Open—Phil Barela
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Sleep well.
The.
Straight line for me, I'll drink.
Emmanuel's Land.
My.
Whatever time it was.
Glory.
I don't understand your first time.
I.
The God and Father, we thank Thee for the sentiments of this hymn.
We thank thee that in thy love and Thy perfect wisdom and the hard webbing weaving our web of life.
Weaving at our God for ultimately for the glory and honor of thy beloved Son, to think in that day He is going to be admired in his Saints and all them that believe. And we will rejoice then, Father.
00:05:05
And delight in him that he has that place he is so worthy of.
Meanwhile, we are here, still in the wilderness, we have been reminded.
And that work is still going on. Father, we thank You for it. We thank Thee for little, little evidences of it that we can see here and there that delight our souls. And now we're cast on the Our God. And Father, we do know there is that flesh within each one of us.
Who would hinder what thou would say to us?
And so we pray that.
That the thou just have. Lord Jesus says we have been reminded a word from thee for right now.
What we need for that work to go on in our souls.
That might prepare us for that blessed moment is just before us.
When we don't look for Jesus at our our garment.
But when we'll look upon my blessed face?
So we seek thy help.
A gracious undertaking, looking to thee, our God, and we trust with open hearts and open ears. We ask it in the wording and precious name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
It's really hard for me to get up here.
Being a local brother, I kind of feel like an intruder, but I hope it will.
Help us blend together a little more as our time here has been so sweet and we've heard from our brethren from different places and I just am encouraged being a local brother.
To voice a few thoughts just to let my brother know how happy we are and how encouraged we have been. All those I've talked to, so encouraged for your presence here.
And for the words that's been before us, it seems right from the start, it was something that we all needed. We all needed to have our focus on the Lord and on heaven. And you know, I was thinking there came a time right down there at the end that the Lord said to the disciples, he said, will you go away also?
Will you go away? Also, You know, there's, there's a lot of things happening, isn't there brethren?
There's a lot that are being discouraged, there's a lot that are leaving.
There's a lot are talking about leaving. There's a lot that we don't see it meeting very often. There's a lot that we don't see at the prayer meeting. Where are they? What are they doing?
Why isn't the prayer meeting an attraction to him? Why isn't it important for them to be at the reading meeting?
And we see these things happening in the assemblies, and we come to the breaking of bread. Maybe there they are.
And maybe on a, on a pretty regular schedule, they're at the breaking of bread and that's wonderful. It's one of the most wonderful meetings we can attend.
But where are they in the middle of the week?
What's going on? What's attracting their hearts?
That they're not there. They're not there.
Well, we also go away.
You know, you know, we also go away.
One of the disciples.
He says, Lord, to whom shall we go? To whom shall we go? And it is that is so good to get that down, isn't it, brethren?
If I say to you, will you go away too? Will you go away too?
Would you please hear these words of Peter's Lord? Where would we go?
I sometimes say when.
Someone leaves the assembly that I've known for years to be in the assembly, and I haven't been in it that long myself. The Lord gathered me to His precious name in 1974.
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And it just seems like yesterday. And their souls, I know when I came into the assembly, the Lord brought me into the assembly and they're not there anymore. And I sometimes say to my wife, I say, I wonder where they are. I wonder where they're going.
I've lost track of them. I never hear of them again.
They're living out the solemn epithet, the solemn truth of to whom shall we go? There's nowhere to go.
So please bear with me a little bit while while I just touch handed in our eyes and our hearts start to wander a little bit.
And then we also get occupied with things that are happening in the world. We get trouble, we get we get distracted.
And we find ourselves saying, you know, I'd like to get above this hole. I'd like to get above it all. And sometimes we choose the wrong way to get above it all. We say, oh, I know what I'm going to do. I'm going to buy me a new this or a new that. I'm going to make some real good investments and make me some more money so that I can do this or do that.
So that I can.
Get away from the trouble and be untouched by it. I can live my life like the beginning of Luke chapter 12. There's a farmer there.
And he starts to question himself. He's had a good year and like was brought before us, he even has to tear down his own barns and say I'll build bigger ones. And then I will say, relax, take thy knees.
You know, maybe there was troubles in the community, troubles in the city, troubles with the people of God, troubles in the world, and we kind of like to forget about it and get above it all. We'd like to rise. We'd like to be suspended.
Trans dental meditation, we might call it. We'd like to float.
That's a serious thing.
You know we'd like to not be touched.
By all the problems.
Because, see, when we're touched by the problems and the difficulties, there's only one place to go. Are you willing to go there?
Are you willing to find out that Jesus Christ is the only answer for us? Is the only answer you know, as I get older, it's not so much going to heaven with me anymore.
I'm glad I'm going to heaven.
But what is occupying my heart more and more and more?
Is seeing him.
We will get to see him.
And it says Jesus himself will come.
Jesus himself, Oh, I just want that to grip everyone of our hearts in this room.
We will one of these days.
We're going to get to see Jesus.
Heaven is going to be in the background, really. And really, Heaven wouldn't be Heaven, would it, if he wasn't there.
And so as we get older and as we go along, the only thing that's going to keep us is himself.
Himself, his very person. Him.
To see the Lord Jesus himself.
Polycarp before he was martyred, he said they tried to tie him, retie him and he said to the young man that was trying to retie him to the post so that they could burn him.
And he said, young man, he said, you don't need to tie me to this post. He was in his 80s. He says, I've known the Lord Jesus all my life and he's never done me wrong. You don't need to tie me to this post. I'm not going anywhere.
The man was considering who he was going to see.
And the young soldier in frustration, thrust his spear in the polycarth, and he was with the Lord.
It's it's just something to get the right perspectives, it says.
Neither be ye doubtful minded. Don't seek to be suspended. That's where Job really had a problem, didn't he? What did he say? I thought I'd die in my nest. And as our brother and have faithfully brought before us. We live in a time in in a in a country where prosperity is where every one of us rich. We're rich. We eat like kings. We have vehicles. We have homes of comfort, heat, air conditioning.
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We're rich.
And oh, it's nice. Yes, it is. And I'm not denying anybody's word that they said that, that, you know, these things are given for us richly to enjoy. Enjoy them in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ and never lose sight of his face in the enjoyment of them.
But someday we're going to be with him and may these things, as it were, take the seat they need to take, and that's the very, very, very back seat.
You know, the very backseat because.
Heaven is our home, Christ is our Savior. And Job had a problem. He said I thought I'd die in my nest. He said I wanted to die in my nest. You know, and, and if and and then there's another, another place to where?
I'm trying to recall it it's it's in the Old Testament.
It it talks about setting your, your, your nest on high and I can't recall where that verse is, but there again, it it's brought out to us that we shouldn't seek that either. Let's see.
Habakkuk chapter 2 and verse 9. Woe to him that covereth an evil covetousness to his house, that he may set his nest on high.
That he may set his nest on high, that he may be delivered from the power of evil, this is woe to him that does that.
You may seek out the wrong means and go to the wrong people to get the wrong resources to be able to set your nest on high, and it might just be that which puts you in *******.
And distracted the rest of your time here.
Stay free, stay free, keep our eyes on the Lord Jesus.
Keep our eyes on Him and what He's done for us and what He's doing for us. I was so struck that it says and all the hymns that we've been seeing have blended so nice with the thought of having our home, the Lord Jesus our Savior. This is not our rest. We don't want to get occupied with things here. The hymns have been so nice, but I was really struck with this. It says in this hymn that we sang number 77.
I will bless the hand that guided. I will bless the heart that planned, when thrown, where glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land.
Oh, we're going to be blessing him for every trial, difficulty and situation that we've ever gone through down here that has helped us to keep our eyes on him.
Don't take your eyes off of me, says the Lord Jesus. To whom shall we go, Lord? To whom shall we go? So I just leave that thought, my brother. And the meetings have been so sweet and so good. And may He encourage our hearts to go on and not get distracted. The time is just about over.