Transcription
Thanks for joining us today on Apostolic Pentecostal Channel. We are here to provide new and classic sermons weekly. We have tried to remaster and restore these sermons. Thanks for joining us. Please like, comment, and subscribe. May Yah's blessings be with you.
I preach at this church quite a bit. My wife and I, with our two sons, we travel. We travel every week, and and we're always in a new church, always in a new location. And we come here. We've been coming here a while now, for several years, and we love Portland Pentecostals. And and uh, but what I see throughout my travels, whether it's in Oregon, Texas, New York, wherever. I've seen it in Bangladesh with Buddhist and Muslim people. I I've seen it in Africa with witch doctors standing at an altar. And I I've seen it in Hong Kong with and other places of Europe and the world. I've seen it in Australia. And uh, I've seen it in in in in everywhere you go, wherever there is human blood, I I find a few common denominators. And one of those being is this insecurity. Everybody say insecurity. This insecurity, to some degree. You may be the most confident person that that you know. You might be very confident. You know, Mr. Alpha Male, you know, and Mr. You know, whatever Big Shot, you know, I'm the big dog, you know, the big dog on campus. You you know, if you're the big dog, that means you got the most fleas.
[Laughter] [Applause]
Right? I just felt a witness right there. Something just connected right there. Somebody's already scratching. Don't scratch, you're gonna give it up. You're gonna blow your cover. Amen. And no matter how confident you are, to some degree, there will be a threat of insecurity at some place. And I really believe that that it is, it is sort of designed by God to reveal that insecurity. As we step into His realm of existence, it is impossible to come to God with our degrees, with our intellect, with our ability, with our knowledge. So I've done this here before, and I I want to make sure that this church is still an intellectual, intelligent church. So I've done this here before. Let's try this again. The first person that that that answers this is going to get a treat today. What's two plus two? Four. Four. I don't know. I don't know who said it. No, it wasn't you. I know it wasn't.
[Applause]
You was me. You see, the very instant I said two plus two, no, I didn't see anybody pull out their calculator. Get the oil, we're gonna anoint you with oil. You're gonna roll on the floor and T until Pentecost, as the Bible says, to figure out. Oh God, pray for me. You know, you didn't, you didn't have to call some your professor from college, your teacher in school. You didn't have to. The moment I said two plus two, just instantly, there is an understanding within your head. Now, I've tried this before, and I'll just say it was in Texas, 'cause that's my home. And uh, it was in Texas. So there'll probably be some stereotypical jokes. But I did do that before. And and the dude I was praying for, I was like, man, what's two plus two? And he, and he said four. And then I said, okay, what's three plus three? And he said seven. And I was like, and he was so confident that I had to think about it. And I was like, you know, like he said seven, I was like, it threw me off for a second, you know, he messed up my illustration. But the point of that is to say that the moment I say that, unless you're this one guy, uh, it wasn't me in Texas. But the moment you say two plus two, or one plus one, or how to spell cat, you know, the moment, the moment you say something simple like that, it's in your brain. You don't have to think about it. It's already there. It comes out of the file system, wherever it's filed in your brain, it comes out. Boom, there it is. Instantaneously. Do you know why that is? Because it's in that place of your brain called understanding. I understand it. I get it. I don't have to worry about it. I don't have to stress over. I know instantly it's four. I understand it.
But then when I ask a question that's just a little bit higher than two plus two, and the question would be, how does a God who is a spirit? The Bible says He is spirit, which means He's invisible. You can't see Him. You can't touch Him physically unless He manifests Himself that way to you. And by the way, He's bigger than the universe. And we can't even scratch the surface of our own galaxy, much less can we figure out the algorithm and equations and and the understanding of the outer realms of space. And yet, this God, whose spirit we can't see, is bigger than the universe we can't fathom, He wants to put His spirit inside of you. So I ask you the question, how? Here's the answer. I don't know. I told him this morning, I said, those words, they be very liberating. I don't know. Told him, you know, about my my dad's generation. You know, my dad and and I'll have a witness here today, I'm sure. And I'll have some dads feeling guilty. But I don't think I've ever heard my dad, he's 60 years old. I I'm pretty sure I've never heard him say those three words, I don't know. Because if if I asked him a question, if he didn't know, guess what he would do? He would make it up. He didn't know that there would someday come something called Google. And now I can just Google it. And there's many times today where I remember the response of my dad, and I've Googled it now, and I realized my dad didn't know what he was talking about. You know, yeah, you you know, you know it too.
And and and now my son, who's he's downstairs, and he'll turn five next next month. And you know, I I looked it up. See, those of you that were in the early service, I I was telling them, you know, kids, which you don't have to look this up. Kids ask a lot of questions. But there's people that have done studies on how many questions kids ask. And one study found that that four-year-olds ask around 200 to 300 questions per day. And I know my son is on the higher end. He's like the 99th percentile. Like it's probably 299 to 300 questions per day. Per day. You know, they said, what what's this? And what's that? And how does this do this? And then the dreaded question, why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? Why? And your head explodes. You know, it's like, oh my goodness. And and I'm just going to be honest with you. I know y'all love me and respect me and you think I'm real smart. I is smart. I promise. And and you you think I can do cool stuff. But I promise you, I don't know the answer to all 299 questions per day. Like maybe 297. But I don't know all 299 answers to every question per day. And so, you know, a lot of times, you know, my pride caused me to pull out my phone where he's not looking, and I just Google it real quick, and boom, there's the answer.
