WEBVTT 00:00:01.122 --> 00:00:02.027 and is our custom. 00:00:02.027 --> 00:00:21.388 Let's just lift our Bibles up, wave them around, make Jesus glad and the devil mad, and let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I'm eager for Wednesday night because I'm hungry for more and more, more of your word, more of your spirit, more of your fire, more of your presence. 00:00:21.388 --> 00:00:23.996 Tonight I'll be taught the word of God. 00:00:23.996 --> 00:00:39.134 My heart is receptive to revelation and I know faith cometh by hearing and hearing, and so my faith is being developed tonight through the Ramah word of God in Jesus' name, amen. 00:00:39.134 --> 00:00:54.896 All right, let's turn in our Bibles to the book of Acts, chapter eight, acts, chapter eight, and we'll start reading with verse one and Saul was consenting unto his death, talking about Philip. 00:00:55.476 --> 00:01:14.352 Philip was martyred and Saul was there holding their clothes, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church which was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad, throughout all the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. 00:01:14.352 --> 00:01:25.545 The apostles stayed evidently in Jerusalem and everybody else, scattered and devout men, carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation for him. 00:01:25.545 --> 00:01:29.016 And as for Saul, that is, later he was called Paul. 00:01:29.016 --> 00:01:37.362 He made havoc of the church and, entering into every house and, healing, hailing men and women committed them to prison. 00:01:37.362 --> 00:01:42.875 Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. 00:01:42.875 --> 00:02:14.985 Then Philip went down to the city of Samaria and preached Christ unto them and the people, with one accord, gave heed unto those things which Philip spoke, hearing and seeing the miracles which he did, for unclean spirits crying out with loud voice came out of many that were possessed with them, and many, taken with pauses and that were lame, were healed, and there was great joy in that city. 00:02:14.985 --> 00:02:21.463 And so tonight I just wanted to share a message entitled the importance of signs and wonders. 00:02:21.463 --> 00:02:24.873 The importance of signs and wonders. 00:02:24.873 --> 00:02:31.859 You know, the early church, the gospel begins to spread, and of course they stayed in Jerusalem until this point. 00:02:31.879 --> 00:02:45.326 It was three years after the resurrection of Jesus and persecution arose, and I think partly because they had failed to obey God. 00:02:45.326 --> 00:02:52.350 I mean, you know, jesus said you shall be my witnesses in both in Jerusalem and in Judea and Samaria and the other most parts of the earth. 00:02:52.350 --> 00:03:01.444 In other words, it wasn't just like in order, you know, wait and go to Jerusalem and then after that, judea, and after that, no, do it all. 00:03:01.444 --> 00:03:04.532 And they had just stuck in Jerusalem. 00:03:04.532 --> 00:03:08.066 And so you know, when you don't fully obey God, you open the door to Satan. 00:03:08.066 --> 00:03:21.311 God didn't send the persecution, but you know they, through their disobedience or partial obedience, I could say it that way, the devil was able to turn up the pressure. 00:03:21.311 --> 00:03:27.048 And so believers I want you to see that believers were scattered abroad and they went about preaching. 00:03:27.087 --> 00:03:30.441 See, a lot of people don't see themselves as ministers. 00:03:30.441 --> 00:03:37.705 I believe, look, every believer, especially spirit filled believers, you have the capacity to proclaim truth. 00:03:37.705 --> 00:03:41.682 You know, preaching is just simply proclaiming the good news, that's all it is. 00:03:41.682 --> 00:03:50.429 It's not having three points in a poem, it's not having some kind of sermon at or sermon, it's just sharing truth with people. 00:03:50.429 --> 00:03:54.320 And you may not have a pulpit when you preach. 00:03:54.320 --> 00:03:56.448 You know, sometimes you preach one on one, in fact, most of the time you do. 00:03:58.080 --> 00:04:03.211 And so believers were out preaching the word in Philip, one of the seven deacons. 