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If you'll turn with me in your Bibles,
the Old Testament, the book of Esther, Chapter
3.
Find Psalms, and then go back to Job,
one more book, and then one after that
is Esther.
Esther, Chapter 3.
I'm going to be looking today at the
journey from prayer to obedience.
The journey from prayer to obedience.
Now let's pray together.
Lord Jesus, thank you for your presence.
Lord, if we don't have your presence, we
have nothing.
We are relegated to ideas about you, but
they're powerless ideas.
Lord, thank you that you have chosen to
abide here.
Thank you, God, that you have chosen to
abide in every heart that's open to you,
in every heart that wants to obey you.
God, I'm asking today that you would anoint
me.
I'm insufficient, Lord, to speak this word that
you've given me.
I need the touch of heaven today.
And I'm asking you to quicken my mind
and heart, physical body, and take this which
you've given to me and multiply it.
And quicken it, O God, that I may
speak it clearly and that every heart in
this house and everyone who hears this message
in the days to come may understand what
you're calling your people to be.
Lord, I thank you for the anointing.
Break every yoke of darkness.
Cast away fear from our hearts.
Give us the love of God for every
fallen person in this world.
Give us an understanding of the incredible depth
of your resource and your willingness to supply
our lack.
God, I thank you for what you're going
to do today.
Lord, I love you.
We love you as your people.
Speak to us now.
We ask this believing in Jesus' name.
Esther chapter 3, the journey from prayer to
obedience, beginning at verse 9.
If it please the king, let it be
written that they may be destroyed.
And I will pay 10,000 talents of
silver to the hands of those that have
the charge of the business to bring it
into the king's treasuries.
And the king took his ring from his
hand and gave it to Haman, the son
of Hamathathah, the Agagite, the Jew's enemy.
And the king said unto Haman, the silver
is given to thee and the people also
to do with them as it seemeth good
to thee.
Then were the king's scribes called on the
13th day of the first month, and there
was written according to all that Haman had
commanded unto the king's lieutenants and to the
governors that were over every province and to
the rulers of every people of every province,
according to the writing thereof, and to every
people after their language.
In the name of King Ahasuerus was it
written and sealed with the king's ring.
And the letters were sent by post into
all the king's provinces to destroy, to kill,
and to cause to perish all Jews, both
young and old, little children and women, in
one day, even upon the 13th day of
the twelfth month, which is the month Adar,
and to take a spoil of them for
a prey.
Now the book of Esther is written between
the first return of Jewish exiles from Babylon
and Persia to Jerusalem in 538 B.C.
and the second return led by Ezra in
457 B.C. It's at this time that
the events that are recorded in the book
of Esther happened.
You know that after the Babylonian captivity, the
Medo-Persian empire conquered the empire of Babylon.
We spoke about it last week.
A king was fore-raised actually by God.
That means he was foretold before he was
even born that his name would be Cyrus.
You find that in the book of Isaiah.
And he wrote a decree releasing all the
Jews who were in captivity, who wanted to
go back again and rebuild the ruins of
the place of God's promise.
Surprisingly, for the number of people that were
in captivity, of course a lot of them
were born in captivity, and they just simply
chose to stay there.
It was comfortable, and I would imagine that
many of the people had formed alliances, relational
alliances, and they had formed financial obligations and
such like, and so because of it they
chose to stay in this place that had
once been, and in small measure I suppose
still continued to be, their place of captivity.
And in retrospect, when we look back, the
amount of people that headed out initially to
rebuild was very small in comparison to the
numbers that actually were living at that time
in the now Medo-Persian empire.
I think it has an application to today.
There is a great call of scripture that
you and I are to respond to Christ,
and we are to let our lack be
filled absolutely by His resource.
We are to be raised up to be
a testimony to a fallen world that in
reality God Almighty is alive, that His Son
did die by the power of the Holy
Ghost, He was raised from the dead, He
now sits at the right hand of all
authority and power, and the rebuilding as it
is of the fallen down places in our
lives are to be a testimony of that.
The call of the Christian is to press
in to the promises of God and to
lay hold of them by faith.
Knowing full well there is nothing we can
do to change the ruin.
We are in a sense indelibly stamped by
our culture, we are stamped by our whole
upbringing, the society and everything around us, and
of course by what we have become apart
from God.
But God says, I will come in if
you call out to me and I will
override the ruin, and I will enable you
to build, and you will build a temple
that has a greater glory actually than any
form of glory that you ever knew.
I'm going to come into your life and
I'm going to make you something that you
could never be in your own strength.
Now there are only really a few that
respond to that call.
Today we have multitudes of people sitting in
the house of God all over the world,
and sad to say, as in this day
of Esther, there really are a lot of
people who will acknowledge this is true, Christ
is risen, Christ sits at the right hand
of glory, all power is given to him,
he can take and make anybody into whatever
he has called them to be and there
is an acknowledgement.
They will go to Bible studies, they will
go to prayer meetings, they will learn about
these things, but so few will actually get
up and say, God, use me to rebuild
the ruin.
