male announcer: The following program
is paid for by the ministry partners
of the Hour of Power and viewers like you.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪ Joyful, joyful, we adore You ♪
♪ God of glory, Lord of love ♪
♪ Hearts unfold like flow'rs before You ♪
♪ Op'ning to the sun above
♪ Melt the clouds of sin and sadness ♪
♪ Drive the dark of doubt away
♪ Giver of immortal gladness
♪ Fill us with the light of day! ♪
♪ Amen Amen ♪
♪ Amen! ♪
Bobby Schuller: This is the day the Lord has made.
We will rejoice and be glad in it.
Good morning.
Hannah Schuller: And welcome, church family.
You are loved.
Thank you for being with us here today.
You know, in my quiet times this week, I have been feeling
so much joy knowing that God is on my side.
Whatever it is you're going through right now,
you can have joy this morning, because the God
of the universe is on your side.
Thank you, Jesus.
Turn around and shake the hand of the person next to you
and say, "God loves you and so do I."
Bobby: Hannah and I want you to know
how much you are loved and valued by God.
He will never leave you or abandon you.
You are his child, and he loves you.
Hannah: That's right.
I want to encourage you today that if you've been praying
for something, maybe for years,
and you haven't seen a breakthrough,
don't give up.
Your prayers are powerful, and they will move mountains
in your life.
Bobby: Yeah, that's right.
My grandpa Schuller used to say God's delays
are not God's denials.
So don't give up.
In fact, we want to support you in your prayer life,
whether you're praying for healing, relationships,
or financial challenges.
We want to pray with you.
Matthew 18:20 says, "Where two or three gather in my name,
I am there."
Hannah: Take a moment today and write down
your prayer request and send it to us.
We want to pray for you.
It doesn't matter what kind of impossibilities you're facing
or how huge that mountain is in front of you,
you can put your hope in our powerful God.
Bobby: Yeah, Hannah and I consider you a part
of our church family.
We're here for you, and we would be honored
to keep you in our prayers.
Remember always, God loves you and so do we.
Bobby: We're just so glad that you're here,
and we want you to leave this place with a full tank,
full of joy and fresh vision.
And so, let's begin today in prayer.
Father, thank you that you've invited us
to this wedding feast, to this gathering.
We thank you, Lord, that your presence, your power,
and your life are here.
Lord, we love you so much,
and we couldn't even live without you.
And we're so thankful that you love us in return
and we thank you.
It's in Jesus's name we pray, amen.
♪♪♪
Hannah: You may be seated.
In preparation for Bobby's message,
the words of our Lord found in Matthew 25:1.
"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins
who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take
any oil with them.
The wise ones, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps.
The bridegroom was a long time in coming,
and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom!
Come out to meet him!'
Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones said to the wise,
'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'
'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough
for both us and you.
Instead, go to those who sell oil
and buy some for yourselves.'
But while they were on their way to buy the oil,
the bridegroom arrived.
The virgins who were ready went in with him
to the wedding banquet.
And the door was shut.
Later the others also came.
'Lord, Lord,' they said, 'open the door for us!'
But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I don't know you.'
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know
the day or the hour."
Church family, we are preparing ourselves for the next
great thing God is doing in our lives, amen.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪ For the beauty of the earth ♪
♪ for the glory of the skies ♪
♪ for the love which from our birth ♪
♪ over and around us lies
♪ Lord of all, to thee we raise ♪
♪ this our hymn of praise ♪
♪ This our hymn of grateful praise ♪
♪ For the beauty of each hour ♪
♪ of the day and of the night ♪
♪ hill and vale and tree and flower ♪
♪ sun and moon and stars of light ♪
♪ Lord of all, to thee we raise ♪
♪ this our hymn of praise ♪
♪ This our hymn of grateful praise ♪
♪ For the joy of human love ♪
♪ brother, sister, parent, child ♪
♪ friends on earth and friends above ♪
♪ for all gentle thoughts and mild ♪
♪ Lord of all, to thee we raise ♪
♪ this our hymn of praise ♪
♪ This our hymn of grateful praise ♪
♪ Hallelujah! ♪
[congregation applauding]
Chad Blake: As we enter into a time of congregational prayer,
we remember one our own who is flying to Lebanon
and Syria today, Pastor Tim.
