Harold Smith - The Church Relying on the Spirit

That look even to you, it does back here but it is Blended in with that tree for me.

But it looks pretty, it looks pretty close.

All right.

We don't want to start out.

Testing one, two. Testing one, two testing.

Testing one two, one two testing.

And you hear me. There's a microphone.

You got mail at the mobile down.

Let's bring it back up, just a little bit more.

Give me just a little bit.

I am here too.

Oh yeah, I know. I was saying, go ahead and put

That's it.

Manny, it's your I got to say this sb12. Well, this is pretty hot too.

Game together pretty good.

A regular song.

Testing one, two testing.

I'm going to say it to your choir, my trying to feed back. That's the frequency.

Stop it. I don't know what's going on cuz that's never happened before.

Testing. Testing, testing.

Forever is. Yeah, that's a

But, but this isn't, this is that's what's ringing me. Do you have me coming through? Hey, if you want to come in through these monitors, don't don't. Don't put me in those right now.

Penitent.

I don't think it's bringing out the house, is it?

if you're not sending it to it,

Right now. So we know it was is isolated to those.

Okay.

It's these mice.

I got those going to the choir it - 20. So very small. I got to go on stage and -40 again.

The game is. Home.

Testing one, two.

I would take the game and give it more flavor.

Take that game down about 15.

Actually, you can take it down and work it up until we get a ring and then work it back down a little bit.

Lalalala.

Where you at?

Testing one two, when your favorite is it?

Testing one, two.

Idylis play track, one more time.

I do. I have it taped it yet.

They look like, I forgotten something. I already did.

The way you stick it right in there.

Y'all see that? I look, alright.

Now, wait a minute. Where's that brother at? He don't come to Sunday school, but he wears a tie, where is he?

Put on the new man.

My topic this morning is assigned. I will be preaching on The Wonder of the Holy Spirit and I've got a time limit, that's another thing they give you, if you're the opening act you get a time limit. I'm a man under Authority. I'm under Wade's Authority and I I dearly loved Wade. He's one of my dearest friends. I lovely. I love Robby. I've known those guys forever. And Just good friends, it's good to have friends in the ministry. I've got plenty of enemies in the ministry, in the friends, balance it out, and they they treat me like their enemy. So I'm sharp for those that really a Harker upset with me. I want to see this morning to look at The Wonder of the Holy Spirit. One of the hardest things that is to do is to wait upon the Lord. I think about is real there at the base of Mount Sinai when Moses goes up to receive the law there, just to wait for Moses to come back with it. We don't know about this Moses, maybe he's dead, we don't know until they they make them a golden calf for crying out loud. And boy will sit here and go who in their right mind would make a golden calf churches. Refuse to wait on the power of the spirit to lead them and they'll make all sorts of rules and regulations and have all sorts of substitutes for the leadership of the holy spirit. So this morning, I want to give you some insight as to how the Holy Spirit leaves a church. How the Holy Spirit leads the church?

Somewhere, I said this last night and I'll say it again this morning somewhere between presbyterianism. And Pentecostalism is a proper understanding of the Holy Spirit. And so let's somewhere drill into this and I'm no expert on the Holy Spirit. But I have an Open Bible and I want to give you some Bible verses and some topics, you may fall asleep during this first message. I know it's early and your coffee hasn't got into your pores yet. So let me go ahead and give you my outline now The church must be governed by the power of the holy spirit in its officers, its operation and its Outreach. Officers operation Outreach. Now, let's flush that out in the time that I have left in the officers of the church. We recognize to being Baptist pastors and deacons. These are what? We would call biblically prescribed offices for the church. Let's deal with the pastor first of all and I'll give you a Bible verse for each. One of these that implies the work of the holy spirit in this office, I'll give you ask 20 verse 28. Take heed therefore under yourselves into all the flock over the woods. The Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the Church of God which he has purchased with his own blood. When we talked about the pastor, the pastor is sent to the Church of God. By the power of the Holy Spirit. It is the holy spirit of God. That sends the preacher around. I don't know. Churches license preachers. I know people ordained preachers, I know churches call preachers been. If you are overlooking the work of the Holy Spirit and taking a specific man to a specific form and gifting him to do that work and you're just merely making these assumptions. Based upon some extra curricular ID, the ideology, you've missed it. If Barrel, Baptist Church used to be the church that God has called it to be. They must be under the leadership of the pastor that God has called to that block. When we Overlook the necessity of the spirits leadership and finding gifting and maintaining a pastor the church stuffers.

