Brother Gary Wednesday 8/20/14

Brother Gary Wednesday 8/20/14

2Co 3:3  Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

I have been studying on having a tender heart.  The heart book is a good edifying story that speaks to children, adults, and to others. 

I thought of my own life.  One day something happened in my life and I responded to it by my heart either becoming calloused or it became hard.  Some of your loved ones you know really well and wonder, “What was the turning point in their life?  Why did they become hardened?” 

I thought, “What can we do to help children keep a tender heart?”  For all of you children and all of us adults that are here tonight, oh how important it is that our hearts stay tender. 

We read in the scripture that it is the design of God that the Word of God be written on the fleshly tables of our heart.  I bring the thought of the ‘tender’ tables of our heart.

We live in a society that causes mothers to not be mothers.  All of you mothers hold a great key in your children’s hearts being tender.  You fathers that are here, you need a special anointing in your heart to speak to your sons. 

If you want your children or grandchildren to have a tender heart, it will not just happen because they are a part of your family.  No.  There are definite things that cause children’s hearts to respond to life.  It is the setting that causes people to be hardened.

We can look back at our children and we know that some things were affective in keeping hearts tender and there are some things that are pronounced in hardening hearts.  One of them is favoritism.  All the children have to be treated equal; anything less than that is sin. 

That little one that may be such an agitator today may be the one that God will put his hand upon and be visiting you when you are too old to get words out.  God has grace.

In my book of hearts, I want the ending story to be a very tender, clean, and pure heart. 

I am not going to go into all the things that happen in life that could cause us to be calloused.  That is a part of life.  “I never thought that this would happen to me.”  That is because you have only lived once.  That sort of story has happened over and over again.   The only difference is the characters in the story.

It is the design of God that you would be the epistle, the letter, and the open Bible that people read.  For such a kind, good, primary thought, it has brought such conviction to my soul. 

We live in a world that will cause us to be, to whatever degree, light.  We live in a very heavy world.  The majority of Americans are wondering, “What is going to happen next?”  We may feel sometimes, “What can I do to lighten it up?”  You will not lighten the conditions in the world today. 

We have a hope of not becoming calloused and hard but remaining with a very tender heart that God can write His Word upon and it be a great use to Him. 

It is vital that children have a tender heart.  Obey your parents.  When you come to church, pick out someone that knows how to worship.  There will always be distractions; it may be in here or out there.  Your mind may come to, “I wonder what is the best fly to fish with in September?” 

Watch someone that knows how to worship.  When we sing, get a songbook.  This is how you are going to keep your heart tender. 

Also take a good look at someone that has let their heart grow hard.  I don’t want to end up that way.  You may say, “How did they get there?”  It started out that they allowed their heart to grow hard. 

That precious lady wanted someone that knew God to know that they were headed up a steep hill.  She has children; she is in a divorce.  It doesn’t matter who is guilty; it is full of pain.  She hoped that these folks would pray. 

There was something that gave her hope.  It is this message.  They opened their heart, they sang, they had scripture, and they looked different than all the religious people that she had seen. 

She told them, “I’m going to tell you my situation.”  Unless God intervenes her heart will grow hard and the children’s hearts will grow hard. 

Our lives are an open letter written by God on the tender tables of our heart.  I believe that as we were in route to rest home Sunday, we prayed that God would prepare all those that were going. 

When we walk into a place, we don’t want people to see that older guy with that younger woman.  We want people to see that there is something in that heart.  When we walk in there with a desire to help a soul or souls, they know it.

This was written to saints:

Eph 4:31  Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

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

I want to be open and honest here tonight.  Life will position every one of us where we battle these things.  If nothing ever bothers you then you have an awfully hard heart. 

I was visiting with people that no matter what I tried to talk to them about they were as if, “So what.”  I thought, “How do people reach the place where nothing matters?”  You don’t want to go there. 

Ask God to help you to know how to help your children and grandchildren when they are wronged.  You business men or women here tonight, ask God to help you when you are wronged. 

For the good teachers here, not every parent will think, “We are so glad that we have you to teach my child.”  There will be something that they won’t like. 

Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. 

We cannot allow an evil spirit to get a hold of us where our heart becomes calloused and becomes a place where malice feels comfortable dwelling. 

In the book of hearts of a man that many of us used to work with, there is a page where he was opened up and when they got in there they found his heart in a cave.  It was surrounded by hard calcium because of his arthritis and medicines and stuff. 

I wondered when He told me that in order to get in, to work on his heart, they had to take a hammer and chisel and break it up to get to the heart to work on it. 

That lady that had a heart attack has the bottom of her heart dead, literally. 

In the book of my heart, I want it to be tender hearted.

We have a neighbor that has terminal cancer.  Another neighbor, 99 years old, is trying to get it together to come to the church of God. 

We have other neighbors that are vicious.  You may say to them, “I am concerned for your soul.”  By the time they twist it around you look like a convict trying to take advantage of them. 

We are to be kind.  We are to be tender hearted.  I will not be tender without God.  As good as God has been to me, without God I will not be tender.  That is how it is. 

Be kind, tender hearted…  There can be no partiality with this.  We have to be as tender hearted to your relatives as we are to our relatives.  Your family is family just like another’s relatives.  Some think that because of who they are, God has a special set of rules for them.  No.

Be kind to one another.  The liberties that you give for your mother-in-law you need to give to Brother Bob’s mother-in-law.  It is the same rule, be kind.

If we do not have kindness, we don’t have the love of God.  And if we don’t have the love of God then we are not saved.

Tender hearted, forgiving…  All of us want to have really good manners.  We have been taught to have good manners, address each other, look in their eyes, and greet one another.  We don’t want to be shaking Sister Darla’s hand and looking about for someone that is more charming than her that you can talk to.

Forgive one another, greet the sisters with respect and honor.  A virtuous woman is above rubies.  You young ladies, a part of being tender hearted is to dress nice.  Dress nice to come to the house of God.  We want to look our best and we want to smell our best. 

I know you children like to play; God wants you to first greet the saints.  There is more than running to the pole.  You are old enough to greet people, to thank your Sunday school teacher. 

We don’t rush in late and leave early.  This is family.

We want to be very mannerly when someone is kind enough to ask you for dinner.  If you have appointments then it is ok to decline, but if you go, don’t rush in and then leave early.

Tender hearted…  I would love to have these children say, “Your message helped me, I prayed everyday to help my heart to stay tender toward God and that I would know how to handle the difficulties so as I age instead of my heart becoming hard or calloused so I can be rude, talk back to my mom and dad, be disobedient, and not feel conviction, it can stay tender.” 

If you have been naughty, you need to ask your parents to forgive you and God to forgive you, and you need to change. 

I know how precious grandchildren are.  We have to have the courage to tell them, “You need to change.”  If we encourage them to let their heart become calloused then the next thing we know it will become hard.

Heb 4:15  For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

If Jesus identifies with my infirmities and is touched by them, when you have a battle and a need, then I want to be touched by your infirmities. 

Heb 4:16  Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

God help me as the pastor, God help us as the Church of God in Paradise Montana to be tender hearted towards God, towards each other, and towards the needs all around us.