Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
God, we thank you. That you made a way, God, for us not to just have a creed that we believe, but Lord, that we can know you, we can experience your presence, we can feel the witness of the Holy Spirit within us that we are children of almighty God. We thank you that we can know that we have eternal life by the witness of the Holy Spirit, by what you've written in the word of God. Lord, by those two witnesses, we know God, that we have a relationship with you by the witness of the Holy Spirit and by the witness of your word. We are grateful for the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for our sins. We are grateful, Lord, that you rose from the dead. We are grateful, Lord, that we can come into your presence by the blood of Jesus. That there is a way that we can be righteous and stand in your presence. Lord, I pray that your anointing and your glory and your presence and your power would increase upon your people, not just here, but worldwide, Lord, that there would just be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. There would be a fresh anointing as David prayed in Psalm 92 when he declared, "I will be anointed with fresh oil." And so, Lord, I pray that there would be a fresh anointing of the Holy Spirit to come upon the church, Lord, to come upon your people, Lord, that are hungry for you, that are thirsty for you, that are crying out for you, Lord. That you would lead us and guide us into all truth. That you would reveal and expose every lie and every false teaching and every doctrine of man would fall by the wayside. Lord, that you would give us discernment of the wolves in sheep's clothing. That you would anoint us with power, Lord, to be a witness. That we would be able to preach the gospel and there would be Holy Ghost conviction to bring people to the and faith in Jesus. That there would be power to break the demonic strongholds off of people, to cast out demons, and to heal the sick, and to raise the dead, and to do everything that you said we were to do in the New Testament, Lord. We know we all have fallen short. We've doubted at times. We've not believed at times. We've not fasted when we needed to. We've done a lot of things that we shouldn't have done, but Lord, we thank you that there is grace and there is mercy and there is forgiveness with you and that Lord, you hear the prayers of your people. And I believe there's a greater anointing that you're going to pour out on your people that are pressing in, that want you, that want the truth at all cost. Father, we pray today for your grace and your help today. And help this preacher, Lord, share what you want me to share today. Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Praise be to God. You may be
seated this morning. We welcome you to Fire and Grace Church. Those of you listening through BlogTalkRadio. It's awesome to know we have people listening from all over the country and even other countries. They listen live and and and many listen to the archive service, the the show afterwards. So, we just praise God for that. You know, there's something on my mind today. I really wrestled with what the Lord wanted me to share and it really didn't start becoming clear until I was ironing my shirt this morning. And uh it began a little bit there and then it began to get clear as we were setting up here and getting ready for church. I'm just going to call this this morning unity and the anointing. And even though I've preached the message in the past about what true unity is versus false unity, this is going to be a little different though it will touch on some of the same aspects. But there's a direct connection to unity in the church and I'm talking about among the true believers and the anointing or the flow and power of the Holy Spirit. And I can just say this to you that the reason we don't see very much of the anointing and the flow of the Holy Spirit in the broader church world around us is because there is so much disunity. There's so much division. There's so much so many doctrines of men that divide us. Now I want to say this very clearly this morning because there is well there are I should say two kinds of unity. There's a unity that we can come to in the Holy Spirit when we both agree when there is agreement of what the truth is and what the word of God says. Now there's a unity that's a false unity that the the church world and I would say the harlot church mystery Babylon, Roman Catholicism and her prostitute daughters are trying to bring together. That unity throws truth out the window. That unity compromises the truth and throws the word of God and the and true clear biblical doctrines out the window so everybody can get along. So please understand this morning when I say the word unity, I am not talking
about ecumenical Roman Catholic throw out the truth, throw out the the Bible, throw out the word of God unity because there is no unity in the church unless we're willing to agree what the word of God says on a subject. I'm going to I'll show you that in a second. We have to agree. So if if we have to agree to have unity, if we have to agree on what the scripture say, then what is getting in the way? Well, I'm going to show you this morning from the scriptures that really pride is really the source of all of our disunity among true believers. And when I say pride, I mean the pride that refuses to admit when it's wrong. See, this is a huge problem. There are too many Christians and I'm talking about born again Christians who are believing and adhering to the traditions and doctrines of men that are making the word of God none effect. And these traditions and these doctrines of men and their refusal to accept when someone comes along and says, "Hey, it's not that way. Here's what the scriptures say and let me give you a list of scriptures and let me show you how they all fit together." We just have a lack of humility of people who think they know the Bible to say, "You know what? I've been wrong about that." If we had a little more of that, we would see a greater unity in the body of Christ and we would see a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit and the anointing of God would increase upon the church. Now, how do I know that? Let me Let me just Let's just look at a few verses here. Go to Psalm 133. And I know the Holy Spirit impressed this upon me this morning. Even our church is not in the unity of the spirit that we need to be in. But, let's look at this. Psalm 133. A song of degrees of David, it says. Verse one, we're going to read. It's only three verses. He says, "Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the beard,
