Covered

I can't wait for eternity Join the song they're already singing Holy, holy, holy are you Lord Just to bow down before your throne See your face I cry out because you're Holy, holy, holy are you Lord Jesus, King and King Jesus, Majesty I can't wait for eternity Join the song they're already singing Holy, holy, holy are you Lord Just to bow down before your throne See your face I cry out because you're Holy, holy, holy are you Lord Jesus, King and King Jesus, Majesty Jesus, King and King Jesus, Majesty Standing with those who have heard well done Claiming forever that you're the one Who's faithful, faithful, faithful are you Lord What can we give you but endless praise Let heaven roar as we shout your name It's Jesus, Jesus, Jesus you are Lord Jesus, King of kings Jesus, Majesty We stand before you Lord We worship you Jesus, King of kings Jesus, Majesty Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord Another glimpse of glory We sing once more Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord Forever, forever Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord Another glimpse of glory We sing once more Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord Forever, forever Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord Another glimpse of glory We sing once more Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord Forever, forever Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord Another glimpse of glory We sing once more Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord, forever Jesus, King of kings Jesus, fantastic

We worship and adore you Lord Jesus, King of kings He's the Lord of Lords Jesus, fantastic We honor you this morning Lord Can you say the name of Jesus? Oh, you're worthy Lord So worthy, so worthy Lord Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord Worthy, worthy, worthy Lord Worthy is the Lamb Worthy is the Lamb You are holy, holy Are you Lord God Almighty Worthy is the Lamb You are holy, holy Are you Lord God Almighty Worthy is the Lamb Holy is the Lamb Holy is the Lamb Righteous is the Lamb Oh, say the name of Jesus Jesus is the Lamb Hallelujah Jesus is the Lamb Amen Oh, Jesus, Jesus Hallelujah We join with heaven We cannot hear what's going on in heaven Lord

But we understand from your word that great worship is taking place right now Worthy, worthy So we join with heaven right now And we declare on this earth Jesus is the Lamb of God Jesus is the glory of God Jesus is our Savior We bless you today Praise God in His sanctuary And the whole church said praise the Lord Praise the Lord Amen Thank you for coming I've said it for decades God always blesses a sacrifice Always Some of you had a difficult time getting here today You sacrificed Get ready for a blessing The remainder of us have come in blessing I'm happy to be in God's house today Now Father I ask you for the gift that lets us really hear and really see I ask you today for divine enablement I pray Lord that these words will stir up our hearts And as I've prayed twice already today with groups Your word is sharper than a razor blade It can cut things away from us It can cut down into us It can reveal us to us Do it

what you have to with me today, Lord. And when we leave, we will give you thanks, and we will bless your name. And all the people said, Amen. Thank you for being seated. I'm taking on a new approach now. I'm going to be more scholarly. I don't really know what that means, but... When something's designed to be a certain way, and it doesn't operate that way, there's a malfunction. For example, your body. When you aren't operating, when things aren't working the way they should, a lot of times we will go to the doctor for a diagnosis. When your car isn't working, you take it to the garage, and they do diagnostics. Why isn't it working the way it's supposed to be working? You go back to the builder. You find out what it was meant to be like. That's why I bring you back today to Genesis. Genesis chapter 3. This is the owner's manual. This is a diagnosis, and this will tell us what's wrong in our world today. So in chapter 3, the Lord God Almighty scooped up dirt, right? And He fashioned it and made a man. And then He breathed into that man, and man became a living soul. And out of the man, He brought the woman from the side of the man. Now, I don't want you to think for a moment

that He just made two naked people. I believe from my studies that when God made man out of dirt, see God's not dirt, but God made man in His image and likeness. So there was more to Adam and Eve than just dirt, flesh. There was glory. The Bible says that God dwells in light that no man can approach. God is clothed with a glow. He's in a glory. And I believe that Adam and Eve were just such two creations. Out of the dust, He made him, and into that dust, He breathed His life. But then the covering of Adam and Eve was the glory of God, a glow. I hesitate again to say a fire, but it was a glow of glory. Then Satan enters the picture, and they listen to Satan, and they disobey God. And then here comes their maker. The Bible says that their eyes were both opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. Then they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, Where are you? So he said, I heard your voice in the garden,

