Apostolic Lighthouse
When God Shows Up - Paster John Burgess (Thursday Night Anniversary Service)
Well, glory. Amen. You can be seated just for a few minutes. The older I get, the slower I am at getting started. But I will try to redeem the time a little bit. If for no other reason, I'm hungry. So I did, I was hungry early this morning, so I don't normally eat breakfast, but I ate a mid-morning breakfast, so I wasn't hungry during the day-to-day, except for I was within my route passed within 50 miles of an Andes, actually three miles probably, but that's my range. I won't pass one up, so that's about all I've had today. I know we'll have some good food in a little while, probably. And so I'll try not to be real long tonight. I will say try, because we want to see what God's going to do in this service, and there's been a good feeling in this service from the moment we got in here for prayer. And the singing, and I love Brother and Sister Samson. I first met Brother Triplett, probably in Jack's Creek, and he asked me to come to his camp meeting, and Brother Mustang, you and I were there that same year. And he requested that I preach something I had preached, that he heard me there. But I saw, went out in the middle of nowhere, big old church, all kinds of people, and I saw how he did it, because all of us preachers were there, but there were a whole bunch of other preachers, there were preachers everywhere. But there was a family from the community that somehow somebody invited them to church, and the first service they came was a camp meeting, and they came back several more services. And every time we went over there to eat, you know where Brother Triplett was? He was sitting in the booth with that family. All us preachers just take care of ourselves. He was tuned in to some center folk, and he wanted to see them saved. That's how you build a church. Not by proselyton, you do it by winning lost souls. Amen. Because the church, if we're going to increase God's church, we've got to get him from the world, amen. And so I really fell in love, Brother Triplett then didn't get to know him. Not too many years, but from what I know him and my dad would have had a big old time. Because my dad took me bird hunting in my diapers. He was a bird hunter, and he loved bird hunting. And Sister Samson, you were up here singing. Somebody said there's nobody like Sister Samson. Brother George Bradley, it's not the first time we heard a lady lead singing. My mother, growing up, she led the singing just like that. Wide open, and you better not sit down on her either. Amen. So anyway, I do feel at home. Love this family. I've gotten a lot closer to Brother Caleb Samson, got to know him better. They were just out in Colorado, came by to see us, and so anyway, it's an honor really truly to be here. I don't remember how far back I have preached anniversary services here, but it had to start off right about at the beginning. And so through the years, I've just watched this church thrive and grow. This beautiful building is really just a testimony of what has been built in your hearts. A building's just a building. It's a beautiful place to worship, and it looks first class, it's just nice, but you know what? It's just a reflection of the church. Amen. The people, the church. That's who is important. And faithfulness here by Brother and Sister Samson through the years. And I know it's not been an easy road, but I'll tell you this. My dad told me one in time when I was going through something, and my dad has not noted for being the one you turn to when you need consoling or anything like that. So most time I don't tell him when I'm going through stuff. One time I called him up, I said, "Daddy, I was pastoring." You know, I said, "I'm going through it." The devil's fighting. He said, "Well, only two reasons to be in the position you're in. You're either, there's either sin in your life, or you're out of the will of God." I said, "Man, I was about to jump off the bridge, and he's about to push me." But you know what? I said there and got to thinking, "Well, I don't have sin in my life." And then I realized it's not the will of God for me to be having several weeks sitting here feeling sorry for myself. That's why I can't get anywhere. I'm not responding like God wants me to respond. That's not the will of God. That day I got cured. And anyway, there was a time though that he was a little kinder. And he said, he told me, he said, "If you're praying about something you're going through, and God steps down and delivers you," it's obviously because you had faith in God. He said, "But if you're going through something and you pray, and God doesn't deliver you out of it, it's because God's got faith in you." Nobody knows you can take it, and I will tell you that that's the way God builds people is through trials. That's the way he really shows his glory because the devil has to pay people to love him. God's not that way. We love him because he loved us. Everybody is going to voluntarily suffer trials for the world or for the devil, but God's people are willing to suffer shame for his name anytime because we know what he's done for us. Amen. Well, glory. All right, I'm going to let you stand for the reading of the Word of the Lord. And we're in Zephaniah 3, Zephaniah 3, and beginning at verse 1, Zephaniah 1 of these minor prophets, and you know we've got major prophets and minor prophets, and the way you get to be a major prophet is you write a longer book. That's literally the way they divide it up, and so that's why I've always tried to be long-winded. I want to be a major preacher, not a minor preacher. I've gone several times with Brother Reagan to Africa, and we have preached and taught to more, it's more to the preachers that we meet over there and gather them up. We ran into a group that of course, you know, sometimes there's a lot of different titles that different groups use, and we ran into bishops and all this kind of stuff, but we ran into a