Teaching Holiness in the 21st Century

Everybody doing well this morning? Well, I will try to behave. Brother Staten did tremendous. How many of you in here were for his session? He did a phenomenal job. Man, I'm very happy they're gonna have that on a zip drive out there, a drop card, whatever it is. I'm dating myself there, a zip drive versus a drop card. Well, I've been tasked with something that I love, so I'm gonna try to take off and land fast. And if you know anything about me, you know I run at about 110 miles an hour. So I am gonna try to slow down and communicate because this is a subject that I'm passionate about, that I love. How to teach holiness in the 21st century. Let me introduce this topic this way. I think teaching holiness in the 21st century is actually in some ways harder, in some ways easier.

And what I mean by that is it's harder because we don't have the flexibility that past generations had. People don't follow blindly today. And so we're going to have to teach more on holiness. Now I don't see that as a problem. I think if you're a minister of the gospel and if you're called to do the work of the Lord, you should be able to explain your faith. I think that's important. So I think that that's going to strengthen us in terms of what we're actually able to do. And then secondly, I think it's easier because this generation seems to be, in my estimation, more hungry to make a significant difference in the everyday life of the world, addressing the biggest problems that we're facing in our culture. And to couple with that, the fact that they're data-driven, that they wanna know the proof

of why we are saying what we're saying. So, and that reflects in the desire of this generation or the willingness of this generation to consume large amounts of teaching and talking, like the Cultural Revolution right now of podcasting and YouTubing, where young people are listening to three hours of discussion on topics at a very deep level, should give us a whole lot of comfort that they really do wanna know. And so that should, the notion that somehow we have to come in and we have to finish our sermons in like 20 minutes or people are gonna walk out the door has absolutely been obliterated. And they're saying, well, Brother Kilman, they're watching things and they're doing the laundry and they're doing all sorts of things doing podcasting. That's true, Brother Hanson, but at the end of the day, they're also going to places paying significant money

to sit in seats and listen to people talk or teach for over an hour and then hang out for another hour and a half for Q and A's. And just to speak frankly, I've been in some places where young people have been allowed those venues, even in apostolic contexts, and they are absolutely doing the same thing. I'm like looking at the clock and it's like 9.30 and I know they gotta get up and go to work and I get to sleep in at the motel and I'm like, I know I need to let you go and we're in like Sacramento, California. And they're saying, forget the clock, forget the clock. So I think the benefit that we have today is people are hungry to know the truth, especially around this issue that I'm gonna call holiness. The next thing I'll say by way of introduction,

I was talking to a wonderful friend who I love very much. And he said to me, Brother Kilman, I was talking to my father. He believes everything he's ever believed about holiness. He said he just got tired of fighting people. And so he said I was talking to one of our international evangelists for the United Pentecostal Church. And he said, that's the number one thing I hear when I travel, that some people that we consider to be waffling on holiness, the impulse behind that is they said they just got tired of fighting people. And I will just say that I'll give you one more thing by way of introduction. I had a wonderful friend of mine and I said, hey, I heard you had someone in at a very influential church in our organization. I said, I heard you had so and so in and he taught on holiness, that's wonderful.

I think he does a fantastic job. And he stopped me, he said, well, thank you for that. He said, but they need to hear it from me. If you have the influence in your church, it's not enough to hire in some hired gun to come in and teach on subjects. I think that's important. I think that's a great addition to the church, but they need to hear it from you. So let me give you what I think would be four aims to kind of help you teach holiness in the 21st century. All right, now we're gonna go through these. I'm gonna try to communicate. And then if you have questions, please pick on me later. Because in my rhetoric, sometimes I'm not clear and I will do my best. So let me give you aim number one. The first thing I think you need to do

is expose the worldviews that are in conflict. I think you need to get very comfortable at exposing people to the cultural conflict that's in our times. And that's just a part of that job that we're called to because if you'll let me say it this way, we're called to be cultural creators. If you'll let me say it another way, we're called by God to make a difference in our world, to shape the world through the very fabric of our living. And what that means is then, culture is both what is and what ought to be. And if somebody's gonna shape the culture, shouldn't we be unapologetic as apostolics of shaping it to what it ought to be? You should have down in the bedrock of who you are the idea that the conviction, the passion to say what's laid out in this book is the absolute best prescription of shaping culture

