Preparation Power
Pastor David T. Elms Preached on 8/9/2026
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46:42
Summary
Pastor David T. Elms explores how the anticipation of Christ's return provides the 'preparation power' needed for a holy lifestyle, transforming worship and service from duty into a joyful pursuit of heaven.
Key points
- •Preparation for God's kingdom is motivated by the 'blessed hope' of heaven and Christ's return, not merely the fear of judgment.
- •Personal consecration involves choosing a covenant with God over the pursuit of worldly lusts or prideful self-gratification.
- •The power to change and live righteously comes from looking forward to a glorious future rather than looking back at past failures or history.
- •Exuberant worship and sacrificial service are natural responses when a believer truly grasps the value of God's presence and the reality of His coming.
Scripture
Hope
Worship
Purpose
Holiness
Discipleship
Life application
Shift your focus from past regrets to the promise of Christ's return this week; let this hope inspire you to serve others and worship with renewed energy.
Reflection questions
- Does my current motivation for serving God come more from a place of fear or a place of hope?
- In what areas of my life am I choosing 'consecration to myself' instead of 'consecration to God'?
- How does the reality that 'Jesus is coming back' change the way I handle my daily work and relationships?
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Full transcript
0:00Father, we love you and bless your name and thank you for your love and
0:04grace to us all. We are wanting to know more about you and learn your
0:08way. And that's why when we come to your house, we enter into your gates
0:13with thanksgiving and into your courts with praise. Help me make sense today. But above
0:17all of that, let me speak to the heart of the people. For that is
0:21where salvation is born. Bless them in Jesus' precious name, I pray. Amen. Nudge your
0:26neighbor and say, preparation power. Amen. Preparation power. You may be seated in the name
0:32of the Lord. Before I preach, I've got two reports to bring to you. First
0:37report, actually three reports. The first report I meant to bring last Sunday, Brother and
0:43Sister Perdomo have been reaching out for people. And last Saturday, they baptized two people
0:49in the pool. Was that y'all's swimming pool? I didn't know y'all were rich like
0:55that. They
1:01baptized them in their swimming pool and they came out of
1:07the water talking in tongues. Hallelujah. That's what this thing is
1:12all about. We are here to get people baptized in Jesus
1:18name and fill with the Holy Ghost in which if you're
1:24willing to yield to the Lord, you will speak in a
1:29language that you do not understand. That's what the Bible says.
1:35And you have the choice to stop it when it comes or speak it. That's
1:40completely on you. It's not on me. It's on you. When it comes, you're the
1:45one that's got to say, oh, that's fake. Tell God that's fake. Go ahead if
1:50you want to. Or you can just speak it as the spirit, the Bible says,
1:54gives you, the King James says, the utterance. The New King James says, as the
1:59spirit gives you the words to say. Well, I don't know if that was the
2:04New King James. That's the Timothy edition. My middle name's Timothy. I
2:10gotta help some people out today. But that happened. Also, yesterday we had another
2:16baptism here. Someone who has worked at the arena with Marco and Zach and
2:21all of the other kids that were from our church that worked at the
2:27arena. What was her name, Winter? Shan. She came and got baptized yesterday in
2:32the name of Jesus Christ. Did she get the Holy Ghost?
2:41Oh, what a delight and a joy for the Zach baptized her. And when I
2:46saw that picture, I like, I was like, come on now, bring it on. This
2:51is what it was is all about people baptizing all around the city. Listen, this
2:55is the will of God. We don't have any expert baptizers. We're people who know
3:00their only name that has the authority is in the name of Jesus. In the
3:06name of Jesus. That's the only name that causes demons to tremble. That's the only
3:12name that will give you victory over the enemy. That's the reason when you pray,
3:18do all whatsoever thou doest, do all in the name of Jesus. Jesus. Hallelujah.
