...is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit
Series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing, World Challenge,
P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or
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to friends.
I want to talk to you, as one
of your pastors, about something that God has
put on my heart, for this church body,
and it's about overcoming the fear of being
rejected by God.
We are living in perilous times, as the
scripture says.
We're living in a time when the world
is going to get darker, going to become
more distant from God, more alienated in the
thinking, from the ways of God, more evil.
But at a time that the scripture bears
witness, when the church of Jesus Christ is
going to come more and more and more
and more into the light, and into the
likeness of our Lord and Savior.
Until it culminates at a time when the
Spirit and the Bride say, When Jesus Christ
stands up, and all of Heaven stands up
with Him, and the Father speaks to Him,
that word that He's been longing to hear
for so long, the word that God has
had in His heart right from the beginning
of time, before you and I were even
created, that He would have a people among
whom He can dwell for all of eternity.
His beloved body, His beloved Bride, those that
will rule and reign with Him for all
of eternity.
And all of a sudden the Father is
going to speak that word to His Son
and say, Son, go get your Bride.
And there's going to be a shout, the
Bible says He comes with a shout, hallelujah,
and with the voice of God, the voice
of the Archangel and the trump, and He
comes for all those who have lived and
trusted in Him, who have walked with Him,
who have known Him, who have trusted in
His shed blood, first those that are dead,
have died in Christ, and secondly for those
who are alive and remain.
And so shall we ever be with the
Lord.
And the Apostle Paul says, therefore comfort one
another with these words.
We're going to sing in heaven, we're going
to shout in heaven.
And we're going to do a little bit
of that here on earth too, up until
the time that Christ comes.
But there's also going to be times when
God, because of His love for you and
for me, you see, He sees things that
we don't see.
We come into the house of the Lord
and we say, oh, I'm saved, sanctified, filled
with the Holy Ghost, set apart for God.
And we generally are quite quick to have
a wonderful testimony about ourselves, if anybody should
care to ask.
But God doesn't see the way man sees.
And He looks down upon those that He
loves, those that are covered in the blood
of Christ, those that are redeemed.
As we heard this afternoon as well, those
that are held fast by His hands, planted
solidly in the courts of our God.
And He looks down and He sees things
in you and He sees things in me
that if left unchecked and unchallenged, will give
the enemy access to our lives.
If left unchecked and unchallenged, will perhaps someday
in the future, especially when hard times come,
will erode our confidence in God because perhaps
we are looking to one thing or another
to give us satisfaction or to give us
some kind of assurance of our future.
God knows these things, and not just part
measure, He knows them in full measure.
And so He will come down and He
will put upon the hearts of His ministers,
those that stand in the pulpit for a
season, He will put upon their hearts a
word that will come and cut deep, deep,
deep into the heart.
The word of God is quick and powerful,
sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting asunder
between soul and spirit, determining that which is
of God and that which is strictly of
the soulish realm of man.
It goes right in and determines the thoughts
and intents of the heart.
And it's at this time when God begins
to do these things because He loves us
that many who have not overcome the fear
of rejection, especially the fear of being rejected
by God, when they begin to have a
revelation that there are things in our lives
that are not, things in our lives in
some areas that are not the way we
once thought they were, then all of a
sudden there's like an overwhelming fear.
God in heaven, it's like an Isaiah experience,
swollen to me, I'm undone.
God, how can you love me?
God, how can you continue to use me?
All of these things that are in my
life may be some that you're aware of
and others that you didn't even know were
there.
You may have even thought they were good,
but now the Holy Spirit comes and begins
to cut right into the very motives of
the heart and it begins to stand before
God in an undone feeling.
Now that's the Lord that does that because
He loves us.
The end result of that is joy, unspeakable
and full of glory.
And as we heard so ably today, we
ought to be a people who desire this
kind of a word, who desire to come
into the house of God and say, God,
purge me, cleanse me, any area and every
area of my life where I might be
holding to something that's unlike you.
God, come and touch that area of my
life.
I want Christ to live in me.
I want to abide in Him and I
want Him to abide in me and that
life that God has promised me, I want
to have it a life that bears much
fruit to the honor and to the glory
of God.
And many times you and I have cried
that out at an altar and God in
His goodness will come down and answer that
prayer, but He answers it in a way
that we didn't think sometimes He was going
to do it.
And when we're not fully grounded in His
love, if we're not fully grounded in an
understanding of what He has done for us
on Calvary, of what has happened in heaven
as we heard about this morning, that our
names are written down in the Lamb's Book
of Life, that yes, there may be on
that day when we stand individually before God
some issues that God has to speak to
us about.
It will still be in the context of
a loving Savior with His beloved bride that
He has cherished and He's bringing into eternity
to dwell with Him and to live with
Him forever.
But those that are not grounded in this
love can come to the place because of
past experience of thinking, God, You have rejected
me.
