Separation Anxiety

Genesis 13:10-11 (KJV)
¹⁰ And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. ¹¹ Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.

Abraham was the first Jew, the Father of the Hebrew nation.  The Jewish people didn’t call themselves the children of Adam, or Seth, or Enos, or Cainan, or Mahalaleel, or Enoch, or Methusaleh, or even Noah.  They called themselves “the children of Abraham.”  Why?  Because God began a covenant relationship with Abraham.  Everything good that was going to happen to Israel was going to be funneled through Abraham.

Why, then, did Lot, the nephew of Abraham, separate himself from his Uncle?  Apparently, he did not fully recognize that God blessed him because of his association with Abraham.  He thought he could strike out on his own and make it—maybe even make it big.  I know there was strife between Abraham and Lot’s herdsmen.  I know their two clans were getting so large that there was continual war going on.  I know the land was too small to support both of them.  But the real problems came as a result of the separation.

When Lot separated himself from Abraham, he saw wealth, materialism, good times, independence from “the Boss,” and freedom to be himself.  But it also entailed a broken relationship between him and the covenant of promise.

Separation Anxiety:  A condition affecting babies when first separated from their parents.

Teary and tantrum-filled goodbyes are a common part of a child’s earliest years. Around the first birthday, many kids develop separation anxiety, getting upset when a parent tries to leave them with someone else.

Though separation anxiety is a perfectly normal part of childhood development, it can be unsettling.

Understanding what your child is going through and having a few coping strategies can help both of you get through it.

How Separation Anxiety Develops

Babies adapt pretty well to other caregivers. Parents probably feel more anxiety about being separated than infants do! As long as their needs are being met, most babies younger than 6 months adjust easily to other people.

Sometime between 4-7 months, babies develop a sense of object permanence and begin to learn that things and people exist even when they’re out of sight. Babies realize that there’s only mom or dad, and when they can’t see you, that means you’ve gone away. And most don’t yet yet understand the concept of time so do not know if or when you’ll come back.

Whether you’re in the kitchen, in the next bedroom, or at the office, it’s all the same to your baby. You’ve disappeared, and your child will do whatever he or she can to prevent this from happening.  -Parenting

Separation:  An intermediate step between marriage and divorce.

        When married couples have problems between them that reach a critical point, one of the first things they do to resolve the differences is to separate.  Sometimes it works, but most of the time it’s just the prelude to the next step, divorce.  It’s a traumatic time, even if there is no other solution.  It signifies a broken relationship.

Six Degrees of Separation

Six degrees of separation is the theory that anyone on the planet can be connected to any other person on the planet through a chain of acquaintances that has no more than five intermediaries.

In 2001, Duncan Watts, a professor at Columbia University, continued his own earlier research into the phenomenon and recreated Milgram’s experiment on the Internet. Watts used an e-mail message as the “package” that needed to be delivered, and surprisingly, after reviewing the data collected by 48,000 senders and 19 targets (in 157 countries), Watts found that the average number of intermediaries was indeed, six.

There is only one degree of separation necessary for you to be miserable—the separation between you and your God. 

Separation.  None of us like it.  It’s one of the most fearful sensations that a human being can have. 

Separation:  Adam and Even and their separation from God in the garden.

Separation From God

Isaiah 59:1-4 (KJV)
¹ Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear: ² But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear. ³ For your hands are defiled with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue hath muttered perverseness. ⁴ None calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth: they trust in vanity, and speak lies; they conceive mischief, and bring forth iniquity.

Separation from God is not an inconsequential choice.  Sometimes I am amazed at how people think.  “Oh, I’m just taking a break from religion.”  One woman told me, “I just want something a little less demanding.”  “Oh, I’m just going to go to this church over here for a while.”

Do they preach the truth?  “Well, what is truth, anyway?”  Usually, when people make these decisions, they don’t come to me to discuss it; they come to announce it!”

        But, separation from God means separation from the attributes of God.

        It means separation from the knowledge of God.

        It means separation from the power of God.

When you are separated from God, you lose that protective covering, that covenantal relationship.  You become exposed to every devilish doctrine and error that is out there.  For example, listen to this letter that a member of this church got in an email:

The question that I have is twofold, first what is the reductionist root cause of sin and evil, if God created everything then God created Evil and sin, Second, if God created us with free will thus giving us some kind of surrogate responsibility for our actions then why is it that we had no choice.  If we had no choice then God forced or caused our free will thus creating sin thus I wonder how original sin can logically exist in an epistemological sense.  

Babies are raped, why did God create the possibility for this to happen?

I have been told that I must believe that Jesus died for my sins in order to go to heaven, thus heaven is the motivation for believing, thus I am only believing to get something out of it for myself in a very deep hedonistic motivation.  Psychologically Religion is great for humans because studies have shown that Religious believers have a higher state of well being, longer life, better health physically and psychologically so I am not saying that religion is bad.  I am saying that I do not want to believe in something just to become happy or to go to heaven. If I believe in something there must be an empirical reason with validity backing it up with some sense of subjective truth in my own personal perspective on truth. 
 
I have many other qualms with religion but maybe I should allow you to enlighten me with what I have all ready spoken of.  I am sorry if these questions offend you in any way, that is not what I am out to do, I believe we all have reasons for believing in our beliefs and I want to know what the absolute belief might be, but I am very analytical about belief because of Jim Jones, Charles Manson, David Koresh, the heaven’s gate cult, the cult of Yahweh and others.  They all had followers so to Christianity may be leading people in negative understandings of reality.

First, the Bible does not say that God created everything.  It says that He created “all things” and then it qualified “all things.”  Colossians 1:16 (KJV)  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:

Evil was not created by God.  Created comes from the Hebrew word “bara” and it means to “make something new” or to be brought into being out of nothing.  Evil was not the product of a creative act but the perversion and distortion of something that was already created.

Yes, we are all creatures of free will, and yes, God took a risk in creating us this way.  But would you want it any different? 

There are a lot of other answers to this letter, but the main problem is that when a person gets separated from God, you go down twisted, convoluted paths that always end up in destruction.  The philosophies of man are intriguing enough to get you to try them out.  Once you leave the main road and take the bait, you get pulled farther and farther until you lose sight of everything about God. 

I am not anti-education nor anti-intellectual, but I am saying that you should not get heavily involved in questions that you don’t have answers to.  The question is the come-on and it operates under the illusion that if you keep digging, you’ll find the answer. 

2 Timothy 3:7 (KJV) Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

If you want to be separated, you need to be separated to God.

Separation to God

        Ephesians 2:11-22 (KJV) ¹¹ Wherefore remember, that ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; ¹² That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: ¹³ But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

When you were in sin, you were separated from God.  (Broken, lonely, lost, miserable)

(That’s why alcoholism, drug addiction, gross immorality, lying, cheating, stealing, fighting, etc.)  It was Separation Anxiety!

