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00:03Good evening, y'all. It's a privilege to be with you and to have an opportunity to
00:08be a part of Legacy Nights. It was described to me via email by your pastor as a revival
00:17of sorts. He said, we want an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. I said, I'm in, I'm in, I'm in.
00:24And so it is a privilege to be able to be with you. I always love being with your
00:29church and being able to share in some capacity the Word of God to you. I pray that tonight
00:35really is an inauguration, that it just sort of kicks off what it is that God wants to do in
00:40your
00:40heart, what He wants to do in your mind, how He wants to revolutionize your life, change that He
00:45wants to break off of your life spiritually, deliverance that He wants to bring, freedom and
00:50victory that He wants to speak over your life. There are some trajectories that are going to be
00:56changed, some ambitions that are going to be refocused, some dreams and visions that are
01:01going to be planted in your heart. I believe that's going to happen this week. And the fact,
01:05the fact that you've come out on a Monday night says y'all are for serious about this,
01:12that you didn't come to play games, that you, you braved the traffic, whatever it is you had to
01:19brave to come out tonight because you want to see and hear the voice of God.
01:29Before I dive into just a short little thought that I want to share with you that I believe will
01:36lead us as it has led me more closely into the presence of God. I can't help but pause for
01:43a
01:44moment because I want you to hear what your pastor said to you a few moments ago. He said,
01:5335 years ago, I had a vision that the Lord gave me and tonight I'm standing on this platform
02:05platform and seeing the outworking and the fruit of a vision from 35 years ago. Listen, listen,
02:17some of us made New Year's resolutions 20 something days ago and we're already out.
02:26but 35 years ago. Do you know what kind of faithfulness, what kind of diligence, what kind
02:38of prayer, what kind of integrity, what kind of character? Come on and help me celebrate Philip
02:45and Holly Wagner. Thank you. We are the fruit of your diligence. Thank you. Lord, come and speak to
03:05us. Father, we have rolled out the red carpet for you in our praise and in our worship and now
03:10we step
03:10out of the way because we need a word. Lord, I'm so grateful that each other is here but we
03:16didn't
03:16come to see each other. We came to see you. So Father, rend the heavens. Come down and speak.
03:25In Jesus' name, amen. It was the 1940s or so when there was a professor who was in England. His
03:33name
03:33was Professor Orr, O-R-R. He taught theology at a university there. He decided to take some of his
03:41theology students. This is the 1940s. He decided to take them on an excursion, a field trip, so to speak.
03:48And so he gathered up his students and he said, we're going to go visit some of the historical places
03:53here
03:53in England that have some sort of theological significance. He took them to many religious sites, some that had
03:59been very strategic in the building up of the church and in the Christian faith. And one of the
04:05places that they visited was the Epworth Rectory, which would have been the home, the living place,
04:11the study place of one of the great reformers of the church. His name was John Wesley. John Wesley
04:18sort of put in place much of the theology upon which the church that you attend, that I attend,
04:23a lot of that foundational theology was crafted by reformers like John Wesley.
04:30So John Wesley would study. He would teach. He would preach. He would pray that revival would
04:35spread out, not only in England, but he prayed for it here in our country, that revival would break out.
04:41He and others like him ushered in, in prayer, some of the great revivals that swept through America in
04:47the early 1900s, where people in mass were coming to know Jesus Christ as Lord, where the heavens seemed
04:54to be open in an unusual way. And revival broke out in a way that has made the history books
05:00that we
05:00still look back on now and recognize the fire of God's spirit that spread during that time period.
05:07It's because guys, many of them, like John Wesley, were on their knees praying that God would move.
05:14So these theology students went and they visited this rectory, this house where he lived, and they went in the
05:18kitchen. Professor Orr showed them all where John Wesley would have eaten his lunch and his dinners,
05:25where he would have cooked, where he would have lived his life there, took him into the study where
05:29John Wesley would have studied. These theology students were enamored because, of course,
05:33some of the old books that John Wesley would have studied from, that he had written in, some of those
05:39notes they had preserved. They were still there on the desk and on the bookshelves. And so the theology
05:45students were feeling the spines of those books, just enjoying the richness of this history. And then
05:52Professor Orr walked the students up to the second floor where the most intimate quarters of John Wesley
05:58would have been his bedroom, walked in the bedroom. And the students began to file around the bed
06:03in a tiny space in that bedroom. And as they all filed into the room, one of them noticed as
06:09they
06:09got around the far side of the bed that there were two small patches, well-worn patches in the carpet
06:16fibers of the floor. They were right next to each other and they were beside the bed. And he asked
06:23his
06:23professor about those patches that were worn right there beside the bed. And Professor Orr explained that
06:29it is said that those two patches were the actual places where every single morning, not for a minute
06:35or two, but for several hours on end, John Wesley would plant his knees right beside his bed.
