The Promise of the Father — Aaron Hurst

The Promise of the Father in Acts 1

Open your Bibles to Acts chapter 1 and verse 1. And while you are turning there, let's sing this little chorus. Lord, prepare me to be a sanctuary, pure and whole, light and true, with thanksgiving, full of grace.

Stand with me for the reading of the first five verses of Acts chapter 1. The former treaties have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen.

To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible truths and proofs. Being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, Ye have heard of me.

For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost, not many days hence. Let's pray together. Father, I believe you have prepared your messenger, but yet I come to you in the name of Jesus, asking that you cleanse, purify, and wash me in the precious blood of Jesus.

I ask you, Heavenly Father, to deliver me from any pride, performance, or fear. Father, I ask in the name of Jesus that you would work in me mightily through the anointing and the inspiration and revelation of your Holy Spirit to preach your prepared message.

Father, I believe that you have prepared your people with ears to hear and with eyes to see, and hearts in a posture of meekness to receive the engrafted word of the Lord. Yet I do ask in the name of Jesus, O Father in Heaven, that you would bind every wicked and evil spirit that seeks to twist and misrepresent the message or the spirit by which you are bringing this message.

Father, that it would not be twisted or construed as to being harsh or condemning or unloving. Father, I ask in the name of Jesus that you would remove all hindrances in the spiritual realm and open our hearts to receive and believe in what you want to share with us today.

Father, I ask in the name of Jesus that we would receive your word with meekness, and I ask that you would pour out your Holy Spirit. This could be a day of revelation and a day of deliverance and a day of healing and a day of freedom in Christ Jesus, a day of victory in the Lord Jesus.

We pray in his name. Amen. You may be seated. Jesus showed himself alive after his suffering, after his death on the cross. He showed himself alive unto his disciples and many others by many infallible proofs or by convincing proofs or by unrefutable proofs.

He was seen of them forty days, and in those forty days he spoke of the mysteries of the kingdom of God with his disciples, speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And we could go back in our memories of how Mary Magdalene met the Lord Jesus and how he appeared unto her first and revealed himself, how Peter and John ran to the tomb when they told her that Jesus is not there, he's risen.

And we can remember how the two disciples on the road to Emmaus were walking and having communion about what happened at Calvary and how Jesus died and how Jesus came alongside of them and began to expound unto them the kingdom of God.

And how their hearts burned within them when they realized it was Jesus. We can remember how the disciples were gathered together in a closed meeting with the doors being locked for fear of the Jews. And Jesus came in and stood in the midst.

He just appeared to them and stood in the midst. And he said, peace be unto you, peace be unto you. I was so delighted this morning in the overview of Romans as I was knowing what God had laid on my heart to share.

The Forty Days of Revelation and the Promise of the Father

The title to this message today is The Promise of the Father. The Promise of the Father. The disciples wondered. It was days of amazement. Forty days of amazement. I thought I could title the message Forty Days of Amazement.

Forty days of revelation of the kingdom of God. The Promise of the Father. He commanded his disciples that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which saith he, ye have heard of me.

And he reminded them how that John came baptizing the baptism of repentance in water. But he said, ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost. Not many days hence. Ye shall be endued with power. Ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire.

Waiting for Power From on High in Luke 24

Let's read out of Luke's Gospel. Chapter 24. Beginning in verse 46. Luke's Gospel. Verse 24. And beginning in verse 46. And he said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoove Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.

And ye are witnesses of these things. And behold, I send you the promise of my Father upon you. But tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem until ye be endued with power from on high. And he led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them.

And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God.

Amen. Behold, I send you the promise of my Father upon you. Now let's go to Ezekiel 36. Turn with me to Ezekiel 36. It's a rather long reading, but I do believe that we do well to read the Scripture. These things are written for our admonition and for our learning.

We will begin in Ezekiel 36 and verse 16. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it by their own way and by their doings.

Their way was before me as uncleanness of a removed woman. Wherefore, I poured out my fury upon them for the blood that had been shed upon the land and for their idols wherewith they had polluted it. And I scattered them among the heathen and they were dispersed throughout the countries.

According to their way and according to their doings, I judged them. And when they entered unto the heathen, whither they went, they profaned my holy name. When they said unto them, These are the people of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land.

But I had pity for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went.

And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them. And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

For I will take you from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you.

A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them.

And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave your fathers and ye shall be my people and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleanness and I will call for the corn and will increase it and lay no famine upon you.

And I will multiply the fruit of the tree and increase of the field and ye shall receive no more reproach of famine among the heathen. Then shall you remember your own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.

