When God's Presence Flows

((music playing)) let's put our hands ((music playing)) we're together your name calling out to you your glory like a fight awakening desire will burn our hearts oh ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) come on his presence in this place ((music playing)) ((music playing)) is ((applause)) ((music playing)) is ((applause)) show us your glory show us show us your power show us show us your glory lord come on let's sing that ((music playing)) us your together show us show us your power show us your glory lord ((applause)) ((music playing)) want to see ((music playing)) see ((music playing)) come every part on our praise this evening ((music playing)) come on ((music playing)) ((music playing)) foreign ((music playing)) has ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) here ((music playing)) ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) come on are you feeling brave you make me break ((music playing)) fear ((music playing)) you call me oh ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) me ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) oh ((music playing)) good amen hallelujah has he made you brave tonight amen all right you may be seated all over the house thank you for being here on this wednesday evening prayer meeting bible study worship gathering and tonight hey we got some cake tonight look at them big old cakes we got back there amen we have some folks that came up and uh they made us some 15-year anniversary cakes hallelujah amen so we got all kinds of good cake tonight and so we're going to eat and it's going to be a blessing and who doesn't want to come to church and get all sugared up before you get home amen get them kiddos all sugared up before you get them home and tuck them in real good give them three pieces of cake tonight amen but thank you folks so much for bringing that out we'll say more about that in a bit but uh make sure you stick around for a little bit of fellowship whether you've been here a hundred times or it's the first time you've bee bopped in we want you to stick around fellowship for a while shake some hands hug some necks get to know somebody that you don't know and eat some cake with them amen it's gonna be a blessed time tonight and we just thank the lord for all that he is doing uh we're in the process of rearranging like i said last week a couple of things and so we've had a we've had a backup on our on our shipment uh with some of our ink and some of our printers and all of that and then tonight pray for uh my daughter kiki she's not feeling well she's not here and uh and so i told him you know what i don't want you to have to go to all the extra trouble we'll get those cards added to the next stack we'll pray over them we can pray without the cards because we know there's hundreds of people right now that are watching and we can let the facebook and the youtube and the streaming platform comments be their card so right now just begin to drop your prayer requests right there in the comments section for all the people that are watching us on the live stream by the way global vision folks i know it's wednesday night it's a little different from sunday but i want you to let the online crowd know how much we love them welcome them into the house tonight would you just let them know how much we appreciate them we love you guys we really do i'm just i'm dauntingly amazed and humbled everywhere we go all over america how the crowds are just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and there's more anticipation for what god is doing and everywhere i go people just watching the live stream people in a garage somewhere with 15 people people uh you know whatever state maybe like every state has like a campus that we don't even know about it's unbelievable uh this this past week i saw some in the backyard with a bed sheet had a big old bed sheet and i had a projector on the bed sheet people were watching it i saw the jesus party sign anybody see on facebook the jesus party sign streaming pastor greg locke i thought that was amazing and so there's just people everywhere watching and so we want you know you may be on the other side of that lens and not in the atmosphere of this room right now but you are very much here with us and we welcome you we thank god for you and we appreciate you very very much more than you know more than you know your support means so very very much and so again put your prayer request right there in the comment section and i promise you tonight somebody will reach out to you somebody will pray for you somebody hit their knees and pray for you tonight but even though we don't have cards we're still going to pray amen as a church because i believe we should all of us have needs all of us have requests all of us have burdens how many of you would say tonight that you wouldn't necessarily take the microphone and tell us what it is but how many have an unspoken burden tonight that only god can give you a breakthrough would you put your hand on the earth that's you tonight that's almost every single person under the tent and it would be all of us if we would be honest because we all have burdens only god can bear for us but the bible does say that we're to bear each other's burdens and so fulfill the law of christ so we're here to pray for each other to love each other and to make sure that tonight we are a family we say so often a family that prays together stays together we want unity in the body of christ we want to be knit together we want to be cohesive the bible says that they may be one that is the will of the lord and so here's what we're going to do tonight i know we don't have the cards for my wife and my daughter to be passing out and standing in line and all of that but i still want you to come tonight if you'd be willing to come and pray i want to go ahead and have our our prayer team folks just go ahead and come some of our guys and some of our ladies just go ahead and come down here if you need prayer tonight and guess what we all do at some point in our life no doubt some of you are facing a stressful job situation some of you are facing a health related issue a financial instability something in your marriage something with your kids something somehow some way you need a touch from god tonight and you would let somebody pray with you and pray for you and pray over you if you just want to come as some are doing right now and just pray by yourself i'm just going to ask all over the room wherever you're at as we have a time of prayer i want you just begin to come i want you to pray for revival tonight we're going to talk about that in the text i want you to pray for our church i want you to pray for the nation i want you to pray for your home your kids your marriage i want you to come tonight and if you need somebody to pray with you for you over you around you then i want you to simply come tonight let these folks pray with you tonight don't come with a burden and leave with the same one good to see the lord raised up brother ronnie glad to have you back tonight brother amen praise the lord glad he's out of the hospital here he is tonight with us praise god lord i see him coming down that aisle amen to that come on tonight let's pray let's gather around this altar spend some time with the lord we may not have cards but we're in no hurry tonight we want to get a hold of god this is god's house he said his house should be a house of prayer and if you have a need tonight you come you express it to the lord or you express it to one of these prayer team members and i'm telling you i promise you they'll counsel you they'll pray over you tonight come on you say well i'm not used to a church that does this we'll get used to this one because we love to pray because we believe in practicing the presence of god and getting in god's presence calling out to the lord in repentance and faith and confession so you come tonight let's pray this is this is the vehicle that drives everything that we're doing at this church this campus is a whole powerhouse from god because of this service right here because of meetings just like this so you come and let's pray tonight ((music playing)) um ((music playing)) what's up father lord we come into your presence tonight god and we just