Anchors of Truth

Resurrection

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: John Lomacang

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Series Code: AOT

Program Code: AOT000058


00:13 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth from Puerto Rico.
00:17 Resurrection with John Lomacang.
00:20 Well, we welcome you to Puerto Rico where it is 8 pm.
00:25 So whatever time it is wherever you are,
00:27 we're just letting you know, at least at this time
00:30 with a live showing, it is 8 pm in beautiful and warm
00:37 and nice Puerto Rico.
00:40 And we have found that the people here are just as friendly
00:44 and warm as the good weather.
00:47 And we've enjoyed being here these last few days.
00:50 And we're going to enjoy the rest of this series.
00:53 And we hope that you'll be with us for each and every one
00:59 of our presentations.
01:01 Tonight, our speaker is going to be Pastor John Lomacang.
01:06 And as the announcer told you, his subject will be
01:10 the resurrection.
01:12 What an important subject that is.
01:15 Without the resurrection, there would be no hope
01:20 for one single one of us, none of us,
01:24 without that resurrection.
01:26 So important.
01:27 And we're going to look at that in a really deep sense
01:32 with Pastor John Lomacang.
01:35 Before he comes to us, though, we're going to invite
01:39 Ruby Villanueva to come and to have our prayer this evening.
01:45 And she will just come right on to the front.
01:48 We will ask you to bow your heads as she leads us in prayer.
02:00 Our kind heavenly Father, we are so thankful for the privilege
02:04 that we have here tonight to worship You,
02:08 to praise Your name.
02:10 Lord, we know there are so many in this world who
02:12 don't have that privilege.
02:13 They do so sometimes at the loss of their own lives.
02:17 We thank You for all Your wonderful blessings.
02:21 Send Your Holy Spirit to teach us, to be with us,
02:25 to help us to do what we should do so we'll always
02:27 be pleasing in Your sight.
02:29 We pray that Thou be with our visitors, Lord.
02:33 Help them.
02:34 Some of them are new to these messages.
02:36 We pray that You will open their minds and their hearts
02:38 that they might understand, that they might be
02:41 preparing for Your soon coming, Lord.
02:44 Bless You, Father, for forgiving us when we're so unworthy.
02:48 And thank You, Jesus, for dying for us.
02:51 Because through Your death, we know we have eternal life.
02:55 We ask these things in Your name, amen.
03:01 Thank you so much.
03:04 Right now, I'm going to invite Pastor C.A. Murray
03:07 to come and sing for us a song that we've all learned to love.
03:11 Go Free.
03:30 Troubled soul, why are you sad and down hearted?
03:39 Don't you know He doesn't care where you started.
03:48 Yesterday can't change tomorrow,
03:54 so leave behind all your sorrow.
03:59 Go free, go free.
04:05 In the name of Jesus, go free.
04:10 Child of God, child adored,
04:17 come to the Lord and go free.
04:31 Tempted soul, I know you're so tired of aching.
04:39 Don't you know Jesus has cures for the taking?
04:49 His hand of mercy and healing
04:54 can untie the hurt that you're feeling.
05:00 Go free, go free.
05:06 In the name of Jesus, go free.
05:11 Child of God, child adored,
05:18 come to the Lord and go free.
05:32 Trembling soul, I know you're so tired of fighting.
05:40 Don't you know He sees the wounds you've been hiding?
05:50 The battle that rages is so strong
05:55 and you've been a captive for too long.
06:02 Go free, oh you've got to go free.
06:08 In the name of Jesus, go free.
06:14 Child of God, child adored,
06:20 come to the Lord and go free.
06:28 In the name of Jesus, go free.
06:34 Child of God, child adored,
06:41 come to the Lord and go free.
06:48 Go free, go free.
06:55 Now go free.
07:10 Good evening, everyone.
07:13 Good to see you here on this Thursday evening.
07:16 Those of you who are joining us, whether satellite or television
07:20 or internet, we praise the Lord that we can get together tonight
07:24 to divide the word of truth.
07:27 And we are here in warm Puerto Rico.
07:29 But the reality of it is, I'm just about a half hour flight
07:32 away from my roots in St. Thomas and the Virgin Islands.
07:37 And so if you're joining us from the beautiful Virgin Islands,
07:40 St. Thomas, maybe Frenchtown, I want to send a warm greeting
07:43 to you from 3ABN, and also from your native son, John.
07:48 We look forward to being there, if not soon, maybe later on.
07:51 But that's all in God's hands.
07:54 You heard the title of the sermon.
07:56 It's called, The Resurrection.
07:58 But it's not about the resurrection.
08:01 It's not about the first resurrection,
08:03 and it's not about the second resurrection.
08:06 It is about the resurrection that the Lord wants to happen
08:09 before the first and second resurrections.
08:13 And tonight, if you have your Bibles, the story that we're
08:15 going to draw from is found in the book of Ezekiel chapter 37.
08:21 And we're going to look at one of the greatest resurrections;
08:26 the resurrection before the resurrection.
08:29 Let's pray.
08:31 Father in heaven, this is Your time.
08:34 I'm Your servant.
08:35 Take what I have written, what You have given to me, Father,
08:39 and add to it the power that You desire.
08:41 In Jesus name I pray, amen.
08:46 Now, you're turning to Ezekiel.
08:48 That's where our story comes from tonight.
08:52 But I'm going to begin with a text from Ephesians chapter 5,
08:55 and one single verse.
08:57 Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 14.
09:02 Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 14.
09:07 One very short and to the point verse.
09:11 Paul writes, "Therefore He says, 'Awake, you who sleep,
09:18 arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light.'"
09:24 Ephesians 5 and verse 14.
09:28 Ezekiel was so shocked by what he was shown.
09:33 It took more than 2000 years to accomplish it, but it was.
09:38 It took more than 50 generations for it to happen, but it did.
09:44 The nation entrusted with the message for the world
09:48 was so completely diluted that they ultimately rejected Jesus.
09:54 Satan reduced Israel to nothing more than a
09:57 powerless spectacle.
10:00 But the good news tonight is, there is no condition from which
10:05 God cannot resurrect His people.