When trial comes, when there's a silence from
heaven, there are different things that God will
do to get our attention.
I'm going to talk about a few of
these things tonight.
I want you to know when God begins
to do this, His love is going to
purge this body.
His love is going to root out and
tear down and destroy everything that has the
potential to lead any one of us away
from the very heart of God.
And then He's going to build line by
line, precept by precept, character, the character of
Christ, the nature of Christ, the desire for
the things of God.
He's going to wean us from the things
of the world and raise up to Him
a beloved bride, a beloved testimony in this
city of New York.
My brethren, please don't be afraid when the
Word of God begins to come and begins
to cut the heart.
That is the loving hand of God.
Father, I ask tonight that as I share
what You put upon my heart with Your
bride that You've gathered in this house, Lord,
that You would anoint these words to tear
down all works of darkness, to tear down
any misconception of You that has been formed
either in the soulless realm or has been
planted there by demonic lies.
Father, I come against every demonic suggestion, every
power of hell that comes against any child
of God in this house.
Lord, I thank You that Your truth will
triumph this night, O God.
I ask, Lord, that prison doors would be
opened, those that have been wounded in heart
in particular, bruised in heart would be healed
and set free from the fear of rejection.
Father, I thank You for this.
In Jesus' name, amen and amen.
If you'll turn with me to Psalm 22,
please.
My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken
me?
Why art Thou so far from helping me
and from the words of my roaring?
O my God, I cry in the daytime,
but Thou hearest not, and in the night
season, and am not silent.
Verse 14 says, I am poured out like
water.
All my bones are out of joint.
My heart is like wax, it is melted
in the midst of my bowels.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws.
Thou hast brought me into the dust of
death.
Now, this scripture foreshadowed an audible cry.
Now, this scripture is written by the psalmist
David approximately the year 1018 B.C., and
it's a foreshadowing of an audible cry that
many years later would echo from the very
depths of Christ in the last few torturous
moments before his death on the cross.
Now, Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 15 identifies
Jesus as a high priest who is touched
with the feeling of our infirmities.
And as I was reading these words again,
I was wondering how many thousands since that
day have cried out these very same words.
We know from history, we understand that God
had not forsaken him, but he was touched
with the feelings of our infirmities.
And he had to go through everything that
you and I have to go through because
the scripture says he was tempted in all
points like as we are yet without sin.
And he had to go through that time
of the deep feeling in his heart of
being forsaken, rejected by God, even though he
knew that that forsakenness at that particular moment
was because he had become sin who knew
no sin for us that we might become
the righteousness of God through him.
But how many thousands since that day have
cried out these very same words?
I know that I have cried them out.
And if you're an honest person here today,
I know that you have cried them out
too.
If you have not cried it, yet you've
not perhaps gone as deep yet with God
as God is going to bring you to.
But there comes a time in your life
when you feel all alone.
You've tried to serve God with all your
heart.
You do whatever you feel God is asking
you to do.
You're living as good as you can and
yet he seems so far away.
My God, why have you forsaken me?
I can understand other people forsaking me, but
why has thou forsaken me?
Why are you so far away from me?
Why am I crying so loud and it
seems that you're nowhere to be found?
It seems that you're not even listening to
me.
And if you're anywhere near, you're not even
lifting a finger to help me.
How many have cried these words in moments
of personal despair, feeling alone and fearing most
terribly of all that because of some struggle
in their lives that they have been rejected
by God?
Rejected by God.
I have counseled so many people over the
years that have been trusting Christians.
They have trusted in Christ for their salvation.
They do love God.
They do desire his word.
But they have a struggle in one, two
or more areas, whatever the situation is in
their life.
I don't know how many times that I've
had people meet me in different places or
come in to talk to me and they
have this overwhelming sense that they have been
rejected by God.
The sense that God has put up with
me for so long and he's put up
with my struggling for so long, but certainly
there's got to be a walk-out point
with God.
Certainly there's got to be a time when
God is just going to reject me and
walk out on me.
Now Webster's definition of rejection is to throw
away, to cast off, or refusing to accept
or grant.
To throw away.
That's rejection.
Cast off or refusing to accept.
Now God himself in the Old Testament endorsed
the principle of the separation of and even
the complete rejection of those who despised his
law.
This rejection brought to the people the knowledge
of the severity of sinning against God and
established boundaries of acceptable living and practice.
Now it's all the purpose, the intent, of
God doing this was to bring his people
to the knowledge of their need of a
Savior.
First of all, to define his law, to
define his character by putting away out of
their midst those who despised his law, those
who simply rejected his truth.
Because it was in his heart not only
to dwell among his people, but it was
in the heart of God from the beginning
of time to dwell not only among his
people, but in them and with them and
through them.
That's God's desire for you and for me.
It's not just to dwell among us, but
in us and with us and through us.
