Brother Rick Sunday School 9/20/15

Brother Rick Sunday School 9/20/15

Psa 107:1  O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.

“The life of faith is the most satisfactory of all lives.  In fact it is the only satisfactory life.”  C.W. Naylor.

Only God can truly satisfy our souls.  He never turns away from those that trust in Him.  He is the only one that can truly satisfy our soul.  Our part is to keep God’s commandment and to keep faith in God.

“Faith in God is believing Him.”  C.W. Naylor

Believing and having faith is not rocket science or some confusing thing to figure out.  We can choose to believe that God will bring us through and that will take us through hard battles.

We can have no satisfactory relations through Him except through faith.  We are saved by faith, stand by faith, rejoice by faith, and have the assurance of immortality by faith.  Faith is the victory that overcomes the world.

The enemy wants to rob our faith; it is his job to rob us of faith.  Thank God we can keep the faith.

Joh 14:1  Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.

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

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

What would we do without the comforter?  Jesus is the comforter. 

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.

Joh 14:18  I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

The world doesn’t know the comforter.

If you love me keep my commmandments:  Adam Clarke - Do not be afflicted at the thought of my being separated from you: the most solid proof ye can give of your attachment to and affection for me is to keep my commandments. This I shall receive as a greater proof of your affection than your tears.

The world is ever looking for a comforter:  Something that will fill that void within.  They can never possess Him until they possess Christ.  Aren’t you glad that we have that comforter?  It is worth all the battles we go through to have Him.

Aug 26, Streams in the Desert:

The deep says, ‘It is not with me.’ And the sea says, ‘It is not with me.’ (Job 28:14)

I remember a summer in which I said, “It is the ocean I need,” and I went to the ocean; but it seemed to say, “It is not in me!” The ocean did not do for me what I thought it would. Then I said, “The mountains will rest me,” and I went to the mountains, and when I awoke in the morning there stood the grand mountain that I had wanted so much to see; but it said, “It is not in me!” It did not satisfy. Ah! I needed the ocean of His love, and the high mountains of His truth within. It was wisdom that the “depths” said they did not contain, and that could not be compared with jewels or gold or precious stones. Christ is wisdom and our deepest need. Our restlessness within can only be met by the revelation of His eternal friendship and love for us.
—Margaret Bottome

We must be saved to truly partake of the comfort of God. 

Mat 9:22  But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, Daughter, be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole from that hour.

Jesus wants to supply our every need.  He wants our life to be complete in Him.  That woman was made complete because she had faith.  “She said within herself, “If I may but touch His garment I shall be whole.”” 

We need to come in contact with Jesus and we can come in contact with Him if we choose to believe.  It may be difficult in the battle, but we can choose to believe in the battle and be comforted.  We can be comforted in all our battles, in all our life, if we can touch Jesus.

I like to imagine that Jesus is right with me.  I love that comfort of God.  I want to always have Him near.

Pro 3:5  Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.

Pro 3:6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

Having that faith in our heart is beyond understanding.  We can choose to have faith in God.  Faith is simply believing.  It is not something we can grasp, as a coin, to hold onto.  It is simply believing. 

It is not an emotion.  When we feel that our emotions go up and down, it is not our faith.  Faith is simply believing.

We cannot understand this comfort; it passes understanding.

Php 4:7  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

The Peace of God is a wonderful and assuring thing.  God wants us to have His peace in our life.

Gen 28:15  And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of.

He wants to go with us wherever we go.  We will go through a lot of territory in this life of serving God.  He will take care of us no matter where we are and no matter what our situation.  It is a great blessing to know that He is with us and to know that He will not leave us.

Isa 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

What peace it brings to our life to have that government on His shoulder!  Life has so many things that come along that it brings great peace and comfort to know this. 

Jesus is the Prince of Peace.  Aren’t you glad that you have His peace in your soul?  Only God can truly satisfy our soul.  His peace is worth fighting for.

Isa 9:7  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

Thank God this peace is available to anyone that wants it.  Thank God we have taken these promises into our life.

Matthew Henry – “it was usual in this day to comfort the church with this promise.”

It is the same today; it is a great comfort to think about graduating to heaven.  This life is not eternal.  The only thing that is eternal is heaven, going to be with God.

Joh 16:33  These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.

In these devotionals, like Streams in the Desert, they talk about overcoming in the difficult times of life.  We can only do that with God to help us.  He will help us in all our hard spots in our life.  If we don’t have this comfort, we need to put in for it: to know that this comforter is leading and guiding us.

Tribulations and difficulties are a necessary part of life.  God has something for us in all the difficulties that we go through.  He wants us to grow and He wants us to be a help to others.  Stay true and faithful to God. 

We want to have a burden for new converts.  They need to learn that there are battles in life and that they can overcome no matter what comes their way.  We can always come out with the victory through Christ.

