Advancing Beyond The Labels

God says you're gonna make it.

God says you're gonna make it.

Oh, God says you're gonna make it.

Though the winds are raging high, don't you worry about the thunder.

Oh, for you're not going under.

God says you're gonna make it.

You're gonna make it, cause the Master's on board.

Let's sing that together.

God says I'm gonna make it.

Oh, God says I'm gonna make it.

God says I'm gonna make it.

Though the winds are raging high, don't you worry about the thunder.

For you're not, I'm not, we're not going under.

God says we're gonna make it.

We're gonna make it, cause the Master's on board.

That feels good, doesn't it?

We're gonna make it, the Master's on board.

While you're standing, just reach and take hold of your Bible.

Open with me to a familiar passage, the book of Acts chapter 3, as we are continuing in

Acts 3 · chapter mention

this advancement into the kingdom of God's goodness.

Seeing all that the Lord has for us, what he wants to do in our lives and for our lives.

He's a great God.

Amen.

Never let the enemy cause you to doubt that.

He's a great God.

He's on time and you're not going under if you just stay in the boat.

Don't abandon ship.

Amen.

The old ship of Zion, the old songwriter wrote, you're gonna make it.

It's tattered and worn, but he's going all the way.

There's an old, right?

Is that the old ship of Zion, I see.

My mind's really spinning this morning, old songs are popping up verse by verse.

Amen.

Happens to me that way from time to time.

I can start a hundred, but can't finish but about two.

That's the reason I don't sing much more than I do without the words.

I can get you started.

We'll sing a hymn, half the red back, with starting with I'll Fly Away and just sing

them all nearly.

Well it's early.

I'm getting started early.

It's just 20 after, so we got plenty of time.

Amen.

Thank you for worshiping the Lord today.

He's our Lord.

Acts chapter three, beginning at verse one.

Now Peter and John went up together into the temple at the hour of prayer being the ninth

hour and a certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried whom they laid daily at the

gate of the temple which is called beautiful to ask alms of them that entered into the

temple.

Who's seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple ask and alms for some money.

Peter fashioning his eyes upon him with John said, look on us.

And he gave heed unto them expecting to receive something of them.

You ever look at folks expecting one thing and get totally something else.

Then Peter said silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I thee in the name

of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.

And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up and immediately his feet and ankle

bones received strength.

And he leaping up stood and walked and entered with them into the temple walking and leaping

and praising God and all the people saw him walking and praising God and they knew that

it was he what sat for alms at the beautiful gate of the temple and they were filled with

wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

Let's talk a little bit this morning about advancing beyond the labels.

Advancing beyond the labels.

I'll pray for you because you probably need a little more than I am.

Prayer that is.

If you'll pray for me.

Father we love you again.

We approach your throne of grace and mercy.

I ask God for the touch of your anointing that causes it to be easy to preach for where

the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty and we know that you're here and your presence

is here.

Your spirit is in this house for truly we have worshiped you in spirit and truth and

we know according to your word that you dwell and inhabit within the praises of your people.

So help us now together.

Help me to preach.

Help me to preach Lord that which is edifying to the body lifting up the body glorifying

your name that we together as we leave here this morning know that we've been in your

presence.

To you be praised forever.

Christ holy and mighty name and the church said.

Amen advancing beyond the labels.

Been talking about this subject now for a couple of weeks moving past moving beyond

not just the breakthrough but getting all that God has for us on the other side of breakthrough

for us many times if we're not careful.

The breakthrough is enough.

You know when you just get through and the load lightens right and the burden may be

rolled away and you just break through to to where you could just catch your breath

from the battle and we we often times are satisfied right there but there's so much

more the breakthrough comes for a reason.

The breakthrough is more than just relief.

Breakthrough is to usher us to the promise that God has for us.

Breakthrough is that we are strengthened and enabled to go forward and claim all that God

has set out.

It's again I just repeat we it's not just coming out of the wilderness but it's crossing

a Jordan.

It's not just crossing a Jordan but it's claiming a Jericho.

