SO THAT PEOPLE WILL KNOW
Pastor Dennis Clanton
Woodland Church
Sunday, July 16, 2023
(Psalm 145:3, NLT) “Great is the Lord! He is most worthy of praise! No one can measure his greatness.”
(1 Kings 18:37–39, GNB) “Answer me, Lord, answer me, so that this people will know that you, the Lord, are God, and that you are bringing them back to yourself.” The Lord sent fire down, and it burnt up the sacrifice, the wood, and the stones, scorched the earth and dried up the water in the trench. When the people saw this, they threw themselves on the ground and exclaimed, “The Lord is God; the Lord alone is God!”
1. GOD TRUSTS HIS POWER TO THOSE WHO PRAY WITH A PURE HEART.
(John 3:16, NLT) “For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.”
(Romans 2:4, Message) “Or did you think that because he’s such a nice God, he’d let you off the hook? Better think this one through from the beginning. God is kind, but he’s not soft. In kindness he takes us firmly by the hand and leads us into a radical life-change.”
2. I WILL SPREAD OUT MY NEEDS BEFORE THE LORD.
(2 Kings 18:17, NLT) “The king of Assyria sent his commander in chief, his field commander, and his chief of staff from Lachish with a huge army to confront King Hezekiah in Jerusalem. The Assyrians took up a position beside the aqueduct that feeds water into the upper pool, near the road leading to the field where cloth is washed.”
(2 Kings 19:14, NLT) “After Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it, he went up to the Lord’s Temple and spread it out before the Lord.”
(2 Kings 19:19, GN) “Now, Lord our God, rescue us from the Assyrians, so that all the nations of the world will know that only you, O Lord, are God.”
(2 Kings 19:35–36, NLT) “That night the angel of the Lord went out to the Assyrian camp and killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. When the surviving Assyrians woke up the next morning, they found corpses everywhere. Then King Sennacherib of Assyria broke camp and returned to his own land. He went home to his capital of Nineveh and stayed there.”
3. GOD EMPOWERS ME TO SERVE MY GENERATION.
(Acts 2:1–4, NLT) “On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.”
(Acts 2:11, NLT) “We all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!”
(Acts 2:38–39, GW) “Peter answered them, “All of you must turn to God and change the way you think and act, and each of you must be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ so that your sins will be forgiven. Then you will receive the Holy Spirit as a gift. This promise belongs to you and to your children and to everyone who is far away. It belongs to everyone who worships the Lord our God.”
4. “JESUS, OPEN MY EYES TO TRULY SEE THAT YOU ARE COMING AGAIN.”
(John 14:3, NLT) “When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am.”
(1 Thessalonians 4:16–18, NLT) “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a commanding shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trumpet call of God. First, the believers who have died will rise from their graves. Then, together with them, we who arestill alive and remain on the earth will be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Then we will be with the Lord forever. So encourage each other with these words.”