Reclaiming Zion's Captive Children | Pastor Paul McGee

Since he never Hallelujah walks away, Hallelujah, we walk away

so many times, give up. He never walks away.

He won't leave this there. The Scripture talks about

Haggard, the one that was the mother of Ishmael had had this

child with Abraham and Sarah had sent her away and Abraham kind

of endorsed that as well. The Bible says found her out

there into a desert wilderness place.

Her little boy was there and she kind of had him over a stones

castaway and she was just totally frustrated by life and

out there in that very desolate wilderness place.

She come to this realization and it's stated in Scripture.

She said the Lord begin having a conversation with her in that

desert place. She had been in a hand, a

handmaiden in the House of Abraham and Sarah.

So she knew what it was like for God to speak to them and

overhear the conversations they had with God.

But in this episode, Abraham's not around.

In this episode, Sarah's not around.

And so when God started speaking, she's almost a little

set back because she's always used to hearing that voice speak

to somebody beside her. But at this moment, in that

place of desolation and barrenness, she understood God

was speaking to her. And she said he's the God that

sees me. He's the God that sees me.

Somebody needs to be comforted tonight.

He's not speaking to your brother or your sister right

now. He's a God that sees you in your

desolation, in your barrenness, in your he's a God that sees

you. Hallelujah.

We love you Jesus. Such a wonderful God.

Man. It's good to see you all.

I would go through all the names I get my wife just she just

covers it all. So I just say kudos and concur.

And yes, we are so happy. Amen deceive you and have you

and that's not a condescending statement course her at all.

I'm thankful for what she does in leading us in these services.

Thankful for the praise team leading.

I know they had a busy weekend. I know both Mason sets of Masons

families were gone on Friday and Saturday with district and

planning and things like that, both those days.

And so they've come back and such and the time they put on

hand usually on a day through the week to practice for Sundays

and such. And so we just got people

always, you never know who's going to come or who's going to

go around here. I came in, it's been a busy

week. I, I do different things to do

like iron sharpens iron for mentoring young ministers.

And so I did that on Thursday night for probably over an hour

session with them. And I came in and the cleaning

team was here doing their thing, right, talking and cleaning.

All right. And it's all right that there's

both that I was doing that and I was out there doing it.

And all of a sudden I hear this alarm, the church alarm starting

to beep, like counting down to arm.

I'm thinking, I wonder if they don't even know I'm here because

I did kind of just sneak in, you know, and I'm doing my about my

voice. I thought for surely would be

heard. And so I'm in a zoom meeting

with these guys said just hold a minute.

I need to make a call and so I called brother Reese and he

didn't answer his phone, don't you know, but he called me back.

He's like I don't know how he ever he says hello.

However y'all do it? I don't know.

I'm not up to that speed OK? I still say hello.

I said, buddy, I said, Dad, did you just alarm the church?

I'm over here in the office. Oh, I just put it on home.

He said, so you're good. You know, in case anybody, I

thought, because I thought as soon as I leave that office, the

motion detector in the sanctuary and I'm going to make a mad dash

and hit in my code and take care of that.

No, he thought about me, but you never know what's going to be

going on around here. People cleaning, people

practicing, people praying people.

Amen. I have, I walked in before with

members of cleaning team that's been up here prior to church or

prior to clean up here praying. I told my wife said let's just

back out of here. This is a holy moment right

here. Amen.

You can stand with me. I don't use some of you already

stand. Isaiah chapter 49.

Isaiah 49 · chapter mention

Isaiah chapter #49 I have a lengthy reading.

All right. Sometimes they say lengthy

reading means short sermon. That's not necessarily true.

I have a lengthy reading. Amen.

Tonight I want to start with verse #14 I'm sitting on my

couch last night and but something come over me as I was

looking in a folder that I put thoughts and things that God has

dealt with me on through, you know, the years.

I came across something that my spirit was impressed and I was

so impressed with this that it took me back to another sermon

that I preach last year at a camp meeting as along the same

lines and feel like preaching it tonight like preaching it

tonight. I not that old sermon.

This is a brand new sermon, but in Isaiah 49.

Let's just look at the Scripture.

The Bible says but Zion, everybody say Zion, but Zion

said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me.

Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have

compassion on the son of her womb?

