Rest and Repair | Bishop Dale C. Bronner | Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral

this is bishop dale broner thank you so much for joining our youtube channel today if this is a blessing to you i want to encourage you to like it and then click the subscribe button and then turn on notification hit that little notification bell so that you never ever miss another one of our videos and then if you're in the metro atlanta area on a sunday check out one of our exhilarating services at 8 30 a.m 11 a.m or 6 o'clock p.m well our scriptural lesson for today comes from isaiah chapter 58 verse 11 and 12 reading from the new living translation of scripture notice that these words and the lord will guide you continually and satisfy your desire in scorched places and make your bones strong and you shall be like a watered garden like a spring of water whose waters do not fail and your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt you shall raise up the foundations of many generations you shall be called the repairer of the breach the restorer of streets to dwell in speaking today simply from the the thought rest and repair rest and repair rest and repair one of the reasons is because our body begins to repair only when we fully rest when we enter into the rest but now you cannot rest until you do what you're supposed to do that's why the scripture teaches this principle that you labor to enter into his rest that is to say that if you don't do what you need to do when you need to do it you're not going to be able to rest well now i don't know about you but any responsible person if you have responsibility and you you've got a job to get done the way that i'm wired i don't rest well if i haven't finished my assignment i mean if i'm not prepared i don't rest well you can't fully enter into a rest until you have done what you need to do when you need to do it you labor in order to enter into his rest so we we labor so that we can rest we labor so that we can rest this this uh word you know uh the the the philologist in me the etymologist in me uh brings to bear this this this word that's an old word is it's the word respare respare is an old rare word meaning the return of hope after a period of despair respect it's an old word it's an old word and it means the return of hope after a period of despair if you've gone through a depression you've gone through a time of economic recession you've been laid off you've had a relationship failure you've had somebody to die you you need respect you need respect a return of hope after a period of despair hope is is merely expectation of favorable change expectation of favorable change whenever uh your life has hope you you're expecting things to change in your favor hope is always the goal setter for faith it is the goal setter for faith remember faith is the substance of things hoped for if you don't have any hope your faith has nothing to work to achieve so you have to have hope and that's why we have to have respect it is it's this this restoration this repairing that happens after a period of of despair is the restoration of hope that comes in us because we get in really bad shape if you ever lose hope a hopeless person is a helpless person a hopeless person is a helpless person if you lose hope no one can help you and that's why if ever there is despair in your soul we really do have to work to be able to get our hopes up we really really do respect is a word that is both a noun and a verb and and uh and as a verb it actually means to men to repair to patch or to rebuild and it implies making something sound that was broken or something that was torn or injured to actually be restored so everybody needs rest in order to rebuild and to renew and to refocus during this time of uh of this coronavirus pandemic it has forced some people into arrest arrests from running and ripping to a whole lot of different social functions and uh even having to drive into the office they've had a a forced rest to come on them but everybody needs rest in order to rebuild and to repair and so as as god was speaking to us here in isaiah 58 this this was a a a chapter that god was dealing with with something that you you rarely hear folks talk about even in the church nowadays sin but sin is still offensive to god sin is willful rebellion against the will of god it is willful rebellion against god's known will so uh where their sin and just because a person redefines something not as sin does not mean that they've changed the definition with god god is the originator of all things and just because you start calling something by another name does not mean that you've altered it sin nature in the eyes of god god is the one who defines sin i don't have the luxury of editing god's word i don't have that luxury to say what is that this used to be sin but now that's that's old-fashioned it's it's no longer sin anymore no no god was dealing with sin there and he knew that whenever there was sin that it would cause effects negative effects in the culture but everybody needs to to restore everybody needs to rebuild in fact uh you you hear the term uh the quarantine uh quarantine actually it it comes from an old word quaranta it's almost similar in spanish quarrenta which which means 40 40 cuarenta quarantine we get quarantine from this word karantha and and it actually means 40 40 days because back during the time of the black death the black plague that happened back in the 1300s as ships pulled into venice they were required a quaranta there to stay there for 40 days they had to quarantine import for 40 days because they've been bringing goods from various other countries in europe and they didn't want it to spread and so they wanted to make sure that whatever was coming in was not going to spread out of control and and whether you remember this from history or not but it is estimated between 75 million to 200 million people died in this plague 200 million people in the black death of the 1300s so when ships came in came in they