Hallelujah. So John chapter 12, we're gonna begin in verse number 12. This passage is Palm Sunday as Jesus is coming into the city of Jerusalem. The city begins to break out in worship, and wouldn't you like to see a whole city breaking out in worship for Jesus today?
Amen. They begin to break out in worship, and this is actually a fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, not only the prophecy of Jesus coming in on the donkey, but it is also, and especially, more importantly, a fulfillment of prophecy in Daniel chapter number 9. In Daniel 9, God is revealing that he's going to judge the nation of Israel for 490 years, and after 483 years of judgment, the Messiah would come, and then he'd be cut off. And 483 years later to the day that the temple had been restored, Jesus comes into the gates, 483 years to the day.
And so this Palm Sunday was significant prophetically because it was fulfilling Daniel chapter 9, which if you come on our Wednesday, not Bible studies, you know, we call Daniel 9 the road map for all prophecy. You're never going to understand what God's doing in the book of Revelation until you understand what God's doing in Daniel chapter 9. And so one of the things I want to point out as we begin in verse number 12 is that the city was stirred up. The city was stirred up.
They began to cry out. Look at verse 12. It says, on the next day, much people that were come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hoseanna, blessed is the king of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord. And Jesus, when he had found a young ass, sat there on as it is written, fear not, daughter of Zion, behold, thy king cometh sitting on an ass's coals.
Here we see a whole city given over to this one cry, Hoseanna. They were stirred up because they saw this miracle, wonder, working guy, this Jesus of Nazareth who had raised Lazarus from the dead, who had opened blind eyes, who had caused the lame to walk, who had healed the lepers, who had done miraculous works all over the whole region had come to the city riding on this donkey. And they knew this prophecy was speaking of their Messiah. They believed everything was about to change.
They lived in a nation that was controlled by ungodly people. They lived in a nation that was controlled by Rome. They lived in a place and time where God, the God of Israel was cast to the side and the God of Rome was exalted above that, and they were seeking a change in their nation. God was seeking a change in their soul.
They were seeking a change for their nation. God was seeking a change in their soul. Sometimes whenever we begin to look at people in the Bible, we begin to say, you know, I don't understand why they did this, but you need to take time and begin to pray and meditate over those scriptures and put yourself in their place and begin to imagine yourself in that situation and begin to see how these things unfold. But you can see in America today, there are so many people who desire a change in the nation.
But more importantly, we have to understand this reality. God desires a change in us. God desires a change in me, a change in you, a change in the church, a change in this nation. God is looking for men and women to rise above the darkness, to seek his face, to behold his glory, and to let his light reflect through you into the lives of the broken men and women around us.
There are vast numbers of people that are in darkness today, and that number is growing. The darkness is growing, and the church is winding, and the church is signing up. People that join their political party, and the church is getting involved in gossip and innuendo and rumors and conspiracies when God has called us to be salt and to be light. God has not called us to preserve, God has called us to persevere, God has called us to stand on the rock of Jesus Christ to lift up our voice like a trumpet, to shout the good news to the downtrodden, and to tell the lost to seek and to find Jesus Christ today, while today is still an hour for mercy to be found.
There's coming a day when judgment will come upon this earth. Judgment will come upon every nation from South America to North America, to India, to China, to Russia, and none of the world wars are going to matter. None of the economics of the nation are going to matter. There's coming a day when Jesus will literally descend back to the Mount of Olives and judge this earth.
And before that day comes, we have a missional mandate as the bride of Christ to bring the gospel to every single person, red, yellow, black or white, American, or Mexican, or Spanish, or any other nation. Our job is to share this life-saving gospel of Jesus Christ. And so the city of Jerusalem was given over. They were stirred up.
They cried out, because they thought the nation, they thought the situation in the nation was about to change. They thought their political leader had arrived. Their sin-bearer had come. The savior of their soul was right before their eyes, and they were looking for the political savior.
They were looking for the person to restore the political strength of the nation of Israel. They were looking for a David. They weren't looking for God. They were looking for a kingdom of men and not the kingdom of God.
