Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Brother Rick Sunday Night 11/24/13



Brother Rick Sunday Night 11/24/13
We are so blessed.  We are blessed to be in this country where we are so rich and have so much compared to so many around the world.  We have much to be thankful for.

Thanksgiving – the act of giving thanks, prayer expressing gratitude, celebration of the divine goodness.  We have all been partakers of the divine goodness of God. 

Psa 100:4  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

It is very important to have an attitude of gratefulness.  This is not just talking about prayer but our whole life.  It is awesome to be able to have the presence of God in our life. 

Be thankful, obedient to God, and do His will and we will have the presence of God. 

When I go to my shop, I start my day of work with kneeling and praying and giving God thanks.  It is so good to be thankful for all God has blessed us with.  We have homes of our own, automobiles and many blessings in life. 

It is important to cultivate that thankfulness.  All around us there are people complaining and we need to be thankful in everything.  Even the negative things that come across our path will work to good and help us to develop more character in our life.

1Pe 2:9  But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

I thank God that I can be saved.  It is a miracle that God led us to salvation.

Quotes:
No one who achieves success does so without the help of others.  The wise and confident acknowledge this help with gratitude.

I need you saints in my life and more so as the day approaches.    We need to be thankful for each other.  It is important just to know that we are a part of the family of God. 

You cannot do a kindness too soon.  You never know when it will be too late. Ralf Waldo Emerson. 

The unthankful heart discovers no mercies.  Let the thankful heart sweep through the day and as the magnet discovers the iron so he will find things to be thankful for.

Some people are always murmuring that roses have thorns I am thankful that thorns have roses.

Wouldn’t it be terrible if it were our last day and we went out grumbling? 

If you haven’t all the things that you want then be thankful for the things that you don’t have that you wouldn’t want.

To speak gratitude is courteous and pleasant, to enact gratitude is noble, but to live gratitude is to touch heaven.  Johannes A Gardner.

 He who is a wise man does not grieve for the things he has not but rejoices of the things he has.

Blessed is he that can give without remembering and receive without forgetting.

No one is as capable of gratitude as he that has escaped the kingdom of night. 

I sure appreciate being delivered from the kingdom of night and of darkness.  I cannot imagine where I would be if I had not gotten saved when I did.

Gratitude is the most exquisite form of courtesy.

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others. Cicero.

It is impossible to feel grateful and depressed in the same moment.  If you start to feel depression working then work on being thankful.

You won’t be happy with more until you are happy with what you have got. 

In America how spoiled we are.

As we express our gratitude, appreciation is not only in uttered words but to live by them.

What sunshine is to flowers a smile is to humanity.

Gratitude is something of which none of us can give too much. 

Gratitude, unspoken, is of no use.

There is a calmness to a life lived in gratitude, a life full of joy.

People who live a life full of rejoicing are those that have a full life.

We Americans are living a lifestyle of exhaustion; we don’t have time for ourselves much less for ourselves and our children.  James Dobson

People, even more than things, have to be restored, renewed, revived, reclaimed, and redeemed.

Never throw out anyone.  Everyone deserves to be loved.

2Ch 20:22  And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.

Thankfulness and praise is an antidote to have the victory in our lives.

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

We cannot be too thankful for that can we?

Luk 17:15  And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,
Luk 17:16  And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

We want to be one that turns back to God and thanks and praises Him.

His praise shall be continually in my mouth.

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 11/24/13



Brother Gary Sunday Morning 11/24/13
We have been bringing thoughts of Hezekiah when he brought the letter from the enemy and spread it out before God.  We appreciate the thought of being able to bring anything and spread it out before God.

David made the expression of how he had been delivered from the horrible pit and the sounds of the pit.  God has delivered us from the horrible pit and thank God for the washing of the Word of God that takes the miry clay away so that we don’t have to go back to that. 

David had the testimony that God set his feet upon a rock.  This means a lot to us.  Not only are we delivered from the groans and the echoes of condemnation from the pit but we are out of it with our feet settled on the solid rock and our goings established by God.

I felt I was in the will of God and called upon a man that I love that is in the courts of Babylon.  I’m not sure how good my visit was to him but I did not even get out of the door before I was thanking God that I am out of the miry clay and my ways have been established daily to the throne of grace.

