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I'm going to speak this morning about the
unrelenting humility of God.
This is something the Holy Spirit has been
opening to my heart and I don't think
anybody can adequately preach on this topic.
I think when we get to heaven it
will be the first time that we finally
realize how humble God really is.
The incredible distance that he bridged between himself
and his own fallen creation.
To come and retrieve fallen man and to
let fallen man even beat him and kill
him in the form of his son.
It's something that the Holy Spirit is just
starting to open.
I do know I'm speaking from heaven this
morning.
I have no doubt in my heart whatsoever.
Psalm 113 please if you'll turn there we'll
pray together as you're doing that.
Father I pray God with all my heart
for the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
Lord if you don't come this is an
exercise in uselessness.
We will accumulate knowledge but there will be
no inner change.
I'm asking for a quickening of the Holy
Spirit in my mind and physical body.
I'm asking Lord that you take me far
beyond any natural ability.
That you just open heaven to my mind
and spirit.
Give me the ability to be animated by
the Holy Spirit.
I ask you Lord that even the intonations
of my voice would come from your heart.
I want to be an expression of your
heart.
Especially in this last days that we're living
in.
I pray God that you today Jesus would
find open hearts among your people.
That you can go into the inner temple
challenge the testimony.
Encourage those that are weary.
Lord straighten that which is crooked and that
which is failing.
Give it strength.
Lord let your life become ours today.
I ask it in Jesus mighty name.
The unrelenting humility of God.
Psalm 113 beginning at verse 1.
Praise ye the Lord.
Praise oh you servants of the Lord.
Praise the name of the Lord.
Blessed be the name of the Lord from
this time forth and forever more.
From the rising of the sun to the
going down of the same.
The Lord's name is to be praised.
The Lord is high above all nations.
And his glory above the heavens.
Who is like unto the Lord our God
who dwelleth on high.
Who humbleth himself to behold the things that
are in heaven and in the earth.
He raises up the poor out of the
dust and lifts the needy out of the
dunghill.
That he may set him with princes.
Even with the princes of his people.
He makes the barren woman to keep house
and to be a joyful mother of children.
Praise ye the Lord.
Now the psalmist says about the Lord God.
Of course that praise is due to him
not only in time but for all of
eternity.
There's nobody like our God.
There's nothing in creation that could even remotely
begin to compare with the Lord God.
The psalmist says he has to humble himself
to look upon the things that are in
heaven.
Can you imagine?
Created beings in heaven that are worshipping this
very day around about his throne.
He has to humble himself.
That is the exceeding greatness of our God.
To even behold things in heaven which is
created of his own hand.
Even though they have not sinned against him.
He still has to humble himself to behold
them.
And in the earth.
And in his mercy he comes and humbles
himself and begins to manifest his glory among
men.
Moses said in his psalm in Deuteronomy 32
verse 3.
He said ascribe ye greatness to our God.
How do you see God today?
So many people have a little g God.
They see great big problems and a really
small God.
And they come into the prayer closet and
they say oh little we God.
Look at this great big problem I have.
And that's the problem of the entire prayer
life.
They have it all in the wrong perspective.
It's all out of balance.
When you finally have heaven's view of who
God is.
Heavens are his throne.
The earth is his footstool.
All things that are made he has made.
He made them all for his own honor
and for his own pleasure and for his
own glory.
John tells us if you'll keep a marker
in Psalm 133 and go to Revelation chapter
4 please with me.
And 113 rather.
And John tells us.
He describes a scene of worship.
And this particular scene of worship is worship
as it is rightly due to the God
of all creation.
Revelation chapter 4 beginning at verse 5.
And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and
thunderings and voices.
There were seven lamps of fire burning before
the throne which are the seven spirits of
God.
And before the throne there was a sea
of glass like unto crystal.
And in the midst of the throne and
round about the throne were four beasts full
of eyes before and behind.
And the first beast was like a lion.
The second like a calf.
The third beast had a face as a
man.
And the fourth beast was like a flying
eagle.
And the fourth beast had each of them
six wings around about them.
And they were full of eyes within.
They rest not day and night saying holy,
holy, holy, Lord God almighty which was and
is and is to come.
You wonder why when we sang that song
this morning about Oprah's day I think it's
called.
When we sang it and we sang those
words holy, holy, holy.
We enter into something.
We don't fully even understand it.
But we are joining the multitudes in heaven
as it is giving worship as it is
supposed to be.
And it is rightly due to the God
of all creation.
When you and I finally stand before the
throne of God, I'm sure there's a lot
of things that you'd like to say when
you finally stand and see the risen Christ
in his full splendor and his full glory.
