Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

I Wound And I Heal Pt.9

Amen. Aren't you glad that your King is alive this morning? Let's turn to Acts, the 4th chapter. We want to continue our study on the doctrine of divine healing. We realize that without the resurrection of Jesus being a reality there would be no doctrine of divine healing. If God wasn't alive this would just be mythology, it would be philosophy; but the resurrection of Jesus seals it all as a fact as the revealed purpose of God, Creator of heaven and earth. A personal God who knows your name, can call it, who has the hairs of your head numbered, who is touched with the feelings of your infirmities, who calls you son, who calls you lover, who calls you inheritance, and who is one of these days going to call us home. Amen? I'm excited about that. So we want to talk a little bit about this resurrection power as we're here on this Resurrection Sunday.

I do like to use the term, "Resurrection Sunday". You know, "Easter" is a term that's really meaningless any more. Interesting article. I brought this with me and I'm going to read to read a couple of excerpts. It's a different look at what we're celebrating in our society. This particular individual says that, "Easter, in a time when it should be seen in all of it's benevolent atmosphere has been overrun with a religious message." "This is a grave error", it says. "The Easter holiday actually presents an enormous contradiction, the grotesque clash of a secular celebration of happiness combined with the religious worship of suffering. The secular celebration of happiness and the religious that is the worship of suffering." "It is time to understand the full meaning of this holiday, and to question the message of self-sacrifice it is used to convey. The most enjoyable part of the Easter holiday is its secular side, the holiday, not of Jesus, but of the Easter Bunny. Families and friends gather together dressed in their best new clothes and feast on banquets of roast ham. Excited children participate in treasure hunts, searching for brightly colored eggs, and baskets of chocolates." "The mood of this secular celebration is one of cheerful benevolence. The religious message however grafted onto Easter is the story of the crucifixion of Jesus and his resurrection from the dead. The essence of this story is not the joy of living but the worship of suffering and sacrifice. We are all sinners, according to Christianity, and Jesus chose to suffer the slow, agonizing death of a crucifixion to redeem our sins. Our moral goal, we are told, should be to emulate his example. Thus, the Christian moral hero, the saint, is the person who renounces all personal interests or values. Christianity teaches man to regard as a sin all of the values that make his life worth living, his possessions, his career, his body, his independent mind. And all the while hammering this message home there is the omnipresent figure of Christ on the cross. Showing that there is a clash between the two ideologies we should reject the worship of sacrifice in favor of a morality based on the achievement of values. Such a morality would set as its ideal not death on the cross but a productive career a fulfilling romantic relationship and an independent mind. It would be a morality based on the requirements for success and happiness in this world."

He goes on and continues to blaspheme equating personal happiness, gain, goals, achievements with the reality of eternal life in Jesus Christ. Humanism stated in direct opposition to the cross and the empty tomb that we're here to celebrate this morning. That's the religion of the world, that's the religion that's taking over our nation. What do you and I have to combat it? We're here celebrating what we say we believe but the question is where are the signs that are to follow the believers? These people are busy erecting their idols and propagating this message that opposes the biblical message of Gods intervention in our lives.

We're at war and we need to take serious our representation of this power. It's taken very seriously in the book of Acts. Look back just a couple of chapters. We were going to start in 4, but just real quickly look back, if you would, into chapter 2. We find that following the day of Pentecost the empowering of God from on high to cause these men to be witnesses. He said go to Jerusalem and tarry and wait for the promise. They went and began to intercede as you know, and God poured his spirit. There was the sound of a rushing mighty wind and cloven tongues of fire then descended and set upon each of them and their lives were transformed. As they flowed out of that upper room we find in verse 21 of the 2nd chapter of Acts this message being preached with all boldness. "And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you [how? Say it. Approved of God among you how?] by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know."