group that titled their more prominent preachers, they like to title themselves as prophets. That wasn't good enough, so if you were a little bit bigger of a prophet, you could be a major prophet, and others that classified them as minor prophets. So Brother Reagan had to break it down to him. He said, "You know, you guys that are saying your major prophets, you really only say and I'm a long-winded preacher." So anyway, I don't know if I'll be minor or major tonight, but this minor, he was the prophet during the time of Josiah. Josiah was the king that really had revival. He was the king that when he came on the scene, God had already said, "It's enough. I'm done." But Josiah changed God's mind for a little while, but it wasn't just a king. The king had a preacher, and that man's name was Zephaniah, who we're going to read in verse 1, "Woe to her that is filthy and polluted to the oppressing city. She obeyed not the voice. She received not correction. She trusted not in the Lord. She drew not near to her God. Her princes within her are roaring lions. Her judges are evening wolves. They gnaw not the bones till the morrow. Her prophets are light and treacherous persons. Her priests have polluted the sanctuary. They have done violence to the law. The just Lord is in the midst thereof. He will not do iniquity. Every morning that they bring his judgment to light, he fail if not. But the unjust knoweth no shame. I have cut off the nations. Their towers are desolate. I made their streets waste that none passeth by. Their cities are destroyed so that there is no man, that there is none inhabitant. I said, 'Surely thou wilt fear me. Thou wilt receive instruction so their dwelling should not be cut off. Howsoever I punish them.' But they rose early and corrupted all their doings. And I will read a little bit more in a few moments, and I'm going to save my title for just a little bit. But I want to preach to you about this situation that Zephaniah the prophet prophesied about. And when it's not a complicated message tonight, it's just straightforward. We have a heritage. We have something that we need to be thankful for, that we don't ever need to let pass away. I want to be apostolic to my core. I want to be sold out to this with everything that's within me. It's been good enough all my life. It's what's going to take me on the glory. Young people, I want you to get a hold of this. Be apostolic way, hallelujah. Let's pray and ask God to help us in this service, God. We need you tonight, Lord. I'm hungry for a touch. I'm hungry for your move in this place tonight, Jesus. God step down in this house. Help us, O God. Move upon us, Lord. Touch somebody, God, I pray. You could heal somebody tonight, Lord. Give somebody the Holy Ghost in this service. If we give you praise and we give you glory, in the precious name of Jesus, everybody said, "Hey, man, you may be seated." I know these are anniversary services, and I love coming to them because it's a reason to celebrate, but I have noticed a number of times it's been referred to as camp meeting, and that was my introduction to racing, was camp meeting with Brother Triplett. And I wanted to be camp meeting atmosphere. There would be nothing more respectful and honoring to this pastor and pastor's wife than for us to just have some old-time camp meeting church in this house. When they built this church, that's exactly what they were carrying on, is that old-time camp meeting spirit, amen. You know, long before the Holy Ghost was widespread and it's outpouring in this country, way back the late 1800s and early 1900s, before – now, it wasn't the first time people got the Holy Ghost to Pika, Kansas and Azusa Street and all that. There was very inadvertently – Brother Sister Johnson called me up, Sister Johnson had found something in a book about pioneer women who crossed the plains and covered wagons in the mid-1800s. Nothing about any kind of church deal or anything, just a little history book, and it was all excerpts from the diaries of these pioneer women who crossed the plains in, I believe, the 1850s, somewhere along about in there, 50 years before, to Pika, Kansas and all of that. And I read this diary. This lady said, "Several ladies came over to our fire tonight and we ate dinner together, been a good time together talking about the Word, and we spoke in tongues for hours as the Spirit moved. Nobody talks about an outpouring of the Holy Ghost in the mid-1800s, but I want to tell you God has always had a church. He said his church would never pass away. He said that the church was built on a rock, and the gates of hell could not prevail against it." Just because apostolics didn't get to write all the history doesn't mean the church died out. I don't even have to go looking for everything to find the chain all the way through. I believe God's always had a witness in this earth. That's just what I believe, and I believe it only because of the Word of God, not because an historian told me, "I'm telling you God's Word is right." Amen. Amen. Now that was, I digressed, and if I digressed too much, we'll be here a little while, except I'll probably stop halfway through my message, because like I said, I'm getting hungry. So there was a time called, I mean just the time of the prophets that the prophets were sent forth to prophesy. Most of all these books were written during the time of the divided kingdom, and that was after Solomon. Kingdom was torn into Judah, where Jerusalem was, had some pretty good kings at times. The northern kingdom of Israel, not so much, virtually none. It was a rough place, and that's why the Assyrians came down, God sent them down to take the northern kingdom into captivity, but Judah and Jerusalem held out for a while longer because they had periods of time where they served God. But even Judah got to the place where God said, "I am finished with Judah. I am done with Judah. I am tired of the idolatry and the sin." Let me tell you, God can't get enough. Amen. A