Save Yourself

when when you're introduced like that you find yourself at a loss for words only because God Smiled On The Jones Family the day that the Carpenters walked into our lives and we have felt a profound sense of uh well we've we felt like we have been in debt ever since the work of God in Honduras is is thriving I was able to share just a portion of that with him this afternoon but none of it would even be possible had it not been for the the continual sacrifice and contribution of First Apostolic Church in Maryville and so on behalf of my family I just want to say thank you so much for giving and believing in international missions you've uh you've inspired me and my family I leaned over to brother Carpenter mid-service and I said this this is the benchmark for Apostolic churches this is what we're all aspiring to achieve and uh some of us are doing a better job than others and I hope that I can take a little piece of First Apostolic home with me and I give honor to Bishop and sister Carpenter brother and sister Erickson all the way down brother and sister where's Nolan and Flannery and they're here there's there's others that are not here the Hammonds okay they're working and are you thankful for the leadership that God has given this church I I travel enough to know it doesn't get any better and I know there's times where you look over on that front row and you don't see bishop and you don't see Pastor Erickson and you don't see Pastor Hammond you don't see you don't see the list and and there might be a little of you that's that's frustrated I sure wish that they would be here and and uh the flip side of that could be true because I've been a few places like that where the pastor never gets invited anywhere he's never gone and the congregation is begging for somebody else to come preach and you don't have that problem here it's like you got a superstar All-Star lineup hey and the reality is if you if you can't live for God in Maryville you just can't live for God you might as well go out into the world and be a sinner no don't do that but I know you're blessed I know you know that you're blessed and you exemplify excellence in every way and just when we think it can't get any better it does and uh and I honor you for that I'd like to invite you to the Book of Ezekiel chapter 14. my my family's probably getting ready for church back in Honduras right now so I honor them in a few days we've gotten close to 100 people showing up for a week of Crusades and evangelism and so pray for us that God rewards the Harvest in the last 90 days I don't have enough time to share all that God has done and doors that are opening but it's uh it's high time for the Apostolic Church to rise to the occasion amen and I believe the greatest hour for the apostolic church is right now amen Book of Ezekiel chapter number 14. verse number 12. be there shout amen the word of the Lord came again to me saying son of man when the land sinneth Against Me by trespassing grievously then will I stretch out my hand upon it and will break the staff of the bread thereof and we'll send famine upon it and will cut off man and Beast from it though these three men Noah Daniel and job though they were in it they should deliver but their own Souls by their by their righteousness saith the Lord God what we just read was that there's coming a judgment Ezekiel the prophet declares and these three men even if they were alive during the coming judgment they would only be able to save themselves jump with me to Acts chapter 2 verse number 40. we know this context so well this is Peter standing up on the day of Pentecost to preach he declares in verse 40 and with many other words did he testify and exhort saying save yourselves from this untoward generation for just a few moments on this Sunday night I feel like I've got a word and I feel like I've got an audience and I want to talk to you from this subject save yourself save yourself amen would you put your Bible down behind you would you lift your hands towards heaven and would you pray that God would have his way in the remainder of this service God I love you I praise you I thank you for what we know and we feel we will not fail to give you all the praise and all of the glory have your way in this house your word is already anointed anoint your people anoint your messenger do your will and accomplish your work in this house come on would you clap your hands and give God one more shot of praise Hallelujah turn to the person next to you and tell them save yourself The Book of Ezekiel Bears the name of its author the prophet Ezekiel is a true man of God and his name means strengthened by God after he is identified in verse 3 of the opening chapter and again in chapter 24 the name Ezekiel is never mentioned again in the Bible Ezekiel was one of the Babylonian captives that served alongside Daniel as a prophet during the Exile of Babylon in 597 BC and Ezekiel is most notably recognized as a as a speaker and a prophet for God's judgment and he spoke to Israel about their need to return to God and he would he would often address their sinful conditions and he spoke with such vivid detail and his visions and his illustrations would speak of the idols in the heart of Israel and Israel is described as imprudent and and stiff-hearted and God tells Ezekiel do not be intimidated by their looks or their words and we know Ezekiel he's become a figure of our Biblical understanding in modern times we know that Ezekiel he saw the Spirit of the Lord as a wheel in the middle of a wheel and then later we know that Ezekiel speaks of of a river that that was coming out issuing out of the temple and it's gradual