========================================================================
  PUTTING THE FOCUS BACK ON JESUS
  by Randy Krahn
========================================================================

Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of fearing the Lord,
seeking His guidance, and humbling ourselves before Him. It highlights
the need to turn from sin, trust in God's promises, and wait on Him for
strength and direction. The message urges listeners to prioritize their
relationship with Jesus, seek His cleansing, and be open to His
teachings and revelations.

Topics: "Fear of the Lord", "Humility and Trust in God"
Scripture References: Joel 2:23, Proverbs 3:5, Psalms 25:12, Romans 10:9, Isaiah 58:6

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

This sermon emphasizes the importance of fearing the Lord, seeking His
guidance, and humbling ourselves before Him. It highlights the need to
turn from sin, trust in God's promises, and wait on Him for strength and
direction. The message urges listeners to prioritize their relationship
with Jesus, seek His cleansing, and be open to His teachings and
revelations.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Good morning, family and friends online who have joined us today. Let's
pray. Lord Jesus, you alone are wise, you alone are the one we look to,
the one who can help us with all of our troubles, and you can comfort us
in all our afflictions, because you can identify with us in our
weaknesses.

I pray, Lord Jesus, that you would help us, and that you would bring a
word to us that would stir us up and refresh us, that would revive us
and sustain us, just as our daily bread. And we're grateful for all you
have done, what you're doing, what you have yet to do, because you're
alive, you've risen, in Jesus' name we thank you, amen. We're grateful
for the opportunity to proclaim and stand as ambassadors of Jesus
Christ, and he's given us a hope, greater than the hope of the freedom
rally that's going on.

You know, I've seen people and some of our family, different people are
hoping, they're hoping that things will change as things are going into
more oppression and into more restrictions and into more bondage for
certain groups of people, mainly Christians. But our hope can't be in a
people rising up against tyranny of dictators, our hope has to be in
Jesus. It says, I look unto the hills, and from where comes my help?
Does it come from the truckers who roll down the road, or does it come
from us who would gather together for a cause? The scripture says, our
help comes from the Lord, maker of heaven and earth.

Praise God for it. If God chooses to use a group to stand up and speak
on behalf of people who are oppressed, but we pray to God and our trust
is in God, who delivers us, who has delivered us from so great a death
and does and will yet, there's something worse off than physical
oppression and spiritual oppression. We've been talking about these
things briefly and we shared about how Satan had come and brought his
people, God's people, into bondage, into oppression in Egypt for many
years and then we've seen it again, God's people went astray in their
hearts.

And then he allowed Nebuchadnezzar to rise up and his people came back
into bondage again for many years as a punishment because God's people,
they seem to always go astray in their hearts. The Lord's desire would
be to bless his children, to bless his people, but there's a time when
he has to get our attention because our focus has gotten off of Jesus
and our focus is on all kinds of other things. There was a time when
Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of the lilies in the
field and the temple that he built, the former temple, how magnificent
it was with all the gold and all of the very specific way in which it
was to be constructed was not nearly as glorious as the latter house
that is being built in Jesus.

It says the glory of the latter house will be greater than the glory of
the former house, but yet when we look at the glory of the latter house,
we see the glory but we don't see the house as being anything. When we
look at Jesus, it says there was no, he didn't have no outward beauty
that we should desire him. He didn't have no beautiful form or stately
stature that we should behold him, but it says that he was a man of
sorrows, acquainted with sufferings, acquainted with grief, and it was
that we esteemed him stricken, smitten of God.

It says it pleased the Father to crush him and to make his soul an
offering for sin, not just his body an offering for sin, but his soul,
he made his soul an offering for sin, that he might redeem us by his own
precious blood, that we might be reconciled into one new man in Jesus'
name. Now look at this former temple and its glory and Solomon made a
great dedication and he took thousands of goats and sheep and oxen and
made a huge sacrifice to the Lord and the Lord's glory filled that house
so that the priests couldn't even enter in. It was so great.

