WEBVTT 00:00:01.919 --> 00:00:04.400 Hi, my name is Michelle Steele. 00:00:04.639 --> 00:00:10.240 Pastor Philip and I want to thank you for listening to this message from Life of Faith Church. 00:00:10.480 --> 00:00:16.800 We have more resources available to help you build your faith and bring your world by the Word of God. 00:00:17.039 --> 00:00:22.879 From our website, lifeoffface.net, you can connect to our YouTube channel. 00:00:23.120 --> 00:00:26.320 Watch the live stream feed from our church services. 00:00:26.559 --> 00:00:29.679 Access books and downloads in our web store. 00:00:29.920 --> 00:00:36.799 And discover more about Life of Faith Church, producing life city, state, nation, and world. 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:39.759 Visit lifeoffaith.net today. 00:00:42.320 --> 00:00:45.520 We are so pleased to be back with you all. 00:00:45.840 --> 00:00:50.320 And um it's been nine years. 00:00:51.039 --> 00:00:53.039 A lot of things have gone on. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:01:02.000 But um I told my wife, and I'm I'm gonna bring this up, and don't take this off our preaching time. 00:01:02.880 --> 00:01:11.599 Um I said, I'm only I since I was in the hospital near five years ago, I said, I'm only going back to the places that prayed for me. 00:01:12.319 --> 00:01:14.400 And I'm ticking another one off. 00:01:15.280 --> 00:01:16.959 Because you all prayed for me. 00:01:17.920 --> 00:01:21.439 And uh you said, you were I look good tonight. 00:01:21.599 --> 00:01:22.319 Thank you. 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:23.120 I do. 00:01:23.280 --> 00:01:24.239 I'm here. 00:01:24.719 --> 00:01:25.760 I'm breathing. 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:31.920 My wife said, all you need to do is breathe and believe. 00:01:33.840 --> 00:01:37.599 We were warring so for him, and he said, What do I do? 00:01:37.840 --> 00:01:42.319 I said, Oh, you just lay there and breathe and believe. 00:01:42.879 --> 00:01:47.680 And every time you breathe out, you say, I believe, and then you breathe in again. 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:50.159 And you breathe out and you say, I believe. 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:54.319 And you release your faith, and we'll do the work, and you get healed. 00:01:54.640 --> 00:01:57.200 I have eight days of my life I don't remember. 00:01:58.079 --> 00:02:06.000 And so if you don't remember it, then while you're there, you're not conscious enough to pray for yourself. 00:02:06.159 --> 00:02:12.960 But somehow, somehow I knew people were praying for me. 00:02:14.080 --> 00:02:24.319 Just like uh Eli and Samuel, when he got in that bed and he was in position, it said that the Lord appeared at the foot of his bed. 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:26.639 I was not alone in that hospital. 00:02:26.879 --> 00:02:30.879 So thank you for not leaving me alone in that hospital. 00:02:31.199 --> 00:02:33.919 Because without you, I'd be with him. 00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:36.159 That was okay too. 00:02:37.360 --> 00:02:39.599 But you weren't finished, but it wasn't my time. 00:02:40.719 --> 00:02:46.719 And uh, this little prayer warrior, she rallied everybody around and uh she got them all praying for me. 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:56.000 And uh the doctor said to me, and I'm uh I just want to encourage you because he said, if if you can take four steps, you can go home. 00:02:56.319 --> 00:02:58.479 This was after nine days. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:05.599 Actually, on the 11th day, he and this young lady came up to me and I don't think she weighed 70 pounds. 00:03:05.840 --> 00:03:08.400 And she said, We're gonna get you out of bed. 00:03:08.960 --> 00:03:18.319 I said, Well, sweetheart, I don't know how long I've been here, but I know as long as I've been here, I haven't been out of this bed. 00:03:19.199 --> 00:03:20.800 And I said, I don't know. 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:23.199 And she said, Oh, I do. 00:03:23.840 --> 00:03:31.039 And she took my legs and I'd lost 32 pounds and it was muscle. 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:38.960 And she stood me up, I and she said, Now you have to walk four steps, and that oxygen meter cannot drop. 00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:41.520 I had made an agreement with the doctor. 00:03:41.759 --> 00:03:44.400 He he's gonna take four steps and you're gonna let him out. 00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:46.639 He said, if he can take four steps, I'll let him out. 00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:52.000 Well, I took two and that meter just and she said, You need to get back in bed. 00:03:52.240 --> 00:03:54.960 So I got back in bed and I said, Well, what are we gonna do? 00:03:55.039 --> 00:03:56.719 She said, We're gonna try tomorrow. 