Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
we praise you lord that you are the living king you rose from the dead to prove to prove who you are lord the god of life the resurrection and the life lord i just praise you this morning lord i worship you i thank you for your presence in this place lord for your peace i thank you lord you've made a way for us i thank you for truth the truth of your word although we praise your name today jesus name we pray amen you may be seated hallelujah hallelujah yes amen praise be to god there's a lot there's a lot to say this morning i'm kind of overwhelmed overwhelmed by quite a few things this morning um i don't know there's some things on my heart this morning we're just going to kind of go with it where we end up the holy spirit knows but um take your bibles this morning let's go to romans chapter 10. now you guys know i don't usually do resurrection sunday or what people call easter sunday i don't usually do messages that are oriented toward whatever holiday or special day it might be but you're never wrong about talking about the resurrection of jesus and we're gonna talk a little bit about that probably from a little angle that most people don't focus on and then we're going to go into some other things um that hopefully will help you you know um this morning and as you're turning to to romans 10 this morning uh just thoughts were going through my mind as i got up to pray about about christianity about the struggle christians have to live the christian life it's really not that easy sometimes is it just the struggle against our own flesh that wants to sin all the time the struggle against our emotions that are easily offended or easily wounded um you know we got a battle going on then we got family problems problems with kids problems with
marital issues we have problems with friends we have problems in church we you know sometimes it almost gets completely overwhelming just trying to live this life as a christian you know i think every true christian understands that you know god wants us to live obedient lives he wants us to live righteous lives he wants us to live holy uh lives as we possibly can that we have responsibility to to try to be what god wants us to be but here's the dilemma that we're in as christians and this is comes from somebody who's been saved since i was young fallen away come back been back with the lord 27 years and walked this thing out uh with ups and downs with fouls and struggles by no means has my christian walk or my christian life being perfect or without sin or without struggle or no no i don't and i hope i don't portray that i i really hope that i don't try to seem holier than everybody else because i'm not um but i i've realized that you know that god wants us to live as obedient and righteous and holy but the christian dilemma is that even the people who don't make excuses that don't try to come up with doctrines like once they've always saved or what they call hyper grace now and and try to make excuses to live in sin even the ones trying to live godly lives obedient lives who are walking in the truth and have the fear of god we all still struggle with sin don't we and we all still sin in our thoughts and our heart and our with our mouths especially don't we with our eyes there's a struggle there now here's what i want to get at i'm just going to read a few verses here but let's look at the famous verse real quick in romans 10. i'm going to go through a few verses this morning probably probably not that typical for our church to deal with because so many so many abuse this truth the wrong way but let's look at this this is uh romans chapter 10. everybody there okay we're going to start with verse 1. paul says brethren my heart's desire and prayer to god for israel is that they
might be saved he's talking about his own people the jewish people he says for i bear them record that they have a zeal of god but not according to knowledge for they being ignorant of god's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves into the righteousness of god for christ jesus christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth for moses described the righteousness which is of the law that the man which doeth those things shall live by them but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise say not thine heart who shall ascend into heaven that is to bring christ down from above or who shall descend into the deep that is to bring christ up again from the dead but what saith that the word is nigh thee even in thy mouth and in thy heart and that is the word of faith which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the lord jesus shall believe in thy heart that god has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with a heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation the statement i just want to make this morning to everyone who may be listening or who may listen to this message into our church this is not an excuse this morning to live in sin to compromise to backslide to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do it but hear what i'm saying this morning there is no one no one that will be good enough or righteous enough in their own strength or in their in their own selves what i'm saying is there'll never be a point that you don't need the righteousness of jesus christ the blood of jesus christ to cleanse you the forgiveness of god that comes from two things his death on the cross his sinless blood that was shed on that cross and his resurrection from the dead now did you know that if you don't believe that jesus christ of nazareth the messiah if you don't believe that he physically and bodily rose from the dead do you understand you're not saved there are people out there say they believe in jesus but they don't believe in him as the messiah the resurrected son of god they don't believe me anymore that way and notice and and this is something that i think a lot of people just kind of i think we just kind of bypass it