And then God gives an exhortation to the people, including to Solomon
and he said, if my people, when the glory departs and when you see the
enemies coming back on the land and when you see famine coming and when
you see pestilence and when you see disorder and you start to cry out
and say, God, where are you? If my people who are called by my name,
that's us as Christians, we're called by the name of Jesus. We call
ourselves Christians. It says some things, if they will humble
themselves and pray and start to seek God's face and to start to turn
from some of their selfish, self-seeking, self-centered ways, their evil
ways.

It says, I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sins and I will
heal their land. There's a land that needs healing and not just the land
of Canada.

It's this land, the land of our hearts. It says if Joshua would have
given them rest when he brought them into this promised land in Israel,
he would not have spoken of another day, saying, today, if you hear his
voice, where do we hear his voice? Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a
light unto my path. We hear, hear, harden not your hearts, as in the
rebellion, for those having heard died.

We don't want to hear that kind of, that way, where having ears we can't
hear and having eyes we can't see, lest we should hear with our ears and
not turn, not repent. You say, man, this preacher preaches repentance
all the time. You know what, there's many things that we need to get
right if we want to see the power of God.

We can have meetings and we can have rallies and these are exciting
things, but if the Holy Spirit is not there, then it all just frizzles
away. It's all just passing. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, that's
where there's a freedom, rather.

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. Where the Spirit of
the Lord is, are you God's freed man? Have you been freed from sin? Have
you been freed from bondage? Have the shackles of sin and the power of
darkness come off of you? Have you become broken and contrite? Are you
one of His broken ones? Do you fear the Lord? Do you stand in the power
of His might? Moses stood in the power of His might. Jesus Christ came
and stood in the power of His Father.

We have to stand in the power of the Holy Spirit. If you've been born
again and filled with the Spirit of God, we have an anointing from the
Holy One. We are set apart from the people of this world.

And we, as a people, need to unite in the spirit of prayer. We need to
humble ourselves. There's ways in which we can humble ourselves.

With fasting. They put on sackcloth. They cover their heads in dust and
ashes.

And I say, in whatever way you humble yourself, become broken. There's a
people who fasted and prayed for cause. That's not the fast from Isaiah
58 that the Lord has chosen.

He said, this is not the fast for our voices to be heard online. We need
our voices to get through to God. As incense before the throne of God,
our prayers need to go through.

As Daniel prayed and he wrestled in prayer, not against flesh and blood,
but principalities and powers and evil hosts of wickedness in heavenly
realms. Because God has given us weapons of warfare, as Tyler shared,
which are not carnal. They're not worldly.

They're not natural weapons. But they're mighty. They're real,
nonetheless, in God for tearing down strongholds.

For casting down arguments. Did you know that a gentle word can break a
bone? You know, a wise heart can teach his mouth and add learning to his
lips. We need to speak the words of the spirit.

We need the words of life. Who will go for us? Is what the great voice
spoke to the prophet Isaiah. And he said, who will go for us? And he
said, Lord, I'm a man of unclean lips.

I dwell among a people of unclean lips. We laugh at everything. We have
big jokes of everything.

We're searching for the newest thing. We're very carnal. And now times
are serious.

And the voice of the Lord comes to us and says, who will go for us? And
then one comes with a live coal and puts a live coal to the lips of
Isaiah. And he says, your sin is purged. Your lips are cleansed.

We need a purging and a cleansing in this hour. That only the Holy
Spirit can give. That only Jesus can do.

You think that Isaiah was this kind of carnal Christian? Do you suppose
Isaiah was just this kind of half-hearted prophet? In the presence of
God, he saw his utter uncleanness. You are holy and I am vile. Even
Jeremiah said these things.

Even Job said these things. You are holy and I am vile. I am a man of
unclean lips.

We need to get light on ourselves. The way God sees things. We don't
measure ourselves among ourselves.

