This is that moment in time obviously we've seen something this week we worked hard this week and preparation yesterday
I was blessed on Tuesday with the lesson that we went through on Tuesday night
And so I hope this week you've had an opportunity to hear from the Lord and maybe in your own prayer time or read in your Bible
Or whatever or even if it was yesterday in Grand Prix or Tuesday evening, whatever it was
This is your opportunity to speak up. What do you got?
What do you got?
So
Chakra I was listening to music and there was a
There was a song I was listening to while I was at work and I was listening to my earbuds and
Like I get a lot of variety of music when I listen to music
I get country rap rock hip-hop the whole the whole thing is in my playlist. My playlist is very random
and
but lately I found myself listening to like I guess more Christian rap and
The first thing I found out was one some of these people that some of the musicians I listen to are so underrated
there's there's so talented but yet because they refuse to give into what the world wants and the secular music that the world does and
they don't get the recognition they should and
then
Which brings me my first thing is?
Sometimes when we do what we are supposed to and God we don't get the recognition we should
Because it's not what the world wants
so we have to remember that just because
We're not doing what they want us what what the world perceives is a good thing or hey
You should do it this way instead
We're doing it God's way just because we don't get the recognition that we think we deserve doesn't mean that God doesn't see that
right so whenever we're doing something we
Understand that just because the world might not recognize it doesn't mean that God does
Then this brings me to a second thing one of the songs I was listening to
Was I can't remember the name of the song I can't find it anywhere and it's annoying me
But there was a lyric in there and it said that we need this in clubs and it was talking about
like Christian pop music and
so I started going through and I've got a playlist of like 110 songs now of
Christian songs that are I guess more club type songs and they're all about the gospel and
Absolutely mind-blowing to know that there's all these songs out there that have such positive messages
But yet nobody wants to listen to it
Because it's about things that they don't want to hear about how yeah, we're all failures and yeah
We all fall short of the sense of the glory of God
but God still forgives us and he still loves us and we're gonna do what God wants us to do regardless of what the world wants
us to do and
it's
and I guess it makes me feel good because it shows that you know there are people that are really really willing to
To stand and say no, this is what I'm doing. I found out that one of the Christian rappers
I listen to a lot and it was pretty well known as KB
He's turned down like I think it was a hundred million dollar deal from a couple record labels
Because he refused to fear from his
God that he does and it's like, you know
We that that's the stand that we as Christians need to take
We need to we need to take that stand and go no I'm doing this because God wants me to do this not because of
Anything else this is what God wants me to do
So I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna do it regardless of what the world says and regardless of whether or not they recognize
What I'm doing because it's what God wants and God's the one that's gonna get the glory for it
Yeah, it's why you're speaking I was thinking about
Thought about this this week
I'm going to plan tomorrow whatever my devotional anybody think Satan's got access to money
I'll bet he does
Absolutely plenty now. It's like I can restrain him from any kind of activity that if you can be bought off
You can be paid to not do what God wants you to do. He'll probably pay you there's a good way is a
Artist that started as teenagers that bring us, you know
Just brought an encouraging message that there was really nothing about God in it that abandoned that and now work for
a
Machine basically that turns out song after song after song and some of its literally Satan worship or whatever and they're
Millionaires ultimately there's billionaires even there's plenty of money and not following God if you're about money if it's about making the bucks
You can you can do it
But you got enough you gotta be willing to give up God to do it and then there comes a time
The money won't get you where you're trying to get to it's a false God. They will never buy that
It's worse than that. I think money will take you to hell because it'll happen if you let it be the pursuit of your life
Jason
Video and it was this I think the cast that you would go around
public places and teach the gospel
In huge crowd and some people would ask a different question and one of the questions was
Oh, it's good. I'm being up there and said unless you can get me physical records or
Medical features that Jesus came back alive. I would not believe it
in
What you spotted is if you need physical proof to know that somebody this
Then you will live your life like what you see and what you feel is the only thing that's in your life
Yeah, yeah
He said you're asking for an unrealistic standard and you don't ask for that standard for anyone or anything else
You believe stuff all the time just because you believe it and you don't need that medical records to believe
We believe it has a friend told you believe it because you saw something you believe it because there was evidence of any kind
Of feelings, etc. Yep. It's good work
That's right, you can't necessarily touch love right?
All right teams remember last time we decided to do a video game a dream of letters and you guys won because of it
I have candy and I'll pass it out after service
So I just want to get my candy out
Candy, huh? So good
No, this is candy
This is what I identify with this is mine. This is what I say is candy
Who are you to say that this is not candy? I say this is candy
So you're right
Why would I want to identify with candy when I would say this is candy because this is candy
This is what's coming after service
What I want to share today is that the thing is and I'm not making fun what people identify with this
I want to give people a chance to see what they actually identify with it's like the idea is if I identify with this is candy
No matter what there's no truth in this. This is not candy. This is water
This will never be used for candy if you know if I uh, I drank this you're right. I'd be doing great. Yeah
You can say there's some kind of sweetness and it's something like that
But what I love about it is that I was talking about what is true and the thing is
Pontius Pilate as Jesus he goes what is true and Pontius love it just like I'm not that he said
What is truth like I want to know it was my what is truth?
Whatever I'm out of here. And so what I want to courage us with is that when we talk about truth truth is
You know, I've been thinking about this for a while now like I've had a lot of truth in my life
I went to church on my way. I've heard the gospel through the Word of God through to church, but it didn't save me
You know, I've heard I like we're talking about money power happiness. I
Lived a very sheltered life. I played video games all my life. I watched TV. I mean, I thought I was rolling
I mean there was nothing that I always said smile on my face
Always I'm still smiling. I'm like so tired today exhausted
But God's not exhausted in the Holy Spirit is not exhausted in me, but it's like I was just dead on the inside
So what I want to encourage you guys and all of us is that what is true?
Jesus is the truth
I'll pass that later for you. Okay, but anyway, so what is truth is Jesus?
The reason is I'm saying that is because you can know the word you can know the Bible
You can know a bunch of religions
You can know all that stuff
But none of that stuff can actually save you if it wasn't for Jesus if it wasn't for his which we've been saying
I love it to that DVR his death burial resurrection if it wasn't for that
We don't have a Bible. It wasn't that we don't have a church if it wasn't for God
We don't have a moment in time where we actually are going home or homes come into us. We have nothing
Literally, this is what truth is there are truths out there, but they don't have because to me
I always say truth stands the test of time. This is 2024
2,000 years ago a thousand years ago 200 years ago 100 years ago
No matter what if it wasn't for Jesus dying on that cross if it wasn't for Jesus being buried like I'm dead
I'm not coming back and then
Resurrection. Oh, yeah, I am coming back. You can't stop me if you wanted to I
Chose to die for every person the reason I share that is because of this is I want to encourage people because you know
I'm not saying we can't preach or be bold
We should be that's part of us because we're supposed to be a light. We're supposed to be a hope
We're supposed to be a truth. I just mean we do that every single minute, but that's the idea
We're supposed to get outside of ourselves
We're supposed to give people a chance to share Jesus if it wasn't for that man that was seven year old man
It was some I saw vacuum cleaner. I was going to hell with the vacuum cleaner. I was dying with the vacuum cleaner
I was dying with a smile on my face. I'm really going to die someday and I'm going to hell
That's the craziest part
I think about every single day and that's a mural man would have been like well, you know
Yeah, he doesn't need to hear it
You know or he doesn't want to hear this or maybe I should just let someone else do it
No that man knew that God was saying hey that man comes in here
You're going to share Jesus with him and if it wasn't I won't be here today
I thank God for every person that stands up for what is true and that truth is
First there's tons of other truths. There's great truths out there, but that truth is Jesus
Something to think about is that whatever you identify with when you're drinking when you think this is candy or this is water
Test the spirits test to yourself. Is this true because the thing is when you test with Jesus, you're always going to find the truth
Alright, let's pray to him. Do I have a young person who'd like to pray for us?
