Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 1/28/15

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 1/28/15

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

All of us are challenged concerning spiritual strength and a lot of us are challenged concerning literal strength.

We want to always remember that it is not individuals and people that we are fighting but…

Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

It is vital that we take the whole armor of God on before we get into the battle.  This is the day of great battle and the enemy being loosed out of his prison.  Take the whole armor of God.

Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

It is a wonderful thing that there is still prayer in school.  I am very happy for each one that is still praying.  I wish there were more liberties but thank God that there is that liberty that no one can take from you, “Praying always…” 

This scripture teaches us the importance of praying for one another.  It is very possible to get so consumed with our own needs and our own battle that we find ourselves focusing on a very small circle. 

It really helps me to pray for the saints of God.  It helps me in my circle and it is obedience to the Word of God.  We never know what the day will hold. 

Eph 6:19  And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

Paul wanted to be able to openly make known the mystery of the gospel.  For someone that isn’t saved, the gospel is really a mystery.  They think it is impossible to be born again.  Even the children know that it is not a literal but a spiritual being born again. 

I heard recently of someone saying they didn’t know how you could be born again.  This was not a child questioning or ridiculing being born again.  It remains a mystery to those that are not born again until faith takes hold and they begin to experience being born again.  Everyone that is saved has experienced being born again and being a babe beginning to hunger and thirst after righteousness.

Eph 6:20  For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Ambassador: Paul said “I am a representative of another country.”  There are a lot of things going on in our world.  Paul said, “I am a representative of another country.”  This world is not our home.  It is not where we are going to be forever. 

You may be a citizen of USA, but it is most important that we have our citizenship in a heavenly country in a world past here.

“I am commissioned by Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the savior of the world, and the almighty God.  My commission is to help the world be reconciled to God.” 

Every one of us in this audience has our personalities.  Some of you could talk to anyone about anything.  There are others that would be less capable to break into a whole other subject than their comfort zone.  Paul’s thought was, “I have a desire, commission and a responsibility to help men and women get right with God.” 

We cannot save anyone.  As much as the teachers in this audience love their students, we cannot save them.  As much as we love our children and our parents, we cannot save them.  As much as we love our brother and sister, we cannot make them get saved.

Even when people seem to be at peace with dying, “If I die I die.”  That doesn’t make them right with God.  We talk to those that are addicted to alcohol, drugs, cigarettes, and other things and yet will say, “One thing I know, if I die I am right with God.”  No they are not.  If they were they wouldn’t be addicted to these things.

Eph 6:20  For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Sometimes we are packing personal cares or burdens, Paul had a chain, yet He wanted to be an ambassador. 

Eph 6:21  But that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:

Eph 6:22  Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that he might comfort your hearts.

There are a million people looking forward to the Super Bowl.  It is so sad to be so empty to be looking forward to something that will not fill the soul with rest, peace, and joy.  We are ambassadors to the world. 

You as an ambassador since you are saved can say, “I knew bondage, now I know freedom.  I knew sin, I knew the power of sin, now I know forgiveness.”  As an ambassador, someone that is commissioned, we are an ambassador of God’s forgiveness.

“I knew strife, but now I know peace.”  Peace means to be at one again.  Isn’t it wonderful that we knew strife, we knew a divided heart, but He gave us peace?  I think of the world that you and I are ambassadors to, they think they want this, they think they want that, and they think, “This will really satisfy.”  Jesus alone gives peace.

“I lived in darkness.”  When Jesus began his ministry the bible says, “They that sat in darkness saw a great light.”  Isn’t it wonderful that Jesus brought light?

I knew temporary pleasures in sin.  In my memory of the teenage years and the pleasures of sin: I never came home a single night from the pleasures of sin and went to sleep thinking, “It was so great, I am headed back as soon as I can.”  I remember thinking, “I am so disappointed; I thought it was going to be more fun.”  That is the pleasures of sin.  Now I have everlasting joy.

One year Sister Klemstein’s niece came with a guitar and had a song.  Her song was, “I have found everlasting joy.”  She sang it again every service by request.  There is something to having found everlasting joy.  It doesn’t take away from the joy we get from our children or having the cleanest of pleasure; it is just temporary. 

The temporary pleasures, that is what they are, but there is everlasting joy.  We are an ambassador of joy.  We are an ambassador to help people find joy.  We live in a sad America. 

I cannot read much of the newspaper.  When I see where a trucker hits an individual… they say that a nineteen year old killed Sunday or Monday on the interstate committed suicide.  Jesus wasn’t far off but the teenager was far away from Jesus.  That poor man, those poor parents, those poor classmates.  Sin doesn’t pay.

