Stirring the Fire: A Warning on Spiritual Activation

• Youth Ministry and Spiritual Warfare [01:19:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses the confusion and deception young people face from online influences and emphasizes the critical role of youth leaders, teachers, and parents in praying for and protecting them.
• Ephesians as a Blueprint [01:21:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts Ephesians with other Pauline letters, defining it not as a response to specific problems but as a divine blueprint for how Christianity and the church should operate.
• Access to God vs. Religious Performance [01:26:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that access to the Father is a gift through Christ, not something earned by religious activities like prayer, giving, or Bible study, warning against replacing relationship with ritual.
• Definition of Eternal Life [01:30:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > Citing John 17:3, the pastor defines eternal life strictly as knowing Jesus and the Father, reinforcing that it is a relational state rather than a list of achievements.
• Access to God [01:29:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that revival or church atmosphere does not grant access to the Father; access is a permanent gift given by Christ to those in Him, independent of external church forms.
• Definition of Eternal Life [01:30:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > Eternal life is defined not as a set of activities or improvements, but as a personal relationship: knowing Jesus and the Father.
• Christianity vs. Self-Improvement [01:31:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor debunks the idea that Christianity is about self-improvement or getting better, asserting it is fundamentally about knowing the Father and recognizing that other gods are slave drivers.
• Identity and Belonging [01:32:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > Believers are no longer strangers or foreigners; the feeling of not belonging is identified as a lie from the devil intended to push believers away from the church community.
• Kingdom Citizenship [01:34:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > Citizenship implies responsibility; believers are called to be ambassadors of Christ through evangelism and missions, motivated by their secure relationship rather than legalism.
• God's Household [01:37:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > Being part of God's household provides identity, purpose, and belonging, which breaks the power of shame and low self-esteem.
• The Blueprint/Foundation [01:39:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using the metaphor of a blueprint, the pastor explains that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles, prophets, and Christ as the cornerstone, emphasizing the finished work of the cross.
• The Book of Romans [01:40:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor highlights Romans as a foundational text for understanding Christian doctrine, including faith vs. works, sin, the cross, and theology regarding Israel.
• Walking in the Spirit [01:42:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using an analogy of physical walking, the pastor explains that walking in the Spirit is a matter of trust and taking the next step God provides, rather than over-analyzing the mechanics.
• The Church as a Temple [01:44:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that the church's primary purpose is to be a 'holy temple' and 'dwelling place of God in the Spirit,' contrasting this with the church being merely a social organization.
• Presence vs. Agenda [01:46:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor asserts that God's presence should be valued above human agendas, noting that God often disrupts human plans with a 'better' agenda.
• Worship and Relationship [01:47:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor teaches that true worship and obedience are natural outflows of a relationship with God, not duties performed out of obligation.
• The Tabernacle of David [01:48:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the historical example of David's tabernacle to illustrate God's desire for accessible, intimate presence with His people, restored through Christ.
• Personal Testimony and Dreams [01:51:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal dream where an angel told him to stop focusing on his vision and start focusing on Jesus, followed by a story about attending a burial.
• Vision vs. Presence [01:52:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the cultural and biblical encouragement to have 'vision' with the spiritual danger of missing Jesus in the present moment due to over-focus on future goals.
• The Great Cloud of Witnesses [01:55:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using Hebrews 12 and Romans 16, the pastor illustrates that believers are surrounded by faithful witnesses (including martyrs) who are watching and encouraging them to run their race with endurance.
• Obstacles and Sin [01:58:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that 'obstacles' can be good things or distractions that entangle believers, while 'sin' refers to specific, easy temptations that hinder spiritual progress.
• Looking to Jesus [02:00:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The application of Hebrews 12:2, urging the congregation to fix their eyes on Jesus rather than their own faith or vision, as He is the source and finisher of their calling.
• The River of Fire / Holy Spirit Manifestation [02:04:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references Pentecost and tongues of fire, asserting that God desires to give the church a manifestation where 'fire of heaven flows out of our mouth' and describes a 'river of fire' residing within believers like Marlon.
• Stirring Up Spiritual Gifts [02:05:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > Citing Paul's instruction to Timothy, the pastor urges the congregation to 'stir up the gift' and remove the 'ashes of life' (hindrances like cares, deceitfulness, and disappointments) so God can blow on the fire.
• Active Faith vs. Passivity [02:07:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts passive Christianity with active trust, encouraging attendees to come forward and declare they will 'stir' and 'believe' rather than waiting for something else to happen, emphasizing that God is already saying yes to them.
• Prayer for Outpouring [02:08:32 ▶️ 📄]
  > The segment concludes with a corporate prayer asking God to pour out His Spirit on all flesh, specifically targeting the needs of the world, the internet, young people, and children, asking for the 'Holy Ghost river' to flow.

• Sermon Illustration [01:18:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about attending his grandson's eighth-grade graduation, praising the academic success of a student named Chloe Van Woosenhove to transition into a discussion about the challenges facing today's youth.
• Sermon Illustration [01:19:27 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts sitting on uncomfortable bleachers at a high school event, observing a strong 'spirit of confusion' among the students, which he attributes to the deception and lies they encounter online.
• Sermon Illustration [01:24:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recalls a conversation with a popular prophet at a conference years ago, who predicted that while Galatians 2:20 was foundational for him, Ephesians 2:20 would become a key verse for his life, explaining how God builds upon a spiritual foundation.
• Sermon Illustration [01:32:49 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his early days as a believer, feeling like 'trash' and unworthy, which led him to feel like a stranger in church. He identifies this feeling as a lie from the devil intended to separate him from other believers, noting that his wife's persistence in taking him to church helped him overcome this deception.
• Sermon Illustration [01:34:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a humorous analogy of trying to get into a shirt he is already wearing to illustrate the futility of believers trying to 'get in' with God or the church when they are already citizens of the kingdom.
• Sermon Illustration [01:34:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a neighborhood meeting in Mount Ola, North Carolina, where residents became so rambunctious and aggressive over a proposed Dollar General store that the sheriff had to escort people out, using this to transition into a discussion about the responsibilities of citizenship.
• Sermon Illustration [01:42:35 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy of physical walking to explain 'walking in the Spirit': just as one doesn't consciously think about moving each foot but simply puts one in front of the other trusting the ground, believers should trust God for the next step without over-analyzing.
• Sermon Illustration [01:51:33 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about a dream where an angel told him, 'you need to stop being so focused on your vision and start focusing on Jesus,' which led him to reflect on his life and priorities.
• Sermon Illustration [01:52:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts attending the burial of Tommy McCraw's brother in extreme heat (92 degrees) at a graveyard, illustrating a moment of vulnerability and reflection.
• Sermon Illustration [01:52:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a dream where an angel told him to stop focusing on his vision and start focusing on Jesus. He connects this to a real-life experience at a hot graveside funeral in Mooresville, where the Holy Spirit reminded him that wherever he is, Jesus is there, and he was missing the moment by focusing on the surroundings.
• Sermon Illustration [01:55:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes a vision he had upon arriving in Mooresville twenty years prior, seeing a 'Great Cloud of Witnesses' sitting on crummy bleachers. He notes that in a later vision, there were more people, symbolizing increased heavenly attention on the community.
• Sermon Illustration [01:57:14 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references Romans 16, noting that Paul listed 16 specific friends who became leaders and were all martyred, serving as historical witnesses who paid the ultimate price for the gospel.
• Sermon Illustration [02:05:40 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses a metaphor of stirring ashes in a fire to describe stirring up spiritual gifts, referencing 2 Timothy, and mentions a person named Marlon who has a 'river of fire' manifestation.
• Sermon Illustration [02:07:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares an anecdote about his wife Becky asking if he was 'getting ready' for his message. He uses her question to illustrate the concept of 'letting' God work rather than 'trying' to do it himself, stating, 'I don't try to do this. I let this... we're going to allow you to do what you want to do inside of us.'

• Pastoral Charge [01:20:55 ▶️ 📄]
  > Commit to praying for youth leaders, children's workers, and school teachers.
• Pastoral Charge [01:36:23 ▶️ 📄]
  > Ask sick or hurting individuals if the congregation member can pray for them.
• Pastoral Charge [01:40:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > Read and deeply study the Book of Romans.
• Pastoral Charge [01:42:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Read and absorb the book of Romans to strengthen faith foundations.
• Pastoral Charge [02:02:42 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand up
• Pastoral Charge [02:03:00 ▶️ 📄]
  > Raise hand if served in the military
• Pastoral Charge [02:03:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > Raise hand if a family member served
• Pastoral Charge [02:03:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > Raise hand if a family member was lost in service
• Pastoral Charge [02:04:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > Allow the Holy Spirit to touch their heart
• Pastoral Charge [02:05:54 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stir up the spiritual gift within them
• Pastoral Charge [02:07:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > Come forward to the altar to invite the Holy Spirit to 'blow on' their spiritual fire.
• Pastoral Charge [02:11:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > Parents are asked to retrieve their children and bring them back into the sanctuary.

[00:05:44] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:05:44] Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Stand with me, please. Let's go right for it. Let's get right into it. Say, say hello to somebody you don't know. Introduce yourself. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Father. Lord, we invite you in this place this morning. We invite you, Lord. Go on in your own words. Let's invite Jesus this morning. Jesus, you're invited into my life this
[00:06:52] morning. You are invited. Thank you, Father, for making a home in my heart. But we invite you to come on in and to dine with us this morning. Come on in, Lord, and dine with us. We want to be with
[00:07:11] you. We want to be with you. Thank you, Jesus. We close out all distraction and we want to dine with you face to face, face to face with a friend this morning. Just take another moment. Jesus,
[00:07:34] we thank you. We thank you for your presence. We thank you that you chose to be here, Lord.
[00:07:44] We thank you that you chose to be here, that you chose to be in my life this morning.
[00:07:55] We give you all honor and all glory. All power and dominion belongs to you, King Jesus.

