Speaker 1: Well, before we begin tonight, let's just pray.
Speaker 1: Heavenly Father, I thank you for your holy written word and Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1: I thank you that you dwell on the inside of each and every one of us.
Speaker 1: You're our helper, you're our peace, our guide.
Speaker 1: You lead us, guide us, teach us things, you show us things to come.
Speaker 1: So, lord, I pray that every word that comes out of my mouth tonight will go out and that it will accomplish the purpose that you intend for it.
Speaker 1: It does not return void.
Speaker 1: Lord, I declare that our hearts are open to receive everything that you have for us, that people will hear this and that it'll be a help and a strength and an encouragement to them and help them put them over the top for success in this life.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1: Well, I'd like to start out by wishing everybody a very happy LGBTQ Pride Month, the month of June, the month of June, and a quote to you out of Isaiah 20 that says woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.
Speaker 1: Some people got some stuff backwards and those things are.
Speaker 1: Both of those things, pride and homosexuality are an abomination to God.
Speaker 1: And we've got two presidents and one resident of the United States that have officially declared the Pride Month.
Speaker 1: So I'll just watch the progression here.
Speaker 1: First it was Bill Clinton that declared gay and lesbian Pride Month in 1999 and 2000.
Speaker 1: And then, from 2009 to 2016, each year he was in office, barack Obama declared June to be LGBT Pride Month.
Speaker 1: So we went from gay and lesbian to LGBT Pride Month, and later resident Biden declared June to be LGBTQ plus Pride Month.
Speaker 1: And so there's a progression, a progression of sin, and we'll have more of what we allow.
Speaker 1: I've quoted out of this plenty, out of Matthew, chapter 18, verse six.
Speaker 1: It gives it Jesus is talking here and he gives a very serious warning to those who would offend one of these little ones.
Speaker 1: And the word offend there does not mean to hurt one's feelings, but to lead them away and ties them into sin and away from the faith and into apostasy.
Speaker 1: And it said it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, the one who offends one of these little ones, and he were drowned in the depths of the sea.
Speaker 1: Woe to the world because of offenses, for offenses must come, but woe to the man by whom those offenses come.
Speaker 1: And so I'd like to introduce to you a new ministry here at Glorious Way Church.
Speaker 1: We're gonna start producing millstones and handing them out appropriately.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna quote Bill Mayer if that doesn't offend or hurt your feelings.
Speaker 1: You know, sometimes he gets some things right on occasion.
Speaker 1: So he reported a Gallup poll on the LGBT community and that poll pointed out that those numbers are doubling by generation and he kind of made a joke out of it.
Speaker 1: But he said those who were born before 1946, there was less than 1% that identified that way.
Speaker 1: And then you get into the boomer generation.
Speaker 1: So that's not me, I'm not one of those old people, but 2.6% of those identify as some form of LGBT, something or other.
Speaker 1: And then you get into Gen X 4.2%, the millennials 10.5%, and Gen Z, which is the generation we're looking at right now, has 20.8% identify as LGBT or Q or something beyond that.
Speaker 1: It's doubling every generation.
Speaker 1: So his joke was by some such and such year we'll all be.
Speaker 1: But no, we won't all be.
Speaker 1: But there is a clear if this was a natural thing, if this was in our laws of nature, this would be something that you would see a certain percent of all through history, and it would not be an increasing trend, it would not be doubling every generation, but that right.
Speaker 1: There is clear evidence that people are grooming our kids for this, and I wanted to warn you about Texas State Law.
Speaker 1: There are certain protections or exemptions in current Texas State Law that exclude schools and libraries from laws referring to obscenities.
Speaker 1: So there are obscenities that are not legal, that we absolutely cannot put in front of families and kids in public places.
Speaker 1: You'll get fined or go to prison for doing such a thing.
Speaker 1: But there's an exception.
Speaker 1: A school or a library can put that same material forward Because they're an instrument of education, and so in our Texas laws we have exceptions for that, and we've got to get that changed Not too long ago.
Speaker 1: So remember here in the leak from the Supreme Court justices a few weeks ago that they were signaling the impending overturn of the Roe v Wade ruling, and so we expect our court to come out with that.
Speaker 1: But the Democrats absolutely went nuts with this and they were so livid, and so their immediate reaction was for straight down partisan lines.
Speaker 1: And why am I talking about Democrats and Republicans here?
Speaker 1: Let me just clear the air on this.
Speaker 1: God's not Democrat, he's not Republican.
Speaker 1: God's God.
Speaker 1: He has a side.
Speaker 1: People have to get on His side, the Democrat party platform.
Speaker 1: The things that they stand for are demonic and anti-Christ, and so in that context I'll talk about these things.
Speaker 1: And the Democrats tried to immediately pass legislation that would legalize abortion right up until birth.
Speaker 1: Right up until birth.
Speaker 1: And so the woman would have a choice right up until birth according to that legislation.
Speaker 1: Well, thankfully it didn't pass, but it was a vote away Because our House of Congress is split so closely.
Speaker 1: It was a vote away.
Speaker 1: And so you know and they made the case that you know well, most of those abortions you know.
Speaker 1: You start talking to them and they talk about cases of rape and incest and the health of the mother.
Speaker 1: Well, planned Parenthood reports that 90, better than 92%, are elective abortions.
Speaker 1: So if we just made the argument to them and said, well, let's just do away with just the elective, we won't even talk about those cases of rape and incest, and when the mother's health is at risk, just do away with the elective ones.
