Lightly edited for readability while preserving the speaker’s meaning and substantive statements.
well praise god did y'all have a good worship time amen praise god i'm actually enjoying playing again i'm glad y'all can tolerate my mediocre guitar playing and singing but i think it's better to just worship free i may have to stay over here a little bit i want you to take your bibles out this morning i do have a word that i felt like the lord wanted me to share of course i'm preparing about three or four different messages at this time and sometimes i don't know exactly what the lord's going to do and then i can be studying three or four different things and it's none of the above it's always something different however yesterday i took a walk up in the woods to go pray and as i was up there i felt the lord just kind of download something in me this morning about the true church what is the church what is a picture of the true church y'all think you can handle that this morning i think we need to know because listen we live in a world right now of people that are so confused and they're confused because there's churches all kinds of different churches all kinds of different denominations all kinds of different beliefs and doctrines and philosophies there's so many out there and and people get moved by the idea that well some you know they're they do good works they're good people they're sincere they help the poor they try to help street people or or women that are you know being caught up in the sex trafficking thing listen i praise god for every good deed that's done in the world because there's plenty of evil being done but just doing good does not make you saved it doesn't make you a christian and it doesn't necessarily make you a church there's a lot of charities out there that do a lot of good feed the poor and uh and help people but they have nothing to do with jesus christ of nazareth they have nothing to do with the bible they have nothing to do with eternal life as a matter of fact it's amazing the bible is very clear in the love chapter in first corinthians 13 that you can give all your goods to the poor you can give your body to be burned and still not have love and you say how is that possible how can i you know give my whole life to serve and help the poor give everything i own to help the poor i'm doing good deeds i'm a good person and still not have love because let me just explain something to you the bible is very clear that god almighty jehovah yahweh the lord jesus christ god in the flesh that god is love and apart from walking with him in truth you don't have real love you have human love you have human emotion but you don't have or know the true love of god and you never will you won't find it in a girlfriend a boyfriend a husband a wife
true love and true satisfaction and true intimacy that the human soul and spirit longs for can only be found the one that made them amen so there's a lot of counterfeits out there you know we got the roman catholic church he claims that it's the true church you got the church of christ a lot of them claim that they're the only church you can go to and be saved right then you've got the people so you got these extremes that say you know we're the true church or we're the only true church and then you've got the other side of the coin that says well anybody names the name of jesus is you know any group of people that say they're christian or in the name of jesus is a church and there's just a whole lot of confusion out there we got a lot of preachers out there that are more like women than they are men we got a myth and so this morning just as briefly as i can let's look at the church what is the true church now god gave a blueprint in the book of acts and i want you to just go ahead and turn to the book of acts chapter 1 this morning and this is almost a continuation of the last three weeks when we've had about new testament prophets and prophecy and the gifts of the holy spirit and so last week i talked about the baptism of the holy spirit the evidence of speaking in other tongues and the nine gifts of the holy spirit and and how that is for today and how god wants his church to be filled with his anointing his holy spirit his power and to flow in the gifts and that's why i think it's awesome that you know the fruit of that is coming forth tongues interpretation and prophecy this morning in church and uh you know i believe we're going to see more and more of the gifts of the holy spirit flowing but let's just get something down in us look folks don't be deceived by people who appear to be nice niceness does not mean that you are walking in the truth niceness or sweetness or apparently looking charitable does not mean that you are not truly a diabolically evil person listen the most diabolical evil in the world is something that appears to be sincere nice genuine loving helpful and yet it's leading you away from god it's leading you away from the lord jesus it's leading you away from the truth of the bible the scriptures anything like that is evil and remember this this is what a lot of people forget as we're getting this if if you look back to adam and eve in the
garden and say here's the thing i believe it i believe these things are not myths or fables i believe they're real and i believe when we look back to adam and eve in the garden and we see that god placed two trees in the garden and he told them and of course there were many other trees around them fruit trees and things that they could eat i'm sure that were far more delicious than what we have now the earth wasn't corrupted and polluted and defiled but here's something he put the tree in the garden the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life two trees tree of life the tree of the knowledge of good and evil listen the good and evil there was a good and evil on this bad tree good nice sweet charitable is not always of god you hear me the antichrist will come sounding good the bible warns us he will come as a man of peace that he may even be instrumental in making peace between israel and the palestinians and everybody can say how can a man who will bring peace and stop war and stop this division and strife how can that man be bad the bible warns us that even satan himself comes sometimes as an angel of life meaning he angel of light rather he appears to be something that he is not and let me just warn you young people oh and that's older people everybody that comes into your life is not necessarily good for you no matter how good it appears oh not everything that shines is gold right well we got to wake up y'all with me there's a lot of counterfeits out there a lot of counterfeit churches full of sincere people who want to do good or think they're trying to do good but let's look at it let's look at the blueprint now a lot of people say well we're you know we've moved in the modern age you know the book of acts is not the way things are supposed to be let me just explain something to you the church of acts the church born in the midst of holy ghost fire and revival is god's original blueprint for what a church is supposed to look like and it's supposed to be okay now hear what i'm saying we have this written down the acts of the apostles by the apostle luke