¹⁴ For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;
¹⁵ Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
¹⁶ And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
¹⁷ And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
¹⁸ For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
¹⁹ Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
²⁰ And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
²¹ In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
²² In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Separation for God

Not only are we separated UNTO God, we live a life separate from the world because we are separated FOR God.     

2 Corinthians 6:11-18

2 Corinthians 6:11-18 (KJV)
¹¹ O ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged.
¹² Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels.
¹³ Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged.
¹⁴ Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?
¹⁵ And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
¹⁶ And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

¹⁷ Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you,
¹⁸ And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.

Why does the Bible lead us into a separated life?  Because it is an enlightened way to live!  It’s clean, holy, reverent, righteous. 

Galatians 5:16-21 (KJV)
¹⁶ This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
¹⁷ For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
¹⁸ But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
¹⁹ Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
²⁰ Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
²¹ Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Some people ask, what’s wrong with this, what’s wrong with that?  I just want the look, the taste, the feel of the world.  Why can’t I do that without being in the world?

Let me ask you this:  Do you wives want your husbands to go out looking like he’s single?  Do you husbands want your wives to act like, dress like, think like she is not married to you?

No. When we are in a covenant relationship, we respect the agreement.

When you are one thing, you don’t look like you are something else.  If you go to Northview, you don’t wear Southview colors.  If you go to BG, you don’t wear UT colors. 

I live a separated life because I know with whom I am in a covenant relationship!  My allegiance, my respect, my reverence, my commitment is to the One who saved my soul!

The bridge back

Galatians 6:1-2 (KJV)
¹ Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted.
² Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.

I am here today to help you resolve your separation anxiety.  I believe that the source of any problem you have today are because you are out of relationship with Jesus.

I don’t have all the answers to all the questions.  I don’t have the promise of an immediate overnight change, although it can happen.

What I do have is the offering of the hand of God.  I can do that because I have the ministry of reconciliation.  God wants to take your hand where you are today and lead you back home where you want to be.  You don’t have to come home first and prove yourself.  Just get back into a relationship with Jesus.  Let Him show you what the next step is.

Seeing the Invisible

Hebrews 11:1 (KJV)
¹ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Hebrews 11:24-27 (KJV)
²⁴ By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;
²⁵ Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;
²⁶ Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward.
²⁷ By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

Since the beginning of time, we have always known—or at least suspected—that there are phenomena in the physical world that exist all around us that cannot be seen.  Scientists found ways of proving their existence, even though they remained unseen.

A number of years ago, however, a Penn State mechanical engineer Gary Settles set up a 40-inch-diameter mirror and started seeing – and catching on film – such invisibilities as breath, heat, a cough, a bullet’s wake, propane leaking from a hose, music. He’s since expanded his horizons to a nine-by-seven-foot frame, making visible the cascade of cold air falling from an open refrigerator, the eruption of heat above a barbeque grill or, a set of daintier plumes, a candlelit dinner. He can see why the ventilator over a restaurant’s range is inefficient – or worse, why it suffocates the cook. He can see the turbulent air above a propane torch and the volatiles leaking out of a storage drum.

On the monitor, the image of a recently vacated seat looks real as life, yet surrounded by tendrils and plumes that twist and mingle as he turns around. The empty seat seems to smoke.” “Seeing the Invisible” by : Nancy Marie Brown (Research/Penn State, Vol. 18, no. 2 (May 1997))

In more primitive times, that which could not be seen was judged not to exist.  As science improved, however, things began to show up that were always there, but previously unseen because there was no way to detect their presence.  Those who insisted that such things didn’t exist were embarrassed.  Those who knew they were real, but endured ridicule and scorn because they couldn’t prove them were exonerated. 

What is it about seeing that makes us feel so comfortable?  Why do we feel so confident in our sight, as though seeing really is believing?  Even knowing that something is out there that does not register on the sensory perception, many of us will not believe it’s there because we can’t see it.  This tendency often has disastrous consequences.

John F. Kennedy, Jr. piloted his plane into a fatal nosedive because he depended on what he could see visually rather than what the plane’s instruments were telling him.  At night or in a heavy fog, no pilot with unaided eyesight can see direction.  He cannot see altitude, attitude, or speed without reading his instruments.  God did not create the human eye to collect this kind of information.  According to the ensuing investigation, Kennedy must have piloted his plane at a near perpendicular angle directly into the ocean, costing him his life along with that of his wife and her sister.

All of these facts have an impact on the spiritual realm, especially in understanding something called faith.  “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” 

God is very insistent that we gravitate from the seen to the unseen.  Why?  Because what you see affects a whole range of perceptions in the human body.  For example, the balance system works with the visual and skeletal systems to maintain orientation or balance. All of us, as kids, have spun around—or been spun around—and then tried to walk.  Usually, we got dizzy and fell down.  Our inner ear is affected, but also our sight. 

According to scientists, “The visual system in humans allows us to assimilate information from the environment. We can associate images with another sense: taste (i.e. strawberry fruit with a red color and a sweet taste), then vision is in connection/perception with all senses.  “Vision is a complement of taste. Taste and appreciation of foods is influenced by the sense of smell, the temperature and texture of foods, and what the food looks like.”

My little granddaughter, MaKinzie, went through a stage when she screamed whenever she saw a clown or puppets.  On the other hand, when she sees me, she comes laughing and running with her arms open wide, saying, “Papa!”  What she sees has a direct bearing on her emotional response. 

This is the point, and it is huge.  What we see determines what we think.  This effect is so strong, so powerful, so predictable that it becomes the default position of the human soul.  When we are asked to believe something, to commit ourselves to something that requires us to abandon this sense of sight, it takes us to the edge of our understanding.  It is like asking us to walk on water or fly through the air. 

I am here to tell you today that God exists out there on that very edge.  It’s the crossover point.  It’s point of transformation.  It’s the point where you have to leave the constraints of the human condition and undergo the shock of faith.  God is always out there on that edge, beckoning us onward.

He stands out there as a glimmering, shimmering figure on the waves, bidding us to climb out of our boat and come to him.  There He is, making radical declarations like “You must eat my flesh and drink my blood,” words that make your flesh recoil, and then he wants you to trust that He is telling you the truth.  He stands there saying, “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven.”

When you demand evidence that you can see, you disqualify yourself from the mighty acts of God.  God is saying to you, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”  You find God outside of things visible.

I’m challenging someone today.  Are you going there?  Getting there means walking by faith, not by sight.  It requires a whole new protocol, a new vocabulary, a new set of reference points.  If you are going to go where God is, you have to become a new creature.  God is at the point where your human perception ends and your faith begins.  That’s why some people never have an encounter with God.  They never stray far from their rut, their carnal station in life.  God is at the point where you surrender the control over your life to Him.

Enoch went there never went back home.  Jacob went there and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.  And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.”