People live in discontentment.  Ask the real estate people.  People come in and say, “I want to live here.”  Then they come back and say, “I don’t want to live here.”  People are discontent.  You and I have the wonderful privilege of having godliness with contentment.  We are an ambassador. 

I appreciated the thought of oppression and depression on Sunday.  I have known oppression and discouragement.  I live today in expectancy.  I am an ambassador of expectancy.  There are good things.  You as teachers may be limited, but the students have a wonderful privilege of telling your classmates, “God has good things in store for every one of his servants.”

I knew oppressing darkness now I know light.

I am an ambassador of peace and am come to help men find peace with God.  You don’t find people with peace in the world.  Not only to find peace with God but peace with one another.

It was while he had the chain that He wrote “I know to put on the whole armor of God.”  Isn’t it wonderful what you and I are given in the darkest seasons of our life?  Right in Joseph’s affliction difficulty, and hard place, God was very good to him.

Paul said, “I know to wear the helmet, I keep on the breast plate of righteousness.  May God comfort your heart and help you to see me only as an ambassador commissioned from God.”

You are an ambassador commissioned from God.  You that are mothers, fathers, gifted with writing, those that are gifted with music, use it as a commission to help people get to God.  We are not entertainers around here.  You can by CD’s to entertain you.  If you want an ambassador, find a saint of God.

You say, “It looks like they are pulling a chain.”  It is not what you see that makes them an ambassador, it is who commissioned them.

Eph 6:23  Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Eph 6:24  Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen.

Love with faith, it is from God and Jesus.  That is what we represent.

A lot of people say “I love Jesus.”  Some say, “I appreciate Jesus going to the cross.”  Paul added the thought, “In sincerity.”

Psalms 120, the first psalm of degree, David was really in distress.  Psalms 121 he changed from his distress to say, “I will lift up my eyes to the hills.”  Ps 122 he said, “I was glad when they said unto me, “Let us go into the house of the Lord.”

Challenge and pray for me that I will come into the house of God on Sunday so happy to be with God and with God’s people. 

They were singing these and they had long psalm services.  Psalms 123 “Our feet shall stand within your walls.  Peace be within your walls.”

  

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 1/25/15

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 1/25/15

Zep 3:16  In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.

Zep 3:17  The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.

There is no secret love with God.  He loves us openly.  “It is no secret what God will do; what He has done for others He’ll do for you.”  He rests in His love.

There is a definite place where we settle it, “We are going to serve God.  You can rest in your love for me.”  All the provisions that He made for us to be saved to be sanctified, to live, to resist temptation, and to know how to have victory in our life.  The nuggets are hid away in the word of God.  “God, I can rest in your love.”

We pray, “God I need divine intervention in my life, as soon as possible, but whether it goes the way I want it to go or not, you can rest in your love.  There will be no pouting or self-pity.  I am going to go forward for you.”

Zep 3:14  Sing, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel; be glad and rejoice with all the heart, O daughter of Jerusalem.

We as the church, the bride of Christ, have a real song to sing.  I thought of the song of Moses:  It is wonderful to be delivered from Egyptian bondage.  We don’t want to forget where we have come from.  The song of the lamb: we have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Zep 3:15  The LORD hath taken away thy judgments, he hath cast out thine enemy: the king of Israel, even the LORD, is in the midst of thee: thou shalt not see evil any more.

Zep 3:16  In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem, Fear thou not: and to Zion, Let not thine hands be slack.

We live in a world where many things will try to steal our peace, our joy, and the approval of God.  Among these things is the spirit of fear.  We are all subject to the spirit of fear.  It works in your mind as an imagination.  It presents itself and then grows and grows.

Among the things that you and I know as far as having our devotions and being in the house of God.  It is vital that we are busy doing what God wants us to do and what He has laid upon our heart. 

As we enter this new year, what God has laid upon our heart as an individual and as a congregation, let not your hands be slack. It is important that we are busy doing what is the responsibility that God has designed that we do.

The Lord in the midst of thee is mighty: don’t underestimate God.  You may be going through a dark season.  You may be going through disappointment.  There are those in this audience that have suffered immensely. 

Injustice is very difficult to take.  It could be a real dark season in a child’s life, in you as parents’ life.  You may be in a winter season of things with your family.  I think of my brother sorely afflicted with a stroke.  It doesn’t matter where you are or I am, if God is there we can rest on, “He is mighty.”

Brother Gordon pastor at Chicago was dying and said, “Have the saints come in and sing and read scripture.”  He preached for many years after that. 