3:24And so we thank the Lord for that. And then last but not least for
3:30the vials, had his open heart surgery on Monday. It was turned from a triple
3:35to a quad, quadruple bypass surgery. And here's the good news. He sent me a
3:41text this morning, and he wanted to share with you all that according to the
3:47nurses that were there and their witness, He is one of the first, if
3:53not the first quad quadruple bypass surgery patient to go home
3:58straight from ICU to home. Most of them go ICU and
4:04then a room and then home. He went straight from ICU
4:10home. I told him he shouldn't be doing those cartwheels, but
4:16he couldn't stop. No, but he went, it was the
4:21goodness of God. It's the healing power of God. He'll be
4:27back very soon. And we give the Lord all the praise
4:33for the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to
4:39all men. Everybody say all of us, the grace of God
4:45that bringeth salvation. hath appeared unto all men, teaching us that denying
4:51ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly right now
4:56in this present world, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing
5:02of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. People ask me about
5:07this church. You know, I many times have the blessing of bringing my
5:13own guests to this church. And I recently have had some new guests that
5:19have come to this church, and it's always fun to hear them try to diagnose
5:25this church. after they've come to it. I forewarn them when they come. I try
5:29to tell them, I don't know if you're ready for this. I've warned many people
5:34about what I call the splash zone, which I call the first few pews. If
5:39you've ever been to SeaWorld and you've gone to see Shamu, the place of the
5:43orcas or the killer whales, whatever you want to call them, there is that first
5:48three rows is known as the splash zone, and that's where you're probably going to
5:52get wet. Well, at the cathedral, you know, there's the people that pay the high
5:57dollars and sit in the front seats. These are the hard tickets to get. And
6:03Enrique always, he parks his tent out front to get his ticket. He sometimes sleeps
6:08all night long to get that seat right there. But, you know, it's the tough
6:13tickets to get. But But they asked me about our church and recently, in fact,
6:18it was this last week, one was trying to ask me about this church and
6:23how to figure this out because there's some unique things about this church that are
6:29not usual in Christianity. One is that we're exuberant in our worship. I'm not saying
6:33every place is an exuberant worship, but many times it's got to be a special
6:38event before that exuberant shows up. And then if you're attending, and many of you
6:42have attended those church, most of the exuberance is up here on the platform. People
6:47are jumping around and doing all this stuff and everybody out in the audience is
6:51standing doing this. Okay, so you know, that's I'm not judging them. I am not
6:57their judge. My point is this. We are not ever going to be that church
7:02because we're going to put an understanding in your heart of the value of your
7:08praise. When you understand how valuable your worship is. When you get a revelation of
7:14just how powerful your praise is, then you refuse to let the praise singers give
7:19all the praise. In fact, we have a custom that people kind of walk down
7:24to the splash zone during the worship service. Why? We're sending a message. I'm going
7:28to be up in it. I'm going to be in the middle of it. And
7:34so people ask me about that and it's an intriguing thing. They ask the church
7:38and they wonder how in the world do y'all keep the young people on fire
7:42for God? Because that also is an abnormality. You know, young people are normally out
7:47to smoke some reefer and see a movie and go eat. And that's pretty much
7:51what they're about. And so here is a bunch of church folk who aren't doing
7:55that. They are going and having a great time and they don't have to smoke
7:59reefer to get their appetite. And they're able to have a great laugh without being
8:03half high. They don't need a bong stuck out beside the table in the
8:09living room. They understand what it is to have joy unspeakable and full of
8:15glory. And they're happy about it. And so many times they wonder, how do
8:21you do that? They look at our young couples and the kids are happy to
8:26be in church. Every once in a while, we'll have some sing an extra song
8:30and then the church doesn't go crazy because there's kids in the sanctuary. It's one
8:34of the things that, you know, I've been to some churches, God bless them, but
8:38they feel like you've got to segment these certain things demographics and put them out.
