Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] James, chapter five. I'd like you to turn there with me. If you have the Bible app or you use our church center app, you can find all of our notes there. I've got scriptures and even a few I'm sure I won't have time to touch on this morning. James, chapter five.
[00:00:15] Picking up on something that we started a couple weeks ago about the anointing of oil healing ministry, and you're going to see it goes a little deeper today. James five, verse 14. This is what it says. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save or heal the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Verse 16 says, confess your trespasses to one another. Everybody say confess.
[00:01:00] Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Wow. Let's pray. And let's ask the Lord's hand as we open his word together. Lord, I thank you for your word. I thank you that it is light, it's life, it's instruction, it's correction where we need it. And I pray this morning, Lord, that Your word would accomplish all that you desire it to today. I pray even now for a mighty anointing to be released in this house. Come on, church, I want you to help me pray. If you have the liberty, pray with your spirit. Pray with your understanding. Pray the Holy Spirit. Come now, Holy Spirit, we ask you to come. Lord, give us eyes that see, ears that hear, a heart and a mind that perceives what your spirit is speaking to us today. I pray Jesus, the same anointing that was upon you to preach good news to those in need would be upon me this morning, O Lord, that I would preach under the anointing of your spirit. And even now I bind the works of the enemy, he who would seek to distract, to distort, to confuse, or uproot your word as it comes forward. Lord, give us liberty in receiving today. In Jesus mighty name, I pray and everybody say amen. Amen. You may be seated.
[00:02:25] It's a powerful passage, and one of the things that I really feel like the Bible actually says that one of the signs of the last days, one of the signs of the end times. The apostle Paul warns a spiritual son, Timothy, that one of the things that will happen in the last days is that people will have forms of Godliness, but deny the power of God.
[00:02:53] They'll have religious exteriors, will go through religious motions, but it will be powerless and friend. I'm convinced that the reason so many today are looking towards witchcraft and new age, looking to have experiences through drugs and alcohol. There's a lot of reasons, but friend, one of the things that I realize is people are hungry for experiences, even if it can only be found amongst a group of witches. Or it can be found if we do this particular meditation. Or I'm going to go after another god because I feel something, because I experience something. And friend, I think there's reality to a lot of that stuff. There really are demon powers behind a lot of those things. But one of the things that the Lord spoke to me a few years ago, I had a dream and I've shared about it on a number of occasions was actually in Lahaina. And I had a dream where I was in a church service and the glory of the Lord was so present in the mean, you read about Shekinah glory and like glory clouds resting. I mean, that's what was going on in this dream. And I felt it in the dream. It was so real. I just knew there were angels that were ministering to people all around the place. Miracles were transpiring. And the crazy thing was I was like, the guy supposed to lead the service, right? The pastor, whatever. But I was doing nothing.
[00:04:28] The worship team was doing nothing. There was no prayer team.
[00:04:32] There was no ministry that was going on from the pulpit. The presence of God was so tangible. It was like he was just doing everything.
[00:04:42] And I remember walking out of the service into the front lawn and looking up and seeing banners and signs that were in the front yard and hung up around the place. And it didn't promote the name. It didn't have my name or the name of a team or a guest ministry or come for giveaways, none of that kind of stuff. All it said was, come experience God, encounter God. And the Lord began to put everything shifted for me to where? Now, yes, I will preach the gospel, but when I preach the gospel, I want to see a demonstration of power. Lord, will you confirm Your word, not just wisdom of man and theology, but will you actually prove that what I'm preaching is true? That when we sing songs, it's not just going through the motion and rehearsing words, but no, lord, your Word says that you inhabit the praises of your people. So when we sing and when we worship, will you come and dwell in the worship that God? When we pray, it's not just some comfort. We're speaking to an individual, but God. We truly believe that our prayers move heaven and earth and that you intervene on behalf of individuals to experience and encounter God.
[00:06:06] Do you believe to experience God? Do you believe to encounter God? See, many of us grew up with religious symbols. I grew up watching baptism services. But we were always told that baptism is an external expression of your inward faith. It's an outward declaration of what God is doing. And while I'm okay with that terminology, you're taking the encounter out of it. When you read in the Bible what baptism is, it talks about how there's an actual union with the body of Christ. You are being baptized into the body of Christ. You are brought into union. You're brought into unity with his death, with his burial, with his resurrection. That sounds like a lot more than an outward expression of my inward faith. No, I am being unified with Jesus Christ in his character, in his virtue, his power. His very life begins to flow in me and through me. It changes everything.
