He Knows Your Name - Nick Serban III

He Knows Your Name __ Nick Serban III

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

prayer, nathaniel, lord, life, jesus, god, pray, moment, people, today, morning, years, movie, ministry, speak, put, called, heavens, heaven, fig tree

There was a, there's a story of a very popular Minister a number of years ago, who was he had been traveling, he came home and his son asked him to go to a movie speaking movies today. And someone asked me to go to a movie. And so he obliged and said, You know, it's we're gonna go to this movie, and I'm not sure they looked, you know, I think there's some apps out there today, you can get like, look at a movie and see what kind of language is in it, what kind of this is in it? What kind of that's in it isn't kind amazing. We're gauging? Well, there's, there's 5% nudity in this movie. So if that's okay, or, you know, the, there's only a profanity, you know, they only see things 100 times as opposed to 2000 times. But anyway, they didn't look at any of that stuff. They went to the movie. And we're in the beginning of it, there were some, there were just some foul things that were taking place on the big screen. And the father looked at the son and son was probably a teenager at the time. And he just kind of leaned over to him not condemning him, not income, you know, like, what were you thinking, bring me to this movie, you know, but he just kind of looked at him and said, you know, Hey, I can't, I can't sit in here and watch this. And I'd rather you not either, but I'm gonna go out in the hall. And next thing, you know, the sun came out to and he wasn't really upset. He's like, what happened? What happened? And, and he said, you know, you didn't, you didn't hear the language that was in there, they were using the Lord's name in vain. Some of the some of the scenes that had just happened in the first few minutes of the movie, were just just very, very deep and very, very harsh, hard. And the boy looked at him at 16 years old and says, I didn't hear any of that stuff. But now that now that is not now that you say it, it kind of dawned on him that oh, yeah, that was there, or that was said, or that was spoken. I share that story. I kind of it's kind of set the playing field this morning, as we enter into the Word of God, is that sometimes in our lives, and this is what I've kind of catapulted off of from at the movies in the last few weeks in ministry at church, is that oftentimes we come to a place of callousness, we come to a place of you know that just the way that it is. And we just come to the place of a certain sound or a certain way, or certain view of how we see things or say things, and we've not refined it back to the Word of God, we've never refined it back to the Spirit of God. We've We've shared a few weeks and, and I tell you what, implement this in your in your prayer life, but pray this prayer, Holy Spirit revealed truth to me, Holy Spirit reveal truth to me. And, again, I hear that illustration, too. I'm not sure how the story ultimately ended. But the idea that oftentimes, maybe in life, we see things and we say, oh, that doesn't bother me. It's not that big of a deal. I don't, I didn't hear them saying that I didn't hear him say it like that, or whatever my prayer is, is that God would have made me so sensitive to His Spirit, that I would not do anything that would grieve His Spirit that lives inside of me, the Holy Spirit resides in me. And what happens is, when we put ourselves in situations, our soul becomes affected, no matter nothing about the spirit, but our soul. And then we've become blinded by certain things, that it's not so big of a deal. I remember I was on a trip to New York City years ago, and there was a there was a pastor son, and we had, like, 50 kids in Manhattan, we were doing street ministry on street corners. boombox is doing video handle tracks. And I tell you what, when the when the train pulls up, I mean, there's 10s of 1000s of people, you're talking about just mass mass ministry, and we were walking, we're walking down this one area, and it was happening. I'm not sure what street it was, whatever street it was, you should not go to the street. And you should not bring a bunch of teenagers on the street. You know, but there was pornography. There's these burlesque type shows and very, very difficult stuff. I mean, it's kind of like you don't want a Junior High boy walking down with you on the street, if you feel me. And so we're walking down the street and this this ministers kid, it was he was probably 1415 years old, he was kind of walking along. And I remember I remember he turned to me and says, I made a comment to him, like, you know, could we have gone a different could we go different way? You know, I? And he's like, Oh, he said this, this stuff doesn't bother me anymore. It doesn't bother me anymore. And I knew what he was saying, you know, it wasn't maybe as a as an effect on him. But far being from the day that we allow filth and things that are not of the Lord. Just to be commonplace in our lives, to be commonplace in our language to be commonplace in our in our motives in our mind, but that we will be in a place truly where we are continually renewing our mind this morning. For the next A few moments do we do we do a slide for today? Oh, there it is. I've tried to think the title of my message I've changed so many times, there's the title of my message this morning. He knows my name, He knows your name. Capture that today. He knows your name today. He knows your every thought today. He knows your name. And I wanted to just kind of focus towards this life of intimacy that God has called us to a life where we are to follow him that we are to serve Him that were to be his hands, his feet, his voice. And while while reading a devotion the other day, this, this thought just captured me and I wanted