World Challenge

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Joy to be with you, and I pray that the
Holy Spirit will speak to you this morning as the
Word of God comes forth. Let's pray and ask God
to bless and anoint this time we have together. Father,
we thank you for the living Word of God. It
is sharp as a two edged sword, and as it
has pierced my heart this week, I pray that it
would do likewise to members of our congregation here today. God,

(00:23):
that we'd have ears to hear, our eyes would be
open to the Gospel, our hearts would be just pounding
with anticipation and expectation of the great things you have
to say for us, whether they be come to us
in form of warning or they come to us in
the form of delight and encouragement. Lord, whatever you have,
we just we say, with the prophets of old. Speak

(00:46):
Now your servants listen, and Father, as the one who
stands before this congregation with the prayer full the words
from Heaven, then I take a special moment even to
prayer for myself, God, that you would annoint me to
speak your words, words that I could say of my
own strength, of my own wisdom, of my own creativity,
of my own interpretation of scripture, Lord, that you would

(01:07):
flood us with an open heaven. And as I pray
always for the message, Lord, firewords from heaven. Lord, poured
it out on us, Pour it out. We pray in
Jesus name. We thank you God for your glory and
your grace or power in Jesus Name. Everybody said, together, Amen,
and man, it's more. I want to speak to you
about the extreme anointing in an hour of crisis, and
extreme anointing that is necessary.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
In these last days.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Terming me to Acts chapter five, if you would, and
we're going to read there about the early New Testament
Church that found themselves in very similar conditions that we
find ourselves in in the modern church today, in the
modern society that we're living in here in America in
the twenty first century. We see in here a church
that was suffering a very difficult time. They were living
under the realm of the authoritarian thumb of Rome. Rome

(01:54):
was a most ungodly pagan culture. In Rome, there is
sexual immorality that even surpasses even though we look at
our own culture and see how vile and how much
degradation there is in our own culture. We see in
the culture of Rome, where even the great leaders of
their so called great leaders of their countries were pedophiles.

(02:15):
We're living an incense, We're having orgies on a regular basis.
It was a perverse culture again, much like that's happening
today in the last twenty years. I cannot believe, and
I've mentioned this to you the last few weeks, in
the last twenty years, the breakneck speed at which our
culture is just going down the tubes. It is horrific

(02:37):
to stand by and watch and see perversion after perversion
not only being propagated, but accepted as the norm, and
not only being accepted as the norm. But if someone
like myself or yourself were to say, we don't believe
that's biblical, we don't believe that's honoring God, we don't
believe that's the way to live your life, we would
be considered bigots. We'd be considered hate those who give
hate speech. And as I've said to you before, I'm

(02:59):
believing more in my life more than ever before, that
at the at this speed at which is coming down
the pike, at the race, that there is the race
towards Sodom and Gomora. If you will that that it
won't be long before we see pastors in prison, we
see churches close down, that we see nonprofit organizations shut
down because the taxes be too high. It won't be long,

(03:21):
probably within the next five years.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Even should the Lord terry.

Speaker 1 (03:24):
That that it might be marked that you were a
church attender, that if you are, as what we're starting
to do here, have a membership, it might actually cost
you to become a member of the church. As it
did in the first century church, it cost them something.
It was not a place they would go to make
business contacts so that they could increase their their their
their breadth of notoriety and fame.

Speaker 2 (03:46):
It was a place that they.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
Would come because almost hidden away from culture, because they
would suffer because they went to the assembly of the
people of God. And that was exactly what was happening
at Rome. It was also a violent culture. There live
open gross crucifixions where they invite the crowds and the
masses to come to violence was glorified and the gladiatorial arenas.

(04:08):
As much as we see today the type of cage
fightings that it's getting bloodier and bloodier. And I've been
shocked in the years that that has been a growing sport,
there's not been more death, but if you have followed
that sport at all, you'll notice, even in the last
year now, more and more deaths are taking place within
that what they call the octagon in the ring, and
it's a and we get anesthetized to it.

Speaker 2 (04:32):
I don't want to I don't want to actually confess sin.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Here to you if you consider watching boxing or MMA
a sin. But I remember the first time I did
see it, I turned it off quickly because I thought
how vile, how gross. And then I remember going over
to our friend's house and he was watching it, so
I sat down with him, and all of a sudden,
it was like, wow, that was man, that.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Was a good takedown.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
And then before long it almost became you almost became
numb to it, as if it wasn't some form of gross,
violent sport. And we beget so numb to it there
or even pastors in America day that stand up and
talk about the latest fight that they went to go see,
and it just sports is getting more violent, not just
in the ring, but also on the hardwood floor, in

(05:13):
the gridiron.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
I call it.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
It's just and that's exactly what happened at Rome and
I believe there's going to be even an increase in
that that it's going to get more and more almost
deadly in its in its its ventures for new heights.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
You know, whenever you know this already, right, when when.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
You take something to extreme, people catch up to it
and they come numb to it, they have to take it.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
To more extreme.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
It happens in pornography, it happens in sexuality, it happens
in violence, it happens in many different forms of culture.
It's exactly what was happening in Rome. It was exactly
what the New Testament Church was facing at it during
its day. But it was not only facing that, you
know what else was facing. It was facing a religion.
It was facing a church, if you will, the Jewish
synagogue that was throughout Israel. It was facing a not

(05:59):
only a numbness to the secular world around it, but
it was facing a numbness towards God.

