Dr. Michael Youssef with a word of encouragement to begin today's Leading the Way. Beloved, here is the truth that you must never, never, never doubt. God's character is never changing. The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament.
The same God who forgave Israel again and again and again is the same God who sent his Son from the splendor of heaven to come and die on the cross so that he may forgive us and redeem us once and for all. Welcome to Leading the Way Audio with pastor and international Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Youssef. Today a Biblical Perspective on Prayer and Confession. It's from the Old Testament, and yet so relevant for summer twenty twenty five.
It's from doctor Youssef's series looking at the life of Nehemiah, Rebuilding Our Broken Walls. Hey, do remember that Leading the Way is listener supported. doctor Youssef and the team rely on God's provision through God's people blessed by the ministry impact of Leading the Way.
So stand with doctor Youssef. Give us a call. 626-4356.
Now they'll listen with us as Dr. Michael Youssef begins today's Leading the Way. Back in the early days of the Ford Motor Company. There was a machinist who worked in a Detroit plant. And one day, this machinist became a believer in Jesus Christ and got baptized.
And not only that, he repented of his sins to the Lord, but he clearly wanted to make all the wrong things that he did, he wanted to right them. But there were many wrong things, including That for a number of years he has been stealing tools and parts from the Ford Motor Company and taking them home. He just put them in his lunch bag, one at a time, and he takes them home and he accumulated large amount of tools and parts that were stolen. And so when the Lord came into his life, He wanted to do the right thing.
So he collected all the stolen parts and the tools. And he came to his boss one morning, they're all in one bag, and he put them on his desk. And he told his boss what had happened. That he's been stealing all this. But now that he's a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, he could not be an authentic witness for Jesus Christ while he's still holding onto these goods, stolen goods.
Knowing full well that his boss literally can fire him on the spot. Anticipated that. Not only that, he returned the stolen goods, he asked his boss, Will he please forgive me? My Father in heaven forgave me. I want you to forgive me.
Well, the boss didn't know what to do. He called his boss, who called the head of the company, who tried to call Mr. Ford himself.
Well, Henry Ford was not there. He was inspecting some European plant over in Europe. And they didn't know what to do, how to handle this. We just never had anything like this before. And so they decided to send Mr.
Ford a cable. Explaining, long cable, explaining what happened. And so Mr. Ford gets that cable, and immediately he returns a cable back. With the following words, listen carefully.
Dam up the Detroit River and baptize the entire city. Yeah. That's a man who knew a good deal when you see one. Beloved and authentic faith, brings an authentic change of heart. And that is a far cry from what we hear from some pulpits today.
Of presuming on God's grace, of taking God's grace for granted, of using God's grace as a license to continue in sin, of baptizing people in their sin. Why did this man not only confess his sins, but he had to make the wrong things right? Because he did not want to be one of those hypocrites. Ponies who claimed to be a Christian, but then his life has never reflected the Christ that he claimed. Please hear me right on this one.
Living in and with an unconfessed sin is a huge problem. Let me tell you why. Because an unconfessed sin weighs us down. It takes away our joy from us. It neutralizes our effectiveness for Christ.
It diminishes our witness. But even when we confess to whom we wronged, When we confess to the Lord, God not only restores us. He will restore our joy. He will not only restore our joy, he will empower us. For godly living, he will empower us for effectiveness in our Christian life.
I hope you're ready to turn with me to Nehemiah chapter 9. Did you know that Nehemiah chapter 9 is really the longest prayer of confession recorded in the Bible? But there's something very important here that you need to know about confession before I get to the text. Confessing and making restitution is a cleansing act. It is a purifying act.
It is a restoring act. And when God's people came to God in confession and repentance, and when they came in fasting and in humility, when they came in brokenness and in sincerity, God heard their prayer. In the New Testament, no one can receive salvation from the hand of Jesus Christ until we recognize and acknowledge His lostness and His lostness apart from Christ. Once you confess That we can never save ourselves, that we could never meet God's standard of righteousness, that we cannot fix. ourselves by our own efforts.
