Just delighted to have all of
you here with us today, you that are visiting, hope and trust
that you feel at home and sense, as we do here, the presence of
our God in the power of his Holy Spirit. Little Granny, every morning,
went out on her porch and prayed. Her next door neighbor was an
atheist, And every day, he would yell over to her after her prayer,
oh, woman, there is no God. Your prayers are useless. One
day, he heard her praying, asking God to send her groceries by
morning. He went out that night and bought
her $200 in groceries. While she slept, the atheist
put them on her porch. The next morning, she got up
and found the groceries on her porch and began to praise God
and thank God. Her neighbor yelled over to her,
oh woman, there is no God. I bought those groceries and
put them on your porch early this morning. She, looking up
to heaven, said, thank you, Lord, for the groceries, and thank
you for making the devil pay for them. Adam and Eve hid from God. I
want you to contemplate this question. Actually, kind of two
questions. Where did God find you? Where
did God find you? And what were you wearing when
he found you? I've been wondering for years, looking for but not finding a
safe place to lay my head. I've been stumbling in darkness,
searching for a real love. You found me, and you pulled
me out. You found me, and you pulled
me out. You found me, and you brought
me home. You have eyes to see what I've
hidden in my shame, neck deep in the mar. Won't you pull me
out and wrap me in your arms? You're a good father. This is
a good home, right in the palm of your hands. You're not letting
go." We turned away 8,000 women and children last year. We don't
have a houseless problem in this country. We have a drug problem,
and it's real. The Lord doesn't expect us to
hold the fort. He expects us to take it. And
the church must become real in what we're up against. And I
know this audience knows the truth. Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners. Where did God find you? When we begin to consider salvation,
we must always begin with God himself. The Bible makes it very clear
that he's the one who begins the good work. He's the alpha and omega and
everything in between. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. You see, Jonah got his theology
right at Whales Belly University when he cried out, salvation
is of the Lord. The Apostle Paul said to the
Thessalonians, but we're bound to give thanks for you brethren
beloved of the Lord because God hath from the beginning chosen
you. Salvation begins with God. Again,
in the book of Ephesians, Paul said, God has chosen us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. John said, herein is love,
not that we loved God, but that He first loved us. Our God told Jeremiah, before
I formed you in your mother's belly, I loved you. Amen. This is so great salvation. Paul again in Romans 8, 29 said
that those God has foreloved, before love, he has predestinated. Jeremiah was told that he was
loved with an everlasting love. Make sure when you give your
testimony that you begin with God, because if you don't, you
won't get it right. There's a big difference between
a testimony and a bragamony. A testimony is, God hath done
great things for me, whereof I'm glad. Now let's look at this
matter of God finding us. You'll notice our first parents
were not seeking God. They were hiding in the bushes. This little girl was hiding too, and never finding what she was
looking for. I'm glad there's a great seeker.
Let me say it again. I'm glad there's a great seeker,
and that's God himself. He came to seek and to save. And bless God, all he seeks he
saves. He's not only a seeker, he's
a finder. Finders keepers is our God. He's the one who sweeps the floor
in the gospels until he finds the lost coin. Somebody said, if you don't respond
soon, God will give up on you. I'm sorry, that's not found in
the Bible. God's not counting on you. God
counts on himself. You see, my friend, it was not
you who first found him. The truth is, he was not lost. I found the Lord. He was not
lost. If you're a Christian, God found
you. You were the one that was lost. Isaiah 65, I love this verse,
the first verse. It says, I am found by those
who sought me not. I used to read that as a young
preacher and think, that doesn't make any sense. I am found by
those who sought me not. And then I began to realize,
he's talking about, you don't seek God till he finds you. When
he finds you and does a work in you and gives you life, then
you begin to seek him. And many times a little Christian
thinks that it was himself that found the Lord. But the truth
is, long before you found him, he had already found you and
done something in you that we call the new birth, regeneration. No man seeks the Lord when he's
dead in sins and trespasses. He must be quickened. And that's
what the hound of heaven does. He comes and he seeks the people
of God wherever they are. And there's some crazy places
that he comes to to find us. The songwriter said, oh, he came
to me. I love that song. He came to
me when I would not and could not come to him. He came to me. That's a glorious truth. Consider
where he found you. in the bushes hiding. Why, the psalmist said, it was
in the miry clay. It was in the pit. You know,
most of us have been found in the pit. In the miry clay, he brought
me up also, Psalm 40 says. He brought me up. And by the
way, when God finds you, he never puts you down, he always brings
you up. And David said, it was miry clay. It was slimy. When he found you,
you had slime all over you. Isn't that true? Miry clay. out of a deep pit, a horrible
pit. Maybe horrible depression. How
long, how long were you out there? And this world kicking you around,
trying to get high and getting low every time, doing the same
thing over and over again. It was a horrible pit. I love the songwriter's song.
