My message this morning is a question.
Are you tired of being God?
Go to Genesis please, chapter 12 if you
will.
Now Father I thank you Lord for the
anointing that breaks every yoke.
I thank you for truth that sets us
free.
I thank you for strength that can only
come from the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for faith and vision that are
given through the Word of Almighty God.
Lord touch this frail body today, quicken me
Lord, quicken my mind, my heart.
Father quicken us in the sanctuary to be
able to hear what it is that you
are speaking to your church in this last
hour of time.
Help us to understand these things, to lay
hold of them, to walk in them O
God and to live lives that will bring
joy to your heart.
Lord we thank you for it in Jesus
name.
Are you tired of being God?
It's hard to be God you know.
You have to keep your own universe in
order every day.
You've got to line up all the planets
and those that are still trying to be
God, you can't even you can't even enjoy
church when you're trying to be God because
you're sitting here and you're trying to figure
out how to solve your own problems, how
to get out of the situation you find
yourself in, how to make the impossible possible.
It's very very hard to be God.
In Genesis chapter 3 in verse 5, Satan,
now you don't have to turn there we're
staying Genesis 12.
All right, Satan came down into the Garden
of Eden and he infused a theological perspective
into Adam and Eve.
Some people have the sense it was just
a pear or an apple or something from
a tree.
There might have been a physical representation but
it was actually a theological idea that he
planted within the heart of Adam and Eve.
It was something that had gotten a hold
of him.
According to Ezekiel the Lord says that was
perfect.
He said you walked up and down and
you were anointed.
You were in the Garden of God until
the day that iniquity was found in you.
And Satan came down to Adam and Eve
and said you've created for more than this.
I mean here you are tending this garden
and naming some animals and meeting frequently with
God.
Don't you think life is meant to be
more than this?
Don't you realize that God is withholding something
from you?
You have the ability to see good and
evil.
Do you have to just listen to his
voice?
Is his the voice the only one that
matters?
Do you not have some reasoning power within
you?
You see God doesn't want you to partake
of this because he knows that in the
day that you do your eyes will be
open and you will be as God's and
you will have the power or the ability
to understand good and evil.
In other words it's not just God's voice
you have to listen to you can listen
to your own voice now.
And you can look at something and you
can say it's good even if God says
it's evil.
Because it's realistically he's not the only one
that has the plan for everything you see
around you.
And Adam and Eve must have pondered momentarily
on these things and then then they bit
into this theological lie.
And subsequently they were driven out and barred
from the tree of life.
That place that God said whatever you need,
whenever you have something that is out of
your grasp, whenever you feel that you need
sustenance, strength, you can go to this tree.
You can go into the garden.
You can partake of any of the fruit
that's in the garden as it is and
it will it will be provided for you.
And subsequently Adam and Eve are driven out
they're barred from that tree which is called
the tree of life.
But yet God spoke to Satan in Genesis
chapter 3 and verse 15 that a people
would be born into this world who would
crush this thought of his mind that he
planted into the hearts of people that in
ourselves we can be God or as God.
He said I'll put enmity between thee and
the woman and between thy seed and her
seed and it shall bruise thy head and
thou shalt bruise his heel.
Now the Lord was not taken by surprise
in the Garden of Eden.
He already knew Christ the scripture tells us
and the plan of salvation was foreordained before
the foundation of the world.
God knew what was going to happen and
he said to Satan yes you've planted this
seed in the heart of those who are
created in the image of God for fellowship
with God and for eternity with God that
they can be as God and yes you
feel that you've succeeded as it is in
separating man from God for all of eternity.
But out of the seed of the woman
there's going to be born a people who
are going to crush this thought of your
head.
They're going to put their feet upon your
head and prove to you that they're not
God and you are not God.
So man headed out from the garden with
the thought planted into his fallen nature that
he could be the God of his own
destiny and what a marvelous mess we've made
of that in our generation.
Circling the globe generation after generation after generation
calling evil good and good evil.
Planning our own course, planning our own destiny,
building weaponry that can destroy this world as
quick as the flash of a camera.
All the time believing that we can master
our own course and somehow there will be
no eternal consequence to it.
But I do believe with all my heart
we've come to the end of all of
this.
We're at the end.
We're living literally teetering over the edge of
eternity this very moment that you and I
are here.