Let's talk about the deacons. Everybody? Like to talk about them in a Baptist Church. What about them? Deacons.

Deacon's also must be given and gifted in the same way by the Holy Spirit. I believe deacons were first selected in the book of Acts chapter 6. The apostles were overburdened. And the people were murmuring and complaining about who was getting the most food at the distribution of services in the church. And the apostles said and Acts chapter 3 are at chapter 6, verse 3, wear for brethren Lookie Out Among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business. The elders, the apostles that the people who were in charge of the church at Jerusalem, said, seek out men to do this and the men that they thawed out, We're Men of honest report, but notice this full of the Holy Ghost full of the Holy Ghost is full of the Holy Ghost to mean, does that mean I say a bunch of unintelligible speech? Does that mean I flop around on the floor like a crappie on dry land? What is full of the Holy Ghost mean? Does that mean? I run seven laps around the building. If I ran seven laps around Barrel, I'd have a heart attack and died. See the sea god is he is

To be full of the. Holy Ghost doesn't make you an intelligence. It makes you intelligent these men who were full of the Holy, Holy Ghost meant they were being governed by the Holy Ghost, the pastor, according to acts must be given to the church or gifted by the Holy Ghost. The deacons must be governed by the Holy Ghost. Governed by the Holy Ghost, here's what'll happen. If you get a church where all of the officers,

Art surfing in the power of the Holy Spirit. You have a pastor that God himself has commissioned to go to this congregation. You have a group of Deacon serving that church governed by the Holy Spirit when both people are given and yielded to the Holy Spirit, here's what happens. Everybody's on the same sheet of music and going in the same direction and there are no schisms

Yes I will brother how that's great. Yeah but here's the problem churches. Struggle just like Israel did to wait on the Lord. And instead there are substitutes for the power of the holy spirit in each of these three categories, let me give you a substitute for the power of the holy spirit in the office of fast. It is education. Education. I'm not against education. I just never got very much of it.

But I've seen churches mandate. If you're going to be the pastor here, you must have a certain amount of college, a certain amount of Seminary and from certain colleges and certain seminaries and then you must be educated and some certain school of thought and some certain line of thought and John, the Baptist wouldn't be a hundred miles from there. Jesus said, I tell you the truth. There's none greater born of a woman than this guy who's out in the wilderness eating grasshoppers.

all you said was that the one-off preacher not everybody, John the Baptist, look at them, 12 men that Jesus called We're talkin about fisherman. Not the guys on Deadliest. Catch commercial, fishermen out here on the Arkansas River Running hoop Nets and what not. These are rednecks. The Pharisees in the Sanhedrin said these men speak as though they're learned, but they're galileans at Galilean in the in the modern Arkansas version. Translate hillbilly. The hillbillies. But they speak is only been trained for years. What what did those those men have? I had the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ himself said receive, ye the spirit and he breathed on them. Just as God blue in the nostrils of Adam and he came to life. Jesus Christ, blue on the apostles. And they came to life pastors. Need not substituted education. For being gifted and given by the Holy Spirit deacons. Oh my stars. If we can't find a holy ghost-filled, Deacon what will we get? We'll get an experienced, man. Only works at the bank preacher. If we get a deacon that works at the bank will never have a problem, getting a loan. Yeah, you'll probably be in debt forever 2. Your brother Harold, you don't understand, he runs the Little League ball field. Everybody in town knows them failed to read in 1st Timothy 3 where the man was supposed to be popular.