06:42And he had prayed so long and so hard for revival that his knees had actually imprinted themselves
06:50onto the floor, that the carpet fibers were worn as he prayed for revival.
06:59So the students stood in there for a moment. And after a few moments, they left the room,
07:04they went downstairs, they all got on the bus to go to the next location. Professor Orr stood at the
07:09front of the bus, counted the students to make sure everybody was there. And he realized one was missing.
07:15He walked back into the house, went into the kitchen to look for the student, nobody was there,
07:18walked up the stairs into the bedroom. And he could just see across the other side of the bed,
07:28the head and shoulders of a student who had planted his knees down in those well-worn patches on the
07:34floor. And he could hear the student praying, do it again, Lord. Lord, would you do it again?
07:47And would you do it again with me? Professor Orr walked around the side of the bed. He put his
07:55hand on the shoulder of the student. And he said, it's time to go. And rising from his knees,
08:04Billy Graham went and joined the rest of the students on the bus that day.
08:16And then God did it again.
08:23And I just wonder what would happen if this week there were some people who were brave enough to
08:31say, Lord, would you do it again? Would you not allow me to be a Christian in name only? Would
08:38you
08:39make it so that I'm so uncomfortable with being a nominal Christian who just comes to church, who
08:44just reads a verse a day to keep the devil away, who's just a good person, but isn't a person
08:50who
08:51is completely sold out for the cause of Jesus Christ. Lord, would you make it so that I am different
08:57and
08:57unique and set apart and filled by the Holy Spirit of God? Lord, would you do it again?
09:04And would you let it start with me? I'm praying for revival. I'm talking about straight up old school
09:13flat footed revival. I'm talking about where the Holy Spirit breaks out so clearly and so fully that
09:21there is not one person that walks the face of the earth that does not know that there is a
09:26God
09:27somewhere and that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us from our sins, that He is the way,
09:34the truth, and the life, and that no man comes to the Father except through Him. Lord, do it again.
09:41And you might as well go ahead and start at Oasis in L.A.
09:51Revival is what we are asking Him for. It is a unique outpouring of the presence of God. It is
09:57when His
09:58spirit, the immaterial, in some way becomes material, tangible, where we see and we hear and we can detect
10:06traces of God's presence. It's where you look back over your history and you can see footprints where God
10:12was working stuff out in your favor, where He was putting the right people in the right place at the
10:18right time to guide your steps. It's when you step away from just celebrating His omnipresence. I'm grateful
10:25for the omnipresence of God. Omnipresence means that He is everywhere at the same time. Omnipresence means
10:32when I fly back to Dallas, Texas tomorrow, I'm not taking all of God with me and not leaving Him
10:38here
10:38with you, that He is just as much in Los Angeles as He will be with me in Dallas, Texas
10:45because our God
10:46is omnipresent. But there should be a hunger in us, the people of God, to want more than just His
10:53omnipresence. We should want His manifest presence. Manifest is revival. It's His clear,
11:02outpouring. It is the detecting of His fingerprints in our lives. It's when we hear His voice by His
11:08Spirit whispering to us and speaking to us. And this has always been the desire of God to reveal
11:15Himself. That's what revival is. It is a revelation. It is a revealing of a tangible experience with God.
11:22That's what He's always wanted. Even in Isaiah 65, way back in the Old Testament, He said, listen,
11:28even when people didn't want me, I was still trying to reveal myself. He said, I permitted myself to be
11:35sought by those who didn't even ask for me. I permitted myself to be found by those who did
11:40not seek me. I said, here I am. Here I am to a people that did not even call on
11:46my name. I wanted
11:48to bring revival even when people weren't asking for it. And so all throughout the scriptures from the
11:54Old Testament, all the way into the New, we find a God who wanted to be found by His people.
