The message this morning is a coward has
no power, and I've been chomping at the
bits on this one.
A coward has no power.
And a confession, I am a coward, minus
the work of the Holy Spirit.
If you remove the transforming work of the
Holy Spirit in my life, I would never
come to this pulpit.
I would never speak to you the way
I'm going to speak to you this morning,
or the way I've been speaking to you.
I wouldn't stand for Christ.
Actually looking back in my twenties, I think
I was a believer, a prodigal.
I don't know if I ever mentioned Jesus
for years.
I was a coward.
And if you remove that boldness of the
Holy Spirit, you will be a coward.
And just a confession that I am a
coward without that.
I am afraid of persecution without the Holy
Spirit.
I'm afraid of what is happening in our
nation without the Holy Spirit.
I'm afraid to raise kids in this type
of environment in where we live in our
culture without the Holy Spirit.
I'm afraid to lead this church and to
preach without the Holy Spirit.
I am a coward.
And there's so much going on at Tuesday,
which you all know I'm preaching to the
choir.
But often when we see the direction of
our nation, when we have candidates that say,
yeah, you can basically kill a child as
long as it's not born yet.
It's like, am I alive, Lord?
Am I in a nightmare?
Help me, God.
But see sorrow often produces action.
That's one benefit of sorrow is that it
produces action.
You'll do things that you wouldn't normally do.
When I'm sorrow, like Nehemiah, why should I
not be sad when the place of my
father's tombs lies in waste?
We have become one nation above God versus
one nation under God.
And because of that sorrow, many of you
feel it.
You can feel it.
And that sorrow should actually drive us to
action.
That's the point of it.
Not to go, oh my goodness, we're going
to hell in a handbasket.
Let's just walk around miserable.
No.
But that sorrow produces, and actually sorrow is
a result of ministry.
Many people start ministries because of sorrow.
And I'm all for encouragement.
It's not doom and gloom.
But we have to use this sorrow and
lead it to action.
Lead it to prayer.
Lead it to fasting.
Lead it to seeking God versus Facebooking everything
and the world's coming to an end.
It's this godly sorrow that produces results.
Just this week, I hadn't thought about this
quote for years.
And I was driving Benjamin Franklin, who it's
some doubt he was even a believer.
He listened to George Whitefield.
And I don't know how you cannot become
a believer after listening to George Whitefield in
the first great awakening of America.
But Benjamin Franklin said he stopped a prayer
meeting in Congress.
They used to have that.
Did you know that?
Forming the Constitution.
They quoted the Bible four times more than
any other source.
They said, hold on, this is not going
anywhere.
If a sparrow cannot fall to the ground
without his notice, is it probable that an
empire can rise without his aid?
He's saying if God notices the sparrow that
falls, is it probable that we're going to
create an empire without his aid?
And Abraham Lincoln, I believe, four fasting proclamations
for the nation to go into prayer and
fasting.
See, that was commonplace.
Now we think, oh, you weird Christians.
No, we're just trying to go back to
the foundations.
If the foundations be destroyed, what can the
righteous do?
Choose the old path, the old way that
is right and it is good.
And we will have a new president this
time next week.
And we need power like never before.
I don't know what the results will be.
But I know that we need to be
filled with the Spirit of God again.
So a coward has no power.
What I'm talking about is a coward has
no spiritual power.
Because a coward does have power to transform
his family for the worse.
And I see many men, they're getting their
kids and their wives so, so afraid about
what's going on in our nation.
They're sleeping with guns under their bed.
And they're stocking up on food and water
and they're so worried about what's happening.
And they're leading their family, I believe.
Now, those things are fine.
You have a gun, you have extra food,
good.
Nothing wrong with that.
But where is the focus?
Where's our heart?
And a coward can lead people astray in
the wrong direction.
So a coward has no spiritual power.
The church is looking.
The church throughout America is looking for better
methods, but God is looking for better men
and women.
He's just looking for men and women filled
with the Spirit of God.
The eyes of the Lord go to and
fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself
strong on behalf of those whose hearts are
loyal to Him.
He's looking.
So with that as our foundation, a coward
has no power, we're going to turn to
Acts 4.
We've been reading from the New King James
Version.
Now as they spoke to the people, now
remember Peter and the disciples were filled with
the Spirit of God.
And once they're filled with the Spirit of
God, now they're in trouble.
Now they're causing damage.
Now they have authority.
Now they have power.
Jesus said, don't go out and do anything.
Don't even start a ministry until you receive
power.
So now they're filled with the Holy Spirit.
Now they're filled with power, God's power.
And if you're not a believer, or you're
not understanding what this is, the Holy Spirit
isn't some ghost, some mystical little force that
floats out there.