I was thanking God that Grandma Decker was burdened to bring the gospel to Plains.  How grateful I am.  I doubt I will have the opportunity to preach in Libby but it came from the roots of an elderly lady that desired to see a church in a small community.  She saved the money from a little retirement of her husband’s to help see a little church established. 

My mother had a brother that died whose name was buddy.  They asked a church of God preacher to preach this funeral for my mother’s brother.  From that she was invited to a revival meeting. 

The one thing that she could remember that the preacher said was that the burden of sin could be rolled away.  How wonderful that my mother sought after God and that there was someone that had a burden for truth and preached bible salvation. 

In the process of time she gained the understanding of bible sanctification and began to preach it.  Thank God there were those before us that were delivered from the miry clay and got their goings established. 

David left this testimony and Jesus left this testimony, “I delight to do thy will and thy Law is in my heart.”

This is a wonderful page of the heart of David, of the heart of Christ and of my heart.

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.
Heb 10:2  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
Heb 10:3  But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.
Heb 10:4  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

We look back at the Old Testament and the sacrifice for sins that was made.  It was a shadow.  It was not that good of an image.  What we have is so much better than anything that we can grasp that is recorded in the Old Testament.

It is so awesome what was written on the heart and soul of Christ when He came into this world.

Heb 10:5  Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:
Heb 10:6  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.
Heb 10:7  Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

One of the pages of Jesus Christ when he came was that He knew that God had something better than the old covenant for dealing with the sin issue.  It is wonderful that Jesus knew and had it within His heart.  Jesus had no nature to sin.  It was in his heart from His childhood that He wanted to do the will of God. 

We came into the world with the nature to choose our own way.  It can be termed carnal nature, self will, inherited sin.  Yet in the heart of every person, child and adult, God has placed something there to identify with God.  Some have chosen to close that door but thank God for everyone that has chosen to open the door.

Jesus said, “Not my will but Thy will be done.”

Heb 10:8  Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Heb 10:9  Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

It is wonderful that God did not find pleasure in the sacrifice of all those animals but knew that that just represented something better to come.

If Brother Rick decides to draw up the design of a new guitar, draws it and then chooses particular woods that he thinks will cause it to have sound and performance that is really something.  Perhaps he is designing this one for Brother Gary Peters and decides to inlay bibles into the neck.  He decides to buy special strings that come from only Germany. 

Then he tells me, “I’m going to put frets on it and I’m going to put a picture on the fret-board that represents the water of life.  He exercises his mind and imagination and you are so impressed as you look upon the plans. 

You say, that is going to be so beautiful and wonderful and I can just sense brother Peters strumming the guitar.  Brother Rick in all soberness says, this is just the plan wait until you see the guitar.

This is even more wonderful:  Jesus’ plan takes what has been ruined by sin, has been spent, and gives beauty for ashes.  Jesus takes a life that the enemy had desired to sift as wheat and use up in the world. 

It may have been in the entertainment world:  I have a real issue in the state of Montana with this brewery thing that has been going on.  How the enemy wants to waste minds with casinos.  How the enemy wants to mess up children’s lives. 

The children would not be having a hard time in the holidays if the parents were praying, “Not my will but Thy will be done.”  Jesus prayed more earnestly after he submitted to God. 

I challenge you to pray more earnestly.  I say this because the enemy is bidding so high for souls.  Jesus when He knew the will of God chose, “Not my will but thine.”  And then He chose to pray more earnestly. 

This is a beautiful page of Jesus’ life.  It is not a shadow but it is the written Word of God.  He prayed more earnestly.

In Isaiah 53 it shows that Jesus would suffer and that the Lord would bruise him so that men and women could be made right before God.

Heb 10:10  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

This new offering cleanses from sin and cleanses from all sin.  When we come repenting He cleanses from sin and then we come back and He sanctifies us wholly.

Bible salvation is becoming a new creature in Christ Jesus, believing, being delivered from the miry clay, and having our feet set upon a rock.  I wouldn’t challenge you to talk to 6 Babylonians this next week, one is enough.  They have no idea what they came from, what they came to or where they are headed.

