Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
fire, I desire anything that isn't my own reason, because I want to sing God. Lord I know there's there's a power and a glory Lord to bring conviction, to melt sinners. Lord there's so many people lost, so many people lost, so many people blinded, so many people deceived by dead religion, deceived by false religions, deceived by Christianity even, deceived by many in the Christian church. Lord we just pray we need your presence, we need your glory, we need you Lord to come and convict us of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment to come. We need you to awaken hearts to the truth of the gospel Lord. Not another Jesus, not another spirit, not another gospel, but to the true gospel of Jesus Christ. It's not watered down, the it's not compromised. Oh Jesus we need your holy presence to come. Lord you did it with Charles Finney, you did it in Wales, you did it in the Hebrides, you did it before Lord. You can descend from heaven, your glory can descend, you can rend the heavens and come down and cause the heathen to tremble at your presence. Oh Lord do it again, do it again in our day, in our time. We're like the prophet prayed in wrath, remember mercy. Will you not revive us again that your people may rejoice in you Lord? That's the word. Lord the desperate cries Lord stir your people to have desperate cries for you, desperate, desperate longing, desperate hunger, desperate prayers, broken hearts for people lost and going to hell, broken hearts for people suffering that we may get a hold of you Lord and then take that anointing and that glory and that truth into the streets, into homes, to our neighbors, our classmates, our co-workers, our family members, Jesus. Praise your holy name, praise your holy name. Just worship him
for me, just pray everybody, just lift up your voice. Pray for God to come and visit this city. Go on and pray, go on and lift up your voices and pray and ask God to visit, visit this city and visit your neighbors and visit people in your school and visit people around you by you speaking the truth and the anointing, being all that truth or by you laying hands on them and them being being healed or being touched by the presence of God. Oh God we've had enough, we've had enough deception, we've had enough lukewarm Christianity, we haven't had enough weak form of Christianity without the power, the power to convict, the power to draw, the power to save and get people born again, the power to heal and deliver, the great and notable miracles Lord. God not just healing a headache Lord but Lord the crippled walking and the blind seeing and the deaf hearing God so that they know that the Jesus we preach is the Jesus of the Bible and the Jesus who rose from the dead. Lord God we pray visit Auburn, visit Opelika, visit Alabama, visit the United States again. God we don't deserve it Lord we don't do that we have squandered so much Lord we have squandered it through our lust, our sexual sin, our abortions, where we have squandered it through through our rebellion and our disobedience. We don't deserve anything. God forgive our sins forgive the sins of our forefathers on this land right here where we stand the land of Auburn Alabama forgive the sins that have gone on on that campus for decades and decades the sins of fornication and pornography and adultery and even rape and a lot of date rapes Lord just the untold sin that has defiled this land. Oh God forgive us forgive us Lord forgive our sins forgive the sins of Auburn Alabama. Our sins cause you to hide your face but you said Lord if your people would repent and turn from their wicked ways you would heal the land heal the land father heal the land so the land doesn't spit us out into hell heal the land Lord Jesus Jesus touches break our hearts Lord break our hearts now I just feel like I'm supposed to say something here to some of you this may not be for all of you but for some of you stop thinking that God will not use you stop thinking that you're not good enough or you're not strong enough or you don't know enough
or you're not good enough stop it I think God did did almost more with me when I was a baby Christian than even now you know why because I didn't let stupid stuff like I didn't know enough I wasn't good enough it was all fresh to me I believe the blood of Jesus had washed my sins away and they were gone so I wouldn't walk it around like I wasn't good enough and I didn't know any better than to read the Bible and believe that if I laid my hands on somebody they'd be healed or that any miracle in the Bible was possible through me or that if Jesus said that cast out demons I could do it and I mean I saw the greatest miracles in the ministry that I've seen when I was 21 22 years old because my head when getting in the way stop it just stop it and start listen the anointing is here the presence of God is here you guys have done some things you've gotten some things you know since we've been meeting in this church I know God's cleaned out some things out of your life and yes I know there's still work to be done but you know what you can soak in the anointing you can receive the baptism the Holy Spirit you can have hands laid on you and receive impartation for the gifts and things but you have got to give it out to somebody you have got to open your mouth and start giving it out boldly you open your mouth you find somebody go lay hands on them believing they're gonna be healed it doesn't matter if they are not that's between them and God after that but you did what you're supposed to do you believe I love what David Hogan said you know people talk about how they've had 400 people or so raised from the dead down there in his ministry in Mexico he said but what people don't know is we prayed for three four thousand dead bodies you know the results are in the hand of God he told us to believe and to do it right so let's do it man I wasn't a pastor of a church or or even even in full-time ministry when I would be in my prayer closet I remember when I was like 20 years old in my prayer closet praying and and my dad was at work at the VA Hospital in in Montgomery and one of his co-workers a woman had breast cancer and they had said she was gonna die and I'd had never met the woman my dad just told me and I was praying and I wasn't even praying for her but in a vision I saw her and I saw a demon hanging on
