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I'm going to begin this with a story
this morning and then I'm going to end
after reading the scripture, verses 11 to 14.
David
says, I've been very deeply moved by the
passing of both Teresa's mother first and her
father now.
A couple that were saved in their 60s,
a lot of baggage brought into that particular
point of their lives.
And many people would have looked at their
lives and said, well, there's so little hope
that you can amount to anything in the
kingdom of God.
And yet they have left a legacy to
Teresa and I and to the family that
is, it could not be purchased with any
amount of money.
I was in the room when Teresa's mother
passed away, and there is absolutely no doubt
that she saw somebody come into that room.
The glory of God that lit up her
face in that final moment was hard.
It's hard to describe it.
The absolute ecstasy, for lack of a better
word, that came upon her whole countenance.
Teresa's father, godly man, I've known him from
the time I was 18 years of age.
He was saved after I was.
I don't tell his whole story, but he
lived a godly life.
He had a desire in his heart and
I had a chance about two weeks before
he died to go for a drive with
him.
We both had an inner sense that we
would not see each other again.
We took a drive together and I said,
Jack, I don't think I'll be seeing you
again on this side.
He said, no, I don't think so either.
We talked about, we laughed about some things
in the past.
We told each other we loved each other.
We went back home and he said, I
have a desire.
He said, I want to die a Jacob
death.
I want to call my children together.
I want to bless them and I want
to put my feet in the bed and
give up the ghost, as Jacob did.
We read Psalm 71 together at the table
one afternoon and he read it every day
for the last part of his life.
And Psalm 71, of course, is where the
aged man says, God, don't abandon me.
In other words, don't leave your strength for
me until I have shown your strength to
the next generation and to everyone that is
to come.
The week that he died, the beginning of
September, on Wednesday, he was at home, still
walking, still breathing, still able to drive his
car.
He called my son Jason.
He said, call my sons and daughters together.
He said, I'm going to die this weekend.
Jason took him to the hospital and he
said to the doctor, he said, is there
any medical evidence?
He wants me to call the family.
And he walked in here under his own
strength, says he's going to die this weekend.
It's Wednesday.
Is there any evidence to support this?
The doctor said, well, his kidney function is
very low.
He said, but my experience has been that
an older person who's at peace has an
inner knowledge of the time of their departure.
A very bold step for a doctor to
make.
He said, I think you should call the
family.
And so my son did.
And he called and everybody, everybody from all
over the country headed in that direction.
On the day he died, his children were
there, all his grandchildren and one of his
great-grandsons.
And that day he had a full breakfast
in the hospital, sat up on the edge
of the bed.
He had bacon and eggs, which he always
loved, talked to everybody, was joking with people.
A little later on in the day, he
asked his children to come together.
And he led in a prayer meeting that
lasted somewhere between an hour and an hour
and a half, as I'm told.
Then at the end of the prayer meeting,
he put his feet up in the bed
somewhere around 430 in the afternoon.
About 630, he lost his power of speech.
And right to the end, he stayed conscious
all through to the end.
Right to the end, all he could say
was praise and Holy Spirit.
That's the only words he could say.
And he would say these words from time
to time, praise and Holy Spirit.
And at 1130 in the evening, fully conscious,
staring at each one of his children, in
turn, he passed into eternity.
There's a psalmist that says, Oh God, let
me die the death of the righteous.
I have been so deeply moved because I've
seen God answer this man's prayer.
Only two weeks before we spoke of this.
This was the desire of his heart.
I want to die this way.
And this is the inheritance.
He said, I want to leave my children.
Now, he had been a businessman and through
some unfortunate events, he had lost everything in
his 60s.
But he had an inheritance that God was
going to give him to give to his
family much deeper than dollars and cents in
the bank and real estate.
I am deeply moved.
It was the only funeral I think I've
ever preached that I couldn't get through it.
I couldn't get through the message.
I had to stop repeatedly and catch my
composure.
Now, David says, Teach me your way, O
Lord, and lead me in a plain path,
because of mine enemies.
The pulpit commentary suggests that this psalm was
written during the season of Absalom's rebellion.