even Aaron's beard, and went down to the skirts of his garments. As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion, for there the Lord commanded the blessing, even life forevermore." You see, this is this is so full of truth here. This passage. Because he said, "How good and pleasant is it brethren to dwell together in unity and then he said it is like the precious ointment or the anointing oil that represents the Holy Spirit. He said that flowed down from the head. Now this is when God told Moses to take the anointing oil that was holy, sanctified, to take that anointing oil and pour it on Aaron, his brother, to be the high priest of Israel. If he didn't have this oil on him, if he wasn't anointed with this oil, he could not enter the tabernacle and do his ministry and do his service to God and to the nation of Israel. If he went in without this anointing on, he would he would die. Now this is how critical it is because the anointing of the Holy Spirit is critical to ministers, to leaders, but to all of us. We need the anointing. Everybody just say that with me. We need the anointing of the Holy Spirit. It is not automatic. Uh you know, the church world here's a here's a doctrine of men that just needs to go out the window. This this idea that when we get saved, we got everything. I'm sorry, but that theology is false. The anointing is something the the increase of the anointing on your life is something that you have to pursue, that you have to desire, and that you have to get into the word of God and say, "What what do I have to do to increase the anointing upon myself, upon my church, upon the ministry that I do? What what do I have to to do to have the anointing and power and flow of the Holy Spirit?" And I'm not talking about just for miracles. I know we need the anointing just that our words would be anointed. That when we preach and share the gospel, our words would have power BEHIND THEM. THAT'S THE GREATEST ASPECT. LISTEN, more than any miracle, I want the gospel that I preach and the word that I preach and the witness that I am for Jesus to be anointed with power from on high so that when people hear me, they fall under conviction or God presses them in.
He presses upon them the truth of the word of God. My preaching or your preaching or witnessing or whatever is vain and empty and powerless if you do not have the anointing of the Holy Spirit upon it. The church desperately needs the anointing of the Holy Spirit. But he said this is This can come. One of the reasons we don't have it as we should or have him, I should say, as we should, it's because we lack unity. True unity. And true unity can only come by humility. True unity can only come when we're willing to admit I'm wrong about something. Two people, especially in the in the church world, if we have an opposing view on what scripture says, both people can't be right. NOW, THERE'S A CHANCE BOTH OF THEM ARE WRONG, but both can't be right. Okay? This is imperative. Now, you say, "What are you talking about? You mean we all have to agree on everything to have unity?" Well, maybe not everything. Maybe not every detail. But, on what's written in this book, there is no choice. See, before we turn to the next passage, I want to say this. This is one of the reasons I'm a little disturbed today about this. Why I think God impressed upon me to share this, because um Wednesday or Thursday, I can't remember now, I got an invitation to a meeting being held, I guess it's at Grace Methodist Church. I thought it was at First Methodist, but it's I looked back, it's Grace Methodist Church. And I'm I get a phone call and I'm I'm talking to a gentleman that's clearly Middle Eastern, cuz I can hardly understand him on on the phone, and then I was outside and the wind was blowing, so that didn't help either. But, I get this invitation. And the invitation is to this meeting that they're going to have,
um and and I was trying to hear the guy, and it was kind of hard. I was trying to hear him, and then and he goes, "Well, we want to invite you to this, and I would like to meet you next week, and you know, we want we're going to have an event at Grace uh United Methodist Church here in town. You know, we'd love for you to come, and I'd love to meet you next week." And so, I'm sitting here thinking that I'm talking to a Christian. And I said, "Well, what is your event? What's the event you're having?" He said, "Well, we're going to have a dinner and a panel discussion on the role of women in the Abrahamic religions. And we're going to have a Muslim speaker and a Christian speaker and a Jewish speaker." And I said, "Oh, really?" I mean, I said, "Well, pardon me for asking, or I hope you don't mind me asking, but are you a Christian?" To this gentleman I talked to, "Oh, no, I'm a Muslim." I said, "Well, really?" Obviously, they didn't know who they were calling. But he But this gentleman was as nice as he could be. And I realized, and you know, and I'm considering going. Probably my last invitation, but I'm considering going. Um and I looked at the organization. He's a He's a professor at the university. Teaches math. He's from Turkey. He is a Muslim. And basically, what this is is my first invitation to a meeting of the one world religion, to bring the one the religions together. Right? And I looked at the organization that he's with, and it's a clear it's based out of Turkey, and it's uh it's to bring Christianity and Judaism and Islam, and oh, and by the way, they said all religions are invited as well. And um So, you know, but I was sitting there I was listening to it. I thought, you know, I've been in this town. God sent me back to the Auburn-Opelika area here in Alabama in 2009, or really spoke to me in 2008, end of 2008, to come back here and start a church. I've been here for 6 years. I have reached out and tried to have fellowship with other Pentecostal pastors and ministers in town, both that are with denominations and others that are non-denominational. I have been willing to go I I to different meetings and I you know, I reached out to people I knew even before years ago. Um I've been here 6 years, over 6 years. I've had one group of pastors invite me to a fellowship of pastors. One. I won't name names this morning just for the sake of love, I guess.
