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Dufresne Ministries Podcast
The Goal Is The Glory | Chris Cody | World Harvest Church | Murrieta, CA
00:59:49
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message.
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I'd like you to turn tonight to two openings to begin with, one New Testament, one Old Testament. Let's go to Colossians chapter one. Praise God. Colossians chapter one. And then we'll really challenge you. Praise God. You're going to have to find the book of Haggai. Haggai, however you say his name. Anybody thinking about maybe naming your kid Haggai? Hey, don't do it. Right. Praise God. And having said that, let's see if I could find it. Yeah, you know, dad used to say, well, it's on page 930. Okay, if you got a Bible like mine. Amen. And so, of course, such a well taught people, a church and a people that are in the flow, what to share. Well, I've just learned. Follow my heart. Amen. I'm not up here in competition with anybody. I just do my best to help you and yield to the Holy Ghost. And every semester in the spring and in the fall, for about seven years, the Lord had directed me at home in Paducah, where I live, to open it up on Thursday night. And I do what's called a mentoring class. And we have a question and answer time. And they can ask me anything they want to ask me, do my best to answer that. And then when the question and answers are done, I have a theme or something that's dominant in my heart that I'm speaking to. And it's usually stronger, you know, because you've got really, really my most hungry people that would show up to that. I mean, they come Sunday, they've just come Wednesday night, all their other life commitments, and yet they've paid to come and sit around me. And so the utterance that comes, the revelation that flows is strong and it's extra, you know, when you do the extra. Praise God. God. God meets that he meets you there. And I was excited to be led tonight to share some of what God is having us emphasize this semester in those mentoring classes. The Lord had stirred me up about the glory, the glory of God. And I'll be honest with you, I stand before you tonight, humbled. I stand before you tonight. Don't take this wrong. You know, I could be intimidated at the subject of the glory because you want to talk about a vast, deep, awesome subject and to have one service to get something over to you on this amazing subject. Believe with me. And even to give you some definition, how do you define the glory of God. Well, we'll take a shot at it. Amen. And. But nevertheless, I have come to see one of the things the Lord has helped me to see is that the glory is the plan. We'll show you that tonight as the Lord helps us. What is the plan? The glory. Amen. The glory is the plan. The plan is the glory. And so, you know, you know, in a cutting edge church like you are sort of strategically located, a tip of the spear church. Amen. A group of believers, like many around the country and around the world, that's really reaching. Not perfect, but we're reaching, aren't we? We have an idea, because of our lineage and our heritage, about where God wants us to go and sort of what things look like. And we've called it different things. We've called it a last day outpouring. We've called it and that's right. We've called it a new era. Amen. We've called it reaching for the fullness. Lately I've heard phrases I like coming out of this pulpit. The flow of heaven. Amen. Well, I'm just going to maybe add another little caveat to it. It's the glory. What are we? I wanted some definition. Father, help me. How can we attain what we cannot define? How will we arrive at a goal that we can't? We don't know what the goal looks like. Amen. I like to know what I'm reaching for. What does that look like? So that I'll know when I'm getting closer. I'll know maybe when I get there. Ha. There it is. Amen. Well, how do we know when we get there? The glory. The glory. Amen. And ever greater, ever increasing measures of the glory. So let me back this up with some scripture. Let me mark Haggai, because that's a one. That's a fun one to find and then get back over with you in Colossians. Colossians, chapter one. Y' all with me tonight. I know you've been busy working all day. It's midweek, praise God. But hey, the good stuff comes out midweek. Amen. Colossians, chapter one and praise God, verse number 26 and 27. Paul's in the midst of writing and speaking. He says even the mystery. The mystery means a divine secret. Amen. Which has been hidden from ages and from generations. And so here, you know, he's talking about a mystery that's been hidden. But you could call it a plan. God had a covert secret plan that he had been advancing and moving towards since the fall of man, in the garden. In short, right after the garden, G. God told the devil, I'm going to get you. I'm going to get my family back, and I'm going to get you. Amen. And. And he. He prophesied some things out there, but there was a mystery. There was something hidden, something veiled. Even the prophets didn't get it all right? But especially the devil and the demons and. And the kings and the princes of this earth, they tried to stop it, but they didn't know what to stop because it was a hidden plan, a secret covert mission from God. Even the mystery which has been hidden from ages and generations. But I like this. But now. But now we're living in a great day because we're not living in the dark, we're living