Seeing Jesus From Under His Wings

Praise God, thank you. I think you may be seated. It's so wonderful to be here again today and just to hear the enthusiasm in your worship.

It's wonderful to see. It's not something you see, it's something you can hear. You know, I was a shepherd for quite a few years, actually had a sheep farm.

And when I would come home at night and I would go into the barn, I could tell by the sound, I could tell by the sound of the chewing, whether there was a problem. It's amazing. If there was a mouse or a rat or something got into the barn, the sheep would be chewing a little faster than normally.

And so I would know just by the sound that something is not right. If there was a lamb that had fallen into an area where it couldn't get up, the chewing again, there'd be a restlessness. So I want to say, Pastor Tim, I like the sound of the chewing in this place.

I really do. I like the sound of the worship. It's healthy.

And you are very, very blessed to have the word of God that you have from this pulpit and the worship team that you have in this church. So it's amazing, just absolutely amazing. The people that bring praises like this and a word like you have from your pastor, that's a real gift from God for you.

And don't ever take that for granted. Not everybody has that. You know, there's a lot of people in the Christian world that they never even get one time to experience a service like you take for granted here in this church.

That's the fact. A lot of places are very, very dry and there's just a lot of strife there. But here, God has kept us for 38 years, 38 years with God's presence in this sanctuary.

We've had the privilege of seeing thousands of people come to Christ and see people strengthened. And many are, as Pastor Teresa and I travel once in a while, we get to meet people from DSE all over the world that went out. And many are doing something for the kingdom of God.

They just are not spectators. They actually got in the game and they're doing something. And it's just so wonderful to see that.

And I know that will be your future too, as well. I'm going to be bringing you a message today called seeing Jesus from under his wings. It's what the Lord spoke to me for you this week.

You know, there's a lot of places in scripture where the Lord uses things of this world to describe his own characteristics. For example, the lion of the tribe of Judah. When we have that image, we see the strength of God.

This incredible strength that is kind of shows us through an animal in the earth that won't back away from anything is totally fearless and will fight to the death for what it believes to be right. And that's, that's part of the characteristic of the son of God. Then also the lamb of God takes away the sins of the world.

The lamb who meekly went to the cross in a sense, allowed himself to be rejected and beaten and bruised and all else that happened to him for the sake of our redemption. He could have fought back. He could have destroyed everybody that raised their hand against him.

He could have just spoken a word and the entire populace would have turned to dust. He had that kind of power, but nevertheless, as a lamb, he went to the cross and allowed himself to be beaten, rejected and put to death so that you and I could be here today and we could have freedom and we could have a hope for the future. We could have the power of God within our lives.

Thank God for the lamb of God. But there's another aspect of scripture and I'll get there in a little while, but it's, it's in John Matthew chapter 23, where he likens himself to a hand and the characteristic of the hand that he, he speaks of in the scriptures. He said, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, I wanted to gather your children together as a hand gathers her chicks under her wings, but you are not willing.

So the typology here is amazing. And everything he speaks, he's showing us his heart. And Jesus said, I wanted to gather you.

I wanted to gather your children together in the same way that a hand does gather her chicks. Now, most of the people of that time would be familiar with this picture. We're, we're not, there's not a whole lot of chickens in New York city.

As far as I can see, at least there shouldn't be anyway, but there's not a whole lot of chickens here. So we don't have the visual that the people of that time would have had, but they were aware that a mother hen, when there's any kind of a danger, if she saw, and she was more diligent than the little young ones. And if she saw a predator, perhaps a hawk or something on the ground coming towards them, she would, she would issue a certain sound.

It was a, it was a different kind of a sound than they were used to. And it would be an alarm telling them, come for safety, come to me for safety. And she would open her wings.

She would gather the men and close her wings and draw them close to her heart. And she would be willing, even though it's not a very big creature in a sense, she would be willing by nature to fight to the death for those, for those little ones of hers. And this is how Jesus Christ is in a sense, describing himself in the same manner.

