“Thankfulness Leads to Fulfilling the Word of God” By Brother Parrish Lee November 5th,
2017
I
want to, before I run off all of
you all, I want to give a praise to God for people who say it doesn't
matter
what the surroundings look like. I want to give a praise to God, for my
coworker, my co-fellowship leader, Brother Andy Giebler and his wife,
who sang
every song, led every song, even when their voices were starting to
give out.
God did not lack for any praise to be given to His holy name. Isn't
that like Saints
of God? He
Has Made Me Glad, That's Why We
Praise Him, Jesus Is a Way Maker, Blessed Be Your Name, Amazing Love,
Here I Am
to Worship; Here I Am to Worship, And How Can I Keep from Singing? How
can I
keep from giving God the praise that comes up out of me? We
had a blessed time last month.
You know, I have to say this: last month was amazing. Last month was
amazing.
Our Scripture theme, it went on, and it was that all men would know
that we are
His disciples by our love. It was a new commandment that we love one
another
(John 13:34-35). Last week, we had three ministers, they came and they
brought
word before the Lord. And, we saw an example of how you can work
together in
unity: You can have the same message, and different messages, and
different
exhortations, and different meaning, and purpose, and even veins of
love, from the
same source. It was a beautiful time, a beautiful time. And, this
month, we've
taken as a theme, from the book of Colossians, chapter one, and verse
number twelve.
We want to spend a little time. This is the Thanksgiving month, and,
you know,
this is the month that should be highlighted a whole lot. And, somehow,
it's
passed right over, because it doesn't bring in a lot of money, because
it
doesn't bring in a lot of money. You don’t send a whole lot of greeting
cards. We
don't send sweethearts things, and nobody gets the accolades, because
it's all
about giving thanks. This month should be highlighted way more than it
is. It’s
skipped over, if you notice on TV and in stores, they've already got up
what decorations?
Christmas! Christmas is already—and they've already started counting
the days
away. How many days is it before Christmas? I think they said it was
fifty-one
yesterday, or something like that. They've already put it out. Forget
about
giving thanks; they've already got this out. So, we've taken as a theme
for the
month, giving thanks, giving thanks and our Scripture thought—I’m
actually
going to ask Brother Ed Howes if he would help me with some reading
here. And
I'm asking, if you would, come up to be prepared to read from the Book
of James,
chapter five, seventeen and eighteen. But our Scripture theme for the
month is Colossians,
chapter one, and verse twelve: Colossians 1:12 Giving thanks unto the
Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of
the
saints in light: At
this time, Brother Ed—I gave
you plenty of warning, didn't I Bro? We are going to spend time talking
about
giving thanks to the Almighty, the only true and wise God, the Savior
of our
souls, the One who went to Calvary for us. The one who thinks about us,
as far
as we know, morning, noon, and night. The One who never leaves us, and
never
forsake us. He alone is worthy, the Bible says, of praise. Brother Ed,
if you
could from the Book of James, chapter five, seventeen and eighteen: James 5:17-18 Elias was a man
subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it
might not
rain: and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and
six
months. And he prayed again, and the
heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Thank
you, Brother Ed, I'm going
to ask you to do some more reading, so just sit close, if you could.
Would you
please? If
we could, I’d like to ask you
to bow your heads for just a moment. Almighty God, we thank You, we
give honor
to You, we give praise to You, and Lord, at a time when we come to
celebrate
thanks, it seems so paltry, that the world just glazes right over. And,
they
don't give You the honor and the praise that we know is due unto You.
All creation
sings Your praise, and, God, we will not come behind in this. We will
give You
honor due unto Your holy name. We are thankful for everything You have
given
us. You alone have shown Yourself worthy. You alone are worthy of
praise.
Therefore, we signify that and give unto You that which is due Your
holy name. Lord,
God, we pray at this time, as we are thankful that we could bring songs
before You,
to praise Your name, to lift You up. “How can we keep from singing Your
praise?”