8:42And we don't always do that. We're comfortable with the baby that'll burst out and
8:46crying. And we know that there's parents that will take care of that child. And
8:50if they won't, then somebody might nudge them. You know, we have a nursery for
8:55the child that wants to sing extra while the preaching is going on. So what
8:59what is this? We're learning how to live in the real world and it's because
9:04of people who catch the vision and people wonder how in the world do they
9:09do that? What is it that drives people to do it? One of the funny
9:14questions I got this past week and I'm sure he's probably watching but he works
9:19right now, but it's one of my dear friends. He asked me he said, you
9:24know, I like the church. I like the energy, but I don't understand the jumping
9:29the jumping part. I don't get it. What is it? Well, once again, these kind
9:34of things happen, but they don't happen. Some people say it's because of fear, you
9:39know, fear of the pastor. The pastor looks and they start doing this. I just
9:43want to tell you, it's not because someone has scared them into it. No, these
9:48are smart people in this church. These are tough people in this church. They're brilliant
9:53people. They're well-employed people in this church. They're not people that are waiting on a
9:58handout and will jump because they're getting a handout. No, they're people who don't need
10:02a handout, but they still have a lot of leap in their spirit because they
10:07understand some things. It isn't, it's not fear. It's just gloriously simple and it's simply
10:12glorious. And it's found in our text. Titus, the second chapter, is a
10:18chapter about lifestyle change. Paul is talking to everyone. He said, the grace of God
10:23has appeared unto, nudge your neighbor and say, everybody. The grace has appeared to everybody.
10:29It's appeared to the whole world, even if those who don't even want church today,
10:34the grace has appeared to them. And Paul also breaks down in this chapter that
10:39he's talking to aged men and he's talking to aged women. There are none of
10:44those, of course, none of those are here today. But if you see an aged
10:49woman, let her know that I said hello. But we've got aged men and then
10:54Paul talks to aged women and then he talks to young men and young women
10:59and then he goes and talks to what in that day was known as servants
11:03but it's just an old word that literally mean an employee. You work for money.
11:08We've got a bunch of folks who are servants in this house today. You work
11:13for money. There are some of your corporations who think you're a slave. You need
11:18to remind them the days of slavery are over. Okay, I am not your slave.
11:24I might be your servant, but I am no slavery's done, baby. It doesn't
11:30mean it's not happening around the world. It's just not righteous, okay? And so, and
11:34then Paul breaks down in this writing to Titus. He says, here's the things I
11:39want you to do. I want you to not talk back to the people around
11:43you. I don't want you to be sassy and saucy, even though I called a
11:48woman that today, both sassy and saucy, but I'm not preaching specifically to you, my
11:52dear sister. I won't say your name out loud, okay?
12:00But it says, don't talk back. It says, don't loiter. Paul was talking about if
12:04you have a job, don't be lazy. Don't be that guy that goes to the
12:08restroom and nobody can find you for 20 minutes because you're just kind of acting
12:12like you have to stay in there, but you're really taking a false break. Don't
12:16be that guy because everybody else in the whole business knows that you take that
12:20every time the tough shows up. And that's anti-Christian. It's not like the Lord. You're
12:26not to be the loiterer in the room. There's always one in the room. Don't
12:31let it be you. He said also don't steal. That's something that still happens. And
12:37every single time that Paul gives these instructions that are practical and reasonable, he gives
12:42the same reason why you should not do the things that are wrong and you
12:48ought to do the things that are right. It's not for fear of hell.
12:54He gives the same exact reason and that is Jesus is coming. The
13:00fuel for who we are and what we do. This is the whole
13:06message. You want to know the whole message? Write it down. The preparation power. We're
13:11in a month of preparation. Those of you that went to the home teams, isn't
13:15it nice that I have so many different dispositions? I was both Thomas Edison in
13:20this week's home team. I was also the Wright brothers in this week's home team.
13:24I There were several things that I have become. I was a prophet in this
13:29week's home team with the old garb dress on. And I'm always excited to see
13:33what Brother Jefferson is able to come up with for the lesson that week. But
13:38here's my point. The whole essence of this thing is that if you want to
13:42know why we worship the way we worship, Why we pray the way we pray.
13:47Why we are in this month of training and preparation. Why the greeters are so
13:53happy to greet you. Why the ushers are so blessed to serve you. Why the
13:58singers jump. Well, part of the singing is fear. I will say that. The singers
14:03have fear of Melanie. Okay, but other than fear of Melanie, other than fear of
14:09Melanie, there is this desire to know that Jesus is here.
14:15That's why I have power to prepare. I heard about a little boy
14:20who was up all night wondering where in the world the sun had
14:26gone. And finally it dawned on him.
