“Jesus Christ, the Same 2017, 2018 and Every Day” By
Brother Parrish Lee December
31st,
2017 I wish I could tell you how awesome it is to see
y'all's faces. I
wish I could express to you the warmth that I feel just knowing that I
am
amongst Believers, and I know what they believe. I wish I could tell
you how
thankful I am to be amongst people that you can say the name Jesus, and
you
know they're not using it as a swear word, they're not using it as a
filler,
they actually know who they're calling on. It is beautiful to be in the
house
of the Lord. I was glad, I was glad when this Sunday rolled around and
I—a
little scared—you know, it is Grandwood—and, you know, you do have the
message—a
little excited, but I can't tell you, it is wonderful to see all of
y'all. Give
yourselves a clap and a welcome. I don't know, y'all might have to get a
shepherd's hook out here,
it's been a little over two weeks, and, it's all stored up in there.
So,
that's, that's, that's, that's my preliminary warning. First, as I come up here, I do want to say,
giving honor to Almighty
God, our Sustainer, our Savior, the one who bore blood for us, the one
who walks
among us, the one who loves us unconditionally, the one who speaks to
us in the
still of the night and the cool of the day, in times of trouble, and in
times
of joy, who treats us as children. I give honor to that God. Giving
honor to
all of those who have come and paved the way for us in ministry, for
this
ministry, for all ministries that name the name of Jesus and want to
hold on to
the truth of His Word; giving honor to them, every single one of them.
It's a
precious thing. The Bible describes it as a pearl, and it says when you
find
it, you trade everything else away, and you hold on to it, you hide it
deep
within yourself that nothing could come and steal that away. A pearl of
great
price, the Bible says (Matthew 13:45-46). And, giving honor to all of
y'all,
yeah, it was sixty degrees, last week, back in Baltimore, six-zero. Got
off the
flight, and it was one digit. Welcome back. Hallelujah, hallelujah,
hallelujah,
hallelujah. And, thank You, Lord, that my car started. Thank You, Lord;
thank You,
Lord. It would be a different song today if that weren't the case.
Thank You,
God. I want to say, I heard some of the messages,
they were sent to me by
audio, and, wow! Wow! Wow! The theme for the month—yes, it is the last day
of the month, the
last day, so we still have a theme for the month. And, the theme for
the month,
if I could ask brother Vince Stepchuk to come up here, and read it for
us, it's
from the Book of Isaiah, chapter nine, and verse six. And, this is the
fifth
Sunday of the month, so this will be the fifth time that we have heard
this Scripture
verse. And, we can never, truthfully, hear it enough. Brother Vinny? Isaiah
9:6 For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government
shall be
upon his shoulder: and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father,
The
Prince of Peace. Thank you, brother, thank you. Could we bow our heads, for just a moment?
Almighty God, just to
be able to come in Your presence, Lord, to walk and know that You are
our Savior,
and our Maker, and our Creator, and You love us in a way, God, that
nothing
else compares to. Thank You for that. Thank You as we stand here on
December 31st,
and we can look back over 2017, and see what great things You have done
for us.
Thank You for that, Almighty God. Thank You for eyes to see, a heart to
feel,
ears to hear, and a will to do, here, December 31st. You brought us all
from a
mighty long way, Almighty God! You have done it, You have done it! You
alone
have done it. We give You glory and honor and Majesty for every single
bit of
it. No one else has done for us what You have done for us. God, we
extol You, we
magnify You, we thank You, and praise You. And, God, we turn to You,
and we ask—You
told us to bring our request to You—and we ask, right now, Lord, we
make our
petition, God, that You would grant unto us, as You blessed us with the
singing, and our worship, and the testifying, as You've blessed us to
be
thankful, we ask for You, God, to feed us this day. Grant it to
us—according to
Your Word—as You said Your Word would not return unto You void, but it
will
accomplish that to which You sent it. Grant it, in our lives, Grant it
over our
lives. Grant it every place we go. Your word is true and faithful. And,
we
claim that this morning, we do this, in Jesus name. And, everyone said,
amen. Amen. 2017—don’t go too far, Vinny—2017, before we
completely say
goodbye, let's just have a look. Andy, you already started, but let's
just have
a look. You know what? When you said, “How many has got something to be
thankful
for, something that God did for them,” everybody should have been up on
their
feet, and said, “You know what? I can tell you about, not just in my
life, I
know other people that God blessed. No, they didn't deserve it, God is
just
that good. He's just that good. He makes sure it rains on the just, and
He
makes sure it rains on the unjust.” No matter what you faced in 2017,
if He
brought you to it, He has brought you through it. If He did it, He did
it for
you. That is the God that we serve. Thank You, God. Thank You, thank
You, thank
You, thank You. I was around some people that aren’t thankful for what
He did.