The song said. We ask now, as we sing Your praises and celebrate You,
we ask
that Your word does, according to Your word, and that it return not
unto You
void, but it accomplish, as You said, exactly what You sent it to do,
to every
one of us who present ourselves before You. This, God, we lay before
You as we
pray and claim in Jesus name. Amen, amen. Giving
honor to that God, that
same God, the only God, the Savior of our souls, the Shepherd and
Bishop of our
souls, our Advocate, the True Vine, the Bible says. The Head of the
church, the
Bible says. The Lamb of God, the Bible says, the Branch, the Bible
says. Giving
honor to Him who is like no other. Giving honor to that God, this
morning. And
giving honor to all those who have come and gone before us, both in
this
ministry and in the Word of God, who have held it precious and true,
and,
therefore, we are recipients of that blessing here, today. And, giving
honor to
all of you, who present yourselves before that very same God, saying,
“God, I
come, because You alone are worthy of praise, this day.” May He
accordingly
bless your hearts and lives, as He said, according to our faith,
according to
our petition, according to our request. And, yes, we mean every single
word of
that. Every single word. Scripture
theme for today.
Scripture theme for today is from the Book of Colossians, as we said: Colossians 1:12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath
made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Giving
thanks, giving thanks, ‘giving
thanks,’ means, thanks is something that we give. It is something
tangible,
yes. It is like a gift, it is something we give, it is something we
offer. Yes,
we have the power to give thanks, and, we also have the power not to give thanks. Yes, we do. The Scripture
says, giving thanks to the Father, but the Word tells us why: Because
He has
made us meet to be partakers. Partakers. He has made us meet. Now, when
we look
up that word, meet, M-E-E-T, the way it's used here, what it means here
is, He has
enabled us. He has enabled us. Also, it also means He hasn't just
enabled us, He
has made us worthy. Or to put it even one more way: He has qualified us
to be a
partaker of the inheritance. Where we weren't qualified, where we
weren't
worthy, where we weren't enabled to, before He came along and enabled
us, He
qualified us to be a partaker. How precious that is. Sometimes, you
know, I
don't know if you've ever experienced this: You ever see somebody doing
something and you wanted to learn it so that you could know it
yourself? And,
sometimes you get around some people and they see you kind of trying to
learn
it, so that you, too, could be a partaker, and they kind of stop,
because they
don't want to learn, they don't want you to be a part of that. Some of
some of
you have experienced it. I have experienced it. And they say, “Job
security.” Yeah,
yeah. But, the Lord has made us, He has enabled us to be a partaker, He
has
qualified us. He is not holding it back from us. Thank You, Lord. I
thought,
with this theme of us being thankful today starts in the Old Testament
and we
wanted to have Brother Ed come up and read that. And, it takes place
when
Israel, or God's people, they had kings that reigned over them. They
had kings
and kingdoms, and the king was the one that was responsible. They had
asked for
kings to be. Kings came in to be. They had kings to reign over them.
They had
prophets to prophesy to them. Kings to reign over them, prophets to
prophesy to
them. It was quite a time; it was quite a time. At this particular
time, there
was a king who was over the land, and this king's name was Ahab. Now
the Bible
talks about this guy, it talks about Ahab, and all this is for a
reason. All
this is for a reason. In fact, the title of today's message is,
"Thankfulness leads to fulfilling the word of God, the will of God.
Thankfulness leads to fulfilling the will of God.” Now Ahab was the
king over
the land, and the Bible says there was nobody like him who sold himself
to do
evil. He sold himself to do evil. He didn't just do evil. He tried to
see how
evil he could be. Ah, he was trying to exceed, and excel at being evil.
Yeah,
that Ahab. After all, he was king; who was going to take him down? His
will was
the will of the land. And, there was a prophet, as a prophet that was
sent. And,
we find that this particular prophet—we’re going to go to the Book of
First
Kings, chapter seventeen. We’re going to be doing some reading in the
Old
Testament, this morning. This prophet prayed, and there was no rain, as
in the Scripture
that you read. If you would come in, and ask you to read from First
Kings, chapter
seventeen, we're going to start at verse number one, just read verse
number one
for right now. And this is part one of a three-part message. Part one
is simply
there is assignment in adversity: Part 1: There
Is Assignment in Adversity. First
Kings, chapter seventeen,
verse number one: 1 Kings 17:1
And Elijah the Tishbite, who was of
the
inhabitants of Gilead, said unto Ahab, As the LORD God of Israel
liveth, before
whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but
according to my
word. Thank
you, Brother Ed, don't go
too far, there's more to come. But Elisha the Tishbite told him there's
not
going to be dew nor rain for these years, years without rain. We kind
of had a
little situation up around this part of the state, this part of the
county.
