Gary Wilkerson emphasizes the significance of speaking and hearing a better word, particularly in the context of our relationships with our earthly fathers and God. He contrasts the accusatory voice of Abel's blood, which represents shame and condemnation, with the redemptive voice of Jesus' blood that speaks life, worth, and healing. Wilkerson encourages the congregation to renounce negative words spoken over them and to embrace their identity as beloved children of God, free from the burdens of shame and fear. He highlights the importance of understanding that God is not distant or angry, but rather loving and compassionate, inviting us into a joyful relationship with Him.

Now as we come to participate in not only speaking but hearing your word, we just ask you for a grace to be upon this next few moments in time that literally there be a transformation in the heavenly realms and in our personal lives. Give us ears to hear Jesus. Thanks because you're so good to us. We love you and we're asking to hear something today. We ask you to calm every spirit. We ask you to position us to be hearers today so that we go and be doers. But first to hear this word literally, clearly, precisely, hear it from heaven. I know that this is exactly what you wanted me to say. I don't know how I'll say it but I know you'll give words and if you give the right words then the ears will hear and your business will be done today as you want it to be. In Jesus' name, everybody said? Amen. Turn me if you would to the book of Genesis, the fourth chapter I'm talking today about speaking a better word. Speaking a better word. Somewhere around the corners, maybe under the surface, this is kind of a Father's Day message. It goes a little bit beyond that but we're going to talk about this issue of speaking a better word and hearing a better word as well in our own life and speaking words into other people's lives, particularly our children. Genesis chapter 4 verse 10, Then the Lord said, now let me stop for just a moment and help you realize here, this is the story of Cain and Abel when one brother was jealous of the other brother. Cain gets jealous and in a murderous rage, takes his own younger brother's life and God comes to him and appears to Cain and the Lord said, what have you done? Listen, your brother's blood cries out to you from the ground. Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground which opened up its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. When you work the ground it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth. Now skip ahead if you would please to the book of Hebrews and the twelfth chapter. Hebrews the twelfth chapter and verse, beginning to read in verse 18. Did I hear you turn the pages? Okay, I want you to come with me here. Hebrews chapter 12. You have not come to a mountain that can be touched, that is burning with fire, to darkness, to gloom, and to storm, to a trumpet blast, or to such a voice speaking words that those who hear it, who heard it, begged that no further word be spoken to them. Because they could not bear what was commanded. If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned. The sight was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear. But you have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to those, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. Now there are two types of words in Scripture, there are two types of words in life. We begin after the fall of man and sin, we see God in His love and in His mercy and in His justice having to speak words of rebuke and correction, having to speak words into the lives of His own children that brought a clear rebuke to them, but it was born out of love. Not that we always speak that way to each other, or as father I don't always speak that way when I'm rebuking my children or having to discipline them sometimes, unfortunately it's out of anger. And we hear words like this, and there's this, well look at some of the words that are used here, what have you done? Have you ever heard that in your own life? What have you done? What have you done here? What is your problem is maybe another way of saying this. Now God is not using the same tones that we would use towards each other, but you see in here still before the new covenant there's this sense of law, the Bible makes it clear it's the law, and sometimes it seems here, especially as we say to one another there's this very clear, what have you done? Why have you messed up? What's wrong with you? Now you are under a curse. There are people in this room today that feel like they walked into this room and their life is just a curse. Just one series after another thing, an event goes wrong after wrong after wrong. I've even seen and heard Christians talk like this. I get the impression that some believers think that life under God's care is a series of events he orchestrates that are trials, tribulations, troubles, terrors, calamities, crisis, conflict, and then after you go through all these things, but it's okay because he gives you a little bit of peace in the storm. Oh good. But then there's more calamity and more crisis and more storm and judgment coming and it's going to be miserable and it's going to be hardship and then, but it's okay, hang on because in the midst of the storm there's a little bit of peace. You can have a little joy there. But then comes the, it's just their whole mentality is just pretty much God has set up the world to be a place of despair and chaos and the best you can do is get a glimmer of little teensy weensy bit of joy and hang on to that and hopefully it's enough so you get to heaven and then everything will be better. But, and so there's this sense, whether you're, particularly if you're not a Christian, people feel under the curse, but even sometimes Christians don't they? Will feel like or act like or have this false belief that they're under a curse. The other part of this, this voice of Abel that's speaking from the ground, and that's what God actually says this is, it's a listen, your brother's blood cries out from the ground. You hear this voice coming up from the ground and in such words as, when you work, you're not going