when he said for if you what confess with your mouth the lord jesus and believe in your heart that god raised him from the dead it's an absolute requirement for salvation for eternal life to be saved to be forgiven of your sins you have to believe in jesus christ what he did on the cross for for the sins of mankind and you have to believe that he rose from the dead and if you don't paul says your faith is vain pretty strong in it let's read another passage about this go to first corinthians chapter 15. see there's a lot a lot of blasphemers now that are changing who jesus is and what he did you can never allow that to happen first corinthians 15 let's look at this starting at verse one vitally important here and here's what's amazing you know what when you read this and realize that paul wrote this when he wrote this letter to the fir to the corinthians first corinthians when he wrote this letter that most of the eyewitnesses of jesus resurrection were still alive so when the apostles of course wrote us the gospels were written matthew mark luke john were written before this most of the people who were there who were eyewitnesses to jesus resurrection and i'm saying how he showed himself alive we'll read that to over 500 people most of those people were still alive so had these things been lies you would not have had the growth and explosion of the church and thousands and thousands and thousands of people becoming christians and churches beginning all over all over the countryside in in jerusalem and judea and samaria to the uttermost parts of the earth what i'm saying is you you can't there's no way that little persecuted group could have built a a religion around the lie impossible i'm saying it was a religion built upon eyewitnesses all right let's read it
first corinthians 15 verse 1 moreover brethren i declare unto you the gospel which i preached unto you which also you receive and wherein you stand by which you also are saved if you see that right there by which ye are saved if you keep in memory what i preached unto you unless you have believed in vain for i delivered unto you first of all that which i also received how that christ died for our sins according to the scriptures and that he was buried and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures and that he was king of cephas or peter then of the twelve and after that he was seen of above 500 brethren at once of whom the greater part remain unto this present but some are fallen asleep after that he was king of james and then of all the apostles and last of all he was seen of me also as one born out of due time for i am the least of the apostles that i am not meat to be called an apostle because i persecuted the church of god but by the grace of god i am what i am and by his grace he said which was bestowed upon me was not in vain but i labored more abundantly than they all yet not i but the grace of god which was with me therefore whether it were i or they so we preach and so you believe now if christ be preached that he rose from the dead how houston among you that there is no resurrection of the dead if if there is no resurrection of the dead then is christ not risen and if christ be not risen then our preaching is vain and your faith is also vain yeah and we are found false witnesses of god because we have testified of god that he raised up christ whom he raised not of if so be that the dead rise not for if the dead rise not then christ is then is not christ raised and if christ be not raised your faith is vain and you are yet in your sins wow how tied is the sacrificial death of jesus on the cross to his resurrection from the dead you can't have one without the other basically the work of redemption the work of jesus christ was not finished for you or for me until he rose from the dead and if you don't believe that
then you have believed in vain whatever you've believed and think about that if you don't believe jesus rose from the dead how can there be any hope that one day you will rise from the dead and live forever there is none right this is what i love about about the scriptures about christianity about jesus you know what muhammad died right no record no witnesses that he rose from the dead buddha died they don't even claim he rose from the dead you get my points there's one god man who came in the flesh who paid for sin and rose from the dead only one jesus and if anybody makes him out to be anything less or makes what he did anything less they're blasphemers antichrists deceived liars whatever you want to put to stamp on them jesus christ death on the cross and his resurrection from the dead is not just a story in the bible it is a historical proven account it actually happened secular historians of the day wrote about it both roman and jewish the god man really walked on the earth two thousand years ago josephus the jewish historian even admitted there was a man named jesus who went about doing miracles among the people he said many said he was the messiah and he even admitted he probably was amen the roman empire did everything they could do to squash and to destroy the early church and the more christians they killed