I can't take it, I can't take it when God is pouring it down, and
people can't
turn around, and say, “I didn't do that for myself. Nobody else did it
for me.
It must be God.” And, when they can't arrive at that, I can't take it.
I've got
to say something. “Well, you know you didn't do that for yourself. No
you
didn't. God did that for you.” I don't care if they get angry. I don't
care if
they get a little miffed with me. God gets the glory. If, by chance, a
few
seeds might fall in their life, and they say, “I didn't like what he
said, but
he really does have a point. And, apparently, he knows what he's
talking about,
because he names the things that God has done for him.” 2017. Well, as we look back over this, we see,
this Scripture that
Vinny so wonderfully came up to read, and I'm glad you read it the way
you did,
it was medicine, medicine, my brother. “For unto us a child
is
born, unto us a son is given…” and, yes, we have ministers all this
month and
they came up, and they talked about this. The first message talked a
little bit
about that wonderful Son, Child given to them. He's wonderful, He's
wonderful. And,
then, Brother Chris came up, and he talked about that Everlasting arm
of the
Lord. Woohoo. I heard that Brother Kirk, he talked about that
Everlasting Father.
No, I'm sorry the Mighty God. Kirk talked about the Mighty God, Jesse
talked
about that Prince of Peace and, Brother Andy talked about the
Everlasting Father.
The Everlasting Father. Mmmmm. But, today, I want to talk a little bit
about
just one point: It says, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son
is”—and
this is the word I just want to focus on a little bit—“given.” Given.
Given.
Something was given. Now, given means that it left the giver to go to a
givee.
Something was passed on. Something was transferred. Something left
where it
was, to go to where it should be. Unto us a child is given. Now,
there's many
reasons why things get given in life. Something's are given out of
obligation.
Some things are given just because they're told to be given. Some
things are given
just out of Duty. Some things are given by request. Some things are
given
because they're no longer wanted, and this is the season for that;
they've even
got a special word for that: they are given, or they are gifted, and,
yeah,
they are gifted to someone, and, some things, especially around this
time, things
are regifted. Regifted. No longer desired where it was given to, and so
it is
re-given, re-gifted to someone else. And, some things are given
straight out of
desire; they are given straight out of love. Unto us a child is born,
unto us a
son is given. Now, when something is given, it denotes that it
was left from the
giver to arrive to the givee, and, one of two things happened there:
either it
is accepted, or it is rejected. Unto us that child is born, unto us a
son is
given, either accept it, or it is rejected. Either He is accepted, or
He is
rejected. And, this was a whole lot of things given all in one
rolled-up shot.
Wonderfulness was given. Peace was given. A Daddy was given. A Mighty
God was
given. And, a Counselor, a Counselor. Counsel, sweet Counsel from
Heaven is
given. And, Pastor Paine, would—he said, many times, “You know, one of
the
problems in the church world is there's plenty of people that want
Jesus to be
their Savior, they just don't want Him to be their Lord.” They want to
pick and
choose the things that God gives. God gives a whole complete package,
and they
say, “I think I will do a little bit of shopping here. I'll take this
from You,
Lord, but that, not so much.” So they're—going along with what Pastor
Paine
said—they kind of want that old, “Oh, I want to be saved, and I want to
go to Heaven
thing, but, as far as changing my ways, and as far as letting go of
some of the
other things that holding on to me, no, Lord, I think I want to hold on
to
that.” And, if ever that is an attitude, if ever that is a thought or
feeling
brought to God, there is a response for that, today, we have a response
for
that: my response for that is, ‘Give God a chance.” Give, give God a
chance.
