Stop Settling for Substitutes

0:00We believe in the power of God

Amen. We’re a church that believes in the power of God. I said, we’re a church that believes in the power of God. I’m going to walk around a little bit this morning. Is that all right? New year’s resolution, gotta get my steps in. I have a friend who — I probably shouldn’t tell y’all this, but I’m going to tell you anyway, I’m feeling good. I got a friend who his father-in-law was a coal miner, one of the dearest brothers that has ever entered into the kingdom of heaven. He’s a sweet man, can’t pronounce anything. Calls Charles Barkley “Charles Broccoli.”

Can’t pronounce anything. And his doctor told him he needed to walk more. And so they put a treadmill in the house and he got a pedometer. And my buddy said, I was on the phone with my mother-in-law one day and I hear Harold in the background screaming, “Norma, where’s my peter meter?” That was better than y’all let on. Well, we believe in the power of God here in this church. We do. In fact, last week I preached a message called “The Anointing for Favor.” The anointing for favor. I got a testimony on a Wednesday that after that message, that word got into somebody in this church and they had a business deal that was not going through for them.

They had had blockades. He walked into the week, had a $50,000 miracle by Monday afternoon, because we believe in the power of God in this church. Right?

1:42Openly Spirit filled: the foundation first

So that’s why we’re starting this series, which is one of the values of our church. I’ve been talking to you through value. We’ve talked about four of them. Now we’re getting into the fifth value that we’re talking about. And that is that we are openly Spirit filled. This is not going to be a closeted Pentecostal church. We’re not going to lock the Holy Ghost in the attic like some crazy uncle that we only let out at Thanksgiving and Christmas.

No, this is going to be an openly Spirit filled church. Can I get a good amen in the house? So this is what I want to invite you to do. I feel like preaching. This is going to be long. Y’all just buckle up. Should’ve got y’all sub sandwiches today. So I want you to turn to Acts chapter eight. We’re going to go there shortly, but I want to read a different scripture to you as we get started, because I know that some of you who have been around for a while, who have been with me since August, because August 3rd was my first day as the pastor of this church.

I know some of you have kind of looked at me and gone, is this pastor even Pentecostal at all? Because I know some of y’all, it’s a real shock to the system to, like, just sit under teaching. And that’s what we’ve been doing. I’ve been teaching. And there’s a reason for that. Now I’m not trying to hurt nobody’s feelings, but I’m going to tell you what it is. Everybody say, go ahead. Say, “I’m tough. I can take it.” Okay. We’re going to repeat a lot today. When I came here, the Lord spoke to me and said, “You need to make sure the foundation of that church is strong before you do any Pentecostal ministry.”

I need you to hear me. This is an openly Pentecostal, openly Spirit-filled church. I say Spirit-filled, I’m trying to make the Baptists who want to check us out feel a little more safe and comfortable, amen. But I’m a Pentecostal preacher. I have a Pentecostal ministry. If you got me in a room with a hundred other Pentecostal pastors, three of us are going to be off in the corner because we’re the ones that are probably going to be the most Pentecostal out of that group. I’m full bore. I like it all. If you’ve seen anything crazy in church, I was probably having a good time watching it.

I enjoy all of it. But here’s the deal. I followed the Apostle Paul’s leadership on this. I felt like this was the band-aid from the Lord. This is why I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing and I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing. How many of you know the Corinthian church? Probably our most dysfunctional of Pentecostal churches mentioned in the Bible, amen. They had some crazy stuff going on in the Pentecostal church. Well, Paul’s way of addressing that is found in 1 Corinthians 2. This is what Paul did. Paul said, “For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified.”

I want you to think about the stuff I’ve been preaching to you since I got here. We’ve talked about the cross, the cross, the cross, the cross. And guess what we’re going to talk about from here on out? The cross, the cross. We’re going to keep doing that. But I find it interesting in this passage that Paul said, “I decided.” It was a decision. And I need you to hear me. I can get up here and preach anything. We can preach any topic in the Bible. We can go anywhere you want to go. We can run around the room and scream and shout our heads off and do all that stuff.

But I have made a decision in this season of our church leading up to this moment. Somebody say this moment. This moment. I have made the decision to lay a foundation of the finished work of Jesus Christ so that we can move forward into Pentecostal power. That is real Pentecostal power. I’m talking about the real thing. The power of God touching your life. That being said, I’m going to do that again today because we had Christmas and I’m afraid y’all have forgotten all the stuff I preached last year. So we’re going to do a quick Jesus, Jesus, Jesus message today.

