If you've been tracking with us since January, Pastor and I have been bouncing through a few different things, which if you were in prayer this morning, Matt Bergman said it right.
It may seem like we're talking about different things. You know, he's talking about identity. I've been speaking about revival is.
Pastor Mary has just been doing a wonderful job with, with literally leading us through the Watchtower series that she does in the mornings for prayer.
It's, it amazes me how Pastor Mary has the ability to, to take all these different facets because when we sit in our staffings and our meetings and Pastor Mary shares different things,
and she takes these different things and she's so good at tracking things and then putting the pieces of the puzzle together.
Then it draws this great picture. So with all that being said, if you've been tracking with us, there is a few things that the Lord's been really emphasizing on.
And I think we'll probably see it come open heavens. We'll be like, oh yeah, that's right.
But I'm going to be speaking on revival, revival is. That's kind of what I've been in that vein starting earlier from this year.
And last Sunday I spoke on, I really just kind of gave the overview. I really, I really didn't even get into the Isaiah 66 too much and breaking it down.
And today I want to do that. But I want to, I'm debating if I should share this or not because I don't know how it's going to flow with what I want to say.
So maybe I'll hold off. Maybe at the end it'll come to me. But last Sunday, just a really quick thing that I want to say and then we'll get into Isaiah.
We'll begin to break down Isaiah 66. But last Sunday I made this statement and I want to make this statement again is that if we can create
if we can create a dwelling place for God. In other words, if we can create a dwelling place for God in our local body here as a geographical location.
And at the same time, if we can create a dwelling place for God in us because according to New Testament, we are the temple of the living God.
So I said this again last Sunday is that the Isaiah 66 has a twofold meaning to it. It has a twofold meaning to it.
It has, though it's an Old Testament scripture, it has New Testament language in it.
So if we can create a dwelling place for God as individuals and we can bring that to a corporate house like this, each and every individual.
Not just the pastors, not just the leaders, but literally everybody who is born again filled with the Holy Spirit, you have the ability to be a temple.
That's what Corinthian says. To be a temple of where God by His Spirit can rest.
If we can do that, revival is inevitable because where God begins to dwell, things begin to happen.
Let me say that again. Where God begins to dwell, things begin to happen.
When a king enters into a place, a king does not come empty handed.
When royalty steps into a room, it does not come alone, if you know what I'm saying.
If you are a king, you do not enter a place without something that signifies you as a king, nor do you come alone.
But there is a whole host of people, or in Jesus' side of things, there is angels and the Spirit of God and a presence that enters into a place.
So when we create a dwelling place within us, yet at the same time when we gather together, whether it's on a Sunday,
whether it's on a midweek meeting, whatever the case may be, when we gather together and our goal and our focus is God,
we want to create a place for you, it's inevitable that when He comes, revival is going to happen.
Because things begin to occur when God steps into a place.
I'm talking about healings begin to happen without people laying their hands on you.
I'm talking about deliverance beginning to happen without somebody yelling in your face, be set free.
And it's hear me here correctly, please hear me here correctly.
It's good for us to pray for healing. Why? Because Jesus gave us the authority to do so.
He said, now go and lay your hands on the sick, the demon impressed, on and so forth.
It's good. That commissioning is good.
But I do believe, scripturally I'm convinced, I do believe that we can create a place for God.
Not that that's not going to happen anymore, no.
But it'll happen in ways where it's with such ease and effortlessness.
That's even an English word. If it's not, I just created it. It works.
You know, I hear stories and it's...
That to me is evidence that they've created a dwelling place for God.
I've heard multiple stories of Catherine Kuhlman. How many of you know Catherine Kuhlman?
Amazing woman of God, just powerful. And do you know why she was powerful?
It's not because she was so great, but because she created a dwelling place for God to rest within her.
And then when she would go to these meetings, she made sure that there was a dwelling
and a resting place for God in that place where she was at.
I actually heard stories, which the sources I heard it from are very trustworthy sources.
They said that she would not take the stage until she knew that the Holy Spirit was there resting.
She wouldn't come up to the platforms until she knew that there was a resting place for God by the Holy Spirit in that place.
And then other people would say she would walk onto the platform.
All she did is she walked onto the platform and you'd have over 40 people just get up from their wheelchairs.
That's what I mean by the evidence of creating a dwelling place for God here in this room.
Can you imagine, just think about this, can you imagine that if we as a house, as a church,
when I say house, I'm talking about as a church, as a local body, if we could be so hungry for the Lord
and we would desire to make such a place for Him.
And we do desire, hear me here correctly, I know that you guys love the Lord.
I know that you are desiring more of Him.
I know that you're seeking Him other days rather than just, I know you guys are doing all this.
I know you are.
And that's great that you are.
But I'm after the more.
So can you imagine that if we could be so hungry together, we could be so hungry for the Lord
that in our hunger we would create a dwelling place for Him here.