I want to tell you something. These signs and wonders can't be denied. When people begin to see the power of God the supernatural, they cannot be denied. They can be dismissed but not denied. Jesus was approved of God in their midst by miracles and wonders and signs. Christianity is a life of the supernatural. It's what makes us unique from all other religions. Everything that we put our trust in is sealed by the supernatural departure from death, the tomb, and the ascension to God with the empowering of us to represent this New Kingdom that was established. How many of us are just out walking the streets with another type of religion, ideology, we try to come and argue people into the faith, when the only argument beloved that's needed is that of a transformed life. Somebody who's been touched by the power of God that says, all I know it this, once I was blind and now I see, praise God. All I know is once I was bound by hatred and lust and greed and now I'm free, praise God. Do you want to know him? Do you want to serve him too? You see this is the testimony of the resurrection. This message of chapter 2 is the message of the resurrection. The one thing that the resurrection, true belief in the resurrection of Jesus will do it will take you to the upper room. It will cause you to have an appetite for more of that supernatural visitation to be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you're here this morning and you've never been baptized in the Holy Spirit you've not received the benefits of the empty tomb-that which comes to those of us that believe and have an appetite for more intimate communion with him and more accurate representation of him.

These who cowered not too many days prior to this for fear of the religious leaders and the Roman government now pour out into the streets in power with the anointing of God and they say, we want you to understand something, it will come to pass that those that call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. It's this same Jesus that we're here to talk to you about. The one that you know, the one approved in your midst by miracles and wonders and signs. "Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain." But I want you to know something verse 24, "Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death; because it was not possible that he should be holden of it." That's our testimony. Sin’s power has been broken. Not only the sin that dominates our society today in their immoral behavior but I want to tell you something else, sin’s power as it pertains to disease has been broken, and it's not possible that he could be holden of it nor should we. Amen? This same Jesus, this same Jesus is manifested among us. We need to boldly proclaim this message as part of the great news of the free gift, the Lamb slain from before the foundations of the world, the ransom price paid, the appeasement of God that we studied for those number of sessions in Isaiah 53, the belief of those words that came from the cross on that Friday, it is finished. Is it finished as far as you're concerned, or are you still trying to add to it by your own works and your own accomplishments? Is it finished according to your faith? Are you believing it's done, or do you somehow have to add to it by your own diligence and strength? The covenant has been cut; the price is paid; we're a people free, delivered, and whole because the tomb is empty, because the price was paid.

The Scripture says as the sermon continues verse 31 that, the Lord had spoken of the resurrection of Christ, and that his soul would not be left in hell and his flesh would not see corruption, Psalm 16. "This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now see and hear." The people were marveling at the authority and the power in which they spoke. There was a new boldness to declare the gospel. But it didn't stop there with the boldness of the proclamation of the gospel. This anointing began to flow over into the 4th chapter of the book of Acts. It says that at this particular juncture following the healing at Gate Beautiful they realized that somehow they had to try to subdue this message, these people were moving in a new power, and a zeal that had never been seen before. It was one thing to have this man Jesus doing all of these miracles in their midst but now his followers are beginning to do it. In the midst of the temple the Scripture says that this man who was lame was now leaping and praising God in their midst chapter 3, verse 8. Somehow, we have to stop this. Peter in his bold testimony told the counsel in verse 16 that it was his name through faith in his name that had made this man strong. They in verse 19 needed to repent and be converted so that their sins could be blotted out.

So the counsel then says what are we going to do? "And as they spake unto the people the priests and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them. Being grieved that they taught the people and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead and they laid hands on them and put them in hold unto the next day for it was now eventide. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand." What's causing this kind of a witness? What's the message that they're preaching? Jesus raised from the dead. The reference back to his ministry of signs and wonders and the affirmation that now he's confirming the word that they're speaking with signs following as the man at the temple was healed. The Scripture goes on to tell us in verse 7 that when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power or by what name, have ye done this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost-beloved there's another issue at hand here as we're talking about the doctrine of healing. We need to understand that the doctrine of healing is going to work in correlation with those that are truly filled with the Holy Ghost. There are many people that propagate doctrine that say you know I believe that upon regeneration we're baptized and filled with the Holy Ghost. Where's the evidence of that? Where's the speaking with other tongues? Where is the bold witness not just in the proclamation of the gospel but on the laying on of hands and the confirming of the word that we speak with signs following? You see, the signs of the Holy Ghost is a lot more than speaking in tongues. It's moving in power and authority as the Word of God reveals to us. By what power, by what name have you done this? "Then Peter filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers of the people, and elders of Israel, [verse 9] If we this day be examined of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole; Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, [check it out] that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole." Be it known verse 12, "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." That word saved-whole. It's the same word for healing. This salvation, this soteria, this wholeness is the same as the wholeness of eaomai.