So we're going to be tithing offerings a little more to them and then they can go to class
Volunteers
All right
So
You are my hiding place
You always feel my heart with songs
Songs of deliverance whenever I am a free
I will trust in you
Let the weak say
I am strong in the strength of the Lord
You are my hiding place
You always feel my heart with songs
Songs of deliverance whenever I am a free
I will trust in you
Let the weak say
I was laying in my bed and sleeping fitfully. I was having the equivalent of a nightmare
I know what a nightmare is. Most of my nightmares I'm just going to say to tell you transparently involve either multiple tornadoes
Striking the location where I am right right then and there or being chased
But I haven't had any nightmares in a really long time. I don't really have bad dreams per se
I know that I have a bad day
And I learned when I was a child that you can affect your dreams and I've been able to affect my dreams
So that when things are going wrong in my dreams, I can change what's going wrong in my dreams. Okay and so
This particular dream just this last week. I was sleeping in my bed and kind of fitfully tossing and turning
I knew I was only lightly sleeping and in my dream I was attending a funeral
It was a cold gray rainy day
Funerals usually feel like a cold rainy day even when they're not a cold rainy day
You know, I mean even in the sunshine you feel kind of dreary and down
At the loss of a loved one or a friend or seeing others who've lost a loved one or a friend
And so in my dream I was approaching the funeral and there are people all gathered around
They're all dressed in black or gray
Dark colors and it was raining lightly and they all had their black umbrellas up
Some people were just standing in the rain without umbrellas
And there was a minister there and he was preaching over the hole in the ground
Which was covered over with those cloths and the bars were there and the casket was there
And I remember having the distinct opinion or the distinct feeling as I was approaching the grave
That it was too late, that I was too late
That was what made this a nightmare that I was urgently coming in a hurry and I was too late
And I asked myself, am I late for the funeral? Is it because I'm missing most of the funeral or whatever?
And I asked myself, was I supposed to be officiating over the funeral?
Like I was supposed to be, no there's a guy there who's leading, he was clearly the first one
And I was trying to figure out why I was too late
And I felt kind of left out because they had gone on with the sermon or the speaking engagement at the funeral without me
And I had missed most of the message
And that was what was causing me to feel panic in my dreams
And that's not really a nightmare but my heart was racing
I know I was breathing unevenly, I was not sleeping well
I was tossing and turning on my bed, I felt like I was in pain
It was definitely a nightmare
I want you to bear that in mind then as we grab our Bibles and go and read 11 verses
That will touch our hearts and strengthen us for the road ahead if we allow it
Maybe a little hooter holler or amen as we say, Acts chapter 1
And we're in the house but only just barely
Thank you for those who participated in that little object lesson
In case you don't know why, we get excited because we get excited about a lot of other things
We get excited about football, when football goals are scored by our big team
We get excited about Christmas presents when we get just the gift that we wanted or were able to give
Just the gift that we wanted to give
We get excited about our car getting fixed or narrowly avoiding a car accident
When you encounter the Word of God, there is a marker, a moment in time
In which this is what it says and this will change your life
And so that's why we do that little object lesson to remind ourselves that from here on out this is God's Word
Whether I get it right or not, God will get it right today
So it's Acts chapter 1, we read last week the end of Acts, the ascension text
And we talked a little bit about how that text was paired with this one
And so now we're going to read the other half
We're looking at the beginning of Acts and this is the moment in time at which Jesus is about to leave the disciples
To the work that he has ordained for them
And it says, Acts chapter 1 verse 1
The first account I composed, Theophilus, about all that Jesus began to do and teach
Until the day when he was taken up after he had by the Holy Spirit given order to the apostles whom he had chosen
So he's saying, I already gave you the book of Luke basically
Now I'm going to give you some more about what came next basically and they go together
And he said, notice he said that the Holy Spirit had given them orders to the apostles
Whom Jesus had chosen or God had chosen, God the Father or the Holy Spirit chosen
The capital H there means it's God
To these he also presented himself alive, that's Jesus, and after his suffering by many convincing proofs
Appearing to them over a period of 40 days and teaching, speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God
We're studying the kingdom of God on Tuesday nights right now
We finished lesson one already and we've got three more going on the next three weeks
And this last week's lesson was about the king and how we know that Jesus is the king
We say, who's the king? And we all said kind of like, well God, God is the king
God is the king of everything, God is on the throne so he must be the king
The Bible very clearly teaches that the king is Jesus
And we went through, in fact, very briefly went through the whole Old Testament
And looked at various points at which it points out very clearly that Jesus was the prophecy king who would come
Jesus is the king, okay? And that we saw that clearly on Tuesday night
And now this week we're getting into the kingdom and then the coming of the kingdom
And then we'll mop it up in three weeks
Jesus had presented himself alive to them after his suffering
If you have a King James Bible there, it says after his passion
And by the way, that is pretty much the only point in the New Testament where it talks about passion
And the passion of Jesus was his sacrifice, his crucifixion, and the terrible week that he went through leading up to that
So you have passion in Christ, yay for you, but that's not really biblical
Okay? And your Bible doesn't say you should have passion for Jesus or passion in Jesus, right?
Because that word really isn't used
For these he also presented himself alive after his suffering by many convincing proofs
Appearing to them over a period of 40 days and speaking of the things concerning the kingdom of God
And gathering them together, he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised
Which he said, you heard of from me, for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now
And so he's predicting the coming of the Holy Spirit on and in, if you will, and among, and we get that that happens, right?
So the Holy Spirit is not only in believers, but among believers and on believers, etc.
He's more than just residing in us
And this has been predicted since John the Baptist was ministering, so before Jesus came on the scene publicly
John was predicting that someone would come and that the end outcome of that would be that the Holy Spirit would baptize, immerse people
This is not baptism like what we do in the tank
He's talking about the Holy Spirit being on you and that happens now for us at the moment that we get saved
Okay, and so the Holy Spirit would come on them because he had not done so yet, verse 6
And so when they had come together, they were asking him saying, Lord, is it at this time you're restoring the kingdom to Israel?
We're going to talk a little bit about that particular verse on Tuesday
So I'm not going to drill down on it too hard right now, but the bottom line is they were asking him, is it now?
Is it happening right now that the kingdom of Israel would be restored?
He said to them, it's not for you to know the times or epics which the Father has given by his own authority
But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you
And I'm going to stop there, even though that's not the verse, right?