[00:08:03] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:08:03] we thank you lift up the chorus one more time thank you lord but it is due to him that you

[00:49:54] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:49:54] are in christ jesus first corinthians chapter 1 verse 30 paul says it is due to him to jesus himself that you are in christ jesus it is from jesus that you are to jesus it is from jesus that
[00:50:18] you are in Jesus. It is because of him that you are in him. Jesus, the beautiful one, because of you, we're in you. There's no other way. There's no other path. There is no other path. Jesus,

[00:50:51] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[00:50:51] the beautiful one. Let's sing that again. How we love you. Yeah, that's good. I love worship so

[00:51:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:51:48] much. I mean, I love this because it just eliminates all other options. I love worship.
[00:51:59] I, I jealously love leading these mornings because no one else can take the mic from me. No, I'm just kidding. But, but I would rather just sit and watch the Lord. What else do we have to do? Like, what
[00:52:15] else do we have to do in this life? I love, like we get to just sit at the feet of Jesus and just all theology, all denominational backgrounds, like it's all not eliminated, but it's emphasized in Jesus during worship, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
[00:52:40] All things just point immediately to him and we have nothing else. It's like we turn into the donkey. Oh, I'm sorry. We turn into Balaam where we can't just, we can't talk all the noise. I love
[00:52:57] worship because it just, all of it just silences in the presence of the Lord. I love it so much.
[00:53:07] Thank you, Jesus, for your presence. I love it when we sing songs of old and songs of new, but at the end of the day, I just love singing to Jesus, about Jesus, for Jesus.
[00:53:28] like there's nothing that's going to that's going to straighten out my life or my heart in the clutter in my mind and heart than singing to the lamb there's there's nothing i could conjure up
[00:53:44] words about how i feel about what i'm when i'm sensing or how it's been but and there's no denying any of those things, but, but when we sing just to the lamb, there's a lot of things that get
[00:54:01] sorted that I couldn't sort myself. It's not denial of what's happening. It's not denial of what's going on, but I just feel strongly, and I'm going to stop talking, but I just feel like the Lord wants to rearrange and reshift and reprioritize and heal the things in our hearts
[00:54:19] this morning that need healing. So whether you're standing up, sitting down, laying down, it doesn't matter. You're in the room. You're going to receive it. It's OK. So, Jesus, we declare your blood and your mercy over those that need rearranged this morning where you are not sitting
[00:54:40] at the throne. There's no shame. There's no condemnation. There's no guilt. It's because of you, Jesus, that we're in you, Jesus. So right now we receive your healing. We receive your reward.
[00:54:56] Thank you, Jesus. It says that once and for all, once and for all, you died once and for all.
[00:55:05] There's no going back. There's only going forward in the kingdom. And that's what you declare over my life. You've already declared it before the foundations of the world.
[00:55:18] Thank you, Jesus, that I get to receive the anointing.
[00:55:23] I get to receive your inheritance.
[00:55:26] There's not a book out there I need to read in order for me to receive.
[00:55:31] I get to eat of your flesh and drink of your blood.
[00:55:34] I get to receive you, Jesus, for myself.
[00:55:38] There's not a pastor or preacher all due respect to every man, woman of God.
[00:55:43] There's not a message I'm needing to hear but the message of Jesus.
[00:55:47] Jesus, I need you.
[00:55:51] And that's no, like I'm very excited for what Byron has to share.
[00:55:54] That's nothing to do with that.
[00:55:57] Like I cannot ride on the coattails of somebody else's faith.
[00:56:01] Jesus, it's your faith that completes my faith.
[00:56:05] I receive you, Jesus.
[00:56:09] Jesus, help me be a better parent.
[00:56:13] We can pray a lot of spiritual prayers and not get to the basics.
[00:56:17] help me be a better husband help me be a better father a better wife a better mother like just practically Jesus help me I receive you heal me Lord heal me you are the beautiful one
[00:56:40] you are the beautiful one Jesus you are thank you thank you Lord thank you Jesus just another just another 30 seconds thank you Jesus love you so much thank you for marking us with your presence marking us with your glory may we never grow cold to these moments may we never
[00:57:25] grow cold thank you Lord just wish there was more time Jacob you know but it's all good it's all worship. Oliver, I don't know how you're going to move on from this. Good luck, man. Yeah, we just
[00:58:25] got a couple things here to share. And just linger if you want. I mean, there is no... I feel like we're not done, but we are. And that's, I guess, good. So thank you, Lord. That's good. Thank you.

[00:58:50] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:58:50] Yeah, amen.
[00:58:51] God's good, isn't he?
[00:58:53] I think Aaron's right.
[00:58:54] There's more to do today, so hold on to that spark in your heart because we've got plenty of time later in the service to unpack that.
[00:59:02] But for now, I'm just going to run through a little quick business, and then we'll keep moving on with our service.
[00:59:07] As you might have noticed, except for the people in the front row, there are some stickers on the backs of the chairs.
[00:59:14] I'm going to invite all of you to take your phones out, open them up, and just put them near that sticker.
[00:59:18] You should have one within a chair of yours, if not directly in front of you.
[00:59:23] If you are in the front row, you can probably just reach behind.
[00:59:27] You'll see them.
[00:59:30] These are our new, these are called NFC tags.
[00:59:33] These are our new one-stop shop for everything on a Sunday morning.
[00:59:37] So you scan, you put your phone next to it.
[00:59:40] It'll pop you up to our church link tree right there.
[00:59:43] You can get access to our giving portal.
[00:59:45] You can get access to the announcements for the day.
[00:59:48] You can get access to other stuff like volunteer forms or, you know, whatever's going on on that particular Sunday.
[00:59:54] Is that working for folks?
[00:59:56] Great.
[00:59:57] I've got confirmation that it works.
[00:59:59] Praise the Lord.
[01:00:00] Isn't it great when technology works like that?
[01:00:01] So that's awesome.
[01:00:02] I just wanted to shout that out.
[01:00:04] That is going to be a new tool going forward.
[01:00:08] Oh, the translation app is also on there.
[01:00:10] So if you have friends who don't speak English, we have a translation app so they can follow along what's going.
[01:00:16] So it's great.
[01:00:17] That's amazing.
[01:00:17] that is a new tool going forward. Parents, please help us by not letting your kids peel those off.
[01:00:23] That would be greatly appreciated if you could keep those protected on our behalf. Amazing.
[01:00:29] All right. Well, while y'all are experimenting with that, I just want to say, who all went to church in the park last week? Yeah. Wasn't that awesome? That was awesome because of our amazing volunteer team. So I just want to publicly thank all the volunteers who came out and helped with
[01:00:43] that let's can we give them a round of applause for helping out that was so amazing the event went so well and i think it was in a large part because of our volunteers and like karen faldo
[01:00:54] and other folks who helped out so uh thanks to y'all the reality is our church also functions by the strength of our volunteer team so we are so incredibly grateful for all of our volunteers
[01:01:05] and we need more because we've got a lot of stuff going on especially as we ramp things up we've got a lot of amazing things planned for september so this is our official all call for volunteers we
[01:01:16] would love to get you plugged in and helping out here we've got places that you can uh serve we've got opportunities for every gifting uh especially in our children's ministry on our tech teams and
[01:01:29] coffee uh but really whatever you feel passionate about we have got a place and if you would like help figuring out where that is come talk to me you can also go to our volunteer form on that link
[01:01:39] tree. Oh, isn't that nice? There's a little volunteer sign-up form. So while you're there checking it out, just go ahead and click on it and it'll take you right where you need to go. So
[01:01:46] that's awesome. Okay, I am going to go ahead and dismiss the kids. Special announcement, our four and five-year-olds will be doing a special class with the first through fifth graders. So if you are in the Eagles class, you're in the back building today, we've got classes from infant
[01:02:02] through fifth grade and middle school. Is middle school youth meeting today? Maybe. Yes. Yes, middle school youth is also meeting today. So we've got classes, infant through middle school today, four years old and up will be in the back building, everyone else up here. So awesome.
[01:02:19] They're heading out and I'm going to bring Dean up to do the offering. Actually, I'm going to do

