The Danger of Noise: Hearing God in a Chaotic World

• The Hunger for Scripture [01:17:24 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes a release of hunger for the Word during worship and calls those who have grown cold on Scripture to stand and ask the Holy Spirit to reignite their desire.
• Grace vs. Legalism [01:18:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explicitly rejects legalism, defining grace not as permission to sin but as a power to do good, emphasizing that believers are under grace, not guilt.
• John the Baptist and Divine Calling [01:20:30 ▶️ 📄]
  > Using John 3, the pastor explains John the Baptist's role as the last Old Testament prophet and a 'voice in the wilderness,' illustrating that believers are called to be voices by first listening to God.
• Listening to God's Voice [01:23:05 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the noise of the world (likened to unreliable weathermen) with the need to attune one's ears to God's voice to effectively declare His word.
• Divine Voice and Discernment [01:23:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the noise of the world with the need to listen to God, using the analogy of unreliable weathermen to describe false spiritual voices.
• The Bride of Christ [01:28:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal revelation experienced during his granddaughter's wedding, connecting the earthly preparation of a bride to the spiritual preparation of the church.
• Church History and Adaptability [01:31:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor discusses the church's historical ability to adapt to different cultures and circumstances, citing a friend from a persecuted church to highlight the loss of passion in comfort.
• Historical Context of Marriage [01:34:26 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains ancient Jewish marriage customs, specifically the groom preparing a place and the role of the 'friend of the groom,' to illuminate biblical passages like John 14 and the parable of the virgins.
• The Role of the Bridegroom's Friend [01:36:15 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains the historical role of the 'best man' or friend of the bridegroom in Jewish weddings, who arranged details, protected the bride, and rejoiced in the groom's success, using this to explain John the Baptist's ministry.
• Relational Christianity [01:39:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor argues that Christianity is first and foremost relational, citing the church at Ephesus in Revelation 2 as an example of a group that lost their 'first love' (relationship) despite doctrinal purity and service.
• Missionary Anointing [01:43:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor calls the congregation to recognize their missionary calling, laying hands on those who feel stirred by the Holy Spirit to serve God's mission, whether locally or globally.
• He Must Increase, I Must Decrease [01:46:50 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor reinterprets this phrase not as self-denial for its own sake, but as the temporary role of the 'friend' giving way to the permanent joy of the 'bride' in eternity.
• The Role of the Believer (Friend vs. Bride) [01:47:03 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor distinguishes between the temporary ministry of a 'friend of the bridegroom' (John the Baptist, Paul) and the eternal, permanent identity of the 'bride of Christ,' arguing that current service is a preparation for this ultimate union.
• The Ministry of the Holy Spirit [01:56:12 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor explains that the Holy Spirit is the 'ultimate friend of the bridegroom' whose invisible nature is designed to draw attention to Jesus, not himself, and whose goal is to prepare hearts for the bridegroom's return.
• Eschatological Fulfillment ([Revelation 19](https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Revelation+19&version=KJV)) [01:50:53 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses Revelation 19 to illustrate the shift from judgment to celebration, highlighting the 'four hallelujahs' and the marriage of the Lamb as the climax of biblical history and God's redemptive plan.
• Echoing the Holy Spirit [01:55:16 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor encourages believers to be 'echoes' of the Holy Spirit's invitation ('Come'), rather than echoes of culture, emphasizing unity between the Spirit and the Bride in calling others to the Word of Life.
• The Second Coming of Christ [01:59:29 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor highlights the frequency of the Second Coming in the New Testament (300 mentions) and argues that the early church expected it soon, a theme God intentionally left in Scripture to shape daily living.
• Christian Identity and Authority [02:06:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor challenges believers to reject lies of inadequacy and recognize their authority in Christ, noting that demons fear the believer because of who they are in Christ, not their own merit.
• Repentance and Calling [02:07:47 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor urges the congregation to stop using personal traits (like introversion) or past failures as excuses, calling them to rise up as 'friends of the Lord' who serve His purposes.

• Sermon Illustration [01:15:46 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his grandkids teaching him to come to church despite the chaos, noting how their presence stirred his heart and drew out good from him.
• Sermon Illustration [01:23:48 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses an analogy comparing the internet and various commentators to weathermen who are constantly predicting but rarely right, urging the congregation to ignore the noise and listen to God.
• Sermon Illustration [01:23:44 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor compares the internet and false spiritual voices to weathermen who are 'always predicting the weather and they're never right.'
• Sermon Illustration [01:26:09 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a unique ritual at his daughter's wedding where the congregation prayed over the wedding rings before the vows were exchanged.
• Sermon Illustration [01:27:25 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the emotional difficulty of holding back tears while everyone else wept at his granddaughter's wedding, which led to a spiritual revelation about the Bride of Christ.
• Sermon Illustration [01:34:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares an anecdote about his children choosing spouses he initially disapproved of, only to realize they chose God's perfect match.
• Sermon Illustration [01:32:18 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor tells the story of a friend from a persecuted country who lost his passion for the Lord after moving to the comfortable United States, illustrating the church's adaptability and the danger of comfort.
• Sermon Illustration [01:34:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about his children choosing spouses he initially didn't approve of, only to realize later that God had chosen the perfect partner for them, illustrating God's sovereignty in relationships.
• Sermon Illustration [01:35:13 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor describes the historical Jewish wedding custom where the groom leaves to prepare a place, has little contact with the bride, and is assisted by a 'best man' who prepares her, using this as an analogy for John the Baptist's role and the believer's current calling.
• Sermon Illustration [01:42:04 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a personal experience where God asked him to slow down and get still because his busy mind was hindering his ability to hear the Holy Spirit, illustrating the necessity of relational intimacy over mere activity.
• Sermon Illustration [01:58:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about preaching in Chapel Hill while emotionally exhausted and introverted, sitting in a hot car under a tree praying for help before the service.
• Sermon Illustration [01:56:57 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor recounts a conversation with an older believer who explained that the Holy Spirit is invisible ('like a ghost') not because He is insubstantial, but because He does not want to be seen; His purpose is to draw attention to Jesus.
• Sermon Illustration [01:57:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor references his experience officiating his daughter Emma's wedding, using it as a natural analogy for the spiritual reality of the church (the woman) being united with Jesus (the man).
• Sermon Illustration [01:58:34 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor shares a personal anecdote about being emotionally exhausted while preaching at his daughter Emma's wedding weekend in Chapel Hill, sitting in a hot car under a tree praying for strength, which led to a spiritual realization about the Second Coming.
• Sermon Illustration [02:01:11 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor contrasts the behavior of 'maniacs' who obsessed over the end times but lived poorly with the biblical call to live holy lives in anticipation of Christ's return.
• Sermon Illustration [02:07:31 ▶️ 📄]
  > The pastor uses the analogy of a little girl learning to walk, describing how God is happy when we step out in faith and fail, picking us up and dusting us off rather than condemning us.

• Pastoral Charge [01:18:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand up physically and pray for the Holy Spirit to restore a hunger for Scripture.
• Pastoral Charge [01:43:17 ▶️ 📄]
  > Lay hands on standing members to impart missionary anointing
• Pastoral Charge [01:43:10 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand up to identify those with a missionary call
• Pastoral Charge [01:55:41 ▶️ 📄]
  > To echo the Holy Spirit's invitation ('come') and invite the thirsty to take the word of life freely.
• Pastoral Charge [02:04:01 ▶️ 📄]
  > Stand up and verbally affirm acceptance of the Holy Spirit's leading to become a friend of the Lord.
• Pastoral Charge [02:04:45 ▶️ 📄]
  > Verbally declare identity as a friend of the Lord and commitment to serve His purposes.
• Pastoral Charge [02:08:37 ▶️ 📄]
  > Come forward for extra prayer from the ministry team.

[00:06:14] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:06:14] Stand with me, please. Hope everyone's having a great week. Let's exalt the Lord. Thank you, Lord. Be exalted, King Jesus. Let's go right in. Be exalted, King Jesus. Higher and higher. Higher and higher. Be exalted, King Jesus. Be exalted, Lord. Higher and higher. Higher and higher, Lord. Whatever is thrown your way,
[00:07:23] right now, let's take a moment. Let's exalt the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you for your presence here today, Lord. Thank you, Lord, that this is your house. Thank you, Lord, that you delight to be here. You found joy, Lord, in being here. Thank you, Lord, that we get to dine with you
[00:07:55] this morning. We get to be with you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord, for your holiness, for your wonder.
[00:08:09] Thank you, Lord, for holding us by the face this morning, for locking eyes with us today and letting us know that you are here, that I am is here.
[00:08:28] I am is here today.
[00:08:33] We exalt you, King Jesus, higher and higher.
[00:08:39] Thank you, Lord.
[00:08:42] Nothing else to do today.
[00:08:45] There is nothing else to do.
[00:08:48] Thank you, Jesus.
[00:08:51] We pour it out on you, King.
[00:08:53] We pour it out on you, Lord.
[00:08:57] Whatever we have left, we give to you.

[00:10:19] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:10:19] It's all mine.
[00:10:21] Sing it out.
