Preserved
by Dan MacLeod
November 19, 2023 · Harrison Hills Church
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Psalm 16:1, Esther 4:13-14, Jude 24, Esther 8:11

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/dan-macleod--preserved
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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Amen. If you have a Bible today, you can grab it now. We're going to go to Psalms, chapter number 16, and we'll read one verse of Scripture, verse number one. If you don't have a way to look that up, that's all right. Our media team will help us today. And as you're turning there, I want to say what an honor it is to be back with you again this weekend. And I give high honor to your pastor and his family. I give honor to the leaders of this local church. And it's always an honor to be invited someplace one time, but when they bring you back, the honor is multiplied, and so is the pressure because, you know, you don't want them to just think, well, that was a one-off and just happened to be a lucky day. Truly, I count in an honor to be back with you, and I so appreciate your pastor and his

friendship, a new connection. We only met in March of this year and in Israel of all places. The Lord does all things well and so enjoyed the connection and fellowship. And Sister Spelman was actually able to meet my wife this week at a conference she was at. So I know when I traveled in here, I've traveled alone, but I don't live life alone. I'm happily married for 15 years with three sons. Carson is 12, Sawyer is nine, and Finn is four and a half. He'll be five in April. And so God has been good to me, and I'm thankful for Kingdom connections and to be involved in the work of the Lord. Last weekend at home in Terahoe, we had our building dedication. And my pastor's pastor is Bishop Stark. And so Bishop Stark was in town for the dedication, and we were chatting. I said, Bishop, I'm going to be a Jew next weekend.

He lit up like a Christmas tree. And I knew he'd like that. Just what a tremendous legacy of ministry and great things God has, is, and will continue to do right here in the hills of Eastern Ohio. Amen. Psalms chapter 16, verse number one, the scripture says preserve me, oh God. For in thee do I put my trust. Preserve me, oh God. And I want to preach to you today on boring my title from that first word. I simply want to talk to you about the subject of preserved. Amen, preserved. Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, I thank you for each and every one that's gathered into this holy house today. Let's gather to worship you and to lift your name. Now as we turn our attention to the Word of God, I'm praying that you would speak to us with clarity and revelation. Undoubtedly, there are people in this house today who are battling in their mind,

their families, in their lives. But Lord, they've come into an atmosphere where anything is possible, where the power of God keeps us and preserves us. And I'm asking now, Lord, that through the ministry of the Word and the Spirit, that you would help us receive everything that you've prepared this day in Jesus' name, we pray. And everybody said, amen. Before your seated, why don't you clap your hands to the Lord one more time? Amen, the Lord bless you today. And prayer for this weekend, the Lord began to deal with me about the concept of preservation. And in doing so, my mind was taken to many stories of Scripture, but notably what we find in the book of Esther. The writing of Esther is the narrative of how the Jewish nation was rescued from extinction and explains to us the origin of one of the Jews' most festive holidays, even to this day,

the Feast of Purim. As the story would go, his name was King Hazaris. His Persian name was Xerxes I, they believe. He was the ruling figure of ancient Persia, what we would know as Babylon. He was the face of pride and a voice of evil. Scripture records that for 180 days, he openly displayed his riches to the people. It culminated with a seven-day feast of drunken debauchery where, at its conclusion, he ordered his wife, Queen Vastai, to parade herself before the people as if it was not enough to display his riches. He would now look to the beauty of his wife, desiring to parade her before the crowds as nothing more than a figure or a trophy. To his shock, she refuses. And Haman, the evil advisor of the king, now cedes the idea of a replacement. And they gather young virgins from the land and they make them up

with makeup and all these different things desiring to capture the attention of the king. But King Xerxes would choose one name, Hadassah, an orphan daughter of Abigail, who was born of the tribe of Benjamin. Yes, this means she is a Jew. She's not decorated like all of the others, but still it is this by worldly standards, undecorated Jewish girl raised by her cousin Mordecai in the midst of Jewish exile that has been preserved for a purpose and that purpose is now. As the king begins to look over the girls, it is this girl that would be chosen. Haman now has found himself exalted to a leading political role in the nation. And after issuing a decree that everybody would bow to him, Mordecai refuses to bow. He will not surrender his faith. He will not disobey his God to appease a corrupt and immoral government. He will stand true to the scripture. He will bow to no man and no object.

