The Lord is good and his mercy endures forever.
Amen.
If you have your Bibles, be turned with me to Mark's gospel.
Hallelujah.
Mark chapter seven.
Hallelujah.
Balcony section is looking good today.
Hallelujah. Yeah, the left side is strong side today.
Hallelujah.
The Lord is good to us.
Merciful and kind.
Amen.
Also be in prayer Saturday.
Brother Wayne Henry.
He has one job.
As to stand by his son and not lose the ring.
One job. We talked about that. We discussed that Wednesday.
And I said, you think it's safe?
Are we going to give him the real one?
We're going chances.
See, I'll pray for brother Wayne. One job not to lose the ring.
As we see that Malachi and Emma are wed on Saturday.
It's going to be a good day.
Amen.
Mark's gospel, chapter seven.
We're going to begin reading at verse thirty one.
As we read together.
And again, departing from the coast of Tyree and Sidon,
he came.
And to the Sea of Galilee.
Through the midst of the coast of Decapolis.
And they bring unto him one that was deaf and had an impediment in his speech.
And they beseech him to put his hand upon him.
And he took him aside from the multitude and put his fingers into his ears and he spit.
And he touched his tongue.
And looking up to heaven, he sighed and he said unto him, epitha, that is to be opened.
And straightway, his ears were open and the string of his tongue was loosed.
And he spake plain.
And he charged them that they should tell no man.
But the more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they published.
It's hard to keep good news quiet in it.
And were beyond measure astonished.
Saying he had done all things well.
He maketh both the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak.
We attempted this passage several weeks ago.
The Lord had other plans that day.
But I want to speak to you on this thought this morning.
Beyond good.
Father, I love you and I thank you and I praise you today.
Now Lord, I need your help.
For nothing we do today of our own will be lasting.
That which we do for you and through you and of you will be edifying to the body of Christ.
So I ask Lord that you help us.
We that have ears to hear, may we hear what the Spirit says to the church.
That we leave lifted.
Lifted by your word and strengthened through your grace.
Do you be praised forever?
In Christ's name.
And the church said amen and amen.
And you can be seated.
Beyond good.
A couple of weeks ago I ministered to you on the subject of current events.
It's been a month now, right at a month since the Hamas raid and Israel has been invoked
and war has taken place.
Early on there's this sense of urgency and alarm.
Is this it?
Is this what's going to catapult us into the end?
Like most events, if the end doesn't immediately come, if the Lord hadn't appeared, complacency
begins to set back in.
There's the wonderment of it all still making its way around.
As we begin to look, news continues, news carries on.
Some of the top stories from this past week, I don't know if you read the article, but
there's a rather large comet making its way toward the earth.
It's called the devil comet of all things.
It's supposed to come close to the earth.
They don't think it's going to make impact, but it's supposed to come close to the earth
around April or May in the spring.
It was first spotted in 1812.
It has a 71 year circular cycle.
It comes around every several one years.
It orbits.
The reason it's kindly alarming, it is two times larger than Mount Everest.
It's a pretty big deal.
It's only going to come 144,158,116 miles to the earth.
Why scientists figure that would set us at alarm, I have no idea.
The headline said, comet coming toward the earth.
I thought, it's going to get close.
100 million miles?
Come on, folk.
I think there's more important things going on than that in our world.
Jonathan Turley wrote an article about faith and the dire situation of faith in America.
He said, faith is the one thing that no system of government can do without.
Without faith in the underlying values of a constitutional system, authority rests on
a mix of coercion and capitulation.
The single greatest threat to America is hiding in plain sight.
It's one of the main headlines that I read this week.
It's the changing of the guard in our culture and how many today are calling our constitution
outdated and we just need to do away with it.
You know why that is?
Because our constitution holds mankind accountable.
You can't just do what you will.
You can't just have it your way.
It's not McDonald's.
You can't have it your way.
And that's what's bothering some people because our culture is slowly making this a moral
turn away from God.
And there's too much mention of God, his existence, and our submission to him in that document.
So we got to get away from that.
I thought that article really struck me.
The simple greatest threat to America is hiding in plain sight.
Well, how's that so?
Have you not been watching any of the news?
I know it's hard to look at.
I know it's hard to watch.
But our universities are rioting in the street celebrating terrorism.
The so-called smart folk.
Hello?
Some are too smart for their own good.
And I've told you before, common sense isn't so common in our culture anymore.
I looked it up this morning just to see.
And I'm sure it's updated since midnight last night at my last count at 10 o'clock, there
were 21 earthquakes around the world.
21 measuring from 2.7 to 6.3 in magnitude.
21 since 12 a.m.
This whole earth is rocking, isn't it?
It's groaning.
It's moaning according to the author of Acts.
Luke records she's groaning, longing for her day of redemption.
These are all things that are happening.
What else happened in our culture?
Israel went with its ground invasion, the beginning stages.
While that is going on, right in the middle of this event, I'm watching the news and there
was an alert came over and the anchor switched his story from the ground invasion to the
state of Maine.
An unstable individual took 19 lives which included his own.
This world is topsy-turvy.
This world is upside down.
