Sunday Morning Worship Service | Raymond Woodward

good morning everybody praise the Lord everyone isn't Jesus good to us I better let you sit down because my heart is so full and I'm so grateful to God it is such a delight and an honor and a privilege to be here and uh and and pastors write I I do feel like I'm at home um he and sister Jamie are so gracious and I had a younger brother but I I never had a a slightly older brother but when I said and talked to Pastor Mark McCool I feel like I'm talking to my brother we share so many wonderful things he mentioned our shared lineage share a love for this Apostolic message and this great Apostolic church that girdles the globe it's such a a privilege and you're part of a legacy congregation not just Legacy reaching back into the past but Legacy that is affecting generations to come as long as Jesus tarries is coming and you're so blessed and I'm so thankful for all of you I'm so Overjoyed for all of you and I'm so proud of all of you that you're part of such a great Church Pastor Mark already mentioned you know we share some Heritage your Bishop's Pastor was my great uncle and I have fond memories of him he uh he passed when I was in high school and I have such fond memories he was always bigger than life to me and to hear Bishop Billy McCool speak of him affectionately and tell stories I just rejoice in everyone and I relive some of those stories all over again so you're abundantly blessed and and you know the next generation of this church is amazing uh Pastor mate and sister Ashley Pastor Anthony and sister Kelly my goodness you know I've met some you just pardon me Beverly tells me not to say the word dumb in the Pulpit so I'll get over here foreign I've met some uh smart worldly people that weren't Apostolic and I met some dumb Apostolic people you've got smart anointed capable powerful leadership in this church oh my God I was teasing Pastor Anthony at the marriage Retreat I said you know he got under such conviction at marriage Retreat he fled the country we're so proud of him and what he's doing it's amazing it's amazing I'll try not to uh just ramble anymore we'll get right to the word of the Lord [Music] but I'm going to ask you to stand just one more time and we're going to read a scripture in just a second I would love it if you would lift up your hands as high as you can stretch them and lift up your voice and let it Ascend higher than your hands and just fill this room with praise to the Lord Lord Jesus I love you I'm so grateful for you I'm so thankful for your church and today we've gathered not just to see each other that's wonderful but we've gathered to be in your presence we've gathered to experience your word and your spirit do what only you can do fix what only you can fix heal what only you can heal in this service I pray somebody turned that prayer into a praise and just lift it up to the Lord foreign it's so good to be with the Roberts and I'm so thankful for capable young couples like that book of Romans Paul is such a brilliant theologian and he can get deep oh my and he can go high he's he's amazing Romans chapter 8 and verse 28 are very familiar passage of scripture in fact you might have this verse on a fridge Magnet or somewhere in a little plaque somewhere and we know somebody say we know and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose and now Paul's going to jump off the high diving board of theology for whom he did for no he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his son that he might be the firstborn among many Brethren moreover it gets better whom he did predestinate them he also called and whom he called them he also Justified and whom he justified them he also glorified what shall we then say to these things if you serve a God that's that powerful what do you say here's what you say if God before us who can be against us I wish you'd say that last verse with me if God before us who can be against us now I just need you to get a little bit of Sunday morning First Apostolic Church attitude on that word who here we go if God before us who can begin Kansas nobody that's who our God is for us and he's so great and so good clap your hands to the Lord thank you Jesus thank you Jesus you may be seated this morning Paul says we know that all things work together for good if you love God if you're called according to his purpose if you're one of his children in his family we know this it's a guarantee from God that all things work together for good to them that love God now Paul did not say that all things in your life will be good how many can be a witness that not everything that comes across your path in life is good Paul didn't promise it would be good he didn't say it would always be pleasant he just said if you're a child of God all things will work together for good so you can trust your God on the worst day imaginable in the most difficult situation that you could even fathom that he is behind the scenes and he's taking good days bad days sad days hard days and he somehow weaves them together and by the time you get through it all you look back down the road and some of you have already done this you've lived for God long enough you look back down the road and you say I never want to go through that again I didn't choose it I didn't like it it wasn't enjoyable it was so hard I didn't know what I was going to do but I came out of that situation I came out of that hospital I came out of that sickness I came under that trial stronger than ever so I can testify this morning it wasn't good but God worked it together for my good Ness that's a powerful savior that we have that he can do that and he and here's his purpose see Paul said the people that he foreknew he predestinated us for a purpose he predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his son now the word predestinate or predestination that has got grossly misinterpreted by many theologians over the centuries and and so there's a false