One Act of Obedience

0 (0s): Happy Sunday to you guys. Good to see you all. I'm filling in for Amanda. If you guys didn't know, she, she got married last week to, to Steven pastor. Steve is going to tell a story later about how him and his family want the dance off. Please don't believe him. He's lying. I was there. He doesn't dance as well as you think you can, but yeah. Excited to worship with you guys this morning. So let's let's think together. 2 (51s): Christ Jesus. Believe in the resurrection that we will arise. 2 (1m 34s): And And now we get that chance. 2 (8m 3s): The same swing wide. You heavenly gates is the people of the Lord enter into praise him. That's what we're here for this morning. Praise our Lord and savior. Let the praise go up as the walls. 2 (10m 42s): Oh, geez. Fred is king. 3 (11m 26s): We were waiting without hope without from him. There was You rose all of his breath to that. 3 (13m 46s): Stone was moved for good for land. And the dead was from there too. And just for the 4 (15m 46s): Got we bless you, Lord. Yes, Lord. We bless you, Lord. We love you, God. We're so grateful for your presence. Holy God, God fall fresh on us in a special and a profound, in a powerful way. We pray, Lord, we thank you God for your holiness. God, we thank you. God that you've imputed your righteousness. God you've made us the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, by your grace, Lord God, you filled us. You've overcome the world in us. God, you've obliterated the sin in our lives. Lord, God, we're so thankful. God, we invite you to continue that work of sanctification, that work of holiness, God that we would say yes and amen to everything that you want to do in our lives. Lord, God, we are so thankful for who you are. 4 (16m 28s): Jesus. So thankful. Holy spirit. Fill this place. We pray. Lord. Thank you for your grace. Thank you for your grace. Thank you. 4 (17m 20s): Got for every, for every person gathered Lord, we just pray for got the touch that is needed. God, that you administer God, grace and healing and deliverance, encouragement. God that you would set people free today and welcome people into your kingdom. Lord God, the souls will be added to the kingdom as a result of this service Lord, this time of worship and prayer and time in the word and hearing testimonies, Lord God, we just want, we invite, you got to do supernaturally abundantly above everything that we might hope or imagining Christ Jesus, God, that we would just be surprised. 4 (18m 5s): And yet we shouldn't be surprised, but we will be surprised by your goodness, Lord God. So continue to surprise us and work in our lives in our church and God for every church that lifts up the name of Jesus here on the central coast here in this area, Lord, we just bless them. Lord, we bless them. We pray grace upon them. Lord God provision for them. God that the power of God would fall heavily and substantially Lord God and move wonderfully. So in the hearts and lives of our brothers and sisters and churches all over the central coast, Lord God, we bless your name, Lord God. We love you. We thank you for this time. Jesus, your name. We pray Lord. Amen. Amen. You may be seated. You may be seated. So we're going to do things just a little bit differently today. 4 (18m 47s): We're going to take communion up front before the service is preached. The sermon is preached. And so if you need elements, go and raise your hand. If you need communion elements, raise your hand. We have runners who will get those to you. So who are runners? We got runners. Good. Thank you. We might need another runner. We might need another runner. Levi. Why don't you do that? Once you be a runner Levi, you want to be a runner. Elements should be over there. There we go. And Jack thrown his brother under the bus. It's no fun. 4 (19m 28s): We're getting them. Keep your hands up. If you need them, keep your hands up. Here we go. Fourth, Sunday of the month we take him union remembering just the grace and the goodness of our savior. The Lord Jesus Christ. We've been singing about him all morning and we're going to celebrate him some more as we take in union. All right, did we get everybody? I think we got everybody. All right. Paul wrote in first Corinthians 1123 and following he says for, I pass onto you. What I received from the Lord himself on the night, when he was betrayed the Lord, Jesus took some bread and gave thanks to God for it. 4 (20m 16s): Then he broke it in pieces and said, this is my body, which is given for you. Do this to remember me. Let's take the way for the bread. Thank you, Jesus. We remember Lord, we remember our desperate, desperate need for your grace. 4 (20m 58s): If you're here today and you've never accepted the grace of the Lord, Jesus Christ, but you know, you need it. I would just say, reach out, pray to the Lord. And he will come into your life. He will forgive your sins. If you simply say Jesus, I need you. I don't even know why I need you, but I know that I need you. I need you to come into my life and I need you to forgive. My sins. Need you to make me whole again, need you to guide and direct me to take over the leadership of my life. As you declare your heart to the Lord and the quietness of your own mind and hearts, God hears. And he responds and he, he runs to you as you run to him. So Lord, we just invite you to move today. And for those who have maybe been hesitant about accepting the grace and the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray that today would be the day of salvation God, over all over this campus, Lord God. 4 (21m 49s): And for those who watch online, Lord God, we thank you, Lord. We thank you, Lord God, thank you for salvation. If you've received the grace message, the mercy of the Lord, Jesus Christ and the blood of Christ has washed over your sins. And it's a peculiar, supernatural, wonderful thing that God does. We don't fully grasp it, but we can fully appreciate it and live in it. And so thank you Lord, for what you're doing. Thank you, Lord Verse 25, first Corinthians 11 in the same way, he took the cup of wine after supper saying this cup is the new covenant between God and his people and agreement confirmed with my blood. 4 (22m 45s): Do this to remember me. As often as you drink it for every time you eat this bread and drink this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again. Let's take these use God. We're so refreshed by your grace. It never gets old. The goodness of God, the grace of God, the patience and the forgiveness of God. 4 (23m 29s): It just never, ever gets old. And we never run out of need to have it Lord. And so we thank you that you are patient with us. She love us. Your grace is sufficient. Your love is unconditional. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Lord, help us to walk in the new life that we've been given and the power that we've been filled with with a grace that has washed over us. Lord, we love you, Lord. We bless you, Lord. Thank you for this time. And for the balance of this service we just gave you. We give you permission control authority. 4 (24m 12s): We asked for you to reign and rule Supreme in our space, all over the campus, online Lord in our hearts and in our lives. We pray. Thank you Lord, for your goodness. We love you Lord in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Now stand up and then meet somebody that you've never ever met before. And we'll come back and just a few minutes. 4 (26m 4s): And you met somebody new brand new. All right. So a third of a part of you did the job, right? Thank you for that. Welcome back. So my son and his wife are now married off. They've been married for a week and a day. So I tried to call my son yesterday just to check in on him, you know, right to voicemail, right to voicemail. So a few minutes later he texted me, Hey dad, everything. All right, what's up? I'm like, no, I'm good. I'm just checking in on you. He said, Hey dad, we're still in the honeymoon phase. So we're not taking phone calls. 4 (26m 44s): Like whatever, whatever do your thing while they're home now, they're home. Now. They went, they spent three nights in Cambria and then like four nights down in Palm Springs. And so they're back now. We had a wonderful time. And some of you, some of you may have heard of the dance off at the wedding. There's been a bit of a rumors going about, about this dance off. And so the, the tradition with the Coles, which is Amanda's family, they've married off for their, for their kids now I believe. And so every wedding, they have a choreographed dance and there's a dance off between the parents of the bride and the parents of the groom. So we got sucked into that. And, and so the results of the dance off, of course the Henrys killed it and we, they would tell you different, but we had a wonderful celebration last Saturday. 4 (27m 36s): It was just so, so good. So, Hey, remember to pray for our youth. There, there are 39 young people and six adults up leaders up in the mountains at a camp right now. I think there may be heading back today. So I remember God really supernaturally touching my life in junior high school is where I formerly gave my life. Formally, gave my life to the Lord and under Gary Tucker's leadership here and God's been faithful. So my prayer, every time youth go off is that they would just be slammed by God's goodness and filled with his presence and his spirit. And that God would do wonderful life changing life, altering things. And so life altering things alternating, probably not a word and altering things. 4 (28m 16s): So, Hey, today we've got a good friend of mine. Fred and Pam are they're here. They've been Fred and Pam, come on up for it. They've been in this area for in fact, Pam going to come up as well. These guys have been here since 2016. I remember the day that I met Fred at a pastor's gathering and we've been connected for the last 16 years. We met each other in Hawaii, a number of years ago and just connected there. And I was talking with Fred recently. I needed some counsel about some things. So I said, Hey, Fred, what do you think? And, and then we started talking and he wrote a book and he's going to tell you all about that. And the book really is about modern day heroes of faith. 4 (29m 2s): And we just went through the first half of Hebrews 11, talking about the heroes of faith. And next week I'll finish up Hebrews 11, finishing the stories there in Hebrews 11. But I thought in the middle, it would be a great idea just to have Fred come and share just 21st century stories about how God uses someone who's available just to do his work and his will to accomplish his plans and his purposes. So here we are, we've got Fred and Pam here. So I just want to pray over them, pray, blessing upon them. And why don't you extend your hand and just bless them. So Lord be blessed. These guys, we are so thankful for Fred and Pam Lord, and for who they are in this region. Lord, they love you. 4 (29m 42s): They've served you faithfully. And in this new season, a new life of ministry, we pray God that you would strengthen them, continue to give them clarity and vision and wisdom and open doors. We pray Lord open doors for a ministry all over the central coast, all over the state, all over the country and all over the world. Lord God. So we just pray blessing upon them. Bless this work. This book that has been written, pray that it would touch a million souls Lord. We wanted to touch a million souls, Lord God. So we just invite you to do that. Be glorified. We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. 5 (30m 30s): Well, we really love pastor Steve and Jolene, and they've been such good friends to us through all the years over here. We, we used to have a small group of pastors. We met for three years every week, getting together and this such a special, special time and really appreciate. And Hey, Hey, I was going to begin by telling you how great I was, but I decided not to waste your time and instead tell you about how great Jesus is, but I want to pray. And then the Lord has given me a word for someone here. 5 (31m 13s): And so let's just pray right now, father, we thank you again for the convenient. We just had celebrating what you did for us. We thank you for the power of the blood of Jesus and your body that was given so that we might be made whole. We thank you for that. We thank you. Holy spirit that you're here and we acknowledge you right now. Holy spirit, come on, everybody acknowledge him. He's right here in this room with us and holy spirit. There's some things you want to do. And some things you want to say, and we just submit to you and relinquish ourselves to you and have your way in our lives. Let my words be spirit in life to everyone that hears. I pray that in Jesus name. 5 (31m 53s): If you agree with that same man. Well, I got a word for this brother right here on the front row, in the middle. If we met before, okay. Would you stand up? What's your name? Noah. Noah. Well, there you go. I'm going to get in the boat with Noah. How about you Noah? I was just sitting over there and the Lord just highlighted you to me and gave me this verse of scripture for you. You may not be, you're probably not unfamiliar with it, but it's in found in second Chronicles, 16 verse nine. It says this. This is for the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth. 5 (32m 38s): It says seeking to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is holy. His and the Lord said to me that you're that man, that the eyes of the Lord, I have been searching all over the earth and his eye is on you right now. And, and I just see, I don't know what that means that I know it's going to be powerful through your life. God's really going to use you because he's found a heart in you that just wants to be his heart. Is that right? You want his, your heart to be in his heart. So I want to pray for you, Noah father. I thank you for Noah. And I see that you've been through a lot of hurtful things in the past, but God says, forget those things. 