Where Is the Power?

Alright. Acts chapter one. Acts chapter one. I wanna look at beginning at verse one. The former trees, this former treaty have I made, oh Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach.

Until the day in the which he was taken up after the he through the holy ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen. To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs. He definitely rose from the dead. Being seen of them forty days after he resurrected from the dead, people saw him for forty days. So, do you think he rose from the dead?

Of course, he did. And speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God and being assembled together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the father which saith he, you have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water but you shall be baptized with the holy ghost. Not many days hence. Now, he's saying, you go to Jerusalem and just stay together until you get what is promised you and what is promised you is the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Now, a lot of people think being baptized by the Holy Spirit means that you're going to speak with tongues. It does not mean that. It means that you'll be enabled to do the work of God and it means that you'll have the holy spirit to comfort you in time of need and to guide you in your daily life but it's not speaking in tongues but he said, go to Jerusalem and wait for the Holy Spirit. Not many days hence, you're going to be baptized with the Holy Spirit. So, verse six, when they therefore were come together, they asked him saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel.

Now, you have to understand the background real quickly in introduction here. They're on Mount Olive and in Mount Olive, an exciting event is going to take place one day. According to Zechariah fourteen four, Jesus is going to come back to Earth again. Do you believe that? Amen.

But he's going to come back according to Zechariah fourteen four to Mount Olive and then it's going to go into Jerusalem and set up the thousand year millennial kingdom. So, the disciples don't know what's going on. They haven't heard that Jesus was going to go to heaven for a long time and the church age is going to come. You're up on top of Mount Olive and they're thinking, is this the time? We're going to have the thousand year millennial reign and finally, we're going to have the kingdom with Jesus on the throne.

Now, notice verse seven and he said unto them, it is not for you and I circled the word you to know the time or the seasons which the father had put in his own power but you and I circled you shall receive power. That's the baptism of the holy spirit. Power. After the holy ghost has come upon you and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in Judea and in Samaria and under the outermost parts of the earth and when he had spoken these things while they beheld, he was taken up and a cloud received him out of their sight into heaven. Let's pray.

Our Lord, we ask you to give us what we need at this service tonight and we do pray for revival of your bride, this local church. In Christ name, we pray, amen. Thank you. You can be seated. Now, shortly before Jesus went back up into heaven, the disciples thought that he was going to set up a millennial kingdom and he said, that's not for you to know about that right now.

But you will receive power and you will be witnesses unto me. And what he's doing here is I believe he's introducing the church age to them. And he's saying, you are going to be empowered to do a great work during the church age and you'll be witnesses unto God. Now, a couple of questions, are we still in the church age? Yes or no?

Yes. As long as we are not raptured, that means that we're still in the church and did you know that when somebody came up with the idea of having church, it wasn't just a bunch of people got together and said, hey, let's do church. Hey, wouldn't it be a good idea if we started this organizing of Christians and then we got together and we started teaching the Bible. Wouldn't it be a good idea if maybe we get together every week and start doing music and taking offerings and saying hi and shaking hands and why don't we have somebody preach a Bible? That'll be good.

This thing called the church is not man's idea. It's God's idea. Amen. And God set this thing up and he said, ordain elders and that would be preachers and then ordain deacons. That would be servants that serve in the local church and all of this is for the edifying of the body till we all come into maturity and the stature of Jesus Christ.

We've gotta be together to grow in the Lord and to be encouraged but also, we are to be together to be witnesses for Jesus. Now, God said that the church is supposed to be witnessing. Now, I met people that have not witnessed one time in their entire life and I want to challenge us. Every Christian ought to be a soul winner. Every Christian ought to be involved in trying to be a witness.

Now, I was in a church of two fifty people and out of two fifty people, whenever the pastor would organize a soul winning program, do you know how many people would go to that activity usually about three? It was the pastor, it was the pastor's wife, and it was Mike Peltier who was the young man studying to be an evangelist at the time. Now, out of two fifty people, only three people came to organize visitation program and that's a very sad thing. Every Christian ought to be a witness because God says, you shall be witnesses unto me. Now, I want to challenge us so we all ought to be busy witnessing and if you've been saved for one day, you want to start thinking about telling people who need Jesus, how they can be saved, and God can use you.

Now, everybody ought to be a witness. That's what the church is supposed to do and so a good question to ask is, are we still being witnesses? But that's not what I want to preach on tonight. In this passage, he said, you shall receive power and the holy ghost will come on you and then you'll be witnesses. Well, we could ask, are we still being witnesses but the question I want to ask tonight is where is the power?

Now, I want to be honest. It seems like we're not really a powerful church anymore in America. It seems like less people are going to church now than used to. Am I right? Yes.

And it seems like when we try to talk to people about God, they don't seem to want to hear us talk to them about God. And it just doesn't seem to be power. Now, you look at the New Testament church and it says, the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved and if we see somebody saved once in a while, we say, praise God but we all feel a little bit anemic and we wonder what's the future of America. The Bible says in Acts nineteen twenty, so mightily grew the word of God and prevailed and it doesn't seem like the word of God's growing or prevailing in our day. Now, there are some that will say, well, it's the last day before the Lord returns and so the love of many will wax cold and the closer we get to Lord's return, the less people are going to be interested in God and the less power there's going to be but you know what?

