Bro Bill Sunday Morning 2/12/12

Bro Bill Sunday Morning 2/12/12

Num 10:29  And Moses said unto Hobab, the son of Raguel the Midianite, Moses' father in law, We are journeying unto the place of which the LORD said, I will give it you: come thou with us, and we will do thee good: for the LORD hath spoken good concerning Israel.

Num 10:30  And he said unto him, I will not go; but I will depart to mine own land, and to my kindred.

Num 10:31  And he said, Leave us not, I pray thee; forasmuch as thou knowest how we are to encamp in the wilderness, and thou mayest be to us instead of eyes.

Num 10:32  And it shall be, if thou go with us, yea, it shall be, that what goodness the LORD shall do unto us, the same will we do unto thee.

Hobab may be the same as Jethro, Moses asked him to come with them.  This is the invitation that we try to give to the world. 

If you come with us, good will come to you.  You will have God just like we do to give direction, to go before you, to give light by day, and fire by night.  There will be safety and a good life if you just go with us.  This is the way that we think toward others. 

My dad died and we went one last time to look at his body while he was in the hospital.  I looked at him and thought, “Poor dad, to the best of my knowledge he died lost.”  If I could have given all my possessions to buy his salvation it would have been worth it. 

It is not set up that way.  Jesus already paid the way with His precious blood. 

1Pe 1:18  Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers;

1Pe 1:19  But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:

We try to tell people, “Come with us, you are making a mess out of your life.  You are sinking in the sea of sin.  We have this life preserver; grab a hold of it.” 

Hobab said, “No I will go to my own country and to my own land.”  That was that.

Pro 8:1  Doth not wisdom cry? and understanding put forth her voice?

Pro 8:2  She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths.

Pro 8:3  She crieth at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the doors.

Wisdom will cry out in the gates of The City, out of the gates of the church. 

The saints say, “It is good to be saved.  My life was in such a mess and I had no way out.  No one to help me, and God rescued me.” 

We don’t know what is in sinner’s hearts.  They may have a big smile plastered on their face but you don’t know what is in their heart.  They may be wishing that they could just be free from the bondage of sin.  If they could just take that hope from the wisdom that is crying out, they could be.

Pro 8:4  Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.

Pro 8:5  O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.

Pro 8:6  Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.

Pro 8:7  For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

Wisdom from the house of God speaks truth.  The world will talk to those that have chosen to serve God and say, “You don’t know what you are missing.”  It will promise a good time and wonderful things. 

Wisdom will tell you what the true things are.  The voice from The City will tell you, “This path will truly be a good path.”  This doesn’t mean that there will be no battles.  Saints and sinners alike may experience flat tires and sickness.  Yet we have God to help us. 

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

We are in a good situation.  In Sis Dorothy’s lesson the north winds and the south winds blow across the garden.  That north wind in the winter is a cold wind.  The south wind is generally a warmer wind.  Whether we have the storm come or the fresh wind it will mold us to make us a better saint.  Things work to our good.   

The sinner doesn’t’ have this.

Pro 8:8  All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.

Pro 8:9  They are all plain to him that understandeth, and right to them that find knowledge.

To the saints of God the words make sense.  They are plain to them that find knowledge.

Pro 8:10  Receive my instruction, and not silver; and knowledge rather than choice gold.

Pro 8:11  For wisdom is better than rubies; and all the things that may be desired are not to be compared to it.

Silver, gold and riches of this world will not buy salvation.  It is a great treasure.  Salvation will get you to heaven but the things of this world will not.

Heb 3:1  Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus;

When God draws on the hearts of man it is a heavenly calling.  It is a calling to be saved.

I have noticed in life, tragedies, deaths, and really sad things may happen and it doesn’t move the sinners.  But if God will draw on their hearts and they will yield when He knocks then they can be rescued.

Calling – an invitation from God.

1Ti 6:12  Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

Yielding to this calling will produce eternal life.  The loved ones that have gone on before that died saved it ended here as far as their bodies but we will see them again if we stay true to God.  We must take care of our souls.

2Ti 1:9  Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,

This is a Holy Calling.  If we yield and respond properly to this Holy Calling it will produce holiness.  If it hasn’t done this then there is something lacking.

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

There is a prize for responding to the high calling of Christ Jesus.

Act 26:1  Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Then Paul stretched forth the hand, and answered for himself:

Act 26:2  I think myself happy, king Agrippa, because I shall answer for myself this day before thee touching all the things whereof I am accused of the Jews:

Act 26:3  Especially because I know thee to be expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews: wherefore I beseech thee to hear me patiently.

Act 26:4  My manner of life from my youth, which was at the first among mine own nation at Jerusalem, know all the Jews;

Act 26:5  Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.

Act 26:6  And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:

Act 26:7  Unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God day and night, hope to come. For which hope's sake, king Agrippa, I am accused of the Jews.

Act 26:8  Why should it be thought a thing incredible with you, that God should raise the dead?

Act 26:9  I verily thought with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.

Act 26:10  Which thing I also did in Jerusalem: and many of the saints did I shut up in prison, having received authority from the chief priests; and when they were put to death, I gave my voice against them.