Compare ourselves by ourselves. God is our standard. You know what it
says about Jesus? Why God had exalted him? Because he loved
righteousness and he hated wickedness.

My prayer today was, Lord, I don't hate wickedness. Not the way you hate
wickedness. I say I hate wickedness, but I don't loathe those things you
loathe.

I don't see it the same way. Give me your eyes. Give me your heart.

That I might loathe uncleanness. When the scripture says, touch not the
unclean thing and I will receive you. When Isaiah says, I am a man of
unclean lips.

To get a revelation of our uncleanness before a holy God. And say, Lord,
send me. Not what I can do.

But as a spokesman. For the Lord Jesus Christ. And what was Isaiah to
proclaim? To keep proclaiming that God was going to send his wrath.

And judgment on the people of God. Though they would not hear, he would
continue to preach. And how long would he preach? Until every city was
laid desolate.

Until people wouldn't cry out for truckers to deliver them. They would
cry out to Almighty God to save them. If my people who are called by my
name would humble themselves.

And say, Lord, I am a man of unclean lips. I am a woman of unclean lips.
I don't loathe uncleanness the way you loathe uncleanness, Jesus.

Give me a revelation of your holiness. Help me to understand the fear of
the Lord. Of all the seven spirits of God in Isaiah.

In chapter 11 it says, his delight is in the fear of the Lord. Of Jesus.
We don't understand the fear of the Lord.

It is the key to unlocking wisdom. Knowing God. And understanding who he
is.

He is holy. High and lifted up. That's where he dwells.

In the high and the lofty place. And with him and her. Who is humble.

Who is broken. And who trembles when the word of God is preached. We
need to tremble at the preaching of the word of God.

When God speaks to us, do we tremble? If we don't tremble at the word of
God, then we are not yet low as so God has to get our attention.
Whenever we read scripture, and we come upon a scripture, a passage that
speaks to our heart, we ought to tremble. There's times when I read
something, I close the book, and I set it aside, and I say, Lord, that's
not real in my life.

I need you to help me. Because I can't live according to this book
unless you change my heart. Because there's uncleanness there.

And unless the Lord meets us in that place, there's no sense reading on.
We can go through this book, but unless that book gets in our hearts,
and it becomes a part of us. Then our worship towards him is in vain.

When the armies continue to descend upon God's people and bring them
into bondage and captivity, and bring them into darkness, for all the
while we see that the sin remains. But who will go for us? Jesus came,
and he stood in the temple, and he said, this day is fulfilled in your
hearing. He said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he's
anointed me to preach good news to the poor.

He said, to heal the brokenhearted, and to bind up those who are
hurting, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and to release
those who are full of evil spirits, and that they can be free, and to be
filled with the power and glory of God, so that he can be exalted. I
want to become like that. I don't know about you, but it's not real in
my life.

Not yet. I want to see people set free. I want to see my children free.

I want to see my neighbors free, my family. I want to see the people of
God free. We have people in our church whose evil spirits are not free.

We need the power of God to descend upon us, the church, to set the
captives free. It's not enough to be able to discern these things. We
need to see the power of God.

He dwells in the high and the lofty place, and within who is humble, and
who is broken, and who trembles when God speaks. I don't profess to know
much, but I want to know, heaven, the power of God and the resurrection.
I want to know the power of God and his resurrection.

That the life of Jesus would come and manifest in our mortal bodies.
That we'd no longer be slaves to sin, but the power of God would show
himself strong in us through the spirit. That we could be so changed
that people would know that we're Christians.

We're so enamored with everything that glitters out there, including all
the pleasures and all the lusts of the flesh. But we don't have hunger
and thirst for righteousness. We're being filled with everything else.

Our flesh is being satisfied with everything else, but we don't hunger
and thirst for Jesus, for his word. Come, Lord Jesus, come. The glory of
this ladder house shall be greater.

