TV 1760 | A Tale of Two Churches Conclusion

He's reaching out in love and mercy because He wants a people who are connected to Him, whose heart is, God, I want what You want and we've got to see Your power in action. Lord, it's not enough. It's not enough to have the truth. Having the Bible and preaching it accurately, the world is full of people who can do it a whole lot better than I can. If you're talking about understanding what the words say and organizing them and saying them in a way that is memorable, that's what Bible colleges train people to do. It's easy. There are people who have natural ability to speak. So what? If God's power is not there to accompany those words and transform hearts and lives, what do you have? A nice, comfortable religion that makes you feel okay. You remember the words that we often referred to that where Mordecai was talking to his niece Esther, who knows but that you are called, you've come to the kingdom for such a time as this. And we often say those words. God has us in a particular time and a particular place, but we're not called to sit in a little behind four walls and this is not about any particular issue. This is just saying, God, we need to seek You and we need to see transformations happen in the church, needs that we know about that just don't need better arguments. They need power. The answer to people's needs is not just to debate the ideas and say, your idea is wrong, this one is right. So Satan holds onto people with real spiritual power. Yes, ideas are involved, but without the power, you're just arguing, you're debating a devil. There needs to be divine power that comes to grips. The danger is you can have people grow up in the church and they go along and they affirm what they're told to believe, but what if they have never had a divine encounter where

God has come and revealed Himself to their hearts in power, shown them their need and shown them a Savior, and then it's on them. What are they going to do about it? They're going to believe and surrender? You don't have that. What do you have? You have young people that will grow up and profess this, profess that, and then they're gone and they're living their lives and it's all okay. God knows them that are here. This is not about anybody in particular, but you see the principles involved. God is looking for a church that is engaged with Him. And I appreciate so much how the Lord reached out to this church, wanting them to turn the burner up, as it were, to seek Him, to call upon Him, everybody, not just the elders, everybody calling upon the name of the Lord with an intensity, with a sincerity, and not just do it a day and then next thing you know, in a few days, you're just back to like it was. There needs to be a way of life where we recognize what's going on, that God has got us here. There are things that He has allowed to come across our path. There are things that are happening in our own assembly. There are needs out there that He wants us to be in a position to meet, not just to bring them in so we can have more numbers. God can do that, but that's not the focus. We could fill this church with people who don't know the Lord or just religious. What good would that do? We need people who understand what the people did and acts. We need your power, God. We need you to stretch forth your hand. We need a God who invades people's hearts and spaces. You know, I thought about the scripture at the beginning of Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians,

where Paul was writing to the believers there. Let me see if I can even find it. Well, praise God, there it is. 1 Thessalonians. Paul is... Writing to the believers, it says, we always thank God for all of you continually mention you in our prayers. We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus. So there's the truth has become resident in their lives, hasn't it? For we know, brothers and sisters, loved by God that He has chosen you. How do they know that? How did Paul know that? Because our gospel came to you not simply with words, but also with power, with the Holy Spirit and deep conviction. If we don't have that going on, what do we have? Why are we here? What does it take? It certainly doesn't take just me trying to pray on Saturday evening and come up with something. I don't suggest that's how it is, but I mean, you know, you get the picture. Okay, Phil's got a sermon, it's true to Scripture, that's good enough. Where are we going to lunch? God helped every single believer to realize you are part of the fight, and you have power. It's not just that you ought to be doing this, what's the matter with you? We can't do anything. That's part of our relationship with the Lord is realizing that without Him we can do nothing, but with Him we can do whatever He sets before us. There's so much that God is wanting to do, and He's willing to reveal it, but it ain't going to happen unless He engages us, and that's where we start making choices.

And I believe God is asking us to make some choices. Do we want to continue to drift towards Laodicea? Or do we want to move back towards, yeah, towards the will of God, but towards what it was in the New Testament? There's a part of me that's just really, really tired in one sense of hearing about all the great things God did. Oh, praise God, look at all the stuff He did in the Scriptures, even in our own midst. Or all the stuff that's going on over there. God's raising the dead in India. Well, that's nice. That's wonderful. Thank God. And we sit here and slumber. I want to see God actually do something right here. Do you believe He can? Do you believe that's what He wants? God help every one of us, starting with me, to just make a commitment in our hearts to seek God more. And again, it's not just trying to check a box. It's saying, Lord, I don't even know how to do this. I need you to help me. To know what to pray about and to have the anointing to pray. And not to just see a need and say, oh, well, God help them. You know, there were needs in the Scriptures where people fasted and prayed. Fasting, oh no, can't go without our food. Lord, help us. And of course, you can do all those things in just an outward sense and still not be connected. But do you see how it's got to work together? You know, Jesus said something interesting, and I've referred to this in the past.

