In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of God revealing sin in our lives so that we can repent and be set free. He shares a personal experience of realizing he had lied and how it shocked him into recognizing the need for honesty. The preacher highlights that sin separates us from God and weighs us down, but God's conviction is an act of His goodness and mercy. He prays for the Holy Spirit to bring conviction, comfort, and truth to the listeners, and for the day to be one of victory, deliverance, healing, and salvation. The sermon also references the Lord's Prayer and the parable of the friend at midnight to emphasize the importance of persistent prayer and asking God for our needs.

We need to be connected to the power source. Only Jesus can save, only Jesus can save, hallelujah. Amen. I greet you in His name, the name of the Lord Jesus. Open your Bibles with me if you would to Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, verse 1. Luke chapter 11, verse 1. And it came to pass, as he, speaking of Jesus, was praying in a certain place. When he ceased, one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not, the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, Yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. And he that seeketh, findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, Will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, Will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, Will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then being evil, Know how to give good gifts unto your children, How much more shall your heavenly Father Give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Let's kneel together for prayer. Father, we bow our knees. We bow on our knees before you, Lord. Acknowledging our need of you, oh God. Acknowledging, Father, that I'm very needy. I need you, Lord. And I know it's so easy to say it. But, Lord, it is so true. Without you, I can't do anything. I can do nothing of myself, Lord. So, Father, I ask that in your tender mercies, In your faithfulness and goodness, You would anoint your servant, Lord, To preach your Word. Father, I wouldn't say anything you wouldn't want me to say. Or do anything that would not be of you, Lord. Father, as we're on our knees before you, we welcome you. Welcome comforter. Welcome Holy Spirit. Welcome conviction. Welcome comfort. Welcome revelation of Jesus Christ. Welcome the light of truth to our hearts, Lord. Father, I pray that there would be no condemnation here today from the enemy, the accuser of the brethren. Father, I pray that you would bind him, that wicked one who wants to destroy us, to keep us in bondage of sin and self, Lord. Father, I pray that today your Holy Spirit would bring conviction of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And, Father, that you would bring comfort and truth to our hearts, Lord. And, Father, that we would hear with our heart and receive your truth. Father, that you would give bread to each one here today. Father, that no one would be passed by. But that in your goodness and in your faithfulness, Lord, you would speak to every heart, you would speak life. Father, I pray that today would be a day of victory in Jesus and a day of defeat to the devil. I pray that today would be a day of liberty and deliverance of the captives. I pray it would be a time of the opening of the eyes of the blind. I pray it would be a time of healing of the brokenhearted. I pray it would be a day of salvation, a day of the Lord, a day of visitation from our God. I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. I say unto you, ask and it shall be given you. Seek and ye shall find. Knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asketh, receiveth. Let's say that together. After I say the word, everyone that asketh, let's say receiveth together. Everyone that asketh, receiveth. Isn't that an amazing statement? Everyone that asketh, receiveth. I'm asking God for a number of different things and I had some time alone with the Lord this week and I'm asking God to just speak to my heart. I'm asking God to reveal His holiness, His glory, His beauty to my heart. I'm asking God to convict me of sin. Like my dear brother Elmer Peachey says, oh, I love conviction. I'm not sure I can always say that, but I can say that yes, Lord, I know that when You show me an area of sin in my life, it's Your goodness. It's Your loving kindness toward me. It's Your mercy. Because you see, sin separates us from God. Sin weighs us down. Sin binds us up. And the enemy of our soul wants us to just not be totally honest and open and transparent before God so we can get free. And He wants to just hang these things on us that just weigh us down. The Scriptures speak of besetting sin. I'm asking God to show me any area in my life that is not pleasing to Him. Any area in my life of unbelief where I limit the Holy One by my unbelief. And you know, God is faithful to show us. He really is. And it's His goodness that leads us to repentance. It's not because God hates us, but it's because He loves us. I don't want my doctor to not tell me if I have sickness in my body and just sort of gloss it over. I don't want the Lord my God to not tell me if I have sin sickness and just gloss it over. Because you know a lot of times the earlier that sickness can be diagnosed and treated, the better the chances for a cure. And so we ought to look at sin in our lives. Oh Lord, show me. Show me early. Early will I run after you. Early will I seek you. That's my prayer today. I don't feel like I have a lot to share. The Lord was just really laying this on my heart for me to be just open and transparent with you. You know, God says the heart