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Tonight I'm going to speak from Psalm 19.
If you have your Bible, please, because that's,
it's the last verse of Psalm 19 that
is the verse that the Holy Spirit has
led us to.
Now, you're familiar that every time the Holy
Spirit leads us to fast, we go into
another depth of God.
It's been a reality in Times Square Church
all the way along.
I'm going to speak tonight about secret faults
and presumptuous sins.
Secret faults and presumptuous sins.
Psalm 19, I'm going to begin at verse
1.
David said, the heavens declare the glory of
God and the firmament shows his handiwork.
In other words, David is perhaps he was
looking into the sky the night that he
wrote this.
He said, oh, God, you have to be
a blind man not to see this.
The heavens declare your glory.
The stars sitting in their courses, the way
the universe works as virtually as clockwork.
This is an intelligent and a divine design.
And everything beneath that, which is the highest
that we can see, shows how you work.
The fact that the sun rises every day
and sets.
The fact that clouds form just above the
earth and water comes from them and brings
life to everything around us.
You know, we can become so familiar with
something that we miss the miraculous.
We fail to see it.
We're walking throughout our day looking.
Oh, God, where are you?
It's ironic.
And he's everywhere.
He's seen in everything around us.
All we have to do is look up
and we see the handiwork of God.
This is what David is saying.
Everything around, not only the not only the
heavens, but the firmament, the clouds, everything beneath
that, which is the highest shows how you
work.
It's a living testimony every day of your
goodness.
You cause the rain and the sun to
rise and to come down upon the just
and the unjust.
We see your graciousness.
We see your ability and your willingness to
give life to everything that you have created.
They on today, says in verse two, utter
speech and night and tonight shows knowledge.
There is not a time, God, that you
are not speaking to all of humanity, not
just to those whose eyes are open, but
God in his grace is speaking also to
those who as yet don't know who he
is.
He says in verse three, there's no speech
or language where there's their voice is not
heard.
There's nobody in the world who can't look
up and see the hand of God.
Nobody, any language, any culture, any nation, any
place, anywhere, any time.
You cannot see God either day or night.
They just have to step out of their
house and look up.
And there is evidence.
He's speaking through this evidence constantly because everything
is held in the palm of his hand.
Nothing exists without him, says in the book
of John, and everything was created by him
and through him, their line or their direction.
Actually, the word line is probably better translated
or could be translated direction.
Instruction has gone out through all the earth
and their words to the end of the
world.
And in them, he has set a tabernacle
for the sun, which is as a bridegroom
coming out of his chamber and rejoices as
a strong man to run a race.
And David sees in the heavens and he
looks out and he says, oh, God, nature
itself is the instruction of your mind.
Everything we need to see and know is
here and your words are speaking through your
creation to all the world.
And you have placed it as if you
have created the world.
And he says, and you've said in it
the sun, which we still fully don't realize
why the sun causes life in the manner
that it does.
We know that it does.
But our analysis is so far from understanding
anything in God's creation.
But David said, I look at it and
it looks every day like a bridegroom coming
out of his chamber.
Of course, he's seeing Christ.
He doesn't quite know how.
He's not yet at the time, obviously, where
Christ is physically manifested as a man.
But he says, I see in creation a
bridegroom coming out of his chamber.
Hallelujah.
This is Christ.
He sees him.
He sees a man after God's heart.
He's a man who's seeking the heart of
God.
And because of it, this revelation knowledge is
being given to him.
If you go ahead from Psalm 19, David's
heart is now wide open for God to
speak.
And we'll see that through this psalm.
And because God can speak to him and
because he acknowledges, God, your ways are right
and your ways are true, the Lord can
speak to him.
And we move just, we're not going to
go there, but if we did, we could
go ahead to Psalm 22.
And he goes right from seeing the bridegroom
come out of his chamber, right to Calvary.
And the very words that Jesus is about
to speak, my God, my God, why hast
thou forsaken me?
The fact that they're all around him, roaring
upon him and soldiers are parting his garments
is all there.
The whole revelation of Christ is given to
him because he's a man who acknowledges God
and acknowledges the ways of God.
