Angels, Demons & You - No More Tears

[Music] hello church what a privilege to be together again our topic today i'm excited about is angels demons and you no more tears you know angels have played a far more prominent role in the unfolding story of what god is doing with humanity than we typically consider from the garden of eden to the book of revelation angels play a prominent role they're impacting your journey and my journey today we're going to open our bibles and look at that in a little more detail we're going to focus today on the end of the book of revelation that's the the distant future in front of us the millennial reign of christ the ultimate end of this age but the significant role that the angels will play it's the promise of jesus i want to call your attention to he said there's a time ahead of us when there'll be no more tears no more crying no more mourning nor more pain that's a good day something good is ahead of us we're going to see the promise for us in the scripture today and i hope it'll stabilize you in the midst of the storm we're walking through enjoy the lesson the title is angels demons and you the and you is important if it's just angels and demons you could imagine it was a theoretical discussion not overly helpful it's like talking about diet and exercise i'm happy to have the conversation if you tag and me in it i don't want to talk to you anymore because then it gets personal and every discussion has an implication for my behavior well i'm asking you to think about angels and demons and your life today we started with angels and we've looked in through the old testament and the the life and the ministry of jesus then we picked up the book of revelation and it's really just intended to give you an overview i think we have overlooked the role of angels in scripture i assure you biblically jesus isn't involved with adam and his descendants from the book of genesis until the book of revelation we typically think of him in his entry into time in matthew between bethlehem and golgotha when his crucifixion but the reality of scripture is jesus has been involved with the story of humanity from the beginning all the way through the the establishment of his millennial reign on the earth and his messengers the spirits assisting him in that journey are the angels they play a very prominent role they're organized and orchestrated there's a hierarchical structure to that it seems the scripture leads us towards i don't think we've imagined the number of angels jesus said in the garden of gethsemane when peter's trying rather clumsily to defend him with a sword he said don't you know pete i could call 12 legions of angels if i wanted to that's as many there's more than 70 000 angels in that personal protection detail of jesus satan understood it he said you can throw yourself off of this high place because the angels have been charged you you can't even bounce your foot off a rock he understood the angelic detail that was attached to jesus but that's just a small sliver there's one picture we're given in the book of revelation where it says there's ten thousand times ten thousand angels in one scene if my math's right that's a hundred million angels in one snapshot more than a few jesus said that the children have an angel who constantly has the attention of the father all the children and an angel corresponding there's a few more they're more prevalent and more prominent than we've imagined we've ignored them we thought they were the stuff of kooks and crazy people we're going to need their help to finish our assignment the word angel in greek or hebrew means messenger the scripture tells us that they're ministering spirits to serve those of us who are experiencing redemption believers in jesus spirits that represent our god his kingdom to help us on our journey there's many many examples we're in the last portions of the book of revelation today the first few chapters in the book of revelation dealt with the present the seven churches in asia minor that john was familiar with the middle section dealt with that season that was ahead of him the last couple of chapters deal with a distant future the ultimate judgment the establishment of christ reigning on earth that distant future has gotten a lot shorter john saw that vision 2000 years ago but i think so often we're afraid of the book of revelation i just want to i want you to see the angels their strength their power the prominent role they play the book of revelation is not the story of the destruction of the antichrist or satan or the false prophet it's the story of god through his angels and jesus the lamb bringing his judgment and his kingdom into this world it's a description of a birth it's a wonderful story in fact if i had to give you a summary for those last three chapters i would do it with this something good is going to happen to you something good is going to happen to you some of you won't read revelation because it's scary something good is going to happen to you it is revelation chapter 18 in verse 1 i saw another angel coming down from heaven he's seen a lot of angels by this point this angel had great authority and the earth was illuminated by his splendor wow i mean by this point john has seen millions of angels but this particular one he said i understood that he had great authority and his presence illuminated the whole earth do you have an imagination of angels like that in revelation 20 verse 1 i saw an angel coming down out of heaven he had the key to the