The Mask is Coming Off (August 9, 2026)

Revival talk is cheap when we won’t let God clean our own house. We start by praying over parents, students, teachers, and the next generation, then we get practical about how we serve families with safer, more consistent children’s ministry rhythms. That may sound like logistics, but we see it as discipleship: order, care, and protection in the house of God so our kids can grow in faith and our volunteers can thrive. 

Then we shift to the deeper work God is doing right now. We wrestle with the uncomfortable truth that spiritual renewal often starts with stripping things away. Using Ephesians 5, we talk about Christ cleansing His bride, not for hype, branding, or a packed room, but so the church becomes holy and clean. We connect that to Jesus cleansing the temple and ask hard questions about what we’ve allowed into our worship, our motives, and our culture, including the temptation to turn church into a platform instead of a house of prayer. 

We also confront the difference between looking alive and bearing fruit. The fig tree story pushes us to examine what we “advertise” versus what we actually produce: repentance, character, love, and the fruit of the Spirit. Along the way we talk about identity in Christ, the masks coming off across ministries, and the refining fire that reveals what applause can hide. If you’re hungry for a faith that is real, biblical, and transformative, this one is for you. Subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review. What is one area you’re ready to let God cleanse for real?

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:32

Father, I thank you for parents who are in the house today. For waking up, getting their kids ready, bringing them into the house of the Lord. Bless them, Father. Bless them today. Father, I thank you and I praise you. I give you honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus. And the church says, Amen. Before we go anywhere, I want all of the kids,

Praying Over Kids And Schools

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kids first, to come up here. If you're not sure if you're a kid, check your ID. Then you know you're a kid. All of the kids. Do I have everybody? I'm still waiting on some. Come on then. If you say, hey, listen, do you need a backpack? We'll get you a backpack. It's my little pony, but I think it'll look really nice. I think you'll rock that thing. Alright. My oldest son, where is he? Where's my oldest son? He's in here. He went back that way. Oh, what backpack did you carry your senior year? Pink unicorn backpack. I don't know. Alright, now I want parents and grandparents to press in. You don't have to be at your child. I want you at a child. Just squeeze in with all of the kids. And then I want all of my classroom workers, if you're here and you don't have children, whether you're a nursery worker or a regular classroom worker, join us up here. Am I missing any college students or what? Come on up. If you don't want to come, you don't have to. We can pray for you right where you're sitting. You don't even have to come up if you don't want. Who else do we have? We got everybody squeeze in. Squeeze in. There's more of you than there are of us. So we're afraid of that if we're being honest. All right, let's bow our heads and close our eyes, and we're just gonna pray together, okay? Heavenly Father, we thank you for the next generation of the church. Father, as we're standing here, we know that we are entrusting these children, these bodies, these minds, these spirits unto those that we may not know, that we may not have relationships with. And Father, we are praying for those people right now. Teachers, administrators, Father, friends, parents of friends, Lord. We're praying that they have godly wisdom, that they will be able to lead our children to the kingdom of God. Not to the world, Father, but to the kingdom of God. Father, we're praying for each and every one of these students as they leave the house of the Lord, as they leave their homes in the morning, as they go to school, that they can show the love of Jesus to all of their friends, that they can go before all of the bullying and the hurting and all of the mean things that will be said, Father, and they can show the love of Jesus by being kind, by being faithful, by showing the fruits of the Spirit, oh God. Lord, I thank you for lifting them up, for giving them ears to hear, hearts for understanding this day, Lord. Father, we thank you and we praise you. We give you honor and glory in the lives of these children in the mighty name of Jesus. And the church says, Amen. You guys can go back to class now. Yes, now that you're all gathered, we can move in one body. Yeah, one more person hiding behind the curtain. Are you when you go to college, are you staying on campus or are you commuting? Good. Well, church, uh that was a mess. I know, that's how this works. That's how it works. This morning I was counting kids, and I'll get an official count from Pastor Roger when he comes back. There are we're almost to the point where there's more kids than there are adults in this building. And I had somebody ask me the other day at work, how is your children's ministry? I said, chaotic. Exactly what we would expect when we

