Open—Sam Ludvicek
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First Corinthians, chapter 2.
And verse 9.
My brother Bob was talking about.
Having our minds on things. Heavenly things.
And I take it you were looking at Revelation earlier?
We are in revelation in our local meeting, and I was struck as we've gone through Paul says that he wasn't permitted to speak to some of those things, some things she couldn't put into words.
But John tells us some of the things that he saw because he was told to.
He was told to see it and to write it down and tell us.
So we can look in there. Can we understand that, as our brother Bob was saying?
Get your head around that, but here's something that I've noticed.
In some of the dear old Saints that grow up in the systems.
Men have that are truly the Lords. They don't know much.
And there's a Bible study in Washington, IA now where?
Where most of the folks there are.
Old, in their 70s, eighties and pretty down trodden, beaten down.
Were recently oppressed by a man who was the director of the.
The maintenance facility and got away with it for a long time was abusive to these people.
Well, young man in his 30s has been coming to a Bible study Bernie Breck's place for about 6 months. Got a job there.
And he was told about it. He met some of these people. He came to Bernie's Bible study and he said.
They're so beaten down.
There's like a cloud over the place.
I want to help him. I don't know anything about. I want to help him. I want to have a Bible study there. I'm going to ask the owner if she will allow it. He did.
And there's a Bible study there.
Two weeks ago.
I showed up there with his name is Zach, Zach Moore.
And there were 20 people sitting in this room in a conference room. Half of them had Bibles. The others didn't. There were donated Bibles. A police officer who is a friend of Bernie Rex had a box of Bibles from a motel that had closed down and brought all those in there.
Oh, a hungry these folks were came to realize that most of them are the Lords.
It's a mixed company, but here's what I wanted to get to about this verse.
Talking about this many tough lives.
Wrong choices, alcohol, drugs in the past, divorce, all kinds of things. But some of these older people had gotten saved in their youth. Maybe they were Lutheran or Presbyterian, Episcopalian or something. And now that they want to learn, they want to know more.
And they want to go to a Bible study.
But when you start talking about these things.
You know that God has prepared things for you that are beyond your imagination.
That's what that says. Now the next verse says that God has revealed some of those things to us.
That much of it is beyond our thoughts, human beings.
Are pretty good at imagination. I watch my wife been doing artwork pretty good Hollywood movie makers, special effects, all the things they could create spectacular things.
Amazing things from the imagination, but this verse tells me that I can't even dream up.
Cannot imagine how spectacular those things were, so you start talking to one of these.
Dear old Saints, about these kinds of things, the things God has told us.
A little bit of a picture in Revelation, even reading as Brother Bob did what Paul said, It's so spectacular, couldn't put it into words. Dear Saints of God, do you know that's what's waiting for you? You've had a tough life, you've had a difficult circumstances. You just went through something here where there was an abusive person that was taking advantage.
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And causing harm.
Oh, they soaked it up and they wanted to hear more question after question. What else?
What is there? Do you know that God has prepared a place for you? A mansion, a dwelling place? And he's been doing it for 2000 years. Pretty spectacular.
You look at Revelation, some of the things that will be during the Millennium, as her brother brought up.
Pretty spectacular, this world and the things around, and as you get older and difficulties come, it can get pretty weary. I know that there are brothers and sisters in Christ in Ukraine right now that are pretty weary.
And there are others in this hemisphere too, in other parts of the world where it's getting pretty weary. And we look on the horizon and we wonder what's coming, what dangers are coming. If the Lord tarries, what will we?
Have to face here in America and in Canada on this hemisphere of the world.
Is God going to allow persecution to wake up the church?
Could it become more and more difficult? Perhaps it would be like our Savior.
In love and grace and mercy to gather out one last group.
Out of this country before he comes, he's certainly doing it all over this world.
You hear stories about it.
But as we were talking about these things with these folks.
It's it's simple stuff. Some of it are things that we have known most of our lives and they're hearing it for the first time. Some of these things and the joy that came across their faith talking about these things. We should talk about these things. We know that the glory of the place.
And the glory here on earth.
Is himself, but he tells us about our part in some of that.
So when you read that verse in John that says to as many as received him, to them gave the power to become the sons of God, and you read the epistle of John about sons.
You were talking about it one day recently and I said, Do you know dear ladies?
That's you.
What do you mean I'm a woman?
That's talking about being brought into a place in the days of old of that time.
There was one guy who got most of the inheritance and it was the oldest son and the rest maybe got a little bit. And if there was a very generous and loving older brother, he might share more with you later.
Jesus.
Has told us he's going to share it all with us.
And when we are called sons, we should enter into that.
That we've been brought into a place.
Just like a first born son.
Women, men into a place rare occurrences back in those days and.
Times of Abraham and even during the time of Christ there might be a strong powerful man who only had a daughter who might with the force of his power and will give an inheritance to his daughter, but it was rare that the Lord Jesus has said I'm sharing it all that I have.
All my inheritance I'm sharing with you. So trouble comes in, life is weary, and you're reaching the end of the line.
Dear brother Bernie Breck back home.
As.
People have found out in Marengo, IA that this man will pray with you.
That he will hold your hand and pray with you. And people are showing up at Bernie's auto repair shop out of the balloon because this man will pray with him what I need.
