Josh Carson The Powerful and Prevailing Church

matthew chapter 16. i'm going to start at verse 12. and so you know where we're going we're going to read through verse 19. do you do you have that picture i sent a little picture of me and brother mooney i don't know if there's any way to put that up i preached here at mark conference some of you might have been here in september and i was sitting back here i'm not sure brother anderson how we had all the chairs but i i was sitting here and brother mooney brought his bible i don't know if you can see it there but that's what he did is he brought his bible and he was trying to make the crowd think he wasn't sure what he was going to preach and he said brother carson he's talking brother graham's next to me if i would have known then that i'd be standing here i would have looked at those messages a lot closer i was thinking last night i sent him that picture i said you know i i wish i would have paid a little more attention to all those little scribbled notes that he had in there when he handed me that what a high honor it is to stand in this podium after such a giant of a man so much love and respect for him when he first called and asked if i would consider preaching as a part of this process the lord knew that i needed him to be the one to call me i was with my best friend brother aaron bounds standing in an airport and my phone rang and paul mooney was the name that was on there and i showed it and i said he doesn't usually call me called me multiple times asking me to come it's been a long and a storied process with covet and now currently enduring the riots but i'm going to tell you god has still been faithful and he has blessed this church in spite of it verse 12 then understood they how he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread but of the doctrine of the pharisees and of the sadducees when jesus came into the coast of caesarea philippi he he asked his disciples saying whom do men say that i the son of man am and they said some say thou art john the baptist some elijah others jeremiah or one of the prophets he said unto them but whom say ye that i am what an important question simon peter answered and said thou art the christ the son of the living god and jesus answered and said unto him blessed art thou simon barjona for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee but my father which is in heaven and i say also unto thee thou art peter and upon this rock i will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it and i will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven turn the page to matthew 18 three more verses and we'll be seated verse 18 of chapter 18 verily i say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven again i say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask it will be done for them of my father which is in heaven for where two or three are gathered together in my name there am i in the midst of them here's what i want to preach i feel it from the lord i believe the lord has given me a word for this sunday morning i want to preach about a powerful and prevailing church a powerful and prevailing church i want you to throw your hands towards heaven and lift your voice you got to lift it a little louder because you got a mask on come on lift it up call on the name of the lord [Music] jesus lord we magnify you in this house we thank you for your presence let every believer shout amen god bless you now this is normally where i'd want you to turn and smile so big they could see every tooth you own legally but you got a mask on so you may be seated here today i will tell you there are different individuals in the bible that have a tendency to give me hope simon peter is one of those guys ladies and gentlemen simon peter ought to give us hope about living for god brother barkus i got a feeling if the lord could use simon peter he can use me gotta recognize that if the lord could use simon peter he could probably use anybody in this house right after this powerful proclamation thou art the christ jesus looks at him and says blessed art thou simon bar jonah for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my father which is in heaven now notice this and watch here it's only a few verses later that jesus begins to talk about his exodus and the plan which is to come and simon peter feeling a little bit strengthened and empowered because of the whole thou art peter and upon this rock i build my church thing he pulls jesus alone privately and begins to correct or rebuke him and the same lord that had just called him simon peter the rock upon which the church would be built looks at him and says get behind me satan that's an up and down day that's a little bit of an emotional roller coaster right about the time simon peter was feeling pretty good about himself in front of the rest of the disciples i don't know if you heard him call me rock or not that's what he called me yeah he also called you satan we heard that too i will i will never forget a pretty critical transition in my life it was my first day of my freshman year of high school anybody remember your first day of your freshman year going back some of y'all like no i don't remember anybody remember come on i remember my first day of freshman year of high school we lived in a in a little southern uh town most of my upbringing and then we moved towards central illinois and we lived in a in a cornfield town it really was it was a town of only a few thousand surrounded by corn fields when i was a teenager and i'll never forget entering into my high school year my first day of my freshman year of high school i guess is what it was we're we're walking in early me and a friend of mine we come into the school we wanted to be there early we were excited it was back at the time you know you were excited for school to start some of you think i have no idea what you're talking about i've never been