Ask Jesus now for the things you need.
I want to say it again.
Ask Jesus now for the things that you
need.
Matthew chapter 7, please, if you go there
in your Bibles, Matthew chapter 7.
Now this doesn't seem like a prophetic message,
but it actually is.
Now Father, I thank you, God Almighty.
I praise you, Lord, that you always have
a word in season for your people.
And you'll take the frailty of humanity and
you'll work with us.
I thank you, Lord God, for overshadowing my
frailty with your strength.
God, giving me your mind and heart and
letting me deliver this in a manner that's
pleasing to you.
I ask you, Jesus, for the courage and
strength to disappear that you may appear.
That your word alone might be heard.
And that the people might know you have
to put weight on the word this morning,
Holy Spirit, so the people will know that
they are indeed hearing from God.
It's pointless for me to say I have
a word from the Lord.
You are the one, Lord, that has to
bear witness to yourself.
I'm asking you, Jesus, to bear witness to
what you've placed in my hand, what I'll
be reading today, Father.
And I thank you, God, that you're preparing
us for this coming day.
Thank you with all my heart in Jesus'
name.
Ask Jesus now for the things that you
need.
Matthew chapter 7 and verse 7.
Ask, and it shall be given you.
Seek, and you shall find.
Knock, and it shall be opened to you.
Thank God for these promises.
That's a red letter in my Bible.
That means it's right out of the mouth
of Jesus.
Ask, it will be given you.
Seek, you'll find.
Knock, it will be opened.
Not might be, should be, ought to be,
potentially, will be, shall be.
For everyone that asks, receives.
Everyone.
Say that with me.
Everyone.
And that means you.
Not just me.
Not just those that know the Bible better
than you do.
Not just those that have been around the
church longer than you have.
Everyone that asks, receives.
And he that seeks, finds.
And to him that knocks, it shall be
opened.
Or what man is there of you whom,
if his son asks bread, will he give
him a stone?
Or if he asks a fish, will he
give him a serpent?
If ye then, being evil, know how to
give good gifts to your children, how much
more shall your Father, which is in heaven,
give good things to them that ask him?
Therefore, all things whatsoever ye would that men
should do to you, do ye even so
to them.
For this is the law and the prophets.
In other words, Jesus is saying everything is
summed up.
Everything that the prophets have seen.
Everything that's written in the Old Testament.
Everything that's in the law.
Everything that was promised.
Everything that we long for is found in
this one action.
That we do to other people just in
the same manner as we would have them
do to us.
Now, in John chapter 16, verse 24, Jesus
said something to his disciples.
And it was an interesting thought.
He said, hitherto, or up to this point,
You've asked nothing in my name.
Ask, and you shall receive, that your joy
might be full.
That actually would be considered, by those who
are sitting, the scene actually of this is
at the Last Supper.
It's in between John chapter 13 and 30,
where Judas has gone out into the night,
his heart filled with the devil himself, fully
intending on betraying the Son of God.
And John chapter 18, verse 3, where Judas,
with a band of people that have been
given him by the scribes and the Pharisees,
have come into the garden with torches and
lanterns and weapons, to take Jesus Christ captive
and ultimately usher him to the cross on
Calvary.
That's the scene.
Now, John 16 falls right into the midst
of these things.
Now, to say that they had asked nothing
until this time must have been somewhat perplexing
to the disciples.
I mean, James and John, the Gospels tell
us they had asked him to be seated
at the right hand and the left hand
of power when he came into his kingdom.
The disciples had asked at one point, Lord,
teach us to pray.
And so it must have been somewhat perplexing
to them.
What does he really mean?
Ask us up to this point.
Ask me, rather.
Up to this point, you've not asked for
anything.
Now, the very essence of discipling is a
master-student relationship, and it's a relationship really
of asking and receiving.
When they left their nets, when they left
the receipt of custom, as Matthew did, all
of them, as they began to follow, that
was the basis of the relationship.
We ask, you give us.
You tell us.
Now, Jesus was in effect telling them at
this particular time in the Gospel of John
that a time is soon coming when things
around you will seem to spin completely out
of control.
Now, they had him at that moment.
They were at a banquet table, as they
saw it.
He's speaking perhaps at greater length other than
perhaps in an amount of beatitudes that they
had heard him speak.
He's praying directly to his Father in these
chapters in the Gospel of John.
They're listening to mysteries.
They're listening to revelation.
But yet, in the midst of it all,
you and I know, in retrospect, that he
was soon to be taken captive.
They were soon to flee.
Everything around, everything that the three years of
walking with him had seemingly put into their
hearts was about to be sent into a
tailspin.
A time of trial and hardship, unprecedented, such
as they'd never even imagined was coming.
I don't think any of them could imagine.
He was trying to tell them that hardship
awaited him, but it seems that there was
a deep reluctance within them to hear it.
And that's the way it is with human
nature.
God can be speaking directly about days that
are just ahead of us, but there's just
something within us that doesn't want to hear
it.
