The title of the message is not by
my might or my power.
Now, many of you know the scripture, right?
He taught one of the prophets, Zachariah, I
believe it was, not by might nor by
power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord.
So I wanna first put that in context
before I get into the book of Acts.
Jesus is, as we're going through the book
of Acts, Jesus has been resurrected.
He's gone to be at the Father.
Now the church is operating through the power
of the Holy Spirit.
If you take anything away from this series,
I hope it's this, that we cannot do
anything without the power, the anointing, the unction,
the fire of the Holy Spirit.
So the title, not by my might or
my power, means that we have to remember
that.
I'm not going to have enough strength or
power to get through life.
I have to rely on the power of
the Holy Spirit.
So that famous verse in Zachariah, where he's
talking about not by might nor by power,
but by my spirit, saith the Lord, the
context is interesting.
Jerusalem was taken, captive.
They've been in exile.
They're not in the homeland.
A king by the name of Cyrus, who
was not a Christian, or can be Christian
back then, was not a follower of God,
of Yahweh, but he released some of the
people to go back and build the temple,
if you can believe that.
So Zerubbabel, yeah, it's an interesting name, I
know, he was actually commissioned to go and
rebuild the temple.
And he's probably no doubt thinking, how in
the world am I going to do this?
This is impossible, that the land is in
disarray.
I've got enemies on every side.
And God said, not by might nor by
power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord.
This mountain, this huge mountain that is in
your way will become a plain, and you
will walk simply through.
So that's a wonderful parallel for us today.
It's not by my might nor by my
power, but by God's spirit.
And it begs the question, what is your
mountain today?
What is your mountain today?
There's many times that we come to church
with these huge, insurmountable mountains, and we forget
that God is the one who levels that
out to a plain where we can walk
through.
But what does Shane do?
Shane says, by my might, by my power,
I'll take care of this because I'm not
seeing anything.
And remember, what we see naturally often does
not resemble what's going on in the spiritual
realm, that God is working, but we don't
see it, so we move in our might,
our power, our strength, and it fails.
That's why, God, it's interesting, Moses or Joshua,
all the different leaders of the Old Testament,
many times God would say, stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord.
Having done all, just stand, stand still and
see the salvation of the Lord.
It's through his might, his power, that this
is accomplished.
So with that as the foundation, we'll get
into the book of Acts, Acts 3.
If you have your Bibles, you can turn
to Acts 3, verse 1.
This is where a lame man is healed.
Now Peter and John went up together to
the temple at the hour of prayer, the
ninth hour.
Now Peter and John went up together to
the temple at the hour of prayer, the
ninth hour.
Interesting, I had this all together, I had
three or four verses together before I was
gonna stop, but the first day I started
working on this sermon, I just couldn't get
past this first point.
Now Peter and John went up together, because
I'm talking about God's power, not by my
might nor my power, but by God's spirit.
God's spirit, God's power works through unity.
We forget that, they went up together.
There's power in being united in the cause.
That's why the enemy will go after certain
things and he'll bring division, because when I'm
divided, I'm not united, and when I'm divided,
there's no power.
There's often frustration and failure, and it's this
kind of stuff, where God says, walk in
the power of the Holy Spirit.
But on this note, remember that unity must
be fought for.
You have to fight for unity because it
does not come naturally.
It comes supernaturally.
Who wants unity in the flesh?
In the flesh, nobody does.
It doesn't, you have to fight for unity.
The little things have got to be put
aside.
My old motto was, Leona Valley's not that
far, right?
Here's my new motto, let's not let the
little things divide us.
That has to be the motto of the
church.
Let's not let these little things divide us.
Is it essential, essential to salvation?
Because if you get a church united, going
in the same direction, removing anything, strongholds or
bitterness or resentment, removing these things and united,
walking together, the Spirit flows through that unity.
When there's no unity, there's no flow of
the Spirit.
That's why he's gonna go after us and
make us very disgruntled, very angry, very upset.
I'm preaching to myself.
I could just tell you to move over,
and if I could sit right there, Jason,
next to you, because I'm preaching to myself
right now.
That's how he'll work.
If you have a united church, you have
a powerful church.
