Finding Jesus For Ourselves — Randy Krahn

Let's pray, Lord, we're just grateful that we can be gathered together in a place, Lord, not even a year, year and a half ago, they told us we couldn't gather, but Lord, we know that to whom shall we go.

You have the words of eternal life, we need to come to you. So we're here this morning, we're seeking a blessing from your hand, and I pray, Lord, as our brother already shared from your heart, Lord, that you would also speak through this.

Coming to the End of Self-Effort

You know, many times in our lifetime, I think of my children, and I give them good guidelines and rules to follow. They want to live in this house, they live in such and such a way. And we teach them the word of God and we tell them, do this, don't do this, do this, don't do this.

But at some point on the journey, every single one of us has to have a revelation that no matter how hard I try, I can't obey mom and dad. And ultimately, no matter how hard I try, I'm not going to be able to please God the way that I'm going.

And we have to be able to come to the end of our trying to keep the word of God of our own efforts and come to the end of ourselves. And everyone has to have that moment where we realize, I'm a sinner.

I've tried to obey mommy and daddy, and I can't do it. There's rebellion in my heart. Jesus, you have to help. And at that moment, you come to your own faith in God, our own faith in Jesus. It doesn't matter what mommy and daddy believe, and you're just going to, you know, do your best to be obedient and keep the rules.

You have to come to a place where you find Jesus for yourself. You have your own personal relationship with Jesus. That you come to understand the word of God for yourself when you begin to understand through the Holy Spirit's leading and guiding.

Ultimately, God has put parents and teachers and people to guide us and direct us. But ultimately, in the end, it's between you and Jesus and your personal walk with him. And so we have to leave this, these elementary principles, and we have to come to the faith.

We have to come to our own personal faith in Jesus Christ. And if we look to the father of our faith, Abraham, he heard the voice of God somehow. And I don't think he heard it audibly. I think he heard it the same way we hear it.

There is a conviction in our heart and a prompting in our minds, a prompting in our heart, as our brother Alain shared. And the word kept coming to him. You need to get away from your father. He was an idol maker.

He was making idols and selling them. He was a pagan and they were a pagan family. And he said, you need to leave your father's house and you need to go to a place I'm going to show you. You need to separate from him.

And, you know, it took him some time before he was finally able to get away because it seems as though when they left, his father was still leading them and he led them to this place in the land of the Chaldeans.

But God was calling him further and it was in that time that it seems as though Abraham's dad passed and God called him again to keep going. And it was then when he kept going by faith, he just didn't know where he was going, but he was going by faith that his nephew joined him and came along with him also.

And then God allowed strife to come there between the herdsmen because God had a plan to separate Abraham from all of these pagan ways and pagan family and all this way of doing things from the past because he wanted to teach him to live by faith and to trust in God.

Abraham's Failures and Returning to God's Path

And on the journey, he had many failures. You know, there was a famine in the land and he didn't know what, what am I going to do? There's a famine here. And he didn't know to inquire of the Lord or he didn't think of it, but he thought, you know, he'd heard that there was grain in Egypt.

He heard that there was prosperity there. And so he went over there. When he got over there, he got crippled by fear that someone was going to, the Pharaoh was going to take his wife. And so he'd come up with a story.

And next thing you know, his wife was sitting in the Pharaoh's harem there. And it doesn't say too much about it, but we can imagine. I know I would. I'd be sitting there and the Pharaoh blessed Abraham.

He had all kinds of stuff. He got blessed because he gave his sister, who was his half-sister, which was a partial truth, and was taken away. And here he is living in luxury and his wife is sitting in this harem being, being prepared to, to be for the, for the Pharaoh along with all the others.

But you know, God was not done there. He put a plague on that guy and on all his people. And somehow it became known that Sarai was Abraham's wife. And he chased Abraham out of Egypt. And, and it says he ended up going back.

I think it was to Bethel. I can't say for sure at this moment, but he went back to the place where he had offered to the Lord originally, where he had made the prayers and a sacrifice to the Lord. He had to go back to that same place where he went off the course and keep going with God.

You know, sometimes in the journey, we get off the course, we find ourselves seeking help from Egypt, going back to the worldly ways to deal with things, going back to our old friends, to our old lifestyle, or trying to make business dealings with old partners from the past, because it makes good sense.

But you know what? God is going to separate all that stuff and he's going to bring us back to where we went wrong. And we're going to keep going with God if he helps us. And we believe that he who has begun a good work in us is able to complete it.

Abraham was the father of faith. And he went through many trials. And the purpose of that is that he gives us an example that he made many mistakes, but he continued in the faith. And we also have to continue in the faith.

