My message is entitled, Cry Out and Shout.
Why are you so quiet with a title like that? Cry out and shout. Isaiah Chapter 12, if you'll go there with me, Isaiah Chapter 12. If you believe in Jesus, if you believe Jesus is completely for you and that He has won the victory for you on the cross, then out of your heart will flow a river of living water. There will come a time when you can't get enough of God.
You will cry out and shout. Let's join Carter now as he opens today's message in prayer. Father, I just want to thank you, God, for your presence here today. Thank you for the anticipation that you are planting in each one of our hearts about what you are intending to do in this time we now live in and in the short days just ahead of us.
Father, thank you. Lord, you never do something without revealing it to the hearts of your servants. So Lord, would you open our hearts today to be able to receive what you are speaking?
Would you open my mind to be able to share it clearly with everyone who's listening? God, give us the grace that we need to not only receive but to believe your word to each one of us. And God, now we ask, Lord, for the anointing of your Holy Spirit, not just to speak your word but to receive your word. Lord, your desire to work in us is greater than our desire to receive you to do that work. Help us, Lord, to meet you, God. Help us to meet you the way we need to today. And we thank you in Jesus' mighty name.
Amen. Isaiah chapter 12 starts with these words, and in that day you will say. So what is that day? What is the day Isaiah is speaking about? He's actually speaking about a day when God is going to come and he's going to draw his people back to himself again. Now this is a promise specifically designated for the nation of Israel, but it does have an application for us today because it shows us the pattern with which God deals with those that are called his own.
So we're going to look at it in that context. And it is debatable too, of course, because we are grafted in to the promises of God as children of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and our Savior. Now there's a day that he's speaking about when there's going to be a testimony come into the hearts of God's people. And in that day you will say, O Lord, I will praise you. Though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and you comfort me. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid. For Yah, the Lord, is my strength and my song.
He also has become my salvation. Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And in that day you will say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his deeds among the peoples, make mention that his name is exalted. Sing to the Lord, for he's done excellent things.
This is known in all the earth. Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst. In this day, when God's about to do something phenomenal for his people, when he's about to put a new song in people's mouths, he's going to draw people out of where they have been and what they've been embracing and what they've been thinking. And he's going to draw them once again into the wells of salvation, the beauty of what has provided for us on the cross of Jesus Christ. There's going to come a day when we are going to say to others, call out to him as I once did or am doing, and watch what God will do for you because what he's done for me, he'll do for you as well. There's a day when we'll sing about the excellency of God and we will understand that God is making it known as far and wide as people are still able to hear him in this last day that we're now living in.
Then he says, cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, those who belong to God, those whose future is in Christ. It's not a time to be silent. It's not a time to draw back. It's not a time to be filled with sorrow.
It's not a time to give in to questions today, questions that are just lies and will never be anything more than lies. It's time to understand the heart of God and what he longs to do for you and what he longs to do for me and what he intends to do in this generation just prior to his return. Isaiah chapter 12 is preceded by chapter 11. In chapter 11, the prophet Isaiah speaks of the blessing of the coming Messiah. He says, when the Messiah comes, he will help the poor.
In other words, in chapter 11 verse 4 it says, with righteousness he shall judge the poor and decide with equity for the meek of the earth. He will break the power of wickedness when he comes. These things that have been pitted against the people of God. The wickedness that is found at expression through people's lives, through their bodies, through their minds.
The brokenness that is brought into relationships and such like as we heard today. He will break the power of this wickedness when he comes. He will bring his own people into a place of peace and amazing rest. There's illustrations in Isaiah 11 where he says the wolf will dwell with the lamb. The leopard will lie down with the young goat.
The calf and the young lion with the fatling together and a little child shall lead them. He's talking about a peace that passes all understanding. God is able to do that. God can bring peace into your mind today. You don't have to live troubled. You don't have to live thinking about what will I do tomorrow? How will I get through another day? What will I wear?
What will I eat? Where will we live? Jesus Christ himself said, look, consider the birds of the air. God feeds them and you and I are worth more than they are.
Consider the flowers of the field and even Solomon in all of his glory didn't have clothing like this. If God feeds the birds and clothes the grass of the field, how much more will he not provide for you, the people of God, those that he loves, the center of his heart, the apple of his eye, the people that he died on the cross for. A peace and an amazing rest comes to the people of God. He promises that he will break our captivity as he once did when he brought the people of Israel out from 400 years of captivity out of Egypt and into a place of promise. He will break your captivity. Not he might. He's thinking about it. No, he will.
