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[0:00] I want you to open your Bibles to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. My wife sends her regards. She will be with me tomorrow at our Generation Training Center. But our son just had a, well his wife, just had a baby last week.

[0:15] And so she is doing grandma duty. And she is enjoying every minute of it. Yesterday, my daughter-in-law, my wife, her mom, a bunch of women were over the house.

[0:31] And my son, he was gone somewhere. Man, there was just way too much estrogen flying through the house at that point. And I said, I'm going to go outside and find something to do. Amen.

[0:41] But it's great to be here. Hopefully, by the time we leave Sunday night, we'll say we've met with God.

[0:52] And that's the most important thing, right? It's not about me. It's not about you. It's about him. And what he can do in our lives and with our lives. And I just want these next few days to really be a blessing to you.

[1:05] I know it will be a blessing to me. Luke chapter 4, verse 16. If you found your place and you're able, I'm just going to ask you to stand with me while we read our text for this evening.

[1:17] Luke chapter 4, verse 16. The Bible says, And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read.

[1:29] And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it is written. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.

[1:42] He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, and set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.

[1:55] And he closed the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him. And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.

[2:09] And all bear him witness and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son? I want to preach a message tonight.

[2:21] A message to those who know him best. This is a message to those who know him best. Let's pray together. Father, we just come to you now and we thank you so much for your love.

[2:32] Thank you for the privilege of being in the house of God this evening. Lord, thank you for the songs that have been sung. And Lord, for the testimonies that have been given. But now, Lord, we open your word and we ask for your blessing.

[2:45] We ask for your wisdom. We ask for your guidance. We ask for your power. And God, I just pray that you would use this message to be an encouragement to those that are here, to those that will hear the word of God.

[2:58] Father, I pray that we would see, Lord, ourselves here and what we need. In this passage of scripture. And Lord, I just pray that you would just, again, guide and direct.

[3:10] And we'll be careful to praise and thank you for what you do in this service. In Jesus' name. Amen. Please be seated. Jesus is in his hometown.

[3:21] Nazareth. He spent much time there, growing up there. And he's in the synagogue and he's teaching. And he had just recently returned to Galilee after being tempted in the wilderness by the devil.

[3:35] Verse 14 tells us that he returns in the power of the Spirit of God. And he preached and taught in the synagogue around Galilee. And again, he's back home.

[3:46] He's back where people that knew him would be in the synagogue that knew him and maybe saw him grow up. Amen. He stood up and the minister gave him the scroll.

[3:58] That was the book of Isaiah. Isaiah the prophet. You know, Jesus is the word of God, right? And he probably didn't need the scroll is my point.

[4:09] Right? Because he is the author of the word of God. You know, and he opened the scroll to what we call today Isaiah 61. And he turned in that so that the people could see.

[4:24] He used the scroll so that people could see that he was quoting what was considered to be the scriptures. Right? And he read Isaiah chapter 61 verses 1 and 2. Again, what we call. He closes the scroll.

[4:35] He gives it back to the minister and he sat down. And he begins to teach. He says, I am the fulfillment of this prophecy. This prophecy that we just read in the book of Isaiah.

[4:50] You're looking at the fulfillment of that prophecy. And the people are amazed because they knew Jesus was the carpenter's son. He's Joseph's son in their mind anyway.

[5:02] You know. Joseph was raised. This is the carpenter's son. They were amazed at the gracious words that he spoke with. The sad truth is though that most of the people in Nazareth rejected him.

[5:17] They didn't follow him. They didn't want to follow him. Before he leaves the synagogue, he got everybody upset with him. They're all mad at him.

[5:28] As a matter of fact, they wanted to kill him by the end of the chapter. Read the rest of the chapter and they had had enough. Later in the Bible we read that he could not do many miracles or not many mighty works in Nazareth because of their unbelief.

[5:43] Because they did not accept him. Because they did not believe on him. Again, the Bible tells us that Jesus fulfilled the scriptures in many ways. I mean, the Old Testament is pointing towards the cross.

[5:54] We read the New Testament and Jesus was the fulfillment of the prophecies. And the Jews today are still looking for their Messiah to come. Today I want us to see how Jesus can fill this prophecy in our lives personally.