10:08 No matter how bad things get, God always has an answer
10:12 for our condition.
10:14 And so Ezekiel is shown a picture that seems to be
10:17 impossible, a situation that seems to be without remedy.
10:20 And he takes us now to Ezekiel chapter 37
10:24 beginning with verse 1.
10:28 And the Bible says, "The hand of the Lord came upon me
10:35 and brought me out in the Spirit of the Lord,
10:38 and set me down in the midst of the valley;
10:43 and it was full of..." What?
10:45 "...full of bones."
10:47 Ezekiel stood in a valley of scattered bones.
10:52 Like casualties of war, bodies were left where they fell.
10:57 As far as Ezekiel could see, skeletons were no longer
11:01 in the closet.
11:03 The bones had been there for some time, for the Bible says
11:06 for they were very dry.
11:08 There were arms, but they could not embrace.
11:11 There were hands, but they were unable to touch.
11:14 There were fingers, but they could not give direction.
11:19 Intellect was no longer a factor.
11:21 Opinions were finally laid aside.
11:24 How you dressed and what you ate was no longer an issue.
11:29 The rich and the poor finally received the same treatment.
11:33 There were no signs of life achievements.
11:35 No disputes about race or status.
11:38 There were no political disagreements.
11:40 Opposing parties were finally merged together.
11:45 There were no more attitudes.
11:47 No more arguments.
11:49 There were neither smiles nor frowns.
11:52 No separation, no disharmony, no contending, no controversy.
11:58 Everyone was finally on the same page.
12:02 Ezekiel sees a valley of dry bones.
12:07 Finally, the congregation was in one accord
12:10 and in one place.
12:12 As a matter of fact, they had no desire to stray.
12:15 The reality of it is, they had no desires at all.
12:18 All that was left was a valley of dry bones.
12:24 But before we answer the question; how can these
12:26 dead bones live, let's address the issue; how did they die.
12:32 Paul the apostle, in 1 Corinthians chapter 10,
12:35 summarizes the history of Israel, this very powerful
12:40 nation that God had chosen.
12:42 And he writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 beginning with
12:44 verse 1, he says the following, "Moreover, brethren, I do not
12:50 want you to be unaware that all our fathers were
12:54 under the cloud..."
12:55 Notice the word "all."
12:56 "...all passed through the sea, all were baptized
13:01 into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same
13:08 spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink.
13:14 For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them,
13:18 and that Rock was Christ."
13:21 But the Bible goes on to add one more verse that
13:24 changes the entire picture.
13:26 For it says in verse 5, "But with most of them
13:30 God was not well pleased, for their bodies were
13:34 scattered in the wilderness."
13:37 As you follow the history of Israel, not only that,
13:40 Israel also lined themselves with leaders that did not
13:44 respect the truth of God that God entrusted to them.
13:48 And I believe one of the reasons why so many are not
13:51 preaching the Word as it should be preached is this;
13:53 they don't respect the truth because they don't rely
13:56 on the Holy Spirit.
13:59 Only the Spirit of God can reveal the truth of God.
14:02 Can you say amen to that?
14:05 But the Bible tells us that actions reveal conditions.
14:08 1 Corinthians 2 and verse 14 says it this way,
14:12 "The natural man does not receive the things of the
14:15 Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him;
14:18 nor can he know them, because they are
14:21 spiritually discerned."
14:23 We often say, "Spiritual things are spiritually discerned."
14:27 It takes a spiritual eye to discern spiritual things.
14:31 And leaders that are not concerned by the leading of
14:34 God's Spirit to discover the truth of God's Word
14:37 are not discerning the true condition of the people.
14:39 So they give them substitutes.
14:41 Because spiritual things are spiritually discerned.
14:45 That's why I say, don't preach philosophy.
14:48 Let's preach the Word.
14:50 Don't give them opinions.
14:51 Let's tell them what God's Word says.
14:54 Don't modify it or alter it.
14:56 Preach the Word as it is written.
15:00 There's no better word than the Word of God
15:03 as it is written.
15:05 I remember growing up.
15:07 And one of the things that I tell often times about
15:09 my story is, my father was the kind of man that
15:13 taught me a lot of things.
15:14 He would give me directions on how to fix things.
15:17 And just recently, Brenda Walsh included my story
15:20 in her Bed Time Stories, the Brenda Walsh stories.
15:24 And she has a story there called, The Fireworks Surprise.
15:29 And she tells my story a little different than I tell my story.
15:34 For the purpose of opening the imagination of the children,
15:37 she tells it a little more animated.
15:39 But I remember the story very well.
15:41 Speaking about following directions the way they
15:43 should be given, or the way they ought to be followed.
15:46 My father taught me how to fix wires.
15:53 And I remember very well, one evening I got excited about
15:57 fixing a broken lamp.
15:58 And I had seen him fix lamps so many times before
16:01 that I said, "I can do this. I've got it.
16:04 I'll follow exactly what you did.
16:05 I'll follow what you told me to do."
16:08 And so I separated the wires from the lamp.
16:11 Separated the wires from the cord.
16:13 And I said, "The next thing is tape the wires together."
16:15 He said, "That's what you do."
16:17 And I said, "Now tape them together again."
16:19 He said, "That's what you do."
16:20 And then plug it in.
16:21 But what I forgot to do is, when you tape the wires,
16:23 you tape them separately before you tape them together.
16:29 And I taped them all together and plugged it in.
16:32 And thus Brenda Walsh has a story entitled,
16:34 Fireworks Surprise.
16:36 For a bolt of lightening came out of the socket
16:38 because I didn't follow my father's word the way
16:42 he told it to me.
16:43 In the very same way, we've got to follow God's Word
16:47 the way He tells it to us.
16:48 What do you say?
16:50 That's why we can't look to popular preachers.
16:52 The excuse is nowadays that they are number one bestselling
16:56 authors or top selling authors.
16:58 But the truth of the matter is, Jesus is the best Author.
17:03 He is the Author of salvation to all of those who obey Him.
17:08 He is the Author and Finisher of our faith.
17:12 And my father told me something when I was growing up.
