JUN 16 2024 | Acts: The Dawn of the Church S1E4 | Power in the Name

Sea Change Church · JUN 16 2024 | Acts - The Dawn of the Church – S1 Ep 4: Power in the Name
Acts 4:1-12
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

in which we serve, whatever way we serve, God, that you would lead us, God, to be a people, like you said of David, that are just after your own heart. God, give us your heart. Transform us, sanctify us, make us more like you. We pray in the name of your Son. Amen. The book of Acts, chapter 4, verses 1 through 12. And as they were speaking to the people, the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees came upon them, greatly annoyed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. And they arrested them and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. But many of those who had heard the word believed, and the number of the men came to about five thousand. On the next day their rulers and elders and scribes gathered together in Jerusalem, with Annas, the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and all who were of the high priestly family. And when they had set them in the midst, they inquired, By what power or what name did you do this? Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, Rulers of the people and elders, if we are being examined today concerning a good deed done to a crippled man, by what means this man has been healed, let it be known to all of you, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by him this man is standing before you well. This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, which has become the cornerstone.

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. This is the word of the Lord. It was a beautiful day. So let it get around, beautiful day. And happy Father's Day to all you dads out there. What's up? Yeah, besides trying to be a man of God, child of God, and a husband first, my third responsibility, I believe, is being a dad.

And I just love it. I got one of my kids here today, another one graduating from UCSD today. Yeah, let's go. A little Marine bio. She's stoked on that. She's always loved animals. You can see what your kids will probably get into when they're little. We went to Chile on a missions trip, and she was just naming all like the little street dogs and touching all the animals. And so she took that into a career and trying to really care for God's creation. So we're super stoked on that. And she's getting married to one of our drummers in July. So join the worship team, ladies. I'm just saying.

No, they've known each other since they were, I think, 13 years old and been dating since a high school. So it's pretty cool. Very blessed today. If you have your Bibles, open up to Acts 4. We're still in the story of Peter and John healing a man who was lame at the temple gate. We've been in it for three weeks, probably be in another two, because Peter gives a diatribe. Everyone wants to know what happened.

And Peter has an opportunity, and he steps into the opportunity to share about who Jesus is and walk in the power. And opportunities are amazing. And being able to recognize when an opportunity exists is one of the keys to thriving in your life. A lot of people have opportunities they don't realize them, and they're not able to take them or not willing to take them for one reason or another, and they are. And my main point today is followers of Jesus are meant to walk in power. Now, that's the power of the Holy Spirit, the power of the name of Jesus, but they're meant to walk in power.

When I talk to my African friends, like Bishop Collins, who was here a few weeks ago, he's coming back in August, he says, we have to depend on that. We don't have healthcare system. We don't have counselors. We have all the things that are happening and worse in Africa, and we have to believe in the power, so we access the power. As equipped as we are in our society to not need to depend on God, we oftentimes can forego the power for our own power or decision-making or whatever it would be instead of asking for the power of Jesus. And so when I speak to believers, I want you to know that you're meant, and God has called you, Jesus has said that you will walk in power. That doesn't mean you're going to be at the graveyard, raising people back from the dead. Okay? It doesn't mean, maybe it does. It doesn't mean that you're, you know, praying for healing and people all of a sudden, they're getting healed because you did that. Maybe it does. It doesn't mean you'll speak in tongues or whatever. It could mean that you just have the power to share Jesus for the greatest miracle, which is people receiving eternal life. That's the greatest miracle there is, right? So when I talk about power, there's different iterations and different giftings, as we'll see, of people walking in power. But Peter talks about this to people, and the Sadducees are just struggling right now. It says they were very, I think the translation was, they were very annoyed that he was preaching about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. If you believe in the resurrection of the dead as a believer, then let me assure you that you believe in miracles. There are a lot of believers who would say that miracles don't exist, but I would say that they do believe that they will probably raise from the dead one day, and that's one of the hallmarks of being a believer, as we believe in resurrection. And that's what Peter's preaching here. He's preaching resurrection for the dead. So if anything happens today, here's what I want. I want you to walk in a little more power than you walked in before you got here today. Just a little bit more. You give me one more percent, you give Jesus an inch, he'll take an eternity, right? To just know that it is available and accessible to you. Now, let's just go and set this up right here. These are the Sadducees. Go to verse one. And as they were speaking to the people, the priest and the captain of the temple and the Sadducees, now you've heard this before, they say they're Sadducee because they don't believe in the resurrection. See, they're Sadducee. I know, it's like a dad joke, right? Did you hear Pastor Joshua's dad joke on Instagram? What's Bruce Lee's favorite drink? Water! That's hilarious. That's super funny.