That’s what I’m going to preach. Are you ready for it?

6:05Homemade or instant

Let me ask you a question. Just curious question. How many of you have ever bought something and you waited for a long time? You wait two or three years. Maybe you wait 10 years and you, you know, there’s no reason you didn’t buy it. I’m not talking about something crazy. I’m just talking about something that you just, for whatever reason, you never bought it. You never got it. And then you finally bought it. And we’ve all had the experience where we buy something and then we’re kind of let down by it.

But I’m talking about you bought this thing you put off forever. And it turns out it was a game changer. You’ve got this thing now and you’re thinking, why didn’t I buy this 20 years ago? Anybody ever bought anything like that? That you just, you finally got it and you’re like, this is awesome for me. It’s the KitchenAid mixer. I put it off for years. And then one day I finally went and got it. And guess what? It’s the best gadget I’ve ever bought for the kitchen. I got so much junk in my kitchen that I used once and it’s still taking up space.

I used the KitchenAid mixer twice yesterday. I love this. Am I right? It’s awesome. In fact, let me find out who has a KitchenAid mixer. Okay. All right. Who does not have a KitchenAid mixer? You don’t have a KitchenAid mixer? You seem like you would have a KitchenAid mixer because you cook and stuff, right? You get down in the kitchen, don’t you? Because you got that New Orleans on you. You got that good cooking on you. You know what? It’s a shame you don’t have a KitchenAid mixer. I tell you what, I’ve got one right here.

I want to give you one. Oprah’s audience was a lot better to her on this right here. I think y’all are trying to figure out, is he going to pull a fast one on us or no? I’ve got a KitchenAid mixer right here. Here. Nobody should not have a KitchenAid. I’m going to sit it down. It’s heavy. All right. Well, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely. That’ll change your life right there. Amen. KitchenAid mixer. One of the reasons that the KitchenAid mixer changed my life is because, if you haven’t figured this out yet, my daughter Jocelyn is a very picky eater. Jocelyn eats about seven foods, okay?

Have y’all heard of, like, Michelin star restaurants? Okay, well, Jocelyn decides that level based on how good the chicken tenders are there. Okay? So, you know, you could go to Ruth’s Chris and she’s going, chicken tenders are halfway. And so she only eats a handful of things. Well, when I got the KitchenAid mixer one day, I decided, because I really love potatoes. I really love potatoes. I really love them, y’all. And so I decided I was going to make some homemade mashed potatoes. There’s nothing like them. Homemade mashed potatoes. And I didn’t ever use them because I come from a family, see, our people, we’re hand mixer people.

So you gotta stand there through the whole thing. But once I got the KitchenAid mixer, I’m like, oh, I can be whipping up my potatoes and do other stuff. So I started making homemade mashed potatoes. So I thought, let me see if Jocelyn will get into these. Okay? So she tries them. Guys, all I can figure is it was a prophetic picture of what it’s going to be like when she says yes at the altar of her wedding. The love that came out of her was — I mean, you could see the change. I’ve seen the same effect on people when they’ve received the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

I mean, it’s just, her life shifted in that moment. Here’s the problem with homemade mashed potatoes though. You can’t do this every day. It’s peeling and washing and it’s a whole thing. I mean, and it’s a mess and it’s two pots and it’s just a lot that’s going on with the homemade mashed potatoes. So you can do them once in a while. If you’re not super busy, you can do them once a week. If you’re like me and Ashleigh, every three weeks would be about where we could do it. And at some point Jocelyn decided, probably because she only eats about seven things, that I need more access to these mashed potatoes.

And that’s when she found instant mashed potatoes. Y’all, she is eating instant mashed potatoes every day, it seems like. We have them delivered from Amazon. For all I know, they show up automatically. They’re just — instant mashed potatoes are coming into our house and she’s eating them. And she eats them all the time. But can we all agree that instant mashed potatoes are an insufficient substitute to a Yukon Gold with butter, heavy whipping cream, maybe some little chives if you want to get fancy with it, you highfalutin people? And you get what I’m saying?