Speaker 2 (06:06):
There was a church that went through the motions.

Speaker 1 (06:08):
They sang their songs, they preached their sermons, they gave
their tithes and offerings to the Lord, they had their
meals together, but there was the presence of God was
missing from their synagogue from their church.

Speaker 2 (06:20):
And the problem about that was it was hardly even noticed.

Speaker 1 (06:24):
If you know anything about church history, you'll know there
was a four hundred year period from the time Malachi,
the last of the Old Testament prophets, they called them
the minor prophets, those who wrote those small books. There
was a four hundred year period where they call it
the Quiet Season, where it seemed to God wasn't speaking
to Israel. There was no prophecy, there was no It
was before John the Baptist came. It is after Malachi came,

(06:44):
and there's that long season where it seemed like the
windows of heaven were shut up and God was not
speaking to men, and so they were just going through
the motions and there would be externally they looked like
they had a form of religion, but they've denied they
missed the godliness, the heart, the content of really what
it meant to be a follower of Jesus Christ. And
it's in the midst of that that the Church of

(07:06):
Jesus Christ exploded. On the scene the Christ died on
the cross for our sins, and he went down and
he was buried, and he was three days in the
grave and he rose again on the third day, and
he was translated from their midst, and he rose up again.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
Into the heavens. The five hundred witnesses saw him.

Speaker 1 (07:26):
They told him to go to an upper room and
pray and wait on God. And Pentecost came, and the
Fire of God came, and in the midst of a
most vile culture, in the midst of a most dead church,
the Holy Spirit began to move. And I want to
tell you today that with all confidence, I say to
you that in the midst of this American Roman culture
that we live in, in the midst of this dead,

(07:47):
dash dying church that we're a part of, Jesus Christ
has the last say He's not finished.

Speaker 2 (07:53):
There's a work yet to be done.

Speaker 1 (07:54):
He's going to raise up a triumphant church, a glorious church,
a church that prevails, a church that's on the move,
a church that the people of God. Young people, old people.
When they're eighty, they're gonna be like Caleb, descend and
go up to the mountaintop and say, I still have
the strength I had when I was forty years old.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
Forty year old is going to be like twenty year olds.
I don't know twenty year olds and be like babies.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
I guess, I don't know, but there's gonna be a
move of God. He doesn't doesn't. He doesn't allow himself to.
He doesn't tolerate quietness in the midst of such cultural
perversion and decay in the church. Oh, God always loves
to move. And folks, you're sitting in a great season.

(08:34):
You're sitting in an hour of glory. You're sitting in
an hour of great opportunity. You're sitting here in this church,
an hour where God could, without question, not only could,
but will move upon you. He will grace you with
the greatest glory you've ever known. He will fill you
with the greatest power of the Holy Spirit you'll ever
you have ever known. He will give you the greatest anointing.
He will give you a double portion for those who

(08:56):
are hungry, for those who cry, for those who, as
the Old Testament says, they weep between the.

Speaker 2 (09:01):
Porch and the altar.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
And what that means is there was a place where
the gentiles came, and they saw their secretarism and the worldliness.
And then there was the altar of the Lord, and
there was a man of God or a woman of God,
who would stand and see what was happening in the world,
but also see what God wanted to do at the altar,
and he would stand in that gap, and he would
pray a holy prayer and cry a holy cry, and say, God,
you need to come because we see what's happening in

(09:25):
our society today. It is in the midst of the
darkest hour that the Holy Spirit shines as brightest lights.
And I believe that we are living in the darkest
hour in American culture. We have faced many horrific things
in this country, haven't we. We've been through a Civil
War where hundreds of thousands of men and women lay
down their lives. We have been through slavery and then

(09:46):
then the emancipation. We have been through two World Wars.
We have been through Pearl Harbor. We've been through nine
to eleven. We've been through a Great Depression, and the
Great Depression caused many to even jump off buildings and
suicid because many to live year after year in poverty.
And we have suffered many great and dark things. But
you know, each and every one of those times, America

(10:08):
has been able to pull itself up by its bootstraps.

Speaker 2 (10:10):
Has been able to overcome every.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
War, every threat from an enemy, every prejudice that was
taking place, every depression.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
It was overcome.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
By a ineconomic recovery. But I find ourselves at the
most difficult and darkest hours today.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
Church.

Speaker 1 (10:25):
I don't know if you agree with me on this,
but I believe we're in a dark hour that surpasses
all those things, because in all of those things there
has been Even the presidents of our nation would talk
about and their fireside chats would talk about after Pearl Harbor,
just falling before God, praying God have mercy. Abraham Lincoln
talking about all of his scripture study and the prayers
that he would pray that he needed God for the

(10:47):
task was too much for him. No matter what happens
to a country, when you have praying leadership, godly leadership,
Christian leadership, men and women in the pulpit who are
preaching of the Word of God with truth and life
and vigor and vitality, a nation still has hope. But
when it gets to the place where there is now
utter rebellion against God, you are in a more dark hour.

