Brother Gary Sunday Morning 1/5/14

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 1/5/14

Psa 3:1  A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. LORD, how are they increased that trouble me! many are they that rise up against me.

Psa 3:2  Many there be which say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.

This scripture lesson comes from a psalm of David during a difficult season of his life.  Difficult seasons are not anything new to life.  That is what life is all about.  Karen and I often say to each other the reason that work is called work is because it is work.  Life is life because there are many difficult things in it that God allows to be that you and I can know how to walk and talk and please God.

It is not uncommon for sinner or saint to find themselves in a difficult season of their life.  Every individual that is saved is as pure gold.  As a saved person we will step to the line when difficult seasons come and we say, “By the help and grace of God when I am tried I shall come forth as gold.”

We have an adversary, according to Peter; he warned the people of God that they would have manifold temptations.  We sometimes wonder why the devil is tempting us some way.  The reason is because of manifold temptations.  He has all sorts of different ways that he will try to see if you will be tempted or drawn away from serving God.

Some people think that serving God will cost them too much.  As I was studying of the rich young ruler, he went away without his needs met because he was rich.  There are a lot of people that are rich in pride or other things that cause them to think that serving God is substandard. 

Everyone that has given up for the kingdom of God shall receive manifold more in this life and also life everlasting.

The manifold grace of God is mentioned by Peter.  We are blessed to be able to read, to have bible helps: commentaries and things to help in our bible studies.

Selah is found in the second verse, the very last word.  It is used 71 times in the book of Psalms.  Many commentators say, “We cannot figure out the word and cannot see where it has bearing in the scripture.”  For a common guy like me, I have some things to say about the word.

The word means to stop.  I have a struggle with anxiety.  The anxiety that I know is the anxiety of my mind.  I wake in the morning and my mind begins to race.  It can begin to race before I go to bed and sleep at night.  My mind is a racing mind.  It brings a lot of anxiety to me.  This scripture has had a profound effect on me.  I tell my mind in the morning to stop, to pause, to consider. 

Don’t rush into anything, consider.  Listen to the songs of deliverance. 

It is a very common commentary of individuals; it says that there is no hope for souls out there in sin.  That is not a new commentary but an old commentary.  There were people that looked at me in my life of sin and were convinced that I was hopeless, worthless, that there was no hope.

The world would tell you that all four of the residence where I visited last week are hopeless.  The world will tell you that those that are in trouble in your life are hopeless.  “You might as well get over it because they are hopeless.”  They don’t have an identity with the hope, the light, the true God.

Individuals are in hopelessness if they stay in sin.  The bondage of sin only increases.  I find it interesting to watch worldliness of children grow and then the bondage of sin takes individuals from any path of being balanced and normal. 

They have the religious realm, the far right, the fanatics; they are usually talking of you and me that live and do right, that study the bible and measure to the word of God, and love Him more than any in the world.  That is why they have such bondage in sin.  It is why the religious world is changing, going from hill to hill and always wandering in the world. 

The hopelessness of sin:  I think of the power of Satan with individuals that are not saved and sanctified and it is very alarming how the devil steals from those individuals. 

A couple weeks ago I paraphrased a testimony given to Brother DS Warner by a young man that chose to go away from God and enjoy the pleasures and success of sin, being accepted in sin.  When he came back he told Brother Warner, “I not only lost my money, but I lost my character.” 

Dear ones this morning, for whatever reason, I am glad to have a heavy burden this morning.  What the devil is stealing from souls: time. 

Every one of you parents are blessed that you chose to get saved and serve God.  The enemy will take the years when a child’s mind should be innocent and singing choruses.  Instead of them having this, the enemy is turned loose and steals those things from them.  There is nothing like the time that a child has with parents and grandparents. 

The thief takes character away.  I cannot bear to know very much of what is going on in society and I only catch a little bit of the echo of it and of the living without morals and virtue. 

Living without virtue means living without valor for a brother.  We need men that take responsibility for their children, for the grandchildren, for their wife, and for the house of God.  That tell God, “Anything that you want to make out of me I want to be.” 

I am here with a greater mission than just hiking to every lake or catching every fish in every lake.  I like to have a clean car but I have a greater mission than just cleaning the car.  I want to look past this life and that which is tangible to that which is of a spiritual nature.  One soul saved is worth more than all of the world.

We need women of virtue with such a vision that say, I want a life past myself, past that of hoping that everything will come to me.  I want to have a vision for souls.

Sister E Faith Stewart gave her life to see the church established in Cuba. 

How the enemy has stolen character and stolen minds. 

I want to teach on Selah, there is a refuge.  ‘At The Cross’ is a song on refuge.  There have been men and women that have written song after song, “I have found a refuge.”  I love that song but there have been song after song written of finding a refuge. 

