Dig Up What Is Buried

If you happen to read scripture for any length of time it's, it's hard to walk away not knowing that God's desire for you is something very special in his kingdom. It's one of the things I love about God, is he's very personal. He's not a far away, distant God he. He meets you where you are. But it not only does it meet you where you are, but he wants to bring you to where he is. And along that journey, along that way, he has something very special and unique that he created just for you. It's not mine. It's not anybody else's. It's just for you, what he wants you to do for his kingdom.

There are so many statements to confirm what I'm saying, but one of the ones that really stands out to me, specifically about being a good steward about the things God blesses us with, is when Jesus says in Luke 9:23: if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me. When you read that scripture, there something that brings about an obligation. I want to follow after God. And these are red-lettered words. And if you're not familiar with that, red-letter words in the scripture means those are the words that Jesus actually spoke. So Jesus again is saying, Luke 9:23: if anyone desires to come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow me.

We have a command. I want to follow him. But that following is more than just acknowledging with my mouth and saying I want to follow. There's there's action involved. I got to do something. And then and, part of that doing is a denying is a denying. There's some things I may want to do, but they're not good for me to do. So I need to deny myself of those things and follow after him.

Jesus also said in a parable — because he often talked in parables, which are stories — Matthew 25 and in Luke 19 tell the same story, where Jesus is talking about the parable of the talents. And it's a very interesting story. It says that the the man who's in charge leaves, and before he leaves he entrusts certain portions — he used the word talents — to some. To one he gave ten, to one he gave five, to one he gave one. And then when he returns back after a long journey, he meets back up with those who are a part of the household, and he he's asking them: what have you done with what I gave you? And the one who had ten talents says, look, I took the 10 talents, I invested them, I worked them, and I brought you 10 more back. And the response from the from the master of the house was, you were good and you were faithful. Because there was praise there, because what was given was used for a purpose and was brought back with more. The one with five, the same story goes: he took the five, he worked them, he invested them, he brought again five more back. There was a game that was there. Again the response from the master was, thank you, you're good and you're faithful one. But the one that had one talent, his response is very interesting in the scripture. He says in Matthew 25:25: I was afraid, and I went and I hid your talent in the ground. Now look, there you have what is yours. I preserved it. I didn't do anything with it. I wanted to make sure I didn't lose it, so I brought it back to you. And then the response back from the master, something interesting, because he said — he calls him, he says, you wicked and lazy servant, why wouldn't you at least do something with what I gave you? But instead of doing something, you did nothing with what I gave you. You went and you buried it. You hid it. And he took the talent from him and gave it to the one that had 10. Then it goes on. It gets — especially Matthew's account in chapter 25 says he cast him in the outer darkness, where there was weeping and gnashing of teeth, an indication that he was cast out because he didn't do something with what he was entrusted.

You see, ladies and gentlemen, following after Jesus Christ, accepting salvation, is free. It doesn't cost you anything. You can't buy your way into heaven. Is it okay if I say it that way? You can't buy your way into heaven. You can misbehave your way into hell. You can't buy your way into heaven. You can't even behave your way into heaven. You can't. You have to do something with what you've been given. So I want to preach to you for a little while today, and I hope I can make this make sense: dig up what's buried. I want you to dig up what's better. I'm going to preach, because part of my job as pastor is to prepare and deliver the word of God to the church. So I'm going to preach, because preaching brings about an awakening sometimes inside of us. And I know a preaching, especially since Apostolic Pentecostal preaching nowadays is something that seems a little bit different, but I'll tell you this: the word of God says, except for the foolishness of preaching — it may look like foolishness a lot of folks, but God still chooses this method. Because there's something about when an anointed word is preached, it has a way of awakening things inside of us today. And I want to awaken something today. I want to awaken something today.

You know, I love that the Bible says in Luke chapter 1:37: 4, with God nothing shall be impossible. I don't know about you, but I look at that verse, it makes me happy. Because that that shows me that God can't do nothing. He has to do something. And with him all things are possible. With him and — and you and God make an overwhelming combination. You may not have a whole lot to offer, you think in your mind. You may have been labeled. You may have been pushed away. You may have been told you are nothing and you are useless. You may have been abused and pushed around your entire life. But I want to tell you something: if you'll couple yourself with God, you can accomplish the impossible. Did you hear me? If you will couple yourself with God, you can accomplish the impossible. Because God cannot sit and do any nothing. God's going to do something. I want to tell you the truth: God has a plan for your life. And if you're comfortable — because not everybody's comfortable — but if you're comfortable, just turn to your neighbor and say, he has a plan for your life. God has a plan for you.

