Transcription
Let's entertain the presence of the Lord right now. Entertain the presence of the Lord. Hallelujah.
Praise God. Let me tell you the heart of the matter and the thrust of it all is this. The devil does not mind you testifying about that God did that in your past. His main mission tonight was to agree with the past, but just to deceive you, to make you think that was then. But this is different. I have a word for him tonight. He did it then. He'll do it now. And he always will because he is an undefeated champion. Clap your hands and bless his name right now. Glory to God. Hallelujah.
Before you return to your place of worship, stay right where you are just a moment. It is so very possible that we as the most blessed people on planet earth can just overlook and take and neglect some of the greatest blessing God has ever given to us. We celebrate all of our gifts that God has given us. But there needs to be a resurgence and a renewal and a revival of you unashamedly without reluctance giving God great praise and thanks for the apostolic ministry in your life. What a great gift to have an apostolic ministry in your life.
And it has been on display right here at Calvary Tabernacle this week. We're blessed with some of the greatest preachers on planet earth. And the thing is, as brother Wilson said to us that demarcates them is the fact that they are anointed of God. They are anointed and appointed of the Holy Ghost. As you return, clap your hands and thank God for your pastor. Thank God for spiritual leadership in your life. It is indeed a high privilege to be a part of this dynamic conference and to be privileged to participate in the ministry of the word with all the great men of God that have already graced this pullpit and blessed you. And you heard from some of the very best that stand behind the sacred desk. You don't have to go far United Pentecostal church to find great preachers. There'll be one in your pull pit Sunday morning because he lives right. He lives clean. He has morals. He's anointed and he preaches the truth of the word of God.
And we thank God for our dynamic ministry. What a joy to be here. Thank you, brother Carson, the committee, and all that had a part in privileging me to stand here tonight. The great privilege is only equaled by the great responsibility. And I really want the Lord to challenge us, to send us out of here challenged. And we need to be challenged. The difference in a good church and a great church is whether you can be challenged or not. I said we need to be challenged. And I will be challenging us tonight with the word of the Lord. I'm so very happy to have my grandson Christian here somewhere in the building. I'm glad Christian's here. He came with me. I used to bring Huntley with me and he got grown and he paddles his own boat now, you know, and and so uh I'm glad to have some more young boys, grandsons that I can impart with the Christians here and and I know probably one day he'll end up at IBC. It's just a just a thing that the Ballisteros do. It it's about a sterile thing and it's a great place for them to be. And this let me say the college has been a great blessing to the Temple of Pentecost. You've grown our kids. Every kid we've ever sent here. We have some here tonight. They were on the platform. They're behind me here. Kids from Temple of Pentecost in Raleigh in front of me and you have grown them. You've invested in them and you've enlarged them. And I come to say thank you tonight. Let me hasten to the word of the Lord. And I will.
Many of you perhaps are not old enough to remember a great man of God years ago. I was sharing with uh brother Gilbert who brought me here today. One of the greatest blessings of my life has been to be able to be in the presence of great men of God. I have been privileged to be associated with legendary names of iconic history that if I began to name them, you would relate to them. That has been such a treasure to me to be around those kind of people and to draw from them. And we're so blessed to have those kind of people in our movement. Can you say amen? Brother Ari Johnson, I was preaching one of my first revivals for him and he always had this phrase now. He was country as cornbread and I mean he was a f Anybody ever known? Did you know brother Ari Johnson? Look at these hands. Great camp meeting preacher, country purple hole pee preacher, bicycle preacher. God knows how to take care of his regular customers. Fly with eagles. Those are messages that he preached. And uh he said, now there's a lot of preachers that are he he he said it wrong on purpose, I'm sure. He said, they're helicopter preachers. You know, they they just go straight up. They don't need a runway. He said, I'm a 747. I have got to have a long runway. Well, time will not permit, and I'm not a long runway preacher anyway. I intend to go straight up tonight and I want you to come up with me cuz I ain't got time to wait on you. We're in a hurry here tonight. We're going straight up. Hebrews chapter 4 verse number 14. I commend all my great friends that are here. I respect you. I love you. I admire you and thank God for you. And brother Wilson, what a dynamic word from the Lord. That was revelatory. We need that. Thank you for it. Hebrews chapter 4:14. I'm just going to read it and then when I get ready to get into the preaching I will emphasize this is the way we read the Bible usually. See then that we have a great high priest that is passed into the heavens. Jesus the son of God. Let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin.
Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. I like the three words let us therefore connecting the power of what the spirit would have us to receive tonight. I want to preach to you on the subject the audacity to ask. the audacity to ask. Put your Bible down and give the Lord, who is a prayer answering God, a great big hand right now. Somebody shout yes. And you may be seated.
As I travel the breadth of the apostolic church and primarily the United Pentecostal Church, I travel with my eyes open and my ears open and my heart attuned to the spirit so that when I have occasion to stand before the church of the living God, I can bring what I feel to be the pulse of the spirit to the assembly. What I see that God would have us to address. So I will address what I sense to be perhaps the only restricting and limiting aspect of the apostolic church in this present hour. You are in the greatest most powerful uncontrollable church. Hell can't touch this. The world can't contain this. There is nothing that can restrict this. This is the greatest church on earth. It is the only church on earth. I'm talking about the apostolic church of Jesus Christ. I wish I had somebody who say I believe that we are not second to anybody. And so tonight I will preach to you what I feel to be. Everybody say the only restricting the only limiting aspect of the apostolic church and it's simply this. There is an absence of the audacity to ask. We have lost the audacity to ask. What a privilege we see in the Bible when it said, "Seeing therefore that we have a high priest who is in the heavens. Therefore, and wherefore, because we have a high priest who is ready and available for us, let us come boldly unto the throne of grace." I want to preach to you tonight about seeing that we have a high priest. By seeing I mean perceiving that we have a high priest. Understanding that we have a high priest. Acknowledging that we have a high priest. Recognizing that we have an high priest. This church right now needs more than anything else a baptism of audacity to ask. A baptism of audacity to ask. We have been too timid, reluctant, and conservative in the size and the assertiveness of our prayers. We've been praying little bitty prayers to a mighty big God. It's time for us to be baptized with a definition of audacity. boldness, daring, recklessness, bravery, courage, forwardness, gall, shamelessness, and brashness under the blood of Jesus with the power of his name as the bride of Christ, the sons of God. We need to come into God's presence and say, "I'm not a bit ashamed to ask you for what I'm about to ask you for. I'm not a bit reluctant to ask you to do what I'm going to ask you to do right now. Somebody shout yes. All of these synonyms describes how we should approach God in prayer. How we should approach God in prayer.
And and and let me just say this quickly. Woo. We have become too smooth. We have become too professional. We have become too elegant. We have become too eloquent. We have become too cool Joe's. Too many smooth preachers in the pull pit. Too many caring too much about the way their ties flapping or their hair is looking or the articulation of their vocabulary. The book still says that the kingdom of heaven sufferth violence and it is the violent that take it by force. We need an army of violent prayer warriors. It's time to ask God for big, huge, gigantic, and enormous things. We need to enlarge, elevate, and exaggerate our prayers, our petitions, and our request unto the Lord. It's time for us to pray big prayers. And expect big answers. One thing we need to do tonight is once again be convinced, convicted, and connected to this verse of scripture. Hebrews 13:8. Jesus Christ the same. yesterday, today, forever. That's more than a doctrinal eternal God salvation scripture. That book says he's the same. And if you believe he's the same. Anything he's ever done before, he can do it again. Anything he's ever done anywhere else, he can do it here. Anything he's ever done for anybody, he can do it for me. Clap your hands and say, "I'm going to have the audacity to ask." The point said it like this, "Thou art coming to a king. Large petitions with thee bring for grace and power are such none could ever ask too much." I'm tired of us backing up to God in timidity. Backing up to God in humiliation, backing up to God in shame. When the Bible said, "See, you've got a high priest, you can boldly come into the presence of almighty God." Clap your hands and shout, "Yes." We need a baptism of the audacity. just the audacity to ask.