Children’s Ministry Changes Announced

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have that many children. And I started doing the math, and I realized that there are seriously, there's almost one kid for every two adults in this building. That's crazy. Some of you have raised kids and don't bring them to church, right? But we have kids for you, so just line up out there, we're sending one home with you. We'll make sure you get one. There's no exchange policies or returns, they're yours once you get them. Um, I've been praying really hard about what God would have this building do for those for those kids. And there's a couple of announcements that I want to make. And the first is that we are going to start to structure children's ministry a little bit differently. And it's gonna look like um it's gonna look a little more consistent from week to week. All of the kids, when they go back, they will have a snack, a lesson, um, and then they will have some fellowship time and some playtime. But it's gonna be the same from week to week, which has not historically been the case for us. So I'm really excited about that. But furthermore, we are going to actually change how we dismiss the children from class. So I want you to be ready for this. This will start officially on September 1st, but I want you to be ready for it. When service is over, you will gather in the hallway, and one of the volunteers will be in the hallway. They will, you'll tell them which kid you're collecting. If you don't want to collect yours and you want to donate it to somebody, that's fine. Just give your slip to somebody. And when that person goes to collect the child, they will bring one kid out at a time rather than having everybody go back. And the reason is we want to make sure kids get to their parents. What was happening, the doors would open, kids would run out, and we don't know if they've ever made it to a parent. We had one week where there were adults looking for children that we didn't even know where they were because they had just escaped. Because they get out so fast. So we want to make sure that everybody understands how we're doing this and uh what it's gonna look like in the future. So just understand that will happen the first week of September. Let's really quickly together. I just want to pray for Pastor Holly. I know her service time runs about the same as ours, so she should be preparing for the pulpit right now. Father, I thank you and I praise you for the ministry of Pastor Holly. Father, I thank you for Dave and for the leading that that you've put into their lives, for the calling over them. Lord, I pray that as they move into that place that you will continue to just allow them to pour out their blessings into that house. Father, there

Praying For Pastor Holly’s Calling

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is no ministry too small to go and minister to. There's no group of people too small. And Father, I thank you for calling them to that place. And Father, I thank you for allowing us to equip and deploy those people. Father, it is a blessing to have such talent and such uh anointing in the house that we are able to send it to other houses to give life-giving water to those bodies. We thank you for Holly, and we thank you for solid rock. In the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. I have a question for you. Have any of you ever seen Pastor Roger and I do a project around this building? Have any of you ever felt the repercussions of Pastor Roger and I doing a project around this building? Now, what I mean by that is that you walk into a room where you think something should be and it's not there and or it's been broken. That happens pretty regularly. Um, this morning, or late last evening, I got a call that there was a broken toilet

Broken Repairs And God’s Rebuilding

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seat in the ladies' restroom. Ladies, you're welcome. I fixed it for you this morning, uh, so nobody's gonna fall in. But I realized that the destruction that happens in this place oftentimes is followed by a great revival or a great rebuilding. Amen. Now, I don't know. Let me back up for just a second. Umbrella of grace as I tell these stories, because there are some people in this room who have helped build this building. Okay? So don't be mad at me when I talk about the things that we find. On the other side of the building, if we pulled off a piece of trim, the finish nails that held that piece of trim on were every bit of that long. And I'm not, I don't know what they were trying to anchor it to, the house next door or what, but I'm talking fit. My guess is they got them for free from somebody and they just used what they had, and that's a blessing, right? Until you have to take the thing down. It takes two of us to get a piece of trim out of this building. It's wild. But when we walk through the building and we see all of these things starting to come down, I start to realize that every time we find something, people were working with the tools that they had at the time that they were building. And sometimes that's what God does with us, right? We are broken pretty much every time we show up at the foot of the cross. In some way, shape, or form. We are broken, lost, discouraged, hurting, and when we show up, God does what he does best, and it's meet us where we are, right? Now, sometimes we come to Jesus, and this is a this is a truth for me. We come to Jesus and we say, Here I am, Lord, have all of me. We lay ourselves down, we lay down our burdens, we lay down our pain, we lay down our stress at the feet of Jesus, and we are excited about the change that he's gonna make in our lives. And when he shows up, he does make meaningful change. He cleans up our attitude, he cleans up our language, whatever it might be for you, but we find ourselves not really engaging in the word. We find ourselves not really engaging in fellowship because God met us where we were and he worked a little bit at a time in order to get us where he wanted us to be. And then as we grow in our faith, as we grow in our walk with Jesus, we begin to realize that we have to do better at other things. I have to treat people better. I have to spend time in the word so that I can understand what Pastor Michael is preaching, right? I have to study, I have to dive. Listen, I have taught to young people who know the word of God better than people who have been in the church their entire lives. Because people who have been in the church their entire lives, they don't think that there's anything else to learn. I've read the whole Bible, I know what, I know what God has called me to, and that's where they stop. But listen, as the word of God continues to move in your life, you will uncover new things. See, before something new can be built, the old has to be stripped away. Amen. Remember what this room looked like two years ago? Dirty old gym floors, smell really bad all the time. And look at it now. We sit here for worship. Do you think that God, when he built this side of the building, didn't know what he was calling into existence? Years before I was born, years before I was called into ministry, God knew what he would do in this place. Before you were born, he knew what he would do in your life. Before he called you to this place, he knew what he would do in your life. Sometimes we have to scrape away all of the dirty, right? Have you ever pressure washed something that you didn't think was dirty? And you realize really quickly just how bad it was? My wife never washes her car. Never. So when I take her car through the car wash and I bring it home, she's like, man, this thing's really nice. Yeah, you gotta wash it sometimes. Sometimes we have to clean it up. Listen, the church is praying, Lord, send revival, right? That's what we desire. We desire revival, but we don't realize that God is still cleaning up the mess before the revival can happen. Church, today I am not calling out the unsaved. Today I am not talking to those who have never had a relationship with Jesus. Today I am talking to the church that believes it is saved. Because God is working in your life, He's peeling things back. You know, as Christians, we're kind of like onions. Nobody? Thank you. There are layers, and those layers have to be peeled back, right? See, the problem is we're sitting here, stinky onions, thinking that we have arrived in the kingdom of God. We're not willing to peel back the layers and expose the things that God wants to change. Church, I'm telling you, the mask is coming off. The mask is not coming off of individual Christians. It's not just coming off of people, it's coming off of entire ministries, entire movements, entire churches. And it's not because God doesn't love his bride, it's because he wants a new and refreshed bride before his return. Amen. Let me tell you something. I have loved what that sounded mean. That sounded mean, I didn't mean for it to sound mean. I but I have enjoyed watching God rip off the masks of ministries online. Have you guys seen that? Some of these prolific pastors who have had these ministries for all of these years and it looked so good on paper. And God said, but that wasn't me. That was based on greed. It was based on desire of your own heart, not the desire of my heart. I'll tell you, one of the things that I will promise you is that in all things we will seek God's face first. We won't get it right every time. And that just like fell apart in three weeks? We held on to that for weeks after. Because I believe that's what God was calling us to do. And I prayed about it and I prayed about it and I prayed about it. And my wife and I were talking one day, and she said, But if it's not broke, why are we trying to fix it? If the kids can stay and worship with us, why don't we allow them to just stay and worship with us? And I have to be honest with you, it was because I thought I fixed it. I thought I had created something that was going to be life-giving to our children, and we learned really quickly, it may have been to the children, but it was killing our volunteers. It was hard work. And so when I went back and I started praying, Lord, if this is what you want, make it work. Lord, if this is your desire, allow it to work. And when it didn't work, I had to humble myself. And I had to say, this isn't right and it's not going to last. Let's fix it. Amen. Sometimes I think the church is too afraid to say we've missed the mark. Let's go to Ephesians 5.25. This is an important passage of scripture for marriage, but this is an important passage of scripture for the church. It says, for husbands, this means love your wife just as Christ loved the church. Ready? He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing

A Clean Church Before Revival

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of God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. Now leave that there for a second because it says he did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. If I look around, most of us are wrinkly at this point. Right? Our legacy members are starting to. You know, Pastor Roger looks good for his age. How old are you? 75. He gets a what? 76. He doesn't even know how old he is. It's okay. We're looking good for our age. We're moving really well for our age, right? But we are still with spot and wrinkle and blemish. Because God has designed our bodies in such a way that we will grow old. But he tells us that he renews the church, he renews us, our spirit, so that it can be presented holy and without fault. Can you go back one scripture for me? And it says to make her holy and clean. He's talking about the church. I want to remind you that he doesn't here say anything about a popular church. He doesn't say to make her a full church. It says to make her holy and clean. Holy and clean. Sometimes, in order to be clean, we have to strip away all of the other things. He is coming back for a clean church. Not a church that has fog machines and all the coolest lighting. He's not coming back for a church that does fun activities or has all of the best programs. He's coming back for a church that believes the word of God. And sometimes we have to be willing to offend the world with the word of God. Because that is true belief in the word. I'm not saying we have to be mean, but we have to be willing to stand firm on what God has called us to stand firm on. See, people will oftentimes remember Jesus' healing, but few will ever remember Jesus making a whip. Few of us will ever remember Jesus flipping tables. We hear the story, but we don't realize what Jesus is doing. Jesus isn't flipping tables because he's angry. He's flipping tables to clean, to cleanse the synagogue. Amen? Sometimes we have to inspect ourselves and prepare ourselves to be clean. We're gonna go to Matthew 21, 12 and 13. It says, Jesus entered into the temple and began to drive out all of the people who were buying and selling animals for sacrifice. He knocked over the tables of the money changers and the chairs of those selling doves. He said to them, The scriptures declare my temple will be called a house of prayer, but you have turned it into a den of thieves.