He said, I see in nature a strong
man who's running a race.
What did Jesus say about this strong man?
He said he comes into the house and
he's more powerful than anything that is in
the house.
And he binds the strong man of the
house and spoils his goods.
And God says, if you can just even
see my hand in nature and begin to
understand how powerful I am, that when I
come into your life, I'm not there as
a tenant.
I'm there as the Lord.
And I come into your life and I
have power and I will overpower your enemies.
I'll overpower that which other factors and forces
have set up within you.
And I will establish a kingdom in you
that will bring glory and honor.
And as much as my name is declared
through the heavens, I will be declared through
your life.
You are greater than the heavens.
The heavens will one day be folded and
will all pass away.
But you are my church.
You are my bride, my beloved body in
which I will dwell.
Your time is not a temporary one, but
yours is an eternal one.
His going forth is from the end of
heaven, verse six, and his circuit to the
ends of it.
And there's nothing hidden from the heat thereof.
In other words, everything is open to God.
One of the writers of Scripture says his
eyes are open to everything that is going
on and he understands all things.
That's why Paul says, let me read it
to you in Romans chapter one and verse
20.
He says, For the invisible things of him
from the creation of the world are clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are
made, even as eternal power and Godhead, so
that they are without excuse.
Now, folks, this is why God is just.
This is why one day every person ever
created in the image of God will stand
before him and be without excuse.
He says, If the heavens and the firmament
and even nature itself declare the glory of
God.
He will say to every man, I was
speaking to you every day.
All you had to do, it didn't matter
if you were a Hindu or a Muslim
or what part of the world you lived
in.
All you had to do is say, God,
who are you?
Because I said, if you seek me, you
will find me.
That's why every man will be without excuse
one day.
Because God has plainly declared who he is
and all men have to do is ask.
Ask, who are you?
Where are you?
I did that when I was 23, 24
years of age, started walking into churches and
saying, who are you?
God, where are you?
My part is to ask.
His part is to say, my name is
Jesus.
I am the I am.
That's his part to reveal himself.
It's my part to ask, who are you?
He goes on with this knowledge.
Now, David is building here.
The Holy Spirit speaking to him and he's
making this incredible declaration of the heavens and
the law and everything about God.
Now he brings it home and he says,
the law of God is perfect.
And the word for law in the Hebrew
text is doctrine.
The truth of God is perfect.
Can't be added to, can't be taken away
from.
It's perfect.
Everything God says is right.
It's true.
It's perfect.
Nobody can argue with it.
It's not given just in measure and part.
It's entire.
It's whole.
It's perfect.
It's everything.
The man or woman who comes to God
needs to be everything that God has intended
him to be.
It's a truth that can set us free
from the power, the bondage of the devil
and sin, the flesh converting the soul.
He says the law of the Lord is
perfect.
The doctrine converting the soul, changing us, making
us into new creations.
We begin to work, in a sense, in
the same manner.
David is inferring that the universe does.
The hand of God comes upon us.
Divine order comes into our lives.
Our minds are set right.
Our feet are placed on a path that
has been prescribed by God.
The testimony of God's working that is seen
in nature now comes into us.
And we begin to be living testimonies to
our generation just as the heavens declare the
glory of God.
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making
wise the simple.
In other words, you can bet your life
on this.
And you begin to read it and say,
God, this is right.
And God says, you agree with me and
your mind is going to change.
Your thoughts begin to change.
You don't think the way you used to
think.
You're not looking at things the way you
used to look at them.
You begin to get a divine perspective.
Everything inside begins to change.
The statutes of the Lord, he says in
verse 8, are right, rejoicing the heart.
In other words, really, let me bring it
down for you.
It says, it's really the statutes means what
God appoints, allocates or mandates.
That's actually the original translation.
It means the calling of each believer, if
I can say so, is right and brings
rejoicing to the heart.
What God has called me to be is
right.
Not what I think I should be, not
what I want to be, but what I'm
called to be is right.
And the moment I accept that, it brings
rejoicing into my heart.
And I thank God for that.
With all my heart, I thank God for
it.
