Viola Solid Rock Assembly
How to Receive the Holy Spirit
Praise the Lord. Good evening. That was pitiful. Let's do that again. Good evening. Thank you. I appreciate both of you who did it the first time. So praise God. It's good to be with you again. We had a great service today didn't we? Amen. We had a great service, great time in the Lord. A lot of people got filled with the Holy Spirit up here. A lot of people got refilled with the Spirit. It was just absolutely wonderful to see what God did in their lives. And we're just believing God for more people to be filled throughout this weekend. And usually when I go to church I'll preach one service on the Holy Spirit and then I'll do messages on other things throughout the weekend. But pastor really wanted me to emphasize Holy Spirit this weekend. So I'm preaching on Holy Spirit tonight as well. And unless the Lord directs otherwise I'll be preaching on Holy Spirit tomorrow night as well. So we're believing God for some great things to happen. And I know that some of y'all the main reason you came back is you wanted to hear about Boudreau. So if you weren't here this morning the the people in South Louisiana tell stories about two Cajuns primarily the two of them. Boudreau and Thibodeau. So one time Boudreau's wife Clotille she decided she wanted to go shopping in downtown New Orleans. And they live way down on the bayou. They live on Bayou La Fush which is south of New Orleans about 45 minutes. So she drove into New Orleans and she drove down to Canal Street which is the main shopping street in New Orleans. And she parked in one of them parking garages you know they got there. And she's walking down the sidewalk going towards the stores. And all of a sudden she sees out in front of her there's a there's a pet store on this sidewalk. And they got a big cage out in front of the pet store with a big parrot in the cage. And Clotille gets closer to the cage and she can see that parrot starrant straight at her face. So she looks at him and he looks back at her she gets up closer he said hey lady you are ugly. She said well she went on past dinner shopping. After about four or three hours she was finished with her shopping. She comes back past the same store. She wasn't even thinking about the parrot so she gets to her she's like oh man no there's that parrot again. So sure enough she gets up close to the parrot. The parrot said hey lady you are really ugly. She said that did it. She walked into the pet store. She said I want to see the manager this pet store right now too sweet get him out here. So he comes out there she said he said mad at me. I help you. She said my name Clotille Boudreau. I live in Bailafouche. I drove to New Orleans today to do some shopping downtown. She said I have been in your store twice times. And she said twice times that parrot has insulted me and told me I was ugly. She said if that parrot ever calls me ugly again I will sue you for everything this store owns. I will end up owning the store and the first thing I will do is the new owner is I will far you. Not the Cajun's far does not mean something is burning that means they would terminate you okay. You would not have a job anymore. So she said I will far you. So he said madam I promise you that that parrot will never call you ugly again. She walked out of the store went on home after about three or two weeks she decided she needed to do some more shopping so she went back downtown New Orleans parked in the same parking garage out of habit you know you park at the same place you really forget about you know just out of habit she parked there she's walking down the sidewalk she sees the cage she's all men no there's the same cage at parrot so she starts walking towards the cage is showing up the same parrot is in that cage and she looks at the parrot she gets up closer the parrot looks at her she gets up closer the parrot says hey lady she looked at him he said you know he didn't call her ugly one-time board role was a coach for the South LaFouche High School football team and for the first time in many years their football team got into the playoff y'all know what the playoff is so they got into the playoff so they were all excited except for the fact that Tijon that star running back couldn't play he was disqualified because he got an F in Matt y'all know what Matt is two plus two Matt so he got an F in Matt so coach Boudreau goes over there to talk to the Matt teacher he said Matt teacher please he said you don't have a heart he said we this is a special game he said this is the first time our school has been in the playoffs in years and years and he's our star running back we need him if we go to win this game she said I'm sorry she said if he cannot do the mat that he needs to do and get a passing grade then he's disqualified from playing in the game that's the way it goes he said we'll give him another chance would you do that give him another chance she said okay she said Tijon she said tell me this what is six times six Tijon thinks about it he said 36 Boudreau said pass him anyway pass him anyway oh goodness praise God don't forget I just mentioned real quickly the books are back there my mother's book the one on family devotions several of these were purchased this morning if you want to get one we have more back there also my book on spiritual warfare the three heavens and also this book on finances God's plan for prosperity this will really help you if you have always been in debt or if you've always felt like there was just a spirit of poverty hanging over you that you were never able to break through this book will teach you principles out of God's word that will really help you to break through and the most important verse I believe in the whole book is 2nd Corinthians 9 11 in fact I call it my spiritual 911 or my financial 911 I should say my financial 911 is 2nd Corinthians 9 11 and it says this you will be made rich in every way so you can be generous on every occasion how many of you have ever wanted to be more generous than you than you were able to be at that moment how do you ever wanted to be more generous than you were able to be those are the people that God wants to make rich so I didn't know you're gonna say that can I get a do over can you ask it again I'll put my hand up it no you should have raised it the first time why because if you don't want to be generous you've got all the money you need right now amen the reason for that God wants us to be rich in every way is so we can be generous on every occasion there's some people that if you if you're rich they'll say y'all to give it all away well if you gave it all away you would be generous on one occasion and he said you'll be made rich so you can be generous on every occasion so God wants you to have abundance and have influence how many y'all know that it's look this is not fair this is not fair but how many of you know people listen to rich people