Brother Gary Sunday Morning 4/29/12

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 4/29/12

Psa 22:18  They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

Psa 22:19  But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

Psa 22:20  Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

History records that they took Jesus’ outer garment and divided it up into four pieces.  They left the undergarment in one piece and they cast lots for it.

Mat 27:26  Then released he Barabbas unto them: and when he had scourged Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Mat 27:27  Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall, and gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers.

Mat 27:28  And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe.

What a sad, sad fulfillment of the Word of God.  There is nothing more embarrassing than to be naked. 

Gen 3:7:  After Adam and Eve sinned and lost fellowship with God they realized that they were naked and they hid themselves.  Jesus sewed hides together and made them a covering. 

This scarlet robe, it is wonderful yet it is sad, because of the witness of the Word of God.  All the prophesies of the Old Testament of Christ He fulfilled.

Think of the sufferings of Christ!  It speaks in Acts of the passion of Christ.  When you study the passion of Christ, all the references go to His suffering. 

Why did he suffer?  He already was the son of God.  He never had sinned.  He came into this world without a carnal nature but His life was one of intense suffering.  He suffered for you and for me.  He bore my sin.

I thought of the brokenness of Miami.  He bore their griefs.  There wouldn’t be anyone in this audience that has reached much of an age that doesn’t know what it means to be emotionally hurt.  Even children know what it is to be hurt. 

Jesus didn’t suffer for Himself.  He suffered because He knew that everyone that was born into the world would know pain.  If that pain and sorrow isn’t dealt with according to the teachings of the Word of God it will lead to bitterness.  There is no worse garment than the garment of bitterness. 

You never visit with hardly anyone that isn’t saved for any length of time that bitterness doesn’t surface.  Jesus suffered for us. 

There was a reason they dressed Him in a scarlet robe.  One of them was to mock Him and the other is because of Isaiah 1:18. Probably everyone in this audience appreciates an invitation.  Here is an invitation for us:

 

Isa 1:18  Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

They put upon Him a scarlet robe.  “Though your sins are as scarlet...”  He bore our sins.  Those sins of our childhood, through our teenage years, of our adult life, up to the point where you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that you confessed and repented of your sin and that you were forgiven. 

Many people pray, “Oh God forgive me of my many sins.”  They don’t pray in the thought of, “I realize that you put on the scarlet robe and suffered so that I, whose sins were as scarlet, could be saved.”

Most of us were taught as a child that you don’t make fun of anyone.  One of the most humiliating things that you have ever done or has ever been done to you is to be mocked.  This one that they put the scarlet robe on came from heaven to save those very people that mocked Him.  That scarlet robe included their sin.

It is marvelous that we know that all of the sin of any person is part of that scarlet robe that Jesus put on.  Each of us had a great part in that scarlet robe. 

Though your sins be as scarlet!  How deep sin and the affects of sin goes into the mind and the life!  Some say, “I could never forgive myself of this thing that I did that was so wrong.”  Let me help you.  Jesus put on that scarlet robe in order that all manner of sin could be forgiven those that came to Him.

Though your sin be as red as scarlet they shall be as white as snow.

The writer of Acts and Luke wanted to know everything that He could know about Jesus.  He felt that there were valuable things that they left unsaid so he wrote the Gospel according to Saint Luke.  He wrote Acts to Theophilus. 

He wrote that Jesus lift up his hands and blessed them and told them that as he was taken away so would He come again.

Act 1:1  The former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and teach,

Act 1:2  Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

Act 1:3  To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

Jesus suffered.  Why?  Isaiah 64:6.  All our righteousness is as filthy rags.

Isa 52:1  Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

We are blessed to not only live in the Gospel Day but we are blessed to understand that in the Gospel Day you can have a change of garments.  You don’t have to wear those old dirty garments anymore.

Isa 61:10  I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, my soul shall be joyful in my God; for he hath clothed me with the garments of salvation, he hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.

When we come to Jesus Christ and are born again the old garment must be laid aside.  Many times people try to make themselves better:  become a better individual.  In order to be right with God you must have a change of garments.  This text describes the garment of salvation.

Salvation has five aspects. 

1. It is a garment of deliverance.  Once saved, you are not the same anymore.  David said, “He lifted me out of the miry clay.”  The reason that men and women cannot quit sinning is because they are still of the foundation of the earth and are not born again.  When you are lifted from the sinking sand and the miry clay and are delivered then you are clothed with the garments of praise and of salvation.

