truthandgrace

Audio Version

Introductory Prayer

Father we recognize that it's not about us, but it is about you.

Father we recognize that everything is to bring glory to you, on earth as it is in heaven.

Father we recognize today that you're a holy God, that you're an amazing God beyond our thinking, beyond our imagination.

So Father we pray tonight that by your Spirit you would reveal to us your majesty, that you would reveal to us your holiness, that you would reveal to us your perfect light.

Father that every stronghold be brought low - every lie that the enemy would put in our minds, every argument that would exalt itself above what you want to do here tonight - we bring them down right now, in the Name of Jesus! We crush those strongholds, we demolish them, in Jesus' Name. I declare every lie to be made low and God's truth to be made high tonight.

Father we love you so much. And Lord we just want to see you, Lord God, just as that song says Lord, Open the Eyes of our Heart, God.

Open our eyes Lord. Remove the veil from our eyes Lord that we might see you tonight, that we might truly know who you are and who we are in perspective to who you are.

Father we magnify your Name. We glorify you Lord God. We praise you from the deepest depths of our being tonight.

Move by your Spirit, Jesus.

Teach us your ways.

And everybody said, Amen.

Amen.

Truth and Grace

I have a message tonight that I truly believe that is prophetic for our church. That we're on, just on the cusp, we're on the edge of something great that's going to happen within our church - within SURFCiTY - and within the city of the Gold Coast.

Who believes that? I believe that. I believe that God wants to prepare His church.

We heard an awesome message this morning from our Senior Minister Pastor Richard, about how we need to get a perspective, we need to allow ourselves to be pruned by the vinedresser - Jesus.

He quoted the Scripture, it says: "Who shall ascend to his holy hill, but he that hath clean hands and a pure heart..." (Psalm 24:3,4) - and God's refining fire is starting to come and that judgment begins at the house of God.

The title of my message tonight is, Truth and Grace. Truth and Grace.

You know, one of the things that we inherently do it as human beings, we choose one side of things, and we run with that. We usually, it's either one thing, or another.

But the greatest thing about the Gospel is that it is a two-sided coin: truth - and grace. And I want to elaborate on the truth side of things tonight.

We need a balanced perspective of God's holiness and His power - as well as His love and His grace.

See we don't really want to talk about a God that would be angry at sin. We don't really want to talk about a God that would be so mighty that mountains will melt like wax in His presence - unless it's to our favour.

But when we talk about God and His stance towards sin, when we magnify the Maker of heaven and earth, when we talk about Him in the light of how He should awesomely be talked about - words can't describe Him!

But God can sometimes give us words - in fact, His Word expresses it the best - that He is magnificent, that He is holy, that He lives outside of time and space. You can go to the end of the end of the universe and still there He is.

We heard that last week, about how God - from that scientist guy, what was his name? Tom Woodward - and he shared about how he believed that the universe is finite, and that God sits at the top of that universe.

God is truly absolutely amazing. And I just, I want to magnify God tonight. Is that alright?

I want to magnify God in our thinking because you see, God created man in His own image, but ever since then man has been trying to create God in his own image. We reduce God to our thinking, our mind. We justify what we would do with His Law, or how we would treat His precious grace, because we've got an idea about who God is.

What I know about God - I'll openly confess it - wouldn't even fit in a thimble - it would be smaller than a thimble. But I'm going to endeavour to express what I believe God has put in my heart to share tonight about these two topics, truth and grace.

How do I know that God really feels strongly about this? Proverbs chapter three verse three says this:

"Let not mercy and truth forsake you, bind them on your heart, and write them on the tablet of your heart."

"Let not mercy and truth forsake you..."

In other words, they can kind of drift off - but, "...bind them on your heart and write them on the tablet of your heart".

I was listening to that song tonight, it was funny because I was going to talk about that song, about, I am a Friend of God. You know, I wonder if we really know what that means?

Hello! Do we really know what that means? I am a friend of God?