Moses went there and saw a bush that burned with fire but was not consumed.   Isaiah went there and saw the Lord high and lifted up and His train filled the temple.  Then he said, “Woe is me for I am undone!”  Paul went there and saw things not lawful to be uttered.  The difference between Enoch, Jacob, Moses, Paul and the rest, is they were willing to say “I will let go of my narrow slice of life that I call reality and break into the realm that God calls reality.”

Faith is the evidence of the unseen.

Now, let’s look at the way this unfolds in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews.

Hebrews 11:1-3 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  ² For by it the elders obtained a good report.  ³ Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

First, faith is the evidence of things not seen.  He starts by illustrating this principle is that the worlds which were framed by the word of God were not made of things you could see.  In other words, the things you can see were created from things you cannot see.

Second, The things you can see can become your enemy if they prevent you from seeing the things you cannot see.  This chapter on faith gives the testimonies of people who did not allow this to happen.  Noah disregarded the things he could see—that is the fact that there had never been a rainstorm—and acted with absolute certainty. 

 Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

Next, Abraham acted by obedience, not knowing—or not seeing—where he was going. 

Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

What makes this even more remarkable is that Abraham was looking for something. 

Hebrews 11:10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Do you know what that means?  He didn’t see what he was looking for!  There are a lot of people who would stop right there.  They think they know exactly what God should do, when He should do it and how He should do it.  If there is anything that will kill faith it is when you think you’ve been disappointed, deceived or destroyed by the very God you think should be working on your behalf.

None of us are exempt from this failure, including ministers.  I spent three hours with a former pastor a few weeks ago who has recently become a tragic figure.  He said, “Do you know what made me feel like God had just dealt me the final blow?  It was when I was struggling with my church, the finances were just not there, and I saw another assembly that had just added a brand new addition to their building.  ‘I thought, God why are you destroying me and yet blessing an assembly that is not proclaiming this Apostolic truth?’”  His desire for the visible trumped his belief in the invisible.

When what you can see does not match your expectations, you’ve reached the point that faith must take over.  Some people try their best to hang on to their vision and force God into accepting something that He will not bless. 

Finally, Moses had the real secret of faith.

Hebrews 11:27  By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

Sounds like an oxymoron, doesn’t it?  Moses saw him who is invisible?  Yes!  Moses knew that just because you can’t see something or someone doesn’t mean you are hallucinating!   

I tried my best to convince a man who attended our church many years ago that there was something called love.  The scriptures were not enough for him.  My arguments were not enough for him.  The stories of other people were not enough.  Whenever I pressed him too much, he would always revert back to his relationship with his father.  His father—according to him—was insensitive, hateful, uncaring and totally materialistic.  He produced a son whose entire understanding of life grew out of this tense relationship.  As a result, this man had no concept of anything that went beyond precisely what he could see, hear, understand and feel.  It was as if he was saying, “If it doesn’t fit within my pathetic, anemic definition, I won’t believe it.” 

The fact is that the only thing of God you will ever see inside that pitiful definition is a whiff, a taste, a glimpse, a fragrance, a vapor and a whisper.  Your real relationship with God must be pursued beyond the limits of your sight.  That’s called faith and God demands it.  “Without faith, it is impossible to please God.”  That’s why we keep reading in Hebrews eleven, “by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith, by faith!”  Yet, we seem to keep insisting, “by sight, by sight, by sight!” 

Moses forsook the Egypt he could see for the freedom he could not see.  He disdained the wrath of the king that he could see in order to please the King he could not see.

Dr. Vance Havner said, “Moses chose the imperishable, saw the invisible, and did the impossible.” Moses’ faith enabled him to face Pharaoh unafraid, and to trust God to deal with the enemy. The endurance of Moses was not a natural gift, for by nature Moses was hesitant and retiring. This endurance and courage came as the reward of his faith.  Bible Exposition Commentary - New Testament - The Bible Exposition Commentary – New Testament, Volume 2.

Believing makes the invisible a reality.

Acts 12:5-11 Peter therefore was kept in prison: but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him.
⁶ And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains: and the keepers before the door kept the prison.
⁷ And, behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him, and a light shined in the prison: and he smote Peter on the side, and raised him up, saying, Arise up quickly. And his chains fell off from his hands.
⁸ And the angel said unto him, Gird thyself, and bind on thy sandals. And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee, and follow me.
⁹ And he went out, and followed him; and wist not that it was true which was done by the angel; but thought he saw a vision.
¹⁰ When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leadeth unto the city; which opened to them of his own accord: and they went out, and passed on through one street; and forthwith the angel departed from him.
¹¹ And when Peter was come to himself, he said, Now I know of a surety, that the Lord hath sent his angel, and hath delivered me out of the hand of Herod, and from all the expectation of the people of the Jews.

Peter endured prison as seeing him who is invisible.

Daniel endured the lion’s den as seeing him who is invisible.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego endured the fiery furnace as seeing him who is invisible.  Paul endured persecution and hardship as seeing him who is invisible.  

You may say, Well, Pastor, I’m not looking for some fantastic, mind-blowing experience.  I just want forgiveness.  I just want remission of sins.  I just want to know that the Spirit of God is real.

I’m here to tell somebody here today that forgiveness is real.  If you come to this altar, and ask for it, you will get it.  You may not be able to see forgiveness, but the Invisible God went into action when you repented.

Remission of sins is real.  You can see that baptistry up there, but just because you cannot see what happens there, doesn’t mean it isn’t real.  You may not be able to see sins being remitted, but when you went down into the waters of baptism, the Invisible God inhabited the waters and cleansed you with His blood!

What about the Holy Spirit?  The Holy Spirit infilling means the Invisible God took up residence within you. “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8 (NIV)

Have you been delivered?  The Invisible God was working in ways you could not see, causing things to happen in your favor that you could not control.

Have you been healed?  The Invisible God went where the doctors could not go.  He traveled down the long chains of your DNA, flipping switches and making changes that no one else had the power or the authority to adjust.

Have you had a miraculous moment of your needs being supplied?  The Invisible God caused things to happen outside of your personal reality.  Luke 6:38 “Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom.”

Someone is sitting out there today clinging to your fears as though they are going to lead you to deliverance, healing and salvation.  You’re saying, “But I just can’t do that.  I can’t believe without the proof that it’s going to work.

God knew how stubborn you would be!  That’s why Hebrews 11:1 is followed by Hebrews 12:1. 

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, ² Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2

Where seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses…”  If you can’t have faith as the substance of things hoped for or the evidence of things not seen, then just look at all the witnesses who surround you. 

If you have been delivered form alcohol, stand up.

If you have been delivered from drugs, stand up.

If you have been delivered from fear, stand up.

If you have been delivered from a sinful lifestyle, stand up.

If you have been filled with the Holy Ghost, stand up.

If you have been healed, stand up.

If God has given you a miracle, stand up.

God has given you all the evidence you need to step into His realm and start believing in Him!  Today, you can start seeing the invisible.