But I want to venture guess that there's
nothing else you'll be able to say.
Then these created beings are able to say
right this very moment at the throne of
God.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God almighty
which was and is and is to come.
You've always been.
Before anything was created you were.
While all things today exist you are.
And when everything today around us is gone
you will still be there tomorrow.
You are holy beyond anything I've ever understood,
beyond anything my mind ever was able to
comprehend.
You are holy.
Paul says our God is a consuming fire.
This incredible holiness of God, the incredible otherness
of God to everything that we see around
us.
Oh, folks, I've often believed that all the
church of Jesus Christ really needs to live
for God with a full passion.
It's just a glimpse of him, just to
see him, just for a moment in the
full holiness of who he is and to
understand this incredible majesty of God.
And when these beasts, verse 9, give glory
and honor and thanks to him that sat
on the throne who lives forever and ever.
The four and twenty elders fall down before
him that sat on the throne and worship
him that lives forever and ever.
And cast their crowns before the throne saying
thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory
and honor and power.
For thou has created all things and for
thy pleasure they are and they were created.
Amazing.
We realize it one day when we get
to the throne of his power that he
has the right to demand that all that
he has created worship him.
Finally, the revelation comes.
You've created all things and they were created
for your pleasure.
They were created by you.
They were created for you.
Everything that we see, everything that exists was
created for God, was created for his pleasure.
And finally one day you and I are
going to be there and we're going to
have this full revelation literally explode inside of
our minds.
Now we see through a glass darkly, the
scripture says, but then we shall know even
as we are known.
And I don't know about you, but I
long for that day with all of my
heart.
I long to be delivered from the confines
of this world and this natural body and
to be clothed upon with the supernatural body
that Jesus Christ has promised all who have
trusted in him.
To rule and reign with him for all
of eternity, whatever that means.
Beloved, I don't know the extent of that
and neither do you, but I do know
it will be glorious.
I do know there will be an explosion
of the knowledge of how things are created,
why they were created.
There will be this incredible revelation of Jesus
Christ like you and I have only longed
for on this side of eternity.
This is an incredible view of God.
We look in the book of Revelation and
we have this view of who God is.
But yet there's another perspective.
Beginning in the book of 1 Samuel chapter
6.
Here's where we start to look at something
which the Lord's been speaking to my heart.
It's very necessary that we start in Revelation.
That we start at the end as it
is.
Where he is rightly worshipped in the manner
that he deserves to be worshipped.
But then in 1 Samuel chapter 6 in
verse 12.
We see that which then represented the presence
of God among men.
Now this was the ark of the covenant.
Now under a ministry of a high priest
called Eli.
There developed sons who were greedy and immoral.
And they were standing at the doorway as
it is into the access of God's presence.
And their greed and their immorality and their
lack of the fear of God and the
understanding of God.
Produced in the people an abhorrence for the
sacrifice of the Lord.
For giving first of all to the work
of God.
Just the whole sense of coming into his
presence was marred by this ministry that had
so misrepresented him.
The people under this type of priesthood had
become very casual in their dealing with God.
They were in a battle with the Philistines.
They called after a seemingly initial defeat.
They called for the ark of the Lord.
They shouted as it is the way their
forefathers had always done.
Even the Philistines trembled.
And they said, whoa, be to us.
The ark of God has come into the
camp.
The devils believe, James says, and they also
tremble.
But yet the shout was only tradition.
There was no heartfelt sense of this honor
and glory of God.
Or bringing the glory to his name that
he is due.
They were not fighting as David did later
on.
Going into the valley as it is and
saying, is there not a cause?
These evil powers are defying the armies of
the living God.
And they shouted and they had the ark
and they went into battle.
And the scripture tells us that Hophni and
Phinehas, this priesthood, were slain in this battle.
And the ark of God was taken into
captivity.
The Lord, as it is, let that which
represented his presence be taken by the enemies,
his own enemies.
And the enemies of God's people.
Seemingly captivated this ark that represented his provision,
his life, his protection.
And his virtual presence among the people.
That was a representation.
But a very real representation because he moved
in unison with this that represented him.
And of course the ark went into the
cities of the Philistines.
And you know the story.
Or you should if you've been in the
Lord any amount of time.
That they put the ark in the temple
of Dagon.
And he came in the next day and
Dagon was gone in a sense.
Ended up with no head really and no
hands.
Laying down on the ground and they moved
the ark to another place.
And everybody started to be physically afflicted.
And you see because God will not let
his glory be captivated by his enemies.
He simply will not.
There's something in him.
He's always moving towards having a people.
There has been a yearning in the heart
of God.
Even though he sits in heaven.
