Brother Gary Sunday Morning 5/19/13

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 5/19/13

Pro 29:18  Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.

Indeed God’s people need a vision today.  A ‘vision’ is to mentally perceive and to contemplate with pleasure.  There is a vision of eternal things and of heaven and there is also a vision of being eternally separated from God. 

A ‘vision’ is a revelation from God, God revealing to us, giving us an understanding according to the Word and through the Spirit of God.

God knows everyone of us past what we can know of our self.  I have prayed, “God I can’t quite understand myself and my emotions but you have me figured out.  God you know my ‘down sittings and my uprisings’, you know everything.”

This is not dealing with the thought that God needs a vision; He knows every one of us.  He understands where we are spiritually and has instructed us to lay aside every weight.  We might not know why we are weighted down but I want to be freed.  God knows every one of us.

God desires us to know Him.  He desires you and me to know Him.  It is such a mystery to us how that God would love us.  It is such a wonderful contemplation to my mind that not only does God know me but He desires me to know Him.

Isa 1:1  The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Isa 1:2  Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me.

Isa 1:3  The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.

It is always a really sad thing when people don’t know God.  Karen told me that she told her Sunday school class in the last month about my sister.  I was talking to my sister and she was telling me her troubles.  I told her that she needed to pray.  She said, “Gary, I’ve forgotten how to pray.” 

It is so sad when people don’t know how to contact the only God.  They may have read the Bible from cover to cover and still don’t know God.

David instructed Solomon to know God.

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.

Every one of us needs the vision of God in His rightful place.  Isaiah saw Him high and lifted up.  For every challenge that would be represented in this audience, (We would not find fault with the one whose dad died and their heart needs to be healed.), only God can heal a broken heart.  Only He can put something into that void that we feel when someone that we love is gone. 

A situation may have left us very disappointed.  The disciples were when they thought that Jesus would have set up a literal kingdom.  I have found that is how life is.  Life doesn’t leave you with every compartment filled with everything that you have hoped for in life. 

It is wonderful that we can see God high and lifted up.  He is the one and only one that can bring satisfaction and joy to us this morning.

If you look to anything that is tangible you will be extremely disappointed in life.  As much as we appreciate our home, and having children and grandchildren, they are to be appreciated but it takes more to satisfy the hungers of the soul.

Isaiah saw God high and lifted up.  Not only did He see this, he saw angels there.  They were describing God one to another.

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.

The events of life may not be fair.  Job promotion or the workload may not be fair.  But there is one that always deals justly with us.  That is the one that the angels were describing.  He is Holy and we are to think of that which is pure. 

We live in a world that is bombarded with way too much information.  I am not saying it is not true but I am not convinced that man can handle it very well.  This I know, we can come into the presence of the Holy God and we want to see Him high and lifted up. 

We need a vision of God.  We are happy for everyone that is here.  For those that are starting out in life, these precious children, our public school systems will not teach you about God.  There is a God in heaven.  The scripture describes Him as being holy.

He is the Lord of Hosts.  Not only is God, God, the triune God, He is the Lord of Hosts.  He has an innumerable company of angels.  There will be nothing that you can face in life that you cannot handle as long as you allow Him to be in the yoke with you.

There are times when God chooses for the yoke to have more than two.  But as long as you have Jesus beside you and yourself in the rightful place and see Jesus and God as high and lifted up then there will be no challenge that you cannot face. 

You may feel that your heart is so broken and you would like to hear from that brother that never calls or you may feel that you have hungers that are not filled.

Last Sunday we saw the slideshow of your mothers and those women that had an influence in our life.  I often get lonesome for my mother and I thought of Brother and Sister McConahae and thought of those wonderful years of fellowship.  Any that heard him preach know that if he was not the very best preacher in the world that he was one of the very best.

One day the events of life left him so that he couldn’t preach any more.  One day he couldn’t find the van anymore and one day he couldn’t find the way home any more.  One day he died and sister McConahae was left alone.  We made our yearly trip to California and she knew everything that I loved to eat and what she didn’t make she would take us out for. 

One day we received a call, the aneurism has broken and Sister McConahae is laying there knowing that before long she will be in eternity.  We appreciate every mother.  That is how the family of God is.

As we have Mother’s day, I couldn’t help but think.  No one could fry chicken like Sister Irene Blanchard Knox.  There is something in us that we feel lonesomeness.  We cannot touch them but there is a God in heaven.