Lord, may it not be said of the church today that we do the same thing. May it not be said of us today that we look for a nation of men instead of the kingdom of God. Let it not be said that our hope rests in how functional our society is instead of how awesome our God is. I want you to know that no matter how bad society gets, God is still good.
God can provide for you no matter what the situation is. He can keep you alive in the belly of a whale. He can feed you from the mouth of a bird. He can open up rivers and desert places, and he can hide you away where nobody can find you.
God can do that. God can provide for his people. We have to know and understand and realize that our God is greater than our society. They began to worship him.
Look at this. They were looking for a natural remedy to their situation, not a spiritual remedy. They were looking for a natural remedy to their situation, not a spiritual remedy. They had vast spiritual problems and they had natural.
They thought their problem was Rome had invaded them. The reason Rome invaded them was because their spiritual condition. Because they had began to get into sin, because they had began to worship false gods, because they began to go to the high places that they weren't supposed to go to and do things they weren't supposed to do. God allowed certain things to take place.
Rome had exalted itself over the nation because the nation had gotten spiritually weak. Whenever Israel was right with God, no nation could defeat it. But whenever Israel lost its way and began to worship false gods and began to go through the motions and began to lose a heart for God, God would raise up an enemy to come upon it. And today the church is in these crossroads.
Where if we don't begin to worship the Lord for who he is, then we're going to find ourselves in a situation we don't want to be in. God doesn't play when it comes to our heart. It's more important to him that our hearts are right with him than who our king or who our president or who our congress is or what nation we live in. God would rather purify our hearts.
And he's calling on the church today to understand this principle. The city of Jerusalem, they were looking for a natural remedy. Their worship was birthed. Listen to this.
Their worship was birthed on the conditions. Their worship was birthed out of their condition of the land, not out of their position in God. They were ready to worship. They were ready to sing, Hosanna.
They were ready to shout. They were ready to lay down the palm leaves. They were ready to sing Hallelujah. They were ready to stick their thumb in the eye of Rome.
They were ready. But it was because they thought their condition was going to change. But God wanted their position spiritually to change. And as the church in a post-modern America where truth is falling in the street and God's looking for intercessors in a land in which we live today like this, it's incumbent upon us to understand this reality, God's looking to see that we are spiritually in the right position and the right posture.
Not necessarily looking for the perfect conditions. I want you to know that God is still God no matter who the president is. I want you to know that God is still God no matter what the stock market does. I want you to know that God is still God whether you have people in your home or whether you don't, whether you have money, whether you don't, whether your life's going great or not, whether you have a job or not.
I want you to know God is still God. Regardless of the conditions of our life, God is still God and He's still worthy to be praised. And He's looking for a people that will praise Him through the storm. He's looking for a people that will hold on to him regardless of the conditions of their life because the position of their soul is right Conditional faith is fickle conditional faith is fickle.
I worship you if the temperatures right God I'll go to church whenever I feel like it God. I'll serve you if they ask me to do what I want to do God Conditional faith is fickle. It gets bitter when it's offended Conditional faith gets weak it follows the pieces when life gets turned upside down Most of us have been alive long enough to know life has his way of turning upside down on us When we get the phone calls we don't want to get or we get the news report We don't want to get or we get involved in situations. We didn't ask to get involved in it Just come up on us life gets turned upside down conditional faith will fall apart like a wet paper bag If your faith is based on how beautiful the Sun is and not how beautiful Jesus is You'll find whenever it's raining that you fall apart But someone whose faith is built upon the rock of Jesus Christ will stand no matter how much it rains No matter how hard the wind blows no matter how big the storm is we know that our God is bigger than the storm We know that his promises are true and sure and they are going to come to pass whether we see it with our own eyes or not We know his word is sure and true and it will happen Conditional faith is also frail in the face of giants You can see this in the nation of Israel whenever Goliath came out against the whole nation and began to mock and make fun of them And young David comes up to the battle and he begins to say what who defies who defies the armies of the living God Who is this and David said this is there not a cause?