[6:09] You know, it's a prophecy for the nation of Israel, yes. But it is also what Jesus can do for you and I in our lives today.

[6:20] I want you to turn back to Isaiah chapter 61 now. Turn to Isaiah 61. We're going to read the passage that Jesus quoted in Isaiah 61.

[6:30] In verse number 1. The Bible says, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me. Because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek.

[6:43] He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. To proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening of prison to them that are bound. To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God.

[6:56] To comfort all that mourn. To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion. To give unto them beauty for ashes. Oil for joy. Excuse me.

[7:08] Oil of joy for mourning. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. That they might be called trees of righteousness. The planting of the Lord. That he might be glorified.

[7:21] First of all, Jesus said, The Bible talks about him having the anointing. The anointing of God on his life. Jesus had the spirit of God's anointing on him.

[7:34] It rested upon him on his baptism, right? John saw the spirit descending as a dove upon him. John the Baptist understood that that was the Messiah.

[7:44] That's the one that they were looking for. He returned into Galilee to go into that synagogue. The Bible again says that he went in the power of the Holy Spirit.

[7:57] Because of the anointing, he was sent to preach the gospel. Sent to preach the gospel. Good tidings to the meek. To those that were willing to admit they had a need in their life.

[8:09] To those that were willing to admit they had sin in their life. Amen. It's still the same today. The gospel is for those who are willing to say. It's for all people. We understand that. But we need to be willing to admit and say and agree with God.

[8:23] I'm wrong. I'm wrong. I need to be forgiven of my sin in my life. He wasn't sent to preach to the people that had their own self-righteousness.

[8:37] There's a lot of people like that. I mean, I'm not saying the self-righteous can't be saved. But what I'm saying is, is in our pride. In our pride, our human pride.

[8:47] We want to be able to earn our way somehow to heaven. We want to be able to do some good work or do something. But the gospel says, hey man, you can't do it.

[8:59] But Jesus did it for us. Jesus did it for us. He paid the price of our sin. At his birth, the angels declared to the shepherds that they brought good tidings of great joy.

[9:10] The Savior was born. Hey, the gospel is the best news I ever received in my life. And I hope you can say today, that's the best news that you ever received in your life.

[9:22] I hope you can say, yes, I've received the gospel. I've, by faith, put my faith in Jesus Christ and believe in the grace of God. And I'm saved today. Now, I hope you know that.

[9:32] You say, oh, preacher, it's a midweek service. Yeah, yeah, I understand that. But you know what? I don't know your heart. And you could be sitting here on a Thursday night, midweek service, man, the core of the church.

[9:46] And be lost and on your way to hell. You can have everybody in this room fooled. You can have the pastor fooled. But you don't have God fooled.

[9:56] And right now, the Holy Spirit may be putting his finger on you and saying, you know what? He's talking about you. We can fool people.

[10:09] Right? We can fool people, but we can't fool God. The gospel in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, verses 1 through 4. Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.

[10:30] For I delivered unto you, first of all, that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried and rose again the third day, according to the Scriptures.

[10:43] Again, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You know, he paid for our sin by his death. He was buried, and man, he rose again to confirm to you and I that someday, hey, we're going to rise.

[10:57] Our bodies are going to rise. Amen? To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Hey, someday, if you know Christ as your Savior, you've received the gospel, you're going to heaven. Amen?

[11:08] Thank the Lord for that. Amen. Because of the anointing on Jesus, he fulfilled the prophecy of preaching good tidings, or the gospel, to the meek.

[11:19] Because of the anointing, he came to heal the brokenhearted. He came to heal the brokenhearted. Those whose hearts have been crushed.

[11:32] Those whose spirits have been hurt. The brokenhearted in this world. We say, well, when we get saved, we're convicted of our sin, and our hearts were broken over our own guilt.

[11:46] Amen? Hopefully that's the case. We know that we're guilty before God. We've been healed of that guilt of our sin by the suffering of Christ. Amen. 1 Peter 2, verse 24.

