Living without Options (2021-04-18)

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yay [Music] and every season we have the league [Music] so make this declaration with me tonight [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] so [Music] me [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] good morning city sanctuary why don't you stand to your feet as we honor the lord in this place today but there is no one who is greater than our god our god can do anything we just need a word from him [Music] just one word you call the storm that surrounds me just one word the darkness has to retreat [Music] just one touch i feel the presence of heaven just one touch my eyes were open to see my heart just cannot believe [Music] there's nothing that our god [Music] i feel the [Music] there's nothing [Applause] there's nothing [Music] go praise the [Music] for there is nothing that's impossible for you we must believe you trusting you and opening for greater things cause i will believe for greater things there's no power like the power of jesus [Music] of jesus [Music] there's nothing higher for greater things there's no power like the power of jesus lifting the rhine there's some oh [Music] foreign [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] somebody giving thanks today i will believe for greater things there's no power like the power of jesus [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] oh [Music] is there's nothing that our god can't do that's not the war crying [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] blessed be the name of the lord for there is nothing that our god can do everything that we have everything that we are god so we offer praise unto you [Music] oh it's a good feeling to be in the house of the lord i was glad to me when they said unto me let us go into the house of the lord for it's nothing like giving him glory and praise every worshiper in this place if you come prepared with your worship offering and you're not ashamed just lift up your heart and say lord receive my heart today i just opened myself to you you are all that we desire we bless your name even in this place today lord jesus blessed be your name father [Music] for we praise you jesus [Music] no one like our god and we give you [Music] praise you give life you are love you bring light into the darkness you give hope you restore every heart that is broken but great are you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] so we pour out our praise to your [Music] you give [Music] the life [Music] but great are you cheesy [Applause] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music] father we bless you in this place you give us bread you give us life and we take this moment to honor you in this sanctuary your name be glorified your name be magnified even in this place today come on let's make the sound of the anthem of the kingdom of god [Music] these [Music] [Music] me [Music] great are you jesus [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] we pour out our worship to the king of [Music] kings [Music] [Applause] we bless your name with a sound of thanksgiving lord we praise your name come on city sanctuary let's leave this panther one more time the earth [Music] we declare [Music] our [Music] oh [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] your breath [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] oh come on and praise him come on and praise him oh yes we do [Music] praise your name oh lord hey man there's a new song a new song in our heart [Music] pouring out our praise the first service i told how david hung a harp by his window as the winds would blow it blow across those strings it would play a melody and it would remind him to praise god in fact psalm 119 seven times a day he said i'll praise him you talk about someone who practiced the presence of god no wonder he was israel's greatest king who conquered over 60 000 miles in many kingdoms and enlarged the borders all around israel no wonder because he was a man of praise and where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty he set israel free from their enemies hallelujah hallelujah oh praise him oh praise him lord set us free from our enemy oh [Music] [Applause] hallelujah [Music] hallelujah praise is seen so much in the stories of the bible but no more graphically than the woman who poured out her praise she broke the most expensive thing probably in her possession and poured it over the lord we give him the most cherished things in her life can we give him our careers our families our finances or can we give him our praise so we give him say lord nothing compares to you and i pour out my praise for blessing me my family my finest and my health i pour out my praise today lord [Music] thank you lord for blessing me thank you lord for for pouring out on me blessings god i pour on you praise thank you for pouring out of me victory i pour out on you the praise for the victory oh i praise you lord i praise you [Music] oh there's that you sense the presence of god here today i've sensed the presence of god here today i praise him today is the day in our prayer more praise than it is prayer gratitude is defined as thanking someone for what was done we need to thank him for what was done praise is defined as not only praising someone or god for what is done but faith defines praise as praising him for what he is and he will do can we pour out our praise and gratitude pour in our praise for what he is doing by faith pour out our praise for what he promises to do in our future let's just praise him in this prayer time today [Music] oh lord we pour out our praise thank thanking you for everything you've done for us praising you for what you're doing now praising you for what you are doing for our future as jeremiah 29 11 says i praise you for giving us a good future i praise you because you your plans are not calamity for us i praise you lord that you want to give us peace shalom the well-being of god i praise you lord for the good plans you have i praise you god that the enemy is defeated i praise you god that there is no no enemy that can stand against you i pray to you that if you were for us no one could be against us i praise you god and all these things we are more than conquerors i praise you lord for nothing can separate me from your love i praise you god for you're working all things together for my good i praise you god you shall supply all my need according to your riches in glory i praise you god and whatever is born of you overcomes the world ah i pour out my praise the city sanctuary poores have its prey [Music] you formed us nearly 60 years ago through different economies through church splits through all kinds of seasons god you have kept us alive and you have kept us now thriving and you've kept us lord to declare your praise in this county and we praise you god for out of city sanctuary lord we praise you we pour out our praise and we praise you for what you're doing now and what you're going to do in the future ah as a congregation we pour out our praise to god be the glory for great things he has done would you put your hands together with me and praise him with a handclap of praise [Applause] hallelujah hallelujah amen god is good amen amen before you seated wave to somebody or smile or somebody and uh before you say to be friendly and then you may be receded god bless you thank you lord praise your name praise god amen thank you lord wow thank you pastor james and praise team thank you pastor jackie what a tremendous tremendous time of praising god if you are so inclined we'd like to stay connected by asking you to take out your smartphone and go on to our city sanctuary church app and there find the connect tab and press that and then press the check in tab and then give us your praise reports and your prayer requests praise report from our teen talent competition yesterday in waima florida uh three out of our four entries placed and two even won their division so praise god for a talented talented youth group that we have kudos to pastor peter and taylor for their taking them and arranging all that and also after our video announcements one of our teens who did a great job competing yesterday adriana camposano is going to come and sing for us and she will bless your heart and the next two weeks we also have others that will be coming to sing or not sing to to do their talent before the lord amen so we're