In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the need for a generation that will walk with God and allow Him to be in control. He highlights the importance of obedience and starting small in order to see the gifts of the Spirit manifest in one's life. The speaker also emphasizes that the kingdom of God is supernatural and about dead men coming to life in Christ. He encourages believers to be vessels through which God can pour out His word and life to dry and fruitless places. The sermon references Jeremiah 29:11, where God assures His people that He has good thoughts and plans for them.

Of all the things that you might be considering abandoning in these tough times that we're starting to live in, the one thing you should never abandon is the house of God. Folks, you make every sacrifice you have to make to get to God's house because this is where you're going to find your courage, your hope, and your strength for the future. Knowing the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians chapter 2, please, if you'll go there with me, in the New Testament, knowing the mind of Christ. Now, Father, I thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit. Thank you, God, for your presence in this sanctuary. Thank you, Lord, for what you are doing and are continuing to do in our midst. I praise you, God, that as I stand here as an oracle in your hand, that you will quicken my mind and heart and physical body, and Lord, you give me the strength to stand and speak on your behalf. Lord, thank you that you always anoint and where the anointing is, there's freedom. I pray you open our minds and our hearts to this incredible generosity of God in Christ. Lord, let faith arise. Let there be a shout of glory in the hearts of your people today. Lord, I thank you for this with all of my heart in Jesus' name. 1 Corinthians chapter 2, beginning at verse 7, knowing the mind of Christ. Paul says, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory. Now, that's an incredible verse. I'm going to stop there just for a moment before I read the rest of the chapter. But Paul says there's a wisdom of God that's given to us that we speak. It's hidden from those who are outside of the realm of understanding of God. But this wisdom that we speak is something that was in the mind of God before the world was created. Did you know that God had thoughts about you before the world was created? Not even before you were formed in your mother's womb. Before the world was created, God was thinking something about you. There was something in his mind. And Paul says it was ordained before the world unto our glory. And the word glory in the Greek is doxa. And it means that which God intends to do in us to bring his own name to reputation. That's really what it means. God had a plan in mind for you. Something that not, it's not something he was going to ask you to do, but he was going to ask you to walk in agreement with him because he was going to do something in you that would bring his own name to glory. Praise be to God. That's new covenant, folks. That's what it means to walk with God in the New Testament. Christ in you, Paul said, is the hope of glory. Verse 8 says, which none of the princes of this world knew, for if they had known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And Paul is saying, listen, Satan himself, if he had known what was going to be unleashed in the world, he would never have had a hand in crucifying the Lord of glory, because there was going to be a release of the life of God in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit into a body of believers called the church of Jesus Christ. This supernatural power of God was going to be given to those who come to Christ by the Holy Spirit to become a new creation, to be so changed, to be so quickened, to be so gifted by God, to be so empowered by God that it would bring glory to his name. Folks, you and I are not called just to talk about Jesus Christ for the rest of our lives, as wonderful as that may be, but we are called to be an expression of his life. We are called to be a living testimony of the fact that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead and does sit at the right hand of all authority and power. He does have a body on this earth. He is the head and we are his body. And we're called to be a living testimony of this. Praise be to God. When you really lay hold of this, it's a phenomenal truth. But as it is written, verse 9, I has not seen, that's the natural eye, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them to us by his Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. So Paul's saying, listen, the natural man can't know what I'm talking about. And Paul's saying, I'm talking about something which the princes of this world don't know. I'm talking about a knowledge and a wisdom that's hidden from those who walk according to their own reasonings and their own thinking and their own strength and their own senses. But there is a wisdom and it is revealed to us by the Holy Spirit. For what man knows the things of a man, save the Spirit of man which is in him. Even so, the things of God knows no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things which are freely given to us of God. Now that's an incredible, Paul says, listen, this is why the Holy Spirit is given to you. That you and I might know what it is that God is thinking about us. What thoughts were in his mind when we were created? What is it that he intends to do in us and through us? Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, verse 14, for they are foolishness to him, and neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have, Paul says, the mind of Christ. Who's wise enough to instruct God? Who can tell God what he's thinking? Paul says, even as nobody in this room, you may have thoughts in your mind, you most likely do right now, everybody who's gathered together in this sanctuary, but nobody beside you knows what it is that you're thinking. It's only the Spirit, actually, that's in you. You know only in yourself. And Paul says it's the same way with God. No man, no natural man knows what God is thinking, but the Holy Spirit knows everything that God is thinking. And those who are Christ have been given this third person of the Godhead is now living in us. The Holy Spirit now gives us the mind of Christ. He enables us to understand what God is thinking. Did you ever wonder what God is thinking about you today? Did it ever occur to you that God is thinking thoughts about you? As we get deeper into this message, you're going to see these thoughts are more than the sand on the seashore. God is thinking things, things that he wants to do. The only problem we have sometimes is that we're so boxed in by our own thoughts about ourselves, things that we have learned or believe that we are, things that other people have told us, things that society have kind of built these parameters around us or life experiences has given you an impression of yourself. And God says, no, I'm thinking much bigger things that these about you, things that I want to do through you. If I can find somebody that will walk in agreement with me, I can astound the world. That's what the Lord can do, has done throughout history. He can change countries. He can change nations. He can change families. He can change neighborhoods. He can do the miraculous. If he can find a people are simply willing to say, God, whatever it is that's in your mind that you want to do through my life, help me to lay down my plans, my image of myself, help me just to put it all away. And Lord, you come and do what it is that you intended to do from before the foundation of the world by the power of the Holy ghost. God almighty, give me an understanding of what it is you want to do in my life. Don't let me pursue a path or a course. It's not your will for my life. And so many people come into the kingdom of God, read a few chapters of scripture, and then all of a sudden say, okay, this is what I'm going to do for God and head out for years on fruitless paths, always pushing and kicking in doors that God has not opened before them. The Lord says, no, I'll do the miraculous. I'll do beyond all you could even think or imagine. If you will just let me do what I've intended to do through your life, praise be to God. If there was a release of that kind of faith in this sanctuary today, there'd be giftings of the spirit would begin to abound things that you never thought you could do and you can't do, but God will do them through you. If you will let the Holy spirit begin to quit pushing away what God wants to do, quit looking in the mirror and, and, and declaring your own personal inability as if it's a higher law than the law of God who now lives within you. The Christ who created the universe, who spoke the worlds and the universe into existence with his word now lives inside of you. You can get a hold of that truth and let God begin to do what he wants to do. Oh folks, you can, you just imagine what would happen even with the people in this room. If every man and woman today said, Lord, whatever it is that you've destined for my life, I'm walking into it. Whatever you want to do, I'll never say no to you. If you give me a box and tell me to stand in the midst of times square and preach, I'll do that. Lord, whatever you asked me to do, God, I'll do that. If you asked me to love unlovable people, Lord, I will trust you for the power to do that because it's you who's moving within me to do this. I'm not doing it in my own strength. And you see those who move in the natural, that's, that's the blight of our generation. We live in a church age that's moving in the natural. Everything is three steps to this and seven steps to that. And everybody's trying to figure out how to live the Christian life. When the power of God is within us to live the Christian life, when God himself is willing to live it, if we let him live it through us. And instead we're all, everybody's trying to figure out how to be a better this and how to do more of that instead of letting Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, live his life within us. And I'm going to show you why. If you'll, you'll go ahead to the book of Philippians chapter two, I'm going to show you why so many people can't find the mind of Christ. They don't know what God is thinking concerning them. Philippians chapter two, beginning at verse five, Paul