Michael Koulianos emphasizes the transformative power of being born again, where Jesus dwells within believers through the Holy Spirit. He warns against complacency after experiencing the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, urging the church to remain fervent in seeking God's presence. Koulianos highlights that true outreach and evangelism stem from living in the manifest presence of Jesus, rather than mere initiatives. He calls for a lifestyle of self-denial and sacrifice, illustrating that the cross is not just a starting point but a continuous journey of following Christ. Ultimately, he stresses that a church without the presence of Jesus is not a church at all, and encourages believers to cultivate a heart that longs for God's glory.

Anytime somebody is born again, Jesus comes to live inside of them. This is 1 John, talks about the inner anointing, that we need no man teach us. It's not saying don't listen to teachers. It's saying that there was a heresy in the earth that pointed away from the fact that Jesus was fully man at the time and completely God. And so what John was saying is, hey, you're born again. You should know when you hear something so stupid. You don't need a teacher to tell you that Jesus is fully God and fully man. You gained this at salvation and the Holy Spirit bears witness to that in your heart. That's the indwelling of the Spirit. Paul said, do you not know that you are temples of the Holy Spirit? So the Holy Spirit lives in every believer. Nobody was born again when this book was written, 2 Chronicles. Does that make sense? So this is speaking of the coming of the Lord and his voice in that hour. But there's a very powerful portion of this verse that I think speaks to us with regards to last Sunday, Sunday morning and Sunday night. And it was this, God left him to try him. Okay, and this is what that says to me. I'm not saying God left us. But I do feel like to this morning and tonight is a test to see if what happened last Sunday and Sunday night is all we will burn for. I do feel like the Lord is saying, I want to see if you as a leader and if our leadership team and if the church as a family will move on casually from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So I want to dig my heels in right now and say, we are not moving on. When the Lord comes in his glory like that, he's all that matters. There's no sermon that trumps it. There's no initiative that trumps it. There's no outreach that trumps it. Nothing trumps the manifest presence of Jesus. In fact, if you don't live in the manifest presence of Jesus, you're sending yourself on outreach. And I've tried that. And at that point, it's no longer a commission. It's definitely not great. At that point, it's just a mission. This was never called to be the great mission. It was called to be the great commission in that God wants to go with us. Does that make sense? So what we do, because the devil always offers questions that God's never asking, is God wants to divide reaching people's heart. I'm sorry, the devil wants us to divide reaching people's hearts with his manifest presence. When in reality, you can only truly reach the hearts of people if you live in the presence of God. Jared said something, we all gathered in a circle with the third years on what day was that? Tuesday. It's my last Tuesday with the third years. I know, I'm going to cry. I'll cry after I play 10 rounds of golf to rest. But Jared said something really powerful. We were all sitting literally in a circle weeping because you've gone through highs and lows together. And at this point they were on the ground and even the balance people were getting touched by God, laughing, crying. It's beautiful. Jared said something. He said, what I learned here was this, that if we as a people simply love Jesus, it can change the whole world. And that sounds almost impossible and it sounds too simple, but I think what God is proving here in this church and in the school is that if a people are truly in love, the nations are literally impacted. You know, if you have 10 vats of water and there's this watering station, let's say there's a snack bar out in the middle of the Sinai desert. And there's this watering station there and everybody's parched outside in the wilderness. And if you've never been to that part of the world, you've never seen a wilderness. Like Phoenix is not a desert compared to the Sinai desert. If you had this watering station there with 10 vats of water and nine were sour, you don't have to beg people to line up in front of the one that's flowing with sweet water. And that's just another name for evangelism. It's just another name for outreach. Purity strikes a chord. There's a sound involved and that's what's happening here. The bulk of the feedback I get is those people singing are pure at heart. We see it on their faces. And the nations are talking about what Jesus is doing in you. So never negate that. So the Lord came last night Sunday and we have to keep our eyes on Him and refuse to move on without Him. Does that make sense? I'm not just talking about our prayer time. That's vital. That's where it all begins. I'm talking about