The Devil Made Me Do It | Associate Pastor Chad Erickson
by Chad Erickson
First Apostolic Church of Maryville (Maryville, TN)
Kind: sermon
Scripture: Genesis 3:13, Judges 16:30, Judges 21:25, Acts 2:37, Acts 2, James 1:14-15, Exodus 32:21-24, Exodus 32:28, Proverbs 12, Proverbs 26, Jeremiah 13, Proverbs 28, Romans 8:1, Acts 2:41, 2 Chronicles 7:14

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/chad-erickson--the-devil-made-me-do-it
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

------------------------------------------------------------
amen come on stand to your feet if you believe that song that nothing compares to our god amen amen thank you worship team amen we are blessed we are blessed with the very best and i give i give them honor today aren't we blessed with the greatest choir what about our music team isn't god been so good to us we may be a little spoiled and not realize it but uh just just do do some traveling a little bit and if you're like me and if you're like my wife and so many others amen if if you do just a little bit of traveling it's not just kansas but there's no place like home no place no place like home well open with me in your bibles genesis chapter 3 and in verse number 13. i want to start there i'm going to do a few things tonight that i don't usually do and one of them is i do have about four different uh references of verses to read from tonight but you just get the first one and we can we can follow along on the screen for the rest of them amen give honor to our our senior pastor and his wife our first lady uh we love them and they are ministering actually ministered in two different churches today they're at one church this morning and they're at another one this this afternoon um in alabama and uh they i just been hearing great reports of what god is doing uh in the services they are in and they will be back they'll be back tomorrow morning and we we pray that they have a very safe return home uh give our our student pastor did pastor hammond not absolutely bring the word this morning aren't we thankful for a student pastor that can minister to students and he can minister to every age group and i love that i thank god that i was ministered to today i was just a little bit a little bit nervous because i had already been given the message i was going to preach tonight and he started walking all over it and i got a little nervous but i'm just going to i'm just going to preach a part 2 of what you heard today and i just believe it's the will of god that somebody would hear would hear what the lord have to say amen want to give my wife honor on tuesday she celebrates a birthday and want to wish her a very a very happy birthday and she is the minister of music over this great choir and over this great music team and don't we love don't we love sister erickson i know you do the way you treat her how you how you love her is is evident and i want to say amen happy birthday love you babe genesis chapter 3 verse 13 says and the lord god said unto eve what is this that thou hast done and the woman said the serpent beguiled me and i did eat or another translation says the serpent seduced me and i did eat judges you don't have to go here just just listen closely judges chapter 16 and verse 30. the bible says and sampson said let me die with the philistines and the very next verse the very last sentence says and he sampson judged israel 20 years just keep all these in your mind judges chapter 21 verse number 25 the very last verse in the book of judges simply says in those days there was no king in israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes and then one more verse and you're here and these are all going to come together when i begin to preach here in just a few minutes acts chapter 2 and verse 37 you can you can quote it now when they heard this they were pricked in their heart and said unto peter and to the rest of the apostles men in brethren what shall we do then peter said and this is really what i'm gonna cover tonight then peter said repent part two of trash talk is simply entitled the devil made me do it the devil made me do it if you don't believe that lift up your hands right now let's praise him father we love you lord we need you just to step into this place lord i believe lord tonight somebody is gonna make a decision lord i know that there's already two that have made a decision to go into the water tonight at the end of service but god i believe there's gonna be even more they're gonna make a decision lord god to repent to be baptized in your name and i just believe you're gonna fill them with your spirit come on church family if you believe that tonight just love him right now come on let's just bless him father we love you father we're thankful that your spirit is in the church today doing marvelous things and you're working out situations lord god that that we've come upon and we don't know how to get out of but god you have always found a way you've always made a way for us and we bless your name clap your hands unto the lord and just give him praise in the house today amen if you're happy and you know it you may be seated man i'm telling you what it just feels good in the place in the house tonight i feel i feel a spirit of joy that's here and i don't i don't know where that came from except the joy of the lord is our strength i just know it's the lord but i there's just something about a spirit that is in this place that i believe that that god can truly work through and make a difference in somebody's life tonight january 11th in 1970 on the ed sullivan show there was a comedian who many of you have heard of i'm sure named flip wilson and he coined the phrase the devil made me do it at that time we're now we're talking back in the early 70s now this was this was before long before my time well maybe not long before my time but before my time and they actually had some some clean comedy and they had some some clean stand-up comedians and and i i watched i watched this show and i watched this man named flip wilson and it was funny but this this phrase that he that he made was a phrase that people kind of caught on to and it was almost like a revelation like yeah you know what yeah the devil made me do that but let me tell you something i i don't like to preach about the devil i don't like to give him any more publicity than he already gets as a matter of fact it kind of reminds me and a lot of times we'll hear on the news when