The Faithful God In Turbulent Times | Pastor Hart Ramsey

[Music] by reminding you that we have never needed to find faith like we need to find faith now we need it more than ever but the Bible says in Galatians five and six that faith works by love and when people hear that statement on what we feel to realize is that faith does not work by our love necessarily when our faith needs us to being loved to walk in love but faith works when we understand how much God loves us and I think that's the big missing element in the faith walk into define faith walk I mean when life comes against you and you have to stand up to life um if you don't know for sure that God loves you it puts you in a position where where you you won't always be confident to do the things that need to be done it's impossible to have faith in someone if you really do if you really not sure that they love you if you don't trust a person's love then it's good it's hard to trust them and so I want to I want to point you to a scripture a couple scriptures tonight before we get into the meat of the lesson um when God wanted to demonstrate his love for us when God wants to show us how how much he loves us um he sent Jesus to the cross but what we tend to do is that we tend to measure the love of God by what's happening around us our circumstances has become the measuring stick for whether or not God really loves us and I want to show you tonight that God is a God that loves his people in a way that that it's hard to measure by human standards it is way beyond what we think and and I believe the pulpit has robbed the Pew preachers I have in our zeal to get people to live right we have not spoken well of God in terms of his love we have not emphasized the fact that he's a loving God we haven't emphasized the fact that that he is the kind of God that literally I'll go after us in a way in some ways that are uncomfortable he will come after us to make sure that that we get his best and we don't mess things up um when God introduced self-trust when God wanted to introduce his love to us he sent Jesus to the cross that was the introduction of God's love for us um he introduced himself this way because that's what he wants to be known he wants to be known as the loving God he wants us to believe and to be sure that he loves us if you're not sure tonight that God loves you that means your faith is not working 100% God wants us to know that no matter what happens around us or what happens to us he won't change his plans for us in 1st John chapter 4 and verse 16 I want I want to go there first first John chapter 4 verse 16 um John is writing and he says that we know how much God loves us and we have put our trust in his love we put our trust in his love and that's where faith begins and our faith is really in the love of God or my faith is in the mercy of God my faithless in the grace of God it's in the kindness of God it's in the kindness of God my faith when I have faith people's where I have faith in God but if you look if your faith in a God that you think is angry and mean if you if your faith isn't a God that you think is it's just a judge sitting on a bench that means your faith is faulty that means you only will have faith when you believe you're doing well on youth and you believe that you're guarding all your eyes and crossing all your T's in Romans chapter five verse eight the King James Version I wanna I want to point out a word to you it says but God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us and I want to work with this word commendeth because of what commendeth is a powerful word as it speaks to our lesson tonight to commend it as a word arm Sonesta me soon is to me s you in i/s TEM I soon is to me it's a compound Greek word and it literally means in the context it means to place something before someone so when the Bible says God commendeth his love he said that God places love before God God literally presented his love to us and this this all this works the news to me the English would commend carries as three ideas that's three connotations so to speak the first one is is to declare out loud and so he says that God could dark God declared his love out loud to us when he sent Jesus to the cross to die while we were still sinners while were yet his enemies while we had nothing to offer him God out loud declared his love you know how much courage it takes to say out loud I love you have you ever dated a person and you just be probably disgust started dating and no one has said I love you yet and and and there's this little weird exchange this weird energy because feelings are getting high but you don't want to be the first to say I love you well God was in this relationship with falling man men is in for all intensive purposes God's enemy and God is the first to declare out loud I love you not just I love you but I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna leverage or mortgage heaven give you my best to prove my love and he gave us Jesus Christ so the first idea and this work to minister declare out loud a second the second idea means to introduce openly Jesus was crucified openly on a Roman cross in plain sight for everyone to see and so the word introduced or the word come in means to introduce and the way we introduce ourselves the way we want to be known and that's important statement I want you to remember that the third idea is to demonstrate it clearly so there will be no mistake about it so it's in in this word commend the Bible says that God he declares his love openly he introduced it loudly rather he or he introduces it openly and then he demonstrates his love clearly to us so would there be no mistake about it so that even if seasons changed even if situations occur where the enemy can say to us what God hates you or God is judging you and he's being hiring you because of whatever God says then we no doubt in your mind all you have to do is look to the cross and remember that I love you through Jesus God demonstrates the extent he's