And this infuriates Haman. He is angered and asks the king to authorize a royal decree to annihilate every living Jew. They begin to cast lots to determine the day that this will happen. The matter is resolved, it is said, decreed by the king that in Adar of the coming year, on the thirteenth day of the month, every Jew will be killed in every province, in every corner of the land. They will find them and they will kill them. And now, knowing Esther's unique place in the kingdom, she is the queen. Mordecai sends word to her of Haman's intention. He sends word into the ear of Queen Esther that Esther, I need you to understand something. You have been preserved and been positioned in the palace of the king, but there are many Jews who have not found such favor. And it is Haman's intention soon to kill

the Jews of which you are one and of which your family remain. After much deliberation and more importantly, following three days of prayer and fasting, Esther consents to risk her life in order to address the king. We find it in Esther 4 and 13. Mordecai commanded to answer Esther, think not with thyself that thou shalt escape in the king's house more than all the Jews. Esther, don't be at peace thinking you can escape because you're in the king's house. All the other Jews are about to die. He says, for if you hold your peace at this time, there will come an enlargement in deliverance to the Jews from another place, but you and your father's house shall be destroyed. Who knows whether that will come to the kingdom for such a time as this? Esther, if you want to hold your peace, if you don't want to say anything, know this, that God will raise up a deliverer from somewhere else.

God will preserve his people, but Esther, if you choose not to speak, if you choose not to act, know this, that your father's house, your family, your brothers and sisters and aunts and uncles and your cousins, they're going to die in this desecration. God will raise them up, but Esther, have you considered just this possibility that maybe God has brought you to the kingdom for such a time as this? And Esther, Bademore, to Caiaphas answer, go. I want you to gather together all the Jews that are present in Shosham. Fast, ye for me. Don't eat or drink for three days, night or day, and I will gather my maidens and we will fast likewise. And then I'm going to go into the king. It's not according to the law. And if I perish, I perish. Even though she is the king's wife, she bears the title of queen. It is the custom in the court

of the king. You only come by invitation. She knows to march her way into the court of the king is to risk her life. But she says, if I perish, I perish because this is not about me. This is about the people. So Mordecai went his way and did according to all that Esther had commanded him. And through a series of divinely orchestrated events at the conclusion of three days of sincere prayer and consecrated fasting, Haman finds himself hanging to death on the very gallows that he had built to kill Mordecai on. And as a result of Esther's ambitious and bold entrance into the court of the king, the Jews are spared by the position and the purpose of Esther. You see, Esther to us is not just this old story of which the Feast of Purim finds its origin. It is a picture to us of the church and the church's mission sent to bring deliverance to

the people of this world in these last days. Haman was an aga guy, a descendant of Amalek and Esau, a people that ingrained within their fiber is a hatred for the Jews. The bitterness of a boy with no birthright. He changed it, traded it to appease his carnal appetite has passed from generation to generation. And now in this present day, we live in a world overcome with the spirit of the antichrist and of this we must be certain it is present in the world today. When we look at what has happened in Israel in only the past seven weeks and we look at the response of what is happening in the world. I am well aware that there are innocent people on both sides. I am well aware of the devastation of loss of civilian lives and those who want no part of war. But I tell you today, there is a spirit at work in the world that wars against

the people of God. It wars against those who are Jewish by natural birth and it wars against those who Paul called the true Israel of God. That is we who are not Jewish by origin but are made partakers of the same covenant of Abraham when we were baptized in Jesus name and when we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the antichrist is at work. It's a militant spirit. It will not cooperate or overlook the people of faith. Those who carry the prophetic seed and the destiny of God's work in the world will be confronted by this spirit and it will demand of us what it demanded of them. You bow or you die. But I tell you today, God has the power to preserve His people. Paul said in 2 Thessalonians, but the Lord is faithful who shall establish you and keep you from evil. But the Lord is faithful. I'm preaching to you today about a God who's faithful