But I read when the first deacons arrived, they must be full of the Holy Ghost. If you repeat picking deacons based upon experience instead of being governed by the Holy Spirit, you're going to end up with a bunch of business-minded men who turned the institution of the church that is filled with the Holy Spirit into a business ran by CEOs and local Business Leaders in the church will cease to look like a church and then look more like some institution in town. So it's almost like I'm describing churches. In Arkansas today, am I not Well, I've got to get going here. It's 10. Operation. How is the church to operate? The Wonder of the holy spirit, is this the Holy Spirit enables the church to procs properly function? You've got this problem with my heart AFib. And it's the electrical side of my heart, the doctors looking at my heart, he said, Son, your plumbing is good, but your electric is messed up. And I said, well, let's let's put a new breaker in and fix this thing, you know, against electrician in here, we can fix electric stuff. So they went up through my artery and went in and they burned a little circle around where my heart's trying to beat in the wrong place and they said, they are we fixed it and it didn't fix it. He said, well 80% of the time it works on the first try ninety-nine percent of the time and work on the second try. So they went back in there. They burned a little circle around the part of my heart that was trying to beat at the wrong time and they said we fixed it for 6 months.

And they said, man, you're a one percenter I sexy I know. You know what my body needs? It needs a proper electrical impulse in my heart. There ain't no way to generate that.

Do you know what the church needs to properly? Operate? The power of the Holy Spirit and there's no program. That'll put that here. We have to Simply go to God and say, we need the spirit to operate except you step in Lord and do what we cannot wear all, but hopeless and lost. The operation. Go to Spirit. How does that look like? What does that look like preacher? The Church Must rely on the holy spirit for the advancement in Drake's. John 16:13 Jesus said he'll be it when he the spirit of Truth is come. He will guide you into all Truth for he shall not speak of himself. But whatsoever, he shall hear that. Shall he speak? And he will show you things to come. Nana, when I read a verse like that people are going to say, what? I don't apply to us that only applied to the apostles. Will read some other Versi he's talking about us. Oh, wait a minute. That mentions the Holy Spirit know. He's not talkin about us. That was just in the apostles day. I'm not up here saying that God going to come along and whisper in your ear.

But if you think the Holy Spirit somehow hogtied with his lips pitch together and unable to guide his people individually, you've missed it. The Holy Spirit didn't hang up out the lunch at the end of the writing of the New Testament. He might not operate in the same way, but he still does Everything. Jesus Christ said he would do. He said, I will guide you in all truth. You agree with that.

Three of you. Borgata crowd to preach to. Now, the rest of you are on the odd side of the Bible,

Listen to me. I'm not telling you to go around listen for voices and following Goosebumps. Let me give you a practical way of how the Holy Spirit showed me things to come. Holy smokes, brother Harold. Are you a real old-time profit? No. But I'm filled with the same spirit that filled them. I'm Guided by The Same Spirit that they were Guided by. I have the benefit of a written word, hear the fat, check my feelings behind,

They had to test the spirit. I test them this way. Yeah, that's biblical.

Wow, in the world did the spirit, teach you of things to come, if you're no profit. You want to start having that little heart trouble as telling you about it? Dawned on me, I'm going to Pastor Lee Creek, Baptist Church. Rest of my life, I'm 40 45 will somebody years old. I'm going to be here till I'm 70, and I thought you do fat guys, don't live. That long, fat guys, with heart trouble, they ain't going to make 50. Maybe, you know what? I need to start doing. I need to start teaching Lees Creek, how to function without me doing it all. And I preached the series of messages called after I'm gone, then I said these will be on Sermon Audio when I die, you know, when they pry my dead fingers off the pulpit, some Sunday cuz I blacked out up there in the Pulpit. Y'all y'all y'all bear me. Don't try and act like you're sad about it, act like you know where I'm going and you're glad I'm there and shook me in the ground listen to this set of messages, can find a man to replace me.

Angel, do you still live in your not the Pastor Lee Creak anymore? The Holy Spirit, guided me and things to come. He calls me to preach a series of messages about how to find my replacement and the church elected me to the search committee to find my replacement. And it wasn't me saying, hey, search committee, I used to be the pastor, we're doing it, my way, it was the search committee going. Somebody taught us what to do after you're gone and preacher. We expect you to do what you what, you preached.

