Father, we just lift up Your Word to You right now God. Lord, we know God that You are the head of the universe - Your Word is spoken out of Your mouth and it goes and it accomplishes God. Your Word is powerful and it is mighty, and it has gone into this world and it has brought salvation to the world Lord. So Father we thank You for the salvation that has been brought to us. We thank You for Your Word. God may You bring it forth and may it touch our hearts this day. In Your Name we pray, amen.

You know, recently I've been learning a lot about justice right? At the police academy obviously, they talk about what justice is all the time. And you know, it got me thinking kinda about going back to when I was a kid and you know, thinking about all those injustices we have as children right? And it got me thinking you know? Everybody has a sense of what justice is and the injustices that we face every day. Some of them are legit and some of them maybe not so much - I remember, I was in sixth grade and I don’t know if you guys remember this - you guys definitely don’t remember this - but some of you guys might. Where like, I was in sixth grade and it was a thing where you would wear a belt, but it would be like way too big for you. And you would kinda like, instead of like, you know, wrapping around the extra slack you would kind of just like let it hang down by your feet, you know? Does anyone remember that, or maybe it was just me? I did that, you know. It was kind of like rolling your pant leg up or something. You know, it was like my little thing of like, starting to be like, a little rebellious; a little punk or whatever. And I remember it used to drive my sixth grade teacher bonkers. Like it used to drive him nuts and he used to get so mad. And I remember that I only got out for recess twice the entire year that year. You know, and I'd go around and I would speak of the injustice that happened to me. “How could it be that everyone else is on the playground and I'm not allowed out?” And I would go speak about it to everyone and truth is now, you know, I probably deserved that. You know, probably deserved a little bit worse than that. You know, but at the time right, it was the worst injustice that could happen.

Some of the youth group kids come in, in youth group and they tell me, they’re like, “Oh, this teacher, this teacher, they’re so bad, they're so horrible, they're so mean.” I said, “Really? What did they do?” “Oh, you know they told me to take my hat off.” “Yeah, but you’re not allowed to wear hats in school right?” And they’re like, “ Yeah, but you know, how could they? How could they tell me to take my hat off, you know?” Or “They yelled at me for talking.” And I’m like, “Were you talking?” “Well yeah, but there were three other kids that were talking and you know, they only yelled at me.” And you know, we have this sense of injustice as a child.

Sometimes, you know, they get to be a little bit more serious than that, but everyone has it, even as adults. We look, and it's funny because in the police academy, we have different instructors come in every single day depending on where their expertise really lies. And they come in, and they always have these war stories, right? And what do you think they're telling? Do you think they're telling about the guy who got caught and got what he deserved and, you know, is in jail? No they’re telling the story about the injustice. The time that the guy got away or he got away on a technicality in court, or he was never caught and the crime was never solved. These are the stories that stick with people- about the injustices that go on this world.

You know as I heard that and I began to pray about it I said, “God, you know, there is so many injustices that happen...” Right? There’s so many - this world is so messed up, and God was like, “Yeah, you know it is really bad. Things are really messed up in this world, but you know the greatest injustice that happens in this world? It's not against man, it's against Me.” And I said, “Really Lord? You know, what is it?” And He said, “The greatest injustice is when My Word has been perverted. When My Word has been changed. When My Word has been watered down. When My Word has been transformed into something that it was not supposed to be.” And I said, “God really?” He said, “Look, my Word goes out into the world. My Word was made flesh, and it came down to this world to bring salvation to man. But then what happens is man hears it, and they change it, and they twist it, and it becomes something that it wasn't meant to be, something that man's itching ears want to hear. Something that excuses the way that we live.” And God said, “You see, that's the greatest injustice that there is.” I said, “Yeah, you know what Lord? You’re absolutely right.”

The God of Justice

Today, in the world, we see the Word of God being perverted being purposely misinterpreted, being outright changed to fit the desires of man and that is the greatest injustice of them all. So today, I wanna really talk about, you know, bringing back true justice to this world. I want to explore today how Christ came to bring true justice to this world. We celebrated Christmas last week, right? Christ came down, and we celebrated with our families, but we have to remember that the story didn't stop there. It kept going, where God was bringing justice to the nations. His ministry was bringing justice to the broken down. His ministry was bringing truth and the Word was coming to bring justice to the nations, and today people of God, we are ones as God's children that need to bring justice back to the land. Amen.