You guys didn't think that was funny? All right. I'll give you mine. I'll give you mine. What's Jesus' favorite breed of dog? The purebred. That's right. You got Instagram. There you go. Let's go. The purebred. The Sadducees were a Jewish sect that existed during the second temple period. The first temple had been destroyed. It had been rebuilt, as you know. They were around for about 300 years, roughly from the second century before Christ, B.C., to the first century A.D. after Christ. They were known for their aristocratic and priestly status. Very cool to be a Sadducee. And they were held significant political and religious power. The Sadducees were only around for about 300 years. They were a group of people that were key in crucifying Jesus or having him crucified. But they only existed for 300 years. And within 100 years after Jesus' death, they didn't exist. And they no longer exist in Jewish society today, the Sadducees. I'll tell you a couple things about them. Here's a few things. One, the Sadducees only believed in the Torah. So they didn't believe in the prophets, the writings of the prophets, Isaiah, all these other prophets. So you can see why they would struggle with the messianic idea, because the prophets were constantly talking about Jesus coming. So they didn't believe in that. They denied the resurrection of the dead, which the Pharisees didn't. They believed in the afterlife. Maybe not the resurrection of the dead, but at least the afterlife. And as well as they did not believe in demons or angels. So they were highly skeptical of anything that might be considered supernatural. I want to say that there are two errors that you can get into when you're following Jesus.

One is to be overly into the things of the Spirit. Overly into gifts. Overly into healing. Overly into deliverance. Overly into breaking down spiritual walls and boundaries. Just that that's your whole focus. Maybe some of you have been in churches like that or seen churches like that, where the main thing, which is the glory of Jesus Christ crucified and how much he loves you and he has saved you for eternity, that's the main thing. That becomes secondary. And we begin to chase after these moments or season of the Spirit. You'll hear words like, well, this is a Rema word. And that's a word. It's a word that means that it's a fresh word from the Holy Spirit. We all need to get down on this, you know, this Rema word that has come out. I remember when I was at a certain denomination, there'd be, you'd hear a revival. And they would start calling around all the other churches. There's some revival going on down in Brownsville, Florida. Let's all get on planes and go down there. And the pastors would actually leave their churches and they'd go. And man, God does amazing stuff like that. But when the main thing stops being the main thing, that can be a definite danger. And we want to make sure we have a middle ground there. The other danger is this. Saying that stuff doesn't exist. Jesus doesn't or can't raise people from the dead.

Talk to my African friends, my Brazilian friends. They have seen this happen, not so much here in America. Because like Jesus found out, there's certain places where miracles just don't exist because people don't believe in them. But you go too far to the other side. How do we find that balance? That's one thing that I'm really fascinated by. I would say I have a fascination with finding the middle ground between being wise in the things of the Spirit and going after the things of the Spirit and wanting to see the power of God move. And so that is one thing. They were all, they were known for their, probably this idea of their religious skepticism. The other thing was, is that they were really political. And so the Sadducees were, if you go and you look at them, there's two that are mentioned here. I want to go to verse, I think it's, there it is, verse six. With Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and John and Alexander. You can scratch out John and Alexander. There's not too much text upon them. But you'll remember Annas and Caiaphas. They helped crucify Jesus, right? And if you go and look who appointed them, they were appointed by the Roman government. And so the church, not the church, but the Jewish church or synagogue leaders had gotten together with the Romans. Now the Romans, this was what Romans did. Romans would go find the leaders. They would say, you work for us now.

