Word and Spirit - Saddleback Weekend Service

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Oh Jesus, our Saviour, Your pain lifted high, oh God You have done great things You have done great things Oh God, You do great Oh God, You do great Oh God, You do great I've got done great things He's not finished yet He's not finished yet Come on church He's done great things He's done great things Good grief, it feels good to worship Jesus It feels good to lift high His name together To sing out loud together The same truth about who He is The same truth about what He's doing My name is Mack Brock I am a worship leader from Charlotte, North Carolina And it is just such a pleasure to be in Southern California It's so nice Got the big windows open We don't have that at my church I wish we did Hey, before we just continue to worship I want to share a quick story about this next song So, we wrote this song At a church I was on staff at several years ago And we wrote this song because we wanted a song that was like an altar call song We wanted a song that after we gave the invitation

That we could play this song for people to come and receive Jesus That was like the mindset and the heart for this song And then as soon as we started actually playing this song in church We realized, man, this song is not just for people to come meet Jesus for the first time This is a song for every single person every single day Because every single day we have got to come to the feet of Jesus Every single day we can say, I am hurting I am broken I am in desperate need of a Savior And He will always welcome us in So let's just cling to that as we continue just to worship God in the presence of His name Let's sing Jesus is calling Oh Jesus is calling out Yes He is His Father's arms are open wide Forgiveness is falling The precious blood of Jesus Christ Every voice in this place Oh what a Savior Isn't He wonderful Sing Hallelujah Christ is risen ♪ Yes He is, yes He is alive so bow down before Him ♪ ♪ For He is Lord of all ♪ ♪ Sing hallelujah, Christ is risen ♪ ♪ No one has saved Him, no one has saved Him, no one ♪ ♪ Wonderful, sing hallelujah, Christ is risen ♪ ♪ Yes He is, our God is alive so bow down before Him ♪

♪ For He is Lord of all, sing hallelujah, Christ is risen ♪ Come on we sing. ♪ O come to the altar, the Father's arms are open wide ♪ ♪ Forgiveness was born with the precious blood of Jesus Christ ♪ ♪ The Father's arms are open wide, yes they are, oh oh oh oh ♪ Come on sing together. ♪ Christ is my firm foundation, the rock on the mountain ♪ ♪ On which I stand, and everything around me shall be heaven ♪ ♪ I'll never bend, I'll put my faith in You alone ♪ ♪ He's never let me down, He's faithful through generations ♪ ♪ So why would He fail now, He won't, no, no He won't ♪ ♪ And I've still got joy in chaos, I've got peace that makes no sense ♪ ♪ So I won't be going under, I'm not held by my own strength ♪ ♪ Cause I built my life on Jesus, He's never let me down ♪ ♪ He's faithful in every season, He's never let me down ♪ ♪ So why would He fail now, He won't, no, no He won't ♪ ♪ Oh He won't, He won't fail, He won't fail ♪ ♪ Christ is my firm foundation, the rock on which I stand ♪ ♪ The rock on which I stand, and everything around me's shaking ♪ ♪ I've never been more alive, cause I put my life in Jesus ♪ ♪ He's never let me down, He's faithful through generations ♪ ♪ So why would He fail now, He won't, no, no He won't ♪ ♪ He won't fail, He won't fail, He won't fail ♪ ♪ He's faithful in every season, He's never let me down ♪ rain, wind, blue, my house is built on You. I'll say it with you, I'm gonna make it through. rain, wind, blue, my house is built on You. I'll say it with you, I'm gonna make it through. This is our prayer, hear it now, Lord. We believe it now. My house is built on You. We're building it on our first foundation. We're gonna make it through this, Lord. Oh, I'm gonna make it through. Come on, whatever you're facing, whatever it is that's right in front of you that feels impossible, it's with you right now. My house is built on You. Christ is my first foundation.