The fact that God has a plan for all things does indeed make me smile, because I like having a plan. I like getting up every day and having a plan. And if I don't have a plan, something feels wrong. And when I read the word of God, it makes me happy, because I read them, my God also has plans. More importantly, God has a plan just for you. Just for you and your life. Customize, specific, just for you. In fact, when he was putting you together inside your mom, he was putting things in you that one day he wanted to pull out of you. He wanted to put stuff in you so that you could play a part in his kingdom. We all have a kingdom purpose. We all have a kingdom plan. That ought to excite somebody, that God has a plan. You have a plan.

God's compassion and care for the biggest things and even the most microscopic things are there. It causes me to have trust in him. The key to understanding this is, I needed to make sure that I am with God, that I am with God. For for with God, things are possible. It removes all the impossibility.

If I was to take you to back to where everything ran off the rails, in the very beginning of the Bible, it tells a story in the Garden of Eden of Adam and Eve. It's where man gets its beginning. In fact, the book Genesis, the actual word Genesis means beginning. It's the beginning that is there. And in this story, God had created a perfect place for man to exist. Everything was great it was. It was just the right temperature. Whatever temperature you like, that's what temperature it was. Yeah, that's a hard thing. Even in this building right now, for some right now it's too hot, for some right now it's too cold. For some of you, you haven't even thought about it until I brought it up. But in Eden it was just right. It was perfect. Everything was there. God had perfectly positioned everything just the way he wanted it to be. But in the middle of perfection, there was still something that was set aside that belonged only to God. In this particular case, what was set aside and belonged only to God was a tree. It was a tree of knowledge of good and evil. And it was this tree that God gave instruction to man and said, look, everything here you can partake of, everything here you can enjoy, but there is this one thing that belongs to me. Ladies and gentlemen, God always has something set aside that belongs just to him. He always has, and he always will have, something that just belongs to him. And it was in this moment that mankind had the opportunity to show whether or not he really loved God, because love is being obedient. See, he gave mankind free will. He gave us the ability to choose. And let's be honest, I think everybody's willing to stay in this room — I like having things my way, right? Burger King made millions of dollars of saying you can have it your way. And you can, for the most part, drive over to Burger King cross the street, and you can have it your way. It's a really bad hamburger, but you can have it your way.

In the garden he put man in there, and he said, look, this is what I want you to do. Listen to the words: I want you to have dominion. Oh, that's a big word, in it. I want you to have the right, the power, to do some things. But there's one thing that I don't want you to do. I don't want you to get over there and partake of that tree. But guess what man did? He went to the tree. Isn't it crazy? Why is it the one thing that we can do is the one thing we want to do? The sooner somebody says you can't touch that, what do you want to do? You want to touch it immediately. Well, why can't I touch it? Why can't why can't I go over there? Why can't I protect? What was it that God didn't want man to have? Knowledge? Was it that God didn't want man to know the difference between right and wrong? No. I know this for this reason: because God was walking with man every day, had access to God. You think about that had had a: had a one-on-one meeting with God multiple times a day. He could ask God anything he wanted to do. It wasn't he was trying to prevent man from knowing. But there's always something set aside to God. I'll come back to that in a minute. Just remember it: there's always something set aside that belongs to God.

Man messed up, and man disobeyed. And when man disobeyed he was, he was moved forward into a death. Yes, man did not instantly die, but there was a spiritual death that took place. Unto the fall, Adam had a lifeline with God, a continuity, a flow that was there. But suddenly Adam fell from out from underneath that flow that was there, and he experienced things he had never experienced before in his life. All of a sudden stuff entered into man. He was dealing with things that he had never had to deal with before. Because God has always wanted man to have his Spirit to lead him. I'm going to say that again: God's desire always has been for you and I to be led by his Spirit. Always. Adam was being led by a spirit until he disobeyed. And in that moment, the flow was cut off. He was broken in in the in in in that connection that he had to God in that moment.