So if you have your Bibles, I’m gonna be reading from Isaiah 42, verses 1 through 4. And the first thing we’re gonna be talking about today is how justice, true justice- brings truth. And we’re gonna start in verse 1 and we’re gonna work our way through the first four verses here. And what does it say? “Here is My servant, whom I uphold, My Chosen One in whom I delight; I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations.”

This was a prophecy in Isaiah that was brought about before, obviously way before Jesus Christ. And it was one of the prophecies that was fulfilled when Jesus began His ministry. So when we say justice brings truth, we have to understand what is justice, right? To understand justice we have to understand the injustice that is going on; the twisting of the Word. See, this is what happens where man hears the Word of God, or they hear a misinterpreted version of the Word of God, where they hear it and it makes what they're doing ok. They think, “Well, it's ok I can continue to live the way that I’m living and I can continue to do the things that I'm doing and it's ok,” and because there's no breaking of the law, there's no reason to feel guilty. And this is what we have so often throughout - especially this country. And this is so often when I hear the Word of God being preached. It’s saying that you can be richer, you can be greater, you could have a bigger house, you could be a better you, it’s all about you it’s all about man it’s all about feeling it’s all about flesh. But never getting into what the Word was meant to bring. Let me explain to you what the Word of God is: the Word of God is powerful, the Word of God is awesome. It goes to the depths of who you are, it splits bone and marrow and goes deep, deep, deep inside of you, and it brings conviction and repentance, amen!

It goes and brings and speaks to the depths of who you are. It goes and speaks to that inner man and says, “Inner man! You're not lining up to the Word of God. Inner man! There’s a wrath over this world, and as long as you stay in sin you’re underneath it, but there is a better way.” It speaks to you and it speaks repentance, and it speaks grace. And it says, “Jesus Christ came to take your penalty!”

You see true justice for us is to go out into this unjust world and reinstitute what God's Word was meant to be. God's Word was meant to go out and speak truth to the heart. God's Word was to go out and speak conviction to the heart. God's Word was meant to bring repentance to the heart. Why? So that you would come underneath Him and say, “God, here I am. Lord, I need a savior this day. God I need to be forgiven this day.” Amen!

"All that will matter is the justice of God."

You know I talk to the youth group kids sometimes - I say, “Look, if the trumpets went off today, right? If the trumpets went off and, you know, they sounded right now in this moment, would what’s going on in school matter anymore? No. You know would that parking ticket you thought you didn't deserve, would that injustice matter anymore? No.” You know, none of the injustices matter in the world. The second those trumpets go off, the only thing that is gonna matter is the justice of God. To say that, “Have I lived under God's glory? Have I come underneath God? Have I crowned Him King over my life, or have I turned away from Him, and lived as an enemy of God?” You see, the second those trumpets go off, it’s not gonna matter what you did anymore. It’s not gonna matter the “speeding ticket.” The teacher’s not gonna matter anymore. All that will matter is the justice of God.

And I think about just in the last year- of some of the things I've heard about and how the Word of God has kinda been twisted and what its become. You know, just in the last year, someone told me, you know, “The Bible is filled with inconsistencies. Filled with it.” And I said, “Really, it’s filled with it? Can you tell me one, like what’s one of these inconsistencies?” And they’re like, “Well, I don't know, like I don’t read it, but it's you know, everybody knows, everybody talks about it. It’s just something everybody knows; it's filled with inconsistencies.” I said, “Okay, good talk.” You know, like it's obviously based in fact.

Oh, this is one I heard last week: Somebody said to me this last week- they said, “Look, you know, the Word says that God is in your heart. He's not in that place built with human hands, so you don't need to go to church, right? Church is obsolete. You know, it’s not necessary anymore.” And I got to speak to him, I’m like, “Look, that’s not what it means. Yes, God isn’t in a place built with human hands, but He talks about the Word coming deep inside of your heart and the Holy Spirit drawing you into God's house and you coming together and filling the temple with God's glory like it was meant to be in the beginning. Like it was when God was in the temple.” You know, this is what goes on.