to see the fruit from your work. You're not going to be able to, in other words, you're not going to accomplish what you want with your life. Try what you may, believe what you want, hope what you want, but in the final analysis you're not going to succeed. You're going to be a failure. That's the voice of the blood of Abel, so to speak. You'll be restless. You'll be a wanderer. In other words, you're not going to be able to settle down. You won't, you're going to have a hard time having a family because you're so confused and you're so always dreaming and concocting new plans and ideas. So you get the picture here. This voice from the blood of Abel is coming up and it's accusing. There's this sense of something's wrong with you and then we go into the New Testament and we think, okay, good. Now in the New Testament things are going to change, but you get Hebrews 12, 18 and you see here there's this mountain that God's talking about. It says you can't touch it. If you touch it, you'd be like, even if an animal touches it, the animal has to be stoned. There's a sense of an uncleanness in this mountain's burning with fire, with darkness, with gloom, with storm. The voice speaks to it that nobody wants to hear. It causes too much fear. Moses, one of the most holy men in the world says, this place terrifies me. Now here's the problem. I say all that and I feel like my words aren't quite as exact as I'd like them to be, but I think here's what I believe God's trying to say is that these situations are things that we tend to still cling on to. We hold on to these words as if God were saying them to you today in this hour, in this generation, even those who are under the blood of Christ. Still hearing the Father's voice as being a voice of accusation. You see, a lot of people, maybe this will make sense to you, a lot of people really love the New Testament Jesus. I mean, he had cool long gold hair, Howard Johnson's bathrobe on. He didn't care about how he looked so he was cool. He said these wonderful things, nice sayings that make you feel good inside sometimes and then he was against the bad guys, so you're on his side. New Testament Jesus. I mean, even people that don't love God like Jesus, is that right? They'll quote him about peace. I mean, even people that use drugs, they know the verse about every green thing from the field is given by God. There's a sense of Jesus' sort of counterculture and he's hip and he's cool and he would live in Seattle and he would protest nuclear arms and gas guzzling cars. He would just be really sweet and cool and a friend of sinners, so we like him. But Old Testament God, that's another story. Old Testament God is, he's mean, he's critical. I have had people tell me that if God were a physical person, America would attack whatever country he's from. Now, I know you'll laugh, but listen to this. They say, because he's done things that are worse than Saddam Hussein has done. He has destroyed whole cultures. He has flooded the whole world. He has done things that the U.N. would attack him for and that's their accusation. He destroys lives. He opens up the ground and 23,000 people are killed in one day. This is not a nice guy and that's the mentality. Now, that's the world, but even in Christian mentality is there's the sense that the New Testament Jesus is my friend and he's on my side and he's for me, but the Old Testament God is angry and vengeful and unmerciful and he's after me and he's, I don't know, I guess I picture sort of like a, if you ever follow soccer, a soccer match and in the first half there's this guy out on the field and he's not playing very fair. He's kicking people and tripping people and so the ref comes up and gives him a yellow card. I kind of picture sometimes we look at God that way, sort of like, okay God, yellow card, you just sent the flood and destroyed the earth. Yellow card, one more time and you're out. And then a few years later it's Sodom and Gomorrah. Okay, that's it. Red card. You lost it. You lost your temper. You lost control. You're out of the game. Send in a substitute. And then in comes Jesus and the crowd goes wild. Yay, there's Jesus. He's got long hair. His uniform is glowing. He's cool. I like him. And, you know, and he plays by the rules and he's fair and if somebody trips he picks them up and he scores the goal and so it's like, yeah, Old Testament God, mean and angry. New Testament Jesus, sweet and kind, baby born in a manger. Everything's perfect. And there are people who have this mentality of the Father God being difficult to be around. Somewhat distant. Sometimes we see, you know, like Jesus being there for us on our behalf, going to the Father and saying, Father, I know you can't stand these people. I know you're just fed up with them. Yeah, yeah, that did that. Yes, Father, I know all that. But they're okay. They're with me. And the Father says, well, okay, I'll let them slide under this time. I don't really like them. I don't think this is a good idea. But I trust you so I'll let them slide this time. But I tell you what, I'm watching them. And if what happens, if what I think happens, happens, then it's going to be your fault because I'm trusting you. And so there's this subtle deceptive sense that God is difficult and he's distant and he's sometimes angry and he's really watching you and if you're not careful, boom, he'll lay the hammer down on you. But if you come to New Testament Jesus, then everything's okay and fine. There's a real problem with that, isn't there? I mean, not only just emotionally, not only a truth issue, but in a sense even doctrinally it's just not true. It's not as if in the Old Testament God was going to try to be firm and stern and strict and disciplined and lay down the law and be angry and he realized, you know what, this just isn't working very well. Let's try a different methodology. Hey, why don't we send somebody new and he can be nice and sweet and kind and friendly and loving and then maybe that'll work. It's not like one didn't work at all and so we had to try to start all over again and throw out all the old because it wasn't any good. You see, you have to understand this. The New Testament Jesus is God. The Old