[0:00] Well, good evening. Blessings. Good to be together. Good to see each one of you. I've too been looking forward to this time together. And just trust that God would have His way as we're together here.
[0:17] I love that song, This is My Story. This is my song. What is our story? What is our song?
[0:27] Do we have a song? And as the Lord keeps working on us, changing us, dealing with our lives, taking us on with Him, we all do have a story.
[0:43] And it also gives us a song. And I hope our hearts are filled with just songs of gratitude and worship and just praise to the Lord.
[0:56] I want to turn to Acts chapter 3. Greetings in the name of Jesus from the church there in Trinidad too. We would have loved to take our turn coming up here this summer, but trying to get our church building done.
[1:18] We didn't work out. So maybe next year we can do that. Looking forward to the fellowship meetings too next summer out here.
[1:28] I'm already looking forward to that. Unless the Lord comes back or something else happens. So I'm really looking forward to that.
[1:38] I want to start with this kind of as a, maybe as a little bit of a theme verse in Acts chapter 3 for tonight.
[1:49] I have a couple different messages and I'm trying to kind of fit them together. So I'm not, I have two different notes. I'm not, not, not sure how all that'll go, but just try to rely on the Spirit.
[2:05] But before I read this scripture, are you guys, are you as a church, are you all that you can be?
[2:19] Have you, have you, have you found the, the secret of attaining to, like, this is it.
[2:35] I mean, this, this, we've, we're just walking in all that God has for us as, as, as a, you as a church or you individually. I mean, if you are, to be, be humble enough to, I'd, I'd like to, yeah, I'd like to talk about that if, if you are.
[2:59] I mean, I, I think the reason we keep having meetings is, and we keep meeting even as a church week after week and so on, is, we know that God has provided so much for us and he's promised so much to us.
[3:17] And we're, I think on our journey and our story, we're looking, how do we come to a further reality? What, what is the further reality that God has for us?
[3:29] And maybe I'll, maybe I'll just ask for a raise of hands. Do you feel personally that there's more for you to experience of, of God, of his person, more of the knowledge of God that, that you personally in your life feel that you, you're longing for, that there is something further in, in, in your walk with God and in all that God is and has for you personally?
[4:03] Do you, do you feel that? I mean, you, can we acknowledge that tonight? And, and also then as a church, is a church, as we look at church life, as you look at, and I'm going to preach to you here this weekend, it applies to us too, but as you look at your, your, your little, this little assembly here, do you, do you, do you believe that there is a further and a greater reality of unity and grace and love and the power of God working in you and through you as a church?
[4:48] Do you, do you, do you believe that there is a greater reality for you as a church? I'm sure you do. And I, again, I, I believe this is why we continue to assemble because I think actually our assembling, part of it obviously is to worship and to praise God and to acknowledge who God is.
[5:12] But part of it is also, I think I, I see it as an act of faith that says, God, you are greater than what, than the experiences that we're experiencing now.
[5:27] You have more for us. And we're gathering together to sit at your table and to look to you and to long for you and to trust you and have faith that you're going to continue to pour out your spirit, to pour out your grace on us as a people in these last days.
[5:47] And so I, I see part of assembling consistently, constantly prayer meetings, Sunday mornings and so on as an act of faith that says, God, we, we still need you.
[6:00] We need the, the, the, we need a greater manifestation of your presence, your power, what you promised to us in, in our life and in our church life.
[6:13] So I want to, I want to read this in Acts 3. I think I'll start in verse 19.
[6:26] Repent ye therefore and be converted. This is, this is what Peter preached. After they healed the lame man.
[6:40] After they all ran together there and so on. He says, repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out. When the times of refreshing or one, that, that word even in the strong says it's, it's a, there's a thought there of revival.
[7:02] When the times of revival shall come from the presence of the Lord. So he's talking about, obviously Christ was risen. The, the, the gospel was being preached here.
[7:14] They healed this man in the name of Jesus. He was, it was a tremendous miracle. He was leaping and jumping and praising God there in the, in the temple.
[7:26] And the people ran together and they're like, what is this? And he tells them to repent and be converted that your sins be blotted out.
[7:36] When the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. And he shall send Christ, which before was preached unto you.
[7:48] And then verse 21. I just, I love this verse here. Whom the heaven must receive. Whom the heaven must receive. Until the times of rest or restitution of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of his holy prophet, all his holy prophets since the world began.
[8:11] The amplified says whom heaven must receive. And retain. Until the time for the complete restoration of all that God spoke by the mouth of all his holy prophets for ages past.
[8:31] From the most ancient, ancient time in the memory of men. And to me, what this, what this says, at least partially, is that.
[8:44] Before the coming of Christ. In this second coming, there is going to be a restitution. There is going to be the thought there is the beginnings of the beginning of a restoration.
