If you're visiting tonight and you have a
cell phone, you may want to turn it
off.
Lest it ring at the time when God's
trying to convict you and you end up
staying in your cell before the...
That's why they call them a cell phone
in the house of God.
You know, when the conviction of the Holy
Ghost comes, the devil will call you.
You can be sure of that.
Bless the Lord.
Acts chapter 4, bringing the power of God
into prayer.
Bringing the power of God into prayer.
I believe if your heart is open tonight
that the Lord will speak something to you
that may change your prayer life.
I remember as a young Christian wanting to
pray.
It was the longing of my heart for
many, many years.
That cry that came from the heart of
Jesus' disciples when they said, Teach us how
to pray.
In order to learn to pray, we oftentimes
have to run through the gambit of all
the formulas.
Many of you have been around a while,
you know that.
Everybody that rises up, every once in a
while somebody rises up and they claim to
have found a new formula for prayer.
Well, if they've reduced prayer to a formula,
then by the virtue of that alone, they've
not really understood what prayer is all about.
It's like coming up with a formula for
breathing.
There's really no formula to it.
You either do it or you die.
And God in His grace brings us to
a place where we begin to understand that
prayer is not a formula.
Prayer is the very life breath of communication
that we have with God.
And I believe that I have something to
show you from the Scriptures.
It will take a while.
You're going to need your Bible tonight.
It might begin to produce somewhat of a
cry of faith in your heart, like the
cry that is beginning to come into my
heart.
It's in Pastor David's heart, it's in Pastor
Neil's heart, it's in Pastor Patrick's heart.
If you come out to prayer on Tuesday
night, you will hear that cry.
There's a cry of faith.
Bringing the power of God into prayer.
Father, I thank you.
I thank you from the depths of my
being.
Lord, for what you are doing.
And for how you are showing yourself to
us.
I thank you, Lord God, that you are
bringing to us words of encouragement and faith.
And you're causing the faith.
You're giving us faith, Lord, to trust in
you.
And to believe in your promises to us.
So that when we go into the closet
of prayer, God, we can lift up our
voices with an assurance.
A calm, yet an excited assurance, God.
That the things that you have already said
you're going to do.
And no power of hell can ever stand
against you.
Father, thank you, Lord, for the knowledge tonight
that hell has no right to our homes.
Hell has no right to our lives.
Hell has no right to our future, our
past, nor our present.
Lord, it's all in your hand now.
And you are in absolute control.
God, we thank you, Lord, that the heathen
rage.
But they are also under the control of
Almighty God.
Oh, God in heaven, I'm asking for a
dimension of prayer to be released in this
church on all of our lives.
God, I thank you for taking me in
my weakness and showing me this, Father.
I ask for the unction and anointing to
bring this to this body.
That it might become a living reality.
As we cry out to you, Lord, that
you deliver us from all form and all
tradition.
All prayer by rote.
All meaningless expressions in your house.
God, put a word of faith and power
in our hearts.
That when we pray, heaven and earth begin
to shake.
God, I thank you for it.
I thank you for it, Lord.
Give me the ability tonight, Holy Spirit, to
be able to speak this word simply.
And give us the hearts to hear it,
oh God.
Let faith arise, especially now in this generation,
Lord.
We see a hungry city that just lies
before us.
People are starving for truth.
God in heaven, I thank you for the
anointing that breaks every yoke.
I praise you for it in Jesus' name.
Amen.
Acts chapter 4, beginning at verse 23.
This is about Peter and John and many
of the other believers.
And being let go, they went to their
own company and reported all that the chief
priests and elders had said unto them.
And when they heard that, they lifted up
their voice to God with one accord.
And said, Lord, thou art God, which has
made heaven and earth and the sea and
all that in them is.
Who by the mouth of thy servant David
hath said, Why did the heathen rage, and
the people imagine vain things?
The kings of the earth stood up, and
the rulers were gathered together against the Lord
and against his Christ.
For of a truth against thy holy child
Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and
Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel were gathered together.
For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy
counsel determined before to be done.
And now, Lord, behold their threatenance.
And grant to thy servants that with all
boldness they may speak thy word, by stretching
forth thine hand to heal.
And that signs and wonders may be done
by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
And when they had prayed, the place was
shaken where they were assembled together.
They were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and they spake the word of God with
boldness.
Bringing the power of God into prayer.
This is a prayer meeting.
If we're ever going to learn about the
prayer meeting and what it really is like
to pray, and to pray in the power
of God, we have to go back to
the blueprints that God has given us.
Forget the formulas.
Forget all of men's ideas, and all their
wisdom, and all their useless empty repetitions.
And go back to the beginning and find
out how the early church prayed, and why
God responded to them in such power.
We know the scripture says, Jesus Christ the
same yesterday, today, and forever.
Nothing about God changes.
Nothing about God's character changes.
Nothing about God's response to His people changes.
The only thing that really changes oftentimes is
our perception of God throughout history, and our
being able to lay hold of what He
has promised to do for us.
Under this scene of prayer, God immediately and
powerfully responds.
But this prayer actually has its beginning back
in Acts chapter 3.
So in order to understand what's going on
here, we have to go back and look
at the situation as it begins.
Now, Acts chapter 3 and verse 1, we
see Peter and John arriving at a place
where prayers are being offered.
Scripture says, Now Peter and John went up
together into the temple at the hour of
prayer.
So there's a prayer meeting going on in
the temple, being the ninth hour.
Now, these are prayers that are being offered
in the temple, but yet these prayers are
powerless.
They're powerless prayers.
And we have an ample supply of powerless
prayer meetings all throughout the country today.
An ample supply.
Thank God for the many who even take
the time to gather.
We've gotten to a place now in the
church of Jesus Christ where the prayer meeting
is an odyssey in the house of God.
It's something you don't see very often.
You might see long conventions and things like
that, but very rare will you drive by
a church and see prayer meeting, Holy Ghost
prayer meeting.
As a matter of fact, I don't know
if I've ever seen it since even coming
to the United States about almost seven years
ago now.
Powerless prayer meetings.
But, thank God, at least there are some.
But so many are powerless.
The people come in.
They have so little concept of God.
