Scripture Reference: John 8:1-12 (MSG)
For a very short time, I want to share some things with you. You may be seated. (Ps John speaking to music team.) I’m going to ask you guys to stay here. I’m going to be 10 minutes and then I want you to sing the song again. Can you do that? The last song you just sang? Sing it again.
So I want to just read this passage of Scripture to you, it’s from John chapter 8 verse 1 and the Bible says; 1-2Jesus went across to Mount Olives, but he was soon back in the Temple again. Swarms of people came to him. He sat down and taught them. 3-6The religion scholars and Pharisees led in a woman who had been caught in an act of adultery. They stood her in plain sight of everyone and said, “Teacher, this woman was caught red-handed in the act of adultery. Moses, in the Law, gives orders to stone such persons. What do you say?” They were trying to trap him into saying something incriminating so they could bring charges against him. 6-8Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger in the dirt. They kept at him, badgering him. He straightened up and said, “The sinless one among you, go first: Throw the stone.” Bending down again, he wrote some more in the dirt. 9-10Hearing that, they walked away, one after another, beginning with the oldest. The woman was left alone. Jesus stood up and spoke to her. “Woman, where are they? Does no one condemn you?” 11 “No one, Master.” “Neither do I,” said Jesus. “Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.” (John 8:1-12 MSG)
I really have a very strong sense in my heart that, as you all know, the Word of God is our number one priority that we live by. We don’t live by anybody’s interpretation of the Bible we live by the Bible. And if someone’s lifestyle does not match up to the Bible, then we don’t say the Bible is wrong. What we say is that person’s lifestyle; it can’t be right. Because God is not a liar and He’s not a man that He should sin. So the book says that in Him, the Bible says in the Book of James; in Him, there’s no turning, there’s no shadows, He is perfect.
So that’s our standard, the Word of God. Once we’ve established the Word of God as our standard and we begin to live together as people, we understand that there are gifts that are in the Body of Christ that will be made available to us in which we can tap into that God has placed among us to do certain things. So one of those gifts is the gift to us of leadership, spiritual leadership, Brother Jerry Savelle, and he has declared that he received a word from the Lord that 2020 will be a year of new doors that are opened and that there will be supernatural increase.
So tomorrow when we are together and we’re going to share the Word together, I’m going to talk about thresholds that have to be crossed and I’m going to be talking about what it takes to go from one space into another space. And I’m using this particular Scripture here because when you talk supernatural increase you almost immediately want to go to finances and although finances is apart of it, I see something very significant that God is beginning to show me.
So if you could understand that this woman was obviously known to the religious community as being in adultery. Some say that she was actually a prostitute. But certainly, she was a woman who lived in such a manner among the society that men knew that other men slept with her. And so they went until they knew, I mean, doesn’t this sound like entrapment to you? It’s like they knew something was going to happen and so they’re in the room doing their business and these elders of the church walk in.
So you know, here they are. They bring this girl. There’s no doubt about it, we all witnessed she was alone, they’re busy doing business and we caught them. So, you know, it had to be by many witnesses, something like that had to be established, so they made sure that there was enough witnesses that there was no argument about this.
They are the carriers of the law, they are the ones that would judge on such matters. And if judgement was that plain, they would just take that woman out, just outside the walls of the city, and they’d go and take rocks and they’d start stoning her and kill her and she’d die. I mean, it would happen that quick. And so, they come to trap Jesus to see what kind of response would Jesus give to this law, to this thing that is going on. And so when they come to Jesus, I mean, His question is not whether the law is right or wrong. He begins to question them and He says, “You who are without sin, let him begin throwing the first stone.” And so He starts writing, you know, there’s no proof of this, but it’s a fairly good theological speculation that He started to write different sins with His finger in the dirt. And as He started to write people started to turn around and walk away.
One by one they all left. So the Bible says the oldest of them left first. Why? Because they realized after all their years of living how much sin they sinned. Young people still tend to say, “Well, I’m okay. I can still sin and get away with it,” older people say, “No no no, we got a bit more wisdom and experience than that.”