Remember Matthew was a tax collector, but he was also a disciple of Jesus. He left that. You guys work for us now. We're going to give you freedom. You can have a ton of power, but you do what we say. And so they were highly political. I want to say, once again, there's a balance in the church between understanding that we have a responsibility to pray, to be actively involved in the changing of our society, in doing what we can do when the political opportunities avail us to step into those and be a part of it. But at the same time, we don't want to be a church that gets so tied up with the things of politics that we lose our identity. Jesus hardly ever spoke about politics. He said, give unto Caesar what Caesar and such and such. Paul hardly ever spoke about politics. Once again, what's that balance? So there's some lessons there just in how you run a church and how as believers, we walk in truth, wisdom, and we find a middle ground. Many people have come to me and said, I wish you were more political from the pulpit. I said, if you wanted that, I would run for mayor and I would be a politician. I would just do separate or what I'm doing now. And I could do that. I'm just not doing it. That's not what I'm called to. I am called to talk about my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and I like talking about him. And if you follow him, I have a feeling you'll know how to vote. If you read the Bible and I teach it, I have a feeling I don't need to come to your house and say, hey, have you seen Candidate 6? Make sure you check that.

But that's just me. Go to verse 7 and 8. We're going to say, filled with the Holy Spirit. This is powerful because we're going to talk about this power. There's a little setup there of what's happening, but I want you to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. So go to verse 7 and 8a. When they had set them in the midst, they inquired. Now this is the Sadducees. By what power, circle power, or by what name, circle name, did you do this? Then Peter filled, circle filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them. Now a couple things I want to say as I continue to teach you the word and let you understand systematically how things work. The reason they were asking by what name that he was doing this is because in the Old Testament scriptures, when the temple was built, God said, I will put my name, his presence, he says, I will put my name in that temple. It'll be my name that is there. Now the presence of God is within the name. So if his name's there, his presence there is there. But the thing that they said in the Old Testament scriptures, it was the name that was important, the name of God. They wouldn't even pronounce the name of God. So if you look, it's a little bit different because now we are the temple of the Holy Spirit, right? The Bible says that.

And we are actually the new ark of the covenant where the presence of God exists. And so what we have is the full presence of the Trinity, of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, right? That is something that you did not have in the Old Testament in the same way. His entire presence because of Jesus' death on the cross is available to be with us. That's massive. So that's the first thing. That's why they're asking about the name. The second thing you're going to see there is that they ask about by what power, okay? Now they didn't believe in power miracles. They were highly skeptical of these things.

They were what you would call, I guess you could call it, the earliest of the dispensationalists. Now a dispensation is a theological understanding that comes in the last maybe, you know, thousand years or so that believes that there was a certain time for miracles after Jesus died and then they no longer exist. This is what the Sadducees felt. They felt there was a time with Moses and miracles and now it no longer exists. So that's what they believed. And so they asked by what power? The word that they use there in the Greek is called dunamis, right? So there's a couple, there's a bunch of types of God's power. Dunamis is the power to do miracles. Dunamis is the power to pray for someone and to see them healed. Dunamis is the power to pray for a situation to change and God sends his angels or his presence or his spirit and that situation is changed because of the power of prayer, because you prayed. It is walking in dunamis power, right? That could be the power to change a relationship, that you have a disagreement, you begin to pray and you see emotional healing, someone who's healed from anxiety, depression, right? Or a physical ailment. When they use that word dunamis, that's what it means.

Another word, and I've used it a lot, is kratos. Kratos, I have a hat. Sandra Munson bought me a hat that says kratos and it means territorial power. It means that the word of God and the influence of the word of God is beginning to take over neighborhoods, cities, nations, right? And so you begin to see this kratos power that as the believers, 5,000 people came to know Jesus because of this story, they went out and changed the world. That's kratos power. You saw a dunamis power, the healing of the man, and then a kratos power. I want to encourage you to pray for both. Pray for people when they're sick.

Say, hey, can I pray for you? If someone tells you they have an issue with a relationship, can I pray for that relationship? Pray for that dunamis power in the name of Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit, but to also pray for kratos. We're praying for San Diego to be what we call a tent peg city. It's kind of like the wind is blowing the tent, you know, the stakes come out. We want to stake that corner back down and let San Diego be influential for Jesus in the kingdom. So they ask him about that.

