Brother Gary Sunday Morning 6/30/13

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 6/30/13

The antonym to sufficiency is inadequate.  We are inadequate in ourselves.  Our sufficiency is of God.

Rom 11:33  O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out!

Oh the depth!  Wherever we are this morning in the thought of being saved, maybe you would say, “I just got saved a week ago.  That is good.  We all must have a beginning.  Even in our beginning the riches of His wisdom and knowledge is available to us. 

When hypocrites put out judgment and are guilty then they will be judged.  The beauty and the unsearchableness of God’s judgment is that God is the God that gives a verdict.

The world teaches: part saved, sometimes saved, sometimes in sometimes out, that is not a part of the Bible.  We can know that we are saved and sanctified without a shadow of a doubt.  We can know that our names written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life and that we are a part of the Church of God.

Some use the terminology, “We are the standing church.” We are the standing church, but there are times that we are the sitting church, “Sit together in heavenly places in Christ.”

God is all sufficient.  His goal is that we grasp first how to drink the milk, how to get the milk from the Word of God.  It is not enough to come to church.  It is not enough to go to the right church or to read the Bible or pray.  There has to be that connection where there is divine intervention in our life and we meet with God.

We are always instructing because the Word teaches to desire the sincere milk of the Word.  It is vital that we have devotions: read and pray every day. 

It is vital that we go on to deal with the thought of workmanship and the workman.  But first we must know how to receive milk before we can progress to the meat and to receive all that God has for us.

God will give you a verdict.  We think of the challenges of the first week of July.  God will give us a verdict.  He will give you a verdict of what He wants you to do next week, what to stay away from, and a check: “This is the way my child.”

He has abounded in His ways.  His ways are so wonderful.  I don’t know what we will face this next week.  We each have challenges and responsibilities.  We have made commitments and it is important that we follow in those ways.  There are other opportunities that we could have.  God wants us to follow in whatever direction that he is leading.

I am burdened for a precious soul that has never found the way.  He spent years in religion and was shattered when he found out that all that he had been taught was false.  He has precious children.  My whole thought is, “God is there a way that you could work?”  I don’t care who gets to this soul.  I am not running a race with anyone.

God help me to be in your way.  You say, “Preacher you are preaching past reality.”  No I am not.  God has a way of opening the door for that soul that you don’t see any way to reach. 

Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;

The whole thought of our sufficiency is this:  God is all sufficient and has abounded to us in all wisdom and knowledge.  Prudence is similar to knowledge; it is how to get done what is the wisdom of God.

Jer 17:5  Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

When people trust in themselves or another human being they are cursed and their heart departs from God.  They will be as a heath, a scrub tree: a juniper that is without much water.  It will be twisted and turned and there will be little use for the wood in it.

Jer 17:6  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

Inhabit places that are parched: hardly any spiritual food there. 

Jer 17:7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

Jer 17:8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord.  Everyone is going to make a choice on what we are going to trust.  We may trust our self and others, and we may be suspicious in the thought of I’m not going to go God’s way but mans.  Blessed is the man that trusts the Lord.

Shall be as a tree planted by waters:  We are living in times of such turbulence with unsettling news that is not just national, but close to every one of us. 

As a tree planted by waters:  As I thought of this I thought of psalms 23, “the lord is my shepherd.  I shall not want.  He leads me by the still waters….”  God wants us to be planted by the still waters.  It refreshed me to think on the still waters, the Word of God.  God wants those waters in our life to be still so that we can really seek God.

Sometimes we feel that things are chaotic and pressing in on us so that we read but do not grasp.  He wants us to, when we pick up the Word of God, realize that we are a blessed individual and we need to hear from God.  

He wants us beside the still waters where our roots go down deep, for the storm will come.  It won’t be the storm that we think but it will come.  God wants our roots down deep so that we are settled and determined that we are not going to move.

The leaf shall be green:  There is a source.  I saw people singing in the choir that the world would say, “She is kind of old.”  I saw her happy in the savior. 