So, would you join me this morning as we lift
our hearts before the Lord?
Father, we are so thankful for what you are doing
here in this place.
Lord, being part of two churches who are coming together
to proclaim the goodness of your name in this city
and around the world is such an exciting thing.
Lord, we pray for your continued leading of this church
into the future as we seek after what it is you have for us.
Lord, we pray that we be an impact in this city.
We pray that we be an impact in this county.
We pray that we be an impact for your name in this region
and, Lord, we pray that we be an impact all over the world.
Lord, we love you.
Lord, we remember Pastor Tim as he gets on a plane
and prepares to fly over to Lebanon and Syria, Lord,
and we pray for safety and provision.
We pray for open doors.
We pray that he bring your spirit of peace as he partners
with pastors in the church that is doing
amazing things over there.
Lord, we pray for a renewed sense of excitement and joy in
knowing that you are with them and you are leading them.
Lord, we pray for our churches, our brothers and sisters
who are over there.
We pray that they do what you do best and that is to bring
your spirit into that area and your peace to invade
the hearts of all the people.
Lord, we pray that as Tim comes back, he brings with him stories
of the good things that you have done over there.
Lord, and we pray for Pastor Bobby
as he brings your Word,
your Word that you have placed on his heart.
Lord, we pray for open minds and open hearts of our own
as we listen, Lord.
And finally, we pray the way that Jesus
taught us to pray saying...
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪ Holy art thou
♪ Lord God almighty
♪ Glory and majesty in heaven art thine ♪
♪ Earth lowly bending
♪ Swells the full harmony
♪ Glory and majesty in heaven art thine ♪
♪ For worthy art thou
♪ Holy art thou
♪ Let all nations and kindreds ♪
♪ give thanks to thee
♪ forever more
♪ Thanks forever more ♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
[congregation applauding]
Bobby: Hannah and I are so happy
you've joined us in worship today.
And we'd like to say thank you for all the ways you continue
to support Hour of Power's worldwide mission.
God is on the move, and great things are happening.
Today I want to encourage you to walk by faith
and become the kind of person whose vision is framed
by the calling God has placed on your life.
He is with you today.
He favors you, and he loves you.
Hannah: Faith is trust, trust that in spite
of your current circumstances good things are coming.
Hebrews 11 says faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Remember, your life is not limited
to what you are currently experiencing.
It's easy to believe that God loves us and favors us
when things are going well in our lives,
but man, when we're going through those storms,
it takes extra faith to trust God.
Bobby: It does, but friends, God sees someone in you
that no one else can see.
And if you can just have faith, you can become that person.
When you get a vision for the possibilities in your life
and start praying over them, believing them,
and even seeing them, you can fulfill the incredible things
that God's called you to do.
announcer: To request your copy of "Do the Impossible:
Six Steps to Achieving Freedom through Faith" book,
call, write, or go online today.
With this book you'll learn that with God,
you can do the impossible.
No mistake is too bad, no dream is too big,
and no challenge is too hard to overcome
when you're walking with God.
Put your faith in him, and you'll find freedom
to accept joy, take risks, and be vulnerable.
Each chapter is filled with inspirational illustrations
and scripture references designed to guide you
in your journey to strengthen your faith.
We're asking for a generous gift of any size,
so call, write, or go online today.
Your generous gift of $60 will include the book
and the two-disc "Do the Impossible" DVD set.
This series contains six messages
from Pastor Bobby's motivational
"A Simple Guide to Walking on Water" message series.
Call, write, or go online today.
Thank you for watching "The Hour of Power"
and for your ongoing generous support
that keeps this program on the air.
Now, let's return to the service.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
♪ I will rise
♪ I will rise
♪ I will rise
♪ I will rise
♪ I will rise
♪ I will rise
♪ I will rise! ♪
♪ I will rise! ♪
[congregation applauding]
Bobby: Thanks for joining us today,
and we want to encourage you, come down to Irvine.
