A Time To Remember

Jesus’ Entry into Jerusalem

Good morning. It is a great day. I wonder if we can welcome God again in a big way, right here, right now to his house. I’m so glad. I was thinking while Cindy was teaching half my message. That I only have a half to go. I was really thinking, though, you know, in my mind is this picture that Jesus is coming into Jerusalem this day. And there’s so much that’s going on, so much that’s happening, so much that will unfold in the week before him. We’ll talk a little bit more about that. But Cindy really did talk from my notes, which is not fair. It’s just not right. But he had us in his heart.

I think that’s the hard transition for most of us who are living 2,000 years after these beautiful redemptive and still historic facts. Is how’s a walk? I mean, it’s great. We applaud it, but is it relevant at all to how we live our lives today? And the answer is yes. It’s a great big yes. And just knowing that when Jesus did all that he did, not just when he hung on the cross, and he bled out as a young 30-something-year old man for all mankind. But he was, we were in his heart when he was doing these things, being obedient to the Father. Every day of his life.

Jesus’ Mission and Our Lives

Jesus lived unselfishly. He lived generously. He wanted to please the Father. He wanted to fulfill what he was, his mission when he came to earth. But he wasn’t doing it for himself. He was doing it for all of mankind, not just for the Jews. He came, he said himself to the Jews first, and then to everybody else. And the everybody else included us, right? So think about that as we study, as we dig in a little bit today, and as we continue in service today, that God really did have you in his heart. He was thinking about you.

And as big as it may, you know, so much is so big about God. You might be wearing the small shirt of redemption, but God has provided for you an extra, extra, extra large for all he’s done and provided for you, right? But just know that he’s thinking he was thinking of you then, and he’s thinking of you right now. Is he, Pastor? Yeah. He knows you’re at 320 waterfall drive right now at 1037 on this palm Sunday morning. And he’s here to meet you and to meet with you.

The Abundant Life

The word that we prepared for you, we believe the Spirit of God gave it to us. It’ll serve a different purpose in everyone’s life and just a little bit different sort of way. The same word. And it will be received a certain way by some and different in a different way by others. But just know God has you in his heart still. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father, the Bible teaches us. He’s been exalted. Death couldn’t hold him. Death couldn’t. The sting wasn’t great enough. The hold wasn’t great enough. Jesus was raised.

But he’s right there right now. Did you know he’s still got you in his heart? He’s interceding for you. The Bible says to be saved to the uttermost. What does that mean? I thought I was saved. It means for you to experience more and more and more and more of what Jesus referred to rightly, appropriately as the abundant life. No better word could have been chosen to describe the life that Jesus came to give us and gift to us. If there was a word, he would have used it. Jesus said, I’ve come that you might have life and you might have it more abundantly. That’s big.

God’s Promises and Prophecies

And it and it’s and Jesus is right now interceding and praying. I think he knows how to pray. And he’s interceding praying for each and every one of you by name before the Father God. For you to realize and experience more and more of it. Just start today. Start where you are. Open your heart wide to what Jesus is already speaking into your life. Leave today blessed. And leave today transformed. Even if it’s just a little bit. That’s how we grow by process, one degree to the next degree as we behold Him. Amen.

Before we sit down and get into the Word for a little bit this morning, let’s go ahead and declare our creed together while we’re on our feet. For those of you who are new to service this morning, again, welcome. Glad that you’re here. Hope you’ll come back and see what God is doing at Believer’s Center. Maybe be a part of it. But this is our creed. We we declare this in faith every Sunday morning that we’re together. And it has to do with our celebration of the grace of God. The only offer that God made to mankind for salvation was grace. It’s the only offer on the table.

The Integrity of God’s Word

It’s not what Jesus did plus what you and I can do. You’ve got to get the math right. It’s not what you do plus what Jesus did. Not what Jesus did plus what you can do. What Jesus did was perfectly perfect. Completely complete. And so we celebrate that. And this is just another way that we do that. Would you say it out loud with me in faith? Say it. I am deeply loved and graced by God. His life is a gift to me. My life well lived is my gift to him. I am determined to live the life I could never deserve from the place of his grace.