Actually, these couple of towns up here. It was, I don't know, right
around
June or July, right around there, where we had some flooding. We had so
much—I don't
know about you, but I was trying to get to work, I work out West. I was
trying
to get to Round Lake. Washington was flooded. Grand was flooded one
twenty was
flooded. So, I said, ‘I’ll go over to Buckley,” Buckley was flooded,
and it was
all flooded; it was all flooded! Anybody remember that? There was
flooding in
the land and we thought all this is crazy, this is crazy, there's so
much
flooding. Well, the flooding died down; thank You, Lord. Thank You
Lord. And
then come September, come August and September, we had a drought. It
seemed
like it would have been nice if could have been reversed, if we have
had the
drought first, and then had all that flooding, all that water to help
nourish
those crops, and if you could have gone past all of that land you could
have
seen some these crops were starving for water, so many of those crops
were
starving for water, when, just a few months earlier, we couldn't have
places to
put all that water. Seems it was a little reversed. Well, back here, in
the
time of Israel, they had a time here, where the heavens were shut up of
rain
because the prophet prayed. Now, what is it like when Heaven is shut up
from
showering down its blessing on you? What is it like when Heaven itself
is
closed from the blessing of God coming on you? And you would think, you
would
think, if anybody was going to be a partaker of the blessing, it would
be God's
people. They should be a partaker of this blessing. The blessing that
comes
from Heaven. Rain to fertilize and to nourish their crops. But, the
truth of
the matter is, there is purpose in the pain. There is purpose in this
pain. The
truth is, there is teaching in this trial. The truth is, there is an
answer in
this affliction. The truth of this matter is, there is assignment in
this
adversity. This is all for a reason, this is all for a reason. From the
Book of
First Kings, chapter seventeen, versus eight through fourteen. If I
could get
you to read again. Brother Ed. And going over this message, it was just
bristling with me, and, then, last night, as I was working on the
message, more
of it, and Brother Malcolm calls, and I tell you, you've got to
appreciate Brother
Malcolm. You’ve got to appreciate the brothers and sisters that have
got a walk
with God. You got to appreciate them. He said, "I'm sorry, I don't know
why
I called you. I just set the phone down, and it dialed you for some
reason. But
since it dialed you, let's have a prayer.” And you might think, "Well,
it’s
12:30 at night and we're going to have one of those mellow sleep-going
prayers.”
Anybody know how Brother Malcolm prays? “Oh, God, we're asking for a
blessing
from Heaven. Oh, God, You've got more for us.” You’re wide awake.
You’re wide
awake, looking for God to do something. Hallelujah, thank You, Lord.
Because,
it was like being shot out of a cannon. It was like being shot out of a
cannon.
Thank You, God for the blessing that You give, without partiality,
liberally
let the people be blessed when we ask. From the Book of First Kings,
chapter seventeen,
verse number eight through fourteen. 1 Kings 17:8-14 And the word of the
LORD came unto him, saying, Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which
belongeth to
Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to
sustain
thee. So he arose and went to Zarephath.
And when he came to the gate of the city, behold, the widow woman was
there
gathering of sticks: and he called to her, and said, Fetch me, I pray
thee, a
little water in a vessel, that I may drink. And
as she was going to fetch it, he called to
her, and said, Bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, As the LORD thy God liveth, I
have not a cake, but an handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil
in a
cruse: and, behold, I am gathering two sticks, that I may go in and
dress it
for me and my son, that we may eat it, and die. And
Elijah said unto her, Fear not; go and do
as thou hast said: but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring
it unto
me, and after make for thee and for thy son. For
thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The
barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail,
until the
day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth. Thank
you, Brother Ed. So, the
word of the Lord came to the prophet. Now, it's a famine going on right
now, because
there is no rain. And, the Bible said, as we read in the Book of James,
it was
for three years, three and a half years, there was no rain. And, this
was in
the midst of it, this was in the midst of no rain coming from Heaven.
