“Reconciliation” By Brother Parrish Lee August 18th,
2013 Giving honor to God, who is the head
of my life, who is our Savior, who is our Comforter, who is Wonderful, who is
all the things that He said He is; giving honor to that God. Giving honor to all those in this ministry
who have gone on before me: Our founding
Pastor, our Bishop and Pastor, Pastor Wilson, who pastored here, and it was
wonderful to see him down there, and Brother Kenneth, and he and his family who
have contributed in seeing the ministry kept strong, kept fortified, kept
founded on the principles of the doctrine of Christ. Giving honor to all of y’all, who have
brought yourselves before Almighty God in hopes that you would hear a message
that ministers to your soul, and we pray, we pray that that is exactly what
happens. This has been the month for sound
doctrine, and we pray that it has been a ministering month, as our Bishop has
asked that we would do that, three times a year: take a month and go over sound
doctrine, specifically, sound doctrine. Acts 2:36-37 …Men and brethren, what shall we do? Revelations 2:1-4 …I have somewhat against thee, because
thou hast left thy first love. If we could just bow our heads for
just a moment... Lord, we thank You, because Your goodness is
immeasurable. We could not compare to
all the blessings that You continue to pour out on us. God, You blessed us when we first got up this
morning, the breath in our nostrils, and our eyes were able to open, and our
feet hit the floor. We thank You,
Lord. We thank You, because this is the
day that You have made and we will rejoice and be glad in it. We thank You and praise You, Lord Jesus. God, at this, time, the time of the
message—You’ve been giving us a message all day, Lord, but this is the time of
the spoken Word, and we pray that You add a blessing to Your Word that it would
accomplish what You sent it out to do, and not return unto You void. God, that the messenger would be blessed in
the way that You would have him to be, in order, in decency, and along the path
of Your Word, and that this Word would minister to our souls, Lord, that we
could be built up and established more in You, more and more and more. We pray and thank all in Jesus’ name. Amen. First of all, church, let me just say,
it is wonderful to be back. It is great to see all of y’all. I’ve got to get this out of my system: It was great to be away, to see all of the
things that God was showing me. I felt
like a kid; you know when you’re in school and you’re going over some lessons,
and you think you might have known what was going on, and then all of the
sudden, it’s like, wow! I never heard that one; I never seen that one; that
ain’t what I expected it to be. I better
take some notes, because if this is required of me later, I might not be bale
to get it back. That’s how I felt. God had a purpose in it. You know why? because I am His; I am His son;
I am His servant. He is going to teach
me how to serve Him better. So, when God
has us in class, teaching us, showing us, it is NOT because He is mad at us; it
is because we are His children. It is
because we love Him, and He wants to love us back, by being able to get closer. Having said that, this is the month
of August, and, as we said before, it is the month that we’ve taken out for
sound doctrine. Bob Heirtzler started
off; he preached a message on sound doctrine—I heard it was beautiful. Chris Ulrich preached a message on the peace
of God and I heard it was wonderful and ministering. We’re continuing in that same vein: Sound Doctrine. The subject today is actually a subject that
every Christian should have access to, but not just Christians only. This is a message for every person under
Heaven. Truthfully, all the messages of
God are. So, to provide just a little
background to the first Scripture, Acts 2:36-37: The Scripture takes place after the death,
burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
There were many Jews that were gathered in Our next example is in Revelations
chapter 2, and, this time, the Lord is speaking to one of the churches. He’s speaking to the church at So, saints, our message today is on
reconciliation. It’s on being reconciled
back to God. PART I—God Wants Us to
Be Reconciled to Him Luke 15:3-7 ...likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth... In verse 4, “What man of you, having an hundred sheep...”
God is trying to make this so that we can relate to this. “What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if
he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and
go after that which is lost, until he find it?”
And verse 7, “I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in
heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just
persons, which need no repentance.” This
shows us the effort that God is willing to go to, to reconcile us to Him. Not only (I’ve got to make this clear,
saints), not only when we accepted the Lord, however length of time ago it was,
did He rejoice, and there was joy in the presence of all the angels in Heaven,
but, every single day, if we find ourselves separated from God, when we return,
when we are reconciled back to God, there is joy in the presence of God in
Heaven. God will say, “He was away (or
she was away), and, yes, they are back.
