Florida District Camp Meeting 2007 - David Bernard 7/10/07 PM Service

foreign [Music] greater than all you are sovereign god say god [Music] [Music] here we go [Music] greater than all you are [Music] [Music] [Music] forever with power greater than all you are somebody say god [Music] forever and ever [Music] we're blessed [Music] god forever [Music] there's nobody greater than my god there's nobody great everybody greater greater than my god there's nobody greater oh god [Music] yes say god greater than my god [Applause] greater than my god come on say god oh yeah jehovah oh my god you are a great god forever worship the lord right now there's nobody greater we serve a god that has all power oh yes for we have come here to magnify the name of the lord we have come here to praise the name that is above every name did you come to praise the lord tonight did you come to lift high the name of jesus tonight turn to someone beside you and say why don't you praise the lord with me yes [Music] oh somebody praise the lord we have come to praise him the lord oh why don't you come and praise the lord from the bottom of your heart the lord will be praise the lord grace the lord come on let's praise the lord with me have you come to praise the lord with me yeah lord praise the lord sing hallelujah [Music] from the bottom of your heart oh have you come to dance before the lord [Music] come on and praise the lord with me oh it feels good in the house of the lord praise the lord there's something about praise that just opens it up lord with sing me again praise the lord praise the lord with me i don't care what you're going through the lord with me something happens when you begin to praise the lord with me praise the [Music] hallelujah for my heart [Music] sing hallelujah [Music] from the bottom of my heart [Music] let the praises of god be in your mouth and a two-edged sword in your hand yeah yeah yeah will you take someone by the hand right now and let's begin to pray over this service stand take us hold up somebody begin to pray lord in the name of jesus we're asking you from the outset of this camp god let the power of the holy ghost flow freely we feel your spirit and we know where the spirit of the lord is that there is liberty that to be liberty in every pastor's home every saint of god's home let us leave this place in the liberty of the spirit of almighty god we're asking you right now in the name of jesus lose us set us free in the name of jesus yes the holy ghost is in this place right now we've come here we've got all kind of different stories and all kind of different things we're going through but all of a sudden we begin to unify and worship and praise the presence of god begins to come in and the strength of the men and women begin to worship god and the things that were waiting so heavy on our heart all of a sudden begin to lift and we begin to feel a little bit lighter because of the strength of each other [Music] i need the lord this week to touch my mind my heart and my spirit lord here i am lord and your everything to me you're everything to me [Music] this is [Music] your holy presence [Music] this is my daily brand [Music] this is my daily bread this is [Music] [Applause] spoken spoken [Applause] [Music] i'm desperate [Music] i'm desperate for you and i lord here i am i am lost without you [Music] i'm lost without you this is the air [Music] this is the air that i breathe [Music] lord in your holy presence it's living baby living in me lord while i'm here this is my daily bread this [Music] is is my daily bread this is word it is spoken spoken spoken to me oh lord and i [Music] [Music] lord i'm here and i'm desperate for you lord you are everything to me oh lord i yeah i am lost without you i'm lost without you lord here i am here i am [Music] somebody lift your hands and tell the lord here i am i'm desperate for you lord i need you tonight i need you right now here i am as the heart panet after the water brook so penteth my soul after the oh god oh i'm lost without you i'm lost without you lord here i am yeah [Music] let the holy ghost sweep over you right now [Music] i'm desperate for you lord i need your hand i need your touch lord jesus and i am lost without i'm lost without you lord this is the air that i breathe [Music] lord outside of this i don't have anything this is it [Music] here in your holy presence [Music] that's what keeps on living it's breathing [Music] in me lord i've come here because i need some daily bread [Music] lord your very word everywhere oh your word speaks to my mind and my heart [Music] will you lift your hands one more time and say i [Music] am desperate for you i'm desperate for you lord i lord here i am i'm lost without you i'm lost without you lord [Music] i'm desperate for you lord here i am [Music] i'm lost i've lost me down i'm lost without you [Music] will you lift your hands right now i believe that there are people that have come i feel it in my spirit and my heart there's a lot of brokenness a lot of different things that need to be mended right here and right now [Music] if you're close to somebody you know a situation or you know you need something i believe we don't have to wait to the end of this service but right now god wants to do some mending and so i want to pray right now i feel the holy ghost moving lord in the name of jesus right now god you see what's going on you know what's facing these men these women i pray right now in your presence i pray that breath will be breathed into them again oh god let the power of the holy ghost begin to flow let life begin to move in them again i don't know what it is that's around their heart i don't know what's pressing in but lord right now in your presence god let there be freedom in the spirit let there be liberty in the name of jesus we pray [Music] it's living jesus [Music] the lord is my light and my salvation whom shall i fear the lord is the strength of my life of whom shall i be afraid when the wicked even my enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh they stumbled and fell though in hosts should encamp against me my heart will not fear the war should rise against me in this will i be confident one thing have i desired of the lord and that will i seek after that i may dwell in the house of the lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the lord and to inquire in his temple for in the time of trouble he shall hide me in the secret of his tabernacle shall he hide he shall set me up upon a rock and now shall my head be lifted up above all mine enemies round about me therefore will i offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy yea i will sing praises unto the lord i say let us lift our voices in one acclamation of praise every voice [Music] every voice every voice every voice it's a truth of both testaments when men's hearts overflowed their testimony of faith became tangible hold on ushers when men's hearts overflow their testimony of faith became tangible they always served god with substance as well as soul and so it is that we gather in this house tonight to worship and i challenge every man every lady i challenge every wonderful young person that's here let us not leave this place without each of us doing something tangible toward god serving god with substance and soul father for your continuing kindnesses we say a thousand thank yous and ask that the blessing of god that has rested on us continue to tarry there keep us guide us with your eye in christ's name we pray and all the people shouted amen now you ushers that are halfway through you may want to go back somebody may have changed your mind let's give gloriously unto the lord jesus christ you may be seated may god bless you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Applause] wow so [Music] so [Music] my [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] thank you to the souls harbor orchestra under the direction brother richard son pastor james varnum i feel like we can fight some battles tonight how many feel that spirit in the house today we want to take some time out of this service to honor some very very special guests here if you'll allow me first of all i'd like for the missionaries brother sister parker