Thank you Lord. Lord we just declare right now Lord in this house for your people your
excellence Lord you are excellent in power, excellent in majesty, excellence in glory.
Lord we just declare hallelujah. We declare hallelujah to name Lord. Praise be unto you Lord in this
house Lord. Every mind and heart Lord is fixed on you right now. Lord because of your goodness,
because of your mercy. Lord I thank you Lord as we heard in communion. Lord there was no hope
without you. Lord there was nothing for us Lord but in your great mercy and your love Lord you've
drawn us, you've brought us by the blood. Lord thank you for the blood. Lord thank you for all
that you've done. Thank you for all that you're doing here. Lord we bless you, we bless your name.
We lift you Lord Jesus, we lift you on high. Be glorified in this house Lord, be glorified. Be
glorified in our lives Lord. Use us Lord to glorify your name or to show those in a broken
and lost world who you are. Lord use us in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Well good morning church and I
want to welcome those who are new. A couple of new faces we want to welcome you here today.
I want to look at in the book of Genesis to begin with. So if you could turn with me to
Genesis, we're going to look at chapter 15. Lord I need your strength today and so bring your word,
I need your anointing. Everything Lord that I need to minister it comes from you Lord. So I'm asking
you Lord you would release the fullness of your spirit over me now to bring your word. Lord I
thank you it is Lord your word. It's your word that cleanses us Lord, it's your word that cleanses
the church. Lord do a cleansing work, Lord transform us here this morning through the power of your
word. Lord lift people up Lord who are low deliver those Lord that need breakthrough all through
your word Lord. Anoint this message I pray in Jesus name. I'm going to read a little bit from
chapter 15, 16, 17 and 18. So just follow with me beginning in verse 1 of Genesis chapter 15. This
is referring to the promise that God had given to Abraham. He gave him a number of promises but
particularly the promise of children. It's important to know. It says after these things,
the word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision saying, do not be afraid Abraham, I am your shield,
your exceedingly great reward. But Abraham said, Lord God what will you give me seeing I go
childless and the heir of my house is Elisa of Damascus. Then Abraham said, look you have given
me no offspring, indeed one born in my house is my heir. And behold the word of the Lord came to him
saying, this one shall not be your heir but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.
Then he brought him outside and said, look now toward heaven and count the stars if you're able
to number them. And he said to him, so shall your descendants be. And he believed in the Lord
and he accounted it to him for righteousness. Chapter 16 verse 1, now Sarai, Abraham's wife had
borne him no children and she had an Egyptian maid servant whose name was Hagar. So Sarai said to
Abraham, see now the Lord has restrained me from bearing children, please go into my maid, perhaps
I shall obtain children from her. And Abraham heeded the voice of Sarai. Then Sarai, Abraham's
wife took Hagar her maid, the Egyptian, and gave her to her husband Abram to be his wife after Abram
had dwelt 10 years in the land of Canaan. So he went into Hagar and she conceived and when she saw
that she had conceived her mistress became despised in her eyes. Then Sarai said to Abram, my wrong be
upon you, I gave my maiden to your embrace and when she saw that she had conceived I became despised
in her eyes. The Lord judged between you and me. Chapter 17 verse 4, one verse, this is a promise
that is again reaffirmed to Abram, as for me, behold my covenant is with you, referring to Abraham,
and you shall be a father of many nations. And then chapter 18 verse 10 to 15, and he said,
that's God, I will certainly return to you according to the time of life and behold Sarah,
your wife shall have a son. Sarah was listening in the tent door which was behind him. Now Abraham
said, now Abraham and Sarah were old, well advanced in age and Sarah had passed the age of child
bearing. Therefore Sarah laughed within herself saying, after I have grown old shall I have
pleasure my Lord being old also. And the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh saying, shall I
surely bear a child since I am old? Is there anything too hard for the Lord? At your point in
time I will return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied
it saying, I did not laugh for she was afraid and he said, no but you did laugh. So we see the promise
that God had given initially to Abram that, look I'm going to give you a child, it's going to be
from your own person, it's going to come forth from you and Sarah. That was the promise of God and
Abram believed him and it said it was accounted to him for righteousness. But then later on,
after that promise was given in chapter 16, there was a doubt from Sarah. It said, see now the Lord
has restrained me from child bearing children, please go into my maid etc etc. So there's this
point in now Sarah's life, she's got the promise, it's Abraham's promise that they're going to have
children. Now Sarah in her doubt and unbelief has said, well it's not going to happen,
I don't see this promise being fulfilled, let's just do something about it. Let's help God,
let's get a move on with this thing. You go into Hagar which was the servant, which was custom for
that day and we'll have a child that way and I'll take the child and we'll just call that the
promise of God. So to begin with, Sarah had already lied because she said, see now the Lord has
restrained me from bearing children. So that doubt became and it was established from a lie because
God had already said that you are going to bear children. So first thing, and I'm looking at Sarah
today to begin with, there was unbelief. Then in 17 verse 4, that was the promise reaffirmed, so
again God comes in His mercy even though Ishmael was born to Hagar with Abraham,
he reaffirms the promise that no, you are going to have children, it's going to be supernatural,
it's my promise to you Abraham and I will do it, just let me be God and trust in me. And then in
chapter 18 we see that God comes to Abraham and basically he reaffirms again what's going to
happen and Sarah now, again she's in doubt and she lies to God as well. You imagine that having a
conversation with God and basically lying to God. She says, God said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh?
