"Do We Recognize What God Did for Us?" By Brother Andy Giebler November 22nd,
2015
We’ve
got a lot to be thankful
for, and listening to all the people share this morning, it makes me
realize,
even more, how much more I have to be thankful for.
Hearing other people share, from all the
things in their lives, what God’s done for them, that just puts me in a
whole
different frame of mind, to show me, “Hey, there’s more to be thankful
for.” I could share
how much of this
ministry I’m thankful for. You
know, our
leadership, and—I’ve got a message to preach, or I’d tell you how
thankful I am
for Parrish. I might be awhile, so…
I’m
thankful to God that God put us together, because it gets to the point
where
somebody will say something like this, and you just say, “No, I don’t
believe
all that mess.” God
has put us together
in a way that—let’s just get this out of the way—maybe not the way we
think it
should be, sometimes, but we’ve got to look at the way things do get
done, you
would think we have a whole—you would think that we talk to each other
24-7,
when, the reality is, both of us hold down 40+ hour-a-week jobs. I’m not tooting my own
horn, here, because I
know we all do it. But,
the things that
get accomplished, or, the things that—with minimal communication—that
God works
out is awesome. The
things that I’ve
heard shared this morning are really, you know, I listened to Rob, and
you
talked about His mercy endures forever.
The places where God put you, the things that God
did in your life,
when, in your flesh, you look at that and say, “I wasn’t qualified for
that. I wasn’t the
man for that
job.” God
qualifies; God gives you what
you need to do what you need to do.
That’s what faith is. There’s
no doubt; if God put
something on your mind—and I’m going to touch on a few more, because
there’s a
few of you that shared some things that God spoke to your heart. Never discount what God
speaks to your
heart. Sometimes we
want to blow it off
and say, “I can’t do that.” If
God spoke
it to your heart, okay, you might have to prove it out, but, listen to
that
voice. Nancy, you
shared how, just that
simple song, Amazing Grace, and the simpleness of somebody sharing, you
weren’t
ready for that; that’s why you didn’t hear it.
Sometimes we sit back and think, you know, “I can’t
do this; I’m not
ready for this.” Well,
sometimes we
don’t have what we need because we’re not ready for it.
So, if God puts something on your heart that
you know you’re not ready for, once again, God put it there. He may see what you need
later on. It’s a
matter of being faithful. The
Scripture says, “Commit your works unto
the Lord, and your thoughts shall be established.” (Proverbs 16:3) God’s going to bring to
pass what He wants. Ed,
over here, you shared that
you’re thankful for problems. It’s
true,
sometimes we have these problems just so God can reveal his glory. You know, “Who sinned,
that this man needed a
healing?” “Neither
him, nor his parents,
but that the name of God would be glorified.” (John 9)
I had to scribble these things down, quick,
because there was a lot going on this morning, but I didn’t want to let
any of
these things pass, here. Maria
shared about praying, “Let
me just take his place,” because that’s the heart of a mother, the
heart of a
parent. God spoke
to your heart, and
said, “That’s what I did for you.”
That’s a lesson that we all can learn from. You know?
Sometimes, it’s the times when something crazy s
going on that God is
going to speak something to your heart, what you need.
It may not have been exactly those words,
but, she’s in a place where her son doesn’t want to get stitches. She doesn’t want to watch
him get
stitches. So,
that’s the craziest thing,
but, all of the sudden, that’s when God chose to speak to her heart. You’ve got to be willing
to listen. And
we’re talking about being
thankful. And these
are all things we’ve
got to be thankful for. If
you ever get
a chance, you get ahold of a concordance, and look up the word,
‘Thankfulness.’ In
the instances when
I’ve looked them up, in the Old Testament, it’s not just a matter
of—Sonia, can
you hand me that bottle of water?
