I want to open with this scripture I shared last week
from Romans chapter one. It says for I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God to
salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew 1st and
also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of
God is revealed from faith to faith.
As is written, the just shall live by faith.
It's so important that we would understand the power of the
salvation that God offers to us. Often times when people think
about salvation and they talk about getting saved, it's a past
tense experience. Offering them a future where
they go to heaven, and certainly eternal life is a part of this,
that God's salvation is so much greater than that.
And I've referenced it quite a bit over the last year because
God's incurring us as a people, that each and every one of us
would be challenged to walk in the full salvation that God has
for us. What is his full salvation?
Well, the best picture of it is in the Old Testament with the
children of Israel. They were slaves in Egypt and
the Lord sent Moses to them to deliver them with a mighty hand.
But he didn't want to just bring them out of Egypt.
He had a promised land for them and he wanted to take them
through a wilderness to the promised land and that they
would see the fulfillment of all things that God has spoken to
them through their great grandfather Abraham many years
earlier, who had received a promise and a covenant from God.
Now it's Christians, we're not going into the promised land as
they did, but the land that God has promised to us is His
Kingdom. And it's important to understand
what that Kingdom is because the Bible defines the Kingdom of God
is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.
Righteousness means we're able to live free from all the things
that used to have us in bondage. Peace means that whenever you're
going through a difficult circumstance and situation, you
can find something in God that will steal you and give you
peace. Kind of like that song today.
Just be still always an understand that God is there.
We just got to listen to his voice.
And not only does it give us righteous peace, but also joy.
And I love the fact that God can give to us joy.
Can you say Amen to that church? So we want to experience his
full salvation. The Apostle Paul wrote this
thing, and we know that he wrote it by the power of the Holy
Spirit, because the Bible says that all Scripture is given by
the Holy Spirit to men who write these things down.
But concerning the Apostle Paul, we know that not only did he
write these things by inspiration, but he believed
these things. He believed there was salvation
in the power of the gospel because he had actually
experienced it. He had been in a time of his
life when he literally persecuted the Christian Church,
consenting literally to the death of the first martyr
Stephen recorded in the book of Acts.
And yet when God came to him, he experienced not only grace for
the forgiveness of his past, but an empowerment that through
faith. And that's why he said that it
is by faith he believed God. And he took the gospel to most
of the world that he knew at the time, taking it from the place
it all started in Jerusalem to literally Rome, which was the
capital of the Roman Empire, which to them in that day was
considered the world. So powerful was his testimony in
the books that he wrote that added to our New Testament, that
within a few 100 years the Roman Empire that was persecuting the
Christian Church accepted Christianity as its official
religion. How do you know that God he can
give us faith for everything? Some things are impossible for
us, but the Bible says that with God nothing is impossible.
Thank you Jesus for the power and the potential you give to us
to walk in your great salvation. Now also I shared this Scripture
from Romans chapter 10, where it says, For with the heart one
believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is
made into salvation. How then shall they call on him
whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe, and
him and whom they have not heard?
And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how they shall they preach unless they are sent as is
written? How beautiful are the feet of
those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of
good things. And the proclamation of the
gospel, of course, is very, very important.
And the Bible tells us that when we hear the gospel and we
receive it into our heart, that heartfelt, the experience we
have begins a journey where we begin to walk in all things that
God has given to us. It starts by receiving the Word
in our heart. And after that it should come
with a confession of our mouth, of speaking about what God has
already done, and also by faith confessing what he's also going
to do. And so we know that this is
about having a heartfelt experience, but it also talks
about the preacher, the preacher, somebody who shares
the gospel. And in that sense, all of us are
called to share the gospel. Whatever God has done in your
life, if the confession of your mouth is there, people should be
able to hear it because they should hear what God has done in
your life. And if you have something good
that happens to you, you need to tell somebody that God can do
the same thing for them. Amen.
Church. That's so important for us to
know. And so in that sense, we all
preach. But there's the ministry of the
preacher that, like I do here on Sunday morning, stand before you
speaking an inspired word from heaven that will give you the
faith to believe whatever God has for you.