to her side right here and actually I didn't even know it was breast cancer I just knew it was cancer he told me later it was breast cancer but I remember in this vision while I'm in prayer with my eyes closed it was a closed vision I could see it my mind though and I could see this little demon hanging on her side and all I did was say in the name of Jesus I command you demon to lose her and go from her in Jesus name and in this vision I saw this demon drop off onto the floor and run away from her you know what I did I got on the phone I called my dad and I didn't even know her name I said you know the lady you told me about as breast cancer he said yeah or cancer I said what is it he goes it's breast cancer I said well I told him just what I told you I said tell her what I just told you and to believe she is healed do you know that she went back to the doctor and not a trace of cancer was in her body and I'm just saying that I was 20 years old I had just gotten back saved and filled with the Holy Ghost at 19 years old the word works you guys for anybody I didn't have it all together I didn't know what I know now I hadn't been through a lot of stuff but the Word of God is still true amen hallelujah y'all can be seated that that was just extra I guess I guess I need my Bible huh I guess I'm just gonna continue with this I I really wasn't sure this morning of just seeking God about what he wanted me to share with you I'm excited about the presence presence of God and what I believe God's gonna do around here take your Bible I want you to turn with me go to let's go to first Thessalonians first first Thessalonians chapter 1 I'm just gonna look at some things I want to talk about the power of God a little bit and some of the things that the power of God is connected to some of the safeguards because how many of you know that there's miracles on both sides of the spiritual fence Satan and his crew can do supernatural things supernatural manifestations and of course we know God does and we got to know the difference between the two and Jesus one of the things he said in the last days in Matthew 24 he said there'll be many false prophets would rise and deceive many he said even some of them would show great signs and wonders even so and so much that if it were possible they would deceive the very elect so these false prophets some of these false prophets and some of these these
supernatural things are not out there like in Mormons or Jehovah witnesses these false prophets to be deceived the very elect would have to be among us Pentecostals and Charismatics pretty much where they would be received and he said they would come in my name Jesus said in Matthew 24 he said they come in my name saying I'm a servant of Jesus right I serve Jesus Christ we've got to know the difference between the false and the true and I'm gonna give you some things this morning but one of the things that I'm gonna get on here in a minute is just the connection between the gospel the pure gospel and the power of God the word and the power and another thing is purity and power purity and power if we don't bring these things together we open ourselves up to deceiving spirits we open ourselves up to another spirit and we can and in any believer can go from operating in the Holy Spirit one minute and operate in a demon spirit if you don't believe that I mean we look at we look at King Saul who was anointed by the Holy Ghost we see that in 1st Samuel 10 anointed by the Holy Spirit it says the Spirit of God came on him so strong that he became another man that God gave him another heart and then all of a sudden Saul starts prophesying operating in the gifts and so much so that the people were saying is Saul also among the prophets I mean it was just blowing people's mind what the Spirit of God was doing in Saul but then all of a sudden Saul becomes disobedient to God he starts disobeying God in little things stepping over into realms of trying to be a priest when he was supposed to be just a king and a prophet stepping over and God telling him to do something and he halfway did it this obedience and then Samuel has to tell him it's rebellion it's witchcraft you're letting things in then of course when David comes along he gets jealous of David and it says from that point on when God rejected him it says the Spirit left Saul this is what's dangerous the Spirit left Saul and an evil spirit came and troubled him and then he started trying to kill David and even tried to kill his own son and then all of a sudden you see that David would come he would get some you know he got David to come play the harp because the anointing was on David for worship so he got David to play the harp and the Spirit would leave him but then that evil spirit would come back and then later you would see him chasing David and fall on the ground and start prophesying moving in the gift now one minute he's throwing javelins inspired by the devil the next minute he's prophesying now how would we know to be aware of Saul and I'm not talking about just if we were there in which didn't throw a javelin at David or Jonathan then we would probably go home maybe something's wrong with this guy but
what if we didn't see that how would we know well we would need to know where Saul was on some of his character issues maybe we could find out a few things and find out you know is Saul living a pure life is his heart pure if the heart's not pure the heart's not pure and there's up and there's issues and they're seeing in the heart it can open the door to flow into a demon spirit folks I'll tell you at 22 years now almost 23 years of being in the charismatic and Pentecostal church world I have seen some people who flowed in the Holy Ghost one minute transferring demons to people the next and I've seen this I've seen prophets come in there at one time had moved in the power of God come in and and had gotten into a lust thing or got into a sexual thing and come into a church and preach and and their preaching was fine the word was fine but then all of a sudden everybody in the church after they left had started having lust problems and it's something that Jeremiah said about the prophets of the land at that time he said there were so many of them that that profane is our uncleanness went for and this is what I'm talking about we got to have a the purity and the power we got to have the doctrine correct because let me let me just say this the purpose one of the main purposes besides God's compassion toward hurting people that are sick