were required to quarantine a quaranta for 40 days they just had to chill out and rest to make sure that they weren't bringing something in that was going to spread and create further death in their in their midst and so it was a way of their quelling this this terrible plague arrest maybe we quell particular things in our own life in our own bodies when we take a a quarantine that's why god believes in in a sabbath and he gave mankind a sabbath and i just want to remind you that whenever things seem dark or whenever things seem down the proper thing to do if they are dark or down shift your focus shift your focus shift your focus if you think about it feeling down is because of focusing on a certain thought or condition shift your focus it's time to get your hopes up if you're ever feeling dark or down shift your focus go to that happy place in your mind go to that place that reminds you of a joy of something that was a blessing to you you'll notice a scripture uh the psalmist as he was writing in psalm 42 verse 11 in the new living translation notice what it says why am i discouraged why is my heart so sad i will put my hope in god i will praise him again my savior and my god notice the antidote for that was hope that's a part of that respare respare of of bringing hope back to a situation with a situation where there has been great despair why am i so discouraged why is my heart so sad i will put my hope in god i will shift my focus i'll shift off of the despair and shift my focus back on god the things that god has done when i think about god it'll cause me to praise him again god my savior and my god when i think about the goodness of jesus and what he's done for me when i when i think of how he has spared me and he didn't give me what i should have deserved god was good in his mercy and in his grace toward me when you start thinking about how good god has been to you not what you're dealing with right now but shift your focus shift your focus whenever your life feels down or dark shift your focus and get your hopes up hope thou in god i like the way that it reads in the message version the scripture notice the message version it says why are you down in the dumps dear soul why are you crying the blues fix my eyes on god soon i'll be praising again he puts a smile on my face he's my god you got to shift your focus shift your focus it's not a matter of if you'll ever get down you will get down sometimes but shift your focus shift your focus shift your focus fix your eyes on god think about what god has already done in your life think about what not merely what you have but sometimes you can rejoice about what you don't have you can look at other people that have conditions sicknesses diseases uh a terrible spouse and said you know lord i thank you thank you that i'm not married to her thank you that i'm not married to him thank you jesus you may not even have a spouse but lord thank you you know so thank god not merely for what you have thank you for what you don't have when you focus in on god you fix your eyes on god it lifts you up above the despair and the depression and the plight of the world because you are judging all times on the based on the present time and the present will not always be the way that it that it is your present every time that you go through a test or a temptation it's always temporary has anybody ever had a permanent test i haven't has anybody ever had a permanent temptation i haven't temptation is always temporary temptation is always temporary if you can breathe through it if you can shift your focus through it the temptation will pass the test will pass you can get through it shift your focus i love something that uh barasani said he said your future depends on your dreams so go to sleep your future depends on your dreams so go to sleep just go to sleep you know why because sleep is restorative it is restorative it is restorative i love something that gandhi said about asleep he said each night when i go to sleep i die and the next morning when i wake up i am reborn because sleep is restorative sleep is restorative e joseph kosman said this that the best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep the best bridge between despair and hope is a good night's sleep sometimes a good night's sleep will shift your perspective you may think that you're having a serious problem but all you need is a good night's sleep sometimes you wake up in the morning and you'll just have the answer of what you need to do you know why because while you were asleep the committee of sleep was working on your problem and you wake up with a knowing in the morning i know what i need to do now somehow sleep is is a is a medicine to it it restores us it rebuilds us it re focuses our mind on hope it's it's it's helpful to us we need it sleep allows both the mind and the body to rest and to repair that's why we have crazy dreams sometimes because your mind is unwinding from everything that's been put in it it has to to to to be activated in a different way sleep is involved in the healing and in the repair of your heart and even of your blood vessels let me give you a few things that sleep does sleep can boost your immune system isn't that interesting i don't care how many vitamins that you take and i don't care how much you exercise if you don't sleep your immune system will become impaired sleep boosts your immune system sleep improves your memory that's right before you have a standardized test a child needs to be able to make sure that they have a good night's sleep it improves your memory if you didn't sleep well you have mental fog it improves your memory sleep also increases your exercise performance you'll have better endurance when you exercise when you workout when you've had a good night's sleep sleep helps to prevent weight gain oh my goodness wouldn't that be a wonderful thing if you could just like a bear just go and hibernate and you wake up and you're 40 pounds lighter wouldn't that be something but it does because uh if