All the foundations of the earth are out of course.  If you want to see this, look at the sinner, he doesn’t know where he is headed.  Look at Babylon, they don’t have a clue where they are headed, what the Spirit of God is, who God is, or how to get a hold of Him.

Heb 10:11  And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:
Heb 10:12  But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

The old Covenant made a sacrifice for sin so to speak but there was always the thought, “I’m going to go back to sin and be back here doing the same thing.”  But listen to this:

Heb 10:12  But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;
Heb 10:13  From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

It is wonderful that you and I can understand that under the New Covenant Jesus paid the price for sin and that everyone that came to Him repenting, confessing, and turning from their sin would be made no longer his enemy but his resting place.  It is wonderful that God can rest in the lives of individuals that have given their lives to Him.

Heb 10:14  For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.
Heb 10:15  Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,
Heb 10:16  This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

God has a way of writing on our heart.  Every one of us needs to remember that there are pages in our heart.  We can have the wonderful privilege of having His Word written on our hearts.  The Word of God always points forward and always points to a challenge.

The natural man and people without God and truth are always thinking, “I just wish it were the good old days.”  Remember this: in the good old days the people were always looking for something better. 

Whenever you got married, saved or whenever whatever was that you were happy and thankful on that day, let me help you.  If you follow God He will write His way on your heart and He will always point forward.

I know that there are folks saying, “The golden years are not golden.”  We need to work to make the golden days golden.  It probably will not happen that someone takes you in on those days unless it is Jesus. 

We want to sew a lot of good seed in our golden years.  We want to do our best to prepare for today and lay up good treasure for tomorrow.  We all want to reach the golden years.  We want to prepare for them.  You may not want to get old, but do you want to die? 

Get the pages of your heart before God.  He knows what He is doing.  Get the pages there and say, “Search me and try me, o God.” 

You are here to prosper, measure, be an example, and make deposits in the hearts of men and women each day.  We are here to preach, teach, learn, and to measure.  If you are not receiving very much it is because you are not giving out enough. 

I want my pockets empty but I want to give out the love of God and give out kindness.

I will put the Word of God in their minds.  When you have problems with your mind then get before God and say, I want your Word on my mind.  I need something real from God today.

If you know that you are blessed man, woman, child, or grandparent it is because you are before God.

Heb 10:17  And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.
Heb 10:18  Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.
Heb 10:19  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
Heb 10:20  By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

We want to have boldness to enter into the holiest of holies and take every page of your heart.  Take the page that says, “I am so glad to be here.” and enter with all boldness because the Son shed the blood, suffered and carried the cross.

It could be there are times when our burdens are a cross.  “This is quite a burden and ‘cross’ to bear.”  There is one thing that I am sure of if I can get into the holiest of holies and lay my page before God…  You can, you can get in there boldly. 

It is good to be burdened but we must know what to do with the burden.  The answer is to have boldness to enter the holiest of holies.  Be burdened.  Seek God for those burdens.  If you want to get into the holiest of holies you will only get there with a most perfect attitude.  You will get in there broken and contrite.  Not with the attitude, “They did this and that.” 

“God I want to enter the holiest of holies with you and pray.”  You will not get there with any bad attitudes.  “God I want to pray more earnestly and I don’t care who you use.  You can use anyone in the body of Christ to work with this one that I am burdened for If only that he would be saved.”

Heb 10:21  And having an high priest over the house of God;
Heb 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

With the pages of your soul and heart, draw near to God with a true heart of full assurance.  God’s way is best.  His will is best.  Whatever He chooses for you this week is best. 

There could be people that want to take charge of your life.  We have counselors without pay that want to tell you what you ought to do. 

Have full assurance, our hearts and conscience has been sprinkled and we have been washed with the pure teaching of the Word of God.  Let us hold fast.

Heb 10:23  Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
Heb 10:24  And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

My wife feels heavily convicted that no one ought to come to any service without a greeting.  The Bible says to encourage one another.  Let us get this on a page of our heart.  God help me to be a source of encouragement to the players on instruments. 

Brother Bill encouraged my heart this morning, He read a song.  Get your page before God, “God, what can I do to encourage the saints of God?”