The world is shining. Everything around me is shaking. I put my faith in Jesus. He's never let me down. I put my faith in Jesus. He's never let me down. I put my faith in Jesus. He's never let me down. He won't fail. He won't fail. No, He won't. We believe. No, He won't. He needs us well. He won't fail. Fail. He won't. He won't ever win. He won't fail. He won't fail. No, He won't. Can we all close our eyes in this place right now? And we are in the presence of Jesus right now. The Holy Spirit fills this place. He dwells in our praises. And those are not empty words. He won't fail us. He never will. He is with us always. And we respond to Him. We respond to His truth. We respond to His mercy, to His grace. Oh, we love You, Lord. Oh, we worship You, Jesus. Oh. And I love You, Lord. And I lift my voice to worship You. Oh, my soul rejoice. Take joy, my King, in what You hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear. Can we just sing that one more time? And I love You, Lord. And I lift my voice to worship You. Oh, my soul rejoice.

my soul. Rejoice and take joy, my King. Yes, we take joy. In Take joy, my King, in what You hear. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound in Your ear. what you hear. And let it be a sweet, sweet sound. Oh, let it be a sweet, sweet sound. Let it be a sweet, sweet sound. Yes. God, we praise you and we thank you for being our firm foundation. We thank you that you are someone that we can put our trust, our hope and our love in. We love you and we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. Welcome to Saddleback Church. I'm so grateful that you're joining us for church today. You can access our digital program by hitting the link in the description down below, or by downloading our Saddleback app and finding it there. Now if you're new here, or if this is your first time, we want to specifically welcome you. And so you can go to the app, select online community as your campus and hit the new here button so that we can personally reach out to you, welcome you and help you get connected to our church. Well, this weekend, we are kicking off our off the shelf series, where each week for the next four weeks, we are inviting guest best selling authors to come and share stories and wisdom with our church. And each week, we want to give you guys the opportunity to read some of the books by these authors. And so after service each week, we're going to let you guys know how you can purchase and buy these books. But we also want to have a little bit of fun. So each week, we're going to be giving away five of the books by the guest speaker. And you're going to have an opportunity to be entered to win one of those five books. All you got to do is fill out the next steps card in the Saddleback app. That's all you got to do. Fill out the next steps card in the Saddleback app, and you'll be entered to

receive one of the books that we're giving away. So before service ends today, go to the Saddleback app, fill out the next steps card. Well, this weekend here at Saddleback is also very special, because we had our very first Love Local Serve day where we invited our entire church family to go out into their communities and to serve to be the hands and feet of Jesus and to spread love and hope to others. And it's been an awesome experience. I got to go to one of our local community colleges that I actually attended. And I got to walk around the entire campus praying over the students, the buildings, the rooms, the professors, the staff, all of it. It was such a great experience. And I'm hearing so many stories about how you guys are going out in your communities and serving as well. I've heard of you guys donating food and resources to those who are in need, to daycares. I've heard of you guys putting together care packages for local first responders, spending time with your neighbors, crocheting coasters for people. It's been so awesome hearing each of the ways that you guys are showing up in your communities. And so we want to say thank you. Thank you for showing up, for being the hands and feet of Jesus, for being a part of our Love Local Serve day, and for showing up and showing love to others. We love you guys so much. You guys are the absolute best. Well, Serve Day isn't the only exciting thing happening here at Saddleback. Let's go ahead and join the rest of our church family and find out what else is happening here at Saddleback. Hey, everybody, I am so glad that you're here in church today. This is a great weekend. So many great things that God is doing all across our campuses. In fact, this weekend, as we had our Love Local Serve Day, which you've already heard about, God

used thousands of people all across Southern California to love to impact the communities around our campuses. And from my heart to you, I want to say thank you. I want to say thank you for pouring out your life, for serving, for rolling up your sleeves to represent Jesus. There are thousands of lives and communities all across our region that will be forever impacted as a result of what God did through you this weekend. I also want to say thank you for your generosity. You know, this whole event happened because of your giving. In fact, about a year and a half ago, when we did our Dream Now initiative, we said one of the big emphasis that we have is that we want to love local. We want to love the local community around our campuses. And this Serve Day was directly connected to that Love Local Vision initiative. So your giving on a regular basis, and in particular, your giving to Dream Now has already made a difference in the community around us. Now, I want to invite you, if this is your home church or you're a follower of Jesus, to participate today in your giving. God loves when we give from a heart of gratitude. It's a part of our worship. Giving back to him is our saying thank you for all that you've done in our lives. So today, you can participate in your giving through the app, or there will be a time at the end of the service that you can join as there will be some buckets passed around. Now also this weekend is Activate. Activate's happening at all of our campuses. This is very important. Activate is your starting point. So if you're new to Saddleback or you're not yet connected,