But then it says how can somebody preach unless they are
sent? And that's where we in the New
Testament get the word apostle, which means someone sent.
The Apostle Paul was someone who was sent.
He always said he was sent to the Gentiles, though he was a
Jew. He had a very specific sending
and I want to share this because I believe that God has put it
upon my heart and spirit to say Mount Zion.
God has prepared us for such a time as this and he says I have
worked in you. I have prepared you for this
time. And now thus saith the Lord, I
am sending you. And to expect to see a sending
forth that's going to produce results in our community and in
the nations of the world that God has sent us because this is
a new day in God. Amen.
It's time to believe that now. Today I'm going to talk to you a
little bit about history, specifically the history of the
United States. Because in my book On God's
Eternal Purpose, I made a statement that I like to repeat
because I always like to say history is His story.
Because I believe with all my heart that God rules in the
affairs of men. Because that's what the Bible
says, that God sits on the throne of heaven and God is
working in the earth to fulfill His purposes.
And it's so important that we would understand that ultimately
that purpose means us being his emissaries, us being his
partners, and doing something very powerful in the world in
which we live in. So that's very important for a
couple Wednesdays and also on our Spiritual Insights, which is
our YouTube channel, through our call from the Mountain Outreach
Ministry, I've been talking about some historical things
because I believe it's important for us also to see, well, where
do we fit in history. And I'm emphasizing today the
history of the United States, because God has used the United
States in a very special way. We've had a very unique calling
as a nation and I believe it's important for us to see why we
had that calling and what that should mean to us.
And I actually have a heart for my nation and I'm praying and
believing that God's going to make our nation truly fulfill
all God's purpose that he has for us in a whole new dimension.
And so I'm Marie for Ewing, these things with the help of
the Holy Spirit. So I can say, God, what are you
doing next? Because I know this is a new
day. This is a new season and God
says be ready for what I'm doing next.
I'm doing something awesome now. I've often shared how that when
I was just a kid, I used to be involved and are interested in
current events in history. Matter of fact, when I was in
4th grade, I was all excited because my brother Bill was in
8th grade and he had AUS history book and I could read that
history book, which was how far ahead.
I wasn't reading as far as history because to me, I could
take anything I could consume. And I have actually a scrapbook
where I cut out articles from the newspaper.
In 1963, I was only nine years old, but I was already reading
the newspaper, very interesting current events and cut out all
these articles and put them in a scrapbook.
They don't look too good anymore because I use a glue to put them
in the scrapbook. But anyway, I still save them to
remind me I've all had these interesting things.
And I really believe that God creates us and also makes us
into the person he has called us to be as a part of his eternal
purpose. And so it's important for us to
see who we are and look at ourselves and say, well, This is
why God made me this way, so that I could fulfill his eternal
purpose. And part of that for me was not
just going in that direction, because when I was in elementary
school, I was sure I was going to run for president one day.
But then the Lord put it in my heart that, well, it's a much
higher calling to be a prophet to a king than to be a king.
And that's what I want to be. I want to be somebody that's
close to God, hearing His voice and sharing it with the people
and then being a witness to our nation in order that we might be
that light that will give them something to see, to become
everything that God has called them to be.
Well, I want to show you this map because this shows you the
world that I was always observing when I was a kid, and
this is the world that I lived in.
If you notice over this map, it talks about the world order from
1947, which is shortly after World War 2 to 1991.
And if you look at this map, the reddish color over there to my
right is the Communist world. And the Soviet Union, of course,
was the major power that after World War 2 they had taken over
Eastern Europe. And through the influences of
what they did in China in World War 2, they actually were able
to take over China. So that was the communist world,
if you would. Everything in blue is what is
commonly called at the time the free world, but also called the
Western world. And I'll get into that concept
in just a moment. So in that sense we had a
bipolar world. The greenish color areas were
countries they called non aligned nations because they
weren't necessarily a part of each one as far as the camp
goes. But in this bipolar world it was
the free world against the communist world.