more than they listen to broke people the way it is the Bible says in in the Proverbs it says the rich man has many friends but the poor man is hated even by his own neighbor that's terrible but it's true isn't it I mean you think about it if you had two centers and two Christians if you had a rich center and a poor center and a rich Christian and a poor Christian which one of those two Christians do you think has the best chance of reaching both of those centers for Christ you don't want to say it I know but you know what the answer is the rich Christian has a better chance of getting both of those people to listen to them because people just don't listen for you say well they're not fair you don't say that we'll get rich and everybody'll listen to you when you say it okay so didn't you can let everybody know that it's a fact okay and what I'm saying to you is God wants us to have abundance not so that we can look down our nose at other people but so we can be generous on every occasion so we can make a huge influence not so we can look down our nose at people and say I'm better than you because having more money to them make anybody better than you but it does give them more options than poor people have and God wants to bless you and so I want you to learn and you know you say well sounds like you're preaching some kind of prosperity gospel but name of the book is God's plan for prosperity that was a clue I thought this prosperity gospel was evil for people who who abused the the word of God and twisted and distorted it is evil I have friends who are preachers who brag all the time about how big their house is and about their private jets and all these other things that's not God that brings a reproach on the kingdom of God for them to do that brings shame to the cause of Christ for them to do that but this book the subtitle is a balanced perspective on financial wealth and the thing that I teach the most in this book is the four types of giving taught in the Bible tithe first fruits arms and seed and if you understand those four types of giving it will revolutionize your life and I've heard people say well I tried that given thing but it don't work the Bible says if you give you get back more than you gave that's what it says but I tried it and it don't work the Bible says this also he who sleeps at harvest is a disgraceful son think about that he who sleeps at harvest is a disgraceful son my dad grew up on a farm in Hampton Arkansas and he told me he said when it was harvest season nobody got a day off if you're sick rescheduled your illness because when it's harvest time it's all hands on deck how many y'all know what I'm talking about when it's harvest time on the farm everybody works so why would a son sleep it says he who sleeps at harvest is a disgraceful son why would a son sleep at harvest time because he says in his heart that's daddy's seed in that field not mine that's daddy's problem if the harvest don't come in not my problem and God spoke to me he said you know what that is a disgraceful son he doesn't care about his father's harvest number one but number two is he has nothing invested in the field and God showed me he said most people who miss their harvest the reason they do is because listen to this closely the reason they miss their harvest is because they gave so little in the offering that they don't even miss it I remember when Gina and I gave our first thousand dollar seed I don't know why I'm saying all this but I feel like somebody needs to hear this God told me to just share a little bit about this when we gave our first thousand dollar seed now look I grew up in church I'm a pastor's son I used to hear people talk about giving a thousand dollars and I thought you would have to be mentally deranged to give a thousand dollars anywhere I was like who in the world in their right mind would give a thousand dollars to anything and I was the pastor's son and that's how I felt but then when God spoke to us to sow a thousand dollar seed we did but let me tell you something has stretched us that was not easy that stretched us and when I was traveling in ministry I'd call home to Gina every day I'd say hey baby anything coming to mail today see what do you mean I said that thousand dollar seed we got a harvest coming anything coming up every day I would call her hey baby anything happen today because I was looking for my harvest because that seed cost me something and when we got our harvest it blew our minds but it was because we were looking for it there are too many Christians that when they see a blessing coming their way they're like wonder who that's for man if I see a blessing come my way I'll get right no hey hey right here blessing right here so we need to understand those principles and and the last chapter of this book actually chapter 10 talks about how to own your harvest how to recognize your harvest and one of the guys that's on the back of the book there right there John to lemme he's a motivational speaker he and I have spoken at some business events together through the years and I gave John a copy of that book when it first came out and I saw him at another event a while later he said mark he said that book changed my life I said we've talked about he said he said when I got that book from you he said I read it on the on the airplane on the way home back to West Palm Beach Florida and he said when I got to the last chapter chapter 10 about how to recognize your harvest he said that chapter spoke to me so much I read it 10 times in a row and he said over the next six months my income went up by five and a half million dollars and he said now every client that I coach because he coaches people that people pay several hundred dollars an hour for him to coach them for success he said every client that I coach he said I require them to read that book that book is required reading and he said I tell them start with chapter 10 read chapter 10 first so you'll know why you're reading the book and then read the rest of the book anyway I want I want you guys to be blessed I really do and if you don't have enough money to afford the book tell Gina and we'll give you one okay because we want you to have one we want you to be blessed by it oh it and the flash drives are back there forgot to mention that flash drives have all the buddron tibidos stuff on them they have goodness all of my singing I have seven singing albums y'all haven't heard me sing yet anyway but I have seven singing albums and and they have all my teachings well they have my teachings on the Holy Spirit what I'm teaching tonight is on there and they have my teachings on spiritual warfare on spiritual growth on faith on finances on marriage on all kinds of stuff it would cost you almost fourteen hundred dollars on the website if you got it it costs it's either is it two ninety nine or three ninety nine a website this morning I said three ninety nine I think it's