MASTERPIECE No. 28
Counting the Costs
Sunday Morning, October 16,
2005
Rev. Brian Kocourek
1. This morning
we will continue with our study of brother Branham’s sermon called The
Masterpiece, and we will pick up at paragraph 31 and read.
2. THE MASTERPIECE PP.
31 64-0705 But then, one of the main things that
interests me in Forest Lawn was Michelangelo's, the great sculpture, the
4.
PP. 32. I like art real well. I believe God is in art. I believe God is in
music. I believe God is in nature. God's everywhere. And anything that's contrary to the original is a perversion. God is in
dancing, not the kind of dancing you do here, but when the sons and daughters
of God are in the Spirit of God (See?), that's dancing. But like I had to
contend with till 2 o'clock this morning up there in the lane, that's the
perversion of it.
5.
PP. 33 But this masterpiece that
Michelangelo had made, it cost him
something to do that. He was a great man. And it cost a big part of his life, because he was many, many years in
carving out.. Just take a rock of marble and keep carving it. Only the man, the sculptor himself has in
his mind what he's trying to do; he's the one. You might walk up and say to
him, "What are you pecking on that rock for?" To the outsider who
doesn't know what's in his heart, oh, it's nonsense. But to the man, the
sculptor himself, he's got a vision in his mind, what he's trying to make, and
he's trying to reproduce what he has on his mind in the form of a monument. And
that's the reason he's picking it out of the rocks.
7. Now, I like this last
thought Brother Branham said, so much so, that I would like to take our
thoughts from it this morning. Notice he said, Only the
man, the sculptor himself has in his mind what he's trying to do; he's the one And
I think so many times we as humans have a tendency to criticize too much. Many times we see someone do something that we
just don’t have the mind for, and we think that person is crazy or we do not
think much of what they are doing, and most of the time it is because we just
don’t have the patience to sit back and watch.
8. And so we hear brother
Branham say that it cost Michelangelo something to sculpture out of this great
marble stone, the likeness of Moses. It cost him a great deal of his life, and
his energies, and his focus, and his finances to do this piece of art. And he would not have done it if the
end-result was not worth it to him. And He would not have continued in his work
if he had no vision of what that end-result was going to be. Therefore he had
to have something in his mind that was worth every minute of his time, and
every dollar of his finances, and every lost social opportunity, and every lost
job opportunity. Yes, every time a different job opportunity presented itself,
he had to weigh that opportunity against a certain value that he gave to this
project that he was working on.
9. The Scripture tells us, “Sons of God are led
by the Spirit of God”, and sometimes when God is leading you to do a
certain thing for Him, God doesn’t tell anyone else about it. That thing is
between you and God alone. And since others do not have that same leading concerning
the task you have been led to do, then they also have no interest in it and
therefore place no value in it, and a very little value in it. And that is
where we have problems as a Christian community. Because you feel God wants it
done, and you feel that God wants you to do it, you can’t understand why no one
else feels the same way you do about it.
10. Let’s take Noah for an
example. God told Him something that he did not tell to the rest of the world.
He told Noah that the world was going to be judged, and the judgment would come
in the form of rain. Now, It had never rained before that time, so this was
totally against all nature and even against all science up to that time. But
Noah felt that God had entrusted to him a very important thing to do. And he
spent 120 years of His Life building an ark up their in the mountains. And His
spare time preaching to the people of the oncoming storm of judgment.
11. Now, God had not told the
people this great secret. He told it to Noah alone. And so the people thought
Noah was a very strange character indeed. And they could no more understand why Noah was
building this great ship up there in the mountain’s than they could understand
that one day everyone of them would perish in the oncoming flood.
12. Therefore the people
looked upon what Noah was doing with a different sense of value concerning his
actions than he held concerning them.
13. Moses and Pharaoh both
looked out the same window and each held a completely different opinion of what
they saw. Moses saw The Children of the Promise, but Pharaoh only saw
mud-dobbers.
14. And the problem we have
in our Christian community so many times
is that we do not hold the same value to things as one another may hold. We
don’t seem to have the same mind about what is important and what is not
important, and because of this we do not value what others might value. And
this then leads to a feeling of rejection and discomfort.
15. During times like that,
when we are the one who is feeling the leading to do a certain thing and we get
no support morally, financially, or spiritually from others in our Christian
Community, we can find ourselves wondering why no one else sees the importance
of what you are being led to do. But since you have that leading, and with it a
sense of value in that thing you are being led to accomplish for the Kingdom of
God, then you can also feel a bit put out or even turn inward and away from the
very ones that perhaps God is leading you to help.