14:40Folks if you do not have the understanding of why you need to worship and
14:44why you ought to work right and why you ought to prepare and why if
14:48you don't have the Holy Ghost you ought to be energized and passionate to get
14:52the Holy Ghost and if you haven't been baptized in Jesus name why you need
14:56to be doing all the listed logistical steps to get baptized. It's not because there's
15:01a hell but it's because there's a heaven. He did not tell us the greatest
15:05power to get you to move was fear of the underneath. No, it was joy
15:11for the up above. There is coming a new Jerusalem down
15:17from God that will change you and rearrange you and reposition
15:22you and build you up. Ancestry.com went in 2015 from making
15:28683 million a year to this in 2023
15:34last time they reported ancestry.com is making 1.3 billion
15:40dollars a year they have three million subscribers I
15:46understand a one-time visit but I don't understand who
15:52would subscribe to ancestry.com It's amazing how the study
15:57of humanity has, it's a powerful thing. Anthropology is the study of human
16:03nature. We learn about our hierarchy, our ways and our hairdos. It's a
16:09crazy study that's out there. And if you've not seen your hairdo from
16:1515 years ago, don't look. We would literally hairspray our hair taller than
16:21our head. The different years that you find yourself. Oh,
16:26the 80s. Most of y'all were not alive in the 80s. We had this great
16:32big hair generation. Anthropology is the study of it all. There's been a
16:38book about the study of people known as the maps for meaning or maps of
16:42meaning where they go into depth study of the Soviet Gulag and what caused that
16:47and how will we avoid it and then it went and studied the German Holocaust
16:52and how that entire nation would wink at something that was so defiled and evil
16:57and then it went to the depth study of one that you don't hear nearly
17:02enough about But that is the genocide in Rwanda that has been stopped by the
17:07grace of God not long ago. But that genocide has been going on and on
17:11and on and on. And I don't know why there's not a newspaper that won't
17:16put that in the headlines. But it's going to get headlines here because evil is
17:21evil is evil is evil. It doesn't matter if it's not reported, not talked about.
17:25If it's evil, it's evil. And God knows about it. but there's so
17:31much study about yesterday that helps us to hopefully inform us for tomorrow they
17:37say if you don't learn from history then you're doomed to repeat it but
17:43the overarching idea of anthropology is understanding where we come from so we'll know
17:48how to live And I do not want anyone to forget about yesterday. There's
17:54amazing lasers that are flying over the jungles of South America right now. Landscapes
18:00that are being mapped by lasers that are showing up cities that no... has
18:06ever seen that are being revealed. They're tucked underneath the trees and the vines of
18:12the jungle, cities under trees, and we're finding lost worlds. And it's so intriguing to
18:17me. Two months ago in June, uh, for the very first time because of the
18:23advent and the advancement of artificial intelligence. They were able to read an entire scroll
18:28that they discovered years ago, but they have not been able to open because it
18:33was so old. It's from 200 years before Christ that they discovered it. It was
18:37a put together and stored about 70 years after
18:43Christ. And they just discovered this Herculaneum, which is
18:49this, like that word? Glory. They found this thing and
18:55they were able to go in through the ability to a particle accelerator and they
19:00were able to digitally unroll the scroll and decipher all the words just two years
19:05ago. I mean, two months ago they did this and it was a book on
19:10ethics that was written 200 years before Christ. But the signature line from what they
19:15discovered was this. We will inquire into something, but we will not grasp it. if
19:20in some way we depart from ourselves and from our own nature.
19:26Pretty high sounding words there. We will inquire into something, but we
19:32will not grasp it. We just spent millions of dollars and brain power
19:38of the finest minds of our generation to recover a 2,000-year-old scroll. How to become
19:44a better person, we hope it'll teach us. And what does it say? It says
19:50we will inquire into something, but we will not grasp it.
