Brother Gary Sunday Morning 3/20/16

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 3/20/16

Joh 19:28  After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst.

Joh 19:29  Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a spunge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth.

Joh 19:30  When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

It is finished! 

It is because of Jesus and the cross that we have the opportunity to serve Him.  We were Gentiles and were not included in the special people of God, and would not have been had God not come and made a way.

Jesus Christ became the perfect sacrifice for the sins of the whole world.

It is finished!

It is wonderful that we know that Jesus made the perfect, acceptable sacrifice for the sin of each one that we meet and visit with that they can be saved.  Isn’t that wonderful?

Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, even Judas’.  As Jesus washed the disciples’ feet, He would have us do so and be obedient in that thought. 

Jesus took the bread with His disciples and broke it and said, “This is my body that is broken for you.”  If we can examine our self and grasp what Jesus made available to us!  It wasn’t just to the 12, or to his mother and the other Mary’s. 

His body was broken.  The very crown of thorns: they crowned him in mockery and took a stick and literally hit him on the head on the crown of thorns.

He took the wine:  “This is my blood of the New Testament.”  It is the blood of Christ that was shed that we could be free from all our committed and inherited sins.  In that blood there is life and there is the changing factor: Lives that are hopeless if they can get to God and have a heart cry to God they can have a new life.

We all have a conscience; we weigh it and deal with it.  We make choices and realize “This is offered, this is something I can do or think about, or this is someplace that I can go or deal with.”  Then our conscience begins to work with us, “Would this be profitable?  Is this something that I should do?”

We look at individuals and we wonder, “How did they get there?”  It starts with the conscience.  The blood of Jesus Christ can be applied and bring a person back to a sound conscience.

Sister Alta Hines had an extreme case of accusations.  God allows us to go through troubling things. 

In the Psalms 113 it is an account of the Children of Israel and of Jesus and what He went through.  The children of Israel were led across the wilderness and the Jordan and found themselves in a large land.

God wants us to go through and find our self in a large place.  Perhaps our thoughts were small and we were thinking a lot about ourselves and our life.  God speaks, “I want you to lengthen your cords.  I want you concerned about your own but I also want you concerned about those that don’t have a mother or a father.”

Children desperately need a mother and a father.  They need the examples before them.  It is in the little tender years that the parents affect the child the most.  Once they are gone, you don’t roll time back. 

The children’s conscience, the children that are in your life:  You may say, the adults in my life have a conscience that is tough and seared.  I want to tell you about the blood of Christ. 

Remember the soldier that came by with a spear to pierce Jesus?  He was also going to break His legs.  Jesus was already gone so the soldier did not break His legs.  That was a part of God’s plan. 

But there was something else that was a part of God’s plan.  The soldier took his speak and thrust it in His side.  Zechariah says, “In that day a fountain shall be opened for sin and uncleanness.”  Out of His side came water and blood. 

That fountain is still open this morning.  Isn’t it wonderful that there is still a place to go?  If you have been struggling with an attitude or unclean thoughts, if you need divine intervention from God, it is wonderful that there is a place to go to be cleansed.

Jesus went into Gethsemane and was praying.  He was really asking someone to pray.  He asked His disciples to pray.  Sometimes folks sleep to get out of the pain that they are feeling.  Things had not worked out how these disciples had hoped it would. 

Disappointment is a part of life.  We would like everything to work good for children.  We would like for them to grow up and be nurtured by their mom and dad and never experience disappointment, but for us adults, disappointments will come. 

For whatever reason the disciples couldn’t stay awake, and Jesus prayed alone. 

When we get a call to pray, Karen and I stop whatever we are doing and pray. 

Jesus prayed alone.  He probably did this so that you would always have an intercessor.  He was interceding for me and for you before we got up this morning.  He knows what it is. 

He prayed because what He was faced with was not what he would have chosen: “Death by crucifixion.”  He prayed, “Not my will … never the less, Thy will be done.”

Luk 22:43  And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

It is when we feel our greatest need.  (It is ok to feel very needy this morning.  It is ok to come before the throne and say, “I am so needy.”  It is ok to be praying for your son or daughter.  It is ok to keep praying for the ones that have been so afflicted.) There is a God in heaven that sends angels. 

The angels of the Lord are thousands upon thousands.  I want to be worthy of the price that Jesus paid in the thought, “Lord you bought it for me.  I will pay whatever price.  You purchased it.” 

Jesus was betrayed; there was a Judas.  Probably everyone in this audience will have an open door to betray Jesus or someone else.  When it comes to betrayal, whatever is offered you, remember that Judas couldn’t keep it.

Many have been offered lots of worldly pleasures; they don’t last.  I am not going to preach on the end of Hollywood people.  Such sad stories!

Judas betrayed Christ for 30 pieces of silver.  He thought he had gained, but he ended up bringing them back.  Those that had paid him said, “What is that to us?  It is not our problem.”  They left him with a big problem.

After Gethsemane Jesus was arrested.  Have a Gethsemane before you start anything.  Brother Chancellor told me, “This one said, “I will be glad when this is over,” and they didn’t know what they were saying.””

You may face a gethsemane as Jesus was, and an after gethsemane.  We have experienced walking into a place and looking for a friendly face.  There didn’t seem to be any friendly faces in that place for Jesus.

He was sent to Pilot and then to Herod.  Herod was hoping to see a miracle.  He perhaps was hoping for something that would relieve him of the responsibility. 