And it says 1991 because about that time communism began to
collapse. The Soviet Union became Russia
all over again. All the countries of Eastern
Europe were deliberated, some parts of the northern part of
the Soviet Union, the southern part.
That's why we have the war in Ukraine right now.
Now, when I was a kid, we always thought, well, the communists
want to take over the world. And that's why Russia is so
aggressive and going after all these nations.
And what history proves is that, well, people aren't always doing
what they do because they believe in something.
They believe in something because it's what they want to
do. Hope you can catch that one
because after communism stopped, it didn't stop Russia from still
trying to take over the world. That's 'cause why we have a war
in the Ukraine today because they're saying we want our
empire back. But anyway, that world came a
separated. If you would, most people would
say that China is still communist, but I would say
they're not really communist now.
They follow a pattern, what we would call state sponsored
capitalism, because they do have a capitalist side of their
economy, but it's all controlled by the state.
And that's becoming more the pattern of many nations of the
world and something we need to be mindful of ourselves because
we've always been what you'd call limited capitalist nation.
And so it's important for us to see the trends of the world to
see what's happening in our world as well.
So anyway, after the communist world fell, it was basically
often still spoken of about the Eastern world, which was the
formerly communist world, and the Western world, which for us,
if you notice, it says the United States and then the blue
part of Western Europe. On Wednesday.
I was talking about the fact that Western culture,
civilization actually started in the Middle East, had a Greek
influence, had the Roman influence, the Latin influence,
if you would, ultimately with the Catholic Church taking over
Europe. That's why people who talk about
classical Western thinking, they will include Christianity,
because Christianity had a part in that.
Unfortunately, the influence of Christianity in Europe has
declined considerably and less than 3% in some of the nations.
Even Italy, where you think of Rome as being the seat of
Catholicism, they have hardly any church attendance at all.
Most of Europe, they're formerly beautiful cathedrals are used
for museums, tourist attractions, etcetera.
And the countries have become totally secularized.
They're trying to promote that in our country.
A lot of influences, if you would, of secularization or
trying to change the United States of America.
And they'll talk about the United States that we're behind
Europe in that sense because we haven't secularized if you
would. And so many times people will
say we're behind them, but basically we're going to get
that way. I say no, that's not going to
happen because we're here. Amen.
We're not going to let that happen because we understand
that God has had a special plan for our nation.
And I, I really believe with all my heart, the plan of God
includes all the nations of the earth.
But because I live in the United States of America, I have a
desire and also a burden to pray for my nation as well.
But the important thing to understand is in this process of
change, it's important for us to recognize why is the United
States still basically a believing nation?
And why is it that we still have so many people that go to
church? There's fluctuations and
changes, but people come back to church.
And I'm going to talk about how that has worked in history.
And I really believe it's going to happen even more in our day.
We're already seeing the first signs of it.
But why is it that America has held onto her religion, so to
speak, as the historians will say?
And This is why and I want to go to this scripture here in First
Peter chapter 1, where it says since you have purified your
souls and obeying the truth through the spirit and sincere
love of the brother and love one another fervently with the pure
heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible through the Word of God, which lives and abides
forever. Why?
Because all flesh is grass and all the glory man as the flower
of the grass. The grass Withers, its flower
falls away, but the word of God endures forever.
And I want to talk about the fact that in our country we had
an awakening in the early 18 or excuse the early 1700s.
We were not yet a country. And it was at that time just
people who had come over here, mostly from Europe, to settle in
our country, oftentimes leaving political persecution, religious
persecution. But they were coming here to the
United States for a whole new experience.
Now, what this new awakening was about is, and I'm going to give
credit because I'm kind of simplifying it to two people,
John Whitfield and John, or George Whitfield and John
Wesley. There was another man by the
name of Jonathan Edwards who was a pastor in New England who was
very influential as well. But Whitfield and Wesley were
friends. They went to the same college.
They were both a part of the English Anglican Church if you
would, and they had then members of what was called the Holy Club
and that's where the Methodist Church comes from because they
had a method of study in the Bible so that they could get
closer to the Lord. Now England at the time was like
most of Europe, they had a state church.
