Heard a story of an immigrant from Europe who was moving from Europe, integrating from Europe to America in the late 1800s. Now everybody came through Ellis Island and he scraped up money and saved up money to purchase a ticket to go from Europe to America.
And sometimes those journeys would take weeks and weeks. And so he took all the money he had, bought a ticket, but he didn't have enough money to pay for the food. He just had enough money to pay for the ticket so he brought all his food with him. He gets on the boat and the boat begins to come across to America and the boat takes longer than he thought it was going to take. And the guy toward the end of the journey ran out of food. And every night he would watch people go into the dining hall and just stuff themselves and he'd to be drooling.
He didn't have enough money for the food. And toward the end of the journey, they're a couple days into harbor, somebody finally notices that he doesn't look too good. And they ask him what's going on. They say, you look bad. What's happening?
The guy said, I guess I can tell you now. I had enough money to buy the ticket, but I didn't have enough money to pay for the food. I've not eaten for days.
That's why I looked so bad. And the man said, didn't you realize the meal came with the ticket? When you bought the ticket, you bought the food for the journey as well. It came with the ticket.
Reminds me of us. We have a ticket to heaven. If you're born again, you will make it to the other side.
If you're born again, God does have another country for you, a better country, a better city. We have the ticket, but do you know how much came with the ticket? When you go through the New Testament, you see dozens and dozens of blessings and benefits that belong to us who have the ticket, who have been born again, who gave our life to Jesus Christ. So many things come with the ticket. And in Romans chapter five, Paul shares with us three things that came with the ticket. So turn, if you would, to Romans chapter five verse one. And today we're going to talk about just three things that came with the ticket. When you got born again, God says, I'm giving you these three things. Romans chapter five verse one says this. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Stop right there.
Let's do a review. Justified is a legal term. What does that mean?
It means the moment you turn from your sins and trust in Jesus, I don't understand how God did it, but God takes your sins and he reaches back 2000 years ago and he puts those sins on Jesus Christ and he takes the righteousness of Jesus Christ and puts it on you. If it helps you, when you see the word justified, just remember these two words, not guilty. That's what justified means.
And because we're justified, Paul says, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? Look at this.
Best way I can phrase it is this way. God ain't mad at you anymore. Yeah, but I mess up. He gets disappointed at times. He may discipline you.
I may be wrong on this. If you find a Bible verse that contradicts me, let me know. I don't think if you're born again, God is angry at you anymore. He doesn't punish you anymore.
He'll discipline you. But we have passed from God's wrath. We are now friends of God, children of God, reconciled to God.
When the Bible says we have peace with God, it means he's not mad at you anymore. So the apostle Paul says that's the ticket. When you got saved, this is what happens. Now, in verses six through 11, Paul explains this concept of justification a little bit more. So remember justification is what happens when you get saved, okay? Verses six through 11, Paul explains that a little bit more.
I want you to see this. When we were still without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. Not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received, look at this, the reconciliation. We've been reconciled to God.
Now, I could take time to kind of parse that with some theological terms, but instead of that, let me just share with you a story that captures what Paul says in verses six through 11. There's a preacher that I really like named Skip Hijack. Pastor Hijack says, I have verified this story and it's true. I don't know if it's true or not. I'm just telling you what he said. He said, I actually went to the Middle East and verified the stories.
I'm just telling you what he said. He said that there's a story in the Middle East of these two young men who were part of the Bedouin community. You know what I mean by Bedouins?
They can wander and live in tents. He said they were part of the Bedouin community in the Middle East. He said, one day, these two young guys get in a fight and one young man murders the other one. He kills the other one. And while that dead man is lying there in the sand bleeding out, the guy that kills him understands, I got a big problem.
Because in the Middle East, in the Bedouin culture, there is this concept of eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, life for life. He understands people will be coming for me. So he flees across the desert and finds the tent of a notable sheik.
The sheik is the kind of the de facto leader of that community. He burst into this man's tent, and he screams out, would you protect me? I'm seeking asylum in your tent.