And last week in the locker room, I promise you this is what I heard. I'm not lying. Somebody actually said this - they said, “Santa Claus is a character in the Bible.” I promise. I was getting dressed and I heard it and I was like “What?! Did they really just say that?” This is what goes on in the world. This is what the Word of God has become: Santa Claus is a character in the Bible. You know and I look and I say, “How did this happen? How did it come to be like this because that's not what the Word was meant to be.” You know, it really goes back to the Garden of Eden when Eve was in the garden and God gave a command and He said, “Do not eat of this fruit,” and when the snake came and whispered in Eve’s ear, what did he say? “Did God really say that?”

It’s the same tactic that's going on today. “Did God really say that?” This is what we're left with, we are left with a people - Christians that say, “Did God really say that?” “Did God really say that or didn’t He actually say that He's a God of love, and because He loves everything, He just accepts it all, and it's all good, you can do whatever you want because God's a God of love? Didn’t He actually say that He loves us and He wants us to be happy, so you should do whatever it takes to be happy at any moment, and you just gotta do whatever it takes for you to be happy in that moment? Didn't He actually say that you know, God loves you and He wants your family to have nice things so you shouldn’t come to God's house on Sunday you gotta work and provide for your family. Isn’t that what God actually meant?” No, it’s not. Thanks. Thanks for clearing that up.

See Satan’s tactic from the beginning has been the same thing: Did God really say that? And we're left with people being in confusion and being separated from God, and we still see this Leviathan spirit in the church today, of where it tangles everything up and says, “Did God really say that?” But the truth of the Word, what does that do? It blocks the conviction of the Word from hitting the heart. It blocks the truth of the Word from going deep and producing a work. Let me tell you that conviction and repentance is a gift from God. It’s what it’s meant to do because it’s meant for you to cry out for a Savior. This world that we live in - it’s so short. This life that we have is so fast. And the conviction of God brings us underneath His glory and His throne and seats us at His cross and says, “God here I am, and I need a Savior this day.” That's what true salvation is and that is true justice. Bringing justice back to an unjust land. Bringing justice back is that God would go inside of you and His Word would produce fruit and it wouldn’t just be this twisted thing, where it excuses sin, but it would be something that causes you to go to the throne of God. I tell you this world is filled with injustice but true justice is God establishing His Word in the hearts of His people. Amen.

You know, one of the stories that Bob tells that I repeat it all the time and I love it, you know, he talks about going to the nursing homes and going to the hospitals and you know, speaking to people that are you know, really old, like 99 years old. And they go, and they’re in the hospital and you're 99, you're in the hospital like you know like, it’s not a good combination, right? And he goes and he talks to them and he says, you know, “Have you given any consideration to what's coming next?” And when he told me this I couldn’t believe it. He said, “Look, people are like, ‘No, not really. You know, I never really thought of it.’” How is that possible? Like, it’s 1+1=2. It's gonna happen, you know? Like, it’s right around the corner, you know? How do you not consider what is coming next? And I said that to the Lord and you know, it really comes down to people being so wrapped up in these lies, in these misconceptions, that they’re so comfortable in it that, they're willing to bet eternity on it. People of God that's an injustice. That's an injustice in the world that can only be corrected by a people who live in Spirit and in truth. That can only be corrected by the people of God living in Spirit and truth. Maybe you're still living under an injustice today. Maybe God's Word is still tangled up and is not bringing truth today but let me tell you I have good news for you: God has brought Good News, and it is that He is bringing justice to the earth - that He came to untangle and straighten out all the crooked paths.

Jesus Christ, He was empowered by the Spirit of God - that verse says it, right? “I will put My Spirit on Him, and He will bring justice to the nations.” Jesus is here no longer, He sent His Holy Spirit down that you would be empowered to bring justice to the nations; first in your own life, and then in the lives of this world.