[00:07:16] We were raised with symbols, symbols of God in the receiving of communion. How we do this just to remember it's just in remembrance. But the Bible actually says in one Corinthians ten and eleven, it talks about how this is the bread is coina.
[00:07:35] Everybody say coina.
[00:07:38] I spent weeks on this last year about how there's a union, there's a fellowship, there's an encounter with God. That can happen if we receive this the right way. It's not just a symbol. It's not just a form of Godliness, but there's power in it. In fact, the first miracle, healing miracle I ever saw in my life was when somebody ate a communion cracker and their tongue was healed. They'd actually bit through it in a basket playing basketball. They jumped up, came down, hit their chin on the top of somebody else's head, and bit half through their tongue. I saw it before the service. I saw him eat that communion wafer, and I saw his tongue completely restored. That night, within about 10 minutes, 1015 minutes, there was a lady wheelchair bound for years.
[00:08:30] She came out of that wheelchair and ended up walking around the pulpit initially, but before the time was done, was running a lapse around the entire building. Through communion?
[00:08:43] Through communion. What would happen if we actually began to approach these things like God? This is more than a symbol. There's actual power in it. In fact, we had a friend who was with us this last week, and she said when she got saved, she immediately got baptized, and she had a radical encounter. She said, I went into those waters, and when I came out, I immediately got baptized in the Holy Ghost, speaking in other tongues, used in prophecy, and called into ministry. You just watch. It was more than just an outward expression. No, she encountered the Lord in the risk for her. She was here last week. When I was talking about some of this. She's like, I always thought that baptism was a place of encounter. I didn't realize that people just preached it as a symbol or as a declaration. There's so much more. The anointing of oil is another one. This is not just a symbol of the Holy Spirit. It's not just an act of faith to comfort. This is not like neosporin, where we're just going to rub it on your scab and believe God to heal it. No. We believe that as we practice what Jesus what most of us would call ordinances, what many of the Catholics would call what's the word sacraments thank you. Is essentially the same thing. It is a legal act on the authority of Scripture. What Jesus has asked us to do that releases God's grace, and it releases his glory. His grace. I taught all of this extensively last week, so I'm not giving you all the verses and all the I'm giving you the Cliff Notes version because I'm building on this even this week. His grace, he's giving us what we do not deserve. He loves you. He wants to heal you, restore you, touch you, fill you. He wants to anoint you. He wants to empower you. He wants to transform you. You don't deserve it. You cannot earn it on your own. But in his grace, he gives it glory. Glory is not just a substitute for hallelujah. Amen. Glory is a manifestation of an attribute of God on the earth. So when Jesus was born of a virgin in human form, human likeness john, chapter one, says that we beheld his glory, eternal, spiritual. God came in human form. When miracles take place, that which is in the Spirit, in the heavenlies, is manifest in the earth. That's glory, that which is supernatural, is made manifest in front of us. That's glory. So when we are baptized, when we receive communion, when we anoint with oil, these are all moments, not just for symbols and expressions and religious types. No. This is a moment where God's grace and his glory are made manifest.
[00:11:44] Now, let me give you another one. This is a legal transaction that you and I can enter into, and it's what we call confession. Everybody say confession.
[00:11:58] Now, I know if you grew up in a Catholic tradition, you may have a particular idea of what confession is. And let me just say right from the get go, I believe in the power of confession.
[00:12:11] I would differ in that. I don't believe that it is up to a priest to forgive your sins or to say, if you do, X, Y, and Z again, that's forms of religion that I believe are mostly, mostly not entirely, but mostly devoid of power. One of my concerns is, though, that we as Protestant believers have gone so far from this that it's a rare occasion that any of us have ever been given the opportunity to confess our sins one to another.
[00:12:43] And friend, there is so much power. This is not a religious act. I'm telling you, there is so much power in confession. When we release the guilt, the shame, the sin that binds us, that wound that we endured, the defilement that came upon us, whether we invited it or whether we didn't, there is a moment of healing that can transpire when we learn to confess our faults one to another. Now, I want to be clear.
[00:13:13] The Bible says that we confess our sins to the Lord and he will forgive us. So in fact, I want you to write this down. Confession to God brings forgiveness.