We don't want to see it.
We choose to be optimistic as we see
it.
Well, maybe, just maybe it won't be that
way.
Maybe we'll just get through this.
Maybe there won't have to be a cross.
Maybe he won't be taken captive.
Maybe he won't be delivered to the authorities
and spit upon and mocked and crucified.
He was telling them very directly, but it
seemed to take them by surprise, ironically, when
it actually came.
And he was telling them, you're going to
be afraid that a sense of loss and
sorrow will want to fill your heart.
But I will be with you and give
you an inner strength and joy and vision
that's only available to those who love me
and are willing to do my work in
the earth.
Now, if you read these chapters in John,
you'll see this thought very, very clearly presented
in there to those disciples.
You're going to be afraid.
It's going to spin out of control, but
I'm going to be with you.
And as you walk in the pathway that
I prescribed before you as my body, as
my church, you're going to have hope.
You're going to have vision.
Matter of fact, you're going to have joy.
He said, up to this point, you've not
really asked for what is really yours.
But if now you're willing to ask, if
now in the midst of your crisis, you're
willing, and obviously they did on the day
of Pentecost, they did in that upper room.
They must have remembered these words, gone back
to that upper room in their failure, in
their confusion, in their lack of understanding of
the hour that they were living in.
But they did remember this one thing that
he said, if you ask me for what
you need in that time, and you will
receive it and your joy will be full.
Joy, not just endurance.
The Christian church is not just to endure
difficult days.
We're to have the joy of the Lord
in our heart.
That is our strength.
We're to walk in a place that common
men can't walk in.
The people who are focused on themselves know
nothing about.
We're to walk in a realm of joy
that is hidden to those who are outside
of the actual working of the kingdom of
God.
Now people can be in church, but they
can be outside of the working of God's
kingdom.
And folks, it's imperative that you and I
understand that in this hour.
You can have been in church for years,
but actually be outside of where the kingdom
of God really is and how the kingdom
of God works, where the power of God
is actually found.
In Matthew 25 in verse four, Jesus himself
gives an illustration of the, the day of
Christ's return, that there were people who were
foolish and they took, the wise took oil
in their vessels and in their lamps, but
the foolish had no oil.
And when the crisis hit, they went to
the wise and said, you seem to see
something that we don't see.
You're standing, you're saying, behold, the bridegroom.
We don't see anything but darkness and calamity.
We don't see anything but difficulty and distress
and anguish and perplexity, the seas roaring nations
in turmoil and distress.
We don't see anything around us, but here
you say, look, the bridegroom is coming.
They say, give us of your oil.
Give us, you see folks, but the tragedy
is they asked too late, very hard to
get the resources that Christ is willing to
give in a time of calamity.
Remember Noah's day, the floods came, but before
the floods came, the scripture says that God
closed the door of the ark and sealed
Noah and his family inside.
And you and I can imagine those when
the rain started and as they were got
to be a foot deep and two feet
deep, that people are banging on the door,
but they can't get into that ark because
it's closed now.
The time of asking is over.
The time of getting the strength that is
needed has passed.
And I believe that this oil represents the
light and the life of Christ.
And that oil is present in a body
of believers that are doing his work on
the earth.
It gives us the ability to see wondrous
things in the present and in the future,
which are hidden from the eyes of non
-spiritual people.
And the reason we can see is because
we are doing the work of God in
the earth.
Now, in order to understand exactly what Jesus
was telling his disciples to ask for in
our opening text, we need to understand exactly
what kind of a testimony that he was
asking them to have everywhere they went.
Now, keep in mind, Matthew 7, 7 comes
at the end of a very long discourse
that begins in Matthew chapter 5.
The scripture says, He saw the multitudes went
into a mountain.
His disciples came to him and he opened
his mouth and taught them.
So now he starts in Matthew 5 and
verse 3 to teach his disciples.
And the text I read is in Matthew
chapter 7 and verse 7.
There's a lot that he has said.
It's one statement.
It's one teaching.
Now, just take, I'm going to paraphrase it.
And the synopsis of these verses of scripture
is mine.
I encourage you when you go home to
study it in detail, perhaps get this CD
at some point and go through this yourself.
But here's what Jesus was telling them as
his disciples.
This is what you are being called to
be in the earth.
Matthew 5, 3, they were to know their
need of God.
Verse 4, they were to long for God's
ways to be known in the earth.
I'll just read them through as I've written
them.
They were to act with restraint, even when
it was within their power to do otherwise.
They were to hunger and thirst for inward
purity.
They were to be merciful.
They were to feel as God does about
things.
That's where he said, blessed are the pure
in heart, they shall see God.
They were to be at peace with all
men and call others to peace with God
and with each other also.
They were to be peacemakers.
They were to call men.
They were to walk in peace with all
men as much as is possible, it says
the scripture.
And they were to be at peace with
God and call other people to be at
peace with God.
They were to endure persecution, even to the
point of rejoicing because of it.
Can you imagine?
