Where is Jesus now?
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And what is He doing?
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Heaven is a busy place.
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And it's all about you.
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One of the most
fascinating scenes that we see
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in the book of Revelation,
the revelation of Jesus Christ
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Himself, is that He's
standing right in the midst
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of seven golden candlesticks.
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Why is Jesus standing there in
those seven golden candlesticks?
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It's because heaven is a very
busy place, as we're going to
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find out in this time together.
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The book of Revelation
talks about the seven churches.
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And Jesus is
passionate about His churches.
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The churches are
the focus of His love,
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and He has great
expectations for His churches.
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In Revelation 1:4-6, John is
saying to the seven churches,
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or Jesus is saying through John,
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"John, to the seven
churches that are in Asia..."
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I'm skipping down
just a little bit.
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"To Him who loved us
and washed us from our sins
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with His own blood, and
made us kings and priests
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to His God and Father,
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to Him be glory and honor
and dominion forever and ever."
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What John is really
saying is that the Lord Jesus
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has great plans for His
church and for His people.
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Exceedingly, abundantly
beyond what we can imagine
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or even think about.
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Well, why are the
churches so special?
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Now a lot of people today,
they take churches for granted.
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You know, they look
at them, they see them,
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they hope somebody is
going, but they're not going.
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But the church to the
Savior is very, very special.
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And we want to understand that.
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At the end of the seventy weeks,
as we talked about earlier
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in another broadcast, we find
that as the nation of Israel
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and its leadership,
many wonderful Jewish people,
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but as the nation and
the leadership rejected Jesus
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as the Messiah, the mission
that had been given to Israel
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now switched to
the Christian church.
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And the Christian church
is now the agency by which
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Jesus moves and
communicates to the world.
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That's pretty important.
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Communication is a
very important thing.
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Without communication, you
can't get your message across.
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So Jesus is working
through human agencies.
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And the church of Jesus
versus the great red dragon.
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Because the great
red dragon, Satan,
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also works through human agents.
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Now we're going to see more
about that as we get into the
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great dragon, and
the beast from the sea,
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and the beast from the earth,
and all of those symbolic powers
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that the Bible talks about.
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But the church is the agency
through which Jesus operates.
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And in the first
part of Revelation,
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that's where the focus is at.
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It's on the
church of the living God.
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In fact, Jesus wants you
to be, He wants His church,
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He wants you to be encouraged.
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He wants to give
you a lot of hope.
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So right in the very
first chapter of Revelation
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we have these words,
Revelation 1:8, it says,
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"Behold, He is
coming with clouds,
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and every eye will see Him..."
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So right away He says,
"Look, I am coming back."
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Yes, the book of Revelation
is going to tell you about
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a lot of tribulation,
a lot of difficulty.
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It's not all going
to happen at one time.
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It starts right in
John's day and it covers
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the entire Christian era.
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We'll talk more about that.
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But the church is
given encouragement.
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Encouragement
because Jesus is coming back.
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Sometimes people get,
they think that the Lord has
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delayed His coming.
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But He knows what He's doing.
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And He's going to come
back and get His church
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and redeem them.
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So no matter what
the church goes through,
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the church has hope.
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Now you know when Jesus
was here and He was crucified,
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He was mocked,
He was made fun of,
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it still just hurts me
so much to think of how
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here Jesus is dying on the cross
and people are walking in front
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of Him while He's dying
making fun of Him, mocking Him.
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But listen to
what the Bible says.
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The Bible says that
those who pierced Him...
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And I think that's going to
include those who sentenced Him,
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and mocked Him, and
put Him on that cross.
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They're going to see Jesus come.
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They're going to see Him come.
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There's probably going to
be a special resurrection,
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but they're going to see Him.
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Remember in His
trial Jesus told Caiaphas,
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when he said, you
know, "Who are You?
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Are You the Son of God?"
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I'm paraphrasing,
using my own words.
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And Jesus said, "You
will see the Son of Man
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coming in the clouds of heaven."
00:05:03.70\00:05:06.30
So that's going to happen.
00:05:06.84\00:05:09.24
This Man they mocked
and hung on the cross
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who had been so good,
who gave sight to the blind,
00:05:13.31\00:05:17.41
who cured the
leprosy, who raised the dead.
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There's no one
ever been like Jesus.
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He's the incomparable Jesus.
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He'd go through a whole village
and not leave one person sick.
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This wonderful
Jesus is coming back.
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And His church has hope.
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It has a lot of hope.
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And you hear it right
there in the first part
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of the book of Revelation.
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So in Revelation we
have a lot of symbols,
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but these symbols are
really rooted in realities.
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They're talking about realities.
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And so these
churches, the seven churches
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in the book of Revelation,
they're all real churches,
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but they're also symbolic.