Then and only then, when we surrender to him, will he save us, redeem us, forgive us, and restores us. You see, David, until he came in the Psalm 51, until he cried, have mercy on me, Lord. Until that happens, salvation will not take place.
Now, beloved, listen to me. Do not mistaken brokenness for weakness. In fact, I can tell you, it is only a broken spirit that receives strength from the Lord. God is near to those who are crushed in spirit. But even once we're saved, we keep on coming back.
We don't stop. We keep on coming back in humility. We keep on coming back in repentance. We keep on coming back in brokenness. We keep on coming back to Him for confession and repentance of our sins, even more so than before we came to Christ because we now become acutely aware of His grace and our sinfulness.
And in Nehemiah chapter 9, these people of God meant business with God. Oh, that God will give us the Spirit. They not only confessed, they repented and they promised to completely alter their priorities and the priorities of their lives. They signed their names on the dotted line, as it were. Just like this machinist in the Ford Motor Company.
You know, today we hear this politically correct crowd, you know, they're telling us about all these phobia. And I'm telling you, these are words manufactured to silence those who believe the truth. I'm going to give you some examples. Blunt examples, but truthful examples. The Muslim extremists, the Islamists, They want to suppress the truth about their terrorism and terror intention.
So, in order to intimidate us, they come up with this Islamophobe. In order to inter silence us. I am not never been. Phobe of anything. I had Muslim friends growing up.
I have Muslim friends today. I'm not Islamophob, but I'm going to speak the truth. Homosexual lobby? I'm talking about the lobby now. In trying to silence anyone who holds to biblical truth of marriage between one man and one woman for life, they call us homophobe.
Never been a home of folks. I have a homosexual neighbor, I hug him every time I see him. I'm not afraid of anybody. But here's the truth. Here's the truth.
Today there is a phobia that the media will never tell you about. There is a phobia that is creeping across the churches in America today, and it's called commitment phobe. Amen. Our generation fears commitment, and therefore they take their commitments very lightly. Oh, yes, I made a commitment at the altar that I would be faithful to my spouse as long as we both shall live.
Oh, but that was then, this is now. Today, many vows are being rewritten. They no longer say, as long as we both shall live, it says, as long as we both shall love. We make commitment to a church, but the moment we don't like something, That commitment ends. We shop for churches the way we shop for cars.
If it's not entertaining enough, and if it's not focusing on me enough, and if it's not focusing on my needs enough, or not focusing on what I want enough, never mind whether that church is upholding the authority of the Word of God or not. If the sermon is convicting. of sin. How go and find one that is not? gonna convict me of sin.
Trade it in for another model.
So that's why so many churches today, in order to accommodate to the spirit of the age, They are marketing the gospel as if it is a product to be sold. Instead of challenging our culture, we are accommodating to it. Instead of bucking the trend, we are reflecting its insipid values. No wonder we are, as a nation, in the trouble we're in, because the church is in trouble. And the reason God's people in Nehemiah chapter 9 who had sackcloths and ashes was because they have experienced the death of their culture.
You see, they had seen Israel decay to the point where God used the wicked Babylon to get their attention. Sadly, God may have to do that in our society to get our attention and the attention of His people. Look at Nehemiah's prayer of confession and commitment. It starts with acknowledging the faithfulness of God. That's where it starts.
And their unfaithfulness. They recount God's past mercies and blessings. He recounts them over and over again. Look at verses 9 to 25. It's just a constant recounting of the cycles of God's blessings and their defection from God.
All of the Lord's mercies in Egypt, all of the Lord's mercies in the wilderness, all of the Lord's mercy when they're getting them to cross the Jordan River, all of the Lord's mercy giving them the promised land with every inch of it. With all these mercies, we're met by presumption on God's grace, taking God's grace for granted. And they lived in disobedience. And after all of that After all of that, and that's the amazing part. God still has mercy on them yet again.
God still forgives them yet again. God still blesses them yet again. God is ready to provide for them yet again. God is ready to sustain them yet again. Beloved, here is the truth that you must never, never, never doubt.
