Dr. David Gibbs Sunday Afternoon - 08 27 17 11AM

turn in your Bible to Acts chapter 4 please Acts chapter 4 when God spoke to Paul in 2nd Timothy chapter 2 he said be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus do you understand every child of God is commanded by God to be strong in the grace now that's what saved you for by grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves it's the gift of God not of works lest any man should boast but now that you're saved the command is be strong in the grace 2nd Peter chapter 3 says grow in grace and all through Scripture God repeatedly reminds us as child of God how critical grace is now I love the definition of grace that I learned in Sunday school as a child it comes from the anachronistic Spence it's the power it's the riches of God and when Paul says grow in the grace it's growing in his power the riches of God and if I were to ask you right now how strong are you in the grace every one of us has commanded listen to what the scripture has to say because this always befuddles me for how many times I read it and never noticed it Romans 1:7 grace to you and peace from God Romans 16:20 the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you 1st Corinthians 1:3 grace be unto you 2nd Corinthians 1:2 grace be unto you Galatians 1 through grace be to you Ephesians 1 - grace be to you Philippians want - grace be unto you Colossians want - grace be unto you 1st Thessalonians 1 - grace be on you second Thessalonians went to grace be unto you first Timothy went to grace mercy and peace from God our Father second Timothy went to grace mercy and peace from God the Father Titus 1 for grace mercy and peace from God the Father Philippians 1 through grace to you first Peter went to grace unto you second Peter went to grace and peace be multiplied unto you second John 1:3 grace be with you revelations 1:4 grace be unto you now I have to confess that all of those verses which I just reiterated I've read many times but I just sort of read over them casually as if they were just pastors some type of a introduction God never spares not even one word in his word and when God says grace be multiplied unto you that was written to the church when he says grace to you grace to you grace to you God wants you and me to be strong in that grace I want you to read in Acts chapter 4 read with me at verse 33 and with great power gave the Apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus and speaking of the Apostles and this church and great grace was upon them all I wonder if we could say today boy great graces on my life that word great there was the word that you used where something was of such magnitude it couldn't be quantified are you overwhelmed with the power of the grace of God these people were now God tells us that this church did three things and that Unleashed great grace can I remind you this morning the devil has in you and in me nothing to fear in fact the devil rejoices when we take on life and our power and ability because he knows Jesus said without me you can do nothing but by the grace of God that Devils a bank wished foe he's a defeated foe and if you got great grace in your life this passage in acts chapter 4 says that the church did three things and when they did these three things great grace was unleashed let me give you the background story Peter and John in Acts chapter 3 are going into the temple to pray and there were beggars everywhere because in the Jewish faith the giving of alms giving to beggars was required so the beggars would strategically place themselves around the temple in beg alms Peter and John are going in to pray and there's a beggar there and Peter turns to this beggar who wants money from him and you know this statement Peter said silver and gold have I none but he said such as I have give I unto thee and what he had was the power of God he didn't have money but he had God's power and by the power of God the grace of God he was healed now everybody was startled at this because this man had been crippled since birth and here he is running and walking and all of a sudden the authorities come up and these are the authorities who crucified Jesus the authorities came up and said where did you get the power to do this and whose name did you do it and Peter said I'm glad you asked we did it in the name of Jesus the very man you crucified and immediately the authorities said stop it stop it right now we forbid you to use his name by the way that is happening in America today you can say God you can say Allah you can say Muhammad but you cannot say Jesus and they took Peter and John in and they said listen you button it up and they put him in jail overnight now these are the men who killed Jesus they got the power to kill the disciples they let him out of jail in the morning and when they got out they threatened him one more time they said don't you dare use his name anymore and immediately Peter and John went back to the church and when they went back to the church this church did three things and these three things Unleashed great grace let's look at what they did it starts if you would please at verse 23 you're gonna like this the first thing they did was they praise God how good is your praise they praise God diffusive ly they didn't ask God to take the problem away that's what I'd have been prone to do pastor God make this go away God get me out of this they didn't do that they praised God verse 23 and being let go that's Peter and John they went to their own company that's the church and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said unto them and when they heard that they lifted up their voice to God with one Accord and said Lord now circle the word Lord use there in your Bible now this was the word for