abyss and he held in his hand a great chain he seized the dragon the ancient serpent who was the devil or satan and he bound him for a thousand years an angel with god's authority to bind satan he threw him into the abyss and locked it and sealed it over him to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended next chapter revelation 21 i saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away and there was no longer any sea you know in general as a as a race we don't like change oh come on [Music] you know we like home cooking we like our favorite pair of blue jeans we like the way we've always done it i know you do because you sit in the same space every week right i mean if i really want to mess with you then occasionally i'll do it i'll ask somebody to sit at your favorite seat then i just watch you for real [Music] i mean i'll take my space you'll walk in and you'll go like [Laughter] i can watch you're trying to decide if in jesus name you can evict them you know change is just not our our favorite thing i've even when they're good changes when we've the church has grown and we've reached new people and there's more children in our classes and there's evidence that god is changing lives the people that were here before you got here going praise the lord you know it's almost as if well i found my space let them go find their own because we understand intuitively that change means that we can't maintain our routines and there there could even be some things asked of us so when we read this first sentence in revelation 21 i saw a new heaven and a new earth for the first heaven and the first first earth had passed away that i think there's something even below our conscious level that goes i'm not sure this is good i might be against this is there going to be fried chicken fried chicken in the new heaven and the new earth it says i saw the holy city the new jerusalem coming down out of heaven from god prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband and i heard a loud voice from the throne saying now the dwelling of god is with men and he will live with them they'll be his people and god himself will be with them and be their god i'm thinking this sounds like an upgrade look at verse four he'll wipe every tear from their eyes there'll be no more death or mourning or crying or pain for the old order of things has passed away something good is going to happen to you something good is going to happen to you and he was seated on the throne said i'm making everything new write this down these words are trustworthy and they're true and he said to me it's done i'm the alpha and the omega the beginning and the end it's the beginning and the end of the the alphabet to him who is thirsty i will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life you've got to open out a circle that little phrase the spring of the water of life you can read past it right there i think it's metaphorical it's kind of poetic but i believe it's grounded in reality more than that verse 7 is an important key in this passage it says he who overcomes will inherit all of this the person who inherits this is the overcomer revelation is a disruptive book judgments announcements insights all sorts of things the seven churches each get a message at the beginning of the book that says they'll have to overcome the book is written to the broader church church with a capital c and when we get to the triumphant chapters of the establishment of the kingdom of god on earth it says the one who will inherit this is the one who overcomes overcoming presupposes obstacles difficulties hurdles inconveniences unwanted things i'll be his god and he'll be my son but the cowardly what's the opposite of being an overcomer cowardice cowardice cowardice is the choice is to not confront to not stand to yield there's always a reason for it we'll push it through the logical formulas that we can find that give us the outcome that we're preferring the challenge is to be led by the spirit of god to understand when we're supposed to stand and when we're not we don't always stand in defiance when the angels released peter from prison in the book of acts he was slated for execution very soon and he'd been in prison for several days and god sent an angelic contingent to unlock his chains to silence the soldiers around him to open the prison doors before him they opened he didn't open them they were open before him he saw one angel i'm quite certain there were many present he went and found the believers who were praying for him an all-night prayer meeting and when he got there he knocks on the door and took a little while there were some communications challenges were praying for him to get out of prison but when he got out of prison they didn't believe it was him didn't it good to know we're with that crew are you ever surprised when god moves i am i'm like well i prayed but what peter said to them is what always captures my emotion he said tell the brothers i'm leaving town. and there's been multiple occasions prior to that in the book of acts when they'd be released from prison or delivered from a threat and the angels would say to them go back to the temple mount finish the sermon that they interrupted but not this day peter says tell the brothers i'm leaving i'm not abandoning the message he stays in the story so when i say that we're called to stand we need god's wisdom it's not that we're just permanently belligerent we need god's wisdom to him who overcomes i'll inherit all of this but