That's so what won't break your? What are you doing that while I travel around and I helped her choose her looking for a pastor. You know what? Those churches need to hear, how to find the next one. The Holy Spirit showed me. Things to come and prepared me for what I'm doing now.

Way back when I saw the Pastor Lee Creek till I died. And he not only gave me that series of messages about what is church needs to do to find a pastor. He gave me that and for some stupid reason, I saved it on my computer. You see, when you pass through the same church for your whole life, you write sermon notes and throw them in the trash. You write that they've already heard these. I'm not going to recycle sermons. They've already heard them. My job to prepare them, not to repeat them. So I throw them in the trash. It's the same congregation Sunday after Sunday, after Sunday. I'm not going to repeat it to them, I don't go to other churches and preach much, but for some reason, I did this series of sermons and I hit save Now, I'm going to church. I never heard him. Mother help. How do you explain that? He will show you things to come. That's not mystical. That's not all blah blah blah blah blah. What I say.

That's the Holy Spirit, peace, peace intelligent. He's showing us the things of God. He's taking God's plan for Harold and applying it and Harold's life. If if the church is going to advance and Grace, hit the church is going to grow not. I don't care about numerically. The Lord had had a Congregation of twelve when he died on the cross.

Quit worrying about how many people are here. I prepared this message of three of you showed up, or 300, I didn't know who big crayon. Let's take this one and want it all up and get another.

The church is going to grow in Grace and learn the things of God. Not going to come. It's not going to come through. Clever preaching. I don't come through gimmicks or somebody will program. It's going to come for a group of people who are yielded to the power of the Holy Spirit operation. The church is Adoration of God, not just advancement in Grace and growing in the knowledge of God, but Adoration of God. True worship will only take place when we killed to the power of the Holy Spirit. Chapter John, chapter 16 verse 14 piece, you glorify me. Thee shall receive of mine and shall show it under you. There's that promise again to show us what? Glorifies the father? Jesus said the time's coming when you will worship me in spirit and in truth, he didn't say there come a time when you just worship me and Truth. How many churches we got today? That are dead and Truth with no spirit?

Take both my brother and we've got the 1689, London, Baptist confession. And that's all we need, and that's all you'll ever be 1689. Well, that's no Bragging Rights. We saw a vehicle yesterday in the parking, lot of a restaurant and it said 1794 edition. Man, why you got out of Carnitas? What's 17/94 pi don't know. Rick and Keith, and Brian, and come walking up. And I said, what happened, 1794 never liked that the constitution.

So we ate, we walked outside way cuz I still bothering me. He gets his phone out 1794 edition. That was the year that a ranch was established in Texas, where the Toyota plant is now.

That's about as dumb as walking around throwing out 1611. 1689 1794 1975. What happened? In 75 MI?

Birthday old man.

Your date's, your numbers, your little booklets, all your other programs, all these little doctors you got together and said I had, this is what it's all about. No, it's not. This is our document. There's nothing wrong with you, having a confession Creed summing up. What you believe about the book. But I see men tattooing these numbers on their arms. Hip tattoos all over your body but if the holy ghost thing in there, you're not going to worship God.

We've got to wait on the power of the Holy Spirit. Never be worship of God. I got to get going the advancement of Grace, the Adoration of God. I'm talking about the operation of the church. How about the administration of government? You know what? Baptist get a lot of criticism. Form of church government. A Reform Group thinks a traditional Baptist Church is just out of their absolutely out of their mind. I remember being in a conference in Mobile, Alabama, one time. And I wanted to know how these big Reformed Baptist Church is operated. So I walked up to one of the elders. He had a little Entourage cronies Palling around hanging on every word that he said, Can I said, Sarah, can I ask you a question? If your son, what do you want? I said, how often does your church have a business meeting?

And all the other guys and I said, how often do you have a business meeting? Business meeting. He said why in the world would we allow common church folk to make a decision? I said, well, the Bible refers to him as his bride. And they have the Holy Spirit of God, dwell in them in them and they are commanded to be like minded with one another and to put on the mind of Christ in the be yielded to the power of the Holy Spirit. And if you can get a group of Christians to agree on something, I don't know. So you should do it.