Oh come on it's not just claiming a Jericho but it's acquiring the whole of the promise

the land of milk and honey.

It works that way in our lives as well.

It's not just getting saved and getting out of hell free cart.

There's more to it than that.

There's you know when I mean remember when that burden of sin you repented and accepted

the Lord and it just lightened your load.

How many remember that?

Amen.

I didn't wonder if that's just all there was to it but there was so much more goodness

of God in our salvation than just not going to hell.

You know he actually loves you.

He actually desires to bless you and to cause you to prosper and to bring good things into

your life not just keep you out of hell.

I'm so glad of that.

There's so much more to God than just not going to hell.

There's going to heaven.

Well hallelujah.

And when you begin to change your perspective I'm no longer on my way to a devil's hell

but the promise of the breakthrough of salvation is there's a home prepared for me and the

promise that I receive of that is my heart does not have to be troubled because I believe

in him.

Amen.

And where he is I may also be.

So there's so much more to advancing beyond the limits than just getting by.

We discussed the man by the name of Jabez last week just a little bit and how he was

labeled at birth and and we were starting to get into the goodness of God and how God's

word promises his blessings on our life and how that Jabez called out to the Lord God

and God heard him and God answered his prayer that prayer that went like this Lord bless

me enlarge my coast that your right hand be with me and that you keep me from evil and

that it may not grieve me.

And God granted him his petition.

You know there is a danger of becoming too selfish in prayer but then there's also the

danger on the other side that we never ask God for ourself because the enemy can also

convince us that that we're too selfish.

But I don't think so.

I think the healthier we are spiritually the healthy we are emotionally and financially

then the greater assistance we can be to others when we pray for them.

If I'm in misery then my prayer is going to be misery even though I'm trying to pray for

you but but my prayer is going to be not as energetic.

Just think about it when you come through your breakthrough and the power of your prayer

when God has touched you and blessed you and the healthier you are a man and the stronger

you are it helps us to engage the battle on behalf of others when we bring our supplication

and our prayers and and our admonitions to the Lord.

Why?

Because he has heard and answered our prayer and it helps me believe that when I pray for

you he's going to answer your prayer and I become invigorated by faith and and it just

causes me to rise up and trust God when God has heard my prayer and when he's heard my

plea and he's put his blessing on my life it lets me know that he loves you as much

as he loves me and if he blesses me when I call out your name in prayer he's going to

bless you he's going to enlarge your coast he's going to cause you to be blessed and

cause you to prosper.

Why?

Because I trust him because of what he's done for me.

So don't allow the enemy to condemn you into praying for yourself before you pray for others

because the stronger you are then the greater depth of prayer you're going to enter into

to intercede on behalf of one another.

So ask God to bless you ask God to enlarge your coast ask God and you just never know

it's not out of pride it's not out of greed but it's out of love for the Lord and the

Lord will love you.

You know he's not going to do anything to add to your greed and add to your pride but

he will bless you because he loves you so I can ask him oh God bless me that I may bless

others oh God strengthen me that I may strengthen others help me oh God and God will hear a

prayer of humble heart and knowing that our desire is not ourself only but for others

as well.

Somebody need to hear that this morning that was not in the train of my thought today.

It's okay to pray for yourself.

Matter of fact you better pray for yourself you never know who's not praying for you.

Am I the only one that's ever done this knowing it's your own self?

That's how I learned not to be so heavy handy in the altar.

I didn't like being slapped in the head.

My own self.

Right?

Pray for yourself J.B.A.S. did and God was honored by that prayer and honored him by

his answer.

So the Lord will bless your life.

When we think about all the goodness of God and how it is God's desire to increase us

we get the principle and we understand even though we face trials discouragement in our

own lives and on our own cells.

It's like J.B.A.S.

We can go to the Lord look to the Lord and expect the Lord to hear and to answer our

prayer because God has promised his people throughout scripture that he would bless them.

And if God has promised to bless you it's okay to ask for that blessing.

Make sure your heart's in alignment.

Make sure your life's in alignment with his word and then it's okay for you to come and

ask for that blessing from God because God has promised those blessings.