Give God the opportunity to be wonderful in our lives. Give Him the
opportunity, the chance to counsel us. Give God the opportunity, the
chance—let
HIm come and love us. Let God do for us the things in our lives that
has never
been done before. Let Him do it! Let God be able to come to our lives
and to be
able to be God. Let Him do the old things for us! You ever hear people
talk
about the old days, when they first got saved, “Oh, the things I used
to do
when I first got saved! Man, I used to
live Godly, I used to love Him so much. Man, I would just pray. I would
look
people up, I would talk to them. I would take a blessing over, hey,
there's a Scripture
of the day, when I first got saved.” Let God do that for us. Let Him to
the old
things for us. Yeah, the things that we talk about with such
reminiscence and
joy. If we have stopped doing any of those things, let Him do them
again. And,
let Him do the new things for us, too. Because, the Bible says, eyes
have not
seen, nor ears have heard, nor even entered into our lives what He has
prepared
for us (1 Corinthians 2:9). We haven't even seen what He's got, and all
we've
got to say to that is let God do it. Let Him do the new things, the old
things,
the new things let Him just be God for us. Let Him be our counselor.
Let Him be
our Everlasting father. Let Him be our Mighty God, our Prince of Peace,
and,
yes, yes, yes, let Him be wonderful. Let Him make us just, “Oh, wow,
God, that
was awesome.” Let Him get that out of us. God, we give You the
opportunity, we
give You the ability, we give You the freedom to be God all over our
lives.
Appreciated what You had to say, Sister Linda, because sometimes we've
got to
get up to the altar, and say, okay, God, now I'm facing it, now it's
here, God,
I'm looking for You to do what You said You would do. Well, sometimes,
God
already has it for us. It's not that He's waiting on the blessing,
right? The
blessing has already been prepared. He's just waiting on us to be ready
to
receive it. God I could accept more of Your spirit, but there's some
things
I've got to let go of, that I'm just not ready to let go of yet. The
two aren't
going to mix. So, that was part 1. Part 1 was the theme for
December. And, I
haven't said it, but, the message title today, is “Jesus Christ The
Same 2017,
2018, And, Every Day.” Part
2: The Theme for the Month of January Tomorrow is January First, so we're going to be
looking into that,
today. Brother Vinny, if you would come, from The Book of Matthew,
chapter eleven,
verses twenty-eight through thirty: Matthew
11:28-30 Come unto me, all
ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek
and lowly
in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy,
and my
burden is light. Thank you, Brother Vinny. “Come unto me, all ye
that that labor
and are heavy laden”—the theme for January—“and I will give you rest.”
We've
heard both of these Scriptures before; we've heard them several times.
They are
beautiful Scriptures. Scriptures that minister to us, that mean so much
to us.
Not to be read just in a specific time, even though they might get more
play at
some time, rather than other times, but they both minister to us all
the time.
Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you
rest.
But today, I want to focus on part of this, right here, in verse
twenty-nine, “Take
my yoke upon you…” that ain't it, that's a beautiful part of the verse,
but
that ain't it. Here it is: “…and learn of Me.” And learn of Me. So, the
Lord
says, “Come, and learn of Me.” Yes, He
goes on to say, “For I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find
rest for
your souls,” and He then goes on to say, “For My yoke is easy and My
burden is
light,” but, the Lord says, “Come, and learn of Me.” Learn of Me. Now
this is a
continuation of things that have been going on, at this point, for
thousands of
years. David said, in the Book of Psalms, chapter twenty-seven, and
verse
number eleven: Psalm
27:11 Teach
me thy way, O Lord, [Teach
me, God, teach me thy way, oh Lord] and
lead me in a plain path, because of mine enemies. So, where is David said, teach me, the Lord
says, come and learn,
come and learn. So, the Bible says, “Come, and learn, take My yoke upon
you,”
but, “Come, and learn” is the focal part today. Come, and learn of Me,
learn
and see, from the Book of First Peter, chapter two, verse three, learn
that, “I,
the Lord, I am gracious. Learn about my grace for you.” From the Book
of First
Peter, chapter two, and three: 1
Peter 2:3 if
so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. So, we learn that the Lord is full of grace,
graciousness. He's
full of grace. Wonderful thing to learn. What else do we learn? Apostle
Paul
said, in Romans, chapter seven, verse number seven, he said that, “I
would not
have known sin, except for the Law would come. So, he learned that he
was a
sinner, Apostle Paul. And, it says: Romans
7:7 What shall we say
then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the
law: for
I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. So, he learned that he was a sinner. And, then,
what else did he
learn? From the Book of John, chapter three, and verse sixteen, Apostle
Paul
learn that, though he was a sinner, God loved him so much, and
everybody else,
that He gave His only begotten Son. He learned that that love passed
through
sin, permeated through it, to get to the person. From John, chapter
three, sixteen: John
3:16 For
God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that
whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. And, that's not all we learn, we learn from the
Book of Psalms,
chapter forty-six, and verse number one. What else have we learned? We
learned
that He is a present help in time of need. We learned this. Psalm
46:1 To the chief Musician for the sons of Korah, A
Song upon Alamoth. God
is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. We've learned
that there is none higher than Him. From the Book of
Isaiah, chapter fifty-five, and verse nine: Isaiah
55:9 For
as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than
your ways,
and my thoughts than your thoughts. We've learned that in our best state, no matter
how good we think
we can get, in our very best state, according to the Bible, it's
altogether
vanity. All the leaders that went before, all the great people that did
great
things, all before, still wound up in the grave. From the Book of
Psalms,
chapter thirty-nine, and verse number five: Psalm
39:5 Behold,
thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing
before
thee: verily every man at his best state
is altogether vanity. Selah. But, we also learn from that, that the Lord has
made everything.
