Brother Gary Sunday Evening 5/29/16

I want to emphasize how beautiful things are.  I am really interested in lifting up the bar of being God’s church, of winning the lost, and of living a life above reproach. 

In a world where you can type something on a computer and read bad things about preachers on every side.  There are somethings that it is better that we don’t turn our mind to.  We want to know what God’s Word teaches.

Nehemiah had a burden for the literal Jerusalem, the city of God.  He made inquiry and found that things were not good.  God opened the door that he could go and survey the city and then begin building. 

There were those that came by that wanted to help and God helped him to have the wisdom to know that they would distract rather than help.  “We are working on a great work and we won’t come down.”

I want to challenge everyone here on how vital God’s work is.  How important God’s work is!

Psa 48:1  A Song and Psalm for the sons of Korah. Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of his holiness.

This scripture still fits in the Gospel Day.  We have come to Mount Zion, the city of the living God.

Psa 48:2  Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the great King.

Beautiful!  Everyone that is saved, if you have confessed, repented, and turned from your sin: the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.  Church joining is unbiblical.  When we confess and repent and turn from our sins then we become a new creature in Christ Jesus. 

Our sins are not there anymore.  Jesus goes to the books and tears out all the pages of sin.  I am glad that the old record is gone.  He casts our sin as far as the east is from the west.  Not only did He cast it, He also buries it in the depths of the sea. 

In 2016, for you and me, truth is the same everywhere.  In a world that is all messed up, we were all messed up in sin.  Before salvation we were bound by sin.  When we came to Jesus Christ repenting and turning from our sin, then a change took place and He tears our sin from the books. 

When we get saved, turning from our sin, and become a new creature, we have a desire to be rid of all carnality.  People that get saved and want to hold onto the world are like the Baptists.  They are partly saved.  You cannot be partly saved. 

You remember when you get saved, “I was once lost.  Now I am found.”  I have a middle name, but it would have been more proper if I had been named rebellious.  One day the warmth of conviction drew upon my heart. 

One day I got saved.  I had a lot of struggles.  I went to the altar a lot of times.  I prayed at my bed many times.  I prayed in the woods many times.  I didn’t want to just be religious; my parents had left a group of religious people.  I wanted to be real.

Beautiful for situation:  all the beauty and talent in the world is good, but let me tell you, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion.  Walking and living among people whose names are written down in the Lamb’s Book of Life that walk the life: “Dead to the world, dead to every worldly pleasure.” 

The one thing that separates us from religious type folks is the beauty of holiness.  When you have tasted of the living water, have seen Mount Zion, when you have seen a people that have a changed life and live the life.  We teach a standard and live a standard. 

The standard of modesty is beautiful.  Is there anything more beautiful than a modest old man?  It is a challenge to see a modest old man anymore.  Lift up Jesus.  The bible declares, “Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion.” 

Psa 50:1  A Psalm of Asaph. The mighty God, even the LORD, hath spoken, and called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof.

Here we see God calling. 

Psa 50:2  Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined.

Recently God spoke to me.  He said, “You need to work on gentleness.”  I said, “Okay.”  I came to church and told the saints that God had convicted me on gentleness and asked them to pray for me. 

Eph 4:32  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Unless you are tenderhearted, you will never feel the pains of someone’s sin.  Whenever God begins dealing with us and He comes and speaks to us, there is nothing more beautiful then God witnesses to our soul. 

I have been saved and sanctified for a while.  You say, “I thought you got it all when you got saved.”  You return after getting saved and present your body a living sacrifice and receive the Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit is a teacher.  I have learned a lot and still have more to learn.

When you repent you get saved.  After you get saved you long to be in Zion.  You long to obey God.  Out of Zion is the perfection of beauty.

My dad got saved in a cow barn.  In the first three things he learned was, “I should give up these cigarettes.”  He was working with Mil, who was smoking. “Pass me a cigarette.”  He took one whiff and asked for one.  He got sick just like that.  He had to go home early.  He was out behind the barn praying for God to take that desire from him.  He never smoked again.

He was also convicted about wearing gold.  Another time he got convicted about tithing.  Measuring is what makes us shine.  As you and I go out.  You will go back to where you have been.  May God help you to go with an anointing from God that you have been with Jesus.  Our program will only be good if God is here.

Mat 16:18  And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

It is vital that we be His church.  It is vital that we be built on Jesus Christ.  If you lay up your treasure in heaven where moth and rust does not corrupt and thieves don’t break through and steal, then nothing can take your treasure.

Moth and rust does not corrupt.  This week someone will go into severe spiritual trials.  You will feel the flight or fight syndrome.  Don’t run until you have heard from God. 

2Ti 2:20  But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.

2Ti 2:21  If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work.

I want to be a vessel of honor.  You precious mothers want to be a vessel of honor.  One that God honors.  One that can be a praying mother.  We want to be a vessel unto honor.  God has a way of identifying in our life that which is not pleasing to Him. 

If God speaks to you, “You need to take care of this.”  Then take care of it.  “You need to spend more time in prayer.”  Nothing will change without prayer.  Lack of prayer causes people to get into a backslidden condition.

If a man purge himself from these he will be a vessel to honor.  God says, “Come up a little bit.”  In Ezekiel there is a message where he measured out a thousand cubits.  “God says, there is a line here that I want you to measure to.  I want you to draw closer to me.  I want you to discern my voice.  I want you here a little deeper, at this line.”

I don’t know where you are planning to be this week, but you want to be where God wants you to be.  Qualify everything with, “The Lord willing.”  We want you to be wherever it is that He wants you to be.

Meet for the master’s use.  Prepared to every good work.