Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
Praise you, Lord, for your goodness, for the blood you shed on the cross, for your resurrection power, for your Holy Spirit you sent to dwell within us and to flow through us and to work through us. Lord God, for everything that we need, God, you've provided God all things that pertain to life and Godliness through Christ Jesus. Lord, you've provided what we need, Lord. You've provided the power, Lord, God, to be a witness, God, in this earth, Lord. God, with our lives, our examples, but also with our words that we speak, you, God, have empowered us, Lord, to be a witness, Father. And Lord, we just want more and more to be emptied of all of selfishness and flesh and lustly desires and lust and sins and just to be emptied out and those things washed away and Lord, to walk in that holiness and that purity and that hunger and that boldness for you, God. Lord, I pray that for everyone here, God, that you would just, Lord, just empty out all selfishness, all fear, all fear of man and Lord, that we would just get full of the Holy Spirit, God, and do what you've called us to do without fear or intimidation, without worry, Lord, even if it cost us things, even if we have to suffer loss to do the will of God, Lord, that that's more important. We thank you, God, that we know gain is not always Godliness and Father, this morning we just worship you, we want you, Lord, we want your glory and your power and your presence to flow again through the church, through your people, Lord, it's been dry too long, God. We're grateful for little things here and there, Lord, but I know, God, there's a move, there's an outpouring, there's a revival that you want to do. You're looking for people to show yourself strong, people whose hearts perfect Lord, Lord, that's what we are, pure heart, pure motives, a heart for the lost, a
heart for our brethren that are falling away, a heart for those that have been wounded so bad they can't even look up, Father, we pray, I think we just need to worship and just, we don't need to move from this spot for a moment, thank you for your goodness. You're about to do, Lord, in this area, Lord, in this church even, in this region, I know you're about to do something, sovereign, special, supernatural, God, you're about to fulfill some things promised, Lord, years and years and years ago, I know that you're about to move mightily in Auburn, especially, Lord, I know you're about to move in a mighty way, we want to be a part of that, we want to do our part, we want to not miss, Lord, what you want us to do, your perfect will, your destiny, for our lives, God, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. I feel like the Lord is going to give someone that interpretation, just if you feel the Lord speaking that to you or something to you, don't be afraid to speak it out. Praise you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you,
Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Glory to God. You may be seated. Hallelujah. Yes, sir. Amen. Praise God. We receive that. Amen. Anybody else have anything? I'll tell you, it's amazing, but the Lord, he is, he definitely speaking to us. And of course, I just want to say, I don't really need this in here, but we are recording it, so I'm going to use this. But if it's too loud, tell me, I'll turn it down a little bit. But the Lord is definitely stirring us, and I just want you to get your Bibles, and we're going to get into the Word. I guess we're going to continue on what we've been doing the last few weeks. The Lord, I think, is getting us ready, getting us ready for this fall and getting us ready for some outreach. But before I do that, some of you may not know because you hadn't been to the meetings yet, but this is Gene May back here and his wife, Sheri. They are just being with us today. He's got another meeting today at 3.30 at Eastwood Christian School, and that's David James right there and his wife, Rita. They are, I guess, are you the principal, or how would I? So you're all of the above, okay, of the school out there and the founders, and went to Gene's church many years ago that he had here back in the 70s. How long were you from, what, 74 to 78 here? So anyway, but I hope those of you hadn't made it to one. I hope you can at 3.30 this afternoon. We'll be there. Anyway, I wasn't sure about that. No, I said I was it. I said I was going to ask you to make sure, but yes, okay. All right, so we'll do that. All right, so we'll be there. So I hope you can make it. If you need directions, just ask me afterwards. But back to the Word. I want you to turn in your Bibles this morning. I just go to Acts 1. We've been on a series talking about being led by the Spirit of God and how important that is. We've talked about the gifts last week and about the power of the gifts to be used in witnessing. But I just want to kind of shift gears because I know we're going to be flowing into kind of some evangelism training in the next few weeks, and I just feel like I need to give you some stuff today on that. But let's just, we need to remember something, that God wants
