Let's go. Praise the Lord, everybody.
Now, hold on a second. You clapped your hands for me, and then you clapped your hands for Jesus, and it sounded the same. Why don't you praise the Lord, everybody, and make it sound a little bit louder? Come on, save your highest praise for the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who's worthy to be praised. Hallelujah, hallelujah, amen, amen, amen.
Well, man, I don't ever plan to be long-winded. I was just born long-winded. I planned to preach like 10 minutes, and it just goes from there. And we had a great move of God in our service today, and at least I did. I had a great move of God. It was like one of those services. You look around, and you're like, is everybody awake? Is anybody awake but me?
And me and my wife, we had a good time in the Lord, and my son, my six-year-old, had a good time in the Lord. And then everybody else was falling asleep, you know, but that's all right. And then I got up to preach, and I thought, man, the Holy Ghost has been moving for like an hour and a half. I'm going to get up here and preach like 10 minutes. And then I went like an hour and 10 minutes. And then I responded to the altar call, and we had a good time in Jesus' name.
I don't intend to be long at all tonight, but I do intend to just follow the Holy Ghost. And I thought, man, it took me almost four hours to get here, and then it'll be three and a half hours back, and like seven-plus hours of driving. I got to at least give you your money's worth tonight and give you the Word of God.
And I don't really have like a sermon, and it's not really the way that I operate. I wish that I was smart enough to like prepare all these really cool sermons. Like sermon A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and then just kind of play like Russian roulette when I come to a church like this and just be like, okay, C, right there, I'll preach C, but unfortunately I don't really have that. I just try to pray and fast and seek the Lord and follow the Holy Ghost.
But the word that I feel so strong in my spirit for this church is that it's time to take new territory. Amen. I'm going to say that in English again a little bit slower. It's time to take new territory. Amen. And I really feel like God is speaking that right now, saying it's time to take new territory.
Now I want to ask you a question before I say your four favorite words. That's right. Those are the words. I'm not going to say them yet because I want to read a verse of Scripture and have you stand for the reading of the Word. But I want to ask you a question. This is somewhat of a rhetorical question, but also maybe not so rhetorical.
But what would you do and how would you act and how would you respond and what would you feel if in a moment all of this right here was taken away from us? All of this, this beautiful building that it is a miracle that you're in this building. Hear what I'm saying. It's a miracle that you're in this building. Can anybody witness to that?
And I tell people when I tell people about Apostolic Church Dallas, I tell people all the time about you guys. And I was like, I always tell them about the atmosphere, the Spirit of the Lord, the prayer, the hunger. And then like five or six things down on the list, I talk about this amazing campus right in the heart of the city. I mean, you turn the corner and there's the skyline. And I mean, you got anything you want to eat. I mean, within two seconds away.
And I don't know how you fast when you got all this good stuff around you. And I think that like a one-day fast is like equal to a normal three-day fast anywhere else when you're here in Dallas, because you got everything right here. And then on top of that, I mean, you got all this stuff and y'all didn't pay for all this, right? I mean, you didn't buy that LED screen, that $85 million screen right there and the cameras. And I mean, are we on TBN or something? We're like on Daystar right now. My God, we're on the home shopping network. Praise God.
And I'm going to sell some holy oil from Jerusalem. But then you go back here, you got all this multimedia stuff. I mean, you just have, God has blessed this church for you to be in this building. It's a miracle that you're in this building.
And then the thing that as a pastor, what I'm looking at, I'm going to have you sit down for the next three hours here in a second. But the thing that I'm looking at is I'm like, my word, this dude can play and he can play and she can sing. And then he, oh my goodness. And it's like today, our music was on my phone right here. That was our music. And we had Draylon Young lead worship for us today on my phone.
And like last week, I think it was like Draylon Young and David Jennings and James Wilson. And we got the best at Archer. But it's through our phone. And what I love about it is, man, my phone obeys a lot better than most praise teams, you know, because I tell our music, our media guys like, hey, rewind it to the halfway point. Yeah, no, not there a little bit further. Right there. Let's worship God again. Let's sing this bridge again. And everybody's like, yeah. And I'm like, man, y'all got live music. This is crazy.
But then I just I'm telling you what I felt in the Holy Ghost. All right. I felt the Lord say, and how would you respond if you had none of this but me? What if you didn't have the great, talented, anointed music team and you didn't have this great building with air conditioning and you didn't have the screen and you didn't have the cameras and you didn't have all this stuff. You didn't have the lights just perfect. So it looks real good on Livestream. But we had the presence of the living God.
What if I say this? It's a miracle that God gave us this. But, Pastor, what if the next miracle was God putting us out on the street? How would we act? Would we still come into his gates for Thanksgiving and his courts with praise? Amen.
So I'm sorry, immediate team. I'm going to read Joshua chapter 3, 2 through 5 from the New King James. And I don't really feel a preaching spirit on me, but I'm going to read a text and have you sit down just to make us feel comfortable.
Joshua 3 and 2 from the New King James, thank you. Thank you so much, Pastor Jay. I appreciate the invitation. And I almost had my family come with me, but some things came up. Very last minute, we have a 7-week-old, a 20-month-old, and a 6-year-old. So when you have that, something's going to come up, and it did. And some things came up and they weren't able to come, but I'm here, so deal with me.
Joshua 3 and verse 2. So it was after three days that the officers went through the camp, and they commanded the people, saying, When you see the ark of the covenant... Everybody say the ark of the covenant. The ark of the covenant of the Lord your God and the priests, the Levites bearing it. He said, Then you shall set out from your place and go after it. Someone say, Follow the ark.
He said, Follow that ark when you see the ark move, which was the expression of literally the image of God, the glory of God, the power of God, the presence of God. He said, When it moves, you move. Amen. He said, Yet there shall be a space between you and it. Now, this is very important for taking new territory, that we've got to follow the instructions of the Lord.