12:01He wanted
12:02to reveal Himself. Do you know what great lengths He went to reveal Himself to you and to me? All
12:10of
12:10history really is a chronicling of God's desire to be seen and experienced and felt in a tangible,
12:18real way to be in relationship with every single one of us. It started in the garden. You know, Adam
12:24and Eve, He set them down in a perfect environment so that they could have a perfect relationship with
12:29Him. But you know, we have a very real enemy that has always worked against revival, the revealing of
12:36God. And so even then, He slithered into the perfect environment and introduced sin and they bit the
12:44apple. And sin didn't just enter into that perfect environment, but the DNA of sin was passed down to all
12:51humanity for all time. And it seemed like all hope was lost, but our God, never to be outdone, He
12:58stepped in
12:59and had another move. Because Adam and Eve, they came together again and they had a little baby boy named
13:05Seth. And then Seth gave birth to Enosh. And Genesis chapter 4 says that when Enosh was born, everybody began
13:11to
13:11worship God again. The enemy, he wanted to try to stand against the revealing of God, the revelation
13:18of God, the relationship of God to humanity. And so he made it so that sin was introduced and perpetuated
13:25and proliferated throughout humanity. And things got so bad that the entire human race really needed to be
13:31wiped out. And it seemed like the enemy had the upper hand and he was going to win. But our
13:36God, never to be
13:38outdone, he went and he found a man named Noah. And he said, Noah, I want you to build me
13:42an ark. And Noah
13:43said, a what? He said, an ark. Because one day it is going to rain. Noah said, it's going to
13:49what? He said,
13:50it's going to rain. And so he built an ark, didn't even know what it was for rain. He had
13:54never seen it
13:55before. But in obedience to God, his ark became the carrier through which God would preserve all of
14:01humanity. And once again, our God, always, he was on top. But the enemy caused sin to proliferate again.
14:09The attitudes of people to be hardened against the one true God. And things looked so dire that it
14:15looked as if the enemy had won. But our God, never to be outdone, he went to a little obscure
14:20town and
14:21found an obscure man named Abram. He plucked him out of a town called Urb. He set him on a
14:27brand new path.
14:28He changed his name. He changed the GPS coordinates on his ambitions and the trajectory of his life.
14:35And he said, through you, Abraham, I'm going to make a brand new people called the children of Israel.
14:40They will be my people. I will mark them with my presence. I will make a covenant with them
14:45so that you can't mess with them no matter how hard it is that you try. So the children of
14:51Israel
14:51were crafted as an opportunity for God to maintain relationship with humanity,
14:57no matter what the enemy would try. But the enemy, of course, wanted to do everything he could to keep
15:02revival, to keep revelation, to keep the revealing of God from happening fully with humanity. And so
15:10Israel was enslaved for 400 years. They were enslaved down in Egypt and it looked like all hope was lost
15:18but our God, never to be outdone. He made it so that there was a little boy named Moses that
15:23was raised
15:24as the prince of Egypt. And at just the right time, he said to Moses, Mo, you go tell Pharaoh,
15:30let my people go. And Pharaoh's heart was softened and he released the children of Israel. And after 40
15:36years in the wilderness, 40 years of coming into intimate relationship with their God, they finally
15:42came into the promised land. And it looked like the enemy had been beaten forever. But the enemy,
15:47he had another move up his sleeve because he made it so that the idols of their new land looked
15:53as
15:53appealing as the one true God. And so they began to worship idols in the book of Judges, it says.
16:00And when you get to the end of the book of the Judges, the last line of the book of
16:04Judges says,
16:05everybody was doing what was right in their own eyes. Kind of sounds like America in the year 2019,
16:13doesn't it? And it looked like the enemy was going to have the final say. But our God, never to
16:20be outdone,
16:21he went and found a woman named Ruth. And Ruth married Boaz. She and Boaz had a baby named Obed.
16:29And Obed gave birth to Jesse. And Jesse gave birth to a little baby boy named David. That's King David,
16:36the one who the prophets had already prophesied. Through that lineage, there would be one born
16:42who would settle this matter once and for all. The people that were on the stage of the world in
16:47that moment did not even know that they were already in place for a historical move for which
16:54the enemy would never have a response for. The Old Testament closed. 400 years of silence passed.