He is determined to break your captivity. He's determined he's going to have a people in the last days that are going to sing praises to him. No matter what's going on in this world, there's going to be a people who praise him. Praise be to God.
There's going to be a people who glorify him. There's going to be a people who say to their neighbors, come and see what the Lord has done and what God's done for me, God can do for you. There will be a testimony of God in the earth in these last days. And probably the most profound of all, he says in verse 16, there will be a highway for the remnant of his people who will be left from Assyria as it was for Israel in the day when they came up out of the land of Egypt. In other words, there will be a clear way, the way into the heart and freedom of God will be made clear. It will not be confusing any longer. There will not be this hodgepodge of religion tied all around people's desires to walk with God and to be free.
Then suddenly, God in his mercy just blows on it and all the dust, all the confusion dissipates and a highway appears. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. In that day, you will say, oh Lord, I will praise you. Though you were angry with me, your anger has turned away and now you comfort me.
God, my behavior, yes, it probably did bring a measure of anger in your heart, the way I have lived, the way I have spoken. But oh God, you've now come to turn away your anger from me and to comfort me and to draw me near and strengthen me and save me. And in verse 3, it says, therefore with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation. You'll give up trying to be strong in your own strength and you will let me, says God, do what I came to do in your life. John chapter 7 and verse 37 and 38, it says, on the last day, the great day of the feast, the last day.
Listen folks, I'm going to say it straight out. I believe we're living in the last days now. I believe we're on the threshold of the return of Jesus Christ. I personally believe one of the great, great happenings to come into this world soon might be the rapture of the church of Jesus Christ. I believe I might be alive to see it, so it's coming soon to tell you right now.
I might be here to see it. That day when the trumpet of the Lord sounds, the dead in Christ rise first, then we who are alive and remain shall be gathered together with them and so shall we ever be with the Lord. That day is coming. As surely as you and I lived, as surely as you and I breathed today, that day is coming.
And the scripture tells us it's coming at a day when many people are not expecting it. We're just going on around about our business and we're maybe ironing a shirt or making a pie or vacuuming in the living room and suddenly poof, we're God. We're standing in the presence of God. Oh, praise God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. In the last day, the great day of the feast, the great day of celebrating the goodness of God, the great day of coming to church one more time Sunday morning. This might be the last time you ever come to church before you stand in the presence of God.
That's a very real possibility. Jesus stood and cried. He didn't say he stood and whispered.
He didn't put a slide up on the screen. He stood and cried because this is a passion in God's heart. Do you understand?
It's not just, oh, well, I guess I'll give these people a break. With all of their religious observances and how far they really, many have come from me, the scripture says, on the last day, Jesus stood and cried and said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water. If you are thirsty, come drink. As the scripture says, if you believe in me, if you believe my heart is for you, if you believe that I won a victory for you on the cross, out of your heart your inner parts will flow this river of living water. Therefore, Isaiah 12, 3, with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation. Hallelujah. There will come a time when you just can't get enough of God. It's not just little bits anymore.
It's not just little pieces, little bites. No, you'll be coming to that well over and over. You'll be dropping your bucket down. You'll be bringing that living water up.
You'll be drinking it. And the scripture says, as you grow in the grace of Christ, you are changed by the Spirit of God from image to image and glory to glory. And what you have becoming now starts coming out of your mouth. Like the young man who just spoke just a little while ago. What a transformation into life.
I heard him sing the other day a song about the lion roaring. And when he opened his mouth to sing it, the presence of God came down in the church. Glory to the name of Jesus. You will draw water from the wells of salvation. And in that day, verse 4, you will say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his deeds among the people. Make mention that his name is exalted.
In that day you'll say, Call out to him, he's faithful. And what he has done for me he will do for you. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. When he went to the cross, he destroyed the power of sin and death and the devil.
He went into the grave and on the third day he was raised from the dead by the power of God as evidence to you and I that if you and I will put our trust in Jesus Christ, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead will quicken our mortal bodies. We will be made alive in Christ. We will become a new creature in Jesus Christ, a new creation. The old things will pass away and behold all things will become new. We'll have a new song, a new mind, a new heart. Hallelujah.