us, He wants us to be full of the Holy Spirit, not just so we can be blessed. I mean, that's true. I mean, God refreshes us and we get to experience His presence, and we get to experience joy and peace, and we get to experience healing, maybe inner healing sometimes of emotions and things, and we get to experience a lot of good things from the Lord. But those things aren't just to be kept to ourselves. And one of the main things God wants to get across to us, and as I've said, is that if you are full of the Holy Spirit and you are being led by the Holy Spirit, I guarantee you this thing's going to be happening. God is going to begin to give you His heart for people that are lost and on their way to hell around you. God's going to begin to give you His heart and a desire, not just His heart, not just what He feels about it, but a desire to do something about it, a desire to be used by God, to be a light, to be a witness, to be effective, not just that people might know you're a Christian, but to really be effective in speaking a word that may bring conviction or a word that may bring healing or a word that may bring somebody truly to repent and come to Jesus. And I just want you to know that if you're full of the Holy Spirit, He is going to begin to direct you in that path. And I mean to your neighbors, to your family, to your friends, I mean, you're going to begin to feel yourself moved in prayer to pray for them. I mean, I'm telling you, if you really have a revelation of what Jesus has done in you, in saving you, in washing your sins away, the reality that without Him you knew you were on your way to an eternity in hell and Jesus didn't have to die on the cross for you. He didn't have to convict you. He didn't have to draw you. He didn't have to forgive you again and again and again. He didn't have to. Sometimes I think Christians have this attitude that God owes them, you know, and He doesn't really owe us. It's His mercy. It's grace. It's, you know, it's goodness. And He doesn't owe us these things. But when you realize, and I think that's what motivated me so much when I came back to the Lord at 19, there was such a revelation to me that the way I was living, I was on my way to hell. And God made that very clear to me that I was, I was going to be lost forever if I did not change some things in my life, if I did not surrender my life fully to Him and follow Him. And when that transformation took place and when God came back into my life, I mean, I was, the revelation was so clear and the encounter with God was so clear. The realization came to me if I was like that, if I was so blinded by Satan and so in darkness and so, and really during that time period, you know, being in drunkenness and doing drugs and in fornication and pornography and all the stuff that I was into as a teenager and a college student and realizing that, you know, I thought I was okay. I thought,
you know, because I'd gone to church when I was young and I thought I was okay. And I'm like, wow, when that, when that realization, when God woke me up and I realized how many people around me were like me, I could not keep my mouth shut. You understand? It wasn't about me forcing myself to be a witness to people. I could not help but be a witness to people. I had to tell my brother, Alan, to the point until he gave his life to the Lord, I had to tell my best friend, Billy and Craig, I had to go tell my mom and my dad and I couldn't keep my mouth shut because I didn't want them to be going down the same destructive path that I was going to. I didn't want them to end up in hell forever. I didn't want them to end up destroyed and so that's why I began to share with everybody and see, I want to tell you something at 19 and just returning back to the Lord. I didn't know a whole lot. I wasn't a big theologian or anything and I'm still not now but I mean I didn't know a whole lot but I knew what Jesus did in me and I was willing to share that and then I got in the word so I could give an answer to people. But I want you to know this. You have to, you know, and I'll say this, if you've been a Christian for a while, we all go through this where you'll get dry, you know, you get dry and you get busy with life and and you just get weighted down with things and it's almost like you begin to lose your sensitivity toward those things and your passion for those things and that's why, you know, it's a little bit easier sometimes it seems for a new convert or somebody that's just had a fresh encounter with God to share it with everybody because they're so excited but, you know, those of us that have been saved for a while, sometimes we have to stir up the gifts, right? We have to stir up ourselves back to get back to doing our first works, to get back to doing the things that when we were first in love with Jesus and just crazy about everything about God about God. I mean we wanted to go to church. I remember nobody told me to go to church. I mean nobody had to tell me to go to church when I came back to Jesus. Nobody had to tell me you need to read the Bible. Man, I couldn't quit reading it. I wanted to study. I wanted to learn. I wanted to know more about him and so what I'm saying is sometimes we get away from that because we get dry and, you know, we get we get a little too church sometimes and, you know, we need to stir it back up and so this for some of us, this is just a reminder about the Holy Spirit and I told you turn to Acts but Acts 1.8 what does it say this it says but you shall receive power what after the Holy Spirit has come upon you and did he say so you could speak in tongues that is important we've been talking about that is that so you could operate