and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. And God said, Who told you that you were naked? For the first time, Adam and Eve saw themselves without the glory. They were humiliated, ashamed, and naked. And God said, How do you know you're naked? Because he already knew that they broke his commandments. And this is a very important passage of Scripture, because God himself clothed them with his own glory, filled them with his own spirit. and formed them with his own hand, clothed in glory. What was that like? Don't really know. We won't really get it till we get to heaven, but we have a teaser. It's when Jesus stood with Peter, James, and John on the Mount of Transfiguration, and suddenly his face glowed like lightning, and his clothes were whiter than the whitest white they had ever seen before. So you get just a slight image of what clothed in glory means, and I believe that when the rapture takes place and the trumpet sounds and we all go to meet Jesus in the clouds and we get our new bodies, they will glow. We will be glorious as it was before Adam and Eve sinned. Now, it's important to know also that when you read about Lucifer in the book of Ezekiel,

he is called the anointed cherub that covers. Check it out. The anointed, which means picked out, specially assigned cherub, a mighty angelic being, the mightiest as a matter of fact. In fact, the mightiest and the most beautiful one that God made, and the one closest to God, the anointed cherub that covers. That meant that Lucifer could get closer to God than any of the other creatures, and it was though as God sat on his throne, the cherub Lucifer would stand behind him so as to protect his glory and his holiness. No other creature had that closeness and accessibility. He was the anointed cherub that covered. But then he sinned. Iniquity was found in his heart. And the Bible says he was stripped of his glory, removed from his place, uncovered himself. All the glory that he had stripped from him. Now, he's embarrassed. He's naked before all of the other angels, before all of the other created beings. He's uncovered. He's found to be a liar. He's found to be full of pride. Oh, how naked he is. Then his objective became this. God, you've done this to me. Now, I'm going to do it to every one of those you've created.

I'm going to strip them, humiliate them, shame them. And you need to know that shame and nakedness always go together. Shame and nakedness and vulnerability. When you have no defense, when you're trying to hide, you're vulnerable like a baby. What's more vulnerable than a baby that's just born? Naked and kicking and crying and can't do anything for himself. What's more vulnerable than a woman who's just had that baby? And yet, Satan in his anger towards the world said my objective is to shame every one of God's creation. I'm going to do it to those that don't believe and I'm going to make a double effort to shame and humiliate those who call him God. There are some passages in the Bible that if I had written the Bible, I would not have put them in there. And one of those is Genesis chapter 9. It is odd. It's hard to explain. It's hard to grasp. Let me read it to you. Now, the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah and from these the whole earth was populated. So all of us came from one of these three boys. And Noah, this is after he's off the boat, right? The ark has landed.

They're all off. The animals are scattered. And Noah began to be a farmer and he planted a vineyard. Then he drank of the wine, and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. Should I go on? And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it both on their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. There's all kinds of speculation about what happened that day. I'll tell you what happened. Ham went in, and folks, you've got to understand, here's Noah, a man of righteousness, so righteous that God chose him to build a boat, and save the creation. A righteous preacher of righteousness. Well, now he's in a tent, drunk, and naked. And Ham, his son, walks in and sees it, and goes out and tells his brothers, but in the Hebrew, there's the implication that he's making fun of his naked father. Oh, you ought to see the old man in there now. And he was laughing. And the two brothers did not see it the same way.

They went, huh! Because there's something about nakedness that makes decent people, sane people, draw back, and they dare not go in and look. So they took a garment, put it between them, and they walked backward in the tent, and covered up their naked father. Want me to tell you why? There is something deeply offensive to God about people looking at other people's nakedness. There is something that disturbs the Creator. When human bodies are humiliated, gazed upon, gawked at, when nudity and nakedness are used to make money, to attract people, even if people want you to see it, it's offensive to God when people peep and look at people who don't wish to be seen. I want to tell you that again. I never saw this until this week. God is deeply upset. The Holy Spirit is awfully grieved when human beings look upon the nakedness of other human beings, and especially if they poke fun at them, make merry because of their nakedness. When Israel came across the Red Sea, you know, they're out of Egypt now, they're safe. Moses has gone up on the mountain to receive the law from the Lord,

and the Bible says they just got frisky. They started drinking and playing and overeating, and wouldn't you know it, when alcohol gets involved in it, people want to take their clothes off. And this Scripture stunned me when I saw it again this week. Aaron made them naked unto their shame in front of their enemies. Aaron, Moses' brother. It means he allowed them to do it. They exercised no restraint whatsoever. The more they drank and played, the more they took off, the more they peeled off. They began to commit adultery. It was a gigantic national orgy. Aaron didn't stop it. And the Bible says Aaron made them naked unto their shame. They didn't realize it, but God's enemies were laughing at them. Demons from hell. Lucifer himself was laughing at the fact that God's chosen people were now acting the fool. Not only spiritual enemies, but the enemies of Israel all around were watching this group of people. People act like they had lost their minds.