Even though he created all things.
The day he lost Adam there was a
yearning.
Came into his heart to be renewed in
fellowship with his own creation.
That had fallen short of his glory because
sin had gotten into the hearts of all
men.
And God had every right and has every
right today to fold up the earth and
the universe and just recreate it.
But there's something of love in his heart
that you and I can only scratch the
surface of.
John 3 16 says God so loved the
world that he gave his only begotten son.
Now you can take the world out of
there and put your name in there.
The only reason why the earth still exists
today is because God knew you were going
to be born.
And has loved you from eternity past with
a passionate love that caused him to become
a man.
And to die a horrible death on a
cross.
We see now the ark of God coming
back down the road.
Into the coast of Israel in humility.
The Philistines made a wooden cart for the
ark of God.
They put it on this wooden cart and
they attached two milk cows really to it.
Because the scripture says they had calves.
The calves were nursing on these cows and
they put the calves away in another place.
And they attached these two milk cows to
the cart.
And they sent the cart.
Well they didn't really send it.
They just let it go and followed it.
And God let it.
And the cows instead of turning back to
their calves.
Which I spent years on a farm next
to a dairy farm.
You can't separate a nursing cow from its
calf.
It will go back to that calf.
It will hear the calf calling to it.
And it will go back.
But there was something stronger.
You see God had initiated.
He was going back into the heart of
his people again.
But he was coming back in humility.
He was not coming back in a flaming
chariot.
He was not descending from the clouds.
With angels blowing trumpets on all sides.
Of him saying to the people.
You've misrepresented me.
You've forsaken the righteous ways that I have
prescribed that you should live.
No.
If you can see this.
This is the God who sits at the
throne.
That created beings cry holy, holy, holy.
Day and night.
They don't stop.
The elders cast their crowns at the feet
of Christ.
But here he is.
Down in this particular season.
On a wooden cart with two milk cows.
Some chariot.
Pulling as it is the very heart.
And the very presence of God.
Back into the middle of his people again.
And the scripture says the cattle were lowing.
Now lowing is.
It's a noise.
That cows make when they're troubled.
When something is wrong.
When they're afraid.
Or especially if they are separated from their
calves.
I do believe in some sense.
At least anyway.
That God said if you can see this.
If you can see the groaning.
Imagine you're an Israelite.
And you're standing there now.
Here comes the ark of God.
And it's on a cart made by the
Philistines.
And here are two milk cows pulling this
thing.
And they're making this moanful kind of a
low noise.
That when they're distressed they make this noise.
When they're longing for something.
And it was a representation of God's heart.
At least in some measure.
Why does he keep coming back to his
fallen creation?
What is it about God that we can
neglect him days on end.
Yet he will still return to us.
What is it?
There was a longing in God's heart.
And everything that he does is a type
of himself.
Of course people in that generation were blinded.
And many today are blinded to it as
well.
Romans 8.12 Paul says.
The whole of creation groans and travails.
In pain together until now.
The whole of creation longs for the restoration.
Of all things according to the will of
God.
Actually it says for the manifestation of the
sons of God.
The whole of creation.
Has this inner groaning.
Waiting for a people.
To be redeemed who will walk with their
God.
Talk with their God.
Love their God.
Understand who their God is.
Give him the glory and praise that is
due unto his name.
It represents as I said earlier this inward
groaning of God.
All men back in right relationship with him
again.
John 11.33 says that Jesus groaned in
the spirit and was troubled.
Now John heard this.
This was an audible groan.
You have to assume from the passage.
Because all around him Lazarus was dead.
And all around him was weeping and unbelief.
He had been declaring the truths of his
heart.
He had been giving the people a sense
of the essence of his mission.
And he came and all he found in
this place of death.
Was unbelief and weeping.
He saw Mary weeping.
He saw the Jews weeping.
Even those who had sat at his feet
were weeping.
And John says he groaned in his spirit.
It must have been an incredible groan.
It is something of the heart of God.
For you and for me today.
Now 1 Samuel 6.19 tells us that
the men of Beth Shemesh had lost the
fear of God.
And when the ark came back into their
presence again.
They were so casually treating the holy things.
They handled his presence with a familiarity that
had been expressly forbidden in the scripture.
Here comes the holiness of God again as
it is represented by the ark.
Now the scripture clearly defined the methods by
which this ark was to be carried.
Who could touch it and under what circumstances
it could be touched.
But the people under a backstabbing priesthood had
so lost the sense of the awe of
God.
That they carelessly handled the holy things.
And I think sometimes, I wonder sometimes.
Are we in danger of walking this way?
We become so familiar that we start to
casually handle the things of God.
