John chapter 11, verse 35. The title of my message this morning is "The Ministry of Tears". As I began to pray over this last night I began to realize what God wanted to do this morning. I really believe that if you will allow this word to touch your heart, some of you have been in a really unique place, I believe that Jesus is going to change some lives here today.
John 11:35, the shortest verse in all of the Bible, "Jesus wept". Father, this morning I thank you for your word. Holy Spirit, we come this morning expecting your Holy Spirit to do a work in us. Father, we've already thanked you today for the good things you've done but Lord I thank you again that the enemy is rendered powerless in this room. Holy Spirit, I pray that just for the next few moments our hearts and our minds would be completely focused on you, open and ready to receive the work that you're doing. May we decrease and you increase, in Jesus name. Amen.
The thing that I love about God is that he is so very open and honest with everything that goes on. I think for a long time in religion there has been so much pretense. There has been so much facad that has been put on, that when it comes to doing a work in people's lives we forget that what God does meets us where we are every single day. One of the most open thing we could ever read as we come to his word is the openness that we see in Jesus response. This is the most open and revealing scene ever given in the word of God and it's given in the shortest verse that there is in all of the Bible. It says simply "Jesus wept".
The Bible says that Jesus was a man just like we are but fully God and fully man, experiencing all the things that we've gone through. Before I began to come to this, the one thing the Lord said when he gave this to me is that there are many people that are weeping, many people in private that are shedding tears, many people that are crying out to God and when they come to church or when they go to work, they wipe the tears away from their eyes, they make sure that they look like they've got it all together but as they're going through their day there is such a brokenness in their heart. God said, "I want them to understand that I understand what they're going through, that I know who they are and that I have a work that I want to do in their life".
Listen, Jesus wept and it is recorded several times in the Bible where Jesus was moved to tears. At this time he saw his friend, Lazarus, had passed away. He already knew that he was going to raise Lazarus from the dead but he was so moved by the grief that he saw his friends going through, that even the Son of God was moved to tears because of it.
The truth is this, Christian, even if you have great faith in God, even if you believe that God will do miracles and even if you know he is about to do one and you can sense it and know it, there are times when you get around people and you see them hurting that you can't help but be moved by the very things that they are going through.
I believe that one of the things that God is doing in this day is returning a compassion to his church, a love for people that Jesus has so that we can weep when they weep and laugh when they laugh, so that they know that we care and that Jesus cares.
Jesus cried in the Garden of Gethsemane when he knew he was going to be crucified. It was a personal thing, he knew what he was going to experience as he hung on the cross, the weight that he would carry, the sin of the entire world. Not only did he cry for himself because he knew how hard it would be, he cried for the world because he knew that at that moment they had no idea that the very one they were going to crucify was going to set them free. I want to tell you this morning that Jesus has already been to the cross, he has already died for our sins, he has already made provision for everything you and I need. So God knows the tears that you cry because he cried them before he went to do his work, the work that he wants to do in you and I want this to be very personal this morning.
I want to tell you, this church is a great place for family to be. There are very few people that I cry around but I do cry around my family and you'll see me cry at church but this is a safe place to be. Whatever the Lord is doing in your heart, I encourage you to let him finish it today. Jesus knew that there was a work that he wanted to do and what he did at the cross was life changing but many today are having moments in their life that are so profound, seasons of sorrow, people who are mourning over things in their life, wrestling in spiritual warfare as the enemy is trying to do things in their family and in their home and at work. They know that they are victorious in God but there is this deep work going on. Listen, the Lord has seen your tears.
Some of you have experienced intense times of discouragement. You can't even figure out where it's coming from. Life is good, you're doing ok, the bills are paid, life is fine, you're driving a nice car, you've got a nice home, your family is doing well but for whatever reason you are being hit with this discouragement that seems to come out of nowhere and some days it's just slapping you in the back of the head. You thought you were facing the day easy but it sought to knock you off your feet. Our society shuns times like this, they call it moments of weakness. Somehow if you're going through those times, it's so deep that your weak. That's undignified and it's just an expression of emotionalism, trying to brush it off as a lack of sleep and just the result of an emotional mood swing. The truth is that all of us know that these times that we face are very real and I believe very profound and that God is allowing them to happen because he is doing a deep work in the hearts of his people.
