Alrighty, good morning Cross Assembly family.
Everybody good? Man, I'm so ready for Wednesday nights to get started backed up. It's been a long summer. I miss our Wednesday nights. We're getting cranked up, not this Wednesday, okay, but the following Wednesday. What is that, the seventh? Is that right?
The seventh. And so that's when we're going to crank things back up. But it's good to have you here today. Let's say hello to our brethren and sister and over at the North Raleigh.
Oh, some great folks over there. It's good to have you guys with us. See me. I'm gonna be out at the fountain.
We get through today. Come by. You'll see me out there, particularly guests. I love meeting our guests and come by and see me.
And also, it's kind of a sad goodbye. We're launching out. Ashley and Meredith Penley and their kids. They actually served as our youth pastor here for years and went into the mission field, and he and Meredith and the kids. This is their last Sunday with us.
They're going to go back to Ecuador. We're actually going to do a team there next year. Can we thank Jesus for the Penley family who's here with us today?
Great, great family. Doing an incredible work there in Ecuador. Now, speaking of missions, we're launching our Albania group today. In fact, if you're on this mission trip to Albania, would you come and stand down front here?
I mean, it's a very wild country. But the Balkans, that area has been a place of incredible division and bloodshed, and I really believe demonic strongholds. And man, it's great to send out some salt and light to change that part of the world for Jesus Christ. Amen? And I used to pray. So let's pray that God will keep them safe. I've stopped praying that prayer.
That is a defensive prayer. I'm not gonna pray that God will make them safe. I'm gonna pray that God will make them dangerous. So dangerous when they're walking in that country, demonic strongholds come on their way, they want to make them safe.
Come on. come down and the kingdom of darkness is pushed back and I don't know Just do this throughout the week. I don't this happens to you. It happens to me Sometimes I'll just be minding my business and like God will put the Albanian team on my heart Wherever you're at just stop and have a prayer for them Maybe in your morning devotions as you're alone with Jesus as the Spirit of God prompts you just pray for them And we're gonna see God do some great things. Can you just stretch forth your hands and let's pray over them now Father I say this a lot, but I mean this It's an amazing thought that from foundation of the earth You have destined this group of people to go to that part of the world and Do some mighty things for Jesus Christ Lord in the book of Daniel it says in the last days those who know their God will be strong and they will do exploits God that's my prayer for this team right now make them strong and May they do exploits for the kingdom of God Father don't keep them safe make them dangerous make them so dangerous to the powers of darkness that wherever their foot Trods in that country new land will be taken for the kingdom of God and father We don't know how you can answer this prayer But God we know in the heavenly realms.
This prayer is answered and this team will come back Successfully Lord having completed the task that you have given them and we speak this blessing over them Now in the name of Jesus and for the glory of Jesus and the people of God said, amen Alright, can we thank the Lord one more time? God bless you team be praying for you Still in the cup of y'all this past week We got contacted in the office by the BBC the British Broadcasting Corporation Corporation now, I thought the secretary said the BBN though. I'm serious the Bible Broadcasting Network I said she said no. No, it's the BBC the British Broadcasting Corporation they're gonna be coming to America into this month into September and doing a story on the upcoming elections and Are interested in filming here at cross assembly and talking to me and interviewing me and all that kind of stuff Hey, don't be friend about this not this week for the next week I'll be doing the zoom call with them just to see if this is what God wants us to do and They're very nice people. So, you know, we conservatives get really nervous when the media calls these seem like nice folks. Okay, and Have you ever noticed this before?
I Don't care how intelligent or unintelligent you are if you have a British accent you sound the smartest person in the world in amazing And converse if you have a southern accent, you sound like the biggest goofball in the world. But any rate They interested in what we have to say and do about the upcoming elections and And and outside the church world. There's this idea that we conservatives Believe if we're gonna change society that don't amen me. Okay, if we're gonna change society We got to mobilize the troops and vote right vote conservative vote Republican And I'm just telling you I believe if you're a Christian that Christian worldview ought to Impact the way you parent the way you work the way you vote.
