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so Good evening and welcome to our
Wednesday evening prayer meeting. Good to see everyone here. Obviously, I am not pastor. He is, I know, it's crazy. Here we go. Get a little bit
taller there. He is on a trip with Christopher,
and so they're taking a trip the next couple days. He will
be back on Sunday morning, but we'll pray for him and Christopher
in a little bit, pray for safety traveling and safety on their
trip. But again, it's good to see everyone. It's good to now
have, you know, I think the conference went well, but it's good to be
post-missions conference and be able to relax a little bit.
Amen. But can we go ahead and stand together as we open the
service? We're going to sing the song
Seekers of Your Heart. ♪ We are seekers of your heart
♪ ♪ Lord we want to know you ♪ ♪ Live our lives to show you
♪ ♪ All the love we owe you ♪ ♪ We are seekers of your heart ♪ Heavenly
Father, Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you so much,
Lord, for allowing us to be here this evening, allowing us to
come and have a service where we emphasize prayer and, Lord,
we emphasize, Lord, communing with you and, Lord, being able
to come into your presence, Lord, being welcome in your presence.
I pray, Lord, that as we meet together this evening, Lord,
that everything we do will be honoring and glorifying to you,
Lord, that it will be Christ-centered, Lord, that you will be the one
lifted up, you will be the one to be praised and to be glorified.
And I do pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Turn your attention to the screens
again or turn your handbook to hymn number 21. Hymn number 21,
O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing. We're going to sing all five
verses. Hymn number 21. O for a thousand
tongues to sing, my great Redeemer, ♪ The glories of my God and King
♪ ♪ The triumphs of His grace ♪ ♪ Jesus, the name that churns
our fears ♪ ♪ That bids our sorrows cease ♪ ♪ Tis music in the sinner's
ear ♪ ♪ Tis life and health and peace ♪ He breaks the fire of
canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the
palace clean, His blood availed for me. Hear Him, ye deaf, His
praise ye dumb, Your lucent tongues employ, Ye blind, behold your
Savior come, And lead ye lame for joy. ♪ My gracious master
and my God ♪ ♪ Assist me to proclaim ♪ ♪ To spread through all the
earth abroad ♪ ♪ The honors of thy name ♪ Good singing tonight. Turn now, if you would, to hymn
number 143. Hymn number 143. This is My Father's World, 143. This is my father's world, and
to my listening ears, all nature sings and round me rings the
music of the sphere. This is my father's world, I
rest me of rocks and trees, of skies
and seas, his hand his wonders wrought. This is my father's
world. The birds, their carols raise. The morning light, the lily white
declares. This is my Father's world He
shines and all that's fair In the right dress I dare Him pass
He speaks to me everywhere This is my Father's world Oh, let
me wear your gown Take a few moments and show yourselves
friendly. We've got a great group here
tonight. Thank you so much. so All right, thank you so much. As you're getting back to your
seats, if you turn your hymn book again to hymn number 70,
I don't know if it's 76 or 78, I gotta look again. It's hymn
number 76. Hymn number 76. Jesus is the
sweetest name I know. Jesus is the sweetest name I
know. And he's just the same as his
lovely name. And that's the reason why I love
him so. Oh, Jesus is the sweetest name
I know. We'll sing it again. Jesus is
the sweetest name I know. And He's just the same as His
holy name. And that's the reason why I love
Him so. Lord Jesus is the sweetest name
I know. Amen. You may be seated. All
right. A couple announcements for this
evening before we pray for the tithes and the offerings. The
fall breakout sessions start tonight. And so I hope you're
ready. If you're planning to go to How
to Help Hurting Hearts, that's with Aaron Petrie, he'll be in
room 101. And then the ladies group, What Do I Know About My
God, will be with Miss Melanie Wiesner in room 203. So that's
all the way at the end of the hall, we will dismiss those after
prayer time tonight. I'm saying this so that if I
start going and introducing the speaker after prayer time, you
know to stop me and have me dismiss people, okay? But we'll dismiss
those right after the prayer time. There's a new members class
starting this Sunday morning at 9 a.m. If you have any questions
about that tonight, you can see Brother Frank Wiesner, or you
can see Pastor Wynn, he gets Home? Doesn't it seem like we're
just constantly having new members classes? Amen. We're also seemingly
constantly having baptism service. I talked to a pastor today. He
says we're going to have another one soon. And so praise the Lord
for that. Praise the Lord for souls being
saved. I talked to Sam Mendoza right before the service, and
he said he had a chance to talk to someone today that was working
at his house and lead him to the Lord. And so praise the Lord
for God doing a mighty work in our area. Next, we have a baby
shower for Baby Griner. This is Saturday, October 12th.