excited about them let's uh put up the on the screen if you would please the cafe uh slide also el santorio had a great conference here yesterday and professor navarez came and taught about how of the isms coming into our world the church humanism secularism pluralism etc had a great attendance even though it was a downpour yesterday and if you remember the rain yesterday morning had a great attendance they met in here i got to join it was a tremendous time and we give honor to our spanish ministry that meets every sunday across the gymnasium in their chapel and el santorum if you know anyone who likes a spanish speaking service we've got the best in town so be sure you go over there and and check them out they are fantastic in every way and a great conference yesterday we commend them for that well it's again a great a great cash offering as we look toward what happened with kovit is kovit began to accelerate what we already knew we needed to do as i mentioned to you before when kobet hit and we were shut down for a season we had not even gotten our worship music online at that point cobot forced us to get our worship music online we weren't ready until kovit to accelerate that and try to get mixes and so forth for online and we discovered we had lighting issues and sound uh technical issues and that we needed some help and so that's when we got the the nudge from the lord that you know we need to upgrade this because we were able to reach so many more people online and uh it's still a lifeline for many who who haven't returned to church yet or or maybe can't return to church or aren't planning to return to church whatever the case might be and that they can have worship in their home on their device wherever they may be and again we told you last week that we were reaching 25 different countries that also tune into our our live stream our archives so we praise god that we can reach around the world literally through this device right here through through the internet and so we praise god for that and uh so we began to look around for also what else needs to happen and we say well we really would like to see a place for us to build relationships because we have a relational church right i mean this church has a heart for people one of the friendly churches i've ever been a part of and you you can't come into a church like this and not feel the love of god i told the first service that i used to live in denver colorado my wife and i and i attended the happy church and there was not many people happy at the happy church and so i said you know you really need to have a title that fits what's inside the building so you know again we we want to facilitate those relationships but what usually happens is that people stay in the sanctuary for three hours after service talking and so we are wanting to provide a place down the hall we wanted to take out the gem stage which we only use to store ancient artifacts like you know the uh the the the uh the staff that moses used in the wilderness with the serpent on it is probably back there somewhere it's kind of like that place where you have those exercisers you know you hang your clothes on that's what we have on the stage right and so we thought we can you could utilize that space uh for a cafeteria cafeteria well cafe cafeteria my vision just enlarged on the spot i didn't no we got a cafeteria praise god how much is that gonna cost i don't know so uh to create in that space there a cafe and uh then you could see some seating around that in the hallway to create some relational space uh because really christianity is more caught than it is taught uh you really catch it uh by watching people by being in the presence of god by uh having what i call holy friends everybody needs some holy friends right uh so you you can't choose family members you can't choose your work associates but you can choose your friends that's a free sermon so i think it's important that we all develop those relationships and this just provides us a space to do that now again we had tremendous beginning and more people gave last week we have nearly 70 000 cash already which is fantastic a lot of people amen a lot of people sacrifice a lot of people sacrificed uh to do that and i think it's just a fantastic journey that that you have with the lord when you do that you you can never out give god i learned that and uh the walk of faith will be an exciting thing to see him give you a testimony i i know he'll give you a testimony out of what you do but on may 2nd we're moving it back to may 2nd because we didn't have the renderings we wanted to have from the architect uh we're moving back to may 2nd on a sunday to begin taking um what i say monthly faith promises or quarterly or uh every six months whatever fits in your economy to start taking also commitments to for a monthly support to pay for these improvements so again nobody's under coercion as we as we just bring this before you if we had 200 households that all gave 146 dollars a month then we would be able to raise the money to pay for our improvements this year and next year so again it's it's so it's just something i lay before you i give the illustration about a lady named agnes and agnes went to her curates and said she wanted to build an orphanage they said great how much money do you have she said i have three pennies and they said well you can't build anything with three pennies she said i know i can't but i know god can't so she went to work in calcutta india for several years and in 1979 she won the nobel peace prize which gives you over a million dollars of course and she donated it all to the work of this orphanage you might know agnes by what she's been come to known as mother teresa so let me tell you that not only did god transform agnes into mother teresa a well-known influential figure and when we give and we follow god he transforms us into a person of faith more than we were before because we've learned to trust him in a greater way but also it it causes the work of god to grow it causes the work of god to enlarge its territory and so again thank you for considering that in prayer and we just want to pray that god leads us and that we only obey the holy spirit so this is the time for giving you can put the giving slide up and no offering buckets to be passed but you can see the ways to give on the screen and we're going to pray have the video announcements and then uh adriana camposano is going to come bless us father we thank you for giving the most expensive gift heaven could afford jesus christ we thank you for your every day james 1 17 giving us every good and perfect gift that comes down from heaven lord you reward generosity because it's your nature so lord thank you for the generosity that has been shown already from the people of the kingdom uh to this project and thank you for what you will do to inspire us to continue to be generous towards your work lord bless each one lead us and guide us in that decision and we pray that in all things you receive the credit and the glory for lord you are the great provider we ask for your provision for your people today in every way in jesus name amen god bless you hey good morning city sanctuary family let's take a couple of minutes to make sure you're staying connected this week as a reminder we had two new growth group classes get kicked off last wednesday night pat redmond's class called lord what do i do now and randy sanford's class called walking hebrews which is a zoom online class with an in-depth study of the book of hebrews if you want to sign up for one of those or any of our wednesday night growth group classes go to our website or our app you can click on the connect and you'll be able to see all of those growth groups and how you can get connected hey it's easy to stay connected with what's happening here at the city sanctuary even when you're not here make sure you like us on instagram youtube and facebook at citysanctuarydeland for all of those you'll be able to find all of the latest information and updates that happen throughout the week you can also sign up for our e-newsletter just email heather here at the church let her know you want the e-newsletter and that's one additional way that you can stay connected what's happening here at the city sanctuary make sure you go on out monday nights at the spurling sports complex and support our softball team they would love to have your support you can find updates