Brother Gary Sunday Evening 9/6/15

Brother Gary Sunday Evening 9/6/15

“The potter knows the clay.”  This is a song, it has been said many times and yet you and I find ourselves in situations where we are crying out to God, “God I want the right attitude, the right spirit, and I want to do what you want me to do.”

Here Paul is writing in the past tense of what has happened and we are thankful that this is our testimony.  God knows how to make alive those that were dead in sin.

Eph 2:1  And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Eph 2:2  Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

The world took those brothers in Chicago to different places than it took those of us that were raised in the logging camps and dance halls.  God is still God. 

He took care of Sister E Faith Stewart in India, in Cuba, and in the USA.  One of the hardest battles that she ever fought was against the spiritual beast that was in the US that tried to cool her off.

All of us have a history.  For all that time that we walked in the world, according to the spirit and the power of the air…

Eph 2:3  Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

There was something passed from Adam to Seth.  There was something passed to us as humans that leads us into sin.  Any with that sin nature in them will sin.  That is the reason some have the message “You must sin more or less every day.”  Those people don’t have the victory.

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

It is so amazing to think of God’s mercy when I think of my sin.  We were living according to the prince and the power of the air.  To think of the mercy of God! 

Jesus was slain before the foundation of the world.  God knew that we were going to need a savior.  In our world today, we really need a savior. 

Sin is working the same work in the west that it works in Chicago.  The pain and the brokenness that it brings to lives, the heartaches, the pain, the sorrow, and the hopelessness that it brings.  Very few will tell you the hopelessness that they feel.

But God who is rich in mercy…

Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

God loves them the same.  The blood was shed the same.  For His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in sin.  We have a positive message for those that don’t have a positive look.  They cannot get past the thought, “I cannot change.  I am addicted to this or that.  I love sin.”  God can get past all that.

By grace you are saved.

Oh how well we remember that night when conviction was present and God was there to save us.  As we began to repent and to cry out to God for forgiveness, God got ready to send that forgiveness and save us.  He didn’t stop there; He wrote our name down in the Lambs Book of Life.

Isn’t it wonderful to come to the house of God?  Isn’t it wonderful to be greeted by the saints?

Jas 1:1  James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting.

Jas 1:2  My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations;

Jas 1:3  Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience.

He opened the salutation, “To all the saints.  My brethren…”  We don’t know what Paul was going through here.  Sometimes people write to encourage people because that is what they are going through.

Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

If there is the gift of greetings, the gift of encouragement, the gift of exhortation…  It would be wonderful to have the gift of greeting one another. 

There is not one in this audience that doesn’t feel that at times their face is against the wall.  We will have challenges.  That is how it is going to be.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful for you and me to have that word of exhortation every time that we greet someone?  To you that work in the schools and to you that work in BST, we want to be an encouragement to God’s people that are working to edify the Body of Christ whether it is Athol, Carmichael, Paradise, or regions beyond.

We are so blessed to be able to come together and to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. 

Because of the sin of our fore fathers, we inherited the nature to sin.  Jesus made a way for us to be forgiven of our sin and to be cleansed from the nature to sin.

Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Always remember that the best is yet to come.  Perhaps it does mean eternity and heaven.  But I also want to believe that as God tarries and I live that there are good things in store.  I want to live so that I am prepared for every good work.

Eph 2:8  For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Eph 2:9  Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Eph 2:10  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

A lot of work went into this butter crock, but unless there is something in it, it is just a dust collector. 

God has done a marvelous work on everyone that is saved.  We are His workmanship.  Brother Bill left the testimony of how God and the saints worked on the rough edges.  That is everyone’s testimony.  For some of us, God is still working on the edges.  We never draw back and say, “No more Lord.”  We say, “Here we are.”

I don’t know what God has in store for Karen and me this week.  We are not really sure what Monday will hold come Sunday night.  Monday will pass.  Not all of us will be going to a job.  That doesn’t mean that God doesn’t have a good work for us to do. 

I don’t know if I will get to talk to Dylan; I don’t know that Brother Bob will get to talk to Jason, but God knows what He is doing.  We want this vessel cleaned up the Bible way.  We want all the edges of, “It has to be my way,” to be burned, scratched, smoothed all.  We want it to be, “God I want it to be your way.”

It is always thrilling the good work that God has.  I have found it is often very surprising.  I think, I hope I see Dylan, I hope I see Ben, we may not see either.  We want to be as Abraham’s servant, “I being in the way, the Lord led me.”

Isa 64:8  But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.

Isaiah had said, “Oh that God would come down and journey with me.”  Now He is saying, “You are the potter.”  The potter has to love the clay.  So it is with our potter.  He loves us.  He knows us. 

When clay is dug from the earth, it is full of things that they have to work out of it.  Even after it gets to Mrs. Childress there are bubbles, rocks and little things that have to be worked out.  They put their feet on the two pedals and they work the clay.

I am thinking in my mind, “Do I have one or two mental blocks?”  Our God can work with that clay. 

These little children that are in Sunday school, bible story time, home school, or classrooms.  Dylan is soon to be one of nine.  You talk about a burden!  Alice is too thin to carry all that burden.  We have to get under it saints.  Children! 

The potter and the clay.  Isaiah knew the potter as “Our father.”

We are the work of thy hands.  The potter knows the clay.  We may be discouraged with ourselves, but the Potter just keeps on working.  He puts a little more water on, places his hands on the clay, and moves the pedals.  After He works on your heart a while, then lift up your heart and say, “God will you fill it?” 

This potter fills vessels before He is finished working with them.  He puts something in when there is still the plan, “I am going to work with you more.”

Thou art the potter, we are the work of thy hands.