Open Windows - Pastor Raymond Woodward

his nickname was lucky believe it or not we don't know much else about him and we don't even know much else about his church he was just a young man in the congregation and since the church was still new and the youth group was still small sometimes he felt a bit out of place with all those adults especially when their founding pastor returned for a visit which happened every once in a while now that man was a giant in the faith no doubt about it but like a lot of older preachers when he preached sometimes it just seemed to go over your head especially if you had the shorter attention span of a young person it was sunday night and the church had already been in service for a few hours but since the elder was leaving town first thing on monday morning he preached for a long time he wanted to share everything that was on his heart and it just went on and on and on and somewhere that sunday night in the middle of just doing church lucky just simply got bored to death and that's when the unthinkable happened the congregation didn't have their own worship facility so one of the church members had arranged for them to meet in a room on the third floor of a building in town to say the least it wasn't the most comfortable place to hold a church service there was no sound system or air conditioning and the lighting was old school so it just added to the stifling heat and after several hours of being jammed together the air felt stale and it was getting hard to concentrate especially since the elder was still preaching the only place you could get any relief at all was at the back where there happened to be an open window the temperature was beginning to lower outside now that the sun had set and since their church was in a port city a slight breeze was beginning to blow so at a moment in the service when he thought it wouldn't be noticed he made his move he slipped to the back and he casually eased himself onto the sill of the open window and it felt so good just to feel the breeze from outside and just to take a mental break from the intensity of the church service and besides the elder was still preaching and somewhere in the middle of doing church lucky just simply got bored to death and that's when the unthinkable happened because that's when the unthinkable always happens and upon the first day of the week when the disciples came together to break bread paul preached unto them ready to depart on the morrow and he continued his speech until midnight and there were many lights in the upper chamber where they were gathered together and there sat in a window a certain man named eutychus or fortunate or lucky being fallen into a deep sleep and as paul was long preaching he sunk down with sleep and he fell down from the third story and he was taken up dead there is a viral epidemic floating around in the atmosphere of the last days and there are contagious carriers walking around everywhere in the end times some of them are symptomatic you can see it some of them are asymptomatic you can't really tell they appear normal but they don't look or sound sick but they already have this fatal disease working inside them it will kill them and this disease is just waiting to kill you and it is not coronavirus it is called spiritual sleep and it is the prophetic pandemic of this generation studies show that drowsy drivers contribute to a hundred thousand highway crashes each year causing 70 000 injuries and 1500 deaths just like drugs or alcohol sleepiness causes accidents because sleepiness drowsiness slows your reaction time decreases your awareness and impairs your judgment one reason that driving while drowsy is such a danger is it's so difficult to keep yourself from nodding off you think you can force yourself to stay awake but you can so easily doze off without even realizing it and when you're driving closing your eyes for even one second can be disastrous and i would add that in the spiritual world spiritual drowsiness slows your reaction time decreases your awareness and impairs your judgment and just one second asleep at the wheel of your life can be disastrous although sleep is a natural physical process scripture also uses sleep as a spiritual symbol of death and as a negative symbol of laziness and spiritual sleep is much more dangerous than dozing off in a moving vehicle because you're endangering not just your body or your life or others but you're actually endangering your eternal soul there are so many influences in current culture that can contribute to spiritual sleep even christians can fall asleep at the wheel if they are not constantly vigilant and it's happened to so many do you think utica's story is in the bible just to warn you about dozing off during the sermon hardly his story is in the bible to warn you about dozing off spiritually in the middle of doing church in the middle of living for god in the middle of your youth group in the middle of the last days that's why his story is in the book of acts and his stories in the bible to warn you about something else don't position yourself spiritually at the back at the margin at the periphery at the fringe or at the edge of the church that's where people fall from that's where people backslide from they position themselves far too close to an open window leading to the world outside the prophet joel warned of destruction that would come and he spoke of a massive army that would attack judah even entering in through windows that had been left open look at this they shall run to and fro in the city they shall run upon the wall they should climb up upon the houses they shall enter in at the windows like a thief that's what the culture that surrounds us is trying to do especially to this phenomenal younger generation in the church the world is trying to attack us through any windows we leave open now don't mistake my tone today for any kind of