You can RSVP with my wife, Kayla Kaufman, or on the church app. And so, I do know that a couple
of you already have RSVP'd on the church app, so you can make
good use of that. And just a note here, Tiffany is registered at
Target and Walmart. Next, Pastor always loved this
when we announced this. October is Pastor Appreciation
Month. And so to take this time, listen,
Pastor does a lot. It's a lot of nights when someone
goes to the hospital or something happens and he spends all night
out and then he's still here the next morning. He's still
at church the next morning. He's still preaching the next
Sunday. There's a lot that you don't see that he does and he
spends a lot of hours doing it. Listen, our pastor is worthy
of our appreciation. and we have a pastor who loves
our congregation, and let's take this month, and as God would
just have you to show your appreciation, show your appreciation in that
way, let's make sure that our pastor knows that we love him,
all right? And then last but not least,
the new church directory. You can sign up in the foyer
or you can sign up online Monday through Friday. So in the foyer
on the weekends, on Sunday, and then online Monday through Friday. The new dates for that, again,
are November 22nd. From 3 to 8 p.m.. Or november
23rd. It's a friday and a saturday
from that so the saturday is 10 a.m.. To 4 p.m.. Now if there's some of you who
have already talked to me and the first dates didn't work and
the second dates don't work well if That is you Let me know, and
we'll get you on a list, take your picture, and I'll do some
nice, fun Photoshop work, and we'll make it look like you still
got your picture taken, okay? And so we will get that, we'll
get you in the photo directory one way or another. But you need
to, if for some reason you can't just expect us to know to come
to you, you need to come see me. And we will take care of
that and make sure that you still get into Now, here's one thing
I will say, if you come to me and you say, listen, I don't
have any hair, can you add hair? I'm not adding hair to people's
heads, okay? Sorry, sorry, sorry, okay? But I'm excited, listen,
I'm excited to have a church directory simply for the fact
that Four years ago, most of you weren't here. And so it seems
like there's a lot of people who have come recently. And as
we've talked to many of you already, it's hard to know the names of
so many people who are new. And so this is a way for us to
really get to know people, even just like, OK. I have a face
to the name and a name to the face. And so it'll really help
us to get to know each other, know people's names, and really
become even more like a family. At this time, I'm going to go
ahead and, Brother Barry Halstead, can you go ahead and stand and pray that God would bless the
tithes and the offerings that are given this evening? I pray that God would
bless the tithes and the offerings that are given this evening. I pray that God would bless the
tithes and the offerings that are given this evening. I pray
that God would bless the tithes and the offerings that are given
this evening. of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
We ask this in the precious name of Christ Jesus. Amen. You. I love you, Lord. Amen. What a great song and a great
reminder. Lord, we need to lift our voices
and let it be a sweet, sweet sound in the ear of the Lord. Listen, last week, and we're
going to come to our time of prayer in just a moment, so if
we can get our microphones ready. Last week was a big week. It was a full week. But it was
a week, I think, that truly honored and glorified the Lord. If you
look behind me, you can see the Bibles in front, the Bibles and
the flags in the back. Listen, all of this that you
see in the auditorium, on Sunday, It's not going to be in the auditorium
anymore. We're going to move beyond the conference. But at
the same time, moving beyond the conference does not mean
we're moving beyond missions. The missions conference is the
start of the year. Now, at the end of the conference,
we are able to share, and I want to share this as a praise for
the missions conference. At the end of the conference,
we were able to share the goal for the Missions Conference for
Faith Promise was $108,000. And praise the Lord, at the end
of the Missions Conference, as far as Faith Promise was concerned,
the congregation had pledged and had promised to give, and
praise the Lord for this, $111,000. And so I want to give a praise
that as of this moment, because I can't say as of an hour ago,
because I was given two cards before the service started, but
as of this moment, the faith promise is at $121,431.20. And
so praise the Lord. Listen. I guess I'm lacking faith because
I remember setting the goal and thinking, you know, we set the
goal. The goal last year was 102. We
ended up getting 106. And so I prayed about what we
wanted to do, and so it landed us up at 108. I'm thinking, whew,
I'm really pushing it this time. Man, owe me a little faith. But
praise the Lord, praise the Lord for that. Does anyone else, we'll
go ahead and do this for a moment. Does anyone else have something
to praise the Lord about before we get to prayer requests? Miss
Maggie Pope, we'll go with you first, and then if there's anyone
else, you can go ahead and raise your hand for the next one. I
think Miss Maggie Pope has a pretty big one. So this past weekend,
I went home for a completely unrelated event, but on Sunday
night, my mom trusted the Lord as her savior. Amen. Amen. Praise the Lord for that. And
keep praying for her and keep praying for the rest of your
family as well. But praise the Lord. That's a big one. Yes,
sir. Last week, before the missions conference
Tuesday, I was driving in a semi. almost hit me, like two inches. Wow. And he curved back over,
but it was a little scary. But I just want to know and let
you know that you don't always have time to, I only had time
to throw up a prayer and just barely
even think about God. that it's happened so quick and
you know some people who are not ready they're just they're
going to be out of time and they don't have time to even ask for
Jesus you know. Yeah. So it's important. It is and praise the Lord for
the safety that he gave you. Yeah. Praise the Lord for that.
I'm still thanking him. Yeah, no. I've been in a situation
like that, and I remember thinking the same thing. So praise the
Lord that you're able to be here tonight, and praise the Lord
that he protected you. Anyone else this evening? Brother
Halstead up front. And then Mrs. Holmes on this
side. I was just considering in my
mind what was going on on the East Coast with North Carolina,
South Carolina, Georgia. And those folks, need more than
our prayer. I mean, there's 10 feet of mud. What do you do with it? There's
simply nothing left. So while we're praying for them,
we should also be praising God for us, that we didn't have to
go through that. But God's going to get this country's
attention one way or the other. You know, at the same time, with
everything going on, what I feel is that there is a good portion
of the population that is really becoming more open and open and
open to the things of the Lord. And here's the charge. We have to be ready. We have
to share. You know, because people can
be open to things of the Lord, but if we don't tell them, listen,
Satan's going to tell them something. And so we have to be ready to
tell people when God opens their hearts. We have to be ready to
tell people, willing to tell people, and just telling people.
You wonder, why don't I ever see people saved? Because you're
not trying to. You're not trying to tell them.
You wonder why. The word of God doesn't return
void. So yes, Mrs. Holmes. I just want
to praise God, because we, for the last two weeks, have had
a kid at Good News Club from the school. And for the first
two weeks, we didn't have anyone. So she was a surprise. We didn't even have her permission
slip. We showed up, and it was there, and she came. So I just
want to praise God for her and just continue to pray that we
can reach more. As I tell many people, sometimes
with a ministry, you have the times where There just isn't
anyone coming, or when there's not many. And in those times,
you be faithful, because God will increase. The Sunday school
class I teach on Sunday mornings, I'll put a plug out there, okay?
Sunday morning, 9 a.m. in the gym, been going over soteriology,
the doctrine of salvation, what the Bible says about salvation.
And for the longest time, just going through, there's been 13,
14, 13, 12. It just never seemed to grow.
But in the last three, four months, we've now been having, what,
25 to 30. And so praise the Lord for that. God rewards faithfulness. And
there's nothing in me that's with it. God just rewards faithfulness.