says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross. Now Paul says, let this mind be in you. He made himself of no reputation. Folks, how many people today are serving God for reputation coming into the house of the Lord and saying, well, listen, if Christ can further my advantage over other men, if I, if I can somehow get a ministry, that'll put my name on a glossy brochure or on a marquee somewhere. If I can be on television and have a voice that's above everybody else's voice, really the root of it is reputation. To be greeted as teacher, teacher in the marketplace and have the chief seats and all of the gatherings and to have men's persons in admiration, as the scripture says, because of advantage. And so many people can't find what God is thinking because they're not willing to walk the way that Christ walked. Let this mind, Paul says, be in you. He made himself of no reputation and took upon himself the form of a servant, even though he was equal with God. And folks, so many people want to lead. They want to do something. They want the recognition that comes with it, but they don't want to take a towel and begin to wash the feet of other people around them. Even those are going to fall short of their expectations or even God's expectations of what they should be. They want reputation. They want to lead. But Jesus said, Paul said, this mind was in Christ, no reputation, the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man. In other words, he identified with all men. He came down and took upon himself a human body and identified with your frailties and with mine. And folks, we, the Pharisees prayed, thank God, I'm not like other people are. But folks, I want to tell you something, you ever get to that place where you're praying like that, you'll never know what God is thinking. You'll never understand his mind because you and I are exactly like every other person is on the face of the earth. Take the hand of God out of your life and you can commit any abominable sin that's being committed in the city and even worse. And you can do it 10 times over. Folks, we are kept by the power of God. We are what we are because of the grace of God. And we are like other men. And then verse eight says he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, no reputation, the form of a servant. He identified with all men and he became obedient to the death of the cross. In other words, he was, he laid his life down for your betterment and for mine. And he was willing to follow the will of his father, even unto the giving up of his own life. The testimony of Jesus in John 15, seven was the and I work. That means, let me paraphrase that in the manner in which my father works, I work. I'm walking with my father. We are, we are one in mind. We are one in heart. We're one in unison. And this is the kind of a person that the thoughts of God begin to be open to when we're willing to walk with God. We live in a generation when multitudes of people are pouring in to places that profess to be houses of worship, but they're not willing to walk with God. They want God to walk with them. There's a difference. They're coming in with a plan. They're coming in with an objective. They're coming in with something they hope to achieve and using God as a means to get these things. And God says, I'm not walking with this. Amos three, three, the Lord says two can't walk together except they'd be agreed. And because they don't know what God is saying, they live without power. And now they're relegated to trying to figure out how to be a Christian, how to live a Christian life, how to be a better husband, how to succeed in your job and everything now is how to, and folks, I think people are sick of it now in our generation. I think they're tired. There's a, there's a, there's a people out there saying, listen, I want to know who God is. I want to know what God is thinking. I want to know what's in his mind, especially as we begin to see the whole world reeling in the face of an economic downturn, probably the proportions, perhaps, which we've never seen before in history. Go to Isaiah chapter 55, please, if you will, with me. Isaiah 55, where God talks about his thoughts to the nation of Israel. In Isaiah 55 verse five, he says, behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not, they shall run unto thee because of the Lord, thy God, and for the Holy one of Israel, for he has glorified thee. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, verse six, Isaiah 55, call you upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and returns not thither, but waters the earth and makes it to bring forth in bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and prosper in the thing whereunto I send it. God says it this way, says, I send my word for a purpose. It's like the rain that comes down and gives things that are living in barren places the ability to grow and to produce fruit. And God says, this is what I do. This is the places where I send my word to, to the heart that is willing to say, God, let my life be used as rain in a dry place. Lord, pour your heart through me. Pour your truth through me. Help me, O God, to be a vessel that can lead others who are dry and fruitless to a place where they knew life in the