Worldwide Prayer Meeting

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome [Music] thank you [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you [Music] oh [Music] [Music] good evening and welcome to times square church welcome to the worldwide prayer meeting god is with us amen let's give him a shout of praise and you join us wherever you are god is with us and we're gonna celebrate that tonight amen [Music] we worship you jesus who am i that the highest [Music] i was lost but he brought me in all his love for me oh [Music] oh [Music] yes he died for me [Music] there's a place for me [Music] yes there's a place to place [Music] i am [Music] i am i [Music] i [Music] there's a place [Music] yes i am in my father's in my father's house there's a place for me how much [Music] thank you god thank you lord that we are children of the most high god and let's worship him as those that have been redeemed amen if you've been redeemed if you've been born again it's time to shout it to the lord he's worthy [Music] but the miracle that i just can't get over my name is registered in heaven and i believe in signs and wonders [Music] i have resurrection power to the miracle that i just can't get over my name is registered in heaven my grace belongs to you forever [Music] this is my testimony from death tonight his grace rewrote my glory i'll testify jesus christ the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony this is my testimony [Music] water the praises of the spirit son and father are gone we'll finish what we started [Music] lord jesus christ the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony [Music] if i'm not dead then you're not done greater oh things believe if i'm not dead and you're not done [Music] oh [Music] jesus christ the righteous i'm justified this is my testimony [Music] this is my testimony [Music] thank you lord thank you lord for your goodness o god thank you lord that we can say if we're not dead then you're not done i thank you lord that there is much to do god i thank you that you are calling us lord here in this sanctuary and those lord that are sitting in their cars and their living rooms god you are calling us greater things greater things are yet to come and we say yes lord we worship you jesus hallelujah thank you jesus thank you lord i love you lord oh your mercy never fails me all my days i've been held in your hands from the moment that i wake up till i lay my head i will sing of the goodness of god seeing all my life [Music] all my life you have been faithful [Music] all my life you have been so so good with every breath that i have made of the goodness of god i love your voice you have led me through the fire in darkest nights you are close like no other i've known you as a father [Music] i've known you as a friend and i haven't lived in the goodness of god [Music] [Applause] [Music] of the goodness [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] is [Music] is [Music] cause is my life you have in faith hallelujah and all my life you have been so [Music] good [Music] of the goodness of god oh i will see of the goodness of god oh we will see of the goodness of god [Music] i have a brother who has a special need kid his name is avanir and actually this weekend they visited me and what a lovely kid he is and he brought so much laughter and joy and he doesn't care who's around him he's just himself and today there is one prayer request that i would like to pray that came from veronica from north carolina it says this please pray for savannah a 14 year old special needs child who has abducted and has been missing she needs some medication it was believed to have been lured online and tonight i want to pray for this child that god will get a hold of her whatever what she is that she's safe and we're going to pray for you as parents and for other people also that god has given us uh this kiss what a blessing they are for god to just bless you as well and give you creativity and to have so much left in your homes and after that after i pray i would like to invite ezekiel he's gonna come and pray as well as he's witnessing this firsthand in his family that he has a brother with special need and and what a joy it is to serve the lord all together they're not a burden in our family but they're a blessing and if we can look at that way and to just have laughter in our home with them to to learn how to just enjoy the time with them and also to ask god to give us strength and creativity to spend time with them father we come to you and we thank you lord for our children we thank you god that you are the one who created life i thank you lord that before we were even born you already knew us god i thank you that our profession we find in you we thank you god that we have a purpose in you o lord and our life here on earth has a purpose god and i pray for this girl savannah i pray oh god that you touch her life right now is somebody abducted her and she's missing i pray o god that holy spirit you touch her whatever she is keep her safe oh god she might not be aware of maybe where she's at or what's going on but we are praying for savannah right now in north carolina that you will come and give away for this family for them to find her oh god bring this joy back to this home oh lord whether it be laughter again in this home at the dinner table to be able to enjoy their time of god i thank you lord that you are the one who is gonna answer our prayer and our cry jesus i also pray for families other families who have special need kids in our families god i thank you for their life i thank you for the blessing you had given us the lord not every family can bear this this situation but those who do have god you have allowed us to have them and what a beautiful perfect gift from you they are into our lives we appreciate them we love them oh god and i just speak even having a brother who who has a special need kid what a joy he has oh god jesus help us to be more simple help us to learn even from circumstances like this how to enjoy life and and be simple and thank you for everything that you had given us lord we believe for this girl to be found and we believe that she is safe that no harm will be done to her or god and let your name be glorified and we pray this thing in jesus name amen god we pray your preserving power over these families god when my brother smiles it lights up a room god these children are your children god the world says they're different the world says that they're not normal god but you call them your daughters and your son scott you call them normal in your eyes they are perfectly made in your eyes god they are yours and you are theirs caught i pray over these families god that you would come and bring a hope it's such a hopeless life at times living with someone that is special needs god i pray for a hope in savannah's family god i pray a hope and these families got in these parents that have to take care of their children as they watch their children grow up to be adults and they're still in diapers god when they're struggling families that have hard times because of special needs children god i pray for the preserving power of you over those families satan you cannot break these families apart you cannot tear them apart they are god's families god i pray that you would move in these families god let them be a testimony of all the works that you do in this world as those children smile and they make friends that you would show the love of you through them god they should move through them so powerfully because you can god we pray for healing in these families too god that you would move so mightily god move in these these families heal them god heal these families and show the love of christ in them because they are an example of what true love is it's not something that i get or i give it's just unconditional love to someone that not necessarily understands it but love them anyways god jesus moving these families oh god moving them like you move to mind my testimony is from my little brother it's from those times god and i thank you for that help us to realize how precious those lives are how precious these young men and women are these children how precious they are to our society god thank you for them and thank you for my brother thank you for savannah move in this generation led us to take care of the young ones the small ones the hurting and the hopeless moving them god in your name i pray amen the lord is my shepherd [Music] he goes before me [Music] defender behind me [Music] and i won't fear i'm filled with anointing my cup overflow no weapon no weapon can harm me i won't fear [Music] hallelujah alone he's my comfort he's my cover oh holds me close [Music] and he always guides me through mountains and valleys his