If you know anything about Middle Eastern culture and their concept of hospitality, when that happens, you take them in. And so the old man says, what's going on? The young man says a crime has been committed, and I'm seeking asylum. The old man rose and swore an oath that he would give that young man protection. You now have protection.
I'm swearing my oath over you. The next day, sure enough, the pursuers arrive. They have tracked that young man down across the desert to the tent of the sheik. And they say to the sheik, you need to release this young man.
A crime has been committed. He said, no, I can't do that. I swore my protection.
They said, but you don't understand. He killed a man. He said, I don't care.
I've given my word. I can't release him. I said, but you don't know who he killed. He said, I don't care who he killed. They said, yeah, but he killed your son. He killed your son. And the old man dropped to his knees, made him to mourn and scream and cry.
And then he stood up and he composed himself. And he said, then he shall now be my son. And everything I have will one day belong to him. And that's what Paul is saying happened to us. We were responsible for the death of the son of God, Jesus Christ. He died for our sins. Our sins put him on the cross. When we come to God, God swears his protection over us and says, now you will be my sons and daughters and everything I have now belongs to you.
Isn't that beautiful? That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the ticket, if you will. But then Paul says three things and there's a lot of others, but Paul points out three things that come to that ticket. So if you're born again, I'm going to give you three things that you got. You got a lot of other things, but you've got these three things.
Number one, here's what comes to that ticket. Personal access to God. 24 seven, personal access to God comes to the ticket. And Paul says that in verse two, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We have 24 seven access to God. In fact, Hebrews 4 16 puts it this way. Man, let's boldly come into God's presence.
Now we take this for granted. You have to understand in Paul's day, that was unheard of. You can come into the presence of God or the gods. It's crazy to come into God's present or in the presence of the gods.
Number one, a lot of times you wouldn't even want to do that because the gods of Paul's day, the pagan gods were mean, angry, capricious. And so you don't even know if you want to come into their presence. And if you do come into the presence, it's got to be through a priest and through rituals and through this and through that. And then maybe you can come into the presence of God.
Maybe you got to go to a special temple, a special place, go through a special routine. And Paul says, no, the moment you get born again and saved, you can come into God's presence anytime you want. That's what we have as followers of Jesus Christ.
Let me give you an example of this. This past weekend, some of the staff went on a retreat up at the, you ever heard of the Billy Graham training center at the Cove up in the mountains? All right. So we went up there and we did something a little different this year. We gave more time for prayer and just seeking God's face. And so I was walking down the side of this mountain, it was a Friday, and I just want to, I'm praying, but I can't focus because it's cold.
There's a wind blowing. It's on the shady side of the mountain. I'm cold, but I want to be in the presence of Jesus.
I want to talk to Jesus. And, you know, there's a hurricane out there a couple of months ago, hurricane Helene. And they had a big excavator out there. In fact, I took a picture of it because I was like, I don't want to forget this. I found this excavator and I said, I wonder if that thing is open. And I actually opened the door of that excavator. I got it in the cab and shut the door behind me and it protected me from the wind. It actually got nice and warm.
The sun was shining on it. And all of a sudden, the presence of God just filled the cab of that excavator. Have you ever been, were you just, you know, you're in the presence of God. I've told you this before, two seconds in the presence of God will do more than a thousand of my sermons combined. And I just felt the presence of God in that place. And that verse became a reality to me. I didn't have to go to a special temple and sacrifice an animal and go through a ritual and light some candles and pray some rosary beads.
I didn't have to do any of that. I just came to the presence of God and said, God speak, your servant is listening. And Paul says that comes with the ticket.
We have 24 seven access to God. And then the second thing Paul says comes with the ticket. When you got more to give, you actually have the hope of heaven. Look at verse two and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. That's a shorthand way of saying heaven, the hope of the coming glory of God.
Paul's talking about heaven. Listen to me. We are not better than lost people.
You do realize that, right? We as messed up as everybody else. It's not that we're better than lost people.
Sometimes we think, well, we go to church and we're Pentecostals. We have our secret club house, secret language, secret handshake. We're better than everybody else.