you don't get enough sleep your body produces all of this cortisone this this stress kind of hormone and it makes your body hold on to weight it helps prevent weight gain when you can get a good night's sleep it helps to increase your productivity it helps to produce a better mood in you there's some people that are cranky and moody because they didn't sleep well it gives you a better mood because it's rest and repair rest and repair and it also helps to decrease inflammation in the body again that's because of that cortisone kind of deal there so ongoing sleep uh deficiency is also risk it's linked to a risk in heart disease kidney disease high blood pressure diabetes and also stroke just because people don't sleep well enough and you'll be surprised how many people in the world today have sleep issues where they don't rest well at night they don't sleep well no wonder we're sick and stressed out and overwhelmed and burned out you must either slow down or you will break down those are our only choices you must either slow down and rest or you'll break down you slow down and rest or you'll break down and you see that you allow your body and your mind to be restored you allow them to be restored but here's the principle that i want you to get balance is the key to life you can't rest all the time people who rest all the time before they've worked resting before your before you work is called laziness that's that's what laziness is it's resting before you work so you have to work and then you rest you you you know god did six days of crea of creation he worked for six days and on the seventh day god rested now listen if god rested and he's god how much more do we need to to rest i mean just to be able to have a divine sabbath because what do you do when you wake up tired you wake up with this sort of malaise about you you wake up in a funk what do you do when you you wake up and you feel like you've not rested it is because your soul is tired and so what do you do how do you become refreshed when your soul is tired that's one of the reasons that we have the word of god and the spirit of god and prayer and praise and worship because they reinvigorate the human spirit that's why god said as a part of that sabbath worship me when you do that you're giving a rest to your soul because it doesn't matter whether you have some type of a therapeutic you know posturepedic mattress and you can have the best kind of rubber sole shoes but when is your soul that's tired you can sit down in a restful chair and be restless you can lay down on one of the best kind of mattresses and still be restless because it's your soul that's tired your soul that is weary your soul that needs to be reinvigorated with a hope it's where it says hope vowed in god you've got to shift your focus to say i need to get back to where i need to get with god you see this is about balance it's about balance balance is the key to life balance is the key to life balance is the key to life and a lot of people don't understand it you get ready to make a cake it's about having uh flour and eggs and milk and vanilla extract and sugar and butter all of these things but listen when you say balance balance does not mean equal portions you don't put as much egg in as you put flour you don't put the same amount of of milk as you do vanilla extract it's it's it has to be balanced according to the appropriate measure of it it's not an equal distribution so when you talk about having a balanced life it doesn't mean that you work the same amount of hours that you rest or that you you eat the same amount of hours it's not an equal distribution it is the proper mixture and combination of it like you have to have you know you make iced tea it has to be balanced to whether tea is brewed to a certain strength it has to be brewed for a certain strength or else to be weak tea and you can't fix weak tea you balance it with sugar you balance it with lemon you have to balance it it doesn't mean equal portion you don't put as much lemon juice as you put water so it has to be balanced it means a contributing part to have it balanced so when you talk about leaving a balanced life it's not equal time to all things it is the appropriate amount of each element that strikes the just the right type of balance just the right amount of salt just the right amount of sugar just the right amount of butter it is the balance of these things that's working in your life but when you get too much bitterness at one time it can so turn your stomach if you get too much red pepper too much hot spicy stuff it will tear you up and burn you going in and coming out it's so the key to life is balance the key to life is balance it is balance it is balanced the key to life is balance and god knows how to balance the bitter with the sweet life is a mixture of both the bitter and the sweet it's bittersweet but it can actually become quite delectable to us when we realize what's happening but when it's your soul that's tired you need a sabbath when it's your soul that's tired you need a sabbath someone asked a jewish rabbi how is it that the jews have been able to so successfully keep the sabbath all of these centuries and the jewish rabbi responded it is not the jews who have kept the sabbath it is the sabbath that has kept the jews and when you realize that honoring god's sabbath brings a renewal a rest a a respect respect renewing even of the hope after a long period of despair has happened in the life and i want you to understand this about rest rest is not always inactivity but a change of activity people go on vacation to have a rest from what they normally do at work vocationally and have you ever gone on vacation and you've done so many activities that you need to rest for two days after you got back from vacation because it's not inactivity it is a change of activity when you just don't have to deal with the same people and the same drama and the same responsibilities and you have a change of activity that actually is a rest to your mind it can