5 (33m 23s): Let them go. Forget the past because there's a new day ahead for you. And it's a big day. It's a powerful day. And because he's found his heart in you, his heart is wholly yours. Your heart is holy his, I mean, and so Lord, I pray a blessing over him and I pray for an increase in his life. I prayed that for a whole new ability. As you read the word of God, it's going to open up to you. Like never before. It's going to be like, you're reading the Bible and God's going to be speaking directly to you over and over again through the word of God. I pray that in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Let's give Jesus a clap for that one. 5 (34m 9s): Well, today my assignment is to talk to you. Not, I guess I did write a book, actually. I wasn't planning on writing a book. It started in March of last year, this last year I was being interviewed on a national network and they were just interviewing me. And I was just sharing stories. And I kept talking about one act of obedience, one act of obedience. And the person that was interviewing me said, you gotta to write a book about this. And I thought, yeah, I should. And then as I realized, oh, it's really the Lord telling me to write this book. 5 (34m 53s): So I began to write and it just flowed. It was just like easy to write and I'm writing the book and then I'm thinking, well, I'm going to publish this book. I have a daughter in Berkeley who is a novelist. So she's published some novels and so on, but I'm like, okay, how am I supposed to publish my book? And then I, all of a sudden, I come across an advertisement from Trinity broadcasting network TBN saying they looking for new authors and especially if it had to do with evangelism. And so I called him on the phone and I said, Hey, I'm writing this book. And they said, well, you know, we don't know if we want to publish your book or not, but send us a couple chapters and we'll get back to you. 5 (35m 34s): So I sent him a couple chapters and seven days later, they called me and said, we want to publish her book. And so it just went off to the publishing company just this week. Actually I was waiting to get acknowledgements, but pastor Steve wouldn't acknowledge me, but I'm like, okay, I'm sending it in anyhow. Now I'm just kidding. And so, and so it's off and the title of the book, I'm kind of debating there. I titled it one simple act of obedience, but the really the phrase God gave me was one act of obedience. And I'll show you where it came from. It's found in it's going to be on the screen here in Romans five verse 19, Romans five verse 19. 5 (36m 18s): Notice this, it says as by the one man's disobedience talking about Adam many were made sinners. So by the one man's obedience, many will be made righteous. Now the one man, some versions do it different. You know, the man is talking about Jesus through the disobedience of Adam. We all became sinners. We're not sinners because we sin. We sin because we were born into sin. Right, right. No, just checking. Okay. And, and so, but then it says through one man's obedience, which is Jesus, perfect obedience, many will be made righteous, but I got caught with the phrase one active obedience. 5 (37m 2s): I saw, you know, how many of you think we might be living in the last days? Three people. Okay. The rest of you are in for a surprise. Okay. And, and so the question should be for every one of us, what should I be doing? What should I be doing? Well, I don't think we even have to wait for the last days to know what to do, but what should I be doing for sure right now? And so my wife and I were in Israel in 2017 and it was, I've been in I've ministered in 41 different countries, but I'd never been to Israel. 5 (37m 42s): So we were in Israel. And while we were there, kind of give you a little background here. We had, we were just turning our church over to a young guy. And so we were stepping out of being pastors. We were pastors for 32 years and I traveled in ministry for a number of years, been in full-time ministry, whatever you want to call it for forty one forty two years. But we're in Israel. And while we were there, God said, I want you to call your ministry, that what you're going to do now, as you go ministries, as you go ministries now share kind of how that came about. 5 (38m 23s): And so I came back from Israel and while I was there, it's just like, if you've ever been to Israel, the land speaks to you wherever you go. It's just, you hear the voice of God speaking to you over and over and over again. And so I came back and I had a renewed desire to study Matthew 24. Now Matthew 24. How many of you ever read Matthew? 24, same three people. Okay. Now at the 24 is where Jesus disciples ask him, tell us what the signs of the end times will be before you come back, tell us the science. So you've probably, most of us here have heard this. 5 (39m 5s): Well, there'll be wars. Oh my gosh. And rumors of wars, there'll be earthquakes. Just had one yesterday. Bank-to-bank went all the way around the world. There was an earthquake that happened in multiple places around the world. There will be pestilence or sickness and diseases that will come. There will be, it says, people will hate one another. Don't look at anybody right now. People will hate one another. And here's another one. The science many will be offended. Come on. I'm about to offend you today. So you might as well get ready to forgive me ahead of time. 5 (39m 47s): May have you ever seen, at least in my lifetime, I'd never seen anything like how many people are so easily offended today. No matter what you say, you know, that offends me well, get over it, grow up, stop it. And so, and then Jesus, here's the last sign, this numbers at the end of the list, here's all the signs that are going to happen. And then he gives one more sign. And here's what it is going to be on the screen here, Matthew 24 14, Jesus said this and this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations. 