I do believe that but you understand listen election and The power of election and the power of voting right that's way down on my list of ways to change this world for Jesus Christ it's It's doing the best that the world knows how to do politics But that is not our primary weapon We have bigger ways better ways more powerful ways to change this world for Jesus Christ and One of those is by the power of God manifesting the power of God Allowing the power of God to flow through us to do things that only the Spirit of God can do The weapons of our warfare are not carnal weapons. They are divine weapons that we have So I want you to turn it through to Mark chapter 1 we going through the gospel of Mark I want you to see just a few examples of How God God's Spirit flowed through Jesus and Jesus changed his world through that supernatural power of God flowing through him Mark chapter 1 verse 29 now as soon as they had come out of the synagogue, they entered the whole house of Simon and Andrew with James and John but Simon's wife. This is Peter Simon Peter Simon Peter's wife Her mother lay sick with a fever and they told him about her at once So he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up and immediately the fever left her and she served them So you see what's happening? Jesus has been in the synagogue. We thought of that last week He's cast some demons out and when you go to Capernaum with me if y'all ever go literally right across the street is an old house that was excavated and Archaeologists are convinced that this old house is Simon Peter's house. There's an old church built around it It's so old that it may have been built during the time where there were some people who? Knew people who remembered Simon Peter and that's all his house. It's right here Actually, here's a picture of it right here Simon Peter's house there in Capernaum I think we've got yeah, and so there's the foundations of that house and it's interesting There's a little small grotto like a little holy room built around one rooms of those houses at that house Almost as if they were saying this whole church surrounds Peter's house But this one room was Jesus's room. This is where Jesus stayed when he lived here with Simon Peter. So you get the picture He goes to the synagogue He casts out demons He goes right across the street and as I Peter's mother-in-law who lives here She has a fever and in those days now we take Tylenol or whatever you understand in those days When elderly people got things like fever many times that was the beginning of the end So she lives there in the house She has a fever Implication is she may be dying and she's gonna leave that house and Jesus comes in and he touches her and he heals her and the fever leaves and now Peter's mother-in-law It gets to stay there with him and many scholars believe that may have been why Peter denied Jesus later on just Joking Say heals Peter's mother-in-law Verse 32 at evening When the Sun had set They brought him all who were sick and those were demon possessed And the whole city was gathered together at the door Then he healed many who were sick with various diseases and cast out many demons And he did not allow the demons to speak because they knew him. So yeah here he goes again He's healing people skip down to verse 40 now a leper came to him imploring him Kneeling down to him and saying to him if you are willing you can make me clean then Jesus moved to the compassion stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him I am willing be clean Be cleansed be healed Beautiful as soon as he had spoken immediately the leprosy left him and he was cleansed now stop for just a second Leprosy Was I don't know the AIDS or the monkey pox or whatever of that day It's a horrendous disease. In fact, if you have leprosy you have to leave society You are now an outcast from society and you can't be around people And in fact if by law you see a group of people coming toward you and you have leprosy you have to shout unclean get away from me We don't know how many years this man had leprosy. Could you imagine being marginalized like that for years? You can't be around people.
You have to leave your family. You are isolated and leprosy is a horrendous disease I'm not trying to be mean that this man looks like a disgusting monster It's caused by bacteria Leprosy first originated we think in Egypt the bacillus can destroy the eye causing blindness Leprosy then penetrates the teeth. So the teeth fall out It penetrates all the bodily organs and effects of the larynx so that one winds up with a weak and raspy voice The skin loses its color becomes thick Scaly and glossy and as the sickness progresses the thickened spots become dirty and and the sores And ulcers begin popping up due to poor blood supply Fingers then drop off or absorb back into the body Eyebrows and eyelashes drop out and one knows when a leper is coming because they can smell the odor Being emitted from one of those lepers is is disgusting even from a great distance. So you understand this is not Got a headache heal me It's not I stubbed my toe make me feel better. This man has lost everything and Jesus violates social norms By touching him you're not supposed to touch a leper. He touches the leper and that may have been the first person to touch him in years And he heals him That's a miracle He heals Peter's mother-in-law. He heals the people in Capernaum. He heals this leper look at chapter 2 verse 1 And again, he entered Capernaum and after some days it was heard that he was in the house Immediately many gathered together so that there was no longer Room to receive them not even near the door and he preached the word to them then they came to him bringing a paralytic Who was carried by four men and when they could not come near him because of the crowd they uncovered the roof where he was So when they had broken through they let down the bed on which the paralytic was lying You see what's going on? Jesus is in a house possibly Peter's house.
