Turn with your Bibles this morning to Revelation chapter 12 verse 10 Revelation chapter 12 verse 10 we're continuing our spiritual warfare series and this week we're looking at Satan the accuser We've got several passages of scripture to look at in our lives again. I Satan's desire is to accuse us and when we make mistakes, let's hear in Revelation chapter 12 verse 10 We're in we'll be looking at first. Well several other passages. I will look at in the book of 2nd Corinthians, but I wanted to bring your attention to this truth here God's desire for our life is to move forward spiritually and to flourish for him and And in so doing, there's obviously going to be opposition. We have a real enemy, his name is Satan. Here in Revelation chapter 12 verse 10, it says, And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ for the accuser of our brethren. is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night." As we look at this, notice with me how, I mean, Satan is a hard worker, probably the hardest worker. He is other than obviously the Lord Jesus Christ But I mean he is continually working to bring accusations to bring destruction in the believers life and to churches in 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 verses 10 and 11 here is a way with which you and I Give him greater opportunity to attack us 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 verses 10 and 11 2 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 10 and 11. 2 Corinthians 2.10, it says, To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also. For if I forgave anything, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ. Verse 11 of 2 Corinthians 2. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. Again, the truth here that is given is that Satan can get an advantage of us. Going over to chapter 7, Chapter 7 verse 10 of 2nd Corinthians It says for God these sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of but the sorrow of the world work of death So the sorrow of the world the sorrow of going in Satan's ways it produces death and sorrow and grief and pain We give an advantage to Satan in this lack of forgiveness. And he brings these accusations against us. Now, suppose the believer sins. We all do from time to time. And the believer does not take advantage of our victory, our victorious position that we are allotted in Christ. I refuse the spiritual defenses that God provides to me. So what then? What happens when I refuse the defenses that God puts in my life? You would think that because a person goes into sin, imagine a believer goes into particular sin, that Satan, you think, now that believer's into sin, they're not walking with God, they're not going in the right direction, Satan's like, I'm done with them, right? That's not the case. He doesn't just leave them to suffer their consequences. That is not what happens. Look with me at the book of Zechariah there in the Minor Prophets there, Zechariah, Malachi, Zechariah chapter, Zechariah, Malachi, Matthew, Zechariah chapter three, verse one. We'll read verses one through seven here. Satan does not stop there. He is not content that a believer is going in a wrong direction He seeks ultimate destruction and not only that in a believer's life. He also seeks to bring about a bad testimony for Christ Zechariah chapter 3 will read the first 7 verses here look with me at verse 1 of Zechariah 3 and and he showed me joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the lord and satan standing at his right hand to resist him verse 2 of zechariah 3 and the lord said unto satan the lord rebuke thee oh satan even the lord that hath chosen jerusalem rebuke thee is not this a brand plucked out of fire now joshua was clothed with filthy garments and stood before the angel And he answered and spake unto those that stood before him, saying, Take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him he said, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment. And I said, Let them set a fair mitre upon his head. So they set a fair mitre upon his head, and clothed them with garments. And the angel of the Lord stood by. The angel of the Lord protested unto Joshua, saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts, If thou wilt walk in my ways, and if thou wilt keep my charge, then thou shalt also judge my house, and shalt also keep my courts, and I will give thee places to walk among these that stand by. So here's a scene, unlike the other three we've examined here in heaven over the past few weeks, but the setting is a courtroom. God the judge, Joshua the high priest is the defendant trying to prove Joshua guilty. Satan appears here. He's standing before the Lord resisting God Satan appears to have a case that Joshua is wearing filthy garments And the high priest was always to wear clean garments and Satan, you know You know it regards Satan looks out and says Joshua. He's not fit to be a high priest Joshua is just too dirty. I mean Joshua's messed up Joshua's he's just the whole nation is gonna go to pot. I mean Joshua is God you got to get rid of him Prophet Zechariah had a vision at a time when the nation of Daniel had sinned against the Lord. The people had returned to Palestine after their Babylonian captivity, and there was hope that the nation would obey God and they would serve Him. but they did not learn their lessons. And if you were to look