That's why David says, I'd rather be a
doorkeeper.
If that's what God wants me to be,
in the house of God, than to dwell
in the tents of wickedness.
Because the wicked are never satisfied.
But David said, I am satisfied when I
awake with thy likeness.
He's speaking about, I'm satisfied, God, that your
image is before me.
The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening
the eyes.
And the word commandment in the Hebrew means
the conditions of God's covenant.
That's really what it means.
That's the expanded definition.
It really talks about faith.
The fact that I'm called and it brings
rejoicing to my heart and the calling of
God on my life is sufficient.
What God has called me to be, that's
what I am to be.
And it's good enough.
And it requires that I begin to walk
by faith.
That's what it really means.
And it's pure and it opens my eyes.
He goes on to say, the fear of
the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
And the word fear means a reverent attitude
towards God reflecting itself in daily life.
It means the inner belief and trust that
where God has me and what He has
allowed in and for my life is right
and it is good.
I don't have to question God.
I have come to Him.
I've come to the God who holds the
universe in His hand.
And what He has allowed into my life.
I walk with this fear of God in
my heart.
That God, who would I be to question
what you are doing in me?
And who you are making me and what
you are giving me to do.
And the talents and abilities that you've chosen
to place within my life.
And the calling that goes with that.
God is right.
And I walk with a reverence of God
before you acknowledging that your ways are right.
The judgments, he goes on to say, of
the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
And the judgments mean the verdicts or the
judicial sentences pronounced by God.
And this is interesting.
If you take the whole thing and it's
from the beginning to the end.
He says the calling that you placed upon
my life brings joy into my heart.
But you require that I walk by faith
in order that I may fully appreciate everything
that you want to do into my life.
I walk with reverence before you acknowledging that
your way is right and my way is
wrong.
And you have the right to declare a
judicial sentence upon issues of my heart that
you say are not right.
You have the right.
That's what David is saying.
You have the right.
I may think it's nice.
Look at what we heard Sunday night.
Everybody's going into the temple and just gotten
so used to the money changers being there.
It's kind of convenient.
I don't have to find a lamb and
drag it in.
I can buy one as I come into
the temple.
And there are a few doves for those
who don't have a whole lot of money.
And all of this is going on.
Everybody thinks it's right.
But Jesus comes in and makes a scourge
of cords.
And for the first time in years, people
are faced with this judicial sentence of God.
And he says, no, this is wrong.
Because it is absolutely robbing this house and
everybody that comes near it of what I
have intended it to be.
And what I have intended for those who
come in contact with my house.
David talks about these things of God that
he speaks in.
In verse 10, he says, there are more
to be desired than gold, much than fine
gold, sweeter than honey in the honeycomb.
In other words, there's no amount of money
that compares with this.
And there's nothing this world offers that can
make it sweeter than to know this divine
life being lived within mine.
And he says, moreover, by them is thy
servant warned.
And in keeping of them, there's great reward.
That said, you love me enough, David said,
to challenge me when my heart is not
right.
Who can understand his errors?
David David had an awareness, as we should
have tonight, that the human heart is depraved
and very wicked and loves religion with a
passion.
Human heart will call.
We are political correctness.
It didn't find it didn't just all of
a sudden dawn on people in our generation.
It's been in the religious heart for years,
taking one thing and calling it by another
name.
And David says, who can understand his errors?
In other words, if God, if you don't
show me, how would I know?
I will walk on.
I will be out of course as it
is.
I will do things that don't declare your
glory.
And I won't be aware of it unless
you show me, because my own heart will
lead me away from you.
Then he goes on.
He says, cleanse me from secret faults.
Now, I'm not talking we're not talking about
secret faults that that somebody willfully hides.
You know, if you're if you're a thief
and you're here and you're pretending you're honest
and that's just that's a secret fault that
is not so secret.
This this is a secret fault that is
secret only to you.
This is what David is praying and things
that I am not aware of.
But, you know, they're there.
That's that's the context of the secret faults
is not not things that are willfully hidden.
Things that are entrenched in me that are
out of this realm of divine order that
you want to plant within my life because
of your life.