So, this particular passage of Scripture indicates to us that Jesus was more interested in what the outcome of this was than being caught in a legal argument. And so, as these people get up and walk away, I want to show you something that happened. What happened was; she found herself living a life either she chose, either she was forced into it, either she was left without any other financial thing and got into such a bad space that one day she crossed the threshold and she did it one time for money and then it became, “Well, okay I can do this again,” and who knows how she found herself there, but it’s clear that she found herself in a situation whether she chose or where the circumstances around her created this thing that happened to her. We’re not sure of that.
I say to you; you may find yourself in a position, in this service today, where you are not certain of how you got to where you got to. It could have been a combination of your own choices, it could have been a combination of circumstances, other people’s choices that they imposed upon you. It could have been many reasons why you may find yourself where you’re at. I’m here to tell you, by the Word of God today, that as we go into 2020 that it is not important what accusations happen in your soul, in your mind, in your heart, in your own thinking. It’s not a question any more of whether there is anybody around you that knows your past that can bring accusations to you. But if you come and you stand before Jesus and I want to say in this lady’s life, a new door opened for her.
You know what a new door was? The new door was on the back of being found guilty. Listen to me, church. If she had not been found guilty and been used as a tool to try and trap Jesus, she may never have become free of what was holding her. Being found guilty of something is not a bad thing. Sometimes the only way you can get to the next part of your future is to say, “I am guilty.” Sometimes the only way you can get to your next part of the future is to say, “I did wrong and I’m going to change.” The change is not with your mouth to other people or your behaviour to other people, the change is in your heart before God. Right?
She got caught, she was about to sentenced and killed. And in between being caught and being sentenced to be killed, she confronts a new door; His name was Jesus. Jesus says, “No one can come to the Father through the door which is Me. I am the good Shepherd.” So she is brought to the new door. A door she had never experienced, the door she never ever thought was possible. She was brought in front of this door and this door does not allow the circumstances of anybody, anyone, anything in the past to stop what He is doing. In His heart, He’s representing the Father and this is the day for this woman’s freedom. And so as He just writes in the sand and He says, “Who are you without sin, cast the first stone.” In other words, when they came to Him to bring judgement, His words judged them. So when the Word of God comes and judges you, it’s not so that you can keep on living the way you’re living, just make a few alterations, so that someone else around you can look like you’ve changed.
No, no. When you come and confront, when you’re confronted with the new, your new door, the change has got to happen deep inside of you. And so as these people that brought accusations leave one by one, she’s only left with one more person that could accuse her and He was the Master. He was the Teacher and as she stands in front of Him, He says, “Where are those that accuse you?” “No one” and He says, “Neither do I accuse you.” In other words, this moment you are free from everything in your past. Now I instruct you and with the instruction Jesus gives you, He will always give you the authority and the power to see it through. And He says to her, “Now you go and sin no more.”
He was the door, He gave her the instruction, from that moment onward she was empowered to go and be free. From that moment onward she was never going to sleep with someone else that wasn’t the God-ordained marriage relationship. And I don’t know but I would believe that with that kind of deliverance there would be a man that would just forget about all the stuff that she did in the past and didn’t worry about all the cultural connotations that come with that and that God would set it up for her to live the life that she always wanted to live. Because that’s what the new door creates for you. The new door, which is the door that Jesus opens, creates that life for you and so as we go into 2020 and tomorrow I’m going to talk about supernatural increase because it’s supernatural for you to actually get free of everything that happened in your past and be brought in across a threshold into everything that is new for your life.
But you got to be bold enough and strong enough and courageous enough to say, “I got it wrong. I got it wrong.” And remember what I’ve always said to you; you cannot walk in faith unless you’re honest and repent. You can’t get to a place, “I think… Well, I’m not…” even if it’s just in your heart, you say, “Yeah, I did wrong. I’ve got to walk free and from this moment,” and listen, nobody does everything perfectly, even when you walk through the new door. And perfection is never the issue here. The issue is always what you’re doing with your heart. What you’re doing with your heart. Because your heart will guide you. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
And so, finally, He says to the rest of the people; 12Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.” (John 8:12 MSG)
That’s where we find ourselves now – plenty of light to live in. Why? Because as you go through the new door that is open to us, in 2020, there’s plenty of light. There’s plenty of light. If you choose to stumble around in the darkness even though the door is there for you, God’s not going to make your choices for you. Hallelujah.
