Speaker 1: The title of tonight's message is Uncanceled.
Speaker 1: Who in the sun sets free is free.
Speaker 1: Indeed, jesus has set us free.
Speaker 1: He's uncanceled us.
Speaker 1: We were once children of darkness, but we have been brought into the kingdom of light.
Speaker 1: We have been brought into his family, and so he has uncanceled us.
Speaker 1: The accuser of the brethren used to accuse us before God, day and night, but he's been cancelled.
Speaker 1: He's been cast down.
Speaker 1: He no longer has that privilege.
Speaker 1: We are uncanceled.
Speaker 1: That's the title of tonight's message.
Speaker 1: Just join with me as we dive into some scripture tonight.
Speaker 1: When Jesus began his ministry, in Luke, chapter 4, I'm going to read these scriptures to you.
Speaker 1: But Luke chapter 4 comes from Isaiah 61.
Speaker 1: This was prophesied about Jesus roughly 800 years prior to him starting his ministry.
Speaker 1: The Jews would have recognized that they have a Messiah.
Speaker 1: They're watching for one.
Speaker 1: They knew Jesus.
Speaker 1: They knew he was the son of the carpenter.
Speaker 1: He was somebody who frequented the synagogue.
Speaker 1: We'll begin in Luke, chapter 4, verse 17.
Speaker 1: He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah.
Speaker 1: When he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written.
Speaker 1: So here he's, quoting Isaiah, chapter 61.
Speaker 1: The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he's anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor.
Speaker 1: He sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set it liberty those who are oppressed and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.
Speaker 1: Then he closed the book and gave it to the attendant and sat down and the eyes of all who were in the synagogue were fixed on him and as he's sitting there, he began to say to them today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.
Speaker 1: And so we can go back in Jewish culture and recognize that they had a special place for the Messiah.
Speaker 1: They had a seat in the synagogue ready to receive the Messiah.
Speaker 1: It was labeled Messiah, it was for the Messiah.
Speaker 1: Nobody dared sit in that chair.
Speaker 1: It was specifically reserved for the Messiah.
Speaker 1: And so when Jesus read this scripture about the Messiah prophesied from 800 years before and he said today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.
Speaker 1: And then he sits in that seat when he says those words, he infuriated those people in that room.
Speaker 1: These people recognized isn't this Jesus, the son of the carpenter?
Speaker 1: They knew who he was and immediately they were enraged and they took him outside the city and tried to throw him off the cliff, but he just walked through him and they couldn't touch him.
Speaker 1: On day one of Jesus' ministry, religion tried to cancel him and was unsuccessful.
Speaker 1: He was rejected from the start.
Speaker 1: They were filled with wrath and they were unable to truly cancel him.
Speaker 1: And so I'm going to give you another scripture out of Matthew, chapter 15, verse 22.
Speaker 1: This is the Gentile woman that approached Jesus.
Speaker 1: She was a Canaanite and she was not a covenant woman, and so when she approached him, she said she was crying out to him, saying oh Lord, have mercy on me.
Speaker 1: Oh, son of David, my daughter is severely possessed by a demon.
Speaker 1: But Jesus answered her not a word.
Speaker 1: And his disciples came and urged him, saying send her away, for she cries out after us.
Speaker 1: But he answered and said I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Speaker 1: So this non covenant woman, a different nationality, she was a Canaanite and Jesus said I was not sent to you, I was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Speaker 1: This is where this lady should have played the race card.
Speaker 1: She should have employed the use of the cancel culture.
Speaker 1: In that moment.
Speaker 1: They should have rushed into savior.
Speaker 1: They should have shut down Jesus' YouTube channel his Facebook page and his Twitter account.
Speaker 1: They should have gone after Jesus and his corporate job.
Speaker 1: They should have gone after his furniture manufacturing company and attacked all those who would ever do business with him there.
Speaker 1: They should have blasted him on every news outlet.
Speaker 1: They should have made posters of the Canaanite woman and probably t-shirts with their picture on the front, and made a hero out of her.
Speaker 1: You know, if Jesus had said those words in today's time, that's exactly what would have happened.
Speaker 1: But that's not what she did.
Speaker 1: In verse 25, it says that then she came and worshiped him.
Speaker 1: Well, that's the opposite of what culture does.
Speaker 1: Today, they hear one thing that is offensive about Christianity, about Jesus, about God, and they immediately the hatred spews.
