Acts chapter number 1, please, a very familiar
portion of Scripture.
I suppose I'll begin my reading in verse
number 4.
Acts chapter number 1 and verse number 4,
please.
The Bible says, And being assembled together with
them, commanded them that they should not depart
from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of
the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard
of me.
For John shall be baptized with water, but
ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost
not many days hence.
Notice verse 6.
When they therefore were come together, they asked
of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this
time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
And he said unto them, It is not
for you to know the times or the
seasons, which the Father hath put in his
own power.
But ye shall receive power, after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you.
And ye shall be witnesses unto me, both
in Jerusalem, and all Judea, and in Samaria,
and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
And tonight I preach a subject that I
know very little about, but I want to
know a lot more about.
Simply I preach on the power of God.
Thank you very much.
You may be seated.
Let's bow our heads and hearts, please, and
let's ask the Lord to bless our time
together tonight as we study the power of
God.
Now, Lord, again, I come to you asking,
Lord, humbly, that you would help me tonight
as I preach the word of God.
I confess to you and I confess to
this congregation that I am a nobody.
Lord, you told your disciples in John 15,
5, for without me ye can do nothing.
And Lord Jesus, tonight I claim that because
I know that is not just a command,
it's not just a statement, but Lord, that's
a promise.
I'm nothing without you.
And so I pray tonight that you would
intervene on my behalf, and Lord, that you
would bless, that you would help my mind
and my heart, and Lord, that you would
kindle that which I'm going to be preaching
on, deep within my heart, that I may
convey it to this congregation before me tonight.
Lord, I pray that you would burn this
message deep within us.
I pray the devil would not be able
to snatch the good seed of the word
of God from our hearts, but tonight he
would spring forth into abundant life, and Father,
you would help us as we study the
subject at hand.
Now, Father, I call myself upon your mercy
and ask that you would help me.
Lord, I ask now also that you would
help this congregation as they listen to the
word of God.
May we not be distracted, though we ourselves
become a distraction to those around us.
Bless the children as they have their time,
but bless now as we have the preaching
of the word of God, for it's in
Jesus' name that we ask it and pray.
Amen.
The Book of the Acts is one of
my favorite books in all of the New
Testament, because all 28 chapters basically have one
theme, and that one theme is the early
establishment and the propagation of the local New
Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Because you see, ladies and gentlemen, as you
peruse your way through the 27 books of
your New Testament, especially when you get the
chapters like Matthew 16, Matthew 18, and then
beginning in Acts chapter number 2, you will
find out that the emphasis in the New
Testament is not upon some invisible, non-knowing,
great big huge church, but it is upon
local assemblies, actual, physical, factual local churches.
And just before the power of the Spirit
of Almighty God fell down in Acts chapter
number 2, and Peter stood forth and preached
repentance, and 3,000 people got saved by
the grace of God, there was a promise
that came to them in an upper room,
in an upper chamber, before Peter ever opened
his mouth and preached on repentance.
Notice, please, in your Bible, as Jesus is
discoursing with his disciples, we look here at
verse number 1, the Bible says, This former
treatise have I made, O Theophilus, all that
Jesus began both to do and to teach.
And so now what we're going to be
dealing with, we're going from the Gospels into
a transitional period in the New Testament days,
when the local church will be established, and
the people will go around the world, turning
the world upside down, establishing local, fundamental, Bible
-believing, Bible-preaching churches.
And so Jesus said, Before that can ever
take place, there is something that you're going
to have to have that you do not
have right now.
Let's see what it is.
Look in your Bible, please, in verse number
2.
We know that Acts chapter number 1 is
not only the promise of the Spirit, but
it is the return of the Savior as
far as his glorious ascension into heaven.
Verse 11, we find out that those angels
came and said, You men of Galilee, why
stand ye gazing up into heaven?
And so we have that great doctrinal part
here in this portion of Scripture.
But notice, please, this promise that Jesus begins
to give to his disciples, and we find
it beginning in verse 4.
And being assembled together with them, commanded them
that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but
wait for the promise of the Father, which,
saith he, ye have heard of me.
For John, speaking of John the Baptist, truly
baptized with water, that ye shall be baptized
with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
When they therefore were come together, they asked
of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this
time restore again the kingdom to Israel?
They said, We know that you're the promised
Messiah.
We know that you are the one that
is going to come and sit upon the
throne of David.
And by the way, that will be future
tense.
He has not done that, but thank God
for a thousand years he will.
And I'm going to be with him and
have myself a glory fit, that's for sure.
But the disciples said, Are you going to
now set up your kingdom in Jerusalem?
Are you going to restore Israel to the
land?
Are you going to give us our freedom
back?
Are you going to get us out from
under the bondage of the Roman Empire?
You see, that is why your Bible says
in John 1.11 that he came unto
his own and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them
gave he the power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe upon
his name.
You know why they wouldn't believe in him?
It's not that they didn't want to, because
you study your Bible.
You will find out at first they did
want to believe in him until they found
out that he did not come to deliver
them from the Roman Empire, but rather to
deliver them from their sin.
And they were not interested in being delivered
from their sin.
They wanted to be delivered from bondage.
They wanted to be delivered from the captivity
of the Roman province and from Nero and
Caesar and the rest of that wicked crowd.
And so now the disciples look at Jesus
and say, You're going to give us a
promise.
Is that promise that you're going to restore
Israel to the kingdom?
Are you going to set up your kingdom
right now and deliver us from the Roman
Empire?
And they were asking a legitimate question.
There wasn't anything wrong with the question that
they asked Jesus.
They didn't want to be under bondage anymore.
But please notice what Jesus told them in
Acts 1 in verse 7.
And he said unto them, It is not
for you to know the time or the
season, which the Father hath put in his
own power.
He said, Listen, you are not going to
change God's mind no matter what you say.
He said, You can beg, you can preach,
you can pray, you can plead, you can
squat like a baby on that altar and
beg God to give this nation back to
where it needs to be to restore the
kingdom.
He said, You can beg all of that.
He said, But it's not for you to
know the time.
He said, There are some things that are
bigger than you and some things that are
bigger than I, and we don't always understand
the power of God.
Isaiah chapter number 55, His thoughts are not
as our thoughts.
The Bible says, As the rain cometh down
from heaven, so is God's thought for us.
I do not understand all that God does.
I don't understand the power of God.
And that is what Jesus is explaining to
these people.