I'm going to stop there because there's something that just happened right there, a really cool literary thing
And you don't necessarily see it in the English, but you can see it if you look for it
You see two words that we recognize as power in that verse
Okay, so the first one is authority, it's translated as authority
It's a Greek word that means power, but it's a certain kind of power
It's a power that is reserved for only a select person or individuals
And so that's why it's here translated authority
So we say the police have authority, some of us say the police have power
I submit to you that police have no more power than a normal human has
But they do have authority bestowed upon them by society, by the government, by their job, by their training, by their badge, etc.
And so they can do things or even make somebody do things, they can put handcuffs on somebody, take them to jail
That you or I might not be recognized as being able to do
Technically in our society you can do a citizen's arrest, right?
And so you can arrest somebody, you better be sure what you're doing, because otherwise it's kidnapping, right?
But you can arrest somebody and declare this is a citizen's arrest and I'm putting you in jail, just the same as a police officer does
But police officers are specifically authorized to do that
That is a power that is generally speaking reserved for them
But when you think about it broadly, we have that power too, right?
So that's what it means, this word for power that is referring to God in His own authority
It means a power that God has kept for Himself
A power that God has reserved for Him that you don't get to have, that I don't get to have
So that power was what again?
The power that He's talking about was the power to know times or epics
So you don't get to know exactly when Jesus is going to come back again
You don't get to know exactly how things are going to go in the future
You don't get to know exactly what God is doing at any given moment in time
You are not God's schedule keeper, right?
I'm not God's schedule keeper, we don't get to know those things
God has reserved that power for Himself
But the beauty of it is while God has reserved that power for Himself
There is a power that God has not reserved for Himself
And it says that we will get that or that the believers would get that
He says, you shall receive power, it's a different word for power
When the Holy Spirit has come upon you
And this power is the dunamis power, which is where we get our word dynamite
Dunamis is a Latin word and it translates into the Greek very well
And then it goes into the English, right?
And so dunamis is explosive power, it's a power to get something done
It's a power to change things, it's a power to make things happen, right?
And God would give that power then to the believers
Jesus was promising it would come
And when the Holy Spirit would come upon them
They would have that kind of power
Now they don't get the kind of power that God has reserved for Himself
But they get the kind of power that the Holy Spirit comes and brings
And it's power to do something
Then it says what the power to do something is for
So let's go back to the beginning of 8, it says
But you shall receive power, that's that dunamis power
When the Holy Spirit has come upon you
And it says, and you shall be my witnesses
Both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria
And even to the remotest parts of the earth
So the power that God would send to stir things up
The power to make things happen
You could say the power to blow things up
That kind of power would be for this purpose
So that they could be His witnesses
And that word witnesses there in the Greek is the word martyr
Which is where we get the word martyr from
So He's basically saying you can be my martyrs
You can be my witnesses
You can be the one that takes the truth about me
And about what God has done in you to the ends of the earth
That's the kind of power that the Holy Spirit brings
Here's the problem
People have confused the kind of power that the Holy Spirit brings
The Holy Spirit does not bring you power to pay your bills
He does not bring you power to give you a pretty place to live or a safe place to live
He doesn't bring you power to make your relationships right
Now we can prayer and ask God for that power on a situational basis
But if you're not given the Holy Spirit gift of healing for example
You pray for somebody to heal
God will hear and if you're a Christian especially
And you ask the name of Christ the word says you will have what you ask for
If you pray and believe that you have it, you'll have what you ask for
But the Holy Spirit brings the Holy Spirit gift of healing to people who have the Holy Spirit gift of healing
And who determines that?
Well, it's the Holy Spirit
He determines who gets what kind of gifts
And so you could then say that in individual people that this power for him it might be for healing
The Holy Spirit comes in him
He has the power to heal
For him it might be for preaching or for teaching or whatever
But what we can say we all get that goes to all Christians is the power to be his witness
And the word witness comes from Martyr which is martyr
In other words, you can put yourself out there
You can blow up the world
You can affect things in Jesus's direction if you will the way he wants you to
If you're willing to he gives you that power by the appearance of the Holy Spirit
And you're supposed to do that as they were supposed to do that
Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest parts of the earth
So the first thing I want you to see there is that that covers where you are
It covers where you could be and it covers the furthest reach that you could ever reach
But it doesn't mean you have to physically go there in our day
Because sometimes you can send a missionary
Sometimes you can do Facebook
Our podcast reach 17 countries things like that
So we're reaching the ends of the earth with the gospel
Even right now as we're preaching this word here in little old East Aledo, right?
There's not that many people in this room
But the total number of people that are compared to the world
But the total number of people that will be affected by what we do is huge more than we can ever know
And you all go out and talk in your places where you work where you live
Where you go to school all those kinds of things
And so what we hear here is supposed to affect far out there
And it does perhaps not as far as it should because we've missed that
That's what the power was given for
That's the dunamis power
We want our problems fixed
But the truth is the power that's in the gospel same word by the way for salvation first to the Jew
And then to the Gentile that we are not ashamed of that power is for a purpose
And when they receive that power they too will become witnesses
It's a domino effect just as the gospel
Gospel apostles if you will receive this power for the Holy Spirit gospel spreading for that purpose
It spread and it spread and it spread and eventually reached me and I received Christ
And when I received the power it's for this purpose to spread the gospel
That the gospel would get out to the ends of the earth
First where I am then where I might go and to the remotest parts of the earth
Second thing you want to see and note in there is that they were being told maybe for the very first time ever that this was a big job
This was a really big job
They're still asking about whether the kingdom is now going to be restored to Israel
And Jesus says you don't get to know that
That's power reserved for God
But let me tell you what you can do
You can take this truth the truth that I am bestowing in you
You can be witnesses to it to me and to what God has done in you
And you can take it across the whole world
It will spread to every living soul
And that's going to take a while
This might have been the first very clear understanding
That Jesus was probably not going to return again for the second coming in their lifetime
Because he was saying your job is bigger than you can do
You're going to spread this to the whole world
Then verse 9 says and after that
After he had said these things
He was lifted up while they were looking on
And a cloud received him out of their sight
And as they were gazing intently into the sky while he was departing
Behold two men in white clothing stood beside them
And they also said men of Galilee
Why do you stand looking into the sky?
This Jesus who has been taken up from you into heaven
Will come in just the same way as you have watched him go into heaven
Which is very interesting when you think about it
Because what he just said was
Why are you standing there watching up into heaven as Jesus left?
Because he's going to come back the same way that he left
It sounds like they gave them the reason for why they were standing up there watching into heaven
And at the same time ask him why are they watching up into heaven?
They're saying why are you looking up there?
He's going to come back the same way that he left
And because he's going to come back the same way he left
That's why I'm looking up there
But hidden in the language is an inference that that time will come
And when it comes it will be obvious
His leaving up into heaven is obvious
And when it comes it will be obvious and it will come future tense
He will come future tense
See when we say in English he will come
It should be a minute, an hour, a year, or millennia
Right? Thousands of years
They're saying in the Greek
It's going to be out in the future that he's going to come
And when he comes you'll know it and you won't be caught off guard
You won't be surprised, right?
And like we say, well he'll come as a thief in the night
It says elsewhere
But he's saying here you don't have to stay and watch for him
Because he's given you a task to do
And when the power comes on you
You're still busy doing that task
That you can get wrapped up in the spreading of the gospel
And miss the coming of Jesus
But fear not, you will not miss it
Because he will come like he left
Very obviously, right?
