Holy Ghost or Bust by Jim Cymbala

my secretary told me she was talking to folks at Calvary Chapel and they said the conference the dress was business casual and I said are you sure they said no they said business casual so this is business casual but that's not what that is out there you just all be chillin huh it's a joy to be here I love you guys I'm hearing you sing and pray for you this afternoon I want to bring a word of encouragement and strengthening to you my wife and I have been at the Brooklyn Tabernacle for a long time we started just so that you can understand how I might understand what you're going through wherever you're at first offering I took was $85 was the total tithes and offerings we were in a run-down building in downtown Brooklyn on Atlantic Avenue it was so depressing that I didn't want to go and I was the pastor which is usually not a good sign lots of trouble lots of problems that we inherited two or three four people sometimes on the Tuesday night prayer meeting which is now attended by sometimes almost 2,000 people and on Sunday just the weather bad then you could have 10 12 14 15 people I hadn't been trained to be in the ministry hadn't gone to Bible School was a whole City basketball player in New York and went to college on a hoop scholarship playing an NC double-a tournament and so I was going through a lot of battles especially at the beginning my sermons were so bad I fell asleep while I was preaching but you know you preach you pray and you plod that's how the work of the Lord is done when you're leaders you preach you pray you plod you applaud you pray you preach you just keep moving ahead and you don't give in to discouragements I want to talk to you about something we all do all of us do what I want to talk about and that's preach or deliver God's Word the first rule of course of preaching is you can never imitate anyone which I don't want to talk about but I just want to say that before we get to this passage the moment you imitate anyone you're doomed to little fruit little success because God never uses copycats maybe this will help someone here when I first went in the ministry the biggest struggle I had was that God could use me speaking conversationally like I do now I thought now I'm a pastor I'm in the ministry I didn't think this would work out this way so let me let me be a preacher that's death so I would conjure up pictures in my mind of what a preacher would be or somebody who influenced my life or a former pastor when I was a college student and whatnot and I just had the biggest battle to break through to believe that God could use me the way I am and if you're here today I just want to encourage you God will use you just the way you are you never affect anything you don't act you don't be mystical don't be like somebody else don't don't get all hollering if that's not your temperament don't put a tear in your voice anything that's not real the Holy Spirit was the Spirit of Truth he withdraws quickly because if he wants to show he'll go to Broadway but in church in church there should be no show we should be who we are Jesus never had had two voices he never said to the guys well look we're going to go across the lake get the food ready but I got to do this Beatitudes thing here on the mountain and talk to them and then he turned in that and they changed his voice or his personality and well berries God hallelujah and all of that that is death but some of us and and unfortunately in Christianity that's developed into a part of the culture so that we expect that from people but that's unthought-of for the Apostle Paul unthought-of for Jesus Christ he there was only one voice only one personality had no preacher persona he was just who he was so I just want to say that I battle with that and then God helped me to break through and show me you only I'll only use you when you're who you are stop trying to be someone else just get over it and be who you are and do your best and speak from your heart but I want to talk now about more spiritual aspect of preaching when people get saved by the accident of how they get saved they get influenced by the environment of where they got saved nobody when they're smoking weed all day long or doing oxy cotton nobody says oh when I get saved I want to be a Baptist nobody does that when you get saved you find Christ you end up in a church you didn't ask for it just the way it happened you know some of you end up in Calvary Chapel I end up where I was you know there's just when you study church history a lot of stuff going on over there are all through the centuries I was with my friend Ravi Zacharias and Hong Kong where I've been back several times and with underground pastors there by the hundreds from the mainland and they have their style by the way they pray in the way they sing and they don't copy anyone because they're not in touch with anybody and but whatever environment you're saved and you get a lot of definitions not from the Word of God you get your earliest definitions like when you grow up you get your definitions from the environment around you so when people say prayer you don't know you don't search the scripture to find out what prayer is at first you go yeah I know what prayer is they do it in the church evangelism the gospel even there's all kinds of ministers