in the light. But now is made manifest to his saints. The word manifest means revealed. If it's manifest, it was not, but there it is. It was hidden, but now it's revealed. You know, my wife told off on me today when she got up. I'm not going to let her get up anymore and talk probably, and praise God, but I am. I am nosy. I like to know stuff. And so when I hear whispers in the hall, I don't like. I know curiosity killed the cat, but I like to know. I don't like others to know and me not know. So I want to know what you know. Amen. Well, so to have it revealed that there's a hidden secret that even the great prophets of the Old Testament didn't really get to see. They spoke of it, but they didn't get it. But now it's been revealed. I like that kind of thing. I like to be in the know. Amen. And so he gives it to us in verse 27. To whom? Us. The saints. God would make known what is. Brother Grant was almost on it tonight. You know my message. Amen. Talking about the exceeding riches of his glory. Different things. What is the riches of what? Of the glory of this mystery, this secret among the Gentiles. Which is. Which is Christ in you? The hope of glory. What is the secret agenda that God has had? Christ in you? Your only hope of glory. Every human's only hope of glory is getting Christ the anointed One and his anointing on the inside. And today we've got him living on the inside. We've got Christ in us. And because I have Christ in me, because you have Christ in me, I have hope. Here means a positive, earnest, boiling, joyful Expectation of something. So do you have a hotel? Excited, expectant, joyful anticipation of what? In this case, the glory. The literal Greek doesn't just say of glory because we could have this idea that he's simply saying it's the simple plan of salvation. It includes that, of course, that, you know, Jesus, he kept things hidden because had they known, had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. And that's true. Amen. And because he purchased our salvation, that's all true. And so Christ in us, the hope of glory, and you could think the hope of heaven listed like that. And that wouldn't be wrong. It certainly includes that. But the literal Greek says this Christ in us, the hope of the glory. Expectation of the glory. Glory. And so God doesn't want us to wait to get to glory, to have glory, to operate in glory, to experience glory. All right, I don't know if you're just not sure if you like my tie or not, or you're still checking me out, right? Amen. The plan. So he told us here, what's the plan? The plan is the glory. The plan is the glory. So before we flip over to haggai, let me just quick, because we could take sermon series and try to do this. But what does the word glory mean? To me, it's the most difficult word to describe because it's an English word, it's a Hebrew and Greek word. That's one word that tries to encompass all that God is, all that he is, all that he has, all of his attributes, all of his actions, everything that he would bestow. Trying to wrap that up in a single word for human expression, that's difficult to do. Amen. I like this, though. The Hebrew word for glory is kabod, and it simply means heavy. So to steal a word from a previous generation, what is the glory? It's heavy. Heavy. Not heavy like burdensome. But Pastor Mark Hankins said, no, no, no, heavy. More like loaded. I like that word, loaded. And then he said it means heavy. Heavy means loaded with everything good. That's his definition of glory. The glory is God manifesting himself. He is loaded with everything good. And it's your destiny. It's the plan. It's the plan for you individually. But as we'll see in a moment, it's a plan for the church. It's a plan. It's. It's. Our corporate mission is the fullness, the era, the glory. In fuller measure, we experience God, which is glory. His. Another great definition of glory is the manifested presence God. Amen. And so we experience the manifest presence of God by degree. By degree. Because even though we are born again and we can march right into the very throne of God spiritually, and we should. And because we're the righteousness of God in this mortal being in this. In this body of earth and clay, we can't experience God. Now, where I live, you know, it's like the. The state bird of Kentucky is the mosquito, you know. And like Louisiana, we grow them large where we are because we live in wetland. My wife and I, we live in lowland. We live in wetland. And it's moist and it's damp. And so around now I don't have one. I need to get one. But they have bug zappers. And it's just cool to sit out there. And, you know, you watch this mosquito drawn to the light, and then when it makes zap and down it goes into the bin. Well, no disrespect to our Lord, but if God showed out, we'd be the bug and he'd be the zapper. We just can't take it. I mean, we just can't take it. I mean, out of his being, just at a word when he spoke, out of his beings came galaxies, planets, stars, supernovas. You just want to march up to a being like that and say, hey, whatever, you know, you know, and I know. I've been teaching in this mentoring class. One of our aims, one of the things we really need to do is reclaim language, you know, because I had a really good burger today for lunch. And we call that awesome. We can't give all of our good words away to burgers and movies and vacations. We've got to save some words for God. God is awesome. Awe inspiring. Not a burger. Amen. Amen. Oh, hallelujah. So