Activate is happening. You get to hear about our vision. You get to hear our history. You also get to hear more about how you can get connected and what we have as a church family to serve you. On top of that, Activate is designed really as an opportunity to get connected, for us to know you and you to know this church. And so you can sign up in your app or you can just show up at your local campus to be a part of this weekend's Activate. Now in just a moment, Pastor R.T. Kendall, Dr. R.T. Kendall is gonna come and bring the message. And I do have to say, on a personal level, God has used R.T. in a massive way to impact my life personally. I personally read over a dozen of his books, several of them transformed my life, shifted direction of my life in very powerful ways. The book he talked about just a couple of years ago with learning to totally forgive others, changed my outlook on relationships and learning to love and forgive those who've hurt me. Now today's message is gonna be on the book, The Word and the Spirit. And this message really is about living in the fullness of God's word and the fullness of the power that comes from the Holy Spirit. This is a timely message. It's a timely message for what God is doing in our world,

what he's doing in our nation and what he's doing in our church. And not only is it a timely message, it's a message that has the power to impact you. The more that we live in accordance with God's word and his spirit, under that power, it changes everything in our lives. So today as he comes, it's good for you to know this is his birthday weekend. I'll let him tell you which birthday it is, but I do wanna invite you, all of our campuses, let's show some Saddleback love and give a warm welcome to Dr. R.T. Kendall. Oh, don't do that. Please don't do that. Okay, it's enough. Okay. Well, it was a great honor when Andy Wood invited me a couple of years ago, double honor to be back. And I pray that I will be a blessing. I need to say a word about the chair. Thought you might wanna wonder. A couple years ago, a little bit of vertigo began to set in. And then five weeks ago, I had a fall and I had a concussion. And so my balance problem was really augmented by these two things. And so I've been sitting for the last couple of years. If you have a problem with this, get over it. I wanna read to you from the book of Acts chapter three. Acts chapter three, beginning at verse one.

May I ask you this? Have you ever wondered why Jesus did not heal this man? 40 years old, never walked. And Jesus went right by him several times, but didn't heal him. And then one day, Peter and John were going up to the temple for the time of prayer at three in the afternoon. A man who was lame from birth was being carried there. He was placed each day at the temple gate called Beautiful so that he could beg from those entering the temple. When he saw Peter and John about to enter the temple, he asked for money. Peter, along with John, looked straight at him and said, look at us. So he turned to them expecting to get something from them. But Peter said, I don't have silver or gold, but what I do have, I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk. Then taking him by the right hand, he raised him up and at once his feet and ankles became strong. So he jumped up and started to walk and he entered the temple with them, walking, leaping, and praising God. All the people saw him walking and praising God. And they recognized that he was the same man who used to sit and beg at the Beautiful gate. of the temple. So they were filled with awe and astonishment at what had happened to him. But Peter then later said, Why does this surprise you? May God be pleased to bless the reading and the preaching of this, his most holy and infallible

word. A brief word of prayer. Heavenly Father, I pray now for the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus by your Spirit to rest upon every mind in this place in order that their perception of what I say will be heard as you intend. Cleanse my tongue that I will be your transparent instrument to say everything that needs to be said, nothing that doesn't need to be said. Help me to be very, very clear, very, very simple. And may this word bring honor and glory to your name. I pray this in Jesus' name, amen. I speak to you on the subject, the word and the Spirit. And I want to do so in the light of this passage that I've read, with particular reference how the Holy Spirit relates to this situation, this story. And so Peter and John, on their way to a prayer meeting, that's where they were headed, three o'clock planned prayer meeting at the temple, and they were going to that point. Now, the things I want to say about the Holy Spirit, I begin with this, and this is so important, the sameness of the Spirit, the sameness of the Spirit. In other words, the way He was 2,000 years ago, He's that way today. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. So also the Holy Spirit is the same yesterday and today and forever. Psalm 1027, you are the same. Malachi 3, verse 6, I am the Lord, I do not change. Well, in October 1992, we had in Wembley Conference Center in London, the first Word and Spirit conference, and it was there that I made this statement, that in my view, there has been a silent divorce in the church, speaking generally, between the Word and the Spirit. Now, when there's a divorce, sometimes the children stay with the mother, sometimes the children stay with the father. In this divorce, you've got those that are on the Word side and those that are on the Spirit side. What's the difference?

