In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of maintaining our confidence in God, especially during difficult times. He explains that God knows our struggles and will send ministers to deliver a powerful word that cuts deep into our hearts. The speaker also highlights the purpose of the Old Testament, which is to lead us to Jesus Christ and empower us to become the resurrected bride of Christ. He warns that the world will become darker and more distant from God, but the Church will shine brighter and become more like Jesus. The sermon concludes with the anticipation of the Father speaking the word to Jesus to go and gather his beloved bride, and the joyous shout that will follow.

...is one of the Times Square Church Pulpit Series. It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times Square Church in Manhattan, New York City. Other tapes are available by writing, World Challenge, P.O. Box 260, Lindale, Texas, 75771, or calling 903-963-8626. None of these messages are copyrighted, and you are welcome to make copies for free distribution to friends. I want to talk to you, as one of your pastors, about something that God has put on my heart, for this church body, and it's about overcoming the fear of being rejected by God. We are living in perilous times, as the scripture says. We're living in a time when the world is going to get darker, going to become more distant from God, more alienated in the thinking, from the ways of God, more evil. But at a time that the scripture bears witness, when the church of Jesus Christ is going to come more and more and more and more into the light, and into the likeness of our Lord and Savior. Until it culminates at a time when the Spirit and the Bride say, When Jesus Christ stands up, and all of Heaven stands up with Him, and the Father speaks to Him, that word that He's been longing to hear for so long, the word that God has had in His heart right from the beginning of time, before you and I were even created, that He would have a people among whom He can dwell for all of eternity. His beloved body, His beloved Bride, those that will rule and reign with Him for all of eternity. And all of a sudden the Father is going to speak that word to His Son and say, Son, go get your Bride. And there's going to be a shout, the Bible says He comes with a shout, hallelujah, and with the voice of God, the voice of the Archangel and the trump, and He comes for all those who have lived and trusted in Him, who have walked with Him, who have known Him, who have trusted in His shed blood, first those that are dead, have died in Christ, and secondly for those who are alive and remain. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. And the Apostle Paul says, therefore comfort one another with these words. We're going to sing in heaven, we're going to shout in heaven. And we're going to do a little bit of that here on earth too, up until the time that Christ comes. But there's also going to be times when God, because of His love for you and for me, you see, He sees things that we don't see. We come into the house of the Lord and we say, oh, I'm saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Ghost, set apart for God. And we generally are quite quick to have a wonderful testimony about ourselves, if anybody should care to ask. But God doesn't see the way man sees. And He looks down upon those that He loves, those that are covered in the blood of Christ, those that are redeemed. As we heard this afternoon as well, those that are held fast by His hands, planted solidly in the courts of our God. And He looks down and He sees things in you and He sees things in me that if left unchecked and unchallenged, will give the enemy access to our lives. If left unchecked and unchallenged, will perhaps someday in the future, especially when hard times come, will erode our confidence in God because perhaps we are looking to one thing or another to give us satisfaction or to give us some kind of assurance of our future. God knows these things, and not just part measure, He knows them in full measure. And so He will come down and He will put upon the hearts of His ministers, those that stand in the pulpit for a season, He will put upon their hearts a word that will come and cut deep, deep, deep into the heart. The word of God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, cutting asunder between soul and spirit, determining that which is of God and that which is strictly of the soulish realm of man. It goes right in and determines the thoughts and intents of the heart. And it's at this time when God begins to do these things because He loves us that many who have not overcome the fear of rejection, especially the fear of being rejected by God, when they begin to have a revelation that there are things in our lives that are not, things in our lives in some areas that are not the way we once thought they were, then all of a sudden there's like an overwhelming fear. God in heaven, it's like an Isaiah experience, swollen to me, I'm undone. God, how can you love me? God, how can you continue to use me? All of these things that are in my life may be some that you're aware of and others that you didn't even know were there. You may have even thought they were good, but now the Holy Spirit comes and begins to cut right into the very motives of the heart and it begins to stand before God in an undone feeling. Now that's the Lord that does that because He loves us. The end result of that is joy, unspeakable and full of glory. And as we heard so ably today, we ought to be a people who desire this kind of a word, who desire to come into the house of God and say, God, purge me, cleanse me, any area and every area of my life where I might be holding to something that's unlike you. God, come and touch that area of my life. I want Christ to live in me. I want to abide in Him and I want Him to abide in me and that life that God has promised me, I want to have it a life that bears much fruit to the