Brother Gary Sunday Morning 10/13/13

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 10/13/13

1Ch 29:10  Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever.

1Ch 29:11  Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.

1Ch 29:12  Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.

1Ch 29:13  Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.

Blessed be God!  Three times David emphasized that this blessing belongs to the only true God.  Verse 11: ‘Thine’.  The blessing belongs to God.  Any good thing goes right back to Him, and to God be all the Glory.  He is the eternal, the self-existent, the only true God.

He is omnipotent; He is the God of power.  Even in God’s hands there is the significance of power in the thought of ‘horns in his hands’ as Habakkuk says.

Every one of us knows that He has victory for us.  There is a great adversary out there.  The enemy is loosed from his prison and is out to do anything and everything that he can to destroy souls.  We see this all around us.

All the glory belongs to God.  It is a wonderful thing.  The glory of God is a unique ornament of God’s presence.  It is not according to the side of the tracks we are from or our financial status.  It is according to if we are right before God, obedient, and humble. 

The victory is all because of God.  The victory represents God’s plans.  From the youngest in our midst to the oldest, God has a plan for you.  No matter your age, God has some plans. 

We need a vision bigger than our life.  If we don’t have then as we ebb away we will feel useless and wonder, “What am I here for?”  In God’s great master plan, He has victory for every season and for every day in our life.

The other thought of victory is God’s beauty.  Having victory in our lives makes life beautiful.  It takes us away from the ugliness of disappointment and the churning within of trying to set everything up in the stage of our life and the actors.

The majesty belongs to Him.  The comeliness, the excellency, the honor, the beauty… anything that has those attributes in our life is all because of God.  Certainly it is not because of us.

The kingdom is His.  It is a kingdom of peace and of light.  Much could be said on this thought. 

The victory is God’s.  The thought of God’s victory is: it is God’s plan for your life.  There are millions this morning that live every day in regret because of their past.  God forgives the past and gives a new beginning. 

God has a definite plan for your life.  Some may feel that in the last year their life was put in a volcano and it blew and they lost their health, their job, their wife or husband, and lost so many things.  There is victory.  God has a definite plan.

The victory is the beautiful work of the presence of Almighty God in our lives.  It takes Jesus to bring real victory in our life. 

Victory is the splendor of God moving with His thoughts.  I was home and sick most of this last week.  It was not all bad; God allowed it and allowed me to gain good from it.  God dealt with me on the thought of our thought patterns.  God knows our thoughts.  He even knows the thoughts that are a far off.

God has thoughts in the making.  If you are not careful, your thoughts will be all composed with yourself and your surroundings.  God left this wonderful thought in Isaiah:  “My thoughts are not your thoughts.”

There are thoughts of victory from God that are full of splendor and enlighten your life, to bring life where darkness would prevail.  Where there is sickness, darkness, upheaval, God only wants it to be upheaval for a little while until you get to Him and He says, “Mine is the victory.”

Thoughts of victory began in eternity.  It is a wonderful thing to be alive and here this morning.  It is wonderful to have brothers and sisters in Christ and to be loved and cared for.

Way back in eternity before Adam and Eve fell into sin, before they were ever created, God had in His mind that His son would be slain and would bring salvation to whosoever would repent and allow the blood of Jesus to wash the sins from their heart and life.

There is victory in God’s creation.  God spoke things into existence and saw that it was good.  Things are working according to God’s plan in creation.  There is water to drink, oxygen to breath and God has everything working according to His plan.

The man that wrote, “I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold,” was an aspiring musician and had offers for work.  His mother that was praying for him left a note on his bed.  It said, “I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold.”  A melody came to him and he went to the piano and began playing.

Every one of us will have challenges in our life and we are going to weigh, “My way or God’s way?”  You can grit your teeth and press your way but there is a much better way.  It is a way of victory and beauty.  You say, “God, I’d rather have your way.”  He says, “My way brings such splendor into your life.” 

To everyone in this audience, not just to those with little ones that make decisions, we need the attitude: “I’m going to be what God wants me to be in this season of my life.”

When we quit fighting the elements and say, “Your ways are right.”  No one can describe the splendor that comes into your life when you say, “Not my way but your way.”

I think of the night that my mother went into eternity.  That wonderful night the victory that was hers as she lay there getting ready to pass into another world.  It was a Wednesday night and God told me that I needed to go to my mother’s.  I was sick and said, “Let me get a shower.”  God said, “You need to go before you get a shower.” 

I went and she asked me about my wife and children and then said, “Bless the lord oh my soul and all that is within me, bless His holy name.”  Then she went. 

When it comes my time to go I want them in there singing songs and praising God with songs of victory. 

