Transcription
You know what? Let's give Jesus a praise offering, cuz he's actually the famous—he's the one that deserves all the honor, all the glory, and all the praises. All to Jesus! This is why we do what we do. Amen, amen, amen, amen. Um, unfortunately tonight, you know, um, our team that came up with us, they're driving back tonight. They're leaving at 10:00 sharp. Amen. Awakening team. I know—oh, sorry—they do not want to go home. They, they've, they've had a tremendous time. They bonded with their Canadian family, you know, and um, and when we leave here, you know, I, I, I say this all the time: we don't say bye, we just say we'll see you later, because they, they're all—we're all talking about, you know, them coming back up here, and you know, we'll do whatever God wants us to do. Um, we're very honored to be here, and I, I do want to say thank you, Pastor Ken and Sh—you know, the apos—the Apostles of this house, Pastor Mike and Cina, who um, have just been, you know, awesome, awesome, awesome, and and uh, Ben and his wife and the leadership here, and all the home openers that, that have just opened up their home and have spoiled the 209. So, um, we want to say thank you from the bottom of our heart. We're very, very humbled to come and be a part of what God is doing here. And when we go back home, um, we got our own work to do. Amen. So keep us in prayer back home. Um, we're on limited time tonight. I don't want to uh, drag it on. I do know that God has put a word in Isaiah's heart. I want you guys to open up even tonight, you know, like Isaiah says, this—don't let the chair steal uh, your, your, your appointment tonight at this altar. You know, we want to make sure that we finish strong. We want to make sure that the Paton is passed on. Some of you, God has a mandate on your life to get involved in what God is doing here in Abbotsford, this area right here. We're taking dominion; we're taking Abbotsford back for Jesus. Amen. This city belongs to Jesus, and the way it's going to be taken is by you opening up your mouth and crossing the chicken line and sharing Jesus with somebody. Amen.
So I love you, and I want you guys to put your hands together and help me welcome Isaiah. How's everybody doing tonight? Can I take that off? Thank you. I like that. Boom. Is that okay? Thank you. Come on, let's give it up tonight for Jesus! Who really, really believes that there's a move of God happening in Abbotsford, and you are a part of it? That we've been crying out, saying, "God, would you heal the sick? Would you raise the dead? Would you cast out demons?" And God is here doing what we've been praying for. Why don't you step up tonight, out of your apathy, out of your complacency, out of your religion, out of your normalcy, and say, "God, if we haven't yelled in the last two days, we're going to yell tonight. If we haven't got crazy, we're going to get crazy tonight. If we haven't jumped, we're going to jump." I dare you! Sit down. You can turn the mic down. I'll put it close to my mouth. If there's feedback, it's okay. Know I'm causing crazy feedback tonight. Listen, if you're in here addicted to drugs, addicted to crack, heroin—you're not saved, you don't know God. You might be a pastor that isn't saved. Okay, I shouldn't said that. You might be a Christian that's not saved. And if you're in here tonight, I want to challenge you tonight: give God everything. And I promise you, if this—you try God out for 30 days, and if it doesn't work out for you, I guarantee the devil will give you back your depression, give you back your anxiety, give you back your suicide, give you back your alcohol. But I'm telling you, if you really get a hold of this fire, you're going to find out the end of a needle, the empty bottle, the crackpipe, the whorehouse will never satisfy your void like Jesus Christ. Has anybody in here said, "If it had not been for God, I wouldn't be here. If it had not been for the Holy Ghost, I'd be dead on the side of the road. If it had not been, I would have died in that crack house. I would have died in that whorehouse." But the Son of God, who knew no sin, became sin, gave me what he deserved, and I gave him what I deserved. You know, we're not, we're not here cuz we have nothing better to do. We're here because there's nothing better to do. Like, listen, friend, I hate this concept in the world that Christians have nothing—come on! We know how you are in the world. What did you think of Christians? Hypocrites, which we're not going to get into tonight because I've been drilling it for two days. And they had nothing better to do. We did not come here because we didn't have something to do on a Saturday night. We came here because we've already been to bars, we've already been to the club, we've already tried alcohol. Most the people in this room, at one point in their lives, were addicted to some kind of substance. Whereas I got girls all up and down this altar that had been raped by family members, that have been tortured as children, that have tried hanging themselves, that have tried killing themselves, and some time and some point in their life they came into a meeting just like this and had a radical encounter with God. And that's why we—that's why we don't drink, because we already found what we're looking for. Do you know why the city is addicted to alcohol, drugs, drinking, pornography, prostitution? Why there's people in this room that need a crackpipe to live? It's because you're searching to fill the void. And I want to tell every lost person in this place: there is only one thing that will fill your void, and you're not going to find it in the culture. There's one thing on this planet that will get you to go to bed with joy, that will get you to wake up with joy, and I'm telling you, you won't find it in a pill. And I want to tell you tonight, if you've been looking, you came to the right place, because this is where you're going to find the answer to every question, the solution to every problem, the hope for the hopeless, joy for those who are depressed. If you got cancer, you better get ready, cuz God's about to heal cancer in this place! If you're demon—who am I preaching to? I'm preaching way better than you're clapping! If you're demon-possessed, you better believe that the Holy Ghost, when he shows up, demons tremble! When he shows up—I wish I had a testimony in this place—when he shows up, depression trembles! We can't lose focus, man! I need people praying for me under the breath. CU—I'm losing my voice. We can't lose focus. Why we're really here: cuz to be honest with you, we're not here for a good preaching, we're not here for music, we're not here for a hyped-up conference or a special speaker. We are here to go after the one sheep, to go after that one—I'm looking at some of you—to go after that one person that has strayed from the flock, that has walked away from God. And we're going