It'll be obvious
Alright, that's our text for the day
If you don't know it
Elsewhere Matthew wrote down a little bit more detail
About the message that they would send
And I'll give you that in a second
Three things from the text
The first one
The title of the sermon is left out
Now I want you to just think for a second
In this story
Who's left out?
In the story, who's left out?
So as I arrived at that funeral in my dream
And I was kind of freaking out
My heart was racing, sweating
It was a bad dream
I asked myself
The feeling of someone being left out was immense
And that's what was terrifying me so bad in the dream
And I asked myself
Is it me?
Was I being left out?
And they were proceeding with the funeral
Mourning the loss of the dead person
Right, that's what funerals are about
Maybe celebrating their life
If it's done well, it's also celebrating their life
And I was thinking to myself
Are they leaving me out?
Is that who's left out?
Or was it the person in the grave?
Was it the person in the grave?
Do I have some knowledge of understanding
That that person is going to hell
And so I'm thinking they were left out
They're being left out of heaven
Is that who was left out?
Or as I arrived there
I remember in my dream as I looked at them
That the people were bereft
They were mourning terribly
Like really weeping, really upset
And it was somebody that they very much must have loved
That was in that casket and they were really beat up
And I was asking myself, are they left out?
And I submit to you
That any one of those three things
Could possibly be true
I could have been upset because I was left out
Except that I know where I'm going when I die
I know what my purpose is
And so however it goes
I know that Jesus has got me
Holy Spirit living in me
And so right away my recognition that I am a father
Lord Jesus and I'm okay
Right away that fear subsided
I'm good
So then I thought maybe it's a person in the grave
But you know how I feel about that, right?
So a person dies
Like if I do a funeral, I don't say
This person's gone to hell, don't you go with them
Or this person's gone to heaven
We should all go with them
That's not how I do a funeral
Because that's not my job
Is it your job to determine who went to heaven or hell?
I submit to you they could leave this earth screaming
Thinking they were going to hell
Mad at God, angry at what happened
Because they've not walked with him
They've not lived the way they should have lived
They would have been weeping and gnashing teeth
Whatever they could do all of that
And arrive a moment later in heaven perfectly placated and pacified
Because they accepted Christ at some time
And what they've been doing is not living out their faith
And they actually did get saved
And God did do it
But then they walked away from the Lord
Became what they said they would never be
Refused to follow Him the way they said
And so they feel unsaved
And in feeling unsaved
They leave this earth that way
Only to arrive and at the same time
There could be somebody laying in a hospital bed
Who thinks they're saved and they're so peaceful
And everything's okay
They're blessed
They're protected by some evil spirit
Or whatever's comforting them right up to the moment of their death
And they go straight to hell
So we can't know
We can't know who's saved and who's not saved
You can know
You can know whether you're saved or not
The Bible says the Holy Spirit testifies with your spirit
So you should know sitting here today
You should know that you're saved if you are
There shouldn't be any question
You should be able to go, okay God
I'm turning to you
Am I saved? And you should have a comforting
In your heart, you should know that you're saved
Holy Spirit comforting you, He's present
Now if you've been walking in sin
You may need to repent to be able to hear
You may need to turn to the Lord to be able to
Have that sensation to know
That it's true, I was talking to Ariana this week
She's nine years old
She said the Monday after I got baptized
She said I got baptized on Sunday
She said the Monday after I got baptized I prayed for the Lord
And I said, God, I've been baptized now
And I told everybody, everybody's watching
Everybody that's out there
And I've told all my friends, I've told everybody
That I want to live for you and I'm just telling you now
This is what she said to me, she said
I want to live for you
Like I said I would
I want to be for you in everything
And she said she had such a peace
And a comfort and a joy
She's never experienced that any other time in her life
Now this is
I'm giving you almost her verbatim words
Almost exact words of what she said
She said I had such a comfort and a peace and a joy
Like I've never had, she said and I know I could not do that for myself
So now when I'm struggling
Or hurt or whatever, I know I can't fix it
But I know
He can
And she said so
If you know
That God has done something for you
That nobody else could do
Then how could you ever
Not believe
And we talked about that, I said well that's really good
Because
People have to learn how to process things that have happened in their life
And once you've processed it and you've put a label on it
And you know what it is, you know that that came from God
Now 20 years from now
If somebody makes a really good argument to you
To get you to stop believing in God
And you might start thinking, aww, they've got good reasons
But you have that moment
You know that God did something in that moment
So you'll never go back
This is what Jesus is talking about
Jesus is talking about people
Having that moment
He's saying you're going to have a moment where the Holy Spirit
Power comes on you
When the Holy Spirit comes and takes up residence in you
That you're going to say, it doesn't matter what people say
It doesn't matter how people would try to lead me
It doesn't matter how people try to talk me out
Of believing what I believe, because I know who he is
I have met him personally
And I am totally and completely
In his hands and I want it to be that way
Because he can do what I cannot do
That's what Jesus was talking about
And essentially he's talking about initiating
The church as we have it today
So you're a follower of Jesus Christ
You have that today
You should be able to, if you've repented, turn to the Lord
And you may have made some mistakes or things
But it says he is willing to cleanse you
And purify you
Of all unrighteousness
He's willing to pull you back to him
So you confess to him, you say, okay God, I got through a priest
I'm not talking about getting on your knees
I'm going to do something fancy
I'm going to get down before God in your mind
Or in your heart, a contrite heart is what God is looking for
But the bottom line is
There's no special formula
Just you come into God through Jesus Christ
He cleanses you of all unrighteousness
And you're good to go
And then you should have a feeling, a sensation
Not an emotion, but a sensation, an experience
Of the living God, because the Holy Spirit
Is taking up residence in you
If you can say, I've never had that
I'm going to say to you, you're probably not saved
Because that's what the Bible says happens
And that's what Jesus said would happen
And I understand
There's a great deal of danger in this
Because there's a sensationalist
Sensationalist Christianity
So, for example, one of my
Favorite readers, a man named
McKinney, books I like to read
A pastor named McKinney
And he talks about how in his day
You couldn't be saved
People would say, you're not saved
If you have not had a sensation, had an amazing event
The Puritans believe that a man
Literally could not be saved
Unless something amazing happened
And people would say, you've been saved?
Yeah, I've been saved
What happened? Well, I was struck by lightning
And I saw God
And that moment, I knew I was living for the Lord from then on
You might be familiar with the story of Sergeant York
That's how it happened to him
He was riding out to kill the man who stole his property
While he was off serving his country
And he didn't want to go to war, and God sent him to war anyway
And there's a very specific story
True story about Sergeant York
He went out to kill the guy that stole his property
While he was gone, stole it out from underneath of him
And he's got his gun, and lightning strikes him
And he winds up crawling from where he got struck by lightning
Into the church, and they gather around him in prayer
And they sing songs and hymns over him
And he becomes a real Christian
And then
And I got the order of events, then he gets called off to war
There you go, then he gets called off to war
And then
He doesn't want to kill anybody
He wants to declare himself a pacifist
But his church is not big enough to protect him
So he winds up going to war
The point is this
Some people think you have to have a big sensation to get saved
I don't really see it in the Bible
You don't have to be struck by lightning, barely survive a car wreck, get shot in the head
The pastor doesn't have to preach, and you just break down in tears
And you fall, you're melting in a puddle on the floor
So you have that moment that you're getting saved
But you do have to have an experience of the Holy Spirit
You do have to have a coming of God
You do have to have a coming of God into your life
You do have to have a line at which you cross the line
And say, I'm living for the Lord from now on
And they call that being born again
And if you're not born again, you're not saved
No matter how holy you are or what you know
So that brings us back around to
Who was left out
I submit to you that it could have been me
And I realized it wasn't me
Because, at least in the nightmare that I was having
Because I was saved, I was okay
And it could have been the person in the grave
But I was saved
And it could have been the person in the grave
But I couldn't know that, I didn't even know who was in the casket
So I wasn't terrified to think that they were left out
But then I looked at the mourners
And how they were mourning, how bereft they were
No joy, no peace
No patience, no kindness
No gentleness, they're all standing there in the freezing rain
Mourning the lost person
And as I looked at their faces, and they were twisted
They looked angry
They looked upset
And I realized, it could be them
Maybe they were left out
And then I started to write this sermon
And I realized, I didn't understand what it meant to be left out
The gospel is about
Jesus Christ dying on the cross for sins
And then going to heaven, and He's there making the intercession for us
Even right now, right?