to share it with you this morning. And instead of the book of John, if you have your Bible, or your reading device, John chapter one. I'm going to be reading in verse 43. John chapter one, verse 43. Kind of a unique story. And I hope to give you some great insight to it. And just some things that will really hope, I hope, I'll tell you what I'm what I'm hoping I believe God's put on my heart. I hope that we will leave here today, when I say we, myself included, with just a greater revelation of how deeply God knows us, that we can't hide from him, that we can't try to put one over on him. And he's not there as a condemning father, you know, with a hammer with a with the instrument that you were punished with a belt or whatever. But he's graciously hoping and cheering and wanting and desiring for us to make it for His Kingdom sake. But John chapter one, verse 43, it says, the next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee, finding Philip, he said to him, Follow me. Philip, like Andrew, and Peter was from the town of Maceda. Philip found Nathaniel, and told him we have found the one Moses wrote about in the law, and about whom the prophets also wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph, Nazareth, verse 46. Can anything good come from there? Nathaniel asked, come and see, said Peter. When Jesus saw Nathaniel approaching, he said to him, here truly is an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit, so does capture Jesus says, you know, maybe kind of buttering up, you know, hey, I never saw somebody look so good today. He says, as he says, Here, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no deceit. How do you know me? Nathaniel asked, and Jesus answered, I saw you while you were still under the fig tree Before Philip called you. Then Nathaniel declared Rabbi, You are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel. Jesus said, You believe, because I told you, I saw you under the fig tree, you will see greater things than that. He then added Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open, and angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man. That's kind of a unique story. And it's kind of a neat, unique moment. And let me give you some background real quick to who Nathaniel was. And Daniel. In some, in some versions in some scriptures, she's actually referred to as Bartholomew. I don't know how you get from Nathaniel to Bartholomew, but uh, they're kind of one of the same, maybe Nathan, Bartholomew. Some of the other gospels, when they approach Jesus Jesus calls out so all of them can hear. And I think Nathaniel made a sound like a sales pitch or made it may sound like just kind of a butter up moment, you know, like, Oh, you look great today. You know, you know how lovely you know, what have you done with your hair? You know, things things, things are wonderful. And maybe he even thought it was an insincere, insincere greeting. Nathan, Nathaniel doesn't say thank you. He doesn't say, please, you know, don't go on. I'm just a fisherman. But he's kind of, you know, kind of wondering, you know, well, how did you? How did you know who I was, and how do you know who I am? And it got me got me to thinking of some ministry moments we've had here at full life, maybe ministry moments that you've had in different different places, but have have a prophetic word, or a word of knowledge that's taking place in a spiritual gift. A number of years ago, I was. I was on a week long getaway, and I was sitting on a dock on a lake, and I was reading a book, and the book I was reading, just talked about this man was describing some spiritual encounters that he had. And they were pretty, pretty awesome spiritual encounters. And it's probably maybe 10 years ago. And I remember reading the book and reading, and he referred to the meetings and the places and the things that he had experienced as a third heaven experiences, like, like he was just kind of caught up in the moments. And he was affected. In his body, he was affected with his voice, he was affected just bodily, you know, almost like a whirlwind entered the room. And God was moving. So I remember reading it, and I was remember thinking, you know, Well, God, I've heard some things about this. I'm not quite sure about some things like this. But I remember closing the book and saying, Lord, if this is you, I want to experience everything you have. And if it's a third hand experience, I can have an experience firsthand experience, whatever experience it is, I want everything that you have for me, have you ever prayed that prayer before anybody, hopefully, hope and good company this morning. So I shut the book. And that night, I happened to go, I drove two hours to a special church meeting. And there happened to be a guest speaker there who I'd never met before, and happened to be a friend of the house here. His name is David Wagner. And so I sat through the service. And at the end of the service, they were very well organized. They had, there were probably 300 People in the service. And it's about the end, he must have done this, before the church had been part of services like this, they actually put tape on the ground, duct tape, masking tape, and they had the lines from this, this end over here, all the way over to that end, and there were probably five lines, and that was the altar area. And so I went up at the end for prayer, I want at the end to just received what the Lord had. And I hadn't really been in a service like this. So I didn't even know really what to expect. So I go up, and I found my place on the line. And very, very, very organized. And, and so I actually thought to myself that and I thought, wow, at least nobody can say that, um, that, you know, that organized, you know, at the church, but here I am, I'm standing there. Next thing, you know, David, had made his way over to me and began to minister