Jesus Cleanses The Temple

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Now, some of you have seen that I am making organic church hats, right? Yeah. So hopefully we'll get those done this week. That's been a project. I did not anticipate quite that project, but I'm excited to do it. But somebody said to me, Why don't you sell them out of the cafe? Why don't you make a bunch and sell them out of the cafe? Absolutely not. And let me tell you why. Because the church is not here to make money. The church does not exist to be wealthy. The church exists to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ to all of the world. That is our responsibility as the church. And if we decide that instead we're going to turn the house of the Lord into a den of thieves, he's going to start flipping tables. Were you guys here when we almost lost this building? I won't do it again. The Bible tells us not to test the Lord, doesn't it? Anyone want to test him? Because I don't. I know that God is good in everything that he does. Amen? And I trust every move that he makes inside of this ministry. Why would I ever question what he is doing? If he laid it on my heart, Heart to not sell hats inside of this building, I won't sell hats inside of this building. I will still donate the money to the church. But I will not sell them out of this house. I believe that God has called us here to gather, to be built up, to go and pour out into the community. Listen, we can have all of the coolest merch, and you can sport the shirt. Here's my concern. Some of us are gonna wear that hat out into public, and you're gonna forget you have it on your head. And you're gonna say or do something that you know is not in line with the word of God. That it is not showing the love of Jesus. And the minute that that happens, they see that hat. Do you see those people driving around with those little fish stickers on the back of their car or honk if you love Jesus and they're zooming in and out of traffic, acting foolish? That's why Beth doesn't have one of those on her car. She comes into the parking lot sideways. Jarvey, did you drive this morning? He goes, Oh yeah. Like, I ain't that crazy. Jesus walks into the temple and he begins to overturn tables and drive out merchants. Money's flying, animals are scattering. Can you imagine the scene of chaos that's happening inside of the temple? Religious leaders are standing there and they're shocked. Jesus looks like he's there to cause trouble, but he's not there to cause trouble. He's there to cause cleanliness. And they start, he starts to run out all of these people and he tells them that this is not a den of thieves. This is a house of prayer. He didn't begin the cleansing in public. He began the cleansing in the temple. Because, see, this place that should be considered holy, this place that should be considered reverent instead has become a place of chaos. And we allow that chaos to thrive in the building, and then we can't carry a move of the Spirit out into the world. Jesus is coming to make the church clean. He is coming to make the church clean. Jesus isn't going to start in Washington. Jesus isn't going to start in Hollywood. Jesus is going to start in his house. Have you seen the celebrities turning to Jesus? It's wild, right? I'm going to be honest. I'm always going to question what's the motive. I'm not saying that they're not saved. I'm not, what I'm saying is you see them become saved and then you see them walk away from Jesus again. Because there isn't money in Jesus. There aren't people. There are some people getting rich on Jesus. It ain't me, but there are some people. Listen. Jesus will change the house and then he will begin to change the people outside of the house. He will begin to make changes in our culture. He'll begin to make changes in the world. But we can't pray God clean up America if we won't let Him start right here. We're praying about all of these things that are happening in the world around us. We believe that all of the things that are happening are pure evil, but we are not willing to sacrifice the move of the Spirit in the house. We're not willing to allow God to move in our lives in such a way that we can make a difference in the world. Here's what happens. Let's say you show up and

Revival Starts With Repentance

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you want to pray for people outside of an abortion clinic. Let's use this as an example. How often do we show up and truly show the love of Christ? I know somebody who does this and they don't show up showing the love of Christ. How about the guy on the corner at Walmart? You guys know who I'm talking about, right? Stands out there with those signs, just a yelling, right? I bumped into him somewhere. Let's just say he's not as nice as he might make himself out to be. That's okay. We all fall short of the glory of God, amen? But here's the thing. We have to understand that when we fall short of the glory of God, it is our responsibility to say that was me, that was not Jesus. That was my shortcoming, that wasn't Jesus. Listen, showing the love of Christ, making that change, allowing him to start inside of you instead of your house, that is what will matter. See, we want revival, but Jesus is still searching for repentance. See, we show up saying, Lord, move in this place, but we're not willing to move from our seat to the altar. Lord, move in this place, but don't move me. Lord, move in this place, but don't change me. I listened to a lady who was talking about um, she was talking about a lot of things. And she said, what happens is, is people will say, I'm a blank Christian. Fill it in with whatever word you want to. And she said, the problem is, is now you are no longer a Christian. You are a this before you are a Christian, right? And so now you've watered down the word of God, and what you have said to God is you can change me, Lord, but you can't touch this because this is my identity. You can't change this thing about me because it is my identity, and Jesus says, no, no, your identity is in me. Your identity isn't what the world tells you or what the world calls you, your identity is what I call you, what I call you. I have never heard Jesus call anybody a loser. I have never heard anybody or Jesus call anybody an alcoholic. I have never heard Jesus call anybody a drug addict. You are a blood-bought child of the Almighty. You are a bloodbought child of the Almighty. Do you understand the importance of the term blood-bought? That's an expensive price to pay for something so messed up. Amen? Broken and incomplete, messy, struggling non-stop. And Jesus said, That's the one. That's the one that I will die for. He didn't just say it for me, he said it for each and every one of us. See, the church is desiring crowds. We're counting numbers, we're trying to decide how many people are here and how do we get more people here? Jesus isn't looking for numbers. He isn't looking for excitement inside of the house. What he's looking for is holiness and reverence in the house of the Lord. Amen. I love you guys. I love you guys. One of the greatest miracles that Jesus ever performed in the Bible, this is my opinion. One of the greatest miracles Jesus ever performed in the Bible was not a healing. And no, it wasn't turning water into wine. It was when he cursed the fig tree. And why was that so significant? Let's read. Let's go to Mark 11. And we're gonna go 12 and 14. The next morning, as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Anybody ever been hungry? Anybody ever been hangry? Like, listen, I'm hungry, and if we don't eat, you got about three seconds before I just lose it. We had to go to Willard yesterday. My whole family, we gathered in the car and we drove to Willard. We