when somebody will go in when a student will go in and shoot up a high school and then they don't want to put that student's picture or name on the late night news because why because there could be copycats and it gives them publicity because even negative publicity is still publicity but i don't want to give him too much attention today and i i normally don't preach about the devil but but brother hammond started something this morning and and i began i began to to to reveal and begin to reveal to me that the people of god are giving the devil too much credit yeah the the people of god were giving him credit that he does not deserve matter of fact i remember growing up upstate new york we we had great youth camps we we had amazing power field youth camps and they would bring in speakers very very similar the very same similarity to strong tower youth camp they would they would bring in powerful speakers who would come in and i still remember one of the preachers that came in and and he did something with us that has forever changed my opinion he said i want you to do something i'm gonna shout out a word and i want you to shout back to me the opposite of what i shout to you and so i was probably 15 or six and i thought come on bring it on i'm ready and he shouted out darkness and of course we all shouted out light he said how about this one wrong and we all shouted out right he said how about bad and we said good he said what about ugly and we said beautiful he said what about the devil and we said god and he screamed no the opposite of the devil is not god the opposite of the devil is an angel because nothing compares to god you can't compare god with good or with evil nothing stands beside him nothing can compare there is nothing in this world that compares to our god he is all by himself he sits on a place he sits in a place in heaven where nothing can compare to him but we're the ones church we're the ones that have a way of elevating his power as if he is the opposite of god he's he's not all-knowing carl don't want you to think about this because a lot of times we will look at god on one side and we'll look at satan the devil on the other side it will give him the same the same power but he is not all knowing he does not know the beginning from the end he does not know the end from the beginning he can't tell you what's going to happen 10 years from now he can't tell you what's going to happen one year from now he can't tell you what's going to happen in a few moments when i call this altar call to the front he doesn't know what you're thinking we give the devil too much power we give him too much authority in our lives as if he is going to make decisions for us he does not have that kind of power the only power that he has is from learned behavior of mankind he's been studying us for the last i don't know two or three thousand well more than that now it's been five or six thousand years he has been studying how men and how women react to situations and so it's easy for him to step in as if he has all power and all knowledge when all power and all knowledge is not his he just has an understanding because you've only been around for 16 years or or for 40 years or for for 85 years but he's been around for millenniums he sees it he sees it and i want you to know the reason why and and pastor hammond he covered so much of this today but the reason why we can catch the devil off guard in so many ways is because we don't react to situations the way that everybody else reacts to situations you might have a father that was a drunk yet he he's baffled and he scratches his head because here's the deal you're not a drunk and he can't understand how did you grow up in the family of a drunk and you've turned out the way you've turned out he can't explain it he can't understand it because it does not go along with human behavior some of you might had a a mother who wasn't faithful to your father yet today you are a faithful wife in a family and he can't understand how can it be that a generational curse can be broken we have we have a a class called free around here and they've been having attendance up to 15 and 20 every week and i think we ought to clap our hands for that alone they've been having 15 to 20 in attendance every week of people who are sick and tired of being bound to addictions and what the enemy can't understand is how in the world can people get out of generational curses how can they get out of lifestyles because even even a.a says once an alcoholic always an alcoholic and so the devil i know he's got to be scratching his head wondering how in the world are these people doing what they're doing when they get in their baptistry and their lives begin to change and they're filled with the holy ghost and they're no longer bound by addictions they're no longer bound by this world's the devil is not omnipresent again we give him way too much power somebody in africa they're saying right now i feel the devil attacking me somebody else in asia right now they're saying i feel the devil attacking me somebody maybe here in this room is saying i feel like the devil's he can't be in all three places because he's not omnipresent we're giving him the same powers that god has and he does not have those same powers now listen there is this present darkness i know he has a whole he has legions of angels uh that are in darkness that are under his control but let me tell you something we have a god who is able to be with us every moment every second he knows where you're going to be tomorrow he knows what you're going to face next week don't you know your god is with you always the devil am i the devil he tries to come against you but there's only one of him but god is everywhere and he is in all space and all time there wasn't nothing more than a fallen archangel he's a captain of the host of the fallen angels that's going to spend eternity in a place called hell a place that was designed for them but i feel like somebody's wondering why in the world are we talking about the devil because the church's view of satan can somehow cause us to put blame on him for every trial we go through for every temptation that we face for every falter for every misstep that we make and we gotta stop blaming the devil for everything that happens in our life the devil did not make me do it it's not his fault he can't make us do anything that we don't want to do he doesn't have that kind of power read read the book of job