17:14 He said, "You have to learn from people
17:17 that are where you want to be."
17:20 And Jesus is where I want to be.
17:22 So I'm going to follow the words of Jesus
17:24 as they are written in His Word.
17:28 I'm lifting up the Author.
17:29 The only One that can save me.
17:31 The only One that can give me direction.
17:33 The only One that can give me eternal life.
17:36 That's why we have to be very, very careful nowadays
17:39 who we follow.
17:40 There are a lot of popular people.
17:42 A lot of people with notoriety and status and power.
17:46 But if they don't stand on the Word of God,
17:48 the Lord wants us to follow this and not them.
17:52 I follow the Word as it is in Jesus.
17:57 There are those who are concerned about crowds.
17:59 But I suggest to you tonight that the One that can
18:01 draw the best crowd is Jesus.
18:02 And He said, "If I be lifted up, I'll draw all men unto Myself."
18:08 The only crowds that we should be concerned about
18:11 are the crowds that are being drawn by the power
18:14 and the presence that is found in Christ and in His Word.
18:18 Can you say amen to that?
18:20 You know, there's a danger in following men.
18:21 The danger is, you can hang around people for so long that
18:25 don't believe the way you do that you begin
18:27 believing the way they do.
18:30 You begin thinking the way they do
18:32 and mimicking the things they do.
18:34 And I was remembering somebody just recently.
18:36 I got a call from one of my friends and he said to me,
18:39 he listened to a sermon recently.
18:40 And he said when he heard this sermon,
18:45 one of his friends said that they had heard that sermon
18:47 exactly almost word for word before.
18:50 And they went to the internet and found out that the
18:53 preacher that was preaching at their church
18:56 had gone on the internet, copied somebody's sermon
19:00 word for word.
19:01 Whether or not it was true was not the concern.
19:04 Copied that sermon word for word and preached
19:06 that sermon in their church.
19:08 And somebody who had known the preacher
19:09 on the internet said, "I've heard that sermon before."
19:13 The only sermon that I want to follow is the
19:14 sermon's found in God's Word.
19:16 Can you say amen to that?
19:17 We are called to preach the Word.
19:21 Paul told Timothy, "Preach the Word.
19:24 Be instant in season."
19:26 Go to 2 Timothy chapter 4 with me and see what Paul says.
19:29 2 Timothy chapter 4 beginning with verses 2 and 3.
19:33 We are called to preach the Word.
19:36 He says, "Preach the word!
19:39 Be instant in season, out of season.
19:42 Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long suffering and doctrine.
19:48 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine."
19:53 And the time has come.
19:54 Men do not endure sound doctrine.
19:57 That's why as workers of 3ABN, we are committed
20:01 to the undiluted three angels messages.
20:04 If it's not from God's Word and can't stand the test,
20:08 the acid test of God's Word, we don't air it,
20:10 we don't preach it.
20:11 Because we're living in the time when opinions of men
20:14 have replaced a "thus saith the Lord."
20:18 The danger is, when sound doctrine is rejected
20:21 there's a greater evil that follows that.
20:24 You see, if you don't want what I give you to eat,
20:26 then I won't give it to you at all.
20:28 And Amos says in Amos chapter 8...
20:31 Turn there with me.
20:32 If you don't like my food, I won't give it to you.
20:34 Notice what God's Word says.
20:36 Amos chapter 8 verses 11 and 12.
20:41 Amos says, "'Behold, the days are coming,' says God,
20:46 'that I will send a famine in the land.
20:50 Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,
20:55 but of the hearing of the words of God.'"
20:57 And notice how bad it's going to get.
21:00 "They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east,
21:05 they shall run to and fro seeking the word of the Lord,
21:10 but they shall not find it."
21:13 Now is the time to hunger and thirst after the Word of God.
21:18 Now is the time to hunger and thirst after righteousness.
21:23 Now is the time to desire to read the Word of God.
21:26 Because one day, as the Bible says, one day the Word of God
21:30 is not going to be available as it is today.
21:33 And right now on my computer alone, I have about
21:35 fifteen different Bibles.
21:37 There are people that have Bibles on their iPads and
21:39 on their laptops, on their iPhones,
21:41 on their digital devices.
21:44 But they don't desire that Word, so the Lord is saying to us,
21:46 one day the Word that they don't desire
21:50 won't be able to be found.
21:51 Seek the Lord and His word while it may be found.
21:56 The world is driven by a thirst, but a thirst
21:59 that is not righteous.
22:00 The world is driven by a thirst that is evil.
22:04 Not too long ago, I did a series about the thirsts of the world.
22:08 It was called, Unclean Spirits.
22:10 And when you begin to examine the things that the world makes
22:13 available to us, there was a time I use to say
22:15 that the world has nothing to offer.
22:17 But I've changed that tone.
22:18 The world has a lot to offer, but when you're looking for
22:21 eternal life, you can't find that in the world.
22:24 You only find that in God's Word.
22:27 You only find that in Jesus.
22:29 The world has a lot to offer.
22:31 Just a few nights ago, because of my research...
22:33 I want to qualify that.
22:34 Because of my research, I decided to peek in on the news.
22:39 I was not in Thompsonville when the Grammy Awards came on.
22:43 But I decided to go ahead and look at the news and
22:46 find out the recap of the Grammy Awards
22:49 just to get an idea of the thirst that the world has.
22:53 And I want to tell you, I heard songs
22:56 of people that really couldn't sing.
23:01 The world has come to the place where you don't
23:03 have to sing any more.
23:04 All you have to do is make noise to be popular.
23:09 Not only that, they said, for the first time there was a
23:13 full blown exorcism done on television.
23:18 And that's the kind of thing the world applauds.
23:20 That's the kind of thing the world thirsts for.
23:22 It's a thirst, but it's not for righteousness.
23:25 It's a thirst for things that are evil.
23:27 We've got to hunger and thirst after righteousness.
23:30 Can you say amen to that?
23:32 We're living at a time when the admiration of man is
23:34 quickly replacing the authority of the Word of God.
23:37 The problem is, God can give directions without
23:40 the word of man, but man cannot give directions
23:43 that are reliable without the Word of God.