That anybody who enters through those doors, there would be such a dwelling place for the Lord here
that He would just begin to heal Him as soon as they walk through the doors of our sanctuary.
You do understand that we have the same right that the Lord did.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
You do understand that we have the same right as the Lord did.
And what I mean by that is that they brought the sick, the lame, the deaf, the mute, the crippled, the dead.
They brought them to Him.
Why are we seeing in our current day in society that they are bringing those type of people
more to the hospitals than they are to the church?
That should say something to us.
That should say something to me as a pastor. And it does.
And it does.
Am I hungry for Him? Of course I am.
Are you hungry for Him? Of course you are.
But there is evidence that are undeniable is that they're actually bringing the sick
more to the hospitals than they are to the churches.
Because we have lacked in making a dwelling place for God to rest in our local bodies.
Because we are more focused on the programs and the events.
And we are more focused on everything else.
We are more focused on the manifestation than we are on the manifestor.
You following me?
The manifestations are good and they are necessary. They're needed.
But what about the one who actually manifests them?
Because he can leave the room yet we still have the flesh act of it.
So if we could create a dwelling place for God in this place to dwell in such a way of where they would bring the lame, the crippled, the sick, the deaf, the mute, even the dead.
And I'm not talking about the spiritually dead.
I'm talking about the physically dead.
I'm talking about maybe a young person that has been cut short of their life.
And a weeping mother brings her son in.
And she says he's too young to die.
He's been stripped of his life.
Would you as a church that has created a dwelling place for your Almighty?
Would you pray for him that life?
I said that life would come back into his body.
That's the type of dwelling place that I'm talking about this morning.
Would we be hungry enough for him that that is the type of dwelling place that we would create for him within us as individuals?
And then revival is inevitable.
Because where God rests, things begin to be revived.
Dead things come alive.
Why?
Because he is life.
Did not Jesus say that?
He said I am the resurrection and life.
Those are the words of the Lord.
That means that when he enters a room, he does not bring death with him, but he brings life with him.
He brings about a resurrection.
He brings about a reviving.
He brings about a light unto him.
That's who he is.
Would we know him in that facet?
That's a question I'm asking you.
Would we be hungry enough to know him in that facet?
Of my God.
You did actually rightfully pay for me to be a temple like I read in the Old Testament.
That the cloud rested on them and the ministers, the priests, they could not even minister because it was so heavy.
Isaiah 66 has a twofold meaning to it.
It is both, again, New Testament language.
It's been an Old Testament scripture with New Testament language in it.
The two meaning is that we can be a dwelling place of where God rests in measures that will blow your mind.
Friends, it will blow your mind if your goal in life would not be how can I travel the world to preach the gospel or this, that, or the other.
Those are good things.
Please hear me right.
But that first and foremost, our goal would be how can I live a life that God would dwell in me in such a measure that it would be like the tabernacle of Moses.
And the Ark of the Covenant.
And there would be such a heaviness of the presence of God that I would physically see a pillar, a fire, and a pillar that's a cloud.
I would see it.
And those that are around me, they would see it.
I'm going to read Isaiah 66 and I'm going to tell you this morning, scripturally, not my opinion, not my fantasy or something that I fathomed up of how we can do this.
We have the ability to do this, by the way.
God is not a God who gives us something and then he goes, oh, you can't get it.
No. When God says it's accessible to you, he says here is the principles of how you can do it.
It's not that he doesn't want us to get there. It's not that he doesn't want us to do it. It's not that he can't.
It's the fact that we won't pay the price.
It's the fact that we are actually, the reality of it, is we are actually not hungry enough for it.
We have not come to a place of where the pressure has come that we begin to be squeezed,
that we are now desperate enough to go there and actually do it.
Let me read Isaiah 66 and then we're going to break it apart.
This is Isaiah 66 verses one.
He says, heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool.
Where is the house that you will build me?
And where is the place of my rest?
For all those things my hand has made, last Sunday I broke that down so well.
I just quick, God says I've made all these things, yet I choose to dwell within my creation, which is mankind.
That's the place that he desires to have a resting place in.
More than in his angels, more than in the heavens and the earth and the creatures of the scene of the land and of the air.
His desire, hear me here.
This is the identity thing that Pastor Vernon was talking about.
His desire in all the creation that the Genesis one God has made.
His desire to rest and to dwell in is in mankind.
That should speak something to us.
For all those things my hand has made and all those things exist, says the Lord.
But on this one I will look.
In other words, on this one I want to rest and dwell in.
That's what he's saying.
All these things we see, but on this one he makes a separation.
He makes a distinct separation.
But on this one, which one Lord?
Which one do you look at?
Which one do you desire to rest and to dwell in?
And he goes down the list and he says on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and who trembles at my word.
On that one God says I will dwell in them.
I will rest in them.
I will find pleasure to be there in my fullness.
Why did the Father find pleasure in the Son to manifest Himself in His fullness?
Because Jesus fit into these three.
Jesus lived a life that was poor and not the financial poverty.
