8.1.21 - Sunday Morning Service

[Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] you [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Laughter] bad [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Applause] [Music] you [Music] [Laughter] [Music] [Applause] foreign good morning and welcome to the lord's house today our thanks to brother gary ryler for that saxophone solo we played jesus loves me by bradbury and arranged by olstad i'd like to welcome you whether you're here in our sanctuary audience or if you're viewing by way of the webcast at apostolic faith.org or if you're listening in on the radio at 93.9 kpdq on your fm dial we're so thankful that you've joined us this morning we pray the lord will bless you for doing so this is the apostolic faith church located at 5601 southeast duke street here in portland we'll continue now brother gary will play for us again this is my father's world along with he's got the whole world in his hands arranged by adams and following that the choir will sing i plead the blood arranged by goss [Laughter] [Music] hmm [Applause] hmm [Music] [Music] [Music] me [Music] bye [Music] foreign [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] sometimes darkness overwhelms me finding me till i can see storm clouds gather strong winds threatened to try and take this faith i feel afraid i take my stand and buy [Music] his and trust the work that mercy does there's no power to fill my heart with sorrow take hope from my tomorrows when it does [Music] misery [Music] is this precious [Music] when it's goes bleed forward [Music] our thanks to brother gary in the choir for that prelude it's our turn to sing together now why don't you take your hymnal and turn to page 300 all glory lord and honor we'll have brother gary lead us in this song and some others of his choosing we'll let him choose the verses but we'll begin with page 300. we'll do verses one and three and then our keyboards will take us into the next song and we'll do we will glorify across the page one time through okay here we go [Music] is [Music] is [Music] [Music] [Music] we were foreign [Music] is [Music] [Music] i 345 will be our next song what a wonderful savior is jesus that's a simple phrase and it means so much to us we'll do verses one three and four one three and four three hundred and forty-five i'll say [Music] jesus christ [Music] oh [Music] [Music] me [Music] he gives me [Music] is [Music] [Music] uh 325 325 asked the question why should he love me so it's a good question we're thankful he does though we'll go ahead and do verses one and two first two verses three hundred and twenty-five [Music] is [Music] my [Music] my [Music] i [Music] [Music] is [Music] amen 308 will be our song before prayer 308 simply states there is a redeemer if you don't know who he is you can learn about that this morning and he can be yours this morning if he hasn't yet let's go ahead and do verses one and two and the second verse will stand remain standing to be that in prayer [Music] is [Music] [Music] is is [Music] oh [Music] as we look to the lord at this time we'll ask brother tom to lead us in prayer our heavenly father how grateful we are today that we can come to a mighty god that can look down and meet the needs of each one of these people our your people that you have made a difference in our lives through jesus precious blood we're thankful today lord that we can gather together in the house of god to worship the lord and praise the lord and sing unto the lord and give you honor for we're come by faith believing that you will meet the needs of many people that you will heal the sick touch lives and your holy word will reach out to our hearts lord to be something special for today and the days ahead of us you should tarry bless now we pray jesus name amen thank you again for coming out this morning or tuning our way lord willing we'd encourage you to join us again this evening for our six o'clock evening service and then again this coming tuesday and friday those services will be at 7 30 and you're welcome to join us for both of those services do you be praying for the musgraves and the downies they are at midwest camp i believe this is the opening sunday so be praying for them and the saints there as they worship together that the lord would pour out a spirit and give them a time of refreshing also just a reminder the new portland link newsletter is available online and you can pick pick up a print copy at the greeter's desk on your way out this morning we'll continue now with our service we have a ladies quartet azaria nikita diana and savannah will sing your god alone with how great is our god following that brother daryl will bring the scripture reading from the book of luke and then before the message this morning diana lambert will sing the last special sometimes he whispers [Music] you are not a god created by human hands you are not a god dependent [Music] [Music] that's just the way it is [Music] that's just the way it is [Music] and right now in the good times you're the only god who's power none can contend you're the only god who's name and praise will never end you're the only god who's worthy of everything we can give you are god that's just the way it is [Music] and [Music] unshakable unstoppable that's what you are [Music] unchangeable unshakable [Music] and right now in the good times how great is how great [Music] how great is our god [Music] and all see how great how great [Music] the scripture reading has been selected from the gospel according to saint luke chapter 19. the first 10 verses and jesus entered and passed through jericho and behold there was a man named zacchaeus which was the chief among the publicans and he was rich and he sought to see jesus who he was and could not for the press because he was little of stature and he ran before and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him for he was to pass that way and when jesus came to the place he looked up and saw him and said unto him zacchaeus make haste and come down for today i must abide at thy house and he made haste and came down and received him joyfully and when they saw it they all murmured saying that he was gone to be guest of a man that was a sinner and zacchaeus stood and said unto the lord behold lord the half of my goods i give to the poor and if i have taken anything from any man by false accusation i restore him for fold and jesus said unto him this day is salvation come to this house for as much as he also is a son of abraham for the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost [Music] [Music] [Music] it's been one of those days that drives me to my knees when there are more questions than answers and all of the things that i can't figure out leave me with more tears than laughter i don't know how he's gonna move but i know he knows what i need sometimes he's water to the thirsty sometimes he's fire oh consuming sometimes his voice [Music] is sometimes you whispers so i'll be listening while i'm waiting on him and i'll choose to trust that the same one who spoke the world into place is the same one who will speak peace to me i don't know how he's gonna move but i know he knows [Music] sometimes his voice [Music] is water to the thirsty sometimes he's fire oh consuming sometimes his voice [Music] is [Music] sometimes you whispers [Music] we'll take our text this morning from the scripture reading luke chapter 19. we'll reread verses 5-9 and when jesus came to the place he looked up and saw him and said unto him zacchaeus make haste and come down for today i must abide at thy house and he made haste and came down and received him joyfully and when they saw they all murmured saying that he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner and zacchaeus stood and said unto the lord behold lord the half of my goods i give to the poor and if i have taken anything from any man by false accusation i restore him four fold and jesus said unto him this day is salvation come to this house for as much as he also is the son of abraham with the lord's help this morning we'll consider another bible doctrine we'll be looking at the doctrine of restitution webster gives us some definitions of restitution it's an act of returning something restoring something to its rightful owner and making good of or giving an equivalent for some injury it can be a legal action that serves to cause restoration of a previous state i came up with some of my own definitions of restitution actions taken to correct past wrongs an effort to compensate a victim for their loss or desire to correct a past injustice this is a bible doctrine this doctrine of restitution it is spoken of throughout the old testament and it is exemplified in the new testament we can go back to the old testament clear back to the book of exodus chapter 22 and you see all kinds of laws that the lord gave to the children of israel regarding restitution for all kinds of things in exodus chapter 21 verse 33 and 34 it talked about restoring somebody's property if you cause property damage it says here that if a man shall open a pit or if a man shall dig a pit and not cover it and an ox or an asphalt therein the owner of the pit shall make it good and give money unto the owner of them and the dead beast shall be his so we see here if it was a negligence on the part of an individual and a neighbor's animal was hurt or killed it was a responsibility of that man who was negligent and careless to restore that oxen and he was responsible for that dead animal throughout exodus 22 it speaks about other ways of repaying uh for animals that were injured and killed these were considered people's personal property at the time because it was a large agricultural people worked the land so animals were considered part of that property and the lord covered the loss of animals the stealing of animals was covered in 22 verses 1 through 4 the lord spoke about how to restore that which was taken unlawfully in exodus 22 verse 9 it speaks about how they were supposed to uh make restitution for others belongings if somebody committed something into your trust and it got damaged or stolen the lord spoke about that in exodus 22 verse 9 it says for all manner of trespass whether it be for ox for ass for sheep for raiment or for any manner of lost thing which another challengeth to be his the cause of both parties shall come before the judges and whom the judges shall condemn he shall pay double unto his neighbor so we can see the lord took this very seriously these are just some of the laws there's numerous laws for all kinds of different trespasses and ways to make restitution in the book of leviticus when the law was being further established and god was handing the commandments down to moses in the levitical law he included laws regarding restitution leviticus chapter 6 the first five verses speaks about what needed to be done to make a trespass offering and that was offering or sacrifice for a sin that had been committed knowingly or wittingly against a neighbor it says in the lord speaking to moses saying if a soul sin and commit a trespass against the lord and lie unto his neighbor and that which was delivered him to keep or in fellowship or in a thing taken away by violence or hath deceived his neighbor or have found that which was lost and lieth concerning it and sweareth falsely in any of all these that a man doeth sinning therein then it shall be because he hath sinned and is guilty that he shall restore that which he took violently away or the thing which he had deceitfully gotten or that which was delivered him to keep or the lost thing which he found talks about saying things that were taken violently away or taken deceitfully talks about things that were alone that were never returned it talks about things that were found you know if you know who the rightful owners and you find something you're to return it it's not finders keepers not in that case if you know who the rightful owner is it was commanded to return that thing the lord covered all of this in the old testament law and they had to take care of these things before they could even come and offer that trespass offering it said after they've done these things says and then he shall bring his trespass offering unto the lord iran without blemish out of the flock with thy estimation for a trespass offering under the priest so we can see the lord took this thing we call restitution very seriously we read in god's word we see some accounts where restitution led to restoration we see this on a national level we have different accounts but there's an account in the book of 2nd samuel chapter 21 it tells us that god had sent a famine in the land of israel and he did it because saul had broken a covenant that the israelites had made with the gibeonites and that broken covenant that broken promise the wrong was never corrected it had never been rectified and so now david became king it tells us here in chapter 21 verse one it says then there was a famine in the days of david three years year after year and david inquired of the lord and the lord answered it is for saul and for his bloody house because he slew the gibeonites so for three years they had this famine in the land and when david asked the lord about it he reminded him it was because of a covenant that had been broken by the children of israel by saul and he was letting him know that restitution needed to be made for that you know i wonder how many people struggle from spiritual famine because they neglect to take things take care of things in their past that need to be corrected what was david's response well i suppose he could have responded a couple of different ways he could have said well that's in the past you know that's old news what's done is done let's just move forward and and forget about it but we see he had a different response in verse two through four it says and the king called the gibeonites and said unto them now the gibeonites were not of the children of israel but of the remnant of the amorites and the children of israel had sworn unto them and saul sought to slay them in a zeal to the children of israel and judah wherefore david said unto the gibeonites what shall i do for you and wherewith shall i make the atonement that ye may bless the inheritance of the lord and the gibeonite said unto him we will have no silver nor gold of saul nor of his house neither for us thou shalt kill any man in israel and he said what ye shall say that will i do for you david was willing to go back and correct the wrongs correct those things that had been done deceitfully he was willing to do whatever it took to correct the problem he didn't uh demand forgiveness he asked him what do you want me to do how do i repay you for this past violation against you you know he did that on a national level he did whatever it was that was in his power to do to take care of that problem you know i suppose the children of israel this was a new beginning for them they could have thought well you know saul is dead god had ordained david to be the new king you know that old life under king saul and his failed leadership that was all over that was a thing of the past those past failures and defeats were behind them you know and they were moving forward they were leaving the past behind it it's kind of like getting saved and yet what did god require of king david he said he had to go back he had to rectify the wrongs that had been caused and until he did that they couldn't move forward so we know david did what was required how do you think that impacted the gibeonites it says they were not of the children of israel but of the remnant of the amorites and the children of israel had sworn unto them they weren't part of god's chosen people you could say they were heathens or sinners how do you think they viewed the children of israel during this time probably not very favorably they probably thought these are people that are supposed to represent the living god they should be trustworthy and honest and they've deceived us they could have had a very bad opinion of god's children the children of israel but we see as we read that account it had an impact on them it had an impact on the nation of israel at that time and it was proof to them that god does keep his word god is a god of righteousness and judgment you know some would scoff at the idea of restitution there are those even in christian circles that say well you know it's not necessary god's forgiveness is so far-reaching he doesn't really expect us to go back and take care of the past just the opposite is true and god's word bears that out someone once said if i robbed mr x and god saves me well how will that help mr x won't do a thing for him you know if i'm driving a stolen car before i'm saved does that mean i get to drive it after i'm saved of course not that's foolish what if i rolled up in the church parking lot one of the saints recognized hey that's my car what would the expectation be you return it even the civil laws of the land require that well god doesn't expect anything less it's been said forgiveness doesn't transfer property rights to the thief needs to be repaid god expects us to go back when we can and how we can to take care of those things that are in the past of course we know the end results to this account this is that there's a happy ending to this account tells us as david took all those steps necessary for restitution god responded by lifting the famine and releasing his blessings in verse 14 it says they performed all the king commanded them and after that god was entreated for the land they took care of what needed to be taken care of and god poured out the blessing upon them once again you know it makes a big impact probably nothing is more powerful than a christian that goes back and tries to make amends for people they've wronged in their past that's a powerful testimony to the world i thought about brother bruce archer's testimony he committed so many crimes he said he could have spent the rest of his life behind bars but when the lord saved him he began to go over those restitutions and one man he had to write a letter to and he'd taken a large large sum of money from this man and he wrote a letter and told him what had happened and told him how the lord had changed and transformed him and he would do whatever he could to pay that man back that man responded by saying i don't want anything from you i want you to pray for me so i can have the same thing in my heart you have god will help you i thought about brother dwayne wilson a testimony he gave some time back he said you know i didn't get myself into these problems overnight and i didn't get him i get out of them overnight but as the lord laid those restitutions on his heart he would go back and the lord would be with them and help him and bless him and help him to to take care of the things that needed to be done you know renewal sometimes requires restoration sometimes you can be going along in your christian walk and especially for new converts you can be zealous and you feel like you're really gaining spiritual ground but there may be times when you feel like maybe you've hit a wall and you're not really getting anywhere with the lord sometimes it's during those times that the lord could come along and remind you of a restitution or something that you need to take care of i thought again of another testimony brother eugene marshall told about being saved when he was living in virginia he said before he found the lord he was just a wretched miserable person he was a gambler and a drunkard he grew tobacco that's how he made his living and he would leave sometimes and go get drunk and leave his wife and baby with hardly anything to even eat he would come home in that condition and just violent and vile he said he'd shoot at the cats and anything else he could find but one day he found himself in a church service and god miraculously spoke to his heart and he said he went to that altar of prayer and he laid down all of those birds and those sins at the lord's feet and god forgave him said he transformed his home he said he had a happy home and one of the first things he realized after he was saved was he would have to stop growing tobacco and he that's all he knew it's all the only way he could make a living so he prayed he said lord if you'll just help me i'll do that for you and god in no time at all gave him a good job he said he had a mortgage on his home that he was falling behind on him when the lord gave him that new job he said no time at all his mortgage was paid off and god helped him blessed him well he'd been saved for some years and just kind of going along in this condition here not really getting anywhere since some years later a preacher came to virginia where he was living he was preaching about restitution after the sermon the minister asked well why aren't you making spiritual progress he said when you get down to pray what do you see what are you looking at he said i see a five dollar gold piece and it gets bigger all the time he told him about the story behind that five dollar gold piece he said i was driving the woman i worked for to church and she stepped out of her carriage she dropped a five dollar gold piece from her purse and it hit the sand she didn't see it so i put my number 10 on it and i hid it well after hearing this of course the minister said you're going to have to take care of this this may have been the first message he ever heard on restitution later that evening he said i climbed into my buggy with my wife and child and we started for home as the old mules hooves hit the road they seemed to say make restitution make restitution it says for five miles that mule preached restitution to me when he got home he couldn't wait to get that mule in the barn and get to bed and but he couldn't sleep and he would toss and turn he said the old springs in his bed would say restitution restitution and finally he tossed and turned and he just told the lord lord if you let me live to see the morning i'll take care of that of course the lord did