Don't Draw Back (Compilation) — Compilations

Spiritual Authority Over the Powers of Darkness

And, beloved, I want to challenge you today. When you and I are absolutely born again of the Spirit of God, we are led by the power of God, there is a trembling in hell. There's a trembling in the powers of darkness because they know that when a man or woman of God is yielded to God, they have no authority, they have no power.

They know clearly the words of Jesus, who said, I give you power to step upon serpents and scorpions over all the power of the enemy. Nothing shall by any means hurt you. They're very well aware of it.

Active Faith Requires Surrender

So the devil will do everything in his power to divert the Christian and the church of Jesus Christ. James, the apostle, tells us that true faith in God must go far beyond an inactive belief. I wonder in my heart, were Jesus Christ to come to much of the professing church today, throughout the world and say, I want to prove whether or not you have an active faith.

I want you now to lay down all your plans. I want you to lay down all your ambitions and all of your dreams. I want you now to begin to journey with me, trusting that if I choose to, I can even raise the things that are dear to your heart from the dead.

But still, first, you've got to give it to me. You've got to lay it out. You've got to put it on an altar. You see, if you and I draw back from Christ, if we shrink back from his call, if we walk away from trusting him or yielding ourselves to his work, if we walk away from taking the gospel at whatever personal cost to those who need hope around us and around the world, then the enemy of our souls will have access to lead us into a sea of false reasoning.

How Drawing Back Opens the Door to False Reasoning

And you see, that's what's happening to the church of Jesus Christ today in much of the world. Many, many people gathering in the house of God, but in their hearts, they have drawn back from the call of Christ.

In their hearts, they're saying, Lord, it's too costly, there's too much. And so tell us now, put before us preachers that will tell us something about you that doesn't require anything of us. Put before us preachers.

And you see, when that attitude gets into the heart, the man or woman that says, Lord, you can't touch my pet project, you can't touch these things that I've longed for, that I want. I wanted this all my life and I'm not willing to yield it.

I'm not willing to give it up for the gospel sake. I'm not willing to entrust my life to your plan for me or your provision for me or your protection for me. You see, Lord, I've got a long life ahead of me.

It's all mapped out. I have dreams and ambitions that I've had since I was a child. And Lord, I'm just simply not willing to forsake these ambitions and these dreams. But oh God, I still want to come to your house.

I still want messages about you. I still want to know what you do and what your power is like. And how you've touched people over the years gone by. But the moment this issue gets into our heart, we are now exposed to a sea of false reasoning and false reasoning is gripping the minds of hundreds and thousands of God's people.

The Call of Christ: Self-Denial and Daily Cross-Bearing

Now in the Western world, a false gospel, false pursuits, false concepts of God, a calf called Jesus fashioned by the hands and minds of men. And the call of Christ is not to lust after gold, the call of Christ is to long for God and the plan of God for your life.

The call of Christ has never changed. If any man will be my disciple, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. That is the call of Christ. Not that we willfully walk into any forms of personal deprivation or suffering.

He says simply, you find what your life is to be. You find it in the word of God and you find it by the leading of the Holy Spirit. There is no other plan. There is no other way to go. It is so tragic.

The Tragedy of Choosing Convenience Over Obedience

And I've seen it in this church. I've been here almost 10 years now. And I've seen even in this church, people who heard the gospel of Jesus Christ and they began to move with it and they initially counted it no great sacrifice to take holidays or even leave of absence from their workplace and to go to places throughout the world where the love of God could be channeled through them to a dying, hurting people everywhere.

And there was such life. But today I see them drawing back. I see now fellowships formed around convenience. I see things happening and it's such a grief in my heart because it's a grief in the heart of God.

How tragic to see people literally draw back. And now the conversation is no longer about Christ. It's now about the workplace. It's now about cares and dreams and ambitions. It's no longer God. What would you have me do?

Where would you have me go? What would you do through my life? And Jesus said, if any man draw back, my soul will have no pleasure in him. The spiritual type breaks my heart of a people who knew the power of God.