The word there, dunamis, you'll see it in your notes, means power, mighty work, strength, miracle, might, virtue, or mighty. Now, so God is calling us in. I want to encourage you to allow yourself to be a conduit for God's power. Now, I told you, you do not possess the power. The power is from the name of Jesus. The power is from the Holy Spirit. What your job is, is to put yourself in positions where you can be a conduit. We are not the generator of the power. Sometimes we're the destination if God heals us, but he is calling us to put ourselves in the place to be a conduit of his power. This is what Peter and John do. They see this man staying there. He's begging, give me something. It's a silver and gold I don't have, but what I give you, I give you what? In the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, be healed, stand up, and he's a conduit, and he is healed. If you want to walk in more power, put yourself in positions where you need to depend on God. You will probably feel a little bit unsteady on your footing. You will feel a little bit maybe embarrassed. You will feel whatever it is, but step up when there's an opportunity, that when you know there's an opportunity, and step into it. Your spiritual life will be radically changed. I've had three doctors, I won't say where, I've had three doctors recently in appointments, after the appointment say to me, in the last year, can I pray for you? I was getting ready to go in for a surgery, and the doctor said to me, he's come and visited since then, he said to me, hey, can I pray for you? And he puts his hand on my foot because I had a toe surgery, and he said, I just want to pray that you would guide my hand in the name of the Lord Jesus. I pray that you would heal Adam's foot. I pray you would just touch him, and be with him, and be there, and guide me as I do the surgery. I was like, let's go. Blood pressure went immediately down. At least in one of those instances, they did not know I was a pastor, and most people who look at me don't know that anyway, so that's pretty normal, pretty normative. The second word we see here of power is we see a feeling, how do you get this power? How does it happen, right? A lot of believers don't know how to access it. That's what I'm telling you today. If there's anything, if you've been watching on your phone the last 10 minutes, this is the time to clue into. There's a word, it sounds like my adolescent self, it's a Greek word, it's called pimpleme, and it's interesting, it does say that. When Peter spoke, okay, when Peter spoke up, it says, when Peter spoke, it says that he was filled with the Holy Spirit, which is so interesting when he spoke, and it says that he was filled. Let's go to verse seven, if you would. And when they had set him in the midst, they inquired, by what power do you do this? Go to verse eight. We examined him, the crippled man. Let it be known to all of you. Hang on, I'm looking for it, looking for it. I didn't write it down. Embarrassing on video. It's there forever on the web now. But earlier in this passage, excuse me, it says that Peter was filled. And the question was, it says he had courage, and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. This is an interesting thing, right? Because we know Pentecost had already happened. And so the Spirit had already come upon him. How was he being, what did he feel? Did it go away? Was he filled at Pentecost, right? We just had Pentecost Sunday. And then the Spirit jumped out of him, and then he needed it again, so it jumped back in. The word pimpame is a funny word, but it also means something that I think will help you understand what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. The word actually means to be fulfilled.

It's an errorless tense. And what it is like is, imagine I was giving you a car, and I put the car in your garage, right? And the car is called the Holy Spirit. You've named the car. It's a 57 Chevy. You've named it Holy Spirit. But it's so nice, you never drive it, right? You never get the keys. You never start up the engine. You never get it going. But it's there. You own it. It's there. When it says that you were filled with the Holy Spirit, what it means is you have put your place, yourself in a place, or God has decided, because God can do what he wants, to start the car. To start the car and allow you to go for a ride. Then you're going to come back, and it'll go back in the driveway. Now, was the garage always, was it always the presence of that car there? Yes. Once you receive Jesus, you get the car in the driveway. That car is the Holy Spirit, and that car, that car seals you for life. Some believers never take the car out. It's like Ferris Bueller's Day Off. That movie came out, what, 30 years ago, last Thursday, I saw something like that. Remember the Ferrari? Like, you just don't drive the car, right? What it means is you have actually engaged the Holy Spirit, and he has been engaged because there is a need. And so what happens is oftentimes when you throw yourself into a situation, that the Holy Spirit will fulfill what is needed in that time. It doesn't mean that all of a sudden you were empty, and he fills you back up, and you get the Holy Spirit, or there is like this second thing that happens with believers. Now, I believe this for a long time, and many believers believe this. They'll say things like, well, that's not a Holy Spirit-filled church, or you haven't been filled with the Holy Spirit, as if you haven't gotten the Holy Spirit. Let me just interpret correctly what they're maybe mistakenly saying to you. You haven't engaged the Holy Spirit like you could.

