In this sermon, the preacher shares his personal experience of a transformative change in his life that occurred two and a half years ago. He describes his life as a garden filled with weeds and thorns, but through the work of the Lord, he was able to remove those negative elements and cultivate beauty and growth. The preacher also recounts a story of encountering bedraggled teenage boys who were struggling to set up a tent in the dark. Through this story, he emphasizes the importance of relying on Jesus in difficult times and finding freedom in Him. The sermon concludes with a reminder that believers should not abandon or separate themselves from the body of Christ, but rather remain united and steadfast in their faith.

We're moving in a new day in the life of the Church, and there's been a time when we felt compelled to defend what we knew to be so, rather than to simply declare it and live it. We felt we had to defend it. We felt that we had to promote it, if you please. And that day is over where we have to promote. We're not going to have to promote spiritual gifts. The Church in health will flow in gifts of the Spirit. They will grace gifts to the Church for the purpose of edifying and building it up. And the feeling that you have to promote these gifts is going to be a thing of the past, because the Holy Spirit's going to promote them. He's going to just do it. And this is what He's doing right now. And it's just so beautiful to watch how the Lord's doing in people's lives things they didn't even think He would do. He just does it. He's doing things in people's lives they didn't even believe in. And it's just the neatest thing in all the world to watch how the Lord moves on people. So you're going to move into a time of real rest, even though you'll be carried with the zeal of the Lord. You're going to have a rest and a peace that you're not really any longer to have this feeling that you have to strive against one another and be on guard, everyone against your neighbor, and do not trust anyone your brother. That day's going to be over. I know there's going to be great upheaval in what we call the Church of the Lord Jesus, because much of the Church is not the Church at all. It just uses the name. But He's going to tear down and shake down everything that's not Him. He's going to shake everything that can be shaken. And the Church is going to be one in Christ. And it's going to be a sovereign work of God as we receive Him, and we do not refuse Him who speaks from heaven. We're just going to find ourselves being carried by the Spirit into oneness all over the world. We're going to be one. And you're going to know that you can, in fact, trust one another. If you have your Bible, I want you to open it to the fourth chapter of Ephesians. This is where the Lord is impressingly to share with you. And I'm going to share a little of what the Lord did in my life in the last two and a half years. I've been preaching now 22 years, and two and a half years ago, the Lord brought about a great change in my life. And I'm going to share a little bit tonight about what the Lord did in my life. And I'm going to share with you how the Lord began to work in my garden, in my field. This is His field. By the way, folks, this is the Promised Land right here. This is the land to be possessed. This is it. And I have a lot of weeds and a lot of briars and a lot of thorns growing in my garden. And the Lord burned those out of me. And He began to grow some lilies. And He began to grow some flowers in my life. And He wants me to look like a bouquet of His glory. And we're going to talk about how to get rid of the briars and the weeds and the thorns, an awful lot of them growing in Christians' lives. And you know, if you're really a Christian, that's one of the real proofs that you are a Christian. You really don't like weeds. I mean, if you like them, your garden's not God's yet. You're still the enemy's property. You're His bond slave. And the Lord wants to free you so you can be His, God's garden. The garden of God. And He's going to grow good fruit in your garden. We're going to talk about how to get all the weeds out. By the way, I don't know too many Christians who don't still have a weed or two. And don't be touchy about your weeds. Be glad when somebody helps you get them out. One of the things that we need to know is that when we're helping our fellow man get the weeds out of his life, we need to tiptoe carefully through the lilies lest we crush one of them to get the weed. We have a tendency to trample one another. I still know some people that spot some of my weeds every now and then. And I want to say, be careful there. When you're going after my weed, don't step on my little lilies that are growing over here. Because I am growing some lilies. I really am. I'm growing some beautiful, beautiful lilies. And so are you. But I'm going to help you tonight as an instrument of the Lord to get the weeds out and the briars. And it's going to be fun. Ephesians chapter 4 is a picture of how the church is to function in harmony and to be built up in love. I believe you find an expression here of the answer to the prayer of Jesus. This is more than a possibility. It's an imperative. The only way the church can be built up is to be built up in love. The only way that faith works is by love. It's the only way. It is the only way that we fulfill all the law in a word, and that's that we love one another. It is the only way we heed the commandments of God by keeping the greatest. That's usually love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is a day of restoration. I'll tell you what, before we look through Ephesians 4, just turn over to Acts 3, and let me call your attention to a passage that's become very special to me in recent days. Acts 3. And we're going to be in reading in verse 19. I tell you, when preaching gets in its purest form, all the preacher is going to be is a pointer. He's going to say, look at so-and-so in the Bible, and you look and say, oh, that's why. And then he'll just say, look over here, and you'll say, oh, because the Spirit's going to reveal what God's saying to the church. And that's the only kind of church the gates of hell do not prevail against. That's the church that's built on revelation knowledge, where the Spirit imparts the truth. You cannot, and man has tried futilely, feebly, and to his own demise, he has tried to reduce this book to a systematic means of interpreting and understanding it. In other words, he's tried to reduce the supernatural spiritual book of holy God to man's finite understanding. The same spirit necessary to inspire this book is necessary to impart this book and plant it in your heart. It's a spiritual book. And we have literally made our systems of interpretation the major