willing to go to love us to forgive us to rescue us and in most cases to restore us a demonstration is intended to seal the deal to make the message clear and to leave a lasting impression now I want to speak to you tonight I hope you have ears to hear and I hope you're ready to learn because I want to teach tonight from this from this perspective of God loving you right where you are isolated in your home quarantine I'm probably dealing off an old fear overwhelmed by the news hearing of all these depths the United States is leading the world in covert 19 cases we are leading the war and and it has to have some kind of effect if not blatant a subtle effect on you what a better time then now than to hear that God loves you and he really loves you so we talked about at the beginning of this the reset I believe that God isolated isolated us in our homes so you can have time with us maybe to deal with the the issues that we're dealing with in our hearts maybe we need a reset and maybe this is our time out and when that happens we we come to terms with who we are and and the bottom line is is that many of us are private people and so we're not quick to share with many people that struggles the internal struggles or personal struggles that we have but God knows who we are God knows where we've been and God knows what we're working with and so I want to talk to you for the remainder of the time tonight about this theme that this thought that our faithful God will remain faithful to us even when things are turbulent even when we're not really faithful to him in Exodus chapter 34 verse 6 the Bible tells the story of Moses God tells Moses to lead Israel to the promised land and what Moses is doing this God realizes that Moses and Steve is a stiff neck I'm not Moses but Israel is a stiff-necked people so at one point guard told Moses you know what you go you take them up with you you take them to the promised land I won't go because if I go imma kill them along the way and Moses of course intervenes and intercedes for Israel and at some point Moses says to God listen you said you love me say I found favor in your sight what if I found favor with you then show me your glory show me who you are I want to meet you cuz I remember now when Moses met God at the burning bush and Moses asked God his name God didn't even tell him his name God simply said I am that I am he said if anyone asked you who sent you say I am that I am and and he never retold his name but now Moses is like okay I need to know more about you and so in Exodus 34 verse 6 the Lord actually told Moses you know what okay I will call we'll invite you up to the mountain are hiding the cliff of the rock and I'll reveal myself to you I reveal my goodness to you in so in excess 34 verse 6 it says the Lord passed in front of Moses when he's revealing himself he passing for the Moses calling out Yahweh the Lord the God of compassion and mercy I am slow to anger and fill with unfailing love and faithfulness I lavish unfailing love tooth out to a thousand generations I forgive the iniquity rebellion and sin I forgive rebellion in sin but I do not excuse the guilty I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren the entire family is affected even children in the third and fourth generation so what God has explained God says I literally roll the sins of the people for you say well that doesn't sound forgiving to me well the powerful thing about this is if God has ruined forward because he has a plan and his plan is to ultimately um put these sins that he's rolling forward or in the body of Jesus on the cross so he's literally rolling these sins forward trying to get them to Jesus so Jesus could pay for them so Jesus could settle the debt in verse 8 it says when Moses realized that God he was dealing with God introduced himself as a god that's faithful that's compassionate that slow to anger a godless forgiving the Bible says that Moses immediately threw himself to the ground and worshiped that's what happens when we get a revelation of the love of God when we never when we get a revelation that God is a God of love then then the instinctive response that comes from us is to worship when got introduced himself to Moses he was introducing himself to the nation of Israel because Moses was a representative but also when he introduced himself to Israel he was introducing himself to the world because Israel was a nation through whom God wanted to reveal himself as a God of Nations God could have introduced himself at a lot of different ways but he chose to introduce himself as the loving God he could have rightfully introduced himself as a sovereign God a mighty God all-powerful God but he didn't he could have introduced himself as the God of judgment because God does judge but he didn't he could have introduced himself as the holy God who hates sin but he didn't he'd reduce himself instead as the loving God the God of grace the God of faithfulness the God that forgives the God of compassion that compassionate me and the ones that enters into your struggle with you to help you in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 verse 11 we looked at this all scripture some weeks ago I want to take a look at it again he said this is a trustworthy saying if we die with him we will also live with him if we endure hardship we will reign with him if we deny him he will deny us if we are unfaithful he remains faithful if we cannot deny who he is now this this verse the reason I want to read his verse to you is because it presents God and it shows you how the mindset of a God who walks with his people if you go back up to verse 11 um it simply says it says this is a trustworthy saying there's something so you could really hang your head on it you could depend on this it says they we're willing to die with him if we're willing to die with them then then we would also live with him well in Christ we really died with him on the cross so the fact that we accept what Jesus did we accept it and we