Enduring persecution is one thing, but rejoicing over
it is an absolutely other thing.
They were not to lose the fervency for
the work of God.
They were to be of salt, which means
that they were to bring flavor, create thirst,
promote healing, and bring preservation into the earth.
Jesus himself said, if the salt loses its
savor, if the salt loses its purpose, if
the salt does not bring the flavor of
God into a situation, if the salt does
not create a thirst in people for the
things of God, if the salt does not
promote healing among the oppressed and the wounded,
if the salt does not preserve the truth
as it is written in the word of
God, Jesus himself said it's good for nothing
and it's cast out and it's trodden under
foot of men.
Folks, there is a gospel that is discounted
by men in every generation and especially in
ours, a gospel that is ridiculed and mocked
because there's no power in it and even
the world knows there's no power in it.
It's nothing but self-seeking with Jesus added
to it.
That's all it is.
And the world knows there's no power in
it, so it's literally trodden under the foot
of men.
They were to do things publicly that bring
glory to God, but at the same time
do them without the motive of themselves being
seen.
That's a phenomenal thought, isn't it?
Let your light so shine that people may
see your good works and glorify your father,
which is in heaven.
But yet elsewhere in these chapters, Jesus also
says, be careful that you don't do your
good deeds to be seen of men, otherwise
you have your reward.
Don't pray to be seen of men.
Don't do charitable works to be seen of
men.
Don't stand in the synagogues professing to be
holy to be seen of men or you
have the full reward.
So we're to do publicly, as a church,
for example, we're to do things that bring
glory to God, but we're to do everything
in our power not to be seen.
They were to avoid religious hypocrisy at all
costs.
There was to be a quest for truth
in your heart and in mine that I'm
never willing to stand at any place at
any time with the knowledge that I am
just a religious hypocrite.
I act a certain way, but I do
not embrace it in my own heart.
They were to stay in right relationship with
other believers at all costs, at every cost.
They were to agree with God when he
challenged their ways.
Remember he said, agree with your adversary when
you're in the way lest you be cast
into prison and you don't get out of
that prison until you've paid the full debt.
Now especially when God is your adversary.
When you and I are in the way
and it's the Lord actually who's standing and
saying this is not right, this is not
who I am, I can't walk with you
unless the two of us be agreed.
Agree with your adversary, especially when it's God.
They were to understand the danger and to
shun immoral sexual lust.
He said if you even look upon a
woman in the scriptures with a lustful eye,
you've committed adultery in your heart.
And if your eye offends you, pluck it
out.
If your hand offends you, cut it off.
Now he's saying you have to shun this.
He's not suggesting you physically pluck your eye
out and cut your hand off.
They were to remain true to their marriage
vows.
Folks, when you and I stand before an
altar, now I know there are circumstances, in
some cases there are innocent parties or it's
simply out of your control.
There was nothing you could do about it.
But if your marriage is going through a
rough spot, don't walk out because you stood
before God and you said for better, for
worse, in sickness and in health, for richer,
for poorer, till death do us part.
So help me God.
That's a vow you made before God.
It's a vow you made to another person
and it's the closest type, Paul says in
the New Testament, to Christ and his church
on the earth is your marriage and my
marriage.
Folks, Jesus doesn't walk out on us when
we go through a rough time.
And marriages are to be, our marriages are
to be a representation of Jesus in the
earth, especially in the Christian church.
And we're living in an hour when the
divorce rate in the church is very high
and it's no glory to God, that's for
certain.
They were to speak truth at all times.
Jesus said, don't say, I swear this is
true.
He said, don't do it.
You can't make one hair on your head
white or black.
You can't change anything.
He said, just, there's anything more than speaking
truth comes from evil.
Let your communication be yay, yay, and nay,
nay.
In other words, you don't have to swear
and you don't have to say, now this
is a true story.
You know, when you say that, what does
it tell people about your other stories?
Speak the truth.
Just speak the truth.
At all times, just speak the truth.
They were not to respond in like spirit
when treated wrongfully, but do everything in their
power to respond in a godly manner.
They were to love and bless and do
good to them, which were their enemies.
Phenomenal thought.
I can see Peter mulling it over in
his mind.
Maybe seven times?
That ought to do it.
Would that be good enough?
I mean, the eighth time, you're history.
You do this to me.
But seven times, that's got to be godly.
Remember when he came to Jesus?
How many times should I forgive?
Seven times?
I think he expected Jesus to say, Blessed
are thou, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and
blood has not revealed this to you.
It's been given to you, my father, in
heaven.
And Jesus said, No, not seven times.
Seven.
Seventy times seven.
Is it seven or seventy?
Seventy times seven.
That's 490 times.
I wasn't very good in math, but that's
490 times.
And you can imagine Peter walking 490 times
to forgive somebody who comes and does the
same thing to me over and over and
over again.
Matthew 6 tells us that they were to
pray that God's will be done.
That supply be given to do it.
That they might be ambassadors of forgiveness.