satan couldn't even touch job's body he couldn't touch jose jobe's family he couldn't touch jobs his his his livestock he couldn't touch his forms he couldn't touch any of his possessions unless he had expressed permission from god himself we read the first few chapters of genesis and satan couldn't even force eve to eat the forbidden fruit the devil didn't make eve do anything it was her free will she looked at it she said my my my it's sure good to look upon it looks like the tastiest fruit in the garden it was her own free will did he lie to her kind of was she deceived yes absolutely but let me tell you something all the devil can do is show us what the world has to offer and step back and see if we'll take the bait now now listen i'm gonna give a little disclaimer because in case some of you don't believe think i believe in the devil i i i believe in the devil i understand spiritual darkness i've felt spiritual darkness i've been i've been in my room before and felt a spirit come on me that i knew was not of god and i prayed and i prayed and i felt the blanket of heaviness i'm not talking about a deep depression but i've been through some mild depression where i know the thoughts that were going through my mind and the words coming out of my mouth they weren't anything that was normal it wasn't anything that i ever do or ever feel i knew i felt a spirit of darkness but i'm here to tell you i don't believe the devil was causing me to do anything i believe i just had to react in a way that the spirit of darkness understood that the power that is inside of me is so much greater than the power he tries to place upon me did you hear what i said the spirit of god that's inside of me is so much more powerful than the spirit of darkness it wants to be placed on us look with me james 1. he'll be on the screen james 1 and 14 says but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed then when lust hath conceived to bringeth for sin and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death tempted do you see that tempted and drawn away by his own lusts he doesn't say when you're drawn away by the devil come on we are flesh while we're here on earth until we get a glorified body we are but flesh we are but sinners saved by grace and listen let me just tell you i just want to clear up some muddy water if you're about to get baptized tonight don't you think for a moment that all temptation and all trials and everything that this world has to offer is no longer going to bother you i promise you the same thing that you dealt with before baptism is going to be what you're going to deal with after baptism the only difference is simply this you're going to have power inside of you to do something about it but you're still flesh the problem is although the devil didn't make eve or force eve she still blamed the devil the devil made me do it it's a term called deferred responsibility deferred responsibility it's when you don't take the responsibility for your actions you don't take the responsibility for your mistakes you try to defer that responsibility to somebody else my god church family listen i don't believe i'm in this all alone we've got to stop blaming our mistakes on the devil i'm going to keep on preaching until i feel we get it because i don't think we get it yet i think there's too many people that wake up in the morning and do things they know they are not do and somewhere in their mind they're thinking well the devil won today that's not what your bible says you were up against a war against your flesh deferred responsibility was taught to eve by her husband adam god asked adam he said he said who told you you were naked and adam didn't even answer the question that god asked he just simply said this woman that you gave me do you see that number one he deferred responsibility to god this rib that you took out of me and made this beautiful thing she did it and then and then he goes he goes a little bit further he first he says god who you gave me then he said he said it was evie eve was the one that really really tempted me and and he was the one that really got me in and seduced me you know somebody seduced her but she seduced me and here we have eve because this this is what's so sad we have a husband who teaches his wife who was not created as of yet when when god gave the rules of the garden here we have adam and here god gives adam a beautiful bride and he says you know the first thing i'm going to do is i'm going to teach you whatever you do and and we preach this brother nolan pastor nolan preaches not too long ago he said he said not only are we not to eat of it adam told his wife said hey hey baby let's just not even go near the tree but that's kind of like a that's kind of like a parent who teaches do as i say and not as i do that kind of parenting i don't know if we realize it or not that kind of parenting does not bring up a good generation of young people why was adam why was adam even near eve at the time why was he even close enough for her to hand the fruit to him to taste of the fruit i'll tell you why because he was doing that he said he was doing the things that he said not to do but here we have eve as she's taught by her husband because now the question comes to her and instead of taking responsibility for her actions and and instead of telling god god i saw that it looked pleasant upon the eye and so i tried it out instead what did she do she said it was the beast of the field it was the serpent that seduced me and made me mess up i was studying for the sermon i i opened up i opened up where i have a lot of my books and once you know i i thought this was this was a confirmation of god i found this book right here it's not my fault he said who's the blame people circumstances dna i wish i had time to read it i would have added something to this message but i thought my god people all over are simply saying the very same thing somebody else made me do it it's not my fault i'm in the situation i'm in it's not my fault i'm where i'm living today adam taught his wife not only to not eat of the tree he also taught her how to pass along the blame deferred responsibility it started with adam but it didn't end with eve because i want you to know today in our prison system we have prisons who are filled with people and if you get them to themselves they're eager they're going to try to convince you that they're innocent and they didn't do it and the other half is going to tell