Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 12/10/14

Brother Gary Wednesday Evening 12/10/14

Php 4:6  Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.

Seek God in everything in earnest prayer.  This is basic, practical, and always in order.  We are to do this with thanksgiving.  God is so good to convict us of this.  Often we find ourselves intent on the prayer requests, on our personal needs, and on our needs as a family.  Paul said to make sure that you are thankful, and not just there asking.

Requests:  your needs, the needs of others, your concerns, your desires.  Not all your prayers are centered on emergency situations.  We desire for our company to come over Christmas and be a blessing to their hosts and to the family of God.  We understand about good desires and that we can pray for these desires.

1Jn 5:14  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:

1Jn 5:15  And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.

John, an even more seasoned apostle than Paul wrote, “This we know, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.” 

Often times everyone here is requested upon to pray for whatever request that an individual may ask you to pray for.  Unless we know the will of God then we can just put the petition into God’s hands.  We know that salvation, sanctification, love one another, and pray for one another, all these are the will of God. 

The question might be asked, “How many sources do we have that we become concerned about?”  The first source is God speaking to us.  I would say that several in this audience and maybe all had God speak to them and lay a request upon their heart to pray about today.  That is good.  When God lays a request there, it is a pure request.  

A lady came to our door one time and wanted to visit with me.  She wanted me to help her to get this inheritance.  I told her that I don’t touch those things.  She said that she would give me 10% if I would help her.  I told her that didn’t move me at all, it was kind of a slap in the face to me.

Sources of prayer requests:

1.      The first and we want to always be diligent to carry it when God Himself lays a burden or a request upon our heart.  We feel those and there is nothing that thrills this congregation more than if you have been praying for someone and someone else comes into the congregation and seconds that burden by saying, “God laid a burden on my heart for whomever.”

2.      We have a need of grace.  There are days that you wake up and you feel that pronounced burden and request in your soul.  “I am going to need the grace of God today.”  Before I go out and deal with anyone I ask for the carefulness that I need to not become involved with anything that will hinder them or me.

3.      We go out and feel the pronounced need for wisdom from God.  We sometimes feel that we are walking a tightrope and need His help so that we don’t fall on our face, “God I really need you.”

4.      We need courage.  We need a balance: not to be Laodicean or be rash.

5.      There is the request that comes into our soul from the triune God, a burden for our soul.  For everyone in this audience that prays for me, I really appreciate it.  I want to be just as faithful when there is a pronounced request come to pray for a brother or sister.

6.      Some requests are a result of our conscience.  We thank God for our conscience, and for the stirring and conviction of our conscience. 

7.      I doubt there is anyone in this audience that hasn’t prayed, “God help me in my thoughts.”  Our minds have the ability of getting on a path that just goes over and over and over. 
Help me in my thoughts:  one thing that has really convicted me on this is that sometimes our thoughts go to where ever and pretty soon we find that we are almost there with an agenda and soon it gets bigger and bigger and bigger.

Our conscience convicts us of our speech.  “Don’t go there, don’t ask that question, and don’t get involved in that.”

I am shocked at the little bit of emailing and internet exposure I have who shows up wanting me to befriend them.  This is the standard that I live by.  People that are giving the saints a hard time, I don’t befriend them. 

Any of those disgruntles that are around, I’m not going to tell you what I would preach to them if I had the opportunity.  I don’t hate them, but I don’t have enough time to love the saints here, or to love the saints in Athol. 

Let’s watch our communication.  You can find yourself with very heavy burdens that you brought on yourself by knowing what God never intended you to.  If it does anything in deleting your spiritual life, step away from anything that loads you down with burdens and takes from your spiritual life. 

We have a huge job to do to take care of each other, love each other, visit each other, to have strength and energy to shake hands with everyone and tell them that you are praying for them, to stay after service and shake hands with the saints.

Our conscience and our attitudes:  Hannah was a marvelous lady prophet.  She said that our actions are weighed.  When you get an attitude, what follows is actions. 

8.      Everyone is responsible for their needs.  Our financial needs and others.  There are always needs in the family of God.  We know some of one another’s needs.  They are not all dollar needs.  Some of them are emotional needs, some of them are heartaches. 

9.      We know our lacks.  Our conscience always keeps it real to us how needy we are to humble us. 

10.   Our interaction with others is a strong source of prayer request.  If our brother’s countenance is sad, we realize, “I need to pray for them.” 

If you are way up and I am down, I don’t want you to be sad too, and you don’t want me to go further down.  We realize something is wrong, we need to pray.  I am of a personality that “I don’t need to know what is wrong.” Just, “I need to pray.”

Maybe they are in a difficult situation and don’t want to open themselves up or they would start to cry.  When you see a visual of a need, unless your heart grows calloused, it will lay a prayer request on your heart that perhaps becomes a long term burden.

11.   The petition of the heart for the grieving.  Everyone in this audience really identifies with losses: the grief, and the pain.  Unless we become calloused, it will grip us and we will want to pray and seek God.  That is the one thing that we can do.

12.   The petition for children: Most of us in this audience had the wonderful experience of having Brother Herb Harvey in our audience for 14 years.  He had a burden for children.  You and I have the visuals of children being loved and cared for.  We have the visuals of children that have good clothes to wear to Sunday school and church and receive a lot of attention from their mother and father. 

We also have the vision of the neglect.  It moves me.  The day of orphanages was not altogether bad.  The visual of children that are exposed to things that I will never be exposed to.  Think of it! 

The children in church, bible story time, morning worship, the spiritual training and obedience they are being taught!  They are blessed.  Think of those that are not.  Could it be true that the young man that was shot to death in Missoula and the one from another country didn’t have a conscience to know that it was wrong to go into someone else’s garage and steal?  We were taught from a small child that we are not to steal.

Isn’t it wonderful when you know that children have a bible and they are taught ot have their devotions?

Eph 6:1  Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.

Eph 6:2  Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)

Eph 6:3  That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.

When you tell some children that they should honor their parents, they say, “Not my mom and dad, you don’t know how they are.  You don’t know how much drugs they do.  You don’t know how they live.”

Eph 6:4  And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

It is wonderful that this word of God instructs fathers.  We can be burdened for parents and pray for them.  It is a sad thing when people don’t have a role model of someone serving God, treating their mom with respect and honor.

I thought of my failures as a young husband.  I thought, “Let’s pray for Brother John, and lets love him.”  Some people are so reserved that they cannot love anyone.  We want to love our brothers and sisters in Christ. 

Telling someone that you love and appreciate them and doing your best to help them will not puff them up with pride.  Some people cannot give a compliment, they are so sold upon themselves that they cannot see anything to complement others on.

I made financial mistakes, and I made emotional mistakes.  I hurt my wife way too many times.  Love the young couples, pray for them, and teach them how to be hospitable. 

13.   There are times when we receive information that gives us an urgent prayer request.  Someone whose situation in life is really an urgent situation.  I’ll never forget when I got the email from Brother Goble on Michael.  19 years old, cannot work, and cannot be left alone for an extended period of time.  It affected me, I brought it to you saints and it affected you too.

14.   The Holy Spirit brings to our mind a soul in need.  It is wonderful when the Spirit brings to our mind a need, “Remember Brother or Sister So-in-so.”