The power of purity is the topic of
my message.
The power of purity.
And I think acts could have been written
along the lines of if it needed an
introduction, it would be the acts of the
Holy Spirit using pure vessels.
And what I mean by that is God
asks us, commands us often to be pure
in heart and pure in action.
So my heart needs to be pure and
my actions need to be pure.
Now, many of us think on this topic,
we think, okay, wait a minute, I'm not
100% pure.
There's some things that I'm dealing with, there's
things that come up, and Shane, I can't,
I can't get this, I can't hit that
mark 100%.
Well, you're in a good company because nobody
can.
It's not, I think it was John MacArthur
who said, "'God's not concerned about perfection, but
direction.'" The direction of our heart.
And there is a difference.
I noticed it this week when my son
was near the curb and there was a
little bit of curb water running down.
And I thought of that choice, a child
might have of drinking or sink water.
What would you prefer your child had a
drink of?
The curb and gutter water that's just coming
off the neighbor's lawn and property and up
the street and all the oil and all
the things or the sink?
Go to the sink, please, right?
Of course.
But even in our sink water, we have
100 parts per million or 10 parts per
million or different things of different contaminants, different
pollutants.
But that water is still living water.
You can get by drinking sink water.
I don't know how long, but it will
be much better than curb water.
And that's the imagery there I really wanna
leave you with is many times we have
that curb water.
We're just so full of pollutants from everything
from wrong attitudes to wrong behaviors to wrong
this.
And God is wanting to remove those things
so we can be pure vessels that he
can use.
And it's really the book of Acts we've
been going through.
You can turn to Acts 5, verse 12,
and I'll get there in a minute.
Acts 5, verse 12.
But the power of the Holy Spirit makes
all the difference in the world.
The power of the Holy Spirit makes all
the difference in the world.
And it dawned on me, I was able
to lead somebody to the Lord at one
of our hospital homes a few days ago,
and she's dying, she's got HIV, and she
was just anxious and really in a bad
way.
But after she gave her heart to the
Lord and prayed and repented and tears of
joy followed, they said she's doing wonderful this
weekend, praise God.
But as I was leaving there, it dawned
on me that for the first 18 years
of becoming Christian, starting at 12 years old,
I didn't lead anybody to the Lord.
I rarely talked about God unless I was
asked.
Oh, Jesus, of course, but 18 years?
From 12 years old to 29, 30?
18 years of nothing.
Say a couple prayers, I would go to
church now and then, but I was loving
the world, the things of the world.
I had no power of the Holy Spirit
in my life.
I didn't really want to talk about Jesus,
and the reason is because I hadn't experienced
Him.
Because it's like, for many people, talking about
Jesus is like talking about the news.
Well, I guess if I have to, I
mean, that's what we're supposed to do.
It shouldn't be that way.
When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, it's
an all-consuming, it drives who you are.
It drives how you want to raise your
kids.
It drives how you spend your time in
the morning, how you spend your time later.
It drives your conversations, how you schedule things.
Everything, when you're filled with the Spirit, talking
about Christ is a byproduct.
You try to find that in almost every
conversation without being irritating.
Like, okay, I've got it, Shane, I've got
it.
And there's people right now I've backed way
off of, friends in high school, they know
where I'm coming from, when I'm coming from,
and how I'm coming from.
And they just, just stay away.
I know what you stand for, and those,
you gotta do.
But for the most part, when you're filled
with the Spirit, it comes out of you.
So I wanna just throw that question out
there this morning.
When was the last time you seriously talked
about Christ and walked through the steps and
participated and led somebody to the Lord?
And now, the Bible talks about confessing and
repenting, and you don't have to say a
quick little prayer, you don't have to force
the will.
But if the Holy Spirit's operating, I believe
He gives us opportunities that we can point
people in the direction of God.
And if it's been months, if it's been
years, if it maybe hasn't happened, we have
to ask ourselves some hard questions.
God, am I full of your Spirit?
Am I a pure vessel that you can
use?
Have I removed pollutants out of my life
that allow the Holy Spirit to work through
me?
And what I like about this topic is,
I can liken it to in the physical
realm as well.
When you eat, you know, have you ever
dieted before?
And said, I'm stopping that.
After Thanksgiving weekend, I'm back on track.
And then it goes good for a few
days, and you're like, but after Christmas, when
New Year's comes, I'm back on track.
And we just, it's just so hard.
But I've noticed that once you fuel your
body with the right things, juicing and eating
good food, you want more of that good
food.
And you want more of that good food.
You have a good, healthy breakfast, you want
a good, healthy lunch, a good, healthy snack,
and you're feeding that body the same thing
with spiritual principles, the same thing applies.
When you start feeding on the right things,
on the Word of God, on the church,
on worship, on fasting, on all these things,
it's an all-consuming passion that forces you,
and you want to keep consuming those healthy
spiritual things.
So the difficult thing is, it's hard to
break that cycle.
