Wednesday Evening Worship | Pastor Grizzle

aren't you glad to be in the house of the Lord tonight amen it's good to be here I'm thankful for each and every one of you that are here I give appreciation to my friends and man I tell you what y'all are some blessed people here you have fantastic leadership in this church aren't you thankful for your church leadership amen thank you they're rocking and rolling back there and we had a great time this morning I I made a mistake though I called myself Grandpa pants from the pulpit and sure enough some young man came across the front and looked at me and said hey Grandpa pants yep I did it to myself y'all I did it to myself um man I tell you I'm thankful for my friends Pastor Nate and sister Ashley and Pastor Anthony and sister Kelly and pastor and sister McCool and Bishop and sister McCool there are a few churches in the world that can say that they have mighty men and women of God that are their pastors and their leaders but you're one of them and I'm thankful for them you guys are a lighthouse to churches like mine because we have 16 kids and I look at what y'all have and I tell you what it gives us hope that one day we'll be there and I'm thankful for them let's go to the book of First Samuel chapter 18 and we're going to begin at verse number six [Music] um man we're having great Revival if my kids are watching I love you I miss you I'll see you in a little while and by a little while I mean five days uh we love I love my kids love my church miss my church family um all glory to God but in the last year covet really it did a number to our church and um last year a year ago we were running around 180 people and God began to put it in our heart that we were going to seek his face and he put it in our heart that Revival is not a answered prayer it's a response to Consecration and relationship and in the last year we have seen around a 75 Soul Revival and it's all because of God so when people try to tell you that the world doesn't want what you have don't believe the lie of the devil this world's darker than it's ever been and if you're ever going to let your light shine it's today you be the church God has called you to be and you'll you it will blow your mind what God will do through you amen amen first Samuel 18 beginning at verse 6 and it came to pass as they came when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistines that the women came out of all the city of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tablets with joy and with instruments of music and the women answered one another as they played and said Saul has slain his thousands and David his ten thousands and Saul was very Roth and the saying displeased him and he said they have ascribed unto David ten thousands and to me they have ascribed but thousands and what can he have more but the kingdom [Music] I'm nervous y'all I still get nervous I don't know if y'all do or not but I do and I made God a deal before I came here tonight I said Lord I'll preach to I get a hernia if you'll go with me and I really believe on a Wednesday night I know I'm used to bible study on Wednesday night but I don't believe God wants to waste this moment and I want to preach to you tonight who are you fighting who are you fighting we're in an Apostolic Pentecostal church that believes in the power of prayer I wonder if we could put our Bibles to our side I want us to lift our hands up together and I want us to pray and I ask that you pray for me tonight that I'll deliver the word as God as cease fit Lord we love you we praise you and we thank you Lord for your wonderful blessings God we know that all Good Things Come From You Lord I'm praying for every person under the sound of my voice God that you will begin to move Upon Our Hearts and our minds even now as we're standing in this place or as we're watching online God I rebuke anything that would try to come against us that would try to hinder or bind us up tonight and I pray that with your spirit there will be freedom and liberty in this house God I pray that your spirit would move upon us God let it move in this house so that it be as of a sound of a rushing Mighty Wind and let it fill this place tonight God will be careful to give you praise to give you glory and to give you honor for it all because you alone are worthy come on can we praise him together tonight I love you Jesus come on why don't you shake off the middle of the week Jitters with some praise just for a minute go ahead and shake off the problems of the week with a little bit of worship right now I love you God hallelujah hallelujah Hallelujah amen God bless you as you're seated tonight it was during the winter of 1917 that Russian and German soldiers fighting in the dreary trenches of the great Wars Eastern Front had a lot to fear they feared enemy bullets they feared trench foot which was a type of fungus that would cause them to lose limbs feared frostbite and countless other diseases they would fear shrapnel bayonets tanks and even sniper fire but there was one thing that they were not prepared for and that was wolves in February of that year A dispatch from Berlin noted that large packs of wolves were creeping from the forests of Lithuania into the interior of the German Empire and not very far from the front lines like so many living creatures that had been driven from their homes by the war they were now just simply looking for something to eat one person noted as the beasts were very hungry they would penetrate into Villages and kill calves sheep and other livestock and in two cases children have been attacked according to another dispatch out of Saint Petersburg the Wolves were such a nuisance on the battlefield that they were one of the few things that could bring the soldiers from both sides together parties of Russian and German Scouts met recently and were hotly engaged in a skirmish or a battle and when a large pack of wolves dashed onto the scene and attacked the wounded hostilities were at once suspended in Germans and Russians instinctively attacked the pack killing about 50 wolves the two leaders of the opposing armies they sought to meet one another and