The Billing’s child:  I am just a man.  I am no faith healer.  If anything happens to the child it will not be because of me it will be because of God.  I felt that I failed.  I didn’t do a very good job praying, but I was faithful.  It is al in God’s hand from there on. 

Mrs. Billings called after we got home.  She said, “It was a miracle.”  The child was given something from the clinic and was very sick.  She said, “I have heard a lot of things about you folks, but what I know is that God answers your prayer.” 

It is ok if you feel brain-dead when you try to tell someone about God.  It is not all about you, it is about Him.  Stay with God and He can work. 

Our God is mighty.  He will save to the uttermost.  In the world your son or daughter may look hopeless.  There is a God that is mighty.  When men, women, boys, and girls begin to feel conviction from the Mighty Hand of God, we don’t want to underestimate what God will do.  He is mighty.

He will rejoice over the redeemed:  we don’t know much about heaven.  We haven’t been there yet.  We get together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.  There are times that we weep together.  There is no weeping in heaven.  There is a lot of joy in heaven.

Luke 15 is a marvelous chapter.  There are three things in that chapter about joy here on earth.  The first one talks about a shepherd that has lost his sheep.  He leaves the ninety-nine and goes out looking for the one.  When He finds it he brings it back.  There is great joy because the lost one is brought back.  There is more rejoicing over the one that got saved than over the ninety-nine. 

You and I will not always be the center.  There is great rejoicing over the one that got saved than over the ones that have been faithful.  The bible doesn’t say that he doesn’t rejoice over the saved, the Father in heaven rejoices over the saved.

There is such joy.  We have to watch or we will let the world, Babylonians, or the prodigals steal our joy.  Babylon is a world of sad sacks. 

The second thing rejoiced over in Luke 15 was the coin.  The woman swept the house and when she found it she called the neighbors and said, “Rejoice I have found the coin.”

The third thing was the prodigal that got back home.  When someone gets saved there is great joy.  We want to let them know that after they have been saved a while, we are still glad that they got saved. 

Heaven is a place of rejoicing.  Heavenly places in Christ Jesus is a place of rejoicing.  In our homes we need to have rejoicing; in our private devotions we want to have rejoicing.

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

There was a great price paid that we could be saved.  There is a thought, “What is the best…”  If you are thinking of buying something you want to get the most for your money.  The best was the Love of God in sending His son.

Joh 15:13  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

He has a right to be able to rest in His love.  He left heaven for us.  He came to a world that for the greatest part rejected Him.  He came anyway.  He loved and He keeps loving.

Eph 3:14  For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Eph 3:15  Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

Eph 3:16  That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;

Eph 3:17  That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,

Eph 3:18  May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;

Eph 3:19  And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.

The breadth: I think of the open arms of Christ that will take in any that will confess and repent.  Of all nations and all ages, he will take them in if they will repent. 

Do you know someone that looks hopeless?  God’s love can go clear there.  You say, “What would be my part?”  Pray.  Plead with God. 

The depth:  I think of to what depth He will go to change a life.  The thought of how high He will lift them up:  You and I hear the testimony of what God will do in lifting mankind. 

The love of God that passes knowledge:  someone wrote the song, “How could He love me so?”  Every one that was blessed with a mother and father that really loved them, you were so blessed.  Oh His love and care, His unprejudiced that He would reach to even me.

The reason that we need to know and acknowledge the love of God is that we might be full of the fullness of God.  It is a marvelous thing that God has ordained that individuals can know the love of God and be filled with the fullness of God. 

God’s love reaches, instead of being bitter which is a terrible thing that never stops: Things may get better but then will get worse again.  His love reaches all the way down.  It paid the price that every man, women, boy, and girl can be freed from all bitterness.

Jesus taught us, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and your neighbor as yourself.”

Paul asked, “Who is going to condemn God’s people?  It is Christ that is interceding.”

Christ wants you to make it.  He wants you to keep it settled.  He wants you to never lose the position, “It is settled I will serve God.” 

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Then he dealt with tribulation, hardship, depths, crisis, trials.  We are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ that loved us.  Rest in the thought that He is resting in His love and you are resting in His love.

I am his and He is mine, now and forever.

Sister Dorothy Sunday School 1/25/15

Sister Dorothy Sunday School 1/25/15

The mean old devil and his mean old ways: he wants to destroy us.  He has many tactics.  Sometimes I think, “How did I let him get past me?  How did I fail there?”  Through these lessons God has helped me to see that I am not above the temptations of the enemy.

I treasure the treasures that God has given me through salvation and sanctification.  The enemy wants to steal from us all the possessions that God has so graciously provided for us.  He paid a supreme price that we could have these possessions.