God's character is never changing. The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. The same God who forgave Israel again and again and again is the same God who sent His Son from the splendor of heaven to come and die on a cross so that He may forgive us and redeem us once and for all.
So what do you take from this? Listen carefully. Regardless of where you are, only you and God know where you are. Regardless of how far you've wandered away from God, regardless of how low you got yourself down to, regardless of how unfaithful you have been to the Lord, God is calling you back. God is calling you again.
Welcome back. Come back. Come back in confession. Come back in repentance. Come back in restoration.
He has his arms open wide for you today. Then in verses 26 all the way to 31. The people are blessing God for being a just and holy God. Listen, our God is faithful, our God is mighty, our God is gracious, our God is forgiving and pardoning God. But we must never forget that he's also a holy God.
He is a holy God. You say, What does that mean? It means that He loves you too much to allow you to wallow in sin. God does not want to afflict us. But if we insist in our rebellion and running away from him, he will let us taste the consequences of our rebellion so that he may draw us back to himself.
Look at the prayer again of recounting how time after time after time. God called them back, got their attention, got them back. And after tasting the consequences of the wanting to be independent of God and run after other gods. When they cry to God. Here is strawsm again.
And he forgives him. Look at verse 31. But in your great mercy, You did not put an end to them or abandon them, for you are a gracious and merciful God. You would think that God's people would respond positively to all this overwhelming love and forgiveness and mercy and grace. But no.
No, once God answered their prayer, they ran into their own normal life. Once God answered the prayer. God is forgotten. Beloved, that's what we do. We cry to God when we need something.
The moment He answers, we run off. God is watching and God is not mocked. God is seeing this and it grieves his heart. And somebody said to me, he said, well, That's just natural. Yes, but the Bible said that we have been given a supernatural.
Divine nature. And we must not give in to the natural. It's like the postal worker in Washington, D.C., who said, you know, before Christmas, they get thousands upon thousands upon thousands of cards and letters from kids asking Santa for all kinds of toys and things. And he said, after Christmas, there may be one or possibly two cards. Thank you, Santa.
I'm not promoting Santa. I'm just telling you how Human nature, the way it is. Don't be in haste to say, oh, those people of the Old Testament, my goodness, what a stubborn, you know, what a. No, no, no, no, no. Don't be quick to condemn them.
Don't be quick to condemn them. Look back at your own history and mark down the times when you have taken God's grace and God's mercy and God's favor and God's blessings for granted. Wherever you are today. Wherever you are today, make this to be a day of confession. A day of repentance and a day of rededication and commitment.
You know, I praise God all the time. that he never says to me, I've had enough of you. You keep on coming back. You keep on coming back. I'm just tired of you, Michael.
Now, I am so grateful to the Lord. He never says that.
Sometimes, when God does not give us what we're asking for in a timely fashion, in the times we want, we get tempted to doubt God. I understand. I understand. I've been there. But look at these people in the time of Nehemiah.
Instead of expecting God to serve them, They came humbling themselves before him. And this prayer in Nehemiah 9 is far from being self-centered prayer. It's far from being human-centered prayer. It is a God-centered prayer. It's focused not on give me God.
But how I can put everything on the altar. Their focus on serving And blessing the Lord for His faithfulness. Verses 32 to 38. See, the people understood. That when they sin against God, They are breaking A sacred trust relationship.
Didn't she know that? Every time we rebel against God and go our own way, we are breaking that sacred trust. When a husband betrays his marriage vows, he's breaking that sacred trust.
Now that person does not cease to be a Christian. But it undermines his or her effectiveness for God. Listen to the words of King David, Psalm 32, 3 and 4. When I kept silent, that's from confession, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, my strength was sat.
as in the heat of summer. Listen, unconfessed sin is going to haunt you, it's going to cost you sleep, it's going to break that sweet fellowship you have with the Father. But you can put an end to it today.
Some of you might need to go and make some phone calls. You might ask somebody for forgiveness. You might give somebody forgiveness that have been withholding it from him or her. You can end all that today. Thank you for allowing Leading the Way with Dr.
