Brian and Jacque Lother
Brian: Well, it's good to be back today.
Jacque: It is good.
Brian: It's also good to start feeling a little bit better every day.
Jacque: Stronger.
Brian: Getting our strength back.
Jacque: We are absolutely.
Brian: I don't quite have my voice back, but it's an excuse for how bad I sing.
Jacque: No, no, no. Stop it. I know it's a little tentative at times.
Brian: It's a little tentative at times.
Jacque: Thank you for your patience. Every once in a while we hit bad notes.
Brian: I think I hit a lot of bad notes, but you know the key is to cover it up.
Jacque: You've got notes to hit with your fingers and notes to hit with your voice.
Brian: I know, and sometimes they come into conflict with each other. That's for sure. That's for sure. We welcome you today. We are so appreciative of you being a part of our online community. Those of you who are around the country and different parts of the world, we are so thankful that you tune in and you connect with us. We feel as though you are part of us, you are part of this community of faith. One of the things that has happened in this time of pandemic is the church has shifted a little bit. It has adapted, which is good. God is always that way. He adapts to our circumstances, and he brings blessings when the enemy tries to steal from us.
Jacque: We grow in hard times.
Brian: Yes, we do.
Jacque: We have grown so much; learn new ways to be more effective.
Brian: Absolutely.
Jacque: It has been great.
Brian: Yes. One of the great things that has happened out of this pandemic is many churches like ours have created an online community. We are so grateful. We are actually touching many more people's lives today on a weekly basis than we were before the pandemic happened. This is how God is. He takes what Satan meant for evil and he brings good out of it. So we are so thankful that you are all connected to us, whether you are able to be here in our facility when we have in-person services, or whether you are limited by the miles between us, we are still all connected, and I'm so grateful for that.
Jacque: And I am looking forward to seeing some faces out here next week.
Brian: Yes, and kids too.
Jacque: Oh, kids back in the building. Wow!
Brian: Yes, that will be great. Yes. We have so much that we can learn from God and about God from everyday life. Every time we go outside, there are things that we can learn about God. I see God in so many ways and in so many things. Recently, we had a dear friend of ours give us a bunch of apples. I was thinking about this; an apple is an apple because it's the product of an apple tree. It's the product of an apple tree. It has a nature, and I don't even know if this is a real word, but it has the nature of apple-ness. It has the nature of apple-ness because it's an apple tree. That tree was designed by God to produce fruit. The fruit that that tree was intended by God to produce is an apple.
The Christian life is also filled, is to be filled with the spirit of Jesus. We've been looking at the verse in Luke chapter 11, where Jesus said to his disciples and those people he was teaching, how much more willing is your father in heaven willing to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask? The spirit of Jesus, when we are filled with the spirit of Jesus, we will bear his nature in the very same way that an Apple bears the nature of the Apple tree. The fruit of the spirit, the way we speak, the character that we are, or have, the attitudes and longings of our lives, these things reveal, this fruit actually reveals the tree that we are grafted into, doesn't it? It reveals who we are connected to. As I've been pondering this whole thing about Apple-ness and comparing it to godliness, because... We say this to our grandchildren and we've had it said to us; "Be a good boy" or "be a good girl." You go out and do these things to be good, and yet godliness righteousness, like apple-ness is a result of the tree that we are connected to or grafted into.
The fruit of the spirit that is described... and we are going to read this in a moment. The fruit of the spirit that is described in Galatians chapter 5, it's what I would call a composite moral portrait of Jesus. When you look at some of these, the fruit of the spirit that (30:00) Paul lists in Galatians 5, it's really a portrait of the very moral nature and character of Jesus. It's a description of the life of someone who lives by the spirit of God that dwells in them. So let's read it. It's found in Galatians chapter 5 verses 22 and 23.
Jacque: This is from the NIV. But the fruit of the spirit is love joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.
Brian: I love that last line. It's kinda like Paul is saying, you know, guys, there is no law against you loving somebody. There is no prohibition on you being at peace. God wants us to be at peace. There is no prohibition. God didn't say, no, don't be joyful, don't be full of peace, and don't be good. These things, God never prohibits. It's interesting to me. This is my opinion, but I think it's an exercise in futility to try and manufacture this kind of fruit in one's own power.
Jacque: It's impossible.