source of authority rather than the Word of God. We do not even believe in most churches today that every believer can understand this Word. He has to have someone who's been trained to explain it to him. Jesus said, it's necessary for me, the one who wrote it, the one who is it, the one who expresses it, the living Word, it's essential for me to leave that I be able to send another of the same kind to you who will guide you to all truth. Now, why didn't Jesus tell us that we needed a book this thick to tell us why he didn't mean what he said in one verse that big? Why didn't Jesus tell us that the only way we could understand this book would be to follow man's opinions and philosophies? Because that's the one way you won't understand what this Word says. Because the Holy Spirit will teach you this Word, and the teachers, the apostles, prophets, teachers, pastors, and evangelists will be used in correction, in rebuke, in reproof, in exhortation, with long-suffering, and doctrine to correct. But they are not your source. The Holy Spirit is your source. God will teach you this Word, and he'll write this Word on your heart. You can understand it as well as I can. I'm not going to spend my life going up into the Holy of Holies in the presence of God to come down and tell you what God said. I'm going to spend the rest of my life telling you to go up on the Holy of Holies into the presence of God and hear God for yourself. I'm going to teach you by the grace of God to have the ears of a disciple. I'm going to make disciples of Jesus out of you, not disciples of James Robinson or somebody else. You need to hear Jesus. You can hear him as well as I can. You may hear him better. I've got a lot of interference around me, people trying to influence me all the time. Some of you may be able to get over a little more along with the Lord and hear him better than I can. I'm going to tell you something. When you do, I'm going to hear him through you, because the day of big shots is over in the church, folks. No more big shots, no more superstars. It's just Jesus. Jesus. He's the center. It's just Jesus. We're just going to receive from the least to the greatest. We're going to receive. This is what the Lord is showing me. He's showing me that the ministry of Jesus in the world today, and I want you to understand this because I really believe the Lord revealed this to me. The ministry of Jesus in the earth today is the ministry of restoration. That was the ministry he announced in Luke 4, and it is still his ministry. He's the minister of restoration. That's his ministry. Now, what does that mean? That means he's restoring the body to health. He's restoring his desecrated, divided, dissentious, defeated body to spiritual health. That's exactly what he's doing. He is restoring the church. He is restoring the New Testament church, and you're going to see that what he said of Israel, the new covenant people, those with whom he made an eternal covenant, he is going to fulfill in the lives of the children of promise, and he's building a temple all right, and there are many people who spend needless hours watching over in the Middle East for him to build a temple. I don't care if they build 100 temples. That's not the one God's watching. God is watching the temple that's being built with living stones. It is in that temple his glory will come and fill, and so the church of Jesus Christ is being restored to spiritual health, and I want to tell you that because Jesus has accomplished a work in my life, I have been totally freed from this escapist mentality. I'm already free. I'm not looking for somebody to come get me out of something. I want to tell you something, my dear friend. I'm walking with the fourth man, and he's sufficient in the most intense fire that the king of this world can ever build. I walk with the fourth man. It's not Moses in the fire. It's not Elijah in the fire. It's Jesus in the fire. He walks with me. He talks with me. He is my shepherd, and I shall not walk. I fear no evil. He's with me, rod and staff, directing me, preparing a table before me in the presence of countless enemies, anointing my head with oil, and my cup runs over forever and ever, and his goodness and mercy will follow me and endure forever, and I'm dwelling in the house of the Lord. I am the house of the Lord, and he fills his temple with his glorious presence, and he is restoring me, and I'm going to do the ministry of Jesus. I am doing the ministry of Jesus. He is doing his ministry through me. He told me two and a half years ago he changed my life. He said, 20 years I've seen your ministry. He said, how would you like to see mine? He was not even a little impressed with mine. I've been greatly impressed with his. I'll tell you, the Lord's just doing what he says he does. You know, he startled me the other day. I've been seeing many people healed. My wife and I were shopping the other day. By the way, I do better getting people healed in shopping centers than I do in churches. The two toughest places I've found to get people healed is church and hospitals. Isn't that sad? I do much better on the streets, parking lots, shopping malls, homes. Isn't that incredible? There's a village atmosphere that prevails in hospitals and churches, an atmosphere of unbelief. It shouldn't be that way. My wife and I were shopping the other day, and we bought an object over in Fort Worth, an item, and the man that sold it to us, he couldn't talk. It was just pitiful. He just stammered and stuttered, carried on, and just couldn't say anything. He had two little children there, and I could tell they wished he could talk. He's obviously a smart man. He was an administrative man, but he couldn't talk. He just stammered. He tried. Boy, my heart just broke, just broke. I had to move over across the store. It was very crowded, and I got to the side, and I said, Lord, I just hurt. I don't want to embarrass him. He's having trouble talking. People are watching. Lord, show me what to do. My wife was writing a check, and I could tell that the compassion of Jesus was coming up in her. I could tell we were one. I could tell our spirits were in agreement for him. I said, Lord, I need to get him out of here a minute. Just show me what to do, and he walked around the counter, and he picked up the object and indicated he'd take it to the car. I didn't need him to take it to the car. It wasn't any big object, but I needed him to take it to the car, and he took it to the car, and I opened the trunk and put the item in the trunk and closed the lid, and I looked at him. I said, What's your name? And he said, Bob, and I'm literally, as best I can, I'm quoting what he said. And I thought he was trying to say Bob, but he never said anything. He pulled his billfold out and handed me a card. His