thank you lord there are so many things in our lives that we could complain about but there is something so beautiful about knowing that no matter what is going on in life we can be thankful for who you are god lord we can praise you for who you are we can praise you because you are the great i am the alpha and the omega lord tonight no doubt there's a heavy burden spirit bursum spirit in here tonight god just knowing that people are going through so much in their personal lives and so lord tonight we bring everything to you and we don't need prayer requests god because we know that you know everything you know our requests before we even say them out loud and lord we know that you're able to do exceedingly abundantly above everything that we could ever ask or think and so with or without prayer cards lord you know every single prayer request that came into our church god you know every single burden that is represented here tonight at this altar and people online and people in their chairs so lord we come and we call upon you because we know that you are the only one that can fix what is broken in us you are the one that brings healing to our brokenness you are the one that brings wholeness where we have been torn apart so lord tonight would your spirit minister to us in this place lord would you bring healing and restoration in this place tonight lord can we see your glory fall in this place tonight god that strongholds would be broken from people's lives lord that our prayers would be answered and lord sometimes we're just not really ready for the answer that you have to give to us and so we think that you haven't answered when you have answered so lord would you make us better at being able to discern the doors that you have opened in our lives and also the doors that you have closed in our lives there is no doubt so many of us are being faced with major decisions right now so god would you make your will for our lives evident and lord we will praise you while we stand out in the hallway and wait for you to open the door or to close it lord we just thank you for who you are god we thank you for a local church that we can come and we can gather together lord that we do have the opportunity not just on wednesday and sunday but lord we have the opportunity to do life with each other to fellowship with each other to hold one another accountable lord and god we need that more now than we have ever needed that before this world is tearing at us trying to snatch us out of your hand but lord we know that your word says that we cannot be plucked from your hand and so we will stand on our firm foundation of who you are lord would your church have the conviction to come back to the foundation of christ resurrected that our foundation is you the lord jesus and lord we thank you for what you're doing here lord we thank you for what you're doing within the body of christ right now your church the capital c church is such a beautiful sight to behold and no doubt that it comes with spiritual warfare on all sides and we can get defeated and we can get discouraged and we can get tired but lord we know that there has never been a battle that you have not won ((music playing)) and so lord we rest in knowing that this is not our battle but that it is yours and lord even when we're tired and even when we're discouraged and even when we're defeated we're going to get up every single day and dress ourselves in the full armor of you god and lord we will stand having done all to stand right now so lord would you just bless us and keep us keep us in your will and your grace and our lives father and lord we just thank you for everything that you're doing we thank you that even when things don't seem good that you are you are a faithful god and when we cannot depend on anything else we can always rest in knowing that you will never leave us and you will never forsake us so lord we thank you and we worship you in jesus name amen that's such a great prayer from pastor's tie i was just thinking as we're preparing this next song well we're about to sing about the goodness of the lord and today as women as men we wear different hats right we have the spouse hat the parent hat the daughter hat the sun hat the working hat we have all these responsibilities and we can have everything going right in one space and we drop one of those hats and i felt like as a parent today i had just dropped that hat and i and i was focusing in on that and as we were getting ready to sing the song and as tai was praying god just reminded me that that is why we sing about his goodness because we are all imperfect and we can have grace for other people but sometimes the hardest person to have grace for is ourselves so that's why we have jesus because he is perfect so when we are having days where we feel like man work did not go the way i planned it um i did not mom the way i intended to mom today or to dad today or to be a daughter today then we take the focus off ourselves and we tell god but i love you lord his mercy never fails us because it's his goodness that we worship we take our imperfections we take our failures and we say but god you're good we take our situations whatever they might be whether health whether financial whether stress and we say but it's your goodness it's your faithfulness that we worship here in this moment ((music playing)) so let's just sing of his goodness together oh your goodness i love you lord ((music playing)) of god foreign ((music playing)) in darkest ((music playing)) in the goodness ((music playing)) in every situation ((music playing)) of the goodness ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) cause all my life you haven't failed for ((music playing)) of god ((music playing)) is ((music playing)) huh ((music playing)) you know he was speaking during that song and he said but i keep all the hats going he never drops one he's the faithful friend he's the good father he's the almighty healer and where we end he picks up he fills in the gap he is the gap he is he is the way ((music playing)) so if you feel like you've if you've lost something or you've dropped something along the way he's filled it in if you feel like you've lost something he's that missing piece he is that goodness ((music playing)) cause all my life you have ((music playing)) and all my life you have been so so bad ((music playing)) with every breath ((music playing)) of the goodness ((music playing)) you have been so ((music playing)) calm ((music playing)) of the goodness of god oh i will see of the goodness of god come on let's give him a shout because he is good in every situation he is faithful and true ((music playing)) amen you may be seated tonight if you believe the words of that song say amen he's a good god this morning in uh men's bible study all day long i keep thinking it's monday because we changed it but we read that verse there in romans 2 4 knoweth he not it's the goodness of god that leads thee to repentance if you just sit down and notate the goodness of god it would radically change your life all of our students can be dismissed at this time to go sir isaiah chapter 64 just a few chapters away from what is on our pulpit up here besides fired up is isaiah 61 1 my life verse a verse that for almost 30 years now god has used to continue to mature me and grow me in the ministry how many of you know that salvation is instantaneous but sanctification is a lifetime process that's why the bible says in second peter 3 18 but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our lord and savior jesus christ i want to say something to you to me to all of us to everybody watching online the worst day of your life will be the day that you think that you have arrived and you still don't need to grow spiritually listen i may know a little bit of bible and i've preached 15 000 times all over the world but i'm here to tell you i need to grow every single day i have not yet as my papa used to say a riven okay i'm not a riven yet even the apostle paul who wrote 14 books of the bible he said i've not yet arrived but this one thing i do not these 25 things i dabble in but this one thing i do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth under those things which are before so all of us have to learn to grow we all have to learn to