We're not better than everybody else. We're going to tell you something we have lost world doesn't have. We have the hope of heaven that the moment I closed my eyes in this world, I opened my eyes staring at the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, I wouldn't trade that hope for, for all the money in the world.
That's the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. And let me say something. Heaven is not the spiritual, ethereal, ghostly kind of thing. In fact, here's a great book.
Write this down. If you've not, maybe you're facing mortality or some life and death issues. There's a great book by Randy Alcorn called Heaven. And Randy Alcorn said, here's the problem we have in the church with heaven. We have over spiritualized heaven. Heaven isn't just a spiritual place.
Listen to me. Heaven is a literal place. Bible talks about heaven in terms of literal things like trees and cities and clothes and palm branches and rivers. It is a literal place.
And let me take a quick detour here. Incidentally, science, ironically, is helping us to understand the concept of heaven even more. I think heaven, I believe, looking at science and the word of God, I think either heaven exists in another dimension or in a parallel universe.
Chuck Missler talked about this. Chuck Missler said that physicists and astrophysicists, quantum physicists, today tell us that we live in a hyperspace of more than four dimensions. The current estimate by physicists is, now this is modern technology, that we live in a hyperspace of maybe 10 dimensions. I am convinced heaven could be in one of those dimensions. I believe that once the soul ends its existence here on planet Earth, if you're born again, we migrate possibly to another dimension.
That might be where heaven is. In fact, Missler quotes an ancient Jewish scholar named Nachmanides that lived in the 1200s. And he says, I've not been able to validate this, but Missler says that this ancient Jewish scholar, Nachmanides, living in the 1200s, studied the book of Genesis in depth and came to the conclusion that there are 10 dimensions four knowable, six unknowable, which is ironically exactly what physicists are saying today.
Isn't that something? A man living in the 12th century at the word of God came up with what physicists are coming up with today. And so it may be in another dimension, or it could be that heaven is in a parallel universe. Several years ago in the Journal of Scientific American, they published a long article by physicist Max Tegmark, who says, now this is not the Christian, okay? This physicist said, now we're starting to study the reality of the universe, and a parallel universe almost certainly exists.
He's not even coming from a Christian perspective. In fact, the magazine, Discovery Magazine, had an article by physicist Brian Greene, who explained how properties in black holes, they're studying black holes in the universe, how properties in the black holes surface, something called the event of the universe. It's called the event horizon. Suggest the unsettling theory that our world, now watch what physicists are saying now, that our world is a mere representation of another universe. We're a shadow of a realm where real events take place.
Isn't that interesting? The physicists are now saying, what we're seeing on planet Earth may not actually be ultimate reality, we may just be a shadow of another place that is a real reality. I think he's just described heaven. In fact, in Hebrews, it says that when God says to Moses, have you heard this before? Moses, build a tabernacle, but build it to these exact specifications. And it says this, because the tabernacle was just a reflection on Earth of a real tabernacle that exists somewhere else. So what I'm trying to say is this, if you're born again, heaven is not some theoretical fanciful thing. It's a real literal place. And throughout history, we have seen that the Christians who understand the reality of heaven the most have actually done the most good for the kingdom of God.
C.S. Lewis put it this way. He said, if you notice people throughout history who thought the most of the next world did the most for this world. So don't talk to me about, well, you're so heavenly minded, you're no earthly good.
No, I think the problem of the American churches, we're so earthly minded, we're no heavenly good. But when you realize this is not your home. Hey, let me remind you, this place is not your home. Some of us get really comfortable here. We're getting caught up here in our cars and our homes and our jobs and 401ks and what's going on in politics.
And there God Zelensky came to the White House and we all torn up about everything on planet earth. We exist for this much, maybe 100 years here on planet earth. We're gonna exist infinitely somewhere else in heaven. So let's not get so caught up in this that we lose sight of this church. I'm gonna tell you something.
Now you can take it, however you wanna take it. If I thought that this is as good as it gets, I don't know that I'd wanna stick around here much longer, honestly. I've heard somebody say this before, for a lost person, earth is as close to heaven as they're ever gonna get. For a safe person, earth is as close to hell as we're ever gonna get.