be a rest to your soul it's not always inactivity rest is often times a change of activity we rest on the sabbath but worship can be quite active it's just a change of activity and i love something that that my uh i'm the namesake of dale carnegie he says if you can't sleep then get up and do something instead of lying there worrying it's the worry that gets you not the lack of sleep isn't that interesting i can't tell you the number of times that i've had that because there are times that when you're carrying a hope on the inside of you when you're carrying a dream when you're pregnant with purpose uh you know a dream you've heard me teach is not something that you see in your sleep a dream is something that keeps sleep from you because when you really possess a dream you don't honestly possess the dream the dream possesses you so the dream will wake you up at one thirty eight in the morning say get up let think about me hey the the dream will just wake you up uh sometimes at 2 47 and it'll say hey hey i'm getting ready to throw some ideas over to you you you can lay there if you want to but you will not go back to sleep because i'm talking and your dream down on the inside of you will be talking to you at 2 47 in the morning and it's like can't we can we discuss this at 9 00 9 30. but your dream will wake you up at 3 30 in the morning and your dream will start talking to you he said think about me hey hey hey it'll just throw your ideas it'll just hit you upside the head it's not gonna wait for you to to get your catcher's mitt on it'll just start throwing your uh throwing things there and so uh it's a it's a good idea to keep a a a recording device by your bed something to be able to write things down because the principle is is on the paper out of the mind on the paper out of the mind there are people if there are things that that's on your mind about your work before you get ready to go to bed at night put it down on the paper put it on the paper because see you carry this psychological weight on you that uh i don't want to forget this i don't want to forget this well if you write it down you don't have to have that worry of it nagging in the in the back corners of your mind that i need to call so and so write your to-do list out the night before that's that's that's how you do it never start a day until you have it finished finish it the night before finish it the night before and you put it on the paper it's out of the mind i don't have to carry this so you put it there and if you can't rest if you're in the bed at night time get up and do something it's not the lack of sleep that always takes you out it's the worry it's the worry that will make you look old before you get old it's worry it's worry worry is the thing that keeps the people from sleep get up and do your job as i said until you do your labor you can't fully rest you got to do your part you got to do your part you've got to do your part and and i'm telling you there's nothing that helps you to rest as well as being prepared you do your job and get prepared and then you can rest when you know lord i've done everything i can do it's on you now it's on you it's on you jesus but you can't just at the beginning of it just say lord it's on you the lord said no no you trade up a child and the way you go no it's on you you can't throw that back to god you do you will be up all night long with your child stressed out over your children stress out over your marriage if you haven't done what you need to do but after you've done all you can do god will bring a peace in you to say you know what i've already dealt with that i've done everything that i've known to do i've been kind i prayed about it i've sought the lord about it i've done everything that i know to do jesus i turn this over to you now it's in your court now it's in your court lord i've done everything that i know to do now turn it over to him and refuse to take it back every time the thought of that thing comes just says you know what devil i have already put this in the hands of jesus if you want to discuss it now you got to talk to him about that yes he is it's his so when you get tired learn to rest not to quit learn to rest whenever you get tired learn to rest not to quit and this is the thing that i want you to understand is that sin sin god is talking to them in this 50th chapter of isaiah about sin sin creates an unrest in human beings sin creates an unrest how do we know that you can look at isaiah chapter 48 verse 22 there is no peace says the lord for the wicked peace is a rest if you can't have any peace in your soul you can't rest there's no rest for the wicked there is no peace says the lord for the wicked when you do wicked things you can't rest and so god has a he has an antidote for that if you've got the sin because the sin creates unrest in us isaiah chapter 58 verse 1 notice this cry aloud do not hold back lift up your voice like a trumpet and declare to my people their transgression to the house of jacob their sin do you think that god says you know lift up your voice like a trumpet cry loud and spare not just so that we can point out people's sin and make people feel bad about their sin absolutely not uh this is not uh an encouragement for us to just make people feel bad about themselves that's not the purpose of of pointing out and making a person aware that something is a sin before god it is so that they become self-aware if you are not self-aware then you cannot change awareness is the beginning of change awareness is the beginning of change awareness if a person is not aware that they need to change they will never change so the law of god brings to us the knowledge of sin and it reveals to us our desperate need of god and of his grace and his mercy it's not to make a person feel bad about where they are but it's it is to clearly bring to the person the understanding you are not enough that we fail when we are left to ourselves that there is no good thing that is in the flesh that human hearts turn themselves