TESTAMONIE
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 7 viewsNotes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Spiritual growing up
Spiritual growing up
I came from a very hard working farm family of 5 siblings who attended a Catholic Church. My spiritual education came from attending classes taught by nuns on the teachings of the Catholic Church. I also was a alter boy who was a (helper to the Priest) when a church service was being held. The services were all spoken in Latin. As a alter boy the nuns would teach us how to say Latin words for the service, none of which I new or the meaning of. The nuns also taught me classes on (first communion(when you were old enough to start taking the body and blood of Jesus), and conformation (when you were old enough to receive the Holy Spirit). They called each one of these steps Sacraments. Do you see anything wrong with this type of Spiritual growth???
I grew up in a dysfunctional home.
I grew up in a dysfunctional home.
When I was about 12 yrs old I caught my mom having a affair with our neighbor. He would come and visit during the late night. I would come downstairs during the night to go to the bathroom and i could see him in our house. It was dark but i could still see him. This happened rumors times. The first time I caught them it shocked me really bad and after that i tried to run away from home, but living out in the country, before i could walk one mile my mother would pick me up with the belt laying on the seat between us. My father would spend a lot of time in the bar of our local town of Alta Vista. As i got older, in High school, i wanted to get out of our home on weekends, i would meet friends and we would get someone to buy us some beer and we would drive around and drink. It was a time of laughter and a way of escaping from home. I would drink to much and fall asleep driving home and go in the ditch and have to get someone up in the middle of the night to pull me out of the ditch. After graduating from High School I got a place in town to live and started going to the bars at night with friends of mine. I soon bought a motorcycle and began riding it and drinking to hide from my dysfunctional life. I lived on that motorcycle and rode it everywhere, raced it on Sundays. When i met my later to be wife Jamie her competition was the motorcycle. I rode it all winter, made a ski for the front of it after removing the front wheel, wrapped roller chain around the rear tire and it would go through a lot. I would ride it to work and park it on top of the huge pile s of snow from the parking lot. One night as i was sitting on top of a snowbank outside of my future wife’s apartment When God told me that she was going to be my future wife. I had met her at a beer party playing spin the bottle. I had become a heavy drinker and there wasn’t nothing at home that i wanted to go Home for. I was 22 yrs old when we got married. A few years latter we started having Children and i was still drinking a lot. One day Jamie told me that i would have to chose between Her or the boos. I chose her. While this was all going on (the devil was having a way with my life) God was working preparing me to escape this way of life to a new life with Him. I had beleived that there was a God but never knew that He was alive and that He had power to intervine into your life. I was religious but without a relationship with God. I taught sunday School to 4th graders, taught confermation to the older youth. The Catholic Church had a event thay called CEW weekend ( Christian Experience Weekend ) listed in the Church Buliton being held in a church in Waterloo. I had asked people what this was and there response was that it was something that would deepen your relationship with God. My wife signed up for the womens weekend and i signed up for the Men’s weekend. It totally changed my life, I forgave my parents for all that happened to me in my life and asked God not only to forgive my parents but also me for my sins. Holy Spirit came into my life and cleansed me. A huge weight had been lifted off my life and i was forgiven and free. I probably cried for what seemed like hours while God was cleansing me. It was similar to Jesus when He was baptized and God said this is my Son in whom I am well pleased. I was cleansed and God was pleased, and I was pleased also. Whom the Son sets free is free indeed, I knew exactly what that ment because He had done it to me. God didn’t create us to carry those kind of traumas, He created us to be free by taking our burdens to Him through forgiveness. If you are carrying any kind of burden you can be free if you want to be, God is waiting on us to bring it to Him. He is willing and able to do the same for you. After that weekend Jamie and myself started attending bible study's at peoples homes. These were non Catholic bible studies because the Catholic Church didn’t have bible study's. We would learn about being born again, the gifts of Holy Spirit, the fruit of Holy Spirit. I hadn't ever herd these things talked about in the Catholic Church. While attending these bible study's the people would talk about up coming speakers at different Churches and Conferences. We started going to some of the speakers and conferences. At one of the Conferences the speaker was teaching on receiving the baptism of Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongs. I had never heard of this either but i could see in the bible that it was true and available for all. Both my wife and myself went forward to receive this gift, and God gave it to us. At first i wasn’t sure i liked the Gift because i was use to talking to God in words that i understood. after having received the gift of Holy Spirit you speak to Him in the Spirit and truth. We are to pray in the Spirit and with our understanding, we are also to worship in Spirit and truth. These are expectations of God for us. In Jude it says to build yourself up in your most holy faith by praying in Holy Spirit. If you are being attacked by spiritual forces of wickedness you are to build yourself up by praying in the Spirit. When you are in the Spirit there is no darkness. When you bring light into a dark room, darkness will automatically disappear, you don't have to cast it out. We are children of the Light. Darkness is the absence of light and the Bible is our light.
Soon after being filled with the Spirit we were faced with a finicial lack. we farmed by Alta Vista and the bank had cut off our line of credit to put crops in and feed livestock. It is kind of like Jesus after being baptezed and the Father spoke “this is my beloved Son whom I am well pleased” that Jesus was lead in the wilderness to be tested of the Devil. Comming from a spirtual high to a spiritual testing. The lack of money got really bad, that putting food on the table got to be chalenging. This is when i learned how to walk by faith and not by sight. We continued to give money to the kingdom of God and people woukd say that i needed to stop that and use the money for self. There were many times of praying in the Spirit to get direction from God on what to do. We had a drought that year and the crops looked really bad and i knew that is what i needed to feed the livestock. After going to a conference and the speaker was teaching on how to walk by faith and not by sight. I hadn't heard this before and didn’t how to apply that to my situation. After the conference i understood how God wanted me to get through this situation. The finical lack lasted two or three years and then i felt like God said to sell the farm. This was a very big decision so I asked God if He would confirm it again so i was sure it was the right thing to do. 1. Mural on side of semi---, 2. Tongs And interpretation ---. I didn’t know where i was going or what i was going to do for a living, it was a time of trusting God. At the same time i was having some health problems with my body. My shoulder go so bad i couldn’t use my right arm to feed livestock. I used my Left arm to do the best i could. I got the opportunity to walk by faith concerning my shoulder pain. I met all of Gods criteria in the bible regarding my shoulder, 1. went before the elders of the church---,2. Laid hands on it and believed i was healed---. with in three months my shoulder was completely healed. We sold the farm and at the same time Jamie’s father said we should look at a certain house in CC. We sought God as to direction about that house and i felt like we were to buy it and we did buy it without a lot of debt against it. We were out of finical bondage, we were free again