to stand there are missionaries to malta would you give them a great big welcome to the florida district please remain standing brother sister parker and they have a display in the back corner that you're welcome to stop by and see remain standing thank you to all of our evangelists would you please stand we want to give a welcome to all of our evangelists in the house would you please stand remain standing thank you thank you and i want please remain standing please remain standing all of our home missionaries that are here would you please stand all of our home missionaries give them a great big hand remain standing now i'm going to ask every minister and your wife if you would please stand every minister and wife in this whole auditorium would you please stand give them all a great big hand if you are a minister with the united pentecostal church every minister and wife remain standing if you're a minister and wife with the united pentecostal church you're a licensed minister you and your family and all those that have been invited the missionaries evangelists all of you are invited to be in the gym licensed ministers only with the united pentecostal church due to space we ask please only you are to be there and your family your children your wife and children thank you give them all a great big hand you may be seated god bless you in jesus name we hope that you will take advantage of fellowship after the service in the gym thank you very much and all of you that are not standing didn't stand pray for us that we have a good time in jesus name amen after the services we have cds and dvds in the back corner back to your right of all of the services will be available thank you to all those that are working so hard in that ministry god bless you and ladies and gentlemen florida district 2007 is the host district to general conference in tampa [Applause] we are so blessed to have the 82nd general conference to be hosted right here in our district and i believe that we're going to be great hosts to the conference how many of you say amen we encourage you all pastors ministers bring your groups in especially everybody say sunday night we are canceling we're we're suggesting that you would cancel your sunday night service bring busloads of people in to the sunday night crusade service where we're going to see over a thousand people receive the holy ghost in tampa in one service brother jack cunningham will be the speaker on sunday night it's going to be a tremendous time people from all over the world are going to be coming in for this conference and we are the hosts we encourage you to be a part please encourage your people to come bring them by the bus let's fill the forum in tampa saint peter's forum with the holy ghost anointing that's in this house also can somebody say amen and ladies and gentlemen just before the preaching of the word would you help me welcome the section 4 mass choir under the direction of sister miranda williams [Applause] [Music] come on church it's time to worship the king of kings lord of lords [Music] [Music] forever [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] this is [Music] [Music] forever [Music] down turn my world around [Music] together [Music] foreign [Music] use me as your vessel i am just afraid shaking my heart to look like you're this is what i pray this one thing [Music] forever [Music] [Applause] forever [Music] [Music] thank you lord [Music] i praise you for eternity [Music] i praise you for returning [Music] i praise you for returning [Music] [Applause] set free [Music] this one [Music] to forever [Music] [Music] [Applause] thank you jesus lord by your glory jesus [Applause] here [Music] [Music] come here [Music] so [Music] as squeak all over me will you make this a place [Music] [Music] hear us touched our generation we are your people crying out in desperation open the binders [Music] [Music] hear us [Music] [Applause] come on sing this weapons [Applause] [Music] breathe life into these dry and flirty [Music] foreign [Music] would you make this a place [Music] [Music] [Applause] touch our generation we are your people crying out in desperation we cry to you jesus come on cry out all over this place jesus [Music] hear us from heaven thank you lord jesus hear us from heaven [Music] hear [Music] hear [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] hear us [Music] [Applause] hear us from [Music] come to your people our generation we are your people [Applause] [Music] come to your people [Music] [Applause] [Music] generation we are your people [Music] come on cry out to jesus in desperation tonight [Music] let's worship the lord magnify him exalt him tonight hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah thank you lord thank you jesus thank you jesus [Applause] amen we appreciate the efforts of this choir this is a mass choir from section four they have been practicing for several weeks they've driven long distances to practice and didn't they do an awesome job tonight [Applause] the lord bless you you may be seated i would like for brother and sister john paul hughes to stand these are wonderful wonderful people retired missionaries [Applause] we don't ever need to forget what those that have gone before us have done and never forget that we stand on the shoulders of those that have prepared the way for us and we need to always be appreciative and never forget amen don't we serve a great god hallelujah it's an awesome presence of the lord in the house tonight and it is with great confidence that i'm going to turn this pulpit to brother david bernard he's the president of urshan graduate school he pastors a great church in austin texas he is a superintendent of the south texas district which is one of the most powerful districts in the united pentecostal church they literally are leading the way in so many areas brother bernard is a great man of god and he is about to bless our souls with the word of the lord would you welcome him in jesus name thank you brother williams let's praise the lord again here hallelujah thank you jesus we appreciate you tonight your presence that we feel hallelujah hallelujah hallelujah praise god praise god praise god if you'd like to remain standing i'll go to the word of the lord the gospel of john and let me say it's a privilege to be here thank you brother williams and the district board and whoever else is involved brother daryl williams everybody that's arranged this and i appreciate it i had the opportunity to be here last year and enjoyed it and now i'm back here this again this year so i hope it's in the will of god we'll find out i guess but i do have a message on my heart and it may not be a typical message if there is such a thing but i grew up in korea my parents were pioneer missionaries of the united pentecostal church and they often conducted five-day revivals in camps and their philosophies the first night or two they would dig deep in consecration and repentance get everybody on the same page so that by the last three days that the holy ghost could fall and do what needed to be done they had great success in that of course any time is a good night to receive the holy ghost anytime is a good night to receive a miracle it's your faith connection with god that makes the difference but i do feel led to challenge our hearts tonight last year i preached on the demonstration of the spirit and i do believe in the powerful work of the holy spirit we are pentecostal we are apostolic we cannot survive or exist without the miraculous demonstration of the holy spirit if it seems uncouth or unsophisticated or wild or strange uh so be it but we've got to worship god in spirit and in truth we've got to pray the glory down we have got to see the miraculous that's who we are praise god so i'm committed to growth i'm committed to revival but i want to talk about and i'm going to john chapter 12. i i believe that true growth must involve quality as well as quantity our our district god is blessing us with revival we're into our fifth year and and we've grown seven percent per year in the number of churches and daughter works if we can keep this going in 10 years we will double and so it's exciting to see that growth and new churches new