First in my life, and secondarily the ruin
of this society that's all around me.
Use me, I surrender my life as a
living sacrifice for your purposes.
Take me, mold me, make me, shape me,
send me.
Wherever you would have me go and whatever
you would have me to do, God, I
yield my life to your purposes.
Tell me when, has anybody ever done anything
that is recorded in history that was great
for the name of Jesus Christ who has
not had this heart?
When has a haphazard Christian ever risen up
and just sort of stumbled as it is
into the glory of God?
No, beloved, it doesn't happen that way.
There is a determination in the heart.
It's a man, a woman, it's a young
person, it's an older man or woman who
just is sitting in the presence of God,
and all of a sudden the revelation comes
like it came to Jonathan.
When Saul's whole army is trembling on the
hillside, Jonathan says, Hey, it doesn't matter to
God whether it's by many or by few.
If God has determined the victory, let's get
up and let's go and let's fight.
Let's bring glory back to the name of
God.
Let's bring honor to His name.
It's not in our strategy.
It's not in our battle plan.
It's in the surrendered vessel in the hand
of God, that God empowers and makes much
more than he could ever be or she
could ever be in their natural strength.
He takes our little offering and multiplies it,
and through it brings deliverance and feeding oftentimes
to thousands and thousands who would never know
about God were there not somebody somewhere who
just rose up and said, Lord, I believe
you, and I give my life to you.
You see, it's in this place of complacency
that suddenly an enemy seemingly triumphed.
A wicked man, the Bible says, whose name
was Haman, who got into authority and power
in this kingdom, introduced into this entire kingdom
a law which permitted the enemies of God's
heritage to spoil and destroy them.
A law suddenly comes.
It's incredible when you, it's a type really
in a sense of what happened in the
Garden of Eden.
Man was dwelling in the presence of God.
Adam and Eve were living in that abundant
provision and presence, but they began to dwell
carelessly in that place, and they began to
look at the things that were forbidden and
to take them and taste them.
And because of it, their eyes were open
and they knew evil.
And the devil, who was the most subtle
of all of the creation that God had,
he introduced into the human race a law
which permitted our enemies to despoil and destroy
us.
There is a law that's at work in
you right now to destroy you.
Paul, put a marker in Esther and go
to Romans, please.
Romans chapter 7, where Paul spoke about this
law that's at work in us.
It's at work in you, it's at work
in me right now.
Romans chapter 7, verse 15.
Now here's the law that was introduced by
the devil himself into humanity.
Romans 7, verse 15, where Paul says, For
that which I do, I allow not.
For what I would, that do I not.
But what I hate, that do I.
Here's the law.
Paul says, If then I do that which
I would not, I consent to the law
that it is good.
Now then it's no more I that do
it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
For I know that in me that is
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing.
For the will is present with me, but
how to perform that which is good I
find not.
For the good that I would, I do
not.
But the evil that I would not, that
I do.
Now if I do that I would not,
it's no more I that do it, but
sin that dwelleth in me.
I find then, he says in verse 21,
a law.
That when I would do good, evil is
present with me.
For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man.
But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, to
bring me into captivity to the law of
sin which is in my members.
Now Paul called it law in verse 23.
He said that it literally wraps itself around
the makeup of his physical body.
He said there's a law that's been introduced
into my life.
And this law causes me to have no
power over my enemies.
This I will to do.
Now he's talking about the state of a
man who's not yet regenerated by the Spirit
of God.
But he said it causes me to want
to do, but where to find the resource
I don't know.
I delight after the law of God.
I come to the house of God and
in my mind I hear these incredible truths
and I do want to do them.
But where do I find the power?
How do I escape this nature that's in
me, this law?
It's like a law of gravity per se.
I try to leap into the glorious life
of Christ, but I end up coming crashing
down time and again.
It's wrapped in my very physical makeup.
And it seems that I'm incapable of fighting
against it.
And this is exactly, in Esther, the chapter
we began in, this is exactly what the
people felt when this law was introduced.
This law of death, this law of slaughter,
this law that gave the enemies of God's
people the power over them to take what
they had and to kill their children and
to spoil them.
In other words, any increase that had come
into their life, the enemy now was given
power not only to kill and steal and
destroy, but to take all the increase.
And chapter 4, verse 3 shows us the
response in the book of Esther.
It says, And in every province, whithersoever the
king's commandment and his decree came, there was
great mourning among the Jews, and fasting, and
weeping, and wailing, and many lay in sackcloth
and ashes.
Now, can you imagine this for a moment?
There were 127 provinces in the Medo-Persian
Empire.
It stretched from India to Ethiopia.
All of these people wanting to fight for
their lives and fight for their families and
friends, but having no courage, no resources, and
no authority to fight.
The law comes, and the immediate response is
weeping and wailing.
It's all types of despair, sackcloth and ashes
falling off, as it is falling on their
faces with no power to stand up against
their enemies.