He's referring to the conversation that took place with Abraham that he's going to have these
children, this child and that the nation's going to be blessed through that. Sarah laughs saying,
shall I surely bear a child since I'm old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed
time I will return to you according to the time of life and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied
it saying, I did not laugh for she was afraid and he said no but you did laugh. So Sarah's life to
begin with, although she had the promises of God, there was still failings on her behalf, there was
still times where she was in unbelief, there was times where she was in doubt and there's an instance
there that I just read out that she actually lied straight to God's face. And my message today is
you're not a failure. See, Sarah had failed in a number of ways and you know, you and I,
we've made mistakes. Maybe it's before we were saved, maybe it's after we saved, but we've made
mistakes and we may go on to make mistakes in the future but how we deal with those mistakes is
actually going to be the determining factor whether we are paralysed in this life or not.
Because in Hebrews 12 and it's in verse 1, it says, Therefore we also, since we are surrounded
by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily ensnares
us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. So these things, one of the things
that says that is sin but one of it is lay aside every weight and a weight is something that's
unnecessary, something that we don't actually need to carry, it's something that weighs us down in
this life and that could be a number of different things, that's broadly speaking, but one of them
is actually seeing our lives before God as a failure and that's one thing that will actually
stop us moving into God's will and it will stop us moving into God's plan in all that He has for us
because seeing our life as a failure and looking back at the mistakes that we've made will paralyse
us and we will stop moving forward. But you know, how you see yourself, how you see your past mistakes
is not how God sees us at all. See, He sees us completely different. In Hebrews 8-12, this
refers to the covenant in starting in verse 7, this is the new covenant that God was going to make
with the people from Jesus onwards. It was the new covenant, we know, we celebrate communion,
we celebrate the new covenant that God is going to save us, it's going to be through Jesus,
through His blood and sins are going to be forgiven and He says in verse 7 of Hebrews 8,
for if that first covenant, that's referring to the old covenant in the Old Testament,
had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second because finding fault with
them, He says, behold the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with
the house of Israel and with the house of Judah and that goes on for us as well. Not according
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead
them out of the land of Egypt because they did not continue in my covenant and I disregarded them,
says the Lord, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,
says the Lord. I will put my laws in their mind and write them on their hearts and I will be their
God and they shall be my people. None of them shall teach his neighbor and none his brother saying,
know the Lord for all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest of them.
Verse 12, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their
lawless deeds, I will remember no more. Hallelujah. That scripture, that passage is contrasting to
the Old Covenant. See the Old Covenant, when God gave that through Moses, it was basically you do.
If you, so forth, then God does. That was the old way, the old covenant before Jesus.
We are now in Christ and the new covenant that Jesus has made, that God's made with Jesus,
it's I will, He will. God says, I will do it. He says in verse 12, I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness and their sins and their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. So if God,
says He remembers our sins no more, yes that's when we come to Christ and we're saved but I
believe that as we go on, He remembers our sins no more. He remembers our sins no more.
He says He's removed our sins as far as the east is from the west, the past, the present and the
future sins. So if God says there, I will remember their sins no more, maybe some of you, why are you
remembering your past mistakes and failings in the past? Because God doesn't remember them.
He doesn't, He chooses not to remember them. It's not like He forgets but I believe He chooses not
to remember those sins. He doesn't hold them because of what Jesus has done and you're in Him.
He chooses not to remember them. He chooses not to see you in those mistakes because today,
you can be here today and you actually, you're bound and you're held by your past and you just
can't move forward because of maybe that thing that was done to you or the thing that you've done
yourself and maybe you've just carried condemnation and guilt and shame and you can't get past and you
can't move on to God where God wants you to be because you're stuck and you're paralysed in that
place. But I want to say that God doesn't see you. He doesn't see you as a failure. He sees Christ in
you. He sees you as a child, as His son or daughter. He sees you and loves you just as much as He sees
His only son, Jesus. And so it's important for us to know that because He chooses not to remember.