who was both there with jesus those years watched everything jesus did and then he was also traveled with paul so luke had a good knowledge of what was going on he was also a physician which means he was rather smart man and he's the one that god used to write the book of acts now i want to say this and this ought to go without saying but the church of jesus christ true christianity is governed by one thing primarily and that is the bible the word of god if we're not going to to believe it and do our best to obey it what in the world are we doing i don't understand the christians who want to be buddhist and christian you understand we have got to decide am i going to live am i going to be as a true christian i'm going to live by the word of god or not now remember this the church in the book of acts was born in the fire of revival so i'm going to put this little preface on this it was born in the fire revival and let's just put it this way born by god born by the holy spirit brought forth by the power of god not every church gets to start in a revival not every christian you know the first christians that got saved there when the church was born in the book of acts they got they got saved in the midst of an outpouring of the holy spirit that was probably pretty hard for most of us to comprehend the awesome presence of god and the glory of god and the power of god that was flowing but just because a church maybe doesn't start in the fire revival like on the day of pentecost and maybe you know not every christian gets to get saved in that so what we've got to do is though as a church as a person as a christian we should we should aspire to grow to what they were we should that should be our desire we're not going to do everything exactly the way they did and we're not going to be able to it was a different time but that god gave us what happened with them as a church as it was in its infancy and born so perfectly and operating and functioning so perfectly that he gave us a blueprint of what a true church is supposed to look like for the rest of time until jesus would return now listen to me folks i'm going to be real blunt today if your church and i have people listening by blog talk radio people listen in the podcast if your church or if a church
does not look like this or or is not concerned about the things that we see in the book of acts and they don't want to be like that if they're not that way i'm telling you it's a counterfeit i don't care how good the people are i don't care how what good they're trying to do if there's no desire to follow the original blueprint to be after what god the way god wants the church to be then get away from it because it's going to be dead and it's going to be powerless now i'm just going to give you a couple of verses here or a couple of passages before we get into this just to give you an illustration of something in hebrews chapter 8 just write this down in hebrews chapter 8 1-5 i believe the apostle paul was talking about some things in there when he was talking about the old testament and god using moses to make the tabernacle and he made this statement he said that the lord spoke to moses and this is a direct quote from exodus 25 but the lord spoke to moses and told him to make the tabernacle on earth you know the tent with the brazen altar and the brazen laver and the candlestick and the table of showbread and the altar of incense and the basically what's called the church in the wilderness the church and tabernacle of moses god told moses when he was on the mountain with god god said you be sure that you make that tabernacle and everything in it according to the pattern that you saw that i showed you on the mountain now what did god show him well hebrews says that he was to make it after the pattern of the heavenly things that he saw meaning that god showed moses when he was up on the mountain the tabernacle that was in heaven that and and and everything that was in heaven the mercy seat the altar of incense god showed him and said make it just like you saw it in heaven and he used the word pattern make it after the pattern now what do you think that god would have done had moses said okay gotcha i saw the pattern i hear what you're telling me your words and then he went down from the mountain and made it his own way someone would have died one time moses does something different than god tells him and he doesn't get to go into the promised land that's how serious god is about his way of doing things somehow though the modern church in the west in america has seemed
to forget that god's way is the way you do it right we have this again fast forward i'm just going to give you the scriptures you can go read it for yourself you can have your homework right first chronicles 13 and 15. david found out the hard way what happens when you don't do things after god's word his and his pattern remember david becomes king and he says we need to go get the ark of the covenant and you remember the story they put the ark of the covenant on a new cart and these two guys ohio not from ohio but ohio and oza were trying to guide the cart pull this new cart pulled by oxen now here's what it is they put the ark of the covenant on this new cart the oxen are pulling it everybody's shouting and praising god david's out there dancing and playing his instruments and they're having a pentecostal meeting boy right they're worshiping god they're praising god david's called the man after god's own heart david's the anointed giant killer david's the anointed king the spirit of god's on david but they're not doing it according to the scriptures according to the pattern god gave because god said the ark of the covenant was only to be touched and only to be carried by the priests the levites but yet they put it on a new cart they were carrying it back to israel and the oxen stumbled and the the ark shook and ozza put forth his hand and touched the ark to stabilize it something good and god struck him dead and it freaked david out so matter of fact it said david became angry how many of you know that it was not a good scene it went from pentecostal charismatic praise and worship service to death and destruction and problem the ark had to be taken aside it took months before they figured out what went wrong david had some repenting to do not just over doing it wrong but what happened when it didn't work out right and then you can look on in chronicles i love this and now i can't remember you'll have to look it up but in chronicles when david's about to die and he calls in solomon and god said god had showed david everything about building the temple because they were going to move from the tabernacle they're going to move from mount zion where david had they were going to move the the center of worship was going to move