Righteousness by Faith and God's Transforming Work

We have to come to a place where it's not my mom's faith, it's not my dad's faith, it's not my grandmother's faith. They've taught us about the faith, but now it's my faith. Faith that leads to salvation.

This is not to be regretted. And if it's in our trying to please God apart from faith, it will leave you empty and heavy. But if you come to a place where you're at the end of trying to please God by your own efforts, and you come to our righteousness, which is by faith, and you receive the spirit of God through faith, and then he begins to give you a new heart and a new spirit.

And it says in Ezekiel 36, we read yesterday, that he will cause you to keep his statutes in his government. He will cause you to be obedient to his work. He'll take your heart of stone and he'll soften it and give you a heart of flesh.

And you become obedient to that which you could never be obedient to, because it's God working in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. The first part of it, for the first five years, I keyed on the first part of that verse, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.

But the next part says, for it's God who works in you both to will and to do for his good pleasure. So the first part, in the first five years, produce self-righteous pride in me. You need to work your salvation out with fear and trembling.

But then as I began to realize that God was breaking me down and dealing with my pride and my old nature and just making me weak, I began to realize I can't do this unless he helps me. It's God who works in me both to will and to do for his glory and for his pleasure.

Both are equally true. Both are equally important. We have a will to surrender, but it is God who works in us to bring it about and to bring it to pass. I think of the man of faith, Elijah. Elijah was a man, I was reading in James 5 today, with a nature like ours.

Elijah, Spiritual Famine, and Exclusive Devotion to God

And he prayed fervently because God told him, you pray that it doesn't rain on the land because my people, Israel, have gone astray. They've worshipped the idols. They've worshipped the gods of the nations.

They've gone astray. And this seems to be the way that God's people go. He does something in them, and then we get off track. And then we find ourselves way off the course. And so he said, listen, I need to get their attention.

I want you to pray that it does not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. There was no rain on the land. And so the earth brought forth no produce. And only a little bit maybe where the streams were going could they find some green pasture.

But God caused that famine to come on the land because God's people were in a spiritual famine. They had rejected the Lord and they had worshipped the Baals. And we need to be careful that we continue in with the Lord.

We cannot serve God and money. We cannot serve the prosperity of this age and God who gives us all things richly to enjoy. We're going to love one and we're going to hate the other. Our loyalty to be one or the other.

And we need to understand that we're to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts and with all of our souls, with our minds and our whole strength and to love our neighbor as ourselves. On all these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

He makes it very simple for us. But he will not share his glory with another. And so he has a way to get our attention. Famine. So when the brook starts drying up and when the money stops coming in and when all your idols are letting you down and you find no joy and no pleasure in them then remember this from Ecclesiastes 12 verse 1.

Remember your Creator from the days of your youth before the difficult days come and you remember that you have no pleasure in them anymore. Turn to the Lord and seek the Lord while he may be found from Isaiah 55 and call upon him while he is near.

So if you've been chasing after the world that says let the wicked man forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Get back in the faith and get a righteousness which is by faith in Jesus name.

Elijah's Contest on Mount Carmel and the Fire of God

Well you know what ended up happening in the story of Elijah. They had a showdown and the false prophets 400 or 450 of them were there and Elijah himself alone was there for the showdown. And he said you make an altar to your bales and I will make an altar to my God.

And he said you go first. And he said the God who answers by fire on the sacrifice he is God. Our God is a consuming fire. And you know what if you surrender your life to him he's going to baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with this fire.

And this fire is going to thoroughly cleanse out the threshing floor in your life and you're going to find that only that which remains is that which is of Christ. Because he's not coming for the gifts and all these wonderful things that we need in the church to bring about the knowledge of God.

He's coming for the fruit. And after it all shakes down and it's all said and done it's only that which is left after the fire comes to it. That is that which God is looking for. The scripture says in 1 Corinthians 13 Though I speak with tongues of men and angels yet have not loved.

And before that it talks of all the gifts and all the diversity of gifts and all the ministries which are necessary in the church and I don't believe they've all been done away with except for a few. I believe that God is the same yesterday, today and forever.

But just because we don't see them operating the way that they should it doesn't mean they don't exist. The problem is not with God the problem is with the people. And he says that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few because the laborers are busy gathering for themselves and building their own houses of cedar like we have been.

But it's now time to seek the Lord and to build the Lord's house. And when I say build the Lord's house I'm not talking about a house made with hands. I'm speaking about seeking the Lord personally and individually that your faith may become strong in the power of his might so that when difficult days come you won't be shaken and you won't fold like a cheap tent when the wind comes and the rain comes and the flood beats on your house.

That you'll be standing rooted and grounded in Christ. So Elijah was a man with a nature like ours and he said he was able to pray fervently and fire came on the sacrifice well these guys could have no fire come on their sacrifice.

