Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
praise god everybody got their bibles this morning we need to can you help me there brother all right take your bibles go ahead and turn to acts the book of acts chapter 7 this morning acts chapter seven we're going to continue about the tabernacle there's some things that um you know this possible is very possible that we may continue this for a few weeks it just depends on what the lord says but yesterday the lord definitely wanted me to continue this because there's so many things that god was saying through the tabernacle as a matter of fact we're going to read it in just a second in acts 7 about how one of the names of the tabernacle of moses was called the tabernacle of witness the tabernacle of witness and god was saying a lot of things through his tabernacle i need to turn to acts chapter 7 myself but this is where stephen was preaching to the sanhedrin stephen had been doing hands had been laid on him by the apostles and he'd been doing miracles and uh and he was preaching boldly all over the place and um and so finally as will happen if you preach the word of god the true word the uncompromising word you will get persecuted and so they pulled stephen in front of the sanhedrin which was of course the jewish leadership of the synagogue both the sadducees and the pharisees so caiaphas and anas the high priest at that time and they pulled him before the sanhedrin and he began preaching a sermon and basically what he did was he preached to them everything that they knew already knew but then he he laid it on him that jesus was the prophet that moses said we're going to read this in just a second here moses moses said in deuteronomy that god would raise up a prophet unto israel like he did like like him that would be like moses but to everybody who would not hear that prophet would be destroyed and cut off from among the people and of course we know that jesus was that prophet how many of you know that jesus fulfilled all five aspects of the fivefold ministry did you know that the book of hebrews causing the apostle and high priest of our confession right jesus spoke of himself that no prophet is without honor except in his own house and in his own country and among his own kin so he called himself a prophet he also was an evangelist he said i came to seek and to save that which is lost he came preaching repentance so he was a true evangelist he also was a pastor he was called the shepherd of the sheep the true shepherd and bishop of our souls and of course we know he was called the great teacher so jesus fulfilled all aspects of that so the bible says that a prophet god would raise up a prophet like unto moses and if the people didn't listen to that
prophet they would be cut off and so stephen is preaching this and let's go down we'll go down let's see to verse oh we'll just go down to verse 37 and he says this is that moses which said unto the children of israel a prophet shall the lord your god raise up unto you of your brethren like unto me him shall ye hear this is he that was in the church in the wilderness you ought to understand this is he that was in the church in the wilderness which the angel with the angel or rather which spake to him in mount sinai and with our fathers who receive the lively oracles to give unto us to whom our fathers would not obey but thrust him from them and in their hearts turn back again into egypt saying unto aaron make us gods to go before us for as for this moses which brought us out of the land of egypt we what not what has become of him and they made a calf in those days and offered sacrifice unto the idol and rejoiced in the works of their own hands then god turned and gave them gave them up to worship the host of heaven as it is written in the book of the prophets oh you house of israel have you offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness yeah you took up the tabernacle of molech and the star of your god rimfin figures which you have made to worship to worship them rather and i will carry you away beyond babylon and our fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness as he had appointed moses speaking unto moses that he should make it according to the fashion that he had seen now i'm going to stop right there you can keep reading but he goes on to talk about the tabernacle of moses a little bit more and then he talks about the temple of solomon and he talks about how god said it's the issue is not about temples made with hands because he said heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool but god didn't need these things you have to understand that god did not need a tabernacle in the wilderness god did not need the temple of solomon god doesn't need those things those things were for us and what god did with those things is he took those things as we saw last week and he showed us things about himself he wanted to teach us the protocol of dealing with the king you know how many of you know that if you go to see the president you don't just walk in the front door right there's a process you go through i mean even the president of the united states there's a screening process you go through your background better be clean and clear right no terrorist activity in your recent future no sin you see what i'm saying things need to be straight and then there's a protocol there's a way you go in you don't go in alone i mean there's just a lot of things that has to be done before you go even to peer before the president of the united states well god was revealing that there were certain ways to approach