when sickness should have killed me. God was faithful when I shouldn't have survived that accident. God was faithful when my mind was overcome and I was anxious and battling depression. God was faithful. He's not just faithful to be present. He said he's faithful to establish you and to keep you. So he says we have confidence in the Lord touching you that you will both do and will do the things which we commend of you. He's saying that in the hour of testing and conflict and trial when it's so easy to retreat and throw in the towel, we have faith in you that you will do the right thing because you are persuaded of this fact that God is faithful to establish you and God is faithful to keep you when it seems like everything is against you and you've got no way of escape and you can't find your way out. You've just got to set your feet

on the firm conviction that if God's not going to bring me out, He's going to keep me till I get through it because this is a God who keeps us. He preserves us. We don't die in our dilemmas and we don't throw in the towel at every setback because we've got a sure word of prophecy and we are reminded of this fact that God is faithful. Even when I can't make sense of it, he's faithful. Even when I'm weak and weary in my body, he's faithful. Even when my mind is under attack, he's faithful and you know what he's faithful to do? He's faithful to keep me. He's faithful to keep me in the trial, keep me in the sickness, keep me in the fight, keep me in the weariness, keep me in the battle because he preserves us. Oh, I know it's not always easy.

I know it doesn't come without a fight but I'm preaching to you today, to a church today that is standing as a testimony of God's preservation power when economies have gone up and down and populations have declined. Here we are today gathered in the presence of God feeling the moving of the spirit in the hills of eastern Ohio. Why is I'll tell you why because he's a keeping God. He's a preserving God and God says my work in the world is indicted by the economy or the population. I just need a people who will let me preserve them. The devil has always been determined to kill what God was doing but God said I keep things. He filled Cain with enough hatred to murder his righteous brother Abel but God raised up Seth. He led mankind into enough wickedness that God would destroy the world in a flood but God raised

up Noah. He deceived men with false religions to worship manmade gods but God raised up Abraham. The brothers of Joseph were driven by jealousy and envy and in spite of their betrayal God preserved him in the pit, in the prison and promoted him to the palace. He caused Pharaoh to issue a death warrant for every Hebrew boy but God thwarted his plan and with Pharaoh's own daughter preserved the life of Moses who would grow to be the deliverer for the people of God. That's not all. He sent an army to corner them at the water's edge but God preserved them when he parted the sea. He tempted Israel. Satan did it with less than perversion before a golden calf but God said that's okay I'll raise up the sons of Levi. He bribed the prophet Balaam to curse the nation of Israel but God took control of that tongue and made Balaam speak

other things. He frightened the spies with the giants of the land of Canaan but God said hey I'll just raise up Joshua and Caleb. He tried to starve out the nation through the raids of the Midianites but God said hey I'll just preserve you by a man named Gideon. He bound the strongman Samson with cords of lusts that he could not break, handed him over to a Philistine to rot and die in a prison but God gave that elder Samson his greatest victory when he repented in his lowest moment. He polluted the priesthood of Israel through the wickedness of Eli's sons but God said that's okay I'll preserve my people and my work in the world when I raise up a prophet named Samuel. He snared King Saul with the sin of pride but God raised up a man after his own heart named David. He caused Queen Athaliah to kill the

royal seed but God moved on the heart of Jehoiadah the priest to take a little boy named Joash and hide him. Do you know why? Because God always preserves his people. The devil didn't know when he moved on the heart of Haman to hatch a plot that would start a genocide against the Jews but God moved upon his people and put Queen Esther in a position to be the agent of preservation for an entire ethnicity. She had no guarantee of success. She did not know what the outcome would be. She was well aware that according to the royal custom there is a possibility in spite of the fact that she bears the title of the king's wife that when she marches into the court of the king it could result in death but if I perish I perish because the work of preservation is worth it.