You know when John the Baptist came in Luke 3 -and I just want to read this real fast, because I love this. This was speaking about him in Isaiah, in just two chapters after what we’re reading, and it says that he is the, “voice of the one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill brought low. And the crooked places shall be made straight,’”- the crooked places shall be made straight - “‘and the rough ways made smooth. And all men will see the salvation of God.’”

You see John the Baptist went out and spoke in truth. He went out and brought truth to the world. And what fruit did it bring? It brought repentance. It brought conviction to the hearts of the people. Remember this isn’t like a nice thing where you're on the stage and you get dunked in like, you know, a nice clear water. He was in a dirty river and remember who John the Baptist was he had a beard and probably had some honey and some locusts stuck in the beard. He lived in the wilderness- he was next level. But then these guys come, right? And you think about who's coming. It caused such a ruckus that the religious leaders had to come see what was going on. Men and women and businessmen and high statured people came and said, “You know what?” and heard these words and began to take off their robes and jump into the dirty river to be dunked down by this crazy guy. Why? Because they needed to do an outward expression of saying that, “God I feel inside I'm dirty Lord. God I feel what's over me Lord. God I need to be washed clean.” And they jumped in the river and it was such an act of humility to jump in. Why? Because John was speaking the truth. John was speaking the truth of the Word and he was bringing justice to an unjust land. Hallelujah.

My question for us today: Are we the ones that are jumping into the river knowing that we need salvation? That the Word of God is touching our hearts in such a deep way that we have to jump in and be dunked because we just know that, “God, You gotta do it with Your Holy Spirit, You have to bring that cleansing because I know I need it?” Or are we the ones on the river edge that turn our backs and say, “You know, I kinda know as long as I keep the temple, and as long as I you know, do the religious holidays like it's all good, and I don't really need that.” And they turn, and they go the other way? God is looking to do something different. He wants to bring justice to an unjust land, amen!

So we know that justice brings truth - truth of God's Word, truth of who He is, and truth of our state. Secondly, the justice brings comfort. When I was looking at, you know we got studying about like, terrorism and stuff, and when you look at where some of the origins of some of these, like, the worst things in this world, it's crazy what you see, like gangs, right? You look at gangs and really you go back to the origins in the 70s in LA and where did it come from? Just a bunch of youth who felt that they were facing injustice and they were gonna get no justice and they had to get their own, even if it was street justice. And they go and they form these groups. Or terror organizations right? Even them-and obviously they’re not justified, obviously they’re wrong- but you look, they have this sense of an injustice that they need to come together and try to fix. You see, everyone has that sense of injustices and justice inside of their heads.

Even you think about a child. A young child, who's going through abuse in his dwelling and all the injustices that they are facing. The ones that have been beat down and minimized their entire lives. You seen - and I say that justice brings comfort. How does justice bring comfort? It brings comfort to those ones. Those ones who have been broken down and beaten and can't do it anymore. The ones who have lived their lives and - you know, as I was praying about this, God was kind of even bringing me back to my past - of the ones that go and are broken down and think that justice is never gonna be served in their situation. That they’re outside of the justice. That what's happening to them will never be made right. That they just have to make the best out of it and have to withstand it because it's never gonna be better. And they get beaten down and they get broken, and they're falling down, but you know what? When the Word of God comes, when the Good News comes that God is a God seated in heaven, when the Good News comes that there is a God who loves His people, loves them so much that He sent His Son down to die for them - when the Word comes that, although they’ve been broken and discarded and beaten - but there is a place at the table of God for them, when that Word comes, there is joy. There is joy!

You see, this Good News that we bring it’s a Word of truth. We have this thing in our head that the Word is like, so hard and, “How am I gonna do it?” And the old man keeps hanging on. “How am I gonna break through?” But that's not the Good News of Christ. The Good News of Christ goes to the weary, to the heavy-laden, to the broken and says, “I have Good News for you for Jesus Christ paid the penalty for your sin that you would not have to.” And you know when it hits a heart like that, it hits a heart and a man stands up and throws all down at the throne of God. A man stands up and throws it all in joy and in gladness, and he throws it before the throne and says, “God, I have seen what this world holds. I have seen all the despair. I have seen all the depression. I have seen all the brokenness. I have seen all the abuse. God, I throw it down at Your throne may You take the old man. May he be buried God. Because if he’s buried, he will be risen again and I will be a new creation. God, take it all upon Your throne that I might be risen anew.”