[8:57] And I think when, depending how your eschatology is. But I personally think that maybe the prophecies here that he's talking about is when Christ reigns on this earth for a thousand years.
[9:17] And he's going to fully restore. His every, you know, he's going to restore things the way he had in mind, at least on this earth. But before he comes, it's saying there is going to be the beginnings of a restoration.
[9:34] Things are going to start being restored. There's going to be some restitution. The thought there, that word, the thought there is a restitution to its former state.
[9:48] God's going, and I don't know who would really believe in the day that we live.
[9:59] If we look at the condition of the church in America and maybe even worldwide. Who would think that the church at this time is restored to its first condition?
[10:14] Or its, yeah, its former state? I think we all acknowledge, and again, we acknowledged here together, even personally.
[10:26] We need more. We need to see God move in the church. And I just, I want to, I just trust that by the Spirit of God this weekend that we can get a glimpse of faith.
[10:45] And believe and begin to cry out to God, maybe in a more, a deeper and a more intense way for God to restore.
[10:57] Continue to restore. Continue to bring us into the fullness of what God has for us. What is that? What does God have for us?
[11:14] Do we have any concept of how He's going to restore? What's He going to do? If we don't, if we're not seeking God for these things, then He could be doing them and we could totally miss it.
[11:36] Let's turn to Deuteronomy. Just keep that. I might open it up toward the end.
[11:48] I'm not sure. But let's turn to Deuteronomy chapter 1. This is just a scripture that some time ago, it just became really real to me.
[12:04] And I preach different messages out of here. But let's start in. Let's start in verse 5, I guess.
[12:21] Well, let's start in verse 1. These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel, on this side Jordan, in the wilderness, in the plain, over against the Red Sea, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazoroth, and Dezaheb.
[12:45] There are eleven days, eleven days journey from Horeb, by the way of Mount Seir, unto Kadesh Barnea. And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according to all that the Lord had given him in commandment unto them.
[13:10] After he had slain Sion, the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, which dwelt in Asheroth, in Eriah.
[13:24] On this side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law, saying, The Lord our God spake unto us in Horeb, saying, Ye have dwelt long enough in this mount.
[13:41] Turn you, and take your journey, and go to the mount of the Amorites, and to all the places nigh thereunto, in the plain, in the hills, and in the vale, and in the south, and by the seaside, to the land of the Canaanites, and unto Lebanon, unto the great river, the river Ephrates.
[14:03] Behold, I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land, which the Lord sware unto your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, to give unto them, and to their seed after them.
[14:21] I think that's all I will read. Well, let's read 28 and 31 yet. 28 to 31. Well, verse 27.
[14:35] Ye murmured in your tents, and said, Because the Lord hated us, He hath brought us forth out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the land, the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.
[14:47] Whither shall we go up? Our brethren have discouraged our hearts, saying, The people is greater and taller than we, the cities are great and walled up to heaven. And moreover, we have seen the sons of the Anakins there.
[15:02] And I say unto you, dread not, neither be afraid of them. The Lord your God, which goeth before you, He shall fight for you according to all He did for you in Egypt before your eyes.
[15:18] And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, and in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.
[15:30] Yes, in this thing ye did not believe the Lord your God. I think that's as far as, yeah, we could read all of them. That's as far as I want. The thing that really struck me in this scripture, one of the things, is how God told Israel, Exactly, this is your border.
[15:53] This is what I'm giving you to inherit. This is what you are called to possess. And he was very clear. He said the boundary goes from here, it goes to the east, it goes to here, to the west, to the north, to the south.
[16:11] He specifically lined out the specific boundaries that he said, I am giving you this. This is yours.
[16:21] This is what I am giving you, and you are to go in and possess this land. And I was just struck when I read this some, I don't know, six months ago or so, whenever it was.
[16:37] But I was like, okay, if God was that intent and that specific in a property, just land.
[16:48] I mean, this is earth. This is ground. This is a country. But he was so specific that this is where all of the boundaries are.
[17:01] And this is what I'm giving you. And you go in and possess that for my glory. God wanted Israel to represent him as the true God from that geographical location there in the Middle East.
[17:19] If God did that for Israel, is it vague to us what we are, what he's giving us in the new covenant?
[17:36] Do we know specifically that this is mine, this and this and this, this is ours.
[17:47] This is what God has promised us. This is what God has given us in his new covenant for us to experience, for us to walk in, for us to inherit, for his glory, and again, to show to the nations his glory, his power, the majesty of his being as we walk out the things that he has promised and given to us here on this earth.
[18:16] I mean, spiritually, yeah, as we live here on the earth. How much do you think Israel possesses today of what God promised?
