What We Need is What God Can Do - Jerry Jones 10/10/2021 11:30 AM

praise god what a great presence of the lord here today god has something special for you he knows exactly what's going on in your life he has plans for you today amen such a joy to be here at atlanta west again it's it's always a pleasure so thrilled to have the opportunity and uh of course to be with this wonderful church and what you mean to the kingdom of god the united pentecostal church is um is beyond estimate we thank you not only your financial giving but the great spiritual strength that's here power of prayer and of course the great leadership of this church how blessed you are to have the john's family amen you know one of the things when when you have one of the best one of the great blessings that comes with that is you have the opportunity to share the greatness that is here and of course brother and sister john's have been engaged and involved and you've been sharing them with the georgia district for some time now and what a great work they did but now i'm so thrilled because i don't live in georgia i'm so thrilled that you are you have the great blessing and opportunity and i thank you for your willingness to do that to share him with the millions around the world that are part of the united pentecostal church international brother johns was elected as our assistant general superintendent that's not don't be fooled by the title he holds the second ranking office in our fellowship he will help make decisions that will affect the lives and eternities of millions of people and i'm thankful for a man of his ability a woman of sister john's ability their commitment their love of god now don't worry he made it clear you're still his first love but he will be having an impact not only here in the united states but around the world and i personally cannot think of anyone no one that better fits this job at this time and we're rejoicing in the united pentecostal church today amen [Applause] amen i'm so glad he's got such good help here that's going to help support him here as he affects the entire world thankful for the recent general conference presence of god his his nearness united pentecostal church is incredibly blessed in these difficult times god is lifting up his church people are turning their faces toward any beacon of hope and this gospel is the world's greatest hope and people are turning to this gospel amen amen so thanks again pastor for the invitation so thrilled to be here first samuel the old testament chapter 17 one of the bible's most familiar events you've heard of it if you were privileged to be reared in the church you've heard of it since you were a child the 44th verse i'll begin reading in the philistine now this is goliath the giant said to david come to me and i will give thy flesh unto the fowls of the air and to the beasts of the field then david said to the philistine no you come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a shield but i come to you in the name of the lord of hosts the god of the armies of israel whom thou has to fight you're not going to kill me this day will the lord deliver you into my hands and i will smite thee and take thine head from thee i will give the carcasses not just of you but the entire army of the philistines this day to those birds and those beasts that all the earth may know that there is a god in israel and all this assembly shall know that the lord saveth not with sword and spear for the battle is the lord's and he will give you into our hands i want to i want to preach a little while today on this topic what we need is what the lord can do that's what we need in this day and time let's pray thank you lord for your word thank you for its power eternal thank you for its application universal i pray every heart every life every circumstance every situation no matter what's happening no matter how deep the pain i pray your blessing your touch your deliverance i thank you that there is a god in israel in jesus name amen thank you very much please be seated paul and silas arrived in philippi in macedonia they were there of course to plant a church to leave behind a body of believers now wherever paul went somebody once said there was usually either a riot or a revival and most of the time there were both well you know things seem to have started out a little slow in philippi for whatever reason paul and silas were not they weren't having the impact that they wanted paul preached in the synagogue as he always did and and then just as in corinth he would go to the marketplace where the crowds were and he would preach but it just it just wasn't accomplishing much the revival had not yet come now they had some success they went down to the riverside and as the lady folks were washing clothes and and and fell as shipping paul preached or silas did and and they they had some jewish ladies that that came to god and there they met a young boy who would play a significant role in paul's life his name was timothy but outside of that not too much was happening until a very weird event took place it's strange i can't explain it i've been preaching a long time and i still can't explain exactly what was going on there was this there was this young slave girl who was who was demon possessed and and and she took to following paul and silas around as they would go through the streets headed to preach headed to meet someone headed to share the gospel this little slave girl would follow behind now now now