Round and round with somebody who merely quoted to me. What the confession said?

And I was saying the same, please, the whole church.

And the apostles and elders and church wrote back to the church at Antioch. In the Lord Jesus Christ said into the church at Antioch.

Separate unto me, Paul and Barnabas, he didn't say that to the Elder board. He didn't say that to the church committee, he didn't say that to the mission team. The whole church knew it. The whole church approved of it, the whole church, send them out. When those two missionaries came back, they said let us go back to the church at Antioch and report to them. Why didn't they go back and report to the Elders of the church in Antioch? Hope it's the church that's Authority. What someone joins this church? Do you vote them in as a member?

How do you remove them your elders, get together and say this one's out. That one's out will keep these three. You take them for and I'll take these five will line up at 5 on 5. No, you don't. That's how you play basketball in the school yard. That's not how you form a church. Jesus Christ, told his how to remove members, who will not hear them, take it to the three of, you know, this verse

Paul said and when you are come together, 1st Corinthians, chapter 5, No, I'm not there. I'm there in spirit when you come together. Put this man out of you membership. Church makes a lot of decisions in here. You're never going to properly administrate the government of a church if that church is not filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. When we look at reformed churches, here's what we see. We see people included into the church at infant baptism. Baptist Churches. Don't baptize infants, they baptize four-year-olds nowadays. They don't baptize infants. But we expect someone to give a confession of faith, we expect him to identify with with the Lord and baptism and then we include them into the church. And if we're practicing church discipline and I no longer act like that, we remove them from the church there, for what we're striving for is a regenerate church membership, a group of people who look like they're safe, who profess salvation in price. And if you get a group of God's people in one room, they ought to be able to come up with a proper decision that the holy spirit is prepared for the church.

Matthew 18:20 for where two or three are gathered together in my name. There I am in the midst of them.

I don't know what you want to make them two or three, that's not really a church. What is it? Is it, can we go to form a quorum? Can me and Lee Robbie? Get over here in the corner and cuddle up with the Holy Ghost.

I think it's a little more than that. I think Matthew at chapter 18 in the context of a church he's talkin about church discipline. He's talking about binding and loosing. He's talking about operation of church government is Jesus there in the midst of them. The spirit of Jesus is there John? 16:7, nevertheless, I tell you the truth is expedient for you. That I go away for. If I go not away the comforter will not coming to you, but if I depart, I will send him unto you. The spirit of God is there, when we meet

Let's look at the next one. Look at the substitutes. What happens if the spirit doesn't guide us in the advancement of Grace? Well, if you can't get a group full of safe, people together to grow spiritually under the preaching of the word. How about we just give him the Purpose Driven Life.

You know what that is? Don't you? Rick Warren wrote a book called The Purpose Driven Life, and its pledge, Southern Baptist convention. Many other churches, Purpose Driven Life, functions this way, Give everybody in your church of purpose, figure out what they like to do and make that their spiritual purpose. I like to shoot deer and catch. Crappie, you're in charge of the outdoor Ministry, team warlock, this church. I've been crappie fishing so I'm sick of it. For the glory of God.

Bottlefish. Now hunting you play golf? You're in charge of the golf Ministry. Why love is shirt? I don't go much but but I never miss a golf outing.

Bicycling motorcycling bull riding horseback, riding pick your purpose. Is this, you got a group of people that brought their Hobbies into the church and they built the church around their hobby, so everybody can have a purpose and the Holy Spirit and a thousand miles over there.

What about the Adoration of God? What if the Holy Spirit doesn't lead us and worship? Don't, we will end up with a performance. How many times have you heard somebody talk about worship at their church? I just got the Goosebumps. What are they called? The liver liver liver, liver shiver. What was that? We were talking about last night. What was it? Rick? You said it liver. Liver shivers.

Larry Shavers the Goosebumps the butterflies when they started singing when he hit that high note man I got up and ran around the building. You know.

I've seen a few I shouldn't say this in church.

