Jesus Makes Strangers Into Family

open your Bibles with me to the book of Philippians at chapter number one verses one through verse number six and I want to preach from this subject Jesus takes strangers and makes them family Jesus takes strangers complete strangers and makes them family Paul and timotheus the servants of Jesus Christ to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the bishops and deacons grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ I thank my god upon every remembrance of you always in every prayer of mine for you all making requests with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now verse six reads being confident of this very thing that he which have begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ thank you you may be seated the grass withers and the flower thereof falleth away for the word of our God shall stand forever Jesus takes strangers and makes them family all says I thank God upon every remembrance remembering memory and remembering is a wonderful thing it's refreshing it's consoling from time to time to recall to pull up memories some of them good some of them not so good some things you wish you could forget well thank God for memory when you get older one of my old friends said to me when you get old the good thing about getting old is that you can have your own Easter egg hunt you don't need anybody you hide your eggs and you really don't know where they are that's one of the fun things about about getting old I read of a couple who had been married over 50 years and their memory was failing and so they decided among themselves that they would write everything down so as not to forget it and one night they were sitting at home and the wife was on her way to the kitchen and she said to her husband do you want anything while I'm up while I'm going to the kitchen he says yes I'd like an and ice cream sundae he said put some chocolate on top of it he said I want some rip whipped cream and cherry on top he said write that down so you don't forget she said no I'm going to the kitchen I'm gonna do it right now so that I will not forget it and she stayed a little while and when she came back she had some hashbrowns some eggs grits and bacon and he said to her honey I told you to write that down you forgot the toast somebody going to get that on the way to de Pompadour memory is a wonderful thing to help me help us with this text today I need to give you the back story of what Paul is thanking God for the back story is that Paul was on his way to buy fenya but the Spirit of God intercepted him at Troas for there was a man from Macedonia who came to Paul in a vision and said come over to Macedonia and help us and while in Macedonia while there with his understudy Timothy preaching the gospel he he founded a church there in Caesarea Philippi and he meets three complete strangers but he turns them into the family of God you will find the back story in Acts chapter 16 where Paul is preaching the gospel and there is a woman from fire Terra named Lydia Lydia is a seller of purple Lydia is a businesswoman she's an entrepreneur Lydia is an aristocrat Lydia is highbrow Lydia is high society she Shops at Macy's Nordstrom's Neiman Marcus Lydia would not pass in front of Walmart Lydia would not be seen at Birds meat market where I get my pigs feet Lydia would not even be in the same company of people who are not highbrow sophisticated Lydia was welfare and well-to-do she was a god fear she did not believe in the polytheistic culture that surrounded her she knew almost instinctively that there was one God but she did not know who that God was she was an aristocrat she was an entrepreneur she was a businesswoman she shopped in the Galleria she would not be caught dead in some of the places I shop at Lydia was high society Lydia set with a big hat on Sunday morning didn't want anybody sitting around her wore heels gloves to go to the store high society high brow belonged to the best sorority had a name on the social registry in Thyatira there was nobody as wealthy high brow high society as Lydia she was a god-fearing a seller of purple a businesswoman high society knew that there was not all of these gods but did not know the real God one day she heard Paul preach about the God of Abraham Isak ng she heard Paul preach about Jesus who died on the Friday and rose from the grave early one Sunday morning and Lydia got converted came to know Jesus Christ as a personal Savior and invited Paul and Timothy to come in to her house and she took care of them while they were in photography Lydia is high brow high society snooty kind of upper-class shops in the finest stores Lydia is an entrepreneur a seller of purple a god-fearing and a high society but she meets Jesus and she invites Paul to come to her house Paul says I thank God every time I remember Lydia and then there's another person in acts 16 that Paul meets and he thanks God for there's a young damsel there's a young girl who is demon-possessed she's possessed by demons and men are using her to make money they are telling fortunes with this young woman they are using this young girl they are taking advantage of her she is demon-possessed she's not highbrow she's not high society she doesn't shop where Lydia shops she doesn't sit where Lydia said she doesn't wear what Lydia where she's being used by men she's being taken advantage of because she is demon-possessed a demon possession has her telling fortunes and these men use her to make money but one day she meets Jesus through the preaching of the Apostle Paul and Paul exercises her of the demons and the men who were using her can no longer make money on her and they bring Paul up on charges because Paul they say is troubling the city what a testimony you are troubling the city someone would help me preach it wouldn't it be a wonderful testimony if they said about you you're troubling the city you're troubling the neighborhood you're troubling the family you're troubling your circle of friends because when you show up demon-possessed people are close and in their right mind when you are around people who are being misused and now in God's hand when was the last time you troubled anybody I don't mean cause trouble by lying and gossiping and talking about what you don't know because that's most of us at the church I'm not talking about when was the last time you were a troublemaker when was the last time you troubled anybody with the gospel when was the last time you gossiped about the goodness of God you told somebody how he brought you out of darkness into the marvelous light how he got you off drugs highsec defied you answered forgave you took you off the streets clean you up and made you brand new when was the last time you shared that story and because Paul stopped them from making money on that girl they had him brought up on charges and he was thrown into prison really when you get home is right in chapter 16 of the book of Acts Paul meets one more person that he thanks God for at every remembrance the scripture says Paul and Silas had been thrown in prison because they stopped that demon-possessed girl and gave her Jesus and they were no longer able to use her and make money they were thrown into prison but it doesn't matter where you end up if God's hand is on your life he'll make a difference in your surrounding really when you get home the scripture says about midnight I wish I had two or three Bible reading Paul and Silas