people can become so full of iniquity that God gets finished. Amen. I believe in the New Testament area, as long as you've got breath in your body and you're willing to repent, God's going to have mercy on you. I know the old timers talk about somebody passing the point of no return, and I believe that, but let me tell you, it was a God's point of no return. It was their point of no return. They got to the place where they were so apostate that they never would turn to God again in repentance and they were done, but I'm telling you, my God is always able to say. Amen. But in the Old Testament, it was different. God got finished, but He sent all these prophets. Those prophets were always on a mission to preach against the sin of the people and change them, turn them back to God, and with varying success, but certainly they were anointed of God. God had a witness, He sent them, and prophecies would work most of the time, a prophecy or a judgment that was sent by a prophet was conditional. Even if it was not stated, it would be implied. Jonah ran from God because he was sent to prophesy to the Assyrians, yet forty days a Nineveh shall be destroyed. Now you would think Jonah would really anticipate being able to go and tell them that because it didn't sound like there were any conditions. Just sounded like in forty days, God's going to destroy this place. And Jonah, of course, his people had been oppressed by those people. You can read all through the book, Jonah's very transparent, and so you know what his attitude was, he wanted him to die. He wanted God to kill him. He sat there at the end, I got ringside seats and I'm going to see this. But why did he run from God to start with? Well, he lets us know before it's all over with. He said, "I knew you, I knew you weren't going to kill him. I knew that there was a condition to my prophecy when I said in forty days God's going to kill you. If they repented, I knew you were going to forgive him." Because that's the nature of those judgments that would go. They always came with that caveat, with that condition, that if my people, because he said it, if they're called by my, that are called by my name, if they will humble themselves and pray, if they will turn from their wicked ways. I'm going to hear them. So the foundational concept was mercy. You've got to preach until people are convicted and God said, "Go preach judgment. I'm going to send people out of the north to scourge. I'm going to send you into captivity." But there was always an opportunity to turn around. Just occasionally God said, "No, it's done. The iniquity is full and this judgment has no condition. It's just a statement of fact." He gave such a judgment to the northern kingdom and into captivity they went to the Assyrians. There was no chance to turn around. That had been decreed, it got that bad. And when Zephaniah comes along, this is another one of those prophecies that is not conditional. It's just an announcement. God said, "Jerusalem, you have gotten to the place where you are the oppressing city. You've got to the place where I'm not even going to call your name anymore. You're only known by your adjective. You are the oppressing city. You have crushed my people under your leadership. All you do is devour. You are just gluttonous for the destruction of your own people. And I have dealt with the nations around you. I have judged sin right before you so you would see what I am all about. It did not even sway you, didn't even turn you. You're so far gone that nothing I did would get your attention. That's how bad of a condition you are in, Jerusalem. You have scrambled your eggs. They won't ever be whole again. You can't go back and recook them, you can't go back and fix them a different way. You've made a mess and it's done and I'm pronouncing judgment on you. This is as bad as it gets, Brother Mustang, when God says judgment and no mercy. And you can get to that place. I'll never forget that message you preached about when God takes the burden away from the preacher. That's a bad place to be in when God don't even stir the preacher up to pray for you anymore. That's where Zephaniah was. Preacher, you go tell them how bad they are. I'm not even sinning you there with a burden for them. I'm just sinning you there to pronounce judgment. It was terrible. They were liken unto ravening wolves. They were liken into a gluttonous, so much of a glutton that they couldn't be satisfied. It was a terrible thing. It wasn't even just idolatry. It had gotten down into their spirit to where they were cruel to their own people. And so there is no hope that is offered in this passage that I read, this prophecy. He gets to the end of it. He said, "Surely thou will fear me, thou will receive instruction." I thought everything I did would work, but their response was they corrupted all their doings. What happens when you have done everything you can do and it helps nothing? What is it when you have prayed and you have fasted and people still reject it? You get into a bad place, our country is headed to a place that is just like has been described in this place. I know, you know what, we can get our hopes up and you know what, you should go vote. People pay the precious price for you to have the privilege of going to vote. But you know, I just don't believe we're going to get better. It's going to get worse and it's going to get worse. And I am not somebody that's a pessimist, I'm an optimist. I always like to think it's going to get better. But when it comes to the societies around this world, it's going to get worse. Sin is going to abound more and more and more. God's not surprised by these litter boxes. You think that's something off in San Francisco somewhere. No, I remember my daddy called and said in the high school in Philadelphia, Mississippi, that's small town USA. They put a litter box in the high school like my word, how confused you are. I'd like to identify as one of Sam Walton's sons. Join the ranks of the richest