When We All Get to Heaven

Revelation 4:1-11 “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.
² And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.
³ And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald.
⁴ And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.
⁵ And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.
⁶ And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind.
⁷ And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.
⁸ And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
⁹ And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever,
¹⁰ The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
¹¹ Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.”

This message is for Bible believers.

Those who do not believe in the Bible must not believe in heaven because heaven is the overarching theme of the Bible.

Some people say we have enough to worry about down here on earth without having to bother with heaven or the afterlife.

• The student who doesn’t plan for the long term has no clue about the value of a good GPA or what a good résumé
• And, I would be very cautious about marrying someone who has no long-term plans for the marriage!

The very first place we read about heaven is Genesis 1:1.

God created Heaven.

Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

I am a creature, not an evoluture.  I am interested in anything God created because it is of God, by God, through God and for God. 

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus, Sing His mercy and His grace; In the mansions bright and blessed
He’ll prepare for us a place.

When we all get to heaven,What a day of rejoicing that will be! When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!

Gen 1:8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Firmament means expanse, or the visible arch of the sky.  The heaven we see with our physical eye is the sky. 

Heaven is Eternal Life

Gen 6:17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die.

Beneath heaven, where we live, is the existence of everything that breathes.  The breath of life comes from God, according to Genesis 2:7.  If God give the breath of life, he can also take it away.  In the book of Revelation, however, we never read of the breath of life.  We read of the tree of life, water of life, river of life, book of life, the spirit of life and the crown of life.  Evidently, once we all get to heaven, we receive something more than the breath of life.  Breath is too fragile, it speaks of something temporary.  Over there, the life we receive will never be taken away.  It will be life eternal.

While we walk the pilgrim pathway,Clouds will overspread the sky; But when trav’ling days are over,
Not a shadow, not a sigh.

Heaven is Accessible

Gen 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

Heaven is a place of doors and windows.  Beings can go in and out, judgments and blessings can be poured out and people are able to look in and see out.  Doors and windows are entrances and exits, openings and closings.  Just remember, God is in charge of all the traffic in and out.  It’s not a revolving door where anyone can go in and out at their leisure.  Some people think that heaven is their idea—they can go there whenever and however they want to.  That’s not what the bible teaches.  When Noah built the ark, he built the door, but God took charge of the opening and closing.  The bible says that God shut the door to the ark. 

Heaven is a “Restricted Area”

Gen 11:4 And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

After the flood, the descendants of Noah thought that heaven was within their reach.  They launched into a building project designed to take them to heaven.  They were going to bypass God and get to heaven their own way.  I have a message for you today.  You will never get to heaven some other way than the way prescribed in the Word of God.  Not by science, not by mathematics, not by human ingenuity, not by talent, not by politics, not by money, not by some other religion or spiritual discipline.  Some people have the misconception that all religions are the same and that we are all getting to heaven by different routes.  Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life.  No man cometh unto the Father but by me.”

Let us then be true and faithful,Trusting, serving every day;Just one glimpse of Him in glory Will the toils of life repay.

When we all get to heaven,What a day of rejoicing that will be! When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!

Heaven is all about Jesus!

Gen 28:12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.

Jacob saw a ladder, but it wasn’t for him to climb.  It was a prophetic view of a coming day, a day in which Jesus Christ would validate His own divinity.

John 1:51 And he saith unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.

Heaven is all about Jesus; getting there is all about Jesus; living there is all about Jesus.  Jesus is the ladder!  He provides the entrance into heaven by His own self.  This is why we cannot refer to Jesus as just a good teacher or a prophet.  He is more than the founder of a religion.  You can read the teachings of many so-called spiritual leaders.  You can read the teachings of Confucius, the teachings of Chairman Mao, the doctrines of Joseph Smith and even of the Prophet Mohammed.  But there is something different about Jesus.  Paul did not say we preach the teachings of Christ.  He said “We preach Christ and Him crucified!”

Heaven has legal force.

Deut 30:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

Heaven is more than an idea, a dream or a fantasy.  Moses understood that the reality of heaven was so established that it could be called as a witness for or against us. 

Heaven is free from evil influence.

Isa 14:12-13 How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north:

I must issue a warning:  Heaven is a smoke-free environment!  It is free from sin, wickedness, evil, iniquity, rebellion and transgression.  When Lucifer was discovered with iniquity in his heart, he was vanquished forever from the portals of glory.  Why did God take the trouble to tell us this in His Word?  As a Warning!!! 

Yes, we have the grace of God through Jesus Christ while we live on earth.  But grace is trying to teach us something. 

Titus 2:11-14 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, ¹² Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; ¹³ Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; ¹⁴ Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

You cannot align yourself with Satan and expect to be rewarded with heaven.  The disciple of the leader shares the fate of the leader. 

John 8:42-45 Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of myself, but he sent me.  ⁴³ Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word.  ⁴⁴ Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. ⁴⁵ And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not.

And, before Lucifer was kicked out of heaven, God must have said, “Here.  Give me those keys!  I’ve got someone else in mind for those keys.”

Matt 16:19 And I will give unto thee [Peter] the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

In fact, Satan doesn’t even have the key to his own house.  God gave one of his angels the key to the bottomless pit! 

Heaven is not for a distant future; it is a present reality.

Matt 3:2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

As soon as you hear the message of heaven, you must repent.  Now.  Today.  Immediately.  It cannot be for a later time in your life because you may lose your breath of life in the next second.

James 4:14 Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.

Let us then be true and faithful,Trusting, serving every day;Just one glimpse of Him in glory Will the toils of life repay.

Trust Jesus.  He is your only hope of heaven.

Repent of your sin.  Jesus is the only way to forgiveness.

Be baptized in Jesus name.  It is the only saving name.

Be filled with God’s Spirit.  It is more important in heaven than the breath of life on earth.

The gospel message down here is the entrance to get there.

Heaven is the only secure place in the universe.

Matt 6:20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

We’re not talking money here.  We’re talking wealth.  There is a vast difference between money and wealth.  A prince, the son of a king, may not have a dime to his name; his name may not be affixed to a single document or deed.  But you wouldn’t say he is in poverty.  He’s wealthy because his father is rich!  How rich is our Father?

Psalms 50:10-12 For every beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills. ¹¹ I know all the fowls of the mountains: and the wild beasts of the field are mine.  ¹² If I were hungry, I would not tell thee: for the world is mine, and the fulness thereof.

Matt 28:18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Sing the wondrous love of Jesus, Sing His mercy and His grace; In the mansions bright and blessed
He’ll prepare for us a place.

When we all get to heaven,What a day of rejoicing that will be! When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!

Heaven’s greatest attraction is not the treasure or wealth; Jesus is what will make heaven for me!

Mark 14:62 And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.

Mark 16:19 So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.

Heaven is a prepared place for a prepared people.

John 14:1-3 Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me.  ² In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. ³ And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.

