Message Wholeheartedly 07/03/2016 Good Morning Church! It is great to be in the house of the Lord! AMEN! Happy 4 th of July! Our Country is celebrating 230years (This Year) of independence as a free Nation. And I for one am Proud to be an American I am glad that God gave me the opportunity to be born and raised here...in this country. AMEN! And I am forever grateful to all those who have served to defend this country in our military forces and who have put their lives in danger for the sake of MY/OUR freedom. Thank you! I am glad that our forefathers were Men of God who felt, that the way to cultivate a free society was to teach the people who lived here how to keep the highest of moral standards and conduct In our Homes! That they didn t back down from the Tyranny and Oppression of their Faith by the British Government But they stood for what they believed to be right according to the scriptures. They were wholeheartedly committed.
Did you know that in the early years of the United States The Government mailed Bibles to homes in this country? Do you know why they did that? So that Families would have something to read that would help teach them Morality in the family because it was the foundational piece to freedom for our country...to have a good moral compass in the families. What do you suppose would happen if the Government would send Bibles to homes today? My Guess is; If the Government sent Bibles home today they would be attacked by every liberal organization on the face of the planet. Think about that The government would be attacked for bringing a Moral compass to the country that was made great by good moral compass families! And who would they be attacked by? Those who are involved in immorality That s who! See I think that we have lost the basic understanding that immoral behavior is what takes away our freedom and not what keeps it. Because you understand that the more immorality we continue to allow the more Laws and rules there will need to be to protect the immorality of our free Nation.
Yet the More Laws we have the less Freedoms we have. See part of the problem regarding the things we face in this country is that we THINK we can regulate morality by Laws. We THINK we can regulate Sinful actions by making Laws to justify it or control it Well How is that working out church but the truth is, the only way to oppress Sin is to teach why it is wrong for us and the world around us to begin with. I know some of you are thinking, Blah, Blah, Blah, what do I care and what can I really do about it? Well, You can start by standing up for what is right in your own life? And make changes in our own lives that communicate morality. I have a story I want to share with you this morning. Many years ago, When Al Capone virtually owned the City of Chicago. He wasn t famous for anything heroic because He was notorious for filling Chicago with everything evil. But how did he keep himself out of jail? Well that s where his lawyer came into play. Big Al s lawyer was nicknamed Easy Eddie. He was excellent at keeping his boss out of jail and Al Capone paid him well for it. Eddie lived the high life and cared little for what happened around him. His only soft spot was his son. He gave his son everything. He tried to teach him right from wrong.
But Eddie wanted his son to have a better than him. Yet, with all his wealth and influence there were two things he could not pass on to his son: a good name and a good example. Well one day, Easy Eddie reached a difficult decision. He wanted to rectify his wrongs So he decided he would tell the truth about Al Scareface Capone. He wanted to clean up his tarnished name and offer his son a semblance of integrity. To testify against the Mob would cost him a great price, but he testified. Within a year, Easy Eddie s life ended in a blaze of gunfire. In his eyes however, he gave his son the greatest gift he had to offer and it cost him his life. Fast forward a couple of years; World War II produced many heroes. One such was Commander Butch O Hare. He was a fighter pilot assigned to the aircraft carrier Lexington in the South Pacific. One day Butches entire squadron was sent out on a mission. After being airborne, Butch saw that his fuel gauge was low and knew someone had forgotten to top it off. He would not have enough fuel to complete the mission, and was commanded to return, but on his way back he saw a squadron of Japanese fighters headed for the Americans. The American fighters were gone and the fleet was all but defenseless. He couldn t get help in time. He had to divert the enemy from the American fleet So He dove into the formation of Japanese planes. With Wing-mounted 50 calibers guns blazing as he charged in he fired until he was empty and then began clipping their wings with his own plane. The Japanese took off in a different direction and Butch O Hare limped back to his carrier.
Upon arrival he reported in and the film from the gun camera showed the story. He had destroyed five enemy aircraft. This took place on Feb. 20, 1942 and for that action Butch became the first Naval Ace of WW II, and was awarded a congressional medal of honor. A year later at age 29, Butch was killed in action and His home town would not allow his memory to fade, and today, O Hare Airport in Chicago is named in his tribute. And by the way, Butch O Hare was the son of Easy Eddie. It took an incredible amount of integrity on behalf of Easy Eddie to stand up against Al Capone. And all because He knew that His overall influence would be, or could be, the deciding factor as to the directions of His Son s life. Easy Eddie could see the collateral damage to his son that his actions were teaching Butch. It is certainly easy for us to look back over the Stories of Brave men and women who stood up for what was right and just and stand in awe of their heroic efforts to show others But what about us? The story of Jesus Life is a story of heroic proportions. It is the story of God trying to show mankind the Love that He has for each of us. That by sending His son down to die on that cross for the salvation of mankind that He was teaching us the standards of Love and Compassion that love would be the oppressor of Evil.