We need to understand that that's the message that Gods bringing us. We've been sharing over these last sessions how we can present the gospel in both ways. We can present it to the spirit of man or we can present it to the body of man and either way the message brings about the demand for wholeness. Salvation is God’s provision for your wholeness-spirit, soul, and body. But this message has to be proclaimed in power; it has to be one that's based upon the resurrection. Our message is the Christ of the tomb that you acknowledge we proclaim as risen. You see, historically people will recognize the person of Jesus Christ. There's not a lot but there are some secular records of this man of Nazareth. The secular historians refer to him as Jesus the man Jesus whom they call the Christ if it be lawful to call him a man is what one of the secular writers say. Now what's that all about? It's about the fact that they couldn't deny these wonders and these signs. The historical figure of Jesus Christ is accepted by secular writers. What they have trouble with is the empty tomb. They don't have trouble with the fact that He lived, they have trouble with the fact that he's alive today. That he's ascended to the right hand of God the Father, that He ever lives to make intercession for his saint's and that He is coming again to receive us unto himself that were He is there we may be also. That he's going to come and with a shout the dead in Christ will rise and corruption will take on incorruption and mortality immortality. They have trouble in understanding the reconciling of his bride with himself and the return again with the saints to set his feet upon the Mount of Olives, and that it will cleave asunder and He will rule the nations with a rod of iron. They don't understand that He's alive today. That's the message that you and I are to be proclaiming with boldness and with signs following so that there can be no denial that he's in our midst. They may deny his lordship through the refusal of accepting but they can't deny that a notable miracle has been done. You see it's the constant testimony we saw it here in chapter 2, and you'll see it as they try to figure out what to do with these men. Verse 16 says, "Saying, what shall we do to these men? For that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it." Don't you like that? Jesus said if you don't believe me for my words at least believe me for the miracles that you've seen. You can't deny the miracles. So we see then that the walk of the supernatural is a large part of our arsenal as we proclaim in these last days that Jesus is alive.

So the real issue then is one that you and I have to answer. What do we really believe? Have we been proclaiming the gospel effectively with this type of an anointing and this type of a power? What is it that we really believe in our hearts? I heard some reports from a couple of the home fellowship groups last night and it was kind of sad to hear what in these groups, and I don't know how they all went so I can't speak toward every group just the two that I heard about. That there seemed to be more talk about medicine and exceptions and herbs and everything other than what we've been sharing these last sessions. We've taken hours and hours and hours and hours and talked about the Day of Atonement. We spent a lot of time on a couple of Hebrew words that had to do with literal transference of sin and sickness and pain. We took a long time to talk about Nasan Saba. We took a lot of time to talk about Isaiah 53 with Him truly taking upon himself bearing our iniquities. We went back to the very origin of the covenant in Exodus 15 as He proclaims I am the Lord that healeth thee. As He made his proclamation in Exodus that if we would walk in obedience to his commandments He would take sickness out of the midst of us. We talked about the fulfillment of the message, the prophecy of Isaiah 53 and Matthew 8 that showed Him come in their midst and cast out devils and heal the sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet Isaiah saying, by His stripes we are healed, praise God. We took a long time in our last couple of sessions to show how it was God's will to heal all that looked on him. If I be lifted up, He said, as Moses lifted up the serpent everyone that looks will be healed. We saw case after case where He healed them all; He healed them all, He healed them all. We saw as we finished last session that it was for the glory of God