And I'm gonna tell you, when you start realizing that this world is not my home, like the old timer said, this world is not my home, I'm just a passing through, my treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue, the angels beckon me from heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore, when you start having that mentality, I'm telling you, life becomes great. And so what do we get with a ticket? Number one, 24 seven access to the presence of God. I can come to God's presence anytime I want. Number two, the hope of heaven comes with a ticket.
And then number three, and I don't know how to phrase this, so I'm gonna do my best here. Personal growth here on earth comes with a ticket. When you get saved, listen to me, you become God's personal project. God loves you just like you are, but he loves you to let you remain just like you are. And so I don't know if it's gonna make sense or not, but when you got saved, it's almost like God rubbed his hands together. He said, ah, good, I got a project right here.
I'm gonna take this person like they are, and I'm gonna change them into something they never thought they could be. You become God's personal project the moment you get saved. And we see that in verses three through five. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope, and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
I believe this. I think part of being a human being is you wanna grow, you wanna change, you're not content with who you are, okay? Part of being a thriving human being, you wanna grow. That's why the self-help industry is so big. I read somewhere that 15,000 self-help books are produced in America every single year. Books tell you how to get better, and how to grow, and be the best you, and all that kind of stuff.
On Amazon, there's approximately 500,000 self-help titles on Amazon alone. That tells me people aren't content with who they are. They wanna grow and change.
I heard this, after reading this past week, I just blew my mind. In fact, I'm thinking about quitting y'all and putting in an application for this. Do you know that some personal life coaches, you know anything about life coaches? I read somewhere that life coaches can make $1,000 an hour as a life coach, an executive life coach. You know life coaches, somebody tells you how to live a better life, and how to do your business, and do your family? I'll tell you that, and you give me $1,000. Isn't that something? That's a life coach.
Now, this is gonna sound shallow. The moment you got saved, you got a life coach better than Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Oprah, all those people out there. God himself said, if you'll let me, I'll be your life coach.
I'll take you on as a personal project. Again, the Bible lays that out, that process out, in verses three through five. Now, let me share this as well. Let's see if this makes sense.
I studied this past week as well, the process of getting physically stronger. Let's see if I can explain this. There's a reason why the Bible tells us to look at nature, look at the birds, look at the flowers, look at the stars. There's a reason the Bible tells us to do that. I think it's because there's a lot of overlap between the natural world and the supernatural spiritual world. In other words, if you wanna learn a lot about God, there's a lot of parallels that God has given us in the natural world. So let me give you one of these parallels. There is a process to becoming physically stronger.
Now, jot this down. Number one, first step in the process is, you don't have to have this, but it's good to have a physical trainer, a trainer that you can trust, okay? That's number one. Somebody that's gonna push you. Number two, you gotta have weights. You won't get stronger without weights. You gotta have weights. You won't get stronger without weights. Everybody's into cardio and running and all that kind of stuff.
Fellas, that's fine. Stay in shape cardiovascularly, but if you don't work on staying strong physically, I think the average man loses 1% muscle mass every year after age 50. You'll become one of these emaciated skinny old men. You wanna do that. No offense to you emaciated skinny old men who are out here today.
But you wanna stay strong, okay? And to do that, you gotta have weights. In fact, I saw some, it was a public service announcement that the government did a couple years ago, trying to get old people active or whatever. And it said, you gotta have weights. You can start with anything. If you're not used to using weights, you can use Campbell's soup cans and do curls and presses.
No, you can't. You will not get strong using Campbell's soup can curls. That doesn't work, okay? You gotta have weight. So it's good to have a trainer. You gotta have weight. And the number three, you gotta have, here's what they call it, time under tension. Time under tension. In other words, you pick up a weight and do one quick curl and it doesn't work that way. Your muscle has to be under tension for a certain amount of time. Because what happens is when your muscles are under tension, it actually starts having micro tears in your muscles and it breaks those muscles down.
And then when you eat protein, it builds it back up again, okay? You understand what I'm saying? So you can't just do a quick thing. You gotta have time under tension. So it's good to have a trainer. You gotta have weight.
And you gotta have time under tension enough to start breaking things down. And then number four, you gotta have a goal. If you don't have a goal, you'll quit. Your goal may be to look better.
It may be to be healthier. I've told y'all before now at my age, my goal is to go into the, you know, I'm just trying to stave off death as long as I can, okay? But you gotta have a goal.
So you got that? Trainer, weight, time under tension, and a goal. What amazes me is as you look at verses three through five, Paul lays out the very same process of God making you spiritually stronger. Same processes right there.
Number one, you have a trainer. Verse five, it says, God loves us. He's poured out his love in us through the Holy Spirit.
It says in verse one, we have peace with God. Listen to me. You've gotta understand that. If as a Christian, you don't get that first one right, that God has taken you on as a special project, God's doing something in your life, God is not trying to hurt you, God is trying to grow you. If you don't understand that, I'm gonna tell you what's gonna happen. First time you had a major problem in your life, you're gonna say, God hates me, he's mad at me, he's punishing you. That's what you're gonna think.
I'm gonna say it again. God may discipline you, but he'll never punish you if you're a born-again believer, because he took out his spanking on Jesus Christ, his son on the cross 2,000 years ago. He may discipline you, but he's not gonna punish you. So number one, you gotta understand God is working for you, not against you. He's your trainer, okay? Remember the second thing I told you you have to have?
Gotta have weights. And Paul talks about this here in verse three. He talks about God bringing tribulation, allowing tribulation to come into our life. The Greek word for tribulation means pressure or weight.
It's very, very interesting. Some of the things that you are not, you're binding and rebuking and I'm casting it out and whatever, you can do that all you want, but it could be God bringing those weights into your life that you're rebuking. It could be God that has allowed the tribulation to come into your life, the weight to come into your life. Maybe you're rebuking the things of God to make you stronger. In fact, Charles Spurgeon said this, I owe more to the fire, the hammer, the file than to anything else in my Lord's workshop. I sometimes question whether I have ever learned anything except through the rod.
When my schoolroom is darkened, I see the most. Isn't that great? He's your trainer. I wanna say it again. He loves you like you are, but he loves you too much to let you remain like you are. He's your trainer. For some of y'all right now, he's bringing some weight into your life, some pressure into your life. And then remember number three, you've gotta have time under tension. Now look at verse four. I don't know why this is one of my favorite Greek words, that word perseverance in Greek, it's hupo meno.
Hupo means under, meno means to remain. Literally, perseverance means to remain under a load. Again, that's what God does. I wanna be stronger. I wanna be like Jesus. I wanna be as fierce as a giant. God's like, you sure about that?
Absolutely, fine. I'm gonna take you to my gym and I'm gonna wear you out, is what God is saying. In fact, a couple of years ago, there's a guy in our church who was a trainer and he said, Chad, I wanna train you one time at the gym. And he trained me one time.
One time. I never went back to him again. Great guy. And he knew what he was doing.
He knew what he was doing. But I'll never forget, he put these weights on me and said, all right, now get on that bench press. And I lift it off and I go down and I get it up to about here.
And I can't lift it anymore. I said, all right, go ahead and take it. He just stared at me. I said, go ahead and take it. He just stared at me.
Veins are blowing up in my head, blood splurting out all over the place. I said, take it. And he left me there and right when I was about to drop the weight, he picked it up. And I said, man, what are you doing?
I thought maybe I'd preach a sermon. He didn't like it. He was mad at me something. I said, what are you doing? He said, you will never get stronger unless you remain under that weight.
He said, I'm a trainer. I know how much you can take. I know your breaking point. That's for you. God is saying, I'm your trainer. I know how much you can take.
I know your breaking point. I'll lift the weight off. When I say it's time to lift the weight off. We have a trainer who loves us. Weight that he's allowing to come into our lives. Time under tension. He's pushing us. He's making micro tears in our spirit so that when we consume the protein of the word of God, it builds that muscle back stronger than it was before. And then finally, remember the final thing I said you had to have?