He's healing again. There's a man that's paralyzed His friends can't get him inside so they get real creative they Go to the roof of the house You probably have support structures but there's palm fronds that's their shingles and they pull those palm fronds back and they lower this man right to the feet of Jesus look at verse 10 and he says to the paralytic I say to you arise Take up your bed and go to your house immediately he arose took up the bed and went out in the presence of them all so that all were amazed and glorified God saying I Saw anything like this This blows my mind Jesus is advancing the kingdom of God Jesus is proclaiming the good news in two ways He's doing it through the word. He's preaching and He's doing it through deed. He's healing Now you need to listen to me The American Church for years now, we've kind of lost our way.
But for years we were good at the first one Preach the gospel share tracts do Billy Graham Crusades Fantastic. We're good at that We lost the second one Let's pray and see miracles happen because whether you know it or not you and I are children of the 1700s 1900s enlightenment and the Enlightenment period of human history said if you can explain it scientifically It's real if you can test it and replicate it. It's real if you can't if it's supernatural. It's not real and You can't test and you can't replicate and you can't contain miracles that's a supernatural act of God and so what happened even in the Evangelical Church is we said if it's not explained scientifically then it's not real So let's stick with a preaching part But forget about the miracle part And I want to take you through a quick walk through history here now I need you to listen to me because some of y'all come from different backgrounds We've got Methodist here Catholics Presbyterians Baptists and you come in here and you've been taught The miracles of God ceased in the first century. There is a doctrine called cessationism Yes, Jesus did miracles Yes, the Apostles did miracles, but they stopped in the first century now. There are no supernatural miracles like this That's cessationism. Let me take you a quick walk through on this Well, first of all, you see like I said from Jesus Jesus was not a cessationist He preached the gospel and he he did miracles There are 14 instances of miracles 14 times in the book of Acts where there were miracles that led to conversions See I was taught for years. It's wrong to pray for miracles. Just preach the gospel Let's preach the gospel But let's also pray for miracles. That's what they did in the book of Acts 14 times miracles leading to conversions Ramsey McMullen who is the emeritus professor of history at Yale University, but this is not some Backcountry hillbilly from possum Holland, North Carolina given his opinion. This is a professor Emeritus from Yale University that says I've studied ancient Christianity I've studied the interaction of ancient Christianity and the Roman Empire and Ramsey McMullen says the way that Christianity was able to change the Roman Empire was the Romans saw the Christians power to heal and Deliver and it made the Roman Empire flock to Christianity Or no obvious who lived in 300 ad it's 300 ad after the the time of Jesus Yes The time where cessation say the miracle ceased and obvious is this he says Jesus chose ordinary blue-collar people During his time throughout the different nations to perform miracles This is 300 ad after the Bible is through when cessationists say the miracles have ceased aren't obvious us No, no, I'm seeing blue-collar Christians before miracles left and right Church father origin who was martyred in 253 is 253 ad after the time of Jesus Yes, that's over 200 years after the New Testament This man named origin said that Christians heal and cast out demons by simple prayers and that by and large It's uneducated blue-collar Christians that are doing it Tertullian who lived in the 200s I love this now again What I'm trying to tell you is all of this is after the Bible Those who say the miracles took place in the Bible and now it's over with this is after the Bible is written This is in the 200s ad I love what Tertullian says He's talking to pagans and he says hey pagans Y'all want to have a good time. You really want to have fun within stop going to pagan plays stop going to gladiatorial Contests stop doing all this pagan stuff and become a Christian and cast out demons and heal in the name of Jesus That's actually what fun is about Here's another one Patrick of Ireland 400 ad Ireland is horribly pagan.
