Work Text:
One Sunday morning after the worship team finished singing for the first service, Cecil Thomas stayed on the stage. Today was Daphne's day off. Whenever Daphne had an off week, Cecil would take her spot. "Off week" usually meant Daphne was taking a break for one entire week. The deal between him and Pastor Black was if she took a week off or went to conferences, vacation, etc. Cecil would take over.
Today was different. Daphne was on her break since a family member was sick in the hospital. Cecil saw this week's service at the Church of Messiah was half – full. The Church of Messiah usually had sold – out services every week, but this week was really different. Some of the church family members had no plans to go to church this Thanksgiving because they usually went out-of-town to be with their families or their families would come here to Milwaukee.
Cecil didn't bother telling the congregation to open their Bibles. He wasn't like their young pastor, twenty – some years of age, blonde – and blue – eyed. When Pastor Black was preaching, she usually would have the church open their Bibles and follow along. Pastor Black would read some passages and ask the church questions.
"Pastor Black has asked me to take her place this week. She had a family emergency and asked us to pray for her.
"Oh, Father, we ask You as a church family to look after Pastor Black and her family in time of need this week. Pastor Daphne's husband, Hank recently was diagnosed with heart problems.
"We ask You to continue looking after Pastor Daphne and her family to help heal Hank during this time so he could continue living his life. In Jesus' Name, Amen," Cecil said.
"Today we will be talking about Satan and God and what they have done to us in the past."
He cleared his throat since it was dry.
"I would like to start out with Jesus. Of course we all know Satan has been around since the beginning of time. Jesus is Good because He has done everything right. When we get a good report card in school with good grades, He tells us we have done well. If we get bad grades, Satan would make you a failure as a hard – working student.
"When we get to a new chapter in life, such as getting married, He plans to give the ceremony, not the minister. He also has the bride and groom say their vows to help each other in sickness and health until we do us part. When we get married, and not keep the promise of living together till do us part, Satan votes on divorce.
"When we graduate from school, we move on to the next step He wants us to. If we drop out, Satan congratulates us. If we get a promotion at work, God pats us on our shoulder, saying, 'I knew you could do it. Keep it up.' If we loose our job, Satan will give God a good laugh and stick his tongue out at Him.
"If we go into the hospital for some reason such as surgery and we come out with no more problems, God is clapping and He had worked hard on helping us make alive from the surgery. If we had a surgery, and died during it, Satan is proud we did not win.
"If we plan to do a family outing and get back home without any of the family being left behind, God is smiling since He was proud of Himself helping us make it safe. If we went on a family outing and return home with our family not together, Satan gives himself a pat on his shoulder.
"If we win the lottery and put our winnings in the bank, God is proud of us by not wasting any of it and tells us to save it. If we put our winnings at the bank, and overnight, someone will break in and steal our winnings. Yet again, Satan pats us on the shoulder, saying he was proud of us.
"We volunteers for free in the community and do the right thing. God rewards us. If we volunteer and did it the wrong way, Satan tells the Lord 'fat chance and nice try.' Of course, Satan knew he won this battle for sure. If we obeyed God and doing the right thing, God promotes us to a whole new level. If we didn't do what He asked us to, Satan keeps us at the same level.
"If we are on the road and somebody is hurt, we helped in a good way. That means God was telling us to get out there and help out those needed a helping hand. If we are on the road while someone needed us and we didn't help them, Satan told us not to help out and let that person in need and let them end their lives, they would die. So what we have to do is ignore the Devil and let God point us in the right direction. So remember do the right thing and win against the Devil.
"We know we are strong at some points and the other fifty percent, we are with the Devil. I just want to ask you to keep doing the right thing and listen to God," Cecil finished as the worship team came back on the stage.
The audience stood up for the last song and clapped since they enjoyed the sermon of this week. Cecil stayed on the stage since he was part of the worship team. When they finished the song, Cecil wished them a happy Thanksgiving and the listeners left. Cecil was happy he did well for today's sermon.