bloom where we planted i told somebody today hey get in where you fit in there is a spot in god's kingdom for you there is a place on this campus for you to serve the kingdom of the lord jesus christ and so i just want to be a pastor a dad a husband a friend that every day learns something more about the lord jesus christ and i do not want to be filled to overflowing with a bunch of head knowledge that doesn't do anything in my life i want to have a heart relationship with jesus christ that radically changes me forever and to say also and reiterate a lot of what miss monica was saying look the last couple of days man it's easy to get discouraged with people isn't it sometimes you don't always make the right decision although people expect you to be perfect and open up your shirt and have a big s on your chest listen we're not super dads we're not superhuman we're not super moms we're not super pastors we're not super christians we're just flawed sinners saved by the grace of god amen and because of his goodness we are who we are by his grace even the apostle paul said first corinthians 15 i am what i am by the grace of god anything good in me god did it anything rotten in me greg locke did that all by himself and for you as well amen so all of that to say isaiah 64 is on my heart the first few verses and so let's pray and i just want to go verse by verse and phrase by phrase and teach you some things tonight that i trust god will use in the life of our church father tonight thank you for a good prayer time thank you for a sweet time of worship and lord we do gather because of your goodness because of your mercy because of your grace and lord if we can only understand in the natural how many people right now are being changed in the supernatural just by simply watching a video even people that are are perusing with a bad motivation even people that are on there to be judgmental and critical for no reason whatsoever lord tonight captivate every heart of every person that hears the word of god lord let us say with those disciples on the road to emmaus in luke chapter 24 did not our hearts burn within us when he spake the word of god to us so mother bible be like a great flood that washes us clean may it be like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces may it be like a fire that burns out the dross of our heart and lord tonight for these moments we have in isaiah 64 would you be honored would you be glorified and we thank you for how you're going to pour out your spirit in our midst in jesus name and all of god's people said you know often times we hear people talk about the presence of god the presence of revival the history of revival what does an awakening look like and i often say as i crisscross the country that i'm not merely praying for a third great awakening like i used to i'm really praying for the greatest awakening that the world has ever experienced which only comes when you give god his rightful place and you give him all the glory because the real testament as to whether it's a move of god or a move of man is who gets the credit for the move itself and it's much like when elijah called down the fire from heaven in a 54-word prayer after 12 hours of the baal prophets crying out to a false god and the bible says but there was no answer and the reason for that is there was no bail but when elijah called out the bible says the fire of god failed and you remember immediately the response of the people they said and i quote the lord he is the god the lord all caps he is the god nobody said hip hip hooray for elijah what a fantastical sermon and story you told oh no it was to god be the glory great things he had done so sometimes we talk about the presence of god but understand something there are two individual types of god's presence that's not heresy that's the truth listen to me there is the the presence of god that is everywhere okay god is omnipresent he's always everywhere at the same time that's what makes him god which by the way that ticks off the devil because he can only be in one place at one time because he's the devil not god he got some power but i serve a god that said all power is given to me in heaven and in earth so god's everywhere at one time that's the divine presence of god that's everywhere we get that but wait a minute i'm not talking about just the divine natural presence of god there are some times that you experience the manifest presence of god god's everywhere doing his work all the time on the scene behind the scenes the heavens declare the glory of god but there's only a few times in the span of your life that you'll experience the manifest presence of god when you know god is in the midst when the glory of god descends like a cloud and life cannot be the same any more someone sent me a text message a little while ago and said and it was such beautiful confirmation of some of the things that i've been praying about and seeking the lord and studying in my bible even as we're going to look at this text tonight and he said what god this is unsolicited what god is about to do in your midst is so holy it is going to be so miraculous that you're having to go through the difficult process of pruning some people away from the congregation that would not be able to handle the heat of the holiness of what god is going to do with his manifested presence in our midst and i believe that and i receive that in the mighty name of jesus by the way that doesn't make all of them bad people but you need to go where you grow if you can't grow here then you have to go somewhere else so if you gonna go go go you're gonna have to grow grow grow right so maybe we ought to shout grow grow grow right so i'm telling you what god is doing in our midst is unusual it's unexpected but at the end of the day we are going through the necessary process so that god can lead us to the resurrecting power of jesus christ now i'm not talking about crowds everybody thinks oh my goodness how do y'all get them crowds i don't care about crowds i preach when we had five people up in this church like we had 5 000 people up in this church which by the way if a man won't preach to a small crowd god won't give him a big crowd to preach to that's for sure if he won't clean toilets he shouldn't get in the pulpit right so that's a whole other message the best leaders are servants lead through serving other people they lead like jesus they wash people's feet so i'm not saying it's the crowds i'm not saying it's the size of the tent at the end of the day what god is doing is so unique that only the people that refuse to see it walk away in denial of it because we just had a preacher that's been in evangelism for 45 years plus sit in this service the other day he said i've been in thousands of churches of every size every color every shape every denominational hierarchy you can imagine and he said what god is doing here is unusual and special he said do not take it for granted do not take it for granted so i believe it's just the beginning there are people that will deny that reality that's fine there are people watching this very second that deny that that's fine that is fine go where you grow but i want to grow and i want to get closer to god so when we talk about the manifested presence of god you cannot live your life the same way when you encounter god the way the bible says that we have the ability to encounter god and so i've told you before i'll tell you again i'm afraid if we're not careful people from all over the world will come to our tent to experience the presence of the holy spirit and walk away only having experienced our presence it's one thing to have an excitable church it's another thing to have a miraculous church the bible does not say in the book of acts that when they saw the power of the holy spirit they were all amused it says they were all amazed and there's a very big difference between amazement and amusement i don't pastor an amusement park i want a pastor an amazing church that's built on the miracle-working power of the holy spirit of god and the gospel which is still the power of god under salvation so all of that to say isaiah 64 is resonating in my spirit tonight and so i want to share just a few thoughts from this passage if i may notice if you would please this is a very