the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, Zechariah, Haggai, Malachi, you discover that the Jewish men were divorcing their wives, marrying heathen women, Jewish merchants were charging their own brethren, incredible interest rates, and even the priests were robbing God and keeping the best of the sacrifices for themselves. As Malachi, they were failing to give their tithes. In this passage of scripture here, Joshua's priestly garments were dirty. And he represented the people before God, and the people were sinful. Satan knew that they're sinful, and so he protests to God that Israel should be judged. God, you realize what Israel's doing. You know how filthy Israel is. God, you know that they're doing all the divorces and all their paganism and idolatry. And God, you know they're not faithful. God, you should just wipe them out. Wipe all of them out. Get rid of them. Now that would obviously play into Satan's plans because that would remove the seed of the Messiah. It's kind of like what Satan did in regards to his, I've been reading here in the book of Job in my devotions, and the accusations that Job, excuse me, that Satan brings against Job is that Job only serves you because, God, you give him money, and he's the most powerful man. Fame and fortune. But yet, I know he does the sacrifices. I know he's faithful to you. I know he does sacrifices for his kids. And then when he loses all of his possessions and he loses his children that are all killed all at once, all ten of his children, then he says, well, God, he'll curse you to your face if you take his health away. And so God says, okay, Satan, I'll let you take his health away. You can't kill him, but I'll let you take it away. His wife if you recall would say curse God and die. I mean she is leading on her emotions I am too grief-stricken. I am too Trauma, I have been too traumatized. I have PTSD. I have all this stuff God I I'm just I've suffered too many things and I I'm just I'm gonna get through life and hold on with a string and try to make it through Joe says you speak as a foolish woman And Job would say, Job did not charge God foolishly. And here is Joshua. How do you think he feels during this trial? Heartbroken. His conscience was smitten. And the fact that, you know, the accusation of filthy garments. Now when you and I have disobeyed God in the past, Satan moves in for that finishing stroke. He attacks our heart and our conscience. Ha! You're a Christian, you say. And this stuff goes through your mind, it goes through your spirit, and it just challenges you. How could you be a Christian and do this sin? How could you be a Christian and say that? How could you be a Christian and not read your Bible, not go to church, and not seek the Lord? Man, you're a fool. What a hypocrite you are. And those thoughts go through our mind, and man, you just feel guilt and shame, and it just piles up, piles and piles and piles, and you feel like, man, I am the worst of the worst of people. You might even think if someone at church knew who I really was, they'd throw me out. But when you're going into that sin, And you're thinking, I don't want the things of God, and you're doing things your way. Satan said, go for it. You deserve it. Go for it. Those Christians, they're a bunch of hypocrites. Those Christians, man, they're just rules, rules, rules, rules, and they don't care for me. I'm going to do it my way. I want some pleasure, and I deserve this. But after you sin, Satan says, you'll never get away with it. Oh, you're a horrible person. He's always enticing to destroy us. And it's enough that you and I at times can despair. We can want to give up. I can throw in the towel. I'm done. I tap out. I'm out of this ring. I'm out of here. You get those accusations that are upon your life. And when Satan talks to God to you, what does he do? He will sometimes tell the truth. But as we talked about there in Revelation chapter 12, he is the accuser of the brethren. He has access to God, to the very throne of God, and there reminds God of the condition of every one of his saints. We know about the accusations. We know about, you know, how we feel in our own hearts and our consciences. When those thoughts come, I want to look at several things here that have come up and give us to reflect on our own lives. And I know in my own times of my life, there have been times where I've sinned. And man, that sin would produce such guilt and shame. And I thought, man, God can't use me. I'm just a wash-up. I'm not perfect like so-and-so. Or I'm not guiltless like this person or that person. And we can make up all these things in our minds. There was a great sin with Abraham. He lied about his wife saying it was my sister and he gave it to the king there in the land. How about David? God, did you see what David did? He committed adultery with Bathsheba and then he killed her husband. I mean, God, you should just destroy David. God, did you hear Peter curse your name? Did you hear him deny your own son three times? God, why don't you get rid of Peter? I mean, Peter is just a horrible man. God, how could you choose Peter to be your disciple? Peter is just a wash up. He's a has been, a could have been, but he's a no more. You recall what happened when Peter, after he denied Christ the third time, he looks up and he catches the eye of Christ, and then he leaves and he weeps bitterly. That