Nuclear weaponry in North Korea now in the
hands of an insane regime really.
And you and I have not seen what
this weaponry is capable of doing.
And we don't realize how we live on
the edge of eternity all the time now.
Now God in Genesis chapter 12 came to
a man called Abraham.
I'm fast forwarding and I'm going to bring
something out very quickly that would probably take
about five days to teach and so please
bear with me if I've missed a few
things.
And God came to Abraham and made him
an incredible promise and he said get out
of your country and from your kindred and
from your father's house to a land that
I'm going to show you.
And I'll make of you a great nation
and I will bless thee and I'll make
thy name great and thou shalt be a
blessing.
I will bless them that bless thee and
curse him that curses thee and in these
shall all the families of the earth be
blessed.
Now that's an incredible promise.
Now I want you to keep in mind
that in Abraham was the DNA of the
man Jesus Christ.
And in Christ you and I have become
the fulfillment of the promise that God made
to Abraham.
God came to Abraham said I'm going to
do something that only God can do.
I'm going to take you and I'm going
to so multiply you and so supernaturally change
you and make you what you could never
hope to be that out of you are
going to come a people through whom all
the world is going to be blessed.
Folks that's you that's me.
Paul the Apostle in Romans 4 16 says
that Abraham was the father of us all.
In other words he would believe God Christ
was born through him and we through Christ
are born into this world and my life
and yours is to be a fulfillment of
the promise that God made to Abraham.
God said I'm going to do something that
man can't do.
I'm going to supernaturally change you.
And isn't that exactly what happens to us
when we come to Christ.
When the Holy Spirit comes upon us are
we not made into something other than what
we were.
Aren't we glad that we're no longer God.
Aren't we glad that our knee bent and
our tongue confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord.
In Genesis 9 15 God made a Genesis
15 rather God made a covenant with Abraham
because Abraham stumbled a few times in his
life actually.
But in Genesis 15 he said how is
this going to be.
How am I going to inherit this that
you promised me.
I'm getting older and I don't have a
child.
And he said and the Lord took him
outside and he said look abroad now in
verse 5.
He said look toward heaven and tell the
stars if you're able to number them.
And he said so shall your seed be.
Now God is speaking to Abraham about the
church.
You have to understand this.
He's your name is there my name is
there.
It's through Abraham that the patriarchs of Israel
were born and through him Judah that Christ
is born and we are born through Christ
into this world.
Now that's got to be established or you
won't understand where I'm going with this.
And this verse 6 as he believed in
the Lord and it counted to him for
righteousness.
And the Lord told him he said and
he said in verse 8 how do I
know that I'm going to inherit this.
God you've made a promise to me that
is so big.
It's so preposterous really.
It's so impossible.
How am I ever how's this ever going
to happen.
I'm getting old I don't even have a
child and yet you're telling me that my
descendants are going to be more than the
stars that I'm looking out in the sky
or the sand that is by the seashore.
How do I know that this is going
to happen.
And the Lord said to him take a
heifer of three years old and a she
goat of three years old and a ram
of three years old and a turtle dove
and a pigeon.
And he said he took all these and
divided them in the middle and laid each
piece one against the other but the birds
he didn't divide.
In other words cut except for the birds
cut the sacrifice in half and make a
pathway between them as it is.
God said I'm going to make a covenant
with you and and through this covenant the
promise that I've made to you is going
to be fulfilled.
But then he opened something to me he
says now listen there's going to be your
seed are going to go into captivity seemingly
for 400 years and they're going to be
afflicted and there's going to be struggles and
there's going to be trials but Abraham I'm
going to be faithful to you.
Thank God for those who don't believe that
God's able to bring your family out of
captivity especially as we go into the Christmas
season.
Thank God that we don't have to be
God to our families.
We don't have to figure out how to
get them all into the kingdom of heaven.
All we have to do is believe God
as Abraham did.
Walk in to impossible places in faith trusting
in the faithfulness of Almighty God.
Trusting in the one who's able to call
things that are not as if they are.
And then he said when the sun went
down it was dark and behold a smoking
furnace and a burning lamp passed between those
pieces.
Now that's a type in the Old Testament
of God the Father, the smoking furnace, the
burning lamp, God the Holy Spirit and the
sacrifice divided Jesus Christ the Son of God.