I wanted to draw you close to my heart. I see things in the world that you don't see. I see dangers that you're not aware of.

And I send a voice to warn you about some of these dangers. And I'm hoping today that that's what I can be in the stead of Christ. I can be part of that voice that's sent to warn some in the body of Christ and warn all of us for the future, that there are things that we don't see that will come against us.

There are things in our own hearts. There are things that will try to attack and destroy the faith that we have in Christ and take away our security in God or things that will try to blind our eyes to truth and cause us to create some alternate religious system. And we're going to talk about that just a little bit in just a moment.

I'm going to begin with Psalm 91. Father, I thank you, Lord God, for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. I thank you, God, for the depth of your love for the men and women, young and old, that you have gathered here today.

Those who are online listening to as well. Lord, everything you say, everything you do is because you love us with a pure heart. You love us with a love that we can't even fathom.

We can't even scratch the depths of this love. Wherewith you love us. And so, God, I'm asking you, Lord, that I can be an extension of your heart, an extension of your voice to every person, Lord, that you've gathered together today to be able to hear this word.

And, Father, I thank you for that anointing, and I praise you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. Psalm 91, Moses writes, and he uses the same typology about people coming under the wings of God in a time of difficulty.

The people of God of that time were captivated in a nation called Egypt, and it was the most powerful army in the world that were refusing to let them go. But suddenly, God came and, in a sense, hovered over them, gathered the people to himself, and gave them instructions. Now, those who followed the instructions that he gave were made to be able to go into a place of freedom, and those who didn't probably perished with the society around them.

For example, he told them to stay in their homes one night, partake of a lamb, and eat it a certain way. Don't eat it the way you think you should, but eat it the way that I say you should. And then he said, I want you to take the blood of that lamb and put it on the two sides of your door and on the top of your doorpost.

So, it's a type of the cross, really. And he said, there's a spirit of death that's going to pass over the nation this night. And if I see, when I see the blood on your door and on your doorpost, that spirit is going to pass over you.

That's called the Passover. We've come to know it as that. And he says these words, he who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and fortress, my God, in him I will trust. Surely, he shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence. He shall cover you with his feathers, and under his wings, you shall take refuge.

His truth shall be your shield and buckler. You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day, nor the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. Some of you were back here in the year 2001, and the Holy Spirit warned us that there was going to be a tragedy strike New York City.

And we shut everything down, and God brought us into a place of speaking truth. It took fear out of our hearts so that when the towers were attacked, this church was ready. We were part of the solution, not part of the problem.

We found ourselves offering hope and help, not running through the streets terrified like most of the populace. And I remember the night after night, people would file into this church from all over the world. One night on a Tuesday night, they were kneeling in the aisles all the way into the lobby.

And I had to ask people to stop kneeling in the aisles because they were creating a fire hazard in this church. But I thank God that we in this congregation, we're not afraid of the terror by night. We were not afraid of the arrow that flew by day.

We were not afraid of the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday. There is a confidence. If we're willing to hear the word of God, there's a confidence from God that comes into the human heart.

No matter what happens, like David, the Psalmist once said, the mountains can shake and fall into the sea. The seas can roar and over flood their borders. But he says, my heart is fixed.

I trust in God. Paul, the apostle said, all things work together for good to those who love God and are the called according to his purpose. No matter what happens, no matter what happens in the days ahead.

I'm hoping in my heart that we're going to have a season of peace, but nobody knows that for sure. There's a lot of crazy people with access to crazy weapons in this world right now. We don't know what tomorrow is going to bring, but I know that tomorrow is in God's hands.

I know that I'm in the hands of God. I know that with all my heart. And because I'm willing to hear his voice, I'm not afraid of the terror.

I'm not afraid of the arrow that flies by day. I'm not living my life afraid that some kind of missile is going to hit here from some foreign nation. I'm not afraid of any new disease that's going to mount up again in our time, nor the destruction that lays waste at noonday.

