Night 2 UPCA Conference 2021 - Auslan Interpretation

[Music] so [Applause] [Music] hi everyone i'm actually at a picnic a church picnic and today's a very special day because it's the first day since the lockdown that our church has had the opportunity to be together and fellowship connecting with each other in actual fact connecting is what i want to talk to you about because in the upc we're going to start a new program it's a new initiative to connect people throughout australia who don't go to any of our churches who are in isolated towns or even in mines and things like that we want to connect them with other people of like faith we've actually found that there are a lot of people out there from different nations and from who were australians who actually don't think there's anybody else in the town where they are just this past week within the last two weeks i've spoken to a man who was in mount isa his family want to start to start a church and i said we'd do whatever we can i told brother morris about it and then within a couple of days brother morris said hey we actually know of somebody else at tin mantiser so we're in the process of connecting them so if you know anybody your friends those who have been in fellowship with you in the past whoever they are just send us a message with their details at contact upca dot org dot a u i'll say that again contact at upca dot org dot iu that will come to us we will then follow it up we will we'll do our best to connect them if we can't connect them then we will find somebody who can communicate with them and actually keep them in fellowship [Applause] i'm actually so happy to be here today enjoying this fellowship and yet there's a lot of people out there who are not getting fellowship like this and it's not because of covet it's just purely because of their location so join us in this this new initiative god bless you and thank you very much and this is my sign name this is my story i'm deaf and i grew up in a christian family but church was boring and i i wasn't happy there my mum taught me about to read the bible [Music] and then later i joined a deaf christian fellowship it was wonderful stories that i could understand then stories about jesus and and his love for me i went to church and it was so wonderful i went to a pentecostal church and received the holy spirit god healed me his power in my life yes he loves me and i love him yes in first corinthians chapter 13 verse 19. my mom there's these three no the greatest of these is love god bless you [Music] [Music] greetings everybody welcome to our second night of the general conference of the united pentecostal church of australia and we welcome you from all around australia and even around the world for joining us for this our annual event so why don't we open up in prayer and ask the lord to bless us let the spirit of god minister to you wherever you are and let god do a great work in the church let us pray father we thank you lord for this great time that we have together lord even though we are separated at different locations yet we are united as one body in christ and so we pray that your holy spirit would move in our services in our midst with god wherever we are and let your anointing be upon your singers and musicians upon the man of god that will bring the word of god to us today so we give you glory this day we honor you and worship you in jesus name amen praise god amen hallelujah let it be our prayer tonight that as we lift our praises unto god as we worship him and exalt his holy name that his glory will just come down and flow upon us and through us amen let's just worship him tonight as we give him praises [Music] [Music] [Music] is [Music] every part [Music] your glory on our faith [Music] is open up the package flowing from your heart [Music] show us your glory love show us show us your glory love we believe you sure [Music] show us your glory lord a mighty river flowing from your heart [Music] from your heart [Music] we believe that tonight god's opening up amen the heavens as the mighty river we have a reason to dance why don't we do that tonight let's stand before the lord [Music] his body was broken for our transgressions but i'm so glad that's not where the story is is gave me a reason to dance he gave me a reason to get hallelujah gave me a reason to [Music] is [Music] that's not where the story is victory hallelujah hallelujah [Music] is is [Music] gave me a reason hallelujah gave me a reason to dance there's freedom in the name of jesus there is liberty in the name of jesus let's continue to lift him up tonight [Music] out of the shadows step out of the grave break into the wild and don't be afraid [Music] run into wide open spaces graces waiting for you dance like the way has been lifted grace is [Music] there is freedom there [Music] for the spirits let there be freedom [Music] come back [Music] embrace [Music] [Music] is [Applause] [Music] changed [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] oh [Music] oh and chains will fly out the town there is freedom come out of the dark just as you are waiting for 24 years foreign [Music] is waiting for you it's like with the spirit of the lord hallelujah let's worship the lord today let's worship the lord in spirit and in truth hallelujah [Music] let's sing i could ever stand against your [Music] we've already won there is no shadow that has ever overcome your life there is your mind you've always been with us [Music] and anything is possible is possible [Music] there is a kingdom is he is show me one thing anything is possible it's possible [Music] a victory a victory show me one thing again show me [Music] show me [Applause] hallelujah anything is possible in your life anything is possible in your family and in your church and as we enter into this time of worship as we sing this blessing out over you over your family over your church grab a hold of that and allow that to take root in your heart and make the