It was the Church of England, the King of England or Queen,
whichever 1 is actually considered the head of the
church. They have the Archbishop of
Canterbury, but that's the highest religious figure.
But the king and queen are considered over it all.
And really that was typical in Europe.
They had churches that were part of the state, intertwined
together. So when a person was born,
you're not only took on your identity from your citizenship,
but also you were considered a part of that church.
So most Christians were Christians by natural birth, if
you would. Well, what happened when America
was founded and it had no civil government per SE?
We were colonists of England at one point, but people were
living in a world that had a very limited amount of
government, no established church per SE, and they needed
somebody to rely on. And guess what?
They turn to God. I mean, you know, that's a good
thing. But John Wesley and George
Whitfield, they came and had a heart for the United States.
John Wesley came here on a limited basis.
He spent most of his time in England.
But Whitfield, he was very powerful.
He had this just amazing voice. And he would preach literally to
thousands of people. And back then, of course, they
didn't have sound systems like we do today, but God had given
this him this amazing voice where he could speak and his
voice would be heard from multitudes of people in front of
him. And it was an amazing thing.
But the most important thing is he preached and John Wesley is
that you can be born again. So it isn't just about that
you're born in a church, but you're born again.
How many know? Jesus said if you want to see
her enter into the Kingdom of God, you must be born again.
And so the church had kind of gotten away from that.
And there were parts of Europe that were following this as
well, but it mostly became a part of the United States.
And what happened here is they preached about the new birth
because these two men had a new birth experience.
And this great awakening came because people all over the
country were being born again as they're hearing this message.
This isn't just about religion. This isn't just about the state
church or the institutional church.
This is about the fact that you can be born again.
I put over they're the struggle because how many know after
you're born again, you still have your flesh, you have your
spiritual side, you have your natural side, which the Bible
calls the flesh. And when you're born again, that
spiritual side is supposed to help you discipline the natural
side. But you will find out there is a
struggle. But we have to understand that
God gives us power in the struggle.
But the most important thing we have to understand is that in
this great awakening, multitudes of people experience something
in the Lord. That was quite profound.
And I want to put this up. My son Billy gave me this
because Ben Franklin actually had a quote.
He became friends with George Whitfield and he was talking
about the impact of this awakening.
He said it was wonderful to see the change soon made by the
preaching in the manners of the inhabitants for being
thoughtless or indifferent about religion.
Now it seemed as if all the world was growing religious, so
that one could not walk through the town in the evening without
hearing some sung in different families of every street.
Can you imagine something amazing like that happening and
somebody is so well known in our history who recorded this and
became very good friends with George Whitfield because he was
quite amazed how this could have happened in our country and
church. I believe it can happen all over
again. How about you?
I have seen the revivals in my life.
I've certainly a part of the charismatic Jesus people
movement. I've seen how God has moved in
very powerful ways. When it seems like the world is
falling apart and everybody's turned away from God, all of a
sudden God comes on the scene and he says, oh, I'm going to
show you something better than that.
And that's what I believe he's going to do in the day and hour
in which we live. So the first Great Awakening
came to pass through the preaching of the concept of the
new birth. And it had a profound effect,
and many people believe that actually contributed to the
revolution that brought the birthing of our nation.
But I want to continue talking about what happened at the
beginning of the Second Great Awakening.
And I'm going to use this scripture as a description of
what happened spiritually. It says, but know this, that in
the last days perilous times will come.
Men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money,
boasters, proud blasphemers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, unloving and forgiving, slanders without
self-control, brutal despisers of good.
Traders had strong haughty lovers of pleasure rather than
lovers of God having a form of godliness but denying his power
from such people. Turn away now.
The Second Great Awakening emphasized that we need to have
a lifestyle that goes with our Christianity.
Now if you notice in the Scripture, it says in the last
days, perilous days will come. And so a lot of people take a
verse like that and they'll say, oh, is this the last days?
Is Jesus coming? And the emphasis is always the
last days as the last days of history.