that He's looking for is just simply an honest heart. You know, it's really not complicated, but so often we make it complicated. But all God is asking of you and I is that we be honest and that we lie not against the truth. When God shows me something in my heart and in my life that He wants to purge and He wants to take away, that I don't lie against that truth. I think one of the things that it can be a major fault and we have a very hard time seeing it is where we go through doing the right thing, but without heart motive, heart connection. God said to Israel, your feasts, your new moons, your Sabbaths, I can't bear them. Well, didn't God tell them this is what they should do? Yes, but it had become an empty, vain ritual. I don't want to go through life with religious exercise without reality, do you? I don't want to profess God with these lips, but deny the power of God. I don't want to just have a form of godliness without reality. And I don't think you do either. And you know, our reality is as real as we're honest with God. It's God's goodness that leads us to repentance. And God showed me areas in my life where I'm backslidden. I'm a backslider. I said, Lord, does it have to be that as I get older and see many different things in life, does it have to be that joyful zeal in first love has to somehow diminish? I think for a time I was just sort of excusing it that, well, I'm maturing and I'm not so emotional, but I'm maturing. But when we read the Scriptures, the Word of God, Jesus very clearly tells us that first love, return to that first love. You're doing many righteous deeds. You're keeping yourself from blatant gross sin, but where's your love for me, says Jesus. So I'm asking God this morning to heal my backsliding. Turn with me to Jeremiah 3. Jeremiah 3. In Jeremiah chapter 3 and verse 22, God says, Return. Jeremiah 3.22 Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto Thee, for Thou art the Lord our God. Return unto Me. Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backsliding. I'm asking God to heal my backsliding. And I believe that He is able and I believe that He shall do so. I come to God in faith, believing. But I also come in repentance and confession that God, I am a backslider and I need healing. And I'm so grateful this morning that God promises to the backslider, when you return to Me, I will heal your backsliding. You know, sometimes it just takes a revelation from God. It takes the Holy Spirit of God to show me my true condition. And it takes humility on our part to not just quickly pass it over and gloss it over and sort of excuse it away. In verse 21, a voice was heard upon the high places weeping and supplication of the children of Israel, for they have perverted their way. They have forgotten the Lord their God. They have forgotten and it's beginning to dawn upon them. And their hearts are being convicted and they're seeing it and there's weeping and supplication. I believe supplication is just simply a heart cry to God for deliverance, for healing, for salvation. Dear brothers and sisters this morning, trying to do better, trying to do better is not what God is asking us to do. What God is asking us to do is to just be honest. That's all. Just be honest and agree with God when He shows us sin and to return, to return to God. My backsliding shows itself in this way. Prayerlessness. I don't pray as I ought. Backsliding. It shows itself in being self-confident, self-sufficient. Backsliding can put on many different faces. For me, backsliding is forgetting. Oh, forgetting. Forgetting what all Jesus has done for me. How He took my sins to the cross. It was my sin that held Him there. Backsliding can be making the holy things become common. You know, I've heard it so often before. It's awful how the heart can get calloused to the beautiful truths of the love of Christ Jesus. And I fear that too often I have just gone through the motions. You know, we just come to church and we sing the hymns and we have the Sunday school and we go home. We go out the door dragging the same chains that we were dragging when we came in. Oh, I would to God that today would just be a day of victory for Jesus and defeat to the devil. And those long-standing, besetting sins would be drug into the light of the glorious beauty of Jesus Christ into the light of His countenance. God wants to heal my backsliding. I don't know what your situation is this morning, but I'm asking God to heal my backsliding. Just a few questions that might help us. Am I a backslider? Is there anything that captures my heart and mind and affection more than God Himself? Where is my affection? What makes me tick? What gets me excited to talk about and dream about? Is there anything that captures my heart, my mind and affection more than God Himself? Am I easily offended? Something doesn't go quite my way. Am I easily offended? Maybe someone doesn't give me honor or recognition, or someone speaks evil. You know, backsliders are easily offended. But those who are near to God, who love God, nothing shall offend them. Amen? Am I jealous of others who can pray, preach, sing, or do things better than myself? Am I jealous when I see someone else whom God is blessing, and their abilities and their gifts and talents are more than mine? They can do it better? Backsliders often are jealous. Do I hold grudges for past offenses? I just hold that thing. If you're holding a grudge, you may have unforgiveness in your heart. Backsliders find it hard to forgive when they feel they were wronged and their rights were stepped on. Have you forgiven those who have wronged you? Do I appear more spiritual in public than I really am in private? This is really some deep, probing questions