Tilting The Balance Of Power

He's speaking the words in verse four. It is written, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds or comes forth from the mouth of God. Are you the curious type? Have you found yourself over the last few weeks standing in the checkout line of the supermarkets and just kind of like stealing a glance at the National Enquirer, taking a quick peek at what the globe was saying about the 90s? I asked Sherry if I could borrow her copy. She graciously consented. We have a fascination with this kind of thing. I mean, all over the media in the last two weeks we're just seer after seer and prophet after prophet telling us what was going to happen, even in our own Pittsburgh Press today. What's coming in the 90s? In the food section, in the entertainment section, in the travel section, in the lifestyle section. And everyone wants to know what's coming. It's sort of a fascination that we have if we're normal. You little, those of you who have a little doubt about what I'm saying, if you watched any football games, I have a hunch that some of you folks, when Shearson Lehman Hutton said, January 1, 1990, this is what we see. Even some of the little more tuned in ones of you listen, well, boy, they're saying this is going to happen with my CD. You see, we want to know if we could just get a little insight into the market. Well, you know, it's interesting that the Lord doesn't seem to have a problem with our fascination about the future. He warns us now in Deuteronomy 13 not to go to seek out the fortune tellers and the people that would tell their own ideas about the future. He says, stay away from them. But he, on the other hand, sent us prophets. And the prophets told the people what was going to happen before it happened. Jesus said, I tell you the things that are going to happen to me so that when they do happen, what? You'll believe that I am who I said I am. The Lord kind of knows that we have this yearning to know what's going to happen in the future. And for the few minutes that I have this morning in God's word, I want to just kind of put one foot sort of in the front door of the office of the prophet. Now, I don't purport to stand before you with a strong prophetic gift in my life. I do believe, though, that everyone that is filled with the Holy Spirit has the capacity to move in a prophetic fashion. This is another whole thing I don't want to get into this morning. But as I've waited on the Lord over these last weeks, especially since I've come back from India, the Lord just began to quicken some things in my spirit that I believe he wants to make known to us. And we have some very important choices, dear ones. As I shared with the elders, we had a wonderful elders retreat Friday night and Saturday. And I shared, you know, we have a choice in 1990 to manage our past successes or to move on into the future and receive God's tomorrows. That's the same choice that you have. And the Lord wants to give us some insight as to what just might take place, things that we can expect. And let our faith begin to rise to meet that. And by the way, as I share these corporate things that I believe the Lord is speaking, keep in mind that they're going to impact you. How many of you know when something happens to your family, it impacts you? If dad gets transferred and you're part of the family, it impacts you. If something takes place to one of the kids and you're part of that family, it impacts you. Well, the Lord's saying some things to our family, our church family, and it's going to impact you. Number one, we can expect in 1990 that the Lord is going to pour out a rise in prophetic ministry. Now, how many of you believe God is still speaking today? You know, when I was in school, we would read books that debated that subject. And that was all right, because we need to know what men think. But the Bible that we just read says that men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds. The word proceeds literally means to continue on, to come forth. It's in the Greek present tense, which means that it's still happening. God's word is proceeding, and he wants to speak to his people. Now, the problem with prophetic ministry is there have been so many people that have messed it up. God's prophetic word is right and pure. And it is given, 1 Corinthians 14 says, for edification, exhortation, and comfort. And that's good. How many of you like some of that? I would. But man gets into it, and man allows himself every once in a while to get tweaked just a bit. And I don't know about you, but I've had more problem over my 25 years of being a Christian with prophetic ministry than any other kind. I mean, I love prophetic ministry. I think the prophets are bizarre. But that should not deter me or you from saying, Lord, I want to open to all that you have for me. If I were to stand up here and say, no, the Lord is telling us in 1990 he's going to send us more teachers, you'd say, oh, great. We need more instructors. More pastors, you'd