idea of predestination that floats around in Christianity Today and that that goes something like this that that basically God has chosen some people to be saved he's chosen some people to go to heaven and if he's chosen you for that it doesn't matter how you live it doesn't matter what you do it doesn't matter your lifestyle or or or or any kind of Deeds that you do if God picked you for some random arbitrary reason that you're going to Heaven congratulations but there's another half of the Human family and and according to some people's idea of predestination God just picks them at random and says I don't like you you're going to hell and when life's over you're going to be eternally punished now that doesn't set well with me because I don't look at God as being that unfair I look at God as being holy and righteous but then I get reading the scripture and I know for sure that's not true because the Bible tells us that today is the day of salvation you can make a choice today that changes the rest of your life and flows down through your family tree and affects children and grandchildren it's amazing the power of your choice to follow God and so we know that idea of predestination that theological definition that's that's not true but the word predestinate is in the Bible so what does it mean and here's basically the simple answer that while God does not predestinate individuals he doesn't pick you out and say you're going to heaven he picks somebody else over here out and says you're not going to heaven he doesn't do that but while he doesn't predestinate individuals for Eternal Destiny he does predestinate groups of individuals for Eternal Destiny so here's the bad news there is a group of people on this planet it's a large group very sizable group and they're called sinners in the Bible's terminology and because not because they're bad people not because they have an evil motive not because they've done such terrible terrible things but because they have no saving relationship with Jesus Christ the group called Sinners is predestined not picking out individuals but just the people that have never done anything about their sin condition they're predestinated as a group for Eternal damnation we don't even hear that word anymore but it's true and it's terrible and it's something that you do need to think about for you and for everybody you know and everybody you love that's the group called Sinners people say well I'm not a sinner I've never done anything bad but see here's the thing you you don't do you you're not doing things bad and then you become a sinner the Bible says you were born in sin all of us were and so it's not that you know you do enough bad things and then suddenly God says okay you're a sinner now no you were born in sin and that's why you haven't pleased God perfectly that's why you have a tendency to do things that hurt you and hurt your family and and that's why you have a tendency in you not to serve and follow God you were born in sin I was born in sin so that's a terrible piece of news that there's this group called Sinners and that group if you're in that group that's bad news but I've got great news for you this morning there's another group it's called the Saints it's called the church it's called the body of Christ and the great thing about it is you can make a choice to get out of that group and get into this group now let me tell you about this church this church as a group is predestined to walk on streets of gold we are predestined to be in the presence of Jesus forever and forever I'm predestined so you got to do everything you can you've got to make the choices that might be hard you've got to leave anything behind but you need to get yourself and everybody you love everybody you care about you do everything you can to get them out of that group called The Sinners and get them into this group called the saints of God the Church of the firstborn the redeemed of the Lord and there's a lot of us in here today it's what what a privilege it is to be part of the church so so that church we are predestinated for something we're not just predestinated for heaven we're predestinated for something while we're here if you're still breathing then God is still working on you Paul said he predestinated us to be conformed to the image of his son so we literally could put a you know uh men working god-working sign over you because you're a living walking talking breathing construction zone and while you don't understand it maybe God allows things to come in and out of your life because he's working on you for this purpose he wants to make you more like himself every day that you live as a child of God he's working on you some days are great and you think oh thank you Jesus some days are not so good and you think God what's going on but here's his guarantee all things work together for good to them that love God to them that are the called according to his purpose so even on your worst day you can trust God he is working to conform you into His Image is so wonderful and then Paul he he dumps off he jumps off that high diving board and he says those he predestinated them he called in whom he called then he justified whom he justified then he also glorified now notice that all those words are in the past tense Paul just painted us this amazing picture of God somewhere out in eternity future looking back through the ages at his church and see God doesn't live in time like you and I maybe you get up with an alarm clock this morning tomorrow you'll go to work on a set schedule you come home roughly around the same time some of you are such creatures of habit you will take your lunch at the exact same time and it's not because they make you it's because your clock in your body is regulated so much and if if you don't eat on time you get cranky what do they call it hangry hungry and angry at the same time and you're a creature of habit you're a creature of time and we're confined to Time and