And in this Old Testament scripture you see
a type of God himself making a covenant
actually with himself.
The only thing that Abraham was supposed to
do is drive the birds away.
When the vultures came to devour this covenant,
devour this sacrifice, the job of Abraham was
to push away these vultures and that's your
job and mine.
We have a Savior who went to a
cross and paid the full price for our
sins.
We have the power of God living within
us to change us and to make us
into whatever God calls us to be.
It is all done.
It was finished on Calvary.
We can't add to this sacrifice.
There's nothing we can do but put ourselves
by faith into the hands of Almighty God
and say Lord you lead me, you guide
me, Lord you bring my family through to
safety, Lord you give me the skills and
giftings that I need.
And when Satan comes down and tries to
devour that sacrifice that paid for my sin
and made a way into the supernatural, my
job is to push the vultures away.
That's your job folks, push the vultures away,
push the thoughts away, push these devouring powers
of darkness away from what became yours through
the cross of Jesus Christ.
When you see this, this thread of covenant
runs all the way through the Old Testament.
You see it again in David, you see
it all the way through this covenant of
promise.
You see it in the Old Testament promise,
not by power nor by might but by
my spirit says the Lord.
It's all the way through.
Once you see it in Genesis, it's all
the way through that God says no I'm
going to do this, this is coming from
my hand, it's going to be done by
faith, it's going to be supernatural, it's going
to be miraculous, it's going to culminate in
a church called the Church of Jesus Christ
that will rule and reign with Jesus Christ
forever.
And it runs all the way through the
Old Testament.
But there's another covenant that was added in
the Old Testament.
Remember after God brought the children of Israel
out of bondage as he told Abraham, he
brought them to the foot of a mountain
and he made another covenant with them.
It was called the covenant of the law.
Now remember that man's inherent problem is that
he thought in himself he could be God.
Remember back in Genesis?
He ate of the fruit.
Did you know it's in you as well
as in me?
Each one of us have a fallen nature,
a sin nature that really wants to be
God.
That was what Adam and Eve ingested in
the Garden of Eden.
And so God said well if you think
you can be God here are 600 plus
laws for you to obey.
Now only God can obey them.
And so if you think you're God you
have 600 plus laws to obey but remember
if you break one you've broken them all
and you have to come back and start
over again trying to be God.
And remember the people in Deuteronomy and in
the book of Joshua they said we the
Lord is we will obey God.
We will do these things.
We will fulfill them.
They were sincere.
They were they didn't see it as an
insurmountable problem.
We're going to do this.
We're going to.
Now Paul in Galatians 3 24 says the
law was introduced in the Old Testament as
a schoolmaster.
When you read Galatians you'll see it in
the entire chapter.
Chapter 3.
To bring us to the understanding that we're
not God.
We can't be God.
Even in our best intentions we can't be
God.
Even the most sincere religious people here cannot
be God.
Peter calls it a yoke which neither we
nor our fathers could bear.
Old Testament historians tell us that a literal
river of blood flowed out of the temple
because there were sincere people who really did
want to obey God.
They really did want to obey these laws
that God set down for those who determined
that they wanted to be godly.
Think about it for a moment.
What if we were under that covenant today
and you had to bring in a lamb,
a ram, a goat, a turtle dove, or
a pigeon for those that were poor.
It was such a ministry of failure that
the Pharisees actually set up their families in
the outer court of the temple.
And they sold goats and doves and they
sold rams and lambs and they even changed
money from those that had come from a
distance.
And the ministry was a ministry of failure.
All the time.
Sin.
Confess.
Sin.
Confess.
Sin.
Confess.
Imagine if you had to bring a goat
or a lamb into this place this morning
and have its blood poured on the altar
and you prayed and you felt clean and
you said, oh now I'm in right relationship
with God.
Then you go out and you go to
the parking garage and it's 45 minutes and
your car still hasn't come.
You get a little hot under the collar
because somebody has a bit of an attitude.
You say something you shouldn't say.
You hang your head in shame.
You come back to the outer court.
You pick up another goat.
You come back into the temple again.
A river of blood.
It was a schoolmaster.
That's all it was.
A schoolmaster just to teach us you can't
be God.
There's no possibility you can be God.
You can't even obey 600 laws.
There's no way that anybody in their own
strength and those who tried to fulfill it
in their own strength they developed a tier
system of religion.
