Please turn in your Bibles to
Matthew chapter 16. This may not sound like it's
going to be an exciting message, but it's probably the most exciting
because it is directly from the word of God. We're going to go
to the book of Acts here in just a few minutes. I say at Grace Centers of Hope
and our fundraising meetings and our development meetings
and men's group meetings My great burden is to see God raise up
a local church that is so spirit-filled and spirit-driven and Christ-honoring
that God Almighty comes down and does the most wondrous things. My great burden is not about
a rescue mission across the street. My great burden and desire is
about Addicts, sinners, self-righteous Pharisees, preacher's kids, heroin
addicts, crack addicts, coming to know Jesus Christ, and the
army of Christ growing, and this church becoming the greatest
supporter of its child, which is across the street. Your outreach
ministry and mine is across the street in the sense of bringing
people to faith in Jesus Christ. and how God is using us. I wanna
talk about the church because there's so much misconception
when it comes to the Greek word in the New Testament, ecclesia,
ecclesia, which simply means assembly. We are the assembly
here of Jesus Christ. That's who we are. Christ is
A-double-L here. Everything's about him. If I
were to say this is a church of Jesus Christ, I would mean
just that, that this is a church where Christ is all, and we make
much of Jesus Christ. Well, in Matthew 16, You find
the Lord coming in verse 13 into Caesar of Philippi, and he asked
his disciples and said, whom do men say that I, the son of
man am? Oh, it's so important that you know the answer to that
question. It's so important. Without knowing the answer to
that question, you won't make heaven. You've got to know the
answer and the person who is the answer to that question. Well, some say, the disciples
said, some say thou art John the Baptist. Oh, that's me, I'm
a Baptist, that's not what it means. Some say you're John the Baptist,
some you're Elias, others that you're Jeremiah, or you're a
great guy, you're a real prophet. And he said unto them, But who
do you say that I am? And that's what I would ask each
one of you today. I would say 90% of the crowd
in here is something, if I was to ask you, are you a Baptist,
Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Church of God, Church
of God in Christ, First Church of God, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Everyone in here would have some kind of answer. You will not
get to heaven with that answer. The church, if you want to see
the church, just look around you. This is us. You mean, Susie over there, she
relapsed three weeks ago. Or John over there, I can remember
on the street, I was with him on the street. This can't be the church. But oh, it is. Christ
Jesus came into the world to save sinners. So I don't care
what you are. I'll tell you what really Christians
want. I love banana pudding. I just
love banana pudding. Marilyn makes me banana pudding.
And it's the best. And I'll eat all of it. Your
bowl is still in my car. Banana pudding. Oh, Miss Pam
has your bowl, Marilyn. Right there. It's empty. I will tell you something else.
When I go to church, I don't go to hear about the church.
I don't go to hear about our pedigree or our history. I want
to see Jesus high and lifted up. I want to see the Lord exalted. I want to see that He's an all-sufficient
Savior. That's what I want to see. He
said unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter,
the loud mouth guy, answered and said, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God. That's the right answer. You're
the Messiah, you're the redeemer, you're the propitiation, you're
the justifier, you're the way, the truth, the life, the door.
Your name is wonderful, counselor, mighty God, prince of peace. And when we get over in the book
of Acts, where we're going to be, I hope, at some point here
today, looking at church history, you're gonna see the same guy
in chapters one through five, the
same Simon Peter, the same guy who at some point denied the
Lord before the crucifixion, and the rooster crow. It's an
awesome thing how God sends his messages and what God can use. You know, this is about my 53rd
year of preaching. I see the Lord everywhere. I
just see him everywhere. He's everywhere. He's everywhere.
Moving and doing. He made a rooster crow right
at the right time and wrought conviction. in Peter's heart
for denying Christ. Thou art the Christ, the Son
of the living God, and here it is. And Jesus answered and said
unto him, You are a blessed man. Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona,
for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my
Father which is in heaven. Every one of you in here who
have seen Jesus Christ, to be Lord and Savior have had a revelation. It's not because you're smart.
It's not because you're educated. It's a revelation. Once I was
lost, but now I'm found. Once I was so blind, but now
I see. I actually see the Old Testament
saying somebody's coming. I see him coming in the New Testament
I see him being born of a virgin, I believe it, without an earthly
father. I see him growing up without
sin. I see him dying on the tree of the cross for me. I see him
buried. I see him rising again. I see
him ascended into heaven. And there he's my attorney, making
intercession for me. He's gonna take me to heaven. Think about how special you are.