Exodus 34 24 for I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge your borders neither

shall any man desire your land when you shall go up to appear before the Lord your God three

times in a year.

No one's going to stop you from worshiping.

I'm going to drive them out.

I'm going to cast them out.

I'm going to enlarge your borders.

In other words God said I'm taking you beyond the limits.

I'm taking you beyond the Jordan.

I'm taking you beyond the Jericho.

I promised you this land the land where Abraham had trotted out the land that he had put the

foot border on.

It all belongs to you.

It is all yours.

I will not allow any to stand in your way.

This is a promise that I make to you.

It wonderful to know that God has already established borders and we got to break our

own limits in order to get to the land which he has proclaimed.

He has promises in my and your life that we have yet to acquire because we put limits.

We stop.

We wander through disobedience.

Right obedience is the key.

I equate obedience right along with faith.

I mean they're just about hand in hand.

If you don't obey it doesn't matter how much faith you've got because faith is demonstrated

by your obedience to the word and the promises of God.

My faith in God's promises is demonstrated as I obey thus saith the Lord in my life.

So if you get in line and I get in line and we align ourselves in accordance to his word

then every promise that he has made can be acquired.

He wants to bless.

He wants to prosper.

He wants to enlarge.

It's God's desire to take you beyond your own limitations.

Oh I'm trying to get over to the text this morning.

Y'all pray for me.

That ain't the only place that he made that promise.

Isaiah 54.

The Lord said I'll enlarge the place of your tent.

Stretch your tent curtains wide.

He's telling them get ready.

Set you some borders out.

Set your tent stakes.

Move those tent stakes.

Get them out.

Stretch your tents curtains wide.

Do not hold back.

Lengthen your cords.

Strengthen your stakes for you will spread out to the right and to the left.

Your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.

It is God's word and encouragement to us to enlarge, to stretch, to lengthen, to strengthen.

God is bigger than any opposition that presents itself or crisis or disappointment or discouragement

or any other thing that's able to arise in my in your life.

God is so much bigger than the circumstances of life and the sooner you get that settled

in your mind the sooner you'll take down your own limits and your own restrictors and you'll

be able to move forward in what God has for you.

But you've got to become convinced.

I must be convinced that God is bigger, that God is still in charge, that God is still

on the throne and that he still loves you.

He still loves me and his promises are still.

Yay and amen in his son Jesus Christ.

But unless you're convinced you will limit him in your life, you won't receive all that

God has and you will refine yourself to the labels that are given.

Labels, labels like J.Baz.

He caused his sorrow.

Had he not sought God and it just accepted the fact that he was born in pain, that only

pain would result from his life.

Had he not saw that God was bigger than that pain of that moment of his birth and to know

that God had made promises to his people and that J.Baz, an obscure person, just a couple

of verses mention this whole in-depth story.

Had he not trusted God and called out on God, then the Chronicle would not have listed him

in the ancient sacred text to be a reminder to you and I thousands of years, millennia

later here we are still holding on that God heard J.Baz and that God had promised his

people that they would be blessed and that their borders would be enlarged and strengthened.

You don't have to live beneath the label that's been placed on you.

Think about labels.

They don't leave a lot of time.

It's hard to peel some labels off, isn't it?

You may get the paper off but there's always some stuff left behind.

Hello?

There's always some stuff left behind.

You might not be able to tell what the price was but those white pieces, how many other

people does that irritate besides me?

It just won't come off.

I don't know what glue they put them on with but it's good stuff.

The only label that I found that comes off easy is that one that's in the bottom of the

pie pan.

Ironically.

That glue comes out quite easily, doesn't it?

Some of the labels that get stuck on us in life, it's hard to get rid of.

Like some of them things, you get a scraper, you get a razor blade, you do everything you

can to get it off.

Some of you have been scraping some labels in your own life and you just haven't been

able to get it off.

There's this solvent that I found for humanity and for the use of human beings.

There's this solvent that I have found that's the only thing that will take care of it and

remove it and get all of it off.

It is the blood that flows from Immanuel's veins.