It's God that does it. And someone over here. We'll
let this be the last praise for this evening. So if you want
to praise when you give a prayer request, we'll never stop you.
But we're going to switch to prayer requests. Go ahead, Dr. Griffin.
I have a friend named Lisa Hammons, and she's going to have an aneurysm
surgery, I think, tomorrow. She asked me to mention her in
prayer. Yeah, definitely. Definitely.
So we switched to prayer request now. That's perfectly OK. Can
you give me her name again? Lisa Hammons. OK. All right, now with a couple
prayer requests just for the congregation that we would just
like to mention, we would ask the church just to lift up the
wolves in a special way. They're definitely in need of
prayer right now and so if you can just add them to your prayer
list. and just pray for them. They're in need of prayer. And
so we do want to lift them up. Also, Ken Posey. Ken Posey has
been battling cancer for a long time and got some news this week
that wasn't what they wanted. And so he is in absolute desperate
need of prayer. So pray for him. And then also
if you could pray for my mom. As you know she broke her legs
and she still cannot put any weight on her legs. She still
obviously can't walk since she can't do that. And the insurance
company called on Thursday and said we're sending you home.
Obviously that cannot happen. And so we think we're getting
things in line if if she can't stay there. We think we're getting
things on where she'll be able to still go somewhere else, but
we're praying that for now she'll be able to stay there, that they'll
be able to get an appeal in and get an extension. But obviously,
it's not good, because tomorrow is the day they said that they'll
send her home. And so if we don't get that sorted out, then whether
we like it or not, she can't stay any longer. And so please
pray for that. I would much appreciate prayer
for that. Any other prayer requests? Yes,
Mrs. Wiesner. This is a first of all praise
my aunt in August the week of her grandson's wedding She had
to have an emergent emergency surgery to have part of her intestines
removed because they found a big mass and so they were pretty
sure it was cancer and we just got a text before church, and
she said they spoke with the oncologist and She's cancer-free
Amen, and so she's praising the Lord. We're praising the Lord
and She just has to have follow-ups over the next several months,
and then slowly spread it out. That's a praise. They've been
through a lot of health issues this last year, and they were
unable to come for my mom's 80th. My mom had a really good month
in September, just unbelievably, and I praise the Lord for that.
We were able to celebrate and do different things. But her
pain has returned this week. And so she was sick last week,
and then this week the pain has come back. And so if you could
just remember her, she's supposed to go in to get a certain kind
of treatment. She always has to go to a pre-visit
before they'll do it. So if we could just pray for
expediency. OK. Definitely. Yes, Brenda. I have
to say that for the people who almost got hit by the car, I'll
tell you what, I've been, for 17 years, I've been on this
outfit because I was hit by a truck. And it was not good. It's not
good. And it was many years in the
hospital, many years in people. And I have people who daily sit
with me, OK? So I get, so he can sit with
me, poor guy. Well, we pray for him all the
time. Yes, yes. And I get other people. So I
pray that. But I need to thank the church,
because they really helped me. When I came, I sat over there.
And they go, what are you doing? And they helped me and everything. So I really appreciate what they're
doing. So it's a really good church. Whatever you're doing
with people who have accidents and stuff like that, it's very
good. Thank you. Amen. We love you guys, and we praise
the Lord. You know, just thinking about
Matt and, you know, the selflessness that you show in helping to be
there and take care of her, and we praise the Lord for that.
What a great example that you set. Praise the Lord. Yes, Mr. Pastor Belcher. I want to say
again, thank you so much for everyone for praying for Susan
and continuing to lift her up. It's been kind of a busy week
for her. She has had blood tests done. They want to do more x-rays.
They want to do more CAT scans. It's just about every day this
week. And she is making some progress. Her blood numbers came
back and they were improving. We thank the Lord for that. But
then she's having other things that the doctors don't really
understand what's going on. And so they're going to, that's
why the additional testing is being done this week. So I appreciate
your prayers for her. Let's continue just praying for
wisdom for the doctors and pray for healing. God's touch. God's
touch. Listen. If you pay attention
to different people who've had different things happen in their
life, I think we've truly seen God touch people's bodies many
times in this church. And let's pray for God to touch
Mrs. Belcher in a special way. Who
else? It's Mrs. Jenkinson. They've
been monitoring George's lungs, and he had another CAT scan today. And I just pray that they don't
find anything bad. Definitely pray for a good report
there. And then on this side, yeah, Steve. Yeah, I need you
to pray for my wife, Marion. We don't know for sure what's
going on, but she just doesn't have any energy or whatever,
and any little thing she does seems to wipe her out for quite
a while. So I'm going to try to get her
into a doctor this week and find out what's going on. So just
keep her in your prayers, if you would, please. Definitely.
Definitely. Love you guys. I always tell people that Steve's
my favorite deacon. He's not a deacon anymore, but
when I got here in the interview process, right after I shared
my testimony, he just asked, like, can we just end the interview
now and just say yes? And so he's my favorite deacon.
Yes, Ronette. I'd like to ask if you could
remember Randy in prayer. He's been sick the last four
or five days. He's cough congested and just
can't seem to shake it. And another one is for my son,
our son, Wade and his family. They live in North Carolina and
they're about 45 minutes from Asheville. And he said it got
pretty scary and rocky, but their house was spared and the family
is safe. But he said, just as you go up
their driveway, there's a big tree that had crossed. He said,
nothing's really moving right now. They're in the midst of
helping cut down trees and stuff. He said, with all the rain, there
was a lot of cattle and horses that had passed. They died because
of that. And he said, really, as far as
any relief, they said that if they wanted to try to get to
a Walmart, which was like 45 minutes away from him. He said,
how we would get there. I don't know if that was open.
It had power, but they just got their power turned back on yesterday
morning, but they lost all their food. They lost all that kind
of stuff, but praise God they're safe. And their home was totally
missed, you know, praise the Lord. So you just remember that
whole area. Yeah, definitely. Definitely. Then yes, Mrs. Weirich. Would
you please pray for a young lady named Andrea? There is a divorce
going on in her situation with her family, and that is very,
very rough on her. And it's not a good situation,
which it never really is. And we just need to uplift this
young lady in prayer. She's reaching out to me. And
I prayed with her, but I would just ask for you to pray for
the family. Definitely. And praise the Lord
again that you're able to be there and able to be an influence.