19:57Listen, I am a fan of history. I'm going to continue to bring history to
20:01this pulpit. I'm going to remind you where we came from. But if you're trying
20:05to find the power to know how to prepare, you're not going to get it
20:10by studying the gulag or the Holocaust or the genocide. You're not going to get
20:14it by learning about the revolution or the countries of this world. You're going to
20:18get it from one thing the Bible says, and that is knowing... There is a
20:23glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus
20:29Christ. He is coming again and he's coming very
20:35soon. I thank God for America. There's no country like America. I bless
20:40the land that we're a part of, and I'm frustrated with those who are down
20:46on America because they obviously are speaking from the lack of information. They don't really
20:51realize what is out there in the world. If you're so down on America, I
20:56would like to tour with you around the world, okay? And I would like for
21:01you to see... the blessing that would make you stand up and sing God bless
21:06America because America though has had a taint towards communism that goes all the way
21:11back to the old good old days remember the good old days isn't it something
21:16how we re-engineer the past and act like it wasn't here before oh I wanted
21:20to be like the good old days well communism was a huge thing in the
21:2530s here in America communism was massive all the way up through to world war
21:31ii communism had a massive foothold in america and it's trying to make its comeback
21:35here and some are choosing communism but if you read the autopsy of communism which
21:40is public for all to see all you got to do is go down to
21:45cuba and see how it works out or go to russia as i have been
21:49and see how all All the buildings look exactly the same. And they had about
21:54one car in the whole nation that they could drive. And it's just the people
21:58in Russia died for a pair of Levi's. They would pay 200 US dollars in
22:02the 70s just to get a pair of Levi's. And back then I wore Levi's,
22:07but they were the ones that had the tag cut off and the leather patch
22:11cut out. Okay. You could buy those at TJ Maxx. I can't, I
22:17couldn't wait for the first pair of Levi's that I wore that literally still had
22:23the tag on them. You rich folks, y'all didn't even know they cut the tag
22:28off. Your wife ought to go out and cut. Y'all don't even know Levi's have
22:34a tag, do you? Oh my goodness. Elms, you're old. That little red tag that
22:40was on the back pocket of those jeans meant... It's just
22:46like that members-only jacket, which I got my first one about five years ago. I've
22:51never had one, but I went to school with a bunch of kids that did.
22:56Is there any members-only wearers here? You know, you work... Look, looky there. Uh-huh, we
23:01know who the status folk are. You had to wear that members-only, and it said
23:06members-only right there. I never could get one of those, but... Uh-huh, here's my point.
23:12You want communism? Go take a trip, because it's a lie. I don't care how
23:17it smiles. I don't care how it speaks. I don't care how nice it seems.
23:21I don't care how wonderful it is when it seems to be filling your pocket
23:25and they say it's taken from others. It's a lie. It's hogwash and I'll make
23:30that from this pulpit. I will preach that because the major focus of communism is
23:34government is God. It's an old doctrine from a long time ago. In fact, there
23:38was many years that you could serve the gods, but if you served God, the
23:43God of the Bible, then you were against the government. Why? Because they don't mind
23:48as long as you're fragmented and the government is king. But when the government's not
23:52king, when you have a God over the government, then they're your trouble. Your trouble.
23:57Your trouble. They don't want that. That's the reason that Nebuchadnezzar's statue, everybody's supposed to
24:02bow. And that's the reason there will always be some that will stand up to
24:07government. I don't care who's in office. And I'll say, I'm not going to bow
24:12to any government. I am not branded by any party. You can't know me by
24:18how I vote. No way, no how. I vote for Jesus and he is the
24:23king of my life. He is the Lord. of my home. He is the savior
24:29of my spirit. We have not learned from communism. We've not
24:35learned from Sodom. The Bible speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah, which was not just homosexuality.
24:40I know in our modern binocular, when you say "Sodomy," you're talking about homosexuality. But
24:46it's much more than that. Sodom was filled with haughtiness. It was filled with pride.
24:52It's interesting how those two things go together nowadays. But biblically, Sodom said, "Your biggest
24:58problem is your pride." And they wanted relations
25:03with no covenant. They wanted union with no
25:09consecration. They wanted to live just for the moment of lust and not for the
25:15lifetime of commitment. And so the Lord called that solemnly. We certainly don't want a
25:20holy consecration. And Paul wrote to that very generation and told them exactly what God
25:25does for that kind of living. The Bible said in Romans 1 that God gave
25:31them over to a reprobate mind. God's greatest final judgment is not judgment. God coming
25:36at you. God's greatest and final judgment is when God leaves you to yourself. God
25:42help us. There's a moment when God looks at you and says enough and he
25:48walks away. And there's some people who quote his name and call his name and
25:54he's walked away from them. And they are proud that they think they found a
26:00newfound freedom. And all God does is he just says, I'll leave you to yourself.