being frustrated in America today because they grew up in a church it didn't preach the gospel a little bit of Jesus was in their little gospel but not I say to all of you gentlemen something I did years ago and I still do it and it was oh it was life-changing for me just read through every sermon in the book of Acts where they preach the gospel and make sure that's what you and I are preaching Peter and acts 2 Peter and acts 3 Peter and acts 10 at Cornelius house Paul in Antioch Pisidia acts 13 when they almost kill him in acts twenty-one twenty-two twenty in Jerusalem that's the gospel that's the power of God to salvation not any other gospel if you put additives in it if you add to that you dissipate its power if you take away from it you dissipate its power God doesn't need creative thought from any of us here in this room he's God and he told us going to where all the world and preach the gospel the good news but what is the good news if you came up on an accident on the highway and then the EMS people said the guy's got about two three minutes to live and he's breathing his laugh and you only had three minutes to talk to him what would you tell him to make sure his soul could be saved we got to know what the gospel is and in America we've had to join the church our denomination is special this is there and then none of that is have anything to do with the gospel nothing nothing nothing nothing Pentecostal just think there's nothing nothing none of that is mentioned anywhere in the sermons when Peter and Paul and others we're trying to reach people with the gospel is that part the New Covenant yeah we can discuss that in believers meetings and all that but when we want to see people converted where I am I'm surrounded by this huge world of people who don't know Jesus it's getting worse in downtown Brooklyn and we got to preach that that gospel which is the power of God to salvation so that's the subject matter and if I could just add one more thing you got to make sure that I suggest to you that you got to make sure that in every service you preach the gospel some part of the New Covenant now your movement is known for expository preaching through the books of the Bible and that's great I started in January which I don't always do but I started in January in first Thessalonians and I'm still there just any chapter 2 now and we're in May and and no that's the truth and I'm I'm making my way through it but God is making things real to me and I'm trying to do my best to preach it but that's easy because there's nothing but Jesus and the New Covenant in first Thessalonians when you do an Old Testament book please don't get hung up on Elijah or Moses or Mount Sinai it has no power no power get to Jesus quickly he's the name that's above every other name the demons don't tremble when you say holy holy holy or creator God or Jehovah Jireh or anything like that it's Jesus that stirs up that hornet's nest come on let's say amen to that so let me say something else he he is the image of the invisible God only he is God wanted us to know what he's like he sent his son you can't take this verse and that verse and create an image of God Martin Luther the reformer said any other picture of God outside of the face of Jesus is of the devil Jesus is the face of God you want to know what God feels about women look at Jesus or children or anything else and I love men sometimes doing study going the Old Testament as moody said the Oh monie the Evangelist that he preached sermons and if someone was there who didn't know the Lord they would have never known how to get saved because he got so caught up in the context of King Ahab and Jezebel and Elijah and all of that that's not the covenant were preaching when Elijah got through with the prophets Abell he went into the valley and slaughtered 450 of them that has nothing to do with us we don't live that way we're to pray for our enemies the Muslims are not our enemies they're our mission field we try to reach them so make sure we have our covenants right and we get to Jesus because that's so important because of what I'm about to say that's where the coaly Spirit comes and helps us remember jesus said when he comes he will glorify me if I preach jimsim below look this microphones are drug let's talk straight it can be a drug I know pastors in New York they don't care that they've had 40 people for the last 20 years as long as they can hear themselves preach every Sunday they're happy just hear themselves and pontificating and it's just all talking smack but when when if I project jimsim below through some subtle way tonight the Holy Spirit will withdraw because he was never sent to glorify jimsim blur if I try to promote the Brooklyn Tabernacle he withdraws again he was that is nothing to do with his mission he not sent to glorify the Brooklyn Tabernacle or Calvary Chapel or the Assemblies of God he was sent only to glorify one person the Lord Jesus Christ and when you and I when you and I glorified Christ and our preaching it draws the Holy Spirit's power and help so we have to make sure now that we're preaching the message that God sent us at the cost of his own son to propagate the good news of Jesus the cross the blood the promised Holy Spirit his second coming we got to get to that in every service otherwise how will people