It's hard to break the cycle when we're
caught in not wanting to do the right
things, not wanting to remove the pollutants, and
we get in the rut.
It's like, I just can't break out of
this.
I've been this way for months or years,
Shane, and I've fallen off the, I've fallen
in this area, fallen in this area, and
thank God, he just says, return to me,
and I will return to you.
I believe in a covenant-keeping God, when
he says, if you return to me, I
will return to you.
I know you've drifted, but get back on
course.
Let me clean your heart, and you can
be a pure vessel that I can use,
and the interesting thing about purity, and I
wish, I might have to do part two,
because there's a lot the Bible says about
purity, but as purity increases, so does spiritual
power and unity in the body of Christ.
Purity grows the church.
Faith is increased, and demonic strongholds are obliterated
when purity is in our lives.
I'm leading right into Acts 5, 12, and
what, just so you're writing purity this or
that, purity basically is, God talks about a
defiled conscience in the Bible, a defiled temple,
a defilement.
When we give over to those things that
are not glorifying to Christ, those things that
pull us down, we are defiled, and we
love the Lord, and we're caught in this,
but we can't see through because of all
the pollutants, and a pure vessel, somebody with
true repentance who removes these things that are
holding them back, and they say, Lord, I'm
coming to you.
I need to get back on track.
I need that restoration.
I need to be filled with the Holy
Spirit again, and they start to remove those
pollutants.
A lot of pollutants are what the eye
gate sees, what we allow into our mind,
what we allow into our thoughts, and we're
not taking those captives, and we're not pure
vessels that God can use, and we see
this powerful move of God in Acts 5
.12, so let me read that, and through
the hands of the apostles, those people who
are following Jesus, called by Jesus, commissioned by
Jesus, many signs and wonders were done among
the people, and they were all with one
accord in Solomon's porch, yet none of the
rest dared join them, but the people esteemed
them highly, and the believers were increasingly added
to the Lord, multitudes of both men and
women, so that they brought the sick out
into the streets and laid them on beds
and couches, that at least the shadow of
Peter passing by might fall on some of
them, and also a multitude gathered from surrounding
cities to Jerusalem, bringing sick people and those
who were tormented by unclean spirits, and they
were all healed.
Now I will make a public confession, I've
talked about this before, I don't know why
we don't see it like that anymore, and
everybody has their opinion, and so do I,
but the bottom line is that God was
clearly moving in a powerful way, and a
lot of times there's different groups, there's a
group that believes that the gifts and the
power of the Holy Spirit in this area
have ceased, and it's where the word cessationist
comes from, they believe that those miraculous Holy
Spirit inspired gifts were done away with, and
they use this as a proof to act,
we don't see any of this anymore, and
that's true to this degree, but I believe
the closer you walk with Christ, the more
you will see things like this, you will
see people set free, you will see demonic
influences leaving, you will see healings take place,
the closer you are to Christ, the more
you know God's will, the closer you are
to God, and being that pure vessel, he
can use you in a mighty and powerful
way, so obviously we don't see this to
the degree they saw it there, but I
also want to remind you that the book
of Acts was written over about 30 years,
so we think things were happening every day,
every day for a week or a month,
but it was a 30 year period, and
sometimes there'd be weeks or months or years,
I'm not excusing it, I think the church
is lacking power today, but I also believe
we don't want to pay the price, because
he told these men, these believers, go in
an upper room and wait until you receive
power, and then they received that power, they
went out and did the work of God,
and I brought this illustration up last night,
and I'll bring this up to you again
this morning, but do you think that we
would have saw these guys walking in this
tremendous power if they just bought a case
of Shock Top the night before, and a
whole bunch of pizzas, and decided to watch
Ouija board movie, the Ouija, do we really
think they would, and you're like what is
that, it's beer, there's other kinds, man Peter
I've got a hangover this morning, and I
can't, I don't know, let's just go out
and talk, do you think that God would
have moved in that type of, of course
not, so the closer we draw to Christ,
and we see it on the mission field,
why do we see it on the mission
field, because often they don't have Facebook, they
don't have the media, they don't have all
these distractions, they don't need to know what's
going on in 50 different states, and 100
different things, and they don't need to see
all the, I mean I'll look at articles,
and you go down, and you go where
are these pictures coming from, that's how the
devil traps you, and wonderful article, terrible pictures,
and we wonder well God why aren't you
using, you've got to be a pure vessel,
and the message this morning is come out
from among them, be separate, yeah you're gonna
look a little different, there's gonna be a
little distinction about you, these guys were not
normal people, to have the power and presence
of God, you will look odd in many
cases, don't go out and search it, don't
say I'm very odd, and aren't I full
of the spirit, not necessarily, being odd is
not full of the spirit, but you will
look odd to the culture by what you
view, and what you listen to, and what
you watch, and how you conduct yourself, so
I truly believe a few different things are
happening, number one that God is using pure