From sinking sands, he lifted me. With tender hands, he lifted
me. From shades of night to planes
of light, oh, praise his name, he lifted me. That's my solo, once a year. not only into Myra Clay, not
only in the horrible pit, but on the dunghill. These are not nice places he
finds, folks. Aren't you glad that God comes
where you are? Aren't you glad God wasn't waiting
on you? Aren't you glad? I've heard people
say that, God's waiting on you. Well, if he waited on this little
girl in the video, he'd been waiting on mine a long time. Found on the dunghill with the
tumble bugs. The scripture says, he raises
up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the
dunghill, from the refuge pile. God found us in the dumpster. And he found us to keep us and
set us among princes. 2 Samuel 9, 4. You were down in
Lodibar. Mephibosheth, down in Lodibar,
lame on both your feet, you couldn't walk. And there came a summons
from heaven, fetch him out of Lodibar. You're in the hood,
whatever your hood may be. And by the way, I was thinking
this week, after watching the video, I was thinking, our production
team ought to go into some of these churches where people are
hiding. You know this guy that hired the guy to kill his wife,
and now he's been sentenced to life in prison? It's been on
the news for two years. Do you know he was president
of the Rotary in Grosse Pointe? Do you know he was a church man?
Hiding in the church all that time. You know, church is a good
place to camouflage yourself. You can get in there and hide.
I'm glad God does go to church sometimes, but he goes to pluck
people out of there. Amen. And if you've been saved
from church anity, you've been saved from a double darkness.
You're, you know, more probably, well, I don't know, more than
the crack addict, you're the one that if God's plucked you
out of church anity, you're the one that ought to be stuck. Hallelujah.
Thank you, Lord. You could have left me in that
double darkness, the darkness of my own depravity and the darkness
of religion. You could have left me there,
but you came to me. And usually that's my making
you unhappy where you are. You know, the Lord was watching
a ceremonial exercise at one of the feasts one day, and there
was great, just great ceremony there, all kinds of things, going
to the Pool of Shalom and getting water and pouring it down these
funnels and onto the sacrifice, and that went on all day, and
Jesus cried out this way, is anybody thirsty? This is dry stuff, that's what
he was saying. Let him come unto me and drink
of the water of life, and I'll give him to drink, and he'll
never thirst again." Where did Jesus find you? Maybe you were
in the valley of dry bones. Life was a mess. The Bible says
in Ezekiel that the dry bones were very parched. They were
already yellowish, hopeless. depressed, down. Maybe that's
where he found you. The Bible says, and he breathed
into them life. Now just keep thinking about
this. Where did he find you? What about
the babe in the open field in Ezekiel? Your parents were heathen. You were left in the open field
of life, vulnerable, unloved, unclean. Nobody cared about you
until Jesus found you. You were laying in the field
in your own blood. You had not been swaddled or
cared for. You were out there in the wild. The lion, perhaps, would smell
the blood. Perhaps the roaring lion smells
your blood, you little, dirty, sorry thing, you. But then Jesus passes by. And
it was a time of love. And the Bible says He looked
upon that babe in that open field and said, Live! You know that
there is an awesome opportunity today and possibility. Possibilities
are not with men, but are with men, but not with God. For certain,
you are here for a purpose, on purpose, perhaps to hear this
gospel. You may have wallowed in the
stables of sin. You may be as black as all hell. You may have done everything
known to man or beast, but the blood of Jesus Christ will make
you white as snow. You know, on his way to find
you, the Bible says, he came to your grave where you were
dead, rotting away. Ephesians 2 says, in your sins
and trespasses, you walked continually according to the course of this
world. There was no thought of God,
no turning to God, no desire for God. And then Jesus came. And you hath he made alive who
were dead. Who were dead. Our God is an
active God. Wouldn't it be something if He
came walking today? And He does in the gospel. The
hound of heaven searching for you. He knows where you are,
camping out here somewhere. You guys, I'm always picking
on you guys in the back. I love people who sit in the
back because I know they're hiding. Hiding back there. But you never
know when I might come to the back. Christ came to save you
hooligans. Christ came to seek and to save
that which was lost. That's what he does. Where'd
he find you? Maybe he'll find you today. Maybe
he'll find you this morning. Camping out. Maybe some of you
visitors, you've came over, you've heard about this place, your
church is deader than a doornail. You know, I've told you this
joke on several occasions. There was a guy went into this
church. He just got saved. He was an
alcoholic, really. He was so happy about being saved
and coming to know the Lord. He went into this church. It
was a little high, sanctimonious church, and the preacher said
a few things that he thought was right, and he said, Amen! Hallelujah! The usher came, tapped
him on the shoulder, and said, Hey, you don't do that here.
