Let Go and Let God

This message is one of the Times Square Pulpit series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing to World Challenge P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas 75771 or calling 214-963-8626.

None of these messages are copyrighted and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to your friends. Let go and let God. And I ask you to turn to Leviticus.

We're going to start with Leviticus and end in Leviticus. And I don't really have any one scripture that goes with the title of the message. I have a lot of scriptures today that some will ask you to turn to, some will just be referring to.

But one of the points that I will arrive at in a few moments has to do with this verse here in Leviticus chapter 5 and verse 4. Leviticus chapter 5 and verse 4. Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil, I believe the New American Standard says thoughtlessly swear. Thoughtlessly just make an oath. Or if a soul swear, pronouncing with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatsoever it be that a man shall pronounce with an oath, and it be hid from him, it be hid from him, not even realizing what he had said, when he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty in one of these.

Years ago, there used to be in some of the churches that I attended, old time Pentecostal churches, there used to be a sign in the back of the church. Often you'll note in some churches they have a scripture verse or they have a slogan. And I noted that there would be one in some churches that said, let go and let God.

Or if it wasn't there, it would maybe be on a sign or something. And it was a common saying. It comes out of the early days of Pentecost.

In fact, there is an old time gospel course that is entitled, let go and let God. And it goes like this. It says, let go and let God.

Just a very simple course. Let go and let God have his wonderful way. Your sorrows will vanish.

Your night will turn to day. Let go and let God have his wonderful way. Now, of course, there is a wonderful truth in this.

Have you ever seen a child get a hold of something that they shouldn't have a hold of? And isn't it amazing the strength that little child has when you want to get it out of their hand. Tenaciously they will hold on to that. Well, the children of God are like that sometimes.

We sometimes get in our mind or heart. We get our heart and our mind set on something. Or something has a hold of us and won't let go or we won't let go of it.

There is a sister in the church. She may or may not know that I am referring to her. She may or may not be here this morning.

But she shared something with my wife that I don't believe she would mind me sharing because it blessed me. She said to my wife, she said, I finally let go. She had a smile on her face and she was praising the Lord.

She said, finally, I finally let go. And what she was talking about is a burden that she had. She was not talking about a sin that had a grip upon her life.

But she was talking about a burden that she had. A concern for a family member. And this family member was going through various struggles and every time a family member would go into a struggle she would be overburdened by it and feel the stress of it.

And again, she found a report regarding this family member. But this time she said, I finally got a release. I finally let go and let God.

And I'm sure that you have experienced the same thing in your life when you've had something that has been a hold of you or a heavy burden, a heavy stress, and you wanted to turn it to the Lord, but it still kept eating away at you. But finally you came to a point and you got a release from it and you said, oh, thank God I let go and let God have His way in the situation. Well, I want to talk to you this morning about the need to let go and let God have His way in certain things.

There are four things that came to my mind in a moment of inspiration. And these are things that we must let go of in order for God to have His perfect will and His sovereign way in our lives. Now, these four things and when they came to me and my wife knows when they came to me because I said, oh, give me a piece of paper.

I've got to write these down. I've got to write these words down. And I wrote them down.

I didn't know what they meant until I began to study. And there are four words, the four things that I want to share with you this morning and I want to preface it by saying that these came in a moment, as I said, of inspiration. And, but I almost fear in sharing them because you may remember the words, but not remember the truth that I'm trying to share regarding these words.

But the four things that came to me were this, that first of all, God wants us to let go of vows. And we read in Leviticus regarding a vow. And then secondly, the Lord wants us to let go of wows, W-O-W-S, wows.

Thirdly, He wants us to let go of woes. And fourthly, He wants us to let go of woos, W-O-O-S. Now, as I said, I didn't sit down and say, now how can I come up with some unusual creative outline? In a moment of inspiration, the four words just came into my mind and I wrote them down.

And I said, all right, Lord, I take them that they're from you. And so that's what I want to talk about. They represent certain things that God wants us to be released from.

