God is Searching for a Man
Sunday, January 6, 2019
By Rev. James May
We are living in a time when it is often challenging to exercise our faith because of all the negative feedback that we get. In these days you have search hard to find truly “good news” among all the talking heads on the TV and news media. We are living in the last days, and beginning a New Year in those last days, but we must not forget that all of the New Years Resolutions that men can make will not change the ultimate course of history. God’s word has already given us the prophetic outlook for what is coming on this world and no amount of faith to the contrary will stop God’s word from being fulfilled to the letter.
With that said, I often find myself, as I’m sure that many others do from time to time, thinking that there it seems to be almost a hopeless thing of turning our nation back to God in a great spiritual outpouring. I have even, in my times of weakness, confessed to a few people that this is how I felt.
The problem with that kind of thinking is that it is out of touch with the true heart of God. Negativity can become so overwhelming that even the strongest faith can be made weak and we can begin to gain a perspective of near hopelessness in seeing a mighty outpouring of the Holy Ghost and fire.
It’s not that you don’t believe it can happen, because you are convinced that God is Big Enough to do anything! The problem is that your faith in actually seeing it come to pass grows very weak. In effect, you allow the lies of the devil to take root in your heart, and if you aren’t careful, a Root of Bitterness and Unbelief can begin to grow, and you will begin to feel as though all that you do for the Lord doesn’t seem to accomplish much and is an almost futile attempt.
The troubles and trials of life and the constant bombardment of attacks of the devil can wear down even the greatest man or woman of God and weaken our resolved and bring us to near despair. I know this is a fact because of the 1500 or so pastors who leave their pulpits each month across America. And if it happens that much among pastors, how much greater is that impact upon the people in the congregation? To say that the church of Jesus Christ in America has by-in-large become a powerless church is an understatement.
The reason for that is what men are doing, they are doing under the power of the flesh, just going through the motions of trying to be an Christian, but in reality, there’s little faith to believe God for ever greater things, and very little commitment to drawing near enough to heart of God so that we can know his truth and know his heart.
Most of the church has forgotten the promise that God made to Israel concerning their Promised Land. That promise wasn’t only for Israel, but God has made that same promise to all of his people for he is the same yesterday, today and forever.
It’s not a question of whether God will fulfill his promises to us. It’s a question of whether we are willing to pay the price to receive that promise in the way that God has commanded.
Look at what God told Israel in Deuteronomy chapter 11. God says that He will bless his people and give them their promise of their land.
Deuteronomy 11:12 A land which the LORD thy God careth for: the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
Deuteronomy 11:13 And it shall come to pass, if ye shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
Deuteronomy 11:14 That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil.
Does not that tell us where the heart of God is for not only the land of Israel, but for our land as well? America was birthed with the idea in mind of being a Christian nation; one that would forever serve the Lord our God.
• We have it in our Declaration of Independence.
• We have it in our Constitution.
• We have it in our Bill of Rights.
• We have in it on our money.
• We have it displayed all over our public buildings.
• It’s still there in the halls of Congress at every opening session.
• The roots of what we were established to be as One Nation Under God, Indivisible with Liberty and Justice for all is still there in our Pledge of Allegiance and prayers to Almighty God for his guidance.
• We have it in the White House right now, where there is prayer with Church Leaders before the President and many of his Cabinet.
God is still desiring to bless America!
But whether we receive that blessing and allow God to rule in us depends upon the church! Do not believe for one second that the course of this nation is set only by votes of Senators and Congressmen in the nation’s capitol, or even in each state’s congress! The real course of this nation is set at the altars of prayer in the church and at the altars of prayer in the hearts and homes of every Bible-believing, Born Again, Holy Ghost filled Child of God!
It’s you, and it’s me, and it’s every one of these children, and every one of our teenagers that are faithful to serve the Lord, and its parents and grand-parents and great-grandparents, calling upon the Lord in the best way we know how!
Regardless of how you pray, whether you’re eloquent in your words, or you have hard time even knowing how to say it, or even what to say, God knows your heart and the Holy Ghost translates your prayers to your Father in Heaven, and the Father hears and understands your heart and everything you say. But you have to pray for him to hear. You have to seek after him however you can!
God desires to hear your voice because your voice, and even the very thoughts of your mind, which God also knows, reveals to him your deepest desires to know him. But you have to pray, you have to think upon God and His word. You have to meditate upon Jesus and desire to know him more. You have to search for him without allowing all the things that this world has to offer from distracting you. God knows your heart and he knows whether you’re being serious or just playing games with him.