When He was talking to the woman at the well, what did He say the Father was seeking? People to worship Him, how? Spirit and truth. And if you look abroad in Christianity, what's called Christianity today, it tends to fall into one of two categories. You've got people who are all about truth. Those include some of the folks that say, oh, that's all passed away, we've got the Bible now. And all they're trying to do is accurately understand what the Scripture says and make sure everybody else gets it and conforms. And if there's a problem, we've got to take the Scriptures and make sure we straighten out their thinking. That's what it's all about. And then we'll be right. We've got to uphold truth, it's all about truth. Well, there's certainly part of it. And you've got others that say, oh no, dead truth isn't going to help anybody. Well they're right about that, it's just all about the Spirit. We've got to have power, we've got to have spiritual, we've got to have amazing things happening all the time. If we're not seeing devils cast out and the sick healed, something anyway, we're not seeing all those amazing things happen, something's wrong. We've got to feel it, we've got to see it. And the thing is, you can get way out in left field, that is left for you, isn't it? We can get way out in left field, but you know the devil's pretty good at all that stuff. He knows how to make supernatural things happen. That's why there's this perfect balance that the Lord wants to produce in us, where we never get away from this, but this is not enough. If the power of God is not there, actively changing lives and destinies, what good is it?

But if people are falling under the power and getting all excited and emotional and all of that, but they aren't anchored in truth, so you've got dead truth and wildfire, I want living truth. I don't even know where to go except to encourage people to ask God. If God is convicting your heart at all, don't we need to start seeking Him seriously and expectantly? Is He telling us these things to just make us feel bad or is it because, God, I got things that I want to do, but my way of doing things is to engage my sons and daughters in the process. Now look at the promise to the church of Laodicea, and it's amazing, you think about where they were at, half asleep, but he says, here I am, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person and they with me. So there is a open door from his point of view, I mean there's an open invitation from his point of view, I want to have a real relationship with you. I'm not waiting for you to straighten up and be right and be perfect, I just want you to reach out to me when I hear, because I know there's stuff wrong with you, I've already taken care of that at the cross and I can teach you, I can help you, okay? I've got what you need is what he's saying. But here's the thing that struck me, to the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on His throne. Now on the surface, it's easy to think about this is way out in the future, okay, we're going to get through this life and we're going to stand fast and we're going to be victorious, whatever victorious means, and then someday, I guess it would be this direction, someday we're going to be sitting with Him on a throne. Is that what it's talking about? How long is Jesus reigning for? Well, yeah, in one sense. He's reigning until all enemies are under His feet.

He is on a throne, all authority in heaven and earth has been given to Him, okay? So He's in a place of authority, nothing the devil can do that He doesn't know about, that He can't handle. But what happens, but He is reigning until, and then He's going to hand over the kingdom to His Father, and then we're all going to be subject to God, that He, that God may be all in all. First Corinthians 15, if you want to find out where that's at. So sitting with Him on a throne is not just in heaven someday or new earth or wherever, that's now. God is looking for people who can share a place of spiritual authority now. You think He can equip us to do that? Well, He did it with a bunch of fishermen. Do they have any human qualifications? Tax collector, all those kinds of things. God is looking for people that He can teach. and equip and give real authority, because the devil's got power. This is not a debate about ideas. This is spiritual power, and it takes power to break power. But God is looking for people that He can share and express that authority and that power with. Let me show you where Paul said something about that. I think you'll remember it. In Ephesians chapter 2, think about what, this is where he talks about how we were dead and trespasses and sins and all of that. But then he says we were deserving of His wrath, but because of His great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions. Man, He has taken care of every need that you and I could ever, ever have at the cross. He wants us to wake up to that and believe it and surrender to it. Of course, He's got to make that real, doesn't He? And He will if we'll open our hearts, all right?