23:46 Seek the Lord while He may be found.
23:49 So Ezekiel sees a people that are reduced
23:52 to nothing more than a pile of bones and dust.
23:56 And God asks him the following question.
23:58 Ezekiel chapter 37, look with me at verse 3.
24:03 The Lord asks Ezekiel, "Can these dead bones live?"
24:10 And like any preacher with common sense, Ezekiel says,
24:14 "O Lord God, only You know."
24:18 "O Lord God, only You know."
24:20 When God asks a question, we've got to answer those questions
24:23 very carefully because only God knows the outcome
24:27 of the issues of life.
24:28 Only God knows if anybody is going to change for the better.
24:33 He looks at these bones; disconnected, dislodged,
24:38 in a valley of dust, a cemetery with no tombstones,
24:42 no funeral directors, and God asks him whether or not
24:46 these bones can live.
24:48 And then God asks him to preach to these bones.
24:50 Now sometimes God asks us to do things that don't make sense.
24:54 But one of the prerogatives of being God is, God is not to be
24:58 understood, but God is to be trusted.
25:01 And so Ezekiel begins to preach to these dead bones.
25:05 Look at verse 4.
25:07 The Bible says, "Prophesy" or preach, "unto these bones and
25:11 say unto them, 'O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.'"
25:19 The world needs to hear the Word of the Lord.
25:23 The world needs the Word of the Lord.
25:27 You know that today, even though it may not appear to be
25:31 that way, do you know the Bible is still the number one
25:34 bestselling book in the world?
25:36 Can we say amen to that?
25:37 The Bible is still the number one bestselling book
25:42 in the world.
25:43 Translations of every kind.
25:46 You can find it in Hebrew, you can find it in Greek.
25:49 You can find it in transliterated versions.
25:52 You can find the Septuagint.
25:54 You can find it in English and Spanish and Latin and Brazilian.
25:59 But the problem is not that we have more Bibles.
26:02 The problem is, people don't read their Bibles.
26:05 They don't study their Bibles.
26:07 That's why it's easy to accept anything that a man says.
26:10 Because it does not come from the Word of God.
26:14 That's why Ezekiel is told to preach the Word of the Lord.
26:19 To tell the people to hear the Word of the Lord,
26:22 not the word of men.
26:24 Because the only hope of bringing dry bones back to life
26:28 is preaching the Word of the Lord.
26:31 Look at verse 5.
26:36 "Thus says the Lord God to these bones..."
26:39 God is outlining His plan.
26:41 "Thus says the Lord God to these bones,
26:44 'Surely I will cause breath to enter into you,
26:50 and you shall live.'"
26:53 When the Word goes out, the power comes in.
26:57 When the Holy Spirit works in the preacher,
27:00 the Word comes out.
27:02 And when the Word works on the people,
27:04 the Spirit comes in.
27:06 When the Word goes out, the Spirit comes in.
27:09 The reason why the Spirit is not coming in is, the Word is not
27:12 going out as God intends for it to go out.
27:15 Matter of fact, I was in Sam's Club the other day.
27:18 My wife and I went to Sam's Club here today
27:20 to see if there were things that were not in the Sam's Club
27:23 that we have in Thompsonville.
27:24 Actually not in Thompsonville, but in southern Illinois.
27:27 Thompsonville is not big enough.
27:29 Matter of fact, all of Thompsonville could
27:31 fit in Sam's Club.
27:35 But we stopped in Sam's Club to see if things
27:37 were different there.
27:38 And we discovered, the more things change,
27:41 the more they stay the same.
27:43 I was beginning to think today that I could easily
27:45 live here in Puerto Rico.
27:46 Because much of what you have here is what we have
27:49 in Thompsonville and in southern Illinois.
27:52 The only problem is, the language is different.
27:55 And I've been learning little words here and there like,
27:58 poquito and buenas noches and buenas tardes and buenos dias.
28:02 And sometimes I say beunas noches in the morning
28:04 and buenas tardes in the evening.
28:06 And I get mixed up.
28:08 And people look at me.
28:09 I go to the store sometimes and I want to communicate.
28:11 And they're talking to me in Spanish a thousand miles
28:13 a minute and I just say, "Gracias."
28:15 I don't know what I said "thank you" for.
28:18 But my point is this:
28:21 Unless we are speaking the same language, we are just guessing.
28:25 When you begin with the Word of God, there is no need to guess.
28:30 Because the Word of God is the same yesterday,
28:33 today and forever.
28:34 What do you say to that?
28:36 So the Lord said to Ezekiel, "Preach the Word."
28:39 And when you think about it, the creation of man
28:41 and the resurrection of man is just about the same thing.
28:44 Go to Genesis chapter 2 with me, Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7,
28:47 and look at what the Bible says about the creation of man.
28:50 This is very interesting.
28:52 Genesis 2 and verse 7.
28:55 The creation is parallel to the resurrection of man.
29:00 The Bible says in Genesis chapter 2 and verse 7,
29:04 "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground,
29:10 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life;
29:14 and man became a living being."
29:17 Or living soul.
29:19 Now I want you to get this.
29:20 I'm not going to run through this part.
29:21 It's very important.
29:22 Until God put the breath of life in man,
29:26 he was just the form of man.
29:30 He had all the components.
29:32 He had the fingers, he had the thumb, he had the face.
29:35 He probably had hair, because when God does something,
29:38 the Bible says He does it very good.
29:40 He had eyes.
29:41 He had everything that he needed to have physically,
29:43 But until God put in him the breath of life,
29:47 he was just a form.
29:51 He had all the things on the outside.
29:54 But what was missing, what was yet to be put on the inside,
29:57 God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
30:00 And man became a living soul.
30:02 Now go quickly with me to Psalm chapter 33 and verse 6.
30:06 Psalm 33 and verse 6.
30:09 Connecting it together, the creation of man and the
30:12 resurrection of man; similar components.
30:16 Similar components.
30:18 David the psalmist says in Psalm 33 and verse 6,
30:22 "By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,
30:27 and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth."
30:32 And notice this.