him and we went through that um we went through the tabernacle last week and we talked about how you go through the door to the brazen altar first where the the sacrifices were done and that represented of course the blood of jesus the sacrifice of jesus and how you there's one way in and the first thing you're going to encounter is what looks like a slaughterhouse i mean it's just all over the place blood everywhere and burning flesh of those animals on that altar because god wanted you to see that sin the wages of sin is death something has to die something has to be killed and it's either going to be us or a substitute now thank god that jesus became the lamb of god that takes away the sin of the world amen but i'll tell you the the people also had to learn something and i i know we went through last week how you go in the next thing was the the laver the brazen laver that had the water and the priest had to wash and how i talked to you about how that represented baptism uh in water and baptism of the holy spirit and the washing of water by the word a sanctifying process that even after you're saved after you're washed in the blood of jesus there's still some things that god wants you to clean up and want you to take care of in your own life so that you get you know so that you're holy and prepared to move in and then as we moved into the tabernacle we see on the right side the table of showbread which i explained to you represented the ministry of the word of god studying the word of god breaking the word of god down it was also the place where there was the only place in the old covenant where there was bread and wine together there were strong and it says strong wine and that was not to be the priest didn't drink it but they poured it out as a drink offering to the lord so that's a picture of our communion with god intimacy with with jesus in in communion and the bread and the wine and then the candlestick on the left there i told you has had seven it's interesting has seven um bowls or seven branches on the candlestick and of course it's candlestick or lampstand in the bible but it's really a lamp stand but it had bowls on top of it with oil in them and wicks and it was the priest's responsibility every day to make sure that those bowls were full of oil and that the lamps didn't go out and that that represents the ministry of the holy spirit and us making sure that in our daily lives we stay full of the holy spirit we keep ourselves full of oil remember the the parable of the ten virgins i did all the way back in opelika you know the what does it say all ten of them had oil in their vessels but some got extra and some five let the oil run out and others did not and uh the five that did not let the oil run out in the fire go out in their hearts they're the ones that made it the ones that let the oil go out and the light go out they didn't make it and so very important that that speaks of the holy spirit that speaks of being led by the spirit i mean letting god lead you in the word letting god speak to you
letting him lead your life so we talked about how in this area you know you moved forward to the altar of incense which incense represents prayer this is in revelation in other places uh that talks about prayer that the the incense is the prayers of the saints and the worship of god is both worship and prayer going up to god and and we talked about how in this place the ultimate goal of this place was to get to the holy of holies and the holy of holies was the place where god's manifest glory was there and it's where in this age that only the high priest could go into once a year and offer the blood on the day of atonement and then god would would through that if he accepted it if god accepted it they did things his way then the nation would be pardoned for their national sins and this was a the most important day of the year for israel because if this day didn't go well the rest of the year didn't go well for them and so you see the picture of the high priest before the glory of god and and really i'm refreshing a little bit about last week because i want you to understand what god was saying and he said this to me very clearly last week he said the way into the glory of god and to get the glory of god into the world is that you must have those spiritual disciplines in your life you must have yourself make sure that your sins are washed away that there's no sin confessed merry-go-round going on in your life you know some people think the blood of jesus is going to wash them no matter you know that that they can just keep doing stuff no there's there can't be this sin confess merry go around repentance means you actually stop doing something it doesn't mean you keep confessing something do it again confess it again do it again confess it again you're in a habitual pattern there you might be confessing it but you're still in a habitual pattern so god wants us to deal with that then he wants us to be baptized and we're still going to have a baptismal service sometime somewhere if i have to buy a big horse trough or something i don't know what we're going to do but we've got to do a baptismal service and then you know we're teaching on getting people baptized in the holy spirit but folks i just want to tell you if this church if you want the church to move into the glory of god and you want to move into the glory of god the spiritual disciplines of being in the word of being in prayer of being in in fellowship with the holy spirit and making sure you're full of the holy spirit and being led by the spirit and these things are not optional this is part of the christian life this is part of the taking up your cross and following after god and the reason christians and churches never find the glory of god in the power of god in their life is because somewhere in some part of this there this tabernacle these examples something's lacking in their in their personal lives and god wants us to get it all amen but now what i want to focus on this morning is another aspect that's you that you see in this tabernacle and that's what stephen called the tabernacle in the wilderness right here in acts chapter 7 when he said it