daughter works but true growth is more than just a shallow excitement it requires commitment it requires sacrifice it requires attention not only as i said to do to numbers but what are you achieving with your numbers what are you accomplishing if you're just housing people in a different location and their lives are not changing well there are other organizations that are doing a better job than we are in attracting and housing numbers so we've got to go beyond that and so i turned to the words of jesus in john chapter 12 and verse 24 it these words refer first and foremost to him and to his own sacrifice for our sins which obviously we cannot duplicate but he himself proceeded to make an application to us so let's read in the gospel of john chapter 12 verse 24 verily verily i say unto you except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit and so i'm perhaps not a good title i'm not sure but i'm entitled this a call to die a call to die let's pray one more time and ask the lord to anoint his words to our hearts heavenly father we need you tonight we appreciate and love you somehow lord i ask that you would speak to our hearts accomplish your purpose in this service and in this camp lord in the name of jesus christ we pray amen you may be seated amen now these are the words of jesus christ he was talking about his own death he would die for the sins of the world even though it seemed counterintuitive it seemed strange to the point that in various times when he would talk about suffering and death the disciples would say oh no peter went so far on one occasion to say no way lord not so don't let it happen it's not meant to be and jesus uh rebuked him in what seems like very harsh language get behind me satan you don't understand the things of god surely the apostle peter was not satanic but in that idea of avoid sacrifice avoid death avoid suffering that was actually the devil's uh message that he would try to use to jesus and try to use to us as well you can have revival you can have growth you can have enjoyment you can have the miraculous you can have the supernatural you can have the praise and worship you can have the dancing in the spirit but don't worry about the commitment and sacrifice part but that's not god's message that's the devil's message if he can keep us out of church he will but if we insist on going to church he can deal with that he can even deal with us being pentecostal and rejoicing in the spirit as long as we will eliminate the part that talks about commitment and sacrifice and death and so jesus wanted them to understand i've got to die in order for you to live in order for there to be much fruit in order for the kingdom of god to grow and as i said a moment ago there's no one else who can do what jesus christ did he's the only one who could die for the sins of the world we cannot save the lost by our ability we cannot be co-redeemers with the lord we're saved by grace through faith he's the only one who does the saving work in our lives at the same time jesus proceeded to make application to us in the very next verse verse 25 he that loveth his life shall lose it he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal if any man serve me let him follow me and where i am there shall also my servant be if any man serve me him will my father honor and so he's saying you must imitate me no you can't redeem the world your death physically would not do any good your blood could not wash away anybody's sin not even your own nevertheless as the master is so the servant shall be the servant is not above his master if the master was persecuted the servant should not think it's strange if he or she is persecuted if the master would have to sacrifice suffer and die it should not be strange if the servant also must make a commitment to advance the kingdom of god and so the strange paradox if you love your life so much that you decide i will determine the way i'm going to live i determine the conditions upon which i will serve god i decide how i will spend my time my money my energy my life it's going to be my way for my benefit well when you get to the end of your 70 years or 80 years or whatever god gives you you may have had a wonderful life a fulfilling life according to the world standards but when you get to the end that's it there's no more from there on you don't have life so if you hoard it and keep it and love it you spend it you use it up and there's no more left but if you'll give your life away for the kingdom of god it doesn't seem to make sense but if you sacrifice along the way if you agonize an intercessory prayer if you seek the will of god if you deny yourself if you give to others if you give to the kingdom at the end of your life guess what you will step from this life into eternal life your life will only have just begun and all the people that you gave to they will be there with you to enjoy life with jesus christ for eternity hallelujah praise god but you can't avoid that commitment and that sacrifice notice in verse 24 let's look at this carefully jesus says verily verily truly truly in other words this is an important saying obviously all the words of jesus are true but he's trying to underscore this with two lines and exclamation points at the end truly truly this is important if you're just kind of breezing through my discussion halt right here stop this is a main point you've got to get this if you miss other stuff you might could catch up later but if you miss this you can't go anywhere else verily verily mark it down truly truly it's important and then he said accept in other words what i'm telling you is essential it will not happen unless you do this except you do this nothing else will happen it's essential it's necessary and then he says a corn of wheat or we would say a grain of wheat notice that one grain of wheat has the potential for a harvest it may seem small it is small it's not enough to to feed you for one meal it's not enough to feed your family but in that one grain is the potential for not only one meal but many meals for many people it starts small it seems insignificant what difference does my prayer make what difference does my attending a certain service i could skip the service because i've got a slight headache and nobody would care nothing would be amiss everybody's going to keep on going the preacher is going to keep on preaching it's just one grain yes but your prayer has a potential your attendance has potential your faithfulness has potential your sacrifice has potential your offering has potential it's only a grain of wheat but that's exactly what god needs that's exactly what god can use hallelujah oh yes just one grain there's potential there's revival there's growth hallelujah oh i feel the presence of the lord here tonight talking to somebody hallelujah hallelujah [Applause] that grain of wheat must fall into the ground to me that is speaking of humility going down instead of up it's the opposite of the world's way as i expressed a few minutes ago in order to find life you have to give it up in order to inherit eternal life you have to lose your life and deny your life and sacrifice i'm not talking about asceticism or punishing your flesh but i'm talking about submitting our will to god's will submitting our gifts talents and treasures to the kingdom of god so that god's work is accomplished his will is supreme we've got to fall into the ground we've got to forget about ourselves our pleasures our desires cannot take precedence over the will of god but instead god's will takes precedence over everything else and in the process we find life's true meaning in the process never be afraid of the will of god because the will of god will always take you to the place of deepest satisfaction some people are afraid what if the lord causes him calls me to preach what if he calls me to be a missionary what if he asks me to sacrifice what if he asked me to give but let me tell you you'll never find satisfaction as you will in the in the center of god's plan and god's purpose don't be afraid of the will of god that's where you find life's meaning that in life's purpose we've got to fall into the ground and die now to die what does that mean i i think it's telling