in July 1917 a New York Times report described in detail their efforts poison rifle fire hand grenades and even machine guns were successfully tried in attempts to eradicate the nuisance but all to no avail the Wolves nowhere to be found quite so large and Powerful as in Russia were desperate in their hunger and regardless of danger fresh packs would appear in place of those that were killed by the troops as a last resort the two adversaries with the consent of their commanders entered into negotiations for an armist and they joined forces to overcome the wolf plague for a short time there was peace and in no haphazard fashion was the task of vanquishing the mutual foe undertaken making their escape from the Carnage The like of which they had never encountered the Wolves were gradually rounded up and eventually several hundred of them killed as I read you this story tonight we may ask what happened and simply put they identified that their enemy was not one another but another Force that preyed on them both I feel the Holy Ghost here already and I will tell you as we sit here in this house tonight we are also on a Battlefield this one does not present physical dangers such as bombs guns or military might there's no immediate danger to our physical well-being or to our properties and we don't know the war torn towns of post-world War Europe or Asia or even modern day Ukraine what we see in the physical is not vast explosions that level entire blocks instead what we see in the physical is the manifested Fallout of a spiritual war on this battlefield men and women of all ages are fighting what Paul writing to Timothy would call the good fight of faith in some moments on this battlefield our heads will be raised High to the heavens with our voices resounding a praise of Sweet Victory but in next moments we'll find our hearts sinking to the deepest depths imaginable because of our latest defeat but it is in the darkness of these battles that we rarely see the face of our enemy but our inability to see him does not lessen the stings of he his attacks because sometimes we'll fill it in our marriages as he sneaks in under the guise of misguided friendships that lead into infidelity we will find it after its hooks of pornography lay hold on unrelinquishing grip on our soul we'll fill it in the sting of addiction as after we've taken part in the gateway drug that so many of us told us not to do but it's now led us to a full-blown addiction the weapons the plans and the tactics that I've mentioned tonight are but a few of the many in the animal enemy's Arsenal but they all have one thing that they set out to do to steal to kill and to destroy am I preaching to anybody tonight and as the fog of battle sets in on our souls we sometimes feel an unsettling sense of spiritual disorientation in the moments that follow we find ourselves searching for reasons that we've reached the situation that we're in and in these moments of weakened resolve rather than pointing into the mirror at ourselves or pointing to hell that is below we point out the window and place blame on those around us in our victimized Hearts we look to others that are blessed and say it must be them we look at others that are somehow not as spiritual as we are and say they must have something to do with it we say that the person that hurt us caused all of this pain because we need a scapegoat to rid us of the guilt of wrongdoing or to make sense of indescribable wrongs and who better than the brother or the sister sitting in the Pew beside you and I asked this question to myself why does it work so well because he is the master of deception he is the father of all lies and he is amazing at deflection because in our battle-ridden Haze we take part in this this idiocrit idiocracy that is the devastating inner dialogue that leads us to a scribe feeling and intent to people that were never even a part of the conversation First Corinthians tells us for God is not the author of confusion but a peace and as in all churches of the Saints if God does not give us confusion someone does I assert to you tonight on this Wednesday night of Code Orange Revival I made a promise to God I was going to preach it till I died okay so I'm just going to give it all I got and if you'll jump in with me I believe God wants to move on us all right I really believe God wants to touch us but I'm here to tell you that the devil he was the serpent in the garden he was the tempter at the side of Jesus sometimes he's an angel of Light but I know he's the accuser of the Brethren and he was the tester of job some will call him Lucifer but I call him the devil and he has used confusion for centuries and there's few more glaring examples than that of Saul and David as we looked at the story tonight we interject ourselves somewhat in the middle to beginning Saul was where well aware of his time to move off the scene was coming because of his failures of the faith and everything he looked at he viewed it through the lens of his future hurtful event and it was a man named David that would Ascend through the ranks he would have to watch as the notoriety Saul would have to watch have the as the notoriety that he once called his own was placed on a man named David and it's with these instances in our mind that we return to that opening text it says that it came to pass as they came when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistines that women came out of all cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet King Saul now tell me it doesn't make sense that these women would go to Saul to sing about David they met the king to sing about a Shepherd boy I want to present to you tonight that how we respond to the praise of others will expose your heart [Music] if people walk up to you and try to brag about others and you think of nothing good to say then there's probably something deep down within that we need to get taken care of there now listen there's a reason why the Bible says that if if if one member of the body hurts then we all hurt but it didn't just say that if one member of the body rejoices then we all rejoices let me tell you tonight God wants to put