They've been so long out of the Word
of God, so long alienated personally from the
purposes of God, which is the winning of
the lost here on this earth into the
eternal heaven provided for them through the blood
of Christ, that they get together to pray
and are not even sure what they're to
pray for.
Oftentimes the prayers are misguided.
Sometimes the prayers are self-consuming.
It's sad to say, tragically to say, as
Pastor David shared this morning, many of the
church groups end up just praying their own
lusts.
They just end up coming into the house
of God, and it's as if they're approaching
some kind of a cosmic Santa Claus, just
looking for their own good, for their own
betterment, their own blessing.
That seems to be the very source, even,
of all of their prayer.
But here is a powerless prayer meeting that
Peter and John come into, and it's evidenced
by the presence at the very gate of
a 40-or-so-year-old man who,
from his birth, the Scripture says in verse
2, a certain man lame from his mother's
womb was carried, whom they laid daily at
the gate of the temple, which is called
beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered
into the temple.
This young man was without strength.
He had to be carried daily to the
gate of the temple, the prayer meeting.
It was a gate which was called beautiful,
which was a type possibly of that which
represents the intent of God for all of
humanity.
God intends that the gate of His house
be a place where the lame, the poor,
the maimed, the blind, the nobodies, the nothings
of society may come in, find freedom, and
be given beauty for the ashes of their
lives.
And here is this powerless man, every day,
being carried in and laid at this gate
which is called beautiful, yet he himself is
in a less than beautiful condition.
He is powerless, he is lame, and he
is poor.
And he has learned to fix his hope
on all that he had been conditioned to
expect from those who daily arrived to offer
their prayers to God.
Here is this crippled man, this powerless man,
and all that he could get from the
people going to the prayer meeting was a
coin or two clinking in his cup.
What a tragedy!
Reaching out at the gate of what is
supposed to be beauty, what's supposed to be
strength, what's supposed to be power, and he
reaches out and all you can hear is
clink, clink, clink, and an ominous, powerless silence
of those who pass him by on their
way into the house to profess their love
for God.
It's tragic, and it speaks of the apostate
condition of any church in any generation that
has lost a heart for people that most
tragically have lost their heart for God himself.
Think of it, a crippled man at the
gate, clink, clink, clink, clink, as people come
in at the hour of prayer.
But something is about to change.
There are two men that have been in
the presence of God.
They've been touched by God, they've been filled
with the passion of God, they have the
compassion of God, they're not interested in the
accolades of men, they're not interested in all
the things that the society around them has
to offer, they're interested in one thing, and
that's the work of God.
And the work of God is to heal,
the work of God is to restore, the
work of God is to open prison doors,
give sight to the blind, give strength to
the weary and to the weak, give direction
to the confused, give hope to those that
are hopeless, bring to the cleansing blood of
Christ those that are stained and forever tarnished
by the power of sin in their lives,
to bring them to healing who are wounded
and grinded by the abuses that they possibly
have suffered in the past.
These men don't care anything for formality.
They're about to rule in a perfectly good
prayer meeting by the standards of that day.
They walk into the house of God.
The man at the gate looks at them,
expecting to receive all that he's received from
the house of his day.
Another couple of coins stuck in his cup
and an ominous silence from them.
But Peter looked at him and began to
do something that you and I would be
wise to consider doing today.
Peter began to speak into his life.
Hallelujah.
Peter said to him, silver and gold have
I not.
Now, I don't think necessarily that Peter didn't
have a coin to buy lunch.
That wasn't the issue.
Peter was saying to him, this is not
what you need.
This is not my trust.
I don't trust in gold.
I trust in God.
And Peter was saying, I've got something much
greater than you need.
I have it and I'm going to give
it to you.
And he begins to speak into his life.
He says, in the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, rise up and walk.
Here are words of spiritual authority that flow
from a heart convinced of the purpose and
power of God.
Words that impart faith and strength, enabling this
man to rise from his poor and powerless
condition.
Folks, that's the call of the church.
That's the call that's on your life, in
your community, your neighborhood, your workplace, your home.
It's not just to walk silent and throw
a couple of coins at a problem.
It's for you and I to lay hold
of the heart of God.
And once we've laid hold of his heart,
to begin to speak into people's life.
Speak words of spiritual authority that says, you
don't have to be like this anymore.
Rise up and walk.
God has provided everything you need.
Verse 8, the scripture says, not only did
he speak, but he helped him.
He took him, verse 7, he says, he
took him by the right hand and lifted
him up.
Sometimes it's not enough just to offer a
few words.
We've got to stretch out and, as it
is, give strength.
And immediately his feet and ankle bones received
strength.
And he, leaping up, stood and walked and
entered with them into the temple.
Walking and leaping and praising God.
These are words that Peter spoke that brought
him into the power of God.
Gave him beauty for ashes.
Beauty for his tarnished life.
Beauty for his powerlessness.
The stench of the man, perhaps, laying there
every day, unable to care for himself.
But one man walks by, or two men
walk by, and one speaks into his life.
And stretches out his hand.
And in the power of God, he is
raised out of that condition.
And he is given a living testimony.
Hallelujah.
He walked into the temple, walking and leaping
and praising God.
Into the midst of a prayer meeting comes
a man who's transformed.
Hallelujah.
And the people, the Scripture says in verse
9, saw him walking and praising God.
David said it the best.
They not only heard him, but they saw
him.
There was such an inward working of God
that it could not be contained.
It began to manifest itself outwardly.
David said it this way.
He has put a new song in my
mouth.
Even praising to our God, many shall see
it in fear and shall trust in the
Lord.
Now he had this new song, because in
the previous verse, in Psalm 40, verse 2,
the Scripture says, he brought me up also
out of a horrible pit, out of the
miry clay, and set my feet upon a
rock, and he has established my goings.
Hallelujah.
We need more ruined prayer meetings across the
nation.
We need more prayer meetings disrupted by the
power of God.
Disrupted by the poor.
Disrupted by the blind as they come in.
The lame.
The maimed.
And the power of God touches them and
they begin to dance and leap in the
presence of God and praise Him for what
He has done.
Verse 10 says, they were filled with wonder
and amazement at that which had happened to
him.
A leaping and praising man entering in and
disturbing their powerless prayer meeting.