Speaker 1: But not this woman.
Speaker 1: She worshiped him.
Speaker 1: She came down and worshiped him.
Speaker 1: She said Lord, help me.
Speaker 1: But he answered her again.
Speaker 1: Here he says it is not good to take of the children's bread and give it to the little dogs.
Speaker 1: So now he's doubled down on the insult.
Speaker 1: He called her a little dog, and this is where she should have become absolutely enraged.
Speaker 1: If there was ever a time to employ the cancel culture, it was right here, but she didn't.
Speaker 1: She didn't.
Speaker 1: The cancel culture is just people who take offense.
Speaker 1: And if these offended people are weak, the cancel culture is weak.
Speaker 1: The cancel culture embraces and incites childish temper tantrums.
Speaker 1: The cancel culture is a bunch of pansies.
Speaker 1: Now go ahead and cancel me after I say that Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be pansies.
Speaker 1: Parents train your kids not to be weak or easily offended.
Speaker 1: We need to have thick skin and a tender heart.
Speaker 1: So this woman did not take offense.
Speaker 1: When Jesus called her a little dog and said this bread is not for you, she said oh true Lord, but even the little dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master's table.
Speaker 1: She said I'm not looking for the whole loaf, I'm not even looking for a slice of bread.
Speaker 1: I just need a crumb, just a crumb that would have gone to waste anyway.
Speaker 1: Just a crumb, that's all I need.
Speaker 1: And he said oh woman, great is your faith.
Speaker 1: Let it be done to you as you desire.
Speaker 1: And her daughter was healed that same hour.
Speaker 1: Faith and compassion move Jesus into action.
Speaker 1: Her faith moved Jesus and the compassion on the inside of him.
Speaker 1: He was drawn to her with that.
Speaker 1: When he saw faith, he had compassion on her and her daughter was healed that same hour.
Speaker 1: For the record, jesus was not a hater, he's not a racist, he's not a bigot.
Speaker 1: He had marching orders from God and a purpose for his life.
Speaker 1: He came, number one, to help the Jews understand their covenant.
Speaker 1: They had a covenant that went back and they had been violating their own covenant.
Speaker 1: They had healing in their covenant and yet they let sickness creep in.
Speaker 1: And so he helped them understand their covenant, the covenant, the very covenant that they had neglected.
Speaker 1: And then he came, number two, to fulfill that covenant and to be the end of the law, to complete it for him, because they could never fulfill the covenant, being a broken people on their side.
Speaker 1: And number three he came to bring the entire world a new and better covenant that was founded upon even better promises, and also to multiply the effect of that covenant to bring many into his kingdom through the believer's ministry.
Speaker 1: And so he came to empower the believers through his work and his completed work.
Speaker 1: In John, chapter seven, jesus said in verse 37, if anyone yeah, 37, he said if anyone thirsts, let him come unto me and drink.
Speaker 1: He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.
Speaker 1: Is anyone thirsty, he said Let him come unto me and drink, and out of his heart rivers of living water will flow.
Speaker 1: But then, in verse 39, it says but he spoke concerning the spirit whom these believing in him would receive.
Speaker 1: For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, but Jesus was not yet glorified.
Speaker 1: Because Jesus was not yet glorified, so Jesus was telling them because of what I'm about to do and the Holy Spirit that's about to come down and be part of you and dwell on the inside of you, because of that you're gonna have rivers of living water.
Speaker 1: And so, if Jesus wasn't gonna be here and he said whoever's thirsty, let him come unto me and drink.
Speaker 1: But yet, a short time later he tells his disciples hey, I'm leaving, I'm getting out of here, but don't worry, I'm gonna send you another.
Speaker 1: What Jesus is saying is anyone thirsty, let him come unto me and drink.
Speaker 1: Let him come unto you, the believer in drink, because you're gonna have the Holy Ghost on the inside of you and you're gonna have rivers of living water that flow out of you, out of your hearts, rivers of living water.
Speaker 1: So when this happened, you go back to Acts, chapter one.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna preach all of Acts, but Jesus told his disciples to wait in Jerusalem until they had been baptized with the Holy Spirit, and when that happened they would receive power, when the Holy Spirit had come upon them.
Speaker 1: So that's Acts, chapter one, and in Acts, chapter 19, paul found disciples and asked them if they had been filled with the Holy Spirit, and they said we haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: And he said wait, I thought you were disciples.
