Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 5/13/15

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 5/13/15

Dan 11:32  And such as do wickedly against the covenant shall he corrupt by flatteries: but the people that do know their God shall be strong, and do exploits.

We want to be prepared to do exploits this summer of 2015.  We look up to God for a strong desire from God.  We all have this treasure in earthen vessels.  I don’t need to tell you how your flesh or mind will speak to you. 

There is a wonderful privilege that each one of us has and that is being still before God.  When we pray, “Thy will be done.”  It means, “All these other things, I put on the altar of submission.  What you have brings fullness of joy, draws me closer to heaven and further from the world.”

Spiritual adventures:  How children like an adventure!  With you and I spiritually, break the mold of everyday life and say, “We are going to drive a new road.  We are going to visit a brand new green-house.  We are going to go to a new place to hike.” 

Spiritually, as all of you that work with souls, you cannot have any contact without realizing, “I am dealing with souls that are very, very needy.” 

You and I know that the preparation of the heart is of the Lord.  He will not bully His way into your heart.  It will happen because you love God enough and have an identity with one soul enough that you recognize that:

Jer 10:23  O LORD, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

Pro 14:12  There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

We feel our desperate need for God to prepare our heart.  He prepares it in the stillness of worshipping God.  We have a pattern of tabernacle worship that brings an awesome stillness to our heart.

The preparation of the heart is of the Lord.  I am not going to try to tell you who to call, or who’s door to knock on.  This message is about you and I as the church of the living God; we claim the highest claim, we claim to love souls. 

In order to reach souls, we must know the exploits that God has for us.  We live in a world that will leave us calloused.  If you have any exposure to modern media, the goal is to keep your vision clear. 

The preparation of the heart is of the Lord.  Our lives will become so full, enriched, and convicted; we will feel the desperate need of having the love of God spread abroad in our heart.  If the love of God is not spread over our natural personality, the flesh will come over and we will be a beast.

Pro 18:1  Through desire a man, having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom.

When Adam Clarke was a very young man, he was challenged on this scripture to go through the Bible and study the Bible so that he would have a grasp on God and truth. 

There has to be a strong desire for God.  We all have strong natural appetites.  We need a strong desire for more than what this flesh can give us.  Whether you have a lot, a piece of property, or just an apartment, you must have a desire past that. 

We must have a desire to have a lot of God in our services.  I believe we can have as much God that the posts of the door will be moved and the angels will cry out, “Holy, holy,” as they did in Isaiah. 

We must be willing to separate ourselves from some things.  Nothing matters in this world.  If God told me that I had to quit doing this or that, I would because we want God.  We want to do those exploits in 2015.

Instead God says, “Seek me first and all these things will be added unto you.”  Sister Phyllis Martin said, “I could never have had as full of life if I hadn’t obeyed God.”  If you want to be lonely, poor, and unhappy then leave God out of your life.

If you go through a season of no open doors, then go through the season.  Go right on serving God.  You don’t know where He is still working.  When it seems that He is not opening doors, He is still working.

Psa 27:4  One thing have I desired of the LORD, that will I seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to enquire in his temple.

I have one desire of my soul:  He had one desire but there are three places to it.  He desired the presence of God.  He desired to see the beauty of the Lord.  As it is in the world today, as you see your family, as you see children that are lost, as you see relatives that are lost, as you see individuals where they are, other than seeing the beauty of the Lord, you will spiral way down.

When you get into the presence of God, you will feel that nothing is impossible with God.  One of the great adventures that I am on is to be changed into the same beautiful image of the Lord.  You say, your eyesight is poor, your hearing is bad, these skin cancers may get ugly… but I can still have beauty.  You and I will not have it unless we go into His presence and your and my life is changed.

I am told that it was a turning point in Brother Mullan from being a sweet man to becoming hard because he went to some of his family and they had apostatized and instead of turning to God it made him angry.

I remember going to camp-meeting and this brother that I don’t remember the name of preached the heavens open.  I ran into him the next year and he had turned into a glacier, cold, hard, and bitter.  It could happen to anyone of us, unless we turn to God. 

To enquire: God help me to know what you want me to do and help me to know how to do it.

It convicts me every time I follow the pattern of tabernacle worship.  There is the brazen altar.  I am humbled immediately when I think of the price that was paid for me.  The blood of the Lamb was shed.  Sin would have destroyed me. 

I don’t need to tell you, sin destroyed Kelly’s.  You drive around the country and see the crosses.  My brother died at 21 in an automobile accident; he left children.  You and I would not be able to watch a video of one of their lives.  Kelly’s have a bad record. 

Go to that laver where you can wash.  Wash me.  You say, “It is my personality.”  Get washed.  You can be washed and perfected.  You can measure.

The door:  I think of being able to get into God’s Church.  There is a door, it is Jesus.  I get in the door and there is the bread and there is the light.  You take the Word of God and He feeds you and gives you light on that path.

You go to the golden altar.  I realize that once the carnal man is gone he doesn’t come back unless you sin, but I also realize that you die daily; I set myself apart. 

We have to get past this thing, “I’m not sure they will accept me.”  We have to get into the Holiest of Holies.  Perfect love to God, to man, to one another, to those that have disappointed me. 

Don’t forget where you came from.  Don’t forget the longsuffering of God and of the saints.