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weekly sermon 10-25-09
On A Scale From 1 To 10
I believe that of all the emails I receive, one has become the most sent email of them all. One email above all has become the one that folks seem to be talking about most, the one they feel the strongest in, yet the one that most know the least about. The email that I am talking about is how the Ten Commandments have been removed from the public.
This message will be a little different than any that has ever been posted here. The Lord has led me to post those Commandments on my site. The general population that does not want the Commandments posted, will never be able to keep them away from the rest of the public.
Exodus 20:2-17, "I [am] the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (3)Thou shalt have no other gods before me. (4)Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth: (5)Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me; (6)And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (7)Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. (8)Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. (9)Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: (10)But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates: (11)For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it. (12)Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (13)Thou shalt not kill. (14)Thou shalt not commit adultery. (15)Thou shalt not steal. (16)Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour. (17)Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour's."
Well there they are folks, the Ten Commandments. How is it that we can truly believe that a small population of non believers would ever be able to take the Commandments out of the hearts of the public.
A woman back in the 1960's fought and took prayer out of public schools, or did she?. Do not get me wrong, what she did was a terrible thing, was a great injustice to our great God, and was an injustice to the Christian population. Now almost 40 years later, this same small population, has made it to where the Ten Commandments must be removed from the general population, or have they? Once again do not get me wrong, what this small population has done is a terrible injustice to the rest of the public, especially the Christian community.
Why did I ask, 'did she', or, 'have they', when I spoke about the removal of prayer and the Commandments? I asked those questions because I want us to truly understand if those items were ever truly removed. Yes they do not allow prayer in school and yes, the Commandments have been removed from many public grounds, but, have they really removed prayer and the Commandments from the public.
To truly answer my question we must first ask one very important question. What is the public? The answer to that question is, WE ARE THE PUBLIC.
Did Madeline Ohare take prayer from you? Did the ACLU take the Ten Commandments from you?
Why did I state that the most popular email is one that most know the least about? I made this statement because, in my opinion, folks are focusing their energies in the wrong direction.
Do we truly want to see the Commandments raised up in our country's population? Do we really want to see prayer come back to this country's population like never before? Well, we are the public, we are this country's population. All the questions I have asked can be answered with one simple answer. The ACLU can not remove something from us we do not want removed, Madeline Ohare can not remove something we do not want removed. Yes these items have been removed from the sight of the general public, but they will never be removed from us.
Christ does not live in our schools, Christ does not live in our court houses, and Christ does not live in our public buildings, Christ lives in our hearts.
If we truly want to bring prayer back in our schools, then we need to understand that it starts within each and every one of us. If we truly want the Ten Commandments back in our public buildings, then they must start within us.
The thing that most folks do not understand is that WE are the prayer in school and WE are the Ten Commandments on those walls and monuments. The only way we will ever lose that is if WE decide to lose it.
If we live our lives daily in prayer and honestly obey every commandment in the Ten Commandments, then we could potentially see an uprising in this country that has never been seen in our life times.
The reason I stated that the email was one that was most misunderstood by most folks is because most folks do not want to follow the Commandments fully. Many folks love the Bible, prayer, and the Commandments, as long as it is for their benefit. I am here to tell you, that is NOT how it works. You either believe every word that Bible has to say, or you believe none of it. You either believe that prayer to God truly works, or you do not believe any of it. And finally, you either believe every word of the Ten Commandments, and obey them, or you believe none of them.
You so called 86% of the population, proclaiming to be Christians, that are being defeated by the 14%, who claim they are not Christians, are not fighting the proper fight. Tell me why it is that one, count them, ONE, person, (David), can defeat an army of giants when he was but a teen, yet an army of millions are losing a battle to an army of thousands? The answer is in the weapons used.
David used the power of Almighty God to defeat many. We, being the 86%, are attempting to use our own powers. This should show us one major thing, no matter how many we are in numbers, we will still submit to the power and ruling of a Greater and Mightier God.
Let us start living the prayers we pray, let us start living the Commandments we are attempting to keep posted in our country, and let us start living by the words we read in that Bible we so badly want made readily available in our country. Once we figure out we are to live by the words we preach our country will be in the place we have always wanted.
We live here in our country thinking that, oh my she took prayer away from us, that, oh wow they have taken away our Commandments. They have not taken anything that you do not want taken. We are prayer and we are the Commandments, live them and show this 14% that prayer and Christianity will NEVER go away. I do not care if they tuck it away in a closet, we will stand tall and let our light shine. Your light is only put under a bush if you want it there, not because they want it there.
Yes, I understand that Christians are outraged because these things are happening around us. We are outraged because our country is losing it's religious freedom. We want to fight back because we do not want to lose our rights. To some extent we are as much to blame. If we lived the way God wanted us to live, then our country would be a Christian country. Most Christians have backslid and are not living for Christ or our country would not be in the shape it is in today. To solve our country's problems, let us start living for God and raising a family of Christians that will bring our country back to it's feet, where it should be.
Now can we see that even though they may have taken prayer out of school, or the Commandments out of the public buildings, they have not truly taken anything away from us, other than our right of public display. Do we really want that right back? Then let us start living the way we should be living and God WILL give it back. Do we really want God in our country? Then let us show HIM that WE want HIM back.
It is not up to the ACLUs or the Madeline Ohares to bring God back to us, it us up to us to get back to God, and He will be where He has always been, right here.
To truly live for God and be the Christian you are really wanting to be, all you have to do is say a simple prayer with me.
Say this simple prayer with me, Dear Lord, I want you to be the Lord over my life, forgive me of my sins, and give me the gift of everlasting life. Amen.
If you have said this simple prayer, then we believe that you have received salvation. We would love to rejoice with you, so please drop us a note, in our link, to let us know and confess Jesus before man, so that we may send you a few things that we hope will help you in your new Christian walk.
With Love in Christ, Pastor Stone
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