name was Ken, and I said, Did this happen when you were a boy? I said, What caused it? He stumbled around and said, Holy, holy oh, and I said, I love you. Never seen you before. I said, I want to pray for you. Could I pray for you, please? He nodded. I laid my hands up on his neck. It was 103 degrees outside in the parking lot, my wife sitting in the car. I knew she was a Greek. I laid my hands up on his neck, and I began to pray in the name of Jesus that he would just heal his voice so that he could talk and take away the stammering tongue. His muscles tightened as rigidly as seen in him, and then they relaxed under my hands, and the Spirit of the Lord said, Rebuke the stuttering, stammering tongue. Rebuke it. And all of the forces of hell and all of the powers of darkness pressed in against me not to do that simple thing of obeying Jesus to speak to the mountain, to rebuke the obstacle. But in a moment of love and obedience, the Spirit of God welled up in me, and I said, I rebuke the stammering, stuttering tongue. I rebuke it in Jesus' name, and I command him to speak clearly now in the name of Jesus. And I took my hands down, and I put my arms around him, and I held him, and I said, I love you. And I turned him loose, and he said, I want to thank you so much. I want to thank you so very much. I can't tell you how grateful I am. He walked around to the window where my wife was sitting and leaned over and said, I can't tell you how much I appreciate this. Would you please come back? I want to thank you so much, and turned and walked away. He spoke like Ronald Reagan. He sounded like Jesus. Do you know what Jesus started me with recently? Do you know that I was carried so in the Spirit, so restored to such intimacy with Jesus, that just after the Lord had set me free two and a half years ago, that I went through a period of six months in my life that I cannot recall, and I have no one who's been able to help me find anyone that this is not true of. I cannot recall a single person that I prayed with in person or by telephone who was not healed. Virtually instantly, as best I can tell. Now, that's not always the way healing comes. Sometimes it's progressive. Sometimes it's over a long period of time. Sometimes it's just natural biological healing built in your own body, which is the Lord's too. But as I would pray for people, some were dying. At least three, maybe four were dying. They were healed instantly. I'm talking about got up. One of them in the cardiac center in DeBakey's Hospital with his heart blown out. Well, up, gone, perfect, absolutely healed. I watched God for six months, not a single person. And I said, Lord, what was happening right there? Let me tell you what happened. I was so in relationship and fellowship with Jesus. All I could hear was Jesus. All I could see was where he was looking. Do you know that if you had come to me during that stretch of time and asked me to go pray for someone, I want you to understand the impact of what I'm about to say. This is the supernatural. This is the miracle of it all. If you had come to me and said, come over, I want you to come pray for this person. From the time you and I left here to go there, I don't care if it was five minutes or three hours. From the time we left to go, the thought never got to my brain. The impulse never got there that they might not get well. That thought never entered my mind. All I could hear was Jesus. Now I'm going to tell you, you can't preach that into people. You can't teach that into people. That's relationship. That's the prevailing word. Well, the Lord startled me recently because I'm still seeing a lot of people healed. The beautiful thing is that I've watched myself decrease. I'm already such a focal point in the body of Christ. People watch me continuously. The Lord has let me know that he will not share his glory with idols, and no flesh is going to glory in his presence, and no person is going to get the credit for what he's going to do through a healthy body. And I'm continually decreasing, and I'm watching the greater glory manifest all around us, out among children and among the laity, rather than on the platform. And I understand that, and I believe the greater glory will be out here. I don't think you'll be able to trace the miracles of Jesus anymore to somebody's flesh. It's no longer going to be somebody with the gift of. It's going to be the body with the gifts of, and the body's going to flow in that health. And you're not going to tie it on anybody. It's just Jesus through his people. But the Lord startled me recently. I had found comfort in saying, well, we're praying for the sick. You know what Jesus said to me just as clearly as he's ever said anything in the spirit? And when he speaks in the spirit, that's louder than audible. I don't need an audible voice to get a clear word. I hear it. You know what he said to me? He said, nowhere in the gospels, nowhere in my teaching did I ever tell anyone to go pray for the sick. He said, much of my church is taking tremendous comfort in the fact they're praying for the sick. He said they take comfort in the fact that they're anointing with oil. Some people have so much oil anointed on them, they can slide right into their grave. They're soaked in oil, but they're sick. I don't find one account where Jesus ever rebuked a sick person for not getting well. But I can find a very sharp rebuke where he rebuked some disciples who couldn't get a sick boy well. And I'm going to tell you something. He didn't say this kind comes out not but by prayer and fasting because he was telling you got a tough demon. None of them are tough. You've got more authority over the demons of hell than you've got over your little children. None of them are tough. Don't give a demon that much credit to think you got to go and pray and fast to get rid of a demon. Kick him out. You say, well then why did he say this kind cometh out not but by prayer and fasting? This kind of unbelief cometh out not but by prayer and fasting. In other words, you want to get in a place where you can hear God? Deny your flesh. Deny yourself. Call a solemn assembly. Consecrate a fast. Bring this body into subjection and pray that you can hear the thoughts of God. And then you will speak the word having heard. That's the only way faith operates. You've got to hear it. Then it works. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. Get the channels clear so you can hear God. The church is being restored to New Testament life, authority, and power. Right now, that's the ministry of Jesus. The church is going to flow in power. You're going to flow in power. Listen, every one of you here in Jesus' name are going to heal the sick. You're never to be affected by what you see or don't see. The fact you do see is no more proof than if you don't see. You do not base what you believe on what you see. You base it on the forever settled word of the living God. If you never see, because what you see is temporal anyway, that what you do not see is the real. Get to where you can see in the invisible. Get to where you can hear. The atmosphere is saturated with the sounds of the spirit realm. Get to where you can hear them. Get to where you can pick up. I'm learning this. I was taught you couldn't do this. I'm learning it. I've got some friends that have such keen spiritual antennas. I find myself just watching them sometimes. God, how do they do that? And the Lord said, you can do it. You know what? I can. Preached about 4,000 people in Kansas City. There was a girl that we were just praying there were probably a thousand people who'd come forward in the first invitation. This girl just went out. A lady caught her. Nobody was talking about this. We don't touch people. I'm telling you some people are so sick of the flesh. So sick of hearing people talk about Pentecostal power and all you got's an old shaking hand trying to shake something out of somebody. It's a bunch of phony baloney and we know it and the whole church knows it. Now God will shake the fire out of some people, but you don't have to act like you're shaking and act like you got it when you ain't got it. Just because you had it don't mean you got it. So sick and tired of people talking about falling under the power of God. What they fell under was a nearly broken neck. Somebody pushing them down. When God gets ready to knock somebody down, he needs your muscle. This lady went out and stayed out for two hours. They carried her back and laid her in a side room, covered her up with blankets. I walked in the room with her and the Lord told me her life story when I walked in the room with her. He just unfolded her life for me. I walked out of the room. I told the people God was healing her emotional scars. You know why some people are taken out? Some fall because of the incredible power of God. They're just knocked and fell as dead like John did. They fall like Paul did. Blind, but impacted and fall to the earth. They fall like Peter did and into a trance which he went into three times. And you know the rumor that got out on Peter when he was knocked into that trance? We understand you've been eating with the uncircumcised. He said, hang in there dudes. A whole lot more happened than that. You know what'll get out on you if you have a supernatural spirit? I heard you went charismatic. Let me tell you something. Doesn't matter what kind of label they hang on you. Just wear one. Wear Jesus. Don't boast in any other label. You'll conform to that crowd and you'll miss Christ. The Lord told me her life story. I asked later in the day. She told the associate pastor and the pastor knew her. Everything God told me, I said, here's what God told me about the pastor and his associate like to fall out of their chairs. God told me her life story. You know why God takes some people out like that when they fall under the power? The same reason Jesus took some people out of the village. He took them out so he could do the work and he got them out of the atmosphere of unbelief. He's taking some people out now and he's healing them and then he's bringing them back. It's going to happen. He doesn't need your help to do it. He's just going to do his works. He's going to restore so you can hear. He's going to tell you what he said. You can hear him. He knows. He's not caught off guard. There's nothing hidden he didn't want to reveal. Let him understand. You can hear him. Yes, you'll be testing the spirits. You're going to get some interference. You'll pick up on a bad word. Sometimes it won't be him, but he'll show you don't panic. And remember when you see somebody that's in the flesh, oh, you've always been repulsed by the flesh. Just like me. I've always been repulsed by your flesh. It's been mine I've been kind of fond of. Your flesh has always bothered me. I'm maturing now. It's getting to where my flesh is bothering me. That's maturity. When you see that flesh manifest, remember don't trample their lilies on the way to get the weed. Some of them have never been accepted before. Don't stomp the little ones. Be careful how you treat them. But he's restoring us to health. Do you know what his message is today? It's a message of repent. The kingdom of heaven is at hand. You'll never have restoration. You'll never have restoration without repentance. The church has to repent and that's where repentance begins just like judgment's going to begin there. We've got to repent. And you know what the mission of Jesus is today? The mission of Jesus is redemption. His ministry is restoration. His message is repentance and his mission is redemption. He's going to redeem everything the enemy has ever tainted and blighted and damaged. And it's a beautiful day. And look what he says in Acts chapter 3 beginning at verse 19. Repent therefore and return. I'm reading from the New American Standard. That your sins may be wiped away in order that the times of refreshing may come. Do you know what this is? It's a time of refreshing. It's a time when you get under the shower and you receive the spirit through others who are chosen to minister. It's a time of refreshing. In order that the times of refreshing may come from what? The presence of the Lord. Do you know how you get refreshed? Get in the presence of the Lord. When you begin to sing praises and the enemy flees and the presence of the Lord comes, you're refreshed. When I'm walking obedience to the Lord, I don't get tired unless God is saying it's time to go rest. And brother, when he says shut her down and rest, you better. Because if you destroy the temple of God, he said I'll destroy you. When he says sleep, sleep. When he says sit, sit. When he says stand, stand. I'll tell you something folks, you don't need to think you're going to see somebody at the gate of the temple beautiful lame and say in the name of Jesus, rise and be healed. If you haven't been faithful in the little things like to sit when he said sit and stand when he said stand and study when he said study and play with your children when he said play with them and love your wife when he said lover and that means hold her sometimes not just be sexually expressive. It means hold her. It means sometimes listen to her. Just hear her. You don't do that, you won't hear him say in the name of Jesus, rise and be healed. Because you are not faithful in those things which we consider the small. You will never be ruler in those things we consider great. God tells me to play with my children. I play with my children. If I don't, I disobey God. That's a righteous act to play with your children. It's a righteous