Brother Gary Sunday Evening 9/8/13

Brother Gary Sunday Evening 9/8/13

Isa 51:1  Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

Isa 51:2  Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

Abraham lived among heathens and yet God moved on him in a way that he sought and found God.  You and I are living in a time when if it wasn’t for the mercy of God we would be lost, without hope, and without God and moved far away from God.

Think of how all the influences (outside of the influences from those that are saved) work to leave the thought that the world and sin have really something to offer.  There are millions tonight that are captives in a land of sin. 

God wants you and me to remember that God delivered us.  There are some of these that we are praying for that seem like they would be so alone if they got saved.  God has a way of dealing with an individual to get saved.  God will be very faithful.

“I called him alone and blessed him and increased him”:  every one of these souls that are distanced from the church can get saved and can have an experience with God and keep an experience with God if they will get a grip on God.  One thing that hinders people from getting a grip on God is they don’t want to have discipline in their life.

We need to get a grip and say, “I am going to be a soldier in the army of the Lord.  I am going to get a grip on God and serve Him.” 

Isa 51:3  For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

The Lord shall comfort Zion:  God has an answer for every dilemma.  When the requests come in we think, “My Lord what would you do in a situation like that?”  If people get saved, God promises that He will comfort Zion.

He will comfort their waste places:  when people are not serving God then they are being wasted.  No sympathy for Babylon or my relatives and your relatives.  If they will come by the way of the altar, Jesus Christ, then they will not have any problem kneeling down at an altar here.  Their attitude will be, “I want to be washed; I want to be clean.”

We live in a world of such sadness.  There are a lot of million dollar industries in America today that are results of people being so sad because of what sin did to them. 

It is because of what took place on Mt Calvary and the blood that has been shed, when people come repenting and turning from their sin, He promises that He will comfort those places that have been so wasted.

You don’t go out to a wilderness and pick cantaloupe and enjoy a well tilled garden.  It is a land that has been left without caring and cultivating and not worked with.  Those souls and minds that are out of order can be healed.  One of the miracles of Jesus was when the man brought a son that was a lunatic. Jesus took care of and healed his son. 

The man with a son that often fell into a fire, Jesus healed.  Dear ones, minds that are crazy, minds that are undisciplined and never girded in, Jesus can take care of and heal. 

The bible teaches to gird up the loins of your mind.  I picture my mind with everything tucked in so that I can think right.  God can help us.

God wants to till our land.  He wants to help us to train our mind and help us to know how to keep our heart with all diligence.

“Her desert like the garden of the Lord”:  The desert can blossom.  That land that has been so deserted and uninhabited by the presence of God can be.  A place where scary things roam around at night can become a garden.  When the living water comes to the desert what a change takes place!

It is beyond our comprehension that God would love us so much that He wants our life to be as His garden.  The seeds of faith can be planted.  The seed of the Word of God can be planted and it isn’t very long until it is flourishing. 

God knows how to send the right amount of water and coolness.  There is some beauty that will only be in your life by you going through some times that are difficult.  That bulb that God has planted needs some cool weather in order for it to grow and bloom. 

You suffer a while and you say, “God I am going through a cold place.”  God says, “You are my garden and that bulb must go through a certain number of days of coolness in order for it to grow.”

Joy and gladness:  we will not find this in the world.  When we go where we will go tomorrow you will not see very many people with joy and gladness; it is not found with the gods of the world or what they produce.

The voice of melody:  the beast and the image in church history took songs out of worship.  I believe that God’s church was still singing hymns.  God gives songs in the night.

Isa 31:1  Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!

Our help must come from God.

Isa 31:2  Yet he also is wise, and will bring evil, and will not call back his words: but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the help of them that work iniquity.

Isa 31:3  Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.

Isa 31:4  For thus hath the LORD spoken unto me, Like as the lion and the young lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the LORD of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof.

Isa 31:5  As birds flying, so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem; defending also he will deliver it; and passing over he will preserve it.

When you and I are seeking God and it seems that the enemy will not give up.  There are times when you and I look at situations and see the devil as a roaring lion walking about seeking whom he may devour, we realize that “God you are the God of heaven and you will come down and fight for Zion.”

You may say, “Son or daughter you are going the wrong way.”  You may plead.

The enemy may come in like a flood and all hell turned lose against you, you may be tired physically and mentally but remember to get a heart-cry out to God.  He will defend, he will deliver, he will pass over and preserve.  Isn’t it wonderful what He is able to do?