And if not, we may suffer from spiritual retardation and be unable to do what Paul prayed might happen to the believers at Ephesus. He said in Ephesians chapter four and verse 13, he said, my prayer for you is that you will continue to come into the revelation of the Lord. And he put it this way, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of a knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the statue, the statue which belongs to the fullness of Christ.

And if there's anything that we have been stressing again and again in this church, when we talk about sin or we come against things that God wants to root out of our lives, it's not just that we're trying to address ourself to that. The purpose of it is that we might come into the fullness of Christ that we might measure up to his fullness. And so I want you to consider these four things that you, some people may need to let go of and let God have his way.

Let God root them out. Let God liberate you from it. First of all, our vows.

Now there are holy vows and there are unholy vows. There are vows that are made out of a godly heart and there are those that are made out of an ungodly heart or a fleshly heart. Psalm 76 and 11 says, make vows to the Lord your God and fulfill them.

Let all who are around him bring gifts to him who is to be feared. Now, the scriptures really do not require religious vows to be made, but nevertheless, they were made. A vow was usually a commitment of extraordinary devotion.

In other words, going beyond the letter of the law, going beyond even the requirements of the scripture for extraordinary devotion. And the making of such a vow was purely a personal matter. For example, Hannah vowed that if God would give her a son, she said, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and a razor shall never come on his head.

Now the purpose of the vow was either to win some desired favor from the Lord or to express gratitude to him for some deliverance or blessing as in Hannah's case, or else it was to prove absolute devotion to the Lord by way of abstaining from certain things or not conforming to certain things in order to please the Lord, in order to make this special commitment to the Lord. For example, there are nuns and priests and other people that have made vows of poverty unto the Lord. Now I don't see in the scripture that that is required of us, but some people, I know another brother who has made a vow of poverty in his life.

Or there are other people that make various other kinds of vows. For example, some have made financial vows. I know of a man, I think he's gone to be with the Lord, but when he went into business, he vowed that he would live only on 10% of his income and give 90% of it to the Lord.

His name is Dr. Letourneau. He started a college down in Texas. And other people have made various other kinds of vows.

And as I said, although vows are not required by the Lord, once a vow was made, the Lord took it seriously. Listen to Deuteronomy 23, 21. It says, when you make a vow to the Lord your God, you shall not delay to pay it, for it would be a sin to you and the Lord your God will surely require it of you.

Now, perhaps you have made some of these vows, godly vows in your day. And again, I encourage you, if you've made them, if you've told the Lord and Jimmy ministered Friday night along this line, talking about the disciples who forsook everything to follow the Lord and other people at one time have made commitments to the Lord, never followed through on that commitment. But just as there are vows made in the spiritual realm, so there are often vows made in the fleshly and carnal realm.

Some of them are made in our lives before we come to the Lord. Some of them when we're younger or newer in the Lord. And sometimes we're not even aware that we made them, but we do.

And they can have a hold upon us and we're not even aware of it. Leviticus says this, let me read it again. Leviticus chapter five and verse four, I'll read it now from the New American Standard.

It says, or if a person swears thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, in whatever manner a man may speak thoughtlessly, I can't read my writing, thoughtlessly with an oath and it is hidden from him. And when he comes to know it, he will be guilty in one of these things. Now, let me cite to you a few examples because I feel that there may be some people, some of you here and I know from counseling, I know from a young man that I talked to Friday night that there are people that sometimes have made a foolish vow in their past and they're still holding by it.

Or they're not even aware that it's there and it can have an influence, a grip upon their life that God wants you to let go of that so that he can have his way in your life and take you on in the things that he wants to take you into. For example, I've heard this expression from time to time, I'll never be like my father or I'll never be like my mother. And I know people who because of a poor parental example have made vows and they said, I'll never be like them.

And in fact, inevitably they often become just like the father or the mother that they said, I'll never be like them because until the Lord can come into your life, it is true many times that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the children and the only way that cycle can be broken is when you come to the Lord and that vow can be broken or that attachment can be broken. Interesting enough, you can also make a good vow. I made a vow that I was going to be like my father.