and suffering the main reason that Jesus does miracles or heals people is to draw attention to the message because it is the message or the doctrine that will save them you know you can get somebody healed and they could still die and go to hell just remember this Jesus is always more concerned with eternity than temporary he will minister to people in temporary or temporal things but he is always the goal of his life is always to get people's eternity this is why I like excuse me this is why you know sometimes we you know we were praying for this little boy Benny I just found out today you know now he's never come to our church and I don't even know what church he goes to I don't know what kind of faith or lack of faith or whatever his parents may have or not have I don't know anything about them but we were praying for him for a distance I did try to get them through some other people to come to church and have a monointed with oil and prayer over the little boy he's 13 years old and had cancer and you know he died and you sit there and go well you know what now I don't know nobody really knows the age of accountability for each individual you
know but I know that that boy is with Jesus now you can sit back and you go why didn't Jesus heal him and yet I've seen other other people healed of cancer oh I don't know maybe Jesus was looking down and saw the choices that he would make as he became a teenager and a young man maybe he said you know what I hear the prayers of this little church over here but the best thing for him now is no okay remember it's in God's hands ultimately it's in God's hands and it's in our job now sometimes I want to say this Jesus did say people didn't get healed because of a lack of faith they did not believe it all right that can block miracles from flowing but still that's not always the case okay it is a mystery sometimes well the Apostle Paul and I talked about this a little last week the Apostle Paul could tell a crippled man to get up and walk he himself there was some infirmity that he was not healed of that caused people to stumble sometimes about him I mean this is just the kingdom out Smith Wigglesworth is one of the greatest healing evangelists and ministers of you know the 1900s had stuff happened that that very few ministers see happened powerful I mean he was so the anointing was so strong on him that literally he was one man that I have heard of it in my study of revival history that when he came to San Francisco back in I think 1947 that they actually laid people in the streets so his shadow would pass over them in healing okay this man had the healing power of God on his life but for six years of his life as he was ministering to thousands he had kidney stones it was nearly bleeding to death and would would finish ministering to people and I mean seeing people raised from the dead and seeing cancers fall off people in tumors being laying in the in the floor and he would go back after the service and and and his underwear be covered in blood and I'm just saying that why why I don't know why sometimes you know I like what Steve Hill said a few weeks ago sometimes we go through stuff right sometimes the people have to go through stuff but that doesn't mean that God's Word is not true that we're not supposed to believe that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday today and forever that he still saves heals delivers from demons and all that and it's clearly in the word but I want to show you some of the connections here just to show you that Paul talked about preaching the word not just with words only but with power first Thessalonians chapter one let's just start reading it verse one Paul in Sylvanas and Timothy unto the church of the Thessalonians which is in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ we give thanks to God always for you all making mention of you in our prayers remembering without ceasing your work
of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the sight of God and our Father knowing brethren beloved your election of God for our gospel came not unto you in word only but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance as you know what manner of men we were among you and you became followers of us and of the Lord having received the word in much affliction with joy of the Holy Ghost so that you were examples to them to all that believe in Macedonia and a cave now I'm not gonna keep reading but he goes on down to say hey you guys the whole the gospel came to you not only in word but also in power I like what he says here in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance the word assurance there means conviction being fully persuaded okay so he says when we came to you we preach the true word and then it was confirmed by the power of God things happening miracles happening and by the Holy Spirit and I would say that that would mean manifestations of the Holy Spirit maybe the gifts of prophecy tongues interpretation those things happening so he says the word came with power with the Holy Ghost and with much assurance and then he talked about they knew what kind of men they were and look at verse 9 real quick he says he talks about how them their ministry when they came into to the Thessalonians that what it produced in them this gospel of the power and the Holy Ghost and with much conviction he says for they themselves show us what manner of entering in we had unto you how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and the true God and to wait for his son from heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come so he said the gospel that we came in and preached to you that came with power and with much assurance much conviction we saw the signs and wonders this power came in but but the fruit of it oh here we go the fruit of it you turn from your idolatry you turn from your sins you made Jesus Lord willing even he goes on to talk about in chapter 2 willing even to suffer persecution okay so he talks about the gospel the kind of fruit that aboard let me say this the sign of any true move of God the sign of any true revival the sign of anything that's true true power of God moving will be people truly repenting truly turning to holiness there will be a purity there there'll be a purity from the leadership and and who and the people ministering and trying to touch the people and there'll be a purity when people there'll be a turning of the people to purity to holiness to God