In the religion they developed judged others, despised
the weak, hid its corruption with exterior garments
and prayer and ultimately hated God and their
fellow man.
Now you can say pastor how do you
know that they hated God?
They killed him when he came.
It's not even debatable.
They hated God.
They hated what represented God and that's what
people who try to be God in their
own strength will eventually do.
The only way you can maintain a sense
of righteousness is to judge everybody else.
There has to be this tier system.
It has to judge the weak.
It has to stand in its own righteousness.
Some never learn the lesson that we can't
be God.
Now remember the promise, the covenant that God
made to Abraham.
Now ultimately God made a covenant not with
us but with himself to redeem us.
The covenant's not with us.
He made a covenant with himself.
Why is the gospel called good news?
You ever thought of that?
What was the Old Testament?
Bad news?
Wasn't there a way to redemption in the
Old Testament?
Why all of a sudden did angels appear
in heaven and say I bring you glad
tidings or good news of great joy to
all people.
Unto you this day is born in the
city of David a Savior.
The father said to the son son you're
going to go down to the earth.
We've created man in our image and man
has failed.
You're gonna have to go down to the
earth and you're gonna become a man and
you're gonna walk for 33 years among them.
You're going to be touched by the feelings
of their weaknesses.
Then after 33 years you're going to be
taken to a cross and you're going to
die.
And not only you're going to die but
I'm going to turn my back on you
and the full wrath that I have reserved
for those that have rejected my love and
my ways is going to be poured out
on you.
And you're gonna pay the price for all
the wrong that they have done.
But son on the third day I'm going
to raise you from the dead.
You're going to have to trust me in
this the father would have told him.
Remember on the cross Jesus said father into
thy hands I commit my spirit.
In other words I believe that it will
be exactly as you've told me.
On the third day you're going to raise
me from the dead.
And he said son I'm going to raise
you from the dead and I'm going to
bring you back and you're going to sit
on my right hand.
And at my right hand all of heaven
will be yours and you will rule and
reign for all of eternity.
You will have all the resources of heaven
nothing will be lost everything will be gained
it will all come back to you exactly
as it has been before the foundation of
the world.
You're going to have to trust that I'm
going to raise you from the dead that
you're being sent to pay the price for
the sin of fallen humanity.
And the son said father in John 17
24 I will that they also whom thou
has given me be with me where I
am that they may behold my glory which
thou has given me for thou lovest me
before the foundation of the world.
The son said to the father Jesus said
to his father father I will go and
I will trust you and I will believe
that you will raise me from the dead
that I will pay the price for the
sin of humankind and be brought back to
the throne of all authority and all power
that all heaven's resources will be mine.
But what I ask of you father you're
part of the covenant is that everything that
I get those who believe in me they
get it also.
Where I am is where they are.
Praise be to God.
Did you understand today that we are seated
according to Ephesians chapter 2 verses 4 to
6 we are seated with Christ in heavenly
places.
Did you know today that if you are
in Christ if you have trusted in Jesus
Christ you're already in him at the right
hand of Almighty God.
Not one day going to be there you
and I are there.
You say well how's that possible?
Well folks you can't detach the head from
the body.
He is the head and we are the
body.
The easiest way to understand it is a
runner in a race.
I've shared this with you before but as
you get to the finish line the runner
stretches his head forward.
He lunges forward and his head crosses the
finish line first which means the body has
already won the race too as well.
That's why Paul says we're more than conquerors
through him that loved us.
We've already won.
I don't see my life from earth up
to heaven.
I see my life from heaven back to
earth.
Now folks you've got to see this.
Let me just read it to you very
very quickly.
Ephesians chapter 2 verses 4 to 6 it
says but God who is rich in mercy
for his great love wherewith he loved us
even when we were dead in sins has
quickened us together with Christ by grace are
you saved and has raised us up together
and made us sit together in heavenly places
in Christ.
I am seated with him.
I am more than a conqueror.
I've already won the race.
I'm already on victory site.
I live here on the earth.
We'll explain that in just a moment how
that works.