[01:02:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_02]
[01:02:33] an offering with a little teaching, okay? So everyone knows that today is Pentecost Sunday, Correct? Okay. But what's that? But today is Shavuot. Okay. Shavuot is the Jewish feast called the Feast of Weeks. It commemorates a couple of different things. One thing is that
[01:03:01] the word Shavuot literally just means weeks. It was celebrated seven days in a week times seven weeks. And remember, seven is completion. So it's the completion of the completion, 49 days, and then comes Shavuot. And it is the amount of time that it took from the first Passover
[01:03:23] to leaving Egypt, to going through the Red Sea, to being in the wilderness, and to coming to Mount Sinai. And when at Mount Sinai is when Moses went up and God gave him the law. He gave him the Ten
[01:03:37] commandments. And so Shavuot is literally a Hebrew word that just means weeks, and it's the giving of the law. And it was at that time that the Jewish people became a people. They sort of
[01:03:50] had their incorporation. Here's our set of bylaws, and they became a people. And that's what Shavuot is. But just like every commanded feast day, and there's seven of them, just like every commanded feast day, there was a purpose for that day. Okay. We know that Jesus was the Passover lamb
[01:04:10] and he didn't die on the cross around Passover. He died on Passover day. And we know that the first feasts of, this is a hard one, the first feasts of first fruits. Isn't that a good one?
[01:04:23] Say that three times fast. The first feasts of first fruits was the day that the grain offering was held up. It was a barley offering when the harvest would begin, excuse me, when the season
[01:04:35] would begin. And that was held up, okay, on the third day, the day that Jesus, the bread of life, was risen from the dead. Not around that time, on the day, because these feasts are all to point
[01:04:49] to a certain day. And then it was during the week of unleavened bread when all sin would be removed that all of this happened. So should any of the other four remaining feasts be any different?
[01:04:59] No. So let's go to the fourth feast. The fourth feast is the festival of weeks, Shavuot. And it was on that day that the law was given. And do you remember what happened on the day the law was
[01:05:12] given? 3,000 people died because God says in his word, the letter kills. But it was also on this day what the Greek call Pentecost. Pentecost is the word for Shavuot. Pentecost means 50, okay?
[01:05:27] Now, because we go by solar calendar and Jews go by lunar calendar, they don't always fall on the same day.
[01:05:34] But it actually started on Thursday night, and it ended yesterday.
[01:05:39] And here we are, Pentecost Sunday.
[01:05:40] So they actually lined up this year.
[01:05:42] And it was on that day that the law was given, the kills, that day is when the spirit was given.
[01:05:51] That's when the church was basically birthed.
[01:05:55] That's when we got our articles of incorporation and our operating agreement.
[01:06:00] And we became a people because we received the Spirit of God.
[01:06:04] And it happened on that day for a reason, because the Spirit gives life.
[01:06:10] And isn't it ironic that the amount of people that the Bible records getting saved that day was how many?
[01:06:15] And how many died with the letter?
[01:06:17] Isn't that pretty cool?
[01:06:19] So on this day, though, this day goes a little bit further.
[01:06:23] This is also the second Feast of First Fruits, which is easier to say than the first Feast of First Fruits.
[01:06:29] And it's when we hold up the wheat offering, okay?
[01:06:33] It's the second one because the first one is sort of like almost by faith we hold it up.
[01:06:37] God's going to give us a good crop this year.
[01:06:39] That's how we make our money is by our crops.
[01:06:41] But this one is after the harvest, 50 days later, and we have our wheat offering.
[01:06:48] And so it is an appointed time by God.
[01:06:51] And don't lose this and say, well, we're not in deals with Christians, okay?
[01:06:54] Because here's what you really need to remember.
[01:06:56] A lot of times Christians want the fruit, but they don't care about the root.
[01:07:02] And if you want to have really good, juicy fruit, if you want to get the most that you can get out of the Word of God, cultivate the root, okay?
[01:07:11] God told his people to keep the Feast of Shavuot, okay?
[01:07:16] Are you his people?
[01:07:17] We're all his people.
[01:07:19] Yeah.
[01:07:20] So let's cultivate this root and see why did God call us to celebrate the Feast of First Fruits?
[01:07:28] Why should we not just think that, okay, the Jews have their holiday called Shavuot, but we Christians, we have our holiday.
[01:07:34] It's called Pentecost.
[01:07:36] No, it's one holiday.
[01:07:37] It's the same.
[01:07:39] It's two names, two events, one holiday.
[01:07:42] Okay?
[01:07:43] So here's the second part of it.
[01:07:45] you sit and you read the book of Ruth. Now, the reason we read the book of Ruth, and you should do this tonight, it's only four chapters, right? But the book of Ruth is a cool, you know, book
[01:07:55] about Naomi and her daughters-in-laws and her sons die, and they're in Moab there, they're Moabites and all that stuff. And then Naomi wants to come back to Israel, and Ruth says, I'm going with you,
[01:08:06] Naomi. Your God will be my God. Your people will be my people. And I want to tell you what, Yeshua, Jesus, he is our God, and we are his people.
[01:08:19] So they came back to Israel, okay?
[01:08:22] And they're in Judean hills and so on and so forth, and they're pretty broken stuff.
[01:08:27] But apparently Ruth was kind of a fox.
[01:08:29] And so she was sent off to Boaz to his fields to glean.
[01:08:33] Now let me tell you something about Boaz, and now we're going to get into the harvest and another purpose for Shavuot, okay?
[01:08:39] It is an appointed time, according to Deuteronomy, to give.
[01:08:43] Okay?
[01:08:44] Now, if you came this morning just to give your tithes, that's great.
[01:08:47] But today is a day to give your offerings.
[01:08:50] Today is a day.
[01:08:51] Let me read it here.
[01:08:52] I haven't even looked at my notes.
[01:08:53] Sorry about that.
[01:08:57] Then celebrate the festival of harvest to honor the Lord your God.
[01:09:02] Bring him a voluntary offering in proportion to the blessing that you have received.
[01:09:11] So if you want to receive sparingly, please do give sparingly.
[01:09:15] If you want to receive abundantly, please do give abundantly.
[01:09:19] And I'll get into it later, but it's not the glorified slot machine God thing.
[01:09:24] It's God set up specific times for specific events, and this is one of those events.
[01:09:30] So what happened was God had set up that you don't take your square fields and harvest them in a square.
[01:09:37] You harvest them in a circle so that all the corners have gleanings left there So poor people and foreigners and people that didn't have work They could come and they could glean those fields and boaz obeyed god and he gave
[01:09:50] Every corner of his field to god to the people pretty generous charitable thing that he did As a result ruth comes by and she's gleaning those fields as a result. He sees her as well. She sees him they get it going
[01:10:02] they get married and they have a son and his name is Obed and Obed gets married and he has a son and his name is Jesse and Jesse has a son and his name is King David and King David's lineage
[01:10:21] comes down to Jesus you ever hear the expression you can't out give God try out giving God that way. His obedience to give led to being in the line of the Messiah. How cool is that? So forget
[01:10:38] these notes, I guess. God is so good. God is so good. So this was an appointed time for giving.
[01:10:48] And I just want to encourage you before we take up the offering, you know, if you have a checkbook, if you have, you know, all the million ways we have to give here, pray and ask the Lord. Because
[01:10:56] remember, he hates giving out of compulsion. He loves a cheerful giver. So this isn't any kind of a guilt trip or you got to kind of thing. It's a you get to kind of a thing, okay? But if you want
[01:11:06] to give a special offering today, I believe that God honors that. I believe he honors that especially because this is his appointed time for that. And like I was starting to say before, God's not a
[01:11:17] glorified slot machine. You don't put offering in, oh wow, hundredfold back. But let me read it the way I wrote it because I felt like the Lord gave it to me this morning. Rather, this is a time to
[01:11:28] show your love, your gratitude, and maybe most of all, your trust in him as opposed to your finances.
[01:11:36] And then watch as he blesses your attitude and your right reason for giving. And as this week goes on, remember one other thing. We don't just give our money. We give our time and our talent.
[01:11:48] So be generous in giving that as well.
[01:11:51] And most of all, we give out the message of the gospel that the Messiah has come and redeemed us all and paid the price for our sin.
[01:12:02] And eternal life is ours as our name is written in the book of heaven.
[01:12:05] So go out and share that good news.
[01:12:09] Let's pray for the offering.
[01:12:12] Heavenly Father, thank you so much that you are a God who blesses.
[01:12:16] Thank you that none of us in this room even have a dime to give unless you had given to us first. So thank you for this opportunity. Thank you for your appointed time to give back to you proportionately as you have given to us, Lord.
[01:12:31] And thank you that as we're just being obedient to you and as we give to you, we can't help but be blessed back. So we thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you, Dean. So like you mentioned,

[01:12:47] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[01:12:47] you can give through the qr codes baskets are being passed around also that link tree that i just showed you they have a link to our giving portal but uh robert he's going to give us our

[01:12:57] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:12:57] announcements then we'll get moving on thank you oliver it's so cool oliver i was at a church at uh in california just not long ago and i saw those i thought i need to bring that idea back to
[01:13:10] riverlife we saw today good stuff all right hey church family how you doing all right i got two quick announcements, and then we'll get Byron up here. But before we do that, I do want to
[01:13:23] acknowledge what this weekend is all about, right? This is Memorial Day weekend. So this is the weekend that we celebrate those veterans, not who only serve, but they gave it all, right? They gave their entire lives, men and women, to give us the freedom that we have today to be able to worship
[01:13:43] God in this auditorium and we don't have people out there looking at us and spying on us and wonder if we're going to get arrested or not. And although sometimes those persecuted churches grow faster, I don't know what that's all about, but that's pretty neat. But thank God that we don't
[01:14:00] have to go through that, right? So let's just take just a quick moment and just pause and in our own hearts just thank God for those men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice. Thank you for the
[01:14:21] freedom, God, that we celebrate this weekend. And thank you for those who gave it all. Thank you for the families of those who gave it all. Amen. All right, just a couple quick announcements here.
[01:14:34] First of all, young adults, this one's specifically for you. Starting Monday, June 19th, we're kicking off a six-week financial stewardship series right here in the sanctuary. It'll be Monday evenings from six to eight or 630 to eight. So if you're between the ages of 18 and 30, this is, uh, this
[01:14:55] one's for you, right? So we're going to study, they're going to study out of the word of God and how to handle money. Uh, this kind of thing can definitely change your life and set you on a
[01:15:03] great trajectory, uh, for your financial future. Oliver, wave your hand. Everybody, everybody knows Oliver, right? So if you have any questions, you can reach out to Oliver. Okay. Number two. All This one's for all the families.
[01:15:18] How many families do we have here?
[01:15:20] Lots of families, lots of kids, right?
[01:15:22] This one's for your kids.
[01:15:24] So VBS registration is officially open.
[01:15:27] July, yeah, you can give a whoop whoop there.
[01:15:29] They get excited.
[01:15:31] Yes.
[01:15:32] So July 13th through the 17th, 9 a.m. to noon daily.
[01:15:38] Rainforest Falls is the theme, and it's going to be a big adventure.
[01:15:43] So if you have children ages four through sixth grade, they're going to love this week, and they're going to discover God's word in a whole brand new way.
[01:15:52] I think Oliver hit on this real well.
[01:15:54] This is where we need lots of volunteers, right?
[01:15:58] It takes a village to raise these kids, right?
[01:16:00] So we need lots of volunteers.
[01:16:02] So if you feel a tug in your heart to be able to give up that week, it's a blessing.
[01:16:07] My wife and I have done it many times, and it is definitely a blessing.
[01:16:10] And if you have questions about that, you can reach out to Tori Berkowitz, and her email may be back up here.
[01:16:17] Maybe not, okay?
[01:16:18] But it is in the bulletin, right, in the email bulletin, and there's a link there, and you can sign up for, your kids can sign up there, and you can also sign up for the volunteering as well.
[01:16:29] All right, that's it.
[01:16:31] All right, let's get on.
[01:16:32] You ready to receive the Word of God today?
[01:16:34] All right, so Byron, if you can come on up here.
[01:16:38] God bless you.
[01:16:39] Let me read a scripture as he's coming up here.
[01:16:41] I read this this morning.
[01:16:43] This is a pretty powerful verse.
[01:16:46] It's kind of fitting for Pentecost Sunday.
[01:16:50] This is Acts 4.31.
[01:16:52] It says, after this prayer, the meeting place shook.
[01:16:57] Yeah, come on now.
[01:16:59] And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit.
[01:17:02] Then they preached the word of God with boldness.
[01:17:06] Yeah.
[01:17:07] All right, Byron.
[01:17:10] Yeah.
[01:17:12] All right.
[01:17:13] so let me pray before we get Byron up here just put your hand on your heart today let's be ready to receive the word of God I know all of us even myself we just got a lot of stuff going on in our
[01:17:24] lives as whether it's business or work or family just situations but let's just just picture yourself casting that all at Jesus feet and saying Lord Jesus I'm ready to receive your word that can change my life and Lord we just thank you that according to the word of God that the place shook
[01:17:42] So, Lord, you can shake us today, God.
[01:17:45] Shake us today for your kingdom.
[01:17:49] Fill us with your Holy Spirit afresh because we leak.
[01:17:52] We leak, Lord, and we need to be refilled.
[01:17:55] And then, Lord Jesus, may you give Byron a fresh new boldness as he preaches the Word of God.
[01:18:04] Amen.