believe it that means we died with him now we're actually living with him the second verse verse 12 says um in verse 12 we were quickly if we endure hardship with him if we go through the hard parts of life with him he will set it up where we were actually reign with him we will we will rule with him he put us in positions of authority but then it says if we deny him it says that we don't belong to him if we say we don't belong to me we want nothing to do with him if we walk away with him he would allow us to go if we deny him he will deny us he'll say you know what if you don't wanna be connected to me I don't want to be connected to you then the next verse says this if we are unfaithful to him he remains faithful to us because he cannot deny who he is now this is an important thing right here the word faithful means are to be trustworthy to be one who can be trusted it says if God if we start going after own desires after our own appetites and we put us up in a position where God can't trust us here's what it says it says God will remain trustworthy in other words God says I may not meet a trustee but you can always trust me and the reason he does this is because that's who he is that's what the verse says he cannot deny who he is so out with that being said I want to take you on this journey as there's a scripture in the Bible that I really love is hosea chapter 2 verses 40 verses 14 and 15 specifically but I want to take you to this to kind of walk you through God and how he restores people to himself once they've fallen away always they're falling off have you even noticed that that as a believer we all have gone through it where you come to time of your Christian experience where where maybe you're not as on fire for God as you used to be maybe maybe something happened in church maybe something happened in life maybe you just you just got sidetrack or maybe you or you found it yet to cut back on your faithfulness to serve it may be serving the house of God you have to go work or whatever but the result of it is you lost your fire for God and you you still go through the motions to some degree sit claim to be Christian but but you're not as on fire for God as you used to be in those cases when I'm not on fire for God but I'm not as faithful to God as I used to be what does God's position towards me because the enemy is telling you right now that he has you in fear some of you are in fear because you're thinking people are dying all around people getting sick and I don't know anybody don't get in troubles with me because I've not been living a good life so if you really believe that the people who are protected from from the evil and from the plagues and from the diseases and sickness if you think it's like they're protected because they're good then you don't understand God I'm not in any way encouraging you to live a reckless sloppy life alright what I'm telling you is that your favor with God does not come because you're good it comes because he's good your favor with God does not come because you're always faithful it comes because he's always faithful the message of the gospel is that Jesus died for us and and he actually rose for us and because of him God sees us in a whole new light now I want to show you this picture I'm gonna paint free from looking for Zaire is God in pursuit this is God going after his people and so I'm gonna set the story up for you so God has the Prophet Hosea to marry a woman by the name of Gomer who is a prostitute and God says the reason I want you to marry this woman is because I want to show Israel how they treat me and so and so God even Yuri chapter one of the book of Hosea it's an absolute mind-blowing of theory or mind-blowing plot that God sets up God wants to show Israel that he's a committed husband but like like this woman um she's Israel is living like a prostitute she's not faithful to him but I want you to see the heart of God - its people who are struggling with their commitment to him in my Bible in the King James Bible um Hosea chapter 2 verses 14 to 23 fall on their heading and their heading if you have a King James Bible you may see the heading in your Bible says God loves his unfaithful people God loves now no one wants to be calling faithful but the truth of the matter is from time to time depending what season of life we end we tend to be unfaithful not just a god but two people unfaithful to our relationships I'm faithful in our job and faithful in our commitments it in our covenants and whatever we find ourselves not keeping about end of the bargain but I want to show you how God's heart is the first thing you need to know about this is that God loves imperfect people and by definition an imperfect person well there are two different types of imperfect people let me say that um the first kind of imperfect person it speaks to those people who are in process but this don't seem to be making any progress you've been there where you still in God's process but it seems like you're circling the same mountain you're battling the same of struggles the same sins that had you albeit last year the year before ten years ago it seemed like you in the same struggle you were in before you're in the process but you're not making progress that is considered imperfection another kind of imperfection are those who are on their way but haven't arrived in other words um you you're on your way you making progress but your progress is slow oh that kind of imperfection it is if there's a picture of that in the Book of Luke 15 I want to show you in Luke chapter 15 verse 20 the Bible tells a story there of the prodigal son when he comes to himself he realizes you know what um I'm not living my best life and so he gets up from the pigsty and the Bible says he's headed to his father's house and about says and he arose and came to his father but when he was yet a great way off his father saw him and had compassion and ran and filomena give me a New Living Translation I want to show you what it says in the