to, tonight, leave the 99 to get the one, because the Bible says when one sinner comes back to God, there's a party in heaven. We had one of our team—let me, let me show you how cool God is and how much the devil sucks. We had one person on our team that got held back at the border. You remember this? Remember this? Okay, he got saved two months ago, super radical, super on fire. He probably would've got kicked out of most churches, because usually we pray for people to come in and kick them out when they get there, because now in the church—I don't know if you know—in America, it's okay to cheat on your wife and within a year be back preaching. But you speak in tongues, and they kick you out. I don't know if you know, in the Church of today, you can get fired for being on fire. You can get kicked off the board, kicked out of the church, cuz the Holy Ghost touches you, and religious people don't understand it. I need somebody in here that's desperate to go after God and says, "Even if the religion people don't understand it, even if my pastor—I'm going to get in trouble for this—doesn't understand it, I'm not going to sell my inheritance for a bowl of soup." The first night he came to the Awakening—I'm dead serious, this is a true story—I was preaching, and he was sitting one row behind Nino as I was preaching, saying, "This is the effing truth!" Now, usually in the church, we say, "Come on, come on, let's go over a couple things." We say, "Go there! That's real! That's raw! That's sick!" We say all these crazy things in California because we yell so much we run out of things to yell. So every week we're yelling something different, to say pretty much just to say, "Keep preaching!" That's what—that's why we yell. I know you guys are a little bit quieter than we are, but we're going to get some, some Hispanic fire in you before we leave, okay? Because I've been saying "right" all week. So if I've been saying "right" all week, you're going to start saying, "Come on!" This—okay? Tonight you're G—you're gonna—all right? Thank you. I changed my vocab; you can change yours. He's sitting there going, "That was f—ing rad!" The first night after I preach, he's like, "That was bad a—that was oh—" And some of our team was like, "We got to tell him not to say that." But here's the thing: when God lights people on fire—LS—PE—lights people on fire—that you've been praying—you shut your mouth! Remember when Mary broke the box, and Jesus says, "Leave her alone, because she did something you don't do." And I'm telling you, this guy was standing up when all the other lukewarm Christians were sitting down. This guy was shouting when all the other yo-yo Christians were quiet. So don't you get mad that drug addicts are more on fire than you! Don't you get mad that prostitutes are more on fire than you! He gets radically saved. Well, he comes with us to Canada; he gets arrested, or stuck at the border—we'll just say it that way. Check this out: what the devil means for bad, the Bible says God turns for good. I'm telling you, the devil—God is going to turn the table on the devil tonight in some of your lives! Cuz you know, I actually thank the devil for all the junk he did in my life, cuz it actually led me to the Cross. Oh, cuz if I had not been for the bottle, if it had not been for the depression he brought me, if it had not been for the suicide he brought me, if it had not been for the relationship he brought me, I would have never made it to the cross. But you need to read your Bible. The Bible says the devil walked Jesus to the Cross. Little did he know that what he meant to destroy—the Son of God—really destroyed his kingdom. I got—I just thank the devil for some of the stuff he's done in my life, cuz if it had not been for the garbage, I would have never met the Savior. He's at the border. Check this out: he can't come into Canada, so he calls his brother that lives in Washington, who's not a Believer. His brother picks him up, and he begins to spend the next couple days witnessing. Oh, cuz I told you, if they take one, we're going to take 300. I already told you that. He starts witnessing to his brother. Not only was he witness to his brother, they asked him to speak. Listen to this: he's just two months saved. I'm telling you, still has that raw vocabulary. They asked him to give his testimony on a Sunday morning—in this Sunday—at the local church. And check this out: his brother thought what God is doing is so crazy, his brother is selling all his stuff to move to Manteca and be a part of the Revival. How do you like that, devil, man? The devil's weak! I'm telling you, you know how much the devil hates your praise? Do you know why the devil wants us rowdy at the club but not in the church? Because he hates your praise! When you shout out of your comfort zone and you get excited out of your—per—it's just not my personality. My Bible says that we're dead, and it's Christ living through us. So that means you don't have a personality. My personality isn't Isaiah; it's about being born again. God told Nicodemus, "Listen, unless you're born again, you can't—let me give you in the Greek—perceive the kingdom." And we got a bunch of goats in the church, and we're calling them sheep, and they're not—pastors call me—why can't I get my people—watch this, watch this—why can't I disciple my people? Why won't they pray for the sick? Why don't they come to prayer? Why aren't they on fire? Why is nothing working? Why isn't anything growing? Because they're not sheep, and you're trying to tell goats how to act like sheep, and it's impossible for a person that's a goat to act like a sheep. It's impossible. It has—they have to be born again. If we continue with this—pray the little prayer—so in five minutes we can go to Denny's or we can go to Boston Pizza—we will continue to watch the young people in the church go to hell where we play games. The only—listen, friend—the only entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven is to get a new spirit—is to be born again. When Jesus told Nicodemus, "You have to be born again," the problem with the story wasn't that he had to be born, it's that he had to be born a second time. Have you been born a second time, Isaiah? How do I know if I've been born again? You know, and listen, not only do you know, everybody else knows. If you can't look back on your dead man and say, "I don't even know who that guy was, because he is so not like me," then God probably hasn't killed you. God is not trying—now you might think I'm an a-hole here, but this is your Bible—they, they told J he was an a-hole leader. God is not trying to change you; God is trying to kill you. God's number one desire is that we would die to ourselves and be born—born in him a second time. And the world is looking for people that have been born into another dimension. The world is looking for people that are living through the lenses of Heaven, that