Hour of Power

if you would turn with me in your bibles to the book of daniel chapter number 7 and verse number 25 daniel chapter 7 and verse number 25 i'll do a little recapping while you're getting your bible and finding that passage in daniel 7 25 but monday evening you will remember we spent the vast majority of the time talking about the desire to pray lord teach us to pray they had a desire they had a desire to pray and then on on tuesday evening we dealt with praying that our prayers would be in alignment with god's will in other words the the will of god that has already been done in heaven that we would align ourselves and begin to pray that will of god here on this earth and then last night say what a time we had in the lord last night on our midweek bible study but it was online we continued on prayer and i ministered on the third prayer and that is the entire congregation coming together and we just had a mighty move of the holy ghost at the end of the service the power of god fail and we had a wonderful time and i know that many people were touched by the hand of the lord and tonight tonight we're going to be dealing with the subject of the spiritual spiritual oppression and of course we understand where spiritual oppression comes from it comes from our adversary our our enemy he desires to oppress you and i uh he desires to place pressure upon us in hopes that we will in hopes that we will surrender in hopes that we will lose faith i i i'm reminded of a passage of scripture before i i read my main text tonight from daniel 7 25 but i'm reminded of a passage of scripture in acts chapter 10 verse number 38 talking about jesus christ it says that god anointed jesus of nazareth with the holy ghost and with power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the devil so we understand tonight according to acts 10 and 38 that when the devil our adversary oppresses us puts pressure on us tries to just engulf us with hopelessness that that is a situation that we need to be healed and the bible said that jesus of nazareth came and healed all that were oppressed of the devil and we're going to deal with that tonight because we are living in the last of the last days i believe with everything within me tonight that the rapture of the church could happen now it could happen in the next five minutes it could have happened early this morning there's absolutely no bible prophecy that has to be fulfilled that jesus would come back for his church and so tonight we are living in the last of the last days many of you may have heard uh this morning uh president trump uh talking about a new peace deal and the name of it is called the abrahamic covenant and uh this sent shields up up up and down my proverbial spine when i i begin to hear about that church we're living in the last of the last days we are the generation we are the generation that's seeing the bible and the headlines match up so another reason that the enemy who knows his time is short he knows his time is short he's doing everything that he can to oppress you and i he's doing everything that he can here at the last moment to try to get some of us to give up to try to get some of up us to go to sleep and and uh spiritually and and and miss what is happening not be prepared not make it in the rapture of the church well i want to tell you tonight that prayer prayer will overcome the adversary prayer will give us the power to overcome our adversary that's why i'm i'm such a strong believer in prayer let's listen to daniel chapter 7 verse number 25 now it is speaking about the end of time and the antichrist and what his the antichrist what his ministry will be like it says and he shall speak great words against the most high we're seeing that spirit and shall wear out the saints of the most high and think to change times and laws and they shall be given into his hand into a time and times and a dividing of times i want to deal tonight there's actually three parts of this verse the first part is how blasphemous how bold and blasphemous the antichrist will be to openly defy the god of heaven but then the bible tells us another part of that verse is that he will wear out the saints of the most high now this this word to wear out to wear out uh has the meaning to wear something down to where to wear to rub against and to slowly and gradually wear the saints down or to wear the saints out trying to wear them down slowly gradually i i i i wrote this today and i i it's kind of the the the sentiments of the bible lesson it said i said satan must work little by little with the people of god you and i because if he worked quickly we would recognize and respond against him satan works slowly but surely satan his work in our lives is like a small leak in the faucet that that small leak that that goes undetected until finally one day you you open the cabinet under the sink and find out that the whole bottom part of the sink has has uh rotted away or a small gap in a in the shingles on a roof small little gap that slowly just lets water seep in and many times uh by the time you figure that slow uh that seeping was there sometimes large portions of the roofs plywood and trust system has to be replaced that's how the enemy is going to try to wear out the saints is just a slow continual gradual resisting just a just a hand of pressure a slow hand of pressure in matthew 24 and verse number 12 talking about the time that we're living in now the end of time jesus said and because iniquity shall abound that word iniquity there means lawlessness lawlessness because lawlessness would abound it would grow it would