So who's left out?
People who don't know Jesus are left out
But it's hard to decide who that is for sure
But what's happened is, God has left us out
And it's not a bad thing
It's actually a good thing
He's not called us home yet
He's not sent us to be with Him for an eternity
Yet
We are here now, left out on display
Left out to be seen
Left out to be spoken
You look at the word martyr
I'm going to say to you that every time I see the word martyr, it has a negative connotation
I did not want to be a martyr
Anybody here want to be a martyr?
Want to be killed for your faith?
Shot in the head, burnt at the stake, crucified?
You want your nails pulled until you tell them
Who shared Jesus with you
Like they do in the Middle East when they pick up a Christian
In Afghanistan or whatever
Pull their fingernails one at a time
Until they tell them who told them about Jesus
It's bad
And so then, they don't tell them
Most of the time I'm told
And then they kill them and leave them in the street
So everyone else knows, don't go to Jesus
Because you go to Jesus, this is what's happened to you
And you go to that person, I don't want to be a martyr
I submit to you
That according to the way I read this verse
We're all martyrs
Every single one of us, this is what it said
But you shall receive power
And the Holy Spirit has come upon you
And you shall be my witnesses
Both in Jerusalem and in Al-Judea and Samaria
And even to the end, the remotest parts of the earth
And the word witnesses there is
Marturro, it's martyrs
All of us
If you don't want to be a martyr for Jesus
If you don't want to give up you
Your preferences, your old man, your old self
The things that you were into
If you don't want to give that up and be a follower of Jesus
You don't want to be a Christian
Because the old you dies and the new you comes
All old things pass away
And all things are made new
That's what it means to be a Christian
We're all martyrs, he died for us
And if one died for us, we all die
That's called martyrdom, we all die
What are you witnessing to?
You're witnessing to the fact that you were somebody
And you're not the same somebody anymore
Now you're living for Jesus
That's what you're witnessing to and you take that to the end of the earth
And when somebody's sick they need to know about Jesus
And when somebody's hurt they need to know about Jesus
When their emotions are in a turmoil
They need to know about Jesus
When their bills aren't paid
They need to know about Jesus
Did Holy Spirit power come so we pay our bills
Solve our emotional issues
Deal with our relationship stuff, no
But if that person's in the midst of trials
And difficulties or whatever
And they're not taking Jesus
Whatever happens that comes out of that
Even if it all gets better, it's not actually better
You get a medicine to deal with your depression
You take it, you feel better, you go to hell
Not because of the medicine, not because of the depression
But because you don't know Jesus
We should be taking Jesus
Everywhere and the Holy Spirit
Power is for that purpose
We are left out
On display
Now I've thought about that
Nightmare a number of times since I had it
And I thought about how
They have a funeral meal
A lot of times after funerals
And people was breaking up
After the funeral
And I've envisioned in my mind
Talking to all of those people
Who were at that funeral
And telling them, yes, it's terrible that your loved one is dying
And the truth is, if your loved one has died
And did not know Jesus, they're going to hell
And they're not going to be in heaven
And that's terrible
But don't you go with them
And say, I can't take, whatever, I can't say anything about the person
I can't do anything about that
But you're still alive
There's still a chance
Yesterday I witnessed to an atheist
He's still an atheist as far as I know
He hasn't told me otherwise
But the bottom line is I was able to tell him about the truth
That he will eventually stand before God
And answer for what he does in this lifetime
And he's got to get ready for that
Similar to the message
The gospel message of the Grand Prix
The bottom line is
We've got to tell
I submit to you, if the power has come so that we tell
Wait for this now
If the power has come so that we can tell
So that we can be martyrs, so that we can be martyros
So we can be witnessing to the truth about Jesus
And we're not witnessing to the truth about Jesus
Let me say this again
If the power has come for that purpose
And we're not witnessing to the truth about Jesus
Then we have no power
That another man doesn't have
That another woman doesn't have
You don't have it
So if you don't have the power of the Holy Spirit
To witness
And that's why he came
If you don't have the power of the Holy Spirit
To die to sin, to die to your old self and live for Jesus
If you don't have the power of the Holy Spirit for that
Then you don't have the power
Which is a problem
Because if you don't have the power
You probably don't have the Holy Spirit
And if you don't have the Holy Spirit, you're not saved
And you're going to answer to God one day
Both for your unwillingness
To follow Jesus as your Lord and Savior
And for your dismissal
Or your refusal
Of God's presence in you
God wants to reign you
But there's no place on earth that God wants to reign
That the enemy doesn't also want to reign
Right?
And he can mock or pretend
To be the power of God
So we got to get it straight
We got to realize that the power of God that was given to us
Was so that we could be witnesses
That is what it was given for
Do you have the Holy Spirit gift of service?
Great! If your service
Serves and does things, makes you feel good
You feel more fulfilled
Whatever, that's all great
But it wasn't given for that purpose, it was given for the witness
So that people can know about the saving power of God
So people can know about the sacrifice of Jesus
The DVR of Jesus
The death, burial, resurrection
The people can know that they too
Can have Holy Spirit gifts
You can't get saved to get a Holy Spirit gift
But you can get saved to get saved
And you'll get a Holy Spirit gift
But if you tell them
You need to get a Holy Spirit gift
And that happens by the way, there's a very large denomination
That says if you can't speak tongues, you ain't saved
And that's not true
But they affiliate it with the coming of the Spirit as a sign
And you could reasonably say
That if a person can speak tongues
And you could identify that that's what they were doing
And you knew for sure that they were speaking
The Holy Spirit gift of tongues
Then you could say they're saved
And the problem with that is, could the enemy make a person speak in a language that you don't understand?
Sure he could
And so you can't identify a person being saved
Just because they're speaking a language you don't understand
Because it might not be the Holy Spirit that's doing it
We can't know who's saved and who's not saved
But this we can know
The power that was given was power that was given to those who were left out
That's us, left out here
Outside the Kingdom as ambassadors
Still serving the Lord, left out of going home
Yet was given to us
To be witnesses
That's why we were given the power
That's why the left out people were put on display
That's why the left out people were
Filling with the Holy Spirit
So that we can share the Gospel with anybody we possibly can
You're going to say, why doesn't Jesus just do it?
