Transcription
It doesn't matter what problem you have. What you need is God. Secure all. In other words, there actually is a simple answer to every problem. You need an immersion in the spirit of God. It doesn't mean you don't need counsel. It doesn't mean you don't need this, you don't need that. But what you need most of all, what we need, what I need, is an immersion in the presence because everything becomes settled. Everything becomes settled in the presence.
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Good evening. Thank you. Glad you showed up. Yesterday, my husband thought he saw a cockroach in the kitchen. He sprayed everything down, cleaned thoroughly. Today, I'm putting the cockroach in the bathroom.
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My bathing suit told me to go to the gym, but my sweatpants were like, "Nah, girl, you're good." Thank you. I didn't make it to the gym today. That makes five years in a row.
There are three kinds of people in this world: those who are good at math, and those who aren't.
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Spell check has got to be my worst enema. Spell check has got to be my worst enema. I give you another chance. That's all right. Money may not buy happiness, but I'd rather cry in a Bentley than on a bus.
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I'm sorry for what I said before I had my coffee. Three wise women would have asked for directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, clean the stable, made a casserole, and there would be peace on Earth. Oh, goodness. I have so many. All right, I'll just do one more. When I die, I want my last words to be, "I left a million dollars under the..."
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Man, I don't know how many scriptures we're going to read tonight. I hope you have your Bibles with you because we're going to, we're going to do a study together, and we'll just see how this plays out. I want to start with a thought that is championed in Ephesians chapter 3, and then we're going to back up in the story. But in Ephesians chapter 3, is this passage. You know, it's hard to, you know, when you say it's the most mysterious verse, the most profound verse, whatever. I don't know. That's how I feel. But you know, it's pretty subjective. But for me, this is the most incomprehensible verse in the Bible, which is saying something because most of them are incomprehensible. But he says in verse 19, "to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with the fullness of God." Assistant, that you may be filled with the fullness of God.
There are planets out there bigger than, like, our galaxy. Since the day the Lord spoke, "Let there be light," His word has been traveling through empty space and creating. It's expanding at, at least the speed of sound, if not the speed of light. That God holds all of that in the palm of His hand. And He said His intention is to fill us with this fullness. If you don't leak, you're bound way too tight. These are not poetic phrases to inspire us. They are literal decrees that are so far beyond the reach of our imagination that there's no way in the world we can make it happen, nor can we understand it as it's happening. But what we can do is surrender to His intent. I can surrender to His intent. I can acknowledge that. Acknowledge it. And that I see it. Well, what did Paul say? "Throw a glass darkly." I, I see the shape of it, although I could never fully describe it. And the Christian life is that it is, it is going from one mystery to another mystery to another mystery. And one of the great tragedies, especially I think in the Western world, is we tend to reduce the gospel to what we understand. And I, I don't want to put down intellect. The Lord protected human reasoning with His own death. I mean, literally, He protected the capacity of the individual to reason. He even invites us. He says, "Come and reason. Let's reason together." I believe very strongly that the Lord wants to reveal Himself through human intellect, but never contained by human intellect. Does that make sense? Your heart will take you where your head can't fit. And what the Lord constantly is doing is bringing us into measures and realms and levels of surrender because there all has to do with the heart. Why? Because His supreme value is faith. Faith is not anti-intellect. It's just superior to intellect. In Hebrews chapter 11, it says, "By faith we understand the worlds we're made out of nothing." By faith we understand. Faith first, understanding comes next. And the understanding was to perceive something that's beyond comprehension. "By faith we understand the worlds were made out of nothing." The reason that He deals with the heart, because the heart is where faith comes from. It says, "With the heart man believes." It doesn't say with the head. I've gone over this so many times, so forgive me for repeat, for for you old-timers, but the mind is important. You'll see Jesus acknowledging the Centurion. If you remember the Centurion, and He acknowledged his extraordinary faith. But his faith was revealed through his understanding. His faith was revealed through his understanding of authority. He said, "I'm a man under authority, and I say to those under me, 'Go do something,' and they do it." So he was giving a picture of the kingdom. It was his understanding that captured Jesus' attention and released a miracle into a servant. Extraordinary story. So faith is not anti-intellect. It just is superior. And because it is superior, now realize we've all seen fake faith or attempts at faith that fell far short, and probably most of us have done it. But genuine faith is superior to human reasoning. And it is so superior that it inspires the mind into the mind of Christ. The renewed mind is like banks of a river. It creates the context for faith to flow in. So it's important. Pursuing understanding is important. But I never want to restrict my obedience to my understanding. I don't need to understand to obey. If I restrict my obedience to my understanding, then I've created a God in my image. I have a God who's my size. So it's vital that my obedience is, is ready to go at the word of the Lord. It does not have to make sense to me. I just need to know it's Him.
Um, it looks like I'm going to be real thirsty tonight. I said, "This is any sign it's going to be a long meeting." But we will need a break.
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Now, both of these are, are unopened bottles. So, I mean, they're pretty full. You know what? I'm just going to do it this way. Here, I'll just do it one. Now, this bottle is full enough to sell as full, but it's actually not full. It's pretty full now, but it's still not full.