You throw some stuff on it, but I’m talking about a homemade mashed potato. They’re insufficient. They’re an insufficient substitute. I worry sometimes that in the Pentecostal church, we trade the authentic move of the Holy Ghost for something that we can have more frequently, more conveniently, more predictably. And even though it looks like mashed potatoes, it’s not mashed potatoes. Even though it has the form, it doesn’t have the power. And so we can sometimes in churches like ours, we’ll accept the things we can do on command. See, I can shake on command.

I can fall on the ground without anybody’s help. I can do all of this stuff. But the question is, is that an instant response or is that the homemade response? Was the Holy Ghost on that or am I just doing the thing I think I’m supposed to do? And if you think I’m one of those young preachers — first, thank you, first of all. But if you think I’m one of those young — I feel my preach on me this morning. If you think I’m one of those young preachers that doesn’t like that stuff that goes around going, well, we don’t need all that mess in the church, that’s just overactive.

It’s just people acting it up. No, that’s not me. I want it all. My favorite thing is seeing people hit the ground. I think it’s fun. I don’t know what it does for people, but I’m having a good time. I like that stuff. But I’ve seen the difference between somebody who was falling on the ground and somebody who got knocked on the ground. I’ve seen the difference. And to make that trade is unnecessary. It’s unnecessary. So if you want the real thing, shout, “I want it.” I want it.

12:44Acts 8: Simon tries to buy the power

All right, turn with me to Acts chapter eight. Acts chapter eight. We’re going to look at verse 14.

This is going to be my primary text and I’m going to preach. I don’t normally walk around with the iPad, but I was feeling cool today. Amen. Acts chapter eight, verse 14. It says, “Now when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent them Peter and John, who came down and prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Spirit. For he had not fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit. Now, when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money, saying, ‘Give me this power also, so that anyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.’”

“But Peter said to him, ‘May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain the gift of God with money. You have neither part nor lot in this matter, for your heart is not right before God. Repent therefore of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intent of your heart may be forgiven. For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.’ And Simon answered, ‘Pray for me to the Lord, that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.’” Now I’m going to preach quick on all of this. And I want you to know I could go in about 10 different directions.

I really am not going to try to wear y’all out this morning, but I am feeling it today. I feel the Holy Ghost right now. Like it’s on me right now.

14:301. Jesus must be the source

So number one, first thing I want you to hear and I want you to write this down. Jesus must be the source. When it comes to the Pentecostal experience and the Pentecostal expression, Jesus must be the source. Now I want you to understand this, that when we see in this text Simon, who ultimately ends up — Peter tells him off. We might need a little bit more of that every now and again, amen. But Peter ends up kind of telling him off.

But I want you to hear this. Simon did a lot of what we do. Think about it. Give him the benefit of the doubt for the moment, okay? See, some of y’all have read this passage thinking you’re Peter and you’re actually Simon. So you need this message today. But Simon did a lot of what we do. Think about it. He saw the power of God in operation and he wanted it. Well, my God, most of y’all would have never got touched if you wouldn’t have saw it and wanted it. That’s part of the process, amen? So he sees it and he wants it. And then he goes up and he offers money.

I mean, this book essentially alludes to the fact that you can sow physical seed, financial seed, and reap supernatural harvest off of it. It’s not completely out of bounds for what even the scripture teaches. So it’s not. So he says this stuff, and then here’s the other thing. He wasn’t insincere when he realizes that Peter does not like what he said to him. Like, if Simon walked away with anything, he went, I don’t think that guy liked what I just said. He asked him to pray for him. How many insincere people stop, go, my bad, please pray for me that none of that happens?

So he’s responsive to some degree in a sincere way. But here’s what he did. He never looked toward Jesus. Jesus is not in the equation. He looked toward his own ability to gain it. He wasn’t actively trying to receive the Pentecostal experience. He was trying to write a check and get it. And so at the end of the story, you’ve got Simon who’s standing there with a pen in his right hand, a checkbook in his left hand. And Peter basically tells him, hey, you can go to H-E-double hockey sticks. Tells him off. Didn’t even say the word and y’all are quiet in here.

Good grief, y’all watch TV worse than that, Lord. My God. But it’s because Simon tried to earn it. And hear this, you cannot earn the Pentecostal experience. You cannot work your way into it. This is important for us to know because, see, I struggled to receive. And one thing that I learned early in my journey spiritually trying to receive the supernatural things of God is that most Pentecostal solution to that problem is to try harder. We’ll push, we’ll pray until something happens. We’ll fast and we’ll sow and we’ll dance and we’ll shout and we’ll clap and we’ll run and we’ll march and we’ll do all of these things trying to get something to happen.