criticism i am extremely impressed with your generation because i have never seen in my lifetime i've never seen a generation with more potential or more passion but please know that potential and passion can get you in serious serious trouble especially if you sit too close to an open window feeling the pull of the world just outside now i have been young and now i am old that's scripture i see two things and i have for years decades in fact that from my generation to yours two things get young people in trouble over and over and over again you have never been my age but i have been your age and it's so easy to see the disasters coming from miles away and we watch in horror it's like a slow moving train wreck and you know it's not going to end well as a pastor i've seen them young people precious young people i've seen them begin to doze off spiritually and i've watched them slide to the very edge of the church and then i've seen them fall disastrously into a world that destroys them and all the while we warn them and we pray for them and we preach to them and we reach for them but sometimes they just won't listen yes we will be there months or even years later and we'll do our best to pick up the pieces and welcome the prodigal and weep at the altar and love them whenever they make it back if they ever make it back but what a waste of a good precious life and sometimes even if they do make it back so much damage has already been done one of the statements that haunts me is what a tragedy it is to live with the consequences of forgiven sin yeah god will forgive you but you may have some consequences that you have to bear for the rest of your life how much better would it have been for them just to have closed that window in the first place before the enemy gained an advantage i've seen it for years do you know the two things that most often get young people in trouble in your generation you may not like this but it's true and i've watched it happen over and over again to people just like you here's the two things that most often get young people in trouble today smart phones and dumb friends for millennials living a double life in the digital age has become all too convenient the barriers that made sin quite difficult and shameful to commit in my generation those barriers have been lowered or eliminated in the digital age when i was your age if i wanted to look at pornography i had to go over to downtown fredericton to probably what was the only store in fredericton at that time that sold that trash and i had to go in with a bunch of weird seedy looking old perverted men and wind my way somewhere into the back of a store and find that section of the magazines you think i was going to do that not with my eagle-eyed mother who's sitting here this morning she would have followed me there and beat me all the way home with my dad behind her but see the problem in this generation is those barriers have been lowered or even eliminated if you own a smartphone or a tablet or a computer chances are let's be honest you've probably abused it you see the internet just doesn't lay around passively waiting for us to find it the internet draws us in it tells us what we should want and what we should do and what we should want to do it's always got this message there's a strong current in the online stream and if you don't know how to negotiate it you could get carried away with it and you could possibly drown your spiritual life in it you can fall out of those open windows on your computer screen my phone screen and your phone screen divulges in high definition pixels what your heart really wants whatever happens on your smartphone especially under the cover of anonymity that's the true condition of your heart and it's reflected back to you in full color high definition pixels that very well may explain all the passwords on phones and computers and apps because to get into your phone is to peek into the interior of your soul could it be that we would be ashamed for others to see what we searched for and clicked on and opened and browsed and chased around online let's be honest pornography has always been the main driver in the visual digital communications age and it is a pervasive problem and i know this because i've served as a pastor for a number of decades ongoing porn use is a major issue facing today's christians especially young men although no demographic is immune now here's the startling statistics and i wish i could tell you this was far vastly different in the apostolic movement but i have concerns that it's not nearly 50 percent of professing christian men aged 18 to 29 admit ongoing pornography use and that trend is similar among young women only in lesser proportions here an older guy today the flood of pornography being accessed on smartphones is a spiritual epidemic and it is an unprecedented crisis in church history and specifically in your generation pornography use is costing a whole generation of millennial christians costing them their joy costing them their peace it's costing their them their confidence in the holy ghost it is destroying their potential to have anything even resembling a normal dating relationship or a normal marriage but worst of all it is corroding their young souls and minds with the acid of unrestrained lust because they're willingly giving themselves to that bondage the cost of pornography on their future is enormous but the cost of pornography on their faith could be eternal for far too many people in your generation sitting on our church pews pornography will cost them their salvation that is a crisis no addiction in our lives is hidden from the eyes of god our creator is no respecter of privacy laws his presence shatters the sinister lie that the devil and the internet purveyors are telling you that you're anonymous online that's a joke and that anonymity tempts so many people to abuse their smartphones