Launch Night 2

Well, it's such a privilege to be here. Thank you all for having me. And I believe the Lord has a word for us tonight. And as Pastor Jay was speaking, my heart actually in the back began to be stirred for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, in my own life, in my own life. How many of you think repentance is a good thing? Well, we need to get better at telling ourselves to repent than telling others to repent. We should tell others, but only if we're repenting. And it's really easy to say the church needs a fresh baptism of the Spirit, and forget that we need a fresh baptism of the Holy Spirit. All right. Would you take your Bibles to John chapter 14, and just mark that. We're gonna work through a good portion of the chapter. We're gonna begin in verse 15. Holy Spirit, teach us and sear the face of Jesus upon our hearts. And may your word be like a fire inside of us. In Jesus' name, amen. If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another helper, that he may abide with you forever. Say forever. Forever. The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive,

because it neither sees him, nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you, and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans, I will come to you. You don't mind if I read a ton of scripture while preaching the word, do you? Okay, just making sure. A little while longer, and the world will see me no more. But you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day, you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Wow. He who has my commandments, and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me, will be loved by my Father. And I will love him, and manifest myself to him. Judas, I love this. New King James puts in parentheses, not Iscariot. Isn't that funny? That's funny. There was PR back then, too. Not Iscariot. I don't know. It just sounds so proper in a social media age to say that. Not Iscariot, okay. You know, I'm Pentecostal, but not like them, okay. Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world? Jesus answered and said to them,

if anyone loves me, he will keep my word. He will keep my word. And my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him. What a promise. I said, what a promise. He who does not love me, does not keep my words. This is very simple. And the word which you hear is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. These things I have spoken to you while being present with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. Peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. The world needs to hear that today. You have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said, I am going to the Father, for my Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it comes, that when it comes to pass, you might believe. Say, Father, thank you for offering your Son, Jesus. Father, thank you for filling me with your Holy Spirit. You know, one of the great challenges in being in church a lot, and you should be in church a lot, by the way, there is a measure of Jesus you experience when you assemble that you don't experience alone. This is really a very important truth that we need to understand. I've been doing my best to tell as many people as possible for the last 20 years that they should seek Jesus with all their heart. And I stand by that. And there is no replacing, no replacing being alone with Jesus. There is no way to replace that. Nobody can do that one for you. The gifts of the Spirit do not replace what only He can do when you are alone. Somebody else's anointing cannot replace the oil that we purchase when we are alone with the Lord. And it is time more than ever to purchase oil. I said it is time more than ever to purchase oil. You want to be a wise virgin right now, not a foolish virgin. That type of oil you do not receive through the laying on of hands. That type of oil you get on your knees in private.

And it is not something you can buy quickly. Oil takes time. Building a relationship takes time. And so I firmly believe we need to spend a lot of time with Jesus. In fact, well, why don't we just look there? Go to Psalm 91. There is actually a condition to receiving the promises of Psalm 91. I'll use New King James. Verse 1, He who, come on, talk to me, He who in the secret place of the Most High shall under the shadow of the Almighty. I will, of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress. My God, in Him will I trust. Well, let me say a few things about that. The secret place is not meant to be visited. It's meant to be lived in. The only visitations you should be committed to and pray for in the secret place are the ones that come from God. You are not meant to visit the secret place. You are meant to live there. The good news is, as Jesus said, if we go into our room and close our door, that our Father who dwells in secret would meet us there. Now, how many of us have a door? He's not making this very complicated. Can you find a room somewhere? If not, you can find a car. If not, find a tree, find a bush, find something. Find the backside of a hill. Get away with God. In Psalm 91, the entirety of the psalm hinges on verse 1. He who dwells in secret, he who builds a life of secret prayer, then steps into the secret place of the Most High. Steps into the abiding life. Many people who don't pray, I've had to deal with this so many times as a pastor and leader of a school. Many people who do not pray tell me that the reason they don't pray is because they're always with the Lord, they abide. And that they have found continual prayer. Continual prayer is the goal. Paul tells us that we should pray unceasingly. He says, I pray always for you. That is the goal.