I've been to a few southern rock concerts and had the same feeling.

when Marshall Tucker start singing going to take a freight train I'm like, yeah.

Huh, when Skynyrd band comes on and you start getting that big long guitar solo, I put my foot little further down on the throttle and sit back into the seat. That's not the Holy Spirit.

That's a performance. It has an effect on me. So I get the Goosebumps, man, I'm ready to sing. Give me the Allman Brothers. I'm fired up. I might get a cigarette lighter out. Hold it up. Auto insurance. You might light a candle and hold it out.

That ain't the Holy Spirit. That's a performance. The candlelight service may have an effect on you, but it is not the effect. The Holy Spirit has when God is worshipped in his power.

Substitute for the administration of government is a pattern. We've always done it this way. Grandma said it and I believe it.

We'll pray for the bylaws say that you can't do that except on the third Saturday of a new moon. when the wind is out of the East,

Where'd you get that at? How did we end up with these rules? But your child have some governing documents, but if you can't put them on a couple sheets of paper, you probably ought to re-evaluate. What in the world you're doing? We're all Christians Guided by the Holy Spirit and we've got criteria for Christians to come in and criteria for phone needs to be removed until they prove themselves to be Christian and admitted back in. I think all of us can get together with an Open Bible in the power of the Holy Spirit to function in the body of believers. If? Will demand that were Guided by the power of the Holy Spirit. I go get out reach.

Outreach brother. Hell, I'm glad you're here, we need to form a program to get new people into the church. We need to reach young families. When he started bus route, we need to have a track. That's a visitation program. We need to do all these things about this. How about we rely on the power of the Holy Spirit to draw people to Christ.

Disabled brother a lot I really think, you know what I was at this church, we had this we had this gold program and its gospel program is ABC program. We had all these things that we needed to do that. Here's what I think. I think you was an individual need to take Serious. Your responsibility to share the gospel with individual people. And until you take personal responsibility, that Jesus Christ has saved me from hit from my sins. And By His Marvelous Grace, I've been included into the family of God. I have the cure for Spiritual cancer and I'm keeping it to myself. Shame on me. Your little brother just came in and shine. I can't talk, I'm Moses had that problem. Seemed like he let a pretty good crowd.

The Outreach. Number one must be individual. How does the Holy Spirit work and individual Outreach? I'll give you an example. You may say that doesn't happen to Dave. Say what you want. You won't be the first person to disagree with me. You won't be the last. Acts chapter 8, verse 29 in the spirit said unto Phillip go near enjoying myself to this chariot. if you think, Philip was sitting out in the desert and there wasn't a chariot for Miles. You don't understand what just happened to the greatest Festival of Israel's day or one of the great festivals of Israel day was over and everybody was leaving town.

And there was Chariot after Chariot after Chariot, after Chariot flooding back into the north of Africa and Philip was there by the power of the, Holy Spirit to accomplish the purpose of God and he's praying God what do you want me to do? Should I Street preach at the Chariots that are going by and maybe he did. What does Spirit said that Chariot right there, Phillip that Chariot do join yourself to it. Go chase that Chariot down. He runs over there to that Chariot. There's a fella sitting up top. You know what? He's reading. The prophet Isaiah chapter 53. He said so you understand what you're reading? I'd love to walk up on a lost man reading, Isaiah 53 with you.

What happened? If the holy spirit of God is guiding your evangelism. And he tells you to go down to the way the goes to Damascus, and you show up, or should I sit at home and listen, know, you should preach the gospel to Every Creature. That's what the Bible says. But if you're out preaching, the gospel to Every Creature, you're in perfect. Perfect position for the Holy Spirit to put you in the proximity of someone, that God is already prepared to hear the gospel.

Individual evangelism must be done in the power of the Holy Spirit. Don't go listening for voices. Go in the in the in the clear life that you have, which says, preach the gospel to all and trust, God to work out the details. But if you're not trusting the Holy Spirit to empower your evangelism, you might as well go talk to that Banner over there and see what happens.