No man is exempt from temptations.  Jesus was tempted by the devil.  The best way to defeat the adversary is by the Word of God.  To be tempted is not sin while temptations are resisted.  If not resisted then it can become sin.

The fear of being tempted can become a dangerous snare.  To fail to prepare for temptations and trials is dangerous.  God has given us this book full of promises that we can use to defeat the enemy.

When God allows a trial to come, He will give us grace to overcome it.  He has given us every source and resource to resist the temptations of the enemy.

Wiles are methods, traveling over, and iniquity.  He walks about as a roaring lion to seek whom he may devour.  He will get on your shoulders and if you rebuke him then he goes to someone else.  He wants to dwell right among us as his people.

He will lie in wait a long time as a lion.  If he sees a deer out there, he will let him come. 

The wiles of the devil are unbelief and doubt: they are very strong temptations of the enemy.  Discouragement, being critical, going by feelings, moments of ecstasy:  we feel good about it all and, “Lord let us stay right here.” 

Luke warmness.  Lord let us never get used to sin but to keep it exceedingly sinful.

Indifference:  We don’t want to get indifferent to the truth but hold it all important.  Strife, vainglory, the love of money.  We can be overcome not with money but with what money can buy.  It can be our wants or even our needs.  Money is a competitor with the service of God.  It really pulls.

Slothfulness and being high-minded, disgust: acts 24 16 have a conscience void of offence.  Disgust is offensive.  We can be so disgusted with the world that we don’t want to work with them.  Our warfare is not carnal.  We don’t fight against men and women but against sin.

Gossip is a temptation.  Do you have something to tell me today?  God wants us to be careful. 

Jas 3:5  Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!

Jas 3:6  And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

Be careful.  Be careful of when we get together that there is no temptation to gossip. 

Moody and depression is an awful thing.  If you have tended even in your life before you got saved to be moody, “Don’t talk to me until I get a cup of coffee.”  That is moody.  Depression is an awful thing.  If the enemy gets us under depression, hopelessness comes with that. 

Indifference leads to depression.  Start at the beginning don’t let it get a hold of you or it will lead to depression.  Thankfulness, we have a lot to be thankful for, but the enemy will try to work hopelessness or discouragement.  If we turn inward to feel sorry for our self, thinking “There’s no way out,” instead of feeling thankful for what God has done is doing and is going to do. 

It is important to know where the oppression or depression is coming from.  It can come from the devil.  It can be physical, being tired, after being real sick, sometimes it just shows up.  Don’t deny it but identify it and be determined, “I am going to overcome.” 

If I am indecisive it brings a heaviness.  Look to God and have goals.  Long term and short term goals.  Healthy goals.  Sometimes it helps to realize, “That is what is going on.”  Sometimes the winter darkness gets to me.  When I realize that is the reason that I am feeling down then I can deal with it.

These things immobilize us so that we don’t take care of the things we should both in our temporal life and spiritual.

Worry is very hard to overcome.  We are tended to worry and fret. 

Pro 3:5,6 trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not to your own understanding. 

My understanding is that my husband is supposed to be here at five o’clock and he isn’t here yet.  I was fine until five o’clock and now I’m not.  I don’t know why the delay is but I know that you are going to take care of it.  Even if some of my imaginations have come to pass then Lord I know that you will give me grace. 

I remember when my sister died and I wanted to make it to her funeral.  I was laying in Virginia with the ice pelting the window, the plane was canceled.  Driving to the airport we went five miles an hour.  God spoke to my heart, “Lean not to your own understanding.” 

It was a terrible experience and a wonderful experience.  I had an eight hour delay in Manassas.  Again God gave me the promise, “Lean not to your own understanding.”  I got home and we immediately left for eastern Montana, in time for the funeral.

When He delays what do we do?  Are we tempted to doubt and worry?  “Be still and know that I am God.”  The devil tempts us to give into these things and if we do give in then we come in bondage to what we gave in to.  It takes the power of God to deliver us. 

Complaining:

Psa 77:3  I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

When we complain we do get overwhelmed. 

Psa 77:8  Is his mercy clean gone for ever? doth his promise fail for evermore?

Psa 77:9  Hath God forgotten to be gracious? hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.

We complain then we think, “Has God forgotten his mercies?” 

Psa 77:10  And I said, This is my infirmity: but I will remember the years of the right hand of the most High.

Psa 77:11  I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old.

Psa 77:12  I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.

Psa 77:13  Thy way, O God, is in the sanctuary: who is so great a God as our God?