00:04:03.211 --> 00:04:06.105 See, he's in the ministry of help. 00:04:06.105 --> 00:04:10.623 So I like to say he's an usher, he's probably an usher, you know, he's helping wait on tables. 00:04:10.623 --> 00:04:14.733 His counterpart, stephen, had been stoned. 00:04:14.733 --> 00:04:15.715 He did miracles. 00:04:15.715 --> 00:04:21.533 If you go back to Acts, chapter six, he did great signs and wonders among the people. 00:04:21.533 --> 00:04:27.201 So here I mean, you know, a lot of people say, well, miracles passed away with the first apostles. 00:04:27.201 --> 00:04:28.644 What about these two guys? 00:04:28.644 --> 00:04:30.750 You know what are you going to do with them. 00:04:30.750 --> 00:04:32.622 They had miracles, they weren't apostles. 00:04:32.622 --> 00:04:37.382 In fact they weren't really even recognized as part of the five ministry. 00:04:37.423 --> 00:04:44.442 It's true later that you know Philip the evangelist, but that's much later. 00:04:44.442 --> 00:04:47.127 I mean, he's not, he's not an evangelist at this point. 00:04:47.127 --> 00:04:54.040 So he went to Samaria, and of course you know Samaria. 00:04:54.040 --> 00:04:58.072 They were Jews looked down on Samaritans and vice versa. 00:04:58.072 --> 00:05:07.245 And so it was pretty unusual for him to pick Samaria or Sychar, which is the same place that Jesus ministered to the woman at the well. 00:05:07.245 --> 00:05:15.500 And so there were no miracles there under Jesus, no recorded miracles that Jesus did there. 00:05:16.625 --> 00:05:23.785 But Philip preached Christ, the anointed one in all of his anointing, he preached Christ. 00:05:23.785 --> 00:05:25.370 He preached the good news. 00:05:25.370 --> 00:05:25.833 What was? 00:05:25.833 --> 00:05:27.560 He preached the full gospel. 00:05:27.560 --> 00:05:28.603 What did Christ preach? 00:05:28.603 --> 00:05:29.367 He said the Spirit. 00:05:29.367 --> 00:05:40.728 Jesus said in Luke 4, 18, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because it's an honor to be to preach the gospel, the good news, to five kinds of people the broke, the brokenhearted, the blind, the bound and the bruised. 00:05:40.728 --> 00:05:46.387 So I mean, you know he had, he understood what he was supposed to declare. 00:05:46.387 --> 00:05:52.345 He declared the full gospel and you know I want to say a little bit about this. 00:05:52.365 --> 00:05:55.675 He didn't just preach a Billy Graham message about getting saved. 00:05:55.675 --> 00:06:09.221 I was just watching an ad on on television before I came to church and I saw Franklin Graham do a whole ad and inviting people to make Jesus the Lord of their life, and I think that's fantastic, you know. 00:06:09.221 --> 00:06:14.557 But let me tell you something what's needed right now is not just an invitation to make Jesus the Lord of the. 00:06:14.557 --> 00:06:15.608 You need miracles. 00:06:15.608 --> 00:06:17.375 We need miracles, signs and wonders. 00:06:17.375 --> 00:06:21.951 I mean, we need those, those kinds of things or or what's necessary. 00:06:21.992 --> 00:06:27.531 I'm not criticizing Franklin Graham, I'm just saying the church should be sparkling with the supernatural. 00:06:27.531 --> 00:06:30.500 We need signs and wonders. 00:06:30.500 --> 00:06:34.105 That's why God gave them and really that's part of God's brand. 00:06:34.105 --> 00:06:36.326 You know, god has a brand. 00:06:36.326 --> 00:06:42.098 His brand is his love, his faithfulness, his holiness, his, his glory. 00:06:42.098 --> 00:06:43.939 I mean all of the things God is. 00:06:43.939 --> 00:06:51.194 The church should be projecting that brand and the brand is a supernatural awesomeness. 00:06:51.194 --> 00:06:55.264 It's not just an argument, it's not just a just a bunch of words. 00:06:55.264 --> 00:07:00.228 I think the gospel is powerful, but I think we need the full gospel with demonstration. 00:07:00.228 --> 00:07:06.208 That's what's needed right now, not not to not arguing with people, not trying to win the argument. 00:07:06.208 --> 00:07:10.937 I mean, you know what One miracle will settle a lot of arguments. 00:07:12.985 --> 00:07:16.252 I think about brand integrity. 