say, well, ho-hum. And you'd say, more evangelists, you might get really excited. More apostles, and you'd say, wow, we're getting mature. But I see more prophets. And if you're honest, well, gosh, I know what happened last time we had one of those. Well, I'm not talking about Elijah coming back. I'm talking about the Lord using you to hear him speak in a way that will, as you faithfully transmit that to another, encourage them, edify them, comfort them, and exhort them to go on in Jesus. Now, how many of you just say, if that's what the Lord wants, I'm available to that? I hope that you are. Along with that, I believe the Lord is going to be increasing words of wisdom and words of knowledge that will accompany this rise in prophetic ministry in 1990. And we're going to see some things happen as a result of that. Two months ago, at a leadership meeting, I shared with the leaders that I felt this was something the Lord was stirring on a Saturday morning. The next morning, Kent Henry was here. Remember Kent Henry, the guy that led the worship? In between services at the morning prayer time with the elders, Kent kind of hesitatingly said, you know, I'd like to share one thing, but I don't know if it's in order. I feel maybe I'm going to be stepping on somebody. He said, but I feel that this is a wonderful church. He said, but I think the Lord is saying to expect prophetic ministry to rise. Now, when you start putting those kinds of things together, folks, I want you to know the Lord is trying to get our attention. All I'm asking you to do is just say, OK, Lord, if that's true, then I'm available. I want to be. Some of you who have a more seasoned, mature point of view on this will be hearing the Lord in a more powerful ways for the whole body. But all of you in home groups, groups will be meeting tonight, other times during this week. Expect the Lord to begin to nudge you. And on Wednesday nights, I'll be bringing some teaching from time to time on how to open to that. All right, number two, the Lord said that this is going to be a year of advancing in mission. Now, I'm not just talking about third world mission, although that is part of it. But the Lord is calling us in this new year to release some of the activities and some of the involvements that do not contribute to the fulfillment of our mission. Folks, there's a lot of good things, is there not? Pastor Scott just mentioned a whole list of things that are happening. You could get out there and just bury yourself in activities. But the Lord is saying, put aside the lesser things and focus on the mission. I want to give you a one sentence declaration of our mission. Our mission, folks, is to bring hope to this generation. Let me say it again. Our mission is to bring hope to this generation. Do you believe that without Jesus, our generation has no hope? Is He just an option? He is the way, the truth, and the life. Without Him, we don't have any hope. And a lot of people around you who have all the accoutrements of success don't have any hope because they're finding that those things wither away, get banged up, sometimes turn and destroy them. And we have the answer to that longing need inside. We have hope, and we can share it. And the Lord is saying that in 1990, we're to focus on declaring that and do the things that make for that mission to advance in powerful ways. I still believe that our culture is looking for a person, a group of people who are real, relevant, and related. You remember those three terms from two years ago? I don't care how successful people are. They still are looking for the real thing. More often than not, I have people, when I share with them about Christ, they share. They say, well, you know, I've been to church, and everyone's a fake, or I see so-and-so going to church and singing and going out and getting drunk the next night, or whatever it is, the dichotomy that they see. As you faithfully represent Christ to them, do you know something? You embody to them. You incarnate hope. You're an evidence that maybe there's something here that they don't fully understand yet. And I want you to know something. In 1990, we're going to make great advances in seeing that hope fulfilled in people. And I believe the Lord is going to allow us to see some great victories in advancing our mission. One of the things I believe is going to happen, that we are going to see our first successful church planting. Number three, we're going to see pockets of revival. In the past, I don't know about you, but I've been inclined to think of revival in terms of Charles Finney, or John Wesley, or George Whitfield, you know, somebody with like the laser beam eyes that would walk in, and you'd say, oh, God, I need to repent. You know, when Charles Finney walked into a factory or into a village, you read the stories. J. Edwin Orr was one of my professors in school. He told me about stories of the Welsh revival and places like that where whole villages would shut down. People would leave the factories in the marketplace