know how to get saved you can't get them saved in the life Elijah Jesus wouldn't come if Elijah would have done it so yes can we jump off and see types and shadows and all that good stuff yes all Scripture is inspired by God but we got to get to Jesus all in favor say aye well that's good now let's let me read this verse to you the first letter that Paul ever wrote chronologically in his life was first Thessalonians that's the earliest of his letters not that way in Scripture but it's the first one chronologically and in verse 4 of chapter 1 he says for we know brothers and sisters loved by God that he has chosen you because our gospel came to you not simply with words but also with power with a holy spirit and deep conviction listen because our gospel because there were other ones like there are today came to you not simply with words I wasn't a preacher I wasn't just a communicator but also with power Dunamis where we get our word dynamite with the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction now I was telling you tension here please I was telling you that we we get our definitions on a lot of things by the church as we grow up and in nowhere is that more prevalent for us that we have to be where is by the word preaching preacher preaching most of us don't study the scripture to say when God said go and preach what did he mean by preaching maybe the Apostles would come back and see a lot of the stuff we're doing now and go what are you all doing that's not what he sent us out to do so it's been fascinating than me to try to humble myself and submit to scripture and say God teach me how to do everything lead the people in prayer you know who is sufficient for these things Paul said but God has made us competent ministers of the New Covenant not of the old for the letter kills only the Spirit gives life and nowhere else is is more important than in this word preaching so let's go back and God help us to just empty ourselves of misconceptions and preconceptions Paul says now amazing what he did in Thessalonica some of the commentators believe he could have been there a shorter period of time as three or four weeks most all say he could couldn't have been there more than three or six months he had come from Philip I how he got to Philip I was through the Macedonian call that he got in a in a vision at night he leaves Thessalonica with a church how'd he do that no new Testament no written scriptures no sound systems no buildings the Roman government against them Jewish leaders against them and he left a church now that's the bomb am I right or wrong wouldn't you like to be back there and say how'd he pull that off and we got multiple translations and every kind of thing and we're still complaining and he just said no this how I roll this is what I do I come I preach the gospel and and and and I start churches I'd love to bend back there well he's gone for about a year now and he's worried about his believers all shepherds if they're true are always thinking about their sheep their spiritual growth their condition as he says in this letter what else do we have when Christ comes what else do you have what he says what is my glory what is my joy what is my crown that I glory in what is my hope is it not you all you and I have to show God when he returns is not just I'm still trusting you serving you but then people people that we've led to Christ people that we've disciple people that we've encouraged people were ready to fall away and we help them that's all we have years ago I wrote a book first book I wrote fresh wind fresh fire and it won Book of the Year like two years after it was out and and no it's true they printed just a few copies every printing I've more I have more printing dates for that book than the King James Bible there's just every they would print like 2000 for the whole country and then it's old and it's old and then they said well now we'll start printing it was a philosophy they had back then but anyway in one book of the year I didn't go to the award ceremony but they sent me a certificate book of the year Christian book of the year so when Christ returns what am I going to show him my certificate for book of the year he wrote the Bible he's not impressed by fresh wind fresh fire all right so what do we have we have people we have people that's why you have to you have to lay awake at night pray for them intercede seek God with them weep over them rebuke some correct some that's all we have all the buildings are going to be burnt up no denominational names left just us and Jesus and who we can bring with us so now how'd he do that must have been in this he says to them now when I was with you you remember that my our gospel came to you not in word only but in power in the Holy Spirit and with great conviction deep conviction let's just look at that and then let's pray ourselves so he says notice our gospel already there were other Gospels brothers sisters brothers and sisters here we got to be strong and knowing what the gospel is if you turn on Christian television 910 programs are just there's no gospel it see there's some modern thing no good no mention of sin no mention of the cross it's the pastor as life coach you know how to make friends and keep them good grief guys sticking needles in his arm and you're telling him about how