act to listen to your wife. It's a work of righteousness to communicate with one another and to love one another. Look what he says. Comes from the presence of the Lord that he may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration. This is it folks. The period of restoration of all things about which God spoke with the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient time. Everything he said over in the old testament about his covenant people he's going to fulfill. And I'll show you something very interesting. We have missed much of what this old testament is saying because we put it all in historical national Israel and we don't understand what God's saying to us. The children of promise. I'm personally convinced and I'm not quote a theologian in the context of what we define theology but I'm going to tell you I am convinced and I would gladly sit with the scholars who will sit with an open mind and I'll go through this with you prayerfully but you can't talk to anybody that thinks he knows everything. Remember that. You think you know you don't know as you ought and knowledge puffs up and makes you arrogant and that's what we've got a lot of folks who think they've got it all figured out and they box God in put him on a chart and box him and he won't fit in the chart you can't even build him a house that'll hold him how you gonna get him on a car on a chart or a cart he won't ride he rides on sanctified shoulders that's the only place he'll go. I'll tell you what I'm convinced of I'm convinced that much of Isaiah is not even talking about the nation Israel at all it's talking about the church of Jesus Christ. It's talking about us. You just look at it open your eyes and look for yourself just see just look at it you go over in first Peter chapter one and you'll find that he says these prophets who were carried by the spirit knew that they were not serving themselves but us when they testified of the glories to come they weren't even serving themselves when they wrote it in their day they knew it they were serving us us that's us that's wins is right here that's us that's church that's us that's who they were serving that bible gets alive and gets excited when you realize it's written to you and not just written to a bunch of people that got their fists clenched in the face of God and that's what they've got they got their fists clenched in the face of God and I'm going to tell you God will never bless a people with the fist clenched in his face I don't care who you are he says the curse is on you in other words the effect of your disobedience is manifest in your lives continue on that he may send Jesus the Christ whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration which is now about which God spoke through the mouth of his holy prophets in ancient time and then you see the quote from the old testament a very definite reference to what God's doing and I believe this is the day of restoration and I believe we're going to see Ephesians 4 in reality so let's just turn over there for a moment and look at it in the first part of Ephesians you find Paul exhorting us in the fourth chapter to walk in a manner worthy of the calling and we've been called to oneness in Christ we've been called to Christ likeness we've been called to discipleship to do what he says and we can only do this if we walk in verse 2 with humility and with gentleness with patience and show forbearance we show forbearance to one another I'm watching many people who in the name of conservative theology in the name of fundamentalism can hardly wait to get their heel not on the back of the devil but get their heel in the face of other believers right now I predict that there is an onslaught that's about to occur in the denomination of which I've been a part that's going to be one of the most appalling things that the the world has ever watched and that's going to be the absolute assault of believer upon believer in baptist and particularly southern baptist rites in their largest publication they have in their oldest and mother seminary and then the largest seminary they are declaring holy war on what they call the conservative and the fundamentalist but the fact is the conservative fundamentalist declared holy war on them too and the tragedy of all tragedies is that in both elements there is not the desire for reconciliation on the part of many of them but a desire for the destruction and they want to destroy one another and God has already prophesied of these people he said when you bite and devour one another you're going to be consumed by one another and the truth is that many in these ranks have spent many years teaching people why they will not like or accept other parts of the body charismatic pentecostal or somebody else from a different place or persuasion who may be seeing and hearing a little differently they have taught their people to be hostile to be hateful sometimes the people don't like it it's the leaders that are the briars and the thorns and it's not even all the leaders it's just some of them the people of god don't like this but they've been taught to do this and now then because they were taught to bite and to devour they are now going to be consumed by one another and perhaps the greatest evangelical force in protestant christianity is being dismantled now all in the name of a bible that many of them weigh fiercely but refuse to live and do all the while arguing that it's all the word of god they don't heal the sick they explain it away they don't deal with demons they ignore them and if you dare to they put you out and now then the war is on and you want to know why because there's no forbearance for one another we have it all figured out there's arrogance in the centers oftentimes and those who cry out leave my mind free so i can think and hear are branded liberal because they don't say it just like those who've got it figured out said there's a meanness there that's not the spirit of god you are going to see the dismantling and shaking of every system i'll tell you something you're going to see pentecostalism shake because pentecostalism ain't it pentecostal power is it that's how the church lives not with isms not with fleshly manifestations we walk in the spirit of god we do not be conformed to this world we're transformed by the renewal of our mind by the word of god not by what men say you'll never grow in grace you'll never grow in the knowledge of the lord if you don't walk with humility gentleness and patience and have forbearance for one another in love if i don't really love you i can't receive through you i can't receive correction i can't allow my heart and mind to be examined and expanded if i can't receive you how are we going to correct one another if we won't accept one another with