Speaker 1: Who are your disciples of?
Speaker 1: They said John the Baptist.
Speaker 1: And so then he had to preach Jesus to them and get them saved, and get them baptized in the baptism that Jesus provided, and then got them filled with the Holy Spirit, and now they're empowered with rivers of living water to go out of them and meet the needs of whoever comes under them.
Speaker 1: And so that's our mission, that's what we're called to do.
Speaker 1: We are called to have rivers of living water flow out of us.
Speaker 1: That's the love, the compassion of Jesus, and we ought to respond the same way Jesus did.
Speaker 1: He responded to faith and he responded to people's needs because he had compassion.
Speaker 1: If it was important, jesus would not have commanded it.
Speaker 1: So it's critical that believers get filled with the Holy Spirit, and so many are not, and they're missing something.
Speaker 1: The church has been increasingly shut up and the church has allowed the trouble that we see all around us.
Speaker 1: If we had rivers, if the church had continual rivers flowing out of us, we'd have a whole lot less dry, parched, cracked ground.
Speaker 1: We'd have a whole lot less trouble in the world.
Speaker 1: But you look around and we've got all kinds of trouble.
Speaker 1: I mean, houston crime rate is at the top of the nation right now.
Speaker 1: That's not a record we wanna have being number one in murders but that's what we have right now because we don't have the church with rivers of living water going out.
Speaker 1: We've got a few, but Jesus wants the entire church to be that way, and so the church has got to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: It's critical.
Speaker 1: You don't have power with that, he said to his disciples you'll be filled with the Holy Spirit and you'll have power when the Holy Ghost comes on you.
Speaker 1: And so if the church doesn't have that, they're missing the power, and the church has been increasingly shut up.
Speaker 1: The church has allowed this because it has rejected the power it was supposed to receive.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like they've got this power button, an on off button.
Speaker 1: You got the button on off button on your computer.
Speaker 1: It's got a one for on and a zero for off.
Speaker 1: It's a power button, and so the church sees that button there and they're afraid to push it.
Speaker 1: Just push the button, receive the power you need it.
Speaker 1: Instead of opposing the Antichrist voices that brought us the unconstitutional separation of church and state, the church instead embraced it and started repeating those words Well, we've got a separation of church and state.
Speaker 1: The church is supposed to be separate from the state.
Speaker 1: The church is supposed to stay out of the state.
Speaker 1: That's the Antichrist spirit and the church is repeating that.
Speaker 1: And we pulled out of governmental business Instead of rejecting the Johnson amendment so, for those of you who don't know, that's where we get the 501c3, through the IRS.
Speaker 1: Instead of rejecting that, the church cared more about the convenience that that 501c3 gives for donors and their tax benefits.
Speaker 1: Well, we've got to be good stewards of our money and we want our donors to get the best and the most out of their money, and so, as they make a donation, they need to have this tax benefit.
Speaker 1: So we as a church, you see, must have a 501c3.
Speaker 1: That's an all out lie.
Speaker 1: You don't need that.
Speaker 1: And yet the church attorneys and the denominational boards of demons as pastor says, boards of deacons happily accepted these limitations that came along with the 501c3, but in doing so it took away the voice of the church.
Speaker 1: By the way, the church is a non-profit by congressional statute, not because of anything the IRS does.
Speaker 1: The church is a church by congressional statute and thus non-profit.
Speaker 1: The IRS has nothing to do with that.
Speaker 1: And so if you buy into the 501c3 and the limitations, it's a self-imposed limitation and it limits us, the church, from doing God's word, and so we don't do that around here.
Speaker 1: We're not limited to this world.
Speaker 1: We're made free and we can do what this word says.
Speaker 1: We can do.
Speaker 1: Instead of rejecting the executive orders that said you know only essential businesses and so it could be open during times of pandemic, instead of rejecting those kinds of executive orders, the church closed, and they did so in the name of safety.
Speaker 1: Well, brother, you know we love our congregation.
Speaker 1: We've got to stay safe, we've got to keep them safe.
Speaker 1: We've got a covenant of healing, we've got a covenant that goes against sickness and disease.
Speaker 1: And yet the church at large didn't have a revelation of that, and they wanted to keep people safe, and so it closed its doors and it forsook the assembling of itself together, and that's a violation of God's word.
Speaker 1: But this is what the antichrist spirit does.