the more the church grew the more romans you know that romans went to the coliseum many romans went to the coliseum to see the christians torn apart by the lions and the destroyed and killed and murdered and they would see them singing and praising god and you know that many romans got saved because they realized these people have something i don't have they have a reason to know that there's something beyond this miserable life and folks let me just be honest with you are there some joys in this life yeah there's a few but as paul said in this passage in first corinthians 15 a little later he said if in this life only we have hope if everything if all of our hope is in this physical world and this limited life that we have if that's where our hope is and that's all the hope that we have we are of all men most miserable i said this many times but i'll say it again i love my wife i love my children i want people to know jesus i want to do the work that god has given me to do but i really don't like this place i don't like the world i don't like the wickedness i don't like the evil and i don't like the feeling of being pulled towards it sometimes if you've never said these words lord i hate myself i hate why i hate what's in me that wants to sin whether it's anger whether it's lust whether it's impatience whether it's greed whether it's or whatever it may be you know paul made it very clear in romans 7 he says that in our flesh dwells no good thing the world is covered in darkness and sin i'm sorry if that that upsets you especially if you're a younger person and you think everything out there is wonderful well it's not frankly i like what keith green the famous musician and evangelist and prophet i like what he said he said you know what he said compared to heaven living down here it's like living in a garbage can and no matter how much you try down here to live the way you need to live it's still a garbage can it's filth all around there's filth everywhere you look they're just it works in us that amazing people want to look at christians and expect a christian to never see them well i got news for him a christian
don't don't think a christian is never going to sin that's ridiculous but then we got the other side of the fence that thinks that christians can do anything they want because what jesus did on the cross for them and that's a lie too right and some people think oh you're preaching law when you say that a christian should live a holy life or an obedient life no we're not preaching law we're just preaching what makes sense why do we want to continue to contribute to the evil of this world why do we want to continue to be part of that world system a true christian that's been born again that's been touched by god that loves god that has the holy spirit living in them will hate sin will hate when they sin they won't hate people but they will hate sin they will hate it's it's it's uncleanness it's foulness it's meanness it's violence and in its ultimate end which is destruction in people's lives and death in people's lives and sickness and of course eventually eternal damnation in hell we should hate what leads people to hell what leads people to hell sin sin that people won't bring to jesus and say lord have mercy on me forgive me watch me help me never do this again and see that's what uh this morning i was just i almost posted i'm gonna i'm gonna read to you in my notes here what i wrote down this morning are y'all with me is this okay this is what i wrote down in my notes this morning you can just write down these i'm gonna go through these scriptures rather quickly and then read what i wrote here but psalm 39 verse 5 behold thou has made my days as a handbreadth my ages has nothing before me verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity can i say something no matter how good you are no matter how righteous you may live no matter how much knowledge you have of the bible or don't have at your best state vanity emptiness why is that because apart from jesus apart from his righteousness apart from his blood applied to our life through faith and repentance apart from him and his resurrection from the dead we are nothing we have nothing good to offer god we have no goodness of our own we have no works of our own we have nothing of our own that god can say you
know what i'll take that instead of what jesus did on the cross for you no when you come to god you better be coming to god saying god the only reason i can come to you is because i believe jesus died on that cross for me and i believe that only his blood can wash me and make me righteous and i believe he rose from the dead and he is the only messiah and the only way to salvation in the only way that i'm anything big in your sight and god because of that because of what he did for me i want to do what i can for you i want to live as holy as i can i don't want to contribute anymore to the to the filth and the wickedness in this world i don't want it anymore i want you that was just one verse next verse ecclesiastes 7 20. frankly i could just preach on ecclesiastes 7 for a while but we won't do that today ecclesiastes 7 verse 20 says this for there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and sinneth not oh you mean the pope sins yep he sure does every time he prays to mary am i picking on him nope there are no perfect holy