Sister Brenda Wednesday Evening 8/27/14

Sister Brenda Wednesday Evening 8/27/14

We need to be steadfast.  We don’t know what will happen to us; we are living in perilous times.  When things like this go on in our world, we must have it settled that we will not bend or bow but be faithful to the death. 

He that endures to the end will be saved.  We must be saved.  I want to make it to heaven.  Whatever it may cost in my lifetime, I want to make it to heaven.

We don’t want to love our lives to where we would forsake God for anything.  We want to endure to the end and be faithful.  We will do this by living close to God, being sold out, and having the things of God real in our heart.

2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

We know what the enemy uses on us or tries to take advantage of in our lives to try to divert us or try to get us to not do our best in our lives.  We want to not let anything turn us from our steadfastness.  There is not any that cannot fall. 

We have been here long enough to know what it takes to be steadfast and we want to take heed.  We don’t want to fall from our steadfastness.

Know these things before:

2Pe 3:3  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

A scoffer is a derider, a false teacher, and a mocker.  We see people that do this all the time.  They mock the standard; they mock the way that we believe that we must live holy. 

2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

We know that God is not slack concerning His promises.  There are a lot of good promises that we enjoy and cling to.  There are also promises that are scary, that bring the wrath of God on people.  If people don’t get saved and obey the word of God then they will reap what they sow.

2Pe 3:10  But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

This is something we know.  The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.  Jesus is going to come when people least expect it.  It will be like a thief in the night.  We must be ready and be prepared.  We know these things; we must be on guard and be ready.

If there is a bad attitude or an icky feeling toward your brother or sister, then you should take care of it tonight.  If you said something that you shouldn’t have said, then you need to take care of it.  We don’t want to get used to letting things go uncared for.

2Pe 3:11  Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness,

‘Holy conversation’ is blameless behavior.  We should act holy.  We should be able to stamp, “Holiness unto the Lord” on everything that we do.

2Pe 3:12  Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?

We anticipate, await, and expect the coming day of God.  Are we looking for it?  We have four unsaved children and unsaved friends and family that keep us from looking for that day.  But in our own lives, we don’t want anything that will keep us from hasting and looking for that day.

2Pe 3:14  Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.

We are looking for His coming.  To be diligent is to be careful, thorough, to make effort, (It doesn’t just happen, it is not automatic or just a part of life.)  Be diligent that you may be found without spot.  To be diligent is to be prompt, or earnest, to labor, and to study.

We want to be found of him in peace.  We want to labor to have the peace of God in our lives.  Not everything will be peaceful around us, but we want to be peaceable and peacemakers.

Without spot and blameless:  We want to take heed to the things of God.

2Pe 3:17  Ye therefore, beloved, seeing ye know these things before, beware lest ye also, being led away with the error of the wicked, fall from your own stedfastness.

You also:  this means that others have.  You also can be led away with the error of the wicked.  We don’t want any to be led away.

Fall: to drop away, to be led out of one’s course, to lose, to be inefficient.  Are we useful for God, in His kingdom, and His work?  We want to be faithful in the work of God.

1Co 15:58  Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

This is a really good scripture.  Be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.  This is a good scripture to memorize.  Our labors for God are not in vain in the Lord.  Anything we do in labor for God is good for us. 

The corner stone is unmovable.  When we build on it we are just as unmovable.  It is steadfast. 

Heb 3:14  For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;

If you know that you got saved, don’t let the devil take your salvation from you.  If you are going through accusations and you know that you paid the price and have not sinned since you got saved, then you can know that you are saved and hold your confidence.

Mat 24:13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

God help us to endure to the end.  Hold fast your confidence steadfast to the end.

Pray more; this is how we live steadfast: living closer to God and drawing more on His strength and help in every situation.

Brother Gary Sunday Evening 8/24/14

Heb 10:1  For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect.

Heb 10:2  For then would they not have ceased to be offered? because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.

Heb 10:3  But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance again made of sins every year.

Heb 10:4  For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins.

