Dadda, Dadda, Dadda! (Part 2) - Pastor Brad DeLong

trips. Not all a lot of us. Anyone especially enjoy this road trip where you're seeking after God and never get an answer? Anyone? No. I didn't think so. Some of us have made that trip a thousand times or more. Some of us have walked to this altar every Sunday. Some of us have bowed our head in prayer and we've gritted our teeth and we mustered our faith and and we called on that name more times than we care to count. Some of us are so far down that road rather than the rewarder. Good morning, God. Love you so much. Hey, I need to talk to you. Where's that reward? Some of us, if we're honest, have started to desire the blessing, the answer more than the one who blesses. and we've yet to see the answer. We may be forgetting that the ultimate answer is the cross and the one who died on it. Some of us want and we need the reward. There's it's many of us it's just it's a need. It's not just a want. It's a need, but we are having trouble with the faith and the trust and the diligence part of receiving it. We know how to seek God. You all were just doing it and you you do it better than any others. The hardest part is seeking him diligently without seeing the reward we think we ought to seek. Is that real enough today? It's spoken from lived experience and I believe it's part of the reason I'm on assignment today. I want to say emphatically to someone and I need you to hear me. Okay, I'm going to get down here so you can No amount of prayers, no amount of trips to this altar, no amount of seemingly unanswered calls can never negate the fact that God's word is still true and he is still a rewarder of those who diligently seek him.

Uh, I'm going to say it again because someone has to hear this. You have prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and you don't feel like you've seen the answer. I feel the Holy Ghost coming in helping someone. You think God didn't hear you. You might have even in this company and in this congregation today that when you lifted your voice a moment ago and you said Jesus and maybe you didn't feel all the goosebumps everyone else felt you thought he doesn't hear me. I don't know who I'm talking to but I need you to know you could pray 10,000 or 100 thousand times.

I hope you get your answer before them. Even if you don't, it does not negate the fact that his word is still true and God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. How many of you have prayed for your answer more than a year? Anybody? You haven't seen it yet. I got anyone here 10 years? Anyone here 20? Anyone? 30 years? Anybody? I commend you. I need you to lift that hand back up. Lift it back up. Everybody in this room, look around. You see those hands?

Those are faithful people who believe in a faithful God. And their faith is well found. We're just going to follow the Holy Ghost. All right. Here's what I need to tell you. We're going to land here today and we're going to let the Lord do whatever he wants. 2 Chronicles 7:14 has been stirring in my spirit for quite some time for people in the room right now. Would you put that up on the screen with a laden? Thank you. Doing a great job back there. This is a promise.

says, "The Lord appeared to Solomon by night." And this is during when times were great, times were wonderful. This is when the temple had just been built and they got to see the glory of God and everyone's excited. The Lord appears to Solomon. He says, "I've heard your prayer. If we could just park there. He has heard you. He has heard you." John wrote, "This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us." He hears us.

All of our faith is built on this right here. And I I don't even know who I'm talking to, but I need someone to get it. God does hear you. He has heard every every idle word, much less when you speak the name of Jesus, you are not the exception to all of humanity and creation. When you speak the name of Jesus, God hears you. If he heard Solomon, he hears you. I've heard your prayer. I've chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice.

Go to the next verse if you wouldn't mind. But then he starts to talk about them and to them about a day when the Lord himself wouldn't quite answer when their deeds and their mistakes would lead them to a place of wilderness to a place where they were just having to trust God completely to a place of exile. Some of you feel like you're there now. He talked to them about a day when when they just scan the horizon of their life and they see a whole lot of scorched earth, trouble and brokenness.

When I shut up the heaven and there is no rain. I command the locust to devour the land. They're in an agrarian society. Listen, we didn't do too bad, right? Not them. I send pestilence among my people. Here's the Lord's promise. If my people go to the next verse, who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven. I'll forgive their sin and I will heal their land. Next verse. My eyes will be open, my ears attentive to the prayer made in this place.

And I believe he was talking about the temple, but if you allow me, I believe he was also talking about that place of barren earth because he told them in Jeremiah, you're in exile, but if you seek the Lord, you'll find him. So, not just in Jerusalem, not just here, not just in the house of God. When you call on the name of Jesus, any place when you're broken and you're alone and you feel like no one else is there, he'll hear you. And here's the three promises.