Charles Spurgeon, the great american revivalist and a pastor, a few centuries ago would experience times when he would weep so profoundly before God because the only way he knew he could express himself was in tears. He called those times "Liquid Prayer". He didn't know what else to say, he had prayed everything he could pray. He had shouted in faith, he had declared the scriptures, he had stood on the word of God, he knew that God was doing a work but the things that were going on were still happening. Sometimes we come to that place and people say, "You just need to know how to pray right, you just need to know the words to say". But I want to tell you there are sometimes in life that you get to the place where you can't say anymore and the only thing that you can do is weep and those tears mean just as much to Jesus, even more so than any words we try to form because we think it's the religious thing to do.
The truth is all of us at some point though we laugh about it in society, sometimes we just like a good cry, sometimes it feels good. Sometimes it's nice to watch a good "chick flick" on a Friday night and walk away with tears in your eyes. We joke about it and try to be as macho as we can but the truth is that tears are very healing. Some of you men actually liked that movie, "Sleepless in Seattle". As hard as we try to be tough there is that place that if we will allow Christ to touch then it will be a powerful work that God is doing in our life. Tears are not just an emotional response, they reflect a spiritual response of the person to God.
Some of you have been crying and before we get into the deep part of this message I want to say this, tears are not a sign of unbelief, they are honest trust in Jesus. To be openly laid bare before God knowing that he cares for you, to be in that place of vulnerability is a marvelous place to be. Whether you are weeping because of pain or despair or the loss of a loved one or because of confusion over a choice that needs to be made. The truth is that there is something powerful when we finally come to the Lord and we are openly honest before him about where we are and what's going on in our life.
People say that there is no place for tears in the faith filled Christian life and I want you to hear me right now, that is unbiblical. Ecclesiastes 3:4 says, "There is a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance". In the churches we love to come and dance, as a matter of fact there's almost this spiritual pressure to come to church and you always need to be upbeat. If you are a faith filled Christian you're always going to be walking on cloud nine. But the truth is sometimes you don't want to dance, sometimes you don't even want to get out of bed and that's ok. That's honest before the Lord and the Bible says there's a place for that. I believe today this message is timely as God is touching hearts. The first thing I want you to mark down this morning if you're taking notes is that tears are important to God.
Psalms 56:8-9 says, "You number my wanderings, put my tears into your bottle. Are they not in your book? When I cry out to you then my enemies will turn back. This I know because God is for me".
The truth is that you can be in that place where the tears are flowing and it has been difficult and hard but you still know deep down in that part of your spirit man that God is for you. Listen, there are times when God will take you to the very end of yourself and life will take you to the end of yourself until you are in that place where the only thing you can do is cry but that is when the enemy will be defeated and when you know victory is on the line. When you think you can't take it anymore and you have said, "Jesus, I want you and nothing else, I don't care about anything except what you have for me", then you know victory is at hand. David recognized it.
There have been times in my life where God has taken me to that very point and I knew that God was doing a powerful work. I knew that inside and I knew that he cared for me but those were hard times and I knew the breakthrough was about to come. Great revelation happens in the life of a believer during seasons of tears because that's when you begin to realize that even at your weakest that is when God is strongest in you. You begin to learn things about the Lord, you feel safe in his hands. You begin to recognize the power that he has even in the midst of the weakness and begin to know the depth of his love like you've never known it before. When you get past all the pride in trying to have everything figured out and lined up in a row, when you are at the end of yourself, Jesus is our everything.
In ancient days they would literally take bottles and catch the tears of those who were crying. If they were at a funeral they actually hired people to do it. If someone was crying they would take a little bottle with a funnel and funnel those tears into that bottle and keep it as a memorial to that situation that had gone on in their life. The Bible says this, those tears that you have shed aren't wasted on Jesus. He's caught them in a bottle and have become a precious symbol of a season in your life that you're going through that God is taking notice of. Those tears become a trophy of his comfort and his care when you've made it on to the other side as he's doing that work in your life. The Bible says, "Aren't those tears even written in the book?" Someone once asked, is there a whole other book of tears that Jesus has? No, Jesus has been taking notes of your life. Your life and your history is being written down. Just like a tear stained letter from a soldier that's writing home or a wife to a soldier that misses her husband, those same tears that we cry wind up staining the pages of our life and become an offering to God as he keeps record of what's going on.
