President Calvin Coolidge was known as a man who did not talk a lot. He did not like to use many words.
Good president, not much of a talker. One Sunday morning, he went to church by himself because his wife was sick back at the White House. When he returned to the White House, his wife asked him, what did the preacher preach about? Calvin Coolidge said, sin. She said, okay, what did the preacher say about sin? He said, he's against it. That was it.
That was the summary. Well, as we go through Romans chapter six, Paul talks about sin and we're gonna see God's against it. We're gonna slow down just a little bit because we've been kind of chipping our way along through the book of Romans.
We're gonna slow down at chapter six because chapter six is such an incredibly important chapter. In fact, I heard Pastor Chuck Swindoll say, he thinks every new believer who gives their life to Jesus Christ should be directed to read Romans chapter six first because they're gonna battle sin and Paul tells us how to battle sin in Romans chapter six. I think this chapter is important because I'm watching sin destroy our families, our marriages. I mean, inside this church, if it's this bad in the body of Christ, I want us like outside the body of Christ.
I'm seeing families falling apart because of sin issues, fathers, mothers, kids, going to places they should not go spiritually, morally, physically, and they are destroying their families. This passage is important for those of us, I'm gonna raise my hand right now, who are hungry for a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit, signs, wonders, manifestations, the Spirit of God moving, working, anybody else hungry for that or am I the only one? And this issue, this issue of sin has stopped and prevented more revivals than anything else.
This is an incredibly important passage. Now let me give you the background here, let's kind of do a quick review of the book of Romans. Here's an overview, chapters one and two of Romans, we discussed this, really talks about sin and guilt. We are all sinners, we're all under God's righteous wrath. So chapters one and two is about sin, chapters three, four, and five talk about justification. In other words, how to get saved, how do I get born again?
So you with me? Chapters one and two sin, chapters three, four, and five about justification, and then chapters six, seven, and eight talk about sanctification. Now that I'm saved, how do I grow in my walk with the Lord Jesus Christ?
You with me? Chapters one and two sin, chapters three, four, and five, how to get saved, and then chapters six, seven, and eight, what do I do now that I'm saved? In other words, chapters three to five tell us how to get saved, chapters six through eight, how do I live now that I am saved? Now keep in mind, this is very important, Romans was written as a letter from the impossible Paul, an inspired letter from Paul to the church at Rome. Now there was not a single person at the church at Rome who walked into church with the Bible because they didn't have the Bibles back then, they did not have the closed canon. A lot of these were slaves, Bibles were expensive, and so nobody had a Bible, nobody had highlighters, nobody had a notebook. They would gather at the church and the pastor would say, church, I just got this letter from the apostle Paul. Y'all sit there and read this, and he would read the entire letter in one sitting, no chapters, no verses, just one letter. And as the apostle Paul wrote this letter, and as the pastor is reading it, the apostle Paul knew, he's masterful at this, he knew that there would be some questions that would pop up and Paul anticipates those questions. For example, one question is found in chapter three, verse five, where Paul has just said, we are sinful by nature, we are sinners by nature, and yet we're under God's wrath, and he anticipates the question, well, if I'm a sinner by nature, isn't it unfair for God to judge me? Because that's how I was born. You know, things haven't changed in the last 2,000 years, that question is still asked today. God made me gay, if he made me gay, then it's unfair for him to judge me.
Same question. And then the apostle Paul keeps writing, and in chapter four, verse one, he talks about how Abraham was saved by grace through faith, and he anticipates the questions, well, wait a second, how are people in the Old Testament saved? If grace is a new concept, how are people saved in the Old Testament? Chapter four, Paul says, I'm gonna anticipate that question. The way people got saved in the Old Testament is the same way they get saved today, by grace through faith, so he anticipates that question. And then last week, as the guys were preaching while I was gone, they read chapter five, verse 20, where sin abounded, grace abounded much more. So Paul anticipates the next question, wait a second, if God's grace covers all of our sin, and if God likes to forgive us, God likes to show his grace, why not live like hell, live however I want, do whatever I want, because God's grace is gonna cover everything. If we are saved by grace and preserved by grace, chapter six, verse one, this question is asked, well, then why not live however we wanna live? Can I not just keep sinning so God can keep pouring out his grace on us? And in verse two, he says, absolutely not. He answers that question. Now, we're gonna start digging into chapter six.
