Hey, God is good, and He is with us.
I want to teach and preach this afternoon, or this morning, it’s not this afternoon yet,
excuse me, 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 14 through 17.
There are a number of things I need to do to set this up, and we’ll proceed to do that.
In traveling over the last seven and a half years, previous to coming here in June, and
literally, honestly, all over the country, different kinds of churches, different sizes
of churches, churches larger than this, churches a whole lot smaller than this, we could get
them on the platform, the whole church could be put on the platform here, and one of the
most, and different places in the world too, and even in overseas, a common thread is going
through people, church people.
Church people and non-church people, and that is authenticity.
And Paul addresses that, I’m thinking, at least the way I am going to look at it today,
in the sense of authenticity.
Authenticity simply means that you’re not trying to be something you are.
What a pity it would be to go through all your life trying to be somebody and something
that you were never meant to be.
That is missing the target.
That’s missing the mark.
That’s a classical term for the word sin, by the way.
What a pity to go through your whole life and miss the mark, never having grabbed on
to that which God really had for you to do, that which would make you fulfilled and complete
as all get out, but trying to be somebody else or something else because of a goofy
idea that got in our head somewhere.
Well, that’s not authenticity, trying to be somebody else.
Authenticity is being who you are.
What you are.
Improving it, of course, but being who and what you are and not making any pretenses.
And Paul, I think, is talking about that.
I think in verse 14, I’ll just introduce it a little bit and then jump back in here.
We’re going to see a divine, I mean, excuse me, an authentic encounter.
We need to have an authentic encounter with God and an encounter that produces, nextly,
an authentic change.
An authentic change in our nature and in our attitude.
And then I see in verse 17, the authentic expression of an authentic change inside,
which is the result of an authentic counter.
We’re wanting authenticity.
How many want to be real?
I mean, generally real.
I do.
And the world is wanting that too.
So we want to look into 2 Corinthians 2, verses 14 through 17.
Lord, we are coming.
We’re asking for an anointing on myself just for this moment now.
A fresh one to pull out of this passage precisely what you would have this people to receive.
And an anointing upon the people to receive it, Lord.
And Father, we’re asking that you change us as a result of having been in this place today.
And all of God’s people say to that, Amen.
Oh, that was a healthy, sturdy, stout.
Oh, that was a healthy, sturdy, steadfast, powerful, Amen.
That’s good.
That was a compliment.
Paul, in 2 Corinthians 2, 14 through 17, pens a powerful passage, in my opinion here.
The previous paragraph, verses 12 and 13, he’s talking about after he had came to Troas,
and for the purpose of evangelizing,
he was looking for a place to live.
He was looking for Timothy and didn’t find him.
And he was sort of expressing a, maybe a confusion as to how and why God had led him that way
when he didn’t meet the person he was going to meet and all this, that, and the other.
And then he departed from there, he says, and went to Macedonia.
Then he begins the paragraph that is our focal point today.
And he says, but thanks be to God, and I’ll add my own word in there, in a way.
It’s not in the text.
But I don’t think I’m adding to.
We’re just going to liven it up a little in that sense.
Thanks be to God, in a way.
In other words, the God who always leads us in triumphant procession,
and the God who manifests the scent, the fragrance, but the scent of the knowledge of God
through us in every topographical place that Jesus leads us.
Now, the backdrop for this is a triumphant procession.
A triumphant procession in Rome.
You can picture a general having gone out to fight an enemy that the citizenry couldn’t fight.
They weren’t able to fight.
They could never have won this victory.
So the emperor sends out a seasoned general to fight the fight for the citizenry.
Jesus did that for us, by the way.
He is the general.
We are the citizenry, if you will.
And we were sold up the river by Adam and Eve.
We were captured in sin.
We needed a redeemer.
We needed a general to fight a fight we couldn’t fight,
to win a battle we couldn’t win and deliver us.
Yes?
That person is Jesus Christ.
So the general would come back from the war,
and he would be bringing back with him all the spoils of the campaign.
There would be a lot of probably cattle and chickens and geese and this and that and the other,
gold and silver and all kinds of stuff, and people.
And as they would put them in chains and parade them in the streets of Rome,
all of the citizens were given a day off.
With pay, by the way, to line the streets and throw rotten eggs and curse at them
and throw tomatoes and all that kind of stuff at the captors.