30:34 God made the heavens, but He did it by the breath of His mouth.
30:39 God formed man, but He brought him to life
30:42 by the breath of His mouth.
30:46 You see, the church can have all the forms of righteousness,
30:49 but unless God has breathed into us the spirit of life,
30:54 we just have a form.
30:55 But we're actually like the picture that
30:57 Ezekiel sees in the desert.
30:59 He sees them dead.
31:00 God does not want a church that appears to be alive.
31:03 God want a church that is filled by the breath of life
31:06 that comes from God; the Holy Spirit.
31:11 Genesis chapter 1 and verse 2 says it this way.
31:13 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness
31:17 was upon the face of the deep.
31:20 And the Spirit of God moved..."
31:23 I'm going to stop right there.
31:24 "The Spirit of God moved..."
31:26 You see, a life without the Word is a life without form.
31:31 When you have the Word, the Word brings structure.
31:35 It brings form to your life.
31:37 When my wife and I study our Word together,
31:39 it gives structure to our day, structure to our lives.
31:43 Strength and direction that we all need.
31:45 But without the Word, we go out and live our lives
31:48 guessing as to what God wants us to do.
31:50 But when you have the Word of God, you've got
31:52 structure in your life.
31:55 A life without the Word is a life without form.
31:59 Just like the world was before God breathed on it,
32:02 before God called life into existence.
32:06 Not only that, he says the world was without form and void.
32:10 And I suggest to you, a life without the Word
32:13 is a life that is void.
32:18 The Word fills those empty places.
32:21 My wife and I, every now and then, and every day we have a
32:24 study together, we begin our day together,
32:26 at least with a devotional.
32:28 Sometimes the study at night gets so good that my wife
32:31 falls asleep and I'm up for two more hours.
32:35 But the good thing about God's Word is this:
32:37 When your life is worn down, when you have come to the
32:41 end of your rope and you cannot find answers,
32:44 I would suggest to you that there's nothing that can
32:47 fill you better than simply opening God's Word
32:51 and let God fill those empty places in your life.
32:57 The world was without form, and void.
33:00 But there was one more thing; there was darkness there.
33:03 A life without the Word of God is a life that is in darkness.
33:08 The Word brings light.
33:10 The entrance of God's Word brings light.
33:13 The Word of God is a lamp unto our feet
33:16 and a light unto our paths.
33:23 But when Paul writes about the last days,
33:25 he says, "In the last days there will be a form of godliness,
33:29 but denying the power thereof."
33:33 There's a whole lot of godliness, it looks that way.
33:35 A whole lot of externals that look godly.
33:38 But unless there's power on the inside,
33:40 it's simply a form of godliness.
33:44 But God puts a plan together to replace the form with the power.
33:48 The diagnosis of modern Christianity is this:
33:51 It has more form than it has power.
33:55 It needs more power than it needs form.
33:57 Notice Ezekiel 37 and verse 6.
34:01 God's plan for the resurrection of His church.
34:07 Ezekiel 37 and verse 6, notice what God does.
34:10 He says, "I will put sinews on you..."
34:19 I'll break that down in a moment.
34:21 "...and bring flesh upon you.
34:25 I will cover you with skin and put breath in you;
34:32 and you shall live.
34:34 Then..." There's that word.
34:37 "Then you shall know that I am the Lord."
34:42 Notice, all those things are vitally important for
34:45 somebody to know that the Lord is the Lord.
34:48 Now let's break it down. Sinew.
34:50 I began to get intellectual and I opened my dictionary
34:53 and began to look up this word.
34:54 Sinew is another word for muscle.
34:57 What that simply means is, there are many
35:00 spiritual experiences without strength.
35:02 When we've got God in our lives and He fills us with His Spirit,
35:07 He replaces lifeless and weak Christianity
35:11 with Christianity that has muscle.
35:14 The joy of the Lord is our strength.
35:20 The experience that we have has to have
35:22 something strong behind it.
35:23 Because if it's weak, it's going to be revealed in time.
35:26 The Word of God brings strength to our relationship.
35:29 It brings strength to our walk with God.
35:34 Not only that, He said, "I'll cover you with skin."
35:39 I discovered today, I was reading a medical journal
35:43 on the internet, and they said that our skin weighs
35:47 about six pounds.
35:49 Only six pounds.
35:51 Now I weigh about 175 pounds.
35:58 178 on good days.
36:00 Close to 180 after a couple of apple turnovers.
36:05 If I weigh 176 pounds, the Bible is saying,
36:08 or medical science says that only six pounds of me is skin.
36:14 And it may appear that skin is not as important
36:17 if it's only six pounds.
36:19 But to show you how important skin is,
36:21 skin holds everything else together.
36:25 It's the wrapping, it's the Saran Wrap.
36:28 It's the topping on the apple pie.
36:30 It's the rubber on the tires.
36:32 It's the metal on the frame of the car.
36:34 It holds everything together.
36:35 Can you say amen? Aren't you glad you have skin?
36:38 We all need skin.
36:40 Smallest in weight, but largest in territory covering.
36:47 Everybody needs skin.
36:50 The skin that the Lord wants to cover us with
36:52 is His righteousness, His character.
36:56 Not our character, His character.
36:59 He wants to cover His church with His righteousness.
37:03 But then thirdly is something else.
37:06 He wants to bring flesh upon us,
37:09 add substance to our Christianity.
37:11 He wants to put breath in us, empower us with the Holy Spirit.
37:15 He wants to give us life.
37:17 He says, "And you shall live."
37:19 He wants to add vitality to our walk with God.
37:23 You know, I believe that Christianity ought to
37:25 make a difference, not just on the weekend, but it
37:27 ought to make a difference every day of your life.
37:30 It ought to make a difference when you're in the mall.
37:33 Am I telling the truth?
37:35 It ought to make a difference when you go to the
37:36 grocery store and when you go to the video store.
37:38 It ought to make a difference when you choose what you watch.
37:43 It ought to make a difference when you decide how to dress.
37:47 It ought to make a difference when you decide what to
37:49 listen to and what songs to sing and what to buy.