They were to ask not to be led
astray and acknowledge that God alone has the
power to help them do this.
Thine is the kingdom and the power and
the glory.
There's no other way this can be done.
That I might be an ambassador.
That I might stay on this path that
God has for my life.
They were to be aware of the peril
of seeking security in anything of this world
and letting the fear of tomorrow's provision begin
to consume their lives.
They were to be aware of it, folks.
And how much more in our generation we
are going into a worldwide economic storm.
But the Lord Jesus Christ tells us that
we are to seek first His kingdom with
the promise that all that we will need
will be given to us.
Seek first His kingdom.
Seek first the kingdom of God.
Seek first the work of God.
Seek first to do the will of God.
Seek first what the mandate of God is
that was given to you and I in
our generation.
Seek it first.
And all these things shall be added unto
you.
Now it may not be as glamorous as
you'd like but it will be added to
you.
That is a red letter out of the
mouth of Jesus' promise.
Don't be consumed about where shall we live
and what shall we eat and what shall
we wear.
For after all these things do the Gentiles
seek.
But seek ye first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness and all these things shall
be added unto you.
Seek first the kingdom of God.
Folks, I can't overestimate it.
I remember as a young Christian coming home
from Eastern Canada having been out preaching at
a conference, a small church conference.
And my house was burnt to the ground
by a miracle of God.
My children were spared.
But we had absolutely nothing for a season.
And I remember coming out of a friend's
house that we were staying in over Christmas
time.
And I said, well, Lord, I've done my
part.
I'm seeking first the kingdom of God.
I don't even have a toothbrush to brush
my teeth with.
But I said, your part of the verse
is to add to me everything I need.
And I just remember I went out for
a jog one morning and said, Lord, I'm
completely in your hands.
I don't know what tomorrow's going to bring,
but I know that you promised me that
you'd meet all of my needs.
And folks, he did miraculously.
It was phenomenal to see how God met
all of our needs, gave us another place
to stay.
Not as big as the first one, but
it was very nice.
All the furniture we needed, the clothing that
we needed, everything.
And he said to me when it was
all over, I needed to show you, I
can take it all away and I can
give it all back.
Matthew 7, he says, they were to be
careful in dealing with other believers.
And folks, we need to be very, very
careful.
He says, be careful how you judge another.
Because you're looking at a speck in your
brother's eye, but there might be a log
in your own that you're not even aware
of.
He said, once you've dealt with what's in
your own heart, then you will see clearly.
In other words, you'll see your brother as
Christ sees him or her.
And you'll deal tenderly.
And you'll deal not for the purpose of
being proven right, but you'll deal with the
purpose of seeing that person restored to spiritual
health.
And then lastly, in the final verse of
Matthew 7, verse 6, before we get into
our opening text, he says, don't give that
which is holy to the dogs.
And don't cast your pearls before swine, unless
they trample them under their feet and turn
again and rend you.
In other words, you and I need to
learn when to share truth and when to
be quiet.
You don't have to unload a wagon load
of scripture on everybody because some hearts are
simply not ready.
Remember when Jesus was brought before his accusers?
He knew what was in their hearts, and
he didn't answer them.
There was no point in answering them, because
if he would have spoken divine truth, they
would have just trampled it underfoot, and they
would have just made a mockery of the
things of God.
He knew that there was a time to
share and there was a time to be
quiet.
Now, he says, ask.
This has been a lot of things have
been shared with these disciples.
This has been one sitting, one teaching, just
like I've more or less paraphrased it for
you today.
And they're thinking exactly what you're thinking today.
How in the world am I ever going
to do all these things?
It's not possible.
I don't have the resources.
I can't do this.
I mean, I could probably take a little
paragraph in these three chapters and more or
less focus on it and give it my
best effort, but even my best efforts are
going to fall short.
How am I ever going to do this?
And they had to be thinking that.
I mean, if they're just ordinary people like
you and I, how in the world am
I supposed to do this?
How do I love my enemies?
How do I be as kind as God
towards people who fall short of what they're
supposed to be or the truth they're supposed
to be walking in?
How do I stop thinking and worrying about
tomorrow?
How do I do this?
I can't.
That's why he comes to verse seven.
It says, ask and it will be given
you.
Seek and you shall find.
Knock and it shall be opened unto you.
Now in verse nine, he says something rather
interesting.
He says, what man is there of you
whom if his son asks bread, will he
give him a stone?
And then the next verse he says, if
he asks a fish, will he give him
a serpent?
Now these are not just random examples, folks.
Just a few chapters before in Matthew chapter
four, he's been led into the wilderness of
the Holy Spirit.
He's been 40 days without food.
At the end of that 40 days, the
scripture says he was hungry.
And if I have read the book on
fasting, if you read the book, it'll tell
you at a certain stage in a fast,
your body, you're not hungry after a certain
point.
I've gone on not a 40 day, but
I've gone on a several day fast.
And it is true after a certain point,
you're not hungry anymore.
