“Say
It Loud; Say It Like You Mean It” By Ken Avellino May 6th,
2018
Thanks Parrish. You know, in the eighth grade,
I think there's a hundred eighty days a year of school, of those one
hundred
and eighty days, I think one-seventy-eight of those I was in the
principal's
office. The other one I was sick, and the other one was a field day.
But, every
time I was in the principal's office, the question always came out,
“Young man,
who do you think you are?” and, then when I would get in trouble at
home, my
mother's favorite was either that, or, “Who died and left you boss?”
and I
would always give the answer, “I don't know,” or, “nobody,” but, I said
all
that to say who God is. And, as we read the Scriptures, and Jesus asked
his
disciples, “Who do men say that I am?” There is power in what you say.
There is
power when you verbally, you confess Jesus Christ being Savior. Now,
sometimes,
not where our mouths, but with our actions, we say He's just another
man. And,
yet, we've been baptized in his name, we’re following Christ, we’re
confessing
him, but, yet, in our actions, sometimes, we slide off, and He becomes
just
another man, a prophet, He becomes John the Baptist. So we have to
consciously,
every day, say who He is; He is the Christ, the son of the Living God.
There is
power in saying it, not just thinking it. You know, sometimes you’re
just
thinking, and you can get distracted, but sometimes you really have to
claim
it. Every day, when you wake up, you have to claim it. You know, Jesus
said to
Peter, “Lovest thou Me?” and he said, “Yes, Lord, I love you.” Then,
“Feed my
sheep.” And, then, he said it again, and He said, “Feed my Lambs.”, and
then He
said, “Feed my sheep.” Now, I would think, after a while, that every
day, when
Peter woke up, the first thing that would hit his head, his mind, he
would say,
“I love you Lord; I'm going to feed your sheep.” Now, we have to
consciously, every
day, say, “God, You are my God. You are my Savior. I'm following you.”
Because—Parish,
you almost preached my message this morning—there's so many things that
come at
us, every single day, to knock us off track. That's Satan's job.
So, I want to start with the title to the
message, “Say It Loud; Say It Like You Mean It.” Say it. And, say it
often.
There seems to be so much more power when I say something, or confess
something. I'll say, “God—” and I'm going to give you an example: the
other
day, I was having a meltdown day, a tough day, people were calling, I
couldn't
get things done, the people I was working with weren't cooperating. I
felt like
my head was going to explode, I felt weak, I felt tired. And, I was
driving out
to Fox Lake, and I gave it to God. I gave it to God. I didn't just say,
“I'm
going to give it to you God.” Three times, I screamed as loud as I
could, “God,
I'm giving this to You! Take it from me, because I can't do it
anymore!” When you
say things to God, say it often, say it loud, set clear, say it like
you mean
it, and constantly say it. Because, if it's just one time, or if it's
just a
glancing, “Okay, God, I need this,” and get back to what you were doing
it's
not going to have the power. Now, Jesus said, “Every knee shall bow,
and every
tongue shall confess.” I want to say it now, and bow my knee, now,
where God
can use me and I can use that power for His glory and to accomplish
things in
my life. To save me from trouble, when I get in trouble, when things
are
difficult for me. I don't want to say it at the end when it's too late.
I want
to say it now, “God, you're my God; You are the Lord of my life.” My
first Scripture
is going to be from Revelation, chapter five, and verse twelve, and it
says: Revelation 5:12
Saying [and there’s that word
‘saying’ again] with a loud voice, [and
this is the Angel speaking] Worthy is the
Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and
strength, and
honour, and glory, and blessing. So,
we have that opportunity, too, when we say
it loud, and we say it clear, God gives us that blessing. The more we
say it,
the more we believe it. You know, even teams do that. They have to say
it; they
have to psych themselves up. And, not that this is psyching yourself
up, but
it's keeping it conscious, to the forefront of your mind. Jeremiah,
twenty-nine,
twelve; it says: Jeremiah 29:12-13 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go
and pray unto
me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me,
when ye
shall search for me with all your heart.
Many times I used to say the sinner's prayer
before I got saved, “God save me.” And, I knew it was right. And, I was
confessing that Jesus was the son of God. But, until I sought God with
a whole
heart, I was able to answer that Scripture, and say “Thou art of the
Son of
God.” But, until then, I was pretty much like the rest of the world.
He's just
a prophet, He's just John the Baptist. And, then, there was no power in
my
life. But, when I said, “Jesus, I believe that you are the Son of God,”
now, I
received power to become the son of God. I know who I am, because I
know who He
is. I know who my confidence is. Instead of the confidence being in me,
my
confidence is in God, and what God can do for me, and what God can do
through
me. And, that God can save me from my sins; I couldn't do that for
myself. I
tried to stop the things that I was doing, but God did it for me when I
got
baptized in His name. Because I say who God is, I'm able to do things
that I
never thought I could do. Being up here right now is really not my
favorite
thing to do. I like to say things very blunt, very short, get to the
point, and
get out. And, then, just leave you there saying, “What did he just say?
Wow!” So,
when you seek God with a whole heart you will find Him. And, when you
find Him you
will understand what that Scripture means. Now, we’re focusing on
saying,
confessing, and the power of that. And, we're talking in the Scripture
we just
read, “Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb...” That Lamb that
died for
us, that took our place, that no man can do. God had to do it himself,
He had
to come down, He had to show us. Now, sometimes, we have to say it for
others
around us, but sometimes God just wants to hear it from our very mouth,
and sometimes
God just wants to hear it, so that we
can hear what we're saying, so that we’re conscious of it, so that it's
totally
embedded in our hearts and in our minds. By saying it, “Thou art
Christ, the
son of the Living God.” So, Matthew, ten, verse thirty-two. It says: Matthew 10:32-33
Whosoever
therefore shall confess me before men, him will
I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whosoever shall
deny me
before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.