something with you within you that if you see others mourning I'll mourn with you but if you see others dancing I'll dance with you [Applause] women saying praises to two National Treasures in Israel's time and the Bible says in verse 8. Saul was very Roth and the saying displeased him and he said they have ascribed into David ten thousands and to me they have ascribed but thousands you notice the song said and however Saul hurt butt when the women came to sing their song Saul's ears were burdened down with the problems that he was facing he was burdened down by the spiritual battle that was taken on inside of him and what he heard is not what they said hurt can make you hear and see things differently than how they were intended because while we judge others by their their actions we'll often judge ourselves by our intentions but the Bible says that no one can know the heart but God knoweth the heart and he understands its intentions I'm preaching tonight about hurt because all of us have said at some point or another I never meant for that to happen I didn't mean it that and Saul heard something that they weren't saying what he heard was out with the old and in with the new what he heard was David is better than me but they weren't singing a song about one man being better than the other they were singing a song of Jubilation concerning the victories of them both they were singing a scripture that talked about the power of unity they were singing Deuteronomy 32 and 30. how should one chase a thousand and two men put ten thousand to flight I'm here to tell you tonight that the devil knows exactly what this church can become if it's unified in body in Soul and in spirit but I'm here to tell you that he's going to do every single thing he can to get you to fall off track he'll use your brother he'll use your sister he'll use your parents he'll use everything he can to come between you and what God wants to do in you but God sent me to tell you tonight it's time to return to the place of unity it's time to give up the hurt it's time to give up the pain it's time to give up the Despair and it's time to March forward in what God has for you [Applause] because he forgot who he was fighting he forgot that he wasn't fighting the younger David he wasn't fighting the next king he wasn't fighting the children of Israel he was fighting an unseen enemy he just forgot he was fighting the same devil we fight same one that ward in Saul's mind wars in the minds of some of you tonight because he'll come in and he'll attack your self-worth he'll come in and he'll attack your confidence he'll come in and he'll pray on your insecurities and he will use your past in an attempt to dictate your future he forgot that the enemy wasn't clothed in flesh but rather sometimes comes as an angel of Light he forgot about the one that wokeeth about like a roaring lion seeking whom he made his app devour and when Jesus said the words that the thief cometh to steal and to kill and to destroy I'm here to tell you that he could and that moment have adequately talked about Saul oh his throne he killed him spiritually but then he killed him physically and then he destroyed his entire family if it wasn't for the heart of David there wouldn't have been a person in the even sitting at the table he forgot who he was fighting that's why Paul wrote a letter to the Church of Ephesus and he said for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against Powers against the rulers of Darkness of this world and against spiritual wickedness in high places some of us I'm about to get his Pastor Mode's coming on me y'all I've only been doing it for two years but when it hits it hits hard y'all I'm having to hold it back you know what I mean your churches your church is six and a half hours eight hours away buddy you know some of us could read that scripture and we could stop at before we wrestle not some of us don't even fight some of us just say that ain't worth it it's fine some of us will let him come in and do whatever he wants I heard a preacher say the other day and I thought it was so applicable if the government said they're coming to get your guns you'd put up a fight if the devil says he's coming to get your family you'll do nothing one's an Earthly consequence one has eternity hanging in the balance hurt with your family going to hell over I know now hold on a minute I know I know you feel right in your in your disgust and disdain for people but is being right righteous Paul said in Romans that we Pastor Nate that we work righteousness unto holiness if we're not righteous we're not holy now we might have it all put together on the outside I look good out here everything's fine I wear my suit to church I know I wear Grandpa pants but that's no big deal you know y'all just had to be there man the third graders loved it I got everything but what's in here matters more because and and and we I'm getting ahead of myself I need to stop I need to remember that I'm not fighting the person to my right or to my left I'm not fighting my ex-husband or my ex-wife I'm not fighting the employer that fired me I'm not fighting the person in this church now now there's a thing about Legacy churches that is really interesting that I stepped into my Pat my father-in-law pastored for 30 years there's things that happened in my church that happened before I got there but everybody else still remembers I'll get to preaching and they're they're like well you didn't know so and so did that to me a long time ago I'm sorry I was just trying to do what God wanted it's not God's will for you to hold on to hurt that's going to keep you bound to a Pew because let me tell you what hurt does it will kill the victim and it won't kill the victimizer you need to remember that the enemy of your soul is not your brother it's not your sister it's the devil and you can't overcome him by fighting in flesh and blood because if I forget who I'm fighting he's already won if I fight you he's already won oh I'll become bitter he wins if I become bitter he didn't tell me to trim the hedge of bitterness he said I should go after the root he wins if I read too much into a