the cowardly the unbelieving the vile the murderers the sexual immoral who practice magic arts the idolaters the liars you see i think it takes courage to follow the lord it takes courage to take the truth of god and say i will own that for myself forget somebody else it begins with a personal decision and if we don't if we're not willing to demonstrate the courage it takes to choose the truth for ourselves the rest of that list finds its way into our behaviors well we may still sit in churches we may sing the songs and carry our bibles we may even read bibles and lead groups and do all sorts of things but the rest of those behaviors creep into our lives and the warning there is there's still a warning i'm amazed at the grace of the mercy of god we're coming to the most triumphant chapters in all of the bible and god is saying there's going to be a point of judgment if you've gotten this far into the story and you still haven't righted the ship there's going to be a point of judgment please don't live casually don't live presumptively i don't want you to live in fear or under the threat god is a god of mercy and grace but he's not sloppy revelation 22 then the angel showed me the river of the water of life remember i asked you to circle a minute ago the spring of the water of life now the angel the messenger the ministering spirit that helps us is going to show john the river of the water of life as clear as crystal it flows from the throne of god and the lamb down the middle of the great street of the city you know you'll see that one day on each side of the rivers to the tree of life bearing 12 crops of fruit yielding its fruit every month and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations no longer will there be any curse the throne of god and the lamb will be in the city and the servants will serve him i think that's a change we could stand i think that's a change we could stand revelation 22 same chapter john the one who heard and saw these things when i'd heard and seen them i fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who'd been showing them to me makes sense what an amazing journey what an amazing insight he's been given he's seen the throne of heaven he's seen 100 million angels he's seen what was to come in the future so he falls down at the feet of the one who has been his guiding him through this revelation but he said to me don't do it i'm a fellow servant with you i want you to hear that for just a minute do you know there are angels serving with you ever feel alone maybe you hear the news or you hear people in powerful positions mocking god or you see expressions of evil that be seem to be supported by enormous resources or all sorts of stuff whatever it is that makes you feel isolated and alone i tell you i find tremendous comfort and real courage in that one little insight the angel said i'm a fellow servant with you you know there's angels surfing with me i'm not just some hillbilly preacher well i mean there's some servant with you too but hey i'm a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and the prophets and all who keep the words of this book worship god amen the clarity of the angel the understanding the angel had the insight he says it's so clearly and so succinctly and so plainly and so directly and yet every one of us in here in an honest moment would say we've debated every point in that sentence whether there really is a god whether the prophets were real or just cooks whether this book or god's words or not the angel has such clarity and the outcome he leads us to is worship god we're going to talk about it before we're done i want to take just a bit of an aside in a few weeks you're going to get to the book of zechariah i know you read it frequently i suspect most of it is committed to memory but as i was doing my research on angels and and their role zechariah was a wonderful reminder that this isn't just a story about the book of revelation it's not just an end of the age thing the angels don't just find their way into the new testament because the first century world embraced mythological ideas and spiritual language don't yield the truth of scripture for those kind of pathetic explanations zechariah precedes all of that and the angels play a role in the book of zechariah that is very similar it's a forerunner to what we find you see what john described in the book of revelation was easy for him to describe because he's familiar with the book of zechariah i'll give you just a couple of brief examples zechariah chapter 1 verse 8 during the night i had a vision sounds familiar and before me was a man riding a red horse and he was standing among the myrtle trees in a review ravine and behind him were red brown and white horses and i said what are these my lord and the angel who was talking with me answered i'll show you what they are and he goes on to get the explanation sounds a lot like if you've been doing this study with us the four horsemen in revelation chapter six doesn't it remember the white horse of the gospel the red horse the black horse the pale horse again it was a familiar pattern to zechariah it was a familiar pattern to john when he had his vision he understood he stood in a heritage of people whose faith was described defined and made possible by the interaction of angels on their journey i suspect we have more confidence in our affiliation with a denomination or a congregation or a translation of the bible then we do angels i spent my life in the church i'm not opposed