Revival Pt 5

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Wednesday, August the twenty first, twenty twenty four. It is currently nine forty nine am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Let's talk about Christianity and it's never ending obsession with the idea of power. Power.

0:43 Now you may disagree. You may say Christians don't have an obsession with power, but I disagree. I believe from the very moment I became a Christian it was constantly just drilled into my head. Now that I'm a Christian, I have power. I have the Holy Spirit. I have Holy Spirit power working in me, working through me. I have been given I have been given illumination so that I can understand the scriptures. I've been given the power of God to strengthen me, to help me fight temptation, to overcome difficulties, to overcome trials. I've got power or I have power. I have ability. I can speak directly to God, I can get answered prayers. I have illumination, I can understand scripture. I have the Holy Spirit teaching me himself all of this idea of power and ability, power and ability, power and ability, power and ability. And it did not take long that I started kind of questioning this. I started. I was a teenager, and I kept hearing all about this power and ability, and you know, the Holy Spirit supposedly teaching us. And I was looking around at all, because I was a teenager when I became a Christian. I was looking around of all of these Christian kids raised in the church claim to have been a Christian. They were like seven or eight years old.

2:03 I'm like, what the Holy Spirit's teaching them? These kids don't understand anything about the Bible. They're confused. I don't know how to interpret scripture. But the Holy Spirit's teaching them, and they've got power. I go to school with these kids. I see how they act, I see what they do. Where's their where's their supernatural power? Where? Where? Where is this power? So I remember we were I don't know where we were at. We were at some kind of youth activity. And I went to school with a bunch of girls who were Pentecostal, who are charismatic, and they would talk about the power the Holy Spirit if you get baptized and you know, baptized with the Holy Spirit, baptized in the Holy Spirit, you would get power. You would get you know, supernatural basically ability. And I'm like, okay, well all right. They kept talking and talking. So I was around the non charismatic teenagers. There was no power.

2:58 I was around these other I was around these arismatic girls who claimed they had power. I didn't necessarily see it, but I'm like, well, maybe maybe they've got the power. So I remember challenging at this youth group, all of the teenagers. I just kept it was. I was kind of trolling. I was kind of picking on them, but I kept trying to I was playing Devil's advocate. They didn't know what I was doing, but I kept arguing with them, like, we need power, we need Pentecostal power, we need supernatural power, just to see how they would respond if they would if they would respond by saying, well, I don't have that power obviously because I do this. No, they just wanted to argue with me, well, they're just wrong. Pentecostals are wrong, Charismatics are wrong. But they could not really articulate, well, do we get this power? Do we have this power, and I just I remember, I kept just picking and provoking. I was really being a jerk, is what I was doing. But I I but it was my own. It was my own frustration with the lack of power, right because I'm like, well, if the Holy Spirit is teaching me, how is this working? Because the more I read the Bible, the more I don't understand, the more I don't understand, the more I don't understand, the more I don't understand. Like, there was just so many questions. But as long as I've been a Christian, you hear it constantly. You listen to a sermon, and what do you hear when you become a Christian? You're in what with the Holy Spirit? Now you have power.

4:19 You have power, You have power. You can say noice in, you can say yes to God. Oh so I can be perfect? Well no, you can't be perfect. Well I thought you just said I can say notice in and yes to God. Well, I mean you can, but you can't. Okay, well you can do this, you can do that. And the Holy Spirit teaches us. Well, if the Holy Spirit's teaching us, then why Christians don't agree on anything? Well, you know it doesn't work quite that way. And then of course if you listen to charismatics, then of course you have all kinds of power. So but it seems Christians are obsessed with this idea power and ability, and I obviously greatly question all of this. I've been questioning it since I was a teenager. And I'm even more you could say cynical, more against a lot of this. Well, if you have been paying any attention, we're currently in a series on revival, and this all started because of an article and the June seventh, twenty twenty four edition of the sort of the Lord newspaper, and the name of this article is the Holy Spirit and Revival, The Holy Spirit and Revival. So we've been working through it, and I have found myself extremely frustrated with the article.