to me. And he began to share some things about my life and share some things that I was involved with good things. And he began to share prophetically over my life. And I was just like, blown away of some of the things that he chair that nobody besides my wife and I would have known about. And I almost, it was so overwhelming that I found myself I had just collapsed to the floor and just sat there for the next hour. So we're, we're, we're headed towards midnight at this point. And I'm sitting there and I'm just like, floored, I've never experienced anything quite like this. And but I had this incredible assurance that somehow that he had heard from the Lord, and that the Lord was just confirming in my heart, things were going on. So the next thing I know, he came back up to me on the on the way by knelt down back to me and said there's three last things. And he rattled off, number one, then rattle off number two. And then number three, he rattles off. And he says this, And by the way, God wants to give you that third heaven experience. And I thought to myself, I mean, nobody knew about that. It was just me God and the angels there, you know, maybe a couple fish and some birds that went by. But it was it was, it was a remarkable moment. And I'm not I don't want to put David on a pedestal. God uses him immensely in moments like this. And maybe you you've experienced moments like this. And my whole my whole heart today, as we're in the middle of this summer, I want to remind us, I want to, I want to exhort us, I want to exhort you to know that God knows your name. God knows your thoughts. God knows where you are. And you can't live one way on Sunday and live total opposite way, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and think that everything's going to be okay. God has called us to a life of holiness. God has called us to a life of sacrifice. God has called us to freedom. Aren't you thankful this morning, that you can live in freedom or to think that you can live with the assurance that he knows you that he's preparing a place for you that heaven is on your radar if you're serving Him? And in these moments, and in this time, we realize that here Jesus calls out, Nathaniel, and so he says, I saw you while you were still under the fig tree Before Philip called you. And so, so picturing the fan No, he's probably sitting there and kind of wondering, you know, they weren't they weren't in in sight of one another. They were you know, up and sides of the area. He's wondering who passed me by who went and spoke to him, you know, was the the woman who was carrying the water was or the, you know, the young man who was walking their puppies, you know, they weren't puppies back then to write with Alicia and stuff, you know, who was it that went in ratted me out? Or who was that they went talk to Jesus, I tell them what was going on in my life uniquely, the fig tree is symbolic. And many commentators and scholars have tried to point out that, well, you know, once the first mention of fig trees or fig leaves, in Genesis, right, Adam and Eve. And so there's a there's a reference that some commentators have said, you know, I see your heart, I see who I see who you are, you come out, come out great as an Israelite, and they didn't refer to Israelites back in those times. But he knew that Nathaniel was, in fact, some people say that Nathaniel was from a royal lineage, and that he would have had possibly kingship and queenship in his life and down down through the generations, and who else would have known that, but Jesus himself at that moment, but the fig tree was symbolic, a symbolic connection to the Masonic Messianic era rather than Jesus, the Messiah who was coming. And so there are a lot of pieces around this puzzle. Sometimes we just kind of glance over this passage. But here is Nathaniel, he ultimately goes on to be a follower of the Lord ends up being martyred in India, I believe it was. And yet in his life in this moment, it took a moment where there was exposure, and Jesus Himself spoke to him, quote, read his mail. And there was no turning back in this person's life. The thing is brains working overtime, maybe he's trying to calculate again, you know, who he walked by, and who it was that had spoken about him. But Nathaniel turns and he says, this, he confirms this, and this is something that I want to, I want to assure us and encourage us to, to re up or redo in our lives, he says, Rabbi, You, you are the Son of God. You are the king of Israel. There was doubt in his mind previously. But but then he's he's exposed to, hey, this is what this is what was spoken about in the Old Testament, this is Jesus of Nazareth. Can anything good come from Nazareth? Can anything good come from whatever it'd be like us saying, you know, many of you have said this, you know, Can anything good come from New Jersey? You know, well, here I am now, you know, Can anything good come from Nazareth? Can anything? Can anything happen here? And he turns around, and he has this moment, and, and I, you know, in preparation, his message, I thought to myself, you know, why hope people don't walk away with the thought or the fact that, you know, well, that means that Jesus needs to just show up and show off, you know, read my mail, and next time I turn around, so I can really know, listen, if you've accepted Jesus Christ in your life as your personal Savior, whether you're in the room or watching online, you have you are a walking miracle, you have the ability to walk in freedom, you have the ability to walk, knowing that there's eternal life, you have the ability to cast out devils in Jesus name, you have the ability to be used with him, you every one is called, every one of us is called. And maybe you're called as a school teacher, or you're called as a fireman, maybe you're called to the sound technician, engineer, maybe you're called as a