Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 12/12/12

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 12/12/12

When they were reading the law, part of their worship was in the thought that God was there with them.

Mat 18:18  Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Mat 18:19  Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.

Mat 18:20  For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

We are blessed to have the God that is the only true God and He gathers with us when we are in a worship service and also when there are just two or three gathered together in His name.  “Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.”

It is possible to pray and ask amiss that we may consume it upon our lusts.  The lust of wanting our own way is one.  We don’t want to go down that road, we want to say, “God I want to please you and I want you to be pleased with everything in my life.”

Rom 8:26  Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.

Naturally we will pray for what we’ve been thinking about and what we’ve been exposed to.  We want to bear one another’s burdens.  This is part of being a disciple of Jesus. 

There is another realm of needs and activities than what you have thought of that the Holy Spirit knows.  There are letters to be written, we don’t know what our other brother and sister is going through and we don’t need to know to have a burden.  The holy Spirit can lay it on our heart. 

Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

There is no question that God has a plan for today and for tomorrow.  You and I will be baffled over and over again, but God is not baffled.  We may look at a situation and say that it is headed in the total wrong direction and there is no help.  That is true except for God.  When we seek after God, He is able.  He is able to do exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or think.

Mar 10:32  And they were in the way going up to Jerusalem; and Jesus went before them: and they were amazed; and as they followed, they were afraid. And he took again the twelve, and began to tell them what things should happen unto him,

Mar 10:33  Saying, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the Son of man shall be delivered unto the chief priests, and unto the scribes; and they shall condemn him to death, and shall deliver him to the Gentiles:

Mar 10:34  And they shall mock him, and shall scourge him, and shall spit upon him, and shall kill him: and the third day he shall rise again.

This word picture was not very encouraging.  It seems that the disciples were there with Him.  Two of them, James and John:

Mar 10:35  And James and John, the sons of Zebedee, come unto him, saying, Master, we would that thou shouldest do for us whatsoever we shall desire.

Mar 10:36  And he said unto them, What would ye that I should do for you?

There are times when if we are honest with ourselves, we tell God, “I really wish you’d do what I’d like for you do about this situation.”  This means that you are tender toward a situation and the situation means a lot to you.  There would probably not be any in this audience that wouldn’t fall in the same category as James and John.

Jesus listened and didn’t cut them off but let them make the expression.

Mar 10:37  They said unto him, Grant unto us that we may sit, one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left hand, in thy glory.

Jesus had told them that there would be tough days ahead.  These two were trying to come to the rescue, they said, “When it is all over we want to be close to you.  You are going to be leaving us and when it is over can John sit on one side and James on the other.” 

Jesus said, “You don’t know what you’re asking.” 

God will not cast us away when we don’t know what we are asking.  God and Jesus and the Holy Spirit are wonderful teachers. 

Mar 10:38  But Jesus said unto them, Ye know not what ye ask: can ye drink of the cup that I drink of? and be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?

Mar 10:39  And they said unto him, We can. And Jesus said unto them, Ye shall indeed drink of the cup that I drink of; and with the baptism that I am baptized withal shall ye be baptized:

Mar 10:40  But to sit on my right hand and on my left hand is not mine to give; but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared.

There will be times when things are going to be different than what you and I had hoped for and there will be times when in innocence we will ask for what God says is not in His plan.  We say, “I want your will, it was not in my heart to get out of order with God.”

Mar 10:41  And when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with James and John.

God allowed this to be recorded that we would know that people are all the same.  James and John wanted the one certain spot and when the disciples heard, they stretched as tall as they could and said, “Can you believe that?”

Mar 10:42  But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.

Mar 10:43  But so shall it not be among you: but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister:

Mar 10:44  And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.

Mar 10:45  For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

Jesus said, “James and John didn’t want to do anything wrong, they were just tired of being the underdog, but it is not to be this way with us.  He that would be great, let him be the servant.”

Their desire was good.  James and John knew that Jesus was going to be leaving.  They might have thought, “It would be good for us to be out of this mess too.  It would be good to be up there with Jesus.” 

Jesus took the situation to teach them.  Each of us will find ourselves in a situation where we need to be taught even about prayer.  When we are praying up a storm and we realize that is all it is, a storm.  When God witnesses back that there is something that is not quite right about the way that we are praying we can learn. 

When others are in a position where they are learning we are not to get a bad attitude toward those that God is teaching.  We can say, “I know how that is, I’ve been in the same position.”  We are to trust God to teach us. 

May God teach us how to pray and to have such an agreement of prayer that when we pray it is as a beautiful orchestra.  We want to blend our voices together and as an orchestra we agree together for one another’s burdens, and it comes up before God as a sweet sound.