By REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
(Transcribed by Myra D. Colgate)
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
Read Hebrews 12:1-6
The Lord is good to us. Our new carpet is going down this week, and I appreciate your enthusiasm this morning. Praise the Name of the Lord!
I’m going to begin at Hebrews 12, Verse 1 and end at Verse 6 that declares these Words…”so great a cloud of witnesses. Hallelujah!” Be seated.
I want to deal with a couple of issues today that the Lord has placed in my heart, because the Truth is, everybody’s going to go through some mischief in our world and of the world from the enemy. Trouble that comes through our own making and the scourging, if you will, of the Lord, these are realities for everyone whether you are saved or not. Somebody should say “Amen,” three times.
Speaking on this head, but it is a Truth in the Word of God, that He “rains on the just and the unjust.” Everybody has issues and troubles, but I’m not like everybody else and neither are you in this regard that when trouble comes, I am not alone. I don’t deal with it by myself. I don’t have to go through it with angst and issue. Why? Because I have the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. He’s on my side. I need you to realize this morning, that you can go through what you’re going to go through. I much would rather do it with Him. Amen. I don’t know about you, but I know about me and that is this, that when trouble comes, I want to immediately run to the Lord because I found out that He really is a Shield and Buckler, the High Tower we can run into and be safe. He is the One Who comes along beside me and carries and keeps me. Amen.
I don’t know how the world does it on their own! How do they go through what they have to go through without the Lord? I don’t know how they can make it? Not well, I might add, but this I know that whatever comes my way, the Lord already knew it was coming. This I know that before He got me, He already had a plan and this I know that if I will trust Him, He will carry me through it and bring me out with more than what I had when I went into it. Amen. Yes, that’s right.
Now, I said this early on because the Truth is, there are three kinds of problems to face. There’s the mischief that the world wants to put people through. It’s been spoken of time and time again. Just being honest, the world hates Christians. It’s becoming more and more prevalent in our own country and all around us. The fact is, the world hates God’s people. Yeah, but we have another problem. We have an enemy, too! That’s the devil and the fact of the matter is, he hates us, too.
So, we have mischief from the world and the trouble from hell that comes in our direction from sickness and poverty and on and on. and we say, “well what chance do we have?” Especially, when we also read God knows how to send us some trouble, too. Come on now… H-m-m-m-m. See, we know He doesn’t send us a little trouble in our life, just so he can teach us some things from it. How many of you realize He sends us some things, so they can be used as challenges through which we can learn to overcome as we are given them, to strengthen us? Also, when one has children and they were growing up in one’s home, it becomes one’s job to train them and teach them. Sometimes a switch is brought out, or the spoon, the flip-flop, whatever we have used. One can bring a little trouble to correct a whole lot of trouble the enemy may have wanted to bring in a little later on. Now, we all know that can be right.
But we need to ask ourselves these questions. Is it the mischief of the world that the world wants to put us through? Or is it that these problems which come because we also have an enemy from hell and can make us realize we all need a Savior, especially one who can shield, protect and keep us through whatever comes our way. Or, is our trouble coming to us by our own actions or our own mouths? We must determine to answer each question carefully.
To be continued….