5 (40m 32s): And then the end will come. You all see that? And then so we're like, okay, what? We got the wars, we've got the rumors of wars. We got the sickness, we got the hating, one another, we got the people being persecuted. We got all these things happening, but the one thing that's going to end it all is going to be this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed in all the nations and then the end will come. So I just got arrested. I come back from Israel and I'm just looking at Matthew 24. And I just landed on this verse, like God said, this is this. You got to get this. 5 (41m 12s): So, you know, throughout my history with the Lord, I've been, I got saved in 1970 on the side of the mountain and lake Tahoe, Nevada. I was a hippie drug addict and just had a sovereign encounter with the Lord. But all, you know, and by the way, do I have any ex hippies here? Any ex hippies? Okay. I got a couple of us hippie Christians when we got saved in 1970, we heard about this book came out called the late great planet earth, my hell, Lindsey. It was all about that. The rapture was about to come. So we were fixated on the end times I knew I was going to be raptured at any moment. I was afraid. 5 (41m 52s): I didn't know if I felt anything, got to shaking her though. I hope here we go. We're out of here. And, and so we were because of that, we were desperate about getting people saved. We believed that Jesus was coming back. We're going to be raptured and so on. And so throughout my years, as a pastor seems strange to me. I don't know if you do this, Steve, that I keep having to come back and to the gospel and say, do I really understand the gospel? And to keep asking my, I have to go back and say, okay, do I really get it? And so here in this passage, Jesus says the major sign of my coming back is that this gospel, not just any gospel of the kingdom, everybody say of the kingdom, this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed or preached in all the nations. 5 (42m 49s): And then the end will come. So I'm focusing on that and I'm like, okay, I got to get this Lord. What is the gospel of the kingdom? And the Lord led me to another passage, which is found, we're going to put it on the screen here in Matthew 10 verses seven, eight. So we might Pam and I have a ministry, the name of our ministry, what we're still, we still are, are part of our church. We turned our church over to a young guy three years ago and the church has moved to, to Santa Maria. It's exploded. We're there every week. I tell you, I didn't tell you this, but I think I told you this, you know, we have nine speakers that rotate at our church nine. 5 (43m 35s): I was talking to the pastor today. He only preached once this last month, we were like, we'll get back to you for a password right now. We're preaching and both men and women. And it's awesome. Anyhow, I don't know why I went there, but anyhow, so this gospel of the kingdom. So I had to go back and say, well, what is the gospel of the kingdom? And it's found in Matthew chapter 10, verses seven and eight. So Jesus is now assigning his disciples to go out and preach the gospel y'all with me. And so here's what he says. He says, and this is the name of our ministry. 5 (44m 17s): And as you go like, whoa, okay, as you go proclaim, the kingdom of heaven is at hand heal. The sick cleanse, the lepers raise the dead cast out demons freely you ever received freely give. And so my understanding of the gospel of the kingdom is that is, it is a show and tell, gospel a show and tell it's not just words, although words are important. I, I hear people quoting this quote all the time and I, it makes me angry actually, just to be honest with you, they're saying, you know, by all means, preach the gospel and if necessary use words, okay, that sounds really spiritual, but it's totally wrong. 5 (45m 2s): Totally unbiblical because the gospel is words. And then they say St. Francis of Assisi said it. And the fact is, he didn't say it. I don't know who said it, but they needed an, I do know who said it was actually a writer back in the early 19 hundreds here in America. And he was just telling Christians, you ought to act like Christians. And, and so that the gospel of the kingdom is a demonstration of the reality of the react resurrection of Jesus and the power of Jesus being manifest with the preaching of the word of God, of the declaration, that there is a kingdom and it's Jesus' kingdom, the God who was raised from the dead who's alive right now. 5 (45m 46s): And, and so, so I, you know, I'm just honing in on that. And, and then I began to kind of, when I started getting into this book, I realized that's kind of what God's been doing with me for many, many years. I began, I would demonstrate the kingdom. Not that I, although were sent out to, to do that. And I would demonstrate the kingdom and then see people get saved at the encounter they would have with Jesus. And it came in all different forms and different ways. And so on. Now, one of the things, this is last verse, I'm going to share as I just want to share some stories with you. So as I talk to Christians, let me back up here. 5 (46m 31s): Let me just tell you what's wrong in America. They may come on CNN, Fox news. Everybody's telling you what's wrong when America that I'm going to tell you the truth what's wrong in America is the, is the average Christian, whatever that means stopped sharing Jesus with people in America. We would not be in the situation we're in right now because the enemy saw the open door. The enemy saw, okay, the church is backing off. So I'm moving in and Hey, you know what? The first service told me that you guys were there like the on fire ones. 5 (47m 14s): I was just wanting to double check here. And so we it's actually possible for a Christian to get saved, born again, go through their whole life die and never share Jesus with anybody else. So God, when he says what's wrong with a nation, he says this in second Chronicles, seven 14. If my people that are called by my name will humble themselves, pray, seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then I will heal their land and I will forget. So the problem in America is not the leftist or the rightest or the, any of that. It's the church it's us. 5 (47m 55s): We've got the answer. America was founded to be actually a nation that would be a Christian nation. And somehow I'm not, I'm not talking about you. I'm talking about all those other Christians out there. Somehow we have lost our way and for God about our responsibility to represent Jesus every day in our lives. So let me, so I was talking to one of my past friends years ago, and he's been a missionary in difference of the world and all this. And so we're talking on the phone just a week ago. And I was just talking about this thing about sharing Jesus with people and so on. He says, well, you know, I'm really not called to be an evangelist. 