Time Keeps marching you notice this any of you folks old enough here to know that time just keeps moving Oh no you're all young look at that yeah time keeps moving God is Not confined by time like you are do you know your God Is So Eternal and he's so awesome and Powerful that he can receive your Worship in the present right now this morning and while you're worshiping him in the present he can go into your past because he doesn't live in time yesterday today forever he's the same while you're worshiping him here in the present God can go visit your past he can take your worst mistake turn it into the greatest Miracle you've ever heard of he can take the greatest trial you ever walk through turn it into the greatest testimony you'll ever have and you're just worshiping him in the present confined by time but our God is Not confined by time he is the one who is and who was and who is to come the almighty so while you're worshiping he can go back in your past and he can heal some stuff you never thought you'd ever forget out of it but I got one better than that while you're worshiping God in the present he can go into your future he can bring down mountains he can pull up valleys he can make a way where there is no way because he's God and Paul after he gets done all of that then he he kind of asked this question it's a rhetorical question we already know the answer if a God Like That is for us who can be against us the obvious answer is nobody can be against a people with a god like that and and so so God's conforming us into His Image it's God's guarantee that he will use all of your circumstances in life to conform you into His Image so what's his image well Jesus is like what we call in the Bible the fruit of the spirit you were created not to be an addict or an alcoholic you were created to be a vessel filled with God's spirit and so um Jesus is like the fruit of the spirit if his Spirit lives inside of you it'll bear fruit now now Paul talks about two things in Galatians he says this in Galatians 5. now the works of the flesh are manifest they're obvious which are these adultery fornication uncleanness lasciviousness idolatry witchcraft hatred variants emulations wrath Strife seditions heresies envyings murders drunkenness revelings and such like it and here's what he says of the which I tell you before as I've also told you in time past the people that do those kind of things they shall not inherit the kingdom of God everyone say works works of the flesh now that's a plural term The Works of the flesh so here's the catch you say well I've never murdered anybody well good we're glad but but just because you've never murdered anybody it's the works of the flesh any one of them is enough to knock you out of God's plan any one of them is enough to enmesh you in sin so you may not have murdered anybody but if you've got hatred in your heart you you may not have committed adultery but if you've got some some things in your mind and see that gets us in trouble The Works of the flesh just because you don't do all of them doesn't mean you're okay one of them is enough to destroy you and then Paul switches gears and he says but the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness Faith meekness Temperance and he says against such there is no law there's there's no limit on these things there's no compulsion so so that's the fruit of the spirit everyone say the fruit of the spirit see that's singular so here's the the catch about the fruit of the spirit um just because you might tend toward one of those isn't enough it's fruit singular you bear all of them when you're a child of God so some people say well well I'm real peaceful and and sometimes I just want to say no I think you're just a little lazy not so much peaceful some people say well I'm really joyful I want to say no I think you're just a little simple um just because you have a natural tendency to produce some of that doesn't get you off the hook because it's all supposed to grow in your life so you can be ever so joyful but if you got no patience and so God wants to work the fruit of the spirit theologians rightly call speaking in other tongues the initial evidence of receiving God's spirit when you receive God's spirit for the very first time the supernatural sign that that changes from before your Holy Ghost baptism to after is speaking in tongues that's the initial sign but the ongoing continuing evidence of the baptism of the Holy Ghost is not just speaking in tongues it's the fruit of the spirit growing and maturing in your life now it's God's guarantee that this will work that if you're his child and if you love him and you're called according to his purpose he guarantees that no matter what you go through in life he will use it to conform you into His Image he will produce the fruit of the spirit which is his image in your life not everything will be pleasant not everything will be quick or easy to go through and and I just got to say I've been doing this for a while like some of you and you won't always appreciate all the tools that God has in his toolbox as he works on your life some of the things he allows into your life can be frustrating God uses all kinds of things to make us into his image for one thing God uses his word everyone say his word god uses his word that's why when Pastor or Bishop one of the pastors stands up and preaches and teaches the word of God oh my you need to be sitting on the edge of your seat and you need to be ready to receive the word because the word helps conform us into his image and then God's spirit helps to direct us and conform us into his image and I'm good with those two I love the word and I love God's spirit but I'm not good with the next one sometimes God uses people to knock the rough edges off you and conform you into his image has anybody ever had please do not point at them if they're in this Sanctuary but has anybody ever had somebody come into your life and they kind of irritated you