us we have got to submit ultimately our life to god it really is a life of faith not according to our understanding but according to god's word and god's will it is a denial of self it is a sacrifice of our will in romans chapter 12 god wants a living sacrifice he doesn't want you to physically kill yourself as a martyr that doesn't get you any advantage but he wants you to submit your life as a living sacrifice there's a denial of self our own self will there we died to sin you can read about it romans chapter 12 galatians chapter 5 chapter 6 we die to sin we die to the flesh we die to the world that means we sacrifice our own desires and the world's desires and we subordinate them to god's desires the real question is what is pleasing to the lord you know a lot of issues that we might debate over a lot of ideas of lifestyle of holiness a lot of ideas of doing god's will when we argue from the standpoint of our will it can be difficult what does the scripture really mean this does it really mean that i mean is it essential is it necessary you mean you would go to hell if you did this or if you don't do that i can't really see that well you can argue back and forth you can find loopholes you can work around it but when you step back and say wait a minute wait a minute the real question is what pleases the lord what does the lord want then a lot of issues become very simple and very easy not my will but god's will find out ephesians 5 10 find out what pleases the lord niv translation there so we are crucified to the flesh we're crucified to the world it's sacrifice to me death in this context is sacrifice in the will of god now not all suffering fits in this category there's suffering that human beings have whether you're saved or lost tragedy comes to everyone difficult circumstances come to everyone a christian or an unbeliever either one could have could lose a loved one could get in a car wreck could lose their job could have a difficult marriage those things are not really our sacrifice for god that's just part of living in this world in a sinful world as a member of a fallen race it's going to happen of course we have to respond differently than the people of the world respond but to me what he's talking about dying is not just the general trials that we go through but specifically sacrifice according to god's will things that we would not suffer if we were doing our own thing but we voluntarily assumed them in order to do god's will there are certain sacrifices we make there are certain commitments we make there are certain financial decisions we make we suffer certain amount of persecution or ridicule or peer pressure that we could avoid these things if we were not a christian or if we were not a committed christian we could evade the sting of these situations but we voluntarily do them as a sacrifice to god there is a real cost to serving god there is a cost of being a christian i will not uh real not try to evade that point jesus himself said count the cost the devil tries to get you not to think about the cost of sin he paints a false and pretty picture if only you'll follow me the devil says everything will be wonderful but the lord is very honest with you if you follow me it will cost you but it will be worth the cost in the end it's certainly not talking about self-righteousness it's not talking about suffering in and of itself luke 9 23-24 and i'm laying somewhat of a foundation here tonight to get us to think nine luke 9 23 he said to them all if any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me take up the cross the cross is not hardships in general but the cross is what you voluntarily pick up to do the will of god jesus didn't have to according to human uh reasoning did not have to die he was not a sinner he did not deserve to die but he voluntarily submitted to god's will in gethsemane he prayed as a man if it's possible let this cup pass for me nevertheless not my will but your will be done see he took up the cross voluntary submission to the will of god voluntary sacrifice in order to accomplish god's purpose and true believers true disciples must learn to deny their own desires and assume the cross god's will and that's a decision that we make daily not just once in a lifetime have you ever noticed that brother williams you get to a certain point in life hey i'm a pastor i'm a full-time pastor now when i'm starting a church sure you got to sacrifice but after you've sacrificed for a number of years you should start reaping the benefits of all of your investment so now you shouldn't have to sacrifice hey i'm a district superintendent you know i should be in this position of glory and honor right isn't that the way it's supposed to be no i don't care who you are periodically god will bring you back where you've got to submit your will to god's will you've got to deny yourself and say forget about glory honor position power perks privileges money whatever i've got to go back to seeking god's face i've got to pray i've got to fast i've got to say no to some things i've got to sacrifice i've got to give them my time my energy my talent my money whatever it is i've got to do the will of god nothing else matters i don't have to be a district superintendent that doesn't matter at all but i've got to be a servant of god i don't necessarily have to be even pastor of that church but i've got to find a place to work for god everything else is expendable everything else can be set aside but i've got to do the will of god i've got to be a christian i've got to do what god has called me to do god didn't call me to hold office but god did call me to serve him and i've got to find a way to serve him everybody preachers saints new converts senior saints we've got to find a place periodically where we go back and say i'm taking up the cross i'm taking up the cross and if we start feeling it's not fair if we start feeling i deserve more at this stage if we start feeling wait a minute why are these people doing that don't they know who i am then we've got to say wait a minute it's not about all those things even if i'm unjustly persecuted seemingly what about jesus i should be willing to do whatever it takes to follow him to accomplish his will a call to die and notice back in my text if that one grain falls into the ground and dies then it doesn't abide alone but out of that death sprouts new life it bringeth forth much fruit the end result is true revival and true growth it certainly includes numerical growth i believe in it i think we've got to press for it i don't think we should settle for the status quo i don't think we should pat ourselves in the back saying well we're holding out we're faithful and so just because we're not growing like everybody else it doesn't matter because we're faithful no we can't do that we've got to say we are going to grow we are going to grow numerically we are going to plant churches we are going to see new people repent we are going to see them baptized we are going to see them receive the holy ghost we're going to retain a lot of them we're not satisfied just to see them come and go we're going to retain them and disciple them we're going to grow numerically that's part of it but it's much more than numerically growing in the spirit growing in the faith a company of disciples who are not of this world who are not following the culture of this world who do not succumb to the peer pressure of society or even of christianity but are dedicated followers of jesus who take up the cross we're going to grow in the spirit we're going to grow in every way that's the will of god much fruit much fruit much fruit you see if you take that one grain of wheat and plant it out of that can come a plant that one wheat spike can easily contain a hundred kernels or a hundred seeds a hundred grains well if you just do the math plant one you get a hundred on average then the next generation you plant a hundred and you get a hundred from each of those and you keep going do you know that by the fifth harvest you would have 10 billion seeds well that's enough to meet anybody's need from one grain comes 10 billion grains by the fifth harvest in other words there's really unlimited potential it's up to you