The Mirror in the Jungle | Rev Myles Young

praise the Lord everybody I am indeed honored to be here tonight at this wonderful Church I feel like I know you because you are my Sunday affair I I watched the Christmas Trio last week I watched the worship and the preaching the time difference is really great because I get to come to church and hear one of my favorite preachers preach on a regular basis and so I'm glad to be here with all my internet family amen I'm I'm excited to be here with my family to have my wife and my children and my grandchild and uh they could have all flown home I don't think they stayed to hear me preach I think they came to see you and but we are honored to be here and I as my son said when we pulled in the parking lot we were met there was a guy directing traffic and stopped and just kind of made us feel at home immediately and then I got out and the music was I don't know where the band was playing out in the parking lot but they were rocking then I came in and I felt like I was at Charles Dickens Christmas Village I mean hot chocolate and coffee and smiles and laughter and everybody looked like you were ready to party that's the way church should be amen give yourself a big hand man I didn't know the Rodriguez's are going to be here tonight I love them very very much if you have not met them they are incredible and they are doing an amazing work in Ensenada Mexico and Beyond everywhere he goes he just kind of finds a connection and God is opening up so many new doors in Mexico and they're amazing people and I love them very very much and I'm glad to be here with them brother and sister Carpenter and Zach and Lauren and Nolan and Flannery and Chad I know he's gone Fallon and the kids we are delighted to be here with y'all y'all are heroes to the apostolic faith and uh brother Carpenter you are it goes without saying one of the wonderful Mighty voices in the apostolic movement how many are thankful for this man of God that you call Pastor amen that's all right hallelujah what an amazing man an amazing Visionary praise God amen remain standing and I want to thank you personally for the invitation to be here what a church your your music your ministry has impacted the apostolic movement globally and your burden for the work of God you're giving and uh it's kind of amazing I grew up in I'm a son of the South I grew up in Louisiana and the closest mountains we had was the Smokies and every winter we came to Gatlinburg and I grew up and so there's this place of nostalgia the summer we did Branson and the winter we did Gatlinburg and so I spent a lot of time and I have family my aunt lives in Knoxville so we would come as kids and in my mind it's always been one of the most beautiful places in our nation and only God could make the Smokies more beautiful by putting Penny and Kenny Carpenter in the Smokies amen you know there's only one there's only one person I don't know if you ever thought of this way there's only one man that was ever chosen by God to be his father and he was a carpenter amen amen we counted a privilege to be here and uh I you know it's always a little strange what are you going to preach it's been a long time since I've been an evangelist when you're an evangelist you get used to just showing up to strange people and you know you got one night or two weeks and they looking at you and you're looking at them and uh you're trying to figure out are we going to get along and is this going to work and you figure out in the first 10 minutes whether it's going to work or not and and the church is going this guy can't preach or he you know I know I've set out there I've had some preachers come by and I'm going oh my God why did I invite that guy but when you when you've connected in some way and I I've I know what you do I know you respond to the word of God and I have I have watched this church jump out of seats and fall in these altars and pray as the man of God has preached I watch you shout I have rejoiced with you on Sunday afternoon all the way out there on that crazy Left Coast I've I've been blessed by your ministry and I I want to just step in tonight and join with what God is already doing I didn't come with a great Revelation I came to just touch maybe one heart maybe one heart that's looking for direction tonight and I want to join with the ministry of this fine Church and maybe minister to somebody if you have your Bible let's go to Second Corinthians chapter 3 and uh while you're turning there I want to relate something I've never told your pastor in fact I don't know if I've even told anyone except the preacher that was preaching and my wife this church has greatly impacted my church in the last three weeks it was a Sunday morning we had had our youth conference under the direction of our youth pastor the momentum conference amen I look back good to see some of our Saints here brother Michael Leon good to see you I hope you're are you taking notes all right he works with our special teams and all no he doesn't return punts but he does other stuff up here but but I I turned the boss I said I hope he's taking notes right now uh our momentum conference said had wound down and brother Todd Nichols had stayed over to preach on Sunday morning and the first Sunday of every month at our church is is a focused giving on which is tonight which is a big deal for me not to be there I think this is the first Legacy Sunday I have ever missed and it's the last one because of you but I I left it in the hands of brother Mark draws so I think everything will be fine tonight but as brother Nichols was preaching and we gathered around the front to pray and the Holy Ghost began to move and I felt like God was speaking to me about the service on Sunday night where we were going to give a special offering toward trying to do a remodel and we were in the middle of about a 1.6 million dollar project right now and I was my mind Pastor you know it's like your mind's on money how can we pay for this and I was standing about right here and while I was praying I felt the Holy Ghost bring to remembrance the story I'd heard about this church when you were in the early stages of building this building and