Hallelujah.
I hope you catch the irony of that
tonight, because we sure could use a lot
more of that in the house of God.
Verse 13, Peter takes the opportunity now to
preach to the people who gather around at
this amazing thing as a life is changed.
A life is changed by somebody who simply
made the choice to speak.
You know, there was a story in the
Old Testament about three lepers that were dying
outside the city gates and the city was
surrounded by an opposing army.
And they went into the camp.
They said, well, if we stay here, we
die.
So they went into the opposing enemy's camp.
The Scripture says God made the footsteps of
three lepers coming down the sand dune sound
like an opposing army coming in their direction.
And the Holy Ghost literally turned up the
volume of their footsteps and caused the opposing
army to flee.
And they all of a sudden found themselves
in the midst of a huge, wonderful spoil.
But they said something to themselves that we
would be wise to say to our own
hearts again today.
They said, it is not a good thing
that we've come across such a wonderful provision
that has been given to us to spare
our lives and we keep it to ourselves
while people are dying in the city that
we have just come out of.
They said, we must go back.
Even though the city had not done much
good for them.
They had put them outside the gates and,
you know, lepers were ostracized from the city.
But they said, nevertheless, they were manifesting the
heart of God.
We have now what they need.
We know why they treated us the way
they did because they don't have now what
we have.
And we've got to go back and tell
them that we've found an incredible treasure that
can sustain their lives.
Peter preaches to the people and he says
in verse 13, The God of Abraham and
of Isaac, Jacob, the God of our fathers,
has glorified his son, Jesus, whom you have
delivered up and denied him in the presence
of Pilate when he was determined to let
him go.
But you denied the Holy One and the
just and desired a murderer to be granted
unto you and killed the Prince of Life,
whom God has raised from the dead whereof
we are witnesses.
And his name, through faith in his name,
has made this man strong, whom you see
and know.
Yea, the faith which is by him has
given him this perfect soundness in the presence
of you all.
Peter stood and said, God sent his son,
but you didn't want his son to reign
over you.
And instead of his son, you desire a
murderer.
Now, the murderer, historically, I suppose you could
say, was Barabbas, when the crowd stood there
and said we would have Barabbas and crucify
Christ.
But technically speaking, that's the truth.
But there's another principle behind it.
Jesus himself said in John, he said in
chapter 8, verses 42 and 44, he said,
If God were your father, you would love
me.
For I proceeded forth and came from God,
and neither came I of myself, but he
sent me.
You are of your father the devil, and
the lusts of your father you will do.
He was a murderer, this is the devil,
from the beginning, and abode not in the
truth, because there is no truth in him.
And Peter was effectively saying, God sent you
life, but you chose death.
He sent you the giver of life, but
you chose the one who takes life away.
And you desired that he would reign over
you, rather than the Son of God.
And you tried to put him away from
your coast, you tried to push him out,
but you can't push God out of the
world he created.
Hallelujah.
You can't push God out of his own
creation.
Tell me, how can you do that?
Tell me who's powerful enough to stand against
the hand of God.
Who can outwit God?
God, who by the spoken word created this
universe and puny mankind.
All the kings and the rulers of society
somehow think that they can push God out
of their society.
How foolish to even think such a thing.
You see, God doesn't abide in the laws,
and God doesn't abide in all these things,
these structures of men.
He dwells in the hearts of people.
And just at the moment when a society
thinks they have succeeded in pushing him out
of their coast, the Holy Ghost comes, he
begins to fill people once again.
They stand up, they begin to speak words
of life, and life begins, life begins, life
begins, life begins, life, and God begins to
pour into humanity again.
Hallelujah.
School officials can think that they've pushed Christ
out of our schools, but one girl, one
boy can stand in a flagpole and begin
to pray.
Hallelujah.
Harvard University, in its ignorance, can think that
in the learning of man we can push
the one who created the universe out of
the halls and recreate and redefine truth.
But one teacher opens her apartment and begins
to share Christ, and all of a sudden
the whole thing begins to turn around.
Hallelujah.
The desire to be self-ruled, to be
lawless towards God and to rebel against his
ways, this is what Peter was saying.
While at the same time wanting to push
Christ out of your borders is evidence that
in your self-willed ignorance you would rather
the rule and corresponding fruit of Satan's kingdom
than that of the kingdom of God.
Oh, folks, I tell you, this is the
only alternative left to those who want to
be rulers of their own destiny and don't
want to submit to God.
We're living in a tragic era today, a
tragic, tragic generation.
My heart grieves at the ignorance of America.
The United States of America, a nation truly
founded by people at least who had a
sincere desire to be under the governorship of
God.
They had a sincere desire, I believe that,
many did at least anyway, to have laws
that reflected the laws of God, to establish
a country that reflected the heart of God
in the sense that they said, Bring us,
send us your poor, send us those that
you don't want, we will take them here.
This is a land of freedom, freedom in
a sense being based on the virtual word
of God, the laws of God, the character
of God, the nature of God, the power
of God.
There was an understanding of these things, but
now, becoming wise, I see a nation that
is becoming foolish, more and more foolish every
day.
A people, once again, as history repeats itself,
who think that we can somehow push God
out of our borders, away from our children,
and still continue to prosper.
What a tragic, foolish mistake.
God is about to prove this whole thing
wrong.
He's going to begin to, He's already doing
it now.
These shootings happening in schools and such like,
are only the beginnings of an underwrought of
judgment that is already upon this society.
James Dobson, who is the author of the
newsletter, Focus on the Family, I believe about
a year ago, conceded in one of his
newsletters, when he said, I made the wrong
assumption.
He said, I assumed that the majority of
Americans were moral.
Isn't that a tragic thing to have to
say?
But he said, I believe that I've been
an error in this thing, and this whole
battle will never be won in the political
arena.
And in one of his newsletters he said,
I dedicate the rest of my life to
doing what I was called to do, to
preaching and teaching and publishing and defending the
gospel of Jesus Christ.
The only power that can change the hearts
of men and kingdoms.
Recently, these are just some excerpts from a
recent newsletter.
I just want to share them with you,
in case you may not be aware of
them.