toward wickedness particularly when god is not involved in their life that we left to ourselves become a detriment to ourselves so when god talks about lifting up your voice and crying loud against sin it is to help us to realize our wretchedness and our desperate need of god so that we will go to god and say god help me god help me so that we realize our desperate need of a savior and our need to change our need to change because you cannot teach a person a lesson that they think they already know so it is to say listen we've got issues we've got problems we are displeasing to god if you're living in sin you need to know that you're in sin because if you don't you're not aware that you're in sin you'll never repent and if you never repent you can never be saved but when we honestly repent then things change and i'm just here to announce to you that it's prayer time it's prayer time it's prayer time and things have gotten so severe now in our land that it's not merely prayer time it's fasting time it's fasting time and it's healing time i want you to understand this principle very clearly that unresolved wounds are magnets for demonic infiltration because demons love hiding in hurt spaces that you haven't allowed god to heal i would snapshot that if i were you but unresolved wounds they are magnets for demonic infiltration demons love hiding in hurt spaces that you haven't allowed god yet to heal so you have to be very careful about that because it's a it's an open door it's a portal trauma is a portal to demonic infiltration and if you got unresolved wounds whether it came from your childhood and a mother and a father or somebody bullying you that then created a wound and then it becomes a magnet now for demonic infiltration because demons love to hide in hurt spaces that you haven't allowed god to heal that's why we've got to be healed that's why we've got to be restored that's why it's prayer time and fasting time and healing times and you have to realize this is why the bible says guard your heart with all diligence guard your heart guard your heart so that it doesn't get infected infected uh because uh when the the real way to to guard your heart is to qualify the people that you give access to your heart you have to qualify the people that you give access to your heart and then you have to realize that whenever some people get bound by drugs and alcohol and sex addictions and all of these kinds of things there are some of those kinds of strongholds hear me carefully by the spirit that can only be broken by the power of fasting that can only be broken you know why i've discovered it's because hunger is the first element of self-discipline because if you can control what you eat and drink you can control practically everything else hunger is the first element of self-control and so sometimes you actually have to cut back so that you can move forward and this is what fasting is about fasting is about cutting back so that you can honestly move forward it's about cutting back so that you can honestly move forward so sometimes it's it's about fasting from the right kinds of thing let me show you a little difference between just like a a nickel and a dime put the little meme up and let them let them see that you see that now here's a prophetic message that i want you to see about this am i preaching about money no but you see a nickel is twice the size of a dime but half the value now here's what i want you to see that oftentimes you have to have a smaller circle you have to decrease the size of your circle in order to increase your value and sometimes people think that the more people that you know it's not about how many it's about what kind and so you've got to shrink the size of your circle have a smaller circle you increase your value it's not how many people you know is who you know it's the caliber of people that you need to know you don't need to know everybody that you think you know and please don't don't delude yourself into thinking that all of the people that follow you on social media are your friends please don't get your idea of how large your friendship circle is by who follows you on facebook and social uh you know uh instagram and tick tock and and you know all of the whatever form of social media that you might use because that's a delusion if you really think that those are your friends just tell all of them send me five dollars and see how many responses that you get that'll that'll show you your friends and so you sometimes need to make your circles smaller in order to increase your your value sometimes this is about fasting so uh what do you need to fast from what do you need to fast from what do you need to fast from and then here's a second question who do you need to fast from you know that there are some people that whenever you're with them whenever you talk to them they produce stress in you your cortisone levels go all through the roof because you're talking so you just see their their call their number coming up on your phone or text messages coming from them and it just produces stress in you because you know they want something you know that they're perhaps narcissistic and they just want something and and you're just trying to filter through oh hey cara how you doing hey how are you you know you're just waiting on them for them to hit you up for the real reason that they called they're not calling to check on you and and so you know that so sometimes it is about decreasing your size and in the process of that you realize that you increase your value so i want you to notice the kind of fast that god recognizes and ordains isaiah chapter 56 verse 6 through 10 notice this is not this the kind of fasting i have chosen to loose the chains of injustice if you ever thought that god was not concerned about justice read your bible and what you will always find practically every time in scripture that you find righteousness righteousness and justice go hand in hand there is no such a thing as being righteous and unjust