(11:08):
If you were to read Romans chapter one, two and
three today, you know what you'd be reading. You'd be
reading the newspapers of the American culture today. You'd be
reading about people that are given themselves over to worship
the creature themselves, their sexuality, their im morality, not only
just practicing those things, but causing others to want to
practice them as well, drawing them into that, and not
only drawing them into that, but also by Able was

(11:30):
talking about glorifying in that there's a worship of that.
It's not just a it used to be, Oh, I
kind of do that, but there's some shame, and I
try to hide it. No, now it's wide out in
the open. There's a glorification of sin. There is an
intolerance of things that are of God. We have turned
now to wicked leaders. That it seems like that whether

(11:53):
you're left or right, or politically this way or that way,
that you're going to be represented now in this generation
by somebody who's immoral, by somebody who's ungodly, by somebody
who doesn't know how to how to even control them
own their own selves, don't even know what. The Book
of Proverb says, he that controls his own spirit is
better than he that controls and rules the whole city.

(12:13):
And we have people now ruling whole cities and whole
governments that don't even know how to rule their own heart,
their own behavior, their own mouth. And these are the people.
And it's not just that, it's not just that there's
judgment on America because there are wicked leaders in authority.
The judgment on America is because the people want it.
So we are given leaders after our own heart. The

(12:36):
scripture says, we are given leaders after our own selves,
like priests, like prophet, like people. And so we're seeing
here godly people are hardly given a choice. There's an
unprecedented speed at which we're throwing off restraints. There used
to be cultural restraints. You don't do that, you don't

(12:58):
do that in school, you don't disrespect your teachers that way,
you don't speak with that kind of foul mouth, and
all those restraints are being thrown off. You see that
even if you watch the news. The words that they'll
use on the newscast now that are recordings of other
people's things saying that it's just it's vile that should
even be said on newscasts, And they're throwing off restraint
to try to describe a situation and this is again,

(13:22):
this is exactly what happened here, and so so so,
as I said just a moment ago, in the midst
of that, we don't need to worry or get anxious
or fearful. We don't throw our hands up in despair,
and we don't hide ourselves in caves.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
We don't.

Speaker 1 (13:38):
We don't need to hoard food and water and find
a cabin up in the mountains.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
You can if you want to, because it's so beautiful
up there. That's fine.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
But but but but you know that you're going to
be protected by God. You know he's going to be
on your side. You know he's looking out for you.
You know he's empowering you in these last days. And
this is the example that we have in Acts chapter five,
termed me in Acts chapter five and what's happened in
verse seventeen to what we're about to read in verse
thirty nine, let me, just before we read it, described
to you what's taking place there. Right after Pentecost, there

(14:08):
was a great outpour, in three thousand were saved. There
were many added to the church. People were giving away
all of their goods and sharing with one another.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
The city of.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Jerusalem must have been in shock because dead religion now
was not your only option. Trying to plug your ears
to the violence and perversion of Rome was not your
only option. Now had you could join a group of
people who are going to make a marked difference in
the world. You could join a group of people where
your heart was going to be different. And so many

(14:38):
people joined the church. Bible says even priests were joining.
Pharisaic satusaical priests, we're joining the ranks of these new
believers that were taking Jerusalem by storm. And it started
to impact both Rome. They were watching it closely. Josephus
the historian, the Roman historian in the first century, begins

(14:59):
to about the early impact that they had on culture.
But they particularly there was an antagonism that grew. There
was a there was a sense that grew among the
Jewish leaders of the days of the New Testament Church,
and they began to persecute the Christians, and they began
to imprison some of them. They began to want the

(15:22):
martyrdom of many of them. They began to want to
see these lives destroyed. They thought if they could kill
the leadership, they would kill the movement of God. But
how many of you know that the beauty of the
church is that it's not it's not dependent on only
a few leaders.

Speaker 2 (15:36):
That did you miss that?

Speaker 1 (15:38):
That was that was one of That was really something
important I just said there. The make or break of
the New Testament Church doesn't depend on just one executive
leader because in rank and file, in mass, the move
of God is always with the people of God. It's
always with people just like yourself who work nine to
five at a tough job and come home and have

(16:00):
three or four children, some of them in diapers to
be changing, and houses to be cleaned, and most lawns
to be mode and neighbors to be a minister too.
And you have all that going on in your life,
and yet for some reason, the glorious reasons of God
is to invest in you an anointing, an anointing of God.
That's why I label this message an extreme anointing in
an hour of crisis.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
We're living in an hour of crisis, and the.

Speaker 1 (16:23):
Anointing that's being poured out is not on this side
of the pulpit only, it's on that side of the pulpit.
Even more so, God just has me here to minister
to saints. So that you would wake up and do
the work of the Kingdom of God. Most people hardly
listen to me once they find out I'm a pastor. Man,
just shut me out. If you've heard me say this before.

(16:43):
When I'm on an airplane, if I want to talk
to the people next to me, I tell them I
work for a non governmental organization that works with poverty,
and man, I'll talk for three hours on a flight
to New York.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
I tell them.