And this is always the way of those
who are called by the name of God,
and yet have become comfortably intermixed with the
ways of the world around them.
They fail to see that their strength is
being slowly taken away.
It is only my opinion, but I am
of the opinion, that many of these people
didn't rise up and go back to rebuild
the fallen kingdom of God, the land of
promise.
You see, everything in the Jewish life centered
around Jerusalem, and it's almost inconceivable that they
wouldn't get up and go back and become
part of the rebuilding of the disgrace, as
it were, that had become of the people
of God.
But they were intermixed.
And because they were intermixed, the enemy rose
up against them, and they failed to see
in this intermixing that their strength was slowly
leaving them, so that when the law finally
was introduced one more time, they had no
power to fight.
They were powerless.
They had the history, the tradition, they had
the name of Jehovah God on their lips,
but they were powerless, powerless to stand up
and fight this enemy that was going to
destroy their homes.
It reminds me of Samson, this mighty man
of God, who's called to deliver his people.
He's called to be a standing symbol of
this enduring and abiding strength of God.
But he began to compromise, and he began
to play in places where he shouldn't be.
He began to touch things he shouldn't touch.
He defied the authority of his parents and
those who were around him, and began to
be led by his own lusts.
Yet, when the enemies would come around him,
he would shake himself and rise up, and
seemingly was as strong as he always had
been, and became comfortable in this intermixing that
had gotten into his life, unaware that his
strength was slowly, slowly being taken away from
him.
And finally, one day, in his own foolishness,
he gave away the source of his strength.
When he said to this woman, Delilah, that
was being used by the devil to try
to take his strength away, who was causing
him to sleep on her knees time and
again, he said, I've been a Nazarite from
the womb.
I've been set apart from my mother's womb
for the things of God.
See, that was the source of his strength.
That is always the source of the Christian
strength.
It's not that I have a history, or
I'm big or strong, or I'm better at
some things than other people.
No, here's the source of my strength.
I've been set apart for God from the
day of my mother's womb.
In Beloved, it has a similar application to
you and I.
From the day that you were born again
by the Spirit of God, from the day
that you repented of your sins, and the
Spirit of God came upon you, just like
Samson, you and I are set apart now
for God.
We are set apart for the purposes of
God, for the will of God, for the
glory of God, to show the strength of
God to a fallen generation.
This was Samson's purpose in life.
And he said, my hair has not been
cut, I've been separate.
This is the sign of my separation.
And of course, when the separation was taken
away, Samson's strength died.
Recently, in the news, we've had a Super
Bowl just passed.
And in the Super Bowl, there was an
act, apparently, and in this act, a woman
bared part of her upper body.
And because of that, there's outrage.
Outrage, of course, it's a face-saving outrage,
Beloved, you have to understand.
It's such hypocrisy, it's unreal.
But there's outrage that this kind of thing
could happen when our children supposedly were watching
this.
How could we allow this to happen to
our children?
I read a couple of articles this week
in different newspapers, and one of the authors,
these are secular authors, said, what's wrong with
our society?
Firstly, why are we letting immoral, self-centered,
wicked people lead us?
Why are they defining our culture?
And what business do they even have in
a sporting event?
Whatever happened to the high school marching band?
And secondly, we're outraged at the bearing of
a body part, but how come nobody's concerned
about the sadomasochistic clothing that was being worn
in that particular production?
One of the authors of an article went
to the store where this was bought, and
it's so disgusting what these particular aspects of
clothing that this young lady was wearing represent,
that I cannot speak it from this pulpit.
Everything that she was wearing had a meaning.
There are paraphernalia that are purchased and bought
by people who equate sexuality with violence, and
pleasure with pain.
And this was the garb that she was
wearing.
How come people are allowed to grope themselves
in each other, in evident sexual posturing on
television, and everybody's okay with this?
Everybody's all right with it.
There'd be not a Ewan cry were it
not have gone the extra step of bearing
a body part.
And how about the millions of professing Christians
who stayed home from church because this form
of entertainment meant more to them than worshiping
God?
How come?
How about them?
All the Christians who are sitting now, and
I can just picture all the sermons that
happened either today, or maybe will be happening
tomorrow, or whatever.
But I can just picture all the sermons
about how obvious and disgusting by all the
pastors in America who canceled their Sunday night
service so that people could watch football.
Do we dare even take it a step
further and ask why?
That Sunday evening services are now on the
decline to the point where they're almost non
-existent in America anymore.
Do we take it a step further and
ask why prayer meetings are becoming infrequent, unfocused,
and powerless?
Do we take it the final step and
ask why the church has almost lost its
voice?
Why is it that it's the secular writers
now that are the only voices for morality
left seemingly in the Western world?
Nobody even looks to the church anymore.
The church is like a Samson.
The church has lost her separation to the
purposes of God.
The church's voice is almost non-existent.
A laughing stock, powerless, because of the intermixture
of God's people with the society all around.
And I tell you, beloved, introduced into the
midst of all this is a law.
