Hallelu hellnlu hellnlu. Good morning, Church, hallelujah. And it awesome to
be in the house of the Lord with the most amazing people on the planet.
And it's fun. Where is God? He's doing such amazing things with
us Matthew twenty five. And then the kingdom of Heaven will be comparable to
ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the groom. Five
of them were foolish and five were prudent or wise. For when the foolish
took their lamps, they did not take extra oil with them, but the
prudent ones took oil in flasks with their lamps. Now, while the groom
was delaying, everybody say, groom delaying. What did the groom do?
He delayed that groom what in the world. They all became drowsy and began
to sleep. But at midnight there was finally a shout, behold the Groom
come out to meet him. Then all those visions got up and trim their
lamps. But the foolish version said to the prudent ones, give us some
of your oil, because our lamps are going out. However, the prudent
ones answered, no, there must be no, there must certainly would not
be enough for us, and you too, go instead of the merchants and
buy some for yourself. But while they were on their way to buy the
oil, the groom came and those who were ready went in to meet him
to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. Holy bless your wear
this morning. Joel and I talk often about how our generation has never seen
a move of God. We've never seen an actual outpouring and awakening like a
even in our nation. Now, in our nation, there's been awakenings.
There's been the first grade awakening, second great awakening, et cetera, et
cetera. There's been and you can read about those and study those, but
we've never seen one. You in this building, we've never seen a great
awakening. And we're crying out to God, God, this generation needs a
great awakening God. This nation needs a great awakening. This nation needs the
outpouring of the spirit like never before. And it's in an atmosphere of prayer.
It's in an atmosphere of that kind of preparation that He longs to come.
And it's always been, it's always been with every awakening, not only
in the United States, but also around the world. If it was in
the New Hebrides, or if it was in Wales, or wherever God moved,
it was at the beckoning of prayer. It was those who had oil
in their lamps. It was at the beckoning of those who had oil in
their lamps. And so we don't know when the Groom's going to come.
We don't know when he's going. And this is not I'm not talking about
the second coming. We're not going to miss the second coming, but there's
comings in between. Acts three says repent, so that times of refreshing from
the Father would come. We repent. We ready our hearts. In repenting,
we rent our hearts and not just our garments. We become tender.
We live in humility. We seek him, yearn for him, We run
after him. We keep oil in our lamps because we don't know exactly when
he's going to come. But what we know is he wants to come.
What we know is he wants to come in this generation. We know he
wants to come. Now we've heard the words of the billion soul harvest.
We've heard the confirmation of how God wants to move. We know that God
wants to move in a unique way. God's drawn you in on purpose.
You have been touched in a unique way and drawn, and you've been hauled
into something significant in this generation. We know it's not an accident that you've
been called you're a glory carrier, you're a revivalist. The fact that you've
attended or tolerated New Horizon for more than three weeks means you are actually a
revivalist. You're actually a revivalist. You actually don't mind getting a little tipsy
on the Holy spirit. I mean you actually want more. You actually want
the glory of God to come and cover the earth like the waters cover the
sea. You actually have a desire for that because you've hung around, and
so I'm convinced. If you're not totally convinced, I'm convinced because there's a
reason you've hung around, because God is drawing you into something deeper, because
you are going to be the ones who carry the torch. And it's about
keeping oil in our lamps. It's about it's about not letting our lamps become
dry because we don't know exactly when he's going to come, and it's not
just his coming like in our midst though the value of him coming in our
midst is beyond description. But it's also him coming to us individually. We
have to keep oil in our lamps for him to visit us individually, And
a visitation of us individually is supreme. It's Supreme's it's not enough for us
to park in the garage. It's not enough. It's not enough for us
to come to church and and think we're going to get it all. It's
not enough to park in the gara and think we'll become a car We we
we actually want to burn for him. We actually want to be near him.
We actually want intimate fellowship with him. We actually want to be We
want to have words deposited in our inner man that shift and change our trajectory,
they change our lives. We actually want that. So the same way
that we keep oil in our lamps so that we're ready for him is the
same the same thing that we do when he appears. It's like it's it's
all about him. It's all about him, and the enemy knows that.