The discussions centered on all of our own personal little experiences and exceptions instead of the anticipation that we've been trying to stir in our hearts. The excitement of understanding that the work is finished, the price is paid beloved. We are a people healed whether you ever experience it or not. It doesn't have anything to do with whether you're taking medicine or herbs, it has to do with the fact that Jesus is alive today and the Word of God says that the price that was paid was sufficient. Sin’s power, disease has been destroyed by his blood and we are whole, praise God. That's what the issue is and it doesn't have anything to do with your taking medicine, not taking medicine, supplements, not taking, it has nothing to do with the message of the doctrine of divine healing, it has to do with whether you believe or not. What do you believe? The fact is what's coming out of your heart or out of your mouth is what's in your heart. If you're more excited about the newest herb and the newest supplement and the newest doctor on the block then that's where your heart is. What we're trying to do is get you to understand that those things are not in and of themselves bad. What's bad is the lack of excitement about the Balm of Gilead. Amen? Are you getting the message this morning? Are you understanding what we're saying here? It's what comes out of your heart and what's in your heart in abundance it will come out of your mouth. How excited are you that we lay hands on the sick and they recover? Yeah but I have this little exception. We're not talking about the exception we're talking about how excited we are that God said we could lay our hands on the sick. That's what I want to talk about not your exception. Okay you're an exception in your own mind let's stop talking about that. Let's talk about the fact that God said we're to go into all the world and preach the gospel, and He would come and confirm this message with signs following. Stop trying to explain all of the exceptions and personal experiences, and let's get about proclaiming the good news that Jesus is alive, and by faith in his name, praise God, you can lay hands on the sick and they'll recover. That's what the message is all about. That's what Easter is all about.

Look over at Luke for a just a second. Let me show you something that we're going to have to contend with constantly in our lives. It's very discouraging to me to hear from a couple of these groups, and maybe the rest of you did better-that after all of the time we took to emphasize this that we get caught up in all these little other non essential meaningless ridiculous subjects. Yeah but you know we believe that herbs are good for you. I think herbs are good for you too. I think eating the proper diet is good for you. God gave dietary laws. But I want you to understand something-listen very clearly, the same God that gave the dietary laws said I am the Lord that heals you. Proper diet won't make you well, Jesus does. He said eat this way and I'll heal you when you get sick. If you don't eat this way you'll get sick more often and I'll heal you then too, praise God. We've got more confidence in thinking that if we eat properly, take the right supplements somehow disease will be kept from us. I want you understand beloved one thing and one thing alone is sufficient, the blood of Jesus. The race is not to the swift. There's people like myself for years, and years, and years eat all the wrong stuff it doesn't make any difference, and just healthy as a horse man. Then there's people that try to do all the right stuff and eat, and exercise, and run, and die. There's nothing wrong and don't misunderstand what I'm saying, I am not saying that it's wrong to take supplements, to eat herbs, to deal with the symptoms in our body through medical science, we already talked about that. Medical science to me is Hoover Dam. I can't think of any greater illustration. I don't any better way to say it than to take you right back to the origin of man in the Garden of Eden to see that God had spoken and said that there was in the midst of the garden a tree of knowledge, not only knowledge as it pertains to our existence but the knowledge of good and evil, a moral knowledge, that God himself said that when man came together in agreement nothing was impossible-that we are creatures who are creative by nature. We can invent and create. I have no question that the knowledge of good that comes and treats all of these symptoms through medical science that it has come as a gift from God. The knowledge of the engineers to build that dam that we talked about. You can trust in all the Hoover Dam's you want, I prefer to have my dams be the consequence of the priest of God stepping with the Arc of the Covenant into the water and have it heap up. I prefer to have my water dammed up by the prophet who takes his rod and holds it over the waters and the waters are congealed. I prefer to move in the supernatural obvious visitation of God than all of these lifetimes full of debatable non-perceivable visitations.