vessels, set apart for him, these guys were
on fire for God, they were up in
an upper room in a prayer meeting, not
for two hours, for 10 days, did they
leave and come back, I don't know, but
they were seeking God, God filled them with
his spirit, with his power, they went out
and they did ministry, there was no distractions,
there's no lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eye, the pride of life like
we have today, they purified themselves, they walked
out in the pureness, and righteousness, and holiness
of God, see they used to preach about
those topics 100 years ago, they used to
preach about the fear of God, and the
holiness of God, and the righteousness of God,
but now it's all about love, and mercy,
and grace, and thank God for that, thank
God for his love, and his mercy, and
his grace, but that's only some of his
attributes, he's also holy, actually the angels cried,
holy, holy, holy is our God, the temple
shook, and Isaiah said, I'm a man of
unclean lips, and I dwell among a people
with unclean lips, God I'm not worthy to
see your face, and they cried, holy, holy,
holy is our God, and the righteousness of
God, and the fear of God, and the
judgment of God, see we've gotta wake the
church up, those are all characteristics of God,
the attributes of God, we'll be the person
who just hangs on the love of God,
so they can continue in sin, or the
grace of God to continue in sin, Paul
said should we sin more so grace abounds
more, absolutely not, so the call to holiness,
and righteousness, and purity, that's when you're gonna
see God move in your heart, that's when
you're gonna see God move in your life,
is the closer you get to that flame,
the more you feel the heat of the
fire, try this at home, build a fire,
go walk out in the garage, and see
how warm you stay, what's the difference, you've
gotta sit next to the fire, you've gotta
sit next to that heat to feel that
fire, and make a difference, trust me I've
seen people filled with God's spirit, everywhere they
go, just the store, Trader Joe's, the movies,
the this, the that, is that God's working
through them, so I don't believe that the
gifts of the Holy Spirit in this area
has ceased, but I think a lot of
the power has left the church, because we're
not going back to the basics of prayer,
likely we have prayer before service now, many
things, but the prayer, and the fasting, and
the seeking God, I'm browsing through a book
I like to do every other year or
so, it's written by the Pastor Cho, who
leads the largest church in the world, in
South Korea, seven Sunday services, 800,000 members,
it's interesting, there's no gimmicks, there's no marketing
campaigns, there's no demographic studies, it's Friday night
prayer meetings all night, it's fasting, it's seeking
God with all their heart, broken before the
Lord, that's all that ministry is, there's no
marketing, how do you get that many people,
I don't have any idea, I'm sure it's
a populated area, but the point is, God
will bring the people to where his word
is being preached, and taught, and going back
to the basics, so that's what we are
seeing here, they had power because they had
the purity, also they were very young in
the faith, so you young adults, or those
who haven't been a Christian very long, be
very encouraged, these guys were not, well I've
been a Christian 20 years, and I know
how to handle this, they hadn't been a
Christian very long at all, a Christ follower,
filled with the Holy Spirit, you might be
talking, well I don't wanna get technical here,
and somebody call me on it, because I
don't know exactly, but it's been weeks, and
weeks can be months, so it's been some
time there, they haven't been a believers very
long, if you look at the day of
Pentecost, you look at going through Acts 1,
2, 3, Peter's first sermon, Peter's other sermon,
now you see this, there's not a lot
of time that has passed by, so God
can use, you see God doesn't call the
qualified, he qualifies the called, he doesn't care
if you're 40 years in the faith, if
you're not broken, humble before him, I would
rather take a teenager, 18 on fire for
God, than somebody 68 years old, who's hard,
and legalistic, and rigid, because God will work
in that person, who's pure, and flexible, and
not going to mold to certain things, they
wanna be fully used of God, and I
also think that there are different seasons, of
outpouring, God will use certain, if you go
back, and read revivals from 300 years ago,
and work your way up, they always started
in a prayer meeting, they always started when
God poured out, it's amazing, people would be
a mile from church, and feel convicted, fall
on their face, and give their hearts to
the Lord, be healed, be set free, be
at the store, bars would close down, homes,
they would be singing worship, when God was
a season of his, they would call it
manifestation, his presence was there, that's why people
say, why do we sing about the Holy
Spirit, you're welcome here, isn't that obvious, yeah,
but so is the other part, where Moses
said, show me your glory, God show me
your glory, I see the rocks, I see
the trees, I see the river, but God
I wanna see the manifest presence of your
spirit, Lord show me your glory, and God
says it's too great, no man has ever
seen this, and lived, but God show me
your presence, and when his presence comes, and
you feel the power of God, you will
be radically changed, it's like me saying, hey
I just about barely got to church, my
truck went down, all the way down Godee
Hill, I almost died, and I had to
walk here, you'd say Shane, you're either a
liar, or you're deceived, and many people, they're
either lying, that they don't have a relationship
God, or they're living in deception, that they're
filled with the spirit, you are radically changed,
you're radically changed, but Shane I want that,
well then get on your face, before God
at home, or come to the prayer room
later today, or just say God I need