Don't you guys see right David was full of faith because his faith was built on who he was in God? He was built on his position in God if it was conditional he would be frail he would be scared He would be timid he would be shrinking back because he would think that the situation is bigger than his God But because his fate was positional he his fate was founded on who he was in God That's where his faith generated from that's where his worship generated from that's where his knowledge of who he was generated from And because he knew who he was positionally he didn't get frail on the day of adversity But his faith began to shine on the day of adversity and I want you to know that we can't prevent the day of adversity from happening on anybody But we can't intercede for them and this is the prayer just like Jesus prayed for Peter He said look Satan has come to sift you like wheat But I look he said but I have prayed for you I have prayed for you but that your faith would fail you not that your faith would remain that your faith would be founded on who you are in Me a body in me right he says in in John 15 a body in me and I in you and you will bear much fruit Regardless of the condition of the day is see the day of adversity came for Peter He thought he'd done failed Jesus, but Jesus prayed for him I want you to know this Jesus is praying for you. I don't know what the day of adversity is for you But I have a feeling you've been going through some adversity and I want you to know Jesus is praying for you I want you to know the Bible says that he is our mediator He is our intercessor. He is our high priest.
He is our King He is our Lord and he is the lover of your soul. He's praying for you the Bible says that he intercedes for us Hallelujah, he interceded for Peter Peter's faith stood he's interceding for you Just don't let your faith be conditional make sure your faith is positional make sure you know and understand who you are in Christ Not who you are in this life It's more important that you know who you are in Christ than who you are in this life This life's fleeting is going to pass away, but if you are who you are in Christ you will live for eternity with him in glory This crowd went from Hosanna to crucify him in a week You know some folks worship on Sunday, and then they do stuff they shouldn't do on Monday We will leave Friday not alone, right? None of them may be Friday too, but some people are like that though worship on Sunday and be completely different person on Monday around the Those friends or that work environment or that one person Listen listen they went from Hosanna to crucify him in seven days Why how is it possible for a whole town to shout? Hosanna, you know We saw this place they were bringing Jesus in on the donkey on this play and they were singing Hosanna And I mean they began to sing Hosanna and I began to cry because it was just beautiful But it only lasted about a minute I said why don't they just keep that going on?
I just want to keep seeing it I want to keep seeing a whole city just singing Hosanna Hosanna Hosanna worthy is the lamb I want to see it, but you know what? I'm sure Jesus wanted to see it keep going too, but the worship stopped Because the worship wasn't based on spiritual reality The worship was based on conditional favorability When the worship is not based on a spiritual reality it is temporal it's fickle So we must see and understand that any kind of fate that is not birth from the right position Is conditional and just like them we would be the same ones to go from Hosanna to crucify him Someone who doesn't understand who they are in Christ if they begin to put more faith in their government or more faith in America Or more faith in their spouse or more faith in their job or whatever when those things begin to be taken away and those things begin to change And those things begin to fall apart. They'll think God has left them, but God has not left you God beautifully says it in Psalm 23 the yay though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me even if I have to go through the valley of the shadow of death I know God's not going to leave my side if all of the earth turns against me I still know that God's for me and the Bible tells me this beautiful promise that if God be for me who can be against me Let all of the earth come against you if God's for you, it'll be all right Trust in who you are positionally trust in who you are and who God is to you and in you Trust that trust that turn with me if you will to Hebrews chapter 13 The condition of our soul is so important to God But in today's church age in today's generation We're more concerned with the right presentation With the way that things appear with the way that things look with the way that it makes us feel feelings are fleeting feelings are fleeting I've been to a church one time and I saw a guy talking about You know working behind the scenes. He was training somebody.
He said hey if you ever want to see the spirit fall Just hit the reverb up and you don't know what that is good for you But in their worship if they turn the reverb up it makes evibration It makes it it makes you feel it in your skin makes you just feel the noise and the people think he said if you ever want to see the spirit Fall turn that up Manipulating the people of God Manipulating the people of God but some people are fine being manipulated Some people are fine being manipulated, but God's raising up a generation right now that understands we need more than that God's raising up a people right now that understands I need the genuine real thing You know that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result You keep doing the same thing, but you think things are gonna change angle change You got it. You got to change something you got to change something how insane is the church today? How many profiting evangelists do we need on TV asking us to sow seeds and to go to their conference and bow their books and DVDs And CDs how many how many times do we need all this kind of tapestry in the reverb to be turned up? So that we think that God's moving and then we see the nation falling apart We see as it says and I say a truth is falling in the street and nobody is burdened over it God wondered God wondered why there was no intercessor Meaning why is nobody bothered that we have a generation today that is going to battle a a transgender abortion homophobic racist government We're going to see things come upon the church and we are still allowing the same insanity to go on Nothing's going to change in the nation if the church doesn't change I'm a spiritual hero Charles Finney.
