Along The Way - Marcues Baptiste

[Music] [Applause] manny man you may be seated in jesus name uh these moments are uh are a little harder for me to navigate uh for a few reasons uh one and one in particular is that i i adjust to different flows of ministry when i'm home and when i'm gone and there are moments when the lord kind of merges the two i don't i don't mean to get too stuck in pentecostal language but uh there are times when you step out of the building or you're in another place and you step into the office of an evangelist uh and you know the lord just kind of flows through that uh and they're you know typically when i'm home i've kind of just been feeling the role that's been necessary but i can't get away from something that i've been feeling so clear i had had a text and title and all of that but i think we're gonna bypass this morning uh you don't have to stand you can be seated i'm just gonna read you one text and this has just been in me uh the last week probably a little bit longer ever since the lord had asked me to preach oh sorry everest's pastor had asked me to preach the lord and put this uh in me luke chapter 17 verse 11 you don't have to stand uh it's all right luke chapter 17 verse 11. it says now what happened as he went to jerusalem that he passed through the midst of samaria and galilee amen i want you to understand that uh during god's natural time in the earth what i mean by that is is that god was manifested in the flesh through the man christ jesus uh there wasn't a separate person that came down and walked the earth but god himself came down and walked the earth we understand that god was made manifest that word manifest literally means tabernacled it's the same concept that you find in the old testament where god had a tabernacle and he filled that tabernacle that's where he was god was tabernacled in the flesh and in his earthly ministry jesus was subjected to being at one place at one time it was the first time the omni presence of god uh was uh was subjected to the laws of humanity uh we understand that through a god being in the sun and when we reference the sun we're talking about the humanity of god so we understand that god slept god ate uh through the man christ jesus uh so we say that god died we're not referring to the spirit of god dying but the humanity of god that died on the cross now it's important for you to realize that all of this is reflective to what god would do towards the end of time if you read through the gospels if you get through the book of acts you get a blueprint for how god moves and what's interesting to note is is that god would go to particular places at particular times because he understood that that was the time he was supposed to meet them amen amen it didn't matter if you were there 40 years before did it matter there if you were there 40 years later if you missed the timing of god you missed the manifestation of who jesus was amen and so what you see here is that jesus himself is making his way through this area and the reason why this verse stuck out to me so powerfully is because if you come down to the bottom of this text what you see is that this is the story of the ten leopards the ten lepers were there for quite some time they had been laid there uh they were uh casted outside of their family unit uh they were not able to partake of most of the religious uh practices of that day and the scripture says it very clearly like then he entered a certain village there met him ten men who were lepers who stood afar off they were subjected to distance because that is the common factor of being a leopard uh leopards could could not be in close proximity to each other because there was a fear that you would give somebody which you had and so distance was the distance was the culture in which these lepers lived in the bible begins to relay that as he entered that city and as they begin to cry far off and jesus lift and uh and they lifted up their voice and said jesus master have mercy on me so when he saw them he said to them go show yourself to the priest and so it was that as they went they were cleansed now i i don't know about you but i want to experience god's cleansing power amen i know when we reference that a lot of times we we restrict that just to the forgiveness of sins amen but god forgiving your sin and god restoring you are two different things amen and so when they had gone you have to realize that what had happened to them we we preached this subject a lot for uh dealing with sin but i don't think that this is what the story is attempting to relay i understand there is a literal story that takes place i'm not trying to add interpretation here but if i was going to uh extract everything that god inspired in this text what you have to realize is is that the issues that these lepers were dealing with was not the product of their sin these issues that these lepers were dealing with was a product of their flesh amen and there are some things we suffer from because of mistakes that we've made there's other things we suffer from just because you're human amen you have a propensity towards things your flesh has things that it wants that it desires realistically your greatest enemy you've heard this plenty of times is not the devil amen your greatest enemy is the person you see in the morning amen and that is the issue that we deal in this day and age is because we're trying to love the very person that we know is destroying our lives amen and so god had to figure out a solution for this so here are these 10 lepers and these lepers are here and the bible begins to relay the story that he begins to tell them listen i want you to get up and i want you to walk and i want you to make your way towards the temple jesus tells him very clearly he says he said go and show yourself to the priest now the reason why jesus wanted him to show it wanted them to show themselves to the priest it's not just because there was any power given to the priest per se but the priest was the only person that could verify that they had fully recovered and met the requirements that was necessary for them to enter society as a normal constituent so what you see here is this is that jesus says i want you to test your miracle and your healing and there are times that we get frustrated in the process because it hasn't happened yet and we have to fabricate a healing that has not occurred how many times did we feel like god did something in us only to go to the priest and the priest to send us back because there was something there that was still missing how many times did we feel i got over that i'm no longer struggling with that that's no longer a vice of mine i'm i'm past that issue i no longer deal with those regret i no longer face that particular condemnation but only to find that when you get to the priest and the priest begins to examine you you don't measure up to what he's asking and so there's only two options at that point you could either go back to the place where you started or you can either lower the standard so you don't feel as bad as you used to and so what we end up doing is is we lower the standard do you really have to have joy all is that what the bible means when he says you have to have joy is that what the bible means when he says you have to have peace you know and then we try to spiritualize comments like are you really supposed to pray all the time god doesn't talk to me all the time you ever hear people that talk that way oh that's that extra spiritual person you know what we're doing we're trying to lower the standard because we can't meet the requirements that the high priest is bringing to us because jesus is the priest in the story and when he comes to you he's trying to measure your healing how's your wholeness do you still get angry like that are you we come to the priest and there are moments when we get to him and all of a sudden he starts pushing buttons you ever go to the doctor and uh he starts doing a whole bunch of weird stuff to you one of the funniest things that uh used to happen whenever i had to get a physical checkup was uh well yeah whenever i had to get a physical checkup is they had this little deal i don't know what it's called but they would take it and they would begin to knock it right on your knee and what they were looking for is that they were looking for a reaction because they understood that the reaction the right reaction would dictate whether things were functioning properly and can i tell you how the priest examines us and checks us he puts us in the same scenario over and over and over again expecting us to have the right reaction and when you get up and get angry or you blow up or you get bitter at the church because something happened and you don't know how to worship because you got hurt and you're still frustrated at god because he didn't answer the prayer and you're still mad at your spouse because you didn't get your heart right god's saying you're still not ready yet and he sends you back into isolation and isn't it a wonder that the people that are church hurt experience the most loneliness [Applause] church hurt is isolation you know what we start doing at that rate because we don't want to take the blame for ourselves we start pushing it on everybody else well if they would just do that differently how many times have you said that about someone or something well if the church only had this listen that's not the cure to your loneliness the character your loneliness is you don't know how to handle the issues within the heart this happens over and over and over again finally jesus begins to tell him says listen i want you to do something for me i want you to go see the priest here's what the scripture says i'm not going to take too much time but i want you to see what happens here's what the scripture says the bible says that as they went along the way the bible says he said listen go show yourself to the priest and it says in verse 14 and so it was that as they went they were cleansed they were washed as they went they received the miracle as they went and i felt god just whispered to me when he put this text in my heart he says the issue is that some of us have stopped going we don't go anymore you know how you know you're not going because you've lost all forward momentum you can't see past what's right here you've been seeing the same things for the last six years i'm not trying to be critical i i you know know i love you but but but it's problematic when we're complaining about the same thing four or five years later and nothing's changed i'm not saying that god changes things every year but if god's not changing the situation it all had been enough time for him to change you can i tell you there are moments when god doesn't change things he changes us and if that thing is there listen if you're running and you're not getting anywhere it's not about the destination it's about the person treads meals aren't made to get somewhere they're made to help you there they are and jesus says listen i want you to go along the way and the issue is is we get stuck because we lose faith along the way and you know if you have faith because you feel like you're going somewhere can i tell you uh just the other day me and my wife uh you know she drugged me out to disney i'd never been didn't know half the things that were going on she was trying to bring me up to speed with everything first time learning about all these star wars characters i was like oh my goodness there's like a whole universe of this stuff i was like this is crazy amen uh and and uh i'm not gonna lie i i'm you know contrary to pop relief i'm extremely introverted i go watch paint paint dry and i'll have a good time by myself i really can and so disney just doesn't suit me there's like there's thousands i don't i don't like crowds amen i i really don't i enjoy crowds when i know nobody knows me you know because you just blend in you know people think introverts don't like crap that's not true we like crowds that nobody knows who we are you know we can kind of just blend in and navigate amen and i was concerned because you know i didn't tell her but she was like well we'll get there like at like 10 or 11 and we'll leave at nine at a fireworks show at the end and i don't want to show any you know distress in my face but my heart was was perplexed i was like oh jesus help me please what are we going to do that whole time i like i just don't get it i don't understand this whole time we're just going to be with all these people i just what if what if we see people we know i'm not prepared for conversation today amen and