[00:10:22] All I seek and without is no me.
[00:10:43] All I need and without it, without it, I'm not living.
[00:10:52] No, we're not.
[00:10:54] Exalt.
[00:10:55] Just exalt the Lord right now.
[00:15:15] Just give him what you have.
[00:15:16] For a little, however lot you have.
[00:15:20] Just give him what you have.
[00:15:21] Give him your worship this morning.
[00:15:23] let's remember his goodness and remember his faithfulness make this declaration again there will be no one die without him that's our cry this morning lord that we need you lord morning that you need him places in our hearts places of pain pieces of confusion and fear all how we need
[00:19:17] of our brothers and sisters lord and our families that's our heart lord you live and breathe and love through us and inside of us God because we can't do it Lord and we confess that this morning
[00:20:28] that we can't do it that we truly need your life operating within us to live this life for you and to love others to love ourselves Lord so help us Lord and have mercy on us Jesus thank you that

[00:20:48] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_06]
[00:20:48] your love is a free gift Lord amen let's all sing together we're so thankful that you guide us you

[00:44:46] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_07]
[00:44:46] don't turn your back. We want to love you this morning. We want to put you first. Remember and encourage each other to trust you with everything. Jesus, you're the standard. You're the one that we

[00:45:11] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[00:45:11] want. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for teaching us. The heart of the Father is here, and I just see

[00:52:31] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_03]
[00:52:31] him permeating hearts. Thank you, Jesus, for your presence. Thank you for being here with us.
[00:53:04] It says eight days later, his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and he stood in their midst and said, peace be to you.
[00:53:22] Then he said to Thomas, place your finger here and see my hands. Take your hand and put it into my side. Do not continue in disbelief, but be a believer. Thank you, Jesus, for standing right
[00:53:59] here in our midst. Even if the door to our heart is completely shut, you find a way to still walk through. You find a way as a good friend, more faithful than even a mother, you find a way
[00:54:25] to come in our midst and to say, see, go ahead, touch my side, look at my hands.
[00:54:37] If we could just have the band just continue to play, I want, I would like to want to release the presence of God over your life right now through this music. We just play. We don't have
[00:54:53] to sing, but just invite the Lord to come into your life and say, peace be to you and allow the crucified and yet resurrected body of Jesus stand before you and say, here I am. Here I am. Here I
[00:55:20] am. If anyone here is need of something physically in your body, the Lord is here. If you would just stand or raise your hand, and if those around you, if you see someone standing or with their hand
[00:57:00] raised, if you have a physical ailment, you have a physical need, whether it's sleeplessness, whether it's migraines, whether it's, gosh, if you came with a sore throat, Jesus can do it.
[00:57:17] Those of you, church, let's look around and find a person standing or with their hand raised.
[00:57:22] Ask them what they need prayer for. Ask specifically what they need and just supply it simply with prayer. Let's stand in agreement with Jesus because he's here and he wants to bless people.
[00:57:33] thank you Lord thank you Lord thank you Jesus that your perfect love it actually casts out fear your perfect love casts out fear so thank you Lord thank you Lord for your resurrection power would come and invade this person Lord that they'd have eyes to see physically if they are
[00:58:00] lacking in vision I ask that you'd come and touch their their vision Lord in Jesus name thank you, Lord, that 2000 years ago, you gave up your life and you said it was finished and
[00:58:15] you meant every word of it. You meant every word that it was finished. Sin, sickness and death crucified on the cross, buried forever. Thank you, Jesus. We speak peace to you in Jesus name, peace to your body, peace to your mind, peace to your soul. If you're in torment this morning,
[00:58:40] we cry out, Jesus, have mercy. Mercy, Jesus. Mercy, Lord. Thank you, Lord, that you waste absolutely nothing. Not an ounce of your blood was shed that was wasted. Not an ounce was left unaccounted for. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Jesus. And if we could just somehow
[00:59:14] have the ushers come forth, come forth. This isn't King James. I'm sorry. Come on out. Come on down. Sorry. Come forth. Who talks like that? Gosh. Okay. Here we go. I feel like the Lord's
[00:59:37] slapping me in the face. Like, what are you doing, man? Come forth. You don't talk like that.
[00:59:41] If you can't laugh at yourself, then God help you. Yes. So if you're still getting prayer, just keep going. Don't let me interrupt what's happening. If God's touching you, don't let me interrupt. But let's just, we're going to take an offering. And yeah, so Jesus,
[01:00:04] we thank you. Thank you, Lord. Thank you for the advancement of your kingdom, the advancement of your word, your gospel, that it would go forth from this room, from this room, it would go out.
[01:00:20] It would go out. Thank you, Lord, that you've given me a privilege and an honor to partner with you in giving, to partner with you in my finances. Thank you, Lord, for what you do.
[01:00:34] Amen. Amen. Amen. Tori's right up front and center. She's like ready to go. Come on. Come forth.

[01:00:42] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[01:00:42] come on awesome thank you aaron guys we had such an amazing week right here we did vbs wait don't bring that up yet i need i need a clear stage i've got a dance routine for you just kidding
[01:00:58] um no all week long we got to invite all of our river kids and our community to come to be a part of vbs and we transformed our sanctuary in our different rooms to be rainforest falls everyone
[01:01:11] say, ooh. And we explored all week long what it looked like to learn about the nature of God.
[01:01:19] We learned about how God is our creator and we are his masterpiece. We learned about how God knows everything, even the numbers of hairs on our head, and he loves us. We learned how God is our safe
[01:01:32] place. No matter what life looks like, where can we run to? Our God, right? We learned that God is love and he displayed that love through the gift of Jesus. And I love how all morning, man, it was
[01:01:44] all about Jesus. I don't know why you come to church, but that's why I show up. And then on Friday, we talked about how God is forever. That even though VBS came to an end, the seeds that
[01:01:56] were planted inside of their hearts, those will continue to grow and to encourage them to know that they are never alone because God is with them. Amen. Amen. Also, we brought food in every single day for the Father's Table Pantry. These kids, there was about 79 kids that were in and
[01:02:14] out of our doors every single day. They brought in 300 items of food. Is that amazing? So we stocked up the pantry. It is going to love our community. So I want to take a minute. I'm going to invite
[01:02:27] all of our River Kids to come on up here. I know you love being on the stage. So come on up. Y'all are going to join me on the stage. We're going to play a slideshow and we're going to show you
[01:02:36] just a little bit of what it was like to be at VBS. So River Kids, my youth helpers, station leaders, whoever wants to come up, come on down. Oh yeah. Can we give it up for all of our Rids?
[01:02:51] That's amazing. That's amazing. And we just got to give a shout out to all of our youth helpers and crew leaders, station members, they made this happen. All right. Does everybody have a spot?
[01:03:04] Yes. Okay. I think we are ready. We got to fly like our quaint salt bird.

[01:06:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_09]
[01:06:35] Keep playing. But before you guys sit down, look right here. This is the future, but it's also the

[01:08:38] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_04]
[01:08:38] now, right? Because we believe there's no junior Holy Spirit, but these kids get to walk in the fullness of the power of Jesus alive and at work in him. Some of you guys are like, wow, we've never
[01:08:49] seen the kid mentor before. Welcome to my life. But I want to just, everybody reach out your hands up here. We are going to pray over these boys and girls, these teenagers, these leaders. Lord, we
[01:09:02] thank you that your fire will fall on this generation. Lord, we thank you that they would know you, that they would know you deep, deep, deep, so nothing else will ever satisfy their hearts. And we thank you that they are empowered to change the world. You guys are world changers.
[01:09:22] We love you so much. Amen. Amen. All right, you guys can head back down. Thank you for your help.
[01:09:32] And moms and dads, we're going to dismiss kids, but before you go, our eagles, which are our four-year-old all the way up to our fifth graders. We're going to do a VBS celebration in the back building. So don't go down that hallway. Join us back there. I will be there
[01:09:46] waving and saying, come this way. Right? So River Kids, you guys are dismissed to head to your classes. Let's give it up one more time for our River Kids. Thank you, Tori. That's awesome. And

[01:10:02] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_00]
[01:10:02] thanks to everybody who made VBS possible. That was amazing. I love seeing the kids up there.
[01:10:08] Thanks, Cindy. Look at you. Perfect. Okay. Just give me a couple minutes here for a quick little commercial break. I will try to be succinct, but communicate the information you need.
[01:10:21] Also, of course, we don't say everything from the pulpit, so be sure to check your email announcements. If you're not already on our email announcements, you can check our website, riverlifefellowship.com. And all these announcements are listed on there, but you can also sign up for
[01:10:35] the email announcements, because it's very handy to have some of these links and information right in your inbox. First thing in the morning, it usually gets sent out about 7 a.m., so you can see everything going on. We have tons of stuff going on throughout the week that I'm not going
[01:10:49] to mention, but these are some things you have to keep in mind. First of all, we have Baptism Sunday. It's not next Sunday, but the Sunday after, Sunday, August 2nd. But next Sunday, we want you
[01:11:00] to be signed up by by next Sunday. So if you or one of your loved ones or one of the children from VBS, if they're old enough to understand what that means, would like to be baptized, it is just a
[01:11:13] beautiful public declaration of their faith and their next step in following the Lord. So we had an awesome youth baptism a couple weeks ago. I think we had like 22 youth and leaders, a combination
[01:11:24] of youth and leaders get baptized, which was amazing. So that was a youth focus and that was a little bit after camp, and that was an amazing next step for the youth. So anybody else who's
[01:11:32] interested in that for the church, please sign up. You can click the link in your email, or you can email admin at riverlifefellowship.com. That will get to Kristen, and she will give you all the
[01:11:43] information you need. Sign up by next Sunday. The baptism is the following Sunday, August 2nd.