Yeah, they may forget. Yet will I not forget thee?

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands.

Thy walls are continually before me.

Thy children shall make haste by destroyers, and they that made

the waste shall go forth of thee.

Lift up thine eyes. This is, this is the dress

design. Lift up thine eyes around about,

and behold all these gather themselves together, and come to

thee as I live, saith the Lord. Thou shalt surely they thou

shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament,

and bind them on thee as a bride doeth.

For thy waste and thy desolate places in the land of thy

destruction shall even now be too narrow by reason of the

inhabitants. They that swallow the up shall

be far away. The children which thou shalt

have after thou has lost the other, shall say again in thine

ears, The place is too straight for me.

Give me, give place to me, that I may do well.

Then shalt thou say in thine heart, who have begotten me,

thee see, and I have lost my children.

This is I'm saying, No, we're talking about children.

I've lost children, and am desolate a captive in removing

to and fro. And who have brought up these?

Behold, I was left alone these, where?

Where had they been, or where did they come from?

Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will lift up mine eyes, my

hand to the Gentiles, and set my standard up to the people, And

they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughter

shall be carried upon their shoulders.

And kings, just bear with me a little bit longer.

And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their Queens thy

nursing mothers. And they shall bow down to thee

with their face toward the earth, and lick up the dust of

thy feet. And thou shalt know that I am

the Lord, for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.

Verse 24 Shall the praise Zion is answering back.

You're talking about this. But shall the prey be taken from

the mighty? For the lawful captive

delivered. Thus saith the Lord, Even the

captains of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the

terrible shall be delivered. For I will contend with him that

contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children, and I will

feed them that oppressed thee with their own flesh.

And they shall be drunken with their own blood, as the sweet

wine. And all flesh shall know that I

am the Lord, thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the mighty one of

Jacob. God's wanting to do something in

Zion, but something's happened to Zion in the past.

She's lost some children, some sons and daughters, and God

wants to bring them back. But Zion's almost in disbelief.

How can this happen? They're under the hand of a

mighty thumb of oppression that God says even from the mighty

hand, I will save your children. I'm preaching with backsliders

and prodigals on my heart tonight, and I'm preaching to

the church, Zion, and I'm preaching this this evening,

reclaiming Zion's captive children.

Reclaiming Zion's captive children.

Folks, I I believe, and I'm convinced in his word, that as

the timetable clicks closer to eternity that there's going to

be a harvest of those that once sat on the Pew.

Hallelujah. Let's pray right now.

Father God, I come to you, Lord, and I'm thankful, Lord, for your

spirit. I'm thankful, Lord, for the

songs of Zion. Thankful, Lord, for the power of

your Holy Ghost. I pray, O Lord, tonight you're

able to guide our steps and you're able to guide our minds.

And Lord, let your word, Lord, be applicable.

Lord Jesus each and everyone Lord setting of the sound of my

voice. Help from God to be encouraged.

Let Zion God find her moorings, the Lord and her strength and by

faith, but to be able to believe God, what you desire to do and

what you desire to accomplish. God, I believe in you and it the

Lord here Lord online God and for the church collective in the

lovely name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are moments when the church, like Zion in Isaiah 49,

feels forsaken and feels forgotten.

There are seasons in this life that we call church life of

barrenness and loss and discouragement that weighs heavy

upon our lives and it leads us to question God's care at times.

It leads us to question God's presence here in the Scripture.

Zion is burned and Zion is broken.

Her walls are laying there in ruins, and her children had been

carried away, and they were struggling to reconcile their

desolation with God's promises for them in their life.

And her, her lament and her cry echoes the cries of those who

have ever experienced the heartache of backsliders or

prodigals or estranged loved ones, those who have seemed to

be maybe, in our human estimation, beyond hope, or held

captive by the mighty forces of sin and shame and despair.

Yet in these verses we find that God speaks with a unshakable

assurance, declaring that his enduring love and his enduring

faithfulness was there for Zion. He tells her that the brokenness

that she has is not the image that he remembers.

It's not the image that he recalls.

He said her walls, though shattered right now in the

moment, He said they are continually before me and

they're restored and glorious and aforementioned state.

He even says Zion, you, you just cannot see the hope you God.