And by the way, if you go on
a quest to understand God, you will find
out that the pervading theme of the Bible
is we're not supposed to understand God.
That's what makes Him God because He's bigger
than you and He's bigger than me.
And so Jesus said, It is not for
you to know the things that deal in
future times, if you will.
It's not for you to know everything, to
understand everything that God has put in His
power.
But, verse number 8, But ye shall receive
power.
Context, He's dealing with the very same power
that was in the verse before.
But ye shall receive power after that the
Holy Ghost gives some abundance.
Now, you believe anything you want to tonight,
ladies and gentlemen, but the power of God
is the most overlooked subject in all the
Word of God.
You see, we're living in a day when
people think it would be a fine thing
to have buildings and thank God for buildings.
We're living in a day when people think
it would be a fine thing when we
have good music and we have good preaching,
we have good teaching of the Word of
God, we have good standards, and I don't
discount that any bit.
I thank God for every single bit of
it.
We're living in a day when it seems
like if we can get converts to walk
an hour, man, we're doing real well.
If we can put people in the baptismal
waters and the waters of the baptism aren't
stagnant, we're doing pretty well.
We can send young people off to Bible
college.
It seems like we're doing pretty well.
And you know what?
We've got plenty of programs.
We've got plenty of prayer meetings.
We've got plenty of preachers.
We've got plenty of things in our pocketbooks.
The problem is we just don't have the
power of God in the day and age
in which we live.
But did not Jesus say, Ye shall receive
power?
Now, excuse me.
I am not going to let the charismatic
steer me away from the power of God.
I am not going to let somebody who
has an ignorant mindset when it comes to
the Word of God run up and down
the aisles, give me up a tent post,
speak in tongues, bark like a dog, and
run around like a fish out of water.
I am not going to let them steer
me away from something that God promised me
I could have.
And ladies and gentlemen, Jesus looks at His
disciples and says, Ye shall receive power after
that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.
So basically, the main prerequisite to the power
of God is salvation.
For the apostle Paul said in Romans chapter
number one in verse number sixteen, I am
not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
it, the gospel, is the power of God
unto salvation.
And so I believe with all of my
heart there is something not spooky, not mystical.
I am not talking about Hollywood scare tactics.
I am talking about holy word truth.
Not something way out in the future, but
I believe there is something that is bigger
than me and there is something that is
bigger than you that is attainable to the
people of God.
And I believe it is God's power.
I believe it is the fullness of the
Spirit of Almighty God.
Does not your Bible say in Ephesians chapter
five in verse number eighteen and nineteen, Do
not drunk with wine, wherein is extent.
But be filled, literally means be ye being
filled with the Spirit of God, speaking to
yourselves in songs and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody in your hearts to
the Lord.
Now understand me, the power of God is
not something that causes me to act in
a foolish manner.
The power of God is not something that
causes me to act foolishly or to do
things to direct attention to me.
Let me tell you what I believe.
Take it for what it's worth, but I
believe the power of God is nothing more
than the influence of the Holy Spirit of
God in my life that gives me strength
day by day to live for Christ and
have a Christian testimony.
That's the power of God.
If you think I wake up every morning
and say, Well, I tell you what, I'm
the most spiritual Christian in the face of
God.
There's something wrong with you, pal.
I don't wake up like that neither do
you.
There is something that is bigger than us
that gives us the strength to live for
Him for day to day.
There is something that is greater than us.
There is something that is more magnificent than
us.
There is something inside of me, ladies and
gentlemen, that is glorious, that can blossom like
a rose, if you will.
There is something inside of me that gives
me a Christian testimony.
What is it that gives me that strength
day by day, mile by mile, hour by
hour?
What is it that gives us that strength
to continue to go on?
I'll tell you what it is.
But ye shall receive power after that the
Holy Ghost is come upon you.
I want to point just for the next
few moments tonight on just a few ways.
Maybe four, maybe five.
If God gives me an extra one, we'll
have five.
Amen.
But five ways tonight you can know.
Did you hear me?
Not that you can hope, but five ways
you can know when you leave this building
that you can have the power of God.
Now, please look me right here in these
two eyeballs, OK?
I'm not throwing myself in the mater basket
tonight and saying I haven't.
If anything, I have a very great big
lack of it, and I want a whole
lot more of it.
And so I'm preaching to myself tonight just
as much as I'm preaching to any person
under the sound of my voice in this
building.
But let me give you just a few
ways that I believe, according to the word
of God, we can know we have the
power of God.
And by the way, the lack of these
things is no doubt the lack of the
power of God.
Very elementary, low to the ground, kindergarten Christianity
outline.
Follow me.
Number one, the power of God comes first
and foremost through prayer.
The power of God has always come to
those who avail themselves to God in prayer.
There was an elderly lady in Texas.
A pastor went and visited her in a
little convalescent home, a little nursing home.
And they began to talk back and forth.
And he would sing her a couple of
little choruses, and boy, she'd just giggle with
glee.
And I mean, she was just so excited.
And he would read her some verses.
And just before he got ready to leave,
he would pray with her.
And he talked with her about how much
God loved her, and this, that, and the
other.
And as they were talking back and forth,
he got ready to leave.
And she said, you know what, preacher?
She said, you know, I found the secret
to the Christian life is the power of
God.
And he said, is that right?
He said, well, what is it that gives
you the power of God?
She said, I believe it's prayer.
She said, I believe the more a person
prays, the more a person will have the
power of God.
She says, I have understood one thing in
life.
He said, what's that?
She said, the only time you'll ever see
power before prayer is in the dictionary.
And I'm going to tell you something, ladies
and gentlemen, that's exactly right.
The only time you will ever see power
coming before prayer is in the dictionary.
Because if you're not a person that prays,
I promise you, you're not a person who
accidentally comes across the power of God.
You think about the disciples just for a
moment.
I was reading about their life, you know,
going through the Gospels and studying them.
And I'll tell you, I was convicted at
something that they asked the Lord Jesus.
I preached on it 100 times.
I quoted it.
I read through it.
You've heard it.
We've taught the kids.
You know what the disciples looked at Jesus?
He basically said, what do you want from
me?
And they said, Lord, teach us to pray.
That really grabbed a hold of me.
You know, sometimes you'll read John 3, 16
a thousand times.
You'll read it a thousand and one and
God will jump out of a Bible and
just drag you and just drift you right
down to the book and say, look at
that.