But when you look at the fact that Jesus said I would go my
church and spend 2000 years, you have to understand there's been
a lot of different seasons in the process of Jesus Christ
building his church. I shared this a few months back
and talking about what some are calling the 4th turning in our
nation. That history is an 80 year and
then divided up into 20 year cycles that were in the fourth
turning. And it is obvious when you look
at history that it's not linear in fashion, but it moves in
cycles. And so we have to understand
just like it is with the season. That's why the Bible says that
for everything there is a season and there's a time.
And so because us, we always think of it going in a certain
direction, when perilous times are here, we can only think,
well, it's going to get worse. And the Lord said no perilous
times are going to come or difficult times.
But when difficult times come, you have to get your perspective
and understand what can you do about these times.
Now what the apostle said here is he said you have to
understand something. There are people who have a form
of godliness but deny the power of godliness and basically
that's the way it was in the European church.
People had a religious form, but they didn't understand that with
Christianity there is a lifestyle that God calls us to
that literally brings power to our life.
I found out this out as a kid when I was in Sunday school.
I learned about the word of God and I was told that if you
follow the word, it's going to bring blessing to your life.
And guess what? I found out it's true and that's
why the apostle Paul in his day was talking about perilous
times. And he said in these difficult
times we got to remember something.
A lot of people have a religion that doesn't have power to it,
but you need the religion that has power.
Can I hear any men on that? And he says what produces the
power is godliness because you need, excuse me, to be born
again, then you need to live a born again life to truly release
that power of God in your life. Now, during the second Great
Awakening, there was a man by the name of Lehman Beecher and
we actually were going to was going to name our leadership
training program after him because of the significance of
his life. But we didn't do it that way.
But he had an amazing life because he was a person who said
our country is not doing so well.
So there was a great awakening, Things go bad and all of a
sudden God's got to raise up another voice.
Don't give up. Do something about what you see.
Well, what had happened in the country is because of the
direction of the nation and lack of structure, there was an
overwhelming amount of alcoholism, substance abuse, and
it was a it was a bad situation. So he started what was called
the temperance movement and began to promote to people
healthy living styles. And he that was just one of the
examples. And literally you can record in
history just over a short period of time how that the amount of
alcohol consumed in the nation declined by 2/3 just by one guy
saying we got to do something about this church.
When you make a choice to do something, how many know with
God's help all things are possible.
We should never look at a role and say, oh, things are bad,
What are we going to do and only think to be a opportunity that
we need to look for as an escape.
We need to say, God, what am I going to do?
Because I'm going to change this situation.
I believe there's power in your word and I'm going to believe
you for your word. So in this movement, and I
mentioned also Whitfield and Wesley, because there were
basically 2 streams of evangelicalism and that's
describing Christians who believe in the Bible as their
guide for following their Christian life.
There are people like Whitfield who preached about getting saved
and he always had that as a part of his altar calls.
We need to get saved. And then if you're wavering,
there would be times when they would rededicate their lives
before the Lord. But then John Wesley, who
preached what often later became known as a second work of grace
because he believed in the active word of God and the power
of the Holy Spirit. And he actually taught something
called Christian perfection. Now, that's the scary word that
I use from time to time. But literally, that just means
coming to completion. That means you can become
everything that God has called you to be.
You may not ever be everything people want you to be, but you
can be everything he wants you to be.
Amen, Church. That's important for us to
understand. And so it's important at that,
that we would recognize how this impacted the world in which they
lived. And I wanted to share you with
you. This picture.
This is a picture that would have been in the history book
that I read. I was growing when I was growing
up. I lived in Clark's of my life,
started kindergarten, graduated from Clark in high school.
Back in those days, Christmas season, guess what?
We had concerts where you sang Christian songs because it was
Christmas. We had Easter songs at Easter
because, well, the society wasn't secularized the way it is
today. However, in the books, it was
still history books talking about the Great Awakenings and
what had happened in our nation. You think even the educators
would have said, hey, we don't want to lose this.