Now, you would think, well, that's the ark of the covenant. Let's all jump on it and get as close as we can. I want to be close to the ark. He said, No, no, no, no. Keep a space between you and it. About 2,000 cubits by measure don't come near it, that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before. You're going into a territory. You're going into new territory you've never been before.
So you can't just operate by feeling and by emotion. There must be some order. There must be some submission. And you can't get out of order and say, Well, but pastor, I feel anointed. Good. Feel anointed, but get in line. Okay. And Joshua said to the people, sanctify or separate yourselves, consecrate yourselves for tomorrow. The Lord will do wonders among you.
So I'm just going to talk for a little bit on that subject. It's time to take new territory. Lord, I love you. Thank you for safe travels. Lord, I pray that you would help me to preach what you're saying and help me to do it in a short amount of time. God, help me to not put anybody to sleep tonight, but let your spirit revive us tonight. Let us see a demonstration of your word through our response of faith in the name of Jesus.
You may be seated in Jesus' name. I'm preaching to those who are ready to take new territory. Amen. Amen. Amen. I feel like this church and I just felt such a witness of my spirit. I was praying on the way here, especially when I was repenting for the bad words I was saying when I was hitting all the traffic on I-35, and I thought finally got through the traffic.
You know, you just start sweating when you're already, you know, your margin for error is very thin. And then you hit traffic on the, I mean, the pathway to hell, which is I-35, and you hit this traffic, and then the time just keeps jumping up and jumping up and jumping up, and it jumped up like 20 minutes like that, and I got through it, and then I hit traffic in Dallas again, but we're here.
But I was praying, and I was like, God, what do you want me to say? I mean, I study and read and prepare sermons for my church and preach out, and it's like there's, you know, lots of things I feel like you're saying to the church, but what are you saying to this local assembly here? And as we're just worshiping for a little bit there, I just felt the Lord say they're ready to take new territory. They're going to take new territory. Amen.
And we have, you see, I believe that the work of an apostle, which this is apostolic church, is truly the work of taking new territory, and I'm going to get to that a little bit deeper here in a moment, but what an apostolic person, an apostolic family, an apostolic church really is, it is a group of believers who are taking new territory. Amen.
And I believe that there is a season that we are still, the Bible says, be still and know that I am God, and the Bible speaks of waiting on the Lord, and even here in this text they had to wait. They had been, they had lived as a people in Egypt for over 400 years, walked through the wilderness for another 40 years, and now it's time to take new territory, and just before, I mean, think about it, almost 500 years of waiting, and then right before the entrance, God says, wait.
That's what I was preaching this morning. I was preaching from the book of Acts. How many of you know we're in the last days right now? Amen. We're in the last days and praying for my church. Forgive me for my voice. I like to get loud. I used to go to University of Texas football games when I was younger, and the sign, and that was back when they were decent, and I used to challenge myself to be like the most radical fan in the stadium of 105,000 people, and I knew that I had given everything I had when I left the game, and I couldn't talk.
And then get to church and ahh! And so now I've tried to flip the script a little bit and say I'm going to be the most radical apostolic in the house, and I haven't really had church until I've given God everything that I've got. Man, so everybody else might have been asleep a little while today during church, and I just start marching the aisles. And then I get up to preach. I couldn't hardly preach, but I've been sucking down cough drops to get a little bit of my voice back just for you. Amen. Amen.
But they had waited for over, I mean, nearly 500 years, and right when they're at the brink of it, three more days. Amen. This is exactly what happened in the book of Acts. When Jesus gave them His final sermon, part of that sermon was the Great Commission, but before they could go fulfill the Great Commission, they had to go back to Jerusalem to the upper room, where they had shared the final supper with Him, and they had to walk a mile and a half back to Jerusalem, get back in that room, and do what? Wait for the promise of the Father.
And it's like, my God, we've been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting, and here You give us this mind-blowing revelation, this equation of multiplication, and You just say, wait! Amen. There's something about waiting that will purify the soul, because before we are multiplied, we must be purified. Hello, somebody. Because He's going to make sure that before we take new territory, our heart is in the right place.
I'll prove it to you. Media team, can you help me? I'm so sorry I didn't give you this. God didn't give it to me until right before I walked up here. Are you ready? We're going to see how fast they are. Can they do this? Are you ready? Deuteronomy chapter 8, and I'm going to read this also from the New King James, Deuteronomy chapter 8 verses 2 through 4, because before we are multiplied, we must be purified.
Because we're not here trying to, let me just say this, we're not here, you're not here. God didn't send you here to grow a church. He sent you here to grow people. He didn't send you here to just play games and have a good time. He sent you here to take new territory. But I believe that you can, and we're all about giving to the poor, and we're all about handing out turkeys on Thanksgiving and backpacks on back-to-school rallies and bicycles in the summer and doing everything we can to get our name out there. Amen.
For people to know who we are and where we are. But I've learned very quick as a pastor, 15 months, that I can swell our church like that. I can swell, not grow the church, but swell the church. And we had a party, and we had giveaways, and we had jump houses, and it was our biggest attendance to date, 65 people. And I was like, I'm texting everybody, I'm calling everybody, we got 65 people. Next Sunday, back to five.
Because we stopped the giveaways, and we deflated the inflatable jump house and all sorts of stuff, and the water slides were wrapped up back in the closet. But God's not interested in trying to swell a church. The Lord is interested in souls repenting and being born again of the water and of the Spirit.
In Deuteronomy 8, we'll see, I'll just go ahead and read it. In Deuteronomy 8, chapter 8, verse 2 through 4, watch what God says. And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these 40 years in the wilderness. Watch, who led you to the wilderness? The Lord God. It wasn't Moses' fault. Moses was just following the Spirit. And it was the Spirit that led them into a tight place.