[00:13:27] Confession to God brings forgiveness.
[00:13:33] But confession to one another brings healing and freedom.
[00:13:41] Confession to God brings forgiveness. Confession to one another brings healing and freedom. And I'm going to give you the scriptural basis for this. First john one seven, this is where we talk about how we can go to Jesus with our sin. It says, the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. And in verse nine, it says if we confess our sins to Him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. Hallelujah. So listen, if you're in sin and you need forgiveness, all you need to do is hit your knees and say, jesus, forgive me. Jesus wash me. I thought it was amazing. Even the Pope, during COVID when they weren't allowed to come and go to confession, the Pope actually made a statement that if you can't go to confession, you just take your sins directly to the Lord. I'm just thinking like, that's a great idea. I can't believe you thought of that. The Bible says in Hebrews, chapter four, that Jesus is our high priest. And I love Catholics. I actually think there are bornagain Catholics and I think that there are things that we have forsaken. And so I'm not dogging on Catholics, by the way. In fact, I've still got my Catholic baptism certificate. I was baptized as a baby. I don't think that does anything for me. Hallelujah. But it happened.
[00:15:06] Maybe I need deliverance, I don't know.
[00:15:09] What was I saying?
[00:15:13] Jesus is our high priest and mediator. You can go to him. Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews, chapter 5678 910. Almost the entire book of Hebrews is about the fact that Jesus is our high priest and mediator. You don't need to kill animals anymore. If you need forgiveness, just ask Jesus. Hallelujah.
[00:15:36] But I want to deal with two ideas. I want to give you scripture. I want to give you some stories that really affirm this confession to one another. If you're taking notes, write this down. This is one of the main ideas and we're going to pray about this in a few moments. Confession to one another brings healing.
[00:15:57] You'll notice last week we talked about is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, anointing with oil and the prayer of faith will save or heal the sick. And it says that Jesus God will raise him up and if they've committed sins, they will be forgiven. So here you see there's this idea, this coupling of the fact that you can be forgiven of your sins, but it's actually tied to this idea of physical healing. Now, I'm going to give you a theology here, and I'm going to give you a lot of scripture on this. But before I dig into it, let me just kind of preface what I'm about to say.
[00:16:38] I do not believe that God strikes people with sickness in order to teach them a lesson. I just got to teach you some stuff. So I'm going to give you cancer. I'm going to give you diabetes so you can learn your lesson. I don't think God does that. I do not think that God does that. You can read in passages in Scripture where it appears that the Lord brought judgment and sickness. But there's something in theology terms that we call progressive illumination. Everyone say progressive illumination.
[00:17:11] For example, it's like Old Testament believers could read Isaiah 53 and know there's a Messiah that's coming. Well, we today seeing and experiencing the ministry of Jesus as time has gone by and as prophetic revelation has come. We look at Isaiah 53 and say, that's all about Jesus, right? But when they were receiving that, they didn't know what that was all about. And so there are many examples in scripture where you read about these things, where it talks about, like, the Lord sending a lying spirit. Well, God doesn't have lying spirits. There aren't angels that operate in lying spirits in heaven. No, that was a demonic spirit that went and moved in that realm. And we can lay a New Testament theology for that.
[00:18:02] I don't know. That was my preface. Does that make sense? So I don't want us entering into this and like, well, if you live in sin, god's going to smite you with sickness. That's not the message that I'm preaching today. However, remember what the Bible says, that whatsoever a man sows that he will reap.
[00:18:22] And it goes on in the next verse. We use it in, like, tithes and offerings. But that's actually not what that verse in Galatians is talking about. He says, if you sow in unrighteousness, you will reap in unrighteousness. If you sow in righteousness, you will reap in righteousness. That's a big deal, friend. So if you live for years in sin, you will reap the rewards of sin.
[00:18:47] If you live for years sowing in righteousness doing right in the eyes of God, you will reap the reward of a righteous life. Now, there is forgiveness, and that's really what we want to deal with. But let me give you some Bible here, genesis 20. Crazy story. Did you know that the first instance in the Bible of any sort of sickness or infirmity was connected with sin? Abraham had a beautiful wife, and he went into an area called Gerar and lied about his wife and said, no, this is my sister, which was actually a half truth, if you dig into the story. And there was a king over Gerar named Abimelech, and he said, well, I'm going to take her to be my wife. And there was a whole preparation process before they would actually enter into the marriage covenant. And it took months and months. And what ended up happening is while they were in this marriage process, every woman in that nation became barren.