Speaker 1 (16:55):
If I don't want to talk to anybody, I tell
them a pastor. They pull out paper like turn away
the other side. Can I move seats?

Speaker 2 (17:03):
They don't want to.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
They don't want to talk to talk to. I even
gave up golf because nobody wanted to golf with me
anymore they found out I was a pastor.

Speaker 2 (17:08):
It ruins their game. They can't use.

Speaker 1 (17:10):
The F bomb everywhere they're going because they they they're
now with a pastor and so so.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
So there's a difference in a sense.

Speaker 1 (17:19):
There there's there's not a difference between laty and clergy
in God's mind, but in our culture today there is.
And so God and his wisdom and his strategic plan
for the Last Day's church is going to be raise
up men and women of God, not just from the pulpit,
more so from the pew, to do great and mighty things.

Speaker 2 (17:37):
To be so powerfully anointed with the Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1 (17:41):
You the kingdoms of this world will be shaken by
the power of authority, by the words that come from
your mouth, by the deeds that come from your hands,
and and and from your feet, and from your mouth.
It is happening. In the midst of this, this this chaos,
there was a persecution that came. And in the middle
of that persecution, one of the Phariseical leaders, his name

(18:02):
was Gameliel says to those who are about to try
to cause Peter and James and others to be the
first martyrs of the New Testament Church. He says in
verse thirty nine of Acts chapter five, but if this
is of God, you will not be able to overthrow them.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
You might even be found opposing God.

Speaker 1 (18:22):
There never were more prophetic words uttered, probably by someone
who doesn't follow Jesus, then Gamelliel's words here. Persecution, suffering, hardship, prison,
confiscating of your goods, being labeled as hate speech. No

(18:44):
matter what kind of suffering or persecution, you may go
through in these last days. Here is a prophetic word
from the Lord. Even though it was said to try
to be a political statement. The word of the Lord
is but if it is of God, you will not
be able to overthrow them. In other words, for you
what God is saying to you today, when the Holy
Spirit comes upon you and you shall be received power

(19:05):
to be His witnesses, you cannot be overthrown. You cannot
be stopped. You cannot be stayed. You cannot be hindered,
you cannot be set back, you cannot be turned aside.
You cannot be not listened to. You're gonna Your voice
is going to be heard, and that anointing of God
that we're talking about this morning will so permeate your
heart and your soul that you will see a difference.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
Take place in your life. It can't be overthrown.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
Persecution can't stop the Church of Jesus Christ. When I
was in Pakistan many years back, I got a chance
to sit down with a young pastor who shared his
testimony with me. And his face was almost half of
his face was bent in and the bone structure was
not correct, and his mouth was drooping down on one side,

(19:47):
and he had a speech impediment that happened because he
was a Muslim and in Pakistan and his village he
met Jesus Christ. Gloriously met Jesus Christ. Those one of
those thorough conversion Do you know what I mean by that,
Like day and night conversions, Like I was all away
from God and not any caring about Jesus, And the
next day Jesus was my all and all. That's all

(20:08):
I could think about, that's all I could talk about
everywhere I go, my family and they just started leading
people to Jesus, and some people from his village, the
village elders and leaders, the Muslim leaders got him and
said you're either and put a gun in his mouth
and said you're either going to denounce Jesus and quit
preaching him, or we're gonna shoot you right here and
right now. And he said this, I can't stop preaching Jesus.

Speaker 2 (20:28):
Amen.

Speaker 1 (20:30):
And they pulled the trigger and they shot him right
in his face, went right back through his throat, through
his back, through the back of his head.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
But it didn't kill him.

Speaker 1 (20:38):
Not only did they shoot him, but they beat him
up and threw him outside into a creek outside of
the village. That they were in Pakistan, and somebody came
and rescued him, took him to the major city. I
patched him up as best.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
As he could.

Speaker 1 (20:51):
Six months in six months in a hospital in Pakistan,
and he told me the story man in tears were
rolling down my eyes and I could not believe it.
I said, what did you do? After the six months?
He says, what else would I do? I went back
to my village and continued preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
They were so shocked that he was still alive. They
thought they'd saw a ghost, and they let him alone.

(21:11):
From that point on, and many in many of his village.
He started a church there, many in his village, and
he brought other pastors that he had led to the
Lord and trained them up to be pastors. He brought
them with us to the pastor's conference that brother Jim
Simbola and myself were doing there in Pakistan. What a
glorious move of God. You can't stop it. You can't
stop it. You can you can put laws against it,

(21:32):
you can send police to try to stop it. You
can close buildings down, you can stop irs tax five o'
one see three benefits you can do all those kinds
of things. You can throw leaders in jail and just
somebody else would come up and replace them. And that's
exactly what's happening here in the Book of Acts. And
I believe with all my heart that's exactly what's going
to be happening here in these last days. A strong church,

(21:54):
a vital church, a powerful church that Jesus Christ will
have Amen. We see it happening in our generation already.
Have you noticed it. I'm seeing it in young man
like our own youth pastor Josh Gallardo, who's heading to