Well, take those on the Word side. What is the message? Well, they're very clear. The honor of God's name will not be restored until we get back to the Word, sound doctrine, get back to Reformation teaching, justification by faith, sovereignty of God, assurance of salvation. Until we get back to these teachings, the honor of God's name will not be restored. What's wrong with that emphasis? Nothing. It's exactly right. It's what I believe. Those on the Spirit side, what is their message? Well, it's very, very clear. The honor of God's name will not be restored until we get back to the book of Acts, where there were signs, wonders, miracles. When they had a prayer meeting, the place was shaken. Get into Peter's shadow, you're healed. Lie to the Holy Spirit, you're struck dead. And until we have that kind of power, the honor of God's name will not be restored. What's wrong with that emphasis? Nothing. It's exactly right. It's what I believe. The problem is, so it seems to me, and in my old age, I've had the privilege of traveling all over the world. And there may be exceptions, and I'd be thankful for when they are. But generally speaking, wherever I go, it's either a word church or a spirit church. And you can tell in 30 seconds, are you in a word church or is this a spirit church? And so the problem is, it's one or the other. And when Jesus said to the Pharisees, you do not know the power of God or the scriptures, they didn't know either one.

And so in some churches today, they don't have either, but it's often the case one or the other. And what I long for that the day will come when the two together meet, and then there will be spontaneous combustion. And that is what is needed. And that has been my burden in my old age, as I say, and wherever I go to see the two come together and it not be one or the other. Well, that's what I mean by sameness of the spirit. You see, there's those who teach that it's called cessationism, that this miracle ceased 2,000 years ago. That's not true. There's not anything in the Bible about it. It's only a theory. People make it into a doctrine, which is very, very sad. But I want to talk now about the sovereignty of the spirit. Now, what do I mean by sovereignty? Well, it mirrors the sovereignty of God. He said to Moses, Exodus 33, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious. Well, here's the question. Why didn't Jesus heal this man? I know people who say, well, if Jesus comes to your house, everybody's going to get healed. That's just not true. Jesus walked right by him, walked right by him. And you remember this about Jesus? This may surprise you. Jesus was not his own man. He said so, John 5, 19, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do. Well, sovereignty of the spirit is the Holy Spirit suddenly wanted to heal this man. Why not before? Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will not speak on his own. The King James says he will not speak of himself. It's a bad translation. Jesus said, when the Holy Spirit comes, he will not speak on his own. What this shows is that Jesus and the Holy Spirit are identical in this way. Jesus would do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do, so the Holy Spirit will do nothing of himself. He won't speak on his own. In other words, there's unity. There's no rivalry. There's no difference in the Trinity, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so, the sovereignty of the spirit must not be forgotten. After Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again, he went on to say, the spirit of the wind blows where it will. You know where it's coming from. You can't tell where it's going. So is everyone that is born of God. And so, the Holy Spirit determines what his servants do. And for some reason, God was not pleased. I sometimes wonder that maybe Jesus, as he's walking by, seeing this crippled man, he must have said, Father, shall we heal him? And I wonder, it's just a little speculation, maybe the Father said, I'm saving him for Peter and John. But anyway, he didn't heal him. And so, we wonder, why doesn't God do what we ask him to do? This is something we need to learn. And I wish I could get this over. It's so important.