you that it wasn't their fault reminds me of a story in the book of exodus chapter 32 has aaron is left with the people of israel moses the leader the god-ordained leader is headed up a mountain to go receive the law from god he's going to have a face-to-face meeting with god himself and god is going to proclaim to him the very law the hand of god wrote the law on tablets for moses to bring back to the people but wouldn't you know the people as they waited for their leader to return they found aaron and they said i don't even know if moses is going to return but we need a god to worship and so we need your help to make us a god moses moses or or aaron he brings the people together i'm going to read about it in a moment but the short of it is this he makes an idol a calf for them to worship while moses is up on the mountain all the people take off their clothes that's the first sign that you're doing something wrong all the people take their clothes off here they are they're naked and they're worshiping before the golden calf and moses confronts aaron and says what in the world and i'm paraphrasing a little bit but that's pretty much what he said exodus 32 21. moses said unto aaron what did this people do to you that you brought such a great sin upon them see moses no knew where to go and where to place the blame he didn't go find the people he came to aaron and said what did they do to you that you have brought the sin upon them it was your job to lead them while i was gone in verse 22 aaron responds and says let not the anger of the lord wax hot he says thou knowest the people that they are set on mischief for they said unto me make us gods which shall go before us for as for this moses the man that brought us up out of the land of egypt egypt we want not what has become of him and i said unto them whosoever hath any gold let them break it off so they gave it to me then i cast it into the fire and there came out this calf and we say liar liar pants on fire because 3 000 israelites were put to death over one man's deferred responsibility where he could have brought the children of god he could have brought them into repentance right there and right then if he would have stood up and confessed and said it was me i'm the one that brought this shame on the people i believe that there would have been 3 000 dead people i believe there just would have been one leader that would have been put to death but the bible says in verse 28 of chapter 32 and the children of levi did according to the word of moses in their fill of the day 3 000 men and i want us to play pay very close attention because in a few minutes i'm going to tell you about 3 000 souls they were saved because they took responsibility for their sin you see the devil doesn't have the power to force us to do anything however he does have the power to influence the society that we live in oh my god listen to what i have to say here because i believe that god spoke to me listen he can tempt us to follow after a society that has no absolutes a sizable listen i did some research i looked at some polls that were taken of americans and there's a sizable number of americans that see mortality as a matter of cultural consensus i read the study yesterday that showed that two-thirds of all american adults that 65 of american adults agree either strongly or somewhat strongly that every culture must determine what is acceptable morality for its people let me say they believe that every culture i'm repeating must determine the culture must determine what is acceptable morality for its people two-thirds listen my god not two-thirds of america two-thirds of the adults in america believe that hollywood ought to be what determines morality because that's who's running culture they believe that washington dc should be what determines acceptable morality i'm talking about our court systems in our congress and our senate and our president or to determine what is acceptable morality i don't know about you but to me that's a scary percentage of people especially when two-thirds of america claims to be christian that people can call themselves christian let's see except they say the society determines what morality is come on does that concern anybody else that scares me now if it would have said if it would have said that atheists believe that i would have accepted that i would have thought that that makes sense if you don't believe that there's a god if you don't believe that that the bible is an infallible word of god then of course that you believe that government systems or or hollywood or nashville uh or atlanta or new york city or seattle washington will determine what is good and what is bad but that's not the case it's saying that two-thirds 65 of america and they claim to be christians they feel that absolute truth is determined by society absolute truth is something that is true at all times it's true in all places it's something that's always true no matter the time and no matter the circumstances it's a fact that cannot be changed society can't change it culture can't change it location can't change it education can't change it the lack of education can't change it absolute truth is a fact that cannot be changed and if the devil can convince us that truth is relative and righteousness is self-defined then he can blur the lines of sin enough to cause us to no longer see the need to repent that's what i've been trying to get this whole time because repentance goes out the window as soon as the lines are blurred from right to wrong because people begin to do things and listen it's like samson did you hear what i read in our text samson judged the people of god for 20 years i'm talking about a guy who went over into the enemy land he went into the philistine land to find himself a woman this was the guy that was judging the people and telling the difference between right and wrong samson wasn't just a superhero of the israelite army he was their judge he was in a court system making decisions it was up to him to determine right from wrong truth lied in the decision of samson a delilah lover allowed a woman named delilah to lay her head in his lap or rather he laid his head in her lap he shared things with her that should have never been shared with her he allowed her to come into his life and understand things that she should have never understood she was of the enemy yet this man sampson the bible says he never repented read your bible all the bible says was