2. The garments of salvation are a provision that gives you help.  No one can live for God in their own strength.  How many times from that day that you got saved?  How many times from that moment that I knelt at the altar of prayer and became a child of Jesus Christ has He helped?

When we got saved we were challenged.  I was challenged; I was challenged many times because of my own personality.  But there was help.

In the hour of difficulty, an hour that is heart wrenching when you are in despair before God, in that hour there is help.  I wouldn’t want to face anything where that robe of salvation and that help isn’t right there. 

There aren’t any of us that know what might be on the answering machine when we get home.  There may be a great hurt and there may be a great blessing.  We need help to receive each in the way we should.  We need help in our mind to get it out of the state that we are in so that God can pour out a blessing on us and we can receive it.

God loads us daily with benefits, Ps 103.  Bro Maconahae preached that we must be in a position to receive the benefit or they can fall and our mind is distracted on our self or the position that we are in and we cannot receive the blessing. 

Every one that is alive needs the help of God.  That is a part of salvation.

3.  Salvation means safety.  I think of the times that we live in.  I live a very sheltered life.  I don’t know much that is going on outside of Paradise, simply because I cannot handle it.  I desperately need help from God in my daily life to think right, to meditate right, and to not try to judge what is none of my business.  I need help from God to follow the path that is laid out for me on the highway of holiness.  I am a husband, a father, a neighbor.  I want to fulfill my responsibilities with the help of God.

4.  Salvation means victory.  The message here is to keep the garment of salvation on.  We are creatures of choice and have lots of choices.  When something is presented to us that we would be tempted with then we look up to God and ask for His help.  We need help from God that we don’t put ourselves into the position where we should not be so that we are tempted.

When we think of the mockery of them putting the scarlet rob on Jesus, all the sin.  When we turn our back on Jesus after we have been saved we crucify Jesus again.  God help us never to do it.

5.  Salvation means health.  God wants you to be healthy physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally.  That doesn’t mean that there won’t be times when we need to climb and have no strength to climb.  He gives strength to those that wait on the Lord.

Zec 3:1  And he shewed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him.

When you decide to seek after God it will not be easy.  Satan will be there to resist you.  When you desire to seek, seek with the attitude, “I know God is and is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.”

Be determined that not only do you want to come to Mt Zion but you want to climb Mt Zion.  We must have a determination not that we have arrived but that we are going to climb.  We must be as the scripture says, “The spirit of just men made perfect.”  If you allow a spirit of pride to get a hold of you that you have arrived and that no one can tell you anything then you are in trouble.  God hates pride.

Zec 3:2  And the LORD said unto Satan, The LORD rebuke thee, O Satan; even the LORD that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee: is not this a brand plucked out of the fire?

Yes.  I think of my father.  His testimony was that He was a bootlegger and was in West Virginia hauling booze from a wet state to a dry state.  When he began to seek after God, the devil thought he had him.  He married a woman that in a process of time sought God and got saved.  She prayed for him.  The devil didn’t give up easy but God was on my dad’s side.  God told him one day that he needed to go out to the barn and pray.  God saved Him and changed his life. 

Joshua was clothed with a filthy garment; he, as all mankind, had sinned.  God made a provision as he stood there before the angel.

Zec 3:3  Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.

Zec 3:4  And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment.

They said, “Take the filthy garment and clothe him with a change of raiment.” 

Pro 6:16  These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him:

Pro 6:17  A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

Pro 6:18  An heart that deviseth wicked imaginations, feet that be swift in running to mischief,

Pro 6:19  A false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth discord among brethren.

Mat 9:16  No man putteth a piece of new cloth unto an old garment, for that which is put in to fill it up taketh from the garment, and the rent is made worse.

Let’s say that someone says, “Things aren’t right in my life.” So they say, “I’m going to start doing good deeds.”  You cannot put a little bit of Jesus as a patch in your life.  There is only one thing that we can do when things are wrong in our life and that is to say, “God there is nothing righteous in my garments, I need a change.”

One day a father had a prodigal son that went out and wasted all his inheritance and lived bad.  He ended up in the hog pen feeding swine.  What do you think that his garment looked like?  What do you think that he looked like? 

This father kept looking for his son.  I don’t know how long the prodigal fed pigs.  I don’t know what he smelt or looked like.  This father loved him. 

This is a real message to us as the church.  One day that prodigal started home.  The father looked way down the road and saw him.  He couldn’t wait.  He took off for him. 

The father said, “Bring the best robe and put it on him.”

