Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 7/31/13

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 7/31/13

My burden tonight is that we grasp the desire God has for souls to be saved.  I have a deep concern tonight for individuals that are neglecting their soul.  I have been in such pain about Sister Vi’s son.  I thought he was coming home to get saved.  He neglected his soul.

There are souls that are lost that don’t even know their way back to Zion.  I am so thankful that God still has a people and that His church is still in existence.  I am not ashamed to be a remnant of the remnant. 

There was a Canadian brother Bedker.  He migrated to Canada from Germany and had been saved in the Church of God in Germany.  My dad took an old Plymouth full of people there.  Brother Bedker couldn’t speak much English but he loved dad and dad loved him.  Dad invited him down and he shook and trembled to preach in English he had never preached in English before. 

He got involved in the apostasy.  He had a problem in leaving the movement.  He didn’t want to be a splinter of a splinter.  He had hopes to stay with something that was big.  I’m sure that he is very disappointed today.

It is not God’s will that any perish.  We live in a day that we face almost blatant rejection and unbelief is so strong that people will tell you that they don’t think that they are going to hell.  I don’t know how they think they will go to heaven without being saved.

The Laodicean had the attitude, “We have need of nothing.”  Many today tell you they are doing just fine.  I am convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that whether it be me or you, the key to getting help from God is recognizing that we have a need.  God honors those that humble themselves and recognize that they have a need.

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.

Joh 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Joh 3:18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

Joh 3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

Joh 3:21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

It would not matter how far back we go.  We can go to the Old Testament and we can go to these beautiful words that Jesus spoke and are designed to create faith.  God knew the world needed a savior. 

When I refer to the world I refer to the inhabitants of the world.  He gave heaven’s best.  He gave His only begotten son.  Tonight every service either with unspoken request, urgent unspoken, or spoken requests, there is more than one request for someone that needs a savior. 

God loves souls so much and He is not a respecter of persons.  He sent His only begotten son so that whosoever believes on Him should not perish.

When you and I think of souls perishing…  To think of a soul without hope ever, that is how it is for those in hell.  I see and you see individuals whose lives have fallen apart.  As long as there is life there is hope.  The place comes where there is no hope. 

God didn’t want it that way.  Jesus was willing that it wouldn’t be that way and instead of the perishing there be everlasting life.  Jesus never came to condemn.  He came that individuals could be saved. 

God’s voice speaks through nature, through babies; His voice speaks.  Men and women have every reason to believe in God.  God has set eternity in men’s heart.  People know there is a world past here.  Yet they are able to silence that voice and yield to unbelief and whatever sends such darkness that envelopes their soul and they are not able to come to God.

Condemnation is when men love darkness.  When we think of darkness and what it does for individuals.  About everyone in this audience has someone to care for and someone that cares for you.  If our place in life was altogether different, if we had been orphaned and our parents were gone we would still want to love God. 

If I was preaching to individuals that were all orphans and had no identity with family or being a parent, (some in this audience are great-grandparents, parents, brothers, sisters, and have living parents), if we didn’t have any one, we would still want to live for God.

My mom taught, “Is your all on the altar?”  She would make it so real and give a visual of everything on the altar.  She would talk about putting your husband, your wife, your first born, and all your children on the altar.  She knew how to drive a good conclusion of keeping them on the altar.

I said all that to show how evil and darkness draw on souls.  I am saved tonight because of God.  I am saved tonight because of His Son, because of the Holy Spirit.  I thought of Jesus interceding.  I thought of the Holy Spirit interceding.  I am saved tonight because a remnant of a remnant prayed, supplicated and interceded.

I was bent to be lost.  I was bent to love darkness.  When you look up the word evil, my life in sin had an identity with that which was evil.  God loved me and more than one prayed.  Those souls that you are burdened for, don’t quit praying.

I have been mis-educated.  I thought, go talk to someone once and if they don’t receive it then they don’t want it.  I don’t think that is love.  We go back again and again and again.  Souls are so lost.  The power of darkness is so strong.

Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.  I was trying to identify with what evil means.  There is not much I can find in the concordance on evil.  When I looked in the dictionary, evil is the opposite of valor and virtue. 

Valor and virtue are two words that actually mean the same thing.  Valor is usually in the masculine.  Virtue is usually in the feminine.  They mean strength, moral excellence, doing what is right.

Verse 21: He that doeth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest.

One of Jesus’ last prayers for us is John 17:17.  Sanctify them through thy truth, thy word is truth. 

There are people that don’t know very much about the Bible.  There may be some that don’t know anything about the Bible in the United States of America.

In this little town there was a gentleman, Tom.  I don’t know how many times he was invited to church and he told me that he didn’t believe in God.  One day I was at the post office and he said, “I want to ask you something, not that I believe it, but does it say in the Bible that we are going to reap what we sow?” 

I don’t know if God told him that or if in school someone said it but he wanted to know.  There is something in the faithfulness of God that even if people don’t want to know, they know some.

Dick Blanchard who went into eternity had a lot of resistance to God.  One day he began telling me his concern.  He probably had very right concerns.  God said, “This is your chance.”  I said, “Dick you know, whatsoever a man sows they will reap.”  He said, “I know.”

It is not God’s will that any perish.  For the souls that God allows me to cross paths with, my burden is that they recognize that they have a need.  They must recognize their need for God to help them.  It is never wrong to have a need, it is only wrong to not get that need supplied. 

If we own our need, all heaven opens up to us.

Psa 146:5  Happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:

I don’t know your needs tonight but I want to encourage you and myself, look to God for your help. 

Somewhere in your life you probably didn’t have enough to make ends meet.  The man is happy who knows his help comes from God. 

Children in less than a month you are going to be back in the classroom.  The teachers will be back in the classroom.  They will have children that they have never had before and they are all different.  They will have their challenges.  Isn’t it wonderful they have God as their helper.

Every one of us needs help from God.  “Whose hope is in the Lord his God.” 

Psa 146:6  Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keepeth truth for ever:

If you want to get stirred up, find some church of God publication that begins to show the departure away from Holy Ghost leadership.  When you see where it has went… that hasn’t affected truth.  Truth is the same forever. 

2Pe 3:9  The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

We are not a bunch of orphans in this audience.  We have family.  We have children, parents, in-laws and other family.  You and I are not ignorant of our times.  You and I are stopped and told how bad things are in the world today by people that are in the world and think they are better than someone else.  You and I know that our families are not going to escape what is in the world just by being related to some of us.  God is not willing that any should perish. 

God doesn’t want the youngest in this audience to perish.  Today is the day to lay the foundation.  Most of our sons and daughters are not little anymore.  God is not willing that they perish. 

It was DO Teasley that backslid and couldn’t find his way back.  I don’t know if it could be said that he couldn’t get back, but he couldn’t find his way back.  People do things and feel that they don’t think they can make it right. 

They don’t think they can get back to God because, “I’ve done this and that.  I treated the saints bad.  I went out as a prodigal and wasted my mind and my inheritance.”  There is a way back.

Church of God here in Paradise it doesn’t matter who brings the message; it doesn’t have to be me.  There is a message for people that have gotten so far out that they don’t know how to find their way back.  (When people get to Zion you know it.  There are things that are identified in Zion.)

God is not slack concerning his promise.  Whoever you are burdened for I encourage you to not look at how bound they are in sin or how obnoxious they are.  Know this, God doesn’t want them to perish.

If God will move so that they recognize they have a need.  As long as they say everything is going just right then you still need to pray.  But when they recognize they have a need.  DO Teasley said, “Oh, am I lost forever?”

We have been so blessed that over and over and over again God has helped with souls. 

Sunday morning we felt the love of God and conviction.  We were so blessed.  At the rest home and assisted living, God came down.  Isn’t that wonderful?

God is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.  Isn’t that wonderful!

Let us pray that all needs be supplied.