Pastors Garage Aug 23rd, 2019

I feel like I need to start this pastors garage off with a apology! Last week I was listening to the message I gave on July 28th. Yup, I listen to my own messages! Not out of vain admiration of my speaking ability I assure you! Probably more because I’m not even sure what I actually said and want to work at becoming a better speaker. It was something I said to the children at the beginning of the service that I feel I need to apologise about! I told them that God being a good father would never lead them anywhere that could possibly hurt them. Is that true? Tell that to Paul and Silas in prison! Tell that to John exiled by himself on a island! Tell that to Peter crucified upside down! Tell that to the millions of Christians who have been martyred for their faith and the many who suffer in the world today for professing faith in Jesus Christ! Tell that to Jesus Christ as He hung on a cross! Does that make God a bad father? On the contrary, John 3:16 say’s “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life!” He also loves the world so much that He’s willing to call other children, ones like those mentioned above, ones like you and me, to give up their own lives, even to the point of death, so that others could believe and have eternal life! I have a problem with prosperity gospel! I don’t see it played out in scripture. Jesus never promised it’d be easy, in fact He promised the opposite. We would be persecuted for our faith, forsaken by our own families, called to sacrificial giving, even that of our own lives! The key to this is that we are not called to this because of begrudging, contractual, forced obligation to our faith, that’s religion! Those mentioned above willingly gave of themselves, even their own lives because they were so gripped by the message of the cross and what God wanted to provide for humanity, they counted it all joy to give their own lives for the glory of the cross!
This week pray for me as I will be sharing what it means to be “Led by the Spirit”, pray for Rachel D as she leads in worship! Just a reminder about the summer “end of the summer concert” at Circle Square ranch with Prairie Joe this evening at 7PM. I’ve never seen them myself, but anyone I have talked too that has says they are pretty amazing and entertaining!

Blessings,
Pastor Mike