Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 1/13/16

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 1/13/16

Mat 9:36  But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd.

Fainted: lost their way or didn’t know where they were headed: they were scattered abroad as sheep without a shepherd.

Mat 9:37  Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;

Mat 9:38  Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

Compassion for the laborers: Dear ones, it is right to be concerned for the needy, the literal and the spiritual needy. 

The spiritual needy: the souls that need to be saved.  God can change the leopard’s spot.  We can have a vision of what God can do for a soul. 

There are times when the laborers have real needs.  My daughter was talking to me the other day and we were talking of having compassion.  She asked if I had heard of being exhausted of compassion.  I hadn’t.  I guess it is a term among some circles. 

It is that people become exhausted and some of them don’t know how to be renewed in their strength.  We can become exhausted and we can become renewed.

The laborers have needs.  Most don’t spend much time telling of how worn out they get or the fears that they have for family.  

I have a nephew named Jerry.  I am really concerned.  I know very little.  There is one thing that I know.  He and Angie and their three or four children are not living according to what the Bible teaches and that is a road that leads to destruction.  There is no exception.

The laborers have heartaches.  You can pick up any hymnal or listen to a religious CD.  There will be however many songs about the pain that husbands, wives, and children feel.  These things take a lot from an individual’s life.

My grandfather lived to be about 80.  He was blessed.  He would go to see Dr. Isbuster.  The doctor would tell him, “You are actually doing well; your heart is actually doing well.  But I have prescribed some glycerin and if you are feeling ill just slip one under your tongue.” 

When he needed to grandpa came to live with us.  He came to every meal and had tender loving care from my parents.  One day he became a little more frail and then one day he died.  Grandpa did not know anything about debit cards or anything else like that.  

Today life is so complicated.  It leaves you wondering.  There are so many things to try to figure out and take care of.  For all of you that have someone to help you with them then remember to thank them. 

The difficulties of our times: Jesus recognized when he sent his disciples out that it was needful that they have power over unclean spirits and to cast out devils.  He was not concerned with their literal needs being supplied.  He told them to not even take a sack lunch.  “Take no gold or silver.” 

Getting into Missoula without a wallet can be very challenging, and it happens. 

I said all this to bring to you that David cried out to God in great distress.  When I first saw this in the scripture I thought, “It is amazing that the events of David’s life were such that he was so needy before God.”

Psa 142:1  Maschil of David; A Prayer when he was in the cave. I cried unto the LORD with my voice; with my voice unto the LORD did I make my supplication.

Psa 142:2  I poured out my complaint before him; I shewed before him my trouble.

We don’t want to be overcharged with the difficulties of life.  We don’t want to become overcharged with the thought, “I am really busy.” Or, “There are more problems in my family in any other.” 

We as laborers can find ourselves in very perplexing situations.  We really need the saints to pray for us.  We will find ourselves faced with difficulties that we don’t know the answer to.

When I studied this the first time, God put in bold letters, “I poured out my complaint before Him.”  There will be times in our life as laborers that our situation will be, “God I got to get to you and pour this out before you.”

Some have come in my office and have told me, “I don’t know where to start.”  I tell them,

“Start with the worst part.” 

This message is about us as laborers, as individuals that want to be faithful to God, not only in Wednesday service or Sunday morning and night.  We want to go past just being faithful in that thought and reach someone that is lost. 

Jesus looked upon the needs and said, “Pray for laborers.”  This shows me that it is important, as the disciples asked Jesus, “Teach us to pray.”

We love to hear children pray.  We love to hear them say, “I don’t know how to pray yet.”  We help them form the words of how to pray. 

Sometimes a child gets into a rut of how they pray, we help them along, “Thank God for your good parents…” 

As a whole most of us laborers don’t have someone coming along and saying, “Let me teach you how to pray during your most difficult situation in life.”  We need help to know how to pray and pour this out before the Lord.

We really need the saints to pray for us.  We have a job to help one another.  That is part of the church.

David said, “I am emptying my entire being before God.  In the journey of life we come to the place where we think, “Is there something terminally wrong with me?” we wonder, “Is this a tumor in my head it is hurting so bad.” 