So, He makes ways possible. He has made the heavens and the Earth. From
the Book
of Psalms, chapter one twenty-one, and verse number two: Psalm
121:2
My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. So, he learned That his best state is Vanity,
but, getting out of
that, it's the Lord that helps him out of that. But the Lord made the
heavens
and the Earth. We've also learned that when we praise Him, He inhabits
that.
From the Book of Psalms, chapter twenty-two, verse number three: Psalm
22:3 But
thou art holy, O thou that inhabitest the praises of Israel. And, I used to wonder, “Well, that's only for
the Jews. He
inhabits the Praises of the Jews.” But, it didn't say He inhabits the
Praises
of the Jews, it says He inhabits the Praises of Israel.
And, here, I'll put the words out that the angel said, “Come,
and I will show thee the Lord's bride. And, he said, I saw that Holy
City which
is New Jerusalem, New Jerusalem.” (Revelation 21:9-10) And, he looked
in there,
and he saw, who, who, who are all those that are arrayed in white, that
there
is no number? Oh, these are they who have washed their robes and made
them
white in the blood of the Lamb. (Revelation 7:13-14) He inhabits
the praises
of His people. We've also learned that if we make our bed in Hell, He
is there.
And, He will never leave us nor forsake us (Hebrews 13:5). There's no
place we
can go to get away from Him. From the Book of Psalms, chapter one
thirty-nine,
verse eight: Psalm
139:8
If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell,
behold,
thou art there. He's everywhere! And, yet, that's not something
that supposed to
be negative, or a fearful thing. Because, it goes on to say in Hebrews,
chapter
thirteen, verse number five: Hebrews
13:5 Let your
conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things
as ye
have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. And, we see that the Lord has ever more things
for us, but it
doesn't just stop there. Yes, we learned that He wants us to be closer
to Him.
But some of us have learned, even on a very personal level, that He's
better
than a doctor in the hospital. Some of us have learned, the Lord is
better than
a lawyer in the courtroom. Some of us have learned He's better than a
teacher
in the classroom. Some of us have learned, I could go to a counselor
and pay
some money, but He's a better counselor in my family, and with my
friends, and on
my job than anybody I could pay. Some of us have learned that He is the
help
that will come along when nothing else can reach me. Some of us have
learned
that when everything else closes up on me, turns it back and walks
away, that
the Lord is my helper. He will never leave me nor forsake me. We've
learned
that we can come back to Him after any mistake. And, as great as He is,
He
still comes, and puts His arms around us, and calls us, “My child, My
son, My daughter.
I've just been waiting to shower my blessings on you. I've been waiting
to
bless you, all you had to do was open the door for Me, just open the
door for Me.”