Speaker 1: They would still be just as livid because there is so much money in that industry and they're unwilling to part with that and it's pure evil.
Speaker 1: We have a death culture in our society.
Speaker 1: They pretend to care about life, but they don't care about the life of the baby.
Speaker 1: By the way, our 14th Amendment requires equal protection under the law, and that includes the baby having not yet been born.
Speaker 1: There's constitutional protections, but we've got legislators that don't want to acknowledge that because they have a hard time applying the law equally and saying that that's murder and that the woman should go to jail.
Speaker 1: If we make this illegal and we don't have houses of abortion, then you won't have that problem.
Speaker 1: I understand people will go and do things that are illegal, but people that do things illegal ought to pay the price for doing things that are illegal.
Speaker 1: So, anyway, our culture, we see it all the way around it's just going south pretty quick.
Speaker 1: We celebrate mental illness and praise people who have mental derangement, and I don't think that we can legislate our way out of this mess.
Speaker 1: Laws are important, but I don't know that we can legislate our way out of this mess.
Speaker 1: Our culture embraces the moral decay and the normalizing that violates the laws of nature and nature's God, and so when we have that kind of condition, the problem goes beyond our legislature.
Speaker 1: It's our culture, and I put the blame on that over the course of history squarely on the shoulders of the church, who has, little by little, left its role in society.
Speaker 1: None of this should be a surprise.
Speaker 1: Jesus said that it would get real dark before his return.
Speaker 1: But I look and I say that we have a timing problem because the church is not ready for the second coming of Christ and all of these things that I've mentioned before and plenty beyond that is the evidence that I present to that case.
Speaker 1: The church is not ready because it's not the glorious church without spot or wrinkle or blemish that Jesus spoke of.
Speaker 1: It's not the glorious church that's shining his glory in society.
Speaker 1: If the church was glorious like that, we wouldn't have this level of culture rot that we have right now, and God will get his harvest out of this earth.
Speaker 1: He is, jesus is coming back, but whether it be in this generation or the next one or the one beyond that, I can't tell you.
Speaker 1: I can look back and recognize that Israelite's got in trouble with God and he held back a generation in the wilderness who didn't get to go into the Promised Land because they didn't rise to the level that he required of them.
Speaker 1: And so God is patient, and he will outweigh every generation that does not rise to the level that he requires.
Speaker 1: If it's not the next generation, we'll just aim for the next one.
Speaker 1: God's patience is beyond ours.
Speaker 1: I don't want to wait for another generation, I want it to be this one.
Speaker 1: And so I am bound and determined to wake people up that way.
Speaker 1: Romans 13 says you know it's an emergency.
Speaker 1: In verse 12, the night is far spent, the day is at hand.
Speaker 1: Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.
Speaker 1: Clare said it a few minutes ago let there be light.
Speaker 1: In a time when it's dark and chaos and godless and in disorder, we can bring light to it.
Speaker 1: We're to have a creative power of our voice and our tongue and say let there be light.
Speaker 1: Let us put on the armor of light and walk properly, as in the day, not in rubbery and drunkenness, not in lewdness and lust, strife and envy, but put on the Lord, jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof.
Speaker 1: And I see church making room for people because we don't want to offend people.
Speaker 1: Let me tell you this church has paid a price because of the message that comes out of this pulpit and when people become offended, I just look around the room and say there's seven lighted exits and no seatbelts.
Speaker 1: But thank God for the people that love the truth and want to hear the truth and get filled with the truth and then carry it outside the walls of the church.
Speaker 1: The church ought not be a box that contains truth and then it just stays inside this room.
Speaker 1: We need to spill over into every facet of society.
Speaker 1: In Ephesians 5.11 it says and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.
Speaker 1: So the church is supposed to be shining our spotlight on things that are not right and exposing those things.
Speaker 1: And in verse 14 it says therefore, he says awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead and Christ will give you light.
Speaker 1: I want you to remember that verse.
Speaker 1: We're going to reference something similar to that a little bit later Arise, wake, you who sleep, and arise from the dead and Christ will give you light.
Speaker 1: So Jesus talking to his disciples this is Mark, chapter 13.
Speaker 1: And in verse 33 he said take heed, watch and pray.
Speaker 1: By the way, the title of tonight's message is Watch, pray and Act, and so I'm going to show you where we get that in scripture Watch, pray and act.
Speaker 1: Take heed, watch and pray, for you do not know the time when the time is.
Speaker 1: It's like a man going to a far country who left his house and then gave authority to his servants and to each his work and commanded the doorkeeper to watch.
Speaker 1: Watch, therefore, for you do not know when the master of the house is coming in the evening and midnight, at the crowing of the rooster in the morning, lest he come quickly and he finds you sleeping.
Speaker 1: And what I say to you, I say to all watch.
Speaker 1: And so, right there we've got watch and pray.
Speaker 1: Jesus is saying watch and pray.
Speaker 1: Luke, chapter 12, verse 35,.
Speaker 1: This is the faithful and evil servant.
Speaker 1: In verse 37 it says blessed are those servants whom the master, when he comes, finds watching.
Speaker 1: So I don't know if you've ever heard about this, but our constables have a vacation watch that they offer to the community.
Speaker 1: If you're leaving your house and if you're going to go on vacation, you can call your constables, whatever precinct you're in.
Speaker 1: Some of them, I believe they have it on their website, but you can give them information about.