New Living Translation is this so he returned home to his father and while he was still a long way off his father saw him coming fake filled with love and compassion his father Renta son embraced him so here's the thing he was still a long way off he hadn't arrived yet but God came to him and I want to encourage you to know that you may be still a long way off but God will come to you he will find you he always shows up when we are in the process we're on our way but haven't arrived yet if you haven't arrived it's cool now I'm gonna tell you something people who act like they arise and they haven't even left yet those kind of people who always want to point the finger at others those people are further from God and then the people who are willing to admit you know what I'm not arrived yet I'm still on my way now you don't have to be a perfect person to have faith in a perfect God and you don't have to be a strong person to depend on God's strength but even if you don't have the strength to pursue God you must have the heart to be pursued by him in other words you have to understand that God is gonna pursue you because he loves you and sometimes it may mean he may have to shut your world down God may have - God may have to shut your world down he may have to isolate you quarantine you to get you by yourself not to harm me not to hurt you he doesn't get off on your discomfort when he gets off on is that he gets to get you by yourself so he can show you who he is and reveal his love to you again so that you can continue to go towards the goal which is Christ you can continue to live your life in a way what is now were you into pursuit of God so you can live your best life and fulfill your assignment in Hebrew shepherd I'm sorry in Hosea chapter 2 and verse 14 King James Version I want to begin this this are expose of God's pursuit it says therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her verse 15 says and I will give her vineyards from thence the word thence means there and the valley of Achor for a new hope and she says sing there as in the days of her youth as in a day when she came up out of the land of Egypt God is speaking about Israel and God is talking about winning his bride back he says she's been unfaithful she's drifted from him and he says but the way I'm gonna go about it is I'm not gonna stand here angry and say you gotta do what you can to make it back to me and you better get it records if you don't get it right I'm gonna judge you in a group that whole mentality is an Old Testament mentality of God it's an Old Covenant mentality of God and God doesn't God is not that God anymore the god he is since Jesus died and rose from the dead is a different type of God towards his people now I want to I want to go back to verse 14 what I've done I've underlined certain words I wanted I want to address certain words from these two verses I want to address the word on Laura because it's a word we don't see a lot I want to dress the word um that the term bring her I want to expound on that I want to define the wilderness and what what the importance of the wilderness is wilderness is and then I want to talk to you about God speaking comfortably this is from verse 14 when we go to verse 15 we'll do some other words I have on the line there but let's start in verse 14 first he says therefore behold I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably to her the world the word our Lord now before I say anything I want to show you this there's a prophecy this is a prophecy to us this is God telling us how you will deal with us if when God said I will allure her he says he's saying I will draw her or attract it to me but I will use her desires and her expectations as incentive now what that means is this God says um she's not gonna respond to me just inviting her if I told her to come because of a frame of mind she's not gonna just come the God says what I want what I want to do is he says I bet I know she won't come to me because she loves me at this point I love her but if she doesn't love me so God says what I'll do is I will use her desire for better I will use her desire for a better life her desire to farm for better relationships her this is i'ma use her desires to draw back to me I want to show you how God's allurement works because God knows exactly how to deal with us based on what's in us he knows who we are in the Book of Jeremiah chapter 20 verse 7 Jeremiah um he had a ministry to Israel but he would talk to Israel about hard things and he was in the place where he wished that he could talk to them about easier things he wanted to be accepted by people and the Bible says in Jeremiah 20 verse 7 um Jeremiah says O Lord you misled me and I allowed myself to be misled matter fact the King James says it like this the King James says Oh Jeremiah's talking to God he says Oh Lord thou has deceived me and I was deceived he said you're stronger than me and you prevailed now in the New Living Translation it says um you misled me I allowed myself to be misled you're stronger than I am he says you overpowered me he said now I'm mocked every day everyone laughs at me what he's talking about is he weren't - he wanted to be except that he was tired of preaching hard messages because people were dogging him out for pushing hard messages but every time he would go and he thought he was going to have a good message for the people God would just overpower look at verse eight verse eight says Jeremiah says when I speak the words burst out in other words I had no control over the words I was speaking because you get me to show up to a place to speak and then I have one message prepared and then you words just burst out of me instead of saying blessing and prosperity I'll say violence and destruction he said I just shouted out just come out of me he said so these messages from the Lord have made me a household joke verse 9 he says but if I say I'll never mention the Lord I'll speak in his name his words burning my heart like a fire the