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Now it's full. See, fullness is measured in overflow, not by what you contain. Jack Haber taught us years ago that abundance in the kingdom is not measured by what you have. It's measured by what you've given away. The same concept exists in the fullness of the spirit. So when the scripture talks about us being filled with the spirit, in fact, there's a commandment, "Don't be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Holy Spirit." It's actually command. Fullness is measured in overflow. It's not, it's not what you contain. It's not your Merry Christmas. You caught it. That's good because it would erect your iPad. So fullness is measured in overflow. And you were designed. Smith workers with. He was a, not a tall man in stature, but he would say, "I'm a small man externally, but I'm a giant inside." There's something about the capacity of the human heart to contain more than we, uh, visibly look like we could contain. I don't know if that, if I'm saying that right, but I think you at least get what I'm, what I'm implying. The ability of the, of the surrendered soul to house God is beyond anything we could imagine. And you and I were actually designed for this purpose. So Jesus has 12 guys. One flaked out, so he's got 11. And He spent three and a half years with them, showing them what it's like to be full of the spirit. He never put it in those words, but he modeled it so profoundly that they ached for what he had. See, we owe people an encounter with God. And the only way to ensure that that can happen on a continuous daily basis is for us to be full in the same way that I just illustrated, full of the Holy Spirit. We are vessels that leak. We're broken vessels, every one of us. Which means I have to stay continuously under the spout that keeps me full. And the downfall of the church is often the fact that we had an experience X amount of weeks, months, or years ago, or decades ago, and we live off the memory of that, but we don't have the, the reality of that present experience. Does it work? It can work. Still have a measure of fruitfulness from what happened a long time ago. Let me give you a strange illustration. A prophet dies. An army's going by. One of their soldiers killed. They throw the dead body of the soldier in on the bones of the prophet. What are the bones of the prophet? It's what used to be. It's where God used to work. Was through the man. Those were his bones. So it's, it's a whole, it's a whole symbol of something that used to be active, that's not active anymore. And yet the glory that remained of what is no longer active is so powerful that still raised this dead soldier from, from the dead. But sometimes we see how God uses, can I say, what used to be? That we become satisfied with what used to be. Built entire churches and movements around what used to be. Because occasionally we see somebody raised. One of the Old Testament concepts that is a, a strong, convicting word for me is the fact that in the Old Testament, God lit the fire on the altar, but the priest kept it burning. So if a fire died out, was it God's sovereignty or was it the neglect of priests? God's intent was to keep fire going, but if it dies out, it's because somebody stopped putting flammable material on the fire. And the one way to ensure the fire continues is that you become the living offering and you put yourself in the fire and you just say, "God, burn in me."
So here, let's, um, let's do this. You ready? When your marks get set. Genesis 28. You have your Bibles, right? If you don't have one with you, scoot next to somebody or in some way. I want you to see what you see what we're looking at tonight. All right. Genesis chapter 28, verse 10. Now Jacob went out from Beersheba and went toward Haran. And he came to a certain place and stayed there all night because the sun had set. He took one of the stones of that place, put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. And then he dreamed. And behold, a ladder was set up on the earth, and its top reached to heaven. And there the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the Lord stood above it and said, "I am the Lord, God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac. The land on which you lie, I will give to you and your descendants. Also, your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth. You shall spread abroad to the west, to the east, the north, and the south. And in you and in your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Behold, I am with you and I will keep you wherever you go. I will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." Then Jacob awoke from his sleep. And he said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it." I've been in a lot of church services exactly like that. One guy's having a divine encounter, and the guy sitting next to him is wondering when lunch is. You know, "God's here, and I didn't even know it." Verse 17, "He was afraid and he said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, the Gate of Heaven.'" So read verse 17 again. "He was afraid and he said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God.'" And this is the Gate of Heaven. Stop there for a moment. One of the most fundamental, um, kind of principles of Bible interpretation is, as you pay attention, special attention to the first mention of any subject, because what it does is it sets a standard that the rest of scripture kind of is in tune to, if that, if that makes sense. The first mention of the house of God in the Bible is this right here, and there's no building. So what I want you to do as we read through this, I want you to pay attention to the, um, the things that that help to reveal that this is actually the house of God. All right, so there are, there are indicators. There are things that God has said, "This is happening here," and these are the kinds of things that are indicative of the house of God. Now, the house of God is portrayed in scripture a lot. The Temple of Solomon, of course, Tabernacle of Moses, all those things. But the only one that represents the body of Christ, the New Testament temple of God, is the Tabernacle of David. All the others were for something else. The Tabernacle of Moses, a brazen altar, that's where blood was shed. A labor, which were they, what the priests would wash themselves with water. What came out of Jesus? Aside from blood and water. That's in the outer court. They come in, and we've got the table of showbread, we've got the candlestick, we have the altar of incense. On the other side, we have a mercy seat, Ark of the Covenant. So what do we have here? We have a cross, number one. Number two, Jesus is the blood offering. Jesus is the word, the washing of the water. He is the showbread, he is the bread of life. The light of the world, the candlestick. Is the great intercessor, and he's the God of all mercy. So this whole Tabernacle was a prophetic picture of Jesus, not of the church. But interestingly, while there is no building here, this revelation reveals the nature of the house of God, unlike, in some ways, unlike any other scripture in the Bible. Okay, verse 17 again. "And he was afraid and he said, 'How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, this is the Gate of Heaven.'" So that tells us, number one, that the house of God is a gate. What is a gate in the natural? What is a gate? A gate, you may have a gate from your, from your backyard to your driveway. You may have a gate from your front yard to the public sidewalk. The point is, is it's a passageway from one reality to another. All right, are you alive? You're thinking and everything? All right. So, so this then says that the house of God is the Gate of Heaven, which means it's a gate placed on the edge of two realities. What did we see earlier? It said the ladder, says the angels were ascending and descending on it, going and coming. What is the gate? It's a passageway between two realities: Heaven and Earth. And the church is the gate. Verse 18, "Jacob arose early in the morning. He took a stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, poured oil on top of it, and he called the name of that place Bethel." That's kind of cool. But the name of the city had been Luz previously. Luz, by the way, is, uh, uh, comes from a word that means almonds. So the name was changed from Luz to Bethel. Luz, a house of nuts, to a house, to the house of God. So there's, there's still a few nuts here, but...