collectively as a people that the culture of our hearts literally screams, we will not go on without you. To be away from you is hell on earth. Does that make sense? So you want that proof, that heartbeat as a reputation in heaven. You have to understand the Father is looking for faithfulness. Jesus is looking for faithfulness. And when your heart beats in this way, you build a reputation in heaven. And when you build that reputation, God comes. A lot. A lot. Are you awake this morning? Some of you are. God comes a lot. And if God doesn't come, listen carefully, it's not a church. It's just a meeting at the Celeste. It would be better to sleep in. Let me be really clear here. If He's not there, it is not a church. It could be a moral gathering. Fine. It's not a church though. Does that make sense to you? So this isn't a small matter. We don't have a church if He doesn't live with us. At least it's not a church to Him if He doesn't live with us. We can tell the world it's a church, but it's not a church to Jesus if it's not His house. Now some of us burn for prayer more than we burn for Jesus. But the only way it can be a house of prayer is if it's first called my house, His house. He said, my house will be called a house of prayer. It has to be His. He has to possess it, has to be given over. He has to live there. And you know what you do at your house? You live in it. So the design of the building, the amazing marketing, that does not ensure the fact that that place is a church. You can call it Jesus image church, but the only way it's a church is if Jesus says, I like it there and I'm going to live with them. This is all very biblical. By the way, He has to be there and there's a way to have Him. While it's beautiful, it's not as mysterious as we make it, though in some ways it's incredibly mysterious. In other words, if a people, first and foremost, lay their wills down when we break the door and gather in the name of Jesus, He says, I'll be in there in the midst of them. Does this make sense to you? All right. So last week the Lord came and I felt the Lord tell me at about 12, which is when we try to dismiss and not because we look, the clock died to me about 10 years ago and I'm very free. You know, Jesus doesn't have your time. He doesn't have your life. And we we've really fallen into a trap in American church society that says people love short services and we make them short because they love them so that we can get them saved. How about you just get the Lord in the room and He saves them? I didn't know we could save anyone. Does that make sense? So last Sunday I'm like, man, our team, and I do love our team, and I am sensitive to that because I want them to last a long time, not just a year. And I felt the Lord say, I'm about to hit this room, get out of the way just for a little bit. And I had to die to that thing. I thought, oh, well, what about this and that? The moment I moved out, the power of God hit. The moment I just took a step back, the power of God hit. And that 20 minutes, I'm telling you, it was a seed. It was a cloudburst. It was a it was a little drop that was a down payment for a rain cloud God wants to send. Some of the criticism for miracles that happen is, man, if you guys had it like that, why do you only celebrate? Why do you celebrate a stubbed toe when a stubbed toe gets healed? Why aren't you blowing tumors out of people's body? My first answer is I only know one who heals. His name is Jesus. I only know one who blows tumors out of people's bodies. My second answer is, if God can't trust us to celebrate the healing of an allergy, why would he trust us with creative miracles? You see, you see, there's a different way to look at this whole thing. It requires the Holy Spirit. You can't think this way outside the Holy Spirit. So that happened yesterday morning. And God moved powerfully. I left a bit under the influence of the Lord, and that's a wonderful way to leave. But between services last week, the Lord began to give me words of knowledge and literal visions between the morning service and the evening service. And the first thing I saw on the way, I'm driving, seeing these things that the Lord is showing me. I've never had that happen before. I'm talking clear pictures. My eyes were not closed. I wasn't driving down I-4 with closed eyes. The first thing I saw was that our church needed to pray before the Sunday night worship set. Now, we're in there for an hour, between five and six, our team is. But I meant the whole church. And it didn't need to be long. I just knew it by the Spirit. So I got to the church at about 530. And I told Ryan, I said, I want you to open in prayer. Keep it short. I want you to start praying and collectively get the church touching the presence of God. So we went out. And now we were in the back room. And then the church started praying. And when you guys started praying, I could feel a rumble. I'll not explain that. But like the room was charged with God. The second thing I saw on the way was that there would be a moment of silence where instruments would not be needed and there would be no worship leader except the Holy Spirit. I knew that moment, if we stewarded