← Lakepointe Church with Josh Howerton
Lakepointe Church with Josh Howerton
What Does the Bible REALLY Say About Prophecy? | There Is More | Pastor Josh Howerton
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Hey guys, thanks for checking out this Bible teaching. Every week we release a podcast that corresponds to the sermon. It's like a little bit of a deeper dive where we hit some things that didn't make it into the sermon, some theological concepts. We talk about things that are going on in our culture and how to think about them from a biblical perspective. We call that podcast Live Free. An episode releases every Monday that corresponds to the sermon. If you would like to check out Live Free, just go to the Lake Pointe YouTube channel and look for the podcast tab there. We'll see you at Live Free. Now enjoy this Bible teaching. All right, well, hey, good morning. If you guys got your Bibles, head over to Acts chapter 21. Acts 21 is going to be today. Also, while you're turning there, if you weren't here last week, let me just say you missed a party. It was incredible last week. And I do just want to celebrate what happened last week. And if you weren't here and you don't know this, we need to celebrate this big because these people, they're sitting like all around you at your campuses. Last week, when it was all said and done in one weekend, we, we baptized 683 people that crossed the line. Come on, man, give a really good shout, man. They're all around you at our campuses. And man, amen. Amen. Amen. And man, if you were one of those people, I just need you to know that wasn't the finish line. That was a starting line. You put a miracle in motion. And so, man, here's what I tell you. If you're new to Lake Point or if you were one of those people, I'm going to give you a challenge that I've given thousands of other people. If you give me one year of your life. Last week was week one. Maybe give me one year of your life prioritizing the purposes of God and gathering with the people of God weekly for worship. You give me one year of your life. And your life, your family's life and your kids lives will never be the same. And these people's lives are testament to that. And so I just want to say that to you. That's the challenge. And here we go. Now let me give you a heads up. This week's message is a different. It is, it's a different kind of a sermon. And I just wanna give you a heads up. We're gonna have. There's a lot of Bible in today's message. Are we okay with a message where there's a lot of Bible. Are we okay with that? Okay, well, you said that. And so I'm gonna give you that Today in Acts 21, we're gonna be talking a lot about prophecy. We're gonna be talking a lot about prophecy. The reason that there's a lot of Bible in the message is because as a pastor, what I've learned, wherever people have the most cynicism, that's where I need to bring the most Scripture. Because what I've learned is that the people of God, full of the spirit of God, they'll agree with the word of God, but you've got to convince them from the word of God. So that's what I want to do for you today. And the reason that there's a lot of cynicism around this concept that is very real of prophecy in the life of a New Testament Christian is very frankly, because there's been a lot of misuse, abuse and a lot of misunderstanding around what prophecy is. Okay, so I'll give you one example of this. You know, a lot of you guys know this. I collect church signs. You guys send me pictures of church signs all the time. I keep a file of them on my computer. I'm very thankful for that, by the way. I'll give you one example. What I'm getting ready to show you is, from what I understand, a real church sign from rural Indiana. And somebody sent me this prophecy class canceled due to unforeseen circumstances. So I just. This is my point is that there just tends to be a lot of misunderstanding here. Now, the other thing I want to say real quick before we just dive right in is anytime I preach on something like this, people begin to ask the question, you may be new and the question is, is Lake Point a Pentecostal church? Or are you trying to make Lake Point a Pentecostal Church? Okay, so let me answer that question and let me start right here because this is this important question. You maybe gone. Have I stumb into one of those Pentecostal churches? Okay, let me explain this. Here's all that word means. The word Pentecost or Pentecostal is a Bible word. So right now begins our. Begins our lots of Bible part of the message. It's a Bible word. It comes from the Bible. And here I want to show it to you. There are three feasts, three main feasts in the calendar of the Jewish people leading up to the New Testament. The three main feasts were the feast of Passover, the feast of Tabernacles, and the celebration of the feast at Pentecost. Now here's the other. The feast of. Of Passover was the feast that celebrated. Listen, when you Christian, every. Every alarm bell inside of a Christian should go off. Right? Right here was when they celebrated that the angel of judgment passed over every household where it saw the blood of a slain lamb on the doorpost in Egypt. Does that sound familiar? Okay, now the second one, the feast of Tabernacles, when they celebrated God's presence coming down and then building a tabernacle and him being among them. Now, you Bible nerds, this is really awesome. In the New Testament, what the Bible says is that God became flesh. And if you read the Greek, what it literally says is that God tabernacled among us in Jesus Christ. Amazing. Now here's what Pentecost is. Pentecost. I'm going to show it to you on the screen. It's just two words crammed together. Penta means five, and then Costa is a suffix meaning times 10 or to the 10th or actually just times 10. Okay? So here's all Pentecost means. Watch this. A big scary word. Pentecost means 50th. That's all I mean. Means 50. Now here's why. Because Pentecost, that's strange. Applause. Pentecost. We love the word. We Love the number 50. Pentecost. It was a feast. Watch this. It was 50 days after the Passover. 