You see we start to think of that I am a friend of God, and we, too often we treat God like our mate, He's our buddy, He's our chum. There's a paradigm shift that needs to be made from receiving Jesus and all of His love, receiving Him as Saviour - and stepping through and making Him Lord.

See Lord means Master. We receive Him as Saviour, "Yeah He saved my sins" - but the next step that Jesus would have us make, is to make Him Lord.

That's the maturity that the Church needs to grow into, that when we make Him Lord - that we don't make decisions on our own, where when the Holy Spirit tugs on our heart, when we're watching something that we ought not to watch, we say, "Yes Captain, yes Lord," - switch it off immediately.

Don't allow any more time for that thing that the devil has planted in this world to desensitize you to sin. That's what it's about - it's about desensitization.

"It's not sin, it's alright so long as you enjoy it." That's the world's motto. Isn't it?

You see we get this poisonous doctrine, Once saved always saved - and the truth is, it's not true. Once saved always saved. The Bible says: "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12).

If you have your Bibles tonight, turn to Hebrews chapter 10 verses 26-31, and it starts:

"For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth..." [there it is, that word again, truth] "...there no longer remains a sacrifice for sin, 27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries of God. 28 Anyone who has rejected Moses' Law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. 29 HOW MUCH WORSE PUNISHMENT..."

Get this church, "...HOW MUCH WORSE PUNISHMENT do you suppose will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God under foot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, insulting the Spirit of grace? 30 For we know Him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord; and again, The Lord will judge His people. 31 For it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."

You see I'm not bringing condemnation here, I think that it's high time that the Church started to treat God - like God! I believe when we start treating God like God, and we start reverencing Him - we bring back that reverence into the house of God (He is God, Maker of heaven and earth) - when we start doing that, there will come revival. There will come revival.

I don't know any revival around the world that didn't start with an awareness of sin, and an awareness of God's holiness in perspective to that sin.

See that's what happens: when God opens the crack of heaven and our sin is exposed to His holy light - we come undone.

I want to talk tonight about, about first of all, who God is; His holiness; and His stance upon sin - then we'll go to grace.

Who God is

I truly believe that, you know, sometimes we mistake God's kindness for weakness.

The Bible says, don't think that your Maker is slow in coming. He's merciful! He's standing back.

See, this is the God that we call friend:

→ He's the same God that cast Lucifer out of heaven when a speck of darkness entered into heaven.

I just, I want to expound on that for a minute. When a speck of darkness entered into heaven, when Lucifer - he had a thought, and the moment, the instance, less than the twinkling of an eye, when that thought became an intent, you know the Bible talks about adultery in the heart, Jesus upped the ante when He said, "You've committed adultery when you commit adultery in your heart," - it's when a thought becomes an intent.

The moment that Lucifer thought, "I will exalt myself above the Most High," the moment the speck of darkness entered into God's holy light, entered into heaven, in that instance, Jesus says, "I saw Satan fall like lightening".

You see, darkness cannot stand where there's light. And God said, "Uh- ah, that's not gonna happen here. Sorry. Down you go."

You know when Jesus said that - in Luke chapter 10 verse 18, let's go there quickly. Is this okay? [chuckles]

Jesus sends out the seventy, Jesus says, "Go on..." you know, "...heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons, freely you have received, now freely give..."

They come back and they're so excited, and what are they excited about? They're so excited that the demons have submitted to them.

And they come back and they say, "Master..." says, "...even the demons..." in verse 17 it says, Luke chapter ten verse 17, it says, "...then the seventy returned with joy saying, Lord even the demons are subject to us in your name". And that's when Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall like lightening."

What's Jesus saying? He's saying, "You don't get it. When my presence comes into the presence of those demons, of course they're gonna submit - and you're filled with my presence."

→He's the same God that appeared on the mount of transfiguration with the disciples that had spent so much time with Him, the three that were closest to Him - and He appeared, and He, just a glimpse of His glory was revealed - and they fell on their face.