But it is private prayer that births abiding prayer, according to Psalm 91. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High then steps into the promise of abiding under the shadow of the Almighty. Now, what is the secret place? And what is it made of? This is not complicated. Secrets. Secrets, I know, this is super deep theology. Secrets. And who owns it? Look down at your Bible in verse one. Who does the secret place actually belong to? The Most High. When you purpose to pray, your room becomes his room. And that's good news. I said, that's good news. Because if you'll show up for your appointment, he'll show up for his. And then he'll start to protect what is his. So I want to say unequivocally, unequivocally, there is no replacing a life of private prayer. In fact, let me go a step further. There's a lot in the atmosphere when the saints gather that is glorious. We don't realize what is actually happening when we gather as a church. It's something we need to re-familiarize ourselves with. It's something that requires faith

and comfort with mystery. I personally love that God is quite mysterious because that invites me into worship. If I could understand everything about God, that would bring him down to my level. I don't need a PowerPoint to explain everything about God. I don't need to understand, neither do I assume, that I can know everything about the Lord. Mystery is meant to invite us into worship. Much more happens when we gather than we could ever imagine. Now, when the prophet's servant was afraid, the prophet said, Lord, open his eyes that he might see that there are more for us than against us. When the saints gather, something glorious takes place. Take your Bibles to Hebrews, chapter 12. If we understood what happened, we'd be much slower to simply add church to our life. The gathering of the saints, it's not an addition to a life that's much bigger and planned by us. It's a way of life that's much more than just a gathering of the saints. It's a way of life that's much more planned by us. Church is not a supplement. Hebrews, chapter 12, verse eight. Listen to the language. Writer of Hebrews says, for you have not come to the mountain that might be touched

and that burned with fire, speaking of Sinai, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, speaking of the dark cloud of glory that covered the peak, the sound of the trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. When God spoke from Sinai, the Father, the church of Israel, the ancient church of Israel that they're called, said, please, we cannot handle this. His voice sounded like a trumpet. They said, Moses, you do it. You speak to us. Let him talk to you. Verse 20, for they could not endure what was commanded, and if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow. The Lord is so holy that to even touch the mountain that he was touching was a death wish. And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, I am exceedingly afraid and trembling. Now listen, listen to what the writer of Hebrews says happens when the church gathers. But you, say me, you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of. of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. Friends, it is a privilege to gather in the name of Jesus. It's a privilege. If only our eyes were open, you would quickly discover that you are not alone, that we are not alone.

In God's eyes, there is not one service going on in the throne room and another one here. No, we see something glorious when John the beloved is caught up in the spirit and receives the revelation, the great apocalyptic vision of Jesus Christ. He discovers something glorious that there is a glorious worship service going on in heaven where worthy is the lamb is being sung on repeat and that we've been invited into that service. When the Holy Spirit comes, he catches us up into a glorious, glorious reality. You know, there's a reason why in the tabernacle, there was no flooring. It's an incredible, incredible truth. There was no flooring. Beautiful to look at. If you looked right, you saw glory. If you looked left, you saw beautiful, glorious art and depictions and colors and everything spoke of the Lord Jesus to come. If I look up, I see beauty. If I look forward, I see beauty. If I look down, I see dirt. It's to remind us that we are pilgrims walking on the earth, but that our hearts need to be caught up to glory. I don't believe that you can be too heavenly minded to do earthly good, to do no earthly good. It's not a truthful statement. In fact, we need more heavenly mindedness. The people that change the world are the ones who are most caught up in God. Something glorious takes place when we come together. Something beautiful takes place when we come together. But what is happening in the room, listen, what God has called the refuge to will never get inside of you until you pursue God. You'll be able to parrot the messages. You will catch the lingo. You will wear the hoodies and you will sing the songs, but it'll never become yours or get in your bone marrow until you begin to pay the price that your fathers and mothers paid. Amen. Christian culture that is rhythmic and lifeless sets in when we adopt the motions and not the lifestyle. Today there are ancient pathways into God's presence that are being challenged in the church. And I want to say before I even get into them that they are immovable. Regardless of what is said today, it is still biblical to honor your pastor. I said, it's still biblical to honor your pastor. That is a worldly perspective that is trying to come into the church where we can't look past, where we look past the garment and see somebody's humanity, not realize that the oil is on the garment. It's still biblical to fathom God's presence, but it's still biblical fast. I said it's still biblical to fast. It's still biblical to give. It doesn't matter