My faith is audacious, my spirit relentless. I will not be deterred. I will not quit until Jesus is fully honored and a hurting world has heard the good news. If not me, then who? If not here, then where? If not now, then when. I am deeply loved and graced by God. Come on, everybody. Let’s give him one more great big. Welcome. Awesome praise. Awesome praise. Amen. Say a quick hello to somebody. You can be seated.

God’s Faithfulness in Fulfillment

Good morning. Father, again, we thank you for the revelation of your word, Holy Spirit. We thank you for speaking in our lives, making our hearts pliable, speaking in a way that we can all understand. We’re ready to receive the good seed, the life giving seed of the word of God in Jesus’ name. Amen. So again, Jesus is riding all those years ago now. He he’s riding into uh Jerusalem on the back of a young uh donkey or colt. The crowds following him are from uh for the large part, they’re from Bethany. You know what happened in Bethany? Lazarus was raised from the dead.

Interesting that this journey into Jerusalem that would again make up what we call holy week or the Passion Week would actually begin with someone being raised from the dead in the person of Lazarus. Uh, in addition to those following him from Bethany, others began to gather that had heard that he had raised the dead, who had heard that this Jesus was coming into their city, and uh the majority of them were welcoming him as Messiah and as king. Cindy mentioned the the palm branches. They were uh historically just a symbol of victory. They were used to celebrate military wins and national deliverance and triumphant leaders.

So when they gathered, they waved their palms, they they were essentially declaring, Here comes the victorious king. It’s why they shouted, Hosanna, which means Lord save us now. The clothing they laid before him was an ancient way of honoring a king. Second Kings chapter 2 and verse 19 mentions Jehu, the king, uh being welcomed in a similar way. Also, you remember when David made covenant with Jonathan. One of the things they did, uh, in addition to exchanging their weapons with each other, they exchanged pieces of their clothing, one with another, one with another, because clothing represented who they were.

The clothing represented their identity. Their clothing cost them something. It was something of great value to them. And so again, they were symbolically saying to Jesus, We submit our lives to you. You have rightful rule over us. The shouts that began to come from the crowds, blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord, was honestly reserved for Messiah. It comes from Psalm 118 in verse 26, verses 25 and 26. Let me read those to you. Save now, I beseech thee, O Lord. O Lord, I beseech thee, send now prosperity. Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord. We have blessed you out of the house of the Lord.

You know what they didn’t say was verse 27, which says this bring the sacrifice or bind the sacrifice with the cords, even unto the horn of the altar. And that’s a big clue for us because, as we’ll see here, they missed their time of visitation. Even their religious leaders misapplied many of the verses in the scripture that were meant to be applied to the second coming of Christ, to the first coming of Christ. So they were confused in what they were singing. In fact, some of the religious religious elite began to rebuke Jesus’ disciples when they began to quote from Psalm 118.

Again, Psalm 118, verse 26 says, Blessed is he that comes in the name of the Lord, referring to Messiah. But the people were saying, Blessed is the king. Luke chapter 14, verse 38. Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord. So they rebuked Jesus and rebuked his disciples and said, tell them to shut up. And Jesus said, if I silence them, the very stones will cry out. I don’t know about you, but I’d like to be a little smarter than creation. I don’t want a stone taking my place. Come on, somebody, when it comes to praising God or declaring to the world who he is.

I don’t want a dead rock or a dumb rock to be saying more than I have to say. Amen. But the weak would be filled, not simply with symbolism. The week would be filled. And again, most of us here know this, I think. Good to be reminded of it. Just the cascading fulfillment of prophecies and promises concerning redemption. Even the exact timing of Messiah’s arrival into the city of Jerusalem and the means of arrival were predicted. Just mark these down. Daniel 923, Nehemiah 2.1 through 9, Zechariah chapter 9 and verse 9.

Those verses teach us that Daniel the prophet predicted by God’s Spirit that from the time Jerusalem was rebuilt after its destruction by the Babylonans, that it would be exactly 483 years or 69 periods of seven years. Those of you who love the study of the end times know about Daniel’s week. And you know about this prophecy prophecy. 69 periods of seven years, or again 483 years to the coming of Messiah. So after, again, Jerusalem was rebuilt, Nehemiah took care of that after it had been destroyed by the Babylonians, 483 years after that, Messiah would come.