The truth is many of us are on the other side of those records of tears and we can go back and see in our history, "I remember when I was at that time". How many of you can remember it vividly when you were there as those tears flowed and there were the stains and the mark of Jesus right next to it, "I am here with you, I haven't left you nor forsaken you".
There are 3 areas that I want to look at this morning where tears are important and have life changing results. The 3 areas are tears during times of brokenness, tears during times of repentance and tears when we're in the ministry. I want to encourage you not to turn me off during one of those points or begin to daydream into another place because if its not ministering into your point of life right now, God has called us all to be ministers and this word will come out and help us to be effective ministers as we begin to bless other people's lives.
The first area where the ministry of tears takes place are in tears of brokenness. This is where it really hits home for many of us. True brokenness is not the place where weak Christians whine because life is unfair and God has hurt our feelings because he's spoken a strong word.
How many of you have ever needed a strong word from God every now and then? The truth is sometimes we need to walk on the bottom of our feet and we need God to walk on the top so he gets our attention. I'm not talking about a spoiled Christian who thinks everything should be going their way all the time and they are just whining.
I'm talking about people who come to a place where they are truly desperate for the Lord, where they are walking in a spiritual desert, where life has brought such challenges that only the Lord can bring them out or where God has brought them to a dry place because he wants to teach them something. It isn't a watered land, it's a place where God has put you on purpose because there are things that he is doing in your life that he needs to get rid of. Pride or arrogance or self sufficiency or other things that God needs to break and he'll bring you to the end of yourself.
It's in those times that when God does radical change he begins to do a healing work that's powerful. When we're out of words to say in prayer then our tears do the talking. Psalms 39:12 says, "Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear to my cry. Do not be deaf to my tears". Psalms 69:1-3 says, "Save me O God for waters have come up to my neck". Listen, I want you to hear this prayer. There are times when God will teach us how to pray, where God will take us to the place of brokenness because it helps us to quit approaching God in some kind of easy, laid back manner. There is a point when you get to a place of brokenness where you are crying out with everything that is in you. I want you to hear what David is saying, "Save me God. Lord, I'm in a place where I'm so broken without you, the waters have come up to my neck". How many have felt you're getting in over your head in some areas of life? I don't know if you've ever felt like you were drowning before but I've rescued drowning people and they start yelling "Help" with all they've got. There are times when you come out with such anguish and such desperation, "Lord, save me. I sink deep in the mire where there is no standing. I've come into deep waters where the floods overflow me. I am weary with my crying. My throat is dry, my eyes fail while I wait for my God".
The tears of sorrow and desperation put us in a place to receive. You may have been asking God, "Why am I in this place, why am I so broken, why are these tears coming so frequently, why am I in this place? Because God has put you in a place where you will actually be willing to receive from him and to receive a deep work that will totally open your life to his promises. There is never a moment of our lives that are wasted on God. It is no mistake that our times of tragedy and loss are God's greatest opportunity to heal us and grow us.
Some of you have been wounded deeply from the past, some of you have gone through so many things and you find yourself coming to that place of brokenness time and again. It is in those times that you will stop putting up the shields and the barriers and the walls. When you are done you'll say, "Lord, all I need is you. I'm done struggling, I'm done praying". People have come to me often saying, "Pastor, I have prayed so much, I don't think I can pray any more". Sometimes that is a great place to be because then we stop and we listen and we allow God to touch. I believe that this time of brokenness is happening more and more to the children of God because he's doing a deep work. How many know that Jesus is coming soon?
A.W. Tozer said this, "God will not use a man greatly until he is hurting deeply". Some of you know the times of rebellion you've had in your heart.
I'm not just talking about the times that you've hurt though Jesus cares about that. But sometimes in the midst of wanting to be healed, because we've been hurt, because we've gone through so much, we've put on layers and layers. Sometimes those are layers of disobedience and God has to peel through those things so he can get to the very core of who we are to do that work so we will receive.