men oh well the priest they don't marry they don't get married so that means they're holy no it doesn't i'm going to read romans 10 9-10 again that if you shall confess with your mouth the lord jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that god has raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved for with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation then to christians in 1st john first john 1 8 9 this is what he said if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves do you know that there are people out there saying that they're not sinners anymore that they don't sin you know what i just heard recently was uh what's her name the woman preacher on tv joyce meyer that's it she doesn't see it anymore she doesn't she she said that she doesn't sing she also said jesus suffered in hell which is another lie but you get what i'm saying hear what i'm saying i don't care who said if they say we have no sin we deceive ourselves right and the truth is not in us but if we
confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness see this is what's so amazing the good news of jesus christ the gospel of jesus christ is that all he wants you to do is confess it confess your sin and do your best to turn away from it and walk with him and obey him and love him and believe in what he did for you and appreciated enough to change amen knowing you will not do it perfectly but you're not going to live like you live before you're going to walk a new walk you're going to walk a new life and if you fall down if you stumble if you mess up you're going to say god forgive me i confess it is sin i need the blood of jesus to cleanse me and the good news of the gospel of jesus is that he will forgive you if you confess your sins we got joseph prince and people saying you don't have christians don't have to confess their sins anymore and here he says to christians if we confess our sins then he is faithful and just everybody say this with me i need wait a minute i didn't hear about it we'll say it again i need i need the blood of jesus to wash my sins away to wash my sins away more than one time oh see folks we either go with the bible we go with our tv preachers which one you pick yeah hey man it's easy pick isn't it it should be anyway right now let me read this [Music] here's what i said this morning i really already said it but i'm going to say it again for those listening and those of you in here for the recording for everything else but this is it i said no one is good enough or righteous enough on their own salvation is all about faith in the atoning death of jesus christ on the cross and his bodily resurrection from the dead this truth is not a license to sin as some preach but a reminder that apart from jesus christ there is no hope of righteousness or eternal life in heaven no matter how good you have been or planned to be man at his best state is altogether vanity apart from jesus christ is the blood of jesus applied to your life
is faith in the resurrection of jesus applied to your heart do you hate when you sin and want to live for him then you're on the right road amen see matter of fact everybody turn with me turn to ecclesiastes 7. i think we need to back up i will show you something here i could almost preach a message and i almost did lessons from ecclesiastes some amazing lessons that solomon gave us by the holy spirit even though he screwed up royally i want to show you something before that verse 20 that i read a minute ago we're going to start reading it verse 15. i'm going to show you something maybe this will set somebody free out there [Music] everybody there ecclesiastes all right ecclesiastes verse 15 chapter 7 verse 15. all things have i seen in the days of my vanity there is a just man that perishes in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness doesn't seem fair does it guess what look at me everybody a whole lot of stuff in this world it's not fair and we're about to see a whole lot more evil that's going to look like evil is triumphing and it ain't going to be fair but remember god has the final say and there's a whole lot after this life right but look what he says in verse 16 be not righteous over much neither make thyself over wise why should you destroy yourself oh yeah we're going to dig into that a second here let's keep reading be not over much wicked neither be thou foolish why should it thou die before thy time it is good that thou should just take
hold of this yea also from this withdrawal not thy hand for he that feareth god shall come forth of them all let's look at that again let's read that again because that's that's be not righteous over much neither make thyself overwise why should ist thou destroy thyself be not over much wicked neither be thou foolish why should us thou die before thy time because there's a lot of people out there there's a lot of people out there who love god they're trying everything they know to do the right thing and when they fail or when they fall or when they struggle or when difficulties come into their lives immediately what they go to is i've done something wrong i'm terrible i can't do this i know listen i've seen on facebook even young people say that say you know even a lot of homosexuals that have tried to made attempts to come out and follow jesus but a lot of them will say you know i tried and couldn't do it well welcome to the club right you're not going to do it right every time and that's what he's saying there when he's saying don't be