that, I don't have that, because there's a
clear difference, there's a distinction, now this is
also an encouragement, for those who are trapped,
and they say Shane I want that, but
I don't feel that, I'm not making a
difference, and there's something that is clogging the
line, there's something there, that is not allowing
that purity to go through, and we know
what those areas are, and God's convicting them
of you during the sermon, that's how he
works, I don't have to list 20,000
things, we know exactly what might be clogging
that line, from unforgiveness, to bitterness, to certain
besetting sins, God wants to come out from
among them, and be separate, well Shane why
are you spending so much emphasis on this,
because the Bible does, I mean it gets
pretty dramatic, when Paul says make no provision
for the flesh, don't make any, Paul I
can't plan ahead to sin, no, can I
dabble in sexual immorality, no you're supposed to
flee, can I think about certain things, no
let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus, who humbled himself, well
what about this, what about this, finally brethren
whatever things are pure, and noble, and honest,
and upright, and just meditate on these things,
put on this, take off that, why, because
God wants us to be filled with his
spirit, the power of purity, so the closer
we draw to God, that's where that power
comes from, and then we also see unity
here, they were of one accord, the Bible
says and they were all with one accord,
and David Gusick said this, let this sink
in, the fact that God's people are all
together with one accord, is a greater display
of the power of the Holy Spirit, than
any particular sign or wonder, our hearts and
our minds can be harder to move, than
any mountain, and I didn't think about that
this week, because that's true, when you can
get a group of believers united, that's the
Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit, if I've
got a problem with you, and you've got
a problem with me, the Holy Spirit doesn't
have a problem, does the Holy Spirit have
a problem with himself, the Holy Spirit's never
divided, well Shane come on, yeah you have
to take the lesser road, you humble yourself
and say it's not worth it, we're just
here on the essentials, it's not worth bickering
and complaining, it's putting your self-interest aside,
and your needs aside, that's how the Holy
Spirit works, if two people just put their
selfish needs aside, and focus on others, oh
marriages will be restored, you don't need a
counselor, you don't need a therapist, you need
broken and humble men and women, submitted to
God, and the Holy Spirit brings the two
back together, so we see the power of
unity, unity is a wonderful thing, because you
can have mortal enemies, and once they come
to know the Lord, they are united, nothing
will keep you away, from that unity, and
it was interesting, very interesting, I didn't know
it was happening, but last night, I've only
lost about one fight in my life, that
I can remember, I was 17, it was
about 30 years ago, and the guy who
did it, was here last night, he came
to the service, it was unbelievable, but his
name is Roman Santos, and they have a
boxing, and he went on to be Olympic
boxer, on the Olympic team, no wonder, my
goodness, and I still remember that night, I
got hit about 15 times, before I knew
what even hit me, but anyway, I see
him, I can't believe he's here, and we
give each other a hug, and he comes
back for prayer, and he wants that fire
of God again, and just the unity, all
that was, who cares, who cares, I don't
remember the black guy, and the bruised lip,
and the bloody, it was unity, bringing the
reconciling, God is reconciling the world, through his
son, that's the only reconciliation, that's the only
peace, we're ever going to know, is reconciliation
through his son, so you see tremendous unity,
you see tremendous power, but then it says,
none of the rest dare join them, why
is that?
Well, right before this, do you remember what
happened from last week, couple people died, because
they lied to the Holy Spirit, and the
whole church was filled with fear, the people
were filled with fear, see that kind of
fear is a very good thing, it's a
very good thing, I don't feel like driving
off that mountain road, I fear that mountain
road, don't you?
So I'm going to stay on this side,
and a little slower, I fear it can
be a wonderful gift from God, because when
you fear something, you respect it, you have
reverence for it, and I'm concerned that many
people are walking around as if God is
a doting grandfather, or a cosmic ball of
love, he's just up there, look at that,
just floating around, and God just loves me,
winks at my sin, so the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, the
fear of the Lord is the beginning of
knowledge, I fear God, it'll change the way
you preach, it'll change the way you treat
your spouse, it will change the way you
live your life when you fear God, because
you've got to answer to him, that's why,
and I know these types of messages make
people feel uncomfortable, and that's good, I think
it's a good time to remind you that
if you don't like what I'm saying, it's
because you need to hear what I'm saying,
this is always the case, when you don't
like to hear what I'm saying, it's because
you need to hear it, God is convicting
us, but there is a cost to pay,
none of the rest dare join them, and
I read a quote this week in a
book, and it's one of those quotes I
just put down, I said, God, this is
unbelievable, but it's true, and the author said,
the price of being chosen, the price of
being called, and the price of being used
by God is often suffering, and I didn't
like that, I didn't like that one bit,
to be honest with you, but I started
to think of the children of Israel, I
started to think of Moses, I started to
think of Joshua, I started to think of
all the different people used by God, there
was tremendous suffering, did Jesus suffer?