It will show you something you've never seen
before.
And when I read that, Lord, teach us
to pray.
I thought to myself, now that is a
terrific thing.
You say big deal.
Oh, it is a big deal.
I'll tell you why.
They didn't say, Lord, teach us to preach.
But doesn't that seem like that'd be a
pretty honorable thing to say?
Here's the greatest preacher that ever walked the
face of God's dinner.
God in the flesh made some cults of
Bible backwards and forwards like nobody's business.
Here's a man that could walk into an
auditorium and immediately every head was turned right
towards him.
And that's why he could get up in
Luke chapter 18 and he could preach out
of Isaiah chapter number 61.
And then look at those people and say,
this day is this prophecy fulfilled in your
ears.
And I mean, it was like kids in
the candy store.
I mean, they were eaten out of the
palms of his hands.
Never a man speaks like this man.
You think John the Baptist was a preacher?
I'll tell you what, Jesus Christ was the
greatest preacher that ever walked this earth hands
down.
But they didn't say, Lord, teach us to
preach.
Now, it seems like to me, since they
were enrolled in the seminary of the Lord
Jesus, if you will, that they would have
said, Lord, teach us some of your tactics
and some of your homiletics and some of
your outlines.
But they didn't do that.
They didn't even say, Lord, teach us to
teach.
But yet the Bible does say that Jesus
taught them as one having authority and not
as the scribes and the Pharisees.
Why did he have such authority?
Because he preached the word of God.
He didn't fiddle around with a newspaper, the
Sports Illustrated, the Time magazine.
He preached that same for Lord and that's
what gave him that authority.
But they didn't say, Lord, teach us to
preach.
They didn't say, Lord, teach us to teach.
They didn't say, Lord, teach us to build
big Sunday schools.
They didn't say, teach us to baptize people.
And you know what?
They didn't even say, Lord, teach us to
perform miracles.
Now you think about that.
They're around somebody who performed every miracle imaginable.
I was thinking about this just the other
day around Christmas time.
I preached a sermon on what if God
really became a man.
By the way, he did and his name
was Jesus.
But nonetheless, you think about all the miracles
that Jesus performed.
Did you know there is not one miracle
that Jesus did not perform upon this earth?
Not one.
You cannot think of a miracle that you
would have wanted him to do that he
didn't already do.
He raised people from the dead.
That's a pretty noble thing.
He walked on the water.
He calmed the storm.
You say, well, he never did a miracle
of financial proportions.
Is that right?
Peter needed to pay his taxes.
He said, go down to a fish's mouth,
hope it wasn't a catfish and you'll find
you some gold in there.
That's a pretty big miracle if you ask
me.
I ain't got too much gold in the
catfish's mouth.
That's for sure.
And if I knew it was down there,
I'd be fishing every single day.
That's for sure.
He said 5,000 on one occasion, 4
,000 two chapters later.
I mean, you think about it.
He healed blind eyes, the paralytic legs.
He cast out devils from people's bodies.
He did miracle after miracle after miracle after
miracle after miracle.
And the disciples saw every single one.
You remember that man that laid in a
bed for 38 years?
He said, no man would put me in
the water.
No man cares for me.
And he said, I need somebody to get
me down there in the water.
And Jesus said, don't you worry about that
water.
I'm the water of life.
And Jesus walked by and touched him and
said, pick up your cot, boy.
And he picked up the cot.
And the Bible says he went straight from
the loom of Darwin all the way down
the road, friend.
He picked up his bed and he carried
it with him.
And I'll tell you, every single miracle that
Jesus performed, the disciples saw him perform them.
Hey, you remember those four guys that had
that friend who was a paralytic?
He laid in a bed and he couldn't
even walk.
He couldn't get up and do anything for
himself.
And one day they took him to the
church house.
They took him to somebody's house as they
would meet in houses customarily in the New
Testament.
And I mean, the doors were packed to
capacity.
I mean, people were all over the place.
I mean, there wasn't a place to sit.
And those fellows said, I wonder what we're
going to do.
And one of them got a bright idea.
He said, well, let's hoist him up on
the roof.
Now, you can't do that nowadays.
You'll get sued, but back then you could.
He said, let's hoist him up on the
roof and let's lower him down.
And we'll put him right on the platform
where the man's preaching.
And so they climbed up there.
They got a shovel, a pickaxe, whatever it
was.
They started taking the shingles off that roof.
And before you know it, they opened up
a bigger hole, a hole big enough for
a cot.
And they lowered that man right down in
there.
And Jesus didn't rebuke him.
Jesus didn't slap the man.
Jesus said, son, take off thy belt and
walk.
And the Bible says he picked it up
and walked right out of the room.
And you know what those religious people said?
We never saw it on this life before.
They said, we've never done things like this
before.
We've never taken the offering like that.
We've never preached like that.
We've never seen it on this life before.
And every miracle that Jesus performed was a
miracle that was seen by his disciples.
And so doesn't it stand to reason?
It does to me that, hey, if I
was around him, I'd say, hey, you know
what?
I sure would like to have that power.
I'd like to be able to raise the
dead.
And you talk about an influx of crowds
at a meeting, buddy.
I mean, didn't he tell somebody, he said,
here's somebody with a spit rag.
And I mean, he's got 50,000 people
to preach to.
And I mean, here is somebody who could
give you that power available at his fingertips
was the very power to say, OK, if
you want to raise the dead, you can
raise the dead.
And he did give them some apostolic power.
And by the way, when the apostles died,
apostolic power died with them.
And there's no such thing as an apostle
today.
That's why we don't handle snakes.
That's why we don't speak in tongues.
That's why we don't walk on water.
That's why we don't do foolish things.
Because at one time, the power of God
came through manifestations.
But nowadays, the power of God comes through
simple obedience to the word of God.
And so when they looked at Jesus, they
didn't say any of those things.
They said, Lord, keep us.
Why do you say that?
I'll tell you why.
Because if you study the Gospels, you will
find out that all of Jesus' ministry, every
ministry, all of his miracles were attributed to
his prayer line.
And you see, friend, they did not have
to ask and say, Lord, teach us to
preach.
Show us how to teach Sunday school.
Show us how to build the cross.
Show us how to win people to Christ.
Show us how to baptize the masses.
Give us this miracle working power.
They didn't have to ask for any of
that because they knew where the source of
all of that came from.
It came from his prayer time with his
father.