difference in your situation here today keep you make his face shine upon be gracious [Music] the lord bless you and keep you make his face shine upon be gracious to the lord turn his face toward you and give peace [Music] [Music] amen [Music] amen make his face shine upon and be gracious [Music] um amen um [Music] my family and my children and their children [Music] and your family and your children and your children [Music] all around you within your and rejoicing is is is [Music] uh [Music] ah [Music] before me behind me he's always beside me no shadow no valley [Music] where he won't find me no i am not afraid he's before me he's behind me always beside me no shadow no valley behind me always beside me no shadow no valley where you won't find me is [Music] away declaring victory [Music] [Music] once again we want to thank you for joining with us for our second night of our general conference our virtual general conference here the upca and we pray that the ministry of so far has been a blessing to you and we trust it has been as we come to the ministry of the preaching of the word of god i want to encourage you to open up your hearts and let the spirit of the lord minister to you even though we are separated at different locations yet we know that there are no boundaries to the presence of god so receive with faith god's word today and it gives me great pleasure to introduce our speaker this great man of god needs no introduction being known to many of us he is a prolific author whose books litter much of apostolic libraries and he has the general superintendent of the united pentecostal church international and so why don't we open our hearts and let's welcome to this conference reverend david bernard thank you greetings in the name of the lord jesus christ from the world headquarters of the united pentecostal church international in st louis missouri usa i'm especially pleased to greet you the united pentecostal church of australia your general superintendent pastor john downs we appreciate brother and sister downs and their leadership and ministry over many years i also appreciate the invitation of the general board it's great to be with you and to greet you of course my wife and i were looking forward to actually coming to australia once again we always enjoy our times uh in your country and we are looking forward to the fellowship and the ministry together but covet 19 has other plans but god is bigger than anything in this world and we're glad that we can use technology to still meet together my wife and i were also supposed to or i was supposed to visit the pacific region in december fiji and vanuatu but we've had to postpone that so hopefully all these plans are postponed for a year but in all things we trust the lord and i believe god truly has a plan god is working the events of 2020 the pandemic the resulting economic chaos social unrest political upheaval all of those things took us by surprise but they didn't take god by surprise and so now as we enter 2021 we still face uncertainty with the pandemic we we hope things will start settling down hopefully things will get back to quote normal whatever that might be but it's probably going to be a new normal probably some adjustments that we are making are going to be permanent and probably some issues we're still going to face we don't really know and of course just as we didn't know what was going to happen in 2020 so we don't really know what's going to happen in 2021 and that could be a statement that could cause fear and uncertainty but i want to tell you that in all these situations god has a plan and god is more than a match for any situation so we as the church as the people of god as the people of the name of jesus as people who are filled with the spirit as people who pursue holiness as people of the one true and living god we must rise to the occasion we must put our faith in the lord jesus christ and we must follow god's plan yes it is important for us to make plans i firmly believe that we should pray study take counsel together discern the will of god and make good plans for our local church for our national organization for world missions but having said that we know from experience especially this past year that our plans are likely to be disrupted if we don't have a plan however we're not going to accomplish much of anything if we do have a plan which we must then we should be flexible because we know that our plans are are going to be changed beyond our understanding but in those cases we go to god in prayer and say lord we prayed we've consecrated ourselves to you we focused on your mission we've unified we've sought to do your will we've planned we've projected we've done our best we've raised the necessary funds and we're trusting you but all of our best plans will not be a success without you and so lord in these times of a certain week with certainty we trust you to give us wisdom and guidance we trust you to supersede our plans and fulfill your purpose and god will do just that i'd like to turn your attention to first kings chapter 19 which illustrates what i want to say it's the story of the prophet elijah i'll just pick an excerpt from the story for the sake of getting started it's found in first kings chapter 19 verse 15 and 16. god's instructions to elijah when he was in the wilderness first kings 19 15 and the lord said unto him go return on thy way to the wilderness of damascus and when thou comest anoint haziel to be king over syria and jehu the son of nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over israel and elisha the son of shaphat of amo behola shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room in essence god gave instructions to elijah while he was hiding in the wilderness in the mountains and said anoint a new king for syria anoint a new king for israel and anoint a prophet to be your successor and so here's my message today god has a plan i'd like to encourage you that in