to what it ought to be. So what we're saying then, culture is both the real and the ideal. It's what humanity has made of God's creation and then what God actually intends His creation to be. So when we talk about that, then we're saying, creation is what God makes Himself, but culture is what He makes through us. I appreciated Brother Staten's lesson that he just taught on creating a culture of leadership in your church. Can I just tell you need to create a culture of holiness in your church? Because when you shape the culture, that is what God does by His people. So the second thing I'll say, the first thing on aim one is, culture is both what is and what ought to be. The second thing is teach cultural shaping is our calling. I like to say this to the students, if hell is gonna take a crack at them,

don't you think you ought to take a crack at them too? If the enemy is after the people in your city, don't you think you should be after them too? If Hollywood is gonna be a pulpit, don't you think your pulpit should say some stuff too? So what we're saying is you gotta tell our people, cultural shaping is what we're called to do as the people of God. So culture is formed through our obedience. Culture is informed by our ideas and our ideas always concrete in our obedience. So in Romans chapter six, verse 16, the apostle Paul says, know ye not that whom you yield yourselves, servants to obey. His servants ye are to whom ye obey. Now notice that if they have it up there, well, I didn't give it to him, forgive me for that. But in the King James it says ye

because it's showing you that the Greek is plural. This is not just the pastor's job. This is every sane in the church's job because your obedience, that ideas that form who you are, your obedience is literally the means for the Welsh that God uses to confront principalities and powers. If they're gonna see what saved looks like, they're gonna see that modeled in the world. They gotta have somebody with the right ideas that builds the right culture, the culture of freedom of what they can be in God. That's why Proverbs chapter 23, verse seven, the Bible says, for as he thinketh in his heart, notice not his mind. As he thinketh in his heart, so is he because for the Jewish people, for the Hebrew scriptures, it shows us that the heart is not, it's the seed of the will. And so you gotta shape the will by the thinking

and that's what we do when we yield our obedience to God. Number three, then what we're saying is ideas are powerful, that ideas have consequences that they always build. They're never neutral. Every idea that your people are consuming every day, every idea that you allow in your eyes or in your ears is building something and it can be both negative and positive. Now, what does that mean, Brother Kilman, that ideas have consequences, they form our beliefs. And what we're saying is they shape our convictions and that solidifies into habits and that coalesces into a destiny or a destination for an individual, for a family, for a marriage, for a church. And so you have to be unapologetically about the ideas that will build life. So the fourth thing I will say is there are negative consequences, Paul lays that out in Colossians chapter two, verse eight, he says, beware lest any man spoil you.

Now we're not talking about every once in a while, I'll be invited over to the guy's dorms. And they'll say, Brother Kilman, you want something to drink and they open up the refrigerator and every once in a while, I think they are running science experiments or something, I don't know what that spoil is in there, Brother Hanson, but that's not what God is talking about. Paul's writing by the spirit of God, you'll be taken as spoils of war, how? Through philosophy and vain deceit, through ideas and empty deception, Brother Stewart, it's after the tradition of men. The problem with building your family or your individual life or a society, let alone a church, let's lay that aside for a second because a church is supposed to affect the culture, not the other way around. We're the cultural shapers and we have to say the vain, empty deception of men

can never build victory into people's lives. And I'll show you what that looks like. Dennis Prager's got a great little article he wrote in the whistleblower, David Capellion's great little magazine. He said 75 to 90% of college students that walk into colleges saying they're Christian leave no longer saying they're Christian because of ideas. That's thousands every semester in the United States. I'll give you another example of bad ideas that will destroy people. There are two words that have not been used in textbooks in California since 2008. The two words that are so damaging by the galleon that they had to remove is called mother and father. And again, you're gonna see the results of those ideas. That's why they're giving eight-year-old sexual reassignment surgeries. Why? Because ideas matter. That's why you gotta preach the truth, teach the truth and let you ready.