The day, the very day that Jesus wrote into Jerusalem on what we call Palm Sunday, was exactly 483 years. Exactly. And Zechariah, of course, prophesied exactly how Messiah would enter the city. Zechariah 9 9, rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your king is coming to you. Your king is coming to you. He is just and having salvation lowly and riding on a donkey, a colt, the foal of a donkey. Jesus chose a donkey because he was the prince of peace. And kings rode donkeys in times of peace.

It wasn’t just about his humility and all this. Jesus was certainly humble. But he rode in fulfillment of a prophecy that had been spoken about their king, Israel’s king. But he came again in an unexpected way. Pastor David talked about this probably just last week. Some about how they envisioned when Messiah would come, a mighty warrior on a steed, he would come a certain way. They were thinking in their minds, political victory over Rome. And again, they had these things in their heart. Great lesson here. Listen, talk about something relevant. You and I need to get our anticipation aligned with what God has actually promised and predicted.

We’re all going to be disappointed if we’re anticipating something God never promised. You can’t, you shouldn’t try to put words in God’s mouth. And just because you or I or anybody else’s God said it doesn’t make it so. It’s got to be in his in the word. It’s got to be written. It’s got to be spoken by him, by his spirit. Otherwise, we’re in the same place. They were anticipating Jesus to look one way and to do a certain thing when he came. Many of those things that, as I’ve already said, apply to his second coming.

The Importance of God’s Timing

I hear it all the time. I’ve heard it throughout 40 years of ministry, over 40 years. Christians reading from especially the last part of Matthew’s letter, and they’re trying to apply things that Jesus said to last his second coming to the rapture of the church. And they don’t apply. They just got their understanding is skewed. And we can do the same thing. We can say, God told me this, God told me that, God promised me this, God promised me that. And if he did great, you’ve got something to really anchor to, right? But if he didn’t say it, just you wanting him to say it won’t make it so.

Great lesson there, right? So Jesus enters the city. Again, he’s he’s weeping and he’s crying. Maybe now we have a little more insight into that because already hundreds of prophecies have been fulfilled about his first coming. If anyone should have known it, Jerusalem should have known it. The people should have known it. The leader should have taught it. So Jesus comes in and he’s weeping. Over 50 prophecies alone will happen this week. About three to five happened on the day, this day, all those years ago. But hundreds of prophecies concerning Jesus’ life on the earth and his first coming were laid out before his coming that first time.

And so Jesus rides up into the city. He begins to weep, he begins to cry over the city. This is what he says, Luke 19, 41 and 42. He says, now as he drew near, he saw the city and he wept over it. Verse 42 saying, if you had known even you, especially in this day, the things that make for your peace, but now they are hidden from your eyes. Another prophecy. They would see with their eyes, but they would not understand what they were seeing. Again, given that already hundreds of additional prophecies of his coming were being fulfilled. You could see his point.

He had every right to weep. And to be, again, he had them in his heart. And they would miss the day of their visitation. Does that apply to us today? Yeah. God’s got a promise that he’s fulfilling for you more than one. And you’re going to have your day. Don’t miss it. Don’t walk past it. Don’t miss it. Because God is keeping another promise to you. Amen. So, you know, every the this day that we celebrate, Palm Sunday, is another great day to remember that all God has ever promised concerning our redemption, he is and will perform until all is taken care of, all is finished, everything.

God’s final sweeping stroke will be the establishing of a new heaven and a new earth. Creation itself will be healed. Romans 8 chapter. Paul writes that creation is groaning to also know its full redemption. Creation will be healed. God’s presence will be fully restored with humanity, and every effect of sin will be undone. All will be as God originally intended for it to be. He has unmatched integrity when it comes to his word. Can I have an amen? God is at work, again, now making good promises and prophetic words that he’s spoken to you.

From the written word to the spoken word, spoken by the Holy Spirit, others moved by him. God intends to fulfill every single one of them. Are you listening to me, church? So I just want to spend the remainder of my time talking to you about how God, how that looks. How that looks. You know, God making a promise. How does he make a promise? What does he do with it? How does he help us with it? Because he wants to, again, anything he’s promised to you, take a minute. Think about something that’s been spoken over you. A word, a prophetic word that you had a witness to, a promise that you’ve read in God’s word concerning your life, your marriage, your family, your children.