They were in shame and did not know it. I want to tell you something. Some of the vilest, most wicked people that ever lived were the Romans. When Romans crucified you, they not only put nails in you and hung you up, they stripped you. We don't hear much about this during resurrection season or any of our discussions and preaching on the blood of Jesus and the crucifixion, but it was part of the misery to be stripped, to hang naked before public, the public. And I want you to know that when the nails pierced his hand and feet and the sword cut his side, and they ripped his loin cloth off, that's when God said, no way, and he turned the lights out. And it became dark. And God covered the nakedness of his precious and holy son with darkness. Because there's something terribly offensive about nakedness to God. God is covered with light. He covers animals. He covers plants. He covers his creation. And he expects man to have the decency and the God-likeness to cover himself. One of the most disturbing passages in the book of Revelation is when he deals with that Laodicean church. They're going to put it on the screen. I want you to see these words.

I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire that you may be rich, and white garments that you may be clothed, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed. The church here, and it wasn't a saved church. It was a professing church. It didn't preach the cross of Jesus Christ. Jesus wasn't even in there. That's the one where he was knocking at the door saying, if you'll open the door, I'll come in. Jesus is not there. They're using his name. They're using the building. They're using Christian doctrine, so to speak. But they're living out shame and nakedness, because they are living according to the world's standards. But look at the terminology. God put this in here. I want you to get white garments, garments, clothes, that you may have clothes on, that you may be covered, that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed. You know, brothers and sisters, we've come to a day in this country, Christian America, really, where we are now doing things that grieve the Holy Spirit, that insult the integrity of God, and we don't even care. We laugh about it. We laud people who make their living being naked, strippers and prostitutes and topless bars and pornography. Everywhere we turn, someone's half naked.

The only reason they aren't totally naked is that there's still some laws for decency left in the country. But it's only a matter of time, because the people are going to rise up and play. And alcohol and drugs and foolish thinking is going to override everything. And when people lose their restraint, they lose their clothes. It's demonic. All this that you see going on today, women making a living exposing themselves, she has a demon. People who do this kind of thing, who make these movies, they have demons. And this is demon workmanship, because the Holy Spirit forbids it. No Christian, I don't care what their testimony is, I don't care how many Christian songs they sing, if they are unrestrained, if they cannot control themselves, they are full of demon powers. This is what I have to deal with as a pastor. You know, spring's coming. And Christian ladies these days. have so, how can I say this, become a part of the world, when they go to buy clothes, they don't think, does this glorify God? They think, does this make me look good? You guys can clap all you want to, you're next. Because as Christians, we don't ever dress to please people. The Bible teaches us to dress in modesty and moderation.

You were never designed by God to exhibit your body. It's your face people are supposed to see. Like we seek His face, we want to see His face, He wants our faces to glow with the glory of the Lord. And I've had people say, but that's our culture. And I say, baloney on that excuse. That's the way we do it in our culture. But you got saved out of that culture, and that's no longer your culture. This is your culture now, and it's called present your body, a living sacrifice unto God, holy and acceptable, and that's your reasonable service. This is your culture. And the fellows, you're just as bad. Oh, you'll start drinking some creek water and lettuce juice and eating all those healthy bars and going and doing CrossFit. You're going to get a little bump here and there, and then you're going to wear a shirt that's too tight. Then you're going to put on your chains, and your jeans are going to be real tight, and you're going to strut into church like, man, I've been working out. And see, it's just as sinful for you to be strutting your stuff that way as it is for women to be doing what they're doing. You should never, listen, let me explain something. People say, you shouldn't come that way to God's house if you're a Christian. You shouldn't go that way in the world if you're a Christian. We don't dress one way for the house of God

and another way for the world. No, I belong to Jesus. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. I've got a standard to live by, and I don't do it so somebody will compliment my body or my clothes. I do it so the Lord will smile and say, that's the kind of man I died for. God has clothed Himself. Everything God has made has a covering. There is something powerful about an unclean spirit. Let me read this to you. Jesus and the apostles came to the other side of the sea, and when He had come out of the boat, immediately there met Him out of the tombs, a man with an unclean spirit. That's very important. Unclean spirit who had His dwelling among the tombs. No one could bind Him, even with chains. He'd been bound many times, and He broke the chains. Night and day, He was in the tombs, crying and cutting Himself. When He saw Jesus from afar, He ran and worshipped Him, and He cried out with a loud voice, What have I to do with you, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I implore you by God that you do not torment Me. Jesus said, Come out of the man, you unclean spirit. And He came out. He came out with all of His friends. It wasn't just one, there were many.