all-powerful God can I remind you your God is not powerful he's all-powerful it's only impossible with men there's not one thing impossible with God I think sometimes we forget all this problem listen our problem is nothing compared to the power of God he's all-powerful they said Lord thou art God and has made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is who by the mouth of thy servant David has said why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things the kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered to their their against the Lord there's that word again and against his Christ for of a truth against thy Holy Child Jesus whom thou has anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people of Israel were gathered together verse 28 the key for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy council determined before to be done God the enemy can't do one thing that you're not a hundred percent in control of they could not do one thing that God wasn't allowing I don't know what you've got in your life but there's not one thing can happen to you that God's not a hundred percent in control of how good is your praise the Bible says let everything that hath breath praise the Lord how many of you here once your next breath hold your hand up would you and how many of you want the breath after that holds your hand and how maybe you want breath all through the day you understand what God says the reason I give you breath is to praise me let everything that hath breath praise the Lord the Bible says in everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you how good are you at praising and thanking God for your problems you have it for the gifts I'm not thankful for them they're bad God says you want my power it starts with you praising me and thanking me I don't know how many times I've had this call but it happened yesterday again somebody calls me I said all brother Gibbs we've got such horrific legal trouble and boy they do they have a really bad problem and brother Gibbs we want to know what should we do we're set to write it down what do you want us to do first I said ok you write this down this important I said give thanks for your problem they said what I said I want you with all of your heart to give thanks for your problem yeah but brother Gibbs we're calling you to get help I said you don't understand you're going nowhere with God until you start praising him until you start giving him thanks for everything that's what they did what was it that brought great grace they went with great praise mercy I wonder this morning when we sang did you sing with all your heart I wonder if you can say boy this morning when we sang those songs I praised God I hope you understand we don't come to church and sing for each other if it was for each other it'd be a blessing of some didn't saint but we sing unto the Lord and the Bible says you to do with all your heart all your mind all your soul all your strength if that was the last song you were ever gonna get to sing to God and you were ushered into heaven could you say Lord boy you know I sang it with everything I have or are you not praising him that way the Bible says God inhabits the praise of his people do you want to get God in it start with all of your heart praising him I worry sometimes when we sing the songs and I've sure been guilty we know the words so we sing them by rote without even thinking about them did you ever watch people at a ballgame sing the national anthem they're not even thinking of the words they just know the words now we come to church and well I know those words pastors so I just sing them by rote no no God says I want you to use that breath to praise me my law partner Charlie Krays we were together 25 years little more he used to sing so loud in church because he loved to praise the Lord but he had a problem he's saying a perfect half pitch off perfect you couldn't do it if you tried and he would sing so loud he'd get a whole portion of the church singing in the key he was in a half pitch off and more than two dozen times I've seen a song leader say hold it hold it stop let's go to the key he's it and the minute they go to that key goes another half step off and I would say Charlie Charlie Charlie you're messing it all up he said I know David I know but I love Dupre's when we sang this morning did you love to do it I wish you could sit on the platform and watch people sing there's a whole bunch of people that look like they're in pain their heart's not in it you know what I love about your choir and your precious quadrant boy their hearts are in it oh I love it what would it take to get you praising with your heart in it I was invited to preach in a all-black Church and that has happened a number of times in my ministry these are great churches wonderful people but when I went to this church it was very large there were between two and three thousand people there and when I walked in pastor I'm looking around and I noticed I am the only person they're not of color the only one and the people are so gracious so kind so receptive and I sat down on the front row where they told me to sit and after about five minutes a dear black lady came in and sat down next to me now I have no idea this lady is gonna change my life forever I mean this lady is gonna change me we're looking each other we set a courteous hello after a few minutes she turned to me I'll never forget what she said she turned to me and looked at me and she said what are you doing here white boy now no one had ever called me white boy before and it startled me it was friendly but I said well white boys gonna preach this morning and I thought oh my goodness I just called myself white boy what did I do she said you're gonna preach white