50 days. And it celebrated the giving of the law at Mount Sinai when God gave the law to Moses. And that was 50 days after the first Passover. So this is what it means. Now I want to show you something that's awesome in the Bible. And then I want to answer that question. Okay? Now, this kind of thing, I just read it and I'm like, the Bible is stinking awesome. Okay, so at the giving of the law in the Old Testament, at Mount Sinai, there was an earthquake. So there was a loud noise. A cloud descended on the mountain. God was a consuming fire in the cloud. God wrote his law on tablets of stone and 3,000 people died. Now fast forward to Pentecost in Acts, chapter two. Think about what happened. There was a mighty rushing wind, so there was a loud noise. The cloud of the Spirit descended, divided tongues as of fire came down on the apostles. God wrote his law on men's hearts, and 3,000 people were saved. The Bible's amazing. It's amazing. That's amazing. Okay, now, so let me go back to your original question. If you go, man, is Lake Point a Pentecostal church. Here's what I'd say. If by that you mean like joining a denomination or flags and tongues in services or long skirts and no makeup or. Quite the opposite, tons of makeup, that kind of thing? No, Lake Point is not a Pentecostal church. But if by that you mean do we believe that the supernatural power of God is still at work today, is he is still speaking to his children and that one second in his presence can change everything? Yes, we very much want to be a Pentecostal church in that sense. Yes, we do. Okay, so. All right, that said, let's get right at it. Let's talk about prophecy at all of our campuses. We Would you please stand with me out of reverence for the reading of the word of God. Let's go OG real quick here. Acts 21. So last week we were with Paul and the ephesian elders. Acts 21 starts like this. He says, after we had torn ourselves away from them, we put out to sea and we landed at Ty, where our ship was to unload its cargo. We sought out the disciples there and we stayed with them seven days. Now watch this. This is going to be very important for the sermon. Through the Spirit, they urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Now for you Bible nerds, you may be remembering something. Just last week. This is interesting. This is an apparent contradiction in the Bible, because just last week in Acts 20, I'm going to read it to you. Paul said, and now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem. So Acts 20, the Holy Spirit tells Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Acts 21, it appears the Holy Spirit tells the apostles. Paul to tell Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Very interesting. Let's come back to that. Verse 5. When it was time to leave, we left and we stayed at the house of Philip the Evangelist, one of the seven talking about the seven deacons, servants chosen to serve in Acts chapter six. He's one of those. He had four unmarried daughters who prophesied. So this was Deacon Phillips. Supernatural school prophecy is what was going on here. Verse 10. After we had been there a number of days, a prophet named Agabus. We first meet Agabus in Acts chapter 11. He. He prophesies a famine is going to come in the Roman Empire. Very interestingly, church history tells us that famine did happen under the reign of the Roman emperor Claudius. It came to pass. He came down to Judea. Now coming over to us, listen. He took Paul's belt off. Interesting. He tied his own hands and feet with it and then said, the Holy Spirit says, in this way the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem will bind the owner of this belt and will hand him over to the Gentiles. Now, I just need to say, if you feel led to do prophetic ministry at Lake Point, do not go grabbing people's belts off of them. At our church, we have a security team for a reason. And we have a motto. You mess with a flock, you get to Glock. That's what we say here. That's a joke. That's a joke. That's a joke. Obviously depends on how you try to mess with the flock. It might not be a joke. It depends. Verse 12. When we heard this, we and the people there pleaded with Paul not to go to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, why are you weeping and breaking my heart? I am ready not only to be bound, I am ready to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus. If you don't have something worth dying for, what are you living for? Verse 14. When he would not be dissuaded, we gave up. And we said, the Lord's will be done. And all God's people said, amen. Y' all can have a seat. So this sermon is. It's going to go pretty quick. You guys got to move pretty quickly with me. We're going to talk about New Testament prophecy. And let me just say this, an hour before I need to do this in obedience to my own sermon. An hour before preaching yesterday, I felt like the Holy Spirit shared with me to tell you, some of you have spent your entire life doubting and avoiding this. And God wants you to be giving and receiving it. So here's all I'm