[11:57] Thank God I've been healed from the guilt of my sin.

[12:13] I hope you have too. We've been healed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We can thank God that we have been healed from our brokenness. But we can also thank the Lord for healing our broken hearts over pain and loss.

[12:29] He's the healer of broken hearts, my friend. He didn't come to help you and I stuff our pain. He didn't come to help you hide the hurts in your life.

[12:45] Well, just don't tell anybody about it. You know, don't discuss it. Don't, you know. And sometimes, you know what? We have been hurt so bad that sometimes we hide those things, even try to hide them from God.

[13:03] Try to hide our hurts from the Lord. Friend, He came to heal your hurts. He came to heal your broken heart. He wants to heal your pain.

[13:15] But He can't heal what you conceal. If you're busy hiding your hurts and your pain from God, in other words, you're not willing to go to Him and have a conversation.

[13:31] We hold on to Him. We stuff those feelings. We stuff those hurts. We don't want to try to hide them from God. Friend, God could be dealing with you about some things that you need to go to Him and say, Lord, this hurts.

[13:46] This hurts. I need you to heal me. That's what He's called, the healer of broken hearts. See, the church, in general, is supposed to be on offense, right?

[14:01] We're supposed to be going forward. We're supposed to be taking ground from the devil. Jesus said that the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church. Amen? That's an offensive posture that you and I are in.

[14:12] We're in a war. We're not riding in a cruise ship. We're riding in a battleship. I get all that. I understand that. And we're supposed to be going forward. But when you're in any battle, you're in any war, whether it be spiritual or be physical, people are going to get wounded.

[14:30] People are going to get hurt. There's going to be casualties in the battle, right? There's going to be casualties in the war. Our military has a saying, leave no man, no woman behind, no person left behind, right?

[14:42] The problem is, is so often the church is so focused on going forward that we don't stop to pick up those that have been wounded.

[14:55] We leave them on the battlefield so often, friend. We've got to stop doing that. We've got to start ministering. I am so grateful that you guys are going to start that grief share program.

[15:07] There are people that are hurting all around this church. There are Christians that are hurting in this church. Friend, we've got to start ministering to those that are hurting, not just bleeding on the battlefield any longer.

[15:26] Stop. Mend them up. Get them back to health so that they can get back in the battle, so that they can get back to serving God, so that they can get back to doing what God wants them to do.

[15:36] But friend, if you're somebody that's hurting, you're somebody that's going through a difficult time, you've got some hurts that you've stuffed, can I tell you something? Why don't you just come clean with God?

[15:49] Come clean with God and say, you know what, Lord? This really hurts, and I need you to heal me. I need you to heal my heart. I need you to heal the hurts that have gone on in my life.

[16:00] Amen. And then allow the Lord to do it. Again, if we're unwilling to go to God and to talk to Him about it, should we have the expectation that He's going to heal us from it?

[16:15] Because of the anointing, He sets the captives free. We've been made free from the bondage of sin. Sin doesn't have rule over us anymore. Amen. Thank the Lord for that. But we still sin, don't we?

[16:26] Amen. It should just not control our lives. We should not go ahead and yield ourselves to sin. To the flesh. We should yield ourselves to the Spirit of God.

[16:38] John chapter 8, verse 36, If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. We no longer are controlled by sin, but by the Spirit of God.

[16:49] At least we should be. We need to yield to the Spirit and the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Hey, are you being held captive? By your past?

[17:03] You know, Jesus deals, and the Holy Spirit deals in conviction. Not guilt. And there's a difference. I have been forgiven of all my sin.

[17:16] Past, present, and future. Right? I've been forgiven. Now, when the Lord convicts me about a sin, I need to come to God, and I need to ask God to forgive me. Right? Ask God to forgive me so that my fellowship with Him will be in right relationship.

[17:29] That my fellowship with the Father will be in right relationship. But you know what? Again, we need to be people that are willing to confess and forsake our sin.

[17:40] But you know what? When we start thinking about those things that we did in the past, those sins that we've done in the past, and we dwell on those, you're not walking in the Spirit, friend.

[17:52] You're walking in the flesh. You are yielding. You're yielding to the flesh. Because the Lord has forgiven you, and He forgets.