[01:11:50] Also August 2nd, our Riverlife Women's Retreat is going to have the registration open up.
[01:11:57] So the retreat is happening October 16th to October 18th is when the actual retreat is.
[01:12:07] But August 2nd is when the sign-ups start.
[01:12:10] So there are some rooms that have certain, I don't know, how the beds are set up and the configurations.
[01:12:19] Certain things sell out.
[01:12:22] And then sometimes the retreats actually do sell out.
[01:12:24] So have that on your calendar for next Sunday.
[01:12:28] it's going to open at 4 p.m. No, it's going to open on Sunday, August 4th. Sorry, I'll get this straight. Back up a little bit. I'll slow down. I was trying to get through this quickly, but just
[01:12:44] make sure I get it right instead of too quick. Sunday, August 2nd at 4 o'clock. Registration opens up. Have that little timer set up on your calendar and you can sign up to come to Women's
[01:12:56] retreat, which is Friday, October 16th through Sunday, October 18th. If you have any questions, oh, there's a little bit more information up there behind me. You can email Paula. Her email's not up there. Sojourn Women at Riverlife Fellowship, I think. If you have any other questions,
[01:13:16] just come talk to me afterwards and I'll see if I can answer them. I may or may not be able to, or you can try me. Okay, third announcement. Last but not least, Saturday, August 1st is the
[01:13:28] deadline for our Swannanoa school supply drive. Swannanoa is a church that we are still helping recover from the hurricane that happened a couple years ago in western North Carolina and we are trying to supply some school supplies to donate school supplies for them
[01:13:46] or monetary donations are welcome.
[01:13:49] They're trying to purchase one pair of shoes for each child in that church so you can donate by cash or cheque.
[01:13:56] You can give a gift card from either Target or Walmart.
[01:14:01] So if you have any questions about that, Erica Lozano is the person who's in charge of that.
[01:14:06] There's her email address and also there's a list on your email or on our church website with all of the different things, school supplies, sort of suggestions of what they would like donated.
[01:14:18] So if you can bring that by the church, the deadline is Saturday, August 1st, but if you're not by the church, often I think probably next Saturday would be a good idea to just bring it to the church.
[01:14:28] I mean, next Sunday would be a good idea to bring it to the church.
[01:14:30] Are you going to be here on Saturday, August 1st?
[01:14:33] Somebody, it's supposed to be Friday.
[01:14:37] Are you going to be here Friday?
[01:14:39] Okay, so bring it by Friday.
[01:14:41] But if you're not around the church much, then bring it next Sunday would probably be a good idea.
[01:14:46] Okay, awesome.
[01:14:47] If you have any more questions, ask Erica.
[01:14:50] She's there, and her email address is there.
[01:14:54] I think I got it all covered.
[01:14:56] So, Pastor Byron, it's your turn.
[01:15:00] Come on down.
[01:15:09] You do want a turn.
[01:15:10] We want you to have a turn.
[01:15:12] Let's reach out and pray for Pastor Byron this morning.
[01:15:15] Lord, we thank you for our pastor.
[01:15:17] We thank you for our church.
[01:15:19] We thank you, Lord, for the blessing it is to be here our children, for our baptism coming up, for all the things that we have going on. And we just ask you, Lord, to bless it. We ask you, Lord, to bless the word this morning. In Jesus' name, amen.

[01:15:35] [SPEAKER SPEAKER_01]
[01:15:35] All righty. Thank you, Lord. That was great with the kids, wasn't it? So I want to say, you know, being around kids can have a pretty good impact on you. If you're a parent, it probably can be a
[01:15:46] little rough at times, right? But my grandkids really taught me into coming up here a few days.
[01:15:52] I wasn't going to come because, you know, you can't get a whole lot done if you're trying to do something else with lots of kids around you.
[01:15:59] But I came anyway.
[01:16:00] Man, I just felt like I had some great conversations with some of the kids.
[01:16:07] But I don't know what it was, but it was just I felt really touched by the Lord.
[01:16:13] I guess that's the best way I could say it.
[01:16:15] I just felt like God was doing something in me all the way through the VBS time.
[01:16:21] And I wasn't really expecting that.
[01:16:24] It really made me really want to get closer and closer to the father because I felt like he was really present here because he really loves children, of course.
[01:16:36] So I just wanted to say that.
[01:16:39] Obviously, Tori did a great job.
[01:16:41] Yeah, I mean, it's a busy, busy thing.
[01:16:45] You know, kids going to the bathroom every three minutes.
[01:16:49] you know it's kind of funny watching them but these kids have got a lot in them y'all they really do and they will draw something out of you that's good and if you happen to have something
[01:17:00] bad in you you know when the good starts coming out the bad gets pushed out too amen oh well thank you lord that was a good amen i appreciate you saying that yeah so yes um well i was feeling
[01:17:13] like i was feeling a few things during worship that's kind of really on me that washing in the word thing uh it's really important right now i feel like god is just releasing the word of the
[01:17:24] lord to people right now okay and a lot of it just has to really just a cleansing thing you know that's what paul says in ephesians that that the word of god cleanse actually cleanses us and makes
[01:17:36] us whole and spotless so i think it's a time for us to be intentional about the word of the lord both written the written word of the lord and any personal words god has given you in your life
[01:17:48] right now, this is really a time to be paying attention to that. I felt it pretty strong in the worship that there was a release of the hunger for the Word. So I would like to just pray
[01:18:01] for you, and particularly anyone in here whose life, who've really gotten cold about the Word, that you really are not engaging in Scriptures regularly. Let's just be embarrassed this morning and stand before the Lord.
[01:18:17] And I'm serious.
[01:18:19] Let's stand before the Lord and just ask the Holy Spirit to do what only the Holy Spirit can do.
[01:18:24] We're not talking about some legalistic thing because I don't believe in that on any level.
[01:18:30] I'm a big let person.
[01:18:32] Right, what the Bible says, let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.
[01:18:35] It's just a let.
[01:18:36] It's letting God have His way.
[01:18:38] It's submitting to His way.
[01:18:40] But I believe God wants to stir a hunger and all of us for the Word of the Lord, for just a time in the Scripture where God begins to speak to us a rhema word out of the written word.
[01:18:52] Amen.
[01:18:53] And I think He'll do it.
[01:18:55] I'm pretty sure He will.
[01:18:57] I had some situations happen this week where God began to just bring Scriptures.
[01:19:02] I was needing the wisdom of God and He just began to bring Scriptures up into my mind, into my memory.
[01:19:08] I would remember a Scripture that was super helpful at that moment.
[01:19:11] That was the Holy Spirit bringing the Word of God alive in my life.
[01:19:15] So, Father, I just thank you for everybody who has been willing to stand.
[01:19:20] And, Lord, they're not standing before us.
[01:19:22] They're standing with us.
[01:19:23] They're standing before the throne of grace that we go to, that we can find mercy and grace for help in our time of need, Lord.
[01:19:30] And they're declaring that they just need a reigniting, a restoration for the hunger of Scripture, that they would be able to get back into the Word and allow the Word to get back into them
[01:19:44] and begin to impact them.
[01:19:46] Holy Spirit, You're the Word.
[01:19:47] You bring the Word of Jesus.
[01:19:49] You make Jesus alive to us.
[01:19:51] And I'm asking You to do that for every person who's standing now and even the ones who didn't stand.
[01:19:57] Maybe You can ignite them a little more.
[01:20:00] Yeah, thank You, Lord.
[01:20:01] I bless them in Jesus' name.
[01:20:02] No condemnation.
[01:20:03] You're not under any guilt.
[01:20:04] You're not under any legalism.
[01:20:07] You're under grace.
[01:20:08] Grace is a power.
[01:20:10] Grace is a power to not do bad things and do good things.
[01:20:14] Amen?
[01:20:15] All right, you can be seated.
[01:20:17] Thank you, Lord.
[01:20:19] Woo.
[01:20:20] So, yeah.
[01:20:21] There's just so much more that God wants to do.
[01:20:24] I'm going to start out by reading some verses out of the Gospel of John, chapter 3.
[01:20:30] I'm going to read verse 25 through 30.
[01:20:33] Did I think I gave?
[01:20:34] Yes.
[01:20:35] I just can't remember if I gave them them scriptures.
[01:20:37] It's bad.
[01:20:37] and you're sitting here doing worship like, did I actually give them scriptures?
[01:20:42] Then I thought it was just too late.
[01:20:45] This is from John the Baptist.
[01:20:47] How many people love John the Baptist?
