Brother Gary Sunday Morning 9/27/15

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 9/27/15

John the Baptist told that Jesus would come and that he, John, was not even worthy to carry His shoes or unloose His shoes.  He told that when He came He would baptize with the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus said that He would send a comforter, the Holy Spirit. 

Mar 1:1  The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God;

Mar 1:2  As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.

Mar 1:3  The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.

Mar 1:4  John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Mar 1:5  And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.

Mar 1:6  And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;

Mar 1:7  And preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose.

Mar 1:8  I indeed have baptized you with water: but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost.

John preached the baptism of repentance and told that Jesus would come and baptize with the Holy Ghost.

Joh 14:15  If ye love me, keep my commandments.

We must have the attitude to God not only that we love Him but that we will obey Him.

Joh 14:16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

At the end of His life Jesus left the instruction to tarry until they be endued with power from on high.  The word Comforter is capitalized.  This means that He is not just an individual but a definite select person. 

This word comes from the greek word, entrance 3875 in the Strongs Concordance and has four meanings.  The first is an intercessor:  We could go into a long discourse about how children need an intercessor; God designed that would be the parent and those that really love and care for them. 

You teachers have students that have parents that will not be an intercessor and have the thought that their children can fend for themselves.  This world is mean out there. 

In the Spiritual realm, Jesus knew that we would desperately need the Holy Spirit to intercede for us. 

The journey of life that brought you to September 27, 2015: many have been in places where they desperately needed an intercessor.  There have been bullies: relatives, at school, as bosses, or others that decided, “They are gone; I don’t want them anymore.”  For some of you there was someone that interceded for you. 

I don’t think that there would be one here that hasn’t had an intercessor in their life.  Jesus knew that we desperately needed an intercessor in this life.

The Holy Spirit is not a wild man.  He really cares; therefore He intercedes.  He cares about children. 

I was raised with a mother and father that knew how to pray and how to intercede.  With my father: after conversion, he was a fearless man.  Right was right.  He knew what he believed and he stood for it.  He interceded for the down and outers.

The work of the Holy Spirit of God is to intercede for you and for me.  Our life will put us in a position where you will take things in your own hand unless you stop and say, “What would God have me to do?”

Some children don’t have any parent interceding for them, but they have the Holy Spirit interceding for them.  The scripture says, “Psa 27:10  When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.” Is there anything sadder than a child whose parent or parents love themselves so much that they don’t love and pray and care for their children?

The Holy Spirit is an intercessor.  In first John, John so well saluted those that he was writing to.  Do you know how to salute one another?  You need to study the Word to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed rightly dividing the Word of truth.

It is your privilege to know how to salute children.  It is your privilege to know how to salute the elder brothers and sisters. 

You that have to go to work or school, trust that the Holy Spirit will intercede.  Pray that He will intercede. 

It is not the minister’s place to call one to preach or to teach.  The gifts and callings are to come from God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit of God.  I have asked Brother Rick to teach on being a helper.  I can ask him to do anything.  He plumed for me and later I found out that he didn’t like pluming. 

How many of us have had meetings that we didn’t know what we would face in the meeting.  You say, “Please Pray.”  The thought is that the Holy Spirit will not just give you what you want but that His perfect will would be done.

A comforter is a person that comforts in a time of grief and disappointment.  In a world where everyone is telling me that everything is just fine and yet they are broken and filled with grief.  Hearts are sad and yet the Holy Spirit is the comforter.

I am against all sin and everything that is wrong.  I am against the bully pushing a child, and I am against the biggest thing that is wrong in our world.  Everywhere you go you hear people talking about things that are wrong.  If you do internet you can read that every church in America has something wrong with it and everyone is wrong except them. 

Who stands up and comforts the broken hearted?  Children that are abused?  Church we have a job to do.  The Holy Spirit wants to comfort this morning. 

You have losses and griefs in your life.  That is for sure.  All we have to do is be honest before God, “God I need the comfort in this great heartache in my life.”

My mother became a widow way too young.  I have battled in my mind sometimes, “I don’t want my wife to ever be a widow.  It is really rough.  I saw what my mother went thorough.  Her health broke.  She was a lady that had been so strong. 

I wish I had a journal of hers to tell how many quarts of beans she used to can.  On Sunday mornings she would go out and catch a chicken, kill it and clean it up.  It went from the chopping block to the frying pan. 

One day she became so frail she needed an intercessor, and a comforter.  Do you know how to be comforted?  Do you know how to comfort? 

“I believe in telling it how it is.”  You probably do unless someone tells you.  I have seen too many bullies in the pulpit. 

If we lack the comforter, all we will get done in life is tell about our trials.  God will take care of you if you serve Him.  You may wonder, “How will God take care of me?”  You are in pain in your body, “How will God help me?”  The comforter knows how to comfort in your trying situations.

I used to be able to saw logs.  When God called me to preach the gospel, I had a desire to preach 7 days a week across the USA without taking a breath.  This congregation saw my health fail me.  I reached the place where I could only preach once a week and then go home. 