One of my grandkids say, my life sucks. My life is really, you
know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I probably shouldn't have
said that on tape. But anyway, I say to her, man,
are you kidding me? You have a great life. She always
smiles. My friend, if you're a child
of God, I don't care how much you fail, you're very special.
In fact, you are so special that God every day watches over you
and is working everything for your good and for his glory. Oh, you're special. That's true. I know in your flesh dwells no
good thing, and you often say, what a mess, what a mess, that's
right. That is a true statement, your
flesh is a mess. It's all right to say that because
it's true. But the truth is there's a new me too. And one of these
days this old me is going to die, and I'll be through with
my flesh, but until then, In my flesh dwells no good thing,
but in that new nature is no sin. There is a new nature in
every born-again believer never sins. And you have to claim that to
get victory over the flesh. I have said since I've been standing
here talking to you, my flesh is so rotten. I mean, it just
crossed my mind. I'm rotten in my flesh. It's
true. But always, on the other hand,
I've been born of the Spirit of God. I'm a new creature in
Christ Jesus, and he that is born of God sendeth not. All right, now we get to verse
18. I say unto you, Simon Peter,
you are a little bitty pebble. You're a small stone. but I'm going to build my church.
I'm going to build my church on this huge, gigantic boulder,
your confession of who I am. The church is not built on Simon
Peter. He was not the first Pope. And if he was, you didn't have
a great leader. I mean, this guy messed up constantly. Upon this confession of yours,
Peter, I'm going to build my church. Not yours, Simon Peter. It ain't gonna be about you.
It's gonna be about me, Jesus said. I will build my church. It's all about me. I'm the one
that brings them into the church. I'm the one that adds them to
the church. I'm the one that saves them.
I'm the one that sanctifies them. I'm the one that justifies them.
I'm the one that's going to glorify them. Therefore, this is my church. It's all about Him. not you. And by the way, that's why we're
not real fancy. A lot of people say things, you
know, like, why don't you put a, why don't you do this? Why
don't you make it more? A lot of times they talk about
putting a wooden cross up there or a crucifix up there. No, let's
just Let's just make it plain, beautiful, but let's make it
plain where we see no one but Jesus Christ by faith, wounded
and bleeding, dying on the tree of the cross for us. We see that
on the inside. I will build my church. So in
Matthew 16, 13 through 17, Jesus made direct mention of this church
he was going to build. And he said, I will build my
church. It wasn't a John the Baptist church or
a Jeremiah church or Elias church. It wasn't a Catholic church,
Baptist, Methodist church. He said, it's my church. A church
made up of people who are totally committed to me. You committed
to Christ? I do know this, it's Christ alone.
It's in Christ alone I take my stand. Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God, who should come into the world. Only sinners
saved by the grace of God in Jesus Christ. There are people
to whom God the Father has revealed Christ to be the Son of the living
God. Are you a member of the church?
Say, well, you know, I used to be, but you know, actually I've
been thrown out of the church. Me too. Me too, many, many years ago,
put out of the church. Not for, you know, drinking or
using crack, but mainly for saying this, Christ is all. Don't get anything in front of
Christ. Don't be getting, look how we
name our churches. Think about it. The Church of
God. The Church of God in Christ.