Because your body is consuming fat and toxins
and everything else that's laid up in it.
But the moment hunger returns, that means your
body has begun to consume itself.
Muscle tissue, vital tissue in your body.
You're in effect starving at that point.
And the scripture says at the end of
the 40 days, he was hungry.
That means starvation technically, physical starvation has begun
to set into his body.
Satan comes to him at that point and
says, if you're the son of God, command
that these stones be made bread.
If you are God's son, do you have
to go through hardship?
If you are God's son, shouldn't it be
easy?
Shouldn't there be like this constant, shouldn't it
smell good?
Shouldn't it taste good?
Shouldn't it be soft to the touch?
Shouldn't it be comfortable?
If you are the son of God, you
don't have to go through this.
You don't have to suffer.
You don't have to be deprived.
If you're the son of God, just command
these stones to be made bread.
And Jesus said to Satan, get behind me.
He said, it is written that man will
not live by bread alone, but by every
word that comes out of the mouth of
God.
In other words, I've been sat on a
mission by my father and I'm going to
fulfill that mission.
And it doesn't mean that I'm always going
to be comfortable.
It doesn't mean that there's not going to
be times of want and hardship, but I
have a word from the father that I'm
going to finish this journey and I'm going
to finish it in victory.
I'm not finishing it alone.
Many are coming with me.
And so I'm not looking for a soft
journey.
And many people in this generation have looked
for a soft journey and have tried to
use the power of God to turn every
stone to bread, make every hard place easy.
And he said, what man is there of
you, if his son asks for bread, will
he give him a stone?
In other words, God will give you what
you need to get you through every difficult
place that you're going to face.
You don't have to try to change it.
Seek first the kingdom of God and his
righteousness.
You don't have to spend your time trying
to figure out a way out of your
dilemma or your difficulty or trying to use
the power of God to make hard places
easy.
He was on a redemptive mission.
And then he says, if he asks a
fish, will he give him a serpent?
That's an incredible statement in itself because God
the Father had sent his son to become
a fisher of my soul and of yours
and consequently to call us into his work
to become fishers of men.
That's the call of God in the church.
It's the redemptive purpose of God in the
earth.
And in order to accomplish that, it involved
a cross.
It involved being rejected by this world.
It involved having to endure the ridicule, the
scorn, the absolute hatred of people who were
opposing their own salvation.
He said, if you ask for a fish,
will he give you a serpent?
If you ask in your heart, Jesus, I
want to follow you.
I want to take up my cross.
Lord, I want to be given for this
generation.
I want people to find you through my
life.
I want my words to have weight behind
them.
I don't want to be just a light
testimony of who you are in my generation.
I want to be a fisher of men
just as the early church was.
And that has to be a cry in
the heart of an honest child of God.
It has to be a cry in your
heart if you truly are a child of
God.
And yet before him stands the serpent.
And the serpent says, look it, here's all
the kingdoms of the world and the glory
of them.
And he says, look, all you have to
do is bow before me.
Just acknowledge that God's ways are not the
only ways.
That the way God says it is not
the way it has to be.
There's other ways to do this.
All you have to do is bend your
knee and circumvent the cross.
Go around the hardship and I'll give it
all to you right now.
And folks, that's the original sin.
That's what Satan tempted Adam and Eve with
in the Garden of Eden.
He came down and he told them this,
you don't have to listen to God.
He doesn't know everything.
You partake of what I give you.
Your eyes are going to be open and
you're going to know good and evil.
In other words, you can chart your own
course and the very thing he tempted Adam
and Eve with he's now coming to the
Son of God in the wilderness.
And Jesus is saying to his disciples, I
was sent to be a fisher of men
and that path involves a cross.
And if you ask for a fish, God's
not going to give you a serpent.
I was sent to the cross.
I was sent for the purpose of redeeming
humankind.
And the serpent appeared before me professing that
his ways were in measure equal to the
ways of God.
And if you ask for a fish, God
the Father is not going to give you
a serpent.
In other words, he's not going to come
to you and say, no, life is meant
to be easy.
Folks, I tell you, there have been serpents
standing before much of the professed testimony of
this generation.
Say, no, you don't have to talk about
the blood.
No, the cross isn't necessary.
No, the Christian life is all just about
being happy and healthy and wealthy.
That's the Christian life.
You don't have to be given.
You don't have to be poured out.
You don't have to go to the mission
field.
You don't have to suffer for the cause
of Christ so that others may come to
the knowledge of God.
No, sir, there's an easier way to do
this.
If all it is is just about ruling
and reigning over people, then try doing it
my way.
Oh, no.
Then he says in verse 12, therefore all
things whatsoever you would that men should do
to you, do to them for this is
the law and the prophets.
It's as if Jesus was saying to them,
if I were lost, I would want somebody
to come for me.
I'd want somebody to reach out to me.
I'd want somebody to give whatever they had
to to get me out.
If I were lost, whatever you would want
others to do for you, do for them.