are walking around and they say, "We don't understand you; we don't—it doesn't make sense." But when you walk in the room, there's this presence that walks in with you. When you speak, there's this presence that speaks with you. You're—it's like you're from a different planet. Now I have a heavy heart tonight, because I have a word I've never preached before. I want to talk to you tonight about losing the Ark. If you have your Bibles, you can open them. If you have your notepads—now I have trouble—can I just be honest with you? And I'm going to try to go quick here. I have trouble—in fact, I don't travel to other nations. Me and—you know, we've been invited to Pakistan, to Africa, to Sweden, to India—all over the place. We've been—I'm, I'm so humbled by it—but when my nation is on its way to hell, I have no business trying to go to other nations and save them. Friend, listen, the only reason we're in Canada because we believe with everything inside of us, Canada is strategic through the Revival that God's about to break out into the Earth. We're not here because I love Pastor Mike—I love you, brother—but that's not why I'm here. We're not here because I love Pastor Ken—holy diddly, I love you, Pastor Ken—we are here because the Holy Ghost said, "Go to Canada, cuz I'm about to raise up a Remnant in, in the earth, and they're going to lay hands on the sick, and they're going to raise the dead, and they're going to prophesy, and they're going to cast out devils, and they are going to take back their Nation." That's what I'm talking about! That's the kind of praise I was looking for! My God! I gotta preach my voice away to get you to shout like that! Friend, America is on life support. In the 1960s, we were sending out more missionaries than any place in the earth. America was the mission center of the globe. In the 60s, we had more missionaries than every continent, okay? And in the midst of the greatest depression, in the midst of the greatest depravity, we were doing more in the church and sending more in the church than we've ever done. And what happened was God began to prosper America as a nation. And when God began to prosper us, all of a sudden a generation started getting raised up in apathy and materialism and jealousy and complacency, and we started trading prayer for leadership manuals. And the 1930s—let me give you the statistics on this—in the 1930s—write this down—there was 65—we're talking about America here, okay?—I'm going to get to you—calm down—there was 65 to 80% church engagement in the 1930s, because the—isry—and all these revivals—the fire on the altars of America was blazing like it's never, never blazed before. Now, in the 60s, it's down to 30% church engagement. We're sending missionaries, and all of a sudden we started getting into leadership and church growth, and prayer, holiness, and Revival got put on the back burners of America, and we started focusing on training up leaders that did not know their God. I hope you feel the fear of God in this place. We started training up leaders that didn't know how to be faithful to their wives. We started training up leaders that didn't know what consecration meant, that didn't know what the Ark of God represented, that didn't know what holiness meant. And now here in 1984—on—think about this—19—we're no longer obviously the most mission-sending nation in the world. We're like one of the top—the lowest 10% in the world right now. Now four—listen to this—this is where the nation's at: 4%. Four—that's 40 out of every thousand young people from the year 1984 to two—right—from the year 1984 on, 4% of that age group is in the church engaged right now. We are on life support in the Church of Jesus Christ. And do you know what secular statistics and people that study this stuff actually are saying right now? They're saying that if a nation falls under 2%, it is impossible to get a nation back to its Godly morals. And friend, we are falling to the three percent mark in America. We are—the church is losing members at an unprecedented level. Pastors are cheating on their wives on a scale we've never seen. Jezebel, Ahab, pornography, and Herod have entered the church, and there are few voices in the earth, there are few intercessors in the planet, there are few people crying out to God, there are few people that say, "We don't want games, we don't want lights, we don't want sound systems; we want the Holy Ghost, we want the fire, we want the power." And I'm here tonight talking to the 4%, talking to the 4% that are going to take—can I just be honest with you right now? Let me just say it this way: in America—I want to tell you about our nation—I'm going to say this with all reverence and shaking and trembling on the fear of God—we're about to lose our nation. We—listen to me—we are in for a military crisis. God is, is about to wage an all-out war against America if there's not a Revival, apart from a Great Awakening, anything apart from a Great Awakening. God is going to judge his people like he did in the Bible. There comes a point where God looks upon a nation and says, "I can't keep watching them murder their own babies. I can't keep watching them marry the same gender. I can't keep watching them make my house into a house of business and a den of thieves." And the Holy Spirit lifts off our country. And can I tell you, friend, if the Holy Spirit lifts off Canada or America, it will be hell on Earth. Do you know right now the only reason why we have some kind of peace in America is because the Holy Ghost is here? If the Holy Ghost were to lift off this country, it would be hell on Earth. And do you know the future of this nation is in your hands? The future—do you want to know why I'm so serious about this? Because God takes you more serious than you take yourself. We come into these meetings all casual like—honestly, it's really not that big of a deal if I participate—because you don't realize God put a nation on you, and you're aborting it for bowls of soup. You're aborting it for pornography. You're aborting it for apathy. You're aborting it for complacency. And we sit back, and God says, "I wish you guys would be serious about these meetings. I wish you'd get real about the gospel. I wish you'd be willing to die for me." Because when God sees us—do you know we are God's answers to global poverty? Listen, God has no plan B. You are God's answer for every crisis in this nation. Turn your Bibles. I'm going to talk to you from 1st Samuel chapter 3 to chapter 5, and I guarantee you've never heard it preached like this. So just don't get mad at me. The Bible talks about—we're going to skip through this narrative; you don't have to go page for page, because I guarantee you won't be able to keep up with me even if you tried. The Bible says at the time Samuel was ministering to Eli—Eli was the prophet of Israel. Eli's about to die because he knew how to do ministry but