the demon that lived inside of her gave her power to tell fortunes i don't know if she read palms or tarot cards or horoscopes i don't know how it worked but she could tell fortunes and they charged her master made money off of her fortune telling ability now she started following paul and silas around and here's the part here's where it gets weird she would follow these two apostolic preachers around and she would call out she would yell at all the people around when paul and silas would be walking down the street she'd be following them hollering and what she said is what's weird it's she's demon possessed but what she says is these are the servants of the most high god you need to listen to them hear them now i don't know why a demon would want to be press secretary for two apostolic preachers i don't know what's going on here i mean she was saying you need to listen to these guys they serve the greatest god well you know i've i've thought about that i've i've studied some about it and i think most everybody's about as puzzled as i am about what the motive was behind this uh i do think that if i had been in their shoes and someone a local when i'm in a strange city trying to start a revival and a local started following me around yelling he's he's he's a preacher for the the true god you need to listen to him i think i would i think i'd say well that that's that's pretty cool i like that but you know i think what bothered paul was not so much what was being said i think it was who was saying it that bothered him you know if if the devil starts saying nice stuff about you you might want to check some things and be sure everything's all right well paul finally had enough of it and the bible says that he turned around and he spoke to that demon and he said come out of her and that devil came out of her and she was delivered from that demon possession now i'm sure she was excited i'm sure she she was gloria was was gratified for what had happened to her but her master not so much it affected his income and he was the only thing he cared about is she couldn't tell fortunes anymore and nobody was going to pay her and so he was not going to be making as much money it made him mad now i can only figure that he he was probably rich she owned slaves and he was probably very influential in town and the reason i think that is he filed charges against these two preachers and the cops came and picked them up took them down to the jailhouse now we're not talking about formal charges we're not we're not talking about an arraignment before a judge we're not talking about a trial they just took these two preachers and beat them shredded their backs no doubt took them down to the lowest dungeon of the prison and put their feet in stocks locked the door and threw away the key and that was the end of it took care of that problem their friend would be happy wouldn't get the demon back in the girl but at least those preachers would pay so here they are in the dungeon rats running across their toes roaches and evidently it was it was it was dark down there the lowest dungeon and paul and silas the bible says at midnight now this ain't right i mean they were beaten without a trial tortured if you will locked up in prison feet in stocks in just just at run amok this is this is unfair here they are midnight back all torn feet locked up they can't move they can't push the rats away they can't push the roaches away they're just stuck there and it's midnight and paul says to silence silas let's sing maybe silas says here now and if he did paul probably answered well that's where we are we can't sing somewhere else we're here we can't sing in some other circumstance this is the circumstance the question is not what about our situation it's what will we do while we're in our situation will we sit here and feel sorry for ourselves will we sit here and be angry at the injustice or will we worship the god of heaven and of earth [Applause] and so it was at midnight the two gruff voiced preachers lifted up their voices in the dungeon of a prison house and began singing the praises of god once like a burden prison i dwelt no freedom from my sorrow i felt but jesus came and listened to me and glory to god he set me free yes he set me free oh he set me free he broke the bonds up they're still in bonds but they're singing to a god who is able regardless of your situation that god is able nothing's gonna hinder me nothing gonna silence me i'm gonna praise him in the midnight i'm gonna praise him when life's not fair i'm gonna praise him regardless of my circumstances we ought to praise him just a little bit right now oh thank you jesus [Applause] [Music] and their praises their praises made a difference no i'm going to say that again their praises made a difference their song in the midnight from the dungeon changed everything the bible says luke goes out of his way to tell us almost apropos of nothing the prisoners heard them now reckon what that was like these guys are hopeless that many of them are just as unfairly treated as paul and silas were locked away no hope no way out and somebody starts singing he set me free yes he set me free he broke the bonds of prison for me i'm glory bound my jesus i'll see for glory to god they're listening who could be singing a song like that from down in the dungeon we got it bad but they really got it bad down there but listen adam singing about freedom singing about liberty singing about the power of a god who cares now let