boy I said yeah ma'am she said well in that a hoot I said I agree with you that's Oh whoo she said you got the stuff white boy I said I beg your pardon she said don't play stupid white boy she said you either got the stuff or you don't have the stuff and she said if the preacher don't have the stuff he can't do nothing and if you don't have the stuff you stay seated right here and let somebody get up there that's got the stuff now you got the stuff yes sir don't which is it white boy I said white boys got the stuff I didn't know what to say she said they tell you how we do things here I said no no oh she said you're gonna love it you're gonna love it white boy this is so good she said first thing we do is sing for about two hours I said two hours oh she said it's wonderful she said you know what happens when we do that she said it bugs the devil he hates it did put some of the flight cuz he's doing everything he can to stop it she said the devil hates it when God's people really sing praise and she said you know who else had bugs I said no who she said carnal Christians she said because it isn't in them she said you can tell they want this over that they don't want to praise Him they just wanted to be ended she said it's wonderful she said you love to sing don't you white boy I said I'm loving it more every minute yeah man she said then we have testimonies and she said when we have testimony she said it's great people talk about what God's done and who got saved and it's just great and people confess crimes and she said when they confess crimes we take him right down to the police station and turn him in I said you do what now oh she said the Bible says you're not right with God if you're not right with man she said that's in the book you know that white boy I said yeah I'm aware of that she said a couple weeks ago a guy that got saved in the service confessed that he'd tried to blow up the car of the chief of police and almost killed the man and when he confessed the whole church took him down to the police station and we turned him in I said wow she said you haven't done any crimes have you white boy I said none that I'm talking about this morning man I'll be down at the whose castle she said now before we start singing I need you to do me a favor I said sure what she's I need you to move over now we're already sitting that far apart I said okay somebody else come and she said no but she said when I get singing I need my room she said you understand white boy I'm gonna be standing in the throne room of God singing by the way when you sing and praise him you're in the throne room of God I moved over a little bit good I did that lady started singing and she changed me I'm watching her I'm listening to her and I said god I won't be like her that woman has something that woman's not just mouthing words that woman singing with all her heart would anybody around you this morning say I wanna be like her I want to be like him are we sung so polite that our hearted and even in it after a while the preacher called me up to the platform and he said brother Gibbs I see a met sister Abby down there I said is that her name he said yeah I said preacher gonna tell you something I want to be like her that ladies prays changed me this mornin the way she sings to the Lord and you understand we're not singing to each other we're not singing to the song leader we're singing to God I said I want to be like her he said did she give you her testimony I said no he said brother Gibbs a year ago her to Junior High boys and her husband went down to the bus stop at about 5:30 to catch a bus the boys for school and her husband takes a bus to work they think it was a gang thing two cars pulled up and shotguns came out and killed her family for no reason he said then unthinkably just to be deprave they got out and they cut the heads off her boys we buried him brother Gibbs with no hits I said Abby what do you want me to do at the funeral she said help me praise it helped me get my song back I said Wow did she tell you she's got stage-four cancer brother gifts and no money for medicine I said no shouldn't tell me that all I know is I want to be like her I want what she's got the world's watching other Christians are watching you want great grace it comes with great praise nothing can take its place there's one thing about great praise no one can do it for you but you the only person who can make my praise have words is me I know your pastor how he loves you what he would do but he can't do it for you it has to come from your heart yeah but for the Gibbs III just don't sing well God ever asked you to do it well he asked you to do it and I promise you God's listening to your heart he's listening to what's coming out look at the second thing they did number one great praise number two they did great boldness and witness verse 29 by the way this is my life's verse my mother gave it to me I've recited this verse a thousand times in courtrooms and legislatures and now Lord behold they're threatening Xand Grammont to vice servants that with all boldness they may speak thy word you want great grace it takes great praise you want great grace it takes great boldness how bold are you for the cause of Christ now I cannot explain what's happened in America I truly can't but here's what I see everywhere every perverse ELINT imaginable of every wicked thing imaginable has come out of the closet and God's people have gone into the closet suddenly they're bold and were timid they're bold and we're quiet how bold is your witness for Jesus Christ but we've never had never had better tracks we've never had better tools we've never had it where we could do things with with more expertise and we've never witnessed less now I hope this isn't true here