→ He's the same God that showed a glimpse of His glory when He said, "I Am". He just revealed - you know, in the garden of Gethsemane when the soldiers came and said, "Are you the one?" He said, "I Am. I Am God." And they just fell on their face, or they fell backwards, the Bible says - the guards.

→ This is one that I personally love, is Isaiah. Isaiah was probably the major prophet of the Old Testament. He's a man that studied God's Law, and was just absolutely passionate about God's Law and keeping God's Law and keeping holy. He was in the Temple all the time.

And God one day showed Him a glimpse - not of Him, not of God - but just of His throne. And this guy Isaiah the prophet says, "Woe is me. I am a man of unclean lips." It brought him undone when he just saw God's glory in His throne.

→ When Peter saw just a minor miracle of the catchment of fish, he fell on his face at Jesus's feet, and he said, "Away from me - I'm a sinner." Away from me. Just a minor miracle.

When God shows up, when He - I'm trying to express it in words - it's just not going to happen. You know when we see God for who He is, it's all over.

No matter how righteous we think we are, no matter how many laws we think we comply to - we'll fall on our face.

We need to start to treat Him like that now - and then He can come.

You know, when I'd spend some time in the mountains fasting and praying for the church, God spoke to me and He said, "My people aren't quite ready yet for me to come - coz if I was to come now, some of them would run out of church."

Some of them would run out of church. Coz they're not ready.

"If I show Myself, if I reveal Myself, they're not ready."

→ You know, He's the same God that uh that appeared before John on the isle of Patmos. He's a man that spent three years with Jesus in the flesh - but he just fell down on his face trembling.

→ And let's not forget Moses. Moses says, "Show me your glory Lord." Moses had a deep desire for the things of God. He had a deep desire: "God show me your glory."

And I can just see God going, "I'd love to Moses. I'd love to - but I can't. What I can do, is hide you in the cleft of this rock, and as I whisk past, you'll see my back."

When God reveals who He is, it brings us undone. Amen?

And we need to start to really think about that, we need to start to meditate on who God is, according to His Word.

If you don't read His Word, I encourage you - you need to get into His Word, because otherwise you will form God in your own image.

You watch more TV than you read the Word, guess what - you're gonna be desensitized. You're gonna see God how the world sees God. Amen? It can't happen any other way.

The extent to which you know God is the extent of how much you know His Word.

I'll say that again. The extent of how much you know God, it depends on how much you know His Word.

That's really the measure of who God is. We can't think we know God, we can't put God in a box, we can't try and measure ourselves by ourselves.

You see this is what happens quite a lot - we measure ourselves by ourselves.

We're standing beside Mike in the front row, I say, "I'm not as much of a sinner as he, so I'm doin' quite alright." [laughs]

Just picking on Mike - you know, but that's what we do. We look beside us and we go, "Well, they're doin' this - so I'm okay, I'm pretty good."

But see we're measuring ourselves by ourselves - it's the wrong measuring post! We need to measure ourselves by the, in the mirror, in the mirror of God's Word.

Truth - this is perfect truth [holds up the Bible]. There is no lies in this book. Coz God cannot lie - it's not in His nature. So in here is truth. If you want to know Truth, get into this.

God's Stance on Sin

Secondly, we need to know what His stance is on sin. And I'll tell you why we need to know these things in a minute.

→ He's the same God that cast His beloved children out of the garden of Eden, simply because they disobeyed Him. He set a flaming, uh angel with a flaming sword at each edge of the garden.

→ He wiped out the entire population of the earth except for Noah and his family, because our sin made Him angry. That's the extent of why God flooded the world - because our sin made Him angry. He said, "I repent, I grieve that I made man...How long will my Spirit strive with man?" - coz our sin was a stench up His nostrils.

→ He opened up the ground and buried them alive that spoke against His leadership in the wilderness.

→ He killed whole cities of people simply because of their sin and their hardheartedness towards God.

→ He killed two Spirit-filled believers in the New Testament simply because they lied to Him. "Oh that's the Old Testament, isn't it?" In the New Testament it happens too. But it happens when God is gettin' ready for something, you know.