5:28 In fact, I became very frustrated with the article almost from the very beginning because at the very beginning of the article they quote Acts four thirty one. So let me remind you of this Acts four thirty one. Where we read these words Acts four thirty one. And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the Word of God with boldness. Now I have heard this verse preached and spoken so many times in churches, and it's almost like, hey, this is for you. See, if you are filled with the Holy Spirit, then you'll get the power to speak with boldness. He will.

6:10 He will give you strength, he will give you courage, he will give you power. Again making it applicable to us. And I was always like, well, wait a minute, Wait a minute. So if this is applicable to us, does the physical building shake if we if we're filled with the Holy Spirit, does the building shake? Or is this a unique situation, a unique period of time and this is not for us. Well, that'd be like, no, the basic concept is for us. And I would be like, well, wait a minute. The very next verse says, now the multitude of those who believed were of one heart and one soul. Neither did anyone say that any of the things he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common. So I'm like, well, wait a minute.

6:54 So if we're if this is for us, then we have to be we have to say we don't own any thing. We basically sell everything we have, we give it to the church. And then the Church will distribute as there is need. Are we gonna be willing to give up all of our possessions? Well no, no, no, that's not for us. Well wait a minute, so part of the verses for us, part of the verse isn't. The next verse isn't for us, But then the next one will be like people do weird things with the Book of Acts, but see Ocs. Four thirty one. The article goes on to quote Acts two forty two. The article goes on to quote Acts two forty two, which reads like this, and they continued steadfastly in the apostles doctrine fellowship and the breaking of bread and in prayers. And they're like, see, that's for we need to get back to that. We need to get back to the the Acts to church, and we need to continue steadfastly in the apostles doctrine, fellowship and the breaking of bread in prayers.

7:52 But then look at the very next verse. Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. Wait a minute, is this for us? Are these signs and wonders active today? Are there apostles today? Now? Almost instantaneously, you'd be like, well, wait a minute. Wait, no, the Apostolic age ended. There was not Apostolic succession. The apostles died and that ended that era, and those signs and wonders are no longer active today. Now charismatics would claim they're active today, and they would claim some Apostolic succession, but we don't. So wait a minute. So one part of the verse, the verse before, that's for us. The next verse is it? But wait a minute, immediately, what is this connected to. Now, all who believed were together and had all things in common, and sold their possessions and goods and divided them among all as anyone had need.

8:45 So once again, that's not for us. So people do weird things with acts. They run to acts and say this is for us. Well, no, that part's not for us. In fact, look a look at the very next verse. They continued daily with one accord in the temple. Well, should we be meeting every single day? Well, Christians like, no, that's not for us. So we don't meet every single day. We don't have the signs and wonders, we don't have apostles. We're not going to sell all of our property and have it in common. But acts, these things about power and these things about that belongs to us, and it's like, it's so maddening. So this article about revival did the exact same thing, quote only parts of verses and acts or only one verse, ignoring the rest and just creating a false impression about what we should be expecting and what revival is or what revival isn't. So yesterday we looked at the section on the Holy Spirit and prayer right now. They didn't really do a lot with it.

9:51 There was one very important part I'm not going to go review it that we talked about yesterday. I thought it was rather profound. I thought it was very good. I thought it really classified, really describe what revival really is. So we talked about that, and today we have two sections to look at, the Holy Spirit and Witnessing and the Holy Spirit and Power. Power. I got the power, Okay, all right, music fans will know what I'm referencing. Okay, but yes, this idea of power which Christians I believe are obsessed with. So we're going to go through this and we're going to look at this now. That the Holy Spirit and Witnessing, they reduced that to a very small section most of this, the rest of this is really about power. That's where I'm going to put my focus, and I'm just going to connect the witnessing with power because once again, it's this idea that if we get the Holy Spirit, we have an ability, we have supernatural ability, we have power. And this stuff just drives me crazy because I think it's so misleading, it's so disingenuous. Christians have to pretend to have something that they don't because just look at two thousand years of church history, all the talk of power and ability, the Holy Spirit's teaching us, well, nobody can agree, So the Holy Spirit must be a bad teacher. We have power, and what do we see in the church? Sin sin sin sin sin sin sin sin sin sin sin. Well, the Holy Spirit's giving us power.