I understand that you're seeing the future and you're seeing

this adorned with the beauty of our children and and filled with

them that are returning. But Zion has not yet caught a

vision, Amen, of what God wanted to do.

And so this chapter invites our us with eyes of faith to look to

the Lord as God would beckon to bring from the nations of Four

Nations and cultures the children of estranged sons and

daughters back to Zion. The reclaiming, if you will, of

the captives of rescuing, of those that have been taken

place. Some of those are even known as

the lawful captives be brought home.

He had a promise of restoration. He had a promise, promise of

redemption. And so in the Scripture we got

to hear the hope filled promise that God is giving to Zion, that

he'll come forward and he'll contend with those that have

contended with her. That he indeed will bring the

prodigal home. He's trying to stir her faith.

Hey man. That the church's children,

though they may be estranged, and though they may be bound,

and though they may be lost, will return as ornaments of

glory, adorning Zion as a bride, ready for the bridegroom again.

Can someone say, man, you must understand these verses of

Scripture tonight. They were written on the eve of

Israel's return from a Babylonian captivity.

They're encouraged in verse #13 of this chapter to sing.

Zion is. But Zion feels forsaken and

forgotten. She had endured years of

suffering in years of pain. As the city Zion is burnt, her

walls are broken down. Many, if not most of her

inhabitants have been carried away as captives to a foreign

land, a strange land of foreign culture.

And no doubt those that have been carried away.

Their plight is connected to their disobedience.

They are where they are because they have done what they have

done. Many have push God aside outside

of their minds. They have pushed God aside

outside of their thoughts and their actions, and the Lord is

just seemingly given to those captives.

What they were leaning toward that that he's allowing them to

go to a land. Amen.

In the atmosphere of paganism and idolatry, because that's

where they had leaned. They have proverbially made

their bed and now they are laying down in it.

They were lawful captives, if you will, that they were not

imprisoned so much as they were made to feel comfortable in

houses in Babylon. They were made to feel

comfortable in communities along the river of Babylon.

Babylon, which is a type of the world It specializes in

attempting to integrate those that were enzyme to feel

comfortable and a part of the Babylon society because Babylon

knows how to just apply the right amount of pressure.

So that one that once knew Zion will now identify and accept the

customs of Babylon. That one that used to know Zion

will accept the names even like the three Hebrew boys that that

that Babylon is putting on them and all the religious practices

of that place. It doesn't take you to see that

it's hard to keep the tension between being faithful to God,

Amen, and not coming under the cultural expectations of

Babylon. Many of those that were taken to

that city in that place were unsuccessful.

They integrated, they, they, they lost, if you will, the

morals of what Zion had instilled in them.

They had loosed them. They had cut them off.

They blended in with their surroundings.

They're alienated from Zion. They're alienated from the

church. Other sooner if not later,

though, Amen already begin to think through Amen, the

decisions that they had made and the actions that they had taken.

And the Bible describes that. There's a bit of tinge of regret

in their voice. But the Bible says that by the

river of Babylon, there was some that sat down.

And yeah, they wept when they remembered Zion.

Someone say man, those Zions walls are broken down.

God tells us that Zion is not forgotten though her walls are

in disarray. He tells her that I've engraving

you on the palms of my hands. Hey man, which is a

foreshadowing no doubt of the crucifix of Calvary's cross.

He says your walls are continually before me.

And in other words, the way that I remember you, Zion, are not

the ways that you are presently in the broken down state, the

without your children's state, without your sons and daughters

state. I know you feel inadequate,

Zion. I know you feel vulnerable

because of your broken down walls, he says.

But the image that I bear in my mind is when your walls were

high and they were continually before me.

Hey, man, it's the picture that I have.

I know it's not the picture of what he is, but it's the picture

of what still can be. Just follow the Scripture here a

little bit. We're we'll be going back and

forth. The Bible says if we can see

again in verses 15 and 16, he says, can a woman forget her

sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son

of her womb? Yeah, they may forget, he says,

but I will not forget the any woman in this place that's ever

nursed a baby understands the impossibility of forgetting a

nursing child. Those cluster feeding times when

you don't have much time in between and when a break is

welcomed. Those moments whenever, and I'm

not trying to be graphic, but those moments when the milk

let's down just from the whimper of your infant, the little

pulling of tiny hands on the blouse.

