Jesus, Stop the Bleeding!

The message that God's given me this evening is simply called, Jesus, stop the bleeding. Jesus, stop the bleeding. Proverbs chapter three, if you want to go there and follow along with me.

Father, I thank you, God. Everywhere you went, Jesus, you clearly, clearly displayed the fact that you desire to heal people who are sick in to give sight to the blind. You opened prison doors.

You even raised the dead. God, you showed us your heart and you went to a cross so that not just a select few could become partakers of this incredible mercy, but it could be spread throughout the world that whosoever will could come and you would save and you would wash them clean of their sin. And you would open the doorway to a new life that is only possible because of the life of God.

Lord, would you help us to escape all of our reasonings where we want to tell ourselves that these things couldn't possibly be true for our own lives. As we heard in the testimony this evening, Lord, would you help us to get beyond our self-loathing, beyond all of our reasons why the mercy of God can't apply to me. I've gone too far.

The sin of my life is too deep or dark. The obstacles are too great. God, help us to get beyond these things and to let you do the things that you desire to do in each one of our lives.

God, we know that you desire to show mercy. We know you desire to save us. We know you desire to set us free.

Tonight, I'm asking you, Lord Jesus Christ, according to your heart that you would stretch your hand out online tonight and in this sanctuary and begin to do miracles. You would stretch your hand out, O God, and begin to heal people who are sick in body, heal people who are oppressed in their mind, open prison doors to those that are captivated by addictions or mental states. Lord, just simply do what you came to do.

Bring your own name to reputation in this generation, God. Lord, and we recognize it's not because of our might or power or intellect or any of these things. It's because of your mercy, and it's by the anointing and power of your Holy Spirit.

God, the early church prayed, and they asked you to give them boldness by stretching forth your hand to heal, and we ask that you would do that tonight as well. God, let it be noised abroad that you are healing in this generation. Let people begin to call their friends and say, I've got to tell you what God has done for me.

I want to talk to you about a miracle that I had and a miracle I believe you can have in your life. This is the cry of our hearts. It's time, Lord, for you to work.

It's time, God, for you to bring your own name to reputation again in this generation, perhaps one last time before you come and take us home. So, Father, I thank you for giving me the ability to speak this tonight in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.

Jesus stopped the bleeding. Proverbs chapter three beginning at verse five, very familiar passage of scripture for many who have known Christ for an amount of time. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Say all, not part of your heart, some of your heart or 80% of your heart or 90% or 75%. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he shall direct your paths.

Do not be wise in your own eyes. Fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.

The original King James, probably the words are closer to the original meaning, which means it will be health to your navel and marrow to your bones. I'll talk to you about that in just a little bit of time. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

I think of those early followers of God who were brought out of a place of captivity in Egypt after so many years and they were brought out by the power of God. We were brought into God's kingdom by his power and by his mercy. It's not because of our goodness, it's because of his cross.

It's because he reached out to us and offered us eternal life and we reached back into the hand of God. There was a divine connection that was made. God himself pulled us out of darkness and into his marvelous light.

I don't know about you, but I'm just so thankful for that. I'm so thankful and God may I never cease to be thankful. Even increasingly more so as the days grow closer to his coming.

God reached out and he pulled them out of darkness and then he led them through a short wilderness time, a short time of readjustment, may I put it that way. It's not always easy coming out of what we became comfortable with or what we were familiar with. As Emmy, one of our young staff here shared tonight, she pulled into Summit 10 years ago and cried for 45 minutes in the parking lot.

What have I done? How did I get here? God, I don't want to be here, but she didn't realize that what was happening in her life was going to transform her life and change her into a completely different person than the person she was. You see what happened with 10 of these leaders that came out of this place of captivity is they went in to what was supposed to be the place of promise, but they didn't trust with all of their heart. They trusted with some of their heart obviously to get to the point where they had gotten to, but not with all of their heart to get to the place where God wanted to take them.