and go to church in the middle of the day. And I have a mentality of revivalism that is when God moves, you know, the whole society is going to just bow down. And over the last weeks and over the last months, I've been wondering, Lord, how are you going to bring revival? And you see, our culture is so much more spread out and interrelated and overlapping and yet still isolated and independent in lots of ways. I don't envision revival coming that all of Pittsburgh is going to shut down and go to prayer at first press, you know, like it might have been at one point. But what I do believe the Lord is saying is that you can expect in this year, we're going to hear places where the Lord just starts doing a sovereign work with a group of people. Instead of in a village, in a whole village, we're going to see vocational villages begin to be impacted. What do I mean by that? Well, I mean we're going to see things like professional health care people, doctors and their particular little group of folks there. Some are going to find the Lord and it's going to begin to catch. We're going to hear of neighborhoods where a whole group of families come to the Lord. We're going to hear of students and teachers in a particular school experiencing a revival of God's love. This kind of thing is going to happen, folks. And just jot it down. When we begin to see that happen, it's not just going to be one little here. We're going to see little groups, pockets of revival. I don't know about you, but boy, that is the kind of thing. I remember when maybe five or six years ago, one of our family, a person came and met the Lord. We were at St. Teresa's. They brought their sister. Their sister brought their brother. Their brother brought their wife. And it wasn't long before like eight or nine family members in the space of three weeks came to Christ. That's the kind of thing we're going to see this year ahead. That gets me just a little bit excited. And I hope it gives you just a little surge of faith. Think of where you work. Would you think of what would happen in your school? Say, well, I've been there 10 years and it's never happened. This is a new day. And I'm going to share why in a minute. Number four, the Lord is calling us to expect this to be a year of fierce joy. What is fierce joy? You see, when I think of the joy of being a Christian, many times I think of praise the Lord. It's so great to be good. Hallelujah. I don't even have to. And that's sort of a syrupy thing. I just, I'm not, that is not, I don't go on very far with that. What is fierce joy? I believe that's what the Lord gives to us when we experience the struggle and the trial of obedience, going through the tunnel of obedience that we talked about last year, getting to the place where, by faith, we gain a victory, and then we rejoice. You want to know when I saw fierce joy? Last Sunday, I joined with a whole group of you, 150 or more of you, who came down to Preserver Pit School. But after that event, we were settled off in the bus and drove home. And just like you, I felt my hand being led to the television and turned on the Steeler game. And we know some of these men. It makes it a little more personal. At the end of that long fourth quarter, and that exciting overtime, bodies were laying on the field. Gary Anderson kicked this 50-yard field goal. And I saw in the faces of a lot of those men, as the camera panned across the team, I saw fierce joy. I saw men who were so spent, had no energy left, that all they could do when that ball went through the uprights was to just shout one last time and then fall over. That's what it was like. There was a joy to that. And you know what I'm talking about. When you pay a price for something, and the victory comes, it's sweet victory. The Bible says that Jesus, for the joy set before Him, endured the cross and suffered its shame. And in this year ahead, we're going to be paying some prices, church. God's not just going to do these things that I'm talking about just because I'm standing up here saying it. He's going to do it because some of us are going to get serious, more serious than we've been. And when we walk through these different obstacles and we pay the price and pray the price and stand firm, we're going to experience a fierce joy. And I want you to know the devil does not want us to know that. He wants us just to continue to be half-hearted, miserable, in between. But once you've tasted it, you just want more of the joy of the Lord. And that joy becomes your strength, Nehemiah 8.10 says. And you want to go on. Now, how are these things going to happen? How are they going to happen? Well, it's funny because over the years, I've noticed at North Way that most of what happens here just is sort of gradual. As Walt Spiker said, it sort of comes to pass. I said, Lord, is it just going to come to pass in good time? And as I was praying this last Wednesday, I took some time away. The Lord said to my heart, he said, expect things to happen. Now, get ready. Suddenly, suddenly, the