In just a few minutes, I'm gonna point out something to you. The Apostle Paul talks about living in righteousness, holiness, following the law of God, not through your own power, but by the power of the Holy Spirit. But when the Apostle Paul talks about holiness, the Apostle Paul is not going to tell us. You live holy lives by getting a list of dos and don'ts, and trying to follow that through your own power. Paul goes a totally different direction.
We're gonna hit that next week, that's gonna absolutely blow your mind. But listen to me. You and I are called as followers of Jesus Christ to be holy. Holiness did not end in the New Testament. God has called his people to walk in holiness. I don't know what your Bible says, but my Bible says, be holy, even as I am holy. God is still a consuming fire.
He is still a God of righteousness and purity, and he calls his people to that kind of standard. Now, when it comes to... Now, listen to me. When it comes to living lives of holiness and purity, there are two dangers we gotta watch out for. Don't worry, this place is perfectly safe.
That's right. A tornado hit us eight years ago. I'm sure a tornado won't strike twice. Don't worry about it.
We'll be all right. There's two dangers. Imagine that you're walking this ridge, okay? You're on top of a mountain, and there are two drop-offs that you gotta watch out for.
Listen to me. When it comes to holiness and righteousness and purity, there are two dangerous drop-offs that we gotta watch out for. Number one is called, have you heard of this term? Antinomianism. You ever heard of that term before?
You know what it means? No law. You're against the law. It is wrong for Christians to follow the rules. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, you are totally under grace. Antinomianism says, there is no law. There are no rules. And that's what Paul's addressing in Chapter 6, Verse 1.
I want you to listen to me. There's actually teaching out there that I have read, popular teachers, that when a pastor like me stands up and tells you, you can't just snort what you wanna snort, sleep with whoever you wanna sleep with, watch whatever you wanna watch, you as a follower of Jesus Christ, you are called to a higher standard, and you get mad at me and say, you're being legalistic. That's antinomianism. Antinomianism says, it doesn't matter who you sleep with.
Hey, can I just, young people, can I just tell you something? There seems to be some weird misunderstanding here. Particularly if you're a born-again believer. If you're a born-again believer, you don't live with somebody until you get married. You don't shack up with somebody. You can't have random hookups.
Why? Because it ain't your body. It's his body.
And he says, save your body till you get married. There seems to be a misunderstanding. Now, I understand all the younger, cooler Christians wanna say, hey, this ain't your grandpa's religion.
This is a new religion. We are cool. There are no rules. We're just like everybody else.
You're not just like everybody else. My Bible says, come out from among them and be ye separate. Antinomianism says, you can't tell people that.
That's putting them back under the law. And antinomianism typically rears its head in the American church in several ways. Number one, when it comes to sexuality. A Lutheran pastorate who was a speaker at a youth conference, prominent speaker, prominent author, a while back said, it's okay, Christians, to watch porn as long as it's ethically sourced porn, whatever that means. We have churches in this city that celebrate lesbianism, homosexuality, transgenderism, and every other perversion. And now if you kinda read some of the stuff going on, again, among the next generation of Christians, there's now a movement in Christianity to accept polyamory.
Do you know what that means? Multiple sex partners. As long as everybody's in on the game and everybody's okay with it, it's okay. Well, why not accept multiple sex partners? The American church is a circus freak show that accepts everything else, might as well accept that one as well. And so antinomianism rears its head when it comes to sexuality in the American church. It also, now look, here's what happened, let me explain something to you. When I'm out of the pulpit for a week, I get in a little mood, I get ready to come back, get ready to get everybody mad at me. I don't understand, there's something weird going on in my brain, just deal with it, okay?