He said as goes the pulpit so goes the nation Pastors got to get on fire our pastors got to have that anointing our pastors have to speak the word of God We're not we're not called to give book reports behind the pulpit We're called to speak the truth the word of God to speak it uncompromisingly to give the world today What it truly needs which is the spirit of God and it flows into each one of our lives We all have this call in our lives We are called as the men and women of God to be as I said earlier to go out into the community and be a source that God can Pour his spirit upon and through into other people's lives that God's light would reflect off of you and into the darkness around you That you would be able to speak a word in due season to your children to your grandchildren to your spouse to your aunt to your Uncle to your neighbor to your boss your co-worker to people at the supermarket or wherever near and far away Our call is that people would be right and reconciled to God Our call is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ not to build churches not to build denominations not to build buildings Not to build our own kingdom, but to seek God's kingdom first He said seek his kingdom first and all these things will be added unto you But it's got to be our primary function to share the gospel with people that are dying and going to hell broken because our society is so Vile and it's not going to get unvile until we begin to bring the truth to it And so we begin to lift and exalt to Jesus Christ for who he is until we begin to share God's mercy is available for each and every person No matter if they've had 20 abortions or murdered 20 people or stolen 20 pencils No matter how vile the sin is no matter how dark the past is Mercy is available for each and every person through faith in Jesus Christ today because his blood still cleanses the vilest of sinners And it still sets the captives free today And we we must be heralds of this life saving gospel We must bring this gospel to those that are in darkness today We don't know how long that they have we don't know how long we have and we don't know how long until the Lord comes back But we know if we're alive today, it's an opportunity to share the gospel to let your light shine Amen to let your light shine our job is to use whatever God's given us for his glory Amen for his glory and that souls will be saved God's giving you different talents callings God's giving you ability God's giving you a unique personality and he will use you in a unique way Pray seek his face and watch the burden that he gives you a lot of people today They don't want burdens they think I need to let go of all those burdens Yeah, you do need to let go of those burdens, but you need to take up Jesus's He said coming to me all you who are what weary and heavy-laden right now. I'll give you rest He said but he said take my yoke take my yoke take my yoke. It's light. It's good It'll cause your spirit to come alive if you take up the yoke of Jesus Most of us think well, I'm just supposed to be burdened free so I can be carefree and do what I want I want no you missed that part go back and read it again Jesus said coming to me he'll give you rest, but he's calling you to take his yoke Take his name to the lost take his mercy to the soul that is stuck in sin One of my favorite preachers he passed through to church in Tennessee He used to go down to the to the prison there and minister to people on death row Couldn't see him face to face.
He'd only be able to preach to him through the bars And he said one guy who was preaching to just begin to weep and weep and weep God had saved him miraculously through the preaching of this old gospel preacher He said you mean God can forgive me for what I did? I don't deserve that and that old preacher said none of us do son None of us do his last request was to touch the hand of that preacher just to give him thanks He was able to hold his hand before he went to the electric chair and then he went to glory And to pay his debt to society, but Jesus paid the debt of a sin Amen, and he received that payment. He received he believed on what Jesus did for his sins He was miraculously born again You know God God has a written people off the Bible says that God is not willing that any ship perish God's desire is to reconcile this world to himself through faith in Jesus Christ This must be the missional mandate of the church of Jesus Christ Our job is to preach this gospel not to build our kingdom Our job is not to make people feel good It's the it's to help them get right with God Don't lose sight of that. Don't lose sight of that.