Michael Youssef to be part of your day. And did Dr. Yosef's message stir faith questions? Maybe getting some time with a leading-the-way pastor or counselor would help. You can begin that conversation by going to ltw.org slash Jesus.
Now don't run away. Doctor Youssef returns in just a moment to wrap up today's encouraging teaching. First, though, this quick reminder that if you've missed any episodes in the Rebuilding Our Broken Walls series, or if you just want to listen to additional content from Doctor Youssef, consider subscribing to the Leading the Way podcast. You can get information on that at ltw.org. Or you can search for Leading the Way wherever you consume your content, and the podcast is free.
The daily podcast is also available on the Leading the Way app. Or ask your smart speaker, just say, play Leading the Way podcast. It's that easy.
Now, as mentioned, here's Dr. Michael Youssef to close out today's episode. And you'll want to make note of keys to confession in prayer. I want to help everyone who has been convicted of the Holy Spirit today. It's not my words, it's the Word of God.
I want to help you by showing you from the scripture. The four cornerstones of confession, prayer of confession. Number one, Acknowledging your personal responsibility for sin. Don't blame your spouse. Don't blame your parents.
Don't blame other people. Make no excuses. Don't blame others. Don't blame your surroundings. I was in such a situation, and I couldn't.
No, no, no, no. Accept full responsibility, whatever that sin may be. Secondly, acknowledge God's justice. Confess that God is wholly unjust. That means that it is His prerogative to be disappointed with my sin.
We have no right to demand mercy. We can only plead for mercy. Thirdly, Ask him for forgiveness in the name of Jesus. The only reason we are even qualified to come to the throne room of God is because Jesus already paid the penalty of our sins on the cross. And we can only be forgiven in the name of Jesus.
Fourthly. Cling to God's promises of forgiveness. I know somebody said, Well, I know God forgave me, but I just can't forgive myself. And I know, no, whoa, whoa. If God forgave you, who are you not to forgive yourself?
Once you have truly confessed Don't fall in Satan's ploy of making you doubt God's forgiveness. You need to let the past sins that have been confessed and forgiven to be in the past. Every time Satan or others may remind you of your sin, you remind them of the promises of God. And here are some of those promises. Jeremiah 31:34, I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.
Psalm 103, 12, as far as the east from the west, as far as God removed our transgressions from us. Isaiah 1:18, Come now, let's reason together, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are red as crimson, they will be like wool. And the verse I quote on a regular basis.
1 John 1.9. If we confess, can you say that with me? If we confess. God is faithful and just to forgive us all our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then you must be willing.
To accept the freedom and the joy that comes from confession and forgiveness. Don't be morbid. Are you with me? Don't be morbid and well on your past sins. Don't say, well, I know God forgave me, but There's no but.
Move forward with joy. Amen? Father God, Cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Let this be a new moment in our lives. A turning moment.
That we will experience. The joy. That's unspeakable because of confession of sin. For we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.
Mm. If leading the way has impacted your life in a special way, Dr. Youssef would love to hear about it. Call our special testimony line at 877-941-7934. Just follow the prompts when you get there.
Let us know your story: 877-941-7934. And learn more about Dr. Yousf and the worldwide impact of this ministry by visiting ltw.org. ltw.org. For centuries, people have theorized when the end times will come upon us.
For decades, books have been sold predicting when the end will come. But have we thought to ask the one who will see us through that difficult time? Have we examined Jesus' words? What did Jesus really say about the last days? In his book, Is the End Near?
What Jesus Told Us About the Last Days, Dr. Michael Youssef unpacks the words of the Lord Jesus Himself in Matthew 24 and 25. rest in knowing that He holds all things in the palm of His hand. Don't let fear of the future shake your faith. Know what Jesus said.
Get the truth about the end times. For your gift of any amount, you can receive your copy of Dr. Yusuf's book, Is the End Near from Leading the Way. Visit ltw.org to get your copy today. Learn more about this life-changing book and the study guide for Is the End Near?
When you call us at 866-6666-6666-6666- six two six four three five six That's 866. Six two six four three five six and online ltw.org. ltw.org. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.
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