I mean you've got druids You got witches You've got warlocks rampant paganism Rampant nature worship. It's basically Asheville, North Carolina. Okay, and so that's That's where Patrick finds himself And he says I want to leave this whole island to Jesus. What does he do? Does he preach the gospel? Absolutely, but you know what Patrick also did he prayed and saw signs and wonders and miracles that the druid priests could not replicate and these pagans says there has to be something to this Christian message that that man is Preaching and the whole island is converted Fuller theological seminary just a few years ago did an intense study on Why is it that Muslims in? closed Muslim countries you understand what I mean close. They're closed to preachers. They're close to the church They're close to the gospel.
Although there is no closed country. Jesus goes to whatever country he wants to go into but they said Why are all these? Muslims converting in These Muslim countries they had a list of like ten reasons Number one was the lifestyle of Christians that they saw these Christians are different than us.
We want what they've got Do you know what number two was I want to give you the direct quote the number two reason according to the study? Why Muslims in these countries are converting is quote the power of God in? answered prayers and healings at the hands of Christians Do you understand what they say?
preach the gospel in these countries But why don't we also pray and rely on the power of God and believe that the God of the Old Testament and the God Of the New Testament is the God of today and the God who healed then can heal right now why not place your hand on the shoulder of that Muslim and pray for his cancer to be healed and Muslims are coming to faith in Christ That's how Jesus did it And what was his secret? What was Jesus's secret? Well, he's God got it. But here's what Jesus said You're this before the things I did Y'all gonna do even greater things. Y'all read that before What that is in your Bible, right? I'm not making that.
Okay. Jesus says the things I did you're gonna do as well So don't throw this on what he's got. What's Jesus's secret?
I want you to go back to chapter 1 and look at verse 35 now in the morning Having risen a long while before daylight He went out and departed to a solitary place and there he what? prayed and Simon and those who are with him searched for him and when they found him they said to him Hey, everybody's looking for you Now look, that's not an incidental detail Okay The Bible doesn't put things in the Bible just to put things in the Bible in the middle of all these healings Lepers being healed Peters mother-in-law being healed demons being cast out in the middle of all of that Mark stops and says and that Jesus he'd get alone and he was a man of prayer That's how Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit healed people he was a man of prayer and Incidentally if you kind of look there at verse of 37, it's almost like they're fussing at him a little bit Jesus is there praying and the disciples comes up. What are you doing? Why are you praying all the people need you? Why are you spending time with God? You need to get out there ministering and Jesus is basically saying I can't minister to them Until I spend time with him Incidentally time out we may put this on the radio.
We may not let me do a little housekeeping here I I'm not Jesus But I will tell you that part of my job as a pastor is to pray and preach God's Word and the Spirit of God Has been convicting me Chad. You're spending so much time now on this texting stuff and email stuff for season I don't laugh. I'm gonna back to my flip phone. So y'all can't text me.
Okay, I don't I don't want to get text 24-7 I'm going back to my flip phone where I can't text and I'm probably shut down my email for a little while Okay. Well pastor if you're shutting down your email and you won't text how am I supposed to get up with you? I don't know, but I'm just telling you I'm starting to see That when you rely on Organization as a pastor you'll get what organization can give you when you rely on creativity You'll get what creativity can get you but when you rely on prayer, you'll get what God can give you And so that's I'm kind of feeling the same way at least for a season Getting away and just getting back to the prayer closet But I was Jesus Jesus is a man of prayer Hebrews 5 7 listen to this While Jesus was here on earth. He offered prayers and pleadings with a loud Cry and tears so that the one who could rescue him from death and God heard his prayers because of his deep Reverence for God.