two ninety nine it's two ninety nine on the website I lied I thought it was three ninety nine it's two ninety nine on the website I got it wrong this morning but but if you buy it while we're here it's ninety nine dollars so so take advantage of that and let's go to acts chapter number two acts chapter number two for the message tonight praise God I was gonna sing tonight but they were unsure of how to use my my flash drive they had my soundtracks on it so I may sing tomorrow night but I'm not singing tonight I'll tell you what I just remembered I can sing acapulco rock a pillow one of those without music oh Lord my God when I know some wonder consider all the world's my hands have made I see this stars I hear the rolling thunder thy path throughout the universe displayed then sings my soul my Savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou art then sings my soul my Savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou art when Christ shall come with shout of acclamation to take us home what joy shall fill my heart then I will bow in a blood ration and they're proclam my God how great thou art then sings my soul my Savior God to thee how great thou art how great thou art then sings my soul my Savior God to thee how great the heart how great the heart praise the Lord praise God sounds better on the album it has music with it but anyway there it is okay acts chapter two are you there yet and parents do me a favorite try and hold on to your children during the service I'm gonna be teaching something that's so important for people to understand I don't want anybody to be distracted and miss out on what's being said when Gina and I when our children were young we have we're grandparents now but when our children were young if our children started to make noise during the service we would always just take them out to the foyer and they were usually still there at the end of the service so worked out pretty well so a couple y'all caught that rest of you right over all right anyway so acts chapter two verse one here we go are you there when the day at Pentecost had fully come they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly they came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled the whole house where they were sitting then there appeared to them divided tongues as a fire and one sat on each and them and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the spirit gave them utterance now let's go to John chapter 20 verse 21 this is before the day of Pentecost this is when Jesus first imparts the opportunity to receive Holy Spirit to his disciples in John 20 verse 21 it says so Jesus said to them again peace to you as the Father has sent me I also send you and when he had said this he breathed on them and said to them receive the Holy Spirit Father thank you for your word thank you for your Holy Spirit we know that everything you speak to us you speak by your word and your spirit we pray that as your word goes forth tonight that your Holy Spirit who is already anointed this word would empower it and cause it to be in effective transformative in our lives we bind every force that Satan would try to use to hinder any person from receiving everything God is purpose for us to receive tonight we declare that Jesus Christ is the Lord over every person in this place Jesus is Lord over this word and this word will accomplish everything he is sending it to accomplish we give all glory to the only name that is worthy the name that is above every name the name of Jesus Christ in his name we pray a man praise God now Jesus told his disciples receive the Holy Spirit how many I know this is one of the most controversial subjects in Christianity and a tea today how many I'll know that both of you y'all get out much how many I know is a real controversial subject a lot of churches are again the Holy Spirit how many I know that they're not for it okay everybody who agrees with me sit down thank you very much now I got a response all right good so I'll get you respond of my my mother said to her grandmother one time she's mad at the dog she said you dogs get out of this yard get out of here all right you just sit there don't you dare move you'll listen to me one way or the other so so anyway this is a very very controversial subject because there are a lot of churches who say they're they're what we call cessationists anybody ever in terms cessationist cessationist are people who believe that the word cessation means to stop to cease okay so they believe that the moving and operation of Holy Spirit stopped at the end of the New Testament and my thinking to that is if if God stopped pouring out Holy Spirit on us in the same way at the end of the New Testament no more speaking in tongues no more gifts to the Spirit no more healings no more miracles no more signs and wonders then God wasted a lot of paper why in the world did he write a book that says well if you did have been here you'd have had this and this and this look what you missed out on I don't see God doing that but apparently they think so but there are other churches that go to the other extreme and they say you're not even saved until you speak in tongues now I disagree with both of those philosophies both those the other I disagree both of them but what really matters is not what I think it's not what you think it's what Jesus thinks so let's see what Jesus has to say about Holy Spirit okay look at Acts chapter number one Acts chapter one see the people who believe in cessationism who believe that it's all over the party's over they think it's over but now all we can just study all into a study about what they used to have that we don't have any more and then there are those who say that you're not saved until you speak in tongues that is so tragic on both ends but the fact is we let's look at what Jesus said look at Acts chapter at chapter two I'm sorry chapter one I'm sorry chapter one verse four it says in being assembled together with them he commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father which he said you have heard from me for John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now therefore when they come together they ask him say Lord we at this time restore the kingdom of Israel and he said to them is not for you to know the times of the seasons which the Father has put in his own authority but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the end of the earth Jesus was any time you hear Jesus speak what's important to notice is who was he talking to makes a big difference at this moment he's on top of the Mount of Olives y'all remember that I don't mean were you there I just mean do you know the story okay a little bit better participation in the class thank you so he's on top of the Mount of Olives he's about to ascend into heaven he's gonna say goodbye to them in his physical form he's gonna send into heaven he's given his final words to