What is one life to give for the sake of all the millions? What is one life Esther have given in the work of preservation for the entire Jewish people? She was persuaded the risk was worth the reward. Oh I know there's a risk but I'm driven by the reward and I shared by a few of the testimonies of Scripture. She stands on hundreds of years of testimony. 70 years of her own Persian exile where she has learned that even though she isn't where she wants to be God was where she was. Oh it's easy in your dilemma to look at some distant day in the future and think God is over there but Esther came to the realization that even though I'm not where I want to be yet God is still where I am right now. I'm preaching to somebody today who feels like you're bound up at every side. You're battling at every turn. You can't find a

way of escape. Your mind is under attack. Your family's under attack and you want to throw in the towel and give up on the future God has for you. You hear this preacher today. Don't do it! God has the power to preserve you and in spite of how you feel and in spite of what you think hear me now. God is not just some future destination that you dream about and you think about. He's with you right where you are. Just ask Joseph oh I know it's easy to think God's in the palace when you got all the money and you're sitting on the throne of power but let me tell you Joseph learned in the process. God was just as much with me in the pit in the middle of the desert and God was just as much with me in the prison. That's why it didn't matter where they

put him. God elevated him. They were going to put him at the bottom of a pit and God said I'm going to elevate you out of the pit to be sold as a slave. God watched him get put into a prison. God said I'm going to elevate you to be the ruler of that prison until he is the second most powerful man in the nation. But what did Joseph learn in the process that there's a preservation power that God preserves me in the process that in every season and in every cycle and every storm even when I can't make sense of it and when I look to my right and I cannot find them and I look to my left and I cannot make sense and is he behind me or before me of this I'm certain he just preserves me. After 70 years of her own Persian exile Esther is persuaded of this fact

God has preserved me to this moment most certainly he'll preserve me in my next moments. If I perish, I perish. All I know is I have to get into the court of the king. I tell you today the Lord has powered to keep you. There's nothing God cannot do. There's no crisis of circumstance that can overwhelm him. He is not taken by surprise or ever shaken by fear. There is no enemy he cannot evict and he has never met a circumstance he cannot conquer. He rules over all things and this includes every detail and every difficult day you have ever lived. That's why Jude would write in verse 24 now unto him that is able to keep you from falling. I'm not sure how well acquainted you are with the perplexities and the struggle but the climate of the first century church that existed in the New Testament writings

was anything but easy. Men burned alive and boiling oil crucified upside down. Governments that would bust into homes and throw you into a prison for preaching the gospel. It was not a welcoming atmosphere and much like it is throughout countries in the Middle East today the greatest threat of persecution. It was not even the government itself. It was family persecution. The greatest threat is not the police officer knocking on your door. It's the father of the teenager who just got converted who goes to some local religious leader and puts a bounty on his head and now a bunch of no good rebels are the enforcers of this. It's not the government but this was the environment of the early church but in spite of it the Bible says that they were adding to the church daily such as should be saved and the number of believers multiply. They propelled themselves forward and exponential growth. The

environment was not welcoming to any sense of earthly comfort but the fact is the crisis served as a facilitator even an accelerator of the work of God and it's to this kind of environment this kind of tense conflict and this kind of opposition that Jude says now unto him that is able to keep you. What do you mean what I'm telling you is you're not really at the mercy of the circumstance. You're not at the mercy of what's happening in the world. Your life is not at the mercy of an interest rate or a population. We don't move on the basis of a political leader no because there's a God who is able to keep us. He said he can keep you from falling and present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. The writer of Isaiah said that there were weapons that were formed against us. John said the thief comes to

steal to kill and to destroy but he keeps us. I know the devil comes with killing power but I came here today to tell this great church that God comes with keeping power. Well I know when Satan shows up I know he's doing everything he can to kill the work of faith in your life but when God shows up he comes with keeping power so the promises he put in your mind and the promises you're carrying in your spirit he can't steal it because God keeps it. He can't kill it because God keeps it. He can't destroy it because God keeps it. Oh I know the weapon's going to be formed. I know the battle's going to be raged but I just came to tell you God can keep you. So like Esther I'm telling this church today in the Holy Ghost you have been preserved

for a purpose. Preservation is a seasonal act nothing is preserved forever. I remember being a boy going to my grandparents house. Good Lord my grandma passed 11 years 12 years ago and I'm sure there's still probably preservatives in their basement that they made when I was a kid. Listen I never had store-bought jam until I got married and then I told my wife listen there's some things we don't do and that's eat store-bought jam so I don't care if we live five hours from my grandmother my mother will bring us jars by the dozen when she comes visit. Now Grammy's gone and I'm walking through the valley of affliction. You preserve things for a prolonged period but there comes a time that that period concludes and the purpose for which you preserved it must be fulfilled. Thank God that that jam could last a couple