26:05You can have that. I'll walk away. He turns them over to a reprobate mind
26:11to where they think they're praying. They think they're prophesying. They think they're having dreams
26:17and visions, but it is not him. It is them because they love the absence
26:22of holy consecration. They wanted to be consecrated, not to another, but consecrated to their
26:27own lusts. And they call that holy. They call that God made me this way.
26:33No, he didn't. You're a born sinner. That's what you are. You're not special. We're
26:39all born in sin. You don't have a special sin like the rest of us
26:44don't have we all have sin and we've all fallen short of the glory of
26:49God, but we do not embrace a Consecration to ourselves we embrace a consecration to
26:55another we sacrifice for others We stand up for others we give of ourselves because
27:00we're covenanted to a holy cause. Oh, that's good preaching Elms. Oh The final
27:06judgment that we have not also learned from the ecumenicalism of Babel. Ecumenicalism of Babel
27:11says that everybody has a different, doesn't matter how you worship, we're all going to
27:16the same place. Go ahead and fall into the doctrine of Babel that ecumenicalism is
27:21not in this word. They think they can build their own staircase to heaven and
27:26God will prove to us all that there's coming a day that every knee is
27:31gonna bow and every tongue is gonna confess and say there's only one who's Lord
27:36and his name is not Muhammad, his name is not Buddha, his name is not
27:41any of the people who say they're Messiah today. No, his name is Jesus, at
27:47the name of Jesus. Have an apostolic church here this morning at
27:53the name of Jesus Every knee is gonna I hear some Pentecostals
27:59in this house Every knee is gonna bow and every tongue I've
28:04got some shouters in this house today every tongue is gonna confess
28:10Jesus is Lord I'm talking about preparation power. I'm talking about power that makes
28:16you want to pray. Power that makes you want to prepare. Power that makes you
28:22want to be baptized. I love the past. I'm a sentimental sort. I will sit
28:27around and my wife will look at me with strange side eye because I sit
28:33there and start getting teary and she's like, do I want to claim him or
28:38not? I'm so sentimental, I can't change myself. And I don't
28:44know when my tears are gonna sucker punch me. But I'm telling you, when
28:50they come, they come. And at this age, I just embrace it. I just
28:56go ahead and let it flow. My wife with her old stone heart, if
29:02there's anybody you want on her side, it's Melanie Kay. I'm telling you right
29:08now, that's who you want on your side. No man having put his hand
29:14to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.
29:20I love the past, but it doesn't give you the power to change. I love
29:25to sing the songs of old, but it doesn't give you the power to change.
29:29The power to change comes not from the past, but from what is coming. Tomorrow
29:34belongs to the God of heaven. Tomorrow belongs to God. In 1977, Annie told the
29:39story of an orphan girl as one of the great musicals on Broadway ever sung.
29:44an orphan girl being raised during the Depression. And she would
29:49walk out in the face of all the opposition and all
29:55the oppression and all the lack of substance and supply. And
30:01she would sing, ♪ Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, yeah ♪
30:06Not you. ♪ I love you, tomorrow, you're only a day
30:12♪ God doesn't ever say look back
30:18and change your life. If you're having a hard
30:23time living for God, look up. If you're having
30:29a hard time worshiping, look up. If you want
30:35to know where am I going to get my
30:40praise from, For your redemption draweth nigh. If you're
30:46losing your passion, gift up your eyes. If you're losing your hunger, lift up
30:52your eyes. For John said, behold, a city coming down from God out of
30:58the heavens. And it was a city for square. He's coming back again. He's
31:04coming back again, beloved. Now are we the sons of God. And it does
31:09not yet appear what we shall be. but we know that
31:15when he shall appear we shall be like him for
31:21we shall see him musicians come as he is and
31:27every man that hath this hope in him by himself
31:33even as he is pure we know when you when
31:38you're a kid you got to get an inspiration to
31:44take a bath my son ethan i think he said
31:50it in this pulpit he bragged that he made it
31:56through a youth camp a children's camp Children's
32:02camp. Listen to mama defending him back here. You
32:07see mama jump right then? It was children's camp.
32:13Don't touch her babies. Don't touch men. You understand.