Why doesn't God just do it?
Well, the truth is
He does
The Holy Spirit takes up residence in us
And it's His purpose
To share the Gospel with everybody in the world
Jesus wanted to share the Gospel with everybody in the world
The truth about salvation with everybody in the world
And essentially He did
Because now everybody that accepts Him
Receives the Holy Spirit of God
That's how it works
And not only that
According to Jesus' words
The Holy Spirit is already providing conviction
To people who have not yet believed
So you haven't believed yet, you're already being convicted
And that's why we know right from wrong
Primarily because, and I understand
Men have a conscience
And we can see the effects of our actions
But the primary reason that unsaved people know what's right and what's wrong
Is because of the Holy Spirit
Providing them with conviction
You say, well I'm saved, I know that
Because the Holy Spirit convicts me when I willingly sin against God
The Holy Spirit convicts unsaved people
All the time
All men
So we'll convict all men of their sins
And we'll teach you all the things that I've taught you
Jesus says
And that leads us then to what is the witness
If we were given the power
Because we were left out
And we were given the power to witness
So people can see
Then what is the message
That we are supposed to be delivering
What is it that we are about as witnesses
And it may be a little more
Complex than this because it is about leaving behind your old self
But very simply put
Matthew said it this way, Jesus came up and spoke to them
Saying, all authority has been given to me
In heaven and on earth
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations
Baptizing them in the name of the Father
And the Son and the Holy Spirit
Teaching them to observe all that I commanded you
And lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age
Everybody, every Christian
Christian, we were talking about this
Yesterday as well as we were walking
Ariana, so we got on the
Topic of what the Jehovah's Witness
Believed happens to people after they die
And
I looked up on phone
To make sure I was 100% sure, I thought I knew
But I wasn't sure, I didn't want to say it without knowing
For 100% sure, and basically they believe in the
Cessation of the Spirit, that after you die
You cease to exist
Except for 144,000
People, which they believe
Is the number that they get that out of a verse in Revelation
Who will be going
To heaven
So they're it, all time
Everybody that's ever lived, 144,000
People, any much
They better not be right
And they're not right, because that's not
What the Bible says
But they selectively choose certain scriptures to make
Up their way of believing
And that's what happens in most false religions
And yes, I'm saying Jehovah's Witness
Are a false religion, in fact I'll call it a cult
If you want me to, because that's what it is
Now that being said
Jesus is here saying
Go ye therefore and make disciples
What's a disciple? Someone who learns
From the master and teaches others what they have learned
Of all the nations
People of all races, from all countries
All cultures, all backgrounds, etc
Baptizing them, that's immersion
Immersing them in the name of the Father
The Son and the Holy Spirit
Then teaching them to observe
All that I commanded you, in other words
Everything I told you to do, what did he tell them to do?
Well, what have we been just saying?
Receive Holy Spirit power
Be left out, receive Holy Spirit power
To deliver a witness
To all people in the world
How are you or I or any Christians
Ever going to deliver a witness to all people in the world?
Well, it's accomplished through multiplication
One little church in East Toledo gets started
And suddenly the podcast
Is going to 17 countries all around the world
How wonderful that is, now it's not a ton of people
In those 17 countries, but it's getting out there
Some guy in Guam
Listen to our podcast, hears about Jesus
Starts talking to his family, his friends
Whatever, he goes to a little church there, they start a podcast
It's going to 17 countries, whatever
It multiplies and magnifies
As God sees fit, but I'm telling you right now
I know this with absolute certainty
That the Gospel is getting out into the world
The only question is
As it's getting out into the ends of the earth
Why is it not getting to Judea and
Samaria? Why are we not
Delivering it to the lands where we live?
Why are you not talking to people that you know
About the things that you know?
And the answer is because it doesn't go very well
As RJ was sharing the inspirational moment
Percentage wise, you might have to share the Gospel
Cleanly, simply put
With 10 people to get 1 or 2 people to believe you
Right?
Now there's a lot of reasons why that could be
But I want you to notice this
One thing, does it say
That we receive the Holy Spirit
Power, boom! Holy Spirit
Power
So that we can go and get people saved
No, it says so we can go
And take the Gospel, starting here
Going there, and eventually everywhere
You're supposed to deliver it
Now the Gospel is not the Gospel without a question
To respond, but you're supposed to deliver it
In every opportunity that you have
Everywhere that you go
Last week we talked about
Talking about God, so I conducted an
Experiment starting Monday morning, everybody
That I ran into, every single person I said
Something like, God is good, God is blessing
Me, God is a just in time deliverer
God wants what's best
For you, God has compassion, I was coming right off
The list of things that people proposed at the end of
Services, we said good things about God, what you could say
And I started doing it, you know what happened?
Everybody that I talked to
Was fairly easily sorted
Fairly easily divided into, yeah
I want to talk about that, let's talk about that some more
Or yeah, whatever, you're talking about God, I want nothing
To do with that
So it made it really easy for me
And so then, the people that were over here, we'll talk about that more
I started talking about Jesus with them
Talking about God with them, taking a little bit more
And as I did that, some of them
Were already professing to be saved
They're like, they're already
Professing to be saved, right?
And so, I didn't have to try to win them
To Christ, but I did try to clarify that they were
Actually saved, right? I think you should go to Revelation
320
I think you should talk about the Holy Spirit presence, have they had a
Born again moment, that kind of thing, and I did try to do that
And then the other half of the group
I talked to them about how to be saved
Crazy thing is
Miss Chris, who works the phones for the
Life station, she has a lot of health concerns, whatever
She started doing the same thing, and on Wednesday
She led a man to Christ by using
That method, just started talking about God
And he was in a very bad spot
And he's like, lost his job, lost his
Finance, lost his place to live
His life is falling apart, his health is a mess
His Medicare doesn't pay for medicines that he needs
His life is a mess
She started talking to him about God, he was open to it
62 years old, never been to church
Nobody ever shared the gospel with him, and she led him to Christ
And he prayed to accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior
I spoke with him Friday
Afternoon, and he is still
Professing Jesus and trying to figure out what it's going to mean
And he said, I guarantee you one thing for sure
I will be in your church at some point in time
He lives a little further away
And he wants to walk to wherever he goes to church
So he can be there consistently, and he doesn't want us to come pick him up
That's what he says
So the point is this, you start by talking about
God, talking about what you know
That's where the Holy Spirit power is
If you want to get in the house and the door is locked, what do you do?
You get out the key
If you want to get in the house and the door is locked, what do you do?