to denominations congregations or translations but angels occupy an important part of our journey they're fellow servants you don't want to worship them it doesn't make you more spiritual to know their names zechariah 3 then he showed me joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the lord and satan standing in his right side to accuse him and the lord said to satan the lord rebuked you satan the lord who's chosen jerusalem rebuked you it's an interesting passage the angel gives to zechariah this vision he lets him see joshua a man a current high priest standing before the lord and on the other side of the this this person is satan himself and it's a helpful phrase says the angel satan is standing at his right side to accuse him the hebrew word for satan means accuser if you're reading in its original language it would say the angel of the lord and the accuser standing at his right side but god in his mercy to us gives us a little extra language he said the accuser was standing in his right side what would the accuser do accuse him so if you don't know hebrew you've still got the meaning isn't god good to us the hebrew word for satan means accuser this isn't verse 3 joshua was dressed in filthy clothes as he stood before the angel and the angel said to those who were standing before him take off his filthy clothes i've taken away your sin and put rich garments on you it's a very graphic portrayal of what god has done for us he's taken away our sin we've been given a robe of righteousness that we didn't earn we didn't deserve we certainly couldn't purchase it there's no work program where you can work it out but the response of our life is the value we attach to the gift of righteousness we're not delivered from the responsibility to live righteously because we receive the gift of righteousness a righteous life is your expression of appreciation gratitude and the value you attach to that gift if you live a shabby sloppy life dishonoring god you don't attach much value to the gift on the other hand you can't earn it you can never be good enough i don't choose to honor the lord with my life or my emotions or my words or my behaviors so that god will love me more he loved me when i was a flat out pagan thank god but this graphic portrayal here of joshua's clothing being filthy and clean clothing being provided for him leads me back to the pictures of revelation revelation 3 and verse 18. i put in your notes it's the message to the church in laodicea this is to a church now it's where we started our discussion today if our hearts will change god will change our nation he'll change our schools and our universities he'll change our economy he'll change he'll change a lot of things i counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so you can become rich and white clothes to wear so you can cover your shameful nakedness it's a church they already have robes of righteousness they've been given the gift of righteousness but the outcome of their life has left them in the description in revelation of blind pitiful naked and in need of all things how messed up do you have to be to be that messed up and not know it i mean you have to be pretty strung out says you say i don't need anything that i'm rich and i have everything and he said in reality you're poor blind and naked you don't know it i mean have you ever been so messed up you were poor blind and naked and didn't know it look at everybody looking at the carpet not me pastor i have no idea what you're talking about good revelation 7 i looked and behold the great multitude which no one could count from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and the lamb clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands and they cried with a loud voice salvation to our god who sits on the throne or to the lamb look at verse 13 one of the elders said he asked who these people are and he said these are who are clothed in white robes are they and where have they come from and he said my lord you know they're the ones who've come out of the great tribulation they're overcomers they're overcomers i'll go back to zechariah for one more passage i think it's helpful zechariah 4 and verse 1 says the angel who talked with me returned and wakened me as a man is awakened from his sleep we're going to need spiritual help to wake out of the slumber we've been in we all have some friends who are still a bit of sleep spiritually good people people of faith people with a heritage of faith but they're still a bit of sleep they're not awake to what god is doing we need god's help don't be angry with them begin to quietly say lord wake up the people around me wake up your people lord send an angel if necessary stir their hearts by your spirit lord he awakened me he said what do you see and i answered i see seven gold lamp stands with a ball at the top sounds a lot like revelation to me how about you verse five he said do you know what these are no i replied and he said this is the word of the lord to zerubbabel not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the lord almighty do you know who zerubbabel is you happen to know what his contribution to the jewish history or israelite history was i'll give you a hint who built the first temple in jerusalem do you know solomon is not really a trick question that temple was destroyed by the babylonians 587 bc the second temple was built in jerusalem under the authority of the persian king the jews the exiles had not all returned yet but they've been given