See, God lets us go, to a point. You see that all the way through the Bible: God strives with us to a point - but then there comes a point where God goes, "Okay you've gone far enough - now I want a new standard from you." And I believe that's where we're at as a church.

Two reasons we really need to get an understanding of this - there's two main reasons why we really need an understanding of truth and grace:

Live Worthy of His Calling

Firstly, we need to live a life worthy of His calling. We need to live a life worthy of His mercy upon us. We need to run the race and not be disqualified.

The Apostle Paul - who reckons the Apostle Paul was a pretty righteous man? [few respond] after he got saved? [some respond] You guys are harsh! [chuckles]

The Apostle Paul said this in First Corinthians 9:27, he said, "No, I keep on beating my body and making it my slave, so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified".

He says you know, "I preach to others, but I'm beating my body into subjection. I labour all the more abundantly according to the grace of God that's been given to me. I strive towards that high call, because I'm not sure - I'm not a hundred per cent sure - and so I'm really working towards that, that goal, so that I might not be disqualified myself somehow."

He also tells us in Second Corinthians 5:9, "Therefore we are also labouring to be well-pleasing to Him, whether at home or away from home. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive the things done through the body according to that which he has done whether good or bad. Therefore knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade all men, but we are revealed to God and I trust also we are revealed in your consciences."

The Bible says not to think of yourself more highly than you ought, not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but only according to the grace that's been given to you.

See the heart of man is wicked and deceitful above all things. The Bible says that there's a way that seems right to a man but it leads to death.

If we trust in our own thinking about our salvation, if we trust in our own thinking about whether we're right with God or not, and we don't read the Word, and we don't look in the Holy Law of God - you can't throw the Law out! I know we're under grace - we're under the dispensation of God's mercy and His grace right now - that's why we stand here and we worship Him, because God has written His Law upon our hearts. No longer are they on tablets of stone but God has written His Law upon our hearts. But how much more should that be expressed in our life! where we catch those little foxes that spoil the vine.

See I believe that there's some things in God's house tonight that need to be addressed. There's some things here that we need to personally own. We need to look into our heart, in perspective to God's holiness, and God's mightiness, and His stance upon sin.

See there's, I, I, there's far too much sin in the body of Christ. There is. There's far too much sin in the body of Christ. I hear Christians swearing all the time. I see Christians drinking. Smoking. Living lives of debauchery. Living lives as if they're not even saved. They're not even, they don't take that grace there, as a precious thing. They trample back and forth, back and forth, back and forth on the blood of Jesus.

"It's alright, I'm saved - I'm under grace."

This is my personal favourite: "God's grace covers my sin."

No! God's grace doesn't cover your sin - God's blood covers your sin! because He shed it in a painful death upon the cross of Calvary. He paid the sin, He paid the punishment. It's God's blood that covers your sin! not grace - grace is what empowers you not to sin. [amen, applause]

I think that uh you know we're expecting God to come, but we're still living lives of compromise, you know we let little foxes in the vine. Jesus said it's those little foxes that spoil the vine; it's those little things in your life.

And I believe that tonight there's issues and areas of pornography in men's lives that you need to address; I believe that there's issues and areas of lust where you've just kind of desensitized yourself to it, you've brushed it off and you've gone, the Holy Spirit's goin', "Come on, don't look at that - turn to me." There's areas that need to be addressed tonight.

Women need to address some issues with their mouth, what they're saying, words that would pull a brother or sister down rather than build them up, rather than encourage them. Words that ought never come out of a Christian's mouth. Filthy language. Smoking. Drinking.

It's the temple of God. My life is not my own any more. It was bought with a price. That price - is my Saviour's blood!

How we treat the precious blood of Jesus will determine how much of Him we'll have in our lives. We need to stop just receiving Him as Saviour, and make Him Lord. Make that step tonight church, make that step.

So you know firstly that's why, we need to get the right perspective here of truth and grace. That's the first reason.

Preach an Undiluted Gospel

The second reason is that we preach a truly balanced Gospel.