joy his joy is refreshing [Music] mercy mercy and goodness [Music] his glory yes we will [Music] hallelujah not alone and here's my comfort he's my covert [Music] hallelujah [Music] always [Music] your spirit lives within me so i will walk in your peace your spirit lives within me my victory my victory your spirit lives within me so i will walk in your peace your spirit lives within me my victory [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Music] i am [Music] always hold [Music] hallelujah [Music] always called [Music] your spirit lives within me so i will walk in your peace your spirit lives within me my victory my victory your spirit lives within me so i will walk in your peace your spirit lives within me my victory my victory [Music] hello times square church prayer family we're gathered here tonight to pray and what a privilege it is we're so glad you are with us tonight my prayer burden is to pray for families and to pray for our families here's what's on my heart that god would give us those that know him and love him a renewed love and caring for our family members that we would keep reaching out with compassion to them that we would not grow weary because we are connected in so many ways we're connected as family but also i know that god has a promise for us as families and that we can lean into this and that our faith would not grow weary i pray this is a spiri this prayer meeting is a time of refreshing for you and i to believe god for our families that we would have the courage to communicate with each other and not be easily discouraged to be not to become strangers under the same roof there's been so many pressures with coved where children now are cut off from the classroom in front of screens all the time and not seeing friends where grandparents are not seeing their families where people are being cut off and more and more isolated but i know the spirit of god is stirring us because he's using this moment that we as the children of god will start to rise and believe god is going to touch our family members and that when people are not become isolates in their own home and become withdrawn or uninvolved with each other but god would renew our heart that we would continue to pray for them that we actually would be the blessing in our homes and beloved i i just want to say that i believe god is here to give us strength and encourage and give courage to our heart and to renew something in us that we will not give up we refuse to give the ground we will refuse to stop praying it doesn't have to be our way it doesn't have to be our time but our faith will not fail as we believe god to touch them and that we will sometimes you know unresolved regret unresolved issues um they end up fueling guilt the god and the enemy just tries to play havoc with that but the only recipe i know for guilt is grace that's the only recipe i know his grace and grace restores our soul and i just want to say before we pray that the apostle paul you know there was one time he was a madman he was responsible for the death and imprisonment of godly men and women and he wrecked havoc in the in the people of faith he was a wild man hunting families down but and also you know what he was a legalist to the core did you know that he was a legalist to the core he was trying to work his way to god trying to be accepted with god through perfection and through performance and he was a hard hard man and some of you may feel like god i need you to touch me when i deal with family members i don't want to be a hard hard man and i thank god that even though the apostle paul had blood on his hands and religious diplomas on his wall god was faithful and turned his heart and that apostle became mighty in not tearing down the family of god but building up the family of god in an unprecedented way he became a great poet of grace he became a man of immeasurable grace he could write in philippians but these things but all these things i thought very worthwhile now i have thrown them all away so i can put my trust and hope in christ alone to restore what i have pulled down to restore what i brought havoc to and god and beloved how much more is our testimony if we the church will begin to be renewed again to pray for our families for their salvation their deliverance and their touch of god and the more we are aware of the severity of sin in our lives the more we will be aware of the immensity the immensity of grace in our lord jesus christ and so beloved i just want to at this point i just want to say to john from wasilla in alaska you said i will turn 80 years old on march 25th happy birthday john please pray for please pray malachi 4 5 and 6 because i have three grandchildren nine grand i have three children nine grandkids and sixteen great grandchildren pray that they will pray that i may love them and lead them to jesus yes we will from new york please pray for my health and my family for exceeding peace for my parents and salvation for my brother and yes we will thank you that this burden for your parents and your brother is now on you my friend in new york that is of god and finally richard in brazil pray for the salvation of my mother clarina pray for my father miguel pray for my brother jonathan pray for my aunt elizabeth pray for my great aunt rita pray also for their protection yes my friend richard brazil you have named them by name you are bringing them to the throne and i just want to say how pleased god is with you and may god put distinct names of our family members in our heart at this moment and so i'm just going to ask wherever you are will you stand with me whether you're in your living room your kitchen your office will you stand with me and let individual names of family members come to mind and may god grace you and i with a fighting spirit may god grace us with a an enduring spirit because we are going to hold our families up and and we will not grow weary we will not give in to regret the most useless emotion on the planet but we will move into the immensity of grace that has offered us through jesus christ and i say that as we begin to stand for our families we stand in the gap for our families our natural flesh and blood god will create units strong units across this nation and across this world will become a fighting unit and a fighting force against the powers of darkness and so beloved we have a gracious god who loves to hear our voice let us bring a grateful and a grace-filled voice right now for our family members i want you to call it out as i begin to pray i want you to name names just like richard did for miguel and jonathan and elizabeth rita and clarina name your names because god is here and he is mighty to save in jesus name hallelujah lord we just lift up our family members to you oh god and we declare oh god we come putting them before your throne knowing oh god you are so pleased with us to mention names lord i mention the names in my family i mention them oh god i asked verlanden i asked for liam i asked for jared i asked for sophia i ask oh god for blake i ask for charlie lord i ask for the my children and grandchildren that are saved and unsaved i thank you o god i pray for my sister i pray for joey i pray for his children oh god i thank you that you know all about them and you know their situation oh god i pray lord you would be gracious to our families we ask you them to visit them with salvation in this coveted time oh god maybe in a very lonely place oh god would you be gracious to them may the immensity of your grace overwhelm sin may it overwhelm forces of darkness may it overwhelm what keeps them back oh god use this time to break into their hearts and minds oh god lord we declare today that we trust you o god and we're not looking for our timetable we just counted a privilege to lift them up to you knowing that you love them far more than we could ever love them and lord that you have been waiting for their name to be mentioned that you may be gracious to them and to their family and to their children and to their children's children let the blessing of god flow in the house of god let the blessing of god flow through the house of god and let our families oh god come to you in untold members keep us faithful keep us believing keep us praying oh god because you will be glorified through the salvation of our families we thank you we love them oh god we have to love them more and to keep reaching out to them oh god don't let us draw back into a corner but let us keep reaching out to them in our prayers and in physical and tangible ways we thank you you will empower us oh god to move in the spirit to speak in the spirit and to touch their lives with your grace till we see a mighty harvest on our families in the mighty name of jesus we pray amen amen lord i just pray