It's not absolute.
But if it was written in this time,
irrespective of when it was written, this was
a very difficult time in David's life.
But if it was written during the time
of Absalom's rebellion, then Psalm 27 is penned
at a time when David had been driven
from a place of physical and temporal security.
There are things that you and I would
gravitate to and begin to trust in.
But these things can be taken away in
a moment of time.
As I said earlier, ocean water can invade
your drinking supply and make your dwelling place
worthless almost overnight.
Things can happen.
We live in a society that's living on
the edge of change every moment.
We don't know what tomorrow is going to
bring.
We do know that there's some deep forebodings
on the horizon.
The breakout, as some say, of avian flu
is almost inevitable.
Now, some are a little more skeptical, but
others are very definitive and positive in this.
If that be the case, it will change
everything as we know it almost overnight.
We live on the brink of terrorism and
nuclear war all around us.
I don't care how hard your heart is.
There has to be a sense in you
today that we are coming to the end
of something.
That society is moving very, very quickly to
the place that the Scripture speaks about, where
there is famine and difficulty, and men's hearts
begin to fail them for the things that
are coming upon the earth.
A time when those who have looked to
and trusted in temporal security are going to
be panic-stricken.
Even those who have professed to be God's
people, but their focus has been in the
wrong place, will find themselves in very difficult
waters in the not-too-distant future.
Now, David has been driven to a place
which the word of the Lord given to
him in 2 Samuel 7 seemed to indicate
to him could not be taken away.
It must have been a very confusing time.
After he had brought the ark into Jerusalem
and won many, many victories, the Lord appeared
to him and told him, He said, Your
house and your kingdom shall be established forever
before you, and your throne shall be established
forever.
He has this word.
In other words, David, you cannot be defeated,
and your house can't be defeated.
But suddenly he finds himself fleeing.
He finds all of this temporal throne, as
it is, this physical place, abandoned.
And he's in a position of being driven
from this place of physical security.
We also have similar promises.
Revelation 22, 5 said, There shall be no
night there, speaking about heaven, and they shall
need no candle, neither the light of the
sun, for the Lord God gives them light,
and they shall reign forever and ever.
If you are a born-again believer in
Jesus Christ today, you have a promise from
God that you are going to reign forever.
Your throne is as secure as David's throne
was.
It cannot be taken from you.
There will be arguments come against the promises
of God that he makes to your life,
but this place is a real place.
It is a place being prepared by God
this very moment.
This life is only a vapor.
It appears for a season.
James says, then it passes away, and it
will soon be gone.
Whether or not we enter calamity in the
coming days, I venture a guess that in
50 years, everybody, most everybody in this place,
you will have died.
You will already have passed.
I will have passed to the other side.
I will inherit a throne, the Scripture says,
a place of ruling and reigning.
I don't know the fullness of what that
entails, but I do know it's a place
that God has prepared, and I will be
there, and it cannot be taken away from
me.
Now, David says in verse 12, he says,
Don't deliver me to the will of mine
enemies, for false witnesses are risen up against
me, and such as breathe out cruelty.
Now, the word cruelty in the original text
means bold, violent voices sent to hurt him,
to overthrow him, to tear him down and
to disgrace him.
It also refers to unrighteous gain.
David is being driven out, and you can
just feel the demonic presence that is all
around him.
And, of course, there are always human vessels
that are open to the suggestion of evil,
who will become vocal points, as it is,
of the things that are in the heart
of Satan himself.
Can I put it simply to you?
There's a voice and voices coming to David
that say, You would not be in this
position if God was with you.
If God was with you, you'd not be
suffering like this.
If God was with you, you'd still be
sitting on this physical throne.
If God was with you, this time you've
gone too far.
Now, of course, David had faults, and he
had made mistakes.
And these voices were coming against him at
this time to try to take away this
assurance of what God had given him and
put in his heart from a young and
a tender age.
Remember Job in the Old Testament, who suffered
an unprecedented time of calamity in his life.
In a moment, everything physical and temporal that
had given him comfort and assurance of his
future is taken away.