32:19Austin too? See, he's squinting over there. He's squinting.
32:25She threw you out under the bus. He was
32:3010. They were proud. These are alms we're talking
32:36about. They were excited and felt like
32:42they ought to have gotten a trophy. They made
32:47it through a camp without a bath. I don't
32:53know. Tessa must have been stuffed up. She couldn't
32:58smell. You're blaming the showers. The shower's too dirty
33:04for me to take one. You know, you want
33:09to know why there's people that will walk in
33:15this place and they've had a real hard week.
33:20Some of y'all know others like this. Some of
33:26you are this right now. You walked in this
33:31place today. And when the singing started, you couldn't sit
33:37there and act like it was a bad week. It was a
33:43bad week. But you would not allow yourself to sit there and
33:48act like it was a bad week. The church keep its life.
33:54How does a family keep its passion? How do you raise your
34:00kids to grow up and want to be apostolic Pentecostals when they
34:06get old? I'll tell you how. Let them know the best is
34:12yet to come. Let him know the greatest days are still ahead
34:18of us. Let him know that he's coming on the clouds with great pomp
34:24and majesty. Let him know the analysis of an altar call is people who
34:30essentially are not scared into the altar, but they're wooed by a better day.
34:36The hope does the work. The hope makes you wash yourself. Let me tell
34:42you, I have done my best to give my children bags. We just,
34:48we've got grandchildren now. If Pop Pop's the one giving them the bath, it's gonna
34:54be that the rag is a shark in the water. I gotta show them how
35:00a washcloth, it becomes a shark in the water, yeah? I got all kinds of
35:06imaginations there with washcloth. It can become a porpoise. It can become a shark. It
35:11can become a catfish. It can become a carp. Y'all don't know what a carp
35:17is. Just let it fall down to the bottom. It's
35:23a bottom dwelling fish, but there's going to be an inspiration
35:29clean. The blessed past is wonderful, but it's the blessed hope
35:35that cares us. It's what's coming. It's prophecy of a new
35:41world. It's the forward look that keeps us worshiping and praying
35:46and pressing. You look back, you'll get depressed. You look forward,
35:52you'll stand on your tiptoes. Yesterday is beautiful, but tomorrow holds
35:58the power. It's that moving forward. Jesus said that in Matthew 7,
36:04there's two roads. There's a wide gate with a broad way and there's a narrow
36:10way with a straight gate. And it said there's going to be many that take
36:16the wide road and few will take that narrow road. But he doesn't sell the
36:22road. He's not telling you the road to try to give you a logistical road
36:28map. He's telling you which road gets to where. And he said,
36:33but the narrow way and the straight gate leads to
36:39life everlasting. So it's the hope that purifies us. Yes,
36:44Jesus is coming. Yes, hell is hot. Yes, hell is
36:50forever. But heaven is being built. He said, I go
36:56away to prepare a place for you that where I
37:01am there, you may be else. Everybody will be happy.
37:08We'll be happy over there. We will
37:13shout and sing God's praises. Everybody will
37:19be happy over there. You know that
37:25song? I'll fly away, oh glory. I'll
37:31fly away when I die. Hallelujah, by
37:37and by. I'll fly away. You feel
37:43that? Oh, when the saints, we're
37:49not talking about New Orleans, go marching in.
37:54Oh, when the saints go marching in. Oh,
38:00Lord, I want to be in that number.
38:05When the saints go marching in. You feel
38:11it? All hail the power of Jesus' name.
38:16Let angels prostrate fall. Bring forth the
38:22Diadem and crown
38:27Him Lord of
38:32all Bring forth
38:37the royal Diadem
38:42and crown Him
38:47Lord of all
38:52Hallelujah Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. I
38:58used to sing that in high school. I don't even know
39:04the key right now. It's the key of me.
39:11For the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Hallelujah,
39:17hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. For the Lord God
39:23omnipotent reigneth. Hallelujah, hallelujah. How many sing
39:29that? That's a classic right there. What
39:35is all that about? He's coming. It's
39:41more than just notes put on music.