A recent decision by a federal district judge
ruled in May, this past May, that displays
of historic American documents in eastern Kentucky schools
and county courthouses are unconstitutional and had to
be removed from the walls of the schools
and courthouses.
Now listen to the documents which are now
unconstitutional in eastern Kentucky.
An excerpt from the Declaration of Independence which
reads, All men are empowered by their Creator
with certain unalienable rights, that among these are
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, had
to be taken off the wall of the
schools.
The preamble of the Constitution of Kentucky which
states, We the people of the Commonwealth of
Kentucky, grateful to Almighty God for the civil,
political, and religious liberties we enjoy, and invoking
the continuance of these blessings, do ordain and
establish this Constitution, removed from the courthouses and
from the schools.
The national motto, In God We Trust, removed.
A proclamation by President Reagan marking 1983, the
year of the Bible, removed.
A proclamation by President Abraham Lincoln designating April
30, 1863, a national day of prayer and
humiliation, removed from public display.
An excerpt from President Lincoln's memorials which reads,
The Bible is the best gift God has
ever given to men, removed from our schools,
removed from display in the courthouses.
The Mayflower Compact in which the colony's founders
invoked the name of God and explained that
their journey was taken, among other reasons, for
the glory of God and the advancement of
the Christian faith, removed as no longer constitutional
and cannot be displayed in their schools.
Now, folks, I want to tell you something.
It would be tragic enough if this was
isolated.
These are not isolated incidents, folks.
These are happening all over the country now.
A judicial branch that is moving its hand
against Almighty God.
Recently, a panel of the 6th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals in the state of
Ohio struck down the 1959 state motto that
reads, With God, all things are possible.
Two of the three judges claimed it expresses
a uniquely Christian thought and it is therefore
now unconstitutional.
All of these things, the pushing God out
of the schools, out of the court system,
out of the borders of the country, are
leading to all kinds of debauchery.
One of them, which is of worthy note,
which was a curriculum which was written for
children in New York City's elementary schools ten
years ago and it came to be known
as Children of the Rainbow.
Some of you may be familiar with this.
Which taught thousands of wide-eyed kids to
regard homosexuality as an alternative lifestyle.
One of the textbooks used was Daddy's Roommate,
a tale in which Daddy leaves Mommy for
his gay lover.
Another was entitled, Heather Has Two Mommies, which
described lesbian motherhood in glowing terms.
This is the end result, folks.
We begin to push God out of our
borders.
A people would rather be under the governorship
of the devil than the governorship of God.
Now, into the midst of a people who
had just, in their own mind, put Christ
away.
They crucified Christ.
They preferred a murderer over the risen Lord.
Into the midst of this situation, which I
would say probably looked as hopeless as any.
Yes, in America, in North America, there's an
attempt to push Christ out of our borders.
The word of God out of our schools
and courts.
And virtually eradicate the name of God from
society.
But this was a generation that had literally
the living God, the embodied Son of God,
in their midst.
And they had just finished Him off, in
a sense.
They crucified Him.
But you know, you cannot push God out
of your borders.
When God has determined to do something, He's
going to do it.
It doesn't matter what mankind does.
Into the midst of this situation, rise up
men and women that have no formal education
to speak of.
They are just tax gatherers.
They are fishermen.
There are some harlots that have come to
Christ.
And the leopards, rather, the blind.
All the rest of these.
They are now empowered by the Spirit of
God.
They are moving in unison with the heart
of God.
They're declaring the truth of God.
And nothing can stop them.
Nothing can stop them.
Because there is a power higher than all
of the secular powers that are around about
us.
Now, Acts chapter 4.
Moving on.
We have Peter and John's presentation of the
healing truth of Christ.
And you'd think that society would get all
excited when the lame man is healed.
But society doesn't get excited.
All you have to do is lead somebody
to Christ in the workplace.
And you'll find out that your bosses won't
get excited about it.
Lead somebody to Christ that comes in, that
used to formally tear everybody to pieces and
come in half drunk to work and pass
a tolerable day as it is in the
ways of the modern world.
And lead that man to Christ or that
woman to Christ.
And all of a sudden they come in
and they're dancing and leaping in the presence
of God.
They're passing out tracks.
Folks, I know what I'm talking about.
I've been there.
I've lived it.
I've lived in a place of leading policemen
to Jesus Christ and watching them do this
very thing.
Go to the boss that hated me.
Hated me with a passion and sticking tracks
right in his face and telling him he
needed to get saved.
All excited about God, this newfound life, this
telling him everything I've been looking for, I've
found in Christ.
A man who was transferred into the office
I worked in, I've shared this with you
before, who had a terminal illness, put there
just to die.
He received Christ as his Savior and I
never laid hands on him.
I never prayed for him.
I never talked about healing.
But the moment he received Christ, he was
miraculously healed.
God touched his body and took the disease
away.
He was 100% restored.
God did it.
A marvelous testimony.
He filled the whole orchard with the Holy
Ghost.
There were seven men in my section and
I was there I guess about three, four,
five, I forget how long, it was less
than six months and six were saved and
filled with the Holy Ghost.
And you'd think everybody would get excited about
that.
Here's Tom, he's healed.
His body's healed.
But they didn't get excited.
They got quite annoyed with me.
And they spake to the people.
As they spake to the people, chapter 4,
verse 1, the priest, the captain of the
temple, the Sadducees came upon them.
Here are all the leaders of the day.
Their whole tinsel kingdom is now being threatened
by the power of God.
Being grieved that they taught the people and
preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.
And they laid hands on them.
Now they're not talking about praying for a
blessing here.
They laid hands on them and put them
in hold until the next day for it
was now even time.
In other words, they called them on the
carpet.
That's exactly what would happen.
When you begin to step out in the
workplace, I'm not going to stand here and
tell you it's going to be easy.
I'm going to tell you the moment God
begins to work, you're going to get called
on the carpet.
Jesus said they called the master of the
house Beelzebub.
How much more are they going to call
them of his household?
Don't think that you're going to escape persecution
when you step out for Jesus Christ.
Not everyone is going to think you're lovely
and wonderful because you come into the office
telling them, I found the truth that will
lead you to heaven.
No, sir.
They're not going to be happy about it.