[01:20:49] Cool, he was a cool dude.
[01:20:52] He was the last of the Old Testament prophets.
[01:20:54] He wasn't a New Testament guy.
[01:20:55] He was an Old Covenant guy.
[01:20:57] I don't know if you knew that, even though he shows up in the New Testament.
[01:21:00] But he was the end of, when you think about all the prophets in the Old Testament, he was the end.
[01:21:05] he was the last one the last one to have a say which is pretty powerful in fact because some of some of the things he said jesus said so hey if jesus is quoting you that's a big day right i mean
[01:21:17] yay this is then a matter of okay well you know actually he was speaking the word of the lord jesus was not john heard that from the holy spirit just trying to make sure people don't think i'm
[01:21:29] weird but just in case you do it don't matter i don't care i'm just gonna have to just deal with it. Then a matter of dispute developed on the part of John's disciples with a Jew about purification.
[01:21:42] So they were having arguments back then about stuff, about doctrine and theology. Isn't that crazy? And they came to John, speaking of his disciples, and said to him, Rabbi, he who was with you beyond the Jordan to whom you testified, behold, he is baptized and all the people are
[01:22:01] coming to him. John replied, this is a powerful verse. A person can receive not even one thing unless it's been given to him from heaven. Isn't that beautiful? I love that scripture. Not even one thing. Anything we have a true value, God gave it to us. Amen. It's beautiful. So we don't have
[01:22:20] to work for it. We just receive it. Amen. We believe it and trust it. You yourselves are my witnesses that i said i'm not the christ but i have been sent ahead of him i'll tell you there
[01:22:33] really is a call this this is a calling to be sent ahead of christ okay to to be sent ahead to prepare the way to become a voice because that's what he said about himself later he said
[01:22:47] i'm a voice crying in the wilderness i'm a voice and he's speaking of the wilderness of the world And so, really, God has a call on all of us to become a voice.
[01:22:58] Okay?
[01:22:59] Become His voice.
[01:23:01] And, you know, there's so many voices in the world.
[01:23:04] There's so much noise in the world.
[01:23:05] There's so many people clamoring for attention.
[01:23:08] And the number one thing we need to do is allow the Lord to attune our ears to His voice, to what He's saying.
[01:23:16] Okay?
[01:23:16] That's how we can become a voice, by hearing His voice.
[01:23:19] Okay?
[01:23:20] and I believe there's an invitation from the Lord right in this time, this season we're in to hear Him, okay?
[01:23:29] So we can begin to hear the word of the Lord for ourselves and to be able to declare that word to other people because the world desperately needs to hear from God.
[01:23:38] There's so much other stuff out there that's not God that we don't need to be listening to.
[01:23:44] You know, there's a lot of weathermen out there.
[01:23:48] I've concluded the internet is like weathermen.
[01:23:51] You know how the weathermen are always predicting the weather and they're never right?
[01:23:54] I've concluded that.
[01:23:55] You read stuff and somebody, oh, they're saying this, that, and that, and then you find, that's just another guy forecasting the weather.
[01:24:02] And he's not right.
[01:24:04] Well, anyways, listen to this.
[01:24:07] You yourself, okay, I read that.
[01:24:09] He who has the bride, this is where I want to get to.
[01:24:12] He who has the bride is the groom.
[01:24:15] But the friend of the groom who stands and listens to him, You see that?
[01:24:19] He who has a bride is the groom.
[01:24:22] But the friend of the groom who stands and listens to him rejoices greatly because of the groom's voice.
[01:24:28] So this joy of mine has been made full.
[01:24:30] He must increase and I must decrease.
[01:24:33] Those are some really powerful scriptures.
[01:24:36] I think I mentioned to you, you know, about doing weddings.
[01:24:38] We've done a lot of weddings in our life.
[01:24:41] Weddings are cool, right?
[01:24:43] I don't think I've ever been to a wedding that the Holy Spirit wasn't there.
[01:24:47] That's because God loves a wedding because there's such a prophetic picture of what he's ultimately going to do.
[01:24:54] And, you know, if I do a wedding, you know, my goal when I do weddings is always to try to make the couple the centerpiece instead of myself.
[01:25:06] In fact, I'm trying to work, do as little as possible for me because I want people to see them because it's their moment.
[01:25:13] It's their marriage.
[01:25:15] It's their moment.
[01:25:15] And then when I go to another wedding, I'm always watching things that are happening in the weddings and trying to learn from other preachers, you know, things that they might do.
[01:25:27] I saw a cool thing I'd never seen before, Enoch.
[01:25:29] I said, look at Enoch, stand up with your bride so everybody can see her.
[01:25:32] Yes, Enoch is a married man.
[01:25:37] Yes.
[01:25:39] And a lot of you don't, I don't know if you know or not, but his bride, Ms. Former TQ, you. Her dad is the pastor of Christ Community Church. Yeah, so we stole her. We told him,
[01:25:53] you can't marry her unless she decides River Life's her home. But I know her dad did come here. I've known her dad for years. He came here one Sunday when they started seeing each other to check us out, make sure we hadn't become too cultish. Anyways, but I'll tell
[01:26:09] One thing that was beautiful at their wedding is they took the rings that they were going to make their vows with, and they passed them around to the audience, to the congregation, and had people pray over the rings.
[01:26:28] I'd never seen that before.
[01:26:30] I thought, wow, that is such a brilliant thought.
[01:26:33] Obviously, you couldn't do it in a real large way, and their wedding was perfect for it.
[01:26:36] Of course, they had bodyguards there to make sure anybody didn't steal the rings and run off with them.
[01:26:41] But it was a really beautiful, it was beautiful.
[01:26:44] It really was added to the ceremony, I thought.
[01:26:47] And it really made their, when they did their vows to each other, I just felt like it just brought some power and beauty into those vows.
[01:26:57] It was a great job, y'all.
[01:26:59] Y'all did great, and that pastor did a great job marrying y'all, I really felt like.
[01:27:05] um so um anyways well back to marriage uh marriage is important in god's heart and um you know i would let me just say this this is how i kind of got on this is when i was doing my granddaughter's wedding okay like i said i've done a lot of wins but
[01:27:25] that wedding really made me super anxious okay i don't know why i just wanted to weep the whole time. But the problem was when they started coming up, you know, everybody was weeping. Her mama and daddy were weeping. She was weeping. Her husband was weeping. And I'm thinking, dang,
[01:27:43] everybody's weeping. I don't get to weep. You know, I had to hold it together as best I could.
[01:27:49] And it was hard, emotionally hard on me to not just, you know, because, you know, she's your first granddaughter and, you know, special. And, you know, it was special seeing all them weep though it really was uh but i mean just i don't know how to explain it to you but i just caught
[01:28:10] like it was like looking through a keyhole i just saw for the first time ever what i felt like was genuine revelation from the lord about the bride of christ okay and obviously we all could just
[01:28:24] read bible verses about this all day long and and talk about the bride of jesus uh but i and and and do teachings any good preacher could do a great teaching on it uh because the bible has a
[01:28:38] great a lot of great stuff that you could but but when god begins to reveal it to you when he begins to give you when god brings it to you all of a sudden you see it different and it was like for
[01:28:49] the first time in my life I saw something about the the preparation of a bride and we're the bride okay that God is doing in the earth and how important a time we're in right now and I do
[01:29:07] believe that there will come a time and I think I've shared this before but I'll say it one more time you know we have enjoyed for years now a powerful revelation of God as our father
[01:29:16] and our identity as sons and daughters and how the ramification of that is absolutely huge, okay?
[01:29:24] And it's a shift for you in your Christian life when you begin to have that by revelation, okay?
[01:29:32] Again, that's another subject you can read on and talk on.
[01:29:35] But when you begin to see it by revelation, it changes you.
[01:29:39] It begins to change you.
[01:29:41] And it has been for, you know, over 25 years now in my life that has been a revelation that has just really has continued to grow inside of me and it's continuing growing in me now but I believe there's going to be a
[01:29:55] revelation of the bride of Christ that's going to come into the earth at some point it's going to wash into us like that revelation of God his father washed into us back in the in the 90s
[01:30:06] when that first really began and it's going to happen and I believe there's going to be a move the lord that god's going to begin to reveal his heart and what the bible really declares about the
[01:30:17] bride of jesus and that who who we are and i only have that this little glimpse of it but i did want to share just a few things with you are y'all with me this morning
[01:30:27] okay i hope this is helpful to you um but this is powerful y'all so but what i wanted i wanted to read this little thing um i've just got too much to say right now about this so i'm just
[01:30:41] probably not going to do this all so are y'all good if i just stop when i should instead of just keep it on and on one of the things that i've been doing lately that's really been helpful to me is
[01:30:53] church history i've been reading about church history going all the way back to after after you know after the the after jesus died after the all the apostles died and then you know all the way up and it's pretty fascinating when you begin to study how powerful the church
[01:31:11] is and the church because the church has been through all these different ages and has has been under all kinds of circumstances and situation and the church is remarkably adaptable okay we we tend to find fault with the church we think we should do it different we should think
[01:31:27] that we think this but god really has created created the church to be able to fit to fit into culture, not to become like culture, but fit into culture to be able to impact the culture.