See, that's the key actually to all the
resource that's spoken about in verses 7, 8,
9, 10, and 11.
All the resource is found in this one
key.
Whatever you would want people to do for
you, if you were in a certain situation,
do for them.
Go to them.
That's the key to enduring the scorn of
those who oppose their own salvation.
That's the key to being kind to your
enemies.
It's this heart of God that says, I'm
not willing that any should perish.
That's the key that allows you to have
your face slapped and yet not retaliate in
like kind.
It's the key that gives you joy and
love in the workplace in spite of how
rude and nasty and ignorant the people are
getting all around you.
That's the key.
Oh Jesus, I could be just like one
of them.
Had somebody not come to me, had you
not come and gone to a cross, I
would be just as they are.
Oh Jesus, would you let me represent you
on the earth?
Would you stretch me out beyond myself?
Would you take me beyond my own quest
for personal comfort?
Would you help me, God, to get rid
of these feelings of desiring vengeance?
Would you give me the mercy and compassion
that God is willing to give to those
who belong to Him?
If I were lost, I'd want somebody to
walk with me and help me, never to
go down that road again.
Lord, would you help me to be patient
with brothers and sisters in the Lord that
are younger and weaker and more confused and
haven't made the full break with the things
of this world?
Instead of pointing a bony finger, would you
help me to stretch out a tender hand?
That's the key.
And this is where life comes from.
This is where light comes from.
The promise at the end of the scripture,
he said, therefore, whoever hears these things of
mine and does them, I will liken him
to a wise man that built his house
upon a rock.
The rain descended, the floods came, the winds
blew and beat on that house, and it
fell not, for it was founded upon a
rock.
The house was founded upon the work of
God in the earth.
That's why Paul in Acts 27 could be
in a ship that is virtually falling apart,
and yet he could stand and take communion
and rejoice and be an encourager to those
who are going to have to swim to
get to safety, because it was all about
other people now and the glory of God.
It wasn't about his own preservation.
It was about others.
And Paul could see what ordinary men couldn't
see.
The captain of the ship couldn't see it.
The merchant seamen couldn't see it.
The experienced couldn't see it.
The soldiers couldn't see it.
It was just this little guy who was
down in the bowels of the ship who
had chosen to be given for the glory
of God and for the souls of men.
His eyes were opened, and he had this
incredible vision.
You might say he was a type of
those who will have oil in the last
days.
The last days on this planet are gonna
be the most horrendous days, deeper, darker than
anything that our natural minds can even imagine.
And the Lord is saying to his church,
ask me now for the things you're going
to need.
Ask now.
Study these chapters of scripture.
I have read these three chapters over and
over and over and over this week.
I want it so deep in my heart.
I believe you could live the Christian life
on these three chapters alone.
I mean, have a clear vision of what
the Christian life is supposed to be.
We can't live it ourselves.
We need the power of God to live
it.
But we could see our way through just
studying these three chapters of scripture.
Ask.
Oh, my beloved church.
The Lord would say to you, ask.
It's too late when the calamity begins.
It's very hard to get right with God
in a time of distress.
Very hard to find strength.
And I see foolish people throughout the world
running to those who seem to have a
clarity.
They have joy.
They have purpose.
They're not moved by the afflictions that are
coming on this world.
And they're saying, give us of your oil.
And the wise said, we can't give it
to you.
It's not ours to give.
You have to go and get it for
yourself.
And while they went to buy, the scripture
says the bridegroom came.
This is the time to ask.
This is the time for you and I,
as the church of Jesus Christ, to say,
Lord Jesus, as part of your church, would
you let me finish the way the church
started?
I'm going to go back into the book
of Acts, chapter two, and I'm going to
read it again, and I'm going to follow
it all the way through, and I want
a clear view of what your church looks
like.
And Lord, would you help me to finish
the way it started?
I don't want to look different than these
people looked.
I don't want to act differently.
I don't want a different focus.
It seemed that they were willing to go
throughout the whole world that others may come
to the knowledge of Christ that they had
found.
It seemed that no cost was too great.
God, please help me.
And I think it's a prayer that all
of us have to pray now.
Please help me, Jesus.
It's part of asking, isn't it?
Please help me, God, to see what I
don't see.
Help me to embrace what is still out
of my reach.
Help me to understand what still has eluded
my mind.
Help me, God.
Help me to be a Christian.
Help me to be doing the work of
God on the earth.
Because your promise to me is that when
the storms come, I will not be shaken
by it.
There will be no amount of positive thinking
that's going to get anybody through these days.
There will be no amount of false promises.
And the serpent will be laughing because of
so many that have bitten into this theology
that the way of God is an easy
way, a broad way.
And there's no cross involved in it.
No hardship.
No suffering.
I want the power of Christ in my
life.
I want the power to shun evil and
do good.
Not my concept of good and evil, but
God's concept of good and evil.
I want the power to put away what
God says is wrong and embrace what is
right.
I want the power of God to live
my life in the exact plan and purpose
of God.
