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Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 812 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text -- Brother Ben Johnson: Turn with me to Luke, chapter 4, please. I appreciate the Lord speaking to us tonight. I'm so thankful that He's so faithful to come and meet us where we're at, because you know He's the only one that can really see the heart. He's the only one that can really see the need. We have a picture of where we think we're at spiritually. We have an image of where we think we are and how we think we're doing. He's the only one that can rightly look into the heart and see what the need is. We need to ask Him to do that. You know David asked Him, he said, search me, oh Lord. Try me today. I can't do it. You're the only one that can do it. You try me Lord. See if there be some wicked way in me that I don't even know about. If there is, God, show me, make it real to me because I don't want that to take me over. I don't want to be led down that pathway and not even realize what's happening until it's too late--to be in that position that Jimmy was talking about--it taking me further than I want to go and not realize what's going on. God, reveal that to me. Open my eyes to see what's going on in this heart, because I can't. I can't do it, you got to do it. But He does that. He responds to a heart that's crying out to Him. He doesn't just come and force His way in your life and say this is what's wrong with you and I'm gonna make you start doing what I want you to do. It doesn't happen that way. He works with us. He gives out the Word. At times like this when His presence is here, He gives out the word by the anointing, by His spirit that's got life and power in it. He gives out that word to cause us to examine ourselves, to cause us to cry out to Him to do that work. He's listening for that. I tell you when He hears that, when He sees a heart that's making that cry, He will answer that. He'll come and He'll meet us where we're at. I believe He's meeting us where we at tonight and we're not always where we need to be but He'll come where we're at. ( congregational amens ). It's just like what they sang, there's no place you can go--you can't sink low enough that that grace can't reach you where you're at to draw you back to Him. I'm so thankful for that. I praise Him for that. I thought about the scripture. It's been on my heart this afternoon. I think it's what the Lord wants to do for us here. This is the occasion where Jesus went to the synagogue there in Nazareth and where they handed Him the scroll, the prophet Isaiah, and He turned to where it was written here starting in verse 18 of Luke, chapter 4. And He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me..." (NIV). Well praise God that's what we need. We need the anointing. Man's power is not going to get this done. Man's psychology and us trying to come up with a twelve-step program for how you can become a better Christian isn't gonna get it done. We need the power of God to be in our midst to work in these hearts because we can't change ourselves. We're given the illustration in the scriptures that He is the potter and we're the clay. What power does a lump of clay have to shape itself into anything? ( congregational amens ). It can't do that. It can't make itself something. It can't make another lump of clay something. I can't change you. You can't change me. We can't change one another. Only our God can change us. Oh, we can impose things from the outside and get people to try to conform to a standard of behavior, but what good does that do? The heart is unchanged. Only God can change the heart. ( congregational amens ). That's why the anointing is here, that's what He's doing for us in this meeting, and this is what Christ said, He said the anointing was upon Him. But it was for a reason, it wasn't just so I can pat myself on the back and say what a great person I am. He was given the anointing for a reason. He had a mission. He had a reason why He was there and He said, "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor...." Praise God, that's what we talked about last night. We talked about who those poor were and the good news that we have to proclaim to the poor. It's for anybody. It's for those that are meek. It's for those that are in that low place. It's for those that have had their eyes opened to realize I have a need and I can't fix it myself. Lord, what can I even do? What can somebody like me do? Well you can call out to me, because the anointing is here to set you free. ( congregational amens ). Praise God! Hallelujah, praise you, our Lord. "...to preach good news to the poor..." But that's not the only reason. The good news needs to be preached to those that are lost and those that God's prepared for salvation. That's good. We need that, but that's not the only reason the anointing was upon Him. It was more than just that. It was to preach good news to the poor, but He says, "...He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners..." Praise God! We get ourselves in prison sometimes. I tell you what, we sometimes we don't agree with our adversary and we get in prison that way. Sometimes the devil will pull on things in this nature and it starts awfully subtle. It's awfully small. We don't even know what's going on. There's certain spiders in nature that'll do that. They'll catch a particular insect and some of them can fight back. They have different means of defense, but there are certain spiders that know just how to wrap 'em up just as soft and gentle and slow as you please, round and around and around. By the time that bug realizes what's going on, it's too late. He's trapped. He