in the other gifts yes but that's not what he said here but he said I'm going to give you power to be a witness and I love the way he puts it he says what a power you're going to be witnesses unto me where in Jerusalem Judea and Sumerian to the uttermost parts of the earth what was Jerusalem to them it's where they live he was right where they were you know I was telling Nancy on the way here I remember my brother and I went to Israel a long time ago back in the late 80s and we went to Israel we spent a month there and I remember we traveled around the country we met different people we led a an atheist Australian to Jesus at the Garden Tomb where Jesus rose from the dead and it was it was an awesome trip but I'll tell you we ran into we stayed in an apartment for a while in in Jerusalem across the street from I think it was the great synagogue there right across the street from it and it was a kind of an apartment where you had your own bedroom but you shared a kitchen type thing but I guess kind of like a hostel or whatever but there was an 81 year old preacher from England and I'll never forget he said this to us and you know we were young at the time and he said he said boys I want to tell you something and he said I know you you already do this but he said this is the truth he said we have a little saying in England he said he said those who preach the gospel from door to door will eventually preach it from shore to shore and what he was saying to us is that you have to be willing and now what that said to me is if you can't go next door you know and that's what sherry said this last night is what reminded me of it made me think of it I was like you know if we can't go next door then why are we thinking about Africa you know but if we'll learn to go next door and we'll learn to go to our family and we'll share this gospel of Jesus at work and Kevin got to see and Patrick got to see that this is not just talk with me I'll preach the word and tell somebody about Jesus at work I've done it I've led people to Jesus on a bus on an airplane on a college campus on the street corner long before I ever stood in a pulpit to preach the word to me that's more important if if if if I'm not leading somebody to Jesus I really I'm not impressed with standing in a pulpit preaching too much you know what I mean except I know God wants us the other part of that is to feed God's people but God wants people to be saved but he wants us to do something he's given us some power to do something but let me tell you something you don't always feel that power you don't always have a feeling when it's time to step out there and do it as a matter of fact sometimes you feel more fear and weakness when it comes time to do that then you feel power
and that's why you don't move by what you feel you don't go by what you feel if you go by what you feel you will never do what I'm talking about I remember some of the guys that I first led to the Lord Craig Rivers and a guy named Billy McClendon that are now ministers assembly of God ministers and have been uh preaching the gospel now for 20 years but I remember leading when I led them to the Lord I remember the next thing God took me to Acts chapter two he said lead them in the baptism the Holy Spirit and they let them in the baptism Holy Spirit and the Lord said now I want you to take them out witnessing and I remember the first time I took them out witnessing to the mall down here in village mall in Auburn those two guys were shaking in their boots but they'll tell you to this day that overcoming that fear and obeying the word of God and stepping out to share the gospel with strangers in a mall changed their lives forever and those guys learned how to go to their neighbors and they learned how to go to their friends and they learned how to stand up for Jesus where they were and those guys ended up going overseas and they've led I don't know how many people they've led to Jesus because they overcame their fear they overcame the fear of man and worrying about what people think and said you know what Jesus said to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature and they said you know what we're going to do that and we don't care if the devil oppresses us or makes us sick or tries to attack us or or whatever he may try to do to stop us we're going to go and we're going to share the the gospel of Jesus the true gospel that demands repentance that demands change that says you got to give up something you got to turn from something you got to give up your life not this gospel says Jesus forgive you and just keep living the way you want to live but but people will rise up and preach that I'm going to tell you when you overcome your fear you're going to see yourself and I'll tell you this you're going to see yourself grow like you have never grown but there are some things that you have to do to prepare yourself of course you need to pray now of course everybody in here if you're born again you've got a testimony and that testimony is powerful you can tell somebody no way people can argue all day long but you say this is what Jesus did in my life you know I remember the guy on the job the other day the guy wanted to come and talk to me about Buddhism and we had a great conversation but I said you know what I said I was a a fornicator I was a drunkard I was really as a teenager almost an alcoholic and I said Jesus is what got me off of that stuff but your testimony but there's also some things that you need to know about how to give an answer you need to prepare yourself to give an answer and I want to show you some of those scriptures turn with me to the first first Peter chapter three just probably one of the most important scriptures and especially I want to say this because we live in a college town because we live in a college town we need to have answers for people