to this to solomon's temple remember david was going to build it but the lord said no you're not going to build it your son's going to build it but it's interesting that david said be sure you build this according to the pattern that god gave me in the spirit and so solomon was very diligent to do everything exactly the way david showed him because god had showed him the exact pattern of how to make it now having said that doesn't look like god's concern with his way his pattern his blueprint his desires the way he wants things to be right now you want to be a heathen you want to be a rebel you want to do your own thing yeah you don't have to worry about that until judgment day but you want to be a christian well then we're going to do things according to the book here right now let's look at the book of acts and let's see if some of these churches out here even resemble anything like the book of acts i'm gonna run down through some lists this is in chapter one remember in chapter one i'm gonna do this fast because i preached too long last week i'm gonna do this fast so you're gonna have to keep up with me you got more homework you can read acts one through uh you know 12 right but i'm going to do this fast characteristics of the true church of a true church the church of acts the blueprint the original blueprint of god number one the first thing you see in acts chapter 1 is that they obeyed the words of jesus to go to jerusalem and wait for the baptism of the holy spirit that came with the evidence of speaking in other tongues imagine that that the first thing that the before the church can be born and what brought it forth was a group of people that obeyed jesus to go to jerusalem and wait for the promise of the holy spirit see this this ought to blow people's minds and i talked about it last week but folks a church that ignores or puts down or diminishes or takes light the need for the baptism of the holy spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues and the gifts of the holy spirit prophecy and other things moving in a church i'm going to tell you right now you should walk away from that death and if you think that's just pastor dean's instructions let me give you some scripture second timothy 3 5 and 6 says this that they would have a form of godliness he's talking about the last days too in verse one he says perilous times shall come second timothy three in the last days perilous times shall
come men shall be lovers of their own selves proud boastful blasphemers he goes down through the list but then he says they will have a form these boasters these blasphemers these deceivers these sinful people will have a form of godliness or form of christianity but they will deny or reject the power the dunamis power of god so listen to me let me just be blunt any church that has a form of christianity but says no to the power you are supposed to turn away and walk away from that's exactly what that scripture says he said well that's pretty radical pastor didn't get it listen i got saved in a baptist church a small baptist church here in opelika i had an encounter with god but i'm going to tell you what that was all they could give me because they denied everything else here's the thing i don't even understand how can a church or something that calls itself a church or someone who calls themselves a minister of the gospel say that the supernatural is not for today when god himself is always supernatural when did when did god cease being supernatural unless you you've fallen into that new age belief that man is a god no how a supernatural god can never cease to be supernatural amen you see what i'm saying so the first thing that we see in the church is that they obey jesus and what's sad is do you know that there were 500 people the book of corinthians first corinthians paul tells us there were 500 people that saw jesus ascend into heaven when he ascended and yet there was only 120 in the upper room the day the church was born now he told all those people go to jerusalem and wait for the promise of the father you will be baptized with the holy spirit not many days hits now listen to me if jesus christ you're 500 people and jesus christ has just died on the cross he's been raised from the dead he spent 40 days appearing to different people you happen to they they have a big this is what a lot of people are they had a big meeting outdoors 500 people show up jesus is talking to him that means 500 people stood there and saw the nail scars in his hands and heard him say go to jerusalem and wait for the promise of the father you will be baptized immersed filled with the holy ghost not many days from now and there were people who went home and didn't go to jerusalem wasn't important to him
but the true church it was important amen so i'm going to tell you a church that the baptism and power of the holy spirit is not important run from them they're fools i'm just going to be honest with you they are complete fools who disregard this book and ought to be ashamed to call themselves a christian that's just number one number two they were baptized in the holy spirit and spoke in tongues in other words they were unashamedly pentecostal and i'm just being honest with you i have no shame being pentecostal but now we got secret sensitive churches and i remember back you know back in the late 80s and early 90s when this seeker sensitive philosophy started coming into the church world and it started coming in to once very powerful anointed spirit-led churches where the gifts were operating on sunday morning and they decided you know what we don't need that we need to tone it down we need to bring the gospel down to the these people's level because they're so pitiful they can't understand it and what they did was grieved the holy spirit quenched the holy spirit and killed the church see here listen to me preaching is a wonderful thing god said it's by the foolishness of preaching that he's chosen to save those that believe but let me just explain something to you i know that no matter how well i preach how much word i teach how anything that i say or do i've learned over the last 27 years that it's not going to be just what i preach and what i teach is going to save you that god has to by the power of the holy spirit he's got to take that word and he's got to penetrate your heart and sometimes that happens quickly and sometimes that takes years to happen in a person's life but i don't depend on just my words so if a church is absent the holy spirit they've grieved him they quenched him they've resisted him they're just dependent on their own words and wisdom and that's why we ended up with this demonic totally unscriptural philosophy called secret sensitive christianity and let me tell you it creeps into even good churches we've got to tone it down we've got to simplify we've got to become relevant if you say you've got to become relevant that means you're not let me just say this the gospel message of jesus christ