We have this Sunday morning to make an expression to everyone that is here how much we love and appreciate them.  You may not have next Sunday morning, and they may not be here.

Heb 10:25  Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.

I want to encourage you to plan your schedules as best you can to be in the house of God.  When we are in the house of God we are edifying and we are edified. 

Heb 10:26  For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
Heb 10:27  But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.
Heb 10:28  He that despised Moses' law died without mercy under two or three witnesses:
Heb 10:29  Of how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace?

Those that choose sin over God: if you feel that you need to be sobered up then read Hebrews 10: 26-29 will sober you up. 

Paul leaves a serious thought, “God has dealt with them so He has fulfilled His responsibility to them.”

Heb 10:30  For we know him that hath said, Vengeance belongeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Heb 10:31  It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

The reason that some people that backslide act so peculiar is there is a certain fearful looking of judgment and fiery indignation.

We are first warned to not depart from God but when people leave God then something else begins to take place and they wonder what will happen in their life since they have rebelled against God.

The reason that some people act so strange and have such a big bluff is because what is going on in their ears and heart.  They realize that they are lost and it could end up in fiery indignation.  That is the reason that Jesus said to pray more earnestly.

You get around people that have left God, you get around people that have sinned and refuse to admit their sin, and they act fearful for a reason.

I want to live the rest of my days for God.  I want to live the dark days that people say are not so golden and I want to live to make heaven and I know that you do too.

God is faithful.  When we began to walk with God there were those that questioned if we would stay true or not.  Have it settled and keep it settled.

Let us draw near with a heart full of assurance and faith.  Keep it before yourself and before God.  “God this is your will for the day.  I’m believing you for this need and for this burden.  Don’t look at the visible.  Look at God.

Matt 11:28 come to me all that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.

The heaviest burden we were ever under was the burden of sin.  He said, “Come to me all that labor and are heavily laden.  I will give you rest.”

There are other burdens.  Some may say, “I am filled with a burden of wanting my own way and with self will.”  It is better to give up your life and take His than to have your way and what you would choose.

If you are burdened with weights and cares and problems the bible tells us to lay aside all the weights.  If you feel that your prayers are consumed with your weights there is a place for them.  It may be someone close to you: your son, your daughter, the one you love that is so close.  He did not say to forget them but to lay them on Him.

Ps 68 19 blessed be the Lord that loadeth us daily with benefits.

In one commentary I read it told me that one translation puts it, “Blessed be the lord that carried all our burdens.”  You will notice that Paul instructed us to lay aside the weights after giving Hebrews 11 the faith chapter.

The burden of my soul I can bring in full assurance to him.  It is alright to be burdened for yourself, “More than anything else I want to make it.”

The burden for the family of God.  What a wonderful thing to draw close to God in full assurance.  You may never have been to Cuba and still be burdened to do what you can to help.

They cannot come here and I cannot go there but we can go to God.  They probably will not have a turkey Thursday, they probably don’t have a car, they don’t have a computer, but they are my brother.

The burden for our country.  We need to pray earnestly.  We appreciate what God has given us.  We are glad to have a place to worship and that the electricity or water is never turned off.  Don’t think that it cannot happen here; it happened in Cuba.

The burden for worship and a place to worship.  If you want entertainment there are places that you can turn to on your computer.  If you want souls, then prepare something for worship.  If you are not able to bring it then it will still be good to you.  It will not rot or decompose.

Blessed be the Lord that daily loadeth you with benefits.

We can have an altar call without music but we cannot have a service without prayer.  We can sing without a song leader but we cannot survive without prayer. 

Jesus prayed more earnestly.  Jesus prayed more earnestly.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Sister Teri Sunday School 11/24/13



Sister Teri Sunday School 11/24/13
The hope for salvation is the first hope that God gives us when we are sinners.  Then there is more hope beyond that.  People get their mind fixed on the hope of heaven without getting this first hope taken care of.  They will not realize the hope of heaven unless they get this first hope.  Salvation here means forgiveness, deliverance and reconciliation with God.

God has to be in His proper place and we have to be in our roper place for there to be reconciliation.  God is God.  He is to be our lord; He has to be the head of the household. 