You see Jesus means Saviour. The word Jesus means Saviour.And we go out to a lost and dying world, a world that is condemned to hell - the Bible says that they are condemned already:

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that through Him they might be saved. For he who believes in the only begotten Son of God is saved, but he who believes not is condemned already."

We're different church, we're different. If you're saved here tonight, if you're born-again, then you're different.

And we need to let people know that they've broken God's Law.

You see God has a Law - He hasn't thrown it out.

You know I, I cringe when I hear Christians say, "Oh that's Old Testament - we don't do that anymore."

You know, areas that like, areas that are just so obviously God's Word, they're so obviously God addressing some rebellion in someone, in the Books of Leviticus, in God's Law, and we, "Oh, I'm under grace, brother - it's all good!" [sighs] I feel sad for you. I do!

You see if we preach a balanced Gospel, we will have real converts. We won't have stony-ground hearers of the Word who are in church one day and out of church the next - they're backslidden, they're in nightclubs one minute then they're in church the next day, coz I know, if I backslid, you wouldn't see me, I'd be gone - because I couldn't come into God's presence, there's no way, because it's a fear of God, that we need to get. A fear and a reverence.

Now when we preach that - to a lost and dying world - then they will get saved for real.

But when we go out and we just you know we don't want to preach, you know we don't want to scare them off or we don't want to say, we go out and we say, Jesus loves you, "Excuse me, Jesus loves you," they say, "So what? my grandmother loves me too!" It means nothing to them. It means nothing.

"I don't need Jesus. I've got money. I've got friends. I've got popularity. What do I need Jesus for?"

"YOU NEED JESUS BECAUSE YOU'VE BROKEN GOD'S LAW AND YOU'RE CONDEMNED TO HELL - YOU'LL SPEND ETERNITY SUFFERING IN HELL - BUT THERE'S A FREE GIFT: TONIGHT YOU CAN RECEIVE GOD'S LOVE AND GOD'S FORGIVENESS."

That's the Gospel, isn't it? [applause]

Jonathon Edwards preached, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. I like that message, that good title. And then you know Martin Luther preached a great grace message about grace through faith, and faith alone.

And, which one's right? I say they're both right - they're both right. When we understand God's truth and His stance towards sin, it should give us a greater appreciation for the cross.

I remember a time when, before I went into full-time ministry, I was working at um Couran Cove Resort, I was working at South Stradbroke Island, and um they had this these staff meals - and they were sort of unmanned at night, they were like on an honesty system, and you had a like a little um uh bucket there that you had to put money in, and it kept changing prices for some reason, they were going up and down, and the management couldn't work out how much to charge for tea.

And I went into the staff-room one night and I said, I saw a couple of the porters there, you know, the guys who carry luggage, and I said, "How much is dinner tonight?"

And they said, "Oh, it's free! Just take it. You know, just take it. There's no-one here, just - go on!"

And I thought I'd have a bit of a joke with them and I said, I just stood there and I went, "I'm a Christian, and I will not be influenced by you sinners!" [laughter] And I walked out.

And you know what? They bugged me for the next six-months. They bugged me!

You know I, I'd drive past them in my little gulf-buggy over there you know and they'd go, "Hey! we want to talk to you about that sinners business. What do you mean, we're sinners?" - you know, and they're counting on their hand what they do right!

And I left them with that for a while you know, left them just sitting with they're sinners.

And then you know, one of them, I saw one of them in the lunch room again one night and I said, "Listen, I'm sorry, you know, that was a bit arrogant of me to say that, you know..."

"No, look, oh, I've just been thinking about it!"

And I said, "The truth is, all of us are sinners. We've all broken God's Law. God has a standard, He has a Law, and it's written in the Bible, and we, if we've broken God's Law, even one of His laws, we've broken them all. So if you even told a lie in your life, then you've broken God's Law. If you've stolen anything, you've broken God's Law." And I started to explain to him about the Gospel.