revivalistic passage of scripture isaiah is not just beckoning with the people not just begging them to get right he's begging god to send revival in spite of them in spite of their adultery in spite of their idolatry in spite of their casual carnal wicked ways god is being implored by the prophet to do something that changes the atmosphere and the condition of the people chapter 64 and verse 1 he says o that thou would has rend the heavens you know it's interesting that he begins with that word oh now we look at that we think that's not a big deal but it's almost like an exclamation point in the text it's almost like he doubles over in pain he's in dead seriousness and earnestness and he says oh that you would do for us what we cannot do for ourselves because at the end of the day if we could create and manipulate revival we would have already done it and all that have tried before us have miserably miserably failed and this prophet comes to god and says you're going to have to be the one that sends it all that thou would it's rend the word ren is not a word that we use often it means to tear asunder to rip apart it means to to open up wide open ripping apart and so he says would you rend the heavens would you tear the heavens now wait just a minute that seems a bit backward and awkward if you ask me if you're a student of the bible you would think he would say lord rend of the people tear the ground beneath us ren the church ren the country tear up the nation that's not what he says he said rend the heavens because you and i all know that when something begins in the heavenlies we automatically feel its effects you have never seen a raindrop come out of the parking lot and go to the sky they always come from the clouded sky down to the parking lot snow doesn't pop off off the ground into the sky it comes from the clouded sky down to the earth the lightning the thunders the things that we see in the heavens and so here's the analogy that isaiah is using he's saying god if you would stir it up in heaven if you would stir up the atmosphere we would feel its effects down below if you would send the lightning bolt of your glory and the thunder of who you are if you would just begin to shake and rattle the heavens then we would experience it down here because as it is in heaven so it should be on earth thy kingdom come thy will be done and so in this context he says oh that you would rend the heavens that you would tear our hearts by beginning in the heavenlies that watch this thou wouldest please notice the next two words come down somebody says well god's everywhere why does he have to come down you see there's the difference in his divine presence and his manifested presence he's always in the tent he said i'll never leave you i'll never forsake you i'll be with you i'll go with you in the fire walk through the fire come out of the fire i'm with you i will not forsake you saith the lord yay though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death thou art with me my rod and thy staff they comfort me and so he's using an understanding he's given us an analogy that yes god is upon his throne but there are certain times there are certain seasons in your life collectively and individually when god steps off of his throne undeniably and comes down into the midst of his people and it's such an unforgettable experience it changes everything it changes your marriage it changes your kids it changes your leadership style it changes your program it changes a nation it changes a church it changes your financial stewardship and the lack it changes everything about you and i'm gonna tell you why it's not preached on much because we're comfortable with god's divine presence but we are uncomfortable with his manifested glory and the prophet isaiah the most prophetic of many of the writers of the old testament lifts his voice and says lord we want you to come down we want you to step off of your throne walk down the steps of your glory and show up in a way that blows our minds now at the end of the day everybody in the church world will tell you that's what they want until it begins to happen because it's almost like when god comes down he throws a big mirror right up in your face to show you all of your sin all of your rebellion all of your casual inconsistencies and it's almost like there's this big target that is placed upon us and we want the glory of god but we don't want to see the ugliness of who we are without him and isaiah said lord would you run the heavens and would you come down from heaven would you come down off of your throne it's not that god is abdicating his power and his responsibility it's an analogy to say that there are some times that god just shows up differently than he does on other occasions you ever been in a time when you've had sweet communion with the lord and it was almost like you were afraid to open your eyes for fear he'd be sitting right on the bed right next to you you remember in the old testament book of exodus that moses would leave the tabernacle and i read the other day something that was so beautiful why i'd never seen this before why why in the world i miss this beautiful piece of the narrative a small detail it says that moses would leave but two things would not leave the tabernacle number one the glory and presence of god and number two joshua it said in joshua remained in the tent there was something about the manifest presence of god that joshua could not get away from which by the way it so radically changed his life that when moses god servant died guess who took the people into the promised land it was joshua the son of none this young man this young unthought of uneducated man from the other side of the tracks he had so experienced the glory of god it had so burned into the dna of who he was that he was the very man to lead the people of god from one place to the next place and so the bible says that he's begging for god to come down he's begging for god's glory to be manifested now watch what happens when that transpires that here's the reasoning behind why he wants him to come down why he wants him to move why he wants him to step out that the mountains might watch this float down at by presence mountains in the bible are always a picture of obstacles it's a picture of problems temptations things that are in the way you just can't go around them sometimes you can't go through them it seems like you can't go over them you certainly can't go under them and there's this mountain and yet the bible says when god's glory comes down the mountains he does not say explode it says they flow down you see everything you think right now in your life is a problem when god shows up it's easy street what you think is a big deal is no big deal to god what you think is an insurmountable literally situation is no big deal to god and the bible says the mountains simply flow down at the presence of god you see when revival happens you don't have to beg people to come to church when revival happens it doesn't matter if greg or anyone else is preaching people come because god's flowing and when you go with the flow things begin to happen and god begins to change the bulletin and the narrative and the schedule and the prayer meeting and maybe or maybe not will i even get up to grab the microphone because when god's preaching you don't need to hear greg locke and the bible says that the mountains the problems the temptations the obstacles the people the job the situation in america whatever it is it simply just flows down at the very presence of god now understand the illustration that he's giving here if you've ever seen a national geographic show you understand a mountain a volcanic explosion that's the reference here the only time a mountain flows down is when it explodes from the top and the lava begins to come down the side of the mountain we'll see that in the next part of the context he's referring to a volcanic eruption and he's saying lord when you show up it's going to be like a volcanic eruption going to be some holy heartburn in the house there's going to be some services that go longer than an hour on sunday and people are going to be cool with it and they're not going to be bothered by it people are going to get saved the baptismal lines are going to get longer people are