I’ll tell you, it’s quite clear to me and it’s sometimes so obvious to me that people who have a heart towards God, they may do things that are just… sometimes they let themselves down, let’s put it that way; just let themselves down. But they come to you with an open face because they have an honesty before God that, “I just got to be with God and I got to be there and I’ve done wrong but I come with an open face. I’m not coming with something to hide.” I find I’ll tell you this, I find that people that have things to hide, generally they want to touch my life very superficially, but people that have got nothing to hide want to touch my life and spiritual people around them, they want to touch it meaningfully. They can’t wait to have conversations with you about Jesus. They can’t wait to have conversations with you about the Word. They will go out of their way to try and find where they can meet with people around them where they want to share the Word of God with them, what they’ve experienced in their heart. Hallelujah.
It’s not about regurgitating the message. Hey? Everybody can do that. That’s how you pass matric, you just regurgitate information and then hopefully you know enough to get through it. It doesn’t help you in life very much but you just got to get to know the information so you can move on. Right? That doesn’t make you clever, it just makes you remember enough that you can get past. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
And it’s the same with a Christian; you can live and live and live and you can live in church all your life and you can talk like a Christian and you can look like a Christian and you can smell like a Christian, whatever that smells like, but you know, you can have a whole lot of stuff as a Christian but actually, your life is not living as a Christ One and relationship with Jesus is everything. Don’t you think this woman’s life was changed with Jesus? From that day onwards everything because she confronted truth and love and there’s two things you’ve always got to walk in it; it’s truth and love. If you walk in truth and love in life you’re always going to be safe. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord.
It’s a good day, it’s a wonderful day, it’s a time to celebrate and if you listen to my morning inspirational and moments with the Lord over this Christmas period and new year period every morning, or whenever you choose to get up in the day and listen to it. I’m going to check the Facebook number count. I’m going to check on you all and see if you doing your Facebook thing and Instagram and, you know, all that. Anyway, you can’t go on the beach and leave the Lord behind. I’m helping you take Him with you. Hallelujah. And for those that are listening, I know, I’ve got a message on the front row; someone’s already watching and they sent me a message, “We’re enjoying the service,” and they’re sitting in the bush somewhere. So well, that’s cool, you know, that’s really wonderful. Praise Jesus. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Won’t you all stand with me, please?
Remember what we’ve been saying over this whole period of time; I am a son of God. Come on now you got to be with me now, “I’m a son of God and because I’m a son of God I am free from everything that holds me back from that. I am a son of God. I am free to live my life with joy, with love, and with truth, in Jesus Name. Hallelujah.” Hallelujah, glory to God. Well, I’m just going to pray and then I’m let them finish off with that song and I want to just pray that you guys are all blessed. And I’m grateful and thankful that we are all together at this time of the year and for those that have been on holiday and come back already, I’m glad you’re back safe. For those that are about to leave and go on leave, I pray that the Word and the blood of Jesus surrounds you and protects you and no weapon formed against you will prosper. And that you will go out and come back and you will find nothing missing and nothing broken, in Jesus Name. And I pray that everything you do wherever you go you find the peace of God upon you, the comfort of the Holy Spirit upon you, and you begin to speak out of your mouth every day; there’s a new door, it’s open to me I have the boldness, the courage and the strength to walk into the new door that the Lord has opened for me in 2020. Hallelujah. Do you all agree with that? Say “amen” Thank you for coming to church I’ll see you tomorrow morning God bless you. Just let them finish.
© 2024 – Heritage of Faith Ministries International
TOUCH | TEACH | TRAIN | TRANSFER