This refers to Old Testament worship.  To the plan in place where there were offerings for sin made, but they were never able to get an experience where they could live holy.  Instead they always made a remembrance of sin and then they went back to sin. 

The scene changes:

Heb 10:5  Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me:

Heb 10:6  In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure.

We see the offering of the blood of bulls and goats was not the fulfilled plan that God had for man.

Heb 10:7  Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.

Isn’t it wonderful that the one that has preeminence, the chief cornerstone, and all of the things we have been being taught about in Sunday school, He came to do the will of the Father.

The will of the Father, was not that they were pleasing themselves, but that a plan would be made whereby men, women, boys, and girls could be saved and live a victorious Christian life. 

This God and His plan never changes.  This Jesus, His attitude, His sacrifice, and His will remains intact from that day on Mt Calvary and all through time.  That is the plan.

These precious children and all the rest of us will be exposed to many new gods, many new thoughts, and many new theories.  There are many descriptions of God that are not true descriptions of God. 

The thought of “God doesn’t care how you live” is wrong.  There are people that are believing that everyone will go to heaven.  You and I know that isn’t true.

There is the plague of heresy that you cannot live above sin and are always sinning.  That doctrine deceives and does nothing for the conscience.  It does nothing to give a new heart and a new spirit. 

Jesus had the thought, “I come to do thy will Oh God.”  We are blessed to have the privilege of having the mind of Christ, “I want to do the will of God.”  We all have decisions to make; we say, “this is what I would like and what I will do.”  For a lot of those things, God doesn’t have the thought that it is sin. 

Brother Bill has the makings of a trailer.  At one season Brother Bill had the thought of building a teardrop trailer.  I then wondered as I saw teardrop trailers, I wondered how Brother Bill was going to build it.  I am shocked at how many of them I see.  This desire could change as Brother Bill and Sister Teri go through the aging process. 

It is fine to want to have a teardrop trailer.  But when it comes to what God wants for our life, “What is His will?” 

There are some things spelled out in His Word.  It is the will of God that we study and obey the Word of God.  It is the will of God that we measure to all the teachings of the Word of God.  It is the will of God that we be saved and sanctified and present our bodies a living sacrifice. 

It is the will of God that we have Jesus Christ as our chief cornerstone.  I could tell you have been processing this and measuring out from the cornerstone.  However many rows are on your building, every time we come to a corner, we want to get the right stone on that corner.  You don’t have to get off very much until the wall begins to tilt one way or tilt the other.

God has a plan in our lives.  Wherever you are in the building of your spiritual walls, as you come to the corner in your life you must have the right stone. 

Jack and Julie have reached the corner of one of their children going to college.  We talked to some after church about what the plan was for Heather’s room when she moved out.  She said that they already had a plan for it.  We were having a good time in jest.  We mentioned to Aaron, “You probably will walk into the superintendent’s office and say, “I’m just going to college right now so I can protect my sister.” 

When she pulls out of the driveway tonight their lives will change and never be the same.  We must have the right stone when we come to the corner.

We stopped and talked to that man that painted the door.  And I asked him about rock.  I told him that the sisters in the church were good at working with rock.  I noticed that it wasn’t just any rock that was placed; they are always looking for the right stone for the right place. 

In our spiritual building, God help me to build right in every place.

Heb 10:8  Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;

Heb 10:9  Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

Heb 10:10  By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Isn’t it wonderful that Jesus made a plan that not only could we be saved but also sanctified.  We can be cleansed from that thing that drew us back to sin and first led us into sin. 

“We are not of them that draw back to perdition.” This means, “I’m not going to go back to destruction.” 

Jesus paid the full price to do the will of God that we could be cleansed from sin and set apart.  We don’t ever want to lose that or lower the standard of that.  In our lives and experience keep Bible salvation and sanctification real.

Heb 10:11  And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins:

They did what was the plan then.  It never changed the hearts and lives of those individuals.

Heb 10:12  But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

Isn’t it wonderful that there is something so sure as Jesus Christ.  I thought of that scripture, “All the foundations of this world are out of course.” 