You cannot make God do things. You can't make him do anything. And you must bow to his sovereignty. It's a message that I think so many charismatics need to hear. But I want to go to a third point. Sensitivity of the Spirit. This, in my opinion, is the most neglected and important teaching regarding the person of the Holy Spirit. It's something people just haven't thought about it. That the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, is a very sensitive person. Now, I wanted to write a book on the sensitivity of the Spirit. People quote the book as being sensitivity to the Spirit. It's part of that. It kind said that, but that's not the point I want to make. The person, the third person of the Trinity is a very, very sensitive person. Now, when we speak of a person being sensitive or hypersensitive, it's not a compliment. You've heard them say, be careful around this person. They get their feelings hurt very easy. This is the way the Holy Spirit is. You say, well, he'll not be like that, but that's the way he is. He's a very sensitive person. In fact, when Paul said in Ephesians chapter four, verse 30, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God with whom he was sealed for the day of redemption, the word grieve comes from a Greek word that means get your feelings hurt. You say, surely you can't hurt the feelings of the Holy Spirit. Yes, you can. Now, I'll tell you how you do it. You see, all Christians have the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit may be grieved, and the Holy Spirit in you grieved. That means the anointing, as it were, lifts. Or you take the word grieve, you say, well, how can you grieve the Spirit? He tells you the very next verse, let all bitterness, anger, clamor, evil speaking be put away from any unforgiveness. This is what grieves the Holy Spirit. John chapter one, John the Baptist explains how he knew that Jesus was the Messiah. He said, he who sent me said, when you see the dove come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Spirit. Now, what does this mean? Well, you know about dove, I'm sure, but many people haven't seen this point. He comes down and remains. Now, I'm sure many of you understand. You've had this happen to you. The Holy Spirit will just come down. And when he comes down, there is nothing like it. It doesn't happen every day with me, at least. But when the Holy Spirit comes down and you think, oh, this is so good. Lord, oh, don't go. Don't go. Please stay. Please stay. But for some reason, he doesn't remain. It's like the dove flies away. What made that happen? The Holy Spirit came down on Jesus and he remained. When the Holy Spirit came down on Jesus, he said, I like it here. I'm just going to stay. Jesus never, ever grieved the Holy Spirit,

but we do. And so we feel his presence and the day goes on. You think, well, what happened? Why don't I feel what I felt hours ago? Maybe you were on the telephone and you got angry with somebody. You had an argument with your wife. Maybe you're driving down the interstate and there's a car in front of you going slow. You roll down your window. What's the matter with you? The dove just flies away. You're in a supermarket and you're really wanting to get going and you're at the cash register and you're in a hurry and there's a sweet little old lady in front of you counting her change and you go, oh, you wanted her to hear you? She did, but so did the dove. He just flies away. And here's the problem. The Holy Spirit will not bend the rules for any of us. And if I were to say to you, the easiest thing in the world to do is to grieve the Holy Spirit, you may need some time to absorb it, but you'll find out it's the easiest thing in the world. Or another way to put it, the hardest thing in the world to do is to keep from grieving. I remember preaching in Florence, Alabama. I remember the pastor and I were walking into the pulpit. He turned to me. I don't know why he did this. He said, what's a veteran like you got to say to a young whippersnapper like me? I said, I'll tell you. you, find out what grieves the Holy Spirit, and don't do that. And you've got your work cut out for you, because it's so easy to grieve the Spirit. You do it when you don't realize it. You say, well, that's not fair. I'm telling you, it's the most challenging teaching I've ever come across. A British couple were sent by their denomination to Israel as missionaries, and they were given a home in which to live near Jerusalem. They discovered, after they were there a few days, that a dove had come to live in the eve of the roof of their house, and they were so excited, it was like a seal of God on their being in Israel. But they noticed that every time they would slam a door, the dove would fly away. Every time they would get into an argument with each other, and they'd start shouting, the dove would fly away. And one day Sandy said to Bernice, he told this story all over Britain, have you noticed the dove?