Jesus was stripped.  They put a scarlet robe on Him.  They were mocking Him as a king, yet the underlining thing was that it was a fulfillment of prophecy.  He was bearing our sin.

How are our garments?  Are they spotless?  Have we taken care of everything that God is talking to us about?  Are we enjoying the robes of salvation and the garments of praise?  If we are not then we are living so far below what God has for us.  Jesus suffered and was stripped as part of His passion. 

Some here were loved by their family and some I don’t know much about, but Jesus loves us all.  He suffered so that we could have that filthy garment taken away and be clothed with the robes of salvation.

Bro Bob Sunday School 4/29/12

Bro Bob Sunday School 4/29/12

We are people of choice.  We are where and who we are by the choices we’ve made.  I cannot stress enough the importance of choosing to serve God and go God’s way.  That is life and life more abundantly.  I thank God for saving me from that life of sin and giving me new life. 

We need to choose Jesus as our savior.  It is the best life; it is really life.  Before I got saved, my life was a mess.  I thought I had everything in control.  I was so wrong.  Thank God to be delivered from sin.

Who is your enemy?  There are people that think that we are their enemy.  Saint’s are no man’s enemy.  Jesus said, “Love your enemies.”  Beloved enemy!  Think of that.  We have a real concern for the lost soul that needs to be saved.  We hold no malice toward them even if they hold malice for us.

Choose to serve God and receive the blessings.  God has blessings for us.  Jesus bled and died that we could have blessings.  We will not receive the blessings if we don’t accept the salvation He offers.  We are not all sufficient, we need God’s help.

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.

Joh 10:10  The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.

Abundant life for the children of God!  All wisdom is available to those that choose to draw close to God in obedience.  God doesn’t want any rebels; He wants an obedient service.

Every promise in the Bible is ours.  All 66 books in the Bible are for us.

1Co 1:24  But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

God wants us to have wisdom in serving Him.  It is ours for the asking.  Christ in your vessel equals the power and wisdom of God in your vessel.  It is God’s plan that we have this, it is God’s plan that Christ dwell in our hearts.  Christ will not dwell in an unclean vessel. 

Even though the scriptures are brought many times, we cannot wear them out and please don’t let them become common.

Rom 13:14  But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

This is good and right instruction.  If we will do this, God will bless us and bless our lives.  It is a real pleasure and honor to live for God.  Only a clean vessel will do.

Sister Teri - One of the reasons that so many in the religious world think that there is no living above sin is because they make provision for the flesh.  They put themselves into positions that God would never have led them to.  Because of this they end up sinning.  They put themselves into the position and gave in because they were where they shouldn’t have been.  We need wisdom to stay out of places where we shouldn’t be.

Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

Eph 3:10  To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,

Heavenly places are in the church of God.  Manifold means many, multiplied, numerous.  God’s commandments give us wisdom.  They are for us.

When God’s commandments were given to Moses, they were given to the Jews.  Today they are to us.  They are to us because of Christ.  Saints are spiritual Jews. 

Deu 4:10  Specially the day that thou stoodest before the LORD thy God in Horeb, when the LORD said unto me, Gather me the people together, and I will make them hear my words, that they may learn to fear me all the days that they shall live upon the earth, and that they may teach their children.

Deu 4:11  And ye came near and stood under the mountain; and the mountain burned with fire unto the midst of heaven, with darkness, clouds, and thick darkness.

Deu 4:12  And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.

Deu 4:13  And he declared unto you his covenant, which he commanded you to perform, even ten commandments; and he wrote them upon two tables of stone.

Deu 4:14  And the LORD commanded me at that time to teach you statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go over to possess it.

Deu 4:20  But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

This what God has done for us.  He has brought us out of the life of bondage.  We know that God spared not them for their rebellion.  Thousands died in the wilderness and never made it to Canaan. 

We are not more special than those rebels that perished.  If we are murmuring and complaining then we will not be spared.  God is not going to change.  Through Jesus Christ we can give God an acceptable service and please Him. 

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

We are not facing a mountain on fire, smoke, and thundering.  Mt Zion is where the saints dwell, the Church of God.  Most of the church of God is on the other side.  We need to make it to the other side.

Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

We can have our spirits made perfect.  By salvation we can do all we know to do to serve God.  We don’t have to be rebellious or lost in this life.  This life is so short, like a snap of the fingers, as a drop in the bucket as the Bible says.  Eternity is forever.

Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

We’ve come to a new and better way only because Jesus came to deliver us from the prison house of sin.   That is bondage; thank God we can be free.

