Job 34:33-37
33 Should it be according to thy mind? he will recompense it, whether thou refuse, or whether thou choose; and not I: therefore speak what thou knowest.
34 Let men of understanding tell me, and let a wise man hearken unto me.
Job 19:23-29
23 Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book!
Acts 5:42
42 And daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.
(KJV)
The acts of the Apostles:
Acts 5:42
42 Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Christ.
(NIV)
Acts 16:19-30
19 And when her masters saw that the hope of their gains was gone, they caught Paul and Silas, and drew them into the marketplace unto the rulers,
20 And brought them to the magistrates, saying, These men, being Jews, do exceedingly trouble our city,
21 And teach customs, which are not lawful for us to receive, neither to observe, being Romans.
22 And the multitude rose up together against them: and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them.
23 And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely:
24 Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks.
25 And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.
26 And suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken: and immediately all the doors were opened, and every one’s bands were loosed.
27 And the keeper of the prison awaking out of his sleep, and seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword, and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm: for we are all here.
29 Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas,
30 And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved?
(KJV)
As we start this new year and are headed at a rapid rate toward the millineum. In this next year we are going to see some major changes:
Everything is going to happen quickly; We as a church must get acklemated to this fact.
What took 6 years is now going to six months, what took 6 months is now going to take 6 days....
We are headed at a rapid pace to the coming of Jesus, it is time for the church to wake up to what her real vision should be.... it is not buildings or things, it is souls!
The problem with the church as a whole is we have too many at the supper room and no one in the upper room....
Everyone want to eat … yet not everyone wants to participate.
When Jesus sent the disciples to the upper room in acts it was not to eat but he said “go tarry”
Acts 1:4-8
4 And, being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me.
5 For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.
8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
(KJV)
Acts 1:12-15
12 Then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount called Olivet, which is from Jerusalem a sabbath day’s journey.
13 And when they were come in, they went up into an upper room, where abode both Peter, and James, and John, and Andrew, Philip, and Thomas, Bartholomew, and Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James.
14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.
15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)
(KJV)
Matt 26:36-38
36 Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder.
37 And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy.
38 Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
(KJV)
Tarry:3306 meno (men’-o);
a primary verb; to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy):
KJV-- abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry (for), X thine own.
Matt 26:40-41
40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?
41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
(KJV)
The Problem :
To many in supper room
Answer:
Get back to the upper room
The Prophet Isaiah penned it like this...
Isa 43:18-21
18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.
19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.
20 The beast of the field shall honour me, the dragons and the owls: because I give waters in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen.
21 This people have I formed for myself; they shall shew forth my praise.
(KJV)
We need the fire of God that only comes through prayer to burn out the dross and impurities and bring us into right standing......
All through the bible we have examples of men and women who proclaimed what they knew....
We need to move from the Moses era of excuses, into the Joshua era and into the Claiming of what God has already given ...
“We are well able to pocess....”
Have we become so arrogant as a people to demean the awesomeness of a Holy God by our lack of commitment to prayer and to the word of Jesus, Go YE!”
PRAYER IS THE KEY....
Every major move of God that went through our country has been proceeded prayer....
Pray then obey = Pray until you know what to do
Jesus said I will build my church;
Matt 16:18
18 And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
(KJV)
We ought to have a revival.... the is a need to do something.....
To many of are worried about Preaching what we don’t know... Preach what God has taught you that is enough to make the difference,
Preach Christ, Repentance, Holy Ghost, and the Cross of Deliverance
In this last hour it is going to take a word from God, not a sermonet.....!
The bible says 1 will put a thousand to flight well 16 will put sixteen thousand to flight if we were to use that formula... it is a mind blower.
So a small church can be effective...
If we pray!
Excuses are like noses we all have one and they all smell
Forcing people to pray is manipulation it must be lived....
Prayer is not taught is caught
Jesus said “My house shall be a house of prayer....”
We all struggle with prayer, our lives are busy and our days are full. But it is Prayer that helps sustain us in our business and throughout our days.
I want to challenge you today to begin your day in prayer and see what God will do for you. And I submit to you when you see results in your daily lives you will come into His house and make it what Jesus said it would be a house of prayer.
But it has to start in us first…
You have heard it said “A that plays together stays together,” I would like to say it like this “A family that prays together stays together.”
We really need to leave the supper room and get back into the upper room if we are to see the Power of God in our lives and in our churches.
We have been programmed to death… to the point that we have either programmed God out of lives completely by lack of communion with him.
Choosing rather to have religion, than relationship.
Relationship with God will cost you, and it will mean a giving up of what we consider our precious time to be with him. Now I ask you what could be more precious than being in the presence of the Lord?
I deal with married couples all the time and the number one problem is that one partner or the other does not spend the time with their spouse needed to keep the relationship fresh and vibrant.
What is your prayer life? Because that will tell waht your relationship with God is like.
Invitation:
