← Lakepointe Church with Josh Howerton
Lakepointe Church with Josh Howerton
Could 2025 Be The Church's Next Great Awakening? | There Is More | Pastor Josh Howerton
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All right, man. Well, it's good to see y' all again. Good to see y' all again, man. Okay. Good to see y'. All. If you guys got your Bibles, head over to Acts Chapter 19. Last month, first of all, we had teaching Pastor Mike Rowe with us for the last four weeks. Will you guys help me thank him? Help me thank Pastor Mike, man. Every June, he helps me do that. I get a chance to get away and start planning the 2026 preaching calendar. I am really excited about what we're gonna be doing in the word in 2026. But it was awesome to have Mike here. And, man, incredible things happening in our church. I did. It was a big month for me. Jan and I got away and we celebrated a quick 20th anniversary trip together, which was awesome. And that's actually. That's a little cheating because our anniversary isn't till October, but that's a bad ministry time to go on a trip. So we do it in June. It was great. And then 42nd birthday happened this week. And so, man, just a little more. Little more gray up here and. But, man, I don't know why I said that. I'm not gonna do that any other service. Okay? We're not here to talk about me. We're here to talk about Jesus. You guys got your Bibles. Head over to acts chap. Oh, I do wanna say this. Okay, all of you guys know this at the movie starts next week. I am here to beg, to plead, to shame you into not going on Sunday. That's what I'm doing right now. Okay? So first of all, if you are right now at any of our Saturday services, thank you. You're my favorite church members. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Okay, but here, let me just give you a heads up. I just have always felt like, man, if you talk to people like adults, they're gonna act like adults. Let me just talk to you in a straightforward way, like adults. Now, right now, we are in the middle. You're gonna hear more about this in a second. We are in the middle of a tidal wave of grace. I've never seen anything like it. Mat 3000 students just got back from camp. We had hundreds of students saved, hundreds of students that felt called into ministry. You're gonna see tons of that happen coming up. But here's what this means, is that right now, like, I was looking back at this, coming back into town right now on an average weekend at Lake Point, we've got somewhere between 10 and 12,000 more people worshiping. Now on a weekend than we did just a few years ago. So what that means is. Hang on, hang on, hang on. What'd that mean? That's great. That causes problems right now. And these problems are kite caught in a hurricane of grace problem. The problems we're trying to solve right now is we can't build campuses fast enough, start services fast enough, or find enough time in services to baptize the people that want to get baptized. That's kind of problems we're solving. So what that means is heads up, next week we start at the movies. We will see more people saved and attending in those four weeks than in any other four weeks of the year. Okay? So next week we will, by estimations and by God's grace, try to cram somewhere upwards of 30,000 people, people in person into the services at Lake Point. Start next week. If you've never been before. It's awesome. For real. It's awesome. Awesome, awesome. Okay, now here's what that means. We're going to fit into these buildings like I would fit into my high school jeans. I love that joke. I don't know why. I just like that joke. So here's what I need you guys through a Saturday. Thank you, thank you, thank you. If you're at a Saturday 4pm Service and you have the ability to hit a Saturday 5:30pm service, please do. Because last year, this service one I'm in right now, Saturday 4:00pm this service was in the overflow of the overflow. So I'm begging you if you can, to hit the 5:30. And then I'll beg everybody on Sunday tomorrow. I know I'm messing up the broadcast. I'll beg all those people come on Saturday. But will you guys. Are you guys in for doing whatever it takes to make space for the people who are trying to come to know Jesus? That'd be awesome. Okay? So if you can, 5:30 next week, that'd be amazing. All right, let's get into it, man. We came to get into the Word and man, it's real full on my heart. We are in week. I don't even know. It's like 26. I don't even know of a series. We're just calling. There is more where we are preaching verse by verse through the book of Acts. And let me just say, like, man, just studying for this. It's such a blessing that part of my job gets to be to study the word of God, man. You just gotta. There's a power to preaching the word of God verse by verse. There's a power to reading the Word of God verse by verse. There's a power to getting into the Word. We're gonna talk about that today. But today what we're getting is in Acts 19, we are getting to the birth of one of the most prolific churches that the New Testament ever talks about, the church at Ephesus. You're gonna see this in Acts 19. Now, here's what's happening here. The reason we're preaching verse by verse of the book of Acts is all the book of Acts is. Here's all it is. It's a story about the Spirit of God descending on a church, thousands of people getting saved. And then the movement, y' all movements move. And then this movement of the Spirit moving out through Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, into the ends of the earth. And, oh, by the way, you literally are part of the story of the Book of Acts. Because in Acts, Chapter one, Jesus told his disciples to be his witnesses and to go into. He said, you're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, ends of the earth. Guess what? North America, you are the ends of the earth. We are the fulfillment of his promise in Acts 1:8 that people from every tribe, tongue and nation. That's not Acts 1:8, but his commission was in Acts 1:8 would be saved. And that's why we're here right now. So let's give thanks to Jesus for pouring out his spirit and saving us and taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth. That's the story of the Book of Acts. It starts right here. And now you're caught up in it. Now what's happening right here is there is an outpouring of the Spirit. This church becomes. I got to get into this. Man. There's so much in my heart. Four weeks of preach stored up and just raw. Okay? But what you're seeing right here, it's the beginning of what is might be the most prolific church in the