So let me get everybody aggravated with this. Let me show you another way where antinomianism rears its head. You do know the Bible talks about modesty in dress, not just one time, multiple times. You do understand that, right?
But I can set my clock to it. Anytime a Christian leader says, you know, maybe women ought to dress modestly and cover and conceal, I say, okay, cue the shrill hysteria in three, two, one, here it goes. Who are you as a man to tell me how to dress? Matthew West, a few years ago.
You don't know who the singer is? He actually wrote a song about modesty and had a post about modesty. All hell broke loose against Matthew West because he dared to say, women, you are princesses, daughters of the most high God. Show some respect by covering yourself and show yourself to be this godly woman that God has called you to be. Christian women tore him up.
Heard about a youth pastor out west that posted on the church's Facebook thing. Kids camp is coming, our youth camp is coming up. We're asking teenage girls just to wear modest swimsuits. Middle-aged moms who live their lives vicariously through their young teenage girls say, you can't tell my teenage girl what to wear. She's gonna wear whatever she wants to wear.
If she got it, show it. Christian mothers say that. That's antinomianism. And you say, well now, Pastor Chad, you're kind of being mean to the women. What about men? Well, I don't think men ought to wear shorts. Not because it's a moral issue. It's just there's a truism in life.
No adult male looks good wearing shorts. That's just saying, okay? It's just a little personal conviction here.
Hey, while I'm on personal convictions, if you're into backing into parking spots, if you can't back and right the first time, just pull in straight like everybody else does, okay? That's another little personal conviction I have. All right. That's enough. That's enough. Actually, I got one more.
If you're into, if you're into bicycling, find another hobby because nobody likes you. That's my last one, okay? So, but look, antinomianism rears its head. And sexuality, when it comes to the issue of modesty, it also rears its head when it comes to music and media. When I say to God's people, there's some things you should not be filling your brain with. You shouldn't be listening to songs that call women whores. You shouldn't do that if you're a follower of Jesus Christ. There's some things you shouldn't be putting in your brain.
I remember, this has been, I can't remember how many years ago, but when Bruno Mars did the halftime show for the Super Bowl, we had a young lady in our church. It felt so bad. This is why I stay off of Facebook. My wife is like, don't use my Facebook because I know it's going to happen.
You can get riled up and you're going to fire off something in my name, so just stay off of Facebook, okay? But we had a young lady in our church that was watching the halftime show and she's like, hey, she just posted this. And as a Christian, I'm going to have to turn this off because I'm listening to his song, Locked Out of Heaven.
And the lyrics go something like this, I'm born again every time you spend the night with me because your sex takes me to paradise. And then he has all these religious illusions. When this young lady in our church just simply said, as a Christian, I can't listen to that, she had so many, quote unquote, Christians tore her up because she's legalistic. Maybe she's not being legalistic. Maybe she just says, as a follower of Jesus Christ, I'm trying to pursue purity. And if this song, and if this song, here's what Jesus said, if you're not for me, you're against me. But see, that's antinomianism. Christians can't have standards.
Okay, that's one, as we're walking this ridge, that's one drop off you got to be careful of. There's another drop off though called legalism. And legalism is basically this, we say this all the time, Christianity is not a religion, it is a what?
Relationship. I'm going to bump the relational aspect of Christianity. And I'm going to make Christianity a bunch of dos and don'ts, just a bunch of rules. Okay, that's legalism. And I'm going to project those rules onto you. Listen to me, this thing is still about a relationship with Jesus Christ. And I want you to listen to me.
When you get the relational aspect right, the legalism takes care of itself. Here's what I mean by that. One of the best things I have ever eaten was escargot, you know what escargot is? Snails in this garlic butter. To this day, I think, seriously, I think about how that was, I don't know why, I like the snails and butter.
Here's one problem. My wife sat there and watched me eat that and she smelled it and she said, Chad, I think I'm going to get sick. I literally, she said, I feel my stomach turning, that that is so nasty. The smell is nasty, the look is nasty, the idea that you're eating snails is nasty. Even though I loved escargot, do you know what I've not eaten since she said that?