try to be over righteous so much so that you destroy yourself that when you can't perform everything perfectly or you can't do it or you fall down many people fall down many people mess up many people sin and what they do is they say i can't do it perfectly i can't do everything right i can't live the christian life i've got they get in their head that i've got to be perfect and and completely never sin and never do anything wrong and they got this idea in their head and they say i can't do it so they end up destroying themselves because they say i can't do it so i'm just going to go live in sin i'm just going to go do what i want to do i'm just going to be wicked i'm just going to be i'm just going to go the other direction i mean listen i've counseled people i've heard people tell me that right i can't do it so i just decided to just go indulge do you know that that's the conclusion that solomon came to he said i tried i tried everything under the sun i had more wisdom and more revelation from god than anybody else but then he said but then i just decided i'm going to give myself hope it was all vanity what god was trying to show solomon was it doesn't matter how righteous you are it doesn't matter how wicked you are if you don't know me and walk with me the best you can you're going to be lost and solomon had all this wisdom and all this revelation and god appeared to him twice and god blessed everything he had but solomon lost his way because of this very thing right here it's all emptiness so i might as well give myself he said i will give myself to to wine and much drink and we know he gave himself to
much women and finally all that took him completely away from the lord right and so what are you saying here he says don't try to be don't don't get so focused on that you have to be perfect to be a christian you can't be i know people in this room struggle with that but neither go the other direction don't be over much wicked what he's saying there is don't just give yourself to indulge in wickedness either that is just foolish is what he says and you will die before your time and you will go to hell where is the balance the balance is i know i can't do it a hundred percent only one person ever lived sinless and that was jesus and he died on the cross for us because he knew we couldn't do it you understand that it's a written law in us in humanity since the fall of adam that we can't do it ourselves that we cannot in our own strength can keep from sinning 100 we cannot do it we should try we should press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling we should resist temptation we should resist the flesh we should do what we all that we can do to walk with him in obedience and holiness and righteousness but at the end of the day there is nobody that can say i am without sin and the only thing that can wash that sin away is the blood of jesus christ and faith in the resurrection and confessing your sins and saying god be merciful to me a sinner i hate it i don't want it help me the people who won't make it the christians who won't make it to heaven are the ones that just give up and give themselves over to whether it be alcohol or drugs or sex or immorality or their anger or their offense which one will you be see here's the here's the here's the dilemma all of us all christians we're going to be on one of those sides and what jesus said i love this passage in matthew 24 but he that endures to the end will be saved endures what
with your own flesh to give up the war with your own flesh to say you know what i messed up so i might as well just go live in it no if you fell in the pig pen don't live in the pig bend right [Music] if you fell in the ditch don't live in the ditch if you're an alcoholic and you got saved and you you ended up falling back and drinking and getting drunk guess what you fall in the ditch just don't stay in the ditch get up and confess your sin that's god to forgive you of you of falling down and back into drunkenness and get up and go back to jesus and know that jesus loves you and he'll make you righteous that's the good news it's not over if you fall down it's not over if you screw up isn't that good news i know i've needed that in my life has anybody in here needed that in their life at some point so i hope nobody thinks that pastor dean or fire and grace church that we think we're better than anybody else no everybody listen we got a church full of messed up people just like those churches out there the only thing difference is we're not going to preach doctrines that make you comfortable in indulging in sin and wickedness we're not going to preach doctrines that make you comfortable fellowshipping with demons we're not going to preach doctrines that contradict the word of god so in some respects we are different than some churches but don't think for a minute that pastor dean or fire and grace church doesn't believe that our righteousness comes from jesus christ and not ourselves we just don't want to disappoint him if you love him you don't want to disappoint him and if you do you hate it it's that simple kids in here teenagers news flash though you already know this you got christian parents love god but they mess up they will not be perfectly righteous and perfect in everything they will not happen but guess what when if jesus terry is long enough for you to have children you will find out the same thing that no matter how hard you try they're going to see you mess up any parent in here ever done anything in front of a child that you shouldn't have done yeah so guess what kids