Outreach must not only be individual. It must be institutional. Acts 1:8, but you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you and you shall be Witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and Judea and Samaria, and until the other most parts of the Earth, Does an Institutional command? He didn't say, you did say you Peter. He said, yeah, that's the plural form of you stalking to a group here. Here's what you're going to say, well, be talking to the Past. Will he not talkin to me, friend of that logic? He wasn't talking to you. I was talking to the churches of galatia with that logic. He wasn't talkin to you, talkin to the church at Corinth. This is recording for our understanding Jesus Christ. As making a promise, these men fulfilled it, but their principle applies today, we ought to have a program to leave barrel and go out there locally a program to go regionally and a program to go internationally.

If you can't make that application from that text, you need more than what I'm preaching.

It needs to be institutional. You're one person, I'm going to get my tithes out and I'm going to mail $0.27 here, $0.42 there, in a buck 85 going around the world. No. Give your money to the church. I'm not going to demand that. You lay it at the apostles feet but that's what the early church did. Give your money to the church and Trust the people that God has gifted to administer that work, the Pastors in the deacons and see that it's distributed and the church should have an Institutional plan in which they are spreading the gospel. Around the world, is Jesus Christ. Said that we should

it needs to be intentional. It needs to be intentional.

It's easy. And I know that you were for many years in the Southern Baptist convention. So was I It's easy just to write a check and mail it to Little Rock and say we got guys that take care of that.

I grew up Missionary Baptist, we support our own missionaries. We mail, a check to Bogard press, and they divide it up and send it out. Among our missionary, we got our own, but we're not a convention Association.

I'm not reading the Bible. I'm like, where's this middleman coming from?

Who's this guy that taking the cuts and dividing everything up? Those were the tax collectors. Nobody likes them collected. All the taxes, take their cut and give it back out.

How in the world did we end up with the tax collectors handling? Our mission dollars.

Or not tax collector, I quit sending them a check and they called me called me everything, but a preacher to while I was on the phone with him. That's what the tax collector did my friend.

You got to be intentional about it. You got to be specific about it. You want to know why your pastor has to answer for every single dollar that goes to this church? He's going to give an account for that. Not just Wade. Rob, he's going to give an account for that. Please going to give an account for that. The deacons are going to give an account for that. If you put together a budget and finance committee are going to give an account for that, they need to be intentional about Mission money. They need to be intentional about Outreach when I say Mission money. I'm not talking about sending it to Africa. You ought to send some of it down here to Vilonia and get the lost people living next door in here.

but if you don't form some kind of intentional plan, this is what we're going to do, this is how we're going to do it and if that's not Guided by the Holy Spirit out of it, You got a verse for that? I sure did a couple of my run out of time. Leslie ministered acts 13:2 to the Lord and fasted. The Holy Ghost said separate me, Barnabas and Saul for the work around 2. I've called them. So by you being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departing into solution from thence they sailed to Cypress. The Holy Spirit picked missionaries. Not Mission boards, not collagist the holy spirit. It's the church's job to affirm what the holy spirit is done.

How am I doing on time how we need to wrap this thing up? Substitute. I can't wait till we have any other substitutes for outreach you sure can You can replace the individual responsibility with some kind of freak pre-programmed, canned gospel regurgitation. Allow with me to share with you the ABCs of evangelism. If we boil it down to be something. So easy, a caveman can do it. We got it wrong. It's something so marvelous that only the Triune God can do it. If it's found in GPS or ABC or XYZ, if it's found in the Romans road and some little thing you can follow through, listen to me. If you don't understand the gospel enough, just to walk in and I'm in your own words, say I was a sinner dead and trespasses and send going to hell with absolutely zero. Hope of ever being saved enough myself.

What dog is rich in? Mercy, with his great love. Where was he loves me reached down his hand and didn't give me a hand up? He grabbed, hold of my heart, got to beat me again, they took out my heart to Stone people in the heart of Flesh. He breathes life into my breast and nostrils, and I became a living creature in Christ. Jesus, new person. I'm not who I used to be looking what God is going to be so wretched. Center friendly can do it to you.

You can't read that.

