Brother Bill Sunday Evening 4/26/15

Brother Bill Sunday Evening 4/26/15

Mat 5:1  And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

Mat 5:2  And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

Mat 5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

I remember years ago when I was with Sister Griffin I asked her, “What have you learned in the years that you have been saved that will help me in my walk with God?”  She was someone that I respected and wanted to learn from.

Here was Jesus, He opened his mouth, who can be greater than Jesus?  He was passing on things to His disciples and to us to help us.  In the human these scriptures can seem common, but we don’t know the depth of the scriptures.  There is really a depth!

Blessed are the poor in spirit:  we desperately need God.  This is one of the things that Jesus was trying to teach them, “You need to really learn how to lean on God, and have an understanding that you cannot do this on your own.”

I wasn’t raised in the church of God.  I got saved when I was sixteen years old.  I started coming to young peoples and the Spirit of God was drawing on my heart.  I didn’t know a whole lot, but I knew enough that I knew that I needed to be saved.

I remember as a sinner the voice of God worked on my conscience, “You need to get saved.”  That was the Spirit of God talking to my heart.  So I tried to clean up my act in myself.  I found that it didn’t work.  I remember something happened and I messed up again.  I couldn’t clean up my life in myself. 

I couldn’t do it until I repented of my sins and asked God to forgive me.  Then He did a work in me and it was Him that gave me the ability to live for Him.

Our dependency after so many years is still in Him.  I tell Teri, “I feel my need of God.”  I always feel needy.  I go before God and say, “God help me here.  You have shown me something that I need to be washed of or need help with.” 

When I go to the altar, it is not because I am not saved.  Should I stand in my pew and just sing and not go?  The scripture says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.”  We are not crystals.  We are needy before God. 

I walk with God and because of day to day rubbing elbows with the world, we will come up needy.  I have had to pray.  “God help me to have the right attitude.”  We are not crystals.  In my human thinking it would be wonderful if I could just push a button and nothing bother me, mind my own business, and everything go hunky dory all the time. 

God did not design us that way.  He designed us that we need to draw on Him.  It helps us to always realize that we need Him.  It helps us to realize that He is the one, we are not the one, without Him we will fail.

Joh 15:1  I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

Joh 15:2  Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

Isn’t it good that God is going to keep working with us to help purge us?  I don’t say, “Lord, refine that brother or sister.”  I pray, “Lord, help me to be refined, perfected, and washed.  If there is anything in me help me to get it washed and taken care of.”  I don’t always see right about myself and for sure I don’t always see right about other people.

Isn’t it good that GOD will help us to be purged?  “The Lord has pleasure in the prosperity of His servants.”  If that is so then surely He will help us to be that which we should be.

Psa 138:8  The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands.

I want to be perfected.

In Matthew chapter 24, Mark 13, and Luke 21, it talks about, “There will be wars and rumors of wars.”  And then it says, “Jesus will come in the clouds.”  If my understanding is right, that is not talking of the judgment day.  That is talking about Jesus coming in His church with power and great glory and there will be people get saved. 

I want to be a part of that.  What we can do to be a part of it is letting God prepare us. 

The angels prepared themselves to sound in the Revelations.  We want to prepare ourselves to sound.  The world would like to silence us.  We want to prepare ourselves to do all we can with the Spirit of God to do what God shows us so that we can have a clean lamp and the light can shine out. 

I went to the altar this morning because I saw a speck of dirt.  “Lord, wash me of that thing.  That looks better.”  I have been in this race quite a while and there are still times that I see something.  Is that the way it is with everyone or just me? 

Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Joh 15:3  Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

Joh 15:4  Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

If you want to be successful in living for God, then you have to be hooked up to the vine.  You are not the vine.  You are just the branches.  As long as we stay hooked to him, we will be successful.

I visited with a young man that had an up and down experience.  I asked him if he had good devotions.  “Well…no.”  He didn’t keep drawing from the vine.  If he would have, he would have been able to serve God.

There are people that have withdrawn from the race that may have been great people in human eyes.  They didn’t stay tapped in to the vine right.  They didn’t keep drawing on Him when things worked on them.

We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. 

We have this treasure in earthen vessels.  We have to keep drawing on Him.  “God help me, wash me of this thing, it has a root in my heart, help me to forgive, to have a right attitude, and to have a real love for that sinner or whoever.”

If you keep drawing on Him, you will be successful no matter what your background is.  I was not raised in the church if God.  I did not have a flowery family.  I endeavored to keep drawing on the vine and that is why I am still here.

Joh 15:5  I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

Without Him we can do nothing.  I cannot even open and close my hand without Him.  You will not be successful without being tapped into the vine.

Mat 25:3  They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

Mat 25:4  But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

Every morning and every evening, get that oil from God.  There are things that will attack you.  There are things that I have been working on in my life.  The scripture says to take heed,

Luk 21:34  And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares.

Luk 21:35  For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth.