Heb 12:25  See that ye refuse not him that speaketh. For if they escaped not who refused him that spake on earth, much more shall not we escape, if we turn away from him that speaketh from heaven:

We need to listen. We need every Word by the Spirit of God.  It is full of dessert, but we need the vegetables too.  The scripture tells us that some will be bitter in our stomach, but we need that too.

Heb 12:26  Whose voice then shook the earth: but now he hath promised, saying, Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven.

Heavenly places are being shaken.  In the congregation where God’s people meet, there is shaking.  We need to adhere to and to hear what God through the Word of God is saying to us so that we are not shaken off.

Heb 12:27  And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

We remain only because we are diligent and choose what is right and stay on the precious corner stone, Jesus Christ.  We don’t want to ever get lifted up and think that we have all the answers.  This is the way to destruction.

Heb 12:28  Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:

We will never make it without grace.  Serve God acceptably with reverence and Godly fear. 

Heb 12:29  For our God is a consuming fire.

Give God an acceptable service in love, joy, peace, and righteousness. 

Isa 64:6  But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Before I got saved, I thought I was a pretty good person and I couldn’t have been farther from the truth.  I lived a better life than most religious people but I didn’t have the righteousness of God or His grace in my life.

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 4/25/12

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 4/25/12

Vicarious means suffering in the place of another.  It is marvelous that Jesus Christ willingly suffered for us.  Dealing with the thought of strength:

Psa 22:1  To the chief Musician upon Aijeleth Shahar, A Psalm of David. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

There are times in our life when we feel alone.  We are put in a position where we are going through trials, sickness, or being misunderstood.  Sometimes in these positions we feel all alone.  There was one crucial time in the life of Christ when He found Himself in that exact situation.  God the Father couldn’t bear to look on him as He took on the sins of the whole world.

David went through a similar situation in the thought of this being a prophecy of Christ.

Psa 22:2  O my God, I cry in the daytime, but thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent.

Psa 22:3  But thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel.

David left the thought with us: we know God is holy.   (Genesis through Revelations teaches this.)  Thou art Holy that inhabits the praises of Israel.  Life will leave open doors that we will be unhappy if we go through them.  There is a whole other door that we can go through:

1Ti 2:1  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;

We either choose to be thankful or we choose to not be thankful.  There is a great value in being thankful.  Among these is that God inhabits the praises of Israel.  Being thankful draws God near to us.  Often times in the scripture the words strength and praise are interchangeable.  If we don’t praise God then we will become very weak. 

Paul exhorted Timothy to supplicate: to ask god to advert evil.  There has always been evil since the fall in the garden.  We live in a day as the Bible teaches that evil men will wax worse and worse.  We want to be before God asking Him to advert evil for ourselves and for others. 

Our minds can become targeted by evil.  They can become targeted by the times that we live in and by our economy.  People that you never thought would hear say it are uncertain as far as to what is going to happen financially.  We are not immune to those statements affecting us. 

Jesus taught us the great danger of having the thought of “My barns are full; I’ll tear them down and build greater.”  After giving this parable, Jesus promised to supply all our needs.  Isn’t that wonderful!

Supplications are pleading for God to take care of evil spirits.  Our children and grandchildren are exposed to unholy spirits that I am very uncomfortable with.  It is wonderful that God and His Holy Spirit can put a check in their hearts, “Be careful here.” 

When your sons and daughters, or grandchildren reach a certain age they need to be taught when God is warning them and know how to excuse themselves and stay away from those that make them uncomfortable.  We want to protect our children.

Prayers: it is wonderful to be able to pray.  It is not just taking the list and saying, ‘oh God do this and do that.”  I is not just, “I want this or I want that.”  When we pray we need to worship.  When we approach Our Father we are coming as one among the family.  He is “Our Father.”

Intercessions:  when God lays a burden on your heart for a soul and you feel the urgency of praying again and interceding.  We are not just dealing with family tonight, we need to be burdened for our family, but we don’t want to just have the small circle of my, mine, and ours.  Whoever God lays upon our heart we want to be faithful to intercede for.  Lengthen our cords.

Psa 22:4  Our fathers trusted in thee: they trusted, and thou didst deliver them.

Psa 22:5  They cried unto thee, and were delivered: they trusted in thee, and were not confounded.

Psa 22:6  But I am a worm, and no man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people.

The idea of the worm is a caterpillar that as it gets ready to bring forth children it forms a chrysalis and dies.  Its body is used to make scarlet dyes.