God, when we become a believer, the Holy
Spirit, God's Spirit actually dwells within the believer.
Now you want to do good, but you
don't know why you do bad.
Now you love the things of God, but
you're torn over the things of the world.
You have this power of the Holy Spirit
residing in you as a believer.
And many churches, I like what A.W.
Tozer said and I hope I don't misrepresent
or misquote, I didn't write it down.
But if we were half as eager to
prove that we can be filled with the
Spirit, to prove that we can't, the church
would be crowded.
Because we are so eager to, no, no,
no, not the Holy Spirit.
Don't mention anything about the Holy Spirit.
Don't talk about the Holy Spirit, that's weirdness.
Don't go in there.
Don't even talk about him.
If we were just half as eager to
be filled with the Spirit as we are
to prove we can't be, the churches would
be crowded.
So what you're seeing in the book of
Acts, plain and simple, I could sum it
all up, men and women on fire with
God.
They asked John Wesley, how in the world
are you getting so many people to come
to the church in these revivals?
He said, basically you set yourself on fire
and people will come to watch you burn.
And that's how you, this overwhelming presence and
power of the Holy Spirit.
So if you don't have that, how do
I know?
You know, you know either you're dead and
dying spiritually or you're full of spiritual life.
You fall into one of those camps and
if you are dying with the things of
God, you're not filled with that passion and
that presence of the Holy Spirit.
This morning you can be, you can change
that.
Because as you empty yourself, you're filled with
the Spirit.
That's how it works.
The more we empty ourself, the more we're
filled with the Spirit of God.
So Acts four, now as they spoke to
the people, the priest, the captain of the
temple and the Sadducees came upon them, being
greatly disturbed that they taught the people and
they preached in Jesus the resurrection from the
dead.
So to preach Jesus the resurrection from the
dead, they had to talk about sin.
They had to talk about a savior.
They had to talk about all these difficult
things.
And they laid hands on them and they
put them in custody until the next day
for it was already evening.
However, many of those who heard the word
believed and the number of the men came
to be about 5,000.
That's church growth.
How do you grow your church?
You're filled with the Spirit of God.
And you pray and you fast.
No really Shane, how do you?
God grows the church.
So the Sadducees were upset because they preach
in Jesus' name the resurrection from the dead.
The Sadducees were a religious sect who did
not believe in the resurrection.
So they're actually religious leaders who don't believe
in any resurrection, not Jesus, let alone Jesus,
but no resurrection from the dead at all.
They didn't believe that someday we would be
resurrected.
So they were very upset.
And it's interesting, when the people heard the
word, they were added to the church.
They were converted.
So the unadulterated, untarnished word of God converted
the people.
Repent and believe was the main message that
they were preaching.
Repent and believe.
And I don't think things need to change.
I don't think things need to change at
all.
Repent and believe was the main message that
grew the church and it can be the
main message today.
So this begs the question, based on what
we just read, does the world love the
way that we do church?
This is mainly for pastors.
Listen to this.
Are people going to other churches too?
Does the world love the way we do
church?
Do they appreciate that we never challenge or
we never call things into question?
Do they like the fact that we never
make people feel uncomfortable or offended?
If so, you may want to reconsider Jesus'
words that true disciples will be hated by
the world.
There's no way around that.
We want to get around that, but there's
no way around that.
And you'll read in the article that you
have in your bulletin today that I wrote
an article in the Christian Post and a
lot of different news organizations are picking up
and people are not happy about it, but
a best-selling Christian author came out in
support of gay marriage and how we should
come alongside and help them raise their kids
and be supportive of this.
And one of the main reasons is wanting
her view, she wanted to be liked by
the world and the world to appreciate and
understand.
But churches should be welcoming, loving, accepting, friendly,
warm, hospitable places of worship.
See, that's the challenge.
The world's going to hate me, but I
have to be welcoming, I have to be
loving and accepting and friendly and warm and
hospitable.
Because I accept I'm welcoming.
We should be accepting people to come as
they are.
But you're going to hear the unadulterated, unpolluted
word of God that convicts and changes the
heart.
And then if you choose to stay, wonderful.
If not, that's okay.
We can't wonder if we're pleasing.
Did I please?
The world, what did Jesus say when he
said the world will hate you?
How can they hate me first?
Because everybody thinks the sinners just love Jesus.
Not all of them.
No, not all of them.
Entire cities didn't repent.
Would you get out of here, Jesus?
He healed a demonic man, cast out a
legion full of demons and the whole city
came and said, please leave.
Please leave.
Get out of here.
So those who love him love repentance.
They love to be in right relationship with
God.
They love the message.