honor and to the glory of God. And many times you and I have cried that out at an altar and God in His goodness will come down and answer that prayer, but He answers it in a way that we didn't think sometimes He was going to do it. And when we're not fully grounded in His love, if we're not fully grounded in an understanding of what He has done for us on Calvary, of what has happened in heaven as we heard about this morning, that our names are written down in the Lamb's Book of Life, that yes, there may be on that day when we stand individually before God some issues that God has to speak to us about. It will still be in the context of a loving Savior with His beloved bride that He has cherished and He's bringing into eternity to dwell with Him and to live with Him forever. But those that are not grounded in this love can come to the place because of past experience of thinking, God, You have rejected me. When trial comes, when there's a silence from heaven, there are different things that God will do to get our attention. I'm going to talk about a few of these things tonight. I want you to know when God begins to do this, His love is going to purge this body. His love is going to root out and tear down and destroy everything that has the potential to lead any one of us away from the very heart of God. And then He's going to build line by line, precept by precept, character, the character of Christ, the nature of Christ, the desire for the things of God. He's going to wean us from the things of the world and raise up to Him a beloved bride, a beloved testimony in this city of New York. My brethren, please don't be afraid when the Word of God begins to come and begins to cut the heart. That is the loving hand of God. Father, I ask tonight that as I share what You put upon my heart with Your bride that You've gathered in this house, Lord, that You would anoint these words to tear down all works of darkness, to tear down any misconception of You that has been formed either in the soulless realm or has been planted there by demonic lies. Father, I come against every demonic suggestion, every power of hell that comes against any child of God in this house. Lord, I thank You that Your truth will triumph this night, O God. I ask, Lord, that prison doors would be opened, those that have been wounded in heart in particular, bruised in heart would be healed and set free from the fear of rejection. Father, I thank You for this. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. If you'll turn with me to Psalm 22, please. My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? Why art Thou so far from helping me and from the words of my roaring? O my God, I cry in the daytime, but Thou hearest not, and in the night season, and am not silent. Verse 14 says, I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax, it is melted in the midst of my bowels. My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws. Thou hast brought me into the dust of death. Now, this scripture foreshadowed an audible cry. Now, this scripture is written by the psalmist David approximately the year 1018 B.C., and it's a foreshadowing of an audible cry that many years later would echo from the very depths of Christ in the last few torturous moments before his death on the cross. Now, Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 15 identifies Jesus as a high priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. And as I was reading these words again, I was wondering how many thousands since that day have cried out these very same words. We know from history, we understand that God had not forsaken him, but he was touched with the feelings of our infirmities. And he had to go through everything that you and I have to go through because the scripture says he was tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin. And he had to go through that time of the deep feeling in his heart of being forsaken, rejected by God, even though he knew that that forsakenness at that particular moment was because he had become sin who knew no sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God through him. But how many thousands since that day have cried out these very same words? I know that I have cried them out. And if you're an honest person here today, I know that you have cried them out too. If you have not cried it, yet you've not perhaps gone as deep yet with God as God is going to bring you to. But there comes a time in your life when you feel all alone. You've tried to serve God with all your heart. You do whatever you feel God is asking you to do. You're living as good as you can and yet he seems so far away. My God, why have you forsaken me? I can understand other people forsaking me, but why has thou forsaken me? Why are you so far away from me? Why am I crying so loud and it seems that you're nowhere to be found? It seems that you're not even listening to me. And if you're anywhere near, you're not even lifting a finger to help me. How many have cried these words in moments of personal despair, feeling alone and fearing most terribly of all that because of some struggle in their lives that they have been rejected by God? Rejected by God. I have counseled so many people over the years that have been trusting Christians. They have trusted in Christ for their salvation. They do love God. They do desire his word. But they have a struggle in one, two or more areas, whatever the situation is in their life. I don't know how many times that I've had people meet me in different places or come in to talk to me and they have this overwhelming sense that they have been rejected by God. The sense that God has put up with me for so long and he's put up with my struggling for so long, but certainly there's got to be a walk-out point with God. Certainly there's got to be a time when God is just going to reject me and walk out on me. Now Webster's definition of rejection is to throw away, to cast off, or refusing to accept or grant. To throw away. That's