I remember when I was a girl how they portrayed the man on TV.  Most cases they made fun of him; he was a bumbling fool.  I believe the enemy was through these shows fighting against the position that God is to have in our life.  

God is the head of the house, the leader, and we are to follow.  We are to be in subjection to him as our father.  That is the reconciliation: we can have that parent-child relationship.  He is not a tyrant or a dictator, He loves us.

It is a blessing to have that relationship to God.

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

This is where we were.

Eph 2:12  That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:

Many of us did not know of this hope.  We either had not been taught anything or had our hope in error.  I was raised catholic but had hope in the wrong thing.  I was taught to ask forgiveness weekly from the priest.  There was no hope of deliverance nor knowledge that that sin was separating me from God.  I had a false hope that if I went through the process I would make it.

We have this message to carry to the lost.  What is this hope?  We must give them more than forgiveness; we must give them the whole hope.  If not, they will continue going into sin and be lost.

Hope as a verb is: to cherish a desire with anticipation and expectation.  There is a real fervency about it.

Hope as a noun is: trust, reliance, a desire accompanied with expectation and belief in fulfillment; Someone or something on which hopes are centered. 

Jesus is our hope. These scriptures and the promises of God are our hope.  God is our hope.

Some have no desire and are seemingly satisfied going their own way without God.  That is not the hope of the gospel.  Their hopes are in the way they are going independently of God.  They are seemingly satisfied placing their hopes in the way they are going.

Some have a desire but have no expectation, no hope.  They feel their disposition is beyond remedy or cure: incorrigible, irretrievable, unredeemable.  We want to reach to people that have a desire for a remedy. 

If they are in this position then it is not hard to work with them.  They have the desire but not the knowledge.  This is the way that I was.  I was not going my own way satisfied, God had already revealed that there was a need.  Then God led me to the saints that presented the hope.

Bill was the same way: he was trying to clean up his acts alone.  That is a part of the fruits of repentance; we don’t have the power to clean up our life alone.  God does the work on the inside. 

If we try to work with those that have no desire, we are wasting our time in some ways but the Word of God will help them to see their need.  Just getting them to church will not make them saved.  They may not even come to church because they are not seeking.

We deal with people differently depending on if we see a desire or not.  It can help us to know how to work with them.

Where there is desire there is hope.  Where there is Jesus there is hope.  Jesus is the answer.

Joh 3:13  And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Joh 3:14  And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
Joh 3:15  That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
Joh 3:18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

This refers to Num 21:4-9.  The Children of Israel were in the wilderness and being bit by the serpents and there was no remedy.  God told Moses to lift up the serpent.  They had to recognize their need and look up to the hope. 

We lift up Jesus so that others can be saved.  God has proven his love for sinners, for whosoever not just a select few.  If people will believe the Word of God and recognize the love of God and what is written in the scriptures, it is available to whosoever will believe.  Those that choose to disbelieve will remain condemned.

John 6:35 Jesus is available to satisfy the hungry soul and any that desire.

Joh 6:35  And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.

We come to him hungering, thirsting and desiring and He satisfies that desire and that hunger.

Joh 12:46  I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.

Jesus will lead whosoever desires the light and will believe.

When they see the character of God and the desire of God that is for them and not against them, it should encourage their faith.

Psa 34:18  The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit.

I think of the long stretches of silence when God didn’t deal with me.  When he did draw near and stretch forth his hand it was when I was broken.  When I pulled away and went my own way He then withdrew and was silent.  What a wonderful God that He would come again and again as He did. 

God says gently, come on child, there is hope and help if you will just come to me.

Jer 3:22  Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD our God.

There is promise and hope for the backslider.

Joe 2:12  Therefore also now, saith the LORD, turn ye even to me with all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with mourning:
Joe 2:13  And rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and repenteth him of the evil.

We don’t have to rend our garments: labor to get our life cleaned up and in order first.  Come to him with a broken heart and let him do the work.  He is gracious and full of kindness.

Joe 2:14  Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him; even a meat offering and a drink offering unto the LORD your God?