There are no foreclosures on our mansions in heaven.  No liens, no back taxes, no bad neighbors, no threat of eminent domain.  If there was ever a time for us to be excited about heaven, it is today.  Some say these mansions aren’t literal houses.  They’re just dwelling places.  I’d rather have a dwelling place in heaven than a mansion on earth!

Our entrance to heaven will be the rapture of the church.

Luke 21:25-28 And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; ²⁶ Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. ²⁷ And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. ²⁸ And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

Look up means look to the sky.  Something is about to happen in the sky.

1 Thess 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: 17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Why are we going to be caught up together with Him?  Because we are the bride; Jesus is our Bridegroom.  What does the Bridegroom do when he takes him bride into their new house?  He picks her up and carries her across the threshold!

Revelation 4:1 After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.  2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Heaven will turn every sorrow into a distant memory.

Revelation 21:4-7 ⁴ And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. ⁵ And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. ⁶ And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. ⁷ He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

We will pause for a fleeting second just long enough to say “No more!”  No more tears; no more death; no more sorrow; no more crying; no more pain.” 

While we walk the pilgrim pathway,Clouds will overspread the sky; But when trav’ling days are over,
Not a shadow, not a sigh.

You might be thinking that we have a lot of work to do down here before we think too much about what’s going to be over there.  But, it’s the message of over there that gives us the strength and courage of down here!

The plight of the ravaged, the persecuted, the slain, the beaten and bruised…all of them cry out for exoneration.  It will happen!  This just God we serve will make sure that every drop of the martyrs’ blood will be avenged and rewarded. 

What about those who have already gone to their reward?  They are somewhere awaiting this great event, the grand opening of the place called heaven.  Mothers, fathers, grandpas, grandmas, pastors, saints, pioneers, stalwarts of the cross, faithful and loyal servants.  Added to the blessing of seeing Jesus will be the glad reunion with our loved ones.  There is another old song of the church that keeps us going.

I will meet you in the morning,
Just inside the Eastern Gate;
Then be ready, faithful pilgrim,
Lest with you it be too late.

I will meet you in the morning
I will meet you in the morning
Just inside the Eastern Gate over there;
I will meet you in the morning
I will meet you in the morning
I will meet you in the morning over there.

O, the joy of that glad meeting,
With the saints who for us wait!
What a blessed, happy meeting,
Just inside the Eastern Gate.

Rev 21:10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

Onward to the prize before us!
Soon His beauty we’ll behold;
Soon the pearly gates will open;
We shall tread the streets of gold.

When we all get to heaven,

What a day of rejoicing that will be!

When we all see Jesus,
We’ll sing and shout the victory!

What Are You Going to Do About Your Problem?

Matthew 27:1-10 (KJV)

¹ When the morning was come, all the chief priests and elders of the people took counsel against Jesus to put him to death:
² And when they had bound him, they led him away, and delivered him to Pontius Pilate the governor.
³ Then Judas, which had betrayed him, when he saw that he was condemned, repented himself, and brought again the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders,
⁴ Saying, I have sinned in that I have betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, What is that to us? see thou to that.
⁵ And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
⁶ And the chief priests took the silver pieces, and said, It is not lawful for to put them into the treasury, because it is the price of blood.
⁷ And they took counsel, and bought with them the potter’s field, to bury strangers in.
⁸ Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.
⁹ Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value;
¹⁰ And gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord appointed me.

I know this is not the season to address the passion of Christ, but it is always the season to look at the condition of the human heart.  The particular man who is the focal point of this passage has been history’s villain.  The traitor.  The betrayer.  Satan personified.  Few people have ever looked on Judas with anything other than disdain and disgust.

Actually, from a purely human standpoint, Judas was a more tragic figure than anything else.  He made a profoundly wrong judgment about Jesus Christ.  He then acted on his flawed assumption by telling the enemies of Jesus where they could find him.  In the process, he made a little money on the side. 

But, something happened between the time Judas betrayed Christ and the outcome of the trial.  Judas was not prepared for the emotional and psychological shock that hit him like a tsunami.  The front door of sin is always appealing; the back door is always revolting.  You can walk in with the greatest of ease and confidence; once entered, you are no longer in charge.  It will chew you up and throw you out the back door. 

Judas said it himself.  “I have sinned.”

David said in the fifty-first Psalm, “Against thee and thee only have I sinned.”  It is not the doing of the sin that is so difficult.  That is just chapter one.  Chapter two is dealing with the sin. 

Now, Judas was forced to deal with what he had done.  What did he do?  He realized his mistake.  He repented, not to God, but to himself.  He came back to the High Priest and offered to give the money back.  This is where the story enters the crucial point.

Some other translations of the Bible put this in very interesting terms. 

Matthew 27:3-5 (MSG)
³ Judas, the one who betrayed him, realized that Jesus was doomed. Overcome with remorse, he gave back the thirty silver coins to the high priests, ⁴ saying, “I’ve sinned. I’ve betrayed an innocent man.” They said, “What do we care? That’s your problem!” ⁵ Judas threw the silver coins into the Temple and left. Then he went out and hung himself.

Matthew 27:3-5 (NIV)
³ When Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus was condemned, he was seized with remorse and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders.
⁴ “I have sinned,” he said, “for I have betrayed innocent blood.” “What is that to us?” they replied. “That’s your responsibility.” ⁵ So Judas threw the money into the temple and left. Then he went away and hanged himself.

So, now we have the true assessment of the aftermath.  There was no sympathy to be found in the voice of the priests.  They couldn’t have cared less about Judas as a person.  In fact, he didn’t really matter to them at all.  Judas was an underling, dispensable.  In their eyes, he was only the means to an end.  He was only a pawn to help them attack Jesus.  Satan does not care about anyone as a person.  He only uses people as throw-away weapons to launch his attack against God.  Satan is no one’s shepherd.  “The Lord is my Shepherd.”

These were the words of the enemies of Christ.  “That’s your problem.”  “That’s your responsibility.”

The question swirling around in the mind of Judas now takes on a different hue altogether.  He wasn’t prepared for this.  He didn’t know that his ambition was leading him to destruction.  He had no clue that his opportunity for advancement, for recognition, for material gain was going to turn into a nightmare.  When the full load of guilt and shame for what he had done descended upon him, the people who schemed to get him into this situation mocked him.  They had neither the desire nor the inclination to get him out of it.

It’s your problem.  Your responsibility.

These are heavy words.  In fact, the reason that this is the crucial point on the story is that the High Priest convinced Judas that it was indeed his problem and his responsibility. 

I submit to you this morning, that the moment Judas saw his sin as his problem and his responsibility, he ended his life.  He had a problem with no solution, a disease with no cure, a dilemma from which there was no escape.  Fear without hope turns into despair.

The truth was that it was not Judas problem.  It was not his responsibility.  That was a lie from Satan.  This was not the point of despair, but the point of faith.  Grace intervenes at the moment you think there is no alternative to your guilt.

