Reclaiming the Sweetness of the Cross — Carter Conlon

Thank you, Greg. Thank you choir. So it's a very appropriate song considering that sister Gwen Wilkerson passed on into glory this week and You know we were So looking forward to having her here as our guest on in October for the 25th anniversary of Times Square Church.

She was looking forward to that as well. But I think she'd probably rather be where she is this morning in October. Mercifully she was diagnosed with cancer a couple of weeks ago for the 27th time and She Passed away about 10 days after the diagnosis.

Wanted to go home, and I'm told one of the last things she said she woke up she was Sedated she woke up, and she said God has been so good and that is an amazing testimony. To all of us this morning you know I don't know if anyone else here has ever had to suffer cancer 27 times and be operated upon, but she finished with this testimony of the goodness of God and We thank the Lord for this precious and beloved Sister of God who was a mother of Zion to this church for many many years and Everyone here that knows her remembered her for her tenderness and her hugs and just the feeling of acceptance.

To everybody that would ever come into her company was accepted, and we thank God for that with all of our hearts. I'll be leaving for Texas after the service this morning and Be there to be part of the the week in the funeral on Monday, and so I'll be sure to bring your love Appreciation and all of your hugs to the Wilkerson family, so please remember the family in prayer and And just be in prayer that God Bless and strengthen and keep this family in the days ahead.

Reclaiming the Sweetness of the Cross Through Jonathan's Honey

First Samuel chapter 14, please if you will and you might want to find Leviticus chapter 26 as well. I Want to speak to you today about reclaiming the sweetness of the cross. Reclaiming the sweetness of the cross.

Now father. I thank you Lord for the anointing of your Holy Spirit. For God without you we have nothing to say and we have no power to retain. What is said. Everything that we are and have comes from your hand.

Lord, I thank you that you will touch my heart today in my body. I thank you Lord that you'll give strength to speak this word and you'll give us strength to hear it. Help us Lord to change as the scripture says from image to image and glory to glory.

Even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Help us to embrace truth that will set us free. Give us strength for the days in which we live and father. We thank you for this with all our hearts today in Jesus name.

First Samuel chapter 14 beginning at verse 24. This is a scene which I think very much in my heart at least represents some of where we are today. And the men of Israel were distressed that day. For Saul had adjured the people.

Saying cursed be the man that eats any food until evening that I may be avenged on my enemies. So none of the people tasted any food and all they of the land came to a wood and there was honey upon the ground and When the people were come into the wood behold the honey dropped but no man put his hand to his mouth for the people feared the oath.

But Jonathan heard not when his father charged the people with the oath wherefore he put forth the end of the rod that was in his hand and Dipped it in a honeycomb and put his hand to his mouth and his eyes were enlightened.

Then answered one of the people and said thy father straightly charged the people with an oath. Saying cursed be the man that eats any food this day and the people were faint. Then said Jonathan my father has troubled the land.

See, I pray you how my eyes have been enlightened because I tasted a little of this honey. Now the place which God has destined his people to live in has always Always throughout scriptural history been referred to as a place of Abundance and rest you you read it all through the Old Testament and all through the New Testament.

We are to be a people sovereignly provided for sovereignly empowered sovereignly strengthened Supernaturally touched with the hand of God. We're to be a testimony of God the reality of God the sustaining power of God the healing power of God the delivering power of God the keeping power of God and The fact that God is you and I are to be that testimony in the earth and that is our inheritance.

That is your inheritance and that is my inheritance and I don't know about you. But I'm not willing to settle for less than what God has for me and neither should you be? None of us should fall short of what Christ won for us on Calvary 2 ,000 years ago.

David's Shepherd: Provision, Restoration, and Righteousness

Listen to what David? the sweet psalmist of Israel said The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. With Christ at the helm of my life. I have an assurance of provision. I shall not want that should be your testimony God will provide You and I even in the midst of difficulty like I spoke about with our sister this morning after so many surgeries and so many Diagnoses so many times of heartache could finish this journey saying God has been so good.

God gives a sovereign strength. He gives a supernatural strength when we are truly under his governorship. Even if we have to go through the flood and go through the fire in this lifetime He makes me to lie down in green pastures.

He leads me beside the still waters. In other words in Christ I have stillness and I have confidence. I can go through the storms of life. I can go through the difficult seasons that we find ourselves in individually and sometimes as a nation.

Verse 3 says he restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his namesake. He restores me and he leads me into doing right. How many I hope that's your testimony today? I hope everybody who's gathered here can say I came to Christ and I can honestly tell you he has restored me.

He has given back things in my heart in my mind in my life. Which I had forfeited through ignorance and sin. Places that I was captivated by. He opened the doors and I was set free. And those things I had lost he's brought back.