can't get out at that point. I'm afraid that happens too many times with us, but praise God that's not the end of the story. We don't have to give up and say it's too late for us. There's one that'll reach down His hand where we're at to deliver us from a trap like that. ( congregational praise ). Praise God! Praise you our Lord. He's sent to proclaim freedom for the prisoners. How many of you heard that service where Jim Cymbala preached about the gates of Hell--the gates being something to keep people in--to keep you inside? Well, Praise God! What did He say in the Word about the gates of Hell? They won't prevail against the church. If we are what we need to be, and God will help us as Tony was saying, to become what we need to be as a church of Jesus Christ. He'll be able to use us, to spite everything wrong with us, to go in there and breach those gates and get people out that are in prison. ( congregational amens ). Praise God, I want that done for me and I want to be able to do that for somebody else. What other reason do we have to be here? Why play church if we're not making a difference--if it's not growing us, if we're not learning and growing? If we're not making a difference in other people's lives, what's the point? That's what we're here for, that's what the anointing is given for. We pray that God will anoint our services. Well, this is what it's for. It's to deliver people that are in prison. Praise God! I'm a candidate for it. God help me. Let's open our eyes. ( congregational amens ). Amen. "...He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners..." See, He's gonna tell you that there is freedom available. It's not just the fact that He's wanted. He has, but that message has got to be proclaimed. You got to know that there's a basis on which you can be delivered. When you look at yourself and you see, well how am I gonna get out of this? I've been this way my whole life. I've been this way for years. Look at this circumstance. Look how bad this thing is. Well, praise God there is freedom. I'm here to proclaim that there is freedom or there's a basis for freedom. Our Lord has won the victory. And this is what we sang about tonight--when He went to that cross He didn't just take away our sins. He provided everything that we need to live for God--every strength, every bit of wisdom that we need. It was in Jesus Christ and it's available for us. There is freedom tonight for His people. ( congregational amens ). Praise God! "...and recovery of sight for the blind..." I tell you what, this is our problem many times is we're blind to the need. That's the whole problem. We're not crying out to Him to be delivered, because we don't even realize there's a problem. I think... I tell you what--it was evident last night with the Lord reaching out the way He did, giving the Word that He did, and how few responded. I think it's obvious from that there's some blind eyes--that there's some people that did not realize that God was calling to them last night. They could not see their need and that the Lord of Glory was here Himself to reach out to them and to draw him. They couldn't see it. That's blindness, folks. That's blind eyes. My eyes are blind far too often. I'm too blind to what the enemy is doing in my life. I'm too blind sometimes to have...you know Jesus gave the illustration about the seed that's sowed, and one of the grounds it landed on was that thorny ground. He said that's the cares of this world and slowly, little by little they grow around that Word and start choking it out. The life of that is choked out. I'm too blind to that going on in my life sometimes, I need somebody that can see more clearly than I can to come and show me. We need sight. We need to have our eyes opened. ( congregational amens ). We sing that song, "Hear us From Heaven." It says, open the blind eyes, unlock the deaf ears. It ain't talking about people out there. It says, come to your people as we draw near. We're the ones who need blind eyes opened. ( congregational amens ). We're the ones who need deaf ears unlocked and He is here to do that for us. I praise Him tonight. I praise Him. Hallelujah! ( congregational praise ). Praise you, our Lord! Amen. I praise Him that He'll blow the trumpet in Zion when it needs to be blown. He is that faithful to us. I praise Him for that. "...recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed." I tell you what--there is one greater than the one that's oppressing you. I don't care what your problem is, I don't care where you've fallen into defeat, I don't care where he's condemning you--everything that's been talked about tonight, you know where it's coming from. There's a wisdom that doesn't come from God. It's not peaceable. It's not pure. It's not easy to be entreated. It's that other kind--it's earthly. It's devilish. But I tell you what, there's a power greater than him. That battle's been won, you don't have to wonder how it's gonna turn out. ( congregational amens ). You don't have to ask if God's strong enough to get you out of the mess you're in. He's already done it. When Christ went to the cross, He won the victory. It's past tense. It's over. It's a matter of us entering into that, laying hold of it, seeing it as something that's so great that it's worth laying our life down for. It's worth turning loose of that thing that I think is so important. I think it's so alluring and yet all it is, is what keeps me in bondage. It's what keeps me from being used of Him. I pray Lord, I want to be more useful. I want you to use me. I want you to work in me, and here I am holding on to the very thing that's keeping me from that. And every time He brings it up and every time He challenges me, I think about it