God wanted to give them a place of promise and freedom and provision and reputation, a place with a new song that can't be written by the human heart, only by the spirit of God. But they leaned on their own understanding. You understand they trusted him, but only to a point.

Then they leaned on their own understanding. When you and I begin to lean on our own understanding, we come up with all the reasons why what God told us he's going to do can't happen. That's exactly what happened to them.

They went in and they calculated. They looked at their weaponry or lack thereof. They looked at the size of the opposition in comparison to their size.

They looked at the numbers in comparison to their numbers and the fortification in comparison to their resources. They came back with what I've always felt they felt was a very reasoned report. We can't do it.

We're not strong enough. We're not big enough. But God called it an evil report.

They trusted in God, but then they leaned on their own understanding. Their own understanding caused them and many around them to die in a wilderness place because it's only by the power of God that we will ever know the fullness of what God has destined each one of our lives to be. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths.

Acknowledging him is acknowledging his presence. Acknowledging his promises. Acknowledging his heart.

Acknowledging that he has chosen to bring his own name to reputation through my life and through your life. In spite of how weak we might be, it's not about us. It never was about us.

It's about him. The testimony is not about me. It's not about I did that and if I start doing that then I'm leaning on my own strength and my own understanding.

No, it's I was taken by God. As Paul the apostle said, we were enabled by God to do what we did. We had the sense of death in ourselves, but we trusted in God who raises the dead and who has been faithful to us and will always be faithful to us.

In all your ways acknowledge him and he will direct your paths. Don't be wise in your own eyes. Don't set your knowledge above the knowledge of God.

I know there are people tonight listening to my voice or tomorrow whenever your time zone might be and you're already coming up with reasons why this can't apply to you. What this man who's standing in this pulpit is saying and you're listening to online, on your computer, on your phone, whatever it is, on your laptop, you're already formulating reasons why this can't apply to you. May I give you some good advice? Just stop right where you are.

Stop doing that. Stop being wise in your own eyes. Flee from this and say, God, if what is being spoken tonight is applying to my life, as we heard in the testimony tonight, God, if you're standing me before a window of opportunity, that if I will go through this door you've setting before me, that I can have a new, a full and abundant life.

God, help me to not reason myself out of this victory. Give me the grace that I need to go through this door and into this place of abundance that you have set before me. God, help me not to set my own wisdom as I see it above your word, my own thoughts above your thoughts, my own strength above your strength or my lack thereof above the strength that you promised me.

Fear the Lord and he says, it will be health to your flesh or to your navel. I actually looked it up. It can be either way, but I like the original translation.

I think sometimes the newer translations have a tendency to want to change the words into something that we can more easily relate to, but actually it's better in the original. It'll be health to your navel and marrow to your bones. In other words, when you and I were in our mother's womb, we were connected to our mother through an umbilical cord, which was attached to what is now your navel.

You understand? We were being formed in our mother's womb, not by might, not by our own power, our own resource, but we were being fed by another life source. You understand? Every day we're being given nutrition because somebody else was in a sense eating and providing for our benefit. We were growing just as through Christ, we begin to grow in the grace and knowledge of God through Jesus Christ because we were attached to that cord that came from our mother in her womb.

We grew, we grew into the person that we became. We started out really small and we just started growing and then suddenly we're forming limbs and eyes appear and the heart starts to beat and the blood starts to flow. It's not because we could even form the intent to eat.

It's because somebody else was feeding us at that point because we were attached to a cord and through our mother we were being fed. And this is exactly what God is saying to us. That was your natural birth.

But now being born again by the spirit of God, you need to be attached to God. It will be health to your navel if you will trust in God and not lean on your own understanding. Acknowledge him, let him begin to direct your paths.

Don't be wise in your own sight and be attached as it is to God through his word, through the power of the Holy Spirit. God begins to feed us. And just as we were formed in our mother's womb, new things begin to form.