But if he can come in and bring
disunity, it has to be fought for.
Because in my rights, and I was this,
yeah, me too.
I can totally understand.
I can totally relate.
I have never been more hurt in all
of my life than since I planted a
church.
And I probably have hurt more people than
most people after planting a church.
See how that works?
And the enemy will use that, and he'll
come in and bring division.
So there's no unity.
There's no power.
We bicker, we complain.
God says, go out and make a difference
for the love of God.
Go out and make a difference.
So that's why unity is so important.
And this theme really just hit me this
week.
Peter and John went up together, together.
And there is a price to pay.
There is a price to pay for unity,
and this is why it's hard for me,
and it's hard for most people.
When you're fighting for unity, you have to
release pride.
I'm right.
Well, it doesn't matter.
I want unity.
Well, yeah, but this, it doesn't matter.
I want unity.
I have to release my pride.
I have to release my ego.
I can't get the last word in.
And I'm not talking about Christians becoming a
doormat, right?
You understand that.
We're not to just roll over and become
a doormat.
We are to boldly speak the truth and
be bold.
But unity has to be fought for.
I'm not gonna get the last word in.
Even though I think I'm right, I might
not have been right.
And I say all that aside, I'm gonna
strive for unity.
Let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus, who being in the
form of God, did not consider robbery to
be equal with God, but he humbled himself
and became obedient to the point of death,
death on the cross.
But this principle is very powerful that we
have to put our egos aside and our
pride aside.
Yes, we got hurt.
Yes, we got damaged.
But there is a price to pay in
unity.
Once you become united, then you're filled with
the Spirit.
Then you're so glad you let that stuff
go, because now I'm filled with God's Spirit.
And that's how the enemy comes in and
he steals joy.
He's stolen a lot of joy from our
lives.
I'm sure he's stolen a lot of joy
from your lives through this area of disunity.
So I stopped here this week.
Peter and John up together.
Keep that in mind.
The power, if we want, I'm sure I'm
not speaking to every single person in this
room but most of us want God's power
operating in our lives, don't we?
We want to know what to do.
We want discernment.
I want the Bible to be alive and
powerful.
I want worship to be resonating in my
heart.
I want God to speak through me and
to me.
I want God to use me.
But he's not going to do that if
we're disunited, if we're split apart.
He can't work.
He works through, no, not a perfect church.
See, you can have disunity and say, you
know what, I was wrong.
We were wrong.
This shouldn't happen.
I'm not gonna let the enemy come in
here.
I'm gonna fight for this.
And we're gonna walk forward in the power
of the Holy Spirit.
That's unity.
That's how we will see God's power and
spirit move in our lives.
And then verse two.
And 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 from those who entered
the temple.
And sometimes we made the mistake of just
reading through scripture and getting to the next
verse.
That's why the Bible talks meditating on the
word of God.
Psalm 1-1 is a good example.
Blessed is the man who walketh not in
the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in
the path of sinners, nor sit in the
seat of the scornful.
But his delight is in the law of
the Lord, and he does meditate on it.
He meditates on it day and night.
And when I started to meditate on this
and just putting myself, here's where you, one
way you get, and I'm gonna talk about
this in a minute.
One way you get more compassionate, and if
you wanna be a spirit-filled believer, you
need to be compassionate.
I need to be compassionate.
You look at life through the lens of
this person.
A certain man lame from his mother's womb
was carried.
Think about this for a minute.
From being a little child, a little baby,
couldn't walk, couldn't move, as this man gets
older, young boy, then a young adult, high
school, young adult, and then people actually have
to carry him and leave him by this
gate all day.
Cockroaches, mice, whatever, you know, you can't really
just get up and leave.
You are here.
And back then, they didn't have a lot
of assistance like we have today.
There was, if your family didn't provide for
you or somebody didn't provide for you, you
died.
And you see the scene that this man
is in every day.
Can you imagine week after week and year
after year being carried by people and laid
at this gate, and you have to sit
and look at people who might spit on
you, who might disdain you, all the, this
is a bad situation.
He's just laying there every single day.
Not by might nor by power, but by
my spirit through compassion.
Through compassion.