cleaner. Maybe you're called as a landscaper, maybe you're called in media, whatever your call for and all the talking about the stuff here at the church, and believe me, we need you here in the ministry. But when all comes down to every one of us are called, He created us for destiny and purpose. Do you hear me this morning? He's created this for these things. And so we follow them. And we and we and we lean into those things. That Daniel would go on to see more amazing things Jesus would do. But Jesus turns and says his very interesting things. He says this, you're going to see heaven opened. And I want you to get this in your mind. We don't talk. When's the last time you say, you know, I've said to you Hey, man, well, as you go about your work today, I pray that Heaven will open for you. You know, that you have the hand on the zipper of heaven to roll back the heavenly realm, and that the floods of the good thing is from the Lord. We don't really talk about that and we're doing the Does anybody use that new vocabulary? You know, I mean, I use it all the time with Kim Kim, your heavenly, you know, and all. But do we bless I hear that but that's, you know, you're going to see heaven opened, and angels ascending and descending. Oftentimes when angel appeared in the New Testament at that point, it was fear trembling. So now in the family, you're going to see these things, and you're going to see them descending on the Son of Man, Jesus, Himself being there. Here, a true Israelite, in whom there was nothing to hide. The other, the other parallel are things you can you can pull from on the back of the fig leaves. What did Adam and Eve use the fig leaves for? To cover themselves up? Jesus says, Here's a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing to hide. So again, all these different parallels he's things you can you can you can pull from. He never referred to people. The northern tribes have been gone since 721 BC. And now they all lived either Judea, Galilee, Samaria, but not in Israel. So for him to call him an Israelite knowing who he it was more than just hey, I saw you under the tree. It was I know who you are. Paul, he knows who you are, John, he knows who you are Rita, he knows who you are. He sees you. He loves her relationship with you. We know that on the ascending and descending of the angels. There's another picture we know from the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis, where Jacob wrestles with, we've we can actually interpret possibly Jesus at that time, and yet here in this in this moment, a chapter or two before he has a dream lays his head on a rock and he has a dream of angels, descending and ascending, descending and ascending. Genesis 2010, I'm not sure if it's on the screen of says Jacob. When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night, the sun had set taking on one of the stones there, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. He had a dream in which you saw a stairway stair way resting on the Earth, with its top reaching a heaven. And the angels of God were ascending and descending. There Above it stood the Lord. And he said, I am the Lord, the Lord of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. Again, it's not Jacob, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, we don't have him yet. I will give you your descendants and the land in which you are lying, your descendants will be like those dust of the earth and you will spread out to the west and the east, the North and the South, all peoples on the earth we blessed through your off spring. There is something about knowing there's something about being known by him and want to share these three the three takeaways this morning, as we experience the three keys to experience the power and the presence of the Lord. The first is this very simple. We'll hear about it. We often do it. But just a reminder here in our in. I heard somebody referred to Christmas in July. I think hallmark is playing all Christmas movies. For those of you, Chris, thank you. Thanks to you for that confirmation. And I just I watched one the other night. I'll be honest with you, I'm just I did. I did. But uh, here we're here as we're as we're in the middle of July, we're about halfway through the year. The first key is this consistent and persevering prayer, consistent and persevering prayer. And Isaiah 64. This I want to talk about the heavens. Oh, that you would rent the heavens and come down that the mountains would tremble before you as when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes oil, water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you for when you did awesome things that we did not expect you came down in the mountains trembled before you the word render in Scripture means to tear open. Again, it's not necessarily in our in our language and our dialogue. You know, older the Lord would rend the heavens, you know, would tear open the heavens Isaiah is crying out to God, that he would open up the heavens Oh Lord, when the heavens and come down Can you hear the cry of the Prophet? Can you hear in his voice random that I think the word random itself is one of those desperate words in our vocabulary. Would you rend the heavens Would you open up i We need you we're desperate for you. know today that prayer opens the way that prayer opens the heavens, that prayer is heard. It doesn't fall on deaf ears when you pray. And I want to just encourage us today that when we pray and And when we spend some time in prayer, and whether it's a prayer when we're driving along, Jesus helped me right now. Or whether it's the prayer that we've actually knelt down, we get the television shut off or reading, we're praying, know that it doesn't fall on deaf ears. Know that when we're praying, we're in sync with the Lord. In fact, I believe in prayer as a way of aligning ourselves with the Lord, prayers, a way