And I behaved myself. I knew I was sitting there with two Baptist pastors, a Church of Christ pastor, and a guy who pretended to be Baptist was really but a reformed Calvinist. All right? And I behaved myself. I was very nice. But they asked me to share my testimony. So, I shared my testimony. And I let them know, "Hey, you know, I'm Pentecostal. That means we believe the gifts of the spirit still work and are still in operation today. But you know what? I didn't speak in tongues. I didn't try to cast a demon out of them. I didn't do anything that us Pentecostals do. I didn't give them a prophecy. I didn't, you know, do anything weird. But once they found out that I was Pentecostal, I got no more invitations to their fellowship meeting. No more. I even tried to go to the one that I knew of was coming next cuz they have them at different places in town. And they had changed that. So, I guess they were trying to avoid me finding them again. Okay? Which is okay. But think about that. In six plus years I have reached out to both Baptist ministers, other Pentecostal ministers of Pentecostal denominations like the Assemblies of God, people that I know that I don't agree with on everything, but I've tried to reach out and fellowship with other ministers and other pastors, and pretty much it's been No. No, thank you. Nothing. Now, I realize some of that. But think about this. We're very vocal here in this town. We may have a small church, but they know we're here. Right? We're small, but we're noisy. Right? And when I mean noisy, we're not afraid to shake things up. Right? And through the radio and through the internet and Facebook and all that, I mean, hundreds of people check out our sermons and our stuff from this area, from this region. And then one guy who lives down in Florida who listens to us pretty regular, he said, I posted this on Facebook and he said, well, these other pastors they're probably just scared of you because you just aren't afraid to just say whatever the word of God says and you don't care about their traditions and their denominations and their doctrines. You'll just say what the word says. So, they're scared. And I said, I agree with that. I said, and I don't need their approval. But you think about this, how sad it is that in six plus years of being here, I've had two invitations to fellowship and one was a group of pastors who didn't want me back and the other after the first meeting, and the other is a Muslim.
Trying to unify the Abrahamic religions. See, the world is unifying. They're unifying over the wrong things. They're unifying over Satan's plan for the world. But I can't even get two or three pastors to sit down and do something together. Now, I will give one exception to that and and there's been one exception to this and I have to say is David Copeland Revival Now Ministries. He's They always invite us to everything and we've done something together with them, but that's it. So, there's been one and really that's just cuz he and I go back all the way back to the 1980s, so So, you see what I'm getting at is I I'm I guess I'm just saddened by the fact that even among us Pentecostal ministers in this town, we can't even get together. And I believe that's why revival in this area is hindered. You see? Uh let me show you this. I said I was going to turn to Let's go to Acts 18 first. Because if there was a little more humility among leaders, when I say pastors, evangelists, some of the five-fold ministry, I think if the five-fold ministry, the leaders in the church could humble themselves more and be more unified, I believe the people would follow. Not everybody, but I believe I mean the the temperature of the church so goes the leadership, so goes the church. And that's just the way any organization, all right? So, I told you to turn Acts 18. This came to me this morning. Because I've often thought about Apollos, and I wish more ministers, other pastors, and other leaders were more like Apollos. And let me read to you what I what I mean here. This is uh Acts 18, we'll go to verse 24. It says, "And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandri Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures." Now, let me just stop right there. Apollos at this point, some would say he wasn't a Christian, but he was a Christian. He was born again. He He already knew about Jesus. He already knew about the
crucifixion. He already believed Jesus was the Christ. And it says he was an eloquent man, meaning he was a very good speaker, preacher, teacher. He was very well spoken. And it says he was mighty in the scriptures. That means this man knew the word of God, okay? So, there's no cutting him down here. There's no Nobody's trying to say, "Hey, Apollos, you're you you you know, you're not saved, or you're not uh you don't know the word of God." But, I love this story because it goes on to say, "This man, verse 25, this man was instructed in the way of the Lord, being fervent in the spirit, and he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John." So, he only knew about water baptism and repentance, all right? Which is good. We got a lot of preachers that don't even know that anymore. But he knew about that, but he's preaching the things of the Lord. That's talking about