that his hair of his hand began to grow once again it never said now his eyes were gouged out he was nothing more than a slave to the philistines grinding meal in a mill house all he was doing was going in circles blind yet he was so powerful he could push like an ox would push in the mill milhouse that's all he did but the bible never says that he said oh my god forgive me for my ways were wrong you put me as a judge before your people you you depended on me you had great expectations for me you gave me power but here i failed you he never repented all the bible says was that the hair upon his head began to grow again and it's very evident that the last verse in the book of proverbs when it began to tell us that these men all they did was they judged things for what they could see whatever was right in their own eyes and here we have the people of god i wonder to myself oh god i pray that the apostolic movement never gets to a place where we think that we can determine right from wrong that we no longer go to the word of god to make decisions we no longer go to god's word to see what is righteousness what is holiness what is acceptable unto god but instead we just come up with our own creeds and our own ways of doing things and so we are like the people of the bible where even even the book of proverbs chapter 12 it said the way of a fool is right in his own eyes proverbs 26 do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes there is more hope for a fool than for him jeremiah 13 tells us god condemns evil people who refuse to hear his words who stubbornly follow their own heart in proverbs 28 in short it says whosoever trust in his own mind is a fool but i got news for you there's churches popping up all over the place who are writing their own ideas they've got their own mission statements they've got listen they're coming up and they look good and they sound good and they can draw a big crowd of people into a building and they can have the latest and the greatest technology and they can have five services every sunday morning and they can do things that it looks like are impossible they can have what they call church but let me tell you something unless you use the word of god as the basis of your knowledge and the basis of your wisdom and the basis of your doctrine all you're doing is bringing a crowd of people together but oh my god i just wonder today oh i just wonder today if there's a people of god who would rise up and say i refuse to look through my eyes and determine what righteousness is but the word of god determines righteousness holiness and is acceptable in his sight allow me to preach application for just a moment what is our responsibility as the church how do we the church how do we change our mindset of our generation that we could start taking on responsibility i believe we need in acts chapter 2 realization where they said men and brethren what must we do the bible says they were pricked in their hearts when we as a generation realize that we've been putting blame on everyone else and everything else for our weaknesses in the flesh and we begin to point our fingers back at ourselves then and only then will we begin to ask the right question which is what must we do to be saved and i love what peter as he stood up with the eleven i love the very first thing that came out of his mouth when they asked the question on what once we do he simply said you've got to repent you got to die out to yourself you got to be sorry for the things that you messed up you can't blame it on society you can't blame it on everybody else you can't blame it what everybody else is doing but you gotta point the finger at yourself and say god from this point forward i refuse to be who i used to be come on somebody john the baptist he figured it out at the beginning of the gospels and then we had apostle paul continue to preach it all throughout the epistles of repentance defeats deferred responsibility i said repentance defeats deferred responsibility because repentance makes a person step up and say it's me o lord and i'm standing in need of prayer i can't get it without it i can't live without it i can't please you without it i'm coming to you lord because it's me oh god satan hates repentance satan hates repentance listen to me because as soon as someone truly repents and they take on responsibility and once they take on responsibility and they feel condemnation oh yes they feel condemnation and once they feel their condemnation they see the need to be baptized to wash that condemnation away romans 8 you're saying wait a minute i thought there was no more con oh there isn't no no more condemnation to them which are in christ that's baptism who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit before christ before baptism before we're buried in his name thank god for condemnation it's condemnation that makes us think to ourselves this ain't right i'm not going to a good place i'm doing evil things i'm causing other people to do evil things this is not who i ought to be and thank god for that condemnation which then turns into conviction once you're baptized once you're in the name once you have the name applied to your life now all of a sudden now it's different no more is it condemnation but now it's conviction no more condemnation that makes you feel like an absolute loser it makes you feel like what have i done why why did i go to the places i went why did i smoke the things that i smoked why did i treat her the way i treated her that's condemnation but all of a sudden when you get buried in the name of jesus and you get all your sins washed away then all of a sudden god steps in and says i'm going to replace condemnation with conviction because then conviction is what taps us on the shoulder and says baby says baby i know just like paul said i know that you're not doing what you want to do i know the sin that you're performing i know you don't really want to do it i know that your flesh just took over but that that conviction taps you on the shoulder and says you better repent again you better die to yourself again you better put that you better put that flesh under again because if you don't let me tell you what happens it gives control of your life and over time oh it turns into condemnation again if you're not careful and you don't respond to conviction in order to fight against the spirit of no absolutes and convince people that they must take responsibility for their actions repentance