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Verse 20, "Jacob made a vow, saying, 'If God will be with me, keep me in this way that I'm going, give me bread to eat, clothing to put on, so that I come back to my father's house in peace, and the Lord shall be my God. This stone which I have set up as a pillar shall be God's house.'" New Testament, we are built together as living stones. So this is a prophetic picture. What do we have here? If you take the entire passage that we just read, we have, number one, we have an open heaven. Remember the father spoke, right? Angels ascending and descending. All right. Go to John chapter 1. Thank you. John chapter 1, verse 43. "The following day, Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and he found Philip and said to him, 'Follow me.'" Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, "We have found him of whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph." Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" That's interesting. Jesus wasn't offended by his sarcasm. Philip said to him, "Come and see." Nathanael coming toward him said of him, "Behold," excuse me, Jesus on Nathanael coming towards him and he said of him, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit, no guile." Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." I love seeing the gifts of the spirit functioning through Jesus because we, we sometimes don't realize, you know, that we have access to the exact same thing. "Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you." Nathanael answered and said, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God." It's interesting. "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Too. "Rabbi, you are the Son of God." That's, that's a pretty dramatic shift. You know, just a short conversation changed everything. Thank you. Nathanael answered and said, "Rabbi, you're the Son of God. You're the King of Israel." Here's the, what I wanted to read here. Jesus answered and said to him, "Because I said to you, 'I saw you under a fig tree,' do you believe? You will see greater things than these." And he said to him, "Most assuredly, I say to you, hereafter you shall see heaven open, angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man." And I saw a ladder on the earth reach to heaven, and angels were ascending and descending. You'll see greater things than these. You will see angels ascending and descending on the Son of Man. Why is that significant? A few verses earlier, actually in verse 14 of chapter 1, the scripture says Jesus is the word of God made flesh. One of the ways it's described is, is Jesus the word of God made flesh? Jesus is the house of God, or God tabernacled among us in Christ. So what is Jesus? Is the initial model or illustration of what God intends to do in the New Testament church. So Jesus is the Tabernacle of God, the dwelling place of God on Earth. He introduces himself, "I'm the light of the world." But before He left, He said to you and to me, He says, "You're the light of the world." It's not that we take His place. It's that He extends what He carried to the believing human race. And not to, not to step, not at least attempt to step fully into what Jesus was, what He illustrated and modeled, is to miss the point. So here Jesus announces to Nathanael and the guys that are there that you're going to see greater things than me calling you out by a word of knowledge that I saw you under fig tree. And of course, they did. But they, they saw, whether they saw visibly, angels coming and going, they saw the effect of the angelic realm partnering with Jesus. Now, God can do everything Himself and never need an angel. But don't be stupid and argue against His design, because He can also do everything without you and me. And you can do everything better. He could stand on planet Earth and speak in such a way that everybody on the entire planet would hear Him in their language, and it would be much more convincing than what you and I do. The point isn't what is God capable of doing. The point is what is His plan. His plan is to take broken, redeemed humanity and use them in such a way that only God can get the credit for what gets accomplished. His longing from day one was was co-laboring. It was the partnership between Him and people. Okay. So Jesus then was the prototype of what the body of Christ was to look like. We are called the body of Christ for a reason. The Bible says the government will rest upon His shoulders, not His head. The Bible says that that everything, Ephesians chapter 1, every power, every dominion, every ruler, every name, everything is put under His feet. It doesn't say under His chin. The mind of Christ is actually to take the things He has declared to be true and cooperate in our thinking with what He says to be true, even though you don't feel it. It's not mind over matter. It's not getting hyped and psych yourself out. It's not that. It's coming to agreement with what He says. Many people cancel the prayer they just prayed as soon as they're done. They say something that actually cancels it. Happens all the time. All the time. I'm not into pretending, so don't misunderstand me here. But I, you know, somebody will come and ask for prayer and, uh, let's say they need, you know, some part of their body healed. So I pray for them. And as soon as I'm done praying, they will say, "I know He can do it." Which is religious decree that basically said, "I know He didn't do it." It's the way to sound spiritual, but actually express unbelief.
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Sometimes we, we protect things that shouldn't be protected. Protecting unbelief, protecting, uh, compromise in thought, or whatever. And, and the best way to do it is just, is just create a spiritual term. Listen, it's done a lot by all of us. And, you know, just, just, you know, somebody who's, somebody who is, uh, someone who's real critical of another person, rarely admits that they're critical. They instead will say, "Well, I have a real call from God to pursue justice." Because then we can hide our dysfunction under a spiritual virtue. And any dysfunction that we protect is hard to be dealt with, and it actually sets down roots. So it begins to shape our personality. You all right? Thank you. I, I have more. So I hope you're able. I hope you're able to. You know what? Let's just do it this way. If you get done before I do, just go home. Let's go home.