I'm standing here preaching this tonight so thankful that I can address Bible college students, young ministers of the gospel because I can correct something in you that I made a mistake in years now. I have been kicking myself, kicking myself. Brother Brian Ballister, my daughter Christie, pastor in the temple of Pentecost. Now they're in a very they're suffering from a restricted situation. That is my doings. I had the attention of God. We only had about a half acre land where a little church was where we started. And I said, "God, if we could only have five acres. God, if we could only have five acres. Oh God, if we could only have five acres. When we got ready to buy a new property, God miraculously granted unto us. For all these years, I have kicked myself, you big dummy. Why in the world did you ask for five? Don't you know he could just as easily given you 25 if you would had the audacity? If you would have had the audacity to have, if he can give you five, he can give you 10. If he can give you 10, he can give you 20. If you can baptize five a weekend, you can baptize 20 a weekend. If you can have 10, get the Holy Ghost, you can have 20 to get the Holy Ghost. If somebody will have the audacity to ask.
Now, this is what I feel. The Lord has pointedly, you maybe see, I preach fast. The Lord has pointedly spoken this to me today. I hope you'll agree with it, but it's what I feel anyway. The Holy Ghost has convinced me that coming out of this pandemic, while all the religions are crumbling and crushing and falling, while denominations have gone out of buildings that they will never come back into, we're going to take those buildings. We're going to take those buildings. You got to see, God's doing something right now. He's emptying buildings that he's going to give to the apostolic. The religious world's embarrassed themselves. The denominational world's embarrassed themselves. They have humiliated themselves. Lost any ounce of morality and character, integrity, and purity. They don't even have a sense of what's right and what's wrong. My point is this. I've been convinced today that the Holy Ghost, the apostolic church has the favor, the pleasure, the attention of God like never ever before. And while we have his attention, let's ask him for some big stuff. Let's ask him for some gigantic stuff. Let's ask him for some huge stuff. Somebody shout yes. We need the audacity to ask. You may be seated.
Quickly moving. Ezekiel 36:23. I'm just going to hit the heart of what I want to say here. Ezekiel 36:23. Everybody shout, "The Lord said, "I will." I will. 24. The Lord said, "I will." I will. 27. The Lord said, "I will." I will. 29. The Lord said, "I will." I will. 30. I will. The Lord said, "I will." I will. 33. I will. The Lord said, "I will." I will. Everybody shout. How many times does he have to tell us? He will. He said, "I will. I will. I will I will I will I will I will I will I will I will give you revival. I will fill your church. I will give you property. I will give you miracles, signs and wonders. I will give you a mighty move of my spirit. I will I will I will I will. But before you shout too much, listen to verse 37. Thus said the Lord God, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. I have told you in all the preceding verses, I will. I will. I will. I will. Can I do it North Carolina style? But I ain't until you ask me. He said, I will yet for this be inquired of. I'm just waiting on somebody to get the audacity to stand up and say, "You said you will. Now do it. Now do it. You said you will. Now do it."
Let me throw this in in your passing. Let me give you the definition of true prayer. A great prophet of God gave this to me when I was an evangelist many, many years ago. I have it in Boston. I have it in my home. It's been a part of my life ever since. I was praying in a a little old building where we preached revival and there was a tablet there where I was studying. He wrote this down in there with some nice things about my young ministry. And this is what he said. The true definition of prayer is pleading the word of God before him and saying, "Lord, do as thou hast said. God's not Santa Claus and the Bible's not a Sears Rob book catalog. There are some things he's bound to. But if you can find it in his Bible and you can stand up and say, "You said you would. Now do it. You said you would do it. Now do it." I heard him say, "Ask and you shall receive." He did not qualify, small, medium, or large. He just said, "Ask." John 16:24, "Hither to have you asked nothing in my name. Ask and you shall receive that your joy may be full." James 4:2, you have not because you ask not. And as a matter of fact, sitting over there a while ago, the Lord prompted me with this thought. Who was really the worst waster? Was it the prodigal who left or the elder who stayed home? Because when the prodigal came back, the elder got mad over one calf. And the father said, "I know you've been here all this time. Everything I got yours, but you never asked." We got miracles. we haven't asked for yet. We've got revival we haven't asked for yet. We've got blessings we haven't asked for yet. We got ministries that we have not asked for yet. You need a miracle, have you asking? You need a healing, have you asking? You need a deliverance, have you asking? You got a mountain in your way, have you asking?
