Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 4/17/13

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 4/17/13

In Romans chapter 1 Paul was dealing with an issue very strong.  In Chapter 2 he continues:

Rom 2:1  Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.

Rom 2:2  But we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth against them which commit such things.

Rom 2:3  And thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judgment of God?

Rom 2:4  Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

Oh the riches of the goodness of God!  The riches of His goodness is the abundance of His righteous acts and goodness toward us.  Our society gets into ho-hums about God, faith, and truth.  God wants us to see that He is abundant in goodness.

Psa 16:1  Michtam of David. Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.

This is a heart-cry of the redeemed and of all ages.  You and I live in 2013.  We are exposed through various avenues to how much we need God.  When we realize how evil and wicked the world is we cry out as David, “Oh God preserve me, in thee do I put my trust.”

Psa 16:2  O my soul, thou hast said unto the LORD, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;

Psa 16:3  But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.

Probably David after he had cried out to God to preserve him, God came to allow him to understand that He would send the Messiah who would have, as God has, a very tender, compassionate heart.  The thought expressed to David was that the son would come full of goodness that would extend down to all people including you and me. 

Jesus has an excellent desire not just to be good and have a good relationship with the father but to extend that goodness to mankind. 

Just what does the goodness of God leading you to repentance mean?  What is the riches of the goodness?  What is this goodness? 

It was the goodness of God that convicted us.  It was the goodness of God that Jesus came that we could be saved.  His goodness made a way that we could be cleansed from our committed sin and our inherited sin. 

His goodness brings to us the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost giving to us of His beauty.  It is the beauty of the Lord that can rest upon us to enable us to handle and to live in a way that is pleasing to Him. 

Moses in the 90^th Psalm prayed and concluded the Psalm with, “Let the beauty of the Lord be upon us.”

The journey of life affords everyone the opportunity to be bitter.  This is the way that life is. 

No matter how hard goes the battle of life
God’s children need never despair
His comforting grace gives peace during strife
There is wonderful power in prayer.

Wonderful power, there is wonderful power in prayer
For it moveth the arm that moveth the world
There is wonderful power in prayer.

I looked into who wrote this song.  It was written by Eliza Hewitt.  She was born in Philadelphia; she grew up and went to school there.  She was educated and taught school.  A student injured her with a slab of slate.  It hit her in the spine and her life from that point to the end of the journey was a life of pain. 

She chose to find the goodness of God and to find the beauty of the Lord instead of becoming bitter.  She penned many songs.  She penned one that is entitled ‘The Golden Hour.’  I haven’t found that hymn yet but I think that it is a hymn about conviction.  That season when someone is being drawn by the father it is a golden hour.

We see the goodness of the son of God.  It was not just to cause Him to be good in the eyes of God the father.  It was with the desire to bring beauty, happiness, and welfare to mankind.  The word ‘welfare’ is so abused in America that when people talk of it your first thought is negative. 

The welfare of God in our lives comes from His extreme riches of His goodness, God’s goodness in the thought that He takes good care of us spiritually.  Most of us say we wish we would have understood in our yesteryears how much goodness He had prepared for us.  We wish we had understood prayer better. 

We remember the first time that Brother Figeroa came to us; he had a grasp about worship beyond my grasp.  We wish we would have had a grasp about worship way back into our childhood.

We have a God that cares about the moral excellence of every little boy and girl.  This is what brought me to the song, “There is wonderful power in prayer.

We serve a God that will help us pray that God would help us to not live in a society where men and women will decide that they want to terminate that life.  Help us to pray that we will be able to really encourage these children that are here tonight to serve God and find out what God wants them to do with their life.

It is unjust, unfair, and ungodly for someone to say that a child really doesn’t have the credentials for whatever it may be.  It is unknown what God can do with them.  It is unknown what God will do with a man that is fully sold out to him. 

Let it be known what God will do with you.  Just because you come from a remote area doesn’t mean that God cannot use you for His honor and his glory.  God is concerned about the welfare of the little children. 

God is concerned about our welfare for the rest of our life.  God has ordained the welfare of all of us.  The welfare of the minister, the Sunday school teacher, the song leader…, God is really concerned about us.  It is the riches of His goodness.

Not one of us husbands has been widowed with our children to raise.  You talk about a journey.  God has been wonderful.

Psa 16:4  Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.

This has been proven how many times?  There is no god of this world that anyone can go after that it will not bring much sorrow.  We don’t need to invent the wheel again.

Psa 16:5  The LORD is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.

When we have God we have the riches of His goodness.  There is something about God that when we have Him we have His son which is the I AM.

There are times in the Bible that Abraham used the name, Jehovah- God will provide.  In other places He is referred to as Jehovah-God is in this place, or Jehovah- the Lord is our healer.  He is our savior, he is our sanctifier.  He is the portion of our inheritance.  When everything else is gone, God will be there.

Psa 16:6  The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

 

I don’t know what is on the horizon for everyone tonight, but God knows how to cause the lines to fall in the right place.  He does it over and over again.

Psa 16:7  I will bless the LORD, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.

Psa 16:8  I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Psa 16:9  Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.

Psa 16:10  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Psa 16:11  Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

This is a prophecy of Christ but we also know that our tomb is empty and we will not go the grave in the thought that we have a home eternal in the heavens.

Psa 31:19  Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!

God has much goodness laid up in store for every one of his children:  His beauty, happiness, His welfare: taking care of us in the natural as well as in the Spiritual. 

There are those in this audience that have heavy responsibilities at certain seasons in life.  How great is His goodness.  It could be that you feel you don’t have the strength that you had 10 years ago, but It could be that you will be placed in an situation where you say, “Lord, I am here but am I able to handle this situation?”

How great is the goodness of God that is laid up for them that fear Him.  If God positions you somewhere where you thought you’d ever end up, God has already made that provision for you before you ever get there.

Psa 31:20  Thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence from the pride of man: thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues.

God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit can endue us in the thought of covering us with the Holy Spirit and humility so that the pride of man cannot get to us.