Testament Father is God. They are, what are they? They're one. They're one. They're not, now they have two personalities or two personas in three with the Holy Spirit in the Trinity. The three are individual but the three are one and so the New Testament Jesus is just as much one with the Old Testament Father as the Old Testament Father is one with the New Testament Jesus. So, when the flood, the flood of the earth and destroyed almost all of mankind except for Noah and his family, Jesus was there and he was participating. He was fully on board so to speak. That's probably not the best use of words. He was, he not only understood but he was in total agreement, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is absolutely what's right to do. It wasn't like an argument in heaven, God saying, I can't wait to destroy these guys. I just, this is, they're terrible. I hate them. I don't want to be around them ever again and Jesus is going, oh please Father, give them one more chance. Come on, let me go down there and I'll negotiate a peace plan and we'll work. No, they were in total agreement. It was absolutely the right thing to do. When the ground opened up and swallowed 23,000 in one day and they were destroyed, Jesus was there participating, understood, fully in agreement. At times there were great warriors, Joshua being one of them. He turns and he sees a man with a sword in his hand and it's the angel of the Lord. It's a representation. It's Jesus in his midst, a mighty warrior, a fierce battler. And so the New Testament loving Jesus is the same. He's one with his Old Testament Father. But also the Old Testament Father, the one that some people tend to think is a little bit more distant or a little bit more hangry, that Old Testament Father is one and the same with the New Testament Jesus. He, matter of fact, it says for, and I'll use my own little paraphrase here, for the Old Testament God so loved the world that he gave his only New Testament son, Jesus. He loved it. It was the Father. It was the Genesis through Malachi guy who said, I love you so much. I'm going to literally render myself apart and destroy, at the cross allow the body of my son to be destroyed. That's the love of the Father. God is love. The Son of God. And so the Old Testament God is absolutely loving. He was there when Jesus had compassion. He was there when Jesus multiplied the bread and the fish. He was totally in agreement with it. It wasn't an argument there either. It wasn't like Jesus saying, these people are hungry and so compassionate. And God, the Father in heaven said, Jesus, you're just too soft. Let the people go home. They have stuff in their basements. Let them go eat their own food. What am I, a restaurant here? Come on. There was no argument between the two, right? As a matter of fact, the Bible says that Jesus did nothing in his own strength. Only what he saw the Father doing. So he's there and these people are hungry and he says, what do we do? And the Father says, I have compassion on these people because they haven't eaten for days. The Old Testament God, the Father says, give them something to eat and heal their sick and raise their dead and preach the good news to these poor people that I love so much. They're the same. Now, why if they're the same, we know that doctrinally, they're one, we know that doctrinally, why is it that sometimes some people have a little bit more difficulty understanding God in the sense of a father? Have you ever thought about that? Here's one of the suggestions I might give to you is that some people grow up in homes where the Father does not represent, not even slightly, what he is intended by God, the Father is, that represent in his family. God's intention for the father of a family is to represent what God is like. We are created in his image. So when we bring forth a child in this world, we're to play the role of sort of as an earthly father image of a godly father in heaven who loves those children, who calls out the best for them, who speaks good things into their lives, who believes in them, who encourages them, who puts boundaries in their life that are correct, who will discipline them in loving ways when they are wrong. And unfortunately for the majority of people that live in the world, that just never happens. They have fathers who speak almost as what we're talking about here, this, and I'm using this phraseology, this is from the blood of Eden, from the blood of Abel. They're speaking from this sense of, I've been wronged, I've been hurt, now I have hurtful things to say. Your father probably said something to you at some point in your life if he was there at all. If he wasn't there at all, that speaks something totally in itself, doesn't it? That speaks more than anything wrong he could ever have said to you. He could have called you a fool, an idiot, worthless, but the fact that he wasn't there at all, especially if it was intentionally, that is a huge statement in your life. And it is foundational, it's core in your mind, in your thinking, in your discernment, in your decision making, in your emotional life, all those elements of your life, that's core, what your father speaks over you, both verbally and non-verbal communication, what he speaks in your life. And there are many fathers who are speaking this sense of the blood of Abel. They have been wounded themselves, they have been beaten themselves, and now out of that they are following the same trend and speaking into the next generation. These godless, lifeless, unhealthy, unwholesome thoughts. What are you doing here? What are you doing with your life? You'll never amount to anything. You're under a curse. They literally curse you, if not with the speech, with the way they approach you. When you begin to take on a project, they're full of words that it won't work. Whatever you try, you're not going to be successful. Why do you keep trying to do that? It's no good. You'll be a wanderer. You'll never keep a woman. You'll never keep a husband. You'll never amount to anything. These words, and some fathers don't even speak the words, but because they don't speak anything at all into your life, because there's a lack of any kind of real