And you can see that God's desire to restore those things back, as you read the Old Testament and you go through the process of reading about the Tabernacle plan, God was still trying to form a way for man to earn — or not earn — man to build back a relationship with God. And God was still leading him. In in the Old Testament there was there was a, there was a cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. What was that for? To lead man, to say, look, this is where I'm going, I want you to follow after me. He gave him a physical representation of where he needed to go. Because God's desire, again, has always to to lead you and I by his Spirit. John explained in the New Testament, in John chapter 1 verse number 19, that was the true light which giveth light to every man that cometh to the world. God's life is like a light to men. So God's light illuminated Adam, and it gave him understanding. Now here's the deal about light — I want you know that this is going to be, to me, revelatory, but it's not super deep, okay? I'm not going to blow your mind with this. But here's here's something that's important: light doesn't condemn. Light simply reveals, okay. Light doesn't condemn, but light reveals. How many of us have thought everything was going good, and all of a sudden he turned the flashlight on, like, oh, well, we got a water leak, oh, we're, you know — or how many of you have have got up in the morning, you're in the bathroom, you got the light, and you're like, whoa, that guy looks rough in the mirror. Yeah. Light doesn't condemn. Light simply reveals. That's why you can read the Bible, or you can hear a message being preached, or something taught by the word of God, and it seems like it illuminates your weakness — or another way to say that, sometimes it shines a light on the sin that's in your life. But light doesn't condemn. It reveals what's going on there. Light shows you the the spots you need to work on, or the holes in your life. Because light — and God is light. God is also love. Light is the revelatory act of love, because love is not seeking to punish. It's simply revealing the problem that needs to be fixed. Aren't you thankful for that? Aren't you thankful that he comes in and says, hey, there's a spot in your life you need to work on?

That's why it's important that you come to the house of God on a regular basis and you hear preaching and teaching. It's not just to get you ramped up. It's not just to motivate you. This isn't the power of positive thinking. What's going on here is the light begins to reveal spots inside of each of us — each of us, each of us, every one of us — that we need to work on. Because none of us are perfect. None of us are perfect. We all have flaws. We all have spots and things we need to work on. So when I come into here and I hear an anointing word preacher talk, or begin to read through the word of God, it illuminates places inside of me I need to change. That's what the word of God does. It's what happens in our life.

But when we are without God, we are without light. When we were out in God with our life — but we come to God, and we repent, and the light begins to find its way into our life. Usually repentance is important. If you don't understand the word repentance, let me just simply say it this way: repentance is to acknowledge I have done something wrong, and to turn from that. This was wrong. I don't want to do the wrong anymore, so I'm going to turn. It's a literal, an about face. It's to go the opposite direction of the wrong. This was wrong, I want to go away from the wrong. That's what it means when when you're here in church, someone talks about repenting. It's you acknowledging that you haven't lived the way you should have lived. You haven't always done the things that you should have done. You haven't behaved the way you should have behaved, said what you should have said. So I'm going to repent. I'm going to say — repenting is saying, God, I acknowledge I haven't been good. I haven't done right. Will you forgive me? And what I know is, the word of God says in First John that if I ask, he's faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse me from unrighteousness. So when I repent, I'm saying, God, please forgive me. And God says, okay, I will forgive you. And I can walk in a newness that life has, because of the forgiveness given to me.

Now remember, if I want to take you back to Adam and Eve — everybody's still with me so far? You guys are kind of quiet. Everybody all right? You awake? Because your neighbor awake — look at him right now. All right, everybody good? Adam and Eve, they were the beginning they were the. They were, for lack of a better way to say, they were the fountainhead of humanity, humanity. And we all flow from them. So when Adam and Eve sinned, something happened to us too. Sin is the world we are born into, every one of us. We are all, every one of us, you and me, we are created with a spirit, soul, and body. First Thessalonians 5:23 says, in the very God of peace sanctify you holy, and I pray God your holy spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So when sin happened, humanity experienced a separation from God. The best way I can say it is, all of a sudden we became distant from God. There was a closeness in the garden. There was an intimacy in the garden. There was a special relationship that God had with man in the garden. But because of sin, it broke the relationship. Anybody ever had a broken relationship before, no matter the reason? He ever just had a broken relation — I'm not signing up for Amway, just raise your hand if you've had a broken relationship before. Only half the group knows what Amway even is.