I touched on this last Sunday.
Not the financial poverty that we so quick go to.
In this context, the prophet Isaiah is writing as God is talking to him.
And he's not talking about financial poverty.
He's actually talking about being poor in spirit and in heart.
Jesus was a man that was poor in spirit and in heart.
Jesus was a man that had a contrite spirit.
And Jesus is a man who trembled at the word of his Father.
He trembled in such a measure that when the pressing came in the Garden of Gethsemane.
When the pressing came, the Lord, the Son of God, trembled at the word of his Father.
That he would say in that moment, not as I will, but as you will.
There's a trembling of the word of God that was within Jesus.
That he did not take the word of the Father lightly.
But he knew that this is the God of heaven and earth that has spoke to him and said,
You are to go and to die for the world.
To be poor, I touched on this on, I think it was part two.
So I'm going to quickly skim through what it means to be poor in heart or poor in spirit.
But to be poor is to walk in humility.
To be poor is to walk in lowliness of mind.
It is to have complete dependency on God. That's what it means to be poor.
To be poor in spirit is to recognize...
I'm literally giving an overview on, I think part two, I touched on this.
But to be poor in spirit is to recognize your spiritual bankruptcy before God.
Knowing that you have nothing of yourself to impress God with.
But everything, everything, I said everything that you have
that pertains to your spirituality comes from him.
There is absolutely not an ounce that we can take credit to our spirituality.
There is nothing that I can credit myself and say,
yes, I did this better for my spirituality unless it came from God.
Then I can say, yes, I have that because I am flourishing in my spiritual life
because the Holy Spirit is my counselor.
I am maturing in my spiritual walk because the Holy Spirit is my teacher.
I am being stretched in my inner man, which the scripture talks about as your spiritual man.
This is Thessalonians talks about this.
I am stretched in my inner man, in my spiritual man
because I am choosing to obey him when he is talking to me.
I can't even take credit there.
I can't even take credit in my obedience.
Why?
Because if I do something before he's asked me to do it, now I'm living by works.
No, no, listen to this, listen to this.
Because there's this whole thing about works and obedience and this and that.
Here is how I distinguish the two.
If you are doing something that God has not asked you to do, yet it's good.
It's kingdom things, quote-unquote.
It's kingdom things.
But if God has not asked you to do them, friend, you could be actually living by works.
But if God is asking me to do something, if God asked me and my wife to move up here,
I am now not living by my fleshly works.
I am now obeying him.
But now I put my works into it.
But even then, in my obedience, I can't take credit.
Why?
Because he first spoke to me.
See, that's being poor in spirit.
Obeying the Lord is actually a form of walking in a spirit and a heart that is poor before the Lord.
I'm dependent on you, God.
I'm spiritually bankrupt unless you talk to me and you tell me what I need to do next.
I need you to tell me how I need to respond in this new season of my life.
What do I got to do, God?
You got to talk to me.
Because we are so quick when we enter into a new season, you get two groups of people.
You get a people that when they enter a new season, they completely don't know what they're doing.
And they just sit there with their arms folded like, I don't know what to do.
And then you get another group of people that when they enter a new season, it's like,
they know exactly and this and that and the other.
And it's like, but God's like, but hold on a second.
You didn't even ask me how you need to walk out this new season.
Does that make sense what I'm saying?
Is it making sense?
To be poor in spirit is to be spiritually, is to recognize I am spiritually bankrupt.
Unless, unless the Holy Spirit is dwelling within me.
Unless the Holy Spirit is teaching me, talking to me, maturing me, counseling me, leading me on and so forth.
Then I'm not spiritually bankrupt.
Then I'm full.
I am a cup that is full and a cup that is overflowing.
But there's no credit on to me.
I'm poor in spirit and God says on those I will look.
On those I will look who can live like that.
I will find rest in them.
Because even under mountain tops, they are still looking on to me.
It's easy to look to the Lord in your valley.
It's very easy to look on to him in your valley.
Why?
Because in a valley, you're distraught.
In a valley, there is heaviness.
In a valley, there is all these opposing things and challenges.
And we come...
It's easy to come to a realization that we need a God.
I need a God in my life.
Maybe what that pastor said is true.
I should probably go to church.
But to be poor in spirit is to have that same heart posture.
That same attitude even in our mountain tops.
Even when all is well in our life.
The business is growing.
The family is prospering.
Church is good.
Everything is well.
It is well with my soul.
But to position ourselves in a way
that the posture we had in the valley
is the same posture I'm having on the mountain top.
I still need you, God.
Everything's really good.
But Lord, I still need you.
Why?
Because I know that as soon as I leave that recognition
or my heart posture that I...
that unless you come, I'm spiritually bankrupt.
I got nothing, God.
To be poor in spirit is to understand what sin is.
I'm not going to develop on that
because I spoke about this in part two.
It's to understand what sin is
and what it has done.
But more than that,
seeing the price that Jesus paid
for we were bought
at a very valuable price.