asking. I'm asking you to have an open heart to what God says in his word here. So here we go. Let me begin. This is a two point sermon. Principle number one, all Christians can prophesy. All Christians can prophesy. Now, I'm not talking about the office of prophet. Ephesians, chapter 4. God has given some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds and teachers. I'm not talking about the office of prophet. I'm talking about the function of prophecy. All Christians can prophesy. So at all of our campuses, would you please turn to your neighbor and say, I'm a prophet. Would you do that real quick? Do it real quick. Now turn to the other neighbor, the one you were trying to avoid, and then look at them and say, I already knew that because I'm a prophet too. Do that real quick. That'd be great. Great. Now come back to me. Come back to me now. I told you lots of Bible. So let me give you I want to trace why I'm saying this from the Bible. So we're going to start all the way back in numbers, chapter 11. This is Moses. Now, by the way, this is right after what I'm getting ready to read is right after Moses prays the prayer. I call it the prayer of every burned out pastor. He prays, God, if you love me, please kill me. Okay, so Moses prays that. There are many times I wanted to pray that. So then what happens in this story is there's two guys that start prophesying in the temple. Their names are Eldad and Medad. And I think they had a brother named Yodad. Okay, so they had this, and they start prophesying in the temple. And Joshua, Moses successor, runs up to Moses, like Moses, Moses, do you want me to stop him? Okay, now, when Moses hears this, I want to read you what he said in verse 29. It's a prayer. Moses replied, are you jealous for my sake, I wish that all the Lord's people were prophets and that the Lord would put his spirit on all of them. Now, 5,000 years ago, Moses praised that. I wish that God would put his spirit on all people and they would all prophesy. Now, fast forward 600 years, you're going to see it on the screen quoted as Acts chapter two. But Acts chapter two is actually quoting the Old Testament prophet of Joel. So this is a prophecy that God gives 600 years after Moses praised this in the Book of Numbers. And God says, he prophesies that someday there will come a day where he says, in the last days, I'm going to preach a sermon series regarding the end times later this year. You just need to know that, biblically speaking, I'll explain this later this year. Biblically speaking, you're in the last days right now, the New Testament category of last days, you're there. God says, in the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, by the way, we very much believe what the Bible says, that God has given unique distinctions and gender roles to men and women in marriage in the local church. But listen, he does not do any gender distinctions in how he pours out his spiritual gifts. He gives them to everyone. He says, your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your young men will see visions. Your old men will dream dreams. I'm still seeing visions. Just want to get that out there. Okay. Verse 18. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my spirit in those days. And they Will prophesy. Now, fast forward to Acts, chapter two. That's exactly what happens. The Holy Spirit falls on these people. And I want to read you what it says. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. And listen, all of them, all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. All of them. And they began to prophesy. Now, I'm going to explain what that does and does not mean here in a second because, listen, it sounds weird because of your experiences with it. It's not weird. It's not weird. So this is what they begin to do. Now, it said all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, when your New Testament uses the word Holy Spirit, it uses a Greek word that's actually, again, two words smushed together. It's the Greek word paraclete. I want you to see this. When the Bible talks about the Holy Spirit and uses the word paraclete, para is a prefix meaning alongside. And then kleitos, paraclete, that's how you get the word klatos or ko. It's a Greek word meaning to call or to come or to call to come. So listen to me. Here's what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. He wants to come alongside of you. The Holy Spirit wants to walk with you all the days of your life. He wants to be near you. He wants to walk alongside of you. But listen, he's not gonna do that in your life and never say a word to you. He's not gonna. He wants to speak to you. The Holy Spirit appears 59 times in the book of Acts. In 36 of them, nearly 40 of them. He's speaking empowering prophetic speech for the encouragement and direction of other Christians in the church is the primary thing the Holy Spirit does in the Book of Acts. So he's not going to walk, walk alongside of you your entire life as a Christian, but never say a word. He's doing charades, you know, two words and first word movie. He's not going to do that. He wants to speak to you and have a relationship with you. So here's all prophecy means. When I say the word prophecy in this sermon, it just means giving a message from God to someone else. So this, this I'll tell you, give some examples. Sometimes God may bring. You may be reading a Bible verse and God will. It's almost like you read it and it comes to you with a force of an electric shock and there's a person on your mind and what God is doing right there is he's wanting to bring