the manifest prayer. This is why when Moses cried out, oh, God, show me your glory, God answered it the best he could. He said, okay, but then this will give you some insight. I know you know this probably. He said, I'll cause all my goodness. So Moses said, show me your glory. God said, all right, you'll see, my goodness. See, when God shows up, good things happen and listen. But even though we can't experience God in full unveiled form today, we can much greater measure than we are. And that's another way to understand. What is the goal? What's the plan? What are we aiming for? Greater measures. So as great leading prophets of God that spoke by the inspiration said, in these last days, you'll see, we'll see the Gifts of the Spirit operate in their full, full measure, their full potential that we'll see. The ministry offices operate in the full measure of the potential of those ministry giftings. But I heard Dr. Dufresne say, what that looks like is the glory. It's in the glory. It's in the great measure of God's glory. It's in that environment, in that atmosphere that those giftings flow at their fullest measure. So not just reaching for the fullness of an office, we've got to produce the environment. Amen. See, God doesn't just turn up the power, take the veil away in greater measure and step out and manifest himself more. Because the people aren't prepared for that. You know, God's glory will not manifest among the people who are not prepared. That's one of the things that I felt important that was for all of us, for me to say and for you to get. God is not going to manifest himself to a great degree among a people who are not prepared. See, one of my first mentors, he would say this all the time. He would say, don't block the spout where the glory comes out. See, you have glory on the inside of you. But we have to ask ourselves, like Dr. Winston said, where's the evidence? Where's the evidence that we have Christ in us? See, when we act ugly to the waitress, you've got glory, goodness, love, divine love. Where is it? And so Paul said, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That verse used to really bother me because I would say I thought I was already saved. You know, I read Ephesians, chapter 2, verse 8. For by grace am I saved, not by works. But he said, now work out my own salary. No, I understood. Understand now what he means. He means I'm saved and I've got glory on the inside of me. And now my job is to work it out. Work it out, work it out into my soul, work it out into my words, into my thinking, into my lifestyle, so that people can see it and experience it. That's the aim. Get what's on the inside out. Out. Well, what's preventing that? All that junk, really. I'll just have to really shotgun it at you tonight. Amen. Because we can't keep you too long. The withholding, you say, okay, We've been hearing these prophecies for decades about, we know if you've been paying attention, we know where, a direction, where we're supposed to go. And yet you might say, well, okay, where, when? Well, I assure you we're not waiting on the Lord, he's already deposited. The mystery of the ages is in you now. And all of us have come together corporately. And so the glory in me is in, and the glory in you. And we add all that to one puts a thou. Oh my, we got a lot of God in this room. But God withholding those greater measures of the manifestation of that is really an act of his mercy. Remember the bug zapper analogy? Do you want to be the mosquito, Say Pastor, I don't know what you're talking about. Ananias and Sapphira. Now they told a little white lie. Happens in churches every day. Believers do it all the time. They tell whoppers compared to what Ananias and Sapphira did. Yet Ananias and Sapphira were instantly and severely judged. How come? It's not the act, it's the act in that environment. It's the act in that moment. Because the church was experiencing the early rain. The glory of God was being poured out. Miracles, signs and wonders. The people were walking in the fear of the Lord. The ministers were doing what they're supposed to do. The deacons were doing what they were supposed to do. The believers were faithful and joyful. They were holding fast to the apostles doctrine. They were going from house to house, enjoying fellowship, having communion, being in the Word and in prayer. And God was showing up, and God was showing out in a strong way. And when they told a little white lie in a holy, holy moment where God is, they just got zapped. Maybe you've read 2nd Samuel before and you're cruising along and you see how because of Eli and his sons and their disregard and their mishandling of the ministry and their service in the priesthood, we could call it the local church. And because of what they'd done, they turned their position into opportunity to take advantage of girls and to pilfer the offerings. And Eli knew it and didn't do anything about it. And God showed up one day and said, I've had enough. You honor your sons more than you honor me. And he cursed them and he pronounced judgment on them. He said, they'll never be, there'll never be an old man in your house. And as a sign that this is true, your sons and yourself, you'll all die on the same day. And they did. And they did. One of Eli's sons, Phineas, I believe his wife was pregnant when they both died. They had gone out to battle, if you remember, against the Philistines. And they had taken the Ark of the Covenant, a Sign, a symbol. That's where the