must take place acts 2 37 bible says that the people were pricked in their hearts it wasn't conviction it was condemnation because it was the very same people oh my god the very same people that some 45 days earlier were shouting crucified and now all of a sudden there's a man of god who is saying that same christ that you put on the cross he rose again on the third day in that same jesus which you thought was dead in a tomb he's alive forevermore and that same jesus he is god he was in the flesh but now he wants to give you a spirit that's going to help you to live right he wants to give you his spirit that's going to be inside of your body and those people who had crucified jesus began to feel that condemnation and there was a prick in their heart and they said what must we do how do we get out of this situation and they began to repent listen as a generation we've got to wake up and realize and take notice how the christian denominations and the nom denom churches they love to preach holy ghost they love this new holy ghost that's filling people in their churches but they don't see any need to repent they don't see any need to be baptized for the remission of sins all they want is the power but they don't want to take responsibility for sin they want the power but they don't want to do what's right in god's eyes they just want to do what's right in their eyes and i want to make a bold statement i want to make a very bold statement because i truly believe that the most important step in the plan of salvation is the first step which is repentance now i know i know we don't count people that repent i know we love to keep track of how many are baptized how many went in the h2o and then we want i see so many tweets on we had 14 spirit filled tonight oh we we love we love to keep track of those two numbers we love that but let me tell you something there's no need for h2o if a person doesn't repent there's nothing to wash away if you're going to go right back into the same lifestyle that you've been living do yourself a favor and don't get wet don't get your hair all messed up don't go home with wet clothes if you're just gonna go right back listen i've been told i've been told that back back in the day i like to say it back in the day mid 1900s they said that that preachers are pulled preachers of old when somebody came and wanted to be baptized they wouldn't even let them get sister niece they wouldn't even let him get baptized until they saw fruits of repentance they thought we're not going to waste our time and put you in water make a big to-do and celebrate you going down in water if you're just gonna go right back out and live the same worldly lifestyle you've been living because you totally defeat the purpose of baptism and then why get baptized people say well as long as they get the holy ghost well well if there's no remission of sins where does the holy ghost live i think the holy ghost is just going to live a bunch of amongst a bunch of debauchery you think that a holy god is going to live in a vessel that has no intention of being holy i said i contemplated even telling a story but i i i made a friend this weekend and he was telling we were sitting around a dinner table and he began to tell me he began to tell us at the table he said he said the craziest thing happened to me just a few weeks ago he said i got invited onto a zoom call of former apostolic pastors who had left the apostolic movement had joined this other movement that'll show you and teach you how to build a huge church now they're trinitarian now there's no holiness there's no standard of separation from the world but they teach you how to draw a crowd and he said he said i'm telling you it was it was it was the craziest conversation he said because i knew he said i knew everybody on the call he said i went to bible school with some of them he said i preached he's an evangelist he said i'd preach for some of them back when they were apostolic and here they are on this zoom call and he said i want you to know he said i i felt uncomfortable at first because they began to talk and they began to say man this new movement we're a part of man it's teaching us how to fill our seats and how to fill our auditoriums and and one began to tell i've gone to my third service on sunday morning now because we can't fit enough people in the two services we already have and and another one was saying we had to add a service on saturday evening because we couldn't fit enough sunday morning services and they were talking about numbers and talk about how many people they had in their congregations and then one of them one of them he said began to cry because he said i don't know what happened we know how to fill our auditoriums but we don't know how to feel the presence of god any longer and one to the next begin to weep he said he said i'm gonna be honest with you i felt way out of place he said i feel he said i felt awkward because i know that they know who i am but they on the zoom call he said tears began to flow of these young 30-something pastors as they had built these huge churches but they began to cry because they began to tell stories of of camp meetings where they can feel the holy ghost and they begin to tell stories of yeah i remember back in tioga in louisiana camp i remember seeing 300 people get the holy ghost at one time and then another one he he said let me tell you about a missions trip that i went on in the philippines and we saw tens of thousands get the holy ghost at one time and they began to cry because they said we can't feel the spirit of god any longer and somebody wants somebody on the call i think it was the guy that invited my friend he said tell me he said he said you're an evangelist do you still feel the spirit of god my friend my friend began to say oh just last week i was in a church and i saw signs and wonders he said oh just last week there was a little boy that had a broken arm when he stepped up to the altar but he got prayed for and anointed with oil and he walked away and the doctors could explain that his arm was healed he began to say i was just in a church service where we walk down through the altar and everybody receive the gift of the holy ghost as we walk through the altar and those people on the other line began to weep they began listen let me tell you something we can't trade what we have in this room we can't trade the spirit that fills us with the world oh my god we can't take on the