
October, and September and October we’re actually going to be going through the
Book of Ephesians. The Book of
Ephesians. We went through the Book of
Galatians last year; this year we’re going through the Book of Ephesians. So
when we say sound doctrine we are talking about foundational messages, messages
that become an anchor to your soul.
There are many messages that help you along the way, but there are
certain things that are rock, that there’s no adjusting to this thing. There’s only one God; there’s no adjusting to
the fact that there’s only one God.
Jesus saves; there’s no adjusting that, that is a fact. Foundational messages are an anchor for our
souls. Of course, we already went over
how all scripture is given, and we’ve heard people say before that, “You know,
that Bible, it’s an interesting book, but, like any other book, it was written
by man.” The Bible answers that in the
book of second Peter, where it says they were holy men; they spake as they were
moved by the Holy Ghost. (2 Peter 1:21) I’m not going to get into that this morning, that
actually would be a very, very good subject for our Bible study teachers to be
able to come and teach sometime. Point 1: The Lord Jesus Is Able To Save For
this, I’m going to need some help. For
this, I’m going to ask our brother Joseph, and our sister, From our Headlines today: The
threat came from Hwang Pyong-So, director of the military's General Political
Bureau, during a speech to a large military rally in • New York Times Backs Legalizing Pot • Ford raises F-150 prices, dealers begin ordering
2015 models • What Happens When a Harvard Engineer Gets Robbed? • One dead after lightning strikes crowd at • TV Crew Claims They Were Attacked By Ghosts • A
15-year-old Japanese schoolgirl was arrested Sunday on suspicion of murdering a
classmate and dismembering her body, local media reported • • Want a Girlfriend 45+? No
games. Just real women looking for a faithful guy. • A
Pakistani mob killed a woman member of a religious sect and two of her
granddaughters after a sect member was accused of posting blasphemous material
on Facebook, police said Monday, the latest instance of growing violence against
minorities. • • Sudanese woman sentenced to death for being
Christian freed, en route to U. S ... Thank
you, our young people. Amen. Give the Lord a praise. I couldn’t do that justice. So,
here we are, 2014. What is the message
for all of this scenario? Quite simply,
Jesus saves. John 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh
profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they
are life. “Well,
Brother Parrish,” some might say, “you know, that really was a nice message back
when I first got saved, you know, that whole ‘Jesus saves’ type thing, but I am
at a different place in my life today; I can't be touched by the same old
message. I need something new and
fresh.” Somebody else might say, “That
was fine some time ago, but I’ve got some powerful issues, and I need a
powerful message.” And someone else
might say, “You know, that message, ‘Jesus saves,’ yeah, it’s a nice message,
but it’s a nice message for all the goody two shoe people. It’s a nice message for all them sanctified,
sanctimonious people that never have any real
problems. That is a message for
them: Jesus saves.” You might say, “I have real problems in my
life, and I need real answers. I have,
because of this economic downturn, II lost my job. O my job is being threatened; they cut my
hours. My business don’t have the
business I used to.” I was talking to my
barber, and I wondered, “Man, there’s not as full as it used to be.” He said, “Well, the guys are wearing their
hair in braids, and long dreadlocks, they’re wearing these hairstyles where
they don’t go to a barber, and the other guys, they’re shaving their head
completely, so they don’t need a barber either.” That’s why my barber says this whole thing
has caused a downturn to him. Some
people might say, “Well, my money don’t go as far as it used to, because gas
prices and every other price has gone up so much. My check has gone up, maybe a little bit, but
the price of everything else has gone up more.”
Somebody else might say, “I got some real problems; I need some real
kind of help with my children.” Or, like
you said, Brother Andy, “…with my marriage.
I need real help. This ‘Jesus saves’
stuff just doesn’t seem to go the distance.” Jesus saves.
Somebody else might say, “I'm sick,” or, “I'm hurt. I’m really, really hurt. I’m hurt by people, I’m hurt in my body. I’m hurt.”
Somebody else might say, which is what I’ve heard so much lately, “I'm just
confused. I don’t have the assurance
that I thought I would have by this time in my life. I’m just confused, and, frankly, I just don’t
know.” Our
Lord and Savior told us something very, very profound, at the place of Lazarus’
tomb. He knew Lazarus was dead without
Him even being there. He knew he was
sick, of course, but the Bible says that He knew he was dead without anybody
telling Him. As He went there, to visit
the tomb of Lazarus, Mary and Martha, of course, came out to meet Him. Martha said, “If You would have been here, my
brother wouldn’t have died. He turned to
her and said, "I am the life and the resurrection, he that believe in me
though he were dead yet shall he live." (John 11:25) And then He asked her a question, “Do you
believe? Do you believe this? Do you believe that I am the life and the
resurrection?” Though, it might be that
your situation is unto death, though it looks like death is on is way, you
shall live. You shall have victory in
this situation, if you believe this. Do
you believe this? And that, of course,
is another study that it would be wonderful for our Bible study teachers to
teach on sometime. But the truth of the
whole matter is that Jesus does save.