to fathom God's presence. It's still biblical to fathom God's presence, but it's still biblical to who mishandled money. That doesn't matter. It's biblical to give. Generosity is the culture of the Trinity. It transcends prosperity teaching. No, no, no, no, no. It is a matter of who God is. The father offers his son. The son promises the spirit. The spirit reveals the son. The son is the face of the father. They are selfless, selfless, loving Trinity. Three in one. And they love every moment of it. Serving is still one of the only on ramps into your calling. And you never stop doing it. I'm leading a group of seminarians right now, getting them ready for the ministry, about 10 young men. And we have a pretty large school called Jesus school. And I remember a few of them complained that they had to serve once every six weeks. Can I come down pastor? I'm getting a little excited. Okay. Once every six weeks. And you want to be a pastor. You want to be a dad or a husband or a wife. And you want to give of yourself once every six weeks. And call anything above that toxic. No, what's toxic is selfishness. What is antichrist is selfishness. Imagine being a pastor and getting a hospital call. But it was 501. And I needed my Gen Z or Gen Alpha boundaries in place. I cannot go to the ICU and pray for somebody. There's a lot I want to say, but I'm not at home. You see, it's an assault on the cross. Because the cross bids me 24 seven for eternity, actually, to give my life away. That's the only time I'll actually come alive is when I give my life away. I take every pulpit now with the small wooden cross. No, that doesn't make me Roman Catholic, just makes me a Christian. This is a cross. We should be super familiar with this. Never comfortable with it, but very familiar. Newsflash to the charismatic church. This is the emblem of the faith. Not a unicorn jumping through a galaxy with a flag over it. This right here. This cross is not revolutionary. This is the ancient emblem of our faith. We started preaching or praying the Lord's prayer every service. And I had to answer questions as to why we were praying the Lord's prayer. What's happening to Michael? He's doing the Lord's prayer. God forbid. What a revolutionary apostolic gift. He came up with some. I didn't come up with the Lord's prayer. The Lord did. He actually said, when you pray, say. The church is only alive when she's dying. If I create so many boundaries in my life, like paying a price to get in this room, I automatically relinquish crosses that are actually invitations into resurrection life. Think about the most depressed people you know. I get, well, let

me say it another way. The most depressed, angry, ornery people you know. Are they not the most self-absorbed? Do they not talk about themselves the most? The happiest people you know are the ones who have given their lives to Jesus and others. We've got to reclaim this. But this is why this is becoming more and more rare. We're not looking at Jesus, so our definition is skewed. We've gotta get back to the fundamentals of the Christian faith, which is quite simply Jesus Christ crucified and risen. I love the pastors teaching through the Old Testament. I love it, because I just think that, number one, it's so healthy, and by the way, Jesus just called them the scriptures. We call the entire Old Testament law. You ever read Song of Solomon? Doesn't sound like law to me. What kind of law are you reading? The Psalms aren't law. Ecclesiastes isn't law. The prophets aren't law. Jesus just called them the scriptures. Paul actually said, and can we just have a good family night tonight? Paul actually said in 1 Corinthians 15 that I'm gonna preach the gospel to you that I preached to you before, by which you were saved, by which you stand now, unless by any means you believed in vain, and he said, and here we go. Here's the gospel. Christ died for your sins according to the scriptures. He was buried according to the scriptures.

Paul was basically saying, I can preach the death, burial, and resurrection to you with Genesis. We can't do it with Matthew. But he was serious. Paul could take the creation account and prove that Jesus is Messiah. It's amazing. I love that he's teaching the scriptures because you know why? When Pastor Jay teaches the scriptures, you're being formed into the image of Jesus when you don't know it. It's awesome. We're on a, I told our church, we are on a four billion year series called Jesus. And right now I'm teaching verse by verse through the gospel of John. It's been months and we're only on verse 16. We're gonna take a long time. I think a student did the math. They said, Pastor, oh no, one of our worship leaders. Pastor, if you keep this pace, we're gonna be in this teaching for 18 years in like four months. I said, all right, I'll do two verses a Sunday and we'll get it to nine years. Nine year series. We need to fall in love with Jesus again. And when you gather, listen, something glorious happens. Can I show you something? Okay, take your Bibles to Luke 24.

You'll never gather the same way again. All right, we're not gonna read yet, but we're gonna start in verse 36. If you don't mind, just have a look up here. Prior to verse 36 is the Emmaus account. The Emmaus account. Where you have two disciples whose entire lives are shattered and they're walking to a village called Emmaus, which means warm spring that is bubbling up. There was actually, you're gonna laugh here. Don't laugh at these disciples. You may have to talk to them in heaven one day. But some think they were going to an ancient Roman spa because there was like these hot springs there. Which, man, they must, I don't know. They were super depressed and said, let's go to the whirlpool, I don't know. But they're on their way to this village called Emmaus. And their hearts are broken and they're blind and dull. And if you're a pastor in the room or a small group leader or a ministry leader or certainly a discipleship school leader, this is what we deal with every single day. Broken, hurt hearts whose eyes are blind. But that doesn't keep Jesus away. I said that doesn't keep Jesus away. In fact, he shows up. When he shows up, we don't have time to read it all, but trust me, I'm giving you the Bible, it's there. You can fact check me tonight.