Everything that happens in life is allowed by God and there is a reason for each difficulty.  Thank God for the provision of the comforter.

Job 23:10  But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Think of all that Job went through.  Yet he said, “When he has tried me I shall come forth as gold.”

There are many things that I don’t understand but I know that He is in control and He uses these things to help me grow.  We could not have that thankfulness without having God bring us through the battle.  That is a part of life. 

May God help us to not murmur or complain when going through the fire.  We need to wait patiently through the trials until God brings to us that peace that passes understanding

We can know that God will always bring us through.  The most difficult battles are those of fear and doubting.  Franklyn Roosevelt said, the only thing that we have to fear is fear itself.

We don’t have to be afraid because we know that God’s promises are true.  We can hold onto God and know that He will bring us through.  Thank God there is victory!

We need to be a real encouragement to our brother that is going through the battle.  Going through a difficult battle gives you a burden to pray for and encourage your brother

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

Through storms of fear and doubt I sailed.
My eyes were blinded by a vale.
I saw no beauty anywhere in anything.
Then I drew near the cross where He
In pain and sorrow died for me.
My vale was lifted, and He taught my heart to sing.

This reminds me of the book, “The secret of the singing heart.”  Jesus wants us to have that secret that will give us a singing heart.  We need to dig for those treasures and secrets in His Word.  It will cause us to have a singing heart.

2Co 12:9  And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

God can help us to rejoice in our infirmities and to not murmur or complain.  We must conquer fear and other things that would work upon us before they conquer us.  It seems that in the early church much of the battles that the saints went through were literal battles.  You read in Foxes Book of Martyrs of those battles. 

Our battles are mental battles. 

Brother Gyme - The outcome is the same.  The enemy’s goal is to kill us spiritually.  It is no less severe than the literal battles.

Sister Timberly - Drawing near the cross is a help in my battles, to know where my foundation is and who My God is.

Sept 6 Sister Carol: oh the peace of God that is God and is from God!  Each day brings its own fear.  Life has its uncertainties.  Yet the peace of God is there to carry us through.  We through our redeeming savior have a deep seated peace to know that all is well. 

When we are going through those excruciating battles, we need to know that all is well.  It causes us to seek God with all our heart and soul. 

Fear will paralyze us.  We cannot let it happen.  God can keep us moving and facing the world.  If those difficulties come in your life that would paralyze you, then keep moving and facing the world.  God can give you victory.  Thank God we can rest in Him.

1Pe 5:7  Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

Aren’t you glad that God cares for you?  He cares for you more than any one.  Then God we can rest in Him and be bold and full of courage.  He is our fearless leader.

Our own reasoning will only increase fear.  The mental institutions are full of those that didn’t want to turn to God to overcome fear in those difficulties that they went through.  We are so blessed that we chose to go God’s way and overcome in the difficulties.

Human introspection - putting the microscope on our self.  We cannot be doing that all the time.  It is dark and morbid to be microscopically checking on ourselves all the time.  God wants us to be happy and free.  We can be. 

Don’t be keeping the microscope on your life and checking, “How am I doing?” all the time because you are so concerned with going to heaven.  You can just go forward for God and know that He will help you. 

These battles do us so good.  We want to make it so bad.  We have been exposed to what it is to make heaven our home at the end of this life.  We experience here some of the rewards and rejoicing that are there. 

If we go through those battles it encourages us to keep moving for God.  He will give us the victory if we keep moving ahead.

Trust God to search you.  He will search you.  Trust God to show you; we want to know if we serve Him.

Sister Teri – “I count not myself to have apprehended…” there will be those things that we are not perfect on because God hasn’t showed us them yet.  “Forgetting those things behind…” we forget those things that we failed in and have turned from them. 

“Let as many as are perfect…” perfect in that which God has shown us. “If there is anything that we are not perfect in…” those things that God hasn’t shown us yet when God reveals then deal with it and go forward.  Always go forward.

Brother Bill - As far as the thought of trusting God, remember when Jesus was crucified and they put Him in the sepulcher and they rolled the stone?  Early in the morning Mary was there and thought that someone had stolen her Lord.  She was there weeping.  There was sorrow because things had gone wrong and had not gone as she thought they would. 

There are times that we are weeping because we see things in a turmoil or things appear in our mind to be bad.  Yet Jesus had don’t many miracles before her eyes.  He had just done a great thing by rising from the dead.  He had brought great things to pass and there were things that he was going to do.

I wonder if this is like us.  Jesus had to get her attention, “Mary.”  Hey I am still God.  Remember the things that I have done for you already?  I am still here.  Hey, I am still the same God, I am still the same Jesus and I am going to see you through.” 

It is God’s job to keep us going forward.  He will see that we do.