But see, he's, he's, he's figured something out. You know, he's almost five and he's figured some things out. And when I do say those three words, I don't know, he's not satisfied anymore by those three words, I don't know. And so he'll be sitting in the car, and I was telling this morning how he's infatuated by this thing called Spanish. He can't believe there's another language. He he just can't believe that there's another lang. The other thing he can't, he can't figure out. You know, he'll be on my iPad or something and playing a game. And I said, Dad, you used to play this game when you were my age. I said, no, I didn't. Well, why not? 'Cause they didn't have iPads when I was your age. You know, like, what are you talking about? They didn't have iPads. Well, what did you do? You know, with all your time? And uh, he just can't figure it out. You know, and so he's asking all these questions. And he's asking about Spanish. He's infatuating. And what's funny about him right now is that he's, he just, he's convinced that if he doesn't understand a word or a phrase, it must be Spanish. You know, we we were we were at one church service in South Dakota where this church had a a great congregation of Jamaican people that they would leave part of the worship service, and they were singing in their Creole, you know, and he said, wow, they know Spanish. That's cool. You know. And another day, I was another day I was teaching him, uh, during, we do devotion in the morning together, and I was going down this scripture, and the subtitle was inner Purity. He didn't know, he never heard of inner Purity. And he said, wow, must be Spanish. That's cool. Spanish is in the Bible. You know, he'll sit in his car seat and while he's driving, everything he sees, he says, Dad, how do you say that in Spanish? How do you say this in Spanish? How do you say that Spanish? You know, and he's not satisfied with I don't know, because he knows I can get the answer pretty quick. And so when I say I don't know, he says, ask Siri. So it gets so frustrating because sometimes I just wish he would, you know, just just be satisfied. Well, I don't know. I'm going to learn some of them curse words in Spanish before long, you know, like, shut up. Oh, man. So no, okay, my brain's going to some weird places right now about pinatas and other stuff. Anyways, and gotta be careful. And uh, anyways, I'll say, I don't know. And he'll say, ask Siri. So I'm like, I want, if I say it out loud over the microphone, everybody's phone's going to go off, right? But you know, when I say the two words to activate Siri, right? I say, Hey, hey Siri, right? And then she's like, how can I help you? And I was like, how do you say this in Spanish? And he's like, you say, you say hospital. You know, it's like, wow, it's the same phrase. Hospital is Hospital. Amazing. You know, wow, mind blown. He's like, they stole our language. It's [Applause] funny.
He's not satisfied. But but you know, I I figured this out though. I have figured this out that it is liberating to say, I don't know. And I have the stress of having to make something up and hoping he don't figure out the truth later. And it's liberating when you can come to God that I can't put in a box with two plus two, my understanding. Ephesians 3:20 says, unto Him, Jesus, who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all you can ask or think, according to the power that works within us. That power that works in you is the ability. Let me just say it like this, the power that works in you begins when you can confess, I don't know. But there's people, and I I talked to one today, in fact, there's people that think they know. And a lot of times I think I know too, if I can just be honest. Let's let's just all get it get it straight. We we all think we want to know. But there are some things we don't know. And in order to experience God, it begins at your confession of, I don't know how this is going to happen. I don't care what scientists, what astrophysicist say. I and I love studying some of that stuff, you know. I had to, I think I told y'all here last time, I was trying to read this guy's book who wrote this, it's called Astrophysics in a Hurry or something like that. And it's supposed to be like the layman's terms for astrophysics. And I got it in the, not the hospital, in the airport. And I'm reading it, and I'm like, nope, still don't understand it. And then I looked, and now he came out with one, I I don't remember the exact title, but it's like Astrophysics in a Hurry for Kids. I'm like, I'll try that. I'm like, no, still don't know, still still don't get it. But I do love to look into these things that I love because I believe God has given certain people that that desire and and that intellect to look into some of the things so that we can discover more of Him. I believe why God gave man and and woman, I mean, man, humanity, the ability to invent a Hubble Space Telescope so that we can see how big God is. And people always say, well, don't belittle my problems. What are you talking about? Don't belittle my problems. That's the number one thing we should be doing right now is saying, your problems aren't as big as you really think they are. When you take a gander, when you take a look, the Bible says, I will lift my eyes unto the hills from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord. H. When I take one look at the creation of God, the existence of God, I get excited because my problems get smaller and smaller when I realize that God is bigger and bigger. He's greater than my problems. Uh, He's stronger than my weakness. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Can you give me a little more volume on the platform? Amen. Once they start going crazy, I can't hear anything. But it's liberating to say, I God, I don't know how this is going to work out. So I'm going to do something I like to call from the Bible, a step of faith. I didn't coin that term, that's in the Bible. We don't walk by sight, we walk by faith. But our problem is, is we live by sight. We live by what we know, the five senses. We see, we smell, we taste, we hear, we touch. We are determined and defined by the measurements of our life, whether it be size or age, whe we don't get into some of those numbers today. Amen. We won't get into size, weight, age, we just leave that under the blood. Amen. I'll tell you, I'm 5'9" on a good day and 100, none of your business, pounds. Amen. Amen.