Paul said listen to this in Ephesians 1
17 to 23 that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ the father of glory may
give to you the spirit of wisdom and
revelation in the knowledge of him the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened that you may
know what is the hope of his calling
the riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints and what is the exceeding
greatness of his power to us word who
believe according to the working of his mighty
power which he wrought in Christ when he
raised him from the dead and set him
at his own right hand in heavenly places
far above all principality power might dominion and
every name that is named not only in
this world but in that which is to
come and has put all things under his
feet and gave him to be the head
over all things to the church which is
his body the fullness of him that fills
all in all that's why Paul was saying
that you could see what I see that
I am in Christ Christ is in me
I'm already seated with him in heavenly places
I'm already more than a conqueror I've already
won the victory I'm living on this side
of eternity just simply to be a declaration
of this victory that's been won on Calvary
for all who would put their trust in
the Lord Jesus Christ you and I don't
have to be God anymore there is a
God who did die on the cross who
does quicken us and give us life the
promise of life on earth and the promise
of eternity with him so you asked me
the question where does the Holy Spirit fit
in all of this well John chapter 16
Jesus said it this way he said nope
John 16 I have the wrong chapter sorry
how be it when he the spirit of
truth has come he will guide you into
all truth he will not speak of himself
but whatsoever he shall hear that shall he
speak and he will show you things to
come he will glorify me for he shall
receive of mine and show it unto you
all things that the father has are mine
therefore said I that he shall take him
of mine and he shall show it to
you now that the Puritan writers understood this
here's the simple truth of it I am
in Christ seated at the right hand of
Almighty God already a conqueror already victorious but
yet I also live on planet earth this
is my standing this is what the Puritan
writers call it is my standing I am
in Christ I cannot be condemned by the
devil my righteousness is not my own and
neither is yours is given to us of
Almighty God I cannot have the devil point
his bony finger and try to discourage or
destroy or take away that I have to
push the birds away from that sacrifice I
have been redeemed by the blood of the
Son of God the Lamb of God there's
no need for another sacrifice the writer of
Hebrews said when he entered into the holy
place once and for all he offered his
blood as the atonement for my sins no
longer the need to sin confess sin confess
sin confess one sacrifice once and for all
the day you believed in Jesus Christ the
day your heart truly truly opened and you
embraced the sacrifice of Christ on Calvary you
were lifted to that place in Christ and
now you are seated together with him in
heavenly places you've got to get that very
deep inside of your heart especially to face
the days that you and I are going
to face but I live on planet earth
as well and the Holy Spirit is the
third person of God given to me to
take what is mine in Christ make it
a reality and all my life the Holy
Spirit is lifting my state in line with
my standing do you understand this all my
life Paul says I'm leaving behind the things
that need to be left behind I've not
arrived but I'm pressing forward to the mark
of the high calling of God in Jesus
Christ I've not arrived but I'm going forward
towards it you and I will never arrive
to what the measure of who God is
on this side of eternity but as we
behold Jesus Christ as we behold the victory
as we see the resources of heaven as
the promises of God are open to us
we are changed by the Spirit of God
from image to image in glory to glory
that means the glory means the weightiness of
God comes into our physical being we are
changed we are changed we begin to embrace
and know more of the love of God
more faith comes into the heart the strength
to get up and get out of things
that formerly held us captive it's all in
the New Covenant folks it's all there all
you have to do is get up there
are no steps to anything you just simply
get up and walk out you walk out
of pain you walk out of prison you
walk out of hopelessness you walk away from
suicide you walk out of trying to be
God I don't have to try to be
God the living God is inside of me
I don't have to try anymore I have
to believe that the sacrifice he made for
me is sufficient for my sins that I
am in Christ already more than a conqueror
I see myself quite often as sitting in
Christ at the right hand of God looking
down said come on Carter come on man
don't give up keep going the Bible says
that Christ is the intercessor for us that
he's not sitting at the right hand of
God saying oh I I really pray father
that pastor Carter makes it it's having such
a bad week it's such a hard mother
that's not the intercession the intercession is just
the fact that he's there he's there folks
he's just there speaking my name that's all
that is necessary if the devil had access
to the throne of God he would come
up and point his finger and bring accusations
against you and I oh John did this
last week Oh Mary did this Oh James
fell short and the father simply looks at
the son says son what do you have
to say and the son just says your
