this service we're going to talk about the God of justice as I was sitting there the Lord reminded me so vividly Kendrick you are not to talk about things the way that they are if they're contrary to the way you want them to be You ought to just keep your mouth closed or you ought to just confess the word of God. See, testify and confession, they're not the same thing. We're still talking about justice and judgment. Watch this.
Confession is homo legeo. Homo means same. Legeo means speak. And so that's what we get that confession from. It means homo legeo.
If you read Romans chapter 10, verse 10, that word appears there. Actually, media, can we turn? Romans chapter 10, verse 10. This word appears in Romans 10.10 in terms of we speak the same thing. Now, testify is, let's see, let me read this first.
For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God. And it is by openly declaring your faith that you are safe. In other words, in the King James, it says, with the heart, man, believe.
But it says, with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. And so we confess. We say the same thing. That's what that means.
We say the same thing. Now, judgment, we talked about this before. Judgment.
It's a decision that we make. It's also a position that we take. And so we ought to be careful when we are making confessions. Because, Jesus, I said I wasn't going to go here. Last week we briefly touched on the courts of heaven.
And in the courts of heaven, there are times that people will make a false confession. Because that which is on the outside... that's putting pressure on them to make a false confession.
So you can have a person that's innocent. And they can plead guilty because there are outside opposing forces. Somebody from the DA that's saying, listen, it'll be worse for you if you don't just go ahead and confess to the crime or to the guilty or to this or to that. And so what happens about confession is it's not necessarily even all the time that you believe it.
But you just teach yourself to say the same thing that someone else says. Someone has said. So this is powerful when it comes to rehearsing the word of God.
But it's also quite detrimental when it comes to rehearsing the word of the adversary. Because he can tell us lies. He can tell us things. He can make judgments.
These false confessions. He can have you walking around saying that you're worth nothing. Have you. you walking around saying, I don't even know why you attend this church. They don't even love you.
And so you start to say, I don't even know why I attend this church. They don't even love me. And so the enemy will begin to put things out there and you pick it up and you start talking like the devil. And you don't even realize you're speaking like the adversary. And that's just confession.
But watch this. Testify, that means it's to bear witness. Now, the basic difference here is that when you testify, it's something that you have seen and experienced. So your confession can turn you into a witness with the testimony of a lie that you've experienced because you started saying it.
And so it presented itself in your life. These things are the courts of heaven. We're talking justice, though, and judgment, because watch this.
When the defense attorney is in court, what they are trying to do is get the person on the stand to look guilty to the jury. So they could trip you up by asking you a series of questions that make you say one thing. So it appears like you're guilty because you said this thing by the line of questioning.
Are y'all tracking with me? And so what what happens here is they say based on the witness confession we find this person guilty. Based on the witness's confession what they said we find this person guilty.
Now watch this. When there's testimony going forth, there is also a difference in the dimensions of testifying. So there is a victim, right?
And there is a witness. Hear me by the Holy Spirit. The Lord is trying to move us from being a victim to a witness.
See, because a witness, they experienced the crime based on their own experience. upon what they saw or what they heard the victim is the one that the thing happened to and so oftentimes you will hear the victim confession be they feel or what they have become since this offense has occurred so their confession watch this may not even be true but since this thing has happened to them, they now are in agreement with how they feel about it. I want to show you something.
Let's go to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. Let me get there. So this is the parable of the farmer, if you will, and then the wheat and the tares. So this is Matthew 13, verse 24, and let me read this in the New Living Translation. It says, here is another story Jesus told. The kingdom of heaven is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field.
But that night as the worker slept, his enemy came and planted weeds among the wheat, then slipped away. And so when the crop began to grow and produce grain, the weeds also grew. Now the farmer's worker went to him and said, Sir, the field where you planted that good seed is full of weeds. Where did they come from?
An enemy has done this. The farmer exclaimed. He said, Should we pull out the weeds?
They asked, No, he replied. You'll uproot the wheat if you do. Let both grow together until the harvest. Then I said, I will tell the harvesters to sort out the weeds, tie them into bundles and burn them and to put the wheat in the barn.
