Bro Gary Wednesday Evening 8/10/11

Bro Gary Wednesday Evening 8/10/11

Mat 7:11  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

Many times men and women get under a thought pattern and are overcome by gloom and doom; that is not from God.  God desires to give good gifts.

Heb 9:11  But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;

Christ is the source of good things.  “All the good things in my life come from the Lord.”  Christ is alive tonight.

Isa 64:4  For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

Everyone in this audience is waiting on God for something.  Sometimes it is something for us.  Sometimes it is something for those that we have a burden.

1Co 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

God has prepared good things for those that love God.  If you love God then you can believe that He has good things in store for you.  It is not the thought of asking for a million and getting it.  God is not a God that is interested in tangible things.  If you are hungry He will feed you. 

Heb 9:1  Then verily the first covenant had also ordinances of divine service, and a worldly sanctuary.

Heb 9:2  For there was a tabernacle made; the first, wherein was the candlestick, and the table, and the shewbread; which is called the sanctuary.

Heb 9:3  And after the second veil, the tabernacle which is called the Holiest of all;

Heb 9:4  Which had the golden censer, and the ark of the covenant overlaid round about with gold, wherein was the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant;

There are five things in verse four that are in the holiest of Holies.  The first is the golden censor.  It was the instrument that was used to carry fire to the golden altar.  The Golden Altar is where we go after we have been saved and allowed the Word of God to begin to wash and chasten us.  Once we are saved we enter into a complete new life.  We come through the door which is Jesus Christ.

A door is a wonderful thing that opens up to whatever it opens to.  Once we enter through Christ we close the door to the old life and the old habits. 

After salvation everything in life is seen differently.  The lake looks different.  The labor of life looks different.  Your children are not just little ones, they are precious little souls.  Saved wife, saved husband, saved grandparents look at everything differently even that that is in the world looks different. 

The Golden Censor was to bring fire to the Golden Altar where the high priest offered blood from the sacrifice and spices unto God.  It was designed to come up a sweet smelling savor.  Paul wrote this to bring us to the understanding that we need the fire of the Holy Spirit in our heart.  My word is like a fire and a hammer. 

We come to the Golden Altar where we offer an offering to God.  Romans 12:1 tells us that that offering we offer is: we present ourselves a living sacrifice unto God. 

We’re blessed to have been loved so much to be bought with such a high price as the blood of Jesus Christ.  Every soul is of a great value to God the Father and Jesus the Son.  We have been bought with a great price. It is wonderful to be able to bring something back to God; we can bring back to Him what he has given us.  Everything in the world is already His.  He owns the cattle on the thousand hills.

Not only are we to present our bodies a living sacrifice, we have strong wonderful instruction that we should lay aside every weight.  The cares of life are weighty.  The times that we live in are weighty; the uncertainties that we live in could weigh us down.  We can get weighted down with things that we can do nothing about.  We can be weighted down with the decisions that others have made. 

There is a difference between a weight and a burden.  The burden you can take to the Lord and cast on Him; a weight will only keep bearing down on you more and more.

The Ark of the Covenant was constructed of a certain size with rings for poles to go through for it to be carried by.  It was not to be touched by just anyone and there were many rules that concerned it.  It carried the rod, the golden pot of manna and the tables of covenant. 

In the day that God chose to feed the Children of Israel with manna in the Wilderness He wanted them to gather it new every day. God still ordains that we have fresh spiritual food every day.  Isaiah 35, 55 Colossians 3 are new to me every time I open the Bible up to read them.  The precious man that doesn’t believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God is being robbed of true treasures.

Numbers 17:1-11 God told Moses to have each of the leaders of the 12 tribes to bring a stick in and place it in the holy place.  He told them to leave them there over night and when Aaron went in the next morning, it was Aaron’s rod that bloomed, blossomed, and bore fruit.  This signified that Aaron was the anointed one of God. 

Jesus Christ is the high priest that sits on the throne and has an anointing from God.  Jesus Christ is our source of good things.

Lessons from the rod that budded, blossomed, and bore fruit:

1.      