Leaves Impress Fruit Pleases God

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left and we were on our way home, and Easton was so mad in the car. Like this dude was a force to be reckoned with. And he said, I'm hungry. So we stopped at Applebee's and we ate. He was a completely different kid. Sometimes that's real life, right? You don't even, you can't always put your finger on it, but you know you are so hungry. So he noticed a fig tree in full leaf, a little way off, in full leaf, in full bloom. So he went over to see if he could find any figs, but there were only leaves because it was too early in the season for fruit. Jesus said to the tree, May no one ever eat of your fruit again. And the disciples heard him say it. Jesus cursed the tree because it didn't produce fruit. Listen, it looked good, it looked healthy, but it wasn't producing any fruit. When Jesus got close, he noticed the leaves advertised something that wasn't there. Have you ever been to a church that advertises something that isn't there? You show up and you're thinking, man, this is gonna be, this is gonna be a great experience. It's gonna feel like home. I I really want genuine connection with people. And whenever you show up, that's not there. I had a friend who attends another church and uh she posted on social media that she went to a women's meeting in another church. And when she arrived at that church, it felt very unwelcoming and very cold. Not cold like temperature cold, but like the people were cold. They didn't embrace her because she wasn't part of their body. And she said, I'll never go back. Imagine if she didn't have a home church. Imagine if her thought of the church and of Jesus was it is cold and unwelcoming. If you know Jesus like I know Jesus, you know that is the exact opposite of who he is. Jesus welcomes each and every one of us every day, broken and unclean, lost and in the chaos, simply so that he can call us back to him. He is prepared and willing. The tree looked alive, but it wasn't. And here's the thing that I think the church has to remember the leaves are easy, right? Getting people to show up to church is actually pretty easy. But then the church bearing good fruit and being able to feed those people, that's a challenge. A lot of people think, well, that's the pastor's job. Listen, sheep begot sheep. It is the responsibility of the body of Christ to show Jesus in the world. To draw people to the house of the Lord. I'm not saying to this house. I encourage people to go to any church that they feel comfortable being in. My desire is that when people feel comfortable to be in church, that it could be somebody else's church. That it, listen, I recommend pastors all the time. I was in the bank the other day and I had this lady come in and she was talking to one of my tellers and she said something about her church. And I said, Oh, where do you attend? She said, Uh, I go to Bethel worship. And I said, Pastor John's one of my favorite people. And do you know what she said to me? I don't recognize your face. You should come this Sunday. You know what I did as soon as she left? I text Pastor John. I was like, good job, man. I was like, I don't know what you're doing over there, but I like it. He said, What do you mean? I said, I had one of your congregants invite me to your church this Sunday. He said, You can come anytime you want. Listen, that's what our responsibility is, isn't it? Our responsibility is to share the love of Jesus, and we find somebody who doesn't know who Jesus is to share the name of Jesus. Get them to a ministry that will allow them to be loved and to be cared for. Leaves will always impress people, but the fruit pleases God. How many churches in our community have beautiful leaves but don't produce fruit? It's because we're too worried about pleasing the people who show up, right? We don't want to offend, we don't want to hurt, we want to do everything that makes people comfortable. I have learned this myself. If I make you comfortable, you will continue to get lazy. Right? That's why I keep the air nice and cool in here. I don't want you to get too comfortable. I need you to shiver a little bit. It keeps you alive. I'm gonna start taking jackets next. No jackets, no blankets. Right now it's 70. We're gonna kick her down to 65 in here. And make sure you guys are awake. Listen, amazing worship, professional lighting, perfect branding. Can you imagine a church calendar that every week there's something to do? But when Jesus walks with us, he is looking for fruit. Listen, you can have a program that doesn't bear fruit. Right? Listen, we could start a softball team. We got a new field out in the backyard, right? We could start a softball team. What good does that do us? If it doesn't proclaim the name of Jesus, if when we get together we aren't telling people about Jesus, what is the point? What is the point? All it does is fill a calendar. The church has become good at producing content, uh, but it doesn't produce character. Amen? Look around you when you go out into the world, when you meet people who attend church, the churches that aren't building character, all those people do is they wear their church logo proudly on the front of their shirt, right? And they love to tell you what church they go to, but when you inspect, they are not producing fruit. A lot of times, one of my favorite things to do is what did your pastor preach about this Sunday? Nobody can ever tell me. What did your pastor preach about on Sunday? They're like, Well, uh, he talked about the cross for a little bit, and uh I think he talked about Jesus at one point. I was like, you don't know what your pastor preached about. So what that tells me is you sat through a message that you didn't care about, and you didn't go home and study anything that he told you about. You didn't go and dive into the word, you didn't inspect what God was doing in your life. Instead, you just went out to the world and said, Well, I went to church last Sunday. See, I'm better because I went to church. Better is transformation. Better is transformation, better is a changed heart, a renewed spirit. If you look right now at all of the mega churches, I don't want to say all of the mega churches, but look at those ministries that have existed for all of this time. Some of those ministries are beginning to collapse. Those leaders are beginning to fail. Those churches are beginning to split. I was reading the other day, uh, Greg Locke has a church in Tennessee. At one point, he was running 3,000 on Sunday morning. He's down to 300 people. I don't make fun of that because I believe God is doing the exact same thing here. Do you know what he's doing? He's separating the wheat from the chaff. He's burning off all of the dead and keeping the things that give life. Right? We can run a hundred a week. I don't care. I don't care if there's two of you here. I'm gonna deliver the same message for two people as I will for a hundred because my desire is a changed heart, not a full house. There are 150 seats in this building, and we have come close to filling them on Sunday mornings. Guess what? It doesn't change who we are or what we do. Bring a thousand people in here. I don't care. It's about the Spirit of God, it's about the move of God, it is not about the number of people sitting in a building. See, some people will walk into a church and they'll say, But where's God? Where's God? Why is He not? But those people don't show up to church ready. Those people don't show up to church prayed in. They don't show up to church desiring an actual move of God. They want the tangible, they want the stuff you can see, the stuff that you can touch. Amen. Here's what I'm talking about. You guys know Smith Wigglesworth? This is old school stuff. Some of you legacy members will remember that, that name. This dude was raising people from the dead all the time. I've never seen that. Never once in all of my years in ministry have I ever seen that. But people would show up to those to those camp meetings and to that church in order to see miracles performed. They weren't showing up so that the spirit would move on them. They were sp showing up for the spectacle. This is not a spectator sport. Showing up to church does not get you saved. You have to be on the field and willing to play. You have to say, Jesus, here I am, change my heart. Jesus, here I am, make a difference in my life so that I can make a difference in the lives of those who are around me. I believe that Jesus is separating the genuine from the counterfeit at this time. I believe that Jesus is separating the genuine from the counterfeit in pastors. I believe that he is separating the genuine from the counterfeit in congregations. I believe he is separating the genuine from the counterfeit in worship music. I believe that God is moving in such a way right now that the church can't even begin to understand it because it