11:18 Can we get to perfection? No? So then why is the Holy Spirit's power limited? All these just never ending struggles that I think anyone who's been a Christian for any length of time begins to call into question some of this stuff. So let's see how they handle it. It seems now the article doesn't do a lot like the way this article is. I mean, it's basically a printed sermon. How this sermon really is structured. It makes a lot of there's a lot of it. It makes no sense because they don't really explain anything. Right, So it seems the idea that I guess revival is well, when the Holy Spirit brings revival, then I guess we get power seems to be the idea that it's going with.

11:59 But let's let's pick up the printed sermon, page seventeen of the June seventh, twenty twenty four edition of the Sort of the Lord newspaper. This section is part three, the Holy Spirit and witnessing, and of course they quote Acts one eight. Jesus said, but you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, and you shall be witnesses unto me, you shall receive power. Now, I have heard that preach so many times, almost inevitably I could be wrong. Let me I'm not gonna say it first. I'm gonna look this up because I don't want to say what is always said here until I can verify it. Acts one eight. I'm going to the anti linear power. Yes, I've heard a million sermons. You can probably just look up Acts one eight on the sermons two point oh app and you'll hear. Who knows how many sermons will say the exact same thing. You're ready, we receive power and power is this Greek word Strong's gen.

13:02 Fourteen eleven, Dunamus, dunamous, Dunamus, dunamous, dunamous, And they will say something like, dunamus, we get power. That's where we get the word dynamite, right, dunamus, we get power. We have this supernatural power inside of us, and now we can do all of these things. And dunamus has used one hundred and twenty times the outline of biblical usage strength, power, ability, inherent power, power for performing miracles, the power and influence, power and resources. But please, no power for performing miracles.

13:48 Now again, depending on which type of Christianity you find yourself in, if you're around charismatics. So that we have the dunamus, we have that dynamite power to perform miracles, and it's right there in Acts one eighth. Let me read it to you again. Jesus said, but you shall receive power after that the Holy ghost has come upon you and you shall be witnesses under me. We have power and we can go do these miracles and this will influence people. And this is how we can be a witness because we walk in power, and the people around us are going to see where do they get that power? We have power to live holy. They're gonna be like, how can I live holy? We have power to have the perfect Christian families, to have the perfect Christian marriage. We have power. We have power, We have power, and so that I've heard that preach so many times, and I believe it's a complete, absolute corruption of the text when preachers do this, as we've already demonstrated when we open up the Book of Acts, there are things going on there that clearly are not for us. It's unique to that very specific period of time. One you have a muscles operating. The Apostolic era is over too.

15:04 You had them meeting every single day. Clearly nobody thought that that needed to be carried over. I guess you could say Catholics are the only one close because they eliminate of them have daily Mass. But most Protestants have already abandoned that idea outright. They sold all of their possessions and had everything in common. Clearly, no one believes that's carried over. And there were all these signs and wonders that were happening now. Charismatics believe that that is operating today. But here's the issue. They claim that, and then over and over and over when they make these claims, they're proven to be fraudulent, they're proven to be fakes, they're proven that it's all a scam. And everyone else who's living life knows that all those signs and wonders are not occurring. It would be it would be on every news channel twenty four to seven that these amazing signs and wonders are occurring. They're not occurring. There's claims constantly, but the claims always turn out to be fraudulent, to be fake. So clearly we know there's things and acts that was a unique period of time and not for us.

16:08 And I believe this power was specifically for that particular time and a specific group of people, primarily the apostles and some of those associated with them. Let's just consider some things right Acts one to eight, as we've already read. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. In this verse, Jesus is speaking to his disciples before his ascension. The power promised here is specifically the power of the Holy Spirit, which would empower the disciples to be effective witnesses of jesus resurrection and message. The power included boldness in preaching, the ability to perform miracles, and spiritual authority to spread the gospel. That was for the disciples, that was for the apostles. That promise is not for you. We do not have this supernatural power, you said, But wherein dwelt with the same Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit in dwelling us. Yes, he sells us to the day of redemption. But if you want to start talking about what power he's working in us, it's not that power. You don't have the power to perform signs and wonders. You don't have this power. You don't have the apostolic authority. The apostles had that authority. Now, if you believe in apostolic succession, I guess you can claim apostolic authority, which then you almost end up creating

