Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 4/23/14

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 4/23/14

Rev 2:1  Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks;

Rev 2:2  I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

Rev 2:3  And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name's sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

Rev 2:4  Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

It is a wonderful thing that in the great plan of God, God and His son, Christ, has always in the Gospel day had a church and has always had a ministry.  I’m not into the discouraging things that may be going on throughout the land.  The goal is that you and I be rightly related to God and have Christ walking among us right in our midst as the Golden Candle stick, the Church of the Living God.

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The church at Ephesus was the church age of the church at Acts, and the morning time church.  Jesus built the church.  Whenever you or I need our eyes anointed, when we hear this or that, a spirit of unbelief or report blows around, the best counsel I can give you is to go to the Acts, the epistles, the apostles.  That is how the morning time church was and how the church is.  It is our goal to be as the church was when it was built and on the day of Pentecost.

When Jesus resurrected, right before He ascended back to the Father, he was with some of the disciples and led them out of Jerusalem a ways and left them with instruction, “Tarry in Jerusalem until you be endued with power.”  The heavens opened and He ascended back to the Father.

The disciples went back to Jerusalem, and there were 120 gathered together.

Act 1:14  These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

Thank God they had come through the dark day with Jesus crucified and laid in the tomb.  They got through the events with Thomas and others.  They were all there praying and reading.

Act 2:1  And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.

God wants us today to all pull with the same cause of being church of God.  That takes away from all the big I’s and little you’s.  It takes away from the church bosses. 

Brother Figeroa told me he was sick and needed prayer.  He told me, “I am concerned that I do not allow this sickness in my body to cause me to lose the focus of the church of the Living God.” 

We are all thrilled that Sister Teri can go and help with her daughter and the baby.  We may not be able to go as a missionary somewhere, but every month we will have things happen where we must keep them on the altar and keep ourselves on the altar so that we don’t lose our focus of being the church of God, growing and knowing what God wants us to do, and doing it.

They were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as a rushing… There were all sorts of people there that heard the marvelous Word of God in their own language and God moved and blessed and it was a wonderful time.

Not all were with them that were there.

Act 2:13  Others mocking said, These men are full of new wine.

Act 2:14  But Peter, standing up with the eleven, lifted up his voice, and said unto them, Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken to my words:

Act 2:15  For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.

Act 2:16  But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;

Act 2:17  And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

Act 2:18  And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:

Act 2:19  And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke:

Act 2:20  The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come:

Act 2:21  And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Act 2:36  Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.

Act 2:37  Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit were right there in this audience.  The church was in a healthy condition, the Holy Spirit of God was moving upon men and women and they asked, “What shall we do?”

Act 2:38  Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

Act 2:39  For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

It is so vital that we keep it real, “God I want to be pure gold.  I want to be real.  My soul demands reality.”  The heart-cry of men and women that left that horrible tomb that they were entombed in.  Without Bible salvation and sanctification, that is how life is, a tomb. 

When people allow lukewarmness or their love begins to wane, or thought patterns to develop, pretty soon the joy of the Lord is not there.  We want the presence of God real in our lives.

1Ti 4:12  Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

The reason that Paul could write this to the younger man is because this is what he had found would allow him to keep the victory in his soul.

May God help us in our word from our mouth to be an example of the believers.  Among the things that we are so challenged to do is to excel in edification and do our very best to help every brother, sister, and child that we come in contact with. 

We want to conduct ourselves as an individual that has been saved from all sin.  We have felt the fires of refinement that “this thing in our life is displeasing to God and a hindrance to ourselves or to someone else.” 

If we have a stumbling block in our life it may become a conversation piece, the best thing to do is to say, “In all of my conduct I want to be pleasing.”

We want the love of God in our conduct.  Sometimes we all know too much.  I thank God we are able to have a home and to pay taxes and our other bills.  You hear of people that live off of the system.  You saints have worked all your life and you are still paying; it doesn’t feel that it is a just deal. 

We cannot let our mind dwell on those things.  I’m mighty glad that we have electricity, and have a stove to cook on.  We might as well say, “God help us to have a thankful heart and go our way rejoicing” instead of being upset about those that live off of the system.

God help us to have a right spirit all the time instead of being upset.  Jesus walks among the golden candlestick and among the pure.

In faith:  the reason that God showed mercy was because of faith in God.  He steps in just in time over and over again.  With faith in God we can be full of good things.

In purity:  in a world that is so full of loose living and impurity, I studied of the Nicolaitans, those people were mixed up on everything.  The thing that was the big thing with them was the loose moral living.

In the Laodicean period of time, the door of time is closing and we are faced with a society that is living like the Nicolaitans did.  Immoral living, running on Easter Sunday, terrible!  Where in the world are people’s minds? 

Easter is a holiday recognized in USA and all that is involved.  Karen was in Plains and it broke her heart not seeing the people in the flower shop buying flowers, but the people in the adjacent shop buying liquor on Easter.

We are not going to change the person that is living immoral by thinking about it.  We can be the church of God, as the golden candlestick, measured, with God real in our life and an anointing of God in our life so that we can take a stand.  We don’t have to be mean when we take a stand.

We are not dealing with just time, we are dealing with eternity.  If you will check the obituaries tomorrow there will be probably someone in there younger than me.  There will probably be someone in there our daughters’ age. 

Where there is sin everything will not be just gentle.  There will be attitudes here or there, someone thinking this or that.  The goal is purity. 

1Ti 4:13  Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.

They were probably reading at this time mostly the Old Testament.  Think of what we have today!

Give attendance to exhortation and to doctrine.

Christ in the midst.

Act 2:41  Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

Act 2:42  And they continued stedfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.

Stay steadfast.  Stay steadfast in doctrine.  There is no wishywashyness on doctrine.  You may have heard that so in so is not preaching this or that.  Get before God and say, “God help us to stay with the old paths.   Help us to know how to teach and preach, to testify and lift up the Word of God in its beauty.”

We need to stay in fellowship and stay clear with one another.  No one around here is inferior to someone else.  There is no special this or that one.

Act 2:43  And fear came upon every soul: and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles.

Act 2:44  And all that believed were together, and had all things common;

Brother Rick can play the guitar like a professional.  That doesn’t mean that He is above me.  I grow good garlic but that doesn’t mean that I’m above anyone else.  There is difference in callings, in incomes, in number or children or grandchildren, but if we are to be pure gold then we must have all things common. 

You do know some things.  Your opinion counts. 

Act 2:45  And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need.

Act 2:46  And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,

Act 2:47  Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.

Praising God.  Having favor with the people.  You may wish you could reach that star over there.  There may be people that I can never reach to.  We might not be able to reach to the star but we can probably be able to get a hold of Nick.  We can reach to the little children that come to Sunday school.  We are so blessed. 

Isn’t it wonderful that Brother Turnbow came by?  I don’t know who found him, but thank God he came by.  We cannot all be Brother Maconahae or F.G. Smith or Brother Turnbow but we can all be saved and enjoy the good things of God.