[18:35] Do you have any idea, James? They were in Israel. As I looked at this, I was just, as I'm reading this, I'm like, I wonder how much they really possess.
[18:52] So I did a Google search or whatever, and does anyone have any, want to venture any guess how much Israel really possesses today of what God actually gave them and promised them and said, if you go in and if you dispossess the enemy, this is yours.
[19:15] I think we'll, maybe a little bit here, we'll read in Joshua. He said, everywhere the, everywhere the sole of your foot walks, in what I have told you and given you, that is yours.
[19:35] How much do you think Israel possesses? Okay. Some, some estimates are 15, 15, some, maybe a high estimate is 20%.
[19:49] And I really believe that I, is that, is that an indication of how much we, as the children of God, in what's, like Clendennen says in the school of Christ, what's true in the natural many times is true in the spiritual.
[20:09] Is that a picture? Can we look at that and say, and, and is that a picture of what we possess of all that God has promised us in the new covenant?
[20:23] About 15 or 20%. I, I, I think it is. I mean, I think it's at least, we, I think it's a very good analogy there.
[20:41] Israel never properly and fully dispossessed and, and possessed all the land. And if you look that up, and it, to me, it's a fascinating study.
[20:52] If Israel would possess, if they would have, if they would occupy and, and possess everything God promised them, it would be most of Jordan or maybe all of Jordan.
[21:05] I'm not sure about that, but I think it'd be most of Jordan. It would be a whole lot of Lebanon. I'm not even sure if it wouldn't be part of Syria. I don't know where, where all it would be. What are they dealing with today?
[21:29] A war. And tremendous carnage and battles and loss of life and so on.
[21:41] With the very people that God told them to dispossess. And gave the land to them. And there's still this conflict there for what God has given, had given to them, had promised to them.
[21:54] And I don't know, will Israel someday occupy that? I don't really know. I think it's, I think it's possible. If they believe God, if they rise up in faith and say, you know what?
[22:06] We didn't, this wasn't our idea. This is God's idea. And I believe that they could possess all of, I don't know what that would do in the world.
[22:17] If God would have to fight the battles because their enemies surround them. And part of the reason is, is because they did not, by faith, believe God and receive everything that God wants to give us, give them.
[22:40] And how true is it for us today spiritually? How many spiritual battles do we face? How many, how much, how many things come against us so intensely?
[22:56] And part of it is, I mean, we're always, the Christian is always going to have, you know, an enemy. We know that. But how close are the enemies to the church and have invaded the church and so on?
[23:12] Because we do not walk in all that God has promised and provided for us as a church. Again, God chose that spot for His children to live for Him and represent Him to the nations of the world.
[23:31] It wasn't Israel's presumption, their lust, their greed, their covetousness to want and to have the land of Canaan. Israel, I mean, when God tried to give it to them, they said, let's go back to Egypt.
[23:51] There is something like being spiritually presumptuous. There is something like being spiritually presumptuous. And trying to use promises or whatever to, and make God do something for us selfishly.
[24:08] There is something like that. But for you and I to stand up in faith and say, God, this was your idea. This is your word.
[24:19] This is what you promised. This is what you said you would do if we meet the conditions or so on. That's not presumption. And it was not presumptuous at all.
[24:31] Israel would have never thought about having their own land or whatever if God hadn't spoke that to them and give that to them and promised them that.
[24:43] It wasn't, and I want to make this clear, it wasn't Israel's idea. It was God's idea. And the things that God has provided for the church, it's not our idea.
[24:58] It's not our idea as leaders. It's God's idea. It's what God has spoken. It's what God wants to do. It's how God wants to reveal himself in this generation.
[25:11] How he wants to reveal his power, his glory, his holiness, his purity. It's God's idea. And the more we rise up in faith, the more God will begin to do.
[25:32] What did Israel have to do to possess the inheritance of the land that God gave them?
[25:45] What did they have to do? They had a part to do in that. They had something they needed to do. What was that?
[25:57] Any of you? They had to go into the land and then they had to drive out.
[26:10] They had to dispossess what wasn't of God there. We need to dispossess all fear, all unbelief, all pride out of our lives.
[26:32] And there's many other things we could list. To fully inherit everything God. There's things that's...
[26:43] It isn't from God's point. It isn't from... It isn't God's fault that we're not where we could be.
[26:59] There's something required of us. And again, we need to... We need to deal with sin in our life. We need to deal with unbelief.
[27:12] Yeah, I wrote down some things here. I was going to get to that later, but I'll just cover it now. I think one of the first one I have here, and I don't know why it came to me first.
[27:26] Is it the most important or not? We need to dispossess every trace of pride that comes in its innumerable ways. Leonard Ravenhill said...