power of the Holy Spirit can be born within them. And this is the heart that begins to know the thoughts of God and the ways of God. God help us again in this generation to be vessels that are willing to say, God, through me, pour out one more time, wherever the driest people are, where the driest places are, pour out of your word and your life through my life. Jeremiah 29, 11, the Lord says, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end. God says, I'm thinking thoughts about you. Did you know that? Do you know that this morning? The Lord says, I'm thinking thoughts about you. And the thoughts that I'm thinking about you, I'm taking you to a place where I expect you to go. I'm taking it to a place that ultimately you will know when you get there that you have longed for it all of your life. And the Lord says, I've longed to bring you to this place. And I'm thinking these thoughts about you. Now go back to Psalm 40, please, if you will, just a few books back to the left in your Bible, where the Psalmist David, I know my voice is a bit scary this morning. I've been preaching, I've been preaching all week in Ireland. I pretty well, my voice is shot this morning. Psalm 40, verse five, listen to what David says, a man after God's heart. He says, Many, O Lord, my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to usward. They cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee. If I would declare and speak of them, there more than can be numbered. Now this is a man after God's heart. David has a revelation of God. And he says, Lord, you got you're thinking more things towards us. That if I was to speak of them all, I don't have time to write them all down. In verse six, he says, Sacrifice and offering you did not desire. You've opened mine ears, hast thou opened, burnt offering and sin offering that is not required. David is saying, Oh, God, I see something, even though he's in the Old Testament time. He said, Lord, it's not human effort you're looking for. It's not about how long we read as good as that is, or how long we pray, even though we should do these things. David said, It's not, it's not something of human effort that you are requiring. This is not what you're thinking. You've got you're thinking something so far beyond this. And your your power is found so in a place so much different than this place of human reasoning and strength. He says, My ears you've opened in verse six. Now here's what he hears. Then said I come in the volume of the book it is written to me. I delight to do thy will. Oh, God, yea, thy law is within my heart. Now here it is. He says, Lord, this this is what it's all about. I've come to do your will. That's where I find your thoughts. It's even in the Old Testament, not sacrifice, not human effort, not not all of these things that that can create a religious tier system of big people and little people. David says, No, here's where your thoughts are revealed. And I hear it, God, and I'm coming to you. Because you're just looking for somebody who wants to do your will who delights to do your will, to find out firstly what your will is, and then goes out and has a delight in their heart to just let God be God in them and through them. And then in verse nine, he says, I preach righteousness in the great congregation. I've not refrained my lips, O Lord, thou knowest. I've not hid thy righteousness within my heart. I've declared your faithfulness in your salvation. I've not concealed their loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation. It's it's to the person that says, Lord, I want to do your will. And God, I'm asking you to reveal it to me what it is that you have for my life. What have you been thinking about me from the foundation of the world? And Lord, I will go where you call me to go and I will not conceal your salvation. David says, I'm not I'm not using what you do just for myself. I'm not going to hide this mercy from others. I'm not going to hide this life that you give me the supernatural life. Lord, I'm not going to hold it back from the great congregation. I'm going to step into the midst of the multitude. And I'm going to do and I'm going to speak the things God that you've called me to speak. First Corinthians two nine again, let me read it to you. I has not seen nor ear heard, neither ventured into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them that love him. But God has revealed them to us by his spirit. For the spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him. Even so, the things of God knows no man but the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. That's why you have the Holy Spirit. Number one, to let you and I know what it is that Jesus Christ purchased for us on Calvary, the full extent as it is of our inheritance, to unlock the thoughts of God, that he is thinking in the Word of God towards us. And then to come as we walk in agreement with God and make these things of God is thinking a living reality. Praise be to God. I don't have to, I don't have to be holy on my own folks. God has given me the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will change my nature. If I will simply walk in agreement with God, if I will agree with his promises. If I see in this Bible