righteousness and justice go together is god concerned about social justice absolutely absolutely is he concerned when human beings are being oppressed and taken advantage of no matter what race they are or income level that they are or nationality that they are when people human beings are being taken advantage of god is a god of justice and he's concerned about justice issues and so is not this the kind of fasting i have chosen god says to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free and break every yoke is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter when you see the naked to clothe them and to not turn away from your own flesh and blood then your light will bring forth like the dawn it'll break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear god heals us through fasting you see animals that get sick they'll start stop eating they'll fast and until their healing springs forth he says your healing will quickly appear then your righteousness will go before you and the glory of the lord will be your rear guard god says i got your back your rear guard then you will call and the lord will answer see when you pray you break through that the dead cats that's on the line and he says then you'll call me after you've gone through the fasting and you've broken these yokes off of you then you will call and the lord will answer you will cry for help and he will say here am i and he says if you do away with the yoke of oppression with the pointing finger and the malicious talk the malicious talk and if you spin yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noon god says i'm going to turn your your midnight into morning i'm going to turn the darkness into light you're going to come out of that i'm telling you one of the best therapies for depression is to open up your door and go across the street and help somebody else whenever you become a blessing to somebody else you increase your own joy and i'm just here this this scripture here reminds us that god is a restorer god is a restoration don't ever question that god is a restorer he's talking about the being a repairer of the breach his anointing is on those that helps to restore and to bring order and to bring justice god is a restorer i want you to notice what he says in joel chapter 2 verse 25 so i will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten the crawling locus the consuming locus and the chewing locust my great army which i sent among you can you imagine that god says i will restore to you the years only god can restore time to you god says i will restore the years i want you to listen to this very carefully god didn't say i will restore the stuff i will restore the years see you can make more money you can get more material stuff but you don't get any more time but when you serve god and if you will humble yourselves and repentance before god and let your heart the things that break god's heart also break your heart so you can love what god loves and hate what he hates if you'll ever get your heart right with god god says then then then i will restore to you the years i'll pull back years off of your life i'll give you a new invigoration of energy i will restore the years i will restore to the years you'll feel a new youthfulness a new vitality happening on the inside of you you see the bible teaches that though the outward man perish the inward man is renewed day by day the inward person that that the hidden man of the heart god says i'm going to renew that and i i want to be able to have a young man and young faults and young ideas and young dreams and young imaginations and and young endeavors i want to be able to have the energy of god i don't want to just be a gray-head man thinking all types of ideas of just sitting on the porch and sipping iced tea i want to be alive and vibrant and experiencing this earth in a way that god intended for us to be able to experience it's like god don't do anything in the earth without me god if you're gonna do something in the earth god don't do it without me use me for your glory count me in on it lord if i can pray if i can help somebody if i can prepare a meal and take it to somebody if i can help somebody else clean up if i can give advice to somebody if i can share wisdom with somebody or encourage me if i can lay my hands on somebody and watch the supernatural power of god move through me if i can lift somebody's day who's been depressed somebody who feels unloved and unwanted and you can somehow embrace them in a way that lets them know i know you i care about you i value you i treasure you you're important to god if you can set somebody on something that god sees more in you than what you see in yourself and this is not the end that god has bigger plans for you and if you'll just trust him god will walk you out of that storm and bring you into a blessed and delightful place but only god can restore time in your life only god i want you to notice this in saint john chapter 9 and verse 31 now we know not we guess that god does not hear sinners but if anyone is a worshiper of god and does his will he hears him god does not hear sinners did you know that was in the bible that god does not hear sinners well then if he doesn't hear sinners how can a sinner get saved so with that in mind when the bible says that god does not hear sinners in john 9 31 it is to qualify that the sinners are people who pray selfish prayers you know what the sinner prays the reason that god does not hear a sinner's prayer i believe is because sinners constantly ask god for a better life when they pray you know god i want this house god i want this car god i want these shoes and this pocket books and these eyebrows and god if you just help me to get this if you'll help me to get into this neighborhood you help my child to get into that school they're always asking god to change things in their life but they failed to ask god to change them lord heal my mama heal my daddy heal so and so they want god to do stuff for them that will alter things