assuming that they can indulge without any consequence it's not that they're unconcerned about the consequences they're just concerned about the wrong consequences they're concerned that their parents will find them or pastor will find out what they really should be concerned about is that god already knows and it's damaging their relationship with him every second that they're online doing that i'll move on i know i'm making you uncomfortable but let me just dive in one more time before i do the sobering fact young people the sobering fact this generation that i love and respect and admire so much the sobering fact is that your private sexual practices whether with your body or just with your mind they are the measurement of your proximity to god you can't be living like the world in your sexuality and living close to god so the stakes could not be higher jesus said if your hand offends you cut it off it's better for you to enter into life maimed than have two hands and go to hell into a fire that will never be quenched can i paraphrase jesus it would be far better for you to live a crippled life without your smartphone and without internet access and go to heaven than to continue clicking everything your flesh desires and go to hell it would be way better one day every person who committed anonymous sin online will stand before god and every detail of their browsing history will be broadcast before the throne of the righteous judge every deed done in darkness will be brought into the light every motive of their heart will be exposed on that day it will be the ultimate humiliation it will cause the ultimate panic it will reveal that every effort to erase their digital footprint was totally in vain there's nothing covered that will not be revealed there's nothing hit that will not be known but i have good news today because there is something that can erase your browsing history and cleanse your past if we say that we have fellowship with him and we're still walking in darkness we lie and we do not the truth but if we walk in the light as he is in the light not only do we have clean pure wonderful fellowship with one another but the blood of jesus christ his son cleanseth us from all sin the blood can cleanse your past the blood can cleanse your browsing history the blood can cleanse your sin whether it's in person or online and so i say to you this generation that i admire so much it can be different than that and it must be different than that use your phone you're so smart use your phone to expand god's kingdom use social media to preach the gospel be accountable to your pastor or your youth pastor or your friends or your parents stay away from those open windows of online temptation because your smartphone is an open window into a world that will destroy you but you can turn that around i was in british columbia for their camp meeting two or three weeks ago and there was a young man there pastor matt will remember he was there in every service he's right at the front front row in the middle of a bunch of guys and and but but they're all worshiping but he's not he's not doing what they're doing he is out on the front he jumped so long and so high and so much that he exhausted me i was so tired watching him by the time i get up to preach oh my goodness he was just jumping and jumping and i know what people think about people like that they think well he must be you know five degrees off or there's a little screw loose or whatever you know why he was jumping because he met somebody just in a a facebook chat i think he had posted about their camp meeting and youth camp and somebody from winnipeg another guy saw that and commented on this camp or this youth camp and he invited him from winnipeg to hope british columbia and he paid that dude's airfare and flew him there and let him stay in the dorm and paid whatever fee they have to pay for that and that guy from winnipeg got the holy ghost and got baptized in jesus name because of an invitation online you're smart you can figure this out don't use facebook and instagram and all of that stuff don't use that for sin use that for evangelism you're the smartest generation we've ever seen you can figure this out you can do bible studies online you can talk to friends overseas on the mission field online you can invite people to church online you can do this it's your generation it'll be wonderful if smartphones is all we had to deal with but we also have to deal with dumb friends and your friends will either make or break your life period end of story living for god is intended to be a team sport you're not intended to do it alone in fact you really can't do it alone so the friends you allow to influence you are exponentially more important in your life than the people you hardly even know in the pews at church or the people you hardly even know that's in your contact list your friends your real friends your up close friends they consistently dominate your decisions and they ultimately can determine your destiny the old saying is absolutely true you show me your friends and i'll show you your future now let's be plain i don't know any other way to speak some of your friends are coasting spiritually and you know it they think they can operate by a totally different set of rules than every other young person in the church they think they can ignore the voice of the preacher and the pastor and the commandments of god and they think they can just treat that all like options to be disregarded or discarded if they find them inconvenient or unpopular the devil has tricked them into believing that they are unique that they are they get a pass because they're exceptionally talented or exceptionally popular or exceptionally smart when all the time the devil's laughing behind their back because he's just nudging them and nudging them and nudging them toward an open window so he can give them that final