5 (48m 39s): And I'm like, what is, yeah, that's not my gift. I said, well, wait a minute, let's stop here. I totally disagree with you. Yes. You're not called to be an evangelist, but second Corinthians, let's put it on the screen. Chapter five verses 18 through 20 says this. And God has given who, okay. Turn to your neighbor and say, we as us, God has given us, ask us the task of reconciling people to him for God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. 5 (49m 20s): And here it is, again, case we didn't get the first one. He gave us this wonderful message of reconciliation, this the gospel. So we are Christ ambassadors. God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ. When we plead, come back to God. Now, I don't know if you know this, I'm assuming you do. I'm trying to assume some things here. You know that the Bible tells us in Genesis chapter one, that all people were created in the image of God, in the image of God, they were created both male and female and God gave them dominion in the earth. 5 (50m 3s): So God's original intention was to have a people that represented him on the year. Ambassadors. An ambassador is someone that represents their country and they have authority and they have a responsibility to represent their country in a foreign land. In case you haven't checked lately, we're in a foreign land. If you're a born again, Christian, you're not of world. Come on, you are on another kingdom. We come from God's kingdom. We've been born into a completely new species of people. You know what I discovered the other day. Now you're even a while back that I believe in aliens. 5 (50m 47s): I pastor, if you taught on aliens, I hope you have. I believe in aliens. It's just that I believe that we are the aliens. We're not of this world. We're here to represent the kingdom of God wherever we go every day, come on and go tell your neighbor. Did you know I was an alien? And so understanding that then I, so in, as God gave us this ministry, as you go proclaim, the kingdom of God is at hand heal. The sick cleanse leper cast out demons, raise the dead freely, received freely. Give as God gave us that, I realized that what then God said to me, I want you to activate in America, 1 million Christians in lifestyle Christianity. 5 (51m 40s): Now, what do I mean by lifestyle Christianity? It's not going to church on Sunday. It's representing Jesus on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday. And yes, on Sunday, we are to a lifestyle. Christianity is Jesus is my life. Watch Bernie. If you've ever read any of his books, somebody asked him to define what a Christian is. And he says a Christian he's is Galatians two 20. I have been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. 5 (52m 23s): A Christian is Christ. Living his life through my life are y'all with me. It's like, we can come to church for this. Yes you did. So what does that look like? So my book is simply a 22 chapters of stories of how that's happened through my life. Not that I've been perfect. I've messed up. I missed it. I missed all divine opportunities, all that. I don't want to paint myself as anything, but I'll just give you a couple of examples. How am I doing on time? 5 (53m 3s): Okay. I got another hour. Is that what it's okay. All right. Well, they didn't say that in the first service who give me five minutes, raise your hand. 5, 10, 15, 20. So just what happened to me. So it's not about me. It's about, so my goal is in this book, what I mean activate is that I want to get 1 million Christians in America who will do acts of obedience. They'll do acts of obedience. And the thing the Lord showed me is that it says through one man's active obedience, many will be made righteous through your act of obedience. 5 (53m 50s): It's going to make somebody else righteous. Come on. So well, are you telling me to go door to door and witness? No. Unless God tells you to do that. When I am telling you to do is to obey the holy spirit. Oh baby. I'll look for the opportunity. I'll explain all that. So let me give you an example. So I get saved. I know before I got saved, when I was in high school, before I was in high school, when I was a little kid, we had this neighbor friend, Amy Piedmont. She was the wildest one. She could have outdanced pastor Steve. She was the wildest woman in our neighborhood. She could, she could drink bourbon, smoke a cigar and Gantz all at the same time. 5 (54m 31s): That was wild back then. And my mom came home. They were friends with my mom and dad, and she came home one night, one day. And she said to me that Amy is no fun anymore. She's got religion, which was my mom's interpretation of Amy got saved. So I didn't think anything about it until I was in high school. Freshman year, I'm walking to school and I made the mistake. I thought of walking down Amy street, I'm walking down the street as I'm going past her house. Eight o'clock in the morning. Amy walks out of her house, walked into the middle of the street, grabs me by the arm. And she's trying to put some little booklet in my hand telling me I need God. And I looked at her and I shook her off and I ran down the street and I yelled back. 5 (55m 17s): Amy, you're a fanatic. And I determined to never go down Aimee street ever again. And I never did until at the age of 22. And I had an encounter with God on the side of a mountain. I got born again, folks, I got saved and I lost all my friends. I was part of a commune. Somebody, you don't know what that means. But then I was hippie drug addict that blah, blah, blah. And I get saved. And I lose all my hippie friends. They think he's had this God encounter. It's weird and stay away from him. And so I didn't know who to talk to. And then I remembered Amy Piedmont went over her house, knocked on the door. 5 (55m 58s): She comes to the door here. I am standing with buckskin clothes beads, you know, and I have a new added attraction. I'm wearing a big wooden cross hanging around my neck. And I said, hi, Amy. I'm a fanatic too. And she got a, took two steps back and count, looked up, looked me up and