What we do in our church should affect what goes on in the world. And I'll hurry. So in college and culture, it's fascinating that they give the two greatest dangers of our young people when they walk on a college campus is this. First of all, there's every type of intellectual argument against the Bible and against Christianity and against holiness and against the precepts brother-nave of God are offered in the classroom. They give them intellectual arguments, number one. And then number two, they give them fleshly temptations. They make sin available. What they do is they give them permission in class to dismiss the Bible, but then at the end of the day, they give them fleshly temptations that they can embrace. That's why the apostle John says in 1 John 2, 15 and 16, love not the world. We gotta be unabashedly in our 21st century context

about saying those types of things from the pulpit. I appreciated the many statements that was made last night about having unshackled, unfiltered pulpits that declare the word of God. But I remember my good bishop, my father, the Lord by the Mooney saying, if you're going to love not the world, you better define what the world is. And that's where we gotta do the work of teaching holiness. The world is simply this. It's the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And we don't have time to deal with that, but you can pick up a great little book, How to Stay Christian in College by Jay Budashevsky. And he will give you example after example after example that on college campuses and in the culture, what's being sold every day is the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye.

You can have all the sexuality you want and any flavor you want. You can have the lust of the eye, the materialism, the worship of all things that come by wealth and things and then the pride of life. I'll give you intellectual arguments to dismiss God so you can do what your flesh wants to do. Now that's what we're facing. But ideas are not just negative, they're positive as well, positive consequences. In John chapter eight, the Bible says, then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, if you continue in my word, see that's the issue, you got to continue. It's not about just getting saved one time at an altar, you got to teach people, you got to continue in his word. Well, Brother Mullins here, Brother Mullins says, you can't obey your way to heaven but you can disobey your way to hell.

And what we're saying is you got to continue, you got to go from faith to faith, you got to grow stronger. And then he says, then are ye my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth. That's why we preach holiness, you got to know the truth and it doesn't say the truth shall set you free. It says the truth shall make you free. It will build you into something else. You ready? The ideas of truth that you continue to live will absolutely build the best freedom in someone's life that's available in this world. All right, so what I'm saying is we have to teach people in the 21st century that your obedience matters to God. Turn to your neighbor, say the devil's after your obedience. So how do you navigate ideas in our complex world? The Bible calls this discernment. And what we have to teach our people

and what you have to teach your friends and your family as you started and your kids as they grow up is you're capable of knowing the truth, you're capable of knowing the rules and you're capable of recognizing the pattern of ideas. How do you know that, Brother Kilman? Because Paul writes again by the Spirit of God in Romans chapter 12 verse one and two, I beseech ye therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies. Not just your heart, not just the internal, but as the preacher said last night, start there first, go on to the outside. As Jesus would say, a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And then he says, let me drill down on that. He says, Uncle Bill, he says, be not conformed to this world. Conformed, the Greek word means to be pressed into the image of.

Don't be pressed into the image of, not of the cosmos, but the aeon, the spirit of the fallen age. That means there is something different that we have in the house of God. You don't need to preach holiness as a punishment. You don't need to even be intimidated to teach and preach on it because it's the greatest ability to live free from the chaos that's in our culture. If you can, listen, if you don't have that kind of conviction and that type of belief, then you need to get back in a prayer room and pray over that book until you have it because then it will communicate that you teach those things because you love people. The pattern of worldviews, the pattern of ideas. So what do you mean, Brother Kilman? See, here's what God is telling us in his word, that the pattern of ideas that we ingest

and we live by forms us while it informs us. That literally what you listen to, that's why you gotta pray for your preacher and every man and woman of God that stands without fear of favor to declare the word of the Lord. You have to pray for them, Lord. Help them preach straight to me because its ideas form you as they inform you. Not only do ideas describe reality, it prescribes how we live in that reality. And that's why we teach them pre-choliness. So why care, Brother Kilman? Well, because here's one of the issues that you have to find. Everybody has to deal with this, how to figure out the rules of existence. And the Bible says it's not in, Brother Henson, it's not in a man that walketh to order his steps. You're not smart enough to drive your own life. You're not smart enough to direct your own marriage.