If you're anywhere near Disneyland
or something like that, you come on down to Irvine
with us here at Shepherd's Grove and Irvine Presbyterian Church.
We'd love to see you.
Hannah and I would love to give you a big hug,
and we'd love to teach your kids the things of God,
so bring them.
Friends, let's say this together,
hold your hands like this and let's say this together,
"I'm not what I do.
I'm not what I have.
I'm not what people say about me.
I am the beloved of God. It's who I am.
No one can take it from me. I don't have to worry.
I don't have to hurry.
I can trust my friend Jesus and share his love with the world."
Thanks, you can be seated.
Well, today I'm gonna talk about the importance
of being ready, being ready when these great moments
and opportunities come our way, being ready, in particular,
for the kingdom of God
and when I say the kingdom of God,
I don't mean just heaven and hell and judgment
and the return of Christ.
I also mean the things of God that are happening today
in our daily life.
And I want to talk about the importance of having oil
in our lamps, of being full of the Holy Spirit
so we can have spiritual ears and eyes to see when God
is doing great things in our communities or in our lives
so that we can get aboard those things.
And you know, it's important that we recognize that
opportunity is a rare thing but when it comes and when we take
advantage of it, it can have incredible results.
You think about a decision you made maybe once or twice
in your life that maybe took some risk or courage,
and you were just ready, just primed for it
and you leaped on that opportunity,
and it made all the difference.
Maybe it's even having an impact on your life today.
Maybe you think of something in your life in which
you didn't jump on it.
You thought you should have and you didn't.
But you know, something where you missed out
on a relationship, a date, a trip and you recognize,
man, if I had only done that, if I'd been ready
and leapt for that opportunity, you ask yourself,
how might my life be different?
So, today I want to talk about the importance of recognizing
that life is not a very, you know,
seamless singular line, but it's these big,
spiking moments, and too often as people
were too busy, too hurried, too out of energy,
and too out of sync with God's voice to leap on these things,
and that's a bad thing.
And we want to remove the things that get us--get in the way
of us living in the life of the Spirit.
So, think about an opportunity that made a difference
in your life.
I know one, for me, one huge opportunity that made
a difference in my life was when I started dating
this beautiful young woman over here, my wife Hannah.
And I remember I met Hannah when I was 15,
and I feel bad saying this, but I was introduced to her
by a girl I was dating at the time.
We weren't super serious, but this girl introduced me
to Hannah, and Hannah turned around and I was stunned.
If there was ever a love at first sight moment for me,
that was it.
And I remember for really years, I think it was four or maybe
even five years, I had this big crush on Hannah.
She was dating another guy at the time
and so I wasn't really-- I hadn't learned yet that,
you know, you should just go for it anyway.
[congregation laughing]
And so, she was dating.
I dated other people and, you know,
at the time too I had acne, and I was nervous
when I talked to her, and I had these big fluffy shoes,
so she hadn't seen the Lord's will yet for her life.
She wasn't that interested.
So, when college came around, maybe I blossomed a little bit.
She had broken up with her boyfriend, this guy, anyway
and there was a window of opportunity for me,
but it was the day before I was supposed to leave
on a six-month trip for Germany.
So, I left and didn't get to see her.
When I came back, she was with that guy again.
It just, it was a mess.
And finally, as summer came around and she was single again,
we happened to go on a missionary trip together.
Her brother was a dear friend of mine
and used to run this missionary trip in Panama.
And we got to know each other a little bit better,
although I wouldn't say we were even great friends at the time.
We were just sort of getting to know one another.
And when we were there, I was talking to her
and one of our mutual friends, Natasha, and I said,
"You guys should come out to California
and visit me sometime.
We'll go fishing and do some of the--
go to the beach or whatever."
And so, later that summer, her brother and one of our friends,
Nate, and she came out, the three of them,
to visit me in California.
And I just went for it.
I was flirting with her, and I was trying to get the other two
guys busy so I could talk to her and get to know her.
And there was this moment, her brother Chris, who was a friend
of mine, he was getting married only a few days later.