every situation in every circumstance god has a plan remember god always has a plan when we look at the story of elijah of course we see from chapter 18 that he won great victory over the 850 false prophets on mount carmel as you know the story they decided to test who is the true god is it baal or is it jehovah yahweh and they were on mount carmel which was known as the home of the god baal i think it's interesting that when elijah uh challenged these false prophets and of course when you read carefully you'll find that everything he did was at god's command it wasn't his own initiative it wasn't just something he dreamed up but god had instructed him to do this so he challenged the false prophets of baal and the false prophets of the goddess ashtareth and he said let's test to see who is the true god let's pray to our respective gods and the god who truly answers with fire from heaven he is the true god and i think it's interesting that he went on the devil's turf he went on the enemy's territory went to the mountain where the followers of baal believed their god resided and he said i'll challenge you on your alleged god's own territory and i think that's interesting we as the church don't have to be in defensive mode but we can go anywhere and everywhere throughout the world in the name of jesus and in the power of the holy spirit and we can be victorious and so of course god did answer by fire baal never did because baal is not a true god and so all israel saw at least for that time that jehovah is the true god what an amazing victory what amazing vindication what an amazing revival and the prophets the false prophets were slaughtered the true prophet was vindicated and at least for that moment the worship of yahweh was restored in the land of israel of course right after that jezebel the wicked queen threatened to kill elijah and so he fled for his life he ran as far as he could go he fell exhausted under a tree and then he prayed to die as others have pointed out it's somewhat ironic elijah said go ahead and kill me lord he didn't really believe that he was just speaking from discouragement depression and physical mental and spiritual exhaustion because if he really if he really did want to die all he had to do was wait for jezebel and her minions to catch up with him and they would fulfill his request but god knew his frailty god knows that we're humans god knows our weaknesses and so instead of rebuking him as as god certainly could have done god could have said elijah i've given you this incredible victory can't you just trust me to protect you now but god didn't rebuke him god understood his weakness and his struggle god sent an angel the angel gave him food drink time to rest and then after that elijah traveled to a cave in the wilderness on mount horeb where he was perfectly safe from jezebel or any other enemy and then of course god spoke to him out of that in that time and asked what are you doing what are you doing here elijah gave a complaint he was still frustrated and if you look in first kings chapter 19 verses 9 through 10 you see that elijah's reply to god isn't very isn't very faith-filled but somewhat complaining so the word of the lord came in verse 9 what are you doing here elijah and he said verse 10 i've been very jealous for the lord god of hosts for the children of israel have forsaken thy covenant thrown down thine altars slain thy prophets with the sword and i even i only am left and they seek my life to take it away in other words god you know why i'm here i'm here because of you i stood up for you i did your will i stood strong and now they're trying to attack me and kill me because of my faith in you in fact they've killed all the other prophets they've killed everyone else that has worshipped you i'm the only one left and they're trying to kill me too in other words what do you mean why am i hiding in a cave on the mountain in the wilderness i'm here because of you i'm here because i did what you wanted and look what's happened all of your people have been destroyed i'm the only one left and i'm getting ready to die myself and so god began to speak to him in that negative condition and i don't want to pause and say a couple things several things that might be relevant to us the first thing i notice is that there is a battle after the victory no we believe god for victory we believe god for breakthroughs for revival for planting new churches for church growth for souls to be saved for miracles and we have many such testimonies that's been the history of our church from the very beginning god has done great things in our midst but sometimes we don't think about it that after a great advance after a great victory after wonderful plans are fulfilled sometimes there's a battle after the victory and in such times uh we need physical emotional and even spiritual renewal we can't make it on our own we realize that after a discouragement or a defeat or a struggle or a trial that we need god's help but sometimes we don't realize that after great victory we still need god's help and so sometimes we need to [Music] remind ourselves of our need to depend upon god so in this situation here is elijah god did give him the food the drink the rest that he needed but he still is struggling with the right attitude and so god begins to deal with him god obviously knows that he doesn't have the best attitude and so the lord says okay i want you to stand on this mountain a great wind came and you can imagine how afraid elijah must have been to stand on that slope and see the howling wind that was actually strong enough to possibly even blow him off the mountain and kill him to see boulder start crashing as the wind dislodged them maybe to see objects flying in the air no doubt he huddled against the rock and perhaps put his cloak over his head and tried to to survive until the wind would pass and then after the wind god sent an earthquake and again you can imagine cracks forming in