17:01And then the curtain opened. And Jesus Christ stepped on the scene.
17:08And that is the response that the enemy has never, ever been able to tackle.
17:17Jesus, God the Father, revealed himself in the Old Testament. And then Jesus came in the New Testament.
17:25Jesus was the physical embodiment of God the Father. He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the
17:33Father. Yahweh tried to make it so that he could have relationship with people as boldly as he could
17:40in the Old Testament. And then he came in the New Testament in the person of Jesus Christ.
17:45In every dispensation, he tried to figure out the best way to make it so that he could reveal
17:50himself to humanity. God the Father in the Old Testament. Jesus the Son in the New Testament.
17:57And in every stage, people rejected the revelation that God gave them of himself.
18:04One scholar said it this way, that the great sin of the Old Testament is that they did not believe
18:10in God the Father. The great sin of the New Testament is that they did not believe in Jesus the
18:14Son.
18:15And the great sin of our generation is that we really don't believe in the Holy Spirit.
18:23That on every turn, when Jesus, our God, seeks to reveal himself, that we always question the way
18:31he seeks to reveal himself to us. Jesus came in the Old Testament. The Word made flesh and he dwelt
18:39among them. Listen to John describe this beholding of Jesus. He said in John chapter 1 verse 14,
18:46the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Listen to the awe in his voice as he says it. And
18:53we beheld
18:55his glory. I mean, John can't believe it. The glory of God the Father. We saw him with our own
19:03eyes.
19:04We got an up-close, personal, front-row seat, chin on our hands, salivating experience because we got a
19:12front-row seat to see Jesus Christ, to hear the words come out of his mouth, to hear him teach,
19:18to see him heal and prophesy and tell people to repent because the kingdom of God was at hand.
19:25We got to see him for ourselves. I love how Eugene Peterson puts that verse in the Message Bible.
19:32He says, Jesus came and moved into the neighborhood of humanity, that he came to move into your neighborhood
19:41and my neighborhood. That's revival. That he came to make himself present, to walk publicly among the
19:47people so that they could experience what it was like to be in the very presence of God. And so
19:53he
19:53performed miracles and he taught so he could authenticate that he was who he said he was and
19:59that he could do exactly what he said he could do. And everybody didn't believe him. They just weren't
20:04quite convinced just like they weren't in the Old Testament. They weren't convinced about Jesus
20:08in the New Testament. They weren't sure about this Messiah business. But what they did know
20:13was that where everywhere Jesus showed up, blind people could see. What they did know, even though
20:19they weren't sure about the whole kingdom of God is at hand stuff, what they did know was that when
20:23this Jesus showed up, lame people could walk and the deaf could hear and the dead were being raised.
20:29Everywhere Jesus showed up and every time he spoke, his words were dripping with an awe
20:35and with an authority that they had never ever heard before. They'd heard the Pharisees and the Sadducees,
20:41the religious leaders. That had been nice, but they ain't never heard nothing like this.
20:45And so wherever Jesus went, it says throngs of people were crowded around him because they wanted
20:52to get as close as they possibly could. You know, like the woman with the issue of blood who forced
20:56her
20:56way through a crowd because she wanted to get as close as she could so she could reach out and
21:01touch the
21:01him of his garment because she knew if she could just touch him, that power would leave him and come
21:08to her and heal her of all her diseases. They weren't sure about whether or not he was the Messiah,
21:13but they knew he was something. And God tried to reveal himself once again. Jesus walking amongst
21:22the people. Which is why one of the scariest, one of the most troubling one-liners in all of Scripture
21:39is John chapter 11, verse 54. I said all of that to get us to John chapter 11, verse 54.
21:53It says, therefore, Jesus no longer walked publicly among the Jews. He went away.
22:05One of the most troubling portions of all of Scripture is that Jesus no longer went public.
22:13He was present. He was there. He just wasn't public. He was around, but he just chose to stave off
22:22and
22:22to more quiet corners instead of walking publicly among the people. No more miracles. No more teaching
22:29out in public. People wouldn't be privy to the revival, to the revelation of himself as he had
22:34come to give. No, he no longer walked publicly amongst the people. Are we living in a time
22:42where he is no longer walking publicly among us? He's present. He just ain't public.