didn't know how to raise sons. Eli's in the temple, and the Bible says there was no—that the word of the Lord was rare in those days, and there was no widespread Revelation. Now, before I get in this message, because I feel what God's giving me is so serious tonight, if you're going to get on your Instagram, I'm gonna tell you right now, young people, if you're going to get on your Twitter, you're going to talk to your neighbor and mess around while preaching, I will call you out, and you can leave. Because listen, I'm done playing games with this thing. I am done sitting back looking at people who don't want God that are faking it. Either you want this thing and you're going to be serious and locked in tonight, or you can leave, cuz we're not keeping anybody here. Listen, I'm tired of the church looking like seventh-grade math class. When are we going to get out? When's the bell going to ring? When's—if that's what you're waiting for, you're just—you're just dismissed. Now, the Bible says that the word of the Lord was rare, and there was no widespread revelation. God literally had looked upon, upon the nation, and he wasn't speaking to his people because he couldn't find somebody that had enough backbone to preach what he wanted them to preach. God had looked at Israel and said, "Is there a man that will preach what I want to preach? Is there a man that will do what I want to do?" And God couldn't find a man, so he kept his mouth shut. The reason why there's no Revelation in the Earth is because God can't find a pastor who's more afraid of him than their congregation. God can't find a pastor that wants to build a bigger prayer room than coffee house in their church. God is so sick of the Starbucks church that thinks it's okay—we want to look cool. When did looking cool become our main focus in the church? We got to get good programs and good lights and good systems because we want people to come to our church. Why? So you can babysit them and get them more lost than they already are, because organized religion will send you to hell quicker than a crackpipe. You better hear me, friend. The time of playing games is over. God is not speaking to our country, and somebody needs to get upset. Somebody needs to say, "God, here I am; speak to me. I'll stand in the gap." You know, I'm sick of—I'm sick of recycled messages. I'm sick of hearing the same old messages. Nobody gets moved; nobody gets changed; and there's no urgency. Have you heard Zjo? You know—can I be honest with you?—I'm going to give you my own personal thing, okay? So you don't have to get offended because this is me. If I don't get convicted or challenged to be more like Christ in 10 minutes, I turn a message off, because I know what time it is. And when the nation's in crisis, there's no time to three steps to bigger faith, to move your financial mountain. I can care less about you being a better you. I can care less that every day is a Friday. I want every day to be God's day. I don't care if it's Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. I am sick of fake leaders that have no fresh—do you know in the Bible that they started giving people manna that was old and had worms, and the people got sick because the Revelation was old? If you want to know why our church is filled with sick people, it's because we're giving them stale manna with worms in it. We're giving them lukewarm words. Where do you want to know why? Because leaders don't know how to get in their prayer closets, rather than call people back for counseling. It's our fault as leaders. We are so lazy that we don't want to go buy our own oil; we want to take something from somebody else that we didn't pay for at all. You better hear me. Sermoncentral.com, and we're so lukewarm and apathetic, there's no fresh Revelation, there's no fresh word. And the Bible says that Eli was sleeping in the temple while the, the, the lamp of God was burning, and by the Ark—here you have a leader who the Bible says is losing his vision, his sight—his vision prophetically—who's sleeping in the light and in the presence—sleeping. Do you know how to—you know, the best way to fall asleep in meetings like this? Lose your vision. Because you better hear me, you gossiper: it's impossible to gossip with vision. It's impossible to be complacent and have vision. It's impossible to be running around the church causing chaos when you have vision. When you have vision, you wake up in the morning and you say, "God showed me I'd save India, so I'm getting up today because I'm one step closer to India. God said my family would be saved, and I'm getting out of bed because I'm one step closer to my family getting saved." The vision—your vision—is what keeps you awake because God showed you something, and every day of your life it doesn't matter what devil comes your way because you have vision. The Bible says, "Where there's no vision, people perish." The word "vision" means where there's no revelation of God's nature or character, and because there's no revelation of the nature, the Holiness, the fear, and the reverence of God, we are losing our vision as leaders, and we're sleeping in the light where God is manifesting, where God is moving. We're numb to it; we're sleeping to it. We can't see the move of God because we've gotten complacent. We've lost what the call's really about. We thought it was about building big churches, but it's really about building big people. We thought it was about Mega Church Ministries, but really it's about Mega houses of prayer. We thought it was about selling sacrifices, but really it's about—see, we've lost the vision. Now the Bible says God came and said, "Samuel"—Samuel sleeping in the middle of the night, sleeping—and God said, "Samuel"—do you remember when God called your name when you were dead asleep, when you were depressed, when you were lost, when you were suicidal, when everybody walked out, and the devil had lulled you to sleep, like most of the church? Do you know the craziest thing you can ever experience is the God of the universe calling your name? Name—I can remember being at the altar January 12th, 2011, and I'm standing there going, "God, I don't effing believe in you"—oh, this is my testimony, so you can scratch a—