be growing because iniquity shall abound the love of many shall wax cold now that that that word there waxed and cold put together it has the simple meaning of a gradual a gradual cooling down a gradual cooling down you've heard me church family you've heard me make this statement nobody no one backslides overnight no one is shouting the victory on sunday night and by monday they have backslid no it's it's a gradual a slow gradual cooling down because the love of many shall wax cold and the antichrist shall think to wear out the saints to where to wear them down one of the ways that this wearing can take place and quite honestly it can take place through the natural aging process just a our feelings the way we feel emotionally the way we feel as i said emotionally can can have to do with our physical our physical well-being man is made up of body soul and spirit and our physical body our physical body can if we're not healthy if we're we're not in good health um that our physical poor health can cause us spiritually to feel like well how i feel in my spiritual bodies how i or my physical body would be how i would feel in my spiritual body so there can be a there can be a natural wearing a wearing down uh of our of our body but then satan satan would like to wear us down when he has the lead way when he has permission given to him to touch our flesh now we know that there is an example of this in job chapter 2 verse number 7 this is the second attempt of satan uh only he had to get permission from god to touch job just like still today if it is the enemy attacking my body then i'm going to understand i'm going to understand if it's the enemy attacking my body that god has allowed god has allowed him to do that now our body can be attacked by satan but we can also neglect our bodies we can neglect our bodies we can not eat i'm i'm certainly i'm certainly uh not casting stones i i have a lot of room for improvement uh myself but i do find with myself if i eat the wrong types of food sugar and fried things i i begin to feel uh sluggish i begin to feel like i don't have have any energy i i feel sluggish and i i don't feel like i have any energy now that's not satan attacking me that's me doing that to myself but then again uh pastor finds that when i eat properly when i eat things that are that are good for you uh that that are good for the body and i get used to that drinking a lot of drinking a lot of water and eating good vegetables and fruits and and and different things i find that i i have a lot a lot of energy i got got a lot of energy a lot of go and so um whether i'm i'm eating poorly and feeling sluggish or i'm eating properly and feeling energy has to do with a personal choice that i make but there can be times that god allows the devil as he did job to touch our health job chapter 2 and verse number 7 so satan went forth from the presence of the lord and smote job with sore boils from the soul of his foot and to the crown of his head and he took him a pot shear to scrape himself with all and he sat down among the ashes we understand that satan touched job's health he touched his health satan in the whole thing if i if i can touch his flesh god he will curse you to your to your face well praise god that job passed that test he did not allow the devil to wear him out he held fast to his integrity he held he held fast to uh his faith in god and at the end of the book job passed the test and uh his health was restored back to him just like if you and i continue in prayer although our physical bodies may feel poorly and we will not allow our physical health to affect our spiritual well-being we'll keep our faith in god we'll keep our belief in god we'll keep our prayers in god even when we feel poorly at the end god at the end god will see us through by prayer there's another place in the bible in the new testament refers to the apostle paul where once again satan got had to have permission to affect the body of the apostle paul second corinthians 12 and 7 paul said and lest i should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations there was given to me a thorn in my flesh this affected paul's body his flesh the messenger of satan to buffet me lest i should lest i should be exalted above measure but we also know that paul overcame his poor health he overcame his thorn in the flesh and this is how we how he did it and i really would like to minister to those that are watching right now that may be in poor health whether it's poor health brought about by uh personal uh um uh not eating properly uh it was your own choice god can help us god can help us or if satan has granted permission and has come against us that way god can help us just like he did job and just like he did the apostle paul paul prayed three times until he got his answer and his answer was my grace is stronger than your thorn in the flesh as a matter of fact while your thorn is there my grace is greater and my grace is being magnified my grace is being magnified because you're praying so we understand that the enemy we understand he can wear away at our physical at our physical bodies but also he can wear away at our heart he can wear wear away at our heart now what i what i mean by our heart i'm talking about our our our our attitude about salvation our attitude about the most precious gift that could ever be given to man and the most precious gift that you or i ever received is the gift of salvation oh the joy oh the joy oh the peace oh the vision oh the wonderful life life and life more abundantly that that filled us but do you know that as time goes on if the adversary