The offices that he has given us.
The opportunity to come into his presence.
The incredible opportunity just to pray.
And just to come in fellowship with him.
But yet we begin to casually handle these
things.
And because of this casual handling of the
ark.
There was a plague that broke out among
the people.
And many died because of it.
I think of when the apostle Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 11.
He warned about the communion table.
He said he that eats and drinks unworthily.
Eats and drinks damnation to himself not discerning
the Lord's body.
And he said for this cause many are
weak and sickly among you.
And many sleep.
You see even in the Corinthians church.
There were many who were embracing the presence
of God.
But they were casually holding the great truths
of his life and his mercy.
By failing to minister to the poor among
them.
They were divided.
The rich were fellowshipping with the rich.
And those who had with those who had
or had more.
And those that were poor.
They were pushing to the sides of the
temple.
And they were casually handling the holy things
of God.
And Paul says you fail to discern what
it means to be part of the body
of Christ.
The body of Christ means we walk humbly
before God.
And humbly before one another.
We consider every man better than ourselves.
We have this inward nature of Christ.
This new mind that Jesus says I'm going
to give you.
That causes men to walk humbly.
So many people think the new mind is
what gives us ability to rule and reign
as it is on this earth.
And to take authority over kingdoms and such
like.
Well it may evolve in some measure into
that.
But it begins with the ability to walk
humbly.
Let this mind be in you which was
also in Christ Jesus.
Now God gave Moses a song in Deuteronomy
chapter 32.
If you'll go there please with me.
He gave Moses a song after he told
him.
He said after you're gone Moses.
He said that the people are going to
backslide.
They're going to walk away from the things
that they have been taught.
And they're going to begin to deal very
casually.
Now of course we started with in some
measure the fulfillment of that.
And Moses was given a song.
And he gave this song to the people.
In Deuteronomy 32 verse 3.
He says I will publish the name of
the Lord.
He said ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
Ascribe greatness to God.
Oh beloved if we could just stop here
for a moment.
And ascribe greatness to our God.
Ascribe greatness to God.
He is worthy of my life being given
to him.
He is worthy of my praise.
He is worthy that I should come to
his throne.
And bring my petitions with thanksgiving before him.
He is worthy that I should allow him
to dwell.
In the midst of the testimonies he has
established within my life.
And challenge everything within me that is unlike
him.
I should ascribe greatness to God.
Morning by morning I should be seeing new
mercy.
I should be saying God yes I have
this failing in my life.
I have this problem in my mind.
But you are greater than this failing.
You are greater than this problem.
You are greater in me than he who
is in the world that comes against me.
You are greater than every demonic power I
will ever have to face.
You are greater than every contrary argument to
truth that will ever try to invade my
mind.
You are greater than everything that has ever
been spoken over my life.
And every curse of hell that the enemy
has ever tried to bring my way and
bring me into bondage.
You are greater than all of these things.
This is half the reason why people backslide.
They just simply lose perspective of who God
is.
God is great and greatly to be praised.
God there is none other greater than him.
Verse 4 says he is the rock.
His work is perfect.
All his ways are judgment of God of
truth and without iniquity.
Just and right is he.
The things he says are right.
The way he works is right.
Everything he does is right.
But listen to verse 5.
They have corrupted themselves.
Their spot is not the spot of his
children.
They are perverse and crooked generation.
Do you thus requite the Lord?
Verse 6.
O foolish people and unwise.
Is not he thy father that hath bought
thee?
Hath he not made thee and established thee?
And Moses is speaking now prophetically into the
future and says, Is this how you will
repay God?
Is this how his greatness will be manifested
through you to the world?
You will repay him by dealing casually with
him.
You will repay him by losing the sense
of awe of who he is.
You will repay him as it is by
not allowing him to live his life through
you and to make you a testimony to
all the world that there is a God.
His name is Jesus Christ and there is
no other name beside his name.
And God cries out through Moses and says,
Is this how you will repay him?
I wonder today, how is the church of
Jesus Christ repaying Christ in our generation?
God has every right at any moment to
withdraw.
He would be just if today he just
said enough.
I have strived enough with people who don't
want to hear me.
They don't want to really walk with me.
They don't want to honor me for who
I am.
I've striven enough and he would be just.
There would be no error or wrong in
this.
And the only thing that keeps him coming
to this world and to you and to
me is an unrelenting humility.
That means a humility that just is who
God is.
A humility that we know nothing about.
We can't even hardly forgive somebody that snickered
at us in the office or taken our
newspaper from before our door in our apartment
building on Monday morning.
We can barely bring ourselves to talk to
them for the rest of our lives.
