Brother Gary Sunday Morning 10/25/15

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 10/25/15

The lesson this morning is on mind battles.  David had his mind overwhelmed and consumed by his battle:

Psa 55:1  To the chief Musician on Neginoth, Maschil, A Psalm of David. Give ear to my prayer, O God; and hide not thyself from my supplication.

Psa 55:2  Attend unto me, and hear me: I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise;

Psa 55:3  Because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked: for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.

Psa 55:4  My heart is sore pained within me: and the terrors of death are fallen upon me.

Psa 55:5  Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me.

In David’s own words: “Oh God, please hear my prayer.  Come close and attend to me.  I am going to tell you everything.”  It is not wrong to tell God all the things that are painful to you.  You open your heart and pray. 

In that thought, one thing I have learned in trying to help people: I say, “Tell me the very worst that you feel you are facing.  Let’s start there.”  Often when individuals can put something out on the table, “This is what is going on and what is troubling me.” 

It is not my personality to try to find out who trespassed whom.  If someone had been trespassed as David was, he wanted to tell God all about it.  David said, “I have reached that place where I would like to run away.”  You will reach that place in your life sometimes. 

Psa 55:6  And I said, Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.

Psa 55:7  Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. Selah.

Psa 55:8  I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.

Psa 55:9  Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues: for I have seen violence and strife in the city.

Psa 55:10  Day and night they go about it upon the walls thereof: mischief also and sorrow are in the midst of it.

Psa 55:11  Wickedness is in the midst thereof: deceit and guile depart not from her streets.

Psa 55:12  For it was not an enemy that reproached me; then I could have borne it: neither was it he that hated me that did magnify himself against me; then I would have hid myself from him:

Psa 55:13  But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide, and mine acquaintance.

Psa 55:14  We took sweet counsel together, and walked unto the house of God in company.

When this condition happened, David found himself overwhelmed.  This went over and over again in his mind.  In our journey, in our adventure, in the road that God has called us to travel, there will be very big surprises. 

There will be times in life when those that we thought would be our friend in life and through eternity yield unto something and there is a turning.  Even to the extent where in David’s case they became his enemy and they had evil to say and reproaches to make.  This overwhelmed David.

Psa 61:1  To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David. Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.

Psa 61:2  From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

Every one of us reaches the place in life where we feel as David felt, “I am at the end of the earth.” 

I have a heavy burden this morning.  When we have a heavy burden, the thought is, “Dear God help me to know what to do and to know how to do it.  Help me to act and move in humility at the right time and in the right place.”

The preparation of the heart is of the Lord.  We know a God that knows how to prepare hearts.  Not only the heart of the burdened, but also the heart of the one that is needy before God.

“When my heart is overwhelmed:” There are definitely times when our mind is overwhelmed.  It is churning around.  It is not wrong for your mind to be active, we just have to get it active in the right way.  We need to know what to do with what is going on in our mind.

“My heart is overwhelmed:” there are times when our heart is overwhelmed.  There have been in this audience times when we have been overwhelmed with grief.  There are times when Karen and I have been overwhelmed with a decision to make, “What should we do?”

There have been times when we are overwhelmed with a condition that we cannot touch.  We are in a time like that now.  We cannot touch it but we can feel it in our heart.  There are individuals that we love.  You will be that way.

There will be times when there are those you love and care for and you realize that decisions are being made that will not just affect one soul or two souls; they will have an effect on many souls. 

There are children today that will not be given a bible in the public school system.  When you think of little children not even having a bible from grade school! 

You meet young people, I talked to a young man in Sheridan Wyoming and I could not get a definite answer from him if he had a bible.  I said, “I want to give you some scriptures.”  I told him, “It is vital that you live so that you are ready to have wife like Proverbs 31:10-31”

We live in a society where it is shocking how many people have bibles or the percentage that read the bible.  Among evangelists in America, few have devotions.  They claim to love God and believe in repentance and turning away from sin.  Sometimes conditions overwhelm us.  That happened to David.

Lead me to the rock that is higher than I.

This psalm was written about a group of people in captivity:

Psa 77:1  To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of Asaph. I cried unto God with my voice, even unto God with my voice; and he gave ear unto me.

Psa 77:2  In the day of my trouble I sought the Lord: my sore ran in the night, and ceased not: my soul refused to be comforted.

Psa 77:3  I remembered God, and was troubled: I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

There are times when we realize where we are.  We remember God.  He is a just God, a righteous God, and a God that gave His only begotten son because He loved the world.

Joh 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

This Psalm was written concerning those in captivity, “I remembered God.”  We know and it is devastating to think of precious souls that are destroying their lives.  People go into sin and then go deeper, and deeper into sin. 

Among the most wonderful memories that I have personally is being convicted of my sins in grade school.  I remember a girl that was older than me getting under conviction and going to the altar and getting saved.  I stopped her and asked her how old she was when she first got saved. 

I wanted to know if I was old enough to get saved.  The thought that I like is that I was convicted of my sin and realized that I needed a savior.

“Along a dark and gloomy path I groped beneath the shades of death… ‘Til Light from the Savior came.”