And praise the Lord again, I think KK, you know, trusting Christ. And that's been a long time.
How many years has she been coming to church with you? Two years. Two years. You know, it seems
so many times that if someone doesn't trust Christ from the
first five minutes, we give up. Listen. It's worth the long haul. It's worth it. It's worth to
keep trying, to keep pushing, to keep loving. And so we'll
definitely pray for Andrea and continue to pray for KK. And
again, what an awesome testimony there. And yes, Dave. I know I'd mentioned this before,
but there was an incident with Danny several months ago. And
ever since then, he's just not been the same. And he is really,
really struggling. So if we could pray for Danny,
it is part of something that's kind of ongoing with him. But
of course, Nancy's blind and she's doing everything she can.
And she has a lot of great people in the church to help her out.
And she so appreciates that. But if we could just lift up
Danny in prayer. Danny's a great guy. And, you know, I would just
like to see the Lord heal him. It truly would be a miracle if
he could kind of turn things around. Truly great people. Truly great people. And yes,
Alicia. I'd like to ask the church to
pray for me. It seems like that's all I do,
and sometimes I don't know if I even should ask. But I spent
a couple of nights in the hospital this past week, and I'm having
mild strokes. And I'm not sure what all that
means, what all I'm going to have to go through. They've done
testing and scans, and they're going to do more tests and more
scans. But if you could keep me in prayer, I'd really appreciate
it. If we could have some ladies go ahead and stand, and let's
go and gather around her. One thing I want to say is, listen,
when God allows you to go through things, there's sometimes He
allows you to go through many, many, many things, and we should
never, ever wonder whether or not we can share our needs for
prayer with the church. We can definitely, definitely
share. And so, I'm gonna ask if we could get, Lynette, can
I give you a microphone? Could you lead us in prayer? Father, we thank you for this
evening that you've given to us. And Lord, we thank you that
we can come together as a group of ladies. Lord, lifting our
voices up to you that you would touch Alicia. Lord, once again,
we're just asking that you give her strength. Lord, she's asking
for her body to do what it needs to do to be healed and learn
her mind and emotionally just that physically that she would
be healed or the way that she needs to God you know her in
and out. Lord I pray that you would help
them to know why she's having these these strokes. and small
strokes, I don't know exactly what they are, but Lord, you
do, and I pray that it would be revealed, and Lord, I pray
that her strength would be uplifted to you, that she wouldn't lose
hope, but Lord, that she would just call out to you in her time
that she feels like she's doubting the most, that she would stop
and just say, thank you, Lord. Lord, you have the answer, help
me just to rest in you. Lord, we're uplifting our sister
tonight, and by the grace of God, give her what she needs,
Jesus. Wrap her in your arms. We know that you love her. Lord,
you love us with such an everlasting love. And God, what would we
be without you, Jesus? We ask all of this in your name.
Amen. Amen. We love you, Alicia, and
praying for you. And please keep us updated. Keep us updated. We want to continue
to be able to pray for you. Anyone else this evening have a prayer
request? Yes, Mr. Brown? I can give you an update
now on Tony's dad. Tony did go to Shanghai, and
that's why we hadn't been able to get in touch with him. But
he did call us last week and said that they did the biopsy,
and then they went ahead and did the surgery right away. The
cancer was on the inside of his lung, attached to the inside
of his lung. So they say that they got it
all, but he's going to have to go through chemo and radiation,
obviously, at this point. So I believe that Tony is probably
still there. He was able to go and spend that
time with his family. And so I continue praying for
Tony's dad. His name is James. And again,
I am just so thankful. Yeah. Definitely pray for his
dad. I'm so thankful that we had an
opportunity to have all these exchange students in our school.
The mission field, it just came right to us. And Tony accepted
the Lord. while he was here, and he understands
prayer, the power of prayer, and the need for prayer. And
I am just truly thankful for that. Amen. And again, I appreciate
your testimony and being willing to be a testimony. Praise the
Lord for that. Anyone else this evening have a prayer request
before we go to prayer? I don't want to miss anyone.
Yes, up front here. My mind's drawing a blank. Can
you remind me of your name again so I can write it down? My name
is Patricia. Patricia, OK. I'll get you a
microphone real quick. First, I'd like to give a praise
because on the Jewish calendar today is the day we celebrate
the creation of the world. And though we're not Jewish,
I think we should be glad God created our world. Amen. And
it's a time for repentance and looking for what we need and
for us to go inward and look to do better. And then I want
to challenge everybody since that is the day. And I want to
challenge them based on what the lady said. I've had a lot
of calls. I talked to the pastor that's
going to preach tonight about it. There is desperation in Western
North Carolina, Northwestern South Carolina, Northeastern
Georgia, and parts of Tennessee. They have hundreds and hundreds
of people. They're only saying a little
bit on the TV. But there's many, many people missing, children
missing. There's no water, no electricity.
I'm so glad her family got their electricity. They still don't
have any in most places. But the greatest thing is that
we don't know where all these children and people are, and
they're probably not alive. But we need everybody to pray. And I want to challenge everybody
to pray every hour of every day. Maybe you can get your Sunday
school class or something in the church to pick an hour, and
everybody here pray until We get some answers about where
the people are and what's going on in these areas. because they
need our prayer. We may not know these people,
but they need our prayers. And they will maybe, if they
live through this, have the opportunity to receive Jesus Christ. And
they'll be looking for those answers. So we're going to be
able to try to provide a lot of stuff. I've got a company
that makes the Bibles. It's a Christian company in Shelbyville,
Tennessee. They're going to provide us a
whole lot of Bibles to take so that we can do that. We're going
to need anybody that can volunteer here that's in the medical fields.