How be it many of them which heard
the word beneath and the number of men
was about 5,000.
People are coming to Christ.
Thousands are getting saved.
And it came to pass on the morrow
that the rulers, the elders, the scribes, Anastas,
the high priest, Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander,
and as many as were the kindred of
the high priest were gathered together at Jerusalem.
And when they had set them in the
midst, they asked, By what power or by
what name have you done this?
And Peter filled with the Holy Ghost said
unto them, You rulers of the people and
elders of Israel, if we this day be
examined of the good deed done to this
impotent or that powerless man, and by what
means he is made whole, all the people
of Israel, that by the name of Jesus
Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God
raised from the dead, even by him does
this man stand here before you all.
And this is the stone which was set
at nought of you builders, and has become
the head of the corner.
Neither is there salvation in any other, for
there is none other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved.
When they saw the boldness of Peter and
John, and perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men, they marveled, and they took knowledge
of them that they had been with Jesus.
And beholding the man which was healed standing
with them, they could say nothing against it.
Folks, I remember these days.
I remember these days who could argue that
Tom had been healed of a fatal illness.
Nobody could argue it, but yet there was
a rage that began to well up in
their hearts.
But when they had commanded them to go
outside of the council, they conferred among themselves.
You can be sure in your workplace that
there will be some meetings after hours about
you when you start to share Jesus Christ.
Saying, What shall we do to these men?
For that indeed a notable miracle has been
done by them as manifest to all that
dwell in Jerusalem, and we cannot deny it.
But that it spread no further among the
people, let us straightly threaten them that they
speak henceforth to no man in this name.
And they called them and commanded them not
to speak at all nor teach in the
name of Jesus.
Anybody ever been there before?
Let me see.
Have you ever been there?
They called them in and commanded them, You
are not to speak in this name.
But listen, Peter and John answered and said,
Folks, there is a time to stand.
There is a time to stand.
Homosexuals will stand for their devout agenda.
And folks, I'm personally, in my heart, I
say it's time for the church of Jesus
Christ to stop cowering and apologizing in a
corner.
It's time to stand for the truth that
we know is right.
It's time to stand for the sake of
our children.
You remember Nehemiah when the enemy was coming
in and trying to stop and hinder the
work.
Nehemiah said, Remember, fight for your families.
Fight for your sons and daughters.
Fight for your children.
Fight for this society.
There is a time to stand.
Hallelujah.
Count the cost, yes, before you stand, but
count the cost of not standing.
Count the cost of countless lives who may
never have a chance to hear Christ if
you and I don't stand and speak to
them the truth.
Hallelujah.
I determined in my heart years ago I
would rather go to jail than stop speaking
about Jesus Christ.
But Peter and John answered and said unto
them, Whether it be right in the sight
of God to hearken to you more than
to God judge yourself.
For we cannot but speak the things which
we have seen and heard.
Hallelujah.
So, verse 21, when they further threatened them,
they let them go, finding nothing how they
might punish them because of the people.
For all men glorified God for that which
was done.
For the man was above forty years old
on whom this miracle of healing was showed.
Now we come to the prayer meeting.
How are you going to understand something?
And being let go, they came to their
own company and reported all that the chief
priests and elders had said unto them.
And when they heard that, they lifted up
their voice to God with one accord.
One accord.
One heart.
One understanding.
They lifted up their voice because there was
one purpose.
That purpose was to see men and women
brought to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
To see that which men had desired even
to their own harm turned around.
To yield their lives as a living sacrifice
if necessary for the purposes of God.
Folks, you have to understand the cross was
very fresh to these people.
It was fresh.
The history says that the roads were lined
with crosses all the way into Jerusalem.
The screams, the agony, the blood, the brutality
was very fresh.
But yet these people, they were moving to
the heartbeat of God that beat within them.
They had found the mind of God.
They knew the purposes of God.
They were not self-consumed, obviously, because if
they were, their prayer would have been a
lot different.
They would have been praying, Oh God, help
us.
Oh God, protect us.
Oh God, keep us.
Oh God, hide us.
And I fear sometimes that's the way when
we get into this difficulty that we begin
to pray.
Oh God.
Me, me, my, my, mine.
I, I, I, I, I.
Oh God.
Help me, Lord.
But with one heart, with one accord, they
began to pray.
And if you can see it today, there
was something in this prayer that brought to
them a renewed baptism, as it were, in
the power of God.
Folks, we need to pray like this.
And they began to pray, and it says,
with one accord.
And they said, Lord, this is where they
started.
Thou art God, which has made heaven and
earth and the sea and all that in
them is.
You know, we're, oftentimes when we start, here's
how we start praying.
Oh Lord, I have a problem.
A big problem.
A huge problem.
This problem is as big as the world.
Nobody else has ever had a problem like
my problem.
Oh little God, can you deal with my
big problem?
No, they didn't start that way.
They said, You are God.
Folks, they didn't have to remind God of
who He was.
It was to remind themselves of who they
were praying to.
I am praying to God.
I am praying to the One.
We are lifting our voice to the One
who made heaven and earth and the sea
and all that in them is.
That's who we're praying to.
You are God.
We need to start our prayers that way.
We need to get up in the morning
and pray that way.
We need to go to bed at night
and pray like that.
You are God.
With a spoken word, You created the world.
You create every man.
You hold everyone in the palm of Your
hand.
No matter how big a dictator might be,
His heart is in Your hand.
It can't beat another beat without Your permission.
You are God.
You made all things by one, by the
word of Your mouth.
Hallelujah.
You are God.
Then they began to quote Scripture.
It's important to know your Bible when you
pray.
Like our brother today that prayed the promises.
You have to know them.
Not in your head, your heart.
The Bible, God said, there's a day coming
I'm going to write my law in your
heart.
Not in the small Bible you keep in
your breast pocket of your jacket.
I'm going to put it in your heart.
You have to know the Word.
You have to begin to pray the Word.
You have to agree.
Praying the Word is simply agreeing with God.
It's so important to know what He said
about certain circumstances.
God, You are God.
You are God.
And You said, You're not giving me a
spirit of fear, but power, love and a
sound mind.
You see, you have something to pray now.
Hallelujah.