A lot of Sundays my wife and daughters had dinner alone.  I was exhausted and had to go to bed.  You talk about a disappointment!  There is a God that knows how to comfort you in your disappointment. 

Life may not give you what you wished.  He is a comforter at the time of grief.  You may be in this audience and never tell the heartache of not having a dad that showed his love.  Dads, just working is not enough.  Dads need to show their children their love.

If you are here and you have the grief, the disappointment of not having the love of a dad, a mother, an aunt, or an uncle; it is a tough one.  The only thing to do is to say, “God I have to submit this to you.  If I don’t then I will limp all my life.  I will have a point of conversation of how disappointing life has been.”  Let me help you, there is a comforter, He has come.

He is an advocate.  One that supports a particular cause.  Isn’t it amazing every morning when you have your devotions, you take the bible and begin to read, the Holy Spirit as your advocate comes and meets with you in such a marvelous way.

Last week was wonderful, I enjoyed worshipping, the good things of God, and reading His word.  Before Moses went up and God buried His body, he left the thought, “The eternal God and His everlasting arms.”  Through God, His Son, and the Holy Spirit I sensed the everlasting arms.

There is a song that we sing, “Learning to lean on Jesus.  Gaining more power, I’m learning to lean on Jesus.”  You say, “You should have learned that in 1965 when you got saved.  I did.  Then I went to school in 1966 and I learned to lean more.  In 2015 I am learning to lean. 

To have an advocate!  Wherever you are or whatever is making you nervous.  Whatever you are concerned about and fidgety about, you have an advocate.  He will tell you to lean hard on Him.  He will not fail. 

He is a person consoling with consolation.  Isn’t it marvelous when you bear your burden to Him and the Holy Spirit comes and says, “I’ll take care of it?” 

You might be in this audience this morning have great concerns.  It could be for your own children or for your brother.  You may be praying for your brother-in-law, a sister-in-law, a son, or a daughter-in-law.  There is one thing to do and that is to get it before God and then the Holy Spirit comes and says, “I have heard your prayer and I will take care of this situation.”

There is no limit to how far you can trust Him.  I have people in my life that from the visual side it is hopeless.  But you are forgetting God when you say that.  He is able.

Joh 14:16  And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

Joh 14:17  Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.

Jesus was praying for His disciples.  Unsaved people cannot receive the Holy Spirit of God.  It is after conversion and after we present our bodies a living sacrifice holy, acceptable to God, our reasonable service that we are a candidate for the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth.  Everyone in this audience would say, “I don’t want to be deceived.”  God and the Holy Spirit don’t want us to be deceived.  There is a spirit of truth and there is also the spirit of error.

We are to buy the truth and sell it not.

You know this but it is important that I tell you again.  Truth always has two witnesses.  What is truth in the Old Testament is true in the New Testament.

Pro 23:23  Buy the truth, and sell it not; also wisdom, and instruction, and understanding.

Many times you will be put on the auction block.  If you compromised the thought might be that it would put you in a better position with whomever…  Never deny Him.

Joh 4:24  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Individuals that are not saved and not preaching and teaching the truth of God’s Word, they may be worshipping but the only way to worship God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit is to worship in Spirit and in truth.

Have you presented your body a living sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God?

The opportunity to have the Holy Spirit is given to everyone that is saved.  Jesus would have you and I to say, “God Here I am.”

The disciples asked the question, “Have you received the Holy Spirit since you believed?”

The Holy Spirit is given to the disciples and to those that have started out to serve God. The Holy Spirit keeps the five senses of the soul very alert.

We were born with five senses.  The sense of smell, the since of hearing, the sense of seeing, the sense of tasting, and the sense of feeling.  The Holy Spirit keeps these alive.  He causes you to smell the living water of the Word.

The account of the reindeer:  once in their lifetime they thirst for salt water.  They reach the age where that thirst causes them to begin looking.  They sense that it is time to go to the ocean.  That happens to you so often.  We must go to the living waters.

The sense of hearing: There is a song, “Oh if I could hear mother praying!”

I told of a man that told me all his troubles and all the troubles of the world that he knows about.  He told me way too much.  I told him, there is nothing like the kiss of a grandchild.  They get you down there, they put their arms around you and they smack you. 

The sense of feeling the Holy Spirit, “I am going to take care of you.”  We have an intercessor, we have a comforter.

The sense of tasting:  have you sensed the terribleness of how the world tastes?  Dog eat dog!  Have you sensed the pain of the man that chose alcohol as his comforter and you or I was called, “Will you come one more time and pray?”  The man is full of fluids.  It smells terrible; it looks terrible.  Count the cost.

Like the teacher is saying to the child: you are thinking of quitting school in 3^rd grade? Count the cost.  Sin feels terrible.  Sin looks terrible.  But if you are not filled with the Holy Ghost you become calloused. 

Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God!  I may live more years.  My greatest joy would be to live without grieving God.  I never want to grieve the Holy Spirit of God.  There is only one way into heaven and it is straight and narrow.