Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 8/21/13

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 8/21/13

We are blessed that there have been individuals that found God, held onto God, and their testimony is left to help us.  We see the words ‘wherefore’ and ‘therefore’ written in Hebrews many times.  Each time they refer to previous scriptures.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

This may refer to other chapters beside chapter 11 but for sure it refers to chapter 11.  There were many people written of that left a testimony for us to follow. 

A great cloud of witnesses:  what cloud do I let come over me?  There are a lot of clouds.  We appreciate in the cool of the day sitting outside and I always look up at the clouds.  They were not rain clouds that we looked at tonight as we sat on the deck, but I said to my wife, “Look at those beautiful clouds.” 

There are clouds that definitely have something in them.  There are times that I can smell that there is going to be rain when I don’t even see the cloud yet.  There are other times that you look down the valley and see that it is raining down there. 

We are taught to lay aside every weight.  We must lay aside the weights so that we don’t build our own cloud of, “I have a lot to get done.”  We have a lot to do in Montana from the last frost to the first frost. 

We must lay aside every weight and every sin and run with patience the race that is set before us.  As a pastor tonight, Brother and Sister Kelly will have no greater challenge than to teach their children to not be rushed.  Little girls in the world today want to be worldly way too young.  Little guys are exposed to sin that they should never be exposed to in a lifetime let alone when they are my age and know to refuse it. 

There are things that will be presented to you; that doesn’t mean that it is for you.  Instead think, “It is something that I need to weigh before I introduce it to my un-calloused heart and my innocent mind.  I don’t know if I want to introduce that right now.”

In Psalms 116 there was a cloud that came over David.  There are clouds that come over children and that come over young people.  We need to understand how to check out where is this coming from.

Psa 116:1  I love the LORD, because he hath heard my voice and my supplications.

David loved God, prayed, and knew that God heard His prayer.

Psa 116:2  Because he hath inclined his ear unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long as I live.

The hymn story to the beautiful song: 

1 Salvation’s free, glad joy to all
Of Adam’s fallen race;
We’ll tell to all both far and near
Of saving, keeping grace.

Refrain:
There’s joy, glad joy,
Now flowing from above;
There’s joy, glad joy
In the fullness of His love.

This was written in the darkest time of DO Teasley’s life up to 1908.  His world fell apart.  His heart was broken.  There was no light at the end of the tunnel as far as his heartbreak.  He got a hold of God and said, “My heart is broken but there are others around here that I need to be a light and example to.” 

He said, “God give me something from you.”  He said, “You would have thought that I was on a mountain top instead of the valley when I wrote this song, “I will live through… p61

Watch what cloud comes over you.  We don’t choose the cloud but we can choose the affect that it has upon us. 

Psa 116:3  The sorrows of death compassed me, and the pains of hell gat hold upon me: I found trouble and sorrow.

His cloud was dark, very dark.

Psa 116:4  Then called I upon the name of the LORD; O LORD, I beseech thee, deliver my soul.

 The thought is not the length of the prayer but the faith of the prayer. 

Psa 116:5  Gracious is the LORD, and righteous; yea, our God is merciful.

Psa 116:6  The LORD preserveth the simple: I was brought low, and he helped me.

The Lord preserves those souls that are tender.  Those that are innocent like a child, the Lord preserves them.

You will not be able to teach anyone anything if they already know everything.  But if you are blessed with students that come into your classroom with the attitude, “I am here to learn.”  Then you can teach them.  If they come into your classroom with an attitude, “I am here to play.  My mom says you’re not much of a teacher but a good babysitter.”  Then you will not be able to teach them.

If we have the attitude, “Lord help me to be un-calloused.”  The Lord will preserve you.

We need to be preserved.  God is able.

I was brought low:  clouds bring us low.  We find ourselves where we are crying to God day and night.  It is good that we are so tender that we say, “God I am in a difficult spot I am going to cry to you day and night.”

Return to thy rest:  this cloud had taken his rest.

Psa 116:7  Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the LORD hath dealt bountifully with thee.

When we get to God in our turmoil of mind and say, “God there has to be a change take place for the way of righteousness is peace.”

Psa 116:8  For thou hast delivered my soul from death, mine eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

Psa 116:9  I will walk before the LORD in the land of the living.

Psa 116:10  I believed, therefore have I spoken: I was greatly afflicted:

Psa 116:11  I said in my haste, All men are liars.

Psa 116:12  What shall I render unto the LORD for all his benefits toward me?

I want to tell you, I owe a debt to God not in the thought that I can never repay, but in the thought: He has done so much that what can I give back to God?  If it isn’t in me to give then it is in me to be covetous.  Let’s give, give…

In the New Testament we have a cloud. 

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Faith is a marvelous treasure and without it you cannot please God. 

2Co 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

There are going to be clouds of troubles come over you and me.  Such troubling times!  It was troubling times in Paul’s day.  He was facing something that you and I may or may not face.  He may have already known that he was going to give his life for the gospel. 

Troubled but not distressed, perplexed:  there are times that as an individual that we are perplexed.  Karen and I are in some perplexing situations right now.  It is important that we do the right thing. 

In our jobs, in our homes, when we put the metal roof on the house I thought we were done with the roof problems.  I looked up there and recognized that the roof was coming up.  We had a lot of loose screws up there.  We got the roof fixed.  In time Robin showed up and said, “You have roof problems you should replace the screws and put screws with washers that will not melt in the sun.”  We are through with roof problems for a while.

Cast down but not destroyed, persecuted:  whatever persecution 2013 is to you is what you identify with.  It is not the same as was in 1885 but you are persecuted.

2Co 4:9  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

2Co 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

2Co 4:11  For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

2Co 4:12  So then death worketh in us, but life in you.

2Co 4:13  We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;

David said this, (Psalms 116:10), “I believe therefore have I spoken.”  From Old Testament, David, to New Testament, Paul, “I believe therefore have I spoken.

2Co 4:14  Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

God will take care of us beyond a shadow of a doubt.

All things are for your sakes:  this cloud is for our sakes.  It means that you are to discern the clouds.  We need the inspiration of the Almighty God to help us to know what is this?  If God puts it there and we need to learn something from it then we need the grace of God to help us to learn.

If you are going through a tough time, there is nothing wrong with acknowledging that you are in a tough time.  The joy in the tough time is to say, “God I am trusting in your grace to help me to love the one that is doing me wrong, to not get a bad attitude.  I cannot make an expression to them because they are not there, but I can love this one that is here.”

You may have a neighbor that is hard to love but we need to pray, “God help me to do right by that individual.”  There are those that are watching and not saying so to see if God gives grace.

God has grace and it will redound to the glory of God.

2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

Every one of us will get weary and tired and some of us get exhausted.  God has a way to renew us.

2Co 4:17  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.

2 From wells of everlasting joy
Our strength by faith we bring;
The joy that thrills my ransomed soul
Can make the dumb heart sing. [Refrain]

3 How sweet the soul that’s purged as pure
As gold without alloy;
How peaceful is the flowing stream
Of deep, eternal joy. [Refrain]

4 I’ll live for Christ through this dark world,
And faithful I will be;
The joy I know that keeps my soul
Shall last eternally. [Refrain]

Passing through the greatest test:

“From wells of everlasting joy our strength by faith we bring”
“The joy the fills my ransomed soul can make the dumb heart sing”

Refrain:
There’s joy, glad joy,
Now flowing from above;
There’s joy, glad joy
In the fullness of His love.