right now for my mom and my dad lord anyone in my family that doesn't know your name father i just lift them up to you jesus knowing that you are willing and that you are able to go to them wherever they are father god and that you would rescue them from whatever they're dealing with father god what is alcohol or drugs father i lift my family members into you lord and i ask you lord that you would just lord be faithful to them as you were faithful to me as since i was a child father god you protected me lord until now father god and you will continue to protect me lord through all the circumstances that i go through in life lord and i just pray that over all the families lord who are watching father god and don't have like a mother or father father god i just pray lord that your presence be with them lord i pray lord that you just continue lord to just show them lord your faithfulness and your lovingness lord father god that would you would provide them lord whatever they need father god and i just ask you lord now that you would just please father god save my family lord and my cousins who are unsaved lord and that they are doing the wrong things father god going in the wrong path lord i lift them to you father eric danny chris lord all of them father god who don't know your name father god i ask you lord that you just save them father god because they're they're living in their own sin father god knowing lord that they are wrong father god but that lord they would find your name lord and lord that they'll walk in your your path lord of righteousness father god that you would direct them lord in the ways that lord you want them to go father and you would use them lord and you would use me for my family father god you use me lord and you will use me as a light father god to the darkness lord that's going on in my family father god lord i just thank you lord for this time that you have given me lord to just pray for my family lord to stand in the gap for them father god that you lord are giving me a chance to intercede on their behalf of god and i just thank you for everything that you're doing right now in jesus name amen thank you jesus thank you god thank you for hearing us thank you for hearing us oh god i'm so thankful that the ear of the lord is not heavy that he cannot hear his arm is not short that it cannot reach amen and whatever need we have when we bring before him those family members and maybe you've prayed a thousand times we're knocking again tonight we're knocking again and we know that we are heard by a god who hears every cry every whisper and so believe again god is here to meet our needs amen amen thank you jesus hallelujah [Music] walking around these walls i thought by now they'd fall [Music] but you have never failed me yet [Music] waiting and waiting for change to come open knowing knowing the battles won [Music] for you have never failed me yet oh you promised god yes [Music] your promise still stands is your faithfulness your faithfulness i'm still in your hands this is my confidence you never your promise your promise still says great is your faithfulness your faithfulness i'm still i'm still in your hands this is my confidence you never failed me yet oh never failed me yet and you won't start now you never fell you never fell oh god [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'll see you [Music] i see [Music] again [Music] i'll do it again [Music] your promise still stands great is your faithful [Music] your faithfulness [Music] i'm still in your hands this is my confidence you never failed me yes praise be to god we serve a god who never ever fails and as it was said in the song he's not to start now wherever you are god is going to continue coming through for you and giving you breakthrough where you need it and when you need it most i want to take time to pray for people who are crying out for spiritual growth there are several requests that i want to read off just as an example of what we're talking about there are people who feel trapped in sin trapped in personal fears and insecurities and they want god to take them beyond the place that they're in and if you've ever felt like your spiritual tires were just spinning i believe god wants to touch you tonight from hungry horse montana my christian deacon successful ceo husband has become addicted to video games and is destroying himself my heart is breaking we need jesus from sheila and pioneer california that god would heal my mind i've been a christian since 1983 but i've suffered with depression and social settings for all these years from keith in monroe michigan i'm asking god to draw me to a deeper love for him my low confidence and self-esteem hurts my job i need his help with that from sydney australia i carry a lot of shame disgrace and failure my life shows this it's extremely hard to live with please lord make a way where there is none from south africa good day i need prayer for healing and spiritual growth i keep moving back and forth as if my relationship with christ is going nowhere from rachel in oklahoma city i've struggled to be committed in my faith for over 11 years i fear i will be as the seed that fell where there was little soil please pray for me and from lori in any town tennessee help me god help me god help my family well those of you that have written in and those of you that are simply crying out in your hearts second peter chapter 1 verses 1 through 10 tell us that god in christ has given us everything we need to live a godly life right now because you belong to jesus there has already been deposited in you all of god's power necessary to live a life that pleases him the trouble is sometimes our fears and our unbelief get in the way but we're going to pray that god will enliven your faith and help you to lay hold of what he's promised you and as you do that you are going to see the growth that you've been crying out for breakthrough in your life so let's lift our voices in our faith for our brothers and sisters lord jesus we thank you god that all of your promises are yes and amen when we ask you for something that's been promised to us in the scriptures you never say maybe you never look at our performance and evaluate whether we deserve your promises god the fact is we have no hope apart from your promises we cannot live for you unless you keep your promises lord i thank you that the promise to live an overcoming life the promise to break free from sins dominion those promises are not conditioned upon our performance they are not even conditioned upon the size of our faith o god you said in your word jesus that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can move mountains with that it's not about how big our faith is sometimes all we have is a little weak cry but if that little cry is directed toward an almighty god every mountain must jump into the sea every tree of unbelief and fear must be uprooted in the name of jesus and we command everything opposing the growth of our brothers and sisters to bend its knee to be cast into the sea right now oh god father thank you that you are fighting for them you have promised us growth you have promised us an increase in faith and knowledge and patience endurance in brotherly level god and if we pursue growth your word tells us that we will never fall we will make it to the finish line because when we're moving forward in god the devil cannot move us backward when we are moving forward in your promises no lie can drag us back so father i pray that that would be the new pattern of life for our brothers and sisters no more spinning their spiritual tires we pray for forward motion out of the addiction to video games out of insecurity and fear out of everything binding them o god we appeal to your faithfulness not to our performance but to your goodness toward us oh god and we pray that you would manifest your power on their behalf god take the ones who would esteem themselves as the weakest in the church and make them the mightiest threats to the kingdom of darkness oh god we pray in jesus mighty name amen and amen thanks be to god for what he's going to do in your life what he's been doing in all of our lives and again we want to thank you our tsc family those of you that joined this prayer meeting from all around the world thank you for entrusting us with your donations your financial support has made so much ministry possible and we're going to turn things over to our main campus in new york for just a moment to let you catch a glimpse of where your funds are going and what you're enabling the kingdom of god to produce in the lives of other people and then we'd like to invite you to give today we are so grateful to have missionaries serving all over the world being supported by times square church thanks to