Escargot. Why? It makes the one I love sick. Jesus has said, porn makes me sick.
If my love... Do you all know I have a lover? He's a man. If the one I love, Jesus Christ has said, Chad, porn makes me sick, then I won't watch porn because I love him.
There are things that he has said in that word makes me disgusted. This isn't legalism, it's I love him and if it makes him sick, I don't want to engage in it. You can call me legalistic all you want. I'm not legalistic, I'm a lover.
I just love that man, Jesus Christ. So again, the apostle Paul in chapter six does an incredible job walking that line between legalism and antinomianism and he's going to say there's a way to pursue purity but it's more than make a list and follow the list. You're going to see next week the apostle Paul goes to the stratosphere on telling us how to fight sin, sexual sin. Are you with me on that? We'll hit that next week.
So let me just say this, getting ready for next week. The first step, I want you to listen to me. The first step to pursuing purity, righteousness, holiness is to understand the value of pursuing purity. If you don't know why it's important to pursue holiness, you will never pursue holiness.
So I could give you probably 15, 20 reasons. Let me just give you four reasons, four benefits if you say as a man or woman of God, I'm going to pursue holiness and I will mess up at times. I've told you before, my spiritual gift is encouragement. So let me give you some encouragement.
You will mess up, you will fumble the ball, okay? God's looking at your heart and if your heart is I want to live a life that honors God, even though I mess up, I want to live that kind of life, I want to pursue holiness. Can I tell you some benefits that are going to come out? Number one, jot this down, is a closeness to God. A closeness to God. Some of y'all feel distant from the Lord. And you say, where's God gone?
I don't sense his presence anymore. My prayers seem to bounce down from the ceiling. Where is God? I think God would say to you, I am where I have always been from the foundation of the earth.
You're the one that has moved. And what I have found is when I start living by some godly standards and I pursue righteousness and holiness, God becomes more real to me. In fact, let me give some verses here. Psalm 24, three, who may ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who may stand in his holy place?
Do you see what he's saying? Who can get close to God? Verse four, he, she who have clean hands and a pure heart. God says, you want closeness with me? Pursue holiness. And this isn't the only place the Bible talks about this. Hebrews 12, four, pursue peace with all people and holiness without which no one's going to see the Lord. You are blinded to God when you're treasuring your sin. God says, if you want to see me, pursue holiness. Let me give you another one. James 4, eight, draw near to God and what he'll do?
He'll draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Hey, anybody here allergic to like pets, pet, dander, pet? Raise your hand if you're allergic. Okay. Anybody, this is, I don't know if I'm allergic or this just disgusts me.
A cigarette smoke, anybody like allergic to what is a cigarette smoke? You know, people ask me, can I be a Christian and still smoke? The answer is yes. Will I go to heaven? Yes. You'll just get there quicker and you'll smell once you get there, but go and smoke all you want.
All right. If you're super allergic to smoke or pet hair, have you ever walked into a room and you inhale it and all of a sudden your skin starts to tingle? It starts to itch.
What do you do? You turn around, walk out. I can't go in that room. I'm allergic to that.
Listen to me. The, here's his name, Holy Spirit. Do you know what he's allergic to? He's allergic to sin. He goes into your home and there's filth all over your home. He goes into your car and there's sin all in your car. He's like, I'm out of here. Well, God is omnipresent.
I got it. But the manifest presence of God, that intimate presence of God will not be in a place, a house, a car, a heart where sin is treasured because he's the Holy Spirit. You start pursuing holiness, trust me, God's going to become more real to you than he's ever been before.
Second benefit of purity is boldness and confidence. I am convinced some, now listen to me real quick, not all, some anxiety is rooted in sin. Maybe a lot of anxiety is rooted in sin. I'm not saying all of it, so don't, whatever.
But here's what I found. Christians who play it loosely, morally, they are scared of everything. They're anxious about everything. They're concerned about everything. There is some kind of connection between moral carelessness, not pursuing holiness, living like you want to live, and anxiety. I just seen it. It's real.