Shekinah, the glory of God resided with his people, was with that ark. Amen. You're the ark today, brother. You and me, we are the ark. And because of the leaders disregard for holy things, because of their sin and compromise, the Philistines were. Israel was given over into the hands of the Philistines. And there was a great slaughter that day. Hophni and Phineas were slain in battle. One few survivors escapes and runs home and tells Eli. Eli is sitting on something. The barrel, a bench, a stool. He's an old man. And when he hears it, he's so distressed. Not so much that his boys were dead, but he heard that the ark of the Lord was taken. Now how would you like that to happen under your watch? That the Ark of God, the very oracle of God, the very symbol of the presence of God among his people, was taken under your watch. He fell over under the news and he was an old man, broke his neck and died. Well, his daughter in law, the wife, gave birth and do you remember the name Ichabod? Do you remember the meaning, the glory? Ichabod means the glory has departed. And oh, I could preach on this. I mean, for many years, the body of Christ, we just mishandled holy things. It's common now, the body of Christ. And even the world seems numb to scandals among preachers. It's everyday news. The church looks like the world. And yet we wonder where's the glory? The glory is departed. The manifestation of it. I carry it, we carry it. But the glory is departed. Well, years go by. David is king. And he hears that the presence of that ark among the Philistines was causing them hemorrhoids. It cursed them. And that's not fun to have the botch and the itch that won't be healed. And they didn't have the cream back then I'll get you with me one way or another, right? And they finally said, get this out of here. So they asked their pagans, sorcerers, whatever, how should we do this? They say, well, I'll get some rats and get a new cart and we'll make some golden hemorrhoids as a symbol to say we're sorry. And let's hang them on this new cart and let's hook it up to a calf of a brand new cow. And if the calf who's really milking, if she actually walks away from her mother and goes back to where it belongs, we know it's God and that the plague will be stayed. Well, sure Enough. They sent the. They put the ark on a new cart, and they had their little trinkets on there, and they put a new calf that was nursing in the calf, walked away and walked right back into Israel's camp. Whoo hoo. I think it got into the house of a man named Abinadab, and Abinadab got rich. What happens when the glory of God shows up? The Bible says the glory is mine and the gold is mine. The glory and the gold go together. Amen. Whoo. Preaching good. Hallelujah. Glory to God. And so David. David gets really zealous. He gets excited, and so. But he makes a critical mistake. And so he. He says, okay, how. How do we get. How should we handle this situation? So he says, build a new cart. Build a new car. I wonder where he got that idea. Where do you think he got the idea build a new cart from? Well, that's how the Philistines did it. The Philistines, the world. So here's a holy man looking at the world and says, here's how we handle the presence of God. Have we done that? Sure we have. Sure we have. We've made praise and worship a rock deal and jump up and down from smoke machines to skinny jeans. And where did we get all these ideas? Not the word, not the word, not the word. We got them from the world. And then we walk around half cocked, frustrated about where's the glory. Like God's holding out on us. It's the mercy of God, because when the God shows up, everything that's wrong, when God shows up gets zapped. You want to get healed. Some people, some camps in the body of Christ, they figured this out. They don't have the revelation of confession and faith and learning how to stand like we do. But. But they've learned if they'll take their sick body and get in the presence of God. Worship, worship, worship. And the glory of God shows up. When the glory of God shows up, sickness is wrong. And so it gets zapped. Yeah. Yeah. Come on. If you feel weak in faith, just worship. Just worship. Isn't it interesting? Abraham was said God says about him in Romans 4 that he was strong in faith. He was strong in faith. He did two things. What did he do? Well, he didn't stumble first at the promise of God through unbelief. But then the other great thing he did was what he gave glory. He gave glory. He gave glory to God. And that infertility got zapped. Amen. Hallelujah. Whoo. Glory to God. What's the plan. The plan is the glory, and the glory is the plan. We don't have time to go there. Numbers 14:21 says, but as truly as I live the earth, the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord. That's See, that's a statement about the plan. That's the statement about the plan. Psalm 72:19 says, and blessed be his glorious name forever, and let the whole earth be filled with his glory. Habakkuk 2:14 says, for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. Hallelujah. Like the waters cover the sea. What is he saying? The plan is the glory. The glory is the plan. So quick, back to David. So David says, okay, go bring the ark into a new cart. We'll bring it in town. They had praisers. And remember, this is where he danced before the Lord with all his might, and that pleased the Lord. But do you remember there's an instance that's kind of shocking if you're just cruising along and you're reading