just a little bit it's okay it's okay you can tell the truth in church I have three people and I did have somebody point at somebody else you'd never believe that at First Apostolic Church God uses people I literally had this conversation one time with Jesus I said Jesus couldn't just one time just use some normal people to knock the rough edges off me why do you have to send me all the weirdos and the wackos Jesus just normal people and then there's one worse than people there's one worse than people you know my my grandfather on my mother's side his name was Maurice and he used to say the more I see of people the more I like my horse and you know he was onto something there um but there's one worse than people and it's circumstances because you know with people at least you can go to bed at night and go to sleep and forget them all but you can go to sleep with circumstances and you get up the next morning and your circumstances got worse overnight so so circumstances are with us 24 7 and God allows circumstances to come into our lives and but he promises that even if they're bad or hard difficult uh emotionally taxing he will use them to conform us into His Image if we're his children now the storms of life that we encounter brothers and sisters they they come for different reasons some people like Jonah Jonah got into a storm because he was out of God's will that was Jonah but but then you got Paul he got into a storm because other people were out of God's will he was on the boat he said let's not set sail they said yes we're going to they got in a storm and they Shipwrecked it wasn't his fault it was other people that that brought that circumstance into his life and then there's Jesus disciples do you know why they get in a storm they get in a storm because they were smack dab in the middle of the will of God Jesus said let's go to the other side and and they said okay they got in the boat they set sail and they got to the middle of the Sea of Galilee and all of a sudden there's a storm they got in a storm because they were in God's will so people get in trouble and difficulty and circumstances for different reasons I just want to tell you something this is God's guarantee if you're a child of God no matter what caused it God can use it that's the bottom line no matter what caused it God can use it and he'll use it to make you into His Image so at the end of the day and at the end of the month and the year and at the end of your life it's all good because God had his hand on your life and it doesn't matter what you walk through or went through he can use it for your good now I I'm going to need your help um just for a couple of minutes here um and so would you turn to your neighbor and just say help the Canadian would you do that okay thank you there's a great church I know you'll help me um there are four kinds of problems that I see that come into our Lives four kinds of circumstances that come into our lives now if you study the scripture and you know that there's 27 different kinds of problems that come into our life please don't enlighten me I'm having everything I can do to negotiate four kinds so I do not want to know your Revelation you just keep it to yourself and be blessed okay but I got four kinds of problems that I see come into lives the first one is Trials everyone say trials now this is surprising for people but see everything that comes into your life God has to give permission for it so you can read the oldest book in the Bible is the Book of Job um it's not the first book but it's the oldest book and and job that trial that terrible trial that came into his life it actually was permitted by who is permitted by God so trials actually they come from God he doesn't cause evil he doesn't cause pain or sickness but he allows trials in our lives so I need your help everyone say trials point right at the seal and say come from God okay very good thank you and then that would be wonderful because I could deal with that and I trust God but there's another kind of issue that comes into my life and and it's called Temptations everyone say Temptations now Temptations don't come from God the Bible says God he can't be tempted by evil and he doesn't tempt any man God doesn't want you to sin so Temptation doesn't come from from God Temptation comes from another direction does anybody here know where Temptation comes from everyone say it from the devil right would you uh Point down and say temptation comes from the Devil now I don't know for sure that the devil's like physically down there I'm not sure the devil could be in Washington D.C I'm not sure where he is right now that was a cheap shot from a Canadian wasn't it ever say trials come from God would you point up say Trials come from God say temptation comes from the Devil now I'd be really good if it was just that I could figure out okay this is from God this is from the devil but it gets worse because this next one there's another circumstance that comes into our lives and the Bible would simply call this trespasses everyone say trespasses trespasses so so trespass in the Bible sense means very much what we use today if you are driving down uh you know I-40 or something and you see a sign on the side of the highway that says uh no trespassing that means you don't go beyond that fence or that boundary because that's not yours that's not your property no trespassing so there's a sense in the Bible it means the same thing where if you break the Commandments of God and you go beyond what God says you've trespassed against God but there's another sense of trespass that it really impacts us even greater I think sometimes and that's that somebody else can come into your life Uninvited unwanted but they just appear in your life it could be family it could be friends it could be your boss it could be anybody and they do something that wounds you or hurts you they do something that creates all kinds of grief in your life and in your mind they create