guilt and shame, it came. But you know what that guilt and shame can do with us? We can listen to the devil and regret and shame our remorse and defeat, and that's what Judas did. Judas, when he threw down the 30 pieces of silver, he went out and hung himself. He had a guilt and shame. It said he repented himself. He regretted his actions. He didn't repent to God, but he regretted his actions. A guilt and shame. What did he do? He went and committed suicide. Peter had guilt and shame. What did Peter do? He ran to Christ when he saw him resurrected. When the Spirit of God convicts me of my sin, He uses the Word of God in love and seeks to bring me back into fellowship with the Father. But when Satan accuses me, and he uses my own sins against me in a hateful way, he seeks to make you feel helpless and hopeless. If you ever had someone in your life, and maybe you were good friends with them for a time, and you began to tell them some things about your life, maybe some things that no one else knew, Then a little skirmish happens between the two of you and that person begins to divulge some of your secrets And it hurts And you thought man That's satan working that's selfish hearts working that's not of god now god allows it And what I do with those sins is I better run back to the Savior. Remember Peter, when he saw Jesus, he jumps out of the boat. I mean, he ran to Jesus through the water and he got to Jesus. Peter looked at the face of Jesus and he wept bitterly. And he would come back into sweet fellowship and even give up his life for Christ. And when we listen to the devil's accusations, all of which may be true, I open myself up to despair and spiritual paralysis. My situation's hopeless. I've messed up too much. I'm too far gone. The Lord could never take me back. When you have that helpless and hopeless feeling, you can be sure that Satan is accusing you. And Satan's purpose is to bring an indictment by God's will. He wants you to feel guilty. He wants you to regret and remorse, but he doesn't want to bring you to repentance. As I said, Judas would have regret and remorse. Peter had repentance. If once you look away by faith to Jesus Christ, you'll repent, you'll confess your sins and find cleansing and restoration of fellowship. And just because you repent and you confess your sins and you said, I still feel the guilt. There's some consequences. But what you do is every time those accusations come, you said, I'm forgiven. Satan, I've already asked God. And you continually get back in the word of God. You stay in church. You stay faithful to the things of God. And you say, God, I just want to serve you. And what you're doing, little by little, is that guilt and shame is thrown your way. I mean, he's a mudslinger. Just food fight, mudslinging all the time. The Spirit of God will come alongside and help to encourage you, and God uses other believers to encourage you in your walk with the Lord. You're not a wash-up. You're not a has-been. You're a God-can-use-me-in-a-great-way. True conviction from the Spirit's gonna move you close to the Lord, and maybe you do have conviction, and God says, I want you to do something. Oh, God, I can't do this. I want you to go ask this person for forgiveness, or I want you to do this, or I want you to do that. Oh, God, I can't do that. Until you do, you're gonna continue to have that guilt, and Satan will use it against you. I remember for a while there, I had worked at a theater when I was back in high school, or excuse me, going into university the summer between high school and university. I wouldn't advocate for it, but I did at the time. I didn't have the discernment, but I worked there, and there were some things that I had done, and they'd give me some liberty to have some of the pop and stuff that was there. But I noticed at the time that I'd done a little bit more, a little more liberty in some of the candy and treats than what I was supposed to, and it came a time that God says, in my heart, you need to pay him back. It had been some years, and I said, okay, Lord, I'll finally do it. And I did, and I paid it back. And you know what? That guilt went away. Here's a story here of the author Gibbs. He said, I recall a phone conversation I had with a Christian lady who had lived for several years under the indictment of guilt. She had heard me over the radio and had phoned for help. I didn't know her name, but I do know that her case is typical of many Christians. She says, when I was a teenager I got into some pretty terrible sin. A few years later I was saved. Now I'm married and have a family. The other day the pastor asked me to teach a Sunday school class and I'd really like but my past keeps bothering me. I've been asked to teach before and I've always made some kind of excuse. Do I have to keep doing this for the rest of my life? I asked her to get the Bible and together over the phone, we read the verses that I share with you in the next section that we're going to be looking at. It didn't take long before she was rejoicing in God's salvation for her feelings of guilt. And today, he trusts that she's serving the Lord. Satan wants you to feel guilty. The Heavenly Father wants you to know that you're forgiven. Satan wants you to live under the dark cloud. Satan wants you to live in secret. If this secret gets out, and if I confess my sin as the Spirit of God is working on me, no one