Elijah's Persistent Prayer for Rain

Then he slew all the false prophets that were in Israel and then the Lord said to Elijah pray now that the rain comes back on the land. He didn't just do it on his own initiative. He heard the word of the Lord and so he went in the process of time and he went and he had a servant and he began to pray.

It says I read this morning from 1st Kings in 18 he put his head between his knees and he prayed fervently that it would begin to rain in the land of Israel that times of refreshing could come back to Israel from the Lord.

And after he prayed fervently he sent his servant to go and look to see if he could see anything and the servant came back with the report. I see nothing. Well the man of God had heard from the Lord and he heard that the Lord had said to pray that rain would come and so he began to pray again back with his head between his knees in fervent prayer that God would cause the rain to come and the famine to cease.

Where are the men of God who will intercede and stand between the porch and the altar and say spare thy people O God. Where are the wailing women of this hour who will weep and cry and sigh over the abominations not that are in the world but that are in the house of Israel.

He prayed seven times and every time he sent his servant and he came back saying I see nothing. We cannot be moved by what we see. We have to persist in prayer until we get the petition that we have been asking of him.

Faith That Trusts God's Unseen Work

Abraham was a father of faith. It says when he died he saw a city far off which has foundations whose builder and maker is God. But he never saw the fulfillment of it in his lifetime but he believed that God was able to bring it to pass and he had them in a sort of a sense because he believed God and it went on as a count for righteousness.

We need to have this kind of faith with God this kind of individual faith that God is for us. If we are walking in covenant with him and his spirit is helping us what can man do to us? Go through with the Lord.

Continue to invest in that which is unseen. I said to my wife not too long ago I said hun the amount of seed that we've sown and we've cast on the ground and the return that we've gotten on investment spiritually speaking if I ran my business like that we would long been bankrupt.

And we were just recently speaking about whether we should take a chance Abe is now part of our family living with us. Should we take a chance with Abe? And she said well you know how it's gone all these other times we prayed and believed that rain would come.

And I said to her hun I said if I'm not going to take a risk with Abe I said then I need to quit right now because I don't believe then that God can ever change anyone. I'm going through with God. If God doesn't have the opportunity and the ability to have all of us and we don't believe that God is in the business of changing people if we don't have that kind of faith then we're in the wrong business.

Then we should go back to natural things I suppose. But that's not the case. God is well able to do exceedingly and abundantly more than we ask, think, hope or imagine. Elijah didn't stop praying just because he didn't see any sign that rain was coming.

He prayed seven times and the purpose of the number seven is a completeness with God. In other words you keep praying until the answer comes that God has promised to you so if you have a wayward son or a wayward daughter and you don't see them coming to the Lord yet you keep asking and praying until you get the petition from God.

Because God is faithful and he cannot lie. The servant came back the seventh time. He said I see a small cloud the size of a man's hand coming. Then Elijah knew he had the petition from God. His prayer was answered.

He told him you better get going and go tell them to do such and such before the rains come because they're coming. It hadn't started raining yet but he saw the sign. The cloud was coming. I'm telling you the cloud is coming in your life.

Times are refreshing are coming from the Lord. Persist in prayer. Go through with God. Scripture says if any man shrinks back or draws back my soul has no pleasure. But we are not of them that shrink back to perdition my friends but them that press on to the saving of the soul.

Keep going through with God. Don't let the enemy deter you if he trips you up on the way. Rise again and bless his name. Though a righteous man may fall seven times the point of the matter is he gets up again.

Keep short accounts with God. Confess your sins. Repent and keep going with God. When we go up to the creek a lot of them don't have ears to hear. Some of them hear but they harden their hearts to the word.

Some hear and repent. When I leave them with three things I say three things if you don't remember anything else it will take you a long way. Humble, humble and humble. If you humble yourself he'll lift you up.

Humility, Submission, and God's Order

You want to get out of this place? You want to have a life change? You humble yourself. Brother Lean shared about Dathan, Abiram and Korah. They rose up and they challenged the leadership. You're never going to go far if you challenge the leadership that God puts in your life.

Whether it be your boss, whether it be your husband, whether it be rebelling against your parents. You go that route it will never go well with you until you humble yourself. But if you humble yourself he'll lift you up.

There's an order with God. He doesn't usurp his order. When we read in Jude we find out that there were certain angels that left their abode. They went beyond what was for them to do. Beyond what was written for them.

Beyond the instructions that they were given. And they took more for themselves than what God had allotted for them and they fell. And you know what, we can fall from our steadfastness if we go beyond what God has called us to.

You know, we might have it in our heart to do something great for God but I'm going to tell you something, even David had this desire to build a house for God. God wants to do something great for you.