they found some grain at the from the time of the pharaohs uncovered some of the mummies and there was grain with them and some of that grain was still capable of germinating and they did their calculations if that grain right there had been taken and planted at the time of the pharaoh and the harv and harvested not eaten not spoiled but just reinvested we would have enough food to feed the whole world forever just from the grain that was found at that time what an incredible potential if we're willing to make the commitment you know we are here as oneness pentecostals apostolics in the united states united pentecostal church international because of the sacrifice of the pioneers of the first century and also the 20th century and we've got some amazing stories even in our own history here in the united states i just picked up a few books in my library over the years from word of flame press and just started thumbing through them one of them eleanor gamblin the sparrow song her first husband they were missionaries in china before the communists took over then the uh the japanese invaded china her husband this was before the united pentecostal church is one of the predecessor organizations oneness pentecostal jesus name missionary from the united states to china her husband garland leonard was killed by the japanese one of our missionaries gave his life she married again married sanford johnson this time they went to colombia as missionaries he was an intercessory prayer warrior and he became stricken with illness after they got there and he ended up dying in colombia but if you read the various missionary counts the great revival of colombia that hundreds of thousands of believers came from that revival and those missionaries go back and credit sanford johnson his vision his burden his prayer because he had a vision of that valley being filled with believers and he prayed over that vision and that's exactly where the revival came in that one valley but his wife her second missionary husband died on the mission field think about that that couldn't be easy brother larson also missionary to columbia you may have heard about it werner lawson but the new generation probably has never heard some of these stories but one of the pioneer missionaries in colombia his wife died in childbirth leaving him with two small children it was a strongly catholic country they would not even allow since she was not a catholic they would even not allow him to have ground to bury her he had to go find some place he had to make the casket and preach the funeral of his own wife prepare her for burial himself because nobody would help him that's incredible sacrifice canadian missionary united pentecostal church there was great after the revival came in colombia there was great persecution many of our believers were killed because of the name of jesus it's hard for us to understand we're talking about the 1950s 1940s 1950s they had this special and i don't want to be too graphic but the the uh the anti-christian or the anti-protestant anti-pentecostal gorillas they would chop their heads off with machetes they had a special cut they called it the t-shirt cut in spanish la corte de fornella because they would cut off their head and leave it dangling so that when you looked at the corpse it looked like a t-shirt with no head i'm talking about united pentecostal believers you can read the stories emilio and rosa okendo they were sitting in their home in the morning drinking coffee and the gorillas burst in and they killed the husband in front of the wife they insisted that the wife go make them some coffee and serve it to them while she sat there next to her beheaded husband and then after she finished making the coffee they chopped her head off because she was united pentecostal eighteen-year-old boy nelson galvez he was riding home from church they looked at this man in the distance they were lying in wait to kill the pastor they saw this young man riding away on his horse and they thought that's the pastor they ambushed him killed him gave him the t-shirt cut and his mother found him in that condition 18 years old gave his life for the gospel that's hard for us to imagine but i'm just giving you some illustrations to say if in the first century god could expect commitment and even in the 20th century if god could expect commitment what about the 21st century are we immune from submitting our will to the will of god are we immune from submitting our desires to the plan of god brother homer white one of our early united pentecostal ministers he was a second one to be baptized in jesus name east of the mississippi river he was going to church this was in the early 20th century a mob grabbed him started beating him up end up his nose getting broken they took him to a horse trough and began immersing him you know because he baptized in jesus name they'd fix him and so they just started immersing him in fact they immersed him three times almost drowned him then they would take took him to the bridge to throw him off somebody one of his relatives saw that came out with a gun scared him off now here's this man his nose broken his clothes torn bloody wet almost dead almost drowned and suddenly he's freed what do you think he did well he was on his way to church when the mob caught him so he continued on and went to church and gave his testimony it's a united pentecostal minister i'm trying to imagine that scene today in our churches the pastor he wasn't the pastor one of the ministers on staff you know whatever comes in gives his testimony now you know probably we won't face that kind of persecution probably we won't face the kind of deprivation you read the stories of the pioneers how they they you know these preachers would go to revivals and they would have to pray down the money to get get a train to go to the revival and to get from that revival to the next they'd have to pray that there was enough money in the offering to feed their family to put gas in their car to get them a ticket on the next to the next revival we can't imagine that probably we won't face that kind of persecution or deprivation although who knows who knows but what i'm saying is are we willing to work for the kingdom of god are we willing to sacrifice what about home missions are we willing to go are we willing to give are we willing to help what about foreign missions what about daughter works it's not easy from a church's point of view our pastor's point of view to sacrifice money time even people you know we've started churches in our area our local church has started them we're in a rapidly growing city so we benefit from people coming from all over the country and some of them are already pentecostal when they come so our church grows from the labors of other people and some of them are not pentecostal because they move they're open to to something new and so we can reap a harvest that way but you know all we've we've have lots of people have moved into our ear and our church that are pentecostal and i got to thinking about that are we just satisfied to grow on that but you know we've started daughter works and we've we've sent a family or two here or family to their family or two there i got to adding it up we've sent more people out than we took in so i feel a little bit better than that about that we're being good stewards you know we've probably sent 150 people out of our church to help in these various churches we've started 12 daughter works four of them are on their own now and we've sent pastors out to three other churches in our area which we call sister churches and we've got a couple other churches on the drawing board it does take money it does take sacrifice it does take people i mean the preachers that you raise up and send out they're your best saints they're your tithe paying saints they're your altar workers they're your home bibles to eat teachers so even if you just let them go you've lost but i can't win everybody in central texas i can't win everybody in austin and it's exciting on easter sunday to say hey we had this great attendance but it's exciting to be able to say on easter sunday but we had this attendance but when you count all the other churches we had twice