Um, their unrenewed mind, um, the unrenewed mind does tricky things with the condition of our own heart. Do you understand that? The condition of your heart actually influences what you think. Do you understand? The condition of your heart actually influences what you think. Yeah, yeah. That's very spontaneous. It touched me. Touch me. If I have a bitter heart and I don't deal with it, it will convince my mind that it has a gift of discernment. Now, that doesn't apply to you, but there's a church somewhere in town that needs that one. You understand what I'm saying? It's, it's, it's that that condition of the heart that gets on chat, not just checked, but repented of. It has to be abandoned. You don't, you don't weasel your way out of sin. You abandon. You, you confess, you renounce, you turn from it. It's not something regret. You know, I'm, I'm only going to be bitter once a day now for the next month, and then I'll go to every other day. And you don't wean yourself from sin. You abandon sin. Cute. Any sin that you try to wean yourself from is, uh, is going to become a close friend. If I have anxiety and fear in my heart, and it plagues me, and I don't deal with it, but I protect it, that anxious heart will convince my mind it's not moving in fear, it's moving in wisdom. If I have an impure heart, it will influence my mind to think it's not lust, I'm just not bound by religion, I'm displaying freedom. It's the reason Proverbs 4, "The heart of wisdom is this exhortation: Watch over your heart with all diligence, because from it flow the issues of life." Keeping that central theme of your life is to remain tender. I've gotten off subject. So let's, let's, uh, it's a good subject, but it's just off subject. So let's do this. Go to John chapter 20 and Luke 24. Okay, so have those two chapters open. Now, the 11 remaining disciples are here. In verse 19, "The same day, evening, being the first day of the week, the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews. Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, 'Peace be with you.'" When He said this, He showed His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So they weren't glad when they first saw Him because they didn't know who, know who He was. They were terrified. First of all, they're hiding because they're afraid they're going to be killed by the Jews. They're hiding, and then somebody walks through the wall. It doesn't, it doesn't help the issues of fear, you know, when somebody just appears through the wall. And that's what happened. And so they, they aren't having it. You can imagine. I mean, you can imagine they are, they were terrified already. Now they're terrified, terrified on steroids. I mean, they are terrified. And so Jesus shows His hands and His side. They realize who He is because remember, when Jesus appears over and over and over again, He appears as other, constantly differently. Wrote to Emmaus, they had walked with Him for years, but they didn't recognize Him because we're to recognize Him not by external appearance. We're to recognize Him by spirit. If you just do it by externals, then He has to meet certain qualifications for you to recognize Him. People do the same with revival. Certain ways a revival should look like, and then He comes along and He does joy, and a lot of people couldn't just, couldn't handle it. They, they couldn't see in scripture that "in His presence is fullness of joy." It just didn't compute because what this people needs is to be on their faces repenting. And yet God gave them joy, and they rejoiced out of their lifestyle of sin. It was different than what everybody expected. When you learn to recognize by presence, not by externals, then you realize who's in charge. So here we have, uh, He showed them His hands and His side. Verse 20, "Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord." Jesus said to them again, "Peace to you. As the Father has sent Me, I send you." And when He said this, He breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." So the, the 11 disciples, remaining disciples, received the Holy Spirit in John chapter 20. The indwelling, born-again experience was made available to the disciples in John 20. He breathed on them and He said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." He's not doing a symbolic act. Everything He did was very calculated and intentional. In Luke chapter 24, before Jesus ascended to heaven for the, for the final time, before Pentecost, He said in verse 49, "Behold, I send the promise of My Father upon you. But tarry, or wait, in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high." What's the point? They received the Holy Spirit in John 20. But before Jesus ascended to the Father, He told the guys, "Stay in Jerusalem till you're clothed with power." There was the indwelling, but there was the clothing. There is the baptism. Biblically, they can happen at the same time, but the initial revelation was they are two distinct experiences. Jesus, I've been having you turn to every scripture. I usually just quote them, but I've been finding people need to see in their Bibles. So go to Matthew chapter 28. Instead of Matthew chapter 28, I say, "People, you and I, we, we need to, we need to see sometimes, and maybe even if we can quote it, you know." Now, when did I start? How long do I? I know there's no limit, but I still want to know how long I started at 7:40. About did I? Jeez, I've been talking a long time.