The justice - true justice - going out into the world brings comfort to the broken and the heavy-laden, it brings comfort and joy to those who have none left. Let’s look at the next verse. It says, “He will not shout or cry out, or raise His voice in the streets. A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out.”

You know it says, “He will not shout or cry or raise His voice in the streets…” It’s not saying that He's quiet or He’s not loud, because we know Jesus got hype sometimes right? But what he's talking about there is the style of ministry that He brought. You know He wasn't the one on the street corner yelling. He wasn't the one with a picket sign in His hand outside of the temple, you know, saying, It's not fair.” You know, whatever! He wasn't the one, you know, going out and yelling at everybody that He saw. No, He brought truth and justice out into this world and He brought it as meek as He was, as He went out and spoke truth to these people, as He went out to the broken and the heavy-laden, you know, He went and spoke truth. As much as He was that man, did you notice crowds followed Him wherever He went? Crowds followed Him no matter where He went. He wasn't holding up signs, He wasn't plastering on a billboard. But yet the crowds followed Him. You know, why is that? Because all of a sudden, the Word became applicable to them. Remember, you know, these had people that had been broken down and had been in the Temple - Temple was up there and they had the high religious leaders and everything surrounded with that and they were just expected to kinda go with the flow but it never really hit their heart. It was always kind of a separateness between them and religion where it didn't really affect them that much. And I'll tell you, we have the same thing today. You talk to some people and you say, you know, “Why do you do what you do? Why do you light the candle? Why do you say the prayers? Why do you go to church every Sunday? Why is it? What are you doing? What is it personally doing for you?” And that's any church you could say that. And they’ll say, “Well, I don’t know...” right? “...I just think that's what you're supposed to do.” But there's that separation between them and God.

You see God - when Jesus Christ came into this world - He began to preach, and all of a sudden the Words that He was preaching were not separate, they started to hit the hearts of men. They started to hit no matter if you were the highest of the high or the lowest of the low, God's Word began to go out and bring justice, true justice, impartial justice to every single person and it began to affect every single man or woman.

I had somebody in my academy class say to me the other day- he's a history teacher, he taught AP History - and he says, you know, “Look, you know we were taught in college that Christianity was like a poor man's religion.” You know, this is what they're talking about in college right, so I’m like, “Alright, this is gonna be good.” You know, he says, “Look, you know, we were taught that, you know it was all about poor people, and that because it said that, you know you can’t be rich to enter into the Kingdom of God and you know it was all that…” - and that was it and I got to explain to him, like “No, you don’t understand. Emperors and kings, you know, would come under Christianity and they changed you know, nations of religion, you know, to God, you know, based off of who they were,” and I got to explain kinda what that verse meant. But this is what's being taught, kinda, in school systems, right? And in college. It’s, “Look, It’s not that.” And I started to explain to him, like, “Look, it's not that it was a poor man's religion, but for the first time, when Jesus Christ began to speak, it didn't matter who you were. It didn't matter where you were. God was speaking to the hearts of men. God was speaking to the hearts of the people. God was going deep, and He was speaking and all of a sudden, it was causing fruit to come out in somebody's lives, transformation to come out in somebody’s lives, people sold all that they had,” - you read Acts, people sold all that they had because there is something greater than what they were receiving. It wasn’t monetary. They couldn’t hold it in their hand, but all of a sudden, communities were coming together, and churches were coming together, and they were blessing one another and somebody's welfare became higher than their own, and they began to pool all their resources, and God got rid of all Mammon, and all sense of “It’s mine!” and got rid of all of that, and the Church, it was united in Spirit and in truth. Why? What were they receiving? They knew that they had something better than the rest of the world. They knew they had something better than the money, and the cars, and the houses, and all of the monetary things in this world. They had been given something greater.