I remember my wife reminds me of this every once in a while and I smile when she reminds me of it. When I was courting her and when we were newly married, I had said to her before we got married that one day I was going to return and pastor the church where my father had been a pastor. And he passed away, he died when he was a pastor of that church and I said to her, I'm going to go back and pastor that church someday.

Well, the reason that I wanted to go back was twofold. Number one, I had been there, lived there about five years and I had started my preaching there and I figured those poor folks put up with me when I started my preaching, I owe it to them to come back someday and to show them that I could do better than that. But also I realized that I had made another vow when I was coming into the ministry, I made a vow that one day I was going to be in the headquarters of my denomination, having an important prestigious job, leadership job in my denomination and I figured I needed my dad's church as a stepping stone to get to there.

Well, thank God that he never heard my vow or I'd be sitting in some little cubicle in a Midwestern office today rather than ministering at Times Square Church. So thank God that he didn't hear my vow. But you see, because I made that vow, I realized for a period of time that it created an unholy ambition in my heart and part of my motivation, part of my drive in doing certain things was back there to that vow that I had made and wasn't even aware that I had made that vow.

And so we make foolish vows. There are others, I'll give you a few others. I'll never allow anybody to hurt me again.

Maybe you've been in a broken relationship, in a marriage or in a courtship that broke up, an engagement that broke up. And I've seen people who have difficulty handling interpersonal relationships because they were hurt at some time and unknowingly or knowingly they may have said to themselves, I'll never let anybody hurt me again. Here's another one.

I'll get even someday. I'll get even someday. I remember counseling a young Christian woman brought to me a friend of hers that she wanted me to counsel.

And she was just beginning to get involved in the occult and into witchcraft. And I talked to her and talked to her and she admitted that she was wrong. She knew it was wrong.

There was a part of her that wanted to reach out to the Lord. But after an hour, hour and a half counseling, finally the bottom line was this. No.

She had made a vow to get even with a young man that had hurt her. And she said, she went into the occult because that was gonna give her power. That was gonna give her some kind of power to be able to get even.

And so here is an ungodly vow that opened her to satanic powers and forces in her life. There are other vows I've heard. I'll never be poor.

I'll never be poor. I heard the testimony of a well-known evangelist. Heard his story.

And now he's into the faith and prosperity message. But he in essence said to himself, he is as much said in his story that he had made a vow that I'll never be poor again. And as a result of that, one thing followed another.

And it just seemed to me that he's latched himself upon the faith and prosperity message because of an unholy vow that he made when he was a young person. I've heard others, I'll never forgive him. I'll never forgive him.

I'll never forgive her. I'll never trust another man of God again. There's others, I hesitate.

I don't want to go on because I don't want you just to think, well, all right, none of these fit me. It's very possible that you have made made an unwise, unholy, even foolish vow in your past. And now that you've come to the Lord, you may have forgotten about it, but you see the devil does not.

And many times he takes advantage of that. If you've had a difficult past or childhood, you may have secretly or unconsciously vowed to never be like your parent or parents. And in so doing, you can be living with an unforgiving spirit towards that father or mother.

Proverbs 6, two and three says, if you have been snared with the words of your mouth, have been caught with the words of your mouth, do this then my son, deliver yourself. Perhaps the most tragic example of an unnecessary or foolish vow is that of King Jephthah. In the book of Judges, listen to it.

And Jephthah made a vow to the Lord and said, if thou would indeed give the sons of Ammon into my hand, then it shall be that whosoever comes out of the doors to meet me when I return in peace. In other words, if we win the battle, if God helps us to win the battle and we come back alive and in peace, he said the first one that I meet, I will offer up as a burnt offering. And unfortunately it was the king's daughter who comes out with a tambourine dancing before him as the army is returning and she's got the preliminary report that victory has been won.