The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 1, verse
23, he calls the church his body, the
fullness of him that fills all in all.
Acts 17, 28, Paul in making a defense
of the gospels said to those that were
in his hearing audience, he said, in him
we live and move and have our being.
He's not just among us.
He's in us.
He's with us.
He moves through us.
He has become the very essence of our
life.
We have learned to abide in him.
We walk in him.
And all of what God has done in
the Old Testament is to bring us to
the knowledge of his desire to provide for
us the means through Jesus Christ where he
could come and give us the power and
give us the strength that we might become
the resurrected bride of the Lord Jesus Christ
here on this side of eternity.
That we might know him beyond strictly a
head knowledge of who he is, but we
might know him in intimacy, in pure intimacy.
That he might come and be all and
all within our lives.
And the only way that can happen is
God has to come through the power of
the Holy Spirit and with the revealed word
of God to show us everything in our
hearts that's unlike Christ.
Everything that gets in the way of God
moving in us in the fashion that he
desires to move.
Paul says in Galatians 3.24, the law
was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ
that we might be justified by faith.
We see then that rejection had a purpose.
And so too today there is a rejection
that has a purpose of correction.
A casting off, a putting away, a refusing
to accept.
We employ these methods all the time.
Methods that God himself is not against to
a certain degree.
In our home, for example, we employ the
method of separation.
Our children don't behave.
What do we say to them?
Go to your room.
We're talking about we reject, are we rejecting
our children when we say go to your
room?
No, no.
We're not rejecting our sons and we're not
rejecting our daughters.
There may be a separation from us for
a moment.
They may have to go to another location.
We're not saying I reject you son as
my son or I reject you as my
daughter, I put you away, I cast you
off.
No, we are saying you're still my son,
you're still my daughter, I still love you
as much as I have always loved you,
but I reject your behavior.
I reject your conversation.
I reject the attitude of your heart that's
coming out of your mouth.
Therefore, go to your room.
But yet, remember the admonition that God says
in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4, Fathers, provoke
not your children to wrath, but bring them
up in the nurture and admonition of the
Lord.
Go to your room.
How many of you have heard those words
somewhere down the line in your life?
I know periodically I suppose I did.
Go to your room.
Separation.
Separation, a form of rejection, but not a
rejection of the person, a rejection of the
behavior.
There is time when God will send us
to our room.
I know that's very theologically simple, but it
really does happen.
God says I'm not going to, you want
to be in my presence, you can't bring
that attitude of heart into my presence.
You have a brother or sister that you
refuse to forgive.
You harbor bitterness in your heart.
Therefore, I'm not accepting this.
I'm putting this away, although you are still
my son and my daughter because you love
me, you desire me, you have trusted me.
There's a relationship there that is not going
to be broken.
We often employ the method of silence.
That's not speaking for a while to a
family member who has hurt us in an
unacceptable manner.
I can handle almost anything but silence when
somebody's mad at me.
Yell at me if you want to yell
at me, but I'm an extrovert to a
degree and extroverts have to talk and have
a need to have everything in right balance.
You cannot employ silence against an introvert.
They just love it.
They absolutely love it because they don't want
to talk anyway and they hate sharing their
feelings and so that is an absolute method
that will not work with them.
You want to get under my skin if
you're close to me, just don't talk to
me for a little while and it bothers
me more than anything else.
Ephesians 4 26, remember though, says be angry
and sin not and let not the sun
go down upon your wrath.
Hallelujah.
I remember, oh never mind, I won't tell
you that.
Another method that we employ in the home
is withdrawing from intimate communion.
The husband, for example, comes home late from
work once too often to find his bed
made on the couch.
I know that's happened to some here.
That is designed to correct your behavior.
Remember that the word couch is the word
ouch with a C in front of it.
So the next time husband says you come
home late and you find your bed on
the couch, your wife says C, you go
ouch, couch.
Withdrawing from intimacy, from intimate communion, all of
these now are temporary rejections that are designed
to correct the behavior of one another.
We send our children to the rooms but
they are still our children.
We may not speak to somebody for a
season who has wronged us or harmed us
but they are still our brothers and sisters.
They are still our fathers and mothers.
Nothing has changed in relationship.
There may be a withdrawal of intimacy.
You may find yourself on the couch, spiritually
speaking, saying God, what's happened?
I come into the prayer closet and it's
like the heavens are brass.
I have known such intimacy with you and
all of a sudden that intimacy seems to
be withdrawn.
God, what are you doing?
And oftentimes God allows that to happen.
He has not rejected you.
He has not forsaken you.
Spiritually speaking, and I know this is somewhat
simplistic, but He has put you on the
couch because there is something in your heart.
He has withdrawn that intimacy to cause you
and I to begin to cry out to
Him to say, Lord, what is it that's
in my heart?