And she said, "Gosh, I wish you were coming
to Chris's wedding."
You know, there's all this chemistry all of a sudden.
And I said, "Well, what if I do come?"
I said, "I'll tell you what, I'll come out to that wedding
if you give me either the first or the last dance
at the wedding."
And she said, "If you come out to the wedding,
I'll give you both."
And yeah, she's like going for it.
Look, I was 19. I had no money, right?
I had no money.
I had no way of knowing how I was gonna get out to Tulsa,
but I knew that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
I had to get to that wedding,
and I had to dance with this girl.
And if I had to walk to Tulsa, I was gonna start the day
she left, you know, I was gonna get there, hitchhike,
whatever I could to get there and I did.
And so, I went and we danced the night away.
We really hit it off, and that was kind of when we--
it was at the beginning of our kind of dating relationship.
And we talked about it later,
had I not gone out to that wedding,
I'm not sure we would have dated and then gotten married,
because there were lots of other good-looking, you know,
great guys out there who were very interested in Hannah
and if I'm back in California, my opportunity is shot.
By the way, I took a camera with me,
and this was the picture from that night.
Isn't that adorable? She is so beautiful, isn't she?
She is just still more beautiful than ever.
[congregation applauding]
And anyway, and I'm so glad for that.
Okay, you can take the picture down.
And the reason I begin with that is that if you think about it,
much of your success in life is probably the result of a few
key decisions, maybe there are big risks like that,
you had to go for something.
You didn't know where-- how you were gonna do it
but you knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
I think when we're young, we feel like we have more
of those opportunities,
but I think that's because when we're young,
we're not as busy, bogged down, anxious, and worried.
That's maybe not true for all of us, but I think that
something happens to us, opportunity doesn't go away,
but something happens to our ears and our eyes where we
lose the ability to see, whoa, this is something.
I need to get aboard this, whatever this is.
You know, it's really true, there's this economist named
Vilfredo Pareto, and he noticed that in his garden,
the pea pods, that 20% of the pods
produced 80% of the peas.
And he created this thing that he noticed that was, you know,
almost everything, they call the Pareto principle.
It's this idea that sometimes we call it the 80/20 rule,
that 20% of the stuff in life gives us 80% of the results
and 80% of the stuff gives us 20% of the results.
And what he noticed was that is that most of the stuff that we
do in life doesn't really produce that much,
that most of the stuff that makes us wealthy, successful,
good in our relationships, good at whatever craft
that we're working on, the stuff that makes us
excellent comes down to a much smaller sample group
than we think.
It comes down to some of those important decisions and some
of that critical work that makes all the difference.
We need to recognize this, that most of the stuff that we're
doing is a waste of time, that the most important things we do,
whether it be professionally in our relationship,
but most importantly in the kingdom of God,
comes down to these moments.
It comes down to a small time.
It comes down to little things that make all the difference.
And so, you know, it doesn't matter.
If you make millions of dollars, and if you conquer the world,
and if you hold the world in your hands,
but you lose your soul, you've lost everything.
What life is worth is our friendships, our marriages,
our kids, our family, and most importantly,
our relationship with God.
And it's also true that the Pareto principle,
the 80/20 rule, the opportunity that's available
in our happiness and in our life comes down
to these key moments in life, and we need to become
the kind of people who are ready to seize those moments
when they come, and not only ready to seize them,
but able to see them.
And this is what Jesus is going to each us in Matthew 25,
the importance of having our lamps lit,
of being oil-filled people who are ready to get on--
into the moves of God.
And they are many and they are great when God is on the move
to be ready, to jump on that wave.
It's like surfing.
Actually, here we are in southern California that
the moves of God are not, like everything else,
it's not one fluid thing but they come in waves.
If you're a surfer, you sit out on the water and you wait
for a long time sometimes for a set of three, four,
or five big waves,
and you don't want to miss out on them.
And you can only usually grab one of them and so in that same
way, God, the Holy Spirit of God, and the kingdom of God
moves in history through waves, and we can be ready
for those waves, or we can miss out on them.
So, we need to become people of the Spirit.