 It represents Jesus Christ that gives hope. (1Tim 1:1 Jesus Christ, our hope.)  The day will come undoubtedly when I will need you to remind me that Jesus Christ is the son of God that gives hope.  In every one of us here, without Christ we can do nothing.  We need God so desperately.  My physical needs are the least need that I have tonight.  The needs of men and women that need to be saved, the needs of children could cause me to not sleep tonight.  Men have chosen to not be dads; women have chosen to not be mothers.  Children have wicked uncles and aunts.  To all of us that remember that Aaron’s rod budded there is hope.

2.       Jesus Christ gives holy desires.  We have a deep need in our soul and it is only God and His son that can give holy desires.  “All my springs are in thee.”  It is wonderful to have a good desire to come to your heart.  God is not the author of ho-hum days.  We are not a crystal; we need rest, but let me tell you that Aaron’s rod budded.

3.       Jesus’ delights were with the son’s of men.  He is mindful of every one of us and is personally interested in what you want to accomplish in the window of time and opportunity that you have. 

4.       Through desire a man intermeddles with all wisdom.  It is marvelous that when you are humbling yourself before God His son can come down and create a hungering for wisdom.  Jesus is wisdom.  Sometimes people limit Jesus.

5.       The buds of hope mixed by the blossoms of love and faith.  Isaiah 35 the desert shall blossom like a rose.  You could be going through a dry season in your spiritual life but there is hope.  “My desert rose bloomed the day I found the Lord.”  You see in Isaiah 35 abundant blossoms and much joy and singing. 

Isa 35:1  The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
Isa 35:2  It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.

Carmel is a beautiful rose park of refreshing and renewing.  God has a way of bringing us to a good place.  There are times that you need to go into God’s park and stand in awe and wonder and be refreshed and renewed.  When He comes down and takes what is troubling you into His hands He says, “My child I came to bring you victory.  I don’t want you carrying fears, I want you to come to my park and see Aaron’s rod that blossomed.  Have faith in God and believe God.”

Believe in the Lord your God so shall you prosper.

Sharon was a fertile valley that grew in abundance.  God doesn’t want you lacking anything spiritually.  He wants to give you everything that you need.  Enter the closet and as you shut the door receive good things from God. 

Jesus is the vine and we are the branches, expect to bear good fruit, not of yourself but because you are graft into the vine.

Joh 15:1  I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

Joh 15:2  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Joh 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

When He comes to purge us don’t be a lawyer for yourself, don’t make it hard, let Him take it all away.  It is Jesus that does the work, why are you struggling and making it hard? 

Joh 15:8  Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

There was a great price paid that we could enter into the holy place.  The price of serving God looks great to many.  Sometimes all that people can see about serving God is how hard it is.  They say, “I’d have to give up this or that.” 

Life is full of choices.  When Karen and I got married they didn’t ask me if I was willing to give up all my old girlfriends.  That has never been a problem.  We’ve been married for 40 years.

When you think of growing a garden you don’t think that “oh there would be no place for the weeds to grow.”  You go fishing and don’t think that oh I hope I don’t catch any then I’d have to clean it. 

It is still a bible doctrine in First John of perfect love.  Love is a spiritual doctrine that people twist.  John said that those that are full of fear don’t have a heart made perfect in love.  I don’t know about tomorrow, but I know who holds tomorrow.  We are blessed to have a relationship of loving God perfectly.  We can love our neighbors, we can love our enemies, and we can love our children.

I was blessed to have a mother and father that loved me they’re gone, but God is still here and He loves me perfectly.  God is a God of faith.   It is still true that Aaron’s rod budded, blossomed and bore fruit.  Jesus is there to give hope; He is there to create a desire for God, for the things of God, and a desire to do what God wants us to do.  He can give a desire and then enable you to do what He and you want.

He is still God; He is on His throne.  You may be here and you may think that you are on a countdown of life.  I’m not so sure you should be thinking that way.  God is a God of Hope. 

Have plans to do something with the help of God.  Have plans to do something for God.  Have plans to do something for someone else.  If no one calls and you are lonely, you call someone.  Put on soup, coffee, whatever you like and have someone over. 

Have the buds, have the blossoms, and have the performance, faith hope and charity.