What is it that has caused you to
withdraw from that intimacy that I love so
much to share with you?
These are all temporary things.
They come under the title rejection, but it's
only the rejection of behavior and attitude.
It's not the rejection of the person.
And very often, people get those two things
mixed up.
With anything else that sin has touched, however,
what was intended by God to ultimately bring
about good has become over the years a
means of unspeakable hurt and pain to countless
numbers of people who have been the victims
of the wrong use of rejection.
Children.
It breaks my heart when I see the
weeping children that I have known, and no
doubt there are obviously thousands and tens of
thousands more who have been made to feel
hopeless by harsh words of rejection intended to
wound them and not to restore them.
Some of you know that.
You're sitting here today and you come home
and your mother, your father, your guardian, whoever
it was that looked after you spoke words
of absolute death into your life day after
day, told you, you are useless, you are
stupid, you will never amount to anything.
The oft times, I've had children so broken
hearted, they're teenagers and adults come into the
office for counseling and they're having difficulty in
their marriage, for example.
And oft times, when you're talking to people
who have difficulty in their relationship, the difficulty
stems from words that were spoken way, way
back.
A rejection that was spoken into their lives
when they themselves were very young, that there's
never been a full healing of in their
life.
Only Christ can go and pour the oil
of his presence on those wounds, those bruises
in heart that are so deep.
Children that were told by mom and dad,
we don't love you anymore, we wish you
were never born.
Wounds so deep that only God can cure
them.
People that have been hurt in relationships by
the wrong use of rejection.
Unspeakable hurt at the hands of those that
they once looked to and they once trusted.
Nobody can identify more grievously the pain of
rejection than those that have been married perhaps
and come home and thought everything was okay.
Only to find their spouse, their mate with
their bags at the door, perhaps a note
on the tables saying, I'm gone, I don't
love you anymore.
Those are powerful and painful words that put
a wound in the heart that oft times
only God himself can come and heal.
David said it himself in Psalm 55 verses
12 and 13, he said, it was not
an enemy that reproached me that I could
have borne it, but it was you, a
man mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance.
And there are others that have experienced rejection
by society for various reasons having seemingly paid
the penalty but they are not allowed back
in.
I think of prisoners, for example, coming out
of prison, having done their time, wanting to
live right when they get out and oft
times society refuses to let them back in.
Rejected.
When sin and selfishness enter the heart of
any society, rejection becomes a weapon, a wound
and not as intended by God to be
a method to restore.
You remember the Apostle Paul in the Corinthian
church?
There was a man who was caught in
a sexual sin.
And Paul said to the Corinthian church, he
said, why are you not doing anything about
this?
Why are you letting this happen in your
midst?
He said, take that man and put that
evil out of your midst.
And so the Corinthian church did what the
Apostle Paul asked them to do.
But later on, and so he was separated
from his brothers, separated from that fellowship because
of something that had come into his life
that was against the law, the order of
God.
But later on, Paul writes to the church
and says, now go and pursue that brother.
Pursue him lest he be swallowed up of
over much sorrow.
Lest the devil get a hold of him
and destroy him for eternity.
You see, the intent that God has in
any of these temporary separations is to restore,
assuming that the person who is put out
comes to a place of repentance and wanting
to get right with God.
Then he commands us to go out and
to reach out to them and to display
his heart and to restore them.
The wounding of wrong rejection often leaves such
scars that many Christians, even after coming to
the knowledge of their salvation, live with the
constant fear of being rejected by God.
The moment that for whatever reason they fail
to feel his closeness and favor on their
lives, they wrongly assume that Jesus, just like
those before him, has walked out on them.
Folks, I'm speaking to a lot of people
tonight.
The moment, the moment that God begins to
deal in their life, because the roots of
this rejection have never been dealt with, the
moment he begins to answer their prayer because
he loves them, the moment he begins to
reach out to take things out of the
heart that he knows would only lead them
into captivity, the moment they feel any kind
of separation or maybe the preacher gets up
and just his mannerism reminds them of mom
or dad or uncle or whoever it was,
there's a trigger response that happens in them.
There is such a thing called the trigger
response.
The children that have come home for many,
many years and when they walked in the
door, they heard something out of their father's
mouth or their mother's mouth and the moment
these specific words were spoken, the moment they
saw the mannerisms, they knew that they were
in for a very, very hard time.
And a lot of times because that's never
been dealt with, that root of rejection, they
come into the house of God and they're
so distracted perhaps by the mannerisms of the
preacher.
They're so distracted by perhaps the severity of
the deliverance of the word that the trigger
response happening and even though they have been
rooted and grounded in God, they have heard
about the covenant, they've heard about the love
of God, something happens in the soul and
they begin to succumb once again to that
fear that God is going to walk out
on me.
Jesus is just like everybody else.