connection, intimacy, relationship, because there's that lack there, then unfortunately children tend to think that. If the father doesn't approve of them, they tend to think, even if the father doesn't say, I disapprove of you, if they don't speak approval into their life, the child lives with a vacuum thinking, I must not have had my father's approval. He didn't speak it. He didn't show up when I was at the recital. He didn't hear me sing at church. He didn't, whatever it could be, there's this sense of withdrawing, pulling away. Some have fathers who have physically abused. Some have had fathers who have verbally abused. Some have had fathers who have left, and it's left a wound in you, and you've come to church, and you say, okay, well I got saved, so all that has to be behind me now. I can't think about any of my past, or my hurts, or my wounds, because that's just giving the devil a foothold in my life, so I just have to reject all that. The problem is when you do that, what it does, it just buries it under the surface, and it begins to just be like a churning, like a turmoil inside. It's repressed, but it's still there. Now this confuses a lot of people because they think, well, I thought when I got saved everything passes away. Everything's old, and everything else is new. Yes, there's a whole new creation. You're a new person in Christ Jesus, but you still have your history. It's cleansed, it's forgiven, but the events still take place, and there is such a thing as sanctification. You are instantaneously saved and justified, but the sanctification process is going back and going forward into your future, and cleaning up these areas of our life. Sometimes calling for repentance and forgiveness, sometimes calling for healing. And many Christians are, listen to this carefully, many Christians are a lot more comfortable with repentance than they are healing. They don't mind coming to the altar and saying, I am sorry when my father got angry at me and said I was worthless. Lord, I am so sorry that I got mad at him and I pushed him. Please forgive me for pushing him. Yeah, it's easy to, in some ways to, because why? Because we have control of our own actions. We have control of our own emotions then. I did wrong, I can repent of it. But when it comes to healing, it's a little bit out of our control. My father did this to me. My mother did this. My sister, my brothers, my church, my friends, my school teacher did this to me, and it hurts, and I have no control over that. I can't stop them, I can't, I can forgive them, that's my role, but the wound that they put in me, the word echoes in my brain. I might try to repress it into my innermost being, but it's still inside there. And sometimes those words, when they're spoken over you so many times, you begin to believe them. You know, when you're born into your family, you trust the authority around you. You have to. You have to trust, because if not, you don't eat. When you're three years old, you don't go down to the deli and ask for ham and cheese. You know what I'm saying? You depend on somebody bringing you food back, and feeding you, and changing your clothes, and when you get a little bit older, sending you on the bus to school. These people around you, you have to develop a system of trust in your own mind and heart. And so when they begin to say things to you, you're worthless, you're no good, you're lousy. I was in the park the other day. I was sitting there with my kids, and my wife, and there was another father there, and he was having a wonderful time on a picnic blanket with his little girl, and he had a kite with a string, and they went flying it, and the little girl, just in the sweetest form, she was twirling around with the kite like this, and the father was trying to get her, like, no, keep the tension in the string. He was, like, all about the kite. The kite was very important to him. And the daughter was just, like, she was having fun with the stick and the string. She didn't even need the kite. She was, like, this is fun, the stick and the string. And so he kind of leans in to pull the string a little more taunt, and she just so happens to turn, and she hits him in the nose with the stick. And I'm thinking, good. He's not thinking about her, he's thinking about the thing. But all of a sudden, just this string of four-letter words come out of his mouth. To her, you, son, to blank, you, just, and here's what he said, I should have never taken you out. I should have never taken you out. And he grabs the stick and pulls the kite in and goes, collects the blanket, grabs her arm, kind of tugging her home. I just wanted to, like, oh, is there a way in a sanctified form to grab a guy in a headlock and twist and turn? Can you spiritually? Old Testament God, yeah. Call on the Old Testament God. They said that, not me. Yes, and I'm just imagining myself, what kind of home is this little girl growing up in? What kind of words is she going to speak in her life? And this is the home she trusts. That's the only way she can get to the park. That's the only way she can have a kite or a string. And so she trusts her father and she hears these words. You're worthless. Why do I spend time with you? Why do I wait? You're such a waste. Those words are going to echo in her soul. Unless there's, not only, and she could, she could repent of saying, ten years from now, she might come to this church, come to the altar and say, Lord, I'm sorry when my father said that. I was so angry. Please forgive me of my anger. And that will get rid of her, her sin, but it may not heal her wound. Do you understand that? See, there's a difference between repentance and healing. And some of us are very comfortable with repentance and very uncomfortable with, with healing because healing goes to the wounds and wounds go to our emotions. And when you grow up in a home where you're either physically or emotionally or verbally abused, you tend to start repressing things, including your emotions. And so you start thinking to yourself, my emotions aren't good. Things I say aren't good. Things I do aren't good. It causes what's called shame. Shame is not a sense of I did something wrong. Shame is I am wrong. The