“A Yielded Vessel” By General Pastor Peter F. Paine Sunday, January 17th,
2010 We are formed in the image of God, but the reality is that we grow to do things our own way. The question I have for you today is, “Are you a yielded vessel or a stubborn soul?” I want to be a yielded vessel. When God says stop,. I want to stop; when God says go, I want to go; when God says turn left, I want to turn left… Acts
10
Cornelius prays down an angel, who tells him
to send to
Joppa for Peter… Notice that Cornelius wasn’t able to do this in secret: Everybody was going to know that he was sending for Peter. Also notice that Cornelius had a pretty impressive resume in the first two verses of the chapter, but the angel told him that Peter would tell him what he ought to do. I would imagine that Cornelius would have felt justified in saying that maybe he had some things to teach Peter. Also notice that it says that Cornelius was afraid. It’s okay to be afraid, but it’s not okay to be locked up in fear. Cornelius said, “What is it, Lord?” When you say, “What is it, Lord," you are setting yourself up to be a yielded vessel. It says that Cornelius and the gentiles that were with him received the gift of the Holy Ghost. If this were a message about tongues, I would tell you that tongues are a gift to the body, and that gift should stay in the body. Some of you may think that this message is mean-spirited. Some of you may think that I’m being a bully. I’m not the One that you have to answer to. If you don’t like me, that’s okay; I’m not the One that you will have to face in judgment. Romans
12:1-2
…a living sacrifice… One of my brothers has a really odd habit: If you say, “Have a nice day!” to him, he’ll say, “Don’t tell me what kind of a day to have!” If you ask him what kind of a day he plans to have, he’ll say, “Oh, I plan on having a nice day, but I want it to be my idea.” In the last year, some of you have an ongoing battle with God, and you finally gave up, and then you wondered why you waited so long. Reading Romans 12:1-2, it talks about what it is considered your “reasonable service.” Some of you are thinking, “If that’s reasonable service, then I sure don’t want to go the extra mile. What would that even look like?” This last year, when we put up Christmas decorations, I went out to the sidewalk in front of our house to look at them. I noticed that none of the houses on our block had any reference to Jesus; there were no nativity scenes, or Jesus spelled out in lights, even our house. I couldn’t let that go, so I went back in the house to find something to remind people of the reason for the season. I found an angel, so I put that out. Every time when we came home after that, I would point out the angel. How do you renew your mind? Ken Avellino works on boats; sometimes boats need renewing. Sometimes it’s just a coat of paint, but sometimes it’s a lot of work. Philippians
4:8
…think on these things. You have to work at it. I’m 55 years old; how many of you would be surprised to hear that I’ve had a lustful thought? How about a selfish thought? A stubborn thought? We’re human beings; if we’re not careful, all of us will be stubborn souls. Not everyone, not even everyone who knows that Jesus is the Messiah, want Him to be Lord. If you can love me, and you know that I’ve made mistakes, why can’t you believe that God can love you? We have to learn how to let God forgive us. Do you think that it was easy for Apostle Paul, knowing that he was Saul the Pharisee before? I’m sure that Paul regretted the things that he had done as Saul. You can’t change yesterday, whether you were the hero or the villain. You can hear, “Well done,” or, “Depart from me.” Acts
2:38
…remission of sins… Matthew
28:19
…teach all nations…
The devil would
like to beat you up for your past mistakes, even the ones that God has
forgiven
you of long ago. I’m
embarrassed to even
tell you this, but when I was a boy, my aunt gave me some money, I
think it was
five dollars, to ride my bicycle to the store to but a present for my
cousin,
her daughter, a birthday present, and bring her back the change. The party was to be that
evening, and my aunt
just hadn’t had time to go shop. When
I
got to the store, I found something that I wanted for about three
dollars,
which meant I still had two dollars to buy my cousin a gift. Let that junk go, so that
you can let
yourself go to get your mind right. Jeremiah
29:11
I know the thoughts
that I think towards you…
God
wants to bring you to an expected end.
He wants us to have peace. Romans
12:1-2
…a living sacrifice… It’s up to you: You can be a yielded vessel or a stubborn soul. Choose to be a yielded vessel, living for God from the inside out. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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