Morning. As a reminder, there's
a whole bunch of tangelos or mandrainians in the back. A bunch of them. Everybody take
a bag when you go. I can't compost that many. Chickens
won't eat. Mike and Karen made it to Texas
Friday evening. I was thankful I'd go through
some snow in Albuquerque. but they made it there fine, so Lord
willing, they'll be back with us here in a couple weeks. If
you will, let's turn to John 14. I just couldn't, couldn't
get this off my heart this week, and we'll do part two for Wednesday
here. John 14. I titled this The Works, The
Works, I was gonna say The Works of the Apostles. And that sounded
so weird to me. I don't feel right, does it? The works of the apostles. But
you know, we have a whole book in the scriptures called the
Acts of the Apostles. We're going to look at that quite
a bit. Remember from Wednesday, Whenever we read a passage of
scripture, we quote things so often and just flippantly and
off the cuff. And we don't grasp the context
of what was being said or who was speaking or, uh, as for me
and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. Yeah, well, that
was God speaking. That quote hadn't ended yet.
We need to know the context. We know who's speaking to whom
they're speaking and what's the subject. And we remember here
in John 14. He's saying, you remember that
Christ is God, the Lord speaking to his 11 apostles. You remember
Christ is, I'm God, I'm being a father of one. You remember
his words. Remember what's written of old, in the Old Testament,
and what I've said to you here in the flesh as he speaks to
the apostles. And he said, you remember my works. You remember
what I've done. Here in verse eight, John 14,
eight. Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and
hit Cephas, Cephas us. It'll do. You just do what we
want, and that'll make me happy. Jesus says unto him, have I been
so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou then,
show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak
unto you, I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth
in me, he doeth the works. This work of God speaking to
you, he's doing that. Believe me and I'm in the father
and the father in me or else believe me for the very works
sake. Believe who I am. Believe the
words that I tell you and believe what I've done. Here's our text. Lord willing, we'll look at verse
13, 14 Wednesday, verse 12, John 14, 12. Barely, barely. Truly, truly, of a truth. I say
unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do, shall
he do also. And greater works than these
shall he do, because I go unto my father. Maybe next Sunday,
we'll look at the first half. He says, truly, truly, I say
unto you, who's talking? The Lord is. He says, this is
true, I'm telling you. He that believes on me, that's
whosoever. You believe on him? The works
that I do shall he do also. What I do, that's what you're
gonna do. The father will attest to it. Back in John six, we read,
they said unto him, what shall we do that we might work, singular,
the works of God, the plural works of God. And Jesus answered,
said unto him, this is the work of God, that ye believe on him
whom he hath sent. Believe on the son. And if you
believe on him, you've done the works that he's done. How's that? That's called substitution. Substitution. Believe on him for all. I hope
this will stick with you. A double L. All. My conception. I was conceived
in sin. I'm from Adam. I was conceived
in Christ. His conception's what mine is.
His life on this earth. His death on this earth. His
burial. His resurrection. That's mine.
That's my conception, my life, my death, my burial, my resurrection,
my eternity past, my eternity present, and my eternity future.
All of it. The Father looks at me and sees
Him. You get that? I might be a pinky finger, I
might be a bright ingrown hair or something, but the head's
part of the body. He sees my head. Christ is my
head. He's all. No one will ever do a greater
work, singular, than the Lord Jesus Christ did. That ain't
happening. No greater love exists than the
man lay down his life for his friends. He's our friend. He's
closer than a brother. He laid down his life for the
sheep. He's the good shepherd. He's the only one that could.
He's the only one that had the power to lay it down and take it back up again.
Nobody can do a greater work than he can do, but we will do
his works. That's amazing, isn't it? In
our oneness in the eyes of the father, he sees Christ alone
when he looks at us, but we're in this world, ain't you? I am.
And in this life, his people will do his works. You won't
think of it. If you attest that you do it,
you ain't doing it. You get that? People say, well, I'm following
the word of God. No, you ain't. Right there's proof you ain't.
I've heard some people say they ain't qualified to preach and
they gave me the reasons. I was like, the reasons you gave me,
that's, you think that's what that means? That's the proof
you ain't qualified to preach. Not what that law says. Oh, buddy. We're going to do the works of
the Lord here because to live is Christ. For me to live is
Christ. And for me to die is gain, right? Him in me. We won't
think of it because it's the instinct of the new creation.