And that is so insignificant in comparison to
what we've done to a holy God and
what we do to a holy God every
day.
But yet he has an unrelenting humility.
We spit in his face.
We tell him to go away.
We say, No, not today.
I'll talk to you tomorrow.
We slam the door in his face time
and time again.
And still he comes back.
And as a true gentleman that God is,
he knocks on the door.
Said, I'd like to come in.
I'd like to sit down with you.
I'd like to open an incredible banquet to
you.
I'd like to give you this marvelous strength
if you'd like to have it.
I'd like to show you who I am
and why I've come.
Paul says in Philippians 2, verses 6 to
8, Who being in the form of God,
thought it not robbery to be equal with
God.
But he made himself of no reputation and
took upon him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men.
And being found in fashion as a man,
he humbled himself.
Incredible.
This unrelenting humility of God.
Look at him throughout Scripture.
Folks, just think with me for a moment.
Look at God in Christ throughout Scripture.
He's continually returning, though often rejected.
He continues to speak, though frequently ignored.
He continues to walk among men, though largely
unrecognized and unwanted.
Even to his own, John says in chapter
1 and verse 4, He came to his
own and his own received him not.
Look at him today, walking among men who
are about to fail him.
John 13, verses 4 and 5, say at
the Last Supper, He rose, he took off
his garments, he girded himself with a towel,
he took a basin and he began to
wash the feet of men who had made
great boasts about all the things they were
going to do for him.
He knew they were going to fail.
He knew Peter was going to deny by
cursing himself with an oath that he'd ever
known him.
He knew John was going to run out
of the garden naked, stripped of his clothing,
fleeing in terror.
He knew they would fail.
They all had boasted of their bravado and
their dedication, but he knew it.
But because there's an unrelenting humility in God,
he took a towel and he stooped down
and he washed their feet.
I do believe that was the only thing,
perhaps, that would have kept them through their
season of despair that they were about to
come upon.
Folks, you and I go through times of
failure.
We go through times of difficulty.
We go through times where there's a deep
inner awareness that we have failed God.
So therefore, how do we get back to
Him?
If we see Him only on the throne,
then it can be almost impossible mentally to
come back to this holiness because we realize
we've fallen so far.
We also have to see Him with a
towel on His knees, with that basin, willing,
willing, willing, willing to wash our feet when
we have failed and walked in places we
shouldn't walk and done things we shouldn't do.
See Him in John 12, verses 14 and
15, riding on a colt into Jerusalem.
Remember the ark coming in on a cart
back into Beth Shemesh again in the Old
Testament.
Now we see the living Christ, God Almighty,
embodied as it is in the human body
in His Son called Jesus Christ.
We see Him again in humility.
He doesn't come in on a stretched limo.
He doesn't come in with an entourage.
There's not seven priests with trumpets blowing horns
before Him.
He's on a colt.
Unrecognizable to those who are living in pride
and are self-obsessed.
Here He comes riding into Jerusalem.
Oh God, help me.
When I read this I say, God, help
me.
I feel sometimes just reading this so far
from this heart.
God, you've got to help us.
You've got to help all of us.
We can't do this without the power of
the Holy Spirit within us.
We can't do it without the new mind
of Christ.
The moment we get a gift, we're all
like a pile of peacocks in the house
of God, strutting our feathers and letting everyone
know the wonderful things that God has done
through us, forgetting that we're just beggars that
God is working through.
That's all we are.
I see Him after He's risen from the
dead, walking.
Now, He's an incredible conqueror.
After He died, He said, It is finished.
He destroyed the power of sin, the grave
and the devil.
And here He is now as the risen
Christ.
You'd expect now His appearance to be with
a crown, with white horses, with magnificent armies
that the Bible does say.
He's coming back with, but that's as a
conquering king and a judge one day.
But here He is now.
Two men are walking on the road to
Emmaus, and they're confused.
They had hoped, and they were spiritually disheartened
because the Savior they had hoped in, they
saw as crucified, buried and gone.
And Jesus, Luke 24, 13-15 tells us,
He came beside them walking, just like an
ordinary man.
But He's now the conquering king.
This unrelenting humility that I'm speaking about today,
it's humility that just never ends.
He's victorious.
He's won.
He had the right to appear in magnificence
as it is.
He had the right to have another mount
of transfiguration appearance and saying, Behold me, King
of kings, Lord of lords.
But He just simply walks with these men.
Begins opening the scriptures and talking about Himself,
the Bible says, from the book of Moses
and onward.
He would have kept on walking, but they
compelled Him to come in and abide with
them.
He broke bread with them.
And as He broke bread, their eyes were
opened, and they saw that He was the
Christ.