It would be kind of an ugly mess, wouldn’t it?
And then as that procession, by the way, would lead up to the Capitol Hill,
a few of the captors would be pulled out and they would be killed.
Aren’t you glad God doesn’t kill us?
He doesn’t kill his trophies.
And then not all of them would be killed.
Some would go into slavery and this and that.
But the point is, this triumphal procession was to give their gods, small g gods,
the credit and the glory for having won a battle,
and then to give the general his proper due respect and praise for having won that battle too.
Now that’s the picture that’s behind our text here.
But that picture also…
That picture also comes out of Colossians.
And in the picture in Colossians, it sort of pictures us on the sidelines as spectators
cheering on the conquering hero, Jesus, with all the conquered foes that he has,
namely demons and cohorts and all of that stuff.
And that’s a legitimate picture.
But that is not the picture of our text.
The picture of our text pictures Paul as one of those prisoners,
one of those captors.
Have you been captured by Jesus yet?
I mean really captured by Jesus.
Have you become part of that triumphal procession that God leads us in in Christ continuously?
Or do you picture yourself as a spectator?
I would suggest that too much of Christianity pictures itself as a spectator,
as one who has conquered as well, if you will.
We don’t like to take that lowly…
We don’t like to take that lowly place of being a conquered enemy of Christ
in the place of a servantship, if you will, a very lowly place.
Rather, we use the phrase,
we are more conquerors, bless God,
and it really doesn’t have to do with that.
The truth of the matter, what that means is we didn’t conquer anything.
We ride on the back of the one who has conquered.
That’s what the phrase more than conquerors means.
Hallelujah!
That means that Jesus is a cushion.
The conqueror is a cushion,
between us and the troubles and the problems of this world.
Hallelujah!
We don’t have to fuss with them.
We ride on the back of the one who has conquered.
Hallelujah!
Glory to God!
So Paul says,
Thanks be to God, the one who leads us in triumphant procession all the time in Christ Jesus.
Now, I would like to sort of play that out today.
Is that okay with you?
And I need a Jesus, and I’m going to ask Jeff.
God, forgive us.
If he would free Jesus.
We don’t want to be too presumptuous or presumptuous at all.
Now, this rope is going to represent the chain.
We’re going to call it the rope line since this is a political year.
Jesus is going to work the rope line here.
It almost looks like a black snake, doesn’t it not?
I want to set this up.
This is going to be Jesus.
He’s going to take this end of the rope in just a minute or two.
Now,
God so loved the world, John said.
You know, Jesus doesn’t win your heart with a sword.
Bow down at my feet or I’ll have your head now.
You will go to meet your maker in the next second.
Is that how Christianity is spread?
It’s by love.
I will win them back with my love.
And Jesus is the personification of the eternal love of God.
He came in our place.
He came from without so that He could come up from within
and take on all of Himself.
Take on Himself all the sin, all the anger, all the hatred,
all the fighting, all the fussing, all of that stuff on Himself at the cross.
Bury it and redeem it, hallelujah, and resurrect.
That’s the love of God.
Has that love of God captured you yet?
I’m thinking of Jesus as He walked this earth.
He would come up against a tree.
And up that tree would be a short little critter, Zacchaeus.
He couldn’t see over the head, so he had to climb up that sycamore tree.
Our little daughter, Heidi, used to say,
sycamore tree.
I thought that was hilarious.
A sycamore tree.
I’m glad she’s not here.
But to see Jesus.
Now, He wanted us to see the majesty of what we sang about,
the majesty of God in that last song.
It’s just a tremendous presence of the Lord, isn’t it?
It’s just great.
He wanted to see that.
That’s how Jesus captured heart.
He talked, look up to Zacchaeus and said,
now, Zacchaeus was a mean critter.
He deserved to go to hell if anybody did in that regard.
But Jesus looked up to him and said,
come on down, Zacchaeus.
We’re going to your place to eat.
Of course, that incurred the wrath of all the religious critters there,
the Pharisees and the Sadducees and all the rest of that.
A bunch that messed them up.
They couldn’t figure that out.
But Jesus caught Zacchaeus’ heart that day.
The woman at the well, Jesus came to her, how?
In love.
He won a heart that day.
He captured that heart.
That woman caught in adultery, He captured that heart.
