Brother Gary Sunday Morning 6/15/14

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 6/15/14

1Pe 1:10  Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:

1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.

1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.

Peter was writing to everywhere; it includes us.  Those prophets of old desired to grasp what they were prophesying of.  They knew that God was working with them.

You may not understand what God is preparing you for, but search diligently to grasp of what God is speaking to you.  The prophets were speaking of salvation: deliverance, help, safety, victory, health.  The prophets were inspired by the Holy Spirit of God and received marvelous prophecies that you and I desire to read and rejoice and look at. 

One of the scriptures that I wanted to go to sleep thinking of is, “That they have heard the joyful sound.”  I have heard the joyful sound, “Jesus saves.  I know my sins are forgiven.  Who will consecrate their service unto the Lord?”  You and I fully understand that joyful sound this morning.

They prophesied of the grace.  They couldn’t grasp the grace of God.  They knew what it was to make a sacrifice of a lamb or bull.  They didn’t know much about grace: grace and truth comes by Jesus Christ.

Grace means the unmerited favor of God.  There is not anyone other than these little children, protected by the atonement of Christ but if it wasn’t for the mercy of God we would be locked up in a prison so bound that we wouldn’t ever be delivered.

We need to allow the scoffing and mocking of others to cause us to hang onto God as we never have before.  Enlist in his service until we die.

Grace means: the unmerited favor of God, the divine influence upon the soul.  It is so wonderful to have someone influence us in a good way.  There are influences in the world that would influence us to go here or there.  The grace of God has appeared to all men instructing us.

Grace means the divine influence upon the soul and the reflection out in our life. 

The prophets searched to understand:  There were sufferings of the Messiah.  When you and I think of the sufferings of Christ that we know of, we think of what history has taught us of what it is like to be crucified, to have vinegar given to us, to have a crown of thorns, to suffer so as to have blood come out of our pores as sweat.

They searched to understand the son of God suffering:  A love that you and I can understand.  The Son suffered because of the love He had for their soul.  May God help us to not just be a people lover, a ‘do-gooder’, but a lover of the soul. 

Perish means to mar, destroy, and leave in hell. 

The glory of God:  Men and women living in the presence of God.  They that walk and live in the Spirit were taught of the prophets.  They did not understand the presence of God like we can.  It is in us, around us and everywhere.

It was in a day to come.  It was the gospel day.  You and I are in the gospel day, the day of good news.  It is a day of wonderful news.  It is the gospel day.

This is for those that will hear the gospel preached.  May God challenge us.  Greater than you and I being well educated and having the finery that the world can give, may the gospel be put in the souls of these children and may we raise a soul winner.  Not politically correct, or a pleasing personality, but someone that loves God and loves souls to see their lives changed.

This is for those that will hear the gospel.  There are many that are satisfied with religion and will not hear the gospel.  “The smile is phony on my face and life is treating me good.”  Those are just words.  Oh to have God on the inside!  The angels and prophets desired to see it.

Isa 35:1  The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

Our lives were designed to be tilled by the word of God.  By you and I being a vessel, “I want to be broken for God.  I don’t want just what my mind or flesh wants.  I want the hungers of my soul to be for God.  Not just what the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life wants.  But that I would be filled with the Spirit and the beautiful fruits of the Spirit.”  This is what we can have in the gospel day.

Those that recognize, “I am a wilderness.  I need lots of God.  I don’t have it together.  I really need a savior.  I am headed down the road and I don’t know who will be there or take care of me.” 

We live in a world that is like that.  They are shipwrecked, past shipwrecked; their minds and emotions are affected.

Isa 35:2  It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the LORD, and the excellency of our God.

My desert bloomed rose.  We are in springtime and garden season; you that have roses are looking for the first rose.  At first you wondered if you would even have a rose; maybe everything was winterkilled.  You began to trim around and soon the green came up. 

The desert would bloom rose.  That desert of my soul, the desert of souls, shall rejoice.  Men and women can get it together and be so happy.  They can get it together and rejoice.  They can have a song and a testimony every Sunday and Wednesday night.  You don’t have to go through life defeated and without victory.

People can overcome and have the victory.  There are a million counselors that will tell you how to live your life and they are all wrong except Jesus Christ.

Only look for those that have a desert.  People that have it all together and are so cool, they are not looking for what you have.  They act cool, but they are a desert and are headed for disaster.  They have a smile, they have a new girlfriend, they are going to get married and then they will have another new girlfriend.  Pay day is coming.  One of these days they will be as the prodigal, they have spent it all.

Then you see bitter and angry people.  The gospel rejoices the soul.  The gospel makes a blossom.  Don’t you love to run into people that smell good?  That have a smile and a blossom?