Brian: Yeah. It's like in the middle of sorrow, be happy or in the middle of anxiety or storms or all sorts of adversity, have peace, or when someone is poking you in the eye with a sharp stick, just be kind to them. When someone has stolen from you, just be good to them. Don't lose your temper and always walk in self-control. Well, again, as I said, moments ago, it's an exercise in futility to try and do all those things if we are not connected to the tree, the tree of Jesus, the tree of our father in heaven. You and I have been doing pauses. We call it the one-minute pause. Sometimes we do a 3-minute. Sometimes it's a 5-minute. Every once in a while we will even do a 10-minute. We do pauses at times, several times throughout the day.
Jacque: Our phone reminds us, oh time for a pause.
Brian: Yeah. In fact, I got a reminder right as we started the service this morning, and then I had to say to it, I already did one of my pauses early this morning. In one of the pauses that we do, there is a phrase that we say, and that phrase is this, that I am created for union with you, Jesus. I'm made by God to have a relationship with him to be one. Even in our marriage ceremonies, we say, this is a mystery, but the two have become one. It's not that we lose our individuality, but there is a very mysterious, mystery, supernatural thing that happens when someone commits to marriage and there is a pronouncement over them. This is one of the things that God wants from us, is this union. We are created for union oneness, in a sense with Jesus.
In that pause time that we do, we also go on to say, "I give everything in me for union, with you. Jesus. I give everything in me for union with you, and I need more of you, God. So fill me with more of you." We are not able to be loved and to be joyful and to be full of peace and to have forbearance and to have kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness and certainly self-control on our own, in our own flesh, in our own striving. We need Holy Spirit in us to do this. That's why it's called the fruit…
Jacque: Of the spirit.
Brian: Of the spirit.
Jacque: Another line we say in the pause, "I give everyone and everything to you." You know what, if I'm holding on to all of it, maybe all the things that cause me to lead...
Brian: To lose these things.
Jacque: To lose these things, if I hold on to all that, it's even more impossible. You have to keep giving it to the Lord.
Brian: It is. We need the spirit of God in our lives in order to produce the fruit of the spirit in our lives. I've got to tell you another story about me. I don't know if I've ever told you this story. When I was very young child, actually, we went to visit my grandma up in Winnipeg and she had this beautiful bowl of fruit on her kitchen table. The apples were so red. The bananas were so yellow. The pears, they were wonderful. I went over as a young child. I grabbed that big red apple and bid in it, and it was the worst Apple ever, because it was made out of wax. It was made out of wax, yet it looks so good. I thought to myself, "How can this look so good and tastes so bad?"
Well, apart from being filled with his spirit, and of course, we know the scripture, I've just mentioned it about how much more willing is our father in heaven to give us Holy Spirit. Apart from Holy Spirit, if we aren't filled with Holy Spirit, our attempt at righteousness is just like tying wax apples on a barren branch. That's what it's like, tying wax apples on a barren branch. There is some appearance as it were of righteousness, some kind of appearance of it, but it's manufactured from us, and it leaves a bad taste in your mouth. The only hope for real holiness is the fruit of the spirit and having Christ in us, the hope of glory. I know that as a young child, fairly young, you had a real heart for missions, and I'm sure you remember some missionary stories. I don't know if you have a favorite missionary story that you can think of right now.
I came across an interesting missionary story recently. I love missionary stories. Some of the stories of Don Nelson, for example and Ben Sweat, and of course, Danny Aust in Mexico, some of the incredible stories of some of these missionaries, and then of course, even missionaries that we may not have known personally, but we’ve read about them,
Jacque: Oh, I remember when the Ache Indians killed the Wycliffe missionaries. As a young girl, looking through Life Magazine, looking at those pictures that were so graphic, but that really stayed with me.
Brian: That was part of the influence of why you wanted to go to be part of Wycliffe. You went to Columbia right out of high school and really served through Wycliffe there. Missionary stories have always grabbed us in a sense in a part of our heart. I remember in my dad's church, growing up, we would have missionaries come through. Some of them came from Africa. The story that I just recently read was a man who was a missionary in West Africa. He was a medical missionary, which is really incredible because here is a person with medical training, and they could just stay in America and make a nice living, but they give everything they have to go bring medicine and in helping in the physical realm to people who are for the most part, impoverished.