in the world. You think that's going to fly? No, that ain't going to fly. You know, but people have, they have gotten to the place where it's just like this. They're not listening to anything. Why did I describe that? I'm not really here to preach about how terrible things are getting in the world, even in our country. But I wanted to paint to you a picture where there was absolutely no hope because there are people here tonight that the devil's trying to tell you there's no hope. You might not have gotten there because of sin, but there might be people here tonight that you were disloyal to God. You fail God and you feel like how can things ever turn around. All I can feel is I missed my opportunity. There are other people here tonight that the devil has worked you over to the point you don't ever feel like there can be a success in your life again, that you can ever win another soul. There may be pastors here tonight that you don't feel like revival is coming to your place, you have fought so hard and so long, and the enemies warn you down, told you you're just laboring in a burnover field that nobody wants the Holy Ghost anymore. I am here to tell you the devil is a liar. I am not going to, let me tell you, I don't want to be part of a church that has no faith in what God can do, that has no hope in what God, I know there are some places that don't want it at the level that other people do, but I'm telling you if God can build a church in Babylon, like the apostle said, he can build a church wherever you are. It doesn't matter how hopeless it is, there is hope. So all of this went forth, ever bit of it, the prophecy that was going on. Zephaniah and keep in mind, he is the preacher that preached during the time of Josiah. We are not, what we're at right now is not at the end of Josiah's revival, it's at the beginning, it's when things were really bad. There was a death sentence on Judah, a death sentence on Jerusalem, I'm done with Jerusalem and he was done with Jerusalem and Jerusalem's date with the captivity was already set in stone that one day there would be Babylonians come down, take them into captivity, God was finished with Jerusalem, but even in the midst of a puff of these that said I am finished with Jerusalem, I want to tell you there is something else in the heart of God that if you reach out and touch it, you get the right response every time. It doesn't matter how hopeless a situation, it doesn't matter how bad things are. I don't have time to take you to Josiah and how he got God's attention, but I want to tell you that Josiah's reign and the revival he had by the end of it, it pushed all of that judgment off and God said I'm not doing, how can I do it in a time when a man is seeking my heart like he's seeking, I tell you what I'm going to do, I'm going to give him revival. The Bible said they had to cut revival when they celebrated Passover, it said that Israel had never seen a Passover like Josiah had, not even during the time of David. Because that's what God is capable of doing. I want to read a little bit further before we start applying this to our day, and I want to read to you what some scholars who never had the Holy Ghost said. These are men that they're studious about the word, but that they're not apostolic. And why am I going to do that, because you'll see in just a moment. Right in the midst of that prophecy, all of a sudden, the Lord says this, "Therefore wait ye upon me, sayeth the Lord, until the day that I rise up to the prey, from my determination is to gather the nations that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them my indignation, even all my fierce anger, for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy. For then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent?" Now you know, I'll just throw this out as a preface, you know that when you read language like this, God uses kingdoms, and there would be some of this that is fulfilled, the gathering of all these nations and pulling them under one scourge and judgment. There was a time called the Roman Empire when they took over everybody. But here is what, first of all, the pulpit commentary says about verse 9 that I read to you. The pulpit commentary says, "When his judgments have done their work, God will bring the heathen to a knowledge of him. He will purify their lips which have been polluted with the names of idols and the worship offered to false gods. The confusion of Babel shall be done away and all shall speak the language of faith in one God." This, of course, points to Messianic times. Albert Barnes said, "God gave back one pure language when, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit, the author of purity, came down in fiery tongues upon the apostles, teaching them and guiding them into the whole truth. Then, for there was to be a higher unity than outward language. The inward thought is the soul of the words. That Pentecost, the unity restored, was oneness of soul and heart, wrought by one Spirit, whose gift is the one faith and the one hope of our calling in the one Lord, in whom we are one, grafted into the one body by one baptism." Hey, let me tell you, even some men who were not part of the apostolic church said, "I see what Zephaniah is saying that God said, "It's a bad deal and Jerusalem is done, but hang on. If you will wait on me, the day I'm coming in judgment, I'm going to judge the sin, and when I judge sin, I'm going to pour out one language. I'm going to bring all the sinners back to an altar of repentance, and I'm going to fill them with a holy ghost. That's what happened on the day of Pentecost. He turned back the judgment of Jerusalem. Hey, Jerusalem, you get the first shot at this. It's as hopeless as it can get Jerusalem. It's bad. I'll never live inside of you again. I'm telling you I'll never show up inside of you again. You're done. I'm finished with this temple idea. You can build it all you want to, but I'm telling you there's no future in it. I've judged