down. She will come in here and tell me about this. So I shared with her and she just started balling. She says, Fred been, you've been born again. You've you've encountered Jesus. And she became my mentor for the next six months. I was over her house every day after work. And she would pray with me. She would teach me, she would show me things in the Bible and so on. I'm totally indebted to an Amy Piedmont who did one act of obedience, like coming out on the street, taking that risk of being rejected, not caring about that. 5 (56m 49s): Loving me enough to risk her time, risk her life, risk her rejection to tell me that I needed Jesus in my life. I only had three people like that in my entire life that ever did that kind of thing. And so what we need is more Amy Piedmont's right. We need to realize that you are the supernatural answer to your neighbor's condition right now. She does. Jesus said this. He said, he said, the harvest is what harvest is not that good. No, he said the harvest is ripe. 5 (57m 29s): But the problem is there's few workers. There's not many workers willing to, to represent the kingdom of God. And so I'm on a mission. We're on a mission to activate people. And so you guys are the first victims this week and to activate us. So let me just tell you a couple more stories here. This one. So I have lots of these special, Steve would tell you I got a boatload of these, but so this happened several years ago. I was, I was in Wisconsin and I was teaching in churches and stuff in Wisconsin. And I was going to have went back to the airport in Milwaukee to go home. 5 (58m 12s): And it was only going to have like a couple of days at home. And then I had a fly out again and so on. So I get to the airport and the fog comes in and they keep announcing the plane is delayed till 12 o'clock the plane is delayed till two. O'clock the plane's delayed to four o'clock. So I started getting the idea that the plane isn't going anywhere. So I went to the counter and I just said, Hey, let's be honest here. We're not flying out of here today. Right? They go, right. I said, well, listen, I know what's going to happen. Everybody's going to be looking for a hotel room, get me a hotel. And so I went and stayed in a hotel and I was mad. I was angry with God. I was kicking the walls literally. 5 (58m 53s): And like, God, I only had a couple of days home. And now I'm stuck here in Milwaukee and I want to go home. And I, this is not fair God. And so, you know, I had my little tantrum and got over it, but so the next day I go to the airport, they start the same thing over again. Well, the flights written, I'm like, oh no. And then they go, okay, the fog is lifting. We're going to fly on like, oh, LA loo. And so I'm just so excited. I'm going to get to go home. And so I go get on the plane and I just go to my seat. I'm like, I'm so happy because I get to go home. And so I'm sitting there and there's nobody sitting next to me. 5 (59m 34s): And I happened to, you know, when you fly a lot, you look down the island, you just observed people coming in. Well, this big old guy comes in, looks like Paul Bunyan. You know, he's got the beard. He's just a huge guy, six foot seven. I don't know what and big and he's drunk. And he's literally banging his way down the aisle, bumping into people and talking really loud. And I'm watching this guy. And I think, man, I feel sorry for whoever that guy sitting next to him. Now you got it already. It was me. So he comes in, he gets on the plane. He sits next to me and I literally looking up at him and he turns around, he goes, I want to talk. 5 (1h 0m 18s): I'm like, oh. So he proceeds to tell me what a mean guy. He is, how he's beats up people. And he's talking about all this stuff. And he, he caught his wife at a bar with was, was there with two other guys. And he's telling me, I knocked one guy out with a cue ball, the other guy through the plate, glass window in the front of the bar. And he says, he's just going on and on about what a mean mad, terrible guy he is. And so I'm sitting there and his name is bill. And as he's going along, I said, well, bill, why are you in here in Milwaukee? And I sure heard a little crack in his voice. And he says, well, I'm my nephew got ahold of me and said, you know, uncle, bill, are you ever going to come and go fishing with me or something like that. 5 (1h 1m 3s): So I heard this little crack crack. And then, so then I'm sitting there. And then I think, I think I got to confront this guy. And so I turned to bill and I put my finger right in his chest. And I'm thinking I'm not ever going to see this finger again. I said, I said, bill, you need Jesus. And to my shock, I'm getting ready to like get pummeled. He breaks down and starts balling. And he said, you know, there's this guy at work. And he's been talking to me about Jesus. And, and he gave me a Bible and I've been reading this Bible and all that stuff. 5 (1h 1m 47s): And right there on that plane bill gets born again, received Jesus as his savior. And he, we get to the airport and Kansas city is where we're going to, we get there. He grabs me because my mom's coming here. He's razzing KV, mom, mom, look at this preacher guy, man. He just blessed me to Jesus. You know, he's all changes. He's got, she's shiny. And he's doing all this stuff. Now. Here's the significant thing about that. God changed the weather. God changed my schedule because of one person that he wanted to bring into the kingdom of God. 5 (1h 2m 27s): It was. Then I began to understand, whoa, this is a bigger deal than we ever thought about. God will move mountains for one person, but we've got to be on the move. We've gotta be what Isaiah one 19 says, willing and obedient so we can eat the good of the land now. So again, I have lots of these stories, but let me move forward. And I'll just tell you a current story I shared in the first service. So Pam and I, we lived in Nepal for the whole time. We've been here since 2006 and then three years ago, we bought a town home in Santa Maria and we moved to Santa Maria. All my Navajo people said, no, you don't want to go to Santa Maria. 5 (1h 3m 8s): It's a terrible place. You don't want to go there. And, but we've kept feeling God want us to go there. And by the way, eventually our church, we were pastoring moved to Santa Maria is now within a mile of where we live. And just so God set it all up. So anyhow, so we moved to this condo and then a little while after we're there, this young couple moves in next door with the adjoining wall on the other side of our are not Nakano, but townhome. And so, okay, great. This is exciting. We got this young couple moving in. The only, only issue was that they really liked music. I mean, they really liked music. 