Speaker 1: It leads people astray, it brings in deception, and deception is crept into the church.
Speaker 1: But we have a new covenant that gives authority over disease, over every sickness, over every disease, over every name that is named.
Speaker 1: We have that as the church, we have that as covenant people.
Speaker 1: And yet the church quietly put a basket over its lamp and retreated to the safety of compliance, where the government could meet our every need according to the taxes that come in instead of the abundance of riches and glory.
Speaker 1: By Christ Jesus, people are becoming increasingly dependent on government and more compliant with government and walking away from this word here that is so precious.
Speaker 1: In Revelation, chapter 1,.
Speaker 1: I'm going to read some verses out of here.
Speaker 1: In verse 10, we'll begin Revelation 1-10.
Speaker 1: This is John writing this here and he's talking about what he's just seen.
Speaker 1: He says I was in the spirit on the Lord's day when I heard behind me a loud voice as a trumpet Saying I'm the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last.
Speaker 1: What you see right in the book and send it out to the seven churches and we'll skip down to verse 12.
Speaker 1: Then I turned to see the voice that spoke to me and, having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands and in the midst of the seven lampstands, one like the Son of man, clothed with garment down to his feet and girded about his chest with a golden band.
Speaker 1: His head and hair were white like wool and white as snow, and his eyes like a flame of fire.
Speaker 1: His feet were like fine brass, as refined in a furnace, and his voice like the sound of many waters.
Speaker 1: And he had in his right hand seven stars, and out of his mouth went a sharp, two-edged sword and his countenance was like that of the sun, shining in its strength.
Speaker 1: And when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead.
Speaker 1: But he laid his hand on me saying Do not be afraid, I'm the first and the last.
Speaker 1: I am he who lives and was dead.
Speaker 1: And behold, I'm alive forevermore.
Speaker 1: Amen.
Speaker 1: And I have the keys of hell and death.
Speaker 1: You know, jesus had compassion on John, right there.
Speaker 1: John thought that was the end of him.
Speaker 1: He was on the ground and he thought he was maybe dead in that moment.
Speaker 1: But that same compassionate voice came back.
Speaker 1: John would have been familiar with the voice of Jesus.
Speaker 1: He had heard it a lot as a disciple and he heard those words Don't be afraid.
Speaker 1: And so there was compassion in Jesus' voice.
Speaker 1: In Revelation 1, jesus goes on to give commendations and criticisms, instructions and promises to the seven churches.
Speaker 1: There was the Loveless Church, the persecuted church, the compromising church, the corrupt church, the dead church, the faithful church and the lukewarm church.
Speaker 1: So Jesus' words were a judgment to the seven churches, but it was given out of love and compassion.
Speaker 1: He was not wanting one of those churches to be a failure or to be lost.
Speaker 1: He gave each one instruction whereby they could all receive their reward.
Speaker 1: He commended some when they were doing a good job and the others he said what they were doing wrong and how they could fix it and get it right.
Speaker 1: And so Jesus wants to help us get things right when we're out of place.
Speaker 1: You know Jesus is coming back for a church that's without spot, without wrinkle, without blemish, and he expects that that comes out of Ephesians 5, 27.
Speaker 1: And I look around at the times that we're in right now and I see that the sands going through that hourglass we're in the last little bit, the last few sands are going through the neck of that hourglass.
Speaker 1: We're coming close to the end and yet the church is out of position when you can only see a faint flicker of a dying flame.
Speaker 1: In so many churches the church wants to lay low and they don't want to say anything that might get them canceled.
Speaker 1: But we've already been uncanceled.
Speaker 1: Jesus has already done that for us.
Speaker 1: If they would just simply recognize, jesus made us more than conquerors.
Speaker 1: Claire and I were talking about this the other day.
Speaker 1: Maybe she even mentioned it in her preaching.
Speaker 1: What's more than a conqueror?
Speaker 1: The conqueror, the fighter.
Speaker 1: If you like to watch fighting on TV, if you like to watch the MMA fighting, that guy who wins the fight is the champion and he's a conqueror and he's defeated the other guy in that ring and those fights are pretty bloody and brutal.
Speaker 1: But that man is, or that woman they even have women doing that MMA.
Speaker 1: So that winner of that fight is the champion.
Speaker 1: But when that winner goes home and brings that check to their spouse, the spouse is more than a conqueror.
Speaker 1: So you've got the conqueror who won the fight.