[00:19:50] There was a repercussion because of sin that this king was entering into. It actually affected the entire nation. And the Lord came to the king and said, you're a dead man. And he said, Lord, I didn't know I did this in innocence and I have not touched her. And he says, and that's why I'm coming to you, to give you an opportunity to turn away. He wakes up, gives the wife back, choose Abraham out. What in the world are you doing? This is my paraphrase. Why'd you do this to me? Are you trying to hurt us? And he repented.
[00:20:22] And God ended up lifting that barrenness off of the people. It's a very interesting story. In one Samuel, chapter five, the Philistines, they had captured the Ark of the Covenant. They actually bring the Ark of the Covenant into their pagan temple, set it up next to their God. And God is so displeased with the dishonoring of his presence that they begin to have an experience amongst the Philistines where people begin breaking out with tumors and they begin to have an outbreak of rats moving into the entire city.
[00:20:58] How many of you? That sounds pleasant. My wife is. This is crazy, you guys. This is true. We would actually have moments where we'd never have mice, but we'd have like an outbreak of mice in our house. And my wife was convinced there is sin in the house. And sure enough, I mean, we've always had people living with us almost our entire marriage and life, and we would have mice that would begin and within days we would find out that there was some type of compromise that was going on, usually with somebody who was living with us. And so you'll never convince my wife otherwise. You got mice problems, you better repent. Hallelujah.
[00:21:37] And that's exactly what was happening here at the Philistine. They had tumors and they had an infestation of rats, but they brought the Ark back and the Lord lifted that off of them. In Numbers chapter twelve, miriam, the sister of Moses, was struck with leprosy because of her slander towards Moses. In numbers 21, the people were complaining against God, and there were serpents that broke into the camp and they killed many. But here's what's interesting, and this is the encouragement in all of this. With every one of these stories, there was a confession. I acknowledge my sin, and God not only forgave them, but God healed them. And this is exactly paul lays out an interesting idea. In one Corinthians five, he's talking about a man who has an inappropriate sexual relationship with his stepmother. So friend, there's nothing new under the sun. If you think like, we're so lost and so broken. Friend, read the Bible, you'll see that these guys were just as messed up as anything we see today. And the Apostle Paul says, Listen, you know what needs to happen to this guy? One corinthians five. Five. You need to deliver this one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. You say, Pastor, what in the world is that talking about? I'll tell you exactly what I think happens when somebody is living in continual, unrepentant sin and they refuse to turn away from that. The encouragement that essentially comes out here. You'll see the same thing in one Timothy, chapter one as well.
[00:23:17] You take off, oh, there goes our friends.
[00:23:23] What essentially happens is the covering of the Lord comes off of that individual, and what ends up happening is the devil has a heyday with their life. He begins beating up on them. Maybe it's sickness, maybe it's disease, maybe it's some oppression that begins to operate in their life. But the Lord, the Bible says that the end goal of all of that is the destruction of the flesh so that they will be born again. And I could give you stories about this. I know this sounds intense, and you're like, Pastor, have you gone off your rocker? No. Our senior pastor believes in this as well. He tells a story in his book, Defiled. Okay, do we all need to look at the motorcycles? There they go. All right, this is what happens when we turn our sanctuary this way.
[00:24:08] Should I just go stand over here and preach? I don't know.
[00:24:13] No. Dr. Morocco tells a story.
[00:24:16] He had been in the Maui church for just a couple years, and they were in a board meeting. He shares this story in his book, defiled. You can get it in our bookshop, in our coffee shop, rather. And he shares his story. They were in a board meeting, and his wife turns to him, moment of discernment. She says, I think that board member is in an adulterous relationship.
[00:24:37] And he says, no way. There's no way. I know that guy. I know their marriage. There's no way that could be going on. Well, he decides to go. It's Matthew 18. You go to them personally, you go to him with a brother, you bring it before the leaders, and that's what he did. So he goes to this person personally and begins hey, just asking you a question. Begins to dig in. And sure enough, this guy said, yes, I've been sleeping with this person, and he had no intention of repenting. No intention of repenting. So Dr. Morocco goes back with another pastor in the church, goes and knocks on his door and again with another brother. Now addresses him personally. My friend, this is going to lead you down a path of destruction. Please, will you repent of this sin, will you turn away? No, I'm not going to repent. I've chosen what I'm going to do.