There was this medical missionary who went to West Africa and he had been there for quite a while now, and he had established over time, not only a good hospital, but multiple churches that had been started. He was visited by his Bishop from his denomination. The Bishop asked him this question, "How long was it before you had your first convert?" The missionary responded very quickly said, "Well, it was four years before I had my first convert." He said, "The people here accepted our medicine, but completely, utterly rejected the message of the gospel." He went on to say that his first child was born shortly after he had arrived there in West Africa. When the boy was four years old, he got a jungle fever, and unfortunately he died, this little four year old boy. This missionary took the child out to a clearing, carried him in his own hands and buried him with his own hands out in this clearing.
As he finished closing the grave and he just fell on his knees and he sobbed. Four years of frustration because he had not yet had a convert, four years of hurt, and even to some degree, disillusionment flowed out of him at that moment. After while of this terrific sobbing and wailing, he looked up and he saw that the village chief had been watching him. Now, in this missionary's eyes, he felt in the very first crisis, this missionary had, he was now blubbering like a baby. He felt now, even more like a failure, because for four years, he'd been talking about the victory that we have in Christ and how we are overcomers in Christ, and I can do all things in Christ, and now he is weeping and virtually full of sorrow. The chief saw him and left. Of course, this missionary felt he was a failure, but the chief ran to the village and assembled all the people. He gathered them, and he came back to the grave site and he said, "Now we will hear your message."
The Bishop asked the missionary, "Well, what did the chief say to the people of the village that they responded and came back out?" The chief had said to the village people, "Come quickly. The missionary is weeping. He is a real man. He is a real man. "Because when this missionary showed up, he was white-skinned, blonde hair, blue eyes. To them, he was completely different. He was not relatable, yet the chief said, he is a real man. The missionary went on to explain that in the death and the pain of the loss of his son, the village saw that this missionary, he was a real human being and his humanity was unmasked. They came into the kingdom that day. Many served the Lord and committed to Christ. Thee Bishop, I found it interesting, said to this missionary, "Are you telling me that you are a little boy, your son had to die so that they could come into the kingdom?" The missionary replied, "It seems to me, that is what God did with his own son. It seems to me that that is what God did with his own son." I' would like you to read, sweetie, Hebrews chapter 5, verses 7and 8 in light of this story that I've just told, and what it really can mean when we go through suffering and pain.
Jacque: From the message Bible. While he lived on earth, anticipating death, Jesus cried out in pain and a wept in sorrow as he offered up priestly prayers to God. Because he honored God, God answered him. Though, he was God's son, he learned trusting obedience by what he suffered just as we do.
Brian: Though he was God's son, he learned trusting obedience by what he suffered just as we do. I wonder at times if we allow the suffering and the pain, the rejection, the unanswered questions, I wonder if it allows us to be pushed towards trusting obedience, or do we walk away from it? Jesus prayed, not my will, but yours be done, Lord. Being filled with Holy Spirit is the fruit of full surrender. It really is the fruit of full surrender. It's not a by-product of being slain in the spirit. You know, the courtesy drops and stuff like that, right? Again, Luke chapter 11 begins with what we call the Lord's Prayer, Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Isn't that a prayer of surrender? Isn't that a prayer of complete giving of oneself to God?
We had a dear friend many years ago. He was a good teacher of ours. He would say something like this, that there is something quite interesting about kingdoms- There aren't any without a king. There aren't any kingdoms without a king. In our mad dash to the blessing bar, if I can use that expression, because we have a tendency to do that, don't we? There are many blessings to be had. Don't get me wrong. There are wonderful blessings to be had. Remember, we used to sing this song, count your blessings, name them one... You could probably remember. Named them...
Jacque: One by one.
Brian: Use of the mic.
Jacque: Count your blessings, name them one by one. Count your blessings, see what God has done. Count your blessings, named them.... It’s the same thing. It’s the same two lines.
Brian: And there are many blessings to be had, aren't there by God and in God? We still have to remember exactly who is the Lord in this kingdom. Oftentimes, even when I hear people pray, it's like they are commanding God rather than being under the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The key that unlocks the power of the kingdom is the kingship of Christ, the kingship of Christ. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. Whenever our will is done, whose kingdom are we living in? Say it again.
Jacque: Ours.
