Untitled Sermon (6)

1. O give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his steadfast love endures forever! 24. This is the day that the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

My wife and I were in Gatlinburg for a weekend. My favorite part of this trip was going to cades cove. we saw bears, we saw two or three of the old churches. we saw the old mills, it was like stepping back into time. we had followed a trail into the forest and I remember looking down and saying I'm not sure but this looks like a pile of bear scat. and as i turned to look at her, she was already on her way back to the car. we drove around as we usually do to see the sights, to visit the same restaurants, the same gift shops.

In acts 10 we start of with a roman soldier, Cornelius, who is neither a jew or a gentile, but he still believes in God just the same. he gave alms to the poor and he prayed constantly to the Lord. he has angels come to him and tells him to go search for a man named Peter. and so he sent two man to do just that.

Then the next day, peter approaches the city and begins to pray. while he was praying, the Lord gave him a vision of a large sheet being lowered to earth by its corners. Filled with four footed animals, reptiles and birds. he heard a voice tell him to kill and eat. Peter replied “Surely not Lord! I have never eaten anything impure or unclean”. The voice spoke back and said “ do not call anything impure that God has made clean”. After the third time the sheet was taken back to heaven. And while peter was trying to figure out what this vision meant, the men that Cornelius sent out had found him.

And on the last day of our trip as we were leaving, we stopped at a lookout spot that we heard about. As we sat there I could see all the places we had been that weekend. Over there was the souvenir shop, over there was the restaurant, over in that direction was cades cove. but then i started noticing all the places that we didn't visit, or drive past, but these places were still places and even though we weren't there or knew they were there, people were there.