Book of Acts. This is. This ends up being, most Bible scholars think Paul's favorite church, the church at Ephesus. Now, we're gonna Bible nerd for a second here because the Bible was written to them, but it was written for us. So it wasn't written to us, but it was written for us. It was written to them for us. So in order for us to understand what it means for us, we gotta understand what it meant and said to them. So what I'm trying to do as a preacher is it's both about. Watch this text. Text of the Bible and context of our world. So what we gotta do is understand the context before we get to the text. So let me explain some things to you about the city and the church of Ephesus. Now what's really interesting about this, if you were here for the seven churches in the Book of Revelation series a few months ago, you know this I. Within the year, I got to stand in this city. This city. This city still exists. Ancient Ephesus is still there. You can visit it someday. Come on one of our journey, a Paul trip. You can stand where all this stuff happens. Now we're gonna go like Indiana Jones for a second here and I'm gonna take you back to Ephesus real quick with some pictures. So I want to point a few things out. In Acts 19, go to that first picture. Verse 9 talks about the lecture hall of Tyrannus. The lecture hall of Tyrannis. I was standing right here just a few months ago, was likely right in front of this library. It's called the library of Celsus. Look at that little space right in front of the library, that flat space. What they found is the remains of like a little seating area right in front of this library. Most people think that's where the lecture hall of Tyrannis was. This mentioned in Acts 99. So that. Understand that. Now what's really interesting, keep your eyes on this Paul. As you're going to see in a few verses, the Apostle Paul, dude that used to be a religious terrorist, ISIS member, ancient ISIS member, like an equivalent. And then becomes the most prolific preacher the New Testament ever sees. Paul lectured right here in front of this spot, like literally right there, day after day after day, teaching them the word of God. Now here's what's really interesting. Go off that, go off that picture. Come back to me. Now what's really interesting about that is that when Paul starts teaching, it starts talking about in verse. Let me get the verse. It starts talking about in verses 24 and 25, that there's a silversmith, this dude named Demetrius, blue collar dude, turning a screwdriver, swinging a hammer. This guy was making these little idols. I'm gonna talk about it more in a second. He was making these little idols because in Ephesus, the major point of Ephesus, huge city, quarter million people. There was a huge, a huge temple to the goddess Artemis. Greatest Artemis. The Ephesians is what they cry. So this dude, Demetrius was making all these little silver idols that people were worshiping. I'll talk about this here in a second. Something crazy happens as Christianity starts growing. Demetrius and all his buddies. It says in the marketplace, they get all up in arms because so many people are becoming Christians. It's upsetting their ability to sell their little idols. Now, here's what's interesting. Check this out. Verses 24 and 25 talk about the silversmiths and the tradesmen. Now check this out immediately go to the next picture that is immediately to the right of that library I just showed you. Lecture hall tyrannis. Now, here's why that's important. Picture this in your head. So the apostle Paul is lecturing right there. All these people are becoming Christians, literally immediately to the right of that library. This is called the agora. This is like a janky iPhone picture that I took. This is the agora. Now, look around the edges of this. This little open area. You're going to see all these. It's like these little stone booths. The agora was the marketplace of Ephesus. So this is like an ancient farmer's market. All the people are there, like, selling all their stuff. So this is why Paul's preaching gets them all upset and they come together for this big riot, because literally, they were in earshot of Paul preaching about Jesus and how all the other gods are fake. They're demonic gods. They're not gods at all. So just picture this in your head now in verses 29 and 31. Twice in this. This passage, it talks about a theater, the theater of Ephesus. Now, actually go backwards. Will you guys go backwards? Look at that crane in the back. You see that crane in the back? Nod your head. You see that crane? See that crane? That's great. That's original to ancient Ephesus. I'm just joking. That's not. But check out that crane stands right in front of the ancient theater of Ephesus. Go to the next picture. This is a picture that I did not take on my janky iPhone. Look at that crane there on the right. So just. I'm trying to get you situated because this chapter is, like, spatial, okay? So that stands right in front of this theater. Now, this theater, you're gonna see it. Big riot happens. And it says they go down to the theater. That's because that theater is only like a tenth of a mile from the Agora where all this stuff happens and the silversmiths get all up in arms. This theater seated upwards of 25,000 people. Just to put this in perspective, the AAC, American Airlines center, where I go watch mavs sometimes, seats 20,000. So that dude right there seats more than the AAC. Take a back seat. Dallas Mavs. That's what that is. Okay, 25,000. Now, Paul, when all this riot happens, all these people, like, wanting to kill Paul. And this huge crowd of people are there, like, all up in arms. They want to kill Paul. And Paul thinks, thank you for assembling a congregation. This is a great opportunity to preach. So Paul's like, let me preach. All his buddies are like, bro, get back. They're literally going to kill you, bro. You keep getting killed everywhere you go. Quit doing that. So I just want you to see that. So now you've seen Lecture hall of Taranis. You've seen the agora where the silversmith was. You've seen the theater. This passage also throughout it mentions demons. There are literally. There's literally today archeological evidence of the demons that infested Ephesus. I actually took a picture of this. This is an actual picture from Ephesus. That's it. They're still there. That's like, legit. That's, like legit. A real picture I took on my iPhone. I was reading about. I woke up that morning, read how the city was full of demons. There's cats everywhere. Like, literally all come back. Get those demons off the