Genuine Faith Versus Counterfeit Church

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scares us, because we don't know what side we're on. We don't know if we will be burned in the fire or if we will produce life. We have no idea because we don't talk to God. We don't ask him what's going on in our lives. Instead, we sit comfortably until something tragic happens, and all of a sudden we're in prayer. All of a sudden, we're begging God to make a difference in our lives. God, here I am, Lord, use me. And then he says, Okay, here I am. I will use you. And you go, mmm, I'm busy that day. Anybody ever ask their friends to help them move? Anyone in here own a truck? Danny's got a truck, but you notice what he did? You know why he did that? He don't want nobody asking him to help him move. Because when you have a truck, automatically you like to help people move. Isn't that how that works? Danny, I'm trying to pick up as many pallets as I can get. So just if you see them, throw them in the back of the truck, bring them over, okay? I'm carrying a sawzall. This is not a joke, by the way. I need pallets, as many pallets as we can get. I'm carrying a sawzall on the back of my car now. And when I see a pallet, I get up and I cut it up so that I can put it in the back of my car. Because it won't fit otherwise. That's not a joke. All the pallets I can get right now. So if you know anybody, bring them in. Anyway, he is separating the genuine from the counterfeit. Fire will always reveal what our applause will hide. See, we clap for things that we think are good, but God will go through the fire. He will take us through the fire to reveal them. One of the things that, uh, for those of you who don't know this about me, one of the things that I love dearly, I love jewelry. Like fancy jewelry. Ask my wife. One year I bought her a Le'Veon chocolate diamond for Christmas, and they cut the stamp, I had to have it sized, and they cut the stamp, the LeVeon stamp,