Now you have to look at this as justice and judgment because he says an enemy has done this. An adversary came in while we were sleeping and they sowed tares among the wheat and instantly the farmer says an enemy has done this right so they say well we can just pluck them out and we talked about this morning waiting on the lord he says we can just pluck them out and the farmer and the wisdom says now watch this well i understand the thing about being planted is once the roots take place you You can till the ground and start over, but when you start over, you are ruining what you already planted. And so the farmer is telling them, don't focus on the tares, because the wheat will also grow. In other words, bringing this to justice and judgment, don't let your confession Be about what you see on a surface level. Because God is just and he will allow the tears to be separated and he says we'll burn them.
That's judgment. That's justice. But he says the wheat will take those things to the barn. we'll put them in a storehouse because I want to focus on the wheat because the wheat is supposed to go in the storehouse and after it grows we'll put it there the tares aren't supposed to be here but after they grow we'll just burn them up and so we're happens a lot of times is in our own lives we will discover that somebody has come in they've sown seeds of terror among the wheat and we'll focus on the tears and then we'll till up our spirit and we'll uproot all the seed that's been planted so deeply in our lives Let's keep going. So God is taking us from just being witness to a victim, or excuse me, from a victim to a witness.
Now watch this. I called a lawyer of mine. Don't worry, it wasn't no one here.
Amen. Don't call them unless you put them on retainer. Amen.
But I called a friend of mine that's a lawyer. And I asked him, I said, hey, I got a question for you. What's the difference between... A witness and evidence.
Can a witness be evidence? He said, well, yeah, a witness can be evidence. But what you say on the stand is the evidence. So be careful because your words testify.
So he says... But you say on the stand becomes evidence. So as a witness, we've already discovered that you saw this and that you heard this.
But unless you actually open your mouth and say, we can't put your words into evidence. So this is why our posture when we're speaking is necessary that we watch it. Because we can get on the stand.
Understanding this, evidence does not need a witness. Evidence don't need a witness. It can testify against you without words.
We're going to read the Bible because it's some suspicious eyes. John chapter 5 verse 39. In the King James Version, if you can, media, I want y'all to see this. It says, search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me.
In other words, search the evidence. Because in the evidence you'll find eternal life and the evidence testifies of me now Jesus is preaching the gospel. He's saying that the scriptures even before time have already said that I'm the Messiah of the world. I'm the spotless lamb of God that's going to come and take away the sins of the world.
So he's saying that the scriptures have already said this. They've already put words to what I'm going to do, but he says, now they testify of me because the gospel is the birth, the death, the burial, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen.
And so now that he has come into the world, He is saying, the scriptures have now testified. The scriptures have seen me come. I'm here now. And so he says, search the evidence because they testify of me. I'm going to bring this home for you in just a second.
He says, search the evidence because they testify about me. Amen. Amen. Let's turn to.
John chapter 10, verse 25 through 29. He says, Jesus answered them, I told you, and you believe not. The works that I do in my Father's name, they what? They bear witness of me.
But you believe not, because you are not my sheep. As I said unto you, my sheep, what? They hear my voice.
Now watch this. A witness is someone that has seen or heard. And so he's saying, my sheep are witnesses because they have either seen me or they have heard my word. Let's keep going. He says.
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them. out of my father's hand so the just nature of god takes us from victim's side to the evidence excuse me to the witness side being a testifying watch this everything that's happened to you has already happened to you You have evidence of your life of either good or bad, right?
You have evidence in your life of things that have happened to you. You can stand up right now and give us an eyewitness account. Of any time that you have been wronged. You can stand before us right now and give an eyewitness account.
Of any time that the Lord has been good and gracious to you. You can stand right here now and do that. But Jesus.
He takes an interesting approach here. He says that. Listen. Everybody.
That the father has given me. Satan is unable to pluck them out of my hand. Because what he's trying to do is flip the jury on you.
So you're sitting and you are making this confession. And he's trying to flip the jury. In other words, he's trying to, when you first came into the world, we know we were born in sin.
and shaped into iniquity. But there was a level of innocence you had as a child. But the more and more you went, the less and less your innocence stood its ground. The more and more mischief that we got into, the more and more things that we have done, done wrong and so now he's trying to get the jury to flip and he's trying based upon the pressure of life Daniel to say it's better that you come on over here with me than it is to stay and hold on to your confession that God is good to you It's better that you just come on over here with me and confess that you're not good.