[01:31:37] Are you hearing me? You can't divorce yourself from the culture you were raised in. In other words, Joey will never not be a Mongolian. She can't help it. She was born there. That's who she is
[01:31:49] deep down inside of her. And no matter where she lives, she's going to carry that Mongolian DNA with her, the instincts that they carry that are different from ours. And so God has put the church
[01:32:01] all over the world, and the church has been able to adapt even in the worst situations.
[01:32:07] I had a friend of mine who sent me an email this week, and this is what he was telling me. He said he's from another country where the church is a persecuted church, and he said, Byron,
[01:32:18] this is what's going on in my life right now, and I need help with it. He said, when I was in my home country, I risk my life almost daily for the gospel. Almost daily. But since I've
[01:32:34] been in the United States, I've lost a lot of passion for the Lord because it's comfortable here. I'm not challenged here really. Oh sure, I see what's going on in culture, but there's no threat to me. He said, I'm trying to learn what Paul said, whether I'm, you know, if I'm abased
[01:32:52] or I'm abounding.
[01:32:53] I want to have that heart for Jesus.
[01:32:56] You know, that was his Christ's heart.
[01:32:58] And I'm thinking, man, what have I got to say to you?
[01:33:00] You know, like, I'm going to pray for you.
[01:33:03] I'm your friend.
[01:33:04] You can do this.
[01:33:05] And so we don't realize how powerful, you know, the church is and the body of Christ is in the earth.
[01:33:13] We don't realize how much the Lord has put the church here to preserve the earth until His coming, but even beyond that, to bring His kingdom into the earth.
[01:33:26] But let me read this little thing here.
[01:33:27] This is from church history.
[01:33:29] It's about marriage.
[01:33:30] And this really has helped me a lot.
[01:33:32] Are y'all with me?
[01:33:33] Okay, this has really helped me a lot to understand some of this stuff that John the Baptist was saying.
[01:33:39] And also, you know the parable that Jesus spoke about the wise and foolish virgins?
[01:33:46] It really helped me to see that.
[01:33:47] So you see, lots of times there's revelation and there's other, this like historical information that when the scriptures were being written, everybody understood this.
[01:34:00] What I'm fixing to tell you, they instinctively understood it, but we don't understand it like that.
[01:34:05] But when we begin to get back and understand it the way they understood it, coupled with that revelation, you begin to see what God was trying to do.
[01:34:13] And so we, you know, what we can do is we can study history and we can ask for the spirit of wisdom and revelation to work in our life when we sit down and read the scripture for God to begin to reveal it to us.
[01:34:24] Amen.
[01:34:26] But here's what, this is what, in Jesus' time, marriages were arranged by fathers.
[01:34:32] Well, aren't you women happy that your daddy didn't decide who you were going to marry?
[01:34:40] Let me just tell you this little thing with my kids.
[01:34:45] Every one of my kids picks somebody, I'm thinking, why are they going to marry them?
[01:34:50] I wouldn't marry them.
[01:34:53] And that's what the Lord said, you ain't marrying them.
[01:34:56] They're marrying them.
[01:34:58] They picked them.
[01:34:59] You don't get to pick who they marry.
[01:35:02] You know, because in my mind, they should have married this type of person.
[01:35:06] But you know what?
[01:35:07] Turns out they married the person that was perfect for them.
[01:35:10] They married God's choice for them that's been best for them.
[01:35:13] But back in Jesus' time, the fathers arranged it.
[01:35:17] And after they made the deal with everybody, there was, you know, a dowry, there was money involved, or some kind of, you know, exchange of goods, the groom would go back to his father's house, and then he would begin to prepare a place for the bride, okay?
[01:35:34] Think about John 14, I go to prepare what? A place, okay?
[01:35:39] So that's what would happen.
[01:35:40] He would have little to no contact with the bride after that.
[01:35:45] The next time he was with the bride is on the wedding day.
[01:35:48] There was no conversations anymore.
[01:35:51] There was no kissing.
[01:35:53] You know, there was no watching them and make sure they don't get off on the side and do too much, right?
[01:35:59] I always tell people, once you tell somebody you love them, you need to be careful.
[01:36:02] Just be careful.
[01:36:04] I'm saying that for young people because when you, that's a line that's easy to cross.
[01:36:07] Well, never mind.
[01:36:10] Instead, the bridegroom's friend help prepare the bride.
[01:36:15] Now let me tell you who the bridegroom's friend is.
[01:36:17] In our thought today, you know who the bridegroom's friend is?
[01:36:21] The best man.
[01:36:23] The best man in Jesus' day was completely different from the best man today.
[01:36:29] The best man today don't do a whole lot.
[01:36:30] He shows up.
[01:36:31] He has a party.
[01:36:33] He stands next to the groom during the ceremony.
[01:36:37] He does a toast.
[01:36:38] That's pretty much it.
[01:36:39] This is like the best man.
[01:36:41] But this day, this is what the best man, the friend of the bridegroom, he had a specific role.
[01:36:46] Number one, he arranged the details of the wedding.
[01:36:49] He carried messages between the bride and groom.
[01:36:52] He was a messenger.
[01:36:53] He was an intermediary.
[01:36:54] He protected the bride's honor and prepared her for the groom.
[01:37:01] This is crazy, isn't it?
[01:37:02] He rejoiced in the groom's voice and success, and he never tried to steal the bride, if he was smart.
[01:37:09] That's basically what this person did.
[01:37:12] Are you hearing me?
[01:37:14] Okay.
[01:37:15] And so that gives a lot of insight when John the Baptist was saying, hey, I'm a friend of the bridegroom.
[01:37:22] When he said that, everybody who was listening, they knew exactly what he was saying.
[01:37:28] Okay.
[01:37:28] When his disciples came to him and said, hey, hey, everybody's leaving your ministry.
[01:37:33] And they're going over to this guy you claim was the Christ's ministry.
[01:37:38] He didn't feel threatened by that.
[01:37:41] In fact, he was happy about that.
[01:37:43] He told them, hey, my greatest joy is to hear his voice.
[01:37:48] This is why I'm here.
[01:37:50] I'm not here for me.
[01:37:51] This is not about me.
[01:37:53] I'm the bridegroom's friend.
[01:37:54] I'm working hard to get the bride where she's ready and that she can go and be with him on wedding day.
[01:38:03] Isn't that powerful?
[01:38:04] that completely shifts the whole thing here where everybody used to, you know, keep that term, he must increase and I must decrease.
[01:38:14] Oh, I've heard so many bad theologies on that.
[01:38:17] I probably had some of them too at one point.
[01:38:19] But basically what he was saying, my whole job was is for him to increase and for my role to fulfill my role and then I would back out of the picture once they were married.
[01:38:30] Isn't that beautiful?
[01:38:31] And so he really called himself.
[01:38:35] So what we have, this is what the Holy Spirit wants us to see, okay?
[01:38:40] That we have a calling today.
[01:38:43] Now, this is a very interesting calling, okay?
[01:38:46] Because it's tricky, okay?
[01:38:48] It's tricky because we're called to be a friend of the bridegroom right now.
[01:38:54] Everybody in this room, you're called to be a friend.
[01:38:57] The problem that comes up, we're also called to be the bride, okay?
[01:39:03] That's not a problem from heaven's perspective, but for us, it is.
[01:39:08] But let me show you this again.
[01:39:10] Number one, so here's some things that we're supposed to be doing or we're being asked to do.
[01:39:15] You're being invited to this today, okay?
[01:39:18] This is an invitation from the Holy Spirit.
[01:39:20] It's number one to hear His voice and speak in agreement with Him.
[01:39:24] That's the first thing the Lord wants us to begin to do is to learn to hear His voice and speak in agreement with Him.
[01:39:31] Another one is to know his heart And act accordingly To know the groom's heart And how do you get to know The groom's heart Is through relationship The best man The friend Can I just say this
[01:39:50] Y'all Christianity is first and foremost I think y'all all know this But I don't mind saying it It's first and foremost It's relational Right?
[01:40:04] That's the most important.
[01:40:05] See, I always get anxious when I hear people talk, and I don't, they can talk about serving all day.
[01:40:11] I love people who serve, okay, because we're not dismissing serving.
[01:40:15] But when I don't hear that relational thing in what they're saying, because Jesus, and he made it, Jesus made it real clear in Revelations chapter two, verse four, when he was speaking to the church at Ephesus,
[01:40:28] one of the greatest churches they were in the New Testament, And he was saying all these things about them.
[01:40:33] He was saying, y'all guys are amazing.
[01:40:35] I mean, you have, you know, y'all have persevered.
[01:40:38] You've got rid of the bad guys who were faking it, the liars, the people who were stealing from the sheep, the false apostle.
[01:40:46] You've done all this thing.
[01:40:47] But then he said this, but I've got something against you.
[01:40:53] You've left your first love.
[01:40:55] Are you hearing me?
[01:40:57] Now, that's not a good day to hear Jesus say, I've got something against you.