Tells me he loves me but then points
his finger at me, raises his voice to
me and he's going to walk out on
me when I don't measure up to his
standard.
When I, as I continue in my struggle,
if I don't get everything right in my
life, if I can't conform, he's just going
to walk out on me just like everybody
else has walked out on me before.
Now turn to the book of John please,
chapter 8 in the New Testament.
John chapter 8, verse
3.
And the scribes and Pharisees brought to him
a woman taken in adultery.
And when they had set her in the
midst, they said unto him, Master, this woman
was taken in adultery in the very act.
So here she is, she's caught in her
sin, she's without excuse, she's been completely exposed.
Now Moses in the law commanded us that
such should be stoned, but what sayest thou?
This said they tempting him that they might
have to accuse him.
But Jesus stooped down and with his finger
wrote on the ground as though he heard
them not.
Now I want you to notice something in
this particular passage of scripture.
This woman is caught in the very act.
She's in the light, her sin's exposed.
She's brought to a place of judgment.
Now Jesus allowed the crowd to pick up
their stones and to identify the wrong done.
That's an interesting point.
He could have stopped it at the gate.
He could have stood up as they came
in their murderous procession perhaps.
He could have stopped them right at the
gate and said that's enough, let this woman
go.
He had the authority, he had the power
to stop it right there.
But he didn't.
He let the crowd bring her, press her
to the wall, pick up their stones and
clearly identify the sin that was in her
life.
The writer of Hebrews says it this way
in Hebrews chapter 12 verses 5 and 6.
My son, despise not thou the chastening of
the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked
of him.
For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and
scourges every son whom he receives.
Folks, this is the word of God.
As much as all of the promises that
we have in the word of God that
we have the natural tendency to gravitate to
the promises that make us feel good, there
are other promises.
And one of the promises, if you are
a son, if you are a daughter of
God, he is going to chasten you.
He is going to come and take the
scourge of his word because this is what
he does with every son and daughter that
he receives, the scripture says.
He has already received you and a sign
that you are received by him, that you
are in the beloved, is that he will
scourge you.
And he says don't faint when that happens.
Now a lot of us don't mind the
chastening of God.
You get used to that after a while.
Don't mind the chastening.
It's that conviction of the Holy Spirit when
you speak a word you shouldn't speak, the
Holy Spirit comes down and there's an instantaneous
chastening of God that says that's not my
heart, that's not right.
And we bow our head and say, Lord,
please forgive me for that.
I shouldn't have done things that way.
I shouldn't have spoken that way.
And then if it's in our power to
make it right, we make it right.
But there is a scourging.
I want to remind you that Jesus doesn't
ask us to undergo anything that he didn't
undergo himself.
In the scripture he was tied to a
pillar and he was scourged for our transgressions.
And the scourging was done by two very,
very powerful Roman soldiers who took, they were
sticks with thongs of leather attached to the
stick and tied into the ends of those
thongs of leather were pieces of glass or
pieces of bone or pieces of steel.
And they would take that and with full
force they would flail that across the back
of their intended victim and the stone or
the bone or the glass would dig right
into the flesh.
And then they would reef it back and
when they pulled it back it would pull
strings of, literally strings of flesh and skin
back with it.
Most often times people that underwent Roman scourging
didn't survive it.
And those who did, their backs would be
pressed wide open and oft times, I've read
in medical accounts and historical accounts of scourging,
the very internal organs would be exposed to
the open air.
It was severe.
Now the scripture says he scourges.
That means he comes not just to do
a little, a little deliance around us and
just a little things that he speaks into
our ear here and there but he comes
with his word to go right deep into
the very inner core of who and what
we are to tear out of us those
things that are unlike Christ.
That we might turn to him and as
we turn to him he promises, I will
come, I will restore you.
I will gather you and I will heal
you.
Hallelujah.
Now in this sense we could say to
a point that Jesus was not against what
was happening.
This woman is against the wall.
Her sin is exposed.
He is simply there stooping down writing with
his finger on the ground as if he
is not even concerned.
Here is this woman thinking that her fate
is sealed.
She is about to be sentenced to the
sentence of death.
She is not aware that God himself in
the flesh, God himself manifested through Jesus Christ
is there.
He is the one who has stooped down
writing with his finger on the ground seemingly
to those around indifferent who are not even
caring what is going on.
And yet when the crowd wanted to destroy
her life this is where their intentions and
the intentions of Christ parted.
Hallelujah.
Certainly she saw her sin and was ashamed
and ironically seeing the angry crowd who were
supposedly righteous she probably thought that they had
rightly represented God and that she deserved her
punishment.
But Christ confronts the consciences of those who
themselves needed his mercy.
I am going to ask a question when
I get to heaven.
There are going to be a lot of
questions but I have one in particular.
What were you writing on the ground?
He confronts the consciences of those as he
stands up.