let's go to Hebrews real quick y'all with me on that see we can't have a gospel that's just word only but we got to have word right somebody say this word and power purity and power gotta have all right where'd I tell you to turn to Hebrews 1 I'm thinking Hebrews chapter 1 let's look at this I'm sorry chapter 2 now he's talking about the the gospel here chapter 2 verse 1 he says therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip for if the words spoken by angels was steadfast in every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his will so he saying here we ought to really give a heed to what we've heard don't let anything slip from the gospel boy has some things slip from the gospel I mean you know we got churches all over the place that'll tell you Jesus will forgive you but they never say you have to repent Jesus loves you right where you are but you don't have to change anything you don't have to turn from anything it's amazing there are things we've let slip from the gospel right he says don't let anything slip for the word spoken is steadfast and he says how shall we escape if we neglect this great salvation but he says but God came forth with that that when they were preaching then bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with diverse miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost that right there is what I'm talking about it's both turn to 1st Corinthians 1st Corinthians chapter 2 and this is probably some stuff that you guys have heard and been thinking about but I'm going to really dial in on this purity thing the connection 1st Corinthians chapter 2 this is good stuff somebody say good stuff 1st Corinthians there is really a concern on my heart about the balance between sound doctrine and moving in the in the power in the gifts we've got to have both there is I almost say there's that
there's some different camps in the charismatic Pentecostal world there's there's the charismatic Pentecostal world that's almost become Baptist Methodist and really don't operate in the gifts anymore they only you know it says they speak in tongues on the their doctrinal statements but they really don't practice it the gifts don't operate in their services their Pentecostals who've become seeker-friendly and and and quench the Holy Spirit in their services and so we've got that group then we got the Pentecostals and Charismatics who pretty much anything that happens supernatural they let it go I mean we know a church over in Georgia that's got a guy that that's really disrupting every worship service shaking and flinging himself all over the the crowd and everything and I mean to the point that he has to have a couple of people holding and I'm sitting here and listen I don't have a problem I've been in meetings where people have the power of God to know they shake and fall and and I don't have any problem with that tongues none of it scares me or freaks me out but there is you know getting out of order and this guy has pretty much single-handedly for 10 years they haven't dealt with this guy and this guy is nearly single-handedly emptied out that church okay so we've got the charismatic camp that pretty much lets anything go doesn't discern anything doesn't correct a tongue or a prophecy does it they don't correct a prophet that might miss it 10 million times you know they don't they don't correct anything they don't call anything down and they just let anything go and then then demon spirits are working in those churches like crazy anybody can lay hands on anybody I mean just no order no discernment no leadership no control I mean these are things that destroyed the Azusa Street revival ended early because the spiritist and the mediums and the witches came in and they started operating in their gifts their demonic gifts and here's what's so sad the leadership Seymour and the others discerned it but didn't stop them because they had this mentality I don't want to quench what the Holy Spirit might be doing over here and if I stop them we might discourage it and they let it go on in this spirit of mixture was there and God left God will stay for a little while when everything's mixed up but not forever and so anyway let's go back to this first Corinthians chapter 2 oh and let me say this I guess I ought to say the third camp there's the third camp of the Pentecostals and Charismatics and I'll say this there's the camp that want they want everything that God wants to do they don't care shaking falling tongues man you know manifestations fine of the
Holy Spirit but we're gonna stick to the Word of God on and we're gonna discern whether it's the Holy Spirit or not and if it's not we're gonna stop it or cast the demon out of somebody or whatever it takes but there's got to be an emphasis on an equal emphasis on the Word and the Spirit on purity of life and the moving of the spirit and where that is and let me say that where that is there will be a pure atmosphere that's one of the reasons I so enjoyed the Brownsville revival because I'd seen what I call charismatic chaos Charismaniacs okay Charismaniacs and then Pentecostal pep rallies we had all these names we named them Pentecostal pep rallies you know what a Pentecostal pep rally is that's where everybody's jumping up and down hooping and hollering and and and it looks like something's going on but the Spirit of God's really not on it they've just learned how to act Pentecostal okay that's foolishness and it turns people off you know here's the thing there's real and if there's real I want that and if the real is not there I'm not gonna make up stuff right we don't have time for that but then let's the Pentecostal pep rides right and you know what sometimes you know and I remember when the Toronto you know Toronto move came through I don't know that I really call Toronto a revival was more of a movement it was a move of the spirit but Toronto didn't they didn't quite deal with some problems you know frankly when you got people barking like dogs on their hands and knees there's a problem okay exactly I don't care if they did it in some meeting in Kentucky long time ago you get what I'm saying there's some there's some weird stuff that we just need to go to the word and there's leaders and pastors that are older say hey you know we're not gonna quench the Holy Spirit but this is not God we're not doing this shut it down or move out you know and Brownsville kept you know I mean people would shake I mean intercession there'd be times moaning and groaning you know intercession would come into that place Steve Hill we just recently listened to a message I gotta share this just to give you an idea Steve Hill at the Brownsville revival one time he you know he'd seen people shaking he'd seen people speaking in tongues the moaning group people weeping falling on the floor and weeping and I mean he'd been in the Argentine revival for years but he said he was up on the platform and one of the services and and who knows I mean I was there so many nights but I don't remember this but he said that there were these teenagers came in right guess a youth group and they were sitting