[01:41:00] but it was all about the relationship is that they had forsaken relationship and he was saying that's going to be a problem for you because if you keep going down that road I'm going to remove
[01:41:13] your candlestick meaning you'll no longer be a church in my sight you may still have your sign you may still have your website but as far as I'm concerned you're not a church anymore if you keep
[01:41:23] going down that road so God has called us first and foremost a relationship and that's what a friend, a friend of the bridegroom is, he's the best man. He's the guy who knows him the best. He's
[01:41:35] the guy that they have the greatest connection with. Jesus said in John 17, 3, eternal life is to know you, the only true God in Jesus Christ, your son. That's what eternal life is, to know
[01:41:46] you. It's a relational thing. So God is calling us into relationship. I think we're in a time when God's asking us about our relationship with him. Does anybody feel that? I'm glad a couple what people feel the lord's really went after me lately about my relationship with him
[01:42:04] and he's kind of he's told me like hey these are some things i need you to do really these are some things i need you to not be doing right now because they're hindering our relationship and they none of them were like sinful bad things is i need you to slow down some
[01:42:22] and i need you to get still some because i want to talk to you and you're so wide open all the time and your brain's running 90 miles an hour constantly that you can't hear me and I'm talking
[01:42:34] and so our relationship is suffering over it and so once I started doing that I felt like I would start to connect with the Holy Spirit man it was gotten to be better of course there were things
[01:42:46] that I had to repent off you know because any like I said earlier you know when God starts bringing the good you know it pushes the bad to the surface which is not a bad thing he's also called are y'all
[01:42:58] with me? He's also caused us to represent him, to be his ambassadors to other people, to be missionaries. It's a powerful thing, y'all. How many in this room feel like you have a missionary call on your life? Raise your hand. Look around you. Hey, raise them hands. Stand up. I want the
[01:43:17] people in here, I want us to lay hands on them right now, because there's something to this.
[01:43:23] grab hold of somebody who's standing up and put your hands on them there's a missionary anointing that's available uh the book of acts is is a lot about the missionary anointing it's powerful father thank you for the missionary call that you put on people's life it doesn't matter you
[01:43:43] you don't have to go across the world it might be across the street i'm just saying you feel something in your heart you feel stirred about the mission of God that you feel like God's put
[01:43:55] you on this earth that there's a mission in you there's something in you that you feel from the Holy Spirit that says this is important for you to accomplish this and do this and so Lord I just
[01:44:07] release your grace right now and I thank you for every person who's standing who feels this Lord this and I pray for the anointing to come on and I think pray for authority to be released in them
[01:44:17] Lord, I pray for direction and wisdom to how to fulfill this thing.
[01:44:22] And Lord, we just condemn every lie that the devil has tried to do to stop them.
[01:44:27] And we say, you will not stop and the mission of God will be fulfilled.
[01:44:30] The gospel will go to the four corners of the earth.
[01:44:33] We declare it today, Lord.
[01:44:36] And I thank you, Lord, for all these people who have this missionary anointing on them in Jesus' name.
[01:44:43] Amen.
[01:44:43] You know, the first thing the Lord ever told me about this church was this.
[01:44:48] This is a missions church.
[01:44:50] That's the first thing He ever told me.
[01:44:55] Yeah, you can be sent where you are from our brother and grandfather in the Lord, Arthur Burt, who's with the Lord.
[01:45:03] Okay, yes, and amen.
[01:45:05] Like I say, I'm making a mess of this, man.
[01:45:07] Tremendous, rejoice when people are drawn to Him.
[01:45:11] Joy and serving.
[01:45:12] How many people serve the Lord with gladness?
[01:45:15] How many people serve the Lord complaining?
[01:45:17] Raise your hand if you whine and complain.
[01:45:23] I've been rebuked harshly about that.
[01:45:27] Like, you said you were called to do this, and why are you complaining about it?
[01:45:32] You're getting to do what you feel like God wanted you to do, and now you're whining and complaining.
[01:45:37] It's like, oh, it's just my flesh.
[01:45:39] You know my automatic default with the Lord is, in my flesh dwells no good thing, Lord.
[01:45:44] Isn't that what Paul said?
[01:45:45] I mean, it's just truth.
[01:45:46] My flesh is full of whining and complaining and discomfort and wanting everything to be easy.
[01:45:53] Well, it's not.
[01:45:54] But if we will do this, tremendous blessings will flow into your life from living this way.
[01:46:00] If we'll become that friend, God will bring blessings.
[01:46:04] Becoming a friend of the Bible actually gives us purpose.
[01:46:07] If you don't have a purpose, this is a purpose.
[01:46:09] This is a great purpose, the ultimate purpose.
[01:46:12] And so when we love and serve each other, when we love and serve the church and the world that God's put us in, in essence, we're really serving ourselves because we're the friend, but also we're serving the bride, the future bride.
[01:46:26] And when we begin to serve others, there's a thing where God, it's like God is saying to you, if you'll take care of my house, I'll take care of your house.
[01:46:34] It gives the Holy Spirit opportunity to go into your home and fix some things and do some things that we all need Him to fix and do.
[01:46:42] when we begin to give God, like we're going to take care of you because he's placed us here on this earth to do this.
[01:46:48] Are y'all with me?
[01:46:50] But I wanted to, I wrote down a few things about the word he must increase and I must decrease because I love that phrase.
[01:46:57] Here's some thoughts that I had on it.
[01:46:59] Number one, today we serve as friends of the bridegroom.
[01:47:03] That's what we're being invited to.
[01:47:05] That's what we're being called to.
[01:47:07] But forever, listen, forever we will be his bride.
[01:47:11] You hear me?
[01:47:12] Today, we're friends, but forever, in all eternity, we will be the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ, okay?
[01:47:20] So our present ministry is temporary.
[01:47:23] God is inviting you into a temporary job.
[01:47:26] You're going to work for a temp agency almost.
[01:47:28] Like, hey, I got this job, but it's got an end date to it.
[01:47:33] It's got a fulfillment to it because there's something greater for you than just doing this job.
[01:47:39] So, because our eternal relationship is always going to be permanent.
[01:47:44] It's permanent.
[01:47:45] The being a bride is permanent, okay?
[01:47:47] The ministry of the friend eventually gives way to the joy of the wedding.
[01:47:53] I love that.
[01:47:54] That had to be the Holy Spirit again.
[01:47:56] The ministry of the friend eventually gives way to the joy of the wedding.
[01:48:00] So, we're looking to something.
[01:48:02] Being the ministry of the friend is not just, that's not our ultimate goal in life.
[01:48:09] The ultimate goal was to look beyond that, look forward to something greater.
[01:48:13] This is why John could say, he's got to increase.
[01:48:17] Not because I'm losing anything.
[01:48:19] He saw something greater.
[01:48:22] He saw that he, by him decreasing, meant Jesus was going to increase.
[01:48:27] And that ultimately he, John, would become part of that bride.
[01:48:32] And see, that's why we need a revelation of the bride of Christ.
[01:48:36] Because it's going to affect how we live today.
[01:48:39] Now, you may think, what does this have to do with anything?
[01:48:42] It has everything to do with it.
[01:48:44] It will shift the way you see Christianity.
[01:48:46] It will shift the way you see the church today.
[01:48:50] And its best shape is worse shape.
[01:48:52] And it will shift the way you see yourself and what God's called you to do and be a part of.
[01:48:59] Well, I was wishing people would like this.
[01:49:02] Yeah.
[01:49:04] Let me read another verse here.
[01:49:06] Okay, 2 Corinthians 11, verse 2.
[01:49:08] Now, I'm shifting just for a moment from John to Paul because Paul had the same kind of thinking going, but Paul just used different terminology, different thinking.
[01:49:18] But he still, he said, I'm jealous for you with a godly jealousy for I betrothed you to one husband to present you as a pure virgin to Christ.
[01:49:29] See, Paul saw himself as a friend of the bridegroom.
[01:49:32] He saw his job to get the people of God to Christ.
[01:49:37] And he was jealous for them.
[01:49:39] He was hoping them.
[01:49:40] So what that tells us, this friend of the bridegroom thing, it has a lot of looks to it.
[01:49:45] It don't all look the same.
[01:49:48] John's ministry looked completely different than Paul's different, right?
[01:49:52] John was really into baptizing people.
[01:49:54] Paul didn't seem to care too much about it.
[01:49:56] At one point, he said, I didn't baptize any of them.
[01:49:58] Well, maybe a couple people I did.
[01:50:00] So his thing wasn't baptism.
[01:50:03] John's was.
[01:50:03] But they were both doing the same thing.
[01:50:05] They were preparing a people to become a bride, the bride of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[01:50:11] Isn't that powerful?
[01:50:12] Are you all with me so far?
[01:50:14] All right, let me read this real quick.
[01:50:16] I'm supposedly out of time, but I don't care.
[01:50:19] Okay, Revelations 19, 6 through 8.
[01:50:22] Listen, Revelations 19 is powerful.
[01:50:26] Okay, how many people love reading Revelation?
[01:50:29] Oh, it's confusing.
[01:50:31] The day is long.
[01:50:32] But the Bible does say if you'll read it, you'll get a blessing.