Jesus shows up and says, what are you talking about? Now how many of you know that when Jesus asks us a question, it's not because he doesn't know the answer. It's because he doesn't know the answer. We don't know the answer. And they ask him, which goes to show you how badly we need the presence of the Holy Spirit. I'm gonna tell you in a moment why. They have the audacity to ask Jesus if he has ever heard of Jesus. And they ask him, haven't you heard what happened in Jerusalem? This is post-resurrection, by the way. Post-crucifixion. Haven't you heard what happened? And he goes, what happened? I love that about him. I absolutely love the side of Jesus that will lovingly make you look like a fool. He will just, in the best way, toy with you. Jeremiah, the prophet, said, you are the God who hides yourself. He doesn't hide from us, he hides for us. He loves to be pursued. As the old preachers used to say, he seeks to be sought and loves to be loved. So he said, well, what things happen? And they describe Jesus to the best of their ability. And they say, oh, Jesus of Nazareth, a man mighty in word, a prophet, mighty indeed,

was given up and crucified. And they had him partially right, but a partial Jesus is still an incorrect Jesus. Because before he's a good teacher, he's the son of God who broke the grave open. In fact, you've got to start with that if you're going to receive his teachings properly. We don't serve Jesus just because he's a great teacher. We serve Jesus because he was born of the virgin, is the eternal God, and broke the ground wide open after crushing death with death. That's why, that's why we serve him, because he's the Lord, and he proved it. And so when he speaks, we say, yes, sir, because of who he is. And his virgin birth, and the empty tomb, the resurrection, are the bookends that prove his deity to humanity. Notice, you have a virgin womb, and a man named Joseph involved in this situation. When he's raised from the dead, you have a virgin tomb. And his tomb is owned by a man named, what is God doing? He is connecting the womb and the tomb, telling us that in Christ Jesus, the tomb is transformed into a womb that births us into eternal life. That's why we listen to him when he talks. And that's why he can mess with you if you're a disciple on the road to a maze.

He can do whatever he wants, and love every second of it. He has no problem watching us come to the end of ourselves. When we think we're wise, he'll mess with you a little longer. And so he says what things? They tell him about himself. Well, Jesus of Nazareth, and he's still listening. Oh, wow, uh-huh, uh-huh. And then the Bible says he breaks the scriptures open to them. He opens the scriptures. Let me just help you with something very quickly, the best I can. He is still the only book opener. If you don't meet with Jesus while you're reading your Bible, you know what will happen? You'll just become a tool that divides the church. You'll know chapter and verse, but not the author. And you'll start to move the text to fit your preconceived position. And that's how you end up with 36,000 denominations. So Jesus' way of healing their blindness, their inability to know he's there, which happens to us to a certain degree every day. Step one is he's gotta be there. And I have news for you. When you gather, he said, if two or three gather in my name, I am there, even in the midst of them.

I am there, even in the midst of them. So he's not just here. He's in the midst of us. He becomes the air we breathe. He becomes closer to you than the person next to you, closer to you than the clothes on your back. And by the way, If you don't gather in his name, he's not there. I don't care how beautiful your building is, not here, but I could build the nicest cathedral in Sanford. If I don't gather properly, his presence is not guaranteed. And the design of the building is not the condition. Give me a young group of hungry, radical, or old group. I don't even care if they're young anymore. Just a group of young, old, hungry, radical people, and he'll be in a warehouse. You go get a storage unit, you get a studio apartment, he'll come. Step one is he's gotta be there. Some people know how to invite him, and some don't. Some think Jesus is part of life. They haven't discovered that he is life. Some have added him to their Christian experience. To some, he is the only experience. Jesus is not part of anything. If he's all in all, he can't be. How can he who is all in all be part of anything? Are you tracking with me? So first of all, when our blindness is healed, step one, he needs to be there.

Step two, he takes the scriptures and opens them. The scriptures are locked if Jesus doesn't open them. Just ask the apostle Paul. Saul used the scriptures to kill Christians, and then something happened in the book of Acts. He met Jesus. Now how many of you have watched a podcast where somebody used chapter and verse to hurt the church? Happens every day, thousands of times a day. What do they need? An encounter with the person. Paul discovers the person of Jesus, or I should say encounters the person of Jesus on the road to Damascus, and he takes the same scriptures after his encounter, and rather than destroying the church, proves to the Jews that Jesus is Messiah with the very same scriptures. What happened? Jesus happened. Say the person. Say it, come on, talk to me. The person. The person of Jesus. The person of Jesus opens the scriptures, and then something happens to these disciples. Their hearts start burning. You know a burning heart that should be a daily experience? I believe every morning, every morning you should get with Jesus.