22:49Because the people of God have gotten so private and so quiet that we are Christians. We're just not
22:55public with our Christianity. That the Jesus that people are supposed to see in you, the Jesus that
23:01they're supposed to see in me, they are looking, but they just can't find him. He's present. He's just
23:07not public. This little portion of Scripture bothered me so much because I wanted to figure
23:12out what is it that keeps Jesus from being revealed, that keeps the revival from happening. Why
23:18is it that Jesus would be present amongst the people, but that he wouldn't walk publicly among
23:25them? I was really bothered by this, especially since verse 55 says, and I'll just read it to you from
23:30John chapter 11. It says that the Passover of the Jews was at hand, and many went up to Jerusalem,
23:36that's into the city, out of the country where they lived. They went out of the country, into the
23:41city for this religious festival called Passover, and they were seeking for Jesus. They were saying to
23:47each other as they stood in the temple, do you think Jesus is going to come this year? Listen, they
23:55went
23:55out of the country, into the city, to Jerusalem for a religious event. They are standing in the temple
24:03looking for Jesus, and he's nowhere to be found. They are in the place where if there's any place
24:13Jesus is going to be, it's going to be in the temple, and they are looking for him, and they
24:18cannot find
24:19him. What an indictment against the church of Jesus Christ if when people come through these doors, if they
24:26come into this place, they can find programs, and they can find our plans, and they can find great
24:32teaching, they can find great singing, they can find lights and cameras and beautiful stages, they can find
24:38everything except the one who will actually change their lives. And there are people who are coming into
24:46our churches, y'all, and they're looking for Jesus. They might not even really know how to verbalize what
24:53they're after. They just know that there is a void in their lives that needs to be filled. They need
24:58something
24:59that can quench them at the core of them, and they come in looking, not for our plans, and not
25:05for our
25:06programs. They are looking for the presence of God. The presence of God is what people are seeking. It's what
25:14we
25:14all need, and these people are looking for Jesus, but Jesus is no longer walking publicly among them. The presence
25:20of
25:21God, revival is what people have always been after since the beginning of time. One of my favorite
25:27Bible study teachers, leaders in my life, her name was Elizabeth Elliott. She died a while back now, but
25:32years and years of just faithful service to God. I would read all her books and listen to her on
25:37the
25:37radio every now and then. She was the kind of speaker or teacher that she was fairly bland, like there
25:43were
25:43no jokes. She wasn't going to crack a smile. You know, she wasn't going to try to entertain you. She
25:48didn't
25:48really care if you liked what she was saying or not. She would just stand up there, and literally,
25:54y'all, she would just talk just like this for a solid hour. And one time I was in a
26:02smaller group
26:03with her, and she was taking questions, and someone asked her, why is it that in your teaching style,
26:08I've noticed that you don't feel the need for a whole lot of antidotes or jokes or something like
26:13that. You don't seem to need to warm up the crowd. And I remember Miss Elizabeth, she was probably
26:18in her late 70s by then. She looked back at the woman who asked the question with a little smile
26:22on her face, and she said, well, why would I do that? The people didn't come to see me.
26:28They came to see Jesus. I said, well, then. The reality is they don't need to see you. They
26:43need to see Jesus. They don't need to see me. They need Jesus. He's the one that changes lives,
26:50y'all. He literally sets people free. He gives people victory. He breaks chains on people's lives.
26:56He opens up blinded eyes. He opens up deaf ears. He can change the trajectory of your entire family
27:03line. Listen to me. I'm in a family line that has been completely changed. The trajectory of our lives
27:11completely transformed because Jesus stepped in and saved my grandfather, saved my father,
27:19saved us, changed the trajectory of our lives. There's no telling where I'd be if it were not for
27:25the king of kings and the lord of lords. So I stand on this platform today, not because I'm a
27:34preacher.
27:34It's because I'm a satisfied customer of the grace and the goodness of God. He's changed my life.
27:43He's changed my life.