his word to that person through you. This happens to me sometimes I will wake up in the middle of the night. This may happen to you. And there's another person, usually a Christian, that's immediately and deeply on my heart. And I just have this urge to text them and tell them God put you on my mind. I need you to know I'm praying for you. It's 2:30 in the morning, whatever it is. It may look like that, or you have an experience where something comes into your spirit and it's just so heavy in your spirit that it's like you can't not say it. Okay, now there's. I'm going to get how to do this and not do this. This is what we mean when we talk about the word prophecy in the New Testament. Now. Some of you hear that and you're like, wow, you know, gosh, Josh, God didn't still do that. You know, he did that back then. He doesn't do that now. Or you may have a, you know, a posture of, well, you know, that's for. That's for, you know, you're one of those professional Christians. That's for you. You know, remember what he said? He said, you're old and you're young, your sons and your daughters. Now, I'm going to tell a story here. In fact, I'm going to tell a few more stories than I typically would. Here's why. Because the Old Testament says to recount the miraculous words of God. Because when we remind people of what God did, it gives them faith for what he will do. Okay, so I'm gonna give one example of this. Now, I've shared this before. This is a perfect example of this. When Jan and I were praying about whether or not to come to Lake Point, our default answer was no. We had said no three times. And I was a pastor at a church in Nashville. There, God was doing incredible work. And we asked a spiritual mentor of mine how we should pray about it. And his response was meant kind of, what's happening at your church in Nashville is so significant, you shouldn't even consider leaving unless you have a miraculous sign from God. So we did that. Now, Jan and I, we made that decision. If you are new here and you didn't know this, all three of our children are adopted. So we made this decision that we weren't going to tell any of our kids that we were praying about it. You know, just because sometimes adopted children, well, sometimes they deal with change differently. Than other people we had. One time we got a new stove, and one of our kids cried for a week, you know, a little different. So we were like, you know, we're not going to say anything about this. We didn't say anything. Well, one morning while we were praying about this, our oldest daughter, Eliana, was 8 years old at the time. And remember this, at the time of this story, she'd been a Christian for eight months. Now, let me ask you this question. When a young person becomes a Christian, do they get a JV Holy Spirit, or do they get the whole thing? Okay, so Eliana comes down the stairs while we're praying about this, looks at me and Jana, and she says, are we moving to Texas? And I looked at Jana and I said, you blew it. You blew it. And Jana's looking at me, and she's going, you blew it. Was it you? We kind of exchanged glances, and we realized, okay, neither of us did it. So then we looked back at Eliana and we said, what makes you say that? Now, remember what the passage we read said? It talks about dreaming dreams and seeing visions. Eliana on the stairs said, well, I had a dream last night, and it felt like the dream was real. And in the dream, Daddy moved to Texas to be a pastor. And then she went on. Now, before I tell you the last part, we were in the process of trying to adopt our son Hudson. We were approved, I think, in 48 states. And we were waiting for a phone call, and we hadn't gotten one. It was very odd. So then Eliana says, as the last part, she said, I had a dream last night. It felt like a real dream. In the dream, Daddy moved to Texas to be a pastor. And she said, in the dream, Hudson was there, not here, and that's why we haven't gotten him yet. Now, within one week of Eliana saying that, so in less than seven days, we got our first phone call from the adoption agency about a boy that was a possibility for us to adopt. Remember, we're approved in 48 states. Jana asked the question, where is he? And through the phone came back the response, Dallas, Texas. Now, listen. Listen to me. You will never convince me. God doesn't speak to his children. You'll never convince me. And listen, some of you have in your spirit that God used to do those things, but he doesn't do anymore. Can I say this to you? It is actually an insult to the living God to think that he used to do those things, but he doesn't want to do them now. And he doesn't want to do them for you. Do you know why? Because his name is not the Great I was. His name is the Great I am. He is still speaking. He is still moving. He is still pouring out his spirit, and he wants to do it for you. Okay? So that's number one. All Christians can prophesy. Now, point number two, there's only two points of the sermon. Prophecy has ground rules, okay? Prophecy has ground rules. I'm gonna give you some of these ground rules in the Bible, okay? Principle number one. And I'm gonna personalize this because I really feel like I need to as a pastor. I need to attack what is unbelief in some of your hearts that's keeping you. The Bible says, according to your faith, it shall be done to you. I need to blast out some unbelief that's blocking you from experiencing a vibrant and real supernatural relationship with the Holy Spirit. So, number one, ground rule. You must not be cynical about prophecy. You must not be cynical about it. First. Thessalonians 5. 