your incredible generosity and giving one family that is particularly special to us are the marshals who left everything their family their jobs and their home to serve communities ravaged by decades of civil war in rural areas of central asia the marshall family serves these communities in so many ways like establishing clean water sources teaching everything from hygiene to specialized vocational training and even supporting a boy's orphanage but most of all they are there to share the love of jesus christ even though they are far from their own family and their spiritual family here at times square church they are joyful and expectant for all that god is doing and will continue to do through their obedience and your generosity they wanted to say thank you themselves check out this video from the marshall family greetings from central asia we just want to thank you times square church pastor tim child cry um the church staff for all your prayers and support this year and all the other years we thank you so much i'm reminded of the scripture in john 14 that talks about you don't leave it as orphans but you come you have came and you have supported us financially in prayer and so we thank you for that for the past 15 years [Music] thank you for your incredible generosity tsc it's because you give faithfully each and every week that we can support missionaries all over the world like the marshall family if you'd like to give today i want to remind you that there are four ways to get here at tsc you can give online at tsc.nyc forward slash give you can text give tsc nyc to 77977 you can download the pushpay app or mail your check to our office thanks again for being such a generous church dlc the hour [Music] and is hard to see what you are doing here in the ruins and where this will be oh but i know that down through the years i'll look back on this moment i'll see your hand on it and know you were [Music] here now you were my portion when there wasn't enough i'll testify of the seas that we've crossed the waters you parted the ways my god [Music] [Applause] [Music] well [Music] is [Music] when i can't see what you're doing i know that you're proving you're the god who comes through [Music] [Music] oh [Music] and i'll testify [Music] the way [Music] my god [Music] is well [Music] left is highest praises sing hallelujah to the rock of ages all that is left all that is left is [Applause] is [Applause] hallelujah [Music] when there wasn't enough [Music] my god [Music] every day oh i know it is and all that is left is highest praises so sing hallelujah to our rock of ages [Music] hallelujah thank you jesus thank you lord thank you god lord jesus christ we thank you for your presence here today god we thank you lord and ask you to invade every home i got online every person sitting in their kitchen their living room their car their bedroom every family looking for help and looking for hope and we ask you again today as we always have oh god be our strength arise lord for your holy name say god and set your church free set your bride free my god from everything that would hinder her lord everything that would stop her from becoming that last day beacon of praise and light in the world as you desire and desire her to be and so god we're asking for miracles miracles tonight lord we're not asking just for things that are can be done in human strength but things that can only be done by the spirit of god let there be miracles my god in every heart in every life and in every home and we give you praise and we give you glory in jesus name amen and amen thank you everybody god bless you you may be seated here in the sanctuary and at home too as well for those that are with us online this evening i want to encourage you to prepare to have communion with us at the end of this this service this evening we always take the bread and the juice and you can use any kind of bread or juice that you find in your apartment or your home or wherever you are and we celebrate the victory of jesus christ on the cross 2000 years ago when he died in our place and prevailed over the power of the grave and death and sin and gave us the promise not just of eternal life but of a new and a full and a meaningful life here on on the earth as we live in him and so i'm going to give you an opportunity before we go to the communion table after i speak this word today to turn in a sense in your heart towards jesus christ and acknowledge him as lord and savior and when we do there's going to be a number that comes up on the screen that we're asking you to text in the word decided to the number 5100. that's 51 000. text in the word decided and when you do somebody from times square church will be in contact with you if you so desire there will be a series of five-minute videos sent to you explaining what it means to be born again in christ and and where do you go from here how do you study your bible for example what does it mean to be new in christ how can you find fellowship with the people of god most if not all of those questions will be answered in these videos that will come your way so we encourage you to do that the message i have today is a message that god spoke to my heart after listening to pastor tim delena from times square church our senior pastor on sunday morning where he talked about sin he talked about the effects of sin he talked about the penalty of sin he talked about how sin is is rarely even spoken about in the modern day church today he has an expression that he often makes that we are not mistaken in need of correction we are sinners in need of salvation and i think for far too long we've avoided the topic of sin in the house of god now tonight i want to speak about sin but i don't want what i'm about to say to condemn those of you who have a living relationship with god and you are you are struggling the the enemy is against you is against your home your marriage your children your mind your family whatever that is i'm speaking this message for the benefit of those who may be the situation that you find yourself in is because of sin because of we have so many prayer requests that have come in my you know you'll find i'll give you an example i'm i'm a christian person and uh i'm trying to be a better employer or a better husband or father whatever it is and yet at the end of the tail end of the prayer quest is i'm hooked on pornography please pray for me i want to suggest that in this particular instance the problem is sin and when you begin to deal with the sin it opens that channel of god's grace to come into your life god's power god's freedom jesus said i've come that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly now the thief came to steal kill and destroy he's come to steal your eternal soul he's come to kill your hope for the future and your family has come to destroy any hope that you might have of ever amounting to that which god has called you to be in christ but jesus after these words says but i've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly elsewhere in the scriptures he said i am the way the truth and the life and no man can come to the father except by me except through me so i want to talk about sin that's the title of my sharing this evening let's talk about sin in order to talk about sin we have to go right back to the garden of eden to understand the origins of sin how it got into the human race what kind of a foundation is the sinful nature built upon and in genesis chapter 3 you're going to be surprised some of you to see that god the gospel is already preached in genesis chapter 3. you don't have to wait till the new testament to hear the gospel preach god already preached it in the garden and you're going to see that in just a moment now father i pray god with all my heart god anoint me anoint my words god anoint the sharing and i ask you to break the yoke of slavery to sin break the yoke my god of whatever it is it's trying to destroy the people of god lord we have to deal with this if we are serious about living for you if we are serious about serving you we can't avoid the topic of sin for you warned us in the scriptures and you said the wages of sin is death it still pays what it always paid sin leads to death and so god we're asking the second part of that verse said but the gift of god is eternal life through jesus christ our lord so i pray god give me the ability to speak this so that people who are snared by sin might escape that trap and find life purpose meaning a future and an eternity in jesus christ and father we thank you god overpower the frailty of this human body the frailty of this human mind i offer my body as a living sacrifice to you i'm asking you to speak my voice means nothing yours is everything lord speak to our hearts god peel back the