[01:18:07] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:18:07] Well, I must be in trouble then with that prayer, right?
[01:18:11] Yeah.
[01:18:12] Hey, before I started here, I wanted to say something.
[01:18:15] I went to my grandson's eighth grade graduation.
[01:18:21] I didn't know they had such a thing, but we didn't get that kind of thing.
[01:18:24] But I was so impressed with Chloe Van Woosenhove.
[01:18:28] She won all the awards.
[01:18:31] Seriously.
[01:18:32] I mean, she got a lot of, you know, academic stuff.
[01:18:37] I mean, just all kinds of stuff.
[01:18:38] It was pretty wild.
[01:18:40] Good job, Chloe.
[01:18:41] I don't know where you got that from.
[01:18:43] I don't think he got it from your granddaddy, Tommy McCraw, but that was really good.
[01:18:53] Thank you, Lord. The Lord's good, isn't he?
[01:18:55] It's so great, you know, being around young people like that in that kind of setting.
[01:19:01] We really need to pray for the young people.
[01:19:04] A few weeks ago, earlier this month, I've been to so many school things this month.
[01:19:09] It's crazy. So many concerts, and I mean, I'm just like saturated with school.
[01:19:14] And, you know, bleachers, okay?
[01:19:19] They're rough on your body.
[01:19:22] They're really rough on you.
[01:19:23] I mean, I didn't remember it being like that when I was in high school or going to school.
[01:19:27] But now it's like, oh, now I've got to sit on them bleachers.
[01:19:30] But one thing I did notice at the high school, I was sitting on the bleachers right when the kids were coming.
[01:19:37] These were the high schoolers coming in.
[01:19:39] And I felt such a spirit of confusion on those kids, just strong.
[01:19:43] And it's what's in the world today that's going at children, young people, just all the deception, all the lies, all the swirl.
[01:19:54] You know, and they're all connected online and have access to all this that's getting into their hearts and minds.
[01:20:02] And so, you know, I really think the people who do youth ministry and children's ministry, these are like the front line workers in the kingdom.
[01:20:12] They're the ones who are really God is using or wants to use to help the children's hearts to be protected from all the lies and stuff that's being perpetuated upon this younger generation.
[01:20:28] Because honestly, I think if I was a kid today, I would be in so much trouble.
[01:20:33] You know, because I was in a lot of trouble back then.
[01:20:35] I mean, I'm going to triple it at least, what I'd be doing today.
[01:20:38] because back then you didn't have access, but you still had some bath salts, right?
[01:20:44] They still got in there.
[01:20:45] But you just need to really be praying for the young people because they're just precious and, you know, they're important.
[01:20:55] And I just really feel if you just really be committed to praying for youth leaders and children's workers and school teachers.
[01:21:03] People who teach school, they're, you know, get godly people in there teaching school and push them back against all this stuff as best they can in the situation they're in. Amen. And Lord, thank you for the rain,
[01:21:16] right? Wow. Man, we've really needed it. Bring some more on because it's been a rough, dry spell. So, hey, I wanted to read, I'm going to read out of Ephesians. Before I read it, of course, I've done a lot of messages out of the book of Ephesians in this church. And
[01:21:33] If you've not noticed that, that's just tough.
[01:21:37] And one of the reasons is the book of Ephesians is really, and I've said this many times.
[01:21:43] I don't mind saying it over and over.
[01:21:45] It's a blueprint book.
[01:21:47] Okay, it is not a problem book.
[01:21:49] You know, most of Paul's letters were, he was addressing an issue.
[01:21:53] Like, you know, the classic one is Galatians, legalism.
[01:21:56] You know, he was addressing different ones, Corinthians, you know, spiritual immaturity and carnality.
[01:22:03] But Ephesians, there was no problem there.
[01:22:05] Colossians was the age, the Gnosticism and the philosophies of this world, political influence that was coming into the church.
[01:22:14] So he was always going after stuff.
[01:22:16] But this one, he wasn't going after a problem.
[01:22:20] He was going after, like, this is a blueprint for Christianity.
[01:22:23] This is God's dream, God's vision for how Christianity should be lived and what the church and how the kingdom operates.
[01:22:32] and it's just an amazing book and it's really in several years of my life has been one of probably the most influential book outside the Gospels because I keep going back to it over and over and over.
[01:22:46] So I really pray that God will give you an impartation on that and that instead of instead of what the church culture world there's a whole church culture out there if you didn't know it.
[01:22:59] But there's all kinds of cultures out there, right?
[01:23:02] There's a church world, there's a golf world, there's a motorcycle world, there's a horse world.
[01:23:09] And so you go into these different worlds and there's influence in them.
[01:23:12] But, you know, the Bible has some great revelation about how our Christianity should really look like and how it should be lived.
[01:23:21] And that's why I love Ephesians.
[01:23:23] And these verses here, to me, are really the heart of the book.
[01:23:27] this is really the whole heart and everything else is around these just my opinion it says for through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father that's such a powerful verse there
[01:23:41] you know you got the Trinity all through him being Christ so then you are no longer strangers and foreigners but you are fellow citizens with the saints and are of God's household having been built on the foundations
[01:23:56] of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord in whom you also being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
[01:24:15] Isn't that amazing?
[01:24:16] Those are some amazing verses.
[01:24:18] I remember years ago, I was at this prophetic conference and this particular prophet that was really popular in those days.
[01:24:27] He's no longer on the earth, but he asked me, like, hey, what's the Lord been speaking to you about recently?
[01:24:33] I said, Galatians 2.20, you know, it's no longer I, but Christ who lives in me.
[01:24:38] And the life I live on the earth, I live by the faith of the Son of God, which I love that.
[01:24:44] Don't y'all love that verse?
[01:24:46] Like, yeah.
[01:24:46] And at that time, God was really speaking to me about, you know, it's Christ.
[01:24:52] You know, this is how your Christian life is to be lived.
[01:24:54] It's allowing the faith of Christ to rise in you and allow His grace and His power to be lived through you versus you trying to do it yourself.
[01:25:05] But he said, and also one day for you, Ephesians 2.20.
[01:25:10] And at the time, I didn't know what it was.
[01:25:12] And I'll get to it in a minute.
[01:25:14] But I just think it's sort of like, it's what happens.
[01:25:18] That's what Galatians 2.20 is sort of like a foundational verse.
[01:25:22] And Ephesians 2.20 kind of explains, you know, what God wants to do once he gets a good foundation in you.
[01:25:30] You know, once your foundation, your spiritual foundation is established.
[01:25:35] Are y'all with me?
[01:25:36] Because some of you are frowning at me already.
[01:25:39] Come on, y'all.
[01:25:40] But I love this first thing.
[01:25:42] I'm just going to go through this and tell you some things the Lord's been speaking to me about recently about this.
[01:25:49] because I believe we're in just in a time where I feel God's stirring from the Lord.
[01:25:56] I don't know if anybody else, I just feel a stirring from the Holy Spirit.
[01:26:00] And many times in the Holy Spirit, the way he does with me, when he starts stirring me, the first thing he does, he starts going after me about stuff in me, about things in me,
[01:26:09] some things that I'm not even aware of that he's like saying, that's really not the way, you know, you should be living your life or you should be thinking.
[01:26:18] You know, he begins to address these things, and it's really a good moment when he does that.
[01:26:26] But the first thing that Paul says in verse 18 is through Christ we have access by the Holy Spirit to the Father.
[01:26:35] That's like the ultimate thing that we all have to know, because that's really the essence of the gospel, is that Christ came to the earth not just to forgive us for our sins, which obviously is very important, okay, if you've committed some sins like a couple people have, right?
[01:26:52] You know, Dean and, you know, a few other people, you know.
[01:26:56] But we've all, you know, we all were apart from Christ.
[01:27:01] And so Christ didn't, and we needed our sins forgiven, but we also needed something else.
[01:27:06] And so, but really what the Bible really teaches, the Gospels teach it, the whole Bible teaches it, that Christ didn't come just for that.
[01:27:14] that needed to happen. But what he came for is to reconcile us to the Father, to give us total access to God the Father. And before that, we did not have access to God the Father.
[01:27:27] And so it's through Christ we have this total access. And so what happens, I think, for a lot of believers, me included, many times, is we begin to drift subtly from that. We begin to think
[01:27:41] other things not and we might not even think it consciously it may be a subconscious thing that if you do other certain things it's going to help you be you're going to have this access if
[01:27:52] you you know if you're if you pray more if you give more if you go on mission trips if you evangelize if you prophesy you know are y'all hearing me and we can begin to get into this
[01:28:05] this thing in our hearts if we do this and we read the bible every day if we study the bible if we have all this Bible knowledge, then it'll give us access to the Father.
[01:28:14] And the truth is, it will not.
[01:28:16] Those things are beautiful, beautiful attributes or beautiful fruit of having a relationship with God, but they're not the relationship.
[01:28:26] And when we begin to replace the relationship with those things, then they begin to wear us out.
[01:28:34] They begin to take away.
[01:28:36] and then we begin to lose we begin to lose our passion for the Lord okay because we can only sustain those things for so long in our human self and I don't really want to sustain any of that
[01:28:50] in my human self and so that's really you know really what you know the book of Ephesians really wants to establish is that we have this access already there's nothing that can take us listen I love revival