All of us know that when anything gets out of course, it is just a matter of time until there is a very destructive wreck. 

Isn’t it wonderful that this man made one sacrifice for sin and sat on the right hand of God?

Heb 10:13  From henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool.

This opens the door to all of mankind, all of His enemies.  I was one of them. 

Whenever there is alcohol involved I am tender to the situation.  Alcohol was a very big part of my family.  My brother went into eternity at 25 because of alcohol.  My father started hauling alcohol at 13 or 14 years old.  The 10,000 dollars that my grandpa had sewed into his underwear was probably all cursed money. 

Not only did he haul alcohol but alcohol got him.  As you go toward Plains on the highway you will see a set of three crosses.  It is my uncle, Brother Gyme’s uncle and another.  One night they left the bar at Paradise and headed toward Plains.  One that was with them survived but they did not.  Their caskets were lined up in the church of God in Plains. 

When someone speaks of alcohol I realize that it could have been me.  I learned that it is not just alcohol that sin takes you to.  Sin takes people where they don’t want to go.  There is the ‘joy ride’ of getting there to wake up, “I’m bound, my heart is hard, my mind is in a stupor.” 

Church I want to tell you, when Jesus chose to give His life, expecting all his enemies, I was one of them.

I was lost in sin.  He made a way that it could be totally changed.  This is like the song, “His yoke is easy, and His burden is light.”  There is a place where now he can rest.  Once there was no rest because of sin and rebellion in our hearts and lives.  Now He can rest in His love.

Heb 10:14  For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

Isn’t it a wonderful thing that you and I have the open door to come before Him and say, “God I am so glad for the fire.”  I have felt the heat in my life.  I needed every bit of it.  I have felt a ladle with which they skim the dross off.  I have felt the dross coming off; that master silversmith skimming off the dross. 

Everyone in this audience that has been saved very long has found that in the secret place of the steep climb, there we found, “God there is perfection that I need.  I am here and I want to get to the next place.  I want to learn whatever lesson that you want to teach me.” 

In the secret of the steep climb He comes and says, “My child I want to perfect you here and there.  I want help in this place and in that place.”  It is so easy for Him to perfect us when we say, “Thy will be done.  I am sorry that I didn’t see it sooner.”

This climb has helped me to realize that I am weighted down with some things.  I am packing some things and sometimes it is from the present, sometimes from the past, and sometimes from the future. 

He says, “I want you to cast all your cares and burdens over on me so that you can climb a little higher.”

Heb 10:15  Whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness to us: for after that he had said before,

Heb 10:16  This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write them;

It is so marvelous.  As far as I have been able to study this is the only place that it said it together, “I will write my law in their heart and I will write it in their mind.”  Isn’t it wonderful that God has a plan to take care of our mind as well as our heart?

God has a plan for us to have a tender heart.  The heart has two sides.  David said, “Unite my heart.”  I want both sides of my heart sold out to God.  Don’t you?  The brain has two sides too. 

Isn’t it wonderful that that heart can be tender towards God?  God himself will write His law on our hearts.  There is nothing like God convicting us and dealing with us.  We say, “God I am convicted of that and I will measure to that and never let it become old and outdated.”

Then to have God write upon our minds:  Every one of us comes to Jesus Christ with a conscience and a mind that needs to be purged.  Isn’t it wonderful that we can present ourselves to Him and say, “God I want my mind to be purged in such a way that indeed I forget all the things of the past and you to write your message on my mind?”

Dealing with the thought of the conscience:  It has been so real to me to keep my conscience very keen, to not allow the sin, the evil, and the corruption of our time to cause our conscience to become hard or defiled but to keep it pure and holy before God.

Heb 10:17  And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.

Heb 10:18  Now where remission of these is, there is no more offering for sin.

Isn’t it wonderful that Jesus paid the price for our sin?  “Jesus paid it all, all to Him I owe.”

