Qualified by God
The Book of Joel, Acts and a Life Empowered by The Holy Spirit
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good morning if you're new here among us today my name is gene i serve here at c3 church as your lead pastor and i want to start this morning by talking about florida problems so we've talked about iguanas right when it gets cold here they fall out of trees on you so just watch out for that the driving horrible people don't know how to drive here especially in naples florida check check this weekend something probably came to your mind hurricanes so did anyone start preparing getting ready start thinking oh now it's time to buy 10 cases of bottled water and prepare for the oncoming hurricane season so that's what we're entering now so here's the thing it's important to be prepared that's important but it's important not to over prepare like i did when i first moved down here 10 years ago so i was really scared i didn't understand you see them coming it's going to be fine everything's okay but i got kind of scared overreacted and i bought like three or four hundred dollars worth of hurricane supplies that i ended up throwing away like all the food the canned food everything went bad in the meantime and here's a tip if you're new when you get down here ask your neighbor if the water still runs when the power goes out so that you don't buy a portable toilet like i did there are smaller florida problems such as love bugs i hate them these are the bugs that if you're trying to eat outside which you won't do anymore after you've been here for like five years so like inside or outside i'm a local they put you inside too hot but anyway they used to end up in my drink or my soup in your hair on your face they don't care because here's the thing they're making love that's what they're doing and they don't care they're flying so imagine that flying through the air making love they get careless and they just land in stuff or the front of your car if you're driving on i-75 what a way to go anyway love bugs they descend upon us in may and september like a biblical plague they're gross now here's the thing about them there's a myth about love bugs it has been said that they were part of some kind of genetic experiment gone wrong at the university of florida but no we find that they're here records of them in the early 1900s way before that they came up from central america now you know today we're going to talk about a real biblical plague of insects not love bugs but locusts now a lot of people think oh exodus right so the gnats and the flies and then you get the locusts and stuff no there's a whole book of the bible devoted for the most part it's locus plagues and the dangers of locust plagues also the day of the lord which we'll get to in a little bit so we're going to be in the book of joel why well because we're in hosea if you get to chapter 14 and then you turn the page you arrive at joel now unlike some of these other books that we've been discussing in the rest of the story right so we're in second kings second chronicles we've been inserting them the prophets into those books because the bible isn't like chronological all the way through we've discussed that so especially the old testament they're in sections you have the torah so you're going to have genesis through deuteronomy then you have history books joshua to esther then you have poetic books i'd put job in there so you go job all the way to the song of solomon or song of psalms then you have the prophetic books isaiah through malachi and what you do with some of those books is you take them and you re insert them in the histories that's how it goes and we even see made it easy because i showed you sometimes they tell you the name of the kings right there in the book so you know where they go joel is different and so scholars will debate it i don't like debating dates and things like that it's a waste of time so we're just going to do it right after hosea so i don't know when it happened i don't actually need to so let's jump right in joel 1 1. the lord gave this message to joel son of bethul hear this you leaders of the people listen all who live in the land in all your history has anything like this happen before tell your children about it in the years to come and let your children tell their children pass the story down from generation to generation after the cutting locust finished eating the crops and the swarming locusts took what was left after them came the hopping locust and the stripping locust ii lots of different kinds of locusts i guess now you might think what's the problem it's like the love bugs right they're just a little bit annoying you get a spoon you scoop them out of the soup keep going or ask your waitress for another one no the problem is you don't have any soup because the locust ate everything that's the problem so one of them not a big deal a whole swarm of them sent by the lord really big deal you don't have food so they're just devastating crops so it's actually a very very horrible thing they're compared to an army joel 1 6 a vast army of locusts has invaded my land a terrible army to numerous account its teeth are like lion's teeth it's fangs like those of a lioness remind anyone of anything revelation i think chapter six right so the fifth angel was the trumpet and the locusts come out of the smoke and they're described as having these lions fangs it's a really horrible thing turn the page joel 2 1 sound the trumpet in jerusalem raise the alarm on my holy mountain let everyone tremble in fear because the day of the lord is upon us now you'll hear about this day of the lord and it's kind of two different days of the lord one more immediate for them then we'll talk about it later the day of the lord we see a call to repentance future restoration then a future when god promises his spirit joel 2 28 then after doing all these things i will pour out my spirit upon all people your sons and daughters will prophesy your old men will dream dreams and your young men will see visions in those days i will pour out my spirit even on servants men and