That's it. And so what I want to encourage you to do is to do that. Now, we're going to see a few things on the roles of the Holy Spirit, and we're going to realize that some believers have the car in the driveway, but it's not been used. You'll see in your notes, Acts 8.14 shows this. Now, when the apostles at Jerusalem heard that Samaria, and I remember Samaria about five weeks ago, you were teaching about the woman in Samaria. They didn't believe in Jesus and the whole thing. That's important, that Samaria had received the Word of God. They received it. They believed in it. They sent to them Peter and John, same two, who came down and prayed for them so they might receive the Holy Spirit, for he had not yet fallen on any of them, but they had only been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And so the question is, a couple questions. One, had they only believed that Messiah was coming, but they didn't have any understanding. They didn't have a salvific understanding, right?

So many times people were baptized in the name of, you know, the repentance, but they hadn't received, they hadn't understood that Jesus was Messiah, so it needs to be explained to them. That's a group that have heard, but they believed that Jesus is somebody important, but they haven't believed to the point that he is, that would bring them to a salvific understanding. They go up there in this instance, they explain it to them, and then the Holy Spirit comes and they receive the Holy Spirit. So now the car is in the driveway, right? We see that happening. And I believe, I think there's a lot of people in church today, might be you, who believe Jesus is a good guy, prophet, he's important, God's son, but you don't know much more beyond that. And we want to help you go beyond that so you can understand him and know him as Lord and Savior. So they weren't immediately filled. But it says then that once we receive Jesus, that we become filled with the Holy Spirit. And then this Holy Spirit becomes a seal of salvation for you. I'm going to show you what this means in 2 Corinthians. I know this is a lot today, but I think it's important that we do this. The seal of the Holy, go to 2 Corinthians 2, 21 and 22.

And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. That means if you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, you have the Holy Spirit and that Holy Spirit is a car in the driveway now. It has sealed you in Christ. And when you get to heaven, when you get to judgment day, that seal will be a seal like a stamp on you that says, this person knows Jesus. They will spend eternity forever with me.

But it doesn't mean that you are acting in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. You've been sealed. Every person who believes in Jesus through his name has been sealed. Your salvation is set. It is set and you will stand before Jesus and spend eternity with him forever. That is a role of the Holy Spirit. But the other roles of the Holy Spirit are to continue to move you beyond just that sealing.

Some believers will never move beyond the sealing to be sealed with the Holy Spirit. They will know Jesus and they'll just live there forever. And God allows that, but it's not his intention for you. He wants you to know the Holy Spirit. Let me say one thing too that is a mistake and systematically, it's a bit of a mistake and something might challenge your thinking. When you ask Jesus into your heart, that's not actually what you're doing. Jesus says, I'm going away. He says, I'm sending the Holy Spirit. You believe in Jesus. You actually ask the Holy Spirit. You believe in the name of Jesus.

You invite the Holy Spirit to live with inside of you. Now the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity. So Jesus is there. God is there, right? It's all there. But technically, if you want to look at Scripture, you don't say, I asked Jesus into my heart. It's actually the Holy Spirit. And that verse right there just tells you that you're sealed with the Holy Spirit that is there. But he is used for multiple things. Now here's the power. This is the power that I want you to start walking in. Let's look at a few things. One, what does the Holy Spirit do? He gives you guidance. Go to John 14, 26, you'll see it.

But the helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to you remembrance of all that I have said to you. It is the Holy Spirit. You are meant to be in a relationship with the Holy Spirit. This means you're talking to the Holy Spirit. You're asking the Holy Spirit questions. When you have a difficult situation, you are saying, Holy Spirit, please remind me, it is a advocate who speaks to Jesus. Jesus sits at the right hand of the Father and speaks to the Father on your behalf. That's how it works. Many Christians who don't walk in the Spirit because they don't know that that's what they're supposed to do. You are meant to ask the Spirit to reveal things to you, to empower you in what? In the name of Jesus. Because remember, we see it's in the name of Jesus. Many people who are believers have never been taught this. And so it's Jesus, would you do this? Jesus, would you do this? Now, Jesus is gracious. He gets it. He understands.

He still is going to work his plan. But if you want to walk in power, you need to develop a relationship with the Holy Spirit. And so I will ask you, do you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit? Do you think about the Holy Spirit? Do you ask him to guide you? Do you ask him for wisdom? So right there, it says in that scripture that it is meant to be not only a seal of salvation, but for guidance. Now, the next is empowerment. Mark 16, 17, and 18. Here's another thing. And these signs, this is Jesus, okay? And I don't think he's speaking about just first century believers. And these signs will accompany those who believe in my name. They will cast out demons. They will speak in new tongues.