Satan may get you to commit the sin.  That’s where you need to stop listening to him.  He knows about sin, but he doesn’t know—or at least he’s not telling—about salvation.  Salvation is not your problem.  Salvation is not your responsibility. 

Romans 5:6-9 (KJV)
⁶ For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
⁷ For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
⁸ But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
⁹ Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

The guilt that so many people wrestle with today is a problem you can’t solve.  You feel responsible for something that has no human solution.  If you continue to think of it as your problem and your responsibility, you are going to act in a way that will destroy your soul.

Sarah

Sarah was rich. She had inherited twenty million dollars. Plus she had an additional income of one thousand dollars a day. That’s a lot of money any day, but it was immense in the late 1800s.

Sarah was rich. Well known. Powerful. And miserable.

Her only daughter had died at five weeks of age. Then her husband had passed away. She was left alone with her name, her money, her memories, … and her guilt.

It was her guilt that caused her to move west. A passion for penance drove her to San Jose, California. Her yesterdays imprisoned her todays, and she yearned for freedom.

She bought an eight-room farmhouse plus one hundred sixty adjoining acres. She hired sixteen carpenters and put them to work. For the next thirty-eight years, craftsmen labored every day, twenty-four hours a day, to build a mansion.

Sarah’s instructions were more than eccentric … they were eerie. The design had a macabre touch. Each window was to have thirteen panes, each wall thirteen panels, each closet thirteen hooks, and each chandelier thirteen globes.

The floor plan was ghoulish. Corridors snaked randomly, some leading nowhere. One door opened to a blank wall, another to a fifty-foot drop. One set of stairs led to a ceiling that had no door. Trap doors. Secret passageways. Tunnels. This was no retirement home for Sarah’s future; it was a castle for her past. The making of this mysterious mansion only ended when Sarah died. The completed estate sprawled over six acres and had six kitchens, thirteen bathrooms, forty stairways, forty-seven fireplaces, fifty-two skylights, four hundred sixty-seven doors, ten thousand windows, one hundred sixty rooms, and a bell tower.

Why did Sarah want such a castle? Didn’t she live alone? “Well, sort of,” those acquainted with her story might answer. “There were the visitors…” And the visitors came each night. Legend has it that every evening at midnight, a servant would pass through the secret labyrinth that led to the bell tower. He would ring the bell…to summon the spirits. Sarah would then enter the “blue room,” a room reserved for her and her nocturnal guests. Together they would linger until 2:00 a.m., when the bell would be rung again. Sarah would return to her quarters; the ghosts would return to their graves.

Who comprised this legion of phantoms? Indians and soldiers killed on the U.S. frontier. They had all been killed by bullets from the most popular rifle in America — the Winchester. What had brought millions of dollars to Sarah Winchester had brought death to them. So she spent her remaining years in a castle of regret, providing a home for the dead. You can see this poltergeist palace in San Jose, if you wish. You can tour its halls and see its remains.

But to see what unresolved guilt can do to a human being, you don’t have to go to the Winchester mansion. Lives imprisoned by yesterday’s guilt are in your own city. Hearts haunted by failure are in your own neighborhood. People plagued by pitfalls are just down the street .. or just down the hall. How many Sarah Winchesters do you know? How far do you have to go to find a soul haunted by ghosts of the past? Maybe not very far.  Maybe Sarah’s story is your story.

[Max Lucado, In the Eye of the Storm, Word Publishing, 1991, pp. 193-195]

1. Guilt and Regret

I counseled a young woman who had an affair, then had a baby, and adopted it out - and has ever since had a compulsive habit of looking into mothers’ strollers and later into the faces of other children - to see if she could recognize the child she gave away. The guilt drove her to attempt suicide several times…

Another woman - a missionary - flew from another country to talk about something she’d done - a sexual adventure - before she married. She’s told the story publicly since, but I’ll spare you the details. The terrible guilt caused her to have several ‘nervous breakdowns’. But in our therapy she decided to ‘come clean’. She wrote it down - plus lots of other junk in her life, read it aloud through her tears, then we burned it up and flushed it down the toilet, while hearing God’s word about casting our sins into the depths of the sea!

1.  Guilt is the collision between transgression and a prepared conscience at the intersection of temptation.

Conscience:  A knowledge of right and wrong ingrained within the mind.

Morals:  Standards of proper human behavior which respect man’s dignity.

Sin:  The violation of the laws of God.

Condemnation:  The judgement of God upon the offender.  (The offender is married to the offense.  The act cannot be separated from the perpetrator.)

Retribution:  Punishment that God gives the offender.

Guilt:  Punishment the offender gives himself.

Romans 1:21-32

21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:

27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;

29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers,

30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,

31 Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful:

32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Rom 3:9-20.

Guilt is the full awareness that sin has been committed—-actually, physically, unalterably—-and it has been entered into the eternal record.

Jeremiah 17:1  The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

Modern thinking has forbidden (repressed, illegitimized, debunked) guilt feelings.  In so doing, it has neutered the act of transgression and scorned the prepared conscience. 

We now have a guiltless society in which people are no longer responsible for their actions.

“Guilt occurs when a person’s actions clash with their value systems; which, in turn, tells them that they have done something which is VERY wrong.  This sounds like a long winded definition for “conscience;” but, it really goes much deeper than that. 

Everyone has a concept of who they are and who they want to be; and, severe guilt can wreak havoc with that self concept.  Sometimes the values have changed for the better, either over time or as the result of some life changing event; other times, due to negligence or a moral lapse, people fail to live up to what are reasonable expectations of him or herself.  When real harm has occurred as the result of this person’s decisions and actions, that they are perfectly justified in feeling that it would be even more wrong to be able to just shrug off what they’ve done. 

       Whether they “should” be able to is a mute point — if they could have, they would have…  Many of the people who contact me have attempted to do exactly that through years of psychotherapy; and, it hasn’t worked for them.  Instead, the personality facet which I refer to as “The Judge” tends to view progress as a form of evidence of a lack of remorse, resulting in a “one step forward, two steps back” situation.”

Value of Guilt

Without guilt, there is no conviction of sin.

Without conviction, there is no repentance.

Without repentance, there is no salvation.

This is where the Acts 2:38 message is so powerful.  (Romans 1:16)

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

The best and healthiest statement a sinner will ever make is, “I am guilty!”

Psalm 51

2.          The “disease” model of sin means

“I have committed no wrong.”

“I am being unjustly criticized.”

“Once an alcoholic, always an alcoholic.  (Bondage of fear.)

The word “disease” means simply “not at ease.”

This leads people to believe that they just need whatever will stop their pain, even for awhile.

Blame shift : “I did it, but they made me do it.”

Rationalize : “I did it, but it wasn’t what you think.”

Sanctify it : “I did it, but God understands and knows I couldn’t really help myself.”

Deny it : “It’s so horrible it must not have happened.”