And, God
told the prophet, “I’ve seen a little widow woman; she is going to
provide you
sustenance. Why not the king? Why not the house of the treasury, where
there's
plenty of food? Or, for some people who got plenty. No, God sends him
to a
lowly widow woman who just has a child, and, "She's going to sustain
you,
Elijah.” So, as he goes to her, he finds her. And, he says, "I pray
thee,
make me just a little something. A little something, something,
something. And
the widow woman says, "You know what, man of God? Sometimes that would
be,
you know, a good thing to do, because I know it's an honorable thing to
offer
to those who come into your house.” You want to be polite. You want to
offer
them something. You know, you want to be a good host, "But, man of God,
I
ain't even got very much. All I was going to do right now was just make
this a
little bit for me and my family and then that's it. It's all we've got,
and
then we die, we die.” And, this is the widow woman that God sent the
prophet
to. You would think, “Must be a mistake.” You would think, “What is the
purpose
in this? What is the purpose in this pain? What is the answer during
this time
of affliction? What is the teaching in this trial right here? What is
the
assignment, here, in this adversity?” And the prophet told her, "Do as
you
said you were going to do, but feed me first, because I am telling you
by the Word
of the Lord, God is going to keep you. That little barrel of meal and
that
little cruse of oil that will not fail you.” Now, all this widow woman
would
have known—she wasn't a professor. She wasn't royalty. She wasn’t none
of that.
She was just a little woman set aside, all she had was her and her son,
and God
called her. God called her out of all of Israel to sustain the man of
God. All
she knew was what God had provided for her up to that point. That's all
she
knew. And, she knew she didn't have anything else but that. But, all
she had
was a promise from God. Just a promise, just a promise. So, she did as
God said
for her to do. “I ain’t looking for nothing else. I don't have anything
else,
but what You tell me. I can't see it right now, I only have my faith
that You
are going to come through for me. God, that's all I've got.” That is
the
assignment in the midst of adversity. Now, there was no Walmart, no
Jewel-Osco,
there was no government cheese, there wasn’t all that. There wasn't
anything
else but a promise. And you know what, when you are founded on God, a
promise
from God is enough. When you’re founded on Him, all you need is God to
tell you,
"This is what it's going to be, if you trust me. This is what I'm going
to
do for you, if you trust me. I will keep you. You ain't got to worry
about
nothing else. I, the Lord, Your Lord, will do it for you.” If you trust
Him. When
you trust Him, that's how God comes through for his people when you
trust Him. So,
though the Heaven was shut up from showering down its blessing, the
Heaven was
shut up from showering down its blessing, this whole thing, this whole
ordeal
is not over. This is just the midst of it. So, her, yes, her and he,
yes, him
too, they both had an assignment in the time of this adversity. Part 2: We
Can't Let Anyone
Else Belittle Our Blessing. We
can't let anyone else belittle
our blessing. Ed, if you would, I am going to ask you—I’m thankful. I
am
thanking you for being such a willing spirit—but, I’m going to ask you
to read
from First Kings, chapter eighteen, and verse number one, and then
we're going
to read further down: forty-two through forty-four. We can't let anyone
belittle our blessing. First Kings eighteen, one: 1 Kings 18:1
And it came to pass after many days,
that
the word of the LORD came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew
thyself
unto Ahab; and I will send rain upon the earth. And
then, verses forty-two through
forty-four: 1 Kings 18:42-44
So Ahab
went up to eat and to drink. And Elijah went up to the top of Carmel;
and he
cast himself down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees,
And said
to his servant, Go up now, look toward the sea. And he went up, and
looked, and
said, There is nothing. And he said, Go again seven times. And it came to pass at the seventh time, that
he said, Behold, there ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a
man's
hand. And he said, Go up, say unto Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get
thee
down, that the rain stop thee not. Thank
you, Brother Ed. Chapter eighteen,
verse one: “And it came to pass after many days, that the word of the
LORD came
to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, shew thyself unto Ahab; and I
will
send rain upon the earth.” Part
two is, we can't let anyone
belittle our blessing. This is point number one in this: Point 1:
Show Yourself. God
said, show yourself in the
midst of adversity, that's not the time to be a shrinking violet. It's
not the
time to go, hide, put your tail between your legs and run for the
hills. That's
not the time to be afraid for somebody to come over and ask, “Why this
all did
come upon you?” that is the time to let your light shine. That is the
time to
say, “God is God, no matter what the situation, He's God in victory,
He's God
in the valley. He's God on Sunday. He's God on Monday. He's God on hump
day. He's
God on Saturday. He's God all by himself and He is my God. He is my
God. These
little peripherals that I'm going through right now, that’s nothing to
Him.”
And, there's always going to be a purpose in my pain. If I'm going to
be
spiritual about this thing, I'm going to find the purpose in my pain.
If I'm
going to be spiritual about this, I'm going to find the teaching in my
trial.