The first Church of God, Pentecostal, on and on it goes. You know,
what really ought to be on our signs is this. The ecclesia meets
here. The assembly meets here. This
is not the church. This building, I mean. We are
the church. We that confess faith in Jesus
Christ, we're the church of the living God. It's true. Just look at us. Look what I'm
looking at today. And look what you're looking
at today. A sinner saved by grace. Just a little bit. I thought
all week I've been thinking about this message and I thought, okay,
I'm going to preach all the way through the book of Acts Sunday
morning. And then I got to the first chapter of the book of
Acts and I said, okay, halfway through. And then I read the
second chapter and I thought, okay, we're not going to make
it to chapter six. What an exciting thing happens with this group
of ignorant fishermen. How exciting it is. Now, let's
just get the picture. Jesus has died a horrible death. He's been spit upon. He's been
slapped. He's been beaten. He's carrying
his cross. He drops to the ground. Everybody's
deserted him. He's nailed to the cross. Beared
our sins in his own body on the tree died a horrible death buried
got up out of the grave the third day and Ascended back into heaven. That's the way the book of Acts
starts This same Jesus who's gone out from you shall so come
in like manner Jesus is coming again. What a glorious message
we have. It's not over to the fat lady
soon. I I shouldn't have said that
either, I don't know. Anyway, it's not over. It's not over. It is not, hey,
we're just in the, think about this. When you die, if you die
as a Christian, you're just in the bud stage of endless joy,
of endless happiness, absent from the body, present with the
Lord. Our future is great. We have a great future. Well,
let's start with the second chapter, the first chapter, Jesus has
ascended up into heaven, and he tells them to go to Jerusalem,
and let's notice what's happening there. Well, let's look at the
first chapter just a moment. First chapter, verse 14. These
all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication with
the women and Mary, the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. They were in one accord. They
had one message. They believed that this Jesus
who died and had ascended before them was coming back again. And
he told them to go to Jerusalem and stay there until the Holy
Spirit falls on them. And verse 15 of Acts chapter
one says, there was about 120 of them. About 120. We have about 480 here today,
or thereabouts. About 480. There was 120 of them,
and they're not very smart. I mean, they were not very educated
in that sense. And they're tearing there in
one accord. They got one thing on their mind,
the glory of Jesus Christ, the glory of God, to honor this God
who invaded history and came down. They were a small group.
Look at chapter two, and I'm gonna read a lot of verses to
you. I hope you have your Bible open. Chapter two, verse one.
And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, and they were
with one accord, There's way too much fighting going on in
local assemblies. They were in one accord. The
centrality of Jesus Christ. Listen, I have had, not because
of anything in me, but God put me onto something a long time
ago, and so many people have tried to get me off track, have
tried to get me, so much pressure, religious pressure has been put
on me to stop it. friends, family, associations,
churches. You know, you need to preach
other things than Jesus Christ. I am determined to know nothing
among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I have watched
as God has blessed and honored that message. So they were in
one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound
from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house
where they were sitting. and there appeared unto them
cloven tongues like as a fire, and it sat upon each of them."
That's exactly right, Spacey. Wow! Wow! That's what ought to be
happening in church. Wow! You know, it's an awesome
thing for God to come, for God to be in this place. You can't
be without a wow when God's around. It's always wow. And they were
all filled with the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Jesus,
and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them
utterance. Uh-oh, pastor, you got a problem
now. I don't have a problem. Notice
this, verse six. And now when this was noised
abroad, the multitude came together and were confounded. Somebody
in here ought to be confounded today. Somebody ought to be,
this is the most, this is, that's confounded. Not, I got this all figured out.
I know what he's going to do next. I know what he's going
to say. No, somebody ought to be going,
wow, wow, the spirit of God is in this place. And oh, what a
savior we have, what a redeemer, what a salvation we have. And every man, look at this verse
six, and every man heard them speak in his own tongue. You
know, sometimes when we're reading the book of Acts, we make a lot
about tongues. What about the ear? I was reading it this week. I
don't know why I haven't thought about it before, but I thought
about these foreigners who were there, something happened to
their ears. They heard with their ears and
their own tongue, their own language. I don't know exactly. I don't
know. You know, I'm not a theologian, and there's lots of stuff I don't
know. There's just lots of stuff. And I have gotten so liberal
about not knowing it all and not having all the truth. And
when somebody says to me, I want to tell you, Pastor, I had the
most miraculous experience. You know, I used to say crazy
things like, God didn't do that. or that didn't happen, now I
go, you don't say. I think that's awesome. Somebody
says, you know what? I got healed from cancer. I go,
that's wonderful. God, heal me. That's wonderful. That's awesome. It's like when
somebody has a baby and they invite me to go to the hospital
to see the baby and they want me to say it's beautiful, I always
go, wow, it's a baby. Anyway, they were all amazed and marveled. Notice that in verse seven. They
were all amazed. We shouldn't have a Sunday go
by here at Greece Gospel, except somebody leaves here, a whole
lot of us leave here going, that was amazing. What God did there,
God's presence was amazing. And they marveled. That's what
ought to be going on. Church shouldn't be boring. You
shouldn't be bored here. You ought to be like that. I
was glad when they said, let's go up to Grace Gospel Fellowship
and hear the gospel. Yes. Verse 7, behold. That's what they said, behold.