Brian: When our will is being done we are living in our kingdom. When my will, what I want takes precedence, then I'm living in my kingdom. Of course, when his will is being done, we are living in his kingdom. I grew up in Pentecostal. I'm thankful for my roots. I think that like when you grow up in a family, you get to see the flaws of all those people in the family.
Jacque: Because we all have them.
Brian: Well, some more than others. Growing up in the Pentecostal church, I saw some of the flaws in the Pentecostal church. There are a lot of things I loved about it that is such a great blessing to me, but there were some flaws that became more and more evident the older I got. We would talk about Pentecostal power and kind of referenced the day of Pentecost with the baptism of the Holy Spirit coming and tongues and fire tongues and so forth. People were speaking and all these different people from different parts of the known world at that time, many different nationalities and people, groups, tribes, kindred tongues, and whatever, all speaking, different languages came, and they heard the gospel preach in their language, which was an incredible miracle. Yes, this gift of tongues that God bestowed that day.
The prayer that gains the full measure of Pentecost, however, is the prayer of full surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. There has to be a complete surrendering to Jesus Christ. I like to go back from time to time and watch documentaries or even movies of especially World War II. I think partly because my dad served in the military, your dad served in the military and in the war. My dad was on an aircraft carrier in the North Atlantic. Your dad was a navigator on the B17. Our dear friend, Lou Lembo, who I mentioned, I think last week, he gave me his hat that he wore at the Battle of the Bulge. Another friend, Ward McGill, who was injured in the European theater shot. We have friends and family that were really connected to this war. Even though we weren't alive, I enjoy watching a lot of the videos from it.
It's interesting when you look at the, the war, that's now coming to an end or close in 1945. The world could see that the Axis armies were not going to actually be able to win this war. It was very interesting that the allies basically took this posture that the Axis armies had to have complete and unconditional surrender, complete and unconditional surrender, because that's the only kind there is. Nobody would have said stood for, well, okay, you can keep half of tanks and half of your bombers and half of your this and all this because after a year or two, they would have just probably resurrected again. The requirement was complete and unconditional surrender. I believe our father in heaven, longs to pour his Holy Spirit into ready vessels, but there is that term ready vessels. He wants to do that. He is trying to implore us to ask for that and to be willing to believe for that trust.
Jacque: Trust him.
Brian: Trust him for that, but I also believe that these vessels need to be vessels that he owns, that belong to him; vessels that are surrendered to him, surrendered to him.
Jacque: Completely.
Brian: Yes. There can't be exceptions to surrender. There are exceptions to a negotiated peace. That's what we see happening in the Middle East. If you give me this, I'll give you that. That's what you call a negotiated peace, but there is no negotiation in surrender. In full surrender, one surrenders. There is no negotiation. There are no bargaining chips, well, I'll do this. I'll do that. I've been thinking about this question. Why should we surrender everything to our father in heaven? Why should we do this? You talk to someone on the street and we say, “You need to surrender to the Lord.” Why should I do that? As I began to think and ponder about that question, I thought I would like to answer that question, actually with some questions. If we could throw out some questions to people, it might get them to ponder why we all should surrender to our father in heaven.
Here's the first question. How much loving kindness is forever? How much loving kindness will there be, or is there for it to be there forever? How much mercy is there when it comes every morning?
Jacque: Brand new.
Brian: How much mercy is there when it comes every morning? How much love is there when giving one’s life is the only solution for the problem? How much love is there when giving one's life is the only solution to the problem?
Jacque: As Jesus gave his life.
Brian: How graceful is God's grace? How graceful is his grace? How much love did it take to save humanity? Well, the answer to that is it took it all. It took it all. Every single bit of love that God had is what it took to save humanity, because nothing was held back, nothing was held back. Nothing was held in a reserve account over here somewhere. Nothing was kept for another day. Well, I'm going to hold this back for another day. There was nothing that was spent on something else that we don't know about. It was all spent and it was all spent in a single day at the cross. That's why we sing at times, because this is an admission of my humanity, but I'll never know how much it costs to see my savior on the cross. God shows me little by little, and I have more understanding of that today than I did 40 years ago, but my humanity is not able to completely comprehend how much love God gave to save me, to redeem me.
Jacque: Jesus gave his all. He surrendered his all for us.