If I'm going to be a man of God about this, yes, I'm going to find my
answer in
my affliction. Show yourself. See,
this is where weak, weaker
and plastic Christianity, not real Christianity, this is where they get
it
wrong. Because, God, the depths of Him, what He wants us to have is
immense. And
He doesn't want to just cover it over, and say it's going to be all
right. He
wants us to know that we can be a partaker, yes, a partaker of his
sufferings.
Yes, yes, yes. God wants to fill us with victories and blessings, yes,
but, He also
wants us to know that if He shuts up heaven, if I go through the
valley, that I
can trust Him, that's what He wants us to know. He's God He is God up
high.
He's got down low. He's God all the time. He's God. And, you see, if
weaker
Christianity would make you think, "Oh, if you're going through a
battle, oh,
you must not be godly. There is no purpose, except that you're evil.
Oh, God
done left you.” That's what weaker Christianity is saying. But, the
Bible says
that—this is important; I need to say this just right—The Bible says
that all
things work together for the good when we love Him (Romans 8:28), so,
you know
what that means? That means that if you are going through something,
and you
love Him, God knows it. He must be working it out for you. It must be
for our
good. If we're going through something, and we love Him, all things
work
together for the good. He must be working it out for me. All I got to
do, is know
that God is working it out. I'm going through something; God is working
it out.
I'm going through—God is working it out. And, He said that He will
withhold no
good thing from those who walk upright. If I walk up right, God ain't
going to
hold my blessing back. And, if God be for us, who can stand against us?
(Romans
8:31) Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I’ve got the victory already, just
waiting for it
to be manifest. Already won, I am just waiting for my eyes to see it.
My heart
knows it; I'm just waiting for my eyes to see it. Point number
two—point number
one was, don't hide, show yourself. Point Number
2: There
is something that happens
here that we've got to take note of. See, here, we read that, according
to the
Bible, it says that the prophet prayed seven times. Now, we know that
the
number seven is the number of completion; we know that it’s the number
of completion.
But, now-a-days, you know, when you say that you invite people to a
prayer
meeting, you tell people you're going to pray on it, especially if
they're not
church-going type people, you mention that, and they're like, "I didn’t
ask
for all that, talking about prayer? Look, change the subject.” They
look at you
like you're crazy. “Talk about something else.
Don't bring up this prayer, religious, Jesus-God thing.”
But, there's
something about God's people, that they know that when God's people
pray, when God's
people get down on their knees and pray, you know what happens: The
devils say,
"Uh-oh, they’re praying now. Uh, oh, I thought I had him, but they
turned
to the Almighty. Uh-oh, I ain't got no defense against that.” When I
get sick,
when anybody gets sick, and they trust in God, and they turn to Him,
the
sickness says, "Uh-oh. Oh, we have an expiration date right now,
because they’ve
done turned to God in prayer.” A situation comes up that I can't make
my bills,
and I start praying about it. Financials say, "Uh, oh, they started
praying. You know what that means? God's going to answer. And if God be
for His
people, who can be against them?” That's how that works. We pray; God
answers. I
thoroughly enjoyed Brother Kenny's
testimony last week. He said, "You know, I've got to tell this to
everybody.” He said he had a situation where his business—and he has a
big
business. I’ve visited a couple of his shops. He's got those great big
boats,
you know, I don’t know if they have a fancy name, I would just call
them
yachts, but I don't know. They’re huge, you know, I was on a ship, but
that was
a military deal. I've never been on something that people paid real
money for,
and those things, those things are big. But anyway, he's a business
man, and he
handles that. He has all kinds of maintenance, repair, buying, and
selling, the
whole thing, and he needs room for it. And Brother Kenny said the place
that he
had, the city or the county, whoever owns it—I forget how you said it,
Kenny—but,
he said they came forth, and they said, "You got to get out. It's
over.”
Is that right? Ninety days, ninety days. And you didn't have any power
over
them. Is that right? He shared it last week. Didn't have any power over
it. So,
what happened? Kenny said, "And, I prayed, I prayed, I prayed.” And
people
saw that, and said, "What good is that going to do?” And to sum that
whole
thing up: The answer came back, nobody would have believed it. The
answer came
back, "Oh, you've got three years.” Three, from ninety days. Something
that can affect his livelihood. Something that’s going to affect his
money.