(22:14):
a Muslim country with his family working with underground church,
or willing in the very near future, willing to give
his life whole, hardly, willing to lay down his life,
anxious to go and just do all and be all
that Jesus would have him to be. I love that
kind of spirit. I see it in my own sons
who are involved in missions ministry, that there's this young,

(22:37):
zealous passion that God is raising up in these days.
I saw it this week in the news. How many
of you saw that in the news too, A fairly
young man now still in his twenties. God has gotten
soul hold of his heart. He's been such a testimony
around the world, but even here in Colorado. And he
was trying out for a baseball team. You know where
I'm headed with this. He's trying out for a baseball team.
And I think it was in Arizona. And I don't

(23:00):
know if it's at the end of the game or
before it started. Uh, somebody in the stands had an
epileptic seizure and fell to the ground and people were
in shock. Some of the witnesses around this person said
he stopped breathing. One witness account said he stopped breathing.
They think they asked him in almost five minutes of
not breathing, you know you're dead. You know your your
your your or if you'd come back to breathing, you'd

(23:23):
be being brain damage of going without oxygen for five minutes,
if that was the case. And I'm not sure that's
accurate or not, but certainly the man was. There's there's
video cameras of seeing this man fall right behind the
dugout and the baseball player named Tim Tebow and he
really heard of Tim Tebow.

Speaker 2 (23:38):
Yeah, Tim Tiba, I love Tim TiVo. Uh. Tim Tebow
leaves the playing field and goes over.

Speaker 1 (23:44):
And and the article that I was reading, I don't
think it was by a Christian because of the language there.
The lady that was was was writing this, she says,
Tim Tebow did the laying on of hands thing, right,
the laying on of hands thing. She knew there was
some kind of language about when you know, but he

(24:05):
reached over. You see the pictures, you reached over and
put his hands on. And and one of the witnesses,
maybe it was ESPN or one of the ladies that
was writing about it, she said, I've never seen anything
like in my life.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
She said.

Speaker 1 (24:14):
Soon as he laid hands, he did the laying in
of hands thing. The man started breathing again, and that amazing.
And uh uh and uh, she said, she said in
her in her blog this, I saw a miracle. I
saw a miracle. Well, there's gonna be thousands and thousands

(24:35):
and thousands and tens of thousands of Tim Tebow type
men and women of God in this generation who are
gonna do the laying on hands kind of thing, and
are going to do a preaching to the Gospel kind
of thing, and a're gonna do living, living holy in
the midst of a perverse and wicked generation kind of thing.
And a're gonna live godly lives in the midst of
a dark situation.

Speaker 2 (24:51):
There's going to be an anointed.

Speaker 1 (24:53):
People of God in the last days, all right. Now,
problem arises so far, that's not a problem. Persecution doesn't
thwart the church. It actually increases that it grows under persecution.
But a problem arises Chapter six, verse one. Now in
these days when the disciples were increasing in number, a complaint.

(25:15):
Now you've got a problem persecution, no problem being.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
A light in the midst of darkness.

Speaker 1 (25:21):
That's no problem being anointed mightily by a God in
the midst of a wicked and perverse generation full of
sexual imorality, and standing as a holy light in the
midst of that. Boy, there's an anointing of God for that.
But when this stuff starts happening, look out, church. This
is one of the most dangerous things. The persecution is
not that dangerous. It will not overthrow even secular people,

(25:42):
even dead religious people say that.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
You can't overthrow the work of God.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
But it's not an external suffering, an external pressure that's
going to diminish or put off center the work of God.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
It is going to be this, it's.

Speaker 1 (25:57):
Going to be an internal chaos, an internal crisis, something
that diminishes the anointing and the power and the authority
of God that comes not from outside the church, but
from within the church. Who Now, now, it's gonna get
quiet in here, because the problem with the church is
not the secular society. You never see in here. Never

(26:20):
once do you see in here where where Peter and
James and John they got out of they got beaten
up the Gamellia said, those words they beat him up.
They send them assi, don't ever preach the gospel again.
And they said they rejoiced that they were worthy to
count the sufferings and the dishonor of Christ. They counted
it a joy. They were delighting it. There was no
problem with that. They did that, and and and it's

(26:41):
it's that's not someone going to slow the church down.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
It's it's this.

Speaker 1 (26:44):
It says, in those days the disciples, they're increasing in number,
and a complaint. Whenever church grows, whenever there's a lot
of people around, things happen, right, this person says that,
that person did that, that that person you know, acts
like this, that person talks like that, and so there's
a complaint that arose by the helenis against. There's a

(27:04):
second word, number one, complaint number two against first time
in the Book of Acts that this word is mentioned
in this kind of context. There was a mighty move
of God. There was love for one another. They were
selling all their possessions. They were giving to each other
according to out of their own need. They gave to
other people. What a glorious church. It was making an
impact on the world. But now all of a sudden,
this is just a few days and weeks, maybe months

(27:26):
at the most. Later, a few months later, they had
gone from selling all the possessions. They're not in need
among them to be like complaining. They're against one another.
She did this, He said that I didn't get my food.
They're prejudice. It was like the Hellenist Jews, the Greek
people who spoke Greek, but they were Jewish. Somehow, we're
not getting served the same way the Jewish people who
spoke the Hebrew language were getting served. And so the

(27:49):
Hebrew people were against the Jewish the Greek people, and
the Greek people were complaining to their leaders against the
Hebrew people. And man, can you see how quickly things
go downhill, and why not because of the persecution. Never
once did you see Peter and James and John saying
they didn't get out of jail and they were all
beaten up, and they come back to the church and say,

(28:09):
we've got to change this government. We've got to change
the court systems. We've got to pike at this nation.
We've got to we've got to send out flyers. Let's
they never they never talked about a political answer to
a spiritual problem.