forbearance do you know that i am convinced that if we will meet at the same place every one of us can leave here as one i don't think jesus prayed a feeble futile prayer i think he prayed a prayer he fully intends to see answer he and his father are not in disagreement they are one i believe it is not only possible for the church of jesus christ to be one i believe it's imperative you say well how do we ever get to be one we meet at the same place we meet at the feet of jesus in humility and he'll make us one he'll give us his mind and his mind is not divided i want to tell you that i am convinced there's not a single person in this room that i cannot come to agreement with if it matters i think there's some things about which we disagree that don't matter i think they just don't matter that's like disagreeing on whether you go to china and i go to africa that's not a division i think we can disagree about many things that are absolutely non-essential why in the heaven's name do we go and build a tabernacle and a denomination and a movement to what we think because that's what the enemy gets us to do and you're going to see what causes it here in just a moment now the lord says that you receive each other with forbearance and in love be careful who you turn away you may be entertaining an angel unaware be careful don't let any root of bitterness spring up in you thereby many will be defiled you've got to walk in love as far as you're concerned be at peace with all men verse three be diligent to preserve the unity of the spirit a bond of peace then he gives you the essentials you want to see the essentials there in verse four those are essentials if a man believes there's more than one god he's an unbeliever more than one faith he's not a believer the line is drawn but you're not his judge the word judges him then you get down to the 11th verse and you see the emphasis on the gifts to the church and i believe all of them are operational today and i believe all of them are essential today i don't believe jesus teased us i don't believe he gave us something he was going to take away from us if the new testament church needed these gifts what do you think the 20th century church needs not even the most devoted church lover and even church worshiper would deny that the church is in desperate need today of a fresh touch from god well we've cut off they don't believe there are any more apostles well i believe there are and i believe they're appointed by god and no man can control them and they'll scare your socks off i had a preacher tell me the other day he said i think we're losing control i said i want to affirm that you are god's taking over praise his holy name it's high time i believe there are still apostles and prophets god knows we need them and evangelists and pastors and teachers and these gifts are not to be points of division in other words you don't divide up and follow the evangelist and somebody follows the pastor and somebody follows the teacher we have made the tragic mistake first of all of refusing the gifts of the spirit second when we receive them of idolizing in all christian circles we're idolizing gifts in the circles that i ministered in most of my entire life and among baptists they'll ridicule the pentecostals and charismatics and say they worship tongues while at the same time they're guilty of worshiping the gift of preaching they follow preachers then there are people who worship the gift of teaching they follow teaching and teachers and then there are those who do worship tongues i'm gonna tell you this if any gift you've got is more exciting to you than the intimacy of your personal relationship with jesus your relationship is out of balance and you need to fall more deep in love with jesus and you don't need to go running around talking about how you got the holy ghost and full of the holy ghost when you don't even control your appetites attitudes or actions because when you're full of the holy ghost he gives you a holy lifestyle he controls your actions and love and confidence and courage and boldness is the manifestation of a spirit-filled life not the manifestation of gifts i exercised a wonderful gift to preach for many years when i was a captive myself to the enemy but i had the gift and i've watched many people exercise spiritual gifts that eat like pigs and say i'm spirit filled that ain't all they're full of when you're controlled with the holy spirit my friend you're under the control of holy god who protects the holy temple now the purpose of these gifted ones is not so you can divide and choose which one you follow you're supposed to receive all of them you'll be an out of balance church if you only receive apostles and prophets and you never receive the evangelist the teacher and the pastor the body of christ needs the whole that god gave us and the purpose of these gifts is for what the gifted ones who are sent these particular ministry gifts motivational gifts these men who come to minister to the church the purpose is to equip the saints not so the saints can sit out in the pew and watch the hired hands do the work but so the saints who've been equipped and how do you get a saint equipped you equip him to hear jesus you make a disciple out of him now when you teach a man to hear jesus he'll be a threat to you if you don't happen to hear jesus sometimes he'll be a threat to you if you happen to think you're the only one that can hear jesus he'll be a threat to you when he hears jesus say something you haven't heard him say yet my dear friend you don't want to make disciples of jesus unless you're a disciple of jesus yourself because they'll threaten you equip the saints for the work of service to the building up of the body of christ that's the whole purpose build up the body of christ and that doesn't mean building up your temples that you built when you forsook god the stack of bricks the meeting house is not the church quit going to church and start being the church then you got a reason to go to church to the worship house you don't worship the meeting house you don't trust in the meeting house you trust in the lord when you get to the meeting house you worship somebody will quote don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together that's right you need each other but i will tell you something god's not talking about you showing up the meeting house to be defined as the assembling of yourselves together i watch people that go to church every week to their own detriment they'd have been better off if they hadn't gone paul said you come in not for your own good but for the worse you don't discern the body properly you come in there and there's dissension and division among you sit there i'm okay you sit around with a bunch of folks that won't love each other