I think of David that repented and yet there was the promise that his son would die.  He fasted and prayed after he repented, “Who knows if God will heal him?” 

If a person would just step out on the thought, “What if that hope is for me?  What if it is?”  Just press out.  This is a question to ask people, “Is your situation desperate enough, your desire strong enough, God’s character and strength enough to encourage you to step out and press to receive the promise.”

Mic 7:18  Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
Mic 7:19  He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Mic 7:20  Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old.

He will forgive and forget.  He delights to do that.

Just because we don’t see hope we don’t want to quit praying.  As we pray it puts us in a position to be able to work with them and show them the hope.  When they come to the position of seeing the hope then we will be able to work with them.  God does use human intervention to help dispel the doubts.  He wants to use us that way.

Luk 15:1  Then drew near unto him all the publicans and sinners for to hear him.
Luk 15:2  And the Pharisees and scribes murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them.
Luk 15:3  And he spake this parable unto them, saying,
Luk 15:4  What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
Luk 15:5  And when he hath found it, he layeth it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
Luk 15:6  And when he cometh home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying unto them, Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep which was lost.
Luk 15:7  I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
Luk 15:8  Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?
Luk 15:9  And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.
Luk 15:10  Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.

This shows the character of God:  There is joy in heaven over one sinner that repents more than over 99 just people.  We appreciate the saints of God but what a joy there is when a sinner repents.  Our desire is just like God’s desire when a sinner comes into the audience.  We want to see them recovered. 

God is looking to recover the one that is lost.  When a soul has a desire for reconciliation and is hungry and thirsty then they meet the conditions.  We can encourage them, “You meet the conditions, just step out.”

Good scriptures: Isaiah 41:17-18; Isaiah 55:1-3; 6-7; 12-13.

Encourage the hungry and thirsty to come.

2Ch 7:14  If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

That is the promise.  That is the hope.

Richard Paul Evans in Lost December wrote of the prodigal son.

A certain man had two sons and the younger said, “Give me the portion that remains to me.”  Then the younger son went and spent all.  After he had spent all, he joined himself to a citizen to feed swine.  When he came to himself, he said, “I will arise and go to my father.” 

He saw his need, he had a desire for forgiveness, and had a desire for reconciliation: Not just for being a son but for the father to be his lord.

In the book, the son dreamed a dream:  I looked through the front window; the house was crowded and I could see my father.  My father looked at me and I knocked and he would not let me in. 
How many times have people thought that the father would not answer if they knocked; they think that he will turn away if they knock.

“I will arise and say to my father.”  What if He will receive me?  What if He is not the way that I think He is?  I will arise and go to the father. 

The true story is, when he was yet a great way off the father saw him and ran and fell upon his neck and asked the servants to bring the best robe and feed him with the fatted calf. 

That is the true story for any sinner that will just take hold and press out.

Throw out the life line across the dark wave;
There is a brother whom someone should save;
Somebody’s brother! O who then will dare
To throw out the life line, his peril to share?

Refrain
Throw out the life line! Throw out the life line!
Someone is drifting away;
Throw out the life line! Throw out the life line!
Someone is sinking today.

Throw out the life line with hand quick and strong:
Why do you tarry, why linger so long?
See! he is sinking; oh, hasten today
And out with the life boat! away, then away!

Refrain

Throw out the life line to danger fraught men,
Sinking in anguish where you’ve never been;
Winds of temptation and billows of woe
Will soon hurl them out where the dark waters flow.

Refrain

Soon will the season of rescue be o’er,
Soon will they drift to eternity’s shore;
Haste, then, my brother, no time for delay,
But throw out the life line and save them today.

Refrain

This is the life line, oh, tempest tossed men;
Baffled by waves of temptation and sin;
Wild winds of passion, your strength cannot brave,
But Jesus is mighty, and Jesus can save.

Refrain

Jesus is able! To you who are driv’n,
Farther and farther from God and from Heav’n;
Helpless and hopeless, o’erwhelmed by the wave;
We throw out the life line, ’tis “Jesus can save.”

Refrain

This is the life line, oh, grasp it today!
See, you are recklessly drifting away;
Voices in warning, shout over the wave,
O grasp the strong life line, for Jesus can save.