Things are happening.
In spite of all those things, I also read stories where at Auburn University hundreds
of college students, they're not all riding in the streets.
Some are experiencing an encounter of God.
Hundreds of Auburn students were baptized in a lake.
Down at Free Chapel at Jensen Franklin's Church, just a typical service broke out in revival
where hundreds came to an altar one night to receive Jesus Christ as Lord.
What are you trying to get to this morning, Pastor?
What I'm trying to get to is in spite of all the negativity, in spite of all that the enemy
is doing, in spite of all of the signs of the time, God is still good.
Amen?
We get our focus so narrowed down to the negativity that's going on in our world.
The old saying, the squeaky wheel is what's getting the grease.
You know what wheel is squeaking the loudest?
The amoral wheel, the evil wheel is squeaking the loudest.
That's what's being protruded in your face every day.
When you open your phone and you scan the news, that's the images that you get.
What do you get when you get on Facebook?
You see a lot of the negativity that's going on in the world and what's happening in your
friends' and families' lives.
We're being posted out there everywhere, some for good intention.
They are needing a prayer to go on and a vigil to take place on their behalf.
But that's not always what's happening.
But I know this much, while that is taking place, God is still at work.
God is still doing some good things for those who call on Him and those who love Him.
He's still at work.
We're still getting some good reports for you.
Don't have to go back for six months and have another checkup because the cancer's gone
and they've got it all and God was faithful and He's kept you and He brought you through
and we get to rejoice with those types of testimonies.
It's not all evil in this world because God is beyond good and God is still moving and
God is still saving and God is still healing and God is still delivering and He's doing
so for all who will call upon His name.
However, we live in a world bound by limits.
We live in a world of fixed limitations.
We live in a world where physical strength is limited.
I saw it yesterday.
I saw physical strength limited.
I saw Brother Brian get a catch in his back.
We're sitting counter tops at the house, nine foot sheets of granite.
The fellow that's having me set it is about this big.
He's a Hispanic brother.
I've known him for almost 20 years now.
He's about this big and we're looking at these nine foot pieces of granite.
He said, Pastor, can we get some help?
I said, I know a man bigger than both of us.
So he rolls up second lift.
I seen him, he had his hips kind of twisted.
We come up with that granite and I saw it in his eyes.
I said, uh-oh, we're in trouble.
So he's kind of gimping around this morning.
Physical strength has limited.
Should have called show guns and put him on the other end and would have been good.
I wouldn't have had to touch it.
I wouldn't have this thing I got going up my neck.
We live in a world that has fixed limits.
Machinery has limitations.
Maths has limitations.
Medicine has limitations.
There's some things that we cannot do for ourselves, but I'm here to tell you again
this morning and just to remind you, we serve a God who is not limited by anything.
Amen.
He is all powerful.
He has all knowledge.
Amen.
He is ever present.
He's all places at all times and the God that you serve is able to sustain you and to keep
you and to carry you through all the negativity that's going on in this world.
Hear me, child of God.
Don't be alarmed.
Don't be alarmed by the factions of what's taking place in the Middle East.
It's already been warned.
You've already been told and we already understand that all of that has to happen so that we
can hear the trumpet, the alarm of the child of God to be notified of the appearance of
the Son of the Living God, your Savior, your Redeemer in the sky.
All of this has to happen.
Don't be frightened.
Don't be afraid.
Just be ready.
Hallelujah.
Just be ready.
Don't be anxious.
Don't be nervous.
Just be ready because in the moment in the twinkling of an eye, when that trump sounds
and that archangel gives his shout, there's going to be a transformation that takes place.
It's going to blow the mind of every earthly being.
They're going to see something because of the absence of others.
You and I are going to be gone.
We're going to be taken.
Don't be alarmed because he is beyond good.
Our scripture this morning tells us of a man who has some physical limitations going on.
He's unable to hear and he's unable to make audible speech.
He's making noises, but there's no clarification.
This is what we have to deal with today in a lot of cases.
We need to understand that even though we can't go beyond silence at times, we can't
go beyond the limitations of our physicality.
We have to understand that we have not totally exhausted the power and the authority and
the resources that we have in God.
You may come to those moments of limitation when I begin to look for that definition to
be limited, the word limit is a point or a level which something does not or may not
extend past, a restriction.
Amen.
It's a restriction.
When I begin to think about limits, listen to this, to be limited is to be restricted,
resisted or restrained.
A spirit of limitation can delay you from getting to or receiving from God what he has
destined for you in your life.
It's not all about the physical restrictions and the physical limits.
There are spiritual limits that you put on God.
God is not limited, but we limit his moving in our life because of the spirit of limitation.
How does this begin to take place?
Pastor, the things that cause this limit of us receiving from God are this, doubt will
limit you from getting anything from God.
Unbelief will limit you from getting, it doesn't limit his power to get it to you.
It limits you from believing and receiving.
Disobedience will limit you.
Sin will limit you.
Rebellion will limit you.
Any effect of the enemy given into or trying to come over or you to surrender to will cause
the limitation of God's goodness and glory.
He's not limited in giving it, but we limit ourselves in receiving it.