Brokenness is where we come to a place of surrender, we surrender everything, our hopes, our dreams, even our insecurities. It's where we say, "Jesus, everything is yours, I don't even care about that anymore". It's when we care less about everything else to the point that all we want is Jesus. I want to encourage you, If you're in that place, surrender your fear, surrender your hurt, surrender your anger and begin to allow the Lord to do a deep work in you. These type of tears are a sign of weakness and not in a bad way, not in the sense of emotional instability but these type of tears of brokenness are the sign that we recognize that we need Jesus more than anything else and that we are weak in ourselves to do anything on our own.
I'll never forget a youth convention up in Walla Walla, Washington. We had driven up to Spokane and this young boy in our youth group, his name was Jed, a wonderful young man. He had been praying for months, "God, use me, do a deep work in my life, I want to be used by you". He lived in a very abusive home. His stepfather degraded him many times and we didn't realize the extent of the things that were going on or we would have showed up with the police. We went to youth convention and Jed had been praying to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He hadn't received it and couldn't understand why. As we came to that time, a great evangelist gave an altar call and Jed came up to the altar. He doubled over and began to weep.
He wanted to be used powerfully by God but he couldn't because of the hurt and the anger and the stuff he had stored up inside of him. As he wept, we held him in our arms. God began to cleanse him and did a beautiful work. He stood up again and we layed hands on him, he was slain in the Holy Spirit. He laid there for 3 hours, they turned the lights out in the arena and four of us actually had to carry him out to the van and put him in the seat. I listened to see if he needed medical help, he didn't. He got filled with the Holy Ghost, speaking in other tongues. He just wasn't ready to stand up. We tried to make him stand up but he couldn't walk. How many know God got a hold of Jed? I want to tell you what God did in him through those tears and that brokenness became powerful. He's a wonderful young man of God.
The second place that I want to talk about are tears of repentence. Tears of repentence are us mourning our disobedience and having great thankfulness for God's great transforming power. It's amazing because before church we were talking to a couple about the hold that alcohol used to have on their lives but they had been set free. Each of them had been to a place where God had broken them when they had repented of what they were doing and the glorious work that God had done. How many of you remember what God had done in your life when you came to that place? I remember there were times when God was working in my life where I became so aware of my sin that as I began to repent, the reason I cried was not just the sorrow over things that I'd done but the genuiness of my understanding the goodness of God in the midst of all my stupidity, in the midst of all my wrongness, in the midst of all my wickedness, that he still loved me and cared for me. That thought is so overwhelming that it will grip people's hearts.
The truth is that in our society we are brazen and unapologetic about our sins. In our arrogance we think that this is a uniquely modern trait but the world has always been brazen about their sin. I believe that there are individuals in this room where God is doing a work in your life, a work because there is still sin that is in your life. Hidden sin or sin that nobody knows about or sin that everybody knows about, things that the enemy has been working on you and taking you to a place where you know you want to live for Jesus but there's something else that's got a hold on you right now and you want to just keep on going after the ways of the world when you know that it's not right. You kind of want to have it both ways. I want you to hear me, you can't have it both ways. You either live for Jesus or you don't.
Joel 2:12-13 says, "Now therefore, says the Lord, turn to me with all your heart, with fasting, weeping and with mourning, so rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and great in kindness and he relents from doing harm". Turn to the Lord.
I feel like I've got to stop right now because I feel some glassy eyes coming over me. I can feel that there's someone in this room that's turning me off. You know there are things going on in your heart and life. How many will let the preacher get a little tough on you this morning? There is someone in here that is struggling with such sin and when I'm bringing it up you're just turning me off.
James 4: 8-20, "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands you sinners and purify your hearts you doubleminded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom".
Some of you hearing my voice right now are in sin and I want to challenge you, let God deal with you today. Let it come to that place where you understand that is a life that you don't want to be living. Come to that place where you want nothing more than Jesus, and his purity and his heart, and his goodness to live through you. If that is you and you are not living for the Lord, God drew you here today. There is a reason the enemy fought hard this morning to try and take the fire out of what was going to go on in this place because there are lives that God wants to change. Young person, surrender to Jesus; Adult, surrender to Jesus. I don't care how old you are or how young you are. You've been walking around happy with that sin your in but God has been drawing you, you have heard his voice speaking to you. You know you have recognized it and he's been drawing you near but you've been fighting it. There will be that place where God will take you, he will heal you and he will restore you if you will let him.