rise of the temple is described as starting as ankle deep and then eventually it was knee-deep and then eventually it was Waist Deep until finally the Bible tells us that it became waters for them to swim in and Ezekiel is this unique character in The Bible he is unique because he could see into the spirit realm and describe it with such graphic imagery and in verse 20 of our text I Ezekiel reaches into the Oracles of Israel's history and from those experiences and those those authorities Ezekiel he selects three men three men he says I can't think of any three other men who have passed the test of faith quite like these three men now there were a lot of tests in the Bible and there were a lot of men that passed those tests and walked by faith so so why these three men Ezekiel could have selected anyone in scripture he he could have selected Abraham or or Jeremiah Samuel or Nehemiah but instead he's Ezekiel he sees something in these men that needs to be understood and it needs to be communicated and in our text Ezekiel is telling us he is delivering the message of prophecy about that's that's coming to a nation uh because of their unfaithfulness and he describes four calamities he says there's come in a famine there's coming a wild beast there's coming a sword which is indicative of war and there's coming a plague it sounds a lot like the times that we are living in right now Amen in Ezekiel says there is this thing called the wrath of God and the wrath of God it's real and it's something we don't like to talk about can I tell you tonight First Apostolic Church the wrath of God is more severe than anything you or I have ever encountered in our lives there is no devil in hell there is no sickness in your body there is no trial that you will face as ferocious as the wrath of God right now you and I we are living in a time of God's mercy God who Waits with patience and with Grace right now brother Carpenter we are living in a time and a dispensation of Second Chances and third chances and fourth chances and fifth chances you better be thankful tonight in 2023 that God sees our dysfunction and he sees our chaos but he withholds his judgment he has given you and I an opportunity to find our way back to an altar and consecrate our life that is the goodness of God that is the grace of God that is amazing grace How Sweet the Sound Hallelujah you don't need to be intimidated by the wrath of God but you need to know about the wrath of God it is not the wrath of God that is going to bring a great Revival it is not the wrath of God that brings people to a place of repentance it is not fire in broom's throne and scaring people that's going to get them into an altar the Bible says it is the goodness of God that leads all men to repentance it's the goodness of God that compels you here it's the faithfulness of God that compels you here I don't have to frighten you into the goodness of God you ought to run and fall head long into the grace and the mercy of God Hallelujah but there is coming a day there is come in a day when the wrath of God will be released and it will fall down like fire people ask me especially in Honduras trying to figure me out now that I've been there 10 years I think they got a pretty good grip on who I am but they say hey hey are you are you a fire preacher or are you a Grace preacher and I I know what they're trying to ask me they're they're asking me are you judgment or are you Mercy what kind of preacher are you and my response is always this I am exactly the same kind of preacher that you are going to find in the Bible but but but I will not be become so intoxicated with the grace of God and the favor of God that I become negligent in my responsibility to stand behind a Pulpit on Sundays and Wednesdays and Thursdays and Fridays and declare to people you better get ready you better make your election sure because there is coming a day where the the fire of God is going to fall there is coming a day where every tongue will confess there is coming a day where every knee shall bow and you might as well bow right now you might as well lose your tongue right now oh we know about the blessings of God I love the blessings of God everybody loves the blessings of God but let me tell you about the wrath of God now now be be find comfort in the fact that in Psalms 86 the Bible tells us that he is slow to anger thank God for that but don't neglect the fact that in Isaiah 30 30 the Bible tells us that he he has a fierce anger is Swift is strong as powerful and yet Ezekiel tells us that the wrath of God is coming it's coming but the wrath of God that is coming that even if Noah and even if Daniel and even if job were here they could only save themselves now when you look at the life of Noah we see a man that has built a boat and put his family in it and anybody that would listen and through faith in God Noah saves his family enduring ridicule enduring mockery Noah remained true to the message he said the flood is coming and I'm getting ready and I'm keeping my record right and Noah walked with God and Noah worked with God and Noah was a preacher of righteousness but the kind of Wrath that is coming Ezekiel says Noah he could only save himself and then you look at the life of Daniel he was a contemporary to Ezekiel they lived in the same day in the same generation in the same region it's very likely that they knew each other and Daniel doesn't Daniel doesn't waste any time worrying about what other people are doing he doesn't waste time worrying about whether or other people are saying he commits himself to a life of prayer and consecration before God the Bible describes Daniel that says he had an excellent