but boy in our lawsuits we sure find this to be the case in fundamental Bible believing churches less than six percent of the people ever witness that means 94% of the people are doing nothing Wow and of that 6% only 4% ever do it faithfully in our trials we always ask people getting them ready when is the last time you personally led somebody to Jesus Christ and they say well I haven't ever okay well when is the last time you tried well I haven't done that ever either where did we lose our boldness where did we lose that heart that says every person you'll ever meet anywhere has an eternal destiny where they're gonna stand before God and the only thing that could make the difference and where they spend forever is whether they know Jesus Christ and have trusted in his shed blood well brother Gibbs I I'm just a timid person yeah but you can hand the tract you can do something oh I promise you my wife is very timid very timid but she just says to everybody this changed my life would you take this it changed me I have never seen one person refuse attract from her and I can show you dozens of people who got saved offer those tracts I was in Pennsylvania in Yorktown Pennsylvania and a lady came up to me and with her was a crowd of about 50 60 people and she was holding up in the air a gospel tract and it was absolutely pulverized I mean it was in shreds and she's holding it like this and she said can I tell you what this did right here I said what she said I was a drug dealer she said if it was wicked I was into it she said promiscuous sex drugs she said I didn't just do drugs I sold the drugs and she said the only thing I liked besides drugs was hot cars and so I had a Mustang all souped up a Mustang convertible and she said one day I went to the 7-eleven to do a big drug deal but the drugs got two big bags of drugs and I'm walking out of the 7-eleven went back to my car and somebody whose name I'll never know till heaven she said put this tract on the seat of my Mustang she said when I saw it I went ballistic she said I set the drugs down lifted the tract up spit on it put it on the ground and I'm stomping on it trying to tear it I was so mad now while I'm doing that two police cars pull up I'm gonna get donuts at the 7-eleven and the policeman said what's going on here what's happening and she said well somebody put this on the seat of my car and I'm mad and she just cussing and taking that tract apart and the cop said well I'm gonna get you for loitering if you threw it on the ground you better pick it up unless you want me to see what's in those two bags in your car and all of a sudden it dawned on her I'm loaded with drugs so she picked the track up and she said yeah yeah yeah she went home tells the story to her mother her mother said what was on that got you so mad she said I don't know I was just mad the mother went out and found the track the mother brought it in read it and three days later got saved from the track the next day the mother led the daughter the druggie to Christ and she said now it's been 11 years and this is my family because somebody put a gospel tract on the seat of my car we're all going to heaven whoa when's the last time you did anything to be bold to go out there and say everybody needs this everybody was with a dear black pastor friend of mine great man we're gonna take an airplane trip and he said I'll get the seats and all lined up I said great well when I got to the airport he said we're in the last Roy I said no no no no no we do not want to be in the last row on this airplane the engines are hung on the back I said you'll be sitting between the engines our molars will vibrate for a month you don't want to sit in the back he said no we got to sit for Jesus we got to sit in the last row and I thought oh don't start this stuff for Jesus a lot of my experiences when they want something that's for Jesus okay and he said we're gonna get on last I said no no no no no I said all the bin space will be gone he said we're sitting in the back and we're getting on last for Jesus now pray and I tell you what I prayed God helped me to be nice right now I feel like saying something I'm trying to bridle my tongue finally everybody's on but us and the gate agent said come on come on come on you're gonna miss it come on he said okay here you hold my Bible I hand him get it from him couldn't believe what he did pulls his coat back unbuttoned his shirt pulls his shirt back and on his t-shirt it says I can tell you how to go to heaven you don't have to go to hell that's printed on his t-shirt he walks up to the gate agent like this and she's reading it and she said can I take a picture of that he said sure she gets her phone and taking a picture she looked at me and she said you with him and I said well kinda sorta they end it funny when somebody gets bold how timid we get now we walk and get on the plane and the flight attendants up front they're all reading it they said can we take a picture of that he says sure sure now we're going down the aisle like this all the way to that people said I'm telling you fifty people took pictures they're doing this I thought boy look at this and the thought came to me boy if I did this he's a little thin guy if I did this I could put the whole Romans Road on there I mean I got plenty of space now we get all the way to the pack I mean this is just blowing my mind all the way to the back and he says pray pray buttons up his shirt he said pray while he's buttoning his shirt a flight attendant came up and said do not get off this plane God sent you for me she said promise me promise me you'll not leave until you talk to me God sent you for me so well I've never had that happen but then I've never been bold we took off were praying when they undid the seatbelt