You get out the key
So you get out the key, and it lets you unlock the door
And then you open the door and you go in
And you're left out to receive
The Holy Spirit power, to witness
About what God has done
If you're not doing that
You're not tapping into the one guaranteed power
That we were given
The other power, knowing what God's up to
The other power, knowing who will get saved and who doesn't
The other power, understanding the epics and the times
And when Jesus is going to come again
That was reserved for God himself
We don't get that
So you don't want to share Jesus with somebody because you're afraid they won't accept it
You don't get that power
That was received for God
A reserved for God
Only God has that power, only he will know
Whether somebody is going to respond or not
So you do what you do
You exercise the power that you were given
Share your witness
You don't have to talk about anything
But what you already know
You don't have to go to school to learn
You don't have to take a witness course to learn
You don't have to purchase tracks
All you have to do, all you're required to do as a Christian
Is talk about what you already know
And everything you already know is good
The Psalmist wrote it this way
I'm flipping to Psalm 19
If anybody has followed along in their Bibles
And we're in our conclusion now
The heavens are telling of the glory of God
And their expanse is declaring the work of his hands
Interesting isn't it
That they're witnessing
Day to day pours forth speech
And night to night reveals knowledge
There is no speech nor are there words
Their voice is not heard
Their line has gone out through all the earth
And their utterance is to the end of the world
In them he has placed a tent for the sun
Which is a bridegroom coming out of his chamber
It rejoices as a strong man to run its course
See the sun has a certain job
And the sun does its job
And here in poetic language
The sun is glad to rejoice
In doing its job
Are you satisfied with the job that God has given you
Its rising is from one end of the heavens
And its circuit to the other
And of them and there is nothing
Hidden from its heat
Now verse 7 says this
The law of the Lord is perfect
Restoring the soul
The testimony of the Lord is sure
Making wise the simple
The precepts of the Lord are right
Rejoicing the heart
The command of the Lord is pure
Enlightening the eyes
The fear of the Lord is clean
Enduring forever
The judgments of the Lord are true
The
If you allow God to keep you away from the hidden faults
To acquit you of the hidden faults
To keep you back from presumptuous sins
Where you think you know a presumptuous sin
Where you think you know
Thinking somebody is not going to get saved
Thinking somebody is not going to want to hear
Thinking it's not going to do any good to witness for Jesus
That's a presumptuous sin
But if God keeps you back from that
Let them not rule over me
Then I shall be blameless
And I shall be acquitted of great transgression
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
Be acceptable in thy sight O Lord
My rock and my redeemer
I ask you why is the first half of Psalm 19
About the sun doing what the sun
The sun in the sky doing what the sun in the sky
Was made to do and how joyous it is
And the second half of Psalm 19
Is about the word of God, the message of God
Delivering the word of God
What it means to live the word of God
And what happens when you do
I'll tell you why
Because human beings have a tendency
Since the fall to not do
What they were made to do
At the moment you're born again
That tendency is supposed to go away
It is defeated once and for all
The old you die, the new you come
Born again
You're now a member of the kingdom of God
And there is business in the kingdom of God
And it is about witnessing for Jesus
We were left out on display
We were inhabited by God's Holy Spirit
Who wants nothing more than a right relationship with men
And the power of God's Holy Spirit
Is to witness for God
If you fix your problems
Come up with good advice
Pay all your bills, overcome your health concerns
Fix all your relationships, etc
You will have done nothing more
Than what anyone else might have done
But if you will witness for Jesus
And make your life a witness for Jesus
You will have done the thing that God has reserved
For you
And you will have done the things that God has reserved
For you
And you will have done the things that God has reserved
For you
And then you can say
I was left out on display
But I will not be left out on the day
You're not going to be coming late
To the judgment seat of Christ
The judgment seat of Christ
That sends men to hell and others to heaven
You're not going to be coming late to that day
You're going to arrive early
You're going to arrive at the very first moment
And if you're a follower of Lord Jesus Christ
And you're saved
And you spent your life living in the power of the Holy Spirit
Which is to witness to others
Then when you get there
You'll already know why you're coming
You'll be coming to be found innocent of your sins
And translated into an eternal kingdom
Forever and ever
But the power
To do that
Is wrapped up in being a witness
For Jesus
So if a week goes by
You'll be able to see
So if a week goes by
And your life would not be a testimony
For the Lord
And your words would not be a testimony for the Lord
You begin to feel like
You have no power
That's not really true
You're left out, filled with power
But you begin to feel like you have none
People tell me, well I can't talk
I don't know what to say
I can't change
I can't win this fight
You have already done all of that
If you've accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
You're just waiting to realize it
Witness to everyone
You say, well I've already witnessed
To all my family and all my friends
Every single person you encounter
All you gotta do is say, God is good
All you gotta do is say, God has a message for you
You can literally go
To a perfect stranger
And say, do you have a minute? Yes I do
Okay, let me tell you
God has sent me personally
With a message for you, will you hear it?
No, I don't want to talk about God
Okay, go on to the next person
Excuse me, do you have a moment? Yes I do
God has sent me personally
With a message for you, will you hear it?
I will, here's the message
And you can share the gospel
In the simplest forms
Ways you know how, your own personal experience
And say, have you had an experience like that?
Have you personally come to Christ?
Have you been born again? No I've not
But it is interesting to me
I'll tell you basically what the bible says about that
We all have sin
All short of the glory of God
The wages of that sin is death
But the gift of eternal life is available
Through Jesus Christ, God's son
All you have to do is accept that gift
And begin to live for Him as Lord and Savior
Call out upon Him, call, He says whoever calls upon Him
Will not be
Dismayed
He's not going to turn away from you
Will you do that? Yes I will
You just saved a soul
The tenth time or the thirtieth time? I don't know
But this much I know
Therein lies the power
Now if you do it only to receive the power
Then you're greedy
You're arrogant, because that's not why we do it
We are left out on display
Filled with His power
To be His witnesses
And only a man or a woman
Would ever think
In all of creation, only a man or a woman
Would ever think to fail
To be what they are
A dog is a dog and it will act like a dog
The sun is a sun, it will act like a sun
The stars are stars, they will act like stars
But only men and women
Only people, even children
You ever noticed what children act like?
They all act like
Children
Once they start getting old enough
And they have the ability to deny themselves
They deny doing what they're supposed to be doing
And they know it
At some level they know it
I don't want to be left out
But the truth is
I've been left out on display
For all to see and point to Jesus
And I would ask you to join me in doing that
And yes, your heart may race
And your mouth may fill with cotton
And your palms may sweat
Because it's really important
It's souls
But if you manage to save one
And they manage to save one
The chain continues
But if you manage to save two
And each one of them manages to save two
In a whole lifetime
If you could just save two
And somebody else
Those two save two
And those two save two
And the gospel spreads to the end of the earth
But devout Christians who love the Lord
Are not witnessing
And we need to repent
And turn to God
Because we're living without power
And it's ridiculous
There's no reason to do that
I ask the praise team to come forward now
And they're going to lead us in our closing hymn
And we're not praying for power
We're just praying
Lord make us what we're supposed to be
Lord you redeemed us
You brought us back
Now let us live like not back people
Lord you live in us
Now let us live like vessels of the Lord
Lord you empower us
To do witness
Old self gone
New self come
Verbally and physically living out
The gospel
Let's do that
Because that's what we were recreated for
What man was created for originally
And then what we were reborn to do
Take a witness, take a lesson from the son
The son does what the son does
Will you stand with me
Sing this song
And if the Lord is speaking your heart
Sometimes it's singing you to make public
What God wants me to do
X and I want to do it
If it's about witnessing
You just need to repent and you can get it right where you are
You say I haven't done it
I haven't shared the truth of what God has done in my life
With anybody ever or recently
And you just repent and turn to the Lord
And say I'll do it
As we sing this song
Just as I am
And let thou want me
But that thy Lord
Was shed for me
And let thou make me
Come to be a lamb
Of God I come
Just as I am
And waiting not
To rid my soul
Of wonder come
To thee whose back
And hands each spot around
Of God I come
We're going to stop singing at this time. I just want to share one last thing with you.
