Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 4/2/14

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 4/2/14

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

John was in the Spirit on the first day, on Sunday.  The morning time church, in the history they can come up with, was practicing gathering together to worship God on the first day of the week.  They sang, read scriptures, and as we would say worshipped. 

As people began to leave off worshipping God then they began to think of Sunday as a ‘holy day.’  God doesn’t make days holy.  He makes men and women holy.  He wants us to live holy every day. 

There are real lines that we all need to draw to keep the day that God set aside for us to gather together to worship that we don’t have so much going on that we cannot gather together on Sunday to worship.  We want to be our best as John was when he was in the Spirit.

If you are tired, played too much, exerted yourself, then you will not be prepared for Sunday.  As best we can, we want to be here early on Sunday with our mind ready to worship God. 

However much work you get in six days, that is enough.  Give God your best on Sunday.  Get a good rest Saturday night and come expecting to have an altar call, expect to greet the saints, and expect to tell someone that you love them that you haven’t talked to for a while.

While He was there, he heard a trumpet.  Every one of us of will have things come up in our lives, everything that comes in your life doesn’t mean that it is from God.  I’ve been getting something from the secretary of the state saying, “Watch out for this scam or that.”  There are a lot of scammers in the world.  It is not a new thing.  The devil is a scammer from the beginning.  There are a lot of people trying to manipulate others. 

We have been bought with a price, we are not our own.  When we got saved and sanctified we came to the thought as Solomon said, if we love sin and iniquity then we love ruin.

Jesus is the Alpha and He is the only first.  There is no one that could take his place and there is no one that can ever take His place.  There are all of these religious people out there that remind me of a vault.  They are all cemented in and happy that they are the name that they hold to but they don’t have Bible salvation.  Unless Jesus Christ is your savior and sanctifier, you are lost and without God.  He is the only first.

He is the only omega, the finality, the very end.  The good things that you need brought to you, God will send.  There are some things that we have to bring an end to.  There are thoughts and relationships that we must bring an end to. 

When God says, “This is draining you”, then you need to love God enough to cut it off.  If your hand offend, if your eye offend, or if your foot offend, cut it off.  There are some things that we must bring an end to.

If your eye is looking at something, not everything that your eye looks at is bad things on the internet.  If I have a covetous eye or a critical eye, I need to bring it to an end.

If you are going some places that you shouldn’t go, if you come back weaker and weaker, then it is only a matter of time and it will get you.  We need to cut it off.

Rev 1:11  Saying, I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

In reality, when Jesus speaks then that is the beginning of things.  We are seeking answers from God.  There are a lot of people that will give you a thought, but when Jesus speaks then there is a beginning.

“I am weighing a thought; I am not so sure if it came from the flesh.”  We can know.  We bring it before God and say, “God if that is not from you I want to cut it off.”

He will have the final say.  He is the omega.  It is true and has always been true. 

Rev 1:12  And I turned to see the voice that spake with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks;

He turned to see the voice and saw seven golden candlesticks.

Rev 1:13  And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clothed with a garment down to the foot, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle.

We can rejoice beyond a shadow of a doubt that all through the gospel day, in every church age, there has been a golden candlestick.  God has always had a church.  It may have been hidden in this or that but God had a church. 

If someone would write in the Billings Gazette that no one in Montana lives holy it would not take away from the fact that there are men and women that love God and truth in the State of Montana.  There have been times of more publicity and of less.  We don’t control those times.

Rev 1:14  His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire;

Rev 1:15  And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

Many waters:  many languages, many people.

Rev 1:16  And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength.

In the right hand of the Lord Jesus Christ, He has always had His ministry.  First we need the attitude, “God am I doing everything that you want me to do.” Then “If I am not called to minister, help me to be faithful to those that are.”

God will speak to you through His Word, the sharp two-edged sword that came from His mouth. 

We can trust the Lord Jesus Christ to shine His full countenance on us.  God has a way of conveying through the Lord Jesus Christ, His countenance, His love, His thoughts.  He has a way of shining it full strength into our soul. 

The thing necessary for us to receive this is to have the attitude, “God I want to know your will.”  If you want your own way then count the cost of what it will cost you to have your own way.  It will cost you more than you want to pay.

We are so happy to have the visitors.  You as a congregation make our guests feel welcome and I appreciate that.  You stay to visit, invite them to dinner, and not being snoopy, you do your best to show that you are interested in them.  If they could just grasp the good things that God has in store and what they would miss: Their regrets of not serving God, of not listening to His voice, the regrets of choosing one’s own way. 

His countenance was as the sun shining in His strength.  Everyplace in the world, people in the darkest place in the world when the sun begins to shine then things begin to perk up and grow.  In the darkest city of the world if one would allow the hunger for God then the Sun of righteousness will begin shining and will shine more and more and more until it shines in the full strength.