Second Samuel and you read this. It says, says that one of the guys names, they had a leader who was driving the cart, and they had a man named Uzzah walking beside the cart. Uzzah, Uzzah, however you want to say his name. Walking beside the cart. And the cow that they had pulling it stumbled on uneven ground and it rocked the cart. Well, what would you do? You probably wouldn't even think, this is, this is, this is holy. This is, this, this is, this sits behind the veil. Only the high priest goes, and it's out among men. I'm not going to let it fall on the ground. He with no doubt, without thinking, he reaches up to steady the ark. Remember what happens, it says, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah. And the Lord struck him down. He immediately fell dead. And if you're just reading along like I was, you might go, God woke up on the wrong side of the bed that day, man. Right? I mean, like, that's kind of harsh. I mean, now let's think about it. Let's learn something while we're here. Was his motive wrong? No, he didn't die because his motive was wrong. Was his heart wrong? Oh, so see, you can have a right motive. Worshiping with smoke machines and skinny jeans. You're still not going to have the glory. People say, well, my heart's right. It's not all about having a right heart. Other translations say that the Lord struck him down for his irreverent act, for his irreverent act. Another translation says the Lord struck him down for his act of disrespect. And really, it's David's fault. Why is it David's fault? David did not take time to read the Word of God. The word of God tells us exactly how the ark is to be handled, how it's to be moved. Only Levites from a particular family, starting with a K, could carry the ark, never on a cart. God specifically had Moses fashion gold rings at the base. They were to take, remember, rods of acacia wood, not oak. Acacia would. And they were to be inserted through only a particular family. And the ark was to be carried on their shoulders. David did not have enough regard. Regardless of motive, there is something that God cares about. It's called order. Divine order. Protocol. See, it's just a God. God reacted not out of anger, but Yuza touched the bug zapper. Y' all want to hear funny on me? We bought a. We bought our first home because our apartment wouldn't let us keep our dog. And so we bought a home for our dog. Yeah, I mean, we're real Americans. That's what you do. And so we bought some new appliances. And, you know, the cord for your dryer, the plug in on the wall, it's got funky shapes, right? It's like a pulley. And they're not all the same. Why can't we just make them all the same? But. So anyway, I bought a particular one, and I'm about to hook up the dryer. So I got the dryer here and the wall here, and skinny me in between. I hadn't turned off any breaker. I didn't turn off any breaker. Now, if you do it right, you don't need to, but it's always wise, right? I mean, that's what the instructions say to do. And so I had this bright idea that before I take the time and go to the trouble of actually hard wiring the end of the cord to the dryer, I wanted to make sure the thing fit. So I stuck it in there, and it fit. Sure enough. So, so far, all is well. Now I have a right heart. My heart is right. I have a good motive. I want. I want to dry clothes. I want my wife to be able to do laundry. I have a right heart. Well, I forgot that I plugged it in just to test it. So time to wire it up. And I reached down and I just grabbed hold of the thing and I got me a hold. Not just little 110. Now, 110 is dangerous in the Sense that it's more dangerous to kill you because it's in the more, they say, in line with the frequency of your heartbeat. And it stopped your heart. But 220 has got more raw power. And I grabbed and it blew me up. I was down here and it blew me up on top of the dryer. And I went, oh, my God. Well, how come the plug didn't know that I had a right heart, that I had a right motive? Power's power. John G. Lake said electricity is God's power in the natural realm. The anointing, the glory is God's power in the spirit realm. And they operate under similar or lost. God wasn't just ticked off that day. Use a with a right heart and a right motive. He grabbed power out of order, out of protocol, and it cost him. What's the lesson for us? We need to get our eyes off of worldly things. We need to stop taking, you know, doing this number goes. What do I think, Will, we could bring into the church that the world recognizes to attract people in. I'm not trying to attract. I'm interested. I want people to come. I'm believing for people to come. We do have people coming. But I will never design a church service that's more accommodating to the world than I am to the glory. See, when we come to church, part of unity is knowing what are we trying to accomplish? Is it just to fill another seat? Not in this church. Not in this. Not in my church. We want to accommodate the glory, a greater measure of it. The 220 and beyond measure, because it's in them that the arms are going to grow out. The eyes will be formed in their socks. The creative miracles, right? The real mass evangelism. Amen. And we've had measures of it before in the body of Christ, where, you know, people are calling the fire department because they see fire come on on top of the building. Glory to God. Amen. I saw that mist. I saw that glory, I think in 2009 at Campmeeting in this room. One of the first times I ever