And I said, "But you know the beautiful news is that no matter what you've done, JESUS - if you'll come to Him, and you'll turn from that stuff and you'll come and you'll just receive Him as Saviour and Lord in your life - you can be saved, you can be set free from that."

Long story short, he didn't give his life to Jesus - but I know I made an impact in his life. I know, just those words, you're a sinner - and I was just joking with him, but he...

You see the truth, it cuts like a double-edged sword. And people might react and have all sorts of funny responses to the truth, but when you speak the truth, it goes in like a knife.

Usually most of us like to think we're pretty good people, you know we don't want to think we've done anything wrong. So generally when people say, "You know what, you did the wrong thing here," our first reaction is to get defensive.

But who knows that when it's the truth you'll go away and you'll think about it and you'll meditate, "Oh - it's probably right!" At least if you're born-again and your Spirit-filled you should be thinking like that.

When you read something in God's Word don't justify it, don't water it down. Say, "Yep. That's what I need to do."

Jesus said, "You are the light of the world. Men hated the light because they loved their sin."

So you're gonna get some reactions. Your presence should convict people.

But people everywhere, all over the world, deep down - they know. Deep down, the Bible says, that they know. Because they were created by God. They weren't created by the devil. The devil in fact is a created being under God. God created all things, so His fingerprint is upon them. From the worst of the worst of the worst - they know, deep down.

And I, I live for the day when we have a John-the-Baptist generation of evangelists, when we'll have people who will be not afraid to rebuke kings, because it's the truth.

John the Baptist come out and he just preached repentance because the Kingdom of God is at hand. John the Baptist was an Evangelist/Prophet, John the Baptist was a man, and Jesus said you know, "He's the greatest..." but then, "...you are better. You who are in the Kingdom of God now - are better than John was then."

But that's an illustration: John the Baptist ushered-in the presence of Jesus into this earth the first time. And I believe that God is raising up a John-the-Baptist generation of evangelists, of prophets, who will stand up and declare the truth, with boldness - and then God will come.

See you know I was sharing that when people come and they get the full truth, not the watered-down version - we don't just talk about grace, but we talk about the truth of God, God in His holy habitation who lives in unapproachable light, how He feels about sin - then, I don't think they'll backslide, when they truly get that message.

A lot of you would have heard this story about the parachutes, about two men who were on a plane. And um two uh hostesses were handing-out these parachutes. And, and one man received the parachute, he was given the parachute, and the hostess, the air-hostess said, said, "This is gonna make your ride more comfortable. This is going to be um, you know it's gonna make you look good, and it's gonna make you more comfortable, and uh you know, it's, it's a fashionable accessory, and why won't you try it on, you know, just give it a go, just try it out."

The other person was given a parachute and they were told that the airplane was faulty, and it was gonna crash, and this would save their life.

The first man got a bit uncomfortable with the parachute. What do you think he did? Took it off.

The other man, coz he was told it would save his life, kept it on.

Two ways you can share the Gospel. One way is that you share the truth and then you share God's grace: God's loving mercy and His kindness. And the other way is you can just share his loving mercy and kindness because that's comfortable for you.

See they need to know that God has not changed His stance on sin and the only reason that He holds back His wrath and judgment is because the punishment has been paid-in-full.

Did you know that right now angels are filling-up bowls in heaven full of God's wrath against sin? The only reason that God holds that back is coz He's waiting for you and I to tell people that message - truth and grace. Truth and grace.

They need to know that they're a sinner, and they need to know that God loves them, that He paid the penalty for their sin.

We um, we look at the movie, The Passion of the Christ, and you know we can see in graphic detail what Christ went through: the whip tearing strips of flesh off His back; the crown of thorns that was literally beaten into His skull; the nine-inch nails that were hammered through His hands and His feet; the shame and the ridicule as He hung naked and bare upon that cross.

And we look at Him - in fact this is what the world does - looks at Him and goes, "Poor Jesus."

No. Poor you! - because that punishment was meant for you!

And that's the message we need to get across - the undiluted Gospel.