about their games in the staying connected bulletin also on our facebook and instagram pages you'll find all the updates and if there are any weather changes as well hey city sanctuary family this is pastor peter marcus with our amazing teen talent participants here's a quick recap video of everything we did today [Music] [Music] [Music] bye [Music] and it's hard to see [Music] oh but i know that down through the earth i'll look on this moan and see your hand on it i know you [Music] how you were my portion when there wasn't enough and i'll testify of the seas that we've crossed [Music] the waters you've parted [Music] the waves that i was oh my god did not fail [Music] oh [Music] is well [Music] believing it's hard [Music] when options are for you when i can't see what you doing [Music] [Applause] [Music] that over the years [Music] [Music] when there wasn't love [Music] the waters [Music] my god [Music] is [Music] singing [Music] is sing hallelujah to the rock of ages all is [Music] oh my god [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] how you were my portion [Music] and i'll testify [Music] the way all right adriana capisano fantastic praise god you know the future's bright you've got teenagers like that they've dedicated their talent to the lord wow exciting stuff amen she sings sometimes in our praise team up here so you may have recognized her from before and uh we just give honor to her for great heart and great ministry of music today as we continue our do it now series out of the book of acts after christ was resurrected from the grave and ascended on high next we find the book of acts and that's on the book of action that is the resurrection should change your life you and i should live differently because christ has died for our sins and was raised for our justification and empowered us through the power of the spirit and so you have the book of acts the book of action that follows the gospels of christ and last week we looked at do it now and this week we're going to look at living without options living without options that's from one verse of scripture in acts chapter 4 and that is verse 20. the apostles said well actually peter said for we cannot stop that is i have no option i can't stop they come from somebody in the sanhedrin do they come from somebody in the roman municipality no it came from an internal fire that he had from the holy spirit inside of him for we cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and what we have heard living without options is living committed to the work of god in your life so many times we have a spiritual salad bar of picking and choosing what we want out of our relationship with god or the bible but i'm going to tell you what it's going to take to live victoriously is to live without options if he said it i want it amen if he offers it then i want to receive it and so today i just pray that you will open your heart to the lord and ask yourself what options am i living with in regards to my faith our father we pray and call upon you to help this is this is our time of need our nation needs your help we need your help the church of jesus christ needs your help lord we we pray for the divine anointing upon the preaching of the word and the divine distribution of the word as revelation into every heart lord please awake us out of sleep maybe arise from the dead and give us light lord today we trust that you will do this in jesus name amen amen god bless you beloved love you today we look at options options are as american as capitalism that our nation thrives on private business competition for our economy and for trade that is that you can have choices where different people offer you the same products offering you different kinds of deals or services on those products so that creates a lot of options uh really options are as american as apple pie or pumpkin pie or pecan pie or boston cream pie or we like our options and i got an amen from the front row you go to the grocery store today you'll find 40 000 different options that in publix if you decide to go grocery shopping then you'll find that there are 40 000 different options for you to choose from when you attend there when we look at 184 different kinds of cereal we can choose 249 different kinds of options for the soap that we use 250 different options for the toothpaste that we use when we understand my personal favorite that there are 551 different options for the kind of coffee we can enjoy you realize we like our options there are 772 different kinds of cars and trucks that you can try to purchase on any given month there are 1500 different kinds of movies available via satellite for you to choose from there are 2500 different kinds of light bulbs that you can choose from today because we like our options mcdonald's has 140 five or six different items on their menu and yet that has risen 85 different options since 2007. an illustration of the fact that they have created 85 more options on the menu in the since 2007 because americans want more options we like to have our options but do having options and keeping our options open necessarily make us more happy well harvard psychologists dan gilbert says no in the research that he puts in his book stumbling upon happiness he basically points out that the more that we keep our options open we are less happy he said the reason for that is because we're always considering the options and we're discontent because we haven't really made a commitment or choice to any one particular option and so we are just not as happy because we have not found that one option that we can settle upon and when we do finally make a decision that basically then our psychological immune system kicks in and convinces us that we made the right decision and reinforces that the other options were a lesser or worse decision he also points out that we are less productive when we keep our options open that if we keep our options open for different jobs we keep our options open for uh different things and and a lot of a lot of college students put off their major selection for years we keep our options open too long then basically we are less productive in trying to focus on one thing and to make it good and then finally that we have poor relationships because we like to keep our options open 42 only 42 percent i should say of americans now have a spouse less than 50 percent of americans have committed in marriage to another person we have seen that decline three percent since 2017. we're seeing people become less committed and keeping their options open more when it comes to relationships so what happens is we have poorer relationships because we have the option of maybe even if married maybe it's the grass is greener on the other side of the fence if the grass is greener on the other side of the fence if you're married guess what it's greener because it's over a septic tank the grass is not greener on the other side of the fence everybody has to face the same problems in life you may be trading one set of problems for another set don't buy into that deception that the grass is greener on the other side of the fence we look at what the book of acts reveals to us the book of acts reveals to us that there is a greater happiness a greater joy for those believers who commit and have a greater commitment to the lord in their faith you read the book of acts 500 saw the lord ascend but yet only 120 were in the upper room praying and waiting for the day of pentecost to come what that tells me is that there were 120 who said they're going to live without options jesus said in luke 24 49 a terrier in jerusalem until you're being due with power and 120 of them took him seriously 120 decided to be committed 120 said you know there's no option here he said to terry i'm going to tarry he said to be and do with power i'm going to wait until i get what he told me i should get before the next thing that he wants me to do and so you read in the book of acts scriptures like acts 2 28 acts 2 28 says that truly you have made me full of joy by filling me with your presence full of joy by filling me with your presence it sounds like that we have the corner on joy and happiness that the world needs to know doesn't it the bible goes on to talk about that in acts 8 and 8 that with salvation came and they were filled with the holy spirit that great joy came into that city it is again acts 13 52 that the disciples were continually