27:50So the people were looking for Jesus and they couldn't find him. And I wanted to know why wasn't
27:54he there? Why wasn't he there? Turns out this happens in John chapter 11, right on the heels of
28:01him raising Lazarus from the dead. You know the story. He walks in four days after Lazarus has already
28:06been dead. Mary and Martha are like, where have you been? Seriously. And Jesus says, don't worry about
28:11I am the resurrection and the life. I'll take care of this. And he calls Lazarus out of the tomb
28:16and he
28:17says, loose that man and let him go. Lazarus comes forth in the sighting of many, many people who were
28:23gathered that day. Some believe in him. Some are a little critical of him because you know, people
28:29always are when Jesus reveals himself. And so they go to the Pharisees and the Sadducees and they have a
28:36little word to say about what Jesus is doing out here performing miracles and stuff. And it says that
28:42the Sadducees and the Pharisees, they convene a council to scrutinize the work of Jesus. Theologian
28:49A.W. Tozer says that when Jesus moves, when God moves, when he does stuff that's outside of the box
28:56of our comfort zone, there is always one of two responses. The unbelieving person will squat down to
29:03their knees only to get a better look so that they can be critical of and scrutinize that which God
29:08has done. But the believing person might also drop to their knees, but they will do so only so that
29:14they can turn their attention upward with their hands raised and say, thank you. The Pharisees and
29:21the Sadducees, they drop to their knees to get a closer look to scrutinize. And in their pride and in
29:26their arrogance, they say, Jesus is doing too much. We can't let him as if they could control him.
29:32We can't let him go on this way because if we do, he will ruin our plans.
29:40And so they set out, it says in John 11, 53, it says that they make a decision to kill
29:46him.
29:48They decide he needs to be silenced. He needs to be muted. He needs to be squelched. His moves need
29:53to
29:53be suffocated, asphyxiated so that they can get a handle on him and make them lessened and diminished.
29:59They want to do whatever it is they can to kill the work of God. And so they silence him
30:05any way
30:06they can. And it says that as a result of their decision, Jesus no longer walked publicly among
30:13them. So I want to ask you, is there any way, any part of your life where you know you
30:21are silencing,
30:24diminishing, diminishing, minimizing, extinguishing the move of God in your own personal experience?
30:30I'm talking about where you've heard the voice of God. You know it's the conviction of the Holy
30:34Spirit saying, apologize to that person or give to that person or go there or don't go here.
30:40Participate in that. Don't participate in this. And you just keep silencing it, walking away from it,
30:46ignoring it, going the other direction from it, doing everything you can to minimize what you know
30:51is the work of God around you. When we decide and choose individually to kill his work, to smother
30:58his work in our life, the scripture says his response is to no longer walk publicly among you.
31:04He's present. He's just not public. He will never leave you nor forsake you. You can't be unsaved
31:12once you've already placed faith in Jesus Christ. You are eternally secure for heaven. You don't have
31:17to worry about that. But just because he's present doesn't mean he's public. And he came to be more
31:23than just some of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords that lives in you. He wants you to
31:29experience
31:30him on the outside of you, in the way you think, in the choices that you make, in the decisions
31:36that
31:37you choose, in the path of your life. He wants you to see him working publicly around you in the
31:43different experiences of your life. If you, like me, want to experience more than just his omnipresence,
31:49if you want his manifest presence, the thing that he came for, then we have to be careful that we're
31:56not squelching, diminishing the moves of God in our life. Because in any place in our life where we
32:02have determined to kill him, we will see that he no longer walks publicly among us. And so Jesus no
32:10longer walks publicly among them because there are leaders. And by the way, if I can just open up a
32:17parenthesis here, we have to be on our knees praying for the leadership of our churches,
32:23every single church, the place where they are entrusted with this responsibility of shepherding
32:30our souls. We have to ask the Lord to give them wisdom, to make margin for the Holy Spirit like
32:36these leaders have in this church for this week. This whole week, y'all, is just devoted to letting
32:43Jesus do what Jesus wants to do, in giving him margin to move freely among us, to be public among
32:50us. We need to be praying for integrity and character in our leadership. We need to be praying
32:57that there are people who are leading us, who are watching over us, who are faithful to do it the
33:02way
33:02that would most honor a great move and revival of God in the house of God. And so in the
33:09Old Testament,
33:10he came as God the Father in the New Testament, Jesus the Son, and just like he wanted to move
33:15publicly in the Old Testament and move publicly in the New Testament through Jesus Christ, when Jesus
33:20finally ascended into heaven, he said to the disciples, it is to your advantage that I go.