His children are gone.
His houses are destroyed.
His flocks and herds are, in a moment
of time, they're all gone.
Job finds his health is gone, and he's
sitting now on a pile of ashes.
He knows that he has not walked in
a way before God that deserves this kind
of calamity.
And the enemy comes to him in the
disguise of three concerned friends.
And these three concerned friends bring to him
a theology that does not come from the
heart of God.
And if you want to break it down,
if you have time to study it in
the book of Job, the theology is this.
If God is with you, you would be
always wealthy.
If God is with you, you would be
trouble free.
All of your life, if God is with
you, you would be healthy.
There would never be any evidence of sickness
in your physical body.
In Job chapter 42 and verse 8, God
himself declared these words to be foolishness.
He called them folly.
The word in the Hebrew also means wickedness
and a crime.
These men had stood as it is in
the stead of God, speaking to this man,
but they did not speak from the heart
of God.
They did not bring him the word of
the Lord.
In the New Testament, in the book of
Hebrews chapter 11, now this is the book
that talks about those who had accomplished great
exploits through faith.
And beginning in verse 36, it talks about
others who are also in this hall of
faith, for lack of a better expression.
And it says, And others had trials of
cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover, of bonds
and imprisonment.
They were stoned.
They were sawn asunder.
They were tempted.
They were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being
destitute, afflicted and tormented, of whom the world
was not worthy.
They wandered in deserts and in mountains and
in dens and caves of the earth.
And these all, having obtained a good report
through faith, received not the promise, God having
provided some better thing for us, that they
without us should not be made perfect.
Now, let me break this down.
The easiest way to explain this is that
God could have taken them out and given
them the fullness of everything that were promised
about life with Him and in Him and
through Him, not just for time but for
eternity.
But had He done that, had He brought
them into the fullness, it would have negated
everybody who came after them.
No, there was something better.
There was a Messiah coming.
And the Messiah was going to die and
He was going to pay the price for
the sins of all humankind and every person
who would turn to Him.
And there would be a church that would
come out of this world.
And one day, the voice of God would
sound.
And the dead in Christ were going to
rise first.
Those who had died, Old Testament and New,
trusting in God, were going to be raised
from the dead.
They were going to be gathered together with
Him and forever be with the Lord in
a place where there's no more tears, no
more suffering, no more sorrow.
Now, folks, these words may not mean today
as much as they will just a few
months down the road.
But you're going to have to remember these
words.
There might be a season of sorrow.
There might be some difficult times ahead.
Whether or not it is a collective hardship
that comes on all of society or individual
hardship, there are times when death knocks at
the door.
There are times when sickness comes.
There are times when things inexplicably begin to
change in a person's life.
The Scripture says that they were tempted.
And it almost seems like that phrase doesn't
belong in here.
It doesn't mean tested.
The word tempted in the Old Testament means
solicited to sin.
Some of the interpreters of the Bible have
suggested that this is a misquote in the
Scriptures.
Why would this be inserted here?
This is about people who triumph through faith.
Why would an early scribe insert these words,
as they said, that they were tempted to
sin?
Well, folks, let me tell you something.
If you were going through these things, mockings
and scourging, if you went into work every
day and you were beaten, and you were
thrown in prison for the testimony of Jesus
Christ, and you found yourself wandering around the
city and nobody would hire you, if you
were destitute and afflicted, would you be tempted,
do you think, for a moment to deny
the name of Jesus Christ?
Is there a greater sin?
Is there a bigger temptation than this?
Than to tone down your testimony and make
it maybe a little more palatable for the
masses?
You go to church, but don't get too
excited about this God stuff.
Oh, yes, they were tempted.
Yes, they were tempted to perhaps just back
away a little bit because of the ferocity
of the season and the hour that they
were facing.
But the Scripture tells us that they did
not.
They received a good report through faith, even
though in their present circumstance they were not
physically delivered from the trial that they had
entered into.
They were nevertheless spiritually delivered because they saw
another city, they saw another place, they saw
something that the natural eye can't see.