had his way do you know he would like to take our joy he would like to take that joy part of salva i'm so glad i'm saved i'm so glad i've experienced salvation although it's been over four decades ago over 40 years ago when i was born again of the water and the spirit do you know that i am still thankful in prayer and i still recall in prayer and thank god for putting me under divine conviction i remember that season of time and you do too that season of time that you were under divine conviction god had his hands upon you and and uh a holy god was hovering over your unholy life and my unholy life and we were under divine conviction we had a seem like a our stomachs was in knots and it was a big clump in our throats and and and uh we we finally he we finally surrendered and we went to the altar and we felt the presence of god we repented of our sins and we felt the joy of the lord when we received the gift of the holy ghost and spoke in a heavenly language remember that remember that first time you spoke in that heavenly language oh you knew it was god as you begin to praise him and worship him and speak in that heavenly tongue and then you went and was baptized in the name of jesus every sin that you ever committed was removed through the waters of baptism oh praise god child of god tonight do you remember well the enemy wants to take that joy away from us that joy and that peace and that excitement about god using our life the enemy would like to take that away from us and just wear us down to nothing more than robots sitting on a pew wear us down till we're just going through the motions of coming to church without any joy at all the bible says the joy of the lord is my strength i'd like to read you a quote out of the book that i have been reading i've had it for some time watchman knee he wrote the book let us pray i want a quote from that book right now he says in in reference to the to the adversary wearing your spiritual heart down he said you feel somewhat restless today somewhat unhappy tomorrow and somewhat depressed the day after little by little your peace is completely lost your joy totally gone this is the way the devil wears you down to a state of spiritual fatigue and despair did you read that did you did you hear that just a little restless today just just a little restless then tomorrow just unhappy i'm just i'm just kind of unhap i'm restless one day he wears me out my rest i'm restless troubled i don't know what i'm troubled about but i'm just troubled and restless and then the next day i'm just i'm just unhappy i'm just unhappy and then he keeps wearing away until i'm somewhat depressed and no joy no peace no vision of what god will do in my life no anticipation of the rapture no anticipation of the lord coming and just sit around and watch the news and hear about different parties fussing with each other and and this is what this world is all about come on let's not let him wear our hearts down the bible says in the book of jude that we are to build up ourselves on our most holy faith praying in the holy ghost when the enemy tries to wear us down we need to build ourselves up by praying in the holy ghost well the enemy can also wear us down in our spiritual activity now church tonight i want you to listen to pastor real good this is not a day to have less church this is not a day where you know um we we we live in in in in a day that we have more we we have more things today to help us conveniences um we have shorter work weeks we have all this but the the mumbling sometimes what the enemy wants us to believe is we need more time for the family we need more we need more time to relax and therefore if we need more time for the family more time to relax what better day to whittle away at what better day to whittle away atman sunday why why don't we just reduce our church services why don't we just have less less church on sunday after all getting up and coming to sunday school and after all coming back for an evangelistic service i mean after all isn't that a little bit isn't that a little bit much and then going going back for midweek bible study why can't we just whittle i mean the kids need to do their homework and and and we need to get in bed early and and on and on the excuses kind of go church let's not allow the enemy to wear down our spiritual activity as a matter of fact i got a verse of scripture two of them from hebrews chapter 10 verse number 24 and 25 says and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good work said we need to be considering one another that we could provoke them to love and good works not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is what's that even 2 000 years ago the adversary was wearing away at people's assembling together you don't have to assemble together that often you don't have to get together that that that often he said not forsaking don't forsake the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another and so much the more listen to that this is the bible this is not brother carpenter's ideology this is not brother mccool's bishop mccool's ideology and so much the more as you see the day approaching church he says paul he said don't don't have less church in the end of time if anything have more church at the end of time if anything find more ways to get together find more ways to have spiritual activity as you see that day approaching and that would be the reason that every night this week and by god's help the lord willing tomorrow night and saturday night and sunday we'll be right here and and we'll be we'll be preaching and teaching that's because