Thank
you. That’s not the
thankfulness it’s
talking about. I’m
thankful when
somebody does something for me, but, if you look up the definition of
that
word, it’s praise, to worship. A
bottle
of water could be a good thing, someone doing something nice for you,
but we’re
looking at a thankfulness that’s so far beyond anything that anyone in
this
room, anything that I could ever do to warrant your thankfulness. We’re talking about
salvation; we’re talking about
God making a way. That’s
thankfulness. That’s
where that comes from. It’s
worship. It even talks about a choir, in
one of the definitions. It’s
not just
saying thank you. It’s
a worship; it’s a
praise. You look
at, in, where the
priests did their sacrifices, and they were making sacrifices for the
sins of
the people, with thankfulness. Sometimes
we get caught up in,
when we think of thankfulness, what should we be thankful for? We paint a picture, and we
watch the passion
of the Christ, and it’s a picture of pain.
And, we watch this image, this picture of a man
being beaten, and beaten
again, to where most people would have died.
He had to labor, and bear His own instrument of
death on His back, to a
place where he was going to die. He
hung
up on a tree; the image, the nails, and everything, how He was hung
there. And those
are all things that we need to
know. Things that
are good for us, but
those also drive something in our humanness, our emotions, but, the
thing that
I’m thankful for is the fact that, and I believe Daniel—a couple of you
shared—because that’s where God made a way.
That’s where God made a way for us. So,
before I get too deep into
this, question: Do
we recognize what God
did for us? In that
moment, Maria, you
recognized that God spoke to you.
You
recognized something that God did for you.
There’s many things in life—we ask God for things,
the question is, do
we see it? Do we
realize the way God
made for us? It’s
not Christmas yet, but I’m
going to read a Scripture. You
may think
it’s Christmas, but it’s not. We
haven’t
killed the turkey yet. We’ll
do that
later, but it’s still Thanksgiving. Matthew 2:1-3 Now when Jesus was
born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold,
there came
wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born
King of
the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to
worship him. When
Herod the king had heard these things, he
was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. So,
here we’ve got these guys from
the East, these wise men, at the palace.
How did they know about this star?
Prophecy. They
knew it; they read
it; they studied it; they looked and waited for that day. They were going after that. They wanted to see this
promise; they wanted
to see this Jesus; they wanted to see this child.
All right, it says, Herod heard these things,
and he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.
Well, why would he be troubled?
Because he knew about this, too.
These guys came in, and said this to him,
and, if he’d never heard that before, “You guys are nuts. Get out of here.” No, he was troubled, and
all Jerusalem with
him. Matthew 2:4-5 And when he had
gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he
demanded
of them where Christ should be born. And
they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by
the
prophet, John,
chapter one: John 1:1-4
In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with
God. All
things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that
was made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men. I’ll
skip down to verse fourteen. John 1:14
And the
Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father,)
full of grace and truth. John 14:16-18 And I will
pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of
truth; whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him: but ye
know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you
comfortless: I will come
to you. I’m
kind of the— you know, Sonia
says, “It’s time to get out the Christmas lights,” my next things to
say is,
“Bah, humbug.” I
don’t like
decorating. That’s
just me. But I do,
and, once I get into it, I enjoy
it. Again, it’s
more than that. It’s
doing what you out of your heart for
God, so that people see the Light that’s in your life.
So,
these things that we’re
thankful for, do we always recognize it?
Sometimes it’s a matter of asking something from God. And, I know we covered
this over the last
couple of months, and I, we’re not going to make it.
Sometimes we don’t get what we want or what
we need, because we’re not asking for it.
And, sometimes, we’re comfortable, and don’t think
we need anything
else. Sometimes, we
need to put
ourselves before God, before God can show us what we need to see happen. Sometimes, on our own, we
don’t know. In my
mind, I can think of a lot of things I
could ask God for. But,
then I think,
“Oh, you know what? I’m
okay without
that. I’m okay
without this. I’m
okay.”
