Brother Gary Sunday Morning 3/23/14

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 3/23/14

Rev 1:9  I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Rev 1:10  I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet,

According to the Commentators, this was in AD 97.  It was a Sunday morning sometime before the first turn of the century; John was exiled to the isle of Patmos. 

This difficult was not all bad.  It was a part of the great ordained plan of God.  This aged disciple was put in a position where he wrote to us in the thought: I am your brother, your companion in tribulation, your companion in the kingdom of God, and in patience.

Sometimes people look at life and wonder “Why did this happen to me?”  It is a part of life and I am totally shocked at the turn of events that happen in your and my life.  We don’t plan those events such as, “I’m going to go to this place and hopefully have trouble there and it work good in my life.” 

We don’t plan those things.  It is our responsibility to work, pay taxes, provide for our own, be a good husband as a husband or a good helpmeet as a wife, be obedient children as children.  Really we are just traveling the road of life.

John was just traveling the road of life and laboring as he went and then a man decided he wanted something else for John. 

John said, “I am also your companion in the kingdom of God.”  Anywhere God allows you to be, there can be righteousness, peace, and Joy in the Holy Ghost.  Right in the most difficult trial with your head to the wall, you can have the kingdom of God.

I am your companion in patience.  It is amazing that he looked down the road in time from AD 97 knowing that the church that he loved and cared for and helped, knowing the difficulty they were having and the hard places they were in, knowing that this man that was put in authority may do worse things next. 

He knew about the seven churches in Asia and wrote: I am your companion in tribulation.  When we are waiting on God to help us with something, remember back in AD 97 there was one that wrote, “I am your companion in tribulation.”

I felt as the choir sang of having strength.  We weighed some things on a personal level, as a congregation, as a pastor in a local town, as a new work starts in Ecuador, as Brother and Sister Figeroa are in difficult straights, as we wait upon God it comes so real: patient. 

Patient in pressure.  Patient in besetment.  Patient in disappointment.  Patient, endeavoring to be patient as you look down the road trusting for someone to get saved before it is forever too late.  I preached to an audience that has grandchildren, and great grandchildren.

There was one in AD 97 that wrote, “I am your companion in tribulation.  I am your companion in the kingdom of God and I am your companion in patience.”

Patience: the waiting of God’s perfect timing.  This could be the week. 

He said, “I was on the isle of Patmos for the Word of God.  I was there for the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

There are a couple things that you and I want to be reminded of this morning.  God has His definite word for us in the particular situations that we might find ourselves in.  God has given me the message that will be the bridge; if you take it, it will lead you to the perfect will of God for the exact situation that you are in this morning and for the perfect testimony of Jesus Christ for the exact situation that you face.

The key was that he was in the Spirit.  As you and I came into the house of God, as I walked up the sidewalk, we are here this morning and it is vital that we say, “I want to be in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.”  The most important thing is that the Holy Spirit of God be here.

In Proverbs 8:4, wisdom which is Christ spoke and said:

Pro 8:4  Unto you, O men, I call; and my voice is to the sons of man.

It is a wonderful thing and I emphasize that we need to make it a practice not only to have our devotions, There is something that we want to remember, God has ordained that His Spirit meet with us in a special way on Sunday.

We come into the house of God from a week of whatever the week was.  Everyone in this audience has some access and some of you have a lot of access because you work in the public, read a lot or have computers, everyone has interchanges of thoughts.  There are strong spirits that know no walls and they come to bring thoughts.  This is a common thing.  We have thoughts, “I wonder what people are thinking of me or this or that.” 

Coming to the house of God removes those thoughts.  We come in and meet with God and fellowship with one another.  We don’t test one another’s spirits but believe that each one lived his testimony.  We come to get fellowship, receive fellowship, and unite in praise, adoration, and worship.

Pro 8:5  O ye simple, understand wisdom: and, ye fools, be ye of an understanding heart.

This doesn’t mean those that have a hard time taking a test.  “Be ye of an understanding heart.”  The simple and the fools have followed the path of a heart that leads away from God.  Mark this down in your Bible and study.  It is so sad today how many people are traveling the road of life without the compass of the Word of God or the company of the Spirit of God.

It is not just the youth whose heart is pulled upon to do whatever you think would be right in your heart for your life.  We will not make the right choice by leaning to our own understanding. 

Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Don’t trust yourself or lean upon your own understanding.  Many people have no authority from God to tell them what to do with their life.  If you want to know what to do with your life, go back to Jesus, the one that is from eternity, and to God who inhabits eternity.

Acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.

The simple and the fools follow the path of a heart that leads away from god.  Isn’t that heartbreaking?  The path of the world.  Every one of us was born with a nature to stray.  You don’t need to be embarrassed to say, “I have something in my carnal nature to stray.”  If people don’t get to God and get settled upon the rock, they are lost.

Pro 8:6  Hear; for I will speak of excellent things; and the opening of my lips shall be right things.

Hear the call of Christ.  I will speak excellent things I will speak right things.