And that's that's the thing, is that the enemy knows that if he can
pull believers off of their primary purposes, the enemy knows if he can entice
us away. We talked last week out of James chapter three that we're drawn
away into sin. I need to get a little closer to you, and
I won't be long today James chapter three. We're drawn away into sin right
when we have desires, and sometimes those are good desires. What we're talking
about right now, all the way through this. I mean, we can
have a lot of bad desires. Anybody ever had a bad desire? I'm
not even looking. Just go ahead and put up your hands. I'm not
talking about bad desire. I'm talking about good desires, noble desires, God
given desires. That's what I'm talking about. But each of us, if
we have these desires and these desires aren't getting fulfilled. And we introduced the
Big Heart to you last week. Remember the Big Heart, And we have
the handout for today. Where's your handout? Your handout has the ten Trees
of life on it, and you're free to look at the front of that
handout, but not the back. If you look at the back, you're
cheating and you'll get a spanking after the service. But we talked about the
ten trees of life, and these reside in your soul, not in your
spirit. By the way, these reside in your soul, and these ten
trees of life like health, finance, financial, well being, family,
romance and sexy stuff. Right, And we had up here influence and legacy,
and we had rest and recreation over here, and anyway, we got
all these. So you've got all these God given desires in here, and
you might even have some goals attached to that. Right. And what the
enemy knows, he knows that you are savvy, you're smart. You are
not going to transgress the Ten Commandments, So he knows that about you.
So you're not going to commit adultry, You're not going to lie. He
knows that about you. But what he's still trying to do is he's still
trying to mess up your effectiveness in the kingdom. He's still trying to diminish
your power. Because what he knows about you, he knows that you're an
intercessor that can move mountains. He knows that you're a king and a priest
in the earth. He knows that you're a ministry of reconciliation. He knows
some stuff about you. He knows that you're a walking house of prayer.
He knows you're a house of worship, just worship alone can shift everything.
You know that, don't sh You remember when Judah was sent out and Jehosephat
was at peril with the Midianites who had come, and they were beyond number,
and then the prophetic word came, and the prophetic word was to send
Judah first. And all they would do is just sing the Lord is good
and his mercy and do earth forever. And when they begin to sing it,
then God routed the enemy. Remember that just your worship alone is powerful.
Do you worship at home? How many of you worship at home?
Do you realize how powerful your worship is. Your power, your worship is
literally it can shift everything in your entire life. And all they did was
just sing that repetitively. They sang it, and ambushments were set up against
midian and a great victory was won that day. That's Second Chronicles, chapter
twenty. So prayer, worship. So the enemy is trying to pull us
off of this stuff. And by the way, this you know, this
is the kind of stuff that keeps oil in the lamp, right, but
it also does something else. Prayer and worship, intimacy, time spent adoration,
right, everybody say, time isn't time your greatest commodity. Time is
your greatest commodity. Money is not your greatest commodity. Time is Will you
spend it on him? See this is how we keep oil in the lamp.
This results in oil. And really, what happened with the five foolish
is the five foolish We're distracted. They were distracted away from the most important
thing. The most important thing was the arrival of the groom. The groom
shows up for me all the time. I don't know if he shows up
for you, but the groom shows up for me all the time. Because
I keep oiling my lamp. I don't know when he's gonna show up.
I just prepare the way for him to show up. Sometimes I'm just praying
in the Holy Spirit. Everybody say Holy Spirit. See the Holy Spirit gives
you a prayer language. And one Corinthians thirteen says it's either of angels or
angels, or it's a known tongue, known language. Right, we don't
know. But what I find is that I usually break into something with some
time spent three minutes in my spiritual language. Might not do much anything,
but but I'm still praying mysteries in my spirit. Something's still going on even
though I don't know or have the awareness in my mind right ris Conthien's fourteen.
Read about it when you get home if you want to PRIs Contien's fourteen.