That's your experience. Where does the Word of God say that if you're pursuing holiness and purity, you'll be bold? Glad you asked. Proverbs 28, one says this, listen to this, the wicked flee when nobody's even chasing them. But the righteous are as bold as a lion. You want to get rid of some anxiety? Start pursuing holiness again.
Let me give you another one. The psalmist says in Psalm 112, this is in the English Standard Version, for the, what's the word he used right there? The righteous will never be moved. He will be remembered forever. He is not afraid of bad news. His heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady.
He will not be afraid. You dealing with some anxiety? Maybe it's biological, maybe it's something your mama and your daddy died for, trained you too soon, or whatever they say.
Or maybe there's some sin issues in your life, maybe. All right, you know what a swamp is, right? Swamps have no power.
They're kind of stagnant. They smell. It's a lot of dead stuff. It's muddy.
It's just there, no power. You take that same swamp and you put it between two banks, put it between two boundaries, and that swamp suddenly becomes a river. Do you know that? A river is basically a swamp with boundaries. And unlike that swamp, rivers move fast. A lot of them are clean. They are powerful.
Why? Because they're swamps that now have boundaries. I know a lot of swamp Christians out there. There's no power. They're spiritually dead.
They're walking in impurity. But you take them and put them into some boundaries, some holiness, some righteousness. You get some standards and suddenly they turn into a powerful river that can do things to the Lord Jesus Christ. So what are some of the benefits of pursuing holiness? Number one, closeness to God.
Number two, boldness and confidence. Number three, answer prayer. Now, here's what the antinomian is going to tell me. Chad, you're putting people back under the law and you're telling people if they do this, God is obligated to do that. If you want to answer prayer, then you need to be holy and follow the rules. Chad, that's legalism.
That's wrong. Chad, there's no biblical evidence that if you live lives of holiness, God is more likely to answer your prayer. I believed that for years until I did something. I read the Bible. Isn't it amazing what happens when you actually sit down and read the Bible? You ain't going to like what I'm about to tell you.
I'm going to tell it to you right here. James chapter 5 verse 16 says this, the effective fervent prayer of a what? Righteous man availeth much. Well, that's just one Bible verse. Okay, my skeptical friend, 1 Peter chapter 3 verse 12. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers.
But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. I mean, unless I'm missing something here, there seems to be some type of connection, not with perfection. None of us are perfect. But to say to God, God, despite my mess ups, I'm still pursuing holiness. I want to be more like Jesus.
God, I fumble the ball. I know I mess up, but I'm still pursuing holiness. And there seems to be a connection right there to answer prayer.
Are you with me on that? I was listening to some pastor. He said God gave him a perfect, now this is not scripture, this is a prophetic vision. But he said it was like this big basin in heaven filled with oil, anointing blessings. And there are all these pipes coming down from heaven. And God's people be praying down here and God would just pour these resources, anointing, answer prayer through these pipes. But he said there were some Christians that the oil wasn't getting to them.
And he said, I looked in these pipes and you could see these knots in the pipes that was preventing the oil from coming down, these clogs. And the Spirit of God spoke to me and said, it's sin. When there's sins in the pipes, God hasn't changed. His power is still in heaven.
It's not abated. He's still pouring out his blessings. But those blessings are not getting to you because there's sin issues in your life. You can call me a legalist all you want. I like to think I'm a Bible teacher is what I am, not a legalist. And that right there says there's a connection.
So are you with me on it? I'm as serious as I can possibly be. You want to get closer to God, start pursuing holiness. You want to have boldness and confidence, start pursuing holiness. You want to answer prayer, start pursuing holiness. And here's my last one. Do you want revival and awakening?
I'm serious. I'm going to give you a little glimpse into my heart right now. I don't know how much time I have left. I don't know how much longer until the rapture.
I don't know. But in the time I have left, I want to do more than preach about the power of God. I want to see the power of God, don't you? Look, I'm tired of reading about the book of Acts and scratch my head saying, why aren't we seeing that today? Why aren't we seeing dead bodies raised today and healing stuff? I want to start experiencing this.