the ground boulders crashing and elijah is afraid for his life and then after that earthquake the fire came and so we can imagine the brush on the mountainside the trees exploding the fire all around him perhaps lightning electrical storm and once again elijah is in danger for his life so uh elijah sees these dramatic manifestations and occurrences he recognizes the awesome power of god and he no doubt expects god to speak in such amazing circumstances such awesome circumstances but after everything calms down then god speaks in a still small voice and god asks the same question and elijah gives the same answer but reading between the lines there must have been a change of attitude i think elijah says the same thing but with some humility instead of anger complaining he says i'm here alone i'm afraid they're seeking to take my life i don't know what to do and it's at that moment that god gives him the instructions that i just read to you as my text god takes elijah alone fearful hiding not knowing what to do his faith is weak because it seems that god has forsaken him and he's shortly going to die but then god speaks and says no elijah i want you to go out of this cave out of the wilderness go back to the scene of action go back to society the very place where you're so fearful i'm going to use you you're afraid of king ahab and queen jezebel but i want you to anoint people that will overthrow their regime you're concerned whether you will even survive but you will survive your ministry will survive and it will extend to future generations in fact you're going to have a successor that's going to continue your ministry even after you're gone you're thinking everything is about ready to end right now but i've got to play in for the future i've got a plan that will take care of you but also your ministry and the future work of god and so i see another point here that god speaks in various ways often in a way we least expect so through the difficulties that we've been going through lately we've had to make so many adjustments but yet god can speak in every circumstance even in ways we least expect and then of course my next point is my main point god always has a plan the situation isn't hopeless god always has purpose plan meaning and future and i will also say god always has a people elijah felt that he was the only one left but jesus said no your your mathematics is a little wrong not just one i have seven thousand who've never bowed down to baal we are not alone it may seem in our local situation that we are alone but we are not alone and then i noticed from this story that god doesn't reveal his plan until we are ready to receive it we would like god to reveal the future we would like god to reveal the whole year and what's going to happen and what trial will come and how we'll deal with that but that's not how god chooses to operate i suspect that if god did reveal some things we'd be so overwhelmed we'd just quit in discouragement or if we saw some victories we'd get so so lifted up and and boastful that again we would lose what god has for us so instead god asked us to walk by faith we don't walk by sight we walk by faith we must trust god there's never a place in our ministry where we don't need to trust god in fact i've learned that no matter where you go in ministry no matter how much you succeed in in your goals in ministry there are times where god will bring you back to zero so to speak there will be times where god brings you back to your first consecration and say are you willing to trust me are you willing to let go of your dreams and seek my will are you willing to change the course of your ministry or walk away from some of the things you've accomplished in order to go further into my will i believe every one of us periodically have to face the question are you simply willing to trust me no matter what so god has a plan but he doesn't always reveal his plan until we're ready to receive it and then finally i want to point out god's plan will return us to the scene of action yes there are times where we must retreat in solitude and prayer fasting contemplation even times of rest and relaxation they these times are very important to us there are times of regrouping perhaps you've seen this as i've talked to many pastors uh that during uh 2020 there was kind of a regrouping we couldn't get together as much as we would like and when we were able to have attendance uh in person it wasn't as great as normally and we weren't able to have the large meetings that we wanted to have and there are some people on the fringes that seemingly we've lost um and so there have been there have been some losses there's been some discouragement there's been some lessening of objective measurements of success perhaps we've also had some to pass away and here in the united states we've had a number of our saints and an increasing number of our ministers who have died of coven 19 we're thankful for many miraculous testimonies and we're thankful that that by and large the church is strong financially we've remained strong i'm happy to say our missions giving has stayed steady and even increased and so by all measurements of the the church is coming through this crisis with great strength poised for even greater revival so even in the midst of struggle and chaos and confusion and unrest and limitation the church is strong and we see a clear path forward however part of what has happened perhaps this past month or past few months past year is a little regrouping a little time to think to pray to seek god perhaps some time of forced inaction and those times are good and necessary but ultimately god's will is not for us to hide and wait and simply try to survive until the lord comes but he wants us to thrive he wants to move out of our comfort zone he wants us to be aggressive he wants to believe god for the unknown he wants us to conquer new territory for the name of jesus so i'm here to say that we will