SPEAKER_00: I want to read one verse of scripture in Acts 4, verse 31.
SPEAKER_00: Acts 4 and 31.
SPEAKER_00: Familiar area of the scripture to you probably.
SPEAKER_00: We'll come back to this in a few moments, so please uh feel free to keep your place there.
SPEAKER_00: And uh thank you for doing that.
SPEAKER_00: Matt Acts 4, 31 says, As when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together.
SPEAKER_00: They were all filled with the Holy Ghost and spake the word of God with boldness.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to preach to you what I've entitled today, Fresh Anointing.
SPEAKER_00: And let's just pray that God would be with us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we thank you for this moment, this time.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you for every person that's here, their desire to follow you and to seek after you.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you would speak to our hearts and draw us close to you.
SPEAKER_00: Let your work be done in all that we do, let your anointing be upon us.
SPEAKER_00: In the name of Jesus, we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Everybody say in Jesus' name, you may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying to move forward since the time is passing.
SPEAKER_00: You know, people have a hunger for God at times.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they don't even recognize what that is.
SPEAKER_00: They just sense that something is missing from their lives, and they're they're seeking for something to fill a void of their lives.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so they hear the word of God or they read the word of God, they learn something, they hear about something, perhaps they sense the presence of God, the grace of God ministering to their hearts, or whatever that moment is for them, and that causes them to believe that God is God is real and that Jesus is our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: And that moves them towards what God wants to do in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: And uh so God responds as they reach out to him.
SPEAKER_00: Have you found that to be true?
SPEAKER_00: It is in wait, have you found that to be true that God responds as you draw near to him, as you respond to him?
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: It's what the scripture says if we'll draw near to God, he draws near to us.
SPEAKER_00: But God never intended us for us to stop there.
SPEAKER_00: So believing results in obeying, results in doing what God has told us to do.
SPEAKER_00: And so people then respond in obedience to the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: As Brother Tyler taught this morning about baptism.
SPEAKER_00: They obey what God has told them to do, and just as they did in the New Testament, just as Brother Tyler taught this morning, go back and listen to the lesson if you weren't here, and and they respond to what God is calling them to do.
SPEAKER_00: They're baptized in accordance with the word of God in the name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: They're even even experience that weight of sin removed from their lives.
SPEAKER_00: They experience that moment when they sense God actually washing all those sins away, and it's a great moment.
SPEAKER_00: Or you're just asleep today.
SPEAKER_00: Cold's got you.
SPEAKER_00: They experience what it's like to sense the presence of God, they experience what it's like to sense the weight of sin lifting off their hearts, and that's a great experience.
SPEAKER_00: That's a great moment of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: But God doesn't want you to stop there.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the end of everything.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the end of all it is.
SPEAKER_00: The New Testament exhorts us and commands us to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so as we surrender to God, he fills us with his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And that too is a spectacular moment where God fills you, God's presence indwells in your life, but God does not intend for you to stop there.
SPEAKER_00: We celebrate the moment of salvation, but God doesn't intend for you to stop there.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the end.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the end, that's the beginning of what God wants to do in your life.
SPEAKER_00: It's God's plan for us to continually receive the refreshing and the renewing of His Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: It's God's intention for you not to have an experience in your history, but to live with the refreshing presence and power of God in your life.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, I would say it is impossible for us to continue living for God if God does not empower us with his spirit, with his presence, with his grace.
SPEAKER_00: If God doesn't come in and help us, we will not be able to make it.
SPEAKER_00: In the Bible, the story of King David is quite interesting, interesting, and we read about what happened in his life.
SPEAKER_00: He receives three specific anointings.
SPEAKER_00: And each one marked a stage of God's calling and God's provision and God's authority in his life.
SPEAKER_00: They weren't accidental, they weren't repetitious because they missed the first one, or they needed to correct it in some way, didn't do it right.
SPEAKER_00: No, it was God's continued working in his life.
SPEAKER_00: And we read about the first anointing, which is the one probably most common with you because David is called out of the field taking care of the sheep, and he is called to his home, his family home in Bethlehem, and he is anointed by Samuel in 1 Samuel 16.
SPEAKER_00: I don't have time to go into the details of these anointings.