There was a brokenness that was there. Here's the deal though: there is no geography in God. Let that settle in your mind. There is no geography in God. There's no such thing as far and close when it comes to God. God is another — he's never coming or going. God just is. That's profound. I should just take up an offer and say amen, and we go home. God is never coming or going. He just simply is. But there's an awareness that you and I have, and there's a separation that can take place when sin is there. Sin prevents me from seeing and acknowledging that God is. He say, well, I believe there is a God. I'm glad you do. You have to believe, if you're going to even come to him, you have to believe. But there's more than just belief. There's an acknowledging in my life that there's something there that's causing me to not experience all that God has.

Now God is there. God hasn't went anywhere. Where is God going to go? He doesn't go on vacation. He's not going to go across the street and get that Burger King burger. God is — he is everywhere, always, because he's God. He's not stuck in time. He's not stuck in a box. He's not stuck with a problem. He's not stuck with your issue. He's as much as he was in the past, as he will be in the future, as he is right now. He's just God. But the brokenness of humanity, sin, will cause me to struggle to comprehend that God is there. There's a barrier that happens. There's a sense of distance in our soul, in our emotions, when we have sinned or acted unwisely. And we create the distance, the same way that Adam did. So what do we do to draw back in when this happened? That's a great question. You're a smart group. Look at your neighbor, say, we're smart. You are, and you're not bad looking either.

There's a story in John chapter 3. It's a New Testament story to where there was a man who was studied in the word. What I mean by that is, he was a man who knew about the Torah, the law. He knew that about Moses's commands that God gave him and how you were supposed to live. He was a he was a good Jew. He knew what to do. But he finds himself coming to Jesus. His name is Nicodemus. And he's asking Jesus: I need to know what I need to do in order for me to be saved. That's a good question. It's a good question. Nicodemus asked a good question: what do I got to do? To which we see that Jesus gives a great response. Genesis — or excuse me, John chapter 3 verse number one: there was a man, the Pharisee named Nicodemus, ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night. He said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do the signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Verse number five, Jesus answered again, because Nicodemus says — I'm a kind of scratching my head — how do you get born again? Does he go a second time into his mother's womb? Now that we want to laugh at that question, but Nicodemus is trying to process it, right? Jesus said you have to be born again. The only birth the Nicodemus understands is the physical birth that man happens when we start. So he's trying to get his head wrapped around, because he's witness to the fact that Jesus is able to do things that nobody else is able to do. Maybe there's some way that this process can happen, and Nicodemus doesn't know the answer. So don't be so quick to dismiss that it was a silly question that Nicodemus asked. But Jesus responds, and I love he doesn't give him, what are you thinking, David, don't be crazy. No, he simply says in verse number five: most assuredly I say unto you, unless one is born of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. You must be born again. Salvation is what Jesus described as being born of the water and of the spirit. So when you are baptized in Jesus' name in the water, and then filled with the Holy Ghost spirit, that's water and spirit birth that is there. I i thought I was an Apostolic church, but I guess I missed that so much. I mean, usually you say being baptized, the g-stain fill the spirit, somebody gets excited around here.

When you have what was going on is there in this moment — if you take, you know you, you open up the word of God, and you'll see here, and I'll see if I can get you an actual representation of it. So here we go. This much is old. This much is new. Now you can't do away with the old, because if you do one of the old, the new doesn't make any sense. You can't discount this, because if you discount this, then none of this, even — it doesn't even apply anymore. How can I understand what he did at Calvary if I don't first understand the Tabernacle? It doesn't make sense to cross if I don't understand about the Passover Lamb. Are you guys okay?

So here's the deal: you got to hear, you got to take it all. Now there's some stuff in there that's controversial. Yes, it's a controversial book. But guess what? Jesus Christ was controversial too. He stirred up all kind of stuff when he showed up. Man, he hair-lipped everybody. He walked around and just messed everything up, because he was bringing something new. The new is this: is that you can be reconnected to God. Adam and Eve broke the connection in the garden. Jesus shows up and says, the kingdom of God is at hand. How is that even possible? Because all the time had passed, and what had happened is man had continued to drift further and further and further and further away from God, until Jesus shows up and says, I'm here to save sinners. I'm here to restore back a relationship. I'm here to let you know that God is everywhere, and that you can have a relationship with him.

