The Church
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Good Morning everyone. Oh boy are yall in for it today!! Just coming back from a mens conference where 6 of us went to and gathered with over 1800 men to be challenged in our walk, developed as believers, and pushed to a greater walk with our father. So I am expecting some powerful things today. 45 men were saved this weekend. Why not here? Healing is happening all over the world. Why not here?
I am done with coming into a building and not expecting, realizing, and believing who we are. It seems to me that we have gotten comfortable with where we are and we don’t want to change. This weekend it was said
“If I can convince myself God can’t use me, then I will convince myself that I don’t need to strive to be used.”
That is the modern day church in a nutshell. We have convinced ourselves that God can’t or doesn’t want to use us. We have convinced ourselves that God doesn’t move like that any more and it is all just a cop out so that we don’t set our expectations high because if we keep the expectations low, we won’t be disappointed well God is sick of that and so am I. I would rather expect everything from an all powerful, ever present, all knowing God and have him not give it than to never reach for that mark and him disappointed.
Oh I am going in now. Paul says in Philippians that he is straining for the mark. What mark? What straining? He is straining towards the mark of being the most like Christ that he can be and the straining is everything in his being wants to reach that. We on the other hand just want to be comfortable. You know what, I am sick of comfortable and let me just tell you because I told God that, he is getting me away from comfortable. I said this Wednesday night and I am going to repeat it now because a lot of you don’t come on Wednesday or watch it online
Oswald Chambers says this and I love it. Always be determined to know more! If you yourself do not cut the ties that bind you to the dock, God will use a storm to sever them and send you to the sea.
God is looking for his children that are ready to grow and get out into the deep. And you set those parameters. How far is deep, as far as you want it. There is no limitation in God. So as deep as you want to go and far as you want to travel he is willing to take you.
But back to the church, we have a misconception that the church is ineffective and obsolete or that the church has lost its power. But the truth is that we as the church have decided that walking in that power and that authority was too costly. So we have turned loose of it. Walking in that pushed us too much. It made us look weird, sound weird, and act weird to the world so we said ehh. Well I say the world needs and wants weird so if they are going to seek it out they might as well see it in us and be delivered and set free from their sins in the process. I am just going to say it, if you don’t want to be weird to the world as Jesus was, you may not know Him like you think.
13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
14 And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”
15 He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16 Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
17 And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.”
Just for the record you see those list of people he was compared to…weird. One ate locust and wild honey, the next one call down fire from heaven and ran away from women, and the last one cried all the daggum time. That is a weird group of people. But let’s move on.
Don’t you love the specificity of Jesus. He starts in broad terms just to get the conversation started then he gets to the nitty gritty. He says who do they say I am then, he is like ok that’s great but who do you say I am. We can always count on Peter. I am so much like peter it scares me some times. I have not tried to cut a mans head off…yet but when my teachers asked questions, I was always the first hand up. When I wanted to impress or get their approval, I would go the extra on the homework. That is Peter. He is so desperate to matter that he will spout of, over promise, and until the Holy Spirit underdeliver. Here is one where he gets it right and it is a moment of divine revelation. He knew the answer, he just didn’t know the cost of what that answer would draw from him. This is why Jesus warns before you say yes to me, count the cost. Because though Peter is walking in a revelation from God,
We see a church that is built on a solid foundation, not a weak and tattered church. We do not see a church that is defeated and unreliable. This is what the enemy wants us to believe that the church is worn. The church isn’t viable. We have passed the prime. It isn’t necessary any more. If you believe that, that means you probably are. But that ain’t God’s fault. He is not the problem. He is not running out of power. And he is not allowing His church to fall away. There is always a remnant. There is always an impact being made. He has never nor will never leave his bride the church without his authority power and presence.
But because people have taught it so and we don’t read our own bible enough to counteract it then we believe it. Then things appear that way because we find things to fit our own narratives but we cannot put that on God. He has never changed and I have never seen his throne relinquished. I have never seen the righteous forsaken or begging for bread. So if that is the case, which it is, then why do we allow the things we do.