and he got up the next morning early i told his wife don't even bother cooking breakfast he hitched up the mule he drove that five miles to that lady's house and he knocked on her door and he handed her a five dollar bill and explained what he had done and how the lord saved him of course she was thrilled she forgave him freely well he said i thought that was the end of it but god resurrected my memory said it cost me several hundred dollars before all my restitutions were made but he said when i paid up god gave me the victory god came down god met him sometimes we need to get some things out of the way if we want to be renewed and restored you know in jesus own words matthew 5 verses 23 and 24 therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar and thou remember us that the brother hath ought against thee leave there thy gift before the altar and go thy way first be reconciled to thy brother and then come and offer that gift if you're getting down to pray and something comes up and you realize there's some unresolved things to take care of take care of those things jesus says don't bother offering your gift until you do those things but once you do those channels will be open again and the lord's spirit can come down and begin to help and encourage and strengthen restitution leads to reconciliation and revival and even healing james 5 16 says confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that ye may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much confess your faults one to another if you're harboring resentment or bitterness against somebody you're not going to get anywhere with the lord it says confess those things pray for one another that ye may be healed i thought of another account brother randy castle told a story years ago at camp meeting he told about an older man who lived in newfoundland in a very rural area so access to hospitals and clinics were very limited and one day this man had fallen down in his home and broken his arm he was in terrible pain to make matters worse he only had one arm he had lost the other one in a logging accident years before so obviously he was in dire dire straits and called the saints to come out and pray for him so a little group gathered they came out to this man's house and they were sitting in the living room praying for him and nothing was happening it was like the heavens were brass and he was just writhing in agony and after some time he finally got up out of the seat and he walked over to one of the sisters that had come to pray for him and he told her that he had been harboring some bitterness in his heart against her for years she had no idea and of course she freely forgave him and he went back to his seat and they began to pray something happened the heavens opened up the spirit of god came down touched that man healed him completely and they had this time of fellowship and communion with the lord but he had to get that thing out of the way for him to be healed and god did a wonderful work that day you know one of the greatest examples of restitution we find in the new testament it was in our account the account of zacchaeus again luke 19 it gives us a description of zacchaeus verse 1 says he was a chief publican and he was rich verse 7 says he was a sinner kind of gives us a thumbnail sketch of what type of person he was said he was a publican publican was a tax collector they were hated and despised by their own people because often they were jewish citizens working for the roman government and they would extort all kinds of taxes from their own people they basically got wealthy on the backs of their fellow man imagine an irs agent with unbridled power it's pretty terrifying if you think about it that's kind of what a publican was and so he was despised they were notoriously crooked and dishonest and it says he was the chief not only was he republican but he was the chief he was the republican of publicans you might say despised hated considered by those around him to be a sinner even in verse 7 is this man's a sinner the crowd was mostly jewish probably that day but in that culture in that society if if the pharisees or the jews labeled a person a sinner that was often somebody who in their eyes was was really beyond hope they were even too vile at times to even be allowed in the temple to make sacrifices so this is the opinion that people had of zacchaeus and it was a well-learned opinion he he earned that opinion not the candidate we had any any of us would think would be a candidate for salvation but it tells us in that account he says he was looking for jesus verse 2 says he sought to see him who he was you know he had heard about jesus but something was different that day he wanted to see jesus find out who he was for himself he went to great efforts to see the lord says he was little of stature you know what that wasn't just true physically but socially spiritually he was little in everybody's eyes he was this rich little tyrant with no friends and he was despised and no doubt had again spent his life cheating others but it says that as he heard jesus was coming he ran ahead and he climbed up into a sycamore tree what he probably didn't realize was that jesus was looking for him that day verse 5 it says that when jesus came to the place he looked up and saw him and said unto him zacchaeus make haste and come down for today i must abide at thy house imagine how that must have shocked zacchaeus jesus knew in my name says i must needs come to your house that wasn't even a request