[00:25:28] Then they bring him before the board. They bring him because that was the team that he was serving on. He was a board member. They bring him before the board, and again they confront his sin and publicly says, I am not going to repent. This is what I'm doing. And so they said, then, my friend, until you're willing to repent, you cannot be a part of this board. You cannot be a part of this fellowship. The door is open if you want to repent and come, we would love to have you back. But for now, wrote him a letter, asked him formally to not be a part of the fellowship any longer. And then they prayed. One corinthians five.
[00:26:03] Lord, your word says when somebody's in unrepentant sin like this, now, this is a leader. If you're a first time guest and you still don't have all your stuff straight, that's fine. I'm not about to deliver you to Satan. I don't want to freak you out. This was a leader. This was a board member. This was a high person in the church. And he was unrepentant after being addressed on multiple occasions, was in complete rebellion. And so they went and they prayed and they said, Lord, you said to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh that their soul may be saved on the day of judgment.
[00:26:37] Within a week, this man gets a terminal cancer report.
[00:26:45] His life is going downhill so quickly. And the doctors tell him, you have less than a month to live. Get your affairs in order.
[00:26:54] This man, I mean, it was less than a month. This man quickly came back, confessed his sins, repented, and guess what? God not only forgave him, god healed him. He's still alive now. God even restored his marriage. God is a God of restoration. But there was this moment where you got to realize god doesn't play around with sin.
[00:27:17] And your sin isn't just like some secret thing between you and I'll just ask God for forgiveness later. It's not hurting anybody. Friend, you do not understand the doors that fly open when we choose to intentionally live in blatant compromise even after the Lord has addressed it. That's a scary place to be in. Paul talks about how living in unforgiveness in two, corinthians if you live in unforgiveness that you are giving, he says, we're not ignorant of the devil's schemes, that literally you leave yourself open. If you live in unforgiveness, you didn't sin. Somebody sinned against you. But if you hold them guilty by not forgiving them, friend, you're giving place to the enemy. That's scary stuff. So it's not some small thing. I'm not coming you today because I want to hear about your junk and your garbage and your history. Friend, I'm trying to help you. There are people who are sick in body. There are individual envy the Bible says is like rot to the bones. I've watched individuals who harbor such bitterness, they end up moving into a strait of crippling debilitation. But I've also watched when people will release. That how God begins to release his healing virtue.
[00:28:35] God can do this, but we cannot hold on to these things. If God begins to put his finger on an issue in our life, friend, be quick to repent, be quick to respond. I was reminded, I was reading the other night the Bible talks about in Mark 14. They were at the Last Supper. The disciples were eating with Jesus and Jesus turns to them and says, I tell you the truth.
[00:29:02] One of you will betray me.
[00:29:05] One of you will betray me. Now if this happened today in our kind of church culture, we would immediately probably begin like, I bet it's this Judas guy over here. I bet it's this guy. I bet he did this. And I know what Jesus is talking about. That's not what they did. Do you remember what they said?
[00:29:23] They said, Lord, is it me?
[00:29:29] And one by one they began to go around the table, Lord, is it me?
[00:29:35] And I've thought about, man, if I was sitting at that table, would I be so arrogant to assume it's somebody else? I know what's in my heart. I know I would never betray him. But what's amazing to me is those disciples trusted more in the word of Jesus than even what their own heart was saying. They trusted more in what God was saying about them than even what they felt themselves.
[00:30:03] Oh, that's a big deal. So if we're sitting here today and God begins to bring something, maybe the reason this health thing has clung on to you for such a long time is you need to forgive this person. Or you need to let that thing go. Or you need to shake off this envy, or this pride thing is going to destroy you. And God begins to put his finger on something in your life that he wants to free you of.
[00:30:26] Don't stand in a place of arrogance. I know what's in my heart.
[00:30:30] I'm not going to embarrass myself and go talk about something that I went through. Friend, let's be like the disciples of Jesus because that's what he calls us to be. And say, Lord, is there something in my heart that grieves you? Is there anything in me that would hinder your healing virtue flowing in my life?
[00:30:53] So confession, we see, brings healing. Everyone say healing. Now the second thing, this is very important, confession brings freedom. Everyone say freedom.