00:03:57.360 --> 00:04:07.120 Well, my wife called me and she said, I do not care what you have to do, but you're gonna take those four steps, and we're gonna get you home. 00:04:08.159 --> 00:04:12.800 And I don't know if you men, but I got one of those wives. 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:18.399 And she said, You take those four steps, and I took four steps, and I've been walking ever since. 00:04:18.959 --> 00:04:19.279 Amen. 00:04:20.160 --> 00:04:21.600 Thank you all for your prayers. 00:04:23.040 --> 00:04:24.959 You know, I I'm glad you brought that up. 00:04:25.040 --> 00:04:30.639 Uh it wasn't in our what where we where we planned to go, but I believe the Spirit of God wanted this said. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:36.480 Uh it was the power of the Word, and the power of the Spirit of God working hand in hand in your life. 00:04:36.560 --> 00:04:38.319 You you you cannot be without either. 00:04:38.639 --> 00:04:43.040 You have to have the power of the word, and you have to have the Spirit of God leading the word in you. 00:04:43.680 --> 00:04:54.319 And the doctor had told Harry on the second day he was in there he had an hour to live, and he needed to call his family and tell us all goodbye and give the deathbed speech. 00:04:54.399 --> 00:05:00.720 And so I have two grown sons, they have their own homes, and it was five o'clock in the morning, so I'm trying to raise two boys. 00:05:00.879 --> 00:05:12.879 If anybody's got boys in their 30s, you know what I'm talking about, and get them to come to my house so he can talk to all three of us at once on the phone because he didn't have any energy, and the doctor's standing there. 00:05:13.120 --> 00:05:17.839 And so he starts telling the deathbed speech to the sons and me. 00:05:17.920 --> 00:05:22.079 And I looked over at Harry when he was finished and I said, Son, do you receive that? 00:05:22.240 --> 00:05:24.319 And he said, I don't receive that. 00:05:24.560 --> 00:05:27.120 And I looked at Roman, I said, Roman, do you receive that? 00:05:27.279 --> 00:05:29.040 And Roman said, I don't receive that. 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:30.959 I said, Well, I don't receive that either. 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:36.560 And the moment I said, I don't receive that, the Spirit of God said to me, Corinthians 7.4. 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:41.600 Now I could not recall what Corinthians 7.4 was at that moment in that conversation. 00:05:41.759 --> 00:05:44.399 So I just handed the phone to one of my sons. 00:05:44.560 --> 00:05:46.319 Harry kept trying to speak. 00:05:46.480 --> 00:05:50.720 I stepped inside, grabbed my Bible, stepped back outside, opened it to 1 Corinthians. 00:05:50.800 --> 00:05:52.240 I thought, well, we'll start there. 00:05:52.399 --> 00:06:02.079 And as I opened it up, I started to laugh because the scripture opened to, for the husband does not own his own body, but the wife does. 00:06:04.240 --> 00:06:05.839 I can't even go on my own. 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:19.519 And I said to Harry, I said, Well, I'm sorry that you spent all that energy giving us that long talk because you don't even have the right to leave without my permission. 00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:26.560 I'm on your body, and I'm telling you, your body is not leaving the earth and you're going nowhere. 00:06:26.800 --> 00:06:29.759 And so I said to the doctor, I said, Are you still listening? 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:31.600 And he said, Yes, ma'am. 00:06:32.480 --> 00:06:35.279 And I said, I want you to look on the bottom of his foot. 00:06:35.360 --> 00:06:36.800 And he said, What am I looking for? 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:39.439 And I could hear him rustling the cover. 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:41.360 And I said, Dig his foot out. 00:06:41.439 --> 00:06:43.120 Look, I want you to look on the bottom of his foot. 00:06:43.199 --> 00:06:45.199 So he said, he said, okay, I could hear him. 00:06:45.360 --> 00:06:47.439 And he he I could tell he had it in his hand. 00:06:47.519 --> 00:06:48.800 He said, What am I looking for? 00:06:48.959 --> 00:06:50.959 And I said, An expiration date. 00:06:51.199 --> 00:06:53.120 I said, You didn't make him. 00:06:53.519 --> 00:06:56.079 You don't get to say when he expires. 00:06:56.959 --> 00:07:06.959 And so that was the beginning of the spiritual war and the spirit of God giving me direction every day through his word and the spirit. 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:09.680 He called himself during those 11 days. 00:07:09.759 --> 00:07:12.399 He's never done it before and he hasn't done it since. 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:15.519 He said, Call me commander in chief. 