The thief of time; how few songs are written!  I hesitate to believe that God is not still giving songs.  I believe that God wants to give us songs, poems, or inspirations to write commentaries, bible stories, devotionals.  The enemy wants to take and fill your time with whatever it might be.

We face economic challenges in this life but we still want to have God first in our lives. 

The robber:  I don’t know that story but the family next to my daughter came over for a birthday party and the children are so sad because their mom and dad are divorced.  They have been robbed by the robber. 

Without someone with a burden, souls are being robbed and no one is even saying, “Why don’t you stop and consider.”

The liar:  how the devil lies to people about life and about sin.  How he lies about neglecting their soul.  I don’t think that Karen and I ever take on a burden for God that the devil doesn’t try to talk us out of.  “You probably wouldn’t be accepted…”  Until you go, labor and endeavor to open the door, if the enemy talks you out of it, then you have been overcome by the liar.

Until a sinner hears there is no hope.

Psa 40:1  To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

Stop, consider, listen to the songs of deliverance of the past.  God’s eye is searching for souls that will wait on God. 

This morning may God help us as the church to not be hesitant when someone bombards us with questions what are you going to do?  But to say, I’m waiting on God.  We need to know how to wait on God.  I cannot do it for you, and your parents or Sunday school teachers cannot wait on God for you. 

God’s eye is searching today and His ear is ready to hear all those that are broken and contrite, “God I really want to hear and know your will.”  For the sinner that is broken and contrite, God hears and answers prayer.

Psa 40:2  He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings.

God works, He is ready to work.  You may be dealing with family.  All of us that have family have urgent unspoken prayer requests.  If you have family you have a desperate need of what only He can possible do. 

Our family has had many saviors.  This and that one have come to their rescue and you have come to their rescue and you have prayed them out of this and that. 

The children of Israel always had many saviors and they always went back and got in trouble again.  It is only the Almighty God, His son, and the Holy Spirit that can get any out of the horrible pit.  The pit is a place of agony and of sounds of regret.

I have a friend that almost every time that he visits me tells me that he lives every day with regrets.  I don’t know what he is listening to of his past life, of sin, good times, wine, women, travel, good looking, pleasant personality, but what he tells me about are the regrets. 

The horrible pit is a place of bondage, with signs that are full of pain of the conscience, of the memory: “I’ve sinned against God, of this person and that; I took advantage of this one and treated that innocent one as if they were dirt under my feet.”  Only He can deliver out of the horrible pit.

Out of the miry clay:  I thrilled as I studied this message.  It talks of David and it talks of me.  Washed from the miry clay:  the bible clearly teaches, can a leopard change his spots?  Can the white folks change their skin?  Can the Ethiopian change their skin?  Yet God changes hearts.  Changed by the word of God!

Any individual that you are burdened for, they could be in the horrible pit and in the miry clay: those things that just hang onto people that they do and say.  “I just hate myself for being mean, for doing this, for tearing into someone, for going back to that same old sin that I said that I wouldn’t go back to.”  There is only one answer and that is Jesus. 

Mary the mother of Jesus said, “With God nothing shall be impossible.”  Jesus said, “With God nothing is impossible.”

“He set my feet on a rock.” (Verse 2)  The refuge of the rock:  It is better to be on the rock than to have a boat in the flood.  If the dams break and there is a flood in this valley, there will be those looking for the highest rock and thinking, How can I get on that rock.  I wonder if these old knees can climb.

There are a lot of changes going on in the judicial system as far as what is legal and what is not.  But there are some things that will not change.  You can trust God; you can trust the promise of God.  You can trust God to work. 

If you are unsaved or unsettled spiritually there is a rock to get on.  It is ok if you are going through trials.  God only means it for good.  Get on the rock and there is encouragement and security on the rock.

If you are going through a terrible season of temptation, finding that the world is attractive, and your flesh desiring what you know is wrong in your head, get on the rock. 

Php 3:13  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

Php 3:14  I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

1Co 9:25  And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

1Co 9:26  I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beateth the air:

1Co 9:27  But I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

The head and mind are a part of the body.  I bring my mind into subjection and I’m not going to live on the borderline of the world.  I am not going to flirt with the world. 

The world leaves scars that will be forgiven if you repent, but why leave scars?  They will bring scars to your mind and pain to your parents.  It would have been so much better for those children to be saved.  They wouldn’t have had a perfect childhood anywhere.  You can make excuse and blame yourself or others, but the thing to be is saved. 

He established my goings.  Karen and I return to the same places every year for vacations.  It is good to have some things established in our lives and especially our goings. 

If I live tomorrow I’m going to be worshipping in my devotions.  If I don’t live then I want you to get up and say, “If he would have lived, he would have had devotions and been in the house of God and say, ‘God let me speak to some soul about their soul today.’”  That is where the joy is.

Establish my goings to the place of prayer and to the house of God.  The house of God is a wonderful place.  He put a new song in my mouth.  If you don’t have a new song then get one this morning.