Sister Teri Sunday School 5/10/15

Sister Teri Sunday School 5/10/15

Coram Deo is the big idea of the Christian life: to live in the presence of God, under the authority of God and for the glory of God.

We don’t want to have our life compartmentalized into “Religious” and “Temporal”.  But we want every aspect of our life to be spiritual.

When we look at God’s remote purpose it helps us to understand some things.  When we question 

why God allows some bad thing to happen, we are looking for His purpose. 

Because we know that God is all powerful we assume that He could have prevented it.  The enemy uses this to hinder people from seeking God and trusting Him. 

We know that He is good, always good, His pleasure and His will are always good, and His intentions are always good.

Psa 25:8  Good and upright is the LORD: therefore will he teach sinners in the way.

Psa 34:1  A Psalm of David, when he changed his behaviour before Abimelech; who drove him away, and he departed. I will bless the LORD at all times: his praise shall continually be in my mouth.

Psa 34:2  My soul shall make her boast in the LORD: the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad.

Psa 34:3  O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together.

Psa 34:4  I sought the LORD, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.

Psa 34:5  They looked unto him, and were lightened: and their faces were not ashamed.

Psa 34:6  This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles.

Psa 34:7  The angel of the LORD encampeth round about them that fear him, and delivereth them.

Psa 34:8  O taste and see that the LORD is good: blessed is the man that trusteth in him.

We know that God is good because of how He was so good to us.  When bad things happen we can look at the good things that God has done for us, it will help us.

Psa 119:65  TETH. Thou hast dealt well with thy servant, O LORD, according unto thy word.

Psa 119:66  Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments.

Psa 119:67  Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

Psa 119:68  Thou art good, and doest good; teach me thy statutes.

Afflicted means looking down or brow beating, to depress, humble, submit, chasten, or submit self, become low. 

Circumstances may humble us.  But to receive the good, we must humble ourselves before God.  When we just struggle under it then we will miss the good.  But if we will humble ourselves before God then we will get the good under it.

Luk 20:17  And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner?

Luk 20:18  Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

Instead of humbling themselves before God they resist and resist and it grinds them to powder.  We don’t have to be ground to powder.  If we humble ourselves, bring ourselves to the state of Coram Deo in the bad situations that happen, we will receive the good. 

Sometimes bad things happen because of our bad choices or actions, but sometimes bad things happen even though we are going the right way. 

Even when we are not doing things right, God still works the bad things for our good.  If people will humble themselves in the bad things, they will get the good that God intends.

Nah 1:2  God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

Nah 1:3  The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

Nah 1:4  He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.

Nah 1:5  The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.

Nah 1:6  Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.

Nah 1:7  The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

Nah 1:8  But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.

He is a good God but will not just let wickedness go because of His goodness.  There is nothing strong enough to stand against God when He chooses to move. 

There is a goodness and a severity of God.  Because of His goodness He looks for a repentance.

Rom 11:21  For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest he also spare not thee.

Rom 11:22  Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

Rom 11:23  And they also, if they abide not still in unbelief, shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again.

God did not spare the rebellious, disobedient Jews just because they were Jews.  He also opened a way that the Gentiles could be saved.

None of us gets to the place where we are grafted in and will be there no matter what we do.  We must continue in faith and obedience.  This is how we continue in the vine. 

God wants everyone to be saved.  Anyone that will turn can be grafted back in.  A Jew can be saved if they will accept Christ.  Circumstances in a life can cause a life to throw themselves on the rock rather than be crushed. 

This rabbi had turned from being Jewish to being an atheist.  It was a part of the path of coming to God.  I also had to come out of the religious traditions of men to come out to where God wanted me to be.  I went into a depths of sin and God used that route to get me here.

The prodigal had to leave the fathers house to pursue the world and waste his inheritance.  Sometimes people leave the church of God and are not right in their experience yet are still sitting in the pews.  They must come to the realization, “I am out; I am not in.  I need to repent.  I need to return to the father.  Not to the church pew, but to the father.”

These days, people want to come into our midst and just continue in their lost condition.  They want to think they are alright and live however they want.  We want to have enough love of God, “The goodness and severity of God,” to tell it like it is: “God has a better way than that.  Get to the rock.  Humble yourselves before God and He will help you have a better life.”

My son would get saved and endeavor to do right.  Things were wonderful when he was endeavoring to do right.  I needed wisdom from God to know where to draw the line when he started turning away from God.  There was always something open and clearly wrong.  I would think, “If I call him on this, then we will go back to where things were terrible again.”  I knew that I had to though, because I wanted him to be saved. 

