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.”