We're given a new heart, we're given a new mind, we're given a new spirit, we're given new abilities, we're given a new future, we're given a new song, we're given new words to speak. Born again by the spirit of God, just as much as we needed to be attached to our mother, now we need to be attached to our savior. In all your ways acknowledge him.

Don't be wise in your own eyes. Don't trust in yourself. Don't lean on your own understanding, but trust in God with all your heart.

Be attached to him and trust that every promise he has made to you, he's going to fulfill. Everything he said he's going to do, he's going to do in your life. It will be health to your navel and marrow to your bones.

I looked up, I said, what is the significance of marrow? This trusting in God, the writer of Proverbs likens it to marrow in our bones. Now, marrow produces three things. Number one, marrow produces red blood cells to carry oxygen to the various parts of our body.

The red blood cells give us energy. It allows the body to recuperate. It allows the body to heal, give strength to the body.

If you don't believe that, stop breathing right now and just then we'll time you and see how long you last at this point. Stop breathing. The red blood cells are carrying the oxygen that your lungs are breathing into various parts of your body.

That's why athletes, for example, they'll go out and they'll run their shift as it is out on the field or on the ice in case of ice hockey. And then they'll come back in and they can hardly breathe. But as they breathe, the red blood cells are carrying oxygen back and they're recuperating.

And in two or three minutes, they're ready to go back out and do the same thing all over again. Paul says this trusting in God is the source of my strength. Paul says Philippians 4, 13, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

I can do all things because I trust him. I believe him. I believe that what he says my life is going to be, it will be.

Where he says I will go, I will go. What he says he will do, he will do. These red blood cells are trusting in God brings wisdom into our life.

Psalm 119, 130. The psalmist says the entrance of thy words gives light, gives understanding to the simple. Trusting in God brings confidence into the human heart.

Where Paul says in the book of Romans chapter eight, he says these words beginning at verse 35, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, that means difficulty, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword. As it is written, for your sake, we're killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.

Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded. That was the key of Paul's strength.

I am persuaded. I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. I am persuaded.

Paul did not set his own judgment above the words of God that had been given to him. He believed God with all of his heart. And because of it, he had strength, and obvious wisdom, and he had a confidence in the saving and the keeping power of God.

The marrow that's inside of our bones produces white blood cells that fight off infection. Thank God for that. I don't know about you, but I'm thankful that I have the ability, at least up to this point anyway, to fight off infection in my life.

In 2 Corinthians chapter 10, Paul says, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down arguments, casting down arguments. Be not wise in your own eyes, but trust in the Lord. In all your ways, acknowledge him.

Casting down arguments. God, give me the power to cast down these diseases of unbelief that want to get a hold of my heart. These things that want to get into my system, they want to get into my mind.

These arguments that try to say I'm not worthy. These arguments that try to say my opposition is too strong for me to ever know victory. God, God, God, you say if I trust you with all my heart and I don't lean on my own understanding that it's as if the marrow, the spiritual marrow in my bones will produce in me the power to cast down these things that want to erode my confidence in you and take away that place of promise in my life.

Every casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God is not just the opposing view of the enemy, but it's also the things that want to rise in my own heart and tell me, well, this is not for you. You're not going to make it. You're not going to be free.

You're not ever going to know the fullness of God. God says, no, if you trust in me, I will give you the power to cast down these arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and to bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. That's what white blood cells do.

They take these illnesses that want to get a hold of our body, these foreign invasions in our body, and they take them captive into the obedience of what God says our life should be. God says the health that should belong to us and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. And the last thing that marrow does for the body is it produces a coagulant, which stops bleeding when we get wounded, for example, and we start to bleed.

I know I'm talking to people online tonight that it's like you've got this constant bleeding going on in your life. Your strength, hope and peace and strength and the thought of a future is bleeding out of your life. But when you trust in God, it produces in you this ability to stop the bleed, this bleed that says you have no future.

There's no hope for your life. You have no strength. You have nothing that you can lay your life down on.