And look what it says. To do what? To humble you and test you. To know what was in your heart, whether you should keep His commandments or not. So He did what? He humbled you. Watch this. Remember, He's our everlasting Father, right? He said, and He allowed you to hunger. How many of you ever heard of a good dad doing that? We sing that song every Father's Day. It's who you are. Yeah, we forgot about this verse.
He said, I'm going to let you go to bed hungry. And then I'm going to let you wake up hungry. And then I'm going to let you herd the sheep hungry. And I'm going to make you hunger because I'm a good dad. I'm going to let you suffer the affliction of hunger. Why? To see what was in here. Man, I feel like I'm hitting a wall right now.
He said, He allowed you to hunger, but He fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Watch. He says, your garments, your Gucci didn't wear out. Your garments didn't wear out. They had Birkenstock sandals. They're Birkenstocks. They didn't wear out either.
Their garments did not wear out, nor did your foot swell these 40 years. Watch what He's saying. I protected the outside, but I tested the inside. You see, God can provide. He can provide our needs. He can provide your transportation. He can provide your food from heaven, and He can take care of your clothes. He can take care of your finances. He can take care of the light bill, and He can take care of the shoes you walk in.
But what God can't provide is a pure and humble spirit. Hallelujah, Jesus. Man, I was really excited because I thought, man, I'm going to preach miracle signs and wonders, and we might get to that in a moment. And then the Lord dealt with me and said, no, tell them they're ready to take your territory.
And I thought, when God said that to me, I thought, my God, that just reduced my crowd. I might only be preaching to two or three here right now, but I come to let you know that if God can find two or three. And so some of you have pastored. The only thing he said to me was that there's been a time of consecration. I'm not sure about the duration. I'm not sure about what you were consecrating. But he said there's been a time of consecration.
And you see this time of consecration is exemplified through this passage in Deuteronomy 8 where God said, I led you into the wilderness. That was a place of consecration, he said, because in this place of consecration, I wanted to know what was in your heart. Before you can see what's in the land, I got to see what's in your heart. Hallelujah.
Now, I've been on this kick. It's more than a kick, but it's been a word from the Lord for me, and I've been preaching in our church that this is a very late hour that God is coming back. And it was probably about five or six weeks ago that the Lord spoke to our church through tongues and interpretation. Do you all have that happen here? Have you had that happen here? Through the gifts of the Spirit.
The Bible speaks of the nine gifts of the Spirit, and we have the initial sign of speaking in tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance when you receive the Holy Ghost. That gift in evidence is for everyone. But outside of the evidence of speaking in tongues, receiving the Holy Ghost, there's also a gift of the Spirit called the diversity of tongues, and this is for the edification of the body through an interpretation.
And what God will do, and I don't have time, this isn't really my sermon, but what God will do is he will impress upon somebody, somebody that's kind of tapped in. It doesn't mean they're extra holy, extra anointed, you're dripping with oil. I watched a drug dealer be used in the gifts of the Spirit like this at Brother Doug White's church in Sealsby, Texas.
Now I should say he was a former drug dealer as of three hours before he was used. He was dealing that Sunday morning, got the Holy Ghost that Sunday morning, baptized in Jesus' name. Three hours later we had Sunday night church, and all of a sudden this whole service, thank you so much, the whole service stopped, and God used this drug dealer. I mean, he was like the kingpin drug dealer of that area, and God used him in the gifts of the Spirit to give tongues and someone else the interpretation, and everybody just sat there like this.
And Pastor White, Bishop White, he walked up there and he said, you all struggled to receive it because of the vessel God chose to send it through. And so God will use somebody, and it's not always somebody, the person you might think, and he used somebody. And this happened just several weeks ago. I'd been praying, God, I want to see this gift operated in my church, and boom, that Sunday, this little old Mexican girl, well, she's a lady. She's like 65, but I mean, she's so little. She's like a poquito, a niña. I love her. Her name is Rosa.
You can't say Rosa. That's too white. She's Rosa. Amen. That's probably a little too much, but it sounds good, and Rosa. And she started speaking in tongues, and there was an interpreter, and the Lord spoke and said, my grace is sufficient for you, but your time is running out. He said, my grace is enough, but your time is not enough. Your time is running out. Feel the Holy Ghost right now.
He said, choose you right now who you will serve and how you will serve Him. Your time is running out. How many of you feel that in the Spirit, that our time is running out and God is done? Let me just say it like I feel it. He's done playing games with the Gentiles. He's let us play patty cake, and He's let us play games, and He's let us kind of do our own thing and call it Christianity and do our own little thing and call it religion and do our own little thing and call it radical and do our own thing and call it this or that or the other, but He is done playing games with the Gentiles.
You know what's going on in Israel right now, and Israel, God's chosen people, is God's alarm clock for the Gentile people saying your time is up. In Luke chapter 21, it literally, Jesus said in Luke 21, He said, when you see the nations surround Israel and begin to attack Israel, He said, know that the time of the Gentile is coming to an end.
And then the critic will say, yeah, but Israel's been at war since Abraham walked into the promised land. Right, they have been at war, but this is different. Why is it different? Because while Israel being at war is a sign of the times, there's lots of other signs of the times that are listed in your Bible.
And what's different about Israel being at war is that it coincides all of these other signs. Can I just be real here today? Can I just be honest with you? We are coming to the end of this church. You got to see it for what it is. I don't even have to be explicit in detailing the fact. You can't tell what's the truth. And everything is lining up for such a time as this.
I'm going to help all of this make sense, okay? But what the Lord is saying is this, it's time to stop playing games. It's time to learn how to pray. It's time, I feel the Holy Ghost, it's time to sanctify yourself. What does sanctify mean? It means separate, separate yourself. The thing that I'm joined to, I'm sorry, but you're going to be sin and my weight and you're going to be distracted. He said sanctify yourself.