screen. Now. Here's my point. Like, all this stuff that's. Listen, like, bring this back. It's so easy to read your Bible and just gloss over this, but you literally just saw with your own eyes all this stuff that's mentioned in Acts 19. Here's the big idea, y'. All. The Bible really happened. This thing really happened. We call it. What we do up in here every week is we come in and we preach something the Bible calls the Gospel. Gospel means good news. It's good because it goes into bad places. And it's news because it actually happened. The Bible really happened. A real Jesus died on a real cross for the real you. And if you give your life to him, he could really change your life and family. That's the point. This actually happened. Now, what you're going to see, man, I really. I got. All right, we got to move. What you're gonna see right here is such a massive awakening. Takes place in the Church of Ephesus. The whole city has changed. So these silversmiths, we're gonna read it in a second. They get all up in arms because they. So many people become Christians, they got a demand, like you business people. You're gonna get this. They end up with a demand side issue on the little silver idols they're trying to sell because they got no demand. All these people are becoming Christians. They're like, dude, we don't want your little idols anymore. These dudes are going broke and bankrupt because their businesses can't sell these little idols. It changes the entire economy of the city when the spirit of God falls and the word of God converts people. Now, I just want you to imagine this. Hey, Lake Point family awakenings like that, they have happened before and they will happen again. Like, I just want you to imagine this. Imagine the city of Dallas. Imagine if so many people were converted into the grace of the Lord Jesus in the city of Dallas that every strip joint in this city had to close down because all the men of the city bent their knee to the lordship of Jesus and then stood up and acted like men and treated women like daughters of the living God who deserve to be treated as valuable. Imagine that. Imagine if we never. A lot of y' all don't even know we do this. Imagine if we do this all the time, sadly. Imagine if we never had to pack the room out that I'm in right now ever again. Hosting a funeral for a police officer that was killed in the line of duty. Imagine if we never had to do that ever again because everybody in this city became law abiding citizens. Committed, submitted to the lordship of Jesus Christ. We never had to do it again. Imagine if every drug dealer in this whole city, they just left because nobody wanted their stuff anymore. Listen, I could keep going. Imagine if every divorce lawyer. And listen, there's some situations where that's needed, et cetera, et cetera. Caveat, caveat. But imagine that every divorce lawyer in the entire city of Dallas is like, well, dang, I gotta go learn estate planning law. Because all of a sudden all the families in this city, they're building their families on the rock of the word of God. And all of a sudden the marriages are great, the families are great. Nobody's getting divorced. The book of Proverbs says that a wise man leaves an inheritance to his children's children. Nobody's getting divorced. Everybody's planting estates for their kids to be slinging arrows into the darkness for the kingdom of God generations when I'm gone. And all of them had to change. That kind of thing is what happens in an awakening. Now we're actually going to get into this verse you're going to hear in just a second. I just want you to know, like, our nation has had spiritual awakenings like that four times in our nation's history. Four times. All right, check this out. I want you to see this because I just. Man, I'm praying towards this. The first great awakening happened in 1730-1740. This guy named Jonathan Edwards. I've read some of his stuff. Smart guy. He's a guy that preached the sermon you had to read in high school called Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. It's a very, very powerful sermon. He preached it facing with his back, facing the congregation in a monotone way because he did not want to emotionally manipulate the people. The presence of God fell so strongly on this church in Connecticut is where it was, if I remember right, that the people were clinging to the backs of the pews because the unconverted men in the church feared falling into the pit of hell. During the sermon, Thousands, thousands of people, perhaps hundreds of thousands get saved as this awakening sweeps across our nation. The second awakening in our nation's history happened in 7090 to 1850. Happened primarily under a guy named Charles Ferrari. This also was during the New York businessman's revival. Charles Finney and Father Nash. They were the two guys. Father Nash is like the prayer guy. I won't go into all this. Charles Finney goes into. It's called Rochester, New York. In a period of like six months, over 100,000 people, nearly every person in the area, gets saved. It spreads out across our nation. Just mass, mass conversion. The third awakening in our nation happened from about 1900 to 1910. It was under the preaching of a guy named D.L. moody. D.L. moody. Some of my charismatic brothers and sisters. This was also around the time of the Azusa street revival. DL Moody was a shoe salesman, an uneducated shoe salesman. He's walking in this church, two little senior saint women begin praying for him to have an encounter with the Holy Spirit. And he's preaching and almost nothing's happening. I won't go into it. It's a whole cool story. These two ladies pray and pray and pray for him to have a fresh encounter with the Holy Spirit. Something happens to him that was so powerful, he refused to talk about it for the rest of his life. All he says is that he had to ask God to stop whatever was happening in that moment lest he would die. That's what he said. Then he goes back out. He's preaching the same sermons he was preaching before. But now hundreds and thousands of people are getting saved. He preaches all over Britain and the US and millions come to Christ. Okay, now the fourth awakening. Some of you are alive for this. 1960, 1975, two dudes, Billy Graham, Chuck Smith, and the Jesus movement. I won't say a lot about this. I've talked about it before. I'll just say this. The COVID of time magazine in 1966. The COVID of it said, is God dead? Because they thought, man, Christianity's dying out in America. Two years later, there was such a great outpouring of God's spirit. It prompts the Jesus revolution. All these hippies start getting saved. It's actually amazing. It just starts streaming into the kingdom under the preaching of guys like Chuck Smith. Jesus. Two years later, the COVID of Time magazine that used to say, is God dead? Just says, jesus revolution. Because so many people are getting saved. It actually culminated in Dallas, Texas, in 1972. Expo 1972 is the largest gathering of Christian young adults, college students in our nation's history. 