Okay Hebrew chapter 13 read with me in verse number 11 Hebrew chapter 13 Let's start with verse number 11 now. This is deep. It's strong You might want to take a deep breath as we go through this Verse 11 it says for the bodies of those beasts whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin Are burned without the camp meaning the Old Testament sacrifices for sin when they brought that blood into the temple and they begin to cleanse the temple And it was to appease the sin of the nation of Israel for one year They would bring the blood in but the body they burned it outside the camp Says the verse 12 where for Jesus also that he might sanctify the people with his own blood Suffered without the gate See he he knew it was his blood that would cleanse us from all our sin It was his blood that we reconcile you to a holy god It was his blood that would appease the wrath of god for the sin that we committed His blood cleanses us from all our sin But it his body Lord if there be any other way if there be any other way lord Is no other way It's no other way Nevertheless Not my will Thy will be done Jesus came to that place in the garden of Gethsemane as he began to pray and he's he began to To spray sweat drops of blood begin to proceed out of his body because he knew the agony not because of the torture physically of the cross But because the sin of the world was about to be laid upon him that we could then truly say by his stripes We were healed our iniquity was put upon him and he had to truly let that body go He had to truly surrender his life to the will the plan the eternal plan that god had throughout all the ages and to let that Sinless spotless body died to let it go And they took him outside the city and he had to walk up that hill with that cross and he had to go by his self They forced him to carry it till he got to the point of exhaustion and then they had to get someone to help him carry it But all the the people that had began to sing hosanna were now shouting crucifying were spitting on him were mocking him And he goes up that hill The same hill that david brought the skull of goliath he goes up that hill carrying that cross By itself No, no encouraging people nobody laying down palm leaves But on a mission The bible says in another place that for the joy that was set before him he endured the cause despising the shame The joy that was set before him was the purchase the redemption of our soul We must not lessen that price And cause a society to think that they can get right with god without this faith This society will never change until we get back into a place where the gospel is the central message of the church It has to be When america was burnt the gospel was what the people preached When revival broke out in in scotland in ireland when revival broke out in germany when revival broke out in china the one central Commonality was that the gospel was the central thing preached and the spirit of god came upon that church And we're not going to see a change until we as god's people get back to where the gospel is the main thing Let's look at this it says that he suffered without the gate right jesus that he might sanctify the people with his own blood Suffered without the gate look at verse 13 let us go forth therefore unto him Without the camp Bearing his reproach This is a call to die to self We've been in roman 6 which is talking about being crucified with him being dead with christ which is not a good Conference banner. It's not good that bumper sticker.
It's not going to be a hot seller But we're called to die to self with christ to be dead in christ right roman 6 Galatians 2 Ephesians 1 we're called to die to self in christ till itself go and it says here that we're called to bear his reproach I don't want to do that I don't want to bear no reproach pastor. I don't want anybody making fun of me. I don't want anybody looking down on me I don't want anybody mocking me. I don't want anybody to make fun of me pastor.
You're called to bear his approach He he he was shamed by the same people that shouted hosanna. He was shamed. He bore the reproach He did not allow the mocking. He didn't allow the making fun of he didn't allow the laughter He didn't allow the giggling he didn't allow the taunting of the of the Pharisees he didn't allow any of that to deter him from going to calvary and laying down his life for our soul And we're called in the same manner to bear his reproach that the world may laugh at us It may mock us it may look down upon us But we're on a mission which is to see soul saved There is somebody out there in the world today that is looking for and depending on you bringing the gospel to their ears And we must not hold on to how we appear we must not hold on to our approach But we must bear that reproach that christ we must let ourselves go that christ may live within us It says We're called to go without the camp with him When when was the last time we were willing willingly allowed ourselves to be made fun of or to suffer approach for Jesus When uh German mystic i read about in the 1500s he was god moved in germany back then but when when when he was Sanctified holy guy everybody in town knew who he was you know He was just just godly man And one day this woman from another town that nobody knew he just showed up knocked on his door And when he opened that she threw this baby into his arms and she said here's the fruit of your sin He'd never seen the woman before You know what this was all about in the whole town the whole town Oh look behold the holy saint of god He's been a liar this whole time Now we know who he really is They begin to mock him they begin to make fun of him they begin to bring reproach on him And he began to cry out to god he went out got along with god and he said god this is more than i can bear How how can you know this woman do this i've never met her before i'm innocent i've never done this What am i supposed to do and god said bear this reproach It will help you it'll help you stay dead to self He went back into town and he never told a soul.