near the front on the on the left side if you're facing the podium he said they were sitting over there probably you know 10 or 15 of them and he said all of a sudden during worship they start moaning and groaning see that's the Holy Spirit now and not always but I mean the Holy Spirit will come on people sometime in the spirit of intercession where they're they step in the gap and it says that they are making groans that are unutterable I mean they're praying with a burden from God that's that's beyond this world okay and he said these kids these teenagers started you know moaning and groaning and he was like I don't want that I'm not in the mood for moaning and groaning you know he said I want to hear I want to hear the worship and you know he told an usher to go move them out of the service into another room they're going he said if they're gonna get touched let them get touched back room somewhere now this is the evangelist of the revival right and he said as the usher got over there to move the kids out God spoke to him and said don't touch the kids oh my he said oh he realized so he sent another usher over there to try to stop him but he ran over there now listen this this is a this will freak you out but he said he went over there now the power of God was on these kids and he went over there and he said before he could get when he walked up to him he said the power of God picked him up and threw him up against the wall it didn't hurt him but picked him up to him because he said he got back up picked him up threw him back up against the wall he said the ushers were freaking out okay and then he said in the spirit of God told him put the kids on the platform this is at the Brownsville arrived we're talking about thousands of people there right on television the whole world to see put these kids shaking moaning and groaning put them on the platform he took those kids up there on the plate he said nobody said a word he said the moment those kids hit the platform the power of God fell in that place and sinners fell under conviction the loss fell under conviction and ran out of their seats to the altar no altar call was given people weeping at the altar getting sent out of their life and one boy in that little group was so under the power he was almost out of it Steve said carry him through the balcony two ushers carried him through the balcony and then the balcony had stairs that went up this side and the balcony was up there they had stairs that came down he flushed out every sinner that was in the balcony just flushed them out they ran down the other stairs and got to the altar and people got saved and they didn't even preach that night I believe I'm just saying that I believe in that stuff I've seen it with my own eyes but there's stuff that's out of order to their stuff that's not pure and we got a discern let's go let's read this just to let you know hey I'm with it
here listen what Paul said first Corinthians 2 he said my brother when I came to you came not with the excellency of speech or of wisdom declaring unto you the testimony of God for I determined not to know anything among you saved Jesus Christ and him crucified and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling and my speech and my preaching was not with the enticing words of man's wisdom but in the demonstration of the spirit and of power that your face should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God Wow now let's take it to the balance of what I'm talking about almost getting ahead of myself but go to first I'm sorry go to 2nd Timothy no I'm sorry 1st Timothy 1st Timothy chapter 4 y'all okay with this this morning I hadn't even preaching a long time yet I just think this is important because we're about to step out listen we're about to step out into a realm I believe where God's gonna start doing some stuff Sunday night last Sunday night we had a prayer meeting and it freaks some of you out because you've never seen that before but in our prayer meetings lately the Spirit of God's been coming in there people have been weeping really haven't I mean God's really moving with some of the prayer meeting some of the best prayer meetings that I've been in have been in the last few weeks here and people have been weeping and truly concerned for the lost in the city and I've just been amazed praying for each other with with heartfelt prayers I mean it's just been good people praying in tongues interpretation of tongues the gifts flowing and then last week we had something a little different power God hit one brother and he was over there shaking shaking violently and trying to pray at the same time it was the power of God I'm gonna take power God hit him and he was shaking now if y'all don't believe this about this stuff this is in the work power of God hit Daniel and the men around him and it says a great quaking shaking came over there's other scriptures about that sometimes the human body cannot take what God is good is doing all right and it's good some of us need to be knocked around a little bit and we might act right right but I want you to see Paul didn't have a problem with this you know when Paul the Bible says now see some of your translations if you don't have a King James or New King James or the text that it's that that one comes from when in Acts 9 when it says that Paul when Jesus the glory appeared from heaven and not Paul to the ground it says that he was there astonished and trembling shaking