the Lord Jesus. So, he already believed in the Lord, but he only knew the baptism of John. And verse 26 said he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. Whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him they took him unto them and expounded unto unto him the way of God more perfectly. Do you see that? Now, Priscilla and Aquila, we know that they were pastors and had a church in their house. We know this from Corinthians and we know this from Romans. Right? They were disciples of the Apostle Paul. And they heard this man Apollos preaching and they go, "Wow, this guy is on fire for Jesus. This man believes in Jesus. He believes Jesus is the Christ. He is preaching, he's eloquent, he's bold, he's strong, HE'S FERVENT IN SPIRIT." BUT he didn't quite have it all yet. And what was beautiful is this man could have been in pride. Apollos could have been prideful because he had a gift to speak, he was eloquent, he knew the scriptures really well. He could have let pride hinder him and not receive Aquila and Priscilla. And yet, there was humility in this man who was eloquent and mighty in the scriptures. There was enough humility for him to listen to a couple of a couple of other believers to say, "Hey, you know what? There's something you don't know. There's a little bit more here. Let me share this with you." And there was enough humility and let's see. Verse 25 again. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord being fervent in spirit. He spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord knowing only the baptism of John. And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard they took him took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of
God more perfectly. And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia he and the brethren wrote exhorting the disciples to receive him and when he was come he helped them much who had believed through grace for he mightily convinced the Jews and that publicly showing by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ. Now what I believe is what they shared with him was the baptism of the Holy Spirit about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and maybe a few other things. But this man went on from there received what they said and God used him in an even greater fashion. Okay? Now turn to Proverbs chapter 13. Proverbs 13 verse 10 I believe it is. Yes. Here's a verse you ought to mark in your Bible. This will help husbands and wives. This will help teenagers. This will help deacon or mean demon boards. This will help um This will help a whole lot of people get along better. Because if both sides of an argument or a debate or a disagreement would consider this we might figure out some things. And here's what it says. Proverbs 13:10 Only by pride cometh contention. But with the well advised is wisdom. Now, the word here contention means argument or debate or disagreement. Somebody say this with me. Only Only by pride. by pride. Pride is just a refusal to admit you're wrong. Only by pride. How many times does the Bible say only? And single something out like that. This is huge. See, Apollos could have gotten in pride. Well, I'm a better speaker than you, Aquila and Priscilla. I've got a more powerful ministry going on here. I got more people listening to me than they're listening to you. I got a bigger church. I got this. I got that. I'm very eloquent. I know the scriptures better than you. But this man was humble enough
to let them explain some things out of the word of God more perfectly to him. And his ministry increased. And I believe the anointing from what you read here, I believe the anointing of the Holy Spirit increased upon Apollos because he humbled himself and and came into unity more unity with the believers, with Aquila and Priscilla, and with Paul believed. He brought himself more in line with the doctrines and the teachings of the apostles. So therefore, there was more unity in his life with the church and with the leaders of the church of the true church, so the anointing could increase upon his life if we believe the principle of Psalm 133. Right? Everybody staying with me on this, right? See, I want to show you. Go with me to Acts chapter 2. Acts chapter 2, everybody. See, this is right after the church was born on the day of Pentecost. Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead and then was with us with them, I should say, for 40 days and 40 nights and then ascended into heaven. 10 days later came the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the unction, the anointing from on high. Peter stands up and preaches and 3,000 people get saved. See verse 41. He says, "Then they that gladly received his word, well, the message of Peter on that day to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, and they that uh gladly received his word were baptized and the same day were added unto them about 3,000 souls." 3,000 new converts in the first sermon of the church. And then he says this, "And they continued steadfastly." Now, the word continued here means they continued in agreement with. Somebody say agreement. They continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. Oh. What is that? The apostles doctrine. Doctrine means a system of of teaching.