It says in Joel 2, I was reading that there's going to be a ladder rain.
I want to share my understanding of that with you this morning. We
shared last week from Joel chapter 2. Joel chapter 2, verse 21, after
the army's gone through and the judgment of God has come to deal with
his people and to humble them.

Because they would not humble themselves. He says in Joel chapter 2,
verse 21, fear not, O land. Be glad and rejoice, for the Lord God has
done marvelous things.

Do not be afraid, you beasts of the field. For the open pastures are
springing up again. The tree bears its fruit.

The fig tree and the vine yield their strength. Be glad then, you
children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God. For though he has
torn us, yet will he bind us up.

Though he has wounded us, yet he will heal us. And he will come to us
like rain, spring rain, both the former rain and the latter rain shall
come upon his people. And we shall see the glory of God.

He has given you the former rain faithfully, verse 23. He will cause the
rain to come down on you, the former rain and the latter rain, in the
first month. The threshing floor shall be full of wheat.

And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. God is going to visit
us. He is going to help us.

And I don't know what you're all going through today, but help is not
far off. The word is near us, it's in our heart and it's in our mouth,
that word which we preach. That if we confess with our mouth the Lord
Jesus and we believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, we
believe in the resurrection, we shall be changed.

For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth,
confession is made unto salvation. Romans 10, 9 and 10. That word we
preach is living and is active and it's powerful and it's sharp.

May the Lord give us a sharp word to cut the hearts of heartened hearts
and heartened men and women who have strayed from Christ, who once
walked with God, who become disillusioned with religion, who become
frustrated because of hypocrisy, and justified themselves in being taken
captive and didn't realize it was going to cost them their life. Yet now
who would stand in the gap and who would be called the repairers of the
breach and who would proclaim a solemn assembly and call on the name of
the Lord to see God move again in the hearts of those who are
backslidden and dumb. Are you the one who would say, Lord send me? You
say, well, I don't have a Bible school.

Well, I don't have a formal education. I'm an untrained man. I'm not
eloquent of speech.

Moses said these things. Paul said these things. Peter and John said
they were untrained and uneducated men.

But the qualification is, have you been with Jesus? Have you been to
Jesus for that cleansing flood? Have you been washed in the blood of the
Lamb? You say, well, I'm not eloquent of speech. I'm not a smart guy.
I'm not this.

I'm not that. It's not what you say you are. It's what God says you are.

He calls those things that are not as though they are. And he raises up
the nothing things. The things that are abased.

The foolish things that the world has no use of. And he raises those
things up like David's worthless rogues and calls them mighty men of
valor. When he looks at Gideon in the lion's crest and he says, oh
mighty men of valor.

And he looks at you and you hear that voice. I've heard it once before.
Oh mighty men of valor.

And you say, who me? He's going to restore new wine and oil. So I will
restore to you the years. I don't have to look too far back to 1998 when
the Lord had mercy on me.

I was one of those backslidden ones for many years living in sin. Had no
business preaching the word of God. That he should use me in any
capacity or form.

And while I was still practicing sin. While I was still clubbing and
going to church on Sundays with absolutely no conviction. A heart brazen
and unrepentant.

That my dad fasted for me for 40 days. At the end of that 40 day fast
some preacher came up to me at some meeting. That I happened to be at
because my business partner's wife was leaving me.

Begged me to go. I didn't want to be there. I didn't want conviction.

Because I knew that I couldn't change. I tried changing. I couldn't
change.

And I ended up at this meeting. And this pastor came up to me. I don't
know who he was.

I was standing there and I was heading out of the service. And he put
his finger in my chest and he said this. He said, the Lord is going to
restore to you the years the locusts have eaten.

He's going to restore to you what the crawling locusts and the consuming
locusts and the chewing locusts have eaten out of your life. And I
started to weep. And I didn't weep in those days.

I was brazen and I was harmed. It says here, my great army which I sent.
These locusts, they came from God.

They came to destroy the lives of people whose hearts had turned away
from him. But he used them now to bring his people into such a place
where they looked up unto God to be saved. You shall eat in plenty and
be satisfied again.