You got to have a goal. Like, why are we going through all this rigmarole? Verse four, it says that God's goal is to develop character in our life. Have you ever prayed this for prayer? God, I wish I was more fill in the blank, more peaceful. You want to be more peaceful? Honestly, you want to have more peace in your life? You really want that?
Because right there's how that's developed. God, I wish I just wasn't so anxious. Okay, you really want to be broken of anxiety?
Yeah. Well, it doesn't come from, well, Pastor Chad, here's a prayer cloth. Well, you'll sweat and spit on that and anoint with the oil and I'll pay you $50 for a prayer cloth and it'll make me less anxious.
It doesn't work that way. God says, I got a gym I want to put you through. And it's going to hurt at times. But when I get through with you, you're going to be spiritually stronger than you've ever been before. God, I'm dealing with depression.
I'm dealing with this. Unless I'm reading this thing wrong, that's the character that God creates through this process. And verse four, Paul points out a particular character trait. He points out hope that is developed in this process. A lot of things are developed through God's gymnasium. But one of the things verse four that's developed is hope.
Here's what you're gonna find. I love older Christians like this, okay? Just because you're chronologically old doesn't mean you're always spiritually old. I've met a lot of Christians who are chronologically old, but they're still babies in Jesus Christ. I've talked about mature Christians who've walked with the Lord for years. Have you noticed this?
The things that rattle our cage and stress us out, a lot of these people, they don't stress these guys out and these ladies out. Why? Because, Chad, I've seen elections come and go. I've seen crises come and go. I've seen political parties rise up. I've seen political parties fall. I saw Hitler rise up. I saw Hitler fall. I've seen this. I've seen that. We've lived long enough to know that God is always in charge.
He's in control. And in the end, it always works out. That's why they never stressed. And I'm catching just a glimpse of this, even in my own life. The things that rattled my cage 25 years ago as a pastor, they don't really rattle my cage as much anymore.
Why? Because I've been in the gymnasium and God's producing hope in me and peace in me. But I got to tell you, it's not always been easy. Sometimes I wonder if my trainer really did love me. Sometimes I wondered, did my trainer really have my best interest at heart?
But he does. And in the end, he loves me too much to leave me as I am. He wants to make me like Jesus.
And so what do you get with the ticket? When you got born again and gave your life to Jesus Christ, number one, you have 24-7 access to the God of the universe. Number two, you have the hope of heaven. This is not your home.
Don't get too comfortable here. It's all going to end one day. We're all going to go home and be with Jesus and sit around his throne and talk and have a good old time. Have you ever heard of the marriage supper of the Lamb? Have you ever heard that the Bible talks about the marriage supper of the Lamb in heaven? I wonder where that's going to be.
I mean, Jesus was a Jew. I don't know if we're going to have barbecue there or not. I don't know, but I do know we're going to sit around the throne of Jesus Christ and just party for all eternity. I have the hope of heaven. Number three, I've got God who has taken me on as his personal growth project.
Doesn't get any better than that jerk. I read a story one time of some ladies who are doing a Bible study and they're going through the book of Malachi. And they got to Malachi chapter three, verse three that says, quote, He, God, will sit as a refiner and a purifier of silver.
And these ladies going through this Bible study in Malachi said, what does that mean? God will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver. This verse puzzled the women until one of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and then get back to the Bible study group next week. That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity at the process of refining silver. As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of raw silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained to the lady that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were the hottest so as to burn away all the impurities. She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined. The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit here holding the silver in the fire, he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.
If it was not left in long enough, the impurities would remain. The woman was silent and then she asked the silversmith, how do you know when the silver is fully refined? He smiled at her and answered, oh that's easy, when I see my image reflecting back in the silver then I know it's refined. And that's where God has some of you right now. He has you in the hottest part of the fire and you need to know he's not for you, he's against you, he's loving you, he's burning out some things that maybe shouldn't be there, he's building some things that need to be built up in you but when he's through you're gonna look just like his son Jesus Christ. He is making you a spiritual giant.