Lord says, Malachi 3.1, suddenly the Lord appeared in his holy temple. And people bowed and worshipped him. Suddenly, there was in heaven the sound of a mighty rushing wind. There's lots of references in the scripture as to the suddenlies of God. You take a little concordance and mark down. Why does it say suddenly this and suddenly that, suddenly this? I'm ready for a suddenly, aren't you? About nine months ago, we had a suddenly on this property. We marched on every piece of ground in the North Hills. People were wondering what we were doing, marching around, ground, here and there. Nothing was really happening. Then suddenly, one day, one little conversation, and the Lord opens the door. These things that I'm sharing with you are going to happen suddenly as our faith is applied to what the Lord is saying is going to take place. But here's the key. It's going to happen when we as a people realize that somebody has to tilt the balance of power. When somebody adds their faith, their prayer, and their willingness to stand in the gap to all the rest of us, when that one last person steps on this scale and sees things happen, I have an overhead that's going to demonstrate that for you. In lots of circumstances right now, the enemy seems to have us. Under accusation and deception, his two weapons that he has, he keeps us in bondage. He holds us in our hearts. He reminds us of our failures. You see, some of us know that prayer releases the power of God to change things, to release righteousness, truth, deliverance, healing, love, forgiveness, all the things that the Bible talks about. But as long as the balance of power is tilted downward, you don't experience those things. Some of you have been praying for circumstances for 10, 15, 20 years. Nothing's really happened. But there's going to be a day. There's going to be a day in 1990 in many of our lives and the corporate life of this church when the next person who steps on this scale and adds their faith and joins their prayers, stands in the gap with the rest of us, is going to tilt. Let's put up the other one. Tilt the balance of power and cause the righteousness and the faith and the deliverance and the healing and the love and the forgiveness to flow and wipe out the rejection and the hurt. 10 weeks ago, I was as stunned as anybody. I was in India when I picked up a copy of an English newspaper that said in the headlines the Berlin Wall was coming down. Were you stunned by that as I was? Nobody expected it to happen with the speed that it did. It was like out of nowhere, freedom was pulsating through the Eastern Bloc countries. But wise and discerning people understand this, that for the last 30 years, many saints have been praying, seeking God, asking for deliverance, breakthrough. Many people, not even Christians, were standing in a resolve against the bondage of communism, not bowing the knee. And at one particular time, almost without announcement, the balance of power was tilted. And look what happened. You think miracles don't happen? You don't think that was a miracle. You don't think that things could happen overnight? Something of that magnitude. Dear ones, if that can happen overnight, anything that you're facing can happen overnight. Boom. But it's only going to happen as some of those that are here in the sound of my voice today realize that it happens because God sends people to stand in the gap, to tilt the balance of power. And there is a gap out there. Ezekiel talks in chapter 22 and verse 30 about looking for a man to stand in the gap. What kind of a gap is he talking about? The gap between the ideal of God and reality as we know it now. How many of you know there's a gap there? How many of you are not quite as saintly as you think God wants you to be? How many are not quite as whole as you think God wants you to be? Well, there's a gap in there, right? God said, and it's easy to put that in the mind of a pagan. There's a gap between God's righteousness and their sinful condition. But the Lord is saying, who is going to stand in that gap? That's the definition of an intercessor. An intercessor is one who stands in the gap between the ideal of God and the reality of man. This is where God wants you. This is where I really am. Some of you parents know what it means to be an intercessor for your kids. Many of us are going to discover what it means to be an intercessor for the good things of God. And I know in my own life that this issue is not one that just falls into place. It just doesn't happen real easily. There's gaps out there that I find are not easy for me to stand in. But the Lord is calling us to that this year. And as you hear me today, and you just sort of meditate, is it really possible that I could be the one, let's put that scale up again, please, that tilts that balance? I could be the one that would literally be the difference between getting through and falling short. I don't know. I hope it does something in you that it does in me. What kind of person would that