00:07:15.839 --> 00:07:23.279 And every day I would go to him and I would say, Commander and chief, tell me today what to do. 00:07:24.160 --> 00:07:26.560 And every day he told me what to do. 00:07:26.959 --> 00:07:36.800 And on that 11th day, on the third day, I had 50 people, about 25 chauffeurs, flags. 00:07:37.040 --> 00:07:40.240 We had all kinds of worship music and 20 cars. 00:07:40.480 --> 00:07:48.079 And the Spirit of God said, I want you to go around the hospital seven times and declare that he is healed. 00:07:48.720 --> 00:07:52.160 If you probably saw me do it on Facebook, don't show him. 00:07:52.399 --> 00:07:54.079 I don't want him to ever know. 00:07:55.199 --> 00:08:02.800 And uh I went around and everybody went with us and we prayed and we prophesied and we'd stop and we'd put our hands toward the hospital. 00:08:02.959 --> 00:08:05.839 And on the fourth trip around, we stopped each time. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:08.639 On the fourth trip around, security came. 00:08:09.279 --> 00:08:09.839 Yes. 00:08:19.839 --> 00:08:24.240 And I had my big sword in one hand and Oral's Bible in the other one. 00:08:25.519 --> 00:08:29.839 And uh they started calling my name as they got out of the car. 00:08:30.000 --> 00:08:30.639 They said, Mrs. 00:08:30.720 --> 00:08:31.519 Salem, Mrs. 00:08:31.680 --> 00:08:34.399 Salem, and my pastor friend starts patting me on the leg. 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:35.759 They're calling you by name. 00:08:35.919 --> 00:08:38.000 They're calling you, they know your name. 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:39.519 And I said, I know. 00:08:39.679 --> 00:08:44.159 And so as they got closer, I could tell he was gonna tell me we had to stop. 00:08:44.399 --> 00:08:50.159 But as he got right up by me, he stopped and he said, About how much longer? 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:53.039 He couldn't even say you have to stop. 00:08:53.600 --> 00:08:54.720 About how much longer. 00:08:54.879 --> 00:08:59.360 And I said, Well, the Spirit of God told me seven times and we've done four. 00:08:59.600 --> 00:09:01.759 We need to do three more circles. 00:09:02.080 --> 00:09:06.639 And uh he looked like he wanted to say you need to stop. 00:09:07.039 --> 00:09:10.720 And he said, Well, do you mind if we join you? 00:09:12.399 --> 00:09:14.159 And I said, I don't mind a bit. 00:09:14.240 --> 00:09:17.039 You can pull up in the 21st car and pull up the rear. 00:09:17.200 --> 00:09:18.320 He said, That's what we'll do. 00:09:18.399 --> 00:09:21.440 And they all just got back in their car and we finished. 00:09:21.519 --> 00:09:36.960 And I say that to you to tell you, listen to the Spirit of God and do what he tells you to do, and declare the word he gives you, and take it to the court of heaven and get the job done for God because we are not finished yet. 00:09:39.120 --> 00:09:48.559 I'll I'll add something to that, but if you want, open your Bibles to um 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 3. 00:09:48.799 --> 00:09:49.600 Am I right, Mom? 00:09:50.480 --> 00:09:51.039 That's correct. 00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:53.360 I have a book for you, the Holy Spirit. 00:09:53.519 --> 00:09:54.399 It's not even the. 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:57.919 He said, My name's not the Holy Spirit, my name's Holy Spirit. 00:09:58.080 --> 00:09:59.440 So that's why it's called that. 00:09:59.600 --> 00:10:00.159 Who would like this? 00:10:00.240 --> 00:10:01.120 I'm gonna give it to you. 00:10:01.200 --> 00:10:02.080 You know, this ma'am. 00:10:02.399 --> 00:10:11.759 As Gerald does that, I was so grateful for the doctors and the nurses and the and uh uh the the lady I did not know that just brought me blankets. 00:10:12.320 --> 00:10:14.960 You know, but I'll know her one day in heaven. 00:10:15.200 --> 00:10:23.120 And uh I was on oxygen for six months, and I'm saying this to you because things are sometimes healing's a process. 00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:24.080 I walk away. 00:10:24.559 --> 00:10:32.159 And uh I was walking, pulling my oxygen tank, and she'd drive a little golf cart, and I'd have to sit down, I'd walk a little bit, sit down and walk a little bit. 00:10:32.879 --> 00:10:35.440 But after six months, I got off the oxygen. 00:10:36.159 --> 00:10:42.720 And someone said to me, said, Um, you must be so happy that you're off of the oxygen. 00:10:43.440 --> 00:10:45.360 I said, I look at it differently. 00:10:45.600 --> 00:10:56.240 I'm so grateful that some human created portable oxygen that allowed me to breathe until I could breathe on my own. 00:10:57.200 --> 00:11:09.440 And it's your healing is a stepping stone to a walkway, to a sidewalk, to a doorway, to a hallway, to a gateway, to a highway, and then you get home. 00:11:10.399 --> 00:11:16.639 And that's how it worked for me, and I've been in the healing process for near five years. 00:11:17.840 --> 00:11:18.960 But I'm grateful. 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:20.960 I'm grateful. 