is it was the church oh get this now the church in the wilderness what we see here is not just a a picture of the spiritual disciplines now that are supposed to be in the life of a christian to move into the fullness of god but this is also in church life represents a lot of things about church life now let me just say this first of all it's interesting he calls it the church in the wilderness now i looked up the the word church here and most of you may know what that word is in the greek it's called the word ecclesia and it means the called out ones okay the called out ones the separated ones the holy ones who called out from egypt called out from the world called out to be different called out to be a special people unto god basically let me just put this way called out to be god's favorite amen god has favorites he does we might even have to play that later god has favorites though but you can choose to be one of god's favorites that's the good thing right let me tell you you want to choose to be god just just just do everything you can do to get in his lap and stay close to him and you'll all of a sudden become one of his favorites just like that you know think about this people talk about the love of god all the time they talk about the love of god love of god love of god all the time you know what every time about but but do you love god that's the question never the question whether god loves us is it the big question on judgment day is going to be how much did you love god that's the big question and somebody loves god wants to get right up next to him as much as possible and let me tell you this much this is just good right here you know god's got this thing called the anointing all over him because of course he's the originator and creator of it all right it's all over him that oil and that oil back in that time was mixed with frankincense and myrrh and it smelled really sweet and beautiful let me tell you something you want some of that anointing on you just rub it up next to him you know the fragrance of heaven will be on you and to the world it's interesting paul talked about the fragrance of heaven in second corinthians 3 and he said he said to to those who hate the cross and hate the gospel hey it is the savior it is the to them it's just death but to us is a sweet smelling savor the reason i preach like i do guys about sin and about holiness and about repentance is not because i'm trying to beat you over the head or have some legalistic church my goal as a pastor as a minister is
that if anything's in the way between you and god i want to see it out of the way i'm not going to ever tell you you know how you have to dress or how you have to you know wear makeup or not wear makeup or we're not even gonna go down these roads i'm not gonna tell you who to marry who not to marry it's not about it's not about that kind of weird cultish behavior but just more than anything holiness impurity of heart so you can get up next to god and man if you get up next to god i can tell you this i i've learned as a pastor for many years that there's i can't there's a lot of things that you need healing in your heart about and that you need strength and that you need god i can't do it i love helping people i love counseling people and praying for people and all that stuff but ultimately you got to get close to god and boy a lot of things i remember larry lee years ago larry leaves pastor of church on the rock in rockwall texas and you know larry had his problems in the 90s but god really used him through the 80s but i'll tell you something i heard him say one time he said you know i used to have couples come to me for marital counseling and he goes one of my rules before they came to my office and we talked about anything is i sent them to the sanctuary where nobody was in there and said you've got to go pray together for 30 minutes and then you come back and talk to me and they would go pray he said a lot of times they never came back to talk to him i mean they never they dealt with the problem because they just got up close to god and that's what this is all about you guys but it's interesting and i want to say this about the church in the wilderness let's talk about this for a minute the church in the world is in it interesting that when god called his people and he called his people out and he made them the church in the wilderness that he put them before the promised land in the wilderness before he he gave them the good land flowing with milk and honey where they were fighting enemies and winning battles and and and before any of that god let them be in the wilderness for a while in the desert where there was no water no food it was dry and it was dusty and it was difficult and he let him be out there why because he wanted to see what was in their hearts the wilderness exposed their murmuring and complaining the wilderness exposed that many of them their hearts really still wanted egypt more than they wanted to follow god this is something that we've got to understand about even church life let me tell you something the church service is not always going to bless you you're not always going to leave with goosebumps you're not always going to when you get prayed for or something happens you know you're not always going to feel something in worship you're not always going to feel something during the service there's not always going to be the gifts manifested you're going to get prayed for sometimes and and like