Every morning you should get with Jesus. You can open the leather, but only he can open the book. Your heart should burn. You should feel that fellowship set in on a daily basis. It's indescribable. I can put a few words to it, but this one you've got to experience to understand. A burning heart. You see, before they can see him, they need to be dealt with on the inside. Let me be very plain again. We need to read our Bibles a lot, a lot, until it is spilling over. I think it's a great and wonderful thing to memorize the Beatitudes. The Ten Commandments. John chapter one, get it in you. I know this isn't the most exciting teaching, but this will keep the devil off you. You know he doesn't shoot rubber bullets, right? You get with Jesus long enough, he'll come. He will come after you, and he is not there to give you a bad day. He's there to teach you a good day. He's there to teach you a good day. He's not there to give you a bad day. He's there to destroy you and innocent people around you. You need to find your five smooth stones on a daily basis and get them ready for Goliath.

You have to have that. You have to build a reservoir of satisfaction in the Scriptures so that when the enemy comes, you can answer accordingly. We're teaching our people how to do everything but resist temptation. How to do everything but fight off powers of darkness. How to do everything but use the name of Jesus. How to do everything but read their Bibles. How to do everything but discover the power of fasting and prayer and praise. The Scriptures are non-negotiable. Jesus said man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The Scriptures are a matter of life and death. So, I tell our students, we don't just read them, we eat them. How do they become your food? When you start praying them. Until they get so ingrained, so one with you that when you're pressed, they come out naturally. You don't want to wait for the day of trouble to find the stones. Why were David's stones smooth? What does that speak of? They were in a creek. The current of the Holy Spirit. I take the text, I read the text, I begin to pray the text, and in the presence of God, the text is smoothed out in my heart. It goes from information to revelation and then weaponry. If Jesus used the scriptures, what do you think you're going to use? You really think you're going to remind the devil of a word somebody gave you on Facebook? Are you going to dangle a lanyard in front of them from the last Jesus image conference?

You certainly, you can't even lean on experience. Because Jesus didn't. Jesus didn't answer by saying, do you know who I am? Did you not hear the Father just say, this is my beloved son? It just happened. But when the devil came, Jesus said, it is written. We have to arm ourselves again with these ancient on-ramps that there is no replacement for. And so Jesus opens the scriptures to them, their hearts start burning, and then something happens. He keeps moving. You see, there's this side of him that will come and he'll stop everything he's doing to be with you in secret. But as you mature, you're going to bump into another side of him that he has a mission to accomplish and a bride to marry, and you can't stop it. So like, even if you don't want him to come back, he's coming back. There are certain times where we can actually move his heart and he will change directions with his method. We see that with Moses, but there's some stuff. I don't care who you are. You cannot keep the father from rewarding the son with a bride as Calvary's reward. He's going to do it. So they discover this side of Jesus that maybe they weren't used to. And it says that they come to like this fork in the road and he says, I'm going to go on because it's getting dark. Now how many of you think Jesus is afraid of the dark? What is he doing? He's testing them. Listen carefully, please. The most important tests you will ever take in the Christian life, usually, usually are

the ones you don't know you're taking. And that's where you need the voice of the Spirit through a father or mother in the faith to go, I'd tread pretty lightly in this decision. This could make or break it for you. This could be a Saul and David thing. This offense I'm counseling you to lay down could make or break your whole destiny. This encouragement I'm giving you to forgive and not take vengeance in your own hands, this could be the difference between you walking in your anointing or you never seeing it. Many are called and few are chosen. Who are the ones who are chosen? The ones who said yes to the call. The ones who obey. They get chosen. My mentor in the Spirit, a woman named Joy Dawson, she's in heaven now. She's from New Zealand. She helped start YWAM. She preached in 55 nations of the world, went to Afghanistan by herself in the 80s and preached in the underground church there all alone for three weeks. But she was about this tall. Do the whole Pentecostal look, nice perm, had it all. But I'll tell you what, I'll tell you what, if you were a demon, you stayed away from her. And she used to tell me something. She used to call me darling boy. She said, darling boy, God doesn't change the rules for anyone. Nobody. Nobody gets a different set of rules. If you want mercy, guess what you got to do? Show it. Still true. The kingdom still belongs to the poor in spirit. The meek still inherit the earth. So you can choose, I'll win an online argument or inherit the earth in the age to come. You get to choose. You get a

hundred comments or the earth? I want the earth. You don't change the rules. Blessed are the persecuted for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. How much better would the church do if we just saw persecution as a promise? It's a blessing. I said it's a blessing. Now consequences from God are not persecution. That's called being dumb. That is called stupidity and God dealing with you. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about persecution that comes with righteous living. These will never change. They are set in stone. Moses discovered this. There was no alternative plan for Moses. He didn't, he didn't get a hookup from God. In fact, God dealt with him more severely because he met with God face to face. Same with David. David's not the first person to commit adultery, but why did God deal with him so close, so severely? Because God met with him face to face. What about Judas? Judas is not the first one to ever steal money. Why was he dealt with so harshly? Because he walked with God incarnate. So in fact, not only does he not change the rules for us, those who've come more close are dealt with more severely. It's just the Bible and we've all been exposed to a lot. I said, we've all been exposed to a lot. So their hearts start burning and Jesus keeps moving just like he was on the sea of Galilee. He kept moving and he stopped when they called out to him and something happens on the road to Emmaus. They constrain him and they say something to him, abide with us. And he did. What a balanced Lord. What an incredible Lord that he will keep it moving so that you have to follow him. But if you grab onto him, he will stay. I wonder if anybody here at the refuge has a heart cry right now as I'm speaking that is screaming, abide with us here. It doesn't take the whole crowd, two or three, two or three. And so he stays with them. So after their hearts start burning, after the scriptures are open, they still have to reach out and hold on. It's another test. And then they go into a room and he takes bread and he breaks it. Speaking of Holy Communion. And when he breaks the bread, their eyes open and they recognize him. Then he disappears. Oh man, he knows how to handle this, doesn't he? The poor guys, their emotions are like, whoa, okay. He's here. We constrain him. He stays. He breaks the bread. We see him. Oh, there he is. He's gone. Why did he disappear after he broke the bread? Because he wanted them to see him in the Eucharist, in communion. So they go from a blind existence and a dull heart to their heart beginning to burn to them recognizing him. And then something glorious happens. Look at verse 28. No, sorry, sorry. Look at verse 36. Then they go back. Listen,

they had gone back to tell the other disciples what happened to them. Now as they did these things, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them. There it is again. And said to them, peace to you. I wonder if anybody needs to hear that tonight. Peace to you. Maybe you've got a bad report from a doctor. Maybe your marriage is fractured. Maybe your children are away from the Lord. Maybe you don't know how you're going to pay this month's bills. Jesus speaks peace to you. But they were terrified and frightened and supposed they had seen a spirit. And he said to them, why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts? Doubt doesn't begin in the mind. It actually... arises from the heart. Behold, my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." Now listen carefully. Eventually Thomas takes his finger and puts it into the wounds of Christ. Why am I bringing all of this up? There is a measure of Jesus that they experienced when they were all there in that room, that the two on the road to Emmaus did not experience. They saw, their hearts burned, there was a brief recognition, but when they were all together, he let them touch him. I don't think we have a clue as to what is available when we gather in the name of Jesus. And what does Thomas say after he touches the wounds? My Lord and my God. He confesses his faith because he touches the living Christ. This is awesome. I said this is awesome. I'm not sure we really believe his words. Because here's the challenge in being in any church environment, any discipleship school environment, is that you hear the right things over and over again, and you should. But unless you're aware of the presence of God, you'll hear them so much that they lose their power to you. See you're looking at a cross right now going, yeah huh, that's what we do. Yep, that's a cross, I'm a Christian. Praise God. Now where's the good stuff? Really? Right? I mean you grew up in the South. I'm a Greek redneck, I went to school in Gainesville, I like to bass fish and shoot stuff and all that, okay? My brother went to ORU, I lived in Dallas, okay? I understand cultural Christianity in America. We have more crosses on steeples than probably any nation in the world. And I've lived right near the buckle of the entire Bible belt. You can look at a cross and just think it means something cultural. Or that you voted for the right candidate. But I have news for you, the cross is saying a lot more. When you're in the Spirit, you will never look at a cross the same way again. In fact, it's quite shocking that we can look at one

