Bro Gary Sunday AM 5/15/11
Rev 3:14 And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;
Rev 3:15 I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.
Rev 3:16 So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.
Rev 3:17 Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Rev 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Rev 3:22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
The Laodicean Church has the exact traits that we find in the church world today. We fight the same battles as they.
In verse 15 it says that He knows all about us. In Psalms 139 at the beginning and end the psalmist says, “Search me O God.” and in the middle it says, “How blessed are the thoughts that you have to me.”
We often think that God sees only those things in our life that He is displeased with. He sees everything, He has good thoughts to us. He knows us.
The greatest challenge we have today is keeping the fire of God burning in our heart. We remember when the burden of sin rolled away and the love that burned in our heart.
That day, your prayer may have been as mine, “Lord help me to be genuine.” Then as we walked with God we found it easy for our love to grow cold. The good news is: if the condition is revealed to us, then the solution will also be there.
There is way too much bad news in the world today, but my Bible says that God will supply all our needs.
Everything we come up against wars against our faith in God. Whatever you prayed for last week, as you were praying, the enemy was contesting you with the thought that it wouldn’t happen. The thought probably came, “When is this trial, heartache, or pain going to end?”
The thought of the building blocks of faith that I preached last week was good to me.
“I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire” Rev 3:18
1Pe 1:7 That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ:
You may wonder why you are in a trial of faith. You are wondering “God, are you going to help with this problem?”
The trial of your faith: faith is of a greater value than anything tangible. Among the things that the enemy wants to steal is your faith, your hope, and your confidence in God.
The enemy doesn’t want you to hold confidence in God. He doesn’t want you to believe God is just.
God is just!
The trial of your faith is more precious than anything in this world. Where ever you are in your experience this morning, you’ll have fiery trials. Some of them will be emotional; some will be in your mind. You’ll have things come to your mind and you’ll say, “That doesn’t line up with Philippians 4:8.”
God wants you and me to be rich in faith
Rev 3:18 I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.
We all remember when we needed Divine intervention from God. This need began when we got saved; it continued as we realized that we needed to be sanctified. We know that Jesus suffered without the gate that He might sanctify His children. They were saved, they were his children, and they needed to be sanctified.
These children here today have prayer requests about school. From the youngest that is here to the oldest whatever their prayer request is, it is the most important request that they have.
In Rev 7 people get mixed up thinking that the 144,000 are the only ones that are going to be saved. My God is bigger than just to be able to save that number. Read a little farther.
Rev 7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
Rev 7:10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.
Aren’t you glad that you know that our salvation must come from God? We cannot be anyone else’s savior; we know salvation must come from God.
Rev 7:13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?
Rev 7:14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
Rev 7:15 Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple: and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
There is not anyone that will testify Wednesday night that will say, I’ve just been in a ‘little’ trial. They will be saying, “I’ve been in the worst trial that I gave ever been in.”
Tribulation means pressure. When you feel pressure, you respond by either to giving in, getting a bad attitude, or by getting before God and saying, “I feel such pressure, and I love you more than anything else; I want to please you more than anything else. Search me. If there is any spot on my garment, I want you to wash it off.”
Tribulation means affliction. God doesn’t willing afflict his people. If you are in affliction get before God and ask Him to help you to see if there is something that you need to take care of in your life.
Tribulation means anguish. One time I was visiting in the hospital and a doctor came out crying, a 16 year old girl had just died of pneumonia. There are times our heart is so broken! I’m not talking about disappointment. (I was disappointed last night when I burned those sweet potato fries.) Anguish is something different.
We’re going to face anguish. I’ll never forget when I went to the home of a dying lady that didn’t have enough air to blow out a candle and she’d heard the news that her husband had died.
God has washed us of the thought of “My family is special.” Every family is special. That street walker is special; the poor man that is dying because of drugs is special. That could have been me dying because of an overdose. There is no line that is drawn because of nationality. The same blood that was shed for me was shed for them.
Burdens help us. When we really get burdened then we get past the tangible. We’re enjoying that spring has finally come. I know how God is; He’ll lay a burden on our heart.
Before July 4th, we’ll find our self desperately needing intervention from God. If it were not for God, we couldn’t get through these situations. We need God so badly.
Tribulation means persecution. Matt 5 says, “Blessed are you when men say all manner of evil against you falsely for my name’s sake.” I was told the other day of a man that was saying evil things about me. I didn’t do anything to him; I’ve only done good to him. The scripture tells me I’m blessed when this happens. Persecutions are tough but they are good for us.
Tribulation means difficulties. They come to all of us. They are tough for us but God is good to all.
We need to cry out to God as the song writer said, “Lord give me a vision, oh help me to see…”
The temptation is to put our focus on all that is tangible; we need God to anoint our eyes with eye salve.
God knocks on the door and says, “If any man hear my voice and opens the door…” In the mornings when I get up, I like to think that “Jesus is waiting for me, he has something for me today.” He stands at the door and knocks. If any will hear his voice, he will come into you and He will sup with you.
When Jesus comes, (I know He comes to rebuke and chasten sometimes, if he does then we need to have the attitude, “I need it.”) He also comes to sup with us. He brings His word which is of eternal duration. It speaks to us on the inside and becomes bread and water. Not only does He bring His Word to us to enjoy, He wants us to bring His Word to Him.
“The eyes of the Lord go through the whole world to show Himself strong on behalf of him whose heart is perfect before Him.” I like to bring that scripture back to Him.
He desires for each of us to be an over-comer.
Joh 16:33 These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.
In a world that says, “Peace, peace but there is no peace.”
Rev 3:19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.
Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Rev 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Rev 3:22 He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.
“This is the victory that over cometh the world, even our faith.”
He that hath an ear: there are a lot of voices out there, the voice of the flesh, our own voice, and many others. If you have an ear, hear what the spirit of God says to the Church today.
God wants us rich in faith and you can be, the price has been paid. May God help us to be rich in faith!
Nothing wavering… every once in a while you’re told something and it shocks you. May God help us to be anchored in faith nothing wavering.
God help us to be rich in faith.
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