core of my being is wrong. There's something wrong with me, my identity, my personality, my, my essence of my being. It's just, it's just wrong. I'm a terrible being. And so that fills you with shame. So there are a lot of households that cause you to feel with shame. Now let me talk about really good households. Isn't it great to have a wonderful family and a loving household and, and, and parents who are kind of under control a little bit, you know, they don't like say things like you're a worthless, something other, and I'll never want to be around you again. Aren't you glad, you know, that there's some homes that don't have that. But let me just speak a little bit to, to good homes because here's the thing with good homes. Let me go back up. If you have a really wrecked, messed up home and someone tells you, God, father, God is not like your earthly God. What are you going to do? You're going to go like, I know that. It's like, Satan's more like my earthly God, that dad, you know? So, so it's very, you see what I'm saying? It's very easy to distinguish the difference. You can see here's, here's my father, failure, mixed up, wounded, so wounded himself that he's now passing on the wounds to, to his own children. And then you see the picture of God and you go like, well, they're so different. But when you come from a good home, what happens is sometimes your father and your mother are a lot like God. And so when you start reading the scriptures about God, you start identifying, okay, yeah, that's, you know, my mom's like that, my dad's like that, they're merciful, they're tender, they're kind. So, so here's what I'm saying. I'm not putting down good homes. Please don't say like, you know, if you're from a good home, please get adopted somewhere else into a bad home. If you're in a good home, be thankful about it. But I'm saying be careful about it too. And here's why. Sometimes children from good homes have a problem with idolatry towards their father, idolatry towards their mother. They see them as being, like this, they grew up, remember this, some of you guys remember this, when you were kids and you go out in your neighborhood on the block and, and you'd have this competition thing, you know, my dad's stronger than your dad. Why are all the women laughing here? Got some tough women in the place here. Yeah, no, but women too, I'm sure. My dad is smarter than your dad. My dad is, you know, like, well, my dad can call fire from heaven down upon your dad, you know. You can kind of, you can kind of build like a sense of like everything that you're, you know, like as a, as a, particularly I think a young person, a young boy looks at their father and says, man, my dad is just, everything he does is perfect and he's just so great. And, and what happens is there's this sense of, of, of seeing him as God. And then, but, but he's not God, is he? The best father in the world is nothing near like God. The best father in the world is totally miserable failure compared to God. And they're so distinguished. But sometimes when you grow up in a good home, you get this sense of everything was perfect in my household. Everything was just exactly the way it ought to be. Around dinner table, we discussed DNA and chemistry equations and, you know, everything was just perfect household. So I'm fine. I had such a good upbringing. I must not have any problems at all. And the problem with that is a problem in itself. The problem with that is, is thinking that everything's okay. The problem with that is thinking that, that, that this, this earthly man is a precise representation of the heavenly father and he's not. And there's going to, because there's going to be shortcomings in the best of us. I, I, I don't know. I, I don't brag very often. I'm very humble person. Can I see the editor after this? I mean, I don't often like go around saying here's, but, but I will say this just in a little bit of confidence. I'm a, I'm a fairly good dad. I really am. I really love being a dad most of the time, except for when they cause trouble then. But then that's what we have mothers for. So we, so we can, your son said this, did you believe it? But, but, but I pretty much feel competent as a, as a dad. Like my kids have been by no means perfect and, and they, they've stretched and challenged in all kinds of ways. But, but even if I were, even if I were, which I'm not, even if I were the best dad ever in the whole history of dads in the world, and my sons would still have to deal with me not being like God. And so it could be something as simple as, you see, when you're, when you're raised up in a good home, even, and then you really learn to trust your parents, even the smallest of things can, can get into your, under your skin or into your mind, even in this, in, in ways that seem just as deep on level as if your father said to you, you're worthless. Does that make sense to you? Because you, because the father who's out of control, you're already even as a child learning not to trust, but the father who is, who's a really good father, sometimes you're, you're trusting him so much that there's this link, there's this identification, there's this unifying of your own earthly father with the heavenly father. And so when your earth, when I do something wrong to my kids, they're, the danger with that is they start thinking, well, my dad's really a lot, I mean, he's a, he's a, he's a preacher and he, and he's a, helps with missions work, so he must be right. He must, he's, you know, he prays, so he, when he says, you know, something, you know, and something comes out of my mouth or, or even if I don't say it, but I'm distant. One of the accusations my kids have against me, I'm still trying to teach them that they're wrong, but one of the, one of the accusations they have against me is that sometimes I don't pay attention to them. That will be around the dinner table and they'll be talking to me and, and I'll be like, and then they'll finish and, and they'll say, and so what? And I'll say, well, what? And they'll say, what's your answer? And I said, ask your mom. And they'll know, they'll know, they'll say, dad, you weren't listening, were you? You weren't