33:27Because when I go, I'm going to leave with you another helper. In the original language,
33:32another helper is a word that actually means another of the exact same kind, meaning I am not leaving
33:39with you a lesser version of myself. Everything you had in me, all of the authority and all of the
33:45grandeur and all of the greatness of God the Father that is in me, is now in the person of
33:50the Holy
33:51Spirit. And I am leaving the Holy Spirit of God with you in 2019, so that just as God wanted
33:59to reveal
33:59himself in the Old Testament, and just as Jesus the Son wanted to walk publicly in the New Testament,
34:04you now have every right and privilege as a daughter or son in this dispensation in which
34:10he has left the Holy Spirit to experience the full presence of God among you in the person of the
34:17Holy
34:17Spirit. Did you know that when you place faith in Jesus Christ, you received the Holy Spirit of God?
34:25I'm asking you, did you know it? Listen, the Holy Spirit is not a ghost or a wind or a
34:31fire or a dove.
34:32He's often symbolized by those things, but y'all that ain't who he is. The Holy Spirit is the third
34:37person of the Trinity. Not third because he is least in value, just third because he's the last to be
34:43revealed to us in the pages of Scripture. But all of the fullness, all of the power, all of the
34:49glory,
34:50all of the grandeur of God the Father is in the person of the Holy Spirit. That means when you
34:55place
34:56faith in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit takes up residence in you, that means that all of the
35:02grandeur, all of the goodness, all of the authority of God the Father now lives on the inside of you.
35:09And he doesn't just want to be present, he wants to be public. That's why you get his fruit.
35:16Because that means that when your patience has run out with that person, you ain't got no more
35:20patience. He gives you the fruit of the Spirit so that you can have patience that goes beyond your
35:25natural capacity to have patience. It means when you do not have any self-discipline,
35:30the Holy Spirit, the fruit of God's Spirit means that you are able to restrain yourself when in
35:36your flesh you know you are not able to restrain yourself. Not only do you have the fruit of the
35:41Spirit that's public, you also have the gifts of the Spirit so that you can operate in a way that
35:47publicly edifies the body of Christ and builds people up and encourages them and stirs them on.
35:54It's God's public activity in your life. It's called the manifest presence of God. The person
36:01of the Holy Spirit enables us as the body of Christ to walk in a manner worthy of the calling
36:08by which
36:09we have been called. It's the presence of God on our life. It marks us. He is the one that
36:15makes it so
36:16that God is not just in us. He is on us where people can see a public demonstration of the
36:23power
36:23of God just because we walked into the room on our jobs and in your university and walking down the
36:30corridor of your high school campus and in that organization in which you're involved and in that
36:36endeavor in which you are sowing all of your gifts and your talents and your creative abilities. You've
36:40given it everything that you have. The Holy Spirit is the one that when his presence is upon your life
36:47makes it so that when you walk into the room people get a public demonstration of Jesus Christ
36:52because of the words you say, because of the choices that you make, because of the integrity with which
36:58you stand, because of the character with which you walk, because of the way that you were able to
37:03bring Christ's love to bear with every person, even the difficult person, that you were able to love
37:10and give generously and sow yourself into every good deed to which God calls you, not by your own power
37:16and not by your own might, but by the Spirit of God who operates not only in your life, but
37:23upon your life.
37:24It's called favor.
37:28Favor is God's presence on your life. Favor is what opens up doors that no man can shut.
37:35Favor is what puts you in positions that nobody really thinks you're qualified for.
37:42Favor is what enables you to do things that you know are beyond your capacity, but God has positioned
37:49you and placed you and prepared a way for you. That's favor on your life. And if you have the
37:55Holy Spirit
37:56of God, you have favor. You have favor.
38:05I want to tell you this before I close.
38:11If there is one thing that invites
38:15the favor of God on your life, of course, if you've received Christ as Savior, He is in you,
38:20but I'm talking about
38:21where He's on you, visible, public. People can sense the presence of God because you have peace
38:29that passes understanding. Like, because they know what you're going through in your life
38:33and they can't figure out how you still got sanity with what you got going on in your life.
38:38I'm talking about like that.
38:40There is one thing that invites the presence of God on you like that.
38:45You ready?
38:45See? Here it is. Holiness.
38:55You've got to live holy.