to make friend is there a time for that but that's not the gospel we got to know what that gospel is nobody says our gospel that good news you got to know it brothers listen you got to know it read those sermons and say have I added to what Peter and Paul were preaching have I taken anything away some don't want to mention sins so there's no repentance just believe I'm sometimes not even on Jesus just believe in God that is not the gospel to believe in God it's believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and it's to repent of your sin no you can't mention sin they might not come back that's not our job to build large audiences God never called any of us have a large church we have maybe now 10,000 people coming in a week to our church God never called my wife and I to have large numbers told us to preach the gospel you'll take care of changing people but if you compromise you could end up who knows that Laodicea which was lukewarm and the Lord was going to vomit them out of his mouth they might have been running more than any of the other churches in the book of Revelation chapters 2 and 3 it's not numbers it's do they really know the Lord do they love his word do they love Jesus so he said when we came to you our gospel to differentiate it from all the scam artists or there are some swindlers there you know it's hard to watch Christian television there's so many con artists so many selling Holy Ghost oil for ten dollars a pint or whatever there's selling it for and selling prayer shawls and all kinds of black magic related philosophies that a physical object would make a difference in your life and the people are so biblically illiterate they're sending money into these characters am I wrong or right here so that's wrong though that is totally absolutely wrong what they're doing so Paul says our Gospel he didn't want anything from the people while he was there he worked with his own hands as a tentmaker so that he wouldn't be a burden to them even though he had the scriptural right to get support from them but that's what you do when you're in love with your spiritual children you don't scam them you don't take advantage of them you don't show yourself as somebody great you get under and try to help them because they need encouragement so he says my preaching our gospel our message did not come in word only so now we know you can have word only preaching and you can have another kind of preacher that's for all of us it is what it is he said I didn't come in word only but my gospel came to you when I preached with power with the Holy Spirit and with great conviction brothers we got to pray that God gives us more power when we preach because Satan has power don't ever mock the devil and make a joke that he's nothing in that letter Paul says I wanted to come to you many times but Satan blocked my path he never says how but Satan must be heavy weight and have power but greater is He that's in us but we got to have a manifestation of God's power when we preach there's got to be something that breaks down the strongholds in people's mind they've been lied to they've been told there is no God they're clinging to their sins they'll fight you tooth-and-nail not to give up their sin do you think a clever joke and three points in a conclusion is going to cut it in the day we live in I don't know where you all live it won't in Brooklyn we need power when we preach notice a couple times in the book of Acts Peter full of the Holy Spirit said this or that power positional truth can get us in a lot of trouble all Christians have the Holy Spirit in us I got that but not all believers and not all ministers and not all churches are full of the Holy Spirit and his power of course not I would lay it to see it be vomited out of the Lord's mouth if it was full of the Holy Spirit why is one of the qualifications for the seven in acts 6 Ford call him deacons or whatever why is one of the qualifications they had to be men known to be full of the Holy Spirit and power wisdom so we got to spend less time sometimes getting our text and our notes together and more time waiting before God and say God fill me with power you know this is no I'm not telling you how to do anything but about five-and-a-half years ago six years ago the Lord dealt with me he had I had a visitation of the Lord in my study where I was living then and he came to me and I was at just empty my tank was empty so I just locked myself away for seven eight hours that day to be with the Lord Carol was gone and I just went up the attic floor with a Bible some books around me and just said I'm not leaving here until you help me you got to do that sometimes otherwise you run on nervous energy and it's not going to cut it so I went up there about quarter to 10 10 o'clock or something came out of there at 6:00 something somewhere in there I felt the Lord visit me and just I mean it was just awesome and one of the things the Lord made real to me at that time was don't preach anymore with notes I preached all my life with notes nothing wrong with preaching with notes but for me God dealt with me okay I know what you're preaching anymore so with notes so for the last six six and a half years I think it is I I don't have any notes I have nothing to fall back on but God if I lose my place God got to help me but it's good