continually filled with joy and with the holy spirit you see some people think well i'd get the one shot does all you know i get saved or sometimes even old-time pentecostal charismatics will say well you know i received the baptism back way when back in the dark ages but here the bible says that they were continually being filled with joy and with the holy spirit guess what we leak amen we leak and we need to be continually refilled with the holy spirit and with his joy amen look at the productivity also the more committed you are to christ the book of acts reveals that the more productive that you are look at the productivity of the church we see that it was only after they had been endued with power that not because they had a strategic plan or they had be witnesses in jerusalem judea and samaria and the other most parts of the earth acts 1 8 but not any actually tactical plan there was no tactical plan that jesus said you know you're gonna basically do some marketing and then you're gonna start a small group and then you're gonna scale the small groups they have other small groups and you're going to bring them together and have a big crusade and you know there's no tactical plan it was just a spiritual plan of changing lives that would then change the world so what would happen is that the productivity came when they were all filled with the holy spirit began to speak with other tongues and that everybody heard in their own native language even though these people did not know those languages they were galileans or they were the they were the country bumpkin hillbillies of the spiritual world and they weren't edumacated as if you know that joke goes they were they were common people but yet they were speaking in languages of all these people that gathered from around the world who were jews for the the day of pentecost and then from that attention came the preaching and the application of uh this is that which joel spoke about in the last days i'm going to pour out of my spirit and again that was a sign that the judgment had ended uh that got you know the scattering of god's people uh under judgment and that the pouring out of the spirit was a sign that judgment had ended and jesus of course announced that in luke 4 18 about the year of god's favor this is the time of god's favor the judgment has ended now grace has come god's son has come and so as he preached that three thousand were saved and then he they were baptized in water and baptized in the holy spirit the book of acts goes on to record uh time after time five mythical medications when the holy spirit was poured out and from the holy spirit being poured out people's lives being changed then they went to change other people's lives authentically organically it wasn't a tactical plan it was more of an organic move of jesus through them because of what he had done in their life we look at the turn of the 18th century to the 19th century this is where we find that god began the latter reign the former rain as it's talked about in the bible uh we is the day of pentecost that time when there was the the initial outpouring of the holy spirit the latter reign uh many believe that has happened and started to happen at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century it was in the 1896 year that on our own denomination which was called the christian union the church of god started out as the christian union wanting to restore primitive christianity and bring about the unity of all denominations into one wouldn't that be a miracle today amen since there are 32 000 different denominations aren't you glad you're part of the right one man sometimes i need to filter myself more than i do so these good baptist and methodist folks who came out of their churches to form the christian union were praying in shearer schoolhouse in in north carolina and all of a sudden they began to speak into the tongues they didn't even know what was happening to them and went to the bible to figure out if it was in the bible or not and so they received the baptism holy spirit topeka kansas in 1901 if any if god could move in to pick a kansas he could move anywhere and to pick a kansas in in 1901 the lady that you see on the screen there looks like a holiness lady there with a good hairdo with hat on there she basically was in the charles parham school bible school and they were seeking for a deeper walk with god the preaching of finney preaching the deal moody preached a deeper walk with god a holiness a sanctification before god and as they were striving for that it was then that she received the baptism of the holy spirit and she began to speak in the tongues but it was a known language she spoke in chinese for three days in a row she couldn't even speak english she spoke in chinese for three different days after that seven others no 12 others received the baptism of the holy spirit word got out and the guy that's on the other side of the screen william seymour came and he began to study there at the charles parham school and again wanting to be filled with the holy spirit well a couple years later in 1906 he then goes to los angeles california he went there to take a church sunday morning he preached on acts 2 4 they were all filled with the holy spirit and spoke with other tongues the spirit gave the entrance and came back sunday night and they locked the doors on him said we don't want that kind of preaching here you go find someplace else well he did he found a house 214 north bonnie brave street and he found a front porch and uh he began to teach there and first uh on april 9th was the first person received the baptism holy spirit then that later there were seven others and then it was on they filled that house porch so many people that it collapsed and they had to move to another place so they found the place a building some some say it was an abandoned church some say it was an abandoned horse barn but it was on azusa street they found a building they could rent for eight dollars a month they began to have meetings there and as they began to have meetings there uh nine days after they had begun meetings there is when the great san francisco earthquake hit san francisco 28 000 buildings were collapsed three 200 000 people immediately homeless 3 000 people lost their lives people thought the end of the world was coming uh the war was coming to an end they would send people up there to minister there but people then in los angeles were feeling uh the fear of what was happening in their own state or in the world and they came in droves to azusa street i want to tell you i think we've missed some of this opportunity of of covet i think that kovid should have softened the hearts of americans so make sure that they were right with god to make sure that they had a deeper walk with god and i pray that that the effect of all that does not go past the church that the church realizes that even the book of revelation tells us that there's going to be millions die with a pandemic one day we should realize that this is a time that we should be trying to evangelize and we should be trying to pray and we should be trying to reach out to people who are in fear or people who are in need of salvation and try to let them know that yes jesus is coming again and you need to know him and you we have the answer it's called our hope in jesus christ and a life filled with the holy spirit well he began then to see this revival move into three years and that three-year revival moved people in several continents as it went across the waters and revival began to spread in 1960 it was an episcopal priest named dennis bennett and dennis bennett was at uh saint mark's episcopal church in van nuys california had 2600 people in a very upper-class neighborhood in church and very affluent very wealthy had life set for him but yet all of a sudden uh god began to as he was praying for sanctification god began to fill him with the baptism the holy spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues he basically then shared it with some of his folks 70 of his congregation accepted the lord and then on the april 3rd 1960 he shared it with his congregation at large and the word got back to his uh general assembly and they basically invited him to leave the church kicked him out of the church and he went to seattle and there took a church that was had been defunct and uh within years it had been flourishing with again a huge ministry as well