you got to forgive your parents when they messed up and realize that you're going to mess up and you still supposed to honor them and respect them and obey them even if they've messed up you hear me guess what that goes for your your pastors and your elders newsflash i know our elders in this church are not perfect men i don't have to be told that i know that we all got problems we all got personal struggles family struggles marital struggles sin struggles flesh struggles don't we money struggles you know let me can i can i just be honest for a second y'all just don't know pastor dean has some struggles that i sometimes almost feel overwhelmed with my children my two older children breaking my heart dishonoring me rebelling not even wanting to come visit me you know how painful that is [Music] uh some days i want to quit but you know i know enough to know there's nowhere else to go but jesus i get angry i get impatient i get overwhelmed with physical problems money problems i do not have it all together i hope i don't ever give that impression [Music]
there's days i want to run away you understand i don't for one minute think i'm up here and you guys are down here not ever many days i wish i could just sit and not do anything you know there's scripture in ecclesiastes that says he that increases wisdom increases sorrow i'm just going to be honest with you this morning i too am overwhelmed with what i know is coming on this world i have children i'm not happy about what i know is coming my life is quite the dilemma quite the irony i pray for people other people and they get healed i myself i don't get healed mostly i i have several things that just won't go away i've prayed and sought god i have nerve damage i have arthritis and i have an eye problem but yet i've prayed for people even in this church who have vision and eye problems and god's healed me sometimes i get tired sometimes i'm in pain sometimes it's difficult even to go to work or come to church physically from me but i will still believe that jesus heals no matter what because that's what the bible says so you understand just once you know we're all in this struggle together and there's days it ain't easy right we'll finish with this scripture here go to second corinthians second corinthians chapter one
[Music] because you know what here's the thing i love the gift of prophecy and i love when the gifts of the holy spirit flow and i love to see people get saved and we've seen people get saved in this last year they've seen people get delivered from demons we've seen people get healed we've seen the power of jesus working through this church in this ministry we've seen thousands of people touched through messages audio messages and articles and books we've seen thousands of people just this morning i took a picture just in the last few days on the d level ministries facebook page over 3 000 visits in just not even a week and all that's you know what that's that's all good but that doesn't mean that trying to preach this gospel trying to stand against satan trying to get the truth out to the world trying to pray for people trying to see people save trying to see christians you know come out of sin and lukewarmness and their struggles you know let me just tell you sometimes you feel completely overwhelmed and this scripture right here kind of sums it up first corinthians i mean i'm sorry second corinthians chapter 1 and this is what he says verse 8 for we would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in asia that we were pressed out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired even of life but we have the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in god which raises the dead who has delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver and in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us he also helping together by prayer for us that for the gift may be stowed upon us by the means of many persons things may be given by many on our behalf well he says here you know i this this has always made me marvel that the apostle paul and his team of ministers could be this honest when we went into asia we had great trouble we were pressed out of measure above strength meaning the trouble and the pressures and the difficulties were above what we had strength to
endure what a comment from an apostle sometimes your physical struggles your mental and emotional struggles your battles with the powers of darkness sometimes your difficulties with your kids or your spouse sometimes you're just all these things will come and it will be more than you have strength to bear and what he's saying is we despaired even of life meaning we lost hope we lost hope we would make it through it we didn't believe we could make it have you ever said i don't know if i can make it through this guess what the apostle paul and his ministry team went through that very same thing we don't even know if we it's above our strength it's so much trouble and pressure it's overwhelming it's beyond what we have the mental or spiritual or physical abilities to handle but here's the good news what did he say our faith though was in god who raises the dead even if we're dead emotionally even if we're dead physically even if we're dead spiritually even if we're strong it's beyond us our faith is in the god who can let something die and then resurrect it back to life and guess what sometimes god let some things in your life die he lets