It when applied to whatever label of life, it just begins to curl up and just blow it

away.

You don't have to rub it.

You don't have to scrub it.

You don't have to try to peel it.

You don't have to find the alcohol or the bleach.

You don't have to get any of the goop won't get it but the blood of Jesus in the labels

and the lives of human beings.

Labels like son of sorrow and the son of pain.

That labels remove why because God intervenes and blessing is poured out.

Labels.

This man in our story in our text this morning had a label placed on him in verse two.

There's this certain man who was lame from his mother's womb.

From the day he was born his legs were of no use and so he was labeled lame.

He had this lame sticker put on him that now he's an older man in his 30s maybe 40 years

old and every day that he was old enough every day that he had to take care of himself.

Some friends carried him.

He was carried.

Oh have you ever seen labels on your life that carry you?

You ever seen things that carry you from crisis to crisis and trouble to trouble, problem

to problem.

That label that has got stuck on your life.

Sorry, no good, drunk, addict, whatever.

It may have been stuck on your life and it still seems like you can't get it off of you.

You've got somebody that's going to carry you to the solvent this morning.

You've got somebody carrying you today to the agent that is able to take the label off

of your life and get the label out of your mind.

He was carried.

He was labeled lame.

So they carried him.

Sometimes labels carry you places you don't want to go but they carried him and laid him

at the beautiful gate of the temple so he may beg alms of all those who entered in.

Labels get placed on people.

Labels get applied where you want them or not sometimes.

It's like we find in scripture in Luke 8, the woman with the issue of blood.

You don't think she wanted that label, do you?

No.

No, I'm sure she didn't want the circumstance that brought about the label.

My God in heaven.

How many of us didn't ask for the circumstance that came with the label?

You didn't ask for it but you got the label anyway.

You got stuck with it.

You didn't ask for it.

You didn't require it.

You didn't search it out.

It came to you into your life by happenstance or by reason it's entered into your life and

you're stuck with the label but thank God we're not stuck alone.

There's somebody going to carry and help us get to a place where we're able.

The woman with the issue of blood.

I talked to you a moment ago.

Obedience and faith have a lot to go together to receive the goodness of God.

When we are obedient to the word then the word's promises are available to our life.

When we are in alignment with God's word, God's structure, God's statutes then we are

in line for all that they proclaim over our life.

That woman with the issue of blood had to get some type of obedience working with a

faith and an action had to take place.

She had to hear that Jesus was coming to town and then something happened within her.

If I want this label off of me nobody's been able to help me.

They've carried me to every doctor around the country and I'm worse than I was when

I started and in spite of that I'm flat broke.

Can't afford to do anything but this man Jesus is coming to town and I've heard if I can

just get toward him then there is this ointment that he can apply.

There's this solvent that can happen in my life if I can just touch the hem of his garment

then then then then then then I know I'll be made whole.

Second Samuel 9 there's a powerful story.

David's securely king of Israel now.

Fought battles, won wars, has the full confidence of the people and he calls one of the servants

of Saul and says is there anyone left of the house of Saul?

He have any kinfolk left?

I want to bless them.

Hello I'm gonna look for a fourth or fifth cousin somewhere.

Right?

Zibia who was a servant of Saul said well I heard and this is where it really gets good.

He said I heard that Jonathan's got a son left and do you not know that that delighted

the heart of David because Jonathan was his buddy.

They were friends.

Amen.

They were close Jonathan and David.

Jonathan spared David's life from Saul's spear.

Yeah oh I was going to bless Saul but now my blessings changed.

I'm gonna bless Jonathan my buddy.

Where is this boy at?

Well I've heard he's at so-and-so's house over in Lodobar.

Now you've heard Lodobar preached on many different occasions.

Lodobar that barren fruitless place where where nothing good is at the end of the road

at the old desert pathway where there's nothing but dry desert winds and there's no green

luscious oasis around.

It's just Lodobar.

Why is he there?

Because he was afraid for his life when the powers changed and everything went over so

he's afraid for his life.

But you know how that happened?

Do you know he had a label?