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And they also are
instruction and messages
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to God's church through
all of the Christian era,
00:06:02.42\00:06:06.80
from the time of John all
the way to the coming of Jesus,
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I wish people would
take the seven churches
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and the messages from Jesus
Himself, from His own lips,
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I wish people would
take that more serious.
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We need to study
those seven churches.
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We need to understand
what Jesus is saying to us.
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Those messages
are very important.
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Because we have an
enemy; he's cunning,
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he hates the church, he
wants to destroy the church.
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He tries to
destroy it from the inside,
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he'll try to
destroy it from the outside.
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But Jesus has
promised that the gates of hell
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will not prevail
against this church.
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That even though it goes
through trouble and difficulty,
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even though it may even
appear like it's going to fall,
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it will not.
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God's church will go
through, because Jesus
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is steering the boat, if
you please, in the storm.
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So we want to look at this
imagery that Jesus has given us
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in the book of Revelation.
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Jesus in the heavenly sanctuary.
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We're going to look
at Revelation 1:19-20.
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Jesus says to John, "Write these
things which you have seen,
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the things which are, and the
things which shall take place."
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In other words, the things
which are present in John's day
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and the things that
are going to take place.
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So this is a prophetic
picture for God's people
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and for the
church till Jesus comes.
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And then He says, "The
mystery of the seven stars
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which you saw in My
hand, in My right hand,
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and the seven
golden lampstands..."
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What's the
meaning of those symbols?
00:07:38.32\00:07:42.09
So Jesus is going to tell us
what He means by those symbols.
00:07:42.32\00:07:48.10
Then He says, "The
seven stars are the angels
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of the seven churches..."
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So there are designated
messengers for these churches.
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We'll talk about
that in a moment.
00:08:01.68\00:08:03.18
"...and the seven
lampstands which you saw
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are the seven churches."
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So the seven
lampstands represent light,
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and they are the seven churches.
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But it also says earlier
that the seven lampstands
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are the seven spirits of God.
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Now the Holy Spirit
is at work in the church.
00:08:19.23\00:08:23.37
And we want to talk
about the Holy Spirit.
00:08:23.40\00:08:25.30
Before I do that, let's
talk about the seven stars
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for just a moment.
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That word,
"angel," means, "messenger."
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Now I don't have any doubt that
there are heavenly messengers,
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heavenly angels,
that are assigned
00:08:35.34\00:08:37.35
to look after God's churches.
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I don't have any
questions about that.
00:08:39.25\00:08:40.88
But it also can mean ministers,
or the human agents that are
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in charge of God's church.
00:08:45.89\00:08:47.32
I had a friend of mine that
says, he took this and he says,
00:08:47.79\00:08:50.46
"You know, this is
an important passage.
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Because God, He's very
interested in those who are
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giving
leadership to His church."
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Now they're not
better that anybody else,
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but they have
huge responsibilities.
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Now many are faithful
and they're going to get a
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faithful person's reward.
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And many of these leaders
sometimes are not faithful
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and they're not going
to get a faithful reward.
00:09:08.14\00:09:10.15
But Jesus is
watching over His church
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and He does
hold it in His hands.
00:09:12.38\00:09:14.95
So if you're a leader, if you're
an elder in your local church,
00:09:14.98\00:09:18.55
or you're giving
leadership in your local church,
00:09:18.59\00:09:21.12
or you're a pastor, or a member,
just remember God has His church
00:09:21.16\00:09:26.86
in His hands.
00:09:26.96\00:09:29.00
So let's take a look at
these seven golden lampstands
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for just a moment.
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We want to look again at
the fact that the Holy Spirit
00:09:33.37\00:09:35.97
is operating at this.
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At the end of every church
Jesus will say to that church,
00:09:37.64\00:09:42.51
He will say, "He that
has an ear let him hear
00:09:42.71\00:09:46.78
what the Spirit
says to the churches."
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So the Holy Spirit is
speaking to the church.
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Now the Holy Spirit is like oil.
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And the oil is the
fuel that makes the church
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bright and light.
00:10:01.76\00:10:03.37
So if we don't have the
Holy Spirit in the church,
00:10:03.40\00:10:07.57
the church is not
going to burn brightly.
00:10:07.60\00:10:10.31
And this is a dark
world, let me tell you.
00:10:10.47\00:10:12.91
There's darkness everywhere.
00:10:12.94\00:10:14.28
It seems like it's
getting darker by the moment.
00:10:14.31\00:10:16.28
And if there was ever a
time for the church to shine,
00:10:16.31\00:10:20.02
it's now.
00:10:20.05\00:10:21.48
And the church is no stronger
than those who are the members
00:10:21.68\00:10:25.79
in that church.
00:10:25.89\00:10:27.22
So today we have, of course,
lots of attack on the church.
00:10:27.36\00:10:31.33
We have an absence of the
Holy Spirit in the church.