permission to rebuild their temple in jerusalem and zerubbabel is the one who builds the temple until this day the jewish people understand their history in terms of the first temple period and the second temple period that was a very modest building because they didn't have the wealth and the resources that solomon had when he rebuilt it herod the great will do a to call it a remodel is an understatement the jews of herod's day it's the new testament didn't trust herod enough to allow him to dismantle zerubbabel's temple so he had to simply expand around it and expand around that he did it became one of the wonders of the ancient world but when zerubbabel built his temple resources were few they were still slaves in a foreign land and the exiles had begun to return but not in great numbers they hadn't restored temple worship yet and the message that the angel brought to zerubbabel was not by might nor by power but by my spirit says the lord almighty i believe if there was a message for the church in the world today it would be not by might nor by power but by the spirit of the living god the tasks are difficult the adversaries seem to have more power there are many deficits we can look at other seasons and other times historically the temple and its grandeur when solomon built it was one of the most beautiful buildings ever constructed by human beings and zerubbabel is not going to rival that but he's been given an assignment and god says zerubbabel you can accomplish this but it won't be by your physical might or the power of the numbers that you marshal it'll be by the spirit of the living god we need a church empowered by the spirit of the living god it's the truth in verse 7. what are you almighty mountain before zerubbabel you will become level ground that's a wonderful little prayer next time there's some huge hill in front of you that seems ungodly or immoral or wicked or extraordinarily dark you can say before the spirit of god you'll become level ground you don't have to tell anybody just quietly start to walk around with that prayer you're going to become level ground that disease will become level ground that threat is going to become level ground that broken heart is going to become level ground look at the next sentence the hands of zerubbabel then the word of the lord came to me the hands of zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple his hands will also complete it and you'll know that the lord almighty has sent me to you who despises the thing of small the day of small things don't despise he said small beginnings the same hands that began it will complete it because the spirit of god is in you in hebrews it says that jesus our lord is the author and the completer of our story that what he's begun in us he will bring to completion that he called us out of darkness and he will see us into his kingdom but we've got to journey through time we're strangers here pilgrims in the world on a temporary assignment now we have good help jesus said it's better for you if i go away because if i go i'll send my spirit right you know those passages if you don't go to john start chapter 14 and read a while it's better for you if i go away because if i do i'll send my spirit to help you so as we're kind of as we've talked about angels and the spiritual forces of the kingdom of god that are released in the earth to help us it seems to me that the significant question is how do we open our lives and our hearts more fully to what god would do we know how to attend church we understand the ten commandments that we shouldn't murder we have some idea what immorality is sexual immorality whether we choose to abide by it or not we know what the boundaries are we understand the pressure it brings but but how would we open our lives more fully it's the pertinent question when we're talking about the kingdom of god and those spiritual forces that will help us when we talk and we will in the sessions ahead about the kingdom of darkness and those spiritual forces that oppose us we're going to have to ask the opposite question how do we limit their influence how do we separate ourselves from any influence they may have established in our lives those are important questions as well but for this particular session the question is how do we open our lives more fully how do we extend an invitation how do we open the doors i want all the angelic help available how about you if there are mighty angels that know my address come on right go get your friends i'm all in how about you well i don't know pastor if i believe in those things change there's a new heaven and a new earth coming just practice sitting in new seats some of you are hungry enough you realize if you do that you'd be annoying somebody else and you can have some fun just doing that well in the previous session i gave you three ideas to help to begin to extend those invitations and open doors and i'm not going to i don't have time to recapitulate those you can watch that session but it was clean hands and a pure heart an awareness of a king and a kingdom and a willingness to be faithful and the small things i'd like to add three more to that quickly one has to do with prayer and worship and i'm really not talking at all about when the music plays at church but determined to be a person who prays not to pray fancy prayers you don't have to pray elaborate prayers you can start with the prayer jesus taught you to pray and pray that until it comes alive in you you can pray one sentence prayers jesus