Speaker 1: This is my address, this is who I am.
Speaker 1: This is the color of my car.
Speaker 1: This is the license plate number.
Speaker 1: These are all the things about my house, and we're going to be gone from this date to this date and they'll stop by your house and they'll check your doors and make regular patrols around your house.
Speaker 1: They'll do it more often and just check on your house for you while you're gone.
Speaker 1: And I heard one of the constables talking about this one time and he said that if you come back from your vacation early, you also need to let them know that you're coming back early.
Speaker 1: So a couple of days early, one family that did the vacation watch came back early and the constable's there and he sees that there's a car in the driveway that wasn't there the day before because he'd been doing his watch.
Speaker 1: And he goes around the front of the house and he sees that there's a light on inside and he sees some movement inside the house and nobody's supposed to be there yet because clearly these people are on vacation.
Speaker 1: And so he goes up to the door and knocks on the door.
Speaker 1: He said we always like to get caught doing our job, and so he knocks on the door and he puts his hand on his piece and the lady answers the door and he said ma'am, are you back from vacation?
Speaker 1: She said oh yes, I'm so sorry I forgot to say that.
Speaker 1: And he said well, I just want you to know, we're checking on your house.
Speaker 1: We kept watch while you were away, and so he was blessed because he got caught doing his job.
Speaker 1: We ought to get caught doing our job.
Speaker 1: So in Luke, chapter 12, a little bit further, in verse 38, it says and if he should come in the second watch or come in the third watch and find them so blessed as servants?
Speaker 1: In verse 39, there it says but know this that the master of the house, had he known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed the house to be broken into.
Speaker 1: So it's not enough to just watch, and it's not enough to just watch and pray.
Speaker 1: You ever seen the commercial about this?
Speaker 1: I don't even know what it was for, but you got a guy in the bank and robbers come in and the security what looks like a security guard.
Speaker 1: There he hits the floor along with everybody else and there's this woman saying aren't you going to do something?
Speaker 1: And he says oh, ma'am, I'm just a security monitor.
Speaker 1: I'm here to let you know when you have a problem, and you have a problem.
Speaker 1: And so you know he was a watchman who just watched security cameras.
Speaker 1: We got a lot of security cameras around here and they're real good at catching activity, but they don't report very well and so and they certainly don't do anything to stop.
Speaker 1: And so we've got to watch and pray and then take action.
Speaker 1: That homeowner would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into if he caught the guy coming in.
Speaker 1: Don't let the devil rob you.
Speaker 1: Therefore, you also be ready, for the Son of man is coming at an hour that you do not expect.
Speaker 1: You know we talk about act and faith has a corresponding action.
Speaker 1: Faith by itself is dead, being alone, and so we can have faith, we can talk faith, but unless you have a corresponding action that goes with it, nothing happens with faith.
Speaker 1: Faith by itself doesn't do a lot.
Speaker 1: Faith with action will accomplish all kinds of things.
Speaker 1: So now I'm getting into the believer's ministry.
Speaker 1: The title of tonight's message I said was Watch, pray and Act, but really that's a very simplified version of the believer's ministry and that's a ministry that is largely missing in the world today.
Speaker 1: So we've got the fivefold ministry If you go to Ephesians, chapter four, beginning in about verse 11 or 12, it talks about the fivefold ministry the apostle, the prophet, the evangelist, the pastor and the teacher, and we as believers.
Speaker 1: You know, we got an apostle, we got an prophet, got an evangelist, pastor, teacher.
Speaker 1: These are all high level people, right, that function and maybe special giftings and knowledge of God's word, and they're here to help us, as believers, grow up and be good Christians.
Speaker 1: Well, that's true, and it talks about their purpose, that they are there for the equipping of the saints for the work of the ministry.
Speaker 1: So they're there to equip the believers for what?
Speaker 1: For the work of the ministry.
Speaker 1: So there, the fivefold ministry is not there to do all the work of the ministry.
Speaker 1: The fivefold ministries that were mentioned there are there for the equipping of the saints, so that we, the saints, can go out and do the work of the ministry.
Speaker 1: They're there to build up the body of Christ of born again believers, so that the believers can go out and do the work of the ministry, so we can go and bring in this harvest and get this thing done.
Speaker 1: So, you know, people bring somebody, brings somebody to church.
Speaker 1: Well, I brought them to church so they could get saved.
Speaker 1: Why did you bring them to church to get saved?
Speaker 1: How long were you talking to them just to get them to come to church?
Speaker 1: Why didn't you get them saved?
Speaker 1: The believers need to be doing this stuff.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm bringing people to pastor so he can get him saved, so he can get him healed, so he can get him filled with the Holy Spirit, so he can.
Speaker 1: He can't no, no, no, you, the believer, are to do this kind of thing.
Speaker 1: Anybody remember the Great Commission?
Speaker 1: Anybody remember how it starts out?
Speaker 1: It doesn't start with go ye.
Speaker 1: That was a trick question because I knew some of you would say that, and you're not wrong.
Speaker 1: But back up a little bit further.
Speaker 1: Matthew 28, 18 says all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Speaker 1: Jesus said all authority in heaven and on earth is given to me.
Speaker 1: And then he turns right around to his disciples and he says now you can say it go, ye, yeah.
Speaker 1: Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing in the name of the Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to deserve all things I have commanded you and I'm with you always, to the end of the age.