misuse or abuse it's terrible they have trespassed against you and let me tell you trespass hurts when people wound you and they're not fair to you and they're not kind to you that hurts and sometimes people can do evil against you and that hurts somebody say trespasses that's going to be the tricky one would you do this just just do this keep your hand moving at all times do not jab it at anyone in particular say trespasses come from others so now we got three kinds of circumstances that we have to deal with oh and there's just one more there's just one more if you know more than four please do not tell me these are hard uh so so troubles everyone say troubles now this is a smart Church there's a Christian School on this campus and they've trained people to be sharp and Apostolic and Brilliant so this is a sharp Church you're going to get this by process of elimination if trials are allowed by God and if Temptation comes from the devil and if trespasses comes from everybody else then where do troubles come from yeah would you do this say troubles come from me now if you're a spouse do not say troubles come from you don't do that that's not correct troubles come from me because I got to tell you brothers and sisters some of us we've caused our own problems some of us took that wrong turn we took that detour into backsliding or sin some of us we messed up by the choices we made and we got in trouble and there's a lot of people on this planet want to blame God and everybody else for their trouble but it's not that it's them they made the choice they took the wrong turn they spent the season in sin and they've got a lot of stuff that they're trying to pay for now and it came from them and that's hard so that's basically what I have to deal with and what you have to deal with in life um here's the good news no matter what caused it God can use it for your good it doesn't matter whether God allowed it the devil did it it doesn't matter whether somebody else hurt it doesn't matter whether you made a mistake God can reach into your life because you're a child of God and he can turn all things he can work all things together for your good if God before us who can be against us I've got a God that can take my failures and turn them into a testimony of his grace and mercy and some of you are here with me today and you say Amen pastor Raymond that was me I messed up bad but I'm back and the devil better look out because what the devil meant for evil God intended it for good and I'm Gonna Hurt hell and I'm gonna push back against the kingdom of Darkness I'm back oh wow wow wow thank you Jesus somebody say thank you Jesus but here brothers and sisters right here this is where most people get stuck in their Christian Life and here's why it is God's guarantee that he will take whatever happens to us and he will turn it for our good work it together for our good but only if we handle it biblically that's where people get stuck because people try to respond to these things in wrong ways let me let me just kind of go back through real quick um errors say troubles troubles okay so so troubles they come from me because sometimes we're Our Own Worst Enemy and there's only one biblical way to handle troubles something that you messed up you caused the problem you committed the sin you made the mistake you took the wrong way there's only one biblical way to deal with troubles and I got to tell you sometimes um you're Your Own Worst Enemy I've got this Pastor Mark has a beautiful office and I see some uh different things on his bookshelves that that just are so meaningful and I've got an office like that and I I have one thing in my office I don't have it displayed publicly but I set it up as a memorial before the Lord between me and Jesus it's a necktie you know some some preachers they have neckties at some famous missionary or great Elder gave them it's not that no this is actually one of my neckties um it's very unique in fact it's set up before the Lord as a memorial um it still has the knot in it that where I was wearing it the last time I ever wore it but it's very unique um because um the last uh maybe six seven inches of it uh they're they're all frayed uh in fact they're in hanging in strips like fringes um and that's my Memorial necktie it's set up before the Lord just to remind me of something you see I was one of those people that was always kind of proud that I was I thought I was pretty smart and I kind of looked down my nose a little bit people who would be so dumb as to catch an article of their clothing in a paper shredder I just thought that was a special kind of of until one Sunday morning I was in the office at the church and I was there all alone it was early on a Sunday morning I'd finished what I needed for the message that morning and for some reason I had some papers that needed to be shredded and I walked into the copier room and I walked over to the beast in the corner and I started feeding those papers into the the copy machine and all of a sudden that thing reached up and grabbed me by the necktie and started pulling the next thing I heard was which is not a good sound when it's your neck connected to the paper shredder and that thing was pulling me closer and closer and closer to certain Doom and you know how they say like if your car swerves out of control that your life flashes before your eyes anybody ever heard that it works with paper shredders um I could see my life fly I could see the headlines in the local paper strangled in church office on Sunday morning congregation in mourning some rejoicing I could see it all I could see it all and I flailed around with my arms and I finally got a hold of that power cord and I wrenched that out of the wall and I saved my life and I'm here today ah oh some of you you're happy good thank you I got two yeah okay and you know what I didn't do that morning I did not walk to the pulpit in that great church in Fredericton I didn't walk at the pulpit and say