See Him standing on the seashore after His
own disciples, said, Well, what are we going
to do now?
Well, Peter said, Let's go fishing.
And they all said, Well, that's a great
idea.
Let's all go fishing.
We've worked with Christ.
It's been three years.
We watched Him crucified.
We're aware He's raised from the dead.
So let's go fishing.
And that's the way all of us are
folks.
There's a great commission these men have been
given to go into all the world.
And we see Jesus standing on the seashore.
And what's He doing?
He's serving breakfast.
This unrelenting humility of God calls out and
says, Have you caught anything?
He doesn't chastise them for their lack of
understanding.
He just says, Have you caught anything?
I want to ask you a question this
morning on God's behalf.
Where have you been fishing?
Have you caught anything?
Where have you been heading as a Christian?
What have you been doing?
Has it satisfied you?
Is your boat full?
Do you have enough to give to others
who are hungry all around you?
Have you caught anything?
And they said, No, we've been laboring all
night, but we're fairly empty.
And He said, Well, cast your net on
the right side of the ship.
I'm not necessarily convinced that that meant the
other side of the boat.
We just need to cast our net on
the right side.
And so they finally come to shore.
They loved Him.
You know, folks, we all make mistakes.
But I know that you love Him.
Most and hopefully all here.
I hear the way you worship.
I know you love Him.
But do you know He loves you?
And the men made their way to shore.
And here they are looking at the risen
Christ, the God of creation, the one who
has every right to demand even the trees
to worship Him.
He could bring the fish out of the
water if He wanted to, and they could
all sing His praise.
And here He is standing on the seashore
making biscuits for His own disciples with only
one question on His mind.
See, that's what's been in His heart from
the beginning.
Do you love me?
Do you finally love me?
All that I've done and every way that
I've manifested my life to you, do you
love me?
He's speaking to Peter, who's a type of
a failed Christian.
And Peter knows he's a deep failure.
Do you love me?
To the person today who really doesn't know
Him, and you've not had a balanced view
of who God is, and the Lord says
to you today, I love you.
Do you love me?
You see, one day He says, I have
to sit as either your judge or your
friend.
And that day, folks, is coming very, very
soon.
You will stand before God, as I will.
When you stand before Him, you're going to
see Him finally in His holiness.
And I do believe there'll be an explosion
of understanding of who He is and why
He came to the earth.
And the incredible passion in His heart for
you that is not able to be comprehended
fully by the human mind.
And you'll finally see it.
But He will either sit on that day
as your judge or your friend.
You see, because the decision to receive Him
as Savior is made on this side of
eternity, not there.
Once you're there, it's too late.
It's all over.
The decision is made here.
He says, I've done everything possible to win
your heart.
Everything possible.
The Lord will be fully justified when people
stand before Him and they're cast out of
His presence for eternity.
Because He didn't just stay where He has
a right to stay.
He became a man.
And He has walked in continuous humility.
I believe for those who are here today
and will make the foolish decision to reject
Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're
going to have a panoramic view of every
time God came to you.
Of every time He walked beside you, speaking
into your ear, irrespective of what you were
doing or where you were going.
Of every opportunity you had to hear about
His love.
There's going to be a full view.
That's why I believe in many cases your
arguments are going to be all gone.
He is completely just.
He is completely right in everything He does.
He will give you an opportunity to receive
Him.
If you refuse Christ, this service will come
back before you.
You will see me again standing in this
pulpit, pleading on Christ's behalf for your soul.
You'll see it, you'll hear it all over
again.
And tell me then, what argument will you
have?
How will you be able to say, I
didn't know.
You never came to me.
I would have, had I had the opportunity.
But you see, the problem is now that
you have the opportunity.
And it's not just a preacher standing up
with a message, as nice as that may
be, but I have been in prayer.
I have something from the heart of God.
And God knew you would be here today.
You're not here by chance.
The annex.
And you may have rolled in 45 minutes
late into this service.
You may not even have wanted to be
here.
Somebody invited you.
But you're not here by accident.
God brought you here.
And you're hearing a message now that determines
whether or not you will spend eternity in
heaven or eternity in hell.
Who could take issue with God?
What have I done?
He said in one of the Old Testament
prophets.
What more could I have I done that
I've not already done?
How much more could I have pleaded with
you?
How much more could I have shown you
my willingness to receive you and to forgive
your sin and to bring you to myself
and to become the source of your life
and strength?
And all I wanted was for you to
love me.
I just wanted you to open your heart
and understand that I have loved you with
an everlasting love.
I engraved you on the palms of my
hands.
He said to Isaiah the very day that
your forefather Adam and your mother Eve fell
in the Garden of Eden.
