This message is one of the Times Square
Church Pulpit Series.
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People here this morning, you're going to be
delivered of something that you didn't think was
a problem, because I have been.
I believe that if you will allow the
Holy Spirit to diligently search your heart, you're
going to be set free from something that
can rob you of Christ's life, can rob
you of his health, that can rob you
of everything that he wants for you, and
he has destined you to be.
But you really, really have to want to
hear this today.
Father, I thank you, God.
I thank you for your faithfulness.
I've never been more aware in my life
of the fact that I stand by grace.
Everything I have, you've given me.
All that I am, you've made me.
And everywhere I'll go, it's simply because that's
where you've destined and chosen to take me.
God, I pray for an ability to speak
this word so that it can be heard.
I pray for a moldability in the hearts
of all who hear this word today.
I pray, mighty God, that you would make
following you, Jesus, the chiefest delight of our
lives.
But only you can even do this.
Holy Spirit, you have to come and stir
us up.
You've got to come and fan the flame
in each one of our hearts.
God, I thank you, Lord, for what you're
going to do.
There is a mighty hand of deliverance on
this service today.
Thank you for it in Jesus' name.
Psalm 106 in the Old Testament.
We're going to begin there.
I would suggest you put a marker in
the index of your Bible, because we're going
to be going quickly to several different places,
and some of them are some of the
lesser-traveled passages in the Bible.
So it's probably just wise to put a
marker in your index so you can find
it quickly.
My message is entitled, When God Sends Leanness
into the Soul.
When God Sends Leanness into the Soul.
Psalm 106, beginning at verse 10.
And he saved them from the hand of
him that hated them, and redeemed them from
the hand of the enemy.
And the waters covered their enemies, there was
not one of them left.
Then believed they his words, they sang his
praise.
They soon forgot his works, and waited not
for his counsel.
But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness, and tempted
God in the desert.
And he gave them their request, but sent
leanness into their soul.
When God Sends Leanness into the Soul.
Now Paul the Apostle, in 1 Corinthians chapter
10, verses 11, 12, and 13, says these
words.
Let me read them to you.
He said, All these things happened to them
for examples.
And they are written for our admonition, that
means for our sake and our instruction, upon
whom the ends of the world are come.
And how much more today, if Paul thought
that was his portion, in a sense, in
his generation, how much more now?
Verse 12 says, Wherefore, let him that thinks
he stands take heed, which means give earnest
and intensive contemplation.
Let him that thinks he stands, or thinks
he's okay in these things, looks back in
the Bible and says, Okay, I'm not like
the children of Israel were.
That's not me.
I'm not a rebel, I'm not a murmurer,
I'm not worshiping a golden calf.
And so these might be examples for some
people, but they're not for me.
Paul says, Let him that thinks he stands
take heed, lest he fall.
And then he concludes it with the last
verse, verse 13, which when you understand what
he's saying, it really brings this verse into
a different context.
He says, Therefore, there has no temptation taken
you, but such as is common to man.
And Paul says, Beware now.
There is a common temptation that is found
in the hearts of all men.
And he said, The things that happen to
the children of Israel are also in all
of our hearts.
But God is faithful, who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that you are
able, but will with the temptation also make
a way to escape that you may be
able to bear it.
Now, when we read that, we always are
drawn to thinking about pornography and alcohol and
drug addiction and these types of temptation and
aren't anything involving any of the lusts of
the flesh.
But there are other temptations that you and
I may not even be aware of.
And only the Holy Ghost can bring it
to the surface.
Only the Holy Ghost can show us what's
really going on in our lives.
And with that, God is faithful.
And once we're aware of it, he makes
a way to escape it.
Go with me now to the book of
Numbers in the Old Testament.
That would be your fourth book from the
beginning.
Numbers chapter 11.
We're going to take a look at the
children of Israel.
They've been delivered from a great bondage like
you and I have.
Set free.
All of their enemies have been vanquished by
the power of God, incredible power.
They've seen miracles just like many here today.
You could stand if I gave you opportunity
to testify.
There are many people today who would stand
up and say, Pastor, I'm a walking miracle.
I was given up for dead.
The things that were in my life, my
family, my friends, they gave me up for
dead.
There are others that could stand up and
say, I was insane.
The things that I might have done had
God not intervened.
And others could stand up and say, I
was tormented in my mind.
But I came to Christ and it's as
if he drowned all of my former tormentors
in the sea behind me.
And now I can honestly say I'm free.
I'm free by the power of God.
You see the same children of Israel now.
They've been brought up, the scripture says, by
a mighty hand.
And God drowned all their enemies in the
sea.
And now there's something very peculiar happening to
them.
In chapter 11, verse 10, it says, Then
Moses heard the people weep throughout their families,
every man in the door of his tent.
And the anger of the Lord was kindled
greatly, and Moses also was displeased.
And Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast
thou afflicted thy servant?
And wherefore have I not found favor in
thy sight, that thou layest the burden of
all this people upon me?
Have I conceived this people?
Have I begotten them, that thou shouldst say
unto me, Carry them in your bosom as
a nursing father, bearing the sucking child unto
the land which thou swearest unto their fathers?
Now, Moses is exasperated.
He has seen this incredible visitation of God,
this marvelous deliverance.
And now it says, you have to understand,
the warriors that were counted were over 600
,000 that were numbered that came out of
Egypt.
So it's a safe estimation to say there
were between 2 and 3 million people that
were brought out of bondage.
And it says in the scripture, every man
was standing in the door of his tent.