00:11:21.120 --> 00:11:24.720 And sometimes we miss the little things. 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:31.039 But that little lady that that brought four or five blankets on me just keep me warm. 00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:38.559 I I do not know her name, I would not recognize because they were all covered, you know, with uh like look like beekeepers. 00:11:40.240 --> 00:11:42.480 But boy, am I grateful for her. 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:44.960 So be grateful for the little things. 00:11:45.759 --> 00:11:46.879 Be grateful for the little things. 00:11:47.360 --> 00:11:51.039 I grabbed another brand new book for you an intimate journey into your secret place. 00:11:51.360 --> 00:11:54.159 It's a book on prayer, and I believe it will bless you. 00:11:54.480 --> 00:11:59.120 And when the Lord tells you in the middle of the night, hit your knees and pray for someone, pray. 00:12:00.480 --> 00:12:09.759 Because you might not realize it, but you might be in a situation that you need someone praying for you, and the Lord will wake them up. 00:12:10.000 --> 00:12:25.519 And uh our message tonight, and I I talked to Pastor Philip about um encouraging you about the last push to get people to heaven. 00:12:26.720 --> 00:12:38.720 There's been a falling away in Christianity in church today, over the last five years. 00:12:39.039 --> 00:12:42.320 And in Thessalonians, you want to read a mother? 00:12:43.039 --> 00:12:55.039 Thessalonians, I'm gonna start with verse one, but relative to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, I'm in the Amplified Bible, by the way, and our gathering together to meet him, that's two separate events. 00:12:55.279 --> 00:13:15.600 We beg you, brethren, verse two, not to allow your minds to be quickly unsettled or disturbed or kept excited or alarmed, whether it be by some pretended revelation of the Spirit or by word or by letter alleged to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has already arrived and is here. 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:38.080 Let no one deceive or beguile you in any way, for that day will not come except the apostasy comes first, unless the predicted great falling away of those who have professed to be Christians has come, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, who is the son of doom of perdition. 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:49.600 We just want to focus in on this right here, because I get asked this so often uh by a lot of the disciples that I feel like I've been training the last 10 years. 00:13:49.759 --> 00:13:53.440 They asked me, Is there going to be another revival? 00:13:53.679 --> 00:13:59.600 And I said, Well, if you're waiting on it for your loved ones to get saved, you're in trouble. 00:14:00.639 --> 00:14:06.080 You you cannot wait on some great wave to come when you are the wave. 00:14:06.320 --> 00:14:06.559 That's right. 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:11.600 You're the wave of revival in your family, community, neighborhood, job, whatever. 00:14:11.840 --> 00:14:20.000 Stop looking for somebody else to do something because the only thing that we know for sure is coming is a great falling away. 00:14:20.159 --> 00:14:25.919 And it's not a great falling away of people, it's a great falling away of the church. 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:33.200 And I love how the amplified states here those who profess to be Christians. 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:41.200 Now, flip in your Bible while you have that in your mind to Matthew, the 25th chapter, verse 1, Matthew 25, verse 1. 00:14:41.360 --> 00:15:00.000 The reason we're saying this is because in the last five years, when the churches were shut down and then churches have been opened back up, as we've traveled this country, the the thread that we hear through churches is 50% of our people did not come back. 00:15:01.120 --> 00:15:02.720 50% have left. 00:15:02.879 --> 00:15:05.600 And it's not just one person and it's not one state. 00:15:05.679 --> 00:15:07.360 This is across the country. 00:15:07.440 --> 00:15:13.600 We've been in Louisiana, we've been in Alabama, we've been in Mississippi, we've been in California, we've been in Michigan, we've been Arizona. 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:15.120 It's all over. 00:15:15.279 --> 00:15:24.720 And then and then the comment is but out of the 50% that came back to church, 25% of them we've never met before. 00:15:25.600 --> 00:15:29.120 So the number is 75%. 00:15:30.080 --> 00:15:32.240 Where did they go? 00:15:33.759 --> 00:15:34.960 That's the question. 00:15:35.120 --> 00:15:41.279 And these are not people that were not church. 00:15:41.600 --> 00:15:42.879 They were not church people. 00:15:43.200 --> 00:15:44.559 They were church people. 00:15:44.720 --> 00:15:48.000 They were attending church, they were regular attending church. 