God says, I will not be mocked.
I will not be mocked by this mixture.
There will be a law introduced giving the
enemies of God's people power over them.
The law of sin and death begins to
work.
Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6, 16, what
agreement has the temple of God with idols?
You are the temple of the living God.
And God has said, I will dwell in
them and walk in them, and I will
be their God, and they shall be my
people.
He says, wherefore, come out from among them
and be separate, says the Lord, and touch
not.
That means, touch not the unclean thing, and
I will receive you.
Now, touch not.
Here's what it means.
It means handling an object as to exert
a modifying influence upon it or oneself.
When he says, touch not, it means basically,
don't have any other gods before me.
Now, don't misunderstand me.
I'm not opposed to watching a football game.
But I am opposed to it when it
begins to be idolatry in the hearts of
God's people.
I am opposed to this god of sports
that has risen up in the western world,
that is finally, by God's grace, coming crashing
down from college sports right through to professional
sports.
We're starting to see the rot that is
infused in the middle of it.
He talks about not touching something when it
gets to the point that it's exerting a
modifying influence on you.
It's changing your character.
It's moving your focus from God.
You are gripping it to the point where
it's become an idol.
He says, if you do, I'll be a
father to you.
In other words, I'll be revealed to you
as one in which you can have faith.
And you should be my sons and daughters,
says the Lord Almighty.
If you will separate yourself from these things,
I will reveal myself to you as the
Lord who is all-ruling, absolute, and the
universal sovereign.
God says, if you will separate yourself from
me, I will show you who I am.
I will come to you.
I will give you the power to tread
on your enemies.
I will cause you to stand.
I will infuse your mind with truth.
Faith will begin to open up in your
heart.
And the separation unto me...
Now, you have to understand something.
There is a separation which is pure legality.
And this is not what God is talking
about.
It's a separation of the heart.
It's not about walking around every day worrying
about doing this and doing that.
It's a separation of the heart.
It's the man or woman that says, God,
I want to be separate for you, for
your purposes.
I'm tired of your church being powerless.
I'm tired, oh God, of people dying in
my neighborhood, in my family, in the workplace.
And everywhere I go, the law of sin
is destroying people by the hundreds and thousands.
And I seemingly have no voice in the
midst of it.
I'm tired of it, God.
I'm called to speak for you.
I'm called to stand for you.
I'm called to be a physical living display
of the fact that Jesus Christ has risen
from the dead.
My life is to be indisputable evidence that
there is a God.
Whatever it takes.
The time is too short now for games.
Christ is coming.
Difficult days are ahead for all of the
world.
And the call of God is going on
once more to His church.
Come out from among them and be separate
to me, says the Lord.
I will show you who I am.
I'll lead you in paths of righteousness.
I will do in you what only God
Almighty Himself can do.
I will satisfy you.
You won't need to run to things for
satisfaction.
You won't find your sense of destiny or
fulfillment in them.
You will find it in me.
Because you will see me.
I will reveal myself to you as Almighty
God.
Hallelujah.
In Esther chapter 4, the call comes to
Esther to be identified with the people of
God.
And motivated in spite of personal peril to
move forward for the good of others.
Esther was the queen.
But she was also a Jewish.
And in her mind, no doubt, there was
difficulty come.
But she was in a very comfortable position.
And I feel that she just felt quite
simply like the rest of us do from
time to time.
If I just keep my mouth shut, everything
will be fine.
I've been blessed and God has led me.
I've found favor and I'm in the king's
court.
But her uncle Mordecai, a righteous man, came,
sent a message to her in verse 13.
He said, Esther, think not with thyself that
thou shall escape in the king's house more
than all the Jews.
For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at
this time, then there shall enlargement and deliverance
arise to the Jews from another place.
But thou and thy father's house shall be
destroyed.
And who knoweth whether thou come to the
kingdom for such a time as this?
He said, go gather.
Then Esther bade them return Mordecai this answer.
Go gather all the Jews that are present
in Shushan and fast ye for me.
And neither eat nor drink three days, night
or day.
And I also and my maidens will fast
likewise.
And so will I go in unto the
king, which is not according to the law.
And if I perish, I perish.
Esther said, yes, I am living in comfort.
But there is a higher law than living
for myself.
I might survive, but people around me are
perishing.
And so she called together and said, I
want everybody around me to fast for three
days.
And at the end of the three-day
fast, I'm going to go into the king.
And I'm going to beg him for mercy
for my people.
You see, it was unlawful to come into
the presence of the king without an invitation.
It had been 30 days since her last
invitation into the king's presence.
If he did not hold out the golden
scepter to her, she would be immediately put
to death.
And she knew it.
And so Esther chose to obey.
Esther chose to fast.
But there was a journey after the fast
that she had to undertake.
It's wonderful that we fast as a church.
It's wonderful that we take time to pray.
But there is a perishing world out around
us.
And for everyone who can hear it today,
there is a journey that we must take
beyond the fast.
There's a place that we must go.