Speaker 2 (28:22):
They always saw that it was a spiritual answer to
a political problem.

Speaker 1 (28:27):
And so they were gonna stick to their guns. They
were gonna stick to what they were called to. They're
gonna preach the gospel, they're gonna love people, and they
didn't put their hope and trust in a government.

Speaker 2 (28:37):
I think that's a lesson were I could learn today,
it might.

Speaker 1 (28:40):
Be forced to learn that we we we no matter
how much we invest or try to change the political situation,
it's it's moving in the direction that's far from what
we believe we would want our nation to look like.
But in the midst of that, we don't we we
don't put our primary we we we are citizens of
this nation, and we care, and we love, and we TechEd,

(29:00):
and we have our allegiance here, and we love our
country and we pray for it. But we don't put
our primary trust in thinking that some man or woman
we elect is going to change things, or some court
in Washington, DC is going to change things.

Speaker 2 (29:14):
And so the first.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Apostles of Jesus realized that the hope was in their Messiah.

Speaker 2 (29:19):
It was in Jesus Christ, in Jesus alone. And so
they saw that as no problem.

Speaker 1 (29:24):
But the problem was when when the church becomes to
get divided, when the church becomes to become a place
of against this one, against that one, complaining against this one.
And disciples gathered together and they said, look at these words.
They said in verse two, it is not right. Here again,
here's the first words you ever see this time. Everything

(29:44):
else up to this point they ever saying, this is good,
God's ingrad amazing things, church sharing with one another, thousands
of being saved, and now the first time, all of
a sudden, we're reading it's just in the sixth chapter,
early on in the New Testament Church, this.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
Is not right.

Speaker 1 (29:58):
And folks, part of my job here is pastor is
not just to tell you how good you're doing, and
how much your your how specially you are, and how
good looking you are. Even though you are all of
those things, part of my job is tell you this
is not right. This, This will destroy the church, This
will corrupt our testimony, will this will diminish our witness,
This will cause us to to uh, to block the

(30:19):
flow of anointing that comes from the Holy Spirit. He
can't move upon impure vessels that are complaining and bickering
and backbiting and harming one another and being divided and
not loving one another, not serving one another, not giving
or all for one another.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
See, they lost.

Speaker 1 (30:34):
Something, and it wasn't because of culture. It wasn't because
of the horrible Roman culture or the dead church around them.
It was their own stuff. It was the stuff in
their own heart. It was the internal stuff. The stuff
that troubles me most is not what's happening in American
political situation, American the the the the sexual revolution, all
though those things are horrific and I hate them. But

(30:58):
in the middle of all those things, Jesus he has
a light, He has a testimony, has a glory. But
if that testimony is diminished, if that light is mixed
with darkness.

Speaker 2 (31:07):
If it's not.

Speaker 1 (31:08):
The world being worldly that worries me, it's the church
being worldly that worries me.

Speaker 2 (31:14):
It's my lone life when I'm being worldly. Because when
I'm worldly.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
Whatever amount, say i'm ten percent worldly, I don't know
there's such a thing as that.

Speaker 2 (31:22):
Think God looks at it a percentage wise.

Speaker 1 (31:24):
But let's just say I'm ten percent worldly, then I
can only be ninety percent anointed, ninety percent godly. If
I'm fifty percent worldly, then less than half of me
is going to have any kind of anointing at all.
I want to be one hundred percent anointed by God
by being zero.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Percent worldly, connecting to.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
The world in a way that is to serve, to love,
not to be entertained by and be engulfed in the
flames of the wickness around me. Are we are living
in this situation where where there's this difficulty, and he
says it's not right, it's not right. The things of
God are unstoppable, But it's not right to have the

(32:04):
church getting in and living in this. The longer you
live in this, the less testimony you'll be. And so
immediately I love the fact that immediately the church leaders
get together and say this is not right, and we're
going to change it.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
They gat the whole church together and said.

Speaker 1 (32:18):
Folks, today, today, we're not going to allow this one
more minute. We will not tolerate this for one second.
Today we're going to fix this problem. And I love
the fact that there was an honoring of God and
a hunger for righteousness in the fabric of the church
that they moved quickly.

Speaker 2 (32:36):
Oh and did God ever move?

Speaker 1 (32:38):
They said, The problem is some of these folks aren't
getting fed correctly in the tables that we are serving.
So let's raise up seven servants. M that's interesting. The
remedy for a situation where the culture was all out
against them, where their own religious system was dead and dying,

(32:59):
and they had to become like a little sprout in
the midst of a dry wilderness. The remedy for the
problems of society and culture.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
Was, Hey, got an idea.