[01:29:03] I love the move of the Holy Spirit but that does not give me access to the Father.
[01:29:08] It may awaken something in me.
[01:29:10] It may awaken the awareness that I have that but it does not give that to me.
[01:29:16] And so what Paul was trying to do and what the Holy Spirit wants to do in our life is to remind us that right this second if you are in Christ, you have total access.
[01:29:27] You don't have to do anything to get access.
[01:29:30] Church don't have to look a certain way.
[01:29:33] It does not have to look any way.
[01:29:35] to have access. We have the access. It can be the quietest church in the world or the loudest church. The calmest or the wildest. The ones that pray for the sick or ones who don't pray for the
[01:29:46] sick. None of those things give us access because Christ has given us access. And when the church begins to drift away into a form that says this is good, the best form, then we've missed the
[01:30:00] whole thing. You see, this is what the blueprint is trying to tell us. Don't do that. It's by Christ through the Holy Spirit.
[01:30:08] They enable us to have this relationship with God the Father.
[01:30:13] Jesus Christ said this in John 17, verse 3.
[01:30:16] Eternal life is to know me and the Father.
[01:30:20] That's what he said.
[01:30:21] That's what eternal life is.
[01:30:23] Eternal life is not any of those other things.
[01:30:25] It's a relationship.
[01:30:27] I love that we sang that song this morning, I want to know you, Lord.
[01:30:29] Don't y'all love that song?
[01:30:31] The simple gospel song, I want to know you, Lord.
[01:30:33] How many people have that desire in them?
[01:30:35] How many people feel a burning in them?
[01:30:39] You know, how many people feel disappointed at times that you feel like you don't know the Lord?
[01:30:43] I feel that.
[01:30:45] I struggle with that.
[01:30:47] You know, I've often thought, man, and this is the truth, y'all.
[01:30:50] The further we go with God, the less we are going to know of God because God is bigger than we think.
[01:31:00] Okay?
[01:31:00] Don't let that frustrate you.
[01:31:03] In fact, if you feel that, you're on the right track.
[01:31:07] You're starting to see God for who God is, but more than who you thought he was.
[01:31:12] Am I talking to anybody this morning?
[01:31:15] And so it's important.
[01:31:15] I think over in chapter 2, a few verses earlier, I think verse 13, I think, or maybe verse 11, I don't remember which one.
[01:31:24] It says, the blood brings us near.
[01:31:27] The blood of Christ brings us near.
[01:31:29] And over in Hebrews, it says, the blood of Christ keeps us near.
[01:31:33] There's nothing else, y'all.
[01:31:35] There's nothing else.
[01:31:36] And that's the key thing that we have to really remember.
[01:31:42] Amen?
[01:31:43] Oh, I love that myself.
[01:31:45] And so I have to keep going back and reminding myself.
[01:31:48] And I think this is a thing to get that separates Christianity from anything else.
[01:31:54] You see, Christianity is not about getting better.
[01:31:57] It's not about self-improvement.
[01:31:59] It's not about any of those things.
[01:32:02] It's about knowing the Father.
[01:32:05] And it's the only, and they sang it.
[01:32:07] That was an amazing song that Seth taught us.
[01:32:10] He's the only God, little g, that we can call Father.
[01:32:15] He's the only little g that we can call friend.
[01:32:18] All other gods, so-called gods out there, none of those things are offered.
[01:32:24] Those are slave drivers.
[01:32:25] Those are dictators that want to control us and manipulate us.
[01:32:29] Are you all with me?
[01:32:31] I think this is really good stuff here, y'all.
[01:32:35] And then it says, oh, I love it.
[01:32:37] Then you are no longer strangers and foreigners.
[01:32:40] Hey, how many people have felt like a stranger in the church?
[01:32:43] How many people have felt like on the outside looking in?
[01:32:48] Have you ever had that feeling?
[01:32:49] I remember when I first got saved.
[01:32:51] Oh, Lord, I felt like the trash of the worth, okay?
[01:32:54] And I probably was because I was not acting good.
[01:32:57] But I was saved.
[01:32:58] but I would go to church and I didn't feel like I belonged because I felt like everybody in there were really amazing righteous people and I knew inside of me I was not so amazing and righteous
[01:33:09] I knew I was saved but it put a separation it put a separation between me and the people in there and it made me want to reject those people made me want to push away from those people
[01:33:22] because I didn't feel like I belonged I didn't feel like I was good enough and see all that's a lie from hell That's what the devil wants you to believe.
[01:33:31] See, that was the devil talking to me.
[01:33:33] He was reminding me of my old self, who I was before Christ.
[01:33:37] And what he was trying to do was push me out the door of the church.
[01:33:41] He was trying to push me away from other believers.
[01:33:44] That's what he was trying to do.
[01:33:46] And somehow, by the grace of God and my young wife, I was not going out the door.
[01:33:55] She was making me go with her.
[01:33:56] And I'm so glad.
[01:33:59] Because at some point I realized it was all a big lie.
[01:34:02] You are not a stranger or a foreigner.
[01:34:05] You're in.
[01:34:06] You don't have to try to get in.
[01:34:08] In fact, don't try to get in.
[01:34:10] Because you're already in.
[01:34:12] It's futility trying to get in to something you're already in.
[01:34:15] It's like me trying to get into this shirt that I'm already wearing.
[01:34:18] That would be the dumbest thing on the planet.
[01:34:20] Okay?
[01:34:21] Well, a lot of people are like that with God.
[01:34:23] They're trying to get in with God or trying to get in with the church when they're already in.
[01:34:26] They're already citizens of the kingdom.
[01:34:29] So that's the first one.
[01:34:30] And citizenship, let me just say this, y'all.
[01:34:33] Citizenship speaks of responsibility.
[01:34:35] If you're a citizen of a country, there's certain things that they want you to do, right?
[01:34:42] You know, like in my neighborhood, they don't want you to do certain things.
[01:34:47] Like they don't want you putting trailers out there.
[01:34:52] You know, they have meetings about it.
[01:34:56] And I went to one, and I said, Becky, it's the last one I'm going to.
[01:35:00] I don't need any drama in my life.
[01:35:01] These people are crazy in there.
[01:35:03] They're ready to fight over it.
[01:35:05] Hey, listen to what I've got to tell you.
[01:35:06] They were going to put a dollar general.
[01:35:08] This is not a commentary on the dollar general, where I live and the area I live in.
[01:35:13] So they had a meeting, and the whole community came out.
[01:35:18] And I knew we were in trouble when I saw the sheriff there.
[01:35:22] I'm not kidding you.
[01:35:23] That sheriff really escorted some people out of the meeting.
[01:35:26] They were getting so rambunctious in there.
[01:35:28] they were ready to kill those dollar general people and the dollar general people concluded we ain't doing it so I was glad those people were getting escorted out because they were ready to fight that person
[01:35:39] they figured these people are crazy so yes thank you Lord no dollar generals in Mount Ola, North Carolina yes but you belong but citizenship requires some responsibility and to be a citizen of the kingdom
[01:35:54] means your job is to bring the kingdom of God to the earth Amen?
[01:35:59] Your job is to represent the king.
[01:36:01] Your job is to be an ambassador of Christ in whatever situation God puts you in.
[01:36:06] It's evangelism.
[01:36:07] Everybody in this room should be doing evangelism.
[01:36:10] I mean, the truth is, we should all do the work of evangelism, however that works in your life.
[01:36:14] You know, when you're out and about, you should be thinking around the people.
[01:36:18] Do they need the Lord?
[01:36:20] When you see a person hurting or sick, they might need the Lord to touch them.
[01:36:23] Ask them if you can pray for them.
[01:36:25] And those are ways we can share the gospel with people and let people know there's a God that cares about them and loves them.
[01:36:33] And there's missions, going on a mission and supporting missions and establishing things.
[01:36:38] Those are responsibility of the kingdom of God, of being a citizen in the kingdom.
[01:36:42] This is not legalism.
[01:36:44] This is just what we're supposed to be doing as Christians.
[01:36:47] And if we have a relationship, when we begin to realize we belong and we're in, we're going to want to do those things.
[01:36:52] we're going to be motivated to do those things, to serve other people. So that's what citizenship is really important in the kingdom of God, just like citizenship's important in a country, that you need to become a legal citizen, and you need to be able
[01:37:06] to pay taxes. I don't want to pay taxes, but that's another story, taxes and all that. I'm hoping they'll double-wave taxes.
[01:37:15] I don't understand why we had to pay taxes on stuff we've already bought.
[01:37:20] You know, I don't The government, I don't think they're right about that.
[01:37:24] That's all I'm going to say.
[01:37:26] But next time I'm going to get off from that, I'll get in so much trouble, I'm going to be shot.
[01:37:31] The CIA might show up.
[01:37:33] Because the one time I was talking about weather modifications and I was getting phone calls.
[01:37:38] Like, don't talk about that no more.
[01:37:40] Well, it says that we're also, and we're of God's household.
[01:37:48] Okay, we're of God's household.
[01:37:49] That's such another important thing that we have to really realize.
[01:37:53] And that speaks of family relationship.
[01:37:55] That speaks of your identity.
[01:37:57] That speaks of belonging.
[01:37:58] That's what they're talking about there.
[01:38:00] Okay?
[01:38:01] You belong and you have a purpose in this household.
[01:38:04] God has given you an identity.
[01:38:06] All of that is just so powerful in your life.
[01:38:09] And when you begin to grab hold of that, it will change your life.
[01:38:13] It will completely change how you view Christianity.
[01:38:15] because you begin to realize that God created you uniquely and made you for something and made you for a purpose and mainly a relationship first and mainly that you can become something, become the person He created you to be
[01:38:31] instead of self-hatred and low self-esteem and insecurity and shame and all that stuff.
[01:38:39] You see, that's what does away with all that.
[01:38:41] That's what breaks that stuff in our life.