Something that's going to affect his retirement. Ninety days. Now it's
three
years. And, then, Brother Kenny did what we're supposed to do, he said,
"I
gave thanks to God, and I told everybody. This is a marvelous thing
that the
Lord has done for me.” And,
we have but one more example.
And that example is, we had some land, our ministry had some land on
Forty-One.
We've been looking to get it sold, and, then we decided to have a
ministry-wide
prayer. “God, hear our plea. God, hear us.” And, when God's people
prayed, ten
years, ten years had gone by. One month of God's people praying, and
God
answers. All of the sudden, we got an offer, they're doing due
diligence. And
God, lets you know, “It ain't over, so, don’t you stop in the middle of
this
victory. You pray all the way through. When I give deliverance, don’t
you throw
up your hands, and get lazy, and say ‘I kick up my feet, and God's got
it.’”
No, no, no, no, no, no. You should show earnest, what they call due
diligence.
Earnest prayer. Point Number
3. Point
number three, the Bible says
after seven times the servant came back in chapter eighteen verse
forty-four: “And
it came to pass at the seventh time, that he said, ‘Behold, there
ariseth a
little cloud out of the sea, like a man's hand.’ And he said, ‘Go up,
say unto
Ahab, Prepare thy chariot, and get thee down, that the rain stop thee
not.’” And,
if we read verse forty-two, as Ahab went up to eat and drink, but
Elisha went
up to the top Mount Carmel. And cast himself down to the earth and put
his face
between his knees. He put his face between his knees, and he told his
servant...
Cast himself down to the earth, told his servant go look out towards
the sea.
From the servant came back and said, there is nothing. In the second
time, go
look towards the sea. I don't know how far away the sea was. It doesn't
matter.
It said he had his face between his knees in prayer. Told him the third
time, go
look towards the sea, and the servant came back and said, I don't see
anything.
Told him the fourth time, go look towards the sea. I don't see
anything. Told
him the fifth time, go look towards the sea. This whole time, the
prophet is
praying. Told him the sixth time, go look towards the sea, he said, I
don't see
anything. Told him the seventh time, go look towards the sea. And the
servant
comes back and says, "Well, I do see a little cloud. It's about the
size
of a man's hand.” And that’s the description from the servant, okay?
Now, we
know that the size of a man's hand could be powerful if God's in it, a
man’s
hand. I mean, it was a man's hand that touched a bier, a little bier
where the
only son of a mom was going to be buried, and a hand touched the bier.
And the
voice said, "Young lad, arise,” and the lad arose. It was a man's hand
that made spittle on the ground and anointed the eyes of a blind man,
and the
voice told him to go and wash, and he came forth seeing. It was a man’s
hand
that had to show the disciples, when a disciple couldn't believe.
“Thrust your
fingers through the hole in My hand, and believe that I have done this
thing
for you. I am He.” It's a man's hand. Yeah, the servant saw, “It's just
a little
cloud.” But, the prophet said, "Get up, go tell the king he has to
hurry
up, because there is an abundance of rain, and don't let it stop you.”
So, the
prophet who's been praying is praying, and the servant who knows the
prophet,
knows and sees the way of God in his life comes back with just a—just
this
little blessing. “I see a little old thing out there, but it's only yea
big. I
mean, it's a cloud, but it's only that size.” Now, why couldn't the
servant see
what the prophet saw? Well, that’s simple: The servant wasn't the one
praying; he
wasn't the one asking God. The prophet was the one that was in tune. He
was the
one that could see that God had something coming. The servant could
not. And,
so from that, we hear of the abundance of rain. You can't let somebody
who's
not praying come back and tell you about a little blessing. Because,
it's a
cloud. Who makes the clouds? If you get an inkling, a spark, an iota,
an atom
that God is moving, God is moving. You don't need to have thundering
and
lightning and coming in a gigantic image or anything; He's God. If He's
moving,
God's moving. So, we have to be thankful, we have to be thankful for
what, some
might say, are little blessings. Brother Andy asked around, and said,
what do
you thankful for this morning? Somebody said, I think they said, "I'm
thankful
for waking up this morning. I'm thankful for the things.” You know
what? those
are little things. If you had something to eat this morning, thank You,
Jesus! if
your eyes opened this morning, thank You, Jesus. If you walked across
the floor
this morning, thank You, Jesus. If you are able to talk and your mouth
can open,
and you can sing a praise to Almighty God, thank You, Jesus. If you
know the
truth in God this morning, Almighty God, thank You, thank You, thank
You! Amen!