You see that is comfort, that is justice going out into the world, speaking to the one who has been, you know, set aside their entire lives, who have been broken their entire lives. When the justice goes out with us, you know, it's meant to go out to that person who has never heard it before - never heard it in the same way. Everyone's heard about Jesus, but no one has heard about the Jesus Christ that came into your life and transformed you. No one has heard about the justice that has been brought into a Christian's life that said, “Look, I used to be broken, I used to be down, I used to be discarded, but Jesus Christ came into my life and He did something different with me. He spoke to me. I don't know why me but He began to speak to me, and I threw it all down to the throne of God, because who am I compared to God? Who am I compared to His glory? Yet God remembered me,” amen!

It says, “A bruised reed He will not break, and a smoldering wick He will not snuff out.” That bruised reed there - like I use a reed in my saxophone - and when you bruise it, it kinda gets wavy and it weakens it. It’s supposed to be nice and flat. And when you bruise it, it like, weakens it and at that point you start getting that penguin noise, you know? It’s like “”Bwah!” you know? At that point, you have to throw it out right? Because it's weak and you can't restrengthen it. And the smoldering wick that it’s talking about was a wick inside of a lamp - It was filled and saturated with oil, and when it burnt out, it would start to smolder and you had to throw it out, and you had to replace it with a new one. You see but God says, the bruised reed, the ones who are weak, the ones who can't do it anymore, “a smoldering wick” the ones who have no oil left, you know, He will not snuff out because those are the ones that will come before God for they need a Savior. And He will strengthen them, and He will fill them with the oil of joy, and it'll be Good News that comes to the heavy-laden. This is the message that we bring. This is justice going out to an unjust world. God has to do it in your lives first. He has to speak to you that you would be empowered by the Holy Spirit to go out and speak justice to an unjust world, amen!

You know, I had the pleasure of being with Pastor Janeth sometimes when she counsels some of the young people, and, you know, one thing that I find amazing is that she’ll speak and she’ll be like, “Well, tell me what happened.” And you know, a lot of times they won’t want to talk. And then eventually, they’ll be like, “Well, you know, this is what happened…” and Pastor Janeth will be like, “Yeah, that’s wrong.” And they’ll stop for a second, like “What do you mean? You know, you're saying that you're not gonna just take somebody else’s side? Like, you’re not just gonna take an adult’s side, you’re actually gonna listen?” And there's like a shock - there's an opening of the eyes that takes place when all of a sudden that person finds out that they’re not going to be unfairly treated, but that the law of God is going to be impartially applied. It's the same thing with people in this world. People are looking, you know, for something different. They’ve been broken down, they’ve been treated unfairly, they’ve been abused their entire lives, and I'll tell you, there's a lack of justice in this world and you will not find it in this world. If you’re looking for vindication in this world you will not find it, but in God's house, and in God's truth, and in God's Word, it is impartially applied to all men and it goes into the heart of a man and says, “Look, it doesn't matter what you've done who you've been.” In the end times, when those trumpets sound, it's not gonna matter what speeding ticket you had how nice of a person you were, how many laws you broke. All that’s gonna matter is the law of God. Whether you have crowned Him as King over your life, whether you have set Him above your life and have come underneath Him and said, “God, here I am. May You rule over my life.” Or if you've turned away from Him and lived on your own and lived as an enemy of God. That is the law that will matter in the end times, and that is the justice that we bring to an unjust land.

So we know that God's justice brings truth, it brings comfort to the heavy-laden, and finally, it brings faith. Let’s go to the next verse. It says, “In faithfulness He will bring forth justice; He will not falter or be discouraged until He establishes justice on this earth.”