King David had been used by God to change lives, to set an entire nation free but he found himself in a place that he never thought he'd be. David, the boy at 17 who had defeated Goliath and knew the anointing of God. David, the servant of God who began to rule a Kingdom and had done so well, saw Bathsheba, had an affair with her, got her pregnant, realized what he had done and got to the place in his life where he was so hard against God that he had her husband killed. It took a prophet of God to show up and say, "David, I want to tell you a story". When he got done with the story, David was so angry that he said, "I need to take care of that guy who would do such a thing". The prophet looked at him and said, "You're the man, it's you".
Pretty soon David came to himself and realized, "I am so far from God and I never thought I'd be there. I have done things that I never thought I'd do, I have gone farther than I ever thought I'd go, I'm in so deep that I don't even know what to do with myself". The Bible says that David began to weep and get on the floor saying "I am so worthy of death, that's me, I'm the man". I believe that there are those whom God is dealing with. You have been so hard about your sin that you didn't even realize you were doing what you were doing. God is speaking to you today and maybe even at the sound of my voice right now you are realizing that you're the man or you're the woman, it's gone much farther, much longer than you ever thought. You can't even believe that's you. I want to encourage you, come to Jesus.
I have seen God restore those who were once so near to Him but have walked away and when they were convicted of their sin his grace was so powerful they came back. The truth is they were never ever the same again. They didn't walk around with spiritual pride anymore saying, "I'm so good, I'm so holy, I'm so righteous, no one can touch me". They realized they had taken themselves so far that God still loved them and would bring them back.
I want to encourage you 20 year old, maybe you're messing with things of the world that you have no business doing, come back to Jesus. You've been raised in the church, you know the ways of the Lord, you know the things of God. You may be in your 50's or in your 70's. I had a girl in my youth group in Walla, Walla. I had the world's most dysfunctional youth group but it was wonderful because God did a great work in them. This girl would come and cry, she was kind of hard in her life. One day she came to the altar and began to share with me. She said, "Pastor, I've had 4 abortions and I'm 17 years old. How can God ever do anything with me?" She said, "I've messed it up and I'm only 17 years old. I miss my kids". That's deep for a 17 year old. When you're ministering like that, if you're not moved to tears, Jesus isn't living in you. I called Dawn over and we wrapped our arms around that girl and said, "we love you". She said, "But I'm a murderer". I said "Yes, but God will forgive you". We began to weep and spent about 45 minutes, we couldn't even pray, she just cried and repented of her sins.
It was awesome to watch God begin to restore her life. Week after week we would see her grow. Week after week we would watch that girl who had been violated by the enemy to become strong in the Lord. When we had left she was coming to church all the time, she was serving Jesus. Her mom and dad wouldn't have anything to do with her but she was bringing her little brothers and sisters to church. One day the bus broke down, she said "Pastor, don't leave me home". I said, "I'm coming to get you". I want to tell you that those were not the waterworks of someone who really had no remorse but was just sorry they got caught. It's a story of a life that was gloriously changed.
When I was preparing this message I thought of that lady with the alabaster jar who came to Jesus. Luke 7:37-48, "Behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the pharisees house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil and stood at his feet behind him weeping. She began to wash his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and she kissed his feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he spoke saying, "This man, if he were a prophet would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching him for she is a sinner".
Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to say to you, there was a certain creditor who had two debtors, one owed 500 denari and the other 50 and when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which one of them will love him more? Simon answered and said, "I suppose the one whom he forgave more". Jesus said to him, "You have rightly judged" then he turned to the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I entered your house and you gave me no water for my feet but she has washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave me no kiss but this woman has not ceased to kiss my feet since the time I came in. You did not anoint my head with oil but this woman has anointed my feet with fragrant oil. Therefore, I say to you, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little". Then he said to her, "Your sins are forgiven".