and the charismatic renewal began to spread across uh denominational lines it was in 1974 notre dame had a huge charismatic conference because so many catholics were receiving the baptism of the holy spirit and speaking with other tongues god began to do revival movements across our world in fact the largest world evangelist is beyond billy graham is reinhard bonke and reinhard bonke uh met him one one time in jerusalem in the in the hotel and said reinhardt what what made the difference in your ministry because for years he was he was basically just a general let's say local minister he said well that's simple he said it was the baptism of the holy spirit so wow well you see a picture here on the screen where he is in lagos nigeria and there are six million people in that crusade that basically he has been used to win uh in africa and all 54 different municipalities or countries of africa he's been used of god to win millions to jesus christ because of the pentecostal fire that is in his heart and i want to tell you that there is a time that we're living in where people look at the baptism in the holy spirit as an option it's something they don't really have to have it is you know christianity light right that basically it it's uh has great taste but it's less filling right it is more of me and less of god that there is a a whole desire for church to appeal to marketing so that we don't offend people instead of appeal to what the scripture says jesus told us to do to wait until we are endued with power from the holy spirit from on high i'm here to tell you that it's not our option to say yes to this lord and no to that lord it is our opposite is our duty rather to say lord i'm going to live my life without option and that if you said it then i'm going to do it if you want it for me then i want it for myself and i'm going to tell you what we need to see revival in america is to live without options that we're a part of the 120 in the upper room that we're going to tarry until we get full on the holy spirit's power we are going to tarry until we come out of there with the power to have a changed life to change this world that we live in amen living without options also means acts 4 and 29 acts 4 and 29 basically tells us that they were brought before the sanhedrin leaders the council there and they were threatened and they were told not to preach the gospel not to preach in christ's name and yet they said this they said will you tell us what is right should we obey you or should we obey god so basically they're saying we have to obey god rather than you the book of acts records 16 different times 16 different times that the work of christ was opposed by either the roman government or by the jewish government and what we find is that opposition to the work of christ is as old as the birth of the church that yes those that will live godly in this present world will suffer persecution so we have to understand that we are going to be persecuted if we stand up for what jesus told us to stand up for but yet we have to live without the option to cave we have to live in the same power of pentecost and again do it now as the book of acts commands us to do it welcome to collinsville looks like a nice sign on the small 3 000 member community that had 29 different churches in it looked like a nice place to live and to raise a family at least that's what uh was thought by one woman who brought divorcee of with four kids brought her her kids there and came to move there and came to the church of christ there church of christ helped her to have a car they helped her with uh babysitting her kids while she got her ged they helped give christmas presents to her kids during christmas time very kind and helping her get re-established in her life there in collinsville but then there was a time that that this christian woman decided that she was going to uh basically have an option about the teachings of christ and so she began to have an immoral relationship with another unmarried man and and people began to notice that that his car was there overnight several times and when the man was questioned about it he did admit that they were sleeping together so the church went to her and said look uh you know we have to come to you because if you know we see in galatians 6 2 if you're overtaken in a fault we're supposed to restore you because we know from ephesians 5 and 3 that there should be no hint of immorality among us that we indeed are supposed to flee immorality first corinthians or rather first thessalonians 4 3 and so please change your ways with this or marry the man whatever you need to do here to conform to the to the things of christ she continued to refuse those things and continue to sleep with this man and and not be married and and so they basically after several times said well we're going to have to then ask you to uh leave the church by first corinthians 5 and 5 to put you out and deliver your you'll be over to the destruction of the flesh to show that you are out of flushing with god we're turning you out of the church matthew 18 15-17 as well and treats you as a gentile or someone who is unconverted and doesn't know the things of god she then decided she would sue them and so she sued them for 11.3 million dollars for an invasion of privacy and she was awarded 390 000 in that particular suit and with that one of the jurors was interviewed as they concluded the the trial proceedings and one of the jurors said this about the case said i can't believe in this day and time that the church thinks they can tell anybody how to live their life well certainly not the church it is jesus christ who tells us how to live our lives what we face is another kind of battle today we face the truth battle we face a cultural battle where truth in the culture is subjective matthew vines was a well-educated theologian and uh had a high view of scripture until his personal story changed he then turned in into being a homosexual practicing person and from that point on he changed his theology he then started to reinterpret scripture and then wrote several books about the church including gays into the church and in fact there's an entire entirely growing gay church movement today then there's a situational truth situational truth is that i may adhere to a certain creed but if i get in a certain situation i may change that and lie in certain situations or do something immoral in certain situations or steal in certain situations if i feel like that the situation demands it and then there is the secular truth secular truth is the polls secular truth is pop culture secular truth is politics it is those people that would try to shape the truth around their narrative around what they are trying to achieve and what they are trying to impose on the world in which they live what we find in all of this is the hr5 bill which is currently before the senate passed the house on february 25th and of course this bill and its present form unless it's amended is not the same 1964 civil rights act which we support uh i support totally and that is that it talks about there's no discrimination on race or creed or color you know in any kind of employment etc but this goes beyond that this now is all about sexual orientation about sexual identity transgender all these various things and is a threat to religious liberty remember the first amendment anybody remember that says that congress shall make no law uh enforcing the third particular religion but also shall make no law that prohibits the free exercise of religion and so we have to understand that this will take away uh religious liberty to employ uh people we could have an uh this passage in our daycare uh we could we have to employ people with lifestyles that we don't think the bible endorses uh my speech could be uh become criminalized if i say something that that the bible says about uh certain kinds of of sin uh we we just look at even liberty for women where transgender males uh could compete against women and again it seems like women's rights would be violated and all that not to be political but to be biblical what we find here is that he says that whether it is right in the sight of god to listen to you the culture or whether to listen to god you make the judgment you see what i read in the bible is in genesis chapter 2 23-24 that god made it made them male and female and said for this cause shall you leave your father mother and cleave to