the altar called it kind of moved and brother Nichols came down and I said I just felt like the Holy Ghost just spoke to me that after we make a certain amount everything we're going to do we're going to give to missions because I remember what brother Carpenter told me that this church did by faith he looked at me said I feel that in the Holy Ghost I stepped over to my wife and I said I just felt like what God did to the church in Maryville we're supposed to do that tonight I thought it was about Sunday night but in just a few minutes time a woman stood up and began to speak under the unction of the Holy Ghost then a man stepped out of the aisle and I made mention to him while we were praying and he said brother yeah I need to say something he said because I told god brother young acknowledges me I'm gonna I'm supposed to say something and church because of what you did however many years ago that was God use your testimony to Spur a thought in my spirit and I stepped out in faith and in that offering over three million dollars was pledged and we launched a two-year plan to pay our building off because of your testimony that God brought to mind let me tell you something you're living and you're working and your giving is affecting the apostolic movement at large I think you ought to raise your voice and thank God that he is using you for this glorious gospel praise God Amen so the church I Pastor owes you a debt because you took a step of faith brother Carpenter thank you so much and I believe we're going to see exponential blessing because of what you did by faith so many years ago amen second Corinthians chapter 3 and verse number 18. but we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord are changed everybody say are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord but we all with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord I I want to hold my title for just a moment and I'll give you my title in just a moment but I want to tell you a story to begin I want God to speak to somebody right now put your Bible down close your eyes lift your voice to heaven and ask God to bring divine revelation Jesus I ask you right now into this sanctuary in a special way God we worshiped you we've brought an offering we've given to you now we ask that your presence would come in part knowledge and understanding and Revelation to your people touch the heart of every man and woman here today we give you praise and glory in the name of Jesus Christ you may be seated amen her memory is foggy at best there's not a whole lot to go on because the issue is she was far too young when it all happened to the best of her ability and others that worked in her life and years later they have determined that she must be somewhere at the at the very least the three maybe four but at the most five years of age she can't remember and there's really no way to prove there are some things that she will never forget because they are stamped in that young mind but there are some things that will never be remembered because of the trauma that occurred in her little young life some of those things she does remember was the rough hand and the strange cloth that was rough against her nose and mouth and the peculiar smell and then Darkness as she came to she was somewhere in some dark black knight in a vehicle to the best of her ability to remember everything was dark and she awakened with some type of hood or something on her head in what must be the bed of a pickup truck and everything is dark and the noise is loud and the bouncing and the bumping is rough and then it's rough roads very rough roads and these are the things she remembers it's been a long time ago and then she remembers the end of that long ride in the dark then she remembers the hands that pulled her out of the back of that truck she remembers the hood being yanked off and it was Darkness and as she worked with experts through her mind to find these memories to try and pinpoint where this was it it's almost impossible but she does remember being brought into the jungle area and what now experts tell us was the Colombian jungle she was taken into the night as just a little child deeper and deeper in to the depth of the Colombian jungle she remembers the sound and the wetness of the evening she remembers also more than anything the fear and then the strange feeling of this man and these rough Hands In This Hood the things that were terrorizing her and the fear that looms greater than anything else she remembers it reversing is as the jungle became a more fearful place and she began to clutch to her captor and she began to hold on as screams and tears are issuing from this little four-year-old child she clutches to her captor but then those rough hands and the face she never saw or can't remember throws her into the wet foliage and then she hears the sound of Rapid feet running and she begins to chase in her little three or four year old steps trying to find her captor alone in the Colombian jungle how far does a four-year-old child get in the night in the jungle her screams her crying exhaustion until evidently she must have passed out miraculously must have been providential she survived the first night imagine I don't know how many of you have three or four-year-old or five-year-old children what's the chances of survival not knowing day or night or how many days it was at some point This Little Child evidently saw movement of some sort and intrigued she moves through the bushes and there is a family of monkeys swinging screaming they see her they swoop down and they begin examining and chattering and doing things that monkeys do and she's fearful and they're fearful and then they lose interest after some time and she followed as time went by what almost seems like a fairy tale I listened to the story of Marina Chapman as she was being interviewed sometime back on the radio I was captivated by her story I went and purchased her book as the weeks went by she was accepted by this family of monkeys and for what is estimated to be maybe 10 years in the Colombian jungle Marina Chapman was raised in The Jungle by monkeys her book is entitled the girl raised by monkey are the girls