00:07:16.252 --> 00:07:20.764 You know, the church is lacking in brand integrity. 00:07:20.764 --> 00:07:25.076 The church at large I'm talking about the church is lacking in brand integrity. 00:07:25.076 --> 00:07:29.752 We are not bringing the word of God the way this usher did. 00:07:29.752 --> 00:07:35.740 This usher knew about brand integrity back 2000 years ago when he went out to preach. 00:07:35.740 --> 00:07:38.870 I mean, he's never preached before that we know of. 00:07:38.870 --> 00:07:42.894 He gets out in front of a crowd of people and what's he doing? 00:07:42.894 --> 00:07:47.370 He's preaching about healing, he's preaching about deliverance, he's giving them the good news. 00:07:47.370 --> 00:07:49.295 Hey, you're bound, you don't have to be bound. 00:07:49.295 --> 00:07:51.230 Hey, you're sick, you don't have to be sick. 00:07:51.230 --> 00:07:52.956 I mean, praise God. 00:07:52.956 --> 00:08:00.375 And then he depended on God to back him up and God backed him up with signs and wonders and miracles, so important. 00:08:01.798 --> 00:08:07.435 And so I was thinking about, you know, anheuser-busch. 00:08:07.435 --> 00:08:10.483 They have a brand, a beer company. 00:08:10.483 --> 00:08:15.017 They've been around for many years and their brand was one, of course, beer. 00:08:15.017 --> 00:08:16.622 Really good taste in beer. 00:08:16.622 --> 00:08:17.728 Okay, got that. 00:08:17.728 --> 00:08:20.600 But they had connected themselves with America. 00:08:20.600 --> 00:08:29.201 They connected themselves with the veterans, they connected themselves with, with hardworking people, normal people. 00:08:29.201 --> 00:08:43.518 And then, you know, last year they got hooked up with this transgender person and they lost billions and billions of value in their company because they were not. 00:08:43.518 --> 00:08:55.058 They hired some Dodo birds that didn't understand brand integrity and they put something out that was not consistent with the brand that millions of their customers had trusted in. 00:08:56.725 --> 00:09:11.924 I remember a number of years ago, coca-cola decided to have a new Coke and this is back in the 80s and I had, you know they, they made a big deal out of the new Coke and they got rid of the old Coke and put the new Coke out and it flunked. 00:09:11.924 --> 00:09:14.115 I mean, nobody liked it, they didn't. 00:09:14.115 --> 00:09:16.004 They started going down, down, down. 00:09:16.004 --> 00:09:24.513 They had enough sense to to stop in the middle after about a few months, after they were getting beat up and complaints and their product wasn't sold. 00:09:24.513 --> 00:09:29.816 They, they had the good sense to go back to the old Coke and get rid of the new Coke. 00:09:29.816 --> 00:09:32.087 You know, I tell you what. 00:09:32.087 --> 00:09:33.972 Everything old is new again. 00:09:33.972 --> 00:09:38.184 Everything that's receding is, is, is advancing again in the kingdom of God. 00:09:38.184 --> 00:09:40.812 See, that's where we've got momentum going our way. 00:09:40.873 --> 00:09:44.812 Church Praise, god, signs and wonders, so important. 00:09:44.812 --> 00:09:50.591 So, again, that was why he was so well received. 00:09:50.591 --> 00:09:54.466 They gave heed to this young man who's a nobody. 00:09:54.466 --> 00:09:58.135 He's not in the paper, he nobody heard of him. 00:09:58.135 --> 00:10:01.330 He's an usher in the church in Jerusalem. 00:10:01.330 --> 00:10:03.827 Nobody's ever knows who he is. 00:10:03.827 --> 00:10:09.105 I mean, you know, he just arrives in town and starts preaching and people start getting healed. 00:10:09.105 --> 00:10:11.793 That's why they, they, they gave heed. 00:10:11.833 --> 00:10:15.424 The Bible says they gave heed to those things which Philip spoke. 00:10:15.424 --> 00:10:23.076 After they heard and saw the miracles which he did, they heard these unclean spirits shrieking, coming out of people. 00:10:23.076 --> 00:10:31.650 They saw lame people walk, they saw people with palsy get up out of their bed and and be healed. 00:10:31.650 --> 00:10:38.455 And so they thought you know, we better, we better pay attention to what this young man is saying. 