that I'm a selfish person, but God says I should be a giving person and the promises are here that he will change me, give me a new heart, a new mind and a new spirit. My part is to agree with God and to put one foot in front of the other and just start walking in the victory that's already mine. God's part is to make his promises in my life a reality. Praise be to God. Thanks be to God. Thanks be to God with everything that's in my heart. John chapter 16 verse 13. Here's what Jesus said about the Holy Spirit. When he, the spirit of truth has come, he will guide you into all truth for he will not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear that he shall speak and he will show you things to come. He will glorify me and he will receive that is mine and he will show it to you. All things that the father has are mine. Therefore said I that he will take of mine and he will show it to you. That's why you have the Holy Spirit. That's why he's come. The Holy Spirit is, is the third person of God has come to live within you. And Jesus said he's going to know the full extent of the victory on Calvary and he's going to make known to you this victory and he will show you things to come. That doesn't mean the Holy Spirit's coming in your life and saying that there's going to be nations called Gog and Magog in the end times and this is what they're going to do. That, that's part of the package, but it's, that's the end of it. The beginning of it is he'll show you in you things to come. The Holy Spirit will show you what God is about to do when you have the mind of Christ. When you are willing to be made of no reputation, when you are willing to be given to serve others as Christ came to be a servant to all of fallen humanity. When you are willing to do the will of God and obey God no matter where it takes you or what he asks you to do, the Holy Spirit will come and show you things to come. Praise be to God. He began to speak to you about things which in your natural mind are impossible, but all things are possible with God. He will lift you out of where you are and take you to somewhere where he is. And in the end of your life, you're just standing and saying, it's been all God. It's been all God. I can't write a book about it. The book's already been written. It's been all God. I don't, I don't have the answers, but I have the one who is the answer. And as I've walked with him, he just started to unfold the mind of God to me. Praise be to God. I remember as a young Christian, the Holy Spirit speaking things to my heart, which were sort of the realm of my ability to ever achieve. But I made the choice. I said, God, if you open the door, I'm going to walk through it. But if this thing's going to happen, it's going to be you. It's not going to be me. I know I can't do it. And all through these years, I've found it's, it gives you such a hunger for the supernatural. When you begin to experience the life of God, when you begin to know this is not a natural walk, the natural man can't receive these things. The man who's walking in his own strength, the woman who's walking in her own strength can't understand what I'm speaking about this morning. But folks, it's worth laying down everything that we are and have and think we are, that we may take up this life that God wants to give us in Christ and stand as a testimony of the fact that Jesus Christ is alive. He is risen from the dead. Praise be to God. You think about Acts chapter two, when 120 people walking in fearfulness and Christianity, trust me, was not popular at that moment in time. There's a blood thirsty crowd out there. I've just crucified Jesus Christ. And you can be sure that they're imagining the same fate for anyone who'd be bold enough to declare that they belong to him. 120 people stepped into the upper room and tarried. And when they were touched of the Holy Spirit, they stepped into the marketplace. And the Bible says that they began to speak in languages they did not know, but that other people understood who were visiting that part of the world from various areas throughout the world. And the scripture says they spoke the wonderful works of God. And the word in the Greek is the Megalios of God. And it means the anticipated outworkings of the inward life of Christ. And essentially what was happening is that they already had been given the power of the Holy Ghost to do something supernatural. Now, follow me in this. They stepped out into the marketplace. They were already gifted of God as it is. They're already moving into something other than themselves. They were given the ability to speak languages they'd never learned, but they were known languages. People could understand them from other nations. Imagine if you were there and you were from another country and you're seeing a man or woman that you know shouldn't and can't speak the language that you speak. But in that language, they're speaking to you the anticipated future outworkings of the life of God within them. In other words, they didn't have the whole package. And so many people today, they say, one day I'm going to speak for God, but I can't now because I'm not as kind as I should be. I'm not as loving as I should. I don't really have the victory that I want