Do you experience His presence? Do you ever get happy by yourself? Not just here in church, but
by yourself. Do you ever, you know, get down
a little bit when God comes to visit you? I mean, nobody can
see you and you're raising both your hands and maybe even dancing
a little bit. Don't tell the Baptists I said
that. You're happy because God is near
you. You experience God. When God
comes, you're not to fear God, you're to rejoice. One of the
great travesties of the church today is we don't experience
God. I often tell people, the last
10, 15 years of my life, I've been experiencing God. Walking
on water is nothing to me. I've done it." I said, what are
you talking about? I crossed the Red Sea dry shod. You know, you're talking to the
guy that pastors a church that was in a saloon for 20 years. Many of you threw up right over
there. You've told me about being in here. And God has brought
you out of darkness into light. I see miracles all the time. Think about what he's done for
you. You could be out there in the drug house right now. You
could be out there on the streets. You could be out living in the
cemetery. It'd be awful cold out there, but a lot of people
do that. are down by the river here, Clinton River. Just think
where God has brought you. And I know this, that what is
happening right now in the power of the Spirit of God on your
insides, you're saying, thank you, Lord. Because you sense
his presence. You know, we wouldn't even be
here in Pontiac if we didn't have a message of grace. Because
this congregation is made up of a bunch of no good for nothing
sinners. We have missed the mark. We have
failed. We have all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. And look what God has done. And
when you would not come to Him, He came to you. We are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before
ordained. You are not an accident. You're
here on purpose, for a purpose. And God wants you to know that
so you don't fear. Hey, I got you. I got you. You're a wild thing, but I got
you. Notice this in verse 2. When
thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee. Oh, there's
going to be some Jordans. You're going to pass through
some things. That's part of life. But the important thing is He
says, I will be with you. We used to sing an old song in
the church. I won't have to cross Jordan
alone. Jesus died all my sins to atone. When the darkness I
see, He'll be waiting for me. I won't have to cross Jordan
alone." Are you thinking about getting old and dying? Are you
thinking about it and you kind of fear? Say this, O death, where
is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
Jesus Christ has already taken the stinger out of death. You
don't have to be afraid of death and facing God because Jesus
paid it all. And when you go through these
trials, you don't have to go through them by yourself. You
know, some of the most trying times of my life have been the
sweetest. I'm remembering right now in
a little cemetery there in Geared County, Kentucky, we buried our
baby. Ms. Pam was in the hospital in
Beckley, Virginia, could not be there for the burial. And
I remember standing at that grave site as his little body was lowered
down into that grave and Jesus was so close. And there was a
sad but joyous rush in my heart that the Lord was there with
me and would never leave me nor forsake me. That's what you want
to experience when things are tough, the presence of the Lord. When thou passest through the
waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers, they
shall not overflow thee. You ever feel like you're going
to drown? But you didn't. Has there been times in your
life when circumstances, things that was happening just seemed
like they were going to overcome you? But the guardian angel was
there, the Lord Himself, the presence of the Lord that held
back those horrible things. He was with you. When thou walkest
through the fire, you ever been in a fire? I don't mean a literal
fire. I mean, everything is going bad.
The heat is on. I remember I left the story in
Sunday School of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace. The king threw them in the fiery
furnace and heated it up many times hotter than it was ordinarily. And when they looked in, they
said, didn't we put three men in there? Lo, there's four. One like unto the Son of God.
Oh, He'll go with you through the fire. Many times people think
that when they're converted, you know, now life is just going
to be a bed of roses. Don't forget that roses have
pickers. And so does your life. Things
you don't even understand. But how about this? And we know
that all things work together for good to them that love the
Lord, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Amen.