But not only that, that God is not good and that God is not just. Now, we laid the foundation this morning about waiting. And this is the duality of waiting and patience.
It's on the other side of our waiting God is working. And while we are going from just a victim to testifying because it's something that we also believe, we're holding fast to this testimony, we also believe it because we have experienced it. I want to call for just a moment the apostle to the stand.
Romans chapter 8. verse 31 then we'll drop down to 35 and 39 he says what shall we then say to these things if God be for us who can be against us So he's asking a line of questioning. Remember I told you that the enemy is trying to trip you up. He's trying to flip the jury against you.
He's also trying to make you testify against God. So now he's asking a line of question that make you answer on the stand. Now he's testifying.
Watch this. He says, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation?
or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword as it is written what he just did was hold on to a confession but now he's tested Testifying. Watch this. He says, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
That's Isaiah. We won't go there. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that love us. For I am persuaded.
He's testifying. find for I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord the mission of the devil is to make you get understand and testify against God that somehow he is not good and Paul is saying listen There is one thing I'm settled in. Death ain't going to separate me and make me testify against the goodness of God.
Life not going to do it. Angels not going to do it. Principalities won't do it. Powers won't do it. Nothing can make me testify against God.
So what the devil does is he brings hardship. Because in the hardship you have to make a decision. This is judgment.
You have to make a decision about what to do in the hard place. But the justice is what the Lord does in response to the hardness. Ooh, let me show you this. I gotta get back to this. I said, 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7. He says, but we have this treasure in earth and earthen vessels that the excellency of the power of, excuse me, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.
We are troubled. On every side. Hold that scripture there. He says we're troubled on every side. Trouble is all around us.
And this is the thing that we can easily. We can easily focus on the judgment that's over our lives. Or we can focus on the justice that God is bringing for the judgment that's over our lives.
He says that we, listen, we are troubled on every side, but I'm not distressed. So he is testifying against what's happening to him. He says. Troubled on every side, but not distressed. He said, I'm perplexed, but I'm not in despair.
Keep going, media. He says, I'm persecuted, but I'm not forsaken. I'm cast down, but I'm not destroyed.
So he's testifying that the enemy himself has tried to cast you down. In fact, he did cast you down. That's what he says.
He says we cast down, but we're not destroyed. To be cast down. When I was living in a certain place in Georgia.
This would bother me. I would see all of my uncles and them, if you're watching, I love you, and they would finish drinking, and they would just go to the road and just throw the bottle down and let the glass shrapnel just fly everywhere. And I asked my uncle one day, why in the world do you do that?
I understand, because now you got to go out there and sweep it and clean it up. So he says, nephew. Every time I finish a bottle, you got to understand, I bought the bottle for what was on the inside.
And so now the bottle is no longer of use to me. It's no longer any good to me. It's worthless to me.
It has no value to me. So Paul says, you've been cast down. The devil has already lied to you and told you that you have no value. You have no worth. But he testified on the other side and said, but I'm not destroyed.
See, he threw. He threw me down and he thought he was going to break me, but I didn't get destroyed. He cast me down, but I'm not destroyed.
And this is what I love. He says, I'm persecuted, but I'm not forsaken. He didn't say I'm prosecuted.
See, prosecution happens when you did it, or you brought that on yourself. Persecution happens because of who you are and who you're around, because of who you're connected to. He says, I'm persecuted, but I'm not forsaken. So they persecute, because watch this, when you get prosecuted, you... easily get forsaken once you get thrown into jail.
It's not very often that people will remember you. It's not very often that people will write you, will put money on your books, but he says, I'm persecuted. So here's the thing. The same thing that happens to the prosecuted happens to the persecuted. He says, I'm persecuted, but I'm not forsaken.
In other words, God has never left me. I'm testifying right now that though I was persecuted, God has never left me. I'm testifying right now.
That even though it hurt, even though they talk crazy, even though they spread lies about me, God has never left me. He says, I'm not forsaken. And it's not even only about God being here or not. It's also about him laying claim to me.
You still mine. You persecuted. They lied on you, but you still mine. They said you did this thing, but you still mine.
You still belong to me? I was sitting, I finished asking this lawyer. We're talking about the difference between evidence versus a witness. And he says, you know what?