Do you see that? The author of Hebrew said you want to know what Jesus was first. He was a man of prayer It's interesting when the disciples come to Jesus they say Lord teach us to Pray they didn't say Lord teach us to cast out demons They didn't say Lord teach us to heal They didn't say Lord teach us to preach because they understood all those things went back to Jesus's prayer life Hey, listen to me. Jesus began his ministry in prayer Luke 3 21. He continued his ministry in prayer mark 135 He ended his ministry in prayer Matthew 27 46 and he's praying right now Hebrews 7 25. Jesus is a man of prayer And SD Gordon puts it this way how much prayer meant to Jesus It was not only his regular habit, but his resort in every emergency. However, slight or serious When perplexed he prayed When hard-pressed by work, he prayed when hungry for fellowship He prayed he chose his associates and received his messages upon his knees in prayer if tempted He prayed if criticized he prayed if fatigued in body or wearied in spirit. He prayed Jesus was a man of prayer and see folks We read about the early church in the Bible. Why don't you see those miracles today? But what why don't we see demons being cast out and lepers cleansed and all that?
Why don't we see that today? Because the church knew something that seems we have lost the early church understood there is Supernatural power released when people start taking prayer seriously intense prayer Powerful prayer serious prayer produces God-sized results And we see this in places like Colossians 4 12 Colossians 4 12 is an early Christian named Epaphras apostles this Epaphras who is one of you a bond servant of Christ greets you and this man is always laboring fervently for you in prayer Paul's saying there's this man that I know he's part of your church. He is a prayer warrior He labors in prayer that word labor fervently in prayer in Greek. It's one word.
It's a go need So my what English word do you think we might get from that agony? In other words, he takes prayer seriously When he goes to that prayer closet He doesn't get up after five minutes He doesn't read a little prayer light a candle say a couple hail Mary's and then leave now He stays in that prayer closet and cries out to God until he sees God sighs miracles take place See mere little watches to me your prayer closet That's a that's a hospital delivery room where God is birthing supernatural answers Y'all look I'd always heard people say when I was a young father Oh, you know when we had our baby we went to that delivery room It's so beautiful just a peaceful experience and I don't ever get going in there I thought we must be doing something wrong because there's not a lot of peace. There's some screaming They some crying They some accusations that this is all my fault It's messy and yet something beautiful came out of that delivery room and I'm just telling you that's the prayer closet Sometimes it gets loud. Sometimes it gets a little messy but birth out of that prayer closet are supernatural things that only God can do And that's what he's saying I'll give you another example of how the early church understood. There's some kind of power released when people begin to pray James chapter 5 verse 14 Is any one of you or anyone among you sick?
Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will save the Sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he's committed sins He'll be forgiven confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed the effective fervent prayer of a righteous man of bails what much and in verse 16 James uses this word to describe that kind of prayer. He uses the Greek word energy We get our English word energy from that Energy power Supernatural energy is released in that prayer closet. I was talking to a an electrician a little while back I said look, I'll try to do a lot of things around my house Repairs or whatever one thing I won't do I don't mess with electricity. I said I'm scared of electricity He's a jab.
I'm an electrician and I'm scared of electricity You got it. You got to treat electricity with respect Because something happens when electricity is activated and James says in the heavenly realms You need to respect the power of prayer because when you pray energy is released power is released The Holy Spirit is unleashed. There's power in a group of praying people and so Now look, I don't have time to get into this but I am going to real quickly and we'll find a way to edit it Because I need you to see that this may not mean a lot to you, but it meant a lot to me This past week. So what happens when we pray I'm gonna start some of vocal cords goes to my mouth Holy Spirit when I pray in the spirit, he's he's energizing this but what happens when we pray Now are you ready to get a little bit weird and metaphysical here for just a second? Because I want you to look over the book of Revelation.