Well, Shane, what about Paul?
Oh, don't even get me started, he suffered
great, Shane, what about John?
I heard he was one of the disciples
that didn't die, yeah, tradition holds that he
was boiled in oil, and exiled to the
island of Patmos, Shane, Jeremiah, no, weeping prophet
thrown in a pit to die, the people
never turned back to God, as far as
we know, and he was called the weeping
prophet, giving his life for the cause of
God's law, and the people didn't respect him,
they would mock him, they tried to kill
him a few different times, Isaiah, I just
read Isaiah, Shane, history records that he was
sawn in two, by Wicca King Manasseh, what
about John the Baptist, the greatest forerunner, the
greatest preacher, the greatest preacher, beheaded, and this
really started to sink in for me this
week, because we get focused on the comfort,
and the cozy, and the blessings of God,
and I said, it woke me up, I'm
like, God, we might need to suffer, and
we do suffer, but now it's, I didn't
get a good parking spot, the mall's crowded,
I mean, if you have people spit at
you, and wish that you were dead, and
curse you, you will suffer, you will be
hated, for Christ's sake, if you're truly following
him, see, if you're not, you can fool
a lot of people, you can be that
closet Christian, I'll post this little cute stuff
on Facebook, nobody will really know what that
is, but then I can keep this other
group happy, I can go and do this
with the boys, and then go to church
on Sunday, nobody will really know, see, most
men would rather be seen leaving a bar,
than leaving a church, if the truth be
told, if the truth would be told, I'm
walking out of schooners on Avenue L, hope
everybody sees me, hey, but don't see me
coming out of church, that's embarrassing, why is
that?
Because we're not filled with the spirit of
God, there's no power, there's no purity, we
don't see these things, of course we don't
see these things, because we want to live
like hell, we want to rejoice on Sunday,
but live like hell on Monday, and the
reason God, I believe, speaks these types of
messages into our lives, is because he loves
us, if you have kids, you know, you're
a little two year old, three, I love,
don't go out and play in that street,
please come back, well now I can grab
them now, but you know, if you couldn't,
let's say you couldn't, and you would plead
with them, come back, come back in, please
come back in, please, and it's a loving
father, it's a loving father, the price, the
price of being chosen and called, is suffering,
suffering, through many dangers, toils and snares, I've
already come, well that sounds familiar, yeah, now
you'll know the rest, it's grace that's brought
me here thus far, and it'll be grace
that takes me home, see that author knew,
John Newton owned a slave trade, and William
Wilberforce led him to the Lord, and he's
broken before God, and then he could say,
I was blind, but now I see, oh
God, you saved a wretch through many, many,
many dangers, and toils, and snares, I've already
went, it's grace that's brought me here thus
far, and it'll be grace that takes me
home, yes there'll be suffering, yes there'll be
difficulty, yes there'll be challenges, but you hold
on to God's grace, that's why I often
say, and I mean it from the bottom
of my heart, that the Joel Osteen type
sermons, are not gonna get us through these
dire times, it's not about positive thinking, it's
not, and I always get emails, why do
you put them down, I'm not, I'm just
saying, it's not gonna cut it, positive thinking,
and having lots of money, and thinking your
way to health, wealth, and wisdom, is not
gonna work, when ISIS is declared, to come
across our border, and now we're seeing cops
killed, at the alarming rate, folks, you better
wake up, you better wake up, Trump's not
the answer, I hate to burst some bubbles
this morning, but he's not the answer, only
Christ is the answer, and guess what, he
might bring a lot more persecution, than many
people are thinking, right now, those who are
in the electoral college, that will be making
a vote, are getting death threats, if you
go through with your vote, we will kill
you, are you kidding me?
I mean, don't even get me started on
that topic, but folks, we are facing real
evil, the enemy is ramping it up a
little bit, law officers can't even go on
a call, a normal and routine stop, and
somebody's gonna pull out an AK-47, you
think that's gonna help, or hurt crime?