And all of you visitors with us, I hope today when you leave
here, you're going, behold. And what does it mean, church?
Luck, luck. You've heard me tell the story
about the two little boys that was flying a kite and they were
out in their backyard and they had led it up, I don't know how
many feet, but it was way up there. And this big plane came
over that carried our missiles, where they go up to the moon,
whatever, and it had it on its back. And the little guys had
been watching their kite, but when that plane came over with
that Sputnik on it, or whatever it was, they cried out, look,
look! That's what the word behold means.
Behold, look at this! Verse eight, and how hear we
every man in our own tongue? There's the word hear again.
So let's, what if you heard something? You know, sometimes we say things
like this. Sometimes people totally misunderstand what we're saying.
I don't know how many times that happens to me on a weekly basis.
Well, I thought you said, when really they thought they heard
me say this, but I wasn't saying that at all. How wonderful it
is when people have ears to hear the word of God and come to know
the gospel. Now watch this, verse 11. There
were all of these different people, verses nine through 11 says that
were there. And verse 11 says, and we do
hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God. And
they were all amazed and were in doubt. Amazed and in doubt. saying one to another, what meaneth
this? And by the way, when great things
are going on, you'll notice in the next verse, verse 13, others
mocking said, these men are drunk. These men are drunk. And I keep
telling them across the street in our meetings, you know, some
of you, I know you think I'm crazy, There is a thin line between
faith and insanity. Sometimes I say, let's do this,
and the development team goes, you know, I can see they're saying,
no, we don't want to do that, which I'll tell you some stories
here pretty soon. Verse 14, but Peter standing up with the 11
lifted up his voice and said unto them, you men of Judah,
And all ye that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you, and hearken
to my words. For these are not drunken, as
ye suppose. Be not drunk with wine, but be
ye filled with the Spirit, the book of Ephesians says. Is that
right? You know, when you are happy, people go like this. They're
drunk. They're drunk. I don't know.
They probably took a Xanax or something. I mean, they're really
up there. They're high. There's no high
like the most high. And let me tell you this. All
my life I've heard things like this. You know, you have to be
careful, Pastor Kent. You have to be careful because,
you know, You're going to let your emotions get into it. And
after all, it's not an emotional message. I tell you, my emotion
gets into, I saw one hanging on a tree, dying in my stead,
in my room, in my place. I get emotional about that. Well, the apostle Peter gets
up and he begins to preach. And verse 23 says of chapter
2, him being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge
of God. You know why the death of Christ
happened? Because it was predestinated. It was predetermined. God planned
this whole thing out. I heard an evangelist on television
several years ago, before he fell, talking about, you know,
God had to screw around and find another way to save sinners after
Adam and Eve messed up in the Garden of Eden. I tell you, that
was not true. God had this all mapped out from eternity past.
What an awesome and big God he was. Him being delivered. He was delivered by the determinant
counsel and foreknowledge of God. And you are responsible
because you have taken and by wicked hands crucified and slain
him. But all of it was in the plan
of God. When you see bad things happening, don't go like this.
God is nowhere around. Oh, he's there. And you know,
God can even think about what God took. God took the worst
that man could do. The worst that man could do is
kill the God-man, or put him on the tree of the cross, try
to put him out of business. That was the worst that man can
do. But behind the scenes, there
was a sovereign God who permitted him to be nailed to the cross
and put our sins on him, and he paid the price and set us
free. That's the God of this Bible.
He's a big God. And then the apostle Peter begins
to talk about the things that God is doing. Verse 28, thou
has made known to me the ways of life. Thou shalt make me full
of joy with thy countenance. David said, I can see the Lord.
What an awesome thing it is to be able to leave this building
and say, God was surely in that place. God was surely there. Verse 35, Peter said, we Christians
have the assurance that God is going to make our foals his footstool. Wow, every enemy's going to be
destroyed. Look at verse 41. Then they that
gladly received the word were baptized, and the same day there
were added unto them about 3,000 souls. I can get happy about
that. Boy, if we could have 3,000 people
saved this morning, wouldn't that be something? What an addition. The Oakland Press would be on
it. 3,000 make conversion at Grace Gospel Fellowship. Look
at verse 47. They were praising God and having
favor with all the people, and the Lord added to the church
daily, such as should be saved. So what we have here is three
thousands getting converted in Acts chapter two, and then multitudes
being saved and added and praising God. That's the way it ought
to be going. That's what ought to be happening.