got lazarus out of the tomb with a one sentence prayer lazarus come here if i'd been in charge of that we had a worship service right we'd have had 24 hours of bible reading proclaiming scriptures about life right you know we would have we'd have anointed the grave right jesus said lazarus dude walked out decide to be a person who prays and then worship is acknowledging that god's not like you now i'm uncomfortable with what we call a worship movement it's a bit i'm happy for some of the choruses that have been written and the music that's been put together and the creativity around it but but worship starts in here see worship starts before we ever face a community of people worship starts in your heart that's why posture in the bible is attached you bow your head it's it's a it's a visible sign of deference that's a yielding in it across cultures you kneel we all understand this this is not a position of power or assertion we kneel before the lord we put our face on the ground [Music] as an expression of humility before the lord prayer is as much about the attitude of your heart and you express that attitude in your posture not when we come together in big groups if you don't ever worship privately you're not really prepared to worship in public so don't put the burden on people on a stage and again i'm not we just haven't thought about it much i don't know if anybody's helped us that much what if you got a next time a handful of your friends were together instead of spending your time talking about current events what if you speak 15 minutes just with a sentence statement of thanksgiving for something you know god's done they'd think i was nuts what do you want him to think you're chic a good decorator wealthy don't you care about them more than that i'm willing for them to think i'm a little nuts if it'll give them a little momentum to be goofy like me you can do that prayer and worship's important remember the objective here is how do we open our lives to the to the spiritual support that is available to us another component would be obedience and obedience really can't be separated from service i don't mean just keeping the rules i mean it's about an investment of your thought your time your energy your effort matthew 24 jesus is teaching it's a parable but you don't need an explanation who's the faithful and wise servant whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time he's trying to identify who god's going to give special attention to he's going to reward it'll be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns doing what so giving food to the people that are about god's business food prep cleanup dishwashing not real sexy jobs but jesus said it'll be really good if you're found doing those seemingly insignificant things when god decides to take inventory i tell you the truth he'll put him in charge of all of his possessions you've been doing by now that little phrase i tell you the truth means the follow-up is bizarre unexpected who's going to be in charge in the kingdom of god the people who were faithful in the little things i i work hard to see to it that i'm still involved in little things where i park my car on campus matters to me it's not important to you it matters to me because it isn't about privilege i prefer most days to get here early and stay late because it isn't you i serve it's the lord i don't know what little things look like for you but you better be engaged in some little things with the lord god will give you bigger assignments there are times i have to stand in visible places i'm willing to do that but the little things are important obedience service serve the lord don't just talk about him and then there's one more thing the humility humility and the fear of the lord proverbs 15 the fear of the lord teaches a man wisdom and humility comes before honor not not dread of god or respect the reverence the yielding to him we're not like him he's different from us he created this place when you see him in all of his splendor he created a hundred million angels he knows the ending at the beginning he's not like us and yet we're so resistant well i'm not gonna let him tell me what okay he should be interested in oh okay we want god to be more interested in how we feel than we're interested in how he feels that's normal you ever seen little children they don't care if you're tired right don't you want to play wouldn't it be fun to play with me oh come on get out of the chair come play with me i want to play how could you not want to play with me i'm wonderful and amazing isn't that kind of how we feel with the lord don't you want to play with me come on i'm amazing the fear of the lord and then humility proverbs 22 4 humility and the fear of the lord bring we'll bring something to your life wealth and honor in life you acquire them indirectly you don't get humility from amazon even if you're a prime member humility comes indirectly when you serve others you cultivate a little bit of humility when you think of others as valuable you cultivate a little humility when you take your time and your energy and open your bible and say god i would like to know about you you're expressing humility to him so i've given you a little short list things you can start to think about things you can cultivate they will increase the capacity of your life to recognize your intersection with the angels it'll help you begin to hear the spirit of god more clearly folks the season ahead of us we're going to need that we're going to