Oh, yes, she said, it's like a seal of God on our being in Israel. Have you noticed every time we slam a door, dove flies away? Every time we get into an argument with each other and shout, the dove flies away. She said, I'm so afraid that he will fly away and not come back. He just looked at her and said, we want to keep the dove here, don't we? She said, yes. And then this was the statement, either the dove adjusts to us, or we adjust to the dove. And it changed their lives. And that was just to keep a bird in their house. The Holy Spirit is a hundred times more sensitive than that, and if we can find out what grieves him and keep from causing the dove to fly away. Did you know that pigeons and doves are in the same family? Anatomically, they're identical. Temperamentally, they're different. Anatomically, any veterinarian will tell you, you operate on a pigeon or a dove, it's the same body, same structure, spine, gallbladder, everything is the same. A pigeon is just a fat dove. But they're altogether different, whereas the dove is a symbol of the Holy Spirit. The pigeon is a symbol of the counterfeit. And so pigeons and doves are different temperamentally. A dove is gentle. A pigeon is boisterous. A dove is sweet and loving. The opposite with a pigeon. A pigeon, however, you can train. You can train a pigeon. You can't train a dove. And so the dove, a symbol of the Holy Spirit, we can't manipulate the dove. You can't get near a dove. You walk up to a pigeon and pick him up.

Some people have heard them say, you should have been in the service Sunday, the Holy Ghost came down. Really? Oh, yeah. You get to the bottom of it, you found out it was pigeon religion. Some people, because there's noise and waving flags, that's the Holy Ghost. We need to learn the authentic Holy Spirit. You may not like this, but it's so easy to grieve him. And we all want the dove to come down. We want the fire to fall. We need to learn how to keep the dove so that he's not grieved. And I'm telling you, this will change your life. Let it grip you. So we're talking about the sensitivity of the Spirit. Now here's my point in bringing this up. How did Peter and John know to stop and heal that crippled man? They're on their way to a prayer meeting. They'd done that before. And suddenly, they stop. It's because they were in tune with the Holy Spirit. They heard the voice of the Spirit. They had not grieved the Spirit. Had they had an argument with their wives just as they walked out the door, they would have made it on to the prayer meeting. Had, let's say, when Peter says to the crippled man, look at us, what if John said, wait, wait, Peter, why are you the one that gets to say look at us? Why can't I once in a while say it? The dove would have just flown away. They'd have made it to the prayer meeting. prayer meeting. I'll tell you an interesting story. A friend of mine, Sam Song, is here.

He will know the night. I was preaching in Seoul, Korea a year or so ago, and a lady came up to me after the service and said, I work with A.I. That's what I do. She says, tell me, do you think that artificial intelligence can imitate the voice of the Holy Spirit? And I thought, I said, I can answer you. I hear the voice of the Holy Spirit in proportion to how little I have grieved the Spirit. And she was blown away. She said, A.I. cannot do that. You see, this is the one thing, when it comes to experiencing God, where you bypass A.I., and this is something that Christians need to discover, when you are sensitive and you hear His voice and you know what to do. Well, I come to the fourth point, the spontaneity of the Spirit. You see, they were on their way to a scheduled prayer meeting. But what if they wanted to be legalistic? And Peter says, look at us. And John says, no, we can't do this. We got to get to that prayer meeting. Oh, no, God wants to heal this man. No, Peter, we got to get to the prayer meeting. You see, some people are stuck like that. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And I wonder how many really experience this. And so there's this spontaneity about the Holy Spirit. And there are so many Christians that have no—I don't mean to be unfair, but have no idea what this is like. And I pray that my message today will have an effect on you, to get you to want to know how real all of this is. Well, what happened was that the man was healed instantly. He had never walked a day in his life. Instantly, he's walking around, and everybody is excited. They can't believe it. And the word gets out all over Jerusalem. It was a household name. Everybody knew. Everybody knew about this crippled man. And now he's jumping up and down. And they're all coming everywhere. We come now to the fifth point that I want to make, the surprise of the Spirit. And so they come gathering, and they say to Peter and John, what's going on? What is this? And Peter says, why does this surprise you? You see, it shows what can happen with the power of God when you believe, and you're not tied to something that will keep you bound. And this is the amazing thing. Why does this surprise you? Well, at Westminster Chapel, the last two years I was there, I can tell you that it was a Word church. When I arrived, it was Word and Spirit when I left. And we started having healing meetings, anointing with oil. And one Friday night after our school of theology, a lady came up to me after the service, and she said, I want to convert. Can I talk to you? I said, what do you mean, you want to convert? She said, I'm a Muslim.