approximately 500 people that's what historians tell us they tell us they figure there were approximately 500 people there we don't know for sure but it was it's an approximation based on history these people comprise the entirety of his followers the church was going to be birthed out of this group of people right here and Jesus says to them it says he commanded didn't say he suggested or he hinted he commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait for the promise of the Father now this is the only time people waited for Holy Spirit and there's a good reason why they waited to be filled with the Holy Spirit the reason is because Jesus was crucified on Passover everybody remember that okay do y'all know what the word Pentecost mean not you pastor everybody up does anybody know what the word Pentecost means in greek 50 that's what Pentecost means in greek 50 the day of 50 why guess how many days after Passover it is class 50 there we go 50 days after Passover is Pentecost okay it's a feast a big big enormous feast for the Jewish people Jesus Luke tells us in the first two chapter first two verses of the book of Luke Luke tells us that after Jesus rose from the dead he stayed on the earth for how many days anybody remember how many days he stayed to show himself to the people remember 40 days 40 is a big number in the Bible isn't it big big big big big number so he stayed for 40 days to demonstrate to everybody that he literally had risen from the grave because he knew that all of the Jewish religious leaders were going to conjure up lies and say that he didn't really rise from the dead that they just stole his body out of the tomb and that he didn't really rise from the grave so he stayed for 40 days and Luke says with many infallible proofs you know what infallible means it means it cannot be disproven with many infallible proofs he proved that he was risen from the dead for 40 days so here he is on the 40th day after Passover telling his followers wait for the promise of the father you say why did they have to wait it's because that if you study in the book of Acts it says that on the day of Pentecost in chapter two it says there were devout Jews from every nation under heaven we say again every nation under heaven that were in Jerusalem that day God is a genius at marketing Chris God is a genius at marketing he made sure that he didn't have to pay for a lot of advertising he got free advertising on the day of Pentecost he made sure that there are people devout Jews from every nation under heaven in Jerusalem that day so that when Holy Spirit was out poured he got the maximum impact for minimum investment financial I'm talking about for advertising he didn't have to pay for any advertising because they all heard people speaking in their own language right and the Bible says 3000 were saved that I don't have time to go into Old Testament and Mount Sinai tell you why 3000 were saved that day I'm sure pastor has taught on that but but 3000 were saved that day okay 3000 were saved that means people from devout Jews from every nation under heaven got saved baptized in water and filled the Holy Spirit spoken tongues then they went back to their home countries all over the earth and took the message of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ not by the law but through faith in Jesus but this was radical baptism in water they already understood baptism in water because they do that in a thing they call the mikva anybody familiar with the mikva it's it's a big thing of water that they use to purify themselves before they go into the temple and so they were familiar with with being immersed in water but they found out the real reason for baptism was that it symbolizes our death to the old man and being raised in the nudist of life in Christ and then they were filled with Holy Spirit and spoke with other tongues so the reason they had to wait 10 days was because God wanted to wait till everybody got there they weren't waiting for Holy Spirit to get there some people think they were waiting for Holy Spirit get real the Bible says in Genesis chapter 1 when the earth was in the worst shape it's ever been in in history who did God send to clean it up? Holy Spirit the Spirit of the Lord moved upon the face of the deep the Holy Spirit had been on the earth all that time they weren't waiting for help they're waiting for all those devout Jews from every nation under heaven to get there so God could not only show up but also show off and let all of them see his power on that does that make sense to everybody but Jesus said something really authoritative he commanded them commanded that they not leave but wait don't you think about something if you were starting a new business if you start a new company you'd invested a lot into it now nobody's invested what Jesus invested into us okay Jesus invested his life's blood he gave his literal life for the church but if you've invested every penny you have into a new business you put everything you got into starting this business let me ask you how you would start it because remember the church was birthed on the day of penny cost is everybody remember that the church was born on the day of penny cost by Holy Spirit can you imagine doing what Jesus did Jesus basically turned to his followers and said I don't want anybody to preach until you receive the Holy Spirit no preaching no street preaching no witnessing no telling your testimony no sharing about Jesus no church services don't do it he shut down the whole church think about that he shut it down for 10 days would you do that if you're starting a new business okay the business is just getting just getting going guys we're getting some momentum going and I'm gonna be leaving and I'm gonna be gone for a long time so while I'm gone I want y'all to shut it down for 10 days it's just getting going to let's shut her down none of us would do that will we no but that's what Jesus did he told them no ministry at all until you receive Holy Spirit why why would Jesus say that because you see if you try to preach without the power we talked about this morning the power of the Holy Spirit if you try to preach without the power of the Holy Spirit it's going to get about as far as the front row and it's done is dead dead on arrival okay the thing that takes someone's speech and turns it into a message from God is Holy Spirit the Bible teaches us that faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by what the word of God I remember when I was a teenager people used to say yeah you need to get the Bible on tape see faith comes by hearing get the Bible on tape I'm like well that's not fair to everybody who was born before they invented the tape recorder what do you mean it's all the way to get faith by hearing is get the Bible on tape that's just not fair to everybody born for the tape recorder and then I studied it deeper and I found that what it actually means is