I wanna just hang my hat here for
a minute too.
In preparing for messages, I like to either
read books or do something that helps get
my heart in the right direction.
I took half a day yesterday and I
visited four of our hospital homes.
One was closed, and I went to one
this morning as well.
And it really changes how you view things,
to see people in this type of condition.
Some won't be getting out.
We've, there's one lady going to hospice care
soon.
She has about four months left.
And seeing these, and it really, it breaks
your heart.
It breaks your heart.
And the power of compassion.
Why don't we have compassion?
Because it has to be encouraged.
It has to be fueled.
You won't just wake up today as a
compassionate person.
It has to be, something has to motivate
that compassion.
So you go and you see these things.
I believe our nation, our national landscape and
our view about abortion, for example, would change
if they could see what actually occurs at
a partial birth abortions.
It's so graphic, I don't want to describe
it right now.
But that would give you compassion for certain
things.
So that's why we don't have compassion in
the church.
It has to be encouraged.
See, I remember when the church wept.
Joy is a sign of a believer, but
so is tears.
I remember when the church would weep and
they would travail and they would call down
heaven.
We've lost that note of passion.
Last, this Wednesday or Thursday, I believe it
was, I spoke in Santa Clarita at a
pastor's conference to this group of pastors speaking
about why are we silent on this issue
of abortion or gay marriage and all these
things.
All these things that, did you know that
over 50% of the church doesn't talk
about anything controversial?
They don't want to alarm, they don't want
to upset, they don't want to offend.
So it's either because of being a coward
or self-preservation that they are avoiding difficult
truths.
So I'm not sure how well that message
was received, but it was a challenge to
get a heart of compassion.
See what your people are experiencing.
See what it looks like to abort a
child.
See what it looks like to walk away
from God and give you a heart of
compassion.
I told them straight up, it's because you're
not in the prayer closet and you're not
seeking the face of God to get the
heart of God.
That's where compassion comes from, seeking the heart
of God because we are not seeking the
heart of God.
Gerhard Du Toit said, "'What will it cost
me for God to break my heart?' "'It
will cost you absolutely everything.'" See, self-focus
must die, unforgiveness must be crushed, and comfort
can no longer be your master.
Church, it's wonderful to be excited, but it's
also, there's a time to weep.
There's a time for joy, there's a time
for sorrow, there's a time for a weep,
and what weeping does, it changes the way
you live.
It changes the way you live.
You have compassion.
Now you say, I've got to do something.
I've got to do something.
For example, are you aware of what happens
in Los Angeles County in the sex slave
trade industry?
I can't even believe I live in a
culture that allows this.
10-year-old, 11-year-old, 12-year
-old girls being pulled in by certain people
and caught in the, where's the compassion, where's
the heart, where's the, I gotta make a
difference.
Little toddlers being abused.
Where is this, the abortion, I talked about
that.
Look, where's this heart of compassion?
Because out of that heart of compassion, that's
how we make a difference, that's how we
make a difference.
But Shane, I can't do anything, nobody knows
me, I can't do a thing.
Right, now you got the point of the
sermon.
Not by might, nor by power, but by
my spirit, saith the Lord.
He just takes one broken, humble person.
He takes one broken, humble person, says, God,
I must do something through you and for
you.
And then through that compassion, you make a
difference.
We get too full on the word of
God, including myself.
We've got enough theology to last us a
lifetime.
We've got Bible on apps, we've got this,
I've got tons of commentaries from John Calvin
to D.L. Moody to Spurgeon.
I don't know if D.L. Moody wrote
a commentary, but it sounded like he might
have.
Sometimes when it flows, it just flows.
But you know what, this needs to come
with a warning label.
In a good way, warning, your heart will
be crushed.
Warning, there is a need to have the
compassionate heart of God.
Warning label, this is convicting.
Yes, and I love Joey, and I love
all the church, but when it doesn't move
us to action, there's something wrong in the
heart.
That's not Christianity.
Christianity is not to just get full on
the word of God and be able to
win arguments.
Christianity is to go out and actually do
something.
Shane, you're disrupting my whole morning right now.
Good, I wanna disrupt your whole week.
