R1318 I Will Raise It Up

God has an encouraging with Dr. Don Wilton. You know those of us who know and love the Lord Jesus, we know that he's alive. Do you know that he's alive? But just think about all the people around the world on a day like this, different time zones, all celebrating who Jesus is. And that's why we're here today. You know, when God speaks to you, don't concern yourself with being able to unravel at all. Just let God deal with you. Let him say what he needs to say.

His timing is always perfect. But I knew that the Lord was speaking to me and gradually and readily came to understand that was the case with many people who loved the Lord. Hundreds and thousands who are worshiping with us today would identify with that.

A lot of good reasons for it too. You know, I became increasingly concerned about myself. You might say to me, well pastor, that's an interesting statement. I'm a Christian man. I've given my heart to Jesus and I've tried very hard to follow the Lord for the better part of my life. And like you, I have a testimony, but I just want my life to count. And I want my life to count in the way in which life really matters.

You know, I'm a pastor. I'm a friend of a lot of people and a pastor and I'm a grandfather and a dad and a husband and so on. But I've watched a lot of people come to the end of their lives and have gained a lot, but they've accomplished very little. And I watch people, some people who accumulate a lot of things and I'm not picking on things because there's nothing wrong with things, but their whole life is vested in what they have. And they get to the end of their life and their life is somewhat like an empty TV or a broken TV with a plug pulled out.

It just fizzles. And there's nothing of real substance. And I just decided that if God would be so kind to me that I didn't want my life to be like that. I want to have real purpose in my heart.

Not in terms of anything magnificent in in man's eyes, all those things have their place. We all have our accomplishments and accomplishments are very wonderful things. I've written books, you know, I've got my name on on books. I've written a book. I've written a book I've written books, you know, I've got my name on on books and and I'm very privileged to be a pastor and I and all these they wonderful things. I don't intend to stop, but in here I want that real reality to reside in my heart and in my life. And I know that that comes from the Lord Jesus.

So it was about me. Then I looked around and I saw this incredible nation. I really love America. I'm an adopted son. I'm one of those that was born on the other side of the world and I've been here for decades. And people tell me, you know, I was born in the wrong place. I should have been born in America and all those things and I'm very I'm so proud to be an American. But I've become very concerned about this nation that I love so much and I'm not willing to just stand there and watch it sink.

I'm I'm not willing to do that. And we we've got a very serious problem in America today. I've watched how when we face 9-11 everybody goes to church and within a few weeks after that nobody wants to go to church. We Americans are so good at masquerading our religion. We actually have even become a nation that we really believe that we're a Christian nation. We really do and we're not. And today everything's becoming acceptable. It doesn't matter how people behave as long as it's politically expedient we'll do it.

And the bottom line for us is the market and the manner with which we can line our pockets and whether or not we can get that extra home and all these other blessings. And our nation is divided. So I was saying, Lord, what can we do?

Well then there's the world you know. We live in this world and the world's in a mess. So God began to speak to my heart. Have you noticed our leaders in America the more stress we find the less they seem to be turning to God.

It's just like second verse same as the first. The evangelical Christian is nowhere to be found in America. We've been stunned into silence. We're so afraid of the court of public opinion.

We dare not say anything. And Hezekiah rose up a man after God's heart and he called everybody to the temple declared a time of prayer and fasting. And God moved in and what I love about the story about Hezekiah when you get to the end of it the Bible says they brought their gifts, their tithes and their offerings. They worshiped the Lord and they offered themselves to Him and He prospered them. And something's been going on.

I can't describe it. And God is speaking to our hearts and you are listening today and deep down in your own heart you know, you're looking, you're searching. And many of you do not know the Lord Jesus and it begins with you giving your life to Christ. Now I want you to open your Bible to John chapter 2. You see John chapter 2 has one of the most powerful statements about the resurrection.

And I'm not going to read to you this whole passage today. I want to just show you the most important verse in this passage. John chapter 2 and verse 21. John chapter 2 and verse 21. But Jesus, but Jesus was speaking about the temple of His body. But Jesus was speaking about the temple of His body. This is what happened.

Let me explain to you just in a nutshell. The Jews were about to celebrate the Passover feast. And so Jesus went up to Jerusalem, this passage tells us, and He went into the temple. So I want you to just picture somewhat like this, somewhat in the hanger as people worship. Just picture your church.

Just picture your church. Went into the synagogue, went into the temple. Jesus went into the temple. And when He walked into the temple, He saw a whole lot of things and activities that evidently He absolutely was not willing to tolerate. He didn't accommodate them.

He threw them out. And when He did that, the group of people who were inside the church, in the temple, who saw the indignation of the Son of God concerning their actions and activities as part of the house of God, said, well, we're going to just corner Him. Now I'm going to paraphrase. These people looked at Jesus and said, okay, so you don't want us to place any kind of spiritual significance on our sacrifices and our rituals and our own brands of spirituality. Because that's exactly what Jesus did. Jesus looked at them and He said to them, you all are coming into church. You all claim to have a relationship with God, Jehovah, and you've all brought your own brand of spirituality to the table. And I do not accept the way you are trying to approach me. That's why part of the reason why the church in America is disintegrating because it is filled with people like you and me who are standing up in the face of God and saying, this is what I am going to bring before the Lord. Jesus walked in there and said, I don't care what you've decided you're going to bring, take it out of here. I do not accept those things. And so these people looked at Him like many of us do and they said, okay, so you're Jesus, are you?

Well, if in fact you are who you say you are, why don't you then show us some kind of sign or miracle? Bring it to the table. There was almost a sarcasm in their voice.

If you're not going to accept what we decide we want to bring to you, then why don't you show us something special? Jesus looked at them and He said, okay, I'll tell you what, I'll show you a miracle, destroy this temple and in three days I will build it up. And these people, these citizens of that nation, these Jewish people looked at each other. I can only imagine the raucous laughter that went up, the mock, the jeer. Can you believe this man?

We always thought he was out in the left field. He doesn't even understand what it takes to build something like this. It's taken us 46 years. He obviously knows nothing about building and construction and engineering. Look at the size of these stones.

How can you just rebuild something in three days? And they mocked Him. And that's when Jesus looked at them and He said to them, you have all got it wrong. It's about the resurrection. It's about my body. It's about me.

I'm talking about me. You can destroy this temple. And by the power of God, in three days, God by His power will raise me up. And when He raises me up, it is in me that you will live and move and have your being because I am the only one who can conquer both sin and death and the grave.

I am the Lord, your God, and only me shalt thou serve. Forgive the interruption. We'll be back in just a moment with more of today's great teaching. But Dr. Don wants me to remind you, we're here for you 24 hours a day, as a matter of fact, at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. And we're connecting keyboard to keyboard on our website as well at www.tewonline.org.

That's www.tewonline.org. Now back to today's great teaching with Dr. Don. And so they began to scamper around with one another. And many of them said, well, I told you so, and I told you so, and I told you so. And Jesus did not commit Himself to them because they could have said, I told you so, until the cows came home. But the Bible says in verse 23, verse 24 and 25, that Jesus, who is the Son of God, knew what was in man. He knew the heart of man just as He knows your heart and He knows my heart. During these days of prayer and fasting, I've been asking the Lord to show me the truth of my heart.

You see, man can only look on the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart. And then in John chapter 3, which we all know about, there was a wonderful illustration. This man's name was Nicodemus. By the way, Nicodemus was probably their top man. He was chairman of the board. He was the pastor of the congregation. He was the bishop.

I mean, this was a conversation with the Pope in their time. If anybody had done it according to the right way to do it, Nicodemus had. He had paid his dues and not only that, he evidently was a very good man, came to Jesus.

He was one of them. He realized what Jesus did in the temple was that Jesus had just thrown him out and said to him, you need to get your heart right with me. And he looked at Nicodemus, this man imminently qualified, and he said to him, Nicodemus, unless you're born again, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. You see, what he was telling Nicodemus was that in order for Nicodemus to be changed and to live a changed life and to have a full and meaningful life, you had to be changed from inside out.

It will never happen from outside in. All across America today, we've come to write our own constitution for a personal relationship with God, and he's throwing it out. He said, you've got it wrong. It has to do with me. It's got to do with the fact that I'm the son of God. And unless I live and reside in your heart to the point at which your body is the temple of the living God, you will never amount to anything in my sight.

You will never have eternal life. These people in the temple in Jesus' day, they believed that they would change because they could begin outside. They could begin with all their rituals and their good works and their right standing and their citizenship and which group they belong to and whether they were within the in-crowd or whether they belong to the outside.

It didn't matter. They began outside and believed whatever it was that they did outside would change them inside. Jesus said, there's not a single thing outside that'll ever change you inside because I am God alone and I'm sobbed and I am God alone and I'm sovereign and my spirit will work in your heart and will draw you into the heart of God and will convince you of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.

I've grappled with these things. What I love about Easter Sunday is that's exactly what the Lord Jesus did. He pointed to his body. He said, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me.

You see, the tomb is empty. I died, took upon myself the sin of the world, but by the power of God, I was raised from the dead. It's in me that you live and move and have your being and there are people all across America today, good people, wonderful people, productive people, serving people who are coming up empty because you don't have Jesus living in your heart and in your life and I want to invite you to give your life to Christ.