Not for your sakes do I this, saith the Lord God. Be it known unto you, be ashamed and confounded for your own ways, O house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord God, in the day that I shall have cleansed you from all your iniquities, I will also cause you to dwell in the cities and the waste shall be builded and the desolate land shall be filled whereas it lay desolate in the sight of all that pass by.

And they shall say, this land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden and the waste and the detestable desolate ruined cities are become fenced and inhabited. Then the heathen that are left round about you shall know that I, the Lord, build the ruined place and plant that which was desolate.

I, the Lord, have spoken it. I will do it. Yet saith the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase them like men, like a flock. As a holy flock, as a flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feast, so shall the waste cities be filled with flocks of men and they shall know that I am the Lord.

The Valley of Dry Bones and the Spirit Who Gives Life

And the hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones and caused me to pass round about them and behold, there were many in the open valley and lo, they were very dry.

And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord, thou knowest. And again he said unto me, prophesy upon these bones. Say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and ye shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you and will bring up flesh upon you and cover you with skin and put breath in you and ye shall live and ye shall know that I am the Lord.

So I prophesied as I was commanded and as I prophesied there was a noise and behold, a shaking and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them and the skin covered them above but there was no breath in them.

Then said he unto me, prophesy unto the wind. Prophesy, Son of man, and say to the wind, thus saith the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as I was commanded and the breath came into them and they lived and stood up upon their feet an exceeding great army.

Then said he unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, our bones are dried and our hope is lost. We are cut off from our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, thus saith the Lord God, Behold, O my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the land of Israel.

And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves and my people, O my people, and brought you out of your graves. I'll read that verse again. Verse 13. And ye shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up of your graves, out of your graves.

And I shall put my Spirit in you and ye shall live. And I shall place you in your own land. Then shall ye know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, saith the Lord. The promise of the Father.

I will put my Spirit in you, saith the Lord. I will take you from among the heathen and I will sprinkle you with clean water and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you.

Ezekiel 36, verse 26. A new heart also will I give you and a new Spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my commandments and do them and ye shall dwell in the land that I give your fathers and ye shall be my people and I will be your God.

I also will save you from all your uncleanness. The promise of the Father. Let's turn now to Hebrews chapter 8. The promise of the Father. Hebrews 8. And we'll begin in verse 8. Speaking of the first covenant, he says, for finding fault with them, he says, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand and led them out of the land of Egypt, because they continued not in my covenant and I regarded them not, saith the Lord.

Now listen carefully. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after these days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people.

And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.

In that he saith a new covenant he hath made the first old, now that which is decayed and waxes old is ready to vanish away. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them a God and they shall be to me a people.

The New Covenant and the Indwelling Spirit

One more scripture at this moment and that is 2 Corinthians 6. Turn to 2 Corinthians chapter 6. Again, the promise of the Father. 2 Corinthians 6 and 16. 2 Corinthians 6 and 16. What agreement hath the temple of God with idols?

Question. For ye are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people. The promise of the Father. The new covenant prophesied there in Ezekiel that in these days that I'm going to do this thing.

He says, I'm going to give you a new heart and a new spirit will I put within you. Take away from you the stony heart of flesh and give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and keep my judgments and do them.

Oh, beautiful. The promise of the Father is that He will put His spirit within you and I. He will put His spirit within us and He will cause us to walk in His commandments. As our brother Paul was so beautifully expounding from Romans that it's no longer us striving and trying to live this Christian life.

But we have the Spirit of God within us. And the Spirit of God quickens us and causes us. Oh, I love it. He causes us. He enables us. He works out His life through us and enables us to walk in all pleasing before our Heavenly Father.

Isn't that good news? But that's the promise of the Father. And as I was praying and considering what the Lord would have me to share, I just felt so overwhelmed with desire that some of us are striving so hard against sin.

We have been told so often to repent and to transform your life. Just repent and do the right thing. And it's right to preach repentance. But I have a burden here this morning. Perhaps there are some of us here who we have repented until we're blue in the face, as it were.

Faith in the Gospel Rather Than Self-Reliance

But sin still has dominion over us. And we are still in bondage. We're still not healed. We're still not delivered. We need a Savior. We need the power of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. We need the baptism of the Holy Ghost of God in our lives.

We need the transformation that only God can bring. And I share that in deep desire and love for my brothers and my sisters that we would find this place of faith in the blood of the cross of Jesus and in the promise that God has given to us.

If a good father knows how to give good gifts to his children, how much more shall their heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? I am asking God for the revelation of the Holy Spirit of God to divide between soul and spirit and joint and marrow here this morning.

If you are walking in willful disobedience and you're a hypocrite and you're trying to deceive everybody, I'm asking the Lord to expose that sin. If you're here this morning and you are truly sorry for your sin and you're looking for a way out and you're so longing to be rid of that sin and you're still struggling, but your heart is open and your heart is desiring for victory, then I'm praying God will reveal that to your heart as well.