You say, but it's not a sin. I mean, my God, there's nothing wrong with this. There's nothing in the Bible about not doing this. I feel the Holy Ghost is trying to go and weave in somewhere deep right now. Hallelujah. I want to go all in for you, Jesus.
And several years ago I was, well, let me, let me slow down here. About six weeks ago, pastor, when the Lord began to put this burden on me saying, why are you playing games? You see, there's one thing, this is why I feel like I'm only preaching to a couple here right now. Because this, what I'm talking about right now and what the Spirit is trying to say to this church is this, it's time to go beyond just salvation. It's time to go beyond just heaven. It's time to pass the first grade.
Be born again of the water and the Spirit. And then say, okay, you gave me the Holy Ghost that I could be filled with what? Anybody know the P word? Power. To do what? To go to church on Sunday evening. I'm sorry, it's on me right now. Acts 1 and 8, he said, you shall receive power. Now, what was that an answer to? It was an answer to their ignorant question, the same question we all ask, myself included.
He said, hey, go to Jerusalem and wait. The Spirit is coming. And they said, but when are you gonna realign our politics? We got the wrong president and the wrong house and legislature and senator. We got the wrong this and governor and mayor and that's what they said. Verse 6, when are you going to give us our politics back? They said, but when are you gonna restore unto us the kingdom of Israel?
Because they were under the oppression, under the hand of the Roman regime. And they said, but we want our politics back because we want to be able to do it the way we want to do it. And Jesus said, it's not for you to know the details. Y'all don't remember what I preached last time, but I told you last time, if God gives you details, it's no longer a walk of faith. And he does not bless a walk of convenience.
Oh, I understand it, God. It makes sense, God. I gotta hurry, y'all may, you may be seated. One of these days, I've always thought about being really mischievous and telling everybody that Stuart said, you may be seated. Everybody sit down and say, you may be standing. I'm not gonna do that tonight, but God was telling me, go all in.
That was six weeks ago, and it reminded me of the book I read several years ago by Mark Batterson, the two words that is the title of his book, All In. I'm gonna read you some of this. So if you get mad, remember, I didn't write this. I'm just the messenger. He says, a century ago, a band of brave souls became known as one-way missionaries. They purchased single tickets to the mission field without the return half, and instead of suitcases, they packed their few earthly belongings into coffins.
Coffins, anybody know what that is? They packed their stuff into coffins, and they sailed out of port, and they waved goodbye to everyone they loved, everything they knew. They knew they'd never return home. One of these missionaries set sail for an island in the South Pacific, knowing full well that the headhunters who lived there had martyred every missionary before him.
How many of you are like, God, call me there? Every other missionary's been beheaded and eaten, cannibalism's going on over there. God, send me there. You can use anything, Lord. You can use him. He said, God, send me to that island. He went and did not fear for his life because he had already died to himself. His coffin was packed, and he spent 35 years there. He lived among the tribe and loved them.
When he died, tribe members buried him in the middle of their village and inscribed this epitaph on his tombstone. When he came, there was no light. But when he left, there was no darkness. On the tombstone of this church. When God calls this church to heaven and the church of this earth doesn't exist anymore, how amazing would it be for the city of Dallas to say when they started, what, a year and plus ago, there was no light. But when they left, there was no darkness.
I'm reading from his book still. Don't sue me. When did we start believing that God wants to send us to safe places to do easy things, that faithfulness is holding the fort, that playing it safe is safe, that there is any greater privilege than sacrifice, that radical is anything but normal? Jesus didn't die to keep us safe. He died to make us dangerous.
Faithfulness is not holding the fort. It's storming the gates of hell. The will of God is not an insurance plan. It's a daring plan. The complete surrender of your life to the calls of Christ isn't radical. It's normal. Here it is. It's time to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death.
Let me say that again. It's time to quit living life. It's time to quit living as if the purpose of life is to arrive safely at death. It sounds like this is sinking in a little bit, so let me tell you, since you said, am I right that y'all have been in a season of consecration? And that's all I know, that's all you told me. A season of consecration, this is what Mark Batterson said about consecration.
He said, going all in can be summed up by one word, consecration. Anytime God is about to do something amazing in our lives, he calls us to consecrate ourselves to him. And that pattern was established right before the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and conquered the Promised Land, right before they took new territory. He said, consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you.
Mark Batterson still. Before I tell you what consecration is, let me tell you what it isn't. Consecration is not going to church once a week. It's not daily devotions. It's not fasting during Lent. It's not keeping the Ten Commandments. It's not sharing your faith with friends. It's not giving God your tithe. It's not repeating the sinner's prayer. It's not volunteering for a ministry. It's not raising your hands in worship. It's not going on a mission trip.
He said, my greatest concern as a pastor is that people can go to church every week of their lives and never go all in with Jesus Christ. They can follow the rules, but never follow Christ. I'm afraid we've cheapened the gospel by allowing people to buy in without selling out. We've made it too convenient and too comfortable. We've given people just enough Jesus to be bored, but not enough to feel the surge of holy adrenaline that courses through your veins when you decide to follow Him no matter what, no matter where, no matter when.
He said, if you're not hungry for God, it's because you're full of yourself. That's why God cannot fill you with His Spirit, but if you will empty yourself, if you will die to yourself, you will be filled with His Spirit. We are too Christian. We are too Christian. We are too Christian. Everybody say, too Christian. We are too Christian to enjoy sin and too sinful to enjoy Christ.
We've got just enough Jesus to be informed, but not enough to be transformed. I want to go all in for Jesus. I have felt convicted because of the many times I feel such a witness of the Spirit right now. I have felt convicted as of recent because of how many times I have knelt at an altar like this or in my home and said big words to God, big plans, big dreams, big commitments to not even sniff the commitment I gave to Him on that altar because of what I felt in the moment, and I said, God, I'm ready, and I give you this, and then I walk away, and I may mean well, but only to walk back to who I used to be.