If you go to China, you're going to find the church of China is growing and it's booming and if you go to other places like The Philippines, from what I'm told, the church of God is growing and when you look at America, the church is now growing. So, we say, well, it's the church. It's just the way it's going to be the closer we get to the Lord's return. I first, if that's the case, then why is God's church going in other countries if it's not supposed to be growing? Because it's not true that in the end of the church age, there will not be power.

It is a case of in our country right now, our churches are not empowered because we are not doing what is necessary to have the power. I wanna show you something. Turn in your Bibles to Ephesians chapter three and verse twenty and twenty one but Ephesians three and verse 20 and then we're gonna get into the message. It says, now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or think according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus.

Get this throughout all ages. World without end, amen. Now, God is saying in Ephesians three twenty and twenty one that God's power is supposed to be working in us, the church, throughout all ages. World or age without end. Amen.

Amen. Now, you know what that is referring to? The church age and it's saying that the power of God supposed to be here in the church. And the Bible says throughout all ages and so what that means is that we should be an empowered church. Now, I'm not scolding anybody.

I'm just saying we need to look at this thing. Where is the power? Is there anybody else around here that feels kinda like maybe we just don't have the power that the churches used to have on the culture, on the communities? I think about nineteen seventies where there was great power. The independent baptist churches were booming.

The boss ministries were growing, and the people were getting saved and growing. And then they became men and women of God, and they stuck with it and then they're now in their eighties. But now, once in a while, we'll see somebody get saved and we're thankful for men that have gotten saved. Young men that are deciding to look for the Lord but they often don't grow and these men are growing but they often don't become leaders. These men will become leaders, I believe but we need church that is a powerful church that's making an impact on the culture a powerful impact on the culture.

Now, if you look at verse 20 again, it says, that God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think. Now, how many of you have ever thought, wouldn't it be great if this church got filled with people again? Totally filled. Anytime there's a service, there are people packing this place out where there'd just be standing room only only. Now, I don't know but I dream that way.

Is there anybody else out there that kind of dreams that way? Amen. Now if I think it, here's what God is saying. It says, unto him that is able to do all that we ask or think. Now, I'm not saying that if we think really hard about getting a million dollars, we'll get a million dollars But I'm talking if it's in the will of God and it is for the work of God and it's through the work of the church.

God says he's able to do it if we can think it. Now, not only does God say he can do it, it says he's able to do get it above all that we ask or think. Now I have thought sometimes what I like to do is I like to be used by God to the greatest capacity that I could be used by God to stir the people of God to get soul winning again. And to see the church in my lifetime across this United States Of America start winning souls all over the place again. Now, I think, wouldn't it be great to have churches where we're no longer having 50 but we're having 500 and we're seeing souls saved all the time.

You know what I've realized? If I think that and it's in the will of God, God can do it. But not only can he do it, it says he can do above all that we ask or think. And I don't want you to miss it. God not only said above, God said exceedingly above.

And then God wants to drive it home, so he adds another word, exceedingly, abundantly above and God's doing that on purpose because he knew the day would come when we'd be discouraged church and he discouraged discouraged people group and he said, you're going to need this truth. I'm able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you ask or think and I will be there to do glory and give power in the church throughout all the church age and so here's what we have to ask ourselves. Is it true that maybe the closer we get to the Lord's return, we're just not going to see people saved. Or is that a lie from the devil, a misapplication of scripture that drives people to just hold on till Jesus comes because one day you know we'll go to heaven and nobody's really gonna get saved you know in the last day it's gonna be tough. Is that a misapplication of scripture that has driven us to be complacent and to accept mediocrity?

I say it is a misapplication of scripture because God said that he has said that Jesus is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think through the entire church age and until we get back in our mind, God is able to build his church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it. We're not going to meet the conditions to experience the power of God. Now, I want to see the church revived. You want to see the church revived. I want to see people reached and we can as long as we have God's power.

So, we have to ask our self, where is the power and I think a great place to look is the book of Acts. Now, let's look at some things that we need to be reminded of. Would you agree that the book of Acts was a church that was a powerful church? Yes. Yes.

Now, they saw 3,000 souls saved at one time, 5,000 souls saved at another time. Why was it such a powerful church? I think about the possibility of power and I think about how each generations experience the power of God each each century for the vast past several centuries and now it may be our turn if we just start believing it and going after it. Seventeen hundreds, you have Jonathan Edwards and you have the Wesleys. Eighteen hundreds, you have DL Moody.

Nineteen hundreds, you have RA Torrey, Evan Roberts. RA Torrey preached between nineteen o one and nineteen o six. He saw 100,000 souls saved. Now, think about RA Torrey, 100,000 souls saved. 1901, 1906.

Now, my grandpa was born in 1889. Now, he passed away a long time ago, but 1889. In 1906, when 100,000 souls were saved to the preaching of our Tori, my grandpa would have been 17 years old. 17 years old and a 100,000 souls have come to know the Lord as personal savior. Now, think about this.