Something was in their heart that people whose
whole focus is on good and gold can't
see.
They saw something into the future.
In Psalm 27, again verse 13, David said,
I had fainted unless I had believed to
see the goodness of the Lord in the
land of the living.
In other words, David was saying, I would
have given up had I not had the
view that there was a purpose of God
for me.
Beyond my natural understanding, which I would understand
while I yet live.
David said, I would have fainted had I
not believed that God allows all things to
come together for good.
Because I love Him and I am called
to serve Him and to be a representative
of His on the earth.
Had I not believed that somewhere, somewhere down
the line, I would begin to understand, even
if only by faith, that there is a
purpose in this, I would have fainted.
Now think for a moment of Abraham.
Paul the Apostle in Galatians 3.9 says,
They which be of faith are blessed with
faithful Abraham.
Think of Abraham.
God appears to him and says, leave your
family, leave your father's house.
Go to the place that I'm going to
show you.
I'm going to give you this land of
incredible promise.
And in this place you're going to be
multiplied so greatly that the whole world is
going to be blessed through you.
What an incredible promise.
Can you picture Abraham coming into his wife
Sarah and telling her what God has spoken
to him?
Sarah, if we would just go, if we
would just leave the comforts that we've come
to know, if we would leave the securities
that have been our trust and are the
constant focus and care of our hearts, if
we would leave these things behind and begin
to walk with God, God says He's going
to multiply us.
He says through us, through our lives, the
whole world is going to be blessed.
And Sarah follows him.
Lot follows him.
Other members of kin or friends follow him
and become part of this entourage of Abraham.
But way, way down the line, after many
journeys and adventures, we see him in Genesis
chapter 23 bartering when Sarah dies for a
small piece of land with a grave.
The only real estate Abraham ever owned in
the promised land was a grave, folks.
It's all he ever owned was a grave.
And you see Abraham bartering for this little
place to bury Sarah in a field.
Do you think the voices might have been
there?
These voices that came after David, do you
think they might have come after Abraham?
I'm absolutely sure these voices were there.
Did you really hear God?
When you began to follow him, God said
he was going to bless you.
Well, isn't this a marvelous blessing?
After all these years, all you own is
a cemetery plot.
Is he really with you?
And is this how it ends for those
who have followed him?
And folks, I want to tell you something.
We all have choices to make.
We can choose to stop trusting God because
we're confronted by things which we don't understand.
Or we can keep on going and believe
that all things work together for good to
those who love God and are the called
according to His promise.
Many, many, many turn back when God begins
to lead them in a way they don't
understand because they've had a false concept right
from the beginning of what it means to
walk with Jesus Christ.
They thought walking with Christ brings only temporal
security and peace of mind and absolute bodily
health.
And some of these things, in measure, are
part of the covenant.
But there can be roads of hardship.
There can be times that we don't understand.
There can be difficult days ahead.
There are certain times in society when things
turn around.
Think of the Christian church in the World
War II era when all of a sudden
all hell breaks loose and people who are
trying to reach out and help God's Jewish
people are being imprisoned as if they themselves
had done some violent evil against society.
Think of the difficulty and hardship that came
to them.
Think of the number who turned back because
they said, This is not my concept of
God.
I believe personally that Abraham had to have
a deep inner sense.
There had to be something of God in
this man when he looked into the field
and stared at that grave.
An inner sense that if he kept on
going, not only this grave, but every grave
throughout the world would lose its power to
hold those within it.
Folks, I'm telling you, there's no other reason
to live as a Christian.
There's no other reason for me to stand
in this pulpit to preach to you.
There's no other reason but to see every
grave lose its power over those who end
up in it.
We can choose to see only the situation
or we can listen to the inner voice
of the Holy Spirit telling us that a
greater purpose of God is at work.
There's a greater purpose at work.
When you go into a time of trial,
you must remember that there are others with
you in these times of trial.
There are others in your building that will
never own any more real estate than a
plot of a grave somewhere in a cemetery
perhaps in New York City.
They'll never own anything in this world.
And neither will you.