39:03You've got to decide to lay aside every sin and the weight which so easily entangles you
39:12so that you can run with endurance the race that has been set before you.
39:18You can be in your war room praying against the schemes of the devil till you are blue in the
39:22face,
39:23but if you leave your prayer closet and still live a raggedy, wayward lifestyle,
39:28then the enemy you just prayed against will still make himself at home in your life.
39:35You've got to live holy.
39:38I'm talking about integrity, y'all.
39:40I'm talking about being the same in the dark as you are in the light.
39:46I'm talking about character.
39:49Where we don't just come in here on a Monday night and then Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and Friday
39:54night
39:55and have such a great time hearing about the promises of God and the truths of God
39:59and then we walk out of these doors and nobody aligns their life in a way that is actually congruent
40:05with everything that you're...
40:06Listen, you're getting ready to get it this week.
40:09Every single night this week, God is going to pour something into your life.
40:12He's going to give you clear direction.
40:14You're going to sense a ping, a conviction of the Holy Spirit
40:17in regards to something that one of these teachers that the Lord has entrusted to you
40:21and you to them this week.
40:23There's going to be something that the Lord is going to give to your life
40:25and you're going to have to decide up front whether or not you are willing,
40:29whether or not I'm willing to align my life with the truth that God gives us this week
40:34and to the extent that we're willing to say yes and bring ourselves into alignment.
40:39That's holiness.
40:40That's the extent to which we will see him go public in our lives.
40:46And I don't know about you, but I'm tired of just having private Jesus.
40:51I mean, I'm so grateful that he's present, but I want him public.
40:56I want what I get on the pew to come to the pavement of my experience
41:00that when I walk down the road of life, I walk with him.
41:05I see him move.
41:06I experience him.
41:07I want that holy anticipation that comes because I'm eager to see what God's going to do today.
41:13I want to wake up with holy expectation that today I'm going to see a move of God.
41:18Today I have expectation that he is coming to do something that is far beyond anything
41:24that I can ask or think.
41:26Now unto him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above and beyond.
41:34To him be the glory in this church now and forevermore.
41:40In Jesus' name, everybody said amen.
41:44Amen.
41:46Amen.
41:47Amen.
41:47Amen.
41:54As you're standing to your feet, I want to pray for you if you are in a stage in your
41:58life
41:58where you know Jesus is present with you.
42:01He's just not been public.
42:03There might be some reason in your own life where you recognize,
42:08man, I've been in some way diminishing his voice or ignoring him
42:13or trying to kill his work in my life.
42:17And because of my own disobedience or my own pride or arrogance,
42:21man, he's not been as public as I want him to be.
42:24I want him to walk publicly among me.
42:26I want that to change tonight.
42:27If you'd bow your heads with me and close your eyes,
42:29if anybody knows he's present but he has not been public
42:33and you just want prayer in regards to that tonight,
42:35would you just raise your hand and let me pray for you.
42:41So, Lord, I pray for every hand that is raised,
42:43every woman, every man who is asking, Father,
42:46that you would make yourself apparent in their lives.
42:50Lord, I pray right now in Jesus' name
42:52that you would do something this week
42:55that would let them know you saw their hand tonight, Father.
42:59Would you show up in some tangible public way
43:02that reminds them that you will never leave them nor forsake them, Father.
43:06I pray for a little wink from heaven, God,
43:08a little nod from heaven that demonstrates to them
43:11that you are with them, Father,
43:13and that you will never leave them.
43:15And, Lord, I pray that whatever it is
43:17that might be in their life or mine, Father,
43:19that is keeping you from moving as freely
43:21and as fully as you would like to among us,
43:23Father, I pray in Jesus' name, Father,
43:26that you would show us what it is.
43:27Thank you that your word says that when you do,
43:30we can bring it to you in all confidence
43:32because you are faithful and just
43:34to forgive us from all sin
43:36and to remove it from us.
43:38And so, Father, I pray grace and peace
43:40to those who have raised their hands.
43:42I thank you for how you're getting ready to move publicly
43:45and so remarkably.
43:47I pray and thank you, Father,
43:48for how revival is on the way.
43:51And when you reveal yourself, Father,
43:53we will be careful to give you all the praise
43:55and all the glory and all the honor.
43:58In Jesus' name, everybody agreed and said amen?
44:01Amen.
44:02Amen.