You shall praise the name of the Lord your God once again who has dealt
wondrously with you. He's torn us, but he's bandaged us. He's wounded
us, but he's healing us.

And he will come to us, my brothers and sisters, like rain. And we're
waiting on him to bring times of refreshing that would come from the
Lord. So that when we see people, people will once again call on the
name of their God.

And see that it's a time to get right with the Lord because the days are
short and the days are evil. How shall they call upon him in whom
they've not believed? A lot of people become disillusioned. They've
stopped believing.

They've started to put their trust in other things. And when affliction
begins to come, we start to put our trust in people, in men. In some who
would rise up like maybe Barabbas who would have some kind of an
uprising.

Maybe Barabbas is the one to deliver us from the bondage of these Romans
and from Herod and from Pilate. And then we find out Barabbas is the one
who's taken and he's one to be crucified. And all our hope was lost.

And then all of a sudden, we see Jesus. And Pilate holds Jesus and he
says, You want Jesus to be crucified or you want Barabbas to be
crucified? And God's people say, give us Barabbas. Our hope was in
Barabbas.

Maybe Barabbas can get some more men together and we can get something
going here. And then all of a sudden, in one accord, they begin to say
crucify him. Crucify this Jesus.

Crucify him. And we all like sheep have gone astray from the Good
Shepherd. And it was appointed at that time that Jesus would be the one
who would face the punishment and the sin.

Our sin, which was laid upon him. And he was wounded for our
transgressions and he received stripes. Many blows that cut into his
skin deep so that we could be healed.

We see this plague going through the land and many of our people are
sick now from it in our fellowship. I want to tell you, Barabbas isn't
the one who died for you. Don't put your hope in Barabbas that he's
going to save you.

Put your hope in God. Jesus is the one who paid the penalty for sickness
and for shame and for sin. He's the one we look to.

It says they looked to him and they were radiant and their faces were
not ashamed. In Joel 2, when these armies came, they were all drained of
color. They were white with fear.

But now we look to Jesus and we can be radiant. Our faces are no longer
ashamed. Lord, who has believed our report? To whom has the right hand
of the Lord been revealed? Has Jesus been revealed to you? Give us clean
hands and a pure heart.

Who may ascend unto the hill of the Lord? Give us clean hands and a pure
heart. Lord, let us not idolize anyone or anything more than the Lord
Jesus Christ. Let us not lift up our souls to any idol, whether it be
some kind of machine or vehicle, or some kind of teen idol, or any kind
of sports idol, or any kind of career idol.

Let us look to the Lord from where comes our help. Jesus is the one who
saves. I encourage you to look to him and be saved.

Look to Jesus. He is our hope. He is our peace.

He is our rest. He is our salvation. And he is our all in all.

Come to Jesus with all your heart. Don't lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways, acknowledge him in Proverbs 3, and he will direct your
steps.

His word is unto us a lamp. All these virgins had a lamp. While they had
all slumbered and slept, they went to trim their wicks.

Their lamps were going out. Perhaps your lamp has been going out.
Brother, sister, pray that you have extra oil in your vessel for the
hour in which we're entering.

And get that lamp burning in your waist curtain so that you will not be
wanting on the day when Jesus comes. Because he will come quickly. He
will come suddenly.

And we don't want to miss him. You do not want to miss him. Let the word
of God be to you as your daily food.

As your source, as the manna that guides you and sustains you. You won't
have a hunger for the word of God so long as you're hungering after all
these other things that are in the world. The scripture says in 1 John,
in chapter 2, 15, I think.

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him. If you love the things in
the world, you will not hunger and thirst for righteousness.

Because you will be filled with all kinds of thoughts and the things
that the hogs are eating. Hunger and thirst for righteousness. Desire
truth in the hidden part.

Earnestly seek to know him. Jesus says, my word is truth. The scripture
says, ye shall know the truth.

