In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the theme of righteousness and its importance in the lives of believers. He emphasizes that the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and that their prayers are heard. On the other hand, the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. The preacher encourages the audience to sanctify the Lord in their hearts and be ready to give an answer for their hope in Jesus. He also mentions that the closer we walk with Jesus, the more we will resemble Him and experience suffering like Him. The sermon concludes with a call to worship and praise God, acknowledging His righteousness and the need for personal righteousness in the lives of believers.

That the righteousness of Christ is there. I just confess. It's not always been that way. But God is showing me that it should have been. In 2nd Corinthians 1 3, I was looking over this passage. In 2nd Corinthians 1 3, you need to know this passage. You need to understand this because this is talking about suffering. This is a powerful passage for ministry. And when you understand this, when I understand it and you understand it, then it allows us to have a lot more rest and peace in what we're going through. 2nd Corinthians 1 3, Blessed be the God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforted us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort. That we may be able to comfort. This is why you go through certain things, and I go through certain things. And then God will bring around into our lives those that need it. And I'll just throw this out in closing on the suffering part. But in the New Testament, when this is used, most all of the times, it's suffering is used in reference on behalf of someone. On behalf of someone. So when we go through suffering, many times we think, God doesn't like me. God, what have I done now? You know. No, it's because God is going to use you to reach out to someone. And when we begin to see things through the eyes of eternity, it begins to stabilize us. We begin to have a lot more peace. For I will show him, Paul said, Jesus said, I will show him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake. To experience something evil. That was what that meant. And there's some other verses. 2nd Thessalonians 1, you can look at that later. 1-12, some good verses on this area of suffering. And I'm going to conclude on this. In 1 Peter 3, going back to 1 Peter 3, the verses 8-18, all down through here, are powerful verses. The key verses we are focusing in on. The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers. The righteous, we started out on righteous. His ears are open unto their prayers. But the face of the Lord is against them that do evil. Who is he that will harm you if you be followers of that which is good? But, and if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye, and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled, but sanctify. Sanctify, that means to withdraw deeper into God. Sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. James 3, 13-18, there's some more on it. I'm going to give you this statement, and then we're going to wind down. The closer you walk with Jesus, and the closer I walk with Jesus, the more you will walk like Jesus, the more I will walk like Jesus, the more you will suffer as Jesus. And when you get into some of the deeper levels of suffering, some of the deeper levels of suffering are getting into the area of rejection. You get into the deepest level is intercession. Because the intercessors go through tremendous suffering, because that was the ultimate of Jesus on the cross, was intercession for us, for our sins. And what is Jesus doing right now? He is interceding. Every time you take a blow from the devil, He is interceding for you. Every time you stumble or I stumble, He is interceding for you. And what is it that our friends and our relatives and our neighbors need? They need somebody to intercede for them. Somebody interceded for me. Intercessors go through the deepest level of suffering there is. They have their goods taken from them. They are lied about. They are slandered. They just keep on interceding. Did you know that the great revival men had intercessors? Did you know that Finney, before he would go into a place, there was a little man. He wasn't solicited by Finney. The Holy Spirit just would tell him to go in and start praying. Most of the time he would go in two weeks before. He just let God supply his needs. He wasn't getting salary. He wasn't getting paid by Finney. Finney just found out about it one day that this man was coming in. He was wondering, how come God was blessing so much? Then he found out there was a little man by the name of Nash in there interceding. Costing him everything he had to go in there and pray because he had to leave his family behind and go in there and pray. Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands were saved under Finney's ministry. But there was an intercessor. Are we willing to go to the cross that far for Jesus to be seen? Who are you suffering for? Jesus or yourself? Father, thank you now for this word. There's so much in relation to this. We know we haven't even touched the surface and the whole thing is righteousness. It's just righteousness. Thank you. Thank you, Father, for loving us and revealing to us yourself that you are a righteous God, holy, and that we are righteous in Christ too. Thank you for lifting us up out of this world. Thank you for the privilege to go through some suffering, and it's nothing what we've gone through compared to what you went through. And now, Father, we'd ask that your Spirit would draw us into a time of worship, to worship you and praise you, to adore you. And, Lord, I pray if there's anything in us that is unrighteous, that you'd show it to us now, that we might receive your blessing now, that we might be happy now, that we might experience this kingdom of God, which is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We thank you that there is power to set the captives free. We thank you that we can all walk out of here rejoicing in Jesus, free. Or we could walk out of here still in our prison. Oh, Lord, thank you. Draw out of our hearts the praise. Thank you for showing me the prison I was in. Thank you for loving us. Thank you for my wife and my family. Thank you for these friends here. We're so blessed. Thank you for our country, a great country. With our foundation that we have, as much as the enemy has shook us and tried to destroy us, we still are standing. There's still hope, no matter what all the magazines and newspapers and the news people are saying. As long as you are on the throne and you're God, there is hope. And we've seen what you've done in other lands that have been as wicked as we have, and some even more wicked, how you brought about turning and a revival. We confess to you our need in our land, our need in our hearts. But most of all, we have a need to worship you, like Joshua, to fall on our face. Because we live on holy ground. Wherever you are, there's the presence of holiness. We worship you, we thank you, we praise you. In Jesus' name. We have come into his house and gathered in his name to worship him. We have come into his house and gathered in his name to worship him. We have come into his house and gathered in his name to worship Christ the Lord. Worship Christ the Lord. We have come into his house and gathered in his name to worship him. We have come into his house and gathered in his name to worship him. We have come into his house and gathered in his name to worship Christ the Lord.