Those simple words: Jesus
saves. “Oh, yeah, He’ll save us.” Not just your soul. And, as if saving your soul wasn’t
enough. Think of a situation that you
could be in—I was talking to a brother; I’ve seen prayer after prayer after
prayer not only in my life be answered, but I know we got some witnesses in the
house today that prayer changes things in your life. God will answer prayer, yes. The message is, ‘Jesus saves.’ He will save you, I don’t know—I had an
opportunity; I talked to two brothers in the last, I’ll say three weeks. One of them said that the housing market has
nearly destroyed the value of his house; don’t know what to do. I know we had prayer about it. Recently, he told me, just recently he told
me, :Man, did God come through. Oh, they
cut my takes!” Tell me that’s not a
miracle. “And, somewhere along the line,
they gave me a refund.” Hallelujah for
Jesus. You mean the city gave up some
money? The government gave you some
money back? Ain’t nobody but God can do
that! The other brother told me, “I’m
looking for a job. I’m just looking for
a job. I’m looking for employment. Another brother prayed for him and with him;
I was a witness; I joined in the prayer.
It wasn’t three days that the brother turned around and said, “Man, I
got several job offers, I got to wonder which one I got to take.” Because God comes through. The message is, ‘Jesus saves.” Yes, we are supposed to be witnesses of His
glory and of His power. If
I could go through a little but of history, right quick: There was the whole Children of Israel
thing. I don’t know if we have anyone of
the Jewish faith, anyone of Jewish birth, today, but, if you are, this might be
a little familiar, and, if you’re not, this will be great education to go
by. The Captivity Of Somewhere
around 2050 years before the birth of Christ, they call it ‘BCE,’ somewhere
around there was the time of Abraham.
Somewhere around 1500 BCE, before the birth of Christ, there was that
time of being delivered from So
here it is: 4000 years of their history. The death, burial and resurrection. So, if you died before the Lord’s
resurrection, you died in hope. You had
the promise that He was going to get you.
If you died after His resurrection, then, hallelujah, all you know then
is that Jesus saves. Well,
what about the Gentiles? We talked all
that about the Jews, what about the Gentiles? Pick a time. Pick a time.
Go to the Iron age, go to the bronze age, or the brass or the copper
age, go to the Revolutionary War, or the French Revolution, or go to the
renaissance, go to the reformation, go to the middle ages, go to the dark ages,
go to any point in time, and the message is the same: Jesus saves.
If it was before the death, burial, and resurrection, you had a
hope. You had a promise that He was
going to get you. If it was after, it
was the same message it is today: Jesus
saves. John 10:10 The thief cometh
not, but for to steal , and to kill , and to destroy: I am come that they might
have life, and that they might have it more abundantly. Yes,
our Lord has come to give us life, and He’s come to give us life that we may
have it more abundantly. I don’t know
anybody who can talk about who can talk about their life before, and their life
after—who really got saved, who
really stayed saved—I don’t know anybody who can say, or who has said, “You
know, I had it better in the world, than I do in Jesus.” I don’t know anybody—I’ve known people that
have maybe left the Lord, and gone back to the world, and they say, “Man, I
wish I had never made the step, because now I can’t get back into it. My life has been in shambles.” But, even then, it’s the same message: Jesus saves.
He has come to bring that life that we could have it more abundantly. Abundantly where? abundantly in my heart;
abundantly in my mind; abundantly in my family, just yielded over to Him; abundantly
on my job; abundantly when I walk across the street; abundantly when I meet a
stranger; abundantly for a brother or a sister; abundantly in my worship;
abundantly when I read His Word. He has
come that we might have it more abundantly.
Thank You, Lord. Point 2: The Lord Isn't Leaving Anybody Out We’re
going to go through three scriptures very quickly. So, what about those people who didn’t
know—I’ve heard people say, “Well, what about people all over the world before
Jesus came that weren’t Jews, and didn’t know about it? How could they be saved? Romans 2:14 For when the Gentiles, which have not the
law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law,
are a law unto themselves: That
is the Word. The Lord isn’t leaving
anybody out. He puts a conviction in our
life to do what’s right. Yes,
this is New Testament, but it’s after the death, burial, and resurrection: Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation
hath appeared to all men, Grace
has appeared to everybody; young and old, this grace got everybody
covered. “Well, I made a mistake.” You’re covered. “Well, I didn’t really get into it like I
should.” You’re covered. “Well, I feel like I’ve been lifted up and
God’s been giving me more and more.”
You’re covered. “I’m going to have fellowship. I don’t know what’s going on; I’m going to
meet a brother. I just hope God does
something.” You’re covered. “Well, you know, I haven’t been able to do
this or do that for so long, and I wonder what would happen if I just took the
opportunity to get back into it.” You’re
covered. You’re covered. Whatever the situation is, the grace of God
hat brings salvation has got you covered.
It has appeared, so it comes on us, all we have to do is reach for it,
because it has appeared to all men.