We need wisdom to know how to exercise the goodness and severity of God.  We need His Spirit in all we say and do.  We ultimately want souls to be saved.

Deu 29:10  Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,

Deu 29:11  Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water:

Deu 29:12  That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day:

Deu 29:13  That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

Deu 29:14  Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;

Deu 29:15  But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:

Deu 29:16  (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by;

Deu 29:17  And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)

Deu 29:18  Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;

Deu 29:19  And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

Deu 29:20  The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

Deu 29:21  And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:

Deu 29:22  So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;

Deu 29:23  And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:

Deu 29:24  Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?

Deu 29:25  Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:

Deu 29:26  For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:

Deu 29:27  And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:

Deu 29:28  And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.

Deu 29:29  The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.

God wants us to be Coram Deo; this is the covenant.  This is that we put ourselves in the presence of God.  Not just an awareness of His presence but dwelling before His face, “I am here, what do you want me to do.”  Actively in His presence, because He actively wants to be involved in our life.

The reason that the secret things belong to us is that we may do all the words of His Law.  There needs to be consequences of disobedience.  It is because of the mercy of God that He sets those boundaries.  He doesn’t want those that are saved to go astray, he wants future generations to be aware, he wants those that have gone astray to turn from their evil way. 

He sets before us life and good; He wants life for those that choose good.

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 5/6/15

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 5/6/15

Isa 6:1  In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Something happens in individual’s life that they become aware of God.  In this case Isaiah saw God high and lifted up and His presence filling the temple.

In our day today, there are many false gods.  We don’t think of them as worshipping idols, but they are not worshipping the true and living God.  They have such a high esteem of success.  Some people you don’t get a chance to talk to them because they talk all the time.  They want to tell you how great they are, how great their children and grandchildren are, and God is not even in the picture.

This eternal God has a way of causing things to happen where they realize, “What is going on?  We have all this going on but we are empty on the inside.  There is something wrong.” 

When individuals see God high and lifted up, that is an opportunity for them to hear the angels.  It is marvelous, the angels sing a beautiful song; it is, “Holy, holy.”

We think of the beautiful songs of heaven, the angelic choir, the saints singing and praising God for the blood.  We are challenged to know this God as high and lifted up.

God brings people to a position where the presence of God moves things around in their lives.  It is easy for any of us to become distracted by whatever it is that presses in on us.  It is good to have the presence of God press in on us, “your priorities and thoughts, need to be right.”

Isaiah realized that he had a great need:

Isa 6:5  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

It is not God’s will that any perish.  As the Paradise church, we don’t think of any soul as being of less value than any other.  That is carnal and warped thinking.  Every soul is valuable to God.

Psa 95:1  O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.

It is so vital that we are thankful.  It keeps our minds and our hands out of what they shouldn’t be involved in and our feet out of where we should not be.

Psa 95:2  Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.

Psa 95:3  For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.

We are blessed to know this tonight, our God is a great God.  The needs that we are praying for and our needs as brothers and sisters in Christ are supplied because God is a great God and a great king above all God’s.

Psa 95:4  In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.

There are times that the losses are very deep.  The burden is so heavy for a soul that is wandering wherever they might be wandering.  It is easy for people to get themselves in a very deep hole that they don’t see any way out.  But God’s hand can go there.

People can position themselves out of the will of God and their life becomes so full.  They become a captive of their life and of their decision. 

Everyone has probably heard me tell the account of the man that came into the congregation in Chicago that had been a part of the mafia and got saved.  He told Brother Gordan, “I put myself in this position.  All they have to do is to kill me and I will never be heard of again.” 

There is a wonderful thing.  Those deepest holes that people get into.  People position themselves in a place where there is no way out.  But there is a way out with God.  God holds the deep places.

Let us see this God as great, high and lifted way up.

The strength of the hills is His also.  However much strength would be needed, He has the power to do the work.

Psa 95:6  O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

Psa 95:7  For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. To day if ye will hear his voice,

Stay humble and humble more.  If you think you are as humble as you can be, I want to challenge you to pray and ask God to humble you, and you will find that there are depths that you haven’t reached yet.  We all want to be there.

Psa 96:7  Give unto the LORD, O ye kindreds of the people, give unto the LORD glory and strength.

Psa 96:8  Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and come into his courts.

We need to say, “I am here Lord.  The offering that I am giving is myself.  Everything else is put on the back burner.”