[01:38:43] and when you begin to get that stuff broken off in you, you can really, the real you can shine forth, the real you can walk on this earth okay, and be the person that God created you to be
[01:38:56] in a really amazing and beautiful way and I will admit, this is a process it doesn't happen instantly but it's important that we go after these things, okay, and keep going after them, okay are we good so far?
[01:39:14] And we could talk about, all these are like multiple messages, but I'm just trying to throw some things out at you, mainly because the Lord's been speaking to me.
[01:39:23] Then he says in verse 20, Ephesians 2.20, what that prophet said to me, having been built, oh, note it says having been, like past tense.
[01:39:33] We've already been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus being the cornerstone.
[01:39:40] Now that's blueprint language, right?
[01:39:42] That's where I came up with the thing, blueprint.
[01:39:45] Oh, they're talking about a building.
[01:39:47] You don't build buildings normally without a blueprint.
[01:39:49] You need something to go by.
[01:39:51] There's a foundational blueprint.
[01:39:52] There's wall blueprints.
[01:39:53] There's roof blueprints.
[01:39:54] There's electrical blueprints, plumbing, all of that.
[01:39:56] And so this is what Paul was trying to tell us here, is that there's a foundation that has been laid in your life.
[01:40:04] It's mainly the finished work of the cross.
[01:40:06] It's mainly what Christ has already done for you that's been laid out, that he's died for you.
[01:40:12] He's risen for you.
[01:40:15] Now, here's a cool thing, okay, that I've, in my life, you know, Ephesians speaks powerful to me.
[01:40:22] Another book that has spoken real powerful to me is the book of Romans, okay?
[01:40:27] How many people love the book of Romans?
[01:40:29] Well, a few people do.
[01:40:30] That's surprising, because Romans is a heavyweight book, man.
[01:40:35] It's super doctrinal.
[01:40:37] It's super, but what it does, Romans lays out the foundations of Christianity.
[01:40:42] If you want to know what your foundations and what God has done for you and wants to do for you, read Romans.
[01:40:49] Absorb Romans.
[01:40:50] It talks about faith righteousness versus works righteousness, right?
[01:40:54] It talks about sin versus sins.
[01:40:58] Okay?
[01:40:58] Because there's a difference there.
[01:41:00] Sins, I bet some of you didn't.
[01:41:02] It talks about the work of the cross and it talks about the blood of Jesus.
[01:41:08] I know some of you, I mean, obviously those are two things that work together, but they do affect us differently.
[01:41:13] And Romans explains that.
[01:41:14] It talks about the mind of Jesus, how to have a renewed mind.
[01:41:19] Okay?
[01:41:19] It talks about how to look at Israel, how to have a right theology about Israel.
[01:41:24] Don't let me get on Israel today.
[01:41:27] Okay?
[01:41:27] Because a lot of people get their theology about Israel from the Internet.
[01:41:31] Really, Romans tells us how to think about Israel.
[01:41:34] It tells us exactly how to think about it.
[01:41:37] So anybody who wants to talk to me about Israel, and I'm asking them, have you read Romans 9, 10, 11, and can you reflect that back to me?
[01:41:46] Most of them don't.
[01:41:47] You know, they're listening to some person on the Internet that has some different weird theology on it.
[01:41:54] And so these are all foundational things.
[01:41:56] And that's a lot of what Paul's talking about.
[01:41:58] He's talking about there's these foundational things that God has put in place for us.
[01:42:04] And the book of Romans, for me, has been that book to really explain the foundations of our faith to us.
[01:42:10] So if you really want to really dig into your foundation and get your foundation strong, I really encourage you to get into the book of Romans and let the Holy Spirit begin to speak to you through it.
[01:42:20] He will speak to you powerfully through it.
[01:42:23] I mean, powerfully.
[01:42:25] It talks about walking in the Spirit in the book of Romans, how to walk in the Spirit, what the walk in the Spirit looks like, how to look at that, how that manifests in your life.
[01:42:35] One time a guy asked me, Byron, how do you walk in the Spirit?
[01:42:38] Okay.
[01:42:39] I said, well, hey, have you ever figured out how you walk normally?
[01:42:44] He said, what do you mean?
[01:42:45] I said, well, when you walk, do you think about, okay, I'm going to take my right foot and I'm going to do this.
[01:42:51] Then I'm going to take my left foot and do this.
[01:42:54] I said, you don't do that, do you?
[01:42:56] I can't tell you how to walk.
[01:42:57] You just put one foot in front of the other.
[01:43:00] That's what you do.
[01:43:01] so you can't just when it says how do you walk in the spirit you just put your one spiritual foot in front of the other you just trust and so you walk as far as you can walk
[01:43:13] until you can't walk no more and then you just wait you wait until God creates something else for you to step on you can put your foot out here oh I can't step there yet
[01:43:23] I'm going to wait and you'll wait God will make a way for you and that's the way I walk in the spirit you know The Lord will help you.
[01:43:32] That's what he wants you to walk in the Spirit.
[01:43:36] So, okay, but, so, I got to hurry up.
[01:43:39] I'm not even going to get done with this.
[01:43:40] Mercy, Lord.
[01:43:41] Are y'all good this morning?
[01:43:43] But here's the goal.
[01:43:45] See, all that is beautiful, but what Paul's trying to get us, he's trying to take us somewhere.
[01:43:51] He's trying to get us to see something.
[01:43:53] And all those individual things are key for us.
[01:43:57] Okay, absolutely key to have working in our life.
[01:43:59] But here he says this is what the goal is, and the goal is in this verse right here.
[01:44:05] It says, in whom, this is verse 21, the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord.
[01:44:15] See, that's what God's looking for on the earth.
[01:44:17] He's looking for a holy temple.
[01:44:20] And we, each one of us, according to the book of Corinthians, are temples, holy temples, a place where the Holy Spirit, see, Paul's saying, listen, this is what God's going after.
[01:44:29] he's going after a holy temple and then he he expounds on it in verse 28 and whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of god in the spirit being built together what
[01:44:44] he's talking about there's the church he's talking about people that are individually holy temples before the lord but also those people are being placed together as a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. See, that's ultimately what God's looking for on the earth. He's looking for
[01:45:00] a dwelling place. He's looking for a place where He, for the Holy Spirit, can rest and live amongst His people. Not just one person, but however many people there are. There's two or three, it says,
[01:45:13] right? See, that's the goal, and that's the goal of the church. That's what He's saying right here.
[01:45:19] This is what I want for the church. Are y'all getting that? Because there's all these other concepts out there about what the church should be but here's what it should be.
[01:45:33] If it's not this, it's not anything. Let me just say it. If it's not a place for the abiding presence of God, it's not anything.
[01:45:42] It's just another social organization where people gather together but if it's not a place where God's Spirit can actually literally abide, literally rest and be present, then we've missed it.
[01:45:58] Are y'all with me?
[01:46:00] And so here's a few things I wrote down.
[01:46:02] Let me see if I can find this one more time.
[01:46:03] Yes, this is a community where his presence, listen, is treasured above performance and agenda.
[01:46:10] His presence is treasured above performance or any agenda.
[01:46:16] In other words, he has an agenda, and we just happen to have his agenda.
[01:46:20] That's a good day.
[01:46:21] I've often said this.
[01:46:23] The best day in church is when we have an agenda, and then God comes in with a different agenda.
[01:46:29] Oh, he was like, that's a nice agenda you got, but I have a better one.
[01:46:32] It's disruptive, but it's a good disruption.
[01:46:36] Some disruption.
[01:46:37] And it's also a place where his presence is felt, where people can actually experience his presence, feel his presence, feel his peace, feel his love.
[01:46:47] Yeah, I mean, that's the thing, that once you begin to experience that feeling of it, I'm talking about you literally feel it, not just in your spirit, but your physical man feels it, Your emotions fill it.
[01:46:57] You're touched by this person who wants to touch you, wants you to feel this.
[01:47:05] And people can encounter his love and are being transformed because they've been loved and they know it and they know his power.
[01:47:13] And worship and obedience flow from relationship, not duty.
[01:47:18] Are you hearing that?
[01:47:19] Worship and obedience flow from relationship, not duty.
[01:47:24] In other words, you're not worshiping the Lord because you're supposed to.
[01:47:27] You're worshiping the Lord because there's a relationship there.
[01:47:30] And you're realizing there's something amazing about this person of what he's done for you and what he wants to do for you and how his goodness starts touching you.
[01:47:39] And you want to worship him.
[01:47:41] You want to reach towards him.
[01:47:43] I love that thing, that song about, you know, finding me in the dust.
[01:47:48] Anybody else relate to that?
[01:47:49] I mean, I feel like that's the story of my life, man.
[01:47:52] God's always finding me in the dust.
[01:47:54] But it doesn't separate.
[01:47:55] He doesn't push me away because I'm in the dust and I'm not in the spirit.
[01:48:00] I'm in the dust, Lord.
[01:48:01] I'm messed up.
[01:48:03] And he begins to minister to me and love on me.
[01:48:05] And all you can do is love him back, right, and be thankful and rejoice in him.
[01:48:10] And this is really the thing here.
[01:48:12] Jesus remains at the center of everything.
[01:48:15] He's the chief cornerstone.
[01:48:17] I'll tell you, the longer I've gone in this thing, the more important that has become in my life.
[01:48:21] Is Jesus at the center?
[01:48:23] Is he the main thing?
[01:48:25] You know, because when we start moving away from that, I mean, it sounds like a duh.
[01:48:31] It sounds just simple.
[01:48:32] But I'll tell you, it's easy to drift from that.
[01:48:34] It's easy to make other things more important than the person of the Lord himself.