Let me tell you something before I go. He says, Kendrick, here's the thing that's tricky about law, is a person can change their testimony. He says, we could have been thinking that we won or lost the case based upon a witness and the way that they testify. But he said, Kendrick, the reason why we want more evidence than testimony is because a person can change.
Their testimony. And they can testify different once they get in front of the judge and the jury. I said, wait a minute, so what does this mean?
He says, what they say to us. In a chamber, in a, what's the word that I'm looking for? In a deposition, or not even that, before that, when they are trying to get you to confess. Interrogation. Interrogation.
Thank you. He says what they say in the interrogation does not hold the same weight as what they say in the court. And he said, so we focus more so on the evidence than the testimony because it does not hold the same weight. So if I show up to court and all I have is a testimony and they flip the script, my case is thrown out. But he says, Kendrick...
You got a best chance of winning if you got a good number of evidence and you got solid testimony. You got a good chance of winning because that person may not change their testimony because it's too much evidence stacked against them and they won't perjure themselves on the stand. But he says, this is the thing that I love about justice.
He said, Kendrick, last thing. The other side could be having somebody testify a lie. But when they see the evidence about what the truth really is, and because they understand they could face 14 years in federal penitentiary for lying on the stand, they often flip their testimony to reflect what the truth really is. And let me tell you, the biggest liar of them all is the one that comes to kill, steal, and destroy. And he tells us a number of lies as if though God is not faithful.
As if though... God has not already taken care of it as of though God has not throughout my entire life been good and so oftentimes what happened is the devil can get us in the corner and he can pressure us and he can say see God ain't good to you He's not with you. He's left you.
He's forsaken you. You cast down and abandoned. Yeah, you forsaken.
You destroyed. but something happens when i get on the stand and i begin to testify and i say when i look back over my life i realized there was a time in my life where i didn't have anything to eat and no money to buy it but somehow i still ate food because the law book says that oh jesus i've never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begged for bread there's evidence in my life that God won't allow me to go hungry there's evidence in my life that God won't leave me I could be in an abandoned building with the lights off glory to God and my family put me out of the house but I can look up and by the goodness of God the electricity will still be on the water will still be on I said when I begin to think about it when I begin to testify about the goodness of God I know I was going to testify against God but now I got too much evidence that he's been too good to me I said I got too much evidence that he's been too good to me now I'm changing my testimony I was focusing on the tears but now I'm focusing on the tears Focusing on the wheat. Glory to God.
Oh, but thanks be to God that's given me the victory when the devil told me I lost. I said, I'm changing my testimony. Don't talk about things the way that they are.
If they're contrary to the way that you want them to be. Because God is a God that can move a mountain. He's the thing that can move a mountain. He can move an inanimate object. That's why when he cursed the fig tree, he walked back by and the disciples was baffled and he said, I told you, when I told the thing that it was cursed at the root, it was going to die.
He can move an inanimate object. In other words, something that we don't think can change. We can focus on the goodness of God and turn that thing around and justice will be done in our lives.
If I turn over to the book of Mark, chapter 11, verse 22, Mark says, have faith in God. Then he goes on to talk to me about my confession. He says, if you say to this mountain, be thou removed and be cast into the sea and you don't have no doubts in your heart. You're going to have the very thing that you say. He says, ah, Jesus.
you should have what you say I was facing eviction it was one day from eviction it was a Sunday the writ of possession was happening that Monday at 10 o'clock And I had done a bunch of odd jobs to get the money. And as soon as I got the money, I'm celebrating. Like, yeah, I'm going to go down there first thing in the morning, 9 o'clock, pay all the money.
Looked at my account again that night. Bill had come out. Standing in the doorpost of my house.
Just slid down my wall. I said, God, you're going to do this to me again? You're going to put me out on the street again?
You're going to let me be homeless again? I'm building my case against God. I'm sitting there, and I'm confession is that God always, it's a judgment, always lets me go homeless. You're the one that put me in this predicament because I was obeying you in the first place. You told me to do this.
You told me pick up, move here, leave there, come here. You did. You did that. So because I obeyed you, you're going to kick me out? That's what I'm telling God.
I slide down my house and I cry in hopelessness. I say, God, you know what I forget? I'm just going to start packing up.
