Brother Rick Sunday school 11/25/12

Brother Rick Sunday school 11/25/12

I am thankful that God is our friend.  It is wonderful that He wants to be our friend.

There is not a friend like Jesus in the trying scenes of life

He can hear the heart’s faint whisper, calm the raging sea of strife.

There is not a friend like Jesus, Bid the scoffing world adieu.

For if you’re ashamed of Jesus, He will be ashamed of you.

There is not a friend like Jesus, trust Him everywhere you go.

He has trod the way before you, suffered every pain and woe.

There is not a friend like Jesus when you draw your life’s last breath.

If you’ll be His friend while living, He will be your friend in death.

There is not a friend like Jesus what a blessed thought to be, 

Folded in His arms of power ever in eternity.

There is not a friend like Jesus, Patient, tender, kind, and true
If you’ll be a friend of Jesus, He will be a friend to you.

God has the tools right here in His Word to help us.  We don’t need to be afraid.  One of those tools is: “Casting all your care on Him for He cares for you.”  God understands that we have difficulty.  He knows our weaknesses.  We can cast all our care on Him.  We don’t have to hang onto any.  He wants us to cast every care on Him.

God is for us.  He is on our side.  If you are going through a trial where you are worried about something, worry doesn’t accomplish one good thing.  Worry is not our part in the process to get rid of a problem.  It doesn’t accomplish anything.  God wants us to leave our worry with Him.  He wants to accomplish good things.  God wants us to let the worry go and learn to truly trust Him.

We many times we think of faith as something that we hold onto.  It is not that way.  We must just believe that just as the sun comes up every morning, God will be faithful to His promise.  His is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. 

We don’t need to be discouraged.  He has the victory for us in every situation.  As long as we stay true to Him, He will be on our side and bring us through.  Leave your battles to God. 

If there seems to be something that you can’t get the victory over then get out and do something for someone else.  When we endeavor to be a blessing to those around us then God will lift that battle. 

Php 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Prayer is essential.  We were not designed to carry around our burden but we were designed for God to dwell in us.  God’s love will never change.

Joh 13:1  Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end.

He loved them to the very end.  Thank God.  He was willing to pay the ultimate price to be nailed to the cross for us.  He proved His love for us.

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Mercy can be compassionate treatment for those in distress.  God is that way.  We all go through distress.  It is a part of life.  Jesus is compassionate toward you as you go through your distress.  He wants to help you through it and out of it. 

If we didn’t go through trials that He delivers us from how else will we give glory to God?

 Thank God we don’t have to sin, but we will make mistakes and errors in judgment.  God is able to help us.  We need to believe how much God loves us.  We were all raised in different environments with different people and friends.  We may find that it is hard to believe this.  But we need to believe that God loves us.

Accusation is a charge of wrong doing.  The devil wants to cause us to think that we have done something wrong.  He will come to our mind, over and over again accusing us and tormenting us in our mind.  We don’t want to be discouraged and God doesn’t want us to be discouraged, but to keep pressing on. 

I went through a period that I thought I was going crazy because I didn’t have control over what came into my mind.  I prayed every day, “God help me to be able to control my mind.”  There are many good helps out there.  The book, “Heart talks by CW Naylor”, and also the Bible helped me.

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

I thank God that He healed me and those difficulties that I had with accusations.  Thank God that we can have the victory.

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

We will have troubles.  Be of good cheer.  This is a divine principal: to have good cheer in the midst of going through a difficulty.  How many times do you think that as you greeted one of the saints and they shook your hand and encouraged you, how many times do you think that they were going through a difficulty but they were still an encouragement?

When I teach a Sunday school class it is kind of a battle to me and it doesn’t come easy for me.  Think of Brother Gary and how he stands up here service after service.  How many times do you think that he is up here even when he is in a battle?  We need to appreciate our pastor.