saw that. Whatever year it was, it was the first time I ever saw Pastor Nancy minister by that electrical current laying hold of your hand. I had never seen her do that before. Remember, she had started to walk out. God began to move in a special way. Doctors stayed here. Y' all remember that. And she came back in and that manifest and that power began to surge through who in the glory. Amen. So, see, part of unity is knowing what the goal and the goal is the glory. The plan is the glory. That's where all the good stuff is. And doing your part to create an environment where people can come in and get healed and not get zapped. David should have read the Word. He should have said, yeah, yeah, the law. The law. The Word says Levite, not a new cart. See, where did he get the idea for a new cart? He got it from the world. So we got to get the world out of our worship. We gotta get the world out of our worship. Jesus told us what the Father's looking for. I want to be what the Father's looking for. I want to be like Reverend Grant was saying. I want to be someone that God can flow through, someone. He. I want to be a conduit. You know, that electricity will flow really good through certain things, but really bad through other things. Well, I wonder why I never. When she lays hands on me, I never feel that current. Well, are you wood or are you gold? How much sin did you commit this week? How. Where's your brain been? What kind of vessel are you? It might be the very mercy of God that you didn't feel anything, because if you did, we'd have been carrying you out like Ananias and Sapphira. And you know what? This glory, this intense glory is coming, and we better get it cleaned up, lest you come in and tell a little white lie. You know, any of us will be on carry. Whoo. Glory. Amen. Oh, I got to get you this. Praise God. We're going to get to Haggai, and then we're going to have to stop. Amen. So one of the commentaries that attempted to define the word, remember? Glory. Heavy, loaded with everything good from God, he said, though difficult to define the word glory. He said any definition of the word glory that's worth anything must include these concepts. And there's probably too many, and I need to go too fast for you to write them so you can have this. You can fight over this piece of paper at the end and. But, anyway, he said it must include your definition of glory. His first word is wealth. Wealth. Numbers. We want numbers. It's in the glory. Azusa produced numbers. Global numbers. Denominations were birthed. Tens of thousands of churches, innumerable converts. Azusa produced numbers. The glory will produce numbers. God knows how to do it. I love this next word. Commerce. He said these words must be included in any definition of the word glory. Commerce. Power. Wisdom. Promotion. Promotion. Superiority. Dignity. Authority. We've been hearing things like this. Nobility. Nobility. Splendor. Valor. Magnificence. And, oh, maybe the best he saved for last. Extraordinary privileges and advantages. Come on. That's better. Praise God. I know you're writing, but. Whoo, whoo, whoo. Extraordinary privileges and advantages. You guys tried to write. I'll give it to you again. Wealth, numbers, commerce, power, wisdom, promotion, superiority, dignity, authority, nobility, splendor, valor, magnificence. Extraordinary privileges and advantages. When we get to heaven, we call that glory. He just described it. Whoo. Splendor, wealth, commerce, dignity, superiority, nobility, magnificence. Extraordinary privileges and advantages. Hallelujah. Praise God. So what is it? What is it to me to make a change? Whatever. I need to sever off whatever's blocking the spout, where the glory will come out. I'm going to mine it out of there. I'm going to mine it out of my mind. I'm going to mine it out of my character. I'm going to mine it out of my actions. Amen. And my lifestyle. Right? If that TV show Bless God won't, won't, won't, won't line up with the glory, then the TV shows got to go. Amen. If that relationship blocks the spout, where the glory. The relationships got to change. Amen. Haggai, haggai, haggai. And, oh, there's so many places, you know, if you. If you had the interest to read Exodus 19, Exodus what, 24, 34, Exodus 40, 2nd Chronicles 5, 2nd Chronicles 7. And you see, every time, you know, God told Moses, build me a tabernacle. Build me a tabernacle. And get this, Pastor. Noah says, when the work was finished, the glory of God came in like a cloud, and God manifested himself like a devouring fire. And the presence of God was made manifest. So much so that the priest could not stand a minister. But. But not until the work was finished. That language is repeated. Years later, God put it into the heart of David for he and his son to build God a permanent house. Solomon's temple. And if you read it second chronic, second Chronicles 5, second Chronicles 7, it says when, when, not until when. When the work was finished, when the praisers were as one. When Solomon had made an end of praying. Uh oh. When the work was done. See, even the physical structure mattered. Now, I know that God's not dwelling in a temple made with hands anymore, but the house where we gather, it still matters to the Lord. And how we come, how we dwell in, it still matters to the Lord. But it says when these things were done, the glory of the Lord came in like a cloud, filled the temple. So Much so. Whoo. So much so. And it says that the fire came down. The fire came down after Solomon