He didn't he didn't seek to avenge his dignity He let god do it on his own Four years later this woman came back to town broken began to shout rooftop and everywhere she had lied The damage was already done to his reputation But something changed in him something was forged in him he had identified with the reproach of jesus He knew he was innocent but he bore the shame He knew that he was not wrong but he allowed them to cast the wrong on him And he didn't say a word like jesus who as a lamb led before the slaughter did not open his mouth But he bore the shame of others and that's what god teaches us is to bear the inequities of others that we may do something And speak a word and do season to save their souls We must get eternally minded focused on the souls and not our reputation not how we look not the temperature is not good enough for me And i don't really care for this kind of that but getting missionally mandated minded That's our call today and it says here that this the same The same word continues in this next verse look at this he said For here, why would you bear the reproach? Why would you allow yourself to be shamed? Why would you allow as you know, you've got your life all together every every you know Tea is crossed and every eyes dotted you got it all together. Why would you allow the reproach of jesus to come upon you?
Why would you do that? Look at this next verse it says for here We have no continuing city, but we seek one to come In other words, we're not called to live for this life This life is not what? The goal of our soul is supposed to be about It's not supposed to be about our cars and our boats and our trailers and our houses and our clothes and what people think about us It's not supposed to be about any of that One of my favorite pastors count the zisendorf. He said preach the gospel die and be forgotten That should be our obituary But we want our obituary to read we did this we did this we did this and we left this and we went to that and we did this and we did that And this great man of god that started a revival in germany Started a revival so beautiful so so powerful they had a 100 year prayer meeting Before there were cars and planes they little village sent missionaries to every single continent on earth They were so bold in their faith.
That's what caused john wesley to get saved And this man's motto was preach the gospel die and be forgotten Well, how will people remember my name? Well, they know what I did and what I well Won't they know about me and about no they're supposed to know about jesus preach the gospel die and be forgotten that was the call It started a revival it birthed a movement throughout all the world people's lives and nations were changed eternally because of that kind of faith and that's the kind of faith that's going to take to cause this nation to come back to where God intends this nation to be our truth has fallen in the street We've allowed the society to fall the depravity of hell is gripping the children of this nation We can't continue to go down the road. We're on The things that they're allowing in schools. They're teaching these things to children.
They're teaching these children about sexual activities They're teaching children about transgender things or teaching children or ungodly things throughout the schools And yet the church has got another conference coming up with DVDs The answer is the cross The answer is dying to self The answer is giving who you are to god And letting god take over As a church. This is our call It says that we have no continuing city here. How much how much would the church be different if we got that? God look Some people got together and america was birthed god might have to make something new that'd be okay We're not supposed to be married to a nation.
We're supposed to be married to a savior Well, that don't sound very fun. Pastor. No, it don't But god's good and he'll provide water in the desert if we need it He'll protect us if we need it No goliath can defeat the armies of israel Our god is mighty in battle. Our gods never lost one battle.
I promise you we are safe in his hands I love that song we teach our children. He's got the whole world in his hands and we've forgotten that the church of the living god in this nation has forgotten that fact He's got the world in his hands We think our lives live and move because of who runs congress Says here here have we know continuing city but we seek one to come that's heavenly Jerusalem Now I just want to kind of marry these passages together because there was an early Jerusalem in Galatians chapter four Paul talks about this He writes about this there's an early Jerusalem, but there's a heavenly Jerusalem the heavenly Jerusalem is going to come down with Jesus We're going to live there We're talking about history. I don't mean I hope I get to go But I know whether it's this life or in the millennial one way or the other I'm gonna be there Praise be to god But look at this there is a there is a heavenly Jerusalem. That's the city we live for That's the flag we seek to plant In my home.