So we become a church again that prays
and fasts and get our heart right before
God.
This man laid at the gate daily for
years, until two spirit-filled believers in unity
came across his path and woke him up
out of that death of being physically impaired.
That's what God will do.
He'll grab your heart, and then you'll make
a difference.
The man laid by the beautiful gate for
all of his life, all of his life,
we don't know how old he was, but
it took these two spirit-filled believers to
make a difference.
In autonomy, there's no power in dead religion.
That's why this man, this man stayed at
the gate of a temple, the temple of
God, years and years and years, and it
wasn't until two men filled with the Spirit
were able to heal him, because by that
time, that temple was full of deadness.
It was dead.
They were going through the motions.
They had religion and not a relationship.
The prophets spoke of this all the time.
Wake up, my people, you stiff-necked people.
You are misled.
You want people to come in and tell
you what you want to hear.
I have left you many, many years ago.
Like Samson, they knew not that the Spirit
of the Lord had departed, so you have
this man laying here at the temple of
God.
It'd be like a man out front in
the concrete.
They just keep bringing him in, year in
and year out.
Nobody does anything, and dead religion is powerless.
Then verse three, who seeing, well, let's read
it in context.
Back to verse one.
Now Peter and John went up together to
the temple at the hour of prayer, the
ninth hour, and 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 from those
who entered the temple.
Who seeing Peter and John about to go
into the temple asked for alms, and fixing
his eyes on him, with John, Peter said,
look at us.
So he gave them his attention, expecting to
receive something from them.
Then Peter said, silver and gold I do
not have, but what I do have I
give to you.
In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
rise up and walk.
Boy, there's power in that name.
But the first point I want to talk
about on this section is the power of
intercession through the Holy Spirit.
Again, not by my power, but when God
calls us to intercede, I don't think this
man was thinking he was going to be
healed.
Did he ask to be healed?
What did he ask for?
Obviously, silver and gold I do not have.
So this is interesting.
This man, so there goes that belief out
the window that if you don't have enough
faith, you won't be healed.
This guy didn't have any faith to be
healed.
He wasn't expecting to be healed.
He didn't ask to be healed.
He wanted silver and gold.
Peter looked right at him with John and
said, I do not have any of that,
but in the name of Jesus Christ, rise
up and walk.
They interceded and they pulled that man up.
The power of intercession.
What you're doing is you're interceding for on
the behalf of people.
So don't give up on that prodigal son.
Don't give up on that wayward daughter.
Don't give up on those things you're praying
for because you are an intercessor.
And God has given us the ministry of
reconciliation.
How?
By intercessing and being the feet of Christ
and being the hands of Christ.
We have been given that.
Look at the Old Testament.
I've quoted before Ezekiel, where God actually said,
he was before he destroyed his people.
And I want to make it clear here
that God is a loving God.
That's the last thing he wants to do.
But when he says, you've got to do
this, you've got to do this, I'm mourning,
I'm mourning.
I'm giving you wake up calls.
I'm giving you messengers.
I'm giving you conviction.
Hey, people, be careful here.
I'm mourning and I can't keep mourning.
And at some point, the judgment hand of
God is going to fall.
He told Ezekiel, I sought for a man
from among the people who would stand in
the gap.
You've heard things on that, stand in the
gap.
That's where it comes from.
To stand in the gap, to build a
wall on behalf of my people that I
might not destroy them.
But I found no one.
No one.
So God is looking for intercession.
That's why that room should be as crowded
as it was last Sunday.
That side room for prayer.
That's where you, well, I don't see anything.
It doesn't matter.
Your eyes, you're not gonna see what's going
on in the spiritual realm.
Strongholds are being pulled down.
That's why Paul said that the weapons of
our war fell.
They're not carnal.
You're not gonna win this argument.
You're not gonna make somebody do something.
Your weapon in your warfare is through God
for the pulling down of strongholds, casting down
arguments, and everything, everything that exalts itself against
the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into
captivity through the obedience of Christ.
So the weapons of our warfare, actually, it's
not right here.
Think about that.
The weapons of our, we're not doing battle
necessarily right here.
We are being motivated and encouraged and filled
with the Spirit to then go and do
battle and pray and make a difference.