I picture at the end of the day,
at the end of a travel day.
Now, this is not very long.
They're not very long moving towards the promised
land here.
And you see, at the end of the
day, when the standard is set up and
everyone is encamped, and at night, instead of
being satisfied with everything that God has done,
and the fact that He simply promises, I'm
taking you to a place that you don't
understand.
Just believe me.
And just walk with me.
You don't understand the pathway.
You didn't know how to get out of
bondage, and you don't know how to get
into freedom.
I brought you out of bondage, and I'm
taking you into freedom.
It's not up to you.
All I require of you is to trust
me.
You remember the exasperation of God Himself when
He said one time to Moses, How long
will it be before these people believe me?
Before, in other words, there's a confident trust
in me.
Moses, you can imagine how credulous it must
have been to stand in that camp, at
the end of a travel day, and hear
every man.
Now, if we take that literally, that's over
600,000 men standing and whining in the
door of their tents, of their houses.
It's an incredible thing.
Moses says they're like nursing infants, whining, never
satisfied.
And what an incredible picture of human nature
this is.
You have to see it.
You have to envision.
If you and I would be there, we'd
be standing on the periphery of the camp,
and we'd be dumbfounded and say, What a
funny people these are.
Delivered out of such incredible darkness, brought into
the life as it is of God.
They have the cloud of God's presence going
with them by day, and they have the
pillar of His fire lighting the camp and
keeping them warm by night.
They have all these incredible promises of God,
and here are 600,000 plus men standing
and whining like nursing babies in the door
of their tent.
An incredible thing.
Weeping at the door as it is, dissatisfied,
crying out for what they think they should
have.
Now, keep that in mind.
Not where they are, not crying because of
where they've been, but crying because there's something
they think they should have, and they feel
that somehow God is withholding it from them.
Psalm 106 again says, He saved them, verse
10, from the hand of him that hated
them, and redeemed them from the hand of
the enemy.
The waters covered their enemies, and there was
none of them left.
Then believed they His words and sang His
praise.
That's what new Christianity is all about when
you first get saved.
Do you ever wonder why some here, you're
losing your song?
Do you ever wonder why there's no force
of conviction in your praises anymore?
It seems to be the longer you walk
with God, the leaner you're becoming.
Something is happening to you and you don't
understand why it's happening to you.
God, I thought this was up and up
all the way.
I thought this was from glory to glory.
I seem to be going from dead to
deader.
I seem to be going from power to
weakness.
I seem to be taking another turn from
everybody.
The longer I am here, the less my
song seems to be coming with genuine adoration
out of my heart.
You see, verse 13 says, they soon forgot
His words.
They soon forgot about the way God does
things.
They soon forgot that His ways are not
our ways.
They soon forgot that they were required of
God to walk by faith into the promised
land.
It was not a walk of sight.
It never was and never would be.
It was absolutely and entirely by faith.
They were to walk, they were to trust,
they were to believe.
Whether they took a direct route to the
promised land or went around the wilderness a
hundred times a month, they were to trust
because God said, I'm taking you in.
Every man was to do exactly what God
alone had called him to do.
That's really what makes the church of Jesus
Christ a harmonious, wonderful place to be when
every man knows what he's to do.
When everyone has found Christ as their Savior,
obviously, first and foremost.
If you don't know Jesus Christ, then this
message may appeal to you, but you can't
enter in until you have yielded your life
to Him.
You've acknowledged you've needed a Savior and invited
Him into your heart and life to be
that Savior and to be your Lord.
But they soon forgot His works and they
waited not for His counsel.
Now, the word counsel in the Hebrew means
His plan, His design, His purpose.
They soon forgot the way God does things.
And isn't that the way you and I
have a tendency to be?
We get saved, we get free, we get
delivered, we come to church, we sing, I'm
free, I'm free.
Jesus broke the chains that bound me.
And we read the Bible, we learn the
Scriptures, but we are all inclined to do
the same thing the children of Israel did.
We begin to forget this is not our
plan.
This is God's plan.
This is not our salvation.
This is God's salvation which He has freely
given to me.
You remember the psalmist David when he sinned
against the Lord.
He said, restore unto me the joy of
thy salvation.
Not my salvation.
Thy salvation.
This is your idea.
You bought it with your blood.
This is your free gift.
God, I once knew that.
I once knew it was all by grace.
I once was absolutely content to be exactly
where, doing exactly what you called me to
do.
God, restore to me the joy of thy
salvation.
They lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted
God in the desert.
You see, they were in a place where
their understanding was still incomplete, just like you
and I are.
We don't have the full picture.
Only God sees the picture.
I don't really know what part I play.
I have an understanding of what I'm doing
today, but I don't know where my life
fits for the days ahead.
That's not up to me.
It's up to me to seek in person
His kingdom, and it's up to God to
do what He wants to do through my
life.
I don't have to figure it out.
Thank God you and I are free from
figuring out what we're going to do tomorrow,
and where we're going to be, or what
kind of ministry He's going to give us.
It really doesn't matter.
All we do is seek Him, and all
the rest of it comes out of His
life within us.
Instead of trusting Him in this place where
their understanding was incomplete, they tested Him by
inferring that He was withholding something from them
that was good, and that they needed for
their well-being.
That's an incredible thing.
The influence really is, they tested Him in
the wilderness.
They said, well, can God provide a table?
Number one was, does He have the ability?
And number two, there was another direct inference.
He's withholding from us.