as much in attendance it doesn't have to be in our four walls the money doesn't have to come to our bank account but if somehow the kingdom of god is growing isn't that really the bottom line yes it's sacrifice yes it's commitment but if if ministers can give their life literally for the gospel i can at least give up a little extra income or a little extra luxury or a little extra effort surely i can do something i don't know what you make of all this i'm just throwing things out here tonight i'm thinking of my parents they're pioneer missionaries to korea they started the united pentecostal church of korea did a lot of i saw much sacrifice much hardship must they endured lots of persecution lots of opposition i saw them after they had established the church they felt it was ready for national leadership and my dad told me you know many people counsel him you should stay there till you're retired because if you come back to the united states there's no way people would give you the recognition and that was true he didn't step back into a big church he actually had to start a whole mission church in his mid 50s if he'd if he had been here all along and built the church up he would have been in a position of of honor in that age of life but because he spent all of his work overseas when he came back he was out of circulation and it was very painful for me to see them after 30 years of ministry my mom had to get a job selling insurance and my dad was a substitute high school teacher you know he'd been districts general superintendent of korea bible college president in korea preaching revivals full-time pastoring two churches at the same time he had pastor one church my mom would pastor another church at the same time and then they would do revivals you know in the summer and in the winter and and teaching bible school and leading an organization and then now he's substitute teaching in high school that was really hard for me to take but they did start a church in louisiana and of all the most unlikely things not only did they start that church but there was a young man from el salvador came they prayed him through to the holy ghost he started winning his family and they end up starting a spanish church my dad doesn't speak any spanish he speaks korean fluently he says i'm too old to learn something else he doesn't speak spanish so he used this young man as interpreter helped him he went through college felt the call to preach now he's a minister now he's pastor under my dad my dad's senior pastor and he's 76 years old but this man that he's raised up is really now the pastor well that church grew they have now about 150 people they've got their own building they just completely paid for it god blessed these guys they started roofing company and they ended up i think they have four roofing companies in that church they do 80 percent of the business in ascension parish uh in roofing and since katrina of course their their business is more than they can handle so god just blessed them and blessed them they're they're they've just broken ground on a new sanctuary that's going to seat 750 people this is a spanish-speaking church but it didn't start that way nobody had a strategy to say now brother bernard if you're retired from the mission field if you'll go to south louisiana and start a spanish speaking church you know last two years ago they gave him for his uh maybe his last year's 70 75th birthday they gave him a brand new lexus paid for well for most people you know we probably wouldn't need somebody to do that for us but i felt that was very appropriate after all the sacrifice but he didn't have a master strategy i'm going to go to south louisiana build a spanish-speaking church and they're going to pay give me a lexus it was sacrifice when there didn't seem to be any motive other than winning souls winning immigrants winning people that were at the poverty level starting a church but god does have a way of taking care of his people when we make the commitment for the sake of the commitment god always evens the book sooner or later it may not necessarily be in this life but whatever we don't receive in this life it'll be even in the life to come that's for sure you know so here's my concern and again this is not probably a normal message but i hope the lord will confirm it by the end but i'm just concerned i want us to grow i want us to commit to home missions to foreign missions to daughter works to bible studies to home friendship groups whatever we can do to bring people in but i want it to be true growth in discipleship and so i'm concerned that we as pentecostals it's easy for us to pursue the things that our culture says material possessions standards of success according to the world even in church we could do that you know there's a there's a church in austin in our city it's not apostolic so i'm not secretly attacking anybody but it's a seeker-sensitive church they've developed this plan they've been very successful they've grown into a mega church in a matter of a few years somebody donated massive amount of money that actually enabled him to build the church that would be nice that would be nice to someone just hand you the money to build a new building but you know we we sent some people over there because we're trying to build a new church so we're looking at different churches around town and and they have a courtyard where you can sit down have coffee they've got video screen everything so you can walk in and if you don't feel like going into the service you can just sit outside in the cafe have coffee with your friends and watch the sermon on the screen while you're having coffee well that really works in austin austin is a yuppie town it's a high-tech town it's that that that's exciting to people they they don't have to make a commitment they don't have to dress up they don't have to say hi to the usher they don't have to give them the offering they don't have to listen to an altar call they can just sit and watch the screen they can actually go to church and sit there outside in the pleasant weather and drink coffee and watch the screen and come and go or they can go in the service but if they feel like they need a break they can go outside and everything's already arranged it really makes sense but you know i don't just see how we can have an apostolic revival in that context see we might be quote successful in building a church through that kind of method but will we lose the essence of who we are there's another church that considers himself spirit-filled in some sense it's interesting i've had people from that church visit ours and some have even said well they've told us if you really want to get the holy ghost go down to new life and you can receive the holy ghost then you can come back to our church after that well whatever but they sent a male direct mail now i thought it was very slick very appealing but it just stirred my heart let me quote from it again this is not an apostolic church here's their here's their direct mail ad okay let's cut to the chase people have legitimate reasons to think that church is a drag after all who really wants to pay good money to sleep in church when you can do it at home for free hey that's that's pretty good if i were an unchurched person i'd like that ad but then he goes on oh and then there are the holy people you know those self-righteous types who get bent out of shape if your hair isn't combed just right and that's when it starts hitting me the holy people well i don't believe in self-righteousness either but i don't want to equate holy with self-righteous i don't want to make fun of being holy doesn't hebrews 12 14 says without holiness no one shall see the lord if you want holiness does that mean you're legalistic it shouldn't i'm against legalism and self-righteousness and you've got to dress just so as far as external appearance i want people of every background to come into our church and not look down upon be welcome befriended but i also want those same people to receive the holy ghost to have a new life to pursue holiness i don't want to make fun of holiness if that's what it takes to have revival no thanks we're going to grow but we're going to grow by