Excuse me for being a little bit over
elementary.
But if Jesus had to pray, how dare
we think we shouldn't?
John chapter number 17, Jesus prayed and prayed
and prayed.
We know that in the Garden of Gethsemane,
he prayed so vigorously, it was as if
sweat drops of blood.
The capillaries beneath his skin would burn.
And physicians call it hematidrosis.
It's only happened about four or five times
in medical history.
And every single time it happened to a
person, their body was under so much stress,
anxiety and pain.
That's exactly what happened to the Lord Jesus
as he was praying for your soul and
my soul near into that time of death.
You study the ministry of the Lord Jesus.
Every single miracle he performed was attributed to
his prayer life.
And when the disciples saw that, they realized
if we want this great power, we must
learn the submissive principle of being obedient to
our father, being obedient to the word of
God.
And we must learn to pray.
Daniel chapter six and verse number 10.
Now, when Daniel knew that the writing was
signed, he went into his bedchamber with his
windows being opened toward Jerusalem and he kneeled
upon his knees three times a day and
gave thanks before his God as he did
a full time.
Psalm chapter five, verses one, two and three.
The Bible tells us that David prayed at
morning, noon and at midnight, lifting his eyes
and his hands toward heaven.
He was waiting for God to drop it
right out of the sky.
Jeremiah chapter 33 and verse number three.
Call unto me, God said.
Not a shallow promise, but a great promise
in the word of God.
Call unto me and I will answer thee
and show thee great and mighty things which
thou knowest not.
You say, OK, preacher, how come we don't
see great and mighty things?
James chapter four, you have not.
Because you have not.
The Bible says in the book of Matthew
chapter number seven, ask and it shall be
given you.
Seek and ye shall find.
Knock and it shall be opened unto you.
Somebody says, OK, preacher, I've asked.
I've sought and I've knocked.
But ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to remind
you that it's written in the continuous ten.
It means ask, ask, ask.
Knock, knock, knock.
And seek, seek, seek.
And you keep on seeking and you keep
on knocking.
Just like that widow that came to that
judge and she begged him and begged him
and begged him.
And finally he said, OK, I'll give you
what you want.
Now I'm going to tell you something about
prayer.
Prayer is not just a time so that
I go to God and say, I want
this, I want this, I want this, and
I want this.
God is not your theological bellhop that meets
you outside your hotel room with a limousine.
He's not going to jump to your every
beckoning call.
And prayer is not just a time for
me to ask for things.
It is a time for me to worship
God.
Ladies and gentlemen, people that prayed in the
Bible were people who had the power of
God.
But not only does the power of God
come through prayer.
I'll say secondly and quickly, number two, the
power of God comes through seriousness.
The Bible says in Leviticus chapter 11 and
verse number 44, And be ye holy, for
I am holy, saith the Lord God of
hosts.
God liked that verse so much he repeated
it again.
In 1 Peter chapter 1 verse number 16,
And be ye holy, for I am holy,
saith the Lord God of hosts.
And if you study your Bible from Genesis
1-1 to Revelation 22-21, it won't
take you very long to figure out that
God, more than love, more than grace, more
than mercy, more than patience, more than long
suffering, more than anything else, God is holy
because that is the very thing that makes
God who God is.
If he were not loved, he would still
be holy.
If he were not merciful, he would still
be holy.
If he had no grace that we heard
sung about tonight, he would still be holy
because holiness is what God is, and you
know what?
God commands holiness out of his people.
Now, God has always had his blessings upon
separated Christianity.
Now, the liberals don't believe that.
The modernists don't believe that.
The New Evangelicals don't believe that.
And guess what?
They don't have God's blessings.
You see, ladies and gentlemen, those who want
to live right, those who want to live
holy, those who want to live separated lives
are those who avail themselves to the power
of God.
They can prove that, liberals can.
There's a man in the Bible by the
name of Samuel.
He was born in Judges chapter number 13.
His life was lived in chapter 14, chapter
15, and chapter number 16.
Did you know in Judges chapter number 14,
the Bible says five times, the Spirit of
God came mightily upon him.
In chapter number 15, the Bible says four
times, the Spirit of God came mightily upon
him.
And in chapter 16, the Bible says two
times, the Spirit of God came mightily upon
him.
Why do we have that gradual slowing down,
that backsliding process of the man Samson?
I'll tell you why.
Here's a man who, by the way, did
not have the power of God because he
was a hippie.
He had the power of God.
His long hair was a symbolization of his
Nazarite vow of separation to God.
The hair was merely a picture of his
vow and his separation.
You see, God's always blessed separated Christianity in
the Old Testament.
And he certainly blesses it in the day
and age in which we live.
But did you know when Samson lived right,
when the Spirit of God came upon him,
he could do some of the most supernatural,
amazing feats that you could ever imagine.
Here's a man that picked up the gates.
The gates of the city there that the
Philistines had encamped and come around the Israelites,
he picked them up and carried them to
the top of a mountain and set them
down.
I mean, I had trouble carrying purity milk
crates up the top of a mountain.
And here's a man that grabbed the gates,
put them on his shoulders and went up
there and set them down.
Here's a man that was sitting on a
rock one day and a thousand Philistine soldiers
came to him.
He said, God, I'm going to have to
whoop these fellas.
And the Bible says the Spirit of God
came upon him.
He picked up the jawbone of a donkey.
The jawbone of a donkey and flew a
thousand men.
I'm going to be honest with you.
I do not think, I don't think I
should kill a thousand men with a machine
gun.
I think a gang of men could do
anything to one man they wanted to.
I mean, they could get you down.
They can kick you, spit you, beat you.
They can do anything they want to.
And here's a guy that picked up a
little jawbone of a donkey and killed a
thousand people.
Well, that's not somebody I want to mess
with, that's for sure.
And when he was done, he was thirsty
and said, Lord, I'd like to have something
to drink.
God reached down and the Bible says put
a hollow place inside of that jawbone of
that donkey.
There was another time that he found out
that the Philistines had double-crossed him.
So you know what he did?
He went out into the wilderness and he
caught 300 foxes.
Can you imagine that?
I don't believe if I went out hunting
for six months, I could catch three foxes.
And here's a man that went out in
one night and caught 300 of them.
You say, you're foolish to believe that.
You're foolish not to because it's right there
in the Word of God.
He caught 300 actual, physical, actual foxes.