19, it says, do not quench the spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt. Now, can we all be honest? We all know this. There's a reason why that had to be commanded. We all know this, and here's why. Because all of us, unless you've been a Christian for, like eight minutes, all of us have experienced weird, manipulative, low EQ people who manipulate other people and then stick. Thus saith the Lord on their little manipulation. And it just gives you this. I don't want to have anything to do with that. They're weird, okay? Now, I read, in fact, I read a poll this week that one in three Americans are weird. So look to your left again, look to your right. If it's not them, it's you. You're the one. Okay? Now can I can. But can I just say. Hey, can I say this to you really quick? Some of you, the people who have talked the most about the Holy Spirit in your life, they were weird people. Can I just tell you something about those people? They would be weird without the Holy Spirit. They're just weird. Some people are just weird. So you need to know that now. So here's the point. That's what had happened to me. I'd had wild, insane, deranged, low EQ people come to me and manipulate me and stick. God told me on it, and I got into skepticism mode. Okay? So let me just say this to you. If you're at our church, I need you either to. I mean, this with all my heart. If you are one of these people, I need you to repent or I need you to leave. I'm not joking. I need you to repent or I need you to leave. God is very serious about this in the Bible. I'm going to give you some examples. Ezekiel 13:3. God says, Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and have seen nothing. He's saying, there's some people who. They say, the Holy Spirit told me, and it wasn't the Holy Spirit, it was their spirit. They're just prophesying their own wants, wishes and desires. And he's saying, they haven't seen anything. And he says, woe to them. In other words, danger, danger, danger. Jeremiah 23. I'll just do two of them. I have heard what the prophets. Who's. What the prophets say who prophesy lies in my name. They're lying and they're putting my name on their lies. They say, I had a dream. I had a dream. How long will this continue in the hearts of these lying prophets who prophesy the delusions of their own minds? We could go on now. In fact, I'll point this out. Some of you may never have understood this before. So the third of the Ten Commandments is the you shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. Now, what most people think, Christians in America, is that that is a prohibition upon using God's name or the word God as a curse. You know, oh, my. You know other ways. And let me just say, number one, I agree. I agree. Holy people should not treat holy things as if they're common or profane. I agree. But it means more than that to take something in vain or to use something in vain means to use it in a useless way, to use it in a way that it ought not to be used. So do you know what that's actually talking about? What God's saying is, it's prohibited. Don't you dare put God's name on something that's not from God. That's what that prohibition is. Okay, so this is what this means. Now, I'll give one example of this when I was. And then let's move on to the next ground rule example when right before Jan and I almost, you know, we get engaged. I'm at the end of college, and a girl from high school, I'm changing some details and omitting names to protect the guilty. A girl that I knew in high school, I hadn't talked to her in years, called me and just Said, hey, a bunch of college old high school friends getting together on my college campus. You should come hang out. And so I did. And I got there, and she pulled me aside, and with a dead serious earnestness, she let me know that God had told her that we needed to be together and get married immediately. Now she said, we need. God told her we need to be together. I was shocked because I was used to God telling all the other girls we shouldn't be together. Like, what a change of pace this is. Wow. You know, it's incredible. But listen, immediately I knew that wasn't from God. Number one, it wasn't in my spirit. Number two, I felt called to ministry. She didn't feel called to go in that direction. Number three, Jana's awesome. And so I immediately, I'm like, this is not so. This is what was happening here. So let me just say, some of you, you've had people abuse the word prophecy to manipulate you. You've become cynical and closed off. Can I remind you of this? The abuse of a thing does not negate the use of a thing. In fact, let me just plead with you. Don't let what a Christian did to you keep you from what Christ wants to do for you. And in you, don't do that. Okay? So let's keep going. Ground rule number two. All prophecy must be weighed. It must be weighed. First Corinthians 14:29. Anytime somebody says God says it's gotta be weighed, two or three prophets should speak, and the other should weigh carefully what is said. Now, this is the fun part of the sermon. We're going to get a little philosophical for a second here. So this right here explains the apparent contradiction between Acts 20 and Acts 21. So I'm going to throw these two verses side by side on the screen. I want to show this to you again. So Acts 20, Paul says that he's compelled, and he specifically says by the Spirit. The Holy Spirit told me, and he said that I am going to Jerusalem. One chapter later, the apostles through the Spirit. So this is also something. The Holy Spirit's prompting