I remember the night that He captured my heart.
Do you remember the night that He captured your heart?
This is what Paul is saying.
We are the captives of Jesus Christ in that triumphal procession.
We are the trophies of the Lord, hallelujah.
And God is leading us as captives in a triumphant procession
throughout the world wherever Jesus would lead us.
Amen.
Now, I’d like to play that out.
If you could take this end of it.
And somebody, I know, Steve, that God has captured your heart.
Come up here and get in this line.
Do you mind it?
Is it okay?
If you don’t want to, don’t.
Anybody else?
Anybody else?
Get in here.
This is it.
This is it.
This is the procession.
Just grab a hold of that.
Are you chicken, you?
Walter, we’re going to be standing up a long time.
You can be the anchor.
That’s good.
We’re good.
Now, in this triumphal procession, I want to follow this.
Oh, God, help me.
And Hector, I got Hector.
Well, no, Hector’s a real good person.
But he said, Doc, would you please stay on the stage this second time?
It’s hard to pick you up.
And I don’t know if he meant I weighed too much.
Was it picking up or what?
But I’m going to try and do better at that.
I promised Hector I would.
But it’s difficult.
Do you understand that?
So let’s get to this.
In front of this procession would be like a critter that had the incense.
Hey, would you help me and do that?
Would you be the incense?
Because it comes out of praise and worship.
The sweet-smelling savor to God, in that sense, is the Holy Spirit.
Are you with me here?
Yeah.
And so, thanks be to God who leads us always in a triumphant procession in Christ.
It’s in Christ.
Now, in front of that would go this person with the incense here,
with the censer with the incense.
And follow me, and I’m going to drop out and just go.
You don’t have to do it, the whole service, Ryan.
Lead them around.
Then you can sit down, and we’ll take you from there.
But this is the incense.
Now, catch what’s happening here.
Think.
Think.
Now, Walter, you’re a captive.
Keep your mouth shut.
Isn’t that just like it?
He’s not doing this.
He’s not doing that.
He’s not doing something else.
You be quiet.
You’re a captive.
You understand it?
Jesus is in charge of this.
He’s leading the thing.
And, boy, that’s a good lesson we can catch.
Right now, while we’re going through here.
I would submit that a lot of the church isn’t following God in a triumphal procession.
Wherever Jesus would lead them, the church is leading the procession.
You understand that?
The church is leading the procession.
God has leapt out of it.
So it doesn’t smell just right, by the way.
You get the picture there.
Thanks be to God who leads us in triumphant procession.
Has Jesus captured your heart?
To this degree, or does this bother you?
If this procession bothers you, I’d suggest you have parts of your life, if not all of it,
that is yet to be captured by the love of Christ.
And, you know, God will not violate that.
Thank you, Ryan.
You can sit down.
You did well.
Just park it right here for a while, guys.
God will respect that because he will win you with his love.
He won’t love or he won’t win you.
He won’t coerce you or force you because you have your own will, your own life, your own choice.
In fact, so much does he respect that choice.
So much did he love us and create us that way.
He will not force you to do that.
He created a special place for all those who would reject his love in this procession.
A special place for those who would reject what he has done, reject his love.
A special place where they could be.
Separate from him for eternity.
That place is called hell.
You ever think of hell as a product, actually, of God’s love and respect for those who would spit on him
and reject him and push away the whole life that he has for them?
But that’s true.
I believe that.
That’s true.
You don’t have to have it.
It’s not going to be forced on you.
He’ll win you through his love.
Amen.
Thanks be to God who leads us in triumphant procession always and who manifests the scent
of the knowledge of God through these people everywhere he leads them.
Follow me.
I want to see if you can smell them.
Can you smell them yet?
Just a second.
Stop right here.
Stop right there.
Here’s what’s happening.
Here’s what’s happening.
The sensor.
These are captives.
Captives don’t smell good.
Before.
Sorry, gentlemen.
Before you were saved, you didn’t smell good either.
Neither did I.
In fact, there are times when we revert to that stench.
And we’ve got to come back and say, we don’t want that.
That doesn’t smell good.
Are you getting the picture here?
So the sensor is in front waving this thing.
We’ve got to clean it up back here.
God needs to clean up the church.
I think he is.
Yes.
He’s cleaning us up.
He’s cleaning us up.