I pause just to throw this in quickly and I'll I'll move on. Christian, I know you're here somewhere. Run up here real fast. I want to make a point. Where's Christian? Run up here real fast. He was right down in front a while ago. Oh, he's moved to his back sooting on me already. Come here, little boy. Get up here real fast. Many years ago, when this kid was just a baby. Get on your knees there, pal. Smile. Your mama's watching. Uh, when he was just a little guy, I have I had one daughter and she's given us five grandchildren. That's a pretty pretty good return on our investment. Pretty good return on our investment. And years ago, God did this to me. He spoke it to my heart. We have prayer on Saturday night. One of our main prayer meetings. And when we pray on Saturday night, let's show them what we do. What do we do? Everybody's up here praying. What do we do? God, I'm asking you tonight in the name of Jesus to give Christian gifts, talents, expertise, and abilities that will horrify hell and honor heaven. You do with your kids what you want to do, but I've got the audacity to ask God to use them. I've got the audacity to ask God to make something great out of their lives. I've got and I don't feel bad about it. I want my children and grandchildren to be hell's worst nightmare. We're going to raise Pentecostal champions and I'm not ashamed of it. I'm going to boldly come in there. I love this verse. Genesis 18:27. And Abraham answered and said, this is about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Man, I love this. Behold now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. Audacity. Audacity. I ain't nothing but dust and ashes, but I know what he's thinking about and I'm fixing to get in his face. I know what's about to happen and I'm going to take a stand in front of him. I may not deserve to be there, but I've got the audacity to stand for him.
And the Lord went his way as soon as he had left communing with Abraham, and Abraham returned unto his place. Here's the point. God did not stop answering until Abraham quit asking. God stayed there as long as Abraham was asking. And God was like saying, "Are you done? Are you through? Are you finished?" I'm telling this church. He said, "Ask and you'll receive." He didn't say one time or five times. He just said, "Ask. Seek. Not. Just keep on. Keep it on." We need to be bold and brave in our prayers. The celebrated, renowned Hollywood actor Jimmy Stewart left his treasure and memorabilia to a little unknown college. I read this here a while back. Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of value as a media off off does. They want to get in your business. So I said, "Why'd you choose that college? Why you agree with their philosophies?" I don't know anything about them. Children go there? No. I'll cut through the chase. He said, "You know why I gave it to them? They asked me." He said, "They just they just asked me." Clark Howard, a syndicated radio economist, said this recently. 75% of businesses will give you a discount if you will. If you will ask, if you will just ask. And I read in the book somewhere about the seventh chapter of Matthew that Jesus said, "If ye then been evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your father give good things?" Notice to them that ask him. I'm trying to stimulate this church to pray like we've never prayed and pray big prayers. Big prayers. Gigantic prayers.
I have a dear friend that I would never want to embarrass. But Mark Foster is a great guy. Very close personal friend of mine. Tremendous guy. Taught me a lot. Taught me what it means to be a friend. He's a great guy. So, a number of years ago, several preachers and their wives were over at his house and maybe six couples and somebody said, "I'm hungry." And somebody said, "Let's go to Taco Bell and bring some tacos back." So, about six preachers got in the car. And we drove to Taco Bell, left the wives at the house. We pulled up to the window and Mark was driving. He said, "I want 54 tacos." The lady said, "Excuse me, sir." She said, "Did you say 54 tacos?" He said, "I did." She said, "Okay, I'll get them ready." And then out of the blue, Mark said, "Hey, free coats for everybody in the car while we wait. She said, "How many do you need, sir? There's just something about asking. There's just something about having the audacity to ask, having the the gall, the shamelessness of just asking."