So you think here's what you think? That's Monday morning gonna be a hard day at work We'll go do a quick prayer here going to the prayer closet you mumble something you leave you think that's all that's happened Revelation chapter 5 verse 8 Now when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense Which are the prayers of these Saints? That's you You're a saint of God and Your prayers according to this verse it's like incense going up Look at Revelation chapter 8 verse 3 then another angel having a golden sensor came and stood at the altar and he was given much Incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all the Saints upon the golden altar Which was before the throne and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the Saints Ascend before God from the angels hand See to understand this you can understand there's a special Hebrew offering that the Jews recognized It's called the Katorot offering and the Katorot offering is where you take this elaborate incense you light a fire under it and that incense goes up and The Hebrews believe that God is there on his throne and that incense goes through that tent Into the atmosphere into the very presence of God And God inhales that and says I love that Who we see this in Genesis 8 21 where it literally says Noah? Sacrificed to God and it says it was a pleasant aroma in nostrils of God Would you listen to me? So y'all think You come to that prayer closet God's doing this was it want this time? Who is he to come and talk to me? I know how messed up you think God's like this and you got to kind of go to God beaten down like a puppy You need to understand when you and I pray it's almost like Incense being burnt on that altar and it arises into the very throne room of God and he smells those prayers and he says I Delight when I hear my son or my daughter call upon my name.
It is a delight to God So I'm going to go back to this Maybe we need to start relying more on the power of God and less on our own Wisdom and ingenuity and ability to talk people out of their pagan religion and into Christianity Maybe we need to start relying on the power of God Because there's something powerful When people begin to see that this God is not just a god of paper and word He is a god of reality. I Was talking to a minister this past week Started a very successful church. I said man, how'd you how'd you start that church?
He said just crazy He's a group of us got together. We knew God wanted us to start a church We really felt like God want us to have this property this land. It was for sale It was for sale We work hard because it's a small group of people and we raised $60,000 We go to the man who owns that property. We said we're a church He said I don't care because I'm not a Christian and they said well, we want to buy your property He said you can buy it. It's $500,000 He said well, all we have is $60,000. He laughed at him I'm not selling you my $500,000 piece of property for $60,000 with this man said I was crestfallen, but Understood. God is still sovereign.
I said well, thank you for your time He said before I left I asked him. Hey, is there anything I can pray for you about? You know tracts are great and DVDs are great.
I'm finding the greatest witnessing tool is that question. Can I pray for you? Hey, so yeah, you can pray for me.
He's what's going on. He said my wife has ovarian cancer I Love my wife Would you pray for her? He said I put my hand on that man and we prayed right there for his wife who had ovarian cancer He said the next week the guy calls me up and says We went into the doctor for the next round of treatments and the doctor scratched his head and said she doesn't have ovarian cancer anymore He said That man said what must I do to be saved? He leads him to Jesus Christ.
He joins his church and Incidentally, he sold a $500,000 piece of property for $60,000. God moves through prayer. I Remember one time talking to a brain specialist who had come to Christ brilliant, man, and I asked this brain specialist.
I said man. Tell me your testimony. How do you come to Jesus?
He said the internet. It wasn't just one thing. It was several things that drew me to Jesus He's one thing. He's I was working in a hospital and He said, um, this man had been brought in Basically, he's there just waiting to die. He said the brain injury that he had it's not like 1% survived He said 0% survived this brain injury And he said I go into his room and his wife is there praying over him And I didn't have the heart to tell her honey. Look this there's not a 1% survival rate.
There's a zero He's not gonna make it He said I didn't have the heart to tell and he said every time I come to that room. She's praying praying praying He's added to a rotation in another hospital He said I came back a couple weeks later and I see a man coming down the hallway Pushing one of those walkers and I said he looks vaguely familiar and I looked and it was the man who had a 0% survival rate up and walking in a few days later He had left the hospital and I said I can explain a lot of things through my education But I can't explain what I just saw and that was one of the things that God used to draw me to Jesus Christ You believe God still does that? See beloved this past week I asked the elders I said guys I need y'all to send me some examples of healing that we've seen not just out there but here because I'm trying to tell our people that the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament is still The God of today give us some examples of how God has healed right here at cross assembly One of these elders sent this back He said quote at the conclusion of one of our services pastor Chad invited people to come down front and the elders will pray for you Father his young daughter probably 12 years old and multiple family members came up to us for prayer The father said to me my daughter has a medical condition and she is going blind She believes that if an elder of the church prays for her she will be healed This elder said I had to struggle within myself. I said Lord.