will like me. I'm done. I can't do it. I can't admit my guilt to this person. There's no way, God. I have to keep... No, God. That just doesn't make sense. I begin to tell the Spirit of God, no. Man that guilt it comes and it pressures you and there's times you might feel a little bit of liberty and your emotions begin to oh I feel freedom and then boom you get hit again with that guilt Some churches will major on the guilt of what you've done in your past make you feel useless But you're not a blessing One lady said she said every time we go to church a lady wrote me the pastor spanks us we what should we do? sanity there but to be sure there was a place for proper spiritual conviction but we must not must not major on guilt to do so is to play right into the devil's hands Paul had a situation like that there in the church Corinth one of the members there was a gentleman in the church who was sleeping with his stepmom He refused to repent and so Paul says you need to kick him out of the church and to discipline him In 2nd Corinthians chapter 2 verse 6 the man's repented. He wants back into the church. He wants back into the fellowship Sufficient to such a man as this punishment which was inflicted of many Paul says let the guy back in let him become a member of your church again Yes, he messed up, but let him in The church at first was complacent we don't want you know, oh, it's okay, you know It's just we're just having church and we all need to get along But then when Paul gives them the admonition of what they need to do, they wouldn't let the person back in. They wouldn't forgive them. So Paul counsels them, hey, 2 Corinthians 2, verses 7 through 8. He says, so that contrary wise you ought rather to forgive him and comfort him. Less perhaps such and one should be swallowed up with so much with over much sorrow, excuse me Verse eight wherefore I beseech you that you would confirm your love toward him verse 11 Less satan should get an advantage of us where we are not ignorant of his devices. Hey church of corinth forgive the guy He messed up. He went into sin Let him back in and enjoy the fellowship together Excessive guilt and sorrow, what does it lead to? Depression, despair, and defeat. my identity and I've seen this here and people in our in culture my identity is this and my identity is this maybe this nationality or my identity is my workplace or my identity is this and we got to get back to our identity yeah we need to get back to our identity but our identity is in Christ our identity is not in everything of this world So what are my defenses against Satan's accusations? And maybe you've been in that place before, or you're in there, in that place, and you think, man, I'd love to do more for God, but my past just, I can't do it. God can't use me. Yes, Satan stands at our right hand to resist us and accuse us. I'd like you to look with me at 1 John 2, verse 1. This is the truth of victory. 1 John chapter 2 verse 1. Just because we've messed up in the past, just because we've made some bad decisions, doesn't mean we need to stay in those decisions. just because a person may have gone to jail or gone to prison and served some time or they may have a criminal record. Depending upon what the criminal record is, yes, there may be some societal limitations, but There are still ways that you can have a relationship with God first John chapter 2 verse 1 my little children these things right I unto you that you sin not and if any man sin We have an advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous I'd like you to look back with me at Verse 9 of chapter 1 just a couple verses before chapter 2 verse 9 of 1st John 1 if we confess our sins He is faithful and just to what? Forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. So the promise here is I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. So I go to the Lord Jesus Christ and I say, Jesus, I really blew it this time. I messed up. Father, would you forgive me? I'm so sorry. Absolutely. Your sin is expunged. It's wiped off. God says, I don't see it anymore. Friend, I have an advocate. I have a lawyer on my behalf before God Almighty who advocates on me, on my behalf and your behalf. He perfects his children and prepares them for glory. I'd like you to look with me at Hebrews 13, Hebrews chapter 13, verse 20. We can either live in the past and live in the guilt and live in the sorrow of what has been, or I can look to the future of what God wants to do. It's a bright hope. It's a bright future. I mean, you think about the Apostle Paul. Yes, before he was saved, but nevertheless, before he was saved, he killed Christians. I mean, he came in and terrorized the church of Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul, I mean, can you imagine the guilt on his own heart? I've killed so-and-so's husband. I've killed so-and-so's wife. I took the children away. Hebrews 13, verse 20. And now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great shepherd of the sheep Through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do his will Working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight Through Jesus Christ whom be glory forever and ever amen So there's a perfecting ministry that the spirit that God has to do as our high priest he intercedes for us He provides for us provides a grace that you and I need And if by faith we turn to Him and