I want to convert to Christianity. Well, I didn't take her seriously. I just said, well, that's very nice. See you Sunday after the service. You come and see me after the service Sunday. I thought I'd never see her again. She was first in the queue Sunday, and she came in. Her name was Maya, and she was a Muslim. And she gave her testimony, and it was obviously she was converted, soundly. And eventually she became a member of the church. I baptized her. But I didn't know what I'm going to tell you now. What brought all this on? And it's a long story. Just to fast forward, after she had received the anointing of oil on a Sunday evening, the following Thursday, she was wheeled into the operating room at a London hospital, and they took one more x-ray. And the surgeon comes in and says, Maya, we're not going to operate. There's no cancer. She had throat cancer. She was healed. And I thought of the question, why does this surprise you? I have to say, it did, but why should it? One Sunday night, a couple from Peru, speaking in broken English, came up to me, this sweet little lady said, you healed me last week, heal my husband. I said, what? She said, last week you prayed for me, I'm healed, I'll pray for you. She says, this leg was big, swollen, this leg's regular. You prayed for me last week, the next day, this leg the same size as this leg, no medicine, no doctor, now pray for my husband. I said, okay, what's the matter with you? He said, I don't sleep, haven't had a good sleep in 25 years, I can't sleep, the demons kicked me out of the bed. Well, I brought a deacon over, we laid hands on him, I could have, you know, the easy way out, come out of him, I didn't do that, I just prayed for him, anointed him with oil. Came back the following week, he said, I slept three nights this week. First time in 25 years, would you have another go? I said, okay. So we prayed for him again, the following week, he came back, slept seven nights a week like a baby, and for the rest of the time before they went back to Peru, slept like

a baby night after night. Why does this surprise you? It just shows the power of God and how it all connects to get to know the way of the Spirit, because Jesus is the same, the Holy Spirit is the same, nothing should surprise us when it comes to the power of God. And so, the sameness of the Spirit, the sovereignty of the Spirit, the sensitivity of the Spirit, the spontaneity of the Spirit, the surprise of the Spirit, but finally, the strategy of the Spirit. We asked at the beginning, why didn't Jesus heal him? Ah, there was a strategy, a divine strategy. God was saving him for Peter and John, because God knew the day would come when the Jerusalem church would need encouragement. They would need a platform. You say, well, they had a platform, they had 3,000 people converted, that was on the day of Pentecost. Yes, many converted, but most of those went back to other countries, over 20 countries, and the Jerusalem church was a handful. And so, the Jerusalem believers needed encouragement, and they would need a miracle that they could have a platform and be noticed, and God gave them, and this crippled man was healed. And now, Peter has an audience of thousands around saying, what's going on? He had the platform. The question is, how did he use the platform? Did he say, look at us? This is what the faith healers do on TV. Look at us. Peter said, don't look at us, it's not us. He pointed them to Jesus. The strategy is that they would get a chance to preach the gospel, and thousands were converted. You see, the most important thing, if God were to give Saddleback Church a level of the Spirit, where there's power, the question is, what would you do with it?

You'd be put on your honor. And so, the most important thing is to see people saved, not just to see them healed so it'll make news. See, the question is, do you know for sure that if you were to die today, would you go to heaven? And I'm going to ask you that right now, before I close. I want everybody to listen to me. Question for you. Don't apply it to the one next to you, you. Do you know for sure that if you were to die today, you would go to heaven, do you? And if you were to stand before God, you will. And if he were to ask you. He might. Why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say?" Think a moment. Suppose it was the real thing, and you're standing before God, oh, by the way, you will stand alone. You won't have your best friend or your parent to whisper the answer, here's what you're supposed to say. You're standing before God. He says, why should I let you into my heaven? There's only one answer. Give the right answer, you're in. Give the wrong answer, you have to go someplace else. And in case you didn't know, that means hell. And so what would you say? I'm asking you right now. It comes to your mind what you say to God. If by now it has not already come to your mind that you would say, because Jesus died