You think, they're gonna, there's cities, there's areas
now, they won't even go into, Shane, you're
scaring us, no, I'm giving you a reality
check, because suffering, is a mark of a
believer, stop trying to run from it, don't
run to it, but understand, that it will
come, that way you can teach your kids,
yeah, you might suffer a little bit, you
might be made fun of, you might not
make a lot of money, you might have
a disability, you might, you might, but having
done all, stand, I'm just gonna stand, that's
why I love that song, it's grace that's
brought me here this far, and it's grace
that takes me home, so be careful in
this area, there is a cost, there is
a cost to purity, there is a cost,
you will pay a price, you will have
to watch what you watch, and be very
careful, be very careful who you associate with,
who you hang out with, what you allow
into your mind, what you allow into your
body, what you allow, come out from among
them, be separate, well everybody else is on
Xanax, okay, well be careful, everybody else is
getting drunk, well be careful, be careful, because
many times, you have to come out from
among them, and be separate, oh just that
statement's gonna get me in trouble, I know
it, you have to fight to be filled,
you have to fight to be filled with
the spirit of God, it's a fight, it's
a battle, and here's how the enemy usually
wins, you get angry, you get upset, I've
had it, I'm done with this, and you
fall right back into it, he uses discouragement
and disappointment, not too many people are gonna
fall right after the service, we're filled with
the spirit of God, come Monday, it's a
whole new game, and there's a cost, there's
a fight, we see also the church growing,
and added to the Lord, and added to
the Lord, it's God's church, and then we
see tremendous faith, the shadow of Peter, what,
now how does this work, the shadow of
Peter just falls on people, and they're healed,
well a couple thoughts, and when the lady
touched the hymn of Jesus's garment, many of
you know the story, that she just fought
through the crowd, and said if I can
just touch, if I can just touch the
hymn of his garment, I will be healed,
and he felt the power leave him, and
this woman was healed, and it's not necessarily
in a shadow, or in a little piece
of cloth, it's faith being engaged, when people
engage their faith, and also there was so
much power in this area, I believe that
God's manifest presence was there, there was people
being healed, delivered, set free, so it wasn't
here comes Peter's shadow, let's get under it,
it was God moving in a powerful way
among his people, and among unbelievers, let's not
forget that, we forget about that group of
people, but all were coming to him, and
being healed, and being set free, think about
this, faith has to do something, Noah had
to build a boat, Moses had to lead
the children of Israel, Joshua had to enter
the promised land, but what happens is we
use all these little scriptures, and we make
some weird doctrine out of them, you'll see
these guys on TV, just send me $100,
and I'll send you a prayer cloth, I
bet you will, it's a little one inch
by one inch, you just go like this,
just pray, and I'll pray with you, and
just send me $1,000 for a bigger
one, John Calvin, who was part of the
Protestant Reformation, when if you don't know what
that is, the boy quick history lesson, the
church started out like this, for about 300
years, it was called the Catholic Church, don't
get offended, Catholic just means universal, it was
a universal church, and you have people like
Constantine, coming to power, and you have the
power of Rome, these emperors of Rome, now
joining with the church, and being the head
of the church, and the head of Rome,
so that's where the word Rome, and Catholic
Church come from, and there's different break offs
of that, but now you have this marriage
of power, and church, and that's not good,
because you have this secular type of mentality,
and there's so many things, if you look
at the history there, of so many inconsistencies,
of paying for indulgences, or putting money in
a coffer, so you could spring your friend
from purgatory, or praying to Mary, Hail Mary,
full of grace, the Lord is with thee,
and all these things, and Mary's co-redeemer,
and they started to bring in all these
different things, into the church, and people even
before John Calvin, I believe it was 12,
1300s, William Tyndale, Whitecliffe, Whitcliffe, you'll hear the
Whitcliffe Bible Translation Society, John Huss, two of
those three people, started to translate the Bible,
into the common tongue of the people, and
two of them were burned at the stake,
for doing that, so they see this corruption,
and what happens is, you have people like
Martin Luther, be changed by God, come out
from, and change that part of the church
in Germany, you have Urich Zwingli in Switzerland,
you have John Knox in Scotland, you have
John Calvin in Geneva, and they're coming out,
and they're calling the church to listen, all
this stuff is not good, it's not good
what you're allowing, that's where the 95 thesis
comes from, and the church doors in Wittenberg,
Germany, in 1517, challenging the papacy, on all
these different things, interestingly, you can keep this
in prayer, I'm hopefully meeting in the next
few weeks, with a couple different priests, from
out of the area, because the question was
brought up, at an event I spoke at,
why can't Roman Catholics, and Christians just come
together, and I said, well I can tell
you, right off the top of my head,
and as I started to speak, they wanted
to open it up, to more of those
priests, and I'm gonna challenge them, on the
authority of scripture, I'm gonna challenge them on
purgatory, I'm gonna challenge them on confession, and
going before a priest, and not God directly,
and all these different areas of scripture, normal
dialogue, healthy dialogue, but at some point God
says, here hold the line, speak the truth,
and lovingly challenge, this group of people, if
they're open for it, but John Calvin, writing
on this whole thing, of the shadow of
Peter, falling on people, he said the Papist,
which are those who are in the church,
which are deceiving, by the wrong use they
make of this verse, not only do they
get support, for false miracles, which they say
take the place, at the tombs of martyrs,
but they use it to vaunt the relics,
which means to push the relics on people,
they would say look, here's Peter's tooth, $10
,000, you have 10,000, I've got Peter's
tooth, I've got Peter's right hip, I've got,
I've got, Paul's ankle bone, I've got, and
they would, or come to it, I can't
believe Paul's tooth, I mean that would be
pretty cool, for sure, but there's no power
in that, and you begin to worship that,
you begin to focus on that, and that's
where the Mary worship came in, it's from
the same type of thing, so you can
see this 400 or 500 years ago, that
people use these types of verses, that's why
you have to look at the context, of
different things, but it's interesting that even the
shadow would fall, that would heal people, and
even a cloth, or Jesus' garment, God uses
different things, and many times it's because people
are exercising their faith, but be careful, here's
a warning, there's a fine line between faith
and presumption, when I walk out in faith,
God is moving, when I walk out and
I presume something, I'm falling on my face,
what's the difference?