Little Pharisee cap, or whatever you want to do, but this is how this is how I got saved. I didn't get saved by repeating a cute little prayer after the pastor. A parrot or a Muslim could repeat a prayer. I don't know if you know that Muslims could repeat the prayer and still not be saved. And I was saying at the altar, saying, “God, I don't believe in you, but if you save me, I'll give you everything.” Not what I was saying was, “I'll pick up my cross and do the whole Bible thing.” I didn't know that. Say, “God, I’m sick of being sick. I’m sick of playing games. I’m sick of laying in bed crying myself to sleep because there’s no point of life. I’m sick of being depressed. I’m sick of having a job, a career, get straight A’s in college, grad graduate high school at 16, graduating college at 19, have a girl I’m about to marry, have money, have all this stuff and being empty.” On which is some of you tonight, and being empty on the inside. You know what I heard from heaven, like the voice of a trumpet? I heard Isaiah, Isaiah, Isaiah. “I have a plan for for your life. Have a call on your life. There are nations that you’re going to preach to.” Do you remember the moment? He goes, “Samuel,” and Samuel wakes up out of his apathy and slumber. And guess what the dead leader tells him? “Samuel, go back to sleep.” Wonder why there’s no Revival? Because we got too many leaders that don’t know how to raise sons and discipline their kids, and they’re telling young people, “Go back to bed.” Because God forbids, God forbid Samuel, you got more radical than I did. God forbid Samuel, you had more anointing than I had. God forbid Samuel, you know Eli was afraid of Samuel was about to replace him. And now Eli, because he has no vision, is telling the younger people, “Go back to bed.” The preaching doesn’t have—oh, you better hear me, you Pastor—the preaching doesn’t have to be that radical. The music doesn’t have to be rap. Why can’t we go back to the old school? Because we’re not 80, we’re 19, 20, and 21. And God’s saying, “I’m about to do a new new thing in the earth,” and we have to be ready and not be offended by the—I didn’t like rap either before I got saved—but God is saying, “I’m about to do something new.” Eli, stop telling Samuel to go back to bed. And you know this three times God calls Samuel, and Eli keeps telling him, “No, it’s not God. Don’t worry, you’re just excited, brother. Your fire’s going to die.” It’s not—that’s so demonic, it’s ridiculous. You’re—if you tell someone their fire’s going to die, you’re partnering with devils. You know how many leaders and people I—well, oh my gosh, it’s so cute, Isaiah, what you’re going through. It’s three years ago, I’m still burning harder than I’ve ever burned. Oh, that’s so cute. You guys throw out your Xboxes and your video games, and you throw out all your alcohol and your porn and music. Well, you should have just—you shouldn’t throw away the week, cuz I know in a month you’re going to want it back. Isaiah, that’s going to die, that whole Revival thing. I mean, no one could really be living in a Revival. I mean, it’s not practical to pray without ceasing. It’s not practical to carry a cross. It’s not practical to lay hands on the sick. It’s not—and we have leaders that are going—just—it’s okay, just call Eli. Eli, just go back to bed. Eli, just go back to bed. After all, it’s just God. I mean, it’s not like—it’s not like God called you or anything. It’s not like God—Eli, Eli wakes up, Samuel wakes up, and the third time he goes, “All right,” because Eli had so lost what God’s voice said sounded like, he was out of tune with God. He couldn’t tell that the voice that was calling him was actually God until three times. Can I ask you something? Are you hearing God’s voice today? Like, are we listening? God’s voice is a still small voice. It’s not a loud shout. I’ve heard the audible voice of God two times in three years. It’s not loud, it’s not crazy, it’s a small voice that governs you—better hear this—and guides your life. But I fear that so many Christians don’t hear his voice, and we’re like Samuel, we’re sleeping in the light. We have pastoral position, position. We have leadership, priest position, but we’re dead asleep. And when God’s speaking to people, we can’t even discern what God’s speaking. Like, when you’re at the grocery store, are you in tune with what God’s saying? When you’re at home and you decide to waste five hours on something stupid, could you hear the voice of God saying, “Go into the prayer closet, get in the word?” What do you remember when God used to speak to you and say, “Eli?” You know Eli was one of the best priests. He used to tell Eli, “I want to share something with you. Eli, open up your Bible. Eli, go into the temple. Eli, get behind the holy of holies.” But Eli had lost tune with God’s voice, and now the message comes to Samuel. And do you want to know what the message is? “I’m about to bring judgment on Eli and his whole family.” You know what Eli represents? God’s people. The message was this: He said, “All the threats I have made against America,” let me give it you in the layman’s terms, okay? I’m not going to go Hebraic and all this stuff. “All the threats I have made towards Israel,” God said, “Tell Eli, I’m going to carry carry out my threats. I’ve been telling I’ve been telling Israel if they don’t turn from their idols, I’m going to leave them. I’ve been telling Israel I’m going to fight against them if they don’t repent. I’ve been telling Israel that I’m rejecting their sacrifices. I’m not hearing their prayers.” And God said, “I’ve come to the point, I’m sick and tired of the blasphemy in the temple. I’m sick and tired of the blasphemy in the house of God. I’m sick and tired of it being a den of thieves instead of a House of Prayer.” So he goes, “Samuel, I am going to I’m going to I’m going to actually persecute Eli and his family.” And here’s what he says, this is the scariest part about the verse, keep reading right there. Here’s what it says, “And tell Eli,” this is Samuel hearing God now, this is not a message you want to preach, amen. You don’t want to preach this stuff, but if you God tells you to preach it, you’re going to preach it. Listen, he he tells he tells Eli, he says this, he says, “Not even his sacrifices will work.” In other words, America can sacrifice all they want, but we’re past that. We are past the point of saying, “God, we’ll sacrifice, we’ll do all these religious things,” unless God’s people humble themselves and pray and get on their face and turn from their wicked ways, there is no hope. And the Bible says Samuel tells Eli, “God’s about to judge your family.” You know, you want to know Eli’s problem? He didn’t have enough backbone to discipline his sons. Hophni and Phineas were running a muck in the church and a muck in the temple, and Eli was so apathetic and complacent, he didn’t want to chastise his his sons. He didn’t—in other words, a leader didn’t want to chastise his church. You know why? Because we’re afraid because you pay our bills. You want to know why why don’t why don’t people preach the truth? I say, “I don’t get it.” I get it because your pastor’s driving around a $100,000 car, and if and the 5,000 members in the church leave, guess what? He has to sell his car and live in a three-bedroom instead of a 10-bedroom. The reason why mega churches don’t preach the truth because they’re afraid of losing money. They’re afraid of losing members. But God is raising up a Remnant that is more afraid of losing in the ark, more afraid of losing his presence than