And so the daughter comes out rejoicing. And when the king sees her, he tears his clothes and he said, alas, my daughter, and you have brought me low and you are among those that trouble me for I have given my word to the Lord and I cannot take it back. Now listen, if you have given your word to the Lord in a righteous vow, yes, fulfill it.

But if you've given your word foolishly or ignorantly or rashly or rebelliously in your past and the Holy Spirit brings it to light, then I want you to know this morning, let go and let God have his way because he can break that vow. He can break you from that secret thing that's in your heart. Saul of Tarsus made a vow of sorts to harass, to threaten, arrest, yes, even to kill the people belonging to what was called the way.

The Jesus people back then, the Christians were called the people of the way. And he was on the road to Damascus to fulfill a vow that he had made, but he was apprehended. And because he was apprehended, that vow was broken and Paul or Saul entered into another vow that superseded every other attachment or vow that he'd ever made, hallelujah.

If there is a deep hurt or bitter memory of the past that still haunts you or if it rises up occasionally, there may be an ignorant or an unholy vow that you made which you need to let go of and bring it to the cross and let it be nailed to the cross, hallelujah. A young man was here Friday night and I did not get permission to share this, but I don't think he would mind me sharing it because I would simply take this occasion to remind him of what I reminded him Friday night. He came forward and was all in distress and told me the story.

Jimmy, you were here for a moment of it. And he said at 19 years of age, he had foolishly made a vow. And now he's 27 years of age, but the devil comes back to him again and again and taunts him with that vow that he made.

And I said to him, if you're a child of God now, then my friend, that is under the blood. That's under the blood, that's gone, hallelujah. Once you've made your vow to the Lord, all other vows that you have made are broken, hallelujah, in the power and the blood of Jesus Christ.

Mike Paul had been thinking of his foolish vow when he said in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things pass away and behold, all things become new. You're under no more obligation to pass promises or vows or pledges that were made in the days of your flesh or in the days of your young ignorance as I made some foolish vows in the early days of my ignorance as a Christian.

They have passed away when you took on your new vows with the Lord. I've told the story, I think before, Martin Luther tells a story of when he had a dream and the devil came to him in a dream and he opened a long scroll and Martin Luther says to the devil, what's that? And he says, that's all of your sins. Long scroll.

And if you know a little history of Martin Luther, he was saved, but he had a long way to go to be sanctified. But then Martin Luther looked at him and he started laughing and the devil says, what are you laughing at? He said, thank you for reminding me of everything that's under the blood. Psalms 50 verse 12 and 13 tells us that our new vows unto the Lord free us from all vows of the past that were made in the body of your sin.

Listen to what it says. Thy vows are binding upon me, O Lord. I will render thank offerings to thee for thou hast delivered my soul from death, indeed my feet from stumbling so that I may walk before God in the light of the living.

You walk in a new lifestyle now. You're not bound by that anymore. And I feel also this morning, I felt as I was preparing this and praying about it, I felt that there might be someone here who at some time in your past, that someone who was into witchcraft or someone who was into the occult put a curse on you and made a vow to harm you.

And there is still a fear that comes on you from time to time, that you would think that somehow the devil would have more power or that person would have power to fulfill that vow. Well, hear the word of the Lord. The scripture says, David says, thou hast delivered my soul from death and all that is a part of that death, that past that you were in.

He has delivered your soul and indeed he has delivered my feet from stumbling. You now walk in the land of the living and in the light of the new birth. And God wants to free you from all of those fears.

Praise his name. Let me move on to something else. The Lord also wants us to let go of wows.

Let me explain. Turn to Mark chapter six, the story of the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 because there is a wow in this story. Mark chapter six, beginning at verse 40, it says, and they sat down in ranks by hundreds and by fifties and when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven and blessed it and break the loaves and gave them to the disciples to set before them and the two fishes divided he among them all and they did all eat and were filled.

Now, I wanna talk to you about the sixth fella in the first row, not here. But during the feeding of the 5,000, they were sat down in companies of 150. Jesus blessed it.

