Brother Gary Sunday Morning 9/16/12

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 9/16/12

God has goodwill toward mankind.  He spoke to Zephaniah and told him to tell Israel that God wanted them to have a song.  We understand mourning, having a heavy burden, travailing for souls to some degree, and we understand carrying a burden. 

The message this morning is on the thought that God wants every one of us to be encouraged.  There are many resources individuals may resort to, to try to help themselves to get through the difficult seasons of life.  These may or may not help. 

God will help us because He has sent His Word; He will never fail.  If we will take the initiative and exercise faith toward the Word of God It will accomplish just what God sent it to accomplish.

As difficult a time that they were in, God sent His word to say:

Zep 3:14  Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.

Zep 3:15  The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.

The Lord has taken away thy judgments:  the children of Israel had left God to do idol worship.  Whenever people leave God to serve something else, God in His mercy sends judgment to say, “I am displeased with that situation.” 

When people repent:  confess to God that they are wrong, have godly sorrow and the attitude that God I will never return to disobedience, or to idol worship.  Self is the greatest idol that people battle with today. 

Whenever individuals are drawn away from worship to God it is just a turn toward a downward road from God.  When individuals repent from their error, God says, “I forgive you.”  When God forgives you of a transgression he never holds it against you again.

God said that He would cast out the enemy.  It is wonderful when God tells the devil, “You can come no further.”  God sets a hedge around His people.  Protection is of the Lord.

Zep 3:16  In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.

We live in a day of much fear.  We live in a day of much religious fear, Catholicism, Protestantism, paganism, all of them rule through fear.  There is fear to those that are a part of them that if they don’t do according to the dictates of the congregation that something bad would happen.

God has not given us a spirit of fear.  God doesn’t want his people operating out of fear but out of love toward God.

Let not thy hands be slack.  Everyone that is here has been in the race however long that they have.  Everyone here has been saved, working, and living for God however long.  The lesson to us as the Church of God here in Paradise Montana today is to let not thy hands be slack.

You may have labored however long; the important thing is to not let our hands be weary in the labor of the Lord.

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.

We live in the Laodicean period of time where it is very easy to be slothful about almost everything.  The greatest danger is people don’t take care of their soul.  If they don’t take care of their soul, they don’t take care of anything else.  If they don’t take care of their soul, then they will be begging spiritually in every way.

In every one of our lives there are things that would make us slothful and will cause our hand to be slack spiritually.  These thorns are the cares of life, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things entering in: the parable of the sower and the thorny ground.

It is important that we don’t let any thorns grow in our lives.  We need to take care of everything that God has given us.  Take care of our homes and spiritually: take care of our soul.

The cares of life will work to crowd out worship and will cause our mind to be racing when we are reading the scriptures.  Having our mind race will not help us get anything done. 

Put God first and know what the closet is and know how to shut the door to the closet.  Know how to say to yourself and to all the voices that would speak to us, “I need to be still before God and commune with God.”  Say the same to our mind that races on all of the challenges that we might face.

We only have so much strength.  Most of us have more time then we have strength.  God doesn’t want you working more than is alright with Him.  We need to take every precaution that we read the word of God and get something out of it.  Sometimes you have to shut the world off, voices off, shut yourself off, not let your mind race, enjoy feeding on the good things of God and seek after God. 

If you have God first then He helps you have the priorities that you need and He helps you get what you need to get done, done.

The thorns were there, the nettles were there and the stone wall was broken down.  Take care of your experience, don’t allow anything hammer on the walls of salvation.  Allow no cracks in your wall. 

Pro 24:32  Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction.

Pro 24:33  Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

Pro 24:34  So shall thy poverty come as one that travelleth; and thy want as an armed man.

Whenever an individual becomes idle:  idle hands, mind, and words, are a devil’s playground. 

Zep 3:16  In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.

There is value to spiritual vigor.  “God help us to know what you want us to get done fall of 2012.”  We enjoy summer and the daylight hours.  We appreciate all the good things that happened this summer and all that we were able to enjoy.  We appreciate Ruth getting saved. 