Not silver, not gold,
but the precious blood
of a lamb that was sinless.
We're talking about God
that came in the flesh.
We're talking about that kind of blood.
We're talking about royal blood.
I said we're talking about royal blood.
You want to talk about bloodlines?
We're talking about royal blood.
Jesus came from a seed
that was of royal blood.
That when you actually trace
the seed that Jesus came from,
the 14 generations,
the 14 generations, and the 14 generations,
when you track that seed
and you bring it all the way back to Adam,
you recognize that Adam
was of royal blood.
And then you bring it back to Jesus
and you're like, whoa,
this is royal blood that was paid for us.
This wasn't just a man.
That was a Nazarene.
This wasn't just a man that was Jewish.
This wasn't just a man that was...
This is royal blood.
This is not just common.
This is royal blood that was paid for us.
To be poor in spirit.
Let me actually read it for you here.
Open up your Bibles to Matthew chapter 5.
This is the B attitudes.
Matthew 5 verse 3.
Is this still good, by the way?
Ken.
He's still tracking with me.
Matthew 5 3 reads this.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
To be poor in spirit
is to be one of the most
joyful, rejoicing,
happiest, full of gratitude,
fill in the blank, whatever's coming to you,
people on this earth.
Because we got it backwards in the church.
We think if you're poor in spirit,
it's like, oh man, I'm a sinner.
No, you were a sinner.
But now you've recognized
that you've been washed by the blood.
And Jesus is saying,
blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is what?
It's yours.
So if you are living a life that is
poor in spirit and you've cultivated
and are cultivating a life
that is poor in spirit,
you're depending on him,
you're walking in humility,
you're recognizing that without him,
you're spiritually banked up,
you have all these facets.
And now you're one of the most happiest people.
Some of the most happiest people that I know,
in the faith,
are some of the most poor in spirit people
that I've ever met.
Because Jesus says yours is the kingdom of heaven.
It's yours.
Can you imagine
the Lord coming to you right now,
like physically the Lord comes to you and he says,
the kingdom of heaven, not the kingdom right here,
the kingdom of heaven is yours.
What would your response be?
You'd be shouting on the rooftops.
You would come in in a Sunday service
and you'd be dancing up front here.
I promise you, I promise you,
you would get undone before the Lord.
If you actually believed this.
If you actually believed
that Jesus says, blessed are the poor in spirit,
for the kingdom of heaven is yours.
It's within reach. It's within grasp.
You can experience it right now.
You don't have to wait to die
to get to heaven. You can experience
my kingdom now. Why?
Because it's yours. Why?
Because you're poor in spirit.
I'm telling you, if we actually believe this,
our worship would change.
If we actually believed
that the kingdom of heaven is ours right now,
we would deal with things differently.
We would address things differently.
We would live a life that is different.
To be contrite in spirit.
So again, remember, that's on whom God looks.
Those that are poor in spirit.
To be contrite in spirit,
in the Hebrew and in the Greek,
this word often times translates
of being crushed, crippled, or even broken.
That's the word it translates to,
in the Greek and the Hebrew.
To have a contrite spirit,
I would say it this way.
To cultivate and to live
in a contrite spirit
is to live a life
that I'm choosing to deny myself.
I'm choosing death to self.
Remember when Jesus said,
maybe it wasn't Jesus, maybe it was, I don't know,
but I'll quote the scripture to you.
Those who lose their life
will actually what?
It was the Lord that said that, right?
Okay, I got like 10 different things
running through my head here.
Those who lose their life
will actually what?
They'll find it.
And those who keep it,
they'll actually lose it.
So a contrite spirit is somebody
who is choosing to deny their flesh.
They're choosing to pick up their cross
daily, just like the Apostle Paul said.
He said, I crucify my flesh daily,
not just on Sunday,
but I actually choose to crucify it daily
and I pick up, I bear, I pick up my cross
and I bear my cross daily.
In other words, I want to live a life
that is of a contrite spirit.
I'm gonna crush my flesh.
I'm gonna cripple my flesh.
And when I say cripple,
please understand me here correctly.
It's not that I become an invalid,
but I'm talking about,
I'm gonna cripple the desires of my flesh
and the sinful desires of it.
And I'm gonna bring it into submission
to my spirit man.
That's what it means to be of a contrite spirit.
It's bringing your flesh,
you're bringing it, you're crushing it down.
Not today, flesh.
Not today.
I'm crushing you
because I'm a man
and I'm a woman of a contrite spirit.
And you will not have your way in me today.
Today I will choose to be a man and a woman
that obeys God,
that lives according to the spirit
and not to the flesh.
To live a life of a contrite spirit
is to stop justifying
your own wrong choices.
My God.
I could put a period on that
and drop the mic and walk off the stage.
We're all guilty of it.
We justify our actions
and our choices.
And I've learned I have to catch
my thought process in this a lot.
Let me just share with you
my own thing.