The apostles doctrine. What was the apostles doctrine so far right there? Jesus Christ we find out we look in the book of Acts we find out they said Jesus they talking about Jesus they said neither is salvation in any other. So the doctrine of the apostles was Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. We know also that they were talking about repentance. You have to repent to receive the remission of the forgiveness of sin so repentance is one of the doctrines of the church and then he said this promise speaking of the Holy Ghost and speaking in tongues and the gifts of the Holy Spirit he said this promise is to you and to your children to all them that are far off even as many as the Lord our God shall call. So there were already some things clearly established some doctrines clearly established even though the church was very very new. Jesus is the sacrifice he is the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world you must believe in him you must repent. Turn from your sin turn from your own way turn from your own righteousness you must repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you must be baptized in water and you WILL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF the Holy Ghost. The baptism of the spirit the anointing of the spirit speaking in tongues, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. That was the doctrine. But, here's Here what I'm saying here. It says, "They continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine." Hear what I'm about to TELL YOU. IF I'M WALKING in the truth of scripture and you choose to walk away from the truth from truth IN SCRIPTURE, YOU ARE causing the division, not me. Amen? If the Bible says Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and you say he's not the only way to heaven, then I am not the one causing disunity or division to say, "No, he's the only way." If the Bible says that the baptism of the Holy Spirit is experienced and is evidenced by speaking in other tongues, THAT'S WHAT THE BIBLE says and you SAY IT'S NOT, I'M NOT CAUSING THE division by saying that's what the word OF GOD SAYS. YOU'RE CAUSING the division because you want to walk away or deny it or uphold some tradition or doctrine of men. AND THAT IS PRIDE. PRIDE IS WHAT KEEPS A believer from saying, "I don't I I know I see what you're saying. I see it, but I know this is what my denomination believes, this is what my church believes, this is what my pastor says." All of this is what causes division in the church world. We got debates about are the gifts of the Holy Spirit still for today? This is the most ridiculous argument.
But, I'm not causing the division. I get it all the time. You're a troublemaker. Why? Because I tell you what's in the scriptures? I don't care whether it's I talk about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the Holy Spirit or I talk about you know, the Nephilim, the giants or if I talk about um Jesus still heals or if I talk about you know end time prophecy. I mean, I got I always got people that we got to experts everywhere. You This is what you should preach about. If I hear one more person say this, I got There are people out there go, "Well, now if you're preaching on If you're If If If every message is not on the cross you're getting your off base." Come on, guys. So, look. You know when you're when you're trying to disciple and grow up some believers you got to talk about some other things besides just salvation. Other things that God wants us to do, to know, to experience, to walk in. Yes, salvation is the most important, but the our problem in the church world is we have people that have believed and we have people that have been saved and experienced salvation, but that's where we leave them because we've got doctrines of men and traditions and denominations. See, go with me. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter 1. You'll understand something a little better here. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. Are we there? This is what he says here. We'll start at verse 4. He says, "I thank my God always on your behalf." This is Paul speaking to the church at Corinth that he founded. He said, "I thank my God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by Jesus Christ, that in everything you are enriched by him and all utterance and in all knowledge." "Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you." "So that you come behind in no gift, waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." So Paul's praising them and saying, "Hey, you come behind in no gift. All the gifts of the Holy Spirit were operating in the church of Corinth." Hard to say that today. All right? And he said, "Your testimony of Christ is there. It's confirmed. You preach Christ Jesus. You preach the Lord."
All right? But then he says this. Verse 10. "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing." Uh-oh. Hold up now. We read over this stuff, don't we? He says, "I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing. And that there be no divisions among you. BUT THAT YOU BE PERFECTLY joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it hath been declared unto me of you, by my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. Now this I say, that every one of you saith, 'I am of a Paul, I am of Apollos, I am of Cephas, I am of Christ.' Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you or were you baptized in the name of Paul? Do you see the point? He Here Here you want to see where the beginning of denominations came. Right here. And Paul addresses this by an AMAZING STATEMENT. ALL OF you And the church of Corinth by this time was huge. All of you speak the same thing. That there be no divisions among you. You say, "Well, Pastor Dean, that's impossible." NO, IT'S NOT. YOU want to know why it's not? I was talking to a a Baptist pastor yesterday. And again, I'm trying to reach out to. And and and we were just talking briefly. And we mentioned something about, you know, he he said something like, "I'm only Baptist cuz that's where I started." Something to that effect. And I said, "Well, I said, "None of the None of these names matter. There's one book. The word of God. There's only one Bible that we are to base all of our beliefs, all of our thinking, all of our ideas as Christians on any doctrinal matter, on anything. If the Bible says it, that settles it. It doesn't matter if your denomination agrees with you. It doesn't matter if your seminary taught it or didn't teach it. It doesn't matter what you think or what you FEEL OR YOUR STUPID OPINIONS. HOW ABOUT THIS?