Hey, and if that don't be all, he
tied their tails together.
Man alive, I tell you what, that confuses
me every time I read.
He took 300 foxes.
Now, be still, boys.
You stay right there, boys.
You stay right there.
And he took 300 of them and tied
all of their tails together and then lit
some torches.
The Bible calls them firebrands.
And struck those torches between the tied tails
of those foxes and sent them into the
field of the Philistines.
That's the first time in your Bible you
read about taillights, by the way.
But nonetheless, here is a man that had
the power of God.
Now, there's no doubt about it.
I mean, we could pass out the little
sheet tonight and we could say, check, yes,
check, no.
Dig fast and have a power of God.
And it would take a pretty naive person
to write on their note.
We know he did because over and over
and over and over again, the Bible says
the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon
him.
The Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon
him.
When did the Spirit of the Lord come
mightily upon him?
I'll tell you when.
When he began to flirt around with the
world and he lost his peer.
When Delilah said, OK, if you really love
me, you'll tell me all of your parts.
And there's something about the way that she
said it.
There's something about those eyes that she kind
of magnetized and then drew him in real
tight.
And so he told her the truth.
That night, the Bible says, I mean, after
all these other foolish things, it seems to
me like Samson would have figured it out.
I mean, every single time she did something,
she wrapped him in vines.
She wrapped him in robes.
She braided his hair.
She did all kind of silly things and
said, the foolish things be upon you.
He jumped up.
He had the same power that he always
had, had the same strength that he always
had.
And it just seems to me like Samson
would have caught on.
But there's just something about this woman that
made him completely, totally ignorant and oblivious to
the problems and troubles around him.
Kind of like when your wife comes to
you and says, honey, will you please give
me the credit card so I can go
to JCPenney?
No, you shouldn't do it.
But there's just something about the way that
she acts that makes you have to do
it.
You know what I'm talking about, fellas?
Okay.
And so here's this lady and she said,
please tell me where your strength lies.
He said, okay, never been a razor touched
my head before.
You shaved the seven locks of my head
and my strength to go from me.
And she knew in her heart he was
right.
Now, the problem was he should have never
been that soliciting woman to begin with, according
to the word of God.
He was living a life of immorality.
He involved himself in something he knew was
against the vow of separation that he made
to God.
But he allowed pleasure to get in front
of power.
Didn't bother him anymore.
And you find him at the end of
chapter 16 as a blind man.
His eyes have been gouged out with a
Philistine hot poker.
Now he's grinding mills in a Philistine camp
somewhere.
And we find out there towards the end
of his life, he prays that God would
forgive him.
And he says, let me die with a
Philistine.
And he pushes in those pillars.
And the Bible makes a great statement that
he flew more in his death than he
ever did in his life.
But here's a man who mightily had the
power of God until he began to part
with the world.
Ladies and gentlemen, I've met so many people
who think to themselves, I'll not be one
of those numbers.
I'll not be one of those statistics.
I can fudge a little here, and I
can look at this, and it really doesn't
affect me.
Oh, it does affect you in a much
bigger way than you think, ladies and gentlemen.
You see, those who work in computers, and
I'm pretty much computer illiterate.
Those who work in computers tell me that
they have a little statement, they have a
little deal that they call GIGO.
G-I-G-O.
It means garbage in, garbage out.
You put garbage in your mind, you'll get
garbage out of your mind.
You put garbage in your family, you'll have
garbage out of your family.
What?
You will reap what you sow.
And so when they say garbage in, garbage
out, GIGO, you know what I believe?
I believe God's people need a good dose
of BIBO, amen?
Bible in, Bible out.
You put it in, it'll come out.
Just be automatic.
It'll be natural.
And here was a man who wanted to
live for God, but all of a sudden
his pleasure and his pride took precedence over
the power of God, and he lost his
purity.
Therefore, he lost his power.
And you do not see that phrase over
and over and over again as you do
in those early chapters that the Spirit of
God came mightily upon Samson.
Why?
Because those who desire the power of God
are those who do their dead level best
to live a life of joy.
Now, please don't misunderstand me, friends.
Anybody in this room is going to be
perfect, including myself, and I'd be lying if
I told you anything.
There's areas of our life that we're going
to have to fix.
There's areas of our life that we're going
to have to change.
Nobody's perfect.
Somebody said the only reason the Pope thinks
he is is because he's not married.
If he was married, his wife would tell
him different, that's for sure, because mine tells
me every day.
But I'm going to tell you something right
now, friend.
You will not be perfect, but you will
want to be different.
You'll want to be holy.
And I don't care if they call it
old-fashioned.
They say anything they want to say about
me, but I believe a person that wants
to be pure will walk right, they will
talk right, they will dress right, they will
sit right, they will look at what's right,
listen to what's right.
I don't care how old they are.
I don't care how young they are.
I don't care what their theological upbringing is.
If somebody wants to be holy, if they
want the power of God, they will desire
purity in their life.
And they're going to be pure.
And so, number one, I believe the power
of God comes through prayer.
Number two, I believe the power of God
comes through purity.
But number three, I believe the power of
God comes through the pages of God's Word.
You see, if you're not in the name
of God, I promise you one thing, you're
not in the will of God.
I'll say it again, just in case you
didn't get it.
If you're not in the Word of God,
you're not in the will of God.
David said in Psalm 143 and verse number
10, Teach me to do thy will.
How are we taught the will of God?
John 16, the Spirit shall lead you into
all the truth.
As we say in the courtroom, this is
the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but
the truth.
And ladies and gentlemen, if we really have
a heartbeat for God's power, if we really
want God's influence in our life to influence
other people, we are going to have to
be people that read the Bible.
Now understand, I am not a monk.
I'm not saying that you've got to wear
a robe that drags the ground and you've
got to sit in your bedroom for 24
hours, one day out of the week, and
you've got to read and read and read.
That is not what I'm saying, but you
do need to be a student of the
Word of God.
I was telling Pastor in the Robertson family
today over lunch, I was telling him this
morning about the man that brought, I believe
it was, 50, 48, 50, 52, somewhere around
in that area.
He brought about 50 people to the revival
meeting, and you know what happened when we
gave him that leather Bible?
He kissed it.
That's the first thing he did.
I mean, for the whole, for the 200
people in that church, he took it and
gave it a big old kiss right there
across the front where it said Holy Bible.
What do you think?
I wouldn't kiss my Bible.