aggressively move forward in the spirit we will see what god wants to do we will have revival because god has a plan that's greater than mere existence that's greater than mere survival but god's plan is for the gospel to be preached in the whole world until the end comes praise the lord god has a plan and i'm happy to tell you that worldwide the united pentecostal church international is still fulfilling our mission of the whole gospel to the whole world by the whole church and i'm so thankful that the united pentecostal church of australia has been part of that mission for many many years you've taken uh the initiative and the responsibility not in only in australia in every part of your land uh going into the outback going into the cities uh establishing new churches but you've also extended to papua new guinea you've also extended to timor-leste and you've also partnered with indonesia and other areas of the pacific and you've got representatives from various islands of the pacific that are in the church so you've done your part in your area as well as extending beyond partnering with churches such as northeast india and i appreciate that i'm happy to tell you that this is indeed the mission and the vision of the united pentecostal church international there are 210 nations of the world as identified by the population reference bureau i'm happy to tell you we've continued to extend our presence we are now in 198 of the 210 nations that means only 12 have no witness at least as far as the upci is concerned but we are aggressively working to to reach those remaining 12. most of them are very small some are island nations of low populations some are very heavily muslim nations where it's challenging to find an open door but i will tell you without being specific in the last few years we've found been able to find ways to get in many of the muslim nations that were closed often through our own church members in existing muslim nations who can reach into areas where it's difficult for those in the west to travel and so god is helping us we're also in 34 territories for a total of 232 nations and territories our constituency is now over 5 million we have over well over 42 000 churches and preaching points it's exciting to see what god is doing so even in the midst of difficult circumstances the church has continued to grow in april of 220 when uh 2020 when um coven 19 began to hit the whole world um we had many meetings scheduled in latin america particularly the time of easter is the time of most of the annual conferences and so we were not able to have those in person instead we did an online service in spanish and i'm happy to tell you we made an evangelistic appeal and we had over a hundred thousand views and contacts for those online services and we saw over 1200 people receiving the gift of the holy ghost or being renewed in the holy ghost through those services in may of 2020 the weekend of the day of pentecost we decided to do online services in english and spanish again well over or approximately a hundred thousand views and contacts this time we had over 2 400 receive the holy ghost or be renewed in the spirit so i just mentioned that as an example to show you that even though circumstances may restrict us though the word of god is not so restricted the book of acts ends with paul under house arrest in the city of rome but it also ends by saying the word of god was not bound he was able to minister the word of god freely and as some have pointed out the book of acts doesn't end with an amen because the implication is it's still going on we may the church may be in difficult circumstances we may suffer various limitations economically politically medically socially but god's word is not bound god will make a way where there is no way god has a plan i challenge you in your local church in your city in your nation god is working and if plan a doesn't seem to work god's already got plan b if one door is shut that means god is opening another door but we shouldn't be quick to give up if the door seems to be shut why don't we knock on the door because the lord says knock and it shall be open if you have to knock there's an implication the door is shut so don't quickly walk away from the shut door maybe it is god's way of telling you to go another direction but maybe it's god's way of saying persevere ask and it shall be given unto you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be open unto you matthew 7 7 maybe we're supposed to be a little more aggressive in our prayers maybe we're supposed to seek maybe we're supposed to knock maybe we're supposed to push until something happens praise god because god has a plan and so i believe it's time for faith it's time for renewal it's time to hear the still small voice of god but then when we hear that voice it's time for action we cannot just stay where we are we cannot just hide and wait uh to survive but somehow we must hear from god and once we hear from god then we need to act praise god praise god as i've thought about all the things that have happened in 2020 and all the disruptions of the worldwide pandemic i think we can learn some lessons i've shared these elsewhere but let me just briefly point out a few things i believe god is showing us the importance of several things number one the importance of personal connections and home ministry small group ministry i think we've always known that to some extent and indeed in the book of acts we see the church met publicly but also from house to house we need to be reminded that while we love the large conferences and while we believe it's important to have large church gatherings church services yet there's also a component that's not simply in the public gathering or the public worship but it's through the one-on-one connections the home bible studies the home fellowship or friendship groups the the home devotions of the family and i believe god is reminding us of the importance of personal