We were looking at pictures just last night with with my wife's family who lives in Beaverton, and we were looking because we spent most of the shutdown time that we had here. And we were looking at the pictures of that year, and we were all saying, whoa, it was a COVID-19 add-on, you know, COVID-19 pounds. We all, it was at least 19 pounds, you know, we were all looking a little bit heftier, you know, that year. And and that's just how it went. It was it was good though, who had a lot of good food and stuff. But but we're determined by this. We're we're confined by these measurements. But God doesn't work within your measurements. God works outside of those things. And so when we come to God, we have to have the willingness to say, God, I'm not going to worry about the how and the what and the why right now. See, the Bible does say, I want to be very clear, to get wisdom. Yeah, it says, with all you're getting, get understanding. That means understanding is something you get over a course of time. He, I, uh, Solomon is talking about the the life of living with God, that that when you're living with God, that you need to get understanding. But you can't experience God through a step of understanding. You may remember one time, I, it was years ago, I probably told this, this happened several years ago, probably about six years ago now or so, maybe seven. And and we went to Vienna, Austria, to preach a revival over there. And and Brother Robinette, who was pastoring there at the time, he he told me upon our arrival, he said, hey, we're going to have some additional services because we're having this crazy revival of this m of these Muslim people. He said, there's over 100,000 Iranian Muslim refugees that have been moved to our city in the last 12 months. He said, there's just so happens to be an Iranian Muslim man in our church who's now pursuing the ministry, filled with the Holy Ghost, baptized in Jesus name. And he's going out to the refugee camp inviting people to come to church on Saturday. He said, so you're going to preach to them on Saturday. I'm like, well, you didn't tell me that. You know, and I think, okay. And so they got about 60 of these refugee people from the refugee camp, these Iranian Muslim people. They got about 60 of them to uh, commit to come. And they got them that Saturday morning. We paid ourselves for their their train tickets, the city train to get the. And by the time they had to train, this is a true story, they had to change trains so many times that by the time they got there, there was only 27 left. Yeah, we're still looking for the other ones. If you see any of them wandering around. Like, no, I'm kidding. Uh, so we had 27 of them show up. We're like, what happened to the other 33 of them or whatever it was, you know? He's like, I don't know. We they got they got lost on the train somehow, you know? Like, okay, praise God. They come in, they speak Farsi, right? Right. I don't speak Farsi. Okay. And I I speak five words of Spanish, and that that's it. And and I don't speak Farsi. And then we've got all these Austrian people that they speak German and maybe French or a little bit, you know, a little English or whatever. And we're thinking, what are we do? You know, we do what any dumb American does, right? Hi, how you doing? And they just look at me like, and then you say, Hi, how are you doing? We all do that. My wife has to punch me and say, they're not deaf, they they can hear you, they don't speak your language. Sorry, my bad, sorry.
And so Pastor Robinette, he told us, he said, look, he said, we don't, we're not going to speak their language when they come in, you know. He said, so don't don't try. You know, and I I still made the mistake. Hi, welcome, praise God. You know. And he said, the language we're going to speak is the love of Christ. He said, that's what we're going to speak. They're going to feel something they never felt before. And when we sing, they're not going to know the words to our songs. He said, but we're going to, we're going to show them the love of God, the power of God. He said, when we begin to worship, he said, y'all better not hold back. He told us, because this church, they go crazy. Their altar space isn't much bigger than this, and they got about the same number of people. And when they start worshiping every Sunday morning, it's like the whole, the whole church turns into an Apostolic Holy Ghost mosh pit. I mean, and everybody's jumping around and spinning, and they start doing these like conga lines and stuff. I mean, it's crazy. And so while that's going on, all these first-time visitor Iranian Muslim speaking people, they're sitting there just like this, like, and so I like to say, I don't speak Farsi, but I do speak first-time visitor. And I know what they were saying to each other. He, you think we can get out of here? Because we told them, and I'm just going to tell you how we are, you know, that's just, but we told them we're going to feed you when you come. So they came. We said, we're going to feed you. Now, we didn't lie. We did feed them after church. They didn't know they were coming to have a church service. So they're sitting there saying, where's the food? They said they were going to feed us. What's going on? And they're sitting there just amazed. And then they started pointing and laughing. That I understand. I point laugh at some of you. Like, man, this is crazy. What is going on? This is awesome. And then something started getting on them. Something started moving on them. And by the third song, they started filing out of their pews. And they didn't even know the words we're saying. Next thing you know, they're up there crying, and they're worshiping, and they're dancing. Let me just pause and give a little warning to you. Be careful to laugh and make fun and point and criticize, 'cause if you stay long enough, what's on me and us is going to get on you. And before you know it, your foot's going to start tapping, your hands going to start raising, you're going to be doing stuff you never done before. Oh, you're going to say, I haven't danced like that since I was in college. Well, let me say it like this, uh, if you dance like that for the world, uh, you better look out, because God's going to cause you to dance in the presence of the Lord more than you ever danced for this world. You can be seated. I know some of you, I went to college, I played baseball in college, and we'd go out to the bars when I was living for the world and living like a fool. And I I know there was a few guys that they weren't going to dance, you know, they're they're macho, you know, they're they're whatever, and they don't dance. You get a few drinks in them, and they start feeling drunk, and next thing you know, they're the ones in the center of attention. That's what happens in church. Uh, you get filled with the Holy Ghost, you get drunk of the Holy Ghost. And when you said, I ain't going to go down there, next thing you know, uh, you're down right front and center, moving and shaking and shouting and dancing for [Applause] God. You know why they dance after they get drunk? Because they feel better. They say, man, my knee was hurting from practice today, but after a few drinks, it don't feel, I don't feel pain no more. And then they say, man, I was stressed out about that test and my girl breaking up with me. After a few drinks, I done forgot about all that. I feel loose, I feel good. That's what happens when you start drinking the spirit of God. You start saying, I feel better. I feel something happening. There's something on the inside that's working. You start saying, I used to be living in sin. I used to be lost. I used to be broken. But I feel better now. Somebody just clap your hands for a moment and lift up a great shout unto [Applause] God.