Psa 96:9  O worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness: fear before him, all the earth.

Deu 32:1  Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

Deu 32:2  My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:

Deu 32:3  Because I will publish the name of the LORD: ascribe ye greatness unto our God.

Deu 32:4  He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

Have God big and then let Him become bigger and bigger.

Mat 18:1  At the same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

Mat 18:2  And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them,

Mat 18:3  And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 18:4  Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

I don’t know why their minds went there.  But there are still people that have it in their mind that they would like to be something great.  Jesus taught them how to get there.  He took a little child and set him in the midst of them.

“Except ye be converted…”  One of the main parts of the gospel of Jesus Christ and the message of the church of God is that people must repent and be converted.  There must be a change.

Doing good deeds or learning a catechism will not save you.  A person must repent, there is a confession, and their sins are forgiven; and there is a conversion, there is a change.

You can tell if there has been a conversion because they will be as a little child.  Little children get excited.  We want to be excited about the things of God.  We want to stay young in our experience of God of being excited about the things of God.

We want to remember the value of one soul.  We won’t be rewarded according to the results, but by the labors.  It will be God that gives the increase.  We want to be excited about the increase.

Don’t you love when you are somewhere and you see someone wrapped up in themselves and they won’t even acknowledge you, but you see a little child and they will speak to you?  Little children haven’t even been taught, but they will see you and say, “Hi.”

May God help us to be enthusiastic and to love children. 

Jesus dealt with the thought of being offensive.  Don’t offend a child.  Don’t offend your brother.  You say, “His personality is offensive to me.”  If he is overcome with a fault then the Bible tells us to go to him. 

Mat 18:8  Wherefore if thy hand or thy foot offend thee, cut them off, and cast them from thee: it is better for thee to enter into life halt or maimed, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into everlasting fire.

Be careful what you put your hand into.  Don’t meddle with things that are none of your business.  Be careful what you know or what you think you know.  We have a mission field to be a blessing to the saints.  We have three rest homes that we can work in.  There are doors that have never been knocked on. 

Be careful what you put your hand to.  Be careful not to know what is going on in other places that will defile you.

Be careful where you put your foot.  I love the testimony of Abraham’s servant, “I being in the way the Lord led me.” 

If the eye offend you.  There are some people that have a critical eye.  “Why did he pick out that tie?  Why did she mow the lawn that way?”  Don’t have a critical eye.

Have your hand busy for God.  Have your hand busy helping others.  Have your hand so that it is not meddling around where it shouldn’t be.  The same with your feet. 

We as the saints of God when we visit with one another, when we are invited or take someone out to eat, we need to have real guidelines.  You need to get before God and say, “God will you do a work on me?  The preacher said you are a great God, are you big enough to educate me?”  He is.

Mat 18:11  For the Son of man is come to save that which was lost.

Mat 18:12  How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?

Mat 18:13  And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray.

Mat 18:14  Even so it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.

How beautiful the Word of God is!

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 5/3/15

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 5/3/15

Isa 6:1  In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.

Isa 6:2  Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

Isa 6:3  And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

Isa 6:4  And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

When Isaiah came into the temple of God, the presence of God was there.  Whenever I feel the presence of God, it is a very hallowed, wonderful time.  It is a special time where God has chosen to come and meet with me as an individual or we feel the presence of God as we gather together.

It was a time in history when the king had died.  Isaiah was stirred by God and he went into the temple.  There were angels there and they had six wings.  Two covered the face, two covered the feet.  They were moving around and were making the expression, “Holy, holy, holy.”

One of the very most blessed times when we come together to worship God in spirit and in truth is when the presence of God comes in a pronounced, strong way that it is as if we were feeling the angels move among us and the convicting power of God as to the holiness of God.

I have been moved upon by the thought of the effects of condemnation.  We live in a world where there is strong condemnation in men and women’s lives and it is affecting them in very detrimental ways.

The holiness of God does not bring condemnation, it brings conviction.  Everyone in this audience that are dealing with souls are dealing with individuals that are under strong condemnation.  That is what sin brings. 

All of us can remember prior to Bible salvation the condemnation, “I am lost, I failed...”  Often with that comes hopelessness, comes sickness, and comes a total wildness in individual’s lives.

God has designed a plan in the infallible ways of his plan, a cure for condemnation.

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

We all have friends, relatives, and associates whose lives are under condemnation.  “I am convicted of sin and it brings condemnation in my life.”  Jesus came to actively condemn everything that brings condemnation and free us from it.