is the power of god you will trust that or you will trust your little man-made techniques and manipulation tricks that's why we got bon jovi playing in church services that's why we got smoke machines and light shows and videos and we got people just living in sin in the church i'm sorry you cannot as a christian as a church as a minister of the gospel you cannot be seeker sensitive and preach the true gospel you can't do it willow creek saddleback schuler's crystal cathedral joel osteen lakewood [Music] let's see that philosophy now has come into into the entire church in america i'm gonna be honest with you do you know how many emails and facebook contacts and people tell me i can't find a church that believes the bible anymore or that will preach it so that's acts chapter 1. right in acts chapter 2. now let's look at this remember my third point here let's look at the first sermon in the book of acts let me just cover it you can read it peter stood up on the day of pentecost and they were all speaking in tongues and the people said are these these drunk it's the third hour of the day and he stood up and he's and he quoted the prophet joel and he said no no he said god's pouring out his spirit on all flesh your sons and daughters will prophesy they will see dreams and visions from god there'll be blood and fire and pillars of snow the day of the lord he's preaching man he said you killed the christ you killed the messiah i mean he's preaching to several thousand people that gather around and he's preaching the gospel listen to everything the first sermon of the newly birthed church of jesus christ listen to the first sermon what did all it covered here's the first sermon in the church the first sermon covered dreams visions prophecy end time prophecy gave the gospel story of jesus dying on the cross being raised from the dead it was pinned it was it was pointed it exposed the sins of the listeners preached from the old testament god forbid was convicting called men to repent and believe in jesus for the remission of sins promised the gift of the holy spirit that they had just had would be for all forever who would believe and turn to the lord
and said and here's an amazing an amazing truth about this first sermon the word love was never mentioned nor did it attempt to be seeker sensitive or bring god down to some human level just read it it was vicious you killed the prince of life you bunch of heathens you wicked by your wicked hearts you killed the messiah but god raised him from the dead he said when they were pricked in their heart that means they were so convicted that it was like somebody taking a cattle prod and sticking it in their heart that's the greek you get and they said men and brethren what do we do he said repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sin so you get not only the gospel but how you get saved and guess what people got saved and that was my point number four number four was people were converted from their old dead religion and sinful ways listen to me this is something that we forget who was the main audience that peter was preaching to jews jews that believed that they were serving god through the old covenant and guess what oh let me dance a little bit here when jesus came and instituted the new covenant you had to leave some old dead religion and some old dead traditions and some old ways that you thought would get you righteousness and you had to enter what jesus wanted what the holy ghost wanted it was a new covenant amen that's why some folks it's time to leave the baptist church it's time to leave the methodist church it's time to leave the presbyterian church it's time to leave these dead places and leave these old traditions and get filled with the holy ghost and get back in the word of god and repent and turn from your sin and turn from your religious traditions that are just death and lies from the devil amen enough enough i am not going to play nice we are at the end of time and we've got churches out here telling people the holy spirit's not for today you don't need to speak in tongues you don't need to cast out demons you don't need to talk about end time prophecy you don't need to be prepared for what's coming you're going to be taken out of here all the lies of this dead religion out here and it's destroyed young people
it sounds mean but i hate dead empty powerless deceptive religion that calls itself christianity hate it and i'm going to tell you something else jesus hates it oh yes and i use the word hate he hates it because it robs people of eternal life it robs them of the truth it's gonna damn what religion dead christianity will damn more people to hell than anything else the roman catholic church killed millions claimed that it was christian and he has turned people against christianity when it never was christianity that's why there's a special judgment talked about for the roman catholic church in the book of revelation she's going to get double for her sins so we're only on number four i got about 20 of these number five i'm just going to run through listen all this you can read number five the fear of god was present if you if you read on down in the end of chapter two let's just look at chapter two you read on down after these people got saved and the church was was moving on toward the end of chapter two look at verse 43 it says and fear came upon every soul the fear of god you know what that means the awesome trembling and respect for the lord's goodness and his wrath it literally means to fear to be afraid it's it's the greek word phobia oh the true church a true church will have the fear of god enough to have reverence of god a lot of people say the fear of the lord means just to represent no it means you fear him enough to reverence him you know the difference listen i'm going to tell you right now we just heard a story of some youth pastor talking about god sitting in his tighty whities watching football yes i'm sorry that shows me no fear of god no respect or reverence of god and but this is everywhere y'all this is just everywhere and i know that's pointed this morning to something but it's a fact it illustrates my point the true church of jesus the early church the blueprint of the books of acts the fear of god was present meaning they understood that god meant what he said he was not to be trifled with he is not some slob he's not like some slob man sitting around in his tighty
