Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 5/6/15

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 5/6/15

Isa 6:1  In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Something happens in individual’s life that they become aware of God.  In this case Isaiah saw God high and lifted up and His presence filling the temple.

In our day today, there are many false gods.  We don’t think of them as worshipping idols, but they are not worshipping the true and living God.  They have such a high esteem of success.  Some people you don’t get a chance to talk to them because they talk all the time.  They want to tell you how great they are, how great their children and grandchildren are, and God is not even in the picture.

This eternal God has a way of causing things to happen where they realize, “What is going on?  We have all this going on but we are empty on the inside.  There is something wrong.” 

When individuals see God high and lifted up, that is an opportunity for them to hear the angels.  It is marvelous, the angels sing a beautiful song; it is, “Holy, holy.”

We think of the beautiful songs of heaven, the angelic choir, the saints singing and praising God for the blood.  We are challenged to know this God as high and lifted up.

God brings people to a position where the presence of God moves things around in their lives.  It is easy for any of us to become distracted by whatever it is that presses in on us.  It is good to have the presence of God press in on us, “your priorities and thoughts, need to be right.”

Isaiah realized that he had a great need:

Isa 6:5  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

It is not God’s will that any perish.  As the Paradise church, we don’t think of any soul as being of less value than any other.  That is carnal and warped thinking.  Every soul is valuable to God.

Psa 95:1  O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

It is so vital that we are thankful.  It keeps our minds and our hands out of what they shouldn’t be involved in and our feet out of where we should not be.

Psa 95:2  Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

Psa 95:3  For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

We are blessed to know this tonight, our God is a great God.  The needs that we are praying for and our needs as brothers and sisters in Christ are supplied because God is a great God and a great king above all God’s.

Psa 95:4  In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

There are times that the losses are very deep.  The burden is so heavy for a soul that is wandering wherever they might be wandering.  It is easy for people to get themselves in a very deep hole that they don’t see any way out.  But God’s hand can go there.

People can position themselves out of the will of God and their life becomes so full.  They become a captive of their life and of their decision. 

Everyone has probably heard me tell the account of the man that came into the congregation in Chicago that had been a part of the mafia and got saved.  He told Brother Gordan, “I put myself in this position.  All they have to do is to kill me and I will never be heard of again.” 

There is a wonderful thing.  Those deepest holes that people get into.  People position themselves in a place where there is no way out.  But there is a way out with God.  God holds the deep places.

Let us see this God as great, high and lifted way up.

The strength of the hills is His also.  However much strength would be needed, He has the power to do the work.

Psa 95:6  O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

Psa 95:7  For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,

Stay humble and humble more.  If you think you are as humble as you can be, I want to challenge you to pray and ask God to humble you, and you will find that there are depths that you haven’t reached yet.  We all want to be there.

Psa 96:7  Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.

Psa 96:8  Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts.

We need to say, “I am here Lord.  The offering that I am giving is myself.  Everything else is put on the back burner.”

Psa 96:9  O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.

Deu 32:1  Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

Deu 32:2  My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

Deu 32:3  Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.

Deu 32:4  He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Have God big and then let Him become bigger and bigger.

Mat 18:1  At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Mat 18:2  And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

Mat 18:3  And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

I don’t know why their minds went there.  But there are still people that have it in their mind that they would like to be something great.  Jesus taught them how to get there.  He took a little child and set him in the midst of them.

“Except ye be converted…”  One of the main parts of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the message of the church of God is that people must repent and be converted.  There must be a change.

Doing good deeds or learning a catechism will not save you.  A person must repent, there is a confession, and their sins are forgiven; and there is a conversion, there is a change.

You can tell if there has been a conversion because they will be as a little child.  Little children get excited.  We want to be excited about the things of God.  We want to stay young in our experience of God of being excited about the things of God.

We want to remember the value of one soul.  We won’t be rewarded according to the results, but by the labors.  It will be God that gives the increase.  We want to be excited about the increase.

Don’t you love when you are somewhere and you see someone wrapped up in themselves and they won’t even acknowledge you, but you see a little child and they will speak to you?  Little children haven’t even been taught, but they will see you and say, “Hi.”

May God help us to be enthusiastic and to love children. 

Jesus dealt with the thought of being offensive.  Don’t offend a child.  Don’t offend your brother.  You say, “His personality is offensive to me.”  If he is overcome with a fault then the Bible tells us to go to him. 

Mat 18:8  Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

Be careful what you put your hand into.  Don’t meddle with things that are none of your business.  Be careful what you know or what you think you know.  We have a mission field to be a blessing to the saints.  We have three rest homes that we can work in.  There are doors that have never been knocked on. 

Be careful what you put your hand to.  Be careful not to know what is going on in other places that will defile you.

Be careful where you put your foot.  I love the testimony of Abraham’s servant, “I being in the way the Lord led me.” 

If the eye offend you.  There are some people that have a critical eye.  “Why did he pick out that tie?  Why did she mow the lawn that way?”  Don’t have a critical eye.

Have your hand busy for God.  Have your hand busy helping others.  Have your hand so that it is not meddling around where it shouldn’t be.  The same with your feet. 

We as the saints of God when we visit with one another, when we are invited or take someone out to eat, we need to have real guidelines.  You need to get before God and say, “God will you do a work on me?  The preacher said you are a great God, are you big enough to educate me?”  He is.

Mat 18:11  For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

Mat 18:12  How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?

Mat 18:13  And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.

Mat 18:14  Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

How beautiful the Word of God is!