My grandpa, you know what that means? Folks, that's just two generations ago. Now, could God do a great work and call it the work of God as everybody has done? It never was R. A.

Torrey. It never was DL Moody. God did a great work, and we believe it was God who did a great work. Not the man himself, but God. Now is it possible that God could work in a great way in 17?

Then God's power was there in the 18, and God's power is there in the 19, but now God's not going to work anymore in the year 2000 and beyond. No. If he worked in church changes and church changes and church changes in centuries for two thousand years, I'm pretty sure that he's not ready to quit working in our day. And this is not a pep talk. This is a bible talk.

We gotta start believing and start meeting the conditions to experience the power of God. Now, there are four things that will make a difference and we're going for revival. That's why I'm preaching on this. Now, the first thing that we learn from the book of Acts, the power, you may have already heard this but it's true. Number one, where is the power?

It is in prayer. Alright, look at verse 12 of chapter one. Now, right after Jesus ascended into the heaven, what did the disciples do? Look at verse 12, they returned to Jerusalem from the Mount called Olivet which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey that is five thousand two eighty feet away. Not very far.

And when they were come in, they went up to the upper room where John abode where both abode Peter, James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, and he names the whole list and he says what they did in verse 14, these all continued with one accord in what? Prayer. Now, the first thing that they did was they prayed and that's a sign. What we need to be doing to get empowered is we need to be praying and the Bible teaches that the book of Acts, the church in that age was a praying church. Now, notice Acts one twenty four.

And they prayed and said, thou Lord which knowest the hearts of all men, show whether these two which thou hast chosen. Acts two and verse one. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. What were they doing? No doubt praying.

Flip over to Acts chapter four and verse 31. And when they had prayed, the place was shaken while they were assembled together and they were all filled with the holy ghost and they spake the word of God with boldness. Acts chapter six and verse four. But we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. Do you see it?

Acts six and verse six. Whom when they set before the apostles and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. Flip to Acts chapter eight please. Acts chapter eight and verse 15. There's a thread of praying.

I, it says in Acts eight eight fifteen, who when they were come down prayed for them that they might receive the holy ghost. Alright, you can look at Acts nine, Acts 10, Acts twelve, thirteen, fourteen, sixteen, sixteen, twenty, twenty eight, 21, 22, and what I'm simply saying is the New Testament church was a praying church. Now, there's never been a revival movement that prayer has not been behind it. And so we know this, so what do we need to be doing? Praying.

And we know this. So, what do we need to try to do differently than what we've been doing? We've got to carve out time to assemble together and to pray. It's not just praying alone. It says, they all went together in one accord and prayed and yes, we pray alone but we must assemble and have times of prayer.

Now, I think about the great revival movement of the day of RA Tori. RA Tori account of 100,000 souls being saved was. It started when God laid in his heart that they need to organize prayer meeting and they decided to have prayer meetings every Saturday night from 9PM till 10PM, one hour and that permitting was something that was inconvenient. What do you think people like to do on a Saturday night today? We like to rest and unsaved like to party but what do Christians like to do?

We like to chill. And I understand all that. But would you just chill every Saturday night if your child's life was in danger? I'm just chilling. No.

You would say, where are they? What do I need to do? I don't care what my week's been like. I need to step up and I need to do whatever necessary to deliver my child from death. Now, where we may not see that it is that urgent.

It is that urgent. There are some of you who've got unsaved children, it's urgent. There's some of you that have unsaved spouses. It's urgent. Now, why is it urgent?

Because they're aging. Why is it urgent? Because our time in the church age, I believe is coming to an end and we have an an urgent situation on our hands and so the only way that we're going to become an empowered church is if we carve out times to get together to pray, together, specifically for revival and for the souls of those for whom were burdened. So, toy started with that meeting every Saturday night and it grew to where they had about 300 people praying every Saturday night. Now, after a long period of praying every Saturday night, Tories felt that that wasn't long enough.

And I know that we feel sometimes we're never doing enough and we can't go twenty four seven. But we can ask the Lord to help us to know. Could we do more? Should we do more? And I say we must get more to prayer.

But anyway, he said, I don't think I'm praying enough. I need more time of earnest prayer for revival and so he asked his five best friends to join him after the Saturday night prayer meeting in his office for some longer prayer times and so as he did that, they began to pray. Nine to ten with a group of 300 and then from 10:00 till 2AM, four hours every Saturday night into Sunday morning and they would beg God for the holy spirit power and for revival across the world and he said, one day in that permitting, he felt like God had answered his prayer and he knew that God was going to pour out the blessing and soon, 100,000 souls were saved. Now, another thing about that ouratory meeting was there were women that came under the burden to pray. Women And one woman in particular said, alright, Tori, brother Tori, do you mind if I start organizing prayer meetings for the ladies to pray?