Hallelujah. And I remember, I go up to preach. You've heard some of this. Heard some of you heard the story. And I go up to preach, and I got the, the dude that used to be our, an Iranian Muslim guy, he's now in the church pursuing ministry. He's my interpreter. And we discover he's never been on the platform, never held a microphone, and he hardly speaks English. And it's a big problem when your interpreter doesn't speak your language. And he's up there, and he can't get it together. And I'm about to teach them on the gift of the Holy Ghost, and he can't even say, he can't even say, God bless you, everyone. He can't say anything hardly in English. And I just turned off my iPad. And me, my dumb brain said, God, it's too bad I can't explain it to everyone because now they can't get it. The Lord spoke to me and said, nobody receives a miracle through a step of understanding. They receive a miracle through a step of faith. Read every story in the Bible. There's nobody that sat down with a professor, a mathematician, a scientist, and said, now let's work this out with my Rubik's Cube here. Let's work this out with this little puzzle and this graph and this chart. Oh, I see. Miracle. Oh, there. Okay. And then they handed their report in to Jesus. And Jesus said, yep, you passed the test. Now you can have a. No, no, no, no, no. You see, there was people like a lady who had a disease in her blood for 12 years. And the Bible said she went to every doctor. And after going to the doctors, it only got worse. And when she heard that Jesus was coming by, the Bible says she said to herself, if I can just go to Him and touch Him, then I'm going to be healed. I'm going to be. There was no equation. There was no algorithm. There was nothing that made sense. But she made up in her mind, if I can just get to Jesus, H, something about being with Jesus, uh, something about getting around Jesus, something about touching Jesus, I'm going to be all right. Let me tell you about this time. And there was another lady, the Bible calls her the Syrophoenician woman. She was not a Jewish person, she was a Gentile like us. And before before Jesus died for the Gentile people, Gentile people were not allowed to approach Him. And that's who she was. But the Bible says her daughter was so grievously possessed by a devil that she didn't care about protocol. She didn't care about what time, what dispensation, what era, what season it was. She didn't care about the logistics. She didn't care that there was no algorithm or equation to make sense for her. She went to Jesus. And Jesus called her a dog. He said, I can't give my power, my bread to a dog. It's only for the Jews. And the Bible says the disciples tried to cast her out, tried to get her, get rid of her, but she wouldn't leave. Dogs never leave. Dogs never. You don't, you ain't hear me right now. Come on. That's right. See, you know what I like about dogs? Sorry, I'm a dog guy. And we don't have a dog. And the other day we took, okay, we took Levi to a little dog shop, you know, in an outlet mall. And you can go in and play with the doggies. He said, okay, Dad, which one we getting? But we live on airplanes and in hotels. And I said, oh boy, we we can't, we can't get one today. I mean, we had to video him. He just, just started crying. So the couple days later, he's he's telling me, he said, Dad, why don't you want a dog? I said, boy, I want a dog more than you want a dog. Then why don't we have one? I said, because we live on airplanes and in hotels. And he said, yeah, but every, he said, every time we get on a plane, there's someone there with a dog in their little cage and their little. And I was like, yeah, because, oh shoot. And and and I was like, hey, hey Siri, what do I say to my son? You know, hey Google, what do I say? And I got it, you know, I thought, well, the ones that travel on planes with dogs, they don't travel every day on a plane. They're just traveling one time, you know, maybe they're moving to somewhere. Hopefully that's the truth, you know. And I was kind of my dad's mantle got on me there, you know. And I didn't want to say, I don't know.
[Laughter]
This Syrophoenician. Let me get back to the spirit here. Jesus says, I can't give my bread to a dog. Dogs never just leave. But I do love what I was going to say is I love about dogs is you can go get out, go out to the mailbox, leave the dog inside, you're going 38 seconds to get the mail, and you come back in and just, you get tackled by [Applause] Fido. And then he pees on you, and he's so [Applause] excited. Here's the problem with cats. Sorry. Cats, you can leave for 10 [Laughter] years and you come back and you walk in, you say, Whiskers, Whiskers. And you can't even find her. And then you find her, and you go to pet her, and she says, E. You got to earn my respect. E. [Applause] Man, that's what was powerful about this woman. Jesus called her a dog. And said, she said, you're right, I am a dog. She said, and dogs don't give up that easily. Dogs don't leave that easily. When dogs want something, they're going to fight for it. And my daughter's possessed by a devil. So the Bible says she worshiped Him and said, Jesus, Thou Son of David, Jesus, have mercy on my daughter, heal [Applause] my. I wish there were some Apostolic Holy Ghost filled dogs in the house that would say, Jesus, I'm desperate. It doesn't make sense, but I'm hungry. I can't explain it, but I want it. I've got to have it. I want the gift. Uh, I want the power. I want everything that you've got. I'm not worried about what I look like. I'm not worried about people making fun of me. Jesus. I think we ought to just pause for a second, lift up our hands in this place. Somebody lift up your voice. [Applause] Woo.