made an end of praying. How are you praying? Are you joining with the prayer effort? Oh, me, oh, my. Are you facilitating the glory? You holding it back? What is your contribution in this church doing? Amen. You know that that temple that Solomon built was 16,200 square feet. My building at home is 18,000 square feet. Okay, so my building at home is 150 by 120. And so how many square feet is this? Not sure. Bigger than 18,000. But so smaller than my building in 2019. Architects studied the structure that Solomon built, and they put a monetary value into in 2019, money. And what they put into Solomon's temple, you want the number? $2.4 billion. Now, I think. I think we've got about two and a half, three million. And it's pretty nice, right? We're working on it. 3 million in 2020 money, right? Just, you know, over a period of years. I can't imagine, babe, where would we put $2.4 billion into that? 18,000. Nice. The gold and the glory, they go together, but it wasn't till the work was finished. Well, we know when we get to Haggai, and I am closing, so be encouraged. Amen. You remember that Solomon's temple was destroyed because again, these things go in cycles. God, people, they get blessed. They don't. They get spoiled instead of stay thankful and they're given over into the hands of their enemies. Nebuchadnezzar came in and destroyed that beautiful temple. Took all the vessels, took. Took all of the wonderful things, killed a third, a third died in the famine, a third died by the sword, and third were taken captive into Babylon. You have Jeremiah in there. You know that was taken. You have Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, all Those taken captives 70 years come back, they're back in the land. And God had commanded them, rebuild, rebuild. And so this is what we're reading. Haggai, chapter two, verse number one. Are you getting anything? All right. Praise God. In the seventh month, verse one, chapter two, verse one. In the seventh month. And in the 21st day of the month came the word of the Lord by the prophet Haggai, saying, speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Josedek, the high priest. And to the residue, that's the remnant. You know, when God wants to pioneer something new, he doesn't do it with the majority. The majority is not interested. What God's doing in the earth today, he's primarily going to do it through a remnant. Call us the residue. Amen. The remnant. But God's speaking to the remnant and he's speaking to the remnant today. And he said to the remnant of the people, obey the voice of the Lord their God. They obeyed the voice of the Lord their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, as the Lord their God had sent them. Oh, I'm sorry, I skipped back into a wrong verse saying verse 3. Who is left among you that saw this house? They're looking at Solomon's burned down house in her first glory. And how do you see it now? Now see, we have people that have been in the body of Christ long enough to know what some real glory looks like, what some real miracles look like. And we get a little goosebump in church. We think, man, it's getting radical in here. No, no, no. Amen. They had no idea. And he says, well, you know, it looked like in comparison, they didn't have 2.4 billion. Their wealth of their kingdom was over, it was destroyed. They have nothing. And so he said, is it not nothing in your eyes in comparison yet now be strong. Don't check out on me. I'm closing. Get this. And now be strong. O Zerubbabel, saith the Lord. And be strong. O Joshua, son of Josedek, the high priest. And be strong, all ye the people. What's God saying today? To the remnant? To the leaders. Be strong leaders. I've raised you up. I'm giving you a voice like Dr. Dufresne used to say. We're swimming upstream. We're swimming, swimming upstream. But be strong. Don't be weak, be strong. He says it to the king leaders. He says it to the high priest leaders. And then he says to the people, be strong. You're a last day Christian. You're the cream of the crop. God has laid it in our hand, the possibility, the mandate, if we'll take it, to reap this last day harvest, to have this move of God and to usher in the second coming of the Son of Man. Man. Or it'll pass to another generation. Amen. But it could be us if we'll do the right thing. But we have to be strong, be strong. And then he didn't say, just be strong. It said, what else? Work and work. There's a work to be done in the local church. Your pastor shouldn't have to beg for volunteers. I shouldn't have to beg for volunteers. Amen. There's a work to be done. There's a natural work to be done. There's a spiritual work to be done. And the leaders are supposed to have their part and the people are supposed to have their part. And based on those Old Testament examples, the glory won't come till the work is done. The glory won't come till divine order is achieved. The work won't come. The glory won't come till God can find himself a people. Prepared. What is prepared? I don't have time to teach you all that. Prepared is holy. Prepared is set apart. Prepared is prayerful. Prepared is in the plan. Prepared is submitted. Prepared is faithful. Prepared is hungry. Amen. Your pastors need your heart in that with him. Not that you're not there, but I'm just encouraging you. Amen. And then God says, be strong and work, for I am with you, saith the Lord, according to the word of the Lord, that I covenant with you when you came out of Egypt, so my spirit remains