be? There's three simple things that you can do today, just two. Well, I have a college degree, and I put that antenna on there. And just like that, the image went perfectly clear. The sound, perfectly crisp. The color, perfectly bright. Dear ones, some of us must put our antenna on. We've got to hear God. We've got to focus on the Lord. What's the antenna? You need to give the Lord your ears. You need to listen to Him and focus on Him. This is going to be the most exciting year of our ministry. Our family is going to go through some great changes. Read about it in your notes. But that means so much to you, whoever you are, if you're part of this family. The issue is, will you be one of the ones who tilts the balance of power or one of the ones who just stays stuck on the side of the scale that says, failure, disappointment, hurt? You can be one who stands in the gap. My summons to you this morning as we start this new year, we're going to head down a long road together. Be one who stands in the gap. Be one who tilts the balance of power. We sang those choruses today by design. We sang the choruses about Jesus leading His army, about the Lord hearing our prayer, about the sound of the army of the Lord, because I believe that's what we're to be. I ask you to be part of it. Stand with me for prayer, would you please? Lord, there's so much that could be said, but you have the final word. Lord, I ask right now that what of human communication is not effective if the Holy Spirit would make a lie, and that you'd put hope in the hearts of everyone that's here, Lord, that they can come and stand on your holy hill and receive grace today to stand in the gap, to tilt the balance of power, Father. Lord, not just words, not just something we read in a book, but in reality to make a difference, God, to stand. You know, just 48 hours ago, I sat in my office with a man who's been part of our congregation for a number of years. His life is in real distress right now. And I said to him, brother, when it all peels away, what do you want to have said about your life in the end? Because he was asking questions about family and about God and what it all meant. He said, well, he got back, kicked back in that chair I have a little bit, and he said, I just want my life to make a difference. Now, that's a simple statement, but how many of you would say, that's what I want about me, my life. I want to make a difference. What I shared with you today, any one of you can receive. It begins with what you've, God never asked you to give, what you haven't received first. We're going to have communion here in a moment. And I'm going to ask you today, if you want to be a stand in the gap man, receive that communion as an enablement today from the Lord himself to help you to be one who tilts the balance of God. Now, let's prepare our hearts as we sing this new chorus together. Who may ascend to the hill of the Lord, stand in his holy presence? Well, the answer is you. Let's sing together. Who may ascend to the hill of the Lord, and who may stand in his holy face? He who has demanded a pure heart may ascend to the hill, may ascend to the hill, may ascend to the hill of the Lord. Once again, who may ascend? Who may ascend to the hill of the Lord, and who may stand in his holy place? He who has demanded a pure heart may ascend to the hill, may ascend to the hill, may ascend to the hill of the Lord. Lent my hands and my heart, O Lord, come and purify me in your blood. Fill my life with your righteousness, so that I may ascend to your hills, in the hill of the Lord's holy place. Lord, even the physical remembrances of the things, Lord, that we can't correct, we commune together now, Lord, taking your bread and your cup. May it surely be life to us, my friend, that we might be persons who stand in the gap. Let's hope for balance. In North Way, we celebrate the Lord's table as an open table. That means that if you're here today even as a guest, or perhaps a visitor that came to be with us, you're invited to share. Jesus said, this is my body broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. His only condition was that you not eat in an unworthy manner. That means that you don't presume that it's just another communion, another ritual, but that you see this as a celebration and remembrance of his sacrifice for you. In the event that there might be some here today who have not recently, or I should say, have never consciously opened to the love of God in a personal relationship with Christ, your communion today can be a communion of faith. You can receive his sacrifice for your sin and open to him. For all of us, I trust, you'll receive the Lord's table today as the promise of him putting into you the grace to walk in full obedience to his word in your life. You may be seated. Hushers, if you'll come now, please, and deacons, and serve. Lord, we set apart now these elements for their sacred use. Let us receive the Lord Jesus. Hold your portion for just a moment, please, and we'll celebrate together.