Let me tell you, let me tell you, those Muslim people were down, were they back in their seat? And God said, they they don't receive a miracle through a step of understanding. They receive it by faith. I'm thinking, well, how, how in the world can I get them to take a step of faith when they don't know Jesus? They're a Muslim refugee, living as a foreigner, estranged from their families. Reminds me of the scripture in Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 11. Can I read just a verse to you real quick? Two people. Okay, y'all listen. The two people, the rest of you, you're dismissed. But I'm preaching to the two people that might be hungry for this word. Is there anybody else that's hungry for a word? In Ephesians 2, and actually, uh, okay, let's read verse 11 real quick. It says, it says, wherefore, remember, everybody say remember. There's times we got to sit down and remember where we came from and who we used to be. And if it had not been for Jesus, I wouldn't be here. There's times we need to sit down and remember, uh, that I used to be messed up. I used to be lost. I used to be confused. But the light showed up. Remember that. Being in time past, that time you were a Gentile in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands. Verse 12, that at that time, everybody say then. Everybody shout, then. He says, at that time, then you were without Christ. Anybody remember that day? You didn't have Christ. He says, being aliens from the Commonwealth, that word means family or the community. You were an alien from the family of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope. Not little hope, not some hope, not just Sunday hope. No hope. Remember that day? You had no hope. Some of you are sitting here feeling like you ain't got no hope right now. But that ain't true. If you're here, there's hope. And the Bible says, at that time, you had no hope. That was then, but this is. You missed it. That was then, but this is. It says, you had no hope and without God in the world. Next verse. But now, everybody shout, now. Now in Christ Jesus. Notice it doesn't say, now that you understand all the words of the Bible. Now that you can quote Genesis to Revelation. Now that you can understand and rightly divide everything and understand the Godhead and understand the eschatological nonsense of what's going to happen in the last days. Now that you can understand all these things that you can't even spell. Now that you know how to pronounce all these names and they began so and so, and they began so. No, no, no, no, no. But now that you're in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes you were afar off, are made nigh, close, near by the blood of Christ. Not by your understanding, not by your intellect, not by your personal anointing and how good you sing and which notes you can hit. No, you were made [Music] near by the blood of Christ.
Ephesians chapter 1. Go back at chapter. Ephesians chap chap 1. Look at this real quick. Verse 13. It says, in whom, talking about Jesus, you also trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In whom also after that you believe. Let me stop right there and say, this is where a lot of people stop. You hear about Jesus, you may experience Him to some degree. You hear the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. But then you're sent home with no open door and opportunity to connect with Him. But here it says, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. I said it last Sunday, and some of you weren't here, but my wife and I were. We were privileged to go visit this massive church of 30,000 people. We were just visiting, and we wanted to see what do they have going. It was amazing. They had, I mean, so many awesome stuff. They missed one thing, and that was this part right here, where you can connect to what you feel. I'm telling you, we felt God. We heard the word of truth. We heard the gospel of our salvation. But then they said, God bless you, see you next week. It was like, what? What? Wait, I want that. They had an unbelievable worship team, just going crazy, and the pastor preaching an awesome word. I'm like, what? What? You're, you're the ones on the platform are the only ones that get to. I want it. I'm like, in the back, I want it. Now, you can't say that at a football game or a basketball game, you know. You imagine, imagine someone scoring a touchdown, and then they pour the Gatorade on the coach, and they're lifting the trophy, and you're up in the nosebleeds saying, hey, you didn't pay anything to be here. I paid $3,200 for this seat. My nose is bleeding, and the nosebleeds, you got paid to be here. I deserve a mother. I want that trophy. You, you could, oh, okay. Come on, run down. Hey, guys, we got to stop the celebration and the party, and we got to stop all the Joe Blow up there. He wants to come down from the nosebleeds, and he thinks he gets to have what we have. See, that's, that's in that world. But in this world, whether you're sitting in the nosebleeds in the back or the front row, when the end of the ball game happens, and we're dumping the Gatorade, and we're lifting the trophy, you don't have to stay in the seats. You can run down to the front and say, let me get a taste of that trophy because I used to be lost too. Uh, I want to feel the presence of God. Uh, I want to be sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. I got to hurry.
So those Muslim people, they came down to the front. They wanted to be sealed with the Holy Spirit of Promise. Sealed. I like to say, Ass, Sealed, and Delivered. Yes. Only hear old people saying amen. Y'all must not know that song. Sign, Sealed, and Delivered, I'm Yours. Come on. See, anything God seals, the devil can't steal. He seals you. He licks the envelope, seals you with a stamp of His blood and His name. Some of us are walking the tightrope of this life because we haven't yet been sealed. We've experienced, we have felt, we've heard, but we walk the tightrope trying to do it ourselves in the flesh. Man, that was a good word. Oh, no, no, I can't look at that because he was talking about, I got, I got to cover my eyes. Oh, man, he was talking about, he was talking about grace for others. Oh, man, I got to. You can't do it on your own. That's why when you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, you're not walking a tightrope anymore. You're walking with God in the nail-scarred hands of His sacrifice for you. And when you fall, when you fall, not if you fall, when you fall, because you've been sealed by the Holy Spirit, God has enough grace to say, uh-uh, you're my child now. I'll let you fall, but I ain't going to let you die. I'll let you fall, but I'm not going to let you be defeated. And all you have to do is get back up and repent and come back to me, sealed by the Holy Spirit. We had those Muslim people come, and and I, I didn't have, how do I translate all the stuff that we do? You know, we're going to lift our hands, and we're going to. But you see, when God's ready to move, and people are hungry for God to move, you don't have to have all the ingredients of instructions. They just began to move towards God. And in that service, we had over 15 of those Muslim people receive the gift of the Holy Ghost when I wasn't even able to preach to them and teach them. And they go back. You've heard some of you heard this. They go back that night. That was Saturday, remember? They got their their food. We we fed them, you know. And they went back to their refugee camp. And when they got back, we were out to eat, me and the pastor and my wife and his wife. And he got a phone call from the the interpreter that helped me. And he told Brother Robinette, he said, we just got back to the refugee camp. He said, and we had two spies that came out, radical Islamic spies that came out and beat them down to a bloody pulp because they received Jesus. They gave their lives to Jesus. He said, put a, they put a bat in my face and said, if you come back here, we will kill you and anyone that wants to go with you. Well, we went back the next morning. We don't know what happened. Those two guys weren't standing there waiting for us. We went back the next morning, and to our astonishment, I started that Acts 10:45, and they were astonished that even on the Gentiles, the Holy Spirit was given. And I was astonished to witness with my own eyes that there was not just, not just a few people that wanted to go. There was like nearly 60 Muslim people that came with us that day. And not only that, but the ones that had been beaten to a bloody pulp the night before were the ones who had been evangelizing and telling people, I got something last night that you got to get. I got the gift, and you got to go with me. They had been telling people about it. And they came the next day, and we had another 30 or so Muslim people filled with the Holy Ghost. And long story short, you want a long story short, in the next 18 months, that one one church church saw over 200 of those refugees from Iran filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost, baptized in Jesus name. Isn't that a cute story? No, it's more than just a cute story. It's a testimony of what God can and will and wants to do. He can do it now. He will do it now. He'll do it through you. He'll do it today. God has purchased a gift for your salvation. Uh, I think you ought to give God a standing ovation. Uh, why don't you stand to your feet right now and clap your hands and give God a great shout of [Applause] Praise?