I'm going to be out of here by the morning. They can have all the stuff I only wanted. As I was sitting there packing my bags, I found some old shoes. I said, man, I remember my shoes was busted. And this person gave me these pair of shoes.
I found a pair of jeans. I said, oh, I remember this. Somebody had blessed me with these because I had holes going all up and down my jeans and they didn't come that way.
I just wore them out because that's all I had. I said, yeah, I remember these. I said, oh, this is a pair of socks. The church mother bought me, because she saw that my right ones was turning yellow and brown, no matter how much I washed them. Then I kept finding objects.
I said, oh, this is the laptop that when I graduated, somebody blessed me with. And as I was sitting there in my pity, holding this finger to God and telling him, you unjust. You're going to allow me to go through this again. I started finding evidence.
My Sukkot time, that God has been good to me. I said I started finding evidence that when I had nothing and when I obeyed him, he always made a way where there was no way. He always showed up.
Even if it was 1159. 59. He may not come when you want him to come. Oh, but he'll be there just when you need him. Glory to God.
I said I started finding evidence that I'm not cast down. That he never left me. Nor forsook me. I started finding evidence.
I started changing my posture. I said, God, I'm gonna quit packing. I'm just gonna thank you. I'm just gonna give you praise.
Man, they can have all this stuff. I don't even want it. I'm just gonna sit here and change my testimony. And as I was glorifying God, a man knocked on the door and he said, Kendrick, the Lord told me to bring this money. And it was to the penny, exactly what I needed.
I gotta change my testimony. God has been good to me. Manda basukatai, when I started focusing on the blessings of God, when I started focusing on the true testimony and I didn't let the accused lie to me and tell me that God was unjust.
I didn't let him lie to me and tell me that I was forgotten. This man knocked on the door for the cent, he put the money in my hand. Because me and my wife are just married and I told her, I said, Asia, you're gonna have to go back to your parents'house. I'm gonna sleep outside in the car every night.
I said, but I promise you, give us another place to stay. And I told her, I said, I didn't do this. I trusted God. So this thing has happened, so there has to be more to this. This can't be the end of the story.
I said, don't even worry about it. Just go to your parents'house and I'm going to sleep outside. And I left outside when that man gave me that money.
And I came back inside and I told Asia, I said, the Lord gave me a promise. So they gave me a promise that if I wouldn't bear false witness against him that he always take care of me. Amanda Basukata. Sometimes I might forget, but I have to remind myself that I still got breath in my body. I still got the activity of my limbs.
I'm still in my right mind. Oh glory to God. I still got food on my table. I still got a roof over my head. I still got transportation.
I still got a suit that I can put owner glory to God I still got a job that I can go to that write me a salary I'm still in good health I still can see I still got good vision I still can feel I still can taste I still can smell all the goodness of God the devil want to rob you he want to make you bear false witness against God by way of bringing trouble around on every side but everywhere I turn each direction I move I've seen the hand of the Lord move to me he says and oh Jesus I will make all grace I'm bound to worship. Watch this. I'm gonna say this and I close.
As I was sitting there. That next day I got home. I was so exhausted.
I'm laying down in my bed. I said, God, why did you wait? Why did you wait till the last minute to show up? Why did you wait till I made plans and I called people so my wife could have it? Why did you wait till the last minute?
The Lord told me, I'm building a testimony in your life because I need you to understand that the world is going to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of your testimony. So when you go and proclaim that God is good. You're not just saying what the Bible say.
Oh, that's good that you know the scripture and that you can quote them with the best of them. But now you have evidence that I'm good. I'm building a testimony in your life. I'm doing justice in your life. life I'm balancing the scale Sakata God is building a testimony in your life glory to God it's a testimony it's a testimony I said it's a testimony Oh God, he gonna get glory out of this, out of your hardship.
You thought you was thrown down, but you're not destroyed. You might be at the lowest of low, but you're not out. Glory to God. Stand to your feet.
Hallelujah. change your testimony testify differently oh god i testify that all the days of my life you've been good to me i said god i testify that all the days of my life you had your hedge of protection around me and god i testify that even when trouble came you caused it to back up in the name of Jesus God I can testify that I've never begged for bread I can testify that you've never forsaken me I said I can testify