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Some of you are rejoicing. Others are going, "Oh, no." Now, remember when Jesus chose the twelve, He met with them, and it says He gave them power and authority. Do you remember that? It's in Luke 9. He gave them power and authority. I like to describe it this way: Jesus came commissioned from the Father, so He had all authority. When He was baptized in water, He came up out of the water and was clothed with the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit rested upon Him in the form of a dove and remained so. I'd like to, I'd like to put it this way: Jesus came to Earth having been commissioned from the Father to come take our place in death and be the sacrifice. He came with authority. I don't think He came with power. Now, as God, obviously He's got all power, but the point is, is He chose self-imposed restrictions to live with the limitations of human being, although He has access to everything God. Does that make sense? Kind of? All right. So He came with what authority? How do we know? Because the authority you walk in is equal to the your submission to the commission. Authority is directly connected to the commission. I think Chris Belton is one who put it this way. First, he said, "Commissioned." You have to be in submission to the primary mission. That's how you're a co-commissioned. All right. Does that make sense? So He came to Earth with authority because He was commissioned by the Father, but He still needed to be clothed with power. And so He comes to John for water baptism. John says, "I'm not worthy until your shoes." Jesus says, "Permit it." He baptized Him in water. The Spirit of God comes upon Him in the form of a dove and remains so. There He received power. If you read in Luke chapter, the end of chapter 3, the beginning of chapter 4, it was after that water baptism where the Spirit of God came upon Him. It was after that power was displayed, but not until then. All right. Now, fast forward. Jesus is at the end of His life. He's already commissioned the 12. There's 11 left. He's already given them power and authority. But what does He do after He dies? He resurrects. He appears to them. And in Matthew 28, Jesus came and spoke to them, verse 18, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Therefore, go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I've commanded you." What are some of the things He commanded? Heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out devils. Here in the Great Commission, He's saying, "Teach your disciples what I commanded you," which includes healing and deliverance and all the other things. "I am with you always, even to the end of the age." So the point I want to make is, even though all 12 of His disciples, 11 remaining, even though they had already been given power and authority when Jesus was on Earth, I like to put it this way: they were deputized under His mantle of anointing, of call, of anointing. His power and authority. So they functioned under the umbrella of His gift. I've seen it happen. So I, we don't have. I could take time, but I'd end up killing all of you. But, but I've seen it where where you work with someone in their gift and, and their anointing actually affects you, and as long as you're with them, you function like them, and you think you've got it. And then you try to do it on your own. It doesn't work. Well, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's like a wake-up call. Oh, so that anointing wasn't mine. Yeah, yeah. It just, you just, you just pay a price for those things, that's all. And, uh, so anyway, um, so here's Jesus. He comes back, and He, the first thing He does is He tells them they have authority. Well, I thought they already had authority. Yeah, they were deputized under His, but now they've got to have their own. So what does He do? First thing He does is He appears to them. He says, "All authority has been given to Me. Therefore, go." What is He doing? He's imparting authority for the mission, the great co-mission. And then He says, "Don't leave Jerusalem until you're clothed with power." I thought they already had power. Yeah, they were deputized. Now they have to get their own. Now they have to get their own. Yeah. You remember Jesus told His disciples, "It's better for you that I go." I doubt there was one disciple that believed that because they've got Him right there. I mean, they've got Him right there. They can ask Him anything. He corrects them, is, you know, it's the only time they were embarrassed and felt good about it. You know, it's like Jesus just adjusted itself in their lives, and it was just continuous. And He said, "It's better that I go." And then He made this, Jesus made this statement, John, I think it's 14. He says, "The Holy Spirit, who is with you, will be in you." The Spirit of God, who is with you, will be in you. And that's what He was announcing. So in John 20, He breathed on them, they received the Holy Spirit. And then He said, "But we're not done. Don't leave Jerusalem until you've been clothed with power." One of the kind of bizarre stories in scripture of Gideon. I won't have you turn to this one. It's in chapter 7 or 8. I think it's chapter 8. It's on the right-hand side of the page, but it's right at the top, first column. And it says, my translation, New King James, says, "And the Spirit of God came upon Gideon." And it was an extraordinary feat that was accomplished. But in the footnote, it says, "Literally, it means the Holy Spirit clothed Himself with Gideon." Laughs. I said I wasn't going to turn there, but some of you don't believe me, so I'm going to. "The Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon. He blew the trumpet, soldiers gathered to him, etc." It says, "The Spirit of the Lord clothed Himself with Gideon." If an Old Testament concept of the Holy Spirit clothing, it was Michael Thompson who told us this, 20, probably 7, 28 years ago. He said, "The Holy Spirit, in this passage, put Gideon on like a glove." That's what we need. It's for the Spirit of God to put us on like a glove. It's got to fit well. That glove can't have a mind of its own. That glove can't have a preconceived idea. This is what it needs to look like. It's actually, it's got to be supple, tender, very flexible. So does the Holy Spirit put you on? Puts me on? He does what He wants. So He tells them in Luke 24, "Don't leave Jerusalem until you've been clothed with power." Now, let's go to Acts chapter 1. I'll start, I'll start wrapping this up. Now, remember we started this thing tonight by just this one concept, this most difficult to comprehend concept of God wanting to fill us with His fullness. I can't think about that very long because it'll hurt my head. So Acts chapter 1. You remember in, uh, now Acts is written by Luke, as was the Gospel of Luke. A great way to, to read those two books is actually back to back, and it, it picks up in chapter 1 of Acts right where Luke 24 left off. Luke 24 says, "Stand Jerusalem, tarry, clothed with power." We come to Acts chapter 1. You know what? We're just reading a lot of scripture today. Chris, Chris read about 40 passages this morning. I'm going to, I'm going to beat him tonight. We're going to lead. I'm teasing you, but I, it's not always, well, never mind. Verse 1. We'll just start with verse 1. I usually go right to the heart of it, but words, I'm just going to drag it on. "The first one, 'The former account I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and teach.'" I love that. I like Mark. In fact, I underline most anytime I see "do and teach" in the same breath. I mark them because in our culture, doing and teaching are separate things. In our culture, you can be taught by someone who doesn't do. You can take business classes from someone who doesn't own a business, and it's actually, it's common in our culture because we elevate knowledge, concepts above experience. John Wimber brought an amazing example years, years ago, in his book Power Events, I think that's the one, that Power Evangelism, but he gave this illustration of the elderly Chinese people were given a questionnaire. And first of all, there were statements made, and then there was a question. I forget all of them, but there's this one that made the point. A statement was made, "Coffee doesn't grow in cold climate." Second statement, "England has cold climate." Question, "Does coffee grow in England?" The Western mind, the answer is easy. But for especially the older Chinese generation, when they were asked, "Has coffee grown in England?" their answer was, "We don't know. We've never been there." Because the Eastern culture focuses on the value of experience, whereas Western culture elevates concept, where you don't even need experience. So we have intellectual Christians that don't have a relationship.