And those that rejected his message did not,
they hated him.
They hated him.
Just look at the news.
Just look at the world will hate us
when we follow Christ.
I've not come to call the righteous, but
sinners to repentance, Jesus said.
So the first point, a coward, a coward
has no power.
A coward avoids the difficult truths of the
Bible, but someone filled with the spirit of
God must declare them.
So you see that the first disciples, they
were not cowards anymore.
They declared the difficult truths that people didn't
want to hear so they could help set
them free.
And then we move into verse five.
And it came to pass on the next
day that their rulers, elders, and scribes, as
well as Annas, the high priest, sorry, Annas,
the high priest.
I'll skip his name so I can remember
how to pronounce it.
I just had it this morning.
John, Alexander, and many as were of the
family of the high priest, Caiaphas, there we
go, 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?
Both Caiaphas and Annas were high priests.
I believe Annas came first and then Caiaphas
followed, but he still had a position of
authority in the church.
So they were both high priests.
And all the rulers said, by what power
or by what name have you done this?
And this is a little interesting because they
knew the answer.
They've been telling ever since Peter's first sermon,
but way back when we read weeks ago,
he said, you put Christ on the cross,
you must repent in Jesus' name.
You must be baptized.
So they knew what this was all about.
But they asked him, how are you doing
this?
This man is clearly healed that we read
about last week.
We knew he's healed, but how and why
could you do this?
They were hoping for a different answer is
what happened.
They kept saying, Jesus resurrection, Jesus resurrection, Jesus
resurrection.
God is moving.
God is disrupting the entire religious system that
they built.
So they're saying, what and how are you
doing this?
They wanted a different answer.
And doesn't that remind you of today?
When God moves, people often look for another
answer.
When God moves, when God truly brings revival,
or when God truly builds a church that's
on fire for him and for his presence,
you don't think there'll be opposition?
Oh, come on.
They're just telling people what they want to
hear.
They're to this, they're to that.
They deny a true work of God.
And you better be careful in this area
because spiritual people are offended that God is
not moving.
God is moving without them.
Spiritual people, when God is moving, but why
not me?
Why aren't I so spiritual?
Why aren't I as spiritual?
And they begin to put down everything about
God.
This goes back to what I talked about
earlier.
If you want to go back, you can
listen to the message.
But when we talk about the power of
the Holy Spirit and the gifts of the
Holy Spirit, very controversial topic.
But I've noticed that those who are upset
about the gifts of the Holy Spirit have
not experienced them.
Plain and simple.
They're spiritual.
Some of them are godly men and women.
But because they haven't experienced, they say, no,
God isn't moving today like that anymore.
That can't be of God.
It can't be.
Because it doesn't make sense.
We're offended that God is not moving with,
well, why haven't I experienced them?
Probably because you have a spirit of doubt
and you're not open to what God wants
to do.
Anytime we would, no, no, Jesus left there
because of their unbelief.
And if I were you, I'd say, God,
I want everything you have for me.
I'm not going to be weird.
I'm not going to be fanatical.
I'm going to be filled with your spirit.
Lord, what does that mean?
I want you to show me.
Shane's irritated the heck out of me these
last two few weeks, but I want what
you want.
And it's interesting on this topic of the
Holy Spirit, it offends people.
They don't like to talk about the Holy
Spirit.
It's like the Father, the Son, and the
Holy Word.
I'll talk about that, right?
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Word.
Why is that?
Because it's the Holy Spirit that grips our
heart.
It's the Holy Spirit that brings me to
my knees.
It's the Holy Spirit that convicts and draws.
It's the Holy Spirit that might make you
do this.
It's the Holy Spirit that might make you
shout for joy.
It's the Holy Spirit that might make you
change every single radio station in your vehicle
to things that glorify Christ.
It's the Holy Spirit that's going to redirect
your Facebook posts.
It's the Holy Spirit that moves in all
areas of the church.
Where are these people coming from?
The Holy Spirit moving and guiding and directing
and pulling and releasing.
That's why.
Have you ever thought the enemy might not
like the Holy Spirit as much as he
doesn't like God the Father and the Son?
Because the Holy Spirit is God's agent to
redirect an entire nation or a church or
a group of people.
Without the power of the Holy Spirit, you
just have a dead, formal, legalistic church.
And that's why this topic is so upsetting.
Thank God I got claps versus everybody being
quiet or I think we'd be in trouble.
And the hard part for me is, like
I said before, seeing people die spiritually.
You're dying spiritually.
But I talk to pastors, there's just no
life in their church.
They're young girls and they're just shaming them.
You need the power of the Holy Spirit.
Oh, I don't want that weird stuff.
Weird stuff?