it, but there are some folks I'm going to call one day. When I come in the flesh to judge sin, he nails sin to a tree, but he had to judge it first, and if you waited Jerusalem, when I show up, I'm going to bring everything together in a heavenly language, I'm going to change your future. I'm going to turn the judgment around. I'll take the penalty for you, and I'm going to fill you with my spirit. Hey, God. How are you? I'm going to tell you there was a whole lot more going on on the day of Pentecost than just a few people getting a blessing. That's right. There was a whole lot more going on on the day of Pentecost than somebody just getting to dance in the spirit a little bit. God said through Zephaniah, let me tell you I've judged it all, and it's a hopeless situation. But here is my answer to all hopeless situations. If you let me show up, if you let me bring conviction and judgment upon sin, I can turn it around, I can bring you back together, I can undo what happened at Babel. I can have one church, one body, serving one Lord, and you're in it by one baptism. I wasn't an apostolic, I wrote that, but that came out of the book, my friend. Let me tell you, God's got an answer when he shows up. Four hundred years of silence, four hundred years and no prophet wrote another book, four hundred years where they were struggling on their own. I'm telling you by the time Jesus walked into the temple, the money changers, the thieves, the robbers were having their way in the house of God. Why? Because there was no glory there, there was no power of God there. He said, I'm done with this place, I'm done with all of you. But I am coming, because when I get there, I'm going to judge sin. When I get there, I'm going to judge all the nations. Let me tell you Jesus Christ is the righteous judge of all nations. And when he stepped foot in Jerusalem, when he stepped foot upon Mount Calvary and he nailed sin to the cross, he made it possible for your hopeless situation to turn around. When God shows up, when God shows up, oh yeah, when God shows up, he said in that book that you'll pull together, you're going to have one spirit, one language that means you're going to be together in one harness, it's one church. But oh, I want to tell you what happens in church, when God shows up. And that's what I came to preach to you about today, when God shows up. You just saw it, this is the biggest deal in all the universe, that the people that were called by God's name got so far off the mark. He said, it's hopeless, I'm not even giving you any more conditional promises. It's as bad as it gets, you can't even imagine how bad that was. But as bad as it got, he said, I want to tell you, when I show up, if you just hang on and wait for me, I can turn even that around. I want you to know there's a reason why the old timer said we've got to have a move of God. There's a reason why you come in this house to pray. There's a reason why, sister, when we get to singing and worshiping God, that's not just to feel good, that's to invite the presence of God, because when God jumped up, anything can happen. I know you felt like I was giving you a history lesson. I know you felt like I was probably just giving you a little finer points of how the prophets operate. No, I just came to preach a plain and simple message. I'm telling you the old timer's got it figured out. They might not have known a major prophet from a minor prophet, but they knew what the spirit was saying. If you'll just seek the face of God, when God shows up, people are going to get healed. When God shows up, situations are going to change. When God shows up, backsliders are going to pray back through. Yes, they are! There are folks here in this meeting this week that you need your situation to change. You're dealing with hopelessness, and you know when I first came to preach this, I really felt like I'd probably be preaching to some backsliders tonight, and I probably am. But I believe I'm preaching to some other folks too, that the devil's tried to tell you your best years are behind you. Tried to tell you that because of this or that, God won't use you like he did before. I believe there might even be some pastors here that the devil's about got you convinced that revival is finished in your area. I'm telling you nothing should be counted out if you can get a move of God. Everyone should be counted out. I'm not talking about, I'm not talking about singing the latest songs. We're living in the day of performance Pentecost. We feel like we got to compete with the folks that's got the money to hire the good talent and man, they can put it on. You know what, if you're watching other people's church services, I'm not the pastor here. But let me just tell you as an elder, get off of that. That's not how God builds a church. If he needed that, why didn't he wait till now to come to this earth and the flesh? He doesn't need any of that. And all that will do is confuse you. What did our church have that kind of talent? What did our church, why didn't they, why didn't they, why not this, why not that? Let me tell you, God gave you a pastor and that's the highest office you answer to. And that's who you need to be listening to. Don't you be listening to many voices in this book? They didn't even know how the church down the road had church. If they weren't in walking distance, they didn't even know them. So oh, but we need all kinds of fellowship. Let me tell you the kind of fellowship we have and thank the Lord for some of it. But it's a recent modern phenomenon. It's not a biblical thing. God said that he was going to build his church. Let me tell you the Jews by the time they came back from Babylon and by the time of Jesus they had the synagogue system. That was their local church. It required 10 men before they could have a legal synagogue. Jesus looked around and said, I didn't put that into place. Where you got two, I can get with them and they can be my called out ones. Two, if God's in