Think about some of those things you know that God has spoken to you in the past and yet has not yet come to pass. Don’t give up on it because God is watching over it to perform it. Amen. I just want to I want to lay out just some the way that it looks. God working in our life, just like he worked all those years, he still’s working on our redemption. Again, completing things. But how does that apply to you and I who are walking with him by faith, endeavoring to walk with him by faith every day? I’ve got promises. I know God spoke them over my life, but I haven’t seen them come to pass yet.

Things he showed me over the church hasn’t happened yet. And I have a choice. I can either say, okay, I give up. Or I can I can take a stand with God, with God, amen. Not alone with God and cooperate with His Spirit to see it happen and to see it come to pass. Amen. We had a promise about children, but we weren’t having children. We were working at it, and the work was fine, but we weren’t having children. Just being honest. But we weren’t having the children. We had to pray. We had to press in. God spoke years ago through our pastor, Charles Neiman, over our lives at the time about some of that.

And we embraced it. And Cindy conceived. Not one, but two beautiful daughters. But we had to trust God for that. And we had to fight through some things, including some physical health issues at the very end that threatened Hannah before she was born. But God is so good. He’s just good. And he’s got no one has integrity that begins to match his. Amen. If God spoke it, you can you can just lay down your life. You can rely on him. He’s going to make it happen. You say, well, it hasn’t. I want to talk to you about that.

Cooperating with God’s Spirit

How can you cooperate with the Spirit of God as this process works in you? It’s the same process that worked in Abraham, that worked in Moses, that worked in the prophets, that worked in Jesus Himself as a man. The same Holy Ghost process is available to you and I to cooperate with the Spirit of God and see these things happen. Are you ready? Number one, they won’t take a long time, but I want you to really lean in, please, and hear these things. They’re simple, simple to remember. I’ll have you say them out loud with me. Take them home with you today and find a way to live them in your life. Amen.

Number one, God seeds the promise in us. Said out loud, God seeds the promise in us. Listen to this. God’s promises are like seeds. They are alive the moment he speaks them. The finished form is in the seed already. That’s kind of again, you have to take that by faith when you’re looking at any kind of seed. You know, the plum tree’s in that seed. The orange tree is in that seed. The mustard tree is in that seed that you’re holding in your hand. Doesn’t seem possible. But that’s the way God’s word is. His seed, his word can come seemingly small.

And yet, what God wants to do in your life on a much larger scale is in that seed already alive. The power of fulfillment is already in the seed. Alright? Listen to what you know, Hebrews 4 12 says this about God’s word. Again, a great reminder for the word of God, the word that God speaks is alive. And it’s full of power, making it active, operating, energizing, and effective. Even when Jesus talked, taught the parables of the seed, the sower sowing the seed on different types of soil in the gospels. He likened the seed being sown to God’s word.

Again, the seed is life-bearing, nurtured properly, like any seed. The seed will grow and bring forth the dream that is inside of it. You’ve heard me say this, I’m sure if you’ve been around for any length of time, but before you could dream about your life, before you knew how to dream, God was already dreaming on your behalf. That there’s no evil included in that dream. And he’s done that for you. And he continues to watch over it to perform it. Amen. He said, What if I mess up? We’ll talk about that in a minute.

Number two, God feeds the promise. God seeds the promise and God feeds the promise. Would you say that with me? God feeds the promise. What do I mean by that? I believe this was happening in the life of Jesus as he grew up. You notice Jesus, when he was in the synagogue, he was studying scriptures. Other times he was in just times of prayer with the Holy Spirit. What was happening during those times with God or in the Word or in the Scripture? Same thing that happens for us. There are times where God begins to seed things into our life.

Oh, I’m the Son of God. He saw something in Scripture that the Holy Spirit made real to him about his life. And even as painful as it became. And Jesus in his flesh struggled with those final moments before he would go to the cross. God, if there’s any other way to do this, please show it to me. But not my will be done. Your will be done. Right. So he was crying out for encouragement, crying out for understanding, crying out for more to help him through where he was, to help him complete the path that God had begun on the inside of him by planting one day’s seed in him.

Now he’s working with him to feed that seed, to help him take care of that seed. The same thing with Abraham. You’re going to be the father of many nations. I’m not even a father, period, God. And I’m 75 years old, by the way. And God says, I’m going to make you a blessing to all the nations of the world. And so he would go with that for a while. He would walk with that for a while. God would help him with that for a while, and then he’d get stuck. And so God would take him out, you know, you know, and begin to show him things to encourage him.