there's two words that are translated word of God one of them is logos the written word of God and one of them is Ramah the spoken word of God and what it actually says there is faith comes by hearing and hearing comes when God speaks his word to you not on tape in the spirit when God speaks his word to you that's when it becomes faith let me tell you something faith is not in your head faith not in your head it's hard for people we had a guy at our church in New Orleans when I was a kid he was my Sunday school teacher bless his heart bless his heart I was rough but anyway but he was an engineer brilliant genius mind and he had so much difficulty receiving the Holy Spirit he would come forward every time there was an altar received the Baptist Holy Spirit but he just had so much trouble receiving the Holy Spirit why because he was trying to figure it out and faith is not in your mind is it you receive Holy Spirit by faith not by knowledge not with a slide rule or with a with a computer or a calculator you receive Holy Spirit by faith and faith is in your spirit not in your mind we're made up of three parts body soul and spirit your mind is part of your soul your soul is your mind will and emotions we know that your spirit is the part of you that exists in the spiritual realm you're so where is it you can't see it because you're looking in the physical realm your spirits in the spiritual realm you say well what part of my body is it in it's in there where I don't know didn't you well how does it fit spiritual beings don't take up physical space right spiritual realm doesn't take up physical space that would be like going down to a person who does alteration say excuse me could you let this out I got saved sundash Jesus into my heart swole right up let it out as far as you can I need all the room I can because next week I'm playing on getting filled the Holy Ghost so I'm gonna need a lot of room see spiritual doesn't take up physical space okay so he was trying to figure out he was trying to figure out how to receive Holy Spirit he had so much trouble with it in fact one time he was teaching our class and he it came time for him to teach us about about the children of Israel leaving Egypt headed to the promised land crossing the Red Sea and this engineer with his engineering mind he taught our class he says okay guys I figured it out I did a lot of research and study I was 12 years old and Paul was not he said I figured it out guys he said what happens is he said there's a certain place in the Red Sea that a certain season of the year he is very shallow whether it's only about like an inch deep and they were able to wait across in an inch of water and I said praise God and he said really Mark that really got you excited I said yes he said why I said because Pharaoh's army drowned in an inch of water his engineering mind was trying to figure out faith and supernatural supernatural let me give you a clue take natural and make it super okay so it's not going to be natural it's super natural so when that guy received Holy Spirit he was asleep and he woke up speaking in tongues God had to literally sneak up on him for University of the Holy Ghost it was great but I was at a church a friend of mine in Florida a few months ago and we had about 40 people fill the Holy Spirit on Sunday morning and and after the service he came to be said Mark did you see that guy standing right there in the middle in the front with the button up shirt I said yeah he said that guy is one of the smartest people in the country he said he is a nuclear physicist as I really said yeah he said he was in charge of the nuclear power plant for this part of Florida until he retired last year he said and he has been trying to receive the Holy Spirit for years and years and years and he kept trying to figure it out and he couldn't receive and he said I told him a few weeks ago I said just wait Mark Gorman's coming you'll receive on Sunday morning sure enough he was the first one to speak in tongues not because of me but because of the anointing that God put on my life that's all somebody was telling me that pastor said that he's going to be bringing in different guest speakers who have different strengths in their ministry I said yeah different anointings because different people have different anointings and pastors wise and I've seen some pastors that will not let any guest speakers in their church they think they are the end all no I mean even Ephesians chapter four said he gave to us apostles prophets evangelist pastors and teachers till we all come into the unity of the faith you said well that was a long time ago are we in the unity of the faith think we still have the fivefold ministry but anyway but pastors bringing in different people with different anointings because of that and so Jesus said to them don't go anywhere till you receive Holy Spirit now let me ask you something if Jesus shut down the whole church and told them not to go anywhere until they received the Holy Spirit do you think Jesus thought the Holy Spirit was important John chapter 16 verse 7 do you have that one can you put that up there for me John 16 verse 7 I got it out of order a minute ago thank you for working with me guys says nevertheless is Jesus speak and he speaking to his disciples to his 11 remaining disciples after Judas has left nevertheless I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away the helper or comforter will not come to you but if I depart I will send him to you this is Jesus talking look there are some people that if they told me that I would be better off if they leave I would believe them y'all know somebody like that I mean there's some folks if they said they really I'd help them pack I'd go down to the grocery store and get empty cardboard boxes for them if they needed this is Jesus Jesus says you will be better off if I leave can you imagine what that sounded like to his disciples you would be better off without me if I leave you're better off if I leave why Jesus because if I don't leave you don't get to meet the comforter the paraclete the helper the holy spirit you don't get to meet him but if I do go away I will send him to you Jesus said you're better off if I leave Jesus was willing to leave his closest friends in the world in order for them to meet holy spirit that tells me right there how important holy spirit is amen but as I said this morning in all my years of ministry I've been in ministry for almost 50 years and in all those years I've never met anybody who did not want the power of the holy spirit everybody that I talked to about the holy spirit I'm sorry I'm getting a little warm I'm not bad everybody I talked to about holy spirit they all want the power don't know I'm talking about everybody wants the power you know what people have problems with the tongues the tongues there was one lady that came to my dad one time she was very sophisticated she said Reverend