like that seven people walked back and said can I talk to you before we left there five people trusted Christ yeah but brother Gibbs that's bold you know what I've discovered for a sports team the guys will wear cheese on their head for a sports team you'll wear all these cockamamie colors and things and the simple fact of the matter is you're bold for that team because they have your heart what would it take for you to get bold for the one who died for your heart bold nothing can take the place of great great praise and great boldness look at the third thing they did and we're done verse 31 and when they had prayed the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and they spoke the Word of God with boldness now remember the day of Pentecost has already taken place the Holy Spirit has already come now it says they were filled with the Holy Ghost how's your prayer life your life with God is going to go no farther than your prayer life and ask you this simple question how much time are you spending in prayer and what are you asking God for in prayer I've never seen anybody with any kind of a prayer life that didn't have a great prayer list because without a prayer list you'll ask for only the things you can think of but with a prayer list you'll start keeping track of what you want God to do and you'll start praying I have a list for my wife of 62 things I pray everyday for her nothing on that list peculiar to us I've shared that list hundreds of times I promise you if you read my list for my wife you'd say I want that I want that I want that you'd say I want that for my mate 62 times there's only one problem you're not asking and you know what God says you have not because you ask not are you spending more time on your iPad your iPhone than you're spending in prayer his doors never closed prayer is commanded prayer moves the arm of the Almighty there's not one thing impossible for the god you serve to do but what they had was great praise great boldness and great prayer has your family ever watched you pray have you ever prayed with your maid in front of your kids that had the kids say I want to pray like that my wife who has been laboring with seizures that we never anticipated so many things we had planned in life to start working out right now pastor so what she said is I know God's brought this for a divine reason so honey what I'm gonna do is focus on prayer and three to forever three to four hours everyday she's deep and prepared how about your prayer life you want to see God do something ask and you shall receive but you have not because you ask not and great grace was upon them all Wow what would it take for you to leave here with great grace the decision of great praise I promise you the next time they lead a song here you should sing like you've never sung before it's not up to the song leader to pull it out of you it's up to the song leader just to get us started just to coordinate what we're doing but what comes out of here has to come out of the heart has to come out great praise and then comes that boldness the track racks in this church should be empty every service they should have to say pastor what do I do to get more material to tell people about Christ in it funny we want to send missionaries around the world and I'm sure for that but we won't go next door to our neighbor we won't go down our street and tell them about Jesus Christ my son who's now a lawyer with us got a burden for our neighborhood when he was in Bible College at West Coast and he got the mailing list for our neighborhood I don't know quite how he did that but he got it and he wrote every one of our neighbors and he said I'm your neighbor here's where I live and I'm just worried about where you're gonna go forever I like this neighborhood and everybody here has been friendly to us but one day you're gonna stand before God and what's the answer what he says why should I let you into heaven I'm reading this letter see sent out he never asked me to proof it I told my wife boy is awfully bold awfully direct she said honey that's what he's supposed to be he mailed them all our phone lit up we had one man mad and what he was mad about was why did we wait so long to send it to him he said I'm at death's door and not one person has come to me and why didn't you come sooner off of that letter to our neighborhood my son got to lead 20-some people to Christ that's your neighborhood that's my neighborhood I'm gonna be great in praise bold and witness and then by the grace of God I'm gonna start praying asking how many of you want great grace on your life holds your hand up let's pray father you see our hearts we're commanded to grow in grace we're commanded to be strong in grace and father we want to change things this morning great praise may we never sing the same again may we understand we're standing in the court of heaven with you listening and father we want to have great boldness you've commanded us to go and tell that's for every Christian and father we want to pray in everything you said by prayer and supplication with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto the Lord Father forgive us for asking for so little heads are bowed how many of you say brother Gibbs God spoke to my heart this morning God helping me I want great praise my heart's been touched if that's true hold your hand up right now hold them high if you got your hand up I want you to step out of your seat and make your way down to this altar we never do what's right when we leave if we don't do what's right when God speaks to our heart you come right now [Music]

Channel: Open Door Baptist Church

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Length: 44min 31sec (2671 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 29 2017