Everyone in this audience that reached an age of accountability knew that we had sinned and come short of the glory of God.  We knew that the wages of sin is death.  We understood that because of our life of sin.

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

With the law there was much shedding of blood.  They would take a lamb and sacrifice it, but it didn’t bring a change in their life.  With Jesus there was a total new covenant and a change.  Under the Law they knew that they would go back to sin again.  Jesus came not only to give us a forgiveness of sin through His shed blood, but to give us a new heart and a new spirit where we no longer wanted to sin and we no longer lived in sin.

Sin always brings condemnation.  Oftentimes people go down the road of time until sin makes its impact on souls and at a young age they feel, “I am doomed and destined to live under condemnation and spend eternity in hell.”

I am so glad that Jesus came. 

Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

Jesus came and became the supreme offering for sin.  Jesus’ blood makes a reconciliation between you and me and God.  Every individual that comes and repents, turns from their sin, the affects of the shedding of the blood on the cross gives us an attitude to be right with God and with our fellow man.

The angels were saying, “Holy, holy.”  It is a wonderful thing to feel the holiness of God.  It is marvelous!  In verse 4 it says, the posts moved and the house was filled with smoke or His presence.

When the presence of God begins to deal with my soul and with others souls, things in our life begin to change.  There begins to be a moving of the posts of the door.  There is a change in our mind, and our attitude, “This that I thought was so important, with the angels of God I’m realizing that all my agendas that I thought were so important are not so important.  God is changing things around and I am realizing that what is important is that I find and do the will of God.”

God helped Isaiah to see that he had a great need.  For all of us that had saved mothers and fathers, we can thank God that we had them.  You may not have had a saved mother or father, but the church will be a mother to whosoever will.  You do have a Father and He is God.  He is the Father over all the children in the earth.

Isaiah said, “Woe is me.”  We have been made aware of the frailty of life.  We have lost mothers and fathers through death.  Our life becomes totally different.  That one that was always there is no longer there.  When that happens we are faced with the frailty of life. 

These are times that God has designed to work strongly in lives of both the saved and the unsaved.  Isaiah recognized his need.  The easiest thing in the world is to get help from God.  We may struggle to get into a position to get help, in our minds we have things that clutter and hinder us from getting help from God.

When the angels and the Holy Spirit of God witness that we have a need…, Isaiah said, “I am a man of unclean lips… for my eyes have seen the king.”

It is wonderful what God does for us when we recognize the need we have.  All last week I was among those that were praying for me.  I felt so needy before God.  I never once prayed and sought the face of God that He didn’t come.  He spoke to me, “My grace is sufficient.  Through Jesus Christ, I can do all things.” 

I have no questions in my mind this morning.  There wouldn’t be any adult in this audience that God doesn’t have great challenges for.  God has great things. 

I would like to get my wife and Brother Justin up here to sing, “There is no one great among us, we are nothing on our own.”  We believe the work of God is great and one soul getting saved is worth more than all the world.  We believe great things are in store for His church this summer 2015.  We come to God acknowledging how small and needy we are but we see Him acknowledging as Isaiah, “My eyes have seen the king.”

One of the angels came with a live coal that he had taken from the altar.  The live coal is the Word of God, “Is not my Word like a fire.”  Our needs are met when the Word of God is placed on the need.  I don’t know how many times it happened this last week. 

When we come to God with a need, He doesn’t come to us with a way-out philosophy of a man’s thoughts.  He comes to us with the Word of God.  After Isaiah’s need was met he heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?”

There is a great call going out today, “Who will be saved, sanctified, and serve God with all their heart, mind, and strength.  I will step to the line and follow thee.  I will be true to thee.”

Isa 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

Whom shall I send?  Isaiah answered and said, “Here am I.”  We live in a world that is designed to crowd God out of every life. 

For every saved man in this audience that chooses to take time for their children and be a real dad…  If your husband is not saved, then you take time for those children, have devotions with them, have them in Sunday school, vacation bible school, and youth revival, today is the day.

It is a wonderful thing when sisters choose to be godly wives, a good helpmeet to their husband.

Isaiah had been before God and was there having received help from God.  The question was asked, “Whom shall I send?”  Who will be willing to be different, to have God first in their life, to take the violent attack of the enemy and say, “I am not going to let it move me, but instead I am going to be violent against the enemy and follow Jesus Christ.”

There is a field of labor for everyone.  If you have children, your first field of labor is home.  If you are a grandmother or a grandfather, you have a designated mission field.  As family the bible says, “Hide not thyself from thine own flesh.” 

Isa 6:9  And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

Isa 6:10  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

He told Isaiah, “Go tell the people.”  He wanted Isaiah to know, “You are going to meet with resistance.”  There are those that would rather enjoy the pleasures of the world and feel, “I am rich and enjoying the tangible things of the world.” 

There will be those that don’t want to see, but go right on preaching.  There will be those that don’t want their ears anointed to hear, but there will be those that want to hear.

Isaiah asked, “Lord how long?”  Have you ever wondered, “How long?  I have worked, prayed, but I haven’t seen the repenting and confessing to God.”

Isa 6:11  Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

Isa 6:12  And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

The thought is, “Never give up.  Love God, serve God, and take the message.” 

After God told him the worst, he came back with the best:

Isa 6:13  But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

Jesus said in Matthew 5, “Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled.”  This morning our lives have been affected by what took place April 23.  Mother Mount slipped away into eternity.  She lived to be almost 90. 

With that God has drawn close to this minister.  He drew close to that audience yesterday.  He is in this audience this morning. 

If there is anything out of order in any life in this audience this morning, God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit of God comes and says, “I want to move this around over to here.”  If it is sin He says, “You need to confess your sins to me.”  There needs to be the definite experience, “God I need to get saved.” 

If you have battled carnality and part of you is pressing forward and another part is saying, “I don’t want to give up everything.”  You need to come and say, “I need to make some changes in my life.”  God wants a church that is totally sanctified.

If you have something as a priority that He wants you to put somewhere else, He will tell you.  “You need to move this over here.  When you put me first then I have a way of adding things.  When you put things first then you have a way of stumbling.”  God sends wake up calls to those that are saved, “Let’s get everything in order.” 

Perhaps there are those in this audience that feel God drawing you to a deeper consecration.  “You have measured to everything and have walked in the light, but this is May 3, 2015 and “I am calling you to deeper water, to a consecration that is deeper than I have called you before.” 

Karen and I have not attained, when God says “I am measuring out more ground.”  Then we want to step to the line.  God is not done yet.  He can measure out some more.  It is the same with everyone in this audience.  Our thought is, “Here I am Lord.  More than anything else I want you first in my life.  More than anything else, I want to live free from condemnation.”

Isn’t it wonderful that we have the wonderful message of not only victory over sin but also victory over self?

We want to give Him our best.  

Sister Teri Sunday School 5/3/15

Sister Teri Sunday School 5/3/15

Coram Deo – before the face of God, under the authority of God, in the presence of God.

God is everywhere present and is aware of everything that is going on.  There is comfort in that.  God is all-powerful, and is ultimately in control; He is able to work even bad events to His glory.  God is aware, he is in control, and He has a purpose in everything that is going on.

God’s vision is for the spiritual and for the eternal.  We may have visions working toward retirement, or a new house, or other things that are temporal.  We want our vision to be on the things that are eternal and not let the things of life cloud our vision on things that are eternal.

The Christian that compartmentalizes his life into two sections, temporal and spiritual, has failed to grasp the idea of Coram Deo.  All of life or none of life is spiritual. 

Jesus was every bit the son of God when he worked the carpenter’s shop as he was when He healed people.  Coram Deo is a pattern of life that functions the same in church as out of church.  All that is done is as to the Lord. 

We realize that all aspects of our life, our relationships, our activities, our responsibilities are a part of our field of labor for God.  God has placed us in a field of labor and has put these people in our lives.  We want to keep that present in our mind and realize that every moment of our life is to be lived Coram Deo.

We trust, He will lead, and we follow; He will guide and we follow under the spirits influence, He will equip us with all we need.

Mat 6:19  Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:

Mat 6:20  But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

Mat 6:21  For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Mat 6:22  The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

Mat 6:23  But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!

It has to do with vision.  Our eye needs to be single, our vision needs to be focused on things spiritual.  It needs to be all of God, not compartmentalized, single which means undivided.

Mat 6:25  Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?

Mat 6:26  Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

Let’s not let our thoughts be consumed by the things that are temporal

Mat 6:31  Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?

Mat 6:32  (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.

Mat 6:33  But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

Mat 6:34  Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

Since He repeated it, he wants us to get it.  He must know that it is something that we will struggle with.  We must focus our mind with the help of the Spirit of God. 

The Father knows.  He is present.

After these things the gentiles seek.  The gentiles spend their time craving things that satisfy the flesh. 

Seek first the kingdom of God.  Take therefore no thought for the morrow.