39:52shall reign forever ever
39:57Hallelujah, hallelujah He wins
40:02he wins. Hallelujah. He
40:07wins I close shall
40:12we all stand true
40:17story from history In central Turkey during
40:23the time of Constantine, there was a great pull back and forth about who
40:29we will serve. Christianity was growing greatly. Constantine's mother was baptized in Jesus' name
40:35and filled with the Holy Ghost. Constantine was in all power and of
40:40course he was taken over and if you know the geopolitics of that area
40:46you historians in the room know that Constantine had more power in the West
40:52than he did necessarily in the East and as they were trying to figure
40:58out this process they're just east of Constantinople which is now called Istanbul But
41:04back then it was Constantinople. And when my wife and I was blessed to go,
41:09this church sent us for our 30th pastoral anniversary to Istanbul. You walk through that
41:14place that has been taken over by the Muslims, the Muslims, and there's only one
41:20place in the whole city that you can remember or be reminded that it was
41:25once a Christian city. And that's there in the Blue Mosque. There's an area that
41:30goes all the way back to the time of Constantine. But
41:36there, east of Constantinople or Istanbul, in the middle
41:42of Turkey, there was a troop of soldiers And
41:47because they were worried about the heart of the soldiers, a new edict had
41:53been passed down for all the soldiers of Rome. That all soldiers of Rome
41:59either had to sacrifice to the gods or to the genius of Caesar. But
42:04they could not worship the Lord Jesus Christ. And so there were 40 soldiers
42:10that were in this one troop in central Turkey. True story. that when it
42:16was told to them by the governor that they were going to have to make
42:20sacrifices to the gods or the genius of Caesar, then if you will not do
42:25that, then step forward because you will have to be killed. And of course, the
42:30governor of that region thought that that would be enough to get them out of
42:35it. But 40 of the highest trained soldiers stepped forward all at once. And it
42:40shocked the governor. And he said, "Are you sure you understand what you're doing? That
42:46you're going to have to die for being a Christian?" in this way and
42:52not one of them moved and so he decided after much thought that the only
42:56thing that he could do it was in the middle of the winter there was
43:01a frozen pond so the middle of the night he took all those 40 soldiers
43:05and took them to the middle of the lake stripped them down where they did
43:10not have an article of clothing on and they on the side of the lake
43:14he built a big bonfire and he told them through the night If any of
43:20you want to change your mind, you're welcome to come back. We will
43:25have warm baths for you and a great bonfire for you." Through the
43:31night, they started singing, "Forty soldiers for Christ! Forty soldiers for Christ!" But
43:36as the night went on, the voices went dimmer and dimmer and dimmer
43:42until in the middle of the night, one stood up and started walking
43:48toward the shore. And so as soon as they walked away,
43:53there was a new energy that rose in these soldiers and they
43:59began to sing 39 soldiers for Christ, 39 soldiers. As that one
44:05came to the shore, they put a blanket around him, but a
44:10centurion that had been setting and watching this spectacle through the night
44:16stood up, took off his sword and took off his blanket, took
44:22off his clothes. He walked out there without
44:27an article of clothing with the 39
44:33and he started shouting, "Be soldiers for
44:38Christ!" Nobody's gonna have to die this
44:43week, I don't think, for the Lord.
44:49But when you understand just how good
44:54He is, when you understand how beautiful
44:59He is, when you understand how lovely
45:05He is, death becomes but a because
45:10better is one day in His courts.
45:15I'd rather be a doorkeeper
45:25They're gonna sing and we're gonna open this altar. And if you wanna just come
45:29and love them a little while, if you've held back from seeking for the Holy
45:33Ghost, I want to energize you today with another step towards saying, forget this, me
45:37thinking I'm better than that or I've already got it or I don't need it
45:42or it's just for a certain few that buy into that. No, just buy into
45:46the Bible and come get the Holy Ghost. If you haven't been baptized in Jesus'
45:50name, you need to be baptized in Jesus' name. go down in water and put
45:55his name on you into a holy covenant a consecration of his way if you
46:01haven't walked with him in an urgency in a while and maybe you're just serving
46:06him because you want to miss hell I want to change your focus lift up
46:12your eyes he's coming back again he's He's coming for
46:17you. Why don't we come as
46:23close as we can? Because as
46:29we start praying more and more
46:35and more and more people won't
46:41come to this altar. Some hesitate,