When Adam sinned in the garden, all the divine possibility and potential will still exist in his fallen state. I — you've been sick, Michael, you come here. You're going to be — Adam was probably six two, six three. Is that what you're, somewhere there. So when Adam and then Eve messed up — Adam and Eve both messed up, no one more than the other, they both messed up. But for this moment, Michael's going to represent them both. They mess up. Before the mess up, God had placed inside of them, had put inside of them, everything he wanted to pull out of them, okay when when. When he was former man out of the dust of the ground — because that's how we started, right? He pulls from the ground, he puts stuff in there that he wanted to pull out one day. Now Adam started out, he was the first guy with no belly button. Some of y'all get that driving home. He put everything there, because at some point, when the timing was right, he was going to pull it out. I don't want you to go over to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, because I want to explain things to you. I don't want you to go over there yet, because if you go over there yet, you're going to get more than you can handle. Timing's not right. I'm going to get you there. I've given you dominion to rule and to reign. I want you to name stuff. I want you to take care of the garden. I want you to attended. I want you to dress that. I've given you some responsibility, but don't go over there to — that time's not right. Eventually I'll get you there, but not now. Be obedient. Listen to me. Do everything else I want you to do. You can enjoy all the rest of this stuff. I have a responsibility. In time, I will get you there. I'm going to draw some things out of you when the timing is right. I'm going to use you for a kingdom purpose. But Adam circumvented. He went around God. Thank you. Because the enemy presented something. The enemy presented the ability to shortcut the process. See the Army — the devil, the adversary, he has a lot of names: oh, hoof, hoof foot, Pitchfork guy, whatever you want to call him. His classic thing that he likes to do is to get you to meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way. Let that sink in: is to get you to meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way. That's what he did with Jesus. Jesus was — went away to the, after the baptism, went out into the desert, it says, to be tempted of the devil. Everything he brought before Jesus to do was something that Jesus needed to do, but he didn't need to do it the way the enemy presented it to be done. He was there fasting. He said — I know you're as funny — he fasted. The word of God so funny, he says he fasted 40 days and he was hungry. Some of you go 40 minutes and you're hungry. 40 days in, and then the enemy shows up. Devil says to Jesus, hey, here's a rock, won't you turn it to bread? Now he's hungry, and if you can — let's just be honest, there's been a few times that I wish I could have turned a few things into a hot loaf of bread. It was a legitimate need, but he was telling him you can meet it in an illegitimate way.

This goes back to the garden. You guys all still with me? The enemy shows up in chapter three, Genesis, and says, did God say that man can't eat of owning these trees? And then then Eve messes up with her little terminology, and I don't have enough time to go into that. But here's the point: she sees — and this is funny, because the word of God says she sees that the tree is profitable for knowledge. That's what the word says: profitable. All of a sudden she hadn't seen it, she just seen it was food, but then it says she seemed that it was profitable. It's in the moment she's like, hey, I just feel like there's something missing in my life, I'm going to go about it the wrong way. And she took of it, in mankind falls. And in that moment, man gets cut off from the presence of God, gets kicked out of the garden. And now we are still dealing with all this stuff. But this the the point I'm trying to make here is, what God had put in Adam and Eve didn't change. The relationship changed, but what was inside of Adam and Eve didn't change. God still desired to bring it out let me.