I have to catch my thought process in this
and I see this in the church world.
Well, God understands.
Well, God understands though.
He knows that I had a really hard day today.
Of course he does.
But to be of a contrite spirit
is to stop justifying ourselves.
I often times, friends,
I'm being very transparent with you,
I often times have to catch
my thought process because
there is genuineness in that.
But when we begin to give into that time
and time and time
and time again,
it brings us to a place of compromise
and complacency
and we begin to use this phrase
of God understands
as a form of justification
for ourselves.
Well, God understands
that this, that and the other.
He does.
But do you want to be a man or a woman
that God dwells in, that God rests on?
Then you got to be a person
that is of a contrite spirit.
Which means stop justifying
your choices
and your actions.
But admit in that moment
go back to the posture
of being poor in spirit
and say, my God,
my God, I need you.
My flesh is weak.
It's tired. It's weary.
But Holy Spirit
give me strength
because I can't do it without you.
They go hand in hand.
All three of these things,
they go hand in hand.
To be contrite, you got to be poor.
To be poor, you got to tremble at his word.
To tremble at his word,
you got to be of a contrite spirit.
It's like they gel together.
Yet all three of them
are speaking about first love.
And I'll get to that later.
So to be of a contrite spirit
is to stop justifying
your choices,
your decisions,
your wrong things
that you've done in life.
It's easy to point a finger
and say, but they're wrong.
Oh my God, I got to share.
I got to get real transparent with you here.
I recently
had an interaction
with someone
and we chatted
and when I chatted with this person
and they shared their perspective
and then the Lord began to talk to me
because I was like, there's just, there's no way.
There's no way. Like I've done everything right, God.
I've asked you.
I've tested my heart.
My heart intention was pure and clean
and you didn't say nothing to me
but it's like the Lord was waiting
until I had that conversation
and then after I had that conversation
and I heard the person's perspective
I walked away from there
and I was like, man, I actually
failed as a leader.
So do you know what I did?
I reached out to that person and I apologized to them.
I said, I failed you as your leader.
I actually failed you as your pastor
because I didn't have your perspective.
You following me?
A contrite spirit and heart
again, this is bounces off
the wrong choices
offers no excuses
and does not shift blame, just like the story
I just shared with you.
It took me
to posture myself
of a heart that is
poor
because it takes humility to do that
to then come to the person
and tell them, hey,
I actually failed you as a leader
and as your pastor I actually failed you
and in doing that
what that does is it actually creates
a contrite spirit in me
because I'm not shifting blame
I'm not making excuses
but I'm bringing
things that could be in darkness
I'm bringing them into light
it is easy for us
to point fingers
and say that somebody else
is doing a wrong
it is easy for us
to point at our wife
it's easy for us to point
at our husband
at our children
and say
they're just not getting it
but here's my question to you
and this is what Tonya and I
me and my wife this is what we do often
What can I do better as a husband?
What can she do better as a wife?
What can we do better as parents?
To help our children understand more.
To help her understand more.
To help me understand... Do you see what I'm saying?
If there's one thing I learned in pastorship,
there's a lot that I learned.
But if there's one thing I learned,
is repetition is key.
And you can go at repetition in different facets.
I can be talking about the same thing to you,
but you're not even recognizing that I'm telling you
the same thing as the congregation.
But I am. Why?
Because I needed to hit you like a brick wall.
So what can we do as a spouse
rather than saying they just don't get it?
They just, I've done everything pastor.
I've everything I've done.
Can you go at it at a different angle?
No, there is no more angles. Are you sure?
Are you sure?
Because last time I checked,
the spirit is given without measure.
But pastor, I fasted, I've prayed.
I've everything under the sun.
Are you sure that the Holy Spirit
is now out of options and limits?
And I don't know, last time I checked,
the Gospel of John says that he gives a spirit without measure.
Which means that there is ways that you could go at it
in a spirit of wisdom that you didn't even fathom you could.
But the Holy Spirit is like, only if they ask.
And ask with the right heart intent.
And I will make a way.
Still with me?
A contrite spirit and heart throws itself
at the mercies of God
knowing that it deserves nothing but righteous wrath.
Open up your Bibles to Isaiah chapter six.
I'm gonna give you a very famous passage in the Bible
that we know, we have songs about this.
We have sermons about this.
It's a very well-known passage in the Bible.
This is Isaiah chapter six.
But here's, while you're opening up your Bibles,
I just, I wanna quickly jump back.
It's these kind of people
that God says, on him I will look.
It's these type of people that have cultivated
this type of life and are still cultivating, by the way.
Let me give you a little nugget, and then I'll read it.
You never stop growing in being poor in spirit.
If you've grown, friend, you went down the rabbit hole
of pride and arrogance.
If you think that you are so humble
that you don't even pronounce the H,
and you just say, umble, friend, you need deliverance.
Yeah.
If you're so walking in such humility
that you stop pronouncing humility,
but humility, you need deliverance.