They all knew that there were five loaves and two fish. Everybody knew that was all the lunch there was. And Jesus lifted it up and thanked the Lord for it and the disciples began to distribute it.

Now, the first five fellas, there was nothing unusual about them reaching in and getting a little loaf of bread. But when it came to the sixth fella and he reached in and he brought out a loaf of bread, there must have been some reaction, right? I believe that's where there was a wow or the Hebrew equivalent of, isn't this marvelous? And then the seventh fella and the eighth fella and the ninth fella and the 10th fella and it's going wow, wow, wow, wow. And pretty soon, eventually it spread through 5,000 people who had never seen anything like that in their life.

In other words, there were no words to describe what had happened. It was a wild experience. In fact, I preached a message on this one time called, Wow, What a Lunch.

And the dictionary describes a wow, it's a slang but it means a remarkable and successful, exciting person or thing. You can be sure that when that miracle finally, when everybody realized what was going on, they're looking at Jesus and they're saying, wow. And they're looking what's happening and they're saying, wow.

There was an awful lot of excitement there. In fact, the emotions ran so high that we're told in John chapter six, verse 15, Jesus therefore perceiving that they were intending to come and take him by force to make him king withdrew again to the mountain by himself alone. Now listen, please follow.

There is a danger in the body of Christ of being deceived by wows or looking for or living on a wow experience. Mark 6 45, it says in straight way or immediately he made his disciples get into a boat and get into the ship and to go to the other side. When he sent the people away, Jesus had to get his disciples away from such fleshly enthusiasm that was generated by that miracle.

There was too much wow in the crowd. There was too much excitement and the kind that leads to misguided zeal and false devotion. They wanted to make Jesus their wow king, their miracle worker, but you see it long for their excitement to change and their wow turned to ow or ouch.

In the very next encounter with Jesus and to some of the same people who witnessed his miracle feeding, he said, I am the bread of life. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day for my flesh is food and my blood is true drink. And you know what their reaction was? Ouch or ow, they were not ready for that.

Jesus was saying, I want you to live off of my life. Live off of everything that I say, everything that I do, not just the blessings that I bestow upon you. In John 660 it says, many therefore of his disciples when they heard this said, this is a difficult saying.

The kind of thing that we hear sometimes about this church and we don't glory in it, but it's the truth that some people say it's too hard. It's too hard. And they said, this is a hard statement.

Who can listen to it? Now the point is this, they had seen the miracle working power of Jesus. But you see that power was intended to authenticate who he was and that he was the son of God, that he had come from the father and that he had the keys to the kingdom and that he wanted them to enter into the kingdom. The miracle was just the appetite.

The miracle was just the prelude. And he said, I want you to feed off of me. I don't want you just to live off of wonderful, wild experiences.

They were not prepared to come under his rule and his reign and his authority. And you see, Jesus knew that there was a kind of crowd in his day as there is a crowd today that are only looking for the power. They're not looking to follow him.

They're drawn by signs and wonders, but they do not see that Jesus wants to open the door for them to enter into his kingdom and to take up their cross and follow him. John 6, 64, he said to the people of the wild, he said, there are some of you that believe not for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who would betray him. You see, there's a warning in all of this to us.

Be careful. Be careful that you're not looking for or living on a wild. You see, this is when we set our hopes on a miracle.

Or we set our hopes on an answer to prayer. Or we set our hopes on loaves and fishes instead of he who has the words of eternal life. Now, listen to me.

If you've got cancer or you've got some other physical need and you want God and need God to perform a miracle, he is able and he is willing to do that. We're gonna have prayer for the sick later. We believe that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

You may need some answer to prayer this morning and you have every right to ask God for it. We believe in divine healing and not only do we believe in divine healing, but we believe in his divine intervention in our lives. And some of you can testify to the fact that if God had not been with you, if he had not divinely entered in or intervened in your life, you wouldn't be here today.

We've had some wonderful answers to prayer in this church. The kind of miraculous things that people go away from this church and I like it when they do. I've seen people go away from our service and saying, wow, what a service.