need that there's a spiritual war going on if i mention that today but something good is coming to you i want to close i don't want to just do a prayer today i want you if you'll stand with me if you're watching in one of the sanctuaries or you're watching online someplace you can stand with us too i want to take just a minute and quietly begin to worship the lord and and please quietly some of you have big voices and you've worshipped the lord for 100 years some people in here have never done it in a public place and i i appreciate your comfort with it but your volume doesn't convince us you're better there's a time for that but i'm just going to ask you quietly have you got something you could be thankful for today can you think of something has god forgiven a sin rather than judging you for it in the moment anybody here want what you deserve me either we have food to eat and clothing and shelter and our children have schools and health care available to them they have so many freedoms we have so much i understand the world's not just i'm not asking you what's wrong i'm asking you if you could find a place to be thankful and then while we're being thankful i'm going to ask you to do something that has enormous spiritual power in your life i'm going to ask you if you'd be willing to forgive because what i'd like you to do today is leave these next couple of minutes without harboring any anger or resentment or bitterness or hatred which means we're not looking for something no payback no judgment we're going to start by just saying thank you and then we're going to forgive are you up for that we're going to learn to worship a little bit so when these folks hit the music we'll be so far ahead of them they'll have to catch us think i'm kidding it's coming i like to do with my hands up if that bugs you raise them anyway no i'm kidding you can find your comfort level there's a yieldedness in this i want the lord to know that i intend to yield to him i don't always show it really well i get agitated and aggravated and we say about a horse he takes the bit in his teeth tries to take authority away from the rider to establish his own direction i'm guilty how many times i get the bit in my teeth lord we want to say thank you this morning i want to thank you for your goodness and your mercy to us you've loved us you called us out of darkness you've forgiven our sins you've blessed our lives in so many ways father we're free to worship we have convenient places to do that we thank you for it today we worship you this morning we give glory and honor and praise to you because you are worthy of all praise forgive us we've been reluctant when we've been stubborn and rebellious and selfish or disinterested or distracted whatever father we come today in humility begin to give us listening ears and open hearts and eyes to see give us understanding beyond ourselves but i thank you that in spite of all the things that we're not and the struggles that we face that you were sovereign overall we praise you for it today we give you glory lord jesus for what you've done for us for the sacrifices you made we praise you for it today almighty god that you're willing to be our heavenly father to watch over us we praise you for that today holy spirit that you lead and guide and direct and teach and train and convict thank you for your involvement with us we praise you today you are worthy of all glory and honor and praise thank you lord we want to pause this morning to forgive but we've been hurt disappointed we've been mistreated but we've contributed but all of us have the wounds and the scars that come from a journey through a broken world but as you have been gracious to forgive us today father in obedience to you we choose to forgive we release any one of anything we cancel the debt we set them free lord we release them today into your great mercy or not from further mistreatment or but i thank you that we don't have to carry that away from here as we release them i ask you to release us or let the anger go and the resentment go and the bitterness go with the physical limits that have come to us because of those things may their power be broken over our lives you go in jesus name restore our health restore our peace restore our contentment lord we thank you we release them now in jesus name we set them free through the blood of jesus we praise you for it we thank you for the deliverance that is ours hallelujah lord that we're not burdened with that frustration and anger and hostility any longer we praise you for it that through the blood of jesus we have been redeemed out of the hand of the enemy and we have settled all of our accounts in jesus name amen hallelujah you better give the lord a hand now hey this is pastor allen thank you for watching this video if you enjoyed it like it and most importantly share it with your friends if you want to be notified when there's new content we post new material if you'll just subscribe to my channel and hit the bell you'll get the notification most of all i pray god blesses you as you continue on your spiritual journey and open your heart to the lord god bless [Music] you

Channel: Allen Jackson Ministries

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Keywords: Pastor Allen Jackson, allen jackson ministries, world outreach church, alan jackson, sermons, preachers, how to be saved, Finding Jesus, pastor allen jackson sermons

Id: KLYUsJG0QjA

Length: 42min 30sec (2550 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 21 2021