Put Your Mask On First

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:43

Don't die in the wilderness.

SPEAKER_00 0:52

Good afternoon, and welcome to Helen Stream Waters Daily Doses. I have another dose of medicine for you today. I'm glad to be here and in the land of the living. God is so good, so gracious, so long-suffering, so patient towards us. I'm going to be reading today out of the 22nd chapter of Saint Luke, only two verses. The 31st and the 32nd verse. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail thee not. And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And the topic that I want to share with you on this afternoon is put your mask on first. You know, uh, if you haven't taken a flight, and the flight attendance is giving out instructions in the event something happens. But one of the things they tell you is put your mask on first and then help someone else. Because what if you're putting someone else's uh mask on and the plane lose control, you don't have oxygen. How can you continue to help when you don't have your oxygen mask on? What it takes for you to breathe, what it takes for you to live, we're so busy trying to help others that we ourselves forget about ourselves, and so I was just thinking, um, I don't know where it comes from, or was it just a misinterpretation that uh we always put others before ourselves? I know in certain areas we think about the good and the welfare of others, but we can't help others unless ourselves are helped, and in this passage, Jesus is telling what we know him to be now as Peter. His name was changed. Um, he said, Simon, Simon, Satan desires to have you, but I pray for you that your faith fail you not, and when you have been converted, strengthen thy brethren. So it was first things first, after you have done it for yourself, after you have been converted, after you repented, after you have been made aware of what you need to turn from, after you have stopped, um, have got up from failing, from mistakes, or whatever your life has been before now, the past. Um, the past is the past, but still, we must let go of the past, we must get over the past, we must do something about the past, especially if we are walking in the newness of the spirit. Old things are passed away, and behold, all things are become new. Some things we can talk about because it's our testimony, it's our story. For the Bible says we don't overcome only by the blood of the Lamb, but by your word of testimony. But it's a testimony that gives God the glory, we don't bleed on our pages, we don't share things that we haven't overcome because um, I used to be in a class, and I will always tell the bad parts or things that uh wasn't so good in my life, but I can remember one day standing up, ministering to others and telling that story, and in the midst of while I was ministering and preaching, the Lord told me, Don't tell that story no more, because it's a second part to it. I had no idea to what God was talking about, but years later, and as of today, I now know because just because you start one way don't mean you have to finish, and that's what Jesus come to do. He comes to restore. I was sharing with someone we were talking, and she brought up the scripture today of Joel 2. He promised that he's going to restore the years that the conquer the canker worm and the palmer worm and the caterpillar ate up. Each of those bugs, they feed off what was left from the previous one, and so you could have had years of doom and gloom, you could have had years of famine. But however, if you be not weary and well doing, God will turn it around for you. I am a living witness today that He can take your lemons and make lemonade, but you gotta put on your masks first. We sometimes we like to swap stories and uh see whose story is the best, but God gets no glory out of that. We tell our stories, especially if we overcome, so that we can help our neighbors to overcome, because perhaps they are going through the same thing. He said to Peter, I pray for you that out of all you went through, that your faith fails you not. I want to pray for you. Jesus prayed for him, and um, Jesus prayed for all of us because he prayed not only for his disciples, but for the ones that's going to believe in him because of his disciples' word, and so we are part of that group because of the Bible and what was written. We believe what was written, so we had Jesus praying for us. It's a song that says, Somebody prayed for me, they had me on their mind, and they took the time and prayed for me. I'm so glad they prayed, I'm so glad they prayed, I'm so glad they prayed for me, and it goes on to say, Jesus prayed for me in the Garden of Gethsemane when he was going down in prayer because he knew that cup was heavy, but he said, Lord, not my will but yours be done, because in that cup he knew it was the salvation and the freedom of both you and I. He didn't ask the Lord, don't take the cup, but let thy will be done. When Peter and John went to the temple for the hour of prayer, it was a man that was lame at the gate that had been there a long time asking for alms, and he asked as normal for Peter and John to give him some arms, but because of what Peter had in him on the inside, he told him the man was asking for alms. He said, Silver and gold, I don't have, but such as I have, I have something better, I have something that would keep you 365 days in a year, 52 weeks, 12 months, seven days, it will keep you all the time. Such as I have, I have Jesus, and he said, in the name of Jesus Christ, he even told where he came from, because it's many people that have the same name, but it's not too many that have not no one at all that has the anointing that Christ brought with him. He came to save that which was lost. He didn't come into the world to condemn it, but that the world through him might be saved. He said, Uh, you that are well, you don't need a physician. I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He came for me, he came for you. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly. So put your mask on first. He put his mask on first, he became the ultimate sacrifice. Before him was bulls and goats, but they couldn't do the job. And they had us coming back year after year, repenting for the same thing. But God said, Prepare me a body, and I'm going to go down. So he came down in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. He got in the body for you and I. He put the mask on first, he showed us how to do it, and then he said, and after you have been converted, after I have changed you, after I have showed you the way of how to walk this thing out, then you ought to do what I did for you. Pay it forward, go strengthen your brother. But first, you have to show up for you, you have to prepare for you, you have to get for you. It's a saying, don't give me the fish, teach me how to fish. You have to learn how to fish for yourself. Peter and John, they got it from sitting at the feet of Jesus. They grabbed it, they was able to um obtain it. He gave it to them, they received it, and so they was able to give to this young man that was at the gate. He was able to get up after the words that they said to him in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. They said what they said, they believed what they said, and his ankles received strength to get up. I'm telling you, even your limbs have a voice, even your limbs have a sound, and when a word is spoken in due season and at the right time, they have to come into action. Just like Ezekiel 37, when he was in the valley of the dry bones, God asked him, Son of Man, can these bones live? He said, Lord, thou know. That's the question that only God can answer. But he was trying to tell him, You got the power within you to speak, and things come alive. In the old testament, the power and spirit came upon them, but today the power lives within us. He said, Prophesy to the wind, tell them bones, hear the word of the Lord. And he said, After he spoke, he heard a sound, a rattling. These got to come together, and it will be a sound, it will be a noise like none other. Those bones were very dry, but because the spirit of the Lord is live, it's moving, it has passion, it has um, because the word is inspired by God, it has that what it takes to get you going, to get you served. They rose up a great army, but they had no life in them. Ezekiel, God told Ezekiel, prophesy to the wind. You need air, you need breath. Go where you can get that from. Prophesy to the wind. Crawling from the north, the south, the east, and the west, and tell the wind to breathe. And the wind did that, and there was an exceeding great army. Again, you have to try it for yourself, you have to know it for yourself, and God, there is no respecter of persons. What he done for others, he would do for you. These examples that we read about in the Bible, he did it for them, he's the same God today, yesterday, and forevermore. He does not change. If he did it for Daniel, if he did it for Moses, if he did it for the three Hebrew boys, whatever he did back then, he can do it now. I have even a more present example. He did it for my mother. My mother took the example of Hannah being barren and praying and wanting a child. She read that story, but the Bible says, be ye a doer of the word and not in hearer only. But she took that example, she prayed, she believed God, and God answered. The songwriter says, I sought the Lord, and he heard and he answered, and he answered my mother and told her that he was going to give her a child. Not only did he give her a child through the man of God that she was under at the time, he told her how many weeks she was, how far alone in her pregnancy. God knows something about everything, but I'll come to tell you, you have to try God for yourself. Gideon did. If you if you you are telling me this to do, God, wet this overhead and let this be dry. Then dry this and let this be wet. Try God for yourself. He don't mind, he don't mind because God will prove you, he will prove that he is the greater, he's it will prove that there's nobody beside him, nobody greater than him. He's the God of all creation, he's the God of heaven and earth, and all the things that is within it. God is God and He don't change. And we have that same power in us. If the Spirit of God dwell in us, it will also quicken our mortal body. So believe God for you, trust God for you, prove God for you, put your mask on first. After you've been converted, go strengthen your brother. We are helpers one to another, but I can't help you if I don't help myself first. Moses was not skilled or did not weigh the what did not know the way of the wilderness, but his father Jethro did. So sometimes until you can stand up on your feet, use somebody else's feet, use somebody else's shoulder to mount on, use somebody else's faith, grab a hole. We need one another until we can get to the place that we can do it for ourselves. Reach out to your brother, reach out to your sister. Moses said he couldn't talk, and God was giving him a great assignment. He said, Who made your mouth, Moses? Well, so you got this excuse that you can't talk. Your brother Aaron is coming to meet you, and he is very eloquent in speech. So he will be your mouthpiece, and you will be as God to Aaron, because I've given a commandment to you. So no matter what it is, you don't have no excuse. You can make it if you try. I thank God for the willingness. He said, We are willing and obedient, we shall eat the fat of the lamb. Go for it, y'all. Go to it and go through it because he will help you, he will strengthen you to do it, he will strengthen that that remains. You only need a little bit, have the faith, the size of a mustard seed, but you need faith because without faith, it's impossible to please God. Jesus prayed for Peter that his faith fail him not. Grab a hold to some faith today, grab a hold to your mask and put it on. This is healing stream waters, daily doses, and your dose today is put your mask on first. God loves you, I love you, and there's nothing you can do about it.