temptation we can't take on the temptation of the world to please man i don't know about you but i never want to lose what i feel in this place i'm gonna fight for it with everything i have i don't care if everybody else looks at us and says you all are a bunch of crazies why do you have two services on sunday i don't care what they think there's something about two services on sunday i'm faithful that we get to come to church twice in a day and feel the spirit of god move you may be seated i'm almost done i believe repentance listen to me repentance is headed for extinction in our society how long will it be before repentance becomes extinct and you say come on come on brother erickson what are you talking about oh all it takes is one generation it only takes one generation that gets the idea that it's not their fault you know it takes one generation that's told they have to repent and they look back and say i ain't got nothing to repent for i ain't done nothing wrong i'm doing the same thing that every other christian does my god it's only gonna take one generation of people to say i don't need repentance because as soon as they don't feel they need repentance then they also won't feel they need to be baptized romans 8 and 1. i want to read it one more time because it's so important there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in christ jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit oh my god help us today to realize the need to be buried in the name with no more sins attached to our life oh my god the power and the authority if we're gonna be if we're gonna be a generation that lives on in revival there has got to be a spirit of repentance that fills every single one of our services stand with me because i'm almost done acts 2 and 41 says then they that gladly received his word were baptized and the same day they were added unto them about 3 000 souls exact same wording that was in the day of moses about three thousand in moses's day they were slain because there was no repentance but on the day of pentecost instead of shouting crucify them they were saying oh god forgive us jesus please please forgive us for the way we felt and what we said and because of it 3 000 souls were added to the church because they saw the need to repent now listen this might sound crazy but this is my prayer tonight i just began to pray this in my office i said god please fill this altar with people who love to repent shut up come on that's what i prayed i simply said god i want a church filled with people who love to repent i don't know about you i love to repent i'll be the first one tonight and i'll openly say it's my fault everything that i've done it's not my parents fault it's not my personality's fault it's not because i was born a drug baby it's not because i came from a certain type of people in a lineage overseas it's not because i've got red hair it's not because i've got no hair it's all because i am a sinner that's saved by grace and i take full responsibility for everything i've ever done wrong and i want you to know god that i repent and i tell you i'm sorry and i'm not gonna go back to that lifestyle do you know what what love and repentance is all about it's about living holy i'm just gonna i'm just gonna talk straight it's about living separated from the world because we can't claim to be people who love repenting if we just go right back out and live the same way we've always lived but people who want to live a lifestyle that's pleasing to god it's just our reasonable service y'all a lifestyle is pleasing to god they come every service and they say jesus i want you to forgive me once again for my flesh has had control when i surely shouldn't have let it have control oh is there anybody that would like to repent today i i want to celebrate listen i want to celebrate repentance we're going to celebrate water baptism in a moment we got at least two souls that want to be baptized but is there anybody who wants to come forward and just say pastor erickson i love the fact that i've got the opportunity to repent i love the fact listen only because of mercy in our life that's the only reason why we have the opportunity because mercy said no each one of us should have died in our sins each one of us one of us should have been crucified on our own cross but mercy said no mercy said i will die on a cross in order to allow my people to repent i will allow my children to come before me now listen repentance usually is a time when we mourn and we moan and we cry but come on i want somebody to repent with joy on your lips i want somebody to say god here i am again god i'm your child and i'm back again oh god i feel conviction and i just want to say god i'm sorry for my sin god i feel like i don't want to do what i used to do again i feel like there needs to be a change in my life i feel like something different needs to happen in my body come on somebody i believe you begin to repent right now i believe something will begin to stir up maybe in your family things will begin to stir up second chronicles 7 says if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will i hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land come on somebody our land needs healing our land needs healing our city needs healing come on repent with joy say thank god i have the opportunity to repent thank god i can come once again and say i'm gonna do better this week than i did last week i'm gonna do more this week than i've ever done for the kingdom of god what's gonna happen in your family i believe there's gonna be healing i believe there's gonna be revival that takes place in your home if you'll simply say god i'm coming to you i'm turning from my ways i acknowledge that i'm a sinner i acknowledge that i made mistakes but god i thank you for your mercy i thank you for your mercy come on right now this is our privilege come on repent i believe the holy ghost can be poured out if somebody begin to repent right here come on the holy ghost can come upon you if you begin to repent god knows your heart he sees you he understands where you are begin to say oh god i'm a different i'm a different person i'm not the same i refuse to be the same i'm leaving this place changed yes yes yes yes yes come on come on yes i'm sorry i'm sorry it's me it's my fault come on use those words me me me me me it's my fault nobody else's fault not the devil's fault it's my thought it's my flesh come on come on die out right here come