He's brought me out, yes, and He's got
me in some kind of a plan that
they don't understand.
And all He gives me to sustain me
is this manna from heaven.
And really, what this whole passage of Scripture
is about 1 Psalm 106, they began to
cry out for meat.
Oh, we want more.
We know what we need, God.
Six hundred thousand.
Crying out like whining babies.
We know.
God, I know what I need for my
life.
Let me give you some counsel, God.
Let me advise you.
I need more than just promises.
I need meat.
I need something I can chew on and
see and taste and feel.
I need some kind of store and supply
that gratifies me.
Six hundred thousand in the door of their
tent, crying, whining.
And Moses says, God, what have you done
to me?
Where am I going to get the strength
to carry three million babies into the promised
land?
You know, Moses was so exasperated in the
verse right after that, he said, kill me,
please.
He said, if you're not going to take
this away from me, kill me.
That's an incredible thing.
Now, in 2nd Timothy, chapter 4 in the
New Testament, we see an example
of this very same thing in chapter 4,
verses 6 to 10.
This influence that God is withholding, this satisfaction
with the plan and purpose of God.
Paul, the apostle, says to Timothy, this is
near the end of his life in ministry.
In 2nd Timothy 4, verse 6, he says,
For I am now ready to be offered,
and the time of my departure is at
hand.
I've fought a good fight.
I've finished my course.
I've kept the faith.
You see, beloved, you have to understand, Paul
is totally satisfied with having followed the will
of God.
He had people all around him telling him,
don't go here, don't do this, don't do
that.
At the end of his life, he ends
up with churches that are in rebellion, in
some cases, to truth.
He ends up challenged.
The very authority of his apostleship is challenged
by false teachers.
And many of the people that he had
led to Christ were even starting to believe
it.
You can hear the grief when he writes
to the Corinthian church that's in his heart.
He ends up in jail with nothing left,
perhaps, but a pen and a piece of
parchment.
And in that jail, he just, always as
always, being led by the Holy Ghost, just
simply begins to pen some letters to some
old friends at the end of his life.
Oh, I thank God that Paul didn't try
to circumvent the plan of God.
I thank God that he didn't try to
figure out what would be better, because he
would have gone to another place.
And you think of the letters, for example,
the one we're reading now.
We wouldn't have it in our hands had
Paul gone another course.
How could he know he was writing the
Word of God?
How could he know the Holy Spirit was
using his life and obedience and example and
just simple trust in the plans of God
to write something down that would continue to
affect multiples of millions of people, even today,
in New York City, this year, in Times
Square Church.
We are being affected by the words of
an obedient man who didn't fully understand the
plan, but understood the man who had devised
the plan for his life.
Henceforth, he said, there's laid up for me
a crown of righteousness.
Paul said, I've done it God's way.
I know, in spite of what Agabah says,
in spite of any of the other prophets,
or any of the other people around who
may think I've wasted my life, I know
that I have done what God called me
to do.
I know there's a crown of righteousness awaiting
me, which the Lord, he says, the righteous
judge, shall give me at that day, and
not to me only, but to all them
that love his appearing.
Do thy diligence to come shortly unto me.
Verse 10, For Demas has forsaken me, having
loved this present world.
That's an incredible thing.
Paul is walking a road of faith and
trust in the plan of God, and he
considers himself forsaken by a former friend, a
man that you find in some of the
other books of the Bible who was with
him, or listed among those that were with
him.
At the end of his days, Demas, Paul
says, Paul didn't just say Demas went to
another place.
He said, no, Demas has forsaken me.
Demas doesn't want the ways of God.
Demas has another way that he wants to
walk, and Paul calls it the way of
the world.
Beloved, I don't feel in my spirit that
Demas, necessarily in his own sight, was backslidden.
I think he just got tired.
I think the denial of self and the
trust in God were just simply unappealing to
him.
I think that perhaps he felt that Christian
life should have more to offer him.
Paul, there's got to be more.
There's got to be more than just these
little crowds of people in these forever jail
cells.
There's got to be more, Paul.
I think there's more than what you and
I have been previously experiencing.
I wonder sometimes, did he try to make
his departure spiritual?
Did he say to Paul, Paul, God has
something else for me, something greater, something much
more fulfilling.
He's got something better for me.
I just know he's got something great for
me.
And Demas packing his bag and saying goodbye
to Paul with all of his suffering and
all of the misunderstanding around him and saying,
I'm off to Thessalonica.
I'm heading off, Paul.
And God be with you.
God be praised.
And Paul, when he writes to Timothy, says,
Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present
world.
How it must have grieved Paul as he
faded from his sight.
Perhaps Paul was confined again.
I'm not really sure at this point, but
is it possible that he watched him walk
away from the will of God for his
life?
And as he faded from Paul's sight, he
faded from scriptural history as well.
I want to remind you of that.
We never hear from this man again.
We certainly hear from the Apostle Paul, but
we never, ever hear of the name of
Demas again.
Went on to what he thought was great
and had no idea he was heading into
obscurity.
He was heading away from the will of
God for his life.
Psalm 106 again, verse 15 says, He gave
them their request, but sent leanness into their
soul.
Now, the word request in the Hebrew means
their petition or their prayer.
Now, you've got to understand something.
These people that are standing in the doors
of their tent, as far as they're concerned,
they're praying.
So he granted their prayer.
Oh God, you know I love you.
But I'm just so tired of only having
this manna.
I'm so tired of where we are.
Oh God, you know I so long to
be somewhere else.