I mean I don’t know about yall when I read that, it says that the church was built on a rock. Let me just clarify something also. The rock that Christ is building his church on is not Peter. Jesus is the rock always has been. Even in the OT with the children of Israel being led out of Egypt by Moses. The rock was Jesus. It was a physical rock but it was Jesus metaphorically. The rock is the belief from the Father that Jesus is who he says he is. That is what the church is built on. If we are built on peter we all gonna die. Peter can’t even get himself right much less all of us. So the church is built on a rock. A solid foundation. Christ says that if you build a house on a rock that when the storm comes and goes the house will still be standing. So you think Christ started building something on a foundation that would crumble towards the end and he is coming for a bride that isn’t protected or that is weak and feeble. You have lost your ever loving mind. And for the record just wanna say this you can bench press 350 lbs and still be weak and feeble. You can not bench press the bar and be as powerful as an ox. Cuz the power I am talking about which is much greater than your biceps comes from above and is devil stomping, demon crushing, hell binding, spirit reviving, dead man raising, body healing power that this world is in need of, Jesus commanded it, and its about time we get back to it.
Oh pastor you mad today. I am. I am mad at the church, mad at myself, made at the devil. Because the world needs a God demonstration and the church is too afraid to give them one. The bible says we are the hands and feet of Christ yet we are so caught up in our lives, our own sins, our own dysfunctions that we have crippled Christ. Because we would rather facebook than his book. We would rather go along to get along than to grab people and come along side of Jesus. He commanded…
8 Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons. You received without paying; give without pay.
He also said
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Which of those you doing? When is the last demon you cast out. If you say never, come hang with me. I ain’t raised no dead yet but I am on the hunt to do so and as soon as Jesus says this is the one you better believe I am going all in. I have seen the sick healed been apart of that process countless times.
And I have multiple people that I am discipling. But how you gonna disciple and you don’t read. You can’t teach something you don’t know. Do you have to know everything. No you but you better know something. This word came to life in Jesus and this word is the foundation for everything else. But you remain silent because you dont know.
A church that is silent because of fear is a church that is allowing the devil to run loose without understanding the authority that we as the Church of Jesus Christ should be living in! It doesn’t matter what the world says. It doesn’t matter what they threaten with. It doesn’t matter what they try to take away. We cannot be silent. We must keep on preaching!!! We must keep on denying ourselves and following him. Stand up and be counted. We still have the same power they had in Acts look at this.
4 And while staying with them he ordered them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the promise of the Father, which, he said, “you heard from me;
5 for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
6 So when they had come together, they asked him, “Lord, will you at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?”
7 He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.
8 But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
That word Power. You know what that word power is. Let me read just that verse in the amplified
8 But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.
Here is the word that is translated as power.
Dunamis. Dunamis is the root word for which we dynamite from. Now dynamite is a precarious thing. There is so much potential in it. It is residual power. The power is there in the dynamite ready to go but until the fuse is lit appropriately the power stays in the container. But once it is lit the power will explode out of it. You will understand what power was in it. If you just hold the dynamite and don’t light it, it looks like a stick but if you light, it can blow a mountain up. That is the inherent power in dunamis.
So when The Holy Spirit gets in you, it unleashes or ignites something on the inside of you that God is saying cannot be stopped. But you have to light the fuse. See, oh boy hold on here a moment. Let’s keep digging right here. In fact, lets just blow the whole thing up amen.
Look at
15 Therefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints,
16 do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers:
17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him,
18 the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power
20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come.
Look in specifically vs 19. You will see three instances of the word power here. So Paul is again attempting to differentiate something to us. The first one is dunamis. We explained that one. It is exponential potential power waiting to be lit.
Then he says working. Second instance which is energeias. Where we get energy from. Means it is actually being put to use. He is blowing things up now.
Then the last one of his mighty power which Kratous and means dominion. So let’s put it together.
Paul says I want you to know about the limitless potential of those that believe because God is working in you according to his Dominion.