[01:50:36] I remember the first time I saw that, like, I'm reading it every day then for the rest of my life.
[01:50:41] I need to be blessed, so I'm reading the book of Revelation.
[01:50:44] Although about 98% of them are like, what the heck are they talking about?
[01:50:49] You know, and everybody else.
[01:50:51] Okay, well, anyways.
[01:50:53] But here's what happens in Revelations 19.
[01:50:55] This is great.
[01:50:57] Revelations 19 is a shift in the book of Revelation.
[01:51:01] Things shifted in chapter 6 of Revelation all the way to the night.
[01:51:05] It went down to tubes.
[01:51:07] I mean, if you read it, 1 through 5 is awesome.
[01:51:10] You know, the glory of heaven.
[01:51:11] I mean, the glory of Jesus.
[01:51:14] Then all of a sudden there's plagues and bad stuff and dragons.
[01:51:19] I mean, it's just crazy.
[01:51:21] Okay, but then in 19, there's these four hallelujahs that happen.
[01:51:26] Don't you love it?
[01:51:27] Four hallelujahs.
[01:51:29] And so the first hallelujah was that the salvation had been accomplished.
[01:51:35] The second one was God's righteous judgments are completed because God is going to do some righteous judgment.
[01:51:40] The third one is evil has been defeated.
[01:51:43] And every time, heaven would say hallelujah when that happened.
[01:51:49] Okay?
[01:51:51] It says, then I heard, I'm going to read the next hallelujah.
[01:51:54] Then I heard something like a voice of great might.
[01:51:56] Read Revelation 19 in those hallelujahs.
[01:51:59] A voice of great multitude and like the sound of many waters.
[01:52:02] Don't you love that?
[01:52:03] Many waters.
[01:52:05] There you go.
[01:52:05] That's the water of the word flowing from many voices that God's preparing.
[01:52:11] And like the sound of mighty peals of thunder.
[01:52:13] That's your prophetic voices.
[01:52:15] Hallelujah.
[01:52:16] Say in what?
[01:52:17] Hallelujah.
[01:52:18] Isn't that beautiful?
[01:52:19] For the Lord our God Almighty reigns.
[01:52:22] The Lord Almighty.
[01:52:23] That was the fourth hallelujah.
[01:52:24] Let's rejoice and be glad and give the glory to him because the marriage of the Lamb has come.
[01:52:31] And his bride has prepared herself.
[01:52:34] What did I say?
[01:52:35] We're called today to be friends, to prepare the bride.
[01:52:39] But in preparing the bride, we're preparing ourself.
[01:52:42] Are you hearing me?
[01:52:43] One of the greatest things you can do to prepare yourself is to prepare others, to prepare the church, to prepare your family.
[01:52:54] Okay, you kids, your grandpa, if you don't know the Lord and you might need a little help, like my grandkids do for me.
[01:53:02] Okay.
[01:53:03] It was given to her to clothe herself in the fine linen bright and clean, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.
[01:53:11] So the focus shifted, and no longer is the book's attention focused on judgments and bad things, okay?
[01:53:18] It's focused on a celebration.
[01:53:19] It's focused on a wedding.
[01:53:21] Do you see it?
[01:53:22] So right from the very beginning of time when God created man he had this wedding in mind he had this moment in Revelation 19 in mind he had this moment where his son he was waiting for the day
[01:53:35] for his son to have a bride and so the whole Bible and the whole of history has really been God working towards this moment in Revelation 19 even today that's what God is really working towards he's working towards
[01:53:49] this wedding day where the bride is ready to be married to the groom being Jesus Christ. And because we've gone through what we had to go through and now we're ready to, like Paul said, to be connected to him for eternity.
[01:54:05] So the story of redemption has always been moving towards a wedding. Everything God has done from the cross, from creation to the cross, to Christ's return is leading to this glorious reunion. All of that. All that that we love, we talk about, is leading to this union between us and Jesus. It's
[01:54:24] all about that. That's what God's interested in. That's what's on God's heart, just like any parent would be about their child, to get them to the place they get married. Okay, are y'all good?
[01:54:36] All right, I got one more scripture. I got to do this. I want to do this. 22, verse 22, 17, Revelation 22 says, the spirit and the bride say come.
[01:54:47] I love that.
[01:54:48] That's a people that are in unity with the Holy Spirit.
[01:54:53] The Holy Spirit is saying come.
[01:54:54] What do we say?
[01:54:56] Let's say it.
[01:54:56] The Holy Spirit says come.
[01:54:59] That's really what we want to get.
[01:55:01] We want to get to that place when we hear him and he says something.
[01:55:05] And we say the same thing.
[01:55:06] We want to be echoes, but we don't want to be echoes of the world.
[01:55:11] We don't want to be echo of culture.
[01:55:12] We want to echo his heart.
[01:55:14] We want to echo His voice.
[01:55:16] You know, we can be echoes.
[01:55:17] That's a good thing.
[01:55:19] The Bible says, I think it's in 1 Corinthians 4, we echo this treasure in earthen vessels.
[01:55:25] That word, we have this treasure, literally is echo.
[01:55:29] It's an echo that God created us to be an echo of Him and His kingdom.
[01:55:33] That we echo it.
[01:55:34] That's what this person's doing.
[01:55:36] That's where we need to come to.
[01:55:37] It's where we can echo what we hear out of His heart.
[01:55:41] the Holy Spirit and let the one who hears say come see that's an invitation you hear that like oh well we're in so we're going to start saying come too because everybody else in the body of Christ is saying come
[01:55:55] because they're hearing it and let the one who is thirsty come and let the one who desires take the word of life without cost that's what we're supposed to do so the Holy Spirit has always been
[01:56:06] drawing people to Jesus he's the ultimate friend of the bridegroom The Holy Spirit is.
[01:56:12] See, that's why we can say we can become friends of the bridegroom.
[01:56:15] Not because of something we do.
[01:56:17] It's because of the Holy Spirit.
[01:56:19] He's in us and that's what He wants to do.
[01:56:22] One of the first things I ever learned about the Holy Spirit that really shocked me is I was talking to some friends as a young believer and I was saying, hey, I can really imagine God, what He looks like.
[01:56:33] I can imagine Him on the throne in heaven.
[01:56:35] I can imagine that.
[01:56:36] I can imagine what Jesus looks like and acts like.
[01:56:38] because it's all, just having a hard time with this Holy Spirit guy because he's invisible.
[01:56:44] I can't imagine, I'm imagining a ghost.
[01:56:48] You know, Casper the friendly ghost.
[01:56:51] That's all I can imagine.
[01:56:53] You know what my, well, the guy said, he wasn't a friend, he was just an older believer.
[01:56:57] He said, Byron, I'm going to tell you right now why the Holy Spirit's a ghost, why he's invisible, why he's a spirit because he doesn't want to be seen.
[01:57:03] He wants Jesus to be seen.
[01:57:05] So he wants us to see through him because he's trying to draw the attention to Jesus, not to himself.
[01:57:13] So anytime the Holy Spirit's moving, his goal is to get us to Christ because he's the ultimate friend.
[01:57:20] He's the one.
[01:57:21] He's always done it.
[01:57:22] He prepares hearts.
[01:57:25] So the church was never meant to speak independently of the Holy Spirit.
[01:57:30] We're called to hear his voice, echo his invitation, and prepare people for the bridegroom's return.
[01:57:34] That's what God's called us to do, y'all.
[01:57:36] This is a serious thing.
[01:57:37] And when I was up there doing Emma's wedding, I felt that so strong.
[01:57:40] I couldn't hardly stand it.
[01:57:42] I realized that this is what we're supposed to do.
[01:57:44] We're supposed to get a people ready to do this very thing that we're doing right here in the natural.
[01:57:51] Is we're putting a woman with a man.
[01:57:53] And they're going to create a family.
[01:57:55] They're going to be together.
[01:57:56] But that woman happens to be the church.
[01:57:58] It happens to be all of us.
[01:58:00] But we're all called to get us there.
[01:58:02] Every one of us are.
[01:58:03] We need to find it.
[01:58:05] So I wanted to finish this.
[01:58:06] I know I've gone a little bit long, and I should, but I don't, yeah, that's okay, I'm okay, right, and if I'm not, all right, well, I wanted to, I got just, just crazy thought, okay, recently, I was over in Chapel Hill, and I went and had to, we was going to go up there and preach, but Becky was going to help lead worship, which means we had to go early, which was the worst mistake on the planet, so I thought, why did I agree for her to come and do worship the same time I preached,
[01:58:34] The weekend of Emma's wedding.
[01:58:36] So I'm thinking, I was completely exhausted.
[01:58:38] I should have never done that.
[01:58:40] You don't need to preach when you're emotionally exhausted.
[01:58:43] Anyways, so we get there, and I did not want to go inside because I was emotionally exhausted, and I didn't want to talk to anybody.
[01:58:50] Too bad, I'm an introvert, okay?
[01:58:52] Sometimes I just need to be by myself, okay?
[01:58:55] I do, too.
[01:58:56] I love introverts.
[01:58:59] Anyway, so I went out, and I was sitting in the car, but it was hot as fire out there.