it, can make a church. Why does it take two? Because you got to have a saint and you got to have a pastor. That's a church. They don't take but two to have a church, a pastor and a saint. You say, what about when a pastor goes to a city to start a church, does he not have a church yet? Well, if he's got a family, he's got a church. If he's all by himself, he don't have a church yet. He's a preacher sent from God, but it won't take long to have a church. And anywhere there's two or three gathered together in his name. He said he's there in the midst of them. That was not just in a feel good way. That was in legal authority. He was in the midst of telling them how to deal with situations. And when you get a pastor and a saint and God, you got everything you need. That's all you need is the presence of God. Don't you be intimidated by the big church down the road. I'm telling you, man of God, if all you got yet right now is one saint, you're already on your way. You already are a church in the sight of God, and God needs pastors and churches everywhere. Oh, yeah. God designed the local church to have everything it needs. He did. When he talks, you know, 115 times church is mentioned in the New Testament. And 97, I believe it is, of those specifically mean a local congregation. That's where the mind of God is. I know there is the church, but let me tell you what the church is. It's made up of all of the churches. That's where God had his focus in that New Testament is on the local church. God, you got one saint and one pastor, you got a church, and that's all you need. You do need the rest of the ministry, the fivefold ministry, but I want to tell you this, that fivefold ministry, that's not offices like legal offices of the overseer. That's the functions of the ministry. And I have seen more many, many, many times than you have to, where one man, your pastor operated as a prophetic voice. He was sent to that place. He did the work of an evangelist. I'm telling you, God is never limited. He doesn't need our money. He doesn't need our talent. He doesn't need popularity. I'm telling you all we need is God to show up. And when God shows up, anything is possible. Oh, hallelujah. I'm thankful for talent. I'm thankful for good singers. I'm really thankful when I can understand them. And you think I'm an old folky. No, I'm not, I like all kinds of singing. I love what that youth choir sang tonight. That's the word. That's doctrine. You can learn doctrine from a song. You can learn false doctrine from a song. Oh, yeah. I'm not going to get started on all that. And I'll tell you what, too, sometimes just because a song is good, don't mean the song writer is right. Oh, yeah. I know some good songs that were written by somebody that was living in sin the whole time. They're just a poet. They took things out of the Word of God, wrote a true and correct song. And then somebody that was consecrating anointed sang it, and it was good. But you know what? You can't use any of that to judge whether somebody's right or not. I'm way off my message right now, but I'm just going to go ahead and say this anyway. You can't judge by how great the music program is, how talented they are, the chill bumps you feel. Let me tell you, the only judge is Jesus Christ. You've got to get in his book. That determines what's right and what's wrong. I don't care who's flocking to what or who's doing what or what big name promotes what. I want to know what the Word of God says. That's what's going to judge my life. I want to know, and I want to tell you, I want an old time move of the Holy Ghost. I want what it takes. It still takes prayer. It still takes fasting. It still takes a consecrated singer to sing the glory down. It still takes a clean living righteous preacher to preach the gospel. I want church and I want it right because when God shows up, anything can happen. Anything can happen. That's just what we need is God to show up. Your pastor doesn't need your advice. Come up, pastor, let me tell you what we need around here. Tell you what we need. You know, so and so, what church they got to this, that boy wouldn't that be good. Your pastor will have a look back and say, you know what we need is God to show up. That's what's going to make the difference. And let me tell you, when God shows up, that's when you start hearing about healings. Oh, yeah, I like hearing testimony. We heard testimonies about healings tonight. We heard testimony. Let me tell you, you ought to testify if God brings you through something. Even if he doesn't instantaneously give you a miracle. There is no telling what would happen in your life if you gave God the glory. And the God will come to where he receives glory. If he inhabited the praises of Israel, how much more do you think he inhabits? The praises, the commendations, all of those things about apostolic, holy ghost field, children of the Lord. You say, we hadn't really had a move of God lately. Why don't somebody get up and say what God has done? Why don't somebody stand up and say, look what the Lord has done. Thank God for that testimony, brother Betz. And you know what, if you want to sit there and say, oh, let me tell you, God showed up to hear it because he was bragging on God. Let me tell you, God's desire, truly as he lives, that the whole earth would be full of his glory, full of his glory. So you don't think you start glorifying God somewhere, God's not going to show up. He will. Yeah. You want a platform as an influencer? Get off a TikTok and start telling about Jesus. God will give you a platform as an influencer. You'll influence your neighbor right down to an altar and they'll get their life straight now because you're telling them, hey, if you'll just get where God shows up, anything can happen. He can put your family back together. He can heal your body. Oh, yeah. He's a good God. We try to learn how to pray like those disciples. Jesus teaches how to pray. He says, well, this is the way you pray. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowood, be thy name, hallowood, what does that mean? You'll have to go ask King James, hallowood. There's a lot of King James that we don't use anymore. You have to have a little bit of translation. Hallowood, be that. You know what that word literally means? Because you try to think about it. You can tell from hallowood is probably saying holy, sacred, be your name. And so you ask yourself, how can I make his name holy? I mean, he told me to pray that way. So something about my prayer is going to make his name sacred, holy, more holy than it is. I mean, I can't affect God. How can I make him more holy? You can't. Who can make his name sacred? He can't. He's the only one that can make his name sacred among anybody. I mean, you might can tell somebody about his sacred name. He is the, what did that prayer really mean? I dug more into that. I'm not a linguist and I'm sure not a Greek scholar, not remotely, not anything. I can't even pronounce the words that Strong's puts out there with all the little curly cues and everything trying to tell me how to pronounce it. I can read and what he was saying, pray this, God, make your name holy because of the tenses of the verbs. And I'm not even smart enough to tell you what tense it is because they don't just use present passing future and future perfect and all that like we do. They got something, all this other stuff, but I just trust them that they know what they're saying. They said it literally means that you should pray, Lord, make your name holy. How can he make his name holy among the people simply by doing what God alone can do? That's how he builds his reputation. That's how he enhances his name. So what did Jesus tell you to pray? He said basically pray this, God, please show up and show everybody how you're God and nobody else is. Show up and do things that nobody else can do. Make sure everybody, when I call your name Jesus, they know I'm calling your name, but I know I'm worshiping you as a God, but unless you come down and show them how you're different, they don't understand the sacredness, the holiness, the high and lifted upness of that name. So God, that means you're asking me to pray, Lord, move in this service. God heals somebody tonight. God fills somebody with a Holy Ghost and that's how you make your name holy. That's how you make your name different from Mohammed, from Buddha, from all of the other gods of this world by doing what they can't do. The Lord is telling them disciples, if you really want to pray, you pray for God to show up. You pray that God would be God. You pray that he would do mighty things. That's why we pray it, brother Samson, that's why we still pray for people to be healed. I'll tell you part of the reason we don't see as much as we have in the past. We forgot the motive for praying it. Why do we anoint people and pray for them? Why don't we believe God for their healing because God wants everybody to have a bed of roses? No, that's not it. That's not it. If you get your mind on yourself that I deserve this, God heal me because I just need an easier life. No, but I'll tell you, if you'll let God use you, when Lazarus was sick and when Lazarus died, the Lord let his disciples know that all this has to happen for his glory. You know what? If you'll look at whatever sickness you're going through, God, this is an opportunity for you to make your name holy, for you to make your name sacred, for you to make your name great. I'm willing to go through anything, however you want to do it, but oh God, I want your name to be great. You're my healer. You're my healer. I'm going to trust you, God. I'm going to let everybody know that you've never led me down. And God shows up, and God's in this place, and I'm about to wrap it up, but I want to tell you what I'm worried about, even in this place tonight. Have you lost your feeling for the specialness of God showing up? Have you gotten so accustomed to what you feel in a church service that it's not a big deal anymore? When it's no longer a big deal, God's not showing up anymore. It's got to be a big deal when he shows up. I'll tell you why he's still showing up, because there's some elders that know how to pray it down. There's some young people that have seen an example, and they're putting their energy into it, but I'll tell you what, it'll take a church down. If you want to see Ichabod written over a doorpost, you sit there while God shows up. You yawn while God makes a special appearance, and it won't be long until God doesn't show up anymore. That's why preachers get into pulpit. You know what? If I have to beg you, husbands, to be nice to your wife, we're in trouble. If I have to beg you, mothers, to love your children, don't traffic them or sell them or give them drugs, we're in trouble. If a preacher has to beg a forgiven and blood-bought child of God to love on their Savior when he shows up, we're in trouble. We've forgotten what he's done for us. We've forgotten what a big deal it is when he shows up. I was reading a book, it was a little commentary or whatever, and the man was an Anglican. I wasn't reading him looking for truth. He just specializes in the background of Jesus' times, but he was telling an Anglican there. That's the official church of England. He said two times in my life and my service to their church, I've had the privilege of meeting the queen. He began to describe how his day went. People came to let him know everything he was supposed to do that day. Made sure his finest dress attire was right. Made sure he knew exactly how to approach the queen, exactly how to stand, how to conduct himself, what words to say to her. He was describing all of that. Then this man started talking about how is it that we can come to church so casually and entertain the king of kings. This man doesn't remotely have the apostolic truth, but I sat there and got convicted in my heart. Here's a man talking about what links he'll go to to get ready to walk in