okay that wasn't from normal just you know he was cold or something all right the power of God was there and he was shaking trembling violently all right and I've had this happen to me listen all this stuff I'm telling you about I've had the shaking hit me I've had the power of God hit me I remember in August August 9 1997 I went to a Brownsville service one of the most powerful services I ever been in in my life the Holy Ghost hit me I was bent over groaning and weeping uncontrollably when I got home that evening we had a few people at my house and I just shared what happened to me the power of God came in the room I prayed for everybody in the room they hit the floor well no I'll tell you what before that that's right I was sitting on the couch telling them what happened the Holy Spirit hit me I fell I just rolled over fell in the floor and grown and wept in the Holy Spirit for about 20 minutes I know it was freaking them out but it was the Holy Spirit I've been around him enough to know the difference between him and the Dean okay and I got up from there I just weeping for God to move for people that I knew that weren't that were not saved and man when I got up I prayed for everybody in the room boom boom boom power of God just hit in the floor I so I'm not I'm not talking about stuff I don't know anything about what I'm getting now I love how there are preachers out there aren't even baptized the Holy Spirit don't even speak in tongues and yet want to tell us how to operate in the gifts or how it should work no be quiet you know it's like like a auto you know like me trying to tell auto mechanic how to fix a car I don't know anything about I'm not gonna tell you how to try to fix the car right look at what he said Timothy here this is important we're gonna start from verse one and we're gonna read a good bit of this and we might comment on a little bit but the importance between doctrine and dealing with the deceiving spirits that are the character of this age did I mean this is where we are and Paul said in the latter days here verse 1 1st Timothy 4 verse 1 now the spirit speaks expressly that in the latter days some shall depart from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils speaking lies in hypocrisy having their conscience seared with a hot iron forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving with them that believe and know the truth for every creature of God is good and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving for it is sanctified by the Word of God in prayer and then he goes on to say he says if you and speaking to a young man now in the ministry he says if you put the brotherhood in remembrance of these things you will be a good minister of Jesus Christ nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine where until you have attained but refused profane and old wives fables but
exercise yourself rather to godliness what is godliness somebody holiness purity being like God yeah all those things very good he says but exercise yourself rather than God for bodily exercise profit little but godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of life that now is and that which is it to come so what is Paul emphasizing to this young man godliness right he's emphasizing godliness as he's telling me all right now let's keep going he says this is a faithful saying and worthy of all exception for therefore we both labor and suffer reproach because we trust in the living God who is the Savior of all men especially those that believe these things command and teach let no man despise your youth but be thou an example of the believers in word what you preach and say that is the word logos there in conversation which properly translated would be your behavior in charity or love for the brethren and I love this next one in spirit oh meaning that smallest meaning your spirit what do you have in your spirit the anointing the Holy Spirit or have you opened the doors through sin and compromise to demon spirits remember me earlier talking about believers can open the door spirits can come in and on them and they can transfer those things some of the worst problems I've had is believers late some believer laying hands on me who had junk in their lives and the demons that jumped on me after they did all right serious stuff so he says being what an example of leaves in word in behavior in love in spiritual matters in the spirit realm in faith and impurity then he says till I come give attendance to reading to exhortation and to doctrine now this is very important here before he ever talks about the gifts that he wanted Timothy to operate in he talks about give yourself son to reading and he was talking about the word the Bible to exhortation that means the word exhortation there in the Greek means to call people near to Christ it doesn't just mean to encourage it means to call near to Christ right so give yourself to reading the word to calling people near to Christ Jesus and to doctrine correct doctrine listen folks we got a little bit too passive a passive out here the church world passivity about theology there is correct theology and there is incorrect theology okay there is correct doctrine which you doctrine just simply means a systematic teaching where you break it down from beginning to end everything in
the scripture about a subject to where it's pretty much exhausted and there is no more argument about the fact like the doctrine of repentance or the doctrine of faith or the doctrine of the laying on of hands or the doctrine of baptisms or you know we've got certain things that God has laid out through the word in places and you should know those doctrines and on those doctrines there are no compromise there's no well and then you know I know the word says but well you want to get in trouble that's where we get in trouble I know what the word says but I'm gonna do this or but I'm gonna believe this or I have my beliefs and you have yours brother no there's certain things that are non-negotiable now you might want to argue with me about the another the woman with the 12 stars on her head and the moon under her feet and you know you want to argue about some symbolic language that's fine but about repentance about Jesus being God about Jesus being the only way about holiness and purity of heart and life about heaven and hell about these things there is no compromise there is no discussion there is proper doctrine on these things and we've got to be willing to we got to know them and we got to be willing to stand for them and we got to be willing to defend them if need be we got to be able to contend for the faith that's what you said earnestly contend for the faith which is once delivered to the saints means you can't be willy-nilly about the scriptures and just float around and be