It's a place where God calls us, a
place of obedience.
She gathered together.
And the end result in chapter 8 is
that the enemy was overthrown.
Now, a very interesting thing happened.
The Bible tells us clearly that the law
of the Medes and Persians, you remember Daniel,
it could not be altered.
Once the law was signed into effect, it
stayed into effect.
There is a law of sin and death
at work in you and I and all
of humanity.
And that law, in effect, is still in
effect.
If you turn away from God, you'll find
out very quickly that law is still active.
When you came to Christ.
What happened in the day of Esther is
what happens for the Christian when we come
to Christ.
It is not the removal of the existing
law, but rather the introduction of a new
law to the people which changed their position
and gave them courage to stand and fight.
Amazing when you see it.
Not a putting away of the old law,
but an introduction of a higher law, a
new law.
And a new law was sent out to
all the provinces, 127, wherein the king granted
the Jews which were in every city to
gather themselves together and to stand for their
life.
To destroy, to slay, to cause to perish
all the power of the people in the
province that would assault them, both little ones
and women, and take the spoil of them
for a prey.
That all the Jews, verse 13, should be
ready against that day to avenge themselves of
their enemies.
Thanks be to God.
Go with me to Romans chapter 2 very,
very quickly.
I want to show you something.
Romans chapter 8, rather.
The apostle Paul talks about this new law.
There is a new law.
It already has been enacted.
Now, it's a choice that we have to
either move towards it or to stay in
our old powerless position.
The people in Esther's day received this new
law which overrode the old law.
They were both in effect, but the new
law had a higher authority than the old
one.
And the new law said, you don't have
to get up off your face.
You can now fight.
You now have resources.
Now, the resource was nothing more than a
law.
Amazing when you think of it.
But when that understanding came into their minds,
the Jews rose up and said, hey, we
have been given authority to fight.
We don't have to lie down and die
in this place.
We don't have to let our enemies trample
our families and our loved ones and spoil
us.
And spoil everything that God wants to do
in our lives.
There's a new law that's been issued that's
given us the power to stand up and
fight for our loved ones.
And fight for the glory and fight for
the honor of God.
There is a new law.
Paul says in Romans 8-2, the law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has made me free from the law of
sin and death.
Paul said, there's a new law.
It's a higher law.
I've been given life by the power of
God.
And I am now free from this law
of sin and death.
I'm free, assuming that I'm separated to the
purposes of God.
I am free now to know the life
of Christ.
I am free from the passions of my
flesh.
I'm free from the weaknesses of my own
carnal being and my own natural mind.
I'm brought into the supernatural life of Jesus
Christ.
Almighty God has taken up residence in my
heart and in my life.
And a new law has come into my
life.
No longer do I have to bow down
and cower before my enemies.
No longer do I have to wonder if
God is going to work on my behalf.
There has been a law written in my
heart.
God penciled it there with His own hand.
Romans 8-11, He said, But if the
Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from
the dead dwell in you, He that raised
up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth
in you.
He makes me free from the law of
sin and death and He quickens our mortal
bodies.
In other words, He brings death in us
to life again.
He gives us resurrection power.
He raises us out of weakness and confusion
and foolishness and brings us into the strength
of God.
Verse 13, Paul says, If you live after
the flesh, you shall die.
But if through the Spirit you demortify the
deeds of the body, you shall live.
This new law of life in Christ gives
me power to mortify the deeds of my
body.
Thanks be to God.
Thanks be to God if we can ever
get a hold of it.
I don't have to be led by the
deeds of my body.
That's why God says, Be separate unto Me.
Be separate unto Me.
There's a life awaiting you that you don't
understand when you're intermixed with the people of
the world.
Come out from among them.
Be separate.
There is a life.
There's a law of life in Christ that
is yours.
It's your inheritance.
It will take you higher and farther than
anything this world could ever offer you.
Romans 8.14, he says, For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God,
they are the sons of God.
This law of life in Christ leads me
from victory to victory.
Victory to victory.
I don't go from victory to defeat.
It's victory to victory.
Even if I stumble, God picks me up
and turns my stumbling into a victory for
His honor and for His glory.
Romans 8.31, 32, Paul says, What shall
we then say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be
against us?
He that spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all, how shall
He not with Him also freely give us
all things?
In verse 37, he says, And all these
things were more than conquerors through Him that
loved us.
I'm persuaded 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.
The law of life in Christ gives me
a faith that enables me to conquer through
the power of God's love.
Conquer fear which wants to dominate my heart
and life.
To conquer the powerlessness that the enemy wants
to convince me and convince you will always
be part of your life.
The law of love in Christ causes me
to be drawn out of compromise.
Drawn out of everything that occupies my heart
and mind.
And drawn to Him because deep in my
heart I can say, God, I love you.
I love you with all my heart, my
soul, my mind and my strength.
I love you, O God.
And that love for you has caused your
love to be formed in me.
And now I have a passion to see
your people one more time glorify you.