37:53 Christianity is something that the Lord wants to be vitalized,
37:56 not just one day a week, but He wants us to have that power,
37:59 that vitality, that substance, that righteousness,
38:03 and that strength every day of our walk with God.
38:07 Every single day.
38:10 But look at verse 7 of Ezekiel chapter 37.
38:15 There's something else He wants us to do.
38:19 He says, "So I prophesied as I was commanded.
38:23 And as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking,
38:30 and the bones came together, bone to his bone."
38:35 There are a lot of people that put together this rhythmic
38:37 soliloquy of, you know, "The ankle bone connected
38:39 to the knee bone, the knee bone connected to the thigh bone."
38:41 That's not what I want to talk about tonight.
38:43 I want to talk about the fact that when God
38:45 puts us together, the brokenness that he's talking about
38:48 that comes together, the noise that is being heard,
38:50 the shaking that Ezekiel sees is, broken lives are
38:54 being put back together.
38:56 What do you say tonight?
38:57 Those who are dead in sin are now alive in Christ.
39:02 Hope is being restored and despair is being buried.
39:06 Mouths that use to be used for prying are now used for praying.
39:11 Arms that were used for hurting become arms
39:15 employed for helping.
39:16 Feet that use to carry gossip are now carrying the gospel.
39:20 Hearts that were filled with love for the world
39:23 are now filled with love for Jesus.
39:25 And a divided church becomes a unified church.
39:30 That's what Ezekiel sees.
39:31 The noise and the shaking is the coming together
39:34 of God's church.
39:37 And by the way, you know that there's always been
39:39 noise in the church.
39:40 But when Christ comes in, He changes the noise
39:43 from a battle noise to a joyful noise.
39:46 What do you say?
39:47 We have heard the joyful sound, "Jesus saves, Jesus saves."
39:53 That's the joyful sound.
39:54 There's a lot of noise in church.
39:56 Sometimes we forget that the Lord is in His holy temple
39:59 when we come to church and we talk all service long.
40:01 We talk about our own things.
40:03 There's always noise in the church.
40:04 But God wants to change that noise from human noise
40:08 to divine transformation.
40:11 Bringing life back to His church.
40:15 Not only that, when the church is filled with
40:18 the sounds of life, that's not the end of God's process.
40:21 Look at verse 8 and 9 of Ezekiel chapter 37.
40:25 Verse 8 and 9 of Ezekiel chapter 37.
40:30 He said, "Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh
40:38 came upon them, and the skin covered over them;
40:49 but there was no breath in them."
40:55 "Indeed, as I looked, the sinews and the flesh came upon them,
40:59 and the skin covered over them;
41:01 but there was no breath in them."
41:04 What he's saying is, God's people looked the part
41:08 but they lacked the power still.
41:11 God put all the programs together.
41:13 Let me make application.
41:14 You know, the last thing we need as a church is another book.
41:19 We've got more books than we can read until Jesus comes.
41:23 We've got more buildings around the world.
41:24 We can build more buildings; that's a good thing.
41:27 But if you look at all that God has blessed us with as a church,
41:29 as a people; we've got buildings, we've got hospitals,
41:32 we've got programs, we've got universities.
41:34 We've got missionary programs; we have ADRA
41:37 we have Maranatha, we have 3ABN, Hope Channel.
41:40 We've got a whole host of movements.
41:43 But God is saying those are the bones coming together.
41:48 But even though all those things are in place,
41:51 there's still something else that God wants to do.
41:55 Follow me carefully.
41:59 By the way, my wife works for 3ABN Radio.
42:02 Last week when she drove to work,
42:07 she got two flat tires at the same time.
42:10 How do you get two flat tires at the same time?
42:14 My wife got two flat tires at the same time.
42:18 And it just so happened to happen on a day
42:20 that was very cold.
42:22 And guess what.
42:23 She called me to fix her flat tires.
42:26 So I went over to 3ABN Radio and I took with me a canister of air
42:32 to hopefully fill the tire back up.
42:35 But these were truck tires.
42:37 Meaning, they were big tires.
42:39 And as fast as I put the air in, the air came out.
42:43 So I said to my wife as I looked at the tire,
42:47 I saw on one side of the truck that there was a hole
42:50 made by a gravel stone on one side, and there was a hole
42:54 made by a piece of glass.
42:55 Because when I was backing out of the driveway at home,
42:58 I noticed there was all this broken glass on the ground.
43:00 And I thought to myself, Angie ran over the glass and broke it.
43:06 That was the first tire.
43:07 But when she got to Radio, there's a road that goes down
43:10 to 3ABN Radio that's covered by gravel.
43:12 And she ran over one of those sharp gravel stones
43:15 that stabbed the other tire.
43:16 So here she is, two flat tires.
43:19 I brought my canister of air trying my best to fix the tires.
43:23 But as fast as the air went in, the air came out.
43:27 So I said to my wife, "Go buy three cans of Fix-A-Flat."
43:31 You know what Fix-A-Flat is?
43:33 A little stuff that's in a white can.
43:35 People that fix tires don't like Fix-A-Flat.
43:37 So she went and got three cans of Fix.
43:39 I said, now one is pretty good. Two is really good.
43:42 But three is the ultimate.
43:44 So get three cans of Fix-A-Flat.
43:46 Well, she got the three cans of Fix-A-Flat.
43:48 And when she came back, I said, "Thank you, Lord.
43:50 I only have but so much air left in this canister.
43:52 I'm going to hold that until I fix the tires with Fix-A-Flat.
43:56 Then pump it up and take it to the gas station to get it fixed.
44:03 But as fast as I pumped the Fix-A-Flat in, it bubbled out.
44:09 You know why? Because the holes were big.
44:14 New tires, expensive tires. Had good tread.
44:19 But no matter how good they looked on the outside,
44:21 the holes were big.
44:23 And until the holes were closed up, there was no way
44:27 to fill it up.
44:28 Until the holes were closed up, there was no way to fill it up.
44:33 Before God fills us up, He's got to close us up.
44:37 There are lots of holes that exist today in our walk with God
44:40 that has to be closed up.