[27:43] Were you there when we went to see Ravenhill? He told us there at that time that pride is the last thing that leaves in revival.
[27:54] And it's the first thing that comes back after revival. Do you remember that, James? I never, never forgot that. That pride wants to occupy our minds and our hearts, and it has to be driven out.
[28:16] It comes in so many different ways. Comparing ourselves to others with the attitude that we have more than other groups.
[28:30] That's not our standard, what others have. Our standard is the Word of God. Our standard is, this is what God said. Not, we can look at some other group, but we have more than them.
[28:44] I think God hates that attitude. And I believe it's a form of pride. Excuses that give ground... No, I'm looking at the wrong one.
[28:56] The pride that pursues spirituality or fullness to make a point to others that we have something others don't.
[29:07] To make ourselves look good, important, spiritual. The ground of all pride that seeks significance, importance, has to be completely rooted out.
[29:20] That's something that stands in the way for us to possess all that God has for us to possess. We have to dispossess that.
[29:31] Another one is unbelief. It has to be taken out of our heart. Questioning God, His Word, His promises, doubt, fear. We come up with reasonings, interpretations, excuses that give grounds for unbelief.
[29:47] Again, it has to be driven out. We hear things in our day, well, God never meant for us to really walk in that. Well, that isn't important to God.
[29:58] If it's in His Word, it's important to God. He recorded it because it's important to God. And God wants us to walk in it and practice it, whatever all that is.
[30:12] As long as we believe the most important things, the rest doesn't matter or isn't important. We could go on and on. Those are things that we hear today that we can so easily entertain in our minds.
[30:30] And it puts roots of questioning and unbelief and doubts to the importance of the Word of God.
[30:43] We have to drive that out. And also, along with that is all the different forms of untruth that we are bombarded with today.
[30:55] We could, I mean, there's just a lot of things. And I know you, you know, the thought that we don't have to go all the way in our commitment to God.
[31:07] You know, as long as we accept Jesus and we feel like we were born again, going all the way, just having a full surrender. That's not that big a deal.
[31:17] Are we going to receive? Those are enemies in our minds and in our hearts that have to be dispossessed because we are pursuing all that God has for us.
[31:35] We are pursuing for the glory, not for us, but for the glory of God, for the honor of his great name. I know we've heard statements like that we can have him as Savior and maybe sometime else that we can come to the place of really making him Lord of our life.
[31:58] Is that true? That's a truth that hinders us from receiving the fullness of God that he has for us and many others, many other things.
[32:10] You know, years ago when James, I think, would remember this, when we first started this journey or whatever, we heard things like, if you pursue to walk in these further spiritual things or whatever, you're going to lose holiness.
[32:29] If you pursue to walk in a deeper reality of the Holy Spirit, then people that do that, they just throw everything out. You know, we used to remember, we used to hear things like that.
[32:40] Those things, if we give ear to those untruths, they paralyze us from receiving the full truth and the full blessing of God on our lives.
[32:53] And we have to dispossess them. Now, one thing I want to say is, we could say, and I think it would be true today, that Israel probably possesses the most important part in the 15 to 20% that they possess.
[33:24] They possess Jerusalem, although it's even divided in quarters. There's what, the Gentile, the, well, what are the four quarters there?
[33:35] The Muslim, right? Oh, yeah, I think it's Armenian.
[33:48] And then, is there a Christian quarter, or is it, no? There's four. But anyhow, we could say, and I want to, I want to qualify what I'm, you know, what I want to say, what I'm going to say with this, that I believe by the grace of God, like Israel, I believe, possesses the most important part.
[34:14] Oh, I don't know how they could govern the nation or whatever if they didn't have Jerusalem and what they have. So they're able to function as a nation, not the way God intended, but they are able to function.
[34:29] I believe that, for the most part, we, and I would include most true Bible-believing Christians, I believe that we possess, too, the most important part.
[34:44] I mean, you know, we, we do get saved. We do get born again. We are washed in the blood of Jesus. We do receive the Spirit of God.
[34:58] And I, I want to just, I want to thank God for the part, the aspect that has been preserved for us, you know, maybe even, maybe from generation, you know, I don't know when all they, you know, when our forefathers really started getting a hold of some of these truths.
[35:17] But I, I want to, I bless God for the parts that we have and that we have experienced and have walked in. It has been a blessing.
[35:28] It has been great. It is true. It is real. Jesus does change our lives. Jesus has delivered us and set us free.
[35:40] We have, we do know realities. And I think I'm talking for most of us. We, we have realities of knowing the presence of Jesus.
[35:53] Of some, you know, sometimes just being overwhelmed with who he is in his love and in his glory and in his majesty.
[36:03] And just the, the beauty of his character and his being. I think most of us that are, are born again, we have, we've had touches of that and tastes of that.