It's this limitation that we put on him when we automatically think, when we see the mountain,
when we see the limitation physical or whatever, we begin to thank God.
There's no way this can happen.
Well, you're already put up a roadblock.
You've already put up a limit sign.
You've already put up a restriction.
When you confess to yourself that this is impossible, what you need to remind yourself
is this, with men things are impossible, but not with God.
All things are possible to those who believe.
The possibilities are limitless in God.
You are the one who bring, we bring about spiritual limitations on our life.
I'm here to remind you this morning, do not limit God and what God can do or what God
will do.
These things bring about limitations.
The spirit sets on doubt, disbelief, unbelief, rebellion, disobedience.
Sin is a big limiter.
Hello?
God is not going to bless your sin.
Are you hearing me?
You limit his goodness in your life when sin is present, but that's easy.
There's an easy remedy for that.
People say, oh, it's so hard to get rid of sin.
No, it's not.
It's not hard to get rid of it.
It's just hard to keep from doing it.
It's easy to get shed of it.
Hello?
How so?
If any man sins, according to the word of God, he has an advocate with the Father, Christ
Jesus the righteous.
And if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to
cleanse us of all our unrighteousness.
It's not the hard parts not getting rid of it.
The hard part of it is quit committing it.
In other words, you got to take authority over your flesh.
You got to take authority over your mind.
You got to take authority over your spirit and get it yielded and submitted under the
mighty hand of God that when you draw near him, he'll draw near to you and you'll understand
he's beyond good.
Take off the limiters.
We govern back.
How many know what a governor is?
It's a device on a carbureted engine.
There's some truck drivers in here.
The company's got you governed back to about 65.
And you want to do something about those people fussing at you going down the road, but you
just can't.
You got her pegged foot, I mean out there in the injector now, but that's all you can
get is 65.
Can I tell you something?
Take the governor off of God.
Take the limiter off of God.
He's wanting to throttle up your life.
Hello.
What are you saying?
He's wanting to give you the gas.
He's wanting to rev you up.
He's wanting to take you beyond the limits that you are limiting him with in your life.
I just don't believe that.
Well, I'm glad you don't because I'm about to give you some book chapter to let you know
that you can.
Psalm 78 and 41.
Yay.
They.
You need to underline this little word, they.
You do know that's a new identification today.
There's he, him, her and she and they and them.
Like it's a new thing.
There's always been they and them.
If you amen real good, I'd have preached it, but you didn't.
So we shall move on.
Yay.
They turned back and tempted God.
Are you with me?
Are you here?
And limited the holy one of Israel.
Now this is in the day of provocation.
What's that?
It's in the wilderness when the children of Israel were brought to the edge of the promised
land.
Spies were seen in.
They come back 10 with evil reports and two with a good report.
And they tempted God.
Why?
Because they put limits on themselves.
How so?
How many remember the text?
How many remember the story?
Were you at you Bible readers when they said we are as grasshoppers in our own eyes and
so we are in theirs?
Do you see the limit?
They just put a halt on the promise.
They put a 40 year delay on the promise.
That's the reason I gave you the limiter about it just a minute ago.
We can put restrictions and restraints on ourselves.
God wanted them in then.
God said I'll go before you now.
He wasn't having to be delayed.
His power wasn't short.
Their faith was short.
They saw themselves as something that God did not see them as.
You've got to understand it's greater than he that is in you than he that is in this
world.
You've got to understand it's not by might nor by power but it's by my spirit saith the
Lord.
So don't look at what you've come up against and put it in measurements to your own ability
but measure it in the ability of he that is in you and the devil will flee from you if
you will just simply let God rise.
It's the spirit of limitation.
Churches put it on like a blanket.
You see how that displayed right there?
Talking about a particular people who confessed to him we don't want no more people.
I like a small church and I'm thinking it's not your church.
That's what I told him.
I said who do they think they are?
It's not theirs.
When we begin to take possession and ownership of something that doesn't belong to us it's
called thievery.
So they're trying to steal from God what belongs to him.
It's his house.
It's his church and he'll do with it whatsoever he wills.
We simply have to be obedient but the limiters is there's a limit of faith because people
don't like it crowded.
My, my, my don't you just love a good crowd.
Some of you don't know where that's going so you don't know where to clap or not.
This kingdom isn't about us it's about him.
And I'll tell you what God will do in a place where he's being lifted up his son is being
lifted up.
You do remember the text correctly.
If I be lifted up I'll draw all men unto me.
Are you hearing me?
That's the book.
The Bible declares Jesus of himself said if the son of man be lifted if I be lifted up
if I be exalted I will draw men will be drawn.
So any church is proclaiming the life-giving hope of an unlimited God who will work through
and to people and in people who put no restrictions and limits on him he will begin to move and
the walls will begin to be moved down and you'll have to extend your tent stakes.
Not one thing I found out about God he won't force goodness and blessings on anyone.
He won't force it.
If you don't want it don't worry you're not going to have to fend it off.
Hello?
I've had people tell me that man I don't know about that Holy Ghost stuff.
I said well you don't have to.
What you mean?