We're going to need people to be coming down here for maybe
they can come a week at a time or a few days. But they need
a lot, because even a small, simple cut can turn into septice
and kill somebody when there's no water and no way to be clean. And I'm sorry I took up so much
time, but this is really important. We seriously need to pray and
be thankful to God that no one here had to go through that.
Be thankful to God that he spared that from us. And listen, here's
one of the great things I love about our God. I don't have to
know a person in order to pray for them. I don't have to know or have
any connection to a town, to a place, in order to pray for
them. When God puts it on our heart, if God puts it on your
heart, pray for it. pray for it, ask God, listen,
why are you putting it on my heart? He might have it on your
heart simply for you to pray, but he might also have it on
your heart to do something, okay? But in all these things, let's
follow the Lord and listen. One of the best things to do,
but also one of the least things we can do is pray. And so, Brother
Stinson. Yes, we shouldn't forget Israel. They have three different fronts
they're attacked at now, with Hamas, Hezbollah, and then Iran
itself. So just let's not forget the
country of Israel. Yeah. If you're not aware, I
think it was yesterday or the day before, Iran launched 180
ballistic missiles at Israel. And praise the Lord that no Israelis
died in that. So praise the Lord for God's
protection. But listen, again, there's a
lot going on there. They need continued prayer. Anyone
else this evening? If there is no one else, we're
going to go ahead and get some music on. And I encourage you,
stand up and let's move to another place and pray with people that
we can't pray with at home. And let's join one another in
prayer. th th th th th th th Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank
you so much for allowing us to come to you in prayer, allowing
us to come to your throne room, Lord, allowing us to come to
the one Lord who did create all things. And I pray, Lord, that
we will live our life knowing, Lord, that we serve the creator
God. And, Lord, we thank you so much for allowing us to hear
about all the different praises, Lord, about what you did in Missions
Conference and, Lord, what you did with Saving Souls and, Lord,
what you've done in protecting And Lord, help us to never forget
the good things in our lives, Lord, and help us never to focus
on the bad. But Lord, focus on what you are
doing that is good. Lord, I do pray for those who
are sick. I do pray for those who are hurting. I pray for Alicia.
I pray for Ken Posey. I pray for the Belchers. I pray for George and Marion. Randy, Lord, so many people who
are sick and hurting, I pray, Lord, for your healing touch
on their lives. I pray, Lord, that you will reach down and
you will touch them and give their bodies strength. Lord,
I pray that you allow them to be back with us. I do pray, especially
for Mrs. Belcher, that you will reach down and put a special
touch on her life. Lord, how much we would love to be able
to see her in church again soon. Lord, I do pray that you will. Just be with Israel. Lord, I pray for your protection
on them. I pray, Lord, for those who are in the destruction area
for the hurricane that recently came through down south. I pray,
Lord, that you will, Lord, allow help to get to them. Lord, allow
electricity to be restored, allow roads to be to be able to be
navigated. Lord, I pray, Lord, that you
will be with those who are missing loved ones. Lord, I pray for
be your will that they will be able to find some. I pray, Lord, that
you will give grace. I pray, Lord, give mercy. I pray,
Lord, that through this that people will have a chance to
hear about who you are. They'll have a chance to hear
about what you've done for them. I pray, Lord, that through this
evil that you will bring good. And Lord, I do pray for our country
and pray that we will turn, Lord, from our wickedness and turn
toward you. I pray, Lord, as you bring people
and you convict people that, Lord, we as Christians will be
ready to be a light and to share the gospel with them and to show
them who you are. And Lord, I do pray that you
will be with each of these prayer requests. And I pray, Lord, as
we look at each of these, Lord, we know that these things are
not things that we have the power to solve, that we have the power
to handle on our own. But Lord, we know that you have
more than enough power. to solve and to work through
each one of these. And I pray, Lord, that as, Lord,
we are here on earth, that we will trust your will perfectly. And we will trust that you are
good and trust that you are in control. And Lord, allow you
to lead us, allow you to guide us in our lives. Lord, may you
increase our faith through these things. And I pray this in Jesus'
name, amen. Alright, if you are one of the
people who are going to go to the Breakout sessions you are
dismissed again how to help hurting hearts will be in room 101 and
then the ladies group What do I know about my god will be with
miss Melanie Wiesner in? room 203 that is all the way
down at the end of the hall and on the right. Amen. What a great group of people. Praise the Lord for that. And
so at this time, I don't guess I really don't need to introduce
the preacher, but I will. If you don't know him, you should.
He's our principal, a great man. But let's get our Bibles open
and get our hearts ready for what God is going to give to
us this evening. And brother, come on up. All right, well, before I begin,
I need to park on this helping the bald with photos. I mean,
Larry, you think with modern technology, they could put some
hair on us, right? You would think. I can, I just
don't want to. Why are they always picking on
us, Larry? We're kindred soul. Ken, join
the club. I mean, we're all like, it's
not right. the glory is really around here.
But no, I remember I was in ninth grade and my biology teacher,
I went to a public high school, but he had a sign on his door
and he was very bold too. And it said, bald is beautiful,
God only created so many perfect heads. And so I live by that
statement today. So there is still hope for us. No, we're gonna be in Matthew
chapter five, in Matthew chapter five. If you can join me there
within your Bibles, I want to look at one of the first beatitude
that we find in Matthew chapter 5. It's blessed are the poor
in spirit. And I want us to look at this
beatitude tonight, a very hopeful passage, the Sermon on the Mount.
Really, the beatitudes kick off the Sermon on the Mount. But
if you can join me out of respect of God's word, let's stand as
we read Matthew chapter 5. verses 1 through 12, but we're
going to really be parking on verse 3 this evening in our time
that we have. The Bible says in verse 1, chapter
Matthew 5, 1, And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a
mountain, and when he was set, his disciples came unto him.
And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying, Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are
the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God. blessed are the peacemakers
for they shall be called the children of God blessed are they
which are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom
of heaven blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute
you and shall speak all manner of evil against you falsely for
my sake rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your reward
in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets which were before
you. Let's pray. Father, we come before
your presence. We ask for your help now as we open your word.