You're not smart enough to direct any aspect of your life, but the good thing is we're not on our own. And so unabashedly we embrace the truth and we have to care about these things, why? Because you can misdiagnose what's wrong. Now you'll forgive me, this is off the editorial page a little bit. I am not as concerned about some issues behind young people's desire today for like social Marxism. I know it's dangerous. Come talk to me if you have issues with that, don't misunderstand me. I know how absolutely dangerous it is, but what I see beneath that is an entire generation of young people hungry to make a difference in the world. The problem is they have their own ideas and if you get the diagnosis wrong, you're gonna misprescribe the cure. And what we need to do is start teaching and preaching holiness with conviction again

because it will show them the right ideas that will absolutely make a difference in this world. Okay, so let me see if I can help with that. I think the Lord shows us in His Word and I don't have time to develop it, but just maybe you can research it yourself, come see me. We live in a world that is designed for interacting influences. So it means that we can be influenced by others and so we have to teach holiness, Sister Steele, so people can have discernment. But we can also be an influence and that's something else where the hints are that we gotta teach our people that we can do actually evangelism. And so God has framed us and made us for that type of purpose, so being formed is what we're talking about. Formation is necessary for true freedom and I don't have time to deal with that,

I'll just say it this way, is there freedom from laws? No, not in existence, there's only freedom in laws. Now, what do you mean by that, Brother Kimman? Look at what Paul says in 2 Timothy 2, 24 through 26, and the servant of the Lord must not strive. Get off Facebook if you're just striving. Get off social media if you're just striving. If you're not trying to help people, you've misunderstood what holiness is for. Holiness is to help people that are struggling to have a good life, to find the opportunity and the spirit to live out the will of God in their life. So the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men. Not those that disagree with you, that just agree with you rather. App to what? Teach. Patient. In meekness. Instructing those that what? Oppose themselves. Ready, you should see lost people in your city

with like POW on their head. They're prisoners of war according to Colossians 2 and you need to say the best thing I can understand about some people is they're trying to have good marriages. They just have ideas that are taking them down wrong paths and as a result they oppose themselves. And it says in meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves if God pre-adventure will give them repentance. How many of you want people to be saved? But it doesn't just stop there but the stewardy says if they're going to find repentance, they have to, you ready? Acknowledge the truth. That they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil who are taken captive of him by his will. I gotta hurry today. So what we have to say is this is your purpose. We teach on holiness, why? Because we have to show people their purpose, how to live.

It's, you ready? It's there to transform you but it also shows them the other piece of their purpose which is to live a life of holiness, to teach and to reach. To transform others. So what does both of those things? Let me give you aim number two. I think this is probably one of the most different things about teaching holiness in our time is what I'm gonna call is expose them to the cultural wasteland. Expose them to the results of sin or the fruit of sin. There are so many acknowledgements right now in our culture that show this and I'll try to hurry today. I love showing this passage to the students at IBC, Proverbs chapter four verses 18 and 19, one of my favorite portions of scripture. The Bible says, but the path of the justice as a shining light that shineth more and more

into that perfect day. Just mean something like this brother ranking that since I've been serving the Lord, he saved me, right? But since I've been serving the Lord, the more I walk in understanding, the more I yield myself to his guidance, the more light I have, the more understanding I have, the more my relationships improve, the better marriage I have. I'm a better husband and a better father and a better man, why? Because I have light to walk in. I have preachers that have looked me in the eye and said, you can't talk to your wife that way and expect to find the intimacy that only God can bring a marriage. But then the Bible doesn't stop there. It says the way of the wicked is as darkness and they know not at what they stumble. And what that means is you have to have compassion

for people who are trying to live a good life. They're just in a spiritual warfare and they have an enemy of their soul. They don't know what's going on. They're trying to trip through life and you have to have enough compassion to say, I know you don't know how to live, but I got a book that can teach you how to live and what God intends for your life. So what we're talking about is that contrast of paths, that there's a bright path marked by vision and insight and blessing and there's a place of what the Hebrew there is darkness, it's deep darkness traps and obstacles and stumbling and falling is associated with that lifestyle. That's why we teach holiness, not to prove we're right or to brag on ourselves, but to invite people into a higher level of living. And number two, the way that you can do that