women alike and i will cause wonders in the heavens and on the earth blood and fire and columns of smoke the sun will become dark and the moon will turn blood red before that great and terrible day of the lord arrives but everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved if we turn the page we see judgment upon israel's enemies so this happens a lot so like the locusts god is going to use other nations other countries to punish israel and judah sometimes those countries go way too far so now the israelites but now to you tyre philistia sidon and then we see future blessings for israel joel 3 17 then you will know that i the lord your god live in zion my holy mountain jerusalem will be holy forever and foreign armies will never conquer her again in that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine and the hills will flow with milk remember we're in the middle of like this plague so the food is kind of important water will fill the stream beds of judah and a fountain will burst forth from the lord's temple watering the arid or dry valley of acacias but egypt so enemies will become a wasteland and edom will become a wilderness because they attacked the people of judah and killed innocent people in their land but judah will be filled with people forever and jerusalem the capital city will endure through all nations i will pardon my people's crimes which i have not yet pardoned and i the lord will make my home in jerusalem among my people if we go to acts and we get to the second chapter we see that peter when giving his sermon quotes from joel so here it is in that day they get the holy spirit like a waterfall so it says on the day of pentecost all the believers are gathered in one place they're gathered together and suddenly there's a sound from heaven so it's like this mighty windstorm a very powerful event flames descend upon them like tongues of fire and all of a sudden the apostles they have the ability to speak in languages that other people know like what's going on here this is crazy how is this happening and there's people from like every nation i'll explain that in a minute there and they can hear the gospel what's going on how can this be then some of them say well they must be drunk they must be drunk so peter responds to them acts 2 14 then peter stepped forward with the 11 other apostles and shouted to the crowd listen carefully all of you fellow jews and residents of jerusalem make no mistake about this these people are not drunk as some of you are assuming nine o'clock in the morning is way too early for that i always found that very funny no what you see was predicted long ago by the prophet joel in the last days god says i will pour out my spirit upon all people your sons and daughters will prophesy your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams in those days i will pour out my spirit even on my servants men and women alike and they'll prophesy and it will cause wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below blood and fire and clouds of smoke the sun will become dark and the moon will turn blood red before that great and glorious day of the lord arrives but everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved so let me explain something to you just in case you don't know it another myth like the love bugs that people say is that the holy spirit arrives here on pentecost like that's somehow when he shows up wrong second verse of the bible genesis 1 verse 2 holy spirit right there hovering above the waters of the creation in the beginning he's god he's a part of our triune god they cannot be separated john 1 in the beginning was the word the word was with god and the word was god he was in the beginning with the with god so he is jesus is god the holy spirit's god and then you have god the father the trinity i'll explain that another time but anyway as it pertains to the holy spirit he's all throughout the bible all throughout we see all kinds of people filled with the holy moses numbers are the 11 numbers and the 70 elders right you have el dad and me dad the spirit kind of gets stuck on him joshua freaks out so he's in there in the beginning and all throughout even people like saul are prophesying by the spirit david jesus says david is filled with the holy spirit peter one of the sermons david he's a prophet he calls him david's a prophet because he prophesized the messiah he's all throughout the whole thing even in the beginning of the new testament even in luke between the first two chapters you have no less than five people being filled with the holy spirit mary elizabeth john zechariah right so you have all these people simeon the holy spirit is alive and active so what are we seeing here what is this this is like a waterfall of the holy spirit it's crazy so prophesied by joel pour it out so in the past god selects people so i'm gonna put my spirit on this person the prophets too they're prophesying by the spirit i'm gonna put i'm gonna choose to put my spirit in this person it says on this person his selection now that's it all right so you believe in jesus boom the holy spirit i'm going to talk about that change today too so that's what's going on now the context so you understand what's going on here it's really important they're there for a festival so it says pentecost so pentecost think greek 50 right so it is approximately 50 days from the passover so if you know exodus 12 used to get the passover account it's so that they're thinking about how god redeemed them right from the egyptians and so they initiate their the passover festival one of three pilgrimage festivals they need to go at this time to jerusalem four now weeks shavuot seven weeks or pentecost same thing originally associated with like a harvest first fruits harvest festival later becomes associated with the giving of the law that's what they're they're celebrating so something crazy happens and this is amazing and if you see all the festivals in light of one another you also have booths that's in the fall so these are more like in the springtime all right so paso easter think that so 50 days away from that 49 