And then you have the Armenian, the salvation by works people,
who are trying to get people saved by an act of their own
volition. And then you have the hard-shelled Baptists who say,
whatever will be, will be. We believe in predestination
here. And they keep dying. No, it is pleased God through
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. So
I preach the gospel. And I see John sitting way back
there in the back. And I think to myself, no hope
for him outside of God. I know his story. But when I
get up to preach, I'm not downhearted because I know God can go back
there where John is sitting. I just wonder if there's a John
sitting back there now. I don't know that. Where John
is sitting and fetch him out of Lodibar and out of the wilderness
of addiction and bring him to the feet of Jesus Christ and
make him a new creature. Amen. Church history, I love
church history. Let's go to chapter three. Chapter
three is just as exciting. You know, without the Spirit
of Christ, without the Holy Spirit being in the book of Acts, you
wouldn't have enough information to fill one paragraph. Because
on every chapter, every page in the book of Acts, the Holy
Spirit is in the church working to exalt Jesus Christ. By the
way, we talk about the Holy Spirit a lot, but remember this. Jesus
said this, I'm going away, but I will be with you. Now that
doesn't make any sense in John 14 and 15. I'm gonna go away.
I'm gonna leave you guys, but I'll be here with you for I will
send the Comforter. Oh, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of Christ. He's here today. I know he's
here. I sense he's here. He's with
us here today. And so that's what happened.
Well, let's look at chapter three. Here's where a lame man from
birth is healed. He's been begging since birth. I mean, they've been bringing
him there and sitting him down, carrying him there. Well, let's
read verse one. Now, Peter and John went up together
into the temple at the hour of prayer, being the ninth hour,
and a certain man, not just any man, this was a particular man,
this had been planned for this guy from eternity. A certain
man. How wonderful it is in scripture
to see, and there was a certain woman with an issue of blood
who came seeking Jesus. She'd tried all the doctors,
but this certain woman in the gospels you'll read. Or there
was a certain man up a tree, a sycamore tree. He was a wee little man and he
was up a tree. And Jesus stopped by and he got
up in the sycamore tree. I'm way off my notes now. He
was way up a sycamore tree to see the Lord because he was a
short guy. And that's why all the bark is
off of the sycamore trees because Jesus stopped at, not really,
stopped at that sycamore tree and looked up and saw a man that
had never seen Jesus. But Jesus saw him from all eternity. His name was written in the Lamb's
Book of Life before the foundation of the world. And Jesus said,
Zacchaeus, you come down, I've got to be at your house today.
And Zacchaeus got saved. Certain man, you'll find that
throughout the Gospels when you're reading your Bible. A certain
man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily
at the gate of the temple, which is called beautiful to ask alms
of them that enter. And Peter, there he is again.
This old boy was into everything. And Simon Peter, verse four,
fastening his eyes upon him with John, said, look on us. It would be
like me going up to space like this. Look at me. Look at this. And he gave heed
unto them, expecting to receive something. You ever asked for
something and got something other than what you were asking for?
This boy did that. He thought he was gonna get some
silver or gold. Then verse six, then Peter said, silver and gold
have I none, but such as I have, I give thee. In the name of Jesus
of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the right
hand and lifted him up. And immediately his feet and
ankle bones received strength. Isn't that something? Amen. Isn't that something? I wanna assure you this. By the
way, verse eight says, and he leaping up stood. and walked
and entered with them into the temple, walking and leaping and
praising God. Walking and leaping and praising
God. You heard me tell this joke many
times, those of you who've been around me for 50 years, about
the old boy that got saved. I mean, he was a desperate character. He came to know Christ, and he
sought out a church, and he went to a church in downtown one of
the cities. And he wasn't well-dressed at
all, and he got to amen in the pastor as he preached. I mean,
amen, amen. And one of the ushers, tapped
him on the shoulder and said, you've got to be quiet. And the
old boy goes, but I got the spirit. And the deacon said, the usher
said, I don't care what you got, you didn't get it here. That
can be true in many churches. Amen. shouting and praising God. And look at verse 10. And they
knew that it was he which set for alms at the beautiful gate
of the temple. They knew that this guy had once
been a heroin addict. That's not what he says. But
that's kind of what it would be like. And they were filled with wonder
and amazement. It's not one o'clock. Didn't
run the clock back, guys. So it's two minutes after. But
are you getting the gist of what ought to happen in God's house?