Speaker 1: But the one who gets the full benefit of the fight is more than a conqueror, and that's the church, that's who we are.
Speaker 1: We've been made more than conquerors.
Speaker 1: Hebrews 4, verse 15 says For we do not have a high priest that cannot sympathize with our weakness.
Speaker 1: But he was in all points tempted as we are.
Speaker 1: He's been through everything that we can go through.
Speaker 1: He was tempted just like every person can be today, and yet he did it without sin, and he did that so that we can.
Speaker 1: It says here Therefore, come boldly to the throne of grace, where we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Speaker 1: So that we can come boldly before the throne of grace, we can obtain mercy.
Speaker 1: God's mercy is endure forever.
Speaker 1: It's always available to us.
Speaker 1: We can find grace to help in time of need, and so if we're to be counted faithful, we must do that.
Speaker 1: We must come boldly and go ahead and take advantage of that grace and that mercy that's available to us and that help that's always available to us.
Speaker 1: And we also must become compassionate like Jesus and love people enough to tell him the truth.
Speaker 1: You know what kind of truths are people afraid to hear?
Speaker 1: Here's an easy one Men can't get pregnant.
Speaker 1: And those words right there will infuriate and enrage people to try to cancel the one who said those words.
Speaker 1: They'll try to cancel me over those words.
Speaker 1: Men can't get pregnant.
Speaker 1: It's wrong to kill babies in the womb.
Speaker 1: It's wrong to kill babies outside of the womb.
Speaker 1: It's wrong to kill babies.
Speaker 1: There's a simple truth, and so we ought to love people enough to help them with the truth.
Speaker 1: It's wrong to let violent repeat offenders out onto the street and have the opportunity to keep on committing more crimes.
Speaker 1: We have lawlessness here in Harris County.
Speaker 1: What our Harris County judge, what our Democrat commissioners on that court are doing, what those judges are doing when they let these violent repeat offenders out there, when we try to reduce the funding for our law enforcement officers.
Speaker 1: These people in government positions are supposed to be God's ministers for righteousness.
Speaker 1: They're supposed to be a terror to evil, and that's according to Romans, chapter 13,.
Speaker 1: But when they're not, they're violating God's laws.
Speaker 1: They're in there for an alternative purpose.
Speaker 1: They're serving the antichrist spirit, and that's wrong, and so we ought to love people enough to tell them the truth.
Speaker 1: Jesus had compassion on people and he cared to teach him what was right.
Speaker 1: You know, to have compassion literally means to suffer together.
Speaker 1: It can be defined as that feeling that arises when you're confronted with another's feelings and their sufferings and you feel motivated to relieve their suffering, always follow that compassion.
Speaker 1: When Jesus was feeding the 5,000, this comes out of Matthew, chapter 14, it said he saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion.
Speaker 1: Compassion moved Jesus, and what did he do?
Speaker 1: He healed their sick.
Speaker 1: It says In the same account, but in Mark, chapter six, mark's account of this, it says he was moved with compassion for them because he saw them as sheep having no shepherd, and he began to teach them many things.
Speaker 1: And so compassion caused Jesus to teach them many things and to heal their sick.
Speaker 1: And he also cared about their hunger, enough to show the disciples how to work a miracle and multiply the resources and take a little boy's lunch and feed so many.
Speaker 1: And so compassion moves Jesus.
Speaker 1: He taught, he healed.
Speaker 1: Whenever you have that compassion welling up on the inside of you for you know, you see somebody in need.
Speaker 1: Whenever you have that compassion welling up on the inside of you, that right, there's an indication that the Holy Ghost wants you to do something and he wants to do it through you.
Speaker 1: That compassion is not for you know, hey, I need to find somebody to do this, to handle this.
Speaker 1: That compassion is for you to do that.
Speaker 1: When you have compassion, respond to it.
Speaker 1: Respond with the love of God towards that person.
Speaker 1: Let the Holy Ghost back you up.
Speaker 1: You can't do this in your own power.
Speaker 1: That's obvious.
Speaker 1: That's why we have that power button.
Speaker 1: Push the power button and let the Holy Ghost work with you.
Speaker 1: Matthew, chapter five, verse 11, says blessed are they when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of mean, nasty and evil and ugly things against you falsely, for my sake.
Speaker 1: So when people are giving you a hard time for Jesus' sake, because you're ministering this word or doing this word, it says that you're blessed.