Here's what he says. A thousand may fall at your side and 10,000 at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. The falling is not just death.

It's a falling into fear. People will fall into fear. They'll fall off of whatever pedestal they were standing on, whatever foundation they thought was going to give them comfort and strength.

You'll find those foundations begin to collapse in times of calamity. And you might see a thousand fall on this side and 10,000 on that hand, but it will not come near you. Because according to the word of God, we are built on a solid foundation and the floods can come and the rains can come and the winds can blow.

But the house of the one who's put his or her trust in God is going to stand. That is our promise. We will not be taken down by the trials and tribulations of this world, no matter what comes our way, no matter.

And it could come suddenly. It could come in an instant. It could come gradually.

I don't know, but whatever does come, our house will stand. If you're walking with God, if God's speaking to your heart, if you're able to hear him, you will not fail. You will not fall.

You will stand in the days ahead. It will not come near you only with your eyes. You will look and see the reward of the wicked.

You'll see what happens to people when they're not standing on a foundation of truth. When Christ is not the cornerstone in their life, when they're not building their lives on the truth of the word of God, you will see what happens. They'll collapse at a heap.

Their foundations are gone. Whatever they were trusting in has come to nothing because you have made the Lord, who is my refuge, even the most high, your dwelling place. No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague come near your dwelling.

This is what Moses saw this. He saw the plague of death pass over the houses of those who had decided to eat the lamb God's way and put the blood of the lamb on their doorposts. Eating the lamb God's way is a type of saying, I'm opening this Bible, and I'm not trying to make it say what it doesn't say.

I'm going to read it the way it's written, and that's what I'm going to ingest, and that's what's going to be my nurture, and that's what's going to be my strength. Thank God for his word. Thank God, and I pray, and I hope you do.

God, don't let my human heart twist this into something it's not meant to say. Let it be truth. Let it speak to my heart.

Search me, God, as David once said. Know me. Try me, and see if there's any way inside of me that's going to lead me into wickedness or lead me into this place where I'm going to collapse.

Oh, God, have mercy on me, and let your word... Let me not read your word. Let your word read me when I open the chapters of this book. Now, under his wings, Moses said, you'll come to dwell.

Now we go ahead into the New Testament, into chapter 23 of Matthew, where Jesus said in verse 37, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her. Almost unthinkable. God says, you're my people, and because I care about you, and because I want to draw you to my heart, because I want to protect you, I send messages to you.

But it's amazing. When people decide to craft their own religion, they will sometimes defend it with violence. You look at religions throughout the world.

I could name some religions that are just given to violence, because it's the only way. They can't defend it intellectually. They can't defend it.

There's nothing to defend what they have crafted. So the only thing they can do is threaten those who stand up and say, what you're holding to is not truth. Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her.

Almost unfathomable that that could happen to the people of God of that generation. You imagine, these are the descendants of Abraham. These are the people who are multiplied supernaturally.

We're given victories in the past that could only be given by God. These are the people who understood that he cradled us and took us out of captivity and brought us on a journey into a place of promise. And now, if we're straying, God, in his mercy, sends us a word to bring us back into line with that place that gives us strength.

Why would we resist that, especially with violence? How often he said, I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. It's a strange affliction that I've seen over the years in even the people of God. There's the unwillingness in a sense to be drawn into a place of safety.

They're living outside that place and actually become resistant to coming into that place. I want you to give thanks as I do that Pastor Tim Delina stood in this pulpit and over a series of weeks and months unlocked something called a biblical worldview. I thank God for that with all of my heart.

I really do. He opened the text of scripture and proved from A to Z that what the Bible has to say about certain things. And you know, there are people that no doubt got angry at some of these letters of the alphabet and they might agree with a, but they didn't agree with K. You understand what I'm saying? And the question we have to ask ourselves is why would I not agree if it can be proven through the scriptures? God's not sending his truth to harm me.