I want to confess that Jesus is the Son of God
every minute of every day. I don't want to go off track, because if I
go off
track, things change. I fall. I don't recognize the power that’s around
me, and
I become slack. I have to be diligent with God's word; I have to
verbally say
it—and maybe y'all don't have to say it as often as I do, but I have to
say it
every day, every minute. Otherwise I'll be distracted, I'll fall, I'll
get
lazy. I can get pretty lazy, believe it or not. Most people that know
me, know
I never stop moving, but I can get spiritually lazy, if I don't allow
God to reign
in my life. #9:55#
Another Scripture that I was thinking about
was Matthew 8, verse 8. Now this was the Centurion, and he said to Him,
“Lord
I'm not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof: but speak the
word only...”
How much faith did that man have to say, “speak the word only?” And,
that's
what I really wanted to get across today. Speak the word. “God, what is
Your will
for my life?” Speak the miracle, if you need a healing, if you need
strength,
if you need to learn, seek God. You know, a lot of us have said before,
I'll
get saved when I'm good enough. I'll get saved when I know enough of
the Bible.
But, it's not like that; you have to let God reign first. You have to
confess Him
first. You have to recognize that He's the Lamb of God that was slain
for your
sins, and you have to constantly love God with all your heart, soul,
mind, and
strength, because God first loved us. You know, God said, in the
beginning, “Let
there be light.” God spoke that. And we have to speak things. God spoke
to
Moses to Moses speak to the Rock. We have to speak. Jesse, you have to
speak every
day, and say, “I'm going to walk again.” Otherwise, you're not going to
walk
again. So, we have to, every day, seek God with all our heart, all our
soul. We
have to, you know, we have to seek God like it’s the last day on earth. We don’t have the promise of tomorrow. You
know, yesterday, I was talking to a friend
of mine, and, he's getting divorced. And I said, what are you going to
say to
your son when he calls you—he’s eight years old--and he says, “Dad
where are
you? When are you coming home?” And he'll be crying. You won't have an
answer,
and the reason you won't have an answer—and he says, you know, I've
been to counseling,
and that's kind of bogus; it really didn't do me any good.” And I said,
“That's
because Christ is not the center of your life. If He's just a man, and
if He's
just a prophet, and if you just know of Him casually… You know if
you're an
atheist, you don't have to do anything, you don't have to be
accountable for
anything, but if you say Jesus is the Son of God, there's a lot of
accountability that goes with that. For the sake of others, but also
for the
sake of yourself, for your own life. In Acts eight verse thirty-seven—I
love this
scripture—it says: Acts 8:37
And Philip
said, If thou believest with all thine heart,
thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son
of God.
So, when you say that you believe that Christ
is the Son of God, and you get baptized in His name, you know the
difference of
the right and the wrong. You know the difference between religion, you
know the
difference—just the, I don't want to have just a little bit of
religion, I want
to have God's fullness, and His presence, I want to recognize that He
is the
Son of God. I don't want to have just a little bit of religion, I don't
want a
little bit of—you know, a watered-down Coke. You know, you put some ice
in it
and all of a sudden the fizz is gone; then it tastes lousy. I want it
fresh. I
want God's word fresh in my life, every minute of every day. I want to
be
strong, I want to be ready. And, we all need to be ready to share the
Gospel.
You know, yesterday when I was talking with that guy, I said, “I'm not
going to
hold back, I'm going to tell you everything like it is. I'm not going
to tell
you that it's going to be okay. I'm going to tell you it's going to be
tough,
and there will not be an answer, there will not be comfort. But there's
comfort
when you know God, and you let God reign in your life, and you find
peace, you
will find safety.
Now, in Romans ten, it says if you confess and
you believe in your heart. I confessed and I believed in my heart, many
times,
and I do, still, every day, but when I got baptized, and God took away
my sin—see,
it's hard to get to that Christ the Son of the Living God when you’ve
got sin
standing in your way. And, even today, if I'm not if I'm sinning and
I'm not in
God's will, there's a blockage between me and God, and therefore, He
becomes
just a prophet, He's just John the Baptist, He's Jeremiah, no, I have
to say,
every minute, that He's the Christ, the Son of the Living God. You
know, and I'm
going to say this in closing, because, it's Mother's Day month: Andrew,
if you
give your wife something for Mother's Day, and you take her out for
dinner—I’m
going to get some soup out of this, later on, Sonia’s going to make
some soup,
she always does, she always takes care of me, especially when Abbey or
I are
sick—and you're going to buy her something, your wife something for
Mother's
Day, and we're all going to give our Mothers a card, but, if we don't
say, “I
love you,” it doesn't have the impact, as much as it does—a gift is
great, and do
it, and a card is great, but calling your mom, and saying, “I love
you,” to
hear those words, “Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living God.” Jesus
wanted
them to know it. He didn't really need to hear it for Himself; He
already knows.
But, sometimes He just wants you to hear it, like Peter, He wanted him
to hear
it. And, our spouses, our mothers, our brothers and sisters in the
congregation, need to hear that you love them, you appreciate them,
that God
loves them, that God can do it. You know, even sometimes, I say to my
grandson
Daniel, “Daniel, you're an Avellino.” And I'll say, “Suck it up, and
take it
like a man.” So, and we say, “Thou art Christ, the Son of the Living
God.” We
have to say it. We have to say it often, we have to say it loud, we'll
have to
say it clear, we have to say it like we mean it, and we have to say it
because
it's the truth. God bless you. Thank you for this opportunity.
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