00:10:31.63\00:10:34.53
We need to be
praying and pleading with
00:10:34.56\00:10:36.20
God for the Holy Spirit.
00:10:36.23\00:10:37.67
And when there's no Holy
Spirit moving in the church,
00:10:38.37\00:10:41.50
the church doesn't burn.
00:10:41.54\00:10:42.97
Doesn't burn brightly at all.
00:10:43.14\00:10:45.17
So the Holy Spirit's job is
to put the fuel and the power
00:10:46.04\00:10:51.05
in the local church.
00:10:51.08\00:10:52.41
That's the reason
there are some churches
00:10:52.45\00:10:54.62
that have a form of godliness
but they don't have power,
00:10:54.65\00:10:59.22
real genuine
spiritual power that changes
00:10:59.25\00:11:02.76
the lives of people.
00:11:02.79\00:11:04.13
There was one
church, big megachurch,
00:11:04.39\00:11:06.26
I won't say which one
it was, some years ago,
00:11:06.29\00:11:09.20
I mean, they had a lot
of snap, crackle, and pop.
00:11:09.23\00:11:11.47
They had thousands
of members coming out.
00:11:11.50\00:11:13.84
And they decided that
they would do a survey,
00:11:14.04\00:11:16.60
and found out that the
moral behavior of their members
00:11:16.64\00:11:20.14
was no better than the
John Doe in the street.
00:11:20.18\00:11:23.85
They were shocked.
00:11:23.88\00:11:25.25
They had a form of
godliness, but no power.
00:11:26.15\00:11:30.79
The church must have power.
00:11:32.55\00:11:34.52
Power that
changes people's lives.
00:11:35.12\00:11:39.16
That's why we have
to have the Holy Spirit.
00:11:40.16\00:11:42.26
That's why your church and
the leaders of your church,
00:11:42.30\00:11:45.70
and I appeal to ministers,
don't turn your church
00:11:45.73\00:11:50.01
into a social club.
00:11:50.04\00:11:51.64
Don't turn your church
into religious entertainment.
00:11:52.17\00:11:56.64
It's not about
religious entertainment.
00:11:56.95\00:11:59.08
This is about getting
people ready for Jesus to come,
00:11:59.31\00:12:02.55
because He is coming.
00:12:02.58\00:12:04.69
And He's coming soon.
00:12:04.79\00:12:06.42
You see, the only way
to keep that from happening
00:12:07.06\00:12:09.42
is to have the
power of the Holy Spirit.
00:12:09.62\00:12:11.63
Now the Holy Spirit is Christ's
representative on earth.
00:12:11.66\00:12:14.90
He's the real Vicar of Christ.
00:12:14.93\00:12:17.30
He's the one
who's in place of Christ
00:12:17.33\00:12:19.07
while Christ is in
the heavenly sanctuary.
00:12:19.10\00:12:21.64
In fact, Jesus said in
John 14:15-18, He says,
00:12:21.67\00:12:27.04
"I will pray the
Father, and He will give you
00:12:27.08\00:12:28.84
another Comforter..."
00:12:28.94\00:12:30.55
In other words,
"Someone like Myself."
00:12:30.58\00:12:33.58
And when the Holy
Spirit comes, He brings power.
00:12:33.62\00:12:37.25
But He also
brings the living Christ.
00:12:37.29\00:12:39.59
Because He said, "I
will not leave you orphans."
00:12:39.62\00:12:43.12
So if you have the Holy Spirit,
you have the living Christ.
00:12:43.22\00:12:46.36
And that's why we should be
praying for the Holy Spirit.
00:12:46.39\00:12:49.13
Because He brings the
living Christ into the church
00:12:49.30\00:12:52.53
and into the
hearts of the members.
00:12:52.57\00:12:54.77
I want to share with
you a wonderful quote from
00:12:55.64\00:12:57.84
somebody that I have a lot
of respect for and appreciation.
00:12:58.04\00:13:00.81
It says, "The lapse of time has
brought no change in Christ's
00:13:01.01\00:13:04.98
parting promise to send the Holy
Spirit as His representative.
00:13:05.01\00:13:09.55
It is not because of any
restriction on the part of God
00:13:09.88\00:13:13.89
that the riches of His grace
do not flow earthward to man.
00:13:13.92\00:13:16.86
If the fulfillment of
the promise is not seen
00:13:17.16\00:13:20.33
as it might be, it
is because the promise
00:13:20.36\00:13:24.83
is not
appreciated as it should be.
00:13:24.93\00:13:28.17
If all were willing, all would
be filled with the Holy Spirit."
00:13:28.27\00:13:33.81
Now in just a moment I'm
going to finish that quote.
00:13:34.08\00:13:36.98
But listen, the church can be
filled with the Spirit of God.
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You can be filled with the
Spirit of God if we're willing.
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