me tell you i'm glad the prisoners heard them you never know who's listening you never know who knows what you're going through and they're watching to see what you're going to do about it and when you sing at midnight when you worship in spite of your situation somebody's gonna say i want what they got i need what they have there's something real there but let me tell you it isn't just that the prisoners heard them somebody else hurt them you know god's pretty busy a lot of stuff you know being god that's a pretty big job you know angels coming and going situations happening people praying millions of you know that's a pretty big job so god's real busy sitting on the throne it's midnight but he's still working he's working late and he's doing his thing and suddenly he stops and he his head over like he's listening and says my my can you hear that gabriel come over here gabriel comes over you hear that gabriel says you know they're not very good god says i'm not interested in a concert i'm interested in somebody knows what's going on in this world and i hear people in trouble that still come to church people in sorrow that still lift up the name of the lord people with every reason to give up that just keep going that's what i'm listening for and they're singing midnight in a jailhouse you think you just came to church today no you came here with an opportunity to change history to change the future to make a difference in your life and the life of someone else because god is listening and he told gabriel said get three other angels and y'all go down there and each of you get at a corner of that jailhouse and i want you to shake it till every door comes open and every bond falls off i want you to let them know that somebody heard them beside those prisoners and an earthquake came to fill a pie and every door swung open every bond fell off a revival was born that night because the jailer came in to kill himself and paul said don't do it we're all here i thought about that if i'm in that jail and the door just swings open i'm gone i ain't sitting around waiting for them to fix that place i'm out of there but the bible says paul said everybody's still here now that's another thing i've puzzled over and all i can come up with is they were waiting to see if there'd be another church service they are not very good singers but i felt something while they were singing and i think i'll hang around somebody cares somebody needs what you can do because hear me god is at work in this world we are his people we are his children and when we live up to it it makes a difference in someone's life the jailer got baptized his family got baptized i believe they all got the holy ghost i believe revival broke out in philippi i think god had his way and the next morning the slave girl's owner sent word to the jailer well you might as well let them go since we ain't got a jail anymore so the jailer goes to paul and says well y'all are free to go paul says we ain't going nowhere ah we ain't leaving you beat us you publicly humiliate us you throw us in a dungeon and i'm a roman citizen that's exactly what they thought all the might of rome all the power of rome guaranteed paul that such a thing as that could not happen and if it did happen somebody's going to pay you don't treat a roman citizen it scared them so bad they gave paul and silas a parade they didn't let them just sneak out they all went there mr paul i'm so sorry didn't know who you were if we didn't own who you were that's what i'm so sorry would you come they had a cadillac convertible paul and silas gets in the back of that convertible they get the high school band out there they start playing and marching down everybody paul and confetti fall in the whole thing it's a great thing because they're being they're they're scared they don't want a group of roman soldiers showing up and while they're riding along in that cadillac in the parade suddenly silas has a thought and he looks over at paul and he says paul uh this roman citizen thing couldn't you have told them that a little earlier you know before the beatings started maybe you could have mentioned that yeah that's my imagination but i mean that's it i that's what i'd have wondered why we and paul said surely he did if silas thought of it paul's answer had to be for there's no other answer possible he had to have answered something like this silas i'm so sorry you had to go through that the beating and the and the dungeon and and the rats and the i'm so sorry but look if i had trusted in the power of rome we would have only gotten what rome could do but i put my trust in the power of god because we needed what god could do we wouldn't have got beaten we wouldn't have got thrown in a dungeon but the jailer's family would not have been saved there wouldn't have been revival in philippi what we need is not what our education can do not what our money can do not what our strength our talent our skill what we need is what god can do he can heal you today he can put your family back together he can bring your broken children home god can do anything oh let's praise him right now praise him in the midnight praise him in the darkness praise him through your pain praise him when there is no answer because god can do it he can do it i feel in my heart this this message for this particular weekend in this particular church i felt it so strongly i i really had another thing in mind but god kept bringing my idea back i'm preaching to somebody that's almost given up it's just been a horrific couple of years things are wrong and you can't seem to get them right the questions are piled upon questions and you can't seem to get an answer but i've come to tell you don't give up don't give in don't quit coming to church don't quit praying don't quit singing don't quit worshiping because god can do it and god will do it you might have to go to a dungeon you might have to sit it there in midnight but please hear this preacher lift your voice one more time raise your hands one more time because god can than what we need i'm not against doctors but doctors can only do so much god can do anything i'm not against therapists and counselors and all of that but they can only do so much but god can do anything when you put your trust up don't put it in doctors don't put it in therapists don't put it in a loan don't put it in the neighbor when you put your trust put it in god because what we need is what god can do oh i want to praise him one more time i feel his presence here she love my kiana in jesus name in jesus name i thank you safe oh i wanna i wanna i'm not saying i don't want you to get the idea that i'm saying that we should just sit down and do nothing and and hope god shows up no no no no paul and silas they had to sing they they had to lift up worship in a time of ultimate trial and that brought what god could do and it brought a church to philippi david was a shepherd boy nobody thought much of david i'm sorry i i don't know why nobody knows why there's all kinds of theories but even his own daddy didn't think much honey you remember when samuel came said bring your boys one of them's going to be king he didn't bring david to the house and when samuel went through all the boys and god kept saying no no no no no no he finally looked to jesse and said do you have another son jesse said well there's david but i didn't think now i don't know why but nobody thought much of david in fact when war broke out with philistia all the boys went to war they were warriors strong and courageous and what david got to do was take a basket of snacks take this to your brothers they may be a little hungry well david did it he took the snacks down now one brother he he suspected something he said you're up to something you're gonna make a scene i know you at least he understood david said i ain't done nothing what are you getting on me for is there not a call let's come on so he's just wandering around looking at soldiers you know that's pretty fascinating and he noticed everybody is they're all just kind of hiding down in these trenches king is up in his tent maybe david wonders why and then he finds out why a giant comes out of the philistine encampment and he walks boom boom boom wearing armor and got a big long sword and got a spear like a weaver's beam and a sh and a shield so big another guy is carrying his shield for it and he he starts his spiel choose you out of mind to fight me if he kills me we'll be your servants but if i kill him and they ain't nobody nobody they don't want the king to see them and say won't you go they don't want that so everybody's hiding nobody nobody wants to go until this little shepherd boy that nobody believes in he just says out loud for everybody to hear he says i'll fight him and it you know it's a mark of their desperation that they look at this ready-faced teenager and says oh good thank god and they go tell saul we've got a man he's volunteered sauces bring him in and david walks in he's expecting a 10 foot tall guy you know what i'm saying and he gets somebody like me or brother john's comes walking in and saul says what judah said or what i just said he said you can't do it david says well let me tell you a story one time i stand in my daddy's sheep and a lion come out of the woods and he got one of the lambs he was going to eat that lamb and something come over me i felt the holy ghost so i went and got a hold of that lion and we had a fight but mama's got a lion-skinned coat hanging in the closet and that lamb has got lambs of her own said and that ain't enough one time a bear came out of the woods a big bear made that giant look like a big bear got one of the lambs i felt that same holy ghost and i got a hold of that and that was a fight but daddy's got a bare-skinned rug on the floor of the den and that lamb has got lambs of and then he says the same god i'm not going to trust in something new i'm not going to try to figure out a new path a new way the same god that gave me the lion and gave me the bear is gonna give me this philistine because that god i feel that same power right here right now that same god can do what we need him to do and i'm not going out there trusting in myself i am going trusting in that god oh praise him a moment hallelujah hallelujah the lion and the bear were precursors to what david was destined to do you've been through trials before they didn't defeat you then and they're not going to defeat you now you've faced giants before but those giants did not conquer you then and they're not gonna conquer you now because the same god that saw you through that then is going to see you through right now yeah saul you know is mired in his carnality he says you can't you can't you can't go out there without a sword here's my sword you can't go out there with that spear here's my spear and uh and armor you gotta have arm and he put his arm on david can you imagine saul's head and shoulders above israel david's a teenager elbow wasn't where his elbow was he wasn't where his they had to put the helmet on the boy would have suffocated so politely he tells the king you know i haven't proved this yet i i i i never wore armor now's not the time to start i never used a sword that's not my thing it's okay for you ain't gonna help goliath much but i think i'll use what i've used in the past i think i'll pray another prayer i think i'll call another church sir i think i'll praise god another time i think when they're singing i'm gonna come to the front and do a little jig i think i'm gonna run around the church a little bit i've done that in the past i think i'll do it now because the same god responded back then and that same god will respond now and so it what with no sword and no spear and no armor david goes to meet a warrior oh you've got [Applause] i am the lord he says and i change not it is jesus christ the same yesterday today and forever and if worship worked in philippi if prayer worked in jerusalem to get peter out of jail it'll still work today i want you to stand with me under an unarmored unarmed teenager walking toward him it makes him mad what am i a puppy he said you're going to send a little boy to run me home come on he said little boy and i'll feed your carcass to the birds and the field beasts and david says uh-uh hey ain't gonna happen i got a slingshot and i picked up five little rocks in that creek i'm gonna do my part you got a sword you got a spear you got a shield but i've got a name i got a name so let me tell you how this is gonna go down you ain't gonna kill me i'm gonna kill you i'm gonna cut your head off i'm going to feed not just your carcass but all their carcasses to them birds you're talking about and them animals you're talking about so that everyone will know there is a god among his people one reason we need what god can do again i'm not against us doing what we can david did what he could paul and silas did what they could but their hope was in god because the world needs to know not just another church we're not just another gathering there is a god and his name resides among his people believe what you want to believe david goliath you know starts running down the hill got that big sword david starts and you and you you can believe david was really good with the sling i don't doubt that but he didn't use the sling against the bearer of the lion not as far as we know he he did sling it and he did let that rock go but if you think it was the strength of david's right arm that gave that rock its lethal force you missed the point if you think it was david's aim that took that rock true and accurate you're not getting what's going on here the hand of the eternal god the hand that flung the stars into the heavens the fingers that spun the earth in her rotation and sent her in her orbit that scooped out the seas and raised up the mountains that hand reached and caught that little rock as it sailed through the air and took it on target with all the power of god almighty it smoked the head of goliath and down he went david ran up pulled his own that goliath's own sword and cut it you hear me devil you messing with the wrong people we are the children of the living god he fights our battles he can do exceeding abundantly above all that we could ask or thinking so do what you can do make your way from where you are in this service come in faith believing come with worship in your heart come lifting up the only saving name come in faith come and trust come expect it that the god of paul and silas the god of little david is the same god that has heard your prayers in the midnight that has seen your worship in the pain the god that has brought heaven to a stop today that he might send angels to atlanta west to shake up the devil's purposes open the doors of the prison to break the bonds that hold us back lift him up believe believe in god is able god is able he's able he's able ask and you shall receive [Music] anything you ask in my name believing i will do [Music] it you can have deliverance come on one more time trust hand slipped it let's pray scott come on [Music] jesus [Music] [Applause] [Music] why don't you reach out to someone next to you put a hand on somebody's shoulder let's pray one for another let's worship together in our midnights thank you jesus [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] know [Music] [Applause] can do anything when we take the liver [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] you are [Music] you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you are [Music] you are [Music] you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] amen together let's worship the lord a few moments there are people here to receive the holy ghost to receive a miracle in their life somebody needs a breakthrough and worship creates an environment of the spirit amen lord i love you and worship you if you feel the spirit speak in other tongues as the spirit gives the utterance praise in the holy ghost right now worship god in the spirit amen [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so [Music] that's it let there be a breakthrough in the holy ghost for you today in jesus name in jesus name in jesus name proceed in the holy ghost right here hallelujah [Music] now to keep believing for what god can do keep believing for what god can do keep praying in that prison keep praying till the earthquake comes keep praying till god answers he will answer he does hear your prayer he hears your prayer