The voice of God comes through His Word and Spirit.  Hear the voice of God, not the voice of your heart.  Not the voice of whomever you like to quote, the voice of the Word and the Spirit of God.

Hear the voice of God through psalms, though hymns.  God has ordained the psalms, He has given marvelous songs.  God speaks to us through the songs.

Hear the voice of God through prayer.  You and I will not come up with any new subjects.  It is marvelous how an old subject becomes new. 

I don’t know when the first peach was grown.  There are no peaches in the peach orchard yet, but unless those peach trees live there will not be any peaches.  I am watching to see, I hope Karen gets a picture of, that peach orchard in bloom.  You cannot eat blossoms, but when you see them you think “There may be fruit.”

Prayer is not a new subject.  You let there be an emergency in your life today and there will be a thought, “I have to pray.”  Why do sinners call for prayer?  Why don’t they just trust their heart?  They call for prayer.  God speaks to us through prayer.

The voice of God through testimony.  That is the reason that on Sunday night and Wednesday night we ask if the saints have a good report.  We believe that a good report makes fat the bones. 

There is no respecter of persons with God.  When you hear a good report of the prodigal and his father, then you believe.  “I’m going to be watching for that sinner to come home.”  It creates faith for that one that you are praying for.

The voice of God through the confession of faults.  Everyone that wants to be healed is anxious to confess their fault.  I have a shortcoming here.  I really need healing; I really need victory.  The Holy Spirit honors it strongly.

The voice of God through correspondence.  Have correspondence that brings the Holy Spirit of God to your life.  Have correspondence that encourages you to think right, encourages you to sew good seed.

The voice of God through communion.  Don’t you love it when you have your devotions, wherever you have them, that place where you and I consider to be so special because God meets you there.  When you commune, cry out to the living God from your heart and God speaking to your soul.  God brings to you that substance of wisdom, instruction, warning, and employment. 

Everyone that is saved, God wants to speak to you in the thought of employment.  We don’t retire from this employment.  He has a job for you to do.  As He comes there is nothing sweeter, or more precious than the sweetness of Him saying, “My son or my daughter.” 

Sometimes we feel that he is dealing with us as he says, “Beloved I have something that I want you to do.”  Those times, in my experience, are that which will require more of Him than I have ever had before.  He gives you the employment and you turn to Him and say, “I love you so much, You couldn’t ask too much.”

God spoke to a man and said, “I want you to take your resources and your wife’s resources and put it in my work.”  I would ask the man, “When God was talking to you do you remember if He called you beloved?”  They gave everything to build a church of God mission. 

The voice of God comes back through fellowship.  I requested yesterday that I would have the tongue of the learned that I would know how to speak a word to him that is weary. 

Isa 50:4  The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: he wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned.

Isa 50:5  The Lord GOD hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back.

He opens the ear to hear as the learned.  All the words from Christ are in righteousness.

Pro 8:7  For my mouth shall speak truth; and wickedness is an abomination to my lips.

Pro 8:8  All the words of my mouth are in righteousness; there is nothing froward or perverse in them.

You will never receive anything from Christ that will lead you to become a prodigal.  Our flesh will speak.  You will be hungry for ice-cream, or whatever you crave.  Our flesh speaks and every once in a while it speaks loud.  It is not just for ice-cream, chocolate or licorice.

Our flesh cries out.  Paul wrote, “I die daily.”  I wish I had kept a journal of all the times that Christ has spoken to me as I got up in the morning, “You are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

The counsel of God 2014: receive my instruction.  Suppose Heather’s grandfather decides what she needs is a 1966 Mustang reconditioned.  The motor has been totally taken apart and put together. 

Suppose they leave Ohio tomorrow headed for Montana.  It is a beautiful color and he pulls up and it is setting on the trailer, “Here are the keys but don’t start it because it has not had a drop of oil in it since I built the engine.” 

Suppose Heather won’t listen and says, “It is mine and I will do with it what I want.”  She starts it and in a matter of moments, the engine seizes and the motor is shot.  I ask myself and I ask you, “Can I receive instruction?  Will you be told anything?”

It is a serious question isn’t it.  If you need an answer then you need instruction.  Can you receive instruction or are you so busy listening to yourself and your own heart that God cannot tell you anything.  God has something to say to you and God has something to say to me.

If Heather’s grandfather brings a 1966 Mustang with instruction, I’m going to tell her to listen to Grandpa.  He knows cars. 

Listen to God.  Listen to Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  Receive that instruction.  Receive it. 

This is how His instruction is, It is better than rubies.  It is better than any tangible thing.  His instruction dwells with prudence. 

When God gives you instruction you say, “I will take your instruction.”  When you say yes to His instruction then He comes with prudence which gives us the understanding and ability how to perform what He has instructed us to do.

It was Sunday morning; it could have been AD 97.  There was a man named John on the Isle of Patmos that found himself in the Spirit.  He made the choice to let the Holy Spirit of God have His perfect way in his life.