You can stay happy even while being sick.  God spoke to me, “You might as well enjoy life as not enjoy life.”  I spent too much of my life sick and in bed.  I decided one day, “I’m not going to be sick and tired.  I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” 

We want to spend our days happy in the Savior.  Happy that God is still drawing on souls and happy that God is still saving souls.  We want to teach them how to get the milk, how to get the meat and we want to be a good spiritual mother.

We don’t have to get old and puckered.  Where ever you are from, there will be trespasses and you will be mistreated in life.  You can say, “I’m going to let this cause me to shine brighter.  Instead of allowing this to work in a negative way in me, I’m going to cause it to work in a positive way.  I am going to be bright and shining for God.  I’m going to be alive; I choose to be alive and happy in the savior because I choose to know God.”

We are going to have dry times.  There are times when I wake with a song in my heart.  One of these days, when I get to my inheritance, there will be music like I’ve never heard before.  There will be playing on harps.  Not the negative in the thought of people harping on you, it will be playing that sooths the soul: the playing that David did for Saul.

There will be times when things don’t seem to be going very well.  There will be times when it seems that we are preaching more by faith than by feeling.  There will be times when we are walking by faith more than by feeling.  There will be times when finances become low.  Even when this happens don’t hang onto what you have with closed fists.

There was a tall preacher that weighed about 150 pounds and my parents heard about him and asked him to come preach for us.  Brother Turnbow taught my parents, “Brother and sister Kelly, God wants you to be a vessel for God to flow though.” 

God wants you to be vessels for God to flow though.  You don’t need to have closed fists when you are going through difficult times.  If you feel the financial challenges of 2013, give and it shall be given unto you.  I think of how little that my parents had.  Time and time again someone was in a crisis and mom and dad said, “Here.”

My parents had a few dollars and felt burdened to visit a widow in the congregation.  They got there and she had checks and statements out.  When they asked if there was a problem, she told them that her trailer was going to be repossessed. 

Her son was going to make the payment and fell upon hard times and couldn’t make it and she didn’t have the money.  Dad told my mom to write the check.  If you want to die a pauper, then hold your fists closed.  If you want to be poor spiritually, mentally, and financially then go ahead and hold closed fists.  If you want to have the blessings of God then give.

I remember when something was going on in Cuba and I was out of town.  Children brought their piggy banks and put them on the altar.  Recently, no one could believe how this little place that is between two rocks had 1,170 dollars to give to Moore.  Keep giving to God.

Neither shall cease from yielding fruit: the fruit of the spirit and salvation of souls. 

There is a man that trusted God when there was a very difficult peril placed upon Him and upon Israel.  His name was Jehoshaphat.  There was a plan to capture Israel. And He began to pray and seek God.  I paraphrase, “Art thou not the God of heaven, did you not work before and will you not work again?  Let’s fast and pray and seek God.”

Someone walked in and said, “I have heard from God and He said, ‘Fear not and neither be dismayed for the battle is not yours but the Lords.’”

When Jehoshaphat got up in the morning after a good night’s rest, “Believe in God so shall you prosper and prophets so be established.”  He told the people to, “Bring your instruments and as you go to battle then sing, play and praise God.” 

They did and little did they know what was going on in the enemy’s camp.  As they sang and praised God, God sent ambushments and the enemy began to fight and destroy themselves. 

God has a way to win your battle.  This God that I serve is so great that no matter the injustice that any has ever done, go ahead and pray and sing and praise God for God has already prepared something that is so much better because He is God. 

There was a king that was a politician and a manipulator and made allegiance with the king of Syria to try to find protection.  God sent His man and said, “Thou hast done foolishly.” 

I’m getting ready to preach a message on foolishness.  Foolish things that people do are when they take things into their own hands.  They position themselves in a better position so that they can accomplish whatever.  Our sufficiency is of God.

We are God’s workmanship.  It is you and I that God works with.  He is working with me and I know that He works with you. 

2Ti 2:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

We are God’s workmanship but we become the workman.  Our sufficiency is of God let Him supply every need.