Thanks be to God who leads us in a triumphant procession all the time.
We’re in Christ wherever we go.
Now he says, he manifests through these guys the scent of the knowledge of God wherever
Jesus would lead them.
You know?
You know, the people of God smell different than the people of the world.
Yes?
We could go back and lay a foundation for this in the Old Testament.
There’s not time for that.
But the sweet-smelling savor to God, Christians smell just a little bit differently.
It’s a sweet-smelling savor to God.
Here it is, the scent of the knowledge of God.
You know, if you know God and you’re in a situation and there are people who don’t know God,
you’re the one that is the leader in that group.
People will come to you.
There’s a different scent.
Are you with me?
Paul is saying, thanks be to God who leads us in triumphant procession all the time in Christ
and who manifests.
It’s not us who manifest that scent of the knowledge of God.
That’s not our business to do.
It’s God who does that.
God brings it out.
God guides us here and there.
You follow me?
But there is a scent of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Are you getting the picture at all?
Is this making any sense to you all?
He says he manifests the scent of the knowledge of God through us in every topographical place
that he leads us.
You know, things ought to smell better after we’ve been there.
They should start to smell better the minute we show up.
Actually on our way.
The truth is, this is telegraphed as it gets there, if you understand what I mean.
There should not be a situation that we go into that should not be better when we leave.
It should not smell better after we’ve been there.
My Lord, how can we be through a praise and worship like this and not smell better?
We’ll never be the same.
Hallelujah.
Are you getting the picture?
Hallelujah.
God is with us in this.
Bless the Lord.
And he spreads that scent everywhere they go.
An authentic encounter with God.
Have you had it to the point that you are in the rope line?
That you are a capture?
Has he captivated your heart?
Secondly, verses 15 and 16.
He says this.
We are a sweet-smelling savor.
Now this is a different word for fragrance.
This is sweet.
This has a goodness and a sweetness to it.
This is better than the other if you put a premium on it.
We are, he says, the sweet-smelling savor of Christ to God.
In other words, this smells good to God.
Not the arrogant word of spoiled kings, brats, bless God,
bow down and worship our feet and kiss our big toe.
Are you getting the picture here?
That doesn’t smell good to God.
That’s not a sweet-smelling savor.
That’s not this fragrance.
But this is being captured by Christ.
I’ve heard a little bit of his testimony.
He was captured by the Lord.
Yes.
I don’t know his testimony, but the fact that these critters are here means
Jesus has captured them.
Ha, ha, ha.
Oh, boy.
I sense God in the place.
And this is a sweet-smelling savor in the nostrils of God.
We’re concerned right now is what does this look like to God, not the world.
Now the church is concerned with the way it looks like, what it looks like to the world.
This doesn’t really look that good to the world in one sense.
Would you agree?
A bunch of prisoners in a chain gang being carted around.
That’s not a good thing.
That’s not exactly what is in our mindset when we think of being free.
But yet in this, there’s freedom.
There really is.
It’s powerful.
It is awesome.
You’re correct.
It’s awesome.
Now, we don’t care what the world thinks.
We want to know what God thinks of this.
To God, this smells sweet.
Hallelujah.
Jesus has accomplished his mission.
He has come to them in love, and they have responded.
Bless God.
That smells sweet to God.
St. Paul says, this is a sweet-smelling savor to God of Christ.
We are that to God.
Now, that means a lot, by the way.
We are not a stench in the nostrils of God when we’ve been captivated by Christ,
but a sweet-smelling savor.
Now, look what he does here.
This is interesting.
He says, now, to some, we are that sweet-smelling savor to God.
To those who are in a…
In the process of being saved, that’s this side.
And to those who are in the process of falling away, that’s this side.
We have a lot of converting we’ve got to do over here.
Just kidding.
Okay.
The sweet-smelling savor of God to those who are being saved
and to those who are passing away, who are of the world.
Now, it doesn’t matter whether it’s being rejected or not.
It is still a sweet-smelling savor.
It is still a sweet-smelling savor to God.
And it also is to those who are being saved and to those who are not being saved.
There’s no distinction between that.
The fact that it is just a simple fact, a sweet-smelling savor to God
in those who are being saved and those who are not being saved.
That doesn’t mean that those who are not being saved
look on this with respect or to receive it.
That’s not the issue.