I'm gonna flat out tell you.
That is demonic.
That is demonic to come to a thought process
that I am now so humble.
I am so meek.
You are, you are...
You need deliverance, friend.
You need to be set free from some things
that are giving you some false ideas and thoughts.
But to walk and to cultivate
a life of being poor in spirit,
this is a process. This is a maturing.
But it's on these type of people that God will look.
And not just look.
He will come and rest and dwell there
and find pleasure.
And we want revival.
I'm going somewhere with this.
I just feel a rabbit hole that I needed to go in.
And we want revival in our arrogance.
Let me share with you a story.
This is years ago.
It's when we were doing forerunners in our house.
And there was...
There was an individual that came
that was brought by somebody.
And I knew just a snippet of this individual's story.
All I knew is that this individual is from a Christian home.
They grew up in the church, but then they left the church
and I know their fam... I know her family,
but I don't... I didn't know this young girl.
But I just heard that they've been praying for her.
They've been asking her to come to church on and so forth.
So anywho, she comes to our forerunner prayer
and the Holy Spirit is there.
He's moving. He's dwelling. He's doing what he does.
And he was putting up with my immaturity.
And he was putting up with my arrogance.
But now let me show you or share with you
how he corrected me in the midst of ministering to this young girl.
As I'm ministering to her and I'm praying,
the Lord touches her and she's like,
I want to receive Jesus.
So she receives Jesus there.
And the Lord is just touching her, delivering her,
doing all these things.
And I have this thought in my mind that says,
that's right. You see that?
And I'm thinking like, yeah, that happened through me.
And in the midst of me ministering to her,
the Holy Spirit steps in.
And he says, son, all you're doing is watering.
And I was like, what do you mean, Lord?
As I'm ministering, that throws you off.
I'm over here like praying for her.
And he's talking to me.
And I'm like, he goes, all you're doing is watering.
I said, what do you mean, Lord?
He brought me to Corinthians where Paul says this.
He says, who's Paul?
Who's Apollos?
He says, one comes to sow, another comes to water.
But he goes, God makes it grow.
And he says, son, he goes, all you're doing is watering.
He says more than that, you're just simply reaping
what her parents, grandparents,
and the family has prayed for.
And I've allowed you to simply reap
what somebody else paid a price for.
I said, my God.
I was just, like Matt said today in prayer,
we were just at a youth camp speaking on Wednesday.
It was a privilege.
Pastor Brad invited me to speak there.
It was a privilege.
And I was talking to our pastors this week.
I mean, it was, guys, if you were there, it's powerful.
It was powerful.
It was like, come on.
But here's the key.
It's not because Pastor Igor showed up.
No. Do you know what the key was?
I told this to our pastors.
I said, it's the hunger of these kids
that drew the presence of God in.
And Pastor Igor just had the privilege to steward it.
That's it.
It was powerful.
I got to share with you something
because I was like, my God, there was this young girl there
that was so filled with the Holy Spirit.
I think it was like two hours, nonstop laughing.
Somebody asked me, they said, was it genuine?
I said, I don't know.
I said, they laughed for two hours, nonstop.
You tell me, was that genuine?
Another young girl was crying for like over an hour.
She was like, rolling and crying.
And I'm like, my God.
It was beautiful.
Isaiah 6.
Let me read this again.
The statement, and then I'll develop on Isaiah 6.
A contrite spirit and heart
throws itself on the mercies of God.
It literally...
To be of a contrite spirit
is to forever thank Him for His mercy.
It's to throw yourself
at the mercy seat of God
day in and day out.
And here's what Isaiah sees.
So Isaiah chapter 6
is the prophet Isaiah's...
He sees heaven.
He sees the throne room.
He gets the privilege
to see the throne room of God.
Let me read it from verse 1.
It says, in the year of King...
In the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord sitting on a throne
high and lifted,
and the train of his robe
filled the temple.
And above it stood Seraphim.
Each one had six wings
with two.
He covered his face
with two. He covered his feet
and with two he flew
and one cried to another
and said, Holy, Holy, Holy
is the Lord of hosts.
The whole earth is full of His glory.
And the posts of the doors
were shaken
by the voice of him who cried out
and the house was filled with smoke.
So I said,
woe is me
for I am undone.
Because I am a man of unclean lips
and I dwell in the midst
of a people of unclean lips
and my eyes
have seen
the King, the Lord
of hosts.
That is a
great
and perfect example
of a contrite spirit
and of one who throws
himself at the mercy
of God.
It...
it boggles my mind
it boggles
my mind that we have
so desensitized
and I'm not talking
about the user friendly churches,
okay?
I'm talking about
the full gospel
spirit filled
Holy Ghost tongue
speaking churches.
It boggles my mind
that we have so
desensitized
and watered down
what it looks like
when God actually
steps in
and touches us
and speaks to us.
And you're saying,
what do you mean pastor?