I said well if you're not wanting it if you don't want him if you don't want his power
if you don't want his ability if you don't want his strength in your life don't worry
he ain't gonna shove it down your throat.
You don't have to be worried about this Holy Ghost thing.
You've got no worry because you're not in danger of him getting on you.
Now you might sit close to somebody that's got a good double dose and get a little splash
every now and then you go oh.
Hello?
Oh what was that?
Don't worry that's all you're gonna get.
A little splash.
Hello?
People say I don't know about that rolling in the floor.
I said well don't worry about it you're not gonna be down there.
I don't know about running around.
Look don't be concerned because you're not gonna move.
Well why?
Because you don't want to.
Sometimes in the moment you take the limiters off of God and say God I need more of you.
I want more of you.
Show me that glory they were singing about.
Throw me that authority.
Show me that power.
Show me your anointing.
I surrender.
I take the limits off.
If there's any sin in me I confess it.
I repent.
Wash me.
Purge me.
Cleanse me.
Oh my God sanctify me.
Clean me up.
I want some of that.
But if you don't want it don't worry honey all you're gonna do is be embarrassed by the
rest of us that's got it.
When I was growing up I used to get embarrassed if I had a friend come to church because I
knew.
Just as sure as you could get anybody to our church.
Look when I was growing up our church was right on the little side road, blacktop road.
For fun us boys would take our pocketknives.
Where's the needle now?
He in there a little bit older than me.
We carried our pocketknives around.
You know what we would do before church before it got dark?
We didn't have a basketball goal.
That was sin in my day.
We'd take our pocketknives and dig bullets out of the board and batten.
Where the idiots drive down the road and shoot at the church.
That's what we did for fun.
Dig 22 bullets out of the wall.
Huh?
How many of you got that testimony in your past?
You got to dig bullets out of your church wall.
But I remember going in there we were building that little church as a house we converted
out of the bathroom on the back.
And I remember dad up there playing his old guitar.
Light strung down through on a drop cord through the middle of the church.
No limits on God.
Holy Ghost begin to move.
People's lives begin to be touched.
Change agent begin to happen.
People got washed up, sanctified, filled with his glorious Holy Ghost power.
Begin to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave.
It was none of this wildfire garbage at our place.
I'm telling you that was enough of the real to burn out anything that might flash up or
flare up.
They could spot them a mile away.
And when they get them Holy Ghost eyes tuned in on you and come at you with a bottle of
oil, you will be getting out the door or you'll be getting right.
We have got to take the limits off of God.
We got to take our hands off.
They limited God in the day of provocation.
Instead of entering into the promised land, they tempted God and said, God, you ain't
good enough.
We can't do it.
God said, okay, you wonder for 40 years and we'll get back to this.
Somebody needs to know he ain't opposed to you wandering around until you get your mind
made up.
He's not going to shove you into a land flowing with milk and honey.
He'll lead you to it.
And he'll make a promise.
He told Moses, I'll go before you.
That's where we get the words for the song we did this morning.
Moses said, well, if you don't go, I ain't going.
But if you go and show me a little bit of that glory, take the limits off God.
I want to see it.
Well, son, you can't see it all.
You can't hold up to it.
I know you sit the bush.
Hello.
Where my Bible readers at?
You know, everybody knows the Bush story when he had to take his shoes off and got close
to that Bush because he heard the voice out of that burning bush said, take your shoes
off for now.
You standing on holy ground.
I got a mission for you.
I'm here to tell somebody God's still got a mission for you.
He's just waiting on you to get your shoes off and get ready.
He's waiting on you to get back to the edge of the promise where he can take you all the
way.
He's waiting on you to get the limits off where he can go beyond good in your life.
Well, we've about slipped into one this morning.
I believe I'm preaching about two dozen folks.
It's ready to get the limits off.
I don't know about the other hundred of you, but I think there's at least two or three
dozen that's ready to get the limiters off.
I think they some folks ready to get some separation.
They're ready to get some shoes off and get on some holy ground.
I think it's time.
I think it's time we shake it off.
We've got used to a few more folk.
I think we can get used to a few more.
Why?
Because pastor, let me tell you today, I've got friends, I've got neighbors, I've got
family that the devil's tormenting their life.
They can't sleep well.
They can't rest well.
They're getting diagnosis after diagnosis.
Well, can I tell you something?
This lame man had a diagnosis.
He was deaf and dumb and I wanted you to take a hold of that little four letter word, they.
They brought him.
They besought him.
Can I tell you this morning, if this old crazy world's got anything right, you're the they.
Who are the they?
They are the they that believe that all things are possible.
They are the ones who are trusting you this morning and it's up to you to go get them.
It's up to you to go find them and bring them in and we'll besiege him on their behalf.
First thing he did is he got them out.
There's something about getting out before you can get in.
You got to get out before you can get in.
Out of what?
Out of your own way?
Some of you folk, your biggest problem is you.
It's not the devil.
You.
For many years, I was my own problem.
And can I tell you today, the limit that I have on God for what I receive in my life,
it's not God's problem, it's mine.
Hello?
What do you mean?
Do you limit God?