spirit he was a good example talking to God multiple times every day and no commandment from any King could stop him from doing what God had called him to do God raise up a generation that'll do the work of God and stand in their place and not be intimidated by Kings and not be intimidated by governments and not be intimidated by bureaucracies or city councils or rebellious families in the church God raised up a generation of apostolic people that no matter what noisy pestilence tries to blow its way into to the church there are Daniels that will stand in Apostolic positions and say you will not stop me from doing the work of God Hallelujah it was in the last six months I've I've faced I have faced for the first time in my life brother Carpenter now I didn't know what it looked like and maybe it's just for me it's modern but the first time in my life I've ever dealt with real persecution now let me just let me just tell you that if someone in the church does not invite you to the birthday party that is not persecution if you were unfriended on Facebook that is not persecution if you are living in the consequences of bad life choices that is not persecution all right but for the first time in my life I I felt persecuted because uh my residency for for the country of Honduras to operate as a missionary in that country I had to go through a governmental agency and that governmental agency is is is very strict on their trinitarian beliefs and so in my application to apply for five years of residency I had to go down I had to read through the document and at the bottom I had to sign a statement of faith that I believe in the father Son and the Holy Ghost and so I consulted some men in my life and I said do we have a loophole in this situation otherwise I'm in a bind and they said well all you need to do is quote a particular trinitarian Theologian that they all Revere and respect and say I believe it just like this man believes it who was a Oneness preacher I said well that seems a little sketchy but I'm gonna go with it praise God and so I signed it I plugged my nose and I submitted my application well I operated under that residency for a few years while we were just the group of disenfranchised uh uh people up on the little Hill in that moldy little room nobody paid us any attention nobody cared what we believed or what we were doing but now that we moved out onto Main Street and we've got the big church on campus and you can't go anywhere without driving by First Apostolic Church of Aroma 10 Honduras and we've just bought the adjacent property where we're building an adjunct facility and the very first Apostolic Hospital in the country of Honduras that we've got parking and business now now that we're not the little people and the blessings of God are starting to unfold now now they started to sift through their records and the regional chairman called me up and he said hey uh Mr Jones I'd like to meet you for coffee I said man I'd love to meet you for coffee and I'll be honest with you I thought he was coming to sit at my feet and listen to this the sage wisdom in fact he's from this area he's from he's from Knoxville and uh he might even be tuned in God bless you in Jesus name and I said do you want to meet at the church coffee shop because you know we did we did uh win the award for best coffee shop in the country two years in a row I'd love to invite you to our coffee shop he said no I've got another coffee shop I'd prefer to meet at and that's when I kind of felt like something was off a little bit and I get there and uh he uh he's sitting at the table and he's got a stack of printed papers he didn't have a Bible he had papers and I was like man I came unprepared I didn't have anything printed and I ordered breakfast and he's not ordering coffee or food or anything and he says well we might as well go ahead and get this meeting started I said well let's and so he throws the United Pentecostal Church International Ministry manual in front of me and I said well look at that and he says do you believe that and I told him I said I'm gonna be honest with you brother I have never read that I said I'm I'm gonna go ahead and assume that I do for the sake of this conversation but I'm gonna I gotta be honest with you I have never opened that in fact this is the very first time I've ever laid eyes on it and so he just puts it away and he pulls out the worldwide Pentecostal Fellowship when he drops it on me he says do you believe that and I said I got to be honest with you again I didn't read the first one and I have never read that one he says well I did and I'm going to tell you what it says if you believe this you are either you have bad theology or you at best you have bad Theology and at worse you're not even a Christian you are some Fringe cult I said well thank you very much I appreciate that he said uh he said I've got some questions for you and he pulls out another printed piece of paper and he says did you write this and uh it was a newsletter that I had written to supporters back in 2017. and uh I didn't remember writing it and I write so many of those I don't I don't keep them memorized and he said uh did you write this and I said well my name's on it and he had it highlighted and underlined and and he's got notes and uh at one point in there he turned it around he said did you write this and I I told our supporters that I was celebrating because this week we had just baptized three former trinitarian pastors and we were seeing a breakthrough on an island that was entrenched and trinitarian heresy that was my that was my language and he says did you write that and I said you know brother I don't