Amen. Because it's indicating to you

and the nestling its head into your chest because it's it's

trying to tell you it's feeding time.

You can't ignore that. He says, would would a woman

forget? Would a woman forget her sucking

child? He and the rhetorical question

that we should answer said absolutely not, but even says

she even may forget but I will not forget you.

Someone say God remember Zion, God remember Zion.

I remember it so well. I know I've told it here before,

but sister Laser, a woman that goes into the prisons with us,

she always tells her story about her abandonment by her parents,

her mom and dad and how she lived a life of violence and

fighting and that's the only way she knew how to get through

life. It was just the fight and

violence that became her way of life.

And eventually somewhere along the way someone had given her a

Bible. She had never owned a Bible in

the entirety of her life and someone gave her.

For a Bible Amen in her life and she was like at wit's end and

she was like God, you're just going to have to prove yourself

to me God, you're just going to have to let me know that that

you exist and I'm not able to trust anybody else in my life.

I've been abandoned by my mother.

I've been abandoned by my father.

She says you're just going to prove yourself to me in my life

and she said I took that Bible and I just did what you do

sometimes. She said I flipped it open and

threw my hand down on the verse. She never read the Bible before,

she says, and I put my finger down on the verse and it landed

on Psalms 27 and 10. That said, when my father and my

mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.

Honey, not only does he remember those that used to be in Zion,

he remembers Zion. You'll be the father that you

don't have and the mother that maybe have abandoned you.

God remembers his children. But right now Zion doesn't have

all the fields. Zion feels partially abandoned

by God because one reason she has been deprived of her

children. But the Bible also tells us in

verse 21, not only as has children been taken from her,

she says that she's unable to conceive.

She says that I'm desolate, which in the Hebrew the meaning

of that word is I'm very. So not only have I been children

taken away, but I'm in a season of life.

I can't have any children. I'm talking to the church

tonight. I know I had years how to

evangelize them and been a part of this thing since 1990 and

before that, if you count whenever we started doing all

this. Let me over the years, I've been

deprived. We've been deprived as the first

Apostolic Church, as Kingsburg Pentecostal Church in Kingsburg.

We've been deprived of children by whatever major.

There have been things that's come in and taken people out and

there's been vices, if you will, of the world that that have

taken people out. We've been deprived of children,

but we have also known time since seasons around here when

we've been barren, when we've not been able to bear any

children, when the womb seem to be closed up.

And Zion at this moment, she says I'm in a place that I feel

a little abandoned and forsaken. I know what you're promising,

God, but I've been deprived of some children and right now I'm

in a place of barrenness. Folks, there are times that

there will be troubles and there are times there will be

barrenness that will assail the church that will make the church

question, does God care, does not see us, Is God concerned?

Where is God's whereabouts? The Bible says that Zion had

downcast eyes. That's that's typical the

posture of somebody with shame or somebody with guilt.

However, God is speaking to Zion and this is what God says to

her. He says lift up your eyes.

He said lift up your eyes. He says because the children are

coming back, we have all these feelings of doubts and God

declares the children are coming back, Zion.

And he says you're going to wear your children as ornaments or as

adornments like a typical bride would actually wear in their

culture. God swears an oath concerning

this. He says, I want you to

understand Zion, what I'm saying perfectly clear.

This is not happenstance, this. I'm not suggesting that they're

coming. I'm not saying they might come.

He says, I'm telling you that they are coming.

God swears an oath by it. He says as I live, as I live,

saith the Lord. Just as sure as I'm living, God

says they're coming back home, they're coming back to Zion.

They're coming. The glory of Zion is going to

shine again. That's.

We got to preach it tonight till somebody believes it, but we get

into this mode. We are totally loved, we are

totally bewildered. We're like it can never happen,

it won't happen. I know what their life is like.

I know the dreads of sin that they are in.

I know the path that they've gone.

They've went so far. There's no possibility.

I'm telling you that's a lie. That's a bunch of doubts and non

faith in your head. The voice that was spoken in

Isaiah. I stand as a prophet of my day

and tell you as the Lord, Lord Liveth, they're coming home.

As the Lord Liveth, they're going to arrive as the Lord of

Liveth. Zion's going to be in hurtful

glory before we get out, before we get out of here.