And I'm not aware of it.
God, he says, you've got to cleanse me
from these secret faults.
And keep back thy servant also from presumptuous
sins and let them not have dominion over
me.
And then I will be upright and innocent
from the great transgression.
Now, of course, the great transgression is is
this lawless rebellion of an entire world that
is trying to find gratification without God.
They want to live outside of truth and
somehow get to heaven.
But the Bible calls it a great transgression
against a holy God.
He says, keep me back from presumptuous sins.
And the definition in the Hebrew of the
word presumptuous means inflated pride.
These are things that I have allowed into
my life because I have exalted my knowledge
above the knowledge of God.
I've allowed them to find residency in my
heart.
And I've in fact become proud and I
don't know it.
I'm not aware of it.
You know, you ask me the question tonight,
say, well, how can I know that these
things might be in me?
Well, verse 14 tells us is let the
words of my mouth and the meditation of
my heart be acceptable.
And I cite, oh, Lord, my strength and
my redeemer.
And here's the clue.
It's when what I am speaking with my
mouth is not exactly in line with what
I'm thinking in my heart.
Jesus, you're all in all.
Look at Martha, for example, in John 11.
She's confessing.
She's making this confession with her mouth.
She says, I believe you are the Christ.
I believe that my mother, my mother, my
brother, rather, will rise at the last day.
But what is she thinking in her heart?
Where were you when we needed you?
We're masterful and we can change our speech,
folks.
We can.
We can work at it.
Praise God.
How are you today?
Great to see you.
We can work at all of this.
And we learn a new language when we
come into the Christian church.
And we pick up big words like righteousness
and sanctification, regeneration, justification.
We just throw them all around.
Isn't God good?
And all the platitudes.
But our hearts are not in line with
what our mouths are speaking.
And that is the evidence.
Singing songs with such passion.
But do we believe what we're singing?
Psalm 55.
You don't have to turn there.
Verse 21.
David, the psalmist, writes about a conflict situation
that he had had with somebody, I suppose,
that was a friend.
And he says about this particular person, the
words of his mouth were smoother than butter,
but war was in his heart.
Now, obviously, that can happen.
That can be you.
That can be me.
That can be running into somebody Sunday morning.
It's great to see you.
Smoother than butter.
But war is in the heart.
Now, I want to take this a step
beyond just a hypocritical personal dealing, because the
context.
Originally, that's that's really what it's about.
It's and we look at it and that's
the way we quite often want to see
it.
It's just a hypocritical personal dealing.
The person that is just full of guile,
they say one thing, but in their heart
is another.
But generally speaking, that kind of person behind
the scenes will just spew out venom.
I'm not talking about that kind of person.
I'm talking about the sincere person who does
love God, who wants in in great measure
to walk in the truth.
But there seems to be this division between
confession and the heart.
Is it possible that I could be praising
God and yet be at war?
With God in my heart.
And the context of this war means opposed
even to the point of fighting against God
inside.
Can I be praising God?
Can I be declaring him God?
Can I be saying, Lord, you know what
you're doing?
God, you created the heavens, the universe, the
sun.
You're like a bridegroom running for a bride.
You're all in all.
But why did you make me the way
I am?
Is it possible that we can be praising
him and accusing him at the same time?
Is it possible that we can be saying,
I've learned to be content, but we're anything
but content in our hearts?
Striving, pushing, pulling, trying to change, never content,
never satisfied.
James says in James four, chapter four, verse
one, he said that wars come from unsurrendered
lusts, deeply entrenched within the human heart.
I'm paraphrasing, but that's really what he's saying.
From whence come wars and fighting among you?
Do they not come from these lusts, these
unsurrendered lusts, as it is, that are resident
and they're warring within.
The disciples had a testimony with their lips
and they said, well, we've left all to
follow you.
A little farther down the road, James and
John get their mother.
To go to Jesus and ask your request
that one of us can sit on your
left hand and the other can sit on
your right.
In your kingdom, and so the mother goes
and she asked for this.
And Jesus, of course, says, you're all you're
going to drink the cup I drink.
You're going to be in other words, you're
going to be rejected.