Glorious God. And our last part: Part 3. We
Have Need of Patience We
have need of patience. And it’s
three points in this last part. Point Number
1: God's People Must Be Cognizant. We
must be aware of how much power
we hold. God's people must be aware of how much power we hold. At the
beginning
of this sermon, we saw that the prophet prayed, and it shut up Heaven.
And we
see later on in the message that the prophet prayed again, and Heaven
opened
up. Did you know that the Saints actually have the ability to start and
stop
their own blessings? We have the power to do that. I have the power to
stop
myself from being blessed, and I have the power to start myself being
blessed.
In fact, the times that the blessings have stopped in my life, and I'm
sure
other people can agree, I can usually trace it back to a single thing
that I
did. I can say, "Oh, you know what? I never repented of that. I got mad
at
somebody and I barked at them, because I thought I was right. I’m
right.” And
that shuts up the blessings that come to my life. I got real selfish. I
mean, ungodly
selfish. I'm selfish anyway, but I got ungodly selfish. Yea, yea, yea,
yea, yea?
I lied, I stole, I manipulated something, yeah, yeah, yeah, that's when
the
blessings stop. I was thinking only about myself. That's when the
blessings
started stopping in an area. I repented. That's when blessings started
again. I
tried to give more to somebody who was a little less fortunate than
myself, the
blessings started again. I listened to God on how to minister, and,
where blessings
started all over again. The Saints have the power to start and stop
their
blessings; that is a lot of power. That's point number one. Point Number
2. Don't Let
Anything Stop Us from Being Thankful. Brother
Ed, if you could turn to
Romans, chapter one, and verse twenty-one. Don't let anything stop us
from
being thankful. Don't let anything, anything at all, stop us from being
thankful. If you would come, Brother Ed, from the Book of Romans,
chapter one, verse
number twenty-one: Romans 1:21
Because that, when they knew God, they
glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in
their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Because
when they knew God they
glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful. Because of this, the
Bible
says they became vain in their imaginations, and their heart became
dark. Don't
give God the glory. Don't give God the thanks. And now my thoughts
become vain
and my heart gets dark. I could trace that right back, I could trace
that right
back to when I didn't give God the glory. I can trace that right break
back to
when I stopped being thankful. And First Corinthians, chapter ten,
verse ten: 1 Corinthians 10:10
Neither murmur
ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Did
you know it’s a sin to just
sit up and complain about stuff? It's a sin to just, “I complain about
this. I
don’t like that.” That’s a sin. It’s a sin to murmur and complain.
Because the
people murmured and complained, they met with destruction, God had to
wipe that
whole thing out. Complaining about it. Point 3: Last Point. Somebody
said, "Finally.”
Last point. For any of us who have ever been in a predicament and the
evil one has
told us that God isn't going to give us an answer, or not going to come
through
for us, considering that God has left the building. You know what we
have to do
for that? We've got to shake that off. We cannot receive that in our
house.
Shake it off, and remember who God is. The evil one will come along
lying to
you. But we will remember that He is a rewarder of those who diligently
seek Him
(Hebrews 11:6). Psalms, chapter thirty-four, verse nineteen. The Bible says: Psalms 34:19
Many are the afflictions of the
righteous:
but the LORD delivereth him out of them all. Yes,
yes, the Lord delivers them
out of them all. All we have to do is look back over our lives and see
how many
things as God has been delivering us from, all our lives. All our life,
God has
been delivering us from things that we don't tell people about, things
we kept
hidden. Things that, "Oh, if they only knew, good gracious alive. Thank You, Lord, but let's keep that one down
low, low, low, low. Yeah, many are the afflictions of the righteous,
but the
Lord delivereth him out of them all. Hallelujah, thank You for
delivering us
out of them all, God. Thank You, even when we're going through, "I
ain't
delivered yet, but I know I'm going to be. I know You're going to do
it. I'm
thankful for the promise. Thank You, Lord.” And the Bible says in the
Book of
Hebrews chapter ten. Our last scripture. Our very last scripture. The
Book of
Hebrews, chapter ten, verses thirty-five and thirty-six: Hebrews 10:35-36
Cast not
away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompence of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye
have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. We
have need of patience that
after we have done the will of God we might receive the promise. The
will of
God, patience, and the promise, that's how it rolls. The will of God,
patience,
and the promise. Amen. Let's give the Lord a praise.
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