preaching repentance by preaching consecration by preaching holiness we don't have to cut out holiness [Applause] apparently jesus didn't have a very good marketing campaign if you want to follow me you've got to die if you want to follow me you've got to take up your cross that wouldn't fit on the card i don't think then this little card goes on you see jesus never meant for his church to be about rules regulations and guilt well that kind of struck me the wrong way too i don't believe in legalism i don't believe in saying you got to do this this this this this but you know the lord does have commands and they're not just suggestions and they're not just old testament the great commission which says go and preach the gospel make disciples of all nations teaching them you know baptize in the name of the father and holy ghost but it says in matthew 28 20 it says teaching them to observe all things whatsoever i have commanded you so i can't leave people on saying come to our church there's no rules or regulations come to our church you can do whatever you want i can say come to our church we love you just as you are we accept you we'll pray for you we believe in deliverance we believe in hope we believe in salvation we're not here to condemn you you don't have to line up in a certain way of dress or this or that to be welcome and accepted and loved and feel a part of our church but when you do come we're going to lead you to repentance we're going to lead you to baptism in jesus name we're going to lead you to the gift of the holy ghost we're going to lead you to a new way of life the lord's going to change you and we're going to teach you how you can live a new life and yes god does have commands for the new life i've told people i'll never force you to do anything if anybody in our church tries to make you feel bad because of you're not doing this or that or you're dressing a certain way you tell me i'll take care of them all i ask is that you follow the lord jesus and as the lord teaches you you follow him that's all i ask and i've seen many people come to walk in maturity of inward and outward holiness with that approach you don't have to beat them over the head you don't have to condemn them but at the same time there have got to be expectations there's got to be teaching we can't cut out the commitment we can't cut out the sacrifice we have to be willing to die and then this little ad it ended friendship support great music and real people living generally from the heart that's and then they gave the name of our church i thought you know that's really appealing if i were an unchurched person i'd like that friendship support great music real people that sounds good then i thought you know austin builds itself as a live music capital of the world they have this big entertainment district on sixth street all kind of bars and music venues and i thought you know that would be appealing to someone living in our town but how would i know that was different from a nightclub advertiser friendship support great music real people hey that could be a restaurant that could be you know a nightclub that could be a music venue there's got to be something different about the church there's got to be something unique and it's the move of the holy ghost it's the move of the spirit that changes us it doesn't just bless us but it delivers us it transforms us it makes us into new creatures new creation in christ jesus [Applause] see i went to law school i was going to be a lawyer went to university of texas graduated took the bar that's another story god pulled me in the ministry which i'm thankful for but i kind of look step back and look at this every once in a while so you know what if we're not going to ask for commitment if we're not going to have a transformed life if we're not going to be concerned about quality in addition to quantity why should i be doing this i should be a lawyer you know i kept up you know i get this bar journal and i get the the university of texas law school journal whatever they call it and some of the people i went to school with they're federal judges they're you know they're in bush's cabinet and all this kind of stuff and their big time lawyers in houston all that i think you know if i am not going to really be apostolic and really be pentecostal and really preach doctrine and preach a lifestyle that's different why should i just be a preacher why shouldn't i go be a lawyer i mean if i want to make money i can make more there easier than try to have a church that doesn't stand for anything if i want name recognition or glory why do that in a compromising church i mean be a big fish in a little pond so what if i'm going to use those talents and abilities and whatever just to get ahead and make a name and be popular and get places to speak and so on and so forth well wait a minute there are other avenues that we should really go for where it really really gonna be a reward in that sense if this life is all there is i need to go for everything this life can give in a secular sense but if i'm gonna be a preacher if i'm gonna work on building churches i need to really have a true apostolic pentecostal church [Applause] i hope that didn't sound braggadocious or anything i'm just saying you know we need to step back and think about it and you think of it in your context really why would we go through all the sacrifice and all the strain and then when we attain some level of success just kind of back off and just let anything go because now we're more interested in a big building or good income or success and numbers and be recognized in the district and be recognized in the nation i mean that's a foolish path we should do have gone done something else you know be a professional golfer or something whatever you're capable of doing but if we're really going to be a preacher or a saint of god and i'm not just talking to preachers i'm talking to apostolics if we're going to make the effort to come to church and be identified with the church and say this is our church we shouldn't play around at church we should really be part of what god is trying to do even though it's costly even though it's a sacrifice it's worth the sacrifice jesus christ is calling for commitment you see the real issue is are we preparing people for heaven are we advancing the kingdom of god are we faithful to the will of god you know being pentecostal slash charismatic in our world today is a pretty popular thing years ago if you said you spoke in tongues well you're crazy you're demon-possessed or you're deluded or the kind one said as jerry falwell once said oh well i think the people have had too much pizza the night before you know that was a nice way of labeling us but now it's popular they're actually doing professional studies on people that speak in tongues and all the benefits of speaking tongues it's great to be pentecostal slash charismatic it's the largest christian group in the world except for the roman catholics that's a big tent a lot of different groups are put under that but but if you if you're a pentecostal slash charismatic you might have you might attend a big church with a beautiful building lots of money lots of possessions and you know we used to be called holy rollers but i wonder if we're in danger of being just rollers without the holy i wonder if that's going to be our destiny if the lord tarries and somebody writes our history they start off as holy rollers but they ended up as rollers without the holy i don't want to be that why would i do that why would i pursue that it really is important to pursue holiness it is important to our christian witness let your light show so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father which is in heaven jesus said we're not to compare ourselves with others but we're to follow the will of god let me just try to bring these thoughts to to a summary here you know the story in john 21 after the lord rose from the dead peter had denied the lord three times although he said he would follow him to death till death he would defend him if all else everyone else forsook him not not he not peter but he did he denied the lord three times so when the lord appeared to peter and john and several