[18:04] He forgets that sin, that thing that you keep beating yourself up over with. Right? Guys with me? We need to be willing to yield to the Spirit of God.

[18:22] And when God convicts us, we need to ask the Lord to forgive us. But man, if you've been forgiven of something, and you keep bringing it up, or the devil keeps throwing it in your face, you need to remind yourself that you've been forgiven of that.

[18:36] Remind yourself that the Lord's not, it's not the Lord that's bringing it up. It's the devil that's bringing it up. Or it's yourself just going ahead and, well, I feel like feeling guilty today, so I'll just go ahead and start thinking about all the stuff I've done wrong.

[18:52] Amen. Because of the anointing, He brings comfort to those that mourn. You know, there's nothing like the comfort of the Holy Ghost, the comfort of the Spirit of God.

[19:04] He is with us every day of every moment. You're saved. The Spirit of God lives inside you. He dwells inside you. Jesus said, My Father and I are going to take up our abode in you.

[19:15] We've got the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost with us every single day. The Spirit of God will bring us comfort in our darkest of times. Those times when we mourn over our sin, those times when we mourn over our loss.

[19:28] The Spirit of God is the comforter. That's His ministry. That's what God, Jesus said, I'm going to send you another comforter. And that's His ministry in our life.

[19:39] 2 Corinthians 1, verses 3 and 4, the Bible says, Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.

[19:58] Because of the anointing, we receive good tidings. He heals our broken heart. We have freedom from sin, and He gives us comfort. Are you living in the comfort of God today?

[20:10] Are you allowing the Spirit of God to comfort your heart? Again, if your heart's been broken, ask Jesus to heal it, and talk to the Spirit of God. Talk to the Holy Ghost.

[20:21] Say, comfort me, Lord. I need your comfort at this time in my life. When your life's falling apart, friend, and you've got heartache, you've got pain, and you've got problems in your life, we need the comfort of God.

[20:35] And we need to cry out to God and say, Lord, help me. Lord, I need you. I need your comfort at this time. Then I want us to see that there's an exchange.

[20:46] Again, in Isaiah 61 of verse 3, the Bible says, Now Jesus stops quoting right there.

[21:05] He stopped quoting halfway through verse 2. He didn't continue as he was in the synagogue talking, because these things that we just read are going to happen in Israel for the nation of Israel when Christ comes back during the millennial reign.

[21:23] All these things are going to take place. But you and I, as the children of God today, also have available to us all these things that Christ is going to do someday for the nation of Israel right now.

[21:36] Now, he will do these things in our lives if we will allow him to. Again, the exchanging beauty for ashes. The Lord can take a life that is a wreck and turn it into something beautiful.

[21:48] Amen. He can take a life that's falling apart. He can get it back up and get you going and make something beautiful out of it. Many of you may have been shipwrecked by sin at one time in your life.

[22:03] Sin and strife ruled your life. The Lord made you a new creature in Christ. Amen. Praise the Lord. Now, your life is a thing of beauty to the Lord.

[22:19] Oh, man. That's an exchange I like. I like that. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Again, old things are passed away.

[22:32] My life is changed. All things are become new. Old things are passed away. All my old sin, all my old hurt, all those things, I need to put in a rearview mirror. It's been forgiven.

[22:45] Amen. I've been forgiven. Don't live under guilt any longer because why? I'm a new creature in Christ. All things have become new. I mean, you remember when you first got saved?

[22:57] I mean, the Bible came alive to you. Your spirit came alive. I mean, things changed, right? I mean, things changed in your life. You became a new creature. The Lord can take those horrible circumstances and turn them for good.

[23:11] Romans 8, 28. And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. I told you this before. There was a time in my life I, I don't want to say I hated that verse, but it never brought comfort to me.

[23:26] When we were going through our trials with Johnny and we were going through all the things that we were going through, especially people love to quote this to us when Johnny was first born. And it wasn't a help. It was a punch in the gut more than anything.

[23:40] I know the truth of Scripture. I know that that verse is in there. The Bible does not say that all things that happen to you are good. Okay? It doesn't say that all things that happen to you are good.