Ok let me say it like this
God has all authority there is not greater. Kratous
He chose to raise Christ up and put him Paul says far above anything else which means there is a great deficit between he and the devil. But because of his Kratous he can do whatever he wants and place whomever he wants. So in his Kratous he uses his energeia to place Christ, so that you would have dunamis.
And in Acts Jesus uses that word power dunamis. You have received it if you have believed.
Power……
Meaning: a right or authority that is given or delegated to a person or body.
You have the right to draw upon the energia of Christ to enact his kratous or dominion. You can light the fuse baby.
We have a power that has been given to us by the Holy Spirit, when will we begin to operate in this power?
Power to Overcome for you to over come yes but not just you to over come. For all you to help others overcome.
Power to Operate Spiritual Gifts Not just you operate in them but for others to operate and you get help them do so.
Power to Move Mountains its dynamite baby. Move mountains and I mean physical ones and spiritual ones. Oh here I go meddling again with tradition of the church that we have taught so as again to lower expectations or standards. It is exactly what we are doing in the educational system. Keep lowing the standards to the bottom rung and don’t make kids strive to reach and soon the standard is so low, no one is achieving. The church has been doing that for too long and this church as long as I am blessed and allowed to preach will be pushed to a higher glory in him.
So we take that verse Let’s read it. Aint no football today so we got all kinds of time.
23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.
We have taken this verse and watered it down to say that Jesus is talking figuratively here and he doesn’t mean a real mountain. But the context of when Jesus is saying this would speak completely opposite of that. Here is the context. Jesus is walking to jerusalem and gets hungry. He sees a fig tree with leaves on it and presumes that it would have figs for him to eat. It doesn’t so he says no one will ever eat from you because you false claiming to have fruit. Talking to the tree. The next morning, the tree is dead and I mean shriveled up no life dead. The disciples are amazed and point this out. Jesus in his most non charismatic no shout, no exclamation point says in verse 22. Have faith in God. Then he says verse 23. So he is looking at a mountain, talking about a mountain, in context of just causing a fig tree to die by his words. Don’t you dare cause me to think less of that. Because the last time I looked the engergia of God through his words created everything and if that same dunamis is in me why you wanna wet my fuse for. Why do you want a wet fuse. Let’s go to work. I mean Elijah caused it to not rain and to rain by his word. Noah stopped a flow of water. Elijah called down fire. Moses caused all kinds of natural disasters. Yes all of them God actually did but it was the men of God tapping into the dunamis power given them by the authority of God to work his energia.
Power to Speak with Other Tongues and not to just be a babbling mess but to speak what God is speaking
Power to Pray and Believe that God will Answer
We have a right to do all of these things and if we are doing it…it is on us.
Power……
Jesus said back in Matthew 16, that upon This Rock.. I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it!
We have to begin to believe what Jesus said. He built the church upon the revelation of who He was that Peter received from the Father!
Who was Jesus?
The Son of God.
He was God.
He was the Word made Flesh
He was revealed in the Old Testament
He Is God and He has delegated authority to us believers!
There are those that say that the church is a place for the sick and broken… it is!
There are others that believe that the church is a place where the Christian comes to be lifted up and discipled.
Both are true! We have to be going after the lost, of course we know that the Holy Spirit draws them, but He uses us to share the good news of Jesus Christ.
We also have to be a place where people are healed, and they can grow in their faith!
The Church is NOT Fragile!
The Church is NOT Powerless!
The Church us NOT Afraid of the Messy lives!
The Church is NOT Afraid of those that are Broken!
We are a place that is consistently praying for God to bring the Messy, the Broken, the Lost, the Hurting and even the good Christian that may have lost their way!
This is a House of Healing!
This is a House of Hope!
This is a House where the Cross is the Answer!
The compromised church will never change the world, as we have seen in our country right now!
We are a church that will Preach the Uncompromised Word of God!
We are a church that will contend for the movement 0f the Holy Spirit!
We will be a Church that Walks by Faith and Not by Sight!
Jesus commands us to Go!
Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
Luke 16:15-18
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;
18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
Can you see that the Lord has a plan for you and I. He has a plan for this Church.
Lord help us to obey you and your word!
