COME AND HEAR
By Pastor Jim May
Psalms 66:16-20, "Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul. I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer. Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me."
Come and hear because I want to tell you that we are truly a blessed people this morning. We serve an awesome God! He is great and greatly to praised for He has done great things.
I love to hear of the blessings that God has poured out in your life. Some of you have come to me and testified that God has performed miracles on your behalf. Some have testified of God’s great power to heal because He has brought you off of your bed of affliction. Others have testified of God’s provision for your life because He has opened the windows of Heaven and poured out blessings into your life. You’ve been blessed to have a job, you’ve been blessed to have good health and you’ve been blessed with so many good things. Is there even one among us who cannot find something to praise God for, and to thank Him for?
I want to testify to you this morning that God has supplied all of my needs. He has been far better to me than I have to Him. He has given me so much more than I deserve, and so much better than I could have dreamed of.
There are many in the world today that dream of huge mansions and beautifully landscaped grounds – God hasn’t given me that kind of house, but my God has given me a home that is comfortable. It is a place where I can feel at ease. It is a place where love abounds and where family and friends can gather and feel welcomed. No my home is not a mansion, far from it. I don’t have well manicured grounds. I do well just to keep it mowed and neat. But what I do have is something that cannot often be found in the mansions of this world.
First, I have peace – I can walk into my home without wondering whether there will be a fight that requires the presence of the police before the night is over. Oh we have our times of disagreement but somehow God always brings peace when the tempers cool and we have had time to remember our blessings.
Secondly, we have provision – We may not have steak and potatoes every day, and we may not have the best furnishings that money can buy, and our house may not have the latest and greatest in decorations and furnishings. But God is so good to us! I have never gone a day that there wasn’t food in the house. My children have never had to go hungry. We have our comfortable tables and chairs, and God has blessed us with a comfortable place to lay our head.
Thirdly, I have as much safety and security that can be found in this world – No, I’m not immune to burglary, fire, storms and natural disasters. But I have the sweet presence of the Holy Ghost and the Hand of God that rests upon me and I don’t have to be afraid of the evil that tends to overcome those in the world. God has given me a home in a quiet neighborhood, where I don’t have to live in fear. I just plead the Blood of Jesus over our home and then lay down in peace and rest.
None of us need live in fear for that is not God’s will for your life. Let me read God’s promise to you from Psalms 91:1-7, "He that dwelleth 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 my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler. Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee."
Now my house is nothing special, except to me. To the world it is nothing more than just another pile of bricks, cement, wood and carpet. But my house is much more than that to me. It’s a place that is filled with wonderful memories and with a beauty that only true love can bring; and it is filled with the wonder of God’s grace.
As I look over this congregation this morning, I don’t see anyone who is listed among the rich and famous but I believe that all of us can say that God is good to us. Whether you live in the country or the city, or in a small house or a big house; whether your yard looks like it could use some work, or its well kept and neat, it’s still your home, your place of refuge and a place where you can find rest and peace from the demands of the world around you. In other words, we are all a blessed people.
I am filled with sorrow as I think of the multitudes that have lost their house in the last several weeks. Many of them wander the streets in search of something that will connect them with their past. It’s as though they are a people without a country.
Let me tell you that a house isn’t a home – it’s only a place where we can gather that which makes a home. Your home is where your heart is. Your home is where you find the people you love. Your home is where you make it, whether under a tree or in a mansion. My home is wherever my wife is. My home is wherever my children can come and gather around. My home is wherever I can meet with all of you, and we can commune together and be together. My home is wherever I can talk to the Lord. My home, in this life, is wherever I can be together with friends and family. It’s a transient thing. It’s not just my house in a subdivision in Louisiana. It’s wherever I make it.
Have you ever lived in another place that you called home and then moved away? Does the old home place mean the same after the parents and grandparents are there no more? Of course not. It’s just another house after that, and so many times, we only go back for the memories of what was and not to see what’s there now.
There’s a lot of truth to that old saying that says, “Once you leave, you can never go home again.” Once we leave, to strike out on our own, going home is never the same again. Why, because we have established a new home now.
We can truly say, as the people of God, that God is good. Truly He has blessed us so greatly.
I thank God for all that He had done for me and for you. I thank God for his many blessings in our lives.
I thank God for a loving wife, peaceful home, and my children, and all of you that add so much to my live. But there is something else that I want to praise God for this morning and I hope that all of you can say the same thing.
Like David, I want to declare to you what God has done for my soul. I don’t want to stand here and tell you what I have done for Jesus. I want to tell you what Jesus has done for me because He has done some wonderful things for me and I believe that all of you can say the same thing. If you can’t identify with I’m about to tell you, then your opportunity to be counted among the most blessed people on the face of the earth will come at the close of this message. God wants every man, woman and child to be numbered among the blessed and He will call you this morning.