[23:52] But what it says is, is that someday, someday, it may not be today, it may not be tomorrow, it might not be next week or next year, but someday, God can bring good out of whatever horrible things have happened in your life.

[24:08] And only God can do that. Only God can turn things around for you. I can look back now and thank God for all the operations, all the tears that were shed the whole time we were raising Johnny, amen?

[24:23] All the times that we were just worried and heart sick. Again, this verse wasn't a comfort to us at that time. But now I can look back and say, boy, I see all the good that he's been working out.

[24:37] And the reason why I'm here today is because God took those hard situations, those horrible things, and turned them into good. The heartache, the pain.

[24:49] And today, hey, it's good. I thank the Lord for it. Can't wait to see Johnny someday. Your circumstances may not be good today, but the Lord can change what is bad into something good.

[25:01] Exchange beauty for ashes. Then the oil of joy for mourning. Oil represents the Holy Ghost in the Word of God. The Spirit of God is the comforter. Our times of mourning can be changed into joy by the power of the Holy Ghost.

[25:17] We mourn again over our sin. The Spirit reminds us that we have been saved by the grace of God. When we mourn over the loss, the Spirit will comfort us in our time of need.

[25:29] John chapter 14, verses 26 and 27. But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

[25:42] Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. The peace of God is available in all our situations.

[25:56] Problems aren't going to go away. It doesn't change your situation. It just changes our attitude. It changes our heart because we know we have the peace. Lord, I don't like what I'm going through.

[26:09] This hurts. This is hard. But you know what? I've got peace. Because whatever the outcome may be, I know, Lord, that someday, somewhere, down the road, it's going to work for my good.

[26:24] I can live with that peace. I can have that peace. There's peace available to us in the midst of our troubles and our trials. Jesus has been sent again to heal our broken hearts through the ministry of the Holy Ghost.

[26:39] Exchange the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. You may be here right now and you're carrying a heavy load. I mean, you've got a heavy load on you.

[26:50] There's some things that you're carrying maybe nobody else in this room knows about. Maybe nobody else that you know knows anything about the load that you are carrying. There could be worry, fear, anxiety over situations in your life.

[27:04] You know, it's easy to quote 2 Timothy 1.7, right? Well, God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of a sound mind. So what are you worried about? What are you afraid of?

[27:15] All you need to do is just pray a little harder. Work a little bit more. Again, this is another one of those passages of Scripture that you go, you go, I know it's there, but sometimes it just doesn't change the situation.

[27:32] It won't change your situation. Hey friend, there's fearful times in our lives. There are times where we really are worried about a situation.

[27:44] You know, I always, you know, we're not supposed to, we're not supposed to live under fear, and I get that, I understand that. But you know what, there's times in my life, I've been worried, I've been afraid. Not what was going to happen to me, but what might happen to my son, my wife, other people in my life, what might happen down the road.

[28:05] our son just had that baby, right? His wife just had that baby. Well, you know what I mean. I get PTSD every time one of my kids had a baby. Every time that their wives went into labor, or they were going to be in delivery, I got PTSD, man, because of the delivery of our son changed everything, right?

[28:30] And when Johnny was born, I was in the delivery room, and you know, it was just, and again, I hope you all guys understand, Johnny was never a burden in our life.

[28:40] He was a blessing. He was a blessing. But, but, when he was born with all these problems, man, every time my daughter-in-laws went into labor, I worried.

[28:52] I'll just be honest with you. I worried. I worried. There are times in our lives that can be worrisome. Fear can grip our hearts, and we can have a spirit of heaviness.

[29:05] David says in Psalm 56, verse 3, what time I am afraid, I will trust in thee. People say fear and faith cannot coexist.

[29:17] If you don't have any, if you don't have faith, there'll be fear, and if you have fear, there's no faith. Can I tell you something? Fear, fear, worry, anxiety, should be met with our faith.

[29:32] Remember when Job, his sons, when they'd get together on their day and invite their daughters, what would he do?