for me, if that did not come to your mind, I wouldn't want to be in your shoes for anything in the world, but that can all change right now. I'm going to give you a prayer to pray. Pray it if you mean it. If you don't mean it, don't say it, don't pray it. You don't need to say it out loud because God will hear you, hear your heart. I want you to pray this prayer right now. Lord Jesus, I need you. I want you. I know I'm a sinner. I'm sorry for my sins. Wash my sins away by your blood. I invite your Holy Spirit to come into my heart. As best as I know how, I give you my life. That's it. Did you pray that prayer? Did you? Are you ashamed that you prayed that prayer? Why do you ask, R.T.? Because Jesus said, if you're ashamed of me, I'll be ashamed of you. Jesus said, if you confess me before people, I will confess you before my Father. I'm going to ask you to do something that you never thought you would do when you came to this church today. But if you prayed that prayer, in the next 10 seconds, I'm going to ask you to stand up. And I'm addressing not just those here, but at other campuses, wherever you are. Where you are, in the next 10 seconds, I'm going to ask you to stand up. You say in front of all these people, yes. Five, four, three, two, one. If you prayed the prayer, stand to your feet.

Remain standing. Okay. You can stop clapping, but remain standing. Stop clapping, but remain standing. Now you that are standing, well done. Some of you, probably, were saved before today. But there are some standing, you've never prayed a prayer like that before or stood to confess Christ. And if you're one of those, you've never prayed a prayer like that, would you like to know what just happened to you? You just got born again. Happy birthday. And now you can be seated. I'm finished. Amen. What a wonderful and powerful message from Dr. R.T. Kendall. We see that through the story of Peter and John, we see that the works of the Spirit are always pointing us to Jesus. And if you prayed that prayer with R.T. and you decided to say yes to Jesus for the very first time, congratulations. That is the best decision that you will ever make. And we would love to know about it. We would love to pray for you and to walk with you in that. So you can let us know by filling out the Next Steps card in the Saddleback app so that we can walk with you in that. The Next Steps card is also a great way for you to let us know if there's another next step that you want to take in your faith, whatever that may be, you can let us know there. As you're filling that out, let's go ahead and join the rest of our church family as

we worship through singing. Thank you. Amen. Pour Your Spirit out Pour Your Spirit out Holy anointing The power of Your presence Pour Your Spirit out Oh we want You Pour Your Spirit out Come on, let's sing when we need it Pour Your Spirit out Pour Your Spirit out Pour Your Spirit out Pour Your Spirit out Would You pour Your Spirit out On our church Pour Your Spirit out On our lives Lord Pour Your Spirit out Just pour Your Spirit out Pour Your Spirit out So we sing And let all the redeemed Prophesy and sing As we can hear the wind blowing So Holy Spirit blowing He's here right now And move upon our praise Sons and daughters sing

We can hear the wind blowing Let your redeemed of the Lord sing Let all the redeemed Prophesy and sing As we can hear the wind blowing Yes we know it Move upon our praise Sons and daughters sing Yes we can hear it He's been moving And we need a fresh way The fragrance of heaven Pour Your Spirit out Pour Your Spirit out The Holy anointing The power of Your presence Pour Your Spirit out We are desperate Pour Your Spirit out Yes we need a fresh way We need a fresh way The fragrance of heaven Pour Your Spirit out Just pour Your Spirit out The Holy anointing The power of Your presence Pour Your Spirit out Pour Your Spirit out Pour Your Spirit out So be sure to fill that out in the Saddleback app.

If you're looking to purchase Dr. R.T. Kendall's book, you can go ahead and use the QR code on your screen and it'll take you to a link where you can purchase his book there. Next week we are continuing our off-the-shelf series and we're inviting Pastor Aaron Graham to join us. Aaron Graham is the lead pastor of the District Church and he's the author of Unshakable Faith, How to Stand Firm in a Culture of Lies. So we are so excited for that and we hope that you'll join us for that next week. Once again, thank you guys for joining us. We love you so, so much. We hope you have the best week ever and we'll see you back here for church next week. ♪