You know as I read that, I kinda began to just understand something that might seem obvious: When Jesus Christ went out, there was a certainty of the Word inside of Him - He knew who He was. He knew He was the Word of God. He knew that He was the salvation sent down to man. There was a certainty and a sternness inside of Him that set His face like flint, that said, “God, I’m gonna go out - Father, I’m gonna go out and accomplish this because I know the mission You have sent Me.” There was a certainty of who He was inside of His heart. And I tell you as God began to expose that to me, I realize that that is true faith. In faithfulness, He went to bring forth justice. He would not be discouraged. He would not falter until He established the justice on earth. There was true faith inside of Him for what He was about to do. You see, that is what faith is meant to be, and it’s what we as God's people are supposed to exhibit. We are supposed to have that same type of faith that goes out into the world and says, “God, I am certain of the Word that You have brought. God, I know the truth of Your Word. God I know and I believe in everything that You say.” There is a faithfulness inside of me that says, “God, Your Word is above all things. It is set high above; this world cannot compare, but Your Word is what matters God.”

We need to have that revelation of the truth of the Word of God inside of us. If we don't, we’re serving a weak and kinda powerless gospel. I think like if I were Jesus right and He was getting ready to be sent down, like I’d be kind of like jumping, like, “Alright God, like, I'm ready. Let’s do this.” You know? Like, “I got it God. Because I know the mission that You sent of me, and I know the truth of Your Word, and I know the justice that You have in Your hand. And God I know who You are, and I know Your character, and I know what You bring God, and I am certain of what You're saying, and God, I’m gonna move in that faithfulness.” That is what God has called us to.

So all of a sudden - when you have that type of revelation, all of a sudden, the Word begins to come alive. People say, you know, “How do you open up the Word?” and “How does it bring you comfort?” Well when you open up the Word and you have faith like that, all of a sudden the words of God become life. All of a sudden when He says, “He will never leave you or forsake you…”, you're saying, “God You will never leave me nor forsake me, You will be by my side every single day. God what do I have to fear? What can I not overcome? For Lord You are at my side and God You will be with me and You will uphold me in Your right hand.” All of a sudden, when the Word says, He's a “strong tower and the righteous run into Him and are safe...”, you're saying, “God, You are a strong tower. What can come against You? Who can scale these walls God? For I know that in You I am safe. I know in You, You are a just God who will surround your people in righteousness.” When the Word says that, “If you confess in your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is Lord, you will be saved -saved from the coming wrath upon this world…” that, “God I trust and I have faith, that I lower myself down God, and I put myself at Your altar this day. Lord, I know that You will lift me up - that I will be made into a new creation and that God, one day I will be seated at Your table.”

Faith. Bringing faithfulness is meant to bring those words out. It’s meant for us to go out into this world and in faithfulness dispense justice, in faithfulness bring truth, in faithfulness go out to the heavy-laden and the burdened and bring truth of the Word of God. This is what God has called us to. Not just a “give it a chance” kind of gospel...but a Gospel that says, “God, Your words are true.” And how does that happen? You know it happens just like we spoke about today. It happens when somebody has had their crooked ways inside of their minds, when they had crooked ways so implanted inside of them for so long, and the Word has been twisted, and the Word has been changed, and all of a sudden, God begins to bring the truth. He dispenses justice in your life, and the Word of God begins to be straightened out, and it brings conviction, and it brings repentance in your life. All of a sudden the Word - His law - is comfort to you. His law is something that you thirst for, because you know, “God, I need it. I’ve seen the ways of the world and Lord, I need Your Word.” And it not only becomes something that we just need, but it becomes something that we live by. That is true justice in an unjust world - when a life is transformed by the Word of God. You will not find justice in this world. You will not find vindication in this world, but in God's hand is all true life, and justice, and freedom, and transformation, amen!

Ultimately, when somebody receives that type of Word, it causes something: It causes action. How can you have that certainty inside of your heart? How can you have that certainty of who God is in the Word of God and not move from it? The Bible says that, “faith without action is dead.” That makes perfect sense right? Faith without action is dead because in true faith if it’s not causing you to move, if it’s not causing you to do, if it’s not causing you to throw yourself at the throne of God, if it’s not causing you to move differently and act differently and speak differently, then it’s not true faith.