Wow, what a service. Just as it was in the days of Jesus, they said, we've never seen it on this fashion before and we want that to continue to happen and we believe it's going to intensify as God begins to move us into his fullness that these things will become a natural byproduct of what the Lord is doing in our lives. Jesus said, greater works than these shall you do in my name.

And I believe we're seeing that come to pass. However, don't put your entire trust or hope in the wow. Don't get your eyes fixed on your external needs.

Fix them on your need to live off the words of Jesus, not just off the works of Jesus. You see, there are some people who bargain with God and they say, God, if you'll just do this for me, if you'll just give me this one thing and what they're asking for is some wow experience and sometimes God does give it to them but I've seen people that never fulfill on their bargain. If you have a fixation on a wow, then I say to you today, let go and let God get a hold of your heart.

Let go of that wow because it may be an idol in your heart. Your heart may be set on some goal or some need or some answer to prayer and it'd be set more on that than it is on Jesus. In John the sixth chapter, Jesus turned to his own disciples after.

Some of them said this is a hard statement and it says they turned back and they walked no more with him and Jesus wanted to know if his disciples were gonna be just like that. He said, are you gonna just live for my works? Are you gonna just live for my blessing? And Peter answered and he said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You're the one that turns the water into wine. You're the one that makes the lows expand.

No, that's not what he said. He said, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life. You see, there is a difference between Jesus' works and his word in this context.

Listen, if you're sick and you need a healing, someday you're gonna die, you're still gonna die. Even if you're healed, you're still gonna die. But if you live off the words of Jesus, then as Peter says, you have eternal life so that if you're healed, you have a plus.

But if you're not healed, you'll still win because you've got eternal life in you, hallelujah. Can't lose, it's a can't lose proposition with the Lord. Remember, let me tell you about the wedding of Canaan.

In fact, if you wanna turn to John, the second chapter, I wanna show you a beautiful illustration of what I'm talking about, the very first miracle of Jesus. I want you to see that there was a difference between what the host and the guest experienced and what the servants behind the scene experienced. You remember the story, Jesus' mother came to him and said, you know, they're out of wine.

And he said, woman, what have I to do with thee? And what he was saying is that I do not work upon your timetable or your needs. I only do what the Father tells me to do. Well, apparently the Father told him to do something.

And in verse nine, verse eight and nine, or verse nine, it says, when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine. Now let me stop there. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, you know what he said? He said, wow, we've never had wine like this before.

He knew not whence it was, but the servants which drew the water knew. And the governor of the feast called the bridegroom. And he said unto him, every man at the beginning thus set forth good wine.

And when the men had well drunk, then that which is worse, but thou has kept the good wine until now. But I want to tell you, you know who was most blessed at that wedding of Cana? I never saw this. Well, I saw this before, but never as I did, as I studied it again.

Look at verse six. Verse five, his mother said unto the servants, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there was set there six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews containing two or three firkins apiece.

Jesus saith unto them, fill the water pots with water and they filled them up to the brim. Now you see, then they took it out and the guest experienced the wine. Oh, but they had a much greater experience.

You see, the guest tasted the wine. The guest said, wow, what a wine. But these servants behind the scene got to see Jesus and they got to hear Jesus.

And they got to realize that he, as he said, as his mother said, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And I believe that they saw something there. They gained an insight there that nobody else at the wedding feast ever had an opportunity to gain that insight, even though they had the wine.

Okay, let me go on. Third thing, let me talk to you about letting go of a woe. Turn with me to 2 Samuel chapter 19.

The dictionary describes a woe as great grief, sorrow, or misery. And there's a real touching example of it in the 19th chapter of 2 Samuel. This was a time when Absalom, David's son, had led a rebellion against his father.

And the result ended in tragedy for Absalom and grief for David. Absalom, while he was riding, and we'll not read it, but he was riding upon a mule in battle, he got his head caught in an oak tree and was hanging in midair. 10 men under David's rule, under Joab, who was David's army general, came along, surrounded Absalom, and killed him.