00:15:48.159 --> 00:15:55.919 But for some reason, they got into this casualness about, well, I just don't have to go to church anymore. 00:15:56.159 --> 00:15:58.639 I don't see the value in going to church. 00:15:58.879 --> 00:16:03.200 I um I have too many other things than to go to church. 00:16:03.360 --> 00:16:10.320 And so, you know, I'm I'm a good person, so I get to go to heaven whether I go to church or not. 00:16:11.039 --> 00:16:14.000 Well, going to church isn't just about getting to heaven. 00:16:14.159 --> 00:16:26.000 Going to church is about bringing someone with you so that they can experience the same thing that you've experienced, the salvation of your life. 00:16:26.399 --> 00:16:35.440 And so this I I'm glad you said that because so many times I hear, well, I stopped going to church because I just stopped getting anything. 00:16:35.519 --> 00:16:38.320 I said, Well, when did church become about you getting some? 00:16:39.200 --> 00:16:40.960 Church is about you giving some. 00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:47.039 I come to church to be a blessing, to be to bring my gifts to the Lord, to worship him. 00:16:47.919 --> 00:16:50.799 And maybe church is not about give me, give me, give me. 00:16:50.879 --> 00:16:51.679 My name is Jimmy. 00:16:51.840 --> 00:16:55.039 Maybe church is about what can I give to the Lord? 00:16:55.279 --> 00:16:57.440 What can I be a blessing to the house? 00:16:57.679 --> 00:17:03.919 I feel like we have gotten so into this society, and it's not an age, it's it's a culture. 00:17:04.079 --> 00:17:06.079 So culture is every age. 00:17:06.319 --> 00:17:10.799 Now I'm gonna pitch this to her, and don't correct me until she does. 00:17:11.599 --> 00:17:16.079 The Bible says that um we gather together. 00:17:16.400 --> 00:17:17.119 That's not true. 00:17:17.279 --> 00:17:18.640 That is not what it says. 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:20.880 It says I'm pitching it to her. 00:17:21.200 --> 00:17:24.240 Forsake not, he doesn't say forsake not the gathering. 00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:26.880 It says forsake not the assembling. 00:17:27.359 --> 00:17:32.079 My husband loves a 1958 Corvette. 00:17:32.160 --> 00:17:34.079 He looked he looks at it in pictures. 00:17:34.400 --> 00:17:35.680 He's seen one before. 00:17:35.839 --> 00:17:37.440 He likes that car so much. 00:17:37.599 --> 00:17:49.200 And one day when I was meditating on that scripture, forsake not the assembling together, because we've seen so much of that forsaken in the last few years, I said, Lord, I don't understand what's happening. 00:17:49.279 --> 00:17:53.680 And he he brought it to me like this, and he brought that car to my mind. 00:17:53.920 --> 00:18:12.160 He said, You could search the world over, get every nut and bolt, every part of that car, and you could gather it together and put every piece of that car right down to the tires in your garage, and it would not be a 1958 Corvette. 00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:15.119 It would just be all the parts gathered. 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:21.599 He said, It doesn't become the car, the useful tool, until it's assembled. 00:18:22.400 --> 00:18:29.440 And he said, that's what's been wrong with our culture, is we got very good at gathering, but we never assembled. 00:18:29.680 --> 00:18:35.759 And because we didn't assemble, we had no purpose, no power, no ability to get anywhere. 00:18:36.480 --> 00:18:42.880 And it really helped me understand the difference in these big great gatherings, but are we assembled? 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:49.039 Because without the assembling together, we're just a bunch of parts with no power and no effectiveness. 00:18:50.319 --> 00:19:01.200 So instead of going to a gathering, we need to get people into church so that they can get put back together, and then we will look like the body of Christ. 00:19:01.519 --> 00:19:11.759 And then once that car, or once they're put back together, then you can take the car, turn it on, and it has some power and it can go somewhere. 00:19:12.480 --> 00:19:13.759 And where are we gonna go? 00:19:14.160 --> 00:19:16.000 We're going to heaven. 00:19:16.960 --> 00:19:18.400 And that's what we got to do. 00:19:18.559 --> 00:19:21.680 We've got to get the power to get people to go to heaven. 00:19:21.839 --> 00:19:31.920 Now, scripturally, in the 25th chapter, in the first verse, it says, The kingdom of heaven shall be likened to the ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 00:19:32.079 --> 00:19:34.799 Now, five of them were wise and five were foolish. 00:19:34.960 --> 00:19:38.400 Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them. 00:19:38.559 --> 00:19:41.920 But the wise took the oil in their vessels with their lamps. 00:19:42.079 --> 00:19:47.519 But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. 00:19:47.920 --> 00:19:50.880 And at the midnight there was a cry heard. 