Rev. James White
Crossroads New Life Tabernacle
Matt 7:22-23
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
KJV
Do You Know Him?
• Tonight, I want to take you on a journey. It’s a journey that should begin tonight, and never have an ending. It’s a journey that will lead to the fulfillment of your soul. It’s a journey that offers healing, blessing, the supernatural. It’s a journey that offers more than you and I can comprehend, so let me sum it this way. It’s a journey that will never end that will lead you into things you will never comprehend.
• The word of the Lord came to this church through tongues and interpretation last Sunday night. “Seek My face and I will show you my face, I will show you ways that you may not comprehend. I am your God, I will sustain you, I will make a way where there seems no way. Seek My face and I will show you my face”.
• This is an invitation to Know Him church. This is an open invitation to get intimate before Him. This is our invitation to become naked and transparent before Him. This has become our invitation to move into something we have never known before.
• Since December, I have been searching the scriptures. I have been opening myself up to whatever God wants for my life. I have been searching for answers to why I am not used in the magnitude as I the early church was. I have been searching why my church is not experiencing the signs and wonders as our forefathers. I have been searching for answers and in my search, God has began to speak to me about me. He has been speaking to me about my relationship. He has been speaking to me about the level in which I know Him. And so, I want to convey a message that God has been speaking to James, because I believe it’s a message for the CRNLT.
• Thursday night I sat in my living room watching a DVD and wheeping before the Lord under conviction. I was convicted by what the preacher on that DVD was saying, and the more he spoke the more I became broken before the Lord. I will be using some of the things that he spoke into my life from the pulpit, because it’s a confirmation of the journey I began in December.
• We are one of the most innovative churches in Deville. We have set trends that other churches are beginning to follow. We have some of the greatest music, greatest programs, and some of the greatest outreach ideas. We are a cutting edge church, but I must come to this pulpit tonight and tell you, being the cutting edge church in Deville is not working.
• Dr. Gerald Jeffers at Because of the Times a preachers conference held just two weeks ago said, “Winning souls sometimes comes out of guilt or condemnation. Most soulwinning conferences are guilt driven. Sometimes we are guilty of placing ministry over relationship and God becomes jealous. We preach about winning souls and we make souls the focal point and it no longer becomes about Him, but about the programs and cutting edge ideas that reach souls.
• I must tell you, programs are great and innovative ideas are great, but I believe God is calling this church to seek after Him more than we seek souls, healing, and the gifts.
• If we seek after Him, then we will get all of this…
God is a jealous God…Ex 20:5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;
KJV
• He does not want us putting anything before Him. Nothing…I have been looking at my life, at my church, at my surrounding and saying, what is getting in the way of my relationship with Him. What is keeping me from receiving what God wants to give me.
• I have not gone crazy. I have not lost my mind. Please listen to me tonight as I try to bring what God has been speaking to me. There are things that come into our lives that can be preached, taught, or spoken into our lives that we allow to replace the relationship that God longs for with a false sense of security.
• I believe that we as a church have relied on our abilities, fundraisers, outreach programs, fellowship programs, prayer programs, motivating preaching and teaching and are missing the divine will of God.
• God wants to tell this church that he is tired of our programs, he is longing for us to fall in love with Him.
• We are seeking the hand of God and not the face of God. Remember last Sunday night, “Seek My Face, And I Will Show You My Face”. God is saying to this church seek me for me. Too long have you sought for my hand and what I can do for you. You want me for the miracles, you want me for the souls, you want me for the finances.
• When is the last time you stepped into my presence and said, “I need all those things, but my greatest need is You!” When is the last time that you just said, “I came to seek your face and nothing else”.
• Let me talk to us Pentecostals for just a minute. We have standards set in the church that have become guidelines to a holy life. Standards were set by our forefathers not as holiness, but as a guidline to stay holy. Somehow today, we have defined our standards, to become a salvation measure. We have somehow allowed them to be our measure of salvation and the need to seek Him has become secondary.
• We have people saying, “let me study the standards of Crossroads New Life Tabernacle so I can be in the choir, be a musician, teach a Sunday School class, be a youth leader…”.It’s time that we began to study about knowing Him. It’s time that we put more emphasis on divine intamcy with Him.
• We need to stop trying to get in the choir and get into his presence. We need to stop trying to be a musician and get into His presence. We need to stop trying to pass the grade to be a Sunday School teacher or a Youth Leader, or a Family Connnect Group leader, we just need to know Him.
• The greatest standard of all is if you don’t know Him in divine intamcy, they you don’t need to be in the Choir, you don’t need to be a Sunday School Teacher, you don’t need to be a Family Connect Group Leader…I don’t want to know that you have memorized all the do’s and don’ts, show me that you know Him.
• God has been talking to me on a more personal basis. Thursday night as I watched the video of Dr. Jeffers God began to speak to me. God said to me, “James, you try all of this stuff, you put all kind of effort into these innovative ideas, and you have neglected your time with me. You have placed more emphasize on the plans, than you have on the power of knowing me. Don’t you know that I want to give to you everything that you are working so hard for…If you will just turn to me, and seek my face. If you will just turn to me and know me, I will give all of this to you.”
• There something about knowing God that puts all of this stuff together. When we know Him we become intimate. It’s not about souls, It’s not about apostolic standards, it’s not about community involvement, it’s not about how many will be baptized…It’s about knowing Him in an intimate way.
• I have found that history says that our Pentecostal worship comes from the black holiness churches who used African rituals in their worship. Their music, their dancing, their shouting, all was incorporated into praise unto God. It was not their praise that brought the Holy Ghost to that little classroom setting in Topeka Kansas. It was their studying to Know Him. It was their sacrifice to know Him. The type of praise we are accustomed to was not introduced until after the Holy Ghost was being poured out.
God showed this to me this morning before Sunday School. 2 Sam 6:13-16
13 And it was so, that when they that bare the ark of the LORD had gone six paces, he sacrificed oxen and fatlings. (He worshipped)
14 And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.
15 So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting, and with the sound of the trumpet.
16 And as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David, Michal Saul’s daughter looked through a window, and saw king David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.
KJV
• It was worship that brought the Ark back. The praise didn’t come until after the worship began….I believe God is telling the church, “If you get to know me, If you seek my face, I will become your ark. I will become you Holy of Holies. I will become anything you need because I don’t hold back nothing from those who Know Me!
• “Seek My Face, And I Will Show You My Face!”
• You get ready. There are going to be some Michals who dispise you because you have grown to know Him. Michal didn’t think it necessary to praise in that manner. What she did not see, was the Worship that happened in the journey. Do not get confused by your fellow bretheren who despise you, you just stay intimate with Father God.
Tonight I want to know, Do you know Him?
My scripture text in the English version says this, Matt 7:21-23
21 "Not everyone who calls me ’Lord, Lord’ will enter the Kingdom of heaven, but only those who do what my Father in heaven wants them to do. 22 When the Judgment Day comes, many will say to me, ’Lord, Lord! In your name we spoke God’s message, by your name we drove out many demons and performed many miracles!’ 23 Then I will say to them, ’I never knew you. Get away from me, you wicked people!’
TEV
• Jesus was saying that the church in the last days will point to ministry for validation. They will point to gifts, they will point to ministry, they will point to how many souls were saved. But in all the ministry, all the gifts of the spirit working, all the souls won, Jesus says to them “I never knew you”.
• You may be asking how do you do all this and He never knew you. The greek word for know in this scripture means, I do not recognize or acknowledge you. It basicly says, I never seen you in my bedroom.
• Many are winning souls through artificial insemination. It’s lab work…It’s procedure with no intimacy.
• God is saying to this church, if you come to Me and get intimate with me, you will become the wife that gives birth. It’s the end result of intimacy..
• Dr. Jeffers at Because of The Times used a story similar to what has happened to me in November. Remember that God is a jealous God…If you remember I requested prayer for a family that was coming to my house for counseling. They were needing help to put their marriage back together. In their quest to put it all back together, we discovered that he was jealous of his own son. She was placing so much attention on the son, that he was feeling left out.
• The reason he was jealous, was because for years it was just him and her. Now he has to share it with the baby. She was actually making him jealous over his own baby. She didn’t understand how he could become jealous over his own baby. They stopped going out on dates. They stopped spending time in intimacy.
• God is speaking to the church and he saying, “you are making me jealous over my own baby. You don’t talk to me anymore about how you want Me. You only talk to me about how you want a baby. I am no longer your husband, I have become father of the ministry.
• Crossroads New Life Tabernacle God is saying to this church, “Seek My Face, And I Will Show You My Face!” Seek me for me and I will give you whatever you want.
• Do You Know Him? God is not seeking our commitment to ministry, to souls, to outreach meetings, that is what Pastor and your Assistant Pastor is asking. God is seeking for someone who will be his wife!
Conclusion
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Sunday a week ago, this church has began a journey. “Seek my face, and I will show you My face”. I wish someone would just come to this altar to Worship…No singing, No music, just intimacy between the groom and bridegroom.
• Don’t ask for anything. Don’t ask for souls, for financial blessing, for strength, just come into His presence and worship.
• God is telling this church, Seek Me for Me! I want to give you all of this, but I want you to seek Me for Me.