But in reality, Jesus has to be the source. You have to receive it. That’s a good place to say amen, because I’m right, amen. Go ahead and just toss me one. So Jesus must be the source of our Pentecostal experience. That’s number one.

18:092. Jesus must be the highest

Number two, Jesus must be the highest. Jesus must be the highest. In Acts chapter eight, verse 23, right there at the end, it comes off like an insult, what Peter says to him. But look at this, Acts chapter 18 — I’m sorry, Acts chapter eight, verse 23. It said — can you guys give it to me so I can see it? I don’t have it here.

There it is. “For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity.” It sounds like he’s just kind of telling him off, but that phrase right there, gall of bitterness and the bond of iniquity, it actually means something. It’s a Jewish idiom. In Deuteronomy chapter 29, it talks about a poison that goes down into the belly, a gall, and that becomes bitter. It’s a root of bitterness. It is the result of worshiping idols. It’s the result of idol worship. And sometimes what can happen is we can prioritize the Pentecostal experience or the effects of a church like ours or the things that we do or the activity going around to the point that we completely ignore Jesus altogether.

And that becomes more important than Jesus, to the point that I have had people say to me since I’ve been here, “We know you like to preach on Jesus, but” — and then fill in your favorite Pentecostal expression, whether it be altar calls, tongues and interpretation, prophecy, whatever you like, longer worship, flowing in the spirit. Everybody got their own little thing that they’re chasing after. I’ve been asked about shofars, tambourines, flags, all of it. Jesus is a side note. And you may think to yourself, that doesn’t happen. Folks, more than you would imagine, we treat Jesus like he’s a secondary thing.

When he’s the King of Kings, we treat him like he’s an option. When he’s the Lord of Lords, we treat him like he’s a mascot, when he is the creator of heaven and earth. And then we wonder why whatever we’re doing — because here’s the thing, I’m all about the altar call. I’m all about laying hands on people. I’m all about the supernatural experience. When? Something follows it. Too many of us have Pentecost that falls off in the parking lot. We have a little, we do our little thing and we get out there and it’s gone. And usually the reason is that Jesus is either not the source or he’s not the highest.

In Numbers chapter 21, there’s a story where the Israelites are out in the wilderness and suddenly these little — the Bible calls them fiery serpents — come out and they start biting the people and they start dying because the venom is killing them. Little things coming out, getting them. And so the Lord goes and prays — or the Lord, the Lord goes and prays, which the Lord did pray in the Bible, just so we’re clear. But Moses goes and prays and he says, Lord, I need to save these people. What are we going to do? And the Lord gives them a plan.

He says, I want you to go create a bronze serpent, lift it up on a pole. And when you lift that up, have the people look at it; whoever looks at it will be healed. So it’s what, in the Assemblies of God doctrine and our fundamental truths, we would call divine healing. It is a supernatural effect of the power of God. That’s what he tells him to do, lift it up. It’s a powerful, powerful moment. But here’s the thing. If you go over to Second Kings chapter 18, this is what happened in Hezekiah’s day. It says he removed the high places. Hezekiah did this. “And broke the pillars and cut down the Asherah.

And he broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made. For until those days the people of Israel had made offerings to it. And it was called Nehushtan.” So in one moment, it is a conduit of the power of God. And you fast forward sometime later, and we don’t know how long they’ve been doing it, but the text tells us it had been going on for a while. The people of Israel are making offerings to it. So it’s something that God used, but it’s not God. And yet people are worshiping it. They’re bowing down at the altar of this thing. And here’s the interesting thing.

We know that the purpose of the bronze serpent wasn’t even to heal the people. It was a prophetic symbol. Jesus tells us this in John chapter three, that the Son of Man must be lifted up as the serpent in the wilderness. So it’s a prophetic symbol to point to Jesus. Now here’s what’s interesting. Everybody worshiping that bronze serpent would have told you, this serpent is not God. This serpent is not Jehovah. Jehovah is more important than — Yahweh is more important than this serpent. Our ultimate allegiance is to him. In fact, the word Nehushtan, what it means is just bronze.