[36:17] And I bless God for every aspect of that that we have walked in. But I think, I believe that the more we rise up in faith and say, God, this is your word.
[36:36] This is your intent. The more those things can become such a, not, maybe not just an occasional thing, but such a part of our life.
[36:49] And God can manifest and reveal himself to us. And, you know, in many more ways. I think we, and this is what I want to warn us against.
[37:05] We as Israel, we can become intent of the measure of what God has promised that we have. In our quest for more of his fullness, it's foolish to discredit what we have that is of God.
[37:23] And I, again, I want to thank God for what we have that is of God. It is real. So, please take this in the right light that I'm trying to bring it.
[37:33] There's a realm of spiritual life and authority for us today that he wants us to further possess.
[37:49] Much of the spiritual realm has been possessed. Again, I'm talking about the realm of the spirit has been possessed by Satan and the followers of his dark and evil kingdom.
[38:00] If you go to, you know, if you go to some of the African countries and so on, there's such a reality of the kingdom of darkness and of satanic powers and so on that they walk in.
[38:19] And many times I find in my own life, and I believe it's an aspect in the church in many lives, that we know we're part of a spiritual kingdom.
[38:35] And yet somehow it seems, it doesn't hardly seem real. It seems so far away. It seems like it's so hard to connect.
[38:45] I mean, is that just me or is that where we walk many times? We know God is in heaven.
[38:57] We know Jesus died to save us. We know that he lives forever. We know he's coming back. And yet, there's times when it just seems like, yeah, God is in heaven.
[39:18] We know he's in heaven. We know he's up there. But where is he here? Is he real here?
[39:30] Is he real where I live? Has he come into, does he come into my space in what I'm dealing with in life?
[39:43] And there's, there's, there's just the reality of the, the reality of the spiritual life of, of, of Jesus and God.
[39:55] That is with me through the day that I can connect with. You understand what I mean? And.
[40:08] How many times is that? Seems so dark. That reality, it doesn't seem real. We come to church. We try to connect.
[40:19] We try to sing. We try whatever. Whatever. I believe that God wants to have such a deep, intimate, spiritual connection.
[40:34] I believe we could have. We can have. It is paid for. It has been promised us. It's been given to us. That we could live in a lot more of the reality of being in connection.
[40:51] Just fellowshipping with God. I, I, I have days like that. Maybe I have moments like that. Sometimes I have hours like that.
[41:05] But I would be lying to you if I'd say I live in that all the time. Yet I know that I could. I know that God would love it if we would so believe him and trust him and reach out to him and long for him in such a way that just moment by moment, even in the mundane or whatever, if we think about it, if we think about him.
[41:33] It's just like, yeah, he's there. I think I just, as I'm saying that, I'm thinking about Brother Gary when he first got saved.
[41:48] He used to tell me, he said, Jesus is so real to me. He said, I went out on a Harley ride this afternoon.
[42:01] And he said, Jesus was sitting right on the back of the bike. I took him on a ride. I'm just, I'm just talking to him. And I mean, he was just fellow.
[42:11] And he just somehow Jesus was so real to him that he just, it just felt like Jesus was on the back of the Harley riding with him. And he's just talking to him and showing him the beautiful things.
[42:24] And, you know, and I'm like, from a, he was just a young babe in Christ. And look at how, look what he had already experienced.
[42:38] And how, how often do we walk? How often do you walk in that reality that it's just like, yeah, God's in heaven, but he's right here too.
[42:54] He's just, he's just right here with me. I can just look over and, you know, not literally almost see him, but I can just feel his presence. I can talk to him.
[43:05] I can pray to him in a, you know, just in a moment. I didn't have any of that in my notes really, but yeah, I just, I just, oh Lord, help us to just experience you in such a, deeper way.
[43:29] I had something here. Okay, let's, let's move on here.
[43:44] We read here that he says, you've dwelt long enough in this mountain. How many times as churches we find ourselves just kind of going, okay, here we are back here again.
[44:02] We've seen this before. Do you think God ever looks down and just says, and maybe in our personal lives too, you've been around this mountain too many times.
[44:20] It's time to move on into the fullness of what I promised you. 11 days, it says here that we read.
[44:31] They could have been to the border. I believe Kadesh Barnea. Wasn't that the border where they would cross into the land of Canaan? I think so.
[44:43] They could have been from Egypt to Kadesh Barnea in 11 days, but it would have taken total trust and confidence and faith in God.
[44:54] They could have been there in 11 days. And we know the story. They were 40 years there and they end up still back at the same place. And that, that mountain that they were on, it was on the wrong side of the promises of God.
[45:16] It was still on the other side. They had to walk through that, but it was, it was on the wrong side of the promises of God. Where, where God had for them and what God wanted them to possess.