name that's all John James Mary and the
father looks and says away with you my
son is standing in intercession for those that
have trusted in him hallelujah to the Lamb
of God now this is preposterous for those
who are still trying to be God it's
only when the knee is bent and the
tongue confesses that I'm not God Jesus Christ
is the Lord there is no other name
given under heaven whereby men must be saved
thanks be to God folks when you really
understand this truth it takes the weight off
you're not trying you don't have to figure
don't have to organize your own universe you
don't have to worry about how this is
going to happen or where this is going
to change if Abraham could have spent his
whole life wringing his hands 400 years 400
years 400 years my family are going to
be in captivity Oh God how are we
going to get them out Lord said no
I'm just going to get them out just
showing it to you I'm going to get
them out and they're going to come out
supernaturally we're living in a generation where the
Lord is saying I'm looking for faith again
Abraham simply believed God and it was accounted
to him for righteousness not works faith God's
looking for faith again the revival that God
wants to send is not going to come
through works you will not buy a book
on how to do this it's faith in
the heart faith that my price has been
the price is paid faith that says sin
is dealt with I am in Christ I
do sit at the right hand of God
I do have the power of God's Holy
Spirit within me changing me lifting me making
me more into the man or woman of
God that God says that I should be
praise be to God faith that says no
prison can hold me no blindness can take
the sight of Christ from my eyes no
wound of the past can continue to bruise
me no gates of hell can hold my
family away from the love of God hallelujah
the old covenant was man make it was
with man in other words God said to
us God said to humankind you do this
and I'll do this you do this and
I'll do this and nobody could do it
and anybody who tried ended up hating God
and their fellow man the new covenant God
said I'll make a promise to myself and
what I'm asking you to do is to
believe me and I'll make promises to you
the resources of heaven will become yours the
promises of God will open to you the
power of God through the Holy Spirit to
see these promises made in reality will be
given to you we don't have to figure
it out we have to read it folks
look at it let the Holy Spirit quicken
it remember Jesus said when he comes he
will take what is mine and he will
show it to you and he will show
you things to come we're not talking about
future events like nations rising and falling we're
talking about he will show you things to
come in you he will show you what
I'm about to do Peter says in 2nd
Peter chapter 1 verses 3 and 4 according
as his divine power has given to us
all things that pertain to life and godliness
through the knowledge of him that's called us
to glory in virtue whereby are given to
us exceeding great and precious promises that by
these you might be partakers of the divine
nature having escaped the corruption that is in
the world through lust promises of God given
to us by these you might be partakers
of the nature of God the promises of
God we don't have to make promises to
God we can't keep them we can't obey
the laws we can't make promises so as
you go into this Christmas season this year
do yourself a favor and resign as God
it's very very tiresome
trying to be God resign abdicate step down
bend the knee you're not God it's not
your promises to God that are going to
avail anything it's God's promises to you that
are going to make the difference that is
the new covenant God says I'm looking for
faith as I did in Abraham I'm looking
for faith in you I'm looking for somebody
who just believe me revival never comes to
the works of the law it comes to
the hearing of faith revival being a people
brought back or made to be what God
intends us to be a people who move
in the supernatural bringing that life and message
of Jesus Christ to a fallen city a
fallen town fallen families a fallen generation not
the works of the law but the hearing
of faith and that makes the gospel a
beautiful thing it makes it good news that
I can go to any person on the
street and say listen can I tell you
what God did for me he'll do for
you and I hope you'll do more for
you than he's done for me the ground
is completely level at Calvary it's not the
strength of human will or effort it is
just simply the believing heart that gets the
miracle Isaiah said it this way the lame
take the prey I love that scripture the
lame the persons who know they're not God
the persons who don't have it all together
the people are willing to bend the knee
and confess with their mouth I'm not God
I can't fix this marriage I can't make
my teenagers live for you Lord I can't
change my situation I can't even change my
own character as much as I try and
as much as I've had sincere intentions and
efforts I just get on this never-ending
cycle of sin confess sin confess sin confess
God help me to bend my knee and
to accept the sacrifice for my failing and
to allow you to change me by your
promises give me the grace to stop trying
to change myself that's the key to freedom
that's the key to becoming everything that God
has intended that you and I should be
not our promises to him but his promises
to us hallelujah hallelujah sounds too
good to be true doesn't it especially if
you're trying to be God it's sounds way