See the guilt that we may be facing over something that we've done in the past, Jesus has dealt with.
He's paid the price for our guilt. He's dealt with that. The shame maybe that you're facing today,
He's taken it upon Himself. We don't actually have to hold, we don't have to actually live in that
today because He's taken it. The condemnation, that's all been erased. Now we don't have to
no longer live in any condemnation like they did in the Old Testament because we are in the New. It
says in Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus
who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. See we can be in a
place sometimes where, you know, given maybe like I said something that's been done to us or
particularly something that we've done in the past that's sort of haunting us and plaguing us,
which is sort of like this dark cloud over our lives that we walk under. It's something
sometimes the enemy does, it's sometimes something we do ourselves. Psalm 66 verse 18, it says,
it's an unknown author but the psalmist writes that, if I regard iniquity or sin, if I regard
iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear. Now there's a couple of interpretations for that. The
first one is obvious, if I have sinned, unconfessed in my heart, the Lord will not hear. But the second
one is, the second interpretation is, if I've sinned, if I've done something in my past and I've
asked and I haven't received the forgiveness, then again the Lord will not hear. If I've actually
haven't come to the Lord and I haven't received the forgiveness that I can have, then the Lord also
will not hear. Because see, everything we've done in the past can be given to the Lord, it can be
forgiven because God is merciful, because He is just and He's delights in showing mercy. He delights
in showing us mercy because in Micah 7 verse 18 to 19, He says, this is a prophet Micah, He says,
who is a God like you pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant
of his heritage? He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in showing mercy.
I want to ask you today, do you walk in the mercy of God? Do you know the mercy of God that He's
quick to forgive, that He wants to show mercy over judgment, that He doesn't want you living
in that place of guilt or shame or condemnation where you are living under that dark cloud
because of maybe the things you've done in the past. He wants you to walk in the freedom because
Christ has bought that freedom for you. He's purchased through His blood the liberty that
you can have and that you can walk in, that all that guilt and that shame, that can be completely
gone and healed because He's taken it on the cross. He's taken it on Himself so that we don't have to
carry it. He's delivered us from it because, you know, God's mercy and His faithfulness,
God's mercy means we don't get what we deserve. We deserve judgment but God shows mercy.
Jesus sent to pay for our debt of sin we owed but God, because of His mercy, He did that for us.
And you may, I'm speaking to you particularly today, if you're living in a place where
you're bound by your past, that the past is coming up and you're living in the past,
those past mistakes. Winston Churchill said this, he said, success is not a sin.
Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is courage to continue that counts.
It's courage that counts. In the book of Joshua, God repeatedly tells Joshua, you know, everything
He was going to face and if you read the book of Joshua, He faced challenges,
He made mistakes and God forewarns him almost. He keeps affirming to him in the first chapter.
I think it's like three times in the first chapter He says, be courageous, be strong and courageous.
Don't lose that courage because when we lose that actual courage, that's when we start falling,
that's when we start not wanting to move forward. We can't move forward because we've lost courage.
It's so important that in the face of whatever it is, the circumstances, that maybe go before us
as time goes on, that we actually don't lose our courage because in Proverbs 24 verse 16,
and this is a great scripture, it says, for a righteous man may fall seven times and rise again,
seven times and rise again, but the wicked shall fall by calamity. So you and I, we are righteous
men and women, we're going to get back up. It's by the grace of God we can turn to Him for His mercy
and forgiveness. We no longer have to walk in those past mistakes. We can actually walk in the
freedom that Christ has bought for us. We can actually, yes, we might fall down in the future.
It says there that a righteous man may fall, so we may fall again, but you're going to,
God's going to pick you back up because that's what He wants to do. He wants to pick you up in
His mercy. He wants to pick you up in His faithfulness and He wants to deliver you and
He wants you to put you back on that treadmill so you start walking again. Amen? Amen.
And I want to tell you that God actually responds to faith. He responds to faith
in the midst of failures because I spoke about Sarah earlier and I explained, you know, everything
that she had gone through. She had doubt, she had unbelief, she lied. So all these things, they could
have held her. They could have held her bound and for us today, there's things that may now
are holding you or in the future. That's why I'm preaching this message so that don't hold you,
but there's things that can actually hold us bound and Sarah was in a place that she could
have been bound. She could have allowed those things to give her her identity like, I'm a failure,
I'm never going to succeed, but I want to tell you this is the beauty of the Scriptures. In Hebrews 11,
if you turn there, in Hebrews 11, actually if you're not there, don't turn there because I'm
going to read one Scripture. I want you to hear it. Hebrews 11, 11, by faith. This is the hall of faith.