in the time we're living in the uncertainties of the time we don't need to allow the enemy to scatter us and then what he does he scatters us many of us we we went through the march quarantine and now we had a few months of church and then we had to go right back into several more weeks the devil has no greater joy than to scatter us and while we're scattered while we're scattered he would like to begin to oppress our minds he would like to get us restless what am i doing here oh what have i done what am i i'm not any good i yeah i'm i think we're you can't go really a number of ways he can either beat you down in oppression to where that you just don't feel like you're worth anything and you just don't feel like that anything you do is right or he'll wear you down to where you get prideful and you'll say well i'm doing pretty good i haven't been in church in a few weeks and i i think i'm probably spiritual right now i think i'm probably spiritual right now as i've ever been can i tell you that's the enemy talking to you that's the adversary talking to you i will tell you right now that i am not as strong as i was a month ago and and the reason being the bible says when we gather together as a church that we're exhorting one another and provoking one another to love god and we're doing that unto good work so that's why we're getting back together sunday uh sunday morning and sunday night that's why we're getting back together in sevierville on tuesday night at 7 00 p.m because as we see that day approaching and the enemy's trying to wear us down we need to have more church not less church we need to have more spiritual activity not less spiritual activity the enemy would like to wear us down not only that the enemy would like to wear us down gradually in our consecration to god he'd like to wear you down in your consecration to god he would like to wear the apostolic pentecostal church down in our visible witness of our consecration to a holy god if the adversary would have his way he'd like to wear the church down to where we look act and talk no different than the world does if the enemy would have his way he wants to slowly remove the distinction we've already seen him do it between a male and a female he would like but he's not he's not going to stop there he wants to wear the apostolic pentecostal church down until we not overnight we're not going to change our consecration overnight we're not going to change our visible testimony of holiness and separation overnight it's just going to come slowly he's just going to gradually get us to give up on this and oh that's really not it that important it's really not a sin to go there it's really not a sin to do this it's really not a sin to wear that it's really and he's slowly and gradually kind of like church attendance there's some people that have found themselves they they used to be at church every time the door would be open they would be in the house of god but the enemy kept wearing on them wearing on them and it started out they started missing wednesday night bible study and and then after they got you you know and even that wasn't they didn't they didn't just attend every wednesday night and have one wednesday night they stopped attending and haven't been back know it they had they they had a you know somebody came over and and some company dropped in and or or this happened and that happened they missed a wednesday and then they came back another wednesday and and then they came back another one then they missed a wednesday and then they missed two wednesdays in a row and and then they got uh and then it go well i go sunday morning and sunday night well that's until that enemy keeps on wearing and wearing and wearing and wearing until well if i can go sunday morning and sunday night well and then then you missed a sunday night and then you found you you find yourselves fighting to hold on to that one service now because the adversary is wearing he's wearing you he's trying to wear the church well there was a man in the bible that had tremendous power he had tremendous power because he was consecrated to god and as proof of his consecration to god he had the outward sign of a nazarite vow and that outward sign was his hair samson's hair was left to grow long which was a symbol of shame but the nazirite was willing to bear shame for the name and for the purpose of god but we know the story judges 16 and 16 and it came to pass when she pressed sounded like wearing out to me when she pressed him daily with her words and urged him so that his soul was vexed he didn't just you read the story of samson he didn't just come in delilah didn't just say samson where's your strength lie and he said well it's my hair if you cut my hair i'll be like any man there was a there was a a process that that she just kept on and kept on wearing him out wearing him down until he finally told her it's in my hair they shaved his hair he lost his distinction and when he lost his distinction he lost his power let's not allow the adversary to wear us down there's another man by the name of lot and ii peter 2 8 2 peter 2 8 tells about lot it says for that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds this righteous man in seeing and hearing vexed his soul he just stayed around he just stayed around sodom and gomorrah at first oh their lifestyle upset him oh at first he had just to pitch his tent towards sodom and all that wicked city and oh how it upset him to see what was going on but slowly wearing him down slowly but surely he become accustomed to it he become accustomed to it all and it vexed his soul