Tulsa, Oklahoma - Session 1

I ask your forgiveness, my God, if I have made a mess of this. If I have broken off more than this people can chew in one night, in one statement. It's too comprehensive, it's too demanding, my God. These are new categories, we can't assimilate, we can't take this in. Just to consider Israel and the significance of your intention. We should have stopped there. But how the church relates, how the church is the ace up your sleeve, how the church is the salvific agent of God, having come to a certain condition that is ultimate. And how to come to that, except by the cross, is a subject in itself. So Lord, I'm asking mercy, even a mercy to understand. For if you don't extend to us a mercy to understand this, how shall we extend mercy? And if it takes a mercy merely to understand this saga that completes the age, this great and final drama, what will it take to perform it? Lord, this is beyond charismatica. This is beyond amen and hallelujah, and so-called revivals and backslaps. This is ultimate. This is the cross, this is put up or shut up. This is the truth of death and resurrection. So have mercy, Lord. Have mercy, my God. Let your word be like the hammer upon the rock that continues its incessant beating until our granite cracks and our little brittle categories give up. Our little pet notions are forsaken, and we admit the revelation of God into our inner being, knowing that this is going to be costly. This is ultimate requirement, and one that we cannot make alone. It calls for the church to be the church. Not the passive and casual accumulation of saints in pews, but the integral body of Christ, able to respond to the commandment of God to prophesy to the bones in the moment of your choosing. So, Lord, I bless this people. I ask mercy upon them and upon me. Disturb us through the night hours. Have us to pour over this text and bring us to other related scriptures that begins to open our understanding of what has been lost to the church in all these ages old and for which we have paid such a price. That mere sentimental affinity with Jews and with Israel is only a beep. It's not enough. It's got to go. It itself, however well-meaning, needs to be brought to death. We need something larger. We need the great heart of God that loves us and dies for us while we are yet enemies. So have mercy, Lord. Break into our categories and our brittle understanding. Upturn what you will and what you must. Bring us, my God, into that union with yourself, with your heart, with your thoughts that will disqualify us for the world. That will make us to stand out like the proverbial sore thumb. That will make us queer, strange, hearing another drummer, having another anticipation of the meaning of this age, walking in another way, having another kind of value, being mocked before the powers of darkness who will consider us a threat because we now understand the issue of Israel in the context of God. Bless the tape, Lord. Give us occasion to hear it, to see it, to ponder, to reflect. Mercy, Lord, break us up in the deeps. Open our understanding. Grant us a view of your sovereignty as enthroned and on time in everything. We bless you. Thank you for sharing your heart tonight, Lord. Continue with us, Lord. Perform your word as a work in these days, as an event that shall not return to you void. We bless your name. Thank you, Lord. Just let me stay like this, head bowed, bent over. Brooding. I'm feeling extremely groggy, tired, but far from being a hindrance from the Lord that gives him the greater opportunity. So, Lord, let your strength be made perfect in our weakness and grant us again the privilege of hearing not only your words but the voice of your speaking. There's something about your voice, Lord, that is soothing and a balm. And so let that precious divine syrup and sap flow out from the throne of heaven and find the deepest cockles of our heart and lubricate them. So we bless you, Lord. When you minister to the saints, Lord, you really minister. And so we ask that healing, restoration, deliverance, whatsoever and altogether, everything out of your great redemptive heart and power, effected through your obedience to death at the cross, your resurrection and ascension in glory. Let us receive, my God, the benefit this morning, more than we have known, a real appropriation, unto joy unspeakable and full of glory. In Jesus' name we pray. And God's people said amen. Psalm 107. You wonder if I'll ever get out of the Psalms. Not that I want to. Precious. O give thanks unto the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy and gathered them out of the lands from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south. They wandered in the wilderness in a solitary way. They found no city to dwell in, hungry and thirsty. Their soul fainted in them. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses. And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men, for he satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Such as sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron, because they rebelled against the words of God and condemned the counsel of the Most High. Therefore he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down and there was none to help. Then they cried unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness under the shadow of death and broke their bands asunder. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men, for he hath broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron asunder. Fools because of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted. Their soul abhors all manner of meat and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he saves them out of their distresses. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men and let them sacrifice the sacrifice of thanksgiving and declare his works with rejoicing. They that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters, these see the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. For he commands and raises the stormy wind which lifts up the waves thereof. They mount up to the heaven. They go down to the depths. Their soul is melted because of trouble. They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man and are at their wit's end. Then they cry unto the Lord in their trouble and he brings them out of their distresses. He makes the storm a calm so that the waves thereof are still. Then they are glad because they be quiet. So he brings them unto their desired haven. O that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders. He turns rivers into a wilderness and the water springs into dry ground, a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. He turns the wilderness into a standing water and dry ground into water springs and there he makes the hungry to dwell that they may prepare a city for habitation and sow the fields and plant vineyards which may yield fruits of increase. He blesses them also so that they are multiplied greatly and suffers not their cattle to decrease. Again they are diminished and brought low through oppression, affliction and sorrow. He pours contempt upon princes and causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way. Yet to see the poor on high from affliction and makes them families like a flock. The righteous shall see it and rejoice and all iniquity shall stop her mouth. Who so is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. No comment necessary. If you believe that that is more than poetry. If you believe that that is the declarative statement of Hebraic faith that is definitive and true. That is not a gloss. It's not some inflated pompous reference to God that makes a nice sound in the ear and cannot be authenticated. This is a remarkable psalm. All the psalms are remarkable. But this is the faith of Israel. The question is, is it our faith? You know how many times that the psalmist talks about let the men praise the Lord, let them... Where is it? Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men. Oh, that they would. That's the repeated cry of the psalmist. Oh, that they would. They have every reason to. Why don't they? Because they're constipated. They're proud. They're bound up. They're not accustomed to saying with their mouth. They don't make pronouncement. They're passive. And therefore they continue to... What's the word? I don't want to say luxuriate. That's not the word. They continue to dwell, to be fixed in the morass of their condition. They continue to linger, vegetate, languish. That's the word. I knew if I kept going long enough. They continue to languish in their condition when their liberation is as close as their mouth, according to this psalm. If this psalm is inspired of God, we would be eternally embarrassed to have passed it and to allow ourselves to languish in a condition that could have been ended by a praise that comes out of our mouth. I just bought a new book right on this trip, thanks to Reggie. Took me to the bookstore in Dallas. Or was it Fort Worth, Reggie? Fort Worth. Fort Worth. Israel's Praise by a distinguished non-Jewish scholar of Old Testament. One of his more recent books is Old Testament Theology. He's an expert on the psalms. And when I saw this title, I went for it like, I don't know what, gangbusters. I didn't care what the price was. Extravagant. I got one book on worship and one book on praise, plus a number of others. Because there's something in my spirit in these days that wants to delve into the genius of the Hebraic faith. The essential character of it. The spirit and the substance of it, which I sense has been lost to our contemporary church. There's something about the faith of Israel, I'm not talking about apostate Israel, believing Israel, that needs to be resuscitated, found again, and made our own. Praise is the distinctive mark of a people who have found it. It's an exclamation of a unique kind. You know, I think I've already said it in one form or another, I'm remarkably impressed with the faculty of speech. The phenomenon of talking. I mean, wow, what a gift. Talk about being made in God's image, that we can make sound that is more than a chirping, more than a beep, more than a howl, that we can articulate words that convey meaning, and ultimate meaning, and address not only to man, but to God. That praise can rise up out of our earth and ascend heaven. If that's not liberating, I don't know what is. If that doesn't establish our humanity, and glorify this piece of creation, before the witnesses of men, I don't know what is. To remain dumb, and passive, and impotent, and unspeaking, is almost a slap in the face of the Most High. It's a statement of sullen insolence, and, what's the word? Come on, Lord. Rebellion is strong. Intransigence, calculated selfish pouting, that refuses to condescend to give God the praise, until he demonstrates a full liberation and deliverance, and then maybe I'll consider it. Well, you dumb-dumb, that praise could have been yours if you had yielded, and given him your voice, even before the evidence of your deliverance, for that would have been your deliverance, according to this psalm. Oh, I'm willing to go for broke saints, I don't know about you. I have very little patience for long-term therapy, and patient counseling, and all of the other kinds of things that we dutifully perform, if there's a more direct alternative given by God. That has its origin out of our own mouths. Let me tell you a little bit about what Walter Brueggemann has to say, about the uniqueness of praise, as appropriate to the faith of Israel. The particularity of Israel's faith, it constructs a very particular world that is different from, and in direct tension with other available worlds. This very particular world is shaped, according to the particular character of