Saturday, March 17, 2018

He Giveth Power To The Faint

Isaiah 40:29-31
“He gives power to the weak, and to those who have no might He increases strength. 30 even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall, 31 but those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
There are times when it can seem like the enemy is getting the best of us.  Sometimes it can be a serious struggle to maintain your faith and trust in God, especially when it seems like everything is going against us.  You know what I’m talking about, those times when we find ourselves in the middle of one of the toughest battles of our life.  But it is in these times that we need the Lord more than ever.  It is in these times that our faith and trust in God is really put to the test.  These are the times when the proverbial rubber meets the road in our walk of faith.
It is easy to live for God and trust in Him when everything is going well, but what about when it seems like the weight of the whole world is on our shoulders. Unfortunately it is during such times that a lot of believers abandon ship, they bail out on God, when the storms get rough.
If your life is in the middle of turmoil, if the waves are about to swamp the boat, then look up and put your trust in God for that is often the moment that God is putting your faith to the test.  That is the moment when your faith is built and your relationship with God will show its true depth.
I heard a story years ago about a Florida army training camp during World War II.  The daily training for the recruits included a run through an obstacle course.  The last obstacle on the course was a small pond of where they had to use a rope and swing across the water.  Under the blazing southern sun the water looked so inviting that the men soon developed a habit of only making it only halfway across the obstacle.  So an enterprising lieutenant made the pond the new home for a large alligator. From that day on, the recruits left the ground 15 feet from the water’s edge and fell sprawling in the dust on the other side.
Likewise, our behavior as believers must be shaped at times by the "encouragement" of unfavorable circumstances. Without God’s loving correction and faithful discipline we would never develop spiritual strength and endurance. If the Lord didn’t permit difficult circumstances to come into our lives, we would eventually develop feelings of self-sufficiency and become overconfident.
We must not forget that God has promised us that we would never be tempted above what we are able to bear, but with every temptation, every trial, every test, every trouble, He will make a way for us to escape and win the victory. (1 Corinthians 10:13)
God never promised that we wouldn’t have hard times. He never promised that we would sail through life without troubles. What He did promise is that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He promised that He would supply our every need. He promised in Psalms 55:22, "Cast thy burden upon the LORD, and he shall sustain thee: he shall never suffer the righteous to be moved."
In the passage above, Israel had become discouraged so God had to remind them of just Who He Is. God is still in control and those who would place their trust in Him would be renewed in their strength.
I don’t know about you, but there are times when my strength fails. I know that many of you suffer through these times too.  I know this because the most common prayer request I receive from others is for strength to stand for the Lord. There is nothing wrong with praying for strength. In fact, that’s the best thing you can do. But, if you really want to have more strength, God has already laid down the pattern for you to get stronger in Isaiah 40:29-31.
To most people it an seem like the trials they are facing are so personal and that no one else can relate or understand, but multitudes of people have faced, and are facing the same situations that you are going through. Your circumstances are no surprise to God. Your troubles don’t move God. He knew what was coming and He already has an answer for every one of them, but we will only see victory if we do it God’s way.
There is no limit to God’s ability to meet you need. There is no limit to His deliverance and provision for whatever you need. God never gets tired, never grows weary, and is always listening for the prayers of His children.
What will we do with the trials that face us?  Will we turn to our own devices and make decisions that will cause us to have less time for God, for the church, or even for our families?  Will we forget the Word of God and become depressed because we don’t have the faith to trust God’s Word.
Romans 8:28
"And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."
Will we break the promises that we made in our times of victory?  Will we forget the commitments we made to Christ when all was well?  Will we forget the times in the past that God has brought us through some rough seas? Will we forget the blessings, the healings, the miracles and every good thing that God has done?  What will we do, and how will be behave now that things are not perfect anymore?
It is time to stop our pity party, quit acting as if it is the end of the world, and lift up our eyes to the mountains and see that our help is on the way, and that God is far above our troubles no matter how bad things seem at the moment, He will not allow us to fail if we will keep our trust and faith in Him.
So now that the test is on, the question is not one of survival, but whether you will pass or fail?  If you pass, your faith will grow stronger. If you fail, you will abandon the ways of righteousness, turn your back on God and put everything in your life at risk.
I have to admit, I have had it go both ways in my life.  Several years ago I went through one of the darkest times of my life because I didn’t trust God in my trial.  I was pastoring and I got very ill.  I was in and out of the hospital.  Over a period of a year I spent 7 months in the hospital.  I really wasn’t sure if I would live or die.  I became physically dependent on the pain medicine.  When I tried to stop taking it I became very ill.  I asked the presbytery of my denomination for help, their response was to take my church, and except for the letter I received in the mail a few months later, I never seen or heard from these men again. 