You that are widows in this audience, there is a God in heaven.  You cannot bring the ones back that you are lonesome for but you can have a vision of one that is high and lifted up.  If you do not then you will get bitter. 

How come this happened?  How come my inheritance was stolen from me?  What are we going to do?  There has to be one that is high and lifted up.  The angel said, “We are going to describe and name Him Holy.”

Maybe school won’t turn out like you hoped it would.  Sometimes we have friends that disappoint us.  Sometimes teachers disappoint us.  Children can know God.  When the events of school turn out like you didn’t hope they would, know how to worship God.  I believe that children can worship until they hear the angels saying, “Holy.”

It is wonderful to have someone that looks at us without any motive.  Holy means undefiled.  We go to a God that has our best interest at heart.  No one has told him anything about us that has affected him.

He is sanctified.  He is set apart from being indoctrinated, influenced, or moved by the winds of time or anything like that. 

He is honest and I have faced His honesty many times and not always was it a comfortable situation on my part.  He said, “Spend more time with me.  Pray more.  This is what I want to do.”  I have shook and trembled.

He is loving.  I have never come or went from His presence that He hasn’t embraced me.  I never have felt that God didn’t love me.  In the most difficult seasons of life He has loved me.

He desires to be our God.  It is wonderful to have an identity with eternity.  It is wonderful that we can visit with someone that desires to be our God. 

We don’t know our roots back very far.  We think we can trace back to when our family left West Virginia.  We are not sure how they got there, but we are here.  We serve a God that doesn’t just go back to 1776 but goes back before time.  He indicates that He wants to be our God.

God is not a God of just makeup or band aides or good feelings.  He is God.  His presence convicts us. 

Some can remember the very first time that God convicted them.  They thought, “I know that I shouldn’t have taken that cookie” or whatever it was.  God convicts us and His presence convinces us that He will forgive and provide for all our needs.

Sophia is 1 year and three days old and does not have to worry about any of her needs.  You have a heavenly father.  You have a God.  My God shall supply all your needs.

If you woke up needy this morning then you are blessed.  Blessed are the poor in spirit.  If you recognized that you needed something from God then you are blessed and God plans to supply.

If you woke thinking that the world was lucky to have you then you are wretched, poor and miserable.

A vision of creation:  You will never understand how the world was made except by faith.  You can study all the theories that are out there but Hebrews 11:3 says by faith we understand that the worlds were made… that is how we know the world was made. 

Psa 100:3  Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

When we go back to the creation of man, God formed man of the dust and God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man becoming a living soul.  Not only did God make us as a human, God made us to be one of His own in the thought of His sheep.

A vision of God’s design for our life:  God created us for His glory.  The design of God is that your life would be a beautiful tabernacle where God dwells. 

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.

God loved us.  Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record that we are to love the Lord our God with all our heart, our mind, and our soul. 

There was a lawyer, an individual that studied the law that asked Jesus concerning the thought that you are to love your neighbor as yourself.  When asked who our neighbor was, Jesus said, “The one that is needy is your neighbor.”

We are loved by God first.  Then we are to love Him with all our heart, mind, and strength, and then we are to love our neighbor as our self.

The plan of God produces joy in our life.  The enemy loves to steal our joy.  There will be things in your life that if you magnify them, such as your losses, you will have no joy.  Let me emphasize, Jesus came that you and I could have the kingdom of heaven.

Mat 5:3  Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Rom 14:17  For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.

Applying the vision:  I will look carefully at God.  I will keep Him high and lifted up and then I will realize that it is from Him that I am made a sheep of His pasture.

Psa 100:3  Know ye that the LORD he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Psa 100:4  Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.

Psa 100:5  For the LORD is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

Psa 100:1  A Psalm of praise. Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.

Psa 100:2  Serve the LORD with gladness: come before his presence with singing.

God wants to hear you being thankful and praising Him.  He wants you to have a vision of Him high and lifted up and when you do this then you will see your problems right.  And recognize that He is the triune God.  He is the Lord of Hosts.

Brother Gyme Sunday School 5/19/13

Brother Gyme Sunday School 5/19/13

2Ti 3:1  This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

2Ti 3:2  For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,

It is important that there is a place that is separate from sin with clear distinctions drawn.  If there is not a difference between us and religion, then were will others come to?  Where is true religion? 

We sometimes feel that we are really being tough.  We need to draw clear distinctions so that others have a light on the hill.  Though some don’t like the line that we draw when they are in need then they can look to “there is a people that is different.”  That is what we need. 

Adam Clark says to never apologize for truth and for that which is right.