Yahweh. That's the pronunciation of Yod-Heh-Vov-Heh, the tetragamaton, the four consonants of the Hebrew alphabet, that can be pronounced Jehovah, Yahweh, the pronunciation is arbitrary, because we Jews are so stingy, we don't give the vowel markings, we just give the consonants and let you guess how to pronounce it. Only the high priest, once a year on Yom Kippur, when he took the blood of the sacrifice into the holiest place of all, he alone knew how the name of the Lord is to be pronounced, nobody else. All we have are possible options, so Yahweh, Jehovah, but the Lord is not insulted. Take, you know, however you choose to pronounce it, the name of the Lord is the Lord, it's what He is in His particular character, who convenes, who initiated this world and presides over it. So, everything is rooted in Israel's relationship with Jehovah, with Yahweh. He's the predicate, the foundation of their whole worldview, and it's a world that is in tension and opposition to that which is visible. It's the world that is to come, it's the hope, it's the prospect of the future, it's the eternal millennial glory. And that in this one we are pilgrims and strangers, but we have a hope and an anticipation, and we can even enjoy many of its benefits, because Paul says, I have my citizenship in heaven. He's already there. My conversation, Jesus said to Nicodemus about himself, the son of man, no man ascends to heaven who has not first come down, even the son of man who is in heaven. How can he say that, speaking to a Jewish religious leader in Jerusalem, and say the son of man who is in heaven? Because his feet and his mortal body are in Jerusalem, but his essential being is in heaven. And if he can say that for himself, we also ought to be able to say that. Yes, I'm in Tulsa, Oklahoma, but where is my essential being? What is the reality that really defines me and establishes the truth of my existence? Is it the thing that's visible, the realm that's here, or that which is from above? Am I bringing something of the trails of glory from heaven as I proceed from the Kmart to Texaco gas station or wherever? Are we trailing clouds of glory with us into the secular place? You know, we have a choice to make of just what this faith is and how we understand it and how we live and move and have our being. We can be robbed so easily of its glory, and I'm trying to catch Israel's sense of it, that we as the church can communicate back to them what they now have lost and need to be made jealous. He quotes from another German scholar. It's amazing how the great Old Testament scholars are invariably German. I never can dope that out. I know that they're fastidious and painstaking in detail, and you need that. And they are grammarians, and they are Hebraists, and they have really wrestled with the Psalms and with the Hebrew texts. And they are the great pioneers in opening up the Psalms and giving us insight. And here's one whom he's quoting, that Israel's central liturgic act is the enthronement of Yahweh as king. It's not that it waits for Israel to enthrone him when he says Israel's enthronement. It's the acknowledgment of Israel that Yahweh is king. It's Israel's preeminent act of world construction, the outcome of which is a world over which Yahweh or Jehovah rules. You imagine these Hebrews believing that when they were almost invariably the victims of the oppression of neighboring conquering nations, the Persians and the Medes and the Assyrians and the Babylonians, one conquest after another, and these poor saps believe that God is enthroned, that this is the definitive foundation of Hebrew faith, the enthronement of Yahweh. That's either paranoid or its ultimate sanity. Even when there's not a visible evidence to support it, to believe that is a freeing conviction. And that enables them to sing to Yahweh a new song. And to invite all the earth to celebrate Israel's God and to sing with rejoicing unto him who is enthroned. Something happens when you praise God. Now, I'm a survivor, barely, of that charismatic generation that has majored in praise and has made it a technique and a methodology by which you obtain something. It's a near miss. It's a, what shall I say? It's something like this submission, discipleship and submission that was so popular earlier in our generation, where there's an essential biblical truth that the time that it has passed through the hands of men, it has been transposed into a system and it becomes a caricature and it has its victims rather than its liberated souls. And the same thing has happened with praise, with now worship. What's happening with worship now? My God, are men merchandising in it? If you want to go far, become a worship leader and worship team and the electronic specialist and all the auditory things. Praise God for Watchman Knee warning us in 1923 about the latent power of the soul and heeding and saying be careful that in the last days the use of music, sound, is going to be one of the most powerful instrumentalities of bringing the church into subjection to its soul. That's the realm that the enemy occupies and manipulates through feeling, emotion and thought and that it will be aided and abetted by the use of music. Watch out. Better to have a cracked and pitched, wrongly pitched voice than to sing like the Mormon Tabernacle Choir as a technique or a methodology that thinks you're going to bring God down. I'm the sap in some conference in Minneapolis of ministers where one man made a presentation, how to bring God down through worship. I said, what? What do you think, that we can manipulate him? Better that we be manipulated by him. I said, if you want to aid the church, don't teach it a method of how to bring God down by its worship. Teach it how to live without the conscious, felt presence of God in crisis and yet believe that it's there. So we need to be on God about the misuse of everything, even the word