[01:59:03] It was real muggy, and I'm sitting under this tree in the car, and I was praying and asking the Lord to help me because I knew I was going to really just bomb the mess.
[01:59:12] Like, I just don't have it in me, Lord, to do this.
[01:59:15] I'm sorry, I can't do this.
[01:59:16] Why did I ever tell Matthew I'd do it?
[01:59:18] I told him months ago.
[01:59:20] But anyway, I started thinking about in the New Testament about how they talked about the return of Christ.
[01:59:29] you know, Paul, Peter, Jude, John, Matthew, Mark, Luke, all of them, all of them talked about Jesus, the book of Acts. There's this theme in the New Testament about Jesus coming back, okay? And they seem to all indicate soon, like in their lifetime. And I'm thinking, they're wrong.
[01:59:54] They were wrong, Lord. You didn't come back in their lifetime. And I felt like the Holy Spirit said, no, but I left that in there for on a purpose. Because I want every one of you to live
[02:00:07] with this thought that I'm coming back soon. Every one of you. So I found these, this is more, the second return of Christ is mentioned roughly 300 times in the New Testament.
[02:00:20] This averaged to one out of every 25 verses in the New Testament, it talks about Jesus coming back.
[02:00:27] We've missed the boat.
[02:00:30] We need to get this in our mind.
[02:00:32] It appears in 23 of the 27 New Testament books.
[02:00:36] The only four it doesn't appear in is Galatians, Philemon, and 2 and 3 John.
[02:00:41] They do not mention the second return of Christ.
[02:00:44] But every other book, of course, Revelation, of course, the Gospels, all of Paul's stuff except Galatians and Philemon, all talk about the return of Christ.
[02:00:53] This is an important thing for the church to live with a view that Jesus Christ is coming back to this earth.
[02:01:00] He's going to come back.
[02:01:02] Okay?
[02:01:03] And we kind of lost that.
[02:01:04] And I understand why we lost it, y'all.
[02:01:06] Because there's been so many crazy, there's crazy stuff about the return of Christ.
[02:01:11] I grew up around people that I felt like were dang maniacs about the return of Christ.
[02:01:16] Their whole life revolved around Jesus was going to come back.
[02:01:19] But here was the problem.
[02:01:21] They live like hell.
[02:01:23] They live worse than the people in the world.
[02:01:26] And I'm thinking, if Jesus is coming back like y'all claim, why ain't y'all cleaning your act up?
[02:01:31] Y'all should be not acting the way I'm acting because I wasn't a Christian then.
[02:01:36] Oh, so following the gospel, there was a strong expectation that Jesus would come back soon.
[02:01:42] And the Holy Spirit left that expectation in Scripture because he wants us to live with this anticipation as it influences and shapes our daily life.
[02:01:49] the return of Christ he really literally wants to influence our daily lives that we live with a view of that we teach our children that we teach our grandchildren that that Christ is going to come back
[02:02:03] but he's not coming back for a defeated wimpy people he's coming back for a bride that's been prepared and overcoming people amen well there you go I'm done y'all I don't know what okay so
[02:02:21] I can't help this Angel don't leave You and you back there Do not leave Okay So I need to say that Because it always slips away Thank you Lord So I'm going to pray for you
[02:02:37] So I'm serious about this y'all I want to invite you into this Into this world Of becoming a friend of the Lord It's relational Into this world of becoming that friend who serves the Lord's purposes,
[02:02:57] becoming a friend of the bargain.
[02:02:58] Well, your heart is to do that, not for you.
[02:03:02] And I understand if you're a young person, you know, I had so many bad motivations about ministry and ego and all this, but you know what?
[02:03:11] Here's the way that it works.
[02:03:13] God will let that stuff get beat out of you.
[02:03:16] It's like, ego?
[02:03:18] There's no ego in this, man.
[02:03:20] This is the opposite of ego.
[02:03:21] So, you know, so I'm not too worried about bad motivation and ego.
[02:03:27] You know, the Lord will take care of that.
[02:03:29] But there is an invitation from the Holy Spirit, I believe, in this hour, okay, for us to rise up as the friend, the friends of the Lord, to serve His purposes and to help prepare a bride,
[02:03:44] to really become that beautiful bride that the Lord declares us to be.
[02:03:50] And that washing of the word is really a big part of it.
[02:03:54] All of that is all real interconnected.
[02:03:57] So if you feel that this morning, you don't have to stand up if you don't feel it.
[02:04:01] But if you do, I wish you would stand up before the Lord and just say to the Lord, Lord, I believe this is something you have for my life, and I want to walk in it.
[02:04:12] And I'm saying yes to you, Holy Spirit.
[02:04:15] You're the helper, and I'm saying yes, I'm going to let this happen in my life.
[02:04:20] And I'm not going to try to make it happen, but I'm going to let it happen.
[02:04:25] So if you just stand up and have that kind of thought to the Lord.
[02:04:30] And I like old people and young people standing up because, you know, older people.
[02:04:37] Yeah, not old.
[02:04:37] There ain't nobody old in here.
[02:04:40] Blessed be the name of the Lord.
[02:04:42] Amen.
[02:04:42] Father, thank you.
[02:04:44] Let's just say this.
[02:04:45] Declare this with me.
[02:04:46] I am a friend of the Lord Jesus Christ.
[02:04:51] And I am going to take on this role of being a friend of the bridegroom.
[02:04:58] I'm his best man or woman, whatever it may be.
[02:05:02] Yeah.
[02:05:03] And I'm going to serve his purposes.
[02:05:06] And I do believe this.
[02:05:10] If I'll take care of his house, he'll take care of my house.
[02:05:15] He'll come into my house and he'll bless my home.
[02:05:20] He'll bless my children and my grandchildren.
[02:05:23] He'll bless my marriage.
[02:05:26] I'm saying I'm declaring that God has permission to come into my house and do some things that I can't do.
[02:05:33] On my best day, I can't be a great husband.
[02:05:36] But with the Holy Spirit, I can be the best there is.
[02:05:41] Just say, yes, Lord.
[02:05:43] I receive you, Jesus, in a fresh way.
[02:05:47] I receive the anointing.
[02:05:50] I receive that commission.
[02:05:54] All right, now listen to this.
[02:05:55] some of us in this room, the devil talks to you and you listen too much. He's telling you lies about yourself and it's holding you back. There's too much, you're not good enough or you don't have
[02:06:10] this, you don't have that. There's too much of that going on in your life. It's a lie from hell to hold you back. And I can promise you there is not a demon that exists that if you walked in a
[02:06:26] room that would be seriously afraid of you. Not because of anything you've done, but because of who you are in Christ and where you are in Christ. And we have to, we had to begin to cast those lies
[02:06:38] aside and begin to believe what the Word of God says about us. And when we begin to do that, we can take and use the authority that God's given us and we can take care of some business. Okay, and
[02:06:51] you'll go places and you'll see people who are demonized. They'll see you and they'll look at you with funny looks on their face. Not because you're anything special, but they see Christ in you and they are very afraid of him. And so we had to start believing that way and quit holding
[02:07:09] back and go for what you believe that God has spoken to you, the person he's called you to be and the thing he's called you to do. Now, I'll admit it's scary and risky and you're going to
[02:07:19] fail at times, but you ain't a failure. And you know what? When you fall, the Bible says God will come right here behind, picked you up, dust you off just like your little girl trying to learn how to walk.
[02:07:31] He's happy.
[02:07:32] It's a happy day for God.
[02:07:34] He's happy when you decide to step in faith to who He's called you to be and what He's called you to do.
[02:07:41] Amen?
[02:07:41] Now, I'm feeling that pretty strong over people.
[02:07:47] You know, I, for years, used the introvert thing as an excuse.
[02:07:51] And the Lord was saying, that is not an excuse.
[02:07:54] You had to step out of yourself.
[02:07:58] And so it's time to really repent from that kind of thing and rise up and be the person God's called you to be.
[02:08:06] And let me just tell you this.
[02:08:07] I don't care if somebody drug you in here off the streets intoxicated.
[02:08:13] It goes for you.
[02:08:14] You're not disqualified in Christ.
[02:08:17] God wants to heal your life, and He wants to straighten some things out for you.
[02:08:21] You're not disqualified based on what you've done or not done.
[02:08:25] Christ qualifies you.
[02:08:27] Now, they may be more to that conversation between you and him and situations that need to be worked out, but you're not disqualified.
[02:08:34] Don't disqualify yourself.
[02:08:36] Amen?
[02:08:37] So, let's the ministry team come up here if anybody would like extra prayer.
[02:08:43] And then we can kind of do the end thing.
[02:08:47] Well, we're thankful, Lord.
[02:08:48] We went five minutes past.
[02:08:50] The children's ministry's okay.
[02:08:51] Hey, didn't Tori?
[02:08:52] Tori's amazing, y'all.
[02:08:54] Good gracious.
[02:08:56] Yeah, she's not in here, but she's crazy, man.
[02:09:01] She's got a lot of energy.
[02:09:03] I heard she was doing worship.
[02:09:04] I thought, is that girl crazy, man?
[02:09:07] She worked herself off this week.