5 (1h 3m 48s): They liked for everybody in the whole block to like their music and we've got the adjoining wall and especially their base. And so I would be trying to take a nap, but the bed is vibrating from the base. You know what you call it, waves coming through the wall and everything. And then I thought, oh man, I'm going to have to say something. So having met him yet. So I go over, knock on the door, the young husband comes into the door and I said, Hey, welcome to the neighborhood. But I I'm not enjoying your music. Might as quite as much as you, I didn't say it that way. But I just said, would you mind turning the music down, which they did? 5 (1h 4m 28s): And they have was great. Especially when I had my gun strapped to my side of us. I knew that they would comply. I'm just kidding. So some time goes by and then I pull, our drivers are right next to each other. So I pull in one day and there's an older man standing in the driveway at which I later find out is the, is the young man's father. And he's got a brace on his knee. And so I get out of the car, I see him. And I go, I just yell across the driveways. Hey, what happened to your knee? He said, oh, I've blown my knee next week. I'm going in. And I'm having an operation on my knee. 5 (1h 5m 8s): And I said, well, how about if I just come and pray for you right now? And he's like, sure. So I go over into his driveway. I kneeled in front of the guy and I grabbed his knee and I just began to speak healing into his knee. Don't see anything dramatic happen. And that was it. So then I went on into my house and so a couple of weeks later, I see him, he's there in the driveway. Again, it doesn't have the brace on. I said, well, what, tell me, how's your knee doing? He says, oh, I went to get the surgery. And they said, you don't need any surgery. And he's fine. I'm like, cool, thank you, Jesus. 5 (1h 5m 50s): And so then period of time goes by. And now we're in 2020 during the beginning of the COVID situation, I was around November, something like that. I get a knock on my door. I go to the door and it's the, it's the son. And he's standing there and he goes, Hey, can I borrow an egg? I'm like, sure. I'll give you two. And so I go in and get a couple eggs and, and so I go out, I give them the eggs and he goes, well, he says really what it is. I need you to pray for me. He said, I've been in bed for over a month in depression. Cause I lost my job and all this and I don't know what to do. 5 (1h 6m 32s): And so I just put my arm around him and said, Hey, just like a dad would, you're going to be okay. This is no big deal. Yeah. We have things that happened, but you're going to be all right. And all that. He looks at me. He says, you don't tear in his eyes. He goes, you don't understand. God made me come over here for you to pray for me. And so no problem. I said, I got faith for jobs. And so I just laid hands on him. And I prayed that God would give him a great job and blah, blah, blah, blah. I didn't see him again for like three weeks. So three weeks later I see him and he, and he goes, I go, Hey, how you doing? Oh, he says, I'm so sorry. 5 (1h 7m 12s): I didn't tell you. He said the very next day I got offered three major jobs that I didn't even apply for. And I took them. I'm doing great. They even started paying me ahead to take care of us for this job. I'm like, cool. Then we'd come up to again, 2020. And we come up to December and here it is right at Christmas time again, another knock on the door. Here's the dad and the son standing at the door with a big gift basket and they go, Hey, we just, we just wanted to come over and give you this. We don't do this for anybody else, but we love you. 5 (1h 7m 53s): Now. They're coming to our church. Come on. And so you know, this, those are just a couple of examples and there's, and you, you gotta understand you're the miracle that then is waiting to happen for the people that around you. It doesn't have to be as dramatic as what I'm talking about. I threw some fairly dramatic ones out there. It could be a text. It could be I'm praying for you. Or it could be give them a little money. You're standing at the gas pump. Hey, can I buy your gas and all kinds of ways. But the key is one act of obedience. 5 (1h 8m 37s): You just obey. Now you say, well, as soon as God talks to me, I'll all day. Well, he doesn't have to talk to you. You can just be moved with compassion. I was in, I walked my neighborhood and pray over everybody there. And the other day I'm walking on and there's a lady in her garage and I noticed that she has a brace on her knee. So I thought, well, I don't want to like yell at, I'll take another lap around and I'll come back around. She's still there. I'll come back around. And she's still standing there and I go, Hey, killed this lady in her garage. Hey, what's wrong with your leg? She goes, I have cancer knowing that this has been the worst year of my life. This year, my parents died. My son died. 5 (1h 9m 17s): And they told me I had cancer. I said, well, can I pray for you? She said, yeah. So I laid hands on her. The next week. She went to LA for special clinic to get some tests done on her cancer and all that. So I didn't see her for a couple a week or so. And I see her and I said, Hey, how are you doing? She said, they tell me I don't have any cancer. So God's just looking for us. You don't have to have, I didn't have God speak to me. You ought to talk to that lady. I was just moved by compassion, seeing her situation, by the way, that's how God talks to us. Many times. He just moves our heart with compassion. So I want to end with this. I want to give you some simple steps that will help you to begin to activate one act of obedience through your life. 5 (1h 10m 2s): Here. They are there on the screen. Number one, acknowledge that it is our responsibility to demonstrate the kingdom of God. You don't have to be an evangelist. If you're a Christian and by a Christian, I mean, you have God living in you. It's your responsibility. It's my responsibility to demonstrate the kingdom of God. Number two, ask the Lord to fill you with love. For the lost gave you a heart for the loss. Number three, stay filled with the holy spirit. Ephesians chapter five says we are to be being filled with the spirit, speaking to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in our heart for the Lord. 5 (1h 10m 43s): So it isn't just a one-time lay. I got baptized in the holy spirit or filled the holy spirit back