rejection. Cast off or refusing to accept. Now God himself in the Old Testament endorsed the principle of the separation of and even the complete rejection of those who despised his law. This rejection brought to the people the knowledge of the severity of sinning against God and established boundaries of acceptable living and practice. Now it's all the purpose, the intent, of God doing this was to bring his people to the knowledge of their need of a Savior. First of all, to define his law, to define his character by putting away out of their midst those who despised his law, those who simply rejected his truth. Because it was in his heart not only to dwell among his people, but it was in the heart of God from the beginning of time to dwell not only among his people, but in them and with them and through them. That's God's desire for you and for me. It's not just to dwell among us, but in us and with us and through us. The Apostle Paul says in Ephesians 1, verse 23, he calls the church his body, the fullness of him that fills all in all. Acts 17, 28, Paul in making a defense of the gospels said to those that were in his hearing audience, he said, in him we live and move and have our being. He's not just among us. He's in us. He's with us. He moves through us. He has become the very essence of our life. We have learned to abide in him. We walk in him. And all of what God has done in the Old Testament is to bring us to the knowledge of his desire to provide for us the means through Jesus Christ where he could come and give us the power and give us the strength that we might become the resurrected bride of the Lord Jesus Christ here on this side of eternity. That we might know him beyond strictly a head knowledge of who he is, but we might know him in intimacy, in pure intimacy. That he might come and be all and all within our lives. And the only way that can happen is God has to come through the power of the Holy Spirit and with the revealed word of God to show us everything in our hearts that's unlike Christ. Everything that gets in the way of God moving in us in the fashion that he desires to move. Paul says in Galatians 3.24, the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith. We see then that rejection had a purpose. And so too today there is a rejection that has a purpose of correction. A casting off, a putting away, a refusing to accept. We employ these methods all the time. Methods that God himself is not against to a certain degree. In our home, for example, we employ the method of separation. Our children don't behave. What do we say to them? Go to your room. We're talking about we reject, are we rejecting our children when we say go to your room? No, no. We're not rejecting our sons and we're not rejecting our daughters. There may be a separation from us for a moment. They may have to go to another location. We're not saying I reject you son as my son or I reject you as my daughter, I put you away, I cast you off. No, we are saying you're still my son, you're still my daughter, I still love you as much as I have always loved you, but I reject your behavior. I reject your conversation. I reject the attitude of your heart that's coming out of your mouth. Therefore, go to your room. But yet, remember the admonition that God says in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 4, Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Go to your room. How many of you have heard those words somewhere down the line in your life? I know periodically I suppose I did. Go to your room. Separation. Separation, a form of rejection, but not a rejection of the person, a rejection of the behavior. There is time when God will send us to our room. I know that's very theologically simple, but it really does happen. God says I'm not going to, you want to be in my presence, you can't bring that attitude of heart into my presence. You have a brother or sister that you refuse to forgive. You harbor bitterness in your heart. Therefore, I'm not accepting this. I'm putting this away, although you are still my son and my daughter because you love me, you desire me, you have trusted me. There's a relationship there that is not going to be broken. We often employ the method of silence. That's not speaking for a while to a family member who has hurt us in an unacceptable manner. I can handle almost anything but silence when somebody's mad at me. Yell at me if you want to yell at me, but I'm an extrovert to a degree and extroverts have to talk and have a need to have everything in right balance. You cannot employ silence against an introvert. They just love it. They absolutely love it because they don't want to talk anyway and they hate sharing their feelings and so that is an absolute method that will not work with them. You want to get under my skin if you're close to me, just don't talk to me for a little while and it bothers me more than anything else. Ephesians 4 26, remember though, says be angry and sin not and let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Hallelujah. I remember, oh never mind, I won't tell you that. Another method that we employ in the home is withdrawing from intimate communion. The husband, for example, comes home late from work once too often to find his bed made on the couch. I know that's happened to some here. That is designed to correct your behavior. Remember that the word couch is the word ouch with a C in front of it. So the next time husband says you come home late and you find your bed on the couch, your wife says C, you go ouch, couch. Withdrawing from intimacy, from intimate communion, all of these now are temporary rejections that are designed to correct the behavior of one another. We send our children to the rooms but they are still our children. We may not speak to somebody for a season who has wronged us or harmed us but they are still our brothers and sisters. They are still our fathers and mothers. Nothing has changed in relationship. There may be a withdrawal of