Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 5/8/13

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 5/8/13

Mary sat at Jesus feet and heard his words.  Jesus said, “Mary has chosen that good part which shall not be taken away.” 

There are a lot of things that have transpired in our lives and lots of remembrance, but the Word of God is the good part. 

There are times that we struggle to hear the Word of God.  We find ourselves sick or in a mode of distraction with our mind wandering.  That is a part of life.  We must bring all the other things in and say, “Right now the important thing is to sit and hear the Word of God.”

Mar 4:24  And he said unto them, Take heed what ye hear: with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you: and unto you that hear shall more be given.

Mar 4:25  For he that hath, to him shall be given: and he that hath not, from him shall be taken even that which he hath.

Personally, I don’t feel that I’ve learned everything that there is to know about this scripture.  But this I know: it is vital that we take heed and hear the Word of God.  When we hear the Word of God we make the choice of, “How important is this?” 

If we don’t heed then God will decide that we don’t want to hear what He has to say.  If we treasure What God gives us then God will give us great scriptural treasures.  There is a warning in this scripture. 

W. Dale Oldham wrote the song, “Let me see Jesus only.”  I asked Karen if He stayed with the true message of the Church of God.  It seems that he did.  In 1936 he wrote, “Dead to every worldly treasure, dead indeed to sin am I, but alive to Christ my savior; daily to him I’m drawing nigh.  Let me see, Jesus only, …, only He can satisfy.”

This song really speaks to me.  Quite often I pray, “God you see how my mind is starting to churn about responsibilities and cares I have to do.”  (I’m not talking about pastoring, the saints are always welcome to call.) 

My mind get’s churning and in Montana we have to do 12 months of work in four or six months because we don’t have good weather all that much.  My mind really gets to going and then I think, “I really need to pray.”  As I pray, many times God has spoken to me, “Ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

Karen and I are working on projects at our house and most of them will be done by Labor Day.  I ask myself, “Gary how are you going to handle this?  Are you going to find yourself churning all day long?”  I realized, “God I need help from you this morning.” 

As I prayed, God spoke to me, “Son you are dead and your life is head with Christ in God.”  This doesn’t take away from my responsibilities but it puts them in the rightful place so that I can study the Word of God and have that rightful balance in worship.

I then went to that song, “Dead to every worldly pleasure, …” 

I am so blest to have a hymnal and have the testimony of W. Dale Oldham.

However much you value what God speaks to you then that is the amount that He will give you.  If you value it as a half a cup then that is what God will give you.  If you value it as a five gallon bucket then that is what God will give you. 

If you don’t have the Word in its rightful place then the scripture tells us that there are those that don’t have and even what they seem to have will be taken away. 

I don’t care how old I live to be.  I want to keep the testimony of the Word of God real in my life to the end.  If I die before my brother and one of his kids asks if I stayed with the church until I die, I want the testimony to be, “Yes, He loved the church of God and stayed with the church.”

If I remember right, thirteen times in this forth chapter of Mark the word ‘hear’ appears.  He was inspired by the Holy Spirit to write this scripture.

Mar 4:1  And he began again to teach by the sea side: and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so that he entered into a ship, and sat in the sea; and the whole multitude was by the sea on the land.

Mar 4:2  And he taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine,

Mar 4:3  Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:

There are times when we receive specific instruction.  There is something that is so very important for us to hear that whoever is briefing us will say, “Listen carefully to these details.”  This is what Mark recorded Jesus saying.

Mar 4:3  Hearken; Behold, there went out a sower to sow:

Mar 4:4  And it came to pass, as he sowed, some fell by the way side, and the fowls of the air came and devoured it up.

The great sower is Jesus.  In the Gospel Day, as we sow, what we are sowing is the seed.  Brittany was given a bible and that was good, but the Word of God that she heard taught in Sunday school and the Word that was preached Sunday morning was the seed that was sown to her.

We don’t want her to be wayside soil, and we wouldn’t decide if she was or not.  There are a lot of fowls and those that would steal the Word of God from an individual.  The Word of God would totally change the life.  The fowls may leave the individual religious but that only leaves them two fold the child of hell as before.

Mar 4:5  And some fell on stony ground, where it had not much earth; and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of earth:

Some don’t have the same training that you have and don’t recognize how important it is to have order in their life.  It is so wonderful that the seed is sown.  They can then recognize that they may be stony ground and they need a change in their life. 

This seed is certified.  If they will receive the Word and value it then it can grow.

It is vital that people count the cost in this thought: when they get saved there will be those that make it as difficult as they possibly can for the one newly saved.  If one values their soul then others cannot make it difficult enough for them to lose out with God.

Mar 4:6  But when the sun was up, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away.

Mar 4:7  And some fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.

Mar 4:8  And other fell on good ground, and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased; and brought forth, some thirty, and some sixty, and some an hundred.

I don’t know if anyone starts out as good ground.  God has a way of making an individual good ground if they want to be.  The seed fell upon good ground and it yielded fruit that sprang up and increased.

I am so challenged that as an individual and as a congregation collectively we want our fruit to increase.  We have the theory right and we want to not only have the theory of the church of God but be practicing and bearing fruit of the church of God

Psa 8:1  To the chief Musician upon Gittith, A Psalm of David. O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.

God’s very name declares that He is the one that makes us steady, (prop, stay and support).  He is God.  He directs, rules, judges, and supports.

Psa 8:2  Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

Jesus took this same scripture:

Mat 21:16  And said unto him, Hearest thou what these say? And Jesus saith unto them, Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?

I have learned and I always want to keep this truth in my life:  praise and strength are synonyms.  If the enemy can take your praise then he can take your strength. 

God ordained that as a babe in Christ, our praise deflects or pushes back the enemy.  Peter tells us, “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.”  As a natural babe, desire milk. 

Clark says that for a natural babe to be able to nurse is a God given miracle to a baby; that is beyond what men can grasp.  God made it that way. 

God did the same thing for a babe in Christ. There is something about men and women getting saved that they want to read the Bible.  The Bible gives them strength just as Peter says.

Paul said that it is important that we are all fitly joined together that we may grow up in Christ and we are no longer babes that need milk but we desire all of God, more of God, and more of God, and we hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Solomon speaking of Christ:

Pro 8:14  Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom: I am understanding; I have strength.

‘Counsel is mine.’  There is not anything that you need to know that God doesn’t have a plan to reveal it to you. 

I have been excited, borrowing an expression of Hannah.  “I am so thankful that my heart is just thumping and jumping.”  This is how I’ve been with the thought of God coming down and standing by Moses.  He just stood there.  He is not in a hurry.  He was God before the world ever began. 

‘Counsel is mine.’  Every one of us will make decisions.  It is vital that we make the decision God’s way.  We have vital decisions to make.  Don’t think of them as small.  If God came and stood by Moses, is He a respecter of persons?  He is not.  Praise God.

‘Counsel is mine, and sound wisdom.’  There are a lot of people that really regret the dumb mistake that they made but it is too late.  There are some mistakes where it is too late. 

Someone 80 years old told me that they should have never married someone.  It is too late.  They said, “I should have prayed more…”

Every decision is vitally important.  Don’t think that you and I are the exception.  God has wisdom but we have to seek him to find it.

‘I am understanding.’  When you are mind boggled, and I am that way, way too much, the problem is MY mind.  He has the understanding and we can have it if we ask for it.

‘I have strength.’  Let us remember that when He speaks His Word, we can either count it as a half cup or we can say, “Lord I want a barrel of that.  I want that fountain and I don’t want to limit God.  I don’t want some tiny thing but I want a big amount of what God has.”