They will pick up serpents with their hands. They might drink deadly poison. It will not hurt them. They will lay their hands on the sick, and they will recover. I just heard a story about a police officer who's a believing police officer. And he says he's beginning to see and experience more and more demon-possessed people on the streets. If you haven't noticed them, they're not all just mental.

It's not all just mental illness. If you go to the third world, you go to India, you'll see this. And I believe that we have more and more, as we have opened ourselves up to different things, you have more and more demonization happening. I feel like I see it on a regular basis. But he said, I don't know what to do, and I don't know how to deal with it. I know how to arrest people. I know how to call in cops, other cops, but I don't know. I've never been taught. And this is one thing. Once again, we don't want to go way to this side. It's, oh, everything's a demon behind every corner. But I'm not a Sadducee.

I don't deny that there are demons. Jesus over and over again cast demons. It was one of the primary things that he did. And I think if Jesus was with us today, he'd have a, he could set up a little shop down on Girard Street, you know what I mean? And just like, just crank them through. Not in La Jolla. It would never happen in La Jolla. What are you talking about? Jesus says that people who will follow him will have the marks of this about them. Maybe you're the person who prays to people with anxiety, and they get freed from it. Maybe you, I don't know what it is, but begin to say, there's a situation that needs dealing with, and I'm going to deal with it in the power of Jesus, in the name of the Spirit. Now, I love my doctor who prayed for me. He said, guide my hands as I do surgery. He didn't cancel the surgery. He did the surgery, but he prayed for the power of Jesus.

And that empowerment does a few things. Let me just tell you a couple things, and we're going to close. First is fruit. One of the ways that you know that you have empowerment, and I got this from Elliot. I was talking to Elliot about discipleship. How do you know when someone's a disciple? He said they'll have fruit. You'll know the root by the fruit. And so if you're walking in the power, the fruit of the what? Is it the fruit of Jesus, the Scripture says? It's the fruit of the Spirit.

You see, you're called to walk in the Spirit, and if you're not accessing the Spirit, I want you to take your Bible out and begin to read it, and just go do a Google search on verses about the Holy Spirit and read through it. It says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness. How are you doing on those?

I was good about six months ago, two of seven. I was like, oh, I got about two of seven I'm working here. Power. If you are changed, if you have more love, you have more joy, you have more peace, you have more patience. Don't tell me that doesn't translate to power in your family, power in your business, power in society, power in the influence of changing people's decisions. It is power. That is dunamis power that'll lead to crotos power as you walk in the things of the Spirit. The next we see transformation from the Holy Spirit. Circling the tower here. For the kingdom of God does not consist in talk, but in power. It says in dunamis. That word is dunamis. It is when things are changed because the Holy Spirit steps into a situation beyond your ability or control. In a wise way, keep throwing yourself into situations that are beyond your ability and beyond your control. I'm not telling you to have bad boundaries. I'm saying there's someone who is sick here. There's someone who is struggling here.

There's someone who needs help there. God, we don't have the money. We need the money to show up. Whatever it is for this person, we're going to pray. Throw yourself into those situations over and over again and asking the Holy Spirit for guidance as you do it. Next one, 2 Corinthians. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have what? Divine power. Dunamis. To what? Destroy strongholds.

There are strongholds in our lives. There are strongholds in churches. There are demonic strongholds in cities. There are demonic strongholds in families. There are demonic strongholds in nations. There are demonic strongholds in companies, in businesses, on street corners, in gangs, in schools. The enemy will turn a foothold into a stronghold anytime he can. And he wants to turn that into a stronghold. And what it says is the power of God demolishes strongholds.

Slavery in England in the 1700s was a stronghold. And because of a group of people and activists, many of whom, if not mostly, were Christians, came against that and demolished that stronghold. In 1989, the wall came down in communist Soviet Russia. That was a stronghold. Did not allow the word of God that persecuted the church. You would have thought 20 years earlier that would never come down. That stronghold came down. There are things you see in the world today. What are we going to do?