So the people are calling it and saying, hey, it’s just bronze, while they worship it, while they bring offerings to it. And so out of one side of their mouth, they go, yes, Jesus is the most important. And out of the other side of their mouth, they say, but you know what we really need? To do X, Y, and Z every week, to have this kind of service, to do this kind of service, this kind of thing, to see this in services. You think I’m wrong. Folks all across America and our churches, you know how people in our churches judge whether or not the anointing is on a church? How often they see tongues and interpretation happen.

Preach Jesus every week, but we ain’t seen tongues and interpretation in a year. Well, is Jesus being preached? Is Jesus the highest? Is Jesus the most important? Or is that something that we just say, but really we only care about this stuff? It’s not about Jesus, it’s about the songs we sing. I came through a time when they were writing books called Worship Wars. Do you remember that book? Did you ever hear of that? Worship Wars, they wrote it around the time Brownsville broke out, because people were fighting over whether or not you could have guitars or you had to use hymnals, amen.

And so people were fighting, because it’s something else. I say this, but really this. Isaiah chapter 29 says this: “The people draw near to me with their mouth and they honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” Are we an openly Spirit-filled church? Do we believe in the power of God in this church? Is your pastor a Pentecostal preacher? But I’m going to tell you this, we believe in being a Jesus-centered, Spirit-filled church, hallelujah, amen. I’m going to walk the pews in a minute. Oh, I call them pews, my church is coming out in me, amen.

25:333. Jesus must be our friend

So number three, number three, number three, Jesus must be our friend.

Jesus must be our friend. In John chapter 15, verse 15, Jesus said, “No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing, but I’ve called you friends.” I’ve called you friends. And what I mean by this, and I’m playing with the words a little bit this morning, is that we have to participate in the process. On one hand, we have to receive it. Jesus has to be the source. Jesus has to be the highest. But when it comes to the Pentecostal experience, being an openly Spirit-filled church, we also have to participate in the process.

We have to participate with the Lord. It took me years to get the thing. We call it the baptism in the Holy Ghost. Because Jesus said, I’ll baptize — or John said of Jesus that he’ll baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire. And I was saved in an environment where I didn’t struggle to believe that. I saw supernatural stuff. I was open to supernatural stuff. I wanted supernatural stuff. I kept going to the altar trying to get it and coming back empty-handed. And so I struggled for years. And what I found was that most of the time, it was just try harder, push harder.

And I never wanted to fake it. So I resisted that instruction. Because if I was going to get the baptism of the Holy Ghost, if I was going to speak in tongues, it wasn’t going to be me. It wasn’t going to be me. I was getting the real thing. I was either getting the real thing or I was getting no thing. Maybe that will explain a little bit about my personality type, to let you figure out why I’m not messing around on this. I’m serious about this. The fire of God consumes me on this issue because I’ve seen the effect of the real thing. But what I didn’t understand in my mind while I tried to resist being the one making it happen, I was under the impression that the Holy Ghost was going to do something in my life or in my body that was so overwhelming that I could no longer function.

So what I was prepared for when looking toward the supernatural experience is I was looking for the Holy Ghost to kind of kick me in the chest. And what I found out, it’s less of a kick in the chest and more of a tap on the shoulder. Now, are there kick-in-the-chest experiences? Yes, and they’re the ones we love to tell stories about. So everybody’s under the impression that that’s the only way that it happens. But a lot of times the supernatural experience is a — and you know it’s there. You just gotta turn around to it. You can’t just stand there with a tap forever and not do anything.

And so when I found out that I have to participate in the process, I was able to step in and receive. And I’m going to tell you that we’re going to keep harping on this idea that we’re going to have the real thing, but we also have to participate in the process. I had a preacher say something to me one time. He said, I don’t know why we keep going around and preaching out of 1 Corinthians 14 in Pentecostal churches that everything needs to be done decently and in order when there is no chance ever of things being done out of order in that church.

I’m okay in the pursuit. If things get a little wonky and we have to pull it back, I actually am okay with that. I know I don’t come off that way. What I’m trying to do is just shake — they call it a sorbet, it’s a palate cleanser. I’m just trying to shake y’all loose of some of this stuff that you might’ve been holding on to. But I’m okay if it goes a little far and we got to pull it back, I’m cool with that. If I don’t like it, you won’t wonder about it for long. Amen. I had a lady come in here a few weeks ago and asked me if she could do a bunch of stuff.