fatal push over the edge into the world maybe that's not your friends maybe that's you solomon was the wisest and wealthiest man who ever lived and he still backslid undoubtedly because he thought the rules didn't apply to him and that's why in his book of proverbs he writes so much about the fool the fool the fool in proverbs is the person who knows what is right but just doesn't care enough to do what is right they are having too much fun sitting on the window sill of sin to worry about their relationship with god the word fool in the ancient hebrew language is casil it's a strong word in scripture it it comes from a root word that just means fat it's not talking about their physical dimension it's talking about their spiritual dimension someone who is smugly self-satisfied filled up with their own wisdom and their own opinions instead of hungering after god's wisdom i am shocked at the number of apostolic young people who populate our seats our buildings and our altars who have fools for friends i'm astounded at that proverb says the tongue of the wise uses knowledge a right it uses knowledge rightly but the mouth of fools is just always pouring out foolishness foolishness is not having a good time or a good laugh or or enjoying a joke or enjoying one of those crazy memes that's not foolishness foolishness is this weird kind of thing where everything about god and everything about church and everything about a move of the spirit and everything about the preaching of a sermon and everything about the altar it's all just a big joke to them that's a fool they can't take church seriously if you've got a friend that never moves in church and i'm not talking about somebody that's brand new and you invited them they may be scared to death of all of us that's fine i'm talking about somebody that's been around probably longer than you have and they know better and they don't move a muscle in church if they won't move in church if they never worship in church if they never shed a tear if they never pray if they go to the altar if they won't move you move get away from that kind of friend solomon said it's as sport to a fool to do mischief it's just a joke this church thing but a man of understanding hath wisdom if you've got a friend that they can't be serious about god for a second you need to find a new friend proverbs 26-11 solomon wrote as a dog this is gross as a dog returneth to his vomit so a fool returneth to his folly sometimes a fool well they'll come around and they they might sneak up to the altar once in a while they might pray a little bit but you know because they're your friend you know that they're just going to go out and do the same thing this week that they did last week because that's what they do church is like a hamster wheel to them they just go around and around and around and every week they they act like they pray through but you know what you haven't repented until you've made a different choice repentance is not a feeling repentance is not tears repentance is not crying repentance is not getting the whole youth group around clinging off you sobbing over you and then you go out and do the same thing that's not repentance that's fake and phony repentance is when you say i'm turning away from sin i'm turning away from that i'm turning away from my past that has done nothing but hurt my relationship with god and i'm turning away and i'm headed a different way now that is repentance you can repent and not shed a tear you can repent and not move from your seed you can repent right now while i'm talking to you repentance is when you say done with you devil all yours god that's repentance oh my i wish somebody would thank jesus for the privilege that we have even if you messed up last week the privilege of swinging your little self around and walk in a new way you say but i knew better so i'm so ashamed and i'm guilt-ridden and i knew better than that of course you did but if god would forgive a sinner that's never worshipped him a day in their life he will forgive you if you'll genuinely repent because he already knows that you loved him once you just need to get back so you need to repent let me try not to go too far afield here but i was studying repentance one time repentance in the greek new testament is metanoia we all know that because it means a turning around a turning away walk in a different way that's repentance but i got thinking you know what the word repentance is used in the old testament and the old testament wasn't written in greek it was written in hebrew so i wonder what that word is for repentance in the old testament and i found it it's shubh and shub is a warfare word it's a word from when they had ancient battles and people attacked cities and armies took over other countries and when they took those citizens prisoner and they marched them away to be slaves in a foreign nation the last thing they did before they took those people from the land they had always known to a different place where they were going to be slaves they burned their city to the ground why so there was nothing to go back to and the old testament hebrew word for repentance is shub and it literally means destroy the house here's how i know you really repented when you go home and you burn up your drug paraphernalia when you go home and you you get rid of all those links on your phone when you go home and you change some friends that's how i know you really repented it's not when you cry it's not even when you come up to the altar at youth convention it's when you say i am done with the devil he's done mean nothing but harm he's done mean nothing but shame nothing but guilt i'm done i am all yours god that is repentance i'm not leaving any connections back there to tempt me to go back to where i came from that's repentance that's repentance but the most frightening verse that solomon ever wrote about the fool isn't actually about