white he's watching football i'm sorry that is blasphemous and irreverent yes but it shows me the state of the church and even decent church this is from a decent church this shows me the state that we are in of this being backslidden and we are now just tolerate anything as christianity no let's look at the next one number six says that in that same part it says the fear came upon every soul and many wonders and signs were done by the apostles and if you look down it says they continued in the apostles verse 42 they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship and breaking bread and i just put here they respected their leaders and they continued in sound doctrine i can't tell you how many times i've seen well i you know i can read the bible myself well you should but sound doctrine is important and they wouldn't believe the sound doctrine of the apostles oh and here's the thing we got people out there saying that there's no such thing as leadership in the church that we're a priesthood of believers and it shouldn't be a pastor or there shouldn't be leaders let me just go and tell you that is so from the devil the bible is clear there are people called to lead the church apostles prophets evangelist pastors and teachers then you have elders and deacons there is order in god's church there are leaders and there are people called to be just because somebody's abused it doesn't mean we throw it out the window right first i mean not verse that but number seven they attended regular prayer meetings in fellowship can i say that again they attended regularly prayer meetings and other fellowships it wasn't just a sunday thing it wasn't just a saturday thing you know what i'm saying and in fact we'll look at it in a minute but they were praying people they understood that getting together to pray was was very important let's keep going i love number eight here and this is something that we've seen a little bit in our church here and i love this it says i say here that they gave sacrificially to meet each other's needs this is something that we need to do better at but we're a small church we're a poor church nobody in here is rich
unless you hiding it pretty well but i've seen this church you know nancy and i just went through a really rough time we're still kind of in it we have a lot of things go wrong but over the last five years i've seen people give to help us not just financially but time things that we needed and not saying we can't do better but i'll tell you we we've been we've been blessed because we're going to enter a time of trouble where we're all going to need to help each other as much as we possibly can and you know it goes on to say how they sold their things and and distributed to every man's need and that's just you know they sold land and they did all kind of things to help their brethren their brothers and sisters number nine said they ate their meat with gladness and singleness of heart that's verse 46 praising god i said you know i said they were in unity and had joy i'm going to be very honest at times we've had unity and at times we've been very disjointed in this church so we got room to grow in some areas right but there was a deep unity and because of that unity and because they were in prayer meetings and because they were fellowshipping together because they were helping each other and because they were being filled and moving in the holy spirit there was great unity and great joy amen number ten said they had the supernatural miracles from god in jesus name when that gets over it says many signs and wonders were done in the name of jesus in chapter 2 there but chapter 3 starts out with peter and john going to the temple to going to pray going to the temple and they see a lame man and he looks on them he's sitting there begging with a cup and they look at him as his silver and gold have i known but such as i have i give unto thee he said in the name of jesus christ of nazareth rise up and walk and it said the crippled man who had been laid at the gate crippled for god knows how many years that he stood he received strength that they grabbed him and helped him up and he his legs received strength and a miracle happened and folks let me just tell you we've seen a few healings we've seen a few miracles we've seen a few people delivered from demons but i believe in the days ahead that if we'll move in into this keep following after this pattern of what a true church is supposed to be we're going to see the crippled walk and the death here and the blind sea and the dead ways i believe that i've seen some of those miracles in my own life over the years but this church has yet to really see the power of god come down and i believe it's because we haven't been unified as we needed to be we haven't been in prayer as we needed to
be and we've been a little bit disjointed a little bit selfish and a little bit you know focused still trying to get the old ways out of us not just the old sinful way some of the old church waves out of us right number 11 the second sermon then we see the second sermon in the church and guess what that darn peter went by the power of the holy ghost and preached from the old testament again and then he preached jesus he lifted up jesus as the christ and once again amazing he called people to repent now repent means to feel guilty feel the guilt and the remorse for your sin and to reform your life that's what it means so he called people to repent and then he talked about that if they would repent and turn and make jesus lord that times of refreshing would come from his presence again supernatural promise right are you with me number 12 they were bold and confrontive to the dead deceived religious leaders around them who told them to be quiet oh boy see after the lame man was healed and they were getting all these people saved and getting all these people out of their dead religion into into the new covenant into faith in jesus as the messiah the old religion the old covenant leaders the high priest and the sanhedrin they couldn't hack it because they had some competition in town see this this people think that this competition or this war between the apostles and the pharisees and the sadducees everybody thinks this was you know in their head they get it that this was the church against the world no this was the the new church the church full of the holy ghost against the church of the religion that god had left that he was once in that he left well oh make me don't make me you hear me he even said jesus even said of them they have the key of knowledge they had the key of spiritual truth of how to know the creator of jehovah god the god of abraham isaac and jacob they had the key of knowledge he said but they won't go in and the people who are trying to go in to know god they're hindering oh i hate to tell you but that's 99 of your churches they have the bible they have bible college degrees
they should know how to lead people to the scriptures to the holy spirit to the pattern to the blueprint of god to the ways of god but they don't do it somebody gonna be a trouble on the day of judgment number 13 they were beaten and thrown in jail for preaching the gospel has that happened to you this happened to me i've been thrown in jail twice for preaching the gospel didn't stay long more this is coming i like what the old street preacher told me one time way way back down to new orleans preaching it during mardi gras on the street this old white bearded white-haired street preacher told me he said if you truly preach the gospel son you'll get stones or souls sometimes both [Music] if you're living the gospel of jesus christ if you're speaking the word of god listen you're going to get people who hate you who will persecute you who will try to shut you up who will try to get you fired who will try to put you in jail oh yes i don't know why christians think that you're going to to stand for jesus christ in the word of god you're going to have your best life