80,000 of them. Now, I just want to point something out, and then, like, I really got to get at it. Let me point something out. Check that out. From the first to the second 50 years. From the second to the third 50 years. From the third to the fourth 50 years. Guess what 50 years is from 1975. Go to the next one. Come on, man. Come on, man. Come on. I just want to say it, man. He has. Listen, man, he has done it before. He will do it again. The only question is, will it be us? That's the question. So let's ask the question very, very fast. What does it look like for that to be us? Get right at it, number one. It has to begin, by the way, for there to be an awakening in our nation, city or state. There's gotta be an awakening in your life and in your family's life. So you need to ask this. Like, apply this to you, not them. That's the big idea, number one. It begins. There is no awakening to God without an awakening to the word of God. That's where it begins, number one. An awakening to the word. Check what it says. It says, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. That's where we are. So Paul enters the synagogue. That's like his first thing. He went to the Jews first, and then when they weren't down with it, then he would go to all the Gentiles. So he goes to the synagogue, and he spoke boldly there for three months. So think about this. Three months. He's preaching verse by verse of the Old Testament going, that's about Jesus. That's about Jesus. That's about Jesus. That prophecy was fulfilled, all that stuff. Now keep going. He was arguing persuasively about the kingdom of God. But some of them became obstinate. They were like, ah, I don't know. They refused to believe and publicly maligned the Way. Early Christianity was not called Christianity at first. It was called the Way because Jesus said that he was the Way, the truth and the life. And all the Christians were going out telling everybody, hey, this is the way to God. Now, heads up. The Way now is a cult. It's over in the eastern part of the United States. The Way International is a cult. We got people in our church saved out of that cult. So heads up. So Paul left them. He left them. He took the disciples with him, had discussions daily. Here it is in the lecture hall. Tarantus. You saw that? Watch this. Now in your Bibles, you won't see this is a footnote. It says from the fifth hour to the 10th. That's from 11am to 4pm Now, I just want to point this out, okay? I just want to point this out. No, I want them to see this. Make sure that's on the screen. From the fifth hour to the tenth. So Paul's teaching the word of God every single day for five hours. Five hours. Now, can I just point this out? If my sermon goes 39 minutes instead of 35 minutes, some of y' all are like, ugh, oh, my goodness. What are we gonna do? Oh, my. The restaurant's gonna be full. Chili's just gonna have a line. You know, we got people listen, I love you. I'm just gonna have a gentle little moment here. There are people who. I don't know why they do this. They set off alarms and don't turn their phone on silent so that your alarm goes off one hour after the service starts. It feels passive aggressive. I don't know if it is. I just want to say, heads up. Our services are not 60 minutes. They're 65 minutes. At least change your alarm. At least change your alarm. Okay, but here's my point, man. Can I just say this? It would be more convenient. And let me point this out. Our church could grow faster if I just did 20 minute sermons, three verses, two stories, and a poem. But I refuse to do that, because you can't have an awakening to God without an awakening to the word of God. We got to get in. We come because we love the word, man. And let me just say, like, man. Some of you like man. Josh, why do you talk? So why is the sermon got to be 40 minutes or whatever it is? Can I just say, I talked for a long time about the things I'm passionate about. You get me talking about anything that I love to talk about. You ask me about my family. Listen, man, I'm all in on my family. Eliana and Jana. Right now, they're down in Guatemala on a mission trip. I got a video of my little girl doing a devotion yesterday for the team. Come on, I'll talk about it all day. Eliana's doing this little thing. She was a cheer captain for the Providence Lions. Go Lions. I'll talk about it all day, man. I'm all in. I'm all in. You get me talking about my family. We got Felicia over here. She's working like a straight. A little student. I got Hudson starting to learn manners. It's a great moment in the Howard and L. Going great, man. I talk a long time. Listen, grab me in the lobby. You start talking about bass fishing. I'll talk to you all day. It's the summer, man. They're hiding from me. I'm starting to have to go deeper, man, to get the little Texas rig on the soft bait. Senko worm along the bottom. Whatever it takes. I'll talk all day. You wanna talk about football? I was cursed to be born around Cincinnati. I'm a Cincinnati Bengals fan. Okay, all right. I see you. Come see me in the lobby. I'll talk all day. Joe Burrow's gonna be healthy. We re sign the entire wide receiver corps. The O line's real weak. I don't know why we won't draft somebody. I'll talk all day. But here's the big idea. I'll talk for a long time about the things I'm passionate about. When we come in here, that's what we're talking about and it's worth talking about. So it's like, let's do it. There is no. Here's a big idea. Just get this in your head. There is no awakening to God without an awakening to his word. If you this is true in your life. It's true in a church, it's true in a city. Let me just a few. The Bible is the only perfect thing on earth. There is no other thing. Every word of the Bible is infallible. It's inspired, it's inerrant, it's perspicuous. We're tossing out big theological words. All the things some people are like, man, you might be in this spot where you're like, dude, I've always just wanted to hear God. I would love to hear God. Here's all you gotta do, man. Open your Bible and start reading out loud, you're going to hear God. This is the actual word of the living