Plan as God would lead, but dwell in the present.  We can’t do a lot of the past, but live this day for the glory of God in the presence of God under His leading and for His glory.

Luk 12:35  Let your loins be girded about, and your lights burning;

Luk 12:36  And ye yourselves like unto men that wait for their lord, when he will return from the wedding; that when he cometh and knocketh, they may open unto him immediately.

Luk 12:37  Blessed are those servants, whom the lord when he cometh shall find watching: verily I say unto you, that he shall gird himself, and make them to sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.

Luk 12:38  And if he shall come in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find them so, blessed are those servants.

Luk 12:39  And this know, that if the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through.

Luk 12:40  Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not.

The thief comes in a time when we are not watching or aware.  He comes to rob us of what God’s purpose and vision is.  He comes to get us distracted and sidelined.  The son of man also comes at an hour when we think not.

God comes and visits souls when we are not expecting it.  We are a part of His hand extended.  We are a part of the harvest.  When He is working with a soul, then He will come when we are not expecting it.  We need to have our lives in order in such a way that we are not consumed with the things of life.  We want to be available.

God wants us ready and willing to work when He comes.  Are we going to be ready, willing, and able to be a part of the great work that God has planned for the souls of God?

Luk 12:41  Then Peter said unto him, Lord, speakest thou this parable unto us, or even to all?

Luk 12:42  And the Lord said, Who then is that faithful and wise steward, whom his lord shall make ruler over his household, to give them their portion of meat in due season?

Luk 12:43  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.

Luk 12:44  Of a truth I say unto you, that he will make him ruler over all that he hath.

Luk 12:45  But and if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink, and to be drunken;

Luk 12:46  The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and will cut him in sunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers.

I’ve wondered about a servant of God beginning to eat the menservants and the maidservants.  But he thought, “My lord delays his coming…”  we’ve always been told that the Lord would return and we should live separate from the world but then we don’t see His moving and we begin to wonder, “Is this really necessary?” 

Soon they begin to bring things into their life, “That is not necessary.” Then soon they go out and take up a religious profession. 

We need to hold what we know.  God knows all about what has gone on and happened.  There will be a definite time when He will come and deal with souls strongly and I want to be a part of that.

Those that have gone off; their heart is divided.  They think they are ok. 

I worked for Tiara glassware, a company like Pampered Chef, there was a jewelry company coming that kept coming to steal their salesmen and women.  Those that were at the top wouldn’t let them do it, “How can you devote your time and attention to tiara Glassware if you are also selling Jewelry?” 

It is the same in the kingdom of God.  We don’t want to have our attention divided; some on the things of the world and others on serving God. 

The world will get consumed with the things of the world.  We cannot operate the same way or we will not be successful on what God wants us to do. 

Eph 1:18  The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,

Eph 1:19  And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

Eph 1:20  Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

Eph 1:21  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

Eph 1:22  And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

Eph 1:23  Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

We are to be His body.  He is the head.  He is directing our every move.  In our body, the head directs the hand to take the food.  The head directs for the temporal needs of the body.  We want the body, the church, us, to be in this way.  We are responsible for our body but we want it yielded and fully given to God.

Heb 11:24  By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter;

Heb 11:25  Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

Heb 11:26  Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.

Moses’ vision was eternal.  It was lined up Coram Deo, in the presence of God, for the glory, and under the authority of God.  That is why he forsook the things Egypt had to offer.

We need to also forsake what the world has to offer. 

Joh 12:23  And Jesus answered them, saying, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified.

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

Joh 12:26  If any man serve me, let him follow me; and where I am, there shall also my servant be: if any man serve me, him will my Father honour.

Joh 12:27  Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour.

Joh 12:28  Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.

Jesus was struggling with the flesh, but He was saying, for the fruit and the harvest to come, that corn must fall in the ground and die.  If we want to see a harvest, we need to die to the flesh.  We all have a purpose, God has a purpose for us.  Let’s have our vision focused on what God has for us.

Heb 12:1  Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

What is that sin that is so easily besetting?  The demands of the flesh and of the world.  It is always trying to come upon us and take our time. 

Heb 12:2  Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Heb 12:3  For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

Heb 12:4  Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin.

God has purposes that He is working in our lives.  Our current job, relationships … how are they working toward God’s remote purpose?  How are we influencing people in these realms according to God’s purposes? 

How is God using changes in our life, or persecution, for His purposes?  Think about these things as we go through our days.  God has a plan and we want to not miss it.