Mephibosheph had a label and the label was this he too was lame.

He was lame.

The Bible says that he was lame, Zeba said he's lame on both feet.

Why?

So when the war took place and Saul had died and his his nurse picked him up to run and

to flee and she she tripped she falls and he is broken on the ground and he's paralyzed

in both legs and he still had to escape for what he thought was his life not knowing that

in the future God had a plan for Mephibosheph that God wasn't going to leave Mephibosheph

isolated in Lodobar.

Some of you may feel like you're in a Lodobar condition and position today.

There's nothing there's no fruitfulness there's no joy there's no happiness there's just

existence for you where you are.

Well let me tell you something the king of glory is mindful to bless you.

I said the king of glory not an earthly king like David.

He said I want to bless him because of Saul his daddy go get him and retrieve him.

Oh I don't have time to indulge and go deeply into the blessing of Mephibosheph.

He got all of daddy's land he got servants to work it but he didn't have to lift another

finger for the rest of his life for he was at the king's table with a label of lame removed

because his feet was beneath the table.

I don't like getting old.

I can't shout the way I want to shout.

I want to run for you and I'm afraid to run till I get suspenders.

I've already had one wardrobe malfunction this morning we sure don't need another one.

Mephibosheph sat at the king's table three different occasions I believe I read where

David made it clear to Zeba that Jonathan was staying with him.

You and your I think he had 15 sons and like 20 servants.

Y'all go till you go plow you go reap harvest.

He's got a younger Mephibosheph's got a younger son but he's staying here with me.

Doesn't matter what your label is once you get to the king's table.

It doesn't matter what life is stuck on you.

It doesn't matter what people have tried to label you with.

It doesn't matter what they say about you.

It doesn't matter what's sticking to you.

What's the king's sense?

What's the king's sense for you?

What's the king comes for you?

Then your life is changed and changed forever.

You'll always have a seat as a son of the king at the king's table.

Labels.

A woman with the issue of blood determined to go past her label.

The lame man at the gate called Beautiful was carried and laid, limited, labeled.

He was outside the gate but couldn't go in.

His condition wasn't permitted on the inside.

So he was outside church.

How many times have you felt like you didn't belong in there?

Your condition, your label didn't belong on the inside.

You relegated to the outside.

Well let me tell you something.

Nope.

That's a lie of the devil for you.

Yeah.

The doors are open wide.

Come on in.

Come on in.

You can make your way in.

You don't have to be limited to your positioning.

The only limit to your position, to the access of God's grace and glory is you.

Oh, I know there's still churches that if you don't look right and smell right, then

the outside is all there is for you.

We're not that place.

Because you see, most all of us remember when we were stuck on the outside with our own

label.

Huh?

Yeah.

And if you don't, let me remind you, you were on the outside with your own label.

Amen.

So we get too pious sometimes.

Amen.

We do.

No wonder the Lord went in, flipped tables, took a whip and drove them out and He said,

this house shall be called a house of prayer.

This is where people come to meet me.

This is where people enter in and leave chains and labels removed.

Let him in.

Left out, limited and labeled.

But not left alone.

Well, Peter and John's going at the hour of prayer.

Well, couldn't we preach about the hour of prayer?

Couldn't we talk about praying or the lack thereof?

Got a little insight for you.

Prayer's coming to Hopewell.

Prayer is making its way toward Hopewell.

There's about to be a re-emphasized instruction to pray.

And you're going to be very uncomfortable around here if you don't pray before you get

here.

Why?

Because we're going to stir up His presence in greater levels.

And if it's comfort you want, you might order to find somewhere else with a show going on

the stage because that's not what we're praying for.

We're praying for the deep stirring, the label erasing power and presence of God.

And at the hour of prayer, they made their way.

This man looked on them expecting to receive something.

But what they received was beyond his expectation.

Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have.

You can't give something you ain't got.

Pardon my English, but you can't give what you don't have.

So I'm saying let's pray up and get it.

Let's pray up and get it.

Let's get our knees bent and doubled over in prayer.

Let's get something worth giving and get something worth sharing so that we can cast our eyes

on those limited and labeled and left on the outside and help lift them up such as I have.