What a way God has given us if we will just stop and consider!  If we are bound by complaining then God has deliverance.

I’ve found that if I will do everything that I know to do, then it is, “Lord I have done everything I can do I will trust you to do the rest because I don’t have any more resources.”  Sometimes we worry without doing anything. 

There is a grievous charge in complaining,

Jud 1:16  These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.

Jud 1:20  But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,

Jud 1:21  Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.

Watch that we will not be a complainer, it is serious. 

Self-pity: it is taking the wrong standpoint.  If it is indulged in before long we will take part in the decaying thing instead of that which grows more and more in the eternal glory of God’s presence. 

Self-pity will decay our trust in God.

Leakage: curiosity is a great thing to cause us to leak the very things God has given us right out of our life.  What we read, does it attack the foundation of your faith?  Are they in truth?  It can shake the very foundation of our faith. 

We must be secure, steadfast, and unmovable.  Beware lest you fall from your own steadfastness.  I ask when someone recommends a book, “Who is it written by?”  If it is not a church of God person then I don’t read it.

Worldly friends and companions.  We don’t want to hurt anyone.  Be careful that you don’t become used to it.

2Co 6:14  Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?

It can be in your own family.  The enemy will work to destroy your possessions in this way.  We need to pray that we know how to help each other.  I cannot say to someone that suffers from depression, “Just get a hold of your bootstraps, pull yourself up, and get going.” 

Let us help one another that we will not fall into those things.  If our pastor becomes discouraged, it is very detrimental not only to our pastor but to us.  When the body is the body then everything affects each other.

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 1/21/15

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 1/21/15

Ps 102 is filled with the cry that David is in trouble.  That is the way that it is in life.  There will be times that are full of lots of trouble.  It is wonderful to have the bible.  It is filled with experiences of people that have gone through what we are going through.

Psa 102:13  Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.

There are sixty-six books in the bible, and however many scriptures.  I covet your prayers that I have a good filter so I can be on target.  As Sister Dorothy was teaching Sunday school, she brought some of my message:

Eph 6:10  Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Eph 6:11  Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

It is vital that we realize that we have an adversary out there that has all sorts of tricks.  There are unknown numbers of things that the enemy works to war upon us and to war upon our mind.  They are principalities that will take us away from worshipping God and steal what God has entrusted us with.

As His children and brothers and sisters in Christ, it is vital that we put on the whole armor of God.  As born again brothers and sisters in Christ, it is important to realize that we are in a real wrestling match against the powers that are out there.  They are listed as principalities. 

We go to bed sometimes and wake up sometimes thrilled in our soul.  We feel, “I am on the mountain top and this eagle experience is glorious.”  Enjoy it because God has ordained that we be in the valley sometimes.  We will battle the battle of casting down imaginations and all these things.  If we put on the whole armor of God then all the powers that are out there cannot overcome us.

There are a lot of strong powers in the world today.  Some of them are not sinful if we keep them in their place.  If we allow anything to become a god to us, then we leave true worship.  Every one of us is well aware that, “My mind keeps drifting away to this when I go to pray.  I find myself crowding God and the things of God out instead of saying, “First I need to worship God today.””

These distractions have powers that work right with them that make it seem, “This is so important that it must be done ahead of everything else.  The only thing that is that important is taking care of our soul, preparing to be God’s child this day and preparing to do His will.

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

There are those that want to rule, oppress whoever they come in contact with.  The rulers of darkness are a unique class of people.  They expect you to respect whatever they say but they don’t have any respect for your convictions.  This is an old battle.  It is hard to believe that people would want to control someone else. 

This is talking about people that love darkness, are living in sin, and want to move into your territory and begin to control your life.  They are everywhere.  They are probably in every block in every town.  People love control.  It is amazing how people in darkness love control.

Spiritual wickedness in high places.  As long as time remains there will be people that don’t have a possession that take on a religious profession.  That is spiritual wickedness in high places.

Eph 6:13  Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

Eph 6:14  Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness;

When people come with a mean spirit it is vital that we handle it with the breast plate of righteousness.  We take a stand on the word of God and with the word of God.  We take a stand for truth.

When we run onto these kinds of things, we need to have an attitude, “You are on the wrong wave length here.”  We need to try to be a peacemaker between them and God.

Eph 6:15  And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;

Eph 6:16  Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.

Isn’t it wonderful that we can take the shield of faith?  We must have the shield of faith no matter our age or how many years we have been married.  The devil shoots at us to take away whatever God has given us.  The darts attack us in our mind, in our emotions, and whatever way they can. 

The marvelous secret is to get the shield of faith out there.  “This is stopping right here.  I am not going to go there in my thought pattern.”

