Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 5/20/15

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 5/20/15

Hos 14:4  I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.

There is a way that our heart can be healed and we never have to go back to that horrible pit.

I will love them freely:  I still remember Sister Klemstein preaching a message where she said that after she got married she loved Rhiney, but she was afraid to trust him with all her heart that he would really love her and be good to her all her days.  God spoke to her, “You need to love your husband, and as I have loved you, you need to love him.”

It is so wonderful to have found the treasure of His love.  It is wonderful to be loved.  Sometimes people that haven’t found love have hesitations and reservations.  But it is so wonderful that God will love you freely.

God spoke to Jeremiah, “Tell these people, if they will turn to me, serve me, live for me, and follow me, I will turn to them with all my heart and all my soul.”

Isn’t it amazing that we can experience so much love, affection, and Him desiring the very best for us.

His anger is turned away:  As angry as God is with sin, when we repent it breaks.  Isn’t that wonderful?

Hos 14:5  I will be as the dew unto Israel: he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.

I will be as the dew to Israel.  Every one of us will have storms in our life.  We need to check out where the storm is coming from.  Some storms are self-made, some are imaginary in our mind, some storms would just be called life. 

Karen and I went through a storm a month or two ago and it was really tough.  There was nothing that we could do to change the storm. 

The dew of heaven doesn’t come in the storm.  You may not understand why the car broke down, or the deal went through, or why someone that is usually happy to see you is not happy to see you anymore.  There is a power in submitting everything to God.  When we submit everything to God and take our hands off and say, “It is all on the altar, I am totally submitted to God.”  There is a dew that comes.

This dew is a marvelous phenomenon that the world cannot figure out.  These little droplets of water get on grass and other plants.  How fertile it makes the plants!  How green and productive!

Psa 133:1  A Song of degrees of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!

Psa 133:2  It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments;

Psa 133:3  As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore.

In any congregation there will be many different personalities.  There is one thing that we need to remember.   Our unity is based on our love for God and our love for one another.  We have to suffer some things sometimes.  My opinion isn’t always going to be yours.  There is nothing worse than having our unity suffer.  If we do then we will lack the dew.

We need the dew of heaven to keep us alive spiritually in our times. 

He shall grow as the lily.  I understand seedtime and harvest.  I understand the Word of God is the seed and it can be planted in this earthen vessel; prayer, praise, and the saints of God water the seed that is sown.

Bulbs must be planted and go through a winter.  It must reach a certain low temperature that doesn’t freeze them to death but so that when the spring sun comes out and the moisture comes, something begins to come up out of the ground and soon with tender loving care there is a beautiful lily.

We will have some dark seasons in our life.  There will be times when we go right on serving God and we don’t feel much emotion.  We say, “I am going to be true to serving God.”  We go right on living, singing, testifying, and being faithful.

There is something from God, the experience of being saved, sanctified, settled and determined that will cause the bulb in our life to begin to grow and produce.

The roots of Lebanon:  There are tall trees in Lebanon.  In order to have a tall tree, we must have our roots down.  There will be winds that will come to knock you over.  We must have our roots down and bear fruit upward.

God wants every one of us to not colonize and say, “I have two or three saints around me…”  God wants us to put our branches out and reach where we have never reached before. 

You may say, “Rejection really bothers me.”  When I say that, they look at me as if, “I cannot believe that anyone with as strong a voice and a set jaw as you would be bothered by that.”  When we reach out to others we have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  The Word tells us that we will not be rewarded for how many get saved, but for obedience, labors, and reaching out.

Hos 14:6  His branches shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive tree, and his smell as Lebanon.

Beauty as the olive.  The olive is always green.  It is a very, very wonderful tree that bears olives that not only give food but olive oil has healing powers.  It fights infection and is a pure oil.  God help us to be like the olive.

The smell as Lebanon:  We want to be very refreshing to be around.  I love to walk in a healthy forest.  Live trees take in the bad and put out the good.  I love to breathe deeply that air that is so full of oxygen.  It smells so good. 

All of us want to have an aroma around us of being alive.  We don’t want to be half dead and stinky with a stinky attitude.  We don’t want to have a lot of complaining.  We want to have the thought, “I want to do my best and be my best.”

Hos 14:7  They that dwell under his shadow shall return; they shall revive as the corn, and grow as the vine: the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.

Revive as the corn.  Corn can get a frost, look dead, and then revive.  There are times that you will go through things and feel, “I don’t seem to make the progress that I want to make.  I seem to be losing a bit here.  Have I gotten frost bit by too much internet or radio?  God less of that and more of you.”  He has a way of sending the dew and sunshine and we revive.

There will be times that we get convicted.  I started reading the Preacher and Prayer, by EM Bounds again.  Preaching without prayer kills.  Exhorting without prayer and teaching without prayer kills.  If someone is struggling, pray.  Then show how much you care.  Until someone knows how much you care, it is almost impossible for you to be of any benefit to them. 

Grow as the vine.  God has ordained that we be graft into the true and the living vine.  Jesus helps us to grow and we help one another grow.  A vine is a tangled thing; it is difficult to try to tear them apart.  You can pull and yank and there is strength in a vine.  We want to be graft into the true and living vine.

The scent shall be as the wine of Lebanon.  I don’t know of that but I know of the wine of the Holy Spirit of God.  Don’t you love it when you can feel the Holy Spirit moving in your soul and moving in another’s soul? 

Hos 14:8  Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is thy fruit found.

I didn’t get where I am today the first year that I was saved.  The journey has taught me so well, I knew then intellectually but I know it now experimentally.  Serving God really pays.

The idol of money, the idol of things… Don’t get me wrong, it is not wrong to buy a scooter this summer.  Idols cannot give anything back.  God can.

Hos 14:9  Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein.

Hosea ended with the marvelous text: the ways of the Lord are right.

We know the general way: salvation, repentance, forgiveness, sanctification, water baptism… we know these things.  The way that God has you handle whatever you are faced with tomorrow is right. 

I’ve really been praying for our grandchildren and for all the children of the congregation.  I first had the thought, “May the seed of the Word of God be planted in their heart and life.  May they know that we love God and love them.  May they experience the love of God and the love of the saints.” 

When I was a child I had a Sunday school teacher by the name of Cleo Blanchard.  She loved me.  She has loved me for probably 60 years.  I will never forget one day I saw Cleo and her sister Candace.  I said, “Hi, it looks like sisters are having a nice time.”  As I walked by they said, “I don’t care what anyone says, I like him.”

Pour love into children, these children are so blessed to have those that love them.  The ways of the Lord are right.  Love souls.  Love grandmas.  Pour out love.

God is a God of Judgment and says, “This is the line I draw, you need to step to it.”  He has done this many times.

If you have gained ground and lost it or have had the victory and lost it, it is vital that we have the dew of heaven refreshed. 

He will heal their backsliding.  It is vital that we love one another and love the Word of God. 

Deuteronomy 33 says, “When rain is needed he will send the rain, when dew is needed he will send the dew.”  There are times when I feel my need of a drenching rain.