excited for school i was we were excited because we finally made it to high school and by some accounts that had been a miracle and i'll never forget the first day we showed up early and we came in the side door me and my buddy and and if you showed up before the first bell had rang you had to go into the gymnasium so we walked into the side door and and we walked down through that long hallway and as we got down towards the gymnasium we heard what was a roar of people there were hundreds of students who were already there now i had not yet been afforded the privilege of understanding kind of how school worked and especially how it worked for freshmen they the the upperclassmen did not believe we had or deserved any status at all and i walked in as a freshman feeling pretty good about myself until we started to walk in and when we walked in imagine these two speakers here when you walked in there were bleachers on both sides and the bleachers went up here and the bleachers went up there and as soon as i walked in there were only freshmen and sophomores that were out here but mainly freshmen that were like me that were excited for their first day of high school that walked in and and and and i looked towards the bleachers and it was nothing but upperclassmen and they were kind of laughing with each other but every time a new freshman would walk in they'd kind of look down at them i tried to act like it didn't bother me at all i wasn't going to be worried about it and so i i walked in the bleachers i realized what was going on walked out my freshman and my buddies and one of my buddies said yeah i guess only upperclassmen and i think we probably said something smart like we'll see about that i'll never forget though i came down and i got about maybe 10 yards or so into the gymnasium and i was standing there and i was talking with one of my friends when all of a sudden from behind me a voice that seemed way too deep to be from high schooler said are you john carson's little brother i had a brother you know you're not supposed to be judged for the sins of those before you but i have an older brother six years older and all of a sudden you ever had a situation where all these memories and all these thoughts go through your mind real quick i remember standing there hearing that voice so deep thinking i'm about to pay for the sins of my brother and i turned around i had to make a split session split second decision and i decided i'm going to be confident i'm gonna wheel around and i'm gonna say yes i am that is my brother and so i i turned around real fast like this expecting to look them eye to eye but when i did i was maybe maybe to the bottom of the chest and i looked up and that deep voice had enough facial hair to make a grown man jealous and i looked up at him and i said ready in my mind it sounded like this yes i am but it actually sounded something like yeah that's my brother that's when he said these words i heard you were coming oh god father i almost built an altar but the next words he said changed the dynamics completely he said i heard you were coming from your brother he told me you would be coming he said here's the deal when i was a freshman your brother looked out for me if anybody does anything to you you ask them if they know who i am yes i will should i send them to you is there a system is there a chexist i was intimidated when i turned but i'm going to tell you i felt a little confident when i turned back my freshman year it had been established the dude's name was jeremy mayfield he was about five facial hair and a deep voice his voice is deeper than i will ever have but when i walked away knowing he was on my side it gave me a level of confidence can i tell you this in the middle of a situation like we're at i know a lot of things are unnerving but we can have confidence we can have confidence that this is not about us this is not about people this is about the kingdom of god and the kingdom of god is going to move forward i said the kingdom of god is going to move forward who do men say that i am some say you're john the baptist some say jeremiah elijah's one of the prophets do you notice that when he asked for that description every person they said was already dead every person that we could compare you to and that men are comparing you to has already died he has already exited they have already gone on you're the there's really no one like you john the baptist the most recent recipient of a beheading only a couple chapters earlier we read about it after that fateful dance and the reality is jesus was setting them up for a prime opportunity but we need to notice what that prime opportunity had come from it was just before this that the pharisees and the sadducees had come to jesus and they wanted a sign from him you know what they did they came up and they sat down and they said why don't you prove your god why don't you prove you're powerful why don't you prove you are who people are saying you are you've got two very distinctly different groups i know that sometimes we read the bible and we lump these together pharisees and sadducees but the truth in their dog their doctrine was quite different the pharisees did believe in the supernatural they believed in the raising from the dead they believed in miracles and healing they believed in power the sadducees on the other side extremely humanistic did not they both did a good job at writing laws they just both were pretty pitiful at actually doing any work in the church they were better at writing laws than follow and they wanted to walk up and ask christ who he was and that's why jesus had walked away and said no i'm not giving any more signs to you because that all you're after is a sign you don't want to love me for me you want a sign to discredit they were completely opposite in most of their doctrine that's why jesus looked at the disciples and he said men i need to tell you something he said