faith. What shall I tell you in Tulsa, Oklahoma? Is there a place on earth where that word has perhaps not suffered more abuse than here? And yet for all that, praise needs to be resuscitated. I'm talking about the authentic thing that is a liberating act in itself because it declares something, it makes a statement about a reality that is not necessarily evident or visible, but is true. And it's a liberating truth when you say it. When you choose to say it, when you choose to declare it, even in the face of all that is contrary, you're set free. And that which you have declared becomes the fact. Isn't it remarkable? Another man using the same text and saying essentially the same thing can caricature this precious thing and make it a device, but I'm setting it forth as holy, holy, holy. The privilege of the church who are invited into the Hebraic faith to be a people of praise, not when you're feeling good. That's a snap. But to give praise when you're not feeling good, when you're depressed, when you're overcome, when you're wrestling against great odds, when victory seems elusive, when you're struggling through a difficult marriage, whatever. Then praise is triumphant. It's a statement of fact contrary to that which is seen. It promises something not yet visible, but the hope of it is certain and settled. That's what makes praise praise, see? Otherwise it's just a verbalization. Otherwise it's just a prompted response that anyone can be provoked to perform. In other words, it becomes a performance. God is not in the performance business. He's in authenticity business. He wants a praise that is heartfelt, that goes right through the ceiling and ascends to very heaven itself. It's a power. If it rings true, out of your mouth and out of your heart, thank you. It's an imaginative act which runs out beyond visible reality. It's an act of hope. It promises and anticipates a hopeful world that is beyond present reality and in fact establishes and creates that reality. Do you know that we're co-creators with God? I don't want to be impolite, let alone blasphemous, to suggest that He needs our help. But He invites us, particularly in the areas that touch the reality of our own personal life and our corporate life, to be co-creators with Him, when they will be ruling and reigning with Him. And so by the act, faith is an act, and by the act of praise, something is created that was not there before it came out of our mouth. The withholding of our voice. I can't get away from that. It's such a statement of insolence, of pouting, of self-will, of maybe even enjoying languishing in our present disability because it encourages so much sympathy and no one expects from us the full kinds of performance that others give who are healthy. That's why Jesus said to that paralytic, Will thou be made whole? Maybe you like, you've not only gotten used to it, but it has a kind of a syrupy satisfaction. I mean, self-pity is one of the most powerful, important forces. Who knows it better than Jews? My mother is a master in wringing her fingers and loving every drop she can extract about this woodrunner and my son, and my son the evangelist. She should be rejoicing for a son who is serving the God of Israel, but she enjoys lamenting more than she does rejoicing. It's a fixed mode of a sickly and perverse lifestyle. It's a wonder she's been able to carry it for 95 years. She's not living like a Hebrew. So think about it. How much of your condition has had a longer tenure than it deserves? Because in a perverse way, you can come to enjoy it or have a kind of a secret satisfaction in it. You like being the object of sympathy or attention. You don't want to be required of from others who would then expect obligation if you're considered whole. It's another kind of crippling thing from which you can be set free by the praise of your own mouth. What's his name? And Tulsa would be proud of me now. What's his name? Ken Hagen. I'd be invited to join the staff. So the world-making doxology of Israel is a threat precisely because it's a formidable act of legitimation. You know what he's saying in all this fancy word? Israel in its praise is defining and establishing reality. It's making an announcement to the powers of the air and to all who hear and especially the nations. What is the truth of reality contrary to that which is visible and perceived? And by declaring what is true in the sight of the God of Jehovah Yahweh, they're also delegitimizing that which is not true. They're saying if this is true, that's false. It's a tremendous act of defining reality and putting things in their right place. Not only affirming what is godly, but by that act saying this is ungodly, this is negative, this is from the powers of darkness, this is invalid, this is false, this is deceptive. We should have no truck with that. It asserts God's world and no other. This God and no other. No other God, no other world. Israel sings that the world of justice, mercy, equity, righteousness and peace is the real world, even if it is not yet available in polity, in reality. This is the real world. And it sings it. If we think that's talking and praising is a remarkable phenomenon, what should we say about singing? That's the ultimate expression of praise, of word, of tribute, even given melody, even ultimately our own melody. However much we appreciate Charles Wesley or other hymnists, our own melody, to make melody in our hearts unto the Lord. Wow, there's a power in that sense. I'm so appreciating this. So the capacity to legitimate is also the capacity to delegitimate, to declare some arrangements as being dysfunctional, lacking in authority and effectively non-existent. It's saying yes to one reality, no to another, by our praise and by what we declare. When Israel finished its doxology, not only is a God enthroned and a world available, but other gods and other worlds are excluded from Israel's