we've experienced like i used to experience going to brownsville i got prayed for every time i went down there sometimes i felt something from god and sometimes i didn't you know i mean you're not always going to feels because that's the wilderness the wilderness is to see when things don't work out like you expected them to are you still going to be faithful are you still going to believe are you still going to praise god when it's dry that's what the church in the world the first thing he wanted to do are you know they started fussing about well back in egypt we had plenty of food and we had onions and leeks and garlics and we could make good food and they start complaining they forgot about making the bricks with no straw they forgot about pharaoh whipping them i mean think about that the church first of all starts out in the wilderness and there's going to be wilderness times in church life i think we've gone through a little bit of that lately you find out whose hearts are really with you and whose hearts are really not with you it's that simple the wilderness exposes those things and two it's in the wilderness where your provision can only come from god he had to make the water come out of the rock he had to reign the manna down from heaven all what god was wanting was why why won't you trust me doesn't it kind of sound like what jesus was doing with the disciples they're out in the boat oh lord we're gonna perish he goes don't you remember i just fed 5 000 people with five fish i mean five loaves of bread and two fish don't you remember that we just did that don't you think we can handle this little storm right here the church in the wilderness it's interesting it talks about church life and i'm going to pull out this right here and i guess i ought to pull them out here what is that is it mine or yours cell phones yes sound systems boy i'll tell you what they can pick up anything turn to me turn with me you know to uh if just turn the ephesians chapter 2. i want to go through a few things here just so you see the parallels
ephesians 2. yeah i almost gave adam my my notes earlier i almost slipped him in his bible though i might could have remembered him remember what god said in exodus he said in exodus why about this tabernacle he made this statement he said let them build me a sanctuary why i quote it last week that i may dwell among them right god's goal is always that he wants to dwell among his people i want to show you that that in the new testament church it's the same way ephesians chapter 2 are you with me let's go down to verse 19. he says now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of god and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets jesus christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all the building fitly framed together grows unto a holy temple in the lord in whom you are also builded together for a habitation of god through the spirit so god looks at us the church the local church and the church at large he looks at us that we are to be built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets so doctrine and what they're teaching is the first and foremost thing how many of you know the foundation of the building is the most important part if the foundation is is wrong or flawed the whole building can fall down so he says they're built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets jesus christ being the chief cornerstone and then he says this you just just look at this he says they are built in whom he says the building is fitly framed together to grow into a holy temple in whom you are building together for a habitation of god through the spirit everybody say habitation of god through the spirit so the new testament church say the new testament church and me as the temple of the holy ghost is supposed to be the habitation of god oh the goal of all this stuff is so that god can fill you with his fullness you want me you wanna you wanna see that let's go to ephesians three we're gonna skip over just a little bit this is this is awesome here verse 14. so paul continues his thought about being he's going to talk about prayer and about the fullness of god now this boy this this right here if you can catch this you're going to see what i'm talking about
the holy of holies where the glory was that was the fullness of god okay it was a manifestation of the fullness of the glory and the presence of god he says in verse 14 for this cause i bow my knees unto the father of our lord jesus christ of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man that christ may dwell in your hearts by faith now let's stop right there remember he's talking already to christians who are born again yet he's saying that christ may dwell in your hearts by faith you know what he's saying there he's just saying you hadn't quite got to to the full purpose yet until you know that christ is dwelling in you and you're going to see it as we read this in fullness doing his work through you oh is going to get good all right look what he says so he says that you might be strength with might in the inner man verse 17 that christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all states what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of christ which passes knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of god whoa the church at ephesus was saved they were on fire for god they were full of the holy ghost they all spoke in tongues miracles happened but god was saying there's more through the apostle paul there's more man i love what steve hill and john kilpatrick used to say down at brownsville all the time you know don't start thinking that you got everything said if your shadow's not healing the sick there might be a little bit more of god amen this right here just grabs me sometimes that they might be filled with the fullness of god who wants the fullness of god i'm going to tell you i do i think it's interesting in the gospel of john it says jesus though he came to earth as god in the flesh he ministered and walked in the authority as a man anointed by god when he did his ministry but his interesting it says that he was given the holy spirit without measure and then jesus this is hard to comprehend here jesus was given the spirit of god the holy spirit without measure nothing held back and then in john 14 verse 12 jesus said verily verily i say unto you he that believes on me the works that i do shall he do also and greater works in these wow that means that we can draw near to god all that we want to