going to get healed just by walking under the tent when the glory of god is in the house and he said that the mountains that the problems that the obstacles that the problematic things and the problematic people and the elements that are against you will flow down easily at the presence of god because in god's presence there are no true obstacles you may think you have obstacles you may think you have problems there may be things that you're trying to pray about i told somebody today that your breakthrough is only going to come from your breakdown but in god's presence everything is a breakthrough everything jesus touched got better you ever wonder why there was a miracle because there was a problem that needed one jesus didn't feed people who had already eaten he didn't resurrect people that were already alive he didn't heal people that were already healed he would heal people because there was a problem before that was ever a miracle and you will always have a problem before there is a miracle there'll always be a mountain before there's a movement and god said when i show up like lava there's going to be a volcanic presence explosion and the mountains will flow down at the very presence of god all the things that you've been praying about for years and years and year in five seconds god can fix what you've prayed about for 50 years but notice this he continues with this idea of a volcanic eruption he says that the mountains might flow down at thy presence as when the melting fire burneth that's lava the melting fire what's a melting fire it's this this analogy of the presence of god it eats up it erodes it burns away everything that gets in its way get out of the way of a lava flow right and isaiah said lord what we need from you right now is for you to blow your stack we need the lava of your presence to flow down and burn out bitterness burn out unforgiveness burn out fear free burn out deception burn out lies burn out idolatry burn out fornication burn out foolishness and unfaithful we need your lava to flow in our presence through your presence then we can be different you see he understood the earnestness of the hour he understood as we said a couple of weeks ago that he like we are living in days of no hesitation we pray for revival as if we expect god to send it in another decade we don't have another decade we need to pray for the presence of god right this moment not next week but right now tonight this moment manifested presence of god now it's up to god and his sovereign will as to when where how and why he sends it but here's what the bible says in the book of hosea break up your follow ground for it is time to seek the lord till he come and rain righteousness upon you so he said we got to break up some stuff we got to repent we got to confess some stuff then god then god will come and reign righteous but how long did he say we are to seek him till he does it so whether he does it or not is on him but whether i seek it or not is on me i should seek for revival every single solitary moment of my life whether god ever sins it or not because it's the will of god that i seek it that i long for it because it puts me in a position of anticipation it puts me in a position of recognizing these are days of no hesitation we don't have time to wait we need to see him move at this moment so he says when the melting fire the lava burns watch what it says the fire causes the waters to boil you ever seen those television or youtube videos when that lava goes off into the ocean that water all the sudden starts to bubble up it goes from whatever degree it is to way up there immediately when that fire when that burning melting lava hits the water it causes things to boil and here's what god says when i show up i'm gonna bull some folks the atmosphere is gonna boil it's gonna be like a new testament sauna there's gonna be some heat there's gonna be some power there's going to be some manifestation there's going to be some miracles there's going to be a difference you can't have lava come off a mountain and not change everything about the landscape and here's what i hear a lot of people say well you know wow we're experiencing revival but nobody's different if revival comes to mount juliet tennessee mount juliet cannot be the same town when revival leaves as it was when it showed up it just can't you studied the first great awakening you started the second great awakening do you know where barbershop quartets came from by the way the phrase and the actuality in history 100 true fact check that one right look i'm telling you barbershop quartets came when revival came to wales 1904 through a 26 year old preacher by the name of evan roberts right my kids are named after evangelist my dog is named whitfield praise god amen i love the study of revival but in wales so many people got right with god there was zero zero zero crime in the streets the police officers had nothing to do no one to arrest study history they got so right with god that they began to go to barber shops and preach the gospel and sing in quartets hence you have the phrase barbershop quartets which were police officers singing in barber shops because they had no crooks to arrest because the jail had revival that's kind of stuff i want to see ((applause)) you know boy i could get off on a tangent on this kind of stuff because i love to talk about the history of revival i mean i can just talk about it for days and hours and know the facts the figures the dates and all of that but the problem is we can know all of that and never really want to experience it for ourselves but for two years over 2 million people got saved in the land of whales and around the world it was a singing revival many times they would show up and start singing hymns in another language that many people didn't even know and yet people would just begin to sing with all of their hearts and it was so exciting to the people that when evan roberts would show up to a meeting that was packed to capacity with thousands of people trying to get in a building that would barely seat a couple of hundred if he sensed in the slightest that the people were only there for him because of obviously his fame had grown so exponentially because he was the mouth peaceful revival god always uses human instrumentality don't ever forget that he could do it himself but he uses our hands our eyes our feet and our mouths to do it that's what god has chosen but if evan roberts sensed in the building that they were there for him and not him he would actually impromptu lean over to another preacher that was there to hear him that night and say look i hope you have some notes because god wants you to preach and he would actually ask someone else to preach because he was afraid that too many people were showing up to worship him and his charismatic personality but during that revival one of the most beautiful things beautiful things happened it was a mining town coal miners like kentucky and west virginia deep in them coal mines and these men would be in the coal mines and the convicting power of the holy spirit would be so great inside the mountains and the mines that hundreds of these miners were being converted to christ just by hearing of what god was doing throughout the entire nation of wales and when they would come out their faces would be charcoal black and thick with all of the dust and yet large huge trails would literally be carved into their faces where they had been down there in the rocks in the dungeons of life as it were weeping under conviction but here's the interesting part their donkeys their mules during revival time when their masters got right the mules stopped obeying them because they were so used to being kicked and hit and smacked and cussed that when their owners got right with god and tried to be gentle the donkeys didn't know what to do historical fact revival changed everybody including the donkeys revival changes everything it doesn't just fill a tent it doesn't just fill an offering plate you cannot have a building big enough to be filled by the presence of god and he said when you come down the lava flows into the water and it boils and by the way sometimes it gets a little too hot in the kitchen for some people to stick around and the bible says that when god's presence came