Speaker 1: Blessed are they.
Speaker 1: Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you and say all kinds of evil against you falsely, for my sake, you're blessed.
Speaker 1: And then it says rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for your reward is in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Speaker 1: You won't catch any flak until you're over the target, ready to drop the bombs on the devil.
Speaker 1: That's the only time you start getting flak.
Speaker 1: And so if you start getting flak, just know hey, I'm on target, I'm right where I need to be, and then get happy about it.
Speaker 1: It says rejoice and be exceedingly glad.
Speaker 1: And so that's a choice.
Speaker 1: But get there, rejoice and be exceedingly glad.
Speaker 1: So a little bit later, there in Matthew 5, moving on to verse 13, it says that you were salt, you were the salt of the earth.
Speaker 1: But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it be seasoned If it is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled under the foot of men?
Speaker 1: And so salt, you know, it's got a flavor, it's salty, it does something to your food, it's recognizable universally, but if it loses its flavor it's worthless.
Speaker 1: And so you're the Jesus said.
Speaker 1: You're the salt of the earth.
Speaker 1: Don't lose your flavor.
Speaker 1: Verse 14 says that you're the light of the world, and the city that sat on a hill cannot be hidden.
Speaker 1: Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but they put it on a lamp stand that it gives light to all who are in the house.
Speaker 1: Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your father, who is in heaven.
Speaker 1: You've been uncanceled.
Speaker 1: You've been given the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1: You have revelation knowledge.
Speaker 1: You've got a power button Turn it on.
Speaker 1: Jesus has already paid the penalty.
Speaker 1: He's overcome the world, the connotation being that he's already done this.
Speaker 1: And so you can enforce the terms of the world surrender or the devil surrender.
Speaker 1: And so we're charged to be salt, to be light, and let compassion drive you.
Speaker 1: Be filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: You can't accomplish everything that you've been called to do if you're not first filled with the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: Believers need to be filled to overflowing.
Speaker 1: Have rivers of living water flowing out of you.
Speaker 1: It is hard to hold back a river.
Speaker 1: Have you ever tried to stop up a river?
Speaker 1: It's hard.
Speaker 1: You can't do it unless you employ some pretty extreme engineering.
Speaker 1: And so be that.
Speaker 1: Be somebody where, when God's word, god's compassion and that truth starts coming out, nothing can stop it.
Speaker 1: It's not just one river that flows out of you, but multiple rivers.
Speaker 1: Rivers of living water flows out.
Speaker 1: You know, claire sometimes says that I'm too salty, and I might be, but really I'm just trying to make up for all the other Christians who have lost their flavor of salt.
Speaker 1: And so we've got to be salt, we've got to be light, we've got to employ what God gave us the power of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: He's our helper, he's on the inside you, it said.
Speaker 1: He would lead you, he would guide you, he would show you things to come.
Speaker 1: There's a world out there that is lost and dying.
Speaker 1: They don't know the truth.
Speaker 1: Much of the denominational church is trying to do things under their own power.
Speaker 1: They have the word, and the word is good, and they'll accomplish some stuff with the word, but the word and the spirit together will put you over the top.
Speaker 1: The word and the spirit together will accomplish so much more than the logos or the written word will Revelation knowledge.
Speaker 1: The Holy Spirit will give you revelation, knowledge about his word, and so then it becomes alive to you on the inside of you and you can accomplish so much more.
Speaker 1: Have that compassion on the inside of you.
Speaker 1: Care about people, love people.
Speaker 1: You know if you're busy loving people it's hard to be mad at them.
Speaker 1: Love is a fruit of the spirit.
Speaker 1: Love keeps no account of a suffered wrong, and so the cancel culture.
Speaker 1: They have a long list of accounts.
Speaker 1: They have an itemized list, a whole spreadsheet of things, of all the wrong things you've said, when you've said it, who you said it to.
Speaker 1: They know who you work for, who to go after, who your friends are.
Speaker 1: They'll camp outside your house.
Speaker 1: You'll have news media that'll come against you.
Speaker 1: You've got all kinds of ways that the cancel culture will try to cancel you out and you could cower, you could become afraid.
Speaker 1: You could say, oh my goodness, they're coming against me.
Speaker 1: I've said something.
Speaker 1: The news media is out here.
Speaker 1: Well, when have you had the news media out in front of you before, where now you have an audience that's much bigger than your living room, than your front yard?