Grade themselves on the curve : “I did it, but everyone else did too.”

Of course, there are even more active and sometimes violent ways that people try to rid themselves of guilt.  Alcohol, drugs, suicide, nervous breakdowns.

3.          That’s why this has been called the prozac society.  I believe it is because people are trying to handle the problem of guilt without the cross of Jesus Christ.

• It leads to depression. 

4.          Take your guilt by the hand and lead it to Calvary.

Isa 53:4-10 from the NIV

4     Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted.

5     But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

6     We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

10   Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.  (NIV)

       The most significant phrase in this passage is “guilt offering.”  When we say that Jesus died for our sins, we cite the legal, moral and theological positions, but not the emotional one.  We must also understand that Jesus was our “guilt offering” as well.

       This is extremely important to us today.  Converts today come from guilt-laden backgrounds.  They carry the baggage of abortion, adopting out children, self-induced damage from alcohol and drug abuse, divorce, negligent or abusive parenting and other interpersonal relationship dysfunctions.  Many of them linger in the shadows of their wrongdoing long after conversion.  They must see Jesus as the sacrifice who absorbs their guilt feelings as well as their literal transgressions. 

Understand it. 

Accept it. 

Believe it. 

Claim it. 

Rejoice in it. 

Profess it.

5.          Go forward from Calvary.

The Cross is not a wall that we should stop and turn back.

The Cross is a gateway through which we pass to new freedoms!

Phil 3:13-14  Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

I Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.



The Worship Effect

2 Kings 17:15 (KJV) And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies which he testified against them; and they followed vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not do like them.

2 Kings 17:15 (NIV) They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their fathers and the warnings he had given them. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do,” and they did the things the Lord had forbidden them to do.

It is a hallmark of human relationships.  The propensity for an individual to take on the characteristics of those with whom he or she holds close or lives in close proximity is so strong that it is a virtual impossibility to resist.  Whoever a person focuses on, with whomever one enters into a voluntary association, whoever one loves, whoever one worships possesses the keys to one’s very soul.

Patricia Hearst was the granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst.  She was a college student in Berkeley, California when she was kidnapped in February of 1974 by a neo-revolutionary group calling themselves the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). For the next two months, Hearst was kept in a closet and “brainwashed” by the small group of radicals who targeted wealthy capitalists for what they claimed were political reasons.  The SLA publicized a photo of Patty, machine gun in hand, apparently a willing convert to revolution. Under the name “Tania”she participated in the robbery of a San Francisco bank. Instead of a victim, Hearst became a member of the F.B.I.’s Ten Most Wanted List. She was eventually arrested in 1975 and was convicted of bank robbery.  In 1979 her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. The underlying psychological reasons for her surrender to the objectives and philosophies of her captors is called the “Stockholm Syndrome.” 

If this can happen to a person who is taken captive against his or her will, what about the person who willingly and freely enters into a relationship?  If you cannot fend off evil influence through your own defensive reflexes, what happens when you make no effort to resist?  What happens when you start out affirming the thinking of the influencer?  Let me go a step further:  what happens when you worship the influencer? 

Importance of Worship

I submit to you that who or what you worship is the most critical choice you can make in terms of your soul’s destiny.  We have limited the definition of worship as something one does in church or in reference to a deity.  Actually, to worship is to idolize: to love unquestioningly and uncritically or to excess.  It is to venerate as an idol.  “Many teenagers idolized the Beatles.”  It is to possess a feeling of profound love and admiration.

Exodus 20:1-5 (KJV) ¹ And God spake all these words, saying,
² I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
³ Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
⁴ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
⁵ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them.

Look back on these first two commandments.

Some might think they make God seem petulant or small.  After all, if God is God, why would He have to worry about anyone else pretending to be God?

Why should a graven image be a problem to God?  If He created the universe, He should not be intimidated by a statue or a painting, should He? 

This is not about God feeling insecure about who He is.  This is not about God’s self-esteem.  He is not worried about someone else rising up to take His place.

These commandments are given for two primary reasons.  First is the matter of truth; second is the matter of worship.

The truth of the one, true and living God needs to be the clearest, plainest truth in the world!

The Oneness of God

Deuteronomy 6:4-5 (KJV) ⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:
⁵ And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Isaiah 45:5-8 (KJV) ⁵ I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
⁶ That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
⁷ I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
⁸ Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness: let the earth open, and let them bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together; I the LORD have created it.

Isaiah 45:20-22 (KJV) ²⁰ Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.
²¹ Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.
²² Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

Let me state this a plainly as possible:

There is only one God. He exists as one, not as three.  There are not three Gods; there are not three separate and distinct persons in the Godhead; the scripture does not contain the word trinity. 

The scriptures do speak of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  These are not three persons of the Godhead, but three manifestations of the One God! God is Father in Creation; Son in Redemption, and Holy Ghost in Operation.

Jesus declared who He was: 

John 10:30-33 (KJV) ³⁰ I and my Father are one.
³¹ Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.
³² Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me?
³³ The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.

Colossians 2:9-10 (KJV) ⁹ For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
¹⁰ And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

Revelation 1:7-8 (KJV) ⁷ Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.
⁸ I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

These are only a sampling of Bible verses that prove beyond question that there is only one God! 

The Oneness of God is a marvelous truth, but there is another reason why God gave us these first two commandments:

The matter of worship.

God created each person with the innate desire and ability to worship.  Your worship sets the parameters for the entire quality and being of your life.  If there is anything you ought to take personally and seriously, it is your worship and the object of your worship. 

The first place the word worship is mentioned in the bible is the story of Abraham and Isaac.  God had just told Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac on the altar.  Obediently and reverently, Abraham took Isaac up the mountain, fully intending to do exactly as God asked him to do.  He did not tell his son what he was about to do.  Picture it:  A father and a son, trudging their way up the mountain, the father knowing that he would return alone, leaving the slain, charred remains of his only son behind on the pile of stones. 

Did he put his hand tenderly on the shoulder of his son as they climbed?  Did he look longingly at the profile of his son, trying to fix his image in his mind on last time?  Did he leave pieces of his heart along the trail with each step?

Maybe.  Why did he do it?  The key is his statement to his servants:  “I and the lad will go yonder to worship.”  What he was about to do was viewed in the context of worship.  It was not a trial, not a hardship, not an unreasonable demand of an overbearing deity.  It was worship.  (I wonder who would like to attend that worship service?  Who would like to be a part of that worship team?!)

This what true worship does.  It makes you absolutely vulnerable.  It opens you up to the most extreme influence, the most dominating control, the most overpowering effect that can possibly be exerted on an individual.

Jesus set forth a very strict definition of worship.

John 4:21-24 (KJV) ²¹ Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
²² Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
²³ But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
²⁴ God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Worship is not just a matter of being theologically correct.  Worship is not just a matter of music genre, following protocol or having a reverential attitude.  If it is only a matter of saying the right words, assuming the correct posture, staying on beat or singing the right tune, then it become a matter of taste or preference.