now and everybody's going to like you and everything's going to go well for you i mean i have even some christians right now who are wondering why are nancy and i going through so many difficulties or you know and i think some people will even start to think in their head the devil will start playing well so they must be doing something wrong they're having so many struggles since when did christianity become if everything if you're doing everything right you're not going to have any struggles that's the prosperity gospel y'all that's the joel osteen gospel sometimes you're going to have it tough because you're doing it right just ask paul who spent many years in prison himself and this is a concept do you know that in 1989 i was looking seriously about starting to work with brother andrews ministry of smuggling bibles into red china i mean i was all but about to do it and i remember through that whole process they sent me all kind of material and all kind of things and i learned at that time that from the from the time that they had the communist revolution in china in 1949 until 1989 40 years millions we were 30 40 million christians have been murdered by the
communist government of china and that every pastor in china had spent an average of 11 years in a chinese prison we have no concept in america of paying a price suffering for the gospel we're about to find out though there's going to be a time to open your mouth and share the gospel with somebody will get you detained maybe put in jail maybe even killed they knew so the the religious leaders taught and guess what let me tell you some of the betrayers that are going to work with fema and department of homeland security and the government of the antichrist is going to take over america some of the people that are going to be their biggest helpers are going to be pastors of churches mark it down it's already happening there are churches now that you can't be a cell group leader unless you put your fingerprints on file with the fbi there are pastors who are already working with fema and department of homeland security to come in to convince christians to give up their guns when it comes time when they want to come around and confiscate guns and they're going to try to use the lie well you know romans 13 says you're supposed to submit to the government now folks they take that out of context because you know what they're going to tell you to take a chip too and take a mark or you're not going to get health care or you're not going to be able to buy or sell do you submit to that because the government says to do it no we are told at times to submit to our leaders when they are godly and they're doing right things we are not to submit when they are commanding us to disobey the lord or do something evil or something that can harm us why do they want to take away our guns because every time they want to take away guns and every place that's ever been done they take away the guns and then there's a mass murder of christians or some group they wanted to do away with you got to get the guns first then you then you can commit mass murder every time so make no mistake about it obama and his illuminati satanic elites want to take our guns away because they want to kill us simple there is no room for the bible-believing christian that believes jesus is the only way there's no room for that christian in the new antichrist world government that's coming you'll be forced to make a decision one way though so i said that here's a in acts chapter four i think i skipped
over one so we'll just make just add it to the list but in acts 4 12. are you there i love this this is where peter made it very clear he's preaching jesus and he says neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved the true church will always say there is no other way to be saved to go to heaven to have eternal life to escape the damnation of hell the judgment for your sins there is no way but the name of jesus and the jesus christ of nazareth who died on the cross and rose from the dead the true church will always present that that's why we know joel osteen is not a true pastor he's not a true church that's why we know rick warren's like that that's why we know that robert schuler was a false prophet and teacher in the crystal cathedral was a farce it was not a true church oh boy hurting some feelings out there i mean in 1998 i did a series why the seeker sensitive philosophy was not biblical you don't see them ever trying to water it down or soften the message or ease up where were we beaten thrown in jail ah number now will be number 15. they confronted liars and hypocrites among them oh acts chapter 5 ananias and sapphira you know people were selling land they were selling their possessions to help the saints and to help one another dan and i and sapphira decided to sell something and keep back part of it which was fine it was theirs but then they lied and told the apostles that they had sold it all and give it in all [Music] so here's a gift of prophecy for you word of knowledge comes on peter and says why have you decided to tempt god and lie to the holy ghost and he said ananias dropped dead and then his wife came in and she said they asked have you sold the lamb for so much and she said yeah he looked at her and said the spirit he said the men who carried your husband out and buried him will carry you out too and she dropped dead gonna be some of that too in the church world judgment was in the church no compromise not putting up with hypocrites and liars if you're a hypocrite and a liar and you're in a true church it won't last long you will have to get out
or you'll repent or god will kill you one of the three i don't know and i'll tell you this the the stronger the glory of god gets the less he tolerates all right and that's new testament don't hear that one preach very often in your mega churches out there or what we call them the country clubs they're racquetball courts and basketball courts and no gospel all right y'all still with me all right we got to move on so that was 15 16. if you notice toward the end of chapter five when they left the persecution and the threats of the of the religious crowd what did they do they went and prayed and they had such powerful prayer meetings that the building was shaken but look at what they prayed for i love this they went and prayed not that god would spare them from suffering not that god would spare them from persecution no they went and prayed and asked god for boldness and that he would stretch forth his hand and heal people in the name of jesus and do signs and wonders so that they could preach the word even more boldly so that's the kind of prayer meetings they had they weren't asking for a new house a new car new job god to fix their ingrown toenail they were praying for signs and wonders and miracles in the name of jesus so they could preach the word more boldly out in public and the prayer meeting was so powerful that god shook the building they were in right so what am i what number am i on now 17. it says they recognized that different callings had different responsibilities this is why i love in acts chapter six they recognize different callings in the church they recognize different responsibilities the apostles said you know there was a big contention going on that you know there were some people being neglected in the daily ministry and widows and people that needed help with things and the apostles came in and said look we can't it's not our job to leave the word of god in prayer and go serve tables it wasn't that they were too good to do it they were humble men they've been through a lot but they knew what they what their calling was and what their job was so it says they chose out seven men honest good report they laid hands on them and ordained them to take care of that business listen in the church we're not all called to do the same thing and i'm gonna tell you you're gonna get in a lot of trouble if you start thinking you know ought to do as the pastor you're not me well you should visit people more or you should do this more or you should go to the street more