Speaker 1: The Great Commission starts with all authority.
Speaker 1: So I want you to think about our lines of authority.
Speaker 1: God, the heavenly Father, gave Jesus all authority, who turned right around and gave it to people in the believer's ministry to go and do.
Speaker 1: And then in Mark's account of this Mark 16, 17,.
Speaker 1: If you're taking notes, he said and these signs will follow them that believe In my name, they will cast out devils, they'll speak with new tongues, they'll take up servants and if they eat or drink any deadly thing, it shall by no means hurt them and they'll lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.
Speaker 1: That's the believer's ministry, the Great Commission to send believers out to go and do the work, not the five-fold ministry to go and do the work.
Speaker 1: Five-fold ministry there to build us up.
Speaker 1: Send us out so we can go do this stuff, bring in a harvest.
Speaker 1: So if churches had been doing this model and we look at society all the way around, is it working?
Speaker 1: It's not working to the degree that it should be, because people are not doing what they're supposed to be doing.
Speaker 1: Because people in church come to church to get filled up with God's word.
Speaker 1: They hear things, they hear truth, they have a mental knowledge of God's word.
Speaker 1: They sit in here and they really, if you could look at their spirits, their spirits might be big fat spirits sitting there in a chair, taking up two or three chairs, because they're so full of the word they can quote, quote, quote, but they don't do, do, do and they don't put it to work outside.
Speaker 1: And so there's a big gap between what so many Christians know and what we should be doing.
Speaker 1: And this is not an indictment of anyone here on church.
Speaker 1: This is an encouragement that we have to go and do more, that we've gotta put our voices to work.
Speaker 1: God's word doesn't return.
Speaker 1: Void God's word, whoever says it.
Speaker 1: God said it, but it's still his word when we say it.
Speaker 1: So God's word in his mouth accomplishes the same thing as God's word in our mouth.
Speaker 1: And so let's put his word to work, let's get outside the walls of church and let's do the work of the believer's ministry.
Speaker 1: It is the greatest ministry, it is the end time ministry.
Speaker 1: John talking, or in John, chapter 14, jesus talking to his disciples, he said, most assuredly, I'd say to you that he who believes in me.
Speaker 1: So what would you call somebody who believes in Jesus A believer?
Speaker 1: So are you believers?
Speaker 1: So this is talking to you most assuredly.
Speaker 1: I say to you, believers, the works that I do, you will do also, and greater works than these will you do, because I go to my father.
Speaker 1: How is it that believers are supposed to do greater works than Jesus?
Speaker 1: What does that greater mean?
Speaker 1: That mean greater in the level of spectacular, maybe, I mean, but raising the dead is kind of hard to beat that one, and so you know.
Speaker 1: But at a minimum we're supposed to do that.
Speaker 1: Believers are supposed to do what Jesus did.
Speaker 1: He said these things you'll do, and greater than this.
Speaker 1: So I look at the greater and I think well, jesus was on earth for a particular period of time and he launched his ministry, and it was a relatively short period of time before he left here and went to his father, and so he only accomplished so much during that time.
Speaker 1: Now, he was a busy guy and he did a whole lot, and they said that you could write down everything Jesus did in all the books of the world and you still couldn't contain it all.
Speaker 1: So he was very, very busy, but again, it was a short period of time and we've been here a lot longer in our lifespan here.
Speaker 1: How many born again believers are in here who were born again.
Speaker 1: Your recreated spirit is now older than the length of Jesus' earth ministry.
Speaker 1: Okay, so then I say that the greater works are greater in number.
Speaker 1: Can we believe that?
Speaker 1: That one's easy to believe right there that you should be doing greater in number than Jesus did when he was here on earth.
Speaker 1: That means we gotta be busier than we are right now, going and doing the things that he did and that he said we can do.
Speaker 1: And it's not so far fetched to say that every one of us should be raising the dead.
Speaker 1: I know we're starting to choke on that one a little bit, but know that your spirit and you live in that body and you have a mind, a soul, a will and intellect.
Speaker 1: Okay, you are a spirit.
Speaker 1: You are a born again spirit.
Speaker 1: Why were you born again?
Speaker 1: Because you were a dead spirit before you were born again, and so we ought to be raising dead spirits to life, raising the dead into the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1: There's plenty of dead spirits walking around in this world that don't know Jesus, that are not born again, and they are dead in sin.
Speaker 1: And so now, is it so hard to believe that we ought to be raising the dead everywhere we go.
Speaker 1: That's the work of the believer to raise the dead.
Speaker 1: Not a hard step to make when you realize that we are spirits and that they're dead people out there.
Speaker 1: Okay, now I'll talk a little bit about the role of the pastor.
Speaker 1: The pastor is a shepherd and he's charged.
Speaker 1: The simple terms of a shepherd is to lead, feed and guard.
Speaker 1: Hebrews 13, 17 says that he watches over your soul as one that gives an account.
Speaker 1: So there's a higher penalty to pay for not getting it right.
Speaker 1: And the pastor is not there to micromanage people's lives, but to raise people up in the way that they should think.
Speaker 1: Help them think the way God wants you to think.
Speaker 1: Help you compare your decision-making process, the way you live your life, with God's word and his promises, so that you can have a fulfilled, victorious life, so that you can truly be a more than a conqueror.
Speaker 1: Jesus made us more than conquerors Another simple little thing here.
Speaker 1: So how is one more than a conqueror?