your wife what i read is matthew 19 6 mark chapter 10 brother matthew 19 4 mark 10 6. it says in the beginning that god made them male and he made them female what i read is hebrews 13 and 4 which says this that the marriage is to be held in honor among everybody and the marriage bed undefiled but adulterers and immoral people god will judge you see what we read in the bible is we read about how that there be no hint of sexual immorality we read about flee first thessalonians 4 3 flee sexual immorality what we read is first corinthians chapter 6 and verse 9. he talks about do not be deceived we're going to talk about the weapon of mass deception here the weapon of mass deception is that we will believe the culture we'll believe somebody's narrative we'll believe peer pressure will believe whatever is being said in pop culture or politics will believe that over the word of god and that we will be deceived because there he says do not be deceived that he talks about that idolaters and adulterers and those sexually immoral effeminate and homosexuals swindlers and extortioners they shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven i'm just reading the book for what it says because i have no option but to tell you what the bible says in this day and time and we need to preach and teach and share what the bible says but yet we are not of the judgmental nature that we are going to be mean to people who are living out of the will of god for their life in a certain area of their life we must understand what verse 11 says of that same section of scripture and he says but such were some of us that we were that way but now we have been washed we have been sanctified we have been justified by the lord jesus christ so yeah we we love everybody because such were some of us except we've been washed and cleansed and raised up by the blood of the lamb and so we got nothing but love for you if you have something in your life like this we want to we want to help you and share with you our testimony and share with you the truth of god and we have no options beloved in verse 19 we have no options should we obey man or obey god we should obey god and i pray god let us live with no options in this present time with the truth of the gospel [Applause] well a changed life changes the world a changed life changes the world you see we really have no options also when it comes to a changed life if we are saved and nobody can tell we're born again then we need to go back to the altar and we need to ask god to give us a true born-again experience you see it's not religion that saves you i never will forget that in my church i pastored at delta and i pastored in west virginia there was a couple that sat in the back of the church for seven years and one sunday morning i'm preaching and they come down to the altar to get saved they had fooled me for seven years i didn't know they weren't saved faithful every sunday seven years they come down the aisle to get saved you see the only thing that matters the only thing that matters is that jesus wants to come into your heart and change your life going to church should nurtures like god's our father the church is like your mama helps nurture your faith but jesus is the one who changes your life i'm in love with jesus i appreciate the church of god but i'm not in love with the church of god this denomination i'm in love with jesus so you look at the stat on the screen an average person meets 10 000 people and that's just on an average 10 000 different people think about this if you changed 10 if we if we had a goal to change at least 10 people out of the 10 000 we'll meet in our lifetime and then they change 10. in five generations we would have changed 800 million people if we went to another generation we would have changed 8 billion entire world you see the plan that christ had was not a tactical plan of like i said do your marketing make sure you get your lights just right make sure you you have all kinds of of of good sound i mean we're trying to perfect those things so that we can reach people but that's not necessarily the plan of god we have to do those things today to reach people but the plan of god was to change your life in my life so that organically we are changing people everywhere authentically because we are changed all right how does that happen the last thing that was no option here is that they said in verse 20 our text we cannot but that's living with no option we cannot but speak those things which we have seen and we have heard so that means that the change of life brings an internal fire within you they had seen and they had heard they had seen jesus they had heard jesus they had seen him die they had seen him resurrected they had seen the miracles the signs and the wonders they had they had seen the betrayal of judas they had seen and they had heard and their life was changed by what they had seen and what they had heard it's all the same plan as what he did in their lives is what he wants to do in our lives today that is that jesus wants to have you see and want you to hear what he has planned for you and what he has said you can live in this particular way in scripture he wants you to experience what he has said to you and what you have seen from him what does that mean well first of all the scripture on the screen this is one example in romans 4 and 17 about how that god spoke to abraham this is just an old testament example but a new testament rendering now that god spoke to abraham who was an idolater the bible says that he was a pagan right he was a he was a polytheist he was certainly no good believer right he was someone who was a sinner let's say but god spoke to him and god spoke to him and said hey abe let me tell you something i want to make you a father of many many people many nations i want to make you a father of a great nation that is you can't number the sand or the seashore or the stars in the sky and it says in verse 17 that abraham believed him because he believed that god could could basically who calls those things that are not as though they are he believed that god could do that and that's hearing that is hearing the word of god romans 10 17 faith comes by hearing hearing the word of god how did you get saved you heard the word of god somehow you heard it in your heart your mind you heard the word of god about what could happen you could have your sins forgiven you could go to heaven right you could have eternal life you heard those things and then you acted upon those things and now you have that spiritual reality in your heart that is the beginning of your spiritual life but it goes on day by day day by year by year it goes on what you hear from god and if you stop trying to have your connection with god and stop being close to god then you stop hearing from god and so hearing from god is essential to be able to live in the power of the gospel because faith comes by hearing what has he told you about your kids what he told you about your health what you told you about your marriage what you told you about your finances what's he told you about your your emotions which he told you about your attitude what has god spoken to you because that is what he wants you to walk in we cannot but declare that which we have seen but that which we have heard we have heard this from god and that means what that means that basically we also have to see he said what we've seen they've i saw the resurrected christ right hebrews chapter 11 talks about for those hebrews who did not see the resurrected christ he talks about the same thing applies verse one that faith is the evidence of things hoped for are the evidence rather of things not seen that is that you can't see it in the natural but you have to see it by faith in the spiritual verse 3 the things that have been made everything you see around us is that that has been made by things which are not seen do you realize that everything we see the trees the earth the mountains the seas everything that's been made has been made by things that are not seen that's what faith is when god said you know let there be light all that's that's god's faith and what his word and what he spoke that's what faith is for us that we birth things by faith that as we hear from god that we begin to declare those things which we've heard and then we begin to see it in our spirit we begin to see our spouse say we begin to see our body heal come on somebody wake up today we