[45:28] Let us take, let us turn and take our journey into the place of God's full blessing and provision.
[45:41] He has determined, desired, purpose. A specific, defined border or boundary for the church.
[45:51] And, and, and, I, I just encourage you as a body here, as the church of Jesus Christ. To, to pray about that.
[46:05] What, what all is this God that you're promising us and giving us? That you're asking us to possess? That you literally are giving as our inheritance spiritually on this earth.
[46:20] We know that our eternal inheritance is, you know, is heaven. But, I believe he is very clearly, he's laid out some things for us.
[46:33] And, how many times do we even think about that we're not possessing that as a church. We're not walking in the fullness of that.
[46:44] And, why not? And, how do we get there? Because God has promised us. God is, God will lead us there. God is, God will lead us there.
[47:21] That you'd be comfortable with becoming or this church becoming. That's not our consideration. Our consideration is, God, what do you want us to become?
[47:32] What do you, what have you promised us that, that we can be? What have you intended for us to be as a church? What has he promised and purpose that we can walk in and need to walk in?
[47:53] What is God's vision and expectation and purpose for raising up this body in Plains, Montana?
[48:04] What other steps does he desire us to take for you to take in possessing his fullness?
[48:14] What does he want us to take for you to take in possessing his fullness? What does he want us to take in possessing his fullness? And then, I just, yeah, God's will and provision is as broad and as plenteous as the land he gave Israel to possess.
[48:31] What are God's expectations for your life, for the church? Let us live to his expectation. Let us live to see.
[49:07] Let us live to see.
[49:37] Let us live to see. Maybe I'll just say, too, that Jesus is not coming back for a church that doesn't know what she believes and has compromised to fit into the world and is living according to its own vision and glory.
[49:58] That's not the church that Jesus is coming back for. The church of the end times will be a glorious church, fully restored, and I just really believe that.
[50:09] And I think to a greater glory, possibly, than when she was birthed. Can we believe that?
[50:21] Can we say, God, you're able to do that? In faith can we reach out to God for that? In faith can we reach out to God for that? The glory of God will be restored in the church. The Holy Spirit will be restored.
[50:32] Through the operation of the Holy Spirit in our lives in the church, Christ becomes the life, the unity, the consciousness of the body.
[50:42] Christ becomes the life, the consciousness of the body. Again, that happens when the Holy Spirit is fully restored in the church.
[50:57] What do I mean by Christ being the consciousness of the body? When people, when visitors come in this church and sit here among you, what do they become conscious of?
[51:13] I tell you, if there's disunity, people pick that up.
[51:31] If there's a questioning of the Word of God, people pick that up. But when the Spirit of God is free to function in our lives and function in the church, when people come in here, they're conscious that Jesus is here.
[51:51] That these people are about Jesus. These people are for Jesus. And the presence of Jesus needs to be the consciousness of the church.
[52:06] And how does that happen? It happens by the Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit makes Jesus real and alive in our personal experience and in the church.
[52:25] The power, God's power is restored in the church. And again, I believe that these are things that will, before the coming of Christ, will and are being restored.
[52:42] Like I read there in Acts chapter 3. By the Spirit's work, not in might, not in power, but by the Spirit. The power is restored.
[52:54] And I know there's an ungodly, unholy lust for to see something great, to see power. I don't mean that.
[53:04] I mean the pure power of God that transforms, that changes lives, that draws men to Himself. The convicting power of the Spirit. Oh, how we need that in our day.
[53:17] The power of God to bring the fear of God on the hearts of men.
[53:27] Because they sense God is real. His power is real. The gifts are restored in the church.
[53:38] The fruit and fruitfulness is restored. Truth is restored. Holiness is restored. Obedience is restored. The love for God is restored.
[53:50] The unity is restored. The true purposes of God are restored in the church. This is God's fullness that's planned and purposed and promised and provided for us as a church in these last days.
[54:07] And again, what is God's means of restoration? And again, there's many things we can look at that I believe are going to be restored. But I believe God's means for restoration is a fresh outpouring and filling and anointing of the Holy Spirit on His people.
[54:31] God has given us in the Holy Spirit every gift, every power, every grace, every help we need to serve Him and to effectively represent Him to our generation.
[54:46] God has given us in the Holy Spirit. God has given us in the Holy Spirit. God has given us in the Holy Spirit. Do we believe that? Do you seek His fullness and seek to walk in the fullness of His Spirit?
[55:01] God does all of His work on earth through humble, faithful believers who are given spiritual gifts and abilities beyond their own capabilities.
[55:12] We need a complete dependence on the Holy Spirit and a willingness to exercise the Spirit's gifts. We need the humble use of our spiritual gifts for the glory of God.