God, every word of it. It is his word to us. The greatest love letter that has ever been written right here in this word. And here's why this is important. Why is it true that there is no awakening to God without an awakening to his word? Watch this. Because there's a big myth. God does not primarily bless people. He blesses a place. That place is under the word of God. So when you put yourself under the word of God, in submission to the Word of God, you are stepping into the place of blessing. But when you or your family or your lineage step out from underneath the authority of the Word of God, you're taking yourself out from the place of blessing. So here's a big idea. If you want to change, watch this. You want to change your life? Let me go a little layer deeper. Hey, mom or dad. You want to change your family's life? You want to change the kids lives? You want to change generations who come after you. Put your family under the teaching of the Word of God. And there is power there. There is power there. There is no awakening to God without an awakening to His Word. Okay, that's number one. All right, I'm gonna. I'm done right there. We're gonna go to number two. I'm gonna mess up the whole team. Actually, let me get practical. I'm gonna get practical real quick. Some of you are like, okay, dude, how do I do it? How do I do it? Let's get real practical. This, real practice. One, one thing real quick. How do I. How do I do it? Okay, here's a big. Here's a big deal. There's a million little Bible reading plans out there. I'mma help you out right now. I'm going to tell you exactly which one you should do. Million Bible reading plans. A lot of people ask Josh, which is the best Bible reading plan. Here's my. Here's my spiel. Bible reading plans are like diets. What's the best diet? The one you'll do? What's the best Bible reading plan? The one you'll do? Don't get fancy, don't get cute. What's the one you'll actually do to get into the word of God consistently? So if you're gonna ask me, okay, Pastor Josh, where should I start? Here's what I would do if I were you. I would a. Don't freak out if you miss a day. Shoot for seven days. Try to hit five. Shoot for Seven. Hit five. My predecessor, Pastor Steve, used to say that all the time. Shout out, Pastor Steve. Shoot for seven. Hit five. One chapter a day. Shoot for seven days a week. Hit five. And here's what I tell you to do. One chapter a day. Start in the book of Matthew and then just keep going. That's it. Place yourself underneath under the word of God. Let's keep going. Okay, number two. Awakening to the word of God. Number two, you've got to have. And it's a little. We're going to get our charismatic thing going here. Awakening to the supernatural. This is what it says. Check this out. Happens at this church. God. We all say that word out loud. Bookmark that. God did extraordinary miracles through Paul. So that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Now keep that up there. I need them to see that. Keep that up there. Okay, now let's go back to the very beginning. It started right here. Who was doing the miracles? God was doing the miracles and he was doing them through Paul. Here's the big idea. You gotta understand. This is Jesus died for you and God will work through you. But listen, it's not all about you. It's about the glory of our everlasting father, God himself. See, we gotta get this. It's the greatness of God that is demonstrated by the power of God for the glory of God and a Lake Point fame. Like, did you see this? I don't even listen. I think every miracle's extraordinary. I've seen. I actually I've seen with my own two eyes. I've seen some miracles. I'll may if I have time to talk about that in a second. I think every miracle is extraordinary. Apparently some crazy stuff was going on because they were like, this isn't just a miracle. That's extraordinary. Miracle and a Lake Point family heads up. There's some extraordinary things happening in our church right now. Like man. For us to be in a spot where it's like where our problems are. How do we fit the number of people who are trying to come in? How do we baptize the number of people that God is saving in the services? How do we do it? Those are extraordinary things. But I want us never. We cannot lose sight of this because the second we lose sight of this, God will lose sight of us. God is doing extraordinary things through us. But it must never become about us because God is the one doing the miracles. We're just the conduit. So Listen, there's a few things you need to know about miracles. Because you see this right here? And this is actually a thing. Number one, let me give a warning to some of you, because what can happen to Christians if you get a little taste of the supernatural, stuff like this. The danger is, all of a sudden, your whole faith becomes about chasing supernatural experiences instead of the one from whom they came. So check this out. Here's the danger. Let me be your pastor and warn you against something. Miracles are rare, y'. All. They're rare. The Book of Acts spans 32 years. There's about 30 miracles recorded. This was one of the most supernatural times in all of church history. 32 years, 30 miracles recorded. That's why they call it a miracle, not a Wednesday. It doesn't happen all the time. So here's the warning is people, families, ministries. You'll get a little taste of the supernatural. This isn't a ton of you, but I need to warn you that this doesn't become you. You get a little taste of the supernatural, and then all of a sudden, your whole life becomes about chasing miracles and supernatural experiences. What happens to those people, I've seen it, lo, these many years, is they start actually abandoning Jesus to chase miracles and the supernatural. They get really critical about every church that isn't just all about the supernatural all the time. They become really critical. These people, they start dividing churches. You all should lean into deliverance ministry. We should have a healing service. So they start dividing churches. Honestly, these people, they become easily manipulated. Can I just point this out to you? Here's a warning. I don't have time to go into this. This will throw you for a little theological loop. Matthew 24. Jesus says at the end times that actually Satan, the Antichrist, and demons will do so many miracles that it will convince tons of people who think that they're Christians to follow Satan because they see his miracles and the demons, miracles. So heads up, check this out. We're not supposed to just receive every miracle. The Bible says to test