But God will give you a sense of
purpose that people without him don't have.
As we hold fast to our confidence in
Christ to the end, we live to see
this sin-breaking power released in multitudes in
our own troubled times.
Could Abraham have known that through his lineage
was going to come David who wrote the
psalm that we wrote about?
Through David's lineage was going to come the
Messiah Christ who was going to demolish the
power of evil and hell that had gripped
all of humankind since the fall of Adam
in the Garden of Eden?
Could he have seen, could he have known
apart from the Spirit?
Folks, you don't understand that when you choose
to live for God, your life is breaking
the power of hell over multitudes around you.
It is a poor church that lives strictly
for temporal comfort.
It is a rich church that begins to
understand these truths.
Oh, God!
Even in the midst of where I am
right now, you have a purpose for my
life.
Now, Lord, give me stability.
I would faint unless I lived to believe
that I shall see your goodness in the
land of the living.
God Almighty, give me stability that people around
me may look at my life and say,
I want that, I want that, I want
that!
David says, wait on the Lord.
The word wait in the Hebrew has a
strange meaning.
It means to be intertwined.
I've shared it from this pulpit before.
It's like taking two twist ties and tying
them together.
Be intertwined with the life of Christ.
Your life has a purpose.
You see, God is writing a beautiful story
all through history.
He started with Abraham and wrote it through
the patriarchs and wrote it through King David
and wrote it through multitudes of people that
have come before us.
And now the story is being written through
you and I.
It's a beautiful story.
And the story is about his love for
every person that you will ever meet.
That's the story.
It's about the love of God who so
loved the world that he gave his only
begotten son that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have everlasting life.
It's the story of this power of an
endless life being given to those who have
placed their trust in Jesus Christ.
Being raised out of frailty.
The frailty of natural thinking and the frailty
of the human mind.
The frailty of temporal trust.
And being brought into this place of trust
in the sovereignty and the purposes of God.
You see, beloved, we are the sign of
God's goodness in the land of the living.
We are that testimony.
You will be tried, but you will not
be overcome.
You will have needs, but you will never
lack the supply of God.
And you will, when this life is over,
you will rule and reign with Christ forever.
Now, Therese's father, part that you don't know
about his life is that he was an
inventor.
Actually, quite a successful one.
He had the first Canadian patent on the
photoelectric switch.
Sold it to an American company about 45
years ago for what then would have been
a small fortune in today's currency.
People who bought it, of course, literally lit
up most of America with it.
Took the money that he had made from
that and he pioneered in eastern Canada the
bake oven, which is now obsolete.
But then it was real high tech.
They painted a car and drove it in
and baked the paint onto the car.
He pioneered it in eastern Canada.
Then through a series of business misfortunes, ended
up at 60 years of age losing everything.
He was quite a wealthy man when I
first met Therese.
He lost everything shortly after.
One of the first things he ever did.
He never said much.
Very kind man.
I drove in.
I made an eight hour trip in five
and a half hours when I fell in
love.
I was 18 years old and I drove
all the way to a place called Midland,
Ontario to see Therese for the weekend.
And when I pulled into his driveway, the
front wheel fell off of my car.
I had no money.
And he at that time had a very
large car dealership.
And he had my car taken in and
fixed it.
And I had no money.
I couldn't pay him.
And I didn't say that, though.
And I said, how much do I owe
you?
He said, oh, he knew I was broke.
He said, forget it.
Always a very, very kind man.
The oil crisis of the 70s hit and
the cars he had, hundreds of thousands of
dollars in inventory were all these big boats
that nobody was buying.
And subsequently he ended up losing everything.
But in losing everything, he found Jesus Christ
as his Lord and Savior.
Never regretted a day.
When we spoke about two weeks ago or
three, two weeks before he died, he said
to me, I want to leave an inheritance.
He said, I don't have anything physical.
It's true.
He had very little in a physical way.
He said, but I want to leave an
inheritance to my children and my grandchildren.
I want to show them that God can
keep you in the final days of your
life.
I have to tell you, it has had
an impact on all of our family.