You see, that's a common affliction of humanity.
Not just the Israelites of that day, it's
your affliction and my affliction.
Human nature is never satisfied.
We're never satisfied with where we are.
We're never fully satisfied with what God has
given us to do.
And we're never satisfied with what he has
given us to do it with.
And if we think we need change and
even cry out to God for it, we
are warned that change might come.
But with it will come a leanness of
soul.
That's an incredible thing.
What if God has called you to be,
I'm only going to use this as an
example.
What if he has called you to be
a counselor in his church?
You see, ultimately the scripture says he places
us in the body, that's the Holy Spirit,
as he sees fit.
So it's not our choice, it's his choice.
What if he's called you to be a
counselor in the church?
But you look at that position and you
say, no, that's not fulfilling.
Certainly God must have something much bigger than
that for me.
I remember a man calling me once to
the church where I pastored in Canada and
he said, Pastor, I don't know how to
explain it, but I just have this feeling
that God's got something great for me.
I said, wonderful.
I said, our janitor just quit and we
need another janitor.
And the hesitation on the other end of
the line is like I had just thrown
cold water in his spiritual face.
And he said, well, that's not quite what
I had in mind.
Then we hung up the phone and he
called me back a little while later and
I said, listen, the Bible says that anyone
who will be great among you will be
your servant.
I said, your vision of greatness and God's
perspective are completely the opposite.
If you want to be great, find yourself
the least place in the house of God.
Find where God would have you be and
you do that with all of your heart.
Learn to be content.
Paul could say that.
Demas couldn't say it.
Paul could say it at the end of
his life.
I have learned to be content.
Whatever situation I find myself in, I am
content there.
If I have all things, if I have
nothing.
If I'm obese, if I'm abound.
If I have all kinds of wealth, if
I have no wealth.
I have learned.
God has led me and I have learned,
Paul said, it's a genuine thing in my
heart now.
I have learned that the greatest place that
I could ever find myself in is in
the will of God.
Even if it's in the door of a
tent in the wilderness, if it's in the
will of God, that's where I want to
be.
Demas, though, has forsaken me.
His ways are not these ways.
He doesn't want the way of God.
He wants the way of his own heart.
We ask ourselves, why?
Why is it so strict?
Well, I believe that Paul answers it in
Romans chapter 14, verse 23.
He basically says, whatsoever is not of faith
is sin.
It's as simple as that.
Once we entered the kingdom of God, we
became children of God.
We entered into a life of faith.
It's a life of trusting.
How many times have I encountered people who
say, oh, pastor, I don't know what to
do.
I don't know what God would have me
to do.
Well, then don't do anything.
Don't do anything.
The worst thing you could do is start
to do something you shouldn't be doing and
get attached to it.
Seek him.
We do know what we're to do.
Seek him first and his kingdom.
Seek him with all your heart, your soul,
your mind and your strength.
That's what we know to do.
Seek him.
And out of that seeking will come your
place in the body.
God knows where you are.
You're not hidden from God.
You'll get a phone call.
Somebody will walk up to you and say,
would you pray about this?
Would you consider doing this?
You don't have to worry about what to
do.
God will bring it your way.
He'll put a burden on your heart that
is not a result of something that is
a struggle, a discontentment within your own life.
He'll put a burden that is easy.
The Bible said it's peaceable.
It's easy to be entreated.
It's got the fruit of God on it.
It may not even seem like the most
desirable path, but there's a peace to it.
There's a peace about it.
That's what I always pray when people come
to me and say, I don't know if
this is the will of God or not.
I said, now pray for the sign of
peace.
His ways are the ways of peace.
If the water is troubled, if you're stirred
up inside and always discontent, you are moving
in the wrong direction.
If you are moving in the ways of
God, there is peace.
When I first came to New York City
about, oh, it's 1994 now.
And I remember when I first came.
You see, my only impression, you have to
understand that even though I was a police
officer for 12 years, I did live in
a small rural community.
I had no perception of what New York
City is about except for the movie, The
Cross and the Switchblade, which doesn't really give
you a wholly balanced, as it is, perspective,
maybe of some parts of the city back
then.
But I had that perspective, as many people
do coming to New York, that it's just
a pile of roving gangs running around shooting
and killing each other.
And just a dangerous city, a dangerous place.
Now, it's not really like that.
I mean, it's a wonderful city.
I love New York City.
People are fascinating.
It's an incredible city.
There's never a shortage of people to talk
to you or you can talk to on
the streets.
Sometimes they know you're there.
Sometimes they don't see you.
And I remember before even meeting Pastor David,
I was standing in an apartment where I
was staying, looking out the window.
And what I saw at that particular time
was not very attractive.
And I remember the Holy Spirit just coming
on me.
I know his presence.
And he said, I want you to come
here.
And I remember thinking, oh, God.
Listen, my kids are in a Christian school.
I didn't understand.
I didn't know what the schools were like
here.
This is going to be a very hard
transition for them.
I've not even met Pastor David.
I'm already arguing with the Holy Spirit.
And I remember the one factor, though, was
the peace.
The peace.
It's funny that the place of peace became
troubled and the place of trouble became peace.
It's an amazing thing when you're walking in
the will of God.
He takes us where we don't understand what
he's doing.
He takes us to places we can't go
and calls us to do things we can't
do and to be what we can't be.
But, beloved, it's all about him.
It's not about us.
It's about walking and fulfilling the will that
he has for each one of our lives.
You see, Paul said God is faithful.