Are you the same way? What do we have to do to start experiencing that outpouring of the Holy Spirit? We'll look at 2 Chronicles 7, 14. This is for the Old Testament people. Chad, I've heard this verse a million times. I'm just going to read the verse to you.
You ready for this? 2 Chronicles 7, 14. If my people who are called by my name, that's you. Are you a Christian? Raise your hand.
All right, C-H-R-I-S-T. The first six letters of the word Christian means Christ. You have his name. You are his people.
You are called by his name. If you humble themselves, pray, seek his face, and do what? Turn from their wicked ways.
I'm going to hear from heaven, forgive their sin, and heal their land. You want a fresh move of the Holy Spirit in your life? Humble yourself and pursue purity. You want the Holy Ghost to move in this church? Let's humble ourselves and pursue purity. You want the Spirit of God to break open in your family and your kids to be on fire for Jesus Christ and things happen in your family and your family be brought back together and there be an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in your family?
Humble yourself and start pursuing purity. That's what that verse is saying right there. Every major outpouring in Christian history has started with repentance and a return to holiness. The first great awakening took place in the 1700s, started with repentance and a return to holiness. Today, here's what happened in the first great awakening. It is estimated in the American colonies, 50,000 people made a decision for Jesus Christ out of a population of 340,000. That would be like today having an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and 50 million people get saved in America just like that.
Wouldn't that be amazing today? Do you know how that started? An old preacher named Jonathan Edwards started talking about holiness and purity and godly living and he said there's a four-year-old girl in my church named Phoebe Bartlett that went home, went to her room, started praying and confessing her sins. Now, I don't know what kind of sins a four-year-old has to confess but whatever, she's praying and confessing her sins. Her parents hear it and they get right with God.
Her siblings hear it, they get right with God. Their extended family gets right with God. Their friends get right with God and as a result, millions of people in today's population get saved because they started pursuing holiness.
Wouldn't you like to see that today? The Wesleyan movement. There was a group of people called themselves the Holy Club. They're a group of college students that got together, people like George Whitefield and John Wesley and Charles Wesley and they said, we're tired of the sin of our generation.
We want to be different. We want to be holy and the movement they started eventually impacted 100 million people for Jesus Christ because a bunch of college students got right with the Lord Jesus. The Brownsville Revival that took place a few years ago that impacted my life started with holiness. My favorite one is this little area in Europe called Wales. It was kind of a rural community and there in Wales, God broke open in a mighty way.
His spirit broke open so powerfully that within a few months, 100,000 people came to Christ and 20 million people were eventually impacted by this revival. That whole area was changed. It was changed so much they had to lay off policemen and judges.
Do you know why? There was no crime. Could you imagine sending all these federal judges, bye-bye, we don't need you anymore.
There's no crime in America because the Holy Ghost is broken out. Can you imagine that? It actually impacted the economy for the short term because it was a coal mining community and these horses would go down in the coal mines. They'd load up the horse carts with coal and then they just start blanking blanking horse. They'd start beating these horses and cussing at them to get them back out out of the mines. Well, all these coal miners have now gotten saved. When they get saved, they stop cussing and the horses don't know what to do because they're like, no, there's nobody cussing. What do we do now?
Nobody's cussing us and beating us. I mean, it's just amazing how that revival totally changed that whole society. It started with a young 20-something radical.
Let me tell you something. I get frustrated at the new generation coming along. I actually think there's a move of the Holy Spirit among this group of among this next generation. If they'll get touched by the Holy Spirit and on fire for God, that young generation is going to crawl over our backs and crawl over our head and go win this world for the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a 20-something year old named Evan Roberts who sparked this whole revival.
A hundred thousand people changed to what 20 million people eventually touched. Evan Roberts began to go to churches like ours and he only had four points to his sermon. He said there are four keys to revival. Number one, you've got to confess and put away any unconfessed sin. You've got to get right with God. Number two, you've got to put away any doubtful habits. Number three, you've got to obey the Holy Spirit whenever He tells you to do something. And number four, you've got to confess Jesus publicly. No more of this, I'm afraid to use Jesus. I'm just going to use the generic God. I don't want to offend people.