no i should do what god tells me to do and if it spend all my time in prayer and studying the word that's what i'm supposed to do if you got a burden to go to the street don't sit there and wait on me go i paid my dues i've been on the street for years i've gone into places where gunshots would be on one street in the other place i've risked my life in places so it's not that i don't want to go sometimes it's just god has me doing other things don't think pastor dean has to babysit you and do every single type of ministry or thing with you you got a burden to go be an evangelist on the street go find a street corner and when you get them saved bring them to church amen you're concerned about somebody sick oh and pastor d and he's going no you go see them go lay hands on them go pray for them to be healed you are supposed to do the work of the ministry not just pastor dean amen and they understood that and let me just add with that our church like i said before our church is not going to be like every other church we're not going to do everything they do we're not going to you know we have a specific calling and we're going to stick with that amen amen all right let's keep going number 18. if you continue on in acts chapter 7 stephen was stoned a very godly man a deacon one of the first deacons one of the first elders started doing miracles started preaching boldly out there and guess what some people falsely accused him false accusations and the hatred of religious people and a very godly man was martyred he was stoned to death true church will have people who end up being persecuted to death and then chapter 8 we find number 19. philip one of the first deacons obeys god to go do the work of an evangelist he was faithful being a deacon so god said here's this guy's being faithful being a deacon and serving these widows and helping and i'm going to make him an evangelist and then amazing i'm going to say this about ministry you want to be a minister unless you're faithful in little things you will never be made ruler over much right philip was faithful to serve those tables and those widows and to help people and god said
there's a man i'm gonna give him something else he's an evangelist and then he speaks to philip and says go down to the city of samaria and so philip goes this is the first real evangelistic thrust outside of jerusalem he goes to samaria people hated by the jews half breeds not nephilim but half breeds that the jews didn't accept the racial issue there and yet philip goes and it says he preached christ to them and he healed the sick and he healed paralyzed people and cast out demons and they had such a revival they had to call the apostles down there to get them filled with the holy ghost after that but the true church will go out beyond and they'll but they'll go out casting out demons healing the sick preaching the gospel this is the true church oh this is a picture of the true church you're the church the church is the body of christ at large in the world the true church out there it doesn't mean everyone listen everything calls itself a church i made that clear it's not but the church has basically three references the body of christ the church worldwide that's spread all over the world but have all these things in common then there's the local church and then there's you every individual you're a church it's the greek word ecclesia it means called out once the ones of god called out from the world to be different many of the churches now they're trying to be like the world see how messed up it all is and listen don't be afraid to look them in the face so don't call that a church don't call that christianity i have the jehovah witnesses come to my door i've shared this with y'all before they come to my door when we lived in auburn they came to my door about once every few months i mean it was they just come they keep coming it was wild because i was working there but somehow something would work out and every single time i'd end up being home and i will always in i'll have a discussion with jehovah witnesses you know they don't believe in the trinity they don't believe jesus christ is god in the flesh they don't believe in hell they don't believe only the kingdom of god is going to be on the earth so i mess with them right i even get messed with them they got their screwed up translation of the bible the new world translation and i even used that against them because the devil didn't change it enough so there's some things in there i can mess them up with a couple of i mess
them up with is you know about jesus and about the trinity i said you know i said didn't the bible doesn't your bible open up to genesis 1 26 doesn't your bible say god made us in his image well yeah i go over here i said well doesn't your bible say over here in first thessalonians 5 23 that god made us spirit soul and body three three parts but one person and i said if we're three parts but one person spirit soul and body we're three but one in god three but one they just look at me and have to scratch their head and think about that one but then i say turn that you know as we get toward the end i always say this i said turn to mark 16 15 through 20. in their little new world translation screwed up bible what's in there i say now read that too go into all the world preach the gospel to every creature either believing that the baptized should be saved he believed not shall be damned these signs shall follow them to believe in my name they will cast out demons they shall speak with new tongues should take up serpents if they drink any deadly things shall not hurt them they will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover i said now does that happen in your church do those things happen in your church at kingdom hall on tuesday nights or whenever y'all get together saturdays all of them look at me and go no i said well it does in mine so why would i go to your church you have no power you have nothing to offer these are the signs of a true church true christian they have no answer