Brother Danny Sanders Sunday Morning 7/3/16

How important is our connection?  It depends on who is calling. 

Rev 3:20  Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.

We cannot hear His voice if we are not connected.  As I look about the world that we live in today, my opinion is that we need to be more connected now than ever before.  There are a lot of things that are going on that would distract and pull upon men and women.

Joh 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

“Hold fast in me.”  We need God. 

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Being connected is important.  It is very necessary to stay connected to God.  It is an important part of any healthy relationship.

When my bride here of 31 years this last April and I were dating, the pickup trucks had a bench seat.  The cab may have been five feet wide.  I would pick her up to go someplace and since my car had bucket seats it was not possible for us to sit next to each other. 

We would see people: one driving and the other sitting clear on the other side of the truck.  There was a lot of real-estate between them.  I didn’t want her to be clear over there; I wanted her right beside me.  I told her, “Let’s not ever allow ourselves to get that way.”  I always want to stay with her right beside me.

I am not much of a conversation piece, my wife knows this.  I learned that if I wanted to have a healthy relationship, I had to do my part of the conversation.  If we want a healthy relationship we have to work at it.  For those that have stayed married a long time it is not an accident.

Not only do we need to communicate, we need to be founded on the right foundation.  Too many relationships start out on infatuation.  Our bodies age.  My wife is an exception.  She is prettier to me today than she was then for a lot of reasons.

Mat 7:24  Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock:

Mat 7:25  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock.

Mat 7:26  And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand:

Mat 7:27  And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

Great was the fall of it.  Apparently not every relationship is founded on the right things.  But it can be.  Our hope can rest in the right things.  We can be connected.

Whosoever hears: whosoever wants to stay connected, and doeth them.  It is not a passive relationship where only one side is doing all the work and making an effort.  Both parties must have a part.  If they do then it is a beautiful thing.

Spiritually, it is no different.  To say that I am saved and abiding in Him is witnessed by my having a burden for souls.  Not just saying but doing. 

Verse 25: The rain descended.  Life began to take its course.  No one skips out on this part.  It includes a lot of things. 

The floods came:  Many things all at once.  Life and its pressures.  Sometimes it is failing health.  Sometimes the demands on the job.  It can be school, family, church, friends, our children, our relationships, where there are needs like a flood.  All at once. 

The winds blew.  The winds are the trials of life, spiritual trials like mind battles.  Anyone that spent time out there before they came to know the Lord understands mind battles.  The scars of life: the Lord casts our iniquities in the depths of the sea but doesn’t take the memories.  These are the trials of life the battles that we go through.

There are times when we are in a dry place, “God will you just talk to me.  I need you.”  We haven’t lost our connection with God but we want to know where God is.  We want to hear His voice.

There are times of discouragement and we think, “Not again; not right now.”  It comes.  We don’t skip out on these things.  Sometimes it is sudden fear and the loss of hope.

“The rains descended, the floods came, the winds blew and it beat upon the house.”  This house, this vessel: our body, this house right here: the church.  The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew and it beat upon the house.

Good people that love God and are doing their best.  The devil is real.  He is in this to win.  He wants you to play church and to lay out of church.  He wants you to become weary in well doing.  He will pull out every stop and throw everything that he can at us.  He wants to win.

If the relationship is right and founded upon the right things then we can be encouraged.  It fell not because it was founded upon a rock.  We can have an experience founded right.  When the rains come and beat upon the house, it will not fall because it is connected to God.

As a result of that, now we can start to appreciate the value of some things: 
Abiding in prayer is time well spent so that we can stay connected. 
Regular attendance in the house of God, there is a reason that it says, “The more so as we see the day approaching.”

Make the effort.  It is so important to keep our connection with the Lord.  Especially with parents with children.  If you are not in the house of God then what do you think that your children are thinking.  We need to be the mirror of Jesus to them.

The friendship comes as a result of fellowship.  Not the fellowship that comes as a result of friendship.  It is not just about us.  It is not, “I got mine; you get yours.”  We want to reach out to others and see men and women rescued.  It is a rescue.

I spend time in a drug rehab center.  They are young men that are heroin addicts.  All of them believe that they have a connection with God.  They come right off of the streets feeling the effects of this stuff.  Some of them cannot even sit at the table where we are at.  Their bodies are wracked with the addiction. 

There was a time when we are all in that pit.  I may be disgusted at the things that I hear and see, but that was where I was at.  I didn’t have the background of being on heroin, but we were all in that pit.  There was nothing good.

When the winds come, be thankful that you are on the rock.  Have a forgiving heart.  Since we have been saved, so much has happened.  Sometimes people are not willing to forgive. God’s people forgive. 

There is a difference between forgetting and forgiving.  You can forget and that is not forgiving.  We can see what people do to us as not them doing it to us but as to God.  If we treat them with a sweet spirit and a soft answer we can be a witness to them. 

We can be humble and learn to say, “I am sorry.”  Things happen and God would have us to say, “I am sorry.”  I still have to tell my wife, “I’m sorry.”

When we know that we are founded upon the rock we can appreciate the value of a lot of things, most of all that we are saved from sin.  We no longer have to slop around in the pit that God pulled us from.

The connection means something.  It offers hope, peace, and joy.  It means so much.  It is so important. 

One of the blessings is that we have a new song.  Right out of the pit, rescued, repent, forsake and you have a new song.  Our foundation is sure because it is a good connection.

Sadly there is another kind of foundation, connection, and relationship.  It is a misplaced hope.  It is a grief.  I know of nothing sadder than watching one go along believing that everything is good and placing their hope in something that the bottom is about to fall out of.

People profess a connection to God that lacks a foundation.  We knock on a door and when someone comes to the door we introduce ourselves and some say, “I was baptized as a child.”  Or, “I was an altar boy.”  One said, “My wife is a saint.”  These are connections that people believe that they have with the Lord.  They is without substance and without life.  There is no one on the other end.

They may try changing positions to get connections or move to a different church or try a self-help program.  They will not work.  They are a false hope that take a lot of people. 

(Sorry, my battery died so I was not able to take notes from here to the end of the message.)