Brother Gary Sunday Morning 11/22/15

Brother Gary Sunday Morning 11/22/15

1Ch 29:13  Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.

God had chosen Solomon to build the house of God.  We see where David had it in his heart to build the house but was never able to do it.  It was given to be the responsibility of his son.  David was a big enough man, a godly enough man, and a man that could think.  He had set his affection toward the house of God.

Whatever God has called you to do, whatever gifts that you have, or whatever you are not able to do, you may not be able to do as you wished.  You may not be able to sing but you can set your affection toward the house of God.

Every one of us will have his affection going somewhere.  We are created that way.  There are dangerous places that our affection can go.  We are not going to preach that way but toward setting our affection toward the things of God.

David had set his affection toward the temple.  What are you willing to give to God for the building of His church?  Not monetarily, but otherwise.

1Ch 29:5  The gold for things of gold, and the silver for things of silver, and for all manner of work to be made by the hands of artificers. And who then is willing to consecrate his service this day unto the LORD?

This is a question that all of us are faced with.  A lot of young people have an intuitiveness, “I want to do something for God with my life.”  All of you that are young, that is wonderful. 

Of all the things that will be afforded you, the way the world will play up, “You are gifted here, or there and will be awarded this or that.”  If you have the ability to get A’s I encourage you to get A’s.  If you have the ability to only get D’s then I would like to have a meeting with you.  You may not excel in the academic world but you can excel spiritually.

1Ch 29:6  Then the chief of the fathers and princes of the tribes of Israel, and the captains of thousands and of hundreds, with the rulers of the king's work, offered willingly,

The way to get saved is not difficult.  Godly sorrow works repentance not to be repented of.  This means you wish you had not done what you did.  Maybe you stole, maybe you were abused and have bitterness and hatred toward someone.  God can forgive you and help you to forgive them.

Who then is willing?  There are those that you talk to and they put up shields, “No one can tell me anything.”  If you have a shield up then I am not going to be able to help you this morning.  You have dismissed me; I am not going to dismiss you because I have a calling.  I am going to pray and do my best because that is what God has called me to do.

If you say, “No one is going to do anything for me.”  Then I want to tell you, you will be a very poor miserable, and selfish individual.

There is something in us that cries out, “I will be willing.”  It may be a total life change.  It may cause me to go in a different direction and position me in crowds of people that I never planned to be positioned among, but I am willing.

God has brought me a long ways as a pastor.  He has brought us a long ways as a congregation.  We have come from a building that did not have heat in the winter or a mowed lawn to a beautiful building with a well-manicured lawn.

I want to preach about the people being willing.  The people offered willingly.

1Ch 29:9  Then the people rejoiced, for that they offered willingly, because with perfect heart they offered willingly to the LORD: and David the king also rejoiced with great joy.

Before you are given a job, it is not God looking at how capable or talented you are but how willing you are.  The question is not your schedule, but your willingness to change your schedule, your priorities, and who you let control your life. 

People try to run me.  I am not talking about the deacons or the elders.  There are those that want to control everyone.  They tell me how to run my life and I look at the mess they have made of their life. 

The people rejoiced for they offered willingly.  I am not here to take anything from anyone.  I am here as a representative of one who is asking for your best and wants to give you your best.

These people identified with David the king and they wanted a place built for God.  They wanted it to be beautiful and lovely and offered willingly with a perfect heart.

We are taught in 1 John of our love being made perfect.  I often read 1 Corinthians 13 before I lay down for a nap.  I want my love to be made perfect.  I want to offer unto God a willing sacrifice from a perfect heart.

It is not the thought that I feel pressured to do this.  The thought is that I love God supremely.  If God would make a scroll of how my life would be without Him, there is not one in this audience that would not say, “You did the right thing to be saved.”

We are dealing with children in school this morning.  I don’t know how many children are in school in Superior or St Regis.  One of the things that comes strong to children is, “If I am all that God wants me to be, maybe there will be only one or two or three or four…”  The question is, “God is asking me to be willing to be my best for Him.  To put Him first.  To say, “God I have these plans but your plans are better.”

You may be planning on a new car but God’s plan is better.  You may want to have river front property, if God gives it to you then it will be wonderful.

Willing:  “I am willing to be what God wants me to be, to pursue what God wants me to pursue.  You say, “How will I know?”  You will never know if you are not willing.

Sometimes I ask people, “How did you get here?”  People choose their own way.  If you choose your own way then God will choose your delusion.  That is it.  That is how the Bible teaches it.

If you will be willing and obedient, have a perfect heart, and offer unto God willingly, then not only will the king Jesus rejoice, but you will rejoice.

It thrills God heart.  It thrills Jesus’ heart and the very Holy Spirit of God as we begin to fill our day and the sun begins to come up for us to say, “I have a busy day but whatever you want, I am willing.”

Willingness far outshines talents and gifts.  You are talented?  What are you going to do with it?  That is what counts.  Are you willing to use it for God’s honor and glory?  Are you gifted?  People play these things up.  You haven’t lived as long as Brother Bob without learning somethings.