for me because I make less points I'm making more points to you because your pastors and you know the Bible as well or better than me but to the average audience in New York City you can't make too many points because every point you make in your message makes the last point you made less powerful the way God has made the mind is that the more points you make the less power each one has nobody can feel deeply about seven things that's funny when you hear a preacher say point nine you know no no it's not gonna happen no no I'm out of here but what it's made me do is spend more time with the Lord because without him helping me I don't know my application at the end I don't know what examples I'll give like right now he has to help me I'm not telling you how to preach but we got to get with the Lord more and say Lord show me how you want me to preach you can't copy Chuck Smith you can't copy some Minister that you like God didn't call you to do that God called you to be you get with the Lord and say God how do I do this I want more fruit don't you want more fruit how many want more fruit in their churches and ministries why are we doing this to have fruit what glorifies the father jesus said this glorifies the father that you go out and bear much fruit but we need power to do that I'm not talking about working up stuff screaming in the mic I'm not talking about any kind of setting of mood and all of that I'm talking about Holy Spirit power remember in acts 4 after the first persecution of the church the disciples prayed this prayer the leaders prayed this prayer now Lord enable your servants to preach your word boldly as to stretch out your hand to do wonders in the name of your holy son Jesus the point is this if God isn't working with us when we preach what are we going to accomplish I'm not some wild-eyed charismatic I'm trying to be a New Testament pastor without God's helping me in downtown Brooklyn I don't have a chance yeah prepare the message yeah do the best you can but God you got to come he said my message was not in word only we're dying in the Christian Church because of communicators they're killing us smooth tongue communicators like you have with Apple Computer and in in corporate America they have the gift of communicating and they're interesting but that's not how the church is supposed to be built supposed to be built the way Paul preach my gospel came to you not in word only I didn't dazzle you with footwork it came with power you knew God was alive wouldn't you'd like to been there when he preached so God's got to work with us and I have every right to ask him you have every right to ask him Lord I'm delivering the message about your son and now you're not going to work with me through some sign some sense some something God you have to do it in power and in the Holy Spirit who gives that power we have to be charged by the Holy Spirit when we preach we got to be led you know Spurgeon the great Baptist preacher in England at Metropolitan Tabernacle now listen to what he said I never stayed too close to my notes because who knows what light the Holy Spirit might give me on the subject while I'm preaching most of us just got my notes know what I'm going to say point one point two point three conclusion Spurgeon was saying yeah I know what I want to say I use notes which is great but he said who knows why preaching the Holy Spirit could show me something I never saw before how many believe God can still do this just lift your hand well of course we got to pray it we got to pray it we got to get out of the box of being the kind of preachers we've been in the past in the Holy Spirit my word not in word only but in power in the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction the Greek construction there probably means not only the conviction it produced in the listeners but the conviction the preacher had when the Holy Spirit helps us to preach he helps us to feel the subject deeply and I can only speak for New York I can only speak for my experience they always know if you're preaching or if you feel it if you preach something that's true biblically but it hasn't been made alive by the Holy Spirit you can pick it up in a second yeah it's true but Paul says it came with deep conviction not just in you in me to preach this is what you know G Campbell Morgan or someone said to re preach a sermon is very difficult because you think that there's magic in the notes you know I preached that before whoo now this is good I got some duds but this baby is working here now you're not trusting in God you're trusting in the sermon you once preached so we got to get alone with God and say God reworked this message it's about love about prayer or whatever the second coming of Christ make it real again to me otherwise I'm going to get up and be parroting words from my first sermon deep conviction you're going to teach on giving God's got to work out about your own giving you're going to preach on humility God's got to break us again and humble us otherwise yeah it's true but a lot of stuff are true but it still puts people asleep it's true but it's not alive are you following me say Amen if you are so he said my preaching was not with word only but with power and the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction let me close by saying this so we