We're listening and too are always in the presence
of the kingdom of God, have oil, are ready, amen?
That's what Jesus teaches.
Matthew chapter 25, Hannah already read it.
I'm gonna read it again just so we can think through this.
Now, when Jesus is preaching, he's getting ready to go to
the cross and he's for sure here talking about eschatology,
which is a big word that means the end of all things,
the end of my life, or the, you know,
the judgment of God, but he's also talking about
the kingdom of God, which is not just the end of life
but is happening now.
So, he says, "At the time the kingdom of heaven will be like
ten virgins," we'll just say that means unmarried women
in particular, ten young-- ten teenage girls,
"who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish and five of them were wise.
The foolish ones took their lamps
but did not take any oil with them.
The wise ones, however, took oil in jars
along with their lamps."
You get that?
So, some brought the lamps with oil in it like, you know,
so they could be led but others brought lamp with oil in it
and they brought like an extra bit of oil, make sense?
Like a side jar of oil to refill.
"The bridegroom was a long time in coming,
and they all became drowsy and fell asleep."
Notice how both the wise and the foolish are sleeping.
It's okay to sleep, huh? It's okay to wait.
It's okay to take a nap. Jesus took naps.
Next time your spouse bugs you for taking a nap just say,
"I'm being Christ-like, just following the Lord."
"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom!
Come out to meet him!'
Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones said to the wise,
'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'
'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough
for both us and you.
Instead, go to those who sell oil
and buy some for yourselves.'
But while they were on their way to buy the oil,
the bridegroom arrived.
The virgins who were ready went in with him
to the wedding banquet.
And the door was shut. Later the others also came.
'Lord, Lord,' they said, 'open the door for us!'
But he replied, 'Truly I tell you, I don't know you.'
Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day
or the hour."
Now, in this passage, Jesus is talking about the end of things,
but he's also talking about the present.
He's talking about the fact that many of the Pharisees
who are there don't recognize that in himself,
in the very body and life of Jesus,
the kingdom of God has come.
And before I get too much into that,
let me explain Jewish weddings.
In those days, those ancient days,
weddings were weird, and it's like
why is a wedding happening in the middle of the night?
And the reason is 'cause there--
It's a Middle Eastern culture. This is just a thing they do.
They would have these-- the bride and the groom
would get together.
We're not really quite sure what's happening here,
but the bride and the groom either had a wedding
or the parents were meeting to discuss essentially
the contractual agreement between two families
becoming one, things like a dowry, transfer of property.
And then, and they can take a while, you know?
And then what happens is these bridegrooms and everybody else
in the village, they get into this processional.
Now, this is a big deal, because in those days
people were pretty bored.
You know, they're farmers. There's no TV.
They're not wealthy.
And so, when a wedding happens, it's this huge, amazing, big,
sometimes it'll go on for days, celebration and especially
young girls, I mean, this is like the greatest thing
that's gonna happen all year.
This is so important because when Jesus is talking about the
wedding, he's talking about joy, laughter, singing, dancing,
jokes, being alive, being human, and this is the invitation that
the kingdom of God, the arrival of the kingdom of God, is this
big celebration and he's telling them, "Don't miss out on it."
And that's exactly what happens is these women, these girls,
and they don't bring extra oil, and so notice how the oil,
the lamps they burn out, so it's not that they
were never burning, they just burned out,
and they just didn't have enough and didn't have any left,
and so they became people with lamps without oil.
In those days, too, you know, they would then go to the
groom's house and there they would gather
and they would celebrate, but it was illegal
to be out on the street at night without a lamp,
because that's when thieves would do their thieving.
And so, if somebody arrives at a house, again,
that's only candlelit and they knock on the door
and you can't see who's out there,
you're not gonna open the door.
You don't know who's out there.
You're not gonna allow somebody to come in and rob your wedding
and to damage this most important day
of this young family's life.
And that's what Jesus says it's like that if you're not ready,
if you're not prepared, whether it comes to the end of your life
or whether it comes to these great opportunities in life,
your hopes will be dashed.