that we can reach a point that we can get filled with all the fullness of god and then do that the works of jesus and even do more than jesus did because he's we're going to be here more than three years doing a ministry most of us is anything i said not in the bible folks i want to tell you right now god wants us full of the holy ghost full of the fullness of god so that we can see people saved so that we can see every miracle in the new testament we need to be seeing the dead rays the blind see the death here and the crippled walk and until that's happening we are not walking in the fullness of god and we got to be humble and say god what do i have to change what do i have to do i want to be a light i don't want to go out of this i mean we're living in the last of the last days we're headed to the end of all history and we're either going to go out as a little fizzled fuse that just goes out and makes a little bit of noise or we're going to go out with a bang we're gonna go out all the way and that's what i'm talking about the glory of god the fullness of god we can go after it and i'm not talking about something i hadn't seen i've shared with y'all i've seen the glory of god i've seen people getting saved left and right i've seen periods of time where people it just seemed like you just hardly breathed on them and they got saved because the spirit of god was moving so strong i've laid my hands on a deaf lady and said in the name of jesus you're healed and knew she was healed seeing a crippled woman get out of a chair we saw three dead babies come back to life i've seen god do these things but it's been a while i had to go through a wilderness myself for a while but now we're starting to come out of that all the fullness of god and look what he says right after that the verse right after he says that you might be filled with all the fullness of god he says now unto him that is able to do exceedingly and abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works in us who god is able i'm gonna read this verse just i'm gonna say it my way god is able to do exceedingly abundantly above and beyond all you could ask or even think according to the power that is in you already learning to release it to the world
wow i'm ready to see some powerful christians amen who don't hold back who get filled with all the fullness of god they want nothing but god they want nothing but the glory of god and they don't care what it takes to get it and i believe i believe you know what i'm going to say i believe with this this little group we've got i believe it's sinking in i really do believe it the prayer meetings we've had lately what i'm hearing about the women's meetings and god really i'm just saying i know god's moving he took 12 and turned them into thousands because they got filled with the fullness of god right let's keep going go ahead and turn to second chronicles second chronicles chapter seven and i'm not going to the verse you think i'm going to though it's in there second chronicles 7 just you know hold that thought for a second back to the tabernacle put up the uh brazen altar picture for me i want to i want to see something here when god put this up here there's two main things he was trying to get across to the people of god now y'all got to listen close on me here i'm going to try to do all this in just a few minutes two things he was getting across to his people through this church in the wilderness through this tabernacle of witness and though we've looked at it already as the individual responsibility and how jesus is in all this but as church as a church as church life the people when they came to the brazen altar they always came with a sacrifice oh he's going to start preaching now they always came with a sacrifice right and they're two things they knew we cannot come here without a sacrifice an offering and we can't approach god unless we do it his way this whole thing everything about the priest having the garments and the door and every bit of it is saying two things you do not approach me without a sacrifice and you do it my way hard thing for christians to get a hold
of especially american christians it's god's way or it's no way you can do it your way all you want to you're going to find out how that ends god's way works right now the sacrifice let's talk about the sacrifice here the first thing jesus sacrificed jesus said you know he became our sacrifice but didn't he say something about i remember vaguely something about taking up your cross crucifying your flesh romans 12 1-2 what does it say we are to offer ourselves as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to god which is our reasonable service that we are not to be conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of our minds we we've got to be a sacrifice saying god i give you my life i'm going to be a living martyr i'm going to be a living sacrifice that's holy and acceptable to you i'm not going to be like the world i'm not going to let the world press me into its mold but i am going to be renewed i am going to be transformed by the renewing of my mind i'm going to think like you i'm going to breathe like you i'm going to walk like you jesus i'm going to be like you jesus not the world so we come to this altar here and you don't come without a sacrifice and you know what that speaks of your life that speaks of your time that speaks of your money that speaks of your possessions it speaks of everything now let me just say this i'm gonna blow your minds here for a minute god speaking about his house when jesus spoke these words and you just write this down matthew 21 jesus said this and you'll know this this famous scripture he said my house the church my house shall be called a house of prayer but you have made it he points to he says you have made it a den of thieves oh what's a thief do a thief comes to take what he can get but when we get a shift in our thinking listen this is what churches this is what christians do with church now listen i know you're supposed to get stuff out of church i don't mind that when the people came to this brazen altar with their sacrifice and their offering when they came to that they were coming to get something from god they were coming to get god's forgiveness and god's blessings on their life and on their family okay it's okay to want something from god but it was that it wasn't that they didn't have any any part of that and god knows that when you come to