Perilous times are here.  This is the day.  People want to turn everything upside down they want to call good bad and so that when you draw a line you look like the bad guy.  But wrong is wrong.  We need to guard against this and keep real good boundaries in our life.

Mat 11:12  And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.

Second Timothy tells us that “Men shall be lovers of own self… unthankful and unholy”  We want to ever be a thankful people don’t we?

Peace and holiness go together. 

Rom 1:21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

We want to be a thankful people.  They became vain in their imaginations.  When that happens you will start questioning, “What is truth?”  If we become unthankful then in these perilous times we will actually start questioning truth. 

The word, ‘foolish’ means unintelligent.  Unthankfulness will lead us to be not able to receive wisdom.  People becoming unthankful is a part of perilous times. 

I am thankful that I don’t have to live in the past.  I haven’t forgotten and others haven’t forgotten my past.  I am thankful that I don’t have to live there but it is important that at times I remember where I came from.  There is one Gyme Kelly in prison and I could be in prison.  I’m thankful for what God has done for me.

Brother Gary - Unthankfulness is extremely strength reducing.  We live in a day when sometimes it seems that ‘everything’ has gone wrong.  If we are saved there may be a lot of tangibles that are out of place but we can be thankful.  We can rise above, ‘everything’ being wrong.

A lot of people have their theory and doctrine right but if we don’t have the practical experience then we are so lacking.  Thankfulness is not just a theory, it is a practical experience.  God help us to be reawakened to the value of being thankful. 

Sometime I have to press through the unthankfulness.  I don’t feel great or like being thankful, but I have to come through even when I don’t feel like it.  We cannot give into unthankfulness.

Sister Sue - The little children are not being taught to be thankful because their parents are not thankful.  They are not being taught.  It is a surprise when one says thanks. 

We see this throughout all society; people are rude, crude and unacceptable over and over.  Are we going to let it change us?  We need not let it affect us. 

It is easy to talk about and put the notes together that says, ‘be thankful.’   But to practice it is something else.  I went through the same battle twice because I didn’t handle it right.  I was ashamed but when the battle came around the second time I was determined to handle it right.

2Ti 3:3  Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

‘Without natural affection’ means Hardhearted.  We live in a day when people are without natural affection even to children.  It is the ‘me, me, what about me?  Where is mine?  How come I don’t have the free iphone?” 

We live in a day that is perilous.  Some humane society has a rate of 98% adoption and we have a rate of however many babies being aborted.  The abortion doctor that just got sentenced I would not recommend you read about it but it is without natural affection.

People would raise hundreds of dollars to save a dog, I like my dog but I would not put a dog above a person.  We need to be respectful even of our own self.  It is too prevalent in our day of, “I don’t care.”  We need to care.  To not care leaves a hole in our self.

One of the people that I work with has the attitude, “I don’t owe anyone here anything.”  We do owe to others.  Be sure that you treat me how you want to be treated and I want to treat you how I want to be treated.  Then at night I can go to bed and know that I have treated others right.

Truce breakers are those that are not willing to enter into a covenant.  To be saved we must enter into a covenant. 

Brother Bill - It is a lot of work to care and there is accountability in caring.  Because I love God and want to serve God I care.  It is a trait of my family and if I wasn’t saved and didn’t have respect unto God then I wouldn’t care either. 

The first step for all in society is to get saved.  If they would take care of the foundation right then they would care.  It would help them to care. 

There is a distinction between caring and being an enabler.  Sometimes we can fall into the trap.  I came to a point where I decided that I was not going to enable someone to live like they want to live.

Psa 15:1  A Psalm of David. LORD, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill?

Psa 15:2  He that walketh uprightly, and worketh righteousness, and speaketh the truth in his heart.

Psa 15:3  He that backbiteth not with his tongue, nor doeth evil to his neighbour, nor taketh up a reproach against his neighbour.

Psa 15:4  In whose eyes a vile person is contemned; but he honoureth them that fear the LORD. He that sweareth to his own hurt, and changeth not.

Psa 15:5  He that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. He that doeth these things shall never be moved.

He that does these things shall never be moved.

‘False accusers, incontinent, without self control, despisers of those that are good.’ 

They despise good.  To the best of our ability we need to leave those that despise us with God.  Jesus went though the same thing.  He didn’t let it distract Him from what He was doing.  He didn’t give it thought or let it slow Him down. 

He didn’t try to win them or go make things right.  Sometimes I get the thought, “I’m going to solve the problem.”  I have to keep going and not let it distract me.  We should not be shocked if that happens. 