blown about with every wind of doctrine you know just anyway I could stay on that one a while but he says till I come give attendance verse 13 to reading to exhortation and to doctrine then he says neglect not the gift that is in you which was given you by prophecy with the laying on of hands of the presbyter so we see here he goes talking about the gift don't neglect the gift either don't stray from the word but don't neglect the gift Paul I love thank you God for the Holy Ghost speaking through Paul perfect balance here stay in the word bro know the word know the word know the correct doctrines of Christianity and then but don't neglect the gift either don't neglect tones and interpretation don't neglect healing don't neglect prophecy don't neglect miracles don't neglect it the gift that's in you and and beautiful I mean we could spend all day talking about just one thing the laying on of hands Paul said that was given you by the laying on of hands talking about impartation of gifts from elders and oversight from elders powerful stuff man and look what he says in verse 15 and 16 meditate upon these things now New Testament biblical meditation means to constantly think about it's an active it's not passive Hindu New Age meditation is passive blank out the mind and let Satan do
what he wants New Testament meditation is to meditate on what God has said and what God is saying to you what the word says and what you're supposed to do it's active it's focused the mind is always sober the mind is always controlled the thoughts are controlled they're never willy-nilly everywhere there's a whole movement now in the charismatic church about contemplative prayer it's Hindu it comes from Hinduism Buddhism people like Thomas Merton who was a Catholic monk who learned his stuff from Hindus and Buddhists and now we got Christian singers even like Jason Upton recently was quoting Thomas Merton Thomas Merton what was a heretic he didn't even believe the gospel I don't even understand this we heard it with our own ears in Phoenix City when Jason Upton was there I'm like no Jason anointing on his life don't get off doctrine he says take he said meditate upon these things give yourself holy or completely to them that your profiting may appear to all take heed beware take heed be careful here to yourself and what unto the doctrine Oh emphasizing once again the importance of the Word of God knowing the Word of God knowing the teachings of Christianity the true biblical teachings of Christian and then he says take heed to yourself and unto the doctrine continue in them for in doing this you will save yourself and them that hear you man is that is that the Word of God know the Word know the Word of God see you know when I was out there when I met these guys right here in March on the campus it was just amazing to me that yeah we had the mean preachers that were telling people they were going to hell for wearing shorts ridiculous right pointing at people they didn't know calling them masturbators and whores that's all right we know that thought but what was amazing to me is I was trying to leave Nancy and I were trying to leave and somebody pulled us over to talk to this guy before I knew it you know 20 30 people are around and they sit there for like two hours you got to know the word because people have questions and people ask questions and I got to explain to them about why the Bible is the Word of God what it means to be born again why the blood of Jesus was shed I mean it was just awesome what and the guy the guy that I started out talking to
before the crowd came around was the Catholic ministry leader and got to deal with him about what was wrong with his beliefs and in Catholicism we had a discussion of Catholicism praying to Mary and all that nonsense that they did and it was just a good anointed the anointing was so strong and I that's when I saw the vision of getting back out there and God touching people and healing people but it's got to be both got to be ready to give them the truth true doctrine and then minister moving the Spirit at the same time I like what he said to Titus look over just look at Titus real quick in Titus chapter 2 when he said you can go over to verse 6 well in verse 1 he says but you speak the things which become sound doctrine and then in verse 6 he says young men he said likewise exhort to be sober minded in all things showing yourself a pattern of good works in doctrine showing uncorruptness gravity seriousness sincerity sound speech that cannot be condemned that he that is of the contra part may be ashamed having no evil thing to say of you so it makes it very clear there what in doctrine showing uncorruptness is that not in your Bible who's got a different translation that translate that a little bit different anybody does all say every one of yours say uncorruptness incorruptibility man Paul said in one place we are not those who corrupt the word of God or those who handle the word of God deceitfully men we are put in a in a in an awesome trust with the holy word of God we are to go forth and preach the truth I'm gonna I'm gonna end with this scripture go to mark chapter 16 mark 16 there's so much that could be said about purity but y'all know I've preached on holiness a little bit the last few weeks I don't guess I need to beat that purity and doctrine now I see and the reason I bring this up is I just love how people how people have their own ideas man you could lay out
the doctrine of hell to somebody and we had this battle on Facebook with somebody this week back and forth you can lay out the script they say they're Christian and you lay out the scriptures on it well I don't care I believe this this way you know okay you know you're gonna be in trouble mark 16 people need the answers but here here's where we in verse 15 and he said unto them go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature he that believes in his baptized shall be saved but he that believes not shall be damned and of course the word believe here means to rely on to trust in to cling to Jesus and to be constant in that profession that's the faith for salvation so he that relies trust in clings to it stays constant and his baptized shall be saved but he that believe is not shall be damned and these signs shall follow them that believe in my name shall they cast out devils they shall speak with new tongues they shall take up serpents and that's not talking about real snakes that's talking about