can pray how about this do you know of any seminary I know my friend Rael Reese is here my friend Joe from Philadelphia is here they're knowledgeable men I don't know one seminary that teaches preaching this way first Corinthians chapter 2 verse 4 listen for my message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words well that's the whole point isn't it to be wise in persuasion Paul said no they were I was not wise in persuasion my Wes's and my preaching with not with wise and persuasive words but with a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit so that your faith would not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God I have know myself know of no seminary and I got a lot of influential friends and have traveled all around the world I hardly can maybe mainland China is an exception because without that they don't have a whole because half of them that I spoke to one of the times I was there had all been in jail for Christ and I'm speaking to them I felt so unworthy why is in persuasive words no holy ghosts are bused God you got to come and help us a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit now nowhere does that indicate every 4 minutes 6 minutes Paul could say bring up that lame person bring that blind person and heal them that wasn't the demonstration there's no healings and miracles on on call or by order or matter of fact everywhere found in the New Testament even Jesus couldn't do that he can only do what the father showed him he to raise every dead person he only raised the dead people the father showed him to raise there's a sovereignty of God in all of that somehow but he said a demonstration of the power of the holy spirit so I'm going to go out on the limb here you know how my style of preaching I just told it to you so I want to tell you something maybe some of you are cessationists some of you are whatever your position is about that I'm just going to tell you and you can judge whether it's true and how the Lord I felt just brought it to my mind so one Sunday you know because I want to I want to preach better I want to lead services better I want to do what God wants me to do don't you want to do that I don't want be some mechanical preacher you put money in their head and and they get it you get a sermon I've met people like that over the years just give them that honorarium and they'll give you a sermon III don't want that my wife and I've never wanted that honest don't want that I want to see people change and all my have we seen thousands of people change so one Sunday afternoon I was doing at that time I was just talking with Pastor Joe um 9 12 3 and 6 for services every Sunday each 2 hours long that was brutal six years we were looking for a new facility we're in a large theater turning people away now we got a theater that seats almost 4,000 people and in downtown Brooklyn which is undergoing a real renaissance so this is years ago and my wife I'm sitting I'm sitting like over there and the choir is behind she has a great big choir won six Grammy Awards and all that stuff they're good and they're just average people but they really love the Lord she's directing them and she gets through with the song and I'm sitting there and I had eaten some food which I don't do anymore I just have like a shake during the day now we have three services 911 and one and I was little Auggie I wasn't alert and the song ended and she just stands there brothers she just stands there and lifts her hands and suddenly the strangest thing happened the choir started to worship God no one told anyone to worship God or anything this was being controlled somehow by the spirit invisibly and a sound started in the audience some people lifted their hands maybe one or two stood mostly we're still sitting and it wasn't quiet but it wasn't real loud either but it was just this hum of people praise you Jesus hallelujah we love you Lord and she didn't move she just kept her hands up so I knew she must have felt there's some divine reason here to just pause you can't run a meeting on a script okay you can but say goodbye to the Holy Spirit he's not going by your script or my script he's the Holy Spirit he's put in charge of the church just was someplace now at a huge conference and they had me in the green room they're going over the meeting okay so pastor Jim's you're going to preach we're going to introduce you Bob you introduce them you so here's how we begin we're going to pray some worship first two songs that's set it's going to be 11 minutes okay then we're going to have a video it's two minutes and 80 40 seconds okay then you're going to come up make that announcement about the youth that you have a minute and a half okay so then we're going to take the offering Harry don't pray so long for the offering you went a little longer last time okay and and okay and then after the offering the choir is going to do some patriotic thing and then and then this Bob Bob Iger the Jews past assembler and you have a minute to do it you have your notes and all that you do since I just said why don't you just say my name I'll get out there and it really I don't need any introduction no no we're going to do it so okay so we got it all set now Jim when you walk out there you got it all sit together down at the same time you know you can't just be