Speaker 1: If you conquer something and you totally beat it and destroyed it and now you're the winner, how do you be more than a conqueror?
Speaker 1: Well, I want you to think about an MMA fighter who gets in the ring with another MMA fighter and totally pummel the other guy.
Speaker 1: And the other guy is bleeding on the mat and knocked out and the loser.
Speaker 1: So one is a conqueror and one is a loser.
Speaker 1: Jesus was the conqueror and the devil was the loser.
Speaker 1: Jesus has defeated the devil.
Speaker 1: Right, he was the conqueror.
Speaker 1: The guy in that MMA ring was the conqueror.
Speaker 1: He wins the fight.
Speaker 1: There's a check that goes with that.
Speaker 1: When he brings that check home to his wife, she is more than a conqueror, cause she didn't have to fight, she did none of the work, but she got all of the benefit.
Speaker 1: And that's what we are as born-again Christians.
Speaker 1: Jesus made us more than conquerors.
Speaker 1: We didn't have to do the hard work, we just get all of the benefit.
Speaker 1: We get the check.
Speaker 1: So we're more than conquerors.
Speaker 1: We got to be watchful and not fall in asleep.
Speaker 1: Remember when Jesus' disciples were in the garden of Gethsemane.
Speaker 1: He went there to pray it was his custom to go and pray, but this was right before his crucifixion and he brought his disciples there and I think he had Peter James and John.
Speaker 1: He had his disciples sit and told them to watch, and then he took Peter James and John a little bit further in there and said sit here and watch.
Speaker 1: And that's when he began to grieve and pray and travail and the weight of what he was about to go through was really coming on him.
Speaker 1: And then he came back and Peter's asleep.
Speaker 1: He's like couldn't you stay awake one hour, wake up, wake up, watch, pray.
Speaker 1: And Jesus went to pray again and his disciples fell asleep again.
Speaker 1: It was late in the night.
Speaker 1: They'd probably been working and Jesus working all day and they're working all day and they're walking all day, going places, and they were tired but he just wanted them to watch just for an hour, take a shift, take a turn.
Speaker 1: And they couldn't even stay up for one hour.
Speaker 1: So Claire said I'm an old sailor Again, not that old, but I did spend some time sailing and I grew up in Corpus Christi and I didn't have money to buy a boat or any of that, but I was a sea explorer and I got to learn to sail through the sea explorers.
Speaker 1: After I'd been through college for about a year, I found out about a tall ship, a square rig sailing ship.
Speaker 1: It was a replica of a British frigate from the 1700s that would have been making a trip across the Atlantic and it was in Bridgeport, connecticut, and so I dropped out of college to go sailing on this ship.
Speaker 1: And then I let my parents know that I dropped out and they said well, I hope that works for you.
Speaker 1: And that was the end of any money that went into college from them.
Speaker 1: After that I had to pay my way.
Speaker 1: That's another story.
Speaker 1: So I did get on board this ship in January or February 96, I think it was, and I volunteered for a couple of weeks and I got a job.
Speaker 1: I got paid 100 bucks a week to live on this ship and we sailed all over.
Speaker 1: We crossed the Atlantic and we sailed all over the world and we were kind of beyond the second half of our journey and we were down in the Eastern Caribbean.
Speaker 1: We'd sailed past an island called Montserrat and sailed back and forth past it a lot and there were warnings about this island having volcanic activity and we had even seen some of the.
Speaker 1: That night you could see kind of some of the glowing lava sputtering down the side of the mountain on one side and it was real pretty to look at.
Speaker 1: And so there's this dangerous thing right there and we go sail and anchor off the beach there and we even went ashore and because it just didn't seem like much is going on, and we went ashore and there was a restaurant there.
Speaker 1: I remember having some food there and coming back to the ship that night and going back to sleep in my rack.
Speaker 1: Thank God we had a watch, somebody who was watching on deck and he was assigned to watch.
Speaker 1: We had a watch.
Speaker 1: We had a time period where you had to be awake and don't fall asleep during your watch, because everybody's depending on you to stay awake during that time and to not just stay awake and watch and be a security monitor but to have a voice of action.
Speaker 1: That goes with that.
Speaker 1: And so somewhere around five in the morning, still very dark outside the deck watch comes running through the ship, sounding the alarm, waking everybody up, calling all hands on deck.
Speaker 1: That volcano had erupted and there was a huge ash cloud that had gone up and there was lightning in this cloud and there was gray, gritty stuff falling down all over the ship.
Speaker 1: It was very humid, it was foggy, but the ash and the grit was sticking to everybody and everything on the deck of that ship, this ship I don't know.
Speaker 1: Lee, can you throw a picture of this ship up there so you can get a picture of what that is.
Speaker 1: So that's the ship under sail right there.
Speaker 1: This ship is 180 feet long, 500 ton sailing ship.
Speaker 1: Those masks are 130 feet tall, the anchor weighs 1200 pounds and we have to pull it up by hand.
Speaker 1: Now we have a mechanical advantage on board the ship a big winch that human-powered that we walk around in circles and pull that anchor up.
Speaker 1: But we had to pull up the anchor on that ship and get it underway, and so it's not just an instant thing to get underway, but we had to have that action that goes with that, because that ash and other things were starting to come down.
Speaker 1: And we set sail and got out of there, in out of harm's way and on the other side of the island, and then you could see the steam rising from the island where that pyroclastic flow had come down and had really destroyed an entire town while we were there, and it continued to erupt for weeks after that.