I knew you were coming into this world
and I engraved your name on the palms
of my hands.
And I said in my humility, I'm not
willing that you should perish.
I'm not willing that you should be cast
out of my presence for all of eternity.
So I will come down and I will
manifest myself to you over and over and
over and over again.
You may spit in my face, but I
will knock on your door.
You may wound my back, but I will
come back to you time and again and
speak to you.
You may curse my name, but I will
walk with you, whisper to you, talk to
you, plead with you all the days of
your life.
Folks, do you know how much God loves
you?
Do you know the depth of His love?
Do you understand you're the only reason why
this world still exists?
There's no other reason.
It's not just because He wanted history to
fulfill itself.
There's no other reason the world exists than
you.
God wanted you from before the foundation of
the world for all of eternity.
He wanted you.
In Jeremiah's day, Israel had become a spiritual
mess.
But the Lord said through Jeremiah, Thus saith
the Lord, the Maker, that formed it, to
establish it.
The Lord is His name.
In other words, God says, I made you,
I formed you, and my intent has been
to establish you as the man or woman
that I destined you to be from before
the foundation of the world.
And in verse 3, He says, Call to
me, and I will answer you and show
you great and mighty things which thou knowest
not, or that means that you've not known
yet.
Call to me.
How do I get to God?
Call to me.
I'm not far away, God says.
I'm not in the heavens.
I've been where you are.
Call to me.
I'm as close to you as the mention
of my name.
You don't have to persuade God to save
you.
Think it through.
Why would He come?
Why would He become a man?
Why would He go to a cross?
Why would He let people spit on Him
and rip out His beard and slap Him
and put a crown of thorns on His
head and a robe of unrighteousness on His
back?
Why would He let this world crucify Him
naked?
It was for you.
Call to me, He says.
Just call to me.
You might be a million miles away in
your mind, but I'm not a million miles
away from you.
Just call to me.
He says, I'll cause the captivity of Judah
and the captivity of Israel to return and
build them as at the first.
He says, I'll restore you, in other words,
to what I intended you to be.
I'll cleanse them from all their iniquity where
they have sinned against Me.
I'll pardon their iniquities where they have sinned,
where they've transgressed against Me.
He says, if you'll trust Me that I
took your place on a cross, I will
forgive your sin.
I will cleanse you from the power of
sin and the stain of sin, and I
will erase heaven's record.
I will forgive you.
And it shall be to me, says the
name of joy and praise and honor, before
all the nations of the earth, which will
hear of all the good that I do
to them.
And they shall fear and tremble for the
goodness and for all the prosperity that I
procure to it.
The Lord said, I will do such a
work in you that people around you will
begin to tremble.
They will know this is a supernatural work.
They know you didn't have the power to
change like I will change you.
I will give you a new mind.
Give you a new heart.
Give you a new spirit.
Verse 10, he says, Thus saith the Lord,
Again, there shall be heard in this place
which you say shall be desolate without man
and without beast, even in the cities of
Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem that
are desolate without man and without inhabitant and
without beast.
Now God says, this is your report of
yourself.
You stand here, you say, I'm empty.
You say, there's no hope.
You say, my life is a mess.
You say, I've done too much wrong.
He says, now this is what's going to
happen.
There's going to be heard again the voice
of joy and the voice of gladness, the
voice of the bridegroom and the voice of
the bride, the voice of them that shall
say, Praise the Lord of hosts, for the
Lord is good and His mercy endures forever.
And of them that bring the sacrifice of
praise into the house of God, for I
will cause to return the captivity of the
land as at the first, says the Lord.
The Lord says, I'm going to give you
a voice of praise and you're going to
come into the house of God and you're
going to go into your prayer closet and
you're going to get up in the morning
and you're going to join those created beings
around the throne of God saying, Holy, holy,
holy is the Lord God of hosts.
Heaven and earth are filled with His glory.
Your cry is going to be, God, fill
me with Your glory.
Let the life of my Christ be my
life.
In the power of the Holy Ghost, God
Almighty, make me a miracle in my generation.
Hallelujah.
I will trust you.
Through, Jesus said in the book of John,
Come to me, all ye that are weary
and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
Come learn of me.
I'm meek and I'm lowly at heart.
And you will find rest for your souls.
Please don't go to hell.
I beg you.
I beg you in Christ's name, please don't
go to hell.
Don't be a foolish person.
Don't hold out in the stubbornness of your
own ignorance and resist a God who so
passionately loves you.
Scripture says today, if you can hear His
voice, don't harden your heart.
For people here today, the annex, I can't
see you there, but the Lord sees you.