Church the devil tried to kill me this morning I got news for you that wasn't the devil if the devil was anywhere that morning he was probably sitting on the general office desk laughing and laughing look at Woodward it wasn't the devil somebody said that was me see every once in a while you create your problems and the Bible tells us one thing to do when we create the issue Psalm 31 and verse 9 David said have mercy upon Me O Lord for I am in trouble mine eye is consumed with grief I'm weeping God yea my soul and my belly you know there's one thing to do when you made the mistake when you created the issue in your marriage in your family in your life there's one thing to do would you put your hands like this somebody say repent there's one thing to do you repent of that saying what does repent mean repent means you turn yourself right around and you walk the other way and if you do that God can take that situation that you caused that mistake that you made that terrible error that you're so ashamed of if you'll repent of it God can take that even that and he can work it together for your good you don't need to know who they are and we're not going to ask them to lift their hands but there are people here in this church this morning that they don't want you to know about the dark chapter of their life but that dark chapter God doesn't even remember it anymore because it's been put under the shed Blood on the cross of Calvary God doesn't remember it they're not bound by it and God took what they cause and he worked it together for their good with a god like that who can be against us oh my God I'm gonna say troubles come from me so I need to repent do that one more time say troubles come from me so I need to repent yeah that's what you need to do but it's not just troubles we have to deal with there's Temptations anybody remember where Temptations come from say Temptations come from Washington no not Washington uh the devil everyone say Temptations come from the Devil and there's only one way to handle a temptation and it is not repenting see a lot of people when they're in a battle and they're being tempted they start crying oh God forgive me you don't need to pray and repent because you haven't sinned yet you're just being tempted the devil's trying to pull you back to your old life he's trying to pull you back to your old habits he's trying to pull you back to that old bondage that you used to be in so the last thing you need to do is collapse in a puddle of tears and just kind of weep no you do something different when it's Temptation somebody say temptation help me say it comes from the devil now put out your hands like you're trying to stop a freight train that's what you do here's what James said submit yourselves therefore to God resist the devil and he will flee from you let me tell you the devil will attack until somebody fights back but if you'll resist the devil he will turn tail and run so you don't cry you don't collapse in a pile of pity what you do is you say devil you used to be in charge of my life but you're not in charge of my life anymore I resist you in the name of Jesus you have a right to fight you can push him out of your life [Applause] we need to get a little bit more Holy Ghost backbone sometimes and stop taking everything the devil's trying to do to you as though you're just a victim of circumstances you are not a victim of circumstances you are filled with the Holy Ghost you are in Covenant with the name of Jesus through your water baptism your sins have been covered over by his blood you are more than a conqueror you are the head and not the tail you are above and not beneath you don't have to take all that junk just lay in there um okay um somebody say help the Canadian okay so here we go say trouble comes from so I need to mm-hmm say temptation comes from the devil so I need to resist yeah now then there's this other thing everyone say trespasses you remember where trespassers come from everybody else trespasses can be all kinds of things but it comes from other people and it hurts I am not making light at all of the misuse or the abuse that you have suffered there are people in this room I don't have a prophetic gift to know that the law of averages tells me there are people in this room that earlier in your life maybe even currently your victims of some kind of abuse from other people and it hurts and and it rocks our world and there are people right now just because a preacher in a beautiful pulpit in this wonderful Sanctuary a preacher said the word abuse and some of you your mind went to a certain place it went to a certain situation because it hurt they did that to you and you don't handle trespasses the way you handle Temptation a lot of people try to I resist you in Jesus name I receive you see it's that's not how you handle a trespass that'll just bring up all the emotion it'll just make you angry so there's a different way to handle trespass but God promised if you'll handle a trespass the way the word tells us to handle it he'll use it for your good you say there's no way he could ever use that for my good it hurt too bad it scarred me too deep it was too many years ago there's too much collateral damage from that you don't know my God my God is so mighty that he can reach into your past and even that situation which was unspeakably evil against you he can even use that to make you a trophy of his grace you have no idea how the testimony of your deliverance is going to Ripple out through your friends your family your neighbors the people that you work with because God my God can take anything that happens to his children and he can work it together for our good you are not a subpar Christian you are not a low-tier Apostolic you are one of God's kids and if it happened to you he cares about it and if it happened to you he can redeem it I promise he can and he can turn it for your good so how do you handle a trespass well Jesus told us how in fact this is the only PS