Chapter 11, Sarah's mentioned in there and it begins with, by faith. Sarah herself also receives
strength to conceive seed and she bore a child when she was past the age because she judged him
faithful who had promised. It begins with faith. After everything that she had done and encountered,
the author of Hebrews describes Sarah as a faithful woman. By faith, Sarah herself also
receives strength to conceive and it says, it goes on that when she was past the age because she
judged him faithful who had promised. So God sees the good. He chooses to see the good. He doesn't
choose to see the mistakes we've made. We shouldn't either. It's our faith that's going to hold us.
It's our faith that keeps us. It's the faith and our hope in Jesus that is going to keep us up. It's
going to keep us going and enduring to the end. That's what hope is. That's what faith is.
At such a blessed Scripture, by faith, Sarah herself also receives strength to conceive seed
and she bore a child when she was past the age because she judged him faithful who had promised.
See, our lives, our lives, regardless of what happens from this point forward,
we're called again in Hebrews, how to live. In chapter 10 verse 38, it says, now the just,
that's you and I, we're just, we've been justified by Jesus. Now the just shall live by faith,
by faith. But if anyone draws back, my soul has no pleasure in him. See, we're going to live by
faith. Faith is not an event. It's a lifestyle. The just shall live by faith. The only way we
have life is when we live by faith. Faith in Jesus, faith in the promises, faith in God.
If we just will allow God to be God and we just come to him by faith, he's going to do it.
That covenant that he made with Jesus, it's no longer if you do it, if you do it. He says,
I will. That covenant, the promise that God made with Jesus when he went to that cross,
that the new covenant that was, that new contract that was written, from that point, God said,
I will do it. I will do it. All the promises are fulfilled in Jesus. There are inheritance. There
are us to receive. We don't have to walk in that condemnation or that guilt or that shame. We don't
have to walk according to whatever we've experienced in the past because God desires that we live
according to faith and by faith. And you know, sometimes that's going to be hard to do. Sometimes
that's not easy to do. But in one Kings, when Elijah, see God said to Elijah,
go to Ahab, which was one of the Kings, and he said, basically, tell him there's no rain's
going to come. So he prayed and there's no rain. So the rain, it said, stopped for about three and
a half years or so. It stopped because he prayed. God gave him the word and he prayed and it stopped.
And then later on, he comes back to him three or so years later and he says to Ahab again,
all right, I'm going to pray now and it's going to rain. So he had the promise. He had the promise
of God and he's up there. It's in one Kings 18 verse 41. Elijah said to Ahab, go up and eat and
drink for there is a sound of abundance of rain. This is speaking to the King. So Ahab went up to
eat and drink and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel. Then he bowed down on the ground and put
his face between his knees and said to his servant, go up now, look toward the sea. So he went up and
looked and said, there is nothing. So he's speaking to his servant. He's saying, Elijah's saying,
go up and tell me, what do you see? Is the rain coming? God's promised me I've prayed. I'm praying
right now. Is it coming? He comes back and he says, there is nothing. And then he says, and seven
times he said, go again. So he kept praying. He kept praying in faith. He remained in faith. He
said, go again. He saw nothing. And sometimes we need the faith and we need to rise up and go again.
Maybe you're in that place today where you need to pick yourself up, arise and go again. Just like
Elijah said to the servant, go again. We need that faith, that place where we remain in faith, that
God is faithful. And we need to pick ourselves up and actually declare that we're going to go again.
That we're actually not going to live according to the circumstances. We're not going to walk
according to what we see in the natural. We're actually going to stand on the faithfulness and
the mercy of God. We're going to pick ourselves up. We're going to declare of our lives, go again.
We're going to remain and we're going to stay and keep ourselves in faith. Because sometimes
that's all we have. Things may not seem like they should. That cloud should have been there. God
promised maybe first time he prayed, but it wasn't. The second time it wasn't there. The third time
it wasn't there. Fourth time it wasn't there. But I want to tell you, God's faithful. And it says,
the seventh time that he said, there is a cloud as small as a man's hand rising out of the sea. So
he said, go up and say to her, prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.