begin to see the the nation change we begin to see god restore us we begin to see it because that's what faith does in verse 7 noah had seen that there was coming a judgment even though there hadn't been a flood had even reigned before but he saw it verse 10 how that abraham saw he was looking for a city whose builder maker is god he didn't see this city there was no city there but he saw what god was going to do through him anybody getting this today verse 17 he went to sacrifice isaac and again he already saw him resurrected in his mind he saw him raised up in his mind before he ever went to offer a sacrifice of isaac we go on to verse 27 how that again moses mother saw that by faith that he was a child destined for great things she could see it verse 27 moses who seen the invisible when he was tempted to stay with pharaoh tempted to avoid the persecution that was associated with the people of god he saw him who was invisible he saw the lord and he again stayed with what he told him to do and so this is what it takes it takes what it takes that we have to be able to hear what god is saying we have to be able to see that it can happen by faith oh come on somebody see people people have given up maybe in america to tell you satan wants to destroy america because america stands in the way of preventing the antichrist from taking over america stands as still the bastion of christianity and exporting missionaries and satan wants to destroy america but god bless america god preserve america god give us another great awakening in america we got to see it you got to hear it you got to believe it today kicker here as i wind up is verse 13 and verse 29 verse 13 says that they perceive that peter and john were unlearned and ignorant men they were not rabbinically trained [Music] they were southeastern galileans how y'all doing they were untrained and weren't up to the cosmopolitan jerusalem city intellect but they took knowledge of them that they had been with jesus you see jesus was bold he was loving and kind but he was bold because they perceived when they saw the boldness of peter and john smith wigglesworth was known to be uneducated in fact smith wiggersworth wrote a letter one time and he wrote the name holy spirit separate he spelled it seven seven different ways in one letter a guy pointed out to him and smith wigglesworth said well did you understand it the guy said yes he said well then praise god [Music] i wish my college english teacher felt the same way you see smith wigglesworth was one who was bold had had a curate grow he prayed for and curate and grow grew legs on a curate two legs grew out here he had 14 resurrections he may not have been smart but one thing he had is he had a baptism in the holy spirit and he had a boldness that came from jesus christ and he was no matter if he was unlearned and ignorant or not he knew he had a power and he had no options but to preach that gospel he had no options but to believe god by faith he had no options but to go forward and god used him in a great way you don't have to be the smartest or sharpest knife in the drawer for god to use you that doesn't mean that we are advocating illiteracy or ignorance it just means that no matter what our background is the main thing that we need is no options when it comes to the power of the holy spirit to be poured out in our life for his glory to change our lives and to change the world you see the verse here says the now lord take note of their threats and grant that your bond servants may speak your word with all confidence here is a group that after they were flogged after they'd been imprisoned twice now here's a group that didn't pray oh lord make it easier oh god please take away our persecution oh lord i pray that you would please get us out of here because this is really tough here's a group that said you know what lord increasing our boldness don't take us out of here why did they say don't take us out here because jesus said you're going to preach in jerusalem first and then judea and they were in jerusalem judea chapter 8 is going to kick off samaria we'll talk about next week they were in jerusalem and they were not going to leave jerusalem until the lord was done with them in jerusalem because they had no options he said you're going to start in jerusalem and they said hey give us more boldness give us more boldness oh don't take us out of here give us more boldness give us more power that we can with greater boldness give witness to you oh god i pray that we would not shrink back from a culture that tries to push their truth i pray that we would not shrink back from a religious culture that wants us to water down the baptism in the holy spirit i pray oh god may we please have no options may we please say oh god if you said it then i want it in my life i want to do it i'm committed to it my god [Music] let's stand together beloved every rancher knows that the ranch ranch dog is one of his most valuable possessions because a ranch dog can do the work of ten men hurting the cattle [Music] but did you know how the ranch dog is selected when the current ranch dog has a litter the rancher looks for come ahead prayer workers come come up here the rancher looks for the smallest or the runt the runt of the litter ties a thread or a cord around its neck [Music] and then over the next 12 weeks while the weaning takes place he sells off all the other litter and keeps the run [Music] because he's going to keep the runt to be his his ranch dog because of one thing one he's they found out that because the runt of the litter is the smallest that they over those 12 weeks with their brothers and sisters that are bigger and stronger they're going to have to be smarter faster and more determined in order to survive for food and everything else than the rest of the litter so they always choose the runt of the litter for the prairie dog that will be the next dog in line can i tell you that that he disciples in the book of acts 16 times you read about opposition from the romans to the sanhedrin to the jews you read about the opposition [Music] but yet whether it was internal opposition or external they the church always grew [Music] come on now see i don't know that we're living in the new testament era because a lot of times people have internal [Music] internal problems external problems and they begin to faint i'm going to tell you that there is nothing there is nothing that you face that you should not and cannot grow through hallelujah and in fact if we know that god led the children of israel away from the warfare at first because they weren't ready for it that means one thing that he will never let you go into a battle that he doesn't expect you to win [Music] come on now come on now praise god i'm winning i'm gonna win the one i'm in i'm going to win it i'm in it to win it [Music] so the message is clear even though these disciples may have felt like they were uneducated they were the runt of the litter they weren't well trained they they they didn't have these rabbinical education but they had been with jesus i want to tell you spending time with jesus takes care of all of our weaknesses if we allow him to he can do in us more than we can do in ourself and i'm going to tell you that it is this group of people that is the these disciples that he took the runt of the litter and he made them the leaders of the greatest movement the the salvation that comes from god through jesus christ i'm here to tell you today that they did that because they lived with no options if we live with options well you know i don't really have to have the holy spirit baptism i don't really have to have a stand for truth i don't really have to obey the assignment that god has for me if we live with those options then we will not be the same new testament church and some people here even today in the sound of my voice are online maybe living with an option about whether they even accept jesus some people put it off until i get old and sowed all my wild oats and then when i feel like i'm getting ready to die i'll get saved you just don't understand salvation you just don't understand abundant life that he wants to bring you don't understand but let me let me ask you first if there's anybody here head's bad please if there's anybody here that is put off you made it an option to serve god but you want to accept him today would you please lift up your hand and here and online please designate