social horizon and possibility. They've made the other gods and the world a no-no. They have affirmed the one and negated the other out of their own mouths. And this song breaks out in newness because Jehovah's power for life will not be contained. Israel sings freely because Yahweh acts freely. This isn't a fixed, once and for all learned liturgy. It's ever fresh, ever unique, ever new, as we continue to experience the redemptive marvel of God, moment by moment and day by day. So it's always a new song. So let's just review again what we have been reading. He is good, his mercy, verse 1, endures forever. It will not wear out. It's not a cheapie that's going to prove ineffective after a first flash in the pan success. It endures forever. Believest thou this? It endures forever. Believest thou this? Well, I don't know, Art. It's not been my experience. I've had momentary ups, but then more consistent downs. It endures forever. Believe that. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Believe that. It endures forever. Because it's his mercy. And he is eternal. Whatever issues from him has got to endure, it's what he is. He's not in the business of short-term provision. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Can you imagine having been redeemed and not enjoying the benefits because we refuse to acknowledge it with our own mouths? That's why this invocation is given. That's why that encouragement is given. This psalm is inspired by the spirit of God. Because God knows there are a lot of saints sitting on their hands and keeping their mouths pursed and refusing to open their yaps. Though the redemption has already been wrought, they're not obtaining its benefit because they're too silent about it. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Lord, I'm redeemed. Whom the sun sets free is free indeed. And so, whether we are wandering the wilderness or solitary places, finding no city to dwell in, hungry, thirsties, our souls fainting, when we cry unto the Lord in our trouble, he delivers them out of their distresses. That's what the name of Jesus means. Yahshua is deliverance, is redemption, is salvation. That's what you should call his name. He shall deliver his people from this end. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness. Can you hear the ache of God in that? Oh, that God would. Oh, that men would. Why don't they? The Lord is scratching his head. Why don't they? Oh, that they would. They have every reason that they should. Why don't they? Well, because they're stubborn, Lord. Because they're perverse. Because they're waiting for the full realization. Because they don't see it. Because, because. Oh, that they would. God coaxing his love, drawing out. Oh, that they would. If they would, they would receive what is already a finished act for them. Oh, that they would. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Even those that sit in darkness, in verse 10, in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and iron. Do you notice how extreme these descriptions are? As if God is going out of his way to find the most radical description of men in uttermost distress. They're on the high seas, the waves are ready to engulf them, their ships are falling apart. I've been in situations like that. Or they're bound in iron, or they're inflicted, or they're in wilderness, or in solitary places. He's not taking mediocre situations. He's taking the most extreme situations that could be found, that men could experience. And he says, in them, they are delivered. In them, God sets them free. Because he hears their cry, and he saves them out of their distresses. He, he, he. Look at how I marked this up this morning while you were yet sleeping. With my yellow marking pen. Every he, he, he, he, he. That's your God. That's the God of Israel. That's the creator king, who made the heaven and the earth by brooding over chaos by his spirit, and speaking, let there be. What, that God can't recreate us? That God can't break the power of whatever situation we're in? Out of our own sin, intransigence, foolishness, stupidity? Or we are the victims of, of our forebears, and suffering the consequence of their sin? Whatever the cause, he can't deliver us? Who created the heaven and the earth, and all that in, in them is? Hey, have you seen the stars lately? I would be a depressed man, if I were not living in Minnesota. How many times has something welled up in me that is so ancestrally Jewish, that is wanting to encourage me to self-pity? You've given, you could have had a great career in showbiz art. Such a natural eloquence. Jewish Billy Graham. And where are you? Out in the boondocks. People think you're dead, they haven't heard from you since the 1970s. And look at this bunch of malcontents and mal-fit characters with whom you've been joined together, who don't even appreciate it, and don't take up their garbage, and borrow your wife's pot and pans, and don't bring them back. Who asked for this? And I walk out in the night, and I look up at the Minnesota sky. Unobstructed by skyscrapers. And I see this remarkable spectrum. This glorious piece of handiwork, of which it says in Genesis, And he made the stars also. P.S. A little afterthought. P.S. And you know what happens to my depression and my self-pity? Poof! Just like that. Boom. It goes. He made that, and he made me, and he's sovereign, he's enthroned according to the faith of Israel. And this piece of property in northern Minnesota, and that band of malcontents and misfits, is what God has given? Of what shall I complain? I'm a privileged man. And I come back to my place, rejoicing in the midst of my troubles. All saints look up. Believe the Lord, the Creator King, who made the stars also. Give him praise before you see what has already been wrought for you, and you'll see it. They cried unto the Lord, and he saved them out of their distresses. He brought