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Week number four in our series that's entitled
The Glory. Everybody say the glory. Let's start
with Moses. He had spent at least 40 days, at
least a couple of times on Mount Sinai, spending
time with God. After he came down, they had had
time to build the tabernacle, the tent, that
they went for the next 40 years. They had it
with them in the wilderness. And as they were
getting ready to leave, to head to the promised
land, which really should have just been about
five or six days from that point, I would think.
It wound up being 40 years. It wasn't God's fault
that it wound up being 40 years. But before they
leave, Moses talks to God and he says this. He
says, God, your presence among us. sets your
people and me apart from all other people on
the earth. I've read that story a lot. You know,
because Moses says to God, if you're not going
with us, don't send us up from here. That's how
important it was for him. He didn't want to just
visit God at Mount Sinai. He wanted God to be
with him. Just like we just shouldn't want to
visit God at church. but have God with us, right?
But I'd never noticed this verse until we, like
we're working on the first week of this series.
Because in the New Testament, we talk about it
a lot, right? We talk about, they will know that
we are Christ's followers. They will know that
we are Christians by what? Who remembers? By
our love. Everybody say love. But here, We find
out that they don't only know that we are Christians
by our love. They also can recognize that we
are God's people by his presence. Everybody say
his presence. He says, your presence among us,
God. Says your people and me apart from all other
people on earth. So God's presence sets us apart.
And then a few verses later, Moses is talking
with God. He's still talking with God. And he
says this, God, show me your glory. Show me your
glory. Show me your glorious presence. Show me
your glorious presence. Now that word glory in
the Hebrew is kabod. Here's what it means. It
means wait. And this version of the word is used
figuratively in a good sense. It's always good.
Now, there is a version of the word that can
be good or bad, but this version of the Hebrew
word is always talking about wait in a good sense.
And I don't know if you've encountered it or
not, but the encounters I've had with the manifested
presence of God, I could almost always say that
it seems like there's a weight that I can sense
it. I can sense His presence. And it's like a
weight. The word is translated glory, splendor,
honor. Same word can be translated in English
in either one of those. So, here Moses is saying,
God, show me your glory. Let me experience your
glorious presence. Do you think that he had experienced
it before? I mean, obviously, if he spent 40
days on the top of the mountain with God, just
him and God, 40 days at least a couple of times.
Do you think he's experienced the presence of
God? Somebody say yes. Right? And then, as we're
talking about the presence and the glory of God,
we need to recognize that Moses didn't ask for
anything personally at this time. When he was
talking to God, he didn't ask that things would
get better. My circumstances will get better.
God, you know these people are pretty rebellious.
You know they're rebellious. God, could you make
them a little bit less rebellious? Could you
make this trip a little easier? Is that what
we normally say when we're talking to God? Come
on. God, you know, everything's just falling
apart. God, I... Can you fix it? Fix it for me.
My husband or my wife, they're rebellious. God,
can you fix it? That's bad. I shouldn't have
said that. Moses didn't cry out to God for better
circumstances. That everything would go his way
a little bit more. He was hungry for God's presence.
He was hungry for God's presence because he had
experienced God's presence. And you know, when
we encounter the presence of God, God's goodness
flows in his presence. So we can pray to experience
his goodness. Or we can pray to experience his
presence. And when we encounter his presence,
his goodness is automatically going to flow.
Let's go over to Psalm 63, verses 1 and 2. This
is David. Everybody say David. The only person
that God called a man after his own heart. This
is David's prayer to God. Oh God, you are my
God. At this time, he was in a wilderness and
it wasn't a great day. He had some pretty great
days, but this wasn't one of them. He's in the
wilderness. Oh God. Not a, oh God. He says, oh
God, you are my God. I earnestly, wholeheartedly
search for you, seek you. My soul, my thoughts,
my desires, my emotions, my soul thirsts for
you. My whole body longs for you in this parched,
and weary land where there's no water. Has anybody
experienced a day that you would say, oh, it's
like parched and weary land today? Anybody? I
think most of you would agree that there's some
days that you might feel like that. Where there's
no refreshing, no water. What's he doing? He's
declaring to God that, God, I want you. He's
not praying, God, give me water. God, don't let
it be so hot or don't let it be so cold. That
was a joke. You didn't laugh that time. If my
fingers are cold, I know you're probably cold.