Gorman I have received the holy spirit but I did not speak in tongues what do you think of that the mistake she made was she asked my dad what he thought so he told her he said I think you left too soon should excuse me he said you left too soon you had something else come in he said Peter said on the day at Pentecost this promise is not just to you but it's to your children and your children's children and as many are far off as the Lord our God shall call well who does the Lord call the Lord calls all mankind to repentance right God calls all mankind to repentance so that means that if you have repented if you are saved you qualify to receive holy spirit you say but what about the tongues the Bible says where there are tongues they shall cease it does say that first Corinthians chapter 13 do you have that verse guys I think is that the one that says where there tongues they shall cease I don't I can't remember which verse I gave you out of 13 said it there it is verse verse eight first Corinthians 13 eight let's look at it folks come on class love never fails but whether they're prophecies they will fail whether they're tongues they will cease whether there's knowledge it will vanish away now if we're going to take that verse literally that where there are tongues they shall cease let's take the whole verse literally how about that how about we not just pick and choose which parts of the verse we want to take literally so if it really means that tongues have ceased how many people have walked up to you last week and said I can't believe I keep getting dumber dumber dumber like my knowledge you just vanished in the way that's not what that means if you really understand remember this first Corinthians 13 the love chapter isn't that what it's called the love chapter first Corinthians 13 was strategically placed right between the only two chapters in the Bible that deal with the gifts of the spirit right if y'all not sure just agree with me go ahead all right there you go I don't ask trick questions okay I think it's rude when guest speakers come in and ask a question they set you up and you blurt out the obvious answer and they're like wrong to the idiot on the third row that is so rude besides that I found out that people who answered trick questions wrong don't buy anything at the book table so I just have a rule that I never ask any trick questions but see when God put first Corinthians 13 right between those two chapters chapter 12 and chapter 14 first Corinthians those are the only two chapters that deal exclusively with the gifts of the spirit okay and right between them he put a chapter on the fruit of the spirit because Jesus said you'll know them by their fruit not by their gifts there are Christians all over the world following ministries that have gifts oh he told me something God told him oh my goodness oh can you believe that ah that's the gifts don't follow the gifts when Saul King Saul was so far gone that God told the prophets to stop praying for him he got around some prophets and what did he do prophesied he was so far gone he was headed to hell God already told the prophet don't pray for him anymore he's going to hell he is and yet he got around some prophets and he prophesied because the Bible says the gifts and calling of God are without repentance God's not going to take him back so if God gave you that gift you've got it for life if you have that gift to be able to be sensitive when God's giving a message in tongues you'll have that for the rest of your life if you have that gift to be able to hear when God is giving the interpretation to a message in tongue you'll have that the rest of your life but put that verse back up for me guys look at it again where there are prophecies they will fail where there are tongues they will cease where there is knowledge it will vanish away what does that mean that means that look there's a difference between the gift of prophecy and the office of a prophet and i'm not going to go into that in depth tonight but there's a difference of a prophet who is in the office of a prophet they can prophesy 24 hours a day you just tell them prophet boom they can prophesy but someone who's flowing in the gift of prophecy that can only operate when God chooses the gifts of the spirit only operate when God chooses he gives you that gift to be able to to sense what he's using that gift but he does not give you the ability to flow in it 24 hours a day you don't go around giving messages in tongues 24 hours a day okay so what he's saying here is there are prophecies but then it'll it'll fail in other words it'll stop the word fail is a poor translation what it really means is where there are prophecies they're going to stop happening there'll be some prophecies come forth and then you move on with the service right where there are tongues there are people who can give a message in tongues but then after they give a message in tongues they stop it ceases and where there's knowledge you'll vanish away what is that one the gift of the word of knowledge now now during a lot of services I will call people out I'll tell them things God shows me about them I'll be oh goodness I'm in the grocery store and I'll give people words of knowledge all the time when I anywhere I go at home Gina knows I'll come home tell her I I prayed for somebody at the grocery store God told me this and this about them and they looked up maybe tears in their eyes how did you know that as because that's the gift of the word of knowledge when you have to give the word of knowledge God gives you knowledge about that person so that they will know God speaking to him but then the knowledge vanishes away I don't continue to have knowledge about you for the rest of your life I don't just walk up to you after I give you word of knowledge and then say and your favorite color is and when you're a child you had a dog named I don't have unlimited knowledge about you it's that that knowledge comes and then it vanishes does that make sense to everybody but here's the main thing you can take that off here's the main thing about it that people don't understand there's more than one type of speaking in tongues there was one type of prayer language on the day of Pentecost where they literally were speaking in foreign languages most of us will never speak in the language of another country we're speaking in what's called a heavenly language between us and God and then there is the gift of tongues the gift of tongues is different than your prayer language I've had some Christians tell me I got I got tongues now I only got eight more gifts to go no just because you speak in a prayer language doesn't mean you have the gift of tongues the gift of tongues is to give a message to know but let's talk about what happens when you pray in tongues Romans chapter eight verses 26 and 27 I don't think I gave you guys that verse but anyway it says this it says we don't know how