17:40 almost a magisterial authority. I mean, the Catholic Church believes in apostolic succession Acts four, Acts four to thirty three, and with great power. The apostles were given their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. This verse describes these apostles ministry after receiving the Holy Spirit. The great power here refers to the effectiveness and impact of their testimony about jesus resurrection, accompanied by miracles and signs that authenticated their message, their power, their their authority was witnessed by this great power to do signs and wonders, which gave an a It made their It demonstrated that their message was authentic. It authenticated the truth of their message through their ability to do signs and wonders. God gave the apostles that ability to authenticate their message, to authenticate their authority, which you needed that apostolic authority at the beginning of the church in order to build that foundation. You needed that authority. The canon of Scripture was not even complete yet. Now the power I believe were for the original recipients were for the apostles or for those in Acts. The power mentioned

19:10 in Acts was indeed specifically promised to the apostles and early disciples, who were directly commissioned by Jesus. This promise was fulfilled on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended upon them, enabling them to speak in tongues preach boldly and perform miracles. This empowerment was essential for the early Church's growth and the spread of the Gospel. I do not believe it has anything to do for us today. None. We don't receive some supernatural power. We don't receive some supernatural ability. That is not the case, and reality would demonstrate it. Reality demonstrates again when the Bible speaks of the Holy Spirit leading us into all truth.

19:56 That was for the disciples and for the those who would write the New Testament. He was going to lead them into all truth so that what they wrote is true. What it talks about bringing to mind everything that I have said, that is not for you and I. You don't just immediately remember everything the New Testament says. Most Christians can't even cite the New Testament from memory. So you don't just like I ask you a question, you're like, oh, I remember everything Jesus said. No, that was for the original disciples who wrote the New Testament. They needed to bring to mind everything that Jesus had said. Those are promises for the apostles, the disciples, for the writers of the New Testament, to give us the completed canon of scripture.

20:45 They were given power to do signs and wonders, to authenticate their message, and to authenticate their authority. That had apostolic authority, which was absolutely critical for the New Church. Once scriptures were completed, once the fossils died off, the Apostolic era came to an end. The era of signs and wonders came to an end. And now we as Christians, we live in a completely different situation and we cannot be running to the Book of Acts claiming that is for us. Now the article goes on to say this, so it quotes that verse Acts one pint eight, but you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you. Now I know the perspective I'm putting forth.

21:35 Ninety nine percent of Christians are going to disagree with. They're going to walk around, now I've got that power. I've got that power. Way you claim to have the power and you run around making the claim, I'd love to see some of your signs and wonders that you claim that you do. Okay, but all right, I don't believe that is for us. So they go on to say, when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, then we will be witnesses. We will be channels of blessings. The Holy Spirit will work through us to others. Now, if we can reach a point where the Holy Spirit completely controls our lives, wouldn't that be sinless perfection? If you can reach a point where the Holy Spirit completely controls your life, then obviously you can't sin. If the Holy Spirit can simply control our lives, we would not sin. If he's controlling every aspect, we would only speak the truth. So now, wait a minute, I got, I got, we got we had an issue because I got Christians who believe this.

22:30 I got Christians who believe this. So are you saying, who is the Holy Spirit controlling? Is he controlling the Lutherans? And they're right about infant baptism and how it brings about regeneration? Are the Presbyterians right? Are the Methodists right? Are the Church of Christ right? Are the Pentecostals right? Or do I just believe the Holy Spirit's only controlling me? And then I'm right? You are a channel, You are a witness. One of the primary ways the Holy Spirit convicts a lost man is through you and me. Are you a clear channel so that God can work through you? Are you living such a life that you are a witness for the Savior. Now wait a minute. If the Holy Spirit's controlling me, then why is it now placing it upon me? Am I a clear channel? Am I living in such a life that the for a witness the Holy If the Holy Spirit's controlling me, I don't have to do anything. I don't have to live, I don't have to allow he's in control. So does the Holy Spirit control? Or does he not control? Does he control?

23:30 But the minute I want the control he lets up, Well, then I would be in control. So who's really in control? Now? That's all they say about being a witness. They don't really go much into it other than I guess they believe that revivals when the Holy Spirit, I guess, we get enough of the Holy Spirit. Now he controls us, and we have power, and now we are a bold witness. I don't know. It doesn't really explain it. It just immediately goes to the next section, which is the Holy Spirit and power. Power. Really these two sections should just be combined, he goes. They quote then again Acts one to eight. Again, but you shall receive power and with great power gave the apostles witness of the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all Acts four thirty three. We've already quoted these verses again.