I don’t know how much bacon you have to eat until you have heartburn but you wonder, “Is this indigestion or a heart attack?” 

David was in a situation: if it were not for God then he wouldn’t have gotten out of the cave.  We will find ourselves in situations where we will be: “This job is really getting to me.”  You looked forward to getting that job and there are days when you wish it were your last day before retiring. 

Can you imagine how the Tweets felt when they heard that Landa was so sick?  It bears its toll.

“This situation that I am in…” at times when you are doing your very best you will find yourself misunderstood.  You wonder, “Am I going to be the target today?  Someone shows up and says, “They are going to be my target.”

I have no time for target preachers, they show up and decide who is going to be their target.

David said, “God you know my path, you see my snare.”

Psa 142:3  When my spirit was overwhelmed within me, then thou knewest my path. In the way wherein I walked have they privily laid a snare for me.

Sometimes someone decides they are out to get you and they lay a snare.  You never know what they are going to try to pull on you.

Sometimes it is just you and God.  When you feel alone, we want to be praying for you.  There are times that we have to face things alone.  There are times things come into your phone that I will never hear about.  There are situations in your family that I never hear about.

David said, “I am alone.” 

Psa 142:4  I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.

Psa 142:5  I cried unto thee, O LORD: I said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the living.

“I am alone, but I am not alone.  I can cry unto God.” 

Psa 142:6  Attend unto my cry; for I am brought very low: deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.

There are times that we feel very exhausted.  Sometimes things come and I have to go to God, “I am too tired for this tonight.  Let me rest.”

Jesus never fails.

We have to know how to position ourselves to know how to handle what we are faced with.

Psa 142:7  Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the righteous shall compass me about; for thou shalt deal bountifully with me.

We have to be careful to not all our our situations to make us a sealed house that we never get out of.  You can get sealed in. 

David cried out, “Let me get out of the prison.”  I am not happy that David had to go through this, but I am happy that God inspired him to write the psalm.

Isa 35:3  Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

I have taught this as encouragement to those that are getting saved and struggling.  There are times when people begin to walk with God and we encourage them, “Let me help you get a grip on these things.  Let me help you get positioned on the rock so that you can stand on the rock.”

As laborers we want to do everything that we can to strengthen one another.  When your load gets heavy we want to encourage each other by prayer, “This load is heavy but we want to encourage you to carry it until God helps you get all on Him.”

Heb 12:12  Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees;

The older church of God ministry is really tired.  There are not very many of them left.  Every once in a while I check on Brother Cornelison.  I asked Brother Gobel a while back how he was doing.  He said, “Sister Dorris is getting weaker and Brother Bill is getting more tired and slower all the time.”

God’s plan is that we labor to encourage the laborers.  Then when we reach the age of Brother Bill and Sister Dorris, then for those that we encouraged to come along and be that encouragement.  Even though Sister Dorris is getting a little slower and Brother Bill is getting more tired; for those hands that would be almost hanging down not with enough strength...  Hard to believe isn’t it.

The feeble knees:  I had an emotional experience recently.  Our daughter Kathy often invites Bill and Francis to special occasions.  The last time Francis said, “We cannot come.  Our sidewalk hasn’t been shoveled for a long time.”  Kathy said, “I will send someone to shovel you out.  You prepare to come.” 

They got to come for dinner.  They got to know that they were loved.  Someone cared.  We don’t know how far reaching it will be.  We cannot think of what tomorrow will produce.  We must only think of what today will produce.

I don’t need to tell you the needs.  I don’t know who was the first to sing, “Wait a little longer Sweet Jesus; we need a few more days to get our loved ones in.  The workers are tired.”  That song is real tonight. 

How will we respond?  “I am in the cave by myself and I will never be able to do anything.”  “Jesus never fails.”  We want to love each other enough that if your leg feels like plastic, one of the brothers or sisters come along and help you just that little bit that is needed.

We need to be willing to be helped.  With the attitude, “Everything is fine we don’t need anything,” you will become a sealed house.

We want to have the attitude, “I want to receive the commission and do what God would have me to do.”