He'd be like, offend people. You've got to stand up for Jesus Christ. And as a result, God's Spirit broke open and a hundred thousand people got saved and 20 million people eventually got touched by the Spirit of God because a group of people got right with God. I'm going to ask you what I just asked you a second ago. How many of y'all are hungry to see that happen in our generation? I'm crazy enough to think maybe God wants to do it right here. There's some areas in your life and in my life that just aren't right with God.
Why don't you stand with me right now? This all begins with repentance. We're saying, God, I've been doing it.
I should not have been doing this. Fellas, I love you. I love you. And then somebody says, I love you. You know something about to come.
I love you. But some of you are opening demonic portals into your home about two o'clock in the morning when you think everybody else is asleep and you're on that computer. Fellas, you better get right with God. Ma'am, that was high school and days are over.
You need to de-friend that boyfriend. That was 20 years ago. You age 20 years. You go to church. You're a born again believer.
It's time to cut off that relationship, ma'am. Sir, those things you've been saying are reprehensible and God will not move in your life until you've laid your tongue on the altar and said, God, touch these lips. I'm an unclean man with unclean lips living among an unclean group of people. God have mercy upon me. There's areas in my life.
There's areas in your life. I think the three most powerful words we could say right now is I have sinned. God, forgive me. But you left your hands right now and ask God's forgiveness for whatever those areas are in your life.
And you can be specific and you don't have to shout it out loud because not everybody around you wants to hear you junk so you can kind of whisper it or whatever. But you need to confess to God right now. Father, there are areas of moral carelessness in our lives. We have sinned.
Father, we have watched things and listened to things that are absolutely vile. We have sinned. We have sinned.
God, there's areas of pride in our lives. We have sinned. Father, have mercy on us. We have sinned. Father, I pray for a revival of righteousness and holiness.
God, we've gotten a little bit too lax with you. We have forgotten whose presence we're coming into, Lord God. We forget that you are the consuming fire. You are the God of the universe. You're the one that Jesus said in Luke 12 has the ability to cast into hell.
That's who we're talking to. God, maybe we need to start being a little bit more reverent as we come into your presence. Oh God, have mercy on us. We have sinned. We have sinned.
Father, break open in a new way. If these are the last days, Father, one more outpouring before Jesus comes back. That's all we're asking, Father, just one more before Jesus comes back.
Manifest your power just one more time before Jesus comes back. God, we are hungry for a move of your Holy Spirit. Have mercy on us. We have sinned. We come to you now, God, asking for clean hands and a pure heart. Forgive us in the name of Jesus. Now look at me. Look at me.
I'm seriously going to say this. I want to see bodies healed. I want to see minds healed. I want to see depression and anxiety broken.
Don't you? I want to see families on the verge of divorce come back together. I want to see drug addicts delivered. I want to see demons come out. I want to see signs and wonders and miracles and God moving in a way we never thought we'd see again in our lifetime. I'm going to tell you again. Can I confess this to you?
I love the book of Acts, but I'm getting a little bit aggravated reading the book of Acts because I'm seeing that early church and I'm saying, why are we not seeing this again in the American church? I am hungry for a move of God, but there are little sparks kind of popping up all over the place. I heard yesterday of a man who was diagnosed with leukemia what five months ago, went back to the doctor. The doctor said, oops, our test must be wrong. There is no leukemia.
No, your tests were right. God just is still in the healing business. That's what's going on. We've had testimonies.
I wish I had time to share with you. Testimonies in our church. Again, it's just like pop. God's like sparking up a couple of things here or there. Y'all believe that God is God. He changes not.
He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. You believe that? Hey, you believe the same God that split the Red Sea in the Old Testament, raised the dead in the New Testament can still heal bodies today in this day and age.