Souls in sin are in such darkness.  They are in such captivity.  You and I are listening to a teaching upon the thought of the battle for the mind.  When you think of people whose minds have been taken captive by Satan!  How many do you think are thinking, “This is the good life living in sin?” 

How many are thinking as Sister Marlene used to sing that song, “A moment of pleasure for a lifetime of sorrow?” 

I am thoroughly convinced that sin doesn’t make people happy.  I am thoroughly convinced that all the pleasures of the world, materialism or anything that involves sin to try to make it a little better does not make people happy.  Yet in their minds they are captives.

I have been listening to the song, “The Love of God.”  There has been a hungering in my heart to have God closer.  I found in one of Brother Chancellor’s book a song that was written by Elsie Eigermier.  Brother Chancellor used to visit her in the Golden Rule rest home. 

I wish we had that opportunity.  We would make a trip to Shawnee OK and say, “We just want to sit down as little children and have you tell us how God moved on your heart to write that bible story book.  Someday we will cross that river.  I don’t know how much time we will spend talking there of songs or books that were written. 

There was a season where I wanted to go to sleep and take my nap thinking of the good things of God.  “Oh Love of God!” 

David told us about being overwhelmed.  Asaph wrote a Psalm of remembering God in difficult times.  He said, “My spirit was overwhelmed.”  Our minds can be overwhelmed.  I have found when I am tired that my mind becomes my enemy instead of my friend. 

When my mind is overwhelmed with, “How are you going to get this done?”  The best way to prepare for the future is by faith in God. 

When my heart is overwhelmed: we are creatures of emotion.  There are times when our heart is broken.  You might say, “I have learned that there is a depth to disappointment that I never knew could be there.”  I believe you.

You might say, “I never knew that my heart could hurt so bad.”  You have heard of individuals that died of a broken heart.  It happens.

My spirit:  we have a spirit.  God doesn’t want us to allow our spirit to be overwhelmed by grief, by heartache and by sorrow.

Mat 22:36  Master, which is the great commandment in the law?

Mat 22:37  Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

We are so blessed to know this bible truth this morning.  Love is a verb.  It requires action.  Jesus helped us to understand that.

2Ti 1:7  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

The battle for the mind by the oppressing spirits of the enemy, by the eighth beast, by Satan being loosed out of his prison, brings a fear that wants to consume us.  I am not here telling you that this happens to all those in this audience, but fear can cause the heart to race, “What is going to happen?”

We know that people become homeless, the next thought is, “Will Karen and I be homeless?”  I know that you saints would have the attitude, “If something would happen to yours, we will share ours.”

The fear of, “What is going to happen to those we love?”  If they keep going the way they are going where will they end up?  There is no way for you to not say, “I really have a fear.”  That is good as long as you keep it a godly fear.

For that fear that has torment: “God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, of love and of a sound mind.”

I am not meaning mind over matter, I don’t believe that message, but the spirit of power in our mind that we have control of our mind.  “First I am going to seek God.” 

“My mind is running away from me and it is affecting me so that even my heart is running away from me.”  Stop right there.  He has given us the spirit of power.  Begin quoting scripture and praying.  We have to pray. 

The spirit of power!  The spirit of love!  How strong is love?  Many waters cannot quench love.  If we would ask you to testify tonight if it was love that helped you to get saved, how many would say “Yes”?

How many have said, “I never knew much until I knew of the love of God?” 

Sister Wingate and her husband Allen were professional entertainers.  They made their money by strumming a guitar on stage.  One day Sister Wingate went to the beach.  She was not dressed modest.  While she was there, they lost a baby, it threw up and the vomit choked the baby and it died.  A broken hearted mother!  

During that season of grief, she said, “I wonder why no one invites us to church.”  God was turning things around in her mind.  Babylon and the world has a lot of thoughts on what happens to a baby when they die.  The bible teaches that a baby goes to heaven when they die. 

One day a man that had known Allen Wingate called and said, “I have been thinking of you.”  They began to talk a bit and one day the brother and sister heard the wonderful message that God forgives all sin.  They had been nightclub entertainers; they had wasted their life.  God saved them.

God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love.  I don’t know who you are burdened for this morning, but I hope you take good care of your soul so that you can really love.  Unless we love God as we ought, we cannot love our wife or husband, or our children as we ought to.

Make sure that they know that you love them.  If you have a living brother or sister, “God help me to love God so that I can love him or her as I ought to.” 

I cannot leave my grandchildren a college education; I can leave them that I loved God and loved them.  We cannot leave our children a big inheritance; oh that they know that we loved God and loved them and loved the lost and our brothers and sisters in Christ!

Love is creative.  Have you ever noticed how creative love is?  Being consumed is not creative.  Consumed with cares!  You reach a certain age and you either get consumed with health or health consumes you.  Love God. 

Of power, of love, and of a sound mind:  when we are overwhelmed, we don’t have a sound mind.  It doesn’t matter what you get overwhelmed with, you will not have a sound mind.  Suppose you get out of church and have a flat tire.  Then if your mind is consumed with that, you will not be thinking about anything else.

God has not designed for you to be consumed and overwhelmed.  “I really don’t think it is right what Brother so in so did.”  Don’t get consumed by it; march on.  Get ahold of God, begin to pray, and begin to seek God. 

Jesus so kindly says, “Love God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.”