How many times has God come to the rescue?  How many times has someone tried to get rid of one on the job?  Someone decides you are going to be my target?  Someone decides that they are going to cause trouble?  Someone decides to break up the congregation, take so many with them and the little congregation close their doors?  The only thing that they didn’t consider is God.

If you are founded on the rock and you will let God bring the victory and follow God’s plans then you will have victory. 

If you say, “God give victory on my plans.”  It will not work. 

When you submit to God, “God I want your plans for my days and everything that is in my life,” then He will bring victory.  When you submit to God there is the splendor of His presence.

The victory, God’s plan, is visible in this time world.  God’s plan: His victory in the time world.  Many times people think, God is working in heaven, he is there is no question about that.  But there is victory in this time world. 

God has a plan, a wonderful plan known as the plan of victory.  There is victory for the past.  You can say, “I’m disappointed about my past.”  He says, “If you repent, I forgive all sin.”

David’s testimony of victory:  the armies of Israel were threatened by a giant named Goliath.  He was boasting and threatening.  He had a lot to say and was out there defying the armies of Israel.  About that time God chose to send little David to check on his brothers.

His dad, Jesse, told him to check on his brothers and take provisions to them.  While David was there to check on his brothers, his brothers resented him.  God is going to place every one of us in positions where there is going to be someone there resisting us.  Always remember that God has victory. 

While David was there, he heard about this giant.  The giant was causing people to shake and tremble.  He would roar the voice of Goliath out.  You have probably heard a similar voice echoing defeat, defeat, defeat.  Goliath was doing this very thing.

David said, “Who is this that is defying the armies of the Lord of Host?”  Someone brought Saul word that this young lad was saying “Who is this guy?” and Saul sent for David.

1Sa 17:31  And when the words were heard which David spake, they rehearsed them before Saul: and he sent for him.

1Sa 17:32  And David said to Saul, Let no man's heart fail because of him; thy servant will go and fight with this Philistine.

1Sa 17:33  And Saul said to David, Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.

1Sa 17:34  And David said unto Saul, Thy servant kept his father's sheep, and there came a lion, and a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock:

1Sa 17:35  And I went out after him, and smote him, and delivered it out of his mouth: and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard, and smote him, and slew him.

1Sa 17:36  Thy servant slew both the lion and the bear: and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be as one of them, seeing he hath defied the armies of the living God.

1Sa 17:37  David said moreover, The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine. And Saul said unto David, Go, and the LORD be with thee.

“The lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion”:  remember what God has already done for you. 

“Out of the mouth of the bear”:  things that happened in the past that God took care of He, did for many reasons.  One of the reasons is when you face the greatest battle that you ever faced, the battles will not get smaller, we have a foundation of what God has already done.  Let us not forget what God has already done.

Saul had a desire to help him go.  He tried to dress him in his armor.  David said, “I don’t know this.  I must take it off.”  David needed his sling, his staff, and he needed five small stones.

David took his staff.  Learn how to lean hard on God and His Word and on His Spirit.  Don’t trust in your flesh or in people.  Put your trust in God.

David’s testimony is, “I come to you in the name of the Lord of Hosts.”  As we face uncertain times and we face the unknown, there would be those things to all of us that would be unknown, there is one thing that you and I need to remember and that is that God knows everything.  Take that staff.  God has a host of angels in His armies that are helpers to victory when we realize that “I need victory and it is God’s plan in my life.”

You may say, “I know what I need this morning.  I need to get saved.”  That is God’s plan.  We come to him and say, “I need to get saved.  I have failed before and I know that I cannot make it on my own.”  You may feel that you have failed an individual, your wife, or your son.  “I wasn’t there for them as I should have been.  I wasn’t on fire for God as I should have been.” 

God wants to deal with that failing in this thought, He wants you to tell Him all about it and put the failing in the lap of the Lord. Tell Him all about it and take the plan of God which is the victory. 

“I was trying to do right but I was short-sighted here or there.”  God wants you to move on.  The way of salvation is a way of joy, and of peace.  This Goliath is roaring around saying that you cannot make it and the battle is too big.  Yes, except we serve the Lord God which is the Lord of Hosts.

David took the staff; he had known God out there with the sheep.  He may have been 13 years old when Samuel anointed him.  He took the five stones.  Use the promises of God until they are smooth.  God was with my mother; He was with my father; He was with Samuel Morris; He was with Brother Maconahae. 

David cried unto God and took the sling.  He had faith in God.  I don’t know how close he got; it was probably more than an arm’s distance.  Here came this ruddy guy with five stones and a sling.  He ran to meet Goliath and put his hand in the shepherd’s bag and took out the stone and put it in the sling.  He wasn’t trusting in the sling; he was trusting in the Almighty God.  That stone went through the helmet, through the forehead into the brain. 

We need the victory.  Take care of yourself and obey in every way.