Let me go a little bit further. In Genesis 1 verse number one, it says, in the beginning God created heaven and earth, and Earth without form and void, and darkness is upon the face of the deep, and the spirit of God moved upon the face of waters. You ever notice that, that he created the heaven on earth, but verse number two says it was without form and void? Now this gets deep. This gets really, really deep. This gets really, really, really deep. But here's the deal, just for a minute: verse 2 states, word was out, that was without former void. The actual Hebrew word interpretation says the Earth became void. It was an action there. There was something that was set in motion, and all of a sudden it became something different. Verse 3 says, and we begin to read, and God said, let there be light. So something created, and then it became void, and then God spokes light. He speaks light into it, and all of a sudden things start taking shape again. There's a recreative act that's taking place. Now I'm not going to go a super deep dive in you, but I'm pulling this out for a point today, to speak about something that goes on inside of us, okay? God is not creating something out of nothing. God already created in verse number one. And from what he created, he's calling something out of it. It was something that was already created. It was there. But then he goes in and says, look, I want to do something with this. I want to pull something out of what I have already created. It was there. It was there when I created it in the beginning. Nobody knew it. It was lying dormant. It's just under the surface. But now I want to get back to what I already put there, and I want to pull it out and make it something else. A re-creative act. He's calling something that was buried to come back up. God is allowing what once was to resurface again. You can read this entire thing. Verse 21 of chapter one in Genesis: and God created great whales and living creatures that moveth, which were the waters brought forth abundantly — they brought them forth abundantly after their Converse. Number 24: and God said, let the Earth bring forth. It's already there, but I'm calling it out. I put it in there when I when i'm when i made it, but now i'm gonna I'm gonna pull it out, because the timing is right. When I created it to start with, I put it there, but I didn't need to use it in that moment. The timing wasn't right. But now the timing is right, so I want what's in there to come out.

For some of you today in this place, when you were — had your beginning in your mother's womb, God put something in there. You haven't always done everything you were supposed to do. But I'm here to tell you, God wants to dig something out of you that he put in there a long time ago. God, he wants to bring it forth. God in the creation, to bring forth what was seemingly buried out. I want to preach you that the Holy Ghost activates things that have been living dormant inside of you. Are y'all in a hurry? Okay. Because I got — good, because I'm way behind on my notes. I got a lot more stuff I'm really excited to preach about it today.

So when you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, God's spirit living inside of you, all of a sudden, that moment, you start coming alive. Now I know physically you were living, or you wouldn't be here, right? But all of a sudden, when that Spirit gets in you, whoa, it wakes up something inside of you. All of a sudden things are different. Things are different, because there's a reconnection back to the source. It reconnection back to the way things were in the beginning. You're separated before. But when God fills you with his spirit, all of a sudden life takes on a whole new meaning. People that don't have the Holy Ghost don't understand what it feels like. But all of a sudden you're alive, and you're like, I don't know how to explain it. It's joy unspeakable. All of a sudden I'm reconnected back into something I've never experienced before in my life. I don't know how to put words around it. I'm here to tell you, it's awakening stuff inside of you that he put there in the beginning.

It's like when somebody gets locked up, they're in jail, they get out of jail, their own bond, they're admitted back into society. They're recommitted. That's what the new birth experience is. You were captive by sin, but God forgives me, and the Holy Ghost puts me back into the kingdom of God where I had always intended to be. You may not have thought you were intended to be there, but God had always thought you were going to be there. God's not surprised that you end up in the Kingdom. That was always his plan from the beginning, is that you would be in the Kingdom.

I don't think of anywhere — historian Nehemiah in the book in the Bible. It's an interesting story. If you if you don't know it, I encourage you, reads in the Old Testament. It's a short read, but a powerful read, about a rebuilding of a wall. But there's a principle there. I didn't always get it, but there's a principle in the Nehemiah story that involves this concept: that the restoration of the temple had already taken place. Because you got to have a spiritual first. I'm fixing to excite some Bible folks, okay, because you may not have thought about this. But Ezra is where the where the temple gets restored back. That's Ezra. Ezra comes before Nehemiah, okay? Ezra, Nehemiah — that's in the way the books are there they're, they're in a chronological order at this point, for a reason. Because there has to be a spiritual connection inside of you. But God doesn't just want to have a spiritual connection with you alone. He wants that spiritual connection, because it changes our inside, all right. But what's on the inside ultimately manifests itself on the outside. So that they had — they restored worship back in the temple. It's so good to see you. I love y'all. It's good to see you too. Spiritual connection back. But then Nehemiah hears that the spiritual connection is there, but he begins to ask about what's going on. But the walls are broke down, and the Nehemiah, he gets all upset about it. Because he realizes that you can't have a temple without the walls being there. Because if you don't have the other stuff fixed right, it's easy for the temple to be destroyed foreign. So there's something more than just having a spiritual experience with God. But the experience will experience with God will lead me to a physical transformation in my life. Because the physical transformation in my life, or as we call it holiness standards or lifestyle convictions, have a way of protecting the spiritual man inside of me. See, if you get a God that doesn't make you change some way, I'm really wondering how much of God you really got. Because everybody I know, they've really got a connection with God, all of a sudden I acted a whole lot different, looked a whole lot different, talk to a whole lot different.