And all of these things begin with the trust in God, with all of your heart. That's where it all begins. You know, Jesus said, unless you have the faith of a child, you can't see the kingdom of God.

The word see means to intellectually understand. In other words, you can't understand the way God works unless you have the faith of a child. The problem is we get older and we get a little bit of wisdom in comparison to God.

We probably are. It's like a flea talking to a computer. That's even bigger than that distance between us and God.

But we get a little bit of wisdom and we start using that wisdom in a way that saps us of life and strength. It takes away the promises of God. We start reasoning why the promises of God can't be mine or they can't belong to me.

My little granddaughter, she's about eight years old now, and she called me one day. She found out that Pastor Teresa and I had bought a few acres of land not far from here at the school. She called me and with that little girl voice that only little girls can produce, and she said, Papa.

As soon as you hear it that way, Papa, you know that there's a question coming. There's an ask coming at the end of this. She said, Papa.

I said, yes. She said, are you going to buy me a pony? I would smash your piggy bank to buy her a pony. Do you understand? I would sell my car.

I would put a lemonade stand at the end of the driveway here at the school. I would do whatever I had to do to buy that little girl a pony. And when I said, yes, I will buy you a pony, then she told me what it was going to look like.

She told me the color. She told me it would be a male. She said it would be brown with white spots on it.

And she told me the name. She knew all this before she even asked me if I was going to buy her a pony. But you see, she never doubted.

She never doubted. And when I said, yes, there's never she never comes back and say, are you sure you're going to buy me a pony or tells me the reasons why I can't buy her a pony. She knows that her Papa said I'm going to get you a pony.

So she's going to get a pony. There is no doubt in my mind whatsoever about this. My own daughter, Kate, did this to me years ago.

I've already fallen for this in the past. We lived on a farm at one time, a sheep farm. And Kate said to me, Dad, can I have a pony? And I said, but you're too small.

I'll tell you what I'll get. I don't want you to get hurt. So I'll get you a pony when you're nine years old.

She said, OK. But before she was nine, our house burned down. The farmhouse burnt right to the ground.

We lost everything. We had to move from there and we bought a little house in a neighborhood, just a regular neighborhood with other houses around us. So it was about three weeks before her ninth birthday.

And she I was talking her in one night and she said to me, Dad, are you going to get me my pony? And I said, well, Kate, I said, we don't live on a farm anymore. I said, the house burnt down. We had to move.

We live in a neighborhood. We just have a regular lot like everybody else. And she looked at me.

She said, if you don't keep your promises to me, how do I know that God keeps his promises to me? About five days later, a truck rolls backs into our driveway. A ramp comes down. A little pony comes walking off the back.

And I tied it to the clothesline in the backyard until I figured out what to do with it. But the point is, if you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more, how much more will your heavenly father give good things? One translation says, or one gospel says, but another one says, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? Give that the ability for divine life, give the power source in a sense, as we talked about the umbilical cord to, to become the person that, that God destined us to be. Just as we became, when we were attached to our mother's cord, we became the person that we were destined to be in the womb.

And we took on the characteristics, of course, of our parents. But I'm telling you, when we're born again, we take on the characteristics of the one who has brought him to himself, who's given us life. And by the power of the Holy Spirit, we become connected to God and we become a new creation in Christ Jesus.

You see the point being tonight, the choice is yours. You can, or you can go through that open door into health. You can go through the open door that Jesus made for you on the cross 2000 years ago, when he died on that cross and was buried and resurrected the third day.

As the scripture tells us, the scripture says, he took all of your captivity captive and gave gifts to you. That's a phenomenal thought. He took your captivity captive and gave you abilities that you don't naturally have within yourself.

You become connected to God. And when you become connected to God, these abilities become a reality in your life. You say, well, how do I do that? Stop leaning on your own understanding.