you have got to beware of the leaven of the pharisees and the sadducees they thought that jesus was upset they hadn't brought any bread he said have you forgotten already about the five thousand and the four thousand i don't need much that's not what this is about and then verse 12 that we opened with says they came to an understanding brother barcus they came to an understanding he was warning them of their doctrine but the truth is their doctrine was quite different the place that they had come into unity the place that had tied them together was we don't believe christ is it and people that are against each other on all kinds of things and we're watching it in the world right now people that are against each other on all kinds of agendas and all kinds of philosophy when it comes to being anti-christ they will get together come on can i preach where we're living right now when it comes to being anti or against christ that's when they'll link up and so jesus was presenting the disciples with an opportunity that was larger than they even recognized when he said who do men say that i am and they they started talking about john the baptist and jeremiah elijah one of the prophets and and he said but who do you say that i am and and here comes reckless peter that orange personality that can't help it he's got a shout out and and i i kind of see him spitting s'mores out of his mouth around the camp thou art the christ the son of the living god and and jesus stops and he turns it i know the flesh side of you peter and we'll address it here in a few minutes but this is from my god this isn't about your flesh you're coming to the recognition i am that i am i am the christ that i s let me pause right here preacher's pause and ask does anybody in this building believe that he is who he says he is anybody in calvary tabernacle that can say i've already come too far to know i've already walked too far to turn back now i've been through too much sickness i've been through too much distress i've been through too much pain i've been you should have been there my family told me not to live for god but i just kept walking they told me the sickness would kill me but i just kept walking they said the heart attack should have taken me but i just kept thou art the christ the son of the living god and that's why we're a powerful church we might not get everything right but we know who jesus is we we make mistakes from time to time just like that great apostle but we know who jesus is if you know who he is i want you to just worship him for a minute just anybody still believe if it wasn't for the lord you wouldn't be here come on this isn't about me right now this is about you and the lord we ain't been in church for weeks months do you remember that it was him that picked you up do you remember that it was him that turned you around do you remember that it was him i was on my way to hell but he found me i was on my way to a lost eternity but he reached town and he grabbed me everybody in the world wants me to say that he's somebody else everybody else it'd be comfortable if i said he's just another prophet or if he's just another teacher but i feel a little bit of that simon peter on me right now thou art thee somebody shout that out thou art the christ whoa why'd we start dancing in here a little bit ago when we were singing about breakthrough got masks on some of you didn't know if we were allowed to dance i got the one little old sister said i don't care i don't care i know we're trying to be right and we're trying to be more i tell you why we're dance it wasn't just because she was doing good on the drums and it wasn't just because he was doing good on the solo and it wasn't just because brother anderson had the keys right no it's because when i think about a breakthrough i think about what he's done for me every visitor in the house i want you to know something you're looking at a group of people that were lost you're looking at a group of people that were on our way to hell some of us used to be drug addicts some of us used to be alcoholics and even if you were raised in the church we were all lost with him but he gave us a break you ought to throw your hands up and have a breakthrough right now everybody that's physically able i want you to stand to your feet i want you to lift your hands and i want you to begin to worship the lord come on mama the house has been overwhelming he can give you a breakthrough today come on elder your body's been riddled with pain he can give you a breakthrough today come on you've been overwhelmed by the process of life he can give you a breakthrough because this is a powerful church come on worship till you feel a breakthrough i'm not as concerned today with protocol as i am being pentecostal i'm sorry this is who i am and this is what i believe i believe that he is able to do exceeding abundantly above everything we can ask or even think if i can get it in my mind i know he's able if i can begin to dream it i know he my god give your neighbor an elbow and tell him he's able don't elbow him it's different may be seated upon this rock i build my church in the gates of hell shall not prevail against it let's be honest everybody up here in the expensive seats you hiding behind the that's a great seat i felt like doing that when i came in i don't know if we all could have handled that kind of statement from christ imagine sitting around his friends when he looks at himself whatsoever you bind on earth be bound in heaven don't you see peter preach on jesus let them all hear let them all hear the kind of authority i got not you peter the church what's that oh peter you're gonna mess up so bad in about three verses from now i'm going to call you the devil i'ma look at you in front of everybody call you satan here in a moment but i need you to know something about this church whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven i think i've read every