Well, is Acts weird?
See, if Acts is weird to you, there's
a problem there.
If the book of Acts, I read it
and go, praise God.
Oh, my Lord, if we would just have
that spiritual power and that anointing from the
Holy Spirit.
Because the book of Acts actually doesn't end
at Acts 28, 29, 30.
It's an ongoing book of the Christian church.
There's no reason any church cannot experience a
lot of what they experience in the book
of Acts.
There's just no reason for it.
Now, we don't see healing to the same
degree.
We don't see signs.
Well, I agree.
I don't have a good example.
I mean, I don't have a good reason
for it other than I wonder often if
we're not hungry for it enough.
I mean, God, you're going to heal me
or am I going to go to Kaiser?
Man, my tooth really helps.
Do we have any Vicodin left?
I mean, God, he's always the last.
And I don't mean to, you know, poke
fun, but he's often the last resort instead
of the first.
See, on the mission field, the eagers will
probably tell you, I don't know, in Africa,
talking to Sylvester, you don't have health care.
You don't have, you don't have, I've seen
pictures of, they've made flip-flops out of
water bottles and leather straps.
You can't just go take this or do
that.
They've got God or they don't have anything.
It's either God or nothing.
And so when you see God, God, you're
everything I need, you know, of course you're
going to see more things happening.
Of course, a coward makes excuses.
A coward makes excuses, but someone filled with
the Spirit does not.
They cannot.
Verse 8 then, Peter, filled with the Holy
Spirit.
My goodness, I cannot get away from this
topic.
Why would the Bible say that?
It doesn't say, and Peter, breathing.
Of course he's breathing.
Peter, eating.
Of course he's eating.
Peter, alive.
Of course he's alive.
But Peter was filled again with the Holy
Spirit.
That's why there are subsequent feelings, fillings of
the Holy Spirit.
People can be so depleted that they need
a fresh filling.
They need to be filled again with the
Holy Spirit.
Or, maybe not in Peter's case, but he
spoke mightily.
He was filled with the Spirit on the
day of Pentecost.
Maybe days had went by.
He's ministering.
He's talking to people.
He's doing these things, not in sin, nothing.
And here comes this call of God again
to address these religious leaders.
You're going to jail.
You're going to be locked up.
You better be nice.
You better be this.
And then Peter being filled with the Holy
Spirit.
So this endowment, this epi that we talked
about, the preposition of the Holy Spirit that
comes upon someone.
And the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus.
The Holy Spirit came upon Peter.
The Holy Spirit came upon Paul.
And I pray often, God, if you don't
come upon me this morning, I do not
want to walk to that pulpit.
Because if you don't come upon me and
I'm just going to try to get through
this, it's not going to work.
I mean, we could say, and Shane, filled
with the Holy Spirit, spoke.
And Peter, and you, filled with the Holy
Spirit at home.
And it's this ongoing filling of the Holy
Spirit.
Here's why this is so important.
D.O. Moody said, we are leaky vessels.
So I leave here feeling great.
And about four hours, it's like, what happened?
It's like the world's a cesspool.
It's just, it's just, it's just, and, and,
and something happens.
I get bitter.
I get upset.
This happens.
I get negative.
Oh, this happens.
Something breaks.
And now here comes Tuesday.
I'm just a man.
I don't want to preach again.
I can't prepare my sermon.
What happened?
Drained.
I was drained.
So finally, brethren, Paul says, whatever things are
pure and noble, renew your mind.
Do not be conformed to this image, but
be renewed by the power of the Holy
Spirit.
Renew your mind.
And it gets back into the word, back
in prayer, back into worship.
And that's what fills us with the Spirit.
So Peter, being filled with the Spirit, said
to them, rulers of the people and elders
of Israel, if we this day are judged
for a good deed done to a helpless
man, by what means has he been made
well?
Let it be known to you all and
to all the people of Israel that by
the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom
you crucified, that's filled with the Spirit.
Because what those today you see on TV,
you're going to see on TV later today,
or, or we cowardly pulpits.
They say, you know what, we're so sorry.
We didn't mean to offend.
Did we offend you?
How can we come along, just have a
conversation and try to better understand where we're
coming from.
And if I could just understand your, your,
your dialogue and your tribe and your camp,
and you can just understand mine.
And then we kind of, but please don't
get, I'm not in trouble, please.
I'm not trying to start anything.
That's what cowardness does.
You see the difference?
Peter said, these guys can kill him.
These guys can put him in jail for
a lifetime.
He said, you crucified whom God raised from
the dead.
See, you can be filled with the Spirit
of God and, and you fear God more
than man.
How can William Tyndale and John Huss be
burned at the stake by simply declaring the
truth of God?