What are you trying to do to me? I can't heal her I don't have the power to heal her then I composed myself and said to myself But I'm an elder and scripture says to call on the elders of the church if you were sick And at this point I looked at the little girl and she was glowing with expected faith She actually believed that she would be healed if I prayed for her and anointed her with oil just like the book of James says So I anointed her with oil and prayed for her to be healed in the name of Jesus a Couple weeks later the father came up to me in the lobby and told me what had happened after that prayer His daughter told him she could see clearly He thought she was being emotional and took her to see the doctor The doctor evaluated her and said there was no longer any trace of the condition that was making her go blind She looked normal with no vision issues A while back a Hindu student from UNC Chapel Hill Came to the elders in the prayer room and asked for deliverance from demonic entities The elders and their wives began to pray for her and the demonic entities manifested telling the elders to leave her alone They prayed for her for over an hour and she was released and relieved For all the demons and they followed up and she is still walking now to this day in freedom in the name of Jesus Isn't that great? Let me give you one more One of our elders talked about adopting a newborn baby who had severe fetal alcohol syndrome Baby is born with a heroin addiction cerebral palsy and numerous other problems the state of California had declared him to be in a vegetative state and Just as the family would you care for him just for six months and at the end of six months? We will institutionalize him and take him off your hands We're just asking you to basically take care of this baby in a vegetative state for six months One day a visiting evangelist spoke a prophetic word over that little baby and said that he would be a voice for the Lord A voice for the Lord.
He's his vegetable. How's he gonna be a voice for the Lord? The doctors said he will never turn over They prayed over that boy and he turned over The doctors that's fine, but he'll never walk They prayed over him and he walked Doctor so well, that's fine. But now you understand he's never going to see he won't have his sight They prayed over him and he received his sight They said he will never talk you do understand that we've been wrong whatever that but you understand this is as good as it gets He is never going to talk they prayed over that baby and he talked and to this this day That baby is now a grown-up man married to a woman and he serves as a youth pastor here in North Carolina Because God is still on the throne and God is still doing miracles Now listen to me in In high school, we used to have in college the lecture and we'd have the lab where you put the lecture to practice you Just heard the lecture Now I want to have the lab In just a moment, I'm going to ask if you need healing in your mind in your body And your soul if you need supernatural healing In just a moment. I'm gonna ask you to come forward and we're gonna let the leaders of the church pray over you now Let me just say a couple things You may get healed today, I think there's gonna be a lot of healing today You may not If you don't get healing don't let the devil start talking to you.
Well, you didn't have enough faith. That's I don't believe that Well, you know you have sin in your life. That's not necessarily true and sometimes healing I think I can prove this in Scripture I'll do it later on sometimes healing comes in stages.
Did you know that? Jesus would heal a man and then touch him again and to be healed a little bit more And so don't let the enemy play mind games with you I'm just a simple man. If the Bible says it, let's do it and Mark 16 says in my name Demons will be cast out In my name you will heal James says Pray anointing with oil and let the power of God be released and I'm just doing what the Bible tells me to do Y'all okay with that.
Y'all okay. If I do what the Bible says this morning. All right So I want everybody to stand up Now I believe if you're a born-again believer I believe every one of us has the calling of God to pray for people to be healed. I believe that But because we're a Pentecostal Church and when you put Pentecostal on your shingle you attract every fruit fly in the world Here's what we're gonna ask today. I'm gonna ask only our leaders with the orange lanyards to pray over people I know some of you really want to come down and pray I get it Here's what I want you to do. Listen to me If you don't have one of those orange lanyards in fact y'all with the orange lanyards you leaders come on down right now If that's not you just stay right where you're at. Okay and pray over everybody Would you do that?