This was a lady so broken that she knew she needed a savior more than anything else. Some of you won't even rub your spouses feet. One Sunday we're going to come in here and have a foot washing, it's going to freak some of you out. We're going to bring in buckets of water, I might not even preach much. Some of you are so afraid of feet. I wish you'd become that freaked out over your sin. This woman took her hair and she wiped the feet of Jesus because her life had been changed. I want to tell you, if you'd come to the Lord, if you're in your sin and you will genuinely come to him, he will forgive you and it will mean so much.
I want to talk about the last part of tears and that's tears of ministry. Listen, Christian, if you're going to touch the hearts of others and be world changers, there will be times that you will have tears. We have been praying, "God, use this church, have your way with us, let us reach the world for your glory. Let us see people saved, let us see people's lives changed". I believe that while this lady was wiping Jesus' feet and that hard Pharisee was sitting there thinking "If he only knew", I believe there were probably 10 or 15 other people in that room just weeping at what Jesus was doing in her life.
Church, I want to tell you, If we're serious about seeing this city come to Jesus, there are times when it will take an emotional toll in your life as you begin to cry out to God for lost souls, as you begin to intercede for people who need deliverance from bondages that are so tight that only prayer and fasting will set them free.
Psalms 126:5-6 says, "Those who sow in tears shall reap in joy. He continually goes forth weeping bearing seed to sow shall doubtless come again rejoicing bringing his sheaves with him". That means that if you will be faithful to serve God in ministry, no matter how hard it gets, no matter how much blood, sweat and tears you give, that if you will be faithful to the Lord, the harvest is on the way.
I want to encourage you, some of you have stayed in this church for a long time through the good and the bad. How many of you are seeing the harvest begin to come in? It's a marvelous thing. Some of you have been weeping over your family members, your children, your brothers, your sisters, your cousins, that they would come to Jesus and sometimes you wonder if what you're doing is making a difference. Listen, you water the soil of their heart with your tears as you cry out to Jesus and one day that watering will bring forth the thing that you wanted to happen and it will take place.
God gave me this, that the longer I serve God, the more important I find tears in ministry. Tears are a sign of tenderness and compassion, they are the food of intercession over the lost and the hurting. There are times when we come to prayer and we seek the face of God over what he is going to do and the tears flow freely. Christian, I want to ask you, I want to challenge this church and I'm not asking for an emotional response for the sake of an emotional response or tears as a sign of a measuring stick of your spirituality, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm asking you is this, have you come to the place where you will seek the Lord over the lost to the point where you begin like Jesus did, to weep over lost souls, that you begin to feel the hurt that they feel and to know the pain that they feel, and to see how much better life could be if they had Jesus? That you would be moved to a place of such intensity that it may take you to a place of crying where the grief and the suffering of others takes you to a place of tears.
I want you to hear me, passion is necessary in spiritual warfare. How many believe we live in the last days? How many believe that God is raising up warriors who will bring people to Jesus, not warriors going out with a sword to cut people down but warriors with a sword and the Word of God to make sure that we help protect those that need defending so that they can come to Jesus. The sword of his word that will pierce their heart so that it will change their life and bring help and healing. But I'll tell you, if you go out to battle in a real warfare and you don't put any passion in it, you're going to be the one who gets hurt. There will be no victory. But if you've got some passion, tears of joy, tears of compassion, sorrow over sin and man's lost state make all the difference. When you're able to weep with those who weep, with those who are hurting or addicted, with the elderly who no longer can care for themselves and just want to know if they're still valuable. There are times when ministry will bring tears of exhaustion and exertion.
Some of you have become confused as you've grown closer to God that you've experience times of depression that bring tears. Charles Spurgeon who called this ministry "Liquid prayer", at times in his life would face such times of deep depression where all he could do was weep. This was a powerful man of God, he helped change America. He used to have a hard time with it because he used to think there was something wrong. Alot of people in his church thought he was suffering from depression. But he said, "When I got to that place I began to realize that God was about to do something powerful and the enemy wanted to stop it and that time of intense intercession". He got to that place where he would be in that spot and he would just cry out to the Lord. The price that he paid as a minister to begin to seek the face of God over what he would do in his church and over his city, lives were changed time and time again. I want you to hear me this morning, church, tears of ministry are always worth it. Do you know how I know? Because Jesus wept and that intercession that he gave touched and changed lives.