One night he took him out under an open sky and he said, See the stars, Abraham. Count them. He’s going, I can’t count. I can’t count stars. He said, look down. What about what about what’s under your feet? The sand. Count the grains of sand under your feet. I can’t do that. And God just looks at him and speaks. He says, So shall your seed be. Speak from God, because now he began to see, even if he didn’t see it fully, that what God intended was to give Abraham a spiritual seed and a natural seed.

And that’s what God’s doing. He’s not going to overwhelm you with everything he’s going to do before the end of the path. But he’s going to give you enough to care for to walk out. Amen. Before he begins to open things up more and more to you. Is it is this encouraging you at all? Listen to this. God doesn’t just declare the promise, he prepares us to receive them. He doesn’t just declare them, he prepares us to receive them. Have you ever received a promise from God or you saw it in Scripture or got someone moved by the Holy Spirit?

This is a great way that God delivers His word to us through people that are receptive to His Spirit. Someone comes up to you and says, I got a little something from God for you, and I just want to speak it to you. You know, and that’s way another way God just keeps preparing you and helps till continue to till the soil or water the seed of the promise on the inside of you. Listen carefully. In 99.9% of the cases, when someone confirms a word from God, that’s what it should be. It shouldn’t be a brand new revelation to you.

The revelation comes by the Holy Spirit. The confirmation normally comes from a human being moved by the Holy Spirit. That’s I’m just saying that for your safety, for your protection, and for your help. Amen. So God declares and he prepares. Look what Philippians 2.13 from the Amplified Bible says. Not in your own strength. For it is God who is all the while effectually at work in you, energizing and creating in you the power and desire both to will and to work for his good pleasure and satisfaction and delight. Amen.

God doesn’t promise you something and then just send you on your way to do it by yourself. He is in this with you from the He wants, He is wanted from the beginning to be your friend. He doesn’t just want to be trusted by you, He wants to be able to trust you. And that’s part of the preparation of the soil that has to take place when God speaks a promise. Amen. Number three, he leads us. He sees the promise, he feeds the promise, and he leads us, illuminating and ordering our steps. His word to us also becomes a faithful guide for us.

Psalm 119 105 says, Truth’s shining light guides me in my choices and decisions. The revelation of your word makes my pathway clear. I remember a lady, she came up to us after we’d moved to Albuquerque. We’ve been teaching at a place called the Bible Teaching Center in the late 70s. And uh toward the end of that three-year period, we were with them. She she came up to us, she says, Pastor, I just want to say this. I humbly say it to you and to your wife. I see you guys pastoring a church. And God had already been working a little bit on the inside of us about that.

And so it was a confirming word to us. And it’s interesting how once you receive a confirming word, you receive God’s word, and then you begin to receive God confirming something to you, how the dam sort of begins to break open. Another person says something. Someone writes a letter. Today they would text you or email you. I was just praying for you, and I felt like God said this to me. Be encouraged. He’s doing this to you. What he said to you is going to fully come to pass. And so you’re that’s confirming words you. Now you start asking, okay, God, how? Right?

How’s this going to happen? Again, it’s incredibly important that you cling to the original seed that God has put into your heart. You say, I don’t hear God say much to me. Well, stay with the last thing he spoke to you. Don’t go making stuff up. Don’t do it. And then say, Well, thus saith the Lord. Don’t deceive yourself. There’s plenty of deception going on all around you. A lot of distractions are going to happen, if you haven’t already noticed, on your path to that promise’s fulfillment. There’s a ton of things that come at you.

Because Satan, the Bible says, even comes immediately to take away the word that’s sown in your heart. He even he, even if we don’t, he recognizes the power of a seed of God’s word. He knows it’s easier to pluck up a seed than push over a fruit tree or a big oak tree. So he makes his move immediately. You shouldn’t be surprised. I don’t predict this. I’m not predicting it for you. But when God is really speaking something into your life and he’s beginning a new transformation in your life, don’t be surprised if hell makes a visit.

No, God’s not allowing it. Satan is the thief. He comes to steal, he comes to kill, he comes to destroy. God is a partner with you in the seed that’s been planted in your life. And when Satan comes, he doesn’t need to be welcomed, he needs to be rebuked and the authority that you carry. Come on, church. You’ve been vested with the power of the Holy Ghost and the name that is above every name. When you’re on this walk of faith, and Satan introduces himself into your project and God’s project, it’s not a time for a nice visit to catch up.