The big difference is this, trust in God's
word and his principles, that's faith, Lord I'm
trusting in your word, I'm trusting in your
principles, I'm using integrity, I'm using wisdom, I'm
walking out in what I know your word
says, and I'm trusting that, presumption though is
sometimes saying, well I'm not sure, and usually
when you're presumptuous, you're moving quickly, very quickly,
faith waits on God, presumption moves quickly, just
move quickly, now there's times to move quickly,
when you have to move quickly, but for
the most part, that's where people get in
trouble, they don't wait on God, and allow
him to open doors, they just move quickly,
they buy something they regret, have you ever
done that?
A big something?
Do you know that's what caused the financial
crisis in 2008, nine and I think we
might be seeing one coming up again shortly,
because of these things, they just assume and
they move into these, not using wisdom and
waiting, so that's the difference, this would help
you, when it comes to faith, trust God,
look to his word and move slowly, those
who wait upon the Lord, not rush, will
renew their strength, they'll gain wisdom, and we
also see people healed, the closer you draw
to God via purity, the more you will
know his will, it's interesting, Jesus didn't pray
for everyone, I don't know if you've ever
realized that, he went to the pool and
healed one person, in different areas, but everybody
he prayed for, everybody he wanted to heal,
was healed, but he didn't choose every single
person, in that whole area, so the closer
we get to God, I believe the more
you will see, and you'll sense his presence,
you'll know who to pray for, in regard
to healing, and then we see also the
final thing, tormented, tormented by unclean spirits, do
you think there's unclean spirits today?
There might be some in this room, it's
just tormenting, what does tormenting mean?
Plagued, haunted, distressed, they're in agony, they're tormented,
so when these apostles filled with purity, filled
with God, would go and speak, they could
cast out, they could remove this tormenting spirit,
because torment works two ways, the devil can
torment, but Jesus torments the devil, I believe
we as believers can torment the devil, in
this regard, we can plague him, haunt him,
distress him, and put him in agony, by
walking in the power of the Holy Spirit,
Shane, do you have a proof text for
that?
Oh, quite a few, but let's start with
one, when Jesus hopped out of the boat,
if we have the same spirit in us,
that he had in him, the Holy Spirit,
he stepped out of the boat, the man
filled with a legion of demons, the demons
said, don't torment us, don't cast us, don't
torment us, Jesus, so you see two different
sides, you see many people claiming to believers,
maybe they are saying, don't torment me devil,
but you have the devil saying, don't torment
me Jesus, see, they're not co-equal, Jesus
Christ is the name, that is above that
name, the enemy comes in, he wants to
torment, he wants to upset, he wants to,
that's what he wants to do, he wants
to ruin your testimony, he wants to grab
your power, the spiritual power, and he wants
you to be ineffective for God, and he'll
use tormenting type things, now this would take
a whole sermon on its own, demonized, has
a demon, and how that works, but if
you open yourself up to demonic activity, and
you give the enemy a stronghold, a foothold,
he will use that, he will use that,
that's why it just bothers me, when so
many people are watching that movie Ouija, and
all these movies that are dark and satanic,
and you're opening a door, you're not being
filled with the spirit, when you're allowing that
in, when those things entertain you, something is
wrong, darkness should never entertain a believer, a
believer should be repulsed by darkness, and there's
so much more, I was gonna talk about
what the Bible says about purity, maybe we'll
turn this into part two, but Proverbs 29
says this, who can say I have cleansed
my heart, I am pure from my sin,
who can say that, who can say that,
I have cleansed my own heart, I am
pure from my sin, we can't say that,
so the Bible has two different types of
people, the defiled, which means they are, defiled
means they are still in the world, they
do not have Christ, or the undefiled have
been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ,
that's how true purity exists, now a believer
who can be washed by the blood of
Christ can still dabble in this defilement, they
can still grab from this defilement, from this
old nature, and they pull things in that
begins to defile them, so that's why Paul
says, come out from among them, be separate,
and well Shane can you give examples, no
you know the examples, what are eyes look
at, what we're allowing into our mind, all
these things our cause can defile us, so
that's what I want to focus on as
we're gonna close in a little bit, is
a recommitment to purity, a recommitment to purity,
and to remind you and I'm reminding myself
that God is a covenant keeping God, this
is something I want you to always remember
about God, when God says if you do
this, I will do this, you can hold
him to that, you can hold him to
that, he will not go back on his
word, he will not say no I didn't
really mean it, when God says if my
people humble themselves and pray, he will do
this, if you desire, I will pour water
on those who are thirsty, on a dry
and barren land, I will pour water on
you, if you are thirsty, whoever drinks of
this water will never thirst again, you can