That's why I often say, people just come
in here and they look, oh, that was
interesting.
That guy gets a little loud, but it
made sense.
Oh, good, let's stop at Jack's place.
What was that about?
Did really anything happen?
You might as well just watch the NFL
and watch them continue not to stand up
for the national anthem, then come to church,
because that's the power of God's work and
word in our lives should motivate us to
make a difference.
And that's what was the power of intercession.
How many of us are truly, truly praying
for our kids?
Do you have any prodigal sons out there,
wayward daughters, any, the people, family members not
walking with the Lord?
Don't give up.
Instead, look up.
Say, God, I'm gonna hold on to heaven.
I'm gonna pray.
I'm gonna beseech you.
That's what they used to say, beseech you.
And in travail, it was this emotion of
God, you've got to answer.
It wasn't this, oh, well, just do something
in their life next week.
I'm too busy to sit and pray.
They would take time, and they would say,
Lord, bring conviction.
Let the hound of heaven loose.
They used to call the Holy Spirit the
hound of heaven.
Let him loose, because when he is loose
and that conviction comes in, a person can't
run very far.
Where can they go to hide from God's
presence?
Where?
If I go into heaven, David said, you
are there.
Behold, if I make my bed in hell,
even you are there.
If I get the wings in the morning
and go to the uttermost parts of the
entire world, even you are there.
You are there to hold me and guide
me and direct me.
I cannot flee your presence, and that's what
you do when you unleash the power of
intercession.
The conviction of God goes and goes, and
it finds that person.
That's okay, I'm not looking for claps this
morning.
I'm looking for changed hearts and a pin
drop, because when you can hear a pin
drop, you know that God's Spirit is speaking
through us, wanting us to change.
This whole area of compassion has been on
me all week, and usually if it's burning
in me, it's time to burn it in
you.
That's how it works.
I'm on fire, it's time to get it
out there.
Let's get this going and be making a
difference.
But in the name of Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, rise up and walk.
There is no other name that saves, that
heals, that sets free.
And I was just, I got here early
in the morning, I put on worship music,
and I just, I could not get off
this point.
Because we just read, oh, that's interesting, but
think about this.
There is no other name that saves, that
heals, or sets free.
And I found a marker and a piece
of white paper at six this morning.
What a powerful name it is.
The devil flees, demons tremble, nations recognize his
authorities, entire cities repented, no man ever spoke
like him.
The religious leaders were silenced, the waves in
the sea obey him, the foundation of earth
was set by him.
A little child feels safety and comfort, and
a hardened sinner is loved by this God.
Blind, but now I see a future and
a hope.
My kids have this hope because of Christ.
Every wrong will be done right when God
judges the thoughts and the intents of all
mankind.
That's a powerful name in case you didn't
catch it.
That's the only name that saves.
And there's nothing wrong with getting excited about
that.
I mean, if we think about how powerful
that name is, and just, you need to
meditate on that name more than Trump and
Hillary.
Oh, you want me to go down that
road again?
I mean, emails all the time.
Oh, look at this, and look at this,
look at this, look at this.
I'm like, I don't wanna look at this
anymore.
I wanna look at God and who he
is.
He's still on the throne.
He's still sovereign.
He is still the only name that saves.
Listen, no matter who's elected, they still have
to bow to the name of Jesus Christ.
Iran can't do anything unless Christ says so.
China can't do anything unless Christ says so.
Our economy, our nation, the direction can't do
anything unless the sovereignty of God and God
says so.
But when you look at his word and
you look at the direction, you go, oh,
no, uh-oh, I sent messengers to my
people, warning them, convicting them, turn back to
me.
Jesus wept when he saw the destruction of
Jerusalem, and this is one of the pastors
at that conference asked me, well, should we
never worry?
Should we always be joyful?
And you have to find that balance, because
on one hand, we're joyful God's on the
throne, but we're sorrowful by the direction we
see we are going.
Nehemiah, Nehemiah was a cupbearer.
He was sent to rebuild, Zerubbabel rebuilt the
temple.
Nehemiah rebuilt the wall around Jerusalem.
And the king said, why are you so
downcast?