and you'll get sickness all over you just sitting there he's not talking about you being faithful to the assembling of yourselves together down there in some meeting house he's talking about you assembling yourselves together in his presence in fellowship steadfast in the faith unshakable on the word in breaking of bread and prayers and doing the ministry of jesus in praise and in worship he's talking about coming together in christ in oneness that's how you come together don't forsake that assembly you know i was asking the lord i said lord why is it so many people don't like to go to church he said i don't like to go either he said don't go very often he said i don't go because i know their works and i know they say they're rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing but they don't know that they're wretched miserable poor blind and naked and i'm not in there while they're in there quoting where any two or three are gathered in my name i'm out at the door trying to get in because they're meeting in their name they're meeting in the name of the house they're meeting in the name of the denomination they're meeting in their own name the preacher's name they're meeting for their own purpose and their own detriment i'm at the door but where any two or three are gathered in my name i'll be there in manifest presence let me tell you something folks jesus is here i knew it when i walked in here you're really precious you got some weeds but they're going to be going some of them already getting weak at the root right now some of them he's kind of laying over in your little field already they just sort of wilting but jesus is here so the body is built up and look until we attain you don't start with unity of the faith you start with unity of the spirit and you attain unity of the faith that means you mature into it that means you get where you're hearing the lord and saying what he's saying you can hear him you grow in faith you can hear him clearly and the knowledge of the son of god to a mature man to the measure of the statue which belongs to the fullness of christ the fullness of christ this is his statue we're going to look like jesus jesus is not coming back to get a church in bed with the world he's not coming to get a harlot he's not coming to get a babylonian in this church and by the way babylon's not the catholic church it could just as easily be the baptist church or the pentecostal church you want me to tell you what babylon is the dwelling place of demons every unclean spirit the spirit of harlotry that gets the world to come and drink the wine of her sensuality that entices them in that pays them to come in and to commit acts of immorality with her different from any other harlot in the earth the others are paid for their services this one will pay you to come in i'm quoting from ezekiel 16 and parts of revelation you know who babylonian church is it's any church where jesus christ is not lord and where the world systems are the standards you got a crooked stick and a sharp measuring stick and you got unholy balances and god says lift the standard towards this is the measuring stick anywhere the world spirit prevails where they trust in egypt the shadow of pharaoh that's that's harlotry now look what verse 14 says boy this is exciting when we come into the fullness of christ when we're keeping the unity of the spirit we're being built up the body's being equipped for service we're attaining the unity of the faith as a result of this growing we will no longer be childish there's nothing wrong being childlike you're you're commanded to be childlike but you're commanded not to be childish childish says and you can watch it you can watch them professors and preachers evangelist teachers you can watch it in adults it's mine it's mine it's mine they strut their stuff i'll do it myself that's childishness no i'll take my toys and go home well i'll just become a charismatic man if you don't want me they want me well i'll just leave you let me tell you something for you and you can't choose to leave the body if you do you die you don't leave the baptists you don't go join something else see that's what the world says the world says conform buddy conform they don't want you we want you come on over here and be a pentecostal come over here my charismatic i'm gonna tell you something folks i ain't joining something else i've already joined the highest thing you can join i joined jesus i'm already a part of the greatest move in the history of the world the move of god i'm in christ and i minister to the whole body of christ and i love the baptist and i love the methodist and i love the pentecostals and i love the charismatics i love the people of god and i love the people that are not of god i love everybody and i have peace on my feet i'm not worried about what anybody says about me going over here i go wherever the spirit tells me to go i don't fear man and i won't go over and join the other group so i can get more comfortable i just want us to start having fellowship in christ i don't want to see us be childish i want us to be childlike god says when you're growing you will no longer be childish tossed here and there by ways that's words spirits influences by ways and carried about by every wind word or spirit of what doctrine don't be carried about by the spirit of a doctrine don't even be carried about by the spirit of a sound doctrine because when the spirit of a doctrine controls you the spirit of god does not and you're in idolatry that's why the church is so divided today we're divided over sound doctrines and we're carried about to our own detriment by the spirit of a doctrine even though it's the truth that's not the controlling force the controlling force and the controlling factor is the spirit of god who will guide you to all truth and all sound doctrine around which none of you will choose to tabernacle or worship because you worship the truth of jesus and not a truth you're carried in the spirit to understanding of all truths you're going to find out that all different parts of the bodies have heard of the body of her truth but you don't be carried by the truth you'll be carried by the truth jesus you understand what i'm saying you understand the importance of that well we control with the teachings of doctrines be controlled with the spirit of jesus sound doctrine is important it too is an imperative but it's also imperative that you don't be controlled by that sound doctrinal spirit it'll divide you and it'll destroy you do not be controlled by the trickery of men by craftiness and deceitful scheming don't be manipulated by men don't just line up down at the church house for the fleecing meeting here we are get in our pockets get everything we got we showed up count us brand us stick us get