David gets the word regarding his son, which incidentally was also the word that the rebellion had been put down. Upon hearing the report, in chapter 18, verse 33, it says, and the king was much moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept. And as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, would God that I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son.

Now, not only does David weep, but he wept and he wept and he continued to weep. In fact, he stayed up in his chamber and he refused to come down. In the meantime, David's army has now returned from battle.

They are victorious. The rebellion has been put down. They're ready to celebrate, but instead of a parade, there is a funeral in effect.

And you see, instead of their being joyful, they're having to wait and they're hearing the sobs of David up in his chamber. Now you see, David was entitled to his period of grief, but he did not and he would not let go of it. He would not let go of his woe.

He would not let go of his sorrow. And while David stays in his chamber grieving, his men have snuck into the city. They're ready to declare victory.

They're ready to taste the rewards of victory. They're ready to be congratulated by David, but instead, picture these men all sitting around the gate of the city or the outside wall of the city. And here's David up in his chamber and he's saying, oh Absalom, my son, my son, and he's grieving and this goes on and on.

And finally, Joab goes up to David's chamber. He goes into the king's room and he gives the king a lecture. And in essence, Joab says to David, enough of this grief.

You've wept long enough. What about your army? They've sacrificed their lives for you. They need to see you.

They need to see, wash your face, come down and join the land of the living. They need a word of appreciation from you. And in fact, Joab warned David.

He said, if you let this grief so immobilize you and turn you into a recluse, your men will forsake you. Here's what he said. In fact, let's read 19 verses one to four.

And it was told Joab, behold, the king weepeth and mourneth for Absalom. And the victory that day was turned into mourning unto all the people. For the people heard say that the day how the king was grieving for his son.

And then the people snuck into the city. In verse four, but the king covered his face and he cried with a loud voice. Oh, my son, Absalom.

Oh, Absalom, my son, my son. And it was then that Joab comes in and he says in verse seven, he says, now therefore arise, go forth and speak comfortably unto thy servants. If thou go not forth, there will not tarry one with thee this night.

And that will be worse unto thee than all the evil that befall thee from thy youth on until now. And so David heeds Joab's words. He finally picks himself up.

He finally lets go. And he lets God work in his life. And he comes down from his chamber of woe.

And in verse eight, he sits at the gate of the city. Then the king arose and sat in the gate. And they told all the people saying, behold, the king does sit in the gate.

And all the people came before the king for Israel had fled every man to his tent. And God brought back the kingdom together. The point is this, David almost lost his kingdom because he was gonna let a woe.

He was gonna let a grief so grip his heart that he was never gonna come out again. This is the end of side one. You may now turn the tape over to side two.

Cruelty. And even today, it's the same. Britain is known for its paganism.

America is known for its worldliness. Russia is known for its blatant atheism. And in fact, in certain periods of history, there were people who were noted for certain achievements.

And I wanna say to some of you this morning, if you're like David and you're sitting in some chamber of wall, refusing to come down, then I am like a Joab to you this morning. And the message to you is this, let go and let God have his way. The Lord does not want you brooding all your days over an Absalom.

It's time to sit at the gate and enter into the life and the spirit. Perhaps you've suffered the loss of a loved one. And if it's been recent, then you have reason to grief.

But if you're still so overwhelmed by that, or if you suffered the loss of a relationship, or you've had some other woeful experience, then God wants you to lift you out of that. Because if you let it fester, if you let it continue, it'll rob you as it was about to rob David. Psalms 18, five and six, perhaps David was thinking about the chamber of wall when he wrote this.

The sorrows of hell come past me about. The snares of death prevented me. They prevented me.

Your sorrows can prevent you. Think of all the things the sorrows of hell may prevent you from enjoying. David said, his sorrows prevented me.

It held me back. It immobilized me. It kept me away from the body of Christ and from my duties as a leader.