And with the temptation, I'm preaching the temptation
is the temptation to never be satisfied.
Or the temptation to allow the discontent to
rise up in your heart once again.
That discontent says, God, I should be someone
else other than what I am.
I should be somewhere else other than where
I am.
I should have something else to do it
with other than what you've given me.
And that's exactly what they were doing in
the doors of their tent.
Whining in their homes.
I wonder how many of our prayers are
whining prayers.
Oh, God, just get me out of this
job.
Lord, I'm called to preach and they're making
me an usher.
You know I'm called to preach and I
know I'm called to preach.
I saw the thousands one day.
I saw them.
I saw them tear-filled bases and I'm
an usher.
Well, that's exactly what they were doing.
You've got me on this path I don't
understand and my family's with me.
And every day all I have is this
manna.
God, I get so tired of the manna.
All I've got every day is this.
Think it through.
That's exactly what they were doing.
Psalm 107.
You see, God is faithful.
And He will make a way to escape.
Psalm 107, verse 4.
It says, They wandered in the wilderness in
a solitary way.
They found no city to dwell in.
Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
Then they cried to the Lord in their
trouble and He delivered them out of all
their distresses.
And He led them forth by the right
way that they might go to a city
of habitation.
You see, He will never let you be
satisfied until you are in right relationship with
Him.
If you are a child of God, this
is the faithfulness of God.
He will never let you be satisfied.
You will wander in the wilderness.
You will be in a solitary way.
It means you're all alone.
You will have a sense of loneliness and
a sense of, God, where are you?
Where are you?
I once knew you.
I once sang your praises.
I once knew your power.
I had a testimony of your faithfulness.
Where are you?
Where are you, God?
Why have you moved away?
You see, the reality is God hasn't gone
anywhere.
It's you and I that have moved away
from Him.
And they found no city to dwell in.
And you know, that's the faithfulness of God
because He loves us so much.
God says, I will not let you find
a place where you're satisfied.
If you are my child, He said, I'm
going to...
I'll give you your requests, all right, but
I'm going to send a leanness into your
soul.
You will never be satisfied until you cry
out to me again.
And He led them forth by the right
way that they might go to a city
of habitation.
Now, the right way means a way that
is in agreement with and pleasing to God.
Incredible.
In the Old Testament, go ahead in your
Bible with me to the book of Haggai.
Can't find it?
It's right after Zephaniah.
Haggai.
I don't know how to pronounce that, but
it sounds good to me.
Haggai.
The children of Israel are coming back out
of bondage.
They've come back out of Babylon.
They've come back out of captivity because they
did the same thing.
Another generation did the same thing that Moses'
generation did.
They forgot His ways and didn't wait for
His counsel.
They began to even worship Him the way
they thought was proper.
They began to interject the ways of man,
human ingenuity, human effort into the worship and
the work of God.
And God says, I don't want to do
this, but I have to scatter this because
this has nothing to do with me and
it will only lead my people astray.
And the people came back out of captivity.
They returned, but opposition, they began to rebuild
again the temple.
But opposition and self-centered thinking brought them
to a place where all they laid was
the foundation.
Then every man seemed to just simply go
his way and begin to do his own
thing.
And God raised up prophets and Haggai was
one of them.
In chapter 1, the Lord said, Now therefore,
in verse 5, Now therefore, saith the Lord
of hosts, consider your ways.
You have so much and you bring in
little.
You eat, but you have not enough.
You drink and are not filled.
You clothe you, but there is none warm.
And he that earns wages, earns wages to
put into a bag with holes.
Thus saith the Lord of hosts, consider your
ways.
God says basically the same thing.
I will not let you live in a
place where you are apart from my will
for your life.
There is nothing enduring there.
There is nothing that will bring satisfaction to
your life.
And so I will not let it prosper.
Go up to the mountain and bring wood.
I liken that to the New Testament church
where the call of Christ is to his
own people saying, Go back to Calvary again
and learn a little bit about what the
cross of Jesus Christ is all about.
Come again to an understanding about the fact
that Jesus said we are to deny ourselves
and to take up our cross daily and
follow him.
Now taking up the cross is not some
physical expression of holiness.
Taking up the cross is simply yielding to
the will of God.
Father, I commit my life, I commit my
spirit into your hands.
I commit my home, my future, whatever I
become.
Whether people think it is wonderful or whether
they wag their heads and laugh.
In spite of what it is, God, I
commit my spirit into your hands.
And the scripture says, Go back to the
mountain and get some wood.
And I believe that is a good call
to many people today.
It is time.
If you are living in a place where
you are not satisfied, especially as a Christian,
obviously as an unbeliever, yes.
But as a Christian, if you are not
satisfied, it is time to get back to
the mountain.
It is time to get back to that
place of saying, Jesus, whatever your will is
for my life, that is what I want.
Not what I want, but what you want.
Remember the prayer of Christ in Gethsemane.
Not my will, but thy will.
Not what I think I should be, but
what you have called me to be.
I am tired of this empty place.
I am tired of this wilderness.
I am tired of working and never being
satisfied with my labor.
I am tired of sewing and bringing in
little.
I am tired of drinking and never having
my thirst satisfied.
I am tired of putting on clothes and
never being warm.
I am tired of earning wages and putting
it in a bag with holes.
I am tired of it, God.
Isn't this life supposed to be satisfying?
Didn't you say, those that come to me,
you will never hunger again, you will never
thirst.
But I thirst.
And that is the honest cry of many
people in this house today.