among you. Fear not. Fear not. Amen. For thus says the Lord of hosts. Yet once it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, and I will shake all nations. Now, if I had time. Oh, oh, oh. What's happening in the world today? Is it the. I don't know, but it's a. It's a shaking. The kingdoms of this world are being shaken. The nations of this world are being shaken. Yeah, like I've not seen in my lifetime. But there's a shaking going on in the church because, listen, we should have some honor and some regard and some holy fear. Time is short and God will have a people. I said God will have a people. And we all have to decide, am I going to be that people? Are we going to be that people? God wants us to be? I said he wants us to be. But he will have a people. And God has had his fill with the compromise, with the sin, with being out of our joint, with being unfaithful, with disobedience, with worldliness, with unholiness, with prayerlessness, with lack of skill. So there's tremendous acceleration for those who are really reaching to do it right. But we're coming up on a time where if we don't, we're going to reap the harvest. So we have to decide, are we going to be a user, are we going to be a Ananias and Sapphira in this move, or are we going to facilitate it? We're going to go with it. We're Going to channel it and be blessed by it. Well, I've made my decision. I've made my decision, so this you can understand. Now notice the divine order, yet a little while it's come. I will shake the heavens, I'll shake the earth, the sea, the. I will shake the nation. And the desire of all nations shall come. And I will fill this house with glory. What's coming after the shaking, guys? I will fill this house with glory. Whoo. So in this time of shaking, Dr. Dufresne used to say, when seasons of judgment come, you better make sure your hatches are battened down. You better make sure you got your doors shut to the devil. You better make sure you're in your joint, bringing your supply, doing what you ought to do so you don't get zapped. Amen. But I love this. On the other side of a shaking, an end time shaking. God is going to fill his house with glory. He said, the silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord. The glory of this latter house shall be greater than the glory of the former house. They didn't have 2.4 billion. They weren't going to be able to rebuild Solomon's type of building. But he said, the glory that is poured out on this latter house will. Will not be. It'll be greater. It'll be greater. I'm tying the bow. Do you know that they got that built? Jesus went to that temple. He ministered in that temple. But that temple was built in 5 16. It was finished. The work of that rebuilt temple was finished. History says in 516 B.C. never, ever, ever did you see anything like what happened when they finished the work of the tent. The glory didn't show up. Like a cloud, they did the work. But he didn't come. Solomon built his house. And when the work was finished, the glory of came in a cloud to such a degree that priests. No. No such manifestation is recorded. You want to know why? The prophecy wasn't for them. It's for us. He was talking about this temple, not that temple. This one. I said this one. This one. This one. Hallelujah. Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost who is in you?
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Yes.
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First Peter 4 says, the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. That's the dual work of the Spirit. We got glory in, we got glory on. What's the plan? The glory. The glory is the plan. And the plan is the glory. It's the fullness. It's what we're reaching for. Amen. But maybe I could set you on a trail, give you something to think about tonight. Right? In the whole thing that we did tonight, we have to plug in and wire, right? Do the bra. We have to follow the procedure so that God can turn up the power and not kill us all. He wants to heal us all, not kill us all. Amen. Stand up on your feet tonight. Hallelujah. With every fresh revelation must come a fresh dedication. You're now responsible with the message that you've heard. The glory of God is coming. The earth will. Will be filled with the glory of the Lord. Amen. And you and I have a part, individually and corporately to play. Father, I pray today that we would make a. You would find among us today a people who make a fresh dedication in the light of this revelation. To live separated, to live holy, to live uncompromising, to be about the business of getting the world out of our worship. And not only that, but bringing the kind of worship Jesus said the Father is seeking. He seeks such who will worship him in spirit and in truth. And that God, you'll teach us individually, you'll deal with us individually about what we need to change, what we need to tweak, what we need to do, what we need to stop doing. And I just pray that it. That that we're going to do it and it'll show up. The effect of it will be made manifest right here in these meetings, right here in this church as we all experience greater glory. Bless your people tonight, Father. Bless them for their faithfulness, refresh their body, their mind, for whatever comes tomorrow. We thank you for it. In Jesus name and everybody said amen. God bless you, everybody. Thank you, Pastor.
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A
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