But what happens is somewhere I break through a threshold. Right somewhere,
I break through a threshold when I'm praying in the spirit, and all at
once I leave this realm and I start connecting at a deeper place. And
what happens is with all of this, wherever we keep oil in our lantern,
how's that this is the spout where the goodies come out. I could
do better if I had time, but not much better. But what happens
is the thing that puts oil in your lantern and keeps oil in your lantern
Church, it's the same thing that opens up the heart of God to deposit
in you the things that will give you the power to resist the enticement of
the enemy. Now, enticement happens whenever there's a delay, And what happened
in this case the groom delayed. Wherever there's a delay on any desire coming
to pass, even if it's a god given desire, a god breathed desire
or a raima word given desire. Wherever there's a delay on a noble desire,
you and I, we become more vulnerable to temptation or enticement to fulfill
things on our own. We become more vulnerable to fear that it's not going
to come to pass, so we can begin to move into anxiety. Whenever
we move into anxiety, we usually start to move next into control, foolishness,
wasting time, self effort. Everybody, any self effort. People in
the building, I'm still not looking. Go ahead, raise your hand if
you'd like. I've moved into a lot of self effort. Pastors can move
into a ton of self effort. They sell all these books about church growth.
Run just run, run away from the book quickly, because he is
church growth. He is church growth. And by the way, it's not
church growth anyway, it's people growth. Grow the people. Don't grow the
church, just grow the people. Right, but self effort, every one
of us can get drawn. We're more vulnerable to be enticed and to get
into self effort, and to get into anxiety and to get into fear.
This is what happened to Abraham, right, Genesis chapter twelve. Go to
the land. I'm gonna show you. I'm gonna bless you. I'm gonna
make your name great. I'm gonna bless those that bless you, curse those
that curse you. This is gonna be awesome. I got something really good
for you, abe. And so he goes to the land, right,
but he was distressed of soul because him and Sarah didn't have any children.
Perfect baby dedication sermon right here, Maybe we got it going on. They
didn't have any children. And so he begins to talk to Father about this,
right, and this was the greatest This is family. We'll just put
family here. That was finance, and here's family. And so he begins
to talk to Father about this. And he's telling Father, you know my
number one desire as a child, Sarah and I. We don't have eight
children. Ah, I've got to Elia's this dude like my chief servant.
He's cool, but he's not flesh and blood. I'd like something on my
own. So he's talking to Father about this. We don't hear the promise
until Genesis seventeen. Genesis seventeen in conversation, then God begins to say,
I'm going to give you a child. But then the word comes and it's
definitely a rama. And the rama always comes wherever we're keeping the oil filled
up, right, keep the oil filled up, that's where the rama flows,
okay. And that rama is literally it's that rama from God. It
contains in it the power to resist enticement. That's what the Lord wants you
to see today. This is remember remember the power in the rama. May
say raymon. Now, Rama means it's a living word. Right. Logos
is a written word. Rama is a living word. God literally talked to
him and gave him a living word. And that's what enabled them to press
through for twenty five years until Isaac came against contradiction, against trouble through the
delay. And this is what this is why I felt like the Holy Spirit
was trying to say to us today, is that not only do we keep
oil in our lamps by taking time for Holy Spirit every day, but we
also in that manner open up our heart to receive from him living words.
And those living words give us the power to resist the enticement of self effort
and the enticement of wasted time, the enticement of folly, the enticement of
distraction, the enticement of all sorts of foolish stuff that will pull us off
of this, because what happens is when we get enticed and we get into
self effort, and we get into all of that realm of anxiety and fear
and trying to make it happen, is we no longer have time for this.
So we move from wise in the foolish. We move, we shift
category all at once. We don't have time for this because we were up
till midnight shopping for this, Or we don't have time for this because we
had to get up super early to watch that webinar, Or we don't have
time for this because we've got so many things competing for our time, because
we're so anxious and wrought up that the very thing that God is calling us
to that he gets fulfilled. So we forget the word. We don't keep
the Word centered at the forefront of our heart and our mind. If I
ever do that, a couple of us in the building prays the Lord.
Yeah, no, no, no, no, I'm sure every one of
us. Abraham struggled, but this is the central key to victory against the
enemy. See Jesus Hebrews twelve, Jesus endured the cross for the what for
the joy set before him? He saw you and me new word the cross
in other wards. He didn't veer off course, though there were opportunities to
do so. He's dealing with Satan himself, and those opportunities to do so.