[Applause]
Philosophic believers. And I'm not trying to shame anyone. I'm just trying to say we just need to realize the challenges. It's not them, it's us. The challenges that we have in learning. And so when he says here's an account of Theophilus of all that Jesus began to do and teach, it's important. It's not a casual comment. Nicodemus came to Jesus and said, "We know that you're a teacher come from God, because no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him." We know you're a teacher. There's the word. Because no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with them. There's the teaching and doing. It's all through the scripture. All right, until the day. I told you I'm just dragging this thing out. Until verse 2, "Until the day in which He was taken up, after He, through the Holy Spirit, had given commandments to the apostles whom He had chosen, to whom He also presented Himself alive after suffering by many infallible proofs, being seen by them during 40 days and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God." So what's the point? After His resurrection, He kept appearing and reappearing to the eleven disciples and others outside of the original group. He would appear to them over a period of 40 days. Pentecost means 50. So from the death of Christ to the day of Pentecost is 50 days, but He spent 40 hanging out with the guys, which means there were 10 days that they had a prayer meeting.
[Applause]
All right. So He says, "Don't leave Jerusalem until you're clothed with power."
[Applause]
I wonder what they did in those 10 days. 10 days is a long prayer meeting. They already have been competing with each other, thinking they're better than the other. So they got 10. It probably took them 10 days to get this stuff kind of fixed. Just throw them in a prayer room and don't leave. Don't let them get out, you know. And, uh, Peter, you know, he already said, "I love, I love you more than all these." And so Jesus showed up, said, "Do you love Me more than these?" And so they had a few things to kind of work out in this prayer meeting. It's interesting. Jesus actually appeared, the scripture says, to over 500 people announcing what was to happen. We don't know how long, how many people were in the room when the prayer meeting started, but we know 10 days later there were 120.
What did Jesus talk to His disciples about during the 40-day period? The kingdom of God. That's the message. Being assembled together with them. Verse 4, "And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which He said, 'You have heard from Me. For John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.'" When they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know the times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." Twice the disciples brought up conversation and asked questions, and twice Jesus turned the subject to the kingdom of God and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. There's a tremendous book. We have copies somewhere. I'm going to promote one of these days called "The Cure of All Ills." And you know, I did this study years ago on, um, on water, rivers, pools, lakes, rain, those kinds of things. And it's the conclusion I came to is all through the Old Testament, Israel would have a problem with an enemy army. They would have a problem with moral breakdown in their own culture. They would have a problem with following after other gods. It didn't matter what the problem was. God's answer was rain, rivers, pools, which in that context is always the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So it was like, it's like it doesn't matter what problem you have. What you need is God. Secure all. In other words, there actually is a simple answer to every problem. You need an immersion in the spirit of God. It doesn't mean you don't need counsel. Doesn't mean you don't need this, you don't need that. But what you need most of all, what we need, what I need, is an immersion in the presence because everything becomes settled. Everything becomes settled in the presence. Verse 8, "He says, 'You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.'" Go to chapter 2 of Acts. Verse 1, "When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place." There's the miracle. Ten-day long prayer meeting. They are now in one accord. That's awesome. And suddenly, it's interesting. Suddenly there came a wind. But the suddenly came after 10 days. Before heaven invaded Earth invaded heaven for 10 days. Suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling in Jerusalem devout men from every nation under heaven. And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together and were confused because everyone heard them speak in their own language in which they were born. Parthians, Medes, whatever that is, Elamites, I don't know, Persians, I don't know, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Pamphylia, Egypt, parts of Libya. All these places. Verse 11, "Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God."
All right, I am getting close to the end. I promise. They were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "Whatever could this mean?" Others were mocking. All right, here's, here are the, you want to know what the signs of a revival are?
[Laughter]
[Applause]
[Laughter]
Here, here are the signs of a revival. Verse 6 says, "They were confused."
[Laughter]
Verse 7 says, "They were amazed." Verse 7 also says, "They marveled." Verse 12 says, "They were amazed and perplexed." Verse 13 says, "They were mocking." That's revival.
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Doesn't mean you do stuff to be stupid and blame God for it. But when God has His way. All right. The angel comes to Mary and says, "You're going to give birth to the Christ child." "How can this be? I'm a virgin." "The Spirit of God will come upon you." I mean, you know, when it happened, there was no external evidence. But eventually,
[Laughter]
[Applause]
She couldn't hide what she was carrying. In every burning revivalist tries to conceal it for as long as they can until suddenly the work of the Spirit of God upon them is so obvious. Her privilege, responsibility, was to reveal Jesus to the world. Same as yours.