You're going to suffer.
But it's really not mine to give this
to you.
And the Bible says the other disciples were
indignant against them.
In other words, they were annoyed.
Why?
Because it was the wrong thing to ask?
I don't think so.
Because they're well, that's what they were probably
saying.
Oh, how arrogant to ask to sit at
the right hand and the left hand of
Jesus.
What a wrong thing to ask for.
And in the heart, every one of them,
every one of them.
I know it was sick.
Everybody knows that's my place.
The mouth is saying one thing.
The heart is engaged with another.
And the heart, in effect, is at war
with God.
The heart is at war with God who
says, my ways are not your ways.
My thoughts are not your thoughts.
My ways are higher than your ways.
My thoughts are higher.
You know, we ask the question, how do
these things affect us?
What if these things are resident in the
body of Christ?
If they are in my heart, how does
it affect me?
How does it affect the testimony of Christ
in me?
Go with me to Matthew chapter 17, please,
if you will.
How does it affect me?
How does it affect us as a church?
If we are a people who confess Christ
with our lips, but deep, deep in our
hearts.
We are warring with what God is saying.
We actually know what he says, but we
don't want to receive it.
We actually know that God says, you know,
I place in the body, by the Holy
Spirit, people as I see fit.
It's amazing, isn't it?
That's the truth.
And we can confess that, we can even
teach it in the class, but be far
from it in our hearts.
Because our sense of identity is not yet
in Christ.
It's still hanging on in some measure with
what we do, how we're perceived among men.
We have a false view sometimes in the
church of success.
Success is all numbers and power and people
noticing us.
Whereas the biblical definition of success is strictly
just obeying God.
Amazing.
That's why the last will be first.
The last quite often are not noticed.
They're just obeying God.
They're just doing it.
They're walking, they're joyful.
And it's all going to be turned around
one day.
And we're going to find out that those
who just obey God are the first.
Here's 10 cities for you.
And here's you gave water.
Here's some for you.
You did this.
And here's some for you.
And here comes the procession of the mighty
and powerful.
Christ may look at them and say, well,
your works are burned.
You're lucky to be here.
Be glad.
He won't say lucky because in the Christian
church, I know we don't say lucky.
How do these things affect us?
Matthew chapter 17.
Verse 16 says it all.
Here's a man who has a son who's
a lunatic and he's led of the devil.
He's thrown in the fire.
The enemy is trying to drown him in
unbridled passion.
He's trying to take him into the waters
of confusion.
And he says, verse 16, he says, I
brought him to the disciples and they could
not cure him.
And then Jesus answered and said, and I've
often wondered about this, but I want you
to see this verse in the context of
what the Lord's given me to speak tonight.
He said, oh, faithless and crooked, really, generation.
How long shall I be with you and
how long shall I suffer you?
Bring him here to me.
The disciples couldn't cast him out of faithlessness
in the heart, but not just a faithlessness.
That is, I believe that they at the
moment I shared this at a prayer meeting
on Thursday night.
And I believe at the moment they're there
with this lunatic boy and they're trying to
cast the devil out in Jesus name.
And I believe that they may have been
able to muster a measure of faith.
I don't think necessarily the faithlessness is about
this.
So much that they just didn't believe that
in Jesus name, this demonic power had to
go.
But the faithlessness perhaps is more attributed to
the fact that so many were not convinced
that Christ was everything for them.
The Christ was yet there all in all.
They didn't fully yet believe he could take
them through the storm.
They didn't fully yet believe he could provide
bread in the most dire of circumstances.
And perhaps they're not yet fully content in
who they are in Christ himself.
And it's this faithlessness and this crookedness that
it brings.
This inability to say, Christ, who you've made
me is good enough.
What you've called me to be is sufficient.
I have you in my life.
That's all I need.
I have the living God who created this
universe in me.
Now, God, it's really up to you to
do something through my life.
I will believe you that you're in me.
And when you speak, oh God, I will
step forward in faith and trust you for
it.
But that's all I'm going to do.
I will only do what you call me
to do because I am fully accepted.
And I fully trust that I am whole
because you are within me.