Ask me how I know. Glory to God. If you met the man that I used to be, you'd all run out of the church.
You'd declare that the whole thing is a fraud. But that's not the man I am today. I'm not that man anymore.
That man died and a new man was born in Christ Jesus. Hallelujah. Sing to the Lord, for he has done excellent things and this is known in all the earth. Sing to God. Let your song not be about what you don't have, but let it be about what you do have through Jesus Christ.
Sing a new song. Anybody can sing the blues. It takes a child of God to be able to sing songs of praise. Glory to God. And to sing, I'm not singing about what... Yes, as Paul the Apostle once said, I've not really arrived at the fullness of what God has for my life.
I get that. But I'm on a journey now and I'm leaving behind what needs to be left behind and I'm pressing forward to the mark of the high calling of God in Jesus Christ. That's my song. That God will be faithful to me. God will be faithful to you. God will be faithful to your families. God will keep you. God will strengthen you. God will give you power over your old enemies, your old enemies. God will be God to you. And when you and I get to the throne one day, I'm telling you, if we have such thing as a crown, no wonder we're casted at his feet. It's all Jesus.
It's only ever been Jesus. It's your victory, God, not mine. It's your strength. It's your power. It's your spirit. It's your forgiveness. It's all you, Lord.
It's all you. Cry out and shout, O inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in your midst. These prophetic words speaking of a day when Jesus was going to pass by his people one more time.
And let me tell you something. When he's passing by, it's not time to be quiet. When he's passing by, it's time to cry out and it's time to shout.
Now, there are two different things, cry out and shout. And I want to explain it in closing from Luke chapter 18. I want to show you where this actually was fulfilled. It was spoken by Isaiah, but it was fulfilled through a blind man.
In Luke chapter 18, verse 35, then it happened as he was coming near Jericho, that a certain blind man sat by the road begging. And hearing a multitude passing by, he asked what it meant. There's a moment.
Listen to me, my brother, my sister. There's a moment in your life when he passes by. There's a moment when you feel the nearness of God. You may not even understand what it is. You come to church and you feel something different than you've ever felt before. And you're not quite sure what it is. Let me tell you straight out, it's Jesus Christ. They're not passing you by, but passing by you.
There's a difference. His presence is there. He's wanting to do something. He's wanting to speak something. So they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, and he cried out. Now, he could have cried out a lot of things.
And a lot of people in their hearts do cry out a lot of things. He could have cried out, why did you make me blind if you're God? Where is the hope that you once said should belong to the people of Israel? Why are we occupied by a foreign army right now?
Why are they dictating what we do and can't do and say and can't say? We're supposed to be a people through whom the world is blessed, yet here we are captivated by a foreign army, and here I am sitting by the side of the road blind. There's so many things he could have said. But when he heard that Jesus, the Son of God, as we know him today was passing by, he cried out, Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me.
I don't know about you, but I have cried that many times. I used to jog a lot years ago, and I prayed that prayer all the time. The only prayer I could pray sometimes that was so struggling to get free was Jesus, help me. And you can pray that nine different ways, by the way. It's three factorial.
You can put the emphasis on different words, and you can pray it, and God answers it every time, no matter how you pray it, how you say it. Jesus, help me. I'd be running in the wintertime going down the country road. Jesus, help me.
I'd run in the spring. Jesus, help me. I'd want to be a better father. Jesus, help me.
I'd want to be a better husband. Jesus, help me. And I'm telling you, he answered it every time. He changed my heart, changed my life.
I'm not bringing to you some pie in the sky thing that is unattainable. That was very, very touchable. Cry out, Isaiah said, and shout. And he said, Jesus, help me.
Jesus, he said, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. Then those who went before him warned that he should be quiet. That's what church does sometimes or religion does. Oh, be quiet. We don't do things that way.
Don't be so undignified. Like at least look, even if you don't, try to make it look like you have it all together. That's what we do sometimes. We come to church and everybody tries to make it look, you know, our whole vocabulary changes in the lobby.
You weren't talking that way in the car to each other. I'm telling you, right on the way to church, there's no way. But you get in the lobby, oh, praise God, hallelujah, what a day this is. Glory to God.
Looking forward to the service today. When you're yelling at each other in the car, if you don't stop, I'm turning around and going home. But we try to preserve our dignity. We don't want people to think that we don't have it all together, do we now? We don't want to be embarrassed.