We have to really look at our lives today and see that if the truth of God is not changing how you manage your household, then it’s not faith; there's still an injustice there. If the truth of God is not changing how you go about your life and your marriage, and how you're raising your kids, and you think it's okay to just, you know, do your own thing and raise them like the rest of the world or have a marriage like the rest of the world, then I'm telling you today: There is an injustice in your life, for the truth of God has not taken hold in your life. If the truth of the Word of God has not changed how we worship, and we still think “It's okay, He knows my heart. I can kinda just sit still,” - and that truth hasn’t come and we’re sitting still and it’s not causing action in our lives, then I tell you today, there is an injustice in your life. If the truth of the Word of God is not changing how you act, and how you speak, then I have good news for you today, because God came Jesus Christ was sent to this world to make the crooked ways straight, to make every valley laid low and every mountain high. That He comes to bring truth and justice to this world, amen!

God went to bring truth to a burdened land. He went to bring truth to a land of people to say, it doesn't matter how fast you drove it doesn't matter how nice of a person you were - every man, woman, and child. It doesn't matter who you are, what you've done, how much money you had or didn't have. It doesn't matter how much you think you can get out of it. It doesn't matter how much you say, “As long as I don’t believe in it, it’s not true.” It doesn't matter how much you say, “If I turn away and act like it’s not there it’s not gonna matter.” It does not matter. The truth of the Word of God brings a revelation that says, “One day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess,” amen!

The truth of the Word of God brings a certainty to heart that all men will be judged impartially. That all men will come before the throne of grace. That all men will one day come before God’s throne and will be judged not only about what they did, and how they lived their life, but the attitudes of their heart and whether they have turned away from His Son or have accepted Him. You see, that revelation that comes, it says that there is a judgment to come, but praise God, He came to make the crooked ways straight. He came to straighten out the Word of God. He came to bring truth to the innermost parts of your being, that you would be turned away from the life of sin and come into the truth and Spirit of God.

When justice is established in the heart of His people, that is how we prove God's Word to be true. Everybody reads God's Word everybody knows a verse in the Bible, but let me tell you most people would say, “Yeah well it’s nice to read but what does it mean for me?” When we live a life proving - with the life that we live and what we do proves that this Bible and that these words are true - can you be one that goes out into the world? Can you be one that has had justice established in your own life, that now you can go out into the world and establish it in the world that we live in? Look it’s an unjust world. A lot of messed up stuff happens, but we as the people of God, bring true justice to this world. There is no justice in this world for the most part, but God brings truth. The truth of His word, the truth of His salvation, the truth of His law that goes out into the world, and let me tell you, that truth is powerful and it will transform lives, and it transforms your household, and it transforms your community.

"To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice."

I just want to close with this verse today. It's Proverbs 21:3. And it says, “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice….To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” We must show that it's no longer about religion. And if you could imagine yourselves being even that person that was in the city when Jesus walked in - to be the one that had, you know, been broken down their entire lives trying to do the right thing, maybe not have a lot of money but, you know, just trying to do the right thing before God. The tax collectors keep coming and taking more. You live under the view, in the purview of the Pharisitical leaders, and you're just trying to do it but you know there's always that disconnect. But when Jesus Christ came, He came to bring justice to a land. He came to bring truth into hearts. He came to establish His law, not written down anymore, not written on tablets, not put up in a temple for people to stop by and read, but He began to write the laws of God upon the hearts of men.

The world is filled with people who have faced injustices. Who have broken down and will tell you about how unfair it is. How unfair everything they've experienced is. How unfair all the things that they've seen in their life. But God wants to bring justice to the land. He wants to start with it here. He wants to start with it in His own house. That the Word of God would go deep; it would not be twisted, but that crooked ways would be made straight! That it would go and speak to your hearts! People lined up on the river to hear John the Baptist speak. He might not have looked the part. He might not have had robes. He might not have looked exactly like the Jewish leaders, but the words that he spoke were all of a sudden life to a people who had been separate from God. They were life to a people who had faced injustice after injustice. They were life to a people who were searching after God. Are you that person today? Is God speaking the Word of God inside of your heart today? What fruit is this Word bearing inside of us? What has it changed? What has it transformed? How are you moving because of the truth of the Word of God that is being spoken this day? God wants to go deep. He wants to go deep and make the crooked ways straight. For people of God, this is how justice is brought into an unjust land.