to have in this area or that area of my life. And so they just sit as a stupefied testimony in the midst of the marketplace. These people didn't have it all together. They were touched of the Holy Spirit. And in their beginnings of that supernatural ability, they stepped out into public view. And they said this, and they already had ability. They already were given something. And in that ability they had, they began to speak about other things that were coming. They had the mind of Christ. They were given the mind of Christ. Folks, I know that there were some standing there as we are today saying, I'm not yet bold, but God's not given me a spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind. Let me give you an illustration of this. I guess it's the type of person who has the courage to finally stand up in our generation and say, I don't have everything yet that God's promised me, but let me tell you what I do have. Let me tell you where he has brought me from. I am delivered from alcohol. I don't do drugs anymore. I am now believing God to restore my marriage and bring my children to him. I believe in God because it's in the word of God. And they stood and they made this declaration in public, already empowered of the Holy Spirit, but yet know that we don't ever get the whole package till we get to heaven. Paul himself said, I've not achieved, but I'm pressing on to the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Don't let the devil cause you to be a silent testimony in this generation. If all you have is that you didn't commit suicide. If all you have is that, you know, you have a sound mind. Now, if all you have is hope for the future, start speaking about it to somebody. And as you open this book, the Holy Spirit will make known to you the promises of God. He'll begin to speak to you about your own future. He'll begin to tell you, I'm going to change your heart. I'm going to change your mind. I'm going to make you a kind man, a kind woman. I'm going to give you the ability to give when all you've done all your life is take from other people. You may not have realized it, but God says, I'll show you things to come. If you want to walk with me, I'll show you what I'm going to do. Praise be to God. That's what they had on the day of Pentecost, then empowerment, and they had a vision of the future. And 3000 people whose teeth had been formerly gritted against the Lord of glory, who wanted Christ nothing but dead saw this. And when they saw it, the scripture says they were grieved in their heart. And they said, whatever kind of religion I've got, it doesn't give me that. I don't have that kind of hope. I don't have that kind of life. And 3000 people said, what must we do to be saved? Praise be to God. I fear that in our generation, the devil has almost succeeded in stealing the testimony of Christ from God's people, taken blinded the minds of the people to what this life is really all about. I praise God, the moment you get a touch of the promises of God being fulfilled in your life, I'm going to tell you, it's it gets to be addictive. You begin to say God more do more in my life, not for my glory, but for your glory, not for my sake, but for people's sake around me. God Almighty, do these things in my life, give me this testimony, don't cause me to have to speak things that you'll not do for me personally. And you'll watch God begin to do what only God can do. I remember when my daughter Kate was going through teenage things, and which a lot of teenagers go through. I remember going into the prayer closet, and the Lord spoke to my heart that she was going to be a missionary told me she's going to marry a Christian musician, a guitar player. There's been a young man who had served God all the days of his life. And when I didn't care when I came out of that closet, what I saw with my eyes, I knew the promises God had spoken to my heart. Praise be to God. Just three weeks ago, she was hacking through the jungle in Guatemala, with a team of doctors and dentists going into a village who had had no contact in their generation with the outside world, who were praying at the time they have a little church there, they were saying, God, have you forsaken us? Do you even know that we're here anymore? And out of the jungle come our first on call medical missions team into their village. Praise be to God, God is faithful. If you are willing to be poured out. That's really the key. Now, if you are willing to say, Lord, I'll follow you. Now he's not going to ask you to leave this church today and get on a plane and go to China. You have to understand that it's line by line, little by little, it'll start with an act of obedience, make a sandwich for that person across the hall who's hungry, get something and do this. It'll start with little as long as you're willing. And then you see the gifts begin to unfold in your life. Words of wisdom, words of knowledge begin to flow through you, giftings of the spirit, things that are not possible in your natural state and with your natural mind. And you begin to realize this is a supernatural kingdom. This is a resurrection kingdom. This kingdom is about dead men coming to life in Christ. Praise be to God. That's the life I want to live in Christ. That's why men and women who truly walk with God become more alive the older they get. Once you've been touched by the life of Christ, you realize now it's not by might, it's not by power. It's by my spirit said the Lord. That's why when God needs a deliverer, he looks at he has to find an 80 year old man. He has to go to a young girl, Esther, who doesn't have any strength or lineage in herself to do what she's called to do. He's got to go to people who will walk with him in agreement. One more time. One more time is the cry of my heart. God one more time in our generation. One more time, Lord, have a generation that will walk with you. They will hear you. They will let you be God. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. Praise be to God. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Saved from sin by faith in the fact that he died on a cross and paid the penalty and suffered the full wrath of God that you and I deserve for everything we've done. Having trusted in him, the Bible says the same spirit that raised Christ from the dead now quickens our mortal body. And we are made alive in Christ. And Jesus said, I send the Holy Spirit to show you everything that is now mine. And because it's mine, and you are in me, it's now yours. Every victory, every promise I won for you. The Holy Spirit will bring it to your mind. He will show it to you. If in your heart, you want to be of no reputation. You want to be a servant to all men, to all people. If in your heart, you want to obey God. Even if it means the loss of everything that you hold dear. We live in a church age that has flooded into the house of God in America with an opposite spirit to this. And subsequently is locked out of the mind of God. So little of the true supernatural. Pentecost has been relegated to manifestations of idiocy in things today that call themselves revival. Absolute idiocy in the house of God. What the Lord is looking for is people that will agree with what he's thinking about them. I know the thoughts I think towards you. David says more than I could write down. Thoughts of peace and not of evil to bring you to a desired end. I know what I'm thinking about you. Praise be to God. Here's what they did on the day of Pentecost. They stepped into the market. They didn't know whether this was going to be the end or the beginning. They had no idea. To step into the marketplace and say, I belong to Jesus Christ could have been and was in the long term fatal for many of them. But they were so envisioned, so empowered, so touched with the supernatural and with the heart of God that they were compelled to go into the marketplace. And they lifted their hands and they spoke with a supernatural authority the things that God was about to do. And I do believe it was personal. Each of them, in his own or her own deficiency, began to declare what the Holy Spirit was speaking to them because they were now laid out for the cause of Christ. They were willing to go all the way with God. And in the moment of time, they had the mind of Christ. It's an amazing thing when you see it. I'm 54 now and I feel in my heart like I'm just beginning. It's an amazing. I've got a long way to go to catch Brother Crandall and Pastor Dave. I've got 30 years of preaching to catch up to Brother Crandall. Praise God. Praise God. I'm going to ask you to do something this morning. I'm going to ask you in a moment to stand and lift your hands now. Hang on, just hang on for one second and begin to declare audibly what God has done for you. I want you to start confessing what He's done, where He's brought you from, what kind of victories you've already experienced. Even if it's only just, I've got hope, I've got hope, I've got hope, thank God, just keep saying that. And if you're willing to be led of the Spirit as you do this, then the Holy Spirit is going to begin to show you things to come. And you're going to move from the declaration of what God has already done to what He's going to do. Your family, your own life, maybe you're a fearful person, but you do have a promise that God's not given me a spirit of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind. The Holy Spirit will bring that promise to you. If you've read the Bible at all and you begin to just say, God, I believe this, you've given me this, this belongs to me in Christ and for the purpose of serving all men. And God, I'm going to, by faith, begin to speak those things that you say you're going to do through my life. Whether it's just you're believing God that you can be a kind husband, a selfless husband, or you're believing that you can start as a mother speaking words to your children that don't wound them. It seems like a small start, but it isn't. It's a big start. And God says, I'm going to give you these things. I'm going to give you a new mind, which gives you a new tongue. I'm going to give you a new heart. I'm going to give you a new spirit. And you just simply walk in agreement to what the Holy Spirit begins to tell you. Then as you read the scriptures in the days ahead, you'll see promises from God just leap off the pages. Now, keep in mind that the day of Pentecost was a day of social upheaval. It was a difficult day. They were in hardship from