Eph 6:17  And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:

The helmet of salvation protects our thoughts and our ears.  It is a wonderful thing to have the Word of God.  It is as a sword of the Spirit.  The words that I speak to you are spirit and life. 

When you are faced with something, it is a spirit that has come to visit you.  You can be saved however many years but the enemy will still come to accuse and to steal away what God has given us.  We can take the Word of God and say, “I am going on.”

Because I am who I am, by Sunday night I am exhausted.  I am visited before I go to bed every Sunday night by discouragement.  We have a shield of faith, the devil comes to steal everything that we have to be encouraged with.  There are a lot of things to be encouraged about.  As long as people are getting under conviction and counting the cost we have a lot to be encouraged about.

Take the sword of the Spirit.  God and life has brought me to a strong conviction of drunkenness, being sober, and sincere.  The enemy wants you and me to get drunk.  He won’t get me down to the bar.  The enemy is ever working to try to get you, not to backslide, but to just get so involved in whatever it might be that you lose the love of God out of your life. 

Eph 6:18  Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

I try to pray individually for every saint of God and every child.  I have a personal interest in every soul in this congregation.  I want them to make heaven and their lives to blossom for God.  A praying wife can do wonders for a man, a praying saint, a praying mother and a praying grandmother can as well. 

The bible bombs all clicks and clans and all that stuff.  Pray for all saints.

The thought of, “Our Father;” When you pray and I pray, “Our Father:” Say there are fifty of us praying tonight before we go to bed.  Everyone that is saved in Canada saying “Our Father.”  Everyone that is saved in other states, saying, “Our Father.’  

We are all saints; everyone that is saved and walking in the light.  They don’t all have one man as their pastor.  It is those that know God.

We are so blessed, “Our Father.”

Eph 6:19  And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel,

Eph 6:20  For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Eph 6:21  But that ye also may know my affairs, and how I do, Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known to you all things:

Eph 6:22  Whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our affairs, and that he might comfort your hearts.

Eph 6:23  Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I went through some battles this week.  We will have battles.  Paul said, “Peace to the brethren.”  

Dear sister, dear children, has school been tough this week?  Not every teacher is saved, not everyone in the class is saved.  Sometimes things are very upsetting to the children. 

For the teachers: all students don’t learn the same way, not all parents appreciate your teaching.  There is no perfect job.  When we leave the world, peace. 

Being broken hearted is a part of life.  If some of your family is going through a valley then you are going through it too.  It is wonderful to get together with the body of Christ and they say, “Peace, may it all be at one again.  May it all be brought back together again.”

Love with faith:  faith works by love. 

Eph 6:24  Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. Amen. To the Ephesians written from Rome, by Tychicus.

We live in a world where people claim that they love God but they will never pass a test with sincerity.  They are religious.  They are not sincere; they are religious.

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 1/18/15

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 1/18/15

The set time is come.

Psa 102:13  Thou shalt arise, and have mercy upon Zion: for the time to favour her, yea, the set time, is come.

In Genesis Chapter 17 God spoke to a couple that were old.  Abraham was about 100 and Sarah was about 90.  God told them that at a set time God would visit them and Sarah would have a son.  Abraham and Sarah both somewhat chuckled.  God didn’t think it a laughing matter.  When He decides to do something then He knows what to do.

Zion is a spiritual place.  In the Gospel Day we are born in Zion or we come to Zion, to the city of the living God, the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus…

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

Heb 12:23  To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Heb 12:24  And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.

God spoke to one of His servants in the Old Testament and said that there is a set time that God has chosen to favor Zion.  I believe this scripture has been fulfilled many, many times.  There was a set time in our personal experience that God has come and visited with us. 

There was a set time of God recorded in Genesis chapter one, “In the beginning.”  It was a set time and things began to fall into place for creation. 

Genesis 2:7 God formed man out of the dust of the ground… man became a living soul.

There was a set time for Adam to be created.  In the days of Noah, there was a set time that God looked down and He repented that He made man.  He said, “My Spirit will not always strive with man.”

It was during the time that Noah was building the ark, Genesis 7:1 God said “Come.”

I believe God uses his hands to say, “Come.”  There are times when we think that God is being silent.  We need to look around.  He could be using sign language.  Is He saying come, is He saying go? 

He told Noah, his wife and his three sons and their families to come into the ark.  There was a set time.

In Sunday school we learned how unpreparedness opens the door to slothfulness.  There is a set time in our life, but not for us to ever be overcome with slothfulness or lukewarmess.  There is a set time for us to be more for God as Chambers teaches us. 