And then I don’t diligently seek after the things,
because, sometimes we
can be comfortable in life. Satan
will
allow us to have a comfortable enough life that we believe we don’t
need to
seek Him. At least
we don’t think
so. But, yet, we
have to break out of
that, because comfort is right where we like—it’s a zone we like to
stay
in. But that’s the
point where—you
listen to anyone that’s in the military, that’s in a dangerous
situation,
that’s the worst place to be is comfortable.
That’s when the enemy comes in unaware, and he does
things that you’re
not ready for. Comfortable
is not always
the best place to be. Sometimes
we have
to pull ourselves out of our comfort zone.
Sometimes we don’t ask for those things that we know
we need, spiritually,
because we know it’s going to take us out of our comfort zone. Sometimes we don’t ask God
for it, because we
know we might get it, and we might have to do something with it. So, be careful what you
ask for. Sometimes
we can ask things of God that God
doesn’t necessarily want for us. But,
yet, God just might give it to us.
So,
how do we know if we’re asking
for the right things? Matthew 6:33 But seek ye
first
the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall
be added
unto you. So,
that answers the question,
“When do we stop?” You
don’t stop until
God either says, “No,” or he gives it to you.
Paul asked three times, but God said, “My grace is
sufficient for you.”
(2 Corinthians 12:7-9) Gideon
put out
what we call the fleece test. And
that’s
a scary one. You
put something before
God that you know only God can make this happen to prove this is His
will. That’s the
one—are you ready for it? Because,
at that point, you’ve put it to God,
“God, make it in no uncertain terms that this is what You want for me.” That’s where I’ve got to
say, “If I do that,
that’s scary, because I need to be ready for that.”
God may answer one way or the other.
It may be something that I really want, and I
don’t want to give up, or it may be something that I need to go do, and
God’s
gong to hold me to it, when he answers.
That’s
a scary thing, sometimes, but it’s also a needful thing. But
God is faithful to give. In
Matthew seven, where it says if you ask,
you receive, it also compares us:
Speaking
to people, Jesus said, “You parents, being evil, know how to give good
gifts to
your children, how much more so the Father?” (Matthew 7:9-11) How much more so will God
give you what you
ask for? Sometimes,
our kids, you know,
“Can I have it? Can
I have it? Can I
have it? Can I have
it? Huh? I
want it. Can I have
it? Can I have it? Can I have it? Can I have it?” Yeah, it’s annoying, and
it’s what they do. They
keep bugging us until they either get
what they want, or we, in no uncertain terms, tell them no. I think that’s Bible,
about how we go to talk
to God. We’re a
little bit more
intelligent—at least, we should be—than our children in our
relationship with
God, than they are with us, in our maturity.
But, sometimes, in our spiritual immaturity, that’s
the way we come to
God, but, you know what? God
rewards us.
God rewards
us, anyway. So, if
we, being flesh-and-blood,
corruptible, failed human beings, who have sinned, and still know how
to give
good gifts to our children. Yet,
our
Father, he hears us, and answers us. So,
I’m really driving at this
question: Do we
recognize when God wants
to bless us? Do we
recognize when we ask
God for something, and—Parrish shared that, an example of someone
bought him
some kind of herbal supplement—he was sick; he wasn’t feeling good—and
he took
it, and he forgot all about the sickness and he supplement, and the guy
that
gave it to him, because it just went away. It
was just gone! Sometimes
God delivers us, and we don’t remember
it. Jesse talked
about the lepers; one
came back (Luke 17:12-19). Do
we
remember what God did for us, and thank Him, and worship Him, and
praise Him? Not
just a, “Thanks, God,” no. The
true, as that word is talking about, in its
language, worship, thank God for what He did for us.
Because that one came back, he came back to
thank and worship the Master, the Savior, the One who healed him from a
death
sentence, form something that kept him outside of the camp as an
outcast. You know,
for the duration of what was left
of his life, because he had this leprosy, he was an outcast. He was delivered from that. As many of the testimonies
that were shared
today, and as we read and study, the blessing, the gift that was given
for us,
and I’m going back to that. On
that day that Jesus was
crucified, when he said, “It is
finished,” that
Word that was made flesh, now we have open access to that. It says that the veil of
the Temple was
rent. The veil,
that only the priest, the
priest whose duty was to go behind that veil, to go before God, was
rent. From the day
that Jesus said, “It is finished.”