But I am still sweating, Riley. I am still sweating.
But my fingers aren't sweating. What did David
say? He says, I have seen you in your sanctuary.
Everybody say the presence of God. I've seen
you in your sanctuary and gazed upon your power
and glory. Your presence. David was hungry. Why
was David hungry? Well, because he had seen something.
He was crying out to God because he had experienced
the presence of God before, and now he finds
himself in a place that's not the most comfortable
place, but now he wants the presence of God in
that place. Because he'd seen it. He'd experienced
it before. I've seen you in your sanctuary. So
what is the glory? I kind of already told you.
It's the manifest presence of God. It's the weight
of who he is. It's his goodness revealed. It's
his reality made known. That's what the glory
is. And you might say, well, Dean, you know,
God is omnipresent. Do you not know that? I mean,
you've got a master's degree in theology. Don't
you know that God is omnipresent? Yeah, I know
God's omnipresent. But I've also read some verses.
I've read some other verses that let me know
something. I've read some verses that let me
know that even though God is everywhere all the
time, there's sometimes when He's more here.
If not, the Bible wouldn't say, where two or
three are gathered together in His name, then
He is here. The Bible wouldn't say, you are the
temple of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit.
God is in you. So the more of us that show up,
the more of God that's in the room. The more
we lift up the name of Jesus together and worship
him, the more he is in the room, his manifested
presence. Not just his promised presence. This
was two weeks ago. Ephesians 5, 25. This is all
recap, just getting us all up to speed with some
new thoughts attached. Christ loved the church.
Not a building, not an organization. That word
church is a compound Greek word that means called
out once. Christ loved the church. He gave up
his life for her. To make her holy. Which means
set apart. And clean. Washed by the cleansing
of God's word. He did this. Why did he do it?
To present her. The called out ones. To himself.
As a glorious church. Glorious church. So that
word glorious. New Testament is endoxos. You
say it. It means in. The E -N always means in
in English. In glory. Everybody say in glory.
So Jesus wants his church to be a church that
is in glory. You might say, well, this is a Greek
word instead of a Hebrew word. Well, glory, the
word is doxa. And guess what? It means glory,
splendor, and honor. It also means worship. It
also means worship. But it means worship because
you are... You are in reverence of and you're
honoring the glory and the splendor and the presence
of God. So you can use that word to mean those
things. Just like the word Hosanna means save
us now, but we can use that word as worship because
you're saying you have saved us, right? So we
can use the word doxa, we can use the word glory
to be a praise unto God because he is here. Right?
When you say glory, as a word of worship or a
word of praise, you're saying, God, I acknowledge
that you are here. And you, I honor your weightiness.
your essence, your presence. That Greek word,
if you do a word study, it corresponds to the
Old Testament word. It's not a completely different
word. It corresponds to that Old Testament word.
Both terms convey God's infinite, intrinsic worth,
His substance, and His essence. Both words. And
again, Jesus is coming for a glorious church.
So he's coming for called out ones in his glory.
His manifest essence, presence, and goodness.
People who are encountering God. Not just encountering
religion, but encountering God. This is last
week. Caught you up a little bit on two weeks.
Here's week number three. To them, God willed
to make known what are the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles. That's us,
unless we're Jews. To them, God willed to make
known what are the riches of the... Everybody
say glory. Riches of the glory of this mystery
among the Gentiles. And here's the mystery. Christ
in you. Christ in you. Jesus is seated at the
right hand of the Father in heaven, but he's
also in us. In us. So we are here, but we're
also somewhere else if we're in Christ. We're
seated with Christ in heavenly places. So we
can be here and in heaven at the same time. Look
at the person beside you and say, that's not
too freaky. That's not too freaky. So Jesus is
seated at the right hand of the Father, but He's
also in you. If you are in Him, He is in you.