intimacy. You may find yourself on the couch, spiritually speaking, saying God, what's happened? I come into the prayer closet and it's like the heavens are brass. I have known such intimacy with you and all of a sudden that intimacy seems to be withdrawn. God, what are you doing? And oftentimes God allows that to happen. He has not rejected you. He has not forsaken you. Spiritually speaking, and I know this is somewhat simplistic, but He has put you on the couch because there is something in your heart. He has withdrawn that intimacy to cause you and I to begin to cry out to Him to say, Lord, what is it that's in my heart? What is it that has caused you to withdraw from that intimacy that I love so much to share with you? These are all temporary things. They come under the title rejection, but it's only the rejection of behavior and attitude. It's not the rejection of the person. And very often, people get those two things mixed up. With anything else that sin has touched, however, what was intended by God to ultimately bring about good has become over the years a means of unspeakable hurt and pain to countless numbers of people who have been the victims of the wrong use of rejection. Children. It breaks my heart when I see the weeping children that I have known, and no doubt there are obviously thousands and tens of thousands more who have been made to feel hopeless by harsh words of rejection intended to wound them and not to restore them. Some of you know that. You're sitting here today and you come home and your mother, your father, your guardian, whoever it was that looked after you spoke words of absolute death into your life day after day, told you, you are useless, you are stupid, you will never amount to anything. The oft times, I've had children so broken hearted, they're teenagers and adults come into the office for counseling and they're having difficulty in their marriage, for example. And oft times, when you're talking to people who have difficulty in their relationship, the difficulty stems from words that were spoken way, way back. A rejection that was spoken into their lives when they themselves were very young, that there's never been a full healing of in their life. Only Christ can go and pour the oil of his presence on those wounds, those bruises in heart that are so deep. Children that were told by mom and dad, we don't love you anymore, we wish you were never born. Wounds so deep that only God can cure them. People that have been hurt in relationships by the wrong use of rejection. Unspeakable hurt at the hands of those that they once looked to and they once trusted. Nobody can identify more grievously the pain of rejection than those that have been married perhaps and come home and thought everything was okay. Only to find their spouse, their mate with their bags at the door, perhaps a note on the tables saying, I'm gone, I don't love you anymore. Those are powerful and painful words that put a wound in the heart that oft times only God himself can come and heal. David said it himself in Psalm 55 verses 12 and 13, he said, it was not an enemy that reproached me that I could have borne it, but it was you, a man mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance. And there are others that have experienced rejection by society for various reasons having seemingly paid the penalty but they are not allowed back in. I think of prisoners, for example, coming out of prison, having done their time, wanting to live right when they get out and oft times society refuses to let them back in. Rejected. When sin and selfishness enter the heart of any society, rejection becomes a weapon, a wound and not as intended by God to be a method to restore. You remember the Apostle Paul in the Corinthian church? There was a man who was caught in a sexual sin. And Paul said to the Corinthian church, he said, why are you not doing anything about this? Why are you letting this happen in your midst? He said, take that man and put that evil out of your midst. And so the Corinthian church did what the Apostle Paul asked them to do. But later on, and so he was separated from his brothers, separated from that fellowship because of something that had come into his life that was against the law, the order of God. But later on, Paul writes to the church and says, now go and pursue that brother. Pursue him lest he be swallowed up of over much sorrow. Lest the devil get a hold of him and destroy him for eternity. You see, the intent that God has in any of these temporary separations is to restore, assuming that the person who is put out comes to a place of repentance and wanting to get right with God. Then he commands us to go out and to reach out to them and to display his heart and to restore them. The wounding of wrong rejection often leaves such scars that many Christians, even after coming to the knowledge of their salvation, live with the constant fear of being rejected by God. The moment that for whatever reason they fail to feel his closeness and favor on their lives, they wrongly assume that Jesus, just like those before him, has walked out on them. Folks, I'm speaking to a lot of people tonight. The moment, the moment that God begins to deal in their life, because the roots of this rejection have never been dealt with, the moment he begins to answer their prayer because he loves them, the moment he begins to reach out to take things out of the heart that he knows would only lead them into captivity, the moment they feel any kind of separation or maybe the preacher gets up and just his mannerism reminds them of mom or dad or uncle or whoever it was, there's a trigger response that happens in them. There is such a thing called the trigger response. The children that have come home for many, many years and when they walked in the door, they heard something out of their father's mouth or their mother's mouth and the moment these specific words were spoken, the moment they saw the mannerisms, they knew that they were