He's sending his truth to bring me into relationship with him, to bring me into a place of safety, to clear up wrong thinking, even about God that could cause me harm in the future. And then he says, you weren't willing. He said, see, your house has left you desolate.

In other words, because you weren't willing, the foundation that you're standing on is about to collapse. You go into Matthew chapter 24, the disciples came to him and they showed him the buildings of the temple. Look at this temple.

Look at the magnificent stones. Look at this city. And Jesus said to them, do you not see all these things assuredly? I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down.

Behold, your house is left. You're desolate. What you have formed, the religion that you have formed, the truth that you have crafted all by yourself.

They're not, they're not true, but you've crafted them all by yourself are going to collapse in the day of calamity. It was only a few years later. It was about four decades later that Rome was going to come in and completely destroy the city of Jerusalem, destroy the temple, take captive all of the holy vessels of the temple.

Thousands of people died. And those who didn't die were led into captivity into a foreign place. You see, they were not established.

They were actually became resistors of truth. And then he says, these words, I say to you, you'll not see me. You'll see me no more until you say blessed to see who comes in the name of the Lord.

So why did they kill and stone the prophets? Isaiah chapter 55, we might get a clue at the beginning of chapter 55. The Lord says, Oh, everyone who thirsts come to the waters and you have no money. Come by and eat, come by wine and milk without money.

And without price. In other words, I'm, I'm offering you everything you long for. And the price is already paid for it.

Hallelujah. That's what salvation looks like folks. It's living water.

It's, it's, it's everything we've ever longed for. It's everything we've ever wanted was paid for by the son of God when he gave his life for us on the cross. And he says, now, if you're thirsty, if you're hungry, if you're looking for meaning in life, come to me now, come and drink, come and eat.

And don't, you don't have to pay for this. You don't have to put human effort into this. I'm offering it to you for free.

Why do you spend money for that, which is not bread and wages for that, which does not satisfy. Listen carefully to me and eat what is good. And that your soul delighted itself in abundance, incline your ear and come to me.

Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem here in your soul shall live. And I'll make an everlasting covenant with you. Even the sure mercies of David.

I will be merciful to you. God says, I will be a friend that sticks closer than a brother. I will never fail you.

I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. Even, even though you may struggle along, I will still confess you before my father.

Just come to me. That's all he said. Just come to me.

If you're thirsty, come to me. If you're hungry, stop working for that, which doesn't satisfy. Now in verse six, he says, seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord for he will have mercy on him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts nor arm your ways.

My ways says the Lord. This is, this is the issue. They wouldn't come because they were governed by their own thoughts, even about what a relationship with God should look like.

It is the dilemma of the human heart. Satan sewed something into humanity in the garden of Eden. And the seed that he sowed is that you can decide yourself what is good.

And what is evil. You don't need God to tell you, you have a mind. You have a higher purpose than just looking after this garden.

It's given you use your mind and you become an arbiter of good and evil and you decide what is good. And so that's how you get the cherry pickers. I call it going through the word of God, picking out all the nice little things, all the sweet little fruit, but putting all the sour things, all the things you don't like, they put them aside and ultimately end up crafting a God of their own making.

It's amazing. Paul himself said to the Corinthians, if somebody comes and preaches, what another Jesus, another Christ, it might, you might find it palatable. If you're not willing, if you're, if you're, if you're unwilling to be drawn by truth, if you're unwilling to let God speak to you, even speak the hard things, folks, not it's, it's not just the easy things.

There's something in all of us that we want to come to church and we want the preacher to tell us how wonderful we are. Oh, you're the best thing next to Swiss cheese. You're just so wonderful.

And we, that's what we want. We, we don't want to be reproved. They hate him that reproves in the gate.

Every time Israel backslid, that's exactly what they did. They don't want reproof anymore. Tell us nice things.

Tell us smooth things about ourselves. Tell us how lovely we are. Don't, don't come and reprove us.

Don't, don't tell us that we might be fashioning some truths that are contrary. You see, they wanted Jesus to protect them. Although Jesus wanted to protect them from wrong thinking, they chose to believe otherwise.