trust Him and come to the throne, He sees us through to victory. Now if I yield to temptation, Then he advocates as our, excuse me, then he ministers to us as our advocate to forgive us our sins and restore us into fellowship again. So here is the throne in heaven. God the judge is on the throne. Joshua the high priest stands before God. He's dressed in his filthy robes. He's guilty, Satan stands at Joshua's right hand to resist him and to stop him and to keep him and accuse him. Joshua the high priest, you're done. Jesus Christ is at God's right hand to represent Joshua to restore him Explains why Jesus returned to heaven with wounds not scars in his body and wounds are the everlasting evidence that Christ died for us Jesus Christ had wounds God is merciful and gracious and he saved you and I He's faithful and righteous. He's faithful to keep his promises. He is righteous to act in and we're forgiven by Him. If we disobey, He will forgive us if we ask. Now, did God close His eyes to the situation here in Zechariah with respect to Joshua having dirty clothes? No. God will never defend His children's sins. And this is a key point. I notice some parents, if a child goes down a wrong path, well, this is what happened to them. So-and-so did this to them. Or this happened, and we excuse the sin. Well, they had some things growing up, and this is why they are what they are. Well, they've chosen to make some sinful paths. Yes, there were some unfortunate things that occurred to them, but they've chosen to make bad choices. Abraham disobeyed. He went down into Egypt. He didn't trust God. He goes down into Egypt. He gets Hagar, his wife's maid. He lies about his wife to the king there. God did not defend Abraham's actions of sins, but he did defend Abraham in the fact that he prevented Sarah from having marital relations with the king there. In fact, God addressed the king and said, this is another man's wife, and prevented Sarah from having immorality. So God worked on Abraham's behalf. God did not defend his sin. He didn't stand up for his sin. Now Abraham would suffer the consequences of that and the fact that he would have Hagar and eventually Sarah would say, hey, would you go into Hagar and have relations with her and now we'll have a kid and they tried to circumvent God's plan for their life. And additionally, for Egypt gave Lot, his nephew, a taste of what the world was like. And that led to Lot choosing to be in Sodom and Gomorrah and a great backsliding and downfall. But God overruled and accomplished his purposes through Abraham. The Bible is transparent. The Bible not only tells us the good things. It not only tells us the good things about Joseph and David and Daniel. It tells us the good things. But it also tells us the bad things that david did And others in the bible did and that's the thankful thing is I get to see but I also get to see the restoration that god enacts And when I listen to the spirit of god's conviction and I live by faith and I look by faith to jesus christ I have an advocate at the throne of god on my behalf He died for you and god will not reject you I belong to christ and you belong to christ if you're his child The heavenly intercession of the Son of God Can defeat Satan's accusations I Have an advocate much greater than Satan Now here's the stages and experience of Joshua the high priest number one you see Satan's resistance He names Joshua's sins You know, it just begins to go through the list. Stage two is God's rebuke of Satan, chapter Zechariah 3, 2. And the Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke thee, O Satan. Even the Lord that hath chosen Jerusalem rebuke thee. Is not this a bran plucked out of the fire? God's rebuke of Satan is based on his grace towards his people. We've been saved by grace. I don't depend upon my merit. And our relationship with God is not based on something I've done. Grace means that God accepts me in Jesus Christ, not in myself. So through Jesus Christ shed blood, I am accepted and washed and purified. The third stage we find is a restoration. God ordered them to remove the filthy clothes and put holy garments upon the high priest. You know what? You messed up. God says, I want you to put on some holy clothes. Put on that holy turban. Exodus chapter 28 verse 36. God did not even put Joshua on probation. He told him, return to the temple and carry on in service for the Lord. Joshua, yeah, you messed up. You have some dirty clothes. Put the clean clothes on and move forward. So we find a resistance, a rebuke, and a restoration. The stages of experience and confessing sins and returning to fellowship with the Lord. Satan accuses you. Don't listen to him. What do I do? When those accusations come, I say, God, I know I've messed up. But I'm trusting you. I've asked you to forgive me, and I just want to serve you. I turn to him. I ask him for help. Confess my sins I depend upon what God's Word says and here's the truth if the Bible says your sins are Forgiven and those accusations keep coming. I mean they're piling in The Bible says I'm forgiven I have to just trust what the Bible says just because I feel I'm still guilty We can't trust our feelings our feelings can go up and down and all over the place. I If the Bible says, I'm forgiven, then I'm forgiven. If I've legitimately and genuinely repented of my sins, it's gone. It's done. Now, unconfessed sin gives