that to somebody one of our hosts if you want to accept christ anyone here today that wants to accept him that has put it off i don't see any hands lifted i'm going to move on beloved thank you holy spirit thank you holy spirit let me let me just say ask you to evaluate your heart here's what the lord has put on my heart that we have made it an option to be filled with his power we have made it an option to obey his truth we have made it an option to disobey his will for our ministry in our life and today is a day they're going to sing a song about the holy spirit before you can stand up for the truth before you can obey his calling you first have to be changed by him terry in jerusalem until you being due with power you say pastor i i haven't been baptized in the holy spirit how do i receive the baptism holy spirit you receive the baptism of the holy spirit by faith it is a gift they had to tarry because the holy spirit hadn't been given yet but he has been given now you don't have to tarry it is a gift it is a gift i say the holy spirit is a gift [Music] so you have to believe that he wants to fill you and give you the gift of the holy spirit and you have to repent acts 5 42 he gives the holy spirit to those who obey him if you have areas of your life that are unsubmitted to him you have to confess those sins you have to ask god to forgive you from disobediences and sins to cleanse your heart so that you are ready he is the holy spirit my mic on amen he's the holy spirit right so you have to ask god to forgive you you have to mean it from your heart and then you have to just basically ask him luke 11 19 luke 11 11 says ask and shall be given you seek and you shall find knock and shall be opened to you if you ask of the of the lord the holy spirit he's he's not going to give you a serpent or stone or some egg he's going to give you what you're asking for now what about what about speaking in other tongues bible says that he came on that that that group with an utterance which means it was something that they were going to speak it says that he gave them the utterance what did they give him they gave him the surrender james says the most unruly part of your body is your tongue and everybody said amen to that so when you're able to surrender your tongue to the lord to speak in other tongues guess what that's a sign that you've surrendered your life to him you say this is just crazy well i'll tell you what it's crazy what the devil did you know it's funny if you've ever felt inspired to give somebody a piece of your mind you were inspired by the devil says that he sets the tongue on fire from hell right he inspired he inspired job's wife to say curse god and die right it is he will inspire your tongue it's who are you going to let have control of your time it's when you let the holy spirit have control of your tongue you begin to speak in acts chapter 2 the wonders of god in a heavenly language [Music] man i'm feeling i'm about to get drunk here i believe they thought they were drunk the day of pentecost this is saying i have no option but to seek for the baptism of the holy spirit i have no option but to ask god to fill me i have no option will you join me today in asking him we have prayer prayer partners here if you want to come and pray with somebody i'd like you to join me in prayer father right now we pray lord we're living in time of persecution we're living in time lord where there is also the greatest of times where the holy spirit is being poured out so today lord we we want to live without options we don't consider your command to receive the baptism of the holy spirit for john baptized water but truly you shall be you shall be you shall be baptized with the holy spirit lord we consider that not an option but we consider that your plan for our life so today we confess any and all sin lord we we repent of our sin we repent of living with options we repent of of having options to disobey the truth and options to not complete your assignment and options to not seek for the fullness of the holy spirit we we confess our sin our disobedience please forgive us cleanse us okay [Music] and now we ask you [Music] fill us fill us with the holy spirit fill us fill us fill us with the holy spirit fill us with your divine power we surrender our tongue we surrender our soul and spirit we surrender our minds we surrender to you holy spirit fill us today fill us with the holy spirit lord we begin to seek you right now in the name of jesus would you sing brother as they sing pray and ask him to fill you with the holy spirit amen praise god fill us with the holy spirit [Music] come on keep praying come on keep praying let this let the music just be a background you keep praying for god to fill you with the holy spirit you keep praying for god to speak to you in other tongues you keep praying come on now pray with me praise god hallelujah hallelujah fill us with the holy spirit [Music] holy spirit fill us with the holy spirit fill us with the holy spirit fill us with the holy spirit fill us with the holy [Music] holy spirit [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] is [Applause] [Music] i feel like we're on the brink of revival i believe that there's going to be a great renewal here in this place [Music] we first have to humble ourselves before god we have to humble ourselves before him those early believers were hungry for god they were they were passionate about receiving everything that god had for them we're going to invite you to come to the altar if you want to pray for the baptism of the holy spirit we can't be concerned about who's going to watch us or who's going to think this or that about us but i'm also going to not dismiss you today i'm going to ask you to carry this service in your heart all week and when you go to your prayer closet when you go to your private place with the lord in that private place you you just have no options but to give him everything you give him everything and you surrender to everything he wants to do in your life and you allow him to fill you because i promise you he will i promise you he will fill you he said in john 16 8 it's expedient for you that i go away because if i don't go away the holy spirit will not come he was so emphatic that he had to go in the sin so he could send the spirit yes anybody that's saved has the spirit of god born of the spirit john 3 3 romans 8 9 the baptism is what dennis bennett from the charismatic renewal he said the word baptism means like a ship that has been sunken and immersed in the water where you are maybe spirit filled if you had a cup inside you are fully saved nobody is saved in an inferior way but it is taking that full cup and then continuing to pour into it so that it overflows the baptism that's the immersion that's what he wants to give you so we're not going to dismiss this service we're going to release you to pursue the word from this service and as you go throughout this week please live with no options let him do everything in you that he wants to do and fill you with the power of the holy spirit again the altars are going to be open for you to come if you'd like to come today and pray with our our altar workers or seek the lord by yourself we're just going to commit this word to you as you lead father i thank you [Music] how that you are renewing the church and you're reviving your work in these last days so lord we re release this word in the hearts of your people lord as they go throughout this week lord this word will go with them lord they will live with no options and they will allow you to do great and mighty things and they will ask you to fill them afresh and anew with the power and the fullness of the holy spirit that we will hear reports of people who have been freshly and newly baptized in the holy spirit lord it could be lord when they're driving to work could be when they're in the shower it could be upon their bed it could be in their prayer closet god but whenever lord you they are open to you move on them and fill them fill them fill them with the holy spirit let them be filled with the holy spirit but we thank you for that we praise you for that in jesus name and everybody said amen amen god bless you have a great lord's day god bless you as they say you

Channel: City Sanctuary Deland

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Id: wqEri4iU_zY

Length: 110min 6sec (6606 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 18 2021