24:19 Power power, power, power. Now this is what they have more to say about this. Here we go. Here's what they have to say. This is on page seventeen. Are you ready? Here we go. The Holy Spirit is synonymous with power. We need overcoming power. The world is too much, The world is too much for us. Satan's power is ever against us, So we need overcoming power. See the world is too much for us, just too much, and Satan's power is ever against us. But see when we get the Holy Spirit, now we have power so that we can overcome the world and we can overcome Satan. Now again, if we can overcome Satan and we can overcome the world, then I'm assuming then we can be perfect.

25:04 If it's overcoming power, If it's overcoming power, that when the first thing we would want to overcome is not the world, not Satan, the first thing we would want to overcome is our sinful nature? Or does the Holy Spirit not give us enough power to overcome our sinful nature? So I don't really know how this supposedly works. Next paragraph, we need power to speak out for the savior. This power does not come through machines or education. This power comes through the Holy Spirit. Now allow me to review just a moment. Now they're going to go back and review. So we need power, power to speak, power to overcome. Doesn't really explain how this works. Then it goes on to say, we are saved by the blood. We are not saved by any works of righteousness of our own. We are saved entirely by His grace. For by grace are you saved through faith? Ephesians two eight. I completely agree. Secondly, we are in dwelt by the Holy Spirit. He dwelleth with you and shall be in you John fourteen seventeen.

25:56 I do not, in any way, shape or form deny the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. By by being dwelt by the Holy Spirit, it identifies me as God's possession. He now owns me. I am His I am sealed. It's more about that. We want to make it about power, supernatural power. But again, so many times those claims, they don't manifest in any way, shape or form, in a way that's even in touch with reality. Third, we are cleansed by the spirit for the Spirit feels only Now this one is is weird all right? We are cleansed by the spirit, and for the spirit, the Holy Spirit feels only cleansed only the cleansed heart. Now this one, to me is a weird circle. We're cleansed by the spirit, but the Spirit only fills the cleansed heart. Now wait a minute, So he would have to move in to clean me first, right, But it says he only fills the cleansed heart. So do you mean I'm in dwelt by the Holy Spirit, but I'm not filled the Holy Spirit until the Holy Spirit cleanses me. And if the Holy Spirit's doing the cleaning, then any lack of cleaning in my life would be the responsibility of the Holy Spirit and not on me. So is it the Holy Spirit that cleanses my life or is it me that cleanses my life? And if it's the Holy Spirit cleansing my life, then why doesn't he just cleanse all Christians to well sinless perfection. So the Holy Spirit's the one that cleanse the life, but he won't feel the heart

27:26 until it's cleansed. But he's the one cleaning it, So why wouldn't he just clean all the hearts perfectly, then he would fill them. Then we would have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, so then we would have even more power. And if we're already cleansed, then we wouldn't have any sin. This is the stuff. This is the stuff that just makes me just lose my mind with Christianity. Christianity talks so much and it never explains anything like what does that even mean? We are cleansed by the spirit and for the spirit. The Holy Spirit fills only the cleansed heart. So he comes in, he does the cleaning, and then once we're clean, then he fills us. So what's the difference between the end dwelling and the filling.

28:13 Some say the dwelling he's there, but he doesn't have control. The filling is when he takes complete control. So he moves in. He cleanses me, so it's up to him to get me clean. Once I get clean, then he fills me. Now he has complete control. Well, if he now then has complete control, then I should be absolutely perfect. And if I claim that I'm filled with the Holy Spirit, then you should never question any of my preaching, any of my teaching, because then I'm it's coming from someone who's filled with the Holy Spirit. So every word has to be true, every word has to be perfect because the Holy Spirit's controlling everything, my thoughts, my speaking everything. Well, then do I reach some level of infallibility? Well no, no, no, Well then the Holy Spirit's not in control. Fourth, we are filled with the Holy Spirit. This means empowering for living and witnessing. So see now, so now we were not where we're filled when we cleansed. So the Holy Spirit cleanses us. Then we're filled. Now we have the power.