[00:31:05] Confession brings freedom. I said it already. That confession to God brings forgiveness of sin. You can go to the Lord with that. But you'll watch individuals who continually stumble over the same things, the same insecurity, the same guilt, the same shame, they. Stumble into the same immorality, the same addiction, they cannot seem to break the cycle. And I'm telling you, one of the great ways that you can be free is when we, according to the Bible, confess our faults one to another and pray for one another that we may be ayanama that word means to be restored, that God will restore you. And this is what I pray. I have people that come down, and it's like I cheated on my spouse, and God is restoring us. I'm asking forgiveness. Will you pray that God restore us? And in the way I pray for situations like that, ayanama means to restore better than before.
[00:32:05] So I'm praying that God don't just take them back to where they were before the scandal happened.
[00:32:12] Bring them to the most loving, secure place that their relationship has ever been in God. Don't just restore this drug addict to a place where he was before. No, bring him back to the place. His mind is sharper. He's stronger in his spirit. He's more free than he's ever been. To restore better than before. That's what God desires to do. But it requires a point of confession. Everyone say confession.
[00:32:42] I could give you stories all day long on this, but I don't have a lot of time.
[00:32:48] But I remember we were working with a lady in our church, and she would come to us every few weeks for deliverance. I mean, she knew that she had bondage in her life, but could not find healing in areas that she wanted. And so we would sit with her, and she would confess certain things, and she would continually come out with all this kind of stuff. But there never seemed to be that point of breakthrough, real freedom that she desired. And she knew there was something more.
[00:33:16] Well, I remember when I was in Bible college, one of our instructors who taught on deliverance, he said, you know, most of the time, people just need to confess. What's the thing that you're afraid to tell anybody?
[00:33:31] What's the thing you're so ashamed about that you don't ever talk about?
[00:33:36] What's the thing that's so secret? This thing would destroy me if anybody found out about it. He's like, that's the thing that you need to confess.
[00:33:45] I remember encouraging her in that I said, I don't know what this is, but what's the thing that you're afraid to tell anybody?
[00:33:54] And she'd already gone through a list. I think this was our third or maybe even fourth time that we'd sat down and gone through a list of all different kinds of things with no breakthrough. And finally she blurted out, I was raped.
[00:34:08] And with that single confession, I felt the presence and power of God sweep into that place. I didn't even have to hardly pray for her, because in one instant, that thing was shattered off of her life, and she was completely transformed. In one moment of confession, but it was the first that she'd ever been willing to confess it. That thing. She didn't invite it. She didn't welcome it. It wasn't a sin that she had committed, but something had happened to her in this guilt, in this shame, in this condemnation, and this uncleanness had just kind of clung to her and her conscience, and it had affected so many other areas of her life. One moment of confession, it was gone.
[00:34:52] There was a prophet friend of ours who was ministering, and in a particular service, he stopped the whole thing. And he doesn't normally do this, but he got a word of knowledge and he says, there's somebody here you used to be in the acting world.
[00:35:07] And he said, I just feel like there was an abuse, something that happened, and the Lord wants to set you free from that today.
[00:35:16] There was a lady who came down and just between her and the minister said and she named, if I said the actor, you would all know who it is. It was a very high profile case, but she confessed that she had been working on a movie set, that she had been drugged, and that she had been sexually assaulted.
[00:35:34] She confessed that to the minister. They prayed for her. She received healing. But what was incredible is the next day, there were several accusations that came out about this actor. He ends up going on trial, ends up being found guilty, put in prison. And there were dozens of other situations over the course of many years that came out, finally saying, this happened to me as well. But it was one moment of confession that not only set her free, but it even released the Lord to bring justice to a situation that was so broken.
[00:36:11] Confession worship team, will you come? We're going to pray in a moment. One last story. I'll give you a Bible instance of this.
[00:36:22] In the Book of Numbers, it actually talks about I'm sorry, not numbers. Leviticus. Leviticus 16.
[00:36:35] In Leviticus 16, the Bible's describing what the day of atonement actually looks like. One time a year, the children of Israel would gather together and believe for the forgiveness of the sin of the entire nation. They would sacrifice bulls, they would sacrifice goats.
[00:36:56] And what's interesting is they would bring both of the goats into the temple, and they would select one of these goats will shed its blood, and one of them will bear the sin.