Remain standing for just a moment. We're going to, we're going to give you an opportunity right now. Everybody in this room is not safe. If you're in this room, you are not safe. This is the dangerous place. This is like, this is like that, I keep talking about my son, you know, he, we were at SeaWorld one time. He wanted to ride that log ride, that water ride, you know. We got up there, and he's about yay too short, you know, and he's like, all crying, oh man, I'm too short, you know, to ride the ride. And I was like, get used to it, son. And, uh, he's so upset he can't ride the ride. We were in Orlando, Florida, preaching out there, and he couldn't ride the ride. I said, well, come over here with me. There's a bridge over here I want you to walk over right here. And we, from this bridge, anybody know what I'm talking about? I said, from this bridge, you you can watch the ride. So he's holding on to those rails. I said, look, look, it's going up, it's going around, look, look, look here. It it it's about to come down. Look what you just standing right there. Just next thing you know, he's drowning, you know, just that thing comes down in a tidal wave, just engulfs him. Just there's people here that you have felt like you don't measure up. I I don't know if I'm good enough, if I'm worthy enough. You don't know what I've been through. You don't know what I smoked this morning. You don't know what I drank this morning. You don't know what I looked at this morning. You don't know what I said. You're right, I don't know. Did you know that in that passage of scripture in Acts chapter 10, do you know one of the most powerful words in the whole Bible is found in Acts 10? I forget somewhere in the 30s. And Jesus or or Peter says concerning God, concerning Jesus, he says, I finally see that God is no respecter of persons. Can I say it my own Chris Green, green way? Did you know you serve a God who don't care? Oh, He's a caring God. Well, there's something He don't care about. See, He doesn't care as much about where you're coming from as much as where you are now. Oh, He's no respecter of persons. He's not going to look at you and say, oh, sorry, you're, you're from the wrong nation, you're the wrong this, the wrong that, you don't have enough money. No, no, no. In fact, God looks for the lowly. He looks for the broken. Says, oh, you're the one that's addicted. You're the one that's lost. Uh, you're the one I'm about to send a tidal wave. Uh, [Applause]
Let me tell you, I'm not going to stretch this thing too far, but I will tell you this. There's a bridge that you can walk over today, and that bridge was paved on the cross. Because a bridge is to bring people from where they used to be to where they want to be. The cross. Jesus said, you're over there in sin, and you can't get over here. Watch this. Walk upon this bridge. And if you walk upon this bridge, you will experience the outpouring of God's spirit, the gift of the Holy Ghost, unlike you have ever experienced in your life. How many of you in this service right here have already experienced this gift with the evidence of speaking in other tongues, just like the Bible says? You've already had it. You, you, now keep your hand up. Keep your hand up. If it gets tired, just switch hands. You've already experienced this. You've already had this experience. Uh, there's some people here that never had it until just last Sunday. They experienced it for the right here. Here's one right here. They had never had it before, but standing right in this shulter, they began to worship God, and boom, God poured out His Spirit upon them. And we know it because there was a tangible sign and evidence. The Bible calls it the initial sign of speaking in other tongues. And that's going to happen to you today. Amen. Hold on. Hands up for a second. The ones that have already received it. Just the ones that have already received it. And now, if your hand is down, I want to be the first to it because I, I spent all this time preaching my guts out for you. And so I want to be the first one. There's three people right here. I want to be the one to invite you. Three. And anyone else that's hand is down, and would you come stand with me right here? I'm gonna be the first one. You just come stand right beside me. Hand, hand uppers. Hey, those that are hands up, I want you to, if you see someone, see someone, invite them to come stand with me right here. Just line up shoulder to shoulder right here. Come on, come on. Let's do it right here. Hallelujah. Come on, brother. What's your name? Hallelujah. Look at all these. Come on. Hey, where's the hand uppers? Raise your hand. Do you see anybody near you? Anybody around you? People in this in the in the live stream room, we're doing this for you. People that are watching. What do you all call that? The Simon Cast room, something like that. If you're over there in that room, uh, and you've never received the Holy Spirit of God, I want you to come into the main sanctuary right now. Wherever you are, I want you to come into the main sanctuary, and I want you to let us pray for you today in Jesus name. Pastor, Pastor.