Solomon was a teenager when he became king.  He did a marvelous thing, it was a set time.  At that set time, Solomon chose to visit the tabernacle of Moses.  He went before God.  You are never too young or too old to seek God. 

When God said, “Seek my face, my heart said, “Thy face I will seek.””  I don’t need to tell you the dangers of missing the set time. 

God knows where everyone of us is.  I cannot go back to 1950.  I can’t go back to 1962 when I was sixteen.  But each of us can realize that there is an eternal God that has a set time to meet with us and to prepare us for the best of service with the master.  To prepare us to have an anointing and a filter and a word with anointing to do what God has prepared us to do in 2015.

Gen 2 God spoke to us and we have it recorded that there would be a messiah come to bruise Satan’s head.  We think of all the years waiting for the messiah and the vastness of God.

We have the beautiful account of Jesus being born.  He was wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger.  It was a set time.  At the right place and right time a fulfilling of the prophecies that Jesus was born.

Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

When you look at me, you wonder, “What is the fullness of time for our pastor, Brother Kelly, that which God has ordained that he would have matured and grown to?”  Pray that I meet the deadline in maturity.  Last year I was challenged by 1 Corinthians 13.  If we don’t have the love of God we are sounding brass and tinkling cymbal. 

As I stand before God and in awe before him at the line of shaking and trembling, have I reached the place where the time was set that I should be having the love of God shed abroad in my heart?

This God doesn’t deal with us when we haven’t arrived but when we haven’t pressed to arrive.  You might feel like, “I am fifty years old and have been saved however long.  God had a set time that I would have matured past being a childish person, a person of selfish nature, and a person leaving behind childhood scars.  Have I reached the place you ordained that I be at this set time?”

As husbands, “God help me to mature to being the husband, the leader, the head of the home, the godly example, the one that makes decisions, and sets the line.”  When I got married, I had a lot of growth to do.  I hope that if I haven’t reached the line that I am pressing to the line.

The same with the wife.  Being a good helpmeet, letting the husband be the head of the home.  God is God.  There is a set time for revival in our home.  There is a set time that God has that the door will open with your neighbor.  We have an answer for people that are hurting because of sin.

Gal 4:4  But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,

God knew what He was doing.  I think of all those that were waiting, Simeon, Anna, and the many before them.  Nehemiah had a grasp that the sun of righteousness would arise with healing in His wing.  He had a grasp.  There was a set time.

When the fullness of time was come, God knew that, “I am going to send Jesus.”  God knew that.  As it was coming to that time, the Father and the Son in heaven, the Father knew, “At a set time you are going to go to earth. 

We as parents, when we think of our son or daughter suffering can say, “My daughter’s problems and my son’s problems I bore.” 

When it is your son, the commentary, “He shouldn’t have done this or that,” is shut.  “She needs to get out of there,” those commentaries are shut.

Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

We were far away from this.  We were the gentiles.  If we were to receive the adoptions, verse 6.

Gal 4:6  And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.

You talk about a miracle.  From servants of sin, to the adoption of being a child of God.  We are the sons and daughters of God.  That is wonderful!  We praise God for it.

He didn’t stop at forgiving our sin, casting them as far as the east is from the west, but in a set tine the Holy Spirit would be sent that we might be cleansed from the carnal man and have the Holy Spirit within us whereby we cry, “Abba Father.”

He sent forth the Spirit.  It was a set time that the Holy Spirit would come.  There is a set time to get saved, there is a set time to get sanctified.  Salvation and sanctification are the right thing.  It is never too soon.

Gal 4:7  Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

Ps 119:161 my heart stands in awe of the Word of GOD.

It is so wonderful that we have the Word of God. 

Rom 13:10  Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Rom 13:11  And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

Rom 13:12  The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.

Rom 13:13  Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying.

Rom 13:14  But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.

It is high time, a time of most importance.  This upcoming week and the next few weeks are very important weeks.  There is a lot on the table with my wife and me, my brother, his wife, and the responsibilities that I feel.  It is vital that we take care of the needs that we feel.

It is high time that we take care of the needs.  The night is far spent.  Let us put on the armor of light and walk honestly.  Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh.

Every day, there is a set time when we say, “God I am not going to make provisions for myself.  Sometimes it is because we are called to pray other times we are moved upon to call someone, other times it is that we need to write a letter.  Other times it is, “I need to spend more time in the Word of God.”

God, your Word teaches us to stand still.  That is a tough thing to do.  Most of us when we get before God try to tell Him a lot of stuff.  Wouldn’t it only be fair for you to be still for the same amount of time?  God help me to be still.  Help my eyes to see things the way that you see them.  Help my heart to understand.