And as you begin to pray, something gets
into your spirit.
And the timidity and the weakness and everything
associated with the fallen nature of humanity begins
to be crushed underfoot.
And God in the power of His Spirit
begins to raise you up and raise me
up of people of faith who cannot be
denied.
I've been praying that way lately.
I was in my apartment just a little
while ago and I was walking up and
down the aisle and I said, I will
not accept defeat.
I will not be denied.
The things that I'm praying for are in
Your Word.
I don't have to beg You for them.
They're in Your book.
I stand on it.
I stand on the truth of this book
and every promise You've made to me.
The very honor of God is at stake
in fulfilling His promises that He has made
to us.
Hallelujah.
You are God.
We need to start our prayer meetings with
about a half hour of that, folks.
You are God.
And begin to declare who He is, who
we're praying to.
Hallelujah.
We tragically make a mistake when we start
with a problem because the problem gets big
and God gets very small.
We walk out more defeated than when we
started to pray.
Who by the mouth of Thy servant David
has said, Why did the heathen rage and
the people imagine vain things?
Hallelujah.
You see, you are God and you have
already spoken through David, Your servant.
And you said, Why do the people imagine
foolish things?
I think the best way I can show
you, if you go with me to Psalm
21, just keep a marker in Acts chapter
4 and go to Psalm 21.
Why do the people imagine vain things?
Now, what do you think those vain things
are?
Help me now.
Why do the people think they can triumph
over God?
Why do they think they can destroy the
plan of God?
Why do they think they can stop the
people of God, the purposes of God?
Why do they imagine these empty things?
Listen to Psalm 21, verse 8.
Thine hand shall find out all thine enemies.
Thy right hand shall find out those that
hate thee.
Thou shalt make them as a fiery oven
in the time of thine anger.
The Lord shall swallow them up in His
wrath, and the fire shall devour them.
Their fruit shalt thou destroy from the earth,
and their seed from among the children of
men.
This is the end result of those who
will not yield to God.
This is the end.
4, verse 11, They intended evil against thee.
They imagined a mischievous device which they are
not able to perform.
They imagined they could triumph over God.
Therefore shalt thou make them turn their back,
when thou shalt make ready thine arrows upon
thy strings against the face of them.
This is what the psalmist is saying.
God, I have seen you do this.
Now, David wrote this psalm.
He says, I've seen you do this.
I've watched them come against me in so
many ways.
But God, I've seen what you can do
on the earth.
I see that your plan cannot be stopped.
Be thou exalted, Lord, in thine own strength,
so will we sing and praise thy power.
This church was quoting, actually, if you'll turn
back just very quickly, they were quoting Psalm
2, when they said, Lord, you are God,
and you said by the mouth of your
servant David.
Psalm 2 says, Why do the heathen rage,
and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves and
their rulers take counsel together against the Lord
and against his anointing.
His people.
They take counsel against God and against his
people.
And they say, Let us break their bands
asunder and cast away their cords from us.
You see, there's a recognition in the spiritual
realm that God has given us power and
authority to bind and cast down imaginations and
wicked devices of evil.
But the kings of the earth are really
pawns of the devil himself and every demonic
force are saying, Let's take counsel.
Let's get fear into their hearts.
Let's stop them.
Let's bind them.
Because if we don't bind them, they're going
to bind us.
This is their counsel.
This is what David says, He that sits
in the heavens shall last.
The Lord shall have them in derision.
God says, I will send them on paths.
They're only men.
I'll shift them all over the place.
Then shall he speak to them in his
wrath and vex them in his sordid pleasure.
Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion.
I will declare the decree the Lord has
said unto me.
Now this is about Christ speaking.
Thou art my son.
This day have I begotten thee.
Ask of me and I'll give you the
heathens for thine inheritance.
The uttermost parts of the earth for thy
possession.
Thou shalt break them with a rod of
iron.
Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a
potter's vessel.
Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings.
Be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice and
trembling.
Kiss the son.
In other words, let the fruit of your
lips begin to honor him.
Honor him with your hearts.
Honor him with your words.
Lest he be angry and you perish from
the way when his wrath is kindled but
a little.
Blessed are all they that put their trust
in him.
Go back to the prayer meeting now in
Acts chapter 4.
For by the mouth, verse 25, of thy
servant David, I said, Why did the heathen
rage and the people imagine vain things?
The kings of the earth stood up and
the rulers were gathered together against the Lord
and against his Christ.
Now this is what the Scripture says.
Now they're applying their present situation to the
Word of God.
Now you can do that.
You can do that with your office or
whatever it is coming against you.
For of the truth against thy holy child
Jesus, whom thou has anointed both Herod and
Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel were gathered together.
In other words, they're saying it looks like
the whole of society is now against us.
Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, the people of
Israel are gathered together and verse 28, if
you can see this, I think it's going
to make you shout as it did me
as I was looking at it.
For to do whatsoever thy hand and thy
counsel determined before to be done.
They've all gathered together.
They're all moving against your people.
They're moving against the testimony of Christ.
But they are completely ignorant of the fact
that you foreknew all they would try to
do and that they're only allowed to do
that which you have already allowed them to
do.
They're only doing what you've allowed them.
They're moving in mass thinking they can push
you out of their borders.
But God, you knew it before the world
was even created.
You set bounds around them.
And you said, you can do this, but
you can only go so far.
You can only do that much because you
are God.
Hallelujah.
You know, if somebody wicked is prospering against
you, it's only because God foresees him and
a reason has allowed it.
But they cannot go any farther than God
has already predetermined them to go.
Isn't that wonderful to know that?
Hallelujah.
And now, now, verse 29, I love this
part of the prayer.
Now, Lord, behold their threatenings.
And grant to thy servants.
What do they say?
And protect us.
Hide us.
Stick us in a cave.
No.
Behold their threatenings and grant unto thy servants
that with all boldness they may speak thy
word.
In other words, your word is complete.
It is true.
It is sure.
It is the only sure path of eternal
life and life.
It is eternal.
Your word will punish the wicked and reward
the righteous.
Your word will set the captives free.
Your word will heal the wounded in heart.
Your word will give strength to the weak,
comfort the weary, give new sight to the
blind, bring to life that which was dead,
cause there to be singing again in our
streets.