[Music]
How did it happen for her? The Spirit of God came upon her. I'm, I'm not trying to in any way diminish the absolute significance of Mary and her surrender, the virgin birth, stunning. But don't underplay the privileged responsibility.
that we have as Believers to yield married Natural Spirit of God Came Upon her produced Jesus. you are natural, the spirit of God comes upon you, and Jesus is manifest. [Applause]
the second thing I want to point out in this part of the story as we come to an ending. I keep, I keep threatening the second part that that is important for you to see is that these various Nations when they heard the 120 pray in tongues, they heard different ones speak in their languages, and it says they heard them speaking in verse 11 of the mighty Deeds of God, the wondrous works of God. so the people that were praying in tongues didn't know what they were saying, but the people who heard them heard them speak of the mighty Deeds of God. when you pray or sing in the spirit, you are declaring the mighty Deeds of God. he who speaks an unknown tongue doesn't speak to men, he speaks to God. it can be an intercessory prayer and or it can be declarations of praise.
I was talking with my mom this week about an experience that part of our family had, goodness, 100 years ago, literally. when my when my grandmother and I think it's one of my mom's aunts, when they were baptized in the Holy Spirit, they wrote in perfect Chinese. and I, one thing I didn't know until this week in my conversation with Mom, my mom's 94, and she told me that that I knew this part, one of them, a missionary came in, it was the old ancient Chinese language, which which they didn't know, you know. and they wrote in perfect Chinese. so missionary comes to town that was able to read the ancient Chinese language, and the first one he read was all praise to God. this is what I learned this week. the other one that he read from one of my other relatives was, it was the 23rd psalm, and and in Chinese. now writing in another language is not on the list, but the list of scripture don't contain God, they reveal him. [Applause] God doesn't corral himself with a list, he reveals himself for the list. oh, so what we see is they're speaking of the mighty Deeds of God in foreign languages, and then a hundred years ago, got relatives that wrote in a foreign language and did the same thing, speaking of the mighty Deeds of God. it's not on the list, but is it consistent with the list? see, learning the ways of God that are revealed through his lists helps us to be able to discern whether or not something's from the Lord or not. some people look at the list and it's the externals, and so they only end up with recognizing Jesus if he appears the way he did when we walk together for those three and a half years. but what he reveals himself differently, you have to recognize by presence, by likeness. all right, and this is where I'm going to end, I promise. you know what, I am closer to the conclusion than I've been all night. I am. that's that is a fact, that's not even an exaggeration.
foreign six again, when this sound occurred, multitude came together. on this sound occurred, I grew up thinking that people, thousands of people, if you, it's nine o'clock in the morning, you got moms playing with their kids, we got, you know, people in their carpenter shop doing their work, and you know, the agricultural teams, they've got their animals ready, and nine o'clock in the morning, and they just all of a sudden in Jerusalem, they just they drop everything and they start following a sound. I grew up thinking it was the sound of people speaking in foreign languages, but that's kind of silly. it's an international city, they've got people talking in foreign languages all the time. you know, let's be honest, writing's not the most international city until you guys showed up, and now we've had like a hundred and some nations, you know, living here with us for a season. so but even, even in a non-international city that has, you come, you stand down there on the street corner on Pine Street, and you have about 10 people speaking in Russian, you're not going to have a city drop everything they're doing to come and stand around you because it's not the sound of a foreign language, it's another sound. what is it? it said a sound came from heaven, a sound came from heaven. the best way I know how to illustrate this, one of the instruments that I, musical instruments that I love so much, if it's done well, which is my prerequisite for all instruments, sorry, actually I take that all back, although it's true, we have, we have, I can say it here because we have so many incredible musicians, honestly, amazing. but one of the instruments that I enjoy so much is a saxophone. oh goodness, a good, a good saxophone, just just listen to me though, I'm not going to do it, but you, you've got that, there's it's a reed on the mouthpiece of a saxophone, and that skilled artist breathes across that reed, and it goes down this brass instrument or whatever metal it's made of, and it amplifies and projects that sound. it's just, it's extraordinary, but it's breath across a reed. I'd like to suggest to you, 120 people finally got in tune, took him 10 days, but they got in tune so God could trust them with a sound to move a city. and it says a sound came. one of the words that can be used for this word sound is a roar, a roar came from heaven. now remember, we've got 120 people, individuals to the max, and as We Know by our own experience, you can be in a group of people that you really love and care for, but we often have our own agendas, and 10 days of prayer together pretty much worked all that stuff out. so now we have everyone tuned to the same sound. in an orchestra, you can have instruments tuned to each other, but they can be completely out of tune from what is a proper sound. they sound good together, but they don't sound with authentic music, authentic sound. so what they do is they take one like a tuning fork, and all the instruments tune themselves to this one thing. oh, do these instruments get united? not by working on unity, they get united by tuning their heart to the one standard. everybody adjusted the one thing, and they find themselves in tune with each other. I believe in unity, but sometimes we're attuned to each other, but not to him. unity for each other actually starts with a unity with him. I surrender to you, I embrace your sound. so here's 120 people over 10 days adjusting their instruments until they're all tuned to the one sound, and then