losing a Bentley, more afraid of losing the glory than losing members. Now Israel, listen. Israel goes out to battle, Israel goes out to battle without the ark because we’re walking around trying to fight the devil with no presence. They lose lose tons of men. So here’s what they do. They say, “All right, our life is not going good. We’re not winning battles.” So the first battle they lose, the second battle they go, “Let’s grab the ark and let’s take that because surely this is all about us.” And the Ark was no longer about who was in it, it was about what it was. It became a religious relic. In other words, Christianity in Israel was what God could do for me, not what I can do for God. And we got to get this Ark, and it’s heavy and it’s uncomfortable. And if we have the ark, we can’t cuss anymore. And if we have the ark, we can’t mess around in church anymore. And if we have the ark, we can’t cheat around with our secretary. And if we have the ark, so let’s not bring the ark unless we have have to. Let’s not cry out for Revival unless we have to. Let’s not ask for the glory unless we really need it. And it became a form of godliness but denying the power thereof. The ark wasn’t holy, the temple and the nation of Israel no longer honored the presence of God. It was just this thing that they drug around. Whatever, we have to bring the ark again. Whatever Isaiah’s preaching on Revival, let’s do this. And because the people were in disobedience, they still lost the battle even though they had the ark. Can I tell you that Christianity in God’s presence does nothing for you if you’re in disobedience? It does nothing for you if you’re in disobedience. And you know the saddest chapter in the entire Bible is what I want to preach to you in 1 Samuel. It says that the Philistines captured the Ark of God. They lost the ark. Do you want to know why they lost the ark? Because they were casual with the presence. Israel, you know what I’m afraid of? I’m afraid that our dress, our casual dress is going to affect our attitude in the church. You better hear me, young people. I’m excited that we get to dress casual, and I’m excited we get to wear whatever we want. But do you know secular businesses right now are starting to make their workers dress formal again? And do you know why? Because they’ve done a study and they found out that whatever you wear it dictates your attitude. So when they’re in the workplace, all of a sudden now the owner says, “Okay, we don’t need to wear button-ups and slacks, you guys could wear jeans and whatever shoes and whatever you want,” and now the workers are coming to work 30 minutes late. This is secular. I’m telling you this is secular studies here. And now the workers are taking 15 minutes longer on lunch. Why? Because what they’re wearing is affecting how they’re living. And what’s happened in the church is we’ve gotten so casual about what we’re wearing, we become casual about what we’re doing, and we come into the church. And do you know the greatest way for us to lose God’s presence and what he’s doing is to get casual about what he’s doing? Tonight, you want to know—I know we’re getting casual because watch people during the altar call. The holy God of Israel is delivering drug addicts, healing cancer, delivering people that have been B for years, and you’re sitting there on your phone talking to your neighbor. You know, I W—I watched some of you last night, and I have—I have it grieves me to watch how some of you just talk and walk around like it’s no—like what God’s doing is no big deal. Like it’s just the ark, right? It’s like it’s just the presence. It’s not really a big deal if we mess around in church and if we text on our phones and we kind of just—there’s really there’s no reverence in the temple. And I fear that we’re going to lose God’s presence for good if we don’t get reverence. They not only lost the Ark by being casual, they lost the Ark by disobedience, because anyone here who used to have the presence that doesn’t is always a result of disobedience. If you’re in this room, listen, and one time you carry the presence of God, you carry the ark, then you know the worst thing is when you lose the presence. And some of you, you know what it’s like to lose the ark. You know what it’s like to not have God’s presence, and you know how to get it back. Find where you went wrong. You will—if you lose God’s Ark or God’s presence, the best way to get it back is to find the place where you started watching the movies. God said, “Don’t watch.” Find the place where you started getting on the websites. God said, “Don’t get on.” Find the place where you started flirting with people you shouldn’t have talked to. Do you remember the Church of Ephesus? He said, “You’re toiling and you’re working and you’re doing Ministry and you’re serving and you—oh, I’m—I have a hard time being patient,” and he said, “And you’re patient and you don’t endure and you’re not—you’re not taking in false Doctrine.” He says, “But one thing I have against you, you’ve walked away from your first love.” Here’s what he says, ready for this? He goes, “You’ve lost my presence.” He goes, “Find where you messed up and go back to that place.” Israel lost the ark, and they were casual about it because the ark became an accessory, not a necessity. And do you know that the presence of God in the church is something we add on to our services? Like, if God shows up, awesome, but if he doesn’t, oh well. And I’m sick of doing Church Without God. Can I tell you why Israel—now listen to this—the Philistines take the ark, take the presence of God out of the out of God’s people. And can I tell you why they didn’t want it back? Is really not that big of a deal because we—you want to—you ready for this?—because we’re still the children of Israel without the presence because we’re still Christians without miracles. Do you want to know why most of us get the ark but don’t know how to keep the ark and don’t know how to carry the ark? Because we’re okay with being Christians. We don’t care if demons aren’t coming out. We don’t care if the sick aren’t getting healed, and the world doesn’t know us by what we can do. Hear me, if you have ears tonight, it knows us by what we can’t do. So we’re perfectly fine not having God’s presence as long as we can still be called Christians. But I want the world to know us as Christians because we lay hands on the sick. I want the world to know we’re Christians cuz we cast out devils. I want us to be known by having the ark, not being known by a label. I’m sick and tired of it being about the name and not the life. See, we want to be called Christians, we just don’t want to be be Christians. We want to look right, we just don’t want to be right. And so Israel, it’s okay that you guys took the ark because we can still be Christians without the ark, and we can still be Christians without the presence. And can I tell you, I