Speaker 1 (33:11):
How we can continue to be anointed, how we continue
to have a testimony, How we can continue to change
the world. How about we find some people who love
to serve. That doesn't sound like a fix, does it.
Why don't we do a three week prayer and fasting meeting.
Why don't we send some guys off to Bible College.
Why don't we, you know, set up a series of

(33:32):
revival meetings. Now, how about we get some people in
the church that love to serve. What is God's corrective
agenda when a church gets full of gossip and pride
and arrogance and division and racial strife. It's to put
some men and women of God who have a servant
leader's heart full of the anointing, to go and open
up the towel and say, I'm here to serve you,

(33:54):
I'm here to love you. Nothing will quench the demonic
fires of division and corruption and selfish, fleshly carnal living
within the church than some men and women of God
who God raises up and says, I don't want anything.
I don't want any credit, I don't want any recognition.
I don't want people to put me on the stage.
I don't want my picture up on the screen. All's
I want to do is serve people who are in need.

(34:15):
And there are some people in this church here today.
And I tell you God has such a call on
your life. You have been called to this hour, to
this moment where God wants to purify his church. He
wants a clean, vital testimony, he wants a pure people.
And his agenda seems to be. The way I'm going
to do that is raise up servant leaders, servant people

(34:36):
of God who are so full of the Holy Spirit,
so less full of nothing of themselves that they're going
to give their life away. And it's going to purify
my church. It's going to make a mark on my church.
It's gonna let my church once again be that holy
church without spot or or wrinkle. It's going to be
a church that can overcome the world because it will

(34:57):
keep its testimony. If the church is just like the world,
we're as divided as they are. We're as corrupt as
they are. Where's bankrupt as they are. We're as racially
divided as they are. We have no testimony. Oh but
it's when we love one another, it's when we serve
one another. It's when we give our lives to bless
one another. That out of that comes the pure love

(35:19):
of God, comes the power of God, comes the anointing
of God. And I tell you this, I close with
this A worship team if you come back, or those
of the keyboard and singer come back.

Speaker 2 (35:33):
Here's the one of the.

Speaker 1 (35:35):
Great joys of preaching is occasionally, not every sermon. Sometimes
you're just communicating the words of God from the pages,
and you're doing your best to interpret the word of.

Speaker 2 (35:43):
God and to deliver it how meletically correct.

Speaker 1 (35:47):
But every once in a while, the Lord gives you
this grace when you're preaching, to give you a promise.
And when you get that, you just you go like, Yeah,
this is gonna be a great Sunday. And I come
to you today with a promise from God.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
That he's got.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
In the New Testament Church, he had seven men full
of the Holy Spirit, and he gave me a promise.

Speaker 2 (36:08):
Today.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
He said, Gary, there's far more than seven here today
in this church. There is probably seventy or one hundred
and forty, or maybe even two hundred people that have
this spirit that Philip and Stephen and others had in
the New Testament Church.

Speaker 2 (36:27):
Stephen went on to be the first martyr of the church.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
He's preached such a powerful message that in order to
get rid of the conviction on their heart.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
After four hundred years of quiet.

Speaker 1 (36:37):
These religious leaders now were hearing a word from heaven,
and they were so convicted to get rid of that
conviction that actually took up stones and stone. Stephen Philip
was actually physically translated.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
His body was here.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
And all of a sudden instantaneously was there, and wherever
he went he was preaching the gospel. These were men,
you know what their job was. If you were to
put this in New Testament, that New Testament times into
our culture today, they would be security team, ushers, greeters,
those who work in the coffee shop, those work in
the children's ministry. And there is this horrible, horrible duality

(37:12):
in the church thinking that pastors and worship leaders are
really anointed. Have you ever heard that was an anointed message?
Have you ever heard that was an anointed way you
change those diapers?

Speaker 2 (37:27):
Now? You known't how many people.

Speaker 1 (37:32):
Have a YouTube video about how wonderfully the ushers of
this church serve the people of God, how the teachers
of the children, the youth leaders, the small group leaders.

Speaker 2 (37:46):
How anointed they were.

Speaker 1 (37:49):
But I want to tell you in God's agenda, from
God's point of view, I believe he told me to
tell you this. From God's point of view, he doesn't
look at just pastors and prophets and teachers and evangelists
and worship leaders and say, why they're so anointed. I've
given them. I'm gonna pour out my anointing on them. No,
he's gonna pour out his spirit. Bible says, on all flesh,

(38:12):
on all flesh, your sons and your daughters who dream dreams,
and they'll prophesy. God is going to move mightily through you.
You're going to today if you so desire to receive
within the realm of your gifting, within the realm of
your calling.

Speaker 2 (38:29):
I think it was Peter that said it so well,
knowing that we're in the last hour.

Speaker 1 (38:34):
Therefore we should be sober minded. And he goes on
to say that we should use our gifts to serve
one another. What was the response to, we're in the
last hour, be sober about the gift God has given you.
In other words, take it seriously. No longer put it
on the side, no longer say well, one of these
days I'm gonna get back. I used to be really
involved in church, but I'm kind of tired now. No,

(38:55):
that's that's gone. This is the last hour. You don't
have time to say that anymore. And now you're saying,
just like Peter said, I'm going to live soberly and
understand the call of God on my life.