when the Spirit of God is here working and doing. And by the
way, I say this all the time now, the only hope for a heroin
addict is Jesus Christ. The only hope for any sinner
is Jesus Christ. But this heroin demon has been
taking over. The hope is in Jesus Christ and
those who come to know him being hooked up in a local community
where God is constantly doing things. Awesome. Well, chapter four is an awesome
chapter too. Peter filled with the Holy Spirit
began to preach and awesome things happened there. And they arrested
the apostles. They arrested them and put them
in jail. And the Bible says that the angel
of the Lord, this is chapter five, verse 17, the angel of
the Lord came down. I mean, they threatened them.
They arrested them and threatened them and put them in prison.
And the angel of the Lord came down and brought them out of
prison. But it wasn't an ordinary bring
you out of prison. Somebody came to the authorities
and said, hey, you know those guys you arrested and put in
jail? They're over there across town preaching. So the officials run back to
the prison and there's the guards standing by the cell. The cell
doors are all shut. There is no evidence that anybody
has left. Now that's a real jail break.
Everything is normal, except there's no prisoners in the shell. The angel of the Lord came. Well,
that can't happen. Oh, you'd be surprised what can
happen in the power of the Spirit of God when he comes down on
his church. And verse 12 of chapter five
says, many signs and wonders, and believers the more were added
to the Lord. Multitudes, both men and women. My, this church grew. Multitudes. 5,000 were converted. 3,000 was
converted. Multitudes were converted. That's
what I want to see here. Well, pastor, you know, 2017,
18, I want to tell you some of the things, and then I'll let
you go. That's just chapter five. I mean,
I can go on and go on, but you read the book of Acts. It's always
wonders, miracles, signs. God, somehow or another, people
ought to be convinced that God is here, that God is here. Who was it, Ananias and Sapphira?
Came in and they were making a collection and those two people
lied. You know, if we had two or three people die here this
morning, killed by the Holy Spirit, and we got a little advertising. You say, oh, pastor, you shouldn't
say things like that. That's what happened in the book
of Acts. They came in and lied to the apostle Peter, and the
Spirit of God said, tell them in just a few minutes, they're
going to be carrying you out of here feet first. And that's what happened. And
I know some of you are going, that's not, that's, yeah, no,
no. A spirit of fear would fall on
this place. You see, there's not this seriousness. You know what I think every time
I get up to preach? Here's what I think. This is
God's operating room. I'm dealing with people who are
gonna go to heaven or hell. And I'm doing surgery. And I'm
doing surgery. I'm operating on my friends.
Some of you are as lost as can be, and some of you over there
I see, or out on the street somewhere I see, and you hug me and I say
hello, and you're as lost as you can be without Christ. and
every day I'm operating on you. I've got my phone this morning
is filled with craziness from addicts writing me, just wanting
to get back in and get a meal and get out of the rain. And you can tell they're lying
through their teeth. That's all they want. They're
not wanting to get off of heroin. It's it's to use us and then
get in and make a run for it for a few days. You're gonna
perish in your sins Come to Jesus Christ. I told a group a big
company I wanted to bring that because I wanted to tell you
that you guys wait just a minute up there United Shore they're moving into
Pontiac and And I went to a little reception a couple weeks ago
downtown here, and the president was there, and vice president
of this company. They have 1,600 employees that
are moving into the old theater thing out here on Updike, where
they had the movie production deal. They're moving in. And
I said, you ought to come out. You just, you ought to come out
and visit us and see what we're doing out there. And so the vice
president said, I will be there. He didn't show up, but he sent
two assistants. And I noticed, and it was a wonderful
visit, this person's title is chief people officer. That's us, chief people, we're
people, officer. I never heard of a chief people
officer. Anyway, it was a wonderful visit.
Two of their officials went through and the one chief people person said, I went to school with your
daughters. I went to Athens High School.
