Brother Gary Sunday Evening 8/23/15

Brother Gary Sunday Evening 8/23/15

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

It is wonderful to have a treasure.  We have memories that are really treasures.  I have a precious memory of Brother Sheppard.  There are many things that we take for granted.

There is a treasure that only God can give.  We have this treasure in earthen vessels.  God takes clay and puts it on the potter’s wheel.  Then He, Jesus, the Word, and the Spirit of God work to make an earthen vessel that they can put something really valuable in. 

This butter crock was created by Mrs. Childress as a vessel to hold butter.  You let the butter come to room temperature and then you put it in this vessel.  You can put a cube in this vessel and then you turn it upside-down in the fresh water in the bowl. 

I use fresh water every day because I realize that this treasure in my vessel needs fresh water every day.  You can take a knife and use butter from the vessel on corn or whatever else.

The treasure is Jesus Christ.  He is all in all.  Christ is all. 

2Co 4:7  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

In order to be acceptable to God and please Him, we must have God in our life.  Religion does not put God in your life.  The only way that we get God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit in our life: we must do as the scripture tells us.

Conviction is Godly sorrow that works repentance not to be repented of.  Then there is confession and repentance to God and asking Him to forgive us of all our sin.  After we do this then He begins working on us as an earthen vessel that the excellency may be of God and not of us.

We are troubled on every side:  He used the plural form, not just the thought, “You may have trouble.”  In serving God there are times that we are troubled on every side.  We are perplexed and persecuted…

These words, troubled, perplexed, and cast down all refer to a wrestling match.  Paul was an influential person that knew a lot about a lot of things.  He had been to a wrestling match.  He had learned that the opponent is every place that you look.

There are times in our spiritual walk that you can say, “I with Paul feel troubled on every side.  The enemy is there no matter what I try to do, contesting me.”  There will be seasons of accusation and everywhere you look there is an accusation.  There will be seasons of tribulation. 

There are times that you war the war of unbelief.  It is real.  You see the spirit of unbelief in Revelations in the red horse rider.  He is riding around to take peace, to destroy lives, to combat your faith. 

It is wonderful to have been saved a while.  I thank God that I got saved.  Even last week unbelief moved in on me so long.  I was praying for whomever it was, unbelief moved in on me.  “NO use praying…”  Oh yes, I am praying and I am believing God. 

I think that there are some of those wrestlers that are pretty quick.  They act like they are coming one direction and then they get you somewhere else.  We have a real strong resistance that we have been battling against and then something else comes along that we were not expecting.

In a wrestling match they get the opponent down and the coach begins to count.  I can sense the energy in the wrestler that is being pinned.  He uses everything that he knows and has been trained in his mind to do.  He has in his mind: “Use this when you are down there and have come to the last resource.” 

We have something to use: look up to God.  This Word has never, never failed.  This treasure is so valuable that you don’t want to lose it.  Let us look to ourselves that we not lose the things that we have gained.

The thought of being persecuted is the thought: it is a Greek word that comes from the same root as being pursued.  There are times in our life that we feel that the enemy is on our trail.  It is like running a race and you hear someone getting really close behind, trying to overtake you. 

We want to remember in this race that there is a goal to be gained.  There is a heaven that is sure.  In this race there are victories all along the line.

The gospel is clear in the thought of pressing to the mark.  In a race there are definite boundaries and there is a winning mark.  You cannot just run into the woods and have a four wheeler waiting for you and you get on and then jump off and finish.  You have to stay the course.

When troubles come, refuse to be distressed.  You are God’s.  There is something to be benefited in our spiritual man and in our spiritual life.  The way that you will help someone else that is in trouble is to give your testimony, “I have been in trouble and this is how God helped me.”

We are perplexed.  There are times that I see a soul and I am perplexed, “God what can I do to help this soul?”  I am burdened for Kari.  She has three children and one of them is a boy about 10 years old.  I looked at her yesterday and she is so sad.  I thought, “What can I do to help her?” 