You believe that? So why don't we just take God at his word? If you need healing in your mind or in your body, I want you to come right now and we're going to just pray over you. We're going to do what the Bible says. There's no techniques.
There's no whatever. If you need, I mean this, if you need healing, come right now. I'm going to pray over you. Some leaders are going to pray over you.
How many of y'all just believe that God may want to heal some bodies today and do some miracles in this place today? If you believe that, come right now. We're going to pray over you right now. Come right now. Just come, come again.
You may be dealing with depression, anxiety, leukemia, cancers, addictions. I want you to come right now and we're just going to pray. We've changed, but he's not changed. I'll say this. Look here, right here. God is more, God wants to break open more than you want him to break open.
Did you know that? God's like ready to do more than we could ever ask or imagine. He's just waiting on us. So now I'm going to ask if you're an elder, a deacon, a pastor, or their wives, I want you to go person by person and pray over them. Or if you're part of our boiler room team, go pray over them person by person. If you're not a pastor, deacon, elder, their wife, or part of the boiler room team, just get prayed for, but you don't pray. You say, yeah, why do you have that?
Because there's a lot of weirdos out there and I've seen them here before. So let's just make sure it's leaders that we know and let's just pray right now and let's just sing. Now y'all stand out there like, well, I'm not down here. What do I do while they're down here? Pray. That's what you do. Pray for the spirit of God to break open and heal some bodies and heal some minds and do some miracles. Would y'all just stand there for a second and pray as the spirit of God moves right now.
Let's pray for a healing in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Light in the darkness, my God. That is who You are. I know that You are.
Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper. Light in the darkness, my God. That is who You are. I know that You are.
Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper. Light in the darkness, my God. That is who You are. That is who You are. That is who You are. That is who You are. That is who You are. I know that that is who You are, Lord. That is who You are. That is who You are. That is who You are.
And You are. Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper. Light in the darkness, my God. That is who You are.
Yes, it is You are. Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper. Light in the darkness, my God. That is who You are. Speak Your name, Jesus. Speak Your name, Lord. You are able to meet every need, Father.
You are a friend that sticks closer than a brother. You call upon the name of the Lord. You will surely save us. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive us, Lord. Forgive us, Lord. We lay down every idol, everything that besets us.
We lay it down at the feet of Jesus, surrendering all, surrendering all to You, Lord. Because that is who You are. That is who You are. That is who You are.
You meet every need. That is who You are. That is who You are. Jesus, Jesus. He is the way maker. Y'all believe this?
Well, say it again till somebody gets it. The same God that split the Red Sea and allowed God's people to pass through. You believe God can split open cancer, split open depression, split open anxiety. You believe God can do that? I don't care what you're going through right now.
I don't care what the doctor says, the medical journal says, conventional wisdom says. He is the way maker. Let's sing that out to the Lord. Sing this right now as a prayer to God. He is the way maker.
He's going to split the sea right now. Sing this thing. Way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, that is who You are. I know that You are way maker, miracle worker, promise keeper, light in the darkness, my God, that is who You are. Even when, even when I don't see it You're working. Even when I don't feel it You're working. You never stop. You never stop working. You never stop. You never stop working. Even when I don't see it You're working.
Even when I don't feel it You're working. You never stop. You never stop working. You never stop.
You never stop working. Here's what I want us to do. If you're down front, don't leave till the Spirit of God tells you to leave. I want you to leave with half a blessing or three quarters of a blessing. I want you to stay right here till God has done everything He wants to do. The rest of you, if you need to, if you want to stay here, y'all stay here just bask in the presence of God. If you need to leave, you can leave.
Just be careful. If you need to stick around till the rain passes, whatever, you'll be all right. But God is still doing something down here. So we love you guys.
We thank God for you guys. You're dismissed if you want to go. I don't know why you'd want to leave right yet because the presence of God is doing something right down here. There's healing issue in this room. Lives are being changed, strongholds are being broken, bodies are coming back together. But I know you've got things to do so go ahead and go if you need to. But you can stay down here and pray all you want. God bless you.