That you will know. You know, sometimes we think, well, God is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Well, maybe I'm just not diligent enough. Maybe I just have to try harder. You ever felt that way?

Somehow I'm just not getting it. And we try to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps, as it were, and try to overcome the devil in our own flesh and by our own strength and our own might. You know, I thought, the enemy can play with that in our minds and say, well, you just didn't try hard enough or you don't have enough of faith.

He can say all those things, you know. Well, if you had more faith, and he can argue with us and battle in our minds and there we are going around in circles. But I want to tell you something here this morning that Jesus Christ told us.

He said, if you have an honest heart, God's going to meet you there. An honest and a good heart. When the seed falls on the ground and it finds an honest and a good heart. Now, here this morning, every one of us before God, I believe, unless we're totally deceived, knows whether we're being honest.

Is that correct? You know whether you are being honest before God. You know whether you are making excuse for your sin and pretending you want victory when really you love your sin. You really don't want victory.

God knows that. God knows your heart. And so we cannot deceive God. All the hypocrites are going to be surprised with great fearfulness under the almighty light of the Holy Ghost of God. Here today, it's my heart's prayer and desire that judgment would come to the house of God now.

But, oh God, in judgment remember mercy. I don't want to see anyone lost. I don't want to see anyone going to hell. But some of you dads and moms, if you don't get serious with God, the path that you're on is leading to destruction.

And not only your own life, but the life of your children. The devil wants your children. He wants to destroy them. He wants to take them to hell. And we need to get serious with God and stop playing games.

Humility, Honesty, and Grace for Deliverance

Because God is faithful. Hallelujah! And a broken and a contrite heart He won't despise. A Bruce Reed, a smoking flax, He will not quench until He sends judgment to deliver you and to set you free. So today, my heart burns with passion and desire that this would be a message of hope.

This would be a message of deliverance. This would be a day of victory. This would be a day of faith. This would be a day of the destruction of the lives of the devil, tearing them down and those strongholds that have held you captive.

And you would find deliverance. I also thought, as I was praying about this, maybe some need the devil cast out of them. They have a demon. And maybe they've wrestled with this thing for years. But this demon holds them captive.

You know, Jesus never missed it. He was always right. He knew when to cast out the devil. And He knew when to call men to repentance. And I'm praying that God would do the same thing here today. Do you believe that God is able to do that?

He's able to give you a word of wisdom and a word of knowledge. He's able to give you understanding by the Holy Ghost of God that you know how to deal with that situation and to avail yourself to the grace of God.

It is the promise of the Father that the Holy Ghost shall come upon you and ye shall be endued with power. Yes, you might speak in tongues. Yes, you might do some other things. But I'm telling you, that's not the first and foremost.

God sent His Holy Spirit to be endued with power that sin shall not have dominion over you, but that ye shall walk in the holiness of God. The Holy Spirit will make you holy. Oh, glory to Jesus! The Holy Spirit will make you holy.

And He will deliver you from the powers of darkness. Yes, He will. So I thought about that. The promise of the Father. And I thought of our prayer meeting tonight. And I thought of who will get grace from God.

Oh, you know who's going to get grace from God? The humble and the honest in their heart. So this is not going to be a long message this morning. This is a call to faith, to believe God. Can these bones live?

Our hope is gone. I've been fighting this thing for 15 years, 18 years, that woman bowed over with the infirmity of affliction. But you know what? There's hope with God. There's hope for your long-standing problem.

There's hope for your long-standing bondages of sin and addictions. There's hope in Jesus Christ. He came to destroy the works of the devil. Oh, believe Jesus Christ. Put your faith in Him. But what you've got to do is be honest.

Lie not against the truth. Satan thrives when there's hiding of sin and covering. But he is defeated when we bring it out into the light of the glorious cross of Jesus and we cry out for repentance. Hallelujah!

The Power of the Holy Spirit Over Sin

The promise of the Father. Ye shall receive power after the Holy Ghost is come upon you. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My ways. Does that addiction still have a hold on you?

You know, sometimes I'm way too easy on myself about the sin in my life. And I just say, well, God understands and why I'm at least trying. But Jesus said some pretty radical things. He said if your hand offends you, cut it off.

If your eye offends you, plug it out. I'm asking in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ that the devil's tactics and devices would be exposed. That we be not ignorant of Satan's devices, but that those things would be exposed and sin would be exposed and come to judgment now so that you could be saved and you and I can go to glory together shouting the marching victories of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Overcomers! Hallelujah! All I'm asking for this morning and I believe all God is asking is an honest heart. If you'll be honest with God, His Word, His living Word, His powerful Word anointed by the Holy Spirit of God will infuse your very being and nature and He'll put His nature into you and those divine and precious promises will come to lay hold on you and God will cause you to walk in His statues.