We have learned, we have learned, we have learned. And, another thing,
we have
learned, some of us have found that He is that peace that the world
can't give
and that joy, that's unspeakable, that will bless our hearts and our
lives just
when we have that audience with Almighty God. And, I’ve got to say
this,
there's another thing we need to address: and that's people who, people
who
have allowed the lie of the devil to come along and, and, and deceive
them into
somehow thinking that they are afraid to receive those things from God,
afraid
to be healed of God, afraid to be blessed by God, afraid that He will
come and
give them some sort of Glory, and things will change. They are no
longer afraid
to come to the Lord because they no longer will be chained to the
things the
day are chained to. Years ago, I saw this, I saw this, this, this,
this thing, and the
people were wondering because there was a full-grown lion that was a
pet, it
was not in a zoo, but like those performance shows, and they had a lion
on a
chain, as though they could contain a lion on a chain. Out of the cage,
free among
everybody. A lion! Full grown, as big as the people were. And, they
showed—it
was on film—they showed that this lion, this massive amount of power,
got
startled by something he hadn't seen before whether it was an
automobile, or
some sort of noise, but he got startled, and the lion took off, and
started
running. A lion running in the streets. You know where he was running
to? His
cage. He was running back to his cage. Ignorant, unobservant to the
power that
he had, within himself. Looking to run back to be chained, and caged
up,
because he had grown accustomed to being chained, accustomed to being
shackled,
by whatever it is. I saw that, and I thought, “You mean to tell me,
that a lion
could get to the place—king of the jungle—can get to the place where
he'd
rather be caged, rather than to be what he was right to born to be.”
Yeah, and
that's the same way it happens: the devil lies and makes it that way
with
people, not just Christians, and non-christians. He makes it that we'd
rather
have some sort of malady, some sort of sickness, I'd rather have
something to
complain about then my Deliverance! I'd rather have some sort of
addiction,
then freedom! I'd rather have something that plagues me, rather than
just turn
to the joy of the Lord! It's got to be addressed! It's got to be
addressed!
Because the Lord said, “I come to give you peace that passes all
understanding.
I come to be wonderful to you, that you could be free from shackles,
that you
could be free from addiction, and the sicknesses, and maladies, and
thinking
that there's no answer. I come to free you from all of that. If you're
heavy
laden, I the Lord to deliver you. All I'm asking you to do is come and
learn of
Me. Come and learn of Me. This is what I've got to go to you.” So, it's almost like, it's almost like being
asleep, you know, but
the Bible says, it's high time to wake out of sleep (Romans 13:11). You
ever
have a good nap? I mean, one where you kind of get in the zone? I was—I
mean,
you have some good sleep where your lips kind of pucker up, you know,
and you
could feel things coming out of you, and you don't even know. You ever
wake up,
and you don't even know where you are, none of the conditions that are
around?
You have gotten so detached, in such a deep sleep, that everything left
you. You
don't even know where you work, you don't even know what room is this,
what
house is this? What is my state? How old am I? You've gotten to that
level. You
ever get anything like that? Well, then, it makes sense. Because the
Bible says
it, it is high time to wake out of sleep. No, not regular sleep, even
though,
if you're going to be a sleepy head and be slothful, it's time to get
up out of
that, too, but it's time to wake up out of spiritual sleep. It's time
to wake
up out of it, and, not be a sluggard anymore. It's time to turn around,
and,
instead of letting the devil lie to you, and say, “Oh, I would stop,
and I
would get out of that, but if I did, this happens, and that happens,”
and,
then, instead, turn around, and say, “Devil, you can't have me no more.
Devil,
today, you are on notice! I'm coming out! I'm free! I am accepting my
Deliverance! Today is the day.” Yes, “Come and learn of me, because I
am the
Lord. Yes. I'm Wonderful. Yes, I'm your Counselor. Yes, I'm the Mighty
God.
Yes, I'm also your Deliverer. Yes, I'm also your Savior. Yeah, I'm a
lover to
you too. And, yes, I'll give you all the answers that you need—not all
the
answers that you want—but all the answers that you need. Just come, and
learn
of me.” Part
3 So, we talked about the theme for 2017. We
talked about this
evening for January of 2018. I called up Andy, I think it was two days
ago, to
let him know that something that God had laid on my heart, and, when I
was in
visiting family, I had a wonderful opportunity, to get away and have
some of
that private personal alone time. It was precious, it was some precious
time.
Just being able to seclude away for a while, and just get me and God,
and not
have to worry about the clock, not have to worry about the alarm, not
have to
worry about any kind of interference at all, and it was just me and God
for a
while, and it was great, it was great. And, God had actually laid
something on
my heart during the time of refreshing and praying and worshipping and
listening to some music. God actually laid something on my heart, I've
actually
heard this song about the light of the world, from The Book of Matthew,
chapter
five, fourteen, fifteen, and sixteen. The Bible says: Matthew
5:14-16
Ye
are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be
hid.
Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a
candlestick;
and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so
shine
before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father
which is
in heaven. So, if the Bible says, you are the light of the
world, and the
Lord says, to let your light so shine, as all that was going on, God
just told
me a few simple words, just laid it on my heart, a few simple words,
and that
has become one of my themes, one of my personal themes for the
beginning of
2018. If we are supposed to be the light of the world, and the Lord
said to let
your light so shine, He said, “Light it up. Light it up. Take that
light in
your life, and light up the world.” When I was back visiting family, I
have a
little cousin, and I was over at my aunt's house, she was over at my
aunt's
house, I had given her a Bible last year. Yeah, she's seven years old.
Yeah,
she's seven years old, and I gave her a Bible when she was six, a
Bible, yeah.
She's pretty smart, and she reads a little bit, and, of course, I gave
her a
children's Bible, but it's based on the King James version, so I knew
it was
going to be a challenge for her. So, this time when I visited, I said,
“Hey,
did you get a chance to look at your Bible?” She said, “No, I haven't
really
looked at it yet.” And, I said, “Oh, well, do you go to church?” And,
she said,
“No, you know, I kind of want to, but I can't really get anybody to
take me.” “Oh,
well, I'll tell you what. Go get your Bible.” And, so, she went to go
get her
Bible, and as she went to go get it, I thought, “What in the world am I
going
to share with a little seven year old girl, out of the Bible, that's
going to
keep her interest, and not make her”—you know that attention span
thing?—“just
vaporize?” And, so, fortunately, for Brother Andy and myself, Arman
does
something, he sends us the children's church lessons. Yes, he does.
Yes, he
does. He sends us the children's church lessons, and some time ago, he
had sent
us one with Zacchaeus, sent us that, and that was the lesson. And, the
children's church teachers, y'all went way more in depth then I did.
But, it's
only a few verses, and I thought, “Hey, that'd be great. Let's go over
that,
and let's see what the Lord might have for my little cousin.” And, so,
we turn
to the story, and I said, “Go ahead and read it out loud,” and she
said, “No, I
don't like reading out loud.” So, she read it and she was ready to
close it up,
and I said, “Well, what is it about?” And, she said, “I don't know.”
“Well,
let's read it again. This time, we'll go, and we'll talk about each
verse.” And,
so, we read the first verse, and I did some explaining, and a little
bit of
embellishment, and, then, we read the
second verse, and I wish you could have seen how her eyes just lit up,
and all
of the sudden, it had meaning. And, she looked back down, and she said,
“Now, shut
up, shut up, I want to read this.” And, she went back down and she read
the
third verse, the third verse of what we were reading, and then she
looked up,
and she started asking questions. She started having an interest, and
we talked
a little bit, and I said, “Maybe, this might be the case, or that might
be the
case, but remember it was like this, so this man wanted to see the
Lord, and he
couldn't, because he was too short. He was not as tall as me, maybe a
little
bit taller than you, so he had to climb this tree, because the
important thing
was him getting to see Jesus. So, what happens?” And, she eagerly went
down,
and she started reading it, and found out that he was going over, even
though
he was a cheater and everything, and she said, “Yeah, he does sin,
doesn’t he?”
And, I said, “Yeah, but what happens? The Lord was looking for him. So,
even
though the Lord knows everything we do, He's still looking for us.”
And, you
could see her go into her contemplative mode, and she closed her
Bible—left her
finger in it—closed it and started asking questions about the Lord's
forgiveness. Seven years old. Seven years old. And, it was a great time
to have
a little Sunday School, not necessarily on Sunday, a little Sunday
School,
because the Lord said, “Light It Up.” Take your light everywhere. Take it to the
young, take it to the
old, take it to your friends, take it to your enemies. I also had a
chance to
visit—I try to visit, I make the rounds, I try to visit everybody I
can, I've
got a big family—long story—but, the other thing that happened is,
whenever I
visit any of my family, any of my relatives before I leave, I like to
speak a
blessing over them. God has really convicted me about being there, and
letting
your light so shine, and so, sometime ago I started having a prayer
with them
before I leave. And, I ask them, do y'all mind if I speak a blessing
over the
family? And, at first I was real nervous about it. Real nervous. What
if they
say no? Well that's about the worst they can do, is say no. That's
about the
worst they can do. What if they say yes? And, this is what the Lord
did, this
is what God did: in starting to visit different parts of my family,
and, I
don't have a lot of money to give them, I can't buy them a new house, I
can't
give them a new car, I don't have that kind of thing. But, what I do
have, as Apostle
Peter and John said, such as we have, we give (Acts 3:6). And, so, I
would just
have a prayer. It's gotten to the place now, that if they find out
that's the
day I'm going to be leaving, and not returning, some of that part of
the
family, will rearrange their schedule to be there, because they want to
be
there when a blessing is spoken over them. They look forward to it.