demon spirits if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them again that doesn't mean you go you go out and drink poison but if somebody tries to kill you and people in the occult world have tried to kill me it says and they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover now look at verse 19 so then after the Lord had spoken under them he was received up into heaven and set on the right hand of God and they went forth and preached everywhere well let's stop right there and they went forth everybody say that with me and they went forth and preached everywhere not just in church on Sunday they went forth and preached everywhere and look what it says after that the Lord working with them confirming the word did he say confirming our own ideas and doctrines no he said confirming the word with signs following confirming the word here's the key man that's why I know God's about to move you see the pattern after Jesus had talked to them about going into all the world preaching the gospel casting out demons healing the sick but preaching the gospel some of we skip over that that means preaching correct doctrine of Christ he said you go preach the gospel he says and they went forth and they preached everywhere and the Lord started working with them oh it's when they went preaching everywhere that the Lord
started working with them and that the signs and wonders follow the word meaning the word is the most important thing the signs and wonders will follow the word when it's preached not just in church but out there amen so I'm gonna encourage you yes we're going to the campus this week and yes we're gonna go to the mall and we're gonna go to downtown Auburn and we're gonna go to different places at different times as God directs us but folks let me say this go preach everywhere at work at the grocery store man I want to tell you you start doing what the word says to do God will start working with you and he will start confirming the word coming out of your mouth with signs follow and then when a sign happens you take that sign or that wonder of that miracle and you turn everything back and you bring people back to what the word if we do that God will be glorified and he will see no reason to stop doing these things what's happened in the past God starts moving people get excited and people get excited and start lifting up certain human beings these human beings start getting a little bit enamored with the praises of men don't focus on the word get off the word and end up their their lives their their purity and their morality starts going down the tubes well I tell you what I remember dr. Larry Lee said this how many know who dr. Larry Lee is anybody only one Wow well dr. Larry Lee really started the prayer movement back in back in about 1979 1980 and God sent him to Rockwall Texas to start a church church on the rock and Rockwall Texas that by the time by by not a started in January 1980 by 1985 it had 10,000 members okay by prayer this wasn't a watered-down church the anointing was there a prayer was there but before all that happened before Larry became the most well-known minister in the country at that time before any of that happened God said I'm about to bless you with the most dangerous thing I knew he goes what Lord success the power everything you touch working the
signs the wonders the people the money everything man Larry man I won't tell you that one of the most anointed preachers and teachers I've ever heard and what happened God made him make three vows he said he first made a vow to Jesus to live a holy life and to be pure to be obedient to God a vow to his wife that he would always be faithful to her and then God made him make a vow that he would never leave church on the rock as its senior pastor okay how do I know this because I went to that church for a while I met him several times I heard him say it out of his own mouth well you know what Larry did God did everything he said signs and wonders answered prayers that church would pray in the mornings something was going on in the news and you'd see it answered it in the newspaper the next day thousands of people came there and got saved that church was rocking and rolling man I mean it had I would go in there the presence God so strong you could hardly move or Roberts asking to become the Dean of their seminary so that was in Tulsa Larry's in Dallas about six hours away so Larry starts flying back and forth and trying to be the Dean of a seminary I didn't want him to be the Dean of the seminary God wanted to be the pastor of church on the rock but then the death nail Larry resigned his pastor a church on the rock saying he was gonna take more of an apostolic role as overseer and appoint another pastor from that moment his life went into the abyss his father died prime time did a special which the things they accused him of were not true but it hurt him very badly then he ends up going back into the depression that he was delivered from as a young man he ends up himself in an affair his wife leaves him he loses the church he loses everything success is dangerous that's why if it had just stayed God stayed where God said stayed in the word stay with God the dangerous thing running after big names you know frankly I love oil Roberts God used him mildly back in the 50s and 60s but oral got off you know oral got off base and
some things he wasn't ever supposed to build that hospital and all that stuff he wasn't supposed to do and then getting on TV saying if I don't get eight million dollars God said he's gonna take me home I'm gonna die y'all remember how many remember that one unreal the men that have started out right and success ended up ruining the power the signs the wonders the crowds coming you know sometimes you know preachers a lot of preachers all they dream of is a big church or a big ministry and you know why a lot of them God will never give it to him because he knows that will be their downfall thank you father thank you heavenly father Lord thank you for your word thank you for this time with your people Lord I pray that you'd help us God be men and women of the Word of God men and women God of sound doctrine men and women of of purity men and women of holiness and hunger or not self-righteousness but Lord a humble obedience many women who believe in the power and the gifts many women who stir up the gifts and who don't who many women who do not quench the Holy Spirit Lord go with us as we go forward