Dove World Outreach Center

I said, "I beseech You, O LORD God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who preserves the covenant and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments... Nehemiah 1:5

Nehemiah never lost his faith. It did not look good for him. It does not look good for Christianity in America. We are lukewarm. We promote sin. We do not confront sin. It does not look good. We have lost our pioneer spirit, we have compromised, the church has become like the society, and it does not look good. 

It did not look good here for the people of Israel. God was not with them. They were scattered, it was burnt, Jerusalem had no walls. But it still was not over. What did one of the famous baseball players say? “It is not over until until it is over.” It does not look good in America, but that is why we have to speak out, cry out. That is why we need to have a Nehemiah.  

He said, Lord God of heaven. Islam and every other religion serves the God of hell. I am sorry, but the Bible is very clear. That Bible says that even if an angel of light appears to you, and and preaches a different Gospel than what we have preached, let him be accursed. That is what it says. I mean, either we use the Bible, do what the bible says, or we become a club and throw the Bible out. The Bible says if anyone adds to or takes away from the book, the Koran or any other teaching, it says, let them be accursed. That is what that says. How can we even deny that? I doubt very seriously, and I am glad it is not up to me, but I doubt very seriously that a lot of out Pastors are not even saved, let aloe the members. How can you be saved and speak in a way that is clearly against the Bible? Believe things that are clearly against the Bible? How can you be saved? 

God is still above, no matter what. God is still above all of your problems, my problems, our challenges. God is above. Nehemiah thought God can still do it, because Nehemiah still recognized him as the God of heaven. It is not too late for you. It is not too late for Christianity. The situation there looked very bad, much  much worse than yours or mine, but it says there, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God . That is the God we serve.

I would love to, like in the Old Testament, have a God challenge. What was it? Elijah who called down the fire? I would love to get a whole bunch of Moslems together and have an Elijah challenge. We serve the great and awesome God. We serve the God that is great, the God that can save you. I have talked to the director of CAIR (Council of American Islamic Relations) He drove up here from Tampa FL, he is in charge. He told me himself. He said, we as Moslems, we don’t know if we are saved. We have no assurance of salvation. We do not know if we go to Paradise until we die.  We know we are saved, we know we are born again. We know where we are going. We serve a great and awesome God. 

Nehemiah is crying out to God. the next time some of you get in trouble, which will be shortly after the service is over, then quit griping. Some of you gripe all the time. Some people you cannot stand to be around because they are always griping all the time. Quit your griping and cry out to God. Let God be your source. 

“A great and awesome God who preserves his covenant.” He preserves his covenant, but then again, he only preserves it because we do something. Whoever told you Christianity was free lied to you. It is not free. It is available. Whoever told you salvation was free lied to you. Salvation is not free. Salvation is available. You see, free we understand to be of no cost. It did not cost anything. It is like at Publix, buy one get one free. The second one is free. But salvation is not free. Salvation is available, it is there, but to get it you have to do something. Like at Publix, you have to buy that first one and the next one is free. You have to do something. In other words, you have to repent. It is not free. You have to repent. 

Repent means I am wrong, God is right. No ifs, ands, or buts. No “its my Mom’s fault, its my Dad’s fault.” No “I have had a bad life.” No, you repent. Repent means you change. You quit having a bad attitude, you quit lying, you quit doing what you know you are not supposed to be doing. You try with your whole heart to stop doing that, by the grace of God. You fall and fail, but you get back up an you try again. 

He preserves the covenant. We have forgotten the covenant, you see. We know nothing about covenant. Covenant is you stay, you do, you die. It is like a contract, we do it. But we don’t make a contract with God. We don’t even make a contract with the church. We  say I am here. I am going to be here. I am going to build here. I am making a covenant. I am making a covenant with my job, my husband, my wife, with this place, with the vision. I am making a covenant. 

God keeps his covenant. If we are making a covenant, we need to keep it. We will keep our covenant with you. Even if you are sometimes lazy, mean, nasty and rebellious. We will correct you and keep the covenant. We will keep the covenant with you, but will you keep the covenant with God?  Will you keep the covenant with us? It says he keeps his covenant. It does not say he keeps his covenant when he wants to, when he likes it. God holds to his word. God does it. 

and lovingkindness for those who love Him and keep His commandments,

The church must come back to obedience. We must see obedience not as an option. Christianity is not a buffet. It is not McDonalds. It is not Publix with 35 different kinds of cereals to choose from and 14 kinds of donuts. The church is not a choice. the Bible is not a choice. It is a commandment. We must return to obedience. We must return and we must see that we have no choice, even though we have one. We must face our lives as though we have no choice. If God said to do it then we do it. We don’t think about it. Please don’t think about it. If you think about it, that is where the devil comes in. He gives you plenty of reasons why you should not do it, why you do not have to do it, why you do not want to do it. 

In my Christian life I have done very few things I really wanted to do. I can remember clearly when I was 12 years old, I had one of the biggest frights in my life. I was walking to the school bus and I felt like God spoke to me that I was to be a preacher. That was the most disastrous day of my life. We don’t do what we want to do. We do what God has told us to do, what God has called us to do, what is clearly in the Bible we do. Then we beg for his mercy and God will do it.