hold him to that, Jesus cried if anyone,
if anyone in the same cry goes out
today, if anyone is thirsty, come on to
me all your week and heavy laden and
I will give you rest, if you are
thirsty, I will fill you, if you believe
on me as the scriptures say, not some
phony fake American culture church Christianity, but if
you believe on me as the scriptures say,
out of your belly will flow rivers of
living water, you can hold him to that,
and I was reading a small book this
week, it's called when God stepped down from
heaven, that'd be a good sermon title actually,
when God stepped down from heaven and it
talks about all these different revivals, I think
this revival was in Welsh many years ago
or in Scotland area, and it started, they
all start in small prayer rooms, not just
people praying before God, they're not in a
hurry, like we got 10 minutes to pray,
you know they're waiting on God and they're
praying and God would bring revival in those
places and I know a lot of people
are like, well Shane I don't really know
what that is, trust me when it ever
would occur in your life personally here, you
would know it, there's a marked difference, everything
changes, everything changes, you're not in a hurry,
we're not hungry, we want more of God,
this we can't understand or explain, this powerful
move of God's spirit, I mean you read
the book of Acts, it happened there, you
read church history, it happens, so anyway this
young man stood up in a prayer meeting,
he said Lord you have made a promise,
God you have made a promise, and think
about this, are you going to fulfill it?
We believe that you are a covenant keeping
God, will you be true to your covenant?
You said that you will pour water upon
him that is thirsty and floods upon the
dry ground and he went on to say,
Lord I don't know about these other people,
but I know about my own heart, God
I am thirsty, I am hungry for more
of you, pour water on this dry and
barren soul, God you said it and I
want it, and Lord before I sit down
let me remind you that your honor is
at stake, I kind of shuddered at that
one when I read it, but he's right,
he's absolutely right, when God says something his
honor is at stake, he must fulfill it,
so when the Bible says if you pursue
me you will find me, that will happen,
if you call upon me I will answer,
and I don't know where some of you
are, but you need to call upon the
name of the Lord, in your sin or
in your worry, in your doubt you need
to call upon him, he will answer, this
isn't some fake phony type of Christianity, we'll
try out, God says you meet me, you
will find me, you seek me, you will
find me, prodigal son come home and I
will welcome you with loving arms, you're thirsty
I will satisfy you, if you are broken
I will mend you, God actually told the
prophet, I believe it was Ezekiel, when all
the leaders had fell, he said I will
bring back my people that were driven away,
I will bind up the broken, I will
strengthen the sick, but the fat, the proud,
the arrogant I will feed in judgment, thus
sayeth the Lord, oh my God take him
at his word, if you're contending for your
marriage, do what the Bible says, love your
spouse as Christ loved us, die for them,
if you're struggling with doubt and unbelief, come
to the father and say Lord, I need
you to honor your word, your honor is
at stake, God I'm struggling with these things,
but your word says, if I repent of
my sin, humble myself and seek your face,
God you will heal me, God I'm holding
you to your word, your honor is at
stake, there's nothing wrong with that, that's a
church who knows who God is, that's a
church who knows who God is, do you
truly believe the God who created all of
this, cannot honor what he says, it's interesting
they say if you pull, you know those
little tape measures you have, if you pull
that over the entire span of the universe,
and you move just gravity one inch, it
cannot support life here on earth, he, all
of those, the hydrogen levels, the oxygen, the
nitrogen, the gravitational pull, everything is so finely
tuned to life, that it's the fool who
said in his heart, there is no God,
here's the problem, here's what happens, we've embraced
microwave Christianity, my marriage isn't healed today, you
know you're right, it took years to destroy
it, it might take years to rebuild it,
well he didn't relieve me of this, that's
right it's a battle, it's warfare, when the
enemy has a stronghold he doesn't just give
up, this kind cometh not out, except by
prayer and fasting, we just give up, I
think too soon, God says pursue me, seek
me, you will find me, either we believe
that or we don't, here's what happens, I
tried it on Sunday, I even put on
air one on my way home chain, and
I didn't go by In-N-Out Burger,
and I fasted for two hours, and God
has not delivered me from this, right because
that's your conditions, that's your conditions, the father
will tell you what to do, when to
do it, how often to do it, how
long to pursue him, maybe it's me, but
I've seen him set people free, I've seen
heroin addicts give it up, I've seen people,
alcohol, never touch it again, I've seen pornography,
they get rid of, I've seen anger, anger,
where they're so angry, as they begin to
seek him, see the issue is we have
a seeking problem, we have a seeking problem,
everything's on sale, it's quick, but seeking God's
not quick, it takes time to seek him
and to pursue him, but he is a
covenant keeping God, what he said he will
fulfill, in his time frame not ours, that's
the difference.