God only wants the best for all of us. God wants to renew your mind, renew heart, renew your spirit and increase your faith. God wants more for you than you can imagine!
God wants to pour out the Holy Ghost in a great Spiritual Awakening, and great Tsunami of Holy Ghost power and an anointing that will make Satan shudder in fear and send demonic powers screaming into the darkness from which they came!
God wants to bring His Spirit into your life, into your home, into this church and every church, and into America, and into the whole earth in a revival that will drive out the power of the devil from every place where he has set up his strongholds.
That’s what God wants to do! Is that what we are believing for, or do we find ourselves in the position of feeling like throwing in the towel, like a boxer that has given up in the fight and saying that this is a battle we can’t win?
Jeremiah was called the Weeping Prophet because he cried so much over the spiritual darkness that had settled over Israel. Nothing that Jeremiah did seemed to make a difference, although he gave it all he had, preaching and prophesying every day of his life. The whole nation was on a course to destruction and Jeremiah could see it coming. He became despondent at times, wondering if anything he did could make a difference. This is what God said to Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.
Jeremiah 29:12 Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you.
Jeremiah 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
There’s the key to victory! There’s the key to overcoming power in God! There’s the key to gaining the faith that is able to move mountains and trust God for anything!
We must seek after God with all of our heart. Only then will we find a greater revelation of Jesus in our lives and begin to know the real power in his name! Your victory, and mine; the great revival we seek; the mighty outpouring and Awakening that we pray for, are all wrapped up in how much revelation of Jesus Christ we have in us. It’s all in the power of that Name of Jesus and not in our weak ability to do anything.
Understand that God is waiting on us! If we are waiting on God to do something, without our involvement, then we are missing the boat! God is sovereign, and he can move without the prayers of the Saints, but he chooses to make us a part of the equation.
When the move comes, it comes as a Sovereign Move of God, because we can’t force the hand of God, neither can we dictate how or when God moves, or where he chooses to show up. But God is looking for someone who will just have faith and believe, then trust him to do the work that we can’t do!
Will God find such a man; such a woman; such a teenager; or such a child that will be the one who will believe right here in this place?
Ezekiel 22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
Let it not be said that God could not find someone to stand in the gap and make up the hedge for his will in Victory Temple. There are some here that are standing in that gap right now! We all have our times of weakness; but we will not surrender! We will not give up! We will not go away and desert our post in this spiritual warfare! We will stand up for Jesus! Let us each one resolve to stay at our post! Some have left their post already! But stand in the gap for them as well! Anyone can fall, but we must rise again to stand up for Jesus!
Not only will we stand in the gap for Victory Temple, but let’s stand for our community, our state, our nation and even for the whole world. We can begin by standing in the gap for our own family and friends, and we can pray and command the power of Satan to leave them, and for the Holy Ghost to draw them in.
Revival starts in your own heart first before it can spread from you to others around you! Revival comes when we believe God for little things and then see them come to pass, and then faith rises to believe God for ever bigger things! And it all begins with seeking after Jesus with all your heart!
In the end, this world’s system of government, economics, and everything else will fall. The Word foretells that happening, and it will come to pass. But that doesn’t mean that great revival can’t come too. In fact, it is the very heart of God that men would be saved. God doesn’t want to destroy mankind. Jesus died for all men, everywhere. He will move wherever men seek him!
The church will go out of this world in a blaze of Glory, to meet Jesus in the air only because we have made ourselves ready and we have continued in faith to see God move in miraculous ways! We will go out with the Blood Stained Banner of the Cross held high, not hiding in some back alley in fear, wondering if we’re going to survive! Our God is greater than that! Whom shall we fear when God is with us?
We don’t know the day or hour when Jesus will come, but we know that we are in that season of history that He has described as the Last Days. The church must be ready! We must “occupy until he comes” by seeking after him and seeing God move all over the world. The gospel must be preached to every nation, so that many will have the opportunity to come to Christ as that day approaches.
America is ripe for revival! We have had more gospel than any other nation other than Israel, yet we have allowed ourselves to become a nearly godless nation through political correctness and denying the truth of God’s word.
Let me read you a few statistics about America. I don’t want to give you a lot of negative, but we need to know how serious we need revival in this land.
According to latest studies of the condition of the spiritual health of America and our belief in Jesus and his word,
• 24 out of 25 of your millennial generation – those coming into young adulthood, do not have any understanding of what the Bible says concerning the conditions in our world and why things are happening.