Well, I do because I'm not seeing what I want to see yet.
What is that?
That shekinah glory.
That cloud of the Holy One moving into this place, hovering where none of us are able
to get on our feet, but we're prostrated before the holy presence of our holy God.
And then when people get up, cancers are gone.
When people get up, backs are healed and arms are healed and shoulders are healed and cataracts
are removed and glaucoma is taken care of and high blood pressure is taken care of and
diabetes has been rebuked.
All of these things are possible in that glory that Moses said he wanted to see and that's
the desire that is beginning to build in my heart.
We're not praying enough for it yet, but God's already moving me and we're going to get back
to praying again.
I was thinking the other day, for about two years we met on Thursday, a year and a half
maybe, Thursday morning.
And I began to think back since we stopped meeting, what we are experiencing is the harvest
of those prayers.
Yeah?
Anywhere from three to ten or twelve of us would gather on Thursday morning.
I know it wasn't a very conducive time for those of you that work, but it was the hour
that the Lord put on my heart and so that's why we did it.
So get ready to start adjusting your schedule.
First of all, how many want more?
You want more of God.
Yeah, I mean, I know it can be a scary type thing because we don't know what God's going
to do when he shows up.
It can be uncomfortable, but like I said, don't worry about it.
You sit close enough to the back or you won't have to worry about it, but I dare you to
get in it.
I challenge you when I set this time of prayer, you start praying whether you can come here
to do it or not.
There's something about corporate prayer.
There's something about it when people of God get together, set aside all agendas and
pray together.
Amen?
No preaching prayer, no singing.
Pray.
If you get consistent, you'll pray everything you know to pray in about four minutes.
The first two or three times together.
Yeah, and you're going to think, my Lord, I've been here for 30 minutes and you're going
to look at your clock and it's going to be, I ain't been here for five minutes.
But if you'll get consistently practicing prayer, next thing you know, you'll look at
that watch and say, I've been here an hour.
I can give you a formula to get you to an hour.
Hello?
Nothing wrong with an hour prayer.
We do want God to intervene in our crisis and situations.
They brought this man to Jesus who was his only hope and his only answer.
And then Jesus takes him out of the mist of unbelief and doubt that he was surrounded
by.
He put his fingers in his ears.
He spit and he touched old boy's tongue and he began to hear and began to speak plainly.
So much so that their astonishment, the Bible says they were beyond astonished.
That's the way I want to be.
That's the way I want to leave here on Sundays, Wednesdays, when any time that we gather.
That's the way I want to leave here that we've been in his presence.
And when he does his wonderful, mighty deeds on people and in people and through people,
I want to leave here scratching my head.
My Lord, I've never seen it quite like that before.
Isn't that what the disciples and others said when Jesus spoke to the wind and the waves
in their private conversation.
Man, he's even got power over the wind and the waves.
I've never seen it and never heard it.
Never seen anything like this before.
That's what I'm longing for.
I don't need a recap of 1886.
I don't need a recap of 30 years ago.
I need a fresh outpouring.
I'm longing for a limit to be taken off and people's faith to rise to a level that God
is able to do all things and exceed your expectation and exceed my expectation and see the most
vile sinners saved.
They said he was beyond astonishing.
He's beyond good.
It was a good thing that he did, but it was better than that.
They were amazed.
They took him aside.
He got him out of that mess.
He looked up.
There's an acknowledgement.
Jesus looked up to heaven.
He realizes that all things good come from above.
Isn't that what James said?
All those good and perfect things come from above, come from God in whom there is no shadow
or variableness of turning.
The consistency of God remains.
He did it in James's day.
He did it in Peter's day.
He did it in Paul's day.
He's still doing it today.
Why?
Because he is still good.
It takes an acknowledgement toward heaven that we take the limitations off of God through
our doubt and our unbelief.
In Kings 13, it's the story of King Josiah who comes to an elderly prophet, oh, Elisha.
He's sick.
The Bible says he's laying in the bed sick of the disease that he would ultimately die
from.
Here comes the king of Israel, comes into Elisha's presence.
He has a problem with Syria.
They still got a problem with Syria, but they're working on it.
Hello?
But let me just give you a little tidbit right here.
They wouldn't have to be working on it today if Josiah would have took care of it the day
he went into the prophet's room.
He come in, I love the story.
He gave that wonderful shout, the horseman of God and the chariot of Israel, and the
old prophet stirred up because he remembered that saying.
You remember the day Elijah was took out of his presence when that fiery chariot come
down, picked him up, and he's standing there with drool?
It's a day he wouldn't soon forget.
How so?
It's the day that he picked up the anointing as well.
It was a day that that cloak of Elijah come fluttering back toward the earth, and Elisha
picks it and walks to the Jordan, and he smites the waters of Jordan with the cloak of Elijah
and made this declaration, where is the Lord God of Elijah?
I'm ready to get a mantle and go to smiting.
I'm ready to see the Lord God of Elijah.
You're just going to have to bear with me.
I didn't get to preach last week.
I got to get two weeks worth and it's still five till.
That is the recognition that the old sick prophet heard on his deathbed, and a realization
struck him.