for a little bit, and I let it slip and I go right back. I don't realize the whole time I've got a death grip on that thing. He is trying to set us free. He is trying to release the oppressed. I praise Him. I want to be released. God help us. ( congregational amens ). Hallelujah! Lord, you are worthy. Set us free. Amen. He is here to release the oppressed. And it is oppression, it's not just circumstances. There is some body that is against you. There is an enemy that is out to get you. He has a plan for your life--to destroy it, to wreck it. He has ways that he attacks you but I tell you what--there is one that is greater than him. Greater is He that is in us than He that's in the world. ( congregational amens ). I praise Him for that. It's available but I tell you what--you've got to come to the place where you realize it, and it's not your own strength. The Lord gives the Word out. We're blind. We can't open our own eyes, but where He meets with us like this and He gives out the Word for that purpose, when the anointing is here for this reason, it says, "...to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." When the Spirit is here and He's proclaiming the time of the Lord's favor, now's the time. There is healing available now. There's victory available for you now--not for your brother, not for the church as a whole, not for God's people off in some other country somewhere-- for you, tonight. ( congregational amens ). There's victory available. There's an ability to change your heart that you cannot do for yourself and nobody else can do for you, but He can. But He's listening for the heart that's crying. He's looking for that heart that will agree with His assessment. You know we talked about the blind eyes. David was mentioned with what happened with Bathsheba. His eyes were pretty blind. He didn't seem to realize what he had done until the prophet came. God sent the prophet. He pointed to him and said, "...Thou art the man..." (KJV). And his eyes were opened and he realized the horror of what he had done. He realized it. It's when he wrote Psalm 51, that Psalm that was read. That's when...read the little margin there. That's when that Psalm was written. It was after what had happened with Bathsheba. That opened his eyes. I tell you what, but he had to agree. He had to humble himself before God and say, it's against you and you only that these things have been in my heart. He didn't point fingers. He didn't make excuses. He didn't blame somebody else. He said God, it's true. What you said is true. What can I do except bow before you and ask you to forgive me, ask you to take me in, to work in me, to do for me what I can't do for myself. Did God receive him? Yes He did. He said I put away your sin. You won't die. He's put away that sin. Praise God! That's what I need tonight. I thank Him for his mercy. God help us. ( congregational praise ). -- Brother Jerry Krummrich: You know it's really good when the anointing reminds us that the Word applies to all of us. I really appreciate what's been brought out from the elder to the youngest. We're all in need to give our entire lives to the Lord--me first. I'll say that. I thought about the horror of what David did when he was confronted of it. I thought about the woman taken in adultery. Think about her horror. She was probably drug through the streets. Her life was gone in her eyes. She was guilty, absolutely. She knew it. They didn't have a court system back then. She was caught red-handed. She was guilty. A little while later, the Lord in his mercy...what we sung about tonight. What an example of mercy--absolutely a hundred percent guilty, and absolutely a hundred percent declared by the only one who could do anything about that. There was no other court, no other place for her to go, and probably nobody else had ever been judged innocent for such a thing. Then He declared her innocent after no one could charge her and He said, "...go and sin no more." That's what I see applying to us tonight. The Lord in His mercy has absolutely reminded us we're all guilty. It's His mercy to talk to us, to unstop our ears. It's His mercy to talk to us in the first place 'cause we're unfaithful. He could turn His back on us, but He doesn't. And then beyond that He forgives us and loves us anyhow. What I would like to go away for me is to be touched but to go and sin no more, that I might appreciate His mercy so much that I would find it a horror whenever I'd see myself doing like this, like Ben said. I'd find that horrible to offend my God continually, that I would not be able to be touched by His mercy. I just want to add, and I never really thought about it and the Bible doesn't tell us. What did that woman do after that? Do we know? We don't really know, but can we imagine that she would take it lightly and go back and do what she had done before? Can we imagine that she appreciated that mercy? I can imagine that. ( congregational amens ). I want to imagine that because I want to believe that's what the Lord intended. The Lord didn't say go and sin no more and in His heart believed that she was gonna continue to be a whore. He didn't believe that. He had a pure heart. He could see people that could hear what He had to say. I'm glad He had that kind of mercy and that kind of a heart 'cause that gives me hope He can see me. ( congregational amens ). The scripture came forth in 1st John that "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves..." That doesn't mean we can't believe--that we can't really in our hearts have something in us that says, I'm gonna go and sin no more. It's the...we sang about the power of God tonight. Do we believe in the power of God to put that in us--to hate being a whore