Be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good. 

If we just do what is right and treat people right being the same every day then we don’t have to worry if others despise us. 

Make sure you are in the right fight.  We can get distracted by these things and then we are in the wrong battle. 

Despisers – hostile to virtue; May we keep our virtue.  That is the right battle.

2Ti 3:4  Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

2Ti 3:5  Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

God help us to not just have a form of godliness.

2Ti 3:6  For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,

2Ti 3:7  Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Here is that darkened and unintelligible heart that is not able to learn. 

2Ti 3:8  Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

2Ti 3:9  But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

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,

This is written to us today.  There is going to be a great cloud of witnesses. 

Let us lay aside every weight.  What are you packing in your backpack?  What is a weight?  This race is not to the swift it is an endurance race.  If you are packing a pack a long ways into a lake you don’t pack it as heavy as you can.  You make it as light as you can. 

Beset means standing around.  The sin and the weight that makes us stand around.  Run with patience.  There is a course that we will run.  There is a path a course that has been mapped out.  It is not a random run where you go where you want.  There is a start, there is a course, and there is a finish to the race. 

Lay aside, sin, attitudes, imaginations, and accusations; they all work on all of us.  We are human. 

Sister Sunny Wednesday Evening 5/15/13

Sister Sunny Wednesday Evening 5/15/13

1Sa 25:40  And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife.

1Sa 25:41  And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord.

We see here her humility and willingness to work in whatever position she would find herself including the lowest position of being a servant to the servants. 

I think of the things that God can ask us to do.  Could you feed my servants? 

Joh 21:15  So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.

We are not to be a respecter of persons, “You can sit in this high spot because you have nice clothes and you other ones can sit in that low spot.”  No, there is no high person or low person in the Church of God.  Yet God asks, “Can you do this for the one that is least?”

Mat 25:34  Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

Mat 25:35  For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Mat 25:36  Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Mat 25:37  Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

Mat 25:38  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

Mat 25:39  Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

Mat 25:40  And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

The one that would not know how to accept a favor and would not be thankful, God asks, “Could you help them when they need it or when I ask you?  Can you live ready to set aside your plans for the task that I would have you do?”

“Will you give me your time?  Would you be willing to do what is hard for you, because of your personality, in order to be obedient to my will?  Are you willing to be dead and have your life hid with Christ in God?”

Col 3:1  If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.

Col 3:2  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.

Col 3:3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

Col 3:4  When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

I desire to be a part of the Church of God, the bride of Christ.  As such my desire is to be a servant to His servants as Abigail said to David, “I will wash thy servant’s feet.” 

She was saying, “You are such a great man and I am nothing.  You are bestowing a great honor upon me.  There is nothing that you could ask me to do that would be too small or too humble.  I will wash your servant’s feet.” 

This is what I desire my attitude to be toward serving God.  “Lord, I will be a servant to your servants.  They are important because they are serving you.  I am nothing and there is no job too small or too humble.  I will wash your servant’s feet.”

Isa 49:5  And now, saith the LORD that formed me from the womb to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him, Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eyes of the LORD, and my God shall be my strength.

Whether we feel that we are successful or not, if we are obedient to God’s voice and do His work, (though Israel be not gathered, yet …), He will be pleased with us and He will be our strength. 

Jeremiah preached, preached, and preached some more.  One came to visit him where he was shut up and he asked him to write his words in a scroll and read it in the house of the Lord.  He said, “Perhaps they will hear this time and turn from their wicked ways.”

Jer 36:4  Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.

Jer 36:5  And Jeremiah commanded Baruch, saying, I am shut up; I cannot go into the house of the LORD:

Jer 36:6  Therefore go thou, and read in the roll, which thou hast written from my mouth, the words of the LORD in the ears of the people in the LORD'S house upon the fasting day: and also thou shalt read them in the ears of all Judah that come out of their cities.

Jer 36:7  It may be they will present their supplication before the LORD, and will return every one from his evil way: for great is the anger and the fury that the LORD hath pronounced against this people.

Some of the people took the scroll to the king and read it before him and he had it thrown into the fire.  He refused to hear and turn from his ways. 

Was Jeremiah a failure because the people didn’t hear?  No, he was obedient to God and to his mission.  He was in the favor of God and received strength from Him to write the scroll again and send it again to the king according to God’s command. 

Psa 84:10  For a day in thy courts is better than a thousand. I had rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness.

I’d rather have the humblest position and post in the house of my God than to have a position of honor anywhere else.