Martin Luther, when he was faced with possible
execution, they said, recant all of your works.
He said, here I stand, I can do
no other.
That's filled with the Holy Spirit of God.
What is driving ISIS crazy right now?
These people will not recant.
True believers.
Kids are ready to go see their Savior.
Parents are ready to see their Savior.
Filled with the Holy Spirit.
Church, that's what we need.
We don't need more methods.
We don't need more programs.
Lord knows we don't need more studies.
We need men and women filled with the
Spirit of God.
That's how you change.
The nation's not changed on Tuesday.
It's changed on Sunday.
That's how you change the nation.
You change the church.
Filled with the Spirit of God.
Just think, just think if all of us,
now I'm being unrealistic, but just think, just
think if, if, oh goodness.
Let's just think if all of us could
leave here filled with the Spirit of God.
You go into eat restaurant.
You see your, your waitress has a certain
look, probably in desperation.
Yesterday, the guy I went to, he's sitting
on the edge of the aqueduct.
I said, is everything okay?
He said, yeah, just contemplating and meditating.
I said, praying too?
He goes, no, I need to do that.
My wife, marriage issues.
Talked about church.
Open door, open door, open door.
I was sitting at the post office and
invited a girl two months ago to church.
I don't know if she's here this morning,
so I'm not going to say too much
about it.
But she was giving her testimony about how
Jesus saved her out of a certain lifestyle
in front of other people in the post
office.
See, people filled with the Spirit of God.
And then the lady next to me goes,
oh, I'm looking for a church.
I've just been delivered off PCP and I
moved here a year and a half.
I've been set free.
My kids are looking for a church here,
here.
And it's just God's move.
It's everywhere.
You can't get away from it when you're
filled with the Spirit.
It's not, Shane, do you just walk around
Kumbaya, walking on, walking on clouds?
No, of course not.
But there's opportunity everywhere we go.
I saw, if I had more time, I
saw a guy pulled over on, on right
before 60th West, pulled over, just sitting there
like this.
His wife was probably had the door open,
looked like she was throwing up.
Huh?
Saturday night.
Hmm.
Wonder what that could be from?
Alcohol?
Hungover?
Right?
If I had more time, I'd pull over
and say, who knows?
It might get, because when you're Spirit led,
you're Spirit directed.
And God, there's divine appointments.
God opens those doors.
And that's what we need.
We need believers filled with the Holy Spirit
of God.
So Peter said, whom you crucified, God is
raised from the dead.
And by him, this man stands here before
you whole.
This is the stone which was rejected by
you builders.
Now you might go, that's, that's interesting.
No, that, that was offensive.
Because Jesus already told them that I am
the cornerstone and you are rejecting me.
And they wanted to kill him because they
knew exactly what he was talking about.
Nor is there a salvation in any other
name.
There's not salvation in any other name for
there's no other name under heaven given among
men by which we must be safe.
This is interesting to people who go on
television, they'll go on talk shows and they'll,
whether it's Oprah or Larry King or dozen
of other people, and they'll tiptoe.
Is Jesus the only one?
Well, for me, for me, that's what I
believe.
You know, for me, it's, I don't know
for you.
What about this group?
What about that group?
I don't know.
Are they sincere?
I mean, God's got a lot of different,
you know, tribes out there.
And he's just, you know, what is that?
Coward.
A coward has no power.
A coward has no spiritual power.
He, this is so clear.
Nor is there salvation in any other for
there is no other name under heaven given
among men by which we must be saved.
And this is an interesting point because anytime,
this is where people get offended.
I'll talk to people at the church down
the street.
No, it's not bring him young.
It's not Joseph Smith.
It's Jesus Christ, Roman Catholic church, Mormon church.
You have a witness.
You don't have to be part of their
group to be saved.
You have to look at the only name
that says Jesus Christ.
That's the only name.
And here we go.
It's not Allah.
It's not Buddha.
It's not Harry Krishna.
It is Jesus Christ.
And there's power in that name.
That's why people don't want to proclaim that
name often is because they don't know that
name.
Because if that name is near and dear
to you, that you will proclaim that name.
There is salvation in no other name.
And it's okay to say that because what
happens when you say that you just planted
the seed.
Now God will deal with them.
You don't have to chase him around.
See what I tell you.
Try to win them in arguments.
Try to Facebook them and email them.
And hey, this is for you.
This is no, just plant the seed.
Just plant the seed and let God do
the work.
Without the spirit, Peter would have been apologetic,
correct?
Without the spirit, he would have been apologetic.
A coward apologizes.
That's number three about a coward.
A coward apologizes.
Someone filled with the spirit reinforces God's word.