He'll cause you. You no longer have to be trying to do it on your own strength. Oh, glory to Jesus! The promise of the Father. I will be a father to them. They shall be my sons and my daughters saith the Lord God Almighty.

I will cleanse them from all their filthiness. I will deliver them from all their idolatry. Oh, they shall love me with all their heart in the day that I do this. Hallelujah! And the heathen shall know wow, what great things God has done for the people of God.

Look at the people of Israel. Their God is in their midst. There's a shout of victory going up. Yes! Hallelujah! So I'm asking this morning, is there anyone here who will be honest with God by standing to your feet and saying I am needing deliverance.

I am bound with an addiction or a sin in my life and I need deliverance. I humble myself by standing to my feet and acknowledging before my brothers that I need deliverance. Is there anybody that would do that this morning?

Responding to Christ With an Honest Heart

Jesus is standing welcoming each one of us to come and be cleansed, to come and be healed, to come and be saved, to come and be healed from all the brokenness, from all the woundedness. Will anyone stand?

The promise of the Father. Ye shall be endued with power from on high and sin shall not have dominion over you.

Jesus saw Nathaniel coming. Jesus is seeing you coming. He said to Nathaniel, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. And then he said some beautiful words. Several verses later he says, Hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.

You shall see heaven open. And there's going to be connection. Honesty. Nathaniel. An Israelite indeed in whom is no guile. Remember Jacob there? When he wrestled with that angel all night, God changed him.

Gave him a new name. Israel. Maybe you feel like you need to, you would like to pray with someone this morning. I would say you are welcome to go find someone that you trust, someone that you can share with and pray together.

Prayer for Surrender and an Open Heaven

Father, we thank You for Your Word to our hearts this morning. And we do look forward, Lord, to open heavens above us. We look forward to communications, Lord, with You back and forth. And Father, we just thank You for the faithfulness of Your Spirit to speak to our hearts.

Father, I pray where there's a reserve in our hearts, Lord, and there's this inability to be able to present ourselves a living sacrifice and to fully let go of my life and the control of my life. I pray, Father, for grace to be able to receive that revelation of Jesus that enables us to fully let go and fully throw ourselves and cast ourselves upon Him for we know He cares for us.

Thank You for Your sweet Spirit that is able and fully willing and desiring to come and live within us and be in complete control. So, Father, help us to, by faith, let go of the grip that we have on our own lives, trying to run our life, trying to keep it looking good, trying to make sure that we're doing all that it takes so that we can possibly make it and just deceiving ourselves.

Lord, help us just to walk humbly and cast ourselves upon You and to allow You to do the work. Father, we pray for the prayer meeting this evening, Lord, as we gather together, that we could just really gather together and seek Your face, Father, and first off, to be honest with each other and with You.

And, Lord, we want an open heaven over this prayer meeting tonight where we can come and meet with You. We don't just want to go through some, you know, just another prayer meeting, Lord. We want to meet with You, Father.

So we invite You to come, Father, into our midst tonight, Father, as we gather together and pray and seek Your face. Oh, Lord, I wonder what it was like in those ten days between Ascension and the day of Pentecost.

I wonder what their prayer times were like, Lord. Father, I pray that You would give us a taste of that this evening. Lord, we see in this wicked, evil world that we're living in, we see that there's a lot of boldness with sin, Lord.

And we see boldness even coming into the churches, Lord, more and more. And that wicked man of sin is being revealed. And I pray, Father, help us to love the truth. Love the truth of how You see us, Lord, and where we're at, Lord.

Help us to be honest with ourselves and with You and with each other, Lord. Father, we want to have joy in that day when that wicked man of sin is revealed and exposed for who he is for. And when he is totally destroyed, Lord, we want to have joy in that day.

Lord, we want to have no part with him at all. We want to be free and clear, Father, of this wicked man of sin. And so, Father, we thank You that this is the day of grace and today we have the opportunity to enter in by faith.

And so, Lord, we are just coming to You with gratefulness, Lord, that today we still have the opportunity to come to You. So, Father, just bless each heart here, Father, that has responded, all of us together, Fathers, we seek You with all our hearts.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated if you're not. Thank you, Brother Aaron, for sharing the Word with us and we look forward to how the Lord will continue to meet with us and speak to our hearts.

God is faithful and He is able and He loves to meet us in an honest and good heart. His Word will grow and it will bring forth fruit to His glory.

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May Jesus Christ be Lord of all.