Let's magnify him right now. I want you to pick up the

wording of verse #17 he told Zion.

He said Thy children shall make haste.

Why? Because these words are written

on the eve of the release from Babylon.

He says when they feel the release, they're going to make

up a hurry trip, they're going to make haste back to their

homeland. They're going to make come on

somebody. There are things, there are

people that are being held in bondages.

There are people that's being held by society, there's being

people that's being held by thoughts.

But God's saying when I get the release, they're going to hasten

home when I get. Someone says the Lord lives, has

the Lord lives, has the Lord lives?

He said. They're coming has the Lord

lives. He said just what?

There's something happening here, right there.

Yeah. I and make ready, for I the Lord

shall return thy children as to thee.

Do not be inside thy house drinking and making Mary, but I

say unto thee, be waiting, be looking, be ready to receive

them, for they are coming. I say their preparations prepare

thy hell, for I the Lord shall bring them to thy door unto thee

and I speak in this night. Hallelujah, let's glorify the

Lord right now. Please look at it.

Please look at it, he says. I and your children will be as

the ornaments or adornments of a bride.

They'll be as the ornaments or the adornments, if you will, of

a bride. Find them on you as a bride.

Do it. When I first pondered all this,

my mind with the Scriptures that we adore and we we love, and

we've executed and spoken from pulpits of like Revelation 19

seven that says, let us be glad and rejoice and give honor to

him. For the marriage of the Lamb has

come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

The Lamb's wife, the church have made herself ready.

She is clothed. She is adorned as a bride is

adorned. She's clothed and she is adorned

with the ornaments of a bride. Can I tell you today?

And we look at it like this and that's OK.

We talk about the church being without spot or blemish or any

such thing. And she's a glorious church.

And I believe with all that, but perhaps part of this adornment,

part of this being adorned and, and, and, and ornamentation of a

bride as a bride should be adorned.

Perhaps part of that is the church making herself ready for

the purpose of recovering and adorning herself with the

estranged children. That part of the ability of the

church making herself ready is prior to the rapture, there's

going to be some children come back home.

There's going to be some lost folks come back home.

There's going to be some prodigals come back home, and

the church is going to strap those children on herself and

adorn herself as a bride adorns her and she's making herself

ready for something. She some would say man to talk

about her adornment as wholeness and holiness without air, all of

that that is still biblically valid.

But perhaps the ornamentation of this pride is that it's her

children that she's been deprived of, that she that's

been taken, that's been lost. And part of her readiness is

they're coming back home, the captives being released, the

losses being found, the prey to board.

They're returning and she's getting prepared.

She's adorning herself with him. God declares verses 19 and 20

that Zion's space, her unused waste, desolate space, says

what's going to happen is they're going to come, please

hear me, and they're going to say it's too narrow for me.

Wait, too narrow for who? Too narrow for the returning

inhabitants. He says children's coming home,

but when they arrived to Zion, they're going to tell Zion, we

don't know Zion, if what you have can presently contain.

We don't know if what you have right now, if all of us can fit

in that space. Say, man, he says they're coming

home, but please vote if you read the Scripture.

He says that they are coming home.

They're in verse #20 and they're saying that the place is too

straight or the place is too narrow.

They say the last phrase of verse 20.

They say, give place to me that I may do well.

You know what that tells me? This is not a casual visit her

children. This is not like her children

coming home for the holidays. This is not like the children

showing up for Easter, Christmas, or some other special

event. This is not her coming home for

an overnight stay. This is not her just hugging her

shoulder and kissing her neck. She says I need a place to

dwell. I need a place to put up my

mailbox. I need a place to put my roots

down. I need a place to dwell.

I need a place of permanence. I need.

I don't need a temporary hello, I need a forever.

How you doing? This isn't a what?

Design what you felt like you were deprived of.

It's coming home and it's coming home to settle.

It's coming home to stay. Hey, man, design the church.

You read the scripture. She's a little puzzled.

She sees the children starting to come and she's like, where

did all these come from? Who bore these?

I mean, she's seen people file in.

She's like, I don't even remember who that is.

Where are all of these coming from her?