is show the result. Let them see the fruit of sin. And you can say to young people, one of the, I wish I had time to tell so many stories. I was at Minnesota youth camp and had a tremendous time this summer and a young lady walked up to me. She said she had been away from God. She was 12 years old. The last time she was in church, a friend invited her to the camp. She came at the end of the camp. She was back in her gear and I don't wanna hurt her in any way, but she had like, she had her jeans back on that tear started at the top and went down and her hair was multicolored and she had her piercings back in her nose and places and it was what it was. But she felt Brother Henson like she had to come up

to Brother Stafford and I at the end and just say, I just wanted to thank you this week because you helped me. Now, did you see everything yet, Brother Kilmernaut? I didn't see everything yet. But when you start telling young people, there's a whole lot of ideas in the world that say they will bless people and if they're going to bless people, if these ideas bless, then why don't they bless? Now, what does that mean? You gotta tell young people. You gotta tell this generation. You gotta tell parents. You gotta tell elderly people. Even well-meaning ideas can end bad. I don't think everything's malicious. I think some things are just misinformed. Now, don't mistake me. There's an enemy behind those ideas, but some people that are living their lives by some ideas don't understand that they're misinformed about what will bless their life. So what does that mean, Brother Kilmernaut?

The apostle James says it this way in James 1.15. Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished, looks fun for a while, right? Bringeth forth death. So let me show you one way I would do that to young people, for young people. I've had a lot of fun doing this and seeing the Lord do a lot of wonderful things. So I would say things like this. Talk about the purpose temptation for her. Expose sin, right? What is the purpose temptation for her? That's the lies and the ideas that are in our culture. I wish we had time to deal with it. Here's what I would ask you with. If you want some great resources to teach holiness, go look on YouTube for the Dove commercials. All I'm saying is our pulpit should be at least as strong as Dove.

Brother Naive, if the youth pastor can be at least as strong as Dove, the soap company, I'm okay. And that you got to give permission for your leaders to speak things into the lives of your family. And so look up the commercial revolution, or evolution rather, or the Dove reverse selfie. Look that one up, because when you see that picture that everybody praises of that young lady, when you see the reverse selfie, what you'll realize is that little 14-year-old girl is never gonna get out of her bedroom. Because she can never represent the picture of all the filters that's on her social media. And those lies that somehow the manipulation of your image is your only purpose. It's like the Victoria's Secrets Model in GQ Magazine that said, everything about me is fake. Everything about me surgically altered or enhanced. She said, at the end of the altar, even my heart is fake.

And what the Victoria's Secrets Model is saying, if people knew the real me, they wouldn't love me. They wouldn't accept me. I'm gonna tell you, there is a higher purpose than the manipulation of a woman's image. She can find who she is in God and be set free from the corruption of the world through lust, you ready? And let God define her. And I'll give you another way to do that. Look it up yourself. We don't have time to deal with it today, but you look at the first year statistics of college girls in terms of the suicide rates and things like cutting and anorexia and bulimia. And what you'll realize is holiness is not a punishment. It's a freedom. That's bondage. This is freedom. Or how about the manipulation of praise and powers? Is that her only purpose? Image manipulation or the power manipulation

and praise manipulation? There's a great TED talk by Cameron Russell, a model, who says, looks aren't everything, believe me, I'm a model. I wish we had time to show it today. You owe it to yourself to go pick that up and realize that she's saying that everything in the modeling industry is mostly about manipulation of image. And it's powerful in terms of the way it impacts, but it's superficial and the long term of your life. Forgive me today, but it's like, she has one particular picture by the neighbor. She is being coached by the photographer and I'm gonna be a little plain here. We don't have any kids here today, so I can be a little plain. And by the name, she's saying he's got her kind of hugged up. She's supposed to pull his head down in a certain type of area. And he has his hand in the back pocket of her jeans.