Many honest Christians can say, God, why am
I so thirsty?
Why am I so hungry?
God says, I want you to consider your
ways.
I want you to consider what you are
building.
Is it my kingdom or yours?
Is it my house or yours?
Is it my way you are following or
your way?
Which one is it?
And Haggai says, go back to the mountain
and get some wood.
And build this house.
And God says, I will take pleasure in
it.
And I will be glorified, saith the Lord.
Haggai says, you look for much and it
came to little.
And when you brought it home, God says,
I blew it away.
Why?
Because my house is waste.
And you run every man to his own
house.
God says, you are my chosen people.
And my purposes are left to a secondary
thing in your life.
Oh, yeah, you come to the foundation and
worship once a week.
But then you all leave the city.
This is to be a place where I
am to be glorified.
I am to be glorified in the people
who are yielded to me.
They are abandoned to me.
A people that I give them rubble and
say, make a majestic temple.
And it happens.
It happens because they believe me.
It happens simply because they reach out and
begin to do what I have called them
to do.
Therefore, he says in verse 10, the heaven
has stayed from dew and the earth has
stayed from her fruit.
And verse 11, he says, and I called
for a drought upon the land.
And God says, I called for it because
I love you.
I called for a drought on the place
where you are living.
God says, I called for it.
It's not the devil after you.
God says, it's me.
I called for the drought.
I stopped the rain.
I shut heaven.
Not because I'm angry with you.
Because I love you.
Because I'm after you.
I see something.
I have destined something for your life.
And what you are building will never accomplish
it.
Verse 13, he says, then spake Haggai the
Lord's messenger and the Lord's message unto the
people, saying, I am with you, says the
Lord.
You've got to know that about God.
God says to his people continuously, I'm with
you, I'm with you, I'm with you.
I'm not against you.
I'm with you.
And the Lord stirred up the spirit of
Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, the spirit of Joshua,
the high priest and the spirit of all
the remnant of the people.
And they came and did work in the
house of the Lord of hosts, their God.
The spirit, the Lord stirred up their spirit.
When you look in the original text, it
has the idea of opening their eyes or
being woken up or lifted up.
It's like a man coming into a room
where a friend has has laid asleep for
a long, long time and has not been
aware of it and shakes him and wakes
him up and then gathers him in his
arms and carries him out of that place.
That's the very context.
The Lord, it says, stirred up the spirit.
And you can see Joshua who's lost heart
and Zerubbabel who's lost hope and all the
other people who've gone to build their own
houses.
And it's so dry there.
It's so wearying.
And all of a sudden they're saying, God,
I see it.
You sent this leanness to bring me back
to yourself and to your will for my
life.
Now, in 2nd Timothy, chapter one, I'm coming
to the end now.
2nd Timothy, chapter one, the apostle Paul says
to young Timothy.
Now, this is near the end of Paul's
life.
It's not quite, but it's getting close to
the end of his life now.
In 2nd Timothy, chapter one, verse six, Paul
says these words to Timothy.
Wherefore, he said, I put thee in remembrance
that thou stir up the gift of God
which is in thee by the putting on
of my hands.
Paul says, Timothy, when I prayed for you
and the Holy Ghost came into your life,
there was a power of God that was
deposited in you.
Paul says, Timothy, it was put in you
for a purpose.
It was not to live your life for
yourself.
Timothy, he's saying, fan into flames this grace
of God.
For God's not given us the spirit of
fear, but of power and love and of
a sound mind.
Be not thou, therefore, ashamed of the testimony
of our Lord, nor of me as prisoner.
But be a partaker of the afflictions of
the gospel according to the power of God.
Paul says, who has saved us and called
us with the holy calling, not according to
our works.
Timothy, he's not called us according to anything
we can do.
And we have nothing to give him.
We have no plans that suit him.
We have no things that we can build
with our own hands that will ever allow
his glory to come.
Timothy, he's not called us according to our
works, but according to his own purpose.
That means his counsel, his plan and grace.
That means the power to do it, which
was given us in Christ before the world
began.
Paul says, Timothy, you fan the flame by
coming back to this understanding.
That God deposited a plan into your life.
And not just a plan, but the power
to fulfill it.
Hallelujah.
Last scripture, Psalm 131.
How do I come back to life in
God?
That's got to be the honest question.
There are many here today who say, God,
I didn't see my prayer as a problem.
But the Holy Spirit is now uncovering something.
I often wondered when I studied Revelation about
the church of Ephesus.
When he was calling them back to their
first love.
Now, I know the first love is the
understanding that God loved me before I loved
him.
I know that.
But there's a secondary feature to this love.
Come back to your first love, Ephesus.
This is a church that was doctrinally correct
in testing and trying and proving the false
teachers of that day, plus the good ones
as well.
They were working.
I know your works.
I know your labor.
How you were born.
You've been patient.
But he said, I want you to come
back to your first love.
If you don't come back to the first
love, you're going to lose your candlestick.
And that's the very testimony of Christ.
You're going to lose it.
And I believe that they were substituting the
plan of God for their own works.
And it's the tendency of all of humanity
to do that.
You are working.
But I can see Christ looking to the
church of Ephesus and saying, half of you
are working in the wrong place.
I didn't call you there.
And others are enamored with their knowledge.
You can prove those that are false.
And it's sown something in you where you're
not satisfied anymore with where you are because
you feel you have this superior knowledge.
And because of this superior knowledge, you no
longer want just to serve me in the
capacity that I've given you.
As a servant in my house, you want
to be exalted.