Anyway, this was a picture of what happened during the Second
Great Awakening. And this was an altar call
because at the end they would have an altar call and this
would show you the altar call of that stream.
I was talking about who they would go to the altar and they
would cry out to God and there were very emotional
demonstrations of the other picture I had that was in my
book, I couldn't find it to show you here today, but it shows an
altar call where it looks like a Pentecostal church service.
People are falling under the power and dancing around
whatever. But the people got really
connected with the Holy Spirit and presence of God and were
emotionally connected because they were meeting God at the
altar. And there was a tremendous
change that occurred through this experience.
And so I wanted to show that as well because I've been talking
about the different things we do at Mount Zion.
And one of the things we have at the close of every service is an
altar call. And I want you to understand
where this originated in the history of the Christian Church.
It actually began in our country as it pertained to people at the
close of a message having an opportunity to experience God.
Now this led to what was called the Third Great Awakening.
And I would say this Scripture best sums that up and says, now
may the God of peace himself what sanctify you completely and
may your whole spirit, soul and body be preserved blameless at
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He who calls you is what? Who will what?
A lot of times there was a whole stream of Christianity who
believed in being born again, tried the best they could to
live a Christian life, but they really didn't believe in the
power of sanctification, the work of the Holy Spirit that
could empower people. So to them grace is always well,
do the best you can, then let the grace make the difference.
But John Wesley and those who followed the work of the Holy
Spirit and the belief that God could do something to encourage
you but also empower you. Believe that as you came to the
Lord, you could have this second work of grace called
sanctification where God could set you apart for His purpose
and work His true holiness inside of you.
Now this is important and why I wanted to bring this out because
oftentimes people from the side of evangelicalism that only
emphasizes getting saved will come to a church like Mount Zion
and they'll say you never have altar calls for people to get
saved. Well, for us, church is the
place you come to be empowered and mature as a Christian.
The church isn't a place to get people saved.
Our community centers are a place to get people saved.
Talking to your neighbor is a good place to get people saved.
How many? You know what I'm talking about?
That's why I said earlier we should all have the word of the
Lord. And so if you think we're not
that we're hindered in our evangelism, obviously that's not
true because how many, You know, almost every week we get
somebody baptized. How many know that means they've
heard the gospel, somebody's talked to them, somebody's
encouraged them and made them to understand.
But for the altar calls, we have it so that we can come forward
and after we've heard the sermon, say, you know what?
I need that in my life. I need that in my heart.
And so the purpose of the altar call then becomes a place of
empowerment, place of sanctification.
And I put up here divine reliance because that Scripture
says he's the one that's going to do it.
So it isn't about self help as the world would offer you
because there's no God. But for us, we know God says
this is how you can live. And if I say, well Lord, I can't
do that, He will say to us, you can, with my help and with
divine reliance, if you would, We'll know that we can do all
things with the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And that's what God wants us to understand.
And that's what I believe happens here.
Every time we have a service, something happens to change a
life. This is what the church is
supposed to be. It says you are the salt of the
earth. But if the salt loses its
flavor, how shall it be seasoned?
It is then good for nothing but be thrown out, trampled under
foot by men. You are the light of the world.
The city that has sat on the hill cannot be hidden, nor do
they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lamp
stand and it gives light to all who are in the house.
So what should we do? Let your light so shine before
men, that they might see your good works and glorify your
Father in heaven. And I've often shared the story.
The reason we bought the property here, I-75 is one day
the Lord's. I was walking this property and
the Lord reminded me of that scripture.
A city set on the hill cannot be hid.
We're not actually on a hill here, but we're at a location
where over 4000 cars an hour pass by.
And that was something they said 30 years ago.
So it and especially on Friday night, so there's traffic jams
where they're sitting in front of the church for a very long
time as well. But anyway, God has called the
church to be salt and light. Light is, well, there's
something people can see that's different than what they're
seeing in the world. And salt is for the purposes of
preservation. It can taste good, too.
And so we have to understand that God says you are the salt
of the earth. And when people look out and
say, where's, where's America going?
What's going to happen? You can say there's some salt
here if you would, There's some light here if you would.