You receive that? So here's what I want you to do, I want you to stand with me right now. Yesterday on this retreat, yesterday I think it was yesterday or the day before, I was praying for y'all. Now here's what was happening, part of the retreat is they do silly games, funny games, I'm not a game player, I'm a grumpy person, I don't do games and silly stuff so while they're doing all the game stuff I was praying for y'all, praying for this service. And here's what I sensed the Holy Ghost said to me, I really felt this in my spirit.
I felt there's some of y'all who are under the weight right now. But you're asking the Father, why are you not taking this off of me? Why has that child not come back home yet?
Why have I not had a breakthrough in my finances yet? Father, the doctor said it's terminal, I've gone back and the cancer is still there, why have you not taken the cancer yet? And as I was praying for you, I sensed God say to me to tell you, and some of you been clinging to your problems, trying to make it work and managing it and if you'll just release to God and let God be God and let it go, here's what I sensed God tell me, God's going to do one of two things, he is either going to produce something supernatural which means, y'all believe in miracles? Some of y'all are going to get a miracle today, that kid's going to come home today, that cancer will be healed today, the finances are going to turn around today, if you're released to God, he's either going to produce something supernatural or he's going to produce strength. He's going to say, now I ain't taking that weight off of you, I got to push it a little bit longer here but I'm building something in you and when you get through, ma'am, when you get through, sir, when my work is done, it's work, when I get done, you will be spiritually stronger than you've ever been in your life.
Hey, either way, you win. If God gives you a supernatural miracle today, you get your supernatural miracle. If he leaves that weight on you, you get stronger in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and he makes you a spiritual giant, you win either way. Some of y'all been hanging on to that problem, trying to manage that problem, and God is like, let it go.
So sometimes we come forward and we raise our hands in worship, sometimes we come forward and we raise it in surrender. I'm asking those of you who are going through a challenging time right now with finances, with family, with health, with whatever, to come and let it go. I'm going to tell you something, either God's going to have it or you won't have it.
God's like, if you want to keep it, you can keep it. I'm a gentleman, I'm going to snatch it out of your hands, but if you want to let it go, I think I can do more in a few seconds if you'll let this thing go than you have done in the last year trying to manage it yourself. So here's what I want us to do now. If you're wrestling with something right now in your life and you're ready to stop fighting, you know, they always tell you if somebody's drowning, what's the cardinal rule to help somebody that's drowning?
Wait till they stop thrashing around and once they stop thrashing around, then you can rescue. God's like, if you'll stop thrashing around and just give me this problem, I can step in and rescue. Those of you who want to release it to God, would you come right now and we're going to raise our hands and we're going to release. I want you to imagine these problems are right here in your hands and you're going to turn them around and you're going to bring them down front and you're going to release them to God right now. Come, come, come, come right now.
Come. Literally take them right like this. Take them like this.
Here's my marriage problem, my financial problem, my health problem, my depression problem, my whatever. I want you to take it like this and we're going to give it to the Father right now. Father, in the name of Jesus, we let it go. Father, we've been trying to make this thing work. It ain't working.
It's getting worse. Father, we've been wrestling with this. Now we just give you this problem. We give you our children. We give you our financial situation. We give you our health situation. Father, we give it over to you right now.
We just let it go. This is yours right now. Say something like that right now in the name of Jesus down front. God, this is yours, Father. It ain't mine. It's not my problem anymore. This is now God's problem.
I don't have a financial problem. It's God's financial problem. I gave it over to God. Give it to Him right now. Give it to Him right now. Just for the next few moments, give Him over to... Well, I don't care what it is you're dealing with. It ain't your problem anymore. It's now God's problem.
Give it to Him right now in the name of Jesus. I turn this over to you. God, I've spoken to this kid till I'm blue in the face. He's not changing.
She's not changing. So now this is your kid, not my kid. This is your prodigal son, not mine. Just give it to Him right now in the name of Jesus.
Father, we give this to you now in the name of Jesus. We give this, hey, sing this to God because I don't trust me. I don't trust circumstances. I don't trust ingenuity.