Ps 119 161 stand in awe at thy word.

Lu 21 deals with our day.  It tells us to take heed to ourselves.  It tells us that all the cares of this world and the things that happen there become a snare to all.  There is a set time to take heed to ourselves.

The bible tells us just as it is that there would be so many things going on that men’s hearts would be failing them for fear.  At the end of Luke 21 it tells us to take heed to ourselves.  All that would go on would be as a snare.

I don’t need to tell you what it is like to be my age and you don’t need to tell me what it is like being your age.  We understand what it is like to be in the pressure pack of this world.  There ought to be legislation against what they are doing to seniors, old people that have worked all their life.

Watch and pray.  Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.  Put on the whole armor of God. 

David pleading with God to hear him said, “When I hear you say, “Seek my face.”  My heart says, “Thy face I will seek.””

Sister Karen Wednesday Evening 1/14/15

Sister Karen Wednesday Evening 1/14/15

Every time we pray there is a blessing, either encouragement or stirring, we don’t know how we will be blessed when we pray.  To neglect prayer is to miss a blessing. 

Luk 18:1  And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

One of the definitions of faint is to be exhausted.  There are times when we are praying for a burden that we are almost exhausted with the burden.  “Lord I don’t know how to pray, or what to say; it seems I’ve prayed every way.”  Keep praying, don’t faint.

Luk 18:2  Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:

Luk 18:3  And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

Luk 18:4  And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;

Luk 18:5  Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

She kept coming even though the judge may have even favored the adversary at times. 

Luk 18:6  And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.

Luk 18:7  And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

Luk 18:8  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

He spake a parable:  one of the reasons that Jesus taught in parables was so that those that were hungry would seek out a deeper meaning and those that were just religious would pass over it.  We want to dig deeper.  “What did He mean when he gave this parable?”

God will avenge them speedily.  We want to keep praying until we receive justice and satisfaction.  We want to keep bringing our case before God until we have been satisfied with the answer.

Lu 11 he was praying in a certain place

He was a good example.  The other morning I must not have gotten up early enough to get my prayer made before my grandson got around.  He came and asked what I was doing.  When I told him, he said, “Oh okay.”  And went out.

Luk 11:1  And it came to pass, that, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.

Luk 11:2  And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

Luk 11:3  Give us day by day our daily bread.

Luk 11:4  And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil.

How many times have you just tried to just worship.  It is amazing to me how quick my mind goes to request.  It is important to adore and just worship Him.  “Hallowed be thy name.”

Luk 11:5  And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves;

Luk 11:6  For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him?

Luk 11:7  And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee.

Luk 11:8  I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth.

Luk 11:9  And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

It didn’t stop at ask.  Sometimes we have to go past asking.  Often we do. 

Luk 11:10  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

These are promises! 

Luk 11:11  If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent?

Luk 11:12  Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

Who with a father’s heart would do that? 

Luk 11:13  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?

Importunity means shamelessness.  The knocker had no shame.  He was desperate and it didn’t matter with him if the neighbor was in bed.  “I don’t have anything to give and I know that my neighbor does.”  He was there knocking without shame.

Examples of importuning:

Abraham for Lot:  Lot was not deserving; he chose the best for himself when he had the opportunity.  He chose the well watered ground and he pitched his tent toward Sodom.  Soon he was in Sodom.  Abraham would not give up until he got God to promise that He would spare lot.  Remember Abraham’s importunity for Lot when we are exhausted with a certain request.

Jacob would not let the angel go until he gave him a blessing. 

Moses stood before God for the saving of the whole of Israel.  He had been up getting the Ten Commandments and came down and saw they were involved in idolatry.  He got before God and interceded for all the children of Israel.

When Moses, Nehemiah, Esther, Samuel, Ezra, and others prayed for their people they included themselves, “We have sinned. Please remember us.”  When we pray for our nation we will make a difference.

The Syrophenician woman: the disciples tried to brush her off.  She wouldn’t give up.  She brought her request for her daughter to Jesus and He said “the bread is for the children.”  She said, “Truth Lord, but the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.” She wouldn’t give up.

Jesus prayed, “If it be possible, let this cup pass.”  The cup didn’t pass.  He had to go through the battle.

Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we:  he was like us, he wasn’t an angel or supernatural, he was flesh just like us.  He first prayed that it would not rain.  It didn’t rain.  He got the attention of Jezebel and the king.  He then prayed that it did rain.  He didn’t get the answer with the first prayer.  He prayed seven times.

Sister Gunner said, “It is always too soon to quit praying.”