Brother Gary Tuesday Evening 8/28/12

Brother Gary Tuesday Evening 8/28/12

Isa 51:1  Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the LORD: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.

Isa 51:2  Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him.

Isa 51:3  For the LORD shall comfort Zion: he will comfort all her waste places; and he will make her wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD; joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody.

‘The Lord will comfort her waste places, and make her wilderness like Eden and her desert like the garden of the Lord.’  The lord desires for us to have joy, gladness, thanksgiving, and a song.

The enemy has always worked upon every soul to cause them to position themselves to not be fully used of God.  Elder Sister Davis, after she got things cleared away, was sad for all the years lost setting without fellowship for all those years and all the good things that were designed for them just six miles down the road. 

Many have spent years wasted by man rule, a good man all mixed up.  When you have a wrong attitude against God’s people, then God doesn’t smile on you.

This is not a new problem.  If it is new to us then it is only because we have only lived once.  Wasted, wilderness:  There are some things that you and I will never get by our self.  That is because it is not designed that we be alone.  No place on earth has it all.  Not only has God designed that we be a blessing but also that others be a blessing to us. 

When a location begins to be lifted up then there will be problems.  Anderson Indiana was used of God mightily.  That was not a reason for it to be lifted to a special position. 

We cannot bear the problems of other places, our job is that we are sold out and doing our best for God and not allow any of our flesh to cause us to be wasted or in a wilderness condition. 

People are lost because they choose to be in a wilderness, full of fear and suspicion.  They have seen so much abuse that they never trust anyone.  They will be lost.  We need one another.

When someone isn’t saved, they are being wasted.  There is a line that is drawn where people are wasted to such an extent that they don’t have anything left.  Don’t go there.

The message to us:

Isa 52:1  Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

Isa 52:2  Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

We need to allow God to awaken us.  If people don’t want their nest ruffled, then probably it will not be.  If we have the attitude that we want to be our best: for the lost, for the church, and for each other, then we have the attitude: wake me up and don’t let me go to sleep.

Luk 10:30  And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

Luk 10:31  And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side.

Luk 10:32  And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side.

Luk 10:33  But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him,

Luk 10:34  And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him.

Luk 10:35  And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee.

Luk 10:36  Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves?

Luk 10:37  And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.

Verse 33:  If there is anything that I ask that you pray that I have, after you pray for yourselves that you have, it is that I have compassion for souls.  I believe in judgment, hard preaching, and soul searching conviction, but if we don’t have compassion then we turn souls off before we can even talk to them.

This man was half dead and the Good Samaritan went to him.  Whenever you go to a soul you take a risk.  I am as tender as little Gyme when it comes to rejection; I’m a 65 year old baby.  When we love someone we must risk rejection.  You will face rejection, get ready for it, but you will not always face rejection.

He made sacrifice, he set him on his own beast, brought him to the inn and took care of him.  When God witnesses that he has given you a soul to take care of, check yourself to see if you have the credentials to be a Good Samaritan.  This one did everything and then left you and me the testimony through Jesus, “I will be back.”

This was written for 2012.  People are the same in every age.  When Jesus gave this parable, He knew people.  Sometimes God gives us someone to work with and if they don’t get where we think they ought to be then we just leave them at the inn.  The Good Samaritan said, “I’ll be back and if more is required then I will pay more.”

“Go and do likewise.”