Act 26:11  And I punished them oft in every synagogue, and compelled them to blaspheme; and being exceedingly mad against them, I persecuted them even unto strange cities.

Act 26:12  Whereupon as I went to Damascus with authority and commission from the chief priests,

Act 26:13  At midday, O king, I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shining round about me and them which journeyed with me.

Act 26:14  And when we were all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice speaking unto me, and saying in the Hebrew tongue, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

Act 26:15  And I said, Who art thou, Lord? And he said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest.

Act 26:16  But rise, and stand upon thy feet: for I have appeared unto thee for this purpose, to make thee a minister and a witness both of these things which thou hast seen, and of those things in the which I will appear unto thee;

Act 26:17  Delivering thee from the people, and from the Gentiles, unto whom now I send thee,

Act 26:18  To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

Act 26:19  Whereupon, O king Agrippa, I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision:

It is so good to have a personal testimony.  Paul had a personal testimony.  We have one too.  People can have strife and try to argue with scriptures but what can they do with your personal testimony? 

“King Agrippa”, Paul said, “I was really religious.  I was of the straightest sect.  You could have found no fault with me.  I really thought I had it together.  But you know King Agrippa I was being damaging to others and to the saints.”

“King Agrippa, I even went to out of the way places just to bring harm to the saints that may have been there.  I thought I was doing right but those things that I was doing was contrary to the will of God.  I had a goal.”

I know what it is like to have a goal.  When I was living with my dad I had some goals, they were bad goals, but they were goals.  When I got out of my dad’s house I was going to cut loose and do some things.

‘Above the brightness of the sun’: above all the glitter that the world had to offer something shined upon my heart and drew me to get saved.  We all have this testimony.

The voice spoke, “What are you doing Saul?  It is hard for you to kick against the pricks.”

“King Agrippa, I thought I had everything together and I didn’t realize the depth of what I was doing.  When God spoke, I was not disobedient to that heavenly vision.”

Php 3:4  Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:

Php 3:5  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;

Even as a baby, Paul had the pattern right from the very first.  He descended from the patriarch Jacob.  He was descended from the favored son Benjamin and was of the tribe that did not revolt with Jeroboam.

Php 3:6  Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Php 3:7  But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ.

Paul said, “Philippians, I found out that being raised around religious homes from birth wasn’t enough.” 

You know how to be saved?  It doesn’t come by joining church or coming to the House of God every Sunday.  There is only one door and that is Jesus Christ. 

Do you know why my dad died lost?  It was because he did not repent of his sins.  Going to church is not enough to save you.  You must be born again.  You must come before God as a sinner repenting and asking to be forgiven of your sins. 

You must have an attitude of heart that you are through with all you know is wrong and that you will live for God in all that He shows you.  If you do this then God will forgive you of all your sins and take them away and you will not be the same person that you once were. 

If you are not a changed person then you are not saved.  After salvation, you must have communion with God, read your bible and pray.  If you don’t then you will lose your way.

All the things that I thought were good in myself were nothing; things that I had given tithes, offerings, given to charities they cannot save me.  Here I am with my bundle, I didn’t realize that it had holes in it and all that was without substance has gone through the holes.  The only thing that will get me to heaven is the blood of Christ.

Php 3:8  Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Php 3:9  And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

Php 3:10  That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Luk 14:16  Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many:

Luk 14:17  And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready.

Luk 14:18  And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused.

Luk 14:19  And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused.

Luk 14:20  And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

They did not put much value in the invitation that God was giving.  God was trying to reach out to the Children of Israel first and they refused it.  It opened the door to us Gentiles.

Luk 14:21  So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

“Go out servant and draw upon someone that is hungry, a beggar that doesn’t have it all together.  Bring the crippled, those that realize that they need help.  The limping, the one that is feeling an incompleteness in themselves.”

It takes more than fame or wealth to make a person happy.  Look at the lives of the rich and famous for an example. 

Jesus wants those people that feel their need of God.  His door is opened to them.

Yet there is room:  There is always room for one more to be saved.

Luk 14:22  And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room.

Luk 14:23  And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

Act 24:24  And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul, and heard him concerning the faith in Christ.

Act 24:25  And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled, and answered, Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.

It appears that God was really dealing with Felix’s heart.  He was trembling but he said, “Not now.  Come at a more convenient time.”  We don’t want to put off when God is dealing with our heart.  I cannot remember a recording that Felix ever got saved.

Act 26:26  For the king knoweth of these things, before whom also I speak freely: for I am persuaded that none of these things are hidden from him; for this thing was not done in a corner.

Act 26:27  King Agrippa, believest thou the prophets? I know that thou believest.

Act 26:28  Then Agrippa said unto Paul, Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.

He was not fully persuaded.

Mat 11:28  Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Mat 11:29  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.

Mat 11:30  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

This scripture is for the saint and for the sinner.  Come unto me all that are heavy laden, I will take the load off of you.  I will give you rest.  I will make your feet a little lighter.  If we give our burden to Him it makes our steps lighter.  If the sinner will give Him their load of sin their steps will be lighter.

Rev 22:17  And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.

Come, come.