James, the apostle, said, you ask and receive
not because you ask amiss that you may
consume it upon your lusts.
Folks, that doesn't just apply to liquor and
tobacco and cars and houses.
That applies to ministry.
There are many, many people who are unbroken.
And they stand in the doors of their
tent and say, oh God, make me this.
Or oh God, make me that.
And God says, I can't do it for
you because you're full of yourself.
And you will only consume it on your
lusts.
You see what happens to preachers and evangelists
that make the public eye and who are
unbroken?
They wallow in the glorying of man.
They wallow in the praise of man.
They become idiots in the name of Christ.
And they consume God's people on their own
lusts.
God will never use you until you genuinely
have no ambition.
But to know Him.
And to walk with Him.
And say, God, you want to put a
broom in my hands in your name?
Then God put it in my hands and
I'll do it with all my heart.
David, the psalmist in Psalm 131.
Now, this psalm, according at least to the
Reiss chronological Bible, is written near the end
of his life.
And after he has made the mistake of
numbering Israel.
It's a terrible mistake because he was moving
away from the plan and trust in God.
And moving to trusting in the strength and
numbers as it is of the soldiers that
Israel had.
And if that would have been allowed to
nurture in his heart, he would have brought
Israel into terrible destruction.
It would have totally taken him away from
the simple childlike trust that brought such great
victory through his life.
And into the camp of God's people as
it is.
You know, God judged it severely.
70,000 died because of the sin of
David.
And David writes this psalm about this time.
And he says, Lord, my heart is not
haughty.
And nor mine eyes lofty.
And neither do I exercise myself in great
matters and things too high for me.
David is saying this.
I have learned my lesson, God.
I've learned.
We're true powers.
We're true graces.
It's in being absolutely and entirely satisfied where
you placed me.
As we say in a marriage vow, in
sickness and in health.
For richer, for poorer, for better, for worse.
I'm betrothed to you, Jesus.
And I am satisfied for you to put
me where you want me to be.
And to call me to do what you've
asked me to do.
Even if it's in the jail cell writing
letters to friends at the end of my
life.
I'm content to be there because that's what
you've called me to do.
And God, I'm not looking anywhere else but
simple trust and obedience.
That was the earmark of David's life that
brought the glory of God into Israel.
Surely, he said, verse 2, I have behaved
and quieted myself as a child that is
weaned of his mother.
My soul, he said, is as a weaned
child.
He says, I know that something I naturally
cherish and which once seemed to be the
source of my life has been taken away.
That's what a weaned child is like.
I thought I needed this nourishment.
I thought this would last forever.
But God, you've taken something away from me
for a purpose.
And there are reasons that yet I don't
understand.
And I shall not in pride try to
figure out every step of my life.
I shall not debate the one who created
me.
For he alone knows why I was made.
David says, I will rest in God's arms
like a weaned child.
No longer fussing and never satisfied.
No longer like the children of Israel in
their tent doors.
Six hundred thousand early into their journey, fussing.
And Moses said, they're like babies that have
to be carried into the promised land.
David says, I will no longer be like
a nursing child that is always fussing and
always looking, never satisfied.
But God, if you withhold something from me,
I know there's a reason.
If you leave me in a certain place,
I know there's a reason for that.
I will rest in God's arms and I
will trust that whatever he gives me is
the best for my life.
Because I don't see the whole plan.
A weaned child doesn't understand that he or
she needs to be weaned to grow.
In their own little world, they've been deprived
of something that has brought them great comfort
and they can't understand it.
But after the initial flagging, as it is,
the child learns to rest in its mother's
arms.
And David said, God, that's exactly what I
have become like.
Then he makes an incredible statement, the last
verse.
He said, let Israel hope in the Lord.
Israel, he said, God, let this be your
hope and your trust from this time forward
and forever.
No more fussing.
No more fighting.
No more whining.
No more longing.
Jesus, I will trust you.
Whatever days are left of my life, my
God, I will trust you.
I will trust you wherever you place me,
whatever you ask me to do, whatever you
make me.
If you give me influence, if you give
me no influence, I will trust you.
My glory will be in you.
I will rest in your arms.
I will trust that you are carrying me
to places.
You are taking me places.
You are going to do things in my
life that I don't understand.
But God, I will trust you all the
days of my life.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, hallelujah.
If God has put a leanness in your
soul, he is calling you back to himself
again.
He's calling you.
I want to encourage you with all my
heart to get back to that place again
where you knew him.
Get back to that place where you're content
in him without having to add some other
thing.
Get back to the place where you came
to the Lord and said, God, I don't
care what you do with my life.
I'm saved.
God, I remember the days when I first
came to Christ.
I said, I'll preach to the trees if
no one else will listen.
I used to go jogging on the country
roads and just glorify him and shout out
his name.
There was nobody around there.
It didn't matter.
And if he takes it and multiplies it,
wonderful.
But it's really up to him.
It's not up to us.
I will not, David said, allow myself to
get involved in thinking that is too high
for me.
David said, I will not number Israel.
I will trust in God.
Hallelujah.
Time to get back, folks.
Time to get back.
For many, many Christians, it's time to get
back.
I'd like to open this altar.
Education addicts, you can go between the screens.
In this sanctuary, you can come down the
aisle.
You can go to either exit in the
balcony.
You can come down the main aisle.
I want you to meet me here.
You've been brought through a leanness in your
soul.
And you say, I didn't even know it
was a problem.
I've been praying prayers that are problematic and
I didn't even know it.