church yes you're supposed to be uh touched or blessed or equipped for ministry or whatever there is there is a part you come to church to receive but if at some point there's not a shift that you don't come to church to get and to take only you come to the house of god to give something and the main thing i want to tell you is that mentality that right there that it becomes a house of sacrifice and i want to say this i'm just going to say this already look i know for for nick and care it's a sacrifice for this to let us meet in their house kevin sacrifices time to help me with things adam does things sacrifice his time and everything to do music and stuff i'm not saying that we got a problem in this area i'm just telling you this is god's pattern sacrifice you know where there's a prayer meeting when there's um something that you know we need to go out witnessing or something i know there's other things that the flesh and that you'd rather be doing and listen sometimes there's things i'd rather be doing and you crucify the flesh and you say no i'm going to do this thing right here you know i could have i'm going to tell you man i felt so bad friday morning because it really started coming on me thursday night i felt so bad friday morning i didn't want to get out of the bed sacrifice i'm get i went and i couldn't go to sleep didn't go to sleep till after midnight and got up at 3 30 and went and preached to those kids at seven o'clock in the morning and then got in the car and drove to georgia and did a memorial service for a post-abortion bible study and by the time we were driving back at seven or eight o'clock that night had two hours of driving left to do sick as a dog i'm like i just i was just like oh god but you know what it was important to be at that high school it was important those women needed i got to teach and preach to them about deliverance and then after the memorial service was over i got to sit down and talk to them about how the process of healing has to continue and there and how to get free and they were all going we know that that's true i mean but it felt like death warmed over all i wanted to do was crawl into bed and not get out of it i remember one time years ago i was going to uh supposed to teach a bible study in montgomery and there was about 30 or 40 people showing up to this bible study and i'm supposed to teach it and the night before i come down with a fever and the flu i mean i felt awful as walking out the door to go do this took my temperature it was 103. you don't feel good with 103 temperature
i felt so bad but you know what i i said look and the lord was just like i told you to do it what you gonna do let me tell you what happened i went to the bible study started teaching on the baptism the holy spirit and on the power of the holy spirit and people got filled with the holy spirit and the lady that was messed up had a messed up eye couldn't see well out of it got healed i could hardly stand up say why why didn't god heal you i don't know i don't understand all that stuff i just know you go do it prayed for patrick we prayed for patrick this week at work he couldn't even hardly move his back was in so much pain instantly healed then on thursday night i get sick i don't understand all that but you know what jesus still heals it doesn't matter what i feel like amen doesn't matter what i'm going through we wonder sometimes why didn't god move oh let's find out ephesians 4 why didn't god move ephesians 4. let's look at this i know i said hold your spot in chronicles we're going to come back to it you know what i'll just say this you can go on you know what chronicles said just reads the second chronicles 7 something that god said when god appeared to solomon you know what he called his house you're going to love this god said i have called this house i have made this house a house of sacrifice so another name for the church let's just say this another name for the church is the house of sacrifice wow cross taking up your cross and we talk like i said we talk a lot about jesus's cross but we don't talk a whole lot about ours right where'd i tell you to go ephesians 4 we're getting there we're almost done the plane is on its descent you have to tell you you're about to land and it takes like 30 more minutes oh i just love it i need to turn there myself y'all get me distracted ephesians yeah
