Sermon No. 5

Shane A. Saylor,

Minister

But the salvation of the righteous [is] of the LORD: 

[He is] their strength in the time of trouble.

~ Psalms 37:39

I have been told that sometimes God lets us hit rock bottom, not just to teach us, but remind us that God IS the ROCK. This is not a manifestation of our religion, but our faith. Why? Because it is not just our faith in God, but faith in God’s plan for us. And He has plans for each one of us.

We ask God to grant us salvation. We pray to Him for it. But, we all forget that sometimes our salvation is not always given freely. Sometimes we find salvation mingled with another concept: redemption. Why is this? Because some of our sins against others or ourselves or crimes against others are so great, we need to seek redemption before we can receive or embrace salvation.

As redemption and salvation are two different paths, we all walk different paths. Some paths are harder, others are easier. Also keep in mind that in our youth our path may be hard to navigate, yet it gets easier as grow in age because we have traversed the path and know the right way to navigate the path. This knowledge comes from experience.

Salvation is not tethered to our good deeds alone. But to spiritual practices as well. Our daily devotions, prayers for those who are sick. Or in harm’s way.  We assume that salvation is the prize. It is not. Salvation is the journey as we travel in faith with God protecting us.

Salvation is a spiritual thing. It is not nor has ever been a treasure to be reaped. It is and always has been a gift to the worthy given by God in Heaven.