[55:30] Again, God has... This is something that God has promised the church. First of all, His Holy Spirit and then by His Spirit that gifts would function in our lives as believers.
[55:44] And I just believe that we need to seek God. Do you function in the gift that God's Spirit gives you?
[55:59] Do you see that, that this is part of His inheritance to you? This is something He wants you to possess and to walk in. This is something He has determined for you.
[56:11] I think it was A.W. Tozer. It was either him or Ravenhill that said...
[56:25] But I think it was Tozer said, The Spirit of God, His presence and His gifts are not only desirable and needful in our congregations, they are absolutely imperative. We cannot be what God wants us to be without the Spirit of God being free to move among us.
[56:45] And us being humble and surrendered enough that He can use us as humble vessels, use the gifts, the callings, the graces that He puts on us in the church.
[56:58] And let's turn to Numbers 14. I just want to close here soon.
[57:25] Verse 6 to 9. Maybe I'll read verse 5. Well, verse 4.
[57:36] They said one to another, Let us make a captain and let us return into Egypt. And we know that Egypt is a type of what? The world.
[57:48] The world. How much of the church has surrendered under this mindset and saying it's just too difficult to walk in all of the ways of God.
[58:08] Let's just go back to the world. Let's make it easy. We had it better back in Egypt. That's what they were saying. How much is this the mindset of the church, the so-called church in our generation?
[58:24] And Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before all the assembly of the congregation of the children of Israel. And Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephthah the nine, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes.
[58:44] And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land which we pass through to search it. It is an exceeding good land.
[58:55] If the Lord delight in us, then he will bring us into this land and give it to us. A land which floweth with milk and honey. Only rebel not ye against the Lord, neither fear ye the people of the land, for they are bread for us.
[59:12] Their defense is departed from them, and the Lord is with us. Fear them not. And we know the story that all the congregation wanted to stone them.
[59:22] And then in verse 20 to 24, And the Lord said, I have pardoned according to thy word.
[59:35] As truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness and have tempted me now these ten times and have not hearkened to my boys.
[59:50] Surely they shall not see the land which I swear unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoke me see it. But my servant Caleb, because he had another spirit with him and hath allowed me fully and has followed me fully, him will I bring into the land whereunto he went and his seeds shall possess it.
[60:16] We could, I wanted to go look there where Caleb said, give me this mountain because God promised it. And he said, I want to inherit this, not because I deserve it, because God promised.
[60:26] It was given to me. Moses promised that he would inherit that mountain. So I want to encourage us. Let's rise up as a church in our generation with the spirit of Caleb and Joshua and say, does it look impossible if you really think about all that we could maybe walk in as the people of God?
[60:54] Yeah, in a lot of ways, yes, it looks impossible that we could be everything that God desired and determined us to be as a church, that we could function together and work together and love each other and fight for each other exactly the way God had intended for the church to be.
[61:16] Does it look difficult? Does it look impossible? Yeah, in a lot of ways. Do the giants, does everything against the church, does it look almost... Well, let's just see if we can make it till Jesus comes and not completely fall apart.
[61:39] Let's rise up in the spirit of Joshua and Caleb and said, if the Lord delights in us, God has promised this, God will provide, He will be an adversary to our enemies, He will do whatever it takes if we believe Him and follow Him for this, to walk in the fullness of what He has for us, to walk in a greater reality of the moving and the functioning of the Spirit of God.
[62:07] I don't mean weird stuff. I mean that the Spirit of God that brings holiness and purity of life and gives us victory over self and over sin and gives us victory over the world.
[62:25] He will bring us into all that He has promised and planned and desired for us. What further spiritual experience and reality does He want to lead us into?
[62:39] What further fruitfulness in areas of ministry here and even around the world has He determined and purpose for us, for this congregation right here?
[62:52] If you are meeting in the will of God, then it is because God has a plan and a purpose to use you for His glory in this generation.
[63:04] It's not just so you have a place to go to church. God has a purpose for you here. And I don't, you know, I mean obviously part of that purpose has even touched in Michigan there and may God just expand it.
[63:25] But yeah, as we by faith believe God and say God bring us into your fullness, then only God knows how much fruitfulness and what all could happen with a small group of people here in Montana where there's so many other churches too.
[63:53] Maybe I'll just, I know we know this scripture, maybe I'll just read this yet in Isaiah 61, this prophecy of Jesus. This is what, this is God's purpose.
[64:05] This is how God, what God wants to do through us here, through you, through us collectively. where none of us are going to walk in all of this fully ourselves.
[64:18] It's as the church comes together and as we let God work in us, each one of us taking our part, each one of us walking in the measure of the gift of Jesus that He has invested in us.