He says when they continued asking him he
lifted up himself and said unto them he
that is without sin among you let him
first cast a stone at her.
Now God, the scripture says He again stooped
down and wrote on the ground.
And they which heard it being convicted by
their own conscience went out one by one
beginning at the eldest even unto the last
and Jesus was left alone and the woman
standing in the midst.
God is now the only one before whom
this broken woman stands.
Psalmist in Psalm 31 verse 22 said for
I said in my haste I am cut
off from before thine eyes.
Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplication
when I cried unto thee.
In verse 10 it says when Jesus had
lifted up himself and saw none but the
woman he said unto her Woman, where are
those thine accusers?
Has no man condemned thee?
She said no man, Lord.
And Jesus said unto her Neither do I
condemn thee.
Go and sin no more.
God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son that whosoever believes in
him should not perish but have everlasting life.
For God did not send his son into
the world to condemn the world but that
the world through him might be saved.
Now go to Romans chapter 8 with me
please in the New Testament.
Romans chapter 8.
In Romans chapter 8 the Apostle Paul in
verse 26 talks about the Spirit of God
helping our weaknesses.
Now this particular instance he's talking about prayer.
He says likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities
for we know not what we should pray
as we ought but the Spirit itself makes
intercession for us with groanings which cannot be
uttered.
Verse 28 he says we know that all
things work together for good to them that
love God who are the called according to
his purpose.
Do you know that everything that God brings
into your life everything he does every word
he sends to your heart is for good.
It's not to reject you.
It's not to put you out of his
presence.
It's that you might be drawn closer into
deeper intimacy with him continuously.
That you might know him that your eyes
of your understanding might be opened that you
might see the exceeding greatness of his glory
where he sits at the right hand of
God.
That you might have an understanding of what
he has done for you.
That your security may not be in the
things of this world.
That you would not be among those who
run in terror when everything that they have
trusted in this world comes falling down around
them.
Everything he does in your life he does
it for good.
For whom he did foreknow verse 29 says
he also did predestinate to be conformed to
the image of his Son.
God has conformed you to be in the
image of his Son Jesus Christ that he
might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover whom he did predestinate then he also
called and whom he called then he also
justified and whom he justified then he also
glorified.
Now Paul asks a very pointed question to
what you have read here and what we
have heard tonight about the love of God
the purpose of his purging why he comes
to cleanse his bride.
What shall we say what shall we then
say to these things if God before us
who can be against us?
If God has declared us righteous if the
cleansing he brings into our lives is because
he desires to draw us closer to him
and to know him the character of his
Son be formed in our lives then who
what lying voice what experience of the past
what devil of hell what erroneous theology formed
through the soulless realm of man what thing
can be against us if God is for
us?
He that spared not his own son but
delivered him up for us all Paul says
how shall he not with him also freely
give us all things?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect?
It is God that justifies.
Who is he that condemns?
It is Christ that died and ye rather
that is risen again who is even at
the right hand of God who also makes
intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of
Christ?
Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine nakedness or peril or
sword as it is written for thy sake
we are killed all the day long we
are counted as sheep for the slaughter nay,
he says in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us
I am persuaded Paul says I am persuaded
and brethren I pray with everything in my
heart tonight that you are persuaded too as
well that neither death nor life nor angels
nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor
things to come nor height nor depth nor
any other creature shall be able to separate
us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord Nothing Convince
you that God because he sees some thing
in your life that he has known all
along Brethren you've got to understand something when
the purging word of God comes to you
it's only news to you when you felt
good when you knew you were saved when
you were walking close to God God saw
it all along it's only news to you
his eyes are like an x-ray machine
there's nothing in you that is hidden from
God he looks down and says this is
my son this is my daughter they are
longing for me they are asking for me
there's a yearning in the heart the soul
of that one for me therefore I will
come down and grant to them that thing
that they have asked of me to do
Hallelujah and God will employ every method that
he needs to employ to get us to
call out to him and cry out to
him he will tell us to go to
our room there will be a period of
silence from time to time he may do
some other things in our life that I've
not mentioned tonight but it's all working together
for good because God loves you he has
written your name down in the Lamb's book
of life and he says I will never
leave you I will never forsake you never
never he said to this woman go and
sin no more your sin has been exposed
you have seen what you deserve for your
sin the just punishment of your sin you
have seen it I've shown it to you
I've allowed you to witness it but now
you have understood the mercy of God understanding
that mercy go and determine to live a
new life and I will be with you
this is the new testament covenant promise of
God determine in your heart to live a
new life determine to be my son determine
to be my daughter bring to me all
of your sin bring to me all of
your struggle bring to me all your trial