And it's that truth that will make you free. Jesus is God's word. In the
beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

And the word became flesh and dwelt about us. We beheld his glory. That
word has to become flesh in you.

Bone of your bone and flesh of your flesh as we are to be the bride of
Christ. Become one with Christ. So gloriously born again not of
corruptible seed but of incorruptible seed through the word of God which
lives and abides forever.

The word of God says, call on me and I shall answer thee and show you
great and awesome things which thou knowest not. Paul said he wanted to
speak many things of heavenly things but he wasn't permitted. Jesus told
the disciples, I want to share many things with you but you're not able
to receive them.

The Holy Spirit wants to reveal many things of God to you. Will you make
a room? Will you make a room? Will you empty yourself so that you can be
filled? I woke up this morning with the scripture in my heart and he
says, if you will remove the precious from the vial, then you shall be
my mouthpiece. If you'll not touch the unclean thing, I will receive
you.

There's promises to us. But if we remove the precious from the vial,
then we shall be his mouthpiece. If we come out from among them and be
separate, says the Lord, not touching what is unclean, he will receive
us.

There's a promise that he'll be a father to us and we shall be his sons
and daughters, says the Lord Almighty. Since we have these great
promises, brothers, sisters, let us cleanse ourselves of all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit. Let us perfect holiness in the fear of God.

A brother of mine sent me scripture this morning, and I'll finish here
in Psalm 25. I'm doing everything I can to hold myself together this
morning. I'm sorry.

Psalm 25, verse 12. Who is the man who fears the Lord? Him shall he
teach in the way he chooses. Do you fear the Lord this morning? Are you
teachable? Because if you don't have a fear of God, you're not
teachable.

He himself shall dwell in prosperity, the man who fears the Lord. He and
his descendants, his children, shall dwell in the earth. The secret of
the Lord, those secrets that he wants to share with you, are with those
who fear him.

Come unto me and listen to me, and I will show you great and awesome
things which thou knowest not. The secret of the Lord is with them who
fear him. He will show them his covenant.

He will teach you his ways. You will understand his paths. The eyes are
ever towards the Lord, David says, for he shall pluck my feet out of the
net.

If you want the Lord to help you in a time of trouble, then choose the
fear of the Lord. Turn yourself to me, verse 16. Have mercy on me, O
Lord, for I am desolate and afflicted.

David humbled himself before God, and he asked the Lord often for help.
We have to humble ourselves before God, come to him on our knees, come
to him however you are, wherever you're at, and ask him for help. Bring
me out of our distress.

You find yourself in, whether you're sick, in need of healing in your
body, whether you're in bondage to sin, pornography, uncleanness, love
of money, bitterness, unforgiveness, resentment, whatever it looks like.
Bring me out of my distress. Look on my affliction and my pain.

Bring times of refreshing again from the Lord. Forgive me of all my
sins. This is what repentance is.

Turning from our evil ways, let me not be ashamed, verse 20, for I put
my trust in you. Integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I'll wait
for my God. Wait on the Lord.

They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall
mount up again with wings as eagles. They shall overcome all their
problems and all the weight of sin and the weight of the cares of life
and all that.

They shall run and not grow weary. They shall walk and not faint. We
need to wait on God.

That's where our help comes from. Wait on the Lord. And He will give you
the desire of your heart, whether it is a wife you're waiting for,
whether it is a deliverance that you're looking for, whether it is
direction for your future that you need.

Wait on God and He will direct your path. Don't trust in your own ways.
We have received the mind of Christ if we're born again.

We have the mind of Christ. Don't trust in your head, in your reason, in
your wisdom and in your knowledge. Trust in the Lord.

And He will direct your path. Look to Him and salvation will come from
the Lord as a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. In the name of Jesus,
be encouraged.

Amen.

========================================================================
Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/tCX3YTap0MU.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/randy-krahn/putting-the-focus-back-on-jesus/
========================================================================