While we're coming to the front, I want leaders, men and women alike, people that have been filled with the Holy Ghost, you know who you are. I want you to come stand on this step, right up here on this platform, quickly, quickly, as quickly as you can.
Now, is this everybody? But we got leaders still coming. There's one here, she had her hand up. Yep. So let's count real quick. I'm going to count the men first. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. At least eight or so men. That's how many men we need up here. Our women, we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Is that eight and nine? All right, women always outdo the guys somehow. We got nine women up here, maybe more. At least nine. I need at least nine.
If you're in the simocast room, if you're in the live stream room, and you're a leader, and that doesn't mean licensed minister, staff member, it just means you know that you walk with God, filled with the Holy Ghost, I want you to come as quickly as you can. Amen. Amen. Amen.
So, what we have about somewhere around 17, maybe 18 or so people that are about to receive the Holy Ghost for the first time. Now, this is what's going to happen. The rest of you, you're not dismissed yet, because God's here for everyone. And I didn't, I didn't feel to go in this direction in the second service because I knew, I knew what I felt in my spirit that there's a great harvest to be seen here today.
But remember, I started my sermon two hours ago, and I told you there's two points of emphasis in the, in the spirit of the Lord today. Number one, for you to receive the Holy Spirit, right? And number two, for you to be used by the Holy Spirit.
Did you know that Jesus said, "Unless you become like one of these children, you cannot come into my kingdom"? Did you know that? Everybody say, children. Children. "Unless you become like one of these children," he goes on and says, "these children," and I'm paraphrasing, he says, "if you become like one of these children, then you will be the greatest in My Kingdom."
First of all, when children come to receive a gift, which I said in the morning service, they may grow up to have a different love language, quality time, words of affirmation, or acts of service. But when you're born, everybody loves gifts. When you're a child, that's your first love language, isn't it? How many of you have kids that love to receive a gift?
Now look, when a kid gets a gift, it's like their brain shuts off. They couldn't care less who's around. They couldn't care less if their future wife is standing next next to them and they're about to embarrass them. They couldn't care less if they blow their cover, they mess up their pride and dignity and reputation, right? They don't care. They want what's in that box more than anything.
In that same way, we must come to our Heavenly Father saying, "God, I don't care about what anybody says about me today. I care about what You say." And God, I'm going to just reach for You with every, I'm going to open this gift with such a tenacious passion. I want what's in this gift for me, the gift of the Holy Spirit.
But secondly, here's what, here's it, here, here's what God gave me for you today. Those that have already received the Holy Spirit, and those of you that are about to receive it. The second thing, my son especially loves to do is to be, after he's opened all his gifts, of course, and you know, we ask him, "What, what's the, what's the reason for the season of Christmas?" He's like, "Jesus." "Now, where's my gifts?" You know? And he opens all his gifts, and then he says, "Hey Dad, can I carry Mom's gift to her?" He wants to be the one to bring the gift to the next person. You know, you know, they, they want to take some credit for it, and they want to enjoy you opening.
And then you know what the kids do, right? They bring the gift to you, and it's your gift, and then they just go crazy and start helping you open it, right? That's what these people here that are standing with their backs to me, they're like that second child. The second emphasis of that, that child that I've already received this gift for me, and I've been praying for for you, I've been fasting that God would help me bring someone this gift that I've received.
How many of you in this service, in your seat today, you would like to be like that child of God that says, "God, I've received the gift You have for me, but I want to please You, and I want to bring this gift to someone else"? If that's you in this audience, would you raise a hand real quick? I want to be like that child, like faith, that says, "God, it's not just about me. I want to bring the gift to someone else." Give me five. You're about to receive the Holy Ghost.
Now listen, this is what we're going to do. Portland Pentecostals, those of you, you can put your hands down. You know what we're going to do? So just stay with me for 30 seconds. When I tell you to, we're going to do five very specific, very simple things.
The first thing we're going to do is repent. Everybody say, repent. Repent. That simply means to turn from your sins and go in the other direction. They say, I've heard someone say that the speed of the speed of God's forgiveness and grace has been clocked at the speed of confession. At the moment, in fact, Psalm 86:5 says, "God is ready to forgive." He's ready. So you're not going to go down the laundry list of the last 38 years. We're not going to physically turn, but spiritually, this is all you're going to do right here.
"God, I'm turning from that to You." Which means, I confess, I am a sinner. And everybody in this room is, I'm a sinner, and that can only be saved by Your grace. In fact, I just feel that we need to do it right now. I feel a heaviness. I'll go through the other steps in a moment, but right now, what I want you to do, and altar workers, I don't want you to lay hands on anyone yet, but I want us to close our eyes, and I want you to open your mouth, and I want you to speak those words of repentance.
If you're not sure what to say, listen to someone near you, or listen to me and pray with me. "God, I am a sinner. I confess my failure to You. Lord, create in me a clean heart. Renew within me a right spirit. Uh, I turn my life to You. Uh, I give my life to You. Uh, God, I'm full of sin and failure. So God, forgive me of my sin. Wash me clean. That You can fill me up with Your Spirit today. I want to be baptized with Your Spirit. I want to be filled with Your Spirit." Would you pray that prayer right now?
That's so good. That's so good. Come on. That's so good. Oh, yes. What a prayer. What a, what a prayer and a movement towards God. God.
Now, just real quick, I want everybody just to say, "Thank You Jesus." Thank You Jesus. Thank You Jesus. Now I want everybody to shout this to me. Everybody shout, "I'm ready." I'm ready. Shout, "I'm ready." I'm ready. Everything that would have stopped you from receiving something from God is out of the way. You've just repented towards God. No, nothing can stop you from receiving the gift.
