Sis Dorothy Sunday School 2/12/12
1Ti 1:11 According to the glorious gospel of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust.
We have a great charge and trust given to us and with it the responsibility to present this gospel without blame this morning. I don’t want to fail in this trust to handle the Word of God. Pray that what I have and what God has given me will be a blessing.
In the Garden of Eden, the first garden, man lost the will of God for their life: that is holiness.
In the second garden the Garden of Gethsemane Jesus surrendered His will to the will of His Father to pay for mankind’s redemption.
The third garden, the Heart Garden, were God’s presence and His will to be holy if fulfilled. In this I see the need of what produces good soil instead of focusing on what good soil produces. We see a gardens ability to promote growth, life, and good fruit.
Needs to produce a good garden:
1. Light
2. The need supplied to make good rich soil – an honest and good heart.
3. Good foundation
4. Preparation of the soil to receive the seed.
5. Analyzation of the soil; balance
6. The use of good, certified seed.
7. The correct ratio of sun, rain, wind.
8. Labor.
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.
To dress the garden means to take care of the garden and prepare for all the needs of the garden.
We want a good fruitful garden in our heart. To do this we must
Heb 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
I had a plant growing by my sidewalk that was just lovely and in a real prominent place. It was getting tall, leafed out real nice and I began to water and nourish it. This fall as I began to clean out that garden, I saw inch long thorns all along the stem of this plant that the leaves had hidden.
I thought, “An enemy had done this.” I got my gloves and yanked and pulled on it and couldn’t get it out. I got a shovel and dug down and cut the roots off. I took the plant in and threw it into the fire.
This spring I have to be very careful that I don’t let it grow again because I didn’t get all the roots. I need to make sure I give heed.
I let it slip originally. This is the first fall really that I had time to clean out my flower bed. I could use an excuse that I was too tired, I had a job, there was no time. We need to take heed that we don’t let things slip.
I could not even with gloves on get a hold of that plant. I had to carefully get a hold to try to even pull it out. When thorns are there we have to be careful. I don’t want that in my heart.
Pro 24:30 I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding;
Pro 24:31 And, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down.
Sad, “I went by the field of the slothful.”
I thought, “I have been so slothful to not check that plant last year.” A plant in our lives can look pretty good for a while until it is exposed. We need to get things pulled out right away. We don’t want them to produce a root like that. Let’s be really careful.
There is a danger of being satisfied with your garden. We can say, “I’m just doing fine, I don’t feel bad about anything…”
If I’m satisfied with my garden then I’m not going to do much work. We can become satisfied to where we let off of planting and caring for it. We must be careful spiritually because there is no place in our heart garden to be satisfied. Things in our heart garden must be renewed daily.
We must feel our need to take care of our garden. Even if we have the best soil, the enemy wants to sow tares in our garden.
Col 4:2 Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving;
Rev 16:15 Behold, I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame.
I get magazines that talk about how to grow the best garden. There are many ways that people garden. One way is Companion Gardening. This type of gardening is the kind where you pay attention to what plants will benefit another. Some plants benefit others and some fragrances blend well together.
Eph 5:9 (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;)
Php 1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.
Goodness, righteousness, and truth will blend together and work together and produce a wonderful fragrance unto the glory and praise of God.
Col 1:9 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;
Col 1:10 That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
Col 1:11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
Take knowledge without wisdom and understanding and you have only a smart-aleck. Put wisdom and understanding with knowledge and you have good companion garden.
Col 1:11 Strengthened with all might, according to his glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness;
Joyfulness is a good companion plant to longsuffering and patience. It makes longsuffering much better because we are happy with it.
Jas 3:17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
Jas 3:18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.
We blend the wisdom from above and it is pure, peaceable, and easy to be entreated.
Plant them all together and you will have no problem with partiality and hypocrisy. Some plants will cause others to not grow well. If you are having problems with a trial then look in the word for what to plant.
Rom 5:1 Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
Rom 5:2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Rom 5:3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
Rom 5:4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
Rom 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.
Some try Lasagna gardening. The advertisement say layering can cause your garden to be profitable. First lay a layer of cardboard then layer compost and mulch. “No digging, no weeding, no tilling, no kidding. No toil power soil.” This is not the type of garden for our hearts.
We must have a good preparation and digging in our heart garden. This will only work in shallow rooted plants. We must have a good foundation and it must go down deep. We have an enemy that is very anxious to sow tares in our gardens.
Another type of garden that is advertised is Raised beds. People try this in their heart garden: “Let’s just rise above the trouble.” We need to take care to dig down. Many people just don’t get cleared away down underneath. We must get cleared away to have good ground.
2Ti 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2Ti 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
2Ti 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
We are living in the last days. Perilous times are here and we must watch because we can have a form of godliness and deny the power thereof.