The Jordan stood at attention, so he sat up, picked up a bow, said, here, take it.
Loose an arrow out the window.
And the king immediately looses the arrow.
Then he hands him the quiver, hands him a handful.
He said, now you smite, strike the earth.
I can see an old king in his pompous arrogant attitude.
Hello?
I told you we get in our own way sometimes.
We're the one that do the limiting.
So to appease the prophet, he just half-heartedly taps the ground three times.
And there was enough life, and oh, Elijah, he come up.
Oh, had a wobbly prophet come up.
Something was still in him.
What are you doing?
You should have not stopped less than five or six strikes to the ground.
If you would have followed through, if you would have had faith, if you didn't have
to just been eager, you would have destroyed them.
But not now.
You're going to defeat them.
You're going to put them at bay, but they're still going to be there if you would have
just not limited God.
How many times do we come into a church service like the king came before?
Oh, Elijah, half-hearted.
We come in after a bad day on the gridiron, and we're put out because they didn't perform
the way we thought they should have.
Are you with me?
Huh?
Whatever it is that puts you out, some folks get, I've got pastor friends in Knoxville
that when the Vols lose, their attendance is down 12, 15, 18% on Sunday.
Now I'm here to tell you something this morning.
Get ready.
I hope your skids got grease on it because I'm about to apply.
It's about the most pathetic, pitiful thing I've heard of and I have experienced myself.
I'm not talking about the people.
I'm talking about me.
It almost happened again yesterday.
I didn't need that.
Oh, that wasn't her.
It come from that section.
I thought she a manned that real loud.
It was a solemn, just a man.
I thought, baby.
Forgive me, honey.
That wasn't you.
Who was it?
Sister D.O.
Hey!
You're forgiven.
But that's about pitiful, isn't it?
That we, the bloodbath, the born again, supposedly sanctified, hopefully filled with the Holy
Ghost, let something like that deter us so much that we can't even praise the God of
our salvation on Sunday or whatever it was that keeps you from it.
A bad Saturday.
That's the reason I try to stay alone on Saturday.
I try to separate myself.
I don't need anything else.
And I've learned over the years to just turn the thing off.
I watched Clint Eastwood.
Pale Rider was on.
I thought, that's better than what's going on over there on ES and PN.
You know, you can take an axe handle to the devil, but you still can't make that bunch
catch a ball.
Hello?
But no, here we'll stroll in on Sunday morning.
We've stayed up.
Now, one o'clock is my average all week long.
So it's got nothing to do with staying up.
It's attitude when we get here.
Do you know why I'm in my office to 10.30 every Sunday morning?
So that that attitude stays in check.
Hello?
Because you wouldn't believe some of the stuff you can get dumped on you.
Well, you might.
You're the ones that dump.
Right before you preach, you say, boy, you're feeling it today.
Yes, I am.
Because why?
It's time for us to take the limits off of God.
I'm not talking about serious deeds.
I'm not talking about things that we urgently need God to move on our behalf.
That's not what I'm talking about.
It's just the random stuff.
It's hard enough for us.
And it's a challenge for us.
And I think this is where the Lord is trying to get us to go.
If we will begin to focus more and prepare ourselves more for the atmosphere of worship
that we are trying to create, we're not setting lights and smoke and all of this.
It's the praises of the people, the atmosphere for God to move in.
It's us lifting our voices.
It's you raising your hands.
It's you clapping them together.
Whether you know the words or not, you can still worship God and praise him and acknowledge
him.
God, I'm in your house.
And I thank you for what you've done this week.
I thank you for what you're doing.
And, oh God, I worship you from the depth of my heart.
And we create an atmosphere where the limits are taken off because he dwells within the
praises of his people.
And his power begins to move.
His glory begins to descend.
And our faith begins to be lifted up.
And we take the limits off of God.
And God begins to move.
We let too much of the world affect our faith and our response toward God.
They brought him.
They beseeched him.
He removed him.
He looked up to heaven.
And then he touched him.
Now there's a formula.
You hear it?
Separation.
Elevation.
Manifestations.
Tell me you got that.
Our stenographer on the front row.
That's what happens.
That's how it works.
Separation, elevation, and manifestation.
When we truly separate ourselves from the world that we're so surrounded by every other
day of the week.
And that we spend our Saturday afternoons, evenings, nights preparing for this moment.
Are you hearing me?
If we would prepare our soul, if you would prepare your spirit as much as we prepare
other things in our lives.
We wash and polish our automobiles.
Most of you do.
Mine's still got mud in it from the last Arkansas duck trip.
Whatever it is that takes away our undivided attention and our focus from God.
You do realize that we come in here to meet him, right?
That's the whole purpose of coming in here on Sunday.
That's the whole purpose of us uniting and coming together as the unison body of Christ.
That we may again encounter the presence of our holy God.
That's the reason I'm such a stickler on no drinks and stuff in the sanctuary.
No coffee.
No, you've heard those.
I think this is the holy place.
This is the place where we prepare to meet God.
And we can't meet him in the way that we need to meet him if we're limited by a latte.
Come on somebody.
Because he deserves our undivided attention.