i guess but think about what's happening so if you're celebrating the giving of the law what happens well moses goes up mount sinai right and then he gets the law written on stone tablets what happens here acts 1 jesus ascends like moses did but to heaven right and now what comes back down the mountain the law of the holy spirit on our hearts see now it's written on our hearts so you see ezekiel 36 second corinthians 3 there's different places where this is talked about so it's a concept new and old testament where yeah i'm going to take that stony heart get it out of there replace it with a heart of flesh and now i'm going to write my laws on your heart instead of on stone tablets you see what's being fulfilled here gets me excited you excited good it's the holy spirit this is powerful it's a very powerful event and it's supposed to be this fulfillment that you're seeing if you're in the word you're going oh like even the tongues of fire i think of elijah and the prophets of baal it says the fire licked up the water in the trench power it's an amazing thing right so this whole thing is being fulfilled now so it's like even the parable the sower right so what the soil types your heart reflective of your heart and the seed is the word it gets down in there and it's got to take really good root it's written in our hearts is right there boom empowered by the holy spirit that's what's going on so you have this festival going on all these people now oh the jews are dispersed okay so we're gonna see we're gonna get to assyria like in a week or two and we're gonna see how they conquer first israel they're dispersed then later judah falls their dispersed scholars will say something like diaspora just dispersed right so they're sent out so you have all these jewish people all over the place but generations later like hundreds of years later now they're speaking languages where they live right so they might not understand but they're all coming if they're devout jews to this festival they're going there now it's a big event but maybe they don't speak hebrew so good i don't know but that's what's going on here god gives the apostles this power to just to start speaking in other people's languages that's amazing so that the gospel can be spread so that's boom what you have going on here and in the midst of this joel interesting so really wild stuff the word of the lord is now in us first corinthians 6 we are temples of the holy spirit it's a big deal but sometimes we overlook it don't we kind of overlook that we forget think about this we have god living in us or he should be anyway if we're not acting like it along with that we often ignore the obvious blessings sometimes they're subtle that he's already given us he is in us and we go after other stuff we go for exterior things when all we had we just had to do that think just think about this absorb this concept we just we say things we sing songs but we don't contemplate it just think about it if you have god power look at all the miracles jesus did power in you you always have everything you need we don't need other stuff and we pray we do something that's supposed to be very spiritual right and then we turn right around and try to do everything on our own power it's amazing i watch people do that they'll pray and they'll be like okay now i'm going to come up with a solution for you know but you just ask but so i think god just sometimes goes yeah you got it you got it good we do that to our kids if you have kids right yeah you got it go ahead we'll see we rely on human power here's the other thing where i'm going here because we're going to see something from x instead of giving glory to god like in other words waiting more than 3.4 seconds right for him to do something you know we just we try to give glory to ourselves how often have we gone after worldly credentials looking for the world to you know because we're so good at getting everything done ourselves on our own power that's what it's all about but how often do we go nope god did that i had just a tool that's all i am just a tool so if we continue reading acts this is what happens so run two i'll take you through it three heals a [ __ ] person all right so the the beggar comes out he's crippled his feet ankles it says don't work and so he can't walk he's there i think he's going to get money and peter's like nope i don't got silver or gold for you here's what i have and he heals him in jesus name and it causes this major stir it's like this big big thing so he preaches a little bit and here's the interesting part i don't want to forget this you know what do we do you know three peter has a couple different sermons so this happens in two actually and then again in four you know like what should we do after he preaches a little bit he's like repent repent get baptized in jesus name and then you'll get the gift of the holy spirit there's an order there it sounds a lot like jesus doesn't it yeah deny yourself pick up your cross then you can follow me so they get arrested they get dragged before the council this jewish council so the jewish religious leaders no fancy words so they're there before them right and peter filled with the holy spirit and it says filled with the holy spirit rulers and elders of our people are we being questioned today because we've done a good deed for a crippled man you want to know how he was healed in jesus name that's how so he says he was the stone that you builders rejected but now he's the chief cornerstone there is salvation in no other name this is bold right so these are these jewish religious they can kill them and he's like not you got it wrong jesus's name if you don't believe in him okay so throughout a couple different sermons we get you killed the author of life that's what he says to them this is bold really bold acts 4 13 a lot of people don't pay attention the members of the council were amazed when they saw the boldness of peter and john for they could see that they were ordinary men with no special training in the scriptures so some versions will say uneducated they were uneducated men interesting they also