He didn't veer off course because he kept in his sight, the vision.
He kept in sight, he kept And this is this is central.
If you don't have a word on and this is what I'm trying to say
to you, is it You need a word on your health, what to
believe for and how it will come to pass? You need a word on
your finances, what to believe for, how it will come to pass?
In the other words, is it through music? Is it through real estate?
You need a word what to believe for? On your family and how
it will come to pass? You need a word what was our Oh Roman,
you need it, I'll put it. I want to remember that.
You need a word what to believe for, how it will come to that?
Every one of these? Then where are you going to get that?
Where where are you going to get that? You're going to get that over
here? If you are not spending time draw near to me, James for
seven and eight, Submit to God, resists the levil. He will leave
from you, Draw near to me, Come near to me, draw near
to me. We haven't if we can find it, draw near to me,
and I will draw near to you. Well, I'm not hearing from
God. I mean, it's like I don't know. I'm just I'm just
gonna work this thing, and I'm just gonna try to make it happen.
I mean, I this is what you know I'm desiring, and I believe
that's of God, and and and I'm just gonna make this saying happen.
But I'm really not hearing from God. Draw near to me, and I
will draw near to you. Draw near, draw near, draw near,
Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you. Now,
the enemy's always got some alternative path. And the alternative path will cost you
more than you can imagine. And it may not be written with a big
clear sin sign held up by somebody in a red suit with horns on their
head. No, no, no, what if your wife holds up the
sign. Well, that's what Sarah did. Sarah said, honey, honey,
honey, this is not coming the past. This word is just not
coming to pass. But I've got this sweet little thing here that works in
the house Haygar. And I don't know, I just seemed like there's so
much delay on this and I don't know, I just I don't know if
I believe the whole thing. Anyway, Remember in the beginning, Sarah Laft,
when the promise came and so Abraham was enticed to go in with Hagar,
and it produced Ishmael, which has been the biggest problem on the entire
earth ever since it happened. Hello, somebody, do you want the biggest
problem you've ever had in your entire life? Keep going with self effort.
Just keep going with self effort, Keep going without oil in your lamp,
keep going discouraged because the groom hasn't come, keep going, just making it
happen without this. Don't take time for him, Keep not taking time for
him. I mean, you know, once a week, that's a lot.
That's enough right there. Besides, he's sovereign. If he wants to
do something, he'll do it. No, no, no, what you're
looking for is Ishmael. You're looking for a problem. You're looking for the
biggest problem you've ever had. And after it comes, you have to feed
it, take care of it, and beg God to bless it. He
begged God, can't you just bless Ishmael. Let's stand every one of these
trees of your life. They're worth praying over. We're submitting to the Lord,
frequently, yielding to his lordship, declaring his superiority over every desire of
your heart, every noble desire of your heart, honoring him above those things
what he loves. You know what? The coolest thing the Holy Spirit is
not when you bring him something you can't stand. It's when you honor him
and you say, I love you more than this, I love you more
than the greatest things that I love. I love you more than I love
the fulfillment in any their area of your life. It's powerful when you bring
these things before him, and you marinate these things in prayer, and you
wait before him on these things, and you invite him as the groom,
like grooms and brides are supposed to talk together, are supposed to be one.
And so you invite him to be engaged in every one of these trees
of your life, and you allow him him to have the precedent and the
priority and the pre eminent spot over those desires of your life. And you
do this in prayer. You do this in prayer. But usually because you
do that, he will feed you with the nourishment of living bread of Rayma,
words from above that will sustain you and empower you against temptation or enticement
into that which is stupid, foolish, costly, or a waste of time
when you're not even looking for it. That's what happens. It's like because
you choose him first, because you keep him first, because you don't worship
your time, but you give him first place with your time, then he
begins to drop down upon you when you least expect it. If missus Wolf
and I we say let's go do a romantic thing, let's go be romantic.