One more time rise out of the ash
heap of the enemy's plans and attack.
One more time rebuild the glorious temple of
praise that your church is supposed to be
to your name.
Hallelujah.
There are numerous victories waiting to be won
today.
The Holy Spirit clearly showed this to me
this week.
There are numerous victories, wonderful victories that are
just waiting to be won.
But first, there has to be someone who
is born for this time, who is willing
to be separate and identified with God and
His people.
Somebody has to rise up.
Somebody has to go in.
At the risk of personal loss, to find
the favor of God on behalf of those
who cannot fight for themselves.
It could be a businessman, who at the
risk of his own future, will first ask
God and then his or her bosses for
favor to begin a Bible study or a
prayer meeting among his co-workers.
A businessman, a businesswoman who just says, Look
what's happening around me.
Look at the despair, the lies, the deceiving.
Look at the law of death at work.
And I'm so intermixed with the people that
I have no authority.
I have no voice.
But I'm tired of it.
I'm going to fast.
I'm going to pray.
I'm going to ask God for a mandate.
And then I'm going to go in to
those in authority and say, I want to
start a Bible study here.
I want to start a Bible study because
people are dying.
I want to start a Bible study because
marriages are falling apart.
I want to start a Bible study because
traitors and insiders don't know the difference between
what is true and what is a lie
anymore.
I want to start a Bible study because
people have lost their moorings and don't understand
what God could do for them.
It's the man, it's the woman that finally
says, in spite of the personal cost to
me.
Esther said, if you fast with me for
three days, I will go in and if
I die, I die.
And thanks be to God, if I die
and it means separation to the purposes of
God, then it's a glorious death.
No matter what kind of a form it's
going to take.
Whether it's a death to my ambition or
my future or my plans as I see
them.
But certainly it'll be death to my being
intermixed with the ways of this world.
It's the teacher who finally says, I've had
enough.
I've just had enough of the death that's
around me.
And cowering all day under this supposed wicked
law.
This law that is enabling the enemy to
steal and kill and rob and destroy.
It's a teacher that says, by God's grace,
I'm going to fast.
And I'm going to go in and I'm
going to seek the favor of those in
authority to start a Bible study among my
peers.
It's the construction worker who does the same.
It's the student, like one of our young
people who just last year said, I'm so
tired of all the destruction in my school
and just began to stand at the flagpole
every morning and pray.
And that turned into a mini revival in
that school eventually.
But that young person was willing to just
take that first step all alone every morning,
standing at the flagpole.
And the first to approach them were just
out of curiosity.
Others came and gave their lives to Christ.
Even a teacher, I believe, joined them in
prayer, began to join them in prayer in
the morning.
And before you know it, it turned into
a Christian club within that high school.
It's the neighbor who looks out his window
and says, God, I'm tired of seeing the
devil destroy all these street corner teens.
I'm tired of the destruction.
I'm even more tired of not having a
voice among them.
I'm more tired of being powerless to speak
a word that can bring them back to
life again.
God, let it begin with me.
Let the separation come into my life now.
Separate me for your purposes.
It's the police officer that says, I'm tired
of watching my fellow officers go down the
drain.
I'm tired of watching their marriages destroyed.
I'm tired of watching them given over to
alcohol and depression.
I'm tired of it.
God, separate me now.
Separate me and call me.
Show me what to do and give me
the courage to do it.
And if I perish, I perish.
I feel the Holy Spirit calling us to
a fast.
The first week of March.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
A three day fast.
Where we will eat no solid food but
only drink liquids.
And in that fast, we're going to pray.
Everybody who attends is going to pray.
And say, God, set me apart.
Show me what you would have me to
do.
This is a wicked time.
This is an evil generation.
In this time of fasting, I feel we're
going to be spending nights.
And there will be an open microphone here
where people can pray.
And we will agree with you for your
situation.
What it is you believe in God to
do through your life.
We're going to spend time.
We will call businessmen, businesswomen out of the,
those that will be attending.
And the elders of this church will be
anointing you with oil.
We'll pray over you.
A prayer of faith and ask for divine
favor.
We're going to be calling teachers, construction workers,
students, neighbors, police officers.
Everybody that's attending.
We'll be anointing.
We'll be praying.
This is a desperate hour.
And God wants to do something so beyond
us.
Wants to raise up a generation that will
go beyond prayer to obedience.
A separated people for God.
Our cry will be, Lord Jesus, show your
glory one more time.
Show your glory in my neighborhood.
Show your glory in my workplace.
But oh God, show it through my life.
Make a difference through me.
I have known this favor.
I have understood it over the years.
Years ago, we were attempting to obey God
and establish a church in a very, very
dark and depressed area in Canada.
And the local priests were putting us out
of virtually every building that we would occupy.
They would put us out of the building.
They had exerted such influence on the community.
Finally, we began to pray and say, God,
give us a building of our own.
And I remember finding this abandoned church in
a little town and arranging for a meeting
with a Catholic council.