My response should have been to run into the arms of Jesus, instead I kicked him out of my life and invited the devil to come in and have a seat.  I abandoned the ways of righteousness, turned my back on God and nearly lost everything.  As I returned to old habits from before I knew the Lord of drinking and drugging.  My failure put everything in my life at risk.
God in His grace placed good people in my life that have helped me to recover and return to the path of righteousness and I have repented and once again have a deep personal relationship with Jesus.  I found the father running to meet me with open arms when I returned from my prodigal ways.  He was there waiting all that time for me to come to my senses.
Recently I faced a very similar trial.  I became sick, I had been losing weight for months and had gone from a size 40 waist down to a 36, and then the pain started.  I went to the doctors and after several weeks of testing my worst fear was realized, they told me that I had renal cancer. 
I wish I could say that I handled the news like a man, but I would be lying.  I was scared.  I didn’t tell my wife or kids because I wasn’t sure how to tell them.  But I told my pastor and enlisted him to pray for me.  I had the whole church praying for me too, even though they didn’t know what the doctors had finally told me.  I asked for prayer from my FB friends, also without sharing the details.  And I began to pray like I have never prayed before.
I never for a moment considered turning my back on God this time or blaming Him for my circumstances.  I didn’t allow myself to experience the pity and self-absorbed feelings that the enemy would have liked me to sink back into.  I prayed and I waited for the Lord to answer and my faith got stronger and my relationship with Jesus grew deeper as I became totally dependent upon Him.  And then the miracle happened, God healed me.
The lesson I learned wasn’t that if we trust Him that everything is going to go our way.  There are too many stories of people who are not healed for me to convince you of that lie.  But I learned that the three Hebrews that told king Nebuchadnezzar, “Our God is able to deliver us, but even if He doesn’t, we will not bow to your image,” understood that even if God does not remove us from our immediate circumstances He is with us and we can rejoice because He is still God and He is greater than our troubles.
“…there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength.”
I wish I could say that I understand why God allows some things to happen. I wish I could but I can’t. His ways are far above my ability to understand. I can only put my trust in Him with faith and know that somehow God will take care of everything.
God will give you the power to overcome. He will take your weaknesses, your failures, your doubts and fears, and He will turn them into miracles of deliverance. In fact, God often does not move until we have given it over to Him completely because He will not share the glory of your deliverance with you. It is all of Him or none of Him. God is our source of strength. God is our source of provision. God is our source of power. God is our source for everything we need! We can’t do anything within ourselves.
Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall:
We may pride ourselves in our ability to take care of ourselves. We in America, have such a pride in our freedom and independence that we hate having to admit that we need help from anyone, including God.
But this scriptures tell us that no matter how strong or independent we may be, we cannot do it alone. God often has to bring us to the place where we have to stop trying, turn to Him and say, “God, that’s all I can do, now it’s up to you.” God is waiting for those words but they often aren’t said until we have exhausted our own ideas with no results.
The longer I live, the more I realize that everything is in God’s hands. When I was younger I was more inclined to solve everything with my own ability. Now, after many years of trials, tests and troubles, I am just beginning to get a real glimpse of what living by faith really means.
Faith says that everything will work out when it seems that everything is crumbling around me. Faith says that my bills will be paid when I can’t see how they will in the natural sense.  Faith says that God will take care of me and that I must force myself to stop being overly concerned with the future.  Faith says that I know, that I know, that I know, that somehow God will work it all out and that when He does I will be blessed for having faced all that is happening right now.
“But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint."
This is a scripture that has been preached on so many times that I cannot count them. We quote it, we read it, we preach it, but do we really believe it?
Waiting upon the Lord requires true faith.  Waiting upon the Lord requires going through the fire sometimes and still trusting God to bring us through. Waiting upon the Lord requires that we believe in the impossible, look for the unseen answers, hope in the times of hopelessness and know, without knowing why or how, that God will take care of us.
The reason so many Christians fail the fiery tests of their faith is that too many are bankrupt spiritually.  When the trials come, there is no faith and trust in God built up in their spiritual account to draw strength from.  They have not spent time preparing and “saving up” our blessings for the “rainy day” of trials to come.  They haven’t spent time studying, they haven’t spent time praying, they not have fasted at all, and they have gone about their daily lives as though there would never come a time of trouble.
God won’t let you stay on the mountaintop for long because it’s in the valley that your faith and strength will grow.  There is a song that I love to hear that says this:
The God on the mountain, is still God in the valley.
When things go wrong, He’ll make them right.
The God of the Good times, is still God in the Bad times
The God of the day, is still God in the night.
That’s the God that we serve!