Recently, he's had the opportunity to lead two older gentlemen to Christ.
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One died very shortly after. There's one right now who trusted in Christ about a week ago.
And Bernie's going and sharing some of these things with him and showing him what's coming. There is hope. You go to meet the Savior.
People ask questions. Will I see my mom? Will I see my dad? Will I see others in there? Yeah, but it might be a while before you can tear your eyes away from your savior's face.
When you're looking at that face, you close your eyes here and you open them up, and it's him himself.
Steven saw.
The Lord Jesus opened up, however far that is, out to where He is. You let Him see it. He stood up to receive him well. When he passed from this scene, he was face to face.
So Paul does tell. He does tell us some things.
That we can lay hold of like it says here.
He says to depart us to be with Christ.
There is no waiting around.
You hear all these stories and fiction writers and that talk about waiting rooms in heaven and Saint Peter at the Gate and all of this nonsense and having to wait and maybe even go back because you're not ready.
You got to do more good deeds, all these terrible things that people come up with because they think somehow works will get you in Well, that there's no comfort in any of that. But there is comfort in sharing those things that God does tell us about and when we.
See John describing what he's looking at.
When we see him talking about what he's looking at going on the earth.
Well, hasn't Matthew 24 come alive a little bit more recently?
The first night of that Bible study in Washington.
Zach opened it up. Introduced.
Me as a friend.
And.
Said if anybody has any questions, we'll start with that and then we'll turn to a portion of the Word of God.
A little old African American lady, I could barely understand her, but her friend who was helping her, I think she must have had a stroke or something, repeated to me what she said. You know what she wanted to know is the end of the world close?
So we got to go through a bit of Matthew 24.
When you can share those things, what is just over the horizon for some of these dear old Saints?
That have been starved to death their whole lives and we have this.
Like the Old Testament story where the lepers went into the tents and had abundance and finally realized, wait a minute, we should go and share this inside the city with those starving. Well, shouldn't we do that? Shouldn't we share these things, these treasures that we have come to appreciate and know with those that are starving? Dear Saints of God.
Dear ones in Christ.
Questions sometimes about assurance of salvation.
But wondering at things Is the end near? Do I need to be afraid of what's going on? Is Putin going to bomb us with an atomic bomb?
I don't believe that scripture allows for anything like that to happen.
On our near horizon, all of that stuff that happened when I was growing up in the 60s where they had us hide under the desks in the classroom and all of that.
It was all foolishness, but that's what they did, and people were filled with fear during that time and the Cuban missile crisis and all of that.
We've got precious things that we know and we've got precious things we can share and there are people starving all around us that are the Lords.
Now we all want to reach out to those that are starving to death because they.
They have no life, they don't know Christ and they need to know Christ, and their lives are filled with desperation because they don't know Him.
That here it is.
I hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, that things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
One last thing.
My dear wife asked me one day. She said. We had this conversation about the gifts of God.
Being without repentance.
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She said the Lord gave me the gift of an artist.
When I get to heaven.
What's going to happen with that?
I don't know.
But God says it's irrevocable. So some of the gifts that you have that aren't spiritual gifts.
What's he going to do with that? It's beyond our imagination what's coming.
That it will be all around him.
I told Zebo, I said.
She said well, we're not going to be married.
And that concerns a lot of people that not given in marriage in the same way.
That and others have asked that.
I said, you know what the best that a marriage can be if you have that privilege.
You work through it and you have a marriage that is really good, the best that it's ever.
The top, the best that it is, you'll have that with everybody. Beyond that, you won't lose anything. You'll gain at all. There'll be no flesh in anybody to interfere with the relationships we will have. Brother, I will love you perfectly, and you'll love me back perfectly.
There will be nothing to Morrow it interfere with it. The same with all the dear sisters.
Perfectly nothing tomorrow, nothing to interfere with beyond our imagination.
I said to my wife. I said, you know, it occurred to me.
The scripture says, Know ye not, ye shall judge angels.
That's not judging demonic spirits.
That's judging. Like the judges in the Old Testament. That's ruling.
We've been made lower than the angels, but do you know one of the things that's prepared for you sometime in the future?
You're going to be over angels doing something that God sends you to do.
Isn't that pretty amazing just thinking about some of those things that are on the horizon 50 years from now? Not one of us.
Will probably be here.
If the Lord should carry that law, we'll be on the other side and we will know, as we are known, what a wonderful thing that awaits us to have that event take place when we pass to the other side and we see our Savior face to face. And we will be, we will know as we are known.
But while we are here, we can share the riches that we have.
And that we know with starving people that are all around us.
#5.
Unto him who loved us.
He must.
Everyone.
Dream of nature.
And his life.
And grace by a little bit.
Day before yesterday, I had a nice conversation with brother Daniel Brimlong.
And we were talking about how the God gives the song in the night and there are many nights, dark nights of the soul, difficult times. If people go through this. Life is filled with suffering, and indeed it is. I don't know how people do it without Christ.
I wouldn't want to try it.
I said, you know, brother.
I've been reminded recently that for you to get a song in the night, it has to be night first.
And I said, God does give a song of the night, and he said, what song does he give you often? Is that 1 #5?