That sounds kind of planned. And so during that time of something romantic,
we've gone out to Stanley and Seaforts or something, you know, So
we get kind of dressed up a little bit, throwing a little cloth,
and we head out there. You know whatever it would be appropriate for me
to, you know, say something nice to her. We're on a date.
Oh you look beautiful tonight, littlely that would be appropriate. But you
know, the coolest thing ever is when we surprise one another when there's no
date, right, and we surprise one another. And I think that's kind
of how the raiment works. It's like you're over here and you're not asking
even or you're you're in the midst of the congregation, or you're in your
your your dedicated place, like it's been the garage for me or different rooms
for me. You know, I'll dedicate a spot and it's kind of my
spot where I get away with God and I have this courtship time with him.
But I'm not looking for an answer, and it's just in those times
that He just loves to surprise me. It's like the kiss from above comes
on my heart right and I pay attention and it sustains me. And now,
why would I want what the enemy's offering? Why would I want self?
Hebert? Why would I want this path, that path, the other
path? Why would I want to spend my wheels or waste time? Why
would I want to do anything that would harm this sacred relationship I have with
him, this daily connection that I have with him daily. Everybody say daily,
it's a daily connection I have with him? Why would I want to
harm that with anything. Why would I want to harm that with anything.
Now I'm out smarting the enemy. The enemy thought he had me, But
now I'm out smarting the enemy because it's not just the ten commandments that he's
trying to entice you to break. He's trying to entice you away from your
supreme love, trying to draw you away. And he's using your own healthy
desires to do it, your own ambition to do it, by distracting you
away from the main thing, the one thing, and out of that one
thing, out of that main thing, everything comes and everything flows. I
keep oil in my lamp, and I'm ready for the visitation of the groom
on my heart constantly, the visitation of a living word that's so much better
than anything the enemy would draw me away into or from Holy Spirit. We
say yes to you. We ask you to visit us this morning, that
you will draw us back to daily communion, that she will draw us into
the refreshment of the oil that flows when we turn to you and we look
to you, when we set aside time for you, when we honor you,
when we pray, when we worship, when we adore you, when
we intercede, when we engage in spiritual language, the tongue you've given us
from the Holy Spirit. We ask, we ask, we ask right now
today, today, today, that we will embrace a repenting of a lifestyle,
heart mindset, that we will embrace a repenting of mindset, that we
will turn it back to thanking you the center and the foremost and the supreme
thing that will put you back into the place where you belong in our lives
and in our walk. Lord. As we said last week, we say
it again, Holy Spirit, loose discernment on us. Loose discernment on us
to know that which is not of you, that which is enticing us away
from you. Provocus with discipline. Even we ask you, Holy Spirit,
to provocus with a discipline that says, no, I will not let anything
steal my romantic courtship, my romantic times with the Lord. I will not
let anything steal it. Let our lives be driven around our altar. Let
it not be that our alter has to conform to our lives, But let
it be that our lives are driven out of our alter and from our altar.
That our alter is supreme, and that we live, we live,
We partake of life out of all that happens and transpires in and through the
altar that we build to you. Thank you for this. While the worship
team starts to sing this song because it's just the appropriate, beautiful song for
this day. As they begin to sing it, which you just repent before
the Lord. Wherever the word is just touching you, I don't know that
it is. And this is not about condemnation or bondage. This is not
about making you feel bad. But this is a about the Holy Spirit,
our loving groom, calling us back into a balance of union with him.
So just allow him to talk to your heart. Allow Holy Spirit to just
touch your heart, and wherever an adjustment's needed, let it come. Come
into agreement that you'll make the adjustment, and then promise him, Promise him
today that you'll keep the oil filled up in your lantern so that the rama
will come. Because you don't have the power to overcome without a rama.
You don't have the strength of the spirit to overcome without that rama. Not
only the what, but the how the vision Proverbs nineteen twenty nine eighteen.
Without a vision, the people cast off restraint. Without a vision, Holy
Spirit wants to loose on you a vision over every tree of life, a
holy spirit inspired vision that will sustain you, empower you, uphold you,
strengthen you against all enticement, and keep you knit to the spot where the
oil is poured in