[01:48:40] And when he quits being the sinner, then everything else starts losing its life and losing its joy.
[01:48:46] You know, the tabernacle of David was back, you know, back when David was on the earth, obviously, because that's the name of his tabernacle.
[01:48:54] which was this simple tent where God's presence came down.
[01:49:00] And it was manifest presence on the earth for 30-some years.
[01:49:05] The presence of God was on the earth in the tent where any person, any human being, could go and experience that presence.
[01:49:14] That's never had happened in history.
[01:49:16] It was always the priest.
[01:49:19] You had to go through these priests.
[01:49:20] You had to go through these people.
[01:49:21] And you couldn't go to that holy of holies.
[01:49:24] but for a period of time God took the Holy of Holies and stuck it in this tent and said anybody can come here and experience me and know that I love them and I care about them
[01:49:34] and I want them I want a relationship with them and that happened it literally happened so that's what the Bible says in Acts that God is raising up that temper knuckle of David again through Christ
[01:49:50] Christ was the one who became to the earth to really restore this tabernacle, this dwelling place of God in the Spirit on the earth where people could come and have this encounter with God and touch God and God touched them.
[01:50:06] And their life changed because they had this encounter with God.
[01:50:10] And suddenly they're a new person because suddenly they've realized something.
[01:50:15] They've realized something.
[01:50:16] They've seen something.
[01:50:17] They heard something that they didn't see or hear before.
[01:50:21] They heard God talk to them.
[01:50:23] And if you ever hear him, and I don't care if it's inside of you or outside, but when you hear him, when you feel him, it will do something to you.
[01:50:32] It will radically change you.
[01:50:34] I went from being the guy who didn't feel good enough, the guy who wanted to run away, wanted to hide, didn't want anything to do with any of this, because God spoke to me and God revealed himself to me.
[01:50:47] It changed me.
[01:50:49] It made me want God.
[01:50:50] It made me hungry for God.
[01:50:51] It made me want to be a better husband and a better father and a better friend.
[01:50:56] It made me, all the things that I felt like I have to do and should do and couldn't do, He put this desire in me to do those things and put a motivation.
[01:51:05] You know, I think Paul says it's God who works in you to will and to do His good pleasure.
[01:51:11] That's what happens when people come to the Lord and they discover that He loves them and He's not angry with them.
[01:51:18] He's not rejecting the sinners.
[01:51:21] He's going after the sinners.
[01:51:23] He's pursuing the sinners.
[01:51:26] He really is.
[01:51:28] He's pursuing them.
[01:51:30] Well, I'm out of time.
[01:51:33] Yeah.
[01:51:33] But one of the things the Lord told me, I had this dream recently, okay?
[01:51:37] I have a few dreams where the Lord speaks to me.
[01:51:39] If you don't believe the Lord speaks in dreams, read the Bible.
[01:51:43] Just read it.
[01:51:45] It's just a common thing in the Bible.
[01:51:48] Now, everybody has dreams.
[01:51:49] Some of them are just, you know, carnal, you know, The devil gets in dreams.
[01:51:53] I call them trespassing dreams.
[01:51:55] The devil will show up, but the Lord will show you when he's the devil, right?
[01:52:00] Anyways, I had this dream.
[01:52:01] It was simple.
[01:52:02] This guy, which I believe was an angel, because angels are messengers, came and told me this.
[01:52:08] This is what he said to me.
[01:52:10] He said, you need to stop being so focused on your vision and start focusing on Jesus.
[01:52:18] That's what he said to me.
[01:52:20] And that was the end of the dream.
[01:52:22] God, I woke up like, what have I done with my life, Lord?
[01:52:26] Explain that to me, Lord.
[01:52:28] Explain what that really means because, you know, the Bible really encourages us to be people of vision, right?
[01:52:37] I don't believe he was saying stop being a person of vision because, you know, have vision, have goals, go after things.
[01:52:44] Well, let me tell you what happened to me a week later.
[01:52:48] So I go to the graveyard with Tommy McCraw's brother, okay?
[01:52:56] Tommy McCraw's brother passed away.
[01:52:59] So I went with Tommy for them to bury.
[01:53:02] They're just going to do a burial, and I think their family is going to do something later as a remembrance of his brother.
[01:53:08] And it's hot as fire, okay?
[01:53:11] I'm standing in the graveyard.
[01:53:12] It's 92 degrees.
[01:53:14] It's like 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, 4.30, whatever.
[01:53:16] It was just so hot, and just me and Tommy and Libby, and then Stacey come dragging in late for her uncle's funeral.
[01:53:25] So I don't know.
[01:53:26] I'm like, what kind of Stacey?
[01:53:27] We're going to need to talk to Stacey, y'all.
[01:53:30] Anyways, and I was standing there, like, looking at Mooresville.
[01:53:34] I was looking at Mooresville and thinking about, man, Mooresville has changed so much since I came here.
[01:53:40] It's changed so much, all these buildings and all this crazy traffic, and it was not like that back when I first came.
[01:53:47] And then the Holy Spirit started speaking to me.
[01:53:50] Don't you love it?
[01:53:50] Out there in a 92 degree, this casket sitting up there, me, Tommy, and Libby, and Stacy, and the funeral home people, and that's it, that's it.
[01:54:00] There's no canopy over us.
[01:54:01] It's out there in the hot, blazing sun.
[01:54:04] But the Holy Spirit was speaking to me, and this is what he said to me.
[01:54:08] He said, what you thought I brought you here for is not what I brought you here for.
[01:54:16] This is what I brought you here for.
[01:54:19] I said, what?
[01:54:22] You brought me here for this?
[01:54:25] He said, wherever I am, that's what I brought you for.
[01:54:31] Wherever I am, that's why you're here.
[01:54:34] He said, I'm right in front of you more than you know.
[01:54:39] And you're missing it.
[01:54:42] You're missing those moments.
[01:54:44] At that moment, Jesus was at that gravesite.
[01:54:48] And I realized what he was saying.
[01:54:50] You've been so full of vision and stuff.
[01:54:51] You've looked over.
[01:54:54] and missed me so many times in your life instead of seeing me in that moment and that's powerful you know I wanted to read that one scripture and then I'll perhaps I'll stop I'll read this one
[01:55:12] this is good you know this one I love this scripture therefore since we Hebrews 12 since we all have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us let us rid ourselves of every obstacle and sin
[01:55:24] which so easily entangles us and let us roam with endurance the race that is set before us.
[01:55:31] See, when I first came to Mooresville, I had this vision.
[01:55:34] It was actually a dream. It wasn't a vision.
[01:55:37] There's a little bit of a difference.
[01:55:38] One's in the day, one's at night.
[01:55:40] How about that? That's a simple explanation.
[01:55:43] A vision's in the day, a dream's at night.
[01:55:46] Of course, you could be sleeping in a day if you're taking a nap, right?
[01:55:51] Old people should be taking naps, they say.
[01:55:54] Anyways, we're going to go on from that.
[01:55:56] but I've got to finish this.
[01:55:58] Listen, when I first came here, I had a vision of the Great Cloud of Witnesses.
[01:56:05] They were in Mooresville sitting on these bleachers.
[01:56:08] Bleachers, Lord help.
[01:56:10] What in the heck, God?
[01:56:11] Now I'm getting in this bleacher thing again.
[01:56:15] It was crummy too, man.
[01:56:16] They were bad bleachers.
[01:56:18] But there were only a few people in the Great Cloud of Witnesses.
[01:56:22] And then, you know, when I was here about 20 years, I had that same vision again, and there was a lot more people in the great cloud of witness.
[01:56:30] In other words, this place, Morrisville, was getting more and more attention from heaven.
[01:56:36] That's what I feel like the Lord is saying.
[01:56:38] When you came here, there was a little bit of attention here.
[01:56:40] But there's attention here.
[01:56:42] And when I was thinking about sitting over there at that graveyard, there's attention from heaven where we are now.
[01:56:51] God, He has His witnesses lining up on those crummy bleachers.
[01:56:57] But, you know, they're heavenly, so it don't hurt their self.
[01:57:00] They don't get up stiff.
[01:57:02] They're here.
[01:57:04] There's witnesses.
[01:57:08] We have them watching us.
[01:57:11] Listen, y'all.
[01:57:14] Romans chapter 16.
[01:57:17] It's the last chapter in the book of Romans, just in case you didn't know.
[01:57:20] And it's pretty much this.
[01:57:22] Paul starts giving greetings to people.
[01:57:25] He lists all these people.
[01:57:27] This is powerful.
[01:57:29] Names of people.
[01:57:30] He specifically names these different people.
[01:57:32] I think there's 16 people in that chapter he mentions.
[01:57:36] These were friends of Paul.
[01:57:38] These were people Paul knew.
[01:57:40] Historically, those 16 people all became like bishops and leaders and pastors.
[01:57:47] I mean, they became people, important people in what God was doing in the earth.
[01:57:53] All of them were martyred.
[01:57:56] Every one of them.
[01:57:58] Not one of them.
[01:58:00] But their names are written in the Bible for eternity.
[01:58:04] You know, those are witnesses.
[01:58:07] Those are people who have witnessed.
[01:58:10] They paid the ultimate price, like Robert was talking about, ultimately for our soldiers who paid the ultimate price.
[01:58:16] These people paid the ultimate price for the gospel of the kingdom.
[01:58:21] You know, and they're the witnesses now.
[01:58:22] They're watching us.
[01:58:26] It really gets you.
[01:58:29] So, then he says this.
[01:58:31] oh he says uh let's rid ourselves of every obstacle okay i think a word there and the sin which so easily entangles okay so there's two things there's obstacles and there's sin obstacles can be a lot of different things in your life but they entangle you the picture is
[01:58:49] is getting your feet entangled in something and falling down that's the picture that hebrews writer is trying to tell us is there's things that will cause you to trip those are and they're not always sin. It can be good things. It can be distractions. It can be a lot of different
[01:59:06] things. Whatever it is in your life today, maybe you know what it is. Maybe you know what's entangling you and keeping you from being the person that can run the race that's set before you. Or it can be the sins that so easily beset us. It means we all have different