the roar from heaven comes across the hearts of 120 reeds, and a sound is released over a city that where people dropped everything. there was a sound that summoned them. it was more than a musical sound, it was more than than tongues or foreign languages, it was something other, it was something else, and people start start wondering what they're doing with a plow in their hand, what they're doing, you know, what the the toys of the children or whatever. everybody drops everything, and thousands and thousands and thousands of people start flocking to where there's 120 praying, and they're standing there bewildered, they're mocking, they don't understand. they've got 120 people that appear to be intoxicated. it's not the best way to present the gospel the first time out, but apparently it was. the disciples didn't know enough to influence that first meeting. so if there's any meeting that was completely governed by the will and purpose and presence of the spirit of God, it was the first one. [Applause] and what many people say can't happen, shouldn't happen, in meeting happened in this one, and it's the one he was in charge of, and we've got to vote ever since. and so here they are, 120 people, and suddenly a roar comes, and they look around the room, different ones, spontaneous combustion as they explode, and the fiery languages of heaven, the tongues of men and of angels, under speaking of the mighty Deeds of God. who knows how long it went on? finally the city begins to gather. Peter collects his thoughts, and he said, the prophet of Joel announced this day, and then he told them the passage out of the prophecy out of Joel. it'll come to pass in the last days, I'll pour my spirit on all flesh. your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, old men dreams. on my maidservants, men servants, I will pour out my spirit, they shall prophesy. dear Pentecost, 120 people, is there any record of any of them prophesied? is there any record of visions? is there any record of dreams? no. what did happen? fire, wind, and tongues. and Peter says, this from Joel, is that the 120? it's not about the list, it's about the manifestation of presence that demonstrates the lordship of Jesus over surrendered people. eventually the visions came, eventually the prophecies, but Peter saw it in its embryonic form, and he said, this is that. why don't you stand? [Applause]
oh goodness, I could charge your rent tonight. I haven't talked that long in a long time. it's your fault though. [Music] [Applause] you're very kind. here's the deal. I maybe should have just done this, would have last about two minutes. don't be drunk with wine, don't live under the influence of something artificial. live under the intoxicating influence of the fullness of the spirit of God in your life. be filled. let's come in, so ask him. it's not a one-time experience, it's an ongoing, it's a lifestyle of yieldedness to the working of the Holy Spirit. I needed as much today as I did 50 years ago. I'd hit it more today, actually. yeah. so ask him. timid prayers get timid answers. Holy Spirit, come. come a fresh baptism, fresh baptism. every person, every person. thank you. you're welcome to stay right where you are and pray. we're going to take some time for this, but there are some of you that you are so unusually stirred, you actually need to just come down to the front. and so just, just come down to the front. don't do it because somebody else is, there's an unusual stirring in your own heart. so come, kneel or stand, do whatever, but just come. oh, thank you. [Music] come Lord, fresh baptism, fresh, fresh baptism, first baptism, fresh baptism, fresh immersion, filled with the Holy Spirit, filled, filled with the Holy Spirit. be filled with the gospel. [Music] be filled with the Holy Spirit. [Music] be filled with the Holy Spirit. be filled with the Holy Spirit. be filled with the spirit. be filled. be filled. be filled. [Music] filled with the spirit, filled to be filled with the spirit. this is be filled with the spirit. filled, be filled. filmed. if I could get some, some of our team that aren't up front, uh, just walk around this group and just start laying hands on people and just just to clear over them. be filled with the spirit. be filled. overflowing, overflowing. GPS. [Music] [Music] it filled. thank you, machine. [Music] [Music] another machine. [Music] yeah, we have some more of our team just laying hands on people down here, but also throughout the room. we're just, uh, we're just all in a place where we just, we need more. and I feel like tonight is the night for more. and so we want to, the Bible declares that we seek him while he may be found. it's not, it's not that it can't always be found, but in measure, there are measures where there are certain moments where he is more available. and I just feel like tonight is one of those moments. so obviously, if you need to go, no, no shame in leaving whatsoever, but if you're able to stay and take some time to pray, come down here, in your seat, wherever is fine, but I want, uh, our team to just start laying hands on people and praying. just be filled. very simple prayer, be filled with the Holy Spirit. and I'll tell you, it helps. it helps if that's your cry, you know, the 120 had no clue what it looked like, they just prayed for what he promised. so right now, you and I can pray, God, you promised this. in fact, scripturally, it's twice, it's called at least twice, it's called the promise of the father. so we ask right now for the promise of the father, the promise of the father, the baptism, the fullness of the Holy Spirit to be released afresh over us as a church family, over us as a school of ministry, over us, our network of churches, those who watch online. I pray the same in your homes right now, that there'd be a visitation of God, an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the homes all across all across this network of believers, that we would discover what it is to be full of the Holy Spirit, overflowing with presence, overflowing. some of you are standing there to get, uh, next to each other. you can just turn and pray for each other as well. very appropriate. just, you turn to somebody you know, maybe husband, wife, I don't care what it is, just turn to someone, just pray, God, fill them with your spirit. do something significant in and through them tonight. we pray, Jesus name, Jesus name, we ask for the more that's been promised, the promise of the father. we declare the promise of the father. [Music] thank you, Lord. the promise of the father. [Music]