recall and so he asked me these three questions he said number one do you believe that I am going to hell as a trinitarian and I said well I said I'll be honest with you brother I do not know who's going to be in hell I'm not the judge I only know who's going to be in heaven and the only people that are guaranteed to make it into heaven are people that have repented of their sins and been baptized in the name of Jesus Christ and been filled with the gift of the Holy Ghost and are living a life of righteousness and consecration I am not going to put you in hell but I can promise you right now that if you repented of your sins and I baptized you in the name of Jesus Christ and you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost I promise one day you and I are going to stand on streets of gold with walls of Jasper and Gates of Pearl and innumerable multitude of a oh he said oh very clever I said that's just Bible brother he says okay I've got one last question and then I need to leave I said okay he says since you don't believe in the trinity which you know we could we could have that conversation but he says since you don't believe in it when you look into heaven what do you see and I said I need a little bit more context for that question I said I'm not sure what you're asking me he says when you look into heaven what do you see I said well tell me what you see when you look into heaven so I understand what you're referring to he says when I look into heaven I see three distinct Thrones with three distinct Wills and I said I'm going to be honest with you brother we are in two completely different universes ever seen into heaven and I don't know anybody that's ever seen into heaven except one man and he wrote the Book of Revelation and when John saw into heaven he said I see one that's Seated on the throne I'm not here to give you my opinion I'm here to stand on the word of God there is one Lord One Faith one baptism I told you that to tell you this I looked into the eyes of that man and I saw a good man but really what I saw is the spirit of Nebuchadnezzar that said if you would just bow and we would be all right just bow everybody's doing it if you bow we can co-exist on this island you can keep your residency and we're not going to have any problems but I looked into those eyes and I said I'm not gonna bow to you today I'm not gonna bow to you some and I'm here to tell you on a Sunday night that we filed our paperwork today to establish primary Iglesia apostolica as a governmental registered organization in the country of Honduras we don't have to worry about anybody's trying to stifle what God is doing I'm telling you you stand on the Promises of God you stand on the work God raised up a Daniel generation that's not intimidated by the leaders of our world oh Hallelujah I gotta be honest I was I was afraid that we were going to get kicked out of the country I was afraid that we were going to lose our building I was afraid that we were going to lose our access but God's people have always been a miracle people God's people have always been a miracle people we survive on the miraculous provision of God amen you want to know how we survived covid the miraculous provision of God we should have gone down but we didn't we grew we bought property we started construction we started new churches everybody else was closing down in the country the only people that were not was the Apostolic Church we had we had military police riding around in the back of pickup trucks patrolling the island we had a 6 p.m to 6 a.m curfew you could only leave your house once every 14 days I'm talking about I'm talking about an iron fist I'm talking about fear like a plague covid was the least of my worries fear and anxiety was was crippling people in our church and I got permission from the government to travel around and and and and create food packages and deliver them to people in our church and it started out as 20 and 30 meals and then it was 50 meals then it was 100 meals then we turned our church we couldn't have service so we turned it into a soup kitchen and it was a thousand hot meals ten thousand hot meals 25 000 hot meals to feed people on the island because there was no stimulus check you couldn't make more on unemployment staying home than you could by going to work and so I had to make sure that the people in our church were fed and people that were not in our church were coming to get food and we were cooking and I was going bankrupt trying to buy food to feed everybody I would travel to the states to preach just to go home to buy the groceries to buy the food so we could feed the people I was losing my mind and I'll never forget a woman came to me and she said pastor in the church she said pastor I need to meet with you it's urgent I need to meet with you in your office and brother Carpenter was the first time I'd ever been called into my own office I said okay she sits me down and she says Pastor I just want to let you know I don't think you're using wisdom well I thought this was something serious that's not the first time I've been told that she says you know there are people that are coming to our church that are not interested in our message they don't want our gospel they don't even want to come here the only reason they're coming is to get a free meal I said okay anything else you want to say she says well I just think you're not using wisdom and you're wasting our money and I said oh okay thank you for revealing the spirit of this meeting I said now that you're finished let me speak I said number one this is not our money because you haven't paid higher than 12 months you don't get you don't get a voice