listening, were you? I said, I'm sorry, what were you asking me? I, I totally, I was, and oftentimes they'll know exactly, oh, that's okay, I understand, you're preaching this week, so you were in Genesis chapter 4, right? You were in, you were in Hebrews chapter 12, right? You were thinking about your sermon while you were, and so there's this sense then, so my kids have a danger, there's a risk now for my children. When they grow up, they get, they build this pattern thinking that God is good and he's loving and he's caring, but, but he doesn't listen very well. See what I'm saying? It's not like, you know, they're not gonna report me to, what is it called, child services, you know, and my dad didn't answer my question. Please come right away. No, it's not gonna be like that. If you have like a 9-1-1 family, you know something's wrong, and you can kind of eventually put it in perspective, saying that's not what God's like, but if you come from a sort of perfect peace family and everything's fine all the time, sometimes it's more difficult to understand that's when, like me, when I'm distant from my children, when I'm not connecting to them relationally, that they don't take that into their heart and say, ah, that's what God is like. He's good, he's loving, he's, but, but, but he really can't pay attention to you, so, so when you pray, pray real quick, or when you pray, pray really loud so he can hear you, or, you know, you can build all kinds of strategies to try to compensate for something that wounds you as a child. So I'm saying more than I probably wanted to say here, but we get this wrong view of God, and, and I wanted to make, and I stress that point because it's important, because sometimes when you hear a sermon like this, there's a tendency, oh, thank God I didn't come from a bad home. Thank the Lord that it's other people in here in church this morning and this afternoon that are gonna have to, to deal with this. Thankfully, oh yeah, it's those people I'm counseling in my small group that came from the bad, no, it's every single one of us have to deal with this sense of do we have in some way or another have a warped view of God? Have we so linked our relationship with our earthly father with God that we see them as the same way? And as a, as a pastor I've counseled people before, and I, and I could, I could almost guess maybe eight or nine times out of ten. If you were to somehow separate this, but get people to, to think in these two terms, categories, put a description of how you see God. You know, where do you, where are you having some problems with God? And I say, well, he seems to be slow to answer my prayers sometimes, or he sometimes, I feel like I'm always walking the line. I always very, have to be very careful around him because if I do one thing wrong, it's, and you have him right out this image of God and, and not the Christianized one, you know, where it's like God is love and God is kind and God gives me lollipops every day. I don't know, just the, the, the, the kind of the gut level feeling of the things that might be wrong in your relationship or your concept, your, your view of God. And if you write those down nine out of ten times later on, if you ask him, write down your concept, not only of, of God, but now write down your concept of your father. And what's it going to be? You know what? It's going to be almost the exact same list. I, I've, I've physically seen this where I've done this with people and I laid the list on the table and showed them, look at this. My father is angry. God is angry. My father, uh, leaves me. God, I'm afraid he's going to leave me and reject me. It's, it's this link that we have. Now that's why it comes to a very important thing. See, the, the last word, and that's where we're reading from. Go back to the book of Hebrews, if you would, the twelfth chapter. I, I love the contrast in Hebrews, the twelfth chapter, because it, it starts off kind of showing this, this, uh, view of God that, that doesn't hold up. It, it's not, uh, it's not what God is doing. And so it, it speaks of him as being one who's, who's in this mountain that can't be touched. Fire, darkness, gloom, storm, trumpet blast, um, beg, words not, not be spoken to them. Some people are still living under that word. A, a word of, of, uh, an unhealthy fear of God. A word of, uh, God's out to get you. A word of, you're not, you're not right. A word of shame. You, you just, you don't have what it takes. You, you're not just, you don't just make mistakes that you need to come to the altar in front of the church and repent of. You, you just are a mistake. You're just, life is, is, is just a, a wreck. It's a ruin. It's, it's a curse. But I thank the Lord that that's not the final word. God, God makes it so clear that, that God is not, he's not our earthly father, no matter how bad or good your earthly father was. He, he is different. He is other. He is greater. He's more glorious. He's higher. He's, he is perfect. He is pure. He is holy. He, he is, he is so different, so far greater than the best man living ever in the history of the world. There is not even a comparison. And this begins, Hebrews begins to describe, okay, so you haven't come to that. That's not the life you should be coming to. But you can come to this. And he begins to describe, this is Mount Zion in the heavenly city, to the city of the living God. You have, you've come to God. You've come to the Father now. You've come into his presence. You, you have the assembly, the joyful assembly. I like that. It's not like the, the somber assembly. It's not like the, the assembly of those who are so discouraged that their life is a mess. But hang on, heaven will be here eventually. It's the joyful assembly. You've come into a place where, where there's joy, where people feel the liberty of God. They delight in the sense of their father loving them. There's, there's passion in their step and in their, in their song is filled with joy. Why? Because they know who they are in Christ. They know what God has done for them. Church of the firstborn, to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood, blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. You