Isaiah 40:29-31


Saturday, March 10, 2018

Help Me want you Jesus, More Than Anything!

It seems that people are not naturally grateful.  Why do we struggle with gratitude?  One of the reasons is the pace of our life.  We get so busy with life that we forget to set aside time to be grateful.  We’re so wrapped up in everyday life that we never stop long enough see how blessed we are.
Another reason for a lack of gratitude is that we’re too consumer oriented, we approach life as if it’s a big shopping trip in which the name of the game is acquiring more.  We get so focused on acquiring the material possessions that we desire that we for get to be grateful for the basic things that God has blessed us with like hot water, a warm bed at night or health insurance. The primary reason that we’re so busy and given to consumerism is that we take everything for granted and we forget to show gratitude to God for all that he has given us. 
Ever notice that ungrateful people are always stressed out?  The reason they’re so stressed out is that they’re ungrateful.  People who are ungrateful believe that they’ve done it all themselves. If you believe you’ve done it all yourself in the past then you probably believe that it’s all up to you in the future.  You don’t need people. You don’t need God. You just carry the load yourself, the result is a stressed-out life.
Deut. 8:10 – “When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.”
Ungrateful people seem to have no joy.   Ungrateful people are never satisfied and they’re always stressed out, the result is going to be a lack of joy.
Prov. 10:28 – “The prospect of the righteous is joy, but the hopes of the wicked come to nothing.”
Heb. 12:28 – “Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe.”
How do you develop a life of gratitude and “so worship God acceptably, when the economy isn’t good, when things aren’t going your way, when our nation is at war, when the world seems like it’s going crazy?
The Bible gives us three keys to developing a life of gratitude.  First, recognize that everything is a gift from God. The first building block when developing a life of gratitude is to remember who gave us what we have in the first place.  We’re very good at getting, but we seem to quickly forget who gave us everything we have.  Have you ever gone to McDonalds with your kids or grandkids?  You let them order the meal they want. You pay for it. Then when you sit down at a table and reach out and take one of their fries, what do they say? They say, “Hey! Those are my fries!”  You made it possible for your kids or grandkids to be able to have them in the first place?  But those fries are now “they’re fries!” Likewise, we have a tendency to forget that everything we have isn’t really ours – it’s really God’s.
Along with recognizing that everything that we have is a gift of God, we should also, recall what God has done.  We sing: Count Your Blessings, Name Them One by One, I actually think that’s a profitable thing to do.  What is it that you’re grateful for? One thing that you notice when you read the Bible is how many times thankful people recall all that God has done for them
Ps. 103:2 – “Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits…”
Ps. 103:3, 10-12 – “3Who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases…” “10-12 He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
 Aren’t you glad that God doesn’t give you what you deserve?  Instead aren’t you glad that God gives you what you need?  If you don’t understand God’s grace; if your heart doesn’t explode with gratitude when you contemplate His grace, then you don’t have a clue of the shape you were in before you met Christ.  I can sum it up in one word: HOPELESS, You had no meaning, no purpose in your life. Instead it was filled with guilt, fear, bitterness, worry, and regrets. You had nothing you could do to get rid of those things. You had no hope for the future. You were headed for hell instead of heaven. You could never have been good enough to earn your salvation. But God came alone in His wonderful love and said, “I’m going to show you grace.”
Finally, resolve to give thanks in every circumstance.  Many of us are waiting for ideal circumstances before we’re thankful.  I have to admit, sometimes I’m waiting for things to get better to be thankful or for God to demonstrate something miraculous.  What are you waiting on?  For your health to improve?  For your relationships to get better?  For your bills to be paid?  For the time that you can sit back in your E-Z chair and say, “Life is good. I’m finally thankful”?  But that’s not what the Bible teaches!
1 Thess. 5:16-18 – “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

On the way to work, I heard a song playing on the radio. The song was, "More Than Anything," by Natalie Grant. And as I listened intently to the words, this song began to blow my mind, I had heard the song before, but never really listened closely to the words. When I realized what she was singing, and being aware of her current circumstances, I began to weep. you see friends this artist is suffering from cancer, yet she sings:

"I know if you wanted to you could wave your hand
Spare me this heartache and change your plan
And I know any second you could take my pain away
But even if you don't I pray

Help me want the Healer more than the healing
Help me want the Savior more than the saving
Help me want the Giver more than the giving
Help me want you Jesus more than anything"
I felt ashamed that I complain about getting older and hurting more. I been sick lately and I complain about missing church. I been upset with God because he hasn't healed me. God forgive my ungrateful spirit, and heal my mind. help me want you more than anything, regardless of my circumstances, let my mouth be filled with praise. Lord help me want you more than anything.
So give thanks in all things, and remember, that without Him we are nothing!



Saturday, March 3, 2018

It's Time to Get Unwrapped!


It seems that most of this week God has been bringing this message back to me over and again. I have thought about it and prayed about it and I am convinced that the Lord would have me to tell you what He has been telling me.

John 11 – Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

All through this chapter there is a richness of material from which I could draw this morning. Every Word in this Book carries such a powerful message. Every word is alive and glorious and seems to literally jump off the printed page, go through your eyes, through your mind, and right down into your very heart and soul. The more you read it, the more you want to read it. The more you read it and hear it and meditate upon it, the more it comes alive to you. This Bible is not just a book – It’s a living word. It’s not just ink on paper for there is a living power, inspired by eternal God and penned under the anointing of the Holy Ghost. I pray today that God’s Word will perform His work in your heart as you read.

Today I want to direct your focus to the last verse in the eleventh chapter of John’s gospel, verse 44, “And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with grave clothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, loose him, and let him go.”

Lazarus’ story has been the inspiration for innumerable sermons, and I know that you have heard it time and again. Lazarus was a friend of Jesus. His family had no doubt entertained, provided lodging and had extended their hospitality many times to our Lord. I know that Jesus loved them, and I know that their love for Jesus was just as real.

But in chapter 11 of the Apostle John’s gospel we are stricken with the fact that no matter how much Jesus loves this family, and how much they loved Him, there came a time when tragedy struck, and the power of death seemed to prevail.

The story of Lazarus’ death reminds me of the story of another man’s death as well and that’s the death of Adam. I know that Lazarus’ death was a physical death and Adam’s death was a spiritual death but don’t ever forget that it was Adam’s spiritual death that brought about Lazarus’ physical death.

God created man that he loved in His own image and breathed the breath of life into him and man became a living, eternal soul, but Adam’s sin in the Garden of Eden, brought death to his eternal soul and by proxy to every man, woman and child that would ever be born into this world. Just as God’s love, mercy, grace and goodness did not keep Adam from tasting death, neither did it stop Lazarus from dying. If death were the final step in this grand scheme of life, then we would all be left with a feeling of absolute hopelessness.

For those who refuse to serve the Lord, who will not allow Jesus to be the Lord of their lives, and won’t fall before Him in repentance, accepting Jesus’ blood that he shed upon the cross for their sin and recognize that Jesus died for them – DEATH IS YOUR FINAL STEP. You will die in your sin, and then you will experience something far worse than physical death. You will experience what the Bible calls, “the second death!"

That second death, eternal death, ever in a state of dying but never really dying at all – forever and ever while you suffer in the Lake of Fire and brimstone. I can think of nothing more horrible than to experience the moment of dying over and over and over, forever, but never finishing the pain and suffering.

But death doesn’t have to be the final step for any of us. If we accept the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and live for Him, then death will only be a steppingstone into a glorious eternal life. Just as He did for Lazarus, Jesus will call you by name and you will come forth from the grave, alive forevermore by the resurrection power of God!

All of us were like Lazarus at one time in our lives! Oh, we weren’t dead physically, at least not yet. But we were all spiritually dead, with one foot in the grave and the other on a slippery step, just one quick slip and it will mean death forever as I have already described. No, we might not have experienced physical death like Lazarus, but we all were dead in trespasses and sin. We were all dead spiritually.

Mary said that Lazarus had been dead for four days and that he was surely beginning to smell terrible. How many of you had a smelly, sticking, nasty attitude when you were spiritually dead? Did you curse the very God who created you? Did you hurt the people in your life that you thought you loved most of all? Did you love the deeds of darkness and shun the things of God like a plague? Did you have stinking thinking and a heart full of sin? WELL, DON’T THINK THAT YOU DIDN’T BECAUSE WE WERE ALL GUILTY OF SIN!