Speaker 2 (39:06):
He's called me to serve.

Speaker 1 (39:07):
If you don't know what your gift is, just get started,
Just get started somewhere. Join one of the ministry teams,
Join one of the outreach teams.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
Join the.

Speaker 1 (39:17):
Ushers, the greets, the Children's ministry, the Best Friend's Ministry,
get in a small group. Find a way to get started.
Because once you get started, you know how this old
statement goes. It's easier to direct a rolling stone than
one that's sitting still, and you'll find yourself directed more
into the anointing of God and to the things of God.
Stay with me, if you would, I want to tell you, church,
listen carefully while you're standing. God is wanting today to

(39:40):
pour out a double portion anointing on you. God is
wanting to create in this church, in this day, in
these last hours, in this very room. Today, He's wanting
to unleash an army of men and women of God
who are willing to say God, persecution, difficulty in church.

Speaker 2 (40:01):
Nothing's going to stop the work of God in my life.
Hollowly nothing.

Speaker 1 (40:06):
That's where it's putting your hands together and say Thank
you God for promising us today that God was going
to raise up servant leaders.

Speaker 2 (40:15):
One of my jobs as a pastor, and I.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
Don't always do it really well, is is to try
to make things easy. In the church growth movement, they
call it easy on ramps. So if you want to
join a small group, we have balloons and things out
there in places you can sign and then we'll come
pick you up at your house. And this one I
was going to try. How am I going to make
it easy? And the Lord said to me, don't make
it easy for them. Let me direct their steps, all right,

(40:38):
So you may have to actually work at getting your
place in service. You actually have to to try something.
You actually have to go ahead.

Speaker 2 (40:46):
I don't know what to do.

Speaker 1 (40:47):
He looks like he has a black shirt on. He's
an actual Let me see I can help him. The
children's menasing now let me And it might just take
a little bit of work, but it takes that kind
of what you put into get started will show you're headed.
And if you just put a light touch at the start,
probably gonna have a light exit very quickly.

Speaker 2 (41:05):
You understand what I'm saying. Church, And so I want
to encourage you and.

Speaker 1 (41:10):
I want to ask the Holy Spirit to bless you
that you would get involved, that you give yourself to something.
And I know many of you serve in this ministry
out there, and that ministry that is in southern Colorado,
or that ministry that's in Denver, or this ministry that
does this in our city. That's great. Please keep doing that.
But you know you're also called to this church. Can
I say that real?

Speaker 2 (41:28):
Clearly?

Speaker 1 (41:29):
You're called to this church? And there should be some
and there can be, and God wants to anoint some
involvement here. Everything I've talked about today is beyond the
four walls of this church. But here's what happened to
Philip and Stephen. They just got involved in their local assembly,
and by doing so, the anointing fell on them, and
all of a sudden, now they had a ministry to masses.
And you're not signing up or doing anything. Just say, hey,

(41:52):
maybe I could do a ministry to masses. No, if
it's just one person, if it's just three people, if
it's just a couple of people, say God, that's that's
all I need. I just want to I want to
have the heart that's right before you. I don't want
to have the expression of ministry that's right before you,
one of the cries of my heart these last few months,
more than ever before. And I want to share this

(42:12):
cry with you. And I want to invite you in
just a moment to the front to what we call
the altar of this church. If this cry is in
your heart, God, to do this kind of double portion
anointed service that you're calling in these last days, in
this last hour, I'm going.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
To need a touch of God. Have you ever heard
a touch of God? But that phrase has just so
renumerated in my hard time after time.

Speaker 1 (42:35):
I want a touch of God. I want a fresh
touch of God. I want people to recognize not just
for show, but because this world needs men and women
with the touch of God on their life. And you
might be saying, Pastor Gary, I want a fresh touch
from God today.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
I want a double portion. I wanted an anointing.

Speaker 1 (42:51):
I want to be one of these these end time
a man and women of God who are going to
be raised up to be a powerful testimony. I don't
want to serve the Body of Christ in a way
that causes it to be unified and loving one another,
so that it could be like happened right there. I
didn't even read it. At the end of that other
chapter there where after they assigned these deacons to ministry
and these servant leaders to ministry. The last part of

(43:14):
that chapter says, and the church continued to grow in
wisdom and strength, and many people were saved.

Speaker 2 (43:20):
Hallelujah.

Speaker 1 (43:21):
See it gets the ship got righted when people stepped
up and.

Speaker 2 (43:24):
Said, I want to touch of God. I want the
power of God, I want authority from God.

Speaker 1 (43:28):
If that's you, we're gonna sing this song together. Come
out of your seat right now, even before they start,
come and say I want that.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
Fresh touch of God. Come on ahead, up here, really close.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
There's gonna be many of us here today that are
crying out God, a fresh touch from heaven. If you
need more than you've ever had before, if you're hungering
and thirsting for a move of God and your heart
and your family and your city, if you need more
power to be a mom who was trying to keep
your children.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
Chasing heart after the Lord.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
If your marriage isn't a place where you need to
be an anointed spouse, then come us got more of
a fresh touch afresh and mo