00:10:38.455 --> 00:10:41.053 Look at all these, look at all these miracles. 00:10:41.053 --> 00:10:42.705 Oh, I tell you, they're so important. 00:10:44.288 --> 00:10:49.038 You see, god said in Jesus said in Mark, chapter 16, you know, these signs shall follow them. 00:10:49.038 --> 00:10:49.599 That believe. 00:10:49.599 --> 00:10:56.378 And he tells them you know, you go out and you, you cast devils out, you lay hands on the second, they'll recover. 00:10:56.378 --> 00:10:58.994 And so they went out and the Lord worked with them. 00:10:58.994 --> 00:11:03.976 The Lord worked with them confirming the word, with signs following. 00:11:03.976 --> 00:11:07.167 I mean, you know, if they needed that back then, we needed it right now. 00:11:07.167 --> 00:11:08.870 In fact, we needed it in the worst way. 00:11:08.910 --> 00:11:11.495 We and you know believers, not just preachers. 00:11:11.495 --> 00:11:15.893 I've experienced this in my in my walk with the Lord. 00:11:15.893 --> 00:11:23.155 Way before I was ever, you know, I knew I was supposed to pastor one day, but I hadn't been anointed to pastor yet. 00:11:23.155 --> 00:11:26.871 I'm still a a brand new believer. 00:11:26.871 --> 00:11:30.221 But you know what I heard about the believer's ministry from Brother Osteen. 00:11:30.221 --> 00:11:35.673 He was teaching us to lay hands on the sick and I started doing just what people had done for me. 00:11:35.673 --> 00:11:38.720 I mean, just a believer laid hands on my mother and she was healed. 00:11:38.720 --> 00:11:43.759 So I started laying hands on people and God started confirming his word with signs following. 00:11:43.759 --> 00:11:47.331 Well, pastor, that's because you're a pastor. 00:11:47.331 --> 00:11:49.278 Well, no, it's because I was a believer. 00:11:49.278 --> 00:11:55.924 Now I know that there's a special ministry gift that associates itself with each office of a five-fold ministry. 00:11:55.924 --> 00:12:09.513 I, I have my equipment, but every believer has the same command go into all the world and proclaim the good news, and do it with signs and wonders following. 00:12:09.513 --> 00:12:18.779 So the end of all of this was that the signs and wonders produced great joy in that city. 00:12:20.605 --> 00:12:52.235 Now let's keep reading here in verse nine, unless you think that everything was peachy, rosy, keen, because now there was some, some opposition coming up verse nine, but there, but there was a certain man called Simon which, before time, in the same city, used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was one, some great one, to whom they all gave heed, from the least to the greatest, saying this man is the great power of God. 00:12:52.235 --> 00:12:56.434 See, he had the power of the devil and they thought it was the power of God. 00:12:56.434 --> 00:13:06.759 He had a lot of sway there Verse 11, and to him they had regard because that of a long time he had bewitched them with sorceries. 00:13:06.759 --> 00:13:23.279 But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women, and Simon himself believed also. 00:13:23.279 --> 00:13:25.703 He actually got saved. 00:13:25.703 --> 00:13:36.657 And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done. 00:13:36.657 --> 00:13:44.499 I'll tell you, though, he had I like there's a little phrase I use a lot. 00:13:44.499 --> 00:13:46.609 It's in the Bible though. 00:13:46.688 --> 00:14:01.649 Yet, though Simon the sorcerer had bewitched the whole region, yet the gospel, confirmed by signs and wonders, broke the sorcery and people got saved, healed and delivered Glory. 00:14:01.649 --> 00:14:03.184 Come on, lift your hands right now. 00:14:03.184 --> 00:14:05.673 Don't tell me about signs and wonders being optional. 00:14:05.673 --> 00:14:09.154 I'm telling you we need them more now than ever. 00:14:09.154 --> 00:14:19.664 And you know, I know somebody was praying, but it's not really intercession and praise and worship conferences, and it's not, you know, a big meeting here and a big meeting there. 00:14:19.664 --> 00:14:35.792 I'm telling you that baptisms occurred, which is proof that people were saved, because the message, the gospel, is the power of God unto salvation, and especially the gospel that's, you know, confirmed with signs and wonders and miracles. 