[29:42] He'd go and sacrifice, right? And then later in the book of Job, it says that, that that which he was afraid of happened. But his fear, he met his fear, that what he was afraid of, he met that fear with his faith because he went to God.

[30:00] And friend, when you feel fear, just like David, when I'm afraid, I will trust in him. When you're afraid, let your fear be met with your faith. In other words, go to God.

[30:11] Go to the Lord in prayer. Again, your situation probably isn't going to change, but you know what? You're admitting to the Lord you're afraid and Lord, I need your help.

[30:23] I need you. I'm going to trust you through whatever lies ahead in my life. 1 Thessalonians 4, verses 16 through 18 says, The Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first.

[30:41] 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. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.

[30:52] You know what? Grief and joy. Two opposites, right? But they can come together at the cross.

[31:04] Because if you're saved, your loved one's saved, when Johnny passed away, the day that he passed away, it was the worst day of my life, worst day of my wife's life, but I'm going to tell you something, friend, when I was in his room holding his dead body, crying and weeping, there was joy in my heart for just a short period of time for him.

[31:28] Because he had been praying and asking the Lord to take him home. He knew he was saved. He knew where he was going. But joy and grief came together. You see, and that can only happen because of what the Lord's done in our lives, right?

[31:41] The world doesn't have that hope. The world doesn't have that hope, friend. Even when a saved loved one has gone to heaven, we can have the garment of praise, knowing that we'll see them again.

[31:54] Jesus was anointed, excuse me, and he made an exchange. And then the exaltation in verse number three, to appoint them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called the trees of righteousness, the planning of the Lord, that he might be glorified.

[32:17] Man, there's a testimony of strength when we've trusted God. There's a testimony of strength when we've allowed the Lord to do a work in our lives.

[32:28] When we have received the gifts of Christ's anointing and the experience, the exchanging, there's going to be a testimony of exalting. We will be testimonies of the Lord's strength.

[32:39] The world's going to look at us and marvel. Marvel that we are able to endure some of the heartache, endure some of the pain that we go through.

[32:51] They will marvel at God's strength in you, not your strength. Now they might think you have that strength, but that's when you have to turn around and say, no, no, that's not me.

[33:02] That's the Lord I serve. He's given me the strength to go through whatever it is we're going through. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 20, Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us.

[33:18] Again, people are going to think that we're strong, but we know that it's the Lord that's doing the work in our lives. We exalt the Lord by exhibiting his power and his strength that he might be glorified.

[33:35] All that we do is to be to the glory of God. Man, especially, especially when he strengthens us in our trials. Every one of us in this room, if we've named the name of Christ, amen, we've let other people know that I'm a child of God.

[33:50] You've got people watching you and they're going to put you under the microscope, man. And when they see you going through trials, that's where the rubber meets the road because everybody's got problems.

[34:03] Everybody's got heartache. And they're going to be watching you to see, is your God real to you now? Oh, he's a great God when, you know, the bills are paid and no one's sick and the car's running good and there's no problems.

[34:19] I mean, hey, man, he's a great God, right? Oh, but now when the car's broke down and one of your kids is sick or you can't pay your bills, you don't know what's going, what you're going to do, it's frustrating and everything like that.

[34:31] That's when people watch you because we need to react with the power of God, with the strength of the Lord, not worrying and rubbing our hands, what am I going to do, what am I going to do?

[34:42] I don't know, I don't know what I'm going to do but I know God's going to do something. Amen? Have some faith in God. Romans chapter 5, verses 3 through 5 says, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh patience and that patience experience and experience hope and hope maketh not a shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

[35:11] Hey, God will be glorified in our tribulation when he helps us by his power. God's power and love is on display in the midst of our trials.

[35:25] His power and his love. Our problem is a lot of times when we go through problems, we don't think God loves us. Why are you letting this happen to me?

[35:38] Oh friend, no, no, no, no, no. God's strength and his power will be shown. His comfort will be shown to you. All these things that God has, all these things that the Lord wants to show you in the midst of your trial so that you can take that information or that blessing and share it with somebody else.

[35:58] Help someone else down the road. It's not our power, but his power and we need to give him the glory. Jesus came to those who knew him best.