in this conversation how we spend the church's money when you've not sacrificed to make a single contribution to what we're trying to do on this island this isn't our money this is God's money secondly I don't care why they're coming to our church I don't care if they're coming for a hot dog spaghetti a bowl of chili I don't care if they're here for nachos and a Pepsi they've got to sit through one hour of a Jesus name Bible study and so come on you come from every corner of this island hey First Apostolic Church you don't worry about why they're here or where they're coming from you just keep loving them you just keep feeding and God will provide because God's people are a miracle people I walked out of that meeting I was so fired up I walked into the church and there was a man standing in the the four year of our church he was in board shorts he had flip-flops on and a T-shirt and uh he said hey hey I'm looking for somebody I'm looking for the pastor you the pastor I said listen what do you need with the pastor I don't know about brother Carpenter but I don't give that information out freely I said what did he owe you money I ain't seen that guy in months man I don't think he's coming back you're never going to see that again I said I oh boy I just came out of one meeting going into another I said I'm the bastard what do you what do you want to say he said no I I was on my way to the airport and I've been hearing about what you've been doing on Wednesday nights feeding all the people in this church he says I'm not Apostolic I'm not even quite sure what that means but I own an I.T company in Dallas Texas and he says God has blessed my business and I just want to let you know when I get home I'm going to start writing the checks to buy the food to feed the people you just keep doing the work of God God will sit we are a miracle people and if God's Gonna awaken people in Dallas Texas to build the church you just keep doing what God has called you to do Hallelujah the Wrath that's coming Noah couldn't save anybody but himself Daniel couldn't save anybody but himself job have you heard of the patience of Job have you heard about the patience of Joe he's got boils on his body his his children are lost his he's lost his health his wealth the confidence of his wife and friends and all of that is happening in front of him and job says he knows the way that I take and when I come out of this I will be like pure gold even in even even when when job was going through what he was going through he stayed faithful and patient and committed but even job when this famine's coming and this sword and this beast and this sickness no matter how patient you are or how Visionary you are or not how thorough these men are they could only save themselves now what does this mean for us tonight at First Apostolic Church brother Jones what are you even talking about I'll tell you what this means this means that knowing these men is great understanding their lives is great they were talented they were powerful they were connected to God but at the end of it all they cannot save you their walk with God cannot save you their miracles cannot save you knowing them will not save you the only way that you are going to be saved is if you grab yourself bring yourself down to an Apostolic altar surrender under the mighty hand of God repent of your sins go down in a watery grave speak with other tongues if you want to be saved you've got to be righteous if you want to be saved you've got to be humble if you want to be saved you've got to seek his face if you're going to be saved you're going to have to learn how to build an ark like Noah as a preacher of righteousness if you're going to be saved you've got to build a prayer life like Daniel if you're going to be saved you've got to learn to trust like job knowing these men is great but you need to know your God and that is exactly why in Acts chapter 2 Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost and he declares you've got to save your self from the Sun toward generation uncored generation is literally translated as perverse or corrupt a generation that is bent or inclined towards evil and Peter like Peter we need to stand up and declare in no one certain terms and preach that that you've got to find a place where you surrender yourself to God because the wickedness and the perversion of our world is increased you look around you don't have to be spiritual at all you can see with Clarity the degradation and the decadence of our world and our culture Godly influences decreasing the escalation of violence in our world the business of political corruption the rise of transgender provocation and anti-biblical Lifestyles lovers of men and not of God itching ears in the last days can I can I preach to you tonight in the remainder of what I feel like the Lord wants me to say that as wicked as the world is getting and it's getting Wicked every day but as wicked as the world is getting to the same degree and intensity God intends to anoint his church to the same degree of the wickedness in the world God intends to raise up a generation of apostolic young people and married couples and seasoned saints of God that are gonna stand in their place and declare the word of God where sin doth abound Grace does much more abound and the church has never looked better than it looks right now getting off of drugs has never looked better than it looks right now getting baptized in Jesus name that's never looked better than it looks right huh on my way here on the on the plane I was reminded again of this this this reality uh says the announcements of the airplane were happening and the stewardess stood