urged Paul not to go to Jerusalem. What the heck? I read my Bible and I'm like, what's going on? Let me explain what's going on here. Now, what this dives into is there is a difference between the Old Testament function of prophecy and the New Testament function of prophecy. I don't have time to do that in this sermon. We go into it on the podcast. I don't have time here, but here's what you need to know. In the New Testament function of prophecy, there are three parts of that act of sharing God's words with somebody else. There's three parts. Revelation, revelation, interpretation, communication. Revelation, interpretation, communication. Number one, revelation. The Holy Spirit puts something on your heart or somebody else's heart. That's revelation. But then you've got to interpret the impulse, the prompting. Whatever sense that you have that God brings to your heart, you have to interpret that sense. And then there's a third part. You've got to communicate it to the other person. Revelation, interpretation, communication. Now, here's why you can get an apparent contradiction. Because the revelation part comes from the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit's perfect. The revelation is always perfect. But the interpretation and the communication, you're doing those and you are not perfect. So those can come out imperfect. Now let me go back and explain this apparent contradiction. Bring it back up. The reason you have these two things, right? No, no, go back to the two verses if you could do that. The reason that you have this apparent contradiction right here. Here's what's happening. The Holy Spirit revealed did revelation to both Paul and the apostles. The Spirit revealed to Paul. You're going to Jerusalem and come back to me on the camera. Revealed to Paul. You're going to Jerusalem. When you get there, you're going to experience persecution. You might die. In Acts 21, he reveals the same thing to the apostles. But watch this. Because of their love for Paul and their emotions around that fact, they interpreted the revelation, the warning that Paul would suffer in Jerusalem. They interpreted it as the Holy Spirit telling them to tell Paul, don't go. But the Holy Spirit wasn't telling Paul, don't go. He was just warning him ahead of time of the pain he would experience when he got there. So the revelation was perfect. The interpretation and the communication in Acts 21 were imperfect. Is this making sense to you? Okay, this is really important now. So revelation, interpretation, communication, here's why this is important. If you ever feel like you receive a prompting from the Spirit, from a person, you need to have humility around that. You don't need to walk up to the person and say, thus saith the Lord, like your Pentecostal grandma. You know, whatever it is, you don't do that, don't do that. But you need to have some humility around that, around that, around that thing. Okay, now let's go. You may. Then the question is, you got to weigh what's said. The question is, how do you weigh it? This is very easy. How to weigh anything that comes to you or from another person. Number one, the Spirit of God will never contradict the word of God. This is the most important thing. You have to make sure that it agrees with God's word. In fact, New Testament scholars, they do not. New Testament scholars, they call the New Testament the New Testament cannon. Cannon comes from a Latin word that means measuring rod. Anytime you receive anything in the world, we take it to the measuring rod, measure it against this, and go, man, is that flush. Is that good? We need to make sure, in fact not understanding, that the spirit of God will never contradict the word of Word of God. That's where every cult that's ever existed came from. Somebody received a revelation from a spirit. They thought it was the Holy Spirit. It wasn't the Holy Spirit. It was unholy spirits. This is why we always. We take everything back to the Word of God. Why? Because the grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of the Lord stands forever. Forever. Okay, so that's number one. Number two, you need to make sure that whatever you've received, that it encourages and builds up the recipient. I'll get to why I say that in a second. And then number three, you need to deliver it. This whatever prompting you receive. Humility. Again, don't say, thus saith the Lord. I'll tell you exactly what I do. Anytime this happens in my life, here's what I do. I'll say something like this. Hey, I get the sense that I need to say this to you. Or I'll say, man, God brought this to my mind when I was praying for you. But then I'll say something like this. Now, it may or may not be from God. So if you have a confirmation in your spirit, receive it. And if not, feel free to ignore it. Okay, here's why you do that. It gives them an out. And there's a humility comes and then you need to have the faith that if it was from the Holy Spirit, that the Spirit inside of them will bring confirmation to them. You need to have that faith. Now, let me just say I'm going to give one warning and this is going to feel a little sharp to some of you, but remember my job as a pastor and my job is to correct us with the Word and bring us in the right place. Can I tell you the most common way that people abuse and manipulate? God told me, okay, just stand out in the lobby. Here's what will happen. People will be in a really difficult time in their marriage. That is not. There is no biblical grounds for divorce. There are Limited moments where the Bible gives limited option. Divorce is a last result. Limited options. But what'll happen is somebody will not be in one of those moments. They're in a really hard time in their marriage. They develop a very intense desire to get out of their marriage. And then they'll say something like this. The Holy Spirit or God has let me know that it's okay if I divorce my spouse. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. Why? Because the spirit of God will not contradict the word of God ever. Okay? So we need to be people of the word of God. Amen. Church. Do we understand that? We're Word of God people. All right, now, last one, last principle. Prophecy is for encouragement. First Corinthians 14:3. Everyone that prophesies speaks to men for three things. Their strengthening, encouragement, and comfort. Notice this. It doesn't say correction. That's interesting. The spiritual New Testament gift of prophecy is primarily is for encouragement. I say this again because there are people who manipulate other people by correcting them and then tagging. Thus sayeth the Lord on the end. Don't do that. First Corinthians 14:31. For you can. And actually, I want you to say the highlighted words out loud for me. Okay? For you can prophesy one by one that may learn and may be what may be encouraged. That's what it said. Okay. So here's what you need to get. Prophecies for encouragement. Not everything you feel like saying is from God. Okay? Here's an example. Years ago, one of our kids had a soccer game, and we were the Capri sun family for that soccer game. And we were late, and I forgot to Capri sun run. So Shannon was like, hey, Capri sun run. So I run over to Kroger or Tom Thumb, whatever it is, and I'm running in, and there was the parking, the good parking, the best one. That one. There was a dude walking to his car that was in that spot, and he was getting ready to get out. I'm like, man, praise Jesus. This is amazing. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So I pull up right behind the guy. I leave tons of room, like you should do. I leave tons of room. And then I put on my blinker so that everybody knows dibs, you know, Shotgun. Okay, I'm calling it. So that happened. Now the guy gets in his car. I think he may have glanced at me. He gets in his car, and I'm there waiting. And I just keep waiting and waiting and waiting. And the longer I wait, the more and more My frustration rises because eventually I figure out this dude saw me pull up behind him. He saw me put my blinker on, and he's just sitting there to make a point. And so finally, I wait long enough that I'm like, I know what this guy's doing. And so I'm like, I'm just gonna walk up there and ask him, you know, what's going on? So I get out of my car and walk up to the window. As soon as the window. I get to the window, the window rolls down, and he says, pastor Josh, I said, man, I just came up to say, God bless you. Jesus loves you. That's a joke. That's a joke. Joke, joke, joke. But here's my point. Not everything you feel like saying comes from God. Prophecy is for strengthening, encouraging, and upbuilding. Come back to me. Come back to me. Strengthening encouragement. Now, let me give you one story, and then let me finish the sermon. Here's the true story. Here's a real one. Years ago, a lot of you guys know it's five years ago. I experienced eight months of intense anxiety attacks before I was preaching. I won't tell that story. People around know that. I didn't tell people in the church that I was experiencing that because I didn't want to walk up on stage and then everybody spend the whole sermon going like, is he going to do it today? It's like, a lot of pressure. So I didn't say anything. So then during that time, we were having meetings with church members. There were two church members. These are not weird people. These are, like, they were in the medical industry, intelligent, sophisticated people. And they walked up to me and Jana at a meeting, and this is what they said. They said, hey, we feel weird telling you this, but we had a dream. And I actually wish I could ask them, because they said, we had a dream, and I don't know what that means. They said, we had a dream. And they said, in the dream, we saw you on stage preaching. And while you were preaching, they said, we know this sounds weird. While you were preaching, it was as if there was a bubble around you. And then they used these words that was before you and behind you, above you and below you. And the entire time you were there, it was like there was a darkness that was trying to. To get at you. But as long as you were there, they couldn't penetrate this bubble that was before you and behind you, above you and below you. And I heard that. I thought, that's a lot. You know, that's a lot. A lot. To take in. A few months later, I went to a Christian counselor over in Indiana that was helping me with this deal. A senior saint, super Jesusy Jedi guy. And we're hanging out, and during our time, he says, josh, I feel like I need to say this to you. He says, what I feel like you need to do is every time you go out to preach, you need to envision, as it were, a bubble around you that's before you and behind you, above you and below you. And you need to understand that as long as you are surrounded by the presence of God, no weapon formed against you will prosper. That's what he said. Now listen, do you. Let me ask you this question. If I go back to that time, here's what happened to me. I would have these. I'd throw up before preaching, and then I would walk out on the stage. And for some reason, the second I walked out on the stage and opened the