recognized them as men who had been with jesus they were untrained they were unqualified according to the world's standards but by god called and qualified bold they're filled with the holy spirit in the word so maybe you've looked to the world to credential you but god if he is in you has already called and qualified you you don't need anything else so i struggled a lot with this this week because i was asked to share my testimony i realized that i'm like wait a minute cause i'm thinking i talk to these people every week they know who i am you know it's what's the big deal you know and i realized like if you're not or you're out of town a lot it's like you get little snippets about who i am i'm usually throwing myself under the bus something i did as a kid or whatever or i do wrong as a husband you know just little things but i thought about i'm like no you know you don't need to hear my testimony but i thought about it i'm like that's true it's been seven years since i shared my story it's been like a long time so a lot of people haven't put it all together and i know you're probably not listening to me half the time anyway so i realized okay maybe that's a good idea so i asked some people here they trust you know just pray about that and just see because you know what there is here uh when you're getting up here there's you right you know then there's your pride you know there's that too then there's fear right you know like who's going to leave today you know that's what happens all the time so what you got to do is you just got to say god just right there just just go like just take me there right so i prayed about it i decided i'm going to share a snippet with you as it relates to this because i don't think a lot of people know it and i thought about it i'm like yeah i really i'm not sure how clear i've made that maybe the bible study group so i want to take you back and share a little bit of my testimony because a lot of people don't know and this surprises some people so when i was a kid growing up in school i had every single learning disability but here's the thing that's going to shock you because you know i bet you think i'm in my 20s but this was a long time ago right so this is like the late 70s and 80s yep so it it's like oh why does that like anybody else right that that was like that look it's like almost 50 years ago i was like what that can't be true we watch movies right you know we see that what's the date we always google the date of the movie we're like what that's not good anyway a little diagram so way back in the 70s and 80s they didn't have like all the letters and acronyms for these things right they did not you're just lazy and stupid and that's it you just you get smacked in the back of the head and then go back to school right but here's the problem on top of all of it on top of all of it i have dyslexia it's a specific kind and this is a real thing this actually happens where the first you look at a word the first letter of the word is at the end that makes reading very confusing so you know yes i had some eye training with eye doctors all kinds of stuff like that and through it all but you have to like learn how to see it like you know what i mean you're never going to see it like anybody else then all these this but clearly the hyperactive thing is still there that's okay god's like you can keep that so good but yeah i got a lot of trouble as a kid but here's the thing really bad in school like really really really really really bad in school and so i got in trouble a lot acted out um a lot back then it was different like i don't know maybe it's just me but they would like consider your other abilities and then just say go just go get out of here or i'd just like annoy them so much like i do not want him again next year just pass you know so that's really another tactic that kind of works shouldn't be saying that to the kids but anyway you just get so annoying i don't think they do that anymore but they did and so i was good at music pretty good when i was in the recording studio by the time i was 14 years old and saw it pretty good pretty good at music and so they just figured just go be a rock star or something like that you know so and kind of that's what i did but i did a lot of things to self-medicate and overcompensate so there's girls and then there's drugs and there's booze it's all happening at a really young age for that to be happening really bad just turning to the world and and the words that were used for me they resounded i'd hear them all the time my dad's favorite was lazy like you're just not getting a grit because you're lazy he kicked me out of the house because i was too lazy to do like the farm work he wanted me to do or whatever you know it lazy then the rest of the people you're stupid all the smart kids you're stupid you're stupid you're stupid and lazy stupid and lazy stupid and lazy so here's what i did i got tired of doing like all the drugs and being out late and all that other stuff and it was kind of not fulfilling because that's what happens when you go to the world right it doesn't fulfill you it doesn't work it's like chinese food so it just that's it you just keep going through it and you're like you know what i want some steak and so that's kind of what i did but it wasn't that so i decided i was going to go back to martial arts because i had this dyslexia that they had me do martial arts for hand-eye coordination didn't work but anyway i went back to martial arts and i said i'm going to get gigantic and i'm going to crush people for a living that's it and so that's what i did i did brazilian jiu jitsu and i had to go all the way like crazy and you might say at this point wait how did you write if you know my story how did you write jujitsu books i became a published author for that because beating people up was not enough i had to write about it and show them how i did it so i did because pictures they have a lot of pictures in these jujitsu books it's an instructional book and so with great difficulty i i could write i'm not going to say i could not write i could write i could read