there with her little trifold pamphlet and she stands and most of the 99 of the the uh the occupants of the plane are not even paying any attention to her because we've seen it so many times and she's standing there and she's going through the ritual and she says listen everybody in in the case of emergency or in case we lose cabin pressure there is a mask that's going to help you to breathe and operate in this unhealthy unstable environment and it's gonna fall from above and the first thing you've got to do is you've got to put it on your cell before you put it on anybody next to you and you need to make sure that you are able to breathe in this unhealthy environment you don't have to be a prophet to look around and see that we are living in an unhealthy and an unstable environment we are losing cabin pressure everywhere you look and I want to be the preacher that stands in this Pulpit on this Sunday night that tells you before you do anything else you've got to save yourself you've got to save yourself from this encore generation don't fall into the Trap First Apostolic of of looking at everybody else around you and what are they doing it what are they not doing and I wouldn't do it like that and I I wouldn't do it like they do it and and you'll fall into the Trap the spirit of comparison and competition and rivalry it will corrupt your life the spirit of corruption or the spirit of comparison will will cause people to create social media accounts in anonymity tear down good people for no reason other than that they are unhappy with their life they'll use they'll use mysterious names and and cloaked themselves in anonymity to to be frustrated with comparison and rivalry and competition listen I don't care what you're wearing I don't care where you're going I'm not interested in why you're doing it and why you're not doing it I I have one job and that is to save my so I am too busy trying to save myself to try to worry about how I'm Gonna Save you if you're unhappy with your life every once in a while you need to take your cell phone and turn it off and find you a nice prayer room and pray until you have a better life you want a better life pray until you get a better life you need to sacrifice until you get a better life you've got to take your eyes off of everybody around you and you need to save your self oh the unhappiness you feel is real the anxiety that you feel is real the regret that you feel is real but the the cause of that is not other people it's not what they have or where they're going or what they're driving the cause of your unhappiness and your anxiety and your frustration the cause of it is pride pride unrepented pride there is nothing that is more contrary to the spirit of God Than Pride pride and the celebration of pride is ruining good people you don't have to look very far to find pride in our world this whole month is dedicated to the celebration of Pride there is nothing good about Pride there is nothing to celebrate Pride over in fact I'll tell you right now the reason some of you have never been able to get a breakthrough is because of Pride the reason you won't run these aisles is because of Pride the reason you won't clap your hands pride pride pride the reason you won't talk in tongues Pride the reason you're still sick in your body Pride the reason your finances are not blessed Pride the reason you won't pay your tithe Prides it's Pride it's Pride it's Pride God throw off the spirit of Pride and put on the cloak of meekness and humility that says God without you I can do nothing I've got one focus and that's to save myself I got people in my church yeah even even all the way down in Honduras I've got them they sit on the 15th row their hands are folded I'm down in the front looking like a I'm beating a tambourine smacking a drum doing the twirly bird down there giving glory to God and they hadn't moved in 18 weeks and I'm sitting there thinking what do I got to do to motivate you to give praise to God and I just finally realized there's nothing I can do they've got to break the spirit of pride it's not because God is not worthy it's not because there's not a commandment for you to praise it's because you are too prideful to lift up your hands and lift up your voice if you want your family to be bound with pride for Generations you just sit there and act like God's never done anything for you but if you want to lose the blessings of God on I'm not too prideful to dance before God I'm not too prideful to lose myself in worship come on come on for about 30 seconds why don't you throw off pride and give God praise throw off pride and lift up your voice come on you need to pray and tell you talk in tongues you need to pray until you lose yourself oh yeah yeah I feel a breakthrough coming right now I feel a breakthrough coming right now it's been too long since some of you ran the aisles you need to get rid of the prize and find yourself running before God oh wow yeah well well brother Jones brother Jones what about what about the good the good kind of pride what a I don't have bad Pride brother Jones I've worked hard for what I've got I went to school I sacrificed I applied discipline I I lost sleep I had sleepless nights studying for my exams I drove for hours to University I've sacrificed for what I've got this house that I've got I are in this house this car that I'm driving higher in this car I am proud of what I've got oh you better be careful yeah well our brother Jones don't be dramatic I'm the good kind of pride oh well I didn't realize that I'm sorry show me good pride in the Bible you're not going to find good pride in the Bible you're going to find where Pride cometh