And, many
of them aren't even related. If it's a cousin, or even some of my
brothers,
their wives will get other people involved, and say, “Come on, he's
going to
speak a blessing, you want to be here for this.” Because, we have to
light it
up! We have to light the world up! If they're little, if they're big,
we have
to light it up; that is our charge, to light up the world. And, it's
gotten to
the place now, I thank my brother, Phil, and brother Alex, who are
faithful and
taking evangelism—not just working the base, I'm not talking about
that—evangelism,
because every time I see that example, it does something to me. Every
time I
see godliness going on, doesn't it kind of stir it up in you? Saying,
“I need
to do something for myself about that.” So, now, we have to light up,
yes, we
need to light up the Navy base. And, we need to light up our jobs. We
need to
light up our houses. Take that light in there and make it so wonderful.
We need
to light up our cars. And, you know, we need to light up the dog-gone
television set. We need to light it up. “You know, I'm not letting
anything in
here that's not like God. I'm lighting this thing up. I'm taking a
light to the
world. I'm taking the light—if I'm in the presence of people, and if
I'm not.”
Light up the world. God said, “I will do a new thing in the Earth.”
(Isaiah
43:19) And, when He says that, He also says He has a work to work, but
who will
let it? (Isaiah 43:13) Who will let the Lord work His work? He says, “I
have a
work to work in you.” In our bodies, yes, in our minds, in our hearts.
Yes,
yes. We're not going to walk, and come into the presence of God, and
leave the
same way we came. No. We're going to have more of Him, and less of us.
We will
decrease, and He will increase. So, we want His work of strength to
work in our
life. We want His work of anointing to work in our life. We want His
work of
discerning to work in our life. We want His work of Truth to work in
our life.
We want His work of peace to work in our life. We want His work of love
to work
in our lives. Every place we go, we want the work of God to work. And,
our last
Scripture: from the Book of Psalms, chapter one thirty-nine, and verse
fourteen: Psalm
139:14 I
will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous
are thy
works; and that my soul knoweth right well. We are living, breathing works of God. We are
fearfully and
wonderfully made. We are that thing that God holds precious. He even
calls us
the apple of His eye. And, we have to tell everybody. We have to tell
even
creation itself. Everything we have, we have to tell, “I am fearfully
and
wonderfully made.” This is a marvelous thing that's going on here. God
has set
me up to sit in Heavenly places. He wants to bless me, use me. I'm not
going to
be afraid of His blessing. I'm not going to be afraid of His anointing.
I'm not
going to be afraid of His power and His strength. I'm not going to be
afraid of
a battle I have to go through, because I know He's going to be with me
every
step of the way as long as I come and learn of Him. So, sometimes, we
just have
to turn and tell everything: “Battle, you trying to get me discouraged?
Trying
to get me to do some crazy stuff? Trying to get some bad words to come
out of
my mouth? Trying to get bad thoughts in my mind? Trying to put bad
feelings in
my heart? No. No, I don't receive you, I rebuke you in the name of
Jesus, because
I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Don't you know that? Don't you
know that
God made me wonderful? No, no, no, no, you can't have me. No, you can't
have
me. No, Hell you can't have me. Discouragement? No, you can't have me.
No, lack
of strength? Weakness? You can't have me. You might come to me, but you
can't
have me. Tempting me with lust? Pride? You can't have me. You might
cause me to
stumble, but I don't belong to you. I am fearfully and wonderfully
made. I
belong to the Lord. I am a child of His. He is my Everlasting—thank
you, Andy—Father.
That’s how this rolls. So, we just need to take a step, and look back
over 2017, and we
need to be able to say, “Lord, You did it again. Lord, You did it
again. My Counselor,
my Father, my God, my Wonder. Amen.” Could
we give the Lord a praise? |
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