For example, in Matthew chapter 23 verses five to seven, they started believing these things, all their works they do to be seen by men. They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments. They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues, greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, rabbi, rabbi.

So essentially speaking, they crafted a religion. Now these are the resistors of truth, by the way, they crafted a religion that told them or taught them that being close to God meant among other things, status, wealth, and power. Does that not sound like some of what's being preached in America today? That coming to Jesus means that suddenly you've, you're not the tail anymore.

You're the head. Now you're going to have status. You're going to be wealthy all the time, and you're going to have power and influence.

That's what these people believe. That's the Jerusalem that would not come to Christ. They would not, they could not be turned from their thinking.

But the truth is in verse 11 and 12, Jesus said, he is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled. And he who humbles himself will be exalted.

That's truth. That's truth. It's not wealth and status and power.

It's, it's becoming a servant to all people. It's becoming a servant in your home to your wife or your husband. It's becoming a, I don't know.

It's, it's just serving, not, not striving to be called rabbi, rabbi in the marketplace. It's serving. They also believed that they could redefine sin and somehow escape the consequences that came with it.

Listen to what Jesus says again in Matthew 23 verses 27 to 34. Woe unto you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites. Now these are the leaders of the people.

This is, these are the people who are standing in, in pulpits and apparently teaching the people for you're like whitewashed tombs, which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside you're full of dead men's bones and all in cleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you're full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you build the tomb of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous.

And you say, if we'd lived in the days of our fathers, we'd not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. Therefore your witnesses against yourselves, that you are the sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your father's guilt, serpents, brood of vipers.

How can you escape the condemnation of hell? Therefore, indeed, I send you prophets, wise men, and scribes, and some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city. I send you because I love you. God says a word from heaven.

I send you truth that can set you free. I send you, I send you a certain sound. When I see something encroaching upon you that has the danger or the possibility of taking away your safety, I send a word to you.

But in this case, they were resisting it. How often Jerusalem, he said, how often I wanted to gather you together as a hen gathers your chicks under her wings, but you were not willing to come. See your house is left to you desolate.

And that means those who choose their own way, create their own rules and are governed by their own thoughts will be left defenseless and empty in comparison to what their lives could be. You see pastor Tim and myself and others preach to you this way because we care. If we didn't care, we'd let you live any way you want.

We care. You see, I said it this morning. I'll say it again.

I want to see you at the throne of heaven. I want to see you in heaven. I don't want to be looking for your face.

Now the Bible says, when I get to heaven, I will know as I am known, there'll be an explosion of knowledge. There'll be an understanding of mysteries, things that are hidden. We're hidden.

We'll be made known. Everything will be made known. And we'll have this explosion of knowledge that God would.

So I will know if you're not there. And that, that really does, that hurts inside. I can tell it straight out because there's, I can feel the love of God for everyone who's here.

You had an opportunity to turn to God. You were sitting under the word of God. You have a pastor in this church that's bringing you the word of God.

You have an opportunity to turn to that, which is going to put you on a solid foundation. If we didn't care, we would just tell you how wonderful you are and compliment you so that you could fill all the seats and fill all the offering buckets. And we would be, if we didn't care, that's what we would do.

But the fact is we do care. We care about you. We care about your future.

We care about your eternity. We care about your soul. And God is wanting to gather people to himself.

I shared an illustration this morning of coming in here years ago to a prayer meeting on Tuesday night. And there was a couple that would come usually early and they would sit here and they'd be waiting for the prayer meeting to start. And I'm walking down the aisle.

I'm coming in a little bit early before we started at seven o'clock. And they called me pastor, pastor. She did, the lady, she said, can, can I ask you for some prayer for us? And I said, what would you like me to pray for? And she said, would you pray for my boyfriend to leave his wife so he can marry me? Now they had been sitting in Times Square church for, I think she said two years, if I remember correctly.