them out of darkness, the shadow of death. He broke the gates of brass, cut the bars of iron asunder. Fools, because of their transgression, because of their iniquities, are afflicted. You know, I don't know the cause of your affliction. Let's say that you're not a fool. Let's say it's not your iniquity. But it wouldn't hurt to agree with God. You know? You may think that there are other reasons that make you victim. But if you agree with God because the only thing he says that explains why we're bound in iron and fetters is that it's got to do with our foolishness, our sin, our transgressions. Okay, Lord, I don't subjectively see that. I can't think of it in my history. But if you say so, I think I'll subscribe to that rather than see myself as victim. And then maybe that will be a key to my release. Because there's something about this victim mentality. I see it in Jews. I see it in the Holocaust victims. We're victims. I see it in black people, the American Indian. The American Indian knew that their white oppressors were already a judgment for the long-standing forsakenness of God. They would not be victims. We need to believe God's word and to praise him. Then cry unto the Lord in our trouble that we might be saved out of our distresses. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. You know, I'm praying this morning. Up since 4 a.m. Of all the prospects and possibilities of what could be spoken. You can't believe what I brought with me. Sheaves of notes and outlines and books and gorgeous stuff. And what am I reciting? A text from which I have never before spoken, 107. Because in my naive faith, I believe God quickened this to be spoken this morning. That he would send his word and heal them. One fell swoop. Look, man, no hands. Of course, it will make Doug's ministry obsolete. We'll have to take up a collection, but... What rejoicing ought to fill the house of God, huh? And a new ministry, deeper, more profound than even this one, born out of genuine heartfelt commiseration, concern, sincerity, interest, intelligence, and everything else. But if God is willing in one fell swoop to end it, by sending the word to heal them, why need we languish any further? Let's go on to other things, like the deliverance of Israel. And the nations. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions. Not partially, but totally. God doesn't do an incomplete thing. He's perfect in all his ways. He does all things well. And can you believe that a message on a Sunday morning is intended to be more than instructive and even inspiring, but that the word itself is actually the sent word that delivers? Can you believe that? Your faith will save you. As your faith is, so be it unto you. And a Sunday morning, we'll put a little brass plaque on the door. It's an innocuous message from Psalm 107, aided and abetted by a book that fell into Ott's hands in the Christian bookstore at a 20% discount. The Lord put together a word that delivered us. Back to the drawing board. We'll have to re-examine what we're about, what we do now with our time, with our energy. It'll require a whole radical examination of how we're now to proceed if we're no longer the object of our own concern and our own attention, which we have been till now. We are the focal point of our every thought, our every impulse, our every consideration, taking our pulse, how we're feeling, what we think, how we're affected. This one looked at me that way. How about that? I'm afraid of this. A pox on it. It's death. It's stifling. God has called us to life and that more abundantly. So let's live in the life that's given that glorifies Him and stop being the object of our own concern. That's deliverance. And it can come in a moment when He sends the word and heals them. Hallelujah. Let them sacrifice the sacrifice of thanksgiving and declare His works with rejoicing. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, for His wonderful works to the children of men. Let them exalt Him, also in the congregation in verse 32 of the people, and praise Him in the assembly of the elders. He turns rivers into a wilderness, water springs into dry ground, a fruitful land into barrenness for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. And equally, He has the power and ability and does turn the wilderness into standing water and dry ground into water springs. And there He makes the hungry to dwell, that they may prepare a city for habitation. So the fields plant vineyards, which may yield fruits of increase. What, you want to come before the Lord in the day of His appearing barehanded? No crown? No works that will pass through the fire? And you'll barely be saved and you'll be grateful for that? Nothing that will earn eternal reward when He comes to bring His rewards with Him, to give to every man, which includes women, a reward according to their labors? Are you willing to face the Lord's coming with that kind of barrenness? No works? Because you've been so preoccupied with yourself and your own condition, that you could hardly budge and be moved to aid and do anything for anyone? Praise God for the liberation of God. Not just that we should be free to enjoy it, but to be fruitful and to have increase and to glorify the Lord by the use of our lives that are significant for His kingdom and touches eternity. That's called blessing. He blesses them also, verse 38, so that they, the same ones who were in distress, the same ones that were in irons, the same ones that were battling the waves and being overcome by the sea, those same ones that were in solitary places and dry places, they are multiplied greatly, and He does not allow their cattle to decrease. Any aspect of their life is going to abound and be fruitful. He pours contempt upon princes, in verse 40, and causes them to wander in wilderness where there is no way. Yet, the same God sets the poor on high from affliction and makes