Be quiet. He said, I can't help it, I got
the Spirit. And the usher said, I don't care
what you got, you didn't get it here. I tell you, if you come to know
the Lord, you're gonna get happy. You're gonna see He came to you
and found you. You're gonna find out that on
His way, before He ever came to you, He came down the stairway
of heaven. walk the Judean acres without
sin, weaving for you a perfect robe of righteousness which only
fit you, and he would impute righteousness to you. And then
he went up on Calvary, and there he died as a substitute in your
room, in your place, in your stead. and bear your sins in
His own body on the tree. He was made to be sin for us
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. There is no condemnation now,
no judgment to those that are in Christ Jesus, because He paid
it all. He bear our sins in His own body. And when He had paid the sin
debt, He said, it's finished. It's accomplished, it's done,
it's paid. Went down into the grave and
made it a fit place to wait for the resurrection. Got up on the
third day, ascended back into heaven, and there he sits as
our judge, our intercessor, our mediator, our lawyer. And when the accuser comes, and
the accuser does come to you, tell him to take it to Jesus.
There's no condemnation. You know, I thought much about
today's message, and my emphasis was not so much about him just
coming to you, but where he found you. That's really important
that you begin to think about that. Because if he came that
far, If he came to that very dark,
gruesome dunghill that you were on, he must have came for a purpose. He must have not been looking
for good folks. You don't go to the dunghill
to find clean people. I'm dirty. Oh, he's a savior
of dirty people. Oh pastor, I'm lost. Oh, he came
to seek and to save that which was lost. See, that's what we
all sing who know the Lord. Once I was lost, but now I'm
found. Once I was blind, but now I see. Isn't that what we say? We call
that amazing grace. Think about he came to you and
who you were. Consider where he found you.
Then consider how amazing is his reach to such a one as you. I know some of you are thinking
things like, and can it be that I should gain an interest in
the Savior's love? Died he for me who caused his
pain? Paul in the Corinthian letter
said that he has chosen the nobodies of this world. Why wouldn't you look for God
over here? Look at us. We got a house full of nobodies.
Former crack addicts and prostitutes and former religious folks like
myself. who didn't praise God. We praised
our own works and got into churchanity. And now here we are all together.
We stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder
that he could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. Oh, how marvelous. Oh, how wonderful is the Savior's
love to me. Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die? Would He devote that sacred head
for such a worm as I? And the answer is yes, yes, and
yes, He did. And when I think that God, His
Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in
that on the cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died
to take away my sin. Oh, my sin! Oh, the bless of
this glorious thought! My sin not impired, but the whole
is nailed to His cross, and I bear it no more. It is well, it is
well with my soul. Is it not a wonder? Oh, how marvelous. Oh, how wonderful
is the Savior's love to me. Consider it. It'll cause joy to break out
on the inside. You must be His. You must be His. You must be
loved. If he came all that way, if he
came to the dunghill, the valley of dry bones, if he came to the
open field and you were all messed up, you were without strength. The Apostle Paul in Romans 5
talked about that. He said, if God loved you when
you were filthy and dirty and no good for nothing, now that
he's died for you, redeemed you, justified you, declared you not
guilty, he will love you even throughout eternity. Much more,
the Apostle Paul says, now that he's alive. If he died for you
and now he lives for you, seems like you got a sure thing going. Isn't that awesome? And then
consider this, and I love to consider this. Here's the devil's
greatest ploy. He doesn't want you to realize
the wonder of it. He doesn't want you to know the
full story. Yeah, he's a little late, isn't
he, Space? He doesn't want you to enter into this that he'll
never leave you nor forsake you. That's why I want you to look
at where he found you. Now, if he was going to forsake
you, it looks like he would have forsaken you when you were in
the crack house, when you were in the whorehouse, when you were
out there wild and crazy. But if he's come all this way,
and if he has found you in mess, and he has sought you when you
were not seeking him, When in sovereign grace, he lay hold
of you. He's the one that left the nine
in nine safe in the fold. And there was one sheep out there,
blood mark. And he followed that sheep through
the vanity of sin, through the mountaintops of iniquity. Now
watch this, I love that story. And he got a hold of that sheep.