of The Girl With No Name hers is a life of survival in the jungle it's worth reading she learned to climb she learned to swing she learned to eat by imitating these monkeys around her clothing was unnecessary she adapted to the Jungle she learned the sounds of the monkeys she learned when they were indicating food or water or danger she learned to function she couldn't do everything exactly like them but she did her best and they were high in the trees and she was in the lower Limbs and learned to keep up and was accepted and her story about particular ones that took her in and at one particular point one saved her life it's a it's a tale worth reading but it's a story that captured my mind she learned the Primitive communication but interestingly enough she lost the ability to speak she learned the communication of the jungle she learned to survive her most feared was the serpent she learned how to survive she tells the story of the first encounter with the slithering serpents she lost her memory she lost her ability to speak some of those memories are gone forever she cannot remember anything of her former home or parents except terracotta tiles in a little garden beyond that it's gone she assumed the role of a monkey see monkey do she learned by imitation to survive by doing what they did one day while resting do I have your attention I'm really not a preacher I'm a storyteller one day while resting on a limb something caught her attention it was there on the jungle floor now she's eight or nine years in by estimation she now thinks and lives like a creature of the Jungle she cautiously swings down and intrigues she approaches and there's something that Glitters shines and it doesn't fit the jungle floor and she approaches and she picks it up and like an animal she tries to figure out what it is and she bites it and it's hard and she doesn't taste like food but somewhere in the course of her erratic animalistic movement she had picked up a mirror and when she picked up the mirror and it moved in front of her face she saw a creature looking at her that was alive and she threw it circling back he picked it up this game continued for a little while until reality hit that she was looking at herself and for the first time Marina Chapman said she recognized I'm not like them something happened as she saw herself for the very first time it was not long after that by her account that the screams of her monkey family indicated that there was something coming beware and take cover and she along with all of her monkey family and Associates she hid and there below was a creature it was actually a hunter and when she saw him something in her said that's what I am she began to follow from afar and the rest of the story is the account of that young girl following that man to the point of finding her way back into Human Society her story is worth reading but it was not until she looked in the mirror in the jungle that she recognized I'm not like them my title tonight is the mirror in the jungle the text said but we with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of God are changed into the same image can I remind the apostolic church tonight while we sit in a beautiful sanctuary under some of the finest worship and expression of Praise that you will ever hear in your life Beyond these beautiful walls It's a Jungle Out There there is a world of depravity there is a world of perversion there is a world of sin and sorrow and hurting people there is a world of humanity that has been taken captive by the very forces of hell it's a jungle out there I came to preach to somebody our job is to get this gospel to hold this book up to the face of a lost man or woman our world has been carried into the deep dark place of sin and sorrow the long road of sin has your family your co-workers your friends living in a life of Brokenness and confusion and darkness they have lost the ability to worship they have lost the ability to even know who God is they are so far removed from righteousness that they pass laws they've floss who their gender is they don't even know how to identify anymore and before we we lose our mind and anger understand we wrestle not with flesh and blood but against principalities and powers like the rough hand has captured humanity and has poisoned the spirit of man they're broken they're hurting they're addicted they're bound they are killed captive by hell and most people are just trying to survive just trying to find anything and anybody that they can make it oh they they dress it up with a smile and they dress it up with entertainment and they dress it up with education and money in a house and a car but if you could really get on the inside of them a lot of what they do is just to survive just trying to do what everybody else is doing keeping up with the Joneses just monkey see monkey do I stayed this week down by the University I didn't have a car Friday night I was hungry I took a walk what is it Cumberland I looked I was like I was marching with clones every person looked the same and it wasn't just the shirt with a big T on it they all had the same look they all have the same expressions from their soul and they all were doing the very same thing and I could see in their Spirit they're lost and don't know God and they're just copying all their friends they're just going to the same parties and doing the same thing trying to fill the void just trying to survive monkey see monkey do it starts early we call it peer pressure keeping up at high school with what everybody else does and before long everybody just starts buying in and I and I I live in a crazy place I live in California but at the same time everybody from Louisiana to Texas to Tennessee to California everybody's the same they're just trying to survive trying to make enough money to pay the bills trying to make enough money to have a good time trying to fill the void on the inside because they're in a jungle of confusion they're trying to find answers that's why this church is so important this is not just a one of a ten to-do list in your life if you're part of this church you are the part of the only sanity in this city you're the only same thing It's