Luk 21:36  Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.

It is not a onetime fix.  We need to draw on that oil, that which we need from God and keeping things in their proper place. 

Mar 1:29  And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew, with James and John.

Mar 1:30  But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and anon they tell him of her.

Mar 1:31  And he came and took her by the hand, and lifted her up; and immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.

Mar 1:32  And at even, when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils.

Mar 1:33  And all the city was gathered together at the door.

Mar 1:34  And he healed many that were sick of divers diseases, and cast out many devils; and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him.

Mar 1:35  And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed.

Jesus, the son of God, had to get a hold of God too.  If He had to, surely we have to get a hold of God. 

Mar 8:22  And he cometh to Bethsaida; and they bring a blind man unto him, and besought him to touch him.

Mar 8:23  And he took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town; and when he had spit on his eyes, and put his hands upon him, he asked him if he saw ought.

Mar 8:24  And he looked up, and said, I see men as trees, walking.

Mar 8:25  After that he put his hands again upon his eyes, and made him look up: and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.

In Exodus when Moses went up into the mountain,

Exo 34:1  And the LORD said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first: and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest.

Exo 34:2  And be ready in the morning, and come up in the morning unto mount Sinai, and present thyself there to me in the top of the mount.

Every morning we need to go up and present ourselves before God.

Exo 34:3  And no man shall come up with thee, neither let any man be seen throughout all the mount; neither let the flocks nor herds feed before that mount.

When we go up into the mount, we leave all people behind and all the cares of life behind.

Jesus got the blind man away from the town and alone with God.  People have the tendency to see others as trees.  Throughout history people have looked at people as trees, looking up, “Oh that great person.”  When a tree falls, it takes other trees with them. 

We need to honor the brotherhood and give double honor to those that labor in the word.  I am not taking away from that.  But we need to see men as men.  When we see people as trees, when people get lifted up, then there is trouble up ahead.

We need to see ourselves as men not as trees.  We need to see others as men as well.  Any of us can fall.  The thing that will keep you on track is you drawing from that vine. 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit.”  Keep feeling your dependency on God and let others help you.  Don’t buck up and say, “No one will tell me what to do.”  You won’t always see right in your own eyes.

It has been a help to me being married.  Sometimes we think we have better eyesight than what we do.  Our wife says, “You are not seeing that right.”  It helps to have one another.  Whether your wife or your brother and sister. 

We need the body.  Jesus helped him to see men as men, not as trees.

Zec 6:13  Even he shall build the temple of the LORD; and he shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne; and he shall be a priest upon his throne: and the counsel of peace shall be between them both.

He created us for His glory, not for our own glory.  We are created for His glory. 

Mat 26:41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

The flesh is weak.  We have to watch and pray.  We need Him.  There are great men and women that have fallen.  Look at Solomon in the Bible.  He had greater wisdom than any before him and any after him.  He messed up. 

We are just flesh and blood.  That is all, so we need to watch and pray.

Mat 26:36  Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.

Mat 26:37  And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.

Mat 26:38  Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.

Mat 26:39  And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Mat 26:40  And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?

Mat 26:41  Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

Mat 26:42  He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done.

Mat 26:43  And he came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy.

Mat 26:44  And he left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

Mat 26:45  Then cometh he to his disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners.

He could have easily said, “I need to go pray.  I feel my need of prayer.  I feel my need of getting a hold of God.  I am in desperate need, I am having a tough time with this thing and I will have to draw on Him or I will not make it.”

It sounds like there will be times that we will have to pray again in certain situations.  “Dear God, I am not satisfied.  I need more help here.” 

Luk 22:39  And he came out, and went, as he was wont, to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him.

Luk 22:40  And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Pray that ye enter not into temptation.

Luk 22:41  And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed,

Luk 22:42  Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.

Luk 22:43  And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

We will go through hard times.  You may be someone’s angel to strengthen them.  There are times when you are going through something and unbeknownst to the saint, they come along and say, “Brother or sister, I am praying for you.  Be encouraged.”  God help us that we would be what we need to be to our brother and sister too.

Psa 87:7  As well the singers as the players on instruments shall be there: all my springs are in thee.

Springs - a fountain, a source, a source of satisfaction, a well.

He will be the source that you have access to.  He has a storehouse.  He has in that storehouse those things that you will need, grace, comfort, help, whatever it is, he is the source of satisfaction.

People that are out in the world do not have that storehouse.  The first storehouse they have access to is to be able to get saved. 

Once they open the door to God coming into their heart and they step through the door, then they have all the other stores in the storehouse available to them.  It is for their comfort, help, direction, and supplying every need. 

You are His child then and He will take care of you to the end.

When your mother and father forsake you then the Lord will take you up.  There are times that your parents forsake you because they die, not because they don’t love you.  When they forsake you in that way, the Lord will take you up. 

You may not have mom or dad there to help you but you have the Lord there to take care of your need.