The question is, what were they listening to? How come they didn't hear anything? Where did, where did, where did they get the idea that fornication is okay in the kingdom of God? They were already living together. Where'd they get the idea that adultery is okay? Where'd they get the idea that somebody can put away their wife for no cause and marry somebody else. And there's not a consequence to that.

Where did that come from? Where did that kind of thinking and folks, I I'm sorry to have to say, but that, that wasn't, that wasn't the extreme. There were a lot of people here living in situations that they shouldn't have been living in and coming into the house of God on a wrong foundation and somehow thinking that one day they're going to stand before Christ. And he's going to look and say, well done, good and faithful servant.

Well done sleeping with your girlfriend. Well done, good and faithful servant. No, he's not going to say those words because he can't lie.

He can't overlook something. You can't embellish folks. It's, I think it's dangerous to sit where truth is and rejected.

I think it's more dangerous than to be in sin because you can still be reached when you're out there. But if the light in you has turned to darkness, how great is that darkness? If you've heard truth and you've rejected it and built your own Jesus that justifies lifestyles and behaviors, God help you. That's all I can say.

God help you. I'll, I'll preach this way to you and others, as long as I can, as long as God gives me breath, because there's only one way to eternal life. And there's only one book that gives us truth.

And there's only one power that's available when we decide to walk in that truth. Now, the interesting thing is in verse 39, Jesus said, I say to you, you shall see me no more until you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Now it's, it's not just himself.

He's talking about, but he's talking about everyone. He sends to speak on his behalf. You won't see me.

You won't be drawn to me. You won't know me. You won't understand me until you are able to say, God, thank you for sending this word to me.

Thank you for sending this servant to me. Thank you God for challenging me in this area of my life. Thank you for not letting me live with this secret sin any longer thinking somehow this is going to be okay and leave me on a solid foundation.

God, thank you for sending your word. You will see me. He says, when you say, blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, you will see me when you're no longer resisting truth or trying to craft your own viewpoint of God or cherry picking the word of God, you just open it.

It says what it says, it means what it means. And you say, God helped me to line my life up with this book. God, I don't want to try to craft it into something that it was never intended to be.

When you say the word blessed, it's an amazing definition. It means embracing what we need as opposed to what we want. Isn't that something? God, you know what I need.

You know what I want, but you know what I need. God might say, yeah, you want that girl or you want that guy, but that's not what you need. You don't need to be yoked together with an unbeliever.

You don't need to be having sexual relations outside of marriage. You don't need to be putting alcohol in your body any longer. You don't need drugs any longer.

You don't need these things in your life. And when we get to the point of saying, God, thank you for giving me what I need and not what I want in my life. Thank you, God.

You know what I need. And recognizing that he speaks to us for our good. That's what it means.

Blessed is he who comes blessed. God, you're speaking to me for good because you love me and you want me to be yours for eternity. And you want me to be on a solid foundation and not collapse when difficulty and trial comes to every heart, to every home, to every life.

And knowing that everything he does is for our good. Everything he does, everything he speaks that can be proven from the text of scriptures for my good. I'm stunned over the years of the numbers of preachers, established, well-known preachers that have been preaching to people apparently from the word of God.

Yet they themselves somehow started feeling that they're outside of the rules for everybody else. They preach morality. They're not living in morale.

They preach honesty. They're liars. It's just, I can just go on and on.

And you just, you say, God, how does it happen? And it should strike a fear in all of our hearts. It does in mine and say, God, don't let me assume that everything I do is right. Don't let me assume that everything I say is proper.

God search me as David said, give me a heart Lord that can be reproved. Give me a heart that can be spoken to God. And if I'm in a direction that I'm not supposed to be going in, help me.

That's why, that's why the Bible says, you find your wife finds a good thing. Cause he uses my wife a lot of times to help me. One time, one time, my wife said to me, she said, you're bitter.

You're better towards this particular person. And I said, no, I'm not. No, I'm not.