conversation or in Saul's case a song he wins now listen to this he wins if you operate off of your what you fill in your emotions instead of what God wants you to feel in the spirit and he there's a reason why he deflects to the brother or the sister because he knows better than you the power of unity he knows scripture better than anyone in this place he knows that two are better than one Matthew 18. and if two of you shall agree on Earth as touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them he knows for where two or three to gather together in my name there I am in the midst your enemy's not your brother your enemy's not your sister your enemy's not the younger generation and young people your energy your enemy is not the older generation they're not the ones battling you for your soul I think of Psalm 133 and 1. behold how good and how pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity I thought about and I looked through the different times that the Bible talks about what we should do for one another because when when I face things that I'm facing and it's with my brother or my sister listen I'll be honest with you think because I'm a pastor I'm above it you're wrong there was a guy that texted me I hope he's not watching but if he is we'll just go round two together here 's a guy that texts me and he rebuked me one night young guy my age through text after after Sunday let me let me say this for your pastoral team for free if it's a Wednesday or a Sunday and it's after church they're off limits okay because they fought hell for you already there's no need for them to have to fight you too amen and I'm sitting in my bed I'm trying to enjoy my pizza I'm just happy as a lark people got baptized I'm feeling good man I'm as a kid say I'm feeling myself you know and then all of a sudden I receive a text it's a book and I got rebuked y'all I'm gonna tell you what Rose up in me first and it was not the Holy Ghost I don't do text messages I called it I said buddy I need you to explain yourself because I'm about to crawl through this phone your house pastors way nicer than me I was about to let him have it man oh I know I didn't mean it that way I said that's good because if you did that devil sure would have been using you right now and you know what I walked away from that moment and the next day was Monday every Pastor that I've ever known that wants to quit wants to quit on a Monday and you know why because we get rebuked while we're be eating our Papa John's and I'm I'm like dude I'm done I thought about my wife's sweet friend over here that's all don't tell her I said that she's supposed to be putting me on Macros right now and as you can say that gift basket was of God but it was not macro friendly praise the Lord but let me tell you what I could have did on Monday I was mad as a hornet and I talked to my wife my wife's a counselor she's incredible she counsels me all the time and she looked at me and said honey this is how you know if you got a good woman honey you need to pray not what I wanted to hear I wanted to hear we're setting them down off the platform you know what I mean you know men and women get angry at the same amount statistically but it's what happened it happens after we get angry that differentiates men from women women want to talk about it men want to get even I said I'll show you and I went to prayer and God gave me this sermon second Thessalonians 5 and 11 encourage one another and build one another up setting that dude down from the platform is not building one another up Hebrews 10 and 25 stir up one another to love and good works we love gossiping but dear God we get we don't like stirring one another up to love and good works we're in 12 I'll be I'll burden if somebody else about it not bear one another in love Romans 12 and 10 love one another I don't know if you're reading the same Bible as I am but there's not a whole lot in there about getting even speak truth to one another Ephesians 4 and 25 Ephesians 4 and 32 be kind to one another Hebrews 3 and 13 exhort one another every day Hebrews 10 and 24 stir up one another to love and good works John first John 4 and 7 but love let us love one another for Love's love is of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God so I ask you tonight do you know God I thought about what the devil knows how can two walk together Amos said except they agree Acts 2 and 1 is probably our most one of the most beautiful examples of agreement you see because when when David was scorned there's a reason why the book of Acts said that David was a man that was after God's Own Heart because there was a man that tried to kill him he tried to take everything that he had he tried to take his life his family his ministry his kingdom everything Saul spent his entire the entire rest of his life in search of killing one man but you notice what David did when Saul died David didn't rejoice we got too many people in the apostolic church that Rejoice over the spiritual death of others because David when Saul died David mourned and he actually said don't tell our enemy what happened to Saul and he killed the people who told him when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one Accord in one place I said it this morning I'll say it again a court is a compound word made up of two words that means one passion you'll never see the Revival you're seeking in your church unless you're one and you'll never see the Revival you want in your family unless you're seeking Unity the musicians are coming and I'm almost done I thought about what does it take I prayed about it I asked God it's something none of us want to hear it takes a Divine forgiveness you know Pastor McCool we want to put on Christ when it means signs Miracles and wonders I want to be like Jesus most of us will say and we all think about laying in hands on the sick and seeing him recover but none of us want to put on Christ when it means this of Isaiah 53 and 12 because he had poured out his soul into death and he was numbered with the transgressors and he bear the sin of many Watch what it says and made intercession for the transgressors several years ago I