I don't trust the government. I just trust one thing. I trust in God.
He knows what He's doing. And so can we sing this to the Lord right now? I trust in God. Let's sing this to the Lord right now.
Sing this out. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. He's been my fourth man in the fire time after time. Born of His Spirit.
Washed in His blood. And what He did for me on Calvary was more than enough. Oh, I trust in God, my Savior. The one who will never fail. He will never fail.
I trust in God, my Savior. The one who will never fail. He will never fail. I trust in God, I trust in God, my Savior. The one who will never fail. He will never fail. Listen to me right now. God is in His place right now.
I want you to let that sink in for just a second. God is in His place. Where two or three are gathered in His name, He is there. A divine transference is now taking place. Problems are now being lifted from your shoulders and placed on the shoulders of the one who took that cross for you on Calvary 2000 years ago. His shoulders are big enough, strong enough, powerful enough to take your burden.
You're now transferring that over to the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's hearing you. He's listening to you.
He is building strength in you. He's breaking strongholds right now. He's casting out demonic issues right now. He's bringing kids home right now. He's bringing healing right now.
You believe that right now? God's doing some in the heavenly realms. Oh, if we could take off our physical eyes and put it on our spiritual eyes, we'd see God moving in an amazing place. And so I want you to say this right now by faith.
I want you to sing this. I trusted the Lord. He heard. He answered. I called out to God. He heard.
He answered. I believe He's listening to me. Let's sing that to the Lord right now. I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered. I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered. I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered. That's why I trust Him. That's why I trust Him. I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered. I saw the Lord And He heard and He answered I saw the Lord And He heard and He answered That's why I trust Him That's why I trust Him I saw the Lord And He heard and He answered I saw the Lord And He heard and He answered I saw the Lord And He heard and He answered That's why That's why I trust Him That's why I trust Him I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered That's why I trust Him That's why I trust Him I saw the Lord and He heard and He answered I saw the Lord, and He heard, and He answered.
I saw the Lord, and He heard, and He answered. That's why I trust Him. That's why I trust Him now. You're the one who will never fail. He will never fail.
I trust in God, my Savior, the one who will never fail. He will never fail you. He is in charge. He is in control.
He loves you more than you could ever imagine. Just relax in God right now. In fact, I actually had a man teach me something this years ago. I never thought about this. He says there's something about our faith that activates something supernatural.
I can't explain it, don't know it. But one of the greatest manifestations of our faith is choosing to thank God for the answer to our prayer before we even see the answer to our prayer. Listen, God has already answered your prayers right now. Now we're just waiting for the answer to manifest. You with me? I'll say it again, God has already answered your prayers. We're just waiting for that answer to manifest.
And so by faith, can you just thank God right now for however He's going to answer that prayer. God in His wisdom millennia ago said to the Hebrew priest, when my people come together, Satan has played a big mind game with them throughout the week. He showed them I don't love them anymore. They've done too much.
I can never forgive somebody like that. I'm tired of them. I'm done with them. And so he said to the priest, every now and then, my people need to hear with their own ears. I'm for them.
I'm not against them. Some of y'all with your problems and your challenges, Satan's been playing mind games with you and you think God is mad at you. He's abandoned you.
He is not going to abandon you. You're a child of the Most High God. And so God wants me to be His mouthpiece and say to you, Which means the Lord bless you. You're under a blessing.
You're not under a curse. The Lord bless you and the Lord keep you, which means you're not, you ain't lost your salvation. He's not throwing you away. If you're down here seeking the face of God, that tells me God has you. You don't hold on to God.
God's holding on to you. The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you. That means when God thinks about you, He smiles.
He doesn't frown. The Lord bless you. The Lord keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. The Lord turn His countenance to you, which means God ain't turn His back on you yet.
He's not done with you yet. The Lord turn His countenance to you and give you shalom, peace, wholeness, mind, body, soul, spirit, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, we pray. Amen and amen. You walk in the presence of God and let's go change this world for Jesus Christ. God bless you.