commentary there is to read on it so all the theologians in the room all of our educators i understand that there is a multitude of opinion on this topic which is why i turn our attention to the 18th chapter where jesus says it again you better key in when jesus repeats himself how many glad he he gave you a second chance say it one more again whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven what's that mean i'm not talking about a blabbit and grabbing i'm not talking about trying to throw around some kind of false power i'm here's what i'm telling you jesus was saying heaven's got your back when you recognize who i am and then you got the guts to declare it heaven's going to key in on you maybe it'll be in the way that they they say it no no no it's not gonna be in the in the way that they can orchestrate their prayers maybe if they stand upright no he looked at the pharisees later and said you're like why sepulcher full of dead men's bones you got all foulness and and corruption inside of you you like your long public prayers it's not about the way you say it it's about what your prayer is tied to so whether you're just a young child in our in our children's ministry that don't know how to articulate very well but some pure little little tears that begin to roll down and they don't know how to say anything else but i love you jesus once that name rolls off their tongue whether you're an aged elder or a first-time visitor that says wait a minute i see it i know that my eye i know that a lot of people don't understand and there's a lot of hatred and division in the world but if i can just recognize who he is all of heaven's attention here let's prove it's true anybody in the room ever received a miracle oh look at all the hands listen help me preach for a second let's make hell real upset is that okay i like doing this anyway let's make hell real mad if he's ever done a miracle for you stand i don't know if he still does miracles i don't know if he still come on the devil is a liar and the father of lies come on has he healed you can't you wave those hands did he heal you of a blood god man i feel like preaching right now how many believe he was the same yesterday today and forever he was a healer before covet he's a healer during covet he'll be a healer when there is no sickness that's crater there is no trouble that's great how do you know because i know him and i know what he's able to do and when i preach about the power of his name and when i pray in the power of his name brother ben all heaven turns and looks down and whatever i bind on earth yeah but we prayed and they weren't healed pray again here's the real thing about loving god can you love him when he doesn't answer is he still christ when everything isn't going our way is he still christ in the middle of a transition when everything feels awkward and we're supposed to fill out whoever gets in i don't know any way to do this but the way i've been doing it the last 20 years and this is what i'll tell you if he was able he is able i've watched him dry up so many cancers i've watched i've looked at so many before and after x-rays i've sat down with doctors that said all i know is it did look like this and now it looks like this and they can't explain it but heaven is sitting there saying it's because you know the name it's because you believe the name it's because you trust whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven you may be seated and whatsoever you shall loose on earth but brother barber youth groups cannot have revival in this kind of day and age you know people say that right now youth groups can't have revival sunday school ministry children can't have revival or can they we can't have revival until kova's over the devil's a liar well there's too much confusion with this transition the devil's a liar you've let an apostolic man a powerful man of god for 32 years has stepped to this podium with a word from god time after time after time after time because the bible honors the man of god who preaches the name of jesus yeah but there's riots and there's protests and there's pestilence and there's locusts and we've never had a greater time for revival if it's all right i just got to do what i feel some are going to take this the wrong way brother barbara i'm going to tell you the youth group can have revival and we'll have revival even the middle of covid and even in the middle of this transition brother healey it will be in our sunday school department it will come on any ladies in here recognized i know it's been tough but my family is going to have revival i know he's been trying to get in my ear and tell me my best days are behind me let me just tell you what some of the word on the street has been some of the word on the street people have said do you think calvary can move forward you think that do you think that the doors can stay open on the schools and which i've said this back long before anybody ever called me about coming i looked back and said you must not know the caliber of those people but more importantly you must not know that god which is the foundation of everything that's going on [Applause] and somebody said yeah but you need to understand the upci needs calvary to exist don't misunderstand what i'm about to say i thank god that the upci is blessed by calvary but we don't exist for the upci we exist for indianapolis for every lost soul in every community that's around why do we have an academy because we want there to be a safe place where we can pull children in and say hero israel the lord our god is one lord we want to be able to why do we have a bible college brother anderson because we got to keep training young men and young women to preach this gospel and we got to teach them preach jesus preach jesus clap your hands unto the lord and give him prayer you ever have somebody that's talking to you but they don't look at you you know they're talking to