You cast down every thought that would dare exalt itself against the knowledge of God. You bring that alien thought, that strange thought, that thought that distracts you. That thought that unsettles you. You take authority over it. What do I do with it? Put it under your feet. I can’t do that. Well, yeah, you can. Greater is he who is in you than he is in the world. I can do all things through Christ who gives me his strength. Again, just as we read here, God gives his own power, makes his own power available to you to keep the seed in the heart.

When he begins to show you the steps that he’s going to give you, he doesn’t want to just make your path heavier. He’s going to be thoughtful in how he details your next steps. Amen. Listen to this. I put this in my notes. At some point, Jesus refused, he learned to refuse to say or do anything that would disagree with what the Father wanted into his life. He said that. He said, I only speak what I hear the Father speak, I only do what I hear the Father or what the Father gives me to do.

Of course he wanted to please the Father God. Of course he wanted to be obedient. But he learned a lesson we’re trying to communicate again today is that those steps that are ordered by the Lord are important to the fulfillment of the promise that God made you in the first place. We think our obedience makes God love us more. No, our obedience puts us in the right place at the right time. Because there’s some there’s a time to the fulfillment of your promise, the promise God gave you. Everything to everything is a season. Everything has a time. Amen.

And listen, I love this. And I said this for the first time out loud. I think out loud on the PTL network the other day when I was with them, and we were just talking about things, different things, while uh they were taping their television program. I said it out loud. I said, when we miss it, and we do, God gives us mercy and grace to recover. God, God’s plan, listen to this, for you doesn’t change, but the way to get there can. I’ll say it again. God’s plan for you doesn’t change. He has a promise he’s fulfilling. But how God gets you there might change.

See? And God’s smart enough to do that. I’m not smart enough to do all that. But he’s wise enough to do that. That means I it’s that’s much more important that I follow him. I let him be the good shepherd, and I be the good sheep, and I follow after him. Amen. We were coming home wintertime. It was uh winter time in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. We usually go there, but in February, there’d been heavy snows, and we were prepared to get home, and we’d rented a car. This is when we were renting a car, and we we needed to get back into Denver to catch our flight home.

We started out that morning. We slept really well, started up that morning, woke, just turned the news on while we were getting ourselves ready. There had been a rock slide in Glenwood Canyon, blocking the entire road that we were needing to take. But there was a different way to go. It took a little bit longer. We didn’t like that. Did we miss our flight? We missed our flight. But we met we could make another one, right? But we got home. And God’s gonna get you home. You don’t want to be the one creating the problem.

But even if you do, Scripture says you can come boldly into the presence of God. He’s why He’s in this with you. When are you gonna get that? When are we gonna get that? Your success is God’s success. God’s success is your success. So if you’ve fallen, he’s right there with you. He’s not coming at you, he’s coming for you. And if you can walk at all, Scripture says, come into his presence. In your time of need. Not after you’ve tidied everything up and swept the floors and moved things around a little bit.

When you’re a mess. When your hair’s a mess when you haven’t put on any makeup. When you haven’t put on your pants yet. If you’re hurting, God’s hurting. If you’re grieving, God’s grieving. Come as you are to obtain both mercy and grace to help you in the time of your need. Mercy, as we know, creates a new opportunity. See, we missed one. But God’s creating a new one. That’s what mercy does. And grace comes along to help us make the most of the new opportunity. Amen.

And so, you know, uh, God is in, you know, He’s in a He’s He’s put Himself in a position to lead you. When you fall, He gets you back up. Uh again, there are a number of things that need to happen sometimes to get God’s supply to you. He we shouldn’t care for all the details at once, just the ones before us that we should follow in obedience by faith. I’m gonna say it again to you. I ran out of breath saying that one. Details do matter. God’s word is a lamp unto our feet, a light unto our path. Details matter to us.

Who you call next is important. Who you go out on a date with next is important to God. Hear me. Alright. All of that’s important. But you don’t need to know everything. And God’s gonna have you do along the way. Again, we don’t have that pattern in in the old or new testament concerning his followers, men and women of faith, including Jesus. But what is important is what he just said. Are you doing that? Are you walking that out? Because that’s going to get you to the next step, lead you to the next step.