watch this it came for one purpose middle of verse two to make thy name known to thine adversaries so that the heathen will know so that the world will know so that the haters will know that the nations watch this may tremble at my preaching oh no at thy presence you see you ain't got to be afraid of me but you better fear him fear not him that is able to destroy just your body but fear him which is able to destroy both body and soul and hell the bible says in the book of matthew and in the book of luke and he says here's the reason we need you to show up not to vindicate that we're great people not to show off on facebook and instagram and telegram and tick tock and tell the world we're the greatest church since sliced bread oh no he said here's why we need you to show up here's the very purpose that the nations may know who you are you see so often our church is criticized as a christian nationalist church but let me tell you something he's a god of nations get this americanized god out of your mind he's not an america god he's a global god he's a world wide universal god the earth is the lords and the fullness thereof the world and they that dwell therein he owns the cattle on a thousand hills and the wealth in every mine he owns all of it the very stars are named by god that's a lot of stars he knows everything about his delicate creation and the bible says the purpose for god to show up is so that the nations that the heathen that the lost will tremble at his presence so i will make you this promise before we go to the next verse you can tremble now or you can tremble them but you're going to tremble you will shudder when god shows up philippians 2 5-11 you can declare him lord now because you want to or you can declare them lord in the day of judgment because you have to but make no mistake you will proclaim him king of kings and lord of lords and the devil himself will fall on his face and writhe and scream jesus is lord to the glory of god the father the devil himself will say that the devil himself by the way that's why he's so agitated right now woe to the inhabiters of the earth for the devil have come down unto you having great wrath knowing that he has but a short time he knows he's going to hell and he wants to drag everybody he can in the culture with him till he gets there because no crook wants to go to jail by himself he'll roll state on everybody and that's how the devil is he's angry because he knows he loses in the end we do not fight for a victory that has not already been secured we fight from a victory that jesus has already given us the back of the book says amen not owe me not o me and so he says i want the nations to know and tremble at your presence now watch verse number three when thou didst terrible unbelievable astronomical if you will things which we looked not for we didn't pray about it we didn't plan it we didn't see it coming thou came us down the mountains flowed down at thy presence notice he's talking about something that happened in the past that he's wanting to see resurrected in the present he says you did this and so we know that you can do it again we know that you have the capability we've seen it before but i love verse 4 for since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the i seen o god beside thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him that'll teach that'll preach that'll shout i hath not seen ear hath not heard what god has prepared for them that wait on him you know sometimes i feel like we've been in a holding pattern i'm just kind of circling the airport sometimes i feel like you know when's it gonna land when's god gonna hit the glory of the tarmac when has what we've already seen get to the place where it's not even close to what we will see he said we either believe the bible we don't i mean that blue flame i turned out rv acts 2 17 still in the bible in the last days saith god i will affirmatively i will pour out my spirit upon all flesh your sons and daughters shall prophesy your young men shall see visions your old men shall dream dreams now at the end of the day you either believe that or you're a bible denier and i'm not going to deny the reality of what the bible teaches because the bible teaches that god sends revival to the hearts of the hungry he does and sometimes it comes in the most unusual ways sometimes it comes like a mighty lightning bolt from heaven we didn't expect it we didn't anticipate it it wasn't the way that we thought it would come which by the way is the reason the body of christ in america is missing it right now because revival has come to us through persecution and people deny the persecution therefore they deny the reality and the results of the persecution when the results are it only took us 18 months to figure out who loves jesus and who loves themselves we found out very quickly who's going to stand and who's not going to stand what churches will fold what churches will make it we found out very quickly which pastors will teach their people to take the mark of the beast for the antichrist that's what we found out now we're not there yet but we found out who would who would not some of you have already found out which of your family members would have put a jew on a boxcar in hitler's nazi germany some of you found out whether your boss would have told on anne frank or hit her under the steps you see what revival does it thins out the herd it separates people it was like you know brother like you got to have a more unifying message you ought to read a bible jesus came to bring a sword and put people at variance one with another because you can't yoke up with something that hinders revival if you want the real results of revival am i making sense tonight and he says lord i want to see things that i know not of i've heard of revival i've i've seen the the shows and the definitions i want to experience it like never before what god hath prepared for them that love him that wait on him so i'm not trying to rush anything i'm not saying god you got to get in a hurry although i'd love for him to be in a hurry but i'm just going to wait we've been waiting this long and look what god's done look how god's moving every what normally is monday but today on wednesday the heart of the men in our church is getting hungrier hungrier but the lord decided to show up and show out and gave the women 97 of them that showed up last night for women's bible study so lickety-split boys 6 a.m on monday and 6 30 monday night at courtney's you better get involved in what god's doing around this place i don't want to miss it i don't want to miss it it's amazing how the lord is moving it's amazing how the lord is working for those that wait those that wait not those that rush not those that force if you force fruit out of season it'll be rotten you wait and we've waited a long time you know i was thinking today i was driving around trying to catch up from being on the road and man i'm home for like 10 days praise be under god i don't know what to do with myself hallelujah my wife's like book i'm eating baby book i'm eating but yes but i was driving around the day doing some errands catching up on some stuff and i was thinking wow i can remember like it was yesterday the apprehension i had to put up the first tent down there below the hill it was hot it was covered right it was mandate code's like a season now that is never going away it's encapsulated all four of them okay but nonetheless so i was like man nobody's gonna show up and i remember when the people started to show up and i i can i can almost tell you definitively in which services i felt when we shifted into it the next gear went to the next atmosphere i know that sounds weird but i can almost tell you the service is when we shifted into high gear and then when we had to get rid of that tent we put up the first red and white what the world says oh look at that circus tent i don't care call it what you want to god was showing out he was giving us a show and everybody's like i never forget the first day we got under that red and white tent we had some people come from gallatin he said hey this ain't gonna be big enough i said would you would you quit we just got in this thing he said i'm telling you ain't gonna be big enough and then two more editions made that