it properly, would determine what God would do in the rest of the meeting, possibly the rest of our existence as a church family. So then I heard you guys singing at like 555. Service doesn't start till six. The worship team wasn't leading. I heard you guys singing in the back room. And I thought, oh, here we go. I mean, think about it. The Lord shows this to me. It's the only time it ever happened on a Sunday night. And so I ran out there and I ran on the platform and I'd whispered to Dom. I said, Dom, we cannot touch this. The Lord showed this to me. We have to navigate this properly. And then you guys started singing Agnes Day acapella. I would say when I look at the totality of that night, Sunday night, not only was it, in my opinion, the most glorious night we've had together in the presence of God. It was the most glorious night in the presence of God I have had since I was probably 12 years old. And how many of you were in the room and you felt like what is going on in here? The guys from Bethel looked at me, the pastors, and didn't know what to do. And their only reaction was they wanted to throw a chair across the room. And they did it. Thank God. They go, we don't know what to do. God stormed the room. And this is the only reason, listen carefully, this is the only reason to gather, to have Jesus in the room. So what we have to prove to the Lord this morning and tonight is that we haven't moved on. We will not move on. And this is the one thing we live for and the one thing we burn for. His manifest presence among us. When God comes that way, you have to understand, it is the Lord expressing to a people, I feel comfortable enough with you to share my feelings with you. He knows, He knows we could mishandle those feelings. So Jesus is willing to be hurt to be loved. Does that make sense? Jesus is willing to be hurt to be loved. So we have to seize this moment guys. And this is the only way I know to do it, to throw our hearts on the altar. The life of the cross is a life, listen very carefully, is a lifestyle of self-denial. One of the most troubling teachings that is not in line with the scriptures and does not line up with the fathers and mothers of the church through the ages is this, that the cross is merely a front door to some better life we call the Christian life. The lifestyle of Jesus is the lifestyle of the cross. The moment the sacrifice leaves the altar, the fire must go with it. You missed that, that was really good. Well, well, well, well, it's okay. We got time. It's a lifetime assignment. We've told the world the cross is the front door. And my question is to what? To what? Well, to a life of fire. No sacrifice, no fire, no altar, no fire. You cannot have fire without an altar. You cannot have fire without a sacrifice. Why did the fire fall? To declare the sacrifice is accepted. So, if you vacate the cross, you vacate Pentecost. You guys are a trip today. You put melatonin in your coffees. It's a long drive out here. You got 15 minutes extra sleep or less sleep. So, you're tired. You leave the cross, you leave Pentecost. You leave Pentecost, you leave power. You leave power, you're not in the kingdom. Why do I say that? The kingdom dominates everything that stands in its way. That's the point of power. Do you get that? Why do we use missiles? Because somebody is standing in the way of honoring authority. That's the whole point is somebody's saying, I'm an authority. No, I'm an authority. Here's how I'm going to prove it. With a weapon. Do you understand? That's the whole point of the power of the anointing. It is to establish the dominating nature of the king. So, when sickness jumps up in a person's body, that's not why Jesus died. So, there's a greater authority, a greater reality. And somebody steps on the scene and says, no, the stripes of Jesus were meant to heal your body. Well, that tumor says, I'm not going. That's why you put your hand on the body and say, in the name of Jesus Christ, leave. That's authority. But at some point, power must flow to establish the authority. You need power to be a Christian. And if you don't live a life of self-denial away from and unto, this is important, not just away from. Because some people preach the cross, but they don't preach Christ crucified. And the two are way different. You just preach the theory of crucifixion, you're going to raise up a bunch of religious robots who live their life to not do stuff. We tried that. If you grew up in a church, my mom would tell you. If I had gum in church, my mom would have been like, what are you doing? I'd probably have to go to confession for it. You start smelling your neighbor's breath, you're like, how could it be a sin, Lord? How could this be a sin? That's a sin. The halitosis is the sin. Your stank mouth is the sin. Not the trident. How could the trident be the sin? That stank breath is the sin. But this is what happens. Don't cross your legs in church, that's a sin too. God forbid you wear a hat, that's a sin. That's what happens when you live a life based on not doing things. That's not what I'm talking about. It's not what I'm talking about. If it's only to not do or to be set apart from alone