[00:37:11] So what would happen is they would select the goat who is to shed its blood. They would take that goat, they would shed its blood, and that would be for the forgiveness, for the remission of the sins of all the children of Israel. Now, we know today we don't need to shed the blood of animals, because Jesus, the Bible says, is the perfect Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. So we know you go to jesus for forgiveness and he will forgive you. But there's another whole part in this process. In the Book of Leviticus describes it. It says upon this other goat, it actually calls it the scapegoat. Have you ever heard that phrase before? Scapegoat? It's like somebody's going to take the fall or they're going to bear the guilt for everybody else. Well, that's actually a Bible term. In fact, I'll read to you exactly what it says. This is in number 16 and in verse ten it says, he has brought you near. Oh no, that's not the right verse. The Lord spoke to Aaron saying separate yourselves from among this.
[00:38:13] No, that's not it either. Okay, I messed that up. Well, let me tell you exactly what happens.
[00:38:23] The priest will go over the scapegoat and place his hands upon its head.
[00:38:29] And the Bible says that he will confess the sins of the entire nation over the scapegoat. He will confess the sins over the scapegoat. Then they take the goat and cast it out of the camp.
[00:38:48] And he's the one to bear the guilt. No longer the people any longer they're free from guilt. No more shame.
[00:38:57] And the picture is clear, the shedding of the blood of the animal. We go to Jesus and he forgives us. He washes us by his precious blood. But there's something that happens. There's a releasing of guilt, there's a releasing of shame. As sin is confessed, it's released and it's cast out. And no longer is it ours to bear or to carry any longer. That's freedom. Friend. You and I can be set free through confession.
[00:39:35] Want you to stand all cross this room.
[00:39:59] I know where I went wrong.
[00:40:02] I selected numbers. Instead of Leviticus, Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the children of Israel and their transgressions concerning all their sin, putting them on the head of the goat and will send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a suitable man. The goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to an uninhabited land. And he shall release the goat into the wilderness as a picture of freedom that the Lord desires to release in us. And it happens as we confess our faults one to another and pray for one another that we will be restored ayanama you will be made whole.
[00:40:50] So what we're going to do today, and again I'm going to remind you of the Last Supper. I don't want you looking at your neighbor. And boy, my wife really needs to hear this. I hope that she goes down for prayer. Oh, I know somebody who need no, I want you to search your heart and really ask the Lord, do you have some kind of sickness or infirmity that continues to cycle around? And you say this may be tied to some sin or compromise or guilt or pain or something that I endured an unforgiveness, and today I want to release that and receive my healing.
[00:41:26] Or maybe you're here and it's like you've got this guilt to this condemnation, this heaviness, or maybe you cycle around the same sin habit over and over again, but you say, I want to confess this. I want to get it off of my chest so I don't have to carry it around any longer.
[00:41:44] What we're going to do is I'm going to welcome my prayer team.
[00:41:47] They're going to come, and what I'm going to ask is for simple confessions, okay? I don't need to hear about all the people that hurt you and how many years you've been afflicted and on and on. Really what I want this to look like is in one phrase, one sentence. I've been in immorality, but I'm done with it. I've been in pornography, but I'm done with it. I've been gripped with pride, but I'm done with it. I've held unforgiveness towards my father. I'm done with it. I was verbally, I was sexually abused, but I'm releasing them today.
[00:42:24] One phrase, one statement, and we're going to believe for God's healing and we're going to believe for his restoration to be released in your life. We watched this in the people were getting powerfully touched in our first service today, and I know that he's going to do the same thing for you. Some of you have just been looking for the time you've been carrying around this guilt and this shame and you've been waiting for an opportunity. I just man, I'm going to confess this and the Lord is going to touch me today.
[00:42:57] And we're going to pray. And the Lord will forgive you. The Lord will heal you, and the Lord will restore you ayanama better than before. We're going to move into a time of worship. And listen, there's no shame in this time as we pray together.
[00:43:15] I've had many times where I've had to confess my shortcomings and my failures, and I'm still doing this to this very day. And so if God is speaking to you about anything, we're going to open up these altars. You can come, you can share what you're asking God to do, and we will pray and God's going to move. Amen. These altars are open as you feel prompted of the Lord. I just want you to begin to make your way down, come and join your faith with somebody and we're going to pray with you. Hallelujah. So come on. These altars are open and we can just begin to worship.