This is what I mean
is I have heard people
share with me their experiences
with God
of these magnificent
Isaiah 6 experiences
and then you look at their lives
and nothing has changed.
Nothing has shifted.
There is absolutely no
maturing in a contrite spirit
within them.
They share how
God came as an angel
of the night and talked to them
and said this, that and the other
and it's like, wow!
Yet when the Lord
is looking
for labors
you're nowhere to be found.
Isaiah has this experience
that is life changing
for him.
I will go to the extent
and say this, that some
of the experiences that we may
have may be false
or
or we are lacking
in the obedience of what God
actually showed us and that
is actually a scarier place
to be.
If Isaiah had this
experience
and he walked away
nonchalantly
at what he just saw and
experienced
I think there would be
a dealing with Isaiah
that we could have even probably found
in the scriptures.
But to have an
experience like Isaiah
has here in Isaiah 6
the only thing that comes out
of Isaiah is a contrite
spirit.
He throws himself
at the mercy
of God
and he says
these words, woe is
me
for I am a man
of unclean lips
living
amongst a men
and women of unclean
lips.
He doesn't come out of there
saying I gotta go share this
I gotta go...
he came out of this
with my God
I gotta throw myself
at the mercy seat of God
so that a contrite spirit in me
would be developed
more because I just
saw the throne room of God
I just saw Jesus
high and lifted in his fullness
his full deity
in holiness
I just saw the cherubim and the seraphim. I saw the 24 elders. I saw it.
And the only thing that comes out of them is I am a man that is of unclean lips living amongst the people that are of unclean lips.
That's a contrite spirit.
Is when we have experiences and I say true experiences with God and they occur.
They do happen. They do happen. More than we even know they happen.
But what comes out of those experiences and I'm talking about myself.
What comes out of those experiences is a contrite spirit is developed in me.
I begin to be a man that is far more thankful and grateful for his mercy on my life.
I am far more grateful and thankful that his mercy renews in the morning.
I don't walk around with condemnation, but I walk around with throwing myself and recognizing his mercy onto me.
That he is willing to deal with my immaturity.
That he's willing to deal when I'm not getting it.
And as being the sweet and precious spirit that he is, he counsels me.
He leads me as the good shepherd by still waters.
His rod and his staff, it comforts me.
He's not whacking me with it and saying how dare you.
But he actually is putting up. I like to use that word. Putting up with my immaturity.
Yes, us pastors are still immature by the way.
I know we put pastors up on a pedestal and we put these speakers up on pedestals.
Listen, I'm a man just like you.
My wife is a woman just like you. Our pastors are men and women just like you.
So to be of a contrite spirit is to throw ourselves at the mercies of God.
Throwing ourselves at the mercy seat.
If you sinned, don't put yourself in the jail.
Don't condemn yourself because Jesus ain't condemning you.
Don't put yourself on time out and say, oh man, I sinned.
Run to him.
Push through the crowd.
Push through the crowd. Run to him.
While you still can run.
Because a day will come where you will not be able to run anymore
and the breath from your lungs will be taken.
And you will stand before him.
And there will not be a second chance.
So while you still can run to him, run to Jesus.
Throw yourself at the mercy seat of God.
And let him cleanse you from that sin that so entices you.
Let him set you free.
Let him set you free from the lust, from the desire.
Let him deliver you.
Would you be a person that would develop a contrite spirit?
And you would throw yourself just like Isaiah did.
And you would throw yourself at the mercy seat of God.
And you would say, Lord, forgive me.
Forgive me, God.
I desire that you would come and rest and you would dwell in me.
But I recognize that because of this sin that's in my life,
you are not doing so.
So set me free from this thing that entices me.
So that you could come and dwell and rest in me as your temple.
A contrite spirit puts you into a position to receive.
We wonder sometimes why we don't receive from God.
We wonder sometimes why God doesn't answer our prayers.
We wonder, God, why am I not receiving a breakthrough?
Why am I not receiving this, that and the other friends?
A contrite spirit positions us in a place to actually receive from Him.
It's like playing wide receiver in a football game.
Unless you're a wide receiver, I'm talking football talk here,
and I don't even know why, because I'm not that much into football anymore.
But maybe I'm speaking to somebody.
On the football field, unless you're a receiver,
there's maybe a few other positions, a running back,
maybe a tight end, but the ball is not thrown to you
unless you're a wide receiver in a football sense.
And a contrite spirit positions you to be a wide receiver on a football field,
where now God can look as the quarterback
and he can actually throw you that old pig skin.
Open up your Bibles to Luke 18.
Is this still good?
The Gospel of Luke chapter 18.
This is the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.
Luke chapter 18 starting at verse 9.
Here this is Jesus talking and he's given a parable.
Starting at verse 9 he says also he spoke this parable
to some who trusted in themselves
that they were righteous and despised others.
Two men, this is Jesus giving the parable now.
Two men went up to the temple to pray.
One a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself.
God, I thank you that I am not like the other men,
extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this tax collector.