And what does that mean? What does that give
us? The hope of glory. How many times do we just
read this word glory all through the Bible and
we really don't even think about what it means
or what it's saying? How many times have I read
a verse that had glory in it and I was just like,
well, that's just, it's just a filler word. Hello?
Come on. I know you've always, every time you've
seen the word of glory, you've thought about
the manifest presence of God and His splendor
and His honor and glory. I know every time you've
read it, you've thought that, but I have to be
honest, I have not. And God wills to make known
to you the riches of the glory of this mystery,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. If
you've been in Lathian church much, you should
know what the word hope means. In the Bible,
it doesn't mean hope, so hope. It doesn't mean
like, I hope it don't rain at one o 'clock because
I don't want to get soaking wet more than once
today. I plan on getting soaking wet one time
today. But it's not a hope so hope. Every time
you read hope in the New Testament, it means
a confident expectation and you can anticipate
with pleasure. That's what the word means. So
Christ in you is the hope of glory. Christ in
you is the confident expectation. You can have
a confident expectation of experiencing the manifested
presence and the goodness of God. Because when
Moses said, God, show me your glory, what did
God say? He says, I'm going to hide you, and
then I'm going to go by. My goodness is going
to pass by you, is what God told him. So Christ
in us gives us, if we understand the Bible, if
we understand Scripture, Christ in us gives us
a confident expectation of experiencing the manifested
presence of God and the goodness of God. He's
in us. And if He's good, we are experiencing
His goodness. If we're acknowledging Him and
acknowledging His presence, If we stand in a
hope of experiencing his glory, Christ in you
is the hope of glory. If I was cold, I would
have got up and ran right then. So where is the
glory? Where is it at? Keep talking about it.
Where is it? In the old covenant, God told his
people that he would meet them. above the mercy
seat. The mercy seat was the angels on top of
the Ark of the Covenant, and right in between
that was the mercy seat. And God's glory, he
says, I'll meet you. That's where I'll meet you.
So God's glory on earth was manifested with the
Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant
just couldn't be carried by anybody. It had to
be carried by priests under God's design. and
it was kept in the Holy of Holies. And after
this time in the wilderness, it wound up just
being in the Holy of Holies, and only one priest
could go, and in the temple, it moved to the
temple, only one priest could go one day of the
year to meet with God. To carry the blood for
the mercy seat. I'm glad it's not like that anymore.
Who's glad it's not like that anymore? We got
to have one person born with a certain lineage.
Who can just go once a year to represent us before
God. I'm glad it's not like that. Because now
we're under a new covenant. Listen, God's glory,
Christ in you, the hope of glory. God's coming
for a glorious church. God's glory manifests
in and through his people. Since Christ is in
you. and you're in Christ, you can carry the
connection to God's presence everywhere you go.
We have access to His goodness and His power.
And it's not just the preacher, it's everybody
who's in Christ. And Christ is in them. I don't
know why so many people think that it's just
the preacher. When they need God, they call the
preacher. I don't mind you calling me. Sometimes
it seems like it's set up that way. You know,
if you need God, go see the preacher. If you
need God, get the preacher to pray. I've hit
on this once when we were talking about prayer,
but it's like every time I go out to eat, everybody
looks at the preacher, the professional prayer,
like I'm the only one that can talk to God. It's
not the way it works. Not the way it works. Each
one of us can be as close to God as we want to
be. I'll go ahead and throw this out there. Each
one of us is already as close to God as you want
to be. That's hard preaching. It's good preaching.
See, God pours out his glory. He doesn't just
pick a spot on the map and say, I'm going to
pour out my glory right there. No, it's not the
way it works. God pours out his glory among his
people, and he displays his glory through his
people. Back in the 80s, some of you aren't that
old. Back in the 80s, we would go to church.