The Bible says that there is none righteous, not even one! We were all dead in sin and we were all corrupted by unrighteousness and bound for hell just as fast as we could get there. It’s only by the grace and mercy of God that we aren’t all there right now!

The good news is that Jesus is still calling people to “come forth” just like He did for Lazarus! If you haven’t heard Jesus call you name, get ready because He is going to call you this morning. If you are still stuck in the grave clothes of your sin, He is calling you right now, but it is up to you to come out when He calls you!

Now let’s look at what happened to Lazarus after he came forth from the grave for a moment. This is where God wanted me to take you this morning. This is where each of us, who have been born again, are living right now. We are living in the new life, after the resurrection.

Don’t forget that when Lazarus came forth, he was already resurrected, he already had a new life, and he was already delivered by the Word and power of God. Death had no hold on him now, but he still had a problem – and it’s the same problem that all of us have too – he was still bound in grave clothes!

There was only one who was resurrected who came forth from the grave and left the grave clothes behind. IT WAS JESUS! But that wasn’t the case with Lazarus and it isn’t for you and me either, mainly because we have a hard time releasing ourselves from the grave clothes. Lazarus was bound hand and feet and could barely move, but he was alive. He could take very small steps and follow the light that came through the napkin that covered his face, but at least he could see some light and he “walked in the light” as he could see it.

Are you beginning to get the picture of what God is trying to say to us this morning? After you have been resurrected to eternal life in Christ, after you have been called by name and you have come forth by the power of God, and after you have had the light of the gospel come alive in your heart – there is still more work to be done! Lazarus couldn’t get his grave clothes off without some outside help! Jesus commanded his family and friends to unwrap him and set him free.

Does that tell you something? It tells me that you can’t be set free sitting at home alone! It tells me that we need each other, iron sharpening iron, brother helping brother, and sister helping sister, under the direction and anointing of the Holy Ghost! That’s why the 5-fold ministry is in the church! That’s why God has ordained that we come together, and don’t forsake coming together, as a Body of Christ, to help one another get unwrapped from our grave clothes.

Can you see it? Do you understand? We are here to help one another get unwrapped, untangled, to remove the things that keep us from seeing clearly, to help us walk better, talk better, and experience real freedom in Christ. Nothing has been clearer to me this week, a week in which work has overwhelmed me and excluded me from fellowship – I need you, and you need me!

I don’t have any power to forgive sins! You don’t have the power to resurrect me from the dead! We don’t have the power to give each other new life, but we all have the power, under the anointing and leading of the Holy Ghost, to unwrap one another from those things that bind us. Jesus does the resurrecting, Jesus does the delivering, and Jesus does the setting free, but we must help each other unwrap the grave clothes!

What do I mean by “unwrap”? It’s simply this – all of us have things in our past, and things in our lives that are holding us back, limiting us in our ability to move and work for the Lord, and limiting us in having a vision for the work that God has called us to do.

We are walking in the light as we see it, but there’s more than what we see! God wants us to have a greater vision! We are walking under the power of the Holy Ghost, but there’s always a greater walk, where we can make bigger strides in serving the Lord. We are working for the Kingdom of God with our hands, but God wants you to have a greater work! A work that requires more freedom for your hands and your arms as you put them to work for His calling upon your life.

All of us need some unwrapping. The grave clothes of our past, when we were dead in sin, are still hanging onto us, binding us up, keeping us from having real freedom in Christ, limiting our walk with the Lord, limiting our vision of Calvary, and limiting our vision for the work ahead.

Some of you are wrapped in grave clothes of unforgiveness to someone else for the way they hurt you or treated you in past. It’s time for you to get unwrapped.

Some of you are wrapped tightly because your heart has been wounded, your spirit has been broken, and your heart is broken from the hurt and pain of past experiences. It’s time for you to get unwrapped.

Some of you have grave clothes of an injured faith because you just can’t seem to get an answer to your prayers and you wonder if God is listening. Oh, precious child, God is listening, Jesus is calling, and it’s time for you to get unwrapped.

Some of you are wrapped up in the grave clothes of your past, the devil keeps reminding you of your failures, and you keep listening. It's time for you to get unwrapped!

I am praying this morning that you walk in a greater awareness of God’s love, and that you begin to experience more freedom this morning. I am praying for your grave clothes to fall off so that you can walk in the light and the power of the Holy Ghost!

If you haven’t been set free from the grave of sin and death, Jesus is calling you by name today to "come forth" in repentance and give your life to Him. Don’t ignore his calling.