Heb 10:19  Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,

There is some awesome manna.  Isn’t it wonderful that in tabernacle worship, we can work through the brazen altar, the laver, the door, the candlesticks, the bread, and go to that golden altar?  There present ourselves a living sacrifice to God. 

I believe there is an aroma from that living sacrifice presented to God that heaven alone recognizes. 

We are in a beautiful season in Montana, it is a nice season.  There are so many good things to eat.  You smell the odor of people cooking outside.  Karen asked me to get a zucchini because she wanted to make me a chocolate zucchini cake.  My mouth started watering before I even smelled the cake.

When she got it out it literally filled the 9X13 Pan so full that when she went to put the chocolate chips on she couldn’t get them to stay on top of the cake.  Then she puts it back in the oven.  I went down stairs to do some studying and prayer down there.  Smells don’t always go up. 

She called to me to see if I thought she should spread the chocolate chips around because the cake was a mound that had chocolate in the middle.  When I came up stairs there was this cake and she had taken some tool and leveled the chocolate all over that cake.  I didn’t take a piece, I practiced self discipline.

God doesn’t need to smell cake.  Oh how He responds to you and I, how thrilling it is when you totally sell out to God.  That aroma comes up before Him: “Here is this life that I rescued, it was headed down the broad road of sin, I called, they came confessing and repenting and they became a new creature.” 

Then He called again and said, “Present your body a living sacrifice.”  That portion of myself that led me into sin, that kept me in sin, and that worked to cause me to want my way, I want it removed by the blood of Christ.  We say, “There is only one thing that I can give you, my entire being a living sacrifice.  My sins are forgiven so I am holy.  I want to be acceptable to thee.”

How heaven must rejoice when that aroma ascends to the throne.  It is not just once in a lifetime.  Every time that we feel ourselves come to a corner, we feel God drawing on our heart, we feel the inward conviction, “I have a longing in my heart for Jesus, to feel His presence, to give myself to Him in a greater way than I ever have before.” 

We come back and say, “God I did my best before and I believe that you sanctified me but I want to give my all to you.”  That is maintenance and it comes up as a sweet smell.

Heb 10:20  By a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh;

Heb 10:21  And having an high priest over the house of God;

Heb 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Among the things that are very sure is “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.” 

I have been saved a while, not too long.  There are mornings that I wake up and hear God speak to me, “Son I want you to draw near to me.” 

We can rest assured in full assurance of faith.  He is God.  He always honors faith in God.

Heb 11:6  But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

That causes my faith to say, “I know that God is going to help me.”

Heb 10:22  Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.

Aren’t you glad that there is nothing in there that wants to draw back to sin or wants to live for the pleasures of sin?  

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 8/24/14

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 8/24/14

Pro 4:23  Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

Pro 4:24  Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from thee.

Pro 4:25  Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.

Pro 4:26  Ponder the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.

Pro 4:27  Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.

“Keep thy heart with all diligence for out of it are the issues of life.”  We are each given a privilege of having a heart that God can speak to and that can turn to God.  With that comes the responsibility that we do it with all diligence.

“Put away from thee a forward mouth and put perverse lips far from thee.”  Everything in us that would lead us far away from God, the scripture instructs us to put that away from us.  We are to focus our eyes straight ahead on the path and the highway of holiness that God has instructed us to travel.

Be not hasty in your decisions.  “Ponder the path of your feet.”  We are privileged to have the opportunity of taking everything that is presented to us and saying, “We want to weigh this with eternity’s values in view.” 

As we consider our doings and what is presented to us, we want to ponder the path of our feet and let our ways be established.  “Let God lead us in every way.”

Jer 17:5  Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD.

Jer 17:6  For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.

Always look down the road a ways.  Don’t look at the moment and think, “They are doing all right.”  Look at the Word of God.  The one that trusts in himself is accursed. 

The one that maketh flesh his arm… this spoke to me.  There are conditions that line up, that people put themselves in, and that lead them to the position of departing from God. 