Sometimes there was a fight to get to the front,
not a fight to get to the back seat. You're there
today, right? But in the 80s, it was like a fight
to get to the front row. It was a season because
this was a saying. I want to be near the spout
where the glory comes out. So has anybody ever
heard that phrase before? Just me and Irv. We're
the only ones who've ever heard it. So instead
of a fight to get there early enough to get the
back seat, people want it down front. They call
that the spout where the glory comes out. And
I'll just throw it out. I mean, if you sit in
the back, every person in front of you is a potential
distraction to pull your mind away. So I think
that had more to do with it. But the spout where
the glory comes out. John 7, 37. This is Jesus
talking. He says, anyone who is thirsty may come
to me. Anyone who believes in me may come and
drink. Tell the person beside you to say, drink
up. Anyone who is thirsty may come to me. Anyone
who believes in me may come and drink. For the
scriptures declare, rivers of living water will
flow from his heart. Rivers of living water will
flow from his heart. We did a whole series, I
don't know, a couple of years ago based on this
verse. And here's what we discovered. Followers
of Christ should have a flow. Followers of Christ
should have a flow of living water. If we are
connected to God like we're supposed to be, when
we walk in a room like it's available, let's
just say, if we are connected to God like it's
available to us, when we walk in the room, living
water is supposed to just be flowing out of us.
The whole atmosphere of the room should change
when we walk in. Because God's goodness, And
God's life and God's love and God's peace should
be flowing. It should be a river, not a trickle,
but a river flowing out of us. When he said living
water, he was speaking of the spirit who would
be given to everyone believing in him. So God
is in us, but God is not in us. just for our
personal benefit. Most of us, when we look to
God, we say, God, thank you for all you've done.
Thank you for all you're doing. God, thank you
for being for me. God, thank you. And it's just
all about what we can get out of God in this
relationship. I mean, that might be the way we
start. But that shouldn't be the life of a mature
follower of Christ. God should be flowing through
us. Rivers of living water. If it's not, if rivers
of living water are not flowing out of us, it's
not God's fault. It's just that we're not. You
know, we're not serious about it. We're more
serious about everything around us than we are
God. If rivers of living water aren't flowing
out of us. I don't normally preach this hard.
Please come back if you're a first time visitor.
God's glory flows among his people when they
prepare the way for God. That's when the flow
happens. It happens when we prepare the way.
And God wants us to prepare the way. 2 Corinthians
4, verse 6 and 7. For God who said, let there
be light in darkness. Light be, is what he said.
Same God. Same God who said, Let there be light
in darkness. That's how we can see because there's
light. He has made this light, his light, shine
in our hearts. So we could know what? The glory.
The glory of God. So we can know it. So we can
know the glory of God, the manifested presence
of God, the goodness of God, the essence of God.
He made His light shine in our hearts so we could
know the glory of God that is seen in the face
of Jesus Christ. Last week we talked about Stephen's
face looking like an angel. And it freaked everybody
out. Because the glory of God, just like Moses,
the glory of God was imprinted on his face. Now
with Stephen, the glory of God's coming out of
his face. It didn't come on his face, it came
out of his face. Hello? And God wants his glory
to be seen. Not just by you individually. Because
glory even needs to be seen by the world. Verse
7. We now have this light shining in our hearts.
It's in your heart. It's in your spirit. This
word heart is the core. So we're spirit beings,
right? So now we have this light shining in our
spirit. The same light that God said. Light be,
and there's light in the earth. Same light that
radiates. You know what? There's no sun in heaven
because God is the light. His glory is the light.
We have this light shining in our hearts, but
we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing
this great treasure. This makes it clear. It's
not our glory. It's not our light. This makes
it clear that our great power... Wait a minute.
Is there great power of God's goodness flowing
out of you? Sometimes I... When I'm reading the
Bible, I'm just saying, God, we're so far from
this. We're so far from what you're saying. Why
are we so far away? This makes it clear that
our great power is not our great power. Our great
power is from God, not from ourselves. We're
supposed to be powerful, not pitiful. We are
the conduit. We are the vessel. We are the lamp.