in for a very, very hard time. And a lot of times because that's never been dealt with, that root of rejection, they come into the house of God and they're so distracted perhaps by the mannerisms of the preacher. They're so distracted by perhaps the severity of the deliverance of the word that the trigger response happening and even though they have been rooted and grounded in God, they have heard about the covenant, they've heard about the love of God, something happens in the soul and they begin to succumb once again to that fear that God is going to walk out on me. Jesus is just like everybody else. Tells me he loves me but then points his finger at me, raises his voice to me and he's going to walk out on me when I don't measure up to his standard. When I, as I continue in my struggle, if I don't get everything right in my life, if I can't conform, he's just going to walk out on me just like everybody else has walked out on me before. Now turn to the book of John please, chapter 8 in the New Testament. John chapter 8, verse 3. And the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery in the very act. So here she is, she's caught in her sin, she's without excuse, she's been completely exposed. Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned, but what sayest thou? This said they tempting him that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down and with his finger wrote on the ground as though he heard them not. Now I want you to notice something in this particular passage of scripture. This woman is caught in the very act. She's in the light, her sin's exposed. She's brought to a place of judgment. Now Jesus allowed the crowd to pick up their stones and to identify the wrong done. That's an interesting point. He could have stopped it at the gate. He could have stood up as they came in their murderous procession perhaps. He could have stopped them right at the gate and said that's enough, let this woman go. He had the authority, he had the power to stop it right there. But he didn't. He let the crowd bring her, press her to the wall, pick up their stones and clearly identify the sin that was in her life. The writer of Hebrews says it this way in Hebrews chapter 12 verses 5 and 6. My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him. For whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives. Folks, this is the word of God. As much as all of the promises that we have in the word of God that we have the natural tendency to gravitate to the promises that make us feel good, there are other promises. And one of the promises, if you are a son, if you are a daughter of God, he is going to chasten you. He is going to come and take the scourge of his word because this is what he does with every son and daughter that he receives, the scripture says. He has already received you and a sign that you are received by him, that you are in the beloved, is that he will scourge you. And he says don't faint when that happens. Now a lot of us don't mind the chastening of God. You get used to that after a while. Don't mind the chastening. It's that conviction of the Holy Spirit when you speak a word you shouldn't speak, the Holy Spirit comes down and there's an instantaneous chastening of God that says that's not my heart, that's not right. And we bow our head and say, Lord, please forgive me for that. I shouldn't have done things that way. I shouldn't have spoken that way. And then if it's in our power to make it right, we make it right. But there is a scourging. I want to remind you that Jesus doesn't ask us to undergo anything that he didn't undergo himself. In the scripture he was tied to a pillar and he was scourged for our transgressions. And the scourging was done by two very, very powerful Roman soldiers who took, they were sticks with thongs of leather attached to the stick and tied into the ends of those thongs of leather were pieces of glass or pieces of bone or pieces of steel. And they would take that and with full force they would flail that across the back of their intended victim and the stone or the bone or the glass would dig right into the flesh. And then they would reef it back and when they pulled it back it would pull strings of, literally strings of flesh and skin back with it. Most often times people that underwent Roman scourging didn't survive it. And those who did, their backs would be pressed wide open and oft times, I've read in medical accounts and historical accounts of scourging, the very internal organs would be exposed to the open air. It was severe. Now the scripture says he scourges. That means he comes not just to do a little, a little deliance around us and just a little things that he speaks into our ear here and there but he comes with his word to go right deep into the very inner core of who and what we are to tear out of us those things that are unlike Christ. That we might turn to him and as we turn to him he promises, I will come, I will restore you. I will gather you and I will heal you. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Now in this sense we could say to a point that Jesus was not against what was happening. This woman is against the wall. Her sin is exposed. He is simply there stooping down writing with his finger on the ground as if he is not even concerned. Here is this woman thinking that her fate is sealed. She is about to be sentenced to the sentence of death. She is not aware that God himself in the flesh, God himself manifested through Jesus Christ is there. He is the one who has stooped down writing with his finger on the ground seemingly to those around indifferent who are not even caring what is going on. And yet when the crowd wanted to destroy her life this is where their intentions and the intentions of Christ parted. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Certainly she saw her sin and was ashamed and ironically seeing the angry crowd who were supposedly righteous she probably thought that they had rightly represented God and that she deserved her punishment. But Christ confronts the consciences of those who themselves needed his mercy. I am going to ask a question when I get to heaven. There are going to be a lot of questions but I have one in particular. What were you writing on the ground? He confronts the consciences of those as he stands up. He says when they continued asking him he lifted up himself and said unto them he that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone at her. Now God, the scripture says He again stooped down and wrote on the ground. And they which heard it being convicted by their own conscience went out one by one beginning at the eldest even unto the last and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing in the midst. God is now the only one before whom this broken woman stands. Psalmist in Psalm 31 verse 22 said for I said in my haste I am cut off from before thine eyes. Nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplication when I cried unto thee. In verse 10 it says when Jesus had lifted up himself and saw none but the woman he said unto her Woman, where are those thine accusers? Has no man condemned thee? She said no man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her Neither do I condemn thee. Go and sin no more. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved. Now go to Romans chapter 8 with me please in the New Testament. Romans chapter 8. In Romans chapter 8 the Apostle Paul in verse 26 talks about the Spirit of God helping our weaknesses. Now this particular instance he's talking about prayer. He says likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities for we know not what we should pray as we ought but the Spirit itself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. Verse 28 he says we know that all things work together for good to them that love God who are the called according to his purpose. Do you know that everything that God brings into your life everything he does every word he sends to your heart is for good. It's not to reject you. It's not to put you out of his presence. It's that you might be drawn closer into deeper intimacy with him continuously. That you might know him that your eyes of your understanding might be opened that you might see the exceeding greatness of his glory where he sits at the right hand of God. That you might have an understanding of what he has done for you. That your security may not be in the things of this world. That you would not be among those who run in terror when everything that they have trusted in this world comes falling down around them. Everything he does in your life he does it for good. For whom he did foreknow verse 29 says he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. God has conformed you to be in the image of his Son Jesus Christ that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate then he also called and whom he called then he also justified and whom he justified then he also glorified. Now Paul asks a very pointed question to what you have read here and what we have heard tonight about the love of God the purpose of his purging why he comes to cleanse his bride. What shall we say what shall we then say to these things if God before us who can be against us? If God has declared us righteous if the cleansing he brings into our lives is because he desires to draw us closer to him and to know him the character of his Son be formed in our lives then who what lying voice what experience of the past what devil of hell what erroneous theology formed through the soulless realm of man what thing can be against us if God is for us? He that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all Paul says how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ that died and ye rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress, persecution, famine nakedness or peril or sword as it is written for thy sake we are killed all the day long we are counted as sheep for the slaughter nay, he says in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us I am persuaded Paul says I am persuaded and brethren I pray with everything in my heart tonight that you are persuaded too as well that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Nothing Convince you that God because he sees some thing in your life that he has known all along Brethren you've got to understand something when the purging word of God comes to you it's only news to you when you felt good when you knew you were saved when you were walking close to God God saw it all along it's only news to you his eyes are like an x-ray machine there's nothing in you that is hidden from God he looks down and says this is my son this is my daughter they are longing for me they are asking for me there's a yearning in the heart the soul of that one for me therefore I will come down and grant to them that thing that they have asked of me to do Hallelujah and God will employ every method that he needs to employ to get us to call out to him and cry out to him he will tell us to go to our room there will be a period of silence from time to time he may do some other things in our life that I've not mentioned tonight but it's all working together for good because God loves you he has written your name down in the Lamb's book of life and he says I will never leave you I will never forsake you never never he said to this woman go and sin no more your sin has been exposed you have seen what you deserve for your sin the just punishment of your sin you have seen it I've shown it to you I've allowed you to witness it but now you have understood the mercy of God understanding that mercy go and determine to live a new life and I will be with you this is the new testament covenant promise of God determine in your heart to live a new life determine to be my son determine to be my daughter bring to me all of your sin bring to me all of your struggle bring to me all your trial bring to me your past bring to me your future bring to