We cannot relive the summer blessings over and over again.  It is good to can food; we will enjoy it all winter long.  It doesn’t work that way spiritually.  You can’t can spiritual blessings.  God has wonderful things in store for us every day.

One of the greatest tools of the enemy is to deceive people so they don’t know God is a God that has good plans for us every day.  ‘My expectation is of God.’  ‘According to my earnest expectation and my hope…’ 

God wants you and I to look for good things to happen, expect doors to open, be prepared because we have a message of good news to all men. 

Luk 2:13  And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying,

Luk 2:14  Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

I believe that God wants every one of us to have the attitude, “God, I am trusting you to open the door so that I can relay to others why the angels announced at the birth of Christ that He came to bring ‘good will toward men.’” 

This is sent to us personally and to everyone here, I am glad that God has ordained that they know about the good will that God has for them.  For those that are suffering in their lives for their sins and their idols, suffering from the judgments of God for their decisions.  When they turn from their idol, God changes in this thought, “He is ready to bring in good will.”

The first good will is that they be reconciled to God.  We realize that in individual’s lives that are in an extreme difficult situation, God has good will toward them.  When they repent and call out to God when they ask for a total life change, when they tell God that they are sick and tired of sin, of the life that they are living, of the spirits that they manifest, when they cry out for God to forgive them of their sin, God forgives them and has goodwill toward them.

When men and women get reconciled to God then that is the best thing that can ever happen.  When they reconcile with God then the good will of God comes from them toward others.  Immediately once God forgives you of all your committed sin and you realize that you are loved and forgiven, there is something in your heart that you love each other.

Another part of the good will that God has is peace with God.  You can have peace with God.  People may go through their whole life at war with God, they don’t want to believe the Bible or have good morals; they don’t want to believe the standard.  After they get reconciled, they want to obey all the Word of God.

It clears their conscience when they reconcile to God.  When you preach on restitution people become uncomfortable.  When something is wrong in a person’s life they make excuses why something is wrong and how it is someone else’s fault.  They don’t want to clear themselves.

Have a conscience void of offense.  People live on the line of, ‘I don’t feel right in my conscience about this but I think that I can get by.’  Why would you want to do this?

Suppose that Sister Sue buys Brother Jim a new Dodge and as he changes the oil he decides to only put half the oil in.  Why take the risk? 

You decide to only run the pressure cooker half the time the instructions say, why take the risk?  You say, I’m not going to fill the car at 3.63 a gallon, I’m only going to buy two gallons at a time, why take the risk? 

Peace with our conscience:  I feel bad about not getting the chance to personally great Sister Teri’s children in Carmichael.  I love Sister Teri and I love her children.  I noticed that there was another sister there that told me that her son may come into that service.  There is something in me that I want to do everything so that my conscience is clear.  Goodwill toward men:  I hope that I see them again.

Goodwill toward man is that we can have peace with our past.  Everyone in this audience has a past.  It is a wonderful thing that when we repent we can have peace with the past.  God does good will; He saves the one that never had a chance and the one that threw the chance to be saved as a child away.  God says, “I will still show good will.”

Peace with the present:  We don’t know about tomorrow and we don’t know what this day holds.  We can trust the good will of God. 

Peace with the future:  We all have a future as far as we know.  As we go through the aging process, we wonder, “Will I be able to keep my mind or will I not have my mind.”  It is a privilege to be able to walk and hike, but we know that there are times when people are confined to a wheel chair.

Good will toward our neighbor:  The goodwill that God dwells among the saints, that He speaks; idols don’t speak.  The good will that God works in them. 

Zep 3:17  The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

God will save you from your troubles.  The goodwill that there will no temptation come but that which is common to man, and God is faithful who will with the temptation also provide a way of escape.

Heaven rejoices when a sinner repents, and God loves it when you and I obey.  He rests in His love.  It is wonderful that you’ve settled it forever you will be true to God, “I’ll never leave or forsake Him.  I’ll be true to God.”

It is wonderful to think that men and women like you and I can bring joy to God.  After all that he has done to encourage, strengthen, and help; after He has given and given, when we serve Him, we bring joy to Him.