So God was so faithful. God was so faithful to answer that man's prayer. And he's faithful for
us today because God's given us promises. Jesus, those promises through the covenant for us today
that we can actually lay hold of. That we can actually walk in the freedom that Christ
has bought for us. That he shed his blood for. That everything that he received, everything
that all the suffering he received for us, that is for us today to lay hold of. He was
struck. He was beaten so we could be healed. Every provision has been made through Jesus. So
I want to close now, but I want to pray for anyone here who actually has not been walking
in the fullness of God. You've been walking with that cloud. That cloud, it's got that guilt in it.
It's got the shame. It's got the condemnation. It's the things that are coming up. They're rising up
and they're visiting us and we seem to be in that place where maybe we can't move and we feel like
I haven't confessed it enough. I need to confess more. Maybe God didn't hear me the first time. I
need to confess it again. And we go in the spiral and it's this spiral. We just do the same thing
over and over. Maybe that's you today. I want to pray that God actually lifts that off you today.
You actually come in that liberty that Christ has purchased. That he actually breaks through.
He lifts that cloud off your life and going forward that whatever is going to come our way,
that proverb I read out before, it says the righteous man might fall but he's going to get
up again. He's going to get up again because we've got the power of the Holy Spirit. That was part of
the new covenant. God said, I'll give you the Holy Spirit. I'm going to change you from the inside out.
That's what the Holy Spirit's going to do. So we have the grace but we also have the power of the
Holy Spirit. So Lord, I want to lift up every person right now. Lord, You've done it all.
Lord, we come before You. Lord, we were broken. We were broken and You healed us. Lord, in our sin
we came before You and You saved us. Lord, You gave us Your precious gift of faith. Lord,
You gave us Your grace, Your mercy, Your salvation. Lord, You gave us forgiveness.
Lord, and that wasn't in vain. Lord, You've done it so that we could be free, so that we could walk
in liberty, so that we could praise You, so we could worship You, so we could bear testimony of
Your goodness and Your mercy. And Lord, I want to lift up every person right now, Lord, that has
struggled in the past. Lord, we're maybe the enemy or themselves. They've put themselves under guilt.
They've carried, Lord, guilt and shame. Lord, I'm asking right now by the power of Your Holy Spirit,
You would come and You would break through. You would lift off right now in the Name of Jesus Christ
all shame, all guilt, Lord. Where there's condemnation, I'm asking right now it'd
be completely destroyed. Lord, I'm asking today, Lord, You would give us a revelation, a greater
revelation of what You've done, Lord Jesus, through the cross, Lord, what You've done through Your
death and resurrection for us, Lord, through the shedding of blood, Lord, everything that You've
done for us, everything, Lord, You've done in the new covenant for us. I'm asking, Lord, You would
open up our eyes to see and give us great revelation of what You've done for us today, Lord.
Where we don't know Your love, I'm asking, Lord, that You would release, Lord, Your love to us,
Lord. It would be revelation, Lord. I thank You that You have released it to us. You've shed it
abroad in everyone's heart by the Holy Spirit. I'm asking, Lord, it would be real to us, Lord. I'm
asking for a greater revelation of our identity and a greater revelation of Your love for us.
Father, I'm asking right now, Lord, every person who's stuck in a pit, Lord, every person, Lord,
that has had their plan and their journey, Lord, aborted, I'm asking right now, Lord, that You would
come and You would lift them up, Lord. You would put them back on that track, Lord. You would put
them back in their place, Lord, in Your will, Lord. You would move them forward. Father, I ask right
now, I declare liberty over every life today, Lord, where people have been bound, where people
have been laid hostage by their thoughts, I'm asking right now, Lord, You would come and You
would renew them, Lord, renew them in the spirit of their mind. I'm asking right now, Lord, for
healing of hearts, healing of minds. I'm asking right now, Lord, that You would touch every person's
life here today, Lord afresh. As we go today, Lord, there would be a breakthrough in our thinking,
Lord. We would know, Lord Jesus, Lord, that You are high lifted up, that You have purchased
everything, Lord. You've done it. You've finished it. Lord, You said it is finished. You said the
work is done. Lord, I declare, Lord, You're perfect in finished work, Lord Jesus, over every person
here today as they go. Lord, I declare Your liberty be released over every life. Lord, I declare right
now breakthrough. I declare breakthrough. I declare healing, Lord, and I declare, Lord, they shall go
again. Lord, Your people, Lord, they shall arise today. Lord, they shall go again. They shall walk
by faith. They shall walk, Lord, trusting and knowing that You are good, that You are faithful,
that You are merciful. Lord, I commit every person here to You. Lord, we just declare we trust You
and Lord, You are all we need. You are all we need, Lord. Father, preserve us and sustain us by Your
grace in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.