That's why you don't have a fire of
God either.
Because people all over the world are begging
for Bibles and you won't even read the
one you've got.
We've got them laying all over the house.
You know, I've just got a 40-foot
traveling trailer, but I've got them too.
I've got 15, 20 Bibles in that little
traveling trailer.
I mean, we've got them on the coffee
table.
I mean, we've got them in the pew
racks.
We've got them on the pulpits.
We've got them on the microwaves.
Hey, some of them even got them in
the backseat of your car and they've been
there so long the sun doesn't dry right
under the cover and it's all lifted up
like that.
People over in China lose their life for
three pages of the Word of God.
We've got 791,328 words that we don't
care anything about what's said.
And we wonder why our churches are so
stale.
We wonder why we're so stagnant.
We wonder why our kids are living for
the devil and they don't live for God.
We wonder why, for example, the school that
I went to, I wonder why 1995 is
the last class that birthed a preacher boy.
I wonder why that is in our Christian
schools.
I'll tell you why.
Because we've lost our love and respect and
fear, reverence and admiration for the Lord.
It's become a book to us, friends.
You see, there used to be a time
in our churches when we had a book
that we loved.
I mean, the preacher would get up and
I mean, we'd open our Bibles and I
mean, we'd follow along and we'd enjoy it.
And we'd get home and we'd, as in
Acts 13, we'd bring people to Bereans and
search the Scriptures daily to see whether those
things were so.
I mean, we'd get in the Word of
God and I mean, we'd study.
But you remember when you first got saved?
I mean, you couldn't even hardly read the
Bible without big watermelons tears rolling up your
eyes.
And I mean, if you wrote in the
Bible, that was it.
You couldn't read the whole page.
You had to buy a new Bible.
Because I mean, you smeared that stuff just
all over the Bible.
I mean, all over the page.
I got the very first Bible I ever
got after I got saved.
And I'm telling you, I go back to
that thing, and I'll be honest with you,
I read some of the things I wrote
in that Bible and I think, man, I
was a 16-year-old heretic is what
I was.
I mean, I said some of the most
ridiculous things, but you know what?
Man, I was sincere.
Man, I didn't know a Bible from a
phone book when I first got saved.
I'm telling you, I wanted to devour it.
I mean, I wanted to read it.
I go back and read some of the
things I wrote.
I believe it was foolish, but I'm going
to tell you, I learned and I grew
through those times.
And we talk about growing in grace and
in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ, 2 Peter 3, 18.
How are you going to grow in grace?
If you're not in the Word of God.
We're going to have to get back to
the place where it's not just a little
kid's song, but we're going to have to
get back to the place where we believe
the B-I-B-L-E.
Yes, that's the book for me.
I stand alone on the Word of God.
The B-I-B-L-E.
Now, I don't have to argue with people
if I've got a perfect Bible.
If you don't think I have a perfect
Bible, that's fine.
I know I've got a perfect Bible and
you've got a right to be wrong if
you want to.
I know the Word of God is true.
I know it's right.
I know it's a liberal state.
I know it's a modernist state.
I know all of them say, well, there's
no way you can have a copy of
a perfect Bible.
Well, they may not have one, but I've
got a Bible that's complete.
I've got a Bible that's inerrant.
I've got a Bible that's infallible.
And you know what?
I don't have to waste my ministry arguing
about that.
I know it's the Word of God.
Whether you believe it or not, whether you
like it or not, whether you want it
or not, that's fine.
The ball's in your court, but I know
I've got the Word of God tonight, friend.
And I'm telling you, it's a book that
needs to be precious to God's people.
It is a book that needs to be
loved and reverenced.
And as David said in Psalm 119, verse
number 11, I'll have the Word of God
in my hands.
And I might not sin against God.
2 Peter chapter 2 and verse number 15,
study.
You say, well, that's a preacher verse.
No, that's a Christian verse.
Study to show thyself approved unto God.
A workman, see, it's work to study the
Bible.
A workman that needeth not to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the Word of truth.
Now, you know, if God tells us we're
to rightly divide the Word of truth, then
does it not stand to reason, ladies and
gentlemen, that some people can wrongly divide the
Word of truth?
And that's why our churches and the messes
are in.
Because we are more content to divide the
newspaper and the Sports Illustrated and the Time
Magazine and the Reader's Digest and just content
to let our Bible sit on a shelf.
And the only reason we bring them to
church is because it matches a new outfit
we just bought at the shopping mall.
And I'm telling you, friends, we're going to
have to get back to the place where
we devour the pages of the Word of
God.
Please, please don't tell me that you want
God's power.
But you never get into the book because
those who are serious about the power of
God are those who are serious about this
Bible.
Much more could be said, but for time's
sake, we must move on.
Number one, the power of God comes through
prayer.
I believe the power of God comes through
a great admiration for the pages of God's
Word.
I believe it comes through purity, wanting to
live a holy and righteous life.
But I also believe the power of God
comes through a passion.
You see, I learned something when I was
in Bible college.
Dr. Ron Comfort used to say this little
phrase all the time, and he meant it
about everything.
You get what you go after.
If I heard him say it once, I
heard him say it a blue jig in
time.
You get what you go after.
And you know what?
I'll be honest with you.
If you want the power of God, it's
available to you according to what the Bible
says.
And if you really want God's power, you
think God's going to stand up in heaven,
he's going to kind of twirl his thumbs,
stick around, pop a can, and say, you
know what, I think I'll play a good
old round of hide-and-go-seek with
them.
When they seek me, I'll not let them
find me.
When they want the power of God, I'll
make them weep and squall a bucket of
tears, but I'll never give it to them.
I'll just sit up here and have myself
a heavenly laugh.
I'll just sit up here and I'll laugh
and I'll enjoy their suffering and their temptations
and their thoughts.
No, if you want the power of God,
according to my Bible, it is a promise,
it is a fact that you can have
the power of God.
Think about something just for a moment.
For time's sake, please don't turn there.
One of my favorite chapters in the Bible
is Philippians chapter 3.
I believe, as a matter of fact, and
my memory serves me correct, when I was
here last year, I preached the message on
Wednesday night.
Keep your eyes on the prize.
Philippians chapter 3, verse 1 through verse number,
I think, 14.
Apostle, I preach to the Lord for the
prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus.
Let us therefore as many as be perfect
be thus minded, verse 15, and if anything
you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal His
goodness unto you.