44:42 God has to close up the hole of compromise, and lack of love,
44:45 and division, and worldliness, and competition.
44:48 God has to seal up the holes of envy and jealousy and lust
44:53 and backbiting.
44:54 And when God seals us up, then God can fill us up.
44:59 Ephesians 4 and verse 30 says it this way.
45:03 Ephesians 4 and verse 30 says it this way.
45:08 "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed
45:14 unto the day of redemption."
45:16 Well, you know what happened?
45:17 I need to end the story about the tires.
45:20 I eventually made it down to the gas station.
45:23 And when I got there I was just, you know,
45:25 it was like bubbling tires.
45:26 You know that sound of tires when they're almost flat.
45:29 I had just got there, and as soon as I pulled in
45:32 I heard this sound, ssshhhh.
45:36 Flat as a pancake.
45:39 But the good news was, I took it to where it could get fixed.
45:46 Here's my point.
45:48 If you bring people who's lives are flat
45:51 to the place where their lives can get fixed,
45:54 God can do the job.
45:56 God established the church as a place to fix all those
46:00 lives that are flat.
46:01 What do you say?
46:02 You've got to bring them to the place where they can get fixed.
46:04 You've got to bring them to the altar of Christ.
46:06 You've got to Jesus.
46:08 The only place where they can get fixed.
46:09 And the beautiful story of it is, the next day
46:11 I went to get the tire.
46:12 And you know what?
46:14 After the tires were fixed and filled up with air,
46:17 they looked like they were never ever flat.
46:19 That's how completely God can fix our lives.
46:23 When God fixes us up, closes up all the openings
46:26 in our lives that causes the life to seep out,
46:30 and then He fills us up, we can appear as though
46:32 we never had a problem in our lives.
46:36 "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.
46:39 Old things have passed away; behold..."
46:41 How many things?
46:42 "...all things become new."
46:44 God can fill us up, but God has to seal us up.
46:48 And close us up.
46:50 That's why verse 10 is so vitally important.
46:52 Look at it with me very carefully.
46:54 Verse 10, notice what the Bible says.
46:58 Ezekiel 37 and verse 10.
47:04 Ezekiel said, "So I prophesied as He commanded me,
47:07 and breath came into them."
47:10 "And breath came into them."
47:11 That's the Holy Spirit came into them.
47:13 "...and they lived..."
47:14 Without the Holy Spirit, the church has a form
47:18 but it's not alive.
47:19 We've got to pray every day for the
47:20 infilling of God's Holy Spirit.
47:22 What do you say to that?
47:23 Every day we need the infilling of God's Holy Spirit.
47:31 "...breath came into them and they lived..."
47:35 And notice what happened.
47:36 Until the Spirit of God comes in, they cannot
47:40 stand up on their feet.
47:46 I need to say this.
47:48 That may be the reason why there is so much sitting down
47:51 rather than standing up.
47:54 If the Spirit of God were...
47:56 If people would pray for the Spirit of God to fill them,
48:00 there would be more people carrying the gospel
48:03 than just listening to the gospel.
48:07 We were driving down here in San Juan.
48:10 Or in Mayaguez or in Bella Vista.
48:12 Wherever we are.
48:14 Puerto Rico.
48:15 Let's leave it there.
48:16 And there was a young man with a backpack on.
48:19 And he had a whole stack of cards in his hand.
48:25 And he would tap one card and pass it out to the car
48:28 at the intersection.
48:29 When the light turned red, he ran into the street,
48:32 tapped his card, and passed to this car,
48:33 passed it to that car, passed it to this car and that car.
48:37 He was passing out all these little things.
48:38 And I looked at what he was passing out.
48:40 I didn't ask for one.
48:41 I looked at what he was passing out.
48:42 You know what he was passing out?
48:43 He was passing out information for people to party and gamble.
48:48 And I thought to myself, what if...
48:51 Just think about this.
48:52 What if God's people were so convinced that we had
48:57 the message that we would be the one's at the traffic light
49:01 with our backpacks filled with the gospel of God
49:05 passing it out to cars when they come to the stop light?
49:07 What if God's church came to the place where they accepted
49:11 the fact that God has given us a message
49:13 just like He gave to Israel?
49:16 I believe there would be more people on the street
49:18 than there are today.
49:19 I believe there would be people in the mall passing out tracts,
49:22 people at the stop lights passing out tracts,
49:24 people, when you walk the streets,
49:26 giving something into our hands.
49:28 Because you know what, brethren, even if you can't preach a
49:30 sermon, everybody can go like this.
49:34 Amen?
49:35 Everybody can pass out a tract.
49:38 But notice what happened here.
49:39 Until the Spirit of God came into them, they couldn't live
49:43 and they could not stand up on their feet.
49:46 And what God needs today is people that are less concerned
49:51 with sitting down and more concerned with standing up.
49:55 As one preacher once said, and I hope I get it right,
49:57 he says, "We ought to get out of our seat
50:00 and hit the street with the gospel beat."
50:03 Amen.
50:04 Walking for the Lord.
50:06 Walking with the Lord.
50:08 Giving out the truth while people are still
50:10 open to accept what is available to them.
50:16 But notice how the verse ended.
50:18 I'll read the verse one more time.
50:20 "So I prophesied as He commanded me, and breath came into them,
50:26 and they lived, and stood upon their feet,
50:30 an exceedingly great army."
50:33 Here's the point that I got out of that.
50:34 Until the church of God is standing on its feet,
50:37 Satan will not be afraid of this church.
50:40 Did you know that we are in a war?
50:43 The Bible says, the dragon went to make war with those who
50:48 keep the commandments of God and have the
50:50 testimony of Jesus Christ.
50:51 We are in a war.
50:52 The only way that we can be an exceedingly great army
50:55 is if we allow the Spirit of God to come into us
50:57 and we get on our feet and hit the street with the gospel beat
51:02 and share the word of God while we have the opportunity.
51:05 We are in a war.
51:06 And what is our weapon?
51:07 The weapon is the Word of God.
51:09 We've got to put on the whole armor of God.
51:10 And when we've done that, we have to still pray.
51:12 We are in a war.