Before Destruction you're gonna find out where the Bible says God refuses the proud but he maketh room for the humble well then what can I what can I be I've got all this stuff I'm proud of what I have what can I be I'll tell you what you can be you can't be proud you can be thankful you can be grateful you can be appreciative you can be worshipful but you cannot be full of pride because it was not you that did it it was not you that got it it was not you that every good and every perfect gift cometh down from above if you've got Health in your body it came from God if you've got money in your pocket it came from God it's God it's God it's God it's God oh hello thank you Jesus for every good thing in my life thank you Jesus for the family I've got next to me hey it's Father's Day I'm preaching the fathers you need to be thankful for the family God gave to you but you need to be reminded it was God that gave them to you come on I feel something churning in the Holy Ghost right now somebody's about to get a blessing somebody's about to walk into a dimension of anointing and power when you recognize God did it God did it God did it God did it oh yeah yeah yeah yeah you can you can come to the music hurry up come on don't stop Don't Stop Don't Stop Don't Stop come on would you throw your hands in the air right now I feel a release of the spirit come on come on lift your voice lift your voice there's an Apostolic echo in this room right now oh God I'm throwing off the spirit of pride I want the cloak of meekness let me tell you as they come to the music let me tell you the cure for pride the cure for pride is to ask God for help the Bible says in numbers that Moses was the meekest man on the face of the Earth that word meek literally translated it was he was the humblest man on the Earth the irony by the carpenter of that text is the author of numbers is Moses he said it about himself the thing about humility is it's so elusive it's so elusive the moment you realize you've got it you lose it and I remember as just a kid I didn't have it all together but I made a point when I was 15 years old I was going to go down to the church and pray before school every day come from a broken home divorce and chaos it was the only Sanctuary for me and I remember finding myself with my hands in my pockets just like this I just walked through that prayer room it was just me and one other guy at 6am and I just walk and I didn't even know what I was talking about 15 years old I didn't even know what to pray I just remember praying God I want to be humble make me humble God I'll never forget somebody came up to me and said hey you be careful praying that you ask God to make you humble he will he will humble you will I take you back I didn't mean it I don't want to be humble and it was like only God could do this he just came up alongside me while I was praying brother don't ever be afraid he says I'm not like other people I can give you humility without humiliating you make me humble I don't want Pride to eat me alive I don't want to be so prideful that tears can't roll down my face I don't want to be so prideful that I can't throw my hands in the air I don't want to be so prideful that I lose track of time and prayer and I find myself in a posture of worship and adoration God make me humble oh whatever you need from God you don't need to be intimidated to ask him he's not like other people God's not going to humiliate you God's not going to hurt you he's a good father and God wants to bless you and God wants to help you save yourself Hallelujah hello hey there's the sweetness of God's presence in this room right now there's a touch from heaven in this room right now if I had a need I'd throw my hands in the air if I came here with a need I'd throw my hands in the air I'd let desperation fill my mouth foreign foreign another restaurant foreign let me say one more thing and then I'm through it's incomplete if I don't say this last thing a problem with unresolved Pride in this untoward generation is if we don't submit Pride we'll try to save ourselves by ourselves we try to save unsavable things our world's trying to save the trees save the rain forest save the sea turtles save the planet there's no amount of recycling that you can do save this planet in fact you were not commanded to save this planet the only commandment in Scripture was that you were to save yourself you let the sea turtles worry about the sea turtles if you let the Amazon worry about the Amazon I'm not saying we intentionally pollute the planet and act irresponsible and I'm not that's not what I'm saying what I'm saying is don't Focus so much on trying to save everything in our world that you neglect the only thing you were commanding to save and that was saving your self and so what we do with our pride is we try to save ourselves by ourselves and so we nip it and we tuck it and we lift it and we pull it and we tan it and we pierce it and it's all an effort to try to save ourselves from mortality but you're you're only the only person you're fooling is yourself you're not gonna lift it and tuck it and tan it and raise it and then and make it better enough to keep you alive you are going to eventually stand before God in judgment and you are going to stand there having never saved yourself foreign how do I save myself well Jesus said If any man come after me let him deny himself for any man that tries to say this whole life will lose it but any man that will lose his life for my sake will save it the key to saving yourself is to Lose Yourself the more you deny yourself the more you save yourself the more you crucify your flesh the more you save yourself the way to save yourself is to deny yourself deny your fleshly appetites deny your carnal Tendencies you've got to grab Yourself by the map of the neck and you've got to drag yourself down to a place of submission and say I will not live my life trying to save the unsavable but I am making it a priority in 2023 that I'm going to surrender to save myself oh in a generation that's looking for the Fountain of Youth God is looking for a generation that has a Fountain of Life that flows out of their belly like a river of Living Water God is looking for people that will deny themselves to save themselves I'll never forget and hopefully I didn't preach past the moment stay with me I'll never forget 10 years ago in Honduras I was 20. 