And I remember I told you this, and
I suppose that maybe you remember, maybe you
don't, but you know what the theme of
the book of Philippians is?
It's joy.
Four chapters.
That's it.
Four short chapters and 17 times the Apostle
Paul uses the word joy or rejoice.
Over and over again, rejoicing the Lord all
the way, and again I say rejoice.
He told those people to have joy in
God.
Now, how could Paul write about joy?
Whenever he was writing this, he was not
in the Hilton High Rise Hotel, but he
was on the stony jail cell, cold, rat
-infested, rope-crawling floor of a Roman province
prison.
How could he write about joy?
I think I could write about joy because
he said in Philippians chapter 3, verse number
10, that I may know him, and the
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of
his son, being made confirmable, same word of
Romans 8, 28 and 29, being made confirmable
unto his death, if by any means I
might attain to the resurrection of the dead.
What is it, ladies and gentlemen, that made
the Apostle Paul the man that he was?
If I could ask it this way, what
made him?
This past Easter, the Robertson family and myself,
we started a revival meeting at the Friendship
Baptist Church of Tennessee City, Tennessee, this little
town outside of Dixon, basically Dixon, just a
little suburb of Nashville, way out a little
bit.
And I've been there on several occasions, and
the pastor has left since then for good
reasons, and went to another church, but we
were there, and we had one of those
early Easter morning services around 6.30, 7
o'clock, something like that, and had their
regular service at 11, whatever it was, those
Sunday schools and the evening service, and we
went on through the week, and we'd have
a great time.
Wednesday night, Thursday night, one of those little
mid-of-the-week type of nights.
We was at the back, and we were
shaking hands, we were thanking people and saying,
God bless you for coming, and folks were
coming by buying books off the table, and
tapes off the table, and things like that.
And this man came by me, and I
know him, and I feel him.
Matter of fact, I was in a meeting
in that area not too long ago, and
he showed up.
We had a Sunday afternoon service, and this
guy showed up.
He's a good friend, but he scared me
just a little bit that afternoon, that's for
sure, that evening.
And so we was out there, and he
was shaking my hand.
God bless you, brother, I appreciate it so
much.
And he's patting me on the back.
I don't mind people patting me on the
back.
And the first patting on the back, had
a suit on, and I'm getting all ready
to get out the door, and I'm just
kind of talking to people, God bless you,
God bless you, God bless you, trying to
shake everybody's hands, trying to be cordial to
everybody, tired, a little bit weary from preaching.
And so this guy starts shaking my hand,
starts patting me on the back.
Then he kind of goes down the middle
of my back, and he's like, just kind
of patting me on the back.
And I'm thinking, okay, you've patted me on
the back enough, God bless you, I know
you appreciate the message, now go home.
And I said, you know what's this guy
doing?
Well, I have my coat unbuttoned, you know,
and it's kind of free, and I always
talk with my hands, as you can imagine,
as you can tell.
And he took the back of my suit
coat.
I mean, it's a gospel truth.
He took the back of my suit coat
and lifted it up just about to my
head.
And I'm thinking, huh, okay, mister, I've never
hit a man in the church, but I'm
just about coming well-nined to it, amen.
So he lifts up my jacket, he takes
his hand, runs it up the back of
my jacket, starts patting me on the back.
And I turned around and I said, please
tell me what you're doing.
And he said, I'm looking for your wind
-up mechanism.
He said, I'm looking for that little spot
that your wife just kind of cranks you
up and lets you go before you can
preach it.
You know what?
Philippians chapter 3 and verse number 10 was
Paul's wind-up mechanism.
It was his crank.
But I may know him, not know about
him.
We know a lot about God, but that's
not going to get us anywhere.
He said, but I may know him and
the power of his resurrection.
And by the way, he didn't stop with
just the power of his resurrection.
He said, and the fellowship of his suffering.
You know, Paul told God's people, if you're
going to be a person that knows much
about the power of God, you're going to
be a person that knows much about heartache.
You're going to be a person that knows
much about loss, and anxiety, and yes, sometimes
disturbance, and hard times.
And I'm not going to go into all
the details and all the illustration, all the
ramifications, but I'll tell you something.
And I was a little bit mad about
this, and I was a little bit mad
about that.
And you remember last time I was here,
I was struggling with my voice.
Well, that had a lot to do with
it when they said I had the nodules
and all that stuff.
And I didn't know when I was here
then.
I found out in August.
And I'm going to tell you, me and
Don had a little fight, buddy.
And I got back there, and I was
pulling fist punches with God.
And I was arguing about this, and saying,
hey, I don't believe this, and I don't
appreciate this.
And I'm telling you, as an evangelist, as
a full-time evangelist, I gave God the
runaround.
I was upset, hands down.
And by the way, I got on the
footpath that night on the camp, and I
preached.
And I preached just like I always did,
and I wasn't no more right with God
than a bum on the street.
I knew I didn't have the power of
God that night.
I just got up and preached a little
old Microwave sermon at some youth camp that
I preached before there at Camp Kittak in
Wisconsin.
And I'm telling you, I was struggling in
my heart.
I knew I wasn't no more right with
God than anything.
And I was mad, and I went back
home that night, and I was still upset,
and I was still mad in my heart.
And I told God, you know, I get
up and say, hey, you're not supposed to
tell God why.
And that's real good preaching until you go
through a trial.
But it's real easy to say, hey, trust
God, until you go through a trial and
you've got to trust God.
But when the rubber meets the road, that's
when it's real preaching.
And I got back there, and I'm telling
you, I was...
Now, I do not believe in coincidence, but
I do believe in providence.
At that time, I was just nominally reading
through my Bible, reading a few things.
And I was reading a book that I've
read, I don't know, three, four, five times.
It's called The Pursuit of God by A.
W.
Tosin.
You ever get a chance to grab that
book, you ought to pick it up.
It's one of the best books you'll ever
read in your life.
Now, it's deep.
You don't sit down and read it in
one night.
I mean, it ain't a coffee book.
I mean, you read it, and I'm here
to convict you and wear you out, and
you better have a highlighter and an ink
pen, because, buddy, you'll be writing 90 miles
to nothing when God gets ahold of you
when you read that book.
It's probably, outside of the Bible, it's hands
down.
There's no problem about it.
It is hands down the greatest book I've
ever read in my life.
It's challenged me, convicted me, and changed me
more than any other book outside the Bible.