I want the flag of the new Jerusalem the heavenly Jerusalem planted In your home in this city in that school in that church in that government in that nation in every place our desire should be to plant the flag of god God rules this house What's going to change daddy? We're gonna start praying We're gonna start reading the bible together We're going to worship together. We're going to seek God's face together We're going to live for god We may not can change the world, but we can change we can start with our home Do you think that there's a correlation between this reality there used to be altars in every home The family used together around the altar maybe in just a coffee table they gather around it hold hands get down and pray We even do the same thing at home. Nobody eats around the table anymore Everybody eats in front of the tv when they want where they want how they want But there was a day and age when people gathered around the table And in godly homes there was a day and age when people gathered around an altar And the godly mother or the godly father would grab the hands of the children and they would begin to pray and they would be Going to seek God's face and I'm telling you this is what it's going to take to see a change in our nation Worship that is birds from a place of a good condition won't cut it You can hire the best songwriters from Nashville to write one million more of these worship songs that are 7-11 Style, you know seven words 11 times you can you can do that you can do that all that you want But if worship comes from our condition It's not going to cut it the hour in which we live demands more of us The hour in which we live demands more of us now our flesh is like pastor i got you but i'm good I know your flesh says that mine does too But the hour in which we live demands more Will you meet the demand of the hour?
Would you be willing to let go of self that god may live in you We said this on Wednesday nights in our babu studies, but i'll just say it here god will never resurrect what is not dead You want to walk in resurrection power you first got to experience the dead with christ Can't have it both ways you can't resurrect that which is alive Jesus told the Pharisee he didn't come for the righteous Would you mean you didn't come for the righteous? That's what jesus said he did not come for the righteous He can't resurrect that which thinks it's alive But he will beautifully powerfully and so Demonstratively resurrect the life that identifies with his death When you find yourself dead in christ you'll find the spirit of god Resurrect and give you new life It says in this next verse verse 15 Now there's there's a little bit of a play on here This is you know one of the reasons people think that paul wrote this but he said you know in the previous verse We're not called to live for a continuing city here. We're not looking for a continuing city here It's not about the here and now I mean if the here and now is is all that we live for we miss the main call on our lives Now you wonder why you're spiritually frustrated in the spirit of gods not using you like the uses others We're not called to live for the here and now we're not looking for a continuing city now We're looking for the one to come we're looking for heavenly Jerusalem to break open out the sky We're looking for the trumpet of god to sound we're looking for Jesus to come back You know I grew up in a church that was hellfire brimstone and that preacher used to preach calm Lord Jesus come come back today Come get us break through the sky. I mean they would pray calm Lord Jesus come And I was sitting there, you know as a young kid and I was I love you Jesus, but please don't come today I got a life.
I need to live I've got stuff I want to do But you understand God calls us to let go of self to love him more than self To love him more than self God calls us to that place and I thank God I heard those prayers I thank God that I heard those prayers burst something in me I didn't even know what at the time But you know whenever you get around people that are on fire from God the spirit of God will plant something in you and he'll pop it out At the right time In the burning of our soul the burning my our church is marinat that we're called a look for the new Jerusalem That's the flag we fly So it says it's not this continuing city the one to come we're 15 by him therefore Jesus by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually That is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name listen to this get this please get this Conditional faith looks for a continuing city now positional faith gives continual worship now You see there's two continuals Can the people that their faith exist because of the condition They look for a continuing city But if you are in the right position spiritually if God's done what he needs to do in you If you've surrendered yourself to God if if you let go of self and you found new life in Christ If you have found the right position spiritually You will find yourself worshiping continually That's what he said We we find this in the lives you can't stop somebody from worshiping God who is in the right position spiritually When their soul is right from God they will sing all day long a new song A new song will they sing With a new heart will they give glory to God? With the tongues of men and the tongues of angels whatever the case may be they will glorify their God When the sun is shining and even when it's raining When you're in the right position spiritually your life will worship God continually You ever wonder why sometimes it's hard for us to worship it's hard for us to get in it It's because we're not right spiritually. We have to pray through we have to get on our face before God We have to let go of things that we need to let go of and ask for giving us or things We need to ask for giving us for repentance must be Must be had before we can have the spirit of God Repentance must proceed the movement of God and when we as the people of God settle settle for less We'll never experience this kind of revival that our nation needs that the church needs today that we personally need today But any person who is positionally spiritually right with God their life their life I mean from the time that they wake up to the time they go to bed From the time that they have a job to the time they don't from the time that they're burying a loved one to the time that they're seeing One of their children born from every time every season they know God is faithful in every season in all things give thanks Amen praise God continually in every season that God is present Yay, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death our fear no evil for thou art with me if he's with you If he's with you he's worthy to be praised if he's with you he's worthy to be praised and he is with you He is with you. He's continually present He is continually present let this be birthed in you He is continually present even when the conditions are not favorable I remember one time when it's not fun whenever you lose your job.