I'm not talking about a cheese and a Cheerio for the babies.
I'm talking about a sausage, egg, McMuffin for you.
I'm talking about it's time for us to take away some of the limits and go to see God
beyond good.
To encounter his beyond goodness.
But we have a spirit of limitation over us.
We have a spirit of limitation that we bring in on Sunday.
We have it.
When things get to the place, when the rudimentary inconvenience is no longer inconvenience us
because we're so concentrated and so focused on getting into God's presence and so focused
into pouring our soul and our hearts out to him.
And we're so focused on hearing his word and him hearing our praise and our worship.
Because you know he longs to hear it.
The father seeks such who will worship him in spirit and in truth.
He seeks it.
He longs for it.
Why?
Because he's a jealous God.
Why do you think he said have no other gods before me?
Don't you dare bow down to any other graven image.
So where we are with our children sometimes, especially as they grow older, mothers often
speak these words, I brought you into this world and I'll take you out.
He brought us into this world.
You don't want to get out of here without him.
So I think if we will remove some of these things that limit our focus, we will see this
astonishment for ourselves.
I believe we too can be astonished.
One of the most astounding things and presences of God that you'll ever be a part of is what
I only know how to explain as a holy hush.
When there's such an oppression, and I mean it that way, when there's such an oppression
of his presence where you dare not lift your head, you dare not speak, and God forbid that
you move a muscle.
Those are the moments when, I mean, shouting's great.
I love to shout.
All that's good stuff.
It's wonderful.
But there's nothing that brings the reminder of the awe and the revered of God other than
when his presence comes in and you are arrested by his glory.
And you leave thinking, what just happened?
I've seen it arrest the congregation for over 45 minutes and it was nearly two o'clock on
a Sunday morning.
No one would move.
No babies cried.
No babies fidgeted.
None of that.
I'm talking about not a sound.
You begin to wonder what is happening.
And I mean there's nothing and we're just arrested.
And before it's over, all you can hear is low moans and weeping begin to rise up because
of the acknowledgement of a holy God.
Are you hearing me this morning?
Our God is holy and he deserves the revere and the worship and the attention of his people
when we gather.
And I think we're just a few limits away from entering in.
I think we just got to do some personal housekeeping.
Are you hearing pastor this morning?
How we have to do is some personal guidance in our own lives and get some issues in check
in our own lives and get our attitudes wrapped around so that we are those so focused they
brought him so that when we bring people all our mind is on is God touching them.
You see the shift moves from you to them.
When you get so focused and you're in his presence and you take the limits off of God
for your own life, when you get others near his glory, it doesn't become about you.
Your prayers shift, your prayer changes and you're sitting there thinking God they've got
this going on, they've got that going on, they got this report, this, this, this and
you're praying for them that they would encounter the same glory that you have been encountering.
Stand with me or I'll go all day.
I am not finished but I am done.
I don't know how do you give an altar call?
How do we respond to a word like this?
If I give an altar call you're not going to move.
So how do we respond?
Are you starting to follow me here with the limitations?
We limit God's glory and power moving in our life when we hear the declaration of his word
and we've truly feel as though we've heard a word from heaven but then we are restrained
because we don't respond or move.
Are you hearing me?
So what do we do?
How do we take off the limits?
Take off the limiters, take off the governor and let God have full reign and full throttle
in our lives.
Only thing I know, I don't want to be shocked at all when he moves.
I want to be amazed by what he does but not by his doing it.
That make sense?
I don't want to leave going like, well boy, I'm amazed God showed up today.
That's not what I'm after.
I want it to be, wow, God showed up today because of my expectation for him to do so.
Only way I know to do it.
How many are ready to take the limits off?
If that's you, just come join me in this altar.
Get as tight as you can.
You folks up front got to move on up toward that bottom step.
Come on in here.
You want the limits off.
You don't want to be the limiter.
You don't want to be in doubt.
You don't want to be in disbelief but you want to believe God.
You have needs.
You know people who have needs and you want to see God totally unrestricted in their lives.
I think one of the things that makes Hopewell so unique, we're not going to put on airs
about anything.
I'm about as real as you'll ever encounter.
I don't care to tell you when to mess up because I know I'm not perfect.
I need Jesus.
I need him every single day of my life.
I want you to know that.
I don't know if you do it in your life.
I practice repentance every day.
It's a part of my daily prayer and my daily meditations.
Every single day because I know the old wretched man that I am.
Sometimes my attitude stinks and the Holy Ghost has to tune me up.
So when you hear me preach as though I've, the way I have this morning, know this, it's
come from the filter of my heart.
The Holy Ghost is ringing me out.
I don't even say some of the things that come to my mind.
I'm going to determine within myself, I'm not going to be one of the limiters.
Whatever you want to do, God, I want to see your glory.
I'm going to separate.
I'm going to elevate so that he can manifest.
How many are willing to do that?
Separate.
Now look, just a second.
I'm talking about where the scripture says, lay aside the weight and the sin, S-I-N, which
doth so easily beset you so that you may run this race with patience.
You know that nagging thing that the devil always gets you with.
Some of you may have to do some changing on your phone package.