too good to be true but it is
the truth it's how we change it's how
we have the authority to condemn the condemner
so you can't condemn me because I'm not
presenting myself as anything righteous the righteousness I
have has been given to me by Almighty
God and I have not played games with
God I have truly believed him come into
my life and he's changing me as I
read and the Holy Spirit makes known to
me what is mine I believe it and
he comes and he makes it a reality
that's why the gospel is good news that's
why the angels would appear in heaven and
say rejoice this is worth rejoicing over because
the time of humankind trying to be God
is over and whosoever will can now come
and God will be God to them again
tree of life is lost in Eden the
tree of life is regained at Calvary we
can touch that tree we can get the
fruit of that tree we can we can
walk in that relationship with God that was
lost because of sin when we finally get
it out of our hearts when we finally
admit I'm not God and whatever that means
to you I even those that are here
today and you're constantly calling yourself unclean now
remember what Jesus what the Holy Spirit spoke
to Peter and said with what I have
cleansed you have no right to call common
or unclean anymore and if you're calling yourself
unclean all the time you believe in Jesus
but you're calling yourself unclean then that you're
still God because God said you don't have
a right to call yourself unclean if I've
cleansed you you don't have the right anymore
so you get off the throne you get
off the throne and you let me be
God to you you believe that there's something
in your character that will never change that
means that you've become God in that area
of your life you've taken over from God
who said I can do any there's nothing
impossible with God but you've taken over that
area of your life you've sat upon the
throne and said I'll never change I've always
been this way I'm always going to be
this way well you've taken the throne from
God in that area of your life and
you're intending to be God in that area
and it's very wearisome this holiday season would
you believe God for your family I believe
for my father's salvation for 26 years folks
26 years I prayed 26 years I believe
God 26 years he put a word of
faith in my heart that this man will
be brought through to salvation 26 years and
God led me to him the last conscious
hour of his life and I led him
to Christ and we had the most wonderful
hour between a father and a son I
will cherish it for all not only time
but I'll cherish it forever to see my
father at rest and at peace and to
see God having answered 26 years of prayer
it's time to
chase the birds away it's time to push
away every lying voice that's trying to stop
you from getting through to what is truly
yours in Jesus Christ I don't know what
your struggle is today whether it's family or
whether it's just despair whether it's a hopelessness
about the future we're living in dire economic
times you already know that now and I
know it's in a lot of people's thinking
what shall we eat what shall we wear
where shall we live Jesus said all these
things the Gentiles seek after but you seek
first the kingdom of God and his righteousness
and all these things will be added to
you now we either believe that or we
don't folks there's no middle ground in this
we either believe it or we don't believe
it that he will provide the things that
we need as we seek him and his
kingdom first now father I just thank you
Jesus I thank you Lord for the simplicity
of this word today I pray God you
give us the grace Lord to bend our
knee and confess with our tongue that Jesus
Christ is Lord help each of us through
whatever valleys of the shadow of death we
have to walk through almighty God all that
we're asking in the name of Jesus today
is that you be lifted up and glorified
in this generation God Almighty take what is
ours and show it clearly to us and
give us the faith to believe you we
thank you for this in Jesus mighty name
I want to give an altar call today
here in the annex as well for all
of the people listening who just say pastor
I I'm just so tired of trying to
be God in this area of my life
and today I'm just going to come and
bend my knee before the only God and
I'm going to give this situation to him
and I'm going to believe that he will
give me the strength and give me the
vision and give me the understanding I need
to get through these days that I'm in
and are just before me let's stand together
and if that's the cry of your heart
just meet me at this altar we're going
to pray together after a few minutes of
worship thank you Jesus thank you Thank
you I trust, I resign my freight of
mind You have power to deliver You give
my strength and time I'm
to call on the faith to God I
am for the Lord and with
Him I trust I
resign my freight of mind You have power
to deliver You give my strength and time
I am for the Lord and
with Him I trust I am compelled to
call on the Lord To
call on the Lord and give thanks to
God I am compelled to love the
Lord And with Him I resign
my freight of mind You have power to
deliver You give my strength and time And
give thanks to God I'm
to call on the Lord Now
for the honest believer when you and I
sin it doesn't the Bible says it's not
imputed to you now if it were imputed
that means it were held against you you'd
be saved at three o'clock lost at
four saved at five lost at six and
you just really hope you die on the
right side of the clock it does hurt
our relationship with God it does dull the