There is an exact plan for my life.
It's not a haphazard plan.
There's no A, B, and C door in
the kingdom of God.
God has a plan for my life and
a purpose for my life.
I want to finish that course.
And I want the power to live it.
I want to love people as Christ does.
That's a hard one.
Matter of fact, it's impossible without God.
But I do want to love people as
Christ does.
And I want to have His love and
power flowing through me towards them.
I do want it, folks, with all my
heart.
I've been studying these verses of Scripture and
I'm asking, as well as you are, I
want this.
I want it with everything in me.
I want to finish this race like Paul.
To be able to say in the presence
of God, it doesn't matter what men think,
it doesn't matter anything in eternity, but to
be able to say in the presence of
God, I have run the race.
I have run it God's way.
I have finished my course.
There's no regret in my life.
When you don't run it God's way, folks,
it's not a good finish a lot of
times.
I want to run it God's way.
I was praying on this platform this morning.
Whatever I've embraced, wherever I'm going, whatever I'm
becoming, that displeases you, Lord, or doesn't represent
you, help me to see it.
I don't see it, a lot of things,
but God, you can help me to see
it.
You will help me to be what I
need to be because it's imperative that I
stand for God in this last hour of
time.
All of the wolves in pulpits, especially in
this country, when they, the false shepherds actually,
when they see the wolf coming, they will
flee.
Suddenly their ministries are going to be gone
almost overnight.
They don't have any word for the people
because what's about to happen will not fit
their theology.
But those of us who know God, for
the sake of people, will stand.
And whatever that means, God will give us
the strength to do it.
Hallelujah.
If the musicians would come, please, I'd appreciate
it very much.
Ask.
Now I know that in the course of
what I've shared this morning, the Holy Spirit
has spoken things to different people, different hearts.
Things that you need, things that I need.
And I want to give a simple altar
call this morning.
Ask.
You need the power to turn from things
that you know are wrong.
Attitudes of heart that don't represent Christ.
Pursuits that aren't God.
A Christianity that's indifferent to the peril of
those that are lost.
It's a self-serving Christianity and it falls
far short of the glory of God.
And you say, but God, that's just the
way I am.
I don't know what to do about it.
And that had to be what these disciples
were feeling when they got to chapter 7.
There were no chapters in those days, but
I mean they got to chapter 7, verse
7.
They had to be saying, I don't know
how to do this in their heart.
Jesus knew that.
I can't do this.
I fall too short of what is required.
And that's why he said ask.
See, there was an incredible victory won on
the cross.
When Jesus rose from the dead, the apostle
Paul says, the same spirit that raised him
from the dead will also quicken our mortal
bodies.
Will lift us.
Give us strength.
Cause us to be what we're not.
Bring us into the victory that another won
for us.
And so it's possible now.
It's all in the realm of possibility.
I don't have to come at this altar
and pray a prayer and then go home
and buy seven books on how to do
something.
I simply ask.
I ask.
God, help me.
Lord, give me the grace to forgive that
person.
Oh God, help me to love the people
in my workplace, my family.
Help me Lord, not to do works to
be seen of men.
Help me Lord, to not be led into
temptation, but delivered from evil.
Help me God, to get out of this
practice.
Help me Lord, to get out of any
form of lukewarmness in my heart where I'm
not really given to your work.
Help me Lord, if I'm walking around with
a lamp that has no oil in it.
It looks like a lamp, but there's nothing
in it to give light.
Help me God, if the salt of my
life is not healing, not preserving, not producing
thirst.
Help me God.
Help me Lord Jesus Christ, to care about
people.
Your whole mission was redemptive.
The whole purpose of coming to the world
was because you so loved people.
And you went to a cross for it.
God help me to...
I'm supposed to represent that on the earth.
I'm supposed to be the embodiment called the
church of this heart of God that went
to Calvary for people.
Help me God.
I live my day consumed about myself, concerned
about my own future.
Here I am worried about what I'm going
to eat, wear or live and people are
dying in the streets.
They're going to hell without God.
Lord Jesus Christ, would you help me to
get my priorities straight?
Would you help me God?
Would you help me?
And folks, all you do...
I'm sure that some went out from that
table and they were immediately from this table
into the garden of Gethsemane.
And of course, these words would have come
back.
And thank God they had time to ask
and to seek and to knock because the
promise is everybody.
Everybody who wants the life of Christ can
have it.
And I don't know about you, but I
want that.
I want it with everything in my heart.
And if the Lord is speaking to you
today about your life, your future, your pursuits,
what you're doing, your marriage.
If he's speaking to you and you're wondering,
how do I change?
How do I get out?
How do I get into this life that
will give me an assurance that I'll not
be overthrown by storms that are coming?
As I read it, ask.
Ask.
I've never done anything throughout my entire Christian
life but ask.
For years, my prayer was, God, help me.
God, help me.
I would jog.
I'd jog for a mile or two.
I call it jogging, but it didn't look
much like a jog.
