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Psalm 116, please, if you'll turn there.
Psalm 116, return unto thy rest, O my
soul.
Let's pray together.
Father, I thank you for the anointing of
the Holy Spirit.
God Almighty, I thank you that you will
never gather your people and leave them unfed.
I thank you, God, that you will touch
whatever vessel you put in this pulpit because
you love your church.
I'm asking you for a special touch from
heaven today to quicken my body and quicken
my mind, enlarge my heart.
Lord, let me hear from you that I
may clearly convey the thoughts of your heart
to your church today.
I pray, God, you remove every hindrance, spiritual,
physical, whatever stands in the way, that you
simply remove it.
We declare it removed in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ.
And, Father God, I thank you that your
word cannot be bound, that your life and
plan has free course and access into every
heart.
There's no weapon formed that the devil can
ever prosper against it.
I thank you, God, that your kingdom will
advance and you will break the bonds.
You will break, O God, every lie of
the devil that he's trying to form against
every honest, God-seeking heart that is in
this house.
You will set free from the oppression of
the enemy.
God, I believe it with all my heart.
I stand and, Lord, I trust in you.
I thank you, mighty God, that you're going
to do a mortal blow into the camp
of the enemy today.
Father, I thank you for it in Jesus'
mighty name.
Psalm 116, the psalmist, I'm just going to
read the first two verses.
The psalmist says, I love the Lord because
he has heard my voice and my supplications.
Because he has inclined his ear unto me,
therefore will I call upon him as long
as I live.
Now, Psalm 116, the first two verses I
just read are obviously verses written after the
fact.
It's like you and I getting to the
end of our life story and deciding to
write a song about it.
And God has been faithful.
And when we get to the end of
this journey, we begin our song, as it
is, by saying, I've decided to love God.
I'm going to love him.
And I'm loving him because he's heard me.
Every time I cried out to him, he
heard me.
He answered me.
He moved heaven and earth to answer my
prayers.
I have found out that his ear is
open to me.
And as long as I live, I'm going
to continue to call out to him.
How would you like that to be your
testimony this afternoon?
Now, there are many, many views on Psalm
116.
As numerous as you have commentators and commentaries,
you have views.
Some believe that this is attributed to Hezekiah.
Some others say that this is obviously King
David.
One or two claim that this is a
psalm written about the sufferings of Christ.
In reality, nobody knows for sure who wrote
it.
But there are some elements in it that
I want to touch on today that have
an application to my life and a direct
application to your life.
I want to share with you some of
the things that I feel the Holy Spirit
has opened to me in this particular psalm.
I started out by saying that this particular
psalmist is writing an after-the-fact expression
of praise.
He or she has had an answer to
prayer that's so dynamic, so impacted his life,
that he says, I will call upon him
as long as I live, I will call
upon God.
And I do believe that that should be
the desire of every Christian person today, that
you should have such a trust in God
that no matter what comes your way, that
you would look away from circumstances, situations, frailties,
weaknesses, oppositions of darkness, whatever it might be
that comes against you.
You say, I'm not looking to these things,
these are not going to chart my course.
My course is charted by Almighty God.
He predescribed or determined a plan for my
life even before I was formed in my
mother's womb.
God knew my name.
He had a plan and a pathway for
my life and that through this plan, his
name would be glorified.
And so he holds the keys not only
to death and hell and eternity, but he
holds the keys to my life.
He has the blueprints to my life.
So I'm not going to call out to
my friends and neighbors in times of distress.
I'm going to call out to him as
long as I live because his ear is
open to me and his power is mine
for the asking.
I see in this particular psalm, I shared
this earlier this week at Mount Zion School
of Ministry, and I see perhaps a new
Christian, a young person.
I'm not sure exactly who it might be,
but I want you to come with me
on a bit of a journey today.
I want you to go back in time
with me into the Old Testament temple.
And you see this person coming in, perhaps
newly, a new understanding of who God is
or perhaps just a brand new Christian, maybe
a young person coming into the temple.
And evidently, according to this psalm, when you
look at it, verse 14 and 18, where
he says, I will pay my vows unto
the Lord now in the presence of all
his people.
He says the same thing, verse 18, I
will pay my vows unto the Lord now
in the presence of all his people.
The implication here is there was a season
where these vows were made, where perhaps he
was unable to fulfill them.
I see a young person coming into the
temple of God, just like I see many
young Christians coming into the house of the
Lord.