Word of God it does make us less
able to hear about who we are in
Christ but it does not for the honest
for the honest Christian for the honest seeker
of God it does not break your relationship
with God it's not imputed I remember that
the Puritans were very concerned about this truth
being known you'll read about it in Pastor
David's book the New Covenant they're very concerned
about this they said well won't it turn
the gospel into some kind of a lawless
thing well the hypocrite will play games with
the law or with grace it really makes
no difference to the game player will play
games with whatever you put in his hand
but for the true and honest seeker of
God this is where the strength of the
cross is found that I cannot be condemned
by the devil if I have an honest
heart I cannot be I can't he has
no access to me he has no access
to I am fully received fully clothed fully
righteous I cannot be condemned that's where your
strength is you see if you don't get
beyond that then the devil will just condemn
you and you'll feel condemned and so you
get on this the Old Testament cycle of
sin confess sin confess sin confess and that
becomes your whole prayer life your whole life
as a Christian is all around you're just
spiritually speaking lift picking up a goat literally
every time you pray and walking back in
the temple asking for cleansing which has already
been given you in Christ yes there's moments
where we say God forgive me for that
I shouldn't have done that the Lord just
says okay let's let's move forward it's that
simple there's no huge procedure to this you
just you accept the cleansing you move forward
you look as if it's too good to
be true it's a it's a stunner because
you come in and say oh God that's
why it's good news that's why the gospel
is good news I don't have to be
God anymore I don't have I just have
to simply believe that what you did for
me is sufficient and that you're going to
make me into the person that you have
destined me to be you're going to do
it God my job is to believe you
and chase that filthy birds away that try
to take the simplicity of Christ away Paul
said I fear to the Corinthians lest you
be turned from the simplicity that is in
Christ brought back again under us into a
system of works which God never intended our
relationship with him to be and so realistically
who goes the farthest today at this who
goes the farthest in this journey people with
PhDs royal blood noble the wise oh that's
not what I read in Corinthians it says
doesn't God take the foolish of this world
and the weak and those things that are
nothing and nobody to bring to nothing everything
that exists in its own strength everything that
still walks in that carnal reasoning that I
can be as God doesn't God take the
weak of the world to bring this foolishness
to nothing and so it's really but the
believing heart it gets the victory that's the
beauty of it the simplicity of it I
hope you all I hope you just leave
us all the pastors here and now I
hope you just leave us in the dust
as far as preachers go I hope you
just take the gospel a lot farther than
we've ever gone with it I hope that
God gives you the gift of miracles and
laying on of hands and the healing of
the sick and I hope God does it
with all my heart this is a generation
that doesn't need to hear any more theories
about God this is a generation that needs
to see the practical outworking of a living
relationship with God now father I pray Lord
for those that have come to this altar
today God Almighty help us to accept our
cleansing help us by faith in spite of
the fact that we struggle Lord help us
to accept the fact that we are cleansed
received clean as the righteousness of God according
to the scriptures help us God Almighty give
us strength and grace Lord to face this
generation this time that we're living in do
the miraculous in us Oh God shake the
place where we are Lord fill us again
with the Holy Ghost and let your word
begin to live in our hearts take us
Oh God and let us be the church
of Jesus Christ on fire with life God
in this city Lord just infuse the city
with the life of Christ through your people
you said to Abraham that we'd be a
blessing the whole world would be blessed you
said so God we just open our hearts
and our hands and say Lord bless the
world through me bless the world through my
life bless the workplace bless my neighborhood God
bless the places I travel bless them through
me Lord bless them through me God father
as you just be God in me Jesus
just be God in me be God through
me speak to my heart throughout the day
flow through my mouth flow through my hands
God guide the steps of my feet look
through my eyes Jesus just be God through
me Lord be God in this city in
this generation father Oh Jesus thank you Lord
thank you mighty God I pray you just
absolutely cause our hearts to explode with the
good news of Calvary this holiday season God
may we not be silent may we not
be put to shame by our enemies Oh
God but bring us out of every darkened
place bring your church out of the 400
year captivity my God my God in this
country today Lord bring your church out in
this last hour of time and bring her
out with a high hand Oh God with
the strength of almighty God bring your people
forth and father I thank you for this
with all my heart praise you and bless
you today in the mighty and holy and
unmatchable name of Jesus the Son of God
Hallelujah to the Lamb of God thank you
God Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah