Angels, Demons and You [Out of Options]

many of us were fasting today and we want to take a few moments and pray we're not passing offering plates just yet but we have been doing an offertory prayer at every service and we wanted to repurpose that time tonight for a few minutes it makes no sense to fast and not pray that's not a fast that's just going hungry and if i'm going to make the effort to miss a meal i want to be sure i invest some time and energy in prayer we are a nation in need of prayer can we agree on that i want to give you two or three prayer points then i'm going to give you some instructions on how we want to do this but we need to pray for the the americans and our allies that have been left behind in afghanistan i have spent some i haven't been to afghanistan but i've spent a good bit of time in the middle east and i cannot imagine being left behind with the taliban i can't imagine americans leaving one another behind but we have so now we need god to make a way and he is well able of doing to do that does that feel right so we need to pray for afghanistan for our citizens there and our allies that have worked with us for two decades i think we need to pray that we'd be delivered from colvin there's i heard i saw some encouraging statistics today that the you know it's the nature of the virus is you have these spikes and then they they'll diminish again and the numbers in florida who've been kind of at the forefront look like they have reached the peak and it begun to decline a bit so if that's the case that's good news for all of us um just it just the spike occurred about a month earlier than we thought we want to pray for those people we know that are sick and will be delivered from that virus and from the government's intervention around it the virus is real the pandemic is real but the government has used it to assert authority that's not theirs and i'm grateful for good government but i don't intend to surrender my freedoms to them and then thirdly we need to pray for the schools the children need to be in school and we don't want to just to be there we want the schools to be open to the person of jesus christ as they have not been in decades okay and that same is true for college campuses those they need to be able to attend their classes in person and we need to begin to believe that jesus will be welcomed on those college campuses why would we accept anything less than that makes no sense to me all right um can we agree on those three points okay so why don't you stand with me for just a minute i'm going to give you a bit of instruction i'm going to ask you to get in groups of six no more than ten and there's a reason for that you may have to take a few steps and when you get in that group i want you to introduce yourselves and tell us um don't you tell us what county you live in all right and then you've got three specific prayer points and you just go around the circle and pray for one of those things and if somebody's already prayed for afghanistan you may want to add a sentence to what they prayed we're learning to pray to to learn to pray a prayer directed by the holy spirit if five or six of us were going to pray and let's say we were going to pray about afghanistan and each of us were limited to two sentences and you're listening to the others pray and then you whatever when it's your turn if you've got a sentence to add to what they prayed it gives a place for the spirit of god to lead us through that prayer we're pretty easily distracted sometimes we'll start that and we go i know we're supposed to pray for afghanistan but my aunt sally's dog roy has colitis and that's really good but we're trying to work on afghanistan right now okay so use it as an opportunity to learn how to let the spirit of god lead you there's a day ahead of us when you're going to need to know how to pray spirit directed prayers and we're just going to have a little prayer laboratory for a minute so we have three topics you're going to introduce yourself to some people if you don't want to pray all you have to say is thank the lord and they'll move right past you okay you can get thanked the lord out okay so your name the county where you live and you've got three prayer points it's 656. you've got until 5 after 7. and i'll call you back and we'll close with a prayer okay go in jesus name am i doing this okay i welcome you again to our service here on campus i've got the privilege of taking a moment to pray with you uh we've got three points we're going to walk through we're going to pray for afghanistan for our citizens that have been left behind and for our allies that have supported us that we're not given a way of escape then we're going to pray for kovid you may know someone who is struggling with a covet infection right now but beyond that that its stranglehold over our nation will be broken that it will no longer be a point of intrusion where the government has the opportunity to increa infringe on our liberties and freedoms whether it's our children going to school or the way we interact with one another and then thirdly what was the third thing we were going to pray for afghanistan covet and our schools the children need to be in school and jesus needs to be welcomed in those schools i i refuse to accept the notion that jesus shouldn't be welcome in our public schools we teach world religions we teach all sorts of aspects of faith and american history and religions of groups of people that have been in our this continent we need the privilege of talking about jesus in our schools so can we pray for just a moment let's start with with afghanistan and you can join me maybe you know people who've served in the military there it's a difficult time for them i'm quite confident of that maybe you just pick up a phone and reach out and call them and thank them for their service or send them a text or just a note of encourage not an easy season for them but i believe god will turn back what the enemy has intended for destruction father i thank you i thank you for those brave men and women who have stood on behalf of freedom they brought two decades of liberty to a nation that has known very little liberty and i thank you for that but i pray for those americans tonight that have been left behind that there's no apparent way of escape lord that you will make a way that you'll send your angels to stand guard around them and protect them that you'll open doors lord move on the hearts of people that have the the authority or the permission or the means to help make that evacuation possible for our allies there that have served with us and stood on behalf of freedom lord i pray you'll deliver them from that murderous spirit that would hunt them down i thank you that in the days ahead we will hear story after story of your supernatural deliverance we praise you for it i thank you for it lord that you have not abandoned us and lord we ask for help with covet we know persons who are sick that are struggling i pray they'll have a supernatural recovery that the virus will turn loose of their body lord that you'll restore their health that you'll bring freedom to their breathing that every symptom will yield and lord i pray that the virus will no longer be used as a tool for manipulation and control that we'll get good data freely delivered that we'll stand together to help one another break free from this curse that has come upon us i thank you for it in jesus name and lord we pray for the schools from coast to coast and border to border i pray that there will be a willingness to cooperate amongst faculty and teachers and administrators that the students can return to school lord keep them safe may they remain healthy i pray that those that are making decisions will have courage and boldness and wisdom to make decisions that will bring freedom to our children and their families and lord in our schools and our colleges and universities may the name of jesus be welcomed once again forgive us for closing the door on you forgive us for taking down the ten commandments forgive us for desiring the approval of people more than we've desired to please you let jesus be exalted in the hearts of our children and the students of this nation once again holy spirit rain down upon us we need an awakening from you and i thank you for it tonight in jesus name amen it's an honor to pray with you and if there's somebody you know that's struggling if they've been sick or frightened or fearful or maybe they're a vet and they've served and and this is a difficult season take just a minute before we start the service send them a text tell them you've prayed for them tell them that god loves them it's important that we understand we're not alone we've got some wonderful ways to communicate use those tools to be a light in the life of someone else tonight god bless you i'll see you just a moment as we begin the lesson all right you've got 60 seconds to land the plane this all right thank you lord heavenly father we thank you for the honor of calling on your name lord where we have a nation where we're free to gather and pray we praise you father that you're attentive to the prayers of your people and lord as we have sought your face today we ask that our prayers would be pleasing in your sight look upon us with mercy and grace may we see your deliverance and lord we'll be careful to give you the praise and the glory and the honor for all that you do for we ask it in jesus name amen hallelujah we're learning to pray we don't know all we want to know but we are beginners and we're anxious to grow you should have received an outline when you came in most of the scriptures we will use there are included um if you're joining us online you can download those through the website or the app we've been working on this series and i've been having a hard time getting out of it i'm trying angels demons and you the important portion is the and you part that removes it from a theoretical discussion into the reality of the world where we live and it's a very simple proposition spiritual forces impact our lives and there are forces from the kingdom of god that benefit from which we benefit and there are forces from the kingdom of darkness that stand in opposition to god's purposes in your life whose objective is your destruction maybe not popular ideas maybe they're largely overlooked but they're very biblical ideas and we've taken several sessions to to try to look at the scripture and again the the ultimate goal is pretty simple you want to know how to give an invitation to the spirit of god to receive all the support and help you can spiritually that god makes available to you you don't want to leave any of that unwelcome in your life on the other hand you need to know how to lead a life spiritually clean so you can diminish or find deliverance from any spiritual influences that are destructive or unclean it's not accidental or random it's not a power struggle between good and evil it's about the truth that's why jesus said you'll know the truth and the truth will bring freedom to you and we're going to continue that at least through this session the title for this one is out of options i have that's been my feeling this week as i have watched the debacle in the middle east and that's the kindest word i can think of or what we have witnessed the abandonment of our citizens and the allies that had stood with us for two decades then that was one portion of what we have viewed the other part that was has been unimaginable to me is the leaders that have gone to the podium to celebrate the brilliant job they did whether it's been our political leaders or our military leaders or the leaders of our state department or a whole host of other agencies it's very difficult to reconcile the reality of what we have watched and the words that have been spoken and it's caused me a considerable anguish because if there is that large of a disconnect between reality and what is spoken we are all incredibly vulnerable and i think we should understand that the forces that secure our future aren't rooted in the constitution i'm grateful for those documents and i'm grateful for the freedoms and the liberties that we have but our future is secured by nothing less than our lord and savior jesus christ and his eternal kingdom you know we are we are living in a season of in my lifetime of really unp paralleled discontinuity a break with the past i may have been introduced to us as a pandemic that came to us from wuhan china but all around us enveloping our daily lives our behaviors and experiences that we're not familiar with and some people are still living with the hope that we're going back i don't hold that hope i'm excited about what's ahead of us i think god is moving and i'm looking forward to that but but this kind of discontinuity brings with it many things weariness physically emotionally because it takes more effort to maintain your balance and your equilibrium you have to pay more attention you have to think you have to process things that you used to take for granted and when you watch things like the abandonment of our citizens in afghanistan and then our most trusted leaders declaring that it was a tremendous accomplishment it adds to the discontinuity because you're watching one thing and hearing another and it's it brings internally stresses you know you add to that some of the reckless economic policies and the outcomes that we're experiencing from shortages in our grocery stores in our other public stores to supply chain interruptions across our economy in many ways and that isn't commented on we're just told everything is wonderful you don't have to be particularly observant to to experience life in our community to understand there are challenges before us our civil liberties are being pushed aside in wholesale ways without apology like we have never seen before fundamental things first amendment things freedom of speech type ideas censorship is being expanded people monitoring what you say in the public arena simply because they don't like it and it's happening with such frequency on such a scale that it's as if we're becoming anesthetized to it we just kind of accept it as well that's how life is doesn't make it right but it's not a political battle it's not about a politician or a political party an election isn't going to fix this we've been descending down this path for multiple elections with different political parties and different candidates the solution to this is the church the church is salt and light and if there's no light the darkness increases and i've said that to you many many times but that's not a condemnation or an accusation it's an invitation which right alongside the discontinuity i would hand you another idea and it's this invitation i keep giving you an intentional commitment to the fundamentals of your faith i interact with christians across our nation on a regular basis and everybody asks the same question what can we do just just what can we do and i said i know we're supposed to like pray and read our but what can we do folks everything we're going to do will grow out of the foundation of a meaningful prayer life and an awareness of the word of god and a willingness to meditate on what god has said to think about it out of fellowship with other believers so that you help one another watch and listen and think about what's happening in the world around you practicing hospitality opening your life those biblical fundamentals are the foundation from which your response will come it's the necessary preparation for you and me to accept an assignment of significance in this season thank you for that amen i'll do both sides of this it's okay see what i recognize is we we tend to see the greater need we see something we fundamentally think that's not right that shouldn't be happening i have to do something but we don't feel like we have access to powerful people or tremendous resources or not enough resources to walk that back and so we feel impotent and frustrated as if there's nothing but that's not true it's a lie and it comes from the pit and it's supported by unclean spirits don't lose that battle in your mind there is something you could do don't be frustrated or frightened by the greater need focus on the fundamental preparation say god i'm going to give more time to my bible into thinking about what it says and more time to prayer prayer i'll spend more time in community with like-minded believers i'll open my life to practice hospitality to help others see what that feels like i'm going to invest in those fundamentals now the reason that matters is god will issue you an assignment or me an assignment when we're prepared he loves you too much to give you an assignment you're not prepared for and so we see these needs and we think god aren't you going to raise up a voice and god's looking at us and going why don't you get ready well i'm really busy being anxious so please don't imagine that those fundamentals that you're familiar with in principle are insignificant or busy work they're foundational for you and me being prepared you see we have to choose to put on the full armor of god we have to choose to say no to ungodliness and yes to godliness we have to choose to repent of our sin we have to choose to forgive those that we need to forgive we have to choose to put off the old self and put off the new self we have to choose to be renewed in our mind we have to choose having to done everything we know to do to stand and say i won't yield to evil i will yield in the schools or in my neighborhood if we will give attention to the fundamentals god will use simple people like us to make a significant difference david took down goliath not because he was he recognized goliath was a threat the entire israelite army did that he heard goliath and he heard something different than all the israelite soldiers he said he's challenged the army of the living god and that god is a deliverer he's delivered the lion and the bear into my hand he'd been practicing while he took care of sheep and nobody was watching so he was ready for a different stage and we'll say well you know i'm ready for a stage when god thinks we're ready he'll give us the assignment you don't get to pick the stage you get ready out of options so when you when you get to that place in me it's a desperate feeling i'm like god god we have to do something and desperate's not a bad place that's really the point of this lesson i don't like it i much prefer to be comfortable than desperate and you've got to keep paying attention because sometimes when you're desperate you just want to look away i don't want to think about it anymore and that's not a helpful response if the desperation pushes you to prayer and pushes you back to the word of god and the truth of god and greater submission to the truth of the word of god then it's a good thing don't listen to the lies don't yield to them it's not okay to leave our citizens behind it is not okay i know nothing i didn't serve in the military i don't know the logistics involved i wouldn't pretend to but i understand the principle involved i was with something as silly as the two were from israel coming home then we got as far as newark after an all-night flight and they canceled all the flights out of newark i'm sitting there with a hundred people and i got a text message says i can get a private plane to get you home if you don't unders that's called temptation and it was knocking on my heart and we through the lord put somebody in our group that had connections we found charter buses we rode a bus all night but we didn't leave anybody there can you imagine if i'd walked back said you know you all work it out technically the two are injured in newark anyway see you at church next weekend so fundamentally we understand you can't afford to look away and you're not powerless we know how to pray you don't have to be anxious but you can just quietly say to the lord make a way don't leave one person behind god open a door put your angels on guard stir somebody's heart lord do that we're crying out to you see being out of desperation is not an awful place sometimes you need that i'm asking you not to avoid it don't medicate with sin don't medicate with money or don't medicate with pleasure if god puts you in one of those places say god what's the response what is it i'm going to sit quietly with you with my bible open until you show me what it is you want done beyond this it's a biblical response isaiah 61 gives us pulls back the curtain on god's provision for our lives isaiah 61 is the passage that jesus read when he went into the synagogue in his hometown in nazareth they brought him the scroll of isaiah and he opened it and read it he read from isaiah 61 some of it will sound familiar the spirit of the sovereign lord is on me because the lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor he sent me to bind up the brokenhearted to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners to proclaim the year of the lord's favor in the day of vengeance of our god to comfort all who mourn to provide for those who grieve in zion to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair you see you have to guard your heart because when you have that sense of desperation if you don't direct it towards the lord it will open a doorway in your emotions and in your mind for a spirit of despair that's being desperate doesn't have to lead you to despair it can lead you to the throne of god and we're given the response there put on the garment of praise don't accept that spirit of despair don't accept it when you feel it approaching you stand up put your hands in the air and say lord i want to thank you that you have a solution to every problem you've shown to me that you're a god who delivers you're a god who heals and restores and makes provision that there's no challenge before me that you're not well able to resolve i thank you for it despair you're not welcome in my heart i will not give you a place you're you're not welcome in jesus name you go we're talking about angels and demons and you remember we need to know how to welcome the spirit of god and the freedom he brings and and reject or resist unclean spirits that will attack your thoughts and your emotions they're real then there's this promise they'll be called oaks of righteousness a planting of the lord and i love verse four they'll rebuild the ancient ruins and restore the places long devastated they'll renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations i believe that's a promise for us we see the devastation of our indifference we've seen jesus walked back out of the public square we've seen our faith diminished in public schools in public buildings in the public in so many public places those places have been devastated because of our indifference but the promise is god will rebuild those ruins i believe we can see it again i believe we can see the bible read in our public schools and prayers offered in jesus name i believe we can see college campuses where the spirit of the lord is poured out where our young people turn away from ungodliness and immorality and parents get on their knees and say god i'm sorry that i have winked at wickedness in the life of my children forgive me before the children repent the parents have to repent but we have a promise from the lord that he will rebuild those ruined places and renew the ruined cities you've been reading through the kings in the bible they'll have wicked king after wicked king and wicked and then god raises up somebody with the courage to say enough now what are we going to do we've been overlookers for too long it's time to become overcomers i like psalm 124 and the promises it holds if the lord had not been on our side the psalm begins in this rather difficult emotional place only the lord being on our side gives us any standing there's nothing else on our side there's no economic momentum there's no political momentum there's no physical strength only the lord was on our side that's a desperate place if the lord had not been on our side let israel say if it hadn't been for the lord on our side when men attacked us when their anger flared against us they would have swallowed us alive the flood would have engulfed us the torrent would have swept over us the raging waters would have swept us away on a week when our our citizens are being surrounded by the taliban and there's a hurricane battering our coast and washing up through the center of our heartland those verses felt very appropriate to me praise be to the lord he's not let us be torn by their teeth we have escaped like a bird out of the fowler's snare the snare has been broken and we've escaped our help is in the name of the lord the maker of heaven and earth hallelujah when you're aware that the spirit of despair is settling on you get out psalm 124 and read it loudly if you can't do that in your house there's too many people go sit in your car they'll just think you're singing or talking to other people in traffic psalm 66 and verse 12 you let men ride over our heads we went through the fire and the water but you brought us to a place of abundance we weren't always in a place of abundance we've been in the flood and the fire but you brought us through psalm 71 though you've made me see troubles many and bitter you'll restore my life again from the depths of the earth you'll again bring me up you'll increase my honor and comfort me once again one promise like that can change your life if we'll believe it meditate on it think about it let it become yours let the spirit of god make it real on the inside of you in fact it seems to me that the counsel of scripture is that we need to be brought low that's the position for receiving that we don't really receive from god from our triumphs because of our great intellect our great breakthroughs with an idea that we're far more likely to receive from god in those difficult places the challenging seasons we grow bigger ears we become more cooperative i don't believe god breaks our leg to teach us a lesson that's child abuse if you do it to your children and i wouldn't accuse god of that but i think through the difficulties of our lives some of us are more inclined to turn to the lord now it's a myth to think that under pressure everybody turns to the lord they don't i've watched it too often but if there's pressure in your life you have an opportunity you can be angry you can grumble you can be resentful you can blame other people you can blame god or you can begin to quietly say god i believe you're on my side it doesn't feel like it at the moment it feels like i'm going through the flood or i'm going through the fire but i believe you'll deliver me folks we have to be different the the world needs the church to be the church it's an exciting time now i'm going to take the minutes we have left that i just want to walk through some examples with you you might think that desperate places aren't don't populate the bible or maybe they're just the stories we teach our children in sunday school because they're high drama events lions dens and fish stories and but the truth is they're the substance of the bible you'll know most of these stories so i didn't give you the entire context i think you'll recognize them if you just see the punch line in matthew 14 peter and his buddies are in a boat on the lake and they see jesus walking across the lake it says peter got down out of the boat and walked on the water and he came toward jesus i've been on that lake dozens and dozens and dozens of times i keep trying sink like a rock but when he saw the wind he was afraid and he began to sink and he cried out lord save me folks that's a desperate place it's humiliating it's public it's physically threatening i mean that's a threat at about every level of his person i don't know with what it's not in the text it's my imagination but knowing what we know of peter he's a little brash is that fair i mean particularly you know in the young version of peter carries a little attitude does that sound right you know lord if that's you i want to walk so i'm thinking while he's stepping over the edge of the boat he's giving some eye back to the boys in the boat my opinion if i get to heaven i'm wrong i'll deal with peter probably more truthfully he'll deal with me but and then he's sinking desperate place is that fair and you know what jesus said just sink no it says he reached out immediately he reached out he said why'd you doubt pete why'd you doubt he's in training do you have an imagination that you're in training that god's preparing you we've got to come past folks this notion that i'm saved nothing left to learn i'm born again i've been baptized i'm going to heaven i don't really you know i got all the important stuff done everything else now is just a debate are you post-trib pre-trib mid-trib do you take communion weekly monthly annually do you lose the little round wafers the little square wafers do you prefer the chalice or a small cup do you prefer wonder bread what you know stop stop with the theories about god and decide to live like he's real we have to grow up peter's in training and so am i and so are you i get up some mornings i think you know i don't want to i don't want to go solve the problems of the day i don't have to trust the lord to help me today i just like it to be easy when you say it out loud you go oh that's not a good prayer but it's in my heart i'm like couldn't today just be easy and everybody applaud and there'd be more than we need of everything and no problems and i'm like yeah that's called heaven this side of there you're in training stop looking away like you don't notice and begin to say lord i'm listening i want to walk too god look at luke 7. jesus and the disciples it's the end of the day they've had a long day they're coming to at the village it's right along the jezreel valley not the jezreel valley yeah the jezreel valley where the battle of armageddon is going to be fought just across the valley from megiddo where we get the term armageddon and they're coming to the town they're going to slip into the gate find something for dinner and a place to rest and they're interrupted by a funeral procession which means dinner is going to be late and we don't know the names of any of the people all we know is that it's a widow and it's our only son luke gives us that it says in verse 12 as jesus approached the town gate a dead person was being carried out the only son of his mother and she was a widow so she's about to become socially outcast she has no means of support she's already a widow it's her only son very very difficult place a large crowd from the town was with her when the lord saw her his heart went out to her and he said don't cry she didn't ask for anything she didn't ask for prayer she didn't raise her voice she didn't come to jesus with expectancy but she's in a desperate place see sometimes i think we imagine we have to work our way out of a desperate place we got to do spiritual push-ups you know we're going to fast and pray and push every button sometimes remember i was talking about fundamentals sometimes it's the routine of your life that the lord responds to you've been seeking the lord when you didn't know you were going to be desperate that's called integrity do you lead your life with spiritual integrity do you seek the lord when when your life's moving along okay are you just a crisis christian you know i'm unhappy things aren't going well i got my bible back out again dustin it off because i'm going to need it i know this woman doesn't ask for any but she's in a desperate desperate place and it just simply says that jesus had compassion on her i talked to you just a moment ago briefly about practicing hospitality i hope you open your life to people for whom the lord gives you compassion maybe you send him a text and say i just wanted to know you matter to god and i'm praying for you today maybe you say can i pick you up and bring you to church with me and we'll go a few minutes early we'll have a cup of coffee and sit in fellowship square maybe you come on a wednesday night there's a food truck out there we could we could have kind of a light dinner and a picnic table enjoy the sunset before church starts do you give god space in your life to express compassion or do you just think of ways for the church to do it oh i love you anyway it's okay luke 13. it's a different setting but it's another desperate woman jesus is in the synagogue on the sabbath it's like being in church on a sunday right day right place and there's a woman there who's tormented by a spirit but the torment is expressed in her physical body she's she's bent over now i'm sure with that comes emotional torment and all sorts of things but but there's a spirit in this woman that impacts her physically and jesus commands the spirit to leave her alone and it upsets the power brokers because you're not supposed to work on the sabbath and praying for sick people is very clearly work you know you know the truth about religious rules right my rules make sense and your rules are stupid so before you shake your head at their rules you need to ask the spirit of god to help you recognize your stupid rules jesus prays for the woman and she's set free and there's a commotion that comes out of it and it's luke 13 16 should not this woman a daughter of abraham who satan has kept bound for 18 long years be set free on the sabbath day from what my under 18 years this woman has lived with that 18 years i'd call that desperate wouldn't you and she's in the synagogue on the sabbath she's not home complaining she's not mad because the the rabbi is not anointed enough to help her get to wherever or the medical community doesn't care about she's in the synagogue on the sabbath in proximity to jesus and god sets her free why didn't god set her free on day 18 instead of your 18 i don't know i'm not in charge but i'm trying to learn to be faithful and i'm trying to invite you if you're in a desperate place not to allow destructive things to dominate your thoughts or your emotions keep saying lord i'm in training i'm in training what i want to learn mark 9 there's a father who has a son who's tormented and he brought the boy to the disciples some of you know the story and the disciples couldn't help you can feel the father's it's almost like panic to me and jesus walks up and he said the the disciples couldn't help when jesus said how long has he been like this from childhood the spirit often throws him into a fire or water to kill him what a difficult circumstance for a father and he's acknowledging it in public that's not easy but if you can do anything take pity on us and help us it's one of my favorite jesus interactions jesus said if i can if i can everything's possible for him who believes this father is desperate so he said lord i believe if me believing makes that possible i believe and then you you can hear his brain engage you can almost hear it through the he said oh help my unbelief if belief means my son gets help you you hear the desperate lord it help my unbelief i find myself praying that kind of prayer god i know you can deliver those people from afghanistan but but i've been in the middle east and i know a little bit about the kind of hatred that that could be possible in that place right now god it's hard for me to imagine but but help my unbelief open the door god help my unbelief we've got to become more honest with the lord this is not a video game it's not a joke if it's a joke let's quit if it's real let's treat it if it's real we've relegated god to this secondary place you know we kind of wanted to get eternity worked out because just on the outside chance it was real we didn't want to go wrong place we haven't really wanted to live like god was real we wanted to be independent of him and i believe in the midst of this discontinuity god said i'm going to shake everything you're trusting the economy watch this you're trusting fairness that comes to us through our legal system watch this you know almost everything that we thought was unassailable we're seeing shaking in the breeze or at least swaying in the breeze lord help my unbelief and jesus set that boy free set that boy free i promise you there were other kids that had problems and their parents got ah he'll outgrow it i'm not going over to that goofy jesus guy who is he anyway he doesn't have a he had any credentials from the temple what would people say if we got our kids out and we went to that place be awkward to take your child in public if he frequently jumps in a fire or into water desperate father daniel 9's is a different context but it's another desperate person this one's not new testament this isn't jesus this is daniel he's a slave in babylon they're under god's judgment punishment upon god's people they've been driven out of jerusalem jerusalem's destroyed their homes are gone they have no assets they are slaves in a foreign country and daniel because of his abilities has been selected for court service he's serving a monarch which carries with it some very significant punishments of its own but in daniel 9 and verse 1 it says in the first year of darius he's just giving us a historical marker he's dropping a pen on a google google map it was the first year that darius the mede was made ruler of the babylonian kingdom i understood from the scriptures what's daniel doing he's studying the scripture he's thinking about it he's not just plugging through his 15 minutes a day he's actually studying he's thinking he's applying himself he said i understood from studying the scripture according to the word of the lord given to jeremiah the prophet that the desolation of jerusalem would last 70 years he said we've only got to be gone 70 years you may think that's simple but but the deportation from israel to babylon took place in in more than one wave and so it took some discernment and some study to understand the timeline beyond just simply what jeremiah said and daniel said i see it i see it we can go home soon we can go home soon imagine if you knew you could get everybody in afghanistan out four hours from now we can go home soon but daniel didn't get on the banquet circuit he didn't start charging for appearances verse 3 he said i turned to the lord and pleaded with him in prayer and petition in fasting and in sackcloth and in ashes god gave him an assignment because daniel was doing the fundamentals god could trust him with an assignment i need somebody that will pray i need somebody to push back on the principalities and powers that are mistreating my people we know that because in the book of the book of daniel gabe gabriel shows up and said the moment you began to pray god sent me to tell you something daniel was prepared decide to be a person prepared for an assignment that's different than being a person i got to church what do you want well church is commendable listen to the way he prays i prayed to the lord my god and confessed lord the great and awesome god you keep your covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands we have sinned and done wrong we have been wicked and have rebelled we have turned away from your commands and laws i keep saying do you stop being mad at the politicians stop blaming the parties stop it lord we have sinned we have done wrong we've been indifferent we've had godly people run for office and we didn't support them we didn't like them didn't comb their hair right they looked frumpy in their suits something lord we have done wrong we've not listened to your servants and god sent angels to help him daniel was desperate in the midst of even good news daniel was desperate mark 10 is one of my favorite new testament miracles jesus is coming through jericho jericho is a miserable hot place the best thing about jericho is you're 18 miles from jerusalem it's all uphill but you're getting close it's one of the oldest inhabited cities in the planet because of the oasis that was there and jesus is on his way to jerusalem he's coming through jericho and by now he's got a reputation and he's coming through town and there's a blind man in town and he says when he heard that it was jesus of nazareth he began to shout jesus son of david have mercy on me that's all he's got he's got no power he's got no invitation he's got no connections jesus have mercy on me they rebuked him and they told him to be quiet shut up hush stop it but he shouted all the more have mercy on me and jesus stopped it call him call him bartimaeu's desperation didn't bug jesus we don't have any problems that bother jesus when he sees john in the book of revelation chapter one he said i'm the living one i was dead and i'm alive forevermore and oh by the way i have the keys of death and hell huh he's stressed by something going on in my life i don't think so call him bring him over here one of the best lines in the book barton makes what do you want what do you want bartimaeus you know i'd probably say well lunch money right i mean we'll work for food what i want to see lord i want to see jesus said okay your faith your sight i don't think jericho was ever the same again i think there was this goofy guy walking around town going up back up another 20 yards and hold up some fingers i want to show you when he was desperate he had nothing he literally had nothing god have mercy on me why do we avoid being desperate with the lord why do we prefer