And that's the picture being sold to our young ladies that this is the way to get the most fulfillment in your life. And Cameron Russell said, I was absolutely uncomfortable in this picture. I had never had a boyfriend. And the lies on the billboard and the lies in the movies, even the models and the actresses doing it are not at peace with it. I wish we had time to, I'll just say this very carefully. I had a student in Indiana College here came to me and she was talking about the complexities of being invited into certain social justice movements and a brilliant young lady. And she's a phenomenal communicator, preacher, growing leader in our movement now. And when you're being tempted down the road to sign up for social platforms that make you powerful because you happen to be a lady of color, we started talking about the real issues around the family

and that the number one common denominator of men in prison has followed us homes. We started talking about how incredible Genesis was and that when we dedicate ourselves to the right purpose, all of a sudden all sorts of freedoms spill out into society. But when we destroy the family, we're messing with Genesis and there's no wonder there's cultural chaos. And she said, brother Kilman, if I start saying these things, I'm not gonna be very popular. And I said, well, sis, do you wanna be popular or actually help people? And I'm gonna tell you that young lady is doing great things for the Lord today. See, I'm gonna tell you, there's a lot of hungry people that you might mistake if you're not careful. But when you show them that what the lies in the culture won't save them, but what we call holiness, a life dedicated to God's purpose

will actually change the world. They sign up for it. Or the purpose void for him. I have to hurry. Joe, where are you? How many minutes? Okay. How about the purpose? What I'm gonna call not the purpose temptation because that's the thing for young ladies in our culture, purpose temptation. The issue for men is the purpose void. That's a direct result if you'll forgive me for feminism, even if you don't forgive me. That means the lies and the ideas that tell our young men there is nothing for you to do in the world in terms of honor and integrity. It's like going into San Francisco and mama's from Tennessee, so I'm just being polite by the name. So young ladies walking in, I'm in San Francisco, sure, but I'm who I am. And mama's from Tennessee and I remember young ladies about to walk in.

I, oh, let me get that door for you. And I kid you not, this is what she went. She went, oh, we were having a philosophical debate. It was awesome because she was a feminist and she was saying, oh, I'm so weak. I can't even open my door. You've lowered me. I don't care what you say. Mama said to be polite, so I'm gonna be polite. Well, you can't even let men hold doors open anymore. What can men do in our culture then? And the manipulat - So all they have is, this is all you have left in your life is the manipulation of pleasure and that's your purpose. That you can give yourself to hours of video games because that's the only way a man can conquer in our society and express his God-given ambition to protect and serve. I'm not saying that's healthy.

I'm just saying that's the only place we're allowing young men to do that unless we're doing something different in our churches. It's like 110 million Americans with a sexually transmitted disease. I don't think pleasure's working. If liberal ideas are working, why has the state of California since the 1980s opened up 23 prisons in one university? If your ideas bless, then why don't they bless? You see what I'm saying? When you start looking at these statistics, they're not just statistics. They're showing in the fabric of existence that holiness is actually a thing that will bless people's lives and you should never be intimidated to try to bless someone's life. So let me see if I can hurry today. How about the loss of purpose? That when you look at the rates of mass shootings, they tripled since 2011 and it's mostly our boys. That when you look at Randolph Niece,

a university of Michigan, not normally the bastion of conservatism, just in case you didn't know. That the University of Michigan said, Randolph Niece said being male is now the single largest demographic factor for early death. Why? Because they're killing themselves and killing each other. That the life expectancy rate between young men from the ages of 16 to 30, brother Galion, the only time it's ever been this great was during World War II. And this is off the editorial page. I know there are good people asking good questions but I think we have to see underneath that. When I hear somebody say, why is it only young girls going on mission strip? Well, we're changing that, first of all. Second of all, because a lot of young men are dead. And what I'm saying is when you look at that, if the state of California and liberalism

is the answer for life, then why are you creating 23 prisons in one university? Because lies don't help them. Holiness will help them. It will save them. From 1973 when I was born, I know you students in the Stone Age when I was born. But from 1973 to 2013, the prison population went up 700%. And the fact that 93% of them are male, and young. And to mis-define the issue is to mis-prescribe the cure. And you gotta understand that the only way they're going to be made free is for a church to preach and teach the right things into them. And my experience is they're open. Brother Gallion, there's a Yale professor. See, here's the problem we have. Sometimes our people are intimidated to teach and preach holiness because we only use the scripture. Can I just remind you there are all sorts of admissions