You'll be like those young girls and because they ran out of oil,
they weren't prepared to be a part of what God was doing.
He is telling us, look for the kingdom of God,
prepare for the kingdom of God.
And be full of oil, full of oil.
In the Bible, the oil is always, always a symbol
of the Holy Spirit, 'cause the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of God within us, and that's why I believe
when Jesus is telling this parable,
he's in large part talking to the Pharisees,
probably men who started out with oil, full of joy,
full of the Holy Spirit, but as they got older
ran out of flame, ran out of fire,
and just simply became men of rules, statutes, and rights.
In Jesus's words, they became whitewashed tombs.
They were gorgeous on the outside but dead on the inside.
They were lamps without oil.
They had everything on the outside they needed to burn,
but no fuel, nothing on the inside to bring light
or warmth or fire.
They were oilless lamps, and this is the greatest temptation
for every religious person is to run out of oil.
You got the lamp.
You got everything that you need for burning but no oil.
But Jesus says to the Pharisees, "You study the Scriptures
diligently because you think that in them you have
eternal life but these are the Scriptures that testify
about me, yet you refuse to come to me and have life."
The kingdom of God, it comes in waves and when it comes,
it is a celebration.
It's joyful.
I think it's really interesting how often Jesus uses weddings
as a parable.
He does it a lot, and he uses wine a lot.
Like, actually, you remember Jesus's first miracle?
He turns water into wine at a wedding
for people who drank too much.
They ran out of wine and then he made the good stuff.
It's this idea of the celebration, the joy,
the laughter, and the goodness of the kingdom of God.
It really is joyful.
That's why, and I've said this a lot, do--
I mean really be weary of religious people
that don't have joy.
Be weary of religious people that can't laugh at a joke.
And I'm 100% serious about that, that people who can't laugh
or can't celebrate are people who don't have love,
that when the Scriptures teach us that the fruit of Spirit
is love and joy, the two first--
two things it mentions, love and joy,
they are describing the same fruit.
In the same way an apple is red on the outside and white on the
inside, so the Spirit of God, love on the outside and joy on
the inside, and that's why Jesus uses a wedding and not
a funeral as a description for the kingdom of God.
It's a celebration, it's awesome, and something
that we don't want to miss out on.
We need to become people full of the Holy Spirit of God,
full of oil, full of oil.
And friends, let me tell you, there is no shortage of oil
and that's the good news, no shortage.
The Holy Spirit is available to every believer.
When you were baptized, when you confessed Jesus
as the Lord of your life, it's like, he gave you a pilot light
and that little light, it doesn't have much light at all
or warmth or anything, but then he also gave you gas
and that gas is the Spirit of God.
And he's also given you, what is a called?
A gas valve or something like that?
So, it's like this, you have this pilot light,
and you've got gas available,
and you've got that little gas knob.
Turn it on, baby. Turn it on.
Have some joy, life, spirit, so that you're ready,
you're ready for the things of God, ready, full of courage
and joy and eyes to see and ears to hear, amen?
So, we gotta be people who are ready for the kingdom of God.
I hate to quote Nietzsche in church,
but Nietzsche, he was in many ways, very brilliant,
was criticizing the church of his time
and, of course, he had the famous "God is dead" line
and that the context of that line was in the parable
of the madman.
The story goes like this, Nietzsche says that there's this
crazy madman walking in the streets in rags, holding a lamp,
a lightly lit in the middle of the day on a sunny day,
and he's looking for God like this.
He's looking for God.
"Where is God. Where is God?"
And everybody starts to mock him and laugh at him.
"Where is God? I'm looking for God.
Where is he?"
And he takes this lamp and he shatters it on the ground
and it's a symbol of the light, you know,
the light of God going out.
And he says his famous line and he looks at them,
"God is dead, and we have killed him.
What after all, are these churches now if they
are not the tombs and sepulchers of God?"
You hear that criticism at the end?
The people in Nietzsche's days--
day, and many of the people in our day,
they don't see oil in our lamps.
They don't see joy and the Holy Spirit on the move
in the way that they should.
This was especially true in the 19th century
when Nietzsche was writing.