and not have our hearts burn. What has happened? We've seen so many that we've grown numb. How do you inoculate somebody to a disease supposedly? You take a little bit of that virus and just shoot it in them. And it inoculates them to the entirety of the virus. That's the challenge of being in an environment like this and not being all in. Is that you call it balance, it's not balance, you'll just get inoculated. There's nothing balanced about Jesus, nothing. That's an excuse. Balance meetings, find me one in the Bible. What does that even mean? What is balanced about his love? Tell me, what was balanced about your salvation experience? Was it just right? Have you ever seen a demon come out of someone? Have you? Have you ever... Someone's like... If you have, I'd like to ask, have you ever seen that done in a very calm way that just made you feel just right? Just the right amount of foam going down the cheek. They slithered on the ground just perfectly. Perfect technique, wonderful mobility, amazing, amazing mobility on the ground. How about when somebody... Have you ever even seen anybody get out of a wheelchair? I've seen thousands. Thousands. I've seen tumors come out of people. I've felt them literally... Disappear and flatten under my hand It's not because I'm great, but I can tell you there's nothing just perfectly culturally Balanced about watching somebody get healed from something that they thought was going to kill them That's not balance that is demonic blindness But when you're in love with God, you can't look at a sunset the same way because it reminds you of his death and Night reminds you of his burial Because creation the heavens declare the glory of God They preach the the heavens preach the gospel Creation preaches the gospel What did Jesus say when he came into the city? And they said do you not hear what they're saying Hosanna the son of David? Don't you hear? What do you say if they don't do it the what the rocks will cry out? What happened when he died the rock shook and exploded they did cry out because people wouldn't Rocks took the privilege away from the inoculated people God was walking with them, but they were numb and blind

When the Sun comes up it should remind you of the resurrection And after a hot Charlotte summer and that first wind shifts It should remind you of the ways of the Spirit that you know falls coming by how sense and touch Isn't that the way you operate in the spirit? You feel the wind shift and then God manifests what you're sensing When you're in love with Jesus as an old monk said I'd never forget reading this this old monk was walking by a flower and He stopped he turned around and yelled at the flower and he said I know I know I should be worshiping like you I should be praising God leave me alone, and he kept walking What do you mean this little flower was growing upward it had opened up like he should have been opening his heart It looked beautiful like we are most beautiful when we are most open and going most vertical under God So we can sit here and go I love that cross man That's cool, that's who I am that's right. I'm I'm a Christian From North Carolina boy. I'm tell you I'm double Christian, North Carolina Don't you get near my word yank in near my word. I'm from North Carolina I'm a Christian right down the road from Billy Graham library. You better believe it. We got crosses whom I love by the way Whom I love by the way they actually opened that library for me personally, and I love them. They're incredible But I guarantee you if dr. Graham stared at that cross long enough he'd start crying How do we get shaken out of that that death sentence of cultural religious numb repetitious Christianity He's got to come He's got to come and when he does you got to hold on to him and When he tests your love you got to constrain him This for the hungry When Jesus image started I gave God every Tuesday People would say you're giving up 20% of the workweek. I said this isn't work This is love. This is a calling and how can I be a minister if I don't know him? All day six six, I'm sorry four in the morning till four in the afternoon You say what'd you do in there man, it was hard Because I used to have prayer lists right now, and they lasted six minutes I

Had 11 minutes 11 hours and 50 54 minutes to go You don't have enough worship songs to get through that You don't have enough worship songs to get through that But eventually he starts coming into the room Even if it lasts for one to two minutes of experiencing the presence of the Spirit you start learning of him And then he starts to become your food That's not balance That's not balance probably I'm not telling you what to do. This is your pastor's Job, I'm not telling you this but probably in those days I'm not telling you to do this disclaimer. Don't post this. Okay, I'm not telling you do this Maybe two and a half to three forty day fast a year That sounds extreme I'm not telling you you can sustain that but in those days I had to have God Because I didn't want people coming sick and leaving sick that didn't feel right Does it feel right feel wrong to any of you? Should we care about a 32-year-old woman dying of stage 4 cancer? Should it stir us? Should we not take the scriptures and go, I can't guarantee that she's going to get healed, but I'm putting my life on the altar. Should we be okay with people just rejecting the gospel? What are the ramifications of somebody who rejects Christ? We know it's eternity without him and torment. That should do something. Like deep within us, it should move us. What about our family members who don't know the Lord and our argument's not working? Maybe we need the presence of the spirit. What do I need to do, Lord? I'll do it. And you know what started happening after about a year of not missing a Tuesday? Maybe I missed some and I'd make up for it on a Friday if I had to fly. On Monday night, I'd put my Bible out, my communion out, and I began to look forward to it. What started off as death to the flesh became life and joy that is inexplainable. But Jesus' image wasn't birthed through some planning conference. I remember when we sketched out the logo, the face of the Lord, my dad sketched it out on a napkin on our kitchen table. I had this thought that the face of Jesus would provoke the best or worst in people. So I made one t-shirt. I said, Dad, sketch out the face of the Lord this way. I had seen the Lord a few times when I was younger, and I don't think we got it exact, but we