We don't want to be singled out. But you see, this man just didn't care. And it didn't matter if somebody told him to be quiet. He started crying out. I remember years ago, we had a service in Canada. Patrice and I pastored in Canada, and in the middle of worship, this lady just stood up and said, help me, somebody help me, I'm lost.
Isn't that amazing? She was a visitor. She was outside the kingdom of God and recognized she was lost and stood up and cried out. You know, we didn't throw her out of the church. People got around her and prayed with her to receive Christ as her savior, then invited her to join with us in worship.
Why would we want people to be quiet when the Holy Spirit is moving upon their hearts and they sense Jesus passing by? And she sensed her lostness. In other words, these people know something.
I don't. They're in a place I'm not. There's something in their lives in their song that I don't have. And she just couldn't contain it. And she stood up and said, help me. And she yelled it out. Help me.
Somebody help me. And then she said, I'm lost. Isn't that amazing? She had a revelation of God that she was lost and needed to be in relationship with the Son of God. Those who went before him warned him that he should be quiet, but he cried out all the more. Oh, hallelujah. I thank God for the blind man because I see something through his life.
Son of David, have mercy on me. So Jesus stood still. He will never turn away from your cry. It doesn't matter how many people are pushing him. There's probably thousands there, and they're all trying to push him in their direction. You've got the political crowd pushing him, and you've got the zealots over here, and you've got the money makers here, and you've got the people who just want more bread. There's those who just want to see more miracles, and everybody's leaning into him trying to steer him.
And there's no doubt a tumult. Everybody's talking, talking, talking, talking, talking, but above it all comes a cry. And maybe the crowd couldn't hear it, but Jesus did. Maybe nobody else hears your cry here today, but Jesus does. He heard you last night. He knows what you cried out in your car yesterday. He knows the cry in your heart.
Even if you can't articulate it audibly, he knows what you're crying in your heart. Oh, God, help me. Oh, God, give me the strength to get through this. God, help me.
Help me, Lord. I hate what I've become. I don't like where I am. I don't like sitting on this side of the road.
I don't like the blindness that's in my life. Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he had come near, he asked him. I think it was a tender ask. It's like today. I don't know if I'll give an altar call here or not today, but if I did, he'll speak softly to you and say, what do you want me to do for you?
Isn't it amazing? He already knew, but he just wants us to know. Number one, that he cares, and he wants us to recognize that we need him and recognize our condition. The man had already cried out.
He already knew what he wanted. I mean, the man's blind. And he said, Lord, I want to see.
I want to see. I don't know about you, but I remember that day in my life. Oh yeah, I had natural vision for sure, but I couldn't see. I couldn't see a way forward. I couldn't see how I could change. I couldn't see what my life was supposed to be.
I just couldn't see. And when you come to Christ, you start to cry out and say, God, I want to see. Then Jesus said to him, receive your sight.
Your faith has made you well. And immediately he received your sight. And immediately he received his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.
And that's a fulfillment of Isaiah chapter 12 as an illustration. He saw, so he cried out. And then when he got his sight, he followed. I'm sure he's shouting. I'm sure it's not like a silent prayer.
He's following. I used to be blind. Hallelujah.
Now I see. I cried out and now I shout. Cry out and shout. Isaiah said, cry out first and shout when God does the miracle. And tell others about it.
Don't hold it to yourself. If God has healed your family, tell somebody else whose family is broken. God healed us and God can heal you. And God can give you a way out of the bitterness. God can bring forgiveness into your home and into your heart. If you will let him, what he did for us, he will do for you.
There's a time to shout it. After we cry out to God, then we begin to shout to others around. And the scripture says in Isaiah 12, this will be known in all the earth. I do believe that we're going to see a spiritual awakening of unprecedented magnitude before Christ returns. I fully believe there's going to be an outpouring of God's Spirit that's already touching great parts of the world where people are coming in. Too numerous to even count.
Nobody can count them. There's so many coming in in India, in China and other places like that. There's just so many people coming to Christ, it's stunning. We had a missionary here recently who said in his estimation about 52% of the world's population is in revival right now. They're coming in droves by the hundreds of thousands into the kingdom of God. And God's not going to leave us out here. No sir, he's not leaving us out. He's coming.