sitting you know you got to sit together so just check on your right and on your left when we walk out there we kind of just like you know synchronize our sitting it's very important in a Christian meeting that you learn to all go like that so anyway they go through all of this nonsense and then the guy says no but wait a minute before we go out let's pray so I go well so guy lifts his voice I'm sure he meant it but he didn't realize how ludicrous it was open the heavens God and come down and reveal yourself where how could he do that there's no time there's no allotment for him to do that how could he do that so I just say that listen if you want to follow the Holy Spirit it's hard it's difficult and you can make mistakes but I'd rather have that then sterile Church predictable Church yucky so Carol's just standing like that and I get up from my seat because this has gone on for like a minute minute or more that's a long time in a service right to just not know like what what are we doing here no one has said let's praise God let's sing no one's saying anything so I go up as God is my holy witness as I tell you this I take the microphone I close my eyes and I realize I can do whatever I want now I'm the pastor I have the microphone I can say no I can say sit down and stop it I can lead in a chorus and take it another way that's what you have every meeting we're making decisions that affect the service and if you believe in just run the run the the routine and do the script that's fine then you just do that I wasn't in that mood because I knew God was doing something the best I could sense the choirs praising God behind me the audience is like some are bowing their heads others are pray I know there's this noises hum so at that pulpit I'm thinking of my alternatives and then I say to the Lord god I don't want to do any of those I want to do what you want me to do I'll sit here I'll stand here and do nothing until you show me what to do I got desperate there was something happening but I didn't know what it was I didn't know what was supposed to happen next this might seem ridiculous to some of you but I'm just telling you what happened so I closed my eyes I'm just holding the mic on people are praising God he's not real loud but it's not quiet and suddenly the Lord I felt directed my attention to a woman sitting in the front row just with her hands up standing and I felt that best I could feel the Lord spoke to me and said hand the microphone to her that's the craziest thought I ever had in my life that's the devil I thought trying to tempt me to do something I don't know what are you laughing at everything for know sometimes when you want to follow God Satan will tempt you to do something weird because people think weird things are spiritual somewhere things are just weird right am i right but I knew when I thought no I can't do that she doesn't want the mic III how would I get her the microphone and no I can't but Oh horrible feeling inside and it was as if the Lord was saying did you not just pray what I what you should do so I just told you what to do get her the mic now I am basically shy and I don't like to do things that are weird to try to like put on some spiritual show do you get what I'm saying about I'm talking now to you from my heart I think a lot of you are like me we want God but we don't want fake amen but I had to do it I knew it I never done anything like that before since so I remember myself excuse me have a bone bruise on the bottom my right foot from playing paddle ball or something and I start walking off there and I can the heart my heart's pounding because again there's this noise they're praising God and I'm coming off the steps and now I'm going to approach her her eyes are closed she just has her hands up in the air this is the most illogical crazy thing and I felt as I'm approaching her may I put my hand on her arm to just not scare her and let her know like should I like say do what you feel or what should I do I'm handing her a microphone I'm a foot from her and before I can reach out the mic I'm just lowering it she grabs it and begins to prophesy and gives a word from the Bible but inspired and begins to say what the Lord wanted to tell the congregation to encourage us and help us it was so powerful I just fell on the seat sitting next to her is overwhelming as she was speaking people started flying to the altar the quiet people started falling on their faces people all heaven broke loose in that place and she's just delivering this word nothing new no new revelation just you know a word from the Lord for the church but it had that ring you know the the old camp meeting people at the end of the 19th century 1890s they said about a sermon you know when God does something and there's a preacher preaches it has a ring to it when it's really of God so that even a blind person if they hear a silver dollar fall on the on the cement they'll know that's not a nickel that's not a dime I can tell by the sound this had that sound oh my goodness oh my goodness for the next 40 minutes we're gone we're off to the races with Jesus people are praying calling on God praying for each other repenting listen God the Holy Spirit can get more done in five minutes than five of our sermons when they're not filled with the Holy Spirit so she gets done somehow