We're trying to see stirred up in our lives again the simplistic walk and trust in the supernatural and to see that it's the norm for Christianity. The norm not the exception-the norm. So in Luke we see these words. Luke chapter 5. Interesting discourse. The Lord's performing a few miracles and the fishes that are caught. We see right here one of the greatest examples I believe of biblical faith in departing from our own wisdom and our own ability to trust God. They toiled-you remember in the instances of Scriptures and were unable in the instance of the great drought of fishes. Here we see the ships being used by the Lord for ministry. And after he had left speaking he said to Simon launch out into the deep and let down your nets. Peter responded we've toiled all night man and there's nothing out there, there's no fish to be had. Let me ask you a question-in Peter's mind who was the best fisherman that's ever been on that lake? How many of you know that's what was in Peter's mind? Because that's how you think about yourself isn't it? It's frightening how we perceive ourselves. The ability to sit and truly analyze who you are and where you are. The Scripture speaks of us with that great tendency to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. Where do you really fit in the scope of things? Have you ever been honest with yourself? How smart are you really? What do you really understand in the scope of things? How well do you really understand physics? I can tell the way most of you drive you don't understand some very important aspects of physics. But this is the pot calling the kettle black. I know my limitations of the laws of economics, and the law and the knowledge of mathematics, the limited understanding of psychology and sociology. If you can ever come to grips with how much you really lack and that most of the people that are out there blowing smoke are just like you-there are a few sharp ones around but most of them are just like you, you'd stop trusting in the arm of the flesh and you'd especially stop trusting in your own ability, and say, we've toiled all night taken nothing, I've always in my mind been the best fisherman on the lake, nevertheless at your word I will let down the net.

When will you start believing that God's word is truth in very issue of life and is not to be questioned and is not in any way responsible to answer every little question you have but has stated it's truth, it's fact and is to be acted upon in willful obedience. Everything in the natural speaks against it but at your word we're going to let the nets down. We know the story don't we? They came, verse 7, and filled both the ships so that they began to sink. Exceeding abundant above anything that you could ask or even think. You want to know the biggest problem we have in walking in the supernatural? We think we know something. We think that we really understand that that's not supposed to happen, it's not capable of happening. It's because we have no confidence in the ultimate creator, our God, who established all of the systems that we call law, and can suspend them, transcend them at his discretion. We don't understand that there are greater laws than those that exist to our senses. There's a greater law than gravity. There's a greater law than death. Death is a law. It's appointed unto all men to die, law, it will happen. But faith releases another power called resurrection and life in Jesus Christ. Do you have trouble believing that? If we don't, we of all men are most miserable, Paul says. I Corinthians 15 let's you and I know-you don't have to turn over there-let's you and I know very clearly that that's what Christianity is all about, and without it there is no hope, there is no reason to live. There is no Christianity without the resurrection, without the empty tomb.

Off course. We come back and he encourages Peter that's he's going to become a fisher of men. Just having experienced the blessing of God-the greatest take that they had ever had. It says when they came to the shore they forsook it all and followed him. Stepped out of the boat and went with Jesus. What an exciting life that is. I've had the privilege of doing that and would never go back. The Scripture says, "And it came to pass, when he was in a certain city, behold a man full of leprosy, who seeing Jesus fell on his face, and besought him, saying, Lord if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And he put forth his hand, and touched him, saying, I will, be thou clean. And immediately the leprosy departed from him." We see the purpose and the heart of God being expressed. The people understood his purpose then in their midst. It says that when his fame went abroad, verse 15, that they brought great multitudes to hear and to be healed. To hear and be healed. To hear and be healed. They understood that there was more to this message than just getting well. The message in and of itself demands its expression in totality. Then this is the part that I wanted to emphasis as we finish up for this morning. "And it came to pass [verse 17] on a certain day, as He was teaching, that there were Pharisees and doctors of the law sitting by, which were come out of every town of Galilee, and Judaea, and Jerusalem, and the power of the Lord was present to heal them."