Your word is the only thing that can
bring again joy and rejoicing into your house.
There is nothing but the word of God
that will make a difference.
Your word will establish a people in truth
over which hell and death have no power.
Your word will build that which was broken
down and will restore that which was taken
away.
Thine is the kingdom.
Thine is the power.
Thine is the glory.
There is no other kingdom.
There is no other power.
God, God, behold their threatenings and give us
more of that which got us into trouble
in the first place.
That was their prayer.
Give us more.
They think they can stop your kingdom?
They don't know who you are.
Give us more.
Heal more people.
Give us a word of power.
Give us a word to speak that will
speak into people's lives and cause them to
be raised up and glorify you.
Give us a double portion of what we
had yesterday.
Fill us, God, with your Spirit.
Stretch forth your hand.
Don't hold back.
Stretch it forth to heal.
Let signs and wonders be done in the
name of thy Holy Child, Jesus.
Set free the oppressed.
Give hope to the hopeless.
Set free those that are blind.
Give healing to those that are bruised in
heart.
Give our children direction again in our streets.
Hallelujah.
They can threaten all they want, but they
can't stop the hand of God.
They can't stop what you've determined to do.
Stretch forth your hand.
Give me more of that which got me
into trouble yesterday.
Hallelujah.
That's the kind of prayer that brings the
power of God into a prayer meeting.
Not a prayer of self-consumption, a prayer
of self-protection, and all the rest of
that.
But, oh God, even if I go to
jail, let them threaten me.
There's a higher call.
You gave your life for me.
It's only reasonable that I should yield my
life for your purposes.
And once you and I know the passion
of God for the lost, nothing will stop
you.
Tell me, if it was your child that
was playing on the street and the crowd
tried to stop you, tell me, who could
stop you from rescuing your own child?
Who could speak a word into your life
and threaten you and tell you not to
do it or suffer the consequences and you
would obey them?
Not a single soul could stop you from
doing it.
Once you know the heart of God, once
you understand what was in His heart that
caused Him to come to this world and
die for sinners, once that is implanted within
you, you know the passion, the power of
God, the compassion of God.
There is nothing, there is nobody, no power
of hell can stop you from speaking the
name of Jesus.
Hallelujah.
My prayer, my prayer is Jesus, give me
spiritual authority to speak to a life and
to see it changed.
That's the miracle.
I'm not looking just for some kind of
as wonderful as it is healing or something
like that, but God give me the power
to speak to the oppressed and the downtrodden,
those that are without God, they're cast out
of His presence.
Give me the power to speak life into
them and the power to stand against every
threatening voice of hell that will try to
stop it because you are God.
You are in control, complete control.
Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess.
And yes, if I have to endure scorn
for a season, God give me more.
If they send me to jail, give me
a triple portion of anointing to preach to
those that are inside the prison house.
And when they prayed, that place where they
were assembled together, the place was shaken where
they were assembled.
Shaken.
I don't know, I don't really know why
God shook it and I'm supposing that there'd
be a lot of theories about it.
I have only one and I'll just share
it by way of what I think might
have been in the heart of God.
The Lord never does disdain displays of power
for no particular reason.
But in Hebrews 12, 26, 27, He says,
Yet once more I shake not the earth
only but also heaven.
And this word, yet once more, signifies the
removing of those things that are shaken as
of things that are made, that those things
which cannot be shaken might remain.
Wherefore, we receiving a kingdom which cannot be
moved, cannot be moved.
Hallelujah.
Cannot be moved.
Let us have grace whereby we may serve
God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for
our God is a consuming fire.
I think in my heart that perhaps the
Holy Ghost was saying, I'm going to show
you that I'm going to shake everything that
can be shaken.
But what cannot be shaken are a people
who have so laid hold of my heart
that they are willing to follow in the
footsteps of Jesus Christ.
They are willing to speak no matter what
the personal cost is.
They're going to come out of hiding.
They're not ashamed of me.
They're not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus
Christ.
They're not ashamed to confess me before men.
And they're going to stand.
I'm not talking about any presumptuous arrogance.
You need to be very careful about that.
That when you stand to speak it's not
an arrogant spirit speaking through you.
Or arrogant humanity trying to preach the gospel.
I'm talking about somebody who has a genuine
burden for the lost.
A genuine burden to see the kingdom of
God advance and stands in that power of
God.
Everything around will be shaken.
You folks, your bosses don't have power over
you.
You have a much higher authority if you
know Jesus Christ living inside of your life.
They can call you on the carpet and
they can threaten you and threaten you again.
But I challenge you if that's beginning to
happen as we begin to reach out into
the city you can be sure the devil
has always tried to stop the work of
God that way and you can be sure
that he will try to stop it that
way again.
Superintendents will threaten you for having a Bible
study in the building.
Neighbors will threaten you.
You go to your workplace and they'll tell
you your career is finished.
Folks, I was told that.
Mike, your career is finished.
It's over.
You've disgraced us in a sense because you're
no longer one of the boys as they
used to call it.
But I tell you the very people that
threatened me within a few years were all
gone and I was still there.
I was still there.
And they were filled with the Holy Ghost
and they spake the Word of God with
boldness, power, compassion, authority.
Hallelujah.
You have to be determined in your heart
that you want to do this.
As Pastor Dave shared this morning you can't
be double minded and know this walk.
You can't.
You'll end up hiding.
You'll end up with a silent testimony.
Living your life hoping somebody notices and asks
and nobody ever notices and nobody asks.
Because there's not much hope in you.
You have to know the promises of God.
These have to become a higher authority than
circumstance.
They have to become a higher law than
the threats that will come against you for
preaching the gospel.
But I'm not personally content to see our
kids going to hell in New York City
and I sure hope you're not.
I'm not personally content to give them over
to the devil.
This is a hungry generation.
A hungry generation.
Harvard University now, apartment being filled with university
students coming to Christ.
We had a lady here this morning that
brought 15 university students in a van to
our service this afternoon actually at 3 o
'clock.
15 students from NYU, I believe it's Columbia
University this afternoon came to hear the gospel
of Jesus Christ from somebody that has made
a choice to speak to them.