51:13 But the devil is never afraid of a church that's content with
51:17 sitting down while everybody else is out there on the street,
51:21 while everybody else in the world is passing out things
51:23 that do not pertain to eternal life.
51:25 The Lord wants to fill us up and get us to stand up.
51:29 And then we can become an exceedingly great army.
51:33 And until He fills us up with the right thing,
51:36 we can never make our destination.
51:39 A few years ago my wife and I and family were down in Jamaica.
51:43 And I had a chance to speak in Montego Bay on one weekend
51:47 and then in Kingston on the other weekend.
51:50 And I was brave enough to drive in Jamaica.
51:56 They drive on the opposite side
51:58 with the opposite side steering wheel.
52:02 And to make it even worse, the stick shift
52:05 was on the other side.
52:07 So I was sitting on this side, steering wheel on this side,
52:10 stick shift on this side, driving through the mountains
52:14 of Jamaica.
52:17 Made it all the way through treacherous roads.
52:20 That's a hard word, treacherous roads.
52:23 And on the last Saturday night we were there,
52:26 I had a concert in Kingston at the Andrews Memorial Church.
52:31 And my brother-in-law had to be at the airport
52:34 the very next morning very, very early; 5 o'clock.
52:37 And here it was getting close to midnight and we were on the
52:40 other side, we were on the southeast of Jamaica,
52:48 and we had to drive to the northwest of Jamaica by morning
52:52 within five hours.
52:54 And they said to us, "Now you may barely make it
52:58 if you leave at midnight."
53:00 Because we had to go through treacherous mountain roads
53:03 in Jamaica with an American driver.
53:09 We got to the gas station and I said to the lady at the
53:12 gas station, "Now when you fill it up, don't put diesel.
53:17 Put regular fuel."
53:19 And she said to me, "Okay."
53:22 I said, "Don't forget. Regular fuel, not diesel."
53:24 She said, "Okay."
53:27 "Don't forget, regular." "Okay, okay."
53:29 So she looked a little irritated but I wanted to make sure
53:31 she put regular fuel.
53:32 And she filled it all the way up.
53:37 And my brother-in-law, who had to make the airport, he said,
53:39 "You know what, let me drive.
53:41 Because I'm the one who has to get there at 5 o'clock.
53:42 I'm going to drive faster than you would because if I don't
53:45 get there, I'm going to miss my plane."
53:46 So he got into the driver's seat.
53:49 The car is all filled up with fuel.
53:55 He turned the key and we only drove about 10 feet.
53:59 And the car began to putter and smoke.
54:02 Black smoke was coming everywhere.
54:04 And before we even made it out of the gas station,
54:06 the vehicle died and just coasted right into the street.
54:09 And you know what happened?
54:11 Then we discovered that she filled that vehicle up
54:15 with diesel instead of regular fuel.
54:17 And we went back and said, "Now did you put in
54:19 regular gas or diesel?"
54:21 She said, "I put in regular fuel."
54:24 I said, "I don't think so."
54:25 Here's my point.
54:26 If the right thing is on the inside, we'll get the
54:29 right results on the outside.
54:30 What do you say?
54:32 The reason why we don't get right results on the outside
54:34 is because the right thing is not on the inside.
54:36 We've got to hunger and thirst to be filled with
54:38 the righteousness of Christ.
54:40 If it fills us on the inside, we'll have the right results
54:43 on the outside.
54:46 Well, the gas station attendant said to us,
54:50 "Don't even touch the key. Don't even move.
54:52 Don't even try to start it again.
54:54 Because if you do, you can mess up the carburetor
54:56 and the fuel lines.
54:57 And it will take us, we may not be able to get that fixed."
55:00 And the other problem was, the car rental company was
55:02 five hours away on the other side.
55:03 And here we are stuck.
55:07 What do you do?
55:09 Well, I'll tell you what Jesus would do.
55:11 He'd do what they did.
55:12 They said, "Don't even move."
55:14 So they pushed the car back to the gas station.
55:18 They hoisted the car up with their jacks.
55:24 And street mechanics came with all their tools.
55:29 Took out all the gas things, took the seats out.
55:31 Took the gas tank out.
55:33 And they stayed there for two hours emptying fuel
55:38 out of that tank.
55:39 Two hours.
55:41 The gas station attendant was so upset he was about to
55:43 fire the young lady that had filled the car up.
55:46 They were going to fire her that night, but we
55:47 pleaded for her case.
55:49 And we said, "It was a mistake.
55:51 Give her back her job or give her a job.
55:53 Don't fire her."
55:55 The good news was, two hours and fifteen minutes later
55:58 they filled us up.
55:59 Which meant we only had three hours and forty-five minutes
56:01 to get to the airport.
56:04 Well I must say, my brother-in-law, who's Jamaican,
56:08 drove like a Jamaican.
56:10 All through those mountains of Jamaica, he got to that airport
56:13 in the time that he needed to get there.
56:16 And you know how he made it?
56:17 Because the right thing was on the inside.
56:19 What do you say tonight?
56:20 God doesn't want a church that just looks like it has all the
56:23 right things on the outside.
56:24 God wants a church with all the right things on the inside.
56:28 He wants to fill us before the first resurrection
56:31 and before the second resurrection.
56:33 The real resurrection is the resurrection that the Lord
56:36 wants to take place in our lives before He comes.
56:41 He says, "Awake, you who sleep, arise from the dead,
56:45 and Christ will give you light."
56:48 Tonight, the Lord wants to give you light.
56:51 Tonight, the Lord wants to restore your relationship
56:54 and bring you to a spiritual resurrection.
56:57 Tonight, the Lord wants to give you a rebirth.
56:59 He wants to give you reformation and revival.
57:03 He can do it if you desire His Word,
57:06 if you desire to receive those things that pertain to
57:10 God's plan of salvation.
57:11 He can do it if you have your life emptied of the things
57:14 that are filling you now and filled with the things
57:19 that will give you eternal life.
57:20 Tonight, friends, thirst after righteousness,
57:24 hunger after righteousness,
57:26 and Jesus promises you shall be filled.


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Revised 2014-12-17