The Lord has dealt very strongly with me that it is time right now, for His grace is sufficient, but your time is running out. I'm here to let Apostolic Church know today that you're going to take new territory. Pastor, I don't know how many are going to be here, just like Moses didn't know how many people would take the new land either. Moses had no idea that even himself would not be included in the plan, but little did he know that there would be maybe a couple of million of others that started the journey, that would not finish the journey.
Only those 20 and younger, because God was getting rid of a generation that would not consecrate themselves because God realized I got them out of Egypt but couldn't get Egypt out of them. Egypt was no longer their problem. Now all they had to do was consecrate and walk faithfully, and God would completely destroy every obstacle in their path. But the only obstacle they could not conquer was themselves.
And so I bring to you today what I feel is a directive in the Spirit that it's time, Pastor, to do what Apostolic Church was brought here to do. Where did y'all start? You should have started January 13. It's my birthday. He got all the other ones, but that one he missed. It's okay, you missed that one. No, I'm kidding. January 15. Amen.
It's amazing what you have here after such a short amount of time. Only God. Only God. I'm thankful for what I feel here, and I'm not here to speak one negative word. I don't have a negative word. I have a word of faith that it's time to take new territory. But what that is going to require is it's going to require our absolute trust.
The last time I preached here, I talked a little bit about Moses going to Pharaoh following the direction God gave him. He was the pastor of the church, and God told this pastor, go do this, and he went and obeyed, and it blew up in his face and caused the entire congregation greater suffering than they had before as slaves. And now it was up to the congregation, will we trust our pastor's encounter with Jehovah? Or will we be deceived?
Because there's no way God's will could bring us to a lesser place. And then, I don't know if I got to this part last time I was here, and you don't have to put it up, media team, you're off the hook on this one, but in Exodus chapter 9, God speaks to Pharaoh, and I'm going to paraphrase it, but he says, Pharaoh, you thought you were in charge of this whole thing. He said, but let me tell you the truth.
He says this in the New King James, he says it like this, he goes, if, if I had sent a pestilence among the people, pestilence literally is defined as a fatal epidemic or disease. He said, I could have sent a pestilence among the people. He said, but there would have been a problem because you would have died. And all the church was over here saying, Y'all are too Christian. Sorry, I forgot. Y'all never wish harm on any of your enemies.
He said, if I had sent a disease among the people, did you ever, you probably never thought of this, but why the ten plagues? Why didn't he just say, hey, I release you? He had the power to do so. He could have sneezed, killed all of the enemies and said, you're free. But he tells Pharaoh in Exodus 9, he says, I didn't want to kill you, I wanted to use you.
He said, for this purpose, watch what he says to Pharaoh, for this purpose have I raised you up. He raised up Pharaoh. He lifted up Pharaoh. He promoted Pharaoh while he's going like this to his church. Stay down, stay down, stay down. You're a slave. You're nothing. You're a servant. You're being killed. You're being whipped. You're being brutalized. Stay down, stay down. At the right time, I'll let you stay down. Trust me.
Let me lift him up for a minute. Pharaoh, I lift you up. He said, for this purpose have I raised you up. Watch this. You said multiplication. He said that I may multiply my signs through you and that my name may be revealed through you. Was it not the prophet Isaiah that God spoke through and said, my ways are higher than your ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.
He said, as high as the heavens are above the earth, so are my ways above your ways. Whoa, we're so spiritual, going to save everybody. What if the next step was God to strip everything from you and say, let me elevate your enemy for a minute? Because if it was in your hands and you did it your way, I wouldn't receive the glory. Let me do something. Whoa, I feel the Holy Ghost.
I feel a prophetic witness right now. God said, let me do it my way. Then the world won't have a choice but recognize who got the job done. I don't know if you all are hearing me right now. Whoo, lift your hands right now on the Holy Ghost. Somebody just lift up your voice for a moment. God's trying to speak to somebody in this house.
Media team, one more as far as I know. Ephesians 2 and 19 from, I got it in the KJV. We're going old school, KJV, extra anointed. Ephesians 2 and 19, he says, now therefore you are no more strangers and foreigners. How many of you are thankful to be a part of Apostolic Church? I just feel a boldness in me to tell somebody, quit acting like a stranger in this house.
He said, you are fellow citizens with the saints in the household of God. Everybody say amen. Verse 20, and you are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. Now, I have been stuck on this passage of scripture, pastor, because, you know, the Bible says that there's a five-fold ministry, if you will, that there are five offices of ministry, apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers. Amen.
I'm not going to go any further dealing with that. That's a whole other series for another time. Amen. But this intrigues me because he says you're built, you're not built on the foundation of apostles, prophets, evangelists, and pastors. You're built on a foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself as the chief cornerstone, meaning if Jesus Christ is not the cornerstone, the whole foundation will crumble.
But let me just explain this quickly to you, okay? Prophets, I'm going to start with prophets. Everybody say prophets. When you hear prophets, sometimes you hear like, ooh, spooky. Man, I better floss, you know, because they know. No, it's your breast stinks. I'm not, my prophecy hadn't discerned that, your breast stinks. You're like, oh my God, I better clean up the house because the prophet's coming and he can read my mail and tell me this and that. Y'all never felt that way?
A prophet, let me define it from the Greek definition. One who moved by the Spirit of God and hence his organ or spokesman solemnly declares to men what he has received by inspiration, especially concerning future events, and in particular such as relate to the cause and kingdom of God and to human salvation. That doesn't sound so spooky. It's one who's been moved on by the Spirit of God, and therefore his mouth begins to declare to people what he has received from the Spirit.
Yes, it may concern future events, but really it relates to the cause and the kingdom of God for human salvation. The next definition, prophets, of those filled with the Spirit of God, who by God's authority and command in words of weight pleads the cause of God and urges salvation of men. So I'm not endorsing that everyone start walking around here and saying, well, I'm a prophet. You need to call me prophet so-and-so, and I've not ever asked your pastor to call me prophet anybody.