for us churchgoers. Do I appear more spiritual in public than I really am in private? Am I honest in speech, in relationships with my spouse? Am I honest in speech? You know, when we really get serious and we say, Lord, show me my heart. Search me and try me and see if there be any wicked way in me. You know, God really wants to show us. We have to really be serious with God. And we have to be honest with God. Each victory will help you the next to win. Each denial of God's truth revealed will shut it down. See, when God shows me sin in my life, but I lie against that truth of God showing me my sin, I'm just sort of closing the door and my heart becomes calloused. Oh, it's a wonderful thing, brother. Elmer, where are you? Elmer Peachey, you're here somewhere, aren't you? He didn't go home, did he? Oh, you're way in the back, brother. Amen. Bless you, brother. Wonderful thing when God shows me sin in my life so that I can repent of it and be free from it. Am I honest in speech about, oh, I don't know, maybe six weeks ago, I was recounting an experience of my younger days to a group of men and as I put the final icing on the cake, I realized I just lied. It shocked me. Maybe it didn't shock me enough, but I realized I just said an untruth. A partial truth, but embellished, and it was an untruth. I want God to heal me of that exaggerating, of that dishonest in my speech. I want God to heal me. I want Him to cleanse me from it. I want Him to make me so conscious of it that I will not speak in any dishonest way. I'm sorry to have to say it. It's a shameful thing. But that's what came out. So I'm agreeing with God this morning that I lied. And if I lie, I am a what? I'm a liar. I don't want any part of Satan's kingdom. I don't want any part of Satan's agenda or any part of Satan's deceit and pride. I don't want that. Brother, sister, you don't want it either. It costs too much. It costs us the intimacy with Christ, the reality with Jesus, and we'll deceive our own hearts. We'll become a hypocrite and not even know it. Do you think the Pharisees knew they were that serious hypocrites as Jesus told them that they are in Matthew 23? No, they actually spoke back and said that's not who we are in John chapter 8. We're not of our father the devil. But Jesus said you are and you do His works. Oh, brother, sister, the way we defeat the devil is through confession and honesty and openness. That's how we defeat the devil. That's how we break the chain of sin. I want my sins to go beforehand to judgment, don't you? Lord, deliver me from secret sin. Because in the eyes of God, there is no such thing as secret sin. Our sins are open and naked before God with whom we have to do. Brothers, sisters, this is serious. I'm asking God to be honest in my speech. Backsliders are often gossipers because they don't have the fear of God on their heart. You see, when you backslide and you forget God, His holiness, His righteousness, I think every day, brother, sister, we need to pray, oh God, so fill me with Your Holy Spirit. So quicken me to Your Spirit of truth that there's a watch upon my lips that I'll be honest in all my speech. You know, backsliders, often you can identify a backslidden condition by how we speak about our brothers and our sisters. Am I guilty of slander? Am I guilty of repeating unsubstantiated rumors, things I've heard about another? Do I get a secret delight in hearing about other people's failures and then spreading it to others? Am I a gossip? I'm asking God to make me pure and holy. I'm asking God to break every yoke, every chain of sin in my life. I don't want anything to do with it. I'm asking God to convict me of everything that breaks His heart. Oh, brother, sister, it's the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. I'm asking God for a lot of other things, but I thought maybe before we go on, maybe this is where we should close. I don't know. But before we go on to some of the other things I'm asking God for, is there anyone else here this morning that you need to ask God for forgiveness? You need to ask God to heal my backsliding. If there's anyone else who has a need and the Holy Spirit of God is speaking to you, I say don't lie against that truth. Is there anyone else that would want to join me and we'll just pray together for God's cleansing and healing? If there is, just come front here and we'll kneel together and we'll pray together. I'm going to shut off the mic here for a moment. If there's anyone else who wants to pray, and if you don't need to pray for yourself, I invite you to come pray for me. I'm asking God. I'm asking God for the Holy Spirit. We read in Luke chapter 11, if any asks for the Holy Spirit, how much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? I want to encourage us, brothers and sisters, let us cleanse our hands and our hearts and then ask God for the Holy Spirit because He gives the Holy Spirit to them that obey Him. The Holy Spirit is holy. We have to cleanse our hands and our hearts from sin and then we are on holy ground to ask for the Holy Spirit. Amen. I'm asking God for the Holy Spirit. If you want to turn to another Scripture yet here, I'll share a few more things that I'm asking God for in Psalms 92. And I encourage you to join me in asking God. Let's see, did I get that right? Yes. Did I lay my Bible down there, John Mark? No, here it is. Yes, okay. Psalm 92, 10. I have the Amplified here, but I wanted to read it in the King James and then maybe just pull a few word definitions out of the Amplified. Psalm 92, verse 10, But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of a unicorn, and I shall be anointed with fresh oil. I am asking God for the Holy Spirit and I'm asking to be anointed