I give to you in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.

And he took him by the right hand.

So sometimes folks need a little faith starter.

What do you mean?

That fella been laying outside church most of his life.

They laid him there every day.

Nobody else had offered to do anything for him.

Maybe drop a denarii or something in his cup or a half one.

Maybe a mite like the poor widow woman gave in her offering.

Just a very miniscule gift just to say to their own piety, I rattled his cup.

So he looked on them expecting to receive something.

But not, I assure you, what he received.

Wouldn't it be wonderful that you have prayed to you've got something to give?

That you've prayed until you've got something to give?

And then your circle of life and your web of connections, when those people are pouring

out their soul to you of how bad life is, you've got something to give them.

And you can take them by the hand and say come go with me.

In the name of Jesus we take authority over the label that's on your life.

What the enemy's trying to stick on you and sell you for and pardon you off and just let

you just be disgraced and disgruntled in life.

I've got something to give you that you're not expecting.

Come go with me because there is a place where we can enter in.

There's help.

There is hope.

There's a lifting up.

And immediately after Peter took him by the hand, I'd say John had the left hand, Peter

might have had the right, I'd say John got him by the left hand and together, my lord

we don't have time to preach together do we?

This thing's loaded.

They lift him and immediately his feet and his ankle bones come together.

Labels.

Thomas was labeled doubting until Jesus showed up.

Right?

Bartimaeus was labeled blind until Jesus was passing by.

Now he's just Bart.

He who sees has seen Jesus.

That's the only problem preaching like this.

You can't shout to your own preacher.

If I was sitting somewhere and a preacher said that, I'd shout.

Bartimaeus' label was immediately removed.

The woman's issue was immediately resolved.

Right?

Thomas' faith was immediately restored.

He didn't even have to stick his finger in his palm.

Did he?

He said unless I stick my finger in the nail and my hand in his side, I won't believe.

Thomas?

In his confession, Lord, go ahead.

If you need to, I don't need to.

I'm good.

Seeing is believing.

The demoniac of Gadara maddened in his mind by the influence of the enemy.

He's crazy.

He lives in the tombs.

We've tried to chain the crazy nut.

And he keeps breaking loose.

But even a crazy man recognized his help.

I'd say later, he said, and y'all thought I was crazy.

What were you thinking?

As he falls at his feet and is delivered.

And when it come time for Jesus to depart, the scripture says that he was in his right

mind.

Some of y'all need to get in your right mind.

Oh, devil's played with your head long enough.

He's played with your head long enough.

And it's time to get in your right mind.

And who can do that?

Saul that we were talking about, the blood that flows from Emmanuel's veins.

You see, when you meet Jesus and you cast yourself at his feet, there's deliverance,

there's power.

And they couldn't call him the demoniac of Gadara anymore.

That label's peeled off.

It's washed clean.

There's no more residue of that label.

That was no longer his description.

They actually had to call the man by his name.

She said, no, you just, you stay here and let your testimony be a witness to everybody.

They knew who you were.

Now let them see what you are.

You got to get some things in your head.

It's not, you're no longer who you were.

So you have to show people who you are.

Well, who am I?

I am glad you inquired.

You are a son or daughter of the most high.

You are loved.

You are wanted.

You are desired.

You are worthy of all that he bestows on you.

So quit telling yourself that you're not.

Get your own label off.

So many have gotten so used to your condition

that you are accepting it.

Well, honey, you don't have to do that.

He's taking your label.

So convince yourself, I am not who I was.

Do you think if I still thought of myself, of what I was, that I'd be here?

No.

No.

It's 62 degrees today and crappier biting somewhere.

If my mental perception of myself was I still what I was, then what's the use of sitting

here?

Convince yourself of what Christ is already convinced on.

You are a new creature.

You are a new creation.

And by virtue of being new, that means different than the old.

Old things pass away.

Behold, all things are new.

So get over yourself.

The past rights kind of look smart, don't you?

Well, some of us need it like that.

Others of you I can talk gently and calmly to, but some of you just need to be told,

get over yourself.