• 70% of people who attend church at least once a month never share the gospel with anyone else out of fear, or an unconcern for the lost
• ¼ of the Christians in Evangelical Churches do not believe that the resurrection of Jesus ever really happened
• 51% of people questioned in Christian Churches have never heard of the Great Commission to spread the gospel to every creature and all nations.
• 70% of people who don’t go to church stated that they have never been asked to go to church, or invited to go by a Christian
• 77% of people questioned believed that “good works” would save them
• 50% of Christian young adults believe that “same sex marriage” is right
• 30% of people who go church say that they have never felt God’s presence
• 70% of those who grow up in the church will leave by age 20
• 65% of Christians confessed that they believe that there are many ways to Heaven and that Jesus isn’t the only way.
• 1/3 of all Christians believe that they will get a 2nd chance after they die
• 55% of people who say they attend church have not been Born Again
I could go on with more but that’s enough negative for now. Can we see that America is in great need of a Spiritual Awakening and, more importantly, can we believe that God wants to send it? Will we stand in the gap believing God and praying that the Holy Ghost will fall once again on America?
Forget godless politics! Forget Godless people! Forget all the wrongs and evils in the land! Forget the power of propaganda in the fake news! Remember that God is greater than them all! God can, and God will send that revival if we will only seek after him with all our heart, and believe that He will send it.
God is calling out those who are willing to be used for his glory. It does not take a majority, or even the right man as president to change a nation. It takes only one Child of God who will believe God and trust him in faith, because it is God that sets up rulers and takes them down. It is God who dictates who wins elections and who doesn’t. God intervenes as he pleases in the affairs of men as his people call upon him in faith!
You may feel like you have little or nothing to offer. You can pray! You can believe God! You can offer your support in so many ways to bringing God’s work to pass in the church. Give what you have, bring it to the Lord and watch God multiply it and increase it and bless it beyond measure!
It’s not just about tithes and offerings, but about all that you are, your talents, your abilities, your dreams, and most of all your heart! Give God all that you and you can seek him with all your heart! That’s what every one of us can do! Just give him you without reservation! Sell out to Jesus!
As a means of rededication; repentance of sin and those things that have kept us from being fully committed to the work set before us; of renewal of our commitment to stand in the Gap for God; and as a means of showing God that we want to seek him with all our heart; we are going to observe the Lord’s Supper this morning!
This is your chance to say to Jesus, “Lord, I want to identify with you! I want to be that man, or woman, or young person that will stand with you and fill that gap! I will believe! I will pray! I will seek to know you with all my heart!”
When you partake of the body and blood of Jesus through communion, remember what it means! He died for you so that you might be a part of His family forever! Will you give Him all that owe him in return, your very life?
Call for Ushers to serve! Those who wish may come to stand around the altar.
And now we serve the bread and fruit of vine. Please hold it until all are served. As we begin this New Year, let us remember that God is watching over us from year to year, and I believe that 2019 will be your greatest year yet, if you’ll seek the Lord with all your heart! He wants to pour out blessings upon his people and upon this land!
Let’s begin with a Prayer of repentance that we might be found worthy, through the cleansing power of Jesus blood to wash our sin away. Let no one take this without doing so, for unrepentant sin makes you unworthy and we are not take this lightly. You are honoring the body and blood of the Very Son of God who died for you.
Let us thank the Lord for having freely shed his blood for us. Thank Him for his great love shown to us when we had no hope.
Jesus suffered beyond description in paying the price for our sin. His body was beaten and his face was beyond recognition, but He never lost sight of you and me in his suffering.
The Apostle Paul gave us a pattern for the observance of the Lord’s Supper. I prefer to follow his pattern.
1 Corinthians 11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
1 Corinthians 11:24 And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
He endured it for our sake! Let us now partake of the bread in remembrance and honor of what Jesus suffered on our behalf.
1 Corinthians 11:25 After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
1 Corinthians 11:26 For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord's death till he come.
Let’s pray – Jesus, we thank you for the price you paid for our redemption. We thank you that gave what you did not have to give, but chose to give because you Loved us more than heaven itself. We thank you that we are adopted into your family as the very Children of God.
This day we want to commit ourselves to be that one who will stand in the gap for our brothers and sisters in the church; for those who may have temporarily left their place but we are praying will come back; for those who are our family, friends and neighbors who don’t know you. We will commit ourselves to prayer and seeking you with all our hearts on behalf of our community, state, nation and even those in other nations around the world.
WE COMMIT OURSELVES THIS DAY TO BE THAT ONE WHO WILL BELIEVE FOR A MIGHTY OUTPOURING OF HOLY GHOST POWER, BOTH IN OUR OWN HEARTS AND IN OUR LAND! AMEN