Speaker 1: And so it's so important to be on watch and to be alert and wake up people.
Speaker 1: Your job as a watchman is to wake people up.
Speaker 1: Wake up the believers who don't recognize the time that we're in.
Speaker 1: Wake them up to what they have to do.
Speaker 1: I know it can be hard when you've been working all day and it's getting late and you got the weight of everything that you've been doing and you've just been going and going and going and Jesus said wait, can you just watch for another hour?
Speaker 1: Can you do it for another hour?
Speaker 1: Just a little bit more.
Speaker 1: And it can be a lot to stay awake, but we've got to stay awake during these times.
Speaker 1: I'm going to push pause right now and follow what I think the Holy Ghost is telling me to do.
Speaker 1: Carol and Aja Ney, would you mind coming up here?
Speaker 1: And I see Kathy Turner and I see Alexi over here.
Speaker 1: Would you all please come up front and just stand right up here.
Speaker 1: Carol and Aja Ney are on the front lines just about every day and that family that was murdered, they're friends of Aja Ney right here, and these two are school teachers in our public school system and they have a ministry.
Speaker 1: What they do?
Speaker 1: Yeah, they go to school to teach kids, thank you, but we have a problem in our society that's so much bigger than teaching them academics.
Speaker 1: That should be.
Speaker 1: The job of the school system is to teach the academics and stay out of what the parents supposed to do.
Speaker 1: But we have a problem because parents are not training up at their children in the way they should go.
Speaker 1: Really, that problem goes back even further because of the there was a move to destroy the family.
Speaker 1: The women's liberation movement destroyed the family.
Speaker 1: There's nothing wrong to say that women are of equal value with a man.
Speaker 1: There's not one above the other, but there's different roles.
Speaker 1: And it's not to say that when a woman does a job that a man can do, that they're deserving of equal pay.
Speaker 1: That's not the issue.
Speaker 1: It's the fact that women were driven out of the home, where they were raising a family and raising their children, and now we've got a society that depends on two working members of that family.
Speaker 1: The mom and the dad have to go to work, and now you've got a school that has to be the sole provider of care for these kids, and the parents now have to work longer hours.
Speaker 1: Our dollars are not worth what they used to be and the kids have to be at school longer.
Speaker 1: So we're asking our public school system, our government, to take care of our kids even longer.
Speaker 1: And there is a, there is a God of this world that is blinded the lives and the eyes of many, and there's an evil agenda that's working its way through public schools.
Speaker 1: But not every school teacher is that way.
Speaker 1: These two have an extraordinary ministry in public schools and they get to sound the alarm to parents.
Speaker 1: But they get to minister to kids and fill in those gaps.
Speaker 1: And these kids that are coming in are not eating enough.
Speaker 1: Some of them don't have food at home.
Speaker 1: They don't have one or two parents.
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're missing both parents.
Speaker 1: They may not be here legally, but they're here, and what do we do with them?
Speaker 1: And so I just know that it can wear, it can be heavy, it can be weighty, and yet you still have to watch and stay awake and keep watching.
Speaker 1: And I and Kathy Turner right here she's one of our grassroots activists and Alexi right here Y'all come, stand together right here.
Speaker 1: These ladies fight for what's right in our legislative system.
Speaker 1: They fight to sound the alarm, to wake people up, and people are not listening.
Speaker 1: And there's I know there's a desperation of people have to wake up.
Speaker 1: We're losing our kids, we're losing our family, we're losing our country.
Speaker 1: We're so close to having this whole thing gone, and yet the weight of this falls on not just these, but it falls on a few, and I know it's an extreme weight.
Speaker 1: And I've been to Austin lots of times where Alexi's there and she's rallied all kinds of people to come and speak for good legislation or speak against bad legislation, and how many I don't know how many vehicles you've worn out getting there.
Speaker 1: But what she does, what these two do, they do with their own expense, at their own personal cost, and it's a lot.
Speaker 1: And yet you can't go to sleep.
Speaker 1: You have to watch and pray and act.
Speaker 1: And there's not enough believers in our school system and there's not enough believers in our legislative system.
Speaker 1: There's not enough believers waking up people to the evil that's in our world.
Speaker 1: And yet we can't go to sleep.
Speaker 1: We can't afford to go to sleep.
Speaker 1: His disciples couldn't keep their eyes open and they were with Jesus all that time.
Speaker 1: And we don't have Jesus.
Speaker 1: Thank God, we have the Holy Spirit that helps us.
Speaker 1: He's our helper, he's the one that dwells on the inside of us.
Speaker 1: Thank God for times of refreshing that come from the presence of Jesus.
Speaker 1: Claire, would you come up here and help me minister to these?
Speaker 1: I'm going to pray.
Speaker 1: She's going to lay hands on you.
Speaker 1: I just see that, these four and there's others.
Speaker 1: But I just want you to know that, as you stand up here, you're standing up here representing the many that are in this fight, the many that are in this condition, this situation.
Speaker 1: So I want you to receive for yourself, but I want you to receive for the others who are in the same fight, the same condition.
Speaker 1: You've been going and going and going and it'll wear you out and it's too much to do on your own and you're not meant to carry this kind of load on your own.
Speaker 1: His yoke is easy, his burden is light, and so I want y'all to buy faith, I want y'all to just lay the weight of this situation, this, uh, the urgency, the, the desperation.