All the men on that council unsaved and
many previously resisting the gospel.
I remember we prayed.
We fasted.
We knew how to pray.
I remember going into the meeting holding nothing
back and saying, I'm here.
This is what we intend to do at
this building.
We intend to preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
We intend to see the oppressed set free.
We intend to feed those that are hungry.
We intend to give hope to those that
have no hope.
We intend to introduce them to the salvation
through Jesus Christ.
I held nothing back.
They dismissed me and called a couple of
weeks later and said, we've decided to give
you the building for a dollar.
Out of that, church grew another congregation, a
French speaking congregation.
And I remember going to see another school
building because they outgrew our school building.
And we looked at it.
It was appraised at about three hundred and
something thousand dollars.
We had no money.
Actually, we never never had any money except
for missions, really.
And the building was owned by 10 Jewish
lawyers.
And so we offered them a tax receipt
for the building.
The real estate agent looked at us like
we were insane.
But we said we want to use this
building for a Christian church.
And 10 Jewish lawyers gave us that building
for a tax receipt for a Christian church.
You see, God gives favor to those who
pray.
God gives favor.
I've known the favor of God.
God gives favor.
Don't don't let the devil tell you it
can't be done.
That's the old law.
There's a new law of life in Christ.
It can be done.
If God calls you to do it, it
not only can be done, it will be
done.
The purpose of this fast is to find
out what is it.
First of all, it's for separation, for the
purposes of God.
You will never know the mind, the will
of God without separation.
It will never come to you in the
middle of a football game.
It will come to you when you begin
to pray and say, God, I want to
be separate for your purposes.
God will enable you and I to be
separate for his purposes.
Then begin to speak into your heart what
it is that your life is to do.
We will pray together.
Believing that you're going to move into that
area that God speaks to you.
I can't tell you what it is, but
the Holy Spirit is going to tell you.
We have an army of about 8000 people
here at Times Square Church.
And can you imagine the force for good
that could be done in the greater New
York area?
With 8000 people getting hold of God.
Separated to the purposes of God.
Infused with the life and the strength, this
new law of life in Christ.
No longer brought under this old law of
subservience to sin.
Because they have made the choice to be
separated to the purposes of God.
Where God says, I will reveal myself to
you as the Lord God Almighty.
You will see my power.
You begin to understand who I am.
And you will walk in.
And you see, here's the key.
It will not be in your presentation, but
God says, the hearts of kings are in
my hand.
And I will turn them any way I
want to.
You could end up before that wicked person
that has been gripped of wickedness.
That's leading your organization and walk in with
the confidence of God.
That it may not happen overnight, but it's
going to happen.
God will turn that heart.
And one way or another, his word is
going to come into that workplace.
All he needs is a vessel.
All he needs is a man or woman,
a God that is willing to stand there.
And say, Lord, use my life for your
glory.
Hallelujah.
And if I perish, I perish.
To live is Christ.
To die is gain.
We're going to fast.
But it begins, beloved, with separation.
And that is my altar call today.
It's the Holy Spirit's altar call.
It's not mine.
The Holy Spirit's altar call to this church
today is separation.
And we're probably going to be hearing more
messages on this before the first week of
March.
Separation.
And I know today, I know that the
Holy Spirit is speaking to people in this
congregation today, education annex here in the main
sanctuary, about areas in your life that are
hindering your walk with God.
You are intermixed with the ways of the
unsaved around us.
And you need to become separate now.
Separated from the idiotic television that is out
there.
Separated.
The devil's got you convinced that if you
get rid of your television that you're missing
so much.
What are you missing?
You know, 800 instances of fornication and murder
a day.
The stupid scorning that goes on on these
daytime talk shows.
You're missing a lot.
Out of touch?
Thank God I'm out of touch.
I've been out of touch for 20 years.
Thank God I'm out of touch.
Separated from immoral relationships.
There are some people here today, you're unequally
yoked in a relationship.
I'm not talking, if you're already married, too
bad.
You have to trust God for that one.
But for those that are not and you
are unequally yoked.
There's others here.
You're going to bars.
You come to the house of God and
then you're heading off and you're going to
clubs and bars and wondering why you have
no power.
You have no voice, no influence.
There's others.
You are just as crooked as people around
you in business.
And you justify it by saying, well, you
know, that's just the way things are.
I have to do these things.
And of course, everybody understands.
God knows.
Well, sorry.
He knows, but he doesn't agree.
There needs to be a separation.
And it is hard.
But it's life.
It's absolute life.
There was a group of a pair of
Siamese twins.
A little while ago that.
Underwent the risk of an operation.
Unfortunately, they both died.
But they underwent the risk, they said, because
to be free from this bondage is worth
the risk.
As they considered it, this bondage to one
another is worth the risk of both of
us dying.
And those are just Siamese twins in a
sense that could endure and get through this
life.
But they said it's it's it's better to
be free.
I'll take the risk.
And I say for the Church of Jesus
Christ, it's time for the Holy Ghost to
take out that two edged sword.