started praying and singing praise under God and the Bible says the jailer heard it I wish I had two or three witnesses in and the scripture says God shook that prison and their chains fell off of them and the jailer thought that they were about to get away and if they had gotten away he would have lost his life so he's about to commit suicide but Paul says do yourself no harm we are all here and the scripture says the jailer took Paul to his house Paul preached and saved his whole family not as the Sun a sophisticated woman a crazy demon-possessed woman a rough jailer three people who would normally have nothing to do with one another but they heard about Jesus and those strangers became family that's the message that's it I'm through I don't have anything else to say but then Lydia a crazy girl a jailer ordinarily there wouldn't be seen in each other's company but they had one thing in common they met Jesus that's the Sermon that's that's it except for the fact that I've got to say this in this church today there's some sophisticated people Bassem crazy demon-possessed me there's some rough people some extra gothics somebody in here been to jail somebody here had a baby before you got married somebody here is divorced somebody has been raped somebody has been sexually abused by a member of your own family somebody here has no education somebody here got a PhD from college all of us ordinarily wouldn't be seen with each other there are some people I wouldn't even sit on the pew with if I hadn't met Jesus I wish I had my 7:30 cry now your sophisticated folk who don't want to get with these crazy folk who don't want to mess with these rough folk need to understand that Jesus came for the rough folk he came for the crazy folks he came for the sophisticated folks because the crazy the sophisticated the rough the drug addict the x-acto Hornet all of us need salvation you'll have to take my word for that Jesus was in the country of the gadarenes I wish I had a Bible reader and the scripture says there was a man possessed with the devil legions of Devils so much so that he could not even be tamed they time up and he'd break loose from the fetters he was living among the tombs but one day he met Jesus I wish I had a witness here and the demons in him spoke to Jesus and said Jesus son of the Most High what have I to do with you Jesus said come out of the man you go help me preach this won't you and the word says when the demons came out of the man he was clothed and in his right mind that was a woman with an issue of blood who spent everything she had trying to get well Jesus was on his way to gyruss his house to heal his daughter but on the way in the crowd that woman fell and grabbed his clothes and when the woman grabbed him he stopped and when he stopped the blood stopped and he says somebody touched me Peter said Lord all these people here somebody's bound to bump into you Jesus said I did say somebody bumped into me I said somebody touched me because when they touch me I felt virtue I felt power run out of me and that little woman who said I touched you Jesus said let me get you straight your faith has made you hope this man was paralyzed and Jesus was preaching at somebody's house and they couldn't get in not even through the door so the Bible says they got on top of the roof and tore it up and let that man down on a pallet and when Jesus saw their faith he told it a man rise take up your bed and walk a feast was dying on the cross along with his buddy another thief and one of them said save yourself and us but his buddy said leave that man alone he has done nothing wrong Lord when you come in your kingdom remember me jesus said verily verily I say unto you today you will be with me in paradise now none of the people I just mentioned have nothing in common other than the fact that they met Jesus brothers and sisters we are a family not because we are related necessarily by blood but we are related by the fact that we are children of God under the blood of Jesus Christ and ordinarily most of us don't like each other see how glad you got right there that song folk you wouldn't speak to if you just didn't have to be just in the way so you speak to them too to get around them if you could have found another door if you could have found another entrance if it just would not bad you just would not speak but then your temp will start pounding and your palms get sweaty and you know the Christian thing to do is to say good morning but in your heart you're talking about that helpful are you talking about that that cow you're talking about that person who gets on your nerves and you would really have nothing to do with them at all if y'all wasn't in the same boat see our quad you got River I said you'd have nothing to do with them at all if all of us were not in the same boat all of us are messed up all of us got some sin issues all of us got some sin problems that's why none of us can talk about the rest of us because all of us are messed up I wish I had a witness here some of us more messed up than others but all of us are messed up there's some sophisticated folk in here oh yeah just look around turn and look around oh yeah they got their nose in there they don't care what you say they don't care what I said don't care to sit by you they never clap they never nod their head they never look around because they are sophisticated oh yeah it's some crazy folk in here just as crazy as a road lizard they say anything do anything ain't got no sense don't have any decorum just act the fool in the most and opportun crazy demon-possessed people come to this earth then you got that rough trial who said you better not look at me wrong because it's about to be on and cracking in here you don't know me like that you better try to go get out my face oh yeah look at them turn around look at it it's some rough-looking people in this church but thank God we leave that mess outside and get on the inside and realize that the sophisticated the crazy demon-possessed the rough people in here are family cuz we got a father he died for us all and so whosoever will let him come if it's sophisticated let him come crazy I got some in my family let them come Russ I know a whole lot like that let them come I got some rough friends every Christian needs some rough friends yeah you need some friends who who know the Bible but they pack it they love the Lord but they'll fight yeah you need some friends like that who you know you need some society friends to take with you to Vic and Anthony's but but then you need some friends who go to this is it with you and somebody look at you the wrong what yeah everybody ought to have some of those kinds of friends because a friend the Bible says is a brother born for the day of adversity when you in trouble you need somebody to come alongside you to help you in your day of adversity all of us need one another and so Jesus takes us from different backgrounds different educational levels different financial strata different social upbringing different cultural anomalies and brings us together sophisticated crazy rough demon-possessed lost exodus of that and puts us in the church and makes us a part of his family forever you

Channel: lillygrovembc

Views: 51,404

Rating: 4.677321 out of 5

Keywords: Reverend Terry Anderson Pastor Lilly Grove Missionary Baptist Church Houston Texas

Id: 2XBLczoHpQQ

Length: 27min 58sec (1678 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 06 2015