the fool it's about the people who hang around with fools because that's dangerous too you might not be a fool you might not be one of those people that just doesn't care you might care very much you might be very sincerely trying to serve god but dumb friends can make you lose out with god here's the most frightening verse solomon wrote about the fool and it's not even about the fool it's about the fool's friends he that walketh with wise men shall be wise but a companion of fools shall be destroyed when you hang out with people who don't really give a care when you hang out with people church is just a joke to them when you hang out with people who are cynical and skeptical and critical when you hang out with people that don't pray don't worship never crack and alter they're just here for the fun they're just here to hang out and and they're more interested in getting out of here after the session is dismissed then they are about coming to an altar and you know it they're your friends the problem is you don't think that's affecting you but the bible says the companion of fools shall be destroyed when their life goes up in flames the shrapnel of that destruction it can hit you this is exponentially more important as you progress in life and you start thinking about who you're going to date and who you're going to be married to i don't know how many dozens and dozens of people good godly young people that married the wrong person and that person made such brain-dead backslidden decisions and the shrapnel of their sin and the shrapnel of their foolishness it exploded all over sometimes there's a wife or a husband sometimes there's children involved and it just wrecked everything you have a chance to preempt that so you've got to ask yourself the question are my friends pulling me into church or pulling me away from church are my friends pulling me toward the front of church or toward the edge of church you've got to be honest enough to ask that question because i say it again you show me your friends and i will show you your future like that church service in troas two thousand years ago we are approaching midnight prophetically the preachers keep preaching and like that little room on that third floor in the city of troas there's lots of light in the church but all that preaching and all that light all that revelation all that power it will not do you any good if you position yourself on the fringes of a church in the open window that looks out on the world it won't do you one bit of good and so the bible warns us about the pandemic that is infecting this generation and it's not even close to corona therefore let us not sleep as do others but let us watch and be sober paul says don't you be lulled to sleep even if your friends have been lulled to sleep you wake up jesus said to them in the garden why sleep ye rise and pray lest you enter into temptation young people temptation never gives up trying to infect your spirit so the only thing you can do about it is wake up and be on guard against it paul said awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and christ shall give thee light please hear me i'm almost finished you can die spiritually if you fall asleep in your youth group in your church in your life and paul said passionately that knowing the time that now it is high time it's about time it is past time to awake out of sleep why for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe jesus is coming back sooner than you think jesus is coming back and it's closer than you ever thought possible look at the world if what is going on in your generation and you can read it on your phone if that had happened in my elders generation they would have called an all-week-long prayer meeting all night revival service every night they would have been thundering about that from the pulpits but see we've been lulled to sleep because the drumbeat of the media is just constant there's a new crisis in a new nation every day so this week afghanistan it's just blown up the taliban they're taking over everything they're about to take over the capital city it's just blown up and you can blame this politician or that politician or this decision but but but think you got to wake up see war and rumors of war that's a sign of the end times and and when you see all these things begin to come to pass jesus said don't look around don't look back don't even look ahead look up your redemption is drawing nigh so we've got to raise up a generation of young people just like you that are internet savvy and you're tech smart and you're culturally connected but here's what we got to do we got to raise up a holy godly generation that can pull some of these friends of yours out of the fire and get them to god we can't be wasting our time half asleep we can't be wasting our time on the edge of the church if there ever was a time you need to dive head first feet first whole self into a move of god it's today [Applause] i think there's a generational millennials in here that you can pray in the spirit i invite you to lift up your voice right now and pray in the holy ghost and if you need the holy ghost right now while everybody's praying around you you can receive the holy ghost yeah even in a morning session [Applause] hey [Applause] see here's where you see the people that are asleep and the people that are awake if you're awake there's something in you that just can't live without this there's something in you that just can't live without prayer there's something in you that just can't live without worship this is where you divide the sleeping from the alert oh yes jesus oh yes jesus [Applause] in the name of jesus in the name of jesus in the name of jesus [Applause] yes yes [Applause] [Music] in the name of jesus in the name of jesus in the name of jesus don't sit near to an open window when there's a bonfire of the holy ghost burning in the middle of the