Psa 22:7  All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,

Psa 22:8  He trusted on the LORD that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him.

Psa 22:9  But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.

Psa 22:10  I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother's belly.

Psa 22:11  Be not far from me; for trouble is near; for there is none to help.

Psa 22:12  Many bulls have compassed me: strong bulls of Bashan have beset me round.

Psa 22:13  They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring lion.

Psa 22:14  I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my bowels.

Psa 22:15  My strength is dried up like a potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust of death.

Our strength being dried up…  There will be times when we realize that “I’m in the valley and I don’t have strength to climb the mountain.”  This doesn’t mean that you are not saved; it means that you need to go to God for strength. 

A piece of potsherd….  A piece of pottery that has been baked and is all dried out.  None of us likes to be dry or without strength.  It is all to put us in the situation of going to God and getting the good from it.

There is not anyone here that hasn’t been bullied by either the devil or people.  It is a terrible thing.   Oppressing someone is terrible.  Jesus endured bullying.  He endured suffering so that you and I would have a way to be delivered from our sin.  Isn’t that wonderful! 

Poured out like water….  I’ve given all that I have and I am exhausted.  Jesus was exhausted and rightfully so.  When you feel exhausted you can rest assured that there is one that knows how to help you. 

When on that cross…  Can you imagine the suffering in your joints when on the cross?  Jesus was on a cross His feet about a foot above the very earth that He created.  When you are feeling that you are out of joint or having a difficult time being fitly joined to the Body of Christ, Jesus knows how to help you to be fitly joined. 

The spiritual body is made of many members.  We are all different members, not puppets or mimics; we are individuals that have found Jesus Christ and His salvation.  We are individuals and we fill different positions in the body.  The position, whether a little joint or a little finger, is important to the whole body.  It doesn’t matter how big the member is, if it is just a joint hurting, then it affects the whole body.

His heart melted, my strength is dried as a piece of pottery.  So dry:  I don’t like to feel dry and strength less, but Jesus was there. 

Psa 22:16  For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

False prophets and false brothern are dogs that are terrible and run in packs.  The church and sinner’s worst enemy are the hypocrites.  Jesus was crucified by false, religious people.

Psa 22:17  I may tell all my bones: they look and stare upon me.

Psa 22:18  They part my garments among them, and cast lots upon my vesture.

Psa 22:19  But be not thou far from me, O LORD: O my strength, haste thee to help me.

We will be right there several times in our life.  We will need strength so desperately that we cry out, “Oh God I need thy strength.

Psa 22:20  Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.

Dealing with the thought of the soul, David said, “Keep my soul, the most precious thing that I have, the only thing that will last indefinitely from the power of the dog.  Don’t let anything contaminate me.”

Psa 27:1  A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Everyone in this audience has the possibility of being visited by the spirit of fear.  God hasn’t given the spirit of fear but we find ourselves visited by the spirit of fear.

Psa 27:2  When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell.

Psa 27:3  Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident.

Psa 27:4  One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

We are to be a living sacrifice.  Our body, our time… is to be a living sacrifice.  When someone needs our time, they need our undivided attention.  I covet your prayers for this.  There are times when our time is already demanded and that is different but God help us that when someone needs our time that we can align our self so that we can give them the time that they need.

Psa 27:13  I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.

Psa 27:14  Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

You can become really weak but you don’t have to faint or lose your direction.  You can be exhausted and not feel that you have strength to climb.  It may be that the battle is raging. 

I’m not an evening man.  As the evening comes on my body begins to shut down.  There have been times when I’ve gone to God and said, “I don’t have strength to deal with this tonight, I’m going to trust it with you.  When morning comes I’m going to deal with this.”

You can get exhausted and tired, but you don’t have to lose your way.  Wait on the Lord, God always comes through.

Probably the saddest testimony we ever hear is someone coming to us and saying, I wish I wouldn’t have run ahead of God; I wish I would have prayed more about that situation.

Don’t let the enemy ever convince you that God is not going to come through.  Be of good courage.  God will come through.  God spoke to Joshua again and again as he began to lead the Israelites, “Be strong and very courageous.”

Keep holding on just one more hour.  Be of good courage and He will strengthen thy heart.  There are promises that God will send strength.  You will be tired or feel like you are dry and need living water.  You will feel like you’ve been climbing and you need more strength to keep climbing. 

If God gave us everything that we asked for the first time that we asked, then we wouldn’t know how to have patience with ourselves or with others.  Wait on the Lord.