and two because of the internet and other things and just the time that we live in there's more doubt being put out there there's more attacks on the the scriptures and on our faith and all these things and I want to say you just you just need to prepare yourself you need to prepare yourself with some answers for people and it will shake them the guy that wanted to talk to me about Buddhism you know and how he was studying Buddhism and looking into that and I want to tell you I was able because I had studied some about Buddhism and was able to to take some things about proving the Bible's the word of God and some some basic apologetics and it got him to listen and then as I got toward the end of the conversation I shared about my testimony and I shared about some people getting delivered from demons and people that have been you know abused or molested when they were young and how they got delivered and how God healed them and I want to tell you mixing in an answer with the testimony with the power of God this guy went from wanting to talk about Buddhism to telling me that he wanted to come visit our church I just want to tell you that that is what we've got to get prepared we got to be able to share our testimony we got to be able to share some scriptures that means we're going to have to know some we're going to have to be able to give some answers to some things well let's look at this so you'll so you'll see it's not just me making this up but first peter I'll tell you all to turn I do it all the time I tell you to turn there and then I don't first peter chapter three somebody ought to know where we're going here verse 15 what's the scripture say here everybody there verse 15 but sanctify the lord god in your hearts and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear sanctify the lord in your hearts and be ready always is that what it says be ready to give an answer to every man that means the the one that needs some logical answers to some things but be ready to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear are you preparing yourself to give an answer one of the things I want to tell you well in the early days of when I was came back to the lord was walking with the lord one of the reasons I studied so much is because there was this deep passionate desire I wanted people to be saved and I knew that I had to give answers I needed to be able to prove what I was saying I needed to be able to direct them to scriptures and even when I didn't have a lot of scriptures memorized important things I would actually taken right in the front of my bible so I'd have them with me at all times so I could if if I needed it I could give somebody an answer but what I'm saying what motivated me to do that
was because I just didn't want I wanted to be a vehicle to help people get saved not to hinder them you know I wanted to do everything in my power so that's why I studied you know some of us like when we talk to y'all in the youth or in the youth meetings or whatever and maybe I talk to you in church I'm sitting here study your bible read your bible you know but the bottom line is why why should you do that well of course number one is so you can get to know God better but number two is so you can have an answer a biblical answer for every man that asks you a reason of the hope I want to show you another scripture turn to Proverbs 15 Proverbs 15 verse 28 now different translations may say this a little differently so I'm going to give you the Hebrew definition of a word in Proverbs y'all there yet Proverbs 15 Proverbs 15 verse 28 I'm reading from the King James version this is what it says here says the heart of the righteous studieth to answer but the mouth of the wicked pour forth evil things the heart of the righteous studieth to answer now some of your translations may say something about ways before it answers or thinks before it's answered anybody got that translation where it says that what does your say okay the wicked think before speaking I mean the the righteous think before speaking but let me let me give you the definition of this so that we're we're not confused about it at all sometimes translations you know there may be several words you actually need to define it but the word here when it says studieth or the word it might be meditate or whatever it is or ways or thinks about it but it is the word hog all and what it means here is to ponder or to imagine to meditate and I'm just going to give all of them then we'll talk about it but to mourn to speak to study to talk to murmur in pleasure or anger so what this is talking about here he said I think it's interesting to ponder and I think when it says the righteous studieth to answer that literally before time when you ponder something or you imagine something or you're thinking about it means you're you're pondering ahead of time you're thinking about it ahead of time you're meditating on it you're studying it ahead of time so that you can answer you don't just you don't just run out you prepare yourself and again the heart of the righteous think about this he's saying the heart motivation the one of the motivational factors of why you should study is that your heart cares for people you care you want to give