on thank you jesus thank you jesus i feel your spirit right now god i feel there's decisions being made right now of people lord god who realize the mercy that they've been shown they realize the grace the power that's come upon their life right now that's gonna allow them to make a difference allow them to make a change let your holy ghost feel them right now come on if you don't have the holy ghost once you've repented i just want you to reach your hands as high as you can into heaven and i want you to begin to cry out to god and say god i've repented god i've acknowledged your god that i'm the sinner i've taken all responsibility now i need you to fill me with your spirit i need you to fill me with your spirit guard i need power inside of me to overcome the temptation i need power inside of me to help me to overcome the deception come on he wants to live inside of you he wants to live inside of you he wants to do a work within you come on pray that prayer right now say god i need you to do a great work within me do a great work through me oh god use me yes yes yes yes come on there's a roar of repentance there's a roar of worship if you've never been baptized in jesus name tonight has got to be your night you've got to make a decision i don't want my sins applied to my life any longer i want them removed i want to remit it i want the name of jesus called upon my life come on make a decision right here come on saints of god come on let's pray every decision that's made today oh god to follow after your plan of salvation lord i just believe somebody in this room in a still small voice you're speaking to somebody right now god let them let loose of the pew in front of them lord let them let loose oh god oh god of rejecting lord let them let loose oh god of holding back lord let them make a decision they will change their life forever oh it their come on if you want to join them walk yourself up and join them in the baptismal area come on lift up your hands if you've experienced a change i feel chains breaking in this place signs and wonders take place come on there's a healing power in this place everything changes everything changes is everything changes everything changes is is today is is loose is i know there's a lot of healing that needs to take place in the church today and i want us to notice that whenever jesus would heal he would always forgive sins before the healing and i just feel like that had a lot to do with there must have been some repenting going on for the people that needed healing and jesus was simply saying i'm just gonna take care of two things at one time not only am i gonna give you healing of your body but i'm gonna heal you spiritually too let's pray right now i believe that repentance has gone forth and i'm not gonna ask you to repent again i believe it's already happened but come on let's just ask god now if you need a healing in your life or in a loved one's life i know we've already prayed i know we've already brought names before but there was a whole lot of names we didn't even get to bring forward why don't you pray over your need right now because i believe as sins have been forgiven that correlates so closely to healing come on pray over your need right now oh come on jesus is wanting to heal come on jesus is wanting to heal oh he's wanting to heal spirit let the healing begin right now oh i pray right now continue lord god i believe healing has already gone forth once shannon wilson let it continue in jesus name oh let him feel the strength in his body right now in jesus name i thank you the repentance has gone forth and i i believe the forgiveness of sins has gone forth and i believe healing is going forth right now lord god let it take place oh god in jesus name in jesus name in jesus name amen amen brother jonathan frazier from professor your faith and obedience to the word of god i do now indeed baptize you in the name of jesus christ for the mission of your sins and you have the promise to receive the gift of the holy ghost in jesus name i'm so thankful our free class we've seen baptisms taking place in our our ministry we've seen baptisms take place every single week of men and women who have made decisions i'm not going to be who i used to be i want my sins washed away remitted i'm so thankful we've we've seen them fulfill the holy ghost every week church family do we understand the revival that's taking place in our community who believes and understands and knows that they can be delivered i'm so thankful i'm so thankful amen another young man that's been attending our free class amen film of the holy ghost when it comes out of the water ben harper professor your faith obedience to the word of god i do now indeed baptize you in the name of jesus christ for the remission of your sins you shall receive the gift of the holy ghost in jesus name come on clap your hands at the lord and thank you yes come on let the spirit of the lord come on what a feeling what a feeling it's not feeling like having your sins washed away there's no feeling like having all those things they've been holding you down all the vegas has been bringing it to you set free no feeling like being set free oh one more time i'll stand yes is come on if you belong to him just to love him one more time in this house oh i love you jesus i love you lord i love you lord i love you lord are you thankful for the opportunity to repent does anybody just feel good what a beautiful feeling that's why that's why i love the altar people people you know a lot of churches only those that want to get saved come down to the altar right only those who want to be saved come and confess their sin but i'm so thankful for the pentecostal altar because this is just a place where we could come every service and just renew ourself in god and just say simply lord i'm sorry we fall down but we get up we fall down but we get up for a saint is just a sinner who fell down then got up sing with me it's real easy sing we fall down but we get up we fall down who fell down then got up oh that sounds so good one more time sing with me see we fall down but we get up we fall down who fell down the beautiful spirit we fill in this place clap your hands until the lord if you love him if you're thankful we've had a great day in the lord what a great day in the lord we've had god bless you in jesus name we'll see you back son a wednesday night at seven o'clock for prayer 7 30 start service have a blessed week in jesus name and