Nobody likes it But I remember when our first first we the same week we found out we were pregnant with our first child with the same week a lost job And it was hard fun. It was like there was a huge wall It was just it took a miracle just to get a job when I got that job and and and and and the same week we found that we were pregnant with our first Child the same week. Hey, guess what everybody's out of a job 300 people out of a job like that same week They said to look up and the Lord say you know what? I'm not even going to worry about it I'm not even going to worry about it You know if if we begin to see that God reigns that God is in control even when the situation is not favorable We'll begin to find a place where we can worship God through those dark days And I want you to know that that faith is available for each and every one of us that kind of faith is available for each and every one of us I know people that have faced bigger battles and I can ever even dream about and they've had the spirit of God come upon them And they've worshiped God through cancer diagnosis.
They've worshiped God through going in a nursing home They've worshiped God through losing a spouse. They've worshiped God through losing children They've worshiped God like joe did from the time He lost all his possessions and all his family except for a while that nag that even told him to despise God He lost it all but he didn't lose his heart for God And God ended up restoring each and every one of those things to him Don't let the conditions of your life steal who you are in God If you're right positionally spiritually your life will be continually It was source of worship Pray always pray always look what it says here. It says at the end of this verse It says by him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips Giving thanks to his name what name? Jesus Giving thanks to Jesus.
He's the king. He's the king his name his name still saves souls today His name still drives out demons today His name still opens up blind eyes His name still opens doors that men have shut on you His name still creates bridges over grand canyons his name still works miracles His name by his name by his name. We will worship him By his name We will glorify our God and I want you to know this I want you to know this God's called you to this Not because of how good you are but because of how good he is He's invited you into a life of faith Continually letting go of self continually finding new life in him God found us in a position When adam and eve sinned in the garden of edent god found us in a position where we couldn't help ourselves anymore He testified of this because in genesis chapter three he came down and he slaughtered an innocent animal on behalf of adam and eve They had never seen anything die before and god killed that first animal And god put the skin of that animal on adam and eve Can you imagine the whore They never seen anything die God come down he killed an animal when he put the skin on him to show him How depraved their sin was and the cost of restitution On a grander scale our sin in the same way separated us from god And in the course of time over the course of prophetic time god came and to this earth 2000 years ago He came into the womb of maria. He did not lay aside his deity.
He's eternally god He laid aside his glory so he didn't blind anybody He came into maria's womb and and god manifested in the flesh and god lived a sinless and holy life And when he went to calvary there was no sin That he committed When he went up there he came as our sin bearer He bore our sin our iniquity our shame our transgressions were put upon him the book of colonsians It says that the handwriting of ordinances against us was nailed to that cross Whatever the devil can say about you. Jesus said he nailed it to that cross What is the devil whisper to you about what you did? Jesus nailed what you did to the cross And the Bible says that he led his life go Into that hands I commit my spirit He led his life go he bled and he died on that cross He physically died not spiritually died. He's god His body physically was laid in that tomb for three days and on the third day on that sunday morning He rose from the dead Today, Jesus is still alive Jesus is still alive today The gospel If you believe this gospel and confess with your mount that jesus christ's lord the bible says you would be saved And god doesn't intend you to have to struggle and have to try to swim uphill on your own and in your own strength But god loves you so much that he would come and he would live in you and he would empower you He would baptize you with his holy spirit and give you the ability to live a holy life and be a holy witness in this generation Not in your own strength not in your own ability But as god moving through you so that you can say as paul said that it was about christ living in him He said I am crucified with christ nevertheless I live yet not I but christ live it in me Does christ live in you?
There's a spirit