and not set apart unto, it is not holiness. You see, if I preach a cross with no Jesus, I preach religion. But if I preach a Jesus without holes in his hands who is crucified, I preach philosophy. Jesus is much more than a moral instructor. I don't know if you ever tried. It's the answer to shifting America is not telling everyone what they should do. They don't know how to not do what they're doing. The point is getting the gospel into their hearts and letting the Lord change them from the inside out. We're doing it the wrong way. That's how this thing gets done through the gospel. So Jesus, now you're awake. You know we have a coffee cart out there. It's for this reason. Oh we don't. You're all staring at me like Franciscan monks today. You're practicing stillness. Is that what it is? Stop listening to soaking music before church. Do it after. You're on your little bean bag soaking away. Do it after church. All right. So Jesus said this. Listen carefully. If any man wants to be my disciple, which is Christianity, to follow the Christ who is our leader. If any man wants to be my disciple, you ready? He must first, Jesus said, deny himself. Step one. Michael must say no to Michael all the time. Step one. That is declaring Michael is not Michael's Lord. Michael says no to Michael. Step one. Self-denial. Number two. Take up your cross. Your cross. Madam Guion said this. The cross gives us God and God then gives us the cross. In other words, if you think the cross was just meant so you could run through the front door of a, I don't know, some glorified cosmic meadow riding a unicorn on Papa Daddy's lap. That is not the kingdom. That's not how this thing goes down. Now that might be something that's been erected, but that's not the Bible. It's not the Christian life. So here's what happens is you say no to you and then Jesus offers you something that he himself carried. Jesus never invites us into a lifestyle that he does not embody. Oh, I feel the anointing now. This is why. Why when he was raised did he have holes in his hands? It's like, hey, before you get ahead of yourself, I'm about to ascend. And he did, by the way. And this is something we don't look at enough is the ascension of the Lord. Think about this. A man, fully man, fully God, blew through the sky in front of 500 people. On the Mount of Olives. You mean, was that symbolic? No. Totally real. If Jesus doesn't ascend, you won't ascend. He didn't just ascend on our behalf. He ascended, listen very carefully, as us. Jesus didn't just die for you. Jesus died as you. We call this the representative work of Jesus. Jesus sits at the right. Are you having? You're up. You're up now. All right. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father, not just for you in intercession, but as you. The Father sees the entirety of the church embodied in his incarnate Son at his right hand. The Father has forever honored mankind through the ascension of the man, Christ Jesus. That's why he loves people. It's why the glory God has given people in many ways is beautifully represented in the fact that Jesus Christ ascended through the sky to the right hand of the Father. How high did he go? Higher than the highest heaven. And then on the way, just owned everything in his wake. Who is the devil? The prince and power of the air. You got it. And who did he dominate on his way up? The air, everyone in the air, every fallen angel. He just went higher and higher and higher and higher, higher, higher, higher, higher, higher. How high is he? He's higher than the highest heaven. I don't know where that is, but wherever that is, he's enthroned above that. And then he just conquered all the way up. Do you understand? I know it's exciting, but check this out. On his way up, he stretched forth his hands. The Bible says, and blessed them. That means on his way up, the disciples saw the holes. And that was Jesus's way of saying this. This is exciting. I'm flying. You know, I always thought, I always thought the angels, the only question, why do you, the angel said, why do you stand in amazement to the disciples? They should have gone, well, y'all fly all the time. We don't. We're just, this is amazing. We've never seen anyone go up. Like, what do you mean? Why are we standing in amazement? So it is incredible, but Jesus lended a healthy reminder. Never forget the holes. Never forget the cross. Never forget the wounds. All right, listen carefully. The cross gives me God, and then God hands me the cross. Listen carefully. There is a uniform needed to follow Jesus on this grand procession that we call Christianity. He's leading the parade. He is going somewhere. See, you slaying lions and bears in the dark, you getting victory over stuff you couldn't get victory over. I know it's great for you, and it is, but there's a bigger picture here. You'll judge angels one day, the Bible says. If you can't get off a porn site, how do you judge an angel? If you can't get off a porn site, how do you judge an angel? Where do you begin with that? The point is, is this is where the church is going. It's following the king. All right, so he's leading this procession. There's something bigger, like him coming