She said, yes, you are. I said, no, I'm not bitter. She said, yes, you are.

I said, why do you say that? She says, because your whole countenance changes. When you mentioned his name, your voice changed, everything about you changes. And I said, yeah, I am.

You're right. You know, but the willingness, the ability to be reproved, the ability to let God begin to speak to your heart, not assuming that everything we do is right. Not building a false foundation or justifying what the Bible declares to be wrong.

It's about speaking well of those who bring reproof in the gate, you know, of going home and saying, oh, that hurt pastor Tim preached the message. It hurt. It cut deep, but he's such a good man.

I just so thank God that he's given me a pastor. That's not allowing me to live a way I shouldn't live, but it's challenging me to live a godly life. And the most powerful definition of all, which I love when you say you won't see me in until you say blessed to see who comes in the name of the Lord.

Now this is in reference to Christ, but the best definition that I've ever heard of this word is to be indwelt by Christ is to be fully satisfied. Blessed is he who's leading me to God. Blessed is he who's challenging the issues of my heart and bringing my life in line with truth.

Blessed is he who's not letting me craft an alternate Jesus. Blessed is he God who's not allowing me to just focus on the exterior, but be full of dead men's bones inside. Blessed is he.

Oh God. I know that many of you are going to come to pastor Tim and others on the day when you stand at the throne of God, you're going to say, pastor, thank you for not letting me live the way I was living. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

I know I walked out on you the first Sunday. I walked out on you the second Sunday, but the third and the fourth, I stayed and God got a hold of me and God started to change my life. Hallelujah to the lamb of God.

And I put that thing away that was in my life. I put that thing out of my heart that could have led me astray. I put away my, my own and foolish interpretation of scripture.

I put away the cherry picking, only the sweet things out of the word of God. And I started to read and embrace the whole word of God for my life. I put away my own will and ask for the will of God to be made known in my life.

I put away my own dreams and ambitions and say, God, you got something way, way bigger for me than I've got for myself. Oh God. Oh God.

Oh God, Oh God. Oh God. You're going to be so thankful when you get to the throne one day, you're going to be thankful.

You're going to be so thankful. You poured that thing out. You put those pills away.

You got rid of that girlfriend or that boyfriend. You're going to be so thankful. You stayed in your marriage.

You're going to be so thankful. You decided to be a good dad or a good mom and raise your kids. You're going to be so thankful.

You chose to forgive in your enemies. You're going to be so thankful that you stand there one day and say, God, thank you that you sent a word to me. Thank you.

You didn't let me live my own way. Thank you, Lord, that you didn't let me craft my own God. Oh, Jesus, son of God, thank you for coming to me and giving me life and giving it to me more abundantly.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. When that's what's in your heart, that's when you will be drawn under the wings of Jesus Christ, and you will see something about him that you can't see in any other place.

The nurture, the protection, the passion in the son of God's heart for you. Oh, hallelujah. Hallelujah.

I don't know about you, but that's where I want to be. That's where I want to be. I want to be close to his heart.

I want to, I want to hear what he's speaking. I don't want to be stubborn. I don't want to assume that everything I do is right.

I'm in the same boat as you folks. Just because I preached a long time doesn't, doesn't exempt me from what I'm preaching today. Matter of fact, the more you've been used of God, the more dangerous it becomes sometimes that you can think that the rules don't apply to you.

That's how these preachers fail. You know that. They start to believe that while God's been with me all this time, so he's certainly willing to allow me this, this little thing.

They don't know where it's going to lead them. So I want to give an altar call today for the little things, the little things that could get really big if you let them, they could actually blind you to truth eventually. They could lead you to a place of becoming enraged against those who come to challenge it.

That's what happened. The scribes and the Pharisees, they had attained position, power and influence. And they were in the crowd that was yelling, crucify him, crucify him.

We don't want this man to reign over us. But only a few years later, the Romans came in and their foundation collapsed. Their house was left to them empty because they didn't know that the moment of their visitation.