to pray as we ought but the spirit here it is likewise spirit also helps our weaknesses for we do not know what we should pray for as we ought but the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered and I can't remember which verse it is in there it says the spirit who knows the heart of God and the mind of man makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered so when you are praying in tongues that is holy spirit do you know what intercession means intercession means you're praying for a person and sometimes it's for yourself but other times you could be praying for somebody else one time my dad was on an airplane flying from Dallas to New Orleans this is years ago this is before jets so when I was a little boy when it was propeller planes they had two propellers on each side of on each wing he said as they took off they gotten up into the air leveled off they started rolling the drink cart down the aisle to start serving serving the drinks to everybody on the plane and suddenly he said it felt like that the plane dropped right out of the sky he said it felt like it was a greased brick just straight out of the sky and then all of a sudden it felt like it hit something and started to gradually climb back up into the air he said the seat belt light came on as if anybody needed a seat belt light don't you know they're all buckling their seat belts after that happened he said people were flying up in the air oh a seat me I might want to use that yeah okay he said drinks were floating up in the air when it was dropping it is crazy the cart came off the off the floors and everything was floating for a couple minutes and then whoosh and then they started to climb back up so he said they put the drink cart away no announcement no explanation he said 10 or 15 minutes later again whoosh fall right out of the sky and all of a sudden boom felt like they hit something and they started to climb back up he said a third time that happened he said when they got to New Orleans they were 45 minutes late from the time they should have landed my mother had brought the three of us kids there to the airport to meet my dad at the airport to surprise him and meet him at the airport when he got off the plane i was too little remember this but he told my mother about what had happened on the plane and they were just thinking oh thank you Jesus thank you Jesus that you saved his life he said when they landed you could see red flashing lights all over the runway there were fire trucks and crash cars and ambulances and everything all over lining both sides of the runway when they landed he said you could hear people when they landed and start taxiing up to the gate you hear people all over the plane saying thank god thank how many people become believers in moments like that he said the pilot came on the captain we're gonna call him came on the the speaker system and said ladies and gentlemen this is your captain i just want to explain what happened while we were in the air he said i didn't want to tell you what had happened while we were in the air because i didn't want to cause any more panic but he said this plane is powered by four engines he said as we were flying both of our left engines completely burned out and one of our right engines halfway burned out and this plane that should have required all four engines to land safely i don't know how we did it but we landed with one and a half engine and that's why my dad came off the plane tell my mother and they were so thankful thanking god well a few months later my dad at that time was the state youth director for prior denomination so he was in Springfield, Missouri at central assembly and they were having a special service there and he was and he said he was coming in from from this side i don't know if you've ever been in central assembly in Springfield but anyway you come in a lot of people come in from parking a lot from this side and and you're looking out at the and they have a big balcony it seats i don't know two or three i think it seats three thousand people if i remember correctly anyway he said it was full of people it says about ten minutes before the service started he said i was not the speaker i was there to hear someone else preach and i was just coming in to find a seat it was about ten minutes before service started he said people were all over it was filled with people people all up in the balcony everywhere and he said as i walked in this teenage girl about 18 19 years old runs up to me she said oh brother garbage brother garbage brother garbage she starts crying he's like pushes her ways excuse me who are you she said brother gorman on such a touch a day and such a touch a dime where were you well he knew exactly where it was he said i was on an airplane she starts crying again he says what's wrong she said was there any problem while you're on that plane he said yes there was she starts crying again excuse me what is it she said on that day at that time i was in my dorm here in spring field attending bible college she said i got filled with the holy spirit when you preached a camp in new mexico a couple of years ago and you gave an altar call for people receive the holy spirit and i got filled all the spirit that day or that night and she said my life changed after that so she said i was in my dorm room on that day it's been a couple of years and thousands received the baptist holy spirit and she said it's only time i've ever seen you was when you preached our youth camp and she said she said i was in my dorm room and she said i was just praying just to intercedent and she said all of a sudden i saw a vision of an airplane with your face on it and she said i didn't know what to do so i just prayed in tongues hey if holy spirit is the one who tells you to pray he likely knows why so let him do the praying that's why you pray in tongues so she said i start praying in tongues and she said then all the sudden that plane just drops out of the sky and i didn't know what to do i start praying in tongues and she said it like just stop drop it and it started lifting right back up into the sky she said a few minutes later it dropped again but i started praying in tongues and it lifted right back up she said third time it dropped but i started praying in tongues and it raised back up my dad said that girl couldn't have weighed more than 110 pounds but she kept an airplane in the air to get one preacher on the ground because she knew how to pray in tongues that's why i'm amazed when people say do i have to speak in tongues no you get two amen one time my dad was preaching a youth rally in in shreveport and after the rally he went to his hotel room and went to bed after he'd been bed for a couple hours he's asleep god woke him up said pray for joe my dad's the oldest of six children my uncle joe is the next oldest my dad got out of the bed got on his knees he didn't know what my uncle needed he