00:19:51.200 --> 00:19:53.200 Behold, the bridegroom is coming. 00:19:53.440 --> 00:19:54.640 Go out and meet him. 00:19:54.799 --> 00:20:03.039 And all those virgins arose, trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said to the wise, Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out. 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:15.119 But the wise answered, saying, No, least there should not be enough oil for us and you, but go rather to those who sell and buy the oil for yourselves. 00:20:15.359 --> 00:20:26.720 And while they went to buy the oil, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went with him to the wedding, and the door was shut. 00:20:27.680 --> 00:20:36.400 Now, in that context, it says, you can get this freely, but if you fall asleep, there's going to be a price to pay. 00:20:37.680 --> 00:20:44.880 But even after the price is paid, there's going to be a time when that door will be shut. 00:20:45.279 --> 00:20:51.119 So it's pretty easy to say then in this story, it starts out saying, it's like the kingdom of heaven. 00:20:51.200 --> 00:20:53.680 So we're not talking about the world and the church. 00:20:53.759 --> 00:20:55.279 This is about the kingdom of heaven. 00:20:55.440 --> 00:21:02.640 This is about the very Christians we just read about in 2 Thessalonians, and they are all waiting for the bridegroom. 00:21:02.880 --> 00:21:08.160 And they all have lamps, and and while he lingers, they all go to sleep. 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:09.599 All of them. 00:21:10.960 --> 00:21:11.440 Wow. 00:21:12.319 --> 00:21:20.720 And then they all, and I didn't notice this until recently, in the last two weeks, they all heard the shout. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:25.920 They all heard the shout, get up, he's coming. 00:21:26.240 --> 00:21:27.759 Never noticed that before. 00:21:28.720 --> 00:21:32.880 Even those left behind heard the shout. 00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:38.240 They all heard the shout, they all got up, they all trimmed their lamps. 00:21:38.640 --> 00:21:47.279 And the five that had more than enough oil, the amplified says they had F L A S K S flasks of oil. 00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:50.720 They had oil, they had lamps, and they had extra oil. 00:21:51.119 --> 00:21:55.279 And so the extra oil, they were ready, they're trimming their lamps, they're ready. 00:21:55.519 --> 00:21:59.119 The five that didn't have enough oil, 50% didn't have enough oil. 00:21:59.200 --> 00:21:59.759 They had oil. 00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:02.319 Well, they had land. 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:04.319 They just didn't have enough. 00:22:04.720 --> 00:22:06.240 And so they turned. 00:22:06.799 --> 00:22:09.279 People think entitlement is our our generation? 00:22:09.440 --> 00:22:11.039 That's entitlement right there. 00:22:11.359 --> 00:22:14.160 Give me what I didn't have. 00:22:14.799 --> 00:22:16.000 You have more than enough. 00:22:16.160 --> 00:22:17.119 Give me what you got. 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:18.720 Entitlement. 00:22:18.880 --> 00:22:19.759 That's a spirit. 00:22:19.920 --> 00:22:20.960 That's not a culture. 00:22:21.119 --> 00:22:22.480 That's not this generation. 00:22:22.640 --> 00:22:23.519 That's a spirit. 00:22:24.400 --> 00:22:27.119 I didn't earn it, but I want you to give it to me. 00:22:27.440 --> 00:22:34.160 Here, the ten that split half and half, five had done the work to have more than enough oil. 00:22:34.319 --> 00:22:36.400 The five that hadn't said, give us some of yours. 00:22:36.720 --> 00:22:39.920 They said, we don't have enough to give to you. 00:22:42.400 --> 00:22:43.680 Go and buy. 00:22:44.079 --> 00:22:48.480 What they had cost nothing in the right season. 00:22:48.960 --> 00:22:55.759 But if you wait till the wrong season, it will cost you what was freely given. 00:22:57.200 --> 00:23:03.200 So they go and they get it, they buy it somehow, and they come back with the enough oil. 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:10.400 But while they're gone, the bridegroom Jesus comes and the door is shut. 00:23:11.119 --> 00:23:16.880 So that means half of the kingdom of heaven, this is what the kingdom of heaven is. 00:23:17.839 --> 00:23:24.720 When Jesus comes, I'm not saying they'll miss heaven, but they're certainly going to miss the first load. 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:26.960 I don't know. 00:23:27.119 --> 00:23:31.440 People say to me, Well, how do I how do I make sure? 00:23:31.599 --> 00:23:33.599 I said, I don't even know how you do it. 00:23:33.759 --> 00:23:35.119 I know how I do it. 00:23:36.480 --> 00:23:38.799 I don't even care if you miss it. 00:23:39.599 --> 00:23:40.880 I am not missing it. 00:23:41.599 --> 00:23:42.960 That's what it comes down to. 00:23:43.440 --> 00:23:46.559 I can't make you be ready, but I can tell you how to be. 00:23:47.119 --> 00:23:49.119 And it was about the extra oil. 00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:53.599 Now I didn't realize until I started writing that secret place book. 00:23:54.319 --> 00:23:56.960 How did they have extra oil? 00:23:57.839 --> 00:23:59.359 Because they were all saved. 