yeah mine's 1468. um let's look at this we're going to read this here verse 11 on down why didn't god move well let's look at this the bible says concerning the church and what god just wants to do in the church he says he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the maturing of the saints for the work of the ministry for the edifying of the body of christ till we all come into the unity of the faith and of the son and the knowledge of the son of god and this is just so good you could just go down through this the intimacy of knowing the son of god unto a mature man and look at what he says and the measure of the stature of the fullness of christ the goal of the church is to get you into the fullness not to just settle for some lukewarm weak version of christianity so the five whole ministry is trying to get you into the stature of the fullness of christ so that verse 14 your henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sight of men and cutting craftiness whereby they lie and wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love and i'd say this speaking the truth because i love you speaking the truth in love that we may be able to grow up into him in all things which is the head even christ now look at this from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplies did you see that that which every joint supplies according to the effectual working in the measures of every part making increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love so we see here that the whole body is joined together and compacted put together by that which every joint supplies i used to tell people this how's the sacrifice right i've had people you know i've pastored and led ministries and churches for a long time and i remember a long time ago somebody said something about well this week's service wasn't as good as last week service something must be wrong and what's interesting is it gets implied something must be wrong with you you know they love picking on the pastor let me let me just tell you this if your pastor is right with god your fivefold ministers living a holy life he's praying he's in the word he's listening to god he ain't the problem but he needs everybody else or she needs everybody by that which every joint
supplies and i remember turning to some of them and pointing my little finger and i said hmm well i prayed for two hours a day every day this week how long did you pray for the service and by the look on their face i knew they might have said for two seconds lord bless pastor this week you know what i'm saying this is what i'm talking about by that which and i'm not trying to beat you over the head i'm really not but by that which every joint supplies last passage we're going to turn to promise it's only 1205. luke chapter 14. [Music] y'all i'm having fun today i don't know about y'all i had fun and praise and worship i'm having fun preaching and teaching y'all grin at me i like what i remember some guy you say i don't make an episcopalian just nod right there i don't know make a presbyterian crack out of the ice tray y'all don't remember those old ice trays that you had to crack them to get the ice cubes out hey i'm not picking on them they call themselves the frozen chosen i'm serious presbyterian church in montgomery calls himself the frozen chosen i'm not joking i'm like yeah you are i agree with you probably the only time we'll ever agree but i agree with you on that luke 14 we're going to read this parable we're going to end with this is it this is jesus talking here i said luke 14 didn't look five is good too but that's be a little different what we need to do right now verse 15. [Laughter] glory to god it's all right to have the joy of the lord in it all right i'm serious all the time y'all you ought to be glad i'm laughing all right verse 15. all right i'm gonna try to read this because this one this one's not so funny here we go and when one of them that set at me with him heard these things he said in the blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of god then he said unto them and that is jesus
of course a certain man made a supper and invited many and he sent his servant at supper time saying to them that were bidden or invited come for all things are now ready and they all with one consent begin to make excuse the first said i have bought a piece of ground and i must needs go and see it and he said i pray have me excused and another said i have bought five yoke of oxen and go to prove them i pray that you have me excused and another said i have married a wife and therefore i cannot come so that servant came and showed his lord these things then the master of the house being angry somebody say being angry said to his servant go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city and bring in hither the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blind and the servant said lord it is done as you have commanded and yet there is room and the lord said unto his servant go out into the highways and the hedges and compel them to come in that my house may be filled for i say unto you that none of those men which were invited shall taste of my supper then jesus went right into this preaching said and there were great multitudes with him and he turned and said if any man come unto me and hate not his father and his mother and his wife and his children and his brother and and sisters yeah in his own life he cannot be my disciple and whosoever does not bear his cross and come after me he cannot be my disciple so jesus is saying here very clearly the church is to be a house of sacrifice i want you to do whatever it takes to get the people in the house and the people that he invites and he invites and they don't come and they don't show up and they don't do what they need to do it makes the master angry but he will have his house filled and i just want to say that our next step is to go into the streets and the lanes of the city and compel them to come in because frankly i'm tired of dealing with people that got excuses why they will not sacrifice and serve god man have i heard the excuses over the years i'm trying no you do or you don't do ultimately on judgment day it will not be lord i tried no did you do did you do what i said to do go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature compel them to come in see let me let me just flip it take it a little bit further there are people that get a little