as i was there uh it just time started flying by and i come to look at my watch i was like oh my goodness i mean it's four o'clock it's five o'clock finally nine o'clock came and i walked out you know and and i'm just thinking to myself and and under my breath just talking to the lord and just kind of having conversation and i was like god this is so crazy i don't realize how we stayed here for so long and you realize the reason you were able to stay is because you had something you were doing as you were going on and some of us can i tell you the biggest reason why people leave is because they stop the process of things happening along the journey they quit the journey way too early and the second you become stagnant you start worrying about time and you stop realizing what god was trying to do while you were there [Applause] and all of a sudden pray your prayer meetings and altar calls can only go five to ten minutes because we're not seeing anything while we're there we're not engaging in anything while we're there all of a sudden bible study becomes boring because we're not going anywhere while we're there church i want to encourage you today it's time that you finally get up pick up your bed and start to walk god's not going to change your situation god's not going to adjust the problem but god can change you and if you'll finally start engaging god while you're there you'll quit the attitude your heart will get right god can finally fix you [Applause] i want us all to stand you'll be shocked what'll happen if you'll stop worrying about the time we get so stuck in time well it hasn't happened yet well god didn't do it yet can i tell you something just because he didn't do it yet that doesn't mean he won't do it just because it takes some time i shared a story this morning uh uh sister tina had a patient that wanted to get baptized and uh she called the church and uh the church asked me if i could do it and we swung by this morning sorry yesterday morning we came to baptize her she was 91 years old 91 years old [Applause] she she she had to get help she's tina had to enter the baptistry with her she had to get help she was she was nervous at first we wanted to make sure she was comfortable wanted to make sure that you know she understood what was going on this was something she wanted to do it was one of the one one of the most memorable baptismal experience i've ever had because when we finally baptized her she came out of the water she just started crying and she said i did it i did it i did it i finally got baptized i did it 91 years god waited to have her can i tell you god's not going to get to enjoy her youthfulness god's not going to get to have those moments with her when she was in her twenties and her thirties we get so caught up in time because the amount of time that's elapsed or things that have happened and god said you don't understand the same way i would give my name to a 10 year old that i'll get to enjoy all the fruitfulness of their life i'll give my name to a 91 year old that i won't get to know very long on this earth but i'm not concerned about the time i'm concerned about the person and if you would quit worrying about the time factor and realize that god just wants you he wants you to get right he wants you to get it he's not concerned about the past he just wants you can you lift your hands all across the building and offer yourself up to god for a moment i'm talking to people that you're in your 30s and your 40s and you had dreams you had aspirations can i talk to a parent that feel like you failed your kids to finally let that go you can't receive grace from god because you feel like i made too big of a mess god's saying i'm not concerned about the time i could restore the time i could restore the time i could restore what the locust and the cakewarm ate i could restore what you did in your 20s and your 30s i could make right with you messed up can i talk to a parent the relationship you did not have with your kids god can give you grace to have it with your grandkids [Applause] lift your voice all across the building [Music] talking to marriages the last 10 years have been rough you don't know what's going on but god is a restorer of the time and as you go along the way if you'll just keep on walking if you'll just keep on moving make a simple altar call i want you to move fast if this belongs to you but if you need deliverance from time i just want you to come forward this morning if you are so caught up in what happened what went wrong the time you've lost can i speak to marriages and relationships can i speak to people that did things you wish you never would have done and you feel like there's just this constant regret because you're always dealing with your past and it's just put you in this stagnant place you can't move because because if god would have done it he would have done it 10 years ago i know there's people that are coming down but there's some of you that you're still in the you're still in that pew and i know i'm ministering to you because the last five years every single time i look at you you're in the same spot you can't get up because you're bound by your pastor you're bound by what you did you're still caught up in the mistakes that you made and god's just saying if you would finally get over the time factor i'll heal you while you're along the way i'll give back to you but you lost really feel that this morning can you just lift your hands all across the building [Music] i'll talk to a parent today i'll talk to a parent today god wants to give you the time factor back [Music] god wants to give you the time factor back [Music] i just want you to worship him just for a moment if you're a visitor or a guest in this place and you've never been baptized in the name of jesus you've never received the holy ghost god wants to give you the greatest gift that he can ever give you but if you're a saint in this place can i challenge you it's time to move forward i want you just to lift your voice just so for a little bit [Music] once you allow god just to get rid of the factors that the equations that you've been putting in there

Channel: Pentecostals of DeLand

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Length: 21min 2sec (1262 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 12 2021