12 years ago now I was 24. I know I don't look 35. I'm like a I'm like a new car brother Carpenter with a lot of miles just rode hard and put up wet like a rental car Hallelujah I thought I was going to Honduras to save Honduras foreign but really I went you can't be prideful standing behind a little wicker basket on a plastic folding table looking at about 15 plastic picnic chairs underneath a little tin roof no microphone you can't be prideful there you know what that is self here I was thinking the white guy came to save the country and really what happened is God sent the white kid to Honduras save himself because every time I preached it I thought I was preaching it to them but really I was preaching it to myself and the more I preached the Oneness of God the deeper it galvanized in my heart the more I preached the Holiness of God the Deep Red galvanized in my heart the more I reached for that Island the more God was saving me in my effort to save the world I was saving myself thank you I'll never forget the night it happened it hit me like like like like nothing I've ever experienced before we were under that little Tin Roof there might have been 15 people in the room and when I tell you it was raining brother Carpenter was coming down like cats and dogs it was raining so hard it was Caribbean rain it was that tropical downpour it was coming in sideways we didn't even have walls on the church we just had a little four by four posts that we would get an extension cable at the hardware store and we would splice and put a little light bulb and we'd hang it every six or seven feet and and and some point between Sunday and Sunday someone would come and rip it out of the ceiling and go recycle it and we'd have to do it again the next week and I'll never forget I'm sitting there it's raining it's thunder and lightning my my precious little wife is over there can I stand right there at the piano I'm not going to play I'm just I got to use this as an illustration she was standing there and she was just playing and singing she had she had little flip-flops on and the rain was puddling around her feet we were just 24 year old kids trying to do the work of God trying to make a difference in our world trying to do something that mattered and we're down there all by ourselves you have never felt profound loneliness like I felt there I've never felt more inadequate than I've I felt down there and she's just over there she's just pecking away at that keyboard just an old rusted keyboard and she's trying to lead those people in a worship and the waters puddling around her feet and she pressed her mouth up against that microphone and when she did it shocked her mouth and she threw her head back but the congregation didn't know what was happening they thought she was responding to the Holy Ghost so when she finally gathered herself together she she tried to play and she's just up there crying leaving people in worship we're just down there trying to save people and she touches it again on that microphone that shocks her again and by this time I look out you can go back to plan I looked out in the congregation it's got their hands lifted they think it's a move of God and I look over at my wife and I say hey you touch your mouth on that microphone one more time we're fixing to have a breakthrough in Jesus name I'm telling you as sure as I'm standing right here tonight we have 10 or 15 people get the Holy Ghost that night or they lifted their hands and God fell and God baptized them it was a powerful outpouring the reason I'm even telling you that because in my humble effort in the in the pitiful preaching we had we didn't have a desirable building you wouldn't be jealous of what we had but God used that save other people he uses our inadequacies he uses what we what we think we lack and it's saving us I I'm just preaching to us tonight that that in our effort to reach Maryville don't ever forget the most powerful thing you can do is take a Bible and a Bible study chart into a house that still smells like nicotine and there's beer bottles still collecting in that garbage can and the evidence of Brokenness is all over that house and you sit at their kitchen table and the evidence of sin is all over that house but you flip that little humble Bible study chart and you think you're trying to save them but I'll tell you what's happening God is saving you and every time you flip that Bible study chart it's getting deeper in your heart it's getting deeper in your mind you are saving yourself I wonder if all over this house you can lift your hands we can lift our voices and you can cry out and tell him God I've got to save myself this come on come on I'm looking for a church tonight that'll rise to the occasion and say God awakens something in me tonight oh come on would you lift your voice as they begin to play and sing would you lift your voice lift your hands come on let the Holy Ghost have its way right now