you well if it was me i would what's that oh nothing some of you your parents give you advice some of the young people no my mom just looks at me don't don't don't look at them don't look at them they won't even know you're talking to okay just you just kind of talking to the atmosphere which i think is about as important as anything right now just talk to the atmosphere and if you believe it say these words i don't care what anyone does i'm going to be a part of a powerful church if you believe that say it i don't care what anyone does i'm going to be a part of a powerful church i'm going to be a part of a church where people keep getting baptized in the name of jesus christ for the remission of sins when i pulled up to preach mark conference when i pulled up to preach mark conference in september i drove up and there was a beautiful young couple my wife moses i saw this beautiful young couple and the lord grabbed my heart grabbed my heart when i looked at that couple and i said to you in the van i said who's reaching that couple there are couples by the thousands around this community and i know it might seem old-fashioned and out of date to others but we believe if they're gonna make it they're gonna have to repent and they're going to have to be baptized in the name of jesus christ in what name thou art the christ in your name and they got to be filled with the power of the holy ghost and they're going to speak in tongues when they get it it's the only language they never cursed in it's the only language they never talk back in it's that holy language it is the evidence of his spirit what are you preaching that for because that's what a powerful church is there are no powerful seeker-sensitive churches i can't believe he said that i said it there are no powerful churches that do not love doctrine you know i've had people look at me and say well we don't want to offend anybody i don't believe in trying to offend people but if they're pricked in their heart by the word when peter that same peter that went from being the rock to being satan somehow got set up to preach pentecost he started preaching that doctrine and conviction and when he did the bible says they were pricked in their 3 000 people were added to the church that day and they were a powerful church tell you this story before i quit i'll never forget i never forget she was coming to church she was coming to church and her husband was not coming to church she was married to one of those guys gary was a uh he was a mess just a mess she'd go home from church feeling the love and the glow of god she'd walk into the house he'd have rock music blaring he'd call her a bible thumper i don't even know where that came from some of you were called that was somewhere along the way you have fun at church tonight weren't here to cook me any dinner oh she put up with it time after time after time after time went on for the longest time i did not know the full extent until i walked in the church on a particular sunday and i walked down that north aisle and when i came past her seat there was a yellow packaged dress shirt in the pew right next to her brother bark is right next to her i walked down and i thought to myself maybe it's pastor appreciation i had to inquire about this shirt just in case it was meant for me she said oh brother carson she said you know my husband doesn't live for god he gives us such a hard time such a hard time for coming she said but i was deep in prayer and the lord gave me a vision i said tell on she said yeah i had a vision and gary was at the altar and he was wearing a yellow dress shirt and he lifted his hands and god filled him with the holy ghost i said my god that's powerful she said no but listen she said so i went to his closet and thought i'm gonna get that yellow dress shirt she said but when i went to his closet he didn't have a yellow dress shirt and as soon as i did and realized he didn't have it a little enemy you know how the devil does she said the devil got in my ear and said that wasn't from god you're emotional i've been telling you that church is all about emotion they're radical she said but i told the devil was a liar and i went to the store and i bought him a yellow dress shirt a lot of times faith is reckless the great late evangelist eli hernandez he told me you spell faith r-i-s-k she said so i bought him this yellow dress shirt and i told god i'm going to save his seat until what you told me in prayer comes to pass let me make a long story short i got to tell you this her husband hated me because she he assumed that me me and the senior pastor he assumed that we were the reason that their family had changed it was only because he hadn't met jesus yet long story short it was about a month later she said i don't know other than the power of prayer but i walked into the room and he was up and he said these words i think i'm gonna go to church with you today she said i i wanted to jump she said i went okay that's great his next words made her want to do cartwheels down the he said who bought me this yellow shirt i picked it up for you i thought you'd like it since i got a new shirt i might as well wear it i was there the day long after the vision and long after the proclamation when gary walked down to an altar in a new yellow dress shirt and lifted his head i was there i watched god fill him with the holy ghost now listen to this this is the next part of the miracle i was there when he walked up to me and said i need you to take me up to that baptismal and i need you to bury me i've never felt anything like this before i don't under how's that happen whatever you bind on earth he said i'll bind it in heaven and whatever you loose on earth i'll loose you i'll give you heaven's attention when you pray stand with me in this building today

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Id: 02a9bxDgcdc

Length: 38min 55sec (2335 seconds)

Published: Thu May 13 2021