If there is anything that we want to do, if we are saved, it is to stay true to God.  There is too much to gain to lose.  The values of Bible salvation and sanctification are right for life and for eternity.  The Word of God and the statutes of the Lord are right for all our ways.

When Jesus looked over Jerusalem and said, “Oh Jerusalem, how oft would I have gathered you as a hen her chicks and you would not.”  The heart of Christ was tender toward mankind.  He would have gathered his own, even those of a religious frame of mind, and bring them to himself and to truth.  And they would not.

I thought of Jesus when they came upon the situation where Lazarus was dead.  Jesus wept.  It is a wonderful example to us of a very tender heart.

In verse 6, we see how it is when men trust in themselves.  They are like a juniper tree, a scrawny tree without much height and cannot produce very many good boards. 

They shall not see when good comes.  It is so sad when people are without God and He passes by and they don’t see what a good thing it is that God passed by.  It is a wonderful thing to have God visit, to have Him dwell with us, and to fully trust God.

There are places where no vegetation grows at all.  There is little life and nothing to sustain life.  That is the life of individuals that try to get by without serving the true and the living God.  There is nothing to encourage in the right way.

Jer 17:7  Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.

Even the children, the young people, parents, aged, everyone here this morning is challenged.  The scripture says, “Blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord.”

We make a choice to believe God or to not believe God.  We make a choice to trust God or to not trust God.  Choosing to trust God puts us in a place to commune with Him and put everything in His hands and trust Him.

Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

This we know.  When we trust God and believe Him, there will be occasions where as it was with Joseph, in the first chapter or scene we wonder if anything good could come out of what is happening.  But keep right on trusting and believing in God.

Whose hope the Lord is:  other than God there is no hope.  The gods of this world offer no hope.  Mankind, Babylon, darkness, and the kingdom of darkness offer no hope.  It is a sad, sad condition.

There is a God that if we love and trust Him, we can have hope in God.

Jer 17:8  For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

There is no lack of the water of life or the fountain of truth.  There is plenty of water for every one of our souls and lives; we can get the roots down deep. 

In a garden, I always plant things too close.  The fall cabbage covers the early cabbage.  That is not how it is with God.  You can be planted right there and no one will be so close that they are hovering over you and keep you from growing.  You can get your roots down deeper, deeper, and deeper.  You can grow taller, and taller.

There is a wonderful river of life.  Right now we are on this side of it.  Those in heaven are on the other side of it.  You can get your roots down.

“Shall not see when heat comes.”  There is heat in life, it is a part of life; it is not just for a select group.  We might think of the heat being on the kids in school, and it will be.  But it is not just on them.  Every one of us finds our self really needing help from God.

The wonderful thing is that when the heat comes, you can have your roots down, go right on worshipping, having God in His rightful place, and staying right where you should be.  You don’t have to get irritable, or take things into your own hands.  You can keep your roots drinking of the Word of God.

Not be careful in the year of drought:  there is no question in my mind that we live in the day where the scripture is fulfilled that there is a famine of hearing of the Word of God in our land.  It is the condition of the world today. 

There may have been times past where there was a certain amount of the grinding of the truth in the courts of Babylon but they have quit and are literally playing religion.  We want to come back to us; we are not there this morning thank God.

We can say, “God this can be a tough year.”  Anyone that has been saved very long has had tough years, years of difficulty, of heartache, of being misunderstood.  Brother McConahae taught me, “You have to be willing to be misunderstood if you are going to be God’s man and do what He wants you to do.”

No one likes to be misunderstood.  It is something that hits the tender tables of our heart and soul.  We must have that anointing, that John the Baptist and Elisha had, and that God only can give us.  This year may be a year of drought. 

There will be the year of steep climbing.  He meets us in the stairway; He meets us when we are in a very steep climb.  We can if we choose to, look back and say, “It is too hard, and we cannot make it.”  But as the disciples said, “Where else is there to go?  Thou hast the words of life.” 

We have been so blessed to have been translated into the kingdom of light, of His dear Son.  There are kingdoms of darkness. 