season those canned beans and canned tomatoes. Let me tell you right now I don't know if y'all eat this in Ohio but macaroni with canned tomatoes my Lord have mercy it will change your life. It's better on the second day put a little butter a lot of pepper on that you preserve them those canned goods can last you a good little while but they're gonna last you forever because the preservation was ordained for a season and what Esther has discovered is that God has preserved her and placed her and positioned her but now the purpose of that preservation is here. The purpose of this was not really just so I could get the nobility of being the king's wife. God has placed me here as an agent of preservation for the people of God and now the purpose is in jeopardy so I must come out

of my preservation so the people can be preserved. Let me tell you today that your past was not a mistake and your future is not uncertain. God has a divine plan and a sure purpose for Harrison Hill's church. It is not without tests and trials and it is with certainty I tell you today yes there will be battles but in every season and in every circumstance God will keep you because that's what he does. When the enemy comes to kill God says I come to keep. When the enemy comes to steal and to destroy God says wait a minute I'm going to use somebody to preserve what I've been doing but that preservation is just for a season and while it's easy to feel ordinary I tell you what God desires to do through you is in fact extraordinary. When contrasted with every other virgin that the king laid his eyes on Esther was so different not decorated by the standards

of secular beauty like everybody else was rather it was the beauty of simplicity and godliness. It was the divine purpose on her life that radiated through her humility and her meekness that brought her before the king and now it's the moment she has said if I perish I perish but I must go and she enters in the court of the king the bible says she falls to the ground with broken voice and tears streaming down her face she begins to plead her case before the king and the king extends to accept her over Esther and the bible says she stands and I would tell you the change of posture is a notable thing she comes in hesitation and humility she comes in meekness and uncertainty not certain will she live or will she die and she's broken she's moved by overwhelming burden for her people she desires what god is

doing in the world to be preserved she comes trembling on her knees when that scepter is stretched out by the king the bible says she stands and with that changing of posture it was indicative of the changing of orders the uncertainty that you brought into the court of the king the question and the fear and the anxiety that you brought into the court of the king has no reason Esther I need you to stand up I don't want you cowering and trembling in uncertainty and fear change your posture because the narrative of the story is about to shift and Esther 8 and 11 says this wherein the king granted the Jews which were in every city to gather themselves together to stand for their life to destroy to slay and to cause to perish all the power of the people in the province that would assault them both the little ones and women to take the

spoil of them for a prey now by decree of the king it's not their extinction it's their advancement by the decree of the king because one woman pressed her way into the court of the king he says here's what I need you to do I need you to gather yourselves together in stand for life don't be divided don't let fear send you hiding in that direction and hiding in that direction don't let uncertainty keep you home behind locked doors no I need you to gather the people together we've got to come into one mind we've got to come into agreement about what our future is going to look like listen I've come here to tell you today that I know there's been ups and downs and hills and valleys I know there's been some victory and some decline I know what I know what I know but this is what I come to tell you in the Holy Ghost in spite of it all

God has preserved the richness and the legacy and the heritage and the work of God in this church but the preservation is only for a season there comes a time when the preservation is complete and the purpose must be enacted and what to the beginning of the story said he said Esther if you don't do this this is what I know that advancement in enlargement it's going to end from another place God will give us space and God will give us a deliver from somewhere else in other words at the beginning of the story God said this is what the end is the end is you're going to advance the end is you're going to grow you're not going to die in this trial your story is not going to end in this sickness this is just a season of preservation the end is more space

more stuff more people it's growth and advancement it's taken territory it's new converts it's restored families that's what the end looks like but if you're not careful somewhere in the process you can lose sight of that and you can surrender your faith because you start believing that the enemy's killing power is greater than God's keeping power so I just came here to tell you today God has power to preserve you but I also need you to know that that season of preservation for this church is quickly coming to a close that there was growth and advancement that God has for this house that there's there's enlargement there's increase that God wants to bring to your life and your family and your ministry and this church's ministry how do you know because that's always what God is wanted to do but the problem is sometimes we allow our faith to be