bring to me your past bring to me
your future bring to me the places you
stand on right now in your life I
will cleanse your past I will forgive your
sin I will give you strength for today
I'll give you an assurance for tomorrow I
will be with you I will live in
you and through you Jesus said in John
chapter 10 verse 27 and 28 my sheep
hear my voice and I know them and
they follow me and I give to them
eternal life and they shall never perish and
neither shall any man pluck them out of
my hand hallelujah you talk about a promise
of God nobody nobody I'm
not talking tonight to the religious game player
I'm not talking to the one who makes
a mockery of the things of God comes
in and pretends to be holy and goes
out and willfully, willfully goes back and sins
and lives a life a double life that
brings disgrace to the honor and glory of
Christ I'm talking to the honest hearted person
who knows that they're struggling they know that
they're weak they know that they need a
savior they've come to the knowledge of their
sin they've come to Christ for cleansing they've
come to Christ for strength I'm talking to
the honest upright and sincere man and woman
of God that says Lord I bring it
all to you and I trust and I
believe that you will cleanse me I trust
and believe that you will strengthen me you
said to me that you will heal my
blinded eyes you told me you would heal
my wounded heart you said you'd open every
prison door in my life and set me
free you said that if I were poor
in spirit that I would understand the gospel
of the kingdom of almighty God you would
work in my life you would be the
power in my life you'd be the source
of my life you'd be the strength of
my life you'd be my father you'd be
my shepherd my guide all the days of
my life I'll seal
you in my hand he said my father
is greater than I am hallelujah brethren get
this truth into your spirit tonight that when
God begins to purge your life it's not
to reject you it's because he loves you
it's because it's the very thing that you
have desired you've asked him Lord Jesus draw
me draw me draw me draw me draw
me to your side and he says I've
longed for you to say that I've longed
for you to cry out for that therefore
with loving kindness I will draw you I
will draw you tonight there are some that
you've lived with the fear of being forsaken
by God because of an ongoing struggle of
sin in your life I've got a scripture
for you from the prophet Isaiah chapter 54
an ongoing struggle and you've lived with this
fear God oh God you're going to forsake
me Isaiah chapter 54 verse 7 for a
small moment he says have I forsaken thee
but with great mercies will I gather thee
in a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee saith
the Lord thy redeemer verse 10 for the
mountains shall depart and the hills be removed
but my kindness shall not depart from thee
neither shall the covenant of my peace be
removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on
thee oh thou afflicted tossed with the tempest
and not comforted behold I will lay thy
stones with fair colors and lay thy foundation
with sapphires I will make thy windows of
agates and thy gates of carbuncles and all
thy borders of pleasant stones in other words
the Lord is saying you come to me
I will rebuild your life in the power
of the Holy Ghost and all your struggles
I will take them and turn them into
triumph and they will be a wonderful testimony
to the delivering power of almighty God in
your life and verse 17 he says no
weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper
no weapon and every tongue that shall rise
against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn thou
shalt condemn that tongue that rises and says
God is going to forsake you that voice
that comes to you when the word comes
and you begin to see where you fall
short in some area of your life and
where God is working and that voice that
rises up and says God is going to
walk out on you Christ is just like
everybody else in your life every tongue that
rises against you in judgment you shall condemn
it this is the heritage of the servants
of the Lord and their righteousness is of
me saith the Lord you have the right
to take that tongue by the throat literally
and say I condemn this lying voice in
the name of Jesus Christ my Lord and
Savior who died for me and gave his
life for me he has blotted out all
my transgressions I stand not in my own
righteousness therefore you can't condemn me I stand
in the righteousness of my Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ he is my righteousness hallelujah if
you've been living with unrepentant and unconfessed sin
chapter 55 verse 7 is for you let
the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous
man his thoughts and let him return unto
the Lord and he will have mercy on
him and to our God for he will
abundantly pardon let the wicked forsake his way
and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let
him return to the Lord and he will
have mercy on him now go to Isaiah
chapter 49 I want to close with this
tonight I have a question God's put on
my heart have you lived with the fear
of God's rejection of you because you didn't
know if you could trust his love I
know that God has spoken to me this
week and I know that the Holy Spirit
is speaking to many many hearts here tonight
you have not ever had an assurance that
you could trust his love and you've lived
with the fear that he is going to
reject you if you don't measure up because
of past experience in your life Isaiah chapter
49 let's let the word destroy this verse
14 but Zion said the Lord has forsaken
me and my Lord has forgotten me can
a woman forget her sucking child that she
should not have compassion on the son of
her womb yea they may forget yet will
I not forget thee behold I have graven
thee on the palms of my hands thy
walls are continually before me Hallelujah this is
what Jesus is saying to you and I
tonight he took an engraving tool made of
steel perhaps like a nail and he engraved
your name literally in the palms of his
hands he died for you he said others
all around you may have been forgotten by
your mother you may have been forgotten by
your father, your brother, your sister you may
have been abused, whatever the situation is he