I see a lot of young people in
this choir today, very, very zealous for the
things of God.
Others your age are out there and they
are pursuing relationships.
They are pursuing careers and money.
They're doing all kinds of different things where
they think they're going to find fulfillment and
happiness.
But in every generation, there are some who
say, no, that's not what my life is
going to be.
I'm bringing my life and giftings.
I'm bringing this life that God gave me
back into the temple and I'm going to
live for God.
And I see this young person coming into
the temple and all this religious activity is
going on around them.
And there are lambs being slaughtered and all
kinds of sacrifices being made past and present.
There's a history, of course, in this place.
And I see a young person coming in
like I see many coming into the house
of the Lord, making as it is vows
to God and saying, Lord, I'm going to
yield my life to you.
Many of you have said that in this
house, haven't you?
God, my life is yours.
You've heard a message somewhere and you've gotten
out of your seat.
You've come to an altar and you said,
Lord, everything I am is yours.
A lot easier said than done.
Others I see coming to the altar, this
young person saying, I will be a seeker
of God all the days of my life.
I will not go halfway in my service
to him.
Others may.
I will not.
I'm going to go all the way with
God.
And even if I'm called to Africa, that's
where I'm going to go.
There's nowhere I won't go.
There's nothing I won't do.
I've heard some of the preaching.
I agree with it in my heart.
So I'm coming and I'm giving myself.
I'm making this vow as it is to
God.
I will love him.
That is God.
And I will think of Christ above all
others.
I will not be selfish or self-serving
or lustful or envious of the gifts and
talents of others.
I will always obey God when he speaks
to me.
And I believe that's in the heart of
many, especially in our youth.
When we come in, I've made vows like
this.
If you want to call them such when
I had no power to perform them whatsoever.
But I came into the house of the
Lord and it's a good thing this is
in your heart.
But we can wind up like the apostle
Paul, where Paul says, I know what to
do, but how to perform it.
I find not.
I know in my mind what I should
be doing, but I find a law that
is at work within me.
And this law that is at work, this
law of sin and death in me seems
to drive me in the opposite direction to
what my mind says that I should be
doing.
What my heart really longs to do.
I find this law of sin and death
that is at work in my inner man,
driving me constantly to do other things.
And that's exactly what happened.
I see a young person in this psalm
coming in, making all these vows before God.
And then in verse three, he says, the
sorrows of death compassed me and the pains
of hell got hold upon me.
I found trouble and sorrow.
And in verse six, he says, I was
brought low.
I like what the New Living Testament says
about verse three.
Death had its hands around my throat and
the terrors of the grave overtook me.
I see this psalmist saying no longer, no
sooner had I made these promises that I
found the hands of death around my throat,
choking the very life out of me.
Wondering, God, why did I even make these
promises in the first place?
And in verse eight, I see a young
person has lost almost all hope.
He says, thou has delivered my soul from
death.
That's my life breath within me, the very
essence of my life.
God, you delivered it from death, my eyes
from tears and my feet from falling.
Here's somebody that's very zealous for the Lord,
says, God, I'm going to live with you
for you with all my heart.
But the next thing that seems to be
happening is the very life seems to be
getting squeezed.
Some of you might understand what I'm talking
about right now, right out of them.
Eyes, instead of looking to God and full
of this aspiration to honor him by living
a life that is pleasing to him, now
full of tears and failure, this inability to
perform these promises that we have made to
God himself and feet that are falling.
And it's interesting because in the Hebrew, the
word for falling means a fall that comes
as a result of pushing.
That's interesting.
It's not just a fall.
It's not a trip.
It's a fall that comes from a pushing,
a moving towards something perhaps that that person
doesn't have the ability to fulfill.
And in verse 10, he says, I believed
and the context really is I believed I
could.
And therefore, I have spoken.
I was greatly afflicted.
I believed I could do these things.
I believe that I could be sincerely set
apart for God.
I believe that as a Christian, I could
walk through this life and not envy the
ministry gifts on another person.
I believed I could forgive all of my
enemies and love those that have even despitefully
used me.
It was a moment of zeal.
It was a moment where I came in
and I heard a word and I said,
God, in my heart, I want to obey
it.
And I believe that I could do it.
And I headed out as it is to
fulfill it.
I spoke it.
But all I found was great affliction in
my zeal.
It led me to a crying out and
a groaning and a sighing.
And folks, do I ever know what this
is about personally?
Do I ever know what it is to
want to live for God with all of
your heart?
I know what it's like to go to
churches and altars as a young Christian and
say, Lord, others may may not want to
go with you.
But I want to go with you all
the way.
I want to live for you.
I want to be an honest man in
everything I say.
I want to have a clear and clean
mind.
I want to be the husband that you
called me to be and the father that
you want me to be.
I want, oh God, and I would just
have this list of things and say, Lord,
I'm going to do it and set out
to do it and honestly will to do
it and honestly promise God that I'm going
to live a life that is pleasing to
him.
I have to find myself 17 years after
making some of these vows out on a
country road, crying out and groaning and sighing
and accusing God himself of not being faithful
to me, of crying out to God and
saying, Lord, is this the way you treat
your servants?
Is this what you do to those who
are set apart for you?
I have this in my heart to live
for you and to obey you.
And I've set out to do it.
And God, now all you've done for me
is taken away my strength and I stand
here now unable to go forward, unable to
preach other than once a week and even
then very, very minimally because of the depth
of the headaches that would come on me
and say, God, is this my reward for
all that I have determined in my heart?
I know exactly what this psalmist was going
through, afflicted, losing hope, crying out, groaning and
sighing, having made these great promises to God
of the life that I'm going to live.
And I know that some of you, even
in this Young People's Choir, you're understanding this
now.
You're beginning to understand that we have no
resource to fulfill our promises to God.
We can come into the house of the
Lord and we can promise God anything we
want.
But we are inside utterly bankrupt to fulfill
our promises.
I can't even keep my promises to you,
let alone God.
I can tell you one thing and have
the inability to perform it the next hour.
It's only in Christ that anything I've ever
promised or ever desired is ever going to
come to fruition.
Verse 11, he said, I said in my
haste, all men are liars.
The word liars is kazav and it means
empty speakers of falsehood.
I had as much zeal or strength as
anybody who's ever come into the kingdom of
God, who's a naturally strong man or woman
or strong person.
And I made these vows to God, but
I had an inability to perform them.
I was left empty, afflicted, crying out, sighing,
groaning.
And I said, everyone is a liar.
There's nobody who has the power to fulfill
these things.
For I have had as much measure of
strength as any other man ever had and
I cannot fulfill it.
I cannot do it.
And the psalmist says, I said in my
haste, all men are liars.
All that was left is what we find
in verse 4.
He said, then I called out to the
name of the Lord and I said, O
Lord, I beseech Thee, deliver my soul.
Oh, folks, that's a wonderful place to get
to.
When we finally exhausted all of our efforts
to please God, all of our efforts to
walk with God, all of our promises to
God, we've exhausted it all.
It's like we've gone to the bank and
we've made this incredible promise to build this
incredible kingdom.
We've withdrawn all of our resources and we
haven't even laid the foundation.
And it's very obvious that we don't have
the resources to finish this building.
We are disillusioned and disappointed.
We can be left where people look at
our lives because we made great boasts about
what we're going to do.
And some of you know what this is
all about.
Only to have your family point the finger
and said, you began to build it.
We're not able to finish.
Were you?
You're not able to do all the things
that you said you were going to do
or be all of those things that you
have boasted that you were going to be
able to be.
Then all that's left.
All that was left to me after 17
years of traveling the country and preaching and
pushing is a cry.
Oh, God, deliver my soul.
I remember the day I cried in that
country road and I said, Lord, if you
don't touch me, I'm finished.
If you don't deliver me.
I can't preach another day.
I can't build any more of your kingdom.
I can't travel anymore.
There's nothing more I can do unless you
touch me.
I've been over almost six months in that
condition of an unable to preach the gospel,
except for once and very softly on Sunday
morning.
Oh, Lord, deliver my soul.
And I know that in this house and
annex, there are some of you here today
that that's your cry.
You come into this house and you've exhausted
all of your resources.
All of your best intentions are in the
dust.
All of your attempts to live for God
have failed.
And there's nothing left but a cry.
There's nothing left but this, oh, Lord, deliver
my soul.
You're going to find in the scriptures.
When you go back with me to Psalm
18, you're going to find that you're in
very, very good company.
The devil would like you to believe that
you have failed.
But in reality, if you've not failed, you're
on the perfect plan of God.
You are following a path that God has
prescribed for your life.
And whether you know it or not, the
path that God prescribed for you has brought
you to this place.
Now, in Psalm 18 is a psalm written
by David.
David is anointed to be king, just like
you and I are anointed by God.
And the scripture says we are going to
rule and reign with Jesus Christ.
Samuel walks in and anoints him in the
midst of his brethren, pours oil on top
of his head and tells him he's going
to be the next king of Israel.
Incredible.
And some of us are like that, singled
out as it is.
I remember I used to be a young
Christian.
I remember at least two or three times
when I'd be just sitting in a meeting
and the preacher stopped preaching one time and
pointed me out and said, hey, you, you
right over there in the crowd.
God has a great plan for your life.
Stay close to him.
And I felt like Samuel or like David,
rather.
Samuel just poured oil on my head.
I have no idea where this is going
to.
We think the anointing is we get the
oil on our head and then bingo, we're
on the throne, scepter in hand, ruling the
kingdom.
Well, yes, there's an anointing and then there's
a kingdom.
But there's a lot that happens in between
that prepares those who are called, in a
sense, in the end to rule and reign
with Jesus Christ.
And we experience, of course, a measure of
that by allowing Christ to live his life
in us on this side of eternity.
Now, you have to picture David is anointed
to be king.
And what's his testimony?
You know, we think the psalm should read
and the enemy would love us to think
this way in our own Christian life.
I was single.
I was among the sheep and I was
pulled out.
I was anointed by God through a prophet.
And I went the next day.
I was outfitted for my new king's robes
and I was put on the throne.
And you and I know it doesn't happen
that way.
These are the words of a man anointed
to be king.
Psalm 18, verse 5.
What does he say?
The sorrows of hell compassed me about.
The snares of death prevented me.
In my distress, I called upon the Lord
and I cried unto my God.
And he heard my voice out of his
temple and my cry came before him even
into his ears.
You see, we're in good company.
David says, I was anointed to be king,
but there was so much of hell and
death around me.
And even the frailty, if you look at
David's psalms, he talks frequently about the frailty
of his own heart.
Gathering up and standing against him and making
this calling on his life an impossibility to
fulfill apart from the grace and mercy of
God.
And so before he could reign, before he
could know what it is to walk in
that anointing that God had placed on his
life, first the sorrows of hell had to
come around about him and the snares of
death had to stop him as it is
from going forward.
There was no measure, in other words, of
human strength that could make this happen.
And you see it all through the scriptures
for men and women who are used of
God.
There is no measure of human strength that
can take them to the place that God
has destined them to be.
In my distress, I called out upon the
Lord and cried to my God.
And you see, that's exactly what God waits
for.
He's anointed to reign, but the pathway to
this life runs not only to a cross,
but through a tomb.
And many people don't realize this.
Yes, we say, well, I've been to the
cross in a sense because I've said, Jesus,
I want to follow you.
And I've read the scripture that says, I'm
to deny myself and take up my cross.
And that means the yielding of my life.
So, Lord, in a sense, I feel like
I've been there.
I've gone to the cross, and I'm willing
to carry it as it is, wherever you
ask me to take it, or how you
ask me to live as a Christian.
And a lot of people think that the
pathway that we are invited to in Christ
ends at the cross.
But I want to remind you there's a
tomb on the other side of the cross.
There's a place of death.
There's a place of burial.
There's a place where literally every man or
woman of God who is ever going to
amount to anything, in God's kingdom, comes where
we say, God, if there's any hope of
ever getting out of this place of death,
it's going to be you that brings me
out.
That cry that comes into the heart of
the believer where Jesus said, Father, into thy
hands I commend my spirit.
In other words, Father, I'm about to die.
And if I'm going to live, I'm going
to live by your promises to me.
There's no power that's going to bring me
out of the grave but your promise to
me.
And so I'm committing my life now, my
spirit, into your hands.
I'm giving my future into your hands.
Jesus himself said, unless a corn of wheat
falls into the ground and dies, it abides
alone.
But if it dies, it will bring forth
much fruit.
If I live again, it will be not
by my promises to you, but by your
promises to me.
You see, there has to be a transition
in the Christian life.
And when we are young and when we
start out full of natural strength and zeal,
we do all have a tendency to make
promises to God.
God, I will seek you.
God, I will love you.
God, I will walk honestly.
God, I will do this.
God, I will do that.
You all know what that's all about.
But you see, when maturity begins to approach,
God will take you at your word and
he will lead you to a tomb.
And he will lead you to a place
where you are going to die.
You have no power to fulfill these promises.
You have no resources to make it happen.
You think as bad as Lazarus.
And you know it in this area of
your life.
You are dead.
And not only have you written yourself off,
but everybody else has written you off too
as well.
They've rolled a stone in some cases over
this part of your life.
And even many Christians here today, you've done
the same thing.
You've rolled a stone over this area of
your life.
And you say, there's no hope for me
ever to live or to get out of
this place, this diseased condition as it is
of my soul.
But Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 1
and verse 4, whereby are given to us
exceeding great and precious promises, that by these
you might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the
world through lust.
And that word lust means the diseased condition
of the soul.
David knew this.
David knew that he was so encompassed from
without and from within by this corruption that
is in the world and is in every
man who does not have the life of
Christ reigning inside of him.
He called out to God.
And David's testimony began to change.
The moment he called out to God, the
Scripture begins to describe something from verses 7
to 16 in Psalm 18, which would seem
incredibly graphic.
It talks about the earth shaking.
The foundations of the hills moving.
Smoke coming out of the nostrils of God.
Fire coming out of His mouth.
So hot that coals like wood was turned
instantly to coals by it.
Bowing to heavens, coming down, darkness under His
feet, riding upon a cherub, flying on the
wings of the wind, making darkness His secret
place.
Verse 12, thick clouds passed, hailstones and coals
of fire, the Lord thundering in the heavens,
the highest giving His voice.
Yea, verse 14, sending out arrows and scattering
them, shooting out lightnings and discomforting them.
The channels of the waters were seen, the
foundations of the world were discovered at Thy
rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the
breath of Thy nostrils.
All this is very dramatic, but it's trying
to convey a point that God Almighty waits
for that cry.
And He says, when I hear that cry,
when you finally come to the place where
you know you can't do it, where you
know your own promises to Me are worthless,
because I didn't come and die on a
cross so that you can make promises to
Me.
I came and died on a cross so
that I can make a way for you,
that I might come and live within you
and make promises to you, and by these
promises you become partakers of the divine nature
of God through Jesus Christ.
I came, not so that you could promise
to Me, but your heart could open to
Me in faith, and I could start to
make you into that which I've destined you
to be from before the time you were
even conceived in your mother's womb.
I had a plan and a purpose for
you, but it's not fulfilled by that which
is in you, because you have no resource
to fulfill it.
It's only by My promises to you that
it will ever happen.
David's testimony changed now to verse 16.
He says, He sent from above.
He took Me, drew Me out of many
waters.
Verse 17, He delivered Me from My strong
enemy, and from them which hated Me, for
they were too strong for Me.
Verse 19, He brought Me forth into a
large place.
He delivered Me because He delighted in Me.
Verse 20, The Lord rewarded Me according to
My righteousness.
Now, this is interesting, because in the Old
Testament, of course, your righteousness was determined in
great measure by your obedience.
But in the New Testament, it's not so.
Jesus Christ paid the price for our failure,
and through Him, the Bible says, we are
the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
You might be the most struggling Christian in
this place today, but let me tell you
something.
If you have trusted in Christ, if you
have an honest heart, if your salvation is
genuine, and you know that it's genuine, you
have the Spirit of God upon you, you
are the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.
The devil cannot condemn you.
He cannot stop the plan of God because
of your failing.
He cannot tell you you're not going to
make it.
He's a liar and the father of all
lies.
He cannot stop the plan of God from
advancing in your life, because the righteousness we
have is not our own.
It is the righteousness of Christ that has
been given to us freely by Almighty God.
If the enemy wants to get to you,
he's got to go through Christ.
But he cannot get through Him, because he
was triumphed over on Calvary.
Verse 22, verse 29, For by these, as
I have run through a troop, and by
my God I have leaped over a wall.
David says, Yes, I was compassed with the
sorrows of hell, and there was infirmity all
around me.
But I cried out to my God, and
He was waiting for this cry.
And when He heard it, He came and
empowered me.
And I have been able to run through
even a host of the enemy that has
been pitted against me in the testimony of
Christ in my life.
There's nothing can stop you if the power
of God is in you.
If the plan of Christ is moving forward
by the grace of Almighty God, there's no
weapon of hell formed against you that can
prosper against you.
By my God, he said, I've leaped over
every wall.
The enemy has tried to erect around me.
Everything he's tried to build to try to
say to me, you'll go this far and
no farther.
By God within me, there's not a wall
that the enemy could build that I could
not go over.
As for God, he says in verse 30,
His way is perfect.
The Word of the Lord is tried.
He is a buckler to all those that
trust in Him.
Verse 32, he says, It is God that
girdeth me with strength and makes my way
perfect.
Verse 33, He makes my feet like hinds
feet.
That means like a mountain goat.
And sets me upon my high places.
In other words, it is God inside of
me who gives me the power to climb
impossible places.
Gives me the power to go where my
natural flesh could not go.
And to become what I could never be
through any amount of human effort.
It is God that girds me with strength.
Verse 34, He teaches my hands to war
so that a ball of steel is broken
by mine arms.
This is not an exaggeration on David's part.
He said, There is no end to the
strength of God within me.
As strong as God is, I can be.
Even a bow that is made of steel,
God will increase my strength so that it
can be.
I can draw that arrow back so far
that a bow of steel is broken by
my hands.
Thou, verse 35, He says, Has also given
me the shield of Thy salvation.
Thy right hand is holding me up and
Thy gentleness hath made me great.
Oh God, You have sheltered me in from
the weaponry of my enemy.
You have holden me up in Your right
hand and You are so gentle, oh God.
You are so gentle.
There is nothing You would do to ever
harm me.
Every thought You have towards me is for
good.
You have enlarged, verse 36, my steps under
me that my feet did not slip.
Verse 39, Thou hast girded me with strength
unto the battle.
Verse 40, Thou hast given me the necks
of mine enemies that I might destroy them
that hate me.
They cried, but there was none to save
them, even unto the Lord.
But He answered them, not.
Psalm 116 again, and verse 15, the psalmist
says, Precious in the sight of the Lord
is the death of His saints.
Now what's he talking about?
Now I know there's a physical death, and
we can't give that application, but I don't
see God, personally today, let's say you sir
were to die at this moment and fall
in the aisle, I don't see God looking
down and say that's really precious.
No, there's another death that's very precious to
God.
It's when we finally get to the place
where we say, God, I can't.
There is no hope apart from You.
I have exhausted all of my resources.
I have tried so hard to get the
victory.
I have put every ounce of everything I've
got into this.
And now, I'm like Lazarus, I'm in a
tomb.
And I've died.
There's no hope that I can love this
person again.
There's no hope I could ever forgive.
There's no hope I could ever be an
honest, truly honest seeker of God without You,
coming and raising me from the dead.
Oh, that kind of a death is precious,
beloved.
Verse 12.
He says, What shall I render to the
Lord for all His benefits towards me?
Knowing what it is that God has done
for me.
Knowing what it is that God wants to
do for my life.
What can I give back to God?
If I can't make promises and fulfill them,
if I can't make vows and do them,
if I don't have the resource to fulfill
them, then what is it that I can
give back to God?
What can I render to Him?
When I consider all that He's willing to
do for me or has done for me.
Then He answers His own question in verse
13.
I will take the cup of salvation and
call upon the name of the Lord.
This is what I will render to God.
I will take the salvation He's given me.
I will take the cleanness that He's imputed
to me through Jesus Christ.
I will take the full gift of His
life.
All the promises He's ever made to me.
I will take this cup of salvation and
I will call on His name.
And I will say, Oh God, come and
do what only You can do.
Come and make me into the man or
person it is that only You can make
me.
Come and take me where only You can
cause me to go.
Come and give me what only You can
cause me to have.
Come and move in me.
Live and move in me and cause me
to have my being in You.
Oh God, raise me from the dead and
let my life be a testimony everywhere I
go.
Let it be Your name, Jesus, that's on
my lips.
Not methodology, not how to, or how did
I do this?
But it's Christ that raised me from the
dead.
Let my testimony be of the goodness of
God.
The incredible grace of Almighty God.
Let me be reckoned among the dead that
I may live with Christ.
That Christ may be my life.
That the same Spirit that raised Jesus from
the dead may raise me also out of
the diseased condition of my soul.
And give me power so that I know
it's God.
And touch my mind and touch my body
and touch my heart.
God, You said You'd give me a new
mind.
Give it to me, oh God.
I take the cup of my salvation.
I'm tired of these thoughts.
I'm tired of these vengeful thoughts.
I'm tired of this desire for revenge or
vengeance, whatever it is.
I'm asking You, Lord, to come and raise
me from the dead and give me a
new mind.
And give me a new heart.
And give me a new spirit.
That all this generation may know that You
are God.
That I may have a testimony and a
song.
That I may stand at the end of
my days and say, I love God.
Because He heard me.
I cried and He heard me.
And He listened when I cried to Him.
And He raised me out of weakness into
His glorious liberty and life and strength.
Therefore, I will call upon Him as long
as I live.
Oh, God.
He says, I am Your servant.
Verse 16.
And the son of Your handmaid.
Thou hast loosed my bonds.
You cut the cords that were holding me
down.
You gave me life.
You took away from me, by grace, all
this sense of my own self-image.
I tried to cram into Your kingdom.
But You can't accept it because it's corrupt.
It has to die that You may live
within me.
And He says, Oh, God.
You loosed my bonds.
That can be Your story.
That can be Your story if You just
finally come to the end of all the
efforts to be holy.
You can't be holy in Your own strength.
It's not possible.
All the efforts to please God through all
the religious activities that You're involved in.
You cannot please God through these things.
We please God when we believe Him.
We please God when we acknowledge that the
source of our life and strength is Christ.
We please God when we lose confidence in
ourselves and we begin to look up.
Like God called Abraham.
Said, don't look this way.
Look this way.
I'm your exceeding great reward.
Look away from yourself.
Look away from your own efforts.
Look away from your own abilities or lack
thereof.
And look to me.
Oh, God.
You've loosed my bonds.
Do I ever know this?
Do I understand this?
Loosed my bonds.
Oh, the cords we wrap ourselves in when
we try to do something for God.
Or be something that only God can make
us into.
We wrap ourselves in grave clothes just like
Lazarus.
And we end up dead.
Unable to fulfill it.
I will offer to Thee, verse 17, the
sacrifice of thanksgiving.
And I will call on the name of
the Lord.
He said, this is what I will render
back to You, oh God.
I will thank You before the nations.
I will declare Your name to all who
can hear.
I'll shout it from the mountaintops.
There's none other but Christ.
There's no other life but Christ.
There's no other strength but Christ.
There's no other righteousness but Christ.
There's no other hope but Christ.
I'll offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving.
I will thank You before the nations for
what You've done for me.
And I'll call upon Your name.
I'll just keep calling on Your name.
I'll never let the devil shut my voice.
When I'm on my deathbed, I'll call on
Your name.
Like the psalmist says, oh God, one more
time.
Show Your power.
Show Your glory.
Even in the room of my death, show
Your glory.
I'll call out to Your name.
And I'll pay my vows now, He says,
in the presence of all His people.
I couldn't do it then, but I will
do it now.
I tried to do it in my own
strength, and all I got was the hands
of death around my throat.
I couldn't do it then, but I will
do it now.
I will pay my vows, but it's not
me doing it.
It's You doing it, oh God.
I didn't have the resources.
It's You in me.
It's Christ in me, the hope of glory.
It's God who created the universe, who chooses
to come and live in this temple, this
human body.
If you could lay hold of that truth
alone, it can revolutionize your life.
The God who said, let there be light,
lives in you.
Amazing.
And every promise He's ever made has as
much power and authority as when He said,
let there be light.
And light was.
Oh, how foolish we are.
How foolish we are to try to be
what only God can make us.
And so we stumble, we fall, we fail.
We stumble, fall, fail.
Stumble, fall, fail.
Get up, stumble, fall, fail.
Go into some place that says, well, here's
a new way.
Try this.
Here's five steps.
Try that.
Here's three steps.
Do this.
Stumble, fall, fail.
Sin, confess.
And finally, by God's grace, we die.
We come to the place where we say,
I give up.
God says, precious.
That is precious to me.
I've been waiting to hear that.
That is precious to me.
Now we're going to live.
Now I'm going to raise you from the
dead.
And you're going to be quickened in that
area of your life.
And I'm going to give you what it
is that you tried to achieve in your
own strength.
But you couldn't do it.
Now I'm going to give it to you.
And you're going to know that it's me.
And I will be the testimony of your
lips for the rest of your life.
I'll be the testimony of your lips all
the days of your life.
And my song will be, I love the
Lord because he heard me.