King James said is like fire shut up in my bones he said I'm worn out trying hold it in I can't do it now let me tell you Jeremiah's talking about Jeremiah said I got to the place with God why I said you know what since this the way you want to do things I don't you can't depend on me I won't be faithful to that ministry he said but God knows me so well that if I did show up and prepare my own message he'll take over and speak through me and if I decided but I'm not going to speak I'm just like Oh same thing he said his words was settle in me and be so much of a weight and a burden and a fire in me that I had to speak them this is the way God allures the word allurement means that God knows exactly what position to get you and to get you to respond to where he needs you to respond he is not just your God he's your Creator he knows what's in you and so this isolation this time isolation is the time of what God says I'm gonna come to them in various ways and I'm gonna individually and personally invite them back to relationship with me it's not a judgment what it is it's an allure meant from the Lord he's calling us himself the second word in this verse or the phrase God says I will bring her into the wilderness this term bling he said what it means I would take her I will order her steps to a certain place through the normal progression of the course of life God says I won't guide her to the wilderness you know the scripture in the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord God says I will bring her to but he says I'm gonna bring her into the wilderness now the wilderness when God speaks of the wilderness there's a couple things that you need to know number one is the wilderness refers to by definition it's a dry deserted place it's a place of isolation but what's significant about the wilderness is this is where God first took Israel when he wanted to get to know Israel remember when Israel was released from Egypt God took her through the Red Sea into the wilderness and there at the foot of the Mount of the mountain Mount Sinai he began to reveal himself to Israel that that's where they were that's where they first got to know each other was in the wilderness God says I want what I would do is I'm gonna take her from where she's I want to in a trap to allure her and then I will bring her she thinks she's gone but really I'm bringing her I'm guiding her we're into this isolated place into this wilderness into this dry deserted place he said because I need to get her attention the wilderness is a wild and unrepresented a wild and unpredictable season of life it's a time or place of isolation if the place God says where I first brought her to myself I was talking to one of them to my musician today one of my staff members and he mentioned the message transmission and so I'm interested to see what Hosea 2 and 14 says from the message translation because Greg mentioned it so let's see what it says I was there two and 14 from the message translation um put it up there for me if you can grab it he says therefore behold there it is and now here's what I'm gonna do I'm gonna start all over again I'm taking a back out into the wilderness where we first when we had our first date and I caught her now I think that's a bit a bit romanticize it's a little deep taking on a first date but what God is saying is I'm gonna take her back to the place where I first met her and that's what God wants to do wants to take you back to first lady won't take me back to first love this entire wild season we in this unpredictable space this this deserted dry isolated place is God inviting us back to the place of first encounter the place of first love God is saying I want you to remember what it was like when I first called you to myself when I first saved you not only do I want you to remember remember what we went through together what I how I reveal myself to you but what she what I brought you out of I want to remind you of who you were before I found you when I found you dying I want you to remember that place and I want you to remember that I brought you to myself you didn't come to me when you when I saved you I didn't save you for church I saved you from me I didn't save me I didn't save you for Bible knowledge I saved you from me I didn't save me for gifts I saved you from me all these things are byproducts church community church culture or all the things thickness up there by product but I save you from me and even if I shut that church doors down for now the buildings down then invite you to myself your house is supposed to be a tabernacle your bedroom is supposed to be a prayer altar a place where we now I want to share this with you this I want to share with you that God is faithful to exactly what he said he wants to do and he will heal to perform it he will do exactly what he said he needs to do up in this allurement and this inviting to the wilderness he says I would speak comfortably to her I will speak up now this speaking comfortably means I would speak uplifting words I speak encouraging words to her this is not a God this season weekend's not a time of rebuke it's not a time of criticism it's not a time of judgment God says I will speak I'll get me King James again I want to show them this he said I was I will bring her into the wilderness and I was I would speak comfortably to her I would speak words of comfort her this is a time of healing it's a time of nurture God says I will use my words to remind her of Who I am to her and who I called her to be he's speaking about you he said I will teach her who she really is that's what God wants a new face Church it's easy to lose track of who you are when you go through a hard place in life make no mistake about it the hard place that you went through you people say I don't look like what I've been through you may not look like what you've been through but you carry a residue of what you've been through and we call that conditioning the term conditioning refers to the emotional or mental