For the person who says, God.
I'm willing to run the risk of whatever
comes into my life to be free from
the snares of this world that have gotten
entangled themselves all around me.
To be set apart for the purposes of
God.
If I perish, I perish.
But, God, if I perish, I'm going out
with joy.
I'm going out of God with a song
of praise on my lips and a vision
of almighty God.
I'll go out like Stephen, maybe under a
pile of rocks from people who don't like
what I'm doing.
But I'll go out with a vision of
Christ at the right hand of glory.
I'll go out glorifying God.
Hallelujah.
Now, I don't have a martyr's complex.
Please don't misunderstand what I'm saying.
But I know that there is sometimes difficulty
and pain to come to those who make
that decision to be separate.
But that's the altar call the Holy Spirit
has given me to give you today.
To those who want to be separated to
the purposes of God.
And you personally know what this separation involves.
And if you're willing to do it, God
says, I'm going to reveal myself to you
as almighty God.
I'm going to guide you.
I'm going to give authority to your voice.
You're going to make a difference for my
kingdom.
Would you stand, please, as we stand and
come forward.
Balcony, either aisle.
Go to either exit.
Education annex, just make your way to the
screens.
Just come down, move in closely, please.
Give room to those who want to be
separated.
I do believe, beloved, this could be the
beginning of an incredible touch of God in
your life and around this tri-state area
of New York City.
I had a sense in my heart yesterday
in prayer of anticipation that's beyond anything I've
known for a very, very long time.
An anticipation of what God is going to
do.
He's going to find somebody.
And the reports that will come back after
today will be phenomenal.
He's going to find somebody that will just
go into their school, just go into their
workplace, just be separated to God.
Get the mind of God.
Understand the law of life in Christ.
Be free themselves, free from this entanglement of
this society.
And we'll walk in, in the power of
God.
And God will walk in with you.
You won't go alone.
This new law of life in Christ is
what you will preach.
You will bring this life of Christ to
others around.
You will say simply, what I have, you
can have too.
Here it is.
I'll show it to you.
There's a new law.
You don't have to live under the bondage
of death and sin any longer.
Hallelujah.
Lead us please, if you will, Pastor Patrick
and everybody who wants to respond.
You want to be separated.
Separated to God.
It's a simple, all to call it, could
be from anything and everything.
From blatant sin to just seemingly harmless practice.
But you want to be separated for the
purposes of God.
Please step out.
Isaiah was lifted up into the presence of
God.
And when he saw God's holiness, he saw
his own unworthiness.
And the moment he opened his mouth and
said, I'm unclean.
And I dwell, I live, my dwelling place
is in the midst of a people of
unclean lips.
As soon as God knew it was in
his heart to be separate, he touched it.
And says, your iniquity is purged.
Your sin is cleansed.
Then he began to hear the voice of
God.
And God said, who will go for us
and who will we send?
And when he was clean, he could now
hear.
And he had courage and said, here am
I.
Send me.
And that's what you're doing at this altar
today.
Those that have come, your confession is, I
am undone.
I have been living in the midst.
I've been intermixed in uncleanness.
And because of it, I hardly hear your
voice.
And I have no power among your people.
God, today you're going to change it.
Pray with me now.
Lord Jesus Christ, I come to you.
I've heard your word.
I understand.
Your call.
That's upon me.
Today.
I confess.
That I have not been fully.
Set apart for you.
I live in mixture.
God forgive me.
For what this has done.
To your testimony.
In my life.
I'm sorry for this.
I want to be separate.
Today you promised me.
That this desire in my heart.
Would make me aware.
Of your life.
That you are willing.
To live within me.
Oh God separate me.
Strengthen me.
Guide me.
To my life.
Make a difference.
Where I live.
And in my neighborhood.
At my workplace.
In my home.
In my community.
In my city.
Guide me.
Show me.
What you would have me.
To do for your glory.
I yield myself.
To your purposes.
This world is wicked.
It is quickly.
Passing away.
It is deeply.
Being overrun.
By the power of darkness.
I don't want to be part of it.
Anymore.
Lead me out.
Glorious Savior.
Lead me out.
Into the place of your life.
And in this place.
I yield.
To your full purpose.
And your leading.
For my life.
I will cast away fear.
By the power.
Of your love in me.
And I will go.
Wherever you call me.
And do.
What you call me to do.
And I will do it with a rejoicing
heart.
For greater is he.
Who lives within me.
Than he who is in the world.
Oh, God, thank you.
Now, beloved.
Remember.
The first week of March.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
I don't know the dates offhand.
But the first week of March.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
Now, those who are listening to this on
the internet.
Around the world.
I want to ask you to fast with
us.
First week of March.
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
And if you'd be kind enough to email
us.
Let us know what your prayer is.
That we can lift your name up before
God.
When we gather to pray.
Let's let this be as much as possible.
A prayer meeting of people all throughout the
world.
And I thank you.
God bless you.
This is the conclusion of the message.