00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:02.640 They even had the Holy Spirit because they had oil. 00:24:02.960 --> 00:24:04.160 They just didn't have enough. 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:08.400 And it's about that shutting of the door there. 00:24:09.680 --> 00:24:14.160 Look at Matthew 6 while you while we're not even finished there, but look at Matthew 6. 00:24:14.400 --> 00:24:18.880 In Matthew 6, Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray. 00:24:19.039 --> 00:24:21.200 And he starts out telling them how not to. 00:24:21.519 --> 00:24:24.480 Don't be religious, don't make a big show. 00:24:25.440 --> 00:24:33.200 And he gets down to chapter uh chapter 6, verse 6, and he says, but you read it in the in the YouTube judges. 00:24:34.559 --> 00:24:36.160 Matthew 6, 6, go to it. 00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:44.480 But you, when you pray, go into your, and some translations say your secret place, some say your most private room. 00:24:44.799 --> 00:24:47.039 But when you pray, go into your room. 00:24:47.200 --> 00:24:57.039 And when you have shut your door, pray to your father, who is in a secret place, and your father who sees in secret will reward you. 00:24:57.359 --> 00:25:04.240 Okay, so it's one sentence, one verse, but read it again, and I'm on account every time you say you or your. 00:25:04.559 --> 00:25:26.480 But you when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your six father who is in a secret place and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. 00:25:26.799 --> 00:25:30.720 In one sentence, he says you are your eight times. 00:25:31.279 --> 00:25:33.200 This is not fairy dust. 00:25:34.079 --> 00:25:37.039 This is not somebody praying for you at the altar. 00:25:37.200 --> 00:25:39.759 This is not somebody pouring enough oil on your head. 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:47.359 This is you disciplining yourself to get on your knees and go in your door and shut your door. 00:25:47.440 --> 00:25:49.039 This is you shut your door. 00:25:49.680 --> 00:25:51.039 Nobody's gonna shut it for you. 00:25:51.359 --> 00:25:57.200 Nobody's gonna come along and shut the door and keep you in the presence of God Almighty. 00:25:57.359 --> 00:25:58.559 You gotta do that yourself. 00:25:58.960 --> 00:26:07.200 And you gotta do it enough that you have enough oil that when even you go to sleep, because it says we all will. 00:26:08.880 --> 00:26:12.000 Is that not the most amazing thing? 00:26:12.160 --> 00:26:23.039 I can only have enough oil when I stay at my Abba's feet long enough to keep building up my flasks of oil in his presence because there's no oil coming from anywhere else. 00:26:23.680 --> 00:26:25.920 But I have to shut my door. 00:26:26.480 --> 00:26:38.160 Now I go into my room, and the most amazing thing to me about that is my father waits in my secret place while I am not there. 00:26:40.000 --> 00:26:40.640 Really? 00:26:40.880 --> 00:26:42.079 What a father. 00:26:43.039 --> 00:26:46.720 We're not even there, and he's like, I'm here, I'm waiting for you. 00:26:47.200 --> 00:26:50.400 I'm waiting for you to get over yourself, to get in your room. 00:26:50.480 --> 00:26:53.039 I I'm right here, I'm not meeting you there. 00:26:53.599 --> 00:26:55.039 I'm there already. 00:26:55.359 --> 00:26:58.640 And he waits and he waits and he says, Come in and shut your door. 00:26:58.799 --> 00:27:04.079 I'm right here, and I'm gonna see you when you do, and I'm gonna reward you for it. 00:27:04.319 --> 00:27:06.559 Now I'm gonna flip to another scripture for you. 00:27:06.640 --> 00:27:14.079 We're giving you a lot of scriptures, but it all ties together because you need to see how this about there's gonna be a day when the door shut. 00:27:14.400 --> 00:27:24.559 In 2 Kings, the fourth chapter, verse 1, says, A certain woman of the wives of the sons of the prophet cried out to Elisha, saying, Your servant, my husband, has died. 00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:30.880 And you know that your servant feared the Lord, and the creditor is coming to take my two sons to be his slaves. 00:27:31.039 --> 00:27:34.160 So Elisha said to her, What shall I do for you? 00:27:34.480 --> 00:27:35.599 Now here's the key. 00:27:35.759 --> 00:27:37.519 He says, What do you need? 00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:39.599 Make your petition known. 00:27:39.839 --> 00:27:41.440 He needed her to say it. 00:27:41.680 --> 00:27:43.440 What is your petition? 00:27:44.000 --> 00:27:50.160 A lot of us don't want to share what's going on in our life because we want to do these things privately. 