I'm a little puzzled. I'm not even realizing that the

ones that are coming home are the ones that in the past I saw

going to captivity. She's not even realizing,

Brother Fred, that the ones that are saying I need a larger space

for all of us are the same ones that were taken down the captive

Rd. See, she understands I've been

robbed. You understand, I've been robbed

of my children. I've been deprived of my

children. And so she's surprised now to be

surrounded by her children. She's astonished, she's

surprised. Where did all of these come

from? It almost seems like there's

more here than what I lost. Verse 21, she asked, where did

they come from? God says these are your two.

Over a process of 20 some odd years doing church life, you

won't even you don't even realize how many people walk

through the doors. You don't even realize how many

people cried at your altars. You don't even recount when they

ever sat on the Pew. But God says you need to open

your eyes and get back out the old list because your children's

coming home. I know you're going to ask where

were these born or who are they? They're yours, Zion.

God answers her question, where are these, How can this happen?

What is going on? He answers her question.

He says I'm going to influence the nation's, you hear me Zion?

I'm going to influence the nation's that have had your

children in captivity. I'm going to, I'm going to put

my hand up on the nation's that has deprived you of your loved

ones and your sons and daughters are going to return up on the

shoulders and in the arms. He says even now he says I am

beckoning them and listen, this is God here.

He said even now I am inviting them to Zion as a rally point.

The Bible says that he was lifting up the standard.

The standard in battle was always the rallying point where

everybody was to convene. He says, I'm standing here at

Zion and I'm lifting up the standard and the church is going

to be the rally point and I'm inviting every lost son and

daughter back home. I'm inviting every child, the

crowd that's been this strange, I'm inviting them back.

Ho come and say Amen. And it's a biblical truth.

Listen to me. I'm not.

I'm not preaching some pipe dream.

I didn't have bad pizza this afternoon.

I didn't eat pizza. It's a biblical prophecy that

was even spoken of the tribe of Judah and Judah in Genesis 49

and 10, when as as Jacob is speaking blessing on the sons,

each one, he speaks to Judah and says the scepter shall not

depart from Judah. Do you know what tribe Christ

was from? He's the lion of the tribe, nor

he says a lawgiver from between his feet until Shiloh in the

Hebrew. That basically means this, until

he whose it is and that which belongs to him come, he says,

and when he comes, under him whose it is, under him shall the

gathering shall the gathering of the people be.

That was valid for Jesus day. He no longer showed up in

Bethlehem's Manger that shepherds come to the bedside of

that Manger. It's not long that wise men from

afar, from the East show up inquiring Amen of when it said

that the Lord and the King of the Jews would be born.

They're showing up. It's a gathering of the people.

It's Jews throughout the Gospels.

It's Gentiles and the epistles. It's Samaritans.

And that's chapter #8 it's a gathering of the people that has

taken place. But that's not just for Jesus's

day. That's for the church age.

What you said, Brother McGee, I'm saying in this church age

today, I'm saying at the First Apostolic Church, and I felt it

come on me. It happens every once in a while

and not all the time, but I felt it come on me last night.

And so I'm standing here tonight under the gift of prophecy.

And I'm telling you there's coming a gathering of the

protocol. There's coming a gathering of

the backslider. There's coming a gathering of

the estranged. There's coming a gathering of

the broken, of the captive, of the derailed, of the misguided,

but the wayward. They're coming home, Brother

McGee, you, you're just, you're out on a limb tonight.

That's too much faith for me to subscribe to, honey.

You better subscribe to it because whether you realized or

not, there's been a trinkling of it already happening.

There's the Jessica Wagner's, there's the Danielle Camden's

someone hear me? There's the Jenny Pascals,

there's the Rebecca and Tag. They are already happening.

There's a trinkling in. You hear me?

And distance, literal figurative distance is no problem when it

comes for God to get His children back to Zion.

Bible says in Isaiah 49 and verse 12.

Still yet in this chapter God says, he says, behold, these

shall come from far, and lo, these shall come from the north

and from the West, and these from the land of cinema.

You know what he told Zion in verse 18?

He said, Zion, lift up your eyes and look round about.

You know what he's saying. Zion, look to the north.

Zion, look to the South. Zion, look to the east and to

the West. Because from every direction,

your sons and daughters coming home, whether they're close or

whether they are far, they are coming.

I'm telling you, I'm telling you what I felt Saturday.