And your grace and your presence is sufficient
for me.
I don't have to preach to thousands to
prove that you're in my life.
All I have to do is what you're
asking me to do.
And God Almighty, I'm content to be who
you've called me to be.
You see, when a person comes to that
place in their life, there is a measure
now of spiritual authority that comes into your
life.
Because now you can walk to the temple
at the fifth hour, and you can see
a man lame from his mother's womb, and
you can say to that man, look upon
me.
Not so much that I'm anything in myself,
but what you're seeing in me, I am
complete and whole and entire and sufficient in
Christ Jesus.
And the same Christ that has made me
whole, the same Christ that carries me from
day to day, the same Christ that is
changing my mind and heart and bringing my
life into divine order, will give strength to
you in your condition.
If I don't believe that Jesus is enough
for me, how, how, how can I tell
you He's enough for you?
Then the disciples came to Jesus and said,
why could we not cast Him out?
In verse 20 He said, because of your
unbelief.
And as I shared earlier, I don't think
personally that it's completely unbelief just because they
didn't believe the devil would go.
It's their unbelief.
It's a deep-set unbelief.
They're not yet in a place of fully
trusting Him.
Then He says, if you had faith as
a grain of mustard seed, you can say
to this mountain, remove and it shall be
removed and nothing shall be impossible to you.
But He said, howbeit this kind goeth not
out by prayer and fasting.
Now listen to me on this.
There's two ways you can read this.
Number one, this kind is the devil that
possessed this child.
But number two, this kind is the unbelief,
deeply entrenched in their hearts that they couldn't
fully see.
At this stage in their walk with Christ,
they couldn't fully comprehend truth.
They couldn't fully comprehend who He was going
to make them into and that He was
sufficient.
Or they could confess it, art thou Christ,
the Son of the living God, but yet
still not fully understand what that means.
And then Jesus said, this kind.
And if you take it in the context
of the previous verse, if you took it
to mean the unbelief, this kind can't go
out but by prayer and fasting.
People who have this measure of unbelief that
renders them powerless, they're not going to get
rid of it unless there's a wholehearted seeking
of God.
This seeking of God that says, God, You
go to the core of my being.
You go to the core of my heart,
of what I believe and why I believe
it, of who I am, who I'm becoming.
The depth of either my trust or unbelief
in You, but God, go to it, show
it to me.
I believe in my heart that discontent is
a besetting sin of this church generation.
We are a people who have been impressed
by this world as perhaps no other generation
before us.
Think for a moment, especially if you're still
watching a lot of television.
You say, well, I only watch the History
Channel.
Well, that's okay.
I have no problem with that.
But think of the ads in between.
Now, I'm not going where you think I'm
going.
Every ad that you see tells you, you're
not tall enough, you're not thin enough, you're
not young enough, you're not pretty enough, your
clothes are not nice enough.
When did you ever see an ad on
the History Channel that says, You are complete
in Christ.
Rejoice with us.
And so you're pressed and inundated by a
society that constantly stirs discontent to sell products
to you.
And ultimately, the devil takes you to the
next step and says, Your wife is not
nice enough.
Your husband is not nice enough.
You're not being romanced enough.
You're not being respected enough.
You're not being understood enough.
And so we see a generation, even in
the church, just all heading out the door
discontent.
So they come to church now, give their
lives to Christ, but yet still impressed so
deeply.
And Christ says, In me, you are whole.
And we confess it with our lips, but
do we really believe it in our hearts?
Do we really believe it?
I think I do.
I believe that God is moving to create
a heart that matches all of the confession
of Christ.
And in order for that to happen, everything
has to be on the table, or the
altar, if you want to call it whatever
you want.
It has to be there.
It has to be laid out.
Even the things we think are good.
Am I?
Paul the Apostle says in Philippians 4, 11
to 13, he says, I have learned to
be content.
I've learned.
In other words, he had to relearn.
Paul was like every other religious person before
he was converted, just pushing everybody out of
the way, plowing his way through to the
top, stepping over everybody that got in his
way.
And all his religion did is put murder
in his heart for truth.