layers of resistance in the hearts of many who are hearing this evening and god give us the grace to deal with truth to deal with reality for it's only in truth that we can be set free and we thank you for it in jesus name now years ago we had a sheep branch in canada uh well it wasn't that much of a ranch i had about i had 68 we had 68 female sheep a couple of rams a bunch of goats and a duck and things like that one day my wife pastor teresa came into the barn and i had a sheep on its haunches when you take a sheep and you sit it down on its on its uh it's its back legs it becomes they become very docile they just kind of sit there and they don't move and so i had a can of spray disinfectant in my hand and i had a very very sharp knife she walked into the barn and she said to me what are what are you doing and i said well this this particular sheep it was a suffolk that was the the uh the brand of the burden of not the burden but the uh what i forget the word for just the type of sheep it was and uh it had developed a parasite under its nose just it was very pronounced it was right in the center of its nose had the sheep have a very long snout and this particular kind of a parasite if you don't get it out it multiplies under the skin it goes in through the eye sockets and eventually into the ear canal and it will actually drive the sheep mad you'll you'll look if if a shepherd doesn't deal with it eventually the sheep will be running full speed into posts and beams and into barn walls because of the the buzzing that's going on inside its head because of these parasites it literally drives the sheep insane and it ultimately will run into things until it it kills itself literally and i said to pastor teresa if i don't take this this parasite out now if i don't get it in its inception it will get into the the various canals in the head of the sheep and it will drive it absolutely crazy i remember she looked at me and she said at that time now it's a little different today but she said at that time i could never do that and i said well as a shepherd if i really do care for my sheep i have to do that i have to make a cut and decision about a two three inch incision i have to get in with the knife i have to dig this thing out stitch it together spray it with disinfectant and that poor sheep i mean it looked at me and they're so trusting and it had no idea what i was doing and it was painful there's no doubt about that and and for a little while after the sheep was a little wary of me and i come into the barn it would kind of crowd in the back corner not realizing that i had saved its life that if i chose to do nothing i could have been like some shepherds are and said well hey i got 67 other sheep what does one matter why put myself through the pain of trying to extract this parasite that has has gained a foothold in its uh in its uh in its nose but yet the true shepherd will take the knife when necessary pastor tim delena did that last sunday the true shepherd would take the knife because the true shepherd sees the wolf coming and doesn't flee the true shepherd will will cut with the sword of the word of god if it's necessary for your soul's sake not just so that we look good if you're sitting in the under the ministry of a false shepherd they'll just spend their whole time just telling you how wonderful you are as long as you keep filling the offering bucket they don't much care about your soul's condition if if you backslide if you fall away if you fail and you walk with god they don't much care because there's a lot of other people there that can keep their ministry active and alive but the true shepherd cares and the true shepherd will take the sword of god's spirit so i want you to receive it in that context i know i'm speaking to people online who are really hurting i know i'm speaking to people who are addicted and afflicted and there's torment in your mind in your home and your marriages are falling apart and you're you've got problems with your kids and but we need to before we even talk about what god can do and the miracle power of god let's talk about the necessity of dealing with sin remember john the baptist was the forerunner to christ and his message was repent repent means turn repent means agree with the word of god repent means that your ways are not god's ways god's ways are higher than your ways and god's ways are different than your ways agree with the ways of god die to yourself that's what the baptism of john was all about die to yourself and start to live according to the will of god and until we are willing to die to ourselves to die to our old way of thinking and our old ways of doing things jesus christ will remain a far off stranger there is really no living relationship with the son of god until we have come through the waters of repentance repentance means i'm i'm sorry for the way i've been living i i'm sorry for what i've done to other people it's not about what other people have done to me it's what i have done to other people i i'm sorry for for for living in rebellion to the revealed word of god when i knew what god was speaking but i i chose my own way and that's where we start in genesis chapter 3 beginning at verse 1. now the serpent was more cunning than any beast in the field which god had made and he said to the woman has god indeed said you shall not eat of every tree of the garden and the woman said to the serpent we may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden god has said you shall not eat it you shall not touch it lest you die then the serpent said to the woman you shall not surely die for god knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and when you will be like god knowing good and evil so when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise she took of its fruit and ate and she also gave to her husband with her and he did eight now here is here is the first foundation of sin in the human race this is what separated men and women from god this is why god had to send his son into the world later on to die on a cross to pay the price for our sin is when adam and eve made the conscious decision to defy the word of god and the will of god for their lives they they fell prey to a lie the lie says you can do what you want to do outside of the established order of god and somehow not pay a consequence for it and i believe i've always believed the devil was a very attractive it describes his nature as a serpent a serpent of course has no ears and is guided by his tongue that's why he's described as a serpent but i i feel in my heart now it's just my own feeling but i feel in my heart he was the anointed cherub there was a beauty about him and it's almost like he appeared to adam and eve and says well look at me i made my own decisions i chose to do it my way i stepped out from under the authority of god and look at me nothing has happened to me and adam and eve it says they saw that the tree was good for food and it was pleasant to the eyes and was desirable to make one wise and she took if it's fruit and eight so the fruit that they ate of was a theological fruit that i can live outside of the word of god i can defy the word of god or maybe put it this way i can pick and choose what to believe from the word of god i can believe what i want to believe and then i can disregard what i don't want to believe and somehow no consequence will come to me i can't tell you how many times i have seen people fall into this trap over the years as a christian man as a pastor i have sat and reasoned with people and tried to help them to see the error of their way and i it's heart-rending because time and again i've just watched them go off a cliff into spiritual disaster and some to this day are not even alive anymore knowing they should have known that the way they were going was going to take away their strength it was going to take away the relationship with god now the next thing that happens after they make the choice and so my question to you tonight we're listening online are you living in the light of what god has revealed to you in his word or are you making excuses for it are you stepping outside of the lines of god's parameters for your life and somehow thinking there's going to be no consequence to it the numbers of people who just get involved in things thinking i can handle this it's not going to it's not going to take away the presence of god for me it's not going to destroy my life only to find out that they can't handle it you all you have to do is give the devil one toe hold in the door of your life and he will come into you like a flood before you know it verse 7 of genesis 3 says then the eyes of both of them were opened and they knew that they were naked and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings so here's the second stage of sin the first is willful rebellion to the revealed word of god has god said they knew what god said but they chose to do something else the second is making themselves another covering other than the covering that has been provided by god i want you to picture this for a moment they adam and eve i i believe were covered by the glory of god the the glory that sean from moses faced when he came down from the mountain the glory that covered their nakedness because they were in the presence of the living god virtually every day and it was it was his presence his covering that covered them it covered their nakedness it covered them completely and when they sinned against god suddenly their covering was gone and they had to make another covering for themselves that is the origin of all religion in the world today apart from jesus christ it is man making his own covering his own covering that says oh i'm a good person and when i die the good is hopefully going to outweigh the bad i've never murdered anybody so why would god reject me from his kingdom i go to church i even tithe i give good portions of all that i possess to others but you see none of these can save you you see you can't make your own covering and never get past and into the into the eternity of god because only one covering will suffice it's the covering of the shed blood of the son of god jesus christ now in genesis chapter 3 verses 8 to 10 we see the third stage of sin now remember number one it's a conscious decision to walk outside of the revealed word of god number two is making another covering declaring one's own righteousness in spite of the fact that the person is now in an unrighteous condition in the sight of god genesis chapter 3 is the third stage of sin verses 8 to 10 it is hiding from both the presence and the voice of god and they heard the sound genesis 3 8 they heard the sound of the lord god walking in the garden in the cool of the day and adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the lord among the trees of the garden it's a type of a person who finds it very comfortable to hide in church and the lord god called to adam and said to him where are you as a matter of fact pastor william used to preach it this way the actual hebrew translation was adam do you know where you are do you know what you've done do you know what you have become do you understand that you are now separated from the life of god do you know what's happened to you and he said so he said i heard your voice in the garden and i was afraid because i was naked and i hid myself and so the next thing you find when people are living in sin is they start hiding now they don't mind going to church as long as the presence of god is not there and the voice of god is not challenging their sin i can't tell you the number of times over the last 25 or more years standing in the pulpit and times square church when the presence of god just invaded the sanctuary i would watch people run out of the church during the worship because the presence of god had come i would watch them run out during the sermon because the presence of god the word of god was now challenging their behavior and this is exactly what the third stage of sin is in the book of genesis it's both hiding from the presence and from the voice of god and the sad thing is they were in the garden but they were hiding there are people who attend church today but they're still hiding from the presence and they're hiding from the voice of god and the fourth stage of sin is blaming others for our own actions now pastor tim spoke quite articulately about that on sunday morning and you should listen to that message i think it was called has the music changed so in chapter 3 again now in verse 12 it says the man said the woman whom you gave to me to be with me she gave me the tree and i ate and the lord said to the woman what is this that you have done and the woman said the serpent deceived me and i ate you know so the problem is now in the human race the problem of sin we live in a society today where everybody is blaming somebody else for their condition it's my father's fault that i'm the way i am it's my mother's fault it's the my former church's fault it's my boss's fault it's my wife's fault it's my husband so i'd be such a great husband if it wasn't for my wife or i'd be such a great wife if i started to laugh but that's just the reality of it you know that we we want to shift the blame for i you know i've had people i had somebody in my office one time who was was committing a grievous sin and looked at me with incredulously in a counseling session and said to me if if she wasn't the way she was i wouldn't be doing this see there was no desire in his heart to take ownership for his own sin it was his sin that had broken the covering off of his home and it is sin that broke had broken the covering off of his marriage and was causing it to dissolve but he had chosen instead of taking ownership for his sin he had chosen to blame somebody else for it in this case his wife james chapter 1 verses 14 and 15 says each one is tempted when he's drawn away by his own desires and enticed then when desire is conceived it gives birth to sin and sin when it is full grown brings forth death so let's go over the four points of sin again in the book of genesis the conscious decision to defy the word of god for our lives and the will of god for our lives secondly making another covering declaring ourselves righteous when we're not declaring ourselves clean when we're not declaring ourselves to be in right relationship with god when god's word clearly tells us we're not in right relationship with him the third stage is hiding from the presence and the voice of god even in the house of god that's why people will gravitate to churches where they they want to fire insurance they they want the assurance that heaven's going to be their home in a sense at the end of the journey but they don't want the presence or the word of god to challenge their behaviors their worldview or even how they're living their lives and fourthly blaming if if sin becomes evident instead of dealing with it blaming somebody else for it i'm a drug addict because of this i'm an alcoholic because of that i shared with a person recently i said until you're willing to take ownership for your sin you will never be free jesus said you should know the truth and the truth so i'll set you free and the inference of the word no implies in the greek at least it's a heartfelt embracing you shall heart feltedly embrace the truth about yourself about your condition about how why you're doing things about your relationship with god and how it's affecting the relationship around you with others now thank god in genesis chapter 3 not only do we see the peril the pitfall and the fall of humanity we see the mercy of god it's absolutely amazing in genesis chapter 3 and verse 21 it says and also for adam and his wife the lord god made tunics of skin and clothed them see adam and eve had clothed themselves in fig leaves i often think of how ridiculous they must have looked can you imagine these these broad green leaves and they've made a like a hat like a lampshade for themselves and they've made skirts and whatever it looked like it must have looked absolutely ridiculous you imagine they had the glory of god covering them and they exchanged it for fig leaves they exchanged it for like a plant and thinking somehow this has covered me somehow my bankruptcy before god is not going to be exposed i've made my my own covering now god could have could have exiled them as he did from the garden as he did all of humanity because of sin knowing what sin was going to produce in the human race he could have technically could have destroyed the whole thing and just recreated it all over again at that point you know why he didn't for god's so loved that says it all for god so loved adam and eve for god so loved their offspring for god so loved the world god so loved the the the the next generation the next generation the next generation right down to you and i that's why he didn't destroy the whole thing that's why in a sense evil sin has been allowed to prosper it's only because of the mercy of god god knew what humanity would do once humankind men and women were living outside of the revealed will of god and we're blaming one another can't you see it on full display now in our society everybody is blaming somebody for everything nobody is taking ownership for anything anymore it's somebody else's fault that i'm this it's somebody else's fault that i'm that and they made their own covering and god could have justifiably just just put them out of the garden with the fig leaves on them said go all the best to you but you see