When he looked at a church that, in many ways in Germany, was,
you know, overly academic.
I love academics. I love learning.
I love books, but relied too heavily on its rights
and statutes but not enough on the Holy Spirit
and was not ready for the great things of God.
That's why I have a soft spot in my heart for Pentecostalism,
by the way.
It got real quiet, didn't it?
[congregation laughing]
That's why I have a soft spot.
You know, Pentecostals, you know,
they live by the Spirit,
and they have their own vices for sure,
but they never make the mistake of not having enough joy.
They never make the mistake of not hearing what God's saying
or doing or when God is on the move.
No, the mainline Protestant church is in a rapid decline
but if you take Pentecostalism as its own tradition,
it's the fastest-growing religion in the world, why?
It's people full of the Spirit, full of fire.
I was at a mainline church in our denomination in New York,
and the topic was on diversity and having ethnic
and racial diversity within the church.
This is great what this pastor is saying but then I looked
around and it was a church full of only white people.
I'm like, they say they like diversity.
Well, where is it?
And then you know where diversity is?
It's in the Pentecostal church.
See, I have the joy of preaching at lots
of different types of churches.
Like I preached in every Baptist, you know, Methodist,
Liberal, Conservative, everybody invites me to preach.
They all think I'm like them.
I'm like the Rock, you know, everybody thinks
I'm either liberal or conservative
or this or that.
And the one thing I notice is that the Pentecostal church
doesn't talk about diversity, they practice it.
Because they're people of the Spirit, they naturally
transcend those things and they all love one another.
See, we all have things we can learn.
They have things they can learn from us,
we have things we can learn from them, amen?
So, I'm not telling you to be Pentecostal,
I'm telling you to be a person full of the Holy Spirit
and a person who looks for and is ready for the things of God,
because the things of God come in waves,
and when they come, you must be ready for it.
I think that this is one of the those things right here,
this church is a move of God.
God is doing something in this church right now.
This wasn't my idea. It just came out of nowhere.
And I think we'll get to see more happening even here,
which is good news.
Wow, that was a digression, wasn't it?
Pentecostalism and racism and all that?
All right, if we're to be people of the Spirit,
before we talk about what we need to do,
and I don't even know if we need to do that,
we need to talk about what's in the way.
I'm gonna look to Ronald Rolheiser for this.
Rolheiser says there's three things.
I'm gonna give you three things in three minutes
before I finish.
Are you ready?
The first thing that gets in the way of life
in the Spirit is egotism.
And he says narcissism, and I think it's too extreme
of a word.
I think egotism is a little bit better because it describes
what all of us struggle with.
"It's all about me," and it takes many forms, doesn't it?
It's like, egotism can look like reputation management.
"If I act that way, or if I do that thing
or if I tell people I heard from God
or if I take this big risk, what are people gonna think of me?
What's gonna happen to my reputation?"
And so, it creates fear in our hearts and we miss out
on the big things of God, the opportunities,
the moves of the Spirit, or the big opportunities in life.
The second one, and we want to be careful about this,
but the second thing that gets in the way is pragmatism.
Now, I'm a pragmatic person, I really am,
and I think it's good to be pragmatic,
but when pragmatism becomes your highest value,
it destroys your soul.
It gets in the way of the best things in life,
and what I mean here when I say pragmatism is that
everything must be practical, and many of us are that way,
especially in the modern world.
But what's practical about surfing?
What's practical about kissing or singing or Disneyland?
What's practical about those things?
And the pragmatic person will say,
"Well, that's a very practical thing about those, you know,
surfing is exercise and singing is,
it bonds a community in a common value."
But even saying those things, it sort of kills the thing,
doesn't it?
It like takes the joy out of the thing that's
it's supposed to be.
And even like anybody who describes kissing is like,
"Oh, it increases serotonin
and creates love chemicals in the brain."
It's like, you know that person is bad at kissing, right?
You just know that it's like--
And I guess that's my point is that there's the pragmatism,
the lens of pragmatism can ruin our spiritual life.
Be pragmatic but not in everything.