And he said, why should I not be
sad when the place of my father's tombs
lies in waste?
And Jesus looking out over this great city
of Jerusalem began to weep over the condition.
That's why I agree 100% with A
.W. Tozer.
I love Jesus because he is my Lord,
but I fear him because he is my
judge.
That's a very healthy balance.
We love him because he is our Lord,
and he's my savior, he saved me, but
I fear him because I will be judged
someday.
The nation will be judged someday.
Rulers will be God, help the rulers.
You should be praying for our Supreme Court.
The Bible says it, we should be praying
for whoever gets nominated.
Whoever gets nominated, you should pray.
Miley Cyrus said she's moving to Canada if
Trump gets elected.
So there's some serious stuff going on here,
right?
So, and all the comments this long, go,
go now, go now.
But it's sad because praying for those leaders,
but also praying for her, praying for her.
And what's her father thinking of what has
happened?
On Disneyland, this wonderful Christian home now has
turned to this Katy Perry, raising a Christian
home.
You see where this, Wynton said the church,
even though I'd like to put down Hollywood,
you know, and bring it into the sermon,
we wanna pray for those people.
They need Christ, they need to be, where
is the heart of compassion to see that
little girl, Katy Perry, I can imagine my
own kids at five, six, seven, eight, or
Miley, five, six, playing dolls and Barbie, and
then they get into this, and Hollywood destroys
them.
You should have compassion about that.
That's not good.
Then from that compassion, I can have a
heart of prayer and calling down things before
they even happen.
Devil, you can't have my children.
I know you want them, I know you
want to destroy my family, but you can't
have them.
We're going to pray, and we're going to
fast, and we're going to contend.
I know that's your agenda, but it's not
mine.
And that's how you approach this, but with
compassion.
See, if you're not moved by compassion, you're
not moved.
You're not moved at all.
And I have people that are praying for
their kids.
Their kids are in terrible spots, addicted to
heroin, to crystal meth.
Oxycontin, they're just, they're destroying their lives.
They're destroying their lives.
And I ask the parents, you got to
take a sick day off work, do something,
if you ever fast, if you ever pray,
nine times out of 10, they say, Shane,
I don't got time for that.
Can you just say a quick little prayer?
No.
See, we've lost our heart for compassion.
Oh, goodness.
I was hoping I didn't remember this, but
God brought it to my attention, because I
wanted to talk about it, and I took
it out of my notes, and I put
it back, and I took it out of
my notes.
And that can go either way, so we'll
see where this goes.
But right before the churches, this person is
no longer here, so it's okay.
Right before the churches came together, I was
able to give a few sermons, and it
still hurts today to remember this.
But one of the people, in my sermon,
I was talking about something like this, and
I talked about a 22-year-old girl
we lost to a heroin overdose in Lancaster
a few years ago, and spilled, just poured
my heart out, and preached my heart out,
and showed the same area.
She actually went to people and said, I
don't wanna hear about heroin.
I did that in the 60s.
I need to hear straight from God's word,
and actually, actually was offended by what I
talked about, and rebuked that type of message.
And I'm like, no wonder there's no heart
of compassion.
No wonder, that sounds like a Pharisee to
me.
That's exactly what a Pharisee would say.
Just give me the word.
Give me the word, and do what?
Do what?
Go out and be something.
Go out and be the hands and feet
of Christ, because if you have the word,
but no compassion, you are a borderline Pharisee.
If you have the word, but you're not
walking the power of the Holy Spirit, you
are a dead Christian.
You've gotta be revived by that heart of
passion, not by your might, your power, but
by God's Spirit, sayeth the Lord.
In verse seven, I'm gonna get off that
one, because it's not gonna be good.
And he took him by the right hand,
and lifted him up, and immediately his feet
and ankle bones received strength.
So obviously, this man was hurt in his
feet.
So they took him up, they lifted him
up, immediately his feet and ankle bones received
strength.
So he, leaping up, stood and walked and
entered the temple with them, walking and leaping
and praising God.
I bet he was.
And all the people saw him walking and
praising God.
Then they knew that it was he who
set begging alms at the beautiful gate of
the temple.
And they were all filled with wonder and
amazement at what had happened.