connections home ministry small groups the second thing i think god is showing us the importance of an online presence this was unknown to the apostles but that's been the case throughout the history of the church we've used methods that were not known to the apostles the apostles didn't have the printing press they didn't have the automobile they didn't have the airplane they didn't have public church buildings they didn't have the microphone they didn't have video technology but as each of those things has come while those technologies have been used for evil they can also be used for good and i think god is telling the church to reach the almost 8 billion people of the world we're going to have to be innovative and perhaps through video and internet we can reach people that have never been reached before i believe that's already happening i believe thousands of people have visited an apostolic church service virtually that have never been exposed to the apostolic message people have heard the full gospel there have been some who've fallen away from the lord that have been reluctant to come to church but through an online service they've been able to find their way back into fellowship with god's people and so we're seeing people being renewed in the spirit and of course uh once they're renewed then they are restored to the fellowship of the church not merely virtually but in reality the general conference of the that we held here in the us we celebrated the 75th anniversary of the founding of the united pentecostal church and of course we were planning for a great celebration in saint louis but we had to shift everything online despite that what that means is our services and our seminars have been made online in a greater way and especially optimized for online viewing so that was a first for us to have a completely online conference and we don't know all the significance of the various measurements but according to the social media measurements we had over 114 000 unique views and to whatever extent that represents people we don't know exactly how that translates i do know that there are many groups of family groups or even entire churches who watch together on one device so who knows how many people are reached but i'm confident it's more than have ever been reached in any one service of general conference anywhere and so i'm thankful that god is helping us to reach people in innovative ways so that's that's another lesson i think we've learned the third thing we've been reminded of the importance of organization and unity i don't think you have to belong to the united pentecostal church to be saved or to have a valid ministry but i do believe that it's scriptural for us to be united to work together to have mutual submission to have godly leadership to have organization and structure to be united as acts chapter 2 demonstrates acts 2 42 they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine and fellowship breaking a bread and in prayers they assembled together and because of our unity we've been able to continue support for our missionaries all across the world including domestically we've been able to support evangelists we've been able to support new churches home missions churches struggling churches we've been able to reach out financially and support all aspects of the work of god that we couldn't do if we weren't united i'm happy to tell you our worldwide missions effort has just continued to go forward god has supplied the need in many different ways sometimes miraculously we've also learned and particularly in the united states we've learned the importance of political and social engagement it's not our job to be politicians or to promote parties or candidates but we've got to be engaged in our community because we have to protect our religious freedom we have to protect our freedom of assembly freedom of speech we have to make our voice heard the church can't be left out the church can't be ignored but somehow we need influence in our communities and god is giving us effective ways that we can have positive influence and then finally i would say we've been reminded it's not a new lesson but we've learned the importance of prayer no matter what happens we must pray we need god's wisdom we need god's guidance we need the power that comes from him we are not smart enough to know what to do in these uncertain times but god has a plan we're not powerful enough to fulfill what we think needs to happen we can't make things happen by our own human ability no we're not strong enough to push the right levers in politics or social life to get what we want so to speak but we know that god will anoint us to accomplish his will and so once again we're reminded of the need of prayer thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven and so i just want to remind you united pentecostal church of australia god has a plan he has a plan for your city for your congregation he has a plan for australia he has a plan for the pacific and you are a big part of that plan he has a plan for the united pentecostal church internationally he has a plan for our world no matter the circumstances god's in control trust in him god has a plan let's follow his plan god has a plan for your life and your ministry it's amazing what god can do in every situation i'd like to share a simple testimony i shared when i preached the general conference message in st louis perhaps some of you heard it but there was a young man uh from a muslim country and just to make a long story short he immigrated uh to another country there we have churches that operate freely but he was an atheist nevertheless his mother had got converted in our church she insisted that he come to church he said he would on one condition he had a list of 50 reasons why he didn't believe in god he said i'll come to your church for the first time but i want to talk to your pastor and if he expects me to come back he's going to have to answer those 