What are we going to do? The power of God demolishes strongholds. We need you to step in with prayer. You to step in with faith. You to step in with belief. Whether it's a stronghold at a local school where you begin to have a faith club that has 60 to 70 kids attending. Whether it be in your work or doctors who pray or kids that make a difference or going to Africa where there hasn't, at last I heard since they went last year, there hasn't been an attack on a girl since we went last year.

Strongholds in Africa. Strongholds in Europe. Strongholds are coming down and you were meant to be part of it. This is the power. And the final thing that it says in 1 Corinthians, now to each one of you is given a manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one there is given through the Spirit a message of wisdom, another a message of knowledge by the means of that same Spirit.

You see how the Spirit is central here? Jesus gets the glory, but the Spirit is what was sent to you. The Spirit is the one that you were supposed to be talking to Jesus through. To another faith by what? The same Spirit. To another gifts by the healing of that one Spirit. To another miraculous powers. To another prophecy. To another distinguishing of spirits.

To another speaking of different kinds of tongues. Still to another interpretation of tongues. I'll give you a story. I was at a camp, and I'll close with this. I was at a camp in the 1990s, like 92. And there was this kid that had Tourette's. Now, Tourette's is kind of going off the Richter's at the moment. People are starting to get it for one reason or another.

Some of it might be demonic. I don't know. Some of it might not. I don't know. It is interesting. And there was this kid that had Tourette's. And as the preaching would start, he would start dropping F-bombs. Okay? So we'd be preaching, F, F, F this, F that, F, F, F, right? Right? Right? It does distract the message. Right? And I was standing there, and I didn't know nothing.

I hadn't gone to a power church or whatever. I just knew I was tired of him saying the F-word during the message. All right? So I was like 20. I turned around, and I walked back to him. I knew the kid. I walked back to him. I put my hand on his mouth, and I said, Be healed in the name of Jesus. And he goes, Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! And the rest of the camp.

That's all he said was Jesus. Jesus! The rest of the camp. I'm dead serious. That was classic. I didn't know what I was doing. I didn't even know where I got that. Like, no one taught me that. I was just, bam! Put my hand on his mouth. We're done with that. I'm not telling you to do that. What I want to see you do is walk in power. I want to see you walk in power.

I want to see you, if you don't have a relationship with the Holy Spirit, we want to see you have a relationship with the Holy Spirit. Amen? Stand up if you would. We're going to have our prayer team come forward. Um, if you've never, if you feel like you have not experienced that, um, we want to pray for you today. If you would, if you want a better relationship with the Spirit, if you want to be filled with the Spirit, and like I said, if you're a believer, you already have the cars in the garage, but you want, you want some ability of the Spirit, like the things God promises you.

Come forward. We're not going to do anything crazy, not going to hit you over the head, blow a shofar, but we do want to pray. Uh, Pastor Joshua might blow a shofar. I don't know. You got me? We want to pray for you. Hey, the, the, it's been awesome watching you guys come forward. We feel like we cracked the door on God doing some things at the front, you know, over the last few weeks.

And, um, if you're like, hey, I, I don't, I don't have that. I want some more of that. Whatever it is, God, I'm opening myself, fill me with the Spirit. These people are trusted people. They're going to pray for you up here and just, just, you know, uh, hold hands or, you know, put a hand on your shoulder and just invite the Spirit to come on your life. And let me just pray right now as, uh, I think Chris is going up there too, aren't you?

Yeah, there you are. If you extend your hands, Lord Jesus, we want to bless your people, Lord Jesus. And I pray right now that the Spirit of God would fall. We know you fell in so many different ways. Sometimes you laid hands on some people. Sometimes you just did it on your own. You, you won't be put in a box. But if you want the Spirit of God, I pray that the Spirit of God will fall upon you and fall upon anyone in this room who wants more of your spirit, who wants to walk in power.

So we have a stronghold at your work right now with a boss and a group of people. You feel alienated. God wants to demolish that stronghold with the Word of God and with prayer. We have a stronghold in your, uh, in your physical wellness. We need to pray for healing for that. So, Lord Jesus, I bless these people. And we thank you, God, for what you're doing.

In the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Hey, if, opportunity, if you want prayer today, come forward right now. Chris is going to play. We love you guys. God bless. Happy Father's Day. There's tacos outside. Come forward for prayer if you need it. I was, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I do, I, I. I. I. Let us pray.