just prayed in tongues he said lord you woke me up you know what's needed pray through me he prayed in tongues for about 45 minutes then he felt a piece he went back to bed went to sleep few weeks later he was in krowley louisiana near units she's asking me about units today where the fries are anyway so so he was he was in krowley louisiana in their home having dinner with them and after they ate he turned to my uncle and he said joe three weeks ago on a monday night at about one o'clock in the morning where were you he said all the blood drained out of my uncle's face he turned flush white got up and walked out of the room as fast as he could and his wife my aunt ela started crying my dad said hello what did i say i just asked him where he was and when she finally was able to talk she said bud because that's my dad's nickname she said bud she said on that night at that time joe was on a barge in the achafalaya river how many of y'all ever been across the achafalaya river anyhow if you go to south louisiana between apolusis and baton rus is the achafalaya river if you drive across the achafalaya river all you will see when you look down is whirlpools everywhere you look they're whirlpools all over the achafalaya river very fast-flowing river she said joe was loading trucks on the barge in the achafalaya river late that night she said he went around the end of one of the trucks to check the chains on the tires and when he did his foot slipped and he fell into the river and he was wearing steel toe boots and she said even though joe is a good swimmer with the weight of the steel toe boots and the swift undercurrents in the whirlpools in the river and the churning of the tugboat engines he was sucked under and he kept fighting to get back up and he'd gone under twice and he was about to go under for the third time when somebody realized he was missing at the time you just said somebody realized he was missing and they pulled out the search lights and found him and pulled him in two months later my dad was preaching in south louisiana and my uncle joe came forward in that service and accepted jesus as his savior for the first time in his life he would have died in his sin if my dad hadn't prayed in tongues that night in tree port do you not have to speak no you get to speak in tongues amen listen if god ever wakes you up in the middle of the night says pray for mark gorman don't try and guess oh lord i don't know what mark might be dealing with right now maybe maybe he's having a stomachache maybe maybe it's having this you know abdominal pain lord i just bind or loose whatever's going on there and don't try and figure it out just pray in the holy ghost i'll tell you one more story and then we're going to pray with people years ago my dad was preaching a tent crusade in homa louisiana which is south of new orleans about an hour south of new orleans and i was the what they what we call the the crusade director i was the one who had to set up everything to get the tent set up the security the sounds you know every i had to be i was in charge of the whole thing so dad called me one one afternoon he said son something just came it was an hour away to new orleans he'd gone back to new orleans during the day to do work so he said something just came up urgent that i have to handle here at the office son i'm not going to be able to make it to the tent crusade tonight you preach and i said they're looking for you they're going to be really disappointed and then i realized well it would be brother gorman preaching so so i preached that night after the after the message i asked people to come forward made a salvation altar call when i made the salvation altar call we had people lined up all across the front of the tent and i went down i started praying with people and i came up to a guy who was uh well he was i'm trying to look for somebody that was about as tall as he was about about this this guy over here with the with mustache probably tall as him he was about six six and a half feet tall this guy would probably six and a half feet tall but he was big i mean he he probably weighed like 260 he was an all muscle he was rough looking and i started praying for him and all the sudden he looks at me and i could see demons in his eyes i could i could tell it was demonic and the demon said i'm gonna kill you and suddenly god spoke to me and said knife he has a knife so i yelled to the guys that were there in the altar praying with me they were standing behind him and up those who were in front of i said he has a knife somebody get the knife and his hand was going back like this as i said that and they it took two men to keep his hand from going back there and another man pulled the knife out of the sheath it was a full-length hunting knife we prayed for him i cast out the demons he fell limp he got up after praying he said i'm so sorry i didn't mean i wanted to kill you i don't want to kill you i'm like that's okay brother we'll give your knife back in a few minutes so he was set free we did give his knife back as he exited the tent and then at the end of the service a man walked up to me who i didn't know he said mark he said uh i was praying for tonight's service when i was at work today i said praise the lord thank you he said i didn't know you were going to be preaching he said i thought it's going to be your dad so did he said but i was thinking is your dad's going to be preaching but all i could see when i was praying was i saw a big knife headed straight at your heart he says i didn't know what to do so i just prayed in tongues how many are glad he prayed in tongues my wife is she's first one raise your hand we're glad he prayed in tongues see in a few minutes some of you are going to get an opportunity to receive Holy Spirit if you have not received the fullness of the Holy Spirit now we had a lot of people come forward today so i know we had a lot of them we had a lot of them already up here but i believe there are more people who need to receive the fullness of the Holy Ghost and you know what even if you came forward this morning and you're still having a little bit of difficulty with speaking in tongues this afternoon come on back up for another dose there ain't no charge okay you still come back up again but i'm primarily looking for people who either that you've never received the Holy Spirit or you receive the Holy Spirit but you you can't speak in tongues you know if you can't speak in tongues what good is that if you spoke in tongues one time when you were five years old and that's it what good is it doing you you need to be able to pray in tongues anytime you want to so i want to pray with anybody who either has never received the baptism Holy Spirit or you have received the baptism Holy Spirit but you need a refilling i want you to step out and come forward right now would you do that step out and come up here right now very quickly come on up come on up