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anywhere!” I like to make it simple, and I told you I’m
gonna lead you by the hand today till we get to God’s
part because His is the good part. This is the work
part. In the New Testament the way you claim a promise
and renew a commitment is very simple. The book of
Romans says “Don’t think you can go up to heaven, get
Him, bring Him down. Don’t think you can descend into
the depths and bring Him up.” There is a stage in your
Christian Faith walk were God expects us to start acting
on what He said because He has a record of having done
it.
As the children of Israel had a pillar of cloud by day
and fire by night and manna falling from heaven every
morning, there came a point—and He parted the Jordan
River—there came a point on the other side where the
manna stopped falling and the pillar dissolved
and the fire didn’t lead. And they were expected,
because of the performance already proven, to act a
little more on the invisible reality of God and His
consistency to keep His Word. “Can I trust the Lord?”
You gotta settle that first. “But I’ve got this problem
I want to focus on!” Forget, turn—you don’t
forget—turn, displace it. Turn from the problem for
just a minute with me and ask yourself why are you here
in the last week of the year. Is the Lord trustworthy
or not? If He is, how do you trust Him?
And the New Testament says “You don’t have to ascend and
get Him. You don’t have to descend and bring Him up.
The word’s already nigh you; it’s in your mouth, speak
it forth. For with the heart man believeth; and with
the mouth”—proclamation is the literal Greek
word—“proclamation or declaration is made unto
salvation.” And salvation is—soterion is the
Greek word—it’s a whole process that involves every
dimension of your life which means man realizing
everything he ought to be in health, in vision, in
capacity, in potential, |
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and in ultimate destination. This salvation process is
a constant renewing of what God has promised by
believing it with the heart and declaring it with the
mouth. Simple as feeding a child. You gotta settle it!
Instead of walking out when you get out of Church…. The
way most people listen to a preacher, they tune their
brain out and then when they get out first words to the
one they go out with: “Boy, I sure have this problem. I
don’t know how I’m gonna get at it now till next
Sunday. I’ve done my little thing for God today but it
almost cost me the time I could of used solving my
problem.” I want you to go out of here today—this is
the work part—saying—don’t just think—saying—you gotta
hang your body on it, “Wait a minute! What am I in this
business for, of Christianity?”
I mean, you—you’re looking at the world’s most natural
sinner. I will make a confession to this crowd—it’s
going to demean me: I have never been drunk in my life.
Now to the Jerry Falwell’s crowd, they’d be: “Ah-h-h-h,
Praise the Lord!” you know. To my crowd, that’s one
dimension of your life I don’t fully comprehend yet.
You just grab your mind is what I’m saying, and you have
to ask yourself is your religion just going through the
motions or is there a God you can trust. I don’t
necessarily have to put the shape on it for you. You
know the shape that I think it takes: God revealed
Himself in Christ. “Trust in the
Lord”!
Number 2. “Delight thyself.” This is just so simple it
makes me mad! “Delight thyself in the
Lord.” I
want to tell you something and you can just take it or
leave it. The theologians call it ‘prevenient grace.’
The Church is not in the world to save the world. The
Church represents those few being saved out of the
world. And it was Jesus who said “Few there be that go
in thereat.” God’s not some—you’ve |
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