WATCH YOUR
CONNECTIONS
Your connections
make all the difference in the world.
Unfortunately many people chose the wrong connection, which leads them
into trouble and disappointments.
After getting entangled with the wrong connection they think back and wish they
never would have known the person to whom they were connected.
Your connections make all the difference in the world.
If you are to enjoy harmony and peace in life, then let me suggest you
“Watch Your Connections.” That is,
who you are connect too!
Listen, if you would
only, stop along enough to talk to the man pushing the grocery cart along the
city streets, who pausing and gazes up in the air; or the bag lady walking along
life’s highway looking bewildered down
at the ground; they both will tell you they had a “Loose Connection in life”
with a wife, husband, a family member or friend; and they will say to you with a
bit of anger in their voice, that is the
reason for their uncertain future.
If you my friends,
would only, stop long enough to visit a prison and talk to a man or women behind
the wall; they will point to an inappropriate connection they had as the reason
for their misconduct. Your
connections make all the difference in the world.
If you keep on
walking and talking long enough to ask the young man with his pants sagging down
and his buttocks on display, he will tell you; it’s just the way it is with his
buddies; and it just the way it is with him too!
He is willing to go along to get along.
While walking
through life; don’t forget to stop long enough to talk to the young girl that
has given herself over to be used as a toy for pleasure and a play thing;
instead of being treated like a lady she is a treated like a loser.
She will tell you it’s all about her boy friend and the connection they
have. Somebody ought to tell her to
“Watch Your Connection”, because your connections make all the difference in the
world.
What I have
described to you this morning is people trying to find a love connection in all
the wrong people, in all the wrong places and for all the wrong reasons; and
they didn’t “Watch their Connection.”
Inappropriate
connections will “wear you out” and some will “do you end!”
We look back at our
own bad connections and try to warn our children not to make the same mistakes
we made. To not be unequally yoked
to trouble. We tell them to “WATCH
WHO THEY ARE CONNECTED TOO.”
Today we have set
aside time to show off our friends and family members “Your Connections” by
inviting them to come and join with us.
We want to show that we in some respect have people that love us and care
about our wellbeing.
There is another
very important point that must be said and it’s simply this, “that a family
member or friend of yours is a friend and family member of mine.
In other words your friend is my friend; and in a sense I’m his friend,
my friend is our friend and your friend is her friend and her friend my friend
and we are all connected by and mutual
appreciation of friendship for each other’s friend, and by love.
Amen.
You see there is a
principle that the bible teaches us, 1 Corinthians 12:12.
For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of
that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.
13. For by one Spirit are
we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be
bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.
14.
For the body is not one member, but many.
We could close the
book and go home to meditate on that point.
We are all baptized into one body.
We are all divinely
tied together in Christ. If we only
understood the power of that truth and its true meaning, homicides would cease
and law suits would stop. Judge
Judy would get off the bench and Judge Brown would leave town, Dr. Phil would
take a chill pill. Amen, somebody.
Jesus prayed that we
who trust in God and in His name; that we might be one with Him and the Father,
but there are multitudes of unwilling and unregenerate body member still
disruptive and dysfunctional in the family of God.
In other words, they are sinning against God.
They are sores and diseases, which effect the healthy body of Christ.
The only way for the
body to be healed of the canker sores is to either cut them off or get them
delivered from dead works. Amen.
Let’s us look at one
of the most startling account in the bible that speaks to our message today.
Ezekiel 37
1.
The hand of the Lord was upon me, and
carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the
valley which was full of bones,
(skeletal remains of
dead works)
2.
And caused me to
pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley;
and, lo, they were very dry.
( a long time)
3.
And he said unto me, Son of man,
can these bones live? and I answered, O Lord God, thou knowest.
(God is asking us today this
question too!)
4.
Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them,
O ye dry bones, hear the word of the
Lord.
5.
Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold,
I will cause breath to enter into you,
and ye shall live: (shall live the
right way in the body and before me)
6.
And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and
cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know
that I am the Lord.
(You shall be totally restored and a new
person)
7.
So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a
noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone.
Ezekiel cried out
and spoke the word of the Lord to
“Dem
dry bones!”, “Dem dry bones!”, and said Oh“Dem dry bones!”
“Oh hear de word of de Lawd!”
8.
And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and
the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.
9.
Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and
say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath,
and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.
10. So I prophesied as he
commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon
their feet, an exceeding great army.
(my friends and your
friends, my family and your family members that were dead in works and in the
valley of dry bones are back in their right place in God.)
That man on the
street pushing the shopping cart and the bag lady too!
That fellow with his pants sagging and buttock out and the girl living
life in all the wrong places, with all the wrong people is healed and they are
alive and healthy member in the family of Christ.)
Somebody, ought to shout glory to God.
11.
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of
13.
And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O
My people, and brought you up out of your graves,
14.
And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you
in your own land
(in your right environment): then
shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.
As I take my seat, I
know you have friends and family members not here today, but you wish they were.
This is what you can do.
“WATCH YOUR CONNECTION WITH GOD”. You be the Ezekiel among your family and
friends by speaking into the winds of their life Galatians 5:
22.
And let the wind of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, 23. Meekness,
temperance: against such there is no
law; and you will see the miracles of God before your eyes.
God will lift you up
and them too and turn you around, and plant your feet on higher ground; so you
can be healthy in the body of Christ, once again.
So my brother and sisters “WATCH YOUR CONNECTION WITH GOD” first and all
other connections will come perfectly together.
Preached by:
Rev. Sylvester Williams, Jr., I.C.U. Ministries, Inc.,
March 15, 2009
Revised edition