The king's gonna say to them on his right hand, come, ye blessed
of my father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me meat. I was thirsty,
you gave me drink. I was a stranger, you took me in. Naked, you clothed
me. I was sick, you come visited
me. I was in prison, you came to me. And then the righteous
shall answer him. Those made righteous. Those whose last name's the Lord,
our righteousness. They're gonna say, Lord, when
did I ever see you hungry? I never saw you naked or thirsty,
and I didn't give you drink. When did I see you as a stranger?
I never saw you as a stranger took you in. I never saw you
naked or clothed you. I never saw you sick. I never saw you
in prison. I didn't come to you. What in the world are you talking
about? And the king shall answer unto them, Verily I say unto
you, truly, inasmuch as ye have done it, you know these words,
don't you? Unto the least of these my brethren, you've done
it unto me. That's what he says, wasn't it?
Let me ask you a question with that. That's what he said. You
think it's important for believers to be around other believers? Buddy, that's important, isn't
it? Our text here in verse 12 says,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the
works that I do, he shall do also, and greater works than
these shall he do, because I go unto my father. These apostles. This, I haven't seen as much
on this side of the country, but it's in this nation and you
may travel to another side of the country, I don't know. But
these apostles were given gifts that you and I have not been
given. Then, there's no apostles now, that needs said. They're
heretics. And there's programs in this
nation that are heretical, and I chose my words carefully. They're
not an error. It's heresy that are broadcasting
just lies and it wounds God's people. But these apostles, they
were given gifts you and I don't have. We're not given. They could
perform miracles. Why? For the furtherance of the
gospel. so people would believe. These
apostolic gifts, they were given to confirm who they were so people
would hear their message. Those people back then, they
didn't have Bibles. The mass production of the written word
was not there. Gutenberg hadn't invented the
printing press yet. God hadn't gave us Gutenberg yet. They didn't
have Bibles. They were poor folks. And those
Bereans, they did have a copy of the Old Testament. They went
and looked at it after service was over. Let's go read this.
But they only had the Old Testament. The New Testament hadn't been
written yet. It was taking place, wasn't it? The synagogues, they
had a copy, but you couldn't see that. Y'all, the laity, we're
the clergy. Bad, isn't it? And there were
a ton of charlatans too. This is why they had gifts, just
the same as in our day. They said they spoke on behalf
of God. There's a whole lot of people
all over this world saying we preach the gospel. Do you? Really? Oh, really? We can prove
it. Isn't that what John told us
in 1 John, remember? Try the spirits, see if they
have God. That don't mean go out and have a seance and some
witchcraft junk. That ain't what that says. You're
saying something and that ain't what that says. It ain't right. We prove it. A ton of charlatans
in our day saying we preach the gospel. And same back then. And
these men had to be proven of God to the hearers. The Lord
gave them something and said, listen. So the Lord equipped
these men. He called them in person. He taught them in person.
And he gave them the ability to perform miracles, to get a
hearing, not a seeing, not to perform a show, say in a traveling
circus, but for people to hear them, hear them. And not that
they stood up and said some phrase, like hear the word of God. These were men, normal men, like
you are, like I am, human beings, isn't it? And the Lord made somebody
listen to him. Miraculous. That's a miracle,
God said so. The poor had the gospel preached
to him, it's a miracle, he said it. Now the Lord tells them,
I'm gonna go to the Father. You've had these miracles, this
whole time you've been walking with me, you can go out and do
these things, but now I'm leaving, what would you think? I thought
the same thing, I'd think the same thing as these apostles.
Well, there goes my gifts. There goes my gifts. They were excited
about these things. These things were important to
them. Remember when they went out preaching? The Lord sent them. And the 70
returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject through
thy name. They're subject to us through
your name. We'll get to the praying in his
name next week. And he said, I behold Satan falling
as light from heaven. He said, I give the power to
tread on serpents and scorpions and power over the enemy, but
nothing, nothing's going to hurt you. But with notwithstanding,
don't rejoice in that. Just cause you can cast out demons
and you can heal the sick and stuff. Don't you rejoice in that,
that they're subject to you, but rather you rejoice that your
name is written in heaven. That's what you be happy. Don't
be happy with what you can do. Be happy. You know me and I know
you. That's what you rejoice in. The Lord's comforting his
apostles here that those gifts are gonna remain. Why? Why are
they gonna keep these gifts? So the gospel can be preached,
the furtherance of the gospel. And you know, any gifts we have,
and I don't wanna get too far ahead of myself, any gifts we
have in our day, do you know why you have that? For the furtherance
of the gospel, not to be hauled up in some cave somewhere. Lord made me a tool, he's gonna
use it. He's a skilled carpenter, isn't
he? He's going to use it for his workmanship, for the body,
isn't it? It's for the gospel sake. The
healing that they could do, the speaking in tongues, and this
is huge where I'm from, that miracle at Pentecost, they stood
up and preached, and if you spoke English, French, Arabic, whatever,
you heard it in your language. That's what happened. That was
a miracle of the gift of tongues in that time. They didn't have
time to go to a missionary language institute and spend three years
learning Arabic or learning French or whatever. They didn't have
time. They had to get to preaching. They had something more important
to do. They spoke as the oracles of God. They didn't have time
to be fooling around with these trivial things. And so the Lord
said, well, when you speak, people just hear you in whatever language
they speak. That's what he gave to them. And it said they were
all amazed, marveled. They're in Acts 2, Psalm 100,
behold, are not these that speak Galileans? We know, I can tell
by their accent, maybe they had accent. How is every man hearing
their own tongue, wherein we were born? And listen, all these
different places they was from. And they said, we do hear them
speak in our own language. We hear them speak in our own
tongue. What, what did they speak? Was that it, did it stop there?
Oh, they could, Quote a movie. No, no, no. The Wonderful Works
of God. They could do that. They could
speak, and everybody hearing their own language. But they was hearing
the wonderful works of God. That's what these men were preaching.
They didn't have time to learn these languages, so the Lord
gave the gifts. He confirmed that they were His, so these
people would hear Him. And the Lord says, hear greater
works than these shall he do. They could work on the blind.
Give them sight. They could work on the deaf and
the deaf folks could hear, couldn't they? But what's greater than
these physical healings? That's spiritual sight. Is that
better than physical sight? I told somebody that was blind
at one time, I said, you need spiritual eyes before you need
physical eyes. Them physical eyes are going to go in a grave
one day. Boy, I got mad. I said, no, I don't. I said, yeah, you do. We need
spiritual ears to hear these things. hear this gospel, hear
the wonderful works of God. Turn over to Acts chapter three. Went the wrong way, to the right.
Acts chapter three, the acts of the apostles. You turn to
Acts three and I'll tell you a couple other ones we can look
up later. There in Acts four, there was a couple of commercial
fishermen. And there's been scholars that said that was an elegant
and elite job for the top 1%. No, that's commercial fishermen.
Ain't no different nowadays. They were commercial fishermen
and they went to go preach to doctors and to lawyers and to
politicians and theologians and Bible scholars. And they saw the boldness of
Peter and John. And they perceived that they were unlearned and
ignorant men. They didn't, I can tell by the
way they talk, they didn't go to the same institutions we went to, but
they marveled. They marveled. And they took
knowledge of them that they'd been with Jesus. You didn't even learn any shape
letters. You don't know how to read and write. How can you tell me what
that means? You mean Jacob wasn't just in
a wrestling match? I thought he was learning taekwondo
or something. How'd they know these things?
That was miraculous, wasn't it? They were learned and skillful
with profanity. I love it from a movie. It says, in the heat
of battle, my father wove a tapestry of obscenities. That's what they
were skillful at. They could cuss them real good.
And these was ruffians, ruffians. You wouldn't want to sit next
to them on a bus. And if you caught them in a back
alley, they'd beat you up. Here they were in front of just
the highest of societies. You want me to tell you what
God says? Here's what this means. You didn't clean wrong. You don't
even know. God gave him a hearing. That's miraculous, isn't it?
Why? We have this treasure in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and
not of us. Is that what the word says? God had to do that, didn't he?
In Acts 5, Peter, he not only raised a little dead girl like
our Lord did, but Ananias and Sapphira, they lied to him. They
lied to the church, didn't they? And they both died at his feet.
He said, you saw your husband got carried out of here? There's
a door that will come carry you out. And poof, she hit the ground,
gave up the ghost. She died right then. What for? Great fear came upon all the
church and upon as many as heard these things. They had to prove,
the Lord gave them these things to prove that they were of God.