We've already talked about one. God will hear you. I don't know who I'm talking to, but you need to know he does hear you. Those prayers, as tall as that ceiling are, aren't hitting the ceiling and coming back. He hears you. I also want to say, I'm taking these out of order, but God will also heal you. I got to share the testimony. Sister Bethany is here this morning. couple weeks ago. Would you raise your hand, Bethany? Not to embarrass you, but they told the story, but Nathan did.

They were on that trip in the hotel room, and she all of a sudden just out of nowhere had a debilitating pain. And if I get any of this wrong, you can just shout out and correct me later. So much so, she couldn't stand, if I remember right. Nathan says, "[name redacted], would you pray?" Six-year-old [name redacted] full face. She said, "I got this, Dad." Went over and started her prayer. "Thank you, Jesus." I love that. Before she even asked, "Thank you, Jesus." She said, "Lord, help mommy for pain to go away.

Help her to be able to stand. Thank you, Jesus." Again, she says, "Mommy, stand up." That's like a book of Acts, Peter and John moment. I wish I had her faith. I wish some of you had her faith. I wish we all did. God isn't just going to hear me right now. He's going to respond. She says, "Mommy, stand up." Bethany said, "The moment she started to pray, that pain left from her body." She stood up on her feet. She said, "I I kid you not, that pain is gone." And Nathan said, "That's just what God does, [name redacted]." And she said, "Yep, of course.

Of course, God will heal. Of course, God will touch you. And he just said it in a message in tongues. And if you call on the name of Jesus, he will heal you even if he doesn't do it instantly. And this is the hard one right here. People in this room, I want you to come to this altar in a moment. I want to pray. I want to see you healed in just a moment. But we also heard the testimony of Sister Crystal Ray. Many of you know her journey and you saw it.

We celebrate that she is cancerree. I thank God that she's that's an answer to prayer that many of you prayed. We got on the one hand sister Bethany who was healed instantly. We also have sister Crystal who walked through a journey of praying every day and her family praying every day and many of you praying every single day until we saw that I got that text. I think I was out of town somewhere. It said no cancer. God will heal you. God will heal you. It may take a process, but don't you be weary and calling on the name of the Lord.

Oh, don't you shy away just because it's been 10 years or 20 or 30. You lift those hands and call on that name of Jesus anyway. Oh, God can God will heal you. I feel faith in this room, right? God can heal you right here and right now. Here's what we're going to do. I want you to stand right now across this place. If you need healing and you have faith that God can do it, that God can do it even now. I wonder if you just step out of where you are.

Okay? I don't know what we're going to do beyond this. We're just following the Holy Ghost. If you need healing in any way, would you step out of where you are? And I'm going to ask someone that's been healed or someone that has faith that these can be healed to to make your way in just a moment. All right? Come along the front of this altar if you wouldn't mind. If you need healing in any way, thank you for your faith. If you need God's healing touch, and this isn't just physical, all right, the Lord can do any kind of healing.

When he was talking about healing their land, that was a whole lot more than that was a holistic healing. God's able to do it. To those of you that have come for healing, I know I I been in this altar with you. I've been in this altar for myself with needs of my own. And I know the doubts that creep in as you're walking. But I want you to displace those doubts right now with a faith. I'm trying to stir your faith, okay? Jesus can heal you.

That troubled mind in the room. I heard a testimony this morning of a troubled mind that God touched. God can touch you right here and now. We're going to pray in that beautiful name that we just sang about. Now, I want anyone that has faith or anyone that's been healed, would you come right now? If you need healing, lift your hands so people can find you. Okay? If you've got faith that someone can be healed, would you come right now and find somebody? I need some believers right now to come and fill this place.

And we're going to pray in just a moment. You know what? Don't even wait for me. You just say the name of Jesus. All right? Just go over them and lay your hand on them and begin to profess the name of Jesus and speak that name over their life and over their body. If you feel comfortable, ask them what they need healing for and pray a specific prayer that God's able to do it. I trust in God, my savior, the one who will never fail.

