“Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two
by two and gave them authority over impure spirits. These
were his instructions: “Take nothing for the journey except a
staff-no bread, no bag, no money in your belts. Wear
sandals but not an extra shirt. Whenever you enter a house,
stay there until you leave that town. And if any place will not
welcome you or listen to you, leave that place and shake
the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” They
went out and preached that people should repent. They
drove out many demons and anointed many sick people
with oil and healed them.”
Lord, may You add your blessing to the scriptures that were read today, AMEN.
My Message today is : “We have been called to Serve since we were Born”
During the recent Wild Fires Destruction in the Los
Angeles area in California, there was a student pilot
sitting on the runway waiting for his pilot flying
instructor to get onboard so he could finish his pilot
exam on his test flight. All of a sudden a man drove
his car to the end of the runway, got on board the
plane, the plane took off and about at 5,000 feet, this
man who hopped onboard got his camera out and
instructed the pilot to fly over the wild fires fast so he
could take some photos for the newspaper and get
home. From the other side of the cockpit, there was
complete silence with a puzzling student pilot who
said aren’t you the pilot instructor? One of
things about this scripture where Jesus says you can
wear sandals, not wear sandals, take what you would
like or take nothing at all, I wonder if the apostles
asked who is this person giving us wishy washy
instructions ? However, the feeling of being
unprepared -or- being surprised as certainly the guy
flying the plane was. That’s a familiar feeling. Since
being born many of us have been faced with
questions that we were never asked or confronted
with before. New choices that we have to make that
we never had to make before. New things to do, that
we have never done before. Look how it was when we
first learned how to tie our shoes. I don’t know about
yourself, but I still tie my shoes exactly as I learned
how to tie my shoes almost 60 years ago. What

experience did we have about going to school for the
first time, when we had never gone to school before.
Like the kid that first went to school, came home that
day and his mother asked how was school today, he
said very enjoyable. Then he found out, he had to go
again the next day. What experience did any
of us have, being middle aged, retired, widowed, etc ?
In LIFE, many times we have ample reason to say to
ourselves, there really should have been an
instructor ? Or, at least an owner’s manual should be
around here, somewhere ?

You can only imagine that is exactly where the
apostles found themselves in today’s scripture
reading. Jesus told them to go out into the
countryside on their own to preach the GOOD NEWS.
By the way, you will have power over demons and you
will be able to cure people. But, what instructions did
He give them other than what or not what to wear -OR-
what to or what not to bring. Well, pretty much,
Jesus’s Instructions were just DO as what you have
seen Me Do. Don’t take any money -or- supplies. They
will just hold you down and get in your way. You can
only imagine how they felt as acting as “Stand Ins” for
Jesus. They were scared, because they were not
ready. They haven’t been with Jesus that long and
they haven’t brought His message truly into their
hearts. And, they certainly have had no experience at
preaching. But because Jesus asked them, they put
on their sandals, they got their walking sticks, left for
the road, and off they went. And according to what the
scriptures have told us, they were successful. They
preached, drove out demons, cured the sick and the
rest we know was the Good News as we know it. And
especially curing the sick, it was a big surprise to
them as it was to the people they healed. How did that
happen, not by accident. In one way they were truly
unprepared and in another way , they had all that they
needed. And God sought to that. Because they carried
with them all the goodness and all the power that God
had put in them when God had created them. They
carried with them Jesus in their hearts. And since the
Lord sent them out by twos, each one of them had a
brother by their side. They completed their journey, probably not perfectly -or- without mistakes, but they accomplished their mission for the Lord. Whatever,
God has given to them, He has given to us with everything we need to accomplish our journey in Life. We have been given each other to see us through this journey of Life. You see we have all been called to serve God whether we know it or not, it resides in our Hearts and was placed there even before we were born. The most famous phrase I always love to quote is –
“God does not choose those to serve, he serves those who have been chosen”.
I picked this scripture, message and to be here today is to let you know that I am the Pastor of Eddystone United Methodist Church. When the District Superintendent of the Eastern Pennsylvania United Methodist Conference, South District assigned me to this church back in December 2020, the church was in the process of closing and also was in the process of
selling the 1907 year old 6 bedroom parsonage. As a new pastor, I really couldn’t fathom getting rid of a beautiful stone parsonage. I sold my ministry council that God has left us this home to refurbish it for ministry. We started to work on the home and through substantial grants from the Lima Endowment and various oil refineries in the Marcus Hook area, we were able to raise close to $80,000. We refurbished the parsonage and since the Russian/Ukraine War, we were able to bring two (2) families to live in the parsonage. Currently, the one family wants to bring their 24 year old son and daughter in law to live with the existing two (2) families, but it cannot happen until we install a new bathroom on the 3rd floor which will run around $15,000. We have raised some of the money, but I am here today to make a plea that with our Eddystone United Methodist Church parsonage project being your Lima church’s Mission of the Month for March, I assure you that every dollar raised will go into the renovation project of installing an additional bathroom onto our 3rd floor of our parsonage. Between the generous donations of your Endowment Committee, the Lima church through a
Mission of the month a couple of years ago, our two families from Ukraine have flourished and have a home and have become tax paying, productive members of Delaware County plus joining our United Methodist denomination. God Bless you for your past and for your upcoming
support of our church’s Parsonage bathroom project so other Ukrainians can come and flourish in our church and society. So please give generously…

Amen…Amen…