I come in the name of the Lord of hosts.  God has an innumerable company of angels.  The battle is not yours, it is the Lords.  This is God’s battle. 

Great was the fall of Goliath and great was the victory.  David blessed God and said, “Thine is the victory.”  This congregation loves victory.  That is the plan of God.  Victory is filled with beauty and with splendor.

The Goliath of today is Satan and his subject is precious souls.  His voice is heard offering the world.  The world has something to offer every age group.  We are shocked at what children and young people become exposed to and involved in.  The world offers what the flesh wants.  It will all pass away.

The world offers lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life.  It all fades away.  It is just a part of life.  Satan offers no victory. 

I don’t need to tell you how sin is.  There is a precious young lady that Karen works with.  She and some of their associates were in front of the Wild Horse and wanted to talk to me.  They had no victory.  Sin was treating them mean.  They were in the grip of Satan.

The enemy offers pleasures and there is no real pleasure.  How sad it is to not have any real true friends.  Satan offers lawlessness.  People have the thought pattern, “No one will tell me what to do I’m going to do what I want.”  That is only words.  Everyone is either under the control of the destroyer or the good shepherd.

The voices are many.  It is as if you can hear the roar of the voices of the world telling people to go this way or that.  The voices of religion: go here or there don’t do this or that.  The only thing that has the assurance of the Word of God is the truth.

Satan is described as a waster and as a destroyer.  He doesn’t care what he destroys.  He will destroy a life, a mind, a child, an individual, a relationship, unity, on anything that he is allowed to work in, he will destroy.  He is clearly described as a thief.  He steals time.

This God that I know wants to load everyone daily with benefits.  He has thoughts, that He wants to give you, of peace and not of evil to bring you to an expected end.  He has thoughts of a vision beyond our life time.  He has thoughts to cause our prayer life to not only be filled with requests but also with expressions of joy.  The enemy intercepts those thoughts with worry and questions.

The enemy is a killer.  The saddest thing I can think of is a child or young person hungering after God and the enemy coming to kill the hunger for God.  I remember a niece a few years ago as an eighth grader being hungry for God.  Her mother said, “I wish someone would have taught me what she is learning.”  Today there is no visible evidence as far as I know of that hunger.  She planned to come home but not to church. 

The most beautiful thing in the world is someone that got an education and is still hungry for God and humble.  Still right in the place that they were as a child, I hunger for God.”

There is nothing more beautiful than a professional that has a desire to be saved and to grow, not choosing our own way or dictating, “I want this and I want that.”  No, I want to be an instrument that God can play for His glory and His honor.  That instrument that when you walk in there is a sound of music not of an individual that is going to have their own way but of a professional that marches to a different band.

All of us in this audience wants God’s plan: His unique beauty in our life, victory over sin and self.  We know that the Bible teaches the carnal man must be eradicated by the blood of Jesus Christ.  The carnal man will only go as the individual yields themselves to God. 

God will never take what He doesn’t replace with something much better.  There is nothing more beautiful than victory.  There is no true victory unless there is a lot of walking before and after in God’s plan, victory over sin, self, and the devil. 

I am challenged this year with anxiousness.  The garden is not cleaned off, the snow is coming.  I hope that the garden gets cleaned off.  If Jesus doesn’t come it will snow.  It will either snow on a garden that is cleaned off or on a garden that is not cleaned off. 

We can get so anxious about things that pertain to us.  I am preaching to myself.  None of us knows what the dollar will be worth tomorrow.  I don’t have very many of them but I need at least enough to fill the pickup of mine. 

Anxious:  I am not picking on the family that has a daughter that is moving to a wicked city.  Their only hope is to submit it to God.  God gives the victory, He has a plan. 

I think of children in school.  If any is targeted in the world it is the saved teachers.  May God help you to have the strength and grace you need.  You may be the only Christian song that your students ever hear.  My God help you to live for Him.

The plan of victory is God’s plan.  It is beautiful.  His plan brings splendor, great light, and grandeur.

The grandeur of victory over the past!  Sins forgiven, sins torn from the books, victory today, this is grandeur.  Victory through life is grandeur.  God will take care of us and make a way.  That is grandeur.  The grandeur of faith in God for children!  You can go to grade school or high school and be saved; that is grandeur.  God alone can do it.

You can know that you paid the price, your name is written in the Lamb’s Book and when you draw that final breath, He will be there.  Victory at the final judgment!  “I am not dreading the judgment my sins went before.”

Eternal splendor in heaven!  Think of it this morning.  You can have eternal splendor in heaven.  One of these days the widow will march through the gates and probably her husband will be the first to meet her.  Grandma will be there and that little baby that she saw is there.  They are united. 

United forever!  Moms and dads, victory is His.