on the end of The Lord's Prayer he taught us how to pray and then he said oh yes there's this this is so important I'm going to repeat it here Matthew chapter 6 verse 14 and 15. for if you forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you but if you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive your trespasses so if you don't forgive somebody of their trespass against you you shut down God's forgiveness in your own life so this is serious now Jesus is the one who tells us how to deal with the trespass not for one second am I debating that it was evil unfair wrong not for one second am I debating and calling you that you somehow caused it or whatever you were the victim you were innocent you didn't do anything to deserve that it was wrong what they did to you and it hurts and some of you still feel the pain and and I'm sorry but but while I've been talking I've somehow inadvertently transported a few of you back to a situation that was so wrong and so unfair and so evil and I apologize to you but I want to help you today because I meet so many Apostolic people that are stuck here in their Christian Life and and there's something that happened to them years ago it wasn't the devil it wasn't a trial that God allows somebody else did this to them and they're stuck and they weep and they cry and they pray so I just want to tell you what Jesus said because it's Jesus who told us how to deal with the trespass and he always did so by telling us story and the story always was about money and here's what Jesus said there was a king who loaned a servant a million dollars and the servant went out and squandered that million dollars and now he has no resources to pay the king back and he's hauled into the Royal Court and the King has a right to be repaid and the servant should repay they incurred the debt but the servant has no money he it's impossible and the King looks down and he says to himself I am holding in my hand an uncollectible debt no matter how many times I punish that servant it's not going to result in one dollar being returned to the Royal treasury so that King he was smart enough to do the right thing he said I've got an uncollectible debt here in my hand I can go down to the prison house every day I can say beat him again whip him again throw his family in jail publish a decree throughout the land and humiliate that servant for what he did but I'm a king and I'm smart enough to realize that in my hand I'm holding an uncollectible debt so that King he did the right thing he said I'm a king I've got a kingdom to run here I got better things to do with my time than going down to the prison house every day and saying hurt him again for the way he wronged me punish him again for the way he wronged me he said I'm a king I've got a kingdom to run here and so he tore up the debt and he set the servant free and that's how Jesus always explained trespasses if somebody is trespassed against you I know they were wrong they may have been downright evil but the best thing you can do is what that King did tear it up walk away start today don't look back trust God and here's what I promise you God will take the evil that happened unto you and just like with Joseph you meant it for evil you meant it to hurt me you meant it to destroy me but my God he turned it around for good and he saved me and he's going to save many people alive because of what he did some may say trespasses say they come from others take your hand and grip it just as tight as you can until it hurts and now go like this somebody say release that's what you do with the trespass you just release it you say but I can't yes you can you're more than a conqueror yes you can you've got Jesus in your life yes you can you're filled with the Holy Ghost you say about I keep remembering it not one time in the scripture does the bible equate forgiveness with remembering or forgetting you may remember it every day till the end of your life but forgiveness is not an emotion forgiveness is a choice you see I still have feelings about it forgiveness is not a feeling forgiveness is a choice and you you have a right to be free you have a right to have your joy back you have a right to get your peace back you don't need to be bound by that anymore and so if I could give you a gift some of you precious Apostolic people part of this great church family it would be the gift to just release that and walk out free release that and have your joy release that and get your peace because you don't need to be bound they did that to you that's between them and God they're going to have to sort that out they're going to need to repent but if they never say I'm sorry if they never come back and apologize you can still be free you can still have joy you can still live life you can still have fun with your family you don't have to be bound by that there's something in the power of the Holy Ghost that will let you release what happened to you [Applause] oh my goodness you feel that there's a witness of the spirit here I'm almost done music uh you you can come back and get ready um I was walking through an airline terminal um oh it's been a while ago now and I I don't remember the airport I just remember the terminal it was one of those deals where the the terminal floor sloped you're going from one level to the other end and I was coming one way and there was this young couple coming the other way and they had a precious little like three four-year-old girl trailing behind him and she's quite a ways behind him you know when we have our our little grandkids or when we had our little kids and we were in a public place like that like we kept them close you know like holding their hand whatever they they they weren't doing in fact this young professional looking couple they're engrossed in some kind of conversation I don't know what they were talking about and and this little girl she's trailing like way behind him and at first I'm looking at them and I'm thinking