The issue is, this is an important point,
deep down in their gut, if you will,
where they really are, they recognize this,
you understand, as being a sweet-smelling savor to God.
Whether they receive it or accept it is not the issue.
The point is, it is a sweet-smelling savor to God,
to everybody, those who are being saved and those who are not being saved.
So, what that tells us is at least this.
Don’t ever discount your presence anywhere.
Are you with me?
It is important.
It is a sweet-smelling savor to God
to those who are saved and to those who are not saved.
That is the point there.
That is a change in our nature.
Look what else he says here.
Now, this gets a little more puzzling.
He says, now, to some, on the one hand,
to some, this scene up here
is going to be an odor or a scent.
We’re going back on the original word now.
A scent that comes out of death and leads back into death.
To others, on the other hand,
this picture will be a scent that comes out of life
and leads back into life.
What in the world does that mean?
It means that some will accept and some reject.
Some will respond positively to God’s love
and some will respond negatively.
Some will respond negatively to God’s love.
And Paul says, in just a minute,
we’re not going to fuss with it now,
but he says, who in the world is sufficient for this stuff?
I don’t understand how that works.
I remember sitting in a situation in Kansas City
at Nazarene Seminary.
I’m not going to go at length here,
but there was the head of the Islamic nation of that area
there that day describing what all they were.
And I just had to say something at the end.
And it had to do with God’s love.
And what was happening in the Philippines at that day
is these Islamic extremists were killing our people,
our Christians and pastors and burning churches
and this and that.
And I went through the whole story.
And I went even through a little bit like this,
how it is the love of God in us that constrains us
and how we took up money in the States
and sent it to the Philippines.
And the first place we rebuilt was not our own churches
or our own houses, but Muslim homes we began to rebuild.
Why?
Because of the love of God, the scent of God.
Do you understand?
The scent of the knowledge of God,
the sweet-smelling savor of Christ’s love
flowing through us wherever we go.
I’ll be getting the picture there.
My last words to him were this.
Now, over there, your people are becoming my people
because the love of Christ has captured them.
And they are now in this rope line, if you will.
Hallelujah!
Chained to Christ as a trophy!
As somebody conquered.
Amen!
Are you getting the picture here?
Hallelujah!
To some, wherever this goes, they’ll see this.
Man, I don’t want that.
That’s a death sentence there.
That’s a stench of death.
That smells like death.
It comes out of death and leads me back to death.
I don’t want anything to do with that.
And they refuse it.
Anybody here know people who have refused that?
I know some who have.
Then there are those who will say, hey, in their loss,
state, I get that.
I get that message.
That’s what I want.
It’s a smell to them of life that comes out of life
and leads them into everlasting life.
Is this making sense to y’all so far?
Aren’t you glad you responded to the love of God?
Thanks be to God who leads us in triumphant procession
always in Christ Jesus.
Now, he has a phrase here at the end of verse 16.
Change in our attitude.
You know, a lot of times we approach things.
There are people in the church who know too much.
And there are people in the church who don’t seem to know enough
or know very little.
What we need to do is drive a course, steer a course between
those who know too much and those who know too little.
For example, those who know too much would somehow give a retort
as to who is sufficient for these things.
things, you understand? Paul says, who is sufficient to decipher between all of this,
is what he’s saying. Now, those who know too much would say, ah, you know, it’s because of this,
it’s because of that, it’s because of something else, and don’t even recognize the question.
Those who seem to know too little or little or nothing at all, they don’t even get the picture.