i remember did this one time in montgomery years ago and you know they always have a more an older one with a younger one or or an older convert deceived convert it's got more deception and they got a younger one they're trying to indoctrinate and train and i saw this one younger guy he was probably in his early 20s almost start crying when i read that verse because he knew that's the word of god it's in our new world translation and i've never seen it they had to get him out of there because they were about to lose a convert right i don't want any part of christianity that wants to be like the world that wants to water down the message that wants to deny the holy spirit deny the power deny the gift i want no part of it neither should you we are entering the darkest days of human history the demonic powers and the principalities of hell and the fallen angels are going to be doing everything they can do to deceive and afflict and torment mankind and the only people on the face of the earth that will be able to handle it or deal with are people that love jesus that are on fire for jesus that are baptized in the holy ghost full of power understand their authority and know how to bind the devil resist the devil and put him to flight in jesus name we are we are to be here to help people that's why the rapture the pre-trib rapture is one of the most
foolish things i've ever heard in my life the darkest time of human history the time that the light is needed the most the time that the power of jesus need is needed the most for those lost people out there and the dead religious people out there the time when we need to be the church more than ever before and god's just gonna take us out sorry no more gospel for you no soup for you no we're here to have the last thrust of being the powerful church of jesus christ until he returns so don't don't be lured back by their smoke machines and light shows and rock and roll and and big numbers and fancy programs i'm just going to tell you something prayer meetings are work prayer meetings are work it's sacrificed to get to a prayer meeting and spend an hour or two in prayer with your church family it's work but it's where the power comes from fasting is not pleasant but it's where the power comes from stepping out in faith and praying for the sick even if you're a worried what if it doesn't happen and you got all these fears and stepping out and preaching to people that are are you know god haters i had a god hater this week i told her so too [Music] i said you hate god because you love your own ways god haters don't scare me cults and roman catholics they don't scare me and guess what i'll offend all of them i don't care if you've got a problem with the bible and you've got a problem with me speaking the bible i don't care if your baptist presbyterian methodist pentecostal charismatic roman catholic or doodad religion right doesn't matter to me i love what jesus said blessed are those who are not offended in me the gospel the cross the truth the word of god is offensive you know why because it offends your flesh it offends your selfish desires it offends your your human emotions and it's done that way god does it that way on purpose so you will have to humble yourself deny
yourself take up the cross and follow him god is not here to make it easy it's not say a prayer and everything's okay it's not become a christian and you'll never have any struggles it's not god loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life notice god loves you sent his son to be beaten crucified tortured and die on a cross so that you could learn to live and and have the power to live as a son or a daughter of god there was a high price paid for you but don't believe for one second that that high price there comes no requirement at your hand draw near to god and he will draw near to you that's what james said faith without works is dead being alone he that saith i know him and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him they profess that they know god but in works they deny him being abominable they have a form of godliness they deny the power there from such turn away listen let me just say this if a pastor doesn't understand about the baptism the holy spirit there's probably a whole lot of things he doesn't understand because it's plain in the bible run from that man because he's either suffering from a big dose of ignorance and stupidity or he's got an agenda and he's trying to hide things jesus is the way the truth and the life i'm not ashamed of that gospel amen i'm not ashamed of one word one jot one tittle one comma one [Music] nothing and neither should you be the true church is bold as a lion no shame no fear no drawing back no regrets no pleasing man you know what paul said in galatians he said if i should yet please men i would not be the servant of christ you cannot please men and women try to make everybody happy and be a true servant of jesus christ it does not work it never will work you can build a big church with a lukewarm watered down preaching
but you're going to have to have lukewarm water down preaching to keep them in church you can get them with entertainment and rock and roll and smoke machines but you're gonna have to keep them with entertainment rock and roll and smoke machines do we depend on the power of the word of god and the truth of the gospel and the holy spirit to work and that it takes prayer to empower those things are we going to do what it takes are we going to try to dress up christianity like a drag queen and sell her out as some prostitute you know a prostitute can attract a crowd just look at beyonce oh yes she's a prostitute she sold her soul to satan to get money fame and fortune that's what a prostitute does no i'm not going to prostitute the church and the gospel to get a crowd i'm not going to do it i don't care if firing grace church everyone leaves and never comes back again i'm not here to build a mega church i sent me here to plant and start a church that would try to be like the original church we may fall short but at least we're going to go that direction amen let's pray father in heaven i love you and i thank you lord for your presence in this place and for your word god i do not apologize for the harsh truths we live in an age of deception and error and lukewarmness and counterfeit churches and phony preachers wolves and sheep's clothing and deceived preachers that think they're doing good lord help us help us be the real church individually this local church and the ones out there i know i had someone ask me they say i can't find one i said you just need to find a group of people that believe the word of god at meat in the house that's really what it's come to it doesn't have to be a building with a steeple lord help us to get free from all the things we think church is supposed to be because we've been told that by dead
preachers and help us get on fire get filled with the holy spirit and depend on the power of the holy spirit to take the gospel message through us to take the signs and wonders through us to people around us you