And the Bible doesn't say he pulled it by its neck all the
way back to the fold. He said he put it on his shoulders.
Do you know what God is doing with you today? He's carrying
you home. He's taking you back. He said
this, don't let your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in me. In my Father's house are many
mansions. If it were not so, I would have
told you. I go to prepare a place for you
that where I am, there you may be also. Or how about this? Moreover, whom he did forno,
he also did predestinate. Whom he predestinated, them he
also called. Whom he called, them he also
justified. Whom he justified, them he also
glorified. How many were lost? None. How come it's getting quieter
in here? You believe that. All he forloved, he glorified.
I'm telling you, it's a sure thing. Somebody says, it sounds
like you believe once saved, always saved. Well, listen, God
didn't save you to lose you. God didn't come all that way
to die on the cross to lose you. God didn't give his only begotten
son to pay the debt, and then you mess up, and he doesn't get
what he paid for. Let me tell you, our God is going
to get everyone he paid for. That's for certain. You say,
well, pastor. Esther, you know, sounds like
you believe just a little, little handful of going to heaven. Oh,
no, no, no, no. It depends on how big your God
is. Because he said, no man's, I give unto them eternal life,
they shall never perish. No man's able to pluck them out
of my Father's hand. Now, how big's your Father? Well,
if he's able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we
ask or think, he must be a big God. if he works everything for
our good and his own glory he must be a big God if he's into
the details of your life if he's crossing your path with people
you need to know and people that need to bless you and people
that will bless you amen you know the person that bought this
building for us doesn't come to church here he's my friend
But he doesn't come to church here. God crossed my path with
somebody that was gonna bless me. Do you know $1,200,000 came through
that mission in December? God crossed our path with somebody
that wanted to bless us. And look at us. Why would they
wanna bless us? But they did. We are God's workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. I want you to know who you are
in Christ. And when slew foot begins to
accuse you with your works of the flesh, which are not good,
right? In my flesh dwells no good thing.
And after you get saved, it doesn't all go away. You are a new creature,
you have a new nature, but there's something called the old flesh
there. And the Apostle Paul, even in Romans, said, Oh, wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
And then he cried out, I thank God, Jesus Christ already has,
there's no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. When
you come to know Christ, and I especially say this to those
of you who've wrestled with addiction, I hear the things that you say. I can hear it calling me. I can hear it calling me. How
about this? Think about this. I can hear
my Savior calling. How about that? He hasn't stopped
calling you and will not stop calling you. He that hath begun
a good work in you will perform it unto the day of redemption. You have an ever ready battery
operating in you. You've been regenerated. Greater
is he that's in you than he that's in the world. You are an overcomer
and you need to claim it. You need to say to Sloughfoot,
go on back to hell where you belong. I am persuaded that neither
life, nor death, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor any other creature shall be able to separate me
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. It's true. Possibility, the truth. you who have been kicked around
by this world, that God is working everything for your good, even
the ugly part. God can take your ugly part and
turn it to beauty. He can, and he does. God uses
even the bad and the ugly. So consider who you were when
he found you, when you began to doubt. And remember this,
he knows all about you. You know, I think you'll realize
this as I do. I'm nearer home than I was yesterday,
and it ain't looking bad. Just think, one day I can say
with Dr. King, free at last, free at last. I'm going to be free from my
own mess. No more sorrow, no more sickness,
no more pain, no more death, no more struggle. Aren't you glad there's a heaven?
Aren't you glad this is not all there is? Consider the fact then of who
you were and where he found you and know that you'll never be
forgotten. I heard of two little babies, newborns, They were left
in dumpsters in Detroit this week. And I thought, how sad. And that doesn't happen a whole
lot, but it does happen. But here's what God says. A mother
may, it doesn't happen much, but a mother may forsake her
sucking child, but I will never leave you, nor forsake you. That's what God has said. And live every day in this light.