Few years later, we were out in Texas deer hunting, and there's about 10 of us there. We went into a well-known barbecue place called Cooper's Barbecue. It's It's pretty famous. Some of you probably been there. Cooper's Barbecue. We ride out. We go to this place to eat. We walk in. Everybody's excited. We're preachers having fun. It's great time, you know. We walk in. Mark says, "I want to see the manager." That's him over there. He goes over there. I'm listening to him. Sir, got about six, eight men here tonight. They're all big eaters. We're fixing to eat a bunch of your barbecue. We're going to run up a big ticket here tonight. And across that oldfashioned barbecue house was a clothesline. It had Cooper's hats on it. Camouflage hats with Cooper's barbecue across the front. And Mark said, "While we're eating our barbecue, free hats for everybody." He said, "Okay, you're welcome to them. I just wonder what's hanging in this church tonight. Are you going to leave it hanging in here only because you didn't have the audacity to ask? I want some of you Bible school boys jump up right now and say, "I want a great ministry. I want a dynamic ministry. I want to build a revival church. I want God to use me. I want God to anoint me. I've got the audacity. You sit there and bite your fingernails and worry about it. But I've got a high priest and I got blood and I've got a name and I'm going to ask you if you want 10, you can have 10. But if you want a thousand, you can have a thousand if you have the audacity to ask. This is the only thing that's limiting us. We've gotten fancy. We've got proudful. We've got smooth. We've got eloquent. We've got Mr. Mr. Cool in the pull pit. And we're all just chilling out in church. But God's looking for a revival to come to this church where we got the audacity. Matter of fact, I don't know if you read it like I read it or not. Blind Barnameus got his eyes open for crying out loud. He got his eyes open for it. Oh God, I hope you hear our prayer tonight. Father, Lord, bless this service tonight. I'm telling you, God is still waiting for a desperate audacity to hit this church. Somebody shout, "I'm not ashamed to be blessed. I'm not ashamed to be. I'm not ashamed to have revival. You may not want it, but I do. And I'm going to march into his throne room with blood and his name and a high priest. And I'm going to tell him what I want. Lay your hands on somebody. Say, "Pray a big prayer. Pray a big prayer. Somebody pray for a citywide revival. Somebody pray for a national revival. Somebody pray for a ministry of healing. Somebody ask for a ministry of deliverance. Somebody ask for a ministry of wisdom. Somebody ask God to fill your church. Have the audacity to ask God, give me a message that will shake the church. God, give me a faith that will move the church. God, give me a revival that will move my city. We need the audacity to ask.
The angel said to Mary, "You're going to have a baby without human assistance." Mary said, "I'm asking you, let it be unto me." God's looking for somebody that's got the audacity to believe for something that never has been done. And even greater than that, it would never be done again. God wants to give somebody revival like we have never seen. God wants to give somebody a ministry like we've never seen. But somebody's got to have the audacity to ask.
Ask. Ask. Have you asked him? Have you asked him? You're living without stuff right now just because you have not asked. You're doing without things right now just because you haven't asked. The father told the elder, "All that I have is yours. He's coming back for one cat. You could have had one every day if you'd have just asked. Lay your hands on somebody. Say, in the name of Jesus, I loose you from reluctance. I loose you from pride. I loose you from fear. I loose you from intimidation. You seem to have forgotten we have a high priest who's waiting on us to come boldly. Ask him for a multi-million dollar property. asking for a multi-million dollar building. Asking for a 200 soul revival. We need the audacity to ask. Lift your hands and say, "I'm going to ask God for some huge things. From now on, I will not pray small prayers. From now on, I will not embarrass God by asking for little things. From now on, I'm going to ask for mighty blessings. For the Bible said we have exceeding great promises. Throw your hands up and ask God to baptize you with audacity. It may not have ever happened before, but I'm going to ask you to do it. He said, "If you don't have it, it's because you haven't asked. Ask. Ask everybody. Throw your hands up right now and say a prayer unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you could ask or even think according to the power that's working within you. Lay your hands on somebody. of God. Baptize them with audacity.