of saying, Lord, you know, here I am. When we're in prayer, when we're in meditation, the Spirit of God speaks to us. And there are areas that we may need to repent of, I don't wanna jump too far ahead here, but by the presence of the Lord. But ultimately, consistent and persevering. Prayer is something that will open up the heavens. It's the key fact I brought this down with me, you can zoom in on that, I'll put it there, zoom in on this key. This key was given to me from a missionary in Guatemala years ago, and I'm not sure what it opens. And it's like a one of those a skull, skeleton keys that kind of opens one thing. But the end of the day is, if I told you and I am telling you guess what, the key to your life, the key to success in your life, the key to the presence, the key to the power, the key to the supernatural, the key to miracles, the key to freedom, the key to deliverance, if I told you that it would start with prayer, I said, here, here it is right here, just take it and use it. Many of us we may we may use it when those New Year's resolutions come around January, February, March, maybe April, about June. But now we're in July. I don't want to present to you again. That prayer changes things. Prayer will change your household. But you know what prayer will do before changes your household, it will change you. And if you will be changed, the household will be changed. Prayer changes work situations. You say, Well, tell me more about that. You know, you're gonna have you're gonna have a difficult boss to work for. You're gonna have difficult renumeration or whatever do you know that I believe that you go before the Lord in prayer, you speak to him that your prayer does not go to deaf ears, that he hears you. And if it's in alignment with his heart, that these things could come about, that things can change. I'm gonna get ahead of myself. But that's, that's point number three this morning about our faith. Where is your faith? Are we willing to pray? And by the way, I wanted to short time out on the job market and on the on our, what do we call it? 393. If for some reason that you've not been a part of it, and you say, Well, you know, you know, I'm on a course you're right, I should raise my hand or not, you know, but when it all comes down to it, start somewhere, just start reading the Lord's Prayer, you know, and show up for those those times we come together, but do something in process, Isaiah 60 410, that thou wood is rend the heavens, that thou wood has come down, that the mountain might quick at thy presence. In 1904, there was a Welsh revival that took place. And there were two people who who are desperate in their hearts at the age of they began, they began to believe, belief waiting for God to do something early in life at about 13 years old of age, but when they turned 26 years old, he taught people to pray these two, these two simple prayers and here were the two simple prayers, Evan Roberts taught this said this. Ready to drill simple. Send the spirit now. And then the other prayer was send the Spirit now. That was the prayer. Father. Do what you would do what you will. And today the cry here in our land, here in our community, here in our church here in this guy's heart here. More Lord. We desire more. Peter solid open heaven. X 10 Nine. About noon the following day, as they were on the roof journey approaching the city Peter went up on the roof to pray he became hungry and wanted something to eat. We've shared shared about this in our X series. He fell into a trance he saw an open Heaven. He saw an open heaven. What was Peter doing in prayer? He was praying. How did he see the goodness of the Lord? How did he see that moment? It was through prayer. It was the key of prayer. He could have been in a really different places but he chose the housetop to pray. Nathaniel, many say that it was praying under that fig tree. He was praying in that moment. And sure enough, and I'm here to tell you today that many of the unique crazy like moments that have taken place in my life has been a direct result of me spending, not just purposeful time, but I'm taking it a step further extra time in prayer. Extra time in surrender extra time, insane. I just avail myself to you try it some time. You know, I tell you what I looked at my I got my, my apple update today about how much I use my screen last week. And I'm down again. Hallelujah. Yeah. And, but I will say how high but I'm down again. And I just thought to myself, this is just a quick in, in my spirit, how much time I've wasted looking at things that really mean nothing. In fact, there's, there's been moments the other day, the other day, can you believe this, I'm just gonna go for it. And I'm going to look at the camera and look, this past week, I actually spent about three hours depressed. After I'd seen something, on some, whether it was Instagram or Facebook, I'm not quite sure everything's kind of intertwined. I'm now a thread user, by the way to forget the Twitter stuff. Alright. Some of you know what I'm talking about some needle. But here, but here I am thinking to myself, think of the I mean, Kim, which Kim would say very loving, to kind of, you know, think of the brain cells that are being killed, you know, by, by by watching this or thinking this or seeing this. And yet, think of the time Don't tell me you don't have time to pray to a god who will open up the heavens. Don't tell me that we don't have the ability to relationally receive and be part of the intimacy of God in our lives. That we receive His power that we walk in and the minion about there's a word for this one, the minion that he's given for us to walk in. Jesus was praying, and Heaven was open to Luke 321. When all the heaven all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And he was praying, heaven was opened. Prayer is like a key to his presence. I'm sure there's the mystery