You know when we do preach the undiluted Gospel, the Holy Spirit will back us up. That's the good thing to know. That when you have no compromise, and first of all - I said it before - first of all you need to have no compromise in your own life.

There's one thing we notice, we have a, in Transformation Ministries we have all guys living in the one house and they can 'book' each other. They write each other in the book when they've broken a rule. So there's the law of the house, and I think there's 95 rules or something at the moment - 93, sorry [chuckles]. And then they get these 'bookings' you see.

But one thing we notice is there comes a point when we don't see any 'consequences' - we don't see anybody pulling each other up for what they're doing wrong. And the one thing that I've seen - and it's constant all the way through - is that the time when they don't book each other is when they're doin' it themselves.

And this is what we do as Christians. You know we start to share with our friends about you know stuff that we're struggling with.

"Oh yeah I'm struggling with that too."

Share it with someone who's got the victory in it - and get some healing! The Bible says, "If we confess our sins one to another, we will be healed."

Healed. That means that we're broken. We're wounded. That's why we do the things that we do.

People who have addictions to pornography, they do it because they're hurt and they're broken, they feel lonely. You ask anyone who has an addiction to pornography, that's what they'll tell you.

"It's, there's something missing - I just gotta do it. And I feel fulfilled after I've done it."

But if you confess your sins,you'll be healed.

Andthen you can start to be used of God to really move forward. Because you know the reality is that we're all forgiven, okay - we confess our sins to Jesus, we're forgiven. The Bible says the blood of Jesus covers our sins and cleanses us from all unrighteousness.

But who knows - sometimes that's not enough. Sometimes you gotta confess it to a leader. Sometimes you've gotta get it out of your life. Sometimes you gotta really nail that thing, you gotta get serious about it. Because what happens is we build a, it's like a, it's like a wound that just keeps getting hammered and hammered and it builds up a scar tissue and that's what happens in our heart, we know it's sin, but we've got scar tissue, we've got this hard tissue, so every time it gets preached the scar tissue's there and we just, we don't even hear the message that's being preached.

Because we've gone, "I can't beat this thing."

Of course you can't! But Jesus can! Jesus overcame all sin. Even death. You see the Bible says the wages for your sin is death, and Jesus even overcame that - the absolute extreme of it.

So we need to bring our sins, we need to clear house tonight. Let's come and you know I want to offer a time of um, I'm gonna ask the worship team to come back up, I wanna, they're gonna sing, At the Cross, and I want to offer a time of just really, you know if you've got issues, if I've nailed some of those things in your life tonight, then, then just come, just come and clear them out. Clear them out. Just clear them out and get a fresh brand new start tonight.

You know I said that the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit will back us up once we preach the undiluted Gospel - truth and grace. The reason I know that is because it was the very first ministry that Jesus spoke about that the Holy Spirit would do.

It says in John 16 verse eight, "When that one comes..." talking about the Holy Spirit, when He comes to earth, "...He will convict the world concerning sin, and concerning righteousness, and concerning judgment" (John 16:8).

I believe that's what He wants to do here tonight.

Holy Spirit, come. Search out hearts. Purify our hearts, Lord!

Lord, start to reveal to us the things which you don't want us to do anymore. Things that we're setting our eyes upon, things that we're watching, things that we're doing, things that little issues and areas of sin, the little foxes that spoil the vine, Lord God. Convict us of them tonight. Speak to us Jesus.

At the Cross

Oh Lord You’ve searched me

You know my way

Even when I fail You

I know You love me

Your holy presence

Surrounding me

In every season

I know You love me

I know You love me

At the cross I bow my knee

Where Your blood was shed for me

There’s no greater love than this

You have overcome the grave

Your glory fills the highest place

What can separate me now

You go before me

You shield my way

Your hand upholds me

I know You love me

You tore the veil

You made a way

When You said that it is done

And when the earth fades

Falls from my eyes

And You stand before me

I know You love me

I know You love me

(Darlene Zschech & Reuben Morgan)

©2006 Hillsong Publishing

Transformations I Audio Version

©2007 Michael Barrett