Fire Reveals What Applause Hides

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out of the ring. I sent it back and made them put the stamp back in the ring because it meant that much to me. Right? That's superficial. Amen. But see, I had this desire and I had this in my mind that this is what it was gonna be, and this is what it was gonna be. I didn't want her to open that gift and not know that that was a Le'Veon chocolate diamond, because you can get a brown, dirty diamond anywhere, right? I needed her to know I paid a bunch of money for it. That's what I needed. It ain't funny, folks. It's the truth. If you like jewelry, you understand that one of the best ways to get pure gold is to send it into fire. Because the longer and the hotter the fire is, the more impurities will come out of the gold, right? Now you know that if you get gold that is too pure, it's too soft to wear. 10 karat is harder. 12 karat, a little bit softer. When you get into 18, and that's why you don't see real 24 karat gold anything. Gold plated. See, God will put us into the fire. He will put all of those things that he knows needs to be made pure into the fire, which is the test that we experience. It's the valley that we find ourselves in, and yet we argue with God for putting us there. All he wants, all he wants is for those impurities to come out. All he wants is a clean and pure church. I believe that the bride, the church, is beginning to look too much like the world. You walk into churches that you don't even see a cross in. You'll walk into a church where when they pray for one another, it's I hope you're okay. Have you ever met a church that sends good vibes? I ain't vibing nothing. I'm praying for you. And I'm praying for you in a way that God is going to shake you inside and out. Amen. That is what a church should be doing for one another. But see, the church has become comfortable and we want to look like the world. We want to look like we have friends rather than co-laborers in Christ. See, I desire to co-labor with everybody in this building. See, I don't see myself more important than anybody in this house. When we go out and we serve the community, we are co-laborers in Christ. That's what we should be treating each other as. We can have friends, right? We can have friends in the church. Stephanie says she can't. Stephanie's not even sure she knows how to make a friend. But the point is that we can have all of the friends, but if we are not co-laborers in Christ, we will never be able to grow the kingdom of God. James 4-4. It says the next morning. No, that's not right. James 4-4. Do we have James 4-4 there? Go ahead and give that to me. You adulterers, don't you realize that friendship with ready? You're not. Friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God. I say it again. If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. See, the church wants to be like the world. We want to be friends. And we do this like we meet them where they are. So we have this safe space where they can come and they can still live their sinful life inside of the house of God because we don't want to hurt their feelings. No. You don't show up to the house of God living the same way that you came in. You leave changed and renewed, a new person, a new spirit. Amen. If you're showing up every Sunday and you're not leaving changed and renewed, why are you going to church? You're just showing up to warm a seat. Let me tell you something. That seat's warm enough. It doesn't need you sitting in it. It's not hurting it to get a little cold on Sunday morning. God wants you here so that you can be changed and renewed, not so that you will remain the same. If friendship makes us an enemy of God, then we have to realize that the church was never called to blend in. We shouldn't look like everybody else. The church building, the church body, we should not look like everybody else. We are called to stand out. And some churches have become so culturally relevant. Think about that. Culturally relevant, what does that mean? That means that you embrace the culture of the world. That they become spiritually numb to the move of God. That when God starts to move, they don't even know what to do with themselves because their times are structured. Have you ever met those churches that have five services on a Sunday morning? Service starts at 9, ends at 10.30, and at 10.30, I need you to leave. I don't want you to stay in fellowship because I have another service that I have to prepare for, right? I have a what if what would happen if the spirit were to break out? And there was healing in the house. What would they do with that? They would run because we got another group of people getting ready to come in. Somebody's got to sweep the floors, somebody's got to restock the coffee cups, right? We cannot become so culturally relevant that we are not biblically recognizable. Listen, we are not going to exchange conviction for comfort. I want the word of God to convict your spirit. Maybe for some of us it needs to offend our flesh. Amen? That's what needs to happen in order for the church to make meaningful change. We cannot become comfortable with what God is doing. Listen, we need to exchange popularity for altar calls. The church needs to stop worrying about whether or not somebody likes that song and instead drive people to the altar. That song should really speak to the hearts of God's people. The word should speak to the hearts of God's people. God's people should desire to be at the foot of the cross, not sitting in a chair. Not simply sitting in a chair. The Holy Spirit didn't come to make us comfortable. He came to make us holy. See how easy that is? The Holy Spirit did not come. He did not descend and rest on the heads of the disciples and on all of those who are gathered in the upper room to make them comfortable. He came to make them holy. He came to bring meaningful change. Psalm 51, 17. It says, the sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart. If my heart is repented, but it is broken, I am still in a place of God. If my heart is full and I feel good about what's going on in my life and my heart is not repentant, I am not in good standing with Christ. Instead, I am living for the world. Instead, I am desiring the things of the world. I don't want to desire the world any longer. I don't want to desire what the world tells me is good. You know, when David fell short of the glory of God, he repented of that sin. My question to the church today is how many of us are truly repenting for the things that we've done? How many of us are saying, Lord, forgive me of my sins? Lord, I know that this is not what you've called me to. Lord, I know that what I said was not true. Lord, I know that my behavior is not in line with what you've called me to. The next revival, I'm just I think we're gonna have a hard time believing this one. Alright? The next revival will not happen because of a fog machine. It won't. We can turn on the fog machines, we can have all of the cool laser lights, we can do all of the awesome things, but that is not going to bring revival. Revival will not start simply because we have decided to set up a bigger stage, that because we have decided to build out what we believe is the next best thing. You know, perfect sound, perfect lighting, none of those things will drive the Spirit of God, smaller egos, repented hearts, the word of God. These are the things that will drive a move of the Spirit. Isaiah 6, 1 through 8. It was the cure, the year of the King Uzziah, the thank you, Jesus. It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Attending him. I don't think this is where I want to be. Can you skip one more for me? They were calling out to each other: holy, holy, holy is the Lord of heaven's armies. The whole earth is filled with his glory. Their voices shook the temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke. Then I said, It's all over, I am doomed, for I am a sinful man, I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the king, the Lord of heaven's armies. Before God sent him, God had to cleanse him. Are you sitting here wondering why God hasn't sent you? Maybe it's because you haven't allowed God to cleanse you. We are standing on what I believe is one of the greatest moves. Do you guys have any of you ever read about the Azusa Street revivals? Anyone? No? If you ever get the opportunity, just Google search that. That is where Foursquare came from. Four Square was founded out of those Azusa Street revivals. Amy Simple McPherson was there. She became part of this move, and she really loved that move of the spirit. Now, this is when people were being slain in the spirit and laying on the floor, and there were prayer meetings all night long, and people couldn't get enough of the move of the spirit. Amen? And now look at the church. Sitting in our seats, falling asleep. Because God has already done that. And if he's already done it, he's probably not going to do it again. I believe we are on the edge of one of the greatest moves of God that will have ever been seen. Now, here's what I want to tell you: God is not going to pour new wine into old wineskins. He's going to begin to strip away the fake worship, the hidden compromise, the secret sin, the religious performance, and the spiritual pride. Not because he is angry with the church. This has nothing to do with him being angry, but because he is preparing us for his return. Listen, when I was growing up in the church, when