share this five thoughts about giving access to effective prayer in our lives. And the first thought, is this powerlessness? You know, we, it's kind of like we could sit here all day, it's kind of like going to class and just auditing auditing class. I think auditing is great. You know, you don't get credits for it. For those of you if you went to college, you'd pay for your credits. You go to your class, but there's some people that would rather just audit the class and get no credit for well, why wouldn't we want to get credit? Why wouldn't we want to you know, to give everything we have in prayer, and yet oftentimes powerlessness, powerlessness you desire, but you do not have so you kill you covet, but you cannot get what you want. So you quarrel and if i You do not have because you do not ask if we were to put a barometer here in the room this morning, and once again, I'm not I'm not this is this hypothetical, just kind of throwing it out. What if I were to say that there's only a quarter of the of things that God wants to do taking place, because only a quarter of us are praying, Lord opened up the heavens. And then somehow, we're expecting someone else to pray for us. And I tell you what, number years ago, one of my great aunts just just passed about maybe three weeks ago, and Lorraine and then prior to that my Aunt Ruth had passed to my aunt Frieda, and I tell you what they they would always remind me every time I saw them, that they they would pray for me. They were praying for me. And then just and my mom as well just passed in December. You know, that? She would see me on a Sunday morning, you know, or, or, or during the week saying, Hey, I'm praying for you. And I, I realized that and I feel the prayers of many people, but I tell you what, to know that someone's praying for you, I want you to know that you're pray for, I think I take lists of people who attend this church that that we that's why we tell you as a guest, you know, put your name down and you're not going to get a pizza or cookies unless you want it. But when it comes down to it will pray for you. I mean, Sign me up. I donated it to a ministry last last year during my sabbatical. I was watching them online. I did help plant a church but at the same time, I was also put on Their prayer list and I'm like, hallelujah, you know, I gotta pay for pay to pray. I'll take it anyway I can, but prayer changes thing and be with you this morning. Prayer. lessness is something though that often brings non effectiveness in our life. Number two, we can say after Amen hear unconfessed sin but your wrongdoings that kept you away from your God, your sins, I've hidden His face from you so that he does not hear. I mean, try to combat that. Don't try to live with sin and try to have your prayers, the heaven rent open. Always ever got a mercy and grace Yes, but he wants us to deal with things that are pleasing to Him. This is not a legalistic churches is a Christian churches, the Jesus believing spirit filled church here this morning. And yet oftentimes, when we do not confess our sins before the Lord, and it's simple, but I think pride sometimes holds us back. I tell you what, try it, you'll like it. Your sins have hidden His face from you so that he does not hear. I'll give you a quick little sidenote. Anybody want to be challenged or encouraged or, again, not not throwing the baby out with the bathwater. I watched the movie this past week, have a incredible, unique ministry and deliverance ministry we had we had some people in our church here years ago, very involved with deliverance ministry sent a lot of people to him actually went to him personally. And there's a movie out it's on Amazon Prime, you can rent it for a few dollars. It's called come out in Jesus name. And they deal with a lot of this unconfessed sin. They number number three, they deal with a lot of people who have unresolved conflict in their life. Matthew 523 This is how I want you to conduct yourself in these matters. If you enter a place of worship, about to make an offering you suddenly remember a grudge a friend has against you, you think about this. So it's not a grudge you have towards someone. And by the way, this scripture was in context to going going to the altar, traveling on a road going 100 miles. And if you get there, here's what Jesus saying. If you get there and you know that back in your hometown 100 miles away, someone's got issue with you. Leave your gift at the altar. Go back and try to mend it. Go back and try to fix it. Abandon your offering Leave immediately go to this friend and make things right and then only then come back and work things out with God. unresolved conflict oftentimes in with deliverance ministry and freedom ministry I think I like the word freedom ministry better but when it comes down to it there is major deliverance a major freedom for people who have been bitter for years against somebody they want bitterness will make you bitter in lots of different areas, and I tell you what you want the blessing and the goodness of God in life. They what? unresolved conflicts unconfessed sin number four selfishness James for free when you ask you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives you use that you may spend what you get on your pleasures number five uncaring attitude. Proverbs 2113 Whoever shuts their ears to the cry of the poor will also cry out and not be answered I tell you what do some missions trips, go to the national rescue mission. Do something I know some of our some of our team has been handing out doughnuts to our establishments here in the area. Just do something. I say What do something you think God has called you to be an undercover Christian, I want you to tell you that's the furthest thing Well, this is from his mind. All right, God has called us to be the light. God has called us to be reflection of him. Number six is this James