in 1972. Now I need the holy spirit every day. I need to get filled. Why? Cause we all leak, right? We got to get refilled because it's really the holy spirit working through you. That's what's happening. Number four, present your body. This is Romans 12 one. I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your body, right? Present your body, a living and holy sacrifice. God's not looking for dead people. He's looking for live people. One of my chapters, as I mentioned in the first service is the title is God wants your bod. 5 (1h 11m 26s): God wants your bod. Well, I gave him my money on Sunday. I gave him like, you know, an hour and 15 minutes on Sunday. I mean, c'mon no, he wants your body on Monday and on Tuesday on Wednesday and Thursday. And so on. God wants your body ever five walk around with the eyes of your heart open. We've got to break out of this. My world, my bubble, all I see is what's happening with me and we need to lift up. Jesus said, lift up your eyes and see the harvest is ripe, right? To told his disciples that twice, lift up your eyes and see the harvest is ripe. So we just need to walk through life with our eyes open and look around us. 5 (1h 12m 8s): There's plenty of need out there right now. Let me just tell you the harvest is super ripe right now. People are desperate for someone that will just look at him and say, you know what? You're going to be okay. I believe in you. I believe God's going to do something great in your life and you don't have to just go in there and blast them with the gospel necessarily. You're going to get to that, but you're you just want to approach them and say, how are you doing? Tell me your story. What's going on in your life. And then listen for the need and say, can I just pray for you right now? Number 6, 5, 6, be willing to take faith risks. So somebody said one time, how do you spell faith? 5 (1h 12m 50s): It's spelled R I S K. Faith is a risk. And you, you and I, if we're going to see God got by the way God works through moving objects, not through objects that are like, I'm immovable. I'm just going to heal. If God wants me, I'll be watching TV. He can get ahold of me. Now. He works through moving objects as we're w when we see the opportunity or there's a line in front of us. And on this side of the line, we're afraid, or I don't know what to say here, or I don't want to do it, or I don't want to take the time, or I don't feel like it right now, Lord. But if we'll step across the line, his grace will come upon us and his power will become off on us. 5 (1h 13m 32s): And we'll become a different kind of person. We'll be, we'll have a boldness we didn't know before. So let's all stand. I want to just end with this. I want to pray over us. I hope this message was convicting. If it isn't, then I'm in the right church. Come on. Then we need to get this message out to everybody else that needs to hear this message, right? That's all. I want to pray for us and pray for myself. You know, I just want to, you know, the Bible says we're to redeem the time for the days are evil. What is redeem timing? It means bringing natural time into time. 5 (1h 14m 13s): It breeds to bring natural time into kingdom time. It means it means to buy the word actually means to buy time, to buy back time. And so, I don't know how many years you have. I dunno how many years I have left, but I want to make sure I'm using the, doing the best use of the time while I have on this planet are y'all with me. How many of you say I'm in for that? Listen, if you're over 60 or 70, you're like, I'd better be into that. So father, I'm going to pray for you. If you want to receive prayer, just lift your hands to the Lord right now, father, I thank you for the precious people of harvest church, saints, people that know you and want to make you known God. 5 (1h 14m 58s): I pray for just your word says when we come together in Hebrews chapter 10, where to stimulate one another, stir up one another into love and good deeds. God, I pray for a whole new level of divine appointments. I pray for a whole new level of acts of obedience to be released upon the people of harvest church. I pray for a grace. I pray for a power of the holy spirit to come upon them. And they're going to have a new level of boldness and confidence, and they're going to be miracle workers. Lord, I decree that over them in the name of Jesus. If you receive that, say, amen, let's say you a shout. Amen. 0 (1h 15m 42s): And then what guys as we finish up this morning. Yeah, I left my phone over there and there was a thing I was going to have on my phone. There was deep and moving. I can't remember it now, but we did this, this, this, some we're going to finish with this morning is called fresh wind. And it was, you know, several relatable to what Fred was saying earlier. But the way that, you know, the worship pastors who wrote it when they were saying is they really feel like there is a time right now, I'm just in a world in our country that we're just dying, where we're calling out for this, this loyalty of the holy spirit in this new kind of wave of his presence, just to fall upon us. That's what this song is about. It's, you know, asking and it's declaring like, Lord, give us a fresh wind. 0 (1h 16m 23s): Give us a new, exciting opportunity to, to just to worship you. It's honor to have you in our, in our midst. So just think of that. As we, as we sing this out, as we worship to, to close up on 3 (1h 16m 55s): , As we repent and turn from sin revival And see 0 (1h 21m 37s): Father. That is our, not our prayer this morning that you would just pour your spirit out. Father, Lord, be with us as we, as we leave this place and go back into this as well, father, that would lead change. Lord, just knowing that we have just encountered the true and living, God has placed this morning. Lord Jesus, that we would go out into this are an unbelieving world largest as believers seeking to just enter your kingdom in this place. But the, you would just blow through this nation Lord low through this state, through this town father, the people who were once far from the Lord, which are close to you. 0 (1h 22m 18s): Jesus, we thank you. Thank you that you are a God of miracles. You are a God who wants to fill us father and Lord see your work and your kingdom. Come in this place. Jesus, on how fast you seek to further your kingdom. We thank you, Lord. Thank you for this time. Let me thank you just for, for a touch of heaven. They were able to experience this load. We just, we lift these things off and we give you thanks father, and your precious, precious name. Amen.