did our best. I said, Dad, change it here, change it there, and we got it. I said, make me one t-shirt, and we did, and it was orange and blue. Pastor, you probably liked that. It was orange and blue, and we needed it. We needed Jesus back then. But it was orange and blue, and I wore it on my first trip, and I wore it through the airport. I'll never forget. And people loved it, or they hated it. And I said, we got something here, because that's who he is. You're never just okay with him. You either love him, or you're his enemy. I'm dreaming of a day where the church of Jesus Christ will look at the cross, and their eyes will open, where they slowly think through the price paid, where they slowly ponder his back being ripped open, where they begin to see this as an exaltation, as John the apostle did, where they begin to ponder in their heart that the hands that nailed the stars to the sky were nailed on a piece of wood. That's what the early church said. He who hung the heavens now hangeth on the tree. He who used the earth as a footstool, his feet are now nailed to the tree. Adam lost everything on the first tree, and now a new tree of life has been planted on Golgotha's peak. And may our hearts burn again, and our eyes be opened by the gift of tears. That the King of glory, as Paul writes to Colossians, destroyed and disarmed all princes and powers by the way he died and laid his life down. This should do something. I said this should do something to him. The cross is not boring. You want to run devils out of your family, discover the power of the cross. You say, what about his resurrection? You cannot separate the two. It was only through the cross that he could be raised. Passover lamb. Why do we know more about prophecy than the cross? Look at the trouble it's gotten us all into. Where we wanted specific words, like my address. I wanted to learn more about my address. I already know my address, I don't need you to tell me my address. Then the cross? You say, what of the Holy Spirit? What flowed from Jesus' side on the cross? The blood and the water of the Spirit.

How does God even say I love you? Think about it for a moment. If I were to ask you how you know that God loves you, maybe your answer would be, well, he's been good to me. But how do you know? Because God doesn't love in a vague manner. How, well, he's helped me along. Well, what if he stops? What if he helps you another way that you can't discover? Does the revelation of God's love go up and down based on how well we understand that? Well, I love me because he got, I know he loves me, he helped me with a new job. Fine, he can do all that, but how does God say that he says I love you? For God so loved the world that he offered. That's the Greek. So there, the word so, John 3, 16. The word so is not speaking of a quantity of love. It's speaking in the manner by which he says I love you. So it could read like this. In this manner, God offered his son. In this manner, God so loved the world that he gave, that word gave there is speaking of sacrificial giving, death. So the only way God can say I love you so the only way God knows how to say I love you is by coming to die for you. This anchors the soul.

This is the Jesus the world is waiting for. This is the Jesus that will heal denominational conflict and division and get us to one table again, into one room. This is the Jesus that Gen Z and Gen Alpha are begging for. The real one. The man from Galilee. I usually call for a musician. I don't wanna do that tonight. I want this to be as raw and real as possible. I wanna invite a generation to seek him and believe his word that if we seek him with all our heart, we find him. And if we seek him with all our heart, we find him. And if we seek him with all our heart, we find him. That is a secure promise. And if we really find him, everything changes. Your marriage needs Jesus. Your physical body needs Jesus. Your pride needs Jesus. Your fear needs Jesus. Everything, every bit of pain you're feeling, there's one answer, Jesus Christ. Just for the next two minutes, I'm gonna ask that you remain as still as possible. I'm gonna invite all of you to break out of any form of the faith that you don't see in him. To break out of just doing stuff to do it and realize there's a person involved

who is looking at you. at you tonight, who is here and who is watching and wants you. When I was a boy, my dad had an incurable disease and we were at a funeral. My dad had had five knee surgeries, I think, and I remember him in a wheelchair or on crutches. He was a day out of one of his surgeries, one day out, and they used to staple the knees back then. And a man walked in, filled with the Holy Spirit, laid hands on my dad, and my dad was completely healed, began to walk, and hadn't stopped walking since. All the muscle grew back, and one night, I went to his post-op exam. I heard the doctor say, what happened to you? All the muscle that's been gone for years is back in a day? But my dad couldn't explain it. He goes, Doc, I don't even know how to describe it. When I felt the presence of the Lord that night, my dad was healed. And I feel the same presence of the Lord tonight. There's no one like Jesus. What would happen if you went after him? What would happen if you constrained him? What would happen to your addictions, your anger, your unforgiveness, your broken heart? What would happen if you didn't treat him as part of your day?