you know like what if somebody like grabbed her and what if she just wandered off into a side hallway or something and then as I got closer to them I realized oh they're in no danger losing her she was singing at the top of her lungs they knew exactly where she was at all times she was singing and I'm coming the other way and I passed them and then after a few more steps I passed her she was singing one of those beautiful old hymns of the church Let It Go Let It Go some of your parents was like no don't don't there's a one place I wouldn't have to think about Frozen she was so cute I turned around when I passed her I said sing it sister if I could give a gift to so many beautiful precious Apostolic people it'd be the ability to just let go of what people did to you let go of how much it hurt and be free in the name of Jesus because I don't care what caused it or who caused it God can use it for your good [Applause] just one more and we're done and we're going to come pray and God he's going to touch some lives this morning such an honor to be here with you now I need you to help the Canadian one more time how many will help me would you just kind of wave at me okay here we go somebody say trouble comes from me so I need to repent somebody say temptation comes from the devil so I need to resist yeah somebody say trespasses come from others so I need to release it just release it just let it go oh but pastor Raymond I've been listening to you and and uh I don't I don't know I've searched my heart while you've been preaching and I can honestly say oh there's been times in my life when I messed up and I sinned and I know it but I'm examining my life and I don't think that's what's going on right now so I don't think there's anything I need to repent oh I've repented lost but today I don't think it's that and and pastor Raymond I I know what you're saying about Temptation and needing to resist and I've had to do that I've fought for my spiritual life before but but I've examined my heart while you've been preaching I don't think it's Temptation that's coming at me right now and trespasses oh my goodness I face it when people did me wrong and it hurt so bad and I struggled with it for months but I really feel like the Lord helped me and I I release that and I I I let that go and so I've searched my heart I've been there believe me I've been there but I've searched my heart today and I don't think that's what it is well then my brother or my sister there's one more it's called trials you remember way back to the beginning of this message trials are allowed by God every once in a while if you can't pin it on anything else or anyone else that my brother or my sister God has allowed a trial in your life sadness and sickness and headaches and heartaches and pain and problems it's all part of the curse and every once in a while God will say I'm going to allow it he didn't cause all that stuff by the way but he allows it in our life and if God has allowed you to walk through a trial then I promise you this that he has a purpose on the other side of that that's going to be magnificent because we know somebody shout we know we know that all things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose no matter what caused it God can use it even if he allowed it he allowed it to use it let me finish with one last scripture because we learn about how to handle trials from an unlikely Source it's a man in prison on death row and in that dirty dark damp prison cell he writes these words he's not there because of something he did wrong God has allowed a trial in his life and Paul writes these words in Philippians 4 rejoice in the lord always and again I say rejoice let me tell you how to handle trials that you don't understand Paul said remember say trials come from God so I'm going to just do this I'm going to rejoice I don't even understand it but I'm going to rejoice in the middle of it I don't like it but I'm going to rejoice in the middle of it I would never choose it again but watch me devil I can't tell you when I'm coming out of this trial but I can tell you how I'm coming under this trial I'm not coming out bitter I'm not coming out backslidden I'm coming out better and stronger and watch me devil I'm going to worship my way all through this trial and God is going to turn it and work it for my good oh would you leap to your feet this morning and would you let your hands Ascend up and this great church knows how to pray so would you lift your voice right now and would you begin to pray right now right now in every section right now just lift up prayer to the Lord right now foreign folks I love you I'm so honored to be with you everyone in this room can make a move toward God because everyone in this room is dealing with one of those four situations maybe you need to come and repent because you did something against the Lord maybe you need to come and you need to say I'm going to resist the devil he's trying to attack my family my home my marriage my kids maybe you need to come today and you need to release something and you need to walk out with your peace and your joy or maybe you just need to come down and say to Jesus one more time God I don't like it I don't understand it I it just boggles my mind but Jesus I'm Gonna Worship you I'm gonna rejoice in the middle of it now these great altars are open and they've made such a beautiful wonderful comfortable place as you're walking to the altar would you step all the way out of the aisle and just make room for everybody that wants to come what a great church what a great church when you get here don't just bury your head lift up your hands and lift up your voice and just pray oh yes yes yes yes Jesus is working here Jesus is working here the Bible says in the last chapter of the Book of Job that God turned the Captivity of job when he prayed for his friends so would you reach over and would you lay your hand on a friend a brother or sister and pray with them right now