Now here's the deal: you can have the wall up and the temple be tore down. So there's a whole lot of folks that know how to live it, but they have no connection to God. But in me getting back to where we need to be — Nehemiah had a plan. It took him four months to rebuild the walls that were there, and he had a plan. When he went before the king, and king granted him everything he's going to do, because the king understood you got to rebuild the walls to protect the temple.

Now I don't want to go to hell. That's a good motto. I dare say you don't want to go there either. But here's the deal: don't let and allow the guilt that the enemy is trying to force on you to keep you from reconciling the part of your life that's been lost. Don't let the — get, I don't know what you did yesterday. I know what you did last night. I don't know what you did a year ago, and she did last month. I don't know. Here's the deal: it doesn't really matter, is you can't go back and undo any of that. You can't, you can't, you can't. Now, you you need to be repentant of it, yes. But if you've asked, but sincerity, for God to forgive you, he forgives. How I refer back to First John, because that verse is so powerful: not only does he forgive you, but it says he cleanses you from all unrighteousness. The only way I know to explain that is then, when these little babies comes up here and he he has dirt on his hands — all right, he's got dirt. Is that kind of, use you for a minute? You got dirt on your hands. Put your hands out. So you got dirt on your hands. But mom, when you look at him, you also see he's got dirt on his face. He's got dirt on his ears. He can't see all that. But you you see it. He don't, he just sees he's got it on his hands. So a lot of times we come to God, and we only see what's on our hands. But that verse tells me he doesn't just clean my hands, but he cleansed me from Allah. He cleans the stuff I can't even see. It's not how to excite somebody. He claims when I can't even see — that's the kind of God we have.

See, in reconciling myself back to where I need to be, the first thing every one of us must do is get a spiritual connection back with God. You have to have a spiritual connection with God. I'm going to hurry, because I know time's going on. It's 12:57, and you guys are going to check out in three minutes. You got to rebuild the temple. You got to get back that spiritual connection. But for those who have done — if you haven't done that yet, there's gonna be a minute, there's one moment in in this service where you can do that. But for those of you who have, I want you to tell you there's more. There's more. You got to go back and start rebuilding walls. You got to go back in, because what's going to happen is that spiritual connection you had is going to start birthing stuff that's been buried down inside of you. Sometimes you didn't even know it was there. Because every one of us have something there. Every one of us have something there. Every one of us have something there that God wants to use for his kingdom. And and the rebuilding process — God gives us access to our lives, and to work in areas. When we interact with the Holy Ghost, and I study the word, I begin to serve other people — all of a sudden I find my purpose, and I understand that God has something much bigger than just me building my little kingdom. I get to be a part of building the the kingdom the kingdom, the kingdom, the Everlasting Kingdom. Not just what I can do for 80 or 90 years here on this Earth, but there's something everlasting that God has desired for me to be a part of. And you put it inside of me when he created me. And it's been laying dormant. But the spirit activates it. And then once I know it's activated, I got to get to work building something. I gotta start digging up what's been buried in my life.

The Holy Ghost reconciles our spirit, but we must allow the Holy Ghost to guide us in all truth. As I bring this to a close — I need to, because God wants to do something. There's more I could say. This stuff excites me. I love digging this stuff out. Think about the blood of Calvary, how it applies in my life, and how it reconciles me back. The blood made atonement for my sins, but the blood also atoned for healing — not only for the physical, for the emotional.

Come on, speaking of Holy Ghost for just a minute — okay, look here. Here's, in our world right now, where we're living, there's a lot of you in this room right now carrying a lot of emotional baggage. There's physical needs in this room as well, but I'm not going to talk about a physical need for this moment. I just want to talk about emotional needs for a minute. Man, it's it's crazy — you start digging into the numbers right now just, just since 2020 to where we are right now, this generation right here, man, you guys are just an emotional wreck. You are. And don't don't feel bad, because we we all were that age at some point. We were emotional race too. But it's even more so. They're feeling this pressure. It's there.

