Brother Gary Sunday Evening 3/10/13

Brother Gary Sunday Evening 3/10/13

Act 4:29  And now, Lord, behold their threatenings: and grant unto thy servants, that with all boldness they may speak thy word,

God already knew all about it. 

Act 4:30  By stretching forth thine hand to heal; and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.

There is a God in heaven whose arm is not shortened.  We don’t want to let unbelief, circumstances, or the diagnoses hinder us from believing. 

God, would you stretch forth your hand and heal?  That signs and wonders would be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.

We could spend a lot of time on new requests even tonight.  The needs are great.

Act 4:31  And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness.

Act 4:32  And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common.

We as husbands and wives when we pray and when we pray as a congregation, it is important that we have an agreement when we come together.  One heart and one soul: it would be this that God would reach forth His hand and that we would give God all the honor, all the glory, and all the praise.  This is how worthy God is and how compassionate that we would want to be. 

We serve a God that abounds in miracles.  Every day is a miracle.  Every day the sun comes up and then goes down.  There is nothing impossible with God.

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.

We all understand being justified by faith.  There was only one way to get saved and that is when we confessed and repented to believe that the blood of Jesus made an atonement for our sin and that He casts them as far as the east is from the west and casts our sin into the depths of the sea. 

The affects of salvation is that we have peace with God our Lord Jesus Christ.

There is an emphasis in verse 2 that I want to draw your attention to.  “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace.”  Dear ones God has grace, God has added grace, and God has as this scripture says, ‘this grace’. 

We know that if we will apply ourselves to it, that God has grace.  God has grace for every situation.  Like the sister going to be with her parents as her dad has surgery.  She will need grace.  God has grace for His children.

Wherein we stand:  A lot of times we know that there is grace, but it is vital that we have the grace, and that we stand in that grace.

Not only so but we glory, (rejoice or take pleasure in), tribulations.  We want to emphasize tonight that tribulations are a part of life.  There is no way to live in this world without tribulations.  Afflictions are a part of life.  This is not just physical afflictions, it is any of the types of afflictions that you may encounter and the pressures that you may encounter.  That is a part of life. 

It is so amazing, there was a time when they needed ice cut from the river or lake.  As things progressed, there was no need for ice because people could make their own.  One said, “But people will always need horses.”  Now there is no need for ice or horses.  We have progressed to where we are but it hasn’t done anything to lessen the pressure or remove the tribulation.

Paul went through this that he might help us.  What you are going through is not designed to hurt or destroy you.  It is designed to perfect you and to help others.

Tribulation works patience.  This scripture brought great conviction to my soul.  Patience… many times we find ourselves in a situation where I think, “I’m going to get through this by the help and grace of God.”  God is faithful to do that, but that is not patience.  God has a plan for us to have cheerful endurance.

Even at the age of 30 or 40 there will be trials and tribulations and people will need to have patience.  All of the rest of us here, God has a plan that we can have patience: a hopeful and cheerful endurance.

The design of tribulation is to work patience, experience, and then hope.  We want to handle tribulation the Bible way.  You would know the things that pressure you in prayer and try to pressure you out of prayer.  You know the things that crowd your mind and the things that you don’t want to start thinking about at night or your mind will move into a high range and you will not get much rest at night.  (If you don’t have these things then you need to hit the altar because you are almost dead.)

The design is to position us so that we have cheerful endurance.  Gritting the teeth while we endure is not the way that God has for us.  He has cheerful and hopeful endurance.  The reason that things don’t always go good is that God wants us to have patience.

Patience works experience: the journey that we take while we are going through these things.  It is that testing time.  Someone can say, “I had this experience.”  That is the journey, the season that they were in, the lesson that they learned.

God has ordained that our trials work patience and give us some real life journeying: experience and that experience then works hope.  God brings us to tribulation to give patience which gives experience which gives hope.

Hope is anticipation with pleasure.  It is the opposite of fear with torment.  It is expectation.  The news paper is so full of bad things and is way too expressive period.  It has no manners, no etiquette, and says things that should never be said.  If you have much to do with it you find yourself so degraded, so fearful, and plagued with corrupt thoughts in your mind.

It is wonderful that we have a heavenly Father that allows difficulties to come into our life.  Sometimes it is disappointment that is ours because of the good hope that we had.

The deliverance that we have is that “I feel pressure, I’m disappointed, my heart is broken but God help me to cheerfully endure.  So that the experience that you want me to have, the ground that you want me to gain, the journey that you want me to take leads me to hope: anticipation with pleasure.” 

Where ever we are tonight, God wants us to have hope spiritually first and also wants us to have hope literally.  He wants you to be expecting good things to happen.

Hope is anticipation with pleasure, expectation.  Hope works that we have confidence in God. 

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Hope makes us not ashamed.  Where ever you are in the sequence: tribulation, patience, experience, or hope, get to hope.  If you are disappointed, make sure you have cheerful endurance and keep walking and make sure that that cheerful endurance gives you a good experience and that the experience gives you hope.