He said, that'd be great, man. And she organized one prayer circle with five or six women and it grew to eight or 10 women and then it grew to 12 then 15 women and they said, let's make it two prayer circles. And then they spread, let's make four prayer circles. And do you know that another woman in another country saw it, fell into the burden, understood the importance of prayer and what God would do if they prayed? And they ended up organizing prayer groups.

Get this, with over 20,000 people worldwide that were praying for revival in their prayer groups. And God bless a 100,000 souls were saved. I had a friend of mine who came to me one time and he said to me, brother Mike, I'm praying that God will shed revival to my church or that God will kill me. I said the right thing. I said, amen.

Amen. And then, he looked at me and he says, you don't believe me. I really want revival so badly that if I don't see my church revived, I don't want to live and I said, I do believe you. He was passionate and I actually saw an eye, his eyes, they looked so dark and so burdened. I was concerned for him and I went back to my wife and I said, Becky, I'm concerned about Joel.

I think Joel's had a nervous breakdown. And I saw him maybe a month later and he still had that look in his eye where he was just burdened and it was heavy and something was on him that he was burdened about all the time and he said, I'm still praying that God will send revival and he said, I've got somebody praying with me and so he got a man in his church and they joined him. Just one man with their pastor and they committed to pray for one hour a week together. Then, another man joined. He said, I've got three joining me in prayer.

They committed to pray that hour together. Then, another joined another and he said, I've got five to seven men that come together and we pray for revival and I found it grew to 15 men and where that ended up with, they had every Thursday night about 15 men praying between three and five hours together as a body of men begging for revival in that local church and they didn't see an answer right away but they kept on praying and kept on praying and you know what? One day, he called me up and he said, it happened and he had joined his voice. I said, what happened? He said, the revival.

I said, what do you mean? And he said, we had 70 visitors in church on Sunday. Now, they normally ran about 80 people and he said, we have 70 visitors in church on Sunday and I said, what church split? Because the only way you get more people like that is if another church is having a fight and they leave and they come to yours. That's what I was thinking.

So, I said, well, what church split? And he said, no church split. They just came. And do you know that the next week, I called them and they still had 50 plus visitors. The next week, they still had many of those people coming and the next week and the next week and that church was running.

80 people. Now, on any Sunday morning, they run a 180 people on a Sunday morning. And what I'm telling you is it did not happen by him changing a program, him even changing his preaching from the word of God. It happened because the people started praying. Now, if you believe that you are lacking power, the power is in prayer and the only way we're gonna get the power back on the church is we're going to have to have people gathering together and seriously praying for reviving.

Alright. Now the second thing that had to happen in the New Testament church and has to happen in this church and in all churches in America is we have to be preaching. Now, your pastor's preaching but let's look at chapter two and verse 14. Chapter two and verse 14 but Peter standing up with the 11 lifted up his voice and said unto them, you men of Judea, all that dwell in Jerusalem, be this known unto you and hearken to my what? Words and then he preaches to them.

He's definitely preaching to them. Now, verse 22, you men of Israel, hear these what? Words and then he says, Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs which God did by him in the midst of you as you yourselves also know. Him being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God you have taken and guess what he says and by wicked hands have crucified him and slain him. Now, he preaches and he preaches on the evil that they did.

Now, follow me. We're in a day where people don't want preaching. Now, I will tell you, the Bible says, preach. Paul said, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God on the salvation.

In first Corinthians chapter one, he says, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness but to us which are saved. It's the power of God to salvation. Preach, that's what he said. Now, sometimes what people do in the name of preaching is not preaching. I saw a person one time on television get on there and say, you know, you just gotta believe in God.

And if you believe it, it'll happen. Believe God wants you to be rich. Believe it, claim it and it'll happen. And everybody's going, amen, amen and shaking their hands, amen. That's not preaching.

Because in order for it to be preaching, it's gotta be biblical truth. Alright. Now then I saw another guy. He got on and he put this big thing up on the wall and he was a fundraiser and he said, God told me and he's sweating and he's wiping his sweat off with his hanky and he's shaking that hanky and he's going back and forth and he said, God told me that if I don't raise $15,000,000 by October 15, he's gonna kill me. And you know what I thought?

I cannot wait to see what happens. Now, that was not preaching. Now, preaching has to be biblical truth. Now, notice what they preached. They preached the Bible.

Alright, please look at this just to see it. They preached the Bible. Look at Acts chapter two and verse 25. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face for he is on my right hand and I should not be moved. Now, you know what he said?

David speaketh. He's quoting the Psalm of David. Psalms chapter 16 verse eight through 11. So get it. Even in the bible when somebody was preaching, you know what they preached?

The bible that was written before they were there. Now, what did he preach? I want you to see in verse 34. For David is not ascended unto the heavens, but he saith himself, the Lord said unto my Lord, sit on my right hand until I make thy folds thy footstool. He's quoting Psalm 110 and verse one.

Now, you know what I've learned? I can preach in the pulpit and I can preach in the pulpit a forty five minute sermon and I will see more done in a forty five minute sermon of preaching behind the pulpit than you will ever see in in a whole year of witnessing. There's just something powerful about the mechanic of preaching and God says, get people under preaching and preach the word and it'll work. Listen. Today, people are going to churches that they don't preach.