That's where it begins. During these days, we've seen the power of God come down and begin to sweep across. My phones have been ringing off the hook, the emails that we are receiving, reports of people changed forever and in this church and I trust in your church next Sunday we're going to have an in-gathering.

Why are we going to have an in-gathering? Because they did it in the Bible, that's why. I'm a pastor, I'm just one pastor. I've come to understand I'm not doing it according to the scriptures. I just want to do it the way God says it and in every pattern they saw the need in their own lives, in their national lives, in the world in which they live. They saw the burned down gates and the broken walls and they responded to the call of God and they set about praying and fasting and developing an intimacy with a holy and a righteous God and God began to move in.

Jehoshaphat in second chronicles looked out and he said, what? Look at this great army that is coming against us. There is fear gripping America today.

You cannot turn on your television set. There's not another shooting and a mugging. There's not another fire. There's not another disaster. There are tornadoes and hurricanes. There are hailstones.

There are droughts. Wake up America. Wake up America. God is trying to speak to us. And don't expect the unbelieving world to respond. And I will say with the profoundest love in my heart to you today, if there is no stirring in your heart, there's only one reason you don't know the Lord. That's why I want to invite you to give your heart to Jesus.

So I'm just telling you that here I come to this incredible time. I've often said to myself, why did Jesus go into the temple? And all of a sudden it's become clear to me, but he was speaking about the temple of his body. And when therefore he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken under them. And there are three expressions through the Bible. When you and I encounter the Lord through prayer and fasting, and we understand and recognize that the walls are broken down, the gates are burned, and we cry out to God, and we come to know Christ as savior and those of us who are already believers, we become renewed and strengthened. It's got to go somewhere. The Bible teaches three zones of the expression. Number one, it's going to compel us to go.

I've even written in this thing, just probably, I don't know, 50 examples of how you and I can go. It's the fundamental basis of the Christian life. It's the mission that God calls us to do. It's the great commission of God.

And it begins right here in our own community. It's the Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and the outermost parts of the world. It's the willingness of God's people to say, I know that Jesus Christ is the great that Jesus Christ is the temple. I know that he is the all sufficient one. I know that outside of him, we are nothing.

And that unless God would come down upon us, we are doomed to die. And because of that, I'm willing to go. Number two, I'm willing to serve. I thank God for countless scores of people, not only here in this community, but around the nation who low known love the Lord Jesus who serve him. I've often said to myself, I'm not so convinced that this world would get the kind of help they get without Christians who roll up their sleeves and serve. I've listed probably, I don't know, 30, 40, 50 examples of just illustrations of the way in which you serve.

Third, I'm willing to give. What is the matter with us, Christians? What is the matter with us? Why have you got such a problem with somebody talking about money in the church? Why have you become so self-righteous about what God does, but you're willing to send thousands of dollars to this and thousands of dollars to that.

We're spending our money on our clubs and our social life and on all the things that we've got and the accumulation. We go into the house of God and we hold on to all our own brand of sacrifices and traditions. But when it comes to just simply giving to God, how come some of you men are willing to stand out on street corners and take up offerings for great causes? But when it comes to the house of God, you rise up and you object. How come when it comes to the things that really matter in this world, the Christian community in America is going to sleep?

How come it is that we're so willing to give our money to political candidates and we should do so. But when it comes to the work that Jesus Christ has called us to do, it's like tapping blood from a brick. And the Bible is very clear when it comes to the temple of his body. Nehemiah chapter 10, we will not forsake the house of the Lord and giving according to God's word comes in two forms and only in two forms. The tithe, which is 10% of your total income, goes to your church. Why so many of you taking your tithes and giving them to everything else excepting to your church, you being disobedient to God. And that's one of the reasons God is not blessing us. The tithe according to the scripture comes to your church with no strings attached.

It's 10% of everything that you earn. And if in America today, all believers would tithe, whether you earn $20,000 or $200,000 a year, if every believer in America tithed, the work of the Lord Jesus Christ would reverberate around this world like we've never seen before. But what we've decided to do is to stand up and applaud the mega giants of our world who donate multi-billions to the United Nations and to corporations and also to many wonderful organizations and things without ever so much as a mention of the church of the living God. And Jesus looked at the church and he looked at all the sacrifices and he said, I want you to know you need to focus in on me because I am the resurrection and the life. I am the temple of the Lord Jesus Christ. I am the temple of the living God because I am the son of God and God by his power raised me up from the grave so that you can have life.

You've heard Dr. Wilton from the pulpit, but now as he steps into the studio, open your heart to what he wants to share next. Are you ready to give your heart and life to the Lord Jesus Christ? Why don't you pray this prayer with me right now?

Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner and I know that Jesus died for me on the cross. Today I repent of my sin and by faith I receive you into my heart in Jesus' name. My friend, I welcome you today into the family of God.

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