just like with way more difficulty than maybe you can it was like really really hard and so it would go through editors and stuff and they'd be like what are you saying and so sometimes i would dictate things and that's how i would get it done i got it done so i was always compensating so like my resume it should just basically say like if i'm being honest jean's list of compensations this is gene's list of compensations for being insecure and angry think about your resume for a minute i'm just me under the bus maybe not you because you're incredible but like my list of overcompensations because i'm really insecure and angry about maybe what somebody said about me when i was a kid think about it so whether it's music for me you know martial arts money money oh that was my worst when i finally got there it was like on game on somebody retired here to naples i was like how many exotic sports cars can i have in my driveway you know like it was just that and everybody had to know it right different watch every day and i'm awesome i said this i don't have a harvard ring but i have a twenty thousand dollar watch and i said some other bad words yeah i make more than anyone who graduated from my high school why was i saying that insecure angry didn't work i was spending so much time trying to meet the standards of the world it all went away and here's where we're going when i stopped and i surrendered that's it when i answered the call god gave me exactly what i needed to fulfill it he healed it miraculous people make the mistake of saying to me like what version of the bible do you read i'm like all of them all of them i could do this there's a lot of friends from ethiopia they're like someone got disappointed right different culture there i might just open a church in ethiopia it's better because they got mad the preacher only went for an hour i was like oh sign me up i could use this all day all day ask my wife she's like all day how i read a lot a lot and i just i is it okay to say how much did we agree on that no i read the bible i struggle with this so just please please just know my heart i'm not i'm giving glory to god in this dyslexia okay let's just i read i go through the word of god the whole thing including the genealogies every single month 12 times a year that's my bible plan i want to be like timothy first timothy 4 constantly nourished on the word of god but here's the thing i gave up garbage that's all i gave up i can't even brag it's about four hours a day reading and listening i listen to like so if i'm doing something like folding laundry i'll be listening ah you were paying attention so you know so i'll be listening i'm always listening listening listening listening listening all right so then i'm reading reading it's about four hours a day think about that just for a minute just for a minute that's only four hours a day it's 24 hours in a day it's only four of them that's a joke for a pastor now i'm a teacher i'm supposed to be doing that right so don't get nervous he's like what but he did it gave up a lot i watched to any tv during the day watching news for a half hour she's like turn it off you know i'm like yeah good idea so i do that but that's it so you're just giving up garbage from the world that's all you got to do give up worldly garbage sometimes not these love songs you're hearing these lust songs on the radio all this give it i don't listen to my radio in the car anymore the truck i don't just listen to the work my phone right there hit play it's better and the news and all that stuff turn it off so here's the thing the other thing but not just english greek greek what that's confusing just pastors always pretend this annoys me they always pretend they know greek they'll like say some greek word they can't even recognize it there you don't learn that in seminary you don't it's you don't learn that next time somebody says a pastor just get like a greek thing hold out in front of them and say read that they can't even the person who trained me couldn't do it it's hard it's something that you learn like way later that's like he had an mdiv master's degree did not did not know how to agree that's not what they teach you there but here's the thing they say it's really really really hard i've heard that from a lot of people not for me all glory to god it's like speaking in tongues i don't do that it's not we don't have all the gifts i don't do that one but i can read all kinds of tongues it's crazy and i've had greek people like look at me do it and they're like you know that's not normal i'm like all glory to god but from dyslexia to greek something that like phds are struggling with but here's the thing about that i'll make a confession to you after that realization you know the first thing i did was i went online and looked into getting a phd what think about the way we think we're twisted we're crazy so think about that like thank you lord for giving me this gift i can read greek and all my pastor friends can't thank you lord for using me so that i can teach the church having the ability to know the word like the back of my hand told you it came on jeopardy they had bible as a category i was like bam bam bam i'm giving them more information these two are like oh this is so annoying when it's going to be over but thank you for giving this guy lord this is not normal you just gave me this ability to do this and see this healed my dyslexia what i'm not angry anymore oh i was angry not angry anymore not angry anymore i'm good peaceful just give me my bible leave me alone i'm good everything's fine nah you know what i need to go out and get men to credential that so that they can take credit for it what and maybe so should i right oh i got a phd put some letters before after my name so that people take me seriously nope nope give me the greek here i'll start reading that's how you get them to take you seriously how did you do it i didn't waste some money on school like you did god gave it to me the whole time the whole time i already had way more than any school god how can a school give you more than god can't can't i already had way