Lastly, if you don’t know how covered you are: Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. Somebody
ever do something for you, and you could tell that they had the wrong
motive? They were just trying to get
something; in their mind, they figured, “If I give you this, then you owe me that.” Somebody ever do
something for you, and you find out later, “Hey, you know what? that was kind
of underhanded. You led me astray the
whole time. You bamboozled me. I was led astray. I was hoodwinked.” Or, anybody ever do something halfway? Halfway for you. They know you’ve got a need, and they know
you’re struggling, and they give you half of what you need, and, “Now you’re on
your own.” Our Lord has got that
covered, He said that you don’t have to worry about that with Him. That might be in this life, but that is not
in God’s life. He says, “I have loved thee
with an everlasting love.” You know,
when I was in school I learned something.
We read this book—I wasn’t much for reading all them kooky books they
had when I was in school—but this book talked about this guy and this girl, and
how this guy really loved this girl… He
was an older guy; she was a younger girl.
He loved her, and then she found somebody that she loved more, and he
was happy that she found somebody that she could love more than him. I thought that was kind of kooky. Hey, if you’re going to be in love, it’s all
about ME! The teacher was trying to say,
she said, “Well, there is a selfish
love, and then there is a selfless
love. A love that yourself doesn’t have
to be intertwined, that you see the betterment of the person that you love. You’re doing it for them, not so that you can
get something from them.” I thought that
was interesting; it didn’t land for years.
I thought, “I don’t know what this selfless love is; I don’t even know
nobody that’s got that kind of love.
But, okay, I’ll tuck it away, and, maybe when I’m older it will come to
me.” Yes, when I got older, I heard
about this selfless love; this One who so loved us that He gave His only
begotten Son that, whosoever would believe in Him should not perish but have
everlasting life (John 3:16). Yeah, I
heard about, I learned about the true, selfless love, that, from the very
beginning, He sent us a promise to have us come back to Him. Selfless love; the true selfless love. Point 3 : God Is Looking To Save Us Revelation 3:20-22 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my
voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he
with me. To him that overcometh will I
grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down
with my Father in his throne. He that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. So,
the Lord stands at the door and He knocks, He says. He doesn’t try to barge in; He doesn’t come
in without permission, or without invitation.
Stands at the door and knocks, and, you know, it would be easy to say,
“Oh, well, you know, I was born again.”
For me, it was back in 1983. “I
was born again years ago. Yes, I
remember when God stood at the door, and He knocked on the door to my heart.” But the story doesn’t end there. He didn’t just knock on my door in 1983, for,
surely He had been knocking for years before, before I opened the door, but He
knocked on the door this morning.
“Parrish, if you’ll open up the door, I’ll come in, and we’ll sup
together.” He knocked on my door last
night: “Parrish, if you’ll open up the
door, I’ll come in, and we’ll sup together.”
He knocked on my door yesterday at men’s fellowship. He knocked at our door all last week. Was it in the morning? was it in the
afternoon? Was it in the evening? Was it in the nighttime? Yes! Yes!
It was in the morning when he knocked, and He knocked in the afternoon;
He knocked at some real inconvenient times, that He would just give a
blessing. You ever get a blessing that
wasn’t planned? God just hit you with a
thought, or He hit you with a touch of His Spirit, just to let you know, “Oh,
son or daughter, I love you! I love
you!” Or, just giving you an
understanding that you didn’t have before, when you might have been at the gas
station, or on the phone, or ding whatever. God just comes in—even in the inconvenient
times—He wants you to have it. He stands
at the door and knocks, yes, all day, throughout the day, so that we can open
up and we can sup, so He can give to us, He can feed us at His table, because
Jesus is in the saving business, and He’s looking to save us. Our Lord doesn’t leave anybody out; not
before, not during, not after, because that grace that bringeth salvation hath
appeared to all men. That God of the
angels, that God of all creation, of the universe, even, treats us so special
that He says, “It’s you that I want to sustain.
It’s you that I want in this situation—I don’t want you not to go through it.” I’m not praying that He would keep you out
of it, but that He would keep you from the evil, that He would give you the
victory in the middle. Then you can say,
not, ‘God kept me from that one,”
but, “God kept me in that one. Not just around
the valley, but in the valley. Yeah, through
the valley, God kept me.” I don’t know
about a God that can’t—“you know, I’m kind of”—what do you call it when you’re
kind of halfway in and halfway out?—agnostic. “I’m not atheist, I’m agnostic. I’m just kind of doubting this whole God
thing.” I’ll say, “You’re not agnostic;
you’re rebellious! All you have to do is
just give God a chance. Just give Him a
chance, because He is standing at the door and knocking, and that is without
reservation.” Yes, He’ll be knocking
throughout the day today, to give you according to the great blessings that He
has for each and every one of us. Yes,
saints of God, Jesus saves. Back to that
one in Jeremiah; closing with this Scripture: Jeremiah 31:3 The LORD hath
appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting
love: [His love ain’t about to run out on us.] therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee. I
have called thee, and I am pulling you to Me.
The fact of the matter is, in 2014, Jesus saves. Amen.
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