We need to prove to us too. In Acts 28, Paul was shipwrecked
on Malta. He got bit by a snake, a venomous
snake. And those barbarians, they looked on just waiting for
him to die. They said, ain't nobody lives if you get bit by
that thing. And he just shook it off in the fire and went back
to eating supper. Did y'all want some biscuits? We got some sardines. They thought he was a little
G God. And he said, I'm not God, but I'll tell you who he is.
Sit down. Pull up a stone by this fire. I'll tell you about
it. All of these works were not so people would be taken up with
Paul and Peter and John, and that they would worship these
men, but that they would hear the gospel preached. There have
been some men in our day, and you know them, that are great
orators and great storytellers, and people get taken up with
the man. instead of the message. That's a sad thing. The Lord
didn't give us these 11 to come, Paul, born out of due time, that
they would be worshiped and celebrities, but that the gospel would be
heard. In Acts 3, verse 11, John had healed a lame person, lame
man. Acts 3, 11, and as the lame man
which was healed held Peter and John, he grabbed a hold of them. Ooh, I can walk, I ain't letting
go. Like Jacob, I ain't letting go either. He wanted to be close
to his brethren. And all the people ran together,
they all knew his name, unto them at the porch that is called
Solomon's, greatly wondering, they said, what happened? And
when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, ye men of Israel,
why marvel ye at this? Or why you look so earnestly
on us? Why are you looking at me and
John? As though by our own power or holiness, we had made this
man to walk. You think there's something in
me that's important? Quit looking at me and look to
him. Those men were sin of God. These
men are sin of God because they immediately turned the focus
from themselves to the Lord. And I hope I can turn your focus
from yourself to the Lord. Well, you know what I've done?
I don't care. You know what he's done. He said, we didn't have
anything to do with this. What'd he tell them then? Verse
13, the God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of
our fathers hath glorified his son, Jesus. That's who did this, that's what
this is for, the glory of Christ, isn't it? Whom you delivered
up and denied him in the presence of Pilate when he was determined
to let him go, but you denied the holy one and the just and
desired a murderer to be granted unto you and killed the prince
of life whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are
witnesses. And his name through faith in
his name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know. Yea, the
faith which is by him hath given him this perfect soundness in
the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I want that
through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But
those things which God before hath showed you by the mouth
of all his prophets, that word, remember us looking at that,
believe my words, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. His works have come to pass.
Repent ye therefore. Repent, be converted, that your
sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall
come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Jesus
Christ, which before was preached unto you, whom the heaven must
receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God has
spoken by his mouth of his holy prophets since the world began.
These things of all this person, this work, this word of his. Repent, believe him. And he just
kept preaching Christ, didn't he? You forgot about that lame
fellow he just healed? You see why these men were given
gifts? Do you understand that? Some may not know that. Some
people may have never heard this. This is why the Lord gave them
these gifts. I'm just reminding you. I'm a
remembrancer. We're going to remember what
the Lord said, isn't it? The people there, they needed
to believe that these apostles were sent of God. And you and
I do too. If we don't believe that these
were God's men, that these holy men of old, as spake as they
were moved, and God the Holy Spirit worked in them, throw
away what they wrote. Get rid of it. Because you don't believe
them. You don't believe them. These
particular gifts, are they needed in our day? No. No, we have some gifts. The Lord
gave us things and abilities and understanding, but these
apostolic gifts, these powers of laying on of hands and raising
the dead, healing the sick and all that stuff. No, it's pageantry.
It's witchcraft and it's a lie. It ain't so. We don't need it.
I can tell you why. Turn over to 2 Peter 1. I'm going
to show you why. 2 Peter 1. Here in 2 Peter 1, 19, Peter
was saying that he was on that Mount of Transfiguration. That Shekinah glory was in front
of him. They slept through half of it. Different parts, sitting
in the garden, they slept through it. He was there, he saw God,
saw Christ. And he says in verse 19, we have
also a more sure word of prophecy. I can tell you about these things.
But we have something more sure. Where unto you do well that you
take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place until
the day dawn, and a day star arises in your hearts, knowing
this first, that no prophecy of the scriptures is of any private
interpretation. For the prophecy came not in
old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as
they were moved by the Holy Ghost. What is he talking about? Why
don't we need these apostolic gifts? Go on any drugstore in
America, or go on your phone, or on your Kindle, or on whatever,
and even download a King James Version like that. Google it.
Right there it is. This is the Word of God that
declares the person and the works of God. A hymn book from one
end to another. Right there it is. How do we
treat it? Omar Rees said that one time.