And that conversation only took about 35 seconds. Nope. I’ll be clear with you. I’ll tell you exactly where I’m at. We’re not going to be — don’t worry, we gonna be good. Everybody said, we gonna be good. But you have to participate in the process. But on the journey there, we’re going to pursue the real thing. We’re going to pursue the real thing. We’re going to pursue the real thing. Over the next two weeks before our Vision Sunday, next week I’m going to preach on how to open a flow of Pentecost in your life. I’m going to preach how to get the power moving next week. The week after that, I’m preaching on tongues.

I’m a tongue-talking, Spirit-filled, weird Pentecostal. Amen. I’m thinking about preaching the message in tongues. And those of you who need to get it, you’ll get it. Amen. But we’re going there. Then the week after that, I’m going to do Vision Sunday. And then we’re going to get back and I’m going to be talking about prophecy and a bunch. We’re going into the deep end. So don’t let today make you think. But I want to make sure that we’re going after the real thing and a Jesus-magnifying thing. I’ve seen in Pentecostal churches for so many years where people will — it’s almost like our language gives it away and nobody’s listening to the obvious clues.

We talk about God. We talk about the Holy Spirit. And it’s like, we don’t even talk about Jesus unless he’s mentioned in a song on the screen. And Jesus is like the thing. He’s the one. He’s high, holy, exalted, the Alpha, the Omega, the beginning, the end, the first and the last, the one who was and who is and is to come. His eyes burn like fire and his feet are burnished bronze. And they tried to kill him and they couldn’t keep him in a hole. He busted out. He’s sitting at the right hand of God. And he’s, I feel like, kind of been stretching his legs, ready to come back.

That’s who we’re talking about.

32:02A fern fire or the real fire

When I first went into ministry, I went right out of high school, and it was 2004, into 2004. And I went to a church in Pascagoula, Mississippi. Okay, not far from here. Pascagoula don’t have a lot to offer, but some of the best fried chicken I’ve ever eaten is at Wayne Lee’s Grocery Store. Shout out if y’all want to sponsor our church, amen. I’m telling you, it was great. But Pascagoula don’t have a lot to offer. And there was a church there, First Assembly of God. The church had fallen on really difficult times. A new pastor had come in.

The church was running 12. He came in, he got it up to about 120, which is a miracle. Because this guy was 26 years old. Not only had he never pastored, but he had never worked in a church full time. He had been like an auxiliary youth leader that wanted to go into ministry. And I think, honest to goodness, the Mississippi District Council was kind of like, well, it can’t get worse, you know? And so they gave him the church. This was a church under district supervision. There was no vote. They put him in the church at 26 years old. I went to work with him and he’s actually done really amazing things, much credit to him.

But the difficulty for us in that season there was getting the church through some of its history and some of the Pentecostal dysfunction that had gone on. To the point — the story I’m about to tell you is a hundred percent true. A pastor who had been there formerly, he was preaching one Sunday and he had rigged up pyrotechnics inside of a fern. They had plants on the stage. And so they had some ferns on, and he had rigged up pyrotechnics inside of the fern. And he had a trigger to set off the pyrotechnics. And while he was preaching, the fern caught on fire.

And that was the plan, by the way. And he took out ads in the newspaper. I’ll tell you how long ago this happened, amen. But he took out ads in the newspaper and he ran ads: revival has broken out, come to First Assembly, the church with the burning bush. I have been fortunate that I have not seen with my own eyes a lot of Pentecostal dysfunction. But I do watch in small ways people consistently trade the power of God to transform, to touch, to heal for just little idols that we make and little things that we think are so important. And you may not have a fake fire on the stage, but have you trusted something as a fake fire?

Have you come to church and accepted a placebo that it might be cathartic, it might feel good in the moment, but you know, and I know, you’re walking right back into the same thing. And we don’t have to have fake burning ferns when there’s something that can get on this house, that the prophet Jeremiah called it, he said, it’s like a fire shut up in my bones. I was reading in 2 Corinthians 2 this week. I just, God just met me at the end of the week. I’ve had a miracle week from heaven. The church is on the verge of breakthrough and you don’t even know about it because I can’t tell you anything till February 1st, and just, God is moving.

But at the same time, I feel the weight of it. I feel the heaviness of it. I read Paul was saying, you know, I’m just, I’m overly transparent. I’m going to stop doing that when it starts working against me, amen. But I was reading and Paul said it. He said, I had an open door for effective ministry and yet my spirit was not at rest. I thought, Paul, I feel that. And then he tells what it is. He says, it’s because I didn’t know where Titus was. And it’s kind of how I feel, man. There’s an effective door for the gospel. I’m feeling everything and then I’m feeling everything.