i'll tell you some other things that convex us and wear us down is time spent with no results no results no spiritual no spiritual benefit from it acts chapter 24 24 and i'll explain that acts chapter 24 and 24 and after certain days when felix came with his wife drusilla which was a jewish he sent for paul and heard him concerning the faith in christ as he reasoned of righteousness temperance and judgment to come felix trembled and answered go your way for this time when i have a convenient season i will call for you and he hoped also that money should have been given given him a paul that he might lose him wherefore he sent for him the oftener and commune with him now now watch this paul preaches felix trembles and when it came time for the altar call felix did like some do today another day when i have a more convenient season i'm going to give my life to christ when i have a more convenient season i'm going to get things right and the bible said that he sent paul away and then often or often times he would call for paul and paul would come and commune with him but you see sometimes the enemy can wear us down with no results with no results i mean i don't know how i don't know how uplifting that would be for paul to continually the enemy well the enemy will try any way to take our time if he can just if he can just take our time he'll wear us out with things that are bearing no results i guess i i've got a little note here when it comes to soul winning don't put all your eggs in one basket don't don't don't put all your eggs in one basket don't spend all your time preach to them teach to them give them a bible study tell them what they need to do to be born again but if they are like felix and say well i'm looking for a convenient time hey there's no more convenient time than right now right now is the time today is the day of salvation and sometimes you keep talking to me preacher keep meeting me for this keep talking to me well after a while you have to stand back and say am i putting my eggs in putting all my eggs in one basket i'm not saying you would leave that person but maybe you need to find somebody else that that maybe you're preaching they won't say when i have a convenient time i'll call for you maybe they'll say where's the water where's the altar let's go get baptized so we have to we have to be careful that the adversary can use time to work he can use time to come against us now i want to close tonight i want to go down a path that one way when we recognize this is the adversary this is the devil when we recognize in our in our whether it's our body whether we recognize it's the adversary that's worn me out and wore me down from church attendance it's the adversary that's done these when we realize it's the adversary we need to have a holy anger baptize us anger is an emotion and god gave us our emotions and we need to get angry at the adversary we need to become angry as a matter of fact i'll back that up with a scripture the bible said that god is angry with the wicked every day if god can get angry with the wicked every day i believe that we could be angry with the wicked one every day we could be angry against the enemy you see your amount and my amount of holy anger determines the power of my rebuke if i'm going to rebuke the devil from my life whether it's my body whether it's my heart whether it's my my spiritual activity if i'm going to rebuke him i've got to get angry enough to rebuke him i i've got i got to say this is the devil that's doing this this is the adversary that's doing this but you see the adversary is very cunning in working in our lives and before we know it he's convinced us that what our problem is is the woman i married what my problem is is my unthankful children what my problem is is those church people i go to church with what my problem is is that youth group that i that i'm a part of oh don't fall prey to that let's look at a passage of scripture and this will come to light as never before acts chapter 16 verse number 16. and it came to pass acts 16 16 and it came to pass that as we went to prayer paul went to prayer a certain damsel possessed with the spirit of divination that's the adversary which brought her muster masters masters much game by soup saying the same followed paul in us and cried saying these men are the servants of the most high god which show unto us the way of salvation now the problem with this the devil was trying to attach the spirit of divination with the gospel of jesus christ this this young girl uh being devil possessed would step out in the road as paul and silas was going to prayer and she would begin to say hey everybody look these two men there they're the servants of the most high god and they show unto us the way of salvation and what the devil was trying to do he was trying to connect his work with god's work but the bible says this verse 18 this did she many days there's that wearing down it wasn't just one day she did it wasn't just two days it was many days sound like samson doesn't it delilah oh sound like sodom and gomorrah and job this did this did she many days to wear down sounds like daniel 7 25 the antichrist this did she many days but paul being grieved paul being grieved being angry this is where this is going to help us in a moment paul got angry with the adversary he got grieved and he turned and said to the spirit now please notice he did not address the damsel because it was the spirit not the damsel the bible said we wrestle not against flesh and blood the devil has no greater joy than to make you and i believe that it's our fellow brothers and sisters