Speaker 1: I want you to lay the weight of that down and I want you to be refreshed and to be ready to go back into this school system with a new passion, with signs following All our witnesses, with evidence that people see.
Speaker 1: Thank you Jesus, thank you Lord.
Speaker 1: Go ahead and release it on him.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, thank you Lord, thank you Jesus, thank you Lord.
Speaker 1: Times are refreshing.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, Alexi.
Speaker 1: I just there's nothing weird about this.
Speaker 1: You know, if you ask for something, our Heavenly Father will give you what you ask for.
Speaker 1: He's not going to give you a stone when you ask for bread.
Speaker 1: If he's not going to give you a snake, he's going to give you something good.
Speaker 1: Thank you, jesus.
Speaker 1: Lord, I thank you for refreshing and filling of the Holy Spirit with evidence.
Speaker 1: Lord, holy Spirit is her helper, it's Kathy's helper.
Speaker 1: And they go into these places.
Speaker 1: They speak with all boldness, but those who hear their words are unable to resist your word, lord.
Speaker 1: They have a new ability going forward.
Speaker 1: I thank you for it, lord.
Speaker 1: A new ability going forward.
Speaker 1: Their words are irresistible.
Speaker 1: They have evidence that follows them.
Speaker 1: Your word doesn't return.
Speaker 1: Void their witnesses with evidence.
Speaker 1: Thank you, lord.
Speaker 1: Thank you for refreshing.
Speaker 1: Lord, I thank you for provision that comes for them, as they've been doing this stuff with their own expense.
Speaker 1: Lord, I thank you for another vehicle for Alexi that I'll get her to and from where she needs to go.
Speaker 1: Kathy for her provision for her.
Speaker 1: She's got a ministry to put this out on video and get this word out there.
Speaker 1: Lord, whatever equipment she needs, whatever they need, lord, if they need it, you need it.
Speaker 1: Lord, I thank you for providing this for them.
Speaker 1: In Jesus' name, in Jesus' name, thank you Lord.
Speaker 1: Thank you Jesus.
Speaker 1: Thank you Lord.
Speaker 1: Thank you Lord Really appreciate what each of y'all do.
Speaker 1: Y'all are golden.
Speaker 1: I'm not done preaching, there's more here.
Speaker 1: I just had to follow what I think God wanted.
Speaker 1: You're not in this alone.
Speaker 1: Keep standing in the watch, keep sounding the alarm, keep praying and doing.
Speaker 1: Thank you Lord.
Speaker 1: Well, I'm going to just go on, because there's more.
Speaker 1: Thank you Lord.
Speaker 1: How many remember reading in Revelation the seven different churches there?
Speaker 1: We've talked from time to time about different churches, talked about the Luke worm church, talked about the faithful church.
Speaker 1: And in Revelation, chapter 3, verse 1, it says write this letter to the angel of the church at Sardis.
Speaker 1: This is the message from the one who was the sevenfold spirit of God and the seven stars.
Speaker 1: So Jesus is talking here in Revelation.
Speaker 1: He says I know all the things you do and that you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead.
Speaker 1: I see a lot of churches now that fit this very description.
Speaker 1: I want you to listen to this you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.
Speaker 1: Where people come into church week after week and they hear some things that make them feel good.
Speaker 1: Maybe there's some nuggets of truth that help them and people are hearing some things that help them, but there's no fruit that abounds to their account because they're not going and doing this stuff.
Speaker 1: And the warning is wake up.
Speaker 1: King James Version says be watchful, knowing what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead.
Speaker 1: There are churches out there that have about that much life left in them.
Speaker 1: There are pastors that won't touch things because they're political or offensive or we've got to accept these people.
Speaker 1: They don't know how to tell people the truth and love and these kinds of churches, well-intentioned in their own ways, are dead and they've got about that much that is left alive.
Speaker 1: And then it says I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.
Speaker 1: Go back to what you heard and believed at first.
Speaker 1: Remember in the very beginning, when you were preaching the truth, when you were preaching the gospel, when you were preaching what was right at the founding of this nation, when you were preaching these good things.
Speaker 1: And along the way you let it slip and let it slip, and let it slip and let it die out and let it die out some more until we've got a doubling of LGBTQ in our kids.
Speaker 1: It's not the public school system's fault.
Speaker 1: There's plenty of problem there, but it's not their fault.
Speaker 1: Churches quit speaking this truth and let it die out.
Speaker 1: Parents don't know how to raise up their kids and train them in the way they should go so that when they're old they'll not depart from it.
Speaker 1: It's missing.
Speaker 1: They need to hear it from you.
Speaker 1: They need your voice out there saying wake up.
Speaker 1: Wake up.
Speaker 1: Strengthen what little remains, go back to what you heard.
Speaker 1: Beware your first love, hold to it firmly Repent and turn around.
Speaker 1: Turn to me again.
Speaker 1: If you don't wake up, I'll come to you suddenly and unexpected as a thief and you'll miss out.
Speaker 1: There's too many churches like that out there, too many.
Speaker 1: Let it that way.
Speaker 1: There's revelation, knowledge that is missing.
Speaker 1: Revelation is so important in the church and it's missing in so many places.
Speaker 1: Remember when Jesus asked of his disciples who do men say that I am?
Speaker 1: They said some say John the Baptist, some Elijah, some Jeremiah, one of the prophets.
Speaker 1: He said yeah, but who do you say that I am?