[64:35] The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek. Again, this is a prophecy of Jesus.
[64:47] The church is the body of Jesus Christ. This is a prophecy too of how God will use the church of Jesus Christ in their generation if we allow Him to use us in that way.
[65:04] He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, the opening of the prison to them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God.
[65:25] That's part of the message, the day of vengeance of our God. to comfort all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified.
[65:46] And I love verse 4. They shall build the old ways. In other words, something is going to be restored. There's going to be a restitution by the children of Jesus, those that follow Jesus Christ.
[66:03] And I'll let the spirit of Jesus Christ fill them and work through them. They shall build the old ways. They shall raise up the former desolations.
[66:16] And they shall repair the waste cities and the desolations of many generations. And I know that we all would agree that we're there today. There's been generations now of desolation that has come into the church.
[66:31] And it just seems like it compounds more and more as we get toward the end. Anything that God has promised and did at any time, any place for anybody, if He wills it for you, He can do it for you.
[66:50] He will do it for you. Believe that. Trust Him for that. He will do it for us as we meet His conditions. Let us rise up in the faith of that truth.
[67:03] Unbelief is rooted on what we can see and reason and what is natural. But faith hears His voice saying, I am who I am. The voice that says, you can't grow this church, but I can.
[67:17] You aren't anything, but I am everything. You are not able, but I am. You have no wisdom, but I am infinite wisdom. And I just wrote things down as they came to me.
[67:28] I am your provider. I am your healer of past disappointments. Maybe you haven't seen it work anywhere else, but rise up in faith tonight. Tonight we can rise up in faith and say, God, it can work here because you are the same.
[67:43] Your word is true. Your promises are true. You will never lie. You can never, you will never say anything that you're not, you won't do for those that meet the conditions and meet Him and allow Him to work in their life.
[67:59] I am your banner of victory. I will be an adversary to your adversaries. I love that thought. Just how God, God is an enemy to our enemies.
[68:10] I am your, and don't, don't think about people. Think about, think about our main adversary, Satan, and all his evil horde that has come to deceive us and to keep us from possessing everything that God intended for us to possess.
[68:36] I am the one who birthed and ordained this church to be a vessel and an instrument in my hand. So let God do that.
[68:47] Let that, let the faith for that just rise up in your hearts. Again, our hope for the future is not what we're able to accomplish, but what God's able to do.
[69:01] That's the only hope we have. In our own lives, I can't change myself, but I can yield to a God that can change me.
[69:13] Hallelujah. I can't, I can't change all the, the different situations in all the churches.
[69:26] Sometimes I try. it bogs me down, to be honest, because I get my eyes on the problem many times and I get them off of the answer.
[69:42] But God can. God can change our, these situations that we face. and church life is, is a life that there's many situations come up.
[69:59] There's many things that can lead to discouragement and the breaking down of relationships and all of that. That's, the church life is such a testing ground for all of us.
[70:13] And yet, God is the God that can. He can change these things. He can change us. He can, he can bring us into the fullness that he has for us.
[70:27] Surrender to him and to his plans and to his purpose. Let's look away from our disappointments, failures, and hurts of the past. There's no failure in God.
[70:41] Jesus never failed. There's no failure in God. Thank God for that so he's able to fulfill all of his word and all of his good pleasure in our lives.
[70:57] Why don't we, is someone going to close? I mean, I'd be glad if you come up, but why don't we just stand and let's just, I just encourage us in faith tonight, just say, God, you have spoken, you have spoken in your word what you, what you want us to possess, what you want us to walk in as a people, the victory, the grace, the joy, the peace, all of these things, they're, they're promised to us in the covenant of God, they're, he put a boundary, he said, all of this is yours, all of this you can possess, I'll give you all of this, I want you to have all of this, and we could list all of the things, you know, so many things, so let's just in faith, for you, for yourselves personally, and also for the church, let's just say,
[72:00] God, we want to trust you, we want our faith to reach out to you, God, change us and bring us into a greater reality of all that you've promised to us, it's your word, we didn't come up with it, we didn't come up with this stuff, this is stuff God promised us, we don't, we're not just making something up, you know, that this sounds good, no, this is, this is the word of God, he promised this to us, as his people, and he intends for us to walk in this, and to live in this for his glory, so yeah, let's just spend a little time in prayer, hallelujah, father, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, Lord, hallelujah, father, we just, we look to you, we reach out to you, Lord, we trust in you, we hope in you,
[73:00] Lord, help us to believe you, Lord, help our faith, Lord, to be strengthened, Lord, hallelujah, Lord, in all of our questions, and in all of the stuff we don't know and can't put together, father, let us just believe, Lord, that you are able, Lord, hallelujah, hallelujah, Lord.
[73:23] Thank you.