I love him because he inclined his ear
to me.
And therefore, I will call upon him as
long as I live.
As long as I live, I will call
out upon the name of my God.
Hallelujah.
I want to give a very simple altar
call today.
Here in the Education Annex, those who are
in the Annexes, there's not that many people.
You can feel free to join us at
this altar today.
And this is how simple it's going to
be.
I am dead in this area of my
life.
I am making no more promises to God.
I'm going to live only by his promises
to me.
I'm tired.
I'm finished.
I've had it.
I cannot change.
I've given it my best effort.
I've made all the promises I can make.
I've gotten to the point where I said
all men are liars.
I didn't feel anybody could try any harder
than I've tried.
And I couldn't do it.
And I don't think they can do it
either.
I'm done now making promises to God.
There's going to be a change.
I'm not going to live by his promises
to me.
And Lord, I'm bringing you this area of
my life.
If it's an unforgiveness, if it's a lying
tongue, if it's a lustful heart, don't know
what it is.
But I know the Holy Spirit's been speaking
to many.
And if you can acknowledge that you have
no strength in this area anymore, if you
can acknowledge before God, God, I'm a dead
man.
I'm a dead woman.
You think, in the natural, you think that
God is going to condemn you.
But he doesn't.
He said this is precious.
This is precious to me because now I
can show you who I am.
Now you can trust me and I can
infuse you with my life.
And I will give you the victory.
And you will know that I am God.
And your heart will become enlarged.
And you will start calling out to me
more than you ever have before.
And I will change not just this area
but other areas in your life.
And I will enlarge the borders of your
life.
I will give you more than you could
ever naturally possess.
And I will teach you how to have
confidence in me.
I will guide you and lead you all
the days of your life.
And you will have a song that people
want to hear.
There will be something in your voice that
causes many to want to listen, even in
your own family.
If you will have the courage to say,
God, I need you to raise me from
the dead.
Now in some cases you are just so
engrossed in sin that it's your whole life
that has to be raised from the dead.
Thank God he provided for that at Calvary
when he shed his blood and paid the
price for your sin, that you might be
forgiven and make an entrance into your life
for the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit
of Christ, who will raise you from living
among the dead and give you new life.
Now as we stand, if the Holy Spirit
has spoken to your heart, would you come?
I'm just giving an altar call for the
dead.
Would you just come and join me at
this altar?
And we're going to pray together for life
and believe God.
Would you slip out the balcony, go to
either exit, main sanctuary, just slip out of
your seat.
Please just make your way down.
We're going to pray together.
And we're going to believe God for life.
Hallelujah.
Pray with me now.
Lord Jesus, I reckon myself to be dead
in this area of my life.
I have no power to change by any
effort of my own.
But I see today that your word tells
me that when I know this, when I
understand that I am powerless, this is precious
in your sight.
I cry out to you now as the
psalmist did, as David did.
And I say, oh God, deliver my soul.
Lift me out of the power of death
and create in me a clean heart, a
new mind, and a new spirit.
Jesus, I believe that I will live in
this area of my life by the power
of your life, through your promises being lived
out inside of me.
And so I yield it.
I give it to you, Lord, as Christ
gave his spirit to the Father.
I give this to you, Jesus.
And it's by the power of your life
and your promises to me that I will
live in this area of my life.
God, forgive me for not trusting you sooner.
God, forgive me for trying to work it
out in my own strength.
Oh God, I rejoice this day for the
knowledge in my heart that in the name
of Jesus Christ, the same spirit that raised
him from the dead will lift me out
of this death and give me the victory
that Christ won for me.
Two thousand years ago, I claim today in
the name of Jesus that I am in
this area of my life, alive from the
dead, no longer under the power of sin
or the dominion of the flesh.
I'm under the grace of God.
So I lift my voice.
I clap my hands.
I say, Jesus, I praise you.
I thank you.
I thank you for the victory.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
I'm alive from the dead by the grace
of God.
I live.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
I live by the grace of God.
Hallelujah.
Do you believe it?
We live by the grace of God.
We stand by the grace of God.
We sing by the grace of God.
We go from glory to glory by the
grace of God.
We testify by the grace of God.
We praise by the grace of God.
We pray by the grace of God.
Hallelujah to the Lamb of God.
Thank you, Jesus.
Give Him thanks.
Give Him praise.
This is the conclusion of the message.