God is the fire, right? But we're the lamp. We're
the vessel. We're the fragile clay pot. So we
need to have a shift in posture. From... Lord,
send your glory. Because that could be our prayer
as we talk about the glory. Our prayer could
be, Lord, send your glory. Send your glory. God,
we want to see your glory. Kind of like Moses.
God, show me your glory. Send your glory. But
under the new covenant, there's a shift. I hate
to use that word paradigm shift because it was
overused for so long, right? We need to shift.
It needs to be, Lord, let your glory flow through
me. Jesus, you are in me. So I have hope of your
glory. And God, I want your glory to flow through
me. Not just for my enjoyment. For your kingdom.
So how is the flow going to be opened or the
flow going to be increased in our lives? We've
looked at this verse already in this series,
but I'm just going to keep putting it out there.
Psalm 145, 11, they will speak of the glory of
your kingdom. They will give examples of your
power. Look to the person beside you and say,
the they is you and me. The they is you and me.
Doesn't sound like good English, but we'll go
with it. The they is you and me. They will speak
of your glory. They will speak of your kingdom.
They will give examples of your power. Our lives
should be examples of the power of God. And when
our lives become the examples of the power of
God, then we can testify of the goodness of God.
Let me tell you something. I used to be here,
but I'm not there anymore. Because I've encountered
God. And God's made a difference. Can you point
to your life and say, you know, I used to be
here, but now I'm here, and it's all because
of God. There's power in your testimony. When
we declare God's goodness, your mouth is part
of what prepares the way for the glory of God.
A silent believer... Oh, we're not silent. We
just don't talk about the glory of God and talk
about giving our testimonies, right? We talk
a lot. But a silent believer... is a closed spout,
like the spout where the glory comes out. A silent
believer, the spout's closed. You're not going
to experience it. Nobody's going to experience
the glory of God around you if you don't open
your mouth. A negative believer, somebody who's
just talking negative all the time, is a clogged
spout. Glory of God's not going to flow through
a negative mouth. It's not going to happen. Will
not happen. Your mouth may not be negative at
church. But how's your mouth the rest of the
week? The glory of God is not going to flow when
our mouths are just speaking negative all the
time. But when our mouths are talking about the
glory of God, the goodness of God, when we're
testifying to the power of God, then our mouths
are praise -filled, and that's an open spout
to see the glory of God. Let's go to the Old
Testament, even though we're in the New Testament.
I'm going to the New Testament after I read this
Old Testament verse. And one cried to another.
And said, holy, holy, holy is Yahweh Sabaoth.
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Actually,
the is are in italics, so they're not there.
Holy, holy, holy, the Lord of hosts. The whole
earth full of his glory. And in this atmosphere,
what happened? The posts of the door were shaken
by the voice of him who cried out and the house
was filled with smoke or a mist. Oh God, let
us see it. Let's go to another. Familiar story
if you spent most time in church. Acts 16, I'm
not going to go through the whole story, verses
25 and 26. Around midnight, Paul and Silas were
praying and singing hymns to God. Now listen,
they were having a rough day, to say the least.
They had been arrested. They had been beaten
with rods. They were in the innermost part of
the prison, which would have been the dirtiest,
mustiest, nastiest place in the prison. They
were chained. How many of you would say that'd
be a pretty bad day? You agree with me, right?
That'd be a bad day. Your back's bleeding. You
got welts all over your back. Your back's bleeding.
If we were there, we'd probably be saying, I
can't believe God let this happen to me. This
is terrible. My back is killing me. All we were
doing was trying to help a lady. Tell you what,
if this is what God's going to give me for living
for Him and serving Him, I just don't know how
much more I can take. Would you blame them if
that's what they've been saying? Would you blame
them? Or would you join in with them? It's not
what they did. Around midnight, Paul and Silas
were praying and singing. They weren't focused
on their miserable day. Hello? How often do we
focus on our miserable day? This is a terrible
day. I hate this day. I can't wait for this day
to be over. I'm so glad it's over. Now I can
go to sleep and pray that God will give me a
better day tomorrow. I can't believe my day went
like this. Nope. They were praying and singing.