If God is speaking to you, respond. If you're hearing, that's why it says in the Hebrews today, if you could hear his voice, don't harden your heart. If you can hear him like the hand, just that certain sound and the chicks would just, they didn't see the danger, but they knew the sound.

And they just, they just ran so that their protector could put her wings around them and protect them. One of the most moving stories I read on this particular topic is about a particular hand that in a prairie fire that, that saw the fire coming and made that sound. The chicks came gathered under her wings.

And when they, when they found her eventually after the fire, she, she had died. She burnt to death, but the chicks were all still alive. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Praise God.

Let's, let's stand together. Do I need a microphone? Can you still hear me? You can hear me? Okay. It's just the monitors.

Okay. Praise God. Let's all stand together.

Worship team is going to sing a song. Here's what the Lord's put on my heart this afternoon. It's for the little things, just the little things that have gotten in there and you still know they're not right.

You know, they're not right. You're not at the point yet of justifying it. You know, it's not right.

It's time to put it away because if you do, you're allowing the son of God to gather you to his heart one more time. You'll be so glad you did. You'll be so glad.

So just make your way down here now, if you will. Okay. And we'll pray for the little things just to put them away, whatever it is.

God, just draw me close to your heart and give me the grace that I need. Come on now. Valkyrie, go to either exit, main sanctuary, just slip out.

Just the little things. You don't need to tell anybody what it is. It's nobody's business, but yours and God's, whatever it is, just the little things that are there now, you know, they're there and it's time to put them away.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus. Just keep coming. Just keep coming.

His presence is here. Lord, I just want to be under your wings. I want to be close to your heart.

I hear the sound of your voice. I hear you calling me away from a danger that I don't fully understand. I hear your voice.

I hear you, God. I hear you, God. And I'm willing.

I'm willing to come. Draw me close to you. Never let me go.

I lay it all down. You're my desire. Nothing else can happen to me but to feel your warmth.

Help me find, help me find, and lead me back to you. One thing you need to be assured of today is the love of God for you. He loves you, the scripture says, with an everlasting love.

He said, even a nursing mother could forget her child, but I can't forget you. I engraved you on the palms of my hands. And those nails went through the wrists of Jesus.

Your name was engraved there. He will never forget you. He won't fail you.

He won't forsake you. And he'll cover you. All he ever asked from his people is, he didn't ask us for perfection.

He said, just have an honest heart. That's all. And yes, we're going to make mistakes along the way.

We're going to, we'll stand up and we'll fall and we'll fail. I get that. But he says, as you're moving towards me, I cover you.

I cover you. I cover you. I cover, there's no, there's no mark that comes on you if you fail.

Because I know your heart. I know you want truth and I know you want to walk with me. And that's, that's the beauty of this walk with God.

It's not our performance that gains us favor with God. No, it's his cross that gives us favor with God. His cross and his cross alone.

And then he invites us. He says, now I'm inviting you into not just eternal life, but an abundant life, a full life, a meaningful life. When we cease to craft our own God and we actually yield to the real God, that's when the abundance starts coming in.

The new mind, the new heart, the new, new purpose, new vision. Praise God. When we stop looking in the wrong places for happiness and we find it in him and blessed to see it means I am blessed when I'm indwelt by God, that will fully satisfy me.

That's amazing when you think about it. It's amazing. So father, I just thank you Lord for the, the men and women.

I thank you for the tears here at this altar because that means transformation. That means God we're yielding our will to yours, our ways to yours, our words to your word. And God, we're going to go your way and we're going to live life the way you say it should be lived.

And we're going to become the people of God on this earth. Oh Jesus. Thank you Lord for my brothers and my sisters here.

Thank you God for all that you're doing and what you will do in the future and every life. God. And I thank you that when the storms come and things in the world begin to shake, these people will not fall.

They will not fail. And one day they will stand and hear the words. Well done.

Good and faithful servant. Well done. Well done.

Well done in Jesus name. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.