I've been whining instead of trusting.
God, forgive me.
Make your way to the altar, please.
And we will pray together.
I came back to the last place I'd
known him to be.
Every promise he'd once spoken had seemed only
for me.
I don't know just how it happened.
But in the midst of all my pain,
softly, sweetly, I heard Jesus calling.
Let's all stand.
My name.
Let's sing that verse again.
I came back to the last place I'd
known him.
It's a good place to be.
Where every promise he'd once spoken had seemed
only for me.
I don't know just how it happened.
But in the midst of all my pain,
softly, sweetly, I heard Jesus calling.
My name.
Calling my name.
Never I've heard it with such sweet refrain.
Through the sea of darkness vanishes, and I'll
never be the same.
Since the morning I heard Jesus calling my
name.
Touch me not till I'm ascended to the
Father's heaven.
Go and tell all others fearful they know
me to be.
Be not faithless by believing he's coming again.
Yes, I know because I've heard him calling
my name.
He's calling my name.
Calling my name.
Never I've heard it with such sweet refrain.
Through the sea of darkness vanishes, and I'll
never be the same.
Since the morning I heard Jesus calling my
name.
I came back to the last place I'd
known him to be.
Every promise he'd once spoken seemed only for
me.
I don't know just how it happened.
But in the midst of all my pain,
softly, sweetly, I heard Jesus calling my name.
Can you hear it now?
He's calling my name.
Calling my name.
Never I've heard it with such sweet refrain.
Through the sea of darkness vanishes, and I'll
never be the same.
Since the morning I heard Jesus calling my
name.
He's calling my name.
Calling my name.
Never I've heard it with such sweet refrain.
Through the sea of darkness vanishes, and I'll
never be the same.
Since the morning I heard Jesus calling my
name.
Now listen carefully.
Firstly, this morning, for those that are here,
and you can say, Pastor, you're talking right
down the alleyway of my life.
I'm empty, dry, I'm hurting.
I work and I'm never satisfied.
But it's because I don't know Jesus Christ
as my Savior.
I have never given him my life.
I've never made him my Lord.
But today I want to confess that I'm
a sinner and I need a Savior.
And I want a life that is greater
than the one that I've ever known.
I want to know that I'm free from
my sin, and I want to know I'm
accepted with God.
If that's your heart's cry today, I'm going
to lead you in a simple prayer.
If you really believe it in your heart,
the Bible says that you will be saved.
Saved, absolutely saved from the emptiness of having
an eternity without God and the emptiness of
trying to live a life without God at
the center of it.
If that's you today, would you join with
me and raise up your hand, nice and
high, right now.
All over the sanctuary.
Go ahead.
Up in the balcony.
Don't be ashamed.
You may not be at the top.
Raise it up high.
Hold it up to God.
Let him see it.
Hallelujah.
We have dozens and dozens.
Thank you, Jesus.
Education addicts as well, I don't see your
hand, but God sees your hand right now.
I'm going to lead you in a prayer.
In the moment we're done praying, the greatest
transaction ever in your life will have taken
place.
The Bible says there's an angel with a
pen in heaven and he's writing your name
in a book called the Lamb's Book of
Life.
Those that have trusted in Jesus Christ and
his atoning death on Calvary 2,000 years
ago for your salvation, this is a marvelous
day for you.
Hallelujah.
You have a reason to shout after you
pray this prayer.
Let's pray all together now.
Lord Jesus, I am a sinner.
Jesus, I thank you that you came to
the earth.
God became a man.
And you took my place and paid the
price for all the wrong things that I
have done.
Thank you for loving me enough to die
for me.
Jesus, this day I'm saying with my lips
and I'm believing in my heart that you
paid the price for my sin, that you
died, you rose again on the third day
as living proof that my trust in you
is not in vain.
I believe that as you rose from the
dead, you will also take me out of
death and into life, everlasting life and an
abundant life here on this earth.
I thank you.
You will teach me how to walk with
you and how to trust you.
I believe this very moment you are coming
into my life as my Lord and my
Savior.
This fulfills the desire of my heart and
the greatest desire that's in your heart.
Thank you for receiving me.
I believe this very moment as these words
are leaving my lips, you are writing down
my name in a book in heaven of
those that are saved by the blood of
Jesus Christ.
I believe from this moment forward I am
saved.
I am saved.
Hallelujah.
Mighty God, thank you.
Those that have prayed that, please, New Believers
class, every Friday night, 7 o'clock, get
there.
There's lots of people there, probably 50, 60,
70 people there.
There's lots of people there that are brand
new Christians.
You won't be all alone there.
So get out there and be part of
that.
Now, for the rest that are here, I
hope that you're tired of praying whiny prayers
in the door of your tent.
And we're going to ask God to forgive
us for that.
Pray with me now.
Lord Jesus, forgive me for not being content.
Forgive me for losing the understanding that the
greatest in your kingdom becomes the servant to
all.
Forgive me for wanting my will and wanting
my way.
Forgive me, Lord.
Now, teach me and lead me back into
a place where I can trust you again.
I thank you, Lord, that you've not allowed
me to prosper in everything that I've tried
to do that you've not given to me.
Thank you for being faithful to me and
giving me a way to escape the desires
of my own heart.
I thank you for it.
I praise you for it.
I believe that today you've set me free
from something I didn't even know had become
a problem.
Thank you for your faithfulness.
Carry me and keep me in the center
of your will.
In Jesus' name, amen.
This is the conclusion of the message.