But something in the heart said, Jesus, we're not willing to suffer loss to follow you. We're not willing to let go of the things that we hold dear. Oh, Jesus, there's a people in this church, I thank God for it, who come here Sunday morning and say, God, speak to me, God, speak to me, guide me, lead me, touch my life, oh, Lord.

A Heart Fully Yielded to God

And whatever displeases you, take it out of my heart. By God, I want to live for you. My God, I want to serve you. I want your power in my life. I want your Jesus to be honored through me. I want to walk through this life, leaving us not with a trail of pigs behind me.

I want a saver of Jesus Christ to follow me. I want to be otherworldly by the power of God. I want my confused mind set in order by the spirit of God, my divided heart rent and restored by God's grace.

I want my powerless life filled with the power of God. I want the power, the compassion, the ability, preaching and teaching and publishing and defending the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is my desire in my heart that there are many who come to this church, that's your heart's cry, that's what you're like, that's the evidence, that's the evidence of of a heart that longs for God.

I don't want you just in church. I want you in my house. I want you in my home. There's death in my home. There's sickness in my home. I want you in my home. Come and be God in my home. I yield everything I have to you, Jesus.

Everything I ever will be belongs to you. My God, touch my sons and my daughters, raise them up and use them for your glory. Come to my house. Oh, God, come to my house. You have it all. It all belongs to you.

I withhold nothing from you. In the midst of it, a woman who had an issue of blood pressed through the crowd and touched him. You see, miracles begin to happen as people just touch him. The preacher doesn't even have to be preaching.

Living in Expectancy of God's Miraculous Work

You can be here in the service, just worshiping God and a miracle of God touches your life. The virtue, there's virtue in Jesus Christ, there's life in him. And all you're doing is raising your hands and you're giving your situation to God, your past, your present, your future.

And a miracle happens. It can be in a son or daughter, can be in a family member, give you an issue of your own mind or heart or life. And as you raise your hands, Christ touches you. It's an evidence.

It's an ongoing, every moment, every day. It produces an expectancy in the genuine Christian. If you're a genuine Christian, you should be living in a place of constant expectancy. Oh, God, I don't know what you're going to do in an hour from now.

I just know it's going to be miraculous if you're in it. I just know it's going to deepen and further my resolve to follow you. And there's going to be a living, evident testimony of your presence in my life.

When Jesus Says It Is Only Sleeping

Then after this, somebody came to Jesus and said, don't don't bother going to this man's house. His daughter is dead. And Jesus said something really incredible. They're all bewailing her, but he said, don't weep.

She's not dead. She's only sleeping. You see, the devil always wants to bring a report to you that it's too late. You had a chance to walk with God, but you blew it. You had a ministry calling, but you forsook it.

It's too late. It's been five years now or 10 years, and you've done nothing with this call of God on your life. You had a sense in your heart in the early years that God wanted to use you for a specific purpose, but you've allowed the cares of this world to choke it out.

Now it's too late. See, that's always the devil's lie, that it's too late. Jesus said, no, it's not too late. It isn't dead. It's only sleeping. It's only sleeping. Yes, what God began and you might be sleeping.

But if you can hear his voice, if you know he's come to you, if in your heart you say, oh, Jesus, draw nigh to me and I'll draw nigh to you. I tell you, he'll raise you beyond any life you've ever known before, and your life will become a living testimony of his calling and his keeping power.

He will touch you in a moment of time. He'll say, rise, arise, and you're brought back not to where you were before, better than where you were before. Amazing, the amazing grace of God. It's never too late.

Renewed Calling Through Grace and Surrender

You could be 90 years old in this sanctuary today and you have forsaken the call of God on your life. You may have two years left to live, but it's never too late. All it requires is the cry of heart that says, Jesus, I want you.

God, I want you with all of my heart. Leave this house today with your presence in my life. I want to leave knowing that you're not only my savior, you're my Lord. I want to walk away from this house knowing that the gift and calling you planted within me is alive.

In the parking lot, every other dream, every other ambition to Jesus Christ and his will for my life.