I never knew about this. This is wonderful. Her sister
OD'd and died. I know God brought that person
to us. I know that. I know something's
right. So here's kind of how my day
goes. I want you to think about this. You know, we're not an
$8 million church. We're not. We're just not, look at us. So,
Paul DeGreek is our business manager over there. He makes
our budget out and spends months going through that through that
budget. So Monday he called me and he
goes, Pastor, we got a deficit budget. And this coming Thursday
night, we have a board meeting of members of the board over
there. And he and Paul and I talked. And I said, well, you know, there's
no such thing as a deficit budget. You can't present to people a
deficit. Only the federal government can do that. They're the only
ones that have it. There's no such thing as a deficit
budget. How are you gonna budget? You
gotta, anyway. He said, well, in order not to
present that, you're gonna, you need $150,000 by Thursday. Okay,
okay. The Wednesday night crowd's already
heard this. So I was in prayer and usually I tell the Lord and
Miss Pam, we're in trouble. to bear the burden, and we were
praying about it, she and I. So I wrote an email to a person
on Monday afternoon. On Tuesday night, we went to
bed about 10 o'clock, and I checked my email a little before that,
and the person I wrote the email to said, of course I'll give
you $150,000. Now, I don't get many emails
exactly like that, but that's exactly what happened. And she
said something like this to me, well, you were bold enough to
ask, the Lord's put it on my heart to ask this person to help
us too. So I go like this, no, it's already
late, don't do that, it's already late, let's wait. But she's a
pretty determined gal. Anyway, she said, no, I'm gonna
do it, I'm gonna do it right now, I want you to read it over,
make sure it's right. So I did, and she went, and it went through. And I would say within 90 seconds,
maybe a little more than that, Came back, this woman said, I'll
give you 50,000. Now, it's not, I just want you
to see this, please see this. I'm lying flat on my back beside
the blonde. And we just asked, we didn't
ask for 200,000. But we got $200,000 flat on our
back. That's a God thing happening
there. That's what's happening. Now they won't like this over
there, but some of them, they won't be too angry about it.
But I said, we're going to have to Tilly in here and we're going
to have these orphan kids here. Too much going on in November,
December, pastor, you can't do that. Well, usually when I get
upset, I kind of put my glasses down like this. I said, oh, we're
going to do that. Oh, oh, oh, oh, we're going to
do it. Well, where are you going to
get the $10,000 or whatever it's going to take to do that? Same place everything else comes
from, from the Lord. So if you get a text from me,
grab your wallet, hide it. So I text this person, and I
said, you know, I need $5,000 to have these kids here. And
I would love to have you and your wife and family come, blah,
blah, blah. And he wrote back. Pastor, I'll give you $10,000
to have the kids there. I kind of pulled a ploy on y'all
earlier because I wanted to tell you this story. I want to tell you folks, you
may not believe in God. You may not believe in the power
of the spirit of God. You may not, you may believe
here that miracles are over, but I just had two Tuesday night,
$200,000. What kind of, and then on top
of that 10, $210,000. Amen. Thank you. Amen. That's, that's miracle. And just
so you know, if you've got a heroin addict daughter or son, you're
here with us today, mom and dad, you need a miracle for those
babies of yours. And they may be 25, 30, 40 years
old. I don't know. But If they're on heroin, they're
going to die if they continue to go that way. Life is going
to be a total wreck. And let me just say that I always
try to balance this. If you're here and a goody two-shoe
church person And you think you can go to heaven
by giving $210,000. You will surely perish. Salvation is through the blood
of Christ. And you are a sinner in need
of Christ. So what I want our church to
be is like this. And I won't have to push you
to tell people. It'll be like this. You hear
what happened to Pastor Clark and Miss Pam? They were flat
on their backs on Tuesday night, and God sent them $210,000. That's
a story to tell. I'm glad I have this. Miss Pam
used to say to me, you keep telling the same old
stories. You need some new stories. And I really did. Listen. Here lately, I've got all kinds
of stories. So I didn't think you believe
in signs and wonders. My whole life, what is going
on here is filled with the wonders of God and for one reason. And I'm gonna tell you this too.
I think about this real often. Don't unbalance what's going
on here, Ken. You're preaching the gospel.
It's simple and plain what you preach. People know what they're
going to hear before they come. Watch getting too big for your
britches. Watch being fancy. Live by faith and not by sight,
and God will do great and awesome things. Amen. Let's stand and
praise our God.