He just did that. But it's not for anybody to walk around. I've never called myself a prophet. In fact, I've heard someone say, I don't want to call myself a prophet because they killed all the prophets in the Bible. I'm a nonprofit organization. Praise God.
However, you don't have to be a plumber to jiggle the handle on the toilet when it's running in the middle of the night. He's shaking his head. Your toilet was running. I felt it. See, prophets are spooky, man. You don't have to be an electrician to say, well, that light bulb's out. You just go get a new light bulb, and you can do the work of an electrician.
This is all going to make sense, hopefully, in a moment. Now, it says you're built on the foundation of apostles and prophets, so let's go to apostles. Apostles, the word in the Greek is apostolos. Now, it's probably been defined here, but when Jesus said in Matthew 10 and Luke 10 and other verses, He said, Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. That word send is apostolos, but this is not apostolos. This is apostolos in the Greek, and this is what an apostle is defined by the Greek dictionary, a delegate, a messenger, an ambassador of the gospel, one sent forth with orders.
In summary, an apostle is one. Now, when I say an apostle, I'm talking about this apostolic church. I want you to let this get into the DNA and the fabric of this church tonight. An apostle is one who is commissioned of the Lord and the church to go into a different area or areas to establish the gospel and to set up the church and whose ministry, whose ministry, everybody say, I have a ministry, that should be all of us in this sense.
A missionary, an evangelist, one who goes abroad or a church planner, one who goes into a city, one who goes into Dallas with miraculous accompaniment of God's spirit and power, breaking through the spirit world of darkness and establishing a great work, biblically becomes an apostle. A little bit deeper. Are you ready? Pastor, I hope this is okay that I'm taking liberty. I got the clock going. I ain't worried about it. But is my boldness okay right here?
Because I'm telling you, I am in the vein of the Holy Ghost right now. I'm speaking to the very DNA and the momentum and the force within this church right now. I'm speaking to the very heart of why this church was planted in this city and even more so why God brought you into this church from John Eckhart's book entitled Moving in the Apostolic. I don't know who he is, don't know what he believes, but he wrote a really good book about the apostolic church. I think he wrote it for this church right here.
He said this, the Great Commission, we know what that is, at least most of us do, the Great Commission is when God said, Jesus was speaking to his disciples, he said, go out into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believes and is baptized shall be saved. He that believes and not shall be damned. And these signs will follow them that believe. In my name, they'll cast out devils, speak with new tongues. If they drink any deadly thing, if they're even bitten by serpents, if they take up serpents that shall not harm them, they, the believing ones, the apostolic believing ones, will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.
That's the Great Commission. He says, many have believed that the commission is an evangelistic commission. Although evangelism is an important part, the commission is essentially apostolic. Incorporating evangelism, incorporating programs, incorporating outreach to fulfill it, but apostles or apostolic people sent ones do more than evangelize. Apostles preach, teach, prophesy, and do the works of Jesus.
According to Dr. Paula A. Price, he's quoting this lady in God's Apostle Revive. She says, the apostle's mantle includes warfare strategy and rulership. As mentioned earlier in his book, he used a Greek word, stratia, which refers, referring to apostolic ministry, it really refers to military service or the apostolic career. The ken term, stratum, means to serve in a military campaign, to execute the office of apostle.
This speaks of armaments. Do I have any first responders or military veterans in the house? No, we got anybody? Any military? We got one right here. I got the thumbs up. We got anybody? I'm just trying to see who can help. If anybody storms this pulpit to beat me up, who I can call on right here. He says, this speaks of armaments.
Now, we don't think of church in terms of warfare. I wish I had time, but I don't. He said, this speaks of armaments, troops, and battle array. According to Dr. Price, the apostolic church surfaces as an arch warrior, a chief strategist, a competent captain, and an able guard over his jurisdiction. His supernatural rank in the army makes him a formidable combatant in the spirit realm and an arch rival to the forces in the heavenlies.
Am I boring you? No. Okay, I hope not, because I got more to go. He goes on and says, indeed, he's quoting Isaiah, God, and Isaiah, indeed, I have given him as a witness to the people, a leader and commander of the people. Although every believer has ranked to cast out devils, apostolics walk and minister in the highest rank. Yeah. I thought that would get somebody to say amen.
Here it is. Evil spirits and angels recognize it. Evil spirits and angels recognize your apostolic authority. Amen. He says apostolics are the spiritual commanders within God's church. Commander, as used in Isaiah 55-4, it's the Hebrew word saba, meaning to give charge over, to send a message, to put or set in order.
The church needs apostolic leadership to help set the church in order. They help organize and mobilize the believers into an army. Apostolics are standard barriers, commanders who lift the standard and rally the army of God. An apostolic church. I'm still reading this book. Watch this. An apostolic church is awesome and terrible, like an army with banners. Apostolic churches strike fear into the kingdom of darkness.
As generals and commanders, which means to bring to order again, to gather and organize anew. It is the ability to draw people together for action. I got two more quotes from this book. Apostolics are endued with the rank and authority to do this. They are leaders with the necessary grace, charisma, wisdom to lead the church. Last quote. Apostolic ministry is a ministry of warfare. It entails commanding, mobilizing, rallying, and gathering the army of God to challenge and pull down the strongholds of the enemy.
The apostolic church. Here it is. The apostolic church invades new territories. Watch this. Anybody can invade a new territory, but here's what an apostolic church does, and breaks through. It has the ability. This is interesting to me, pastor. You need to get this. The apostolic churches have the ability to go first. It is the first. The apostolic church is the first.
This is a guy who's not even apostolic writing this. The apostolic church is the first to encounter the spiritual resistance of the powers of darkness and the first to penetrate the barriers they erect. This ministry is absolutely necessary to keep the church advancing towards the completion of the Great Commission.