And this is the way I live. This is the day the Lord's made.
I'll rejoice and be glad in it. And really, I didn't always believe
this, but something good's gonna happen. Something good's gonna
happen today. It's not another day, another
dollar. That's a horrible way to live.
But what is God going to do today? Who am I going to meet today?
You know, life to me is so thrilling. Tomorrow, my sons-in-law for
my birthday bought me a hog hunt. I'm going hog hunting tomorrow. You think about it tomorrow,
somewhere I'm going to be out in the blind looking for hogs. If you're over to mission, you're
going to eat real good pretty soon. But I've already thought about,
you know, that's a little unnatural for me, a little bit. But I'm
thinking about, I wonder who I'm going to meet up there. I
wonder who will cross my path. I hope a hog does. But I wonder
who else will cross my path. I wonder who I'll get to see
today. Because I'm telling you, every day, Every day I meet somebody
and I go like this That was a God appointment That was a God appointment
I Look at everything that's rolling out in my life as okay. There's a purpose for this Last
night. I got all of this on paper. I
was so pleased. I had it done early I'd already
told Greg early what scripture to read and guess what that computer
went blink blink I said to Pam, oh! She came running. She said, what's wrong? I said,
I lost it all. She said, lost all what? I said,
my outline. I lost it all. She said, oh,
somebody can get it back for you. I knew that. But Darren
couldn't get it back. Amber couldn't get it back. I
couldn't get it back. And I thought to myself, OK. OK. So I took the grandkids to
Chuck E. Cheese. And I came back and sat on my
computer. And man, my fingers went to moving.
All of my notes came from what I remembered. So you got a partial
sermon. Maybe it'll blink back on when
I get home and think, oh, I didn't say that. But right now, what
you got today. And you know what I said right
after I screamed? I said, there must be some purpose.
You say, Pastor, you don't believe things like that. Well, then
what am I going to believe? What's my alternative? Oh, no,
I've lost eight hours here. Oh, no. I got up early yesterday. I started getting you sheep food
to feed you. And when that thing went about
2 o'clock, it went, I'm glad I was able to say, okay,
there's a purpose in that. Maybe you want me to wing it.
Maybe you don't want me stuck with an outline. That would be
bad for you. All I want, here's what I want
to happen here. I want you to be able to sense
as you attend here Sunday after Sunday, God's in my life. God
found me when I was nobody. God found me on the dunghill.
God saved me. God quickened me. God regenerated
me. God born me again. God indwells
me and God's working everything for my good. He's a great and
awesome God. Amen? Amen. Now here's what I
want you to do today, little lamb back there who's never heard
anything like this today, but until today, but on your inside
you're going, wow, could that preacher be, you know, nobody's
ever noticed me. Do you think the Holy Spirit,
you say this to yourself, could the Holy Spirit be talking to
me? I identify with the video. I've been through that. I've done that. I've been there. But something today, there's
a joy on the inside of me. How dare I believe this? I want
to encourage you today to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. I want to encourage you. I want
to encourage you to confess Him as Lord and Savior. And I'm going
to tell you this. There are no closet Christians.
No such thing as a closet Christian. If He borns you again and opens
your blind eyes, you're going to confess Him as Lord. And you're
going to do it willingly. So all I'm saying is, I'm going
to give you an opportunity this morning. If you're trusting him,
maybe you don't know Genesis from Revolutions. Maybe you haven't
read the Bible. Maybe you don't know the books
of the Bible. You don't know the shortest verse of the Bible.
But you know this, that substitution that he died in my stead sure
sounds mighty good to me. And I'm trusting him that God
came down from heaven in the person of his son walk the Judean
acres without sin, preparing for me a righteousness that he
would impute to my account. You know, God sees me as perfectly
righteous. You know why? He took the righteousness of
Christ and imputed it, accredited it to me. So I'm righteous. He not only took my debt away,
paid for my sins and took all the slime off me, He didn't leave
me naked. He clothed me with the perfect
righteousness of His own Son. And I'm without spot or wrinkle
or any such thing in His eye. I know, isn't that great? I want
you to end up there. And it'll be a happy day tomorrow.
It'll be a happy afternoon today. You can come to the puppet show
and praise God. Amen. Let's stand. If you'd like
to confess him, do so now.