every side. They were an occupied nation. Their Savior had just been crucified. It seemed that everything was against them. We're coming into some difficult days in this country. But folks, this is the time to step out of the upper room. This is the time to start speaking in the marketplace. People are concerned in our generation. This is the time to... I'm not talking about being obnoxious or annoying. I'm talking about in the Spirit. Just begin to declare what God's done for you. And watch where the Lord will begin to take you when you do that. Now, can we stand together? I'm going to ask you to raise your hands and start declaring. Just do it by faith. If you can't do it any other way. And just say out loud what God's done for you. Just say it out loud. Go ahead. Don't be ashamed. Just remind yourself and God of all the wonderful things He's done. Where He's taken you from. Thank Him for saving you from committing suicide. Thank Him for saving you. Giving you hope, a future, a new mind. Don't go down into silence. Lift your voice. You're doing this to the Lord. Just lift your voice to God. Give Him praise for what He's done. Thank Him for your children. Thank Him. Thank Him. You have a sound mind. You've got clothes on your body. Where He's brought you to. Don't be ashamed to lift your voice. If you can't do it here, you'll never do it out there. Don't be ashamed to lift your voice up to Him. Pray this prayer with me, those that have come to the altar. Satan, you have no authority over me. God has promised me a new heart and a new mind and a new spirit. I'm no longer under your dominion. Today I choose to believe God and I walk away from this imprisonment of darkness and of the flesh. I renounce the works of evil, of sin, and of darkness. And I embrace the forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ and the will of God for my life. Lord God Almighty, give me a testimony in this generation of your saving and your keeping power. I believe because you said so that if I know the truth, the truth will set me free. Today I accept the freedom that is mine because of Calvary. I accept the new life that is mine because of the word of God and the power of the Holy Spirit. I choose today to walk in light. I choose to be a servant to God and to all men. I choose to obey you, Lord. God, you will walk with me and give me the power to walk a victorious life. I believe it with all my heart and I receive it. I'm not leaving this church the same way that I came in. I'm leaving it free in the power of God. In Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Let me pray for you. I take authority in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, over all depression and every lie of the devil. Lord, you told me that I had authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and on all the power of the enemy. And God Almighty, we take that authority today. We take it as a church. Let's pray together for these that have come. We break these mental bondages. We break physical bondages. We break the thoughts of the enemy that are planted daily in the minds of those that are redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ. We break the lie of the enemy that says to these people they have nothing to say, no part in the kingdom of God. Satan, you are a liar. We stand against you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we proclaim freedom to every captive. We proclaim that there's not a prison door that can hold captive anyone who has turned to Christ. God Almighty, you said yourself, Jesus, you'd came to open prison doors, give sight to the blind, to heal those that are bruised in heart, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. We receive it. We believe it today. We walk away from captivity. We walk away from darkness. We walk away from the lies of the enemy. We walk away from wrong self-perception. We walk away from powerlessness. We walk into the power of our God. We walk away from having no testimony to having a glorious song of victory in our generation. We walk away from everything of the devil, and we walk into the life and the light of Jesus Christ. God Almighty, make these at this altar evangelists in the city. Give them a testimony of grace and glory. God Almighty, let it be the beginning of something profound for your namesake and for your kingdom's sake. Lord, open our mouths in the city. Everyone is in the sanctuary. Open our mouths in the workplace. Open our mouths in our neighborhoods. Open our mouths in the highways and byways. And Lord, through us, compel them to come into your kingdom. Compel them to come to your banquet of salvation in Christ. God, we thank you for this. We praise you for it. We bless you, Lord. We praise you for your goodness. Now, thank you. Praise God. Say this with me, no more silent testimony. No more letting the devil take the hope of God out of my heart and out of my mouth. I am righteous because God says I am. I have a new life because God says I do. I have a supernatural future because God is thinking thoughts about me. Things that he's going to do. He's going to perform and it will bring his name to glory and honor in my generation. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Praise be to God.