the spirits to see what's from God. So these people who are, like, all about chasing miracles and supernatural, they're easily manipulated into things that are not from God because they'll do anything to get those things. And sometimes demons do those things. They become super emotional. Here's the big idea. Don't chase miracles. Chase Jesus. And when we do that, sometimes miracles will happen. Up in here, it's all about Jesus. Okay, now, so they're rare. But watch this. Miracles are also real. I don't have Time to talk about this. Years ago, while I was preaching, she was sitting about the equivalent, like, right there. You right there. Black blouse right there. Lady that was nearly totally deaf was healed in the middle of one of my sermons. The minute I started preaching about Jesus on the cross, middle of the service. I'd never seen this woman before in my entire life. She runs up to me right after the service, screaming with tears in her eyes. I can hear. I never met this woman before in my life. I just said, me too, man. I didn't know. I didn't know. But all of a sudden, she's like. She just shares this story I haven't been able to hear for years. This stuff happens. This thing's about a handkerchief. So, like, this is where we get holy snot comes from. Maybe I don't, but this is an actual story, historical story I came across in message prep this week. I'm just saying I need you to see this. Here's an actual story I came across this week. This is from somebody in that. It was around that third awakening time, a woman came to me in the city of Liverpool and said, my husband is a drunkard, and every night comes into the home under the influence of alcohol. Won't you join me in prayer for him? And this man was apparently prompted to do this. I asked the woman, do you have a handkerchief? She took out a handkerchief and prayed for it. And I prayed for it and told her to lay it on the pillow of the drunken man. The next morning, the man got up and going to the first saloon that he had to pass on his way to work, ordered some beer. He tasted it and said to the bartender, you put poison in this beer. That's what he said. He couldn't drink it and went to the next saloon and ordered some more beer, Tasted it and said, you put poison in this beer. Second time sounds like a joke. Okay, keep going. I believe you folks have plotted to poison me. He went to another saloon, and the same thing happened as in the two previous saloons that evening. He went to another saloon to get some beer, and again, he thought the bartender was trying to poison him. He made such a disturbance that he was thrown out. He went to his home. He told his wife what had happened to him. And his wife said, can't you see the hand of the Lord in this? That he is making you dislike the stuff that has been your ruin? This word brought conviction to the man's heart. And he came to the meeting and he got saved. Boom. Okay, so let me just like here's a big idea. Okay, let me just lean in. They're miracles. They're rare, but they're real. And whenever there's an awakening to the word of God, we have to be people who are open to the full range of the activity of spirit. You just gotta be. So here's my fear. Sometimes churches like ours, we're a word church man. My favorite thing about this church is y' all love the Word. You wanna get into the word Sometimes what'll happen is we expect so little from the power of the spirit, and we're cynical towards so much that we accidentally create an environment that quenches the Holy Spirit. That's just watch out. We can't do that. Now, here's why this is so important. Check this out. This is a big deal. Here's why. It's a real big deal. Not just for our church, but for your family. Watch what happens in these next verses. This, by the way, this is hilarious. This is like one of those hilarious passages in scripture. Check this out. Is it up here? I don't know. It's lower third. All right, all right, I'll do that. So it says some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits. Now, I've never done this close I ever got is. I sent a middle schooler home from camp one time. But they. These people were like exorcists, professional exorcists. That was the thing, I guess. They tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon possessed. They would say, watch what they were saying in the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches. In other words, they were going, we don't know Jesus, but we know a guy who knows Jesus. Now, heads up. Make sure that you never base your relationship on God. With your relationship on. On somebody else who knows God. Watch what happens to these people. I command you to come out. They said seven sons of Sceva were their names. A Jewish chief priest were doing this. Now, one day, an evil spirit. Oh, this is. This. Is this metal right here. One day, an evil spirit answered them. Jesus. I know. Now, let me just. Have you ever noticed this? The Pharisees who had thousands of Bible verses don't recognize Jesus, but the people who are full of thousands of demons do recognize Jesus. Watch out. Watch out that you don't get this religious spirit and you start opposing the things that are actually from the living God. That's what happens to them. This is hardcore. Right? Here they go. The demon says to these dudes, jesus, I know, Paul, I know. Pause. I just Want to say this? Paul was a guy who was so all in for the kingdom of God. He had a reputation in hell. Can I just say, I want to be. And I want you to be somebody who when you die, all hell rejoices. You're out of the fight. I want you to be that person. I want you to be a person, that man the moment you step into eternity. Maybe you did something small with faithfulness, maybe you did something big with faith. Whatever it was, I want you to be somebody that the second you step into eternity, I'm going to take a risk at the 4pm the second you step into a turn, they're going, oh, hell no, man. That guy's gone. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. We got a. That guy was a problem. Okay, we'll see. We'll see if we do that anymore. I want you to be that person. That guy was a problem. That woman was a problem. She was faithful in prayer. She loved those babies and served in that, taught the Bible to that next generation. She was a problem. Okay, so Jesus, I know, Paul, I know, but this is rough. But who even are you? Who are you? Even then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. Now listen, let me say this. If you start a fight, I don't know how many fights you've been in. I've been in a few been a while. Let me say that if you start a fight with your pants on and end fight with your pants off, you lost, okay? That's what happens to these guys. Okay? Now here's the big. Here's the deal. That's what happens to you guys. Now watch this. So again, they didn't know Jesus. They were going, oh, we'll have power because we know somebody who knows Jesus. That won't work. It won't work in your life. It won't work in your family's life. Here's the principle. If you try to fight a supernatural battle with natural power, you're going to get your butt kicked. That's what this means. You try to fight a supernatural battle with natural power, you're gonna get your butt kicked. And can I just like, hey, guys, why do you think this thing works? Why do you think we come up in here and we read the verses and we sing the songs and we pray the prayers? Why do you, if you're brand new, ask yourself this question. Why are tens of thousands of people going through this? Big hassle of getting all their kids up and doing all this stuff and coming to these services, getting dressed down all this stuff, fighting the parking lots. Why are these people doing this? Because we need supernatural power to tear down supernatural strongholds that are in this world. And they're real. They're real. We need this man. So like last week on weeks, I'm not teaching and I'm in town, like I'm a Christian, so I go to church with my family. Like last week I sat right back there, met Ms. Linda in the lobby for the first time, And I asked Ms. Linda to come sit with me. And we had a great time. Okay. But on Sunday, I just visit all the campuses and Janet and I like praying with people. It's like last week. You are sitting in a sea of miracles every week and you don't even know it. A sea of miracles. We met. I think I'm. I mean, they told me the stories publicly. Met Connie in one of the lobbies. Connie was in a correctional facility for 18 years. Meets Jesus. While she's in the correctional facility, she gets out. Life transformed by Jesus. Learns a thriving business. Makes six figures. Her first year. She comes out now she's serving at the campus and she spends her free time going back into the prison to tell them about Jesus. Who can save them? I met this girl, lady, last week. I met John. I could go on and on. I met John in one of the lobbies. John was. If you heard me tell the whole story about the bootleg CD that somebody gave me when I was in high school, the Passion one day. John Piper sermon. John was at that Passion one day outside of Memphis. He was there in the year 2000. But then after that, he had a 12 year long prodigal season. Walks away from God. He said he thought of Christianity as brainwashing for 12 years. Gets deep into an addiction. I won't mention what addiction. Gets deep into an addiction. And then meets his wife. I won't say her name just in case they don't want me to. She evangel dates him. I don't recommend it, but she did it. And it worked one time. Don't do it. Okay? But that's what she did. She evangelates him, prays him back into the kingdom. He encounters the power of the living God. Jesus, sets him free from his addiction. He. He gets baptized at our fire wheel campus. Walking in, holding hands with his Christian wife, leading a beautiful family. Listen, man, come on, do that. Met one lady. Met one lady last week. She grew up in an Iranian Muslim Family, everybody's. Everybody's Muslim. She comes here, she becomes somebody else's. One more. They invite her to Lake Point. They pray, pray, pray, pray, pray her in. All of a sudden, she's praying. One day she says that she just. The presence of God falls on her while she's praying. These were her words. It felt like Jesus was in the room hugging me. She said, and then all of a sudden, she gives her life to Christ, gets baptized. Her entire family disowns her. But here she is, man, I made her last week and she's here, big smile on her face, worshiping Jesus. She's all in, gets baptized. And she's like, I just want to tell people about the one who loved me. Man, this stuff. Listen, why does this work? Before Jesus, these people tried everything and would do anything, but nothing seemed to work. Why? Because if you fight a supernatural battle in the natural power, you're gonna get your pants beaten off ya. That's what's gonna happen. But watch this. But all of those people, they awakened to the power of God and they discovered that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. That's what we need. That's what we need. So, Lakemore family, let me just lean in and let me start closing down a sermon. All right? Here's what I'm gonna say. I want this to be a place that has high faith in the supernatural power of the living God. I want this to be a house of prayer. I want you, when you pray, I want you to pray like a charismatic. I want you to pray with big faith. Anytime you feel a prompting to pray for anybody anywhere, do it. And anytime that somebody walks up to you and says they felt led to pray for you, receive it. Okay, so number two, there's awakening the supernatural. Let's start shutting her down. All right, number three, if there's gonna be awakening, there's gotta be an awakening to the fear of God. All right, let me do this real quick. Now check this out. Here we go. And this became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And watch this fear fell upon them all. Now I got a pet peeve. My pet peeve is sometimes when Bible teachers spend the entire sermon explaining that the Bible doesn't say what it actually does say. So here's what I don't like. A lot of times when preachers talk about the fear of God, they spend the whole sermon talking about how that actually doesn't mean fear. It means reverence or awe or respect. That's real interesting because my Bible just says fear. And Jesus, what Jesus said? Yes. There's a verse in First John that says, perfect love casts out fear. There is a type of fear that belief in the Gospel that Jesus died for sinners and the cross, kind of for me. There's a type of fear that. That drives out. But Jesus also said, this is the one whom you should fear. The one who, after killing the body, can throw your soul into hell. Yes, I tell you, you should fear him. And by the way, he wasn't talking about Satan. He was talking about God. We should actually live. Anytime there's an awakening of God, there's an awakening to the fear of God. Man, you are real holy and we are real unholy. Okay, now watch this. Fear fell upon them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled. Now, like, bunch of Texas dudes that turn screwdrivers and swing hammers, we don't