the mercy of god and god was pointing to something already in verse 21 because it said he made tunics of skin and clothed them he took in a sense the fig leaves off of them and put the skins of animals on them which was the first indication that a blood sacrifice was going to have to be made to cover the sins of humanity you see these animals had to die they had to shed their blood they had to give their lives so that their skin could be used as a covering for the failures of adam and eve at this time and this was right after in genesis chapter 3 verses 14 and 15 the gospel is preached did you know the gospel is preached in genesis 3 your bible college students in the sanctuary and many of you online you've studied your bible you should know this the gospel was first preached in genesis chapter 3 right in the guard before adam and eve were put out of the garden the gospel of jesus christ was preached genesis chapter 3 verse 14 so the lord god said to the serpent that's the devil himself because you've done this you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field on your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life now i've i've often interpreted that it's my own interpretation but mankind humankind was created out of the dust and it was the curse in a sense you're going to spend your whole existence trying to devour the creation of god that which god raised out of the dust you're going to you're going to crawl on your belly on the earth it's as if he was saying to satan you could have lived in the heavens you were the anointed cherub there were there was none like you for beauty but instead of being where you were and where you were created and what you're created to be you're going to now go on your belly on the earth and you're going to spend your whole existence during the the lifespan of planet earth as it is you're going to be attempting to devour the thief has come to kill steal and destroy you're going to be attempting to devour men and women and children that's exactly what the devil is doing in our generation the only way to beat him is through the shed blood of jesus christ through a living relationship with the son of god and he says in verse 15 i will put enmity between you and the woman between your seed and her seed he shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel in other words this i'm god says in the garden of eden i'm going to have a people and from that people a messiah is going to be born and through him a seed a righteous seed is going to come back into this world and i'm going to put image to enmity between you between your seed and her seed hersey the seed of the woman which of course is israel jesus christ was born through the seed of jacob i'm going to put a division between you there's going to be one is going to live in light and the other is going to live in darkness one has an eternity in heaven with god the other has an eternity in hell with you and i'm gonna i'm gonna make a division between the two there's there's gonna be no waffling in between the two as a serpent would like it to be but my people are gonna live for me they're going to be a people of truth they're going to be redeemed by the blood they're going to be empowered by the spirit of god and they're going to have power to stand against you and your lies that you have imbibed into the spirit of humankind in the garden of eden hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah and i'm going to send a savior that's what he was saying in these verses and you will bruise this heel in psalm 22 jesus quoted it on the cross in psalm 22 16 he says dogs have surrounded me the congregation of the wicked has enclosed me they pierced my hands and my feet you will you will bruise his feet but he shall bruise your head he shall tread upon you he shall destroy you he shall destroy the reasonings that you have planted into those created in the image of god and he will triumph over you he will take captivity captive and give gifts unto men he will be a redeemer and the scripture tells us in verses 30 and 31 of psalm 22 listen to these words a posterity in the original king james says a seed shall serve him it will be recounted to the lord for the next generation they will come and declare his righteousness to a people who will be born that he has done this a seed shall serve him a seed shall serve him so my challenge to you online tonight turn from your sin turn from that which would destroy you turn from living according to your own will in your own way turn from your rebellion to the words and the will of the living god turn from trying to make yourself another covering that god says is not righteous turn from hiding from the presence and the voice of god turn from blaming others for the struggle that's come into your life and maybe even in your home because of your sin turn from your adultery turn from your pornography turn from your alcohol turn from your drugs turn from your bitterness turn from your unforgiveness turn from the lust in your heart and the lies on your lips turn to the living god that was the message of john the baptist that was the introduction to jesus christ and the people had the common sense to come streaming out of a religion that was hiding from god a whole religious system that had made its own covering a whole system that were hiding from the presence and the voice of god a whole system of blaming one another and they went and humbled themselves in the sight of god went down into the waters of baptism and when they came up john said to them behold the lamb of god who takes away the sins of the world there is no beholding of him until there's repentance in the heart we're not mistaken in need of correction we're sinners in need of a savior and so here's my question to you you can you can lay down in your own garden with your own coverings hiding from the voice of god and blaming others and you can do it for the rest of your life and sad to say your eternity will most likely not be with god in some cases or you can be among the seed that jesus christ spoke about in psalm 22 the seed that recognized that god had to send his son to a cross to pay the price for the wrong things that you have done that the bible calls sin the things you did the choices you made the coverings that you procured for yourself the false reasonings that you allowed to get into your mind he had to send his son to die to pay a price to restore you and to give you back the covering that was lost in the garden of eden you know in the garden of eden they were banished from the tree of life it says lest they should live forever in this sinful condition they were banished from the garden and the covering was lost the covering of god was lost at the cross the tree of life was regained and the covering was given back and through jesus christ we're brought back into a right relationship with the living god and the glory of god becomes our covering again the blood of christ washes away all of our sin we are we're brought back into relationship with god where we can actually hear his voice again in the cool of the day and we're no longer afraid to be challenged by his presence or by his words and we delight in our hearts with in living inside the boundaries of the word of god we're no longer looking to see how far we close we can get to the edge without ending up in hell we now want to live as close to the center of those two borders as we can our delight is in the law of god the word of god if god says it that's what we want to be if god tells us that's what we should do that's what we want to do we want to live inside the word the will of god we want the covering that only christ can provide that is ours at the cross and we want to stop blaming others and take responsibility for our own actions yes my somebody may have done something to me and i'm not responsible for what they did to me but i'm responsible for the unforgiveness and bitterness in my own heart and the unwillingness to release the debt as the word of god says that i should and so will you be among the seed will you be among those who are technically back in the garden again with god technically covered our nakedness discovered our bankruptcy is covered our foolishness and our failure and ours all the things we've done are covered and we are declared the righteousness of god in christ jesus that would be blasphemous word not written in the word of god it means we are as clean as god is in christ jesus you can't have it two ways that's what the bible says we're the righteousness of god in christ jesus and it gets even better than that god now opens his word again to us because we want his word and he gives us of his holy spirit the power to live in his word the power to obey his word the power to walk in his word the