By REV. TIMOTHY L. MELTON, PASTOR
(Transcribed by Myra D. Colgate)
Cherokee Pentecostal Holiness Church
Continued from last week… Acts 16:16-34, 2 Corinthians 11:24-33
When God got hold of Paul, everything changed and turned around. Pastor Tim said, “I don’t want to hear from anyone, ‘I’ve gone too far.’ ‘I’ve seen too much.’ ‘I’ve been into too much,’ and ‘Pastor, you don’t know what I’ve done.’
“That’s because I do know what Jesus has done by His dying on that cross of Calvary and that it has also set me free from it all. Yes, Thank You, Lord. I have heard it all in these last years.”
“Well, Pastor Tim, let me get cleaned up, then I’ll come to Jesus.”
“Things’ don’t always work that way. One must come to Him, just like they are with whatever factors are involved, whatever ‘it’ is. He’s willing to help them see how to do the clean-up work necessary for overcoming ‘it’, especially when they are seriously seeking Him. ‘It’ must really need His help to see where and how they can clean up for good. If a person could have done all the work by themselves, they would have already done so. If one could do it all by their self, they probably would have already been trying hard accomplish it, but cannot be really sure ‘it’s’ done as much as is needed. One has to know that each person and He together could have already done ‘it’ for sure. However, why not take care of “it” now? He can and wants to help each listening and hoping person to make this a sure happening in their own life, and before they get much older.” Procrastination or hesitation usually means there is an enemy at work in the “it”, too. Opportunities should always be for “right now”, and He can always make things much easier for everyone.
“Am I doing alright?” We really need each one of us to hear and heed this, because, at the end of the day, there is sitting in your seat, a person who can certainly realize how amazing they are to be and are here for a reason today.
“Oh, not me! Can someone be saying that?”
Yes, I am talking to each one, to every person. Each one of us was made in the Image of God. Even this ole preacher. “How do you know?” This ole preacher tells everyone here and now. If anyone is to be the last one, or the only one, still here, Jesus still would have died on that Cross of Calvary, and just for them, for you, and for me. That old hymn, “When He Was on the Cross, I Was On His Mind” always brings this to my mind.
“Pastor Tim wasn’t always a preacher, so, can I just be honest?” he asked. “I’ve been doing this a long time. I grew up in a good preacher’s home. My Dad’s been preaching in the same church now for over 43 years and is still going strong. Seeing miracles every day, because God is ministering and moving and doing amazing things all over the place. Every weekend now he has begun to go and preach on the streets of Asheville talking with the drug addicts and prostitutes there.
“However, I have found even a good pastor can’t get you there. Only Jesus can. I can only lead a person to Him, I came with a quick message tonight, but a powerful one. All are here because God has a reason for their lives. Amen. Who has been talking to you? Everybody? Why? Because it’s time we get busy doing what it is God has created us to do. Yes, come on in. It’s time to begin to flourish. It’s time to begin to operate in the Anointing of God.”
A question came, “Pastor Tim, where do I start?”
“Start with developing a relationship with God. Amen. We need to be seeing that Christianity is not a religion. I know we’ve all been told that it is. In fact, if a person looks at any application or whatever, it’ll say, What religion are you? I’d like to put “none”, but someone would ask, ‘Aren’t you a Pastor?’ Yes, I am, but what is meant is I am not a partaker of religion, because Christianity is not a religion, it’s all about a relationship with God. Religion says, “I have to do certain things in order to make my God love me, which is why we feel we have to do do the things we do, burn candles and whatever else that is stated is required, right? But the Bible tells me first, He loved us first. A religion is a relationship. If one treats it like a religion it may not ever work right, but when a person considers it as a true relationship, it cannot miss.”
Continued…