And I thought of this too.
If a person praises God for physical healing,
how much more should we praise him for
spiritual healing?
If you are a believer in this room,
not to be too graphic, but before Christ,
you were on the way to hell.
The Bible says damnation.
It's not trying to avoid it.
It's trying to tell you and me what
direction we were going.
God, in his sovereignty, somehow reached down, saved
us.
Repentance took place.
I was on the broad road to destruction,
narrow on the narrow road.
I was on my way to hell.
ACDC sings, I'm on my highway to hell,
and they don't know how literal that is.
But I was on that highway, and then
I was moved to the highway of heaven.
I went from darkness to light.
You did too.
Why doesn't that motivate more prayer and worship?
Many times it's because we don't have the
heart of God through compassion, through brokenness, through
humility.
Because see, the more he humbles you, the
more you have to praise him.
Humble, broken people praise the Lord.
And I actually wasn't, I took off a
page of the sermon because we have 12
baptisms today.
Okay.
So I wanted to, and the list is
growing.
So now we've got some scheduled for November
and different things.
But I said all that to say this.
If you've never been baptized, you're a believer,
you've never been baptized.
I'll do what I did last month.
I wanna encourage you to take that step
today.
And that's one reason I wear this in
there.
Is it doesn't matter if you didn't bring
anything, neither did I.
We're just gonna go in.
It's an act of obedience.
Believe and be baptized.
It doesn't say believe and then three years
later, believe in 30 years later, believe in
two years later.
And I told a story about when I
was 30, 31, I think it was 2000,
was baptized.
And I was embarrassed.
I didn't want people to think anything.
And they didn't think anything.
It didn't even matter.
So I wanna encourage you, as we're doing
baptisms today, you can just come in your
clothes.
We've got extra towels.
There's no excuses.
If you wanna make that, you're a believer.
Jesus is your Lord and Savior.
And you say, I wanna get baptized.
It's been, I was a little baby.
I was infant.
I didn't know what I was doing.
I've never done it.
This is a wonderful opportunity because I believe
it's tied into obedience.
Believe and be baptized.
So if we believe and we're not baptized
and we know it, there's a disconnect there.
It's very natural to believe and be baptized.
So we're gonna give people an opportunity at
the end of the service to do that.
But in doing that, I wanted to end
a little bit early because normally when we
do baptisms, we go right into the baptisms
and we don't go into a time of
prayer and worship.
And that's our warfare.
That's where the strongholds are pulled down.
There are marriages in this room that are
heading for divorce.
There are people in this room who are
addicted.
There are people in this room who are
fearful, who are besetting sin.
They are going through tons of things right
now.
How dare we not avoid this wonderful opportunity
of getting our hearts right before God?
See, somebody has to do something.
We have to do, we can't just sit
here and go, yes, uh-huh, that makes
sense.
We have to actually do something.
The heart of compassion, and I'll close with
a story I told, I think, to the
Lancaster location maybe last year.
Some of you have heard it before.
And I actually think it was Mike Huckabee.
So that'll kind of tie in with this
election season.
He was asked, or I think his daughter
wanted to go to a Holocaust museum, and
she was only 12 years old.
So he took her to this museum, and
he was having second thoughts about the images
she was seeing and what was transpiring there,
and the bodies piled one upon another, the
graves.
And she was just visibly shaken, visibly upset.
And he's sitting there just going, oh my
goodness, what have I done?
Is she too young for this depravity?
And really struggling.
Well, on their two-hour drive home, she
didn't say a word.
And then when they pulled in the driveway,
she looked and she said, Daddy, why didn't
somebody do something?
And I'm wondering, will we hear those same
thoughts or that same question?
Mom, Dad, why didn't you pray for me
more?
Why didn't you pull down heaven?
Why didn't you take time out of your
day?
Why didn't you, why didn't you, why, why,
why?
Because somehow we've been fooled into thinking that
this, oh, I heard it, that's good enough.
No, the hearing is not good enough.
Somewhere in the Bible that we just covered
on Wednesday night says be doers of the
word and not hearers only, or you're living
in deception.
So those who know the word and do
not do it are actually living in deception.