one five theory. If you lack wisdom, you should ask God for who gives generously to all without finding fault and if will be given to you but when you ask you must believe and have no doubt because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double minded and unstable. In all they do humbly go before the Lord. There was a manifest ation of the presence of God and everyone who was empowered in Acts chapter two, when they came before him. It's about prayer. It's about persevering prayer. Number two, commit to diligent obedience. Commit to diligent obedience. Deuteronomy 21 through 14. If you feel that you obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today. The Lord I could probably put this could be a mess. decision itself, this this, this passage, the Lord your God, somebody needs to get this this morning, I'm gonna start it again. If you fully obey the Lord your God, and carefully follow all those commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all nations on earth, all these blessings will come down upon you. And accompany another word could be overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God. Anybody want to contend for that scripture right there. If you obey the Lord your God. Your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth, all these blessings will come down upon you and accompany overtake you, if you obey the Lord. Once again, we see the Lord strongly emphasizing the importance obeying his commands. We'll jump into it on our last point here. But as small as it is, and believe me, I speak enough about it. Believe me, the last thing I want to get anybody offended about, but I'm just going to speak truth. This is where, why when I talk every Sunday morning about giving about the time that that even the least we can do. It's part of the multiplication in our lives, that were saying, You know what, this is not ours. And I looked at what Scriptures God said Malika, that I should test him. He chastised the people because what he says, Why do you rob me of this? And yet somehow, some way in just simple obedience, that we embrace what he has, because we want him to know our name. Come on, we establish that right? We want him to know our name, and He knows our name. He knows where we're, he knows every thought. He knows what we're struggling with. He knows he knows the moments that we need to capture thoughts. He's there with us. The Lord will open the heavens, Deuteronomy 2012, the storehouse of His Bounty, to send rain on your land and seasons, and to bless all the work of your hands. A friend the other day, gave me a haircut. And something I was, while I was getting my hair cut. I was like, I need to pray for him when he leaves and I grabbed his hands. And I said, Lord, these hands that have just blessed me, in my head, in my hair, I pray God, that your favor blesses His hands, that as he walks at his steps will be firm, that you will be for him and that favor and the heavens would open. I don't know if I use the heavens or not, but I'll use an hour the heavens would that would be ranch and open and the flood of floods would come in. Second Timothy 114 Guard the good deposit that he's entrusted you guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in you. Consistent, persevering prayer, commit the diligent obedience. Again, this is this is kind of this is this is mid July refresher, okay. We know that we know that you stopped going to the gym, we know that the Catholic caloric intake is double at this point. Alright. Consistent persevering prayer. Number two, commit to diligent obedience and number three, sacrificial giving I can contain this but I'll give you the Scripture reference and, and summarize Acts chapter 10. Cornelius, you heard about Cornelius Cinterion. Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before the Lord. God sees our sacrificial giving. Cornelius his prayers that come his memorial offering became a memorandum became a reminder of a record memorial of generosity to the poor. And the end his prayers and generosity to the poor, ready for this brought salvation for his household. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. We read it earlier. God wants to pour out of the lose. guy wants to pour it out in abundance, Scotland's a point out, pour out a downpour a blessing upon us if the blessings of God are in the heavenly realms, how do we bring them down? Through prayer supplication through worship if I can just a moment we're gonna sing. We're gonna sing In one of the songs we sang, inclusion of worship and just as an emergency, I'm not gonna try to give you a worship one on one. Like, I tell you what, when we sing about God up my provider, man, I wanted to, I just wanna encourage you. One of these days, I'm, it might happen sooner than later, but I'm just I just about I mean, there is a shout, God, you have proven yourself over and over again. You are my firm foundation. You've never let me down. You've never let me down. And you know what, even if I felt like he'd let me down, guess what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna declare and let him know, You never let me down. I'm going to sing it in the wrong key. I'm going to try to harmonize and try to sing in this key. I was thinking some I was thinking some wrong keys. I hope I wasn't throwing you off your ears this morning. But I tell you what you want the power and the blessing of God on your life. The relationship works both ways. There he goes right there. Take it and if you want it, come and get it. You want to grow, you want to hear you want to see you want to use it in miracles. Don't think that you know, you know Lourdes is going to take take you know this, I was gonna say something I should don't think he's just going to take you know, his his special supernatural dust and just kind of blow it on you. But that we would consecrate ourselves that we would