more he was calling me to be like peter and john not like people of the world who is that untrained man where did you go to school holy spirit i don't know is that a school i don't know i don't need one but there are too many church leaders boasting about their you got to call them the title and there's doctor this doc imagine dr gene you know you know they feel like it's stupid but they do like oh it's doctor i'm gonna go see dr so-and-so and i'm learning from you know this oh wow he's got a lot of people following him what who cares who that person is who cares just a person so here's the thing it bothered paul too if you look if you can read the greek i mean i think i don't have to look at the wording in the bible but it's just like like this it would look paul comma an apostle and a slave of jesus like that's how he's saying he's not going apostle paul here you know please kiss my ring you know like no and in fact to corinth that's the first issue pastor worship that's the first issue that's it i got a report from chloe's household right some of you are saying apollos is better he's awesome paul is awesome peter's awesome he says i'm glad i baptized none of you except christmas gaius and all of stephanie's household but anyway the rest of y'all that's how paul said it y'all all y'all i'm angry but think about what he's saying i'm glad i didn't baptize you what i'm glad i didn't baptize you because you might say you were baptized in the name of paul he's so angry by the fourth chapter he says i'm going to come to you with a stick or should i come to you with love as a father you know i'm going to you guys are annoying me and i'm going to beat you like imagine that that's what he's saying though it's incredible pastor worship when we worship people in all their titles and it's evil because not only are you doing it idolizing a person they're accepting it they made themselves the golden calf they should be like yo i heard about a church we're talking this morning a church where like the pastor needed security guards i don't but you know it's because you know in the front row all the famous people are sitting next to him i'm like this dude's gotta read james just read james please like this is ridiculous like if we ever even get close to that shut it down like there's celebrity pastor oxymoron celebrity worship leader definitely an oxymoron but they're taking it and give me the title make sure you call me by my title but here's the thing god uses the foolish things of the world to shame the wise says it first corinthians first corinthians 1 26 remember dear brothers and sisters that few of you were wise in the world's eyes are powerful or wealthy when god called you instead god shows the things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think that they are wise and he chose the things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful was trying to build myself up to meet the world standards but god wanted me to shame those standards i was considered stupid and lazy compared to the world's standards but by god's power i was able to shame those who think they're wise who's stupid and lazy now all glory to god now we see in joel that god uses small things like locusts he's using them we have to remember that it's not like oh the locusts just arrived we don't know why you know we know why they're being punished but here's the thing about him he uses them in numbers he uses them in great numbers and there's kind of a tie-in to the church he uses the church in numbers paul if we are reading first corinthians 12 he's like giving the illustration of the body of christ as a body a real body so right you got like feet talking to hands and you know ears talking to eyes or the other way around and for a reason right so he's making it funny because he wants everybody to understand you might not be a teacher that's why you can't read greek or whatever it is right you might be this you might be that and you know even some of like the parts you gotta hide which are shameful parts well they're some of the most important parts so like in other words if you're doing something behind the scenes that's really important we all have different gifts i can't have all i don't have all of them clearly right so i don't have all the gifts so i rely on the other parts to make the body so i say this to say you are all an important part of the body of christ very important but if you're not feeling that let's take a look at how you can become that joel 2 12. that is why the lord says turn to me now while there is time give me your hearts come with fasting weeping and mourning don't tear your clothing in grief but tear your hearts instead return to the lord your god for he's merciful and compassionate slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love he is eager to relent and not punish so i'm trying to draw to a close here and still not are we good okay we got food so if you're hungry you go upstairs if you need to leave that's fine but that's so manipulative every time i do that who's gonna say no imagine i was like you are bold like peter my friend that's my favorite person in the church so i gotta stop doing that so here's the key repent we need to turn from the world and tune into the word that's the formula here we literally have to tune the world out like ah i reject that get behind me satan like that's not true we have to reject it we have to turn from the world turn to the word we start off as innocent children we don't have preconceived notions about ourselves or anyone else all these other things come in later they come in later for people telling us things but you take two kids they don't know any better you put them in a room there's none of this like crazy stuff going on there's no racism there's no it doesn't exist they don't know any better that gets taught to us we learn those things and someone somewhere along the line says something about you that isn't true it's not what god is saying about you so somewhere and we have it right you might be able to just like imagine the person who said it to you and it sticks or maybe somebody said a lot but