order comes back in the sense of I went okay a lots happened already I'm not going to try to preach a sermon we're going to take the offering and then I want to I want to just exhort you for a few minutes every sermon hadn't be the same you can't show me that format in the scripture so service service is over I go up to a place they let me rest get ready for the next service do the fourth one then go home Monday we're off Tuesday I'm in the office and her husband walks into me who was on staff and said was that a service pastor on that afternoon service god blessed us all day but was that a visitation of the Lord and by the way what I'm talking about is not some wild stuff seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord the the history of all revivals the whole Welsh revival was run on a kind of meeting no one had ever seen but God was there the word was honored Jesus was proclaimed and there was fruit so I said yeah the Lord was really there he was gracious he said you know driving home with my wife I said to her you know honey God really used you she's quiet humble she went well thank God he said I want to ask you something how did you get the microphone and she said you know while we were all waiting and Carol was just standing there I began to feel this word from Scripture that the church needed to hear but my voice is so quiet and I wouldn't just shout it out because I wasn't sure is this really of God I don't want to be out of order so I began to pray God if this is really you make him walk off the platform and hand me the microphone so my preaching and my message Paul says was not in word only there's things God wants to do in all of our churches that maybe we've never experienced before if you've already got them in a box there's no hope for any of us I'm not talking about wild extra-biblical stuff listen I love the Bible as much as any of you I don't want wildfire but I don't want an iceberg for a church either where it's so predictable and there's no life to it let me just add one last thought that I sharing with some of the leaders here of your movement without a visitation of the Holy Spirit people come to our churches we'll find some ways to indulge the flesh through day drinking parting and all kinds of stuff and use even scripture to back it only a visitation of the Holy Spirit burns the holiness of God in you no preacher can do that that's why his name is Holy Spirit without the Holy Spirit we're hopeless do I get an amen here Christianity is hopeless without the Holy Spirit jesus said I'm going to send you another comforter I've been with you but he's going to be in you now greater things are going to happen if we let him have his way in our preaching let's close our eyes god we want to preach different we want to preach better I thank you for all the times you've helped my friends here my brothers all the times you've helped us in the past I thank you but we say we want more we want more Lord we want more more of your spirit more power with deep conviction with a demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit so people's faith will not stand in the wisdom and the cleverness of the preacher but in the power of God I repent and I ask you to forgive me for every sermon I've ever preached where I really didn't wait before you I really need to ask you to fill me I I just went out trusting in some line of thought that I had for some passage but we draw a line in the sand today Calvary Chapel and me we draw a line in the sand today Lord no more preaching like that we're going to preach in the power of the Holy Spirit we're going to preach with deep conviction we're going to bear fruit so that your name is glorified there'll be conviction of sin we won't be harsh and judgmental but we'll tell the truth as it is in Jesus we need you tonight Lord would you just list your hands up to heaven with me I need the [Music] every hour I need Thee Oh there's me now my Savior I sing it again from your heart I need Thee Oh I need thee every [Music] hour I need Thee Oh bless me now my say [Music] here's what I want to ask you to do there's obviously no room there's so many of you in a moment I'm going to ask you to stand and I'm going to ask everybody if there's women here they can get a female partner but all the rest of us men I want you to get one partner face him join hands together one of you pray out loud for the guy you're holding hands there then he's going to pray for you and I want nothing else to be heard in this building except praying out to God God give us a new kind of preaching style don't you want it how many say Amen a nuke effectiveness a new I want someone to pray with me someone's going to pray with me god help Jim symbol help him to preach with power and the Holy Spirit and with deep conviction so that the people will be changed help us to preach the gospel with the power of God everybody stand find a prayer partner come on and pray out loud pray out loud pray out loud let that person know what you're praying

Channel: SermonIndex.net

Views: 36,348

Rating: 4.8090911 out of 5

Keywords: Revival, Character Of God, Free Sermons, Video Sermons, Jesus Christ, What Is The Gospel, SermonIndex, What Is The Truth, Jim Cymbala

Id: SYtl5EGS-w8

Length: 54min 40sec (3280 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 27 2016