New Wineskins And Jesus Coming Soon

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Florence was here and she was preaching, one of the things that she would say all the time is, Jesus is coming soon. What does soon mean? See, the problem is, is the Bible tells us that no man shall know the hour. Soon and very soon we are going to meet the king. Let me tell you, the minute that we are standing in right now is much sooner than we were two weeks ago. We don't understand God's timing. We don't understand the move of God. But he is preparing his bride for his return. I promise you this: the mask is coming off, and the world will begin to mock the church. We see it all the time. The world will make fun of those who believe in the move of the spirit. But so long as we are pleasing unto God, the world doesn't matter. How many of you know who Michelangelo is? I don't mean the Ninja Turtle. Let me clarify. Artist. Sculptor. He would sculpt these most beautiful sculptures. Has anybody ever seen some of his sculptures? They're absolutely gorgeous, right? Detail like you could never imagine. And at one point somebody asked him, How do you do this? How do you make something so beautiful? And his reply, in essence, was this I simply remove everything

Remove What Doesn’t Belong

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that doesn't belong. That's an impressive response. I'm looking at this giant. Have any of you ever seen the stones that Marcus carves? There's one right out in front of the building with the church logo on it. Has anybody ever noticed that? Marcus carved that by hand. I'm not making this up, with a hammer and a file. That's wild, right? All he does is remove what doesn't belong. He sees it in his head and he makes it happen. Can you believe that that's what God's doing to the church today? He's removing the things that don't belong. He's removing the pride and the performance, the hypocrisy, the compromise, the self-sufficiency. And listen, church, that's gonna hurt. It is not going to feel good, but every strike, every piece that is removed is making us more and more like Jesus Christ. Today I don't want to ask God to fix the image. I don't want to ask him to just expose what needs to be changed. I want to ask him to change it. Don't pray for God to bless what you are building. Instead, pray that God will bless what he desires to be built. We don't have to show up to church to perform. We need to show up to church to pray. We need to show up to church to transform our lives so that we can begin to transform the world around us. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, I thank you for an anointed word in the house today. Lord, I thank you for the changed hearts that are sitting in this building. Bless each and every person. As we're sitting here and we're inspecting our lives, we're

Closing Prayer For Changed Hearts

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allowing you to move freely through all of the desires of our hearts. And we believe that you're weeding them out. Allow our desires to be for the kingdom of God and not for ourselves. Because I know that as we continue to serve you and we begin to seek your face, that the things of our heart, the desires of our heart, will begin to come true because of the great service that we have given unto you, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. I thank you, Lord, for blessing me. For blessing this body. I pray that we continue to see those blessings poured out upon us, upon our community, but more than anything, upon the kingdom of God. We thank you and we praise you. We give you honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen. Love you guys. We will see you.