And you know what? All the other prisoners were
listening to him. People around you are listening
to your voice. They're listening. They're listening.
Your co -workers are listening. Your boss is
listening. Your employees are listening. Your
family is listening. Everybody is listening.
Everybody's listening. What's coming out? They
were listening. It doesn't say that they were
praying and singing too. I have a feeling they
were about to get really happy. Paul and Silas
were praying and singing. How would our lives
change if we were in a difficult situation and
we started praying and singing? Declaring heavenly
realities. I'm not talking about begging God.
I'm talking about putting your words in agreement
with what God has said and standing up and declaring
heavenly realities. Let it be in my life today
like it is in heaven. How much would our life
change? Suddenly, there was a massive earthquake.
And the prison was shaken to its foundations.
Kind of sounds like what was happening in that
other verse I just read, right? Praise is going
up. All of a sudden, doorposts begin to shake.
Now the prison's shaking. You know why? The other
time, it was in the temple where God's presence
could be displayed. Now it's in the prison and
it's in Paul and Silas and the presence of God
can be displayed in the prison. I wish that was
in my notes. I hope somebody wrote that down
because I need to remember that. The prison was
shaken to its foundations. It's going to be on
the podcast. I'll listen to it about five or
six times. all the doors immediately flew open
and the chains of every prisoner fell off. When
the manifested presence of God shows up, your
problem, your situation, your prison won't be
able to hold it. The manifested presence of God
brings freedom. It brings deliverance. It brings
the goodness of God. The glory. So if we want
to encounter the glory, worship prepares the
way. Worship prepares the way. The pattern in
scripture is we declare his holiness, glory comes.
We honor his presence and glory comes. We magnify
his name. We lift up the name of Jesus and glory
comes. So many times when we talk about praise
and worship now in our society, it's like, oh,
that's that style of music. I better turn on
Christian radio and listen to some praise and
worship. Worship isn't a music style. Genuine
worship is engagement with heaven. Engagement
with heaven. but I can't stand it. Our acknowledgement
prepares the way. Acknowledgement. You've got
to acknowledge His Word and acknowledge what's
available and acknowledge His presence. I would
always tell teenagers when we were doing our
conference, I would tell them, I would say, look,
everybody says that they've kicked God out of
school. Talking to 1 ,800, 1 ,900 teenagers.
You know, it's like they kick God out of school.
I don't want God in school. And I would say,
listen to me. When you walk in the door, you
hit that bar and push that door open and you
make a bold declaration. God is here. I don't
care if it's a Christian school or a secular
school, a public school. I don't even care. When
you walk in the door, God's here because Christ
is in you. You can't walk in without Him. When
you go to work, God is here. God is here. We've
got to have that realization. And we've got to
acknowledge that. That wherever we go, God is
here. More than He was before we got there. Surrender
it. prepares the way for the glory of God. Surrender.
God, use me. What would it be like if every day
this was part of your prayer talking to God?
What if you said, God, use me today? I don't
know what I'm going to face. I don't know who
I'm going to encounter. I don't know the situations
that I'm going to run into in this fallen world.
but God used me today. How much more would we
see the glory of God and the goodness of God
if we just yielded ourselves to Him and said,
use me. God, flow through me. God, speak through
me. God, move through me. God, most days I'm
just concerned about my way, but today... I want
your way more than I want my way. God, use me.
I bet it would change your day. I wish that I
had more time than the little bit of time I had
this morning. But this was late on my heart this
morning. Revivals and awakenings. You know, we
got the Great Awakening, the Second Awakening,
and all this stuff in the history of our nation.
Revivals. Revivals and awakenings are not just
God just saying, I'm just going to pick a spot
anywhere on the globe and there's going to be
a revival or awakening. It's not the way it works.