You know, we giggle.
I gotta go here.
We giggle.
But you know what, I sense in the room,
and I'm by no means picking on anybody,
but I sometimes sense this in our room,
in our church services.
When the Lord really shows up
and God's really beginning to do something,
I sometimes, it's not all the time,
but I sometimes sense this in a room
that we think we're better than the other churches.
I feel like when the Lord sometimes comes
in a special way, it's like, you saw,
again, it's not often, but it's sometimes comes,
and it's like, huh, you kind of feel it in the room
like, oh, we're better.
That church down the road, they're not experiencing
what we're experiencing.
So, yeah, it's very true.
I know what I'm saying is truth.
Why would I lie to you?
Did you know that pastors actually don't know how to lie?
We just over exaggerate a little bit.
I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
That was a joke. You can laugh.
But we read this and we laugh and we're like,
that's not us. I'm not that Pharisee.
But it's interesting that the Lord comes
and you just feel it in the room.
It's like, yeah, we're better than other churches.
Huh, they don't have what we have.
They don't have a Ukrainian pastor like we have.
Only if they did.
Maybe, maybe then.
They don't have pastors that have laid down their lives
for over 40 years and held on
to the Word and the supernatural.
And we begin to think about this and we get into this thought process.
May the Lord show you that if that's you,
you are lacking and growing in a contrite spirit.
You are actually removing yourself from receiving from the Lord.
Because remember, a contrite spirit positions us to receive
and we'll see this distinct difference between these two men.
Verse 12.
He continues to brag about himself.
I fast twice a week.
I give tides and all that I possess.
I can reword that and say,
we have the presence of God every Sunday
and we held on to the Word and the supernatural.
And those are good things.
But what is the intent of our heart when we actually confess Him?
Because the Lord searches the depths of our hearts.
Verse 13.
And the tax collector standing afar off.
This guy wouldn't even come close.
I think this man was poor in spirit
and he had a contrite spirit.
And he was throwing himself at the mercy of God.
Maybe, I'm just thinking out loud,
maybe he just sinned before he came in there.
But he was throwing himself at the mercies of God.
The tax collector far off, standing far off,
would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven.
This isn't condemnation, by the way. He's not condemning himself.
Because I've heard preachers take that
and they preach it from a very religious perspective.
This is not a condemnation statement.
He is not condemning himself. He's not.
He's been a man of a contrite spirit.
We need to learn to discern the difference
of when somebody is in condemnation
and when somebody is walking and living
in a contrite spirit.
I think I'm gonna wrap it up with this one here.
Where is it here?
And the tax collector standing far off
would not even so much as raise his eyes to heaven,
but beat his breast,
saying, God, be merciful to me a sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house,
justified, rather than the other,
for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled
and he who humbles himself will be exalted.
The Pharisee could have been at a mountaintop
in his life right there.
And he walked in there.
And he said, man, I fast. I prayed all week.
I sought the Lord all week.
I crucified my flesh all week.
And then we come in on a Sunday and we're like, yep, what a do.
Just because you've done all of that stuff
does not change that God still loved you the same
the week that you didn't do all that stuff.
Just because we do all that stuff
does not mean that God now loves us more,
nor when we didn't do it that God now loves us less.
The only difference is that if we live that way
and we cultivate a life that way,
we are creating a resting in a dwelling place.
That's the only difference.
Just because some of you or some of us in the church world
don't have a dwelling place for God within us
doesn't mean that God doesn't love them
as much as he loves you and I.
Just because the church down the road
doesn't have a moving of the spirit
or maybe a sharp preaching of the word that we love here
doesn't mean that God loves them less.
He actually loves them as much as he loves us.
And to me, it's interesting.
I'm gonna hit one more rabbit hole and then we'll pray.
To me, it's interesting that the parable of the lost sheep
it says he left the 99 to go get the one.
I wanna make a statement, but it's not very,
maybe scriptural, so maybe I won't make it.
Let's stand for prayer. Can we do that?
Lord, we thank you for this morning.
We thank you for your word.
We thank you that your word is a lamp onto our feet.
Your lamp is a word onto our feet.
May your word wash over us.
Convince us of your word.
Convince us of your word. Convince us, Holy Spirit.
Of the written and the spoken word of God.
May we be a people, as individuals, as at a corporate house.
May we be a people that would create a dwelling place for you.
And that we would stretch the tent pegs.
I feel the Lord. That we would stretch the tent pegs.
That we would stretch the tent pegs of our house.
That God would dwell in greater measures and facets.
That there would be a moving and the brewing of the spirits.
And the effectiveness of the word.
I said the effectiveness of the word would go forth and touch the hearts of people.
We thank you that you love us and that you desire.
You desire. You said on this one, I will look.
You desire, Father, to do this in us as individuals and in us as a corporate house.
We love you, we bless you, and we thank you in Jesus' name.
The church says amen. You may have a blessed Sunday.
Have a wonderful rest of your day and week.