There is something that we can really do and that is pray.  We can show ourselves friendly.  As brothers and sisters in Christ we can avail ourselves before God, “God what can I do?”

We are perplexed what to do about the situation with Landa.  We can pray, we can write and encourage the Twete’s.  Some of you could write songs about this occasion.  Some of you could find a song.

Being in a race:  “God, I want to make it.  More than anything else I want to make heaven.”  Everyone here could say that.  Everyone that wants to go to heaven wants to take someone else with them.  The next thought is, “I want to help someone else.”

We are in a race, not deserted; cast down but not destroyed.

2Co 4:8  We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

2Co 4:9  Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

2Co 4:10  Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

2Co 4:11  For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

2Co 4:15  For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many redound to the glory of God.

In the center of His will my soul is resting.  “All things are for your sake.” 

Through the efforts of Brother Hines and Brother Maconahae I have a treasure that was left to me of a man that was sick and gained benefits from his sickness.  I may have read this article about 100 times.  It came to me this last week, “I need to make that treasure available to this congregation.”

Sickness was not designed to destroy me.  If I let it work, it will be a benefit.

Abundant grace:  grace has 10 definitions.  The inspiration of the divine and its reflection out into our life.  It is amazing that an earthen vessel can have divine inspiration. 

Grace means a benefit.  What a benefit grace is!  The children that are getting ready to go back to school feel their need of the grace of God.  The teachers need the grace of God.  You precious teachers already know that some of the parents will be happy that you are teaching their child and there will be some that you would not be their pick.  You will need grace.

It is not just with teachers.  Not everyone will be happy to see us.  We will suffer some losses.  The abundant grace is that all things are for your sake.

The unmerited favor of God:  the grace of God.  Grace is gratitude, graciousness.  It is a wonderful thing that in an ungracious world the Grace of God makes us gracious.  Acceptable, favor, pleasure, thankworthy, joy liberality.

All things are for your sake that the abundant grace…

I didn’t count how many requests were in the Sunday school hour.  With the unspoken there were more than 24.  God is able to work in every one of those requests.

2Co 4:16  For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

We need grace to be children, and we need grace to be old.  Getting old is an experience.  When I was young I had hoped to be able to preach nonstop.  I had hoped to be able to preach seven days a week and three or four times a day.  There have been times that I have done well to try to preach Sunday Morning. 

For this cause we faint not…

God crated you with five natural senses.  He also created you a spiritual being with at least five spiritual senses.  We don’t want our hearing to become dull.  Is there anything sadder than someone losing their vision of truth? 

We have all experienced having such sweet fellowship with a brother or a sister.  Then they failed to keep closely associated with vessels of honor.  They became contaminated with something that caused their vision to lose its keenness, their hearing to be dull, they didn’t taste the good things of God, they no longer heard the good news.  They failed to feel the touch of His hand.  “The touch of His hand means so much to me.”

We will go through situations where we feel, “God, I need to feel the touch of your hand.”

I don’t usually fear when I go to sleep.  I went to bed when the wind came and the electricity went out.  I was not afraid because of that but I was concerned that the wind would cause Mrs. Porter’s house to have some damage or it would cause a fire in the area. 

We had a child that was afraid of the dark.  We asked her when she became afraid to bring her sleeping bag into the room.  Just to feel the touch of her mother’s hand would make the difference. 

I probably will need a strong touch of the Master’s hand on my tongue this week.  We need Him.  If you knew that someone’s heart was breaking, you would know that we need to pray.  You know things that I will never know.  You will need the touch of His hand.

“Though the outward man perish the inward man is renewed day by day.”

2Co 4:17  For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

It is evident that Paul wrote this after the affliction.  When you are in the middle of a trial it doesn’t feel like a light affliction.  When I had a sinus affection and an infected tooth, it did not feel like a light affliction.

“Worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”

I am going through this because you want to work it for good.  We are not looking at the things that are seen, but at that which is beyond.

2Co 4:18  While we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.