don’t understand why the Philistines took the ark because the ark does nothing for you unless you’ve made Covenant. There’s people all over this room that you love the presence of God because he gives you chill bumps down your spine, but you can be in Hell remembering the chill bumps you had in church because you never made Covenant with God. Because God’s covenant—I mean, God’s promise—presence does nothing without God’s covenant. Can I tell you the second reason why the Philistines wanted the ark? Because Philistines aren’t dumb. They know if they get the ark, God’s judgment is going to come upon them. You want to know why the Philistines want the arc for the most reasons why pastors want the ark? You ready for this? So we can point in other people’s fingers and say, “Look what we got.” The Philistines wanted to look at other nations and say, “We got your Ark. God’s moving in our church. Look what God’s doing. We’re better than you. We got the presence of God and you don’t.” Israel, we got the move of God and you don’t. And we want the ark back, and we want the presence back in the church. Listen, not because we want the sick to be healed, not because we want to disciple drug addicts, so that in the green room we can pass out business cards and say, “Oh yeah, there’s a move of God at my church. Oh yeah, I got 1,000 coming to my church.” We want the ark just the same reason the Philistines want the ark, so it’s could say, “Look what we have.” But the presence of the Ark is to change the—the presence of the Ark is to change lives. It’s not something you get to brag about. God is looking for young people that will empty out hospitals and not write a bestselling book after. You want to know what I believe most people we pray for don’t get healed? Because we’re not praying for them so they really get healed. We’re praying for them to have a good testimony on Friday night. We’re praying for them so Nino could give us the mic so we can say, “Oh yeah, I was at the grocery store,” make up a story that never even happened, “and I prayed for a person in a wheelchair and they got healed.” We didn’t heal them and pray for them because we wanted them healed, we did it because we want to say, “Look what I can do. Look who I am. Look at what I got.” And God is sick of it and makes God sick. Now the Bible says the—we’re going to end in in like about 10 minutes—the Philistines took the ark. Look how dumb they are. They took the ark and they put it in the temple of Dagon. Now here’s what I want you to really start paying attention for those you who haven’t been. They put it in the temple of Dagon. They took the ark and they stuck it next to another idol, like another trinket in their life. Like God’s just this other area, this little part-time other God. Like we worship alcohol and we worship drugs and we worship complacency and we worship religion, then we worship God on Sunday. Like, let’s just add him to all our other idols. Let’s just bring them into our carnal temple and our carnal homes and our carnal lives and let’s just see what happens. And the Bible says they stuck him next to Dagon. Now Dagon was a man-made God. Now I look—can I be honest? I look at the Bible and I’m going going, “Man, these guys were dumb.” Like, think about this, in Isaiah it says—it literally says in Isaiah—it says, “You get wood,” this is talking—this is God talking to Israel, just so you know. He says, “Israel, you get a piece of wood and you put it in the fire and you warm yourself, then you cook food over it, then you get the other piece of wood, the same piece of wood from the same bundle and you carve a god out out out of it and bow down to it.” And he goes, “The same God that you were driving to work you now worship.” Oh, you better hear me tonight. The same—the same you get every two weeks to pay your bills, you worship that check. He goes, “And you warm and then he says, ‘And you bow down before these false idols.’” You better get this Revelation and you cry out, “Deliver us.” Well, Isaiah describe to me what a false idol is. You ready? Biblically, a false idol is anything you ascribe the power to deliver you. Credit cards, false idol because you’re getting delivered from debt with him or delivered from your boredom. Video games, you know why those are an idol? Because they deliver you from boredom. Alcohol is an idol cuz it delivers you from depression. Drugs are an idol cuz it delivers you from worthlessness. All these different things we’re actually saying—you—you know why a lot of you girls want to get in a relationship to deliver you from your loneliness? Your boyfriend is your idol because you’re depending on him to deliver you from something that only God can deliver you from. A false idol is anything you give the power to deliver you. And they put the ark next to the idol. And the next morning, 1st Samuel chapter 5, watch what it says. The art—the—the idol fell over. Watch what this art—watch what this Idol was, okay? The idol was not only man-made, like we make money and worship it, we make cars and worship them, we do our hair then worship it, we do our makeup and worship—not only was it man-made, but I wish I had a picture of it. It’s okay, next time I come I’ll bring one or something. You can type in Dagon and find it on Google. This is a famous God that the Philistines worshiped. The idol from the—watch this—from the waist up was a man, okay, and from the waist down was a fish. The idol was like a picture, a male Mermaid statue. It was a male mermaid that he had a fish body and then he had a flesh body. And what it represents is Christians that are half in and half out. Watch this, watch this, watch this. The next day, the B—oh, this is so good—the next day, I love how God’s Ark is—I love what God’s presence does. The Bible says that the people came into the Temple of Dagon, and the idol was flat on its face. Because if you think you can bring your little idols to this altar, if you think you can bring your porn into the presence of God, if you think when you cross these lines tonight, whatever porn you walked in with, whatever addiction you walked in with, whatever depression you walked in with, whatever car you walked in with, whatever girlfriend—every idol has to bow when the present shows up. Your idols can’t stand in the glory. Your—this—this is the most dangerous place. You know, I figured out, Pastor Mike, why certain people don’t come forward, cuz they know their idol are going to have to bow if they come forward. I started wondering, God, why do certain people just sit back? And God said, “Because they know that their idols can’t stand my glory. And if they bring their idols forward tonight, they know their life’s going to change. So they’d rather sit back in comfort because they don’t want what they worship to fall over in God’s presence.” The idol falls. Think about this, the biggest Idol in the church I’ve come to find isn’t