a Jungle Out There Humanity has been taken captive carried to Dark Places I said this afternoon in a coffee shop and I looked around I thought this was the Bible Belt I think somebody broke the buckle has Flags were flying representing in shirts and language that I'm listening and I'm looking and it dawned on me you can't outrun sin you cannot run depravity because we are wrestling with forces of hell and their intention is to take and Destroy and kill people just try I watch one individual day my spirit was already in church this today and I watched and I listened they were so messed up and my my Deep South Apostolic boy in me everything in me Rose up and then the spirit says look Beyond look Beyond look Beyond look deeper and when you look into the heart it's like little Marina Chapman carried into this place with no control and all they know how to do but they did maybe that'll be the answer what I saw that movie or what I heard that and what that song said and what my friends did and before long they're just chasing trying to survive looking for acceptance looking for survival copycat they become imitators of the jungle gone is the memories of Dominion gone is the hint of Godly Pursuits no idea of righteousness anymore no thought of a Heavenly Father the memory is gone and generations apart from righteousness Folks at the further this thing goes and the longer Christ waits for his return it's going to get worse evil seducers will wax worse and worse that's why I'm glad to be in this church on this Sunday night because in here I gotta look at something that tells me I'm not like that out there I'm not in the jungle I'm Different there's something different about me such were some of you such were some of you I'm sure if we went to every section we could have a testimony service about where you used to be I can tell you story after story of how the gospel came and brought hope something stood out in your life somebody saw an Apostolic sister at work somebody saw a Pentecostal man on the job an Apostolic student walked by somewhere and something it was a little Glimpse I'll tell you what it was when you walked in and heard the preacher preach because the Bible told us that this word is like a glass we look into how many remember when you walked into an Apostolic church and you were addicted and you were bound and you were broken and you were like everybody else just trying to survive and when brother Carpenter began to preach something sparked in you and for the very first time you said wait a minute I was made for more than this bottle I was made for more than these pills I Was Made for More Than This licentious lifestyle you got a glimpse of what you were supposed to be and when that worshiper lifted up their hands there was something that you identified with and that worship inside of you something sprang out and you said there's something about her that I'm supposed to know it's like a coal that the wind of the spirit blows over and it flared up you got a glimpse in the mirror you were not designed to survive you're not like everybody else you were made to thrive you were made in the image of God you're not a beast of the field you're not a beast of the Jungle you're not a product of this world you were born from above every young person in this room hear this preacher today I don't care what happens on your college campus I don't care what happens in the world in the media or the Kardashians or with Kanye or anybody else that's the jungle that's not who we are you want to know what a young person looks like you want to know what a child of God looks like you get back to the house of God you get back and say oh Pastor preach to me hold that mirror up to my face you weren't made to live in the jungle you were to take dominion over the jungle my God if this church only caught a little bit of what I'm preaching you could turn not only this city upside down you could turn the world upside down you've got so much talent you've got my God look at that right there my God I need somebody to take a picture of that I feel like I'm an Apostolic Disney tonight that's what I'm talking about you students need to recognize Who You Are stop walking down trying to be accepted you're never going to be accepted by the jungle you are made to swing with them you weren't made to hang with them you were made to walk in and take Dominion you were made in the image of God oh I'm preaching to somebody it's time for there to be a mirror in the jungle every time these doors open you ought to be on your feet saying preach preacher preach Pastor brother hammers preach to me oh but there's some priests to me it ought to be an every Sunday school class it ought to be in every song We Sing it ought not be we try to be like them they ought to try to be like us we were born for Dominion not to be hiding from serpents and Swinging dodging Danger we weren't made for survival we were made for Dominion put your neighbor say you were made to have dominion it's what I love I love about this church this is my first time in real time real time amen I thought it was good with everything I had seen and heard but the half is I'm out of breath right now you know what I saw I mean my God y'all got your own street light got your own Disney design team y'all know what this church says to me Dominion Dominion well you're going to get into false doctrine that Dominion theology if you don't have dominion theology you better quit preaching because until you take Dominion you ain't doing nothing when that sinner walks in full of drugs and alcohol you better have a Dominion theology you better not be hiding dodging the serpent you need to walk up to that man or woman and lay hands on them and cast out devils in the name of Jesus when that person drives by a new witness to them you better have a Dominion theology that tells them if you'll get baptized in the name of Jesus you'll receive the gift of the Holy Ghost those sins will be washed away and you will be a new creature in Christ Jesus tell your neighbor made for Dominion musicians come I'm almost done my mind goes to the bratical where does he wind up he winds up a slave in a foreign country surviving just surviving