What do you believe this morning? Not intellectually. For these the Scripture says were the Pharisees, and doctors of the law. These are the most religious people of that day and the most learned the doctors of the law. Seminary was dismissed, all of the DD's, THD's were present. They wanted to hear what this guy had to say. They had heard of the testimonies, of the miracles, and this strange message and that never a man spoke like this man. So they came to sit in on one of the meetings and the power of the Lord was present to heal them. So here's this meeting all of these people gathered together, the religious people, those who could quote the great covenant of healing, of Jehovah Rapha the Lord that heals, the Lord that takes sickness out of the midst of us. Don't you think for a moment that these doctors of the law didn't understand very clearly that Asa trusted in the physicians and died and Hezekiah sought God and lived? They knew the contrast. These are a people that had great knowledge of medical science, all that had come from Egypt and Greece in those days. There were the physicians that people trusted in. The Scripture says that the woman with the issue went and spent all that she had on many physicians and grew none better but in fact worse. They were aware of all of that. They understood Asa's trust and departure from God and the gods of the world system, and because of it Jehovah Rapha lifted his hand and he died. They understood the incurable disease of Hezekiah and how he rolled and put his face toward the wall and wept in his heart broken and sought God in dependency, not in his priestly kingly robes, but humbled himself and realized there was only one help at this moment in his life. The Lord heard his prayer and spared his life. These guys could tell you all those stories. And the Lord, the power was present to heal them.

In the midst of all of this the Scripture says, "And, behold, men brought in a bed a man which was taken with a palsy; and they sought means to bring him in, and to lay him before Him." And they couldn't find a way because it was so packed out with doctors of the law and Pharisees. The place was full of hypocrites, of intellects, theologians, and philosophers that the people with real needs couldn't get in there. The simple faith that makes people whole. So it says they went up on the housetop, verse 19, and let him down through the tiling. I love that story. "And when he saw their faith, he said unto him, Man, thy sins are forgiven thee. And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, Who is this which speaketh blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone? But when Jesus perceived their thoughts, he answering said unto them, What reason ye in your hearts? Whether is easier [I like that term not harder] to say, Thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power upon earth to forgive sin, (he said unto the sick of the palsy,) I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy couch, and go into thine house. And immediately he rose up before them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own house, [say it with me] glorifying God." And they were all amazed, not healed, amazed. Oh wow did you see? Not healed. The power was present to heal and none of them got healed they just all got amazed. What do you believe this morning? Doctor Pharisee? What do you believe this morning? What is it you're trusting God for? What is it that you're looking for? To be amazed or to glorify God? They were amazed and glorified God and were filled with fear saying we've seen strange things today. When's the last time they were seen in your midst? When is the last time you even expected it? The power present to heal one guy. The place packed, one guy leaves whole. Packed with people who knew the Word of God and one guy goes away whole. Yet just prior to that a few verses we looked up that they brought multitudes to hear and to be healed of their infirmities. The masses were brought in, the pagans, the people who didn't have a knowledge of him, but heard there was balm in Gilead, heard that there was one who's garment you could touch and be made whole, and believed in a merciful, compassionate, powerful God who would touch them if they would only believe.

If thou wilt thou canst make me whole. I will. What are you expecting from Him this morning? Anything less? The question was asked ought not this daughter of Abraham whom Satan has bound be loosed? This is a rights issue and as covenant children we have a right to be loosed. Are you going to settle for less because you're trusting in the physicians? Are you going to be as jealous about your vitamins, your supplements, and your herbs as you are about the blood of Jesus? Are you going to defend all of the things that make you able to get through life on a daily basis to take care of your aches, and your pains, your headaches, your knee aches, your backaches, and stand and defend your right to supplement your diet when nobody even questioned that? Where's your jealousy for the blood of Jesus, for the covenant of Jehovah Rapha? Where is the treasure of our heart and what do we believe as we sit in his midst, and his power is present to heal us?