SPEAKER_00: I just want to reference them today, but I do want to give you this scripture in case you want to go back, 1 Samuel 16.
SPEAKER_00: David's family was there, but otherwise it was an important moment, but it was a private moment.
SPEAKER_00: It was a moment when God said, I see you when others don't.
SPEAKER_00: It was a moment when God picked him out and gave him a promise and a calling of what God wanted to do in his life.
SPEAKER_00: It was a moment when he was still a young shepherd and he looked like a young shepherd.
SPEAKER_00: He did not look like a king.
SPEAKER_00: He just looked like an everyday young man tending sheep, but God drew him out, and God did something great in his life in that moment.
SPEAKER_00: He was anointed to do what God has called him to do.
SPEAKER_00: And then he went back to tending sheep.
SPEAKER_00: It was a private moment, it was an important moment, it was a significant moment, it was a milestone of his life.
SPEAKER_00: But it didn't seem all that earth shattering in the moment.
SPEAKER_00: Because he went back to doing what he had done.
SPEAKER_00: Your calling always precedes your recognition in God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Later we read about the second anointing of King David.
SPEAKER_00: He was anointed king over Judah in 2 Samuel chapter number 4.
SPEAKER_00: And this is where the men of Judah, the men of his tribe, anointed him to be their leader.
SPEAKER_00: They consented, they joined together, they allowed, they made room for David to lead them as a tribe.
SPEAKER_00: And this was a great moment in his life, also.
SPEAKER_00: But it was only a partial fulfillment of what God wanted to do.
SPEAKER_00: It was only the beginning of the unfolding of how God wanted to work through him.
SPEAKER_00: He was a king, he was a leader, but not over all of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: It was a partial fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes in our lives, a partial fulfillment precedes the full fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: We want it all to happen, but it doesn't often work that way.
SPEAKER_00: God works in our lives in stages.
SPEAKER_00: He grows us from stage to stage to do what he has called us to do.
SPEAKER_00: The third anointing of King David is in 2 Samuel chapter number 5, and it's when all the elders of Israel came together and anointed him to be the king over the whole nation.
SPEAKER_00: It was not until this anointing that David could be able to do what God had promised for him to do.
SPEAKER_00: So all this had to unfold so that he could do what God had called him to do.
SPEAKER_00: It marked a completeness of that anointing in his life.
SPEAKER_00: But that wasn't the end of what God did in his life.
SPEAKER_00: He was constantly going through this renewal of God helping him, strengthening him, giving him direction and guidance all through his life.
SPEAKER_00: At every level, at every challenge, at every new effort, at every obstacle, at every season, at every stage of our lives, we need a new and fresh anointing and touch from God.
SPEAKER_00: We need God to give us his help, his direction, his strength to continue moving forward in where we are at the moment.
SPEAKER_00: It's good to have that original.
SPEAKER_00: Hold on to that.
SPEAKER_00: Keep a hold of that.
SPEAKER_00: Don't let go of it.
SPEAKER_00: But you need more than that.
SPEAKER_00: You need something that'll sustain you today.
SPEAKER_00: You need something that'll sustain you to this battle, through this challenge, through this obstacle.
SPEAKER_00: You need a refreshing, a renewing of God.
SPEAKER_00: The priest of the Old Testament, they had an initial anointing.
SPEAKER_00: They all did.
SPEAKER_00: Aaron had an initial anointing, Exodus chapter 29, Leviticus chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: Aaron's sons, when they became priests, Exodus 28, Exodus 30, Leviticus 8, they all had this initial anointing as priest.
SPEAKER_00: And that was important.
SPEAKER_00: That was an important milestone.
SPEAKER_00: But they also had to do something else.
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't the end of it.
SPEAKER_00: They continued to commit themselves to God, not in the sense of anointing, like pouring the jar of oil over their head.
SPEAKER_00: But every time they came to serve, they had to commit themselves to God again.
SPEAKER_00: They had to repent again.
SPEAKER_00: They had to wash themselves again.
SPEAKER_00: They had to bring back an offering again.
SPEAKER_00: They had to have something again in that moment to do what God had called them to do.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't enough to just have some initial experience.