thing long weird looking out there on the road the tenth church looked at much of poor hillbillies meeting up in a tent i've heard it all right and i remember i was walking around i know i've talked a couple times about different dreams that i've had i've never really had like what they call an open vision except for this tent right here it's like one of the only walking talking real life screens that played before my mind when i saw what we're looking at and sitting under right now up here on top of this hill before this hill was even really in existence and before we owned it we were just renting and it was a bunch of trees but i saw it and i said man i'm gonna put this tent up there and everybody's like whoa whoa whoa whoa whoa throwing a jake brakes preacher we just got and i'm like i'm like no i'm telling you i'm like we we need to tell the neighbors because we're we're going to be like on their front porch so we need to like pray and see if if they'll let us buy them out which they did and then we started just buying up all the land and then all of a sudden the tent got here and i remember the first sunday man i'm telling you i was so nervous the first because i thought man we got in a flow down there the way we do baptisms and everybody likes that red and white and man it just looks cool on camera and man i'm just used to preaching and i had everybody you know like tighter and ticks just close to me and i knew everybody was and i knew everybody's sad and i was like man this is gonna throw the whole thing off we're going into like a football stadium i remember that first sunday when god filled it and i remember about halfway through my message i felt like god shifted us into a next year and then more people started getting saved more people started getting baptized people started being prayed over i i'd like to know just in the two months we've been in this tent how many buckets of tears have been cried right right right down here out front from all of our services and sean foye to everything that we've had and i say all that to say we've just been holding on and waiting for what comes next and it's almost like there's this holy anticipation for when it's just gonna happen when the whip's just gonna crack and everything just falls into place i don't know what that looks like i don't even wanna know what that looks like but i'm telling you it's coming oh we're there god's poisoning not poisoning us poisoning us positioning us well there's some people trying to poison us but nonetheless he's putting us in the right place he's bringing the right people he's moving out to wrong people and i reiterate that doesn't always make them bad people they're just not the people that can go with you to the next level when the atmosphere changes everything changes it doesn't always take something huge and bombastic and crazy right that's why very purposely i've shifted way back in my gears tonight in the way that i'm teaching because look i could preach on revival till two o'clock in the morning some of you would stick it out but i mean i can just rant and rave and kick and sweat and holler and i love that okay that's who i am but i also know that sometimes being who i am can be a distraction from what god wants to do if we're just being honest and i like to be honest short sleeve honest in a long sleeve coat right i like to be honest with you about stuff and so the reason i've slowed down and i've not been nearly as demonstrative as i normally would be especially on a wednesday night is because i want you to get the gravity and the effect and the understanding that what we are watching god do is not normal it's really supernatural but it also just has begun to be started so as we wait on him as we press into prayer as we fast as we just try to figure out what god's doing without trying to micromanage what god's doing because when man puts his hand on what god's doing god will let him have it and it'll crumble i've watched it i watched it happen in somerset kentucky which for a while i felt like was my second home i've been there probably preaching 200 times over the years but for 21 nights i watched revival break out 18 of them i drove back and forth from mount juliet as the pastor of this church years ago in a youth revival before there was ever a facebook explosion in our ministry i preached on a friday night to 110 tops teenagers and by the first wednesday night 2500 teens had gathered in the brand new renovated auditorium of the first baptist church of somerset kentucky and it got bigger and it got bigger and it got bigger and people were coming and they were putting out chairs i promise you some nights i would get up and preach before the band would play there are nights i would get up while the band was playing and stop them give an invitation and a hundred people would come forward to get saved it was unbelievable what god was doing the prom rolled around all the kids involved in the revival put on all their prom duds skipped prom came to revival stood on the platform and had prom pictures at first baptist church somerset kentucky god's honest truth i've ever told it newspaper was talking about it i didn't know anything about news media and all that back then we're talking about 2014 whatever and it got bigger and bigger and people were just getting saved and people were getting right we were baptizing people and man i'm telling you it was it was stunning to watch and the interesting thing is the invitations if i'm even exaggerating the truth in the slightest buford and others went with me in those days if i'm even exaggerating in the slightest god knows it's the truth the invitations would go so long that i would preach step off the platform drive home to mount juliet tennessee on a school night and braxton king would call me to let me know that the invitation was just now coming to a close every night every night it was getting towards the 21 days and they called me they said we're going to move it to the center it seats 5 500 people biggest thing in somerset i said we're going to move it out to the to the center where all these kids can come but we're having a little bit of trouble with the deacon board at first baptist church they don't own the meeting but they're utilized we're utilizing their facilities so they feel like they have a little bit of menagerie and say on it i said okay that's cool they said they they won't have them eaten i bet they do i never forget i was not nearly as forceful then as i am now and not nearly as maybe well spoken away from the platform as i can be now in private conversation i never forget i walk into that room and here's all these people and they're like you know we really appreciate what the lord's done and but we think the music's a little bit loud and and we think maybe you've served you know your time in this revival and so we we have another band that we're going to bring in we're 21 days in this thing start with 100 kids we're going to bring in another band and we have this this man he he has a ph.d and i thought well i do too preach hellfire damnation all the time amen but that's neither here nor there they said he's he's a doctor he's a he he's he's a well-known preacher and we're going to bring him in and bring in a new band and and so tomorrow night we're going to transition so i'll never forget i put my hands out of my pocket and i said i'm tell y'all something i don't care who you bring in i said i'm not telling you you got to keep me or you got to keep braxton's banned i said but i'm going to tell you something and i said i promise you this is a word from god and i never give no word from god way back then i still super baptist way back then talking to a baptist deacon board i said we'll tell y'all what the lord says you change it it's got two nights in it you change speakers and you change what god's doing with the music you change this thing you try to switch horses more than halfway around the track you're going to lose a race i said so as far as i'm concerned tonight i'm done you bring that next guy in and i said i hope it goes to the roof i said but you've got two good nights in you two the next night is down to about 600 people the second night is down to about 95 people the third night they closed it down there wasn't no people every time i go to