see, God is not speaking to you the same way Abel, if he were to come up out of that ground and begin to speak to his brother, you worthless, no good. How dare you? I was in the middle of a church service. I was worshiping. I was singing, how great thou art and you hit me in the head. You know, it's like, and, and you deserve now to be a wanderer. You deserve to be this, you know, the, this, this. Now God is saying, I don't speak that word over you. I'm speaking a better word to you. I don't speak the word of the blood of Abel. I am speaking the word of the sprinkled blood of Christ over you. This is the father God saying, I'm speaking the sprinkled blood of Christ and the new covenant over you. I am speaking life to you. I am speaking worth to you. I am speaking value to you. I am speaking clarity of mind to you. I am speaking destiny that is good for you. I am speaking healing of the deepest wounds in your heart. I am speaking security that calls you to the Abba father's arms. I am speaking love and tenderness and acceptance that lets you run onto your papa's lap and say, daddy, do, is it true? Is it true? Do you really love me this much? Do you accept me with all my stains, all my sins? Or is life really just a, a, a blast of a trumpet and a cloud and darkness and gloom and the voice of the blood of Abel saying you're worthless and you're no good. And God says, renounce that voice. Don't listen to that voice. That voice is not the voice of the sprinkled blood of Jesus that says you have access into the holy of holies. You, you, I let you in places now that I would only let a priest once a year after he was totally perfect. And I let you in anytime you want to come. Just, I, I let you live in this presence. I let you dwell. I let you grow up under the comfort of my wings. That's why the Psalms David wrote, he understood this. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most high shall abide under the shadow of the almighty. It's just the sense of I'm abiding in the presence of that which is perfectly good. When, when we tried to translate, I think it was the Latin into, or the German and the Latin to German and to English, we were trying to find a word for God. We didn't want to just use theos, the, the Greek word that we get theology for the study of God from. So they were looking for a different word. So they chose the word good. It's the, like the German word good, which is short, we call it God. Just, just, just that, that's who he is. He's good. He's good. Now our minds get so clouded. He's good, but. He's good, he, he's loving, but he's, oh, you gotta watch. Always be careful of that little adjective. He, he, he's good and there's no but about it. He's, he's love, there's no but about it. He, he is, he is for you. There's no buts, ifs, ands, or buts about it. He is, he's on your side. For too long, I felt like I was in a tug of war. God on this side, you get over here and be holy and do right and straighten up and, and it's me and I'm like on this side and I'm going like, I'm trying God, but the world is pulling me this way and the flesh and Satan and God said, no, you got the whole picture wrong. You are already over here with me. You're already on, you're already on my side and yes, there's still a struggle. There's, there's still a battle going on, but don't ever think you're on that side. Don't ever think I'm yelling across at you. You have no muscles. Ha, ha, you know. You're on my side and, and we're in this battle together. You're on my team. You're in my family. You are my beloved and, and the Holy Spirit would like to today to, to heal our hearts, to heal our hearts of, of words spoken over us that we believe and you, you know, you, you, you know what I'm talking about, right? There's some people in here today, you know exactly what I'm talking about. You have these, these things that you have falsely believed and the Holy Spirit is here today so you just renounce those, renounce those things and turn from them and, and believe that and, and what we have to do is, is to break this identity, this cord. It's like a, it's like breaking an apron string. It's like I, my father, my mother, anybody that spoke these words of me is not the same thing as God. They're different and, and you almost have to break that. Use the authority that the Holy Spirit's given you to break that and say, you know what, I don't, I don't, they're not integrated. They, what you do is you actually, that's where the word disintegrate comes from, to break apart. You disintegrate that sense of what you heard from the world is the same thing you hear from God. Two totally different voices. That's what Pastor Carter started the service here today with. He said he wanted God to speak over you something and he's doing that today. He's speaking over you that you're loved and accepted. You're part of his beloved. You're in his family. You're royal priesthood. You're, you're, you're special to him. With one glance of his eye, his heart was fully captured towards you. He just went, wow, she's amazing. Wow, he's glorious. Wow, he's, he's, he's so unique. He's special. He, she's delightful to me. And some people have such a hard time with hearing those words because they see God as, as distant and demanding and mean, but he's not. We're here today to break that. Okay? Stand with me if you would. And if you need that broken and you want to come into a place of victory in Christ where you know your identity is, I'm free, free indeed. I'm loved. I'm accepted. There's, and, and if you're saying, uh, if you don't mind, you're welcome to repent. I would never stop anybody from repenting, but can we make the front of the church here today a healing place and ask the Holy Spirit to allow you to be healed. If that's you, come down out of your seats right now. Join me at the front of the building from the balcony. If you're in the annex room, you can come if you'd like to the front. We're going to, we're going to pray a prayer of healing, of breaking that link, that connection, and see God do a mighty work. We ask you, Father, that all fear be gone. Give us power to renounce the fear built up into our heart and our life. We say, Jesus, speak to this mountain