JUST ADMIT. I I wish, you know, I had a discussion not long ago with another Baptist pastor. And he somehow believes he's an expert on the Holy Spirit and his gifts. And yet, I said, "Have you ever spoken in tongues?" Nope. How about just admitting Here's a Here's a humble Here's an idea. Why don't you just say to me, "You know, I've never done that. I don't understand how these things are supposed to work. I've never seen them work in a church." It doesn't mean that you're not an eloquent speaker. It doesn't mean you don't know the scriptures pretty good. But maybe you just don't know about this. Maybe you could learn something from this preacher who didn't go to your seminary, who's not from your denomination, but who's operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and seen them operate, and knows how to how to let them flow, and and and regulate them in a church. Why don't you talk and just say, "Hey, you know, maybe this Maybe Maybe you pastor's been doing this for almost 30 years. Maybe you know about Tell me about it." There's just not that humility. You all speak the same thing. Have the same mind and the same judgment. This is unity. Unity means I'm going to agree with you if what you are saying is what the the teaches. I'm going to agree. I got people that think we are crazy, weird, off-the-wall because we talk about the Nephilim. We talk about the fallen angels who had relations with the with the daughters of men and created a race of giants. WE THOUGHT STRANGE, BUT THIS IS IN THE BIBLE. IT'S IN GENESIS. IT'S IN NUMBERS. IT'S IN DEUTERONOMY. IT'S IN 1 SAMUEL. IT'S IN 2 SAMUEL. It's in the Bible. AND THESE SAME PEOPLE SAY, "WELL, I believe the Bible." BUT YOU'RE NOT. NO, YOU DON'T. You don't believe the Bible. You know, we don't let people talk in tongues in our church. That stuff might be of the devil. The scripture says, "Forbid not to speak with tongues." Uh-oh.
Who's causing the division? Let me tell you something. If your church or denomination or pastor or even you if you don't agree with what the early church taught, what the apostles taught, what the Bible teaches, what the early church did you're the one that's caused the division. Wake up time. Right? See, Jesus said this. Go to John 17 with me. I'll close in a second. Oh, we're doing good. It's only noon. Good preacher. John 17. See, I got to find it. Yeah, here it is. Now, Jesus prayed this here. You want true unity defined? Paul defined it. He already said what? That you all speak the same thing. But now, Pastor Dean, you just won't get believers to agree on everything. You mean I shouldn't try? You mean I should be quiet and not point out the truth? Or should I point out the truth and try to get people to agree with what the scripture says, not with what Pastor Dean believes or my opinions? I have opinions about things. I'll tell you when it's my opinion. But on the scriptures and what the scriptures teach, what they lay out, precept upon precept, line upon line, there is no compromise. There is no backing away. If you want to be in unity with me, well, on something when I'm right about it, when it's in this book, and I I can clearly spell it out to you, if you want to be in unity, then you have to agree with what the book says. And if we both agree with what the The says, then we'll be in unity. We'll speak the same thing. We'll have the same mind. We'll have the same judgment and discernment. Jesus made this statement. This is why you know that the ecumenical movement of the Roman Catholic Church and with the Episcopals and the Lutherans and all this compromise that's going on, this this this false unity, this is why you know it's not of God,
right here. They quote this, but nobody thinks about what it's really saying. This is what Jesus said. And we'll start reading verse 20. Jesus says, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word." So, he's praying for the church and those who would believe even later. He says, "That they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, and they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou has sent me." Uh-oh. Let me ask you something. He says that they all may be one "as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee." Is there any disagreement or doctrinal disagreement between the Father and the Son? Uh-oh. Uh-oh. That means I can't I can't be in agreement with you if you're going to pray to Mary. Can't do it. I can't be in agreement with you if you say Muslims and Jews and Christians all worship the same God. Can't be in agreement with you. We are not speaking the same thing. We are not in unity. True unity we agree with what the word of God says. Amen? Now, let me say this also, just on personal levels. Personal levels relationships in the church. Personal levels We're always going to at times, husbands and wives church members church leaders we're going to rub each other the wrong way. We're going to misunderstand each other. Sometimes we're going to be in the flesh and say something we shouldn't say or say it in a way we shouldn't say it or we we do something we shouldn't do or we don't do something that we should have done or what, you know, there's there's going to be issues. But, listen to me, husbands and wives. Especially men. We have issues admitting we're wrong. Men have more pride issues than women. Women have Jezebel issues. Rebellion issues. But, men have pride