And I’m reading through this writing of Paul and he gets in there and he’s talking about the challenges of this, this navigating what you need versus what you want. I came out of last week’s service — strongly, the Holy Ghost is in this room right now. I came out of that service last week fully considering, fully weighing the option of backing off on every plan that I believe I have gotten from heaven and just sing a little song, preach a little message, come to the front for a few minutes and we get out of here and I don’t ever hear another word. I really thought about that.

Paul writes in Second Corinthians. He says that it is the love of Christ that controls us. It controls us. He’s talking about his ministry. And he says, I have to manage this tension between the ecstasy of God. He calls it in the ESV — they try to say it sanitary, but what he says is, I’ll be beside myself unto the Lord, but I’ll be in my right mind for you. I’m telling you, when you get the fire of God on you, you’ll have this thing burning that pulls on you to certain levels in certain places. And it’s an ecstasy with God. And yet you have to tether, to hold on, to be in your right mind, to serve people and help people.

And when it’s the real thing, it’s not running around the room. And I’m about running around the room. I feel like taking off right now, but that’s not what it is. It’s great. It’s fun. But it’s when you come under the weight of this balance. There’s a fire. It’s in me. I’ve been baptized in it. Woo, woo. Thank you, Holy Ghost. I know I’ve lost 75% of you, but there’s 25% of you in here who are just under the anointing right now. I’m talking to you about the real thing. I’m not talking — there’s more than a little shindig and then let’s go to the buffet. There’s more than a little spin around and then head out of here.

I believe over the next 10, 12 — I’m hoping the Lord lets me get to the other stuff if I got to preach at some point. But since I’ve been here, I haven’t had a moment where I really didn’t know how long I was going to go. And I’m still figuring it out because I just got this stuff in. I could preach for another three hours on what I’m preaching right now. And I’m going to spare you that. But listen, over the next 10 weeks, I think there’s going to be something that hits this church. It’s going to be strong. But let me just warn you. You think you’ve seen the dividing line so far?

I feel the spirit of the prophet on me. You think you’ve seen the dividing line? The cross is a stumbling block. And when the power of God breaks out, this is what you need to hear. Jesus is not only the source of Pentecost, but like the bronze serpent, the supernatural experience is meant to point back to him. See, the Pentecostal experience comes from him so that it magnifies him. I’m about to throw gasoline on everything we’ve been doing. So I need you to do some stuff. I was talking to Miss Lois about it this morning. Pray for your church and pray in the spirit for your church.

Pray, the best is yet to come. But the Bible says that after you’ve suffered a little while, then I’ll establish you. And I’m telling you, I’m ready. I feel the anointing. It’s easier when I’m up here in this moment to say it, but I’m going to tell you right now, everybody in this city needs to hear me: I’m coming. I want the harvest. I want souls. I want to see this church grow, but I want to see this region changed. And I’m not backing down, in Jesus’ name.

42:16Prayer for a fresh fire

Stand to your feet all across this room. Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. Makala, will you turn that music up just a scootch?

Everyone lift your hands all across this room. Hallelujah. I just want to take the next few seconds in this service. And right where you stand, I want you to do business with the Lord. I think it serves us all well, but there’s a handful of you that it would be prescription level, that you need to ask the Lord to purge you of a tolerance for anything that has a placebo effect in your life, for anything that stands in the place of the real fire, for anything that you accept as enough when enough is no longer enough, because you need the power of God. Just hands lifted, open your mouths, open your hearts to the Lord.

Ask him to come in and purge you of any acceptance of something that’s an instant substitute when there’s a homemade Pentecostal experience for you. God, purge us of compromise. God, touch us with a fresh fire in this church. Father, we don’t need a fern fire. We need a fresh fire. We don’t need a pyrotechnic fire. We need a Pentecostal fire. Father, we don’t need a fire that we’re just satisfied with, but a fire that is Spirit filled, that gets down into the bones of who we are, that is hard to separate the passion in our hearts from our own flesh. God, touch us in such a deep way that transformation is inevitable.

Miracles are inevitable. Power is inevitable. That it flows out of us, that a sensitivity to the spirit of God and the anointing is so strong on us. Woo, thank you, Lord. Shanda rasitya lalavaka. Holy Ghost. I’m expecting great things.