me the places you stand on right now in your life I will cleanse your past I will forgive your sin I will give you strength for today I'll give you an assurance for tomorrow I will be with you I will live in you and through you Jesus said in John chapter 10 verse 27 and 28 my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish and neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand hallelujah you talk about a promise of God nobody nobody I'm not talking tonight to the religious game player I'm not talking to the one who makes a mockery of the things of God comes in and pretends to be holy and goes out and willfully, willfully goes back and sins and lives a life a double life that brings disgrace to the honor and glory of Christ I'm talking to the honest hearted person who knows that they're struggling they know that they're weak they know that they need a savior they've come to the knowledge of their sin they've come to Christ for cleansing they've come to Christ for strength I'm talking to the honest upright and sincere man and woman of God that says Lord I bring it all to you and I trust and I believe that you will cleanse me I trust and believe that you will strengthen me you said to me that you will heal my blinded eyes you told me you would heal my wounded heart you said you'd open every prison door in my life and set me free you said that if I were poor in spirit that I would understand the gospel of the kingdom of almighty God you would work in my life you would be the power in my life you'd be the source of my life you'd be the strength of my life you'd be my father you'd be my shepherd my guide all the days of my life I'll seal you in my hand he said my father is greater than I am hallelujah brethren get this truth into your spirit tonight that when God begins to purge your life it's not to reject you it's because he loves you it's because it's the very thing that you have desired you've asked him Lord Jesus draw me draw me draw me draw me draw me to your side and he says I've longed for you to say that I've longed for you to cry out for that therefore with loving kindness I will draw you I will draw you tonight there are some that you've lived with the fear of being forsaken by God because of an ongoing struggle of sin in your life I've got a scripture for you from the prophet Isaiah chapter 54 an ongoing struggle and you've lived with this fear God oh God you're going to forsake me Isaiah chapter 54 verse 7 for a small moment he says have I forsaken thee but with great mercies will I gather thee in a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy redeemer verse 10 for the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed but my kindness shall not depart from thee neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee oh thou afflicted tossed with the tempest and not comforted behold I will lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundation with sapphires I will make thy windows of agates and thy gates of carbuncles and all thy borders of pleasant stones in other words the Lord is saying you come to me I will rebuild your life in the power of the Holy Ghost and all your struggles I will take them and turn them into triumph and they will be a wonderful testimony to the delivering power of almighty God in your life and verse 17 he says no weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper no weapon and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn thou shalt condemn that tongue that rises and says God is going to forsake you that voice that comes to you when the word comes and you begin to see where you fall short in some area of your life and where God is working and that voice that rises up and says God is going to walk out on you Christ is just like everybody else in your life every tongue that rises against you in judgment you shall condemn it this is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me saith the Lord you have the right to take that tongue by the throat literally and say I condemn this lying voice in the name of Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior who died for me and gave his life for me he has blotted out all my transgressions I stand not in my own righteousness therefore you can't condemn me I stand in the righteousness of my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ he is my righteousness hallelujah if you've been living with unrepentant and unconfessed sin chapter 55 verse 7 is for you let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord and he will have mercy on him now go to Isaiah chapter 49 I want to close with this tonight I have a question God's put on my heart have you lived with the fear of God's rejection of you because you didn't know if you could trust his love I know that God has spoken to me this week and I know that the Holy Spirit is speaking to many many hearts here tonight you have not ever had an assurance that you could trust his love and you've lived with the fear that he is going to reject you if you don't measure up because of past experience in your life Isaiah chapter 49 let's let the word destroy this verse 14 but Zion said the Lord has forsaken me and my Lord has forgotten me can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee behold I have graven thee on the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me Hallelujah this is what Jesus is saying to you and I tonight he took an engraving tool made of steel perhaps like a nail and he engraved your name literally in the palms of his hands he died for you he said others all around you may have been forgotten by your mother you may have been forgotten by your father, your brother, your sister you may have been abused, whatever the situation is he said they may forget but I will never forget you I have engraved you on the palms of my hands and your walls are continuously before me Psalm 22 where we started this evening starts out by saying my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me why art thou