Speaker 1: And Peter answered and said you're the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Speaker 1: And he said blessed are you, simon, for flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father, who is in heaven.
Speaker 1: And I say to you Peter, which means little stone, he said on this rock, which is big rock in the Greek, on this rock I will build my church.
Speaker 1: He wasn't building his church on Peter, the little stone, he was making a comparison.
Speaker 1: Little stone got a big concept just now and I'm real proud of him.
Speaker 1: On this rock, this revelation knowledge that you didn't get from flesh and blood, that my heavenly Father revealed to you, that's revelation knowledge.
Speaker 1: When your heavenly Father reveals it, it comes out of the word and you get it and your spirit lights up and you know, on this revelation knowledge, I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.
Speaker 1: That would be great if he stopped right there.
Speaker 1: But he said and I'm going to give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1: That sounds pretty good.
Speaker 1: I've got the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1: I can go places, I can unlock some doors, I can go in some rooms, I can do some stuff because I have the keys of the kingdom of heaven.
Speaker 1: And he didn't stop there.
Speaker 1: He said whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
Speaker 1: All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
Speaker 1: Therefore, go.
Speaker 1: You've got revelation, you've got authorization with keys and you have authority to do this stuff.
Speaker 1: Whatever you bind, in other words, when you bind things according to my heavenly will, it'll be done here on earth, and whenever you loose things according to my will, what's his will?
Speaker 1: It's written in his word.
Speaker 1: So, whatever you allow, you'll have more of, and whatever you disallow, you'll have less of.
Speaker 1: And the church has been allowing everything to go on.
Speaker 1: And it needs to do some binding and it needs to do some loosing, and the church has the authority to do that.
Speaker 1: You, the believers, have the authority to do that and we need to walk in that more and more.
Speaker 1: Start binding and loosing some stuff.
Speaker 1: When you see things that are not right, say so.
Speaker 1: Don't worry about the feelings of the ones that you might hurt their feelings.
Speaker 1: They have to hear the truth, and there are so many people that are so far gone right now that you don't even get an argument with them.
Speaker 1: You're not going to.
Speaker 1: You start arguing with a fool and you look like one.
Speaker 1: Don't get in arguments.
Speaker 1: Don't get caught up in arguments with people whose mind has been blinded by the God of this world, who have been turned over to a reprobate mind.
Speaker 1: There's plenty of low-hanging fruit right now and the time is short.
Speaker 1: The night is far spent.
Speaker 1: The day is at hand.
Speaker 1: Let's go after the low-hanging fruit first.
Speaker 1: Then we'll have a much bigger army to go after the hard cases.
Speaker 1: But let's go after them now.
Speaker 1: There's plenty.
Speaker 1: I can't tell you the number of times that I hear people say I wish my pastor would get involved.
Speaker 1: I wish my pastor would say things like this how do you get the church to do stuff like this?
Speaker 1: Just start.
Speaker 1: You, the believer, start and get it going.
Speaker 1: You do it.
Speaker 1: I invite people to do things in order and go to your pastor and ask for permission to do things when it pertains to doing stuff inside that church building, inside that ministry, but outside the walls of that church, you, the believer, have authority.
Speaker 1: Go and do.
Speaker 1: If you're asking your pastor can we do this in church and it's right according to God's word and he says no, I encourage you to pray for that pastor and then come back again and ask again.
Speaker 1: Then those people need to leave that church and vote with their feet and go to a place where they're hearing the right stuff and hearing the truth.
Speaker 1: If they're not hearing the truth there, they need to get out and get filled up, not fall asleep on watch.
Speaker 1: And I'm getting to the end right here, acts 1.8.
Speaker 1: Jesus said but you shall receive power when that the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me.
Speaker 1: A witness is somebody who has evidence of a happening that can be presented in court to a judge and it will determine a verdict.
Speaker 1: So you are witnesses with evidence.
Speaker 1: You shall receive power when that the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me.
Speaker 1: And I want you to see this little progression right here.
Speaker 1: You'll be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, the city, and in Judea, the country, and in Samaria, the country next door and the end of the earth, everywhere else In the city.
Speaker 1: First, the country, second, the neighboring country, third, everywhere else.
Speaker 1: Next, the light that shines the furthest shines the brightest.
Speaker 1: At home.
Speaker 1: We need to concern ourselves the most with our area, right here and now, because we're losing our county if we don't shine light.
Speaker 1: We're losing our state if we don't shine light, we're losing our country if we don't shine light.
Speaker 1: Harris County is the third largest county in the nation, in the greatest state in the nation.
Speaker 1: And as Harris County goes, texas tends to go that way, and as Texas goes, america tends to go that way.
Speaker 1: You can have the greatest effect on America by having the greatest effect first, right here, in your own school, in your own place of work, in your own hometown, and we'll have that light going out further.
Speaker 1: But if we get caught up about going further and don't take care at home first, we're going to lose it.
Speaker 1: We've got to have the brightest light right here first.
Speaker 1: We love people.
Speaker 1: We hate the sin and we hate the devil, but we love people enough to tell the truth to be a watchman who will sound the alarm, to be a watchman who will sound the alarm and pray, and then to be a watchman who will sound the alarm, pray and then take up action and get this job done.
Speaker 1: We've got to watch, pray and act.
Speaker 1: We can't afford to fall asleep anymore and so wake up and help everyone around you to wake up.
Speaker 1: This is an emergency, amen.