They're going to churches that just tell people how good they are, how much God loves them. And and we teach that God loves them. When we preach, God loves them. And you preach the whole council of God, but you've gotta preach the whole council. Now, people today, they don't wanna offend anybody.

I see people today, They don't go to church with a bible. They don't go to church and even speak much from the bible. They might say one word or read a verse but then they go off and see all the good things they wanna say. And then you see them sit down a chair, you know, and they sit there as they're talking. They put a little cup of coffee over here and they kinda say, hey, let's have a little talk.

Now, I'm not saying that the Bible says you gotta beat the pulpit. I'm not saying the bible says you have to be a great orator, but you have to preach the bible. Amen. And when the bible goes forth, it'll work. Now, here's where we're weak.

We're not using our Bibles with people. Here is why we're not powerful. We're not using our Bibles. You know why? We're afraid they're gonna think we're preaching at them.

You know what? Right. We are. Amen. Now, I used to tell people when I would be preaching to teenagers, I would say things like this.

Now, I'm not just preaching at you. I'm telling you the truth. Then, I thought, well, am I ever not telling the truth when I'm a pint behind the pulpit? I better be telling the truth and then I say, I'm not just preaching at you. I was thinking, well, is there anything wrong with preaching at people?

Well, I guess not. Now, I remember so many times running across people that will say, well, I don't want to bring people to church because I just don't feel like they're gonna like preaching and I don't wanna bring him to a revival meeting because the preacher probably is gonna preach on hell and that'll make him feel weird and think we're weird And you know what people really need? They need a preacher to preach a sermon on hell. And to do it in love. But they need to hear it preached.

And don't be afraid to bring somebody to hear a preaching sermon because that's the power of God to get ahold of them, the one that you love. Now, I was preaching one time on the subject of hell. And when I was preaching on hell, when it was all done, God had really moved. And then I went to the pastor's office, and the pastor said, well, I could have done without that one. And he's a good man.

I respect this man to this day. He said, I could have done without that one. I said, what do you mean? And he actually said, my people are not gonna believe something just because you say it. And immediately I got very concerned.

And I thought, oh, no. What did I say? Did I say something that wasn't right? Because I'm always concerned to make sure I say the right thing when I'm preaching and that is biblical. So, I went over my sermon on this point, that point, this point, the seventeenth point, the eighteenth point.

I'm kidding only only three points and I thought, was that biblical? Yeah, was that biblical? Yeah, that was biblical. So, I said to him, but oh brother, I tell you what, I am so sorry. What did I preach that wasn't biblical?

And he goes, well, it was biblical but he said, my people are intelligent. And we're not going to believe it just because you say it. I said, brother, I said intelligent things. It was in the Bible. And then he says, yeah, but I could have done without all the drama.

And then I went again. Oh, no. What did I do? Was I sensational? Was I trying to be a showman?

Was I trying to show off? What was I doing? Did I do it wrong? And I thought through my message, and I gave point one in my mind about hell. And I thought, oh, you did get intense.

And then I thought, now how could you have done that better? And I thought it through. And I thought, how are you gonna preach on hell without being intense? And so I said to him, brother, people are going to burn in hell. How am I supposed to say that without getting intense?

Yeah. But we could do without drum out the drama. And I said to him, brother, hell is dramatic. Heaven is dramatic. The story of Jericho walls coming down.

The story of Noah and the water was dramatic. And all these things are dramatic. I said God gave us mind, God gave us a will, but God gave us emotion. I'm sorry. These things are dramatic.

And one of our problems is we are prunes. We have absolutely no emotion. And one of the things we have to do is preach the truth in as an urgency but also in love. Now here is the point though, I'm rambling a little bit here, but we are not an empowered church, we need to become an empowered church. How do we get the power?

Number one prayer. Amen? We need that. And we need to decide we're gonna organize even if it's two or three that will start. If you can't come every time you have a permitting, but we need to get to praying.

I remember in 1986 when I was traveling with an evangelist, Ron Comfort, getting some training in evangelism. Part of our training, we went three hours of soul winning every day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. The first week, I led one to the Lord. Second week, none to the Lord. Third week, none to the Lord.

Last week, 16 people to the Lord. Now what was the difference between week one, week two, week three, and then week four with 16 people getting saved? I gave the same approach. I knocked on the door the same way. I had the nice same smile.

I said the same introduction but the difference was the first week, second week, and third week, and the fourth week. Before, I don't know if I had just heard a sermon on it or what, but the last week before I ever knocked on the door, I spent thirty minutes praying. God, you lead me to the right place. God, you empower me. God, I need your power.

And 16 people got saved. You know what I learned at a young age? Little prayer, little power, much prayer, much power is actually true. And so what we have to do is get to praying. Now, the second thing we have to do is getting preaching.

Now, ladies, did you know that you can preach? Now, you're not supposed to get behind a pulpit and preach to the church. I'm sorry, that's first Corinthians says that the woman is not to be doing that. First Corinthians 14, silent in the church. That doesn't mean you can't talk.