Now, I'm not discouraging, apologizing.
It's good to do.
If you've done something wrong, you apologize.
But when we've gotten this, I know the
Old Testament's hard.
I know this.
And it's like we're just apologizing often for
God's word.
But someone filled with the spirit reinforces what
God's word says.
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit.
Before I get off this point, I want
to remind you that God strengthens you by
indwelling you.
The indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit.
That's where the power comes from.
So God will strengthen you to the degree
you are fulfilled.
Little filling, little strength.
Fully filled, full of strength.
A good analogy, I actually, I love men's
conferences.
You know, I spoke at Hulme Lake because
I can wear flannel and tennis shoes.
And you know, it's a men's conference.
You don't have to worry about a lot
of things.
And right before my message, I was in
heaven.
God, this is wonderful.
I couldn't have planned this better.
They're giving away a brand new 12-gauge
shotgun, full choke.
I don't know if it had three-inch
magnum capacity.
I didn't know.
But I just saw, I was like holding
it.
And I'm like, can I be in that
drawing too?
You know, I couldn't because I was leaving.
But it's just a nice 12-gauge shotgun.
So what he did though, he left it
right here.
So I'm up here preaching.
I'm like, can I grab this?
So I don't have anything that's going to
work.
Because I actually asked a few sheriffs if
I could use this analogy and he said,
that's probably not a good idea.
It works up there, but probably not going
to work here.
So imagine this 12-gauge shotgun.
Imagine if I had, let's say I had
a 12-gauge shotgun.
Oh, that's nice, Shane.
Isn't that interesting?
You know, that's cool.
I'm not sure how I feel about guns.
But what about if I grab the three
-inch magnum shell buckshot, let's say, put it
in there, close the magazine, and now it's
loaded.
What would you say?
There'd be exit doors quietly, you'd be exiting.
Sheriffs would even be going, I'm not sure
where this is going.
Did I bring mine today?
And secure, I mean, people, what's, but folks,
what's the difference?
What's the difference?
The gun without that ammunition is empty.
That's why I often say you can be
straight as a gun barrel theologically, but they're
just as empty.
See, many people have the word, they go
to church, but they're just as empty.
That shotgun can't do anything.
But when I put that three-inch magnum
load in there, now it has authority.
Now it's going to cause damage.
Now people are going to run for cover.
Now you've got the respect.
Now people will listen.
That's the difference.
That's what the Holy Spirit comes in.
He comes in and He fills your life
with this power, with this unction of the
Spirit, of God's presence.
That's the power of the Holy Spirit.
This thing that everybody's afraid about.
See, the very thing you're worried about is
the very thing you need.
The filling and power of the Spirit.
The name of Jesus was forbidden.
Now when they saw the boldness of Peter
and John and perceived that they were uneducated
and untrained men, they marveled.
Why did they marvel?
They've never went to our schools.
They never went to our seminaries.
They don't have a PhD in theology or
a master's degree in church history.
Has he ever studied Greek?
Has he ever studied Hebrew?
Does he know anything about pneumatology and eschatology
and theology?
Was his sermon prepared correctly?
His homiletics and hermeneutics and all these wonderful
things.
How is this possible?
They don't know any of that.
Because when you know Christ, that's where you
speak from.
You speak from a position of authority experiencing
theology.
And that's why I often say a degree
from the master is far more valuable than
a master's degree.
A degree from the master is far more.
Now, big disclaimer in there so people don't
get the wrong impression.
Please, study.
Get an education.
I study all the time.
I look to what Calvin said about this
passage this morning.
And Norman Geisler in theology and Martin Luther.
And you look to, you bring in that.
But when they see, he didn't go to
seminary.
He didn't go to the seminary.
He went to the school of hard knocks
where God broke him and drove him to
the cross and drove him to his feet.
Now, out of that experience, now he preaches
the gospel.
And we can tell he didn't come from
Pepperdine.
He sure didn't come from the master's seminary.
He didn't come from Talbot's Theological Seminary.
He came from the prayer closet where the
Spirit of God spoke through him and drove
people to the cross and repented.
My goodness.
A coward is timid.
Someone filled with the Spirit is bold.
That's the defining difference.
This is the defining difference.
Someone filled with the Spirit of God is
bold about their faith.
Someone who's not is very timid.
They're not going to talk much about it.
They're not going to talk about their faith.
Actually, the sad fact is they're embarrassed about
their faith.
Do you know that's why teenagers and young
adults don't talk about Jesus?
The majority.
The majority of them do not talk about
Jesus because they don't want their friends to
think weird of them.
They'll post Katy Perry and Beyonce at the
Country Music Awards.
What's he talking about?