for their benefit they want everything in their life altered except them to where they can still live however they want to live according to their own truth and not according to god's truth and god is saying listen i don't even hear that i don't even hear that the prayer of the sinner that god hears is the one where the sinner is beating on his own chest and saying god have mercy on me a sinner have mercy on me save me jesus i need you change me don't change the circumstances of my life don't change the possessions in my life jesus i need you to change me and i'm just here to remind you today stop asking god to change your life without asking god to change you stop asking god to change your life without asking god to change you because if god changes your life without changing you you carry the stench of your own life into a new situation you're asking god for a new beautiful couch because the old one is stinking and you don't realize is that you are the one who carried the stench to that couch and you'll do the same to a new one so god is saying don't ask me for a new couch until i'm able to wash and change you because the couch won't matter it'll be a matter of time before that situation will stink just like the previous one god is saying i want to change you so when we ask god god change me purify my heart that's when god will step in and begin to do something brand new in us i want you to imagine with me for just a moment that you are the dutch artist rembrandt who painted this one of the world's most beloved paintings it was called the return of the prodigal son and that distinguished painting sits today in the hermitage museum in saint petersburg russia the return of the prodigal son and it's a interesting painting showing the prodigal son coming and the father embracing him and some people in the background observing this whole interaction and i want you to just think about it just for a moment rembrandt who lived back in i don't know around the 1300s or so a masterful painter just hanging there in their museum there in saint petersburg and imagine some drunks who came by the museum one night and said hey man let's just break let's break into this place after a night of reverie and drinking and partying they just want to do damage to something and they said we're going to just mess up some of these old boring pictures here and they come to the rembrandt the return of the prodigal son and they take it off the wall and throw it on the floor one of them reaches into his pocket and takes a knife and slits it diagonally from one frame to the other corner of the frame and then another pours beer on it and the little fears and carbonation of the beer starts to discolor some of the colors on the canvas then another stamps on it with his muddy boots and grinds it in can you imagine the curators of this museum when they come in the next day and to see the rembrandt on the floor defaced devalued and wondering what is this why is this and they're like what was priceless is now useless and so their idea would come to say hey let's just auction it off for whatever little bit that we can get and a group of auctioneers coming in to start bidding on it and they're just bidding pennies on the dollar of what it was worth can you imagine if rembrandt was still alive and if they if he said no no i'm going to send my representative i want you to go in and i want you to bid full value on the painting and can you imagine the rembrandt torn defaced by beer something that was once priceless and now it has been so defaced and devalued and yet while others were bidding pennies on the dollar and rembrandt let's imagine that his person says full value and they sell it to him and now they bring it back to rembrandt and now he's looking at his masterpiece i believe that this was the last piece that he painted before he died and he takes a fine thread and sews it from corner to corner to repair the breach the thread being so fine that it was almost imperceptible to the human eye and then from memory his taking his colors and matching the hues by memory of what color was on the cheek and the hair and the robe of the individuals and he fixes what the beer feels bleached out and then he takes a cleaning tool and gets all of the mud off and retouches those colors and now is more valuable than it had ever been and now for the first time it really depicts the return of the prodigal son and now whether it is a rembrandt whether it is a monet whether it is a van gogh whether it is a da vinci this in essence is the message of the gospel of the lord jesus christ how he takes human lives that had incredible supreme value that have been defamed because somebody slashed your reputation somebody defaced you uh the damage that drugs and alcohol will do to our lives the dirt the filth mud that was ground in can you imagine what life does to us and then how people will discount you because of what you've been through but you are still who you are the diamond nature of your character and spirit wonderfully and fearfully made by god is still there the essence of who you are your creativity is still in your life your value is still there just because you got dirty doesn't mean that you were devalued and jesus with his own blood came to our tattered lives and there to my heart [Music] was the blood applied and he put his hands on us and began to heal and bring restoration to every area of where people had spoken against us and where people were determining your value you never let other human beings set your value because they will always set it too low they are not your creator and they'll always judge you for what you have done and for where you have been and for the mistakes that you have made but god judges us based on our potential and where your future that he has designed for us to go and it is not until you have been broken that the broken become masters at mending and when you've gone through brokenness because you've been slashed now you know how with tendon tenderness and delicacy to