to be in control why do we prefer to pretend like we're in control let me tell you what i understand i don't understand enough for the circumstances i'm in i don't know enough i know some things but i don't know enough i need god's help and if you don't pray that god gives you a revelation of how much you need his help my time's up i'll give you one more i love this story too man i like all these i could go on and on i like my bible matthew 15 this is a woman that's not supposed to come to jesus wrong race wrong accent and jesus isn't even particularly kind a canaanite woman comes and says he's crying out like bartimaeus son of david have mercy on me my daughter's suffering terribly from demon possession jesus doesn't say anything to her no there's no call her he's ignoring her he's not giving his any attention his disciples came and urged him send her away she keeps crying out after us and he said i wasn't sent to help her you don't expect that to come from jesus i'm not here for her you know god's mercy is not infinite please don't live presumptively please don't behave in such a way that you think you can turn to the lord whenever you want to and he will respond when you recognize god has an invitation in front of you treat it as the most precious thing in your life if he's showing you something to repent of repent with enthusiasm if he's showing you a way to respond if it's an expression of generosity if it's an expression of time if it's a reordering of something respond to him there's no guarantee you get a second invitation i didn't come for her and then the woman came and knelt it was she could have been offended she could have been angry she could have been resentful she could have been so many things she comes and kneels in front of jesus she's pushing the envelope lord help me lord help me then jesus it's not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs now i know she's offended i'll show you a dog that's not what she says even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table this woman's desperate she loves her daughter and there's no rebuke that's going to turn her away this is not about how she should be treated i'm tired of that already stop i'll park in the grass and walk in if i can be with god's people what have we done what have we allowed into our hearts and our minds i went to church and nobody spoke to me this woman's kneeling in front of jesus i can't give you that lord even the dogs get the crumbs she loves her little girl do you believe that me too and jesus said woman you have great faith jesus said you've got great faith jesus said i've got great faith don't you want to go into training so jesus could say something like that about you her daughter was healed that very hour i believe we'll see that canaanite woman in heaven amen and her daughter folks we're in training so i liked it better the way it used to be okay duly noted but let's go we're just not there anymore that's a familiar ring we like the brick pits of egypt better no you didn't you're just grumpy where we were wasn't great we were indifferent and distracted and immoral and ungodly and we sat in church and pretended like god didn't know and he began to shake and we began to say oh lord we've been sloppy he's waking us up i want to go back to the verse we started with isaiah 61. we're going to put on a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair the garment of praise is to the spirit of despair stand with me we're going to take just a couple of minutes you don't get 10 minutes to warm up the cantina's got us started but i want to ask you i'm going to raise my hands for me that's okay if that bothers you you don't have to raise yours you go halfway you can do one side you can just lift up your head i don't want to give place to a spirit of despair i want the spirit of the lord to know he's welcome in my life but i'm grateful for what he's done for me he's called me out of darkness he rescued me from the kingdom of darkness i was trapped someplace worse than afghanistan i was some i was behind enemy lines far worse than the taliban and the lord came and got me and you too not because we deserved it or we were good enough or we could afford it or he needed us because he loved us he delivered us from the kingdom of darkness father and we thank you for it we praise you tonight we've been delivered and redeemed we worship you tonight that through the blood of jesus we have been set free from all the power of the enemy that he has no authority over us no place in us no dominion over us through the blood of jesus we praise you tonight that you're the strength of our bodies that you're the peace in our minds you're the hope in our souls we worship you tonight you are worthy of all glory and honor and praise and thanksgiving let the name of jesus be lifted up let the name of jesus be lifted up lord jesus we're a people in need of mercy and we cry out to you tonight because we know you're a merciful god pour out your spirit upon us give us listening ears and receptive hearts may we respond to you with willing spirits forgive us for our stubbornness and our rebellion and our indifference we love you tonight we praise you let jesus name be exalted let jesus name be exalted hallelujah hallelujah give the lord a hand huh god bless you go pick up your kids

Channel: World Outreach Church

Views: 2,204

Rating: 4.9252338 out of 5

Keywords: World Outreach Church, World Outreach Church Murfreesboro, Pastor Allen Jackson, Pastor Allen Jackson Sermons, Online church service, live church service, christian sermons, Murfreesboro TN, Jesus Christ, Interdenominational Church, despair, encouragement, in despair, afghanistan, covid, public schools and God, God's mercy, praying with a group, training, hospitality, i can't go on, i need hope, devastated, devastation

Id: qWhkzGx60kU

Length: 61min 18sec (3678 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 08 2021