This is something that is ongoing, a mistake that Christians make, is
that, “Oh, I’ve done that before, but it’s all over with now. I’ve got that sealed, stamped, mailed and
it’s on it’s way. I don’t have to worry
about that any more. I beg to differ
with that. It doesn’t matter, saints;
this reconciliation we’re talking about, it doesn’t matter if you are an
individual, God wants to be reconciled with you. The lepers:
There were ten lepers; they came to Him and He healed them on the
way. One returned, and He was thankful
for the one that returned. He wasn’t so
happy with the nine that didn’t, but he was thankful for the one that did, and then He said, “You’re healed. You’re saved; your sins are forgiven.” There’s the instance of King David—before he was
king—when he had lost everything: he had
lost his family, he had lost his possessions...
He was going through something that nobody wants to go through. He was deserted and alone. All of his friends, in fact, his friends, his
brotherhood, were talking about, “We gots to get rid of him; he’s in the
way. It’s his fault. He’s the problem.” David, he could have turned and ran away, but
the Bible says that he encouraged himself in the Lord his God, and God restored
all. Another individual, the individual of the young (well, I
don’t know if she was young), widow woman.
When the prophet came to her house, all she had was a little cruise of
oil, and a little barrel of wheat. The
prophet said, “Serve me.” She said, “I
only got a little bit.” He said, “Serve
me first. Give it to God. Give it to God’s work. Give it to God’s purpose. Give it to the Lord, first, and then, what
you have will never fail.” She did, and
it did. There was reconciliation going on;
God was making sure that she knew that He would provide for her. It doesn’t matter if it’s a group or a
family. We have the instance of Part II—There Are Things
that Separate Us from God It is important to be aware, to be
mindful, to be on guard, and to know that there are things that separate us
from God. Number
1: Sin. Sin separates us from God. Isaiah 59:1-2 ... your iniquities have separated between you and
your God... Sin, and iniquity, separates us from
God. Number
2: The Flesh. Our flesh will separate us from God. Psalms 143:2 ... in Thy sight shall no man living be justified. No flesh will glory in the presence
of Almighty God (1 Corinthians 1:29). If
you ever hear somebody talking about how they got it going on, they got it sewn
down, they got it, you know, they make it happen... You know for a fact that God said no flesh
shall glory in His presence. Get away
from them, until they’re right, until they’re able to seek out what God tells
them. You need to—or you either; you
ain’t all that. Number
3: The Devil. The devil brings separation between us and
God. we are not ignorant, the Bible
says, of his devices (2 Corinthians 2:11).
he devil brings separation between us and God. Just a little background about this: Daniel had been praying, and Daniel had been
praying for awhile. If we were to read
it, we would see for how long, but Daniel had been praying for awhile, and an
answer had not come. Daniel had fasted;
he had set himself apart; he was trying
to make his appeal to God. Daniel 10:13 ... the prince of the That is twenty-one days; that is three weeks. It is important to know that the devil (here
it calls him the prince of the So, this separation, whether it’s
sin, whether it’s the flesh, whether it’s something from the devil... Any instance that we go through, whether it’s
something we can’t name, whether it is something that we think is new—maybe
it’s a different shade than what we’re used to.
These separations are what God came to take away; to take away the
separation so that we might be in His presence, so that we could be reconciled
to God. Part III—Reconciling So, God wants us to be reconciled to
Him; there are things that separate us from Him, and now we are talking about
being reconciled. 2 Corinthians 5:17-19 ...all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ... Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Bringing us back to Him by His only begotten
Son, and has given to us the ministry-- the ministry!—of reconciliation. That’s something to get a little happy
about. A ministry of being reconciled to
God! A ministry of being back in His
presence! A ministry of being His
son. A ministry! A ministry!