Father make it real in Jesus name. Hallelujah. Let's just pray and worship the Lord this great resurrection Sunday. The Lord is here in our midst to heal and deliver. He's here to bring peace in this crazy world that we live in. It's nuts but He said peace I give unto you not as the world gives. We're a people that have joy this morning because of the visitation of God in our lives. We're a people this morning that have the assurance that he'll never leave us nor forsake us. We're a people this morning that He said I'm not looking for any merit on your part I've paid the price. I'm just looking to see if you'll believe it this morning. If you'll receive it as a free gift or if your pride demands that you contribute. I have a free gift for you this morning it's eternal life Jesus says. He's risen from the dead and there's no other name under heaven whereby we can be saved. Where is your heart’s cry this morning in appropriating the life of God? Jesus, I am 100% dependent upon you without you I can do nothing. I don't trust in anything else that's out there. I don't trust in my knowledge. I don't trust in my strength. I trust solely in the indwelling Holy Spirit, and His reminder of the words that you spoke in the revelation of your word that's true. That's my strength, that's my hope, and because you live you will confirm it with signs following. Change me this morning that men can see that surely you're alive.

Let's stand before the Lord this morning. As Gary plays we'll take a moment and just rejoice in the goodness of the Lord and in his love for us this morning. If you find yourself in a position that you need to repent because of your trust in the temporal, the secular, the natural let the spirit of God prick your heart and say, O Jesus forgive me. Lord I've trusted so much in man. But Lord I do believe help my unbelief. Where's your treasure this morning? What do you want to talk about? What excites you this morning? You taking medicine this morning? You careful with your diet this morning? You taking supplements? It's okay if you're trusting in Jesus. Yeah that's me. No, no don't fool yourself now. What are you excited about? Do you remember your pills and forget to pray? Is the first thing that comes out of your mouth the newest fad down the pike or is it the blood of Jesus, the prayer of faith, the declaration that by his stripes we're healed? Don't just flippantly this morning say, oh yeah, yeah I'm trusting in Jesus, I'm doing all that other stuff, and I'm trusting in Jesus. Don't you make those kind of comments if that's not where you are. If that's not where you are be broken this morning, fall on the rock and repent, and let him heal you. Let him heal your heart and your mind. Ask him for forgiveness. O Jesus how could I have minimized your blood and the price that you paid, and trust in arm of the flesh. Let me trust in you, and let me rely on you. In the interim let me supplement my life that I might come to know you better and trust more. Let me reserve my praise for the visitation. I'm thankful for Hoover Dam but I glorify you in the Jordan and at the Red Sea.

Hallelujah! We boast in your visitation. Help us to make you big Lord in our worship and in our praise. Search our hearts Holy Spirit that we could be truthful with ourselves. There's no merit in ceasing any of these other things. There's no merit in stopping to take your vitamin. There's no merit in refusing to take your whatever kind of pill it is blood pressure pill or whatever it is. There's no merit in that. Don't think for a moment that that's going to bring healing to you. You're better to continue to take those things but refuse to trust in them and begin to seek God with all of your heart. Nothing wrong if you're not trusting. Where's that inner hunger? Where is that appetite for the supernatural? Stir it in our hearts Father. Where is that excitement about the visitation of God? Where's the spirit of Joshua that wouldn't leave the tabernacle that sat upon the mountain as it rumbled because he wanted the better part? Where is the heart of Elijah that says I'm not leaving you unless I get the double portion? Those who will be recognized and gathered with the Lord to go apart and pray. That inner circle who would distance themselves from the rest that's where I want to be Jesus. Not out of pride because I'm better it's just because nothing else satisfies. I can't live without you. In those times of departure, in those times of denial like Peter and Thomas, there is no peace, there is no joy, and without the knowledge of your love we like Judas would hang ourselves. Help us to choose the better part to sit at your feet. Help us to count all loss and dung that we used to count treasure that we might win you, that we might rejoice and delight in and boast in the fellowship of your sufferings and be reckoned with you in death that we might be likened in resurrection power in Jesus name. Amen. Turn to somebody and say, "He's risen, praise God." Amen. Go in peace. Gods love go with you, in Jesus’ name.

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