And with each new step, there’s new preparation that happens. So you can handle it. God’s going, again, like we said Tuesday night, many of you weren’t here Tuesday night, but God loves you getting from point A to point B. He’s committed that that act to you, that happens. But he cares more about who you’re becoming along the way. From point A to point B. Again, Psalm 37, verse 23, 24. The steps of a of the God pursuing ones. Follow firmly in the footsteps of the Lord, and God delights in every step they take to follow him.

If they stumble badly, they will still survive. For the Lord lifts them up with his hands. Amen. And then the last thing that I’m done. He succeeds. Say that out loud. He succeeds. He seeds us, he feeds us, he leads us, he succeeds himself in fulfilling what he has spoken over us. And as I just said a few minutes ago, his success, of course, is our success. When God speaks, it comes with his guarantee to fulfill it. I don’t know when this went off in my own Christian walk, but I I remember, I can remember the shift happening.

That God really is a God of His Word. I was reading my Bible like so many Christians, trying to just make sense of it. And then one day it was taught. I listened to somebody teaching, and they said, God has great integrity when it comes to his word. And so I began to see God’s word differently. It really became God speaking to me and knowing that what God spoke to me or about me or over me or prophesied or promised to me that he was going to put his own integrity on the line to make certain that that would happen.

And like it or not, that’s one of the reasons Cindy and I are still around. After 46 years of pastoral ministry, longer than that in Christian ministry, because God spoke something to us. And there have been people who have come and gone. Some of them have loved us, some of them have hated us, some of them have said wonderful things about us, some of them have said some really bad things about us. Did you know what? They didn’t call me, so they can’t finish my race for me. And the same is true about you.

I’m sorry they didn’t like me. I’m a pretty sweet guy. If you get to know me, you have to kind of get to know me. I’m actually a little bit shy, believe it or not. But when I step up here, something shifts. Did you know I could be hurting in my physical body, needing healing for myself. But when I step up into this pulpit and begin to speak, that’s lifted off of me. Now I haven’t figured this out yet, but I can step off the platform and it comes back on me. So what am I supposed to learn from that?

I just need to be preaching all the time. I just can’t let anybody else preach. I just have to preach all the time. If I want to be, if I want to feel good. But your life should be built on the same thing. God spoke something over you. He seated it in you. He loved you to a place you opened up your heart to him. He put his seed of his word, his powerful, life-giving word on the inside of you. And he’s still watching over it to perform it.

Again, let me read to you this from Isaiah chapter 55, verses 10 and 11. I think Dana’s gonna come and we’ll close service. Before I read that to you, here’s another one, Philippians 1 6. And Paul wrote this toward the end of his life. He said, I pray with great faith for you, because I’m fully convinced that the one who began the glorious work in you will faithfully continue the process of maturing you, and will put his finishing touches to it until the unveiling of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The writer of Hebrews also says this that even when it comes to our faith, he is the one who begins it, he authors it, and he also finishes it. And there’s one translation, I think it may be the amplified, that says, He authors our faith, and he’s the fine polisher, the buffer of our faith. He cares about every detail of your life. Isaiah 55, 10 and 11, and we’re done. Says this about God’s word. For as the rain and snow comes down from the heavens and returns not there again, but waters the earth and makes it bring forth and sprout, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

God says, so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It shall not return to me void without producing any effect or useless. But it shall accomplish that which I please and purpose, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I send it. Would you stand your feet, please, with me? Just be assured that if God promised or prophesied again anything by his spirit over you, and it hasn’t come to pass yet. Get this picture in your mind, please. That God is still working, he’s still at work making it happen.

I don’t see it, Pastor. Walk by faith, not by sight. Sometimes you see some signposts along the way that God has put there. You can see it, you can see progress, you can see some success. Don’t stop. Know this that if an obstacle comes up, it seems like oh, it’s not gonna happen. God is still watching over his word to produce it. Amen. Don’t quit, don’t give up. It’s always too soon to quit. Be encouraged instead, take your stand. Let the Holy Spirit strengthen you.

