God Sent

Offering - play video

As I sat on my front porch Friday morning trying to get my senses about me, I begin to wonder what could we do. I begin to rationalize just like many people that I myself was without power or any ability to really help anyone.

I saw people riding around Townsend with their four-wheelers and chainsaws and they just got busy.

I rationalized a little longer and then felt like the Lord was starting to speak and say this is where my church is needed. This is where the church has the opportunity to minister.

I thought about Peter and John at the beautiful gate, silver or gold I have not, but what I have i give you “Get up and walk”

the point is that there are things that I cannot provide but I can provide something - what do you have that you can give?

One of the biggest differences that I see in the heart of heaven bound Christians is that they give even when they don’t have. They know that what they possess is so much more valuable than anything on earth.

Lessons Learned from Hurricane Helene

Isaiah 44:3 “For I will pour out water to quench your thirst and to irrigate your parched fields. And I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children.”

Talk about prayer call on Thursday

There are some key takeaways from what I have seen over the last few days that I want to share with you today:

1. You have to listen to the warning signs.

We live in an area that usually expects hurricanes.

We knew that Helene was a massive storm and was going to hit the Big Bend part of Fla.

They expected it to head north toward Albany and move north.

Being near the coast, I thought the storm would just give us some outer bands of bad weather.

We did not have to worry about the storm surge like we would with a hurricane that came across the Atlantic.

As I laid down to sleep we noticed the winds picking up.

That was no surprise.

It was about 1 - 1:30 that I woke up and found that the power was out.

There was no A/C

No Ceiling fan

no CPAP

We got up and prayed for a while and wanted to look at the weather channel but we couldn’t watch because there was no power.

We walked around and prayed and then laid back down to go to sleep. We had peace that no matter what happened, we would be in the hands of our loving God.

If we were to be killed, I would be living with my Lord.

If were were to have no power for a while, we would do what we needed to do to make it.

Since we had been through so many storms and did not anticipate this storm affecting us so bad, you can imagine our surprise when we got up Friday morning to the carnage we saw.

Power was out everywhere. Every single county in Georgia and Florida were affected by Hurricane Helene.

Many people did not prepare for this storm because storms have come and gone over the years and we had been spared.

Here’s the rub: We have been saying for a long time that the Lord is coming again.

He came wanting fellowship with man and man messed that up by wanting to be like God.

He destroyed all but a handful of faithful people.

Man continued to show himself unfaithful and disobedient.

Romans 1:18–32 NLT

But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles. So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved. Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too.

Listen to the warning signs: Look to Jesus because He loves the world and He still saves.

2. You have to be prepared

When I did get cell phone signal, I tried getting all my family called and notified of our safety

We reached out to all our church family to check on them and let them know that we were good.

The stuff that I begin to see on Facebook was somewhat comical and also very disturbing.

People were freaking out because there was no power.

Someone had said what needed to be said. It was something like “We live where we have hurricanes and we lose power. The power will be on when the power is on.”

Well….

When you live in South GA you have to be ready for storms.

You need to have plenty of water on hand for drinking and cooking and bathing

You have to have a power source - gas stove or generator

You have to have fuel for the generator

You have to have enough food that doesn’t spoil

You have to be able to have a good cup of coffee (smile)

You need to have cash because all the machines won’t work

You need to have your cars gassed up in case you have to evacuate

You can actually get a hurricane preparedness list at most news station websites

It helps to be prepared even if you never have to use any of those things.

It is better to have it and never use it than to need it and not have it.

I would much rather believe Jesus now and be wrong than to not believe and find out when its too late!

I love what Phil Robertson says, “I could be wrong, but I doubt it.”

3. Be Patient

People go nuts when there is a increased demand for anything.

I remember when COVID happened, everyone went nuts for toilet paper.

People were hoarding toilet paper who did not need it. People had a year’s worth of toilet paper. They had to navigate wall of toilet paper to get anywhere in their house while others had little or none.

What are you going to do with all that toilet paper?

Listen, you are not the only person on the planet!

There are other people in need. Be patient because there are people at work trying to get you back to life as normal as soon as possible.

Being without the luxuries of life can teach you some things though:

You can do a lot more than you think you can.

You don’t need all the things that you think you do

The things that you need are love, faith and hope and though they seem to be rare, there is plenty available.

You don’t have to line up for hours in the middle of the highway trying to get these.

You open your arms and receive an endless supply from the One who has no end.

When many of y’all heard today’s message title, you may have thought, He is saying God sent the hurricane.

Let me explain:

If you are listening today and you are not in a right relationship with God, He wants to change that. He sent His Son, Jesus so you can be right with Him. That is the only way.

If you have already given your life over to Him, then God sent His Holy Spirit.

A mechanic buys a tool for a job to do

Tools are costly

God sent HS to empower you to do something

Now is the time to let God use you