that's our problem it's not our problem it never has been our problem it's the enemy that's using our fellow brothers and sisters so we don't need to rebuke our fellow brother and sister as much as we need to rebuke the adversary and then we need to pray for our brother and sister and this did she many days but paul being grieved turned and said to the spirit i command thee in the name of jesus christ to come out of her and he came out the same hour i want you to know that the tide can turn in our lives tonight the tide can turn as you're sitting there tonight the tide can turn if you will begin to realize this may be the adversary this may be the adversary that's trying to mess with my mind i i've been i've been quarantined and i've been separated from my church family and i've had all these thoughts to run through my mind come on child of god this may be the adversary and uh it's time to get grieved at the adversary and when paul got grieved at it he had listened to that many days and he probably said silas this is wearing me down i this is causing me i don't want to when i think about going to prayer solace i don't want to think about i've got to deal with this devil in the road here i want to know that i'm going into the presence of god so i'm going to just take some time right now and get this out of my way and he did he did the bible tells us there's another story time is beat me tonight again but in acts chapter 13 verses 6 through 12 you can read that acts chapter 13 verses 6 through 12 is a testimony of a man that wanted to hear the gospel there was a man that wanted to hear the faith in jesus christ he called for paul and when paul got there there was another man who was a sorcerer and he tried to come in between paul and this this this man that wanted to hear the gospel and and and finally paul just set his eyes on him and and uh he called him a child of the devil he got mad he got mad paul it's all right god gave us god gave us the emotion of anger and it's not to hurt one another it's to get angry with the adversary an adversary has done this and he got angry with that man and uh he he called him a child of the devil and and he also prayed blindness came upon him and they led the man away and then paul was able to preach and the man was able to believe the man was able to believe the doctrine i close with this tonight ephesians 6 and 10 ephesians 6 and 10. finally my brethren finally my church congregation of first apostolic maryville several finally my wonderful trendsetters finally my wonderful strong tower youth group finally trendsetters finally strong tower be strong in the lord and in the power of his might put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil the wiles there means the schemes of the devil how he slowly wears us down for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities against powers against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places wherefore taken to you the whole armor of god that you may be able to withstand in the evil day and having done all to stand stand therefore can i ask you to do something with me tonight i just believe that we ought to give a holy rebuke to the adversary i believe tonight i believe tonight that it's time to give a holy rebuke to the adversary if i'm in poor health tonight and it's because it's because i'm not eating properly i'm not eating what i should and it's affecting my my physical well-being or if the enemy has attacked me i need to take what strength i've got i need to get on my feet and i need to say devil i rebuke you in the name of jesus i am grieved at what you have done in my life i am grieved at what you are doing right now and i rebuke you in the name of jesus we are in a spiritual battle we are doing spiritual warfare i take my lips tonight i take my mind tonight i take the holy scripture tonight and in the name of jesus christ i rebuke the enemy and the adversary off of the minds of our trendsetters off of the minds of our strong tower in the name of jesus we have been made free we are free indeed this is not the end for me trendsetter this is not go ahead trendsetter stand to your feet there in your home and wave your hands and say this is not how it's going to end this is not how this thing's going to happen open up the window shade get some light into your house open up the door let some fresh air come in the adversary would like to use the quarantine to absolutely besiege our mind but satan you are a liar and you are defeated at calvary he put his foot upon your head and he destroyed all the works of the adversary all your works tonight let's get angry with him tonight let's get angry with the adversary tonight jesus i praise you right now jesus i magnify you right now god i'm so glad for the victory that i have inside of my soul lord i'm so glad that you came that i might have life and that i might have it more abundantly father i do pray over all the church family tonight i do hold the prayer censors in my hand and may the sweet aroma of victory may the sweet aroma of hope and peace and joy fill all the homes of the maryville church and the several church and our family and friends that are watching and in the name of jesus i rebuke that adversary be gone and be bound in jesus mighty name i pray amen and amen church family tonight i hope you receive this word this evening i hope that it finds a place in your heart and i hope that you now you don't don't just think it now don't think it you got to say it you got to say it and you got to sing it you got to say it and you need to sing it there there needs to be a song in your heart