But my whole time would be, God, help
me.
And that was as a pastor.
God, help me.
Oh, God, help me.
And just various ways of saying, God, help
me.
And that would be my prayer for a
whole hour sometimes.
Oh, God, help me.
God, help me.
You've prayed that too, haven't you?
You know what that's all about.
The whole hour.
And you know something?
He answered it and continues to answer that
prayer because it comes from an honest heart.
So if that's all you can pray today,
that's good enough.
God will take you right there.
Let's stand, these altars are open.
If the Holy Spirit is speaking to you,
just come please and we'll pray together.
Slip out of your seat, balcony, go to
either exit.
In the annex, you can stand between the
screens if you will, please.
The Holy Spirit is speaking to you.
You need to come out of something and
into the life of Christ.
Please, please, please, don't put this off till
tomorrow.
Please, folks, please hear me.
This is a prophetic word today.
There's a storm coming.
There's a terrible storm coming.
It's going to happen suddenly.
Don't get caught off guard.
Be ready.
Have what you need to get through.
Hallelujah, let's worship together and then we're gonna
pray.
You know,
we began this service today with a quote
from the prophet Malachi, last voice of the
Old Testament.
And he talked about the coming of the
great and dreadful day of the Lord, how
the Spirit of God, in a sense, would
return to his people and turn the hearts
of the fathers to the children and the
children to their fathers.
Now, what that says to me is that
it will be all about other people, that
God's Spirit will one more time move upon
the hearts of those who can still hear
and it will become all about other people.
It's the opposite to the gospel that says
it's all about me.
It's all about other people.
And the children will find that very attractive
and want to follow that kind of a
relation because they will be important and they
find it attractive.
And there will be this coming together of
the body of Jesus Christ.
And you will be an integral part of
that.
Praise God.
Just the fact that you're here, I expect
the miraculous to happen in your heart.
I do, with everything in me.
Just the fact that you are asking.
And sometimes the ask is just a groan.
It's all it is.
It's just a groan.
Oh God.
It's just, I fall so far short.
And the Lord says, but I don't, and
I'm within you.
And we'll walk together.
And from the inside out, you'll begin to
change.
And you'll see that I'm willing to be
God to you.
Hallelujah.
Father, just thank you so much, Lord, for
these who have come to this altar.
Thank you, Lord, that we can expect that
you will infuse us into this city as
light and salt that's set upon a hill
and does bring preservation and thirst and healing.
Lord, we thank you for giving us your
eyes, your heart, your mind, the things that
you promised us, even through the Old Testament
prophets.
We thank you, God, for giving us these
things.
But we don't have any merit.
We just simply come because you invite us
before your throne, not in our strength, but
in our weakness and in our time of
need.
And we come thanking you, Lord Jesus Christ,
that your victory is ours.
Everything you inherited of the Father now belongs
to us.
And so we come to you, Lord, for
the strength that we need to represent you
in our generation.
Help our thinking to be clear.
Help us to see what you see and
to understand what you understand.
Give us a vision, Lord, for our lives.
Help us to see the value of every
soul, every person who walks these streets, whether
they're laying in their own vomit or whether
they're walking with a $1,000 suit.
Help us to see the value of every
soul that you died for.
Help us, God, not to see with natural
eyes anymore.
Give us supernatural eyes and a supernatural heart.
Give us the ability, Lord, to be kind
in hostile work environments to the gospel of
Jesus Christ.
Help us in our families, Lord, to be
committed one to another and not to back
out because things get tough.
Oh, God almighty, God almighty, God almighty.
God almighty, God almighty.
Be God almighty to us, Lord.
Be our strength, oh God.
Be the one who carries us.
Be our only testimony.
Be the only song that is on our
lips.
Be all that we have, Lord.
Let it all come from you and from
your hand.
Hallelujah.
Father, we thank you for these little children
today.
Oh, Jesus, we ask you to bless them.
God, we lift them up before you.
And Lord, we thank you, Father, that we
cherish these little ones as you do.
They are of immeasurable value to your kingdom.
Lord, help us to be an example to
them of what it means to be a
Christian.
Lord, may they never stumble over us on
their journey to finding you as savior.
We claim them for the kingdom of God.
We cherish them as Moses cherished the family
of God.
And Father, thank you, Lord, that our prayers
are not in vain.
Today, we ask for the souls of these
children, Lord, to be found at your throne
one day, rejoicing and dancing and leaping for
the goodness of God.
Father, give their moms and dads and guardians
and parents, Lord, and grandmas and grandpas the
courage to live for Christ, to be godly,
to be encouraging, to be kind.
Let our conversation be filled with grace and
seasoned with salt.
Oh, God almighty, help us to speak words
of life over them and not condemnation.
Give us a right heart and a right
spirit.
Oh, God almighty, we thank you, Lord.
We don't know what the future has, but
we do know that you have the future.
And that's all that matters to us, Lord.
Hallelujah, thank you, Lord.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Lord.