I pray that you would challenge us, speak to us. Father, fill
me with your spirit. I need your help tonight. May we be challenged
from this first beatitude about being poor in the spirit. We'll
be careful to thank you for what you'll accomplish in Jesus' name.
Amen. Thank you. You may be seated.
So, the Sermon on the Mount, probably Jesus' most popular
and familiar teaching from it. We get the golden rule, we get
the model prayer, we get the wise man and the foolish man.
And I know that because I have to put my hands together about
building on the rock and then building on the sand. But that's
how Jesus closes up the Sermon on the Mount, is the wise man
and the foolish man. And there's many other popular,
well-known teachings that Jesus gives in this sermon. But it
does not come without its controversies. Martin Luther once said that
the Sermon on the Mount was called the masterpiece of the devil
because there are so many different ways people down through the
ages have interpreted the Sermon on the Mount. Some like to say
it's a way to be saved. Others believe it's just a great
moral code to live by. Well, tonight, I want us to look
at the Sermon on the Mount from the vantage point of how a disciple
should live. Because, after all, Jesus calls
the disciples. Now, at this time, it's not the
twelve. It's actually, people have just been following him
early on in his ministry. They follow him, he brings them
together, and he preaches to them this message. Now, we have
to understand, why did Jesus give this message? Why did he
give this sermon? Well, a couple of things. First
of all, Matthew was written to Jewish people. Jewish people
were looking for their king, were they not? Matthew portrays
Jesus as the King of the Jews. And so the primary purpose of
the Sermon on the Mount is to reveal the character of those
who would be accepted in his kingdom. In other words, he's
given this message to a group of disciples or followers and
he's pointing out to them the internal qualities needed to
enter the kingdom he was offering. Consider Matthew 5.20. I believe
it's up on the screen. Matthew 5.20. Jesus says this,
Now, those that were following Jesus at this time, when Jesus
were to say something like that, they would be taken aback. After
all, there's no way My righteousness can exceed...
I mean, the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees,
they're the religious leaders. They're the religious elite.
There's no way I could get above that. And that was the point.
That was the point of the entire... of Jesus saying that. Because
not even a few verses later, He's going to expose the false
righteousness of the Pharisees. But when He says this, it's to
get the people's attention for a specific reason. Namely, as
people listened to him reveal these righteous standards that
were required to be a citizen of the kingdom, they would realize
that they were unable to meet that standard, to exceed that
standard. It was impossible. And the only
way they could get there was through the king. It was to get
the righteousness that the king was offering. And that came by
repentance and faith in Christ. That's the primary interpretation.
Let me say it like this. You must believe on the king before
you can enter his kingdom. Should you not? The secondary
application, that's the primary interpretation, but there's also
a secondary application here, is that the Sermon on the Mount
shows how a person with a right relationship with God should
live their lives. If I were to ask you tonight,
to write down eight goals you would want to pursue as a child
of God, and you had to write down, I'll give you some time,
and you were to write down eight things. Be honest with yourself,
because I'll be honest with myself. I don't know if I would list
eight of these beatitudes that I'd read to you tonight. Now,
I would say my list would probably be noble. I want to be a good
husband. I want to be a good father. I
want to be a good principal. I want to be a good friend. I
want to be a good co-laborer. Those things are all great and
wonderful, and they're not wrong. But when was the last time we
asked God, God, I want to be merciful. I need to be merciful. Lord, I need to be a peacemaker.
Lord, help me to hunger and thirst after righteousness. We don't
think about that too much, but Jesus, as he lists out these
beatitudes, these attitudes fit for a citizen of the kingdom,
I want us to park on the first one tonight. I would love to
talk about all of them. It's a great series, a great
passage to really park on. But I believe number one, the
first one, blessed are the poor in spirit, really set the stage
for the rest of them. And so I want us tonight to look
at blessed are the poor with the time that we have tonight.
Number one, to be poor in spirit requires an honest admission. To be poor in spirit requires
an honest admission. We see, first of all, the terminology. The term poor speaks of one who
is absolutely destitute. The word literally means one
who shrinks or who cowers or who cringes. During Bible times,
it was not uncommon to find beggars in the street. a sign of unfavor, they were
not necessarily like, oh, I'm destitute, give me money. No,
they would literally be ashamed to beg for money. They would
cringe and they would just kind of hold their hands out in hopes
that someone would be generous to them. And so to be a beggar
in the Bible was not something to brag about. It was something
that was quite embarrassing. Now, a person could resort to
begging because of hardship, perhaps they lost their job,
a physical ailment. We have individuals like Blind
Bartimaeus and the lame man in Acts chapter three at Gate Beautiful
who, because of their physical ailments, they were resorted
to begging, or really because of the oppression of others.
Listen, a beggar in the Bible was often a beggar by circumstance,
not by choice. But Jesus is not advocating here
that we find God's blessing by simply just selling everything
we have and becoming destitute. That's not how we find God's
blessing. Having wealth in and of itself is not wrong. Jesus himself speaks of using
our money wisely. The idea there is that we spend
our money wisely and we are wise stewards with what God has given
us, but money does not become the all-encompassing pursuit
or the God of our life. So we don't have to become a
destitute hermit to procure God's favor. So when Jesus is speaking
about blessed are the poor in spirit, He's not speaking about
the size of our wallet, rather He's speaking about the condition
of our spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit. I'll also add this, to be poor
in spirit does not mean that we are poor spirited either.
It does not mean that we walk around in self-defeat, feeling
sorry for ourselves, not showing any physical drive or enthusiasm
for life. Listen, the Eeyore spirit of
woe is me is not porn spirit. Actually, it's a deeper version
of pride because we want the attention upon us and upon our
miserable state. The Bible speaks highly of Taking
initiative, working hard, and possessing a God-centered enthusiasm
for life. So he's not talking about selling
everything we have. It's not about just being a poor-spirited
person. What is Jesus talking about?