them the truth because you know only the truth will set them free so you fill your heart with the truth you study to give an answer you prepare yourself to preach the gospel now I'm not going to turn there but how everybody knows in athesian six we know about the armor of God right and we know about the girdle of truth and the breastplate of righteousness and the shield of faith and the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit but I think it's interesting we talk about it talks about either the shoes it says the preparation of the gospel of peace not just the gospel but the preparation of the gospel preparing yourself to preach the true gospel of Jesus preparing yourself to give an answer to every man that asks you a reason of the hope that is in you the preparation are you prepared and if not don't feel bad this isn't a message to make you feel bad this is a message to make you encourage yourself to encourage you rather to do this to get better prepared because I want to tell you in the days ahead I know God is going to move in this area but God's not going to move through people that just sit in church on Sundays right the lost are out there the backslidden are out there the deceived are out there we've got to go out into this world and share the true gospel with these people and I want to tell you when you share it when you when you take that step of faith when you overcome your fears when you've prepared your heart and studied and you've got some answers and in what's amazing you'll even feel more confident and when you get out there I'm gonna tell you when you step out and do it that's when power from the Holy Spirit is released sitting on the on the couch at home playing video games or watching the tv set is not a place where the Holy Spirit is going to give you power so you can be a witness you know what I'm saying you have to step out there and do something right and I'm going to tell you when you step out there you may be shaking and trembling and sweating but when you step out there you'll find yourself amazed that God will begin to remind you of what you studied he'll give you the moment what you need at that moment I sometimes I'm amazed I was amazed that day I was so amazed at what came out of my mouth that day with the the guy at work asking me the question about Buddhism and what we talked about that when he walked away I felt such the power from God that I just leaned up against the house and and broke down in tears because it's just an awesome thing when you you you take what you got and then God puts his power on it now listen even Paul and we might we might look at this in a second but even Paul didn't everybody listened to him didn't he didn't convert them immediately they didn't get converted we remember about Felix and Agrippa Felix trembled but still didn't repent Agrippa said you almost persuade me to be a Christian but the seeds are planted sometimes we just got to we've got to plant the seeds and even
if they tremble to walk like this guy we hadn't seen him at church yet he keeps saying he's coming he was the one that stayed after me that day about where we met hadn't seen him yet but the bottom line is the seed got planted and we're praying for him we're praying for Charlie Charlie may never set foot in this church but I'll tell you one thing the holy spirit is going to hunt Charlie down because I'm not going to quit praying for him amen I don't mind if planting a seed plant all the seeds you can but here's the good thing you if you plant enough and you speak enough you're going to see some people converted see that's what I told you God gave me that word for you last week you speak you're going to see you've planted a lot of seeds but this year you're going to see some reaping of some seeds it's powerful turn with me we're going to turn turn to first Corinthians chapter one real quick I want to dispel something this morning that I hear in Christianity all too often all these years first Corinthians chapter one y'all don't mind flipping to some scriptures do you let me tell you one of the greatest enemies out there to witnessing or getting you know getting yourself out there or even getting the church stirred up to go do some of this stuff there are some well-intentioned people you start talking about getting out in the public and preaching the gospel and witnessing the people and and and even being confronted as you as we'll say you have to be confronted sometimes you have to confront sin you know this the gospel we preach is not that just come to Jesus he'll make your life better no uh because they're if that's the way they come to Jesus they won't stay because when uh trials and tests come they won't stand so we've got to preach the gospel the gospel Jesus died to deal with sin in their life they have to see themselves as criminals against God they have to see themselves as lost before they can get saved and so sometimes you do have to confront sin we talked about that last week with Jesus with the woman at the well he talked to her about eternal life he talked about water living water you know that she could drink and not ever have to drink again so he told her about some good stuff but then he said go get your husband right because i don't have a husband he said yes that's true you've you've had five husbands and the one you have now was not yours who confronted that thing right Jesus wasn't confronting it to be mean he knew that that she had to be convicted of her sin to repent and truly come to him fully okay but i want you to see this one of the biggest hindrances