Jesus said that worship is a matter of Spirit and Truth!  In other words, you are opening yourself up to influence outside yourself when you worship.  Spiritual transactions and transformations happen in worship.  Your mind, your values, your convictions, your understanding—all these come into play in the act of worship.

This is why it was paramount for Jesus to defeat Satan in the third and final temptation.  It was all about worship effect.

Matthew 4:8-11 (KJV) ⁸ Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
⁹ And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
¹⁰ Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
¹¹ Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him.

If Jesus would have worshipped Satan, He would have lost his identity.  If Jesus would have worshipped Satan, His mission would have been forfeited.  If Jesus would have worshipped Satan, he would have ceded His authority and power to Satan.   Whoever you worship, you confer authority and power to him.  Whoever you worship gains control over you.  If you worship the devil, you give him control over you.  If you worship the flesh, you open yourself up to every evil influence that exists in the world.

Romans 1:21-25 (KJV) ²¹ Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.
²² Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
²³ And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
²⁴ Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:
²⁵ Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

Here are twelve (12) heathen practices that have been introduce into America because America has begun to worship false gods:

1. ENCHANTMENTS – practice of magical arts [Ex. 7:11, 22

2. WITCHCRAFT - practice of dealing with evil spirits [Ex. 22:18

3. SORCERY – same as witchcraft [Ex. 7:11

4. SOOTH-SAYING – same as witchcraft [Isa. 2:6
5. DIVINATION – the art of mystic insight or fortune-telling [Num. 22:7

6. WIZARDRY – same as witchcraft. A wizard is a male and a witch is a female who practices witchcraft. Both were to be destroyed in Israel [Ex. 22:18

7. NECROMANCY – divination by means of pretended communication with the dead [Dt. 18:11; Isa. 8:19

8. MAGIC – any pretended supernatural art or practice [Gen. 41:8, 24
9. CHARM – to put a spell upon. Same as enchantment [Dt. 18:11; Isa. 19:3

10. PROGNOSTICATION – to foretell by indications, omens, signs, etc. [Isa. 47:13
11. OBSERVING TIMES – same as prognostication [ Lev. 19:26

12. ASTROLOGY AND STAR GAZING – divination by stars [Isa.47:13; Jer.10:2; Dan. 1:20
; Dan. 2:2, 10

Now we have the Twilight craze where people claim to be vampires, after the girl “Bella Swan” falls in love with a vampire.  There is are Twilight fan clubs, bite parties and a full line of twilight paraphernalia. 

“They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless.”

Worship God

We have seen how dangerous it is to the soul to open yourself in worship to idolatry or evil.  But that’s not the main objective of this message.  There is another question that begs to be asked.  What happens when a true worshipper begins to worship God in Spirit and in Truth?  I believe something transformational begins to happen.

Meeting Jesus is one thing.  Touching Jesus is another thing.  Worshipping Jesus, living in Jesus, adopting and embracing the mind of Christ is something else.  There is a noticeable effect upon your heart and mind, body and soul.

Acts 4:13 (KJV) ¹³ Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.

It is said that if a husband and wife live together long enough, they begin to look like each other.  I have seen people that begin to look like their dogs.  While it seems like a stretch to believe this, why does it often appear that way?  Because you cannot live in close association with someone without taking on their traits.  When you live in the same house, you go through the same things together.  Same environment, same pressures, same dreams, same plans, same philosophy of life.  Sharing all the same things draws you closer together.

Listen to the 23^rd Psalm in this regard:

Psalms 23:1-6 (KJV) ¹ The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
² He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
³ He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.
⁴ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
⁵ Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
⁶ Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the LORD for ever.

If I dwell in the same house as my LORD, I will start to look like him!

The Apostle Paul

Most of us today recognize Paul as an anointed vessel of God, probably the greatest Christian who ever lived, and the author of over half of the New Testament.  But he was not always accepted this way.  The early church had grave doubts about Paul.  He was the persecutor, the arm of the Jewish religion, the killer and captor of Christians.  People couldn’t believe that such a radical change could happen to him.  Paul had to write to the Galatians and defend himself.

Galatians 1:11-24 (KJV)
¹¹ But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
¹² For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
¹³ For ye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews’ religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and wasted it:
¹⁴ And profited in the Jews’ religion above many my equals in mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.
¹⁵ But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace,
¹⁶ To reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood:
¹⁷ Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and returned again unto Damascus.
¹⁸ Then after three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days.
¹⁹ But other of the apostles saw I none, save James the Lord’s brother.
²⁰ Now the things which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not.
²¹ Afterwards I came into the regions of Syria and Cilicia;
²² And was unknown by face unto the churches of Judaea which were in Christ:
²³ But they had heard only, That he which persecuted us in times past now preacheth the faith which once he destroyed.
²⁴ And they glorified God in me.

Paul was changed from a worshipper of tradition to a worshipper of God.  You cannot worship God without something of God rubbing off on you.  This is not mail-order Christianity.  This Christian-in-name-only religion.

If we worship worthless idols and become worthless ourselves, then something else is true.  If we worship the living God, then he commutes to us his value and worth.

Let’s go back to the definition of worship: “Actually, to worship is to idolize: to love unquestioningly and uncritically or to excess.  It is to venerate as an idol.  It is to possess a feeling of profound love and admiration.”

Worship opens the gate into your soul.  When you worship Jesus, you begin to take in more than just a feeling of exhilaration.  You begin to take on the attributes of Jesus.  You begin to take on the attitudes of Jesus.  You begin to take on the preferences of Jesus.  You begin to sound like Jesus.  You begin to look like Jesus.

I have a message for Apostolic believers this morning.  We have strong, unflinching beliefs.  We call them convictions.  It has to do with the dynamic of worship.

We do not water down the doctrinal message of the Apostles.  Why?  Because we want to worship God in Spirit and in Truth!

We do not compromise our message with other belief systems.  Why?  Listen to the three Hebrews in Babylon:

Daniel 3:17-18 (KJV)
¹⁷ If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.
¹⁸ But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.

We do not change our appearance to conform to the styles and trends of the world.   Why? Psalms 29:1-2 (KJV)
¹ Give unto the LORD, O ye mighty, give unto the LORD glory and strength.
² Give unto the LORD the glory due unto his name; worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

Four times the Bible gives us this directive:  Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

Remember Jehoshaphat?  We remember his as the king who appointed singers.  But what were they singing about?  Holiness!

2 Chronicles 20:21-22 (KJV)
²¹ And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed singers unto the LORD, and that should praise the beauty of holiness, as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the LORD; for his mercy endureth for ever.
²² And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten.

The God effect is not to be taken lightly.  I am profoundly different because of Who I worship!  

1 John 3:1-3 (KJV)
¹ Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.
² Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.
³ And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure.

In the presence of Jehovah
God Almighty, Prince of Peace
Troubles vanish, hearts are mended
In the presence of the King