I'm telling you, I'm telling you it's the same thing I felt last

last year at Texas camp meeting. And I preached one night about

prodigals, man, they were licking the ceiling and

everything else before I started to preach.

I'm thinking God, my spirit in a whole different direction than

what's going on. But God already told me two

weeks before I ever went to that camp, every sermon I was close

to preach Amen at that camp meeting.

So I went with the reassurance that I had heard from the

master, so I wasn't shaken by what was going on.

And I stood on that last night, Friday night of all nights,

That's when you kick your heels and do everything.

And they had done it. And I stood there and I begin to

preach to them about prodigals and backsliders coming home and

how the church needed to be prepared and be there looking at

Sister McGee said tonight, looking for them to come.

And before it was all said and done that night, I don't care if

it's one or if it's twenty, as I was preaching a man at the end,

there was a girl there that was a backslider, a backslider to A

and his wife. And she prayed back through to

the Holy Ghost that Friday night.

I'm telling you, I preached that and I told them I felt the

Spirit of prophecy that night. I said on Sunday morning, some

of you going to have backsliders sitting on your pews.

I have pictures on my phone right now, a pastor's texting me

backsliders that were sitting on their Pew on that Sunday

morning. I preached that sermon then and

my bare sister sitting back there this year.

Don't you tell me God's not doing it.

God is you can't do like as he lives,

sayeth the Lord there cabin. So distance is an issue, Sister

Sheila. Distance isn't an issue.

It's not about how far they've straight from God.

That's not an issue. That's no competition to God.

God's not scratching his head trying to figure that one out.

Distance, not look to the North SE and look all around about.

They're going to come from every corner of the world.

They're going to come. Even those that you thought were

beyond hope. You watch them come.

Zion's still a little leery, Dad.

Still got some doubts. God, the prey will be taken from

the mighty. The lawful captive will be

delivered. You know what the a lawful

captive, don't you know, is they're a captive because with

all legality they should be a captain.

Israel and her distress and her disobedience finds herself in

Babylon because of her disobedience.

Lawful captain and Zion saying even even the lawful captain,

Zion saying, God, this sounds a little too good to be true

because my children's been taken by some mighty ones tonight.

Put your label on it. What's the mighty one to you is

the mighty one. Addiction of some sort is the

mighty one. Immorality of some sort is the

mighty 1. The entertainments in the dregs

of the world of some sort. Do whatever you want, whatever.

The mighty 1 is a mighty one to you.

And the Church's offspring is under that domain.

And through time, it seems like many have been taken by the

Mighty ones. And let's say we even have some

lawful captives because sometimes the Church even wants

to spout that where they're just getting what they deserve, made

some bad choices and bad decisions, and their choices

have set them on a path of destruction and separation.

They're a bunch of lawful captives.

Their actions weren't their predicament.

The God answers Zion's doubts and said, yes, even the lawful

captives, those under the mighty ones, the prey that are that are

terrible, they're going to be delivered.

God declares. He says, I'm going to gather,

gather the captives and the prey and listen what he says.

Don't worry about the mighty ones, don't worry about the

oppression. He says.

I will contend with those that have contended with you.

He's saying every vile thing that has breached the walls of

Jerusalem and have pulled her inhabitants outside of those

walls. Every vile idea, every enemy of

several nations that's come in and laid hand on your children.

I'm going to contend with folks. God is right at the moment in

His second coming of flexing his muscles.

The world's waxing worse. It's becoming more and more

chaotic. The shines of the time all

around us, It's the him and it it's near, it's nigh.

And God says as they get worse, I'm going to shine a little

brighter. I'm going to flex for one last

time. I got to I got to hurry, he says

plainly in verse 25. And I guess musicians can come.

I really don't know what to do about all this.

He says in verse 25 basically this, he says, I will save your

children. I Zion, I the Lord will save

Zion's children. So when I read Isaiah 49, well,

Isaiah 49 reminded me was of the relentless love and power of a

God who never forgets his church even in their broken down States

and in their barren states. He never forgets Zion and his

declaration for the church stands firm.

Your walls are continually before me.

What are you saying, God? He's saying I'm not looking at

your desolation, but I'm looking that in your restoration you're

going to be adorned with those you once lost.

Stay with me tonight. Contends with the forces that

contended with us. Whether it be bondage, that's

fine, he'll contend with it. Shame, he'll contend with it.