When he talks about the poor, the beggarly, the one who shrinks
and covers or cowers or cringes. What he's talking about here,
to be poor in the spirit is simply this, it's an honest admission
of my personal spiritual bankruptcy before God. Being poor in the
spirit is not something I do, rather it is something that I
am. Just as a beggar is utterly dependent upon the mercy and
generosity of people, you and I as children of God must understand
that we are utterly dependent upon God for everything. That's
what it means to be poor in spirit. It requires that we view ourselves
as spiritual paupers in His sight. It is us recognizing that apart
from Him we're nothing. It recognizes the more I try
to live independently from God, the more hopeless I become, the
less valuable I begin to esteem myself, and the less of myself
I truly become. We need to be poor in spirit.
And that's utter dependence on God. Isn't it true that in this
world, we have a God-shaped hole in our culture? The further people
try to distance themselves from God, whether purposely or not,
the more of a mess they truly become. They become more hopeless,
they esteem themselves less, and they truly begin to lose
themselves. Why? Because we're trying to find
our worth and our value in anything and everything other than what
God has provided. But see, that's the point. What
makes God so great? What makes God so powerful? What
makes God so full of mercy and grace? Is that when we come to
Him as spiritual beggars, He provides us exactly what we need. That's why blessed are the poor
in spirit. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
I love this, you know what, when you came to Christ for salvation,
that's exactly how you had to come, was poor in spirit. Because
you realized there was nothing I could give God to merit his
grace. It was simply an act of his grace,
his gift of salvation. Consider Romans chapter five,
verse six, it says this, for when we were yet without strength,
we had no ability to get to God, In due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. This attitude is echoed by the
psalm in Psalm 34 verse 6. It says, This poor man cried,
and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. So when we came to Christ for
salvation, we were poor in spirit. We were spiritually bankrupt.
We had to depend fully upon Christ for our salvation, our justification,
our redemption, and our forgiveness. And guess what? As Christians,
that shouldn't stop. It shouldn't. Again, Jesus is
talking to people who want to follow Him. So Christian, are
you living in utter dependence upon Him? Yes, we're accepted. We're accepted in the blood,
the Bible says. Yes, we are sons and daughters of our Heavenly
Father. But do you still come to Him
for spiritual dependence? I mean, that's what prayer is.
Ask, seek, and knock. That's us coming to Him in dependence. But it doesn't just happen in
the sanctuary during prayer time. It's every single day. Every single moment. we recognize
our need of Him. So, blessed are the poor in spirit. Number one, to be poor in the
spirit is to have, it requires an honest admission. Number two,
to be poor in spirit reflects a humble attitude. So if I had
to honestly admit that I am a spiritual beggar in God's sight, it would
follow that I would have a humble attitude about life. Listen,
humility is foundational to a life of blessedness. Psalm 29 verse
3 says, a man's pride shall bring him low, but honor shall uphold
the humble in spirit. Listen, I've heard it said like
this, humility is that one quality that once you think you possess
it, you have indeed lost it. Being poor in the spirit humbles
me because I'm wholly dependent upon God in all things. And listen,
this beatitude, and that's why I love blessed are the poor in
spirit, because this beatitude sets the stage for the rest of
them. Here's what I mean. Without being poor in the spirit,
I won't properly mourn. I won't be meek. I won't hunger
and thirst after righteousness. I won't be merciful. I won't
see the need to be pure in heart. I won't promote and practice
peacemaking. And I definitely will avoid scenarios
where persecution for Christ's sake would be possible. That's
why the pour in the spirit is so foundational. It gives life
and breath to the rest of the beatitudes. Because guess what? Humility is foundational to a
life of blessedness. I need to have a humble attitude
because I'm desperately dependent upon my heavenly father. But
humility is also favored by God. Humility is favored by God. So
Isaiah 66 verse 2 says this, but to this man will I look.
Oh, did I wrong one? Sorry. That's not it. Let me read it. Was that the
last half of it, David? Did I jump into the middle part
of the verse? There it is. Isaiah 57 verse 15. For thus saith the High and Lofty
One, that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in
a high and holy place." And indeed he does. But he also dwells with
him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the
spirit of the humble and to revive the hearts of the contrite one. Guess what? God favors the humble
and he vehemently opposes the proud in heart. I love this is
illustrated in Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18, this is a story
that Jesus tells about the Pharisee and the publican. So in Luke
chapter 18 verse 9, he speaks a parable unto certain which
trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others.
And two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee
and the other a Republican. So you got the religious man,
you got the tax collector. You got the holy guy, you got
the guy that no one likes, because he's a tax collector. None of
us like taxes. And if you know anything about
tax collectors in the Bible, they basically extorted you. If your
bill was, if Barry owed me $100, or he owed the government $100,
I would say, actually, Barry, you owe me $110, and I'm gonna
pocket the $10 and still send the other $100 to Rome. Would that make me Barry's friend? No, Barry hated me because I
took advantage of him. And so you got the holy man and
you got the tax collector. The divide could not be greater. And so he went up, verse 11,
David, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as
other men are, extortioners, unjust, those adulterers, even
as that guy over there, the publican. Verse 12. I fast twice a week. I give tithes of all that I possess. And the publican. So we'll stop
there. So he's up there sharing God
his resume. God, I thank you that I am not
like Dan Yingling. I do all these great things.
I fast twice a week. I give all my tithes of everything
that I own. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,
blah, blah. And I'm not like that guy. And then Jesus shifts to the
other guy. And the publican, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote his breast, and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. Which guy in that parable do
you think is the poor in spirit? Is it the Pharisee? Thank you
that I'm not like him. Or is it the publican? It's the publican, right? Because
while this man is over here sharing his resume with God, thinking
that he is impressive and casting his eye against the publican,
the publican realized real quick who he was compared to God. He
saw himself as unworthy to be in God's presence. He saw for
the need of God's intervention, God, I need mercy. The publican
was busy living out being poor in the spirit. And sadly, many
of us can quickly fall into the trap of the Pharisee. We can
deceive ourselves by inwardly boasting about our spirituality
while casting a critical eye at other Christians who might
not be up to par with our spirituality. In doing so, we've lost sight
of the fact that we are spiritual paupers in his sight. I am spiritually
bankrupt before a holy God, and I need Him. But guess what? That
requires some humility. It requires some humility. Christ
is calling us to be something that our pride fights against
every single day. Christ is calling us to be something
we are powerless to achieve on our own. On our own, I cannot
be humble. I want to be better than you.