to preaching or getting Christians to step out of their fear and and do even if there has to be some of this confrontive stuff is you hear people all the time say this oh but you just need to live it in front of them they just need to see your lives they don't need a lot of talking you know just keep your mouth shut you know what that's a given my god if you've been a christian for any amount of time and you don't know you're supposed to live a godly life in front of the world then we have really not been preaching the truth right yes you're supposed to live but listen first corinthians 1 verse 18 what does it say this you have to open your mouth and be bold because god has chosen something that seems foolish to save people verse 18 he says for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but unto us which are saved it is the power of god and look down at verse 21 for after that in the wisdom of god the world by wisdom knew not god it pleased god by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe the foolishness of preaching isn't it something that yes god wants you to live a good example in a godly life in front of people in the world and and even within the church but the bottom line is god has chosen the foolishness of preaching to save people it's something about words it's something about the power of words that will prick and penetrate the heart i remember the guy that witnessed to me when when i was worried this christian guy spirit-filled guy and i remember the words that he spoke that stuck in my heart like an arrow we were talking and he had talked about jesus and he had he'd given me a tape to listen to on the the satanic mess and in the rock music i was so addicted to back then and it was starting to open my eyes to some things but i remember well i tell you i loved my beer i loved it i did man i love to drink and i could put it away but i remember one day he he he knew that i drank and i remember these words ate at me but he asked simple question he said why do you drink and for some reason that's stuck in my heart it would not leave me to the point i kind of got angry at him he said i just like it but on the inside of me you know what the holy spirit took those words and i heard this other voice inside of me go why do you drink and then the holy spirit goes began to convict me about no drunkards entering the kingdom of heaven and those words stayed with me and i remember i was under conviction for about three weeks words are powerful you have to speak words
i remember going to school i remember you know i was born again when i was 11 years old and then all the mess that happened in my family and we stopped going to church and i i totally fell away from god but i remember that seven-year period i got to thinking about from the time i was about 12 until the time i was 19 when i came back to the lord i thought about that seven-year period i thought about my days at opelika high school and then at jeff davis high school in montgomery and then when i went down to troy and i remember thinking in seven years i was around some christians matter of fact one girl i kind of dated for a little while and she was i knew she was a christian and i knew she wasn't like the other girls i had dated right but i just thought no she's kind of weird or something but she never opened her mouth and said dean you are lost you're away from god you need to turn from your sin and give your life to jesus and i think about in that seven-year period no one ever said or even presented this simple gospel message to me to say hey you need to wake up you are not okay god is not happy with your life you need to turn from your sin and give jesus your whole life if the first person i think about this the first person that spoke to me the truth that confronted my sin that made me deal with it the first person in seven years it did that i turned and gave my life back to the lord and and and think about you want to talk about fruit think about that guy the fruit of me coming back to the lord how many people i've seen get saved over the years and i'm just sitting here thinking wow somebody finally opened their mouth and confronted my sin and yeah he confronted it and it made me a little angry at him but it was in a loving way it was in a good way he i could tell he was concerned about me but he didn't just say jesus loves you i've seen those signs they don't work you know it says in in proverbs 16 verses it says by the fear of the lord men depart from evil right i needed somebody to shake me a little bit and so i want to encourage you you've got to open your mouth and sometimes it's not pleasant to the other person you know the homosexual does not want you to tell that him that homosexuals don't go to heaven but that's what the word says but i've talked to some homosexuals i say look man don't don't get all upset about that i said i don't look at you any different as the little girl or the guy that's