Well, it's good then.
They're all about that.
But when it comes to Jesus, oh, I'm
a coward.
Because you're not filled with the Spirit of
God.
You cannot be filled with the Spirit of
God and be a coward.
It's impossible.
Because it's the Holy Spirit working through you.
Now, be gentle.
Be understanding.
Be compassionate.
With that boldness comes the fruit of the
Spirit.
See, with boldness comes love and joy and
peace and contentment and long-suffering and gentleness
and kindness and self-control.
You get all that?
So, with boldness comes love and joy and
peace and contentment, understanding, gentleness, kindness, self-control.
All those things come with that boldness.
That was verse 14.
We're going to pick up a little bit
next week, but I just want to hang
my hat here for a minute.
Let's just look at everything we've just read
over the last few weeks.
Everything we've read.
A coward runs and remains silent.
A coward will remain silent.
And we are seeing a lot of people,
Christians in our nation, concerned, but they're not
doing much other than posting things on Facebook.
When was the last time you fasted for
our nation or the church or somebody?
When was the last time you came to
the altar?
You see, it's funny.
We forget that the altar is a sacred
place where people come forward and people say,
oh, the altar calls Charles Finney started.
No, he didn't.
They were actually way before Charles Finney.
The Methodist circuit writers used to call them
mourner's benches.
And people who are concerned about the condition
of their heart would go forward and sit
in a mourner's bench so they could be
counseled later and directed to the Lord.
It's a place of coming forward, acknowledging our
reliance on God.
So we've learned cowards run and remain silent,
but someone filled with the Spirit of God
must do something.
Sitting in the pew, listening does not move
the hand of God.
And that's where I really want to get
this point across often, which you know, if
you've been coming you know I do.
Sitting here, listening, going to Jack's place afterwards
is not what we're looking for.
That doesn't do much.
That's just therapy.
Ah, Shane said something.
Hmm, that sounds good.
I've got to work on things.
Now what's for lunch?
Anytime you'd see God's words preached, you'd see
action.
God's words preached, you'd see action.
It's not a contemplating.
It's an active faith.
And actually, faith does that.
Faith steps out into what I can't see.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for,
the evidence of things not seen.
And I step out into that faith.
Lord, I'm stepping out.
I don't know what you're going to do.
I don't know.
Do you realize once God put it on
a lot of the people here to move
the church out here, and I would have
to fight just thoughts of there's only going
to be about 50 or 60 people here.
You know, God's just, oh, is he going
to leave us if we move out there?
The enemy's coming in.
But faith says, Lord, all the doors are
pointing.
You're in this.
If you're in this, just sit back.
You better just sit down, buckle up, and
hold on.
Because if God's in it, he's moving.
And all you do is you step out
in faith and allow him to do the
work.
You step out in faith and allow him
to do the work.
You come forward, or you go to the
prayer area, or you step out and say,
Lord, I'm going to make a difference.
Here's why this is so big.
This is such a big deal right now.
We need intercessors more than any time in
the history, I believe, of our nation.
We need people interceding.
And I know many people are going, yeah,
what is that?
What is he talking about?
Interceding is very important.
Daniel 9.5. Daniel came, Daniel, a godly
man.
He said, we have sinned, and we have
done wrong.
We have been wicked, and we have rebelled.
We have turned away from your commands and
your laws.
Daniel didn't.
Daniel didn't do that.
But he's interceding.
He's saying, we have sinned and done wrong.
We have been wicked.
We have rebelled.
We have turned away from your commands and
your laws.
That's why Nehemiah said, why should I not
be sad when the place of my father's
tombs lies in waste?
Why should we not be sad?
Millions have given their lives that we would
be one nation under God, not above God.
People have given their lives for this wonderful
thing we call freedom, not to abort 3
,000 children a day.
Did you catch that number?
I had to research a couple times this
week.
I mean, you've got to be kidding me.
Shane, why do you always bring this up?
Because it's a tragedy, sorry.
Dyslexia is kicking in.
It's a horrific thing.
Sex trafficking, horrific thing.
Why are Christians so dull to these things?
It's because they're not filled with the Spirit
of God.
Oh, the excitement when the Cubs won.
So see, you can get excited.
You can get emotional.
And if that wasn't your team, you can
get just as upset.
We need people interceding.
Isaiah 62, on your walls, oh Jerusalem, I
have appointed watchmen.
All day and all night they will never
keep silent.
Jeremiah 29, seven, seek the welfare of the
city where I have sent you into exile
and pray to the Lord on its behalf,
for in its welfare you will have welfare.
You see, guys, I don't care how old
you are, our children need us.
Our grandchildren need us.