issues. Both are equally evil. Both have to be brought under control and brought to to obey Jesus. We we have to resist those tendencies. Right? We all have tendencies to And I'm not saying that a woman can't be in pride. A woman can be in pride and a man can be a Jezebel as well. Rebellious spirit. I'm just saying the best thing we can do when there's a disagreement, there's an argument, there's a debate, if we're wrong, See, some of us, you know what stubbornness is? Stubbornness is when you know you're wrong, but you won't admit it. And you know what the Bible says stubbornness is? Says it's idolatry. Did you know that? First Samuel 15, he said, "Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry." So, to the pastor out there, to the other ministers out there, to the churches out there that won't agree with what the scripture say, their stubbornness to not admit they're wrong is a big fat idol. It is a big fat idol of their own pride. That's all it is. One of the most beautiful things in the world is when I hear a Christian or a pastor or leader say, "You know, I used to believe this. I used to think this, but I was wrong. I have changed that because the word of God says this." Oh, how I long for that. I've had to change my beliefs, some of my beliefs over the years. You know, when I got saved at 11 years old, I didn't know who the Holy Ghost was. I didn't know what tongues were. I didn't know even know about it. My first few years of being a Christian, first 2 years, I believed in the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine. Don't anymore. I admit it, I was wrong. I preached it. I taught it.
The first 2 years I was a minister, I preached that and taught that. I have since seen what the scripture says and admitted I'm wrong. I was wrong. There's a bunch of Baptist preachers and Methodist preachers and there's a bunch of people out there that just need to admit, you know what? About the baptism of the Holy Spirit, about once saved always saved, about the pre-tribulation rapture doctrine, you need to get in the scriptures and you finally just need to humble yourselves and say, "You know what? I'm wrong." It's okay. It's a beautiful thing. Humility. Humility to say, "I'm wrong. Forgive me. I'm going to put myself into agreement with the truth. I'm going to put myself into agreement with the scriptures." That kind of unity choice, it's a unity. Everybody say this with me. Unity is a choice. To humble myself. And agree with God. With his word. And the truth about any given situation. Instead of justifying what we did. You don't have to keep Everybody know what I'm talking about? Everybody done this in an argument? You know you're You know you're wrong. You know you're wrong. You know it. You know it. You know it. But just down in you just eat you alive. Just like, "Hey, I'm not admitting I'm not GOING TO ADMIT IT." I DO IT TO NANCY ALL THE TIME. SEE? I admit it. I was wrong. I do it to her. I mess with her so bad often. I didn't do it. Why'd you hide my stuff? I know I lost it, but I'll mess with her. "Where'd you put it?" Unity. God, I wish there could be more unity. True unity. I wish I could find a group of pastors in this town that could be from different denominations and sit around and admit I've been wrong about this. I've been wrong about that. And you know.
And we all open the Bible up and go Let's agree on this. Let's Let's agree on what this book says. On all of it. You know, I was going to sit here. I was going to talk a little bit about the the pre-trib rapture thing, but that's just one That's just one thing. Nowhere in this book does it say we are raptured before the 7-year tribulation, before the Antichrist comes, before the mark Nowhere does it say that. Nowhere. In fact, Matthew 24 says the opposite. Immediately after the tribulation of those days the angel descends, the sound of a trumpet, the Lord gathers his elect from the four winds. It It's as plain as the nose on your face. But we got a bunch of people I got I got Pentecostal pastors a couple of which I led to the LORD WHO WON'T FELLOWSHIP WITH me because I don't believe their precious pre-trib rapture doctrine. You want to talk about ridiculous? Who's in division? I got one Pentecostal fellow Pentecostal minister that should apologize to me who publicly said some things that were not true, attacked me, tried to destroy my character in front of some people just because I didn't agree with his pre-wrath rapture doctrine. Still hasn't apologized for it. Pride. Pride. Pride. Pride. You know, he don't even have to agree with me on the rapture issue. But he ought to admit he was wrong in what he did. Publicly. And you know, what's so sad about it is I've reached out to him over the years trying trying to renew and restore our friendship from years ago. It just bothers me. Now granted, you're not going to be able to be in unity with everybody in the church world. I know that. Some people you don't need to. Wolves in sheep's clothing, false teachers, people who aren't going to going to change, they refuse to change. I mean yet there there's certain situations that you separate yourself from individuals. But I sure wish there could be more
unity. Even among us. Here. I guarantee you this. What did he say? He said that the early church continued steadfastly. They were in one accord. The apostles' doctrine. Prayers. Fellowship. And breaking bread. I wish we could the whole church. The church in Opelika and Auburn, Alabama here. I I you know, 30 years and I can say 30 years. I've only been called to be a preacher for about 28 years, but I went to Pentecostal church when I was a young kid with my Assembly of God church with my great-grandmother and my great-aunt and and we went to the Baptist church when I was an adolescent and right before I became a teenager, so I can say 30 years. But I've never seen a time that the church is so fragmented as it is now. Even among I mean, back in the old days I'll say this, back in the late '80s man I would get invited to preach in Methodist churches, Baptist churches, Assembly of God churches and I wouldn't any of those things. Now, I can I won't I don't even get an invitation from another Pentecostal church. It is a bizarre time we live in. We got a whole group of people out there that think they don't even need a church and they don't even need leaders that there's no such thing. You know, let me close with this. I said I was going to close. Sorry, I told the story. See, I was wrong. I shouldn't have said that. One more, Ephesians 4. Pentecostal preacher should never say he's about to close. This will kind of put the icing on the cake here for us. Ephesians chapter 4. I want everybody to see it.