that's sleeping with a boyfriend or girlfriend every weekend they're in sin just like you're in sin but jesus died to wash that away you just got to give it up you give it up he'll give you power they don't like it but the truth see i'm telling you why you want to know why america's in such the the mess that it's in right now it's because for the last 20 years we've had 20 years of seeker sensitive watered down preaching of the gospel that offers forgiveness but does not preach repentance it doesn't preach total surrender to the will of god you can just add jesus to every other idol you got no true christianity demands you give up the world you give up your sin you turn from it you give up your own plans you give up your own life and i will tell you this we may get uh you may have a smaller church but you'll have true converts you'll have somebody that because they were truly converted to jesus can truly convert somebody else right i want to share this scripture this is one of my favorites when it comes to evangelism and i want you to i want you to look at this jude the little book of jude right by revelation if you don't know next to the last book now see this is and this is something i see i've preached on college campuses all over the united states i've done one-on-one witnessing open air i've seen one time we were at we were at auburn and this was back in the 90s sometime in january it was about 30 degrees outside it was a drizzling rain we were preaching the word out there and about 300 students gathered around and stood there for six hours in the drizzling rain in the cold and when the campus police came up to make us leave they started chanting no no no leave them alone leave them alone and i mean and they were arguing with us you know but they wanted to hear and i'm just sitting here going you know this is what i see in the days ahead there's confrontation that needs to take place and i don't mind a good debate a good debate with somebody i can have a heated debate with somebody doesn't mean i hate them doesn't mean i'm angry at them heated debate's good sometimes right paul said he preached in some places with great contention right riot or revival they used to say right
that's what paul got riot or revival all right but this verse is probably the most powerful when it comes to this this is what it jude said of course he's talking about we're going to back up because we've been talking about being led by the spirit but he talks about praying in the holy ghost praying in tongues and and we talk about being led by the spirit he says but ye beloved verse 20 but ye beloved building up yourselves on your most holy faith praying in the holy ghost keep yourselves in the love of god looking for the mercy of our lord jesus christ unto eternal life and of some have compassion making a difference and others save with fear pulling them out of the fire hating even the garment spotted by the flesh boy this is what is missing in the church right now in america more than i've ever seen in my my 22 years of being a christian now is this balance we want to talk about love all the time listen there are some that we need to show great compassion they've been wounded they've been abused they've been molested they've been raped they've been they've been tortured there there are people out there that have been so hurt and we we've got to have enough discernment to know when we need to be gentle but we've got to have enough boldness and enough strength to not cower in fear and only try to preach the love of god but yet confront the things that will produce the fear of god in people's lives and this word here in the in the greek there for fear is the greek word phobos which doesn't mean reverential all it means fear and terror i've i've heard the fear of god so watered down and played down by the church i can't stand it no you need to tremble you know here's a beautiful thing i know he's my father right but he's also my judge right and i've shared this before but i'm going to share it again you know what let's say that my natural father who loves me and i have a good relationship with him but let's just say that he's the only judge in the land and i decide that i'm going to go out and be a serial killer right and they got me on videotape well let me tell you something and i don't choose to repent and i want to live like that and i just want to go kill everybody i can right well when they bring me before my father who is also the judge he is going to have to deal with what i have chosen to do well how i have chosen to live and the fear and trembling of god is not that he doesn't love you and will forgive you but this thing of if i don't repent if i choose to live a lifestyle that is clearly against his will and his word then one day i will stand before him as a terrifying judge and that's the reality