Word of God, I was fine for the next 30, 40 minutes. Okay, now, when those people said that to me, Put that verse back up. Do you think when they said that to me, that I was strengthened, encouraged, and comforted? What do you think? Yes, I was. You need that every person within the hearing of my voice, you need a word of encouragement from the living God that your father's with you, that he loves you, that he has specific things he wants to deposit in your spirit to strengthen you, to encourage you, to comfort you. Let's keep going. Let's lay it all on the line for Team Jesus. He wants to do that. In fact, I just want to say this. What I hope happens is as you release your cynicism around what the Bible wants you to receive, that it releases a spirit of encouragement through the halls of Lake Point, and that everybody from everywhere just knows, man, if you go there, you're going to get encouraged by the living God. In fact, let me finish with this. So this is First Corinthians 14. Here's why you need this. To that point. It says, but if an unbeliever. This is why we need this. Late point or inquirer, comes in while everybody's prophesying, they are convicted of sin and brought under judgment by all as the secrets of their hearts are laid bare. While I'm talking right now, there are some of you here who do not know Christ yet. And the Spirit, while I'm speaking, is bringing a sense of your sinfulness before God. And he's bringing a sense of the love of the Father and his desire to forgive you, of your Sin and adopt you as a son or a daughter. That's this. That feeling you have right now is what's happening to you. So they will fall on their faces, worship God, declaring, God is really among you. Hey, like, one thing, I. I don't want people leaving our church, going, talking about a funny pastor or a cool church. I want people leaving, going, man, who was that pastor? What was that church's name? I don't know, but God's there. Okay, now to that point, I close with this. Couple months ago, I tossed out on social media. I just asked you give me stories. I do this to encourage myself sometimes. Give me stories of how God's changed your life. At Lake Point, a woman I'm going to call Sarah wrote this. She said, my husband was a pagan. Good opening sentence. He never believed in one religion and how there could only be one God. I have prayed for him for the last seven years, and I finally had the chance to go to Encounter. Now bookmark this in your head. Encounter is always in September. That's going to be important in a second. When I got the chance to go down and be prayed over by the prayer team, I met this Swedish woman who prayed with me. As we were praying, she said that she felt led to tell me that my husband would be worshiping with me in the pews within one year. I cried and cried, and I just held on to those words of hers. Well, some time went by and my husband randomly starts talking to me more about my faith. Even when I didn't have the answers for everything, I just tried my best and I asked God to use me in any way he could. Now, come April, he walked into Lake Point for his first service. I usually sit in the front, but he doesn't like big crowds. So we sat in the back, which was okay because he enjoyed it and Pastor Josh cannot accidentally spit on us back there. I added that part. She didn't say that. Some more months went by and we were having regular conversations about faith. In August, his childhood nanny passed away and her journal was left. She was a person of great faith, and it was filled with writings and prayers for his salvation. After seeing how much faith she had in our Lord and how badly she wanted my husband to find him, my husband gave his life to Christ. On August 18th of that year, my husband was baptized. Listen. Eleven months after that woman at Encounter was led by God to tell me my husband would be worshiping with me with within one year. There's so much more to this story, but God worked through my family and took someone I started to think would never see his glory. And he flipped it. My name is Sarah. And that's how Jesus changed our lives. Amen. Amen. So let's go all in. Like when everything that the Holy Spirit has for us, we want. So I'm asking you to do something. We're going to close in a different way today. This may feel weird to you. This. This is helpful to me. Would you just put your hands kind of out in front of you like this in a pot, almost like you're releasing or receiving something. I know it may sound weird. It's helpful to me as a. As a disciple. And I just want to pray for you. Okay. It's a. Heavenly Father, Holy Spirit, these are people with open hands because they have open hearts. And we declare to you as a church, you are welcome here. We repent of any cynicism. We repent of any pride. We repent of any unbelief. We just release that God. And today what we're saying is everything you have on offer, we want. Because we need you, God. We need you. We need divine power to tear down strongholds like your word says. So, Father, I pray that you would release a spirit of encouragement into the hearts of these people that everyone, everywhere they go, that they would. Honestly, I pray that they would begin to receive clear leadings from your spirit. It would feel like a. A tongue of fire rests on the head of every Christian at Lake Point. And that they would be like walking burning bushes, conduits of the voice of God, the love of the Father to people around them. So, Father, your children ask, we pray that we might receive in Jesus name. And all God's people said amen. Amen. Amen.