back, as the angel said, in the same manner. Are you getting this? The disciples said, why do you stand in amazement? This same Jesus, not another one, the same one. There's one. You don't get to make him up. The Jesus of the Bible. The Jesus of Genesis through Revelation. And he's in every page, by the way. That same Jesus shall return, the Bible says, in like manner. Well, how did he go up? With the cloud of glory. With the cloud of the Spirit. Who will bring him back? That same wonderful cloud. Where will he land? On the Mount of Olives. Where did he ascend from? The Mount of Olives. This is very real. That Jesus is leading the procession in that direction. He will rule and reign from the holy city of Jerusalem. Not from Epcot, thank God. Thank God. No lines, no humidity, no BO. From the holy city of Jerusalem. That's where he'll lead from. And based on your yieldedness, listen carefully, that will determine the proximity you have to his presence forever. It's a big deal. You say, I don't think. Oh, you'll care. You'll care if you're 2,000 miles away. You say, I haven't heard this. This is the gospel. The ruling reigning king. So this is where this procession is going. It's under the glory of God. Now check this out. There's only one way to get into that parade. You have the God-man up front carrying a cross. You have to wear the same uniform. Jesus wears the uniform of the crucified life. It's a garment of wood. See, everybody wants Catherine's mantle or Amy's, but nobody wants to wear a mantle of wood. Nobody wants the mantle of self-denial, but you lose self-denial. You lose the life of the cross. You lose the glory. So this is why this is important guys. Listen, this is why I called the Daniel fast and I'm not making anyone do it. This is an invitation, but most of the tribe is doing it. You're welcome to do. I'm just saying this, get your heart on the altar. Start making noise in heaven right now. God is choosing his team right now. I'm telling you, I feel it strong. God is looking. I can't believe. What time is it, babe? I can't believe. I just got back from Sacramento and there were these young guys, I think I told you about this young Slavic group of kids and they were just burning in like this inferno. And they were saying, Mike, you know, like you wrote in your book here and what you said here in that sermon. I started, it hit me. You guys are listening. You guys are listening. And what I sensed was is that there's this transition now in the kingdom where there's young bunch of wild hearted fire in their eyes. They don't even know if God called the fast, but they're going on one. They're just like, I might miss it, but if I miss it, I'm missing it in this direction. I I've got to get in. I've either discovering that the kingdom of God suffers violence. Listen, it moves fast. That's what that scripture means. There's a movement to it. And to get on that train, you have to be violent and take it by force. You get some stuff. You'll not get on your beanbag with the pad playing in your room. You get a lot there. But what you want to do is give them the Lord permission to disturb you. When I go into a hotel, the first thing I do is put the do not disturb on God doesn't like to work with that. You have to, you have to ask the Lord to disturb me, trouble me, trouble the waters. It's interesting that healing didn't flow from the pool until the waters were troubled. And so as a church family, we want to make noise in heaven. It doesn't always mean it's audible and screaming though. There's a time for that. It means that in our hearts, when no one's looking, we're taking the cross and implanting it into the depths of our soul. And we're saying, I am right here. I'm saying no to my natural desire. Have me troubled me, move within me, stir me, wake me up at night, get me up early in the morning, whatever you need to do Jesus. Here I am. And I felt like the simplest place to start was a Daniel fast. And if you're a vegan, a Daniel fast doesn't count. So do something else. Oh, you granola tree huggers. It doesn't count. It doesn't count. Really? This is the season we're in. There's this changing of the guard. Nobody's too young and nobody's too old. It's not just about the young people. Of course, we have a massive young population at Jesus. It's wonderful. I love that. But do you think God's done using people when they reach a certain age? Moses didn't receive his call until 80. Think of it. He leaves Egypt at 40, serves his father-in-law. I know that feeling. All right. Serves his father-in-law and tends sheep. Do you know what happens when you're a shepherd? Do you know what they were covered in? In case you want to be a pastor, you get poop on your shoes. That's what happened. This was Moses' lifestyle. He went as low as you can go. The prince of Egypt, just about the highest you could go. A shepherd in the desert, the lowest you could go. God said, I'm going to choose you at the lowest. That's where I'm going to talk to you, at the lowest. There's something glorious about going low. Can I talk for five extra minutes? Then we'll take communion. Look at the pattern of the life of Jesus. Think carefully here. Jesus, eternally