Some of y'all gonna be tempted. Well, it's getting a little bit late I think we're going to take off don't take off Pastor what are we supposed to do? Why y'all down pray with people you supposed to pray? I want you to stretch forth the hands and pray the power God will be manifested And so as these leaders are coming down right now, here's what I want you to do.
I want you to listen to me Y'all believe that book Do you believe that book? You believe God hasn't changed he still heals today If you need healing right now in the name of Jesus I want you to come right now and let these brothers and sisters Pray over you come right now. If you need healing in the name of Jesus come right now, we're not gonna get weird We're not gonna get crazy. We're just gonna get biblical We got anoint you with oil and pray over you right now in the name of Jesus There may be an addiction that needs to be broken right now in the name of Jesus.
We're going to pray over that addiction There may be a spirit of fear that needs to be broken right now We're gonna pray over it and break it break that spirit of fear in the name of Jesus You come right now The rest of you just lift up your hands and worship Jesus or stretch forth your hands and pray over these brothers and sisters y'all do that right now body is a still yes we you come and do what you come and do you When you move, Heaven is coming. In this room, miracles happen. When you move, Heaven is coming. Miracles happen. When you move, Heaven is coming. In this room, miracles happen. When you move, Heaven is coming. Miracles happen. When you move, Heaven is coming.
In this room. Leaders down front, we got a lot of people to be prayed for. So pray and move on to the next person.
Can y'all do that? I don't want anybody to leave here today not having been prayed for that needs to be prayed for. So pray, move on to the next person. Because I want to hear miracles happen in this place. I want to hear if cancer is healed in this place. I want arthritis to be healed in this place in the name of Jesus. So leaders, pray and move on.
Pray and move on. Miracles happen when you move. Healing is coming in this room. Miracles happen when you move. Heaven is coming. Miracles happen when you move.
Healing is coming in this room. Miracles happen when you move. Heaven is coming. Miracles happen when you move.
Heaven is coming in this room. Miracles happen when you move. Heaven is coming. Miracles happen when you move.
Healing is coming in this room. Miracles happen when you move. Heaven is coming. Miracles happen when you move. Heaven is coming in this room. Miracles happen when you move.
Heaven is coming. Miracles happen when you move. Healing is coming in this room. Miracles happen when you move.
Heaven is coming in this room. Miracles happen when you move. Healing is coming in this room. Miracles happen when you move.
Healing is coming in this room. Miracles happen when you move. Heaven is coming in this room.
Miracles happen when you move. Heaven is coming in this room. Who needs prayer?
Raise your hand right now if you need prayer. Come. Let's come right down front here.
Come right down front. We've got a couple of our leaders who aren't praying with somebody right now. We don't want anybody to leave in the name of Jesus who hasn't been prayed for.
Leaders, I'm going to ask you. Bob, I'm going to let you. Desperate time calls for desperate measure.
This is how desperate you are. I'll even use you, Bob. Come down and start praying for some people right now. You and your dear wife in the name of Jesus. Start praying with folks. Come on down here and start praying with people. Charlie, Tonya, start praying for some folks. Did y'all do that?
These are all leaders. We're going to keep praying. I know the clock is ticking, but I want to arrest God. God is still doing some work here. We're going to pray for a few more minutes. Don't leave us yet. I want all of y'all who are out there watching, just keep praying.
I'm serious. There's something powerful when faith builds in a sanctuary like this. Y'all keep praying down front. We're going to see God do some miracles right now in the name of Jesus.
Keep praying and don't stop. When you move, heaven is coming. In this room miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming.
Miracles, miracles, miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming. In this room miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming.
Miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming. In this room miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming.
Miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming. In this room miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming.
Miracles, miracles, miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming. In this room miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming.
Miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming. In this room miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming. In this room miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming. In this room miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming. In this room miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming. In this room miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming. In this room miracles happen. When you move, heaven is coming. In this room miracles happen. In this room miracles happen.