Jud 1:11 Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.
Jud 1:12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
Jud 1:13 Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
An awful condition: Clouds without water. If we are raising a garden when we see clouds forming and then are gone and we have not benefited at all, soon there is a wilting and then a fading away.
Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
Before we moved over here and had been saved for too long, there was an evangelist that came that was truly a false prophet. Before he left I wanted to give him some money and God would not let me give him any money. Later we found out what a false prophet he was. He was only here for gain.
God is faithful, if we by the goodness of our heart give someone the benefit of the doubt. God is faithful. We are to worship Him in spirit and truth; some hold the truth in unrighteousness. There are some that don’t have the right spirit and God witnesses to our heart.
Heb 2:1 Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip.
Heb 2:2 For if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward;
Heb 2:3 How shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him;
Take heed lest we let it slip or let our plants get covered up by something. If we let a plant get covered by dirt then it will die: slip away. We are in a dangerous time. We see people that are not living right and still hold their profession of salvation.
Some people are deceived and some are deceiving. We can be willingly deceived. We must keep ourselves prayed up, spend time with God, keep loving the truth, and keep in order with God. If God shows us anything in our lives, take care of it. Any of us could be deceived.
He could deceive the very elect if possible. The only way is to take heed. Everyday keep our soil.
It pays to be cheap is another book that I have.
Pro 23:23 Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.
Pro 6:10 Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:
Pro 6:11 So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth, and thy want as an armed man.
Mar 13:37 And what I say unto you I say unto all, Watch.
Joh 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
We must submit our complete will to the father … lets be a wise master builder.
Oswald Chambers - Where the desert touches a river-valley or oasis, the sand is in a continual state of drift from the wind, and it is this drift which is the real cause of the barrenness of such portions of the desert at least as abut upon the fertile land. For under the rain, or by infiltration of the river, plants often spring through the sand, and there is sometimes promise of considerable fertility. It never lasts. Down comes the periodic drift, and life is stunted or choked out. But set down a rock on the sand, and see the difference its presence makes. After a few showers, to the lee-ward side of this some blades will spring up; if you have patience, you will see in time a garden. How has the boulder produced this? Simply by arresting the drift.’ (George Adam Smith.)
The rock in our garden will arrest the drift and produce plants that can bear fruit.
The fourth garden is the Kings Garden.
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
In this kings garden we can abide together, grow together, labor together and be what He wants.
Act 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.
1Co 6:20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
We are bought with a price, a steep price. Jesus paid the price and submitted His will to the father. We are bought and purchased by the precious blood of Jesus, I’m so thankful for that precious price.
I see the King’s garden the Church a glorious and beautiful place.
Imagination: Let your mind paint these pictures of the king’s garden. Use these scriptures to paint a picture, a walk through the word in the King’s garden.
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.
Can you see the desert blossoming as a rose? I think of the tree of China rose that you bought: long branches just covered with the little tiny rosebuds, beautiful.
Son 4:12 A garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain sealed.
Son 4:13 Thy plants are an orchard of pomegranates, with pleasant fruits; camphire, with spikenard,
Son 4:14 Spikenard and saffron; calamus and cinnamon, with all trees of frankincense; myrrh and aloes, with all the chief spices:
Son 4:15 A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.
Son 4:16 Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.
The only one that I know what smells like is the cinnamon. Come north wind and south and blow. Think of what that is doing to all the fragrances. Can you smell them?
Zec 13:1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
In the King’s garden there is a beautiful fountain so we can be washed from sin and uncleanness.
I see a great enclosure of acres and one door and a great fence.
Isa 26:1 In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.
Isa 26:2 Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in.
Isa 26:3 Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.
Isa 26:4 Trust ye in the LORD for ever: for in the LORD JEHOVAH is everlasting strength:
This city has walls and bulwarks and only one door. The righteous nations that we want in the king’s garden are the word and the spirit.
Joh 10:7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep.
I see her king reigning in righteousness..
Isa 32:1 Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment.
Isa 2:1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem.
Isa 2:2 And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the LORD'S house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.
Isa 2:3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths: for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.
This is an active garden out of it goes the law and the word of the Lord. We want to hear it. Pay attention to this beautiful mountain that is in this garden. It is lifted up and we can see it.
Psa 93:5 Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh thine house, O LORD, for ever.
Rev 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
Rev 22:2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Get your visual going, we see a pure rover of the water of life so clear that it is like crystal. It proceeds from the throne where the king is sitting. On either side of the river is the tree of life. There are twelve manner of fruit and leaves are for healing.
Bear – to make or do, abide, agree.
[1]Chambers, Oswald: Christian Disciplines : Containing the Disciplines of Divine Guidance, Suffering, Peril, Prayer, Lonliness, Patience. London : Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1996, c1936
No comments:
Post a Comment