I had lost hope. He gave me hope. I lost faith. He gave me back faith. I lost courage. He gave me back courage. I lost vision. He returned vision to my eyes and to my heart and he's led me away from doing wrong and into doing right.

He leads me in righteousness for his namesake. Now a lot of people try to have a relationship with God without this being led into righteousness or led into right ways of thinking and Living and speaking and doing.

And folks you simply can't have it both ways. You can't have Christ and his redemption and yet not walk in it. You can't claim to have it and not walk in it. If you are a child of God the scripture says the old things in you have passed away.

You've been given a brand new nature. You've been born again by the Spirit of God. You have another value system now Operating inside of you and as you and I choose to yield to that value system. We change into the person that God destined us to be from even before you and I were formed in our mother's wombs.

We live a life that brings honor and glory to God everywhere we go. He leads me in passive righteousness for his namesake. David said in verse 4 of Psalm 23. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff.

They comfort me. The place that God has ordained for you and for me to live in is a place of absence of being dominated by fear. Fear has torment. Christ broke the power of fear when he died. And rose again from the dead.

Freedom From the Fear of Death

The writer of Hebrews said he delivered those Who through all their lifetime were in bondage because of the fear of death. We're not afraid of death as the people of God. We're not afraid of being provided for we're not afraid.

Because God has made promises to us and God is going to keep us. He's going to keep us no matter what happens in the day that we're living in you can be sure of that. And I wrought and thy staff they comfort me.

He brings a comfort into the heart and into the mind. That no matter where I have to go or what I have to go through He is going to be with me and his comfort is going to be my comfort. It is a sovereign comfort.

It's a supernatural comfort of God. It can't be seen by the natural eye. As a matter of fact, that's why Peter says be ready to give every person an answer who asks you. For a reason for the hope that is in you because the people who ask don't see any outward reason.

Why you should be calm in the midst of such a storm? Why you should be comforted. Why you should feel no sense of fear or being dominated by fear? When everyone around seems to be succumbing to it. Thou prepare us to table before me in the presence of mine enemies.

Thou anointest my head with oil and my cup runs over. David said I have divine provision both unseen and Unavailable to the ungodly. I eat at a table that people can't see. That's amazing. I want you to think about it.

They can't see it. You can be sitting on the subway and people around you are fearful and Miserable and grumbling and everything else that goes on and you're sitting there and you're eating at a table that nobody around you can see.

There is a the promises of God are literally spread before you and you're just in your heart saying though I walk through the valley of the shadow of Death, I will fear no evil for thou art with me thy rod and thy staff.

They comfort me. That's the table. No, that's not a visible table to anybody who doesn't know God and Then David said surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

This is so answer said God you've been so good to me and you've been so merciful, you know. The longer you walk with God The more you realize it's all been mercy and it's all been goodness. You we would like to we would like to those of us who have walked with God for a long long time we'd like to roll out our resume and but if the resume was complete and Everything was on it.

You just see Mercy mercy mercy mercy mercy all the way through that resume mercy when God should have written me off when God should have put me away when when God should have Struck me dumb for the things I was saying or thinking.

Mercy this constant outflow of mercy and the longer you walk with God the more merciful. Hopefully we will become. Because we understand we stand by mercy and by the goodness of God. It will follow us all the days of our lives and one day With pastor David and sister Gwen we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

The Cost of Experiencing the Full Blessing of God

Now go with me to Leviticus chapter 26, please. If you have that already marked in your Bible. Because there are some requirements To knowing this full blessing of the Lord this confidence the provision the grace the goodness the mercy.

This this this grace the sweetness of victory as it is Is not available to the casual not available to the half-hearted seeker of God. These things are for those who Believe that God is and he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him in Leviticus chapter 26 and verse beginning at verse 6.

Here's what the Lord says now. This is a Word to his own people. He said I will give peace in the land and you shall lie down and none shall make you afraid and I will rid evil beasts out of the land and neither shall the sword go through your land.

And you shall chase your enemies and they shall fall before you by the sword that's a type of course of the Word of God to us and five of you shall chase a hundred and 100 you shall put 10 ,000 to flight and your enemy shall fall before you by the sword and that's a type for you and I have when we know the Word of God and believe the Word of God and When God's promises have found a lodging place in our hearts, no matter what comes against us and how powerful it seems.

When we speak the Word of God to it, it will flee before us. No matter how long it's been there. No matter how strong it is, and I know this personally. You know my story nine years of panic attacks and I finally came to panic attacks so severe.

They put me in the hospital more than one time and yet I came to Christ and I had one promise from the Word of God. Well, I was reading where Paul said of God before us who can be again? I didn't even have the whole verse just part of the verse I remembered if God before us who can be again.