It shall blossom.  There is something about the yellow rose of Texas and the Austrian rose.  You don’t just see one.  You see a bush alive with blossoms.  God wants you and me to blossom abundantly.

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,

Gal 5:23  Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.

We get the love of God in our heart and we have joy.  We have singing.  Aren’t you glad for a happy song?  Aren’t you glad for people that want to hear what you are singing.

The glory of Lebanon:  Lebanon is known for trees.  May you and I be like trees planted by the river.  That have roots that go down deep and don’t wither when the dry times come.  It takes a lively tree that doesn’t wither in God’s church.

Sharon and Carmel are known for livestock and crops.  There is spiritual milk for sinners.  We have Carmel and Sharon.  There is milk for babes. 

You say, “I have been saved for a while and I feel that I need to deepen down.”  We have certified beef, meat that has no chemicals that will be destructive to the body.  It will give strength to the soul, the body, the hand, the saint, to the weary.  All we have to do is get the cupboard door open. 

There is meat for maturity.  You don’t have to be weak, worldly, full of strife, and always on the defense.

Isa 35:3  Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

Isa 35:4  Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

There is something about being rightly related to God when someone is struggling.  Instead of the attack message, it is: “How can I help you.  Let me show you scripture.  We want to help you.”

Be strong and fear not:

A lot of people are full of fear, afraid of everything.  They are afraid of family, afraid of the boss, and afraid of what people will say.  There will always be scoffers, mockers, and the elder brother that will throw a fit when people don’t do what they want.

Be strong take a stand.  When things are wrong they are wrong.  Your God will come with vengeance.  God honors everyone that will be strong and take a stand for truth.  If you cannot be spiritual with modern technology then get rid of it.  I’d rather walk than let anything keep me from being on fire for God.

Purpose in your heart, “I am going to be more spiritual next year.”  Take a stand for God and take a stand for truth.  Fathers and grandfathers in this audience, this is our day.  Take a stand for God. 

Today is our day to be men serving God, to be spiritual men, with a message, with a backbone, with a vision past the moment.  We have to have it; if we don’t then we are nothing less than Babylon. 

Grandmas, be godly grandmas.  Don’t be afraid of taking a stand when you need to.  Have God first.  Be on fire for God and serve God.  Jesus came to do a better job on you.

The gospel day has heavenly messengers.  We want to be a heavenly messenger.  Get a hold of God and call on Him to help the one that is struggling.  It won’t do any good to talk.  Get a hold of God.  Get on your knees and begin to pray.  We have a God that knows how to work.

Singers in Zion are individuals with a message in song from God.  We have these songs because someone was seeking after God and God gave them a song.

The encouragers:  We live in a world with crape hangers.  There is a place, it is the gospel day, full of encouragement.

Be strong.  The gospel day has a message for the fearful, the worrier, the overcharged.  Be strong fear not, your God will come with a recompense and will save.

No matter if you don’t serve God or if you do serve God, someone will be out to get you.  Evil men will strike over and over and over again.  They will get to you.  If you serve God then He will come and save his people.

Isa 35:5  Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

The gospel opens blinded eyes to real joy.  The joy of the world is so fleeting that it is not even on the thermometer. 

The gospel opens the eyes to real love and real peace.  It gives us an ear.  The ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

Aren’t you glad that He gave you an ear to hear the glorious gospel from Genesis to Revelation? 

Isa 35:6  Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

Isa 35:7  And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

The lame man leap as a deer:  The sullen shall be no longer sullen. 

We don’t believe in pouting.  What we learned: if you have a little cub then soon it becomes a bear.  You have a little lion that people want to pet then soon it becomes a big lion.  You have a tiger in your home, they trained you.  They get mad and every one shakes?  They trained you.

Isa 35:8  And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

Isa 35:9  No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:

You don’t have to be a lion the rest of your life.  You can have complete victory over every wild spirit.  You can walk straight with victory no matter with what spirit you come into contact.

The sullen will no longer be sullen, the desert will become a river.  The life that has been so draining in the past God has designed a total change.  Instead of draining, becoming a river, a river of life, something alive and real, something vital and encouraging, rejoicing, an edification.  “I had this challenge, sought God, and God heard and answered prayer.”

Isa 35:10  And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Don’t go to bed without a song or start the day without a song.  You need a song no matter how you go to bed feeling or wake up feeling.  No matter the challenge of the day, you need a song.

You need enough joy that nothing can take it away.  God knows the tragedy that may come before I get home, if I have positioned myself rightly before God then I can still have joy and you can still have joy.

Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.  This is the gospel day.  The prophets searched to grasp these truths.  May we be diligent to grasp what God has for us.