What if the Holy Spirit dwells within you friend? They can speak through you. You don't need some little book, you need to go get down on your knees a place like that over there. Not here, just go somewhere where you can get down on your knees and rest, your elbows on something and thank God. I want to share the gospel with other people. I don't need a booklet. I don't need to be trained. I don't need to know something some little program. I want to tell people what you've done for me by the power of the Holy Spirit. Please God do it, get up and go toilet.

Brother Harold, the churches, the institutions that they have a substitute for the work of the Holy Spirit, they do, it's called pragmatism. Skull pragmatism.

I feel like we know each other. Well enough I can just tell you what I think.

Church is trust and Vacation. Bible School Church camp in the wild game dinner to get all their salvations. You're not trusting in the Holy Spirit your trust in your program. We're here if we don't have church camp. How's it going? Kids? Going to get saved same way they did before we ever heard the words Church camp. Put together. Vacation Bible School, the little kids aren't learning about Jesus. I don't think we're having Vacation, Bible School, 52, Sundays a Year Mom and Dad. Just don't get out of bed and time to be here.

My brother we don't have that meeting, we don't get away that four-wheeler that shotgun, nobody's going to hear the gospel. I don't think Paul was looking for a shotgun on the road to Damascus, was he?

I like a thundering voice from Heaven. Knocked him off his donkey.

And I think that man, that hated the followers of Christ and who else out, who art thou O Lord? What was that? Have me do? That's fine. God's doing that same thing today. I'm not praying that he strike somebody blind. I'm praying that the church doesn't trust and pragmatism and goes back to trusting in the Holy Spirit. The substitute for intentional missions, is the party system. The party system. When we only support missionaries that are sbcbm a abcxyz, garbc 16, 89 KJV ifb, white shirt and a tie.

Some folks are late for Sunday school. I had to get that in there now.

It's all right. I'll give you the last word.

How do you wrap up a message like this other than with a joke?

You need to pray for the spirits auction in the officers of this church. Need to pray that God would fill your pastors and deacons with the Holy Spirit. And I say feel when I say feel because we leave, I get driver once in awhile, Holy Spirit, doesn't leave me. The still have Redemption doesn't vacate me but my yielding to his authority in my life by sensitivity to his working in my life, grows cold. And I need to be refilled and refilled and refilled and I have a God that's promise to refill, me and not let me go dry. He let me get dry but he'll come and wet me again. And again and again, my yard is pretty dry right now. But I don't think God's through given its rain. And I think when he gives it to us, I would appreciate it more. Now,

Sometimes I get dry and holy spirit as a pastor. And I appreciate the fresh rain of the Holy Spirit when he comes back.

Pray that your pastors have that pray that your deacons have that spray the officers of this church or that way. How about your operation pray that your church is operated according to the power of the Holy Spirit and not some crusty dead set of rules in the back of some church, secretary's office. Pray that the spirit of God is weld up in the hearts and minds of Believers and they put on the mind of Christ. And there are new man in Christ Jesus and they come together to fulfill the one another's of scripture about 79 of those one. Another versus you have to be here to do.

For they Worship the Lord in the power of the Holy Spirit. Pray that the church grows in the power of the Holy Spirit, we don't need more people. We need people more yielded to the spirit. Leslie play for pray for you Outreach. Missionaries, your church are sending out and I know I'm not saying this because you're not a mission-minded church. You support a ton of missions and I'm I'm so proud of what you do is a church. The pray, those men are filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. They get dry to you can get just as spiritually. Drying, Indie, as you can get spiritually, dry, and bologna.

Pray for your church, is it tries to form a plan to reach the community in the world around it.

And then, I mean, I'm going to have to get personal and I'll sit down.

You need to pray. For yourself to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit.

There's an individual responsibility. Scattered all around this room. Cliff everybody from that wall to that wall was filled with the Holy Spirit. I think the loan you would take notice,

I don't think you be able to go out and say, look, what God did for me, he can do it for you. But the problem is we get dry. Are no longer yield and we're no longer living in The Wonder of the Holy Spirit are no longer relying on the spirit today don't go to bed without doing it today. Ask God to fill you with the power of the holy spirit. Thank you for listening.