tied to circumstance and not to the character of God and so God said I just need you to learn this I can keep you I can keep you with a cancer diagnosis and I can keep you when you do that money to pay your bill and I can keep you when you feel like you're on the decline and I can keep you when you're tired and I can keep you when you can't make sense of which way to go and you can't find direction in the darkness of the storm I can keep you I can keep you when your marriage is struggling when your kids are bringing division to the family I can keep you when you lose your job and when your car breaks down I can keep you I can keep you when the enemy's assaulting you and attacking your mind and afflicting your body I can keep you

I'm telling you God can preserve you if you stay true to him preserve me oh Lord the Psalmist said I will trust in you and the problem with the North American church is we stop trusting in God oh yeah we trust in our job we trust in our career we trust in the name on our paycheck we trust in our diet and our fitness regimen we trust in the home we've built in the car we drive with the advancement of materialism we've lost our trust in God and somewhere in the process and the stripping in the battle we get back to the place where we learn I can trust in God and God alone because he will preserve me won't you stand with me the king said I want you to gather the people bring them together and stand and that's what God's calling this church to do gotta come together one mind and one accord coming to agreement surrounding

the vision God has given our pastor coming to agreement surrounding the plan God has given our leadership and we need to stand for life well you don't know what it's like in a small town you don't know what it's like listen it doesn't matter you don't know how many people have moved away you don't know how much loss we've been through you don't know the pain of the process that I've it doesn't matter at some point you've got to change the conversation at some point you've got to stop focusing on what you've lost and celebrate about what he has preserved and when you get to the point where you can celebrate over what God has preserved your faith will start growing your faith will get nurtured and to the point where you can start talking about not just what he has preserved because that's just for a season but you can

start talking about what he's going to produce because there comes a time that the preservatives are no good and you better hope that somebody's been working on producing something more that's why when the children of Israel crossed into the Jordan River to take their land of promise the bible said they ate of the old corn and the new corn on the self same day I'd preserve some stuff from the years they thought they lost but he also let them eat of the stuff that was fresh in the field I'm telling you what I told you the first time I came here that there's a richness in the spirit in this church there's a legacy of ministry that God has preserved in this church and I celebrate it and I rejoice about it but we better get ready for a little change of direction because I'm telling you there's some production in the field there's some produce

that God wants to bring to Harrison Hills church that is not a preservative from years gone by but it's something new I'm telling you there's advancement and there's a large meant that God has for this church so don't surrender your faith in the process throw in the towel in the storm because he can keep you if you'll just hang on just hold on to his word keep praying keep worshiping even when it's hard don't ever skip a Sunday you gotta come out of the house of God with your hands raised in your heart open lift up your voice and praise him the enemy's trying to kill but I'm just telling you God has the power to keep but we've got to come together and we've got to stand for life and he said you know what you're going to do you're going to find all the people that afflict you and assault you

and you're going to kill them and you're going to slay them what he was trying to tell them was when you heard the decree of the king that in the coming months every Jew was going to be killed you retreated into a mechanism of defense you're just just trying to keep yourself alive but now the posture of the queen has changed and the word of the king has changed and by royal decree he's telling them you need to come out of the mode of defensive living and you need to start going on the offense all the stuff that you were just cowering and fear and unbelief and hiding from and trying to keep yourself alive you need to rise up and fear based on the posture of the queen and the word of the king and you need to advance into territory and you need to kill the things that were trying to kill you i'm telling you in the

holy ghost you have power to conquer the things that have been trying to conquer you you can conquer fear and unbelief and anxiety you can walk in spiritual dominion and financial dominion you can have power over principalities and powers and spiritual wickedness but you've got to change your posture the queen is representative of the bride the church and i'm telling you in the holy ghost this church has got to change its posture rise up from the position of uncertainty and unbelief rise up out of that mechanism of defense rise up out of that season of preservation stand up straighten your back get a little confidence working in you clear your throat because we're going to stand together and we're going to stand for life and we're going to speak growth and we're going to speak blessing and we're going to speak prosperity and we're going to speak power