towards him and to want to give Him our all? I believe that because that's what the Word said. We sang about the cross. Galatians 2, I'll read it. Think about what the power of God can do in us on the inside if we believe what He did for us. If we believe what the Word says He accomplished on the cross. If we believe that is true. I mean in one sense we could say it's supernatural, but if we believe it's just as real as a hammer handle, we believe our sins have been taken away and we're justified in the eyes of a holy God. If we believe that and we believe His word and who He is, we can be touched by this. "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God." (NASB). That woman was dead. I was dead. We were all dead. Can we live to God? By His grace, by His divine influence I believe we can. I want to believe more. I want that belief to carry me. "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me." "I do not set aside the grace of God..." (NIV). I do not set aside the grace of God. I want to believe. I want to believe that a human being can believe that God can speak to him, tell him I have forgiven you, go and sin no more, and that we would have something in us to want to honor that and to appreciate the mercy of the God. -- Brother Carl Johnson: I just want to read a scripture we're very familiar with in the third chapter of Revelation. I was thinking as the Lord has been sharing with us here tonight--and it's been the Lord. It is truly the goodness of God. It is the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. I thought about the reference there of rending our hearts. I believe that's in Isaiah where the Lord anointed the prophet to say, you know there's this tradition of coming before me, and you're anguished about a situation, and you rend your garments. He said what's needed is to rend your heart. ( congregational amens ). I was just crying out to the Lord tonight--Lord help us to do that. Help us to rend our hearts--not to draw back from this light that you are bringing but rather help us to examine ourselves. Help us to rend our hearts and to say, Lord, shine it deeper. Shine your light deeper and help me to see my need. It is His goodness, it's His love that brings us to the place of repentance. This is a very familiar scripture, I'm just gonna read it. In verse 14, "...These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. I know your deeds..." I know your deeds whether you really know 'em or not, I know them. "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot..." What we've heard a lot about here tonight is the lure of this world and leaving our first love. I desire deliverance from this world. ( congregational amens ). I desire deliverance from self on the throne. I desire my God and my Lord to have the priority--the first place, in my heart. ( congregational amens ). He deserves it and nothing else will do. He longs to love us and cherish us, carry us. He wants to be first in our hearts and lives and He is worthy. "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth." My God, I don't want to be spit out of his mouth. ( congregational amens ). I want to find that place of repentance. I want to humble myself under His might hand and draw closer, be drawn closer. He has to do the drawing. He longs to do it and that's why He's bringing this Word tonight. As it's been said...you know the phrase was used from the greatest to the least. Folks ain't nothing but the least here. ( congregational amens ). But you know what Brother Thomas said so many times, he said, you know what you and God are a majority. That's because He reigns. He reigns. He's the great one, we're the least and we desperately need Him. "You say..." And folks, we say it without realizing we say it, but we say it. "...I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing. But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you..." Our Lord is counseling us tonight "...to buy from me gold refined in the fire..." It's the fire of His love. It's His goodness that leads us to repentance. "...gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see." I want to see. ( congregational amens ). God, I want to see. Lord, I want to see. I want to see through His eyes. I want to be able to hear His voice more and more clearly. Those... listen to this. "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock..." He's standing at the door of my heart tonight and knocking, and I want to open it to Him. With all my heart, mind, and soul I want to open it to Him. ( congregational amens ). -- Brother Jimmy Robbins: Do you believe the Lord has spoken tonight? ( congregational amens ). Amen. We're not gonna do any pleading or pulling or anything. I want you to examine your heart. Let's just close our eyes just for a moment. Lord Jesus, I ask you to help us all. Help us, God, to examine our heart and Lord, help us to repent. God, that's what's in order is to repent. I believe, Lord, that you want more out of each one of us. I believe that this church...I say this church, I mean the body of Christ, Lord, that you have things that you will do for us and with us and use this church in a powerful way--more powerful than it was ever been used before. If we will repent, you will heal our land. You'll deliver us. And Lord, I want to thank you for visiting with us tonight. I want to thank you Lord, for putting your finger right where it belongs and Lord, we want to respond through repentance tonight. Let's all stand. If you feel your need to come down here and repent, come on. Thank you my God. Thank you Jesus. Oh God. -- Congregation singing: CREATE IN ME A CLEAN HEART, O GOD, -- Brother Jimmy: Hallelujah! Thank you Lord. ( congregational amens ). Thank you Lord. |