But at the end, he could say, I've
learned.
I've learned to have all things.
I've learned to have nothing.
I've learned one lesson above all others.
Paul is saying I can do all things
through Christ who strengthens me.
If there was a message you find in
the writings of Paul, it's Jesus is sufficient.
I found the sufficiency of God.
I'm in jail.
He's sufficient.
I'm laid out.
I've received a beating.
He's sufficient.
Everybody's gathering on the road and saying, welcome,
Paul.
He's sufficient.
Nobody's there to greet me.
He's sufficient.
I preach a sermon.
Everybody gets saved.
He's sufficient.
I preach a sermon.
They throw rocks at me.
He's sufficient.
The whole city's converted.
He's sufficient.
The whole city goes into an uproar.
He's sufficient.
Paul was one of those few that found
Christ as his life.
I want that.
I want it with all my heart.
Because, you see, it's this church that has
the power to cast out these demonic powers
that govern our generation.
It's this people that have the power.
It's the people who are content.
It's the people who can look hell in
the face.
In a sense, it's somebody who's captivated by
darkness and say, look at me.
What God's done for me, he'll do for
you.
What God has made me into, God will
make you into.
And they say, well, you don't look like
much.
Oh, but wait a minute.
Now, there's more than what you can see
here.
See, if you weren't hungry, you wouldn't understand
these words tonight.
But you're hungry and you want this with
all your heart.
Because you want it, God will give it
to you.
He will give you the revelation knowledge.
I want a life that can stand against
the hell that has entrenched itself in our
generation.
I don't want to live a life that
runs around saying, in Jesus' name, and nothing
is happening.
I don't want to be reckoned among a
crooked people.
Some of whom are called by the name
of God.
Let the words of my mouth and the
meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy
sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.
David said, God, cleanse me from secret faults
and keep me from presumptuous or prideful practices.
God.
You see, that made him a man after
God's heart.
That's the prayer of a king, folks.
There's no way around it.
That's the prayer of a king.
So many people want to rule and reign
with Christ, but they don't want to pray
the prayers of a king.
There's no shortcut to this one.
So, God, you have to show me.
You have to show me.
If you can accomplish one thing in this
three days of prayer and fasting, this would
be a good place to go.
God, that when I leave on Wednesday, or
even tonight, perhaps for some, I am, by
the grace of God, going to be a
contented Christian.
I'm giving up the plans, the war, the
ambitions, the questions, the interrogation of God, the
challenging of His integrity.
I'm acknowledging that His ways are right.
And if He truly lives in me, He
is the God who created this universe.
And He can do whatever He wants to
do.
As big or small as it is, it
doesn't matter, as long as I just obey
Him.
There is such peace in this.
Beloved, there's peace in this.
Now, Father, we come to...
You said that this kind doesn't go up
but by prayer and fasting.
Lord, we want to be a people who
are free.
We are free of the discontent.
We are free of the double-mindedness.
We are free of the impress of this
world.
We're done with a backslidden, falling society telling
us what we are.
Lord, we ask You to open our hearts
and our minds.
Cleanse us.
Draw us.
Deepen us.
Father, I thank You for this with all
my heart.
Pray, God Almighty, take us.
Take us where You want us to go,
Lord.
I thank You for it, Father.
Everything in me.
I'm going to give an altar call.
And then we're going to go to prayer.
Keep in mind this is not a typical
church service tonight.
It's still only 20 after 8 and we're
going to go to prayer.
But I feel I have to give an
altar call for every Christian who's here.
I say, Pastor, the Holy Spirit through you
just preached my life in its perspective.
And I am a questioner of the integrity
of God.
I question His work in my life.
I question as if He has somehow failed
me.
As if somehow He's not given me what
I deserve.
I have ambitions.
I'm unwilling to surrender them.
And I question God and I argue with
God because He seemingly refuses to give me
these good things that I think should be
in my life.
It's not an easy altar call.
It will take a lot of honesty.
But I tell you, there's freedom on the
other side of this response.
There's incredible freedom.
Let's stand for a moment.
We're going to go to prayer.