everywhere that this is right? I'll give you another one. Dr. Robert Leahy, he's a PhD from Yale. He says, the average high school kid today has the same level of anxiety as the average psychiatric patient in the 1950s. And I'm gonna hurry. What does that mean, Brother Kilman? It means like when you understand that there is real issues at play and that sin doesn't bless and holiness does. Aim number three, just believe that the revelation of truth can address all life's issues. That, Brother Henson, that our world's most complex issues can be answered if we ground people in this book. All right, so let me hurry today. Let's just skip the four. I only have a few minutes left. If you got time for, Mike, one more illustration. Let me give you another example. Dr. Dean of Freeman has a degree in anthropology from Cambridge and a PhD

from the London School of Economics. She's got this great little article. You can look it up yourself on the Christian Post called, Pentecostalism May Have Done More for Africa Than All Eight Organizations Combined. Okay, now that's a PhD Cambridge graduate that is saying that what we do, Brother Naven, our churches is more than all the humanitarian aid organizations combined. And you can look up the details on yourself. But she says, Pentecostals focus on some key aspects of change that secular NGOs or not for profits continue to ignore. What do they continue to ignore, Brother Gallion? They are exceptionally affected of bringing about personal transformation and empowerment. We're gonna look you in the eye and say, I don't care how you were raised, you gotta obey this book if you wanna be free. And she says that's done more than anything else. Or Robert George, a Princeton professor

in his book called The Thriving Society. He says, the two greatest institutions of lifting people out of power of poverty and enabling them to live with dignity is very simple. Personal responsibility informed by religion, pillar number one and pillar number two, marriage. Imagine that, back to the Bible. The limits of false ideas. It's like 16 year old Jamie Lynn Spears, Nickelodeon Zoe 101 girl who shows up at 16 pregnant. Or it's like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the great French philosopher that everyone wants to model a liberal democracy after. He abandoned his five kids at an orphanage to be raised. I don't think I need to listen to him too much. I don't respect him as a man. Are you ready? In Silicon Valley, they have six times the national average of suicide. Money is not our issue. The fact that black teens in the inner city

are dying mostly by homicide and low income white kids in Appalachia are dying from prescription drugs. And the fact that we have black mothers in America trying to reach out to Silicon Valley in Appalachia to help those moms understand what's gone wrong. Are we really, and I love the Woodson Foundation. Robert Woodson's an incredible leader in our country right now. And the 1776 project is tremendous. And I bless that and support that. But you ready? Are we going to leave it to them? Or can we just say at the bedrock of who we are, we know the truth and the truth will make us free. Let me close with this. Last part, expose them to their calling, their purpose. It's reflected in Paul's statement in 2 Corinthians chapter, vibe 1st, 17 and 18. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.

Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God who have reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ. But he doesn't stop there. He says, and hath given to us, not the world. He's given unto us the ministry of reconciliation. So this is what my challenge is to young ministers and to church people today. It's time to build. It's not time to hunker down. It's not time to hide from the culture. We're the only thing that's going to make a difference. And I don't have time to develop this fully. I'll tell you though what reconciliation looks like. I'll tell you what, it's not uniformity. It's not looking like we're together. We're not the uniformity Pentecostal church. We are the united Pentecostal church. What does that mean, Brother Kilman? Paul says, now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses.

Yeah, mark them. Oh, you're being too strong. Like the preacher said last night. No, no, no. Paul says, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them. Because you should not let anyone rob you of the message that's absolutely the only thing that can bring true freedom to a person's life. And out of that conviction, then you can preach and teach what the Lord prescribes with compassion. For they are such, he says, that serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly, flesh. And by good words, I don't care how good they preach or teach. And fair speeches, I don't care how strong their rhetoric is. They deceive not the minds, catch this good apostolic, the hearts of the simple. So unity is always union with God's purposes. You go look it up in Colossians and Ephesians and Paul lays that out clearly.