scars that the negative life experiences that you had left on you some call it damage that they tell you're damaged goods but God sees it as a place that target is love what you've been through the pain that you've been through let them mark on you and meant there are many people right now your relationship with God was damaged because of the way people treated you your relationship with God was damaged because of the failures that you experienced your relationship with God was damaged because even your businessman failed you choose someone may have died in your family and you don't understand it and God says he said I won't I want to get you by yourself so I could speak comfortably to you but what happens to us when we've been through a hard time is that it changes who we are that's what condition is conditioning is it changes who we are for some of you who are in processed but making no progress could it be that the reason that you keep cycling around the same sin going in circles so to speak is because you're trying to mask your pain or fulfill in need with something that's beneath you low level living has become your idea of satisfying what you need watch this when you meet a defensive person it's usually because the person had to defend themselves for a long time when you meet an angry person it's usually because the person was violated when you when you meet a person who's always seeking validation it's usually because they wouldn't dismiss their whole life when you when you meet a person who seeks attention all the time it could be because they were ignored harshly when you meet a person who is selfish it could be the person had to fend for themselves all of this is conditioning and when you're conditioned a certain way watch this now it's almost impossible impossible to behave any better and so when God comes after us when these conditions make us on faithful God says I come to them and I will isolate them and I will speak comfortably to them so I can restore them to myself look at verse 15 in hosea chapter 2 verse 15 he's God says and I will give her her vineyards from there from thence and the valley of Achor for door of hope and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth and in the days when she came as in the days rather when she came about of the land of Egypt and so I underlined the words give um the world vineyard and then from thence I want to speak to from thence but that's that's a critical piece and then the valley of Achor is something I want to explain then the Dorf hope and I want to end tonight with talking about her singing from there God says she was sing from there the first word that I underlined in his verse because again all this is prophetic he says I will give her her vineyards from there from the place I took her to from the wilderness I would give her vineyards first of all vineyards don't grow in the wilderness but I digress we'll come back and talk about that but he said we'll give it to her when God speaks of giving anything he speaks of giving gifts it's not alone cuz I'm gonna give it to you and it's not something that that you earn I will agasa I would lavish gifts on her not that she earned it but I want to give it to us a gift by my own initiative God says I want to choose to I'm choosing to bless her God is choosing to bless you this is the giving part of this verse God says I would give her her vineyards back the thing that was assigned to you the thing that I've always wanted to give to you that was a part of my plan God says I want to give it to you although in the natural you don't qualify all doing the natural you can't earn it it's it this is the god of grace this is how he introduces himself to us now look the Romans chapter 5 verses 1 & 2 I want to show you this scripture it says therefore since we have been made right with made right in God's sight by faith we have peace with God because of what Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us notice the peace we have with God is because of what Jesus has done for us and verse 2 it says this because of our faith Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege that's what we that's what we live right now he brought us into this place for undeserved privilege where we now stand and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God's glory in the King James verse 2 reads like this it says by whom also we have access by faith into by faith into this grace this under the place of undeserved privilege is a place of grace upon taste listen listen undeserved favor unmerited I don't I don't deserve the blessing that God gives to me God says I will give her her vineyards from Vince worse dance from the willingness and I want to show you this I want to talk about vineyards real quickly go back to heat bar hosea chapter 2 i want to talk about vineyards vineyards refer to fertile land the interesting thing about god says i'm gonna give four vinius from there let me i'm going to talk about vineyards from thence as one phrase is that he stopped at the wilderness there are no vineyards in the wilderness in this dry deserted isolated place there's no vineyard there but God says I will give out transplant that the things I had for her into the place where I isolated her I want to show you how this is powerful it's powerful because when when the Bible speaks of vineyards it's speaking of of God's promise to bless your potential and your productivity it a vineyard speaks to you put theater speaks to you put your potential you plant something there and the potential it will grow and it will be productive this is the blessing of the Lord now on from there that what makes this supernatural and powerful even or an act of love but on God's part is that God says from the most unlikely place the wilderness the barren land that you're living in right now this difficult season that you're in God says I will begin to restore dignity and clarity and prosperity to your life I want to speak to those three things God says I will I will