Every person, every son, every daughter, every grandson,
every granddaughter has been deeply affected by his
passing.
He left us an inheritance.
My heart, I cried, oh God, let me
die like that.
Let me know the day of my departure.
Let me call my family together, gather them
and pray for them and bless them.
Now think of the inheritance.
This man, who would by our standards today
have at one time been close to a
millionaire, if not a millionaire, could have left
a lot of money.
He could have trusted in it in the
last 27 years of his life.
And he could have left all of us
$50,000, $100,000 perhaps.
No, he left something so much better than
that.
He left a confidence in God that lingered
into one of the strangest funerals I've ever
been at, in the sense there was such
a joy and sorrow intermixed.
A joy in the absolute fact that this
man is in heaven and sorrow that we've
lost such a great man.
David said, teach me your way, oh Lord,
and lead me in a plain path.
A plain path means level land.
It's where the justice, the honesty and the
righteousness of God can be understood.
Lead me, oh God, in a plain path.
Now, here's what the Holy Spirit told me
last night.
There are some people here you've had to
deal with anger towards God himself.
In your heart you said, God, is this
just what I'm going through?
Everyone around me seems to be so blessed
and I'm going through such hardship.
And you've had this fermenting anger towards God
himself in your heart.
Today I believe that through the simple.
You see, the cry of David was, lead
me in a plain path.
And I prayed this.
God, help me to say this so simply
that people can see it.
And those that are by the wayside can
get up and just get back on the
path again.
And the path is simple.
I trust you, Jesus.
I trust you.
We sang it today, I think.
It's just so sweet to trust in Jesus.
I trust you, Lord.
And there's others here today that you're in
danger of being overcome.
Like David, he said, I'd fainted unless I
believed that I would see the goodness of
the Lord in the place where I'm living.
I've got to see God's goodness in this
somewhere or I'm going to faint.
And the good news to you today is
that you don't have to faint.
The goodness of God is right where you
are.
The goodness of God never left you.
Satan has never gained the upper hand.
God has not failed you.
He has entrusted you with something.
He's entrusted you with the responsibility of trusting
him in the midst of things that you
don't understand.
That's what he's given to you.
I put you where you have to trust
me now.
You can't get through this on your own.
You can't get the victory on your own.
You can't get the provision on your own.
You now have to trust me.
And people around you are watching.
Everyone who's in this valley of death and
danger is watching your life right now to
see how you're going to respond and react
in this time of crisis.
Folks, one time before I stood in this
pulpit, I had a deep sense of foreboding
in my spirit that something was coming to
the city.
We all did.
Pastor David did.
Pastor Neil, Pastor Patrick.
And we warned this church.
Some people here thought we were crazy.
When we began to warn, they said, no,
something's coming to the city and you're going
to have to learn to trust God.
A calamity is coming to the city.
We had people leave because of the words
that we spoke.
We said, well, look, we came here to
be blessed, and you're telling us there's going
to be a calamity.
I have to be honest with you.
I stood in my apartment last night.
I looked out over the city.
I have that same foreboding again in my
spirit.
I don't know what it is, and I'm
not a prophet of doom, but I'm telling
you, this is not about circumstance.
All of these things, like David said, can
be taken away in a moment.
In a moment of time, you can wake
up one morning and it's just everything is
over.
Your job can be gone.
Your company might be gone.
In one morning, it can all be over.
The question is, where will you be then
in your relationship with God, and what is
it that God will be establishing through you?
I don't pray for calamity, but I do
believe that in difficult times, it's one of
the greatest opportunities that God gives to his
church to stand up and be counted for
the Lord Jesus Christ.
We don't run like other people run.
We're not confused like other people are confused.
We know who we serve.
We know where we're going, and we know
the provision will always come from his hand.
Hallelujah.
Teresa's dad loved to sing.
Unfortunately, he couldn't, but he loved to.
I shared at his funeral, I hope that
the course of heaven is not in disarray
since his arrival, because he would always be
about three words behind.
I remember in a small church, we'd sing,
Amazing Grace, and then you'd always hear the
Zing Grace.