SPEAKER_00: They needed to be prepared for this moment, in this season, in this time, and in this work.
SPEAKER_00: And we see that same principle occurring in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_00: And it's found here in this setting that I read to you in Acts chapter 4.
SPEAKER_00: What had happened is they had seen a great miracle occur.
SPEAKER_00: They had seen the man at the gate beautiful, raised from his lameness, and now they were called in to question for that.
SPEAKER_00: They were forbidden to preach or teach in the name of Jesus, and they were, should I say, promised persecution or punishment if they did so.
SPEAKER_00: They understood that, they understood the moment, and Acts chapter 4 says, and when they heard all this, they lifted up their voice to God in one accord and said, Lord, you are God, and you've made the heavens, the earth, and the seas, and all that is in them.
SPEAKER_00: It's by the mouth of thy servant David, you have said, Why did the heathen rage and the people imagine vain things?
SPEAKER_00: The kings of the earth stood up, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and his Christ.
SPEAKER_00: For of a truth against the holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed.
SPEAKER_00: Both Herod, Pontius Pilate, and the Gentiles and the people of Israel have gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to be done.
SPEAKER_00: And now, Lord, behold their threatenings.
SPEAKER_00: And now, Lord, you see what's going on.
SPEAKER_00: We understand you have a plan.
SPEAKER_00: We understand that you know before the beginning what was going to happen, and you know where we are, but Lord, look, they're threatening us.
SPEAKER_00: And their answer to that, their solution to that was not to hire a lawyer.
SPEAKER_00: That's what we do in modern America, right?
SPEAKER_00: Their answer to that was really not even to defend themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Their answer to that was to go to God and say, God, we're in this crisis moment.
SPEAKER_00: You see what's going on, you knew what was happening before it happened, and we're coming to you, and we're coming to you for a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: We're asking you, God, if you will grant to us your servants, that with all boldness we may speak your word.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't even ask for not to be persecuted, they didn't even ask not to be, you know, disliked.
SPEAKER_00: They didn't ask for all the things we would think of for asking.
SPEAKER_00: They said, God, in spite of all this, would you grant us the boldness to continue to speak your word?
SPEAKER_00: And with that, by stretching forth your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders would be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: That was their cry, that was their heart, because they were facing this challenging moment.
SPEAKER_00: And God responded to their prayers.
SPEAKER_00: God didn't respond by just uh, you know, giving them the right words to say, God didn't respond by just uh uh acknowledging their difficulties, God didn't respond by punishing their enemies, God responded.
SPEAKER_00: The place where they were was shaken, and what happened?
SPEAKER_00: They were filled with the Holy Ghost and spake the word of God with boldness.
SPEAKER_00: These people had already received the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: This was not their first experience with receiving the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: But in response to their moment of crisis, God, and in his wisdom and understanding, he filled them with his spirit again.
SPEAKER_00: He renewed them in the Holy Ghost again.
SPEAKER_00: He touched them.
SPEAKER_00: You cannot, you cannot make it without God renewing you, without God giving you his grace, without God renewing you in his strength.
SPEAKER_00: Now I know that somebody probably in here is thinking, well, uh, maybe you can, you know, maybe you can.
SPEAKER_00: And so my question to you, if you're saying that, is why would you try?
SPEAKER_00: Why would you think that I'm just gonna grit my teeth and do it on my own?
SPEAKER_00: If you're born in the fire of the Holy Ghost, you've got to live in the fire of the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna be successful any other way.
SPEAKER_00: You you may you may survive, but you're not gonna be able to do what God has called you to do.
SPEAKER_00: God makes it that way on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: God makes it that way on purpose so that you and I won't take credit.
SPEAKER_00: So and you and I won't try to receive the glory ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: God does it that way on purpose.
SPEAKER_00: I tell people all the time in my role as ministry and mentor to people and ministers, I tell them all the time if your plan does not require a miracle, it is not God's plans.
SPEAKER_00: God's plan always requires Him to do something miraculous.
SPEAKER_00: It always requires Him to step in and to make up the difference of what you can't do.
SPEAKER_00: It always requires, I need God's presence.
SPEAKER_00: I need a refreshing, I need a renewing, I need a fresh anointing of God's power and strength in all that I do.