the second person of the Godhead, equal with the Father and the Spirit, dwelling in unapproachable light. Now, I've had light I couldn't look at, but I've never seen light I couldn't walk into. Unapproachable light. The weight of the light freezes you. There's no more access. You can't go further. Amazing. That's where he lived. Jesus lives there eternally. There's never been a beginning. That's his abode. The Father, let's just say, looks at him and says, will you go? Catherine used to talk about this. Will you go? And Jesus gladly yielded, because that's the nature of his being. He's the patterned son. So, Gethsemane was not new to Jesus in that he's always lived the life that says, yes to the Father, not my will. That's his nature. He comes down to the earth. He's born in a cave that animals lived in. He was swaddled in cloth meant to clean animals. I don't think we think about these things enough. He was not born in Jerusalem's temple. He's born in a little cave in a town called Bethlehem. And do you know what the word Bethlehem means? House of bread. House of bread. For the bread of life was born. He lives a life of rejection, runs for his life as an infant, lives a life in the shadow of the Most High. His whole childhood is spent yielding to his Father, serving his parents, growing in favor, wisdom, and stature with God and man. He's anointed with the Spirit 30 years of preparation for three and a half years of ministry. We want to do the opposite. You want to come to Jesus school for three and a half, and then go for it for 30. If you get the anointing, God can change the world in three and a half. I know, that's another teaching. But he goes lower, literally lower. So finally he's stripped naked, he's arrested, he's whipped, he's beaten, he's flogged, he trades his crown of glory for the crown of thorns, wears the curse on his brow to give you a new mind. All of this, he yields his hands, the hands that formed the earth and the stars and the galaxies now are pierced with spikes. This is low, this is humble. Then he goes lower. He dies and goes into a tomb, and on top of that, the moment he breathes his last, he descends lower, the Bible says, into the depths of the earth. That's low. That's as low as you can go. Humility to Jesus, it's not a theory. He lived it. When the Bible says, humble yourself and God will exalt you, Jesus embodies that. He literally died and went low and burrowed through the depths of the earth, 1 Peter chapter 3, that he descended into the underworld and declared his might in the gospel to those spirits in prison, and he's down there for three days, destroying, destroying, not compromising, negotiating, just plundering. The one who his father said he would plunder in Genesis 3, that the head of the serpent would be crushed by the bruising or the death, burial of Jesus and the resurrection. So Jesus goes, listen, Jesus goes, stay with me here, as low as you can go. Then he begins his ascent or his upward movement. We call this the exaltation of the Lord Jesus. This is what it means for Jesus to be exalted. He starts going. He plunders death. Three days later, the tombs open. That's what Matthew 28 says, that the tombs blow open at the resurrection. People start climbing out of the graves. They're raised from the dead. Jesus comes out as the firstborn from the dead, and his friends that he raises with him are hanging out in the holy city for 40 days. So Ryan's long-lost great-great-great-grandfather is knocking on Ryan's door, saying, you'll never believe what happened down there. I just saw Psalm 24, open up the everlasting doors, break open the everlasting gates, and the king of glory shall come in. That's what his great-granddaddy would have said. I just saw it. I just saw it happen. He just blew the gates wide open. This is the resurrection. Then he decides to go higher. Listen carefully. Go higher. We call this the ascension. Once he ascends to his rightful position, he sits at the right hand of the Father, where he is right now. In other words, Jesus understands the truth in this. If you go low, God will lift you up. It's embodied in him. This isn't a theory. He can look us in the eye and say, I know what it is to go low, and I know what it is to be lifted up. And church, I'm telling you this. This is the hour for us to go low. I do this by saying, Michael, no. The Lord moves me. Come on, I want to be with you. Give me an hour this morning. Michael goes, I'm staying in the bed. That's when I look at myself and go, no, you're not. Get up. Get up. So what if I'm tired for 10 minutes? 10 minutes in, the glory of God comes. The fire of the Spirit fills my heart. You even forget the sacrifice when the fire falls. You don't glory in the sacrifice. You glory in the one who's on the altar. This is the whole point. And this is where God is leading us. This is where God is leading us. I know this sounds intense. That's who we are. We are going to ask the Lord, trouble me. Move me. Speak to me. I'm in. I'm in. I'm not even going to set the standard. As Bill said, I'm signing the bottom line to a blank contract. I am all in before I even read the terms. Here I am. Touch my life. Amen. Amen.