I have a couple of real quick announcements to kind of get your mind focusing on what's ahead.
And then we'll pray together and we'll be through.
So first thing I just want to share with you is
Okay so you're sick and you're praying for healing
And there's a thought in your head that like you know
God allowed
And I know that's a tough word when you think about how good God is
And he allowed you to be sick
And we think about how the word says that nothing can separate us from the love of the Lord
And how he can turn that out for our good
If we love him or call him according to our purpose and turn it out for our good
So you're kind of like well I don't know
I mean obviously God doesn't want the sickness to be the end of me
If I'm going to have a public ministry still on earth
He doesn't want this to be the end of me
But I'm not half a cent sure that he wants to do a miracle to heal me
Because he allowed it
So there's some wonder there
Is this the right thing?
Or what if it's my relationship or a significant other or my place to live or my finance
We pray and we think well we know we want to pray according to the will of the Lord
We want to pray what God wants
And we say Lord your will not our will be done
And so that just like Jesus
Jesus prayed not to have to go to the cross
But he knew he had to go to the cross so he went to the cross
So if God could put Jesus through the cross
Maybe God could put me through this right
And so sometimes you wonder when you pray for God to intervene
Whether or not it is the will of the Lord to miraculously intervene and solve the problem
That's a question that can arise
When it comes to witnessing
That question is done away with
Because the Holy Spirit is sent in power
So that you can be his witness
Even unto the ends of the earth
So if you're ever doubtful about whether you can share
Ever doubtful about whether somebody can listen or not
Or ever doubtful about whether your efforts are being fruitful
I've shared with ten people and everybody
Three of them got mad at me and three of them just said they didn't want to hear it
And the other three listened but still they could sing
And this is the tenth person I'm trying to share
And you're wondering
You can pray and just say Lord
Let my witness be fruitful
Your power to do what it is that I'm supposed to be doing
That's what I'm asking for
And guess what?
The Bible promises it
It's there, the Holy Spirit power is there to make it
Now you may not get to see it
Why? Because the times, the ethics, the technologies are reserved for God
So you can lead somebody to Christ and you're rejoicing
Yay I let somebody to Jesus
I'm so excited today
And they're not even saved
Because they're professing but they're not really
They're just doing it for another reason
Right? But it's okay
So celebrate the sharing
Not depending on celebration
Your celebration on the outcome
That's what I'm saying
And watch the power of God be unveiled in our lives
To do what it was we were created to do
Celebrate the sharing
I think we should celebrate more of it
Our Facebook live feed affects so many people
That our podcast is reaching all over the world and like that
It's not thousands of people in countries all over the world
But there are dozens of people in countries all over the world
That listen to our podcast and the LifeStation podcast
And a little less than 1500 right now
Because the list is not full
People receiving our encouragement calls
We have people reaching out to LifeStation today
This week saying it was so awesome
We get those encouragement calls
And they're praising God for that because it's having an effect on their lives
We should be celebrating it, it's the sharing
Not necessarily the receiving
Yes, should we receive? Yeah we're rejoicing with angels in heaven
When somebody is professing to be saved
But you can receive power
Because the word says you can receive power
Because Jesus himself spoke these words
My power will come upon you
And you shall be my witnesses
He spoke those words
And we have this quote and it's a promise
And you can guarantee Jesus never said a thing that wasn't true
And so as we go out
You may debate sometimes when you're praying
I'm praying for my cousin to be healed
I don't know for sure if God's going to do that
I'm praying for Tony, Danny's uncle to be healed
I don't know for sure if God's going to do that
Because we don't know what's best
And we pray, Lord we really want what's best
But here we know what's best
Witness for God
That's always best
And God always wants it
Without exception
You say, but I can share the gospel with somebody
And they might kill me
Yeah, as I look at the history books that has happened
It's not an unheard of thing
But when somebody dies, the martyrs come into the kingdom of God first
You want to be sure to be in the kingdom of God?
Go as a martyr, go as a witness
And go into the kingdom of God
And let somebody, God forbid, kill you
While you're sharing the gospel
Instantly into the presence of Jesus
That's not so bad
Otherwise we're all going to get taken out by cancer
Or car accidents, or old age, or whatever
Some day anyway
So better we do what we were created for
And recreated for
And receive that power of God that He has left us out to receive
Than that we
Keep praying for all our problems
In our life to be fixed
While we're not doing what we were made for
Right? Thanks for listening
Alright, we're going to close in prayer at this time
Do want to let you know
Coming up, right around the corner, it's pretty fast
Faster than you might think
Because time and the clock just kick, kick, kick, kick, kick these days
But our anniversary
Is in the month of May
And so we will have our anniversary celebrations right around the corner
Right?
And we're still going to be mopping up this week
Some things from the Grand Prix and stuff like that
That we need to do, but we got to get ready
For our anniversary celebration
It's coming right around the corner, and we're talking about that during a team meeting today
And making final plans for our celebration
But you can plan
For a celebration around the
Third week of May, celebrate the anniversary of the church
That's coming fast
VVS over the summer
We always do VVS of some kind of
We structure it a couple different ways
A couple times where that's coming, right?
Talk about softball, alright?
So we have played softball for four years as a church
Since COVID hit
But we have a green light
And we are able to do it
We just need teams to play
And so we have three other churches that have said that they want to play
And if they manage to pull together
The team, and we pull together a team
And we'll have softball on Monday nights
Starting in June
And some practices between now and then
And practice during the season some
And so it's going to make for a busy summer
And listen
Busy is not the point
If we put stuff on our schedule and it is not God honoring
We have to say that's not for us
Alright?
So we all have to be on board with that
And all of us checking and all of us working together
And figuring out what is the right thing for our time
Okay? Let's pray together
And there is a gap
Between now and the team we are going against
And I have to do
A little bit of transportation and organization
And get the pantry ready to go, that kind of thing
And then we'll have some room for those who want to be
I don't know, team leaders definitely
Anybody else wants to say to see what's going on
We're all going to get in touch with you
Bob and Heaven, we do recognize
First of all
That you chose by your sovereign will
To set some people out
Set us apart
Make us different
Call us
To the Kingdom of God
And the word church
In the Bible at almost every single time
Is Ecclesia, and that's the called out
Assembly of believers
Which implies we are set out
We are out here
Kind of on the right edge
When our life is peaceful and calm
And everything is going fine
Our schedule all managed, our health is all good
Our finances are all good
And nobody is getting saved
Then we are exercising our abilities
As a human for the wrong purpose
We recognize that we were left out
To be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit
And His desire
Above all things is to see
Men saved
To see men hearing the Gospel
Which ultimately results in the power
Of salvation is in the Gospel
Ultimately results in men getting saved
Who are willing
That there should be a man living in Toledo
62 years old and never heard the Gospel
Never heard about God
Never darkened the doors of the church
That is a travesty of justice
I imagine it offends you mightily
We are not responsible for every single person
But each of us is responsible for some
And if everybody in the church everywhere
Would take everybody that they are responsible
For and share the Gospel
We have reached the ends of the earth
This week
And so Lord we just ask you
To forgive us where we failed you
We know that that forgiveness is available
Through Jesus
He paid the price
And we are so grateful
Thank you for forgiving us
For setting us up in a position
Where people may look in our general direction
And we could be that light that we are supposed to be