You've got more access than you'd be needing.
Oh, come on.
How do you know that?
Because there's algorithms generated by a world that is amoral, going as fast as they
can away from God.
And whether you search for it or not, it pops up.
Anybody besides me been violated?
You just don't want to own up to it.
Same algorithms are running on your phones.
Be careful.
We're going to change my package.
I don't want to see it.
Don't need to see it.
Got no desire to see it.
That's some separating.
We got to separate.
Then we're going to have to elevate our attention, our focus.
Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven.
What does the psalm say?
I lifted my eyes into the hills.
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the Lord, who is the maker of the heavens and the earth.
I think today is going to be a marker.
I know it is for my life, for what I know I'm experiencing right now.
And our time together on Sunday mornings, if you're going to have to slip out, sit toward
the back where you can get at.
I'm not going to limit any more of this time factor.
I want God.
I need God.
My children need God.
My grandchildren need God.
My brothers need God.
My nephews need him.
I'm not just talking about, oh, they need him.
No.
They need him.
And I got to take some limiters off so I can rev up and get a little more RPM to receive
what we need in my family.
I'm talking about my family and I know some of you, yours is going to hell in a hand basket
too.
But if the devil is going to take the basket, he's going to have to rip it out of my hand.
I've done fool around and got spiritually mad, brother Terry.
My righteous indignation has stirred up.
I could carry less if we do, we're going to do events.
Don't take this wrong.
I don't care if we do another one.
I want God.
We had a wonderful time last week.
Outside what we did last week was as in alignment with scripture as you can get.
That's as a koinonia fellowship as you can lace together the word, worship and the people
of God together.
We're going to do those things.
We're going to take off some of the limiters.
Father I love you.
If you mean it from your heart, pray it with me.
Father I now decide to separate.
You can take me out like you did this deaf and dumb man.
You took him away from what was hindering him, what was limiting him.
Take me away, separate me.
Help me separate.
Let me identify.
Holy ghost, Holy ghost quicken my spirit this week.
Quicken me, quicken me.
And if there's limiters, you just check me.
You check me, Holy ghost, you check me.
Check me.
And God I pray over the discernment of every person here who's making a bow before you
this morning, making a commitment to you today.
I pray their discernment level goes up five notches so that they know when you quicken
their spirit.
Check, check, check, check.
That's a limiter check.
Separate it from me.
Separate it.
Separate it from me.
I choose to start elevating my gaze.
Jesus I'm going to follow your example.
When you broke the bread on both occasions and when you were at Lazarus' tomb about
to raise him up every time you lifted your eyes toward heaven.
How can I expect a great and mighty miracle if I'm not focused on heaven?
So I make a commitment today.
I'm going to change my focus.
I'm going to change my modus operandi.
I'm going to change the way I function.
I'm making a commitment.
My family's dying without you.
And if Lord, if what's going on in the Middle East is an indicator of your soon return,
if this is setting it all into motion, I'm not going to be frightened.
I'm not going to be scared, but I'm going to be ready and I'm going to help try to get
as many as I can ready.
If this is the event, if you're about to split those eastern skies, I'm ready.
I'm looking up.
I got to be looking up to see you anyway.
Hallelujah.
Now Father, as I separate and elevate, I long for you to manifest.
Show us your glory.
I'm going to beat the ground until I break the arrow shafts.
I've not stopped it.
I'm going to beat them plum down until there's no feathers left.
I'm striking the ground.
How many of you are willing to strike the ground for your family?
Total victory, total annihilation of the enemy, total being done with him.
We take authority today, Lord, that you've given us because you have all authority in
heaven and on earth.
We walk in that today.
Now Lord, you speak to us.
Lord, we're coming into the holidays.
We're going to go through a season of thanksgiving.
We're going to enter into a season of rejoicing for the joy and the peace that you placed
on earth.
These next two months, we're going to start shifting our focus and going to be ready for
2024.
Now, what I need you to do is pray that God gives me the theme, the purpose, the word,
the idea, the thought, the direction, the message, the mission, whatever it is for 2024.
I need your help because I don't want to play church.
I'm not interested in that.
I want to see his glory.
And I just believe that there's enough people related to you, connected to you to feel this
place twice that need to experience that glory in their life.
Granted, Father, we're here.
We're here.
I'm going to be here.
Oh, Jesus.
Mighty God.
Separate, elevate, manifest.
I want to throw that word motivate.
Elevate, separate, motivate because some of you like me, we need a little bit more spiritual
motivation.
And don't think for a moment the limiters cannot be spiritual because the story in Mark
7, before we get to the deaf and dumb man, is the Syrophoenician woman who makes her
way to Jesus' feet and he rebukes the spiritual bondage off of her daughter.
So let the Holy Ghost speak to you.
Father, I love you.
I thank you.
Go with your people this morning.
May your face smile upon them as we take the next two months to align, to come to alignment,
to separate, to discipline ourselves, to elevate so that you are able to motivate.
Because if we're motivated, you will be here.
You will show up.
Your glory will move.
In Jesus' name I pray.
Amen.
And amen.
My God.
Phew.