Go through the door that God has made for you through his son, Jesus Christ. Acknowledge that he died in your place on a cross 2000 years ago and paid the price for all the wrong things that you have done that have separated you from God, not just in time, but for eternity. But once you open your door to God's offer for forgiveness through his son, God brings you back into relationship with himself.

You are connected to him now and everything that he destined your life to be, you will become. That's the person you will be. When you were in your mother's womb, you became the person you are not by human effort, but you were genetically in a sense designed to become the person that you became in the same way.

When you become connected to God through Jesus Christ, you become now the person that God says you're going to be for the future. He promises giftings. He promises a new future.

He promises a new mind, a new heart, an inner spirit. And it starts by just saying, God, I believe don't make it complicated. It is.

I put away my reasonings as to why this can't happen in my life or why this is for somebody else, but not for me. Or as a testimony we heard this evening where somebody said, I had sinned so much. I'd gone so dark.

I'd gone so far. I never thought that I could even come back to God or that God would even want me only to find out he'd been waiting there the whole time. I believe you can say tonight that Jesus will strengthen me.

I believe that the shedding of his blood will bring the bleeding inside of me to an end. I will be free of this continual bleed of strength and vision and hope in my life because you bled out for me. You took the punishment I deserve.

You took it all upon yourself and you promised healing for me when I would turn to you. And so I'm going to lead you in a prayer tonight online. This is your open door.

And I'm asking you in Jesus name, go through that door. Trust in the Lord with all your heart tonight. Don't lean on your own understanding.

In all your ways, beginning tonight or today, whatever your timeframe is, acknowledge him. Acknowledge his love. Acknowledge his sacrifice on the cross.

Acknowledge his promises to you. And he says he will direct your path. You're going to walk through a door tonight into a new life, a new future, a new heart, a new hope.

Everything around you will become new. Don't be wise in your own eyes. Don't try to figure this out.

Don't reason yourself out of this blessing that God offers you through his son, but depart from evil. In other words, you're saying, God, I'm going to turn away from the way I've been living and I'm going to turn to you and trust you for the strength to become the person that you desire that I should be. And it will become health to you and strength to your bones.

That's the promise of God. Oh father, I thank you tonight, God. I thank you for people online that will be making that decision tonight.

Thank you, Lord, that we've gathered to pray for many tonight and our prayers are not in vain. Lord, we see the prayer requests on the screen every week, the bleeding, bruised homes and hearts and bodies, the purposelessness of so many people, the inability to see a future, all of these things. But God tonight, you have asked us to trust you and not to lean on our own reasonings, to acknowledge your mercy, your grace, your cross, your promise of new and eternal life.

Help us to turn away God from our own thoughts that we want to set before our eyes. Reasons why this could never be for us. Help us to go through the open door into life that you promised through Jesus Christ.

And you say it will be health to us and strength. Oh father, in Jesus name, I pray God that you would give people the ability now to make a decision for you. So online tonight, I want you to pray the simple prayer with me and do it right now.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Just say these words after me. Jesus, thank you for loving me.

Thank you for wanting me. Thank you for coming to get me, for dying on a cross to pay the price for all the wrong that I've done. I open my heart to you tonight and I acknowledge you as my Lord and my savior.

Take my life, cleanse me, forgive me, use me for your glory. I give my heart to you, all of my heart. I trust you for the rest of my life to make me into the person that you designed me to be.

And I believe that at the end of my life, heaven will be my home. In Jesus name, amen and amen. If you prayed that from your heart and you meant that, text the word decided on your cell phone tonight to 51,000.

Just go ahead and do that. Decided to 51,000. We'll send you a video and help you get started in your walk with God.

Love you so much. I know I'm speaking to somebody tonight out there. Thank God for you that Jesus Christ himself said, the angels in heaven rejoice over one sinner who turns from his sin or her sin and turns to God.

You caused a shout at the throne of God tonight. I want you to know that. You caused angels to shout your name.

Your name is now being spoken on the lips of Jesus.