find ourselves holy before him. And we get me this morning. He knows your name. Hey, Nathaniel, looking sharp today, oh man of Israel, that you've gotten nothing wrong about your life. I can see past the covers of the figs. Adam and Eve couldn't, couldn't hide those things. But I'm looking at your heart and things are right. Oh, you are the rabbi. You are Messiah. You are Jesus, who we've been waiting for. God is concerned with what's in our heart today. God is concerned with our attitudes today. God is concerned with your thoughts today. He's concerned that our hearts are right before him. He's concerned that our attitudes are right before him. And he's concerned that our thoughts are right before him. I reference back to the Old Testament in Genesis, I'll conclude with this. Just follow me, I'm going to try to fool us for these pieces and he knows your name. fig trees, ladders. Jesus, Son of man. And then referred back to the old testament Genesis, where Jacob after the after the the ascending and descending of the angels. He actually wrestles with a man for the rest of the night. In Genesis, I think it's 2028 or 30 to 30. I think it's in Genesis 3032. And he wrestles with this man who ends up being what can be perceived as an angel. But ultimately, he says I wrestled with God. Three possibly, it's very possible it was pre incarnate Jesus. And his name was changed in that moment. We hear God, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But Jacob's name was changed at that moment, and his name was changed to Israel. And so if you go back to the moment with Nathaniel, he calls him an Israelite. There's he's just pulling it all together, letting him letting him know with his mentality with his with his scholarone is what he was looking for what he was waiting for, letting him know that he knew him, letting him know that you weren't gonna get anything by him, letting him know that he loved him. So what does that mean? practicality. We sit here today we stand here today in just a moment. We'll leave here today. We've come here today. Some of you, I know for a fact, have had a very difficult week some of you may leave here and say, You know what? I don't know if I can make it. Now that hasn't been a good day, but it's kind of like you still got that. That pondering? I want maybe it's a relational, maybe it's financial, maybe it's you don't know what the future holds? You know, can I get a deep breath? I just need a deep breath. Maybe you're you're held back by fear. And listen, on Monday, when I had my I was being serious. A little while ago, I had a I had a rough three hours on Monday. Anybody ever it'd be? You remember three minutes or three hours? I was I was I was so discouraged. If I hadn't been that discouraged in weeks, if not months, and I'm like, I'm like, Where's this coming from? I actually, I called Kim in the office, and I'm like, I just gotta tell you. I feel worthless. Right now. A couple things I heard saw, or whatever. And she just smiled at me. said a few things. And when she left, I was reminded I had this I had to say, Where's this coming from? is surely gonna come from the LORD surely isn't. And so I had to identify those things. I had to I had to speak against him. I had to, I had to go into persevering prayer. said Lord, I need your help right now. I need to be I need to overcome right now. I'm, I'm actually like the pastor of this church. And I needed to like lead people through this. So I can't have this right now in my life. I want to assure you, that he knows your name today, Stacy. He knows your name. He knows every thought every one every desire. Every hurt every circumstance. Penny. He knows he knows what's right here. He knows about family. He knows about children. He knows about all those things. He knows your name. Wondering about the big move wonder about you know, where do I fit how to whatever he knows. The enemy is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Fact, I could I could have titled this today. Any enemy proving proving your life. They what? You start contending to here. You start contending to be used. You start contending for open doors. I promise you this. If you pray the prayer before you leave today, Lord, give me an opportunity to share my testimony of the love of Christ to somebody this week, I guarantee you, there will not be there will not not happen in your week. It will not happen. Now, you'll choose whether you whether you do it or not. I tell you what, Bill be an opportunity. That perspective, pull back the veil today. You are Messiah. Rabbi, You are who we've been waiting for. I know your name. I know who you are, every thought every hurt. And so he's here today. Our worship team has made it up here. And we're gonna we're gonna we're gonna close with with it with a song and a prayer. And here's what I challenge you to do. Like, I'm gonna, I'm not going to mandate this. But if you're in leadership, or today, I'm going to I'm going to really kind of ask you to kind of lead in this. I never usually talk like this from the platform, but I'm going to persevering prayer. If you're in leadership here today, or you want to be in leadership today, or if you're even here today. When we begin to sing this song, I want you to come and find a place to stand at this altar. In the stance of persevering prayer, you may not know what you're praying for or what you whatever, you ask the Holy Spirit to reveal that thing to you and he will. But let's leave here abundantly and triumphantly and victorious. Because he is our firm foundation. He's not brought us this far to leave us are in the middle of this of December. Yeah, middle of July. Watching December Hallmark movies. I tell you what, he's here today. He's got you covered. There is no mountain to high. There's no valley to deep. There's no dark, darkness to dark, but he's here and I'm It's today would you stay with me