50 questions he's going to have to explain those 50 reasons why there is no god he's going to have to counteract them and give me an answer but as this young man personally related to my wife and me when he walked in the service he felt something he never felt before and he's soon tears began flowing down his cheeks and he wondered at first what's going on why am i crying what's what's wrong but then he realized for the first time in his life he was feeling the presence of god as he told me later he said pastor bernard in that moment god answered all 50 questions i didn't need to talk to the pastor about why i should believe in god i knew from that experience that god is real he exists that he was reaching for me obviously as the story you you can know the rest of the story he was soon baptized in the name of jesus christ received the gift of the holy spirit and he's in our church today working for god there's another story that also happened i was preaching back in the church that i started a new life in austin texas and pastor shaw related the story to me a young man came there that morning and i don't i didn't know uh i didn't know him didn't meet him but heard the story later and he had been a practicing buddhist for 23 years and he would meditate according to the buddhist tradition and in one of his meditation sessions he encountered forces of evil it shocked him surprised him he became fearful and afraid it was apparently demonic spirit and evidently he must have been sincere in his search for truth even though he didn't really know god didn't know truth he was disturbed he was seeking more he knew something is wrong but he didn't know what was wrong or how to fix it so god was gracious to him and one night gave him a vision in the vision an angelic being spoke to him and said your answer is jesus christ jesus christ is the savior you need to seek him he woke up from that dream he decided to find a christian church he found a large denominational church began attending for about six months but he wasn't really finding the power that he needed he wasn't finding the answers that he needed he began to tell people he was looking for something more and somebody said it sounds like you need a pentecostal church so he went online he searched for a pentecostal church in austin he found new life and he showed up that morning and as he later told pastor shaw he said when i walked in the door i realized this is what i've been looking for he felt the presence of god and sure enough that night he was baptized in the name of the lord jesus christ when he came up out of the water pastor shaw laid hands on him he received the holy ghost he began speaking in tongues as the initial sign as the spirit gave utterance i related those two testimonies briefly to tell you that god's plan goes above and beyond anything we can do yes we need to plan in those two examples we had a church we had a pastor we had a building we had a structure we had scheduled if we didn't do our part then these testimonies wouldn't have taken place but even though we did our part there's no way we could know who's coming and playing a careful strategy tailored to that person's need but that's okay we don't have to know everything we don't have to plan everything we don't have to have a strategy for everything because god has a plan god knew exactly who would come he knew exactly what they would need at the right time god moved in a miraculous way above and beyond our knowledge above and beyond our ability and god accomplished his purpose and so we the church were able to baptize these people in jesus name to pray for them to receive the holy ghost to incorporate them into the church and disciple them so we have a very important role to play but we can be confident that god is working above and beyond anything we can know that is not only true in individual testimonies that's also true in the life of a church that's also true in your ministry that's also true for the entire united pentecostal church of australia so i challenge you make your plans i challenge you to pray to study to work together to meet together to plan your strategy of how you're going to start more churches how are you going to reach new territory how you're going to grow the existing churches how are you going to break through barriers how you're going to train leaders and how you're going to operate your bible college and how you're going to disciple new converts and all the many things that are necessary but in the midst of it all realize god has a plan that's greater than our plan that god is at work if we will keep praying if we'll keep believing when you don't know what else to do keep doing what you know to do keep worshiping keep preaching keep teaching and god is going to fulfill his plan despite the circumstances and maybe even because of circumstances because i believe these circumstances have caused us to pray and trust god more than ever before and i believe these circumstances have caused many people to be more open and more hungry and more desirous of reality and truth than ever before so i believe we have a great opportunity for increasing revival after all god has a plan may god bless you in jesus name why don't we pray right now why don't we seek god together lord fulfill your purpose in our lives you know every obstacle you know every struggle you know every trial lord give us wisdom and strength to go through every circumstance but lord help us to seize the opportunities in our lives and in our churches lord help us to expand the kingdom of god fulfill your purpose lord fulfill your plan we need your strength we need your power we need the anointing of the holy spirit and we seek you in the name of the lord jesus christ amen amen [Music] [Music] [Music] you

Channel: UPCAustralia

Views: 165

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: F9ylz8SS3AM

Length: 77min 44sec (4664 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 03 2021