Him families like a flock. The righteous shall see it and rejoice, and all iniquity shall stop its mouth. That's the end of the principalities and powers. They love to be so engaged by you, and that you should be preoccupied with them, and have long-standing strategic battles and all kinds of intricacy of detail, because that makes them the object of attention, and God says no. In one fell swoop, in the same deliverance that comes to you, that evokes your rejoicing, where you give God your voice and praise, they are finished. Their mouth is stopped. They have no further thing to do. They can't molest your triumphant. They can't antagonize. They can't intimidate, because you're rejoicing in your distress. There's no more arrow in their quiver. They have no more strategy, because they are debarred. Their fangs have been removed. The Lord gave them an initial defeat at the cross. He disarmed them. All they can do now is annoy and provoke and excite fear and, what's the word, anxiety. But once they see that you rejoice, and that your worship is unfeigned, and that your praise is heartfelt and comes forth out of you in a new song, they're finished. It's over. The battle is won. They're defeated by your praise. Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings, He has perfected praise to stop the mouth of the enemy. And nothing else will. There's got to be a demonstration of the reality of Hebraic faith in the life of believers who have been banged from pillar to post and have every reason humanly to complain, to lament, to languish in their condition, when they will break out of it because they believe that deliverance has come, that it is finished, that the work of the cross is complete, that they need not languish in that condition and believe it and give praise in a faith that believes. The enemy's finished. His mouth is stopped. He has nothing more to say. He can't torment. You won't even hear him because he's had such access to feed you his thoughts, the denigrating thoughts about yourself, because you were silent so he could fill the silence. But you fill the silence with praise and you won't even hear his stupid tormenting voice that accuses and demeans. And all iniquity shall stop her mouth. Whoso is wise and will observe these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness of the Lord. Isaiah chapter 45 verse 22, Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. Listen guys, we're going to make it or break it on the basis of this faith, this God, this word, this hope, this provision, this cross, this redemption. Either the gospel is or it isn't. Either it's the power to set men free or it's a farce and it's another cultural religious alternative no better than anything that Judaism, Buddhism or Islam has to offer. I'd rather die believing this and seeking to explicate and demonstrate it that I should succeed on any other basis. Let's go for broke. Let's believe the Lord. Let's be delivered out of our own mouths. Let's stop this passivity. Let the earth hear our voice. Let the powers of the air tremble when they hear your praise. Oh, it'll be feeble at first, you're not used to it. But give them your voice. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness and for his wonderful works to the children of men. Oh, that they would. Will you? So I want to pray for a congregation of praise. All the more powerful because I saw you stand up when Doug said, how many of you have this disability? Almost two thirds of the congregation. When praise comes out of your mouth, it is potent and doubly powerful. If we're all well fed, satisfied and never been knocked from pillar to post and have normal and untroubled lives and we praise, that's nice. But for praise to come out of the mouths of the distressed and the troubled, that is powerful. That stops the mouth of the adversary, that releases the so-called victim. Thank you, Lord. Oh my God, let not this praise be made merchandise thereof. Let it not become a little charismatic ditty and be the foundation of certain kinds of ministry. Let it be what you intended it to be. Holy, holy, holy unto the Lord. Oh, forgive us, my God, for withholding our voices, for allowing ourselves to steep in the sorrow of our condition and wring our fingers and look forward to a long life of perplexity and uselessness. We want to glorify you, Lord. You didn't create us to be dead weight. We're a piece of your creation like the stars. Everyone formed in your image. And we want to be fruitful. We want to be a blessed people and bless many, Lord. We want to fill the air with our praises. We want people to be arrested at the sound of it. We want our faces to be transfigured, not by mournful, doleful appearance, but with what must necessarily affect it. When our praises are frequent and real. Thank you, Lord. Oh, precious God, I bless these children. Give them faith to believe that you've inspired this word this morning. That this isn't the calculation of a man. What do I know? How do I dare trifle with your people to think that I could select a text or a message when life and death is at stake, when eternity is at stake? When the powers of darkness need to be stopped, let them believe this is your word. That you sent the man, you sent the word and healed them. And the evidence is their voices. The evidence is their faith that believes and gives praise. Thank you, Lord. Okay, let's give the Lord praise. You believe? Let's give the Lord praise. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. I give you praise. I'm grateful recipient of your word. Thank you, my God. I'm taking my pulse to see how I feel this morning, what my current condition is. I believe you sent the word and healed me. I'm delivered. This isn't magic. This isn't self hypnosis. I'm not psyching myself out to believe something. It's your word. I believe your word and it saves me and you deserve, therefore, my praise. Oh, that man would praise the Lord. Oh, praise him, saints. Give him thanks. I don't care what history, how long a history, how deep a travail, how complex, that only a sword could cut that Gordian knot. No man could unravel it. A word of praise out of your mouth. It's cut through. It is finished, Jesus said. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, my God. Look unto me and be saved. All the ends of the earth includes Tulsa, Oklahoma. Includes women of every shape, size, condition and history. All the ends of the earth. Look unto me. Don't look unto yourself. Don't keep doting over your condition. It's a sickly preoccupation. Look unto me and be saved. I'm not a man that I should lie. I've sent the word to heal you. For I am God and there is none else. I'm Israel's God and I'm your God. I'm the creator and soon coming king. I'm the triumphant one who conquered death and hell. I stopped the mouth of the adversary. I stripped him. I made him a public display. I have the keys of death and hell. I've come to bring you life and death more abundantly. Look unto me and be saved. All the ends of the earth. Lord, I heal your people. Your word heals your people. I bless them. You heard what I prayed, Lord. Not only your words, but your voice, like a bomb coming out from the throne of heaven, right into the crannies and crooks and into those deep places, my God, to heal that wonderful, precious unction of God. Go deep, my God, deep to heal, to comfort, to bring warmth, the joy of the Lord, the sense of yourself, the love of God. Thank you, Lord. Oh, you're a great healer and you're a deliverer, my God. Thank you. You're perfect in all your ways. Oh, that men would praise the Lord for his goodness, for his wonderful works to the children of men. For he hath broken the gates of brass. It's done. He has done it already and cut the bars of iron asunder. He's done it. I don't care what your condition. It's not greater than brass and iron and he's cut it. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, my God. A day of new beginnings, a birthing, a fresh day, my God, of hopefulness. To look to the future, my God, as productive saints who have purpose and calling and can fulfill it. For by the same grace that has delivered is the same grace that will enable us to be productive for your name's sake. Oh, thank you, Lord. My God. Rescue faith, Lord. Rescue faith. Rescue praise, my God. Give it its original Hebraic sense and strip it of the way in which it has been merchandised. And awaken these children, Lord, to faith by the hearing of the word. Thank you, my God. I bless them and you bless them. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, my God. Give them new habits of thought that are in line with the new fact of the spiritual reality that has come through the word. All the habits and mindsets that have been characteristic of the past are no longer valid. We discard them like so much garbage and dead weight. And we ask, my God, that our minds be renewed, that you give us new patterns of thought and perception and understanding. Habits of right thinking in accordance with the truth of what our condition is in your sight and by your word. Oh, we bless you, Lord. Thank you, my God. Holy One, give us the gift of faith, even that of the Son of God to believe what is already true. You have cut the gates asunder of brass and of iron. Thank you, Lord. We bless you. We give you praise. We lift our voices. We don't know about that charismatic thing, Lord, and how that has been deformed. But we'll realize soon enough that our English is not going to be sufficient to give you the praise that you deserve. It'll have to be in your own language because we can only say so much in the limitation of our human language. And so, my God, bring release. Those who have had that precious baptism and have sat on it, bring it to life again. Restore and quicken. And those who have not, who've been made fearful and have kept their arm's length lest they come under some influence, give them the faith, my God, to enter in like children and just to be submerged in the Jordan of your Spirit. Let something break out of their deeps and move through their whole personality and take possession of the faculty of speech and invest it, my God, with your holiness that they might speak mysteries unto God and be edified in the process thereof and praises that no known human language can contain. That itself is very liberty. That itself is heaven. Oh, my God, you deserve the praises of your saints in your own language. Thank you, Holy One. Liberate these children or bring them into the precious dimensions and depths of the faith which you have intended as normative for every believer. Forgive us, my God, that we have made these things denominational distinctives rather than just the natural endowment intended for all saints to live a life becoming to you in a world that's hostile. We need everything and we want it and we deserve it. We receive. We express. Thank you, Lord. Oh, precious God, let our cups overflow and be glorified, my God, by the praises of your saints. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord, my Lord, my Lord, my Lord. Precious God on high, such a lover of the souls of men. How patient you have been, my God, to wait. Thank you, Lord. Receive your own satisfaction and delight this day. That these broken and muted expressions of praise by those who are unaccustomed is pure music in your ears. You delight to hear the praises of your saints. Thank you, Lord. Delight the soul of your God. Thank you, Lord. Give him nachas, as we say in Yiddish, give him satisfaction. Who has waited long to hear from you. In the midst of distress, praise unto the Most High. Thank you, Lord. Can you say it? Thank you, Lord. We praise you, Lord. We acknowledge you for the God that you are. You're a gracious Savior and an all-powerful one, my God. Thank you, Lord.