give him I will give her back our vineyards from that place in other words in this place in this in this wild rylan I'm gonna give her vineyards watch this hizmet law says I want to I want to I want to begin the act of restore her dignity her clarity in our prosperity I speak to dignity for a minute in many situations that we walked through we've lost dignity we lost confidence we we forgot who we were people spoke ill of us people ridicule us some people are use your failure to I took to ID and to name you and and it really crushed you on the inside insensitive people who themselves have failed use your failure to rob you of your dignity and God's sword and God says you know what I'm gonna isolate my beloved for the purpose of no more I want to restore dignity to them number two I want to restore clarity God is not a God of confusion so God does not want his people confuse so what does he do he says I want I want to make you clear before before everything happened you didn't you don't know if you know what's going on he said I feel confused I don't know which way I'm going I don't know I'm supposed to do someone god did he shut your world down he isolates you in this wild space in this dry season in this in this turmoil that we crawl quarantine isolation or whatever with fear and plague on the outside and you trapped on the inside what is he doing he said I want to restore clarity to you I want you clear about what I'm doing I want you clear about who you are I want you clear about the fact that your watch is like you a citizen of heaven this earth is not your home you are you are appeal them you're passing through here I want you clear about the fact that you in the earth for my purpose and I want to use you and you're gonna be the most satisfied you're gonna be the most full filled when you're doing the thing that I've called you to do you get your most joy out of serving me God says I want to restore clarity the third thing though is I want to restore prosperity to your life the word prosper means to add or to gain to be multiplied it means to set my head or something and see results from it God is not the will of God and I'd do things and they continually fail it's not the will of God that I keep on messing things up so God says I need he said from this place I will restore a vineyard stir I'm gonna give her a vineyards back in this place call the wilderness and he says now the rest of the verse says and I will give her the valley of Achor as a door of Hope now this is significant because I won't explain to you with the valley of Achor is and what he got got his name the word 8-core means trouble it means turbulent times it means calamity the valley of Achor is a cursed place in the land of promise it comes from the story of where akin or and his family was stoned to death for bringing trouble calamity and disaster in Israel and let me tell you what happened so on in the Old Testament there's a lot called a lot of Corinne Corinne spell CH D REM Karim Karim is a simple law and it's actually on to some degree still functions in the earth but because we're not under the law we don't talk about it a lot but the law of karim says this it's the law of the cursed thing or the thing that's devoted to god and the rule with god was the first of everything belongs to me out of the lord with my first fruit and the best with the best part of the increase or the first part of your increase god said whatever you if you put me first and anything I bless the rest seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added unto you that comes from the law of Quran so the Old Testament law of coram says that that anything that God cleanses his own is a cursed and it and it belongs to the Lord and if I keep the accursed thing for myself then it will destroy what's in my house now I'm gonna show you what how it works anything that the Bible says is wholly belongs to the Lord right so when God says is his that means it's it's holy vengeance is mine I will repay so whenever I take it upon myself to seek vengeance or revenge on anyone what happens is I actually violate this this law this this law we don't even talk about call this holy law of Code of Quran and what it is I take something that belongs to God I put it in my house and in my attempt to hurt someone else I end up hurting myself because only God only God has the right to seek vengeance on anyone this is the way it works the law of Corinth and so how this plays out into our story in the valley of Achor is that because Jericho was the first city in the promised land after they crossed it of the Jordan River God says to Joshua when you when you go to Jericho I'll give you a plan you're gonna circle up the walls the walls will fall down but when you go in he says I want to kill the men the women the children kill everything that's living all the animals he said don't take any of the silver don't take any of the goal you know the clothing all the nice stuff they had believed it there he said set the whole thing on fire burn it why because it belongs to me and God says if it belongs to me if I say his mind is not good for human consumption he got it it's mine and so akin failed to realize the spiritual significance of God's Word to Israel when God said cut when God says don't touch anything don't take anything akin and well why not and so he is up doing is that he ends up having the mindset that God was causing Israel to miss out on on the riches of Jericho by having him to destroy everything so he ignored the directive and he took for himself some of the things that belong to God he said it might affect you in Joshua or I'm shocked to 7 verse 21 give me verse 21 first Joshua chapter 7 verse 21 I started verse 24 or before but I want I want to go to verse 21 the or akin is confessing what he did wrong he said among the plunder I saw a beautiful robe from Babylon two hundred silver coins and a bar of go away more than a pound he said I wanted him so much that I took them I took them there hidden