And we're going to make a difference.
Amen. Church.
That's so important. And that's what Mount Zion's
vision is. And I believe that God's saying
it's going to happen more. We're going to see it as never
before. God made a promise to Abraham.
He said your seed will be a blessing in every nation of the
earth. And that's why we also have a
vision to reach out to Mexico and El Salvador, Havana, Cuba.
And I'm very excited. I'm in prayer every day because
there's all kinds of things happening.
I really believe that Cuba's going to be liberated from the
tormentor. That's hell the country in
bondage for many, many years and I just thank God because I
believe that God's moving in a whole new way right now church
and we are going to see God do some awesome things.
Amen. Now Romans 12 says I beseech you
there for brethren by the mercies of God that you present
your bodies of living sacrifice, holding acceptable God, which is
your reasonable servants. Do not be conformed to this
world, but what be transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good, acceptable and perfect
will of God. This is the third levels, the
perfect will and it's important for us to understand this is
where God's calling us today. When we have an altar call, we
what present ourselves and say God.
There's a word that I heard here today, and I want that word to
be life in me. Now.
We don't just present ourselves and say, I don't want to live
the way I used to. We believe that when we come
before the presence of the Lord, at least we should, that we can
be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we don't
think the way we used to think. We used to think that we had
something to be ashamed of. God says, let me cleanse you of
all that shame, says the mighty God.
We used to only see ourselves as victims, as so many people in
the world today. And God says, no, I've not
called you to be a victim. I've called you to be victorious
in this life. Choose victory.
Don't choose victimhood, choose victory.
And I'll give that to you, says the Lord.
So we present ourselves knowing that we can go through a
transformation as we have this this great confidence in what it
is that the Lord is going to do. Which brings us to the
Scriptures. In Ephesians chapter 5 that I
read, it says, but all things are exposed.
They're made manifested by the light, for whatever makes
manifest is liked. Therefore he says, awake you who
sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.
This is very important because the word of the Lord to us is
thus saith the Lord. It's a day for a new awakening.
It's time for you to awaken yourself, says the Lord.
Isaiah 52 said it this way. He says it's time to arise,
shake off the dust and say I'm moving on, I'm believing what
God has said, and I'm going to arise and shine so that the
glory, the Lord can be seen upon me.
Hallelujah. It's a time of an awakening
church, and this is a day when God's inviting us to be a part
of it in a whole new dimension. See then, that you walk
circumstance spectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming
the time. Why?
Well, but the days we're living in are quite evil.
Therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the will of the
Lord is and the will of the Lord is that we should be confident
that our walk with Him can give to us the strength that we have
need of to do all things that He has asked of us and to poise
ourselves to believe in the Word of God that says God's going to
do something that's exceedingly and abundantly above all that we
could ask or think. Now I really believe that one of
the things we need that this time is a wisdom and an
understanding, the wisdom and understanding of the world.
It's not working and it won't work.
But guess what, Church, we have the true wisdom from heaven.
Amen. And if you're facing a situation
today and you're like, what can I do?
I don't know what to do. God said in his word, if anybody
needs wisdom, just ask me. I'll give you more than you need
is basically what it says in church.
God saying to us today, He wants to give us wisdom and
understanding as never before now in the world they're trying
to get away from the world that they're in and that's why God
says to us do not be drunk with wine and which is dissipation,
but be what filled with the Spirit speaking to one another
Church, we need to have a shared experience and a shared life.
We need each other at this time, speaking to one another in
psalms and spiritual songs, singing, making melody in your
heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the
Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Can we just bow our heads for just a moment?
Church, I'll tell you, this is such an exciting time in God.
History is happening, but you need to have the spiritual
perspective, spiritual insight. What is it that God's doing in
the world? What is it that God's doing in
your life? He'll show you.
He'll give you understanding, and you'll be able to walk in
the fullness of all things he has for you.
This is Pastor Lauren Coverbius from Mount Zion Church.
We thank you for joining us today and invite you to connect
with our church family by visiting mountzion.org and
following us on social media. God bless you.