it's not what god was saying about you here's the problem though you believed it you believed it that's a problem because it's not what god is saying about you and so here's what we do we get angry we overcompensate it for it right we try to prove them wrong get on this hamster wheel we turn from god and try to solve these things with worldly solutions that's not at all who has the solution god does and the secret here again is surrender you got to stop trying you got to let go of it it's not going to work you may think it is all right so yeah you know i got money here i got this you know i'm not impressed i've been there i'm not impressed it's one of the reasons actually somebody talked about prophecy told me that i was gonna when i was making money be sent here in naples and one of the reasons was because they get you you get them you've tried to make that mistake and make yourself powerful with money that's one of the reasons you're here specifically the key is the opposite it's crazy and that's why paul it's foolish it's foolish to the gentle i don't get it it sounds crazy because the key is give it up and like some of the benefits yeah maybe you don't have to give all the stuff up i think give up everything right but stop trying to credential yourself with it it's crazy so my words were lazy and stupid that was mine yours may be different maybe you feel weak ugly worthless not worthy but that's not what god is saying about you you're worthy and you're worth it and you know what kind of what i'm hearing as i'm speaking to you right now is anybody here tired are you just tired like tired of doing this like it's like a hamster wheel i've just been on for a long time maybe there's just one person here and that's for you then but maybe it's like i keep doing that i'm tired of doing that what's the key get off the hamster wheel that's the key surrender that's it i'm done i'm done god take it he's able take it so if that's you you're being invited off the hamster wheel and onto the path of peace that can only come from jesus you can get rid of all that anger it's gone it's gone and here that's if you get anything out of it today if you surrender and accept jesus you're baptized water the holy spirit people forget about that you're supposed to be baptized in the holy spirit if you repent accept jesus really repent then you will get the gift of the holy spirit and he'll change everything everything did not do it so i hope everybody's clear i did nothing on my own power nothing people call me oh you're self-taught no i'm god taught i'm god taught i'm not self-taught no self in like christianity take the word self out of christianity self help self garbage garbage garbage holy spirit done that's that's oh and that's a lot it's a lot so just remember that you are being called to christ and if you don't know that you've been calling yourself a christian you don't know all that stuff well now surrender surrender really really be baptized let him pour out on you your whole life will change so very quickly i just want to address this before we close you're going to be told how you can connect with us it's really important we're family oriented church not like a rock star church or anything i'm not trying to get famous here i want to know everybody that's that's my goal my goal is to like know everybody's names once i can't remember them all 300 or so that's it we're done go find another church that's what we say to people i need we're a family i need to know all of you i want to connect with you and do life with you and connect you with other people who you can do life with and so if you're feeling called to baptism recommitment you need a meeting with me fill out one of the connection cards and the seat back put them in the box there they'll tell you how to do all that but here's the point behind it i want you to know you want a meeting with me i'll be happy to meet any of you i will give you my phone number i'll sell you so i'll sell you i know i don't send you that was a terrible freudian can i have that stricken from the record why am i talking like a lawyer yeah you could tell what i've been watching in my spare time you all did so anyway uh stricken from the record i will send you for free a daily proverb i do that too so if you want that let them know if you're interested in baptism we don't have courses right so i don't make you do like 12 week course or anything no no i just want to meet with you and i want to a explain make sure you know the gospel you know what you're getting yourself into and that you know the enemy is going to come after you right so if you've been working for the enemy because that's what you're doing if you're not working for jesus he's not worried about you he don't worry about you he doesn't need to give you any instructions you're doing just great but once you say no i repent i reject you satan i'm working for g now he's paying attention and it's going to get nuts i'll scare you but it's the truth and so we got to make sure what are your stuff what's your stuff what do you normally go to how can we you know come alongside you and make sure we're praying for you make sure there's someone doing life with you so you don't fall off because he's coming for you that's just the truth all right so we don't do these like happy amusement park baptism things with the bouncy castles nope because this is very serious and i want to get to know you one on one so i want to walk you through the process it might only take a meeting or two all right so that's an important connection we want to make okay so we're not hiding the dark church run out i get it you might be late for lunch but we want to do life so they'll tell you how to do that after the message let me pray for you lord i thank you for your church and is here to bring you glory and so may you be glorified today by your people fill them with your holy spirit give anyone who's holding out that sense of surrender just give up give it to you lord that's what i pray so they can be filled as vehicles of your grace mercy love of your gospel message i ask these things in jesus name amen so you