[36:11] in the synagogue in Nazareth. You and I born again, saved, we should know him best.

[36:27] We should be people that are very familiar with him. Very familiar with his work. Hey, most of the people in Nazareth rejected him.

[36:38] He didn't do many miracles there. Today we are assembled in the name of Jesus Christ. Where two or three are gathered together.

[36:51] The Bible says he is in the midst. He's here right now. We are the people that should know him best. The first question is, have you accepted his anointing?

[37:05] Have you accepted the gospel? Have you received Jesus Christ as your savior? Most important question anybody's ever going to ask you. The answer to that question is the most important answer you'll ever give.

[37:19] Have you accepted his anointing? Have you allowed him to heal you from your sin? And then my friend, have you acknowledged your pain? Have you acknowledged some hurt that's inside you to the Lord?

[37:36] not saying go and find somebody and just bare your soul to them. If there's somebody that you know you're confident enough for them that you could sit down and talk to them about something and that they pray for you and not tell anybody else about it, then hey, have that conversation.

[37:55] But you should have first have that conversation with the Lord. Heal my broken heart. Heal me, Lord. Are you living in the freedom that Jesus gives?

[38:07] Free from sin and free from the load of past hurts? As a comforter abiding in your heart, hey, do you have that peace today, child of God? Are we living an anxious, worrisome life?

[38:21] Have you experienced the exchanging in your life? Hey, beauty for ashes. Has there been a change in your life since you've been saved? Are you allowing him to take your failures and your horrible circumstances and make them something beautiful?

[38:40] Oil of joy for mourning. Know that you've been forgiven today. I mean, know it. Know that you've been forgiven. Live in the light of God's forgiveness.

[38:52] Don't live under the guilt of things you've already been forgiven for. Allow the comforter to bring you peace and joy. The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.

[39:03] You carrying a heavy load today, child of God? Life can bring fear. Life can bring anxiety. Troubles can be a source of God's power and strength.

[39:17] Remember the apostle Paul? Hated his thorn, right? Asked God three times to take it away from him. He prayed and asked the Lord to remove it, remove it, remove it.

[39:29] And then God said, my grace is sufficient for thee, Paul. And Paul went from hating that thorn to embracing that thorn because he realized it was the source of the power of Christ in his life.

[39:47] And Paul served the Lord the rest of his life with whatever that problem was. God didn't take it away, but he gave him the grace to deal with it in his life. God are you being a testimony of God's strength today?

[40:06] Other people around you know that, hey, you're trusting God in the midst of something difficult. Give him the glory and don't reject all that he came to do. Don't stop Christ from doing some miracles in your life.

[40:22] believe him. Trust him today. You know him best, man. You know him best. You're his children. You're his brothers and sisters, if you will.

[40:37] You're the children of God. And you need to be able to trust him with everything and don't have a spear of unbelief in your life so that the Lord isn't able to do some miracles for you.

[40:54] Hey, some of you guys have got some big, big challenges ahead of you. You need to be someone that's trusting God today. Amen. Father, we thank you for this time.

[41:06] We thank you, Lord, that you heal broken hearts, you save souls, you change lives, and Lord, you do so much for us. Father, tonight, maybe you've spoken to some hearts.

[41:23] Maybe there's people that have got some real deep hurts that, Lord, they've not ever really talked to you about. Or maybe there's some challenges that people are going through.

[41:36] They're carrying a heavy load right now, or maybe tonight they just need to take the load to you and show it to you and come clean with you. Maybe people are living under the guilt of their past sin, and Lord, can't seem to get by, can't seem to get past it.

[41:54] Lord, I pray that tonight they realize that's not conviction, that's not coming from you, that's coming from the devil, or it's coming from himself. Lord, we've covered a lot of ground here this evening, but Lord, you've done so much for us.

[42:09] And I pray that tonight we leave here knowing that Lord, you have done a work in our lives and that Lord, we can just trust you.

[42:21] Why? Because we know you best. We know you best. Father, I just pray now you just do a work in Christ's name. Let us come You Whew.

[42:32]  Your demonic meaning what? You Weil, come notice that that you want to laugh as parts you said you have said a