There's a time and a place where we
look at what's going on and we say,
they need us.
Can you imagine your little child having children
and what that's going to lead to them?
That should cause all of us to get
on our face before God.
What does the intercessor do?
Here's what I want to clarify and get
to the main point.
When you intercede, you are identifying with the
group of people.
There's identification, there's authority, and there's agony.
Identifying, we're identifying.
Christ identified with us.
Was he an intercessor?
I hope he interceded on your behalf.
That's what an intercessor does.
And when you go to pray, we think,
oh, that's just going to fall on deaf
ears.
No, it's not.
God actually calls us to be intercessors.
He's told Ezekiel, I sought for a man
from among them who would build a wall
and stand in the gap before me so
I might not destroy the land, and I
found no one.
So God is calling people to intercede and
to identify.
Look, Lord, we have sinned.
We have shed innocent blood.
We have glorified pornography.
We have stomped on the definition of marriage.
God, the sex trafficking, the sex slave.
Lord, there's blood on our hands as a
nation.
We repent.
We are interceding.
I identify with that.
And then God gives us the authority through
his word to pull down strongholds and everything
that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ.
And then from that he gives me an
agony, and he gives you an agony.
You can't pray well unless you agonize.
See, if the church had more agonizers and
less organizers, we'd be doing much better.
But that's what God, God takes a person
and he breaks them.
He breaks them so they have to agonize.
And I don't know if you saw on
the news that little ten-year-old girl
that was stolen from a prayer meeting on
Tuesday.
They just found her body.
Why doesn't the church agonize?
See, feel the pain.
Feel the pain.
See what ISIS is doing.
See what we're doing when a little child
is born ten weeks, nine weeks, twelve weeks,
fourteen, sixteen, twenty, and they're getting this new
life.
And then the doctor has the audacity to
go in and remove that child, throw it
in the trash can.
All the agony, folks.
You've got to agonize.
You've got to feel the pain that we
are causing because that agony will drive you
to the floor.
It will drive you to your knees.
You might get a little weepy.
You might cry a little bit.
It might change the way you live.
But if you don't agonize, you will not
pray.
Who's going to stand in the gap?
Who?
And depending on Wednesday, you might want to
start agonizing now.
Tuesday won't save America, but Sunday will.
If my people, if my people.
Think, where are these Peters?
Where are they today?
Where are the Peters and the Pauls who
spoke with such authority that not even martyrdom
silenced them?
They're dead and they still speak.
Where are these people?
Where are the Jeremiah's and Isaiah's calling the
nation back to repentance?
Where are the William Tyndale's and the John
Huss's who were burned at the stake?
Where are the John Knox's who said, give
me Scotland for the cause of Christ or
I shall die?
When was the last time you said, give
me America?
Forget that.
Where?
Give me California.
Give me this Antelope Valley for the cause
of Christ or I shall die.
And then from that agony, God starts to
work in your heart and you start to
put prayer as your focus.
You start to fast.
You start to agonize for what God wants
you to do.
And that's how he directs.
We've got too many pompous, arrogant people who
want to be organizers, but not agonizers.
And that's a true statement.
God has to, God moves through agony.
Where are the John Wesley's who said, give
me just a hundred men as long as
they fear sin and desire God and we'll
storm the gates of hell.
Where are they today?
Where are the George Whitfield's and the D
.L. Moody's who brought America to her knees?
Where are the Richard Baxter's, the Puritans who
said, I preach as a dying man to
dying men.
That's how I preach.
Do you realize that?
Everyone in this room, we are breathing our
last breath.
We are dwindling down, not raising up.
I preach as a dying man.
I am dying physically, but not spiritually.
And I preach a risen savior.
Some might not return next week.
I understand that.
I won't talk to the same group ever
again.
I preach as a dying man to dying
men.
So where is the burden?
Where is that burden for the lost?
I mentioned sex trafficking and all that because
it is so real.
I just met a girl who was trafficked
in East Palmdale 10 years ago.
Where's the burden, the agony, and the authority?
By the authority of God's word, we can
get on our knees and our faces before
God.
By the authority of the word of God,
he says, you call down strongholds.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
but they're mighty through God.
You pull down strongholds.
You make a difference.
You go to the altar.
You weep.
You pray.
You fast.
You sacrifice.
And then I will move on your behalf.
The eyes of the Lord.
See, this is interesting.
Don't ever forget this.
The enemy goes about as a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour.
Did you know that?
Are you well aware that there is an
enemy?
He goes about as a roaring lion seeking
whom he may devour.
But the eyes of the Lord go to
and fro throughout the whole earth to show
himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts
are loyal to him.
So the question is, who finds you?
One or the other will find you.