So I want everybody to just look at me for the next few seconds. I want to show you this in just a moment. When I tell you to, everyone in this room, come here, brother Eli, and you just demonstrate. Everybody in this room is going to lift up your hands as high as you can. Not yet. Lift up your hands as high as you can. See the moment he lifts his hand, something changes. And I want you to lift your head up towards God.
This is biblical. Jesus said this in Luke 21. He said, "When all these bad things in your life were going on, he said, lift up your head and look up." Is it that easy? He said, "Why? Why would you look up?" Because your redemption is drawing close to you. The redemption is the thing He purchased for you, which is the gift of the Holy Ghost.
See, the moment he lifted his hands and lifted his head. Now I want you to put your hands down and bow your head. See, you see condemnation, you see fear, you see doubt, see insecurity. Now watch this. Lift it up. Instantly, there's, there's a change. There's a change. It's not magical. And we talked about sports, nobody scores the touchdown says, "Oh, cool." Nobody gets the promotion and says, "Oh, yeah." Instantly, there's a posture change. We must be the physical representation of what we want to see spiritually.
I want to see victory. I want to see faith. I want to see a miracle. That's why I see a lot of people not receive something because everything's down. Everything's self-focused. Everything's about me and my doubt and my past. Lift your hands and lift your head, brother Eli.
And now, what we're going to do in a moment, when I tell you to, we're also just going to close our eyes. Because the moment you close your eyes, what it does is it gives you the ability to close your eyes off to the things of the temporal world, the eyes of the flesh, and open your spiritual eyes of faith and begin to envision another world of His grace and mercy that's about to enter your soul.
And just, and in just a moment, as you're doing this, we're, I'm going to pray, just in the microphone, just a prayer of faith, saying the name of Jesus. And when I do, I'm going to end that prayer by shouting the highest praise, which is Hallelujah. Everybody say, Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And when I say Hallelujah, everybody, just like you did, is going to begin to shout, Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
When you shout that praise, the Bible said, "God inhabits the praises of His people." And when God begins to inhabit you, dwell in you, the altar workers here are going to become, and they're going to lay their hand upon you like this, and they're going to begin to worship with you, saying, "Thank You Jesus for the Holy Ghost." That's it. Receive the Holy Ghost. That's it. Lift up your voice and receive the Holy Ghost.
And now, watch. Now, there will be something that we can't see happen. First, the Bible says Jesus said this, He said, "That the Spirit of the Lord will come into you, and out of your belly, out of your innermost being, will flow the rivers of living water." Jesus said, "If you believe in My name," Mark 16:16, go read it. He said, "The ones who believe in My name, they will speak in new tongues." That's the initial sign. Because I can't see the Spirit, nobody can see the Spirit. It's invisible. But there's an initial sign. When God fills you up, His Spirit fills you up, where all of a sudden, the thing that gets us more in trouble than anything else, our tongue. The Bible says, "Your tongue is full of poison and deadly evil." And the Bible says that life and death is in your tongue.
And so God will use that tongue to bring forth the evidence of His salvation, hope, and love. And while you're shouting Hallelujah with all of your heart, all of a sudden, the Spirit will begin to give the words. The Bible calls it the utterance. It will give the words. You won't know what sounds or words you're speaking. Just let it flow like rivers of living water. Your tongue will begin to manifest the evidence of God's Spirit. You'll begin to speak sounds you've never spoken before.
Altar workers, as soon as you see that, we'll get the official number at the end, but I want to give a live testimony of what's happening. Instantly, as soon as you see them begin to speak in new tongues and new sounds, I want you to give me a thumbs up so that I can give a live report of what God is doing. Because we're going to enjoy His testimony today. In Jesus name.
And at the end, don't leave, don't run off, because we're going to get the official testimony of what God has done. And we're going to ask who's received the Holy Ghost. And if you've never been baptized in Jesus' name, we have warm, clean, fresh water with baptismal clothes, you can change into, and you can have all of your sins washed away. Stop carrying that guilt. Stop carrying that shame. Walk out of here feeling lighter in the Spirit of God. You can be born again of the water and the Spirit today. Somebody just clap your hands for a moment and shout, "Thank You Jesus."
Now I want everybody in this room just to go step by step with me. Would you lift your hands? Just step by step with me. Lift your hands. Would you lift both of your hands? Yeah, that's awesome. I want you to show God that desperate faith. Lift both of your hands. Don't pray. Altar workers, don't pray yet. Just lift your hands.
Now, now I want you to lift up your head upward right now. Would you lift up your head? That's it. Go ahead and lift up your head. The Lord is about to pour out His Spirit. Now I want you to close your eyes. Would you close your eyes? And as you close your eyes, I want you just to take a moment. Don't praise God yet, but we, I want you to envision in your mind what is about to happen. The Spirit of the Lord is about to fall fresh upon you like that waterfall falling upon you, that fresh rain, uh, on dry ground is about to bring His Spirit upon you. You're about to be delivered. You're about to receive direction. The light of the Lord is about to bring His Spirit into your darkness. You will never be the same. Uh, you will never be the same. Uh, I want you to envision this happening. Uh, you're about to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance. Uh, that's it. See it happening. Uh, here it comes.
When I shout Hallelujah, that's your signal to begin shouting Hallelujah. Here comes the prayer of faith. Uh, by the authority of the Word of God and by the power that's in the name of Jesus, everyone receive the gift of the Holy Ghost right now. Hallelujah! Go! Shout! Shout and speak in new tongues! For!