I always like to have a light.  When I go away from home, I like to have a flash light with me.  Spiritually we are blessed to have the wonderful privilege that we have been translated into the kingdom of light. 

If we are going to be genuine saints of God in 2014, ready for heaven, then there will be steep climbs in our life.  They may be heated, and difficult.  God is not so interested with you sprinting and being exhausted, irritated, and mad at the world; He wants us to climb and keep God in our life. 

We don’t want to be couch potato Christians or couch potato church of God people.  We want to be willing to climb. 

They heat silver to 2000 C and then skim off the dross.  We haven’t attained yet.  Paul said, “I press toward the mark.”

There are impurities in our natural body.  You can drink all the purifications that you can think of, but when you begin to exert, the impurities in your body begin to come out.  Any that have gone on fasts or did soaks, can tell this.  Literally, when I was so sick, the infection came out the top of my head. 

The goal is to be our best for God, to be tender, tender hearted.  The children’s hearts were touched by the gospel Wednesday night.  The presence of God came down and the audience recognized that there is a great value of being tender.

If you are going to do well in your relationship with God, you need a tender heart.  Everyone likes a happy home.  We all like to hear children say, “I’m a happy boy” or “a happy girl.”  In order to be happy you must have a heart that is tender toward your brother, your sister, and toward your parent.

You children need to be kind and obedient toward your parent.  Keep your heart tender. 

Karen and I would not have a happy marriage if we didn’t have a tender heart.  In order to have a happy home, there must be a tender heart, tender toward each other and toward others.

Wives need to be tender toward their husbands.  I don’t know his lacks and he hasn’t told me yours. That should make us tender toward each other. 

God wants your heart to be tender, tender in words.  Somewhere, I don’t know where, but somewhere pretty young, when something goes wrong children learn to roll their eyes into the back of their head.  There is no tenderness in it. 

Be tender toward your family, toward God, toward one another, and toward worship.  As a pastor, it is my responsibility to be tender toward the sheep, and your responsibility is to be tender toward me.  In order for me to be affective, you have to be tender.

The heart is deceitful:  when the heart becomes calloused it can be very deceitful.  It wins every argument, you are always right and whoever is always wrong.

Search our heart and try our ways and give every man according to his ways and the fruit of his doings.

Rev 21:5  And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

If you don’t have a tender heart then this scripture is for you.  Some people are always wanting to recycle.  I am not knocking that thought.  But when it comes to our soul, don’t try to recycle a bad attitude.  Get rid of it.  Get a new one. 

He makes all things new.  You say, “I am disappointed in trying to work with whoever it is.”  There are times when we need to say, “God, do I need a new burden?”  There are some things that will wear you out. 

If you are reaching out to someone that is always rejecting God and truth and are making you miserable, God says “I make all things new.”  But we have to be willing to let some things go.

2Co 5:17  Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

It is a new day when we get saved; a new walk, and a new life. 

Behold all things are new:  Praise God. 

Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

I preach to all of you students this morning. There are kingdoms of darkness out there.  There is also the power of darkness. Every soul that is not saved and walking according to the gospel is in darkness and has a power to them.  You meet with someone that has an ugly attitude and you say, “My lands, the power of darkness!”

We have been delivered from the power of darkness.  When you are walking in the light and come in the presence of someone in the power of darkness they recognize that here is someone that doesn’t walk as they do.  When you feel that they would want to overshadow you and cow you, stop right there.  You have been delivered out of darkness and into the kingdom of His dear Son.

There is no one that is in the kingdom of darkness that has lasting joy.  They may have their moments of pleasure in sin, but the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy.

Rev 2:17  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

God has hidden manna for everyone in this audience that I will not be able to give you.  God has something that is for you very personally all alone with God.

1Pe 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

We live in a world that is full of hopelessness.  We talk to people that don’t see anything on the horizon of being hopeful.  For every one that turns to the Lord Jesus Christ, we have a lively hope.

If you are challenged, every one of us is, let us take what God has given us and have the conviction that, “There is a lively hope and I have it because of Jesus Christ.”