Folks, you and I can make a difference.
But we have to ask God.
We have to pray the way God has
commissioned the church to pray.
It's time for this kind of praying again.
It's time that we we're not going to
ever win in the political arena.
Face it.
It's not, the battle will not be won.
It will not be waged there.
That's a losing concern.
The battle will be waged heart to heart,
life to life, home to home.
Transformed.
It will be waged by the kingdom of
God coming within the lives of those whom
society even says there's no hope for them.
So far gone.
Or perhaps so ingrained in sin and rebellion
that they will never hear.
The kingdom of God will come and raise
them up.
And they will go into their schools.
They will be standing leaping and praising God.
I've been praying a specific prayer.
I've been saying, Lady God, take the worst
in our high schools.
Take those that are schoolyard bullies.
Take those that back down from nobody.
And give them the Holy Ghost.
And set them in the schoolyard to preach
the gospel.
God can do this.
God can do it if we will believe
him.
Now Paul, in 2nd Timothy, this is going
to be my altar call tonight.
2nd Timothy chapter 1, verse 7.
Must be 2nd Timothy.
Oh, it is 2nd Timothy.
Sorry.
Chapter 1.
Paul says to Timothy, God has not given
us the spirit of fear, but power and
love and a sound mind.
Now I believe that sound mind comes from
knowing who we are in Christ, who Christ
is, what God has accomplished, and is doing
in the earth.
In verse 8, he says, Be not thou
therefore ashamed of the testimony of the Lord,
nor of me his prisoner.
But be thou a partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of
God.
Paul is saying, Timothy, it is going to
cost you, Timothy, my son.
But don't be afraid.
You, you, God, you have the spirit of
God.
He has given you a soundness of mind,
a love that will cause you, constrain you
to reach out.
And you have the power of the Holy
Ghost within your life.
Don't be ashamed of what God has done
in your life.
Don't be ashamed to speak it into the
lives of others.
Don't be ashamed of those that have gone
before and are suffering perhaps because of their
declaration of the gospel.
But be a partaker of the affliction.
There was an invitation.
Timothy, you're going to have trouble.
But be a partaker according to the power
of God who has saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to
our works, but according to his own purposes
and grace, which was given us in Christ
Jesus before the world began.
God has not given us a spirit of
fear.
Therefore, be not ashamed.
Be not ashamed.
My altar call is simple tonight.
God raised up Times Square Church and he
planted us here right in the middle of
Times Square in New York City, one of
the most wicked areas I believe in all
of this, perhaps all of the country.
And he planted the church here and he's
given us an incredible measure of himself.
And if anybody has been attending here for
any amount of time, you now know who
God is.
You know who he is.
You know what he's done.
You know what he can do.
You know you're needed him.
You know his provision, the depth of his
provision.
But folks, we are not here just to
experience his presence all to ourselves from now
till Christ comes to take us home.
There is a purpose for the church.
The body.
We're the body.
We're supposed to continue the work of Christ
on the earth.
That's his body.
He said when there was a time he
said in his word that, you know, the
things that I'm doing are going to be
multiplied as it were.
You're going to do many more things than
I'm doing.
He was saying I'm limited in the sense
of this one physical body.
But I'm going to have a much larger
body.
Once I die and I'm raised again from
the dead, I'm going to send the Holy
Spirit and there's a people that are going
to become my body.
And they're going to carry on my work.
And if truly we are going to carry
on the work we've got to consider Jesus.
We've got to consider what he did.
Doesn't the scripture tell us to keep him
before our faces?
Who for the joy that was set before
him endured all of the opposition.
Endured the scorn.
Everything that was heaped against him because he
knew of a day when people are going
to come to him and going to come
home to live with him for all of
eternity.
God has not given us a spirit of
fear.
Therefore be not ashamed.
I know this is a high calling.
I know it's a holy calling.
I know it's a hard calling.
But it's the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We don't do well if we hold to
ourselves this truth that God has given into
our hands.
My other call I guess is really simple.
It's for those who say God I need
courage.
I'm a coward at heart.
I need courage to stand in my workplace,
school, my community.
Enough of a silent testimony.
I want power of God to speak into
people's lives.
I want the compassion of Christ to know
your heart God before I even speak.
I want your Holy Spirit to give me
words of knowledge, words of wisdom.
I want your giftings to come into my
life.
I want to be able to speak right
to the heart and cut away all the
periphery issues and go right to the heart.
I want the power to reach out a
hand to somebody maybe who's laid cripple at
the Gate Beautiful for 40 years and not
just to speak but to lift them up.
And to walk with them into the house
of God dancing and leaping and praising God
for what He has done.
I want the power to stand against everything
of hell that will try to shut my
mouth.
I want your power oh God because yours
is the only kingdom that is going to
endure.
Everything else is going to fail.
It's all going to fall but your kingdom
will last.
If that's in your heart and I pray
to God if you've been sitting here any
amount of time it has to be in
your heart by now.
If it's not, you've missed the whole point
of the gospel.
Yes, you've gotten saved but you've missed the
second part.
Loving the Lord your God with all your
heart, soul, mind and strength but the second
is like the first.
Loving your neighbor as much as you love
yourself.
Times for church there's a holy calling on
us as a body.
God has given us a mandate to bless
the city.
I don't know and I won't give you
numbers.
I don't know how many are going to
get saved.
That's up to God.
If I give you a number He can
do beyond what I even think or ask
or any of the pastors of this church.
But I challenge you in Christ's name to
open your mouth and begin to speak.
Father, I can't say any more.
There's nothing more I can say.
I ask you for the grace to live
this message.
Myself, Lord.
I ask you for the power to stand
and speak.
Lord, I remember a day when there's nothing
in the world could stop me from speaking
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
God, I don't want that to ever diminish.
I thank you, Father that you are speaking
to this church.
You are leading us.
You are showing us again tonight that even
somebody that takes the time to speak to
somebody in the laundry room wins a soul
to God.
Oh, Father in Heaven give us courage now.
Give us courage.
You are God.
We believe that with all of our hearts.
You made heaven and earth to heathen rage
but they can't triumph over the work of
your hands.
I ask you to give courage to this
body for the coming days in Jesus' name.