I want to elevate myself above you. But God says, no. You're
not gonna be blessed that way. You need to be humble. You need
to realize that everything that I have is not because of what
Josh Middall did growing up. It's not the college that Josh
Middall went. It is not the position that Josh Middall holds in this
ministry. It is simply everything that
God has graciously given me. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Blessed are the poor in spirit. James 4.10 says it like this,
humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift
you up. Let's stop lifting ourselves
up and let's let him lift us up. Consider Jesus for a moment,
Philippians 2.8, and being found in fashion as a man, Jesus, he
humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Jesus was humbled to a cross
so that he could bring us to God. Christ himself sets the
example for us that humility brings blessing to our lives.
Exaltation comes through humility, and it's always in that order.
It is never exaltation first. It is always humility and let
God do the lifting up and not ourselves. So if we want God's
blessing upon us, we must reflect a humble attitude. To be poor
in the spirit is to reflect a humble attitude. So we see number one,
blessed are the poor in spirit. To be poor in the spirit requires
an honest admission. It reflects a humble attitude.
And then number three, to be poor in spirit results in an
honorable attainment. We can basically boil down every
single one of these Beatitudes with a precept, what Christ wants
us to do, coupled with a promise, what He promises to those that
do these things. But the promise of the Spirit
is interesting. It says, What does that mean? What is
that talking about? I would love to sit here and
discuss what the Kingdom of Heaven is, but it's 745 and I'm supposed
to be done here any moment. So, here's what we're talking
about. Here's what Jesus is talking
about. It's important for us to recognize Jesus not only as
our Savior, but He is my Lord and my King. He should have the
rule in my life. We serve a glorious and wonderful
king, do we not? He has great things in store
for us. And so when we talk about this
honorable attainment, we need to understand two things. First
of all, there's a present fulfillment. If I want to be the best representative
of my king and his kingdom, I must live with a humble attitude that
without God, I am nothing. If I want to be a disciple or
one who follows and wants God's blessing upon me, I must recognize
I am completely dependent upon Him. Being poor in the Spirit
means I don't elevate myself above others. I'm not condescending
to people who may disagree with me. It radically changes how
I view myself and how I view others. Let me ask it this way. Does my attitude toward myself
and others reflect the righteous standard of my King? Second Corinthians 10.18 says,
for not he that commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord
commendeth. Whose approval are we seeking
today? If I want God's blessed approval upon me, it starts with
being poor in the spirit. It starts with me recognizing
that I'm utterly dependent on him, and because of that, I'm
going to live in humility. That's the present fulfillment.
Be humble. Admit, I'm utterly dependent
on him. But then there's a future fulfillment. For theirs is the
kingdom of heaven. And I believe, and some may disagree,
and that's fine, that I believe the ultimate fulfillment of this
beatitude will be enjoyed in the millennial kingdom. Those
that are poor in the spirit will have a greater place or role
in the millennial kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. How this all
plays out is a mystery, and we'll have a thousand years to figure
it out. However, it is a promise that we can claim and eagerly
wait for its fulfillment. Let me say it like this. Those
who are poor in spirit have a glorious future awaiting them. And 1 Peter 5, 6 reminds us of
this. Humble yourselves therefore unto
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you. What are those
last three words? In due time. It may not be in
this life, But child of God, you have a glorious future awaiting
you. And we'll get to enjoy that. We'll be with the king forever.
We'll be in his kingdom. We'll rule and reign with him.
It's going to be a glorious day. But in the meantime, we look
for the sweet by and by, but guess what? We're stuck in the
nasty now and now. So what do we do? Be poor in
spirit. Recognize it requires an honest
admission I'm simply a spiritual beggar dependent upon a great
God who will provide for my needs. Listen, I mean, we've seen beggars. We
see them all the time. And you see a lot of people pass
by the beggars, right? You know, if you ever drive and
you see someone out holding their sign, let's be honest, are you
like me and you're like, don't make eye contact, don't make
eye contact, don't make eye contact? Be honest. But there's a lot
of, there are people who have legitimate needs today. And guess
what? They're not always getting their
needs fulfilled. Guess what? When you come to God with the
need that I am utterly dependent on him, God does not pass us
by. And what a beautiful truth about that. God doesn't say,
oh, Barry Halstead, here he comes begging again. I don't have time
for Barry. Edgar's taken up all my generosity
today. I don't have any more. I'm not
gonna be able to supply Barry because Edgar took it all. I'm
glad God's not like that. I'm glad God's not like that,
right? Because the generosity that he shows upon Edgar, man,
he's got even more for Barry because he needs every more.
But regardless, God does not, when we are cringing and we are
utterly dependent on him, God does not pass us by. Because
he's a good God. He's a great God. He's a bountiful
King. But I need to be at the point.
Yes, we can recognize, yes, God's all bountiful. Yes, God's all
awesome. Yes, God can take care of our needs. But are you on
the side where you realize, I need His grace, I need His bountifulness,
I need His help. That requires some humility.
That requires some humility. It requires us admitting that,
you know what, I don't have it all figured out. I don't have
all the answers. I wanna try, I feel like I have
all the resources to get me through this, but I realize I still come
short. I need to ask, I need to seek,
and I need to knock, and guess what? He'll provide. But that
requires some humility. And then finally, there's an
honorable attainment. Spiritual beggars who live with
humble hearts have a great reward of heading ahead of them. Don't miss it. Blessed are the
poor in spirit. Let's all stand. Our heads are
bowed, our eyes are closed.
Blessed are Poor in Spirit
| Sermon ID | 103240293000 |
| Duration | 1:23:51 |
| Date | |
| Category | Midweek Service |
| Bible Text | Matthew 5:1-12 |
| Language | English |
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