Now here's what I know, is the enemies aware of that. The enemy is also aware of this truth I've been preaching to you: that there's stuff buried in you, there's stuff buried in you by the King, stuff buried in you by the king, that the king wants to pull out of you to build his kingdom. And you can be physically fined, but if emotionally you disconnected from the King, it prevents the king from pulling the things out of you that he needs. So guess what the enemy does? He keeps pushing you down emotionally. He keeps trying to get you isolated. He keeps trying to get you by yourself. He keeps bombarding you with things that make you feel you're less than. Well, how does he do that? Yeah i'm not, I'm not against the phone. You need a phone. Well, I guess you need fun. But it's amazing to me when I see the current generation — and when I say current generation, I mean everybody living and breathing right now — the overwhelming majority of the ones I see walking around are like this. They're in a crowd, but they're like this. They're sitting across the table from each other, but they're like this. They're in their house, living in the same living room with each other, but they're like this. He has captivated us physically. There's nothing wrong with us — not again, there's physical needs in the room, I'm not dismissing physical needs. But right now, I fill in the Holy Ghost to tell you about an emotional connection that the enemy is using. It's his tactic to keep you isolated and and.

And here's the deal: it's technology. I'm not against technology, but technology has gotten to the point that even the people who are in charge of technology are afraid of it, because it's become more than it was ever intended to be. It's gotten smart. It started learning you, and it started to feed you only the things that you like. Well, here's the deal: when you only answering the questions about what you like, separated from the one who knows what's right for you, you answer wrongly. And then it keeps feeding you, and it keeps giving you all this stuff. And the next thing you know, it keeps isolating and pushing and pushing in the corner. And the whole time, it's keeping you from what you need to become. And I'm so thankful that you have a spiritual connection. If I can speak to the church so bullies, to say it takes more than just a spiritual connection to get you where you need to be. The spiritual connection is good. Rebuild the temple. But at some point, you've got to get out to the walls. Musicians need to come. I'm i'm going to keep going down a rabbit, and I feel very much in my spirit God wants to do something right now. So I want to tell you that the spirit of the Lord is here, and there's an anointing here. And the word tells where their anointing is, that the the yoke of bondage can be broken. And i want I want there to be a breaking today in the spirit, for some things that have held too many people captive for far too long. It's kept them from where they need to be, that take place.

See, the Holy Ghost, he reconciles us. It pulls us back. We have to learn to be obedient to the word of God, and we have to get in union with God. Because if I can do that, if I can catch myself connecting up with him, and then I begin to understand that he's pulling something out of me — I got to dig up what's there. And once I do, once I start discovering it, I truly become alive. The reconciliation that God desires to do — and I speak in grand possibilities, but i've I've spoke a seed today that's in someone's life that needs to birth forth inside of you. Some of you have had a spiritual experience with God. It's an undeniable spiritual experience. But you have not yet dug up what's buried in you. You haven't. And there's so much more that the kingdom needs from you in this hour we're in.

So in my closing prayer, I'm going to pray this way: that if you have not yet had that spiritual experience with God, today's the greatest day. It's the greatest opportunity, because you have today. And I'm going to pray for you in just a minute. But for those who have had that spiritual connection, you've rebuilt the temple, but you haven't worked on the walls — I'm telling you, there's stuff buried there that the kingdom needs, that the king put in you a long time ago.

If you're comfortable, about your heads, I want to own a prey right now. Jesus, Lord, I've delivered my heart today, though I feel as though it's been scattered. I've been obedient to you. I pray, God, in this moment, that you'll take your word that is anointed, God, you'll break every bondage that's in this place. Every bit of doubt, every bit of unbelief, be gone in the name of Jesus. I pray, God, for there to be a reconnection and a restoration back to where we need to be with you. For those who need to know you as Lord and Savior, God, I pray you continue to draw them to a place today in this room where they can connect you, and you can fill them with your spirit. And for those who have been filled with your spirit, but yet not dug up what you put in them long ago, I pray, God, that there will be an awakening today to where you want him to be, for them to dig up that that is buried and bring it alive. In Jesus' name, this altar is open.

I don't know how to make it any easier than others say this: that if you need God in any way, shape, form, or fashion, I invite you to come. If you need to know him as Lord and Savior, I invite you to come. If you know God's place things inside of you that need to be dug up, I invite you to come. The kingdom needs you, and the timing is now. Will you come?