him in the ground beneath my tent with the silver buried deeper than the rest now this is important because what he did the Bible says in doing this he brought judgment on himself he brought judgment on his family and that place got the name the valley of Achor it's the valley of Achor speaks to a place of significant failure in your life it speaks to assert it speaks to a place that serves as a reminder a place that you still struggle to make sense of or to escape from it's a place of stigma it's the valley of Achor is a place where where you don't ever think you ever live it down here's what God says concerning this prophetic message to his people he said I want to give you that place the place of your failure the place of your greatest failure the valley of Achor I want to give it to you as a door of Hope what is it what do you mean how can he do that because he's God what is it the phrase door of hope means listen to this God wants the place of trouble in your life the place of groats your greatest failure to become the place of your greatest opportunity it becomes the access point to the promises got up that God has given you this is what we call the working together for good promise by the Lord he said I will give her access to the things she's been looking forward to I will get verses now he says I will give her a positive opening in her negative situation child of God here's what I want you to do in this negative situation that we in look for the positive opening look for the door of Hope in this in this time of isolation in this wilderness season that's what God says he said in the witness from thence I'm gonna I'm gonna give her back her vineyards from thence I will give up also the valley of Achor as a door for the place of her greatest trouble it'll become the greatest testimony I'm gonna do something in your life that you could not do on your own you can predict it and you thinking pastor this'll never happen to me and the only reason you're thinking it will never happen to you is because you don't yet know and believe the love that God has for you you are you were brainwashed into thinking that God hates you that he's mad at you you're brainwashed into think god only likes people or loves people who do good or who can't be good or who are not damaged in some way and that is just not the truth the Bible says in Exodus 34 that when God revealed himself to Moses that Moses spontaneous response was to fall down in worship that's what happens when we see God for who he is we worship and it brings us to the last part of this verse in hosea chapter 2 verse 15 the last part the verse says the Lord says that I will give her her vineyards from there the valley of Achor Ford of Hope and it says and she will sing there she will begin to sing as in the days of her youth when she flew there as in the days when she came out of the land of Egypt Egypt is a type of the world he says he says I'm gonna give her back her song I will give her back her worship like she used to worship when she first came to me this speaks of restored worship speaks of deliverance God says I'm gonna use this what you're going through to bring deliverance or her worship will be restored because of my deliverance in the place that brought her discomfort while others complain while others are criticizing while others are signing blame she will worship me there God says that this uncomfortable place will bring a lot do a lot of things for a lot of people but the people I'm pursuing the ones the ones that really can admit a single word I've not been faithful to you but I want I want that to change God says I want to pursue them to the point where at the end of this they're gonna be worshiping again they're gonna be I'm gonna restore worship why and it's the same thing we started with worshiping we end with worship that's like Moses I'm not gonna worship because I got off easy or because I think that I started the system no I'm gonna worship because I see that God loves me in spite of everything that's happening he reveals himself as the God of love to me and my only response is to worship the restoration of worship is the sign of deliverance when you can sing from your wilderness it means your deliverer has your deliverer has warned you art when you can sing from your place of worship it means that your deliverer has freed you I believe today that the faithful God still pursues his unfaithful people and brings them to a place where he could again say you know what this is my servant and they're faithful to me because they have a revelation of my love I want to pray for you tonight and I want to pray for us that God will attract us back to him and that we will never again want anything else America had fallen prey to other gods you know for the people who are political you know it's a sad thing that we have two political parties I want it on the right side is greedy and religious religious on the other side if they want to kick God out of everything what does God do he makes a pitch for people for himself we are the city set up on a hill we're the people who belong to God none of these things that's happening the earth is AI is our identity our identity is with the Lord father I pray for your people tonight I pray God in this word ministers to someone it touch their hearts I pray God that you draw people who would look at their lives say you know what I'm not faithful like I used to be right before everything happened I was struggling with my faithfulness I was struggling with just a lot of things in my life but I heard the Lord tonight and father asks you that yours but you restore me to you I did you will continue to pursue in me the things that you know were there thank you Father God for loving your people you're the God and loves us and we're grateful in Jesus name I hope you got blessed tonight

Channel: Pastor Hart Ramsey

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Length: 48min 23sec (2903 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 17 2020