SPEAKER_00: Acts chapter 3, verse 19, Peter responds to the crowd, which is a little bit earlier than this when Peter's actually responding.
SPEAKER_00: And he he responds to the crowd after the lame man was healed.
SPEAKER_00: And this is what he said, and in he's talking, referring to them, he's kind of preaching a sermon here.
SPEAKER_00: We only get pieces, a little piece of it in the scripture, but he said, Repent ye therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He's even referring to this as times of refreshing, a time of renewing, a time of fresh anointing that God gives to you.
SPEAKER_00: The apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 16, he said he's talking about suffering and going through things and difficult circumstances, and he said, For which cause we faint not?
SPEAKER_00: But though our outward man perish, yet our inward man is renewed day by day.
SPEAKER_00: Our inward person, our inward man is renewed day by day in the Spirit of God, even though we may be struggling, even though we may be in difficulty, even though we may be in hardship, even though our minds are filled with questions and even confusion, God can and does renew us in his spirit and empower us with his grace.
SPEAKER_00: We need a fresh anointing.
SPEAKER_00: And by fresh anointing, I don't know, I don't mean we need somebody to pour oil on us.
SPEAKER_00: We need a constant renewal of the Holy Ghost in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We need a constant refreshing of the Holy Ghost in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: We need a constant renewal of his power and his presence and his strength.
SPEAKER_00: I'll never forget, and I've told it before, but I'll never forget years ago.
SPEAKER_00: I, you know, was working in a church, and we had a man come and he prayed and God really touched him.
SPEAKER_00: He was filled with the Holy Ghost, he committed his life to God, and then, you know, like every service, he was coming to the altar after church.
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure there was some naysayers out there, some righteous people, or maybe say self-righteous people, was saying, What's wrong with him?
SPEAKER_00: Why is he struggling so much?
SPEAKER_00: It was a big church, so there had to be somebody doing it, you know.
SPEAKER_00: But whether somebody else was or not, he was feeling that way in his heart and mine.
SPEAKER_00: I talked to him, I had been talking to him along the way, trying to help him and encourage him, and I talked to him, and he told me, he said, I just, I just feel like I have to come down every time, and I just I'm embarrassed that people may think, and and you know, he's going through this.
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Man, that's what the altar's for.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it's for.
SPEAKER_00: It's not for just sinners, it's not just for people that are starting out with God, it's for every one of us.
SPEAKER_00: It's where we get renewed in the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: You come down to every service if you want to.
SPEAKER_00: It's okay.
SPEAKER_00: You need the power to overcome, you need a power to break through, you need the power to be victorious.
SPEAKER_00: And then he started saying he's struggling with some past addictions and those kinds of things.
SPEAKER_00: I said, You need to be here every time.
SPEAKER_00: I'll come with you.
SPEAKER_00: You need to be here every time.
SPEAKER_00: I can't give you the power to overcome, but God can.
SPEAKER_00: Let God renew you, let God restore you, let God refresh you in his spirit.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he wants to do.
SPEAKER_00: He's like, why would I just turn off the faucet and say, No, never mind, God, I don't really need that.
SPEAKER_00: No, I want to open my heart and say, God, let your work be done.
SPEAKER_00: Let your anointing, your power, your strength touch my life.
SPEAKER_00: Give me a fresh touch, give me a renewal of your spirit at every turn, at every moment.
SPEAKER_00: Every new level, whatever it is, requires, demands, calls for a fresh anointing.
SPEAKER_00: God gives a fresh anointing for every level of our life, of our relationship, of our walk with Him.
SPEAKER_00: God gives a fresh anointing, a fresh touch of his spirit at every challenge that we face, at every battle that we fight, at every responsibility we take on, at every new season of our lives.
SPEAKER_00: God will give us his strength, his power, his grace, and we want that in our lives.
SPEAKER_00: A fresh anointing, a fresh touch of the spirit reminds us of our identity.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us of who we are.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us we're a child of God, that we're an heir of grace, that we belong to Jesus, that we are chosen by God, that he's looking beyond our faults and seeing our needs.
SPEAKER_00: For some of you that know the old song.
SPEAKER_00: Should have got a few smiles from some of you that are a little bit older.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us who we are.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us that we have been saved by his grace.