Speaker 1: Now you've got an audience of the world, so you can look at these things and be fearful of them, or you can look at them and say what an opportunity we have.
Speaker 1: And so I go back to when we determined and declared that we were going to be open as a church.
Speaker 1: The county judge was sending threatenings that they might send law enforcement here if we opened up.
Speaker 1: So this was back when this pandemic was getting geared up and churches were closing down.
Speaker 1: The governor had issued his executive order and said only essential businesses can be open.
Speaker 1: And we said well, what about us?
Speaker 1: We're essential, the church is essential.
Speaker 1: And we declared and we determined we're going to be open.
Speaker 1: So it was that Palm Sunday that we opened the doors to the church and we didn't send a notice out to media but they wanted to cancel us.
Speaker 1: They wanted us to be the bad church that was killing people, the bad, irresponsible church that was spreading disease.
Speaker 1: The church doesn't spread disease.
Speaker 1: The church spreads the love of God.
Speaker 1: The church spreads healing.
Speaker 1: We're charged to lay hands on the sick and the sick will recover.
Speaker 1: That's what Jesus said we can and should do.
Speaker 1: And many churches just shut down and so we opened up.
Speaker 1: This is our testimony.
Speaker 1: And the news media was out there, not just one station, but there were, I think, three news media stations out there In the parking lot and we had 120.
Speaker 1: Think about it there were 120 in the upper room when the Holy Ghost filled that room, those disciples in Jerusalem that were waiting for this 120.
Speaker 1: And so we had 120 in our sanctuary that day that we opened up, on Palm Sunday, and we got all kinds of hate mail.
Speaker 1: We got all kinds of bad reviews.
Speaker 1: They tried to overwhelm our Facebook page with bad posts and bad things and, just like Paul said, these things have rather fallen out to the furtherance of the gospel.
Speaker 1: And we had a voice that went out over news media.
Speaker 1: I got to interview on BBC.
Speaker 1: I took a phone call from Good Morning America.
Speaker 1: The New York Post called us renegade pastors Thought, hey, that's kind of cool, we're renegades to the world.
Speaker 1: But we got caught doing what God called us to do and that would have been the end of it.
Speaker 1: Except that we were also open Easter and that meant the same group of news media stations were back here again reporting on us, not one but two weekends in a row.
Speaker 1: And everybody in the Houston area knew that we were that church that opened up and we got to sue the governor.
Speaker 1: We got to push back against lawlessness there.
Speaker 1: You know, we have a constitutional right that's protected under the First Amendment, and so we exercised our right.
Speaker 1: We didn't try to defend our rights, we asserted our rights.
Speaker 1: We just did it.
Speaker 1: And we sued the governor.
Speaker 1: We pushed back and shortly thereafter there was a revision in the explanation of the governor's orders which allowed for churches to open up.
Speaker 1: And then, shortly after that, he issued new orders which encouraged churches to open up, and we were not that super spreader of it.
Speaker 1: We did not have a pandemic that rolled through our congregation and took everybody out.
Speaker 1: On the contrary, people came in here, they loved God, they worshiped God.
Speaker 1: Those whose churches were closed from far and wide came here.
Speaker 1: People came from Austin, from Beaumont, from Galveston not just once, but continually, while their churches were closed.
Speaker 1: They came right here and they got to hear the gospel, they were taught the truth, they were fed the truth.
Speaker 1: There were people that came in here that missed church, that had been out of church and they didn't even know what they were missing until they came into church and felt the presence of God.
Speaker 1: They felt rivers of living water, and we got to water people from all over this region, and we still get to do that.
Speaker 1: And so we, as believers, we're charged to do that.
Speaker 1: We're charged to have compassion.
Speaker 1: We're charged to lay hands on the sick.
Speaker 1: We're charged to teach this truth, to love people enough to teach it, and we're charged to have rivers of living water that flow out of us.
Speaker 1: And so that is what the believers are to do in the end times.
Speaker 1: We are not canceled, we have been uncanceled.
Speaker 1: Don't let the world tell you you've been canceled.
Speaker 1: You can look at it as a threat or an opportunity, and I see it as a huge opportunity.
Speaker 1: We have a much bigger audience.
Speaker 1: When they come against us, more people are listening.
Speaker 1: When they come against you, more people get to hear you, and so let's be doers of God's Word and not hearers only.