But He goes on, says, it is by grace you have been saved, and, there's an and, that wasn't all. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. And then it goes on to talk about all that He's going to do in the coming ages. Folks, there is a place that God wants to take His people right now. And if we're connected to Him and looking to Him, He can imbue us with power that we don't possess in ourselves. And we're going to see needs that God will address. And it's not just arguing ideas. God's going to absolutely invade people's hearts and lives. Do we need Him present in our midst? Yes, breathing life into words, that's part of it. But do we want Him to be here absolutely with His power, changing hearts and lives, convicting of sin, breaking strongholds in lives? Paul's ministry was not a matter of debating ideas, it was with power. Praise God. You remember the scripture where He talks about that, the weapons we fight with are not the carnal weapons, not the weapons of the world, but they have spiritual power to bring down strongholds. And they certainly are casting you out of imagination. So see, truth is part of it. You've got to destroy the lie, but you've got to destroy the liar. The devil is a liar and the father of it. And until that power is addressed and he is confronted with greater power, see that's what Jesus, that's why Jesus was able to do what He did. He was anointed. And it wasn't just the words that He said, it was the power that the devils felt when He spoke. God wants every one of us to have that, not so we can say, look at me, I've got power.

We always need to take the right stand and the right place inside of God, one where He is the only one who gets the glory, He's the only one that has the power. But I just want to encourage God's people today to wake up, to realize the trend towards Laodicea that happens in every place. I don't care what our history is, I thank God for every good thing, it's real. What does that have to do with now? If we're not actively seeking God, every one, for our gatherings, for the needs we know about, I mean really laying hold of God like Jacob did, I will not let you go until you bless me. God wants to do things through in us, but through us as well. That's His heart. And I pray that God will awaken us and give us a fresh conviction to start seeking Him as we've never sought Him before. Do you think that's what He wants? It sure is. You think He's going to answer that kind of a heart in a cry? What would happen if everybody here just really with a fervent heart, powered by the Spirit, prayed coming into a gathering? And how about Wednesday night? It's easy to even there. come together and almost have a forum. I believe God is meeting with us, but it's almost like, oh, well, that's just prayer meeting. I've got stuff to do. God help us. I don't say that to be condemning, but is that true? Do we need to be crying out to God like we never have? Those of you who are older and remember, what was it like when we first, when we came to church in the late 60s, early 70s? Prayer rooms full of people crying out to God, little children in one room crying out to God, oh, God, we need you. God, come. You wonder why the God's presence was something like you felt like you cut it with a knife. God was there. It was no problem to get through a service and then go have lunch or go whatever. Man, it all depends on what God is doing. What's God doing here? Is he doing stuff? Does he want to do stuff? May God help us. So that's a tale of two churches.

You know, the things that happen in the New Testament, there are seasons when God acts in certain ways. So my focus is not just trying to get stuff to happen or come up with a formula, but it's just, let's seek God for who we are and where we're at right now and expect him not just to give us good truth, to encourage us, but to actually act. We need truth. We need his power, whatever form that takes. You know, it was a time when it was, when God spoke to us in visions. I don't, that may not be his plan. And when, when that happened, we did the right thing. Brother Thomas encouraged everybody, let's pray. We don't want this to be from the, we don't want anything from the enemy. Seek the Lord like never before. What is this about? God, we want to make sure it's you. And God will help us if that's our heart. However he chooses to act, that's up to him. Lord, we just want to hand you a blank check and say, God, whatever form it takes, we need you to come and act in our midst. We don't just need words. We need your presence and your power. Does that sound like something we want to do? I believe God will help us. And I just give that, just give it out and let the Lord do with it what he will. God help me. That means me. I can't just sit there and say, well, they're all going to pray for me. I don't have to do anything. Everybody, every believer has a ministry that has been given to you by God. And it's to go to God on behalf of whatever. And, and the gifts and all of those things, they'll fall into place, whatever form. But this, this, we think of this as ministry. You're the ministers. You have the greatest ministry that there is. And you can't just say, oh, there's a need. If only Phil will preach the right sermon, it'll all happen. No, we need God to intervene. And he will, if we will seek him with all of our hearts. May God help us. I believe he will. Praise God. While it is not required, a donation of $10 for DVDs and $5 for CDs is suggested to help with expenses. Also for those who request it, we will send you our quarterly publication, The Midnight Cry Messenger, free and postage paid. Send your requests to Midnight Cry Ministries, Post Office Box 685, Southern Pines, North Carolina, 28388. We invite you to join us again next week at the same time, and may God richly bless you until then.