16. How many times we hear
of people who without selfish motives or any motives of personal gain, we find
people going somewhere to help a certain people, and as it turns out those
people that are the recipient do not feel the same way as the one who has felt
to the calling to go. How many times have we heard of the missionary who felt
God’s leading to go only to return feeling completely rejected by those they
had been sent to go and help.
17. God’s ways are not our
ways, and His Thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
18. In ISAIAH 55:8 we
read, “For my thoughts [are] not your thoughts,
neither [are] your ways my ways, saith the LORD. 9 For [as] the heavens are
higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts
than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven,
and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth
and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: 11 So shall
my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper [in the
thing] whereto I sent it.”
19. Therefore many times it
seems that we must things alone because no one else seems to feel the way we
do, nor do they express a leading to do what we feel a leading to do. And many
times we just can’t seem to understand why. Well, the reason is because that is
the way God operates. He gives one a job to do, and expects that person to do
it.
20. God is not like we are.
You tell one of your kids that you want them to go and do a certain thing, and
the next thing you know they have told their younger brother or sister that dad
wants all of us to do this certain thing. But you didn’t tell that child to go
tell your brothers and sisters to do such and such. You told that kid himself
to do it. So why do we then want to get everyone else involved in what we alone
have been commissioned to do?
21. I think the answer is
in our value system. If we are doing it for God then we believe it is important,
and if it is important and valuable, then we feel that everyone else should
think it is important and valuable as well, but is it? You know the older I get
the more I realize that God is a God of variety and he makes everyone just as
different as he makes snow flakes different. And what you might think is very
important the next guy doesn’t even have a clue about what it is that you feel
is important.
22. Now, if we believe that
God is sovereign, then if God wants you to go someplace and do something for
Him, that is between you and God. Peter learned this from Jesus one day after
Jesus had raised from the dead, and met him and the other Apostle by the sea
shore.
23. We
fid the story told in JOHN chapter 21:12 Jesus saith unto them, Come and dine. And none of the
disciples durst ask him, Who art thou? knowing that it was the Lord. 13 Jesus
then cometh, and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. 14 This is
now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his disciples, after that he
was risen from the dead. 15 ¶ So when
they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me
more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee.
He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. 16 He saith to him again the second time,
Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest
that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. 17 He saith unto him the
third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he
said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou
knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed
my sheep. 18 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, When thou wast young, thou
girdedst thyself, and walkedst whither thou wouldest: but when thou shalt be
old, thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee, and carry
thee whither thou wouldest not.
24. 19 This spake he, signifying by what death he
should glorify God. And when he had spoken this, he saith unto him, Follow me. Now,
let’s stop here for a second and look at this. Jesus finished telling Peter to
feed his sheep and that how he would one day be led to the cross, and he says,
Follow thou Me. So what does Peter do immediately after Jesus says this? 20 ¶
Then Peter, turning about, seeth the disciple whom Jesus loved
following; which also leaned on his breast at supper, and said, Lord, which is
he that betrayeth thee? 21 Peter seeing
him saith to Jesus, Lord, and what shall this man do? 22 Jesus saith unto
him, If I will that he tarry till I come, what
is that to thee? follow thou me.
25. In other words Jesus
told Peter, get your eyes off of everyone else, and follow me. What He was
telling Peter was “You can’t follow me if you are looking at
everyone else”. So he said, “what is that to thee? FOLLOW THOU
ME! But notice what happened later on. 23 Then went this saying abroad among the brethren, that that
disciple should not die: yet Jesus said not unto him, He shall not die; but, If
I will that he tarry till I come, what
is that to thee? Now,
this expression, “what is that to thee?” Simply
means “what does that have to do with
you?” Follow Thou Me.
26. So if God wants others
to get involved don’t you think that God would place it on the heart of others
to get involved? And you know that works
just the opposite as well. Sometimes you feel led by God to do something, and
others want to question your motives for doing what God led you to do, as
though you have some sinister motive behind what you are doing.
27. In JOHN 7:24 Jesus
said, Judge not
according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. In other
words, don’t just judge what you see and therefore what you think, but judge
according to righteousness and righteousness is right-wise-ness.