so far from the words of my roaring but in verse 24 the psalmist brings about a turn, a conclusion he says for he has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted and neither has he hid his face from him but when he cried to him he heard he heard when you cried to him he heard and he has come to answer you and folks you know what he is going to do in your life he is going to raise you from the dead spiritually speaking here on this side of eternity he is going to give you life for all the death that has been in your life in many cases for a lot of years he is going to give you life if you should die before he returns he is going to literally physically raise you from the dead to be his bride he is never going to reject you don't fear the word of God when he brings his word to your heart father tonight I have delivered your heart to these people that you love, your bride, your body, your beloved tonight I pray tonight Lord that everyone who is lost in this house without an assurance of eternity would come to Christ I ask you father tonight by the anointing of the Holy Spirit that those who are backslidden would come home understanding that you will with great joy meet a sincere and repentant heart I pray tonight father by your written word by those things that have been spoken that you would virtually crush that lying voice that comes to many because of past experience when you begin to dig deep into their life that you are going to walk out on them you are going to forsake them I ask you this altar tonight that there be a deliverance from the fear of being rejected by almighty God we have heard your word now tonight father give us the hearts to respond to it in Jesus name the Holy Spirit has spoken to you tonight I firmly believe that as we pray at this altar tonight if that is you that God is going to break the fear the fear of being rejected you are going to overcome it tonight by God himself if God has spoken to your heart let's stand together up in the balcony you can go to either exit and come down to this altar in the main sanctuary please just slip out wherever you are come to this altar we are going to pray together and let's believe God for a mighty miracle in your life tonight Hallelujah God loves you with an everlasting love it's not a temporary thing like man's love it's not conditional an everlasting love just come to him with an honest and sincere heart Hallelujah I can't feel all of your pain I can see it on your faces many of you but God does and he understands he's touched with the feeling of your infirmity and I'm going to believe right now that as I pray that he's going to heal you because he said the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has sent me and he mentioned several things but he said to heal those that have been bruised in heart and I'm going to pray a prayer and I want you to receive that healing tonight by faith just receive it if you need to forgive and you have not forgiven those that have wronged you then you make sure you do that in your heart as I pray this prayer and let go those that have wronged you in the home, in society, in relationships whatever it might be those that have improperly misused your life Jesus no I want to pray for you just let me pray for you Jesus I come to you tonight God I can't heal these people no man can there are some wounds that are so deep some hearts that are so grievous that you have to come and Lord I believe that you sent your word tonight to do that and you say that you never send your word without accomplishing its intended purpose now Holy Spirit I ask right now in Jesus name I curse every tongue that rises against these precious ones in judgment I curse the voices of the past I curse every demonic lie even those things that many have begun to believe about themselves who say how could anybody love me the way I am Lord you love us with an everlasting love you didn't come to call the righteous you came to call sinners to you God we thank you for that knowledge today now I ask oh Lord that you sovereignly by your Holy Spirit plant within the hearts of these who have gathered here tonight an understanding that they are loved by almighty God this is not a conditional love like man's love this is not a love of convenience Lord you came to this earth and died a horrible death that you might have a relationship a saving relationship with each of these who have responded to this altar tonight God I thank you for reaching down in the power of the Holy Ghost and healing the bruised hearts healing those memories healing those experiences of the past that cause a mistrust of even you in this present day Lord you are not like these other things we declare that with our hearts we declare it with our voices tonight you are not like the experiences of our past you are so far above you are so much higher your love is so much greater God I read in your word that perfect love casts out fear so I ask now that you come and fill every heart with the perfect love which is Christ fill every heart fill those places fill the wounds fill the empty places in every heart and every life with the knowledge of Christ perfect love casts out fear oh God we thank you tonight for doing this I thank you from the depths of my heart for opening prison doors and setting captives free in this house tonight I thank you that the voice of the condemner is damned and crushed under the feet send your word we are not afraid to hear from you for we know that you love us we know that all things work together for good we know that you have a plan not just here but for all of eternity for each one of our lives so we say unto you tonight thy kingdom come thy will be done hallelujah turn to the person beside you at the altar those that are everywhere say God is going to see me through to the end of this thing he's going to see me through he's not going to fail me he's not going to forsake me he's going to walk with me all the way through to the end hallelujah hallelujah