And the Bible says a few verses later, Then they came to Jesus, that's the people, saw the one who had been demon-possessed, demon-possessed, who had many demons, sitting and clothed and in His right mind. The Holy Spirit put that in there. When the man got saved, He put His clothes on. When the man was unsaved and naked and unrestrained, it was because demons had entered his life. You better be careful what you look at. There is an unclean spirit. There is a spirit of uncleanness. If they would put Galatians 5.19 on the screen, I'd just like to read it. Now, the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery. Folks, my heart breaks when I think of the people who call themselves Christians who have no qualms about committing adultery. It was just what just happened, fornication. You'd be surprised to know how many young Christians, unmarried, think it's okay to sleep together because everybody does it and God knows their heart. Uncleanness, there it is. And the next one is lewdness. Uncleanness and lewdness. You know what uncleanness is? I see all these sins here have to do with sexual immorality. Uncleanness is when you can watch a movie with naked people on it. It's when you look at magazines and read books.

It's when you indulge in the flesh to the point that you look at someone else's shame and humiliation and you get gratification from it. That's a spirit of uncleanness. It's dangerous. Once it gets on you, it'll get in you. And once it gets in you, it will control you. And you won't be able to quit. You've heard people say concerning alcohol, I can't quit. Nicotine, I can't quit. The same thing with uncleanness. It is a spiritual thing. It is demons at work. There is only one name that can rid someone, deliver somebody, from a spirit of uncleanness. That's the name of Jesus. So you can go to all the counselors you want to. Read all the books. You can do everything. But just as it took Jesus to stand in front of this hopeless man. Folks, if you could see a picture of this man, it would break your heart. He was somebody's child at some point. He was a promising young man at some point. But he got caught up in the spirit of uncleanness and lewdness. And one thing calls for more things. And another thing calls for a worse thing. That's just the way it rolls. The young man that had promise at one time is now living in the tombs, naked, screaming, cutting himself. First time he looked at it, or her, he didn't think this would happen. But it was so fascinating, he tried it again, and then again, and again, and again, and again.

And he found ways to get past the filter on his phone. He could bypass the filter on his computer. He found ways to get to what he wanted, and didn't realize that every time he did, the claws of uncleanness dug in deeper and deeper. So now he doesn't even know he's addicted. He justifies his life. He doesn't know he's naked. He doesn't care. He has no shame, no humiliation. Ah, but when Jesus got there, and Jesus cast the demons out, the man got his right mind back, and he said, Whoa, let me find some clothes and put them on. I'm not the man I was. And the Bible says he was then in his right mind. I hope that I'm getting through to somebody today. There is power in the name of Jesus. I want you to also understand there is power in Lucifer's grip. Uncleanness is a power. Lewdness is a power. Shame accompanies that. Humiliation goes along with that. Vulnerability goes along with that. When you're vulnerable, you're not strong and brave. So you don't have a testimony. When you're vulnerable, you don't feel like you can cry out to God. Satan knows what he's doing. But the preacher standing in front of you today, I do not stand in my own power. I'm not preaching my own word.

I'm preaching from this book. And the same Jesus that set that man free has the power to set anybody free today. And here's where we've come to. In Philippians chapter 3, Paul lists some attributes of bad people. And one of those is this. They glory in their shame. Wow. The things that they used to be ashamed of, they are proud of now. And they flaunt it. Just look at an LGBTQ parade. Look at the sickening, embarrassing, oh my God, actions and words and things that go on. Oh, they're not ashamed. They flaunt it. The Bible says they even try to make disciples out of you for their cause. The thing that shame us, they glory in. The things that make us go, oh my Lord, I can't take that. I can't look at that. Don't let the kids see that. They say, we want them to see it. We want laws passed that make them see it. We want to go in their classrooms in our perversion. And we want to show them what real, real freedom is. And they don't realize that they are bound up in a spirit of uncleanness and a spirit of lewdness, that they are operating under demonic power and authority. And they will never get out of it until somebody can get to them and say, I know a counselor. He's greater than a psychiatrist. He's greater than a psychotherapist. He's a savior.