28. The apostle Paul said, COLOSSIANS 2:18 Let no man beguile
you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels, intruding
into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
29. Now, he is not saying
that we are to worship the messengers here but the word worship comes from two
word, “worth and ship” The word worth suggesting to us something that has value
and ship which is a suffix meaning the word
worship comes from two words, the word "worth" meaning value
or assessment, and the suffix "ship" which means the
state or condition of being
30. One guy told a preacher
I know, “I don’t need your ministry”, and the preacher said, “then it’s not for you is it””. And he
left it at that. Look, why should you care if they don’t want what you have to
offer. Because one person doesn’t want it doesn’t mean that nobody wants it. And
if a person doesn’t want what you have to offer, then that’s their problem, not
yours. Now, they might not look at it as a problem, but that’s their business. You give a person a $100 bill and they won’t
accept it unless you wrap it up a certain, certain way? Forget it, I’ll take
back my hundred dollars. I could use it just as much as they could. Why look a
gift horse in the mouth? People are crazy anymore. Either that or just so
conceited that they think if you don’t look through their glasses then you are
not looking at all. And brother Branham
called that denominationalism.
31. What I think it all boils
down to is that sometimes God just places something in your heart to do, and no
one else understands why you feel the way you do about that certain thing. And
because they don’t know that it was God, then they think that is just you.
32. You know the Prophet
Samuel complained one time to God that the people didn’t want him, and God
said, No, Samuel, it’s not you they don’t want, it’s me. And that is exactly
right. That is why brother Branham said, Because Jesus didn’t come through
their school, they would not accept him.
And I shows how small minded they are because they turned down God
manifested in the flesh of His Son because he didn’t come the way they thought
he should come.
33. You know brother Vayle
used to say, “if a man attempts to jump off the peer in
34. That is what happened
around this message in the 70’. God sent a prophet and that prophet died and
went off the scene. The people turned down a five fold ministry and made it a
one man ministry, a prophet although he was dead. Then God raises up others to reflect what had
been brought by that Prophet and the people say, who needs a teacher. I have
the Holy Ghost and He is the teacher. Then why did God send a teacher? And when
that teacher quit preaching, what did they do? They said who needs anyone else,
we got us a teacher? Do you? If you turn down the gift of God do you have God
the Giver?
35. Now, the thing of it
is, is that when God tells you to do a certain thing, you had better do it. God
doesn’t give you the option to choose whether you want to or not. He equips you
and then expects you to deliver the goods. And if you choose not to. then God
moves right along and raises up another who will do it His way.
36. And that means that
when God gives you a gift, He expects you to use it. And that means that you
also will receive opposition to what you are ordained to do, because let’s face
it, the majority of people don’t want it the way God is wanting to give it.
Therefore, you can expect to make great sacrifices because obedience to God
doesn’t come without paying a price.
37. Now, brother Branham
said, Only the man, the sculptor himself has in his
mind what he's trying to do; he's the one, and he also said, , it cost him something to do that. He
was a great man. And it cost a big part
of his life, because he was many, many years in carving out.
38. And it’s going to cost
you something too, if you are to become God’s modern day Masterpiece. And you
had better be willing to pay the price. And in fact some of you have. Some of you
moved a great distance for the Word sake, and you paid a price for that. For
you to do that, you had to make an estimation of the value of the Word to you.
And in your case you added up a lot of cost and still the Word of God was of
greater value to you than the cost of the move.
39. Some of you to do so
had to forsake family, and friends, and jobs and social opportunities for this
Word, and you were more than willing to do so, because you considered the pearl
of Great price to be worth all the effort and cost..
40. In fact Jesus said, in MATTHEW 10:34Think not that I am
come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. 35 For I am
come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her
mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. 36 And a man's foes
[shall be] they of his own household. 37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: (so
you have to make a choice, You going to Love God or family? Which one you going
to Love more? God or family, God or friends). and he that loveth son or daughter more than me
is not worthy of me. 38 And he that
taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
(so what is your cross today? What is it that God is wanting for you to do that
is a cross to bear?) 39 He that findeth his life shall lose it:
and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. (Then if God
is the one that is calling you to do that thing that He has placed on your
heart to do, then to turn that down you are turning Him down.) 40 He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he
that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. 41 He that receiveth a
prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man (Now,
what is a righteous man but a man that is rightly wise, so he that receives a
man that is rightly wise) in the name of a rightly
wise man, shall receive a rightly
wise man's reward.(and what was the reward of the rightly wise
virgins? A Rapture, and a going into the presence of the Son of God.) 42 And whosoever
shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in
the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his
reward.
So thee you
have it. Keep your focus on God. Look not to the left nor to the right, and do
not look at what anyone else is doing to get your leading. You get your leading
from God alone. Jesus said, what is that to thee, follow thou Me.
Let us pray…