We have to steer a course in the middle of that between those who know too much and those who
don’t know enough. Are you getting this at all? I think this addresses it all. Paul,
one of the greatest preachers of all time, who preached and thousands would get saved, you know,
and wrote a lot of the New Testament, and he says, who is sufficient to decipher this whole
mechanism up here? Are you getting the picture here? I can illustrate it like this. In my first
church in the late 70s in Ohio, there was a lady that started,
coming to the church. She was really a foul person, and back in the mobster days in Chicago
is where she came from. She really was really, really nasty, and came and used foul language
and all that in the church. We tried and tried and tried to work with her, and one night we met
with her, with the board, and presented Christ to her, and we did everything we knew to do,
and she just cussed us out in the office and lit out of there. It was an October night,
and I’ll never forget it. It was an October night, and I’ll never forget it. It was an October night,
and I’ll never forget it. As I watched her walk across the street, it was dark, and it was chilly,
and there were leaves, and it was wet, and the verse came to me, and Cain went out from the
presence of the Lord, and I’m watching her with that verse, and I’m seeing her go out, and it’s
like watching somebody go out into blackness in the darkness, literally to go into the recesses
of hell, as I would see in my mind, and I think that’s what this is talking about,
who is sufficient for these things. We cannot talk people into receiving God’s love. We cannot
talk them into it. There’s no rationality that will convince people to do that, and I’m wondering
how successful, really, has the church been over all the years at really taking the message of the
gospel to people. I’m thinking many times we like to jam it down their throat, and I believe in
preaching it straight. I believe in preaching it with love, but many times we come at it in a wrong
way, if you understand. Bless God, you’re going to hell if you don’t receive it, and we’re going
to help you get there and lock the door. It’s not the right attitude. Are you with me?
Who is sufficient for these things, Paul? There is a deep emotive quality. I’m thinking we need
to grieve more for those who reject God’s love.
That’s what this has to do. I’m thinking we need to pray more for those who have rejected God’s love
and have not been captured by Christ. Are you getting the picture here? I’m thinking we need
to intercede more for them. I’m thinking we need to figure out better ways and more efficient ways
to go grab them and show them God’s love to them, not just talk about it, but express it
in an authentic way. Do you get the picture? Do you agree with me?
Do you agree with me? We need to do that. Hallelujah! Finally, we need to find an authentic
expression, and time has slipped just a little bit away, but I can squeeze this in.
Brother Ryan, bring your critters up. Live from New Braunfels, a tree of life critters.
We need to make a CD with that name on it.
Here’s what Paul says, verse 17, to validate all this. He’s saying,
we are not, as the rest of them, as the many of the rest of them, retailing the gospel on a street
corner for a profit. Oh boy, does this ever speak to where we are in the church world today,
does it not? We’re not, as the many and as the rest of them, retailing the gospel on a street
corner for a profit. We’re not, as the many and as the rest of them, retailing the gospel on a street
corner for a profit. A panhandler, if you will. I was at a big meeting in Tulsa once, years ago,
about 13,000 people there, speaking of retailing the gospel. And I don’t want to be crass or crude,
I will be as, I will be as objective as I can. And this speaker, when the speaker finished,
and I know how it was set up, so I know it was probably set up somewhat this way, and I don’t
want to mimic it, but I know how it was set up, so I know it was probably set up somewhat this way,
what God generally does. But before exiting, as a person was exiting the platform, obviously
something was obvious that something was happening and sort of jerking around and yes,
God, yes, God, and all this. Came back to the microphone, now remember with 13,000 people in
the place, said, God has just told me that many of you are in debt. Duh. The whole place,
all this money, you with me here? That doesn’t take,
rocket science. You know, I can figure that out. Everybody’s in debt here. And God is telling me
that those, if you put in $1,000 in the offering tonight, which went all to the speaker, that you’ll
be out of debt within a year. Boy, everybody flocked, all kinds of people flocked. I couldn’t,
you just couldn’t count them all that flocked in there. That proceeded down to $500 and then
proceeded down to $100 and then proceeded down to $50 and it was full all the time.
I don’t know how much loot went out of there, but let me tell you what, Clyde, that’s a lot of money.
He went out of that joint that night. I’d have been upset if I had done that for $1,000,
finding out I could have done it for 50 all the time. Are you getting the picture there?
I don’t know what you think of that, but I think that is panhandling the gospel,
retailing the gospel of Christ on a street corner for a profit. We don’t do that around here.
Are you with me? We’re not talking about the, go ahead.
Paul says we have preached and lived an example and authentic expression of the gospel through
our lives in sincerity. That’s what we are, sincerity. Two ways to look at that. One way is
in the marketplace when they were to get a piece of cloth, you’d hold up to the light to see if
there were any imperfections. If there weren’t any imperfections, then they might pay for it.
They might pay the price they wanted, but if there were imperfections, they could negotiate
a cheaper price. Let me tell you something. There are no imperfections in those who have
been conquered by Jesus. There’s no cheaper price. It can’t get any cheaper. Not that it is cheap,
it costs Jesus his life. In other words, there’s no other way but the Lord. There’s no other way
but the love of God, and it’s not cheap. It’s not cheap. It’s not cheap. It’s not cheap.