29:17 Now we get power for living. Stephen was filled with the Holy Spirit. He spake with such power of the Spirit that the people gnashed upon him with their teeth and cried out with their voices, stopping their ears and running upon him with one accord. The apostles summed up his ministry by saying, my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. Now is that not true of the apostles. See, the apostles were in a completely unique We cannot compare ourself to the apostles. They were being given you could say direct revelation. They were being utilized in many cases to write inspired scripture. They had power to do signs and wonders. They had an authority that was authenticated by those signs and wonders. We cannot compare ourself to the Apostles. We cannot compare Christianity after the Apostolic era with Christianity during the Apostolic era.

30:23 It's a completely unique, different situation, dare I say, a different dispensation, even if you hate dispensationalism. A different time. The power of the Early Saints is witnessed by the results of their preaching. At Pentecosta, about three thousand were saved. A short time after five thousand and more were saved when Paul preached. They said of him that he turned the world upside down. The whole city of Ephesus was so stirred by the ministry of Paul that many believed and confessed and showed their deeds. Now again, though, that's Apostolic preaching, that's the Apostles, a completely different situation. Amazing things happen when the Holy Spirit takes over. There is the story of the old preacher who has been called by his parishioners old man dry Sticks. He was so dry and unattractive that his people were preparing a petition asking for his removal. The old minister found out what was going on and on under the surface, and with a broken heart, he sought the Savior's face. He cried all night and prayed until God unto God, confessing his sins, seeking for the enduement of power. The next Sunday, as he preached, the fire fell. His people were amazed. A new grip came into his sermons, a new response came

31:56 out from came from his pleas a revival broke out. Souls were saved every night, and many were added to the church. That old man, who had been called old man dry sticks. I'm going to turn to page twenty two here and on this in this paper, became a live wire from heaven. They did not want to get rid of this man and now wanted him to stay with the church. May God give us the feeling of the Holy Spirit. And that's where that section ends. Now there's no explanation, there's no even dealing with these difficulties. See, Christians love this idea to see what we need as a revival. And when we have revival, the Holy Spirit's going to fall. And then we're going to be endued with power, power, and then the Holy and then once the Holy Spirit's power falls, then we're going to get ability, and then we're going to become and then it's it almost always turns into moral reformation. We're going to become better people because now God's power was going to fall upon us, and we're going to confess our sins and we're all all going to be now good little boys and girls. We're gonna be good husbands and wives. We're going to be good people. We're all gonna be perfect, and it's all. And now we're going to have power to witness it's all. So much of revival is about a mighty move of God that induce us with such power that then I guess, now we can do what we couldn't do. So we can't do it without the revival.

33:23 Once we get the revival, now we get the power. Now. We talked about and the last live broadcast I think maybe the last one of the one before it, I can't remember it. I did like four yesterday. We talked about Charles Finnie and how so many ideas about revival in the evangelical fundamentalist world they come from Charles Finny, who his teaching was absolutely heretical. Now there wasn't a lot there for me to grab onto. Right, So here's what we've demonstrated over and over again. When people talk about the Book of Acts, they grab certain verses and ignore others. Second, when they want to talk about that power, that dunamus, they forget that that dunamus is about the ability to do signs and wonders, which is clearly not for this time. We're those are not happening. All those claims are constantly proven to be fraudulent. So we know immediately there's a difference between the Book of Acts and now.

34:26 The Book of Acts was a transitional period. It's a transition, and much of it is descriptive. It's not prescriptive. It's not prescribing what should happen. It's describing what did happen to formulate form build that early New Testament church, and it required very specific things for it to build. How the church operates after that period of time is where we find ourselves. And we don't have apostolic succession, we don't have apostolic authority, but we have this concept of power which the church is obsessed with So here's what I wanted you to challenge. I want to challenge you, if you've been a Christian for any length of time, I want you to think about how this concept of power has impacted your way of thinking about your Christian life.

35:23 Was there a time in your Christian life for you're like, Okay, I've got power, I got dunamus, I got this dynamite power inside of me. I can do this and this and this and this and this. And maybe you were really convinced of that, but now maybe you realize something, something's not quite right with that. And then ask yourself how you what made you transition in your thinking? And I want you to consider how you process it now? What do you do now? What was it a shock to you? And you kind of begin to realize, Wait a minute, I talk a big game. I talk a big game, but the reality has always been different than what I have put forward. Now, some of you are still going to be yelling and arguing with me about power, power, power.