Every single one of them have, begun with God's
people seeking Him. And if they last any amount
of time, they're sustained by the manifested
presence of God and the glory of God. I'll never
forget, just outside of Columbia, South Carolina,
we went and did a school assembly. You know,
we've done a lot of school assemblies. Over the
years, 21 years on the road, did a lot of things
like this, but I'll never forget this one day
because we did a school assembly. This happened
to be at a Christian school, but how many of
you know Christian schools sometimes have situations?
Anybody know what I'm talking about? There's
been known to be drug dealers going to Christian
schools and people who get kicked out, the meanest
kids who get kicked out of public school wound
up going to a Christian school. So a Christian
school doesn't mean that everybody's a Christian.
But we did an assembly at this school just outside
of Columbia. And I want to tell you something.
The manifest presence of God was thick. And it's
like we went over the time, which that makes
teachers nervous. Because they've got lesson
plans and they're supposed to stay. But it's
like, even after the program was finished, nobody
wanted to leave. Because they were experiencing
the manifested presence of God. It wasn't that
people were up there continuing to talk. It's
just like there was a holy presence in the room
and nobody wanted to leave, not even the kids.
And finally, You know, it's like, okay, everybody
go back to class. You know, just kind of probably
shouldn't have broke it, but we tried to break
it and everybody went to class. But as we were
taking down the sound system and stuff like that,
kids just started walking back in. Teachers began
to recognize that God wasn't done. And it wasn't
like a whole class where the teacher marched
the whole class back. Just one kid, kid from
another room that didn't even see that other
kid come. They just all came back. And they stayed.
No music playing, nobody talking. Those kids
recognized the manifest presence of God. And
they stayed. There were times in our conference.
I talk about having the big God conference in
Myrtle Beach. And there were times in our conference
that the glory of God filled the room. And there's
1 ,800 teenagers in the room. And for 20 or 30
minutes, nobody says a word. Do you think I could
make 18, 1900 teenagers not say anything if they're
in a room with nothing going on? I mean, is that
even possible? It happened. It happened. I was
able to visit Brownsville and Pensacola, Florida.
Millions of people came from around the world.
What started is just like a Sunday through Wednesday
visiting preacher coming in. It lasted for five
years. It's hard enough to get people to come
to church on Sunday morning. But people came.
At least six days a week. I think they started
not coming on Saturday after a while. People
are coming. That church was packed. Packed. If
I said we were going to have a prayer meeting
tonight, I don't know if this many people would
show up. Right? I was able to visit. And listen,
as soon as I walked in that sanctuary, I can't
say that I agree with, you know, you can find.
I'm not supposed to say that word. You can find
ignorant comments if you search hard enough.
I mean, the newspaper was out to destroy the
pastor and the evangelist. I mean, they just,
media was trying its best to shut it down, especially
the main newspaper in Pensacola. I mean, they
were trying their best to shut it down. It lasted
for five years. Church packed. Six days a week
for five years. But it didn't just happen because
God said, I'm going to do that. Watch this. It
happened because God's people were seeking him.
And it was sustained by his glory. Asbury Park
is another place where that's happened in our...
In our lives. Most of our lives. Some of us were
born after that. It was a school. It was a college.
And, you know, they had to shut down classes.
Because people just wanted to linger in the presence
of God. There, there wasn't even a preacher who
preached every day. It's just... God would lay
it on people's hearts to get up to the microphone
and say something. They were there. I can't remember
how long it was. Somebody could probably Google
it and tell me. I know it was a long time. They
were there 24 hours a day, seven days a week
for a long time. I'm going to tell you something.
If it happened there, it can happen anywhere.
You are God's vessel. You are His lamp. You are
His carrier. Christ in you, you're in him. You,
quote unquote, are the spout. It's not going
to happen. You're not going to experience it.
Just by chance. The world, this generation, Four
Corners, we don't need more theories, more religious
theories. Need more opinions. We don't need more
entertainment. We don't need more hype. That's
not what we need. People need to encounter God.
We're not waiting on a cloud. God's waiting on
us. He's waiting on us. This online worship experience
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