and we're going to speak glory and we're going to speak miracles because god has preserved us to this point but i'm telling you there's some things he's about to produce there's a new work he's about to do there's new growth he's about to bring there's new miracles he's about to do you just got to change your posture you got to stand together and we got to lift our voice in agreement come on would you lift up your hands to the lord right now would you lift up your voice you might pray in english you might begin to pray in the spirit you might just want to shout amen yes amen i believe it yeah yeah that's it lift up your voice that's it lift up your voice i'm telling you today there's miracles for you and your family you're not going to die in this trial

this season is not the end of your story god can keep you he can preserve you yes yes yes in the name of Jesus who's what we're going to do today if you're here and i know there's many who are because i know what i felt in prayer you need god's keeping power to start working in your life right now you need that keeping power to show up and touch your mind and your body you need to start working in your home i'm going to invite you to step out of your seat and come to this altar today so as a church family we can do what the scripture says stand together and stand for life i'm telling somebody in the holy ghost you're not strong enough on your own you're not smart enough by yourself and your circumstance listen your circumstance isn't too much for god let me tell

you what is your pride you're not imprisoned by your circumstance you're imprisoned by your pride god can flip your circumstance with the movement of his finger one word could change that circumstance but one thing god can't deal with is pride that's why he kicked it out of heaven he kicked it out of his garden and it can never get back in his presence so i paul said i died daily i got to kill that part of me that has a disposition towards pride why as paul knew what it was to deal with a little bit of junk shipwrecks and whippings rejection and mockery prison sales is in the darkness of a prison his body's broken weak no doubt malnutrition it's anything but pleasant he's got a pen he's writing on that paper and those are the letters we have right here how does that happen thank you for asking it's because right there in the darkness of that prison

in that unfortunate circumstance he found a power that could keep him and he discovered i'm not at the mercy of my circumstance i'm not i'm not at the mercy of a centurion or a soldier my life is not dictated by this and we need the keeping power of the holy ghost to touch some people in this house today because you're not strong enough i'm not strong enough none of us are smart enough we don't got enough money we don't have enough intellect we need the keeping power of the holy ghost to start doing a work that only it can do so all across this sanctuary i want you to lift your hands i want you to forget about who's around you who's beside you forget about who's in front of who cares who cares this is about you encountering the keeping power of the holy ghost right now eyes are closed hands are raised and all together we have got together

to speak for life not one of us not ten of us all of us have got to lift our voice and prayer in defense of what god is doing in us and through us so i want you to begin to pray just begin to lift up your voice and as you pray you're going to begin to feel the spirit of the lord move upon you it may begin to come with more passion you may begin to speak with more certainty and more strength you may begin to pray in the spirit and speak in other tongues i don't this moment is too important this season is too important come on that's it yes yes yes yes god raise up intercessors god raise up intercessors just like ester to press their way into the court of the king come on that's it that's it let your prayer bring the power let your intercession bring the help

the keeping power the miracle the strength the deliverance in the name of jesus yes yes that's it just press here for a moment we don't have to rush we don't have to hurry god we're pressing our way into the court of the king we're gonna pray until he stretches out that scepter and he speaks his word and he gives us what we need and he gives us what we ask for come on that's it let that keeping power help you right now let it help you break through pray until you pray through pray through your fear pray through your uncertainty pray through your doubt pray through your sickness pray through that problem yes yes yes come on this is it this is how things change this is where the work is accomplished in the spirit paul said to the church at galatia are you so foolish to think that what was begun in the spirit can now be

completed by the flesh no the people of god have always accomplished his work first and foremost in the spirit through the spirit by the spirit right here this is where we win this is where we fight this is where we get strength this is where we get help yes yes yes yes yes not by might not by power but by my spirit saying the lord sikia come on there's been a keeping power in this church for a long time i don't know how many decades you've been here but it's been keeping this church for a long time but you need to let it keep you you've got to let the keeping power of this church keep you in the church keep you in the fight keep you in the battle you got to let it keep you believing keep you praying keep you fasting keep you worshiping keep you reading your bible telling you what i know in the holy

ghost god has been preserving but there's fresh produce on the way there's new production in the works