So what is, if that's what it's not, Brother Kilman, what is it? We've already said, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. It looks like here in the city, I grew up in the city of Indianapolis. I grew up in a little independent church right across the highway over here, right around by Eli Lilly. And I remember as a young kid coming in, Calvary Tabernacle was so gracious, they allowed us to come visit many times. And Brother Inking, the third revival of the Clue Clocks Klan happened in Martinsville, Indiana, 45 minutes south of here. We had a congressman, a senator, and a governor that were all vocal Klan supporters. But the mayor of Indianapolis said, when I grew up, I just didn't know that I was growing up in an environment of blessing. I didn't know how much my little church there

on 701 East Bacardi protected me, Brother Hanson. I didn't know that I was living in a bubble called holiness that was protecting me from all sorts of manipulation in the culture. And the mayor of Indianapolis said they, and you look it up in Brother French's, Tellmage French's book on G.T. Haywood, he's the mayor of Indianapolis said they could not get in the city of Indianapolis because of the apostolics. Turn to your neighbor and say, you are the answer. My pastor who came out of G.T. Haywood's church, that in the height of that pressure was 60% black and 40% white was a cultural anomaly, but it's not gonna be an anomaly for heaven reconciliation. I gotta hurry, man, I got so much I wanna say. It's like the seven ex prostitutes that are in churches I know. And that when they came in, Brother Naive Hardley,

could they come to the altar, one of them to the altar of Calvary Tabernacle, and they were so abused by men in the culture and what had gone on in their life that they couldn't even have a man lay hands on them and feel comfortable. But then you watch God forgive them and you watch God begin to establish holiness in their life. And all of a sudden she begins to dress differently because healing occurs and not all men just want attention from me. And I can actually maybe have a significance in my life, not just by looking the way the world defines its beauty, but embracing who I am in God. And you couldn't pick her out from any other lady in the church today, why? Because the ministry of reconciliation builds in the life of a lady or a man that comes in out of the culture,

what they need to be the people of God. I have so many stories I wanna tell. Let me just close with one. How many minutes I have left, Joe? One minute, the Lord is good. I was in Minnesota camp. And Brother Stafford was doing a great job at night. And I had a lot of fun hanging out with him. And I was just nuts. I was saying all this kind of stuff there. God help Minnesota. But I had a blast, Brother Henson. And I remember this young man came down to the altar and we were praying and Brother Stafford, I was running at them in the day strong and he was calling them to commitments at night. And as a young man was down praying in the altar, Christian Ramirez, one of our graduates happened to be there and I see him over there. You know, you can tell when somebody's praying

and they're worshiping God and then you can tell when they're messed up. Like God just did something and they're messed up. And he's like overwhelmed. And he's like, Brother Kilman, he said, you see that young man over there? I said, yeah. He said, he was just speaking in tongues and I walked up to him and I said, were you speaking in tongues? He said, yes. He said, well, do you know what you were saying? He said, no, Brother Ramirez, I was speaking in tongues. He said, well, you were praying in Spanish and I know Spanish. You wanna know what you were saying? He said, you were praying, oh, Pandaroso. And he says, that means, oh, powerful one. And Brother Galyan, Brother Stafford was calling them to commitments, to discipline, to holiness that night. He said, he was preaching, there's gators in the water and you need to come down and say,

anything in my life that would destroy what God wants to do that would pull me down into the depths, I gotta get that out of the life. Whether it's technology or friendships, he was calling them to a life of holiness. And Paul says, he that speaks in an unknown tongue edifies himself, the Greek word there, okodomio means to build yourself up in the spirit. And that young man coming down to make a commitment in the spirit was literally being formed as he's praying in the Holy Ghost, oh, powerful one, which is a confession of his weakness and a confession of strength in his God. And you ready? He's literally being strengthened in that moment. That's why you gotta teach holiness because young people want it. That's why you gotta preach holiness because young people want it and God wants it and what he will do is add by his spirit

what you can never do in your flesh. Turn to your neighbor and say, we're gonna have everybody. God bless you.