SPEAKER_00: That because he loved us with an everlasting love, he reaches into our lives.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't ignore our sins, he forgives our sins.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say your sins are okay.
SPEAKER_00: No, he washes them away.
SPEAKER_00: He makes us new, he makes us whole.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have to live with guilt and shame because he forgives our sins.
SPEAKER_00: Every touch of his presence reminds me that he has forgiven me, that he has washed me, that he has made me whole.
SPEAKER_00: Every touch, every anointing, every fresh touch of his spirit reminds us that we're called by God, that God has given us a purpose.
SPEAKER_00: We're not bouncing around like some pinball machine out of control.
SPEAKER_00: We didn't just happen to get here.
SPEAKER_00: We're not in some cosmic accident of evolution, but God has given us purpose.
SPEAKER_00: God has given us destiny.
SPEAKER_00: We were designed to live with him forever.
SPEAKER_00: We were intended to serve him, to worship him, to stand around his throne for all of eternity.
SPEAKER_00: We are intended for that purpose, and that purpose calls us today.
SPEAKER_00: And we need that renewed in our minds and in our vision and in our hearts, lest we begin to think about our purpose is simply this existence in humanity and to achieve things and gather stuff.
SPEAKER_00: That's not the reason for our existence.
SPEAKER_00: God has created us for heaven.
SPEAKER_00: God has created us to be worships, worshipers around his throne.
SPEAKER_00: And every time we're renewed in the spirit, it reminds us that's what God has called us to do.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's purpose.
SPEAKER_00: A fresh anointing, a fresh touch of the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Gives us a new boldness.
SPEAKER_00: It gives us new vision.
SPEAKER_00: It gives us new power, new and fresh power.
SPEAKER_00: I can't fight today's battles with only the remnants of a past anointing, a past touch from God.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to be successful.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to be strong in the Lord, just living on what was in the past.
SPEAKER_00: But when I am touched by the hand of God and the power of God, it reminds me that the weapons of my warfare is not carnal, but it is mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
SPEAKER_00: It reminds us that we were destined to win for eternity.
SPEAKER_00: I need a renewing of the Holy Ghost every day.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, but I'd like to have a renewing of the Holy Ghost every day.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to have a renewed touch of God every day of my life.
SPEAKER_00: I need to be reminded.
SPEAKER_00: A fresh anointing, a fresh touch from God, a fresh touch of his spirit draws us back to him, back into his presence, back into his grace, back into his love that ministers to our lives.
SPEAKER_00: So if you're feeling a bit stale in your walk with God, if you're feeling tired, you're feeling weary, you're feeling lethargic, you're feeling overwhelmed, you're feeling beaten down, directionless, drowning in life.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to keep living that way today.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to stay there today.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to stay in that moment today.
SPEAKER_00: God is calling you to be renewed again in his spirit, to be touched again by his power, to be refreshed in the Holy Ghost.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to stay there.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to stay in that condition.
SPEAKER_00: I can't promise you that every circumstance is going to be resolved when you get up and walk out of this place today.
SPEAKER_00: But I can promise you the touch of God will empower you, will strengthen you, will help you.
SPEAKER_00: Would you stand together with me?
SPEAKER_00: You can receive a fresh anointing today, a fresh touch from God.
SPEAKER_00: How do you do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, it does take something from you.
SPEAKER_00: From you.
SPEAKER_00: If you're willing to make a new commitment, if you're willing to step into a new place of surrender to God, if you're willing to step into a new moment that says, God, not my will but thine be done, God can do a work in your life.
SPEAKER_00: God can refresh you and renew you in this place today.
SPEAKER_00: If you're willing to take a new step towards God, God will draw you near to Him.
SPEAKER_00: God will touch your life.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe that today?
SPEAKER_00: Now I want to tell you.
SPEAKER_00: You can turn and leave.
SPEAKER_00: You can leave this place just like you came, but you don't have to.
SPEAKER_00: You can leave this place weighted down, overburdened, and completely wrung out, but you don't have to.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to.
SPEAKER_00: The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords is here waiting for you to take that step so you can be renewed and refreshed and touched in the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Would you close your eyes?