and it will be gone. The mountain of fear be removed from the hearts of people in this place now. In Jesus' name, there's no fear to come to you, Father, and to learn that you are beautiful and good, wonderful. I pray for these who have stepped out of their seat, God, probably not exactly knowing what they're stepping into. I would probably join them. I'm not exactly sure what they're moving towards either, except just you, just you. It's you, God, that we're coming to because our hope is in you. We have allowed certain things to get into our heart, Lord, that we begin to accuse you then, saying, you're like this, or you failed here, or you let me down here, or you think this of me, and it makes me feel bad. Father, we just all in this room, we just know it's not right that someone who is a beloved son or daughter of God would walk around feeling like their life is just not good. That they're not good, that they're not cleansed, they're not holy, they're not loved by you. It's just not right, and yet there's so many going around with that voice echoing in their head, just constantly, every turn, every move, every thought is just filled with the sense of you're failing, you're falling short, you're not worth it, you're not good. And it's not your voice, Jesus, and we muster up the authority that it's not in ourselves, it comes from you to say that that voice doesn't belong in the mind or the heart of those who call on your name. Now, if there's anyone here, Lord, at the front of this church, or even in this building, hearing my voice, that have not come to receive healing and cleansing and repentance, to become a child of God, turning from the world and self and saying, Jesus, forgive me and let the cross bring me into the family of God. I pray they do that even now as I'm praying. They would pray, a person saying, Jesus, receive me into this family. It sounds like something I want to be a part of, of a healthy, healing family that's so much better than I experienced, whether mine was good or bad. Now, in the name of Jesus, for these who have stepped forward, I ask you, God, to just begin to let the process begin in their life. I know they would love for it to be done right now. I know they would love a miracle that would let them take a deep breath and they walk out of this auditorium and everything's just right. But, God, sometimes this dealing with these deep-rooted things in our hearts is a process that you take us through. And I ask you to initiate that process now. If you have come forward, we'll give the Holy Spirit permission, because He's a gentleman and He moves according to your desires for Him to move in your heart. If you will give Him permission and say to Him, Holy Spirit, allow me to hear from you and allow me to give you permission to work deep in my heart, to work deep in my life. And we ask you even now, Holy Spirit, to hear this cry of people at the front of this building, a cry that says, we need you, Spirit of God. We need you to address the issues of my heart. We need you to give me faith to believe that you are going to dig deep in my heart and break down all the walls and all the barriers, all the things I hold in, all the emotions that I repress for fear. And, Lord, when we repress that, the fear, we're also repressing the glory that you put in our hearts. The design you have for our life to be alive and vivacious and life-giving, it just dissipates because it's all hidden. And I ask you now to begin to break down these walls. And those of you who have come forward, just trust what God's saying to you here today. He is speaking a better word of you. And one of the words is He's going to take you on a journey. He's initiating you, with your permission today, He's initiating a journey to bring up things and then heal them. To heal memories, to heal words, to heal relationships, to heal concepts you have of yourself and of God that are false. And as you're on this journey, I invite you to take the Word of God with you and begin to just wash yourself in the Word of God. I invite you, I call on you to take out the Word of God and ask the Holy Spirit to free you from seeing it through your eyes of woundedness and shame. You see what I'm saying? Sometimes when I feel that spirit of shame coming on me, I'll pick up the Bible and inevitably it's always Jeremiah I turn to. You know, you have failed me with great failure. Why couldn't I have turned to Psalms and it's like I loved you with everlasting loves. Here's the thing I'm saying to you, sometimes we read the Scripture through the lens of our brokenness and our woundedness. So everything, if anybody does something bad in the Bible, they go, oh yeah, I'm just like that. But if somebody does something really good, heroic, oh, I could never be like that. You see, so the Bible almost becomes useless to you because it just reinforces your wrong thinking. So the Bible has to be something that the Holy Spirit has to heal your heart even as you're reading. You're identifying yourself in the Word of God with the things, with this better voice that we're talking about today. Does that make sense to you? Father, that's how I close this time, just asking you to speak over these people with this better voice that you have for them. Not the voice of the world, of sin, of Satan, of themselves, or what was spoken over them through other wounded people. But Lord, this trustworthy, safe voice of the only one who has never been wounded and who has never said anything or done anything wrong. And we trust you, Father, to speak to us through the Word and to do surgery in our hearts that something good would come of that. And if you believe that, would you say amen? Amen. Do you believe that with all your heart? Let's thank the Lord for that. Thank you, Jesus. We trust you. We trust you, Jesus. Would you that have come forward, would you just pray this for me? Lord Jesus, I trust you with the care of my heart, with the care of my mind, the protection of everything that I have and everything that I am. Transform me. Renew me. Renew my mind that I think and I feel about myself and about you the same way you call it to be. In Jesus' name. Amen. Do you believe that? Amen. God bless you.