that was more of an imperative we see that this appointment had been preordained by the lord himself the lord knew who he was lord knew where he was and what he was lord knew what he needed and he knew what he could become same thing can be said of any of us lord knows who we are lord knows who you are the lord knows where you've been the lord knows what you've done but the lord knows what you need he says he came to seek in the save that which was lost that kia certainly fit the bill there and the lord invited him to come down and it said we realized too you know what jesus invited himself to zacchaeus house we don't invite jesus in first without him first letting us know he wants to come in he says behold i stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open at the door i will come into him and sup with him and i'll receive him but we have to open that door when the lord says i want to come and i want to spend time with you i want to come into your house we need to allow the lord to do that we see how zacchaeus responded to the lord's request and said he made haste came down and he received him joyfully and i believe that was the moment when he experienced true salvation something happened from the moment from the time he was up in that tree deal his feet hit the ground there was this transaction that had taken place in his heart between he and the lord of course there were skeptics in the crowd naturally so they said this man i said when they saw they all murmured saying this man is a sinner but we read verse 8 through 10 and zacchaeus stood and said unto the lord behold lord the half of my goods i give to the poor and if i have taken anything from any man by false accusation i restore him fourfold and jesus said unto him this day is salvation come to this house for as much as he also is a son of abraham for the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost the very next words out of zacchaeus mouth the next actions he was willing to take he felt compelled to take was to make restitution to his fellow man to go back and try to somehow correct those things that he had done wrong in his past you know restitution wasn't a prerequisite for his salvation but it was a result of a salvation that is a fruit of genuine repentance someone said forgiveness is not a substitute for restitution but the foundation of it the great definition for restitution says it's repentance and action that's a genuine sign of true repentance as restitution wanting to go back and do whatever we can to make the past right you know the lord will bless us when we do that if you have restitutions to make god will help you god will be with you chances are zacchaeus may have had restitution that would take him the rest of his life to make but god was gonna help him god was gonna bless them there's some church historians that say that zacchaeus went on to be a prominent leader in caesarea we don't have any historical proof of that but one thing we do know the bible says that day salvation came to his house he received the lord joyfully and his heart was changed he wanted to make those past things right why is this so important for us today well the bible tells us jesus is coming soon the word gives us every indication and every thing in his word lets us know it could be at any moment it could be today it's imminent the lord is going to return and it says he's coming back for his church or his bride he lets us know what that bride will look like in ephesians 5 27 it's going to be a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish jesus said he wants to present us holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight you know we need to make sure everything is clean and clear and right in our lives not just between us and god but between us and our fellow man we don't want any blemishes any spots we want to be uh standing before the lord unreprovable and unblameable how do we do that well paul tells us he says in here do i exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense between god toward god and toward man say exercise himself to always have that free conscience that clear conscience how's your conscience this morning is the lord speaking to you about something that you need to take care of trust god he'll help you do it there's no there's no greater peace in all the world than knowing we have a conscience void of offense between god and our fellow man we want to be ready when the lord returns god can help you today let's sing 653 of these altars are open [Music] so [Music] this [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] heavenly father we're so thankful for the power there isn't the blood of jesus to wash the human heart whiter than snow we thank you for the power to take away sin and enable us empower us to live a life without sinning any anymore we're thankful lord that you'll help us to make the past right to the extent that we are able to do so we're thankful as we consecrate and dedicate our hearts and lives to you that you will help us fit to be ready for the rapture we just thank you lord for the privilege of prayer now help us to capitalize on this opportunity in this house of prayer those watching or listening may also do the same wherever they happen to be we're thankful lord for your goodness your grace and your love in jesus name amen [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] you

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Length: 90min 37sec (5437 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 01 2021