[01:59:22] things. Don't lie to me. You have some sins in your life that it's easy for you to fall into. I promise you, you do. Or that wouldn't, that Bible verse wouldn't be there. All human
[01:59:34] beings, that's being a human being. Human beings are tempted. Sometimes there's a constant temptation. Sometimes there's something that comes through your bloodline. There's a lot of different things. Okay. But we all have issues. And what Paul's, or not Paul, I don't know who
[01:59:50] wrote this thing, but he knew something. He's saying those things, those things can keep you from running the race that God's assigned to you.
[01:59:59] Obstacles and sins, good things, distracting things, important things, you have to name them for yourself.
[02:00:09] And the sins, the sins, the easy, and I'm not talking about some terrible sin, just easy sins, like just being short with your wife.
[02:00:17] Well, I get paid, I don't do that.
[02:00:20] You don't be messing with Becky Davis.
[02:00:23] You get short with her, she gets short with you.
[02:00:26] And then he says this, looking only to Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith.
[02:00:31] See, that's what that dream was about.
[02:00:34] Looking only to Jesus.
[02:00:36] In other words, Byron, don't let your grandiose vision of whatever it is get you tangled up when I'm right in front of you and you don't even see me right in front of you.
[02:00:50] Keep your vision, but look where he's at.
[02:00:53] If he's in front of you, if he's at a gravesite and just stand with a family in their grief, that's the greatest thing you can do in that minute.
[02:01:03] There's nothing greater because that's where He's at and that's where He wants you.
[02:01:07] And you can walk away from those times knowing you were there with Jesus, with Jesus doing what He wants you to do.
[02:01:16] The originator and perfecter of the faith.
[02:01:20] Don't focus on your faith.
[02:01:26] He's the one who starts your faith.
[02:01:29] He's the one who will finish your faith.
[02:01:32] He's the one who gives you the vision.
[02:01:34] He'll help you fulfill the vision.
[02:01:36] He's the one who gives you the calling.
[02:01:38] He'll help you finish the calling.
[02:01:40] He's the one who gives you the mission.
[02:01:42] He'll help you finish the mission.
[02:01:45] See, but if we put those things, and that's the thing, we get entangled.
[02:01:52] And then it goes on to say, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
[02:02:02] So that's really the thing we need to do.
[02:02:04] One of the things I think we need to do to really see, you know, the dream that God has for us to be a resting place, a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, is to keep looking to Jesus.
[02:02:18] If you pull it all down to that, just that, if you just do that one thing, your home, your soul, all of it can be, it can be a dwelling place, it can be a place where the presence of God rests.
[02:02:32] and that wherever you go, you can bring that presence with you and you can release that presence to the people in this world around you, wherever you go, grocery store, wherever.
[02:02:42] So I want you to stand up.
[02:02:44] Are you all okay?
[02:02:45] I hope the Lord convicted you.
[02:02:48] I'm trying to share some of my conviction.
[02:02:51] Yes and amen.
[02:02:54] So thank you, Lord, for the...
[02:02:56] Are there people in here who are veterans?
[02:03:00] raise your hand who was served listen look around those hands raised yes thank you now are there people in here maybe that you had a family member that had served raise your hand yeah look at that
[02:03:18] family members that's really important does anybody have someone in your family that was lost in the service raise your hand look at these hands raised these people that's family They lost family serving this country.
[02:03:34] That's important to the Lord, y'all.
[02:03:36] Thank you on behalf of your lost loved one.
[02:03:41] And thank you that your loved one went.
[02:03:43] And thank you those who've served.
[02:03:45] Thank you those who've had family members who've served.
[02:03:48] That's important.
[02:03:49] Now let us think about this today.
[02:03:52] Let us think about the kingdom of God and our citizenship and going after that.
[02:04:02] Okay?
[02:04:02] Let us think about how God wants you to do that on a personal level.
[02:04:05] Say, Lord, we just want to thank you today.
[02:04:08] Holy Spirit, we ask you to come right now and do what only you can do.
[02:04:12] Just begin to touch hearts right now.
[02:04:15] Let's just take a second and allow the Holy Spirit to touch our heart.
[02:04:18] I'm not asking you to do anything, you know, this morning.
[02:04:23] I just feel like God, it's more like a time for the Spirit of the Lord to rest on you.
[02:04:28] Just rest and give you a chance for Him to speak to you.
[02:04:34] Because I believe the Lord wants to speak to you.
[02:04:41] Yeah.
[02:04:42] Yeah, we'll do altar call, Gino.
[02:04:44] I think, I think, you know, on Pentecost, you know how the tongues of fire came down?
[02:04:54] That was crazy, man.
[02:04:57] I mean, crazy.
[02:05:00] It's like these flames came down like tongues on people.
[02:05:04] You know, I believe God wants to give the church that kind of thing.
[02:05:09] where the fire of heaven flows out of our mouth.
[02:05:14] I was praying for Marlon.
[02:05:15] Marlon has, listen to me.
[02:05:18] Let me tell you something.
[02:05:20] The Bible says out of your belly will flow rivers of living water.
[02:05:24] Well, you know, also the Bible says in heaven there's a river of fire.
[02:05:29] Marlon has that river in him.
[02:05:31] I've seen that.
[02:05:32] I've heard that in him.
[02:05:34] I've heard it come out of him.
[02:05:36] I believe there's other people in this room that have that same kind of manifestation.
[02:05:40] maybe not all of us but I think there's people in this room that there is a river of fire in you that's damned up like Paul says stir up the gift get the ashes of life
[02:05:54] get the ashes of life off that thing that gift in you blow those ashes off and let it he says you stir it up that's what he said that's what he told Timothy stir it up
[02:06:07] you stir it up if you'll begin to stir like stirring in a fire God will blow on those ashes He'll blow those ashes He'll blow on that fire And it'll jump up Because see that fire is not dependent
[02:06:20] On anything natural to burn It's dependent on something supernatural So we don't have to worry about the fuel We just have to allow the fuel The oil of the Holy Spirit We just have to get the cares of life
[02:06:34] The deceitfulness of Whatever it may be in our life That's hindering the fire The pressures The difficulties the disappointments, the hurt all of those things and if we will say Lord I'm going to stir it but I need you to
[02:06:50] blow on it. I believe the Holy Spirit will do his thing if we'll do our thing. If we'll say yes to the Lord, God was already saying yes to us. Are y'all hearing me?
[02:07:01] So I want you to come forward if you feel like that speaks to you okay, just come up here now if you would and I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to begin to blow on you because you're coming up here
[02:07:13] saying, Lord, I'm going to stir. I'm not going to be passive about my Christianity. I'm not going to sit around and wait for something else to happen. I'm going to believe what already has happened. I'm going to tap into what has already been given. And I'm going to believe you that
[02:07:31] you're going to do your part, Lord. You're going to do your part. I'm going to do what you asked me to do. I'm going to stir. I'm going to believe. I'm going to trust. This morning, Becky asked me
[02:07:45] right before I left the house. She said, are you getting ready for your message? I said, Becky, I'm trying to. She said, why don't you stop trying to get ready? And I thought, oh yeah, that's right.
[02:07:57] I don't try to do this. I let this. See, that's what we're doing. We're saying, Lord, we're going to let, L-E-T, we're going to allow you to do what you want to do inside of us. And when you do that,
[02:08:10] something's going to come out of us and it's going to be good. And it's going to help the world around us. It's going to bring people peace. It's going to bring people love. It's going to bring
[02:08:21] healing and care. So Father, right now, in Jesus' name, you see these people up here, Lord, we call out to you now. Lord, we trust you, Lord, that you will do what you said you would do. You said
[02:08:32] you would pour out your spirit on all flesh, all people, men, women, children, ugly people, pretty people, that you would do it. We're presenting ourselves to you today to become flames of fire. We're saying, Lord,
[02:08:46] let that river, that river of fire, that Holy Ghost river that this world desperately needs, that the internet needs, Lord, that the young people need, that the children need, we ask you to let it flow in us today,
[02:09:01] that you would deprive the pump of heaven inside of us. That you would pour into us the all of heaven that would cause the all that's in us to arise up Lord. And Lord, we're saying
[02:09:13] whatever it looks like, however it looks, that's not the issue. What we're saying to you Lord is yes Lord.
[02:09:19] Yes Lord.
[02:09:21] And we thank you for that today Lord in Jesus name. Just come Lord. Just touch people.
[02:09:27] Do your business with God.
[02:09:29] Do your business with God. That's what we're doing right now. You're just going to do

[02:09:33] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_08]
[02:09:33] it with the Lord. Yeah. Thank you, Lord. Bless you, Lord. We'll just keep this going. If there

[02:11:05] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[02:11:05] are parents that have children, I'd ask if you go get them, maybe one of you and come right back in and bring them back in here. This is real sweet, real sweet. If there are any here that we've been
[02:13:00] just talking Jesus all morning. And so I feel, Dean, thank you so much. If you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, I want to give an opportunity for you to come and receive him
[02:13:17] for who he is in your life. So if that's you, if you're unsure, if this is all new, it's okay. We have plenty of friends and people of the house that would love to pray for you.
[02:13:32] If we can have the ministry team be up here for anyone that needs prayer, but specifically for those that, that want Jesus in their life, the invitations to you to come on up here and just
[02:13:48] grab ahold of me or somebody up here and we'll talk with you. Yeah.