and just speak a few words to an earthly queen. I'm telling you, church, when God showing up is not a big deal, you're not going to get your healing. When God showing up is not the greatest moment in your week, you're not going to leave blessed. But I'm telling you, if you came hungry tonight, God is in this place. And when God shows up, anything can happen. I have seen him do it. I have seen him pulling people out of the world. If you were to come to our church this week, you'd see jumping as high as she can jump right down in the front, a woman tattoos all over her. Oh, yeah, she's got that old time new convert zeal and fire came up to me and my wife two or three services ago, said, tell me whatever I need to do. If there's anything I need to change, if I'm doing it, she said, I can take it. Tell me. She could take it. All right. She could take most of you men in here too. She runs heavy equipment, or did, but I'm going to tell you when God gave her the Holy Ghost. She keeps saying, this is the greatest thing that's ever happened in my life. This is the greatest church anywhere. You know why she's tried other places, did nothing for her. No, let me tell you, God still works. He still changes people. He still moves in our services. He'll still reach down and pull a backslider that's been away from God for decades. And in one night, he undoes all your years of disobedience. When God shows up, let's stay in. If we can just get God to show up, we can just get God to show up. You come to your pastor sometime, pastor. I've got things going on, your pastor says, we'll pray about it. Don't feel offended. You know what he's doing? He said, I don't know what to do with this right now. But if we can get God to show up, if I can just get ahold of God, if we can just get God to come down and walk into your home, oh, that son that you can't get through to, God can do it, God can melt his heart in a moment. Oh, you need to look back and say, okay, pastor, let's pray. You go ahead, let's pray. If we can just get God to show up, I know everything's going to be all right. I know it's going to change. I'm telling you, we've been through some tragedies, all of us. Just a few years ago, now it's been four years, 2020. Our sister-in-law called us on the phone, some of you know this story. Screaming, Blake has been killed. Not Blake's in the hospital dying, let's pray, it's just done, Blake's been killed. We're hysterical. You know what I did? I called Bishop Johnson. I said, I'm nephew's dead, I'm headed to the church. I was probably hysterical, I don't know how, what I said. I got to that church and started screaming. The Johnson comes running in, grabs me. We don't even realize that he's got his glasses in his shirt pocket. He crushes his glasses, desperate. We didn't even want to live in that moment, but you know where we ran? To where God chose us. That is something that we don't learn how to handle. That's the most horrible thing in the world. I watched my brother, you looked at my mother and said, "Mother, you know where I'm going today? I'm going to pick out a casket for my son." Just call to preach, how do you handle that tragedy? We didn't even know if we could go to a funeral. What'd you do? We just kept praying till God showed up, and when God showed up, he didn't bring Blake back to life, but I watched him anoint my brother to get up and preach his son's funeral with anointing and feeling. I watched a backslider come running down the aisle as my brother preached, fall on his face beside that casket and God fill him with a holy ghost. I don't know why Blake had to go. There's no figure it out. Somebody tried to say, "Well, maybe God knew later on." I said, "No, no, no, no, don't even go there. If God knew he was going to be lost later on in life, how's he going to let him go to heaven now?" No. I said, "We don't understand. I don't know why and how God got glory, but God got it." I know that when God shows up though, he can turn a tragedy into a miracle. A church, it's been an old church, small church, you know how it goes, pray. You're happy if you pray just a few people through every couple of years and years since all that's happened. They probably had 40, 50 people get the holy ghost. Did all of them stick? No, but well, over half of them did, a bunch of them did. Revival has come. I don't... You say does somebody have to die to bring revival? No. But when God shows up even in the midst of tragedy, anything can happen. He can bring revival. He can heal your body. I feel something tonight. I feel like somebody in this service needs something. I feel like somebody in this service has a hopeless feeling. You came tonight with a hopeless feeling. You don't even know what God can do, but he's about to do it. He's ready to do it. O Hallelujah, Jesus. I know this is an anniversary service and I've preached too long, but I'm feeling a burden for somebody right now. I don't know what you're going through. I don't know if somebody in your family has looked at you and says, "We'll never make this work. It's over." I don't know what. I'm feeling something though. God alone can fix whatever you brought tonight. O Hallelujah, if we're getting too big a hurry right now, you're going to miss your opportunity. Oh, yeah, we didn't come here and sing just to celebrate. We didn't come here and pray just to celebrate. We came to have a move of God. We came for God to show up and save somebody. We came for God to show up and put a marriage back together. We came for God to show up and bring a backslider back to God. I want us to pray, Church, I want you to pray right now. You don't have to pray the presence of God down. He's already here. He's tapping on somebody's shoulder, but somebody needs to respond. Pray as they begin to sing. Ah, I just believe we got time for an altar service. We got time for this pastor to lay hands on somebody that needs a miracle. Oh, yes, somebody God can do it for you if you let him right now. ♪ If I could just get in ♪