Why are we the most blessed people on earth?
God has set us apart as a people unto himself. He has established a covenant, a contract written in the blood of Jesus and endorsed by our Father in Heaven. In that contract, God has provided for the redemption of my soul back into the righteousness of God. I am no longer a child of the devil. I’ve been bought back into the Family of God and Heaven is now my eternal home. Through the power of the Blood of Jesus, every sin that weighs me down is washed away and remembered no more. This old heart of stone, that was black with evil, is now sanctified and justified by the Blood of Jesus and His righteousness has been given to me. God took a life that was dedicated to selfishness, and sin and filled it with grace and holiness.
Even though we are blessed we often find ourselves in a place where we need to cry out to God for deliverance from the world of sin that so easily takes hold of us and tries to drag us back into the pits of sin.
Like David, in verse 17, I find myself having to cry out to God in prayer because of distress. And yet, even in the midst of that distress, I cannot help but remember the blessings that I already have and those blessings help me to praise God even in the midst of trials and temptations. I know that God already sees my distress. He already knows what I need. He already has a path laid out for my deliverance.
But David said in verse 18 that “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me”.
Let me tell you that there is not one of us here who does not have iniquity in our heart.
In the 10th chapter of Mark there came someone running to Jesus and called him “Good Master”. In verse 18, "…Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, that is, God." Of course Jesus was “good” because Jesus was God and God is Good, but no one else is good. We all have iniquity in us.
So what does it mean to “regard iniquity”? Surely God hears our prayers and we see Him answer them all the time. So how can we have iniquity and still know that God hears our prayer?
The answer is in that little word “regard”! If we don’t regard that iniquity then it will never break forth into action and the sin will not be committed. But if we “regard” it, think about it, dwell on it, and finally surrender to it, that iniquity will bring forth a harvest of sin that will separate us from God to where He will not hear our prayer.
There are some who might say that they are without sin, that there is no sin in their heart. There are others who teach that, if we sin, we were never saved in the first place. That’s not what the Word of God says.
1 John 1:8-10, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
The key is that, we as children of God should hate the sin that is in us. We should cry out for deliverance from it and forgiveness for it, and should never surrender to it. We should strive to walk in holiness and sanctification, allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth and allow the Word of God to enlighten us to every point where we are not like Jesus so that we may grow more like Him every day.
1 John 1:7, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin."
Is there any doubt that David was a sinner? Is there any doubt that all of us were sinners, and still are quite often? Not one of us can be called “good” in comparison to our Holy God. And yet David said in Psalms 66:19, "But verily God hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer."
Even though David was a sinner, and even though we may commit sin, God will still hear our prayer for deliverance, if we desire to get rid of that sin and to repent of it!
That’s what I want to you to hear this morning. I want you to know that God is not angry with you if you fail. He is not going to turn a dear ear to your prayer. He has not placed anything between you and Heaven to keep your prayer from reaching to the throne of God. God will hear your prayer. He will hear your cry. He will received your praise and He will show mercy and grace to you again.
Psalms 66:20, "Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me."
That’s what I want you to “Come and Hear” this morning! I want you to hear that God loves you in spite of it all. If you want to be rid of the sin, He will forgive you and wash it away. If you want deliverance from those things in your life that keep you bound up inside, He is here to set you free right now. If you want healing, He is here to heal. If you need a refreshing, He is here to pour out the Holy Ghost upon you once more. If you need salvation, He is here, waiting for your cry, and He will be swift to answer your prayer.
I want to praise God today for what He has done for me. I want us all to praise the Lord for saving our soul; to thank God for every blessing and lift up His name and tell the world that Jesus still saves.
God has kept us through the storms of life, not just the storms of nature like Hurricanes, floods, wind and rain, but from the spiritual storms as well. He has protected our lives, our property, our families, and our very souls from destruction. He has provided for our every need through the rough time. He has blessed us in spite of our sin. He still calls us and anoints us in spite of our weaknesses, because we refuse to regard the iniquity in our hearts. Our desire is to serve Him, in spite of our weakness. Our desire is to live for Him in spite of the demands of the world. Our greatest love is for God and we want to praise Him.
God has poured out blessing on us that are too many to speak. God has performed for each of us the greatest miracle that could have been when he saved us and adopted us into His own family. What a great God: what a merciful God: what a loving God we serve!
Do you know him today? Have you invited the Lord Jesus Christ into you heart? Have you surrendered you life to him? Has he washed your sin away?
You can know him right now. He is waiting to adopt you as his own right now. I want to invite any who will, to come right now and give your heart to Jesus, to thank Him for all He has done, and to lift up His name in praise. Jesus is waiting for you: will you come?