Listen, from the donkey to the empty tomb, this week, every step Jesus took, all those years ago was a step God had already spoken. And if God was that precise about his promise to redeem you, he will be just as faithful with every promise or prophetic word that has been spoken over you. Amen. Can we thank God today for his integrity? His faithfulness. Just as I said that, the reason I paused is I just felt as I said that there are some concerned parents in the room. And they’re concerned over their own children.

And you have this concern that your faith in Christ is going to stop with your children. That it’s not going to be carried forward in your children. And you are pretty anxious about it. You know, when I was sitting on the set with uh Lori and Jim Baker, one of the reasons we had such a good time was is that I believe the Spirit of God, especially the second hour, when we sort of got introductions out of the way the first hour, and began to talk to each other about the book and about other things the Bible teaches. That the Spirit of God really began to minister to them.

And in particular to Lori Baker. And you could just see a wave on her shoulders. She hides it well. But you don’t, we don’t need to be hiding from God anyway, right? But it began to minister to her. And she began to weep just a little bit on set, not a lot. But she began to weep on the set just a little bit. Because she began to hear again how that God just doesn’t ever give up. And whatever he promised to her about her children, he’s still at work in their lives.

And they need your parents right now. I know you need help too, and the Holy Spirit’s there to help you. But you still, as a parent, you have a special God-given place of authority in their lives when you speak and when you pray. So it sure doesn’t look that way. They go storming out of the house or they don’t pay attention to what I’m saying. Again, listen to listen. God is at work in spiritual things. And he’s at work in the natural things. And you’re not going to see everything he does.

But it’s your work not to again know all the detail before you believe it. It’s to take what he’s given you now. And if he’s given you one promise about your children, and he has actually in the scripture, pray that. If need be, go to your grave praying that. Because God can still bring revival in their life, in your lifetime or theirs. Amen. But I just stop real quick. I want to pray for you. If that has something to do with you, is that okay? Let’s pray for concerned parents right now before we are dismissed today.

Father, in the name of Jesus. Just in obedience to your spirit right now. We believe for special mercies and special graces to flow into the lives of moms and dads. Caretakers, foster moms, foster dads. All of them who have care for our child, our children. God, their desire is to see them follow in the footsteps of Jesus. To carry on to their generation the message of the good news, the gospel of Jesus. Then to pass it on to their grandchildren, their children, our grandchildren. As long as it takes till Jesus raptures his church.

God, we pray for them today. We pray they’ll leave this house today, encouraged. Renewing in their own minds the promises you laid out before them. We thank you, God, and agree with them. Their children will come back. The seed is there. They’ll return. And they’ll be stronger than mom and dad were. Stronger than those who raised them in the faith. And God, we thank you for doing that with them. We agree together for it in Jesus’ name. And Father, I just pray today that for any of us who are holding promises, and that would pretty much be all of us.

Promises that were spoken to us. Prophecies spoken over us that really were by the Holy Ghost. Things that you intended to give us hope, to make us dream strong. God, I pray we pray for one another. That God, those things might be revived. Your words would be revived in our thinking, and we would begin to carry them at a more central place in our life, that we would pick up your promises, pick up those prophecies, and we would begin to declare them again by faith. We would go to our notepads and our journals, we would find them, and we would write them to a new page.

We would take that step. God, we pray that a new place, a new page is turning in all of our lives today. Another step, another step in seeing you fulfill another promise. You’re a promise keeper, and you’re not a man that you should lie, neither the Son of Man that you should repent. If you said it, you will do it. Chances are great we have. Please, Lord, we’re sorry. Help us now to recover. I pray that these closing moments today would begin a recovery in the lives of people who feel like they’ve stumbled and that you’ve given up on them.

You haven’t. Thank you for making that clear. Make it clear again and again and again, Holy Ghost. To the place where we just can’t stop. We can’t. Even if every feeling in our heart says, stop. God’s forsaken you. God’s given up on you. God, regardless of how strong, those downward. Sometimes demonic forces are in our heart. We thank you for the power of the Spirit of God, the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. Released now again, fresh and new in our lives. Mercies and graces flowing now into this congregation.

To those who are watching online who needed to hear this today. God, we thank you for a reviving, refreshing flow into the lives of these precious people. In Jesus’ name. Help them again see God. You’re not a God of good intentions. What you say, you back, and you will make it come to pass. We thank you for it in Jesus’ name. And everybody said, Amen and amen. Let’s give him another great offering of praise today. Praise God. God is good.