power to become everything that adam and eve lost because of sin oh thank god for the cross thank god for men and women tonight who are just going to say lord forgive me forgive me for what i have done forgive me for the sin that i have committed forgive me for despising your words creating my own covering making my own excuses for my behavior forgive me for blaming others for the way i behave oh god in jesus name would you restore me that's got to be your prayer today and i see in my spirit this long line of people coming out of jerusalem down to jordan where john was baptizing i see them coming and they've got robes that they've made for themselves and they've they've got all their excuses and everything has left them so empty just like this generation religion will always leave you empty and unsatisfied it's only a relationship with the living god that will ever satisfy you and so here comes the lion people and and john is baptizing them and they're going down under the water in other words i i give up i give up i give up trying to live life my own way and create my own reasonings and and craft my own sense of right and wrong god i give up on all of this and they come out of the water and it's at that point in the scriptures that john says behold the lamb of god behold the lamb of god behold the lamb of god oh jesus i love you jesus i love you and i thank you god for making your word so clear i thank you god for giving this last day generation a choice and a clear choice an honest choice if we choose to live in darkness and we are without excuse but if we're willing to come to you and put away our ways and embrace you as lord and savior god almighty i pray for so many listening tonight so many in so many places who have just had such a casual relationship with you god they've not taken seriously your word father i pray that you would give them the grace to open their hearts to you as a shepherd i plead with you i don't know what else to do i can see you actually in my in the spirit i see you you are like that sheep in my barn many many years ago and it didn't resist me you know and it didn't even understand and it was painful but it lived it lived see that's the key it lived it didn't die it didn't go insane it didn't start running into walls so i'm talking to people tonight some of you are you've been punching the walls in your in your apartment this week you know what i'm talking about i'm telling you why now you're punching the walls in your apartment something is in your mind something that doesn't belong there god didn't create you that way he didn't create you for that created you for a much higher purpose than what you're living now so i'm going to ask you who are online and i'm going to ask the people who are with me here in the sanctuary at our bible school to pray this prayer out loud with me and mean it in your heart you don't have to understand every little paragraph of the you will eventually understand much more of the word of god but you understand enough now to know that sin needed a sacrifice sin needed a savior and god so loved you that he waited even through the course of history how many times could he have destroyed this world and been justified and the bible says one day he's going to recreate the heavens and the earth he could have done it a thousand years ago but would have lost you god so loved you do you understand that god so loved you he created the entrance back into eternal life and relationship with him don't try to create your own way pray this with me pray it now lord jesus christ forgive me for the way i have lived and the things i have done i have sinned against you and i do deserve an eternal punishment but you so loved me that you sent your son into this world to die in my place and pay the price for my sin so that i could come back to you again i believe that you died in my place you paid the price for my sin and this day i open my heart i invite you into my life i thank you for forgiving me and i now confess you jesus christ as the savior of my life the god of my presence the god of my future the god with whom i will spend eternity in heaven when i die oh god give me the grace to live for you and to do it your way in jesus name if you just prayed that prayer you are more than welcome to join us in a moment for communion where we celebrate the victory of jesus christ on the cross for you 2 000 years ago and the promise of christ to be your strength in this present day that you're now living in and would you do me a favor would you just text the word decided to 51 000.5100 text the word decided and just let us know let us help you we want to help you at times square church we'd love to help you get started in this new walk with god we're going to continue to pray for you that these old sins wouldn't come back and try to govern your life anymore i'm going to pray for you that you might have the grace to yield your lives to the will of god in the future i'm going to pray that you might become everything that god destined you to be through his son jesus christ a shining light in the darkness of this present world we're going to pray that out of sorrow you'd be given joy out of confusion to be given clear thinking out of weakness you would become strong and out of the ashes of your present situation the beauty of god would become visible that's what the bible promises that christ in your life will do we're going to pray that you'll be given the strength to go through adversity whatever that's going to be and whatever it's going to mean there's a strength in god that this world knows nothing about and mostly we're going to pray that when we get to the throne of god one day you'll be there and we'll dance and leap like little children we'll sing and shout and rejoice and give god all the glory for what he alone has been able to do in your life i want you to know tonight that we love you and we love you because jesus loves you we care see you in just a moment for communion together jesus paid it all all to him i owe sin had left a crimson stain he washed it white is so jesus paid jesus paid it all [Music] he was [Music] and i hear the savior say thy strength indeed is small and shout of weakness to watch and pray and find in me thine all in all jesus paid [Music] he was [Music] praise the lord [Music] alive is [Music] sin [Music] thank you jesus for i received from the lord that which i also delivered to you that the lord jesus on the same night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he broke it and said take heed this is my body which is broken for you do this in remembrance of me in the same manner he also took the cup after supper saying this cup is the new covenant in my blood this do as often as you drink it in remembrance of me in other words the covenantness i died to cover you i died to save you i died to redeem you i died to clothe you again in righteousness as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup you proclaim the lord's death in other words you you're leaning your trust is still in christ until he comes amen so father we pray tonight for those who gave their lives to jesus we pray god that you would seal them with the holy spirit you'd not let the wicked one come and turn them back to that which they should be leaving behind god almighty close their mind to the arguments of darkness and open their thinking god to your word lead them by your holy spirit and let it be a supernatural walk for those that have turned to christ in truth tonight use their lives for your glory and as a testimony to this generation of who you are we ask you lord jesus christ to bring glory to your name through what you will do through each of their lives and we thank you for it in jesus name amen and amen praise god we're going to leave with a song again of victory and rejoicing remember we'll see you again next tuesday and sunday morning 10 o'clock times square church with pastor jimmy i saw darkness running for cover but the miracle that i just take it over my name [Music] is i have resurrection power through the miracles and i just can't get over my name this is my [Music] i'll testimony [Music] come together [Music] [Music] our god will finish [Music] this is this is my testimony [Music] if i'm not dead then you're not [Music] things are done to come oh i believe if i'm not [Music] not dead and you're not done [Music] is this is [Applause] [Music] this is my testimony [Music] hallelujah thank you so much i will see you next week god bless you and keep you [Music] [Music] do [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Times Square Church

Views: 7,710

Rating: 4.9359999 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: Fq7AYOrt6t8

Length: 121min 10sec (7270 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 09 2021