said they may forget but I will never
forget you I have engraved you on the
palms of my hands and your walls are
continuously before me Psalm 22 where we started
this evening starts out by saying my God,
my God, why hast thou forsaken me why
art thou so far from the words of
my roaring but in verse 24 the psalmist
brings about a turn, a conclusion he says
for he has not despised or abhorred the
affliction of the afflicted and neither has he
hid his face from him but when he
cried to him he heard he heard when
you cried to him he heard and he
has come to answer you and folks you
know what he is going to do in
your life he is going to raise you
from the dead spiritually speaking here on this
side of eternity he is going to give
you life for all the death that has
been in your life in many cases for
a lot of years he is going to
give you life if you should die before
he returns he is going to literally physically
raise you from the dead to be his
bride he is never going to reject you
don't fear the word of God when he
brings his word to your heart father tonight
I have delivered your heart to these people
that you love, your bride, your body, your
beloved tonight I pray tonight Lord that everyone
who is lost in this house without an
assurance of eternity would come to Christ I
ask you father tonight by the anointing of
the Holy Spirit that those who are backslidden
would come home understanding that you will with
great joy meet a sincere and repentant heart
I pray tonight father by your written word
by those things that have been spoken that
you would virtually crush that lying voice that
comes to many because of past experience when
you begin to dig deep into their life
that you are going to walk out on
them you are going to forsake them I
ask you this altar tonight that there be
a deliverance from the fear of being rejected
by almighty God we have heard your word
now tonight father give us the hearts to
respond to it in Jesus name the Holy
Spirit has spoken to you tonight I firmly
believe that as we pray at this altar
tonight if that is you that God is
going to break the fear the fear of
being rejected you are going to overcome it
tonight by God himself if God has spoken
to your heart let's stand together up in
the balcony you can go to either exit
and come down to this altar in the
main sanctuary please just slip out wherever you
are come to this altar we are going
to pray together and let's believe God for
a mighty miracle in your life tonight Hallelujah
God loves you with an everlasting love it's
not a temporary thing like man's love it's
not conditional an everlasting love just come to
him with an honest and sincere heart Hallelujah
I can't feel all of your pain I
can see it on your faces many of
you but God does and he understands he's
touched with the feeling of your infirmity and
I'm going to believe right now that as
I pray that he's going to heal you
because he said the spirit of the Lord
is upon me because he has sent me
and he mentioned several things but he said
to heal those that have been bruised in
heart and I'm going to pray a prayer
and I want you to receive that healing
tonight by faith just receive it if you
need to forgive and you have not forgiven
those that have wronged you then you make
sure you do that in your heart as
I pray this prayer and let go those
that have wronged you in the home, in
society, in relationships whatever it might be those
that have improperly misused your life Jesus no
I want to pray for you just let
me pray for you Jesus I come to
you tonight God I can't heal these people
no man can there are some wounds that
are so deep some hearts that are so
grievous that you have to come and Lord
I believe that you sent your word tonight
to do that and you say that you
never send your word without accomplishing its intended
purpose now Holy Spirit I ask right now
in Jesus name I curse every tongue that
rises against these precious ones in judgment I
curse the voices of the past I curse
every demonic lie even those things that many
have begun to believe about themselves who say
how could anybody love me the way I
am Lord you love us with an everlasting
love you didn't come to call the righteous
you came to call sinners to you God
we thank you for that knowledge today now
I ask oh Lord that you sovereignly by
your Holy Spirit plant within the hearts of
these who have gathered here tonight an understanding
that they are loved by almighty God this
is not a conditional love like man's love
this is not a love of convenience Lord
you came to this earth and died a
horrible death that you might have a relationship
a saving relationship with each of these who
have responded to this altar tonight God I
thank you for reaching down in the power
of the Holy Ghost and healing the bruised
hearts healing those memories healing those experiences of
the past that cause a mistrust of even
you in this present day Lord you are
not like these other things we declare that
with our hearts we declare it with our
voices tonight you are not like the experiences
of our past you are so far above
you are so much higher your love is
so much greater God I read in your
word that perfect love casts out fear so
I ask now that you come and fill
every heart with the perfect love which is
Christ fill every heart fill those places fill
the wounds fill the empty places in every
heart and every life with the knowledge of
Christ perfect love casts out fear oh God
we thank you tonight for doing this I
thank you from the depths of my heart
for opening prison doors and setting captives free
in this house tonight I thank you that
the voice of the condemner is damned and
crushed under the feet send
your word we are not afraid to hear
from you for we know that you love
us we know that all things work together
for good we know that you have a
plan not just here but for all of
eternity for each one of our lives so
we say unto you tonight thy kingdom come
thy will be
done hallelujah turn to the person beside you
at the altar those that are everywhere say
God is going to see me through to
the end of this thing he's going to
see me through he's not going to fail
me he's not going to forsake me he's
going to walk with me all the way
through to the end hallelujah hallelujah