I want to ask you tonight, are you a part of the apostolic church? If you're a part of the apostolic church, you're not a part of this church to sit on a pew and sing these great songs that you sing and hear great sermons but it is your duty to mobilize the army of Holy Ghost.
Remember I've been overseas many times my friend brother Matt Newton and his wife are here and they're their youth pastor young adult pastor in the Houston area and they've gone overseas many times and so he'll appreciate this but I remember going overseas to Africa I'm going to Africa next week pray will you use this church pray with me I'm expecting to go and see ten thousand people filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost next week I'm asking this church just to pray with me I'm going and I wonder if the Apostolic Church would help me take new territory in this area of Africa for God to fill thousands of people with his spirit hallelujah.
But I remember being over in one village of Africa at one one year and the average age the excuse me the life expectancy there was 37 years old and I remember is my first time in this area of Africa East Africa and the the the pastor in that village he said you know what we need to do to break open the spirit here we need to do a prayer walk and we're like man we like that we're apostolic let's go we mark the territory with prayer but then we take it by force let's go let's go on a village walk you know I mean it was tiny when we were driving when we started walking I took a video of this pastor because they didn't walk you know they're not full of cinnabon and cinnamon twists from Taco Bell and Big Mac and they're not full of that stuff they took off running they said prayer walk I'm glad they didn't say prayer run I wonder what they would have done they took off running and I thought well that's cute okay I mean 30 seconds later we're like Lord you said we would run and not faint I'm about to pass out so we us Americans we started walking we said we'll catch up we're walking and it turned into over eight miles we thought it's gonna be like eight blocks eight teepees huts eight I put I did on my watch over eight miles oh my lord and as we were walking I noticed that there was these there straw huts everywhere and in certain straw huts there was these lines it looked like like Black Friday at a Walmart and everybody lined up you know I'm talking about y'all don't act like you don't go to Walmart on Black Friday get real it is sad Black Friday starts on Monday now I don't understand what that's all about it's like they do Black Friday the whole week now it's like sales begin now it's like what anyways and there's people like lined up I mean must have been 50 or 60 people lined up out of each of these huts and I was like what is going on over there they said this is these are witch doctors they said we don't have doctors and physicians we have witch doctors you go to the witch doctor and they read your palm and read cards or whatever and they either bless you or curse you either die or you live and whatever well we had learned that in this village that it's very rude there to decline any invitation we took advantage of that we were inviting everybody I'm not even joking when I say everybody that worked at our hotel ended up getting the Holy Ghost by the end of the week because we invited everybody and they'd all just say yes yes yes yes yes we invited our bus driver we invited everybody we found in this village like nobody says no there you invite them to something like yes well we went up to these witch doctor stands and started inviting everybody hey hey you don't need these witch doctors anymore we got something better come on come on we're gonna show you come on and we walked and we gathered and we got at the altar and the praise team started going crazy and and we were worshiping and rejoicing and about an hour into it here comes all the witch doctors six of them showed up now we didn't know we didn't know that they're a witch doctor and we're all guests ourselves we don't know what they look like and and they showed up and and they were standing there these witch doctors were standing there like throughout the crowd right here with their hands lifted like this even the witch doctors know there's something powerful when you lift your hand they were lifting their hands not to receive our God and our message but to cast a spell over this service they were declared you're not gonna take this territory at one point one of the head witch doctors came up the steps and walked over to us and he had this staff in his hand and he walks up to one of the the pastors or the missionaries of that village and he walks right up to him he must have known him and he says hey he said I'm gonna lay this staff on you and when I do you're gonna die and everyone here will go home and so he laid that staff on the shoulder of this African pastor Holy Ghost filled man of God and that pastor just stood there and smiled real big and didn't do anything and he did it three times laid that staff on his shoulder three times and when he pulled back the third time he's the pastor said you may have power in that staff but I have power in my hand he said the Bible says I will lay hands on the sick in the name of Jesus and they will recover he said I'm gonna lay I'm not even told this here last time I mean I don't know if I did he said I'm gonna lay my hand on your head and when I do I'm gonna say in Jesus name he said in every devil will come out of you and then you will be filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost he said in the name of Jesus and before he could lay his hand on that dude's head that guy dropped his staff and jumped off the platform and ran out of there we were like wow that was crazy you ever seen anything happen like that now we're too American we never say anything like that but then we went up we preached 10 minute sermon on the name of Jesus and we said if you want the Holy Ghost come to the front I have a video on my phone of Sophia Myers David Myers his daughter at the time she was nine years old and she's standing on her tiptoes on the platform while she's trying to reach someone's head because she's so little and she's praying for a man and he's receiving the Holy Ghost and that pastor grabs us and says that's one of the witch doctors receiving the Holy Ghost before it was over the other five witch doctors were filled with the Holy Ghost and baptized in Jesus name God filled over three thousand.
God filled, let me just speak what I feel in the Holy Ghost right now, it's time to stop attending this church as just a Christian believer and start attending. I can feel the enemy getting mad right now because pastor Justin for decades the Lord said to me I felt a witness in my spirit God said don't get comfortable here don't get comfortable here every now and then I've only preached here twice and I can already see some of you got your assigned seat it's okay I do it too we don't like change as much as we think we do but every now and then you ought to just do something radical so radical like this you sit on the other side of the sanctuary and say I ain't getting comfortable here every now and then when we come into this miracle that God provided we should let this miracle know I'm thankful for you miracle I'm not satisfied I'm thankful for all of this I'm thankful for all of this some of by the word of your testimony I want you to lift up your hands in this place and if you've been filled with the Holy Ghost I want you to let it out right now apostolic church remember the directive was that the apostolic church has the ability to do what go first and be the first one to recognize something's not right here please don't misunderstand me I'm not upset at anybody but other churches won't recognize it other denominations other places of worship while they mean well they haven't yet come to the truth of the apostolic church we believe that they will but until they do you're going to recognize it first you're gonna say something's not right here there's a spirit here there's a barrier here there's an obstacle here and everybody else will call you that you're just a legalist and you're just a conspiracy theorist and you're just too holy and and too spiritual for any earthly good and it's because they haven't felt it yet you're the apostolic church but the word of the hour is when you recognize it first you're going to have the ability to go beyond the barrier you're going to have the ability to do what to bring down the walls that they have erected that's why I started with Joshua chapter 3 he said get consecrated for a few days separate yourself for a few days because tomorrow he said you're gonna see wonders that you've never seen before he said get in alignment get it let Joshua tell you where what position to be in don't all crowd the ark get an alignment he said because you're about to go somewhere you've never gone before.