He's a deliverer. And his name is Jesus. And he can set the captive free. See, something mighty and wonderful happens when you get saved. God gives you your glory back. Somebody say, thank you, Jesus. He gives you your glory back. You can't see it, but there's a glory, a glow in your spirit that comes from the shed blood of Jesus and the delivering power of God. In fact, 2 Corinthians says it like this, now the Lord is the spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is, I'm sorry, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. Let me stop right there. Now I didn't get wild in the first service, and I told you I'm a new scholarly man now. So I'm not going to get out of control. I'm just going to tell you this. Here's the glory of the Lord right here. We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. Keep going. Our being transformed into the same image from glory to glory to glory. Can I preach a minute? To glory just as by the spirit of the Lord. When you got saved, he put a little glory in you. When you got sanctified, he put a little more glory on you. When you got filled with the spirit, he filled you full of glory. When you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, glory is all over you. One of these days, you're going to see him in the clouds of glory. Stand with me. What a day that's going to be. Hallelujah to God.

When we see him as he is, and we will be aglow with the glory of God. One of this old, old rickety, look at that, old dried up flesh, dirt. But one day, this won't be the thing that covers me. It'll be the glory of the Lord God Almighty! That wasn't too bad for a scholar. Here's what I want to do. I'm not going to say, if you have a pornography problem, a lust, addiction, none of that. I'm just going to tell you that Jesus can deliver you from it. I want everybody to come down. In the balcony, just start coming down. Come down, come down. Hallelujah. When you get here, I want to tell you something. Look at this. Look at this. Praise God. You don't mind if I enjoy this for a moment, do you? Because this is what He called me to do. I'm seeing fruit. The Lord laid His life down for every one of us. He was stripped naked, humiliated, stabbed and crucified, so that we, who were born in sin and shame and humiliation, could kneel at the foot of the cross and then stand up clothed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. No demon can laugh at us.

We're covered now. The devil is mad because we all got our clothes on now. The righteousness of God in Jesus Christ. I don't know where all of you are or any one of you is spiritually, but I can tell you this. The power of lewdness, pornography, is greater than you are. But it is not greater than Jesus. So if you want to walk every day in purity, do you? I'm sorry, purity. Power. Holiness. You've got to start out right here every day. I did not know that my wife was going to sing this morning until she got up at 8.30 right up there. It shocked me. And then to hear her sing that song, I'd rather hear her sing that song than any song she's ever sung. Lord, I want to know You more. Deep within my heart, I want to know You. Folks, you can do that. It's possible. You know how? Get deep in this, and you'll know Him deeply in your heart. That was so good. Please, hear me when I tell you.

There is victory in Jesus. There is power in the blood. Hallelujah! There's glory in this book right here. And God wants you to walk. Didn't He say, Let your light so shine? Can I lean on you, Tony? Can everybody hear what I'm saying? He said, Let your light so shine that men may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. Light? Yeah. That's the glory of God. He said, Let it shine. Let everybody see that there's some glory on this old earth. So we're going to take a moment. Sandra's going to sing again. We're going to join her. It's a prayer. Lord, I want to know You more. Take it. Oh, I want to know You more. Deep within my soul, I want to know You. Oh, I want to know You. To feel Your heart and know Your mind. Looking in Your eyes stirs up within me cries that say, I want to know You.

Oh, I want to know you more. Oh, I want to know you more. Just rear back and sing it as a prayer. Oh, I want to know you more. Deep within my soul, I want to know you more. Oh, I want to know you. Feel your heart and know your mind. Looking in your eyes turns up within me. Rise and say, I want to know you. Oh, I want to know you more. Oh, I want to know you more. Amen. Come here. I just like to be beside her sometimes. We pray for you all the time. Driving out of the neighborhood today, a sinner said, Lord, save our neighbors. We stand here today and say, if there's anybody that doesn't know Christ, He's available right now. All you do is call on His name. If there's somebody struggling, you're already captured, let me tell you, His name is Jesus. He can set the captive free. If you believe what I'm telling you, lift your hand. Why don't you lift that other hand and why don't you acknowledge Him right now? Praise you, Lord. Praise you, Lord.

But we have to get up every morning, don't we? We get up early. She goes to her place. I go to my place. We don't talk to each other until we've talked to the Lord. And I make sure I get a belly full. She does too. I want my soul to be overflowing by the time I say hey to her. That's how you get through the day without being humiliated or stripped or shamed. That's how you get through the day with the glory of the Lord burning in your life. So I pray for you now. I pray that wonderful prayer that Moses prayed over Israel. May the Lord bless you. May the Lord keep you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you. And may the Lord give you peace. Let the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Amen. We pray that today as you watch Pastor Livingston's message, you will be encouraged and ready to dig deeper into a life with Jesus. To help you on this journey, Central has two resources for you. First, you can sign up to receive Central's Jail and Prison Correspondence course

through the mail by writing to Second, by using Central's app and clicking on the button below, you can read a short daily devotional that will encourage you to read and pray daily as you draw closer to Jesus. Thank you for watching. We'll see you next time.