Church! Seeing the world thru the vision and standards given us in the Bible are not just rules to follow but are character builders for our lives and the lives of our children and communities. And as I look over the time that I have spent here on this earth I often wonder to myself What have I done that would help others to find good Character building qualities for their lives and their families. How have I help my family set boundaries for good moral standards for their families. You know one of the things that I realized early in my life was that in order to be good at anything you need to be all in. You need to be wholeheartedly wanting to be willing to make changes and make sacrifices for the good of yourself and others. Because if you are not wholeheartedly committed then you will allow for Sinful actions to creep in. Easy Eddie knew what he had to do even though he knew it would cost him his life. I have been reading a book called; How to reach Millennials. See I realize that my generation and other generations before me have often been stuck in the generational tides of fads that we grew up in. Even church fads!
And I think that those who came out of the depression era wanted to offer their children more than they had and that the parents and families coming from the 80 s and 90 s expected to have more. And they Did! But the new generations of people in today s world have something that we didn t have! See they have considerably more information than any of the generations before them. And because of this information overload we have cultivated a generation of indecisive and halfhearted people. That sounds worse than I want it to! Nothing derogatory was meant there Millenials. Here is what I mean! The information that is being generated offers a variety of opinions on many times the same topic. Whether it is politics or religion our children are sorting thru the options of public opinions thru social media and with so much information they are choosing to be neutral. And they find that those with strong opinions to one side or the other are too conservative.
This mindset in conjunction with information overload has developed a whole generation of halfhearted followers of anything let alone God. See no longer is the physical front door of the church The Front Door Now the front door of the Church is what is being said about us on social media. And the fact is that 85% of new people attending church have seen or heard about us thru social media first. And here is some statistical proof from our church website! After setting up our Face book page Thank you Carrie our church website was visited by more than three times as many people than it had been before just in the month of May. Instead of 400 site visits it went to 1200 in May alone! Now I know that the first reaction is to say, that is why social media is Satan, it is Evil! And I understand why you would think that, BUT Every generation has had things culturally that they have had to deal with and every generation has thought that it couldn t get worse than the one before. AMEN!
And I am just talking reality! Right! So what do we do? We need to start to teach our children in the homes that there is a Truth and that the Truth was given to us by the creator of the universe by way of the Bible. That We, You and Me!... we need to start teaching others by the example of our own lives the foundational truth s thru our example of wholehearted worship every day. I see people get upset Christian people when the Islamic s bow down three times a day in the streets of New York, Yet many Christians I know never take time to even Pray for their meal in the public restaurants! Why do we always count on everyone else to do the work that God has for us to do! See knowing God and having a personal relationship should not be a secret in our lives; it needs to be a bold statement that people realize when they meet us. We need to have a wholehearted commitment to serving Him with our lives. But when we go home and turn on R rated movies in front of our children when we crack open a cold one, or light up! or make rude cat calls about the opposite sex cuss and swear
like sailors Then you just give validation to the halfhearted as to why they believe the way they believe. We are just buying into and teaching others that it s ok to have a little Sin. It s ok to have a halfhearted commitment! What if Fast Eddie would have said; Well, I ll just tell Butch not to do the things that I have done! That s a halfhearted answer right?...for I don t want to quit Sinning But you should do better. It s a formula that just doesn t work church! See in my mind the best teaching is the example that we set! And I have said it before and I will say it again! I will never ask you to do anything that I am not willing to do myself! But I am also willing to say that I will do something even for the sake of my comfort. Would you? So the question to ask yourself today is have I been willing to give my life Wholeheartedly to Jesus or have I bought into some of Satan s Lies. Just like Satan told Eve in the garden! Surely you will not die if you eat the fruit from the tree? Are you buying into the same belief with the Sinful world!
In the longest Psalm, Psalm 119:73-80New International Version (NIV) 73 Your hands made me and formed me; give me understanding to learn your commands. 74 May those who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I have put my hope in your word. 75 I know, LORD, that your laws are righteous, and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. 76 May your unfailing love be my comfort, according to your promise to your servant. 77 Let your compassion come to me that I may live, for your law is my delight. 78 May the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause; but I will meditate on your precepts. 79 May those who fear you turn to me, those who understand your statutes. 80 May I wholeheartedly follow your decrees, that I may not be put to shame. Is the choices that you have made line up with a Wholehearted follower. Where might you need the most help! All of us need help in different areas of our lives, but some of us are too proud to ask. Will you put down you guarded heart today and ask Jesus to be a part of your life?
We Pray this in Jesus matchless name; And all God s people say! AMEN!