Brother Gary Wednesday Night 10/8/14

Brother Gary Wednesday Night 10/8/14

Let us remember what God has done.  Many people get in real spiritual trouble because they forget what God has done.

Deu 8:1  All the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that ye may live, and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers.

Deu 8:2  And thou shalt remember all the way which the LORD thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.

Some of us have been serving God a while.  God has led us and been so kind to us.  If you have only been saved a while, God has been good. 

We don’t want to forget where we came from or how patient God was with us.  We don’t want to forget those decisions that we could have made that would have cost our life and held us vexed or captive perhaps forever.

Moses, as he was writing to the Children of Israel, said that there are good things ahead, but don’t forget what God has done for you.

Verse 6: don’t forget the Word of God.  We as the people have been blessed to know how to have devotions.  We have been taught about devotions since before I was pastoring.   We have been taught about the importance of not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together.  The teachers teach the undiluted word of God.  Don’t ever forget the Word of God.

Verse 9: remember God’s promises.  There are a lot of things that you will forget, but don’t forget the promises of God.  We remember some promises, but unless we have journal, we may forget some of them that He gave us for a specific situation.

Verse 10: give blessings to God.  It is the nature of us human beings and our habits to say, “God bless me here and that one there.  Let us not forget to give blessings to God. 

Hallelujah is a phrase that Babylon has picked up.  They stole it.  It is not theirs.  It is ours as the family of God.  It is an adoration, an expression of adoration to God.  We want to keep our focus on God and give Him all the praises. 

Verses 11-14 teach us to heed the warning from God.  We are glad that there are five grade school children here tonight.  We are really glad that you are here.  God has blessed every one of you children with an inside witness of what is right and what is wrong. 

When you feel warned of God then you know it.  I trust each of your parents have had the talk with you that I had with my children.  God gives you children something within that says, “Don’t get involved with that.” 

You have already been exposed to some things that if you turn them loose in your mind or heart they are worse than a cancer and will move you to do things that will cause you to not only have a lifetime of regrets but also an eternity of regrets unless you get saved.

Deu 8:13  And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied;

Deu 8:14  Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the LORD thy God, which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage;

If God tells you to do something then do it.  Don’t let yourself do any less than what God has told you to do.  Children obey your parents. 

Pray.  The Lord’s Prayer is pretty primary, that is the awesome thing about God, when you are starting out it is pretty primary, but the way God is, the Word is like the rooms of heaven: It can get smaller or bigger. 

You children know that you ought to pray.  You should pray before you go to school and also before you go to bed.

Keep His judgments.  There is an awesome thing about God.  Judgment is laid to the line and righteousness to the plummet.  God, His Word, and the Holy Spirit brings the line of the Word of God right down to us.  God draws good lines and says, “This is the way my child.”

The statutes are God’s ways, the direction of the Word of God.  Such as, “How shall a young man cleanse his way?  By taking heed to the Word of God.”  God always draws a good line for us.  Don’t forget those things lest when you have eaten and are full… when you have been prosperous, then thy heart be lifted up and thou forget the Lord your God.

Don’t forget God.  God’s warnings, God’s Word is what keeps us out of the snare.  A snare is a hidden trap that is attached with a chain or a cable to something that doesn’t let go what is caught.  When the animal gets in it there is only one way out, tear off the leg, or have someone come along and let them out.

Remember where God has brought you from.  We encourage people to remember the pit but don’t always be bringing up your past.  Get saved and learn your lessons.  Unless someone comes in and needs your help, you don’t have to talk about it a lot.  But we must remember that we came out of a horrible pit.

You may have had lots of hatred and bitterness in your heart.  Remember where you came from but don’t go back and dwell on it a lot.

It is wonderful to be where we are, know the truth, and be settled in the truth.  It is wonderful to know how to be saved and know how to be sanctified.  It is wonderful to know how to be baptized: in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.  It is clear in the bible but there are people that are confused about it.

Keep praise, worship, and prayer alive.  We live in the Laodicean period of time and a society that would keep everyone so busy that God would be crowded out.  We make a choice to have God first and to be our best.

Obey the Word of God.  Don’t lose your vision.  It is an awful thing when someone loses their vision.  The sure answer to this common problem is to anoint our eyes with eye salve, “God sent the Holy Spirit so that I can see.” 

God always comes through.  You may be against a door that won’t open; God open doors.  You may be in a situation that looks impossible, but God can do the impossible.  With God all things are possible.

1Co 13:13  And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

We are so blessed to have the Word of God ever challenge us.  There are those things that are still abiding. 

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.

Ever keep faith abiding.  Believe that He is the rewarder of those that diligently seek Him.

Hope is anticipation with pleasure.

Rom 5:1  Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:

Rom 5:2  By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Rom 5:3  And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;

Rom 5:4  And patience, experience; and experience, hope:

Rom 5:5  And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

My wife says that when people complain about work there she tells them, “That is why they call it work.”  Life is called life because it will be difficult at times.  Glory in tribulation. 

There is something about glorying in having come through tribulation.  It works hope which is anticipation with pleasure.  It is wonderful to be saved, sanctified, and enjoying fellowship tonight.  It is wonderful to have anticipation.

Hope makes not ashamed.  The love of God is shed abroad… there is a way for us to have more of the Love of God.  This is the real thing.  There are various descriptions of different kinds of love.  We are not even going to go there. 

Son 8:6  Set me as a seal upon thine heart, as a seal upon thine arm: for love is strong as death; jealousy is cruel as the grave: the coals thereof are coals of fire, which hath a most vehement flame.

Son 8:7  Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it: if a man would give all the substance of his house for love, it would utterly be contemned.

Love that is as strong as death: That is strong. 

There was a man named George Matheson.  He had an extreme heartache in his life.  He was young, engaged, and began to lose his eyesight.  The girl he was going to marry said that she didn’t want to marry a blind man.

His sister, a number of years later, came to him and told him that she was going to be married.  She had been caring for him; he told her to go ahead and get married, because he wanted the best for her. 

He was alone the day of her marriage and was naturally thinking of how he would never marry.  He thought of the disappointment and was also thinking of God. 

This is the song that he wrote that night: 

O Love that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in thee;
I give thee back the life I owe,
That in thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.

God is allowing us to be where we are and when besetments, disappointments and trials come our way they are never designed to destroy us, but only designed to make life richer and fuller.

You may wonder about my prayer requests, “How can Brother Gary love them?”  There is a love that cannot be quenched. 

Gary Peters had a brother named Johnny.  In the years that he was unsaved, his goal was to be a marine.  He came back home from the marines with part of his head shot off and his brain exposed.  They sent word to his mother that Johnny was wounded, headed for the hospital, and if he lived would be a vegetable. 

His mother talked to the surgeon before she saw her son.  He told her that he was going to put the biggest plate that had ever been put into a man’s head in Johnny’s head.  He said that Johnny probably would not live.  She said, “Johnny cannot die.  He is not saved.” 

Johnny came through the surgery.  He got saved, got his affairs in order, lived however long and then told his mother he was going to lie down and take a nap and woke up in glory.

Love from God is always under attack.  In Ephesus they left their first love.  Will these people go on loving God?  Yes we will.  We live in the Laodicean age and their love grew cold, but we don’t have to. 

Hold the torch of faith, love and hope and expect good things to happen.

Hold faith in God, love God, and love one another.