abortion, isn’t alcohol, isn’t drugs, isn’t pornography. You know what it is? It’s Christians that are half fish, half flesh, half in and half out. What is the fish? I’ll explain to you. It’s the IU. Now this is one of the—this—this is the second most popular Christian figure in the world, the first one being the cross. What they would do when they’d have house meetings in fear of persecution, the pastor would come to the house meeting and he’d draw half a fish. You guys know what I’m talking about? The IU. He’d draw half a fish, and then the other believers, if it was safe, would come and draw the other half of the fish. It represented Christianity in the in the known world. And so what this Idol represents is people that underneath the surface are Christian, but what people see at work—oh, you better hear this—what people see at school is the flesh. I’m half fish, half flesh. In other words, when I’m around my fish friends, I can act like a fish cuz I’m half fish. When I’m around my flesh friends, I can act like the flesh cuz I’m half flesh, anyways. See, I haven’t fully surrendered to God. I’m half in, I’m half out. And the idol fell because God hates people that are half in and half out. And your idol of self, an idol of complacency, won’t stand in his glory. You know what they did? What we do? Pick the idol back up after God knocked it down. Like, “God delivered me from drugs.” Can I tell you something, friend? When you really experience the Ark in the presence, you’ll never go back to church on Sunday and Wednesday. You’ll never go back to just going to church twice a week. When you—I wish somebody in here really experienced this thing—when you really get a hold of the power of God and the glory of God, it is physically, spiritually, and mentally impossible to go back to pizza parties, lockin, Wednesday night service, and Sunday morning. The part-time Christianity, half fish, half flesh, video game church, coffee shop Christians is over. When you experience the ark—the next day the ark had fallen—they pick up the ark again. And can I ask you something? Absurd how many times you gonna keep picking up what God keeps knocking over? You know what I hate, Pastor Mike? Every single week we lay down the same old thing and we’re dealing it with. You know why we have to keep sacrificing? Because we keep picking everything back up. God keeps knocking over. Give him my addiction, and then one month later I go back and bow down before it. Give him my depression, and then one month later I buy into the demonic devils that whisper to me at night and I fall back in it. And God says, “Stop picking up what I’m pulling down.” And the Bible says the second day they picked up the ark, now it actually broke. The arm broke off it and the head broke out. What is it? Picture it. It’s a picture. You know the B—Jesus said it—l listen to this—the idol was made out of stones. Jesus said, “If you don’t worship the rocks will worship.” Do you know the second the reason why the idol bowed? Because it was made of rock and because Israel wasn’t worshiping God. This is so good. Rock started worshiping God. The idol fell because the church wasn’t worshiping, so the idol said, “I got to worship.” And the Bible says his arms came off and his head. What is it saying? It’s a prophetic picture to Israel that I’m no longer hearing your prayers or receiving your worship because you’re serving idols. God was telling the nation, “I’m sick of your idols. Crush the idols tonight and get the ark back. Why are you half in and half—” You know a lot of you, your flesh on the part everyone could see, but you cover up the fish side because see, you go to the party and you grew up in church and you know what you’re doing is wrong, but you still have a little bit of Jesus down here where no one could see, just in case you die and you might actually make into heaven. So it’s God’s like this fire escape. Turn these lights down. We’re ending right here. Time is it? 9:05. Good job, Isaiah. Proud of you. I’m telling you right now, Canada, with seriousness in my my voice, if we don’t get the ark back, it’s over. And listen, one I want to say this last thing, if you don’t think we’ve lost the ark as a nation, then you’re dead asleep tonight. If you don’t believe that America has lost the Ark of God, then you don’t know what’s going on in the nation, and you’re just like Eli, sound asleep in the light. There’s people that were weeping—I could watch you while I was preaching—because you know the ark’s gone and you’re about to do something about it tonight. You know we’re doing tonight, we’re doing two things, two things God showed me we’re doing tonight that correlate with this message, actually we’re doing three, but it we’re—we’re really doing two. First one is this: You don’t hear the voice of God. You feel like, “Man, God’s voice is so far,” and there’s stuff separating me from God’s voice. That’s the first alter call. And the second call is this: I’m getting the ark back. The second call is, “I am getting the ark back. I’m tired of being like Dagon and being half in and half out. Tonight, Isaiah, I’m going all in for real. I’m not going to act like the world and when I’m around the world and act like the fish when I’m around the fish. I’m breaking this Idol in half and I’m going to be all fish tonight.” There are two calls tonight. I want the pre—I want the voice and The Arc back. I’m tired of not hearing God and I’m tired of not having his presence. And the second call is, “I’m crushing my idols forever.” Listen, listen, Pastor Mike, I want all the Awakening 64.
To hear me loud and clear tonight, Pastor Mike's leaving on vacation to hear from God this next week.
And you know my biggest fear last night, praying for you guys, was some of you won't be here when he gets back, because you're like, day gone, and you're not really all in. You're only in this thing because it's exciting, and the awakening's here. And you know what's going to happen when we leave? You leave too, because the excitement fades away, and you weren't really in it for God; you were in it for hype.
And you know what I'm telling you tonight? I'm saying, crush this thing for real. I'm saying, crush the idol for real. If that's you, you make your way to this altar. I'm not begging anybody tonight. If that's you, I need the ark back, and I need the voice back. I've lost the voice of God, and I need it back. You run to this altar. If that's you, say, "I've lost the voice; I've lost the ark, and I'm going to be a part of the people that get the ark back and get the voice back."
I'm not playing games. I need God to speak to me. I want to be like Samuel. I want to hear the voice of God. If you—if the voice—voice has been dim, you just cry out. I'm telling you, I feel the power tonight like I've never felt it these three nights. You tell God, "I need the voice back. I'm tired of not hearing you, God. Speak to me again."