That doesn't mean you can't say hi. Doesn't mean say pastor, I like your haircut. You can't. You can say that, okay? But what it is saying is you're not supposed to be publicly declaring the word in the church but you can preach.

What is preaching? It's a declaration of the word of God and you know what you can do? You can preach when you're going around the community. Use the word when you're going around. Use the word when you're talking to somebody about God.

Whenever I go soul winning, I always try to jab a bible verse in. Anybody ever hear the the sword of the Lord? And the bible says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word. So whenever I go soul winning, I always try to use a bible verse. Now I might knock on a door, the door opens, there's a woman standing there, her hair's in curlers, kitchen's on fire, telephone's ringing, kids are screaming, and she has an appointment one hour ago that she's late for.

And I'll say, man, you look very busy. Let me just give you one let me give you one bible verse and something to read. The Bible says, these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life. First John five thirteen. I don't know if you know you're going to heaven but the Bible tells you how.

Here's something you can read about it when you have time. Have a nice day. God bless. Now what did I do? I jabbed the knife in, and the Holy Spirit can use it to produce faith.

If I hand a person a gospel track and they rip it up and they throw it on the ground, I don't always do this, but I have said this at least three occasions I can remember. I say, the fool has said in his heart, no God. What are you trying to do? Pick a fight? No.

Jab the knife in. And the holy spirit can use it to produce faith and conviction. I remember going into Hardee's restaurant to buy my wife a diet coke. She's a diet cokeaholic. And it was time for her fix.

So I went in wherever I could find one. I saw one there in a Hardee's restaurant and I went in and I said, I need a diet coke and I'm buying a diet coke and I need one. That's all I need. And so the lady behind the counter says, sir, can I ask you a question? I was dressed in a nice suit.

I just got in preaching. And she said, why? What do you do for a living? That's what she asked me. Because of my nice suit.

She thought I was a CEO of a company or senator or something. So, I said, well, I'm a preacher and I could tell she was thinking, oh, I shouldn't have asked that. So then, I saw her name on her lapel. So, I said, hey, Barb. Do you know if you die, you go to heaven?

She goes, I don't believe in God, let alone heaven or hell. I said, well, why don't you believe in God? And she said, if there's a god, why is there so much pain in the world? Anybody ever ask you that question? So, I said to her, well, the Bible says and I was trying to be kind to her and the Bible says and she goes, I don't believe the Bible either.

Now, instead of getting angry at her, I remember asking, you know, how do I deal with this? And it's like the Lord said, just be slow to speak. Slow to wrath. And so instead of saying, well, you better believe the bible or you're gonna burn in hell, you fool. I said, have you been hurt by some church?

Have you had somebody who's religious hurt you and be a hypocrite? I'm sorry. What's going on? Why do you hate God and all this? Why don't you believe the Bible and what's going on?

Have you been hurt? And it was amazing how she melted. And she said, yes, I've been hurt. I said, tell me about it. She said, well, the American guy came from America to my country, Peru, and fell in love supposedly with me.

And I came to America, and in less than a year, he divorced me. And I don't have anything now. And I don't have a home. I'm living with some friends. I don't have a car.

They drop me off at Hardee's and I make just enough to make it. And I don't have any family and I don't have a ticket to get back to Peru. If there's a god, why would he let this happen? And you know what? There are a lot of people with good questions.

So I said, you don't know me, but I think I could help you. Would you be willing to meet with me here at Hardee's restaurant? You work here. Everybody knows you. You'll be perfectly safe.

And I think I gave you some answers. And somehow she agreed. So I began to think, how am I gonna help this woman who doesn't believe in God or the bible? What should I do? What psychological approach could I take?

What logical reasoning can I do? And you know what I began to think? Only way I know how to help anybody is use the bible. And I thought of the verse, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God and so I'm gonna just use my bible and it'll work. So I went in, prayed up and I went in and I said, okay, what's your question?

She asked a question. And I say, well, let me tell you what I think is your answer. And I opened the bible, she laughed and she said, I told you, I don't want to hear any bible. I want no real answers. I said, look, this is what in my opinion is your answer.

And I showed her the bible verse. She read it. And I said, what's that mean? And she told me. I said, that's what your answer is.

She says, well, that's what the bible says. And then she asked another question. I say, let me show you the answer. And I found another bible verse and I showed it to her and I read it to her. She said, I told you I don't believe the bible.

Said, I know. Just read it. It won't hurt you. This is what I believe is your answer. And I gave it to her.

She asked me another question. I said, read this. And she said, I told you don't believe it. And then I said, just read it. And after four or five times of questions, I give another answer and she quit saying, don't believe it.

She just looked at it. Then another question. She just read it. And we spent two hours and ten minutes. I wrote that time down.

And then the way it worked is my first two hours, I spent time telling her how the Bible answers this question, what answer to that question, etcetera. And then the last 10 I said, Barb, I've only got ten minutes left before I've got an appointment. I've got to go somewhere. I said, do you mind if I take the last ten minutes and tell you why in my opinion the Bible really is true? And she said, you don't have to do that.