Going to a monastery will not help us escape the troubles of life.  If you are going through a battle, one thing that will help us is to truly start praising God.  Dig in and recognize all the blessings that God has blessed us with.  It works.  God wants us to get the victory in all our trials and tests.

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

Don’t give up.  The reward when we get to the other side will be great.  There is reward here too.   Tribulation is a part of life.  We don’t want to let it discourage us.  We must, as we go through tribulation, be of good cheer.  Just a few verses earlier we see that Paul had been stoned.  Yet here he was working to encourage the saints.

We want to stay in the lord’s army no matter what comes.  Don’t give up.  God said that He will never leave you nor forsake you.  We have so much in this country.  We can go to the store and get whatever need that we have met.  We don’t want to let that cause us to not be thankful. 

It must be a great grief to God to see someone be delivered from the power of darkness and brought into the light then to see them go back.  Thank God that we can have the victory.

There is victory over difficulties in our life.  God wants us to have the victory.  When it seems that all around you is caving in then that is the time to turn to God.  As changes happen in our country we need to turn to God.

In the last days perilous times will come.  There is potential that things could become very difficult.  If we are not able to turn to God in these small difficult times, then how will we be able to turn to God when something really difficult comes along?

Rom 8:35  Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

Rom 8:36  As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

Rom 8:37  Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

Rom 8:38  For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

Rom 8:39  Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We cannot let whatever comes our way separate us from God.  Sometimes our unsaved loved ones won’t understand the way that we live or will give us a difficult time.  We cannot let that separate us.  We can be more than conquerors through Him that loves us.

Sometimes we don’t understand how God is going to answer our prayers.  But if we have prayed, in faith believing, then God will answer our prayers and will supply our need.  Nothing can take us away from God when we desire to stay true to God. 

I thank God that He gave me a mind to serve him.  He gave me the understanding that holding onto God is more important than anything else in life.  God will teach us all that we need to know if we hold on tenaciously.  No matter what we go through we need to tenaciously hold onto our salvation. 

Difficulties and wonderful times will come and go in our life.  One thing that we want to keep certain is holding onto God.  We don’t want to let go of this wonderful salvation.  It is worth more than the whole world.  No matter what may come or what hard situation you may go through, hold onto God.  Wherever you are or however things are, hold onto God.  Lay hold onto God. 

When that day comes we will realize that if we had all the gold that was stored in Fort Knox it would be valueless.  It is worth nothing in compared to our soul.

When we go through hard places and trials, then we are not going through it alone.  The Holy Spirit and Christ make intercession for us.  We have God pulling for us in the midst of our hard places.  If we will hold onto it then we have a truly positive situation. 

Our salvation and how we stand with God is not dependant on how we feel.  Our emotions may be up or down but we don’t go by feeling but by if we are doing the will of God or not. 

Rom 12:12  Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;

Some tribulations may be five minute tribulations, some last a lengthy time.  Some we have to endure a lifetime.  We want to go on enduring.  He that endures to the end shall be saved.

We need to be ready to pray at any given time on any given day.  We want prayer to be a habit in our life.  We can pray everywhere that we go.  Stay in communion with God.  Sometimes when difficulties come we just have to wait it out and just go on with life.

Sometimes when we have been in the mode of having unhealthy habits and interests in life then sometimes it takes time to develop a good hobby or learn how to be an encouragement to others.  Develop things that we can have in our thought life rather than just sitting around and letting our mind dwell on things that discourage us. 

God wants us to enjoy life. 

Deu 4:30  When thou art in tribulation, and all these things are come upon thee, even in the latter days, if thou turn to the LORD thy God, and shalt be obedient unto his voice;

Deu 4:31  (For the LORD thy God is a merciful God;) he will not forsake thee, neither destroy thee, nor forget the covenant of thy fathers which he sware unto them.

God doesn’t want you to be destroyed.  He wants you to enjoy your life.  If you do then it will show to those around you and they will want what you have.