00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:56.480 Well, the Lord already knows, but sometimes we need to speak it out to those who are in charge. 00:27:57.279 --> 00:27:59.039 And that's why we come to church. 00:27:59.119 --> 00:28:03.759 There are people who will not condemn you, but they're going to encourage you. 00:28:04.559 --> 00:28:07.440 Because they've already been through what you've been through. 00:28:07.680 --> 00:28:13.440 So he says, tell me what you so Elisha says to her, What shall I do of you? 00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:15.119 Tell me, and she didn't answer. 00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:18.400 He said, Tell me, what do you have in the house? 00:28:18.640 --> 00:28:20.640 And what can I work with? 00:28:20.960 --> 00:28:23.279 But do you have a value in the house? 00:28:23.519 --> 00:28:26.960 And she said, Your maidservant has nothing. 00:28:31.279 --> 00:28:32.559 But a jar of oil. 00:28:32.880 --> 00:28:33.920 Now wait a minute. 00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:38.640 So she, even though she had a little oil and and the history of nothing. 00:28:42.400 --> 00:28:46.240 She has the oil, but she devalues it. 00:28:46.640 --> 00:28:51.680 Are we in our society devaluing the power of the Holy Spirit in our life? 00:28:52.000 --> 00:29:00.799 When we already have him, but do we value him enough to use the power of the Holy Spirit day in and day out in our lives? 00:29:01.440 --> 00:29:07.680 And then he said to her, Go borrow vessels from everywhere and from your neighbors, empty vessels. 00:29:07.839 --> 00:29:09.440 Do not gather just a few. 00:29:09.680 --> 00:29:16.240 And he's saying is you need to have a bigger vision than you've had before. 00:29:18.079 --> 00:29:22.799 And when you have come in, shut the door. 00:29:23.839 --> 00:29:25.200 I'm going to read it. 00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:29.200 You shall shut the door. 00:29:30.319 --> 00:29:31.519 You shut the door. 00:29:31.680 --> 00:29:33.759 He didn't say, I'm going to shut the door. 00:29:34.160 --> 00:29:39.039 He said, You shut the door behind you and your sons or your family. 00:29:39.279 --> 00:29:44.799 Then pour it, pour into all those vessels, and set aside the full ones. 00:29:44.960 --> 00:29:51.440 So she went from him and shut the door behind her, and her sons who brought the vessels to her, and she poured it out. 00:29:51.599 --> 00:29:57.279 Now it came to pass when the vessels were full, that she said to her sons, Bring me another vessel. 00:29:57.519 --> 00:30:02.640 And he said to her, There is not another vessel, and thus the oil ceased. 00:30:04.799 --> 00:30:14.079 If those boys would have known that the oil would never have stopped running, they'd have picked up more vessels. 00:30:14.559 --> 00:30:17.119 But they were limited in their thinking. 00:30:18.400 --> 00:30:25.920 We are starting to limit ourselves in this world by the things that we see and what we think. 00:30:26.400 --> 00:30:31.680 Because we're now getting our information from the Internet and not the Holy Spirit. 00:30:32.480 --> 00:30:37.920 Because the Internet will tell you what you should think and what you need to see. 00:30:38.240 --> 00:30:41.759 There was a time when we used to teach computers what to do. 00:30:42.000 --> 00:30:44.640 Now the computers teach us what to do. 00:30:44.960 --> 00:30:55.599 Well, there was a computer 2,000 years ago that put 700,000 words in 66 books in the Bible that'll teach you what to do. 00:30:56.240 --> 00:30:58.559 But we'd rather run to the computer. 00:31:01.359 --> 00:31:07.680 Then we do go into your secret place and shut your door and hear your commander in chief tell you what to do. 00:31:07.920 --> 00:31:10.559 Now there's another story in the Bible that follows that. 00:31:11.440 --> 00:31:17.680 And the prophet came and he said he laid the staff on him and he shut the door. 00:31:17.920 --> 00:31:19.519 And the child's breath came back. 00:31:20.079 --> 00:31:23.279 Now, you understand this is all about getting alone with God. 00:31:23.440 --> 00:31:25.440 Getting alone with God, getting alone with God. 00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:27.759 Being religious will not do it. 00:31:28.240 --> 00:31:31.680 You have to develop, develop relationship. 00:31:38.160 --> 00:31:45.680 And for some of us, like I've been filled with the Holy Ghost for 52 years, say for 55 years, I have to redevelop it. 00:31:45.839 --> 00:31:50.480 Because if you're not careful, you get casual in your relationship with the Lord. 00:31:50.640 --> 00:31:57.359 And you take him for granted, and you even begin to mentally assent to what you think you know. 00:31:58.079 --> 00:32:02.160 And instead of releasing your faith, you just, I know that, God. 00:32:02.319 --> 00:32:02.960 Oh, I know that. 00:32:03.119 --> 00:32:03.839 Oh, I know that. 00:32:04.000 --> 00:32:09.839 But if you actually would release your faith with your knowing, then it would work again. 00:32:10.720 --> 00:32:15.920