I believe it now. I said, you told me you didn't believe in God or the bible. She said, I do believe it now. I believe it now. And I said, why do you believe it now when you said you didn't believe in God or the bible?

And she said, I believe it now because every question I ask, that book's got an answer for. And you know what? How you deal with a Muslim? Use your bible. Speak it in love.

How do you deal with a drug addict? Use your Bible. Speak it in love. How do you deal with an agnostic, an atheist, a Catholic, somebody who believes you get to heaven by good works? Use your Bible.

How do you deal with a backsliding Christian? Use your Bible and speak the truth in love. And it'll work. Now, here's what we are lacking power. And the reason we're lacking power is because we're not praying, we're lacking power because we're going at it wrong.

We're too afraid to use our bible because somebody might think we're bible thumpers. You know what we can say? Yes. I preach the Bible because I believe it. I'm not ashamed of it.

Don't be ashamed of the Bible And don't be ashamed to get somebody under the preaching to hear evangelist Mike Pillatier. Or don't be ashamed to get somebody under the preaching to hear your pastor. It'll work. Alright, now, the first thing we need is we need the bible. We need prayer.

The second thing we need to get our power back, we need to get people preaching. And you know what some of you might be thinking? You might be thinking that my pelletier is trying to get somebody maybe to surrender to be a preacher. We've got young men here. We've pastor's boys.

We've got these young men here. We've got these young men. You know what? God also calls older men to be preachers. But I'm telling you, I'm not trying to get someone to be a preacher behind a pulpit necessarily, though that would be wonderful.

But I'm not looking for a soldier. We don't need a soldier, we need an army. And we need people in all areas to be using the word of God. It's a powerful weapon and if we become people that get back to witness and using the word of God and we're prayed up, it'll work. We will have the power of God again.

Alright. Now, we've gotta move along quickly. Where is the power? Number three, we're gonna have to be quick on this. It's in purity.

Preaching, prayer, and purity. Now, turn your Bibles back here to Acts chapter two and let's look at the Bible again because that's where the power really is anyway. And in Acts chapter two, I want to show you an example of purity and when they got filled with the holy ghost, what it went over their heads. If you remember the story, they were all gathered together on the day of Pentecost. They were praying and the holy spirit came verse two of Acts chapter two.

There's came a sound from heaven as a rushing mighty wind and it filled the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as a fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy ghost. Now above their head, the moment they're given the holy spirit is a is a clove of fire. Now, it wasn't burning their head, but it was above their head and it was a picture of their receiving something special here and the fire is above their head. Now, do know why God chose fire? Here's the reason.

Fire is a purifying agent. Fire is a purifying agent. Hey, if you wanna burn out the impurities from silver, you put it through the fire. You wanna burn out the impurities from any kind of gold, you've gotta put it through the fire. And you know what the picture is?

If we're gonna be filled with the holy spirit's power, we're gonna have to be purified. Get every known sin out of our lives if we wanna see our church be empowered by God. Now, one, it's for the enabling but number two, it's for the example. Now, it says, let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example of a believer in word conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, and in purity. Now be an example of a Christian.

Why? Because people around you won't listen if you're a bad example. I remember working in the machine shop as I mentioned. My foreman was a southern baptist deacon, But every time he got upset, he let out a string of swear words. Time out.

Just to interject something here. I don't think that there's anybody here that uses curse words, but the bible says let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. None. And people today are using words like water off a duck's back that we used to only see on a bathroom wall. And it's never been acceptable and it's not acceptable, especially for a Christian who wants the power of God.

So be an example of a believer in word, conversation, and charity, and spirit, and faith, and in purity. Now, our example matters. Our purity matters. It matters because we will not have the power of God. It matters because our example, we give the enemies of God a cause to blaspheme and how many of you have ever heard somebody say, well, I don't want anything to do with church.

It's full of hypocrites. Anybody ever heard that one? Yes. Let's make sure that we aren't one of those hypocrites that give the enemies that God calls to blaspheme. Now, it's in preaching, it's in purity, it's in prayer, and it is in passion and we're done.

Let's take our Bibles and look at chapter two. Actually, chapter one and there'll be some verses here that we can see passion, passion, excitement, not being a prune, not being dry, not being a deadbeat, but having a little heart. And we can have heart. Don't you think we got some things to be excited about? Yes.

Got some people saved? Yes. Amen. Got something to be excited about? We've got a church where they're preaching the Bible every week.

You know what I heard? Don't mean to embarrass pastor? I was talking to one of your men earlier this week, and he says, I've not seen one thing I can even suspect. I haven't seen one thing that's wrong with that man's character. That's a blessing.

Amen. You got something to be excited about. Amen. You got a church that's preaching a Bible and other churches aren't. You got a church with a pastor who's a real man.

Not pretending to be a godly man. Not a perfect man but a godly man. His kids are punks but he's a good man. Now, we've got a lot of things to be excited about here. We got some people saved.

We got a church that still has revival meetings and happens to go Sunday through Friday. You say, I know. I wish it was through Wednesday. Get right with God and get excited to prune. And we got something to be excited about.