church jump in with both feet get in get ready for his coming but get ready to do something for god before he returns oh yes yes yes yes everybody stand with me if you would i'd like you to reach over take the hand of your friend on either side and i'd like you to lift every hand that we can together like a big choir of uplifted hands and then lift your voice up higher than those hands [Applause] there's something moving in this youth convention there was something here last night that's why god's spirit was poured out last night we've got another service tonight and two tomorrow but right now god is visiting us and here's what he's saying millennial here's what he's saying generation just before the coming of the lord he's saying wake up and get yourself on fire with the holy ghost i refuse to have the attention span of a flea when i come to church i am gonna give my all to god i am going to give my best to god [Applause] [Music] [Applause] yes yes yes god yes jesus yes jesus [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] yes yes yes yes yes yes what a waste it would be to have a morning session we're right on the dot we're right on time what a waste it would be to have a morning session and never in an apostolic youth convention never come to the altar so the altar is open i wish you'd pack into here like you did last night because god has an appointment with you you may be the one that can catch fire in the holy ghost and affect your entire youth group don't let your friends pull you down you pull them up don't let them pull you toward the world you pull them toward revival when you get here come as close as you can we still got lots of people in the aisle so just pack in a little bit if you would that's so great we'll take just a second for everybody to get into position and then we're going to pray [Music] there's a little bit of space over here if you want to just keep going a little bit of space over there a little bit of space over there thank you for your response in this convention last night you were so awesome and i was so proud of you [Music] youth pastors and pastors and leaders get ready we're just going to lay hands on a bunch of people in just a moment [Music] now if we were on the foreign field now see this is fredericton new brunswick canada we're way too sophisticated for this and that is our problem but if we were on the foreign field in a in a crusade with thousands the first thing we would do is repent to say god the preacher was talking to me today i'm not gonna blame my friends or i'm not gonna act like yeah that's good for my friends when really he was talking to me and repentance is not the emotion you feel in this moment listen you may feel absolutely nothing right now but repentance is a decision to turn away from what you've been doing and give god your all give god your best and so i'd like everybody to lift up your hands and we're going to repent i want you you can pray quietly you can pray in tongues but in your mind i want you to repent and i want you to clean out your heart before god so why don't we lift up our voice right now nobody's listening to you you can pray in your head what you need to repent of but you can pray in tongues you can just worship god but right now it's a turning away if this youth group if this group of young people ever turned away from all the junk that's holding them down and holding them back and giving them guilt and shame and robbing your confidence in the holy ghost if this group ever turned away it would set a whole region of canada on fire lord jesus i ask you to forgive me i ask you to cleanse me with your blood i ask you to forgive me of things that i've looked at online i ask you to forgive me of things that i've done in my relationships i ask you to forgive me of attitudes that i've had i ask you to forgive me for hidden things hidden sins hidden habits in my heart that nobody even knows about god i put those things under your blood i turn away from them i turn fully toward you and this day i give you my all that's why i came to youth convention that's why i'm here i give you my all i leave those things behind i don't have to feel it i choose to do it i don't have to have emotion i've got a decision i choose to walk away from it and i'm asking you for your help right now now i want you to lift up your hands yeah you i want you to lift up your hands and i want you to get ready to lift up your voice and if you're here with a friend that doesn't have the holy ghost they can receive the holy ghost right now because we just repented and we've got some clean vessels ready for god's spirit to flow through so lift up your hands lift up your voice and let's start with a praise to god lift your voice as high and as great and as loud and as bold as you can because there's a river of the holy ghost in this room right now you can be delivered from a drug addiction you can be delivered from an alcohol addiction you can be delivered from a pornography addiction you can be delivered from depression you can be delivered from some kind of mental issue that's hurting you and you can be healed in your body right now jesus can do anything yes god yes god yes god yes god yes god don't stop praying it's too good pastors youth pastors youth leaders just begin to lay hands on people and that's not just for them you can lay hand on your friend right now and god can touch them through you yes god let's sing yes yes yes yes thank you

Channel: Capital Community Church

Views: 6,735

Rating: 4.9087453 out of 5

Keywords: capital, community, church, fredericton, nb, new, brunswick, canada, upc, upci, united, pentecostal, international, apostolic, sermon, preach, preaching, bible, study, teaching, bible study, open, windows, open windows, raymond, woodward, raymond woodward, pastor

Id: nDI7QietkVg

Length: 45min 52sec (2752 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 14 2021