Don’t let our minds get so narrow that we think of a ministry as being a
church-house. We’re talking about a
spiritual thing, every place you go; it is reconciliation. If you’re laying in your bed, thinking, “Oh,
I feel so far away!” it’s a ministry of reconciliation. If you’re working and you don’t have time to
pray, but, “Oh, God, I just need a little touch!” it’s a ministry of
reconciliation. If you’re with a brother
or a sister and there’s ought between you, and you say, “I just don’t know how
we’re going to cross this gulf,” it’s a ministry of reconciliation. If you’re praying, and it feels like your
prayers just won’t go through, “What is it, Lord?” it’s a ministry of
reconciliation. Speaking of which, I had an awesome time with the
brothers, praying on Friday night. God
just granted so many answers I just had to—like they were fired out of a
cannon. I just want more to stay on the
inside; I don’t want it all to come out.
Amen, what a great time. Reconciliation, here, means divine
favor. God has given us a ministry of
divine favor. He has given us the word
of divine favor and anointing. God has
given us a ministry and word of divine anointing. Now, it’s incredible that the message
to the Jews on the day of Pentecost was so similar to the message to the church
in the Book of Revelation. He told them,
on the Day of Pentecost, “Repent! Change! Turn back! Repent, and be baptized
every one of you, every one of you, every one of you, in the name of Jesus
Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy
Ghost. This promise is unto you, your
children, your children’s children and as many as are afar off as the Lord our
God would call.” (Acts 2:38) He told them
(the Sometimes, you may feel like, easier said than done. Maybe.
Maybe it’s easy for somebody like me to say it, because, after all, I
ain’t got no problems. It’s easy for me
to come up here and flap my yaps. Maybe
you’re going through real
problems. “Brother Parrish, you don’t
know what I’ve gone through. How you
going to get up there and read that paper, and say, ‘Be reconciled; be
reconciled; be reconciled?’ How you
going to do that? You don’t know what
I’ve been through. You don’t know how
wrong people have done me. You don’t
know how I feel; don’t nobody know how I feel.
Instead, everybody’s sitting around talking about, ‘Be reconciled; be
reconciled; be reconciled.’” Well,
that’s not true. There is One who knows
what you’ve done. There is One who knows
how you feel. There is One who knows
everything you’ve done and everything that’s been done to you. There is One, and you know what He says? do
the first works. Our promise is that if
any man, woman, child—if any person is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things, old holes, old chains, old
reputations and accusations, old feelings are passed away. All things become new. Right now, right quick, I want to address another spirit
that I’ve seen here lately; he even got a good hold on me a couple of
times. Anybody ever hear anybody
talking, “Oh, I can’t accomplish anything; I’m so old, my knees are
cricking—all the joints, they ain’t working like they used to... I don’t know how much longer it’s going to
be.” I want to address a certain spirit,
and that spirit is, “Ain’t going to get it done; ain’t going to happen.” You know, “I’m too old, I’m too tired, I’m
too weak, I’m too busy, and, sometimes, I’m a little too angry to be able to
have all this stuff going on. I really
feel that my time has passed for all that glorious jabba-jabba stuff. And you know what else? sometimes I go
through things, and it seems so fierce, and I’m so tired, poor, set-aside, and
I don’t even feel like coming up to somebody; I just figure that I’ll sit here
and go through the motions, and hope that battle will pass, hope that time will
pass, and I can just kick it through.”
Yeah, that’s a spirit that just wants to shut Christians down. The Bible says that the devil is trying to
wear you out. Thanks be to God, who
gives us the victory. So, for anybody
who has said, “I want to be a great teacher,” “I want to be a great preacher,”
“I would like to have enough compassion in my life that people would just see
it coming out of me when I’m walking around, and they would know whereof I
am...” “You know what I would like? I would like to be able to pray the prayer
of faith with people; see them encouraged, see them restored, see them healed,
see them touched, see them get the answers that God has for them. Honorable things in God. Honorable things.” If you feel like those times are past, I want
to say, “That’s a lie.” Don’t give up on
God, because God has not given up on us.
Rather, there is one thing that we do need to seek, for all those
things, for the Bible says, “Seek ye first the I’m about to close, here.
I just have a quick story (I’m going to try to make it real quick). In my little travels, God was trying to teach
me something. In my little travels, let
me tell you, I spent a few days down there in South Carolina, and, let me tell
you, they’ve got some banana pudding down there, make you want to take your
shoes and socks off. Then I went up to Our last Scripture (we have already
read it): 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature... Amen. Sermon notes by Pete Shepherd |
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