It's part of your homework here, Patrick. Verse 11, the Bible says and he, speaking of Jesus, gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers for the perfecting or maturing of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying or the building up of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith. Now, the word faith here doesn't just mean that we all agree that Jesus is the savior. That's what most people think faith is, or the Christian faith, it's just that we believe in Jesus. No, the definition of this word here means much more. It means the entire system of truth in the gospel. Everything. But he says here that the fivefold ministry, which I believe is still in effect, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, because I believe the church still needs perfecting. I believe the church still has work of the ministry to do, and I believe the church still needs to be edified, and no doubt we have not come into unity. But he says that this fivefold ministry, these the leaders in the church world, the ministers, are for it to do these things till we all come into the unity of the faith and of knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. And we know this is about sound doctrine and the word of God and the truth, because he says in verse 14 that we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men and the cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth in love that we may be able to grow up in him in all things which is the head, even Christ. So, the purpose of leadership in the church, the purpose of all five-fold ministry, whether you you have a the apostolic calling or the calling of to be a prophet or an evangelist or a pastor or a teacher, it is to try to bring us into unity and that unity is not just saying, "Well, let's all agree to disagree." I hate that saying. Can I just say that? I'm not going to agree to disagree with you. I like it. What was I saw it Duck Dynasty, I think J said it. I think uh Willie said something, "Let's just agree to this." He said, "No, no. I don't I'm not agreeing to disagree. I just disagree." I love that. No. If the word says A and you say B, I'm not agreeing with you. I'M NOT EVEN AGREEING TO disagree with
you. I'm going TO SAY, "YOU'RE WRONG." IT'S WHAT THE WORD SAYS. LET'S COME TO THE UNITY. That means you come over here and agree with A. Right? This resistance to leadership in the church, this resistance to sound doctrine, this resistance here is why we see so many people blown about with all these crazy doctrines and beliefs. Somebody say true unity. True unity. Agrees with the word of God. Agrees with the word of God. And will bring the anointing. And will bring the anointing. Somebody all right that down. That's a good word right there. That's a Facebook post, babe. I see you working on it. True unity. Agrees with the word of God. What else did I say? Brings the anointing. And brings the anointing. Of the Holy Spirit. All right. Let us, as Paul said in Philippians, let us endeavor to keep the unity of the faith. Amen. The unity of the spirit. Let God's word be true and every man a liar if he says opposite. Did y'all learn something today? Y'all going to endeavor to walk in unity? All right. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for your word. I thank you we have one Bible that's inspired, that's infallible. That is a book written over thousands of years by all these different authors that you inspired and that and that book is in unity. And Lord, we ask you to help bring more of the church. I know we will never see the entire church world in true unity, but Lord, I pray for more and more brothers and sisters who say they agree and believe the Bible to truly begin to speak the same thing, have the same mind, have the same judgment. That we can be one as the Father and Jesus are one, which is means no separation, no disagreement. Lord, I pray for that and I pray that that the church world will wake up to the deception of this false unity with Islam, with Judaism, with new agers.
Compromise and throwing truth out the window is not unity. So, Lord, we pray for grace. Holy Spirit, come, lead us and guide us into all truth in your word. And let the anointing and power increase upon the church. Father, I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.