For, as it
said in First Peter, we are
referred to as a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, that we should
show forth
the praises—a peculiar people, set aside for a certain purpose, a royal
priesthood (1 Peter 2:9). Now
we have
access to something that only the priests did; only the priests could
come
before God. And
that’s something that we
have to take advantage of. As
in that
instance, the priesthood, to come before God, because sometimes our
thanks is
just as simple as that thank you for the bottle of water. There’s a time for that,
but there’s a time
to get before the throne. A
time to get
in that prayer closet. A
time to get
before God and say, “God, I praise and I worship You.”
And there’s times just to stand aloud, I don’t
care who’s around, “God, I thank You.
God, I worship You.
God, I praise
You.” And that’s
the beauty of having a worship
service here this morning: We
can do
that, because we understand that.
You
can’t stand on the street corner and do that—well, you can, but they
might
arrest you for it. But
we can do that,
here. This is our
time. Our time to
worship God. This
is our time in the altar. We
call it a sanctuary for a reason.
It’s our place where we have a praise and
worship time, sure, it has to be in decency and in order, but, if it’s
time for
your breakthrough, that’s your time to worship your God. Because, it’s not that you
can’t do it on
your own, but, sometimes having your brothers and sisters around you,
having
people of one mind, one heart, one accord I that time of worship,
that’s your
time to thank God. Because
we’re with you,
you know? If you
see someone else
getting a breakthrough, pray for them.
If you see someone else struggling with something,
pray for them. That’s
our time; our time of worship. I
didn’t have a lot, because I
knew that the Scriptures, and the things that we shared would be the
message
this morning, the things that were shared.
And I want to encourage the people that were up here
this morning to
share their testimonies. Whatever
people
are behind this microphone, besides me or Parrish, or Jesse, or Chris,
or
whoever else is giving the message.
We
don’t call them up here just for filler.
Parrish took the time to talk to each one of these
individuals who were
sharing today. We
know that these are
people that have a testimony to share.
And, sometimes—and this may be a little bit of
housekeeping, but I don’t
want anyone to miss a blessing.
Sometimes that’s the time when I’ll be, “I wish I
could sit down and
tune that out, but, oh, yeah, I’ve got to get back into the worship
service.” That’s
not the time to tune that out, because
that’s just as important as anything else that’s being shared that day. One
final Scripture: Hebrews 2:1-3 Therefore we ought
to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest
at any
time we should let them slip. For if the word spoken by angels was
stedfast,
and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of
reward; How
shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first
began to
be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him; My encouragement is that, just as the Wise Men came to find Jesus, they had the prophecy, we have the Word, as well. Talking about John chapter one: And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld Him. And that Word is in our hearts. We have it. So, as we go about our Thanksgiving and Christmastime, I encourage take now to read and study. Study the Christmas story. Read the Word. Read the whole thing, because, if you’re going to rely on what you see on the TV commercials and the Hallmark cards, and the little scriptures you get here and there, and Holiday specials. They may tell a nice story, but they don’t tell the whole thing; they don’t tell it all. They don’t tell that this Jesus was the One who was going to come and die on a cross, Who was going to die to be that sacrifice, the sacrifice that the priests offered in the Temple, for now. They could only cover sin so far. They had to keep burning that sacrifice over and over again. This is that One sacrifice that we have knowledge of. And, I’m sure that those Wise Men came to see this child, they knew the end of that prophecy. They knew what was going to happen to that child. And, as we read, we know what’s happened. We know the prophecies; we know that our life is only as a vapor (James 4:14). Our life is only as a mist; it’s here, and then it’s gone. And then eternity. Eternity’s going to be a whole lot longer than anything we can imagine in this life. So, that’s why I put in that last Scripture: “Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard
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