somerset kentucky and we just went every time without fail people say pastor lock when you go come back to summer said do you think god will do it again and i always give him the same answer i said he would probably still be doing it if the adults would have got their hands off of it you try to manipulate and micromanage what god's doing he'll let you have it and you'll ruin it every time and so will i and so we just get out of the way we just stand back because when you wait you get the better stuff when you rush you cloud the process so i don't know what's next i'm excited about it sometimes the devil he'll try to discourage me and say a bunch of crazy stuff to me through other people and sometimes i respond i try not to but then i'm reminded god said don't cast your pearls before the swine ((music playing)) you hear me don't give out your best stuff to people that are going to turn and on you that's what jesus said that's in the bible king james don't get nervous it's in the bible so sometimes i got to learn to slow my role and just wait so let me say this we're going to pray a little different service right but i've enjoyed myself it's fun i just like slow down teach sometimes it's been good for me i've been running the roads a lot so i just kind of i'm tired preaching right i'm just kind of i'mma sleep preach tonight so i'm slowing my roll a little bit i'm gonna be ready and good for sunday there's a place in north carolina called monravian falls anybody heard moravian falls north carolina there was a revival that lasted a hundred years started with george whitfield it was a prayer revival a hundred years every day for a hundred years yeah wow is right hundred years a prayer movement people that had come from other parts of the world and settled in monravian falls north carolina just a small little area with a big mountain popping right out of the middle of it the falls the river hence the name and there has been so much prayer and revival and awakening and power baked into that place that after a hundred years of every single day people downloading prayers of repentance and faith in that place but there are people literally people like us people that want to grow closer look people literally they they take trips like throughout the year to go to this these falls to go to this place that's called prayer mountain they built like churches at the base of like unbelievable stuff so over the course of the last six months i've never even heard of a raven falls north carolina and i used to live in north carolina i couldn't tell you right this second where it's at but over the course of the last five or six months i've had about five different people just randomly walk up to me and say hey uh i think you need to go to prayer mountain in monravian falls north carolina and take a couple days off turn your phone off and spend time with god i think he's got something tell you and i'm like well why are you telling me that when that same person over there told me that remember the little secret meeting i had one of the people in that secret meeting sat right beside me and said you've been in raven falls i thought you got to be kidding me this is a secret meeting who told you my secrets and i've had people out of the blue ask me if i would ever consider going to monravian falls north carolina and just turn my phone off and spend a couple of days in prayer and they all say the same thing god's got something to tell you now he's always got something to tell me in his bible right i get it but sometimes he's got a little bit more of a manifested thing he wants to tell you and teach you about something so i kept hearing it so much i told my wife i said baby we need to go to monravian falls north carolina this pastor friend of mine in the area found out about it he's like hey when you come i want you to preach i said oh no absolutely not i said okay how big the church is i ain't coming to preach i said i'm coming to be taught something from the lord so the day of our 15-year anniversary november 7th we're gonna get that little blue flame motor home right after church and we're gonna we're gonna me and my wife gonna go up to monravian fall i i don't book the little hook up right i don't need nothing much i just need a bible and some time with god right and we're going to go for a couple days i'm just going to take the word we'll turn off my social media we got other pastors that when you have a panic two in the morning you can call them praise god keep your phone on danny amen and you know why i'm going just to wait on god because i just think god's got some things to tell me i just think god's got some stuff to teach me and i can get just as distracted with social media and tv and rest like the rest of it i can get distracted doing all the good things in god's word shaking people's hands flying all over the world preaching the bible you know taking pictures of folks signing books you know baptizing people watching people get saved praying over folks man i can do all of that but sometimes even that can be a distraction from the greater work that god wants to do in me and if i'm going to be able to do greater works like john 16 promises i'm gonna have to have him do a greater work in me because i'm not there yet he's still working on me to make me what i ought to be he's still working on you to make you who you ought to be as well so all that to say this verse today just intrigued me when i was reading it for a bit that if we just wait on god we'd be amazed would be beside ourself in fact to know and understand all that he has planned for us so i'm sure we'll share it with you when we get back but i'm in a place in my life now i don't want to stop growing i don't want to stop learning i don't want to start disobeying and stop obeying i want to preach better i want to shepherd better i want to love people better i want to respond better maybe slower i want to react differently i want a dad better i want a husband better i want to be better for him because he's preparing his bride he's preparing his body he's preparing his church and i want to make sure that my lamp's full of oil because we got to work while it's yet today because the night comes when no man can work lift up your head your redemption draws nigh if you believe it's coming would you shout amen in this house tonight amen father thank you for the lord jesus thank you for the bible thank you for the power of the holy spirit and thank you lord just for an opportunity to stand before this congregation both in-house and online and just be just be a broken man just heart to heart just shed some tears and say i want to know more about the presence of god because i do not believe we've seen anything yet and by faith we thank you in advance for what you're about to do turn the spigot on lord come down may the lava of your glory melt the mountains and boil the water and may you get all the honor and all the glory in jesus name and all of god's people said amen and amen do not leave out here without getting some cake once you start heading over that way and we are go oh we got a baptism look at that we got a baptism tonight well hallelujah all right i'll tell you what our folks are going to help with the cake just go ahead and start going back there get ready to serve and some of our ladies want to uh go over there and help with them that would be beautiful and wonderful don't want you to get out of here don't just run out of here quick tonight i know it's 8 32 but eat you some cake hug some neck shake some hands be careful out there in the parking lot but hey praise the lord we're going to have us the baptismal celebration tonight amen that is exciting but make sure you get back there and get some cake tonight get around fellowship meet some new people tonight go ahead and start standing in line and it'll be a beautiful beautiful thing and let's have us some 15-year anniversary cake hallelujah all right all right let's baptize prepared she didn't even know she said okay absolutely y'all can go ahead and start lining up over there go ahead and start getting some cake they need about five minutes to get ready and i'll make sure i stop everybody and we'll go right into our baptismal celebration here in just a moment but you go ahead hit right there on the back and start load