difficulties come he lets overwhelming pressure come he lets these things come so you will die and so that he can resurrect you into something else there is no resurrection life without the death of something amen the trials the persecutions the difficulties the overwhelming circumstances the pressure that makes you despair god allows it i like what john kilpatrick pastor john used to say it's all father filtered meaning nothing that comes to you does not pass through his hands first and that he allows it to come so that it will make you stronger and yet sometimes it will feel like it is above measure it's too much it's above your strength guess what he lets that happen on purpose you have to understand that you have a limit to your physical strength and your own ability and your own determination and you need the grace of god and the help of god and the mercy of god and you need god to come and help if you've never fallen on your face and wept tears and said god you have to help me i can't do this then you got some growing up to do because that day is coming anybody ever done that before
see that's what resurrection life's about look what he says in verse 10 [Music] verse 4 verse 9 but we the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves you see that listen if you could get yourself out of the financial trouble if you could get yourself out of the marital trouble if you could get yourself out of the trouble with the kids and if you could get yourself if you could get yourself out of it in your own strength you wouldn't need god what's he always trying to teach us that we need him mankind's miserable attempts to fix themselves always leads to worse things but we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but in god which raises the dead who good news god delivered us from so great at death and does continue to deliver us in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us what's he saying it got so bad we had nothing left in ourselves but we trusted in god and you know what he did in that situation he came in and he delivered us and because of that we know he will deliver us amen god's in the business of doing what you cannot do for yourself doesn't give you a license to do nothing to be lazy to be irresponsible to indulge yourself in wickedness none of this is an excuse for sin but god wants to see his people marching in the right direction and even if they're if they're falling down he wants to see them marching in the right direction and if they're marching in the right direction they come to the end of their rope and listen i've been to the end of my rope many times but one thing i refuse to do when you get to the end of the road tie a knot and hang on i'm not turning loose of you jesus i'm not turning loose of you god i may be down in the in the ditch i may be down in the pigpen i may be under overwhelming pressure and emotional and physical pain but you will deliver me [Music] because i don't trust in me i only make it because of you that's christianity
no promise that we have there's no promise of no difficulties this christianity of joel osteen and rick warren is just foolishness all right [Music] we will be pressed out of measure [Music] above strength will be points you despair even of life anybody ever said i don't want to live in this mess i don't want to live this way i hate this welcome to the club let's pray father in heaven we thank you today we thank you today lord that you will be there to those who cry out to you those who look to you those who put their trust in you those who when they go through the difficult times lord will continue to trust and cry out to you and believe even when it looks like everything is going down the tubes lord so many people need to grasp a hold of this because lord many have suffered great difficulties in this present time but lord we know that greater difficulties and greater tests and greater trials are coming so god teaches teach us to trust that you will deliver us and that you are the god who raises the dead that even if it's death physically or emotionally or spiritually if it's beyond us and we feel like we're dying on the inside you are the god of resurrection life and power he approved it through the resurrection of jesus from the dead the messiah he went to the cross he never sinned he became sin for us it was a terrible painful difficult thing for him to go to that cross and be nailed to that cross and to suffer that pain and the curse of sin and the curse of sickness and disease and all the curses of mankind and the earth all put on him it was a dark day lord it was so bad that the sun was darkened for hours but lord on the third day sin was defeated and death was defeated
and hope for mankind when jesus came up from that grave so lord we thank you for the power of true of just the truth lord that we have a risen savior we have hope even in death we have hope of the resurrection and not just hope lord but a certainty that you will do it with every head bowed in this place and every eye closed for just a minute i want to say this and if today you you need to confess your sins and to give your life to jesus maybe you haven't fully maybe you've believed but you haven't believed at all maybe you've believed but you haven't decided to give it up and follow him i'mma give you an opportunity today to really ask jesus to forgive you to be your lord and savior and to start walking with him in faith of his death and his resurrection and knowing him so if you need that this morning