use the word. I don't say extolled very often. I do not extol whataburger. I don't do that. Here's what that means. That means make a big fuss about. That's what that means. Okay, so here's what this means. Whenever the fear of God falls, guess what happens? People start worshiping. You want to know how much fear of God you have in your life? How much worship do you have in your life? We need to be. Hey, Lakeborne family, here's one of my favorite things. The worship culture in our church. It just keeps growing and growing and growing. Let me just say I'm proud of you. Proud of you. That's a sign that the presence of God is present and we're worshiping as if he's actually watching. And our worship is for him. Like, you know, if you come in every now and then, somebody will say this in the lobby and you're crazy. Because our Lake Point worship teams are incredible. But they'll be like, man, Pastor, I just didn't like the worship today. That's okay. We weren't worshiping you. We weren't worshiping. See, what happens is what we need to do is walk up in here and just make a big. What are we extolling? The name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And when the fear of God fell, the people start. They start extolling that name. Like, man, let's get in here. And if you're not into it, then get into it. Figure out a way to get into it. This is what we need to do. Now, I do want to point this out. Notice the people extolling him are the ones who just came out of all of their sin. The reason I say that is when you start worshiping Satan, who the book of Revelation says is the accuser of the brothers and sisters, you're going to hear this voice in your head like, bro, who do you think you are to worship? I know what you did this week. You're a dirty, rotten sinner. When you hear that voice, here's what you need to do. Agree with him. Agree with him. You just say, man, you're exactly right. I am a sinner. And I came in this place to worship a sin canceling Savior. That's what I came to do. And he died on a cross to cancel that sin. And so what you got to do is, when you come into worship, here's what you got to do. Jesus said, whoever has been forgiven much loves much, but whoever's been forgiven little loves little. So what you got to do when that voice gets you in your ear? Who do you think you are? You live this week. How do you think you can offer worship to God? You got to go, absolutely. You're right. I am a sinner. But, man, I've been forgiven much. And so I'm here to offer much worship for my sin canceling Savior. Thank you, Jesus. I'm going all the way. Amen. Okay, here we go. So that's it. When the fear of God falls, worship happens. And then here's where it ends. Check this out. Here's what happens. Keep going. So many of those who are now believers, they came confessing and divulging their practices. They got honest, man can't be free if you're not going to be honest. And a number of those who had practiced magic arts, they were like, everybody in Ephesus, Like, y', all, everybody in Ephesus, what they were doing, they were like playing with Ouija boards and shopping at Hot Topic and Spencer's and listening to Nine Inch Nails and, you know, all that stuff. All the. You guys, healing crystals. That was all them. You guys remember Spencer's? Okay, that's. That's what they were doing. They practiced magic arts and they brought their books together and they just like, just think about this moment in Ephesus. Everybody in the city starts gathering in that place you saw earlier, the Agora, big open place where they had bought these occult books and they burned them in the sight of everybody. We're done with this stuff. We're not doing any darkness. We're with the light now. And they counted the value of them, and they found that it came to 50,000 pieces of silver. Translated, that was the equivalent of $7 million. Seven million bucks. So because of their repentance, so the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. Now, let me ask you this. Why were these people willing to burn things that were worth the equivalent of $7 million? You know why? Because they realized that it would cost them more to keep them than to burn them. If I hold on to this darkness, it's gonna burn me. So I'm gonna burn it before it burns me. I wanna go with Jesus. I wanna go with Jesus. Okay, here's my question. Sermon's over. Here's my question. If you wanna have an Ephesus in your life, you wanna have an awakening to the power of God that changes your life, your family, your lineage, we want to see stuff happen in our church, our city, our nation. Here's the question. What do you need to burn this week? There's some. There's some secret things we need to get rid of. We need to get rid of some browsing histories we need to get rid of. Not. Not the browsing. We need to get rid of the habit. Let me do that. Honestly, man, you got any of the healing crystal stuff? You got anything dark? Get rid of that stuff. We're done with that. We got any relationships that we're hiding in the dark? Listen, gross things. The only things that grow in the dark are disgusting things. What are we hiding? What's going on in the dark? This growing. And eventually it will grow. The Bible says, sin grows and matures unto death. What is that thing? And here's what Jesus is saying to you. Burn it before it burns you. And you bring it to me and I'll cancel that thing. I'll kill it, and I'll set you free. So, man, that's the question. What is it that this week, this night, this day, we need to burn. I'mma pray that this week we take a radical step to follow Jesus out of the darkness into the light. So would you do this at all of our campuses? I know this feels weird. Would you just open your hands out in front of you like this? This is you. Whatever. The thing that the Holy Spirit is bringing to your mind right now. This here right now. This is you going, that's yours, that's yours. Get in your head what that thing is. What's the thing? And right now. Pray with me. Jesus Christ, friend of sinners. Thank you for dying on a cross. For the things that I am letting go with my hands. Thank you for nail pierced hands. Thank you that your hands became sin so that I could become your righteousness. Father, today I release this thing. I don't want to do it anymore. I don't want to be a slave. I want to live free. So Holy Spirit, I release it and my hands are still open to welcome you. Would you please come and move in power in my life. We pray for awakening in my life, my family, our church and our nation. In Jesus name, Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.