It has been self-inflicted wounds, he'll contend with it.

But his covenant of love says even the lawful captives are are

free. I'll bring them back not as

visitors, but as residents. I find this sometimes as the

church in the posture of Zion of Isaiah 49 and brother we Reese

with our doubts. Sometimes we cry out, God, can

this really happen? And his response is sure, and it

resounds. Yes, I will deliver.

Because the same God that brought Israel out of Babylon

and the same God that brought the prodigal back to his

father's house, His Spirit is calling even in this hour, and

it's contending with forces that we can't even see.

And he's gathering captives. So the church heed to Zion's

invitation. When God's up your eyes look

with faith, look with belief. This is what I want you to know.

Your sons and daughters are not beyond the reach of God.

To the weary church. To the weary church tonight I'm

telling you, refuse to believe the lie that it's over.

God's vision for the church. It's not her brokenness, but her

restoration. I speak tonight to those that

have a strange loved ones, and I urge you tonight that when we go

to prayer, you speak their names in prayer and you trust God and

you have faith in God that he's already working.

And if you're a prodigal tonight listening online, or if you're

in this building this evening, hear the voice of God who says

I've graven you on the palms of my hands.

And there's no distance and there's no decision that can

erase God's love for you. Can we raise our hands right now

and close our eyes? If you could start praying in

your Pew around the altar, It matters not.

But rest assured, just as sure as God lives, there's a

gathering coming. Just as sure as God lives,

there's a gathering coming. Chronicles are going to return.

The church's desolate places are going to be filled.

Her children will become the church's greatest adornment.

Lift your faith. Lift your eyes.

Your sons and daughters are coming home.

Come on, Sir. Come on, ma'am.

Come on, young person. Come on, Elder.

Declare it. Believe it.

Have faith. Sing.

But if we sing long enough and by joining with us, this may be

a dance that's too heavy for those chains.

But if we dance long enough, the prison will open up.

This may be a shout that those fragile looks can't bear, But if

we shout long enough Or the walls might finally fall, They

may need some help to lift their hands up in the air.

We know the freedom's coming, So we're going to sing it all the

more. And the routine Now have a song.

Sing it all day long Until the rest come running home.

And all the broken can't be here.

But shout it out forever. Can't wait till you get here.

And. Oh, this may be too daring of a

prayer to pray out loud, but you sit over at home.

We've been waiting all day long. Ring and Robe is ready.

We can see them coming now. Just like the prodigal.

We're going to meet them in the row.

The routine now. Have a song.

We'll shout it all day long to the rest.

Come running home. All the broken.

Can you hear? We'll shout it out forever.

Can't wait till you make it here.

Hello. Daring of a prayer to pray out

loud, which is in those orphans home.

We've been waiting all day long. Oh, all the pros can you hear

Will shout it out forever. You can't wait till you make it

here. The strongholds start to break

at the sound of our voices, at the sound of our phrase.

Mountains get out of our way. Hear us dancing.

There's no room for you to say strongholds.

Get out of our way. Did you see us dancing?

There's no room you to say the routine.

Now have a song. We'll shout it all along till

the rest come running home and all the broke begin.

You here, we'll shout it out forever.

Can't wait till you make it here.

And no. Welcome, oh, welcome.

Oh, to the broken and weary. Just come up.

There's a ring and a robe. There's a ring and a robe.

Just come home, Come home, Regina, have a song.

We'll shout it all day long till the rest come running home.

The broken can you hear? Will shout it out forever.

Can't wait till you make it here.

Oh, come on home, Just come on home.

Welcome home. Just come home.

The D and I have a song. We'll shut it all day long Till

the rest come running. All the broken can you hear?

We'll shut it up forever. Can't wait till you make it

here. The regime now have a song.

We will sing it all day long to the rest.

Come around and home. Oh all the broken can you hear?

We will shout it out forever. Can't wait till you make it.

And the Lord just ended it all by saying that I, the Lord, am

thy Savior, thy Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob, tying back

to Genesis that unto him shall the gathering of the people

being someone. Look at your neighbor and tell

them they're coming home. We're.

Going to allow them to sing a few more lines of it.

If you want to participate with it, you can.

If you want to be dismissed, you can.

We're just going to end with the coming home.