How you treat the Word of God is how you treat God. Is this
the most valuable possession you have? You know, at various
times I thought, boy, if I have hard copies of commentaries there
in the office in case we lose power for an extended period
of time, I could study and all those things, I'd be fine. I
need this. Commentaries are handy. I don't need commentary. I don't
need what Spurgeon said. I need what God said. If he's
pleased to give me a word for you, That's he's the one thing
needful, isn't it? We have this word right here.
God gives us faith by hearing the gospel. That's how faith
comes by hearing. I was pointing to my ear. You
gotta hear it face to face. We hear the person. We hear the
words. We hear the works of Christ. Whatever he said, do you believe
him? Did Peter said that? Do you think he's telling the
truth? With the faith comes obedience.
And you're not going to do a greater work than him, but you're going
to do more works. How so? Longer. That's one thing,
isn't it? The Lord preached for three and
a half years out of earthly ministry. We've been preaching for 2,000
years ever since. Let me tell you, same thing,
same old story. Rehearse it, don't we? Our works
now are the gifts of the spirit. I don't have to heal the dead
folks. I've seen dead people come alive.
I've seen people that had no eyes to see Christ in his word,
and then they have eyes to see. That's what that means. Yeah.
Like a Hummingbird's beautiful. You think that's pretty? Let
me show you something here. They have ears to hear, they have
hearts to understand and love the brethren. and clothing when
they're naked, and all those things, right? Feed them and
hunger them, visit them in prison. We're gonna have some brethren
in prison, you get that? He said, I'm gonna give you faith,
I'll command it in you, and you will be obedient, and I'll make
so, and I'll see it to the end, but you're gonna ask me to do
it. Isn't that what faith does? Lord, help. I believe, help my
unbelief. Two more things will be done,
I'll hurry. Galatians 5. I went too long Wednesday, so
I gotta make up for it here. Galatians 5. Remember from, Lord
said, believe me, I am. He's the great I am. And he said,
believe my words and believe my works, right? Verse 19, Galatians
5, 19. Now the works of the flesh, It's
talking about the works at Galatians 5, 19. The works of the flesh
are manifest, which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness,
lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations,
wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness,
reveling, and such like, of the which I tell you before, and
have also told you in time past, that they which do such things
shall not inherit the kingdom of God, but the fruit of the
spirit, the works of the spirit." That's the works of the flesh,
right? We know those things. Well, if we could see the spiritual
meanings of each of those. We understand that drunkenness
ain't from Jack Daniels, it's from the wine of Babylon. Those
things are the works of the flesh. Here's the works of the Spirit.
Here's the fruit of the Spirit. Here's the works that you're
going to do if you're a child of God. And you can't keep from
it and you won't know you're doing it. You'll see it in your
brethren and you won't see it in you. These are the works of
the Spirit. Verse 22, but the fruit of the
Spirit is love. That's the first one. Joy, peace,
long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
against such there is no law. Do it all you want. How many
times do I have to forgive? Seven times a day? Do it all
you want. Many times as you can. And they that are Christ have
crucified the flesh with the affections and lust. If we live
in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit. If the spirit's
worked in us, let that, Lord, that's our prayer, isn't it?
Let your work be done. Let Christ live in me. Let me
be an example for the furtherance of the gospel. That's what it
was for in old times. And what's it for now? What's
it for now? The furtherance of the gospel.
Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another,
envying one another. Don't be envious of somebody.
There's people have a whole lot more love than I have, a whole
lot more compassion. There's people that's a whole
lot more long suffering than I have. And I don't envy them. I don't
want them not to have that because I don't have it. I want to have
it. Teach me. How did you do that? I want to
do that. I have a desire for that, isn't it? Why? Just so people could say, boy,
Kevin's a nice fella for the furtherance of the gospel. That's
what the gift apostolic gifts for them. And these are the gifts
for us for the presence of the gospel. I can prove it to you.
The gifts of the apostles that was to add to the church, the
presence of the gospel. Now let's look at ours back in acts two.
Acts chapter two. These works that we have love,
joy, peace, long suffering, all those. Acts two 42. Acts 2, 42. 41, I guess. We'll look at verse 41. Then
they that gladly received his word were baptized. They believed
him and they obeyed him in believers baptism. And the same day they
were added unto them about 3,000 souls. 3,000 souls. Verse 42. And they continued
steadfastly in the apostles doctrine. They attended the preaching of
the gospel, and in fellowship, and in breaking of bread. They
ate together, but they observed the Lord's table, didn't they?