Now, we all would be excited if we began to see some people saved. I tell you what I'm excited about. We've seen some people saved and I'm excited about we've seen some people visiting that are back visiting and back visiting and back visiting. Amen. Now, as you look in the Bible, you see this enthusiasm in the church.

Alright. Now, notice, I guess chapter two and I want you to look at verse 14 again but Peter standing up with the 11, lifted up his voice. That's some enthusiasm there. In verse 22, as he's preaching, hear these words, you have with wicked hands taken and slain him. He's not saying, hear these words.

You've taken with wicked handsome and slain and he rose from the dead and he's very enthusiastic. In fact, as you take a look at this scripture, a look at chapter two and verse 40. Chapter two and verse 40 and notice the word here and with many other words, did he testify and exhort? Now, there's some passion there saying, save yourselves from this untoward generation And 3,000 souls got saved because he had a little heart and enthusiasm. I was talking with a preacher earlier this week as much as yesterday.

I'm getting ready to preach a conference coming up that I asked his advice about because he's done a lot more of these than I have. A mission conference. And he says, what you do, Mike, is you have to read the word of God and you get your message together, but you don't want a message that's just intellectual. You want it from your heart. And you pray that God would give you a message from your heart, it'll work.

Heart to heart, not head to head. And that's why we got to love people and be enthusiastic. Heart to heart, not head to head. Charles Spurgeon. Some say was a Calvinist to the point that he didn't believe that everybody could be saved.

I am not sure of what his belief is. I know what the Bible says. Anybody and everybody can be saved. But I also know this. Whatever they say about his Calvinism, he wrote a whole book that he called The Importance of Emotion in Evangelism.

And tell me that he didn't think you've got to have some heart met and we've got to have some heart. Jesus, when he saw the multitudes was moved with come. Passion. Passion. Because they fainted and were scattered abroad.

Not and I don't mean to beat this in the ground but we really need this. We need to have heart not be prunes. Now, as you look at the scripture, hell, snatching them out of the fire. Some having compassion, making a difference. This is this is passion.

Passion and there's got to be passion in prayer. The fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much, not the casual prayer. Fervent prayer. I pray with a man and sometimes I am embarrassed if I don't pray with that much passion but I was praying with a man not long ago with so much passion. He sweat.

But he was real. So much passion, he began to weep and snot and just tear up and let it drop and he wasn't putting on. I think he forgot I was there. But the passion. Now, let's be careful that when we get together and pray together that we don't try to impress each other with our passion.

Let's just be real. Amen? Amen. And that's good enough. And some of us are made one way and another people, another person doesn't have as much emotion.

I'm kind of a dry guy, but I have a lot of love. I just don't show it like I want. I try. But what we have to do is have love in our heart and have real passion. In service, he says, whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do with all thy might.

All thy might and then he says, not slothful in business, fervent in spirit serving the Lord. Again, I could do without all the drama. Our people are educated. We're not gonna believe it just because you say it. Where's the passion?

Now, I've got a picture of a guy that I put in my sermon notes and I'm gonna kinda conclude with this. It's a picture of a guy named Charles Alexander. Now, you may have never heard of Charles Alexander, but I'll tell you who he was. He was R. A.

Torrey. Remember him? A 100,000 souls saved in my grandpa's day. He was R. A.

Torrey's music man. So he was R. A. Torrey's Greg Murray. And so he would get up and he would lead the singing.

And the kind of songs they sang, rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave. Bring them in. Bring them in. Bring them in from the fields of sin. Bring the wandering one to Jesus.

And you know, all people want today is some kind of dance that they move like this and that and all it has to say is, I'm so good. God is so good. He's going to make me rich. God is so good. And the passion is gone.

Now, I love the passion of those great revival meetings and I read in one of these great books about one and I'll close with this. One day, Alexander was up there and he was leading in a song and I believe it was, oh that will be glory for me, glory for me, glory for me, when and it goes on with that great song. How many have ever sung that song before? You know what? When he was done singing it, they had this huge auditorium filled with people.

One person from the back said, sing it again, after they were done with the hymn. And Charles Alexander said, okay. And he sang it again. And when it was done, I'm not exaggerating. He, in the book, said, somebody else said, sing it again.

And so they sang it again with gusto. And when it was done, another person said, can we sing it again? And I'm sure there was a ruffle of laughter and they sang it again and then somebody said, sing it again and they sang it again and again and again and I'm not exaggerating. I read this in the book. They sang that same song 200 times.

In that one service and nobody was going like this and I'm not saying that we don't have to go like that sometimes, okay? But 200 times. You know what I pick up from that? Those people in that pew had some passion. Amen.

And you know what? After they sang 200 times, then, R. Torrey got up and preached. And souls got saved. But we've got to get some passion here.

And you know what? We can't fake it, but we can get some passion here. And in our churches in America. And I believe that if we'd start using the word of God and we'd start praying and we'd be concerned about guarding our relationship with the Holy Spirit, not doing anything that would hurt our friendship and our fellowship with the holy spirit and get that fellowship, I think we get passion. Let's pray.