Quit holding yourself down.

God's got you on a catapult.

He's ready to release the trigger and you're holding onto the rope.

You better stand.

There's a shifting in the atmosphere.

Labeled, limited, lifted, left out.

And the last thing the old boy did is he went on in to church with Peter and John that day.

But he didn't just show up like K. Saral.

He come in like a man had been labeled lame all his life who could walk.

That's how he went into church.

Leaping, rejoicing.

And they all looked on him and said, ain't that the old boy that's out at the gate?

Well, what's he doing?

I thought he was lame.

The key to that is he was lame, but lame no more.

You were whatever the label declared, but you're not anymore.

There's a lot of labels out there, depressed, oppressed, right?

There's a lot of labels out there.

We could go down the sin column and just lay a bunch of them off.

But before I invite you down here, let me tell you about a couple more labels that I

found.

I read about one woman who was labeled the woman with the alabaster box.

Now, that's not such a bad label.

She broke the box, poured out all of the value on Jesus.

That's pretty good, wasn't there?

Labels.

They're not all bad.

Gideon.

Smallest tribe, smallest of the tribe, least in the family, hiding at the wine press, thrashing

wheat so the enemy won't find and steal his heart.

And the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon and said, Gideon, thy mighty man of valor.

He could have said, Gideon, thou coward at the wine press, but that wouldn't have helped

old Gideon for the charge he was about to receive, would it?

And Gideon said, God thinks more of you and I than we think of ourselves.

Thy mighty man or woman of valor.

That's who you are.

I just wondered this morning, anybody need lifted today?

You know what your label's been.

You know that you've been limited.

You've been left out feeling like the enemy's got you on the outside looking in.

But I want to lift you up today.

Brother Ron, you a handsome man.

He got on this morning, he said, I've been sleeping, do I look any better?

I said, no.

He said, way to encourage me, pastor.

And I felt a little twinge way down deep.

Deep, it was way down there.

I thought, well, I could have told him, yeah, but then I'd have had to repent and there

would have been.

It's a face only a mother could love and his wife.

And they love him deeply and cherish him a lot.

And pastor, you're off track.

No, I'm not.

We need joy in our life.

I need joy.

I need some joy.

And you can preach with power and anointing and still stir joy because you know what the

enemy's stuck on you.

You know what label you've been trying to outlive.

Stop trying to outlive it.

You don't have to outlive it.

If you're washed in his blood, it's no longer who you are.

And I'm here to lift you up today.

Come on.

So pastor, I just need a hand.

I just need a hand up.

Anybody?

Come on.

It doesn't matter what the world's labeled to you.

Doesn't matter what the devil's labeled to you.

Doesn't matter what people's labeled to you.

If you're tired of living under it and you need to lift it up, come on.

I wasted a good sermon.

The wrong crowd.

I probably should preach this next week.

Mm-mm-mm.

Lord help us today.

Well, I'm glad you don't have a label on you.

And as you come across people this week that do, remind them of what the preacher said

this morning.

Let me lift you.

Grief.

Grief's a label.

Pain's a label.

Emotionally distraught is a label.

Financially distraught is a label.

All kind of labels.

What are you dealing with?

What's the enemy trying to paste on you this morning?

What's he trying to stick you with?

God is able.

Father, just stretch your hands this way.

Y'all, lift your hands up toward heaven, one toward this way.

Father, those who have stepped forward this morning.

Lord, to outlive the labels because of your amazing grace.

To move beyond them because of your love and your affection toward us.

Lord, those who may be in the load of our places, I pray this morning that you dispatch

and may they see your banner coming toward them.

The banner of the king on his way to deliver.

The banner of the king coming to lift and to lighten the load.

To lift and to lighten the load.

I need you every hour.

Oh, Father God, in the name of Jesus.

I'm not what I've been labeled.

By your stripes I'm healed.

And until I'm healed, I claim those precious blood flowed stripes.

In the name of Jesus, strengthen and encourage this morning.

Be the lifter so that we may go forth leaping for joy into your house.

Father God.