And in prayers, they prayed together. They prayed together. Somebody
prayed for me yesterday. And I said, thank you, keep at it. I'll pray for you, you pray for
me. You think those sheep alone need somebody to pray for them? See the necessity? that continued
in prayers, verse 43. And fear came upon every soul,
honor, respect for the Lord. And many wonders and signs were
done by the apostles. They had those works, didn't
they? And they saw those. And all that
believed were together and had all things in common. And they
sold their possessions and goods and parted them to all men as
every man had needs. Does that mean we live in some
commune or something? No. You got everything in common?
You a sinner? Is Christ your only hope? Is
he only wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption? Is
he it? It's him or nothing. And he's
all. And I ain't worth anything. Is
that you? We got that in common. He showed us that. He's taught
us that. His word says so and he's worked that in your heart.
And they continued, verse 46, and they continuing daily with
one accord in the temple, And breaking bread from house to
house did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart.
There was joy, love, peace, long-suffering. Verse 47, praising God and having
favor with all the people. I'm mad at that gas station attendant.
Why? Lord saved me. I ain't mad at
him. Somebody pulled in front of him, yeah, he'd be all right.
Got to wait in a red light, that's okay. They had favor with all
men, didn't they? That's a gift. Do you think it's
a gift to praise God? Do you think it's a gift to live
as a person that believes God in this nation, in this heathen
nation, in this barren wasteland that we live in right now? This
desert? That's a gift, isn't it? The
Lord gave that to us. And the Lord added to the church
daily it should be saved. We looked at that before. How
is the Lord going to add to his church daily? Through the gifts
he's given you. What about our other gifts, not
just these, our other talents? Thomas, you speak in tongues,
did you know that? I can say something in English and Thomas
can tell you what it is in Spanish. He can translate, Paul's pretty
clear to the letter of Corinth too. He can translate, the Lord
gave him that ability. God gave you that gift. Some
people have a gift of business and they work as unto the Lord.
Some people have an operative trade. For the buildings that
we made in, we got that building in New Jersey, man, and it needed
a facelift and then some. Carpet walls, ceilings, everything
had to be done. And everybody that was there,
someone was skilled in what was needed. The Lord had equipped
somebody previously, gave them the gift to be able to take down
popcorn ceiling or whatever it was. They knew how to do tile
work or something. Everything that was needed for
that remodel, right there it was. And then all of a sudden,
they changed the code on us. We needed a fire system. Well,
you know what? The Lord has a man there that
owns a fire sprinkler company. How about that, huh? Who'd have
thunk it? The Lord did that. He gave that
gift. We was getting ready to have a conference in the hottest
weekend of the summer of the year. Every year, it's always
the hottest. That sets the record that day. And we was getting
ready to have our conference, and a week before, guess what? The air conditioner
went down. I was there. The Lord put me
through HVAC school. I had a business. And you know
what? My partners, they pitched in for that. They said, oh, we'll
take care of it. They don't have to pay nothing.
Why? Abimelech told Abraham, he said, God's with thee in all
that thou doest. Didn't he? They said, I may not
go to church with you, but it's pretty obvious you're God's man.
These works, you're just too kind and you don't do things
the way other people do. You're peculiar. You know that?
You're a peculiar person. You're different, but we'll pitch
in. We'll pitch in. I hope someday that thing runs
out of freon. They gotta go fill it up. God may save them, huh?
For the furtherance of his gospel. Wouldn't that be something? Lord
giving us these gifts. I hope he pray makes us use them
for his benefit. That'd be for our benefit too,
but for the body, isn't it? That's pretty good. Father, thank
you for this. Thank you for the gifts you've
given these apostles, Lord, to prove they were of you so we
can believe that their word is just your word. They said what you said, Lord,
what a miraculous thing. Thus saith the Lord. We know
it's your power to equip sinful men to say such wonderful things.
Make that the focus of our hearts, Lord, the furtherance of this
gospel, the glory of Christ, his person, his words and his
works. Give us that desire, Lord, enable
us and keep us in this sinful world. We're so prone to turn
to tell us time to go home. You've promised these things,
Lord, we believe, but help our unbelief. Thank you for this
hour. Be with those that aren't with
us and those that are struggling, Lord,
in the trials. Teach them. Draw them near. It's in Christ's name that we
ask it. Amen.