People pump others up with pride and try to make a way for them to be in their control.  You don’t belong to them.  The availability to God thrills the heart of God.

God wants the youngest child to be willing.  Willing to obey, willing to ask Grandma to cook and after she makes something willing to say ““Thanks.  Availability to God thrills the heart of God. 

You say, “If God calls me to go to Africa then I will go.”  The question is, “If God called you to go to the neighbor then will you go?”  If God said, “Go,” are you available?

‘If you be willing and obedient then you shall eat of the good of the land.’  Jesus taught us to pray, “Not my will.”  Jesus prayed, “Not my will.”

‘Who then is willing to consecrate his service to the Lord?’  God is looking today for those that will consecrate their service to the Lord.

“Thou shalt be first, Thou shalt be first.  Before all else thyself shall be.”

“God you are going to be first.”  That is where the joy is, the victory.  That is where God leads and guides us.

1Ch 29:10  Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever.

1Ch 29:11  Thine, O LORD, is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O LORD, and thou art exalted as head above all.

1Ch 29:12  Both riches and honour come of thee, and thou reignest over all; and in thine hand is power and might; and in thine hand it is to make great, and to give strength unto all.

It is a marvelous thing the liberty that God designed for mankind.  We are not forced to serve Him.  We are not bullied and cannot be scared into serving Him.  There is the conviction that comes to the heart, “I am so lost without God.”

The only way that we could be saved is through the cross.  It takes the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved, sanctified, and overcome accusations.  It takes the stripes of Christ to be healed. 

If it were not for Jesus it would be impossible to have a sound mind.  We live in a society that makes men sick in their head.  It is because of God and His son that we can have a sound mind.

1Ch 29:13  Now therefore, our God, we thank thee, and praise thy glorious name.

1Ch 29:14  But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly after this sort? for all things come of thee, and of thine own have we given thee.

As small and insignificant as Paradise might be to the world, we are not looked upon by God for anything other than, “That is a soul, and heaven’s best was given for the souls of mankind.”

David asked, “How can we so willingly give back to God.  Everything we have came from Him and of His own hand we have given back to Him?”

Are you willing to teach a class of one?  Are you willing to make a meal for the incidental one?  In people’s mind, unless they think it is great, then they are not interested.  God is not that way.

God is not as the one that you would think was big in your mind.  That one was not there when you were so needy.  You might break your neck to help him but it was not he, it was Jesus that was there.  Jesus is the head of the church and He is asking the pastor and the church of God at Paradise, “Are you willing?”  Are you willing to reach to one?  Are you willing to reach to two?

We have only given back what you have given us.

1Ch 29:15  For we are strangers before thee, and sojourners, as were all our fathers: our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.

We are strangers: we showed up and one day we will be gone.  My father was born in 1908 in West Virginia.  They traveled west and came to Montana in 1922.  My dad lived mostly in Montana from that time to 1968.  He came, he spent time, he went to school, he got married, he worked, and he had a family.

In March 19, 1949 he got saved in a cow barn.  Later he was called to preach and he was a marvelous preacher.  Then in 1968 he was usured into eternity. 

We are strangers.  This world is not our home.  You will have an identity, “There has to be more than just here.”  People try to tell you that you are like a dog and you will die and then there is no more. 

I was at a Jehovah Witness funeral and the false prophet got up and preached, “This one doesn’t have a soul and there is no hereafter.”  There were those that didn’t know Jesus and were so mad that they were ready to fight.  They knew that there was a soul.

We are sojourners.  We are lodging for as if it were just a night.  That is just how it is.  Every night when Karen and I bow down we are thankful for what God has given us.  Compared to whatever, we just have an old house that is about 100 years old.  There are a lot of things that are not perfect but we are so thankful. 

We realize, “It may be just for the night.  We are sojourners.”  Our journey could end just as our fathers: They were and now they have gone on.  As you look around the audience it is rare for one to still have their dad.  Thank God the children still have their dads. 

The days on this earth are as a shadow.  As the sun comes up, the shadow is there.  As it moves then the shadow changes.  Then as the old song, “Evening shadows make me blue.”  There are some of us that are in the sunset of our life.  We are thrilled to be there.  We realize that there is none going to abide.  Time will end.  Jesus may come soon.  The more that we hear about the world we say, “Even so come Lord Jesus.”  We realize that we are as a shadow.  Then there comes a very strong conviction, “who then is willing to consecrate his service unto God this morning?”

We are not alone here in being targeted.  God’s people everywhere are being targeted.  I had a phone call last night; a saint of God was calling for prayer.  Another great need has arisen in one of the congregations.

We look at young people and children.  Ten years ago how many tattoos did you see?  How many people tried to take your order and you couldn’t understand them because they had a tongue ring?

Are you willing to save yourself and whoever else will hear you?  Are we willing to go back again?  Are we willing to plead before the scars of sin have left minds so messed up that they don’t know how to get to God?

I plead with you to pray.  Pray for me.  Pray for yourself.