Sometimes God will ask you to do something that makes no sense.
Sometimes it's good to follow your heart.
And finally, the number three thing, pragmatism leads
to this and it's unbridled restlessness.
We just never stop.
We're always going, always going,
going, going, going doing, doing, doing,
more work, more driving, more traffic, more errands,
more this, more that, more TV, more Internet, more emails.
Sleep, wake up, eat, go, go, go, go.
You don't have to live that way.
The greatest successes in your life are gonna be the result
of grabbing on to these moments, these moments.
And if you're busy, too busy doing all this stuff,
busy all the time and restless,
you won't have the eyes or the ears to jump on board
what God has in store for you.
In order to live by the Spirit, you have to breathe.
The word for the Holy Spirit in the Bible in Hebrew,
it's the Ruach Elohim in--
it's the ruach, it means breath, the Spirit,
breath and Spirit.
Same thing in Greek, pneuma, is this idea
of breath and spirit.
It's the same thing.
So, many of us, we exhale all the time, right?
We're exhaling, doing, doing, but we never inhale.
So, living the life of the Spirit is about inhaling
and exhaling spiritually, that we have these moments
where we stop and we think and we don't do anything
and we reflect and we listen for what the Spirit is doing.
We look for where the Spirit is going and we jump
and get on board with that.
Let's be ready, friends.
Full of joy, full of oil, full of the Spirit,
ready to move, amen?
Amen, that's what we need.
We're nothing without it, we're everything with it.
Lord, we thank you and we love you.
We ask in Jesus's name, Lord, even just now we take a moment
and open up our soul to heaven.
And we ask, Lord, in Jesus's name,
that you would pour out so much of your life
and your Spirit that you'd create a revival,
and fire and life and listening and joy,
especially within this community with everyone
under the sound of my voice.
Lord, we love you and it's in Jesus's name we pray, amen.
announcer: Please stay tuned for the closing benediction.
Bobby: Hannah and I are so happy
you've joined us in worship today.
And we'd like to say thank you for all the ways you continue
to support Hour of Power's worldwide mission.
God is on the move, and great things are happening.
Today I want to encourage you to walk by faith
and become the kind of person whose vision is framed
by the calling God has placed on your life.
He is with you today.
He favors you, and he loves you.
Hannah: Faith is trust, trust that in spite
of your current circumstances good things are coming.
Hebrews 11 says faith is the substance
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
Remember, your life is not limited
to what you are currently experiencing.
It's easy to believe that God loves us and favors us
when things are going well in our lives,
but man, when we're going through those storms,
it takes extra faith to trust God.
Bobby: It does, but friends, God sees someone in you
that no one else can see.
And if you can just have faith, you can become that person.
When you get a vision for the possibilities in your life
and start praying over them, believing them,
and even seeing them, you can fulfill the incredible things
that God's called you to do.
announcer: To request your copy of "Do the Impossible:
Six Steps to Achieving Freedom through Faith" book,
call, write, or go online today.
With this book you'll learn that with God,
you can do the impossible.
No mistake is too bad, no dream is too big,
and no challenge is too hard to overcome
when you're walking with God.
Put your faith in him, and you'll find freedom
to accept joy, take risks, and be vulnerable.
Each chapter is filled with inspirational illustrations
and scripture references designed to guide you
in your journey to strengthen your faith.
We're asking for a generous gift of any size,
so call, write, or go online today.
Your generous gift of $60 will include the book
and the two-disc "Do the Impossible" DVD set.
This series contains six messages
from Pastor Bobby's motivational
"A Simple Guide to Walking on Water" message series.
Call, write, or go online today.
[congregation applauding
Bobby: And now, "The Lord bless you and keep you,
the Lord make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious unto you,
the Lord lift his countenance upon you
and give you his peace."
In the name of the Father, and of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit, amen.
♪♪♪
♪♪♪
CC BY ABERDEEN CAPTIONING 1-800-688-6621 WWW.ABERCAP.COM
announcer: The preceding program was paid for
by the ministry partners of the Hour of Power
and viewers like you and is accredited
by the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability.
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