on that day he can be your father and say come on in son or daughter or on that day he can be the terrifying judge it has to say depart from me he cursed in the everlasting fire see i love god i look i love what jean says about faith his definition of faith actually i found i found the notes in one of my bible from like years ago where i had that written down from you i remember it i think it's in that other little bible but faith just acting like god told you the truth right just acting like god told you the truth well you know what the fear of god is simple simply this it's that believing that god meant what he said about sin and judgment you know when paul was before felix when paul was before felix this is what's interesting and we're going to get into this in the next week or two but when paul was before felix witnessing to an unsaved ungodly wicked man he said he did several things it said he reasoned of righteousness of temperance and judgment to come he didn't just say jesus loves you come to my church that was not paul's witnessing method boy i would love to have that sermon written down when you have to have all of that reasoned of righteousness i have an idea that that he had to reason with felix that you know all men know they're evil their conscience tells them so that no good deeds does away with that guilt and so he reasoned of righteousness that only righteousness can be found in jesus and then he reasoned of temperance and he reasoned with felix of why you should live a life of self-control not only so you can have a life worth living in this life but that god demands a life of self-control you can't just let the flesh run wild so paul preached that to him temperance self-control and then paul must have preached on hell because he said he talked about judgment to come the day god will judge man for every d done in the body so paul preached the full gospel to felix and it says there and this is in acts 24 if you want to look it up later but it says there that felix trembled paul's message to felix produced the fear of god which paul knew was probably the only one thing one of the only things that would eventually get that man saved on some as jude said have compassion making a difference
others save with fear pulling them out of the fire do you know some people already have one foot in hell matter of fact most people in the world and a lot of them in church have one foot in hell i remember one time i was preaching to a group in montgomery at an assembly of god church and i was preaching to him and i actually saw a vision an open vision of flames coming up out of the floor under a few people and the and actually the one of them that it was mainly around i knew was living in fornication pulling them out of the fire if the fornicator if the fornication is going to lead somebody to hell and the bible says it we went through that a few weeks ago where it says that no fornicator is going to go to inherit the kingdom of god listen if that's what's in his way that's what i've got to address but if you got some little girl over here that's been raped or molested or abused you have got to know how to love her and and encourage her and bring healing to her and and she doesn't need to be you know beaten over the head but listen some people do need to be beaten over the head a little bit i did i know i did how many of you here needed that when you to come to the lord yeah exactly and needed a little slap a little wake up god is a judge right but we're going to learn we're going to learn in the days ahead how to share a balanced presentation of the gospel how to give some basic answers to some questions how to prove the bible is the word of god i know i've mentioned some of these things but we're going to get into more detail some facts you need to remember just like one one i've memorized a simple fact i've memorized you know we one of the proofs of the bibles that you know the prophecy in the scripture and how the you know the old testament we know was finished by 450 for at least by 400 bc the old testament canon but just in case some people out there don't want to believe that we have a non-christian historical issue where it told me the second philadelphia's king of egypt in 250 to 248 bc had the old testament hebrew scriptures translated into greek which is called the substituent version and he did that so he could put it in his big fancy library in alexandria this is documented historical facts so we know that we had the old testament if you have a translation in 250 bc you had to have it completed before 250 bc right and then you can go and you go look at all these prophecies psalm 22 and isaiah 53 and isaiah 9 and daniel and you could just go down through all of that stuff and go there's no and you can prove it
and you see there's no religious writing there's no religious writing ever been done that has all of these prophecies so clearly fulfilled over here and you can start proving stuff and look i just memorized one little fact right to help me prove a point and if i can do it you can do it and let's pray father in heaven we thank you for this day we thank you lord for what you're doing lord what you're doing and and lord we just pray for an anointing and grace to help us lord begin to present a balanced message of the gospel of jesus of repentance of salvation of the cross to people around us to open our mouths and to overcome fear to overcome intimidation to overcome worrying about what people think so that we can lead somebody to jesus lord even if they get mad at us first or i remember many of my friends and even some of my family members got mad at me before they gave their lives to the lord the lord i thank you that they're saved now some of them filled with the whole spirit some of them preaching the gospel some of them pastors just fear this woman that they begin to act like it is jesus