It’s not cheap. It’s expensive. You can’t get a bargain rate. Salvation, hallelujah. Everybody
must come by way of the cross, hallelujah. Amen.
That the word that’s used here, though, speaks to this.
That when to find out if somebody was guilty or not of something, come up here, will you?
I know this probably shocks you. It shocks me. I want you to
lay on your back up there. Would you do that? That’s what they would do. They’d have that person
lay on their back, and they would put weight on their chest. Remember when Paul says,
we have been tried, we have been harassed, we have been pressured, we have been put in a squeeze,
we have been in a vice, we have had weight put on our chest, in other words. But we were not crushed,
and we were not hurt, and we were not hurt. That’s what this means. Come out of here, will you, Gary?
Go up and sit on that critter’s chest. Don’t really do it, don’t you? Now, look at the look.
Look at the look on this. Look at the look here. He’s scared. He’s scared out of his pants there.
He should be, Gary said. Now, this is the picture. We don’t need to go any further with this. It could
get ugly. Have you got the picture? You see the picture?
Thank you all. Thank you all. You can take off. We don’t need to peddle this thing on the street
corner like it’s something it’s not, and then do that for a profit. We can be perfectly safe
with the truth of God’s Word. We don’t have to mix it with anything else. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
We preach out of sincerity. I can honestly say, as all that’s in the knowledge that’s in me,
I have not done anything wrong. I have not done anything wrong. I have not done anything wrong.
We’ve done it the other way. We’ve done it out of sincerity, out of no thought for ourself,
and out of sincerity. I know that Pastor Don has done that. I know that the staff here has
done that. Hallelujah. And I know that this church has been in a squeeze. Am I right?
Have you not been put in a vice? Have you not been on your back and there’s been weights placed
on your chest?
Metaphorically speaking, let me ask you this question. Has it cracked? No. Are you getting
the picture here? Hallelujah. Glory to God. We don’t preach this like a hawker on the street
corner. We preach it in sincerity. There is the power of the gospel. Hallelujah.
Thanks be to God who leads us in triumphant procession in Christ Jesus all the time,
and that’s why we’re here today. I want you to stand with me if you will.
I would like Ryan in just a minute to lead with that line, the splendor of the king,
like we did, like you did in the service here. But just before he does that, I want to do this.
How many here might raise a hand as our heads are bowed and eyes closed just to respect
the privacy of other ones? Other than that, it doesn’t really matter to me.
How many would say, hey, I have not been captured,
by Christ, and I want to be captured by him. Slip a hand up. I want to give my life to him.
I want to jump in. Yes, I see that. I see that. I want to, yes, I say, hallelujah. I see that. I
want to be captured by the Lord, bless God. Glory to God. I sense the Lord in the house.
How many might raise a hand saying, I’ve given my life to the Lord before, but I’ve gotten slipped
away. I’ve not necessarily gotten in line like that, but I want to do that. I want to renew what
I have, bless God. I want to be a
captive of him. Yes, we see that all over the place. Hallelujah. Blessed be the name of the
Lord. Thank you, God. Now, I’m going to pray in just a second, and I’m going to pray in just a
second. Those of you who raised your hands, while I’m praying, ask God to do for you what you just
raised your hand for him to do. Will you do that? If you’ve never been captured by him, say, Jesus,
here I am. Take me. That’s all you need to do to get saved. Here I am. Take me. Hallelujah. I believe
already done that by raising the hand, actually. Did you see it? Jesus, save me. And the other
ones, too. In the name of the Lord, we’re coming. Father, in the name of the Lord. Hallelujah. In
the name of the Lord, you see the sincerity of hands here. Father, we’re asking that you
transform them today in an instant. We believe you have already. All of us want to be captured
by you afresh and anew. Change us, Lord. Make a change. Make us to become authentic as a
change, authentic in our expression. In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen. Now, if the prayer teams
would come up and position yourself, and Ryan’s going to sing this song that we’d ask him, and
if you want prayer, come. You know, these Encounter series this last month has been tremendous. People
have been healed. People have been saved. Things have happened in people’s lives. If you need
prayer, come. Whatever it is for, it doesn’t matter. Ryan, go ahead. Sing the song. Hallelujah.