with fresh oil. I've shared my testimony here before. I have no doubt that God filled me with His Holy Spirit, baptized me in His Holy Ghost back in about 1986. But the Scriptures teach us that the disciples were filled with the Holy Ghost in Acts 2, and then in Acts 3, 4, they prayed again and the place was shaken again and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost again. So I need continual fillings and we need to stop the leaks. We need to stop the leaks. And the leaks are sin, brother, sister. Sin of pride, sin of vain ambition, of selfishness and all of those things, self-sufficiency. Oh, we need to see how dependent we are upon God. I'm asking God for fresh oil, fresh anointing. Psalm 92 and verse 10, I shall be anointed with fresh oil. Verse 12, The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree, and he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon, and those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. Verse 14, They shall still bring forth fruit in old age, and they shall be fat and flourishing to show that the Lord is upright. He is my rock. There is no unrighteousness in Him. I'm asking God that in older age I shall still bring forth fruit. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing, and that flourishing and that fatness, they shall flourish in the courts of our God, and they shall be anointed with fresh oil, and they shall flourish like the palm tree, and they shall be useful and fruitful in their old age, and they shall be full of vitality and fatness of God, spiritual vitality and richness from the Lord. I'm asking God for that. And you know why I may ask that? Because God has promised. You may ask also. This morning, as we just bring this to a close, it is such a simple truth. You have not because? You ask not. How many of Jesus' disciples walked on the water when Jesus came walking on the water toward them as they were fearful in the ship and it was a storm? How many walked on the water of Jesus' twelve? One. Do you think that Peter would have walked on the water if he hadn't asked? Jesus, if it's You, bid me come to You on the water. I believe, brothers and sisters here this morning, there are areas where our God would have us to ask for the impossible because God is the God of the impossible, and He tells us there's nothing too hard for me. But you see, when I'm backslidden, when I'm not remembering the greatness of my God, I won't ask great things because I have lowered God down. My view of God is compromised and I live at the Holy One of Israel because my view of God is down here when it should be up here. I encourage us, brothers and sisters, ask. And I leave you with this question. What are you asking God for? Let's share together. Oh, that would be such a blessing if we share together one thing that I need God to do in my life and I'm asking God for it. And you share it with another brother or sister and they become prayer partner with you. And together the two of you agree as touching anything that they shall ask and it shall be done. I'm asking God for healing from my backsliding. I'm asking God for deliverance from that tendency of exaggerating the truth, stretching it outright. It becomes a lie. But see, we call it something else. You know what I mean? We say, oh, it's just a little exaggeration. But is it a lie? Is it the truth or is it the untruth? Is it yea or is it nay? Yes? You know, it's very simple. You know, people aren't adulterers today that sleep with another man's wife. No, no, no. They're just having an affair. And so things are just, you know... No, no, no. We're not murdering babies. It's just an abortion. And you know, that thing can creep into our hearts and affect us more than we realize. We need to saturate ourselves in the Word of God, in the statutes and the commandments and the law of God so that we know God's heart. And then we need to ask Him, Lord, Lord, search my heart. Show me what breaks Your heart that I may be broken and weeping over the things that You're broken over and You're concerned about. So God bless you, brothers and sisters. I hope you still love me. I have earthen feet, earthen vessel, but I want to be like Jesus. God bless you. Amen. God bless you, Brother Aaron, for being an example of confession of sin. And I'm done. I had to think of that Scripture. He that confesses, he that covers his sins shall not prosper, but he that confesses and forsakes them shall have mercy. And you know, in Jeremiah there, there's about four verses there that bring out the thought of backsliding. It says, Return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord. I will not keep anger forever. Another verse here. Return, O backsliding children, saith the Lord, for I am married unto you. And then the verse that Brother Aaron read, Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. And it was beautiful to see you come, those of you who came to the altar here. Behold, we come unto thee, for Thou art the Lord our God. Praise God. So I just want to bless each one of you who responded to the call of the Lord. And I believe God's healing will be upon you concerning your backsliding and the things that you have confessed before Him this morning. Amen. Does anyone care to share yet? Get a microphone. Brother Elmer. Slip your hand up and a microphone will be gotten to you. Yeah, I just want to thank you, Brother Aaron, for sharing. You truly qualify to be our shepherd. We have heard a lot of Scripture this morning, and I just want to share something that I found in the Word of God this week. In Psalm 12, verse 6, it says, The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver dried in the furnace of earth, purified seven times. God bless you.