our money here we are the people of god are getting sick and tired of coming down to the meeting house and to say where's the beef what do we do today fleece eat the fat oh when do we eat shut up sit down listen to me you know sheep really have incredible endurance i don't know how they put up with that junk when do we eat teach your people how to eat preachers teach them how to feed themselves get them out from under your dominant control free them for heaven's sake don't be there pharaoh quit building your churches and your ministries with slave labor set god's people free and watch a spiritual house come up in which the glory of god dwell praise his name don't be controlled by the trickery of men and craftiness and deceitful scheming but rather speak the truth in love and then we will grow up in all aspects into christ who is the head even christ or into him who is the head even christ from whom the whole body being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies according to the proper working of each individual part causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love and that's the only way the body can be built ups in love let me close with two illustrations on unity i think you'll appreciate him i think you will share i really believe the lord gave me both of them and they illustrate what i think he he said to us today recently i was down at a prayer retreat that we have in east texas we were down there recently and i was praying and writing a book on unity and with a wonderful phd and writer who loves the lord was set free a year or so ago through the ministry the lord's given us and uh he was helping me and our children were there my son and three of his friends teenagers are 15 years old and at 10 o'clock at night they came running down in the meeting area where we were and said we're going outside and put up a tent we're gonna spend the night in the woods it's 10 o'clock it's pitch dark they take the tent go rushing off out into the night to put their tent up about 1 30 we're still writing and dictating on the book and talking we hear a thud on the front porch and we hear the door go open and in come these bedraggled teenage boys all smoke covered from lighting a fire to try to see and they couldn't see like to set the tent on fire trying to get it so they could see and and they just they're all mosquito bitten and and they come in and pile the tent up on the floor and come in and said it's too dark couldn't find the parts couldn't get the stakes right couldn't get the poles up couldn't get the parts to fit couldn't see what we're doing couldn't put the tent up there's a tent we're going to bed and they walked upstairs and we're sitting there and all of a sudden this pastor preacher this writer he just begins to laugh he said he said that's something he said that's just like us he said that's exactly what we're trying to do today he said we're trying to put up God's house God's tent in the dark when you say you love God you don't love one another you're in what I'm going to tell you something that didn't just go for you loving the Pentecostal part brother or the Baptist part that means the whole you love the body somebody says well Pentecostals are in error and if they are and you love them help them get straight and you won't help them get straight by kicking their teeth out you'll help them get straight by loving them you say yeah well them Baptists are messed up well you're not going to straighten them out by doing that you're going to help them by showing them and loving them Baptists really don't know what to do with me now they can't run me off and I won't leave I think they're going to sponsor me as a missionary to China might be the greatest cooperative program they've ever had I think I got a hint it would be a one-way ticket though people keep saying to me go prophesy over there and the Lord keeps saying cry aloud and spare not preach to the princes the rulers and the leaders cry out the sins of Jacob of Israel and Judah my people but I love them and they know that's what's bugging them I just keep loving them and I love them all I just love people everywhere I go look we're trying to build a house in the dark you know what happens nobody wants to be a stake and get in the dirt they all want to be a center pole you know something in the dark you can't get the parts in place but when you get in the light the parts begin to fit one other thing the Lord showed me I was building a charcoal fire down at the same retreat cooking a steak for me and my wife you ever build a charcoal fire the kind that won't light itself you have to put the charcoal lighter on it and put the fire to it well I I had a friend that tried to light a charcoal fire and I've tried it too and they were scattered all over the great last winter and he lit the thing for an hour and a half and two cans of charcoal lighter it never lit and I remembered that and I was building my fire and as I pile the charcoal some of the little briquettes were non-cooperative and they trickled off the little pyramid pile and they fell down on the grate all over the place and I reached down with my nice clean little fingers and picked up that old dirty briquette and put it in the pile and it trickled back down and so I picked up one or two of them and I meticulously very meticulously wedged them in place and you know what God laughs at me he laughs at me a lot he thinks I'm one of the funniest folks he's got and he he and I talk a lot I think he really likes me a lot he likes to talk to me he thinks I'm really funny and so he just starts laughing at me I mean I'm putting the charcoal in place and he's laughing he says look at you look look look at you putting that charcoal in there look at your fingers all dirty God said what'd you do that for I said well Lord if you don't get the charcoal all together and pile them up they won't draw heat from one another and when you put the oil on it and they won't light and God said well why don't you preachers learn that he said you preachers are running all over the world soaking my people with the oil of the Holy Spirit and asking me to light their fire while they're scattered to the ends of the earth and he said it won't work he said you get my people to agree to come together to diligently seek to preserve the unity in the spirit and I'll pour out my spirit on them and I'll light their fire and they will run white hot you know what you can do with that little coal you can spread them out over the grate and they'll be white hot I'm gonna tell you something if you want them to stay hot you have to bring them back together now that's the picture of assembling yourselves together and then go and then come into the presence of the Lord we're one in the spirit aren't we I love you God bless you