nervous so they get a little attitude well the church isn't growing well right now we've grown in the other direction the last few months actually that's okay but i'll say this the church hadn't hadn't grown huh who have you brought who have you led to jesus who have you brought to the church who have you gone after see these little attitudes build up in church and and for some you know the devil knows how to get them where they're kind of all focused at the pastor so that everybody start going oh something must be wrong people left something must be wrong sometimes that's the case if a pastor is in sin he's in blatant disobedience to something you know god can start judging things but if that's not the case it's warfare folks by that which every joint supplies listen it's up to us you want your church to grow bring them win them to jesus and bring them go next door and invite them see what i'm saying he compelled them go into the highway in the head listen we've had the ones right we one's making excuses [Music] beautiful picture see i just know i you know what i'm familiar with how little demons work how they creep about through you know your house and whisper in your ear and then they creep around the pew here we have one pew and then they creep through the chairs and how they creep around at work and how they creep around and they sew things in your head the church is built to be a habitation of god through the spirit by that which every joint supplies the amount of prayer you supply the amount of fasting you supply the souls you win the people you reach out to see what i'm saying that's how the church increases in both numbers in both spiritual strength and power so say this with me by that which every joint supplies
house of sacrifice did y'all learn anything this morning the church is not just a place for thieves who come to take see see there's a lot of people there's a lot of people sit and pews pastor feed me pastor stroke me pastor talk to me pastor you know really when it's time for them to supply something you know what i mean now i want to say this again i don't think we have some big problem with this but i guarantee you this much i know one thing about the lord what he's done with me here is he's had me preach on things to cut off what's coming persecution will come accusations will come you know there's people that are that aren't coming to this church whom i believe god wanted to come to this church but because people ran their mouths and made accusations of course false accuracy even of things 20 years ago and somebody catches somebody else's weird strange offense and they don't come well it's one thing to be offended yourself it's another thing to take up somebody else's offense you ever done that before [Music] you know you got enough to deal with deal with your own you know don't pick up somebody else's but you know what that's okay though because you know what the lord does and here's what's be that's why i read that last passage the lord invites everybody but the ones that are critical and they got their excuses and they got this and they got their offenses and they got their issues and don't want to come the lord just moves on and says i'm gonna go find the ones that will right i can say this i know that god beyond any shadow of a doubt like i know my name is dean and like i know i'm saved i know that god sent nancy and i to this city to start a church that would preach the truth in some areas that are that's not being preached i know that we have a mandate from god i know that we have the blessing of our spiritual authority and we are submitted to authority and eldership and i know that the presence of god has been here and touched every one of you in some way since we've been here do not let spirits of criticism or accusation or other people's offenses or laziness or excuses for not doing things don't let things creep in and hinder what god wants to do let me tell you this i'm so convinced of what god's
gonna do if every one of you left i would still be doing it that's the truth god's going to find his people and i i want to say this too god's gonna raise up some of you i believe out of this to be ministers of the gospel through this church trained ordained and sent forth to do what god's called you to do in this city and abroad i believe that it's the plan of god for this church to plant other churches missions work it says this in zechariah who has despised the day of small things it's during the day of small things that you find out who's really committed it's in the wilderness you find out who's really in faith you know somebody can anybody can anybody can be with you when everything is the the when the crowds are mingling and the money's flowing and everybody wants to be with you but i like it when god does it this way because then you find out you find a group of people you can trust with your life amen that's the church let's pray father in heaven i thank you lord for your people i thank you lord god for truly a divine call to this city the fire and grace has a purpose that is from the very throne of god before the foundation of the world you had a plan and i thank you god for revealing it i thank you for those that you have sent here lord that are people of sacrifice that are people hungry and thirsty and people that want to do all that you want to do father thank you lord that as we go forth i'm praying lord that we'll go forth as men and women of prayer as men and women of fasting as men and women of the word as men and women devoted to spiritual discipline and purity and that will be filled with the fullness of the holy spirit fullness lord that will mature into the stature of the fullness of christ that we will become the men and women that are powerful ministers and witnesses for you in the world lord now we're we're done trying to invite the church lord it's time for us as a church to go to the highways and the hedges and to compel as many as possible to come into the
kingdom of god and to come into this church by being born again by repentance by the touch of the holy spirit so lord we pray this today and it's in jesus name and i pray amen praise be to god