He mocked Jesus.  He put a scarlet robe upon him.  There were different styles of robes for different people in authority and different kings wore different types of robes.  Perhaps Jesus wore many different robes and was mocked in many different ways. 

It did not affect Him.  He knew that He was headed for a purpose.  Sister Karen sings, “When He was on the cross, I was on His mind.”  We think of Jesus looking down the road so that someday clear down to 2016 the child that is born, the same Jesus that was on the cross is looking down.  He is looking down that you and I can be saved.

He was mocked and ridiculed.  Two enemies, Herod and Pilot, became friends because they both wanted to destroy Jesus.  Perhaps Pilot didn’t want to destroy Him, but he wouldn’t stand.

In Mark 15, he asks, “Shall I release Jesus?”  The leaders moved the people to ask for Barabbas to be released.  Then Pilot asked, “What shall I do with Jesus?”  The crowd was moved to say, “Crucify Him.”  Pilot released Jesus to be crucified.

The faithfulness of God: Pilot’s wife sent him a  note, “Don’t have anything to do with this just man.”  God sent the checks, but the crowd pressured him.

Pilot scourged Jesus.  I don’t know if he did it himself, or had it done.  There was a long stick with several feet of leather and at the end a rock or metal designed to break the flesh.  Think if His suffering!  It is by His stripes that we are healed.  Emotions, physical, heartache, and relationships can be healed.  Isn’t that wonderful?

We all identify with how it hurts to feel a distance from those that you love.  Isn’t it marvelous that there is a healing through Jesus Christ?  You may not be able to change them and their distance but you can change you and your distance. 

You try to reconcile and they almost go into a tantrum; there is not a problem that cannot be solved if everyone will let Jesus heal their wounds.

They put a crown of thorns on him and a scarlet robe.  When I think of him suffering for my sin so that I could be freed, my heart is moved.  Sin does terrible things to people.  You and I would not be an exception.

It made a vast difference in the Kelly’s because my mother went to a revival meeting and heard the wonderful news that her sins could be forgiven and all washed away.  She was in a very narrow place.  Her little brother had been taken by appendicitis and died.

They found a church of God preacher.  He later went and knocked on her door and invited her to a revival.  She went and got saved.  My mother prayed for my dad 9 years.  In May of 1949 my dad was making shavings to make a fire and God told him to go pray.  He went to the barn and prayed. 

Oh what a change!  It is all because Jesus finished the work on the cross. 

The cross and Jesus: Jesus was too exhausted to carry the cross.  A man named Simon was summonsed to carry it.  Isn’t it wonderful that there was someone to help?

Jesus was taken to Golgotha, often called Calvary.  He refused the sedative that would lessen the pain: wine and myrrh.  It was given so those that were to be crucified wouldn’t feel it so intently.  He wanted to feel it because He loved you and me that much. 

They didn’t have to force Him to lay down on the cross.  They didn’t force Him to go.  He could have called 10,000 angels.  He laid down on the cross.  The soldiers drove the nails in both hands and both feet and He endured the pain.

In three different languages they wrote, “He is the King of the Jews.”  He is more than the King of the Jews.  He is the King of kings. 

I trust that ever one is so moved by the Word and Spirit of God that we will covenant afresh, “I will keep my eyes on you; You will always lead me right.”

Jesus wanted every need to be fully supplied.  He suffered all the nails.  He suffered knowing that His mother was there.  He hung only one foot above the earth according to the account that I read.  He said to John, “Take care of my mother.”

There were two thieves beside Him.  One railed on him and the other said, “Remember me when you come into your kingdom.”  In all He was going through, (What a savior!), He spoke to the thief individually and said, “This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise.”

Jesus said in his suffering, “I thirst.” It is wonderful that we have the example of the Son of God that made all the water; He made living water and gives living water.  They gave Him vinegar to drink.  Jesus bowed His head and died on the cross. 

Why Jesus came:

Mat 20:28  Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.

The thought of ransom:  you and I fell into sin, and became so bound by sin that it is a very underestimation to say that there are millions that wish they could change their life today.  They speak the words, “I so regret living like I’m living.” 

The ransom has been paid.  Jesus gave His life a ransom right there and paid the price that you and I could be saved from all sin.

Rom 5:11  And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.

Jesus finished the work on the cross so that an atonement could be made for sin.  When that soldier took the spear and placed it into His side, a fountain was opened.

The atonement and the price for sin was paid.  It was the price that we could be forgiven of all sin.

Gal 4:5  To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

Think this morning, not only so that we could know a little bit about Jesus, but to be redeemed.  You and I were held captive but through His blood there was a way that Jesus bought us back to God.  Isn’t it marvelous that the Father and the Son had the attitude, “I want them to be as a son?”

You never feel that you are lesser.  It doesn’t matter what side of the tracks that you came from, or how much you messed up your life in the past.  The only thing that matters is the blood of Jesus paying the price and you and me turning to Him and repenting.

Jesus doesn’t refer to me as “the adopted one,” or His “half-brother.”  We are adopted, one of His own.

Tit 2:14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

We are a peculiar people, a purchased treasure, zealous of good works.  There is something about what Jesus did for every one of us that we desire to turn and do something for someone else. 

There is not anyone that doesn’t have needs.  The Laodicean church says that they are increased with goods and have need of nothing.  Those that think that they have no needs have the greatest need.

Tit 2:15  These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.

He said, “It is finished.”  We all can look back to the cross and realize, “He bought my soul through death on Calvary.”