You can say, Pastor, I am moved in
my heart.
And I've not realized the depth of God's
love for me.
Yeah, I'm a mess.
But the Lord came for messes like me.
He paid the price for my mess.
And I'm willing to take it and give
it to Him.
And He says if I'll give Him my
mess, then He'll give me His righteousness.
That means His cleanness.
He'll take away the stain, the power.
He'll take away the everlasting penalty of sin,
which is separation from God forever.
He'll take away the penalty of sin.
And with His own blood that He shed
on the cross, He'll wash away the record
of it.
That when I one day stand before the
throne of God, He sits as my friend.
Hallelujah.
Not as my judge.
He sits as my Savior.
A wonderful God.
And if I have such a thing as
a crown, I'm going to be, He'll say
I'll be among the first to get that
thing off of my head and throw it
at His feet.
I know I'm not worthy.
Hallelujah.
Imagine the humility of God even to want
to give us a crown.
I want to ask for an open profession
today.
This takes a bit of courage, but I
can't make any excuses.
I can't make it any easier than it
is.
But if you're here today and you're willing
to say, Pastor, I'm a sinner.
I'm a mess.
I need a Savior.
I see that Jesus is willing to come
to me.
He is willing to cleanse me and wash
my feet and give me strength.
I'm going to ask you just to raise
your hand wherever you are.
All through the sanctuary.
Unashamedly, just raise your hand.
Just do it.
Balcony.
Education.
NX.
Just raise your hand.
And we're going to stand in a moment
and I'm going to ask those of you
who did raise your hand, would you slip
out of your seats, please meet me here.
And we're going to pray a simple prayer
together.
And at the end of this prayer, if
you truly believe, the prayer I will lead
you in.
I'm just praying a prayer to help you
to come through to salvation.
You will know that if you walk out
of this church and get run over by
a car at the corner, you're going to
go to heaven.
You will know it.
Let's stand, please, if you will.
And in the NX, too, as well, you
can make your way here.
We'll wait for you.
I just want people who raised their hand.
Would you slip out and make your way
here, please?
We're going to pray together.
Those who have said, I'm a mess.
I need God.
I'm coming to be saved.
Would you make your way here, please?
I want Christ as my Savior.
Just come right forward.
Come right in.
I want Jesus Christ.
Come right in.
Don't be embarrassed.
Step in.
Young people, old people, just make your way
here.
God bless you.
Make your way here.
He loves you so much.
Don't go to hell when heaven could be
yours.
Don't be a fool.
The Bible says that the fool says in
his heart there is no God.
In other words, it's not that he doesn't
believe in God.
He said, but there's no God who has
a right to be God in my life.
Don't do that.
Make your way to Him.
Join these that are coming.
There's young here.
There's old here.
There's people who've had some church experience but
maybe never a living experience with God.
I see children coming down.
Just make your way here, please?
And then we're going to pray together.
See, this is a holy moment.
Not only because you're about to be saved.
And by saved, I mean you're not going
to go to hell when you die.
If this is truly in your heart to
receive Him as your Savior and to walk
with Jesus Christ.
But it's a holy moment because you being
here has met a deep need in the
heart of God.
He has waited for you.
He's longed for you.
The Bible says there's joy in heaven over
one sinner that repents.
The whole of creation around about the throne
of God knows this is the work of
God.
Knows that this is what God in Christ
is all about.
It's about you coming back.
And there's a celebration about to take place
around the throne of God because of you.
Your name is going to be spoken in
heaven for the first time perhaps.
Around the throne as Jesus whispers your name
to His Father and He says this man,
this woman has trusted in me and He
whispers your name and the Father says I
receive them then.
I receive them as clean as you are
my son.
I receive them as the same level of
righteousness that you have.
I give to them because they've trusted in
you.
Hallelujah.
Pray with me please.
Lord Jesus I am a sinner.
I've sinned against truth and my disobedience to
your word put you on a cross because
of your love for me.
I'm sorry for my sin and I don't
want to live in sin anymore.
This day I open my heart to you.
Jesus I invite you to come into my
life and live in me and be my
Lord and my Savior.
I yield the rights to my life and
to my future into your hands.
I ask you Lord to do your work
in me that your life may be seen
through me that your work in me might
be a praise to your name in my
generation.
I believe Jesus Christ you are the Son
of God.
I believe that you died on a cross
to pay the penalty for the wrong things
that I have done.
I believe that on the third day by
the power of God you were raised from
the dead as living proof to me that
my hope and my trust in you is
not in vain.
As Jesus was raised from the dead I
believe that I too will be raised by
the power of God out of all death
and brought into the life that God has
for me.
I believe that at this very moment