And if the Holy Spirit's drawing you, come
and meet me here.
And we're going to pray together.
We're going to believe God tonight for a
breaking through of everything that challenges the integrity
of God.
As a church, we need to pray.
You've heard what I believe the Holy Spirit
is speaking tonight.
You've not been condemned because God's word doesn't
come to condemn you.
The word of the Lord comes to heal,
to restore, to draw you to a life
that God wants to give everyone who's called
by the name of Jesus Christ.
This is the passion of God that would
bring such a word to our hearts.
On the other side of just acknowledging some
of these things is victory, is contentment, is
a testimony that can stand against darkness in
this generation.
Is a wholeness that only God can give.
You are beloved of God.
You're created in the image of God.
If you're a Christian, God's life is in
you.
And he's doing what he sees fit.
And that should be good enough.
That has to be good enough.
It is good enough.
He's just doing what he sees fit.
Hallelujah.
Father, thank you.
Jesus, thank you.
We pray tonight that the words of our
mouth and the meditation of our heart be
acceptable in your sight, oh God.
You're our strength and you're our redeemer.
Lord, we've acknowledged you as redeemer, but so
many have lost you as their strength.
Lord, you are our strength, but you only
strengthen those in the areas where you have
called us.
Lord, you strengthen us to be what you've
destined us to be.
And Lord, if we've moved in any direction,
if we've had a vision of ourselves that's
out of line with reality, God, forgive us
for this tonight.
We pray for the grace to lay everything
down just as Abraham laid down Isaac.
And Lord, when that happened, then your glory
began to come.
The sufficiency of Christ, the alternate sacrifice began
to come into view when he laid it
down.
God Almighty, give us the grace as a
church to lay down our ambitions and our
plans, not just corporately, but individually, that we
put these things away.
And Lord, we find your will for us.
We begin to walk with contentment in our
hearts for what you've called us to be.
We operate within the giftings that you've given
us, not looking to the left, not looking
to the right, not looking to anybody else's
giftings, but content, oh God, in what you've
given us.
Lord God Almighty, let the giftings of the
Holy Ghost begin to abound in this congregation.
The gifts of ministration, the gifts of mercy.
God, those things, Lord, that are small sometimes
in the sight of man, but they are
great in the kingdom of God, they are
necessary in the work of God.
Lord, help us to embrace these things.
Help us to embrace who you're making us
into, oh God.
Give us the grace to embrace it, oh
God.
Give us the grace to be a contented
people, that when we say Jesus is Lord,
we mean it from the very depths of
our heart.
When we say Jesus, you are our all
-sufficiency, we mean it, God, from the very
depths of our heart.
We mean it, Lord.
We're not playing with words in your presence,
Lord.
Oh God, thank you for this.
Thank you, Father.
Thank you for who you've made us.
Thank you, God, for my life.
Thank you, Father, for the family you've given
us.
Thank you, God, for the work you've given
us.
Thank you, God, for the song you've put
within our hearts.
Thank you, God, for the giftings that the
Holy Spirit is imparting to us, even this
very moment.
Thank you, God.
Thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Jesus.
We give you blessing.
We give you praise.
We make a declaration tonight.
You're enough for us, Jesus.
You're enough.
You're the bread of life.
You're the blood of the Lamb.
God Almighty, you're the river of water that
cleanses us.
You're everything we will ever want.
You're all we will ever need.
Everything, everything is found in you, Jesus.
Oh, Jesus, everything, everything.
You're our heart's desire.
God, you are the rain that falls on
us every day.
You are the light that guides us by
night.
You are everything, Lord.
You're the one who wakes us up in
the morning and puts bounds in our step
and hope in our hearts.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Lord, we cast down our self-image.
We cast down our ideas of who we
think we should be.
We cast down this old nature.
We cast down this old identity.
We take it off as the filthy flesh
that it is.
And we embrace the new image that you've
given us in Christ Jesus.
We embrace our part in the body of
Christ.
We embrace the gifts you've given us, God.
We embrace it.
And we say this is enough.
This is enough.
This is enough, Jesus.
It's enough, oh God.
This is the conclusion of the message.