Brian: He gave his all at the cross. When with his last breath, he cried out in a loud voice, "It is finished" or "It is completed", he gave everything. He gave everything. That is why I believe you and I, you and I, sweetie, that's why I believe we should surrender everything to our father in heaven, because he gave everything. He gave everything that we can't even measure. I would just ask you, who are watching today, will you surrender today? Will you surrender to this King of Kings in this Lord of Lords who isn't just asking you to bow down and kiss his feet and serve him? He is asking you to give him his heart because he has given you all of his. He has given you everything that he has to give. I surrender, actually to God several times a day. Maybe it's because I need to. Maybe it's because I need a reminder.
Jacque: We take back things.
Brian: We do.
Jacque: We've got to keep giving...
Brian: Sometimes there are things that we don't know are there, and God does this surgery. He takes another rock out of my heart.
Jacque: He shows us. He reveals to us.
Brian: That's right. When this rock is taken out, then there is more Holy Spirit in me. I surrender several times a day, if only to remind myself whose kingdom I am a part of. It's a reminder to me of whose kingdom I am a part of. I would like to finish by reading one more portion of scripture. It's found in the Book of Psalms. It's Psalms 108 verse 4. This is such a beautiful description of what I just finished saying. How much mercy is there when it's new every morning? Let's read it, Psalm 108 verse 4.
Jacque: For great is your love, higher than the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
Brian: How great is your love, oh God? That's a question that the Psalmist is saying. It's like a rhetorical question. How great is your love? And then he answers it. It's higher than the heavens. That's why I like to go out at night and look at the night sky, because during the day, virtually all you see is the clouds in the atmosphere. But at night in the dark seasons, what do you see?
Jacque: Stars, beautiful.
Brian: Billions of stars, and the vastness of our God. It's in the darkest times of our lives that we can actually experience the vastness of God. The Psalmist says, "For great is your love, oh God. It is higher. It's more vast than the heavens, and your faithfulness reaches to the skies. So the title of my message today is, are we there yet? Are we there yet? But where is there? Are we at the place where we will say to our father in heaven, I surrender? Are we there yet? If you are not there yet, I just encourage you to go back and look at what God has done for you. Look at how much his love is for you. He didn't hold anything in reserve. He didn't hold anything back. He gave it all. He gave it all so that we could be his children and that we could receive his love, have his joy, have his peace, have his forbearance, have his kindness, have his goodness, have his faithfulness, have his gentleness and his self-control in our lives.
As we surrender, we will be a vessel that he can pour Holy Spirit into. As Holy Spirit is poured into us, the fruit of that will not be a wax apple dangling from a scrawny, dried up old branch, but it will be a fruit that produces such a beautiful taste in other people's mouths, as the fruit of the spirit is being manifest from us to them, to them. Are we there yet? Are we there? Are you there? Are you at that place where you are willing to say I surrender?
Jacque: I just think of that song we sing that comes from a verse, "Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, and he will exalt you in due time. Cast all your care on him because he cares for you."
Brian: Yes, he does. I would like to pray with you, and then Jacque has got a quick announcement. Father, I pray a blessing upon our friends who are watching today. I pray Lord that we will look at you and say, there is no reason why I shouldn't trust you. There is no reason why I shouldn't give everything to you. There is no reason why I shouldn't surrender to you, my Lord and my King, and then pour in your spirit in a great and powerful way. In your precious name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. We would like to visit with you just momentarily after the service. Jacque, why don't you talk to them?
Jacque: We have a chat room on Zoom and we would love to have you come. We had so much fun last week. The numbers, the meeting numbers and the password are on the screen. Go to Zoom.com, and fill those numbers in, or go to your Tuesday email, look under regular meetings, and there is a link right there. You can click on it and it will bring you right to us. I hope to see you there. It will be fun. Brian, I think back to that song, we started; I will build my life upon your love. It is a firm foundation. The fact that we can surrender to God is because we understand how much he loves us and that we can trust him. We build our lives.
Brian: How much mercy is there when it comes every morning? How much love is there when giving life is the only solution? Father, I thank you today. Let's lift our hands together. I thank you that you want to bless us, so we pray this. May the Lord bless you, and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord, make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turned his face towards you and give you his peace. May you see with the eyes of your heart, the vastness of God's love for you. This, we pray, in the name of the father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Thank you so much for being with us today. We hope to see you really soon. Take care. Bye-bye.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 11-22-20. If you would like to watch the full service, click one of the links below.