was just in training I guess you could say in the waiting period of taking over our church there was a pretty big uproar in our church that happened in I remember sitting down with a group of Elders including my father-in-law that had pastored for 30 years and I'll be honest with you if we look at the scripture it would be really close to marking them and avoiding him it was bad but I remember my father-in-law he said go pray about it and God took me to that scripture and when I'm saying it wrecked me it wrecked me because I was willing to withhold something from someone that God interceded for them to have when it says he interceded for the trans he made intercession for the transgressor it meant that he came down and he died on a cross for people that were doing things against him we'll never see signs Miracles and wonders if we don't have forgiveness we'll never see our family come back to church if we don't have forgiveness we'll never see the great things God has for us and I venture to say we won't see heaven if we don't forgive Matthew 6 for if ye forgive men their trespasses your heavenly father will also forgive you [Music] now if you're like me that's where I want to stop I don't like the next scripture very much but if you forgive men and not men their trespasses neither will your father forgive yours I'll finish with this scripture as we stand to our feet listen I'll be honest with you I'm an open guy you know I'm not stupid either [Music] sometimes will preachers will be in in our flesh and we're like God gave me this scripture I give God an out when I walk up to pray for people and I I laid hands on a lady the other day I said here's what I'm feeling if it's wrong it's me if it's right it's definitely God if what I'm preaching tonight doesn't touch anybody it's not God's fault it's mine [Music] there's a reason why when I brother Nate you know he's like hey man I need seven sermons in five days I told him I said I don't think I got that many in the quiver dude especially good ones you know preachers we know when we got a good one I'm like I don't think I've got that many good ones man and this is not what I wanted to preach tonight I text Nate something else and then I told him I said usually my first inclination's right and then I question myself so I went back to this one [Music] Colossians 3 and 13. for bearing one another forgiving one another we could say that's gender neutral and we'll reword it if anyone have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do you now let me tell you what forgiveness is not forgiveness is not forgiving stipulation [Music] it's not I'll forgive but I won't forget because when he forgave our sins they the word says that it it put them in a place where they'll never be brought up again foreign I believe God divinely orchestrated tonight for somebody to hear what I'm telling you because you're bearing a burden God never meant for you to bear and it'll kill you because it doesn't hurt does not kill the person who hurt them kills the person carrying it the best thing you can do whether it's abuse or sexual or mental or emotional weather it's whatever it is divorce I don't know what it is but if you hold on to hurt you're never going to see what God has for you and while that may be unimportant or it may feel unimportant let me encourage you God has more for you than you could ever imagine for yourself so I want us to do this together if we could I hope this is okay why don't we come to an altar just for a minute and they're going to start singing in just a second this incredible team they're going to start singing in just a second and I'm getting ready to step down and and they're going to take over foreign thank you all for coming keep on coming keep on coming [Music] I'm going to wait for everybody to get down here what a response thank you all [Music] listen I know you feel justified in your hurt foreign I know it should have never happened that way but the devil will use that to kill you so I want us just to lift our hands and I want us to pray God help me to forgive and help me to walk forward in unity can we do that come on let's lift our hands praying right now Lord [Music] come on that's it I feel a Divine Move of the Holy Ghost coming across this place God help me to forgive help me to forget help me to put the hurt in the past help me to walk forward in what you have for me foreign [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] victory [Music] for the Battle of Belongs to You Lord victory for The Battle Belongs to You Lord I'm gonna see a victory I'm gonna see a victory belongs to you take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it for good you turn it for good [Music] you take what the enemy bed for evil and you turn it for good you turn it for good oh Lord you take you take what the enemy meant for evil and you turn it foreign [Applause] oh Lord you take you take what the enemies [Music] okay this is not an indictment against you all because the same thing happens at my church but the second we started singing we quit praying I don't know if y'all know how this thing works but we gotta pray so here's what I would ask us to do I wonder if you could link up with somebody real quick real quick we're going to start singing again in just a second but why don't we bear one another's burdens for just a minute and then I'm done but I wanna if it's a family link up with family find a friend if you see somebody alone find somebody to pray with real quick real quick [Music] come on that's it now when you find him I want you to lift up your voice and I want us to begin to pray together right now come on now pray for that person God help us to forgive help us to love help us to grow together help us God to step into what you have for us come on that's it come on that's it help us to step into it tonight [Music] come on that's it that's it that's it that's it the Holy Ghost is moving come on that's it step into it right now step into the healing step into the favor step into the faith step into the anointing step into that release right now God's delivering somebody from hers God's delivering somebody from pain right now