During that hard time in my life, I
was going through that trial, and I came
to a particular chapter, and I began to
read.
You know what A.
W.
Tosin said right in the middle of that
book?
I wrote it right here in the trial.
It's my Bible.
I'll never want to forget it.
He said, it is doubtful, you hear me
and hear me well, it is doubtful that
God will ever use a man greatly until
he hurts a man deeply.
You know what Paul said?
Paul said the same thing.
I want to know Him, the power of
His resurrection, and the fellowship of His grace.
And Paul said, no matter what it takes,
no matter how my heart breaks, they can
spit, they can laugh, they can scoff, that
is fine.
But Paul had an undying passion to know
God like that.
You know what?
You can read your Bible every day.
You can pray every day.
You can try to live the holiest life
on the face of God's green earth.
But if you have no passion for the
power of God, it will all be routine,
ruthless.
You're going to have to want the power
of God from Him.
You're going to have to have a passion.
You're going to have to go on a
quest as the heart passes after the water,
and the heart will so pass my soul
after the old God.
Psalm chapter 42, verse number 2.
David said, I will be satisfied when I
awake with thy lightening.
Now that's an interesting verse for you.
David said, I won't be satisfied until I
look in the mirror and look just like
Jesus.
He said, I won't be satisfied until my
passions are fulfilled and I know that the
power of God is upon my heart.
Hey, what's your passion?
You want to make a lot of money?
That's fine.
Have every dime of it.
You want to have fancy houses, fancy cars?
Ain't nothing wrong with having things, but it's
much wrong when things have you, and you
don't want the power of God, and you
want things, and you want this, and you
want fame, and you want fortune, and you
want prestige, and people always got to recognize
you, people always got to reward you.
What is your passion in life?
Do you really want the power of God?
Now you hear me, and you hear me
well, and don't you miss the word that
comes out of my mouth.
If you want it, you can have it.
And I give you this lesson, and with
this we close and we go home.
I believe the power of God comes through
perseverance.
You see, as you keep reading through that
joy chapter, don't you find out?
Paul said, I press.
I'm not a Greek scholar.
I'm not a Hebrew scholar.
I do know a little Hebrew.
He runs a laundromat here in Danville.
But nonetheless, I don't know how to Hebrew,
and a lot of Greek.
To be honest with you, I struggle with
English, and that doesn't take a very long
time to figure out what I'm preaching, that's
for sure.
But as I study, they tell me that
the Greek word there for press is the
word agonizamon.
You know what I mean?
It means I agonize.
I sweat.
I bleed.
I frighten.
He says I lose sleep.
I lose money.
I lose all of these frivolous things of
life for one reason.
I press for the march, for the prize
of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus.
And the Bible says, let us therefore as
many as be perfect, or complete, mature, be
thus minded.
And if anything, you be otherwise minded, God
shall reveal this unto you.
He said, listen, I have a passion for
the power of God, but what good is
that passion going to do me if I
don't persevere, if I don't live for God
every day?
Can I remind you your Bible does not
say in the book of Proverbs that a
just man falls twice and gets up again.
It doesn't say a just man falls four,
five, or even six times, but it says
seven, the number of complete.
He falls seven times, he learns from his
mistakes, he dusts himself off, and he goes
on with God.
He keeps trusting, he keeps living, he keeps
preaching, he keeps praying, and yes, he falls
all over himself.
And Paul said, when I want to do
right, I do wrong.
When I don't want to do wrong, I
still do wrong.
Who shall deliver me from the body of
this death?
Thanks be to God, which gives us the
victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Christian life is a fight.
The Christian life is a struggle.
The Christian life is warfare.
And the power of God is available to
those who will persevere, who will stay in
the fight, who will stick with the battle,
and who will continue until the trumpet sounds.
And friend, we need some people with some,
excuse me, stick-to-it-iveness, if you
will.
Some folks who stick to it.
Some folks who don't just kind of drop
by and just kind of drop in on
God every now and then when they need
some problem fixed.
Not some demon Christians, but some devoted Christians.
I'd like to read you a little something.
I'm not real big on reading things when
I'm preaching, but nonetheless, I'd like to read
something tonight.
Matter of fact, I found out that you
have this on one of your church bulletin
boards.
And you can be studious and you can
find where it is.
But they gave me this when I was
in Bible college, and I don't ever want
to forget it.
I've tried to memorize it, and it just
seems like to me there's some things easy
for me to memorize, but there's other things
it's not.
Maybe I've not applied myself very much.
But I'd like to read this to you.
It's actually very fitting for the trip that
I just took, because it was written by
a young pastor, a native pastor, over in
the land of Africa.
Not the very same country I was in,
but another country, the country of Togo.
And he wrote this, and I believe it
sums up everything I've said tonight in a
nutshell.
And with this we pray, and we're done.
So my commitment as a Christian.
He says, I am a part of a
fellowship of the unashamed.
I have Holy Spirit power.
The die has been cast.
I have stepped over the line.
The decision has been made.
I am a disciple of Christ.
I will not look back, let up, slow
down, back away, or be still.
My past is redeemed.
My present makes sense, and my future is
secure.
I am finished and done with long living,
sight walking, small planning, smooth means, colorless dreams,
pain vision, mundane talking, cheap living, and dwarf
goals.
I no longer need preeminence, nor prosperity, tradition,
promotions, products, or popularity.
I do not have to be right.
I don't have to be first, top, recognized,
praised, regarded, or rewarded.
I now live by faith, lean on his
presence, walk by his patience, lift up my
burdens in prayer, and labor by power.
My faith is set.
My gate is fast.
My goal is heaven.
My road is narrow.
My way is rough.
My companions are few, but my guide is
reliable, and my mission is certainly clear.
I cannot be bought, compromised, detoured, lured away,
turned back, deluded, or delayed.
I will not flinch in the face of
sacrifice, hesitate in the presence of adversity, negotiate
at the table of the enemy, ponder at
the throne of popularity, or meander in the
maze of mediocrity.
I will not give up, shut up, let
up, until I have stayed up, stood up,
prayed up, and paid up, preached up for
the cause of Christ, because I am a
disciple of his.
I must go till he comes, give till
I drop, preach till all know, and work
till he stops me.
And when he comes for his own, he
will have no problems recognizing me.
The color of my banner will be quite
clear.
And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, that
is New Testament Christianity.
And that's the mindset of a person who
has the power of God.