The Fear of God and the True Temple

He wants to make you a house. You know, God don't dwell in temples made with hands. As much as we'd like to say we sense the presence of God here, he dwells in temples made without hands. He said heaven is his throne and the earth is his footstool.

Where is the house you'll build for me and where is the place of my house? He said on this one will I look. On him who is humble, who is contrite, and he trembles at the word. We need the fear of God in the house.

We've lost the fear of God in the churches today. There's much talk of the love of God but there's not any talk about the fear of God. And we need to know about the fear of God. It says that he loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.

And it says that he was heard because of his godly fear, his reverent submission. But I'm telling you, if Jesus feared God because sin is the only thing that could have separated him from his Father, then we also need to fear God.

And it says in Isaiah 11, of all the seven spirits of God, we can see their holiness being the unwritten one. His delight was in the fear of the Lord. Don't lose the fear of the Lord. It's the key to unlock wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of the Lord and his ways in your life.

Waiting on the Lord and Seeking Spiritual Refreshing

The love of Christ compels us. But the fear of the Lord, when you get disillusioned and you're not hearing a word from the Lord, because what it says of Elijah, from that time when there was a famine, it says that it had been a while since Elijah had heard the word of the Lord.

But when he heard it, he responded. And you can go through a season in your life where you're not hearing the word of the Lord. But we can't run to other things just because we're not hearing. Should I go here?

Should I be a missionary there? Should I run over here? Should I do this? Should I do that? Don't move until you hear. Wait on the Lord. The scripture says they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

They shall mount up with wings as eagles. These things are tests for us. We're a very impatient people. If we're a little bit hungry and something's not quite right, we quickly go to the cupboard and grab a few snacks.

If we're driving home and we don't feel like cooking, we'll just go to the drive-thru. If we're going to have some prayer for a brother that's vaccinated or whatever, we'll have a little five, 10-minute prayer, and then we'll get on with what's important.

We need to persist. Who is that faithful and that wise steward whom his master will entrust over the true riches when he comes? We've invested much. We've brought in little. And he blew it away. But you know what?

The Lord is able to bring forth a lot of rain upon us so that we might experience refreshing from the Lord. We need to ask the Lord to bring times of refreshing again, to bring us to a place of fervency and a burden for the lost.

We have a burden for many other things, and we have zeal for many things. But for the Lord, our burden is small. For the worldly things, our burden is large. But let's ask the Lord to change that for us.

Let's ask him to do for us what we can't do for ourselves, that he would finish the work that he began and bring us to that place of abundance so there be no famine among us anymore. Amos says there's a famine in the land, and it wasn't a famine of bread or water, but it was of hearing the word of the Lord.

Salvation Through Personal Faith in Christ

And today we can see people get excited. They're going to go over to this meeting over here and see what the word of the Lord is. They're going to run over there and see what the word of the Lord is. But he said the word is near you.

It is in your mouth, it's in your heart, that word which we preach, that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and you believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, he shall be saved.

For with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, and with the heart one believes unto righteousness, a righteousness that comes by faith. Many of us, we've made the profession, but we've yet come to believe in the heart.

We've yet come to believe in the resurrection for ourselves. We see the weaknesses and still areas we're stumbling in, but we have to believe that he's able to save to the uttermost those who are being sanctified.

Just because I see there's still anger there, there's still greed there, there's still lust there, and some of these other things there, we have to continue to come to him. That's how you're going to be free, because Jesus says, come to me to be free.

If you come to him, he won't cast you out. The one who comes to me, he says, I will not cast out. Neither will anyone snatch you from my hand. If we're coming to him and we're in his hand, we're safe there.

Choosing to Serve the Lord

But you know what? If you say like the prodigal, hey, dad, I'm out of here. I'm going to go and find my own way. That's not snatching. That's leaving. He's giving us a free will. We have a free will. Choose you this day who you want to serve.

Joshua said, as for me and my house, we'll serve the Lord. Yeah, but how about you? When you get married, when you find you have your own family, when you're away from mom and dad, will you serve the Lord?

Or will you serve the gods of the nations? The choice is before you today, the blessing or the curse. Choose life, my friends. Seek the Lord. Call upon him while he's near. Let the wicked forsake his way, the unrighteous man his thoughts, and he'll leave a blessing behind.

We don't serve him for the blessing. But you know what? There's life, joy, and peace in Jesus' name. Enter into the fullness. Ask for the Holy Spirit to fill your life and to change you and to help you.

We can't live the life that is written in this book unless the Holy Spirit helps us. And he says no one can come unless the Spirit draws them. So if you're being drawn to a deeper life with the Lord, yield your will to it today.

And ask him to help you to become that man or that woman that God has called you to be in Jesus' name.