take another person's life that has been ripped apart and delicately hold them together and behind the scenes of the canvas so then back together again god does the work the with the hidden person of the heart he begins to mend in the areas if you could only see the underside of where the holy ghost has been working with a damaged self-esteem low self-image to bring restoration to life that felt useless as though they had messed up and would never be able to measure up to where god could use them and get glory out of their life but the darker the night the brighter the light the darker the background the greater the glory the deeper the sin the greater the mercy where sin doth abound there does the grace of god much more a pound and while other folks were bidding on us to say well maybe they can do this little thing and that little thing god sent his son in to buy us back and to purchase us with his own blood at full value even despite the fact that you got pregnant out of wedlock or you were molested or abused even though you got addicted to drugs or pornography god will never judge you based on where you've been god's judgment is in accordance to our humility to say god change me because when you do it immediately puts you into the plan of god for a future that becomes glorious more magnificent than anything that you can imagine or think it is always above that which you ask or think when you submit your life to god and if you're honest with yourself we know our own limitations and you'll see what god will have done and where the places that god will have brought you the people that he will have brought into your life you'll realize this is nothing but the grace and the glory of god bigger than anything that you have the capacity to even dream yourself god has been favorable to us and you're worth much more in the sight of god than a rembrandt or a da vinci or a picasso god is saying that i value you when all of the other curators of the world have assigned a value to you it is not just about your job a career is what you're paid for a calling is what you're made for and you're so desperately valuable to god that even getting dirty and defiled god by his own grace would go to a prodigal son in a pig pen and find a son and then make him aware of his sin when god made him aware of his sin of rebellion then he came to himself because until you come to yourself you cannot come to god and he came to himself and said i will arise and i will go to my father's house and when he came he just said to his father daddy make me as one of your your hard servants even when he came home in an attitude of humility he said make me when he left home he said give me in arrogance in entitlement give me the portion of goods that comes to me give me my inheritance but when he came back home he said make me make me i'm like clay in your hand god make me mold me shake me i'm yielded this time when i left i was arrogant i knew everything give me give me give me give give me give me what belongs to me but he came back he said make me he came back broken and tattered and torn [Music] and the first thing the father said was bring the best road i want to cover you love covers he didn't expose him he said i want to cover you i want to cover your shame your guilt i want to cover you he brought a cover bring the shoes bring a ring i'm going to restore you into authority and he began to restore his identity his income and his influence he said i want to restore you robe shoes ring want to restore you and god who so loves you wants to restore your life as you surrender to him when you surrender to him oh my god there's such a rest there's such a peaceful rest and that rest is always based on a revelation on a perspective on a position that god has brought you into an understanding of a promise of his word and when you get that revelation your life changes forever enter now into the rest of the lord cease from your labor cease striving and just be still and know that he is god he will be exalted among the heathen he will be exalted in the earth he's god and if you've messed up and if you've been like that priceless rembrandt slash from corner to corner defaced by alcohol addictions disfigured by mud defamed by shame [Music] the master artist the god of all aesthetics is able by the elements which he creates he's also the god who recreates who restores who renews and who rebuilds and right from where you are if you've messed up i lift my voice today like a trumpet and say return to god return to god admit that you need him sin can only go out of the life by one means and it's by confession confess with your mouth the lord jesus believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead and thou shalt be saved you ask god lord make me aware of my desperate need for you i need you and i recognize the provision that you've already purchased for me you redeemed me you bought me back while i was worthless and now the value of the holy spirit the essence of god himself made in his image after his likeness [Music] restores our psyche our consciousness our character he restores us and renews us like he leads us beside the still waters and restores our soul god may we cease from our labors and allow you to do your divine work of restoration body mind soul and spirit in us from the animals to the outermost be glorified in us god and we will be careful to share the good news of what you will have done in us for us and through us to the generations to come jesus name amen we hope that you enjoyed that message don't forget to like and subscribe and then press the notification bell so that you don't miss another one of our videos and if you want to partner with us click the give now button thank you for what you do

Channel: woffamily

Views: 152,275

Rating: 4.89252 out of 5

Keywords: Bishop Dale C. Bronner, Word of Faith Family Worship Cathedral, Church, Sermon, Encouragement, Hope, Message

Id: UWoNN1zYDsE

Length: 59min 26sec (3566 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 01 2020