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and we're going to celebrate with her in just a moment. Some of you may have realized I didn't get to forgive. I've forgiven, but I didn't get to forgive in the scripture. I left that one for last. I know that the sequence of that scripture is important. That forgiveness is part of our healing. But I I need to tell somebody today, you need to believe that Jesus has forgiven you. If you're just starting in your faith journey and maybe you're you're trying to overcome your past, John tells us if we confess our sins that God is faithful and just.

He's fair. He's righteous to forgive you of your sins and to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. That goes for the new believer. That goes for the believer who's been around a while. If you've never repented of your sins, you can have that experience today. You can be baptized. We got robes, multiple baptismal rooms. You can have that happen. But I also want to tell a saint of God who's been around that keeps falling in the same pit over and over again. God, the moment you ask for his forgiveness, he forgave you.

And as we heard a couple weeks ago, now he wants to cleanse you of all unrighteousness. We were at senior high camp a couple weeks ago. There's a young man, 15 years old. He's been coming to camp every single year. I love him to death. He's the thorn in my side. He's the one following me around with a water gun. He's always shooting me with a water gun. He's my sidekick, my buddy. I didn't know it the last night he was seeking the Holy Ghost. I thought he had already received it.

seeking after the Lord. And I I came over to where he was, his youth pastor was there and asked, "Has he received the gift of the Holy Ghost yet?" He said, "No, he hasn't yet." And we believe that here at APC and the apostolic movement that the initial evidence of receiving the spirit of God is that you'll speak with other tongues just like they did in the book of Acts. So, he was seeking the Lord and I just I don't do this all that often. Someone's praying, I don't shut things down, but I I said, "Hey, I need to talk to you." I asked him, I said, "Do you really and fully believe that Jesus has forgiven you of all of your sins?" And he just kind of sheepishly, "Yes." And I said, "Okay, we're going to repent and I need you to believe that God has forgiven you because if you don't believe he's forgiven you, you might you're probably not going to believe that he's going to fill you with the Holy Ghost." We repented and we prayed again.

And he was praying for quite a while. And he just couldn't really break through. when the service was winding down and and he he put his arms down and and just kind of felt that moment, that little discouragement set in. And right about that time, the speaker who had told me, "Hey, I'm done. That's all I need to say. I'm wrapped up." Got up on the platform and he said, "Hey, I know I said I'm done, but I need to say something. Someone in this room needs to believe that God has forgiven you of your sins." And he said, "Don't don't just believe it.

You need to start to worship God and praise him because he has fully forgiven you of your sins like his word said he would. Just a few moments later, no one around him. His youth pastor looked over to see that young man with his hands lifted and tears streaming. He was speaking with other tongues as the spirit of God gave him the utterance. God needs someone to know that he has and will continue to forgive you of your sins. Now, he says, "Go and sin no more." And he wants to cleanse you as well.

I don't know who exactly I'm talking to. Maybe multiple people in the room, but the Lord's word says he wants to abundantly pardon you. So, here's what I'd like us to do just to as a body and for sister Diane gets ready to be baptized. This is obviously a vulnerable moment. I'd like all of us to just take a moment and repent before the Lord. And then we're going to thank God together for his forgiveness. And this will allow that person who's struggling with that sin in their past and and the faith to believe that God can really forgive them.

This will allow them that moment within the body for them to break through that doubt or that fear. Would you do that together? Can we stand together and can we repent before the Lord together fully knowing that he's going to forgive us? Oh God, I thank you for this promise and we take full advantage of this promise today as a church, as a body, as individuals. We repent before you, Lord. We're asking for your forgiveness. And we know that you're a rewarder of those who diligently seek you.

So, we repent again. And we bring our mistakes before you again. And we ask that you would cleanse us. Lord, you would wash us, that you would forgive us. But God, we confess that we make mistakes, that we think and say things that aren't right, that aren't pleasing to you. And we're asking for your forgiveness, that you would renew a right spirit within us, that you would cleanse us from all unrighteousness, oh God. And if you believe that the Lord is forgiving and that God is working in your life, would you just lift your hands right now and thank the Lord for his forgiveness.

Oh God, I thank you. I thank you, Lord, for the person that's breaking free right now from that doubt or that fear that you can't forgive them of their sin. I thank you that you've forgiven every sin in this room and every sin in every life. Oh God, we love you. We praise you. We thank you, Jesus. We thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Amen. Amen.