But he said, in my distress, I called upon the Lord. I cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of the temple and my cry came before him, even unto his ears.

And God lifted him out of that, praise his name. This morning, you may have a woe that you need to let go of and lay at the altar. Now, I had one more thing, but I'm not gonna, I'll just mention it briefly, and that is a woe.

That's a word in the dictionary. Daniel Webster defines a woe as to try to get, to seek, to coax, to urge. It means to court, as in romance.

And you know, there are some things that we try to woo, but mainly I'm thinking of the things that try to woo us. And I'll just give one brief illustration. Jesus said in Luke 17, 32, he said, remember Lot's wife, remember Lot's wife.

You see, Lot's wife was destroyed by a woe. By one backward look to Sodom, because she could not and she would not let go of a place, an affection, a love that had courted her and to which she had become wedded as a woman to a husband. And Jesus said, remember Lot's wife.

She was let out miraculously, her and her husband let out of the burning city and was warned, don't look back. But the city had so won her heart that she turned back. And that's why Jesus said, remember Lot's wife.

And this morning you may have one of these that has attached themselves that you need to let go of. There's one more verse of scripture I want to close with. I want you to, I want to take you back to Leviticus.

Now go to the first chapter of Leviticus. And I want you to see these words. Leviticus chapter one and verse 16.

It's talking about sacrifices. It's talking about the Old Testament sacrifices. And it says that there is a place of ashes.

And I want you to know this morning that there is in this place and at this altar a place of ashes. And let me explain what that is. I want you to know this.

In verse 17 it says, and this is talking about one of the sacrifices. In fact it was a fire, well look at verse 14. And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the Lord be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtle doves or of young pigeons.

And the priest shall bring it into the altar and wring off his head and burn it on the altar and the blood thereof shall be wrung out at the side of the altar. And he shall pluck away his crop with his feathers and cast it beside the altar on the east part by the place of ashes. By the place of ashes.

Just as there was in the tabernacle a place of ashes. There is this morning here in this place a place of ashes. You see if an Israelite sinned he was to bring an offering.

Look at verse 4 of chapter 1. And he shall put his, he was to bring a sacrifice it would be a, we just read to you it could have been a bird, a fowl or it could have been an animal sacrifice. Well whatever the sacrifice was it says and he shall put his hand upon the head of the burnt offering and it shall be accepted for him to make atonement for him. Now all of this is a picture of Christ as our sin offering.

He is the one to whom we come and by faith we place our hands upon the head of the offering and by so doing we let go and we let God provide atonement and deliverance from either unholy vows or some other ambition that's in your heart or some woeful experience or something that's trying to woo you whatever it is whatever is trying to separate you from the Lord. And when the offering or the, excuse me when the offerer or the one who brought the offering when he saw the offering burnt or consumed and especially he would look and see the ashes there he knew that his sin was being burnt away at the same time that his sin was being transferred to that burnt offering which is a type of Christ and he could see all of his iniquity burnt up laying there in the ashes and I want to tell you this morning there is still a place of ashes. It's a place where if you will let go and let God and if you will place your hand on the sacrifice which is Christ and you'll look upon him as your atonement that in the ashes of that sacrifice all your unholy vows all of your past all of your present whatever has attached itself to you it will be burnt away at the place of ashes.

How often have we pastors said here lay down your sin we say come lay it down what we're saying is this let go and let God Christ is our sin bearer you can bring your sins to him it will be a place of ashes it will be a place of atonement and atonement means at one at one take the word atonement it means at one that you can be at one with Christ and all of that can be burnt up in the place of ashes Hallelujah the sacrifice is burning this morning the sacrifice is alive this morning it's a place of ashes and if you need to be released from an unholy vow let go and let God if you need to be released from some wow experience that you've been putting your faith in let go and let God if you have a woe that's in your heart let go and let God lay it down let it burn at the place of ashes this morning let's stand together he was related to him it was his cousin he wanted to take him but Paul says no I don't want him to go they had such a sharp difference among them that the two of them divided