Huh, and when they got to that nation called Jericho it's a story that you learn as a child in Sunday school the directive was March they had been marching for 40 years and he said I want to see if you can walk before you can shout they walked for seven days around that nation one time around it each day until the seventh day they surpassed they surrounded that nation seven times and he said keep your mouth shut do not shout because it's not your shout that's going to bring the walls down it is your walk your daily walk that will give power to that weekly shout and at the end of that week he said now watch what he said the nation's yours shout shout the nation's yours the territory's yours but they looked in their hands and said but I don't see anything the walls are still up we haven't gained any ground we're still outside the walls there he said the nation's yours go ahead and shout and they had to give a prophetic utterance of praise and begin to shout unto God with the voice of triumph when they couldn't yet see it in their physical eyes and as they began to shout those walls began to fall this church is about to take new territory but you cannot be divided by what you see we must prophetically give our praise and worship to God and declare this territory belongs to the apostolic church.
This is what I want us to do I want to pray a prayer of faith for every vessel in this room man and woman and child and I'm going to give you instruction it won't take long but I feel such a directive of the Lord that we need to pray to be filled and refilled with his spirit tonight there's people in this room that have already been filled with the Spirit of God and you know it because of the evidence that God gives when that spirit is given the evidence of speaking with other tongues as the spirit gives the utterance there's people that have done that but maybe you haven't done it in a while but even if you've even done it in this service we're gonna pray for a fresh touch of his spirit there's also people in this service that have never experienced this before in your life so we've got the person that's spoken in tongues even today that's gonna be filled and refilled we've got the person that's been filled but it's been a while and you're gonna get refilled and we've got the person that has never experienced it before that's gonna be filled for the first time everybody fits into one of those three categories and what I want you to do right now is take a step of faith into this altar every man and every woman every elder every young person every youth every child every husband wife every single mother or father I want you to come into this altar and we're going to lift up our voice together and the Lord is going to pour out his spirit just like he did on the day of Pentecost and God is going to empower us with his spirit together today in the name of Jesus.
I'm gonna give us direction as you gather into this altar it'll take just a moment when we begin to worship God I'm gonna put the microphone down and walk away and the rest of this service is up to you thank you for your attention thank you for your patience thank you for your faith your sensitivity and your courage to respond to the spirit to the word of God tonight I know that the Lord is about to do something mighty and awesome in this place because of your faith.
I want everybody to close your eyes and this is what we're gonna do first we're going to repent of anything that we have held on to that the Lord is asking us to let go of whether it be sin whether it just be a way to distraction the Lord is saying will you be the DNA of the apostolic church will you be the voice crying in this city in Dallas as it is in heaven and then will you be the fulfillment of that prayer to the power of the Holy Ghost before we go any further I want you to lift up your voice and pray a prayer of repentance for God's grace to wash over you right now.
Lord Jesus I have made mistakes I have been distracted I have held on to things that you have asked me to let go of Lord I pray right now that you would give me the courage and the faith to let go of all and hold on to nothing I give you everything that I am Lord my mind my heart my soul my spirit my body as a living sacrifice unto you I give you my body as a living sacrifice unto you Lord I repent my life to you let my vessel tonight be full of your spirit Lord I desire to be an apostolic church I desire Lord I have family that's not saved and I am claiming them tonight as the new territory that I'm taking there's people I know and there's people I don't know that are not saved and you are coming so quickly tonight I will be empowered by your spirit to take new territory to go and not hesitate to go and not fear but to walk in the power and the love and the sound mind of which you have given to me Lord I repent and I'm asking you to clean out my vessel so that you can fill it up with your spirit and your power.
This is what I want us to do these are the only words I'm asking you to repeat after me it's just a word of faith I want you to say Jesus I give you everything I have and I want to receive the Holy Ghost tonight say I want to speak in other tongues tonight I didn't hear everybody say Jesus I want to receive the Holy Ghost tonight saying I want to speak in other tongues tonight now by faith I want you to say Jesus I will receive the Holy Ghost and speak in other tongues tonight say in the name of Jesus Christ now what I want you to do is I want you to just lift up your hands as a sign of an open vessel and I want you to close your eyes and when you hear me say the name Jesus I want you to begin worshiping him as loud as you can and when you begin to worship God his spirit is gonna fill you up and out of your belly is gonna flow the rivers of living water you will begin speaking in other tongues as the spirit gives the utterance begin to lift up your voice and receive the Holy the spirit gives the other answer.
Now don't stop praying but this is the next step you don't have to stop praying but I want you to be able to hear me because this is key pastor Justin this is vital to the momentum of apostolic church when you close your eyes you can go to that territory in the spirit right now some of you can see family a spouse a sibling a parent a child some of you know of a territory of this city you know of an area that God has given you a unique burden for you know of a home you know of a neighborhood of homes you know of a place of debauchery and sin I want you to close your eyes and I want you to see that place you can go there right now in the spirit while you're standing here in the flesh and you can...
on Nov 05, 2023