Satan a foothold in my life. But I need to rest on God's grace that God says, if I confess my sins, it's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Now sin, it becomes so big that it really covers the face of God and hides His grace from our lives. If I regard a nick in my heart, God will not hear me. People ask me to pray all the time for them as I've encountered them, and some I've told them, I said, listen, if you have sin in your life, you have to deal with it. We do not experience feelings of conviction that bring us back to God, but feelings of condemnation that convinces us that we cannot go back. Satan's accusations are you've sinned so much that God won't even hear you. The church will not receive you back. You've messed up too much. You're done. How about we just curse God and die and life's over? Life's so bad. Remember in John chapter 10 verse 10, the thief cometh not but for to steal, to kill, and destroy. I'm come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. And our hope can fade. Guilt begins and becomes a tool in Satan's hands, a terrible weapon to destroy your joy, your peace, and your fellowship with God, and you'll want to give up in despair. Don't listen to this voice. Listen to the voice of God. Listen to what God's Word says. Your advocate in heaven is waiting to forgive you and restore you. So to delay admitting and confessing your sins is only to give Satan a greater opportunity to damage your life in ministry. Look with me at Proverbs chapter 28 verse 3. Proverbs chapter 28, verse three, and then there was a handout back there. I don't know if you have that, but I just want to go through that real quick here. Proverbs 28, 13, you can get it on your way out as well. It's back there with the bulletins. Proverbs 28, 13. And then I'm gonna have to conclude here this morning. Proverbs chapter 28, verse 13. Wonderful truth. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Friend, if you messed up, if it's a private sin, deal with it before God. If it's a public sin, you need to deal with it publicly. If it's between you and someone else and no one else knows, you need to deal with it with that person. If you cover your sins, you'll not get the joy of the Lord. But if you let it go, and you ask God to forgive you, and if it's against another person, you ask them to forgive you, or you make right something you've done years ago, look at that, there's mercy. Verse 14, happy is a man that feareth all way, but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief. There's happiness, there's a joy. So we've met four people here. You would look at initially what we looked at was Eve, Adam and Eve, right? Satan's target was the mind. He gave her lies, the Satan's weapon. Satan's purpose was to keep her ignorant of God's will, but her defense was to be inspired by the word of God. Job, Satan attacked his body. Now he attacked his resources as well, but Satan's weapon was suffering. Satan's purpose was to make him impatient with God's will, but his defense was the imparted grace of God. How about David? David, God came against David's will. As I recall, right, as I stated last week and the week before, Satan prompted David, Satan prompted David to number Israel. The numbering of Israel was an act of pride that resulted in 70,000 people of Israel killed. David's act of immorality resulted in four deaths. And so Satan's weapon was pride and Satan's purpose was to get David to be independent of God's will as he is for our lives and my life and yours. But his defense is to the dwelling spirit of God that helps us. Satan's target for Joshua was the heart conscience. He made accusations obviously against his dirty clothes. It was an indictment by his will. but his defense was the interceding of the Spirit of God. Friend, God is in heaven to help me, to restore me, to encourage me, to get back, to enjoy the joy of the Lord in my life. But I have to trust God's Word. I can't trust my emotions. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it? My heart is going to deceit me, and that heart, my emotions will deceive me. Oh, I feel, and you're going to begin to, and I remember in my own life, as I would make advances for Christ, and that guilt would come, and there's time, oh, I can't do it, I recall, I'm just such a sinner. Those accusations came and it kept me back. Eventually I said enough is enough. I'm just going to go forward. I'm going to trust God and I'm going to trust what the Bible says and I'm going to move forward. You know what I saw? God bless. My emotions will keep me at bay if I continue to live by my emotions. I have to live by the leading of the Spirit of God and the truths of God's Word and just do right. You know what? God's not done with you. Don't listen to those accusations, the condemnation. You're still valuable in God's sight. God wants to do great and mighty things through you if you'll just yield your will to him. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you for this day. Father, I thank you for the encouragement from your word. Father, it's certainly true that you love us so much and you care for us. And Father, you give us the Spirit of God as believers to help us. Father, that we would go forth and do mighty things for your name. Lord, help us to be those people to love and honor and serve you. Thank you for your grace and mercy. In Jesus' precious name I pray.