others and the lord asked him a question to the apostle peter do you love me you know that story three times lord ask the question three times peter answered yes the third time peter got a little upset i have this little theory that maybe the lord was giving him three times to make up for his three denials i think he was driving the point home peter you're you know you're impetuous you speak the first thing you think and it may be sincere but you haven't thought it through now it's time for you to count the cost now when you say you love me slow down and think about this and so when and peter said well why why would you ask me this you know i love you you know my heart the lord said well let me i'll tell you i'm paraphrasing of phrasing of course but he says i'll tell you why i'm asking these questions you're young and you're strong you do whatever you want to do when you get up in the morning you put on your robe you gird it about yourself and you go out and face the day nobody tells you what to do but if you're going to be my disciple if you're going to love me there's coming a time you're going to grow old and you're going to be arrested and you're going to be girded about by someone else you're going to be bound and you're going to be carried where you wouldn't go he was actually prophesying he was going to die a martyr's death and so the apostle peter probably did like most of us would do because here's the test now do you love me now you're willing to follow me and he looks at john and he's thinking now jesus and john really they think alike i don't understand all this talking about truth and love and all these deep things but they do they they like to have those conversations in fact john had the favored place right leaning up to jesus at the last supper when jesus said one of you is going to betray me everybody's asking well who is it what do you mean what are you talking about and finally peter looked over john said you asked him you know if anybody can figure it out you're right there you you ask him what he really means he knew john had an inner insider's view if anybody could figure out what jesus was saying get something out of jesus it would probably be john so hey john just just whisper to him ask him to tell tell us then you can tell the rest of us so peter knew that john had that special relationship if anybody would get a special deal it would be john and so peter knowing all that he looks at john says lord well what about this man if i'm going to have to sacrifice my life for your will i kind of like to know what about john and jesus said in a nice way it's none of your business if it's my will that john lives till the second coming what difference does that make to you follow me you've got to be willing to make a commitment yourself not well if everybody else in my church does this if my pastor emphasizes this if everybody else is making the same sacrifices if the neighboring church is making the same commitment i'll do the same as everybody else but the lord says no i want you to follow me jesus also said many their last shall be first and the first shall be last you know we look at and evaluate things well that person's way ahead but the judgment may reveal something totally different well that person's so blessed well they might be but might be different in the judgment they might not have so much a reward as we might think you can't judge it by outward appearance you can't judge it by human standards you've got to judge it by the will of god and so i'm going back to the words of jesus he says unless that grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it's gonna buy it alone no results but if it dies it'll bring forth much fruit what is really important to us do we want our personal life to be productive for the kingdom of god do we want our life to be blessed in a true sense successful according to god's standards do we want our own family and children to grow up in the faith and be faithful even after we're no longer able to influence or decide for them do we want to have other souls who we've influenced that we've won or maybe encouraged or discipled or helped along the way so that in eternity we will see the fruit of our own prayers our own godly example our own witness as preachers what is really our goal as saints what's really the reason why we live why are we going to church why are we going through the motions what do we expect out of it if we want spiritual results there's got to be a commitment there's got to be a sacrifice there's got to be a denial of self and so what i'm preaching tonight is a call to die and i'm asking you to apply it in your own life in your own way i don't know what god may be dealing with you about but i think god is speaking to us and i'm hoping that this night can be a launching pad that those who come after me can take it and run and say if we've got a commitment now let's push for the heights let's push for revival let's push for the miraculous but we can't forget about what it takes to get there that's what i'm preaching don't forget about the commitment oh yes let's excel in worship let's excel in growth let's excel in revival let's excel in the move of the spirit let's see god bless in mighty ways let's see god raise up great churches but along the way let's keep in mind it will always be a commitment there will always be a sacrifice there always must be a death to self no matter where we are in life we've got to go back to those first works we've got to go back to the altar of repentance we've got to go back to the altar of consecration we've got to go back to the altar of sacrifice we've got to die to self to the flesh to the world we've got to say no to those things and say yes to god oh we've got to be pleasing unto him we don't have to be pleasing to this world but we must be pleasing to god we must be acceptable to god we must do the will of god why are we here what are we doing here what's it all about somehow we've got to get a hold of god's will for our lives and recommit ourselves to the basic to the foundation let's stand right now oh i feel it i hope i'm communicating something to you oh i feel that god is calling us hallelujah hallelujah [Music] you see in the end when the rewards come or the judgment comes it's not going to be well done good and faithful district superintendent it's not going to be well done good and faithful pastor of the largest church in the florida district it's not going to be well done soloist that outshone them all at family camp it's not going to be best singer in the district best musician in the district it's not going to be pastor of the most beautiful building in the district but it's going to be well done good and faithful servant not everyone can have the biggest church not everyone can have the most talent not everyone can preach the best sermon whatever that is but everyone can be faithful everyone can do the will of god but it takes the same thing for every one of us whether we're well known as far as this world or as far as the church or whether we're unknown it really doesn't matter to god and and we we need to make sure it doesn't really matter so much to us either but what should matter is am i faithful to the call of god am i faithful to my post of duty am i living for the lord with all of my heart am i denying myself taking up the cross daily and following jesus am i pursuing holiness am i praying for souls am i loving souls am i a positive influence on those around me what is my life really meaning after all i want to hear him say more than anything else well done well done my son well done david good and faithful servant you did the job that i called you to do you did what i asked you to do you did not compromise you did not give up but you are faithful to what i ask could you come and pray could you come and seek the lord come to the front or wherever you want let's submit ourselves to the will of god let's humble ourselves to the call of god [Music] [Music] and be willing to say [Music] you

Channel: Florida District United Pentecostal Church

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Id: 4al1nDfJQps

Length: 110min 38sec (6638 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 14 2021