One day, I heard him singing a song.
Now, here's a man who lost everything.
He lost a fortune, folks.
He lost what most people think is going
to bring security.
He lost a fortune.
But he wrote a song.
He was singing this song, and I said,
Jack, where did you get this song?
And he said, Well, I don't know.
It's just something I've been singing as I've
been driving back and forth to work.
He became a commissioner for the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police.
And he sang this song to me, and
it was the first time he ever sang
something in tune, and it was a song
that God gave to him.
I had it copyrighted and written down.
I want to just sing it to you
right now and just show you what God
can do for those who trust him.
Now, here's a man who lost everything, but
in losing it, he gained everything.
It goes like this.
The leaves of love are softly, softly falling,
falling from the tree, the tree that
Jesus died upon, that you and I
go free.
The leaves of love are softly, softly falling,
falling from the tree, the tree
that Jesus died upon, that you
and I go free.
Sing it with me, will you?
The leaves of love are softly, softly falling,
falling from the tree, the
tree that Jesus died upon, that
you and I go free.
Sing it again with me.
The leaves of love are softly, softly
falling, falling from the tree,
the tree that Jesus died
upon, that you and I go free.
Hallelujah.
Let's stand together.
I'd like to give an altar call today
for everybody who's here, who's going through the
things that the Lord's given me to speak
on.
And you have it in your heart, Lord,
lead me in a plain path.
Teach me your ways, God.
Lead me in a plain path because of
my enemies.
If this is the cry of your heart,
would you come and join with me at
this altar, and we're going to pray together.
Here's the word for you this morning.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart,
and lean not to thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he
shall direct thy paths.
Be not wise in thine own eyes, but
fear the Lord and depart from evil.
It shall be health to thy navel and
merit to thy bones.
Honor the Lord with your substance and the
firstfruits of all your increase.
So shall your barns be filled with plenty,
and the presses shall burst out with new
wine.
Now, this is the interpretation I've got for
this this morning for you.
Honor God with everything he gives you today
and shows you.
Honor him with the faith that comes into
your heart.
Honor him with your lips.
Honor him by going into the workplace and
saying, yeah, I know times are tough, but
God has given me an assurance that he
will be with me.
Honor him with that very first seed that
he puts within you.
Honor him with the trust.
And then he says, your barns are going
to be filled with plenty, and your presses
will burst out with new wine.
That means that you're going to have a
supply.
You're going to become aware of the supply
of the life of Christ that is yours,
and you're going to have this bursting out
of new life, new joy, and new purpose.
You're going to have it, folks.
I speak it to you prophetically.
You're going to have this come into your
heart.
You're going to have this bursting of new
wine within your life.
Oh, God, you're going to be able to
walk in into the midst of a precarious
job position, and you're going to be able
to lift your heart and your hands to
God and say, Lord, you are in control
of everything.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, God.
Thank you, Lord.
I have a throne that cannot be taken
away from me.
I have a place that the enemy cannot
drag me from.
It's given to me by the Word of
God.
I will rule and reign with Christ for
all of eternity.
I will have the supply that I need
to get through this life.
I will glorify God with the fruit of
my lips, and the fruit of my life
will glorify God.
I will die a righteous death, even if
the way I glorify God is through my
death.
I will leave an inheritance to those who
come after me.
I will, by the grace of Almighty God.
Father, I pray for those who have come
to this altar this morning.
Oh, Jesus, my God, sometimes we're no more
than a whisper from the dust crying out
to you.
But, oh God, you are the one who
comes and breathes life into our very bones.
You are the one who gives us the
power to stand.
You are the one who causes us to
become an exceeding great army.
You are the one who puts a song
in our lips, and light in our eye,
and bounce in our step.
My God, no matter what happens, our hearts
will not fear.
The mountains be removed, though the seas pass
over their borders.
We're going to be a people whose hearts
are fixed, our eyes are upon you, oh
God.
You will bring us through to the other
side.
We will give you glory, not just in
time, but for all of eternity.
Now praise Him.
Praise Him.
Hallelujah.
This is the conclusion of the message.