00:14:36.011 --> 00:14:45.625 Even Simon the sorcerer, he realized in the middle of all that the power he had used was nothing compared to the power of God. 00:14:45.625 --> 00:14:49.684 Later on, down there, he tried to pay Peter for the power. 00:14:49.684 --> 00:14:57.121 When he saw Peter come to town and get people filled with the Holy Ghost, he said hey, give me this gift that you, you lay hands on people and they start speaking to them. 00:14:57.121 --> 00:14:58.509 I want that gift. 00:14:58.509 --> 00:14:58.972 How much? 00:14:58.972 --> 00:14:59.839 How much is it cause? 00:14:59.839 --> 00:15:13.580 And Peter reamed him out, and so, uh so, the devil can't compete against demonstration of the spirit and of power. 00:15:13.580 --> 00:15:33.235 Though, yet, though, though that whole region had been bewitched and had been deceived, and they believed this devilish man, yet people were saved, filled with the Holy Ghost, healed, delivered. 00:15:33.235 --> 00:15:35.639 Even the man himself was saved. 00:15:37.347 --> 00:15:53.269 And I'm telling you, though, there's hope for America because, though America has been seduced for a long time with the spirit of Antichrist, that the church has seemed to have lost its brand, uh, integrity. 00:15:53.269 --> 00:15:59.220 It seems as if the church has is being persecuted more than ever before. 00:15:59.220 --> 00:16:04.653 Uh, yet, bless God, we have momentum. 00:16:04.653 --> 00:16:07.136 This 2024 is a year of momentum. 00:16:07.136 --> 00:16:11.592 I'm telling you, I just see this move of God. 00:16:11.592 --> 00:16:12.034 It's, it's. 00:16:12.034 --> 00:16:14.000 We're right in the fight. 00:16:14.181 --> 00:16:22.674 The initial stages of it, signs and wonders and miracles still accompany the preaching and proclaiming of God's word. 00:16:22.674 --> 00:16:30.072 The gospel is the power of God under salvation to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile. 00:16:30.072 --> 00:16:37.576 So you know, let's not wait for the preachers to do it, let's not wait for somebody on television to do it. 00:16:37.576 --> 00:16:45.494 Let's take personal responsibility that we're gonna go out in our world and lay our hands on sick people. 00:16:45.494 --> 00:16:49.691 We're gonna talk to people that need to hear what we have to say. 00:16:49.691 --> 00:16:52.251 We know more than we think. 00:16:52.251 --> 00:16:55.053 We know we can do more than we think we can do. 00:16:55.053 --> 00:16:59.035 All we have to do is just, you know, just obey God's word. 00:16:59.035 --> 00:17:00.772 You'll start obeying God's word. 00:17:00.884 --> 00:17:11.729 I'm telling you, this revival and this awakening that we've all been standing for for decades is gonna happen, but it always happens in a personal way. 00:17:11.729 --> 00:17:13.691 First it has to happen in our own heart. 00:17:13.691 --> 00:17:23.692 We have to awaken to what God has invested in each of us and when we begin to move in that, oh, I tell you, there's nothing God can't do. 00:17:23.692 --> 00:17:25.429 Glory to God. 00:17:25.429 --> 00:17:27.392 Let's just go on and go everywhere. 00:17:27.392 --> 00:17:29.291 You know we've got lots of places to go. 00:17:29.291 --> 00:17:43.413 Let's go everywhere shining, proclaiming bold, full of a word, full of the Holy Ghost, and, with God, shake this region, this state, this nation, and let's see the greatest move of God we've ever seen. 00:17:43.413 --> 00:17:46.013 Let's get the greatest harvest that God has ever had. 00:17:46.013 --> 00:17:48.311 I believe we're right at the doors. 00:17:48.311 --> 00:17:49.255 Come on, lift your hands. 00:17:49.255 --> 00:17:51.291 The importance of signs and wonders tonight. 00:17:51.291 --> 00:17:53.351 Be encouraged, praise God. 00:17:53.351 --> 00:17:55.731 Well, I'm just sitting on the sidelines. 00:17:55.731 --> 00:17:57.431 No, you're right in the middle of the fight. 00:17:57.431 --> 00:18:00.547 That's why God shows you to live right now. 00:18:00.547 --> 00:18:01.567 Right now. 00:18:01.567 --> 00:18:04.009 Hallelujah amen.