36:05 I don't look, there's no reason to get mad at me. If you think you've got the power, you think you've got the dunamus, you think the Holy SPIRITU then by all means, just go live it out. Just just go live it out and show everyone how perfect you are and how much power you have, and how much better you are than everyone else. Just go do it. You don't need to argue about it, just do it. Just live it. But I want you to be very honest with yourself about what really is going on behind the scenes when nobody is looking, what's going on inside of you that nobody sees. I want you to consider how many times you think you understand the Bible, but you actually don't. I think we all have to come face to face with this reality. We were sold, in many cases a lie. We were We were sold the infomercial, the infomercial of Christianity. These infocommercials. So much of what Christianity is is what we put forth we sell it.

37:14 It's like, oh, there's an infocommercial line and sell. We sell Christianity in almost a fraudulent way, making it sound like something that it actually isn't. Oh do I wish we all could be endude with supernatural power? Yes? Can you imagine what Christian families would look like if you have the mother and father both in endude with supernatural power? Supernatural power God illuminating their minds with supernatural understanding of scripture, with supernatural wisdom, supernatural power, to be basically almost perfect. They would be the best mom, they would be the best dad. There would be everything in the house would be almost perfect. Can you imagine what churches would be like if everyone inside those churches were endued with supernatural power.

38:07 It's the same thing when Christians sell the idea that if you're a Christian, if anyone is in Christ as a new creature, old things have passed away, all things have become new, and we make that applicable to our lives today. That is applicable to our lives positionally, not practically. We're not new creatures. Practically, the old is not gone practically for that to be true, that means when you became saved, the entire old nature was absolutely removed, and now you no longer have a sinful nature, which then that would just demand that we basically the probability is what we would be perfect. We know that's not the case. I'm tired of these concepts being sold to Christians who then try to pretend that they that they're real, that it's true, and then you find you're no better than anybody else. You have the same struggles, same weaknesses, doubts, same sins that everyone else has. And you can try to pretend all day. I've been sold the line You've got dunamus so many times. I've been sold that so many times. I'm tired. Now you're trying to sell it to me. I'm not buying it. And if this all happens in salvation, then why do you need a revival?

39:24 How can you revive people who are already a new creature, the oldest completely gone, everything is new and you now are a dude with supernatural power and now you have the Holy Spirit illuminating. What do you need to be revived from? Does the Holy Spirit taking over your life, controlling your life, filling you? Now? What? We can lose it? Hey, we had it, but then we lost it, So now we need revival to get the back. Do what do we get back? Do we get back the Holy Spirit? Did he leave us? Does he come back? Is he already in us? Do we have to be revived from being a new creature that we went back to an old creature? That we come back to a new creature? Like Christians just talk book in circles. You're like, well, wait a minute, you claim this. Now you're claiming this, Well, that seems to contradict that. So this leaves us one section, one section, and this and this article or this printed sermon.

40:25 We have one section, and this section is called Holy Spirit and Revival. It's only a couple of paragraphs long. I could finish it right now, but we'll wait because that because we just kind of handled all about the power. We kind of dealt with all of that. Really, I wish I could offer something more profound. I mean, we kind of covered a little bit about where I believe that power was for the apostles for this specific period of time. I don't know what else I can say or do other than constantly warn you not to buy in to this fraudulent, infocommercial idea of Christianity. All right, thanks for listening. I wish yeah. Well, hey, whenever you review something, you got to deal with what you have.

41:12 You can't. I mean, sometimes you just end and you're kind of like, well, I wish there was more to it than that. But I mean they offer no explanation. They offer no, they don't explain it. They don't I mean, they don't expand on it. It's just make these claims and don't explain anything about how it works, doesn't work, why it doesn't like that. That's really frustrating, But all right, I'll start right there. Thanks for listening, everyone, have a great day. I don't know what the rest of the day is going to look like. We will see, but in the meantime, Well gives this some serious thought about how the idea of dunamus and power has impacted your Christian life and how you've changed your thinking on it. Thanks for listening everyone, have a great day. God bless