just trying to keep up with everybody run with everybody until he's all spin out and now his life has funneled down to a pig pen he's now just so much in survival that he would have filled his belly with the husk that's a swine eight survival the only point of his life was just another dollar another day get through this day just get me through this a day at a time imitating the unclean animals he was supposed to be feeding somewhere in that pigpen he saw himself and he came to himself and he said I don't belong here I got a home it doesn't smell or look or feel like this I know what I'll do I'll just go back home and I'll tell Dad just just make me as one of the servants I'll go back he gets back but don't overlook one of the most powerful parts of that story his dad says no way if you think you're going to come back here and just survive you weren't made to be a servant you were made to thrive you weren't made to survive you were born to manage the farm you were born to have dominion and Rule kill the fatted calf bring the robe give him some shoes put the ring on his hand you were made for not survival in the jungle take a good look in the mirror boy this is what you're supposed to be now rule this Farm and take Dominion see what church is supposed to be is not just this cool spot where you come here for the Erickson and the family and Lauren and Fallon and Nolan all these people get up here in Florida get up here and sing and then hear this my personal televangelists that's cool ER than a Branson show I mean just forget God just come watch it's awesome but that's not what this is about all of that is all that worship all that sea all that production is to break up the fallow ground hoping that you'll lift a hand and worship it hoping that you'll sing or tap a foot just participate a little bit and by participating it breaks the ground up and then the man of God comes with the big mirror and he holds it right up to your face while you're sitting there and pastors preaching you something or I mean you came in here like this and while he's preaching oh my preach pastor what's happening it's bringing you back in alignment the jungle I get on you and he said he said you got to be careful that the word of God doesn't become like a man walks in and sees you see something in the mirror that man you got a big wad of dirt on your face and then he walks away and forgets about it doesn't do anything there's a lot of people that come to church that way the preacher preaches and the spirit moves and God's conviction moves and you see yourself and you go I really need to adjust that I need to start doing that I need to stop doing that I I need to I need to make that a man but he said it's a sad thing when you just walk out to grab a coffee and get in your car and then you never take the time to let the mirror do its work but here's the amazing thing with the Disney theme mirror she didn't have the first magic mirror because this mirror brother Hammonds when you look at it you not only see yourself superimposed is the image and you recognize you see yourself in the mirror and then in the mirror is and we the fivefold ministry comes until we achieve the stature Christ don't ever look at church as a to-do list don't ever look at the sermon as it's talk time think of it as coming for your spiritual mirror check and you see yourself and you see Christ and you bring yourself into alignment the washing of the word the anointing of the spirit well I can't do that I see that that's why you need the Holy Ghost I mean there's nothing more frustrating to go into going to some leadership conference and they tell you about how to you can do this and then you realize I don't have the ability to do that Christ is not dangling something out in front of you you can't achieve he's placing within you the power to become I don't know well I guess I do because I watch I know what y'all do so I'm going to do it stand with me all over this house I don't know where each of you are I don't know you personally I've never been here but I know what I felt to preach maybe I'll get another chance at some point to come preach better but I do feel like somebody needed to hear this I I have a feeling that there's some people here you're great but you don't believe it you allowed what happened to you as a child or a marriage or a failure or a mistake to dominate everything about your future and you're living so far beneath what you could be but if you really get a look in that mirror you'll see who you are and what you can be I pray the anointing of the Holy Ghost would come into your spirit tonight and call you out of what is keeping you from who you are supposed to be as they begin to sing this altar is open for every man or woman or young person that says you know what I feel like the God of this room that's in this house is speaking to me you may be away from God or you may be living for God but there's something Beyond I know what I felt God is calling someone to a new